"It's amazing to watch them step on stage and see how they truly captivate and connect to the audience, making every single person there feel special," said Koop, who has been the LD for superstars like Sara Bareilles, Incubus and Cee Lo Green. "When I took on this project and got to know this group of very special artists, I wanted to create more than a lighting design; I wanted a cohesive show that moved alongside their music."
Koop accomplished exactly that in flying colours recently at the group's concert in Nashville's Ryman Auditorium with some help from Chauvet Professional fixtures. The Nashville-based LD used nine Legend 230SR Beam moving yoke fixtures and 24 COLORado Batten 72 Tour linear LED effects in a lighting rig that did justice to Pentatonix's soaring performance.
"I selected the Legend 230SR Beams because of their feature set-to-price point ratio. In a test between all of the moving fixture equivalents, I found that I far preferred them over anything else. Without a doubt, I will be using them again."
Koop positioned the nine Legends in his rig in a ground row across the upstage portion of risers. At a height of five feet, this positioning gave him the flexibility to "have plenty of great aerial looks as well as bringing the light down to the floor."
Given its intense output, beam shaping effects and vivid colours, the Legend 230SR Beam commands immediate attention as "eye candy," says Koop. The LD added to the dramatic impact of the Legend fixtures at the Pentatonix concert by using them selectively at specific points during the group's performance.
"I don't actually use the Legends until the sixth song," he said. "At this point they end up being the main featured look and fixture for that entire song. Then on the next song they drop out completely, and I feature mainly the Battens. I know plenty of other designers who would either agree or disagree with me on this topic, but in the final analysis, I like to be very selective on how many moving fixtures I used as well as how often I used them, because this tends to work better to accent the performance of the artists on stage."
(Jim Evans)
