Jerry Appelt deploys 65 of the powerful LED wash lights

Experienced German lighting designer, Jerry Appelt recently teamed up once again with lighting director / programmer Marc Brunkhardt, as Hamburg-based dance group, Scooter embarked on their Can't Stop The Hardcore tour.

Visiting venues ranging from 5,000 to 12,000 capacity, the focal point of the stage and set design were five raked pods, loaded with lights and flown above the stage to form a scalable roof — and featuring many of the 65 GLP impression X4 L’s (supplied as part of the overall lighting inventory by PRG Hamburg).

Each pod contained eight of the X4 L among the lighting in each of the pods, with another 14 on the front truss to fire into the audience.

"As Scooter is a techno act which requires a powerful lighting set we were seeking a high output LED wash that would provide more options for colour bumps and ‘freaked’ out strobe effects.”

The two lighting specialists have worked together frequently, and explaining the choice of fixtures, Marc Brunkhardt said, “As Scooter is a techno act which requires a powerful lighting set we were seeking a high output LED wash that would provide more options for colour bumps and ‘freaked’ out strobe effects.”

The design team considered several options, including the more compact form factor of GLP’s X4. “But when we did a pre viz to try the band icon out in the truss we discovered that the larger X4 L also managed to fit inside the truss,” said Brunkhardt. “This would give us a bigger wash without changing the main rigging idea of the pods.”

Both Appelt and Brunkhardt have used the X4 L in the past and always been very impressed with it. Once again the fixture’s 37 x 15W LEDs comfortably delivered the power and colour dynamic but also a lot more. “Since the colour mixing is not limited to any mechanics I can do colour bumps as fast as I want to. I am not limited to the speed of a CMY mixing system and of course I don't have to think about my service technicians when I'm doing fast colour chases,” continued Brunkhardt.

“For me there is no discharge wash light which provides all the options of an LED wash for show lighting.  When it comes to colours the LED is much more powerful than any discharge wash light at the moment.

“As for the zoom, that is also very cool and gave me all options from a neat looking beam wash to a very wide zoomed blind look.

And finally, he notes that the X4 L is more visually impressive because the lenses are much bigger than a single fresnel on a normal wash.

 In Marc Brunkhardt’s opinion the X4 L creates the best combination of power output, weight and size. “It is also nice to handle and looks good — even when switched off.“

Run from a grandMA2, he says it delivered everything he expected and more. “The massive beam and wash output impressed everyone,” he said.