LA band Maroon 5 has kicked off its World Tour 2015 with 100 Clay Paky Mythos fixtures occupying a prominent place in the rig and grandMA2 full-sized consoles controlling lighting and video elements. A.C.T Lighting, Inc. is the exclusive distributor of both Clay Paky and MA Lighting products in North America.
Maroon 5 launched its World Tour 2015 in Dallas on February 16 and will finish in Auckland, New Zealand in October. The tour is in support of the band’s fifth album, “V,” which was released last year.
LeRoy Bennett, the Production and Lighting Designer for the tour, has branded the stage with strong “V” motifs, inspired by the album artwork, incorporated into the trussing and transparent set pieces. Lighting and video create a dynamic, constantly changing environment on an arrow-shaped stage. Plexiglass panels, filled with special effects smoke, act as upstage display surfaces for video content while the downstage stage was constructed as a giant, hollow plexiglass “fishbowl” that could also be filled with smoke and lit with 20 Clay Paky Sharpy Washes. The ceiling structure has 13 movable arms outfitted with lighting fixtures. A runway and connected B stage form another arrow-shaped space jutting into the audience.
One hundred Clay Paky Mythos fixtures, which first impressed Bennett at a product demo, are being supplied to the tour by Upstaging. Forty of them are positioned upstage as back and side lights. Sixty more are hung above the arrowhead portion of the B-stage.
Mythos goes beyond Clay Paky’s popular Sharpy, which the band used on its last tour, to add versatility to Maroon 5’s rig. “Mythos has all the power of a gigantic beam light but can also work as a spot and a wash,” notes lighting programmer Jason Baeri. “It’s a great tool, really bright and consistent. It can do anything.”
A pair of full-sized grandMA2 consoles, with 14 nodes and five NPUs, are used on the tour to control lighting and drive multiple media servers for the video content. Baeri, a long-time grandMA2 user, took advantage of the system’s preview mode to work in tandem with colleague lighting director Brian Jenkins to program the lighting.
“I’d work live in the rig and Brian would sit next to me and prepare the next song in grandMA 3d. Then we’d switch it over to my desk,” Baeri explains. “We’d leap-frog: He’d do song one, I’d do song two, he’d do song three. The fact that you can see preview from a second operator in real time in grandMA 3d is invaluable. With rehearsal times only getting shorter and expectations growing in proportion to the complexity of the rigs we see these days, the preview function will become more and more important to the live show process.”
Video programmer Loren Barton also tapped the grandMA2 for the show’s extensive video elements.
About A.C.T Lighting
A leading importer and distributor of lighting products, A.C.T Lighting, Inc. strives to identify future trends and cutting-edge products, and stock, sell and support their inventory. The company provides superior customer service and value for money to all of its clients.
For more information visit www.actlighting.com.
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