"It's bigger than anything we've ever had out there," Aldean revealed to Country Weekly. "It's completely revamped from last year."
Lighting designer Aaron Swetland began working with Aldean in 2008 and received the illustrious CMA SRO Lighting Designer of the Year Award for his work on Jason Adlean's 2012 tour, meaning the expectations were a bit high, even if only in his mind.
"There's always the kind of mentality where you want to outdo yourself," Swetland said.
To achieve that feat, Swetland's lighting design consists of a basic upstage and downstage truss with a floor light compliment. The upstage side of the rig has four ladder beams containing MAC Vipers, MAC Auras and Bandit 5x5 Blinders that track left and right across the back side of the set. During the show, they can be placed in different positions, allowing for symmetrical or asymmetrical looks.
The downstage of the floors contains of six flying video walls with MAC Vipers, GLP Volkslicht and Atomic Strobes on top of each moving screen.
"Due to the nature of the moving bits and the amount of focus time required, I don't do a lot of specific focuses on each one of the moving screens, because I don't get the time that I need to be as accurate as I would like to be," explained Swetland. "They generally fill in just general fans and kind of wider generic looks for those, but they fill the space nicely and they move around so it gives it a nice kinetic look."
"There are 26 axes of automation," added Swetland, "and any time you get some moving elements, it becomes challenging from a lighting standpoint because your focus positions constantly change."
(Jim Evans)
