Die Fantastischen Vier, AKA German rappers Fanta 4, hit the road again on Vier und Jetzt, their biennial tour campaign for 2016-17. The lighting, set and visual design was created by Gunther Hecker and Marc Lorenz, with the rig including 60 Robe Pointes.
Lorenz, of Cue Design, took on the role of Lighting Director and plus maintained overall visual technology and control, compiling and co-ordinating the lighting and video specifications. The pair were joined on the creative production team by visuals and content producer Franz Schlechter, and band member And.Y who created some of the video and programmed custom Quartz Composer patches integrated into the Resolume video playback system.
The 60 Pointes were all rigged on five overhead trusses flown directly above the central section and main performance area of the wide-look stage design. These trusses were automated using a Cyberhoist C1 system.
Hecker built off-beat and abstract visual impressions using the Pointes, juxtaposing with the LED wash lights and around 180 medium flood PAR cans dotted around the rig.
The 40m x 7m stage wings were built from five sections containing 2m x 1m high gloss white foil projection panels.
An IMAG mix was directed by Simon Cimander and fed into three moving LED screens whilst also being displayed across the projection surfaces. The screens were used as pure light-sources, underlining the whole concept of blending lighting and visuals.
On the road, Hecker ran the lights while Lorenz operated the Video-Matrixes and controls, both using High End Systems Hog 4 consoles. Ingo Koenzen was the Cyberhoist operator and Franz Schlechter and Mark Langer divided up the touring media server duties between them.
All the lighting equipment was supplied by German rental specialist satis&fy, out of its Werne facility, together with rigging, automation, stage and set. Cue Design provided the Hog 4 consoles running the lights and media servers for the playback video.
