Indie rock icons The Wombats are currently touring the UK and Europe with a bold new visual identity, powered by the first touring deployment of the VLHive 151 Digital FX lighting fixture from Vari-Lite, originators of the modern moving head lighting fixture and a Signify entertainment lighting brand. The show has been designed by lighting designer Rosie Haigh, who is also Vari-Lite Business Development Manager at Signify. Haigh’s design embraces a dynamic, textural approach that brings the band’s latest album, Oh! The Ocean, vividly to life on stage, without a single LED screen in sight.
As part of the creative brief, The Wombats asked Haigh – who’s worked with the band for over two years—to move away from video walls, while still delivering rich depth and high-impact visuals upstage. In response Haigh harnessed the creative power of the VLHive 151 – a fully digital lighting fixture that merges high-output light, advanced beam shaping, and digital image projection into a single compact unit.
Haigh employed six VLHive fixtures, evenly spaced upstage of a custom-made backdrop comprising sections of black gauze and used as a rear projection surface. They are interspersed with stage-wide, waves of brown fur, which provide a light responsive, textured backdrop – echoing the giant furry eye motif from The Wombats’ latest album cover.
“The VLHive offers a new way to bring dimension and movement to scenic elements.,” explains Haigh. “I’m able to use the fixture as a high output traditional light source, beaming through the gauze, but also as a projector, providing still and animated textures and imagery that support the stories and themes of the songs”
The VLHive 151 is Vari-Lite’s newest innovation. A digital FX powerhouse that combines 151 emitters, 45,000 lumens of output, pixel-level control, and media server–like capabilities inside a moving head fixture. Designers can manipulate up to 140 shapes and 100 animations, layering video-like effects, gobos, and color control without the need for additional gear.
With support for custom uploads, in addition to the broad set of built-in shapes and animations, Haigh has created numerous immersive narratives that delivered bold digital text cues including “1, 2, 3, Go!” and “Say No” rear projected across the gauze. By using rotating images, keystoning, polarization, and color separation, Haigh also created layered scenes on a physical backdrop that include a blinking digital eyeball, with animation achieved using the VLHive’s all digital shutters.
To build a full-stage experience, Haigh paired the VLHive units with Vari-Lite VL2600 and VL3600 fixtures, supplied by Niclen Dry Hire via Adlib. These workhorses delivered sharp beams, saturated washes, and rich animation effects, enhancing the overall atmosphere, while the VLHive projected the visual centerpiece upstage.
Despite the power under the hood, Haigh says the VLHive is straightforward to control. “The VLHive is intuitive to programme. Gobo, color, FX—everything is where you’d expect. Plus the fixture only demands 84 DMX channels, which is wild given how much you can do with it.”
Haigh’s response to the VLHive has been enthusiastic: “I’ve got a long list of creative experiments I want to try. Designers will be excited to know this is a tool that evolves. It’s all digital, so Vari-Lite can easily implement new ideas from the field. This tour gave me a great opportunity to test the fixture’s creative potential, yet I feel I’ve barely scratched the surface.”
As The Wombats gear up for a packed summer of festival appearances, the VLHive 151 will be proving its value in real-world touring conditions. For Haigh, the debut is just the beginning: “I’m excited to show other designers what the VLHive can do and to hear their ideas. This fixture is an asset to any lighting creative’s toolbox -whether it’s touring, theatre, broadcast, or beyond.”
Learn more at Signify
