Dutch
Rock band Di-Rect from The Hague celebrated their 15th anniversary
in great style with a special concert on the beach at Scheveningen in front of 12,500
enthusiastic fans. The beach is one of the most visited public spaces in the Netherlands
and is renowned its vibrant ambience.
Lighting
designer Nick van Balen ensured that the spectacular lightshow fitted the sense
of achievement after 15 years at the sharp end of the music business, and as a confirmed
Robe advocate, included 99 x Robe fixtures on his rig – 46 x LEDWash 300s, 44 x
Pointes and nine PATT 2013s – a fabulous looking vintage style fixture designed
by Tim Routledge, and now being manufactured by Robe.
Nick had
an open brief for the show, and the main objective was to make it look awesome
– which of course he did with a good deal of finesse, attention to detail and some
magic touches to ensure that a great night out would be etched into people’s
memories!
The gig
was originally planned to be staged in a park in the city, but with brisk
ticket sales, it was soon moved to a bigger venue. The new environment – with
the possibility of wind, wet, sand and a generally salty atmosphere – impacted
on which kit was chosen and how it was used.
Nick
started with the music and the personalities of the band – knowing what they
like in terms of colours and effects … and also the fabulous site-specific
location. “Working somewhere like this always makes things that much more interesting and exciting” he observed.
Installed
in the stage roof were six trussing fingers, each of which was rigged with four
Robe Pointes, three LEDWash 300s and three other moving lights, three strobes,
three 2-lite blinders and two Spectral Zoom PARs as ‘spook’ light at the end of
each finger.
The floor
package comprised 16 x Pointes, more strobes and 2-lites plus six other movers,
and the set also featured a catwalk with a 2 x 2 metre Plexiglas element, under
which was another four LEDWash 300s and a moving light.
For side lighting,
he used 18 x LEDWash 300s and eight of the nine PATT 2013s, with the ninth one positioned
rear-centre above the upstage LED wall.
The 44 x Pointes
– a fixture that Nick has used extensively this year – were mounted in groups
of 4 to create ACL looks, resulting in 6 of these classic geometric fan shapes
in the roof, one on each finger truss, one mid-stage and four on the floor.
“The huge output of this small fixture is amazing. It’s really fast and gives a
great look when combined in multiples”. He tends not to use gobos when they are
in a set up like this as he feels it’s a little – pardon the pun – pointless!!!
The 46 x LEDWash
300s were deployed around the trusses and used to colour the stage and the
band, adding extra punch when needed. He loves the zoom and the colour mixing,
and the fixtures were perfect for this design.
The
biggest challenge in lighting the show was fitting all the kit into the stage
space at the angles Nick envisioned.
Full
production – sound, lighting and video – was all supplied by The Purple Group
co-ordinated for them by Pim Elberse, who saw that everything mimicked the
original plan as closely as possible.
The
biggest creative challenge was adapting to the scenery and bringing new ideas
online that would work on the beach as opposed to in the originally proposed park
setting.
Video was
added relatively late-on in the day, another parameter for which the lighting
approach needed some adjustment. Di-Rect’s production manager Elco Laden – also
the video programmer / operator for this show – and Nick worked well alongside
one another under a lot of time-pressure to integrate and present a coherent lighting
and visuals package which WOWed the crowds and gave the show the profile and
presence it deserved.
Nick
programmed and ran the lightshow using a two Hog 4s with playback wings, with
a Rackhog4 as
the main network server, running in line with 3 x DP 8000 USB expanders and 3 x
Luminex Gigacore 16RFO Ethernet switchers over 300 metres of fibre.
http://www.robe.cz
Photos
: Cristel Brouwer, Lluky Gallery
