LS-Live Updates Prolyte’s LiteConsole with Video for Ibiza Rocks
LS-Live has created a custom triple-size DJ booth to amp up the visual performance of well-known DJs for live music/dance hotel brand Ibiza Rocks. The three-meter-long DJ booth featured a front wall of LED panels which, from an audience perspective, merges visually with the big LED screen behind the DJ, allowing the artist to become immersed in the show.Unveiled June 8 at the venue’s electronic dance party, We Are Rockstars (W.A.R!), which kicked of the summer season of events, the performance platform adapts the Prolyte LiteConsole product previously used by Zane Lowe and Magnetic Man. Example & DJ Wire, Major Lazer and Doorly also performed on the console on W.A.R.’s opening night.
LED in Front and Behind
The three-meter-long DJ booth features a front wall of LED panels, which can be programmed to merge visually from the audience’s perspective with the big LED screen behind the DJ, allowing the artist to become immersed in the show.
A similar DJ booth was adapted to the needs of sister hotel/nightclub Mallorca Rocks this summer.
“The custom console gives DJs at the two venues a great visual presence and it also opens up the stage and makes it feel bigger,” said Mike Darling, group director of live events at Ibiza Rocks. “It gives us and our visiting artists more opportunity to be creative with the visuals for the event, and for their part in it.”
“DJs are becoming more concerned with the visual element of their performance and, in particular, are asking for ways to incorporate LED,” noted Ben Brooks, general manager for U.K.-based LS-Live. “This product is a great new option for forward-thinking production companies and DJs. Because of its modular design you can use one unit or three units at any time, and it also lends itself to touring scenarios, as it fits into three flightcases. And it’s easy to build.”
LiteConsole account manager Nick McGeachin, from Prolyte Products UK, noted that the Ibiza Rocks hotel’s production team bought a smaller-scale custom LiteConsole from him last year. “Ibiza Rocks co-founder Dawn Hindle approached me in March 2011 and asked if we could create a custom LiteConsole VII to stay in the venue for the summer. The day I installed it, they fell in love with it.
“At the end of last summer, they phoned me and said the console looked just as good as it did at the start of the season,” McGeachin added. “Mike Darling was keen to develop the performance platform for this year with a high visibility console that allowed VDJs to show their own content or live content not only on a big LED screen upstage but also on the front of the console.”
Customizing the Booth
Darling visited the Prolyte Products UK manufacturing facility in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, several times to talk about how they might adapt the LiteConsole product and go over different designs. Due to the custom fabrication and electrical expertise that was clearly needed for the end result, Nick McGeachin decided he needed the support of specialist set design company LS-Live, which operates next door.
“The LiteConsole adaptation required intricate fabrication to accommodate lighting and LED panels into the architecture and LS-Live were the perfect team to take this on,” said McGeachin. “We then set about thinking how we would incorporate LS-Live’s knowledge into a custom aluminum frame.”
“Mike Darling wanted a triple size LiteConsole DJ booth with LED screens across the front, so we had to design a system based around the LED panels he wanted for the job,” said LS-Live’s Brooks. “Using a custom frame, we created a modular product that fitted six LED panels to each of the three components. The panels easily attach together with key locks, then can be daisy-chained together via just one primary input/output.”
Able to accommodate up to three DJs at one time, the custom LiteConsole was positioned on one of LS-Live’s rolling risers, which is based on its industry-standard LiteDeck product.
The finished result is a futuristic-looking, imposing LED booth that allows the DJ to become immersed within the visual show, boosting the artist’s stage presence and connecting his visual performance with the music even more.
