AMSTERDAM – Writing about electronic music star San Holo’s stop at New York’s Terminal 5 on his current tour in support of his LP album 1, a critic wrote, “San Holo acts like he is a part of the crowd, which makes us a part of him.”

This sense of connectivity has been repeated time and again around the world, as the Dutch artist, whose real name is Sander van Dijck, pours out his feelings in a deeply personal performance that seamlessly blends musical elements from the heaviest basses and trance beats to soft vocals and live guitar melodies.

Reflecting this heartfelt sound in light and video is a 13-universe Manuel Rodrigues-designed show, powered by a ChamSys MagicQ MQ80 desk and video server. Like the music of San Holo, which, though seemingly elemental, weaves diverse elements together into a uniquely moving sound, the album 1 tour lightshow is complex and intricately varied in its “simplicity.”

For Rodrigues, who worked with the tour’s Creative Director Thorwald van den Akker, this tightly focused approach is consistent with his design philosophy.  “In my designs I always try to go to the essence of the looks I want to create,” he explained. “I’m very rigorous in applying the ‘less is more’ principle. I try to find the simplest lines and then line up every lighting and video element perfectly with each other. The CAD drawing I made might look boring to the untrained eye; everything is just in rows of the same fixtures, and all elements are lined up with each other. But when the light and video work in concert, their aesthetics become more apparent because of the clean design of the stage.”

The validity of Rodrigues’ statement is  beautifully apparent to anyone who’s seen the 73 luminaires and 75 video panels in his rig work in harmony on the tour. Covering the stage with a matrix of intricately balanced beams of light, moving from brilliant colors to cool bright whites, and  accenting the artist with evocative side lighting, his lightshow reflects the passion and eclectic nature of his client’s musical performance without ever seeming intrusive or overbearing.

The video content, created by Bob Jacobs, also reflects the emotional tenor of the show, while paying homage to its retro quality. “Bob did a beautiful job,” said Rodrigues. “We evoke a sense of timelessness by shooting a lot of the video on old VHS cameras. San Holo likes to use a tape delay to give his sound extra layers of depth, and by using video cameras we tried to emulate the same feel. Often, this video content is then pixel mapped and used to drive the LED fixtures.”

The ChamSys MQ80 has been instrumental in helping Rodrigues achieve his vision on the global tour. “My console’s portability, number of universes supported, and the ability to capture palettes over Art-Net have been very important to me,” he said.  “These three functions combined are golden for a traveling LD.  I think ChamSys initiated a trend years ago of shrinking down the size of the lighting desk, and in the process has tempted other lighting desk manufacturers to release products with a similar form factor. The number of universes supported by the MQ80 is just insane for the price.  I have amazed many house LDs by copying their positions from their desks using Art-Net input.”

Rodrigues’ show on the tour is almost entirely synced. “The only thing happening live in this tour is setting FX speed / size and the front light for San,” he said . “I want to have as little front as possible, and therefore I make as small as possible light regions for San to step into — and I only turn them on when needed. The rest of the show is synced using M2Q. The bridge between Ableton and ChamSys enables the designer to use MIDI to draw light sequences. This information is then translated into the ChamSys Remote Protocol. San uses Ableton to play back his music, and I put my lighting MIDI sequences in this same Ableton set. This way synchronicity is ensured, and San still has all the creative freedom possible by default from within Ableton.”

During the time he was putting the show together, Rodrigues enjoyed a smooth open flow of communication with his client. “I was very happy with the input of San during the rehearsal process,” he said. “His ideas tended to be spot on. This all enabled us to have a very successful premiere of the show in St. Petersburg, Florida.” 

The collaborative relationship between San Holo and Rodrigues can be traced back to their initial meeting more than a year before the designer began working on the tour.  San Holo’s manager Budi Voogt introduced the two of them at the Eye Film Museum in Amsterdam. Dinner followed, and the rapport quickly became apparent.

“I immediately felt connected emotionally to San and his approach to his work,” said Rodrigues. It’s a connection that fans who are packing San Holo shows across the globe can readily understand.

HEMEL HEMPSTEAD, UK – Simon Horn kicked off the 2018 holiday season with a sleep-deprived weekend. As the sole designer, programmer and operator at Cream Weekender’s main Skyline Pavilion Stage, he spent most of his time between December 7^th and 9^th running the lightshow for a large and diverse mix of DJ stars on his ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium console with a Stadium Wing.

Other than a laser operator who came with Pete Tong, none of the artists brought their own LDs – and though Horn had a second operator there to relieve him, he enjoyed the music so much, he rarely stepped away from the console.

“It was a labor of love,” said Horn, the owner of Purple Lighting Ltd. “Apart from the one laser person, none of the acts brought their own designers or operators. This was pretty much my baby all the way.”

Horn not only loved his baby, he “raised” it to reflect his vision for the wildly popular event, which was put on by the UK clubbing legend Cream at Butlin’s Minehead Arena. 

“Budget is always a consideration, and that forces you to make decisions about the relative importance of things,” he said. “So, I discounted any use of screen and visuals, since we didn’t have a dedicated VJ, and I am not a fan of generic busked video content. This decision allowed me to focus my complete attention on creating an impressive well-populated lighting design, rather than a standard light show with a standard screen setup.”

The result of Horn’s decision was a 180-fixture and 7-universe lightshow that sent a palpable surge of energy and excitement through the 7,000-capacity pavilion in support of artists like Leftfield and Basement Jaxx. Rather than have his fixtures move as disparate entities, each following its own course, Horn choreographed his powerful rig to create broad, often subtle movements, while retaining the general contour of his design.

“How the fixtures are moved or not moved is one of the keys to creating an immersive design, in my view,” said Horn.  “With this rig and many of my other shows, I passionately avoid simply resorting to movement just for the sake of movement.  I’ve said it time and time again, ‘Just because a moving light can move does not mean it has to move.’ I tried to have enough scope to create exciting drama without moving the fixtures! But when I did move them I was sensitive to keeping the shape of the design projecting into the audience.”

Horn also created compelling looks by manipulating focus positions. For example, he focused 30 of his spots on the middle of the dance floor over the crowd. “This created some incredible euphoric looks as I manipulated intensity and color effects and then slowly moved the entire set of fixtures as one,” he said. “The design was very much aimed at being immersive for the audience.”

This manipulation of focus positions, as well as the entire 3-day lightshow, was busked. “I would not have wanted any console other than my ChamSys for this extensive busking,” said Horn. “The combination of large screens, plenty of buttons and such fast software is a complete winner here!  I utilized the execute buttons on the MQ500 for a set of what I call ‘panic buttons.’  Lighting DJ sets is all about creating big changes when the music drops or breaks into a big hand in the air rave moment! My panic buttons were set so I could hit them and grab a sequence that overrides everything else, while I then set up to move into something else after I release that button. So, having lots of execute buttons on the MQ500 is very friendly.”

Horn also was appreciative of what he terms the “sound to light” quality of the MagicQ MQ500.  “Thanks to the detailed way that you can use sound input on the MagicQ, the console is a very powerful tool in a dance music busk show,” he said. “I can focus on the main elements of the design and have other features managed by Audio. For example, I can set cue stack to bump a step on particular fixtures or every 160 Hz beat and deliver a flash sequence that always stuck to the beat pattern.”

However, the thing that Horn values most about the MagicQ MQ500 is its easy offset patch features, which saves him time when updating positions from previous shows.  He also appreciates being able to apply effects to groups of fixtures simultaneously.  “I spent a lot of time in this show creating different group orders allowing effects to be moved across the rig in different way in their natural shape,” he said. “This allowed me to create a unique lightshow.”

Horn’s lightshow was so memorable, that dancers often paused to take photos of it with their cell phones. He describes seeing them do this as a “humbling experience.”  Spoken like a proud parent indeed!

ATLANTA –  Early in his career, Zach Scott found part-time work supplying small-scale audio and lighting packages to a local video gaming venue in Chicago. One of its managers, Brad Weir, later branched out to organize gaming tournaments across the Midwest. 

Weir employed Scott for a few years, but eventually the two separated, Weir to pursue his passion of video gaming tournaments, and Scott into lighting, eventually creating his own design firm, Illuminate Collective. But old connections have a way of resurfacing…  Seven years after losing contact, Scott received a call from his former venue manager asking him if he’d be interested in working at this year’s Hi-Rez Expo at the Atlanta DreamHack, part of the largest LSN Party and computer festival in the world. 

Accepting the offer, Scott went on to create sleek, camera-friendly stage designs for Hi-Rez Studios’ SMITE stage. A friend of his, fellow designer Dustin Derry of Stonewolf Studios, crafted the look of the PALADINS. Helping them both in this endeavor were two ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium consoles.

“I was brought in to provide design, programming and operation for two identical stages at the Hi-Rez Expo,” said Scott. “With two stages being completely separate, I wanted help from someone who would match my passion for this project, so I called Dustin. We took on both stages from start to finish, as designers, programmers and directors, both of us relying on our ChamSys consoles to achieve looks that matched the intensity of the event and competition.”

Both stages had eight-universe shows with 79 controlled fixtures and 12 truss warmers that were set to the game’s branding colors. With the competition broadcast on Hi-Rez TV, the two designers gave prime consideration to creating looks that would translate well on camera, while still creating a friendly environment for the players and live audience.

“After our initial creative meetings, the main focus was on properly lighting the players and broadcasters for the cameras, but also staying dim enough so people weren’t blinded during game play,” said Scott. “Our vendor, Atlanta Sound & Light, played a massive roll in the overall design of the rig. We collaborated for almost two months on fixture placements and the overall design. For the aerial effects and big looks, I used the broadcast program monitor as a reference for what viewers online were seeing, and I tailored my programming on the MQ500 to have the biggest impact for the cameras.”

Keeping up with the flow of live gaming for broadcast meant that the programming process had to be done in an “organic and simplified manner,” said Scott. “We used one page of faders that held intensities, movements and FX,” he explained. “All of these playbacks were programmed with everything but color data. We then built a couple of Execute Pages, which held each team’s color palette. We also needed to be able to break up the team colors into ‘rig left, rig right or rig center,’ based on which side they played on, or if they won the match. The custom Execute Pages on the MQ500 worked perfectly for this task.”

Scott and Derry also had to pay careful attention to ensure that the effects and colors on their two stages matched the plethora of looks from the video content. “The show directors would give us cues, sometimes with advance notice and sometimes with a few seconds to spare,” said Scott. “This is a perfect example of why the MQ500 custom Execute Pages with regions were a crucial part of our console layouts.

In addition to the Execute Pages, Scott found the MagicQ MQ500’s two large screens and the additional banks of playback buttons to be invaluable features in this project. “The extra bank of playback buttons on the top left of the 500 were used for effects that had to be triggered, but would then release automatically,” he said. “Dustin had a great idea to use the extra playback section located in the middle of the desk for quick fixture selection. This allowed us to call up any fixture group at the touch of a button.”

Throughout the competition, Scott and Derry had mobile pre-vis rigs setup in their hotel rooms near the Georgia World Congress Center where the event took place. Scott had a ChamSys Maxi Wing in his room and Derry a PC Wing in his. “We did offsite programming and tweaks throughout the week, so everything always looked right for the competition,” said Scott. Based on the feedback the two designers received about their design, they certainly succeeded in doing that.

ZEELAND, THE NETHERLANDS – Putting a neat, tidy  description on the sound of Dutch rock stalwarts Racoon is akin to trying to capture  the essence of a flowing river in a bucket. Over the course of their 20-year career, the irrepressible quartet has woven their way through an array of evocative sounds, being as comfortable collaborating with Armin van Buuren on a Trance version of one of their hits as they are performing with the London Chamber Orchestra.

Reflecting the multi-faceted style of Racoon in light calls for a design that can convey a wide range of moods in a clear, but subtle fashion. Erwin van Lokeren, the band’s longtime lighting designer, is accomplishing this feat on the band’s Fall ’18 tour with a lightshow that (like his client’s music) is at once straightforward and complex. An indispensable tool in helping van Lokeren achieve this is his ChamSys MagicQ MQ80 console. 

“I have been Racoon’s designer since 2006, and it is always exciting and challenging working for them because their music is so diverse,” said van Lokeren. “Racoon music ranges from up-tempo pop to really fragile small songs. This means that I have to go from making the show look big, to creating something very small and intimate.  On this tour, I try to create a show that is a bit industrial. I have lights moving up and down in different positions, so they work as scenic pieces as well as sources of illumination.”

Limiting his three-universe show to 62 fixtures, van Lokeren is keeping his rig uncluttered to evoke an intimate hardcore basic mood on stage. This sense is reinforced by his use of retro theatrical fixtures that are hung at varying heights over the band.  Changing the position of these fixtures creates a sense of movement on stage, in addition to leading audiences through the different emotions evoked by the music.

“On this tour, we achieve impact not by overwhelming the audience, but by changing effects to relay different emotions,” said van Lokeren. “By doing this, we reinforce the deeply personal connection between the band and its fans.”

In light of his design vision for the current Racoon tour, the effects  options in van Lokeren’s ChamSys console are of particular importance. “It is really very nice that the MQ80 gives me such a wide range of different options in the effect (effects?) section,” he said. “I like having so many possibilities to search and create the right effect that I desire.  The intensity master fader also works great for me, allowing me to adjust the brightness in venues, for example, where the roof reflects a lot. Given that this is a mood driven show, I need precise control, which is why I’m very happy to have the MQ80 with me.”

In addition to his MagicQ MQ80, van Lokeren is using an extra PC Wing to control  front lights and hazers. “The Wing allows me to adjust smoke at any time during the show,” he said. “My biggest challenge on this tour is to get the right amount of haze on the stage. We are often at venues that have a lot of air-conditioning, which is a challenge. On this tour, haze is 90% of my show, because it’s great a (at?) setting the right mood.”

Meeting this and other challenges is easy for van Lokeren, thanks in part to the work of his systems tech (techs?) Bertje Ploegh and Marcel Koeter. Of course, figuring out how to create an engaging lighting design under a variety of circumstances is something van Lokeren knows a thing or two about. He notes that this tour will mark his 1000^th show using a ChamSys console.  “You can describe me as being very loyal to ChamSys,” he said. “For years, it has helped unleash my creative spirits.”

ORLANDO – ChamSys had a lot to be happy about at WFX. In addition to drawing large crowds to the four training sessions it held at the show, the company went home with a prestigious New Products Award for its new user-friendly console, the ChamSys QuickQ 20.

A panel of judges drawn from leading church TDs and the Worship Tech Director website selected the ChamSys QuickQ 20 for the honor. Key to their decision are the many features in the affordable, plug-and-play console that  make lighting control readily accessible to virtually any end user.

“The worship market was clearly on our mind when we developed the QuickQ 20,” said Philip Watson, ChamSys USA Director. “The console was designed to make it simple and straightforward for students, volunteers and part-time technicians at a house of worship to have hands-on control of dimmers, LED color mixing functions and moving lights.”

With its intuitive smartphone-like 9.7” touchscreen interface, the ChamSys QuickQ 20 offers an easy path to setup, programming and playback. It’s also rich in features that help create an immersive mood at worship services by colorizing a room. For example, its dedicated “Color Control Area” includes hue and saturation encoders.  The console also allows users to select colors from in-built palettes and gel libraries using the touchscreen.

“We’re very happy and honored to receive this award,” said Watson. “Our team paid careful attention to the needs of churches when designing the QuickQ 20, so this recognition is especially gratifying.”  

NEW YORK –  In 2009, a friend introduced Jason Bullock to an early model of the ChamSys MQ100. It was pretty close to a case of love at first sight. After playing with the console, Bullock took it out on the Summer ’09 NINJA tour he did for Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction. “After the tour, I was convinced the ChamSys was THE console for my style of show,” recalled the New York-based designer.

That style, with all of its big looks, bold statements and roaring intensity was on full display this summer in Bullock’s work on the 27-city Wiz Khalifa and Rae Sremmurd Dazed and Blazed tour. Running the boards for both artists, Bullock took audiences on a breathtaking visual ride. Only now, instead of his original MQ100, he ran his 25-universe (not counting video) 250-fixture show with a ChamSys MagicQ MQ300 Pro supplied by Upstaging, Inc. out of Chicago.

“Justin Collie and the team at Nimbilist were responsible for the overall design of this tour,” he said. “Their design combined a brand-new set and video system that exemplified the direction of Wiz’s new album, Rolling Papers 2.  My long experience with Wiz as director allowed us as a team to get this tour together in a very short timeline, even with the new systems.”

There were multiple features on Bullock’s ChamSys console that made this process go very smoothly. “Being able to import cue lists from prior tours — button settings, titles, timings etcetera – saved us hours during the programming phase,” he said. “Direct access to palettes for programming (group 1, position 3, color 4, beam 6, enter) gave us an unprecedented level of speed. Not having to go search through touchscreens was far more efficient when it came to raw speed. Last but not least are the faders. By having extra buttons when FX get added or things change on the fly, you always have a place to record when trying to operate and edit at the same time.”

Efficiency was extremely important to Bullock when preparing for the Dazed and Blazed tour. “When this tour was programmed, we had only three days to get the whole project show ready,” he said.  “Video director Kevin Williams and I have worked together on previous Wiz tours. To maximize the possible applications of our system we developed an active system. Content to different layers and location is controlled via Catalyst. Kevin then takes that content and applies FX and mixes it all together with multiple cameras and robo-cams as a composite.

“The whole process in general was very smooth, which is amazing given the volume of work we did,” continued Bullock. “Working with Justin and his team was a great experience. We met 15-20 years ago. It was awesome to work with him and get this show together very quickly. Without the ChamSys, I would not have been able to pull it off.”

So today, almost a decade after Bullock first encountered ChamSys, his love affair with the company’s console is still going strong. 

Photo Credit: Todd Kaplan

ChamSys consoles were specified by Lighting Designer Matthew Button for the recent Lexus #NXONTRACK promo video. 

Button choose the small but power MQ70 compact console to use to control the lighting rig of over 370 lights.  The whole show was synced around a trio of Lexus NX’s driven around the track to hit laser ‘targets’ triggering lighting and lasers keeping the whole show in sync with the audio. 

A total of 3 Compact consoles (2 x MQ60 and 1 x MQ70) where located in control networked together providing a seamless Master/Slave backup solution throughout the show while also allowing multiple operators. 

MagicQ consoles were again used on many New Year Eve shows around the world.  Highlights including lighting up the London Eye Mellenium Wheel for the midnight show and a 5 hour live TV show in China for an estimated 500 million viewers.

In Nanjing Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium, China, two MagicQ MQ100s controlled 100 universes of lighting with around 2000 moving lights on this spectacular show for Jiangsu TV.  Lighting designed and programmed by ARF&YES.

Jiangsu TV Show Video

At Pro Light & Sound 2016 ChamSys idemonstrated the latest MagicQ Stadium software features including major new features for programming larger lighting rigs, major new Theatre and time code support, and much enhanced MagicVis including improved rendering, shadows and reports.  See us in Hall 3 stand D27.

ChamSys Software Director Chris Kennedy explains « Our customers continue to use MagicQ at the highest level with large numbers of moving lights and LED up to and beyond 100 universes.  Our new group and palette FX allow spectacular results in the minimum of time. Our new reduced size show format ensures the show data remains manageable and our new conflict detection helps to quickly troubleshoot network problems. »

ChamSys is continuing to develop its MagicVis visualiser which is fully integrated the MagicQ software.  Chris comments « We believe that by having full control of the development of MagicVis we can provide our customers with the best package of lighting control and visualisation all integrated into a single show file.  No one else can provide a completely free Visualiser with support for 100 universes, 15000 personalities, media feeds, moving trusses, camera control, blind preview and full plots and reports. »

With Group based FX, programmers know that if they add a head to that group it will automatically be included in any Cues using those FX, avoiding the need to check and update each Cue in turn.

New programming features include

• Group FX on one or more groups with Spread/Parts/Segments control within the group(s)
• Group FX using Palettes
• Copying of heads within Cues
• Copying of Cue Stacks to different heads
• Expanding Cues to use additional attributes from Palettes
• Pixel Mapping on Groups

ChamSys continues to add new features to make playback more exciting

• Release executes last step function
• New shortcuts for palette timing
• Flash/Toggle option for Extra Wings
• Flash button support on Android/iOs remote app

MagicQ has some major new features for Theatre and time code shows including the ability to record up to 10 tracks of playback activity associated with the playback of a Cue Stack.

• Multi Cue, Track sheet editing
• Crossfade using advanced times
• Standardised Theatre colour scheme
• Time code simulator within Cue Stack
• Cue Stack multiple time code Tracks
• Printing of any Window to printer/pdf

MagicQ has over 15000 personalities, and is continuing to expand the library.  As new and more complicated fixtures appear, MagicQ continues to add support to ensure programmers can make the use of all the features of the fixtures:

• Personality search facility – using number of channels or key channel info
• DMXcheck personality checker application for iOS/Android/Windows/OSX
• Positioning and rotation of multi element personalities in Output, Grid view
• Virtual dimmers on personalities with duplicated elements

MagicQ continues to extend the number of universes that can be output direct from MagicQ consoles – no need for external processsing nodes.  ChamSys doesn’t try to sell expensive network processing nodes.  The console is complete, fully functional, outputs all universes – one item, one price. 

We test our consoles with every channel patched and executing cues to prove that the consoles are more than capable of meeting their specified performance.

• 127 Universes option (direct from console)
• Reduced size show format
• User Management including restricted editing/outputting
• Network/ArtNet/sACN conflict indication
• Net sessions Master console clash resolution
• Net sessions new Playback sync modes

MagicVis has been enhanced with many new features:

• Improved rendering including shadows
• Circular truss support
• Plot View within MagicVis
• Split Blind / Playback preview (with auto option)
• Positioning of fixtures within room in Plot View
• Multi console visualisation

Music festival Reverze is an international music event, that takes place every year in Sportpaleis – Antwerp – Belgium. The represented music styles are Hardstyle, Raw and Hardcore.

This year they showed the processing power of the ChamSys MQ100 Pro 2014 lighting console with 64 universes fully patched.

Production: Bass Events
Light design & operating: Kristof Van Mensel – TCF 
Set design: Patrick Bellens – TCF 
Technical production: Kristof Devriese 
Video content: Dirty Monitor 
Audio Management: NoizBoys 
Lasers: Laser Image 
Special FX: Dewico 
Motion & Automation: WIcreations 
Technical Supplier: Phlippo

Light: 
1x ChamSys MQ100 Pro 2014, 2x Execute Wing & 1x Playback wing

1x backup: ChamSys MQ100 Pro 2014 + playback wing 
180 x Robe Pointe (TV Colour wheel) 
36x Robe Ledwash 1200 
20x Robe Ledwash 600 
80x URC speedbeam 105 
36x Martin Viper Performance 
66x URC goldpix 
88x URC goldstrip 
90x DWE singel cell blinder 
50x Ayrton Magicpanel R 
80x Martin Atomic 3000 LED 
720 Showtec Octostrip 
64x Chauvet Geyser RGB 
72x Showtec M800 
20x Showtec Active sunstrip

FX:
1x ChamSys MQ60
10x CO2 jets 
12x stage flames 
6x explo wave flames

In total 1602 fixtures controlled by a MQ 100 Pro 2014 & 2x Execute wing + 1x Playback wing. 1x MQ100 Pro 2014 + playback wing in slave mode (backup). So all processing power was coming from just 1 desk and with 64 universes fully patched!

OMAHA, NE, USA – As competition heats up for this summer’s Olympics it’s not only the athletes drawing attention. Swimming trials are becoming a popular spectator event with cities competing fiercely to win the rights to host them. Omaha, Nebraska and the Century Link Center presented this seasons Olympic swimming trials on June 26 to July 3rd for the 3rd time since 2008. ChamSys lighting consoles provided control, programmed and operated by Andrew Smith.

Lighting, water fountains, pyro and flame effects combined to wow audiences using the arena’s pool surface and subsurface in the design. Lighting Director Bill Brennan utilized Luminsys 50K SoftSuns together with Robe BML’s and Points to add a maze of surface patterns patterns and still achieve required camera levels.

The show included two performances from “O” by Cirque du Soleil and special appearances by synchronized swimmers Bill May and Christina Jones, who also are artists with Cirque du Soleil. Over 200,000 people attended the events, many hoping to see Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, prior to his appearances at this summer’s 2016 Rio Games.

Lighting equipment was provided by TMS and Pulse Lighting. Lighting control was done on a Chamsys MQ100 with and Extra Wing Compact.

The pool isn’t permanent. Upwards of 200 crew built the pool inside the arena in around 2 weeks. You can find a time lapse of last year’s build here

ChamSys control consoles were once again in demand over Glastonbury festival this summer.
As with previous years ChamSys had their onsite support team in attendance throughout the festival, providing technical support, service and catching up with ChamSys users across the site.

Glastonbury again proved to be a busy year for ChamSys with numerous house consoles on stages over the site, with various companies including; Coloursound Experiment, GLS Lighting, South West Ground, Enlightened and Rockin Horse, these stages included:

ThePark Stage

BBC Introducing Stage

Bloc 9 Genosys

Bloc 9 NYC Downlow

Avalon Stage

Left Field Stage

 Along with multiple house consoles across the site, ChamSys were ever popular with touring lighting designers seeing a particular increase in the use of the ChamSys Compact consoles. 

Haydn Cruickshank MD of Coloursound Experiment UK called upon one of Coloursounds new 24 universe MQ80 Compact consoles for Friday headliners Underworld on the West Holts Stage.

ChamSys continued setting an Example across the festival site over the weekend with LD ‘Grum’ bringing his MQ100 Pro2014 console and Playback wing for Example over on the John Peel stage.

As the festival drew to a close on Sunday ChamSys saw more main stage appearances with Catfish and the Bottlemen over on The Other Stage with LD Scotty Galloway with a MQ100 Pro2014 and Playback wing. 

Closing the festival Lighting designer Martin Dudley for Newton Faulkner brought an end to the music on the Avalon stage. Lighting consoles and fixtures supplied by GLS Lighting. 

ChamSys control consoles were again chosen by High Wycombe based lighting rental company Siyan, who supplied ChamSys consoles across three music stages at Latitude festival. 

The lighting operator for the main stage was Matt West of Siyan. He specified the MagicQ MQ80 console for the main stage so that he could utilise the latest MagicQ software features, including the new ‘Focus on the line’ feature in the Plot window.

Matt comments: ‘The Focus Line feature made it easy to create band washes, centre vocal focuses and interesting ACL style looks quickly and the Visualiser proved invaluable for quickly checking programming in daylight.  I also made heavy use of the recent FX by groups feature for programming intensity shapes. The MQ80’s high res screen and powerful processor made it the ideal tool for the job.’

The Focus on the line feature builds on the existing ‘target focus’ tool available in the plot window where fixtures can quickly be focused to a point in the plot window. 
The Focus on the line option now allows selected fixtures to be spread across the line, of which line position, size and angle can easily be manipulated using the plot window.

Elsewhere on site Siyan supplied an MQ100 Pro2014 console for the BBC 6 Music stage operated by Luke Avery and another MQ80 console for Jo Zilm to operate on the Sunrise stage.

Steve Finch of Siyan who manages and designs their three stages on site comments: ‘We’ve been supplying ChamSys consoles now to Latitude festival for a number of years and have found them to be very versatile and robust, dealing with incoming LD’s wishes, the ease of layout , build quality and most of all the great back up and support from Chamsys, who have always been there for Siyan’.

Photo credits: Latitude/Festival Republic

ChamSys caught up with Lighting and Visual designer Jvan Morandi and Lighting programmer and operator Hunter Frith during the current Placebo Retrospective arena tour. 

Jvan and Hunter specified a control system of ChamSys Pro2014 consoles supplied by Coloursound Experiment for the tour. Along the tour ChamSys latest console the MagicQ MQ500 Stadium console capable of 200 universes of control direct from the console was used for its first Arena shows during the tour.

Operator Hunter comments on using the MQ500 Stadium console: ‘The extra screen for the extra real estate adds so much for workflow. It has a better feel in build quality. It still retains the MagicQ interface so there are no backwards surprises. Having the MagicQ visualiser built in is excellent. The extra features of laying your truss and fixtures out for easy selection is very quick and useful.’

Alongside ChamSys consoles, ChamSys SnakSys networking nodes comprimising of 3x R8’s provided DMX control on stage.

The full lighting and visuals kit package for the tour was supplied by West London’s Coloursound Experiment.  

Lighting designers Manuel Rodrigues & Lorenzo Fattori with the MagicQ MQ500 Stadium console for the Noisia ‘Outer Edges’ Tour @ Rampage 2017 – Antwerp (BE)

Photography by Michel van Rossum.

The Noisia ‘Outer Edges’ tour lighting design is by Manuel Rodrigues of deepred.tv

Rampage is one of the biggest Drum and Bass parties in the world and has a capacity of 18000 people. The lighting rig consisted of more than 260 Moving lights, 110 Martin Atomic Led strobes, 60 Chauvet Geyser smoke machines, a bunch of conventionals,various CO2 and pyrotechnic flame devices. About 30 DMX universes in total were used. The lighting rig was designed by Leon Driesen whose help in preparing for this show was invaluable. Manuel a long time ChamSys user usually tours with the MQ80 Compact console. For this show a larger console was required, so naturally Manuel called on ChamSys latest console the MagicQ MQ500 Stadium console. The MQ500 console was provided by Swing located in Belgium and the backup MQ100 was provided by LG licht en geluid located in Holland.

“We chose ChamSys because of its great lighting control and flexibility. Thanks to the Clone and Morph capabilities of ChamSys we are able to adapt the show from a small club to a stadium in a few hours” comments Lorenzo Fattori. One of the more unique and killer features of the ChamSys platform is the ability to copy pallets through artnet. Particularly when you haveo 260+ movers to program positions for. Manuel Rodrigues has a series of 6 generic positions on his Noisia rider which he first captures and then adapts / combines using the linked palettes feature thus making the custom Noisia, Outer Edges positions.

Thanks to the ability of copying palettes via network, Manuel and Lorenzo were able to prepare this stadium show on location in just four hours, grabbing palettes from the house console. 

« This must be a record! » comments Lorenzo who also commented “It’s our first time with MQ500 Stadium, the desk looks really robust and we loved the stadium layout, a lot of space for windows and a lot of buttons ».

Manuel Rodrigues has also been a pioneer in bridging the gap between Ableton Live and ChamSys. This research has resulted in M2Q, acronym of Music-to-Cue which acts as abridge between Ableton live and ChamSys. M2Q is a hardware solution designed together with Lorenzo Fattori an Italian lighting designer and engineer. M2Q listens to midi messages sent from Ableton Live and converts them to Chamsys Remote Control messages, providing cue triggering and playback intensity control. Noisia ‘Outer Edges’ is a completely synchronized show and M2Q was the right tool for the job. A reliable, easy and fast lighting sync solution.

Chauvet & Sons LLC has announced it completed the acquisition of ChamSys Ltd., the Southampton, UK-based designer and manufacturer of lighting controllers. ChamSys provides Chauvet a strong presence in the controller market that complements its CHAUVET Professional lighting fixtures and LED video panels.

“We are very excited about the opportunity to join forces with ChamSys,” said Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet & Sons LLC. “ChamSys has a well-deserved reputation for innovation, quality and value, the same principles that are at the heart of our own Chauvet brands. Together ChamSys and Chauvet are now in a position to better cover and serve worldwide markets.”

ChamSys will continue to operate as an independent business unit from its facility in Southampton, UK.  ChamSys founders Chris Kennedy and George McDuff will remain as Managing Directors of the company and, together with Sales Director Tony Cameron, will continue to lead its current staff of software and hardware engineers, operations, sales and support teams.

The ChamSys industry standard MagicQ series of lighting control products will continue to be sold by the company’s current network of distributors, except in the USA, where Chauvet will sell and support ChamSys products from its Sunrise, Florida headquarters.  The CHAUVET Professional sales team will assume responsibility for ChamSys sales in the USA.  They will have the full-time support of Phil Watson, former CEO of ChamSys, Inc. who has been named ChamSys USA Director.

“We’re committed to maintaining the ChamSys brand and its reputation for excellence by supporting the vision and culture of its management team,” added Albert Chauvet. “At the same time, we’re also looking forward to building ChamSys in the USA and making this outstanding line of controllers available to an even larger market.”  

ChamSys Managing Director Chris Kennedy echoed this enthusiasm. « Chauvet and ChamSys share similar cultures, a strong sense of respect for our customers, an appreciation of our staff and a powerful drive to be the best in our markets,” he said. “This partnership is clearly a logical step for both companies.  We deeply appreciate that Chauvet is committed to building on our 14-year heritage so that ChamSys becomes even stronger in the future. » 

About Chauvet

Chauvet & Sons LLC, headquartered in the USA with offices in the UK, Belgium and Mexico, is a leading global provider of professional luminaires, trusses, controllers and related equipment. The company has a diverse portfolio of brands and award winning products that meet the needs of customers across all sectors of the lighting market ranging from concert touring to festivals, theater, broadcast, corporate and architectural applications.  All brands under the Chauvet umbrella share a commitment to value, innovation and performance.  

For more information, visit www.chauvetlighting.com 

About ChamSys

Based in the UK, ChamSys Ltd. was founded in 2003 by a group of designers and product developers seeking to create a lighting console that offered greater flexibility.  The company’s MagicQ range has set an industry standard used in some of the most prominent concert, theatre, broadcast and club applications around the world.  ChamSys has recently launched its new top of the range MagicQ MQ500 Stadium console and will be showing further additions to the Stadium range at PLS Frankfurt.

FRANKFURT, GERMANY – ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium received the Prolight + Sound International Press Award (PIPA) for “Best Product of the Year” in the lighting control category.   Based on voting by over 100 journalists from specialised publications, the award was presented on April 6th at the Prolight + Sound show.

“This award is a tribute to the ChamSys design ethos,” said ChamSys Managing Director Chris Kennedy. “ChamSys has been built on giving the end-user as much freedom and flexibility as possible, because we respect the creativity that’s inherent in the design process.”

Featuring a built-in MagicVis 3D Visualiser with high quality renderings, dual multi-touch displays in full HD with adjustable viewing angles, an intensity wheel, 100mm split crossfaders for theatre control, 42 fader and executor playbacks for live busking, the 200 universe MagicQ MQ500 Stadium provides programmers with the highest level of show control while remaining intuitive and user-friendly.

“We’re very honoured that some of the best journalists in our industry have seen fit to vote for the MagicQ MQ500 Stadium,” said Chris Kennedy. “As a group, these journalists are very well informed. Not only do they devote a great deal of time to covering this industry, but in many cases, they’re also programmers and designers themselves — so they’re familiar with the issues and opportunities that surround lighting control.”

ChamSys had a successful exhibition at Prolight and Sound Frankfurt not only winning the PIPA award, but also launching and showing our new MagicQ Stadium Wing for the first time at the show.

WILLIAMSBURG, MA – S. Jeremy Peters loves piloting small FPV drones. There is, he says, “no rush quite like it.” He and his wife Alison Peters wanted to share their passion for drone flying with a wider audience. As owners of SJP Productions, a lighting and projection company experienced working festivals, they were in an excellent position to do so. Hooking up with a local brewery, they created one of the first spectator-oriented drone racing events, complete with festival-like lighting, atmospherics and live video feeds all controlled with a three universe set up built around ChamSys Software.

“Typically drone races are geared toward the racers themselves without a lot of spectators,” said Peters. “Generally, they don’t have much production. Alison and I wanted to draw on our production experience at festivals like Lockn, Peach, Bisco, Mountain Jam, Taste of Country and Gathering of the Vibes to create an event that engaged spectators, so we could draw newcomers to drone racing. When we approached Brewmasters Brewing Services, they were all over the idea. So four weeks later, we held our drone race/festival at a working brewery. It was a blast!”

Brewmasters Drone Night kicked off at 6:00pm on March 25th.  It was quickly apparent that this would be no ordinary drone race. Peters got things going in high gear with 150 lights and cryo jets at the start gate. Live video feeds from the racers’ goggles and eight camera live switchers trackside put spectators in the middle of the action. ChamSys MagicQ PC software controlled lighting and video using a PC Wing and multiple Playback Wings. Video was triggered via ArtNet using MagicQ.

A collection of moving fixtures, including CHAUVET Professional Rogue R2 Beams and R2 Spots along with live music enhanced the festival atmosphere. Pixel mapped LED bars were used to line the building’s stairwell, creating a magical aura. Human “LED hula hoopers” served as obstacles during the race. IP65 rated par-style fixtures were located throughout the course to add color.

The IP65 rating was critical, according to Peters, given the amount of liquid floating around the brewery. “There is a great deal of liquid at the venue due to the brewing and cleaning process,” he said. “Its floor slopes to a long drain, and the tanks are constantly letting off small amounts of liquid and gas. Ingredients are also being mixed which end up on the floor, and the floor has to be very regularly hosed off — especially before having visitors for the event. During the setup, the brewery also pressure washed all their tanks so they were looking spiffy for our guests, which dumped a lot of water on the ground, and on the par fixtures.”

Programming the various visuals of this multi-faceted event was relatively simple, thanks to MagicQ’s user-friendly features. “In general, programming on MagicQ is a breeze,” said Peters.  “Once you know how to program, you can do anything. Pixel mapping on MagicQ is very straightforward, and we use this feature a lot. On this particular show, the LED bars are 36 channels each. We were able to create the pixel mapping effects for them in under a minute.”

“Also, ChamSys pairs very easily with video, which was obviously very important in this project,” continued Peters. “ChamSys works with our video software by treating MagicQ as an intelligent DMX MIDI-style controller, patching faders to opacity control on video layers for camera feeds, so they could easily be controlled from a single interface.”

MagicQ allowed Peters to achieve tight control over his lighting rig. This was especially important given the nature of this event. “Balancing the crazy lighting we had with the racers’ ability to see in FPV, which is very sensitive to light changes, was a big challenge,” said Peters. “The cameras for FPV flying don’t white balance very well, so it’s difficult for them to respond quickly to bright to dark transitions. This can make it hard at least momentarily for the racers to navigate. We minimized this as much as possible in programming scenes to help the racers overcome this challenge.”

In addition to the experienced racers who navigated this course with its varied lighting, Brewmasters Drone Night offered novices the chance to experience drone piloting for the first time. “Newcomers loved the experience,” said Peters. “I’m sure we introduced a lot of people to the hobby. We plan to put on more events like this, and are currently working out the details for us to do smaller drone events with the Boys and Girls Club as well as a local school, focusing on technology and skill training. Who knows, maybe one day drone racing will be the next NASCAR!”

ATLANTA, GA – Fans of Mastodon weren’t surprised when three of the band’s members appeared in an episode of Game of Thrones. Like the HBO hit, the music of  this iconic group reveals itself in lavishly detailed layers of fantasy that fire the imagination and leave easy categorizations smoldering by the wayside. The complex Mastodon experience is on full display in the quartet’s 30-city North American “Emperor of Sand” tour, not just in the epochal music, but also in the highly evocative light and video show that Michael Howe created and controls with the new ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium and Magic HD media server.

The Emperor of Sand album takes listeners on a cosmic odyssey through time as it follows a man sentenced to death in a majestic but cruel desert. Howe’s design evokes rich imagery that reflects this musical narrative with seven 2’ wide by 14’ tall video tower monoliths, a collection of moving fixtures and pixel mapped battens. Adding to the visual impact of the show are custom content created expressly for the tour by the monomial artist Skinner, and animation/effects from the firm Hey Beautiful Jerk.

“My main goal is to have big looks build during the show along with the band’s set list,” said Howe. “I want the audience to have a visual experience that complements the audio experience of a live Mastodon show. The main challenge on this tour is finding the balance between lighting and video and putting it all together so the band can be seen. It’s easy to have interesting video in every song, but then I believe the video content loses its value.”

A number of features in the new ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium helped Howe, who is running the boards on the tour, achieve this delicate balance. “Having the MagicVis 3D visualizer built into this console definitely made it easier for me to start designing, programming and cueing the show,” he said. “The new plot view has also helped by allowing me to select lights visually rather than numerically. This has not only saved time, it has also greatly aided me in making more interesting looking effects. Also, I have to say that the console’s two touchscreens have helped speed up the cueing and cue editing process for me. Early in the tour, it became apparent to me that I was really going to love this console, because it frees me from a lot of concerns so I can focus on the creative process.”

The centerpiece of the “Emperor of Sand” light/video show that Howe is controlling with his ChamSys products is the mass of video towers. He arranges these seven monoliths in a semi-circle around the band and their backline.  The towers are lined with 18 moving beams. An additional six truss-mounted collimated beam fixtures side light the band. Providing an array of changing and captivating visual elements are 12 LED batten fixtures positioned on the upstage deck that are pixel mapped with ChamSys software. All lighting and video gear on the tour was supplied by Performance Lighting Inc. and Windy City Music, both out of Chicago.

“Everything about this tour, including my rental houses, has been great for me,” said Howe, who’s been designing for Mastodon since 2009. “The band and I fit together very well, and I really love the creative challenge of working on something as complex as the ‘Emperor of Sand’ tour. The ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium is making it easy for me to run the show and focus on those creative elements.”

Lighting designer Thomas ‘Church’ Christmann once again called on the reliability and power of ChamSys lighting consoles for KoRn’s 2017 world tour. The tour also includes their festival shows over the summer. Church comments « I was first introduced to ChamSys by long time ChamSys operator Gunnar Loose. I now do a lot shows for his artists and have quickly become a big fan of the ChamSys way of doing things. »

Church specified the MQ100 Pro2014 series consoles for the tour along with Playback and Extra wings, particularly utilising the onboard pixel mapping capabilities of the MagicQ system.

The standard floor package on the tour consists of no less than 20 of Ayrton’s Magic Panel R fixtures, which when all run in the full pixel would take up 64 universes alone. Church comments on the pixel mapper « I’m using all the options I can imagine – from big white light looks to ting dots moving around and movement effects ». 

When asked about the MagicQ system to use Church commented « I like the easy & user friendly handling of the desk &  the community around chamsys. Price & performance balance are the best »

Credits: 

Lighting Design and Operator: Thomas ‘Church’ Christmann

US Lights: Morpheus Lights

UK Lights: Neg Earth

EU: Black Box Germany