First 96 heads make British debut at Royal Albert Hall
GLP’s latest powerful strobe/wash hybrid, the JDC Burst 1, made the most auspicious of debuts, when 96 of the compact fixtures were deployed at London’s Royal Albert Hall by lighting designer Jelle Stoffels—the first deployment in the UK.
With its segmented, controllable white strobe line—that’s substantially brighter than its forbear, the JDC1—the JDC Burst 1 delivers unparalleled punch and impressive strobe effects. A further advantage is that it is also IP65-rated.
Having used the original JDC1 multiple times, upon learning that lighting vendors Siyan had taken delivery of the first 100 heads in the UK, Stoffels jumped at the chance to put the fixture’s superior characteristics to the test with Swiss electronic house and techno DJ duo Adriatique (Adrian Shala and Adrian Schweizer). In particular, he was interested to see how having the two RGBW LED plates would enhance the show dynamic.
The catalyst in this unexpected realisation was event production manager Matt Child from design and delivery company, ARTDPT. Working with promoters, Labyrinth Events, he had been privy to a demo of the new fixture, and was highly impressed with the superior colour performance and cell control in particular. His recommendation to upgrade the JDC1 to the JDC Burst 1 followed immediately and he said, “I’m super-excited to see what these guys can do.”
As for Jelle Stoffels, he recently joined Belgian design cooperative, HangarCreates, and was working for the first time with Adriatique, whose stage set-up changes from show to show. He explained, “90% of the fixtures we are using will be there for only this production.”
As for the JDC Burst 1, he said, “The specs looked impressive when compared with the JDC1; the fact that the plates have RGBW and better colour reproduction is important for me as I use the JDCs in quite an unconventional way. I am personally not a big fan of strobe lights but with an RGBW fixture I try to mimic conventional lighting—I’m always able to dim to amber, and then to CTO. I have more colour reproduction options—but I mostly see the strobes and the cells as separate fixtures that can be used simultaneously.”
For this design he mounted the fixtures overhead on vertical trusses from the ceiling, in such a way that in the zero position they shine towards each other, and tilt both fully towards the audience, and fully back to the organ. “The trusses are intended to mimic the organ pipes,” he said.
The baton then passed to the duo’s long-term programmer and show director, Cedric Duré. Setting the fixtures in 227 DMX channel mode, he artfully waited until an hour into the show, building the suspense before unleashing the JDC Bursts, alongside 90 of GLP’s classic impression X4 Bar 20 battens in vertical chasing strips. These did the early ‘heavy lifting’, accentuating the height of the auditorium and stunning Grand Organ backdrop. When the Bursts took over the show went into overdrive.
Duré first saw the Bursts at the recent Prolight+Sound in Frankfurt “only to then realise we would have the first 96 of them in the UK on our show at the RAH,” he added excitedly. “They feel like a big upgrade from the legacy JDC1s—I was able to create a much better colour palette which is something very important to me. Also, the new DMX modes solve the issues I had with the legacy JDC1 profiles—which makes programming much easier and straightforward.”
Adriatique shows are very pixel-oriented, he says, and always feature X4 Bars and JDCs in the design. “We use a mix of MA3, Resolume and MadMapper [video mapping] to generate a variety of organic effects,” he added. “For the first ever UK show with the new JDC Burst 1, it was a no-brainer for me to push them to their full capabilities, with 48 pixel segments on the plate.”
To demonstrate the versatility of the fixture when guest singer Delhia De France performed Tremors, standing in front of the organ, he used the inner JDCs to highlight the organ, adding a layer of depth, while the remaining fixtures were directed towards the audience.
Summarising the show, Jelle Stoffels noted the successful deployment of GLP’s JDC Burst 1 and impression X4 Bar 20, running in tandem. “While one fixture provided brightness and glow—creating silhouettes and lighting up the haze—we were also able to have great beams shining over maximum distance through the Albert Hall.” All of which made for a magical experience.
