The challenges of a much smaller and more personal production were overcome with the wireless capabilities of the Astera NYX Bulb and the Astera HydraPanel to allow for a freely scalable and adjustable stage footprint with minimal power draw.
“The tricky part of implementing a show like this,” notes Parry, “is the economy of scale. The show needs to have a tailored and artistic overall feel but not be an overly complicated system. The crew is intentionally small to minimise the touring footprint so we needed to come up with a complete show package that could, quite literally, be run by a front of house team of one.”
That team of one was Kyoto Productions’ Craig Leach, who was delighted with the ease of setup and deployment of the Astera products.
“I love the magnetic components of the HydraPanels, being able to change the positioning, coverings and angles all without any cabling makes life so much easier!”
The Astera NYX Bulbs, provided by SR Production Services, were mounted in custom lampholders, also provided by the Cardiff based supplier.
“The power draw of NYX Bulb is so small that we didn’t need to bring any additional distribution for any show,” remarked Parry, noting that the use of NYX Bulb on recent cinematic projects has been a constant reminder of the efficiency of the fixtures. “There’s really nothing that can match the way Astera recreates all the conventional household and industrial lamps that DoPs and Gaffers are looking for, from the iconic Titan Tubes to the LunaBulb and NYX Bulb setups, the shift towards low power, highly efficient LED units is helping make film sets greener and less reliant on the consumption of large dimmer racks.”
The entire system was controlled from a grandMA onPC system connected wirelessly over CRMX to the Astera Products. “There were some instances where we were connecting the onPC suite to the output node entirely wirelessly to save on running network cabling. The latest in triband, self scanning wireless access point technology has been an amazing bonus to cable management and time saving in the really small and intimate venues where Craig needs more time with the PA to fine tune the soundscape. The MA shortcuts and hotkey tools available in the onPC system meant he was able to get up and running with lighting in moments. A simple sequence and a couple of layouts for some fun twinkly elements and they were off to the races.”
For the performance in Tramshed, Cardiff – the largest venue of the run, Parry added a kit of Astera Helios Tubes to further add to the ambiance of the intimate stage. “On a stage that regularly hosts multi piece bands, it felt important to fill the space a little more from the floor package,” Parry notes. “It was easy to add the Helios Tubes to our recipe lines and bring cohesion across the show, adding a grandMA onPC command wing into the mix to add in the house fixtures and have a clean production across the show.” For the rest of the tour the venues were provided the colour schemes and the Streaming ACN universe assignments to add in the touring fixtures to their own programming, using priority merging to ensure that the touring production show files never needed to be adjusted and the whole system could blend into any house network with ease.
“This has been an eye opening experience for elevating the atmosphere of tours that are more intimate and focusing more on the narrative than the full band experience,” Leach concludes. “It’s possible to raise the game without breaking the bank or your back and in ways we never would have maybe ten years ago. From someone who has really only dealt with audio over the years, the integration has been pretty seamless and given me a new respect for the technology that is available in the lighting realm.”
Photos: Robyn Sully, @stars_in_my_lenz