Chris has operated and collaborated on the Hospitality Brixton production design since 2012. For this one, he and ZEROdB Live founder and production manager Rob Stanley wanted something new, fresh and different that was a departure from the hi-res 'big-telly-style' video look that has come to characterise so many events. After much brain-storming, they came up with the 'Fingers of Rock'.
Essentially the design evoked an old-school rock 'n' roll spatiality with a ceiling of lights above the artist, ticking the design brief boxes by going a bit retro and putting the emphasis firmly back on the LD rather than the VJ!
There were positions for 42 moving lights, 24 strobes and 60 x LED strips over six parallel fingers - a 'classic Queen' aesthetic giving some large monolithic lighting looks but with the contemporary rave twist of being able to move.
They added the 24 x Pointes, 22 x LEDWash 600s and 12 x MMX Spots to the equation and then augmented their epic look with the lowest resolution screen available from rental company Colour Sound Experiment, which was 37.5 mm pitch - the whole surface measured 288 pixels wide by 72 tall - and in reality looked a lot bigger than it actually was events.
The Pointes were the main workhorses of the show, arranged in a 6x4 grid on the main trussing fingers, with 18 of the LEDWash 600s filling up the gaps, together with strobes.
The MMX Spots were split, with six rigged on the front truss and six on the deck, running along the back of the stage on 2ft high risers, alternated with Moles.
The other four LEDWash 600s were on the front truss and used for key-lighting.
(Jim Evans)
