Live@Work - 21_KW40 - Out of the box

The first half of 2021 was like most of 2020: clubs were closed, smaller and larger private parties were not permitted, and all other types of events with an audience were possible only sporadically - if at all - and with strict conditions. In short: there was a standstill. And also, our equipment spent its time in the dark transport cases - but then not all the time. Over the weeks, the idea came up that my brother and I would produce another lightshow during this time. This way we could combine the necessary with the practical: our equipment would run for a while and hopefully we would get some appealing video material.

After the decision was made that my brother and I would ideally like to produce two lightshows, the question of the setup came up. For some reason, we came up with the idea of doing these shows "out of the box", so to speak. That means: the equipment involved will remain for the shows roughly speaking where it has been mainly standing for the last weeks and months. Namely on the shelves in our storage room. Of course, the actual order had to be optimized for this at short notice, because otherwise the complete freedom of movement of all devices would not have been presentable. Somehow everything seemed to be made for each other, even if it was tight at some corners.

The resulting and perhaps at first glance unconventional arrangement of the devices - especially in the case of the spot and beam moving heads - resulted in very interesting constellations, which could be put to great use as show elements. You will certainly notice that movements and driving only take up a subordinate part of the shows and thus rather represent highlights. Especially in the context of this setup, my attention during programming was focused on putting the special features of this setup in the foreground. A striking example are the created compartments for the spot and beam moving heads, which in the end created an oversized matrix - the recorded wall area was about 6.5 m in width and about 3 m in height. The following devices were then used in this play area:

• 11 Futurelight Mega Color Wave.i Moving-Bar
• 8 Futurelight DMH-160 Spot-Moving-Head
• 4 Futurelight DMB-160 Beam-Moving-Head
• 12 LightmaXX Platinum LED MINI PAR Tri-LED
• 1 Antari Z-350 Fazer

As with my last lightshows, the control was done with DMXControl 3.2.2 and our Octo Art-Net-Node from Ulrich Radig.

Concerning the implementation there is nothing new to report. On the one hand I have stored the music titles in DMXControl 3 to trigger the show cuelists via internal timecode. On the other hand, the same data also still last in Audacity, from which I noted the associated times and transferred them to the cuelists. Beyond that I can call at this point still the following framework data for the conversion in DMXControl 3:

• The shows contain 112 and 189 cues, respectively, whereas I programmed additional cuelists for both shows, which were triggered from the main show and then ran through in loops or once. These additional cuelists are then also partially timed for very specific parts of the song.
• Not only the shows themselves but also the base light was automatically turned off and on again after the show.
• We recorded both shows several times with multiple cameras so that I could choose from 30 perspectives during post-production.
• The programming was done without the use of a visualizer. Only the effects of the moving bars I could prepare in advance with real equipment because I had a few with me. From the last two shows, I could already estimate which action spaces would work well. So, all that was needed on site was fine-tuning. This is of course an advantage when you can work with your own equipment in a thoroughly familiar environment.
• For the second show, I specifically prepared only one part in advance. After lighting, I was able to duplicate the passages on site and thus saved myself some of the adjustment work.
• Essential for me were again some Device Groups as well as the specific assignment of the devices to these Device Groups. In connection with the group handling, some effects that seem complex on the outside could be implemented comparatively easily with only two or three cues.
• For the most part, I have stored positions according to the device groups as presets, because I also used them several times within a song.

Equipped with this framework data and background information, or perhaps a tip or two, all that remains for me to say in conclusion is: have fun watching the shows.

Stefan