S
imon Horn’s design for Anastacia’s Evolution Tour features a ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium console on his lighting rig.
“We started as a full production tour at theatres and small arena venues, then went to a mix of shows, including multi-band festivals this summer, often working with locally supplied rigs,” said Horn of Purple Lighting. “My MQ500 has been invaluable in terms of making our show very adaptive, without losing its core identity. We always have the DNA-shaped set pieces on the rear of the set flanked in pixel LED tape with two cell blinders mounted to the back.”
Horn credits the easy morphing and cloning features of the MagicQ MQ500 Stadium with helping him adapt his 22-universe show to different venues.
“The quick and easy morphing and cloning are an absolute godsend,” he said. “Being able to expand palettes, when being presented with a fixture with extra attributes that I don’t already have programmed in existing palettes and cues, is a massive time-saver. I can use the expand palette feature to push new attributes added to a palette to all cues in the show file that have used said palette. For example, when moving to a fixture with a second prism controlled by a second channel, it would normally be ignored in cues even when recorded to my prism palette. However, after completing the expand palette process, this is instantly rectified. The MQ500 also makes it easy to morph from a mega point to a normal point, even with effects that previously referenced CMY values, it is very quick and easy to edit color FX to snap rather than fade between colors and easily change the color palettes being used by the FX rather than re-recording the FX. Even on the fly when I miss something, I can quickly jump in and edit the cue, then just as easy view the upcoming cues and edit them without affecting the current output.”
The DNA towers and the ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium both come into play to add a dramatic finish to Anastacia’s show when the star performs a beefed-up dance version of her hit “I’m Outta Love.” During the chorus of this song, Horn “turns the DNA towers into UV meters” by utilizing the ChamSys Audio Input Interface. “This allows me to overlay a spectrum analyzer in the pixel mapper,” he explained. “A bit cheesy perhaps, but it looks and works a treat for that particular moment!”
