Experienced German lighting designer, Jerry Appelt recently teamed up once again
with lighting director / programmer Marc Brunkhardt, as Hamburg-based dance
group, Scooter embarked on their Can’t Stop The Hardcore tour.
Visiting venues ranging from 5,000 to 12,000 capacity, the focal point of the stage
and set design were five raked pods, loaded with lights and flown above the stage
to form a scalable roof — and featuring many of the 65 GLP impression X4 L’s
(supplied as part of the overall lighting inventory by PRG Hamburg).
Each pod contained eight of the X4 L among the lighting in each of the pods, with
another 14 on the front truss to fire into the audience.
The two lighting specialists have worked together frequently, and explaining the
choice of fixtures, Marc Brunkhardt said, “As Scooter is a techno act which requires
a powerful lighting set we were seeking a high output LED wash that would provide
more options for colour bumps and “freaked’ out strobe effects.’
The design team considered several options, including the more compact form
factor of GLP’s X4. “But when we did a pre viz to try the band icon out in the truss
we discovered that the larger X4 L also managed to fit inside the truss,’ said
Brunkhardt. “This would give us a bigger wash without changing the main rigging
idea of the pods.’
Both Appelt and Brunkhardt have used the X4 L in the past and always been very
impressed with it. Once again the fixture’s 37 x 15W LEDs comfortably delivered the
power and colour dynamic but also a lot more. “Since the colour mixing is not
limited to any mechanics I can do colour bumps as fast as I want to. I am not
limited to the speed of a CMY mixing system and of course I don’t have to think
about my service technicians when I’m doing fast colour chases,’ continued
Brunkhardt.
“For me there is no discharge wash light which provides all the options of an LED
wash for show lighting. When it comes to colours the LED is much more powerful
than any discharge wash light at the moment.
“As for the zoom, that is also very cool and gave me all options from a neat looking
beam wash to a very wide zoomed blind look.
And finally, he notes that the X4 L is more visually impressive because the lenses
are much bigger than a single fresnel on a normal wash.
In Marc Brunkhardt’s opinion the X4 L creates the best combination of power output,
weight and size. “It is also nice to handle and looks good — even when switched off.
”
Run from a grandMA2, he says it delivered everything he expected and more. “The
massive beam and wash output impressed everyone,’ he said.
