INHIBIT presented Delta Heavy, Fox Stevenson and Used Tickets for a night of heavy sound, bright lights and big visuals at Perth’s Metro City.
This gig came together with support from TLS Productions and Granston Productions working together for the vision that was dreamt up by Christian Lovelady just a few weeks before the event. With such little planning, it’s amazing how much of a massive event it was.
The previous night before INHIBIT was a whole other show and production and so this was modified by removing all specific fixtures and keeping all floor beams. All programming references like positions, beam presets and even colours were updated except for ‘ROOM CENTRE’ position on beams, whereby the previous gig was all about airy room looks and fly-outs and fly-ins and INHIBIT, on the other hand, was rigid and structured similar to the music specifically. The Delta Heavy aesthetic as well is triangular as for the delta symbol ?.
Bumping out the previous gig the night/morning before was incredibly difficult in the planning of this one-of-a-kind event however all entities involved strived and got it done all the while making it look too easy.
“Control system limitations initially were also a great concern,” added Christian. “I had maxed out the venue rack in planning for the floor package and didn’t want to have to utilise an NPU or 8-way data rack, however, an 8-way RDM data rack and MA3 NPU M, left in the venue after being used for Papa Roach and The Used, were simple enough to bring out again in a plug n play fashion and it solved all my issues on cable runs.
“Power was of concern initially but the 6 x LSC APS and 20a socapex helped greatly, although there was some warm cable after being powered on and lamped on for a short while, everything ran like a dream with plenty of power to spare.”
Christian’s only brief was for sharp triangles with beams and a large LED wall at the back for specific content, alongside heavy lasers and heavy pyro use.
“I wanted to create a design that was something new,” commented Christian. “I’m quite sick of cookie-cutter lighting designs and starting from the computer each time for a design, instead I drew it on some scrap card I had laying around, then thought about it and put it to the computer. Working from paper was so much more tactile for the punter’s experience than I could ever have imagined in really making an experience for them.”
Once in Vectorworks, Christian could check the spacing of the venue plans to allow for the maximum amount of beams onstage, totalling sixty, among other fixtures including Granston Productions’ 18 x ShowPRO Fusion48s and 8 x Martin MAC Viper DX Washes. With 86 x floor fixtures, Christian admits his goal from the beginning was to create something very difficult to walk in between onstage!
The entire night was operated by all operators – Tristan, Paul and Christian – live to the music as it happened.
TLS Productions supplied the LED Wall for the gig which ended up being a 12m wide and 4m tall screen upstage to account for artist access onto the stage as the trim for the screen was less than 1m off the deck rather than a standard 16:9 ratio in the middle of the back wall. Tristan Combs’ custom content fluently fluctuated through the night alongside content supplied by Delta Heavy which was busked throughout the headliner act.
Tristan runs a MacBook Pro with VDMX and resolume through Madmapper. His sends went to the LED Wall as well as an architectural Green Hippo Media Server for stage-to-crowd frame sync operation during strobing or colour changes for the room to passively match the stage.
Pyro was handled by Howards & Sons Pyrotechnics which included two Flamaniac units matching the heft of the music Delta Heavy puts out.
“Aaron Elliot helped us out at incredibly short notice supplying an operator and flame units,” said Christian. “I think he’s a dead set legend looking to strive and help out wherever he can for any event, as is Howards & Sons company ethos I feel.”
LaserLand Australia’s Paul Tan supplied a custom design to make the most of the negative space as well as complement the large LED Wall.
“There’s a briefing with the organisers and artists during sound check before the show, to plan out moments they want certain laser elements to pop and specific colours to go with the song,” remarked Paul. “The look I was going for was to get coverage across the length of the stage and on each level of the venue, so no matter what level of the venue you’re standing at you can still get the full experience of the show. This was achieved by spreading all eight laser units across the stage to get full spread and using wide-angle scanning lasers.
Paul utilised 4x 10W and 4x 7W RGB Lasers controlled with Pangolin FB4 hardware and Beyond Laser software. Lasers were programmed to match the other elements, with the lasers matching the colours of the LED screen and beam lights on the floor and no more than two colours being used, so it didn’t look like a fruit salad. Communicating during the show was also important to plan what colour was being used and who would do which drop so not all the elements would try to compete with each other at the one time.
“The goal was to place the lasers on stage discretely and don’t stick out above the lights on the floor or have a black box blocking the LED screen,” said Paul.
Video Gear
TLS Rubix LED Wall and System
House Rig
12x Martin MAC Aura
8x Martin MAC Viper Profile
8x Beams
8x 2-Way Molefay Blinders (ShowPro LED Blinder II)
Lighting
18x ShowPROFusion48
8x Martin Mac Viper DX Wash
8x Martin Mac 101s
60x Beams
Control and Systems
1x MA2 Light
1x MA2 Fullsize
1x MA3 Processing Unit M
1x 8-Way 8-Way RDM Theatrelight Splitter Data Rack
6x LSC APS (Metro City Power Rack)
Effects
2x Flamaniacs
2x Unique 2.0
Laser Gear
4x 7W Crowd Scanning Lens
4x 10W
4x Pangolin Disco Scan Lens
4x FB4-SE Stage Box
1x Pangolin Advanced Licence (PC)
