Five towers of nine Mozarts each, arrayed in 3x3 clusters serve as individually controlled backdrops for band members and also combine for a canvas of content and special effects. "The whole show is built around them," explains tour LD Conor Jacob. "They travel easy, are robust, IP rated, very versatile, and easily manipulated as a light fixture and for content output.
"We're merging five universes of Art-Net DMX control and media server outputs, managed entirely with ProPlex IQ nodes and six Mozart 10-way PSUs. Controlled by an Avolites Tiger Touch II console with Avolites Quartz as backup, everything sits well together."
Jacob adds, "I love the Mozarts, as does James [Vincent McMorrow] who is very involved when it comes to aesthetics and design of his shows. Ciaran Tallon from PSI demoed the fixture for me at their Dublin warehouse earlier this year. I became curious so read up on them and saw my colleague Stephen Douglas used them on Brandon Flowers. He gave me positive feedback so I felt confident they were the right fixture to design the show around.
"What was most important for me and James was that the design would work in all environments from festivals, to big concert halls, to intimate clubs with unconventional stages. Thus far, there hasn't been a room where I have had to compromise the setup in any way. The whole lighting rig fits in two regular sized flight cases which Ciaran had custom made to meet my needs.
"My biggest concern about utilizing the Mozarts in such an array," says Jacob, "was that pointing that much LED at an audience could be jarring. But they are really soft on the eye, giving me great versatility when working with intensities."
PSI (Production Services Ireland) of Dublin supplied the lighting gear for the tour. "The Mozarts are small and very bright," says PSI's Ciaran Tallon, "the perfect complement for large LED screens or for stand-alone pixel mapping."
(Jim Evans)
