The LD admits to having been a fan of the GLP impression since the first impression 90 and later the 120RZ zoom. But he says that by embracing new technology, the X4 provides a higher level of functionality entirely.
Incorporating 19 quad colour RGBW LED's, each rated at 15 Watts, in a breakthrough design, the X4 offers a single homogenised colour output from its unique looking front lens across a wide colour spectrum and with high output. Janowitz could immediately see how he could put this featureset, with its impressive 7:1 (7°-50°) zoom ratio, to good use.
Given a free hand with the band's lighting he admits, "There is a tremendous amount of mutual trust - but I have a pretty good sense of the type of visual landscape they are comfortable performing within."
In fact he had originally been planning to put the 120RZ into the new MMJ design until coming across GLP's latest solution by accident ... and in the nick of time. "By chance, my associate, Ben Price, was prepping another one of our shows [also serviced by VER of Glendale] when [GLP Inc president] Mark Ravenhill stopped by to show him the X4 back in May. I was in Europe and Ben called me in the middle of the night to tell me about the fixture - he was so excited that he forgot about the time difference."
The timing was perfect as Marc Janowitz was in the process of finalising the set design with the MMJ crew. "We managed to get the new fixture into the discussions just in time for everything to fall into place."
On returning from Europe Marc got to review the fixture at close quarters. "I could see right away what the potential was and didn't need to compare the X4 with other washlights. I needed to see that they were at least as bright and feature packed as previous impression fixtures and no bigger or heavier.
"Seeing the addition of the white LED and how it created an even better option for high transmission pastel colours - plus the overall homogenised output sold me immediately. No more looking at red/green pixels when mixing ambers and oranges!"
The lighting designer has already underpinned his commitment to the new fixture by promptly deploying a further 28 X4's in a different context on the Autumn tour with Trey Anastasio Band. "I imagine I'll be logging quite a few 'lamp-hours' on this line and its offshoots in the coming months ... so it's a good thing they are LED," he adds.
(Jim Evans)
