Recently, for the group's highly anticipated Gemini Her Majesty Tour, LD Sohail e. Najafi returned the favour by helping the convention-defying band enter a new lighting realm with pixel mapped Nexus 4x4 panels from Chauvet Professional.
"Rx Bandits is always taking their music to new places, and they want this vision reflected in their lightshow too," said Najafi of Najafi Design Group in Los Angeles. "Originally when the band's manager first contacted me for this tour, she had the concept of a flat LED curtain to create a 'cool backdrop effect.' Realizing that their vision was limited by the technology they were aware of, I immediately suggested growing the design into something more substantial."
That "something" was an eye-tingling pixel mapped array of 20 Nexus 4x4 panels provided by 4Wall Entertainment. "We positioned the panels directly on the deck upstage to frame the band," said Najafi. "The Nexus 4x4s were used to create a large dynamic monogram backdrop of the band's initials 'Rx' that changed with the music. Our design concept was to give the artist a dynamic and visually stunning piece of three-dimensional scenery that we could then use to accent and support their performance at all of the different types of venues on the tour."
From the Best Buy Theatre on Times Square, to the Fillmore in San Francisco, the Gemini Her Majesty Tour thrilled packed houses across the US with its uplifting mix of music and captivating pixel mapped lightshow. "The band relied on each venue's house rig and operator for their main lighting rig," said Najafi. "Our design pertained entirely to the dynamic LED backdrop created with the Nexus 4x4 panels."
Najafi used Madrix as his control software for pixel mapping the Nexus panels. "We designed a wide-range of pixel-mapped effects including color morphing, flying text, motion, and image cues," he said. "An added bonus was Madrix's integrated sound-activated effects engine that allowed us to create sound-controlled motion effects that drove the audience crazy; our sound-activated fire and audio waveform cues on the Nexus panels always made the crowd roar."
(Jim Evans)
