Koen de Puysseleir Adds Lighting and Video to the High-Energy Mix
Tiësto wrapped up The College Invasion Tour with the largest single-headliner DJ show in U.S. history, performing for 26,000 people at Los Angeles’ Home Depot Center stadium. The massive electronic dance music party underscored why Tiësto is considered one of the top DJs in the world, and the show did not disappoint. Playing off of the night’s pulsing musical mixes, creative designer Koen de Puysseleir, principal of Belgium-based Light in Motion, conceived a show of high-energy lighting, striking video and special effects that took full advantage of both the scope of the historic show and the scale of the venue.
Sprouting Wings
The production rig for this final performance was a substantially larger lighting and video package than the one used throughout The College Invasion Tour, which had played universities around the U.S. with a large video screen centered above the DJ booth on stage and surrounded by a relatively small automated lighting and strobe rig, mostly aimed at the audience. At the Home Depot Center stadium show, de Puysseleir added large truss structure wings on both sides of the main stage, stretching the visual canvas the width of the stadium at one end. Within each wing, he had three 21-by-12-foot portrait-oriented video screens spaced out, giving him six additional screens to use along with the 13.5-by-39-foot central screen. Behind the DJ desk were also 11 video columns measuring 6 by 3 feet, evenly spaced across the width of the stage. The automated lights were rigged across the length of the wings and stage truss structure as well as behind the screens and around the front of house position. Special effects, including CO2 fog and haze across the front of the stage along with pyrotechnics positioned both at ground level and within the roof truss, added to the impact and energy of the overall design.
In the past, Tiësto’s performances had relied heavily on equipment sourced locally by the promoters. However, for both the College Invasion Tour and the final historic event in LA, de Puysseleir, Tour Manager Kelly Cobb and Production Manager Chris Kerr decided they would tour with all of the production elements. They worked with PRG, who provided the entire production package for the tour as well as the lighting, audio and video expansion packages for the LA stadium show. “This show was massive, the largest single show for Tiësto in North America, so we definitely had to supplement what we had been touring with,” explains Cobb. “PRG has been great for us; on this show as well as the whole tour, we are all very pleased to be working with them.”
Kerr agrees. “This was my first real experience with PRG, and it has been real positive. All the way down to really quick turnarounds on rigging plots and documentation that I needed to advance this show, because a lot needed to come together very fast before the tour rolled. It was great having them onboard. Their resources were really useful and I had an A-list crew from PRG that walked into some challenging venues; put their heads down and got it done. I would roll with these guys any day of the week for sure.”
The team’s primary contact at PRG was Concert Touring account executive Julian Edwards. For the complex pyrotechnics, de Puysseleir relied on Zenith Pyrotechnology working closely with its president, Steven Dobo, who operated the pyro throughout Tiësto’s set.
Adding Visual Energy
A key difference in lighting a DJ performance as opposed to a conventional concert is that 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.
For the show at the Home Depot Center, de Puysseleir’s lighting design added the PRG Bad Boy spot luminaire to his arsenal to add power to his large production looks. “I chose the Bad Boys because of the optics and the output; especially for this show. I have a lot of the Bad Boys coming from the back; I use them for backlighting — and shining through — the screens. I wanted to create a lot of big looks, since this stadium is so big. It gives so much more depth to the entire show.” He also used a number of Bad Boys to ring the FOH control position. These units allowed him to create a lot of aerial beam looks as well as light up the large white fabric roof structures over the seats that ring the stadium, expanding the lighting design to include the stadium itself. Using gobos, color and motion effects with the Bad Boys, de Puysseleir was able to involve the audience in the seats; bringing them into the party with the audience on the field.
Both Vari-Lite VL2500s and VL3500s were also important to the design. De Puysseleir used the VL3500s behind the floor screen columns to light through the video. “Those lights are too powerful on their own, but once you get video on them, I’ve found the right balance,” he says. “I use the VL2500s in the stadium design, just as I did on the tour,” de Puysseleir adds. “Ninety percent of this tour’s shows were indoors, where you are in a confined environment with decent haze. I don’t need bright, I would rather have lights that have good functions — sharp gobos; fast gobos; lots of possibilities. When you see my show, there are so many different types of effects, timing effects; it builds on top of each other like a big puzzle where it all comes together; that’s why I pick certain lights.”
In LA, de Puysseleir used the Vari*Lites to light the audience and the truss structure along with a wide variety of strobes and audience blinders including Mole Fays and PARs as well as GLP Impression LED units to bring the audience into the party. “I use strobes and blinders because the music lends itself to it. There are a lot of moments when there are big builds and big drops and big breaks, so you need a lot of light,” he explains.
Blending Lighting, Video
For the video screens, de Puysseleir chose PRG Nocturne V-28 video modules [formerly known as V-Lite] specifically to integrate with the lighting. “If you do a lighting show and are depending on the lights that you pick, you need to be very aware of what video products that you’re picking,” comments de Puysseleir. “There are a lot of shows where you see that the video is too dominating or not bright enough. I went with the 28mm V-Lite, I think it’s one of the better products available. I have used 30mm screens before and it was too bright for me, which I could dim, but that affected the colors. With the V-Lite, I don’t have those problems. It blends well with the lighting; it is a good balance of resolution and transparency. Also, I like the touring frame for it; I’ve never seen a screen go up so fast,” de Puysseleir adds. “The screen is up and ready to check out in under an hour.”
A key element of the design was the video screen transparency so the lighting could shoot though it. “I am using the transparency of the V-Lite for a scrim effect; I do light through many of the panels,” explains de Puysseleir. “I use the Bad Boys from the back of the stadium to blast through from behind the screens for texture, depth and big looks that combining the lights and screens affords me. The floor panels of V-Lite have the VL3500s behind them. I’m even using the V-Lite screens as a strobe — strobing white along with my regular strobe lights.”
New Looks on the Fly
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. “I know the first song and the last song,” explains de Puysseleir. “In between, I don’t know when he’s going to play what song; I don’t know how fast he’s going to play it; how long he’s going to play it; what’s going to be between songs; or the order of them. Having just one-person deal with both lighting and video makes the most sense instead of trying to coordinate different people on the spot.”
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.” There is also some minimal I-Mag but, since Tiësto isn’t a fan of being projected on screen, de Puysseleir uses filters, color and effects to make the I-Mag more like abstract content.
A Close Collaboration
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. “He knows what he wants with his show; how he wants it to look. For the lighting, we talk more general ideas, not specific colors. For the video, we really go through the content, and he tells me what he likes and doesn’t like. When it comes to visuals, he definitely has a vision, and then when it comes to running the show, I have a very free hand. I follow the music,” he says. “I think that the video is more a guide of what we want to do with the show. The lighting I add on top of my video. However, there are certain points I don’t use the video, and it’s a full-on lighting show. It’s all always very music-driven. I am not here to show what I can do with the lighting desk. I am here to see what I can do with this music that’s interesting as a designer.”
De Puysseleir relies on a ChamSys MQ100 Pro with Playback Wings for the lighting control and a ChamSys PC system tied in with an ArKaos MediaMaster system for the video control. He output the MediaMaster to MadMapper. He chose the MadMapper because he had some challenging video setups with split screens and side screens for the Home Depot Center system. De Puysseleir had found a Mac open source project called Syphon, which lets a computer stream video from different sources on the same computer to different destinations. ArKaos created a custom version of MediaMaster with Syphon for de Puysseleir. “This changed the way I work with MediaMaster now,” he says. “Before, I needed two servers to run two screens. Now I can just use one. The content is always in sync and always looks great. Also, using a third party application reduces the workload on MediaMaster, which helps it to play all my files in their native resolution; other applications in the workflow do all the sizing.” Assisting de Puysseleir with the lighting and video controls setup and testing was his production assistant, Joeri Pluym.
At the end of the successful and historic show, both Tiësto and de Puysseleir are pretty worn out from the high-energy performance. When asked if de Puysseleir was pleased with the final results, he simply comments, “It was good, but I can do better. I never rest; I always push to make it a better show the next time.”
Crew
PRG/Touring:
Crew Chief: Todd Erickson
Moving Light Technician: Bill Settle
Dimmer Technician: Dave Schmieder
PRG/Home Depot Center
Crew Chief: Jason Stalter
Followspots: Russel Lyons
Moving Lights: Drew Johnston
PRG Nocturne Video Crew
John McLeish, Barrie Roney, Carson Austin, Drew Welker
Gear
2 ChamSys MagicQ MQ100 Pro consoles w/wings
36 PRG Bad Boy Spots
14 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700s
56 Vari*Lite VL2500 Spots
2 Vari*Lite VL3000 Spots
31 Vari*Lite VL3500 Wash fixtures
5 ETC Sensor Racks (1 72×2.4Kw; 4 12×2.4Kw)
20 Doug Fleenor Design Opto Boxes
5 PRG Series 400 Ethernet Switches (100MB)
11 PRG Virtuoso Node Plus units
16 Tomcat 6-Light PAR Bars
46 Mole Fay 4-Light PAR36 4×1: 36; 2×2: 10)
20 Mole Fay 2-Light PAR36 2×1
40 ETC Source 4 PAR
20 GLP/Elation Impression 1 20 RZ LED
49 Martin Atomic 3000 strobes w/ color scrollers
5 Lightning Strikes 70kW strobes
8 Motion Labs power distros (208V)
31 CM 1-Ton Hoists (208V)
6 Reel EFX DF-50 Diffusion hazers
3 LeMaitre Radiance DMX hazers
2 JEM ZR33 DMX foggers
2 LeMaitre G-300 MK-IIs
4 Look Solutions Orka DMX units
4 Mole Richardson 18” Wind Machines
4 Patton 18” Round Fans
10 PRG BAT Truss (15”x30,” 8’)
6 12”x12”x5’ Box Truss
10 20”x20”x10’ Box Truss
3 12”x12”x5’ Lightweight Box Truss
3 Clear-Com 2 Channel main stations
6 Clear-Com 1-Channel belt packs
3 Clear-Com 2-Channel belt packs
6 Sennheiser double headsets
Video Gear
994 PRG Nocturne V-28 LED video modules
2 PRG Nocturne Processors (1 main, 1 backup)
2 Folsom ImagePro HD scalers
