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Future Sex/Love for Avolites
Lighting designer and operator Nick Whitehouse is using an Avolites Diamond 4 Vision console on Justin Timberlake’s acclaimed Future Sex/Love world tour, which is currently playing its UK and European sections.
The D4 is controlling 76 Vari*Lite 3000 Spots, 32 Vari*Lite 3000 Washes, eight Vari*Lite 1000 AS fixtures, 34 Vari*Lite 4s, 50 Atomic strobes and scrollers, 50 Molefeys, eight MX1000 Syncrolights, 12 MX3000 Syncrolights, 120 Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12 truss toners and a series of LED strips illuminating the four bars in-built into the stage set.
The shape of the lighting rig is based on over a kilometre of curved trussing custom made by LA-based Show Rig which mirrors the geometry of the stage below. It was designed around six moving screens which fly in and out to different positions constantly throughout the show, which is a high octane fusion of live performance, lighting and video. The lights are dotted all across the overhead trusses and are recessed into the stage set and floor.
Whitehouse and his colleague Bryan Leitch of the UK-based lighting design practice Visual Light were invited to design the show after Timberlake saw their work on Coldplay’s 2005 world tour. JT artistically directs his own show in addition to starring in it, and specifically wanted lighting that was theatrical in essence. He was impressed by Visual Light’s innovative, fresh and positive approach to aesthetics and stage presentation.
Whitehouse’s lighting is dynamic, raw and contrasty - very much matching the style and pace of the show, which propels JT to new dimensions as a performer. Whitehouse and the video department – a combination of playback visuals created by Geodezik and a live IMAG mix cut by Steve Fatone – have also worked very closely on constructing a visual coherence for the show.
Whitehouse has always been a keen Avo user. He was also one of the first people to start using the D4 series soon after its launch, and comments: “It’s the perfect console for the job, it does everything I need.”
The show, run by timecode, is complex in terms of lighting cues, with some songs containing over 300, so Whitehouse has made much use of the Diamond 4’s Cue List function.
Data-wise, it’s all being run via Ethernet – from the desk right through the fixtures - using lighting contractor PRG’s Series 400 mains/data distribution system. Whitehouse has had great support from Avolites both in the US and UK since the tour kicked off in San Diego in January. The Avo team wrote customised software to enable the D4 to talk to the Series 400 system – the first time they have been used in conjunction with one another.
Whitehouse and Leitch dedicated a considerable time to programming the show – they loaded the rig into Warner Brothers Ranch for three weeks before decamping to San Diego Sports Arena for 10 days, undertaking further intense programming and rehearsals, followed by the first show. Once again the Diamond 4 proved itself for being incredibly quick, easy and flexible to set up and programme.
Avolites’ Steve Warren says: “Obviously it’s great to be working with Nick again on another high calibre artist and a really original and inventive looking show.”
In picture: LD/operator Nick Whitehouse at the D4 console.
18th May 2007
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