Las Vegas-based independent Lighting Designer Gregg Maltby is using 15 Claypaky Xtylos laser-source compact beam moving lights on Peter Frampton’s Never Say Never tour. The legendary artist’s North American tour kicked off in June in Huber Heights, Ohio. OSA International in Nashville, the lighting vendor for the tour, provided the Claypaky Xtylos to longtime customer Maltby.
“When I designed the tour I drew in Claypaky Sharpys, which I use a lot,” emphasised Maltby. “Then I went to OSA and Vice President Mark Fetto said, take a look at these laser-source lights, and he gave me a demo.”
“Gregg has been a big fan of Sharpys, and we convinced him that he’d have a lot of fun with Xtylos,” Fetto commented. “He’s getting colours with Xtylos that he just can’t get out of any other fixture.”
Maltby concured: “The colours are really bright since we’re dealing with a laser and not a bulb. The red and blue are so pure!” he notes. Since it was his goal to go lamp-less for the tour, the Xtylos met his criterion for no bulb changes.
“We’re playing a lot of different venues, but I made the lighting simple with two trusses, three little floor trusses and some shin kickers so we have an 80-minute load out,” Maltby continued. “I have six Xtylos in the air for air patterns and nine on three 10-foot floor trusses across the back where they do fans, gobos and point to the ceiling or the sky, if we’re outdoors. I probably use them for 70 percent of the show, and they do something different for every song. They’re really cool lights; Peter loves them, and he notices everything.”
Fetto noted that Xtylos’s laser source produces: “much more saturated, richer colors, which are truly amazing. Once people get over their hesitancy to use a laser source, they’ll see the kind of new creative opportunities that the Xtylos gives them.”
“It’s an honour to have the opportunity to help light the performances of an artist like Peter Frampton and I applaud Gregg for embracing the latest laser technology for his show. Designers like him propel us all forward and inspire Claypaky to push the technology further,” concluded George Masek, Claypaky Strategic Marketing Manager, North America.
