Martin LED lights Rufus Du Sol
- Details
Formerly known as Rufus, Rufus Du Sol is an Australian electronic dance group formed in 2010. After releasing their fourth studio album Solace in 2018, the band embarked on an international tour spanning four continents. The group worked closely with Colourblind to create a dynamic lighting design centred around a striking LED grid backdrop.
Tasked with realising the design in a tour-friendly format for the North American legs, tour lighting provider Brown Note Productions put together a lighting package featuring Martin by HarmanVDO Sceptron 10 linear LED video strips and MAC Aura LED wash lighting fixtures.
“Colourblind developed a design concept and worked with us to evolve it from the first drawing to what became the final rig,” says James Watt, production manager at Brown Note Productions. “The Sceptron structure behind the band was a fundamental project to figure out, especially to make it tour-friendly while getting them the look they wanted. They knew what they wanted, and we had to figure out how to pull it off pull it off realistically to make it easy to build every day.”
The LED grid behind the band is comprised of 120 VDO Sceptron 10 linear LED fixtures arranged in ten rows. The structure spans the entire stage, with a gentle curve that wraps around on each side. Behind the grid is a massive video screen displaying custom-made visuals. Throughout the show, the Sceptron fixtures alternate between displaying synchronized video content and contrasting lighting effects. The Sceptrons’ integrated power and data connectors make setup and teardown easy, maximizing efficiency for Brown Note’s crew.
“The thing I really like about the Sceptrons and the way we're using them on this tour is that they can be used as a lighting fixture and a video fixture as well,” says Matthew Smith, senior lighting designer at Colourblind.
Brown Note also provided 14 Martin MAC Aura fixtures for wash lighting. The Auras are mounted on trusses upstage, downstage, stage right, stage left and overhead to provide even coverage from all angles.
The North American leg of Rufus Du Sol’s Solace tour ran from 24 October to 25 November, before the band continued on to Europe and the UK. After a holiday break, they resumed touring across Australia and South America, adding additional North American dates from April 2019, due to popular demand.
(Jim Evans)
