Being from Minneapolis and having designed for the Skyway Theatre before, lighting designer Ryan Warffuel and VJ/content creator Max Koehler of Antic Studios were familiar with this challenge. They were therefore ready to "fill space" when they created a rig for the red-hot Canadian duo Adventure Club at Skyway, using a collection of Chauvet Professional video panels and moving fixtures supplied by Monkey Wrench Productions.
Warffuel and Koehler and the rest of the Antic Studios team (Derrick Koehler, Brandon Rathke, and JD Vanderwiel) not only filled the space of this majestic venue, they used it to create a brilliant video and light medley using 41 PVP S5 LED video panels, 12 Rogue R1 Beam fixtures and four Q-Wash 260-LED washes.
At the heart of their design was a mesmerizing triangular-shaped video wall structure divided into five irregular pieces that flanked the DJ booth and traversed roughly half the stage. "We used to do mainly projection mapping before we went to LED panels, so we were used to creating very modular 3D shapes the way we did for Adventure Club," said Warffuel. "Another reason why we like to break up the panels into modular shapes is that it covers as much space as possible with a limited amount of LED panels. In this design, we decided to angle the panels at 45 degrees. This not only gave us a bunch of new interesting options, it also allowed us to create a large structure out of only 41 panels, which was important given the size of the Skyway Theatre."
Adding to the visual impact of the intriguing video wall configuration were the dramatic breakout patterns displayed on the panels. "We use Resolume Arena as our VJ and mapping software," said Koehler. "We have also developed mapping techniques using other third party software like Adobe Illustrator and Adobe After Effects."
Supporting the video display were aerial effects from the Rogue and Q-Wash fixtures. The Antic Studios team positioned six of the Rogue R1 Beams on top of the vertical truss supporting the video structure. The other six Rogues in the rig were arranged on the stage deck to create crossing patterns with the flown fixtures. All four of the Q-Wash fixtures were flown on piping run from the vertical truss and used to fill space not covered by the crossing beams.
"We like to have a good mix of lights in the air as well as on the ground, so we try to apply that to every stage we do, because we think this gives us the best results for programming and movement," said Warffuel. "Also for Adventure Club in this venue we tried to fill in as much negative space as possible to create a full look. Having a mix of lights at different heights is important. It gives us the ability to create really unique and different positions and movements."
(Jim Evans)
