SAINT-DENIS, France – Olivier Payen, lighting designer for veteran French rockers Indochine, faced a challenge when lighting the band's tour stop at the Stade de France in this Parisian suburb earlier this year. Indochine was celebrating 30 years with the tour that ran from Oct. 2009 to Sept. 2010, and the 80,000-capacity Stade de France was filled with fans of the rock group.
The lighting rig needed to fill the stadium with light, yet work with the five 16:9 video screens occupying the north curve of the stadium that represented a total area of 720 square meters.
Payen, who had also lit Indochine's previous Alice&June tour, opted for a design that used fixtures to surround the screens in order to break up and soften their severity and help them blend in with their surroundings.
Rental company Arpège recommended Martin Professional's new MAC 2000 Beam XB fixture, and supplied these along with a number of other Martin fixtures used on stage, both rigged and on the floor.
Six MAC 2000 Beam XBs were placed on each side of the stage to complement the screen design, and had enough power to project effectively in front of the bright video screens.
To fill the stadium across the audience for the various camera angles, Payen used 36 additional MAC 2000 Beam XBs. "I wanted to create some wash light effects among the audience," he said. "Mission accomplished." He also credited the affordability of the upgrade kit.
Thomas Dechandon of Concept K, the tour's console operator, also said he was "hugely impressed" with the fixture's output, calling it calling it "perfect for stages of this size and for open-air use.
"The MAC 2000 Beam XB beams made it easy to draw in the smoke, even though it was still very light," Dechandon added, also crediting the fixture for versatility. "You still get the effects of the gobos, but you also keep the option of making the beam burst out using the honeycomb lens to obtain a true wash light."
With the 32 MAC 2000 Wash XBs and 36 Atomic 3000 strobes installed for the Indochine show at the stadium, 22 MAC III Profiles were used. Payen had chosen them for Indochine's tour as well for their "wide range of options" and effects.
Sixteen of the MAC III Profiles were positioned above the central screen to add texture to the stage, to create special effects across the audience when the lead singer encouraged them to join in and to create aerial drawings above the stage.
The other six MAC IIIs were installed on towers on both sides of the stage and used to create a color wash, or for special effect on the artists.
The Martin fixture counts included 48 MAC 2000 Beam XBs, 32 MAC 2000 Wash XBs, 22 MAC III Profiles and 36 Atomic 3000 strobes.
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