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Jackson Browne is currently touring the country in support of his first album of new material in six years, Time The Conqueror, and what is so unusual about this tour is that the lighting rig comprises totally of LED fixtures.
Lighting designer Dave Davidian is touring a rig that includes twenty GLP Impression LED moving heads and 180 of the new Pro Shop LED Tricolour Pro PAR cans, all supplied by Chameleon Touring Systems.
According to Dave, Jackson Browne himself was pivotal in the decision to switch to LEDs as he is a very green-orientated person who cares about his green footprint on the planet.
“The impedance to go ahead and go through with using LEDs definitely came from Jackson but it was something that I had thought about too, knowing his concerns about the environment,” said Dave. “He felt this would be a way to save power and do the right thing as far as his beliefs were concerned. For myself, I was curious about LEDs too.”
The set design for Jackson Browne’s show is relatively simple with Dave aiming to get a variety of different angles of light on Jackson – to get light sources at vertical and horizontal angles and different heights, so that he could make the most of a small physical system and create as many layers and angles of light as he possibly could.
To do this, Dave constructed a rig with two upside down “U” truss configurations, one on each the left and right rear of the stage, with a straight bar of truss in the centre between them. The trussing is lined up and down the sides and across the top with the 180 Pro Shop LED Tricolour Pro PAR cans.
“Using so many cans provides strength in numbers,” said Dave. “The fact that the LED par cans have a low power draw and low heat production, made this design viable.”
The Impressions serve as backlights and sidelights and Dave was particularly impressed by their brightness, describing it as fantastic.
“The colours are stunningly beautiful – better than dichroic – and they do some great colour dissolves,” he added. “Additionally, the movement of the Impressions helps achieve my goal of having as much flexibility with angles and light source points as possible.”
”With their compact size and light weight, the Impressions are easy to transport and setup, and are very reliable” said Davidian, “Jackson thinks the lighting looks great. All the comments from both people and the press have been very positive about how the show looks.”
Asked if Dave would use LED lighting for consequent tours by different acts he replied ‘absolutely!”.
“I think that the Impressions and LED par cans are great instruments. They have so many pluses especially the par cans – you don’t have change bulbs, there are no temperature issues and they offer so many colours. I’m very happy with them and they’re a definite plus for the industry.”
www.showtech.com.au
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