Paramore at Wembley ArenaLighting designer Chad Peters used 28
GLP Impression moving LED lights on his enlarged set, once American band Paramore moved up to arena sized shows in the UK this December.
He sourced the industry-leading fixtures from Bandit Lites (who hold a rental stock of 60 Impressions), and their chief executive Lester Cobrin reveals, “The units are in high demand from many lighting designers — thus we made the decision to invest heavily — a decision which has proved very successful.”
Having been introduced to the power of the LED spots by other third party vendors back in the United States, Chad was sufficiently impressed to try them out for the first time with the band Rise Against, when he was covering for a colleague.
“They were asking whether it was a green design and I thought they were talking about the colour of their set until I realized they were concerned with eco-issues,” he says.
On both counts the Impressions ticked the boxes. “Considering how bright and responsive they were they just seemed so lightweight.”
With Paramore he has used 14 Impressions individually mounted on pipes at different heights, to create the illusion that they are floating within the set. “There's no clamping – each fixture threads directly into the top of the pipe,” he states. The remaining 14 heads are mounted on the overhead truss (including four T-bars).
Collectively, they are used to warm up the set. “You can produce a parcan white from the Impressions — a nice tungsten without getting that rainbow lighting effect.”
“You also deliver a really nice tight beam angle — it really punches.” Chad has been using the fixtures with standard 10° beam angles — but when he realized his conventional automated lights were being washed out by the strength of the Impressions' 90 high-powered RGB lights, he quickly realized he would need to upgrade.
With the set under Roadhog control, he says, “The speed of the colour and position is a big plus for me as I am using them as my main wash lights — and for an arena size show this is actually quite small. So it gives me the flexibility to use them for big stops and instant colour bumps that would normally require more lights and the need to set up a cue to make it appear instant. So it's ideal for the LD on a budget.”
Chad originally landed the gig with Paramore back in 2007. “I had one of their songs on my Myspace page and my room mate / best friend Robb Jibson sent me an email saying that that they were looking for an LD/tech that could also do video. I replied — and here I am.”
The band's popularity in the UK has soared since the box office smash Twilight featured the popular Decode on the soundtrack.
Chad is also highly complimentary about the support he has received from Bandit Lites. “This is actually the first time I have used the company — I used Premier Global, another Nashville based company for the last two tours — but Lester and everyone at Bandit UK have been absolutely fabulous.”