A Light Production uses wysiwyg for the Swedish House Mafia Save the World Tour

Swedish House Mafia is a Supergroup in the EDM scene, and this trio is known to go next level with their show productions. Their latest Save the World Reunion Tour is exactly that –  a next level production. Long-time wysiwyg users, Swedish-based company A LIGHT PRODUCTION is tasked to produce the Save the World tour show. With such high-profile clients, not to mention this being a massive reunion tour, the result had to be something special. We had a chance to speak to Alexander Hesse, Lighting Designer/Creative Director and at A Light Production, about how this memorable tour was designed and put together by A Light Vision. Standards would have been sky-high and expectations even higher.

Alexander Hesse has been using wysiwyg for eleven years and started A Light Production nine years ago as a consulting and touring company. In the beginning, he was mainly focused on lighting for events, festivals and tours but over the years, the demand for highly advanced productions has grown, which has made A LIGHT PRODUCTION focus on all aspects such as Lighting, Video, Staging, and Pyro.

We asked Alexander about his initial decision to start using wysiwyg so long ago as a designer and, eventually, to have a company built around it:

“I find wysiwyg very helpful in all my productions and shows.  Everything from 3D renders/ paperwork/ layouts to patching fixtures, exporting data that can then go into the lighting console, preprogramming pre-sets. It all saves time when you’re in the venue.”

How did the Swedish House Mafia connection come to be? Organically. Alexander already had worked with Axwell & Ingrosso before Swedish House Mafia. One day, the band called him up and asked if he wanted to work on the Swedish House Mafia tour. He was up for the task and agreed to work his magic.

Production-wise, this show was big.

One hundred and four universes to be exact, with over 52x laser unit and a massive 56m-wide video screen. Swedish House Mafia wanted to set up a visualizer to preview the show digitally, so Alexander set up and built a preview studio in Steve Angelo’s studio where pre-programming was done for a month.  The studio was set up so that they could preview lights, kinesis movements, lasers, video and live camera.

Studio Gear List:

• 2x 50”-inch screens
  1x Grand Ma2 full size
  3x laptops
  3x monitors
  1x Taurus elite RTX computer
  1x Razor Blade
  1x pangolin drive
  D&B Audio Q7 & Q-subs
  one of every lighting fixture plus laser
  4x Pioneer CDJ 2000 nexus 2
  1X Pioneer DJM 900 nexus
  2x pioneer DJs-1000
  1x pioneer Toraiz sp-16

The Rig

The mainstay of the rig was three 7.2m circular 4-tonne trusses on Kinesys motor control, with a pipe grid across the circles with a matrix of GLP impression X4 Bar 20s, with no fewer than 138 fixtures pixel-mapped. On the outer truss there were 56 Chroma Q Colorforce 12 Mark II that were rigged closely together. This formed part of a complement of 308 lighting fixtures and multiple lasers within the three circles. Being on motor control, the team could reveal them in and out and tilt them 90° as well.

More gear:

• One long pre-rigged truss with 102x Clay Paky Sharpys
• One pre-rigged truss 9x Martin Mac III for key light
• One front truss with 6x Martin Mac viper profile
• On the front of the flowing platform there was 60 GLP JDC1s on the top of the platform with 10x Sharpy wash, 6x Mac viper performance, 11x chroma Q 72 mark II & 55 x X4 Bar 20s – sunk into the platform
• 8x JDC-1 – underneath the platform
• 40x Martin Mac axiom – spread out in the arena

How did wysiwyg deliver?

“wysiwyg lived up to my expectations, I was very skeptical at first because I didn’t know how it would handle the data flow. I had to optimize a lot of the fixtures and show file to be able to run the show smoothly. All the fixtures were in full mode so it was essential that we could preview all the small details for the X4 bars to the JDC-1 pixels and tube effects. wysiwyg also ran lasers, video and truss movement. The show was run off 1x Taurus elite RTX & 1x Razor Blade computer. I was impressed of how detailed the file became, not only looking at lighting but all aspects of the show.”

Would Alexander suggest wysiwyg to other production companies?

It’s a great tool to use for preprogramming, patching fixture, and exporting all the data into your lighting console. It’s great for setting up more detailed previz studios. I like the details we did for this show because we had a lot of smoke and mirrors, the live renders came out very well.

When people think about EDM, it isn’t just the music they think about. Sure, the music is the main reason to go to an EDM show, but it’s also about the eye candy, the flash, the entire feeling of the show. Everyone in attendance gets wrapped up in the light, videos, pyro and everything else that goes into making it an event to remember. wysiwyg is often there too, working behind the scenes.

And with every big event that is put together, there is a production team like Alexander Hesse’s A Light Production team that have been using wysiwyg for many years, time and time again. Over the years, Alexander has had to adapt to changing times by keeping his skills sharp and ready to take on any challenge. He may not always know what the next event will demand from him, but he knows his tools.

His only advice, and it would be ours too:

“Never get too comfortable, you must be willing to take risks and push your ideas forward.”

SHOW CREDITS

• Production Company: nt-rp (nocturnal touring & rooted productions)
• Lighting Director: Alexander Hesse
  Production Manager: Mattie Evans
• Show Designer: Sam Tozer
• Video Director: Alex Wilson (lexy)
• Backline Tech: Dougie Smith
  FOH Audio Engineer: Wayne Sargeant (rabbit)
• Camera Director: Andy warwick & Charles woods
• Lasers: Darius Alexandru
• Kinesys operator: Giulio Ligorio
• Head Rigger: Liam Beech
• Pyro: Jonas Hultgren

 

More About A Light Production

https://www.alightvision.com/

https://www.facebook.com/alightproductionab/

https://www.instagram.com/alightproduction/

 

More About CAST Group of Companies, Inc.

Established in 1994, CAST Group of Companies, Inc. is a Toronto-based software and hardware developer that serves its core markets in entertainment production, special events and meetings.

CAST’s award-winning flagship products include wysiwyg Lighting Design and Previsualization Suite, Vivien Event Designer and BlackTrax Real-Time Tracking.

All our products are designed and created in-house, supported by an established global distribution and reseller network.

https://cast-soft.com/

https://blacktrax.ca/