Robe lights mega Houston rodeo event
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LD Systems, also based in Houston, delivered technical design, live sound, concert lighting, HD video screens, custom truss structures, rigging equipment, production crew and logistics support throughout NRG Park for the entire month surrounding the event.
This year saw the debut of the new Star Stage commissioned by HLSR, and a collaboration between LD Systems and staging specialist TAIT, a project that was two and a half years in the making.
The stage is a mobile structure which is moved and laser guided into place beneath the stadium’s video cube centrepiece - also brought in for the event and used for both the rodeo and the concerts.
A major lighting upgrade for the shows followed the instigation of the new stage explained Nathan, who has lit the HLSR concerts for the last four years. “We wanted to focus on bringing the environment to life and make the lighting and video elements as big as the stage itself.”
The 49 x MegaPointes, 60 x Pointes and 128 x Spikies were all purchased by LD Systems from Robe North America, who offered “fantastic support” stated Nathan.
The layout of the lighting fixtures, and the MegaPointes in particular, was related to the striking geometry of the stage design.
The HLSR concert format means there are plenty of visiting LDs for the duration of the event. The new stage, the Robes and all the other fixtures enable everyone to have a unique looking show tailored to their artist and in line with what they would typically produce on tour, but scaled up to fit the venue.
The LD Systems team undertakes all the programming and operating – in collaboration with the artist LDs – everyone working under time constraints to get the show prepared for that evening. Programming was achieved using three grandMA2 full size consoles – one for the stage and overhead lighting, one for the room illumination and the third for the media servers sending video content to the screens.
Nathan worked closely on the 2018 concerts with his FOH colleagues Lance Williamson (room lighting programmer / operator) and Travis Crane, (media server programmer / operator) both from LD Systems, together with HLSR’s concert video director Phil Nudelman to ensure the public and artists enjoyed top production values.
(Jim Evans)
