BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, UK — Siyan, based here, supplied a floor specials package for British singer/songwriter Conor Maynard’s recent U.K. tour, where he opened for Will.i.am. LD Paul Smith from Edge of Blue Design specified Robe Pointe and LEDWash 600 moving lights among other fixtures.
More details from Siyan (www.siyan.co.uk):
The project initially went out to quote, and he recalls that Siyan were the first company to come back with all their requirements at a good price so they didn’t have to start making substitutions to the kit!
Siyan’s Tom Grant Project Managed, saying “It was a pleasure working with Paul again – his designs are always practical, well thought out and look fabulous in action”.
In this case and being the support act, time was absolutely of the essence in getting the rig on and offstage without holding up any other elements of the production. The innovative visual design for Will.i.am was also very projection orientated and as such there was not a massive amount of additional lighting kit available for the support act to use… so touring a festival-style ‘specials’ set up provided an obvious solution.
This also brought the additional advantage of being able to light Conor’s set and make him look individual and different without giving any of the game away!
To maximize the small time-window available, Smith designed four chevron shapes using 2.5 metre sections of super-truss on wheels, complete with matching 30 cm trusses clamped on top at an angle. In the void of the triangle he positioned the LEDWash 600s – 26 in total … with the eight Pointes on top of the four triangles.
Smith loved The Pointes – it was the first chance that he had had to use them.
LED truss toners were placed inside to give extra dimension, while Showtec Sunstrips outlined the shape of the chevrons, which together with six SGM Palco floods and four Atomic strobes … were all run through a GrandM2 light console.
To ensure an expedient DMX footprint, all fixtures were run in minimal channel mode so the shutter channel on the LEDWash 600s dealt with some of the LED ring effects, which was very helpful.
With only a 30 minute support slot, and a set list including all Conor’s biggest hits, the brief was to provide high impact lighting and the rig proved ideal for this. The Pointes were utilized both for back lighting and for audience gobo washes, with the LEDWashes doubling as washes and beam lights across the performance area.
The flexibility and the intensity of the Pointes together with the quality of the focus really impressed Smith, plus the speedy frost, which proved great for chases. The incredible zoom range meant that the fixture could be an intense, tight beam light one minute and transform into a hugely bright gobo effect the next – easily punching across the larger arenas like London’s O2.
Smith comments that Siyan is a “Friendly, happy company and everyone there will always go the extra mile. In an era where ‘budget is king’ here is a rental company who will do everything possible to make it happen. You definitely feel that you are not just a job number but a real person with a creative vision that their team is also dedicated to helping achieve in any way possible”.
More details from Robe (www.robe.cz):
Lighting designer Paul Smith from Edge of Blue Design wanted to make an impression with the lighting for UK singer / songwriter Conor Maynard who opened on the recent Will.i.Am tour.. and so chose Robe Pointes and LEDWash 600s to help achieve his goal.
Paul Normandale’s visual design for Will.i.Am was very projection orientated and as such there was also not a massive amount of kit available to light the support act, so the obvious solution was to tour a festival style floor specials package to light Conor’s set and make him look individual and different without giving any of the game away!
Paul spec’d eight Pointes – which he was using for the first time – together with 26 x LEDWash 600s which were supplied by UK rental company, Siyan.
Paul comments, “I was keen to try out The Pointe as – having used a competitor beam product for over a year – I wanted a change and the chance to work with something new and exciting”.
With only a 30 minute support slot, and a set list comprising Conor’s biggest tracks, the brief was to provide high impact lighting. The Pointes proved ideal for this and were utilized both for back lighting and for audience gobo washes, while the LEDWashes doubled as washes and beam lights.
It was the flexibility and the intensity of the Pointe that Paul really liked, together with the “Quality” of the focus, the speed of the frost (which was great for chases) and the zoom range, which means it can be a tight beam light one minute and a very bright gobo effect the next – easily punching across the larger arenas like London’s O2.
Having used Robe products “on-and-off” since the 575E AT series – so dating back some 10 years – he is very happy with the latest technologies, which he ran – together with a number of other lighting elements – from a grand MA2 light console.
