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Clay Paky Sharpys Create Awe for Swedish House Mafia’s Milton Keynes Gig
Year
2012
Lighting Designer
Ian Tomlinson
Production
HSL
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UK – An army of Clay Paky Sharpys were marched in to the National Bowl at Milton Keynes to make Swedish House Mafia’s live spectacular even more dazzling as it was filmed for DVD.

Lighting designer Ian Tomlinson – who won the 2011 TPi Award for Lighting Designer of the Year for his work with Ellie Goudling – specified the Sharpys, which are fast becoming the dominant choice for rock lighting designers in 2012.

With pyro, lasers, gas jets and state of the art visuals, it was clear Swedish House Mafia’s production team was going ‘all out’ to create a visual feast.

The main set elements were four onstage video pods, which moved into different formats and looks throughout the show. The visuals set the tone and scene, supporting the music and keeping the action pumping for two hours with dynamically new and fresh looks.

Tomlinson kept the lighting straightforward and uncomplicated, employing a ‘less is more’ approach’, filling the gaps for the camera shots and lighting the stage and audience in a visual onslaught. Sixty Clay Paky Sharpys, supplied by HSL, were attached to the bottom of the video pods.

“The Sharpys were used as a centrepiece in the design,” explains Tomlinson. “I wanted to create a multiple beam effect from the centre of the stage. They’re great fixtures and I particularly like the frost feature, which allows me to create a really effective frosted beam effect.”

Swedish House Mafia – the electronic dance music trio consisting of Axwell, Steve Angello, and Sebastian Ingrosso – is one of the most successful dance acts in the world, selling more than one million singles in 2010 alone.

Pio Nahum, Chief Commercial Officer for Clay Paky comments: “Ian Tomlinson’s design for the Swedish House Mafia is fantastic and we are delighted that the Sharpy played such a crucial part in his remarkable design. At just 16 kg, the Sharpy produces a perfectly parallel, ‘laser-like’ beam and features an impressive output of 5,100 footcandles at 65 feet. What makes it fantastic for arena events like this is that the beam is pristine, razor sharp and free of halo or beam edge discoloration. An Interchangeable colour wheel with 14 fixed colours and an interchangeable gobo wheel with 17 fixed gobos enables users to change the shape of the beam but also create an array of exciting mid-air effects.”