Liteup enters the arena with alt-J
- Details
Liteup began working with lighting and show design duo Jeremy Lechterman and Jackson Gallagher of FragmentNine on alt-J's last album cycle. Working alongside production manager Bennie Brongers and tour manager Maarten Cobbaut, Liteup is supplying all things visual, except for lasers, on their current EU tour. The company is also supplying the lighting and video control package worldwide.
For the festival shows, which make up the bulk of alt-J's touring this summer, Liteup is supplying 84 x GLP X4 Bar 20, 18 x Claypaky Mythos2, three Robe BMFL Wash Beam and 22 x SGM P5 LED washlight. Demonstrating their problem-solving approach, Liteup collaborated with WonderWorks, Brilliant Stages and FragmentNine to devise a custom dolly solution to get nearly 250 fixtures and a 60' wrap around video screen on stage in 10 minutes.
"The detail of a show's production is integral to making the tour work smoothly and successfully, so going above and beyond makes a big difference," says Marc Callaghan, cofounder of the company alongside partner Kris Box. "For example, when alt-J played at Rock Werchter Festival, trying to get the production floor package in, with The Foo Fighters headlining after, needed a lot of thinking about. Hence, we helped to design the dollies and worked with everyone the whole way through from beginning to end, rather than just being an equipment rental company."
Video-wise, the floor package is rounded out by 42 x ROE Vanish 25 and 150 x Martin VDO Sceptron 10mm pixel pitch LED screen modules. "The Mythos2 units provided the core element of the show, along with the GLP X4 Bar 20 LED battens," says Callaghan. "For the floor package the X4 20 bars and Mythos2 are mounted behind the ROE Vanish 25mm LED screen, so required custom fixings to get the profile low enough to mount them."
Callaghan continues: "For The O2 Arena show, we expanded the rig and brought in a semi-automated lighting and video system. Liteup supplied the seven Kinesys towers and one Kinesys triangle suspended on 17 Kinesys motors, all controlled by lighting technician and Kinesys operator Russell Cobden."
Included in the arena show's lighting package were an additional 84 x GLP X4 Bar 20, 31 x Claypaky Mythos2, 30 x Ayrton MagicBlade, 6 x Robe BMFL Wash Beam and 24 x SGM P5 LED washlight.
The show is controlled via two GrandMA Lite consoles, with DMX distribution over a Luminex fibre optic system via Art-Net and five GrandMA NPUs. The content is handled by two d3 Technologies 2x4pro media servers, operated by Dan Bond, all supplied by Liteup.
(Jim Evans)
