MANCHESTER, UK – Britain’s Got Talent semi-finalist Dan Whitby performed freestyle motocross stunts in the dark using an LED-emblazoned bike and W-DMX wireless lighting control. The sold-out event took place in Manchester Arena last fall and attracted 7,000 spectators. Shock FX provided the customized gear including several Enttec DIN LED modules powered by a LiPo cell battery in an eight-zone configuration.
Ore details from Wireless Solution (www.wirelessdmx.com):
The E22 Sport Arenacross Series counted with a UK tour with 8 stops in 2015, and with eight more dates in 2016. Shock FX, UK based Special FX company, was responsible to supply the bespoke equipment – several Enttec DIN LED modules powered by a LiPo cell battery were used, controlling 8 individual zones of the bike and the rider.
In total, 4x W-DMX™ Micro R-512 G4S units were used to fuel data to the LEDs:
– The first was installed below the rider’s seat and received data for the body of the bike
– The second was attached to the rider’s belt pack, allowing him to be controlled separately and wire free to the bike – this allowed him to do larger tricks and to be performed whilst sailing 10 meters above the ground
– The third and fourth Micro Receivers were placed in each wheel. During testing all fears of a Doppler effect within each wheel (caused by each wheel rotating at up to 270 RPM) were allayed
A W-DMX™ Blackbox F-1 MKII was used at FOH position, sending data to all four receivers.
“We also had a W-DMX™ ProBox F-2500 and two Micro F-1 boxes as spare – we ended up not using them, as the equipment we had on-site was working with no issues!”, said James Walton, on-site lighting technician for Shock FX.
“This is the sort of jobs we get on a daily basis” said David Taylor, CEO of Shock FX. “The W-DMX™ exceeded my expectations – the range is absolutely incredible, and so his its reliability and rigidness. We were doing 200 meters between front-of-house to performer, and the signal strength did not drop once”, Taylor added.
White Light Ltd, UK exclusive distributor of W-DMX™, supplied the equipment to Shock FX: “We had a play at WL before so we could attest its performance”, added James Walton. “It just worked out of the box!”.
At Wireless Solution, Niclas Arvidsson – CEO and founder of W-DMX™ – commented: “We like seeing off-the-shelf products being used in this sort of application. You don’t have to be an electronics engineer to develop projects like this one – we have dedicated products for each application in the entertainment market. Shock FX have done an amazing job proving how this works. Now they can hand it over to the touring crew who will be able to operate without a lot of hassle!”.
