Coemar Infinity Wash XL Lights Make Eric Clapton Wonderful Tonight

When lighting English-born blues-rock icon Eric Clapton's 2008 tour was just a twinkle in the eye of Drapeage of Ireland's Dave Maxwell, he'd envisioned a design that would rock the house both indoors and out. His vision came to fruition as the decision was made to enlist Coemar Infinity Wash XL lights to lace the shows' bounty.

"This time," recounts the veteran Clapton lighting designer Maxwell, "we wanted to try something different. We had done a DVD shoot in New York earlier in the year, and really liked the look of the Coemar Infinity Wash XL lights with Martin LC LED video/image panels in the background. We'd used a substantially wider setup with the video panels, pretty much the full width of Madison Square Garden, in a kind of curve. This whole dynamic had worked well with the show.

"The idea was to downsize this a bit for the tour," he continues. The LC panels formed the backdrop around which the overall look would be enwrapped. 40 Coemar Infinitys seized the stage as they cut through the overall wash saturation from various angles. "This freed us up to do some good projection onto the rear soft goods behind the LC panels," remarks Maxwell.

The Coemar Infinitys worked "in a more standard configuration, dotted around the stage," says Maxwell. "I prefer the look of a sharper wash light to an out-and-out profile so this grouping, using wash on wash, configured nicely."

Coemar Infinity Wash XL lights afford a synchronized or random strobe effect, black out, full range dimming and a completely electronic strobo zap. A CMY-S color mixing system with new saturation mode (patented) and proportional CTO filter are also offered. A 5 to 84 zoom and the effects Moon Flower and Beam'o complete the package.

"Eric had not done too many outdoor shows in sheds before, so it was interesting to design around both arena and shed venues," maintains Maxwell. He comments that the gear was "tip-top, as it always is from Upstaging."

According to Maxwell, lighting programmer/operator Eric Wade "did an amazing job. He really got some great looks going. Ron Schilling was crew chief and, once again, it was a pleasure to work with him -- and Upstaging's people, of course!"

About ICD

Located in Sunrise, Florida, Inner Circle Distribution (ICD) is a full-service distributor supplying and servicing professional lighting needs in the U.S. and the Caribbean. ICD stocks multiple types of lighting equipment, including moving lights, LED products, intelligent consoles and much more. For additional information, visit our web site at www.icd-usa.com or call Gary Mass at 954-578-8881.