XL Video supplied a 120 sq.m. Main Light Soft-LED™ backdrop for Basement Jaxx’s summer tour. LD Jonathan Armstrong decided to use the Soft-LED curtain to add to the strong, innovative video element at the live dance act’s shows.
The Soft-LED, a flexible drape of LED emitters, can be run via any DMX lighting desk. Armstrong used a Hippotizer digital media server as the source of his effects, triggered via his Wholehog® 2 lighting console. The Soft-LED proved highly reliable throughout the tour. "We’ve had no problems with the drapes at all," says Armstrong. The Soft-LED is easy to tour, as opposed to large-format video walls and screens. It takes only 15 minutes to de-rig and pack away at the end of the show and approximately an hour to rig and hook up in the afternoon. "It’s just like hanging a cloth," says Armstrong.
Soft-LED curtains enable the creation of dynamic artwork and effects and real-time color and movement. The technology uses a combination of custom-designed LED grids, fibre optics, and specialized processing technology to display designs and graphics on plush, high-quality black drapery.
Basement Jaxx content included images and material created from manipulated clips in the Hippotizer’s onboard library, plus some custom-made material (oscillating patterns, a collage of images). Some text and graffiti art, sourced by band member Felix, was also displayed on the drapery.
In addition to the Soft-LED, Armstrong used PixelLine LED battens, Studio Beam PC moving lights, strobes, and eight vertical truss towers onstage, covered in "socks" made from back projection material. The Soft-LED was the major visual effect. It was the centerpiece of a hugely dynamic, energy-driven show.
XL Video was the first UK company to invest in Main Light Industries’ Soft-LED. XL also supplied it to LD Vince Foster for Kylie’s "Showgirl" tour and for numerous live business events.