"We were really very, very happy to work with a legendary company like Disco Donnie Presents for an artist like Hardwell," said Justin Jenkins of Creative Production and Design. "We knew there would be a high level of energy at this event, so we wanted to immerse the whole stage in vibrant light and color with a lot of haze and fog thrown in so everything was just showered with light. Most of our rig was Chauvet, for a one-word reason - intensity. We used the fixtures before and know they've got an incredible punch."
Jenkins and his business partner Daniel Wyatt served as the co-designers for the Hardwell performance. The two specified 32 Nexus Aw 7x7 warm white LED panels, 22 Legend 230SR Beam moving fixtures, 20 PVP X61P 6.9mm pixel pitch video panels and one Amhaze II high-output water-based haze machine. They worked the Chauvet Professional fixtures into a rig that included a variety of movers and strobes, as well as a large house video wall.
"We used the Chauvet fixtures to set off the show and create an added sense of dimension on stage," said Jenkins. "The Nexus panels were flown on truss in four rows of 8 panels over the stage. Two of the rows were horizontal and two vertical. This was a simple design, but it broke up the stage lighting nicely, in part because the Nexus beams are so sharp and bright and in part because we added some nice pixel mapping."
Jenkins and Wyatt flew some of the Legend 230SR Beams on mid-stage truss and positioned others on custom-designed drop down ladders on either side of the upstage truss. The high-output (96,000 lux at 15 meters) beams were used for ACL type effects and stage lighting.
"We basically relied on the Legends to cover the stage with light," said Jenkins. "We counted on them for what they do best - prisms, to create some very sick looks that the audience loved. Moving them back and forth from the crowd to the stage really brought everyone into the show."
The 20 PVP X61P panels were used to create a dynamic facing for the massive DJ booth. "We mimicked what was on the giant house video wall on the DJ booth facing," said Jenkins. "Everything was balanced on every part of the rig so it all worked together. The Chauvet panels were intense. We ran them at 60% brightness, and they were still able to keep up with our monster rig."
Jenkins and Wyatt magnified the intensity of that monster rig by skilfully using atmospheric effects, including the Amhaze II. "It all just came together for this concert," said Jenkins. "Everyone was happy with the results and I think the people in the audience were treated to a lot of unforgettable looks."
(Jim Evans)
