LightShark goes on tour with Xeria
Currently touring to promote their second album Fuego, Xeria has also mastered LightShark so that they can easily adapt their own show to suit different sized venues.
In
these situations, having a tool that encourages creative expression and also
allows the lighting to be integrated with the band’s audio system and MIDI
signals is a significant benefit, especially if it is so easy to use that the
band doesn’t need a technician to set up each different venue.
For
lighting designer Alex Conde, the solution to this problem is LightShark, a
range of DMX-based hardware lighting consoles manufactured by Spanish company
Equipson.
Conde, the founder of Aconde Design – a company that specialises in lighting for interior and exterior spaces – recently used LightShark to great effect when he was commissioned to design the lighting for the band Xeria, who are currently touring Spain to promote their new album Fuego.
"My
main responsibility was designing the layout of the lighting equipment,
programming the lighting for each song, and automating MIDI commands with
Xeria’s Cymatic Audio LP-16 MIDI audio system and an IRing MIDI 2 adapter,” he
explains. “For this tour Xeria is using four Equipson Mark Beam 201 moving
heads, eight Equipson Mark Mbar RGB 4 lighting bars, and four Equipson Mark MF1500 VT fog machines. To ensure that the lighting setup matched their music, I
used the LightShark LS-Core to create a complete setup with static lighting and
moving heads. As this tour visits venues and festivals with large stages, as
well as pubs with small stages, it was important that the lighting could be
adapted and adjusted to suit both types of spaces."
Hailing
from Toledo, Xeria has become a dominant force in Spanish alternative metal
circles where it is renowned for its melodic and elaborate music and for
intertwining different musical styles with hard-hitting lyrics that focus on
social and current issues. The five-piece band consists of Félix Gacho on bass,
Carlos Z on guitars, Victor Herrera on keyboards, César Manjarrés on drums and
Marina Sweet on vocals.
Hailing from Toledo, Xeria has become a dominant force in Spanish alternative metal circles where it is renowned for its melodic and elaborate music and for intertwining different musical styles with hard-hitting lyrics that focus on social and current issues. The five-piece band consists of Félix Gacho on bass, Carlos Z on guitars, Victor Herrera on keyboards, César Manjarrés on drums and Marina Sweet on vocals.
The
Fuego tour currently covers 13 cities, with more dates likely to be added later
this year. The band are opening for Celtian, which is also promoting a new
album, and also sharing some dates with Headon and Heleven.
For
Conde, choosing LightShark was a foregone conclusion because he has been
successfully working with this award-winning product since its launch in 2018.
"I use LightShark to programme all my live show projects, for example designing the tour for the group Sôber in 2021, which involved OSC commands and Millumin software," he says. "The Xeria project is very similar to that, except it involves moving heads. I integrated an LS-Core into the audio system, which was very beneficial for the band because the LS-Core is rack-mounted. There are 12 cue lists, and more than 500 cues and performers recorded, with the commands to activate the cue list and the performers triggered by MIDI. Thanks to the intuitive nature of the LightShark interface, along with the simplicity of editing cue lists and updating palettes, it is now possible for band members to add steps or cues to each song themselves, update the cue lists for each show and easily update the position palettes of the spotlights without the need of a technician."
Conde adds that the band learned to use LightShark in just two days and are now delighted with the creative freedom it gives them.
"They
enjoy the independence LightShark gives them because they can now update the
show themselves by improving cue list steps, changing colours or movements and
revising positions," he says.
Although Alex Conde is using LS-Core for this tour, the LightShark range also includes the LS-1 hardware console with assignable faders and rotary controls; the LS-Wing Open Sound Control (OSC) hardware controller, and three multiprotocol DMX streaming devices - each supporting a different numbers of DMX universes - that are collectively referred to as LS-NODE. Aimed at all types of venues, from small theatres to large stadia, these products have already changed the world of traditional lighting control systems by giving users a hardware console with a cost-effective web-based interface that is accessible from any smart device such as Smartphones, Tablets and Computers. With LightShark, lighting engineers have the ability to control up to eight DMX universes and 4000+ DMX channels. In addition, the range is fully compatible with other manufacturer's equipment because the products work with industry-standard DMX and ArtNet lighting protocols, as well as any Operating System (Android Linux, Windows and macOS).
Conde believes that Equipson’s LightShark brand is allowing both small and large bands to create more creative shows with ease.
For more information about LightShark range, please visit https://lightshark.es/
For
more information about Aconde Design, please visit www.acondedesign.com
For
information about Xeria and forthcoming tour dates, please visit
https://www.xeriaoficial.com/
