MADRID – “Music Inspires Life,” so went a slogan created a few years ago for radio network Los 40. In the process, the sweet sounds and beautiful harmonies that fall under the umbrella of “music,” also inspires a wonderfully rich level of diversity. This is clearly evident in the story of this global broadcasting behemoth, which has affiliates in 20 countries, airing songs in both Spanish and English.

Fittingly, the 17th edition of the network’s Los 40 Awards Show showcased a wide range of talent representing a broad mix of musical styles and personalities. Taking place at the 17,00-capacity WiZink Center in the historic center of Madrid, the show celebrated the achievements of artists, ranging from Rosalia and Adele to Yungbood and Bad Gyal, to The Black Eyed Peas and Dani Martin.

The eclectic mix of artists appearing during the ceremonies satisfied fans’ taste for a variety, but the breadth and sheer number of performances on stage presented a challenge for lighting designer Alain Corthout and his team.

“This was a big production,” said Corthout. “We had over nine different types of spots and six types of washes, so we had to keep things simple to avoid becoming messy. We also had to be fast, due to the number of acts and the volume of last minute changes.”

Helping Corthout meet these challenges were his two ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M Stadium consoles supplied by Fluge, the main rental company for the show. “Our ChamSys desks have been a great asset in this project,” he said. “The programming speed we can achieve with it was a game changer; we got so much music last minute, so we had to be very quick.

“The way we can timecode Cue Stacks in ChamSys is really fast,” continue Corthout. “We had our two MQ500M desks in a master-slave setup which works perfectly to keep things moving fast. To give you an idea of the our speed, there were short clips between the musical performances and the actual award presentations, and we were able to transition from one to the other in only two seconds.”

Corthout notes that the color function of the faders on the MQ500M was essential. “We needed to have a lot of faders for quick access, “ he recalled. “Because of this, the color function of the faders came in really handy; it made it really easy for us to see instantly which fader to touch.”

Working with Timothy De Mets, Arf&Yes, the first programmer/operator, and Mario Lopez Fernandez, Magic Studio, assistant programmer/operator, Corthout programmed the Los 40 show in Capture, Depence & Vectorworks. “ChamSys worked perfectly with the visualisers,” he said. “The connection was flawless!”

Drawing on the performance features of his consoles, and collaboration with his talented team Corthout was able to achieve a harmonious balance in his show, creating dynamic looks for each song without losing anything in key lighting. Embraced by his big immersive design, every facet of this diverse show flourished.

LOS ANGELES – The metal bar structure that runs across the front of the stage on KoRn’s current tour with a light and video show run by Thomas “Church” Christmann on his ChamSys MagicQ MQ500, suggests images of incarceration, and the loss of freedom it brings. This serves as a perfect foil for iconic metal band from the instant they kick off their show and blow that suggestion out of the water with a ferocious rendition of “Rotting In Vain.”

With their harsh vocals, powerful drum lines, and head banging chord progressions, the band’s performance screams out defiance and liberation. Seven platinum albums, multiple Grammy Awards, and countless miles of touring have done nothing to diminish the razor-sharp intensity of the band.

Reflecting the spirit of KoRn and their music is a potent, rapid-fire 20-universe light and video show that features blinding back lighting, a blow-through video wall, bold color palettes, and big, often theatrical, looks.

“I’ve been told I have a very aggressive, but still theatrical, way to do my shows,” said Christmann, who has been working for KoRn since 2016. “This is a perfect way to work with KoRn.  My goal is to support the show without distracting from the artists. I’m trying to set scenes for the songs parts & interact with the music.”

A ChamSys user for over 10 years, Christmann notes that the user-friendly intuitive layout and workflow of the MQ500 Stadium were critical to helping him create and run the big sweeping looks that characterize his KoRn show.

“I like to use big looks and  scenes in my cues, then add hard attacks where needed,” he said.  “The Group Effects and Group Cues features in my ChamSys are very useful in this regard, since we have quite a few looks where we have multiple fixtures acting together as a single effect. It’s also very simple for me to change Group Effects to fit different stage configurations when we move from one venue to another. I’m using a lot of group effects in all options.”

Christmann, who created his show with WYSIWYG says that he is able to make quick off line changes with his MagicQ MQ500. Also coming in handy, he says, are the intuitive high resolution 15-inch display screens. Beyond these tangible features, there is also the matter of the support he receives from the ChamSys team. “I trust ChamSys and their products,” he said. “The support is invaluable. I can always get help quickly if needed.”

By simplifying the process of running the show and making change options more readily accessible, the MagicQ MQ500 frees Christmann to focus on the creative aspect of the tour’s production. “I like the diversity of this show, and how video, lighting and stage set come together,” he said, adding that this confluence has resulted in some extraordinary visual moments

Among those moments are those when the band is playing behind the transparent screen, then seems to merge into the video footage.  It is a look that conveys an image of busting through walls and barriers; all very appropriate for a band that has made a career of doing just that. 

ChamSys auf der Messe Hamburg

Kostenlose Trainingseinheiten auf der LEaT con
Fachmessen gelten weiterhin als Forum für den Aufbau und die Pflege von Kontakten. Das ChamSys-Team wird dieses Jahr auf der LEaT con am Stand SQ3 – B16 ab dem 18. Oktober seine beliebte “Connect”-Produktfamilie mit der Weltpremiere der MagicQ Compact Connect und der MagicQ Compact Mini Connect erweitern.

Bei den neuen MagicQ Compact Connect-Produkten handelt es sich um PC-/MAC-/Linux-basierte Wings, die dem „Enduser“ eine bequeme “Control-on-the-go”-Lösung bietet. Durch einfaches Anschließen an einen PC oder Mac, über USB-C, kann der Benutzer Shows mit bis zu 64-Universum auf dem MagicQ Compact Connect oder dem MagicQ Mini Connect erstellen.

Die neuen Produkte sind kompakt, leicht und weisen das gleiche moderne Design auf wie die MagicQ Compact Konsolen. Beide ermöglichen den Zugriff auf das leistungsstarke MagicQ-Softwarepaket. Zusätzlich zu den neuen Compact Connect-Produkten wird ChamSys, die beliebten Stadium- und Compact-Konsolen ausstellen. Weiterhin wird es auch einen Einblick über unsere kinderleicht zu bedienende QuickQ Serie geben.

Als zusätzliches Highlight wird ChamSys während der gesamten Messe eine Reihe von praktischen Schulungskursen zu einer Vielzahl von Themen durchführen. Diese Schulungen werden auf der LEaT con kostenlos sein und sind ab sofort online buchbar.

Stefan Gunkel, ChamSys-Supportmanager, wird Kurse zu den Themen “MagicQ – Erste Schritte” und “QuickQ – Lichtprogrammierung kinderleicht“ abhalten. Frank Alofs, Sales Development und Support Manager wird einen Einblick in unser neues Tool “Gruppenbasierte Programmierung” präsentieren. Stefan und Frank werden am Ende eines jeden Tages den Usern in einer Fragerunde Rede und Antwort stehen.

Diese täglichen Sitzungen bieten den LEaT con Besuchern eine ideale Gelegenheit, sich mit den Produkten und Informationen vertraut zu machen, um ihre Shows auf die nächste Stufe zu heben.

Die Schulungen können über folgenden Link gebucht werden:
https://chamsyslighting.com/pages/de-in-person-training

ORLANDO – Corey Easterbrook likes to go with the flow, whether it’s busking light shows or jumping on new, unexpected opportunities. The affable owner of Hot House AV has gotten to do both during the past 18 months by running a steady series of one-offs by pop/rockers Neon Trees.

Coming out of the COVID lockdown, The Billboard Music Award winning quartet was in need of a LD to work the festival shows they had lined up. There was one overriding criteria they had in mind: whoever they brought on board had to be comfortable busking big, bold looks without a lot of repetition – or prep time! This ultimately led them, in round about fashion, to Easterbrook and his ChamSys MagicQ MQ80 console.

“My good friend Myles Mangino learned what Neon Trees was looking for, and recommended me,” said Easterbrook. “We haven’t looked back since. It’s been a blast for me, doing about a show with them a month, all of them one-offs. I have a very busy schedule outside this band, so it’s really convenient taking my MQ80 as carry-on and doing my preprogramming on the plane, in a hotel room, or bar.

“The cloning and morphing with this console are a breeze,” continued Easterbrook. “Plus, being able to reorganize the in-built Visualiser and update makes from wherever I find myself makes things go smoother. Given that the house rigs we come across are so different, I really appreciate ChamSys’ Fixture Library as well as their support team – great stress busters! Then there are the Executor Buttons and the networking capabilities. All of this makes my life easier, so I can concentrate on busking the kinds of shows I like.”

Stylistically, Neon Trees and Easterbrook’s busked shows are an ideal fit. Described by one critic as a “refreshing blast of timeless rock energy,” the band exudes a spontaneous, playful spirit on stage, bounding around, bantering, and obviously relishing the chance to perform for the crowd.

These exact qualities are also plain to see in Easterbrook’s lightshows for the band, as he conjures up one bright, colorful, free-flowing look after another, never seeming to repeat himself, busking all the time.

“I love tasty dynamic looks for my shows, and they have a place in the set, but this band and their music require bold and fun looks,” said Easterbrook. “I try to get the crowd amped anyway I can. I also want to show Tyler (lead singer Tyler Glenn) the crowd, so he can feed off their energy, and vice versa.”

When all is said and done, says Easterbrook, he wants the fans at a Neon Trees show to feel “it was the most fun they had in a long time.” That’s a goal the band he’s running with endorses 100-percent.

PILTON, UK –  It had been 1,088 days… or 26,112 hours… or 1,566,720 minutes. However you measured it, the time seemed excruciatingly long. But at 8 am on Wednesday June 22, the wait was finally over, as the gates to Worthy Farm swung open and Glastonbury was officially back.

For many, the initial experience was a bit surreal. After spending much of the past three years dealing with a pandemic lockdown, they suddenly found themselves smack in the middle, of the mother of all live music festivals. Any initial uncertainty soon vanished, however, as they got caught up in Glastonbury mom–ents.

Time may have passed, but all of the familiar sights and sounds were there to make everyone feel at home. For many lighting designers and directors, one of the more welcoming signs was a ChamSys console waiting for them at FOH.

Picking up where it left off at the last Glastonbury in 2019, ChamSys seemed to be everywhere at the festival this year. The MagicQ MQ 500M Stadium, which was introduced during the pandemic in 2020, was the house desk at seven stages, including the Park Stage, (supplied by SWG Events), where Ed Warren used it to run Four Tet’s headline show, and the Acoustic Stage (supplied by Fineline Lighting),where Patrick Sollitt relied on its seamless cloning and morphing to make last minute changes for headliners Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott. SWG Events and Fineline Lighting also provided ChamSys consoles for many other Glastonbury stages.

The MagicQ MQ500M was used to support more than just music acts. At the Circus Big Top stage, James Loudon relied on the console to run 14-hours of preprogrammed shows for 30 different acts every day of the festival with to-the-minute precision. His task was made much easier by his console’s Magic Vis Visualiser.

Other stages that featured the Magic MQ500M as the house desk were the BBC Introducing, Silver Hayes, Sonic & Lonely Hearts Club, and The Unfariground Flying Bus, which was made of two convoy buses.

The ChamSys MagicQ MQ80 served as the house desk at the WOW Stage, The Hive and Left Field, which celebrated “20 years of pop and politics” with headlines Billy Brag, Yard Act, and Yola. The intuitive layout of the console, as well as it Executor Buttons and Playback Faders, were valuable features for LDs busking shows on this stage.

When they weren’t serving as house desks, ChamSys consoles could be found throughout the festival, brought in by LDs like David Howard (MQ80) for Hoosiers at the Avalon Stage, Will Thomas (MQ60) for Bonobo at West Holts, and Brian Kelly (MQ70) for Caribou also at West Holts.

As these LDs ran through their dynamic shows with various ChamSys consoles, one could be forgiven for thinking that Glastonbury had never really been interrupted at all. Such is the magic of this festival.

PILTON, UK –  Late Friday night, as they concluded their 90-minute set on Glastonbury’s acoustic stage, headliners Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott walked out for their first encore. Evoking an earlier time in Heaton’s iconic career, they performed a moving and soulful version of “Caravan of Love,” a song that was a No. 1 hit for Heaton when he was a member of the Housemartins.

It was a special moment for many fans, as the two artists melded their voices in a soft, sweet harmony that flowed as beautifully and naturally the summer breeze that wafted through Worthy Farm. Embracing the music and enhancing its magical effect was a Patrick Sollitt lightshow that he ran on his ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M.

“’Caravan of Love’, was my favourite look,” said Sollitt. “It was simple, nothing very complicated, just two colours that move together in a very gentle balanced way. I think it topped off the set perfectly.”

Working with a rig supplied by Fineline Lighting, Sollitt created a variety of other serene transformative looks that captured the deep, and gently evocative mood of the 21-song set.
The mellow aura notwithstanding, however, the road that took Sollitt to this show was not without its twist and turns.

“Glastonbury always has its own special set of challenges,” he said, speaking from experience after having worked multiple times at the festival. “There is no true global production in place, which can make things daunting at times. I came to the festival with a MQ500M in the back of my truck, but there was already a MQ500M and MQ250 at FOH. Still, you always have to be prepared at a festival!”

A ChamSys user since 2007, Sollitt credits the intuitive and user-friendly features of his MQ500M with helping him navigate his way through the festival experience. “There was no busking, I fully programmed for each song in the set,” he said. “There are a great many things about the MQ500M that made it easier for me to do this, and make last minute changes in festival environment. The seamless cloning and morphing are life savers, and they add to the quality of my show day-to-day in festival situations, while reducing the time it take for me to achieve great results.”

Sollitt, who used WYSIWYG to create plots, also relied on the 3D Visualiser to change up things like beam and gobo renderings. Additionally, he noted that the logical interface of the consoles and its two screens made his work process more fluid.

This, he says, helped “go with the flow” at Glastonbury … And given the relaxed vibe on this night, that seemed like a really nice thing to do.

PARIS –  Sometimes traveling 587 kilometers can be like entering a new world. Popular French comedian Maxime Gasteuil is familiar with this feeling, having journeyed from by train from his small (population under 2,000) village of Saint-Émilion in the south of France to seek the bright lights of Paris.

Gasteuil recounts this transition in a way that all thirty-somethings migrating to the French capital can relate to in “Arrive en Ville,” a show playing to sold out houses, and now the subject of an Amazon Prime program.

Witty, wry and insightful, the show is really more of a comedic narrative than a standup routine, as it contrasts Gasteuil’s life in his hometown, with its historic Romanesque churches and famous vineyards, to the fast pace of 21st century Paris, teeming with traffic, Starbucks coffee shops, nightclubs, and “rabbit cage apartments.”

Helping this entertaining narrative unfold is a richly-textured, theatrically flavored lighting design by the G!theimagineers team of Vincent Rautureau and Andreas Monschauer that was powered by a ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M console.

Involving close to 300 fixtures and 50 universes when it debuted at Casino de Paris for nine sold out shows, which were recorded for the Amazon Prime, Arrive en Ville reflects the various situations, humorous and thought provoking, that Gasteuil finds himself in on his cultural odyssey.

“We started working on this show in July of last year and began preprogramming it in September for the January premiere in Paris,” said Monschauer, who ran the show on his ChamSys console. “This was quite different from a typical concert, in the sense that it was more intimate and had to tell a narrative. Throughout the process we did a lot of 3D drawings to show to Maxime and his team.”

A ChamSys user since 2010, Monschauer credits his MagicQ MQ 500 with making the complex show more manageable. “The Audio Timeline feature was extremely helpful,” he said. “I sent audio from the console and timeline and programming in a timecode was extraordinarily fast.

“Using our rig, we had to create multiple atmospheres with light by doing things like using beams to simulate windows in Paris apartments and pixel mapping FX to create the feeling of Maxime being on a train,” continued Monschauer. “And of course, the Pixel Mapper feature was a big help in allowing me to make different looks in no time!”

Color played a big role in Rautureau and Monschauer’s design concept. They used warm colors to reflect the friendly, supportive environment that surrounded Gasteuil in his village, and cold colors to evoke the different kind of mood when he encountered among the “arrogant” Parisians.

Arranging their fixtures in four rows that spanned almost the entire width of the stage, the two designers created a compelling sense of architecture. This not only served them well when creating urban looks for the Paris segments of the show, it also translated smoothly for the Amazon Prime crew’s cameras. Throughout the production, they accentuated the different moods of the set with adroitly executed changes in lighting.

“As long time ChamSys user, I never really thought about Motorised Faders, but the MQ500M is really a timesaver in this regard,” said Monschauer. “The ability to change banks from Playbacks to Masters with one button press is impressive. ”

In addition to crediting powerful console, Monschauer praises the staff that worked with the lighting design team on this show, noting that the producers, Magali Faure and Benjamin Demay; director/writer Edouard Pluvieux, production manager Matthieu Tortosa, and technical manager David Morcet among others were instrumental in supporting their efforts.

“This was an ambitious project that told many different stories, so it required a bold lighting design,” said Monschauer. “Thankfully the producers and directors gave us the freedom and support we needed.”

That support was well founded. Like a youngster from the country journeying to Paris for the first time, these designers had a big vision – and thanks to their talent, inspiration and hard work, along with some help from a powerful console, they made it all come true.

GHENT, BELGIUM – ChamSys has attracted an ever-increasing following in Benelux in recent years with many leading programmers and designers making the company’s product their console of choice for major festivals like Reverze, as well as at clubs and on tours. In response to this growing demand, the company has joined with AVL, its longtime distributor in the region, to found ChamSys Benelux.

The award-winning ChamSys line is now available for sale in Belgium directly from the company’s affiliate, Chauvet Europe BVBA (ChamSys Benelux). While in the Netherlands ChamSys will continue to be distributed by Aukes Theatretechniek, with the support of ChamSys Benelux behind them.

Under this new arrangement, AVL now works with ChamSys Benelux to supply the high level of support, that AVL has built over the last 20 years, with ChamSys Benelux bringing increased investment in local inventory of products and parts, ChamSys products will be more readily available than ever in Benelux.

Highly regarded industry figure Luc Buytaert of AVL has joined ChamSys Benelux and will remain the primary contact point for the company in the region. Now, however, Buytaert and his team will be able to draw on the global resources of ChamSys to provide unparalleled levels of training, support and after sales service.

The same resources will also increase the efficiency of the ChamSys supply chain in the region. This will result in optimal inventory levels of products and parts, as well as industry- standard-setting delivery times, all of which will be very much needed as ChamSys continues to expand its market share in Benelux.

For placing orders and sales: [email protected].
For all customer support requests: [email protected]

About ChamSys
Based in the UK, ChamSys Ltd. was founded in 2003 by a group of designers and product developers seeking to create a lighting console that offered greater flexibility. The company’s MagicQ range has set an industry standard used in some of the most prominent concert, theatre, broadcast and club applications around the world. ChamSys was acquired in 2017 by Chauvet & Sons LLC, a leading global provider of professional luminaires, trusses, controllers and related equipment headquartered in the USA. For more information, visit www.chamsys.co.uk

LONDON – In 1999 the Greater London Authority wanted to do something special to mark the arrival of the new millennium, so they hit upon the idea of creating a 20-minute pyrotechnic extravaganza complete with a “River of Fire” on the Thames. Millennial fever has faded into history, as has Y2K and the River of Fire idea, but happily, what remains of that venture has emerged as an extraordinarily popular New Year’s Eve tradition.

The London New Year’s Eve Fireworks has attracted millions to the city every December 31st . Although safety protocols restricted crowds in London this year, the celebration was as popular and breathtaking as ever, garnering its customary huge audience of BBC viewers.

Developed by Jack Morton, the global brand experience agency, working in partnership with the Mayor of London’s office, the celebration features an impressive 13-minute firework display, kicked off by the ringing of Big Ben’s iconic bell, and a Durham Marenghi lighting design that covered the entire downtown.

Since it spanned such a wide area, the NYE lighting was divided into two sections: Central London and the Old Royal Naval College. Associate designer Paul Cook, ran the lighting in the first section, which included the Globe Theatre and St. Paul’s.

Cook used his ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium Console to run the, 12-universe show at the Globe Theatre and an MQ80 for the 8-universe St. Paul’s rig. Both featured an array of dazzling looks, such as when St. Paul’s famous dome was immersed in stunning web of lasers by ER Productions’ Mark Payne. Each of these visuals was precisely timed to flow seamlessly with the TV broadcast, no small feat, but accomplished smoothly, thanks in part to some adroit programming skills.

The entire light show for the evening was pre-programmed and visualized on WYSIWYG and Depence2 to create a smooth work flow with no surprises for the client and the BBC, as there were to be no public rehearsals

The in-built Visualiser on Cook’s ChamSys consoles allowed him to check focus and programming details so he could fully pre-program his show prior to getting to the site. He brought the vis and patch into the console via a MVR file from the lighting plan data, so no actual redrawing or patching needed to be done. This saved him a great deal of time, as only slight morphing of fixtures was needed to achieve a fully functional and patched console prior to plotting.

Elaborating on how his consoles helped him meet the challenge of preprogramming and executing his show with such precision, Cook said: “We had to ensure that the lighting of the live action sequences were balanced; so, the Group Master functions were used extensively to control the balance for the TV, thereby ensuring the exposures were under control. Also, the ease of programming and morphing new fixtures was great in allowing me to accommodate rig changes very easily.”

The Execute Fader feature of his consoles also helped Cook manage his complex show under time pressure. For example, on those back up consoles that did not have the required number of faders, he was able to use his Execute Faders as GM masters.

On the subject of dealing with time pressure, Cook praised the efforts of Rob Watson and the team at Lights Control Rigging for installing a “faultless system” at the Globe Theatre and St. Paul’s.

The smooth teamwork made for a very happy New Year’s Eve, a night on which “hope smiles for the threshold of the year to come,” as poet Laurette Alfred Lord Tennyson once wrote many New Year’s ago.

If that be the case, then it smiled very brightly this night in central London with help from a brilliantly executed lightshow.

STOCKPORT, UK – The hit Starz TV series Outlander has captivated global audiences with its intensely visceral tale centered around time travel. And with the passage of time, of course, comes change, which is something that Jon Towler can appreciate as lighting programmer and console operator for the program.

Towler, of Nineteen Sixtyone Ltd., began working on Outlander when it debuted in 2013 at the invitation of its HOD Gaffer Scott Napier, and has been with the program for all six seasons since. In that time, the show has made a major transition from tungsten and HMI heavy lighting into a rig consisting mostly of LED fixtures.

“Things change, and as technology has advanced, the lighting has transitioned dramatically,” said Towler. “The biggest surprise to me was how quickly the show embraced LED & wireless DMX. To give you an idea of how dramatically things changed, we started Season 1 with eight universes of DMX for the studio (controlling mostly tungsten & fluorescent). We ended Season 6 with 180 universes of DMX in the studio and 12 Universes of wireless DMX.

“The transition to pixelated LED fixtures and wireless DMX has created the tool kit the DOP always dreamed of,” continued Towler. “However, it’s also introduced new issues of how to control all the different types of fixtures, with each manufacturer taking different approaches to control and colour spaces. My biggest challenge as programmer/console operator is to ensure that as these changes have taken place, there are always as many options available to the DOP in the shortest time possible.”

Helping Towler navigate is way through these changes, along with the other challenges involved in lighting a program that takes place in varied locations, are his own ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M Stadium Console and MagicQ MQ500M Stadium Wing. (Outlander also carries two MagicQ MQ100 units supplied by Panalux for some filming sites as well as a QuickQ 30 and QuickQ 20, owned by the Gaffer for smaller locations and camera tests.)

“Thanks to the high (256) universe count on the ChamSys MQ500M, I was able to make the decision to use all fixtures in 16-bit and Pixel control modes,” said Towler. “This gave the DOP and Gaffer the ability to run effects on any fixture at a moment’s notice without needing to repatch or change modes, which saves time, something you are always short on with a program like this. By the end of filming, we had amassed a total of 180 ArtNet Universes used.

“I should also add that not having to worry about parameter counts, means I don’t have to take a conservative approach to the lighting control,” he continued. “Everybody knows sets get added and the lighting rig grows constantly. So, it’s a relief to know I can always accommodate.”

All of the floor lighting kit is controlled using wireless DMX (LumenRadio CRMX). With the large selection of floor lamps pixelated, Towler had to up the wireless universe count to 12, which he anticipates increasing as the program continues.

Towler described how MagicQ Swatch helped him balance colors for the program. “The issue we have with fixtures in TV & Film, is that they are mostly calibrated to different colour spaces,” he said. “This is a big challenge when trying to match the colour on different fixtures. To resolve this issue, I populate the personality palettes with the fixture’s CCT & filters. I also use custom user swatches in addition to the MagicQ Swatches, and add colorimetry for all noncalibrated fixtures. The combination of all these methods gives me the best chance of colour matching.”

Filming locations for Outlander change virtually every day, and include castles, forests, outdoor sets, studio sets, and listed buildings. The same level of lighting control is required regardless of where the filming occurs.

Towler has a shooting kit that travels to all sets and locations. All consoles have the same base programming/patching, so everything is seamless. By networking the stages Towler can control all the Stages from one central point, while retaining the option to have a console in the Studio if required.

Almost all programming for Outlander, including effects, is done only minutes before the camera turns over, noted Towler, who states “the speed at which I am able to work, and the flexibility within MagicQ, is why I am a loyal ChamSys user!”

Other features of his console that Towler finds indispensable on Outlander are The Output Plan View (“it would be nearly impossible to control a show of this size without it.”) and Motorised Faders (“a feature you don’t realise how much you need until you use a console without it.”)

Making full use of his console’s robust features and working closely with the DOP and Gaffer, Towler has been delivering impeccable lighting control for Outlander season after season through advances in technology and changing location demands. There are many reasons why the show has been justifiably praised for making a fantastical tale seem so believable. This impressive accomplishment belongs somewhere on that list.

BYTOM, POLAND – Michal Hyra could have been forgiven if he wondered what else could go wrong. Chosen to light the grand finale of the two-month long celebration of Tryptyk powstańczy – pamięć ziemi, which marked 100th anniversary of the Third Silesian Uprising, he found his rehearsal time for the on June 25th event severely curtailed by unrelenting rain on the 23rd and 24th. 

Despite this issue, Hyra was able to create a captivating lighting design that engrossed the large crowd gathered in Byton’s historic Market Square as well as those watching the livestream of one of the most important events in Poland. Dynamic and deftly executed, his smooth color changes and seamless transitions flowed naturally with the traditional Polish folk dancers on stage. Later in the evening, when the initial performers were replaced by a rock band, he created a tour-like show.

Helping Hyra accomplish this feat was the ChamSys Magic MQ 500 Stadium console that he used to run his 8-universe show. “I started learning MagicQ almost exactly a year ago and I’ve been using MQ500 since September of 2020,” he said. “It proved its worth on this project, which was carried out as a final part of the Metropolitan celebrations.

Recalling 100th anniversary project’s challenging start, Hyra said: “Due to the heavy rain, we had to program the whole show with only a reduced number of dancers, our director Karolina Widera, and our LD Paweł Murlik, present. We had to listen to a partial rehearsal from the day before to figure things out. This is where the MagicQ stepped in!”

Hyra credits his console’s “easy on the fly cue editing,” with helping him adapt. He notes that thanks to this capability he was able to change looks quickly to reflect the vision of his director. The user-friendly intuitive interface of the MagicQ MQ 500 Stadium also made it easier for him to busk.

“Since we didn’t have a real dress rehearsal, a whole bunch of stuff like strips and front lights had to be busked outside of the main cue stack,” he said. “Not to mention, that second part of the whole show was a rock concert, which I busked. So, the flexibility of my console was very appreciated.”

Another feature of the MagicQ MQ 500 that earned praise for Hyra was its UPS. “This turned out to be very valuable. “I also really liked the capacity of the screen desk, as groups alone took three quarters of one screen. Plus, the built-in patch-list generator, auto groups by fixture names, and color tagging all made things easier for me.”

Having tools that made his work easier was especially important to Hyra on this evening when so many factors outside of his control presented obstacles. But adversity often brings out the best in creative efforts — and at this national celebration that’s precisely what it did for this talented programmer and designer.