Lighting Designers Omer Israeli & Dor Aichner of Tel Aviv-based lighting and stage design company, LEAD, chose a large complement of Claypaky fixtures to illuminate the dynamic, futuristic “Hack the Galaxy” event held by Rapyd at the 2022 Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal. He utilized 96 Tambora Batten Square, 16 Mythos 2 and 48 Xtylos fixtures for the third and last event in Rapyd’s “Hack the Galaxy” campaign held at developer conferences in Europe in 2022. Previous events took place in Berlin, Germany and Zadar, Croatia.
Lisbon’s Web Summit is an annual tech conference focusing on Internet technology, emerging technologies and venture capitalism. More than 70,000 attended the November 2022 gathering.
Rapyd is an Israel-based fintech company, which provides worldwide payment solutions. “Hack the Galaxy” was staged by The Moment, Rapyd’s experience brand, as part of a recruiting drive to attract developers and programmers to the company and to increase awareness of Rapyd among retailers and other prospective clients. “Hack the Galaxy” comprised a series of challenges, puzzles, hackathons and events and offered the chance to win tickets for a private Space Perspective capsule launch in 2026. More than 15,000 people registered for the event, but only 8,000 won admission tickets.
“Since the main prize of flying into space was at the center of this campaign, we knew we wanted the event to feel like a scene from a sci-fi movie with pods flying up and down in the air and an hourglass-shaped central DJ booth holding a three-meter high pyramid we called The Diamond,” says Israeli. “We went into the design phase with a futuristic space station in mind, and the venue in Lisbon was absolutely the best we could ask for – the Campo Pequeno, a bullfighting arena built in 1892 that is also used for shows, concerts and exhibitions. It is a beautiful circular structure, and we wanted to emphasize that circular feeling designing elements to support the space and architecture.”
Israeli mounted the three types of Claypaky fixtures in three different positions. Ninety-six Tambora Batten Squares were suspended on seven kinetic circular pods, the largest central pod measuring 10 meters in diameter and the others five meters in diameter. The 48 Xtylos hung on two diagonal trusses between the video screens at the back of the stage and were also distributed on the floor along the back of the DJ booth. Sixteen Mythos II were mounted on two truss sections above the video screens at the back of the stage.
Israeli explains that he and his partner in LEAD, Dor Aichner, had seen the Tambora fixtures earlier in the year in Frankfurt and knew they wanted to use them for one of their future projects. When the Rapyd event came up they got their chance.
“With the local A/V vendor, Hipnose Lisbon, we were looking for a fixture that would emphasize the circular feeling of the pods while being powerful and unique,” Israeli notes. “We needed 96 fixtures, which was not an easy task in the local market Portuguese market. I contacted Marco Mingone from Claypaky on Instagram for sourcing help with the Tamboras and getting more Xtylos. Marco connected me with Alessandro Colangelo from Claypaky who was super and helped us to source all the fixtures in Europe in no time! Belgium-based AED Rent supplied all of the Tambora Batten Squares and some of the Xtylos, too.
“We loved the Tamboras – the square pixels version is great since the pixels really stick to each other to make a beautiful, seamless light curtain effect. We used everything in extended mode, which allowed us to play with pixels and to get many different cool looks throughout the night.”
Israeli found the Xtylos to be “really cool – fast and lightweight. I don’t think I’ve seen such a saturated congo blue or red in a moving light before. Although they have no zoom system, you can get really nice looks with the prisms, which makes it very versatile for those EDM-style raves. Xtylos is actually pretty much like Sharpy on steroids!”
Credits:
Produced by: OTD Global (@otdglobal)
Stage & Light design: LEAD (@leadgrp)
Tech Director: Avishay Giladie
Pictures by: Eclipse Media
David Guetta LD: James Betts Gray
AVB LD: Fabian Fisniku
A/V Rental Company: Hipnose Lisbon