San Holo’s recent stop at New York’s Terminal 5 on his current tour featured a 13-universe Manuel Rodrigues-designed show, powered by a ChamSys MagicQ MQ80 desk and video server. For Rodrigues, who worked with the tour’s Creative Director Thorwald van den Akker, this tightly focused approach is consistent with his design philosophy.
“In my designs I always try to go to the essence of the looks I want to create,” he explained. “I’m very rigorous in applying the ‘less is more’ principle. I try to find the simplest lines and then line up every lighting and video element perfectly with each other. The CAD drawing I made might look boring to the untrained eye; everything is just in rows of the same fixtures, and all elements are lined up with each other. But when the light and video work in concert, their aesthetics become more apparent because of the clean design of the stage.”
The video content, created by Bob Jacobs, also reflects the emotional tenor of the show, while paying homage to its retro quality.
“Bob did a beautiful job,” said Rodrigues. “We evoke a sense of timelessness by shooting a lot of the video on old VHS cameras. San Holo likes to use a tape delay to give his sound extra layers of depth, and by using video cameras we tried to emulate the same feel. Often, this video content is then pixel mapped and used to drive the LED fixtures.”
The ChamSys MQ80 has been instrumental in helping Rodrigues achieve his vision on the global tour.
“My console’s portability, number of universes supported, and the ability to capture palettes over Art-Net have been very important to me,” he said. “These three functions combined are golden for a traveling LD. I think ChamSys initiated a trend years ago of shrinking down the size of the lighting desk, and in the process has tempted other lighting desk manufacturers to release products with a similar form factor. The number of universes supported by the MQ80 is just insane for the price. I have amazed many house LDs by copying their positions from their desks using Art-Net input.”
