"This is Maddie & Tae's first shot at bringing their own lighting with them out on the road," said Foote, who used eight Nexus 4x4 panels provided by 4Wall Entertainment Lighting. "Maddie & Tae got off to a very fast start, but they're still very new, so the touring details haven't caught up yet. I wanted Nexus, because I needed a rig that could fit into a single trailer. More importantly though, I was looking for something that could create a lot of different looks, as well as something that would play well with the house lights at the different venues on the tour."
Foote positioned the Nexus panels on upstage pipe and base stands. "I wanted a rig that could shrink and expand depending on the venue, so pipe and bases were perfect," he explained. The LD grouped six of the panels in pairs - three on either side of center stage - and mounted two individually on stands in the middle. The panels were arranged in diamond shapes to create a more distinctive look on stage.
The flexibility that the Nexus 4x4 offers, allowing users to control each cell individually, was instrumental in allowing Foote to create the range of looks he was after. With his rig consisting of Nexus panels exclusively, he built his show by lighting individual cells on each fixture in different configurations to create a wide variety of patterns.
"Being able to control each cell's intensity and colour was great since I was able to bitmap the fixtures," said Foote. "Obviously the audience can see the panels as a whole, so revealing their full capabilities and individual cell control was something I used to build the show. There are endless possibilities you can create to give your rig a new look by illuminating only specific cells on the Nexus panels.
"Unfortunately, we could not supply a media server for the tour, but that is where the MA2 bitmapping came into play," continued Foote. "I have a collection of .bmps and .gifs that I have collected over the last few years, and I threw these on the panels. This played a big role in the building of the show and giving me another way to make the rig stand out."
(Jim Evans)
