Leon Driessen and LD Company Power Massive DI-RECT Show in De Kuip with ChamSys
ROTTERDAM – A vast garden of great moments is always ready to blossom at a 25th anniversary celebration, especially when you’re talking about an iconic band like DI-RECT. That garden flowered abundantly for 50,000-plus fans at De Kuip Stadium for three nights this summer, as the band from The Hauge celebrated a quarter century of making music.
DI-RECT’s wide range of compelling music was there for every fan to enjoy, not only by listening, but watching as well. Like the band’s songs, the concert ‘s production was breathtakingly varied.
The show started with a soft, gentle mood, with lead vocalist Marcel Veenendaal and guitarist Frans « Spike » van Zoest performing on a diamond-shaped 360-stage. The show then moved to a full (non-360 stage), as the show amped up to included more symphonic parts with an orchestra on tiered risers backing the band, as well as a full-fledged rock show vibe with two towering video walls and beefy lighting rig.
Running this extraordinarily diverse panorama on five ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M Stadium consoles were Leon Driessen and his team at LD Company. Three of those consoles were used during previz — one for controlling a Disguise GX3 server for video, the two others for controlling lights in a multi-user environment.
“The ChamSys Multi-User function was great because we were able to program with two programmers in the same cue list as the same time,” said Driessen. “So basically, as one programmer was setting the look and feel in the cue list of the song, the other was programming the effects, highlights like build ups and drum riffs.
“Also, at some points, we programmed two songs at the same time in the same show file,” Driessen continued. “It was really invaluable that our ChamSys allowed us to connect multiple previz systems to the same show file.”
Once the design team was on site at De Kuip, they expanded their capabilities by bringing in two additional MQ500M units. These consoles were used to control the show’s extensive video element. (In addition to the two massive video walls, the production had video content running throughout the stage, often displayed on lighting fixtures.)
“We used the ChamSys DMX Merge feature to integrate all video content into the console from servers,” said Driessen. “In this case, we were able to map video across all washes and LED strips. Since all consoles acted in the same network, we could control all cues from the same main lighting desk and go to video and key lights.”
The show was programmed on timeline and hand cues. “Basically, each song was running on timeline, but the outros were by hand,” said Driessen. This provided the band with the opportunity to “expand the songs at the end,” he explained — and given the rich abundance of DI-RECT’s material, building onto each song came naturally.
