Denver-based Lighting Designer and Programmer Andrew Cass provided his services for the blues-rock-jam band String Cheese Incident’s (SCI) latest tour.
On the new design he decided to use 18 Robe BMFL Spots, which were supplied by lighting vendor, Upstaging. The tour ran for three weeks around the U.S., concluding at the Suwannee Hulaween experience at Live Oak Music Park in Florida, and will continue through the New Year. Cass stated: “I plan to use the BMFL as my main spot from here on.”
Ahead of the tour he looked at all of the venues on the itinerary and the available truck space before making his fixture choices. His drawings started with the largest room on the list, and from this info, he constructed a rig that could be scaled and adapted to fit all the others without compromising the overall look of the show.
It was the first time he’s specified BMFLs, a decision based on the recommendation of several LD friends and colleagues. By the time he first saw the rig, despite a level of confidence and his already substantial expectations for the BMFLs, he said he was ‘still blown away by the sheer clarity of the optics.’
Six BMFL Spot’s on the front truss were used as downstage washes to cover all the requirements and the others were deployed, six each, on the mid and upstage trusses. They were used extensively throughout the set for all sorts of things such as washes, profiles, specials and projection effects.
In addition to the brightness and the optics, other things impressing him were the gobos, animation wheels, the variety of effects that can be created, the massive zoom and the flat beam field throughout the entire zoom path.
He commented: “The animation wheel is cool for in-air and on-surfaces projections and the way it tapers in to the middle is way better than most fixtures.”
The BMFL’s and other lights were all controlled via a MA Lighting grandMA2 console, and a number of Saber video strips were also integral to the design and fed with content from an MA Lighting VPU.
He stated that the biggest challenge for each show was balancing everything visually within the different room sizes and performance spaces, and ensuring that no one element, lighting or LED, dominated.
The crew from Upstaging were Jason Blaylock and Robin Sheridan and Andrew’s design associate with whom he worked closely, was Cassidy Miller-Halloran.
These were the only Robe products on the tour, but Cass also loves Pointe’s and the LEDBeam 100’s.
He concluded: “Robe has really cemented its foundations as an industry leader with the BMFL range and fixtures like the Pointe.”