JLS' career kicking off after being runners up on the 2008 X-Factor talent show. Since then they have sold 1.3m albums worldwide - including their new and second studio release Outta This World.
The show for this, their second major tour, has been created by artistic director Beth Honan with a set and stage design by Peter Barnes, with all the technical production co-ordinated by Production North, overseen on the road by production manager Karen Ringland.
When Dave Lee was choosing his fixtures, he specifically needed some very bright and lightweight units to do certain jobs. When HSL's project manager Mike Oates demonstrated the LEDWash 600 to him - he knew this was the appropriate fixture.
The first challenge he needed to overcome with the LEDWashes was to illuminate a large catwalk approximately 120ft long that flies in from the roof and hangs above the audience for a whole section of the show, allowing the band to get close up and personal to their hoards of fans.
Being some way off from the stage, there were very few places available from which to rig lights at the right positions to do this - and the optimum one was on a 50ft truss used to lower and track a car in from the roof and out into the audience at the start of the show - from which the band perform the first number.
This truss is already heavily loaded with the car (the adapted chassis of a real Ford Mustang) and all the flying and rigging equipment, so whatever he used had to be extremely light - enter the LEDWash 600 - 20 of which are rigged in two lines to the underside of the tracking truss.
The LEDWash 600s on the tracking truss are zoomed from wide at one end of the line to a fine beam at the other, so they fan out neatly and evenly down the walkway from above.
The other 20 LEDWash 600s he is using are on ladder trusses, with 10 a side flanking a massive 80ft wide by 30ft high (1140 active tiles) Stealth video screen.
In addition to the 40 LEDWash 600sthere are 22 Robe ColorWash 2500s, 16 on the side trusses and six on a mini truss at the front, 50ft above the stage. There are 30 Robe ColorBeam 700E ATs, 20 scattered about the over-stage trusses and 10 on the floor lining the onstage walkway. The Robe count is completed with eight Robin 300 Beams on the downstage edge of the stage for fillers. Lee is operating the lightshow from a WholeHog III console.
(Jim Evans)
