DORES, U.K. — LD Jonny Gaskell has been using 12 of i-Pix’s BB7 LED wash lights — with the 20 degree wide angle lenses — on Orbital’s shows and festival dates, including their recent performance at Rockness in Scotland. “Dynamics are always the key with lighting an Orbital show,” said Gaskell, who has worked with the band since 1996. “You have to keep everything pumping with the music, which is full on from start to finish, so you need a very flexible and versatile selection of fixtures.”
Gaskell often adds a physical shape to the lighting rig, and used V-shaped trusses and a VersaTube matrix this time around. The BB7’s flower-petal shape creates spatial contrast to the sharp lines of the metalwork and LED tubes.
Gaskell first used the original 10-degree BB7s on Prodigy last year, and was impressed. “As always with i-Pix, they came out with something completely unique and very cool,” he said.
For this tour, he wanted to light Orbital’s equipment at close range with six of the BB7s, so needed the additional spread on the beams. These six BB7 fixtures are attached to floor trusses, which wrap around the band.
When the band is performing for its own show, or in a festival headline slot, the other six BB7s are rigged on three drop bars behind a series of rotating screens upstage, used for “blast through” effects.
The output and dispersion of the new BB7s offer all the coverage Gaskell said he needs. Each unit mapped as seven individual cells, and with the light quality and characteristics of the unit, it’s “effectively like having seven PAR cans at your fingertips,” Gaskell said. “Six BB7s give a massive amount of options — I have 42 bulbs at my fingertips.”
He can also create chases on the individual BB7 cells using the Effects Engine of his Hog II console.
“The BB7 is hugely popular at the moment, which is great, and it also challenges you to keep thinking about how to use them in new, different and inventive ways,” said Gaskell, who is also using 12 i-Pix Satellite LED “bricks” to tone the V shaped trusses.
London based Neg Earth is supplying all the lighting for Orbital this summer,
For more information, please visit www.i-pix.uk.com.
