Claypaky’s SharBar, the
LED-based multi-beam effects light fixture, has been used to great effect on a live
concert by popular Russian band, My Michelle, at the Volta Club, Moscow with
lighting design by Russian designers David Misakyan and Dmitry Buryak.
Led by singer-songwriter
Tanya Tkachuk, the band has enjoyed great success across Russia with its
modern, soulful pop sound. For the Volta Club concert, My Michelle’s producer, Pavlo
Shevchuk, worked with Misakyan and Buryak to create a ‘cool, club show’ feel
for audiences. The design played to the venue’s compact 8m x 6m stage area,
with a height of just 4.85m overhead to the stationary truss structures.
Misakyan explains, “When
we thought about the production design we wanted something more than just truss
warmers and colour washes . . . we needed a fixture suitable for dance pop-music,
which would look good in a small club setting. Coincidentally, at that time I
was contacted by Aleksey Zhuravlev from Russian rental outfit Global Show Trade
(GST) who provided the fixtures for the My Michelle show. Aleksey asked if I
was interested in using any new Claypaky SharBars on any projects. This was
some luck of course I was interested!
“Thanks to Aleksey, we were
able to borrow a SharBar for use during programming, so that we could check the
virtual attributes with the real ones. Having the real device was very useful,
we knew exactly how fast the pan, tilt and zoom worked. It really helped.”
Consisting of a moving
bar of six 30W Osram Ostar RGBW LED luminaires, the SharBar has a 240-degree
tilt range. Each of the six luminaires features an individually controllable motorised
zoom which can narrow the beam angle to a minimum of 2 degrees, while an
internal double mirror system allows each of the six beams to be directed
separately.
Misakyan says, “Without
its motorised functionality, SharBar is already a quality LED batten. However, being
able to set the zoom and have the option of spreading the rays with a fan means
you can use the fixture in more creative ways. Using the beams as symmetrical
rays creates the effect of a light curtain, and by spreading the rays evenly
out to the sides we were able to give the impression that each batten was six
individual fixtures.”
The SharBars were
complemented by six Claypaky Mythos projectors, positioned on the floor
upstage, providing powerful backlighting effects. Misakyan admits to having
doubts about the SharBar’s ability to hold its own in such surroundings, but his
fears were unfounded.
“We were skeptical about
the brightness of the devices,” says Misakyan, “However, in reality, the
SharBars were not lost against the background intensity of the standing Mythos
fixtures and the production’s LED screen. The SharBars surprised us – the
result was stronger than our expectations!”
He adds: “Now, battens
with the tilting movement are more common. But no one has such unique options
as the SharBar – being able to control the pan and zoom of each beam. With the
SharBar, Claypaky has created a new, universal tool with a lot of opportunities
for creative ideas.”
David Misakyan is a
touring LD for a top Russian rock band Bi-2. He shares his thoughts about
lighting design in personal blog misakyan.com. Dmitry Buryak is a LD for TV and
live concerts. He is long-term console
operator for The Voice Russia.
