LOS ANGELES – Maroon 5’s Overexposed tour of North America includes Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures, which are used as a wall of light upstage of the LED screens; when the screens rotate, 144 Sharpys are revealed. Production designer/artistic director Demfis Fyssicopulos credited the grandMA2 console used for the tour, not just to control the Sharpys, but also “a plethora of media servers and custom Control Freak Systems solutions.”
More details from A.C.T Lighting (http://www.actlighting.com):
LOS ANGELES – LA pop rock band Maroon 5 has begun its Overexposed tour and grandMA2 and Clay Paky Sharpys are along for the ride.
Maroon 5’s new North American tour is in support of the band’s eponymous studio album released last summer. Production designer and artistic director Demfis Fyssicopulos took an innovative and forward thinking approach to his design philosophy for the tour, which entailed using the grandMA2. “It’s the most advanced control surface in the market,” he says. “In addition to the lighting for the show, a plethora of media servers and custom Control Freak Systems solutions are all controlled from the grandMA2. Centralized control ensures coherence and a show that looks well put together.”
On the video side of the tour, grandMA2 controls four dual-output Hippotizers, Control Freak Systems’ multitap servers, ADAM servers and Encore DMX bridge. Video surfaces include 80×30-ft Winvision 9mm screen, 10 Barco 20K projectors and LED wallpaper.
Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures are used on a wall of light upstage of the LED screens; when the screens rotate, 144 Sharpys are revealed. “Pairing the Sharpys with the grandMA2 layout and bitmaps was a fantastic thing to do and gave us a lot of creative options,” says Fyssicopulos.
Brian Jenkins is the lighting programmer and director for the tour. Kevin Cauley is the video programmer, Jhonny Hayes is video director, Russel Wingfield is video crew chief, Michael Green is lighting crew chief and Erik Taylor is the laser programmer.
Control Freak Systems is providing the video surface management and audio reactivity for the tour. George Toledo is their audio reactive server and Ryan Middlemiss and Stuart White the system master mega-minds. Chaos is supplying the LED screens and camera system, VER is supplying the LED on the band instruments, Upstaging the lighting rig, Pyrotek the lasers and confetti, and Tait Towers the stage and automation. Infect Productions created the video content under Roger Staub.
