Elite has designs on Gary Allan tour
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“As an artist, Gary typically tours all year long without a set schedule,” opens Shockley. “I have been with him for a little over two years now, and each year we try to bring something new. Since we will be playing a lot of the same venues each year, we have to have a fresh look to give the fans a slightly different experience each time.”
Getting started on the new production design, Shockley understood that video would play an integral role. Knowing how the artist likes to create a dynamic visual experience out on the road, Shockley took the opportunity to be a bit creative in creating this year’s LED video design.
“Gary likes to have good video content as part of the overall tour design, and in years past we have done a straight LED wall or LED strips along the back of the stage,” adds Shockley. “This year we wanted to think a little more out-of-the-box, so we created a video wall that was a hybrid between a circle and square, that we affectionately call the ‘8-bit circle’, like an old video game. We also added some truss facias with video panels that created an additional 26ft of video surface. The trusses are then arranged into two separate Chevron’s with the 8-foot ‘video game’ circle centered below them, giving us a lot of flexibility and making it a much more dynamic video design.
“With the lighting design, we had travelled with larger fixtures, but with the expanded video design we needed smaller yet powerful lighting solutions,” explains Shockley. “I wanted to still have a strong impact with the lighting, so we decided to go with Claypaky Sharpy luminaires to be able to get a lot into the rig, and then we added in Mac Aura’s for our wash lights and Philips SL Nitro strobes to give us a big hit when we need it. With this set-up, the lighting design is still really impactful and versatile with a great mixture of looks.”
“Working with Elite Multimedia has always been a fantastic experience and they seem to always go above and beyond to get us the gear we need at a price that makes sense for both of us,” concludes Shockley.
(Jim Evans)
