Ayrton Rivale profiles played key roles when Wooli made his headline debut at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on April 12. Wooli, the dubstep producer and DJ also known as Adam Puleo, brought his Mammoth Mountain III show to the iconic Red Rocks venue in Morisson, CO. The third edition of the production marked his first time headlining at the unique outdoor amphitheater where he was accompanied by guest artists. “Red Rocks is on the bucket list for a wide variety of artists,” says Alex Wroblewski, who has been Wooli’s Tour Director for more than two years.
“For Wooli’s first show at Red Rocks we wanted to go bigger than we ever have before and use every available foot of that stage. We even added lighting and lasers to the audience bowl to create a more immersive experience,” reports Dallas Gaspar of Orange County, CA-based Paradox Production & Design. He has been working with Wooli for about three years and served as Production Designer, Lighting Designer and Technical Director for Mammoth Mountain III. “Wooli wanted larger than life production for his debut at Red Rocks. Large video walls with custom content, a lighting package to immerse the audience into the show and lasers – lots of lasers. This particular Wooli design catered to all of those points.”
Lighting Operator and Programmer Destin Klug, owner of DK Lighting, points out that the show featured Wooli’s new tracks and older edited tracks which traced “the full path of his discography. On the production side, we wanted to highlight each department, opening with the lasers, lighting and video working together, then having each department take center stage with their own big moment, then finishing with the lasers, lighting, and video coming back together.”
The production featured a large upstage video wall with boxes in all four corners. The video wall was comprised of blow-through tiles. Behind the wall was a truss configuration of strobes and beams to shine through the wall. This added dimension to the design and allowed for clean video looks, with lighting complementing. Beam fixtures framed the videowall, shooting into the four boxed corners, creating pillars of light. Lights in the permanent spot towers extended the pillars out to the house and shot high in the air like sky tracker beams. A downstage truss held 24 Ayrton Rivale profiles, also extending the lighting presence out to the house, while lasers danced around the stage and into the house.
Brown Note Productions, Inc. in Thornton, CO, served as the full-service production provider for Wooli’s Red Rocks show. “We supplied and integrated all major technical elements, including audio, lighting, video, lasers, staging, and the experienced crews to support them. Our team worked closely with Wooli’s production to ensure a seamless, high-impact experience for both the artist and the audience,” explains Brown Note President Ryan Knutson. “For a high-output, timecode-driven show like Wooli at Red Rocks, the grandMA3 full-size console and Ayrton Rivale profiles offered the technical performance needed to execute a tightly programmed, dynamic lighting design across a large outdoor venue.”
Gaspar had used Ayrton Rivale Profiles on several shows and thought they’d be a good choice for Red Rocks. “They’re very bright and powerful, and we needed to really make an impact since the venue has such a steep angle and the audience sits far back. Their lumens cut through without too much haze, the zoom angles gave us a nice, tight beam or a solid cone, the gobos were cool and the color mixing was very crisp.”
Wroblewski also has experience using Ayrton Rivale profiles and knew their capabilities. “Their lumen output for a large amphitheater meant you could see the entire beam from all angles of the stage. And the Rivale Profiles’ reaction time is very fast.”
Brown Note’s Knutson believes that the Ayrton Rivale profiles “brought a great balance of output, precision and reliability” to the show. “With a 450W LED source and optimized optics, they had no problem cutting through ambient light and holding presence against the video and laser elements. Their IP65 rating also ensured resilience against the unpredictable mountain climate of Red Rocks, reducing the risk of weather-related issues during the show.”
He says that Brown Note “began integrating Ayrton fixtures into our inventory in 2022, initially drawn to the brand’s reputation for innovative design and road-ready performance. Ayrton’s approach to optical efficiency, feature sets and fixture reliability aligned well with the types of large-scale, high-impact shows we specialize in. The Rivale Profiles were a natural next step for us. What drew us to them was their versatility and compact footprint – perfect for both touring and one-off outdoor shows like Red Rocks. They deliver the output and effects range of much larger fixtures but in a lighter, weather-resistant form factor, which is a huge advantage for tight truck packs and fast load-ins.”
Klug chose two grandMA3 full-size consoles, one active and one backup, and two Processing Unit Ls to control lighting for the show. The grandMA3 is his platform of choice for Wooli because “it’s so flexible given the way we operate: We’re constantly changing venues and rigs, and the grandMA3 is easy to update and adapts quickly to our needs right up to showtime.”
Knutson also cites the grandMA3’s “powerful processing capabilities, multi-user workflow flexibility and rock-solid timecode integration. Its 3D visualizer and advanced effects engine were critical in pre vis, helping fine-tune the show well before load-in. The console’s ability to handle a large number of parameters with speed and stability made it the right tool for a show of this scale.”
Klug did the bulk of the show’s programming in his pre vis studio on his own grandMA3 light before arriving on site and doing a final programming session on the full-size system the night before the show. “Red Rocks is a whole other beast,” he notes. “You have to adapt to the venue itself. grandMA3’s Recipes made it easy to update cues and looks to the updated tracks, and we were able to use Art-Net timecode to communicate with the devices we needed.”
Gaspar calls grandMA3 “a super-powerful tool that was able to handle all the programming and timecoding for the show. grandMA3 running MA3 software has made a huge leap forward in popularity this year among lighting designers and operators.”
Brown Note has been a longtime user of MA Lighting consoles, “evolving through each generation,” says Knutson. “The grandMA3 platform plays a central role in our control infrastructure. Its advanced processing, flexible networking and robust hardware make it our go-to solution for large-format shows like Red Rocks, where multiple control protocols, media elements and timecode sequences are in play. We rely heavily on its multi-user capabilities and scalable architecture to support both pre vis workflows and onsite show execution. With the pace at which show designs are evolving, having a platform that can grow with us is critical, and grandMA3 continues to deliver on that promise.”
At FOH for Wooli’s Red Rocks show, Klug also used Visual Productions’ TimeCore. “It’s a great box that allows me to translate timecode to different protocols,” he explains. “At Red Rocks I could translate Art-Net timecode from the grandMA3 show control to SMPTE timecode for the pyro team so all the hardware stayed in sync.”
“Red Rocks is like the Super Bowl of the music industry, a real destination venue that’s absolutely gorgeous,” says Wroblewski. “You want to match the production to the environment as much as you can, and when you sell it out, it’s just incredible.”
Further information about Ayrton:www.ayrton.eu
