Opening before a sellout crowd at the 15,000-seat Palacio de los Deportes in the nation's capital, the Mexican tour featured 105 Nexus 4x4 LED panels and 36 Next NXT-1 moving panels in its rig, along with other CHAUVET Professional fixtures, including four Vesuvio RGBA LED fog machines and two Amhaze II foggers. Monterrey-based rental company Audio Systems del Norte, SA de CV supplied the gear. Beginning with the uptempo EDM-tinged dance tune "Come With Me" and rollicking on through classics like "Livin' la Vida Loca," the concert captured the irrepressible energy that has made Ricky Martin a fan magnet around the world.
"Being part of Ricky Martin's crew is an exciting experience and setting up this tour pushed our limits to create a magic show that complements Ricky's talent. We are very happy with the production, the lighting design, and we appreciate all the support Chauvet Professional has given us," said Fuhrmann. "Rehearsing in three different cities in the US and Mexico in between Ricky's engagement at The Voice Mexico was a challenge, but even more so was building the stage and programming all new content and lights in five days before opening night. This was the shortest ever Production Timeline we had for a Ricky Martin Show, but our creative team together with the Chauvet team worked wonders."
The Nexus panels, which were arrayed in various-sized wall configurations upstage and the Next NXT-1 panels (hung on geometric overhead truss) kept pace with the superstar's performance step for dynamic step, displaying pixel mapped images and vivid colors that matched his songs. For example, when Martin sang of his native Puerto Rico, the panels flashed the colors of the commonwealth's flag.
"Ricky is known for spectacular performances with a lot of great dancing and a massive stage presence; so we obviously wanted a lightshow that was in keeping with the aura that surrounds this superstar," said Neville of Mandylights (Sydney, Australia), the lighting designer for the international Ricky Martin tour. "The Nexus and NXT-1 gave us so many exciting visuals to incorporate into the show as lights, pixel-mapped effects and as scenic elements in their own right."
Lighting Director Lafuente of Light Years Productions (Mexico City) echoed this view. "The goal of the show was to join lights, color and video with the music -- and the Nexus and NXT-1 did a great job at this," he said. "When Ricky saw the show during a rehearsal he said to me 'Fantastic!' At the beginning, we were just going to use the Nexus panels. Then we saw a video on the NXT-1 moving panel and decided to give it a try. It's been an amazing fixture. Its square shape, brightness and movement really stand out."
The Nexus 4x4 panels themselves are a relative newcomer to the Ricky Martin tour, having been added to the rig earlier this year as a replacement for the video panel walls that were used in 2013. "Last year we had a video wall behind Ricky, but we wanted to be more diverse and go with something different, because we have a lot of other video screens in the show," said Neville. "The Nexus was the perfect fixture to use in place of
