Koen de Puysseleir, principal of Belgium-based Light in Motion, notes a key difference in lighting a DJ performance as opposed to a conventional concert: The lighting doesn’t need to illuminate the performer. Instead, its purpose is to engage the audience and immerse them in the energy of the music party…Having worked with Tiësto for the past five and half years, de Puysseleir has learned to craft a show that allows him to literally play the lights and video to creatively improvise to the fluid nature of Tiësto’s performance style, ensuring the visuals match the music for intensity and mood, even though there is no preset play list. Since much of the show’s design evolves live, de Puysseleir runs both the lighting and video, which lets him create a unified visual performance on the fly…Before performances, de Puysseleir builds up his lighting and video looks so he can quickly pick and choose what he needs at a moment’s notice. “Basically, my lighting is a very, very extensive festival page. I wouldn’t call it a buss page anymore, but it’s a similar idea. I can pick different elements for lighting and put them all together. This lets me follow the music and quickly adapt as I go. As for video, most is content that’s in the media server that’s laid out with the flow of the show; there is, musically, a general direction, if not specific song lists.” Even though every show is different, all the performances are still unmistakably a “Tiësto show” because of the close collaboration between de Puysseleir and Tiësto on the look of the shows.
Michael S. Eddy, from “Production Profile,” PLSN, Jan. 2012
