Matt Mills has been working on the Daughtry tour since March 2009 as the lighting director and programmer. It would be very easy to get complacent running the same show day in and day out. Instead, he has found ways to stay creative, changing the way the console uses pixel mapping, the way followspot cues are called, and adjusting to last minute changes to the set list. Mills uses a Catalyst v4 media server to map content to 24 Martin Stagebar 54s. The Catalyst is triggered by an MA Lighting grandMA console. He uses an ELC Node 6 to merge the ArtNet outputs from both the grandMA and the Catalyst. This allows him to have full control of the Martin Stagebars from both the console and the media server at anytime using highest takes precedence (HTP) control. The ELC Node6 also acts as an ArtNet hub allowing him to split the signal and route them to each truss as well.
"The ELC Node6 is the converter," Mills says. "The flow is, ArtNet from the MA to a router, out of the router into my Catalyst and my Node 6. The Node6 converts the ArtNet to DMX and sends data to the fixtures via XLR connectors."
Content for the Show
Catalyst v4 comes loaded with several folders of stock content from digital media companies including Artbeats, Digital Juice, and Apollo. In Daughtry's show, Mills uses a combination of this stock content and custom content that he personally created using Apple Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effects. Since the Martin Stagebars are positioned linearly across several trusses from upstage to downstage, most of the media used in the show provides ambient movement, texture and color that enhances the lighting during a song. And if he chooses to make on-the-fly changes, Mills prefers to use the Smart Window available on the grandMA for accessing all of the content available in the media server.
Why did he choose the Catalyst v4 for this application? First of all, the media server on the show is Mills' own Catalyst v4 system and he knows it from the inside out. Aside from being the first media server he learned, he began working with the system after purchasing his own dongle and building his own system. And he continues to use the Catalyst application today because of his high level of comfort with the product; in fact, it was his level of expertise with the software that encouraged him to purchase the Node6 and explore adding pixel mapping to the show.
Followspot Cues
In addition to pixel mapping, Mills has continually refined other areas of show execution driven by his knowledge of show control software and his desire to make other aspects of running his show more efficient and consistent. One of these is a unique automated solution to calling followspot cues that he devised.
As the touring LD for the show, Mills runs both the lighting console and calls followspot cues for the performance. After having been on the road for many years with 3 Doors Down, he recognized the challenges of consistency among followspot operators, headset noise, and timing, so he set out to make things easier for everyone involved.
Starting with his Catalyst Mac, Mills installed QLab, an application designed for live show control applications. He then recorded each followspot cue as a short Quicktime movie with audio and dropped each one into a cue list in QLab. The QLab application then simply runs in the background on the Mac while Catalyst is active. The pre-recorded audio "movies" for each followspot cue are triggered via corresponding lighting cues from the console and that triggers a MIDI command from the console to the USB port in the Mac.
The audio output from the MAC is connected to the Clear Com system at front of house, which in turn is what the followspot operators hear. Mills says that one distinct advantage of doing it this way is that there is no need to key the mic during the show, which helps to reduce the ambient noise level on headset. That, in turn, helps the spot ops hear the cues more clearly.
Cue Lists and Set List Changes
Mills says he likes to run his shows manually because he prefers to stay busy during the show instead of babysitting a fully-automated show using timecode or click tracks. But that requires him to be alert, especially when the band frequently changes the set list from show to show. As a result, Mills has found a very efficient way to quickly access cue lists in the grandMA.
First, he programmed cue lists to the executors on different pages that correspond to each song in the set list. Then, during playback, he uses macros on the console that call up the desired page, select the first fader, take the first cue, and kill everything except the current page. Using these macros means he can jump from practically anywhere to anywhere in his show and cleanly get into and out of cues between songs.
Traveling with a show night after night doesn't have to be a routine experience. Mills' time on the road with this show has allowed him to explore many ways of improving it, especially through cue playback, visual effects, and the calling cues for the obligatory followspots. Mills may refer to it as "things he comes up with when he's bored," but it's those kinds of ideas that drive innovation in our industry.
