Last month, Untitled Group together with Thick as Thieves brought world-renowned DJ and producer Marc Kinchen to St Kilda’s Riviera Beach Club for a spectacularly visual show.
Gig Control was engaged by UG and TAT for production management and design for the show. Nathan ‘Sloth’ Aveling, Gig Control’s Technical Manager, had heard a whisper that their friends at FOH Productions had some ShowPRO Alligator fixtures on loan from Show Technology, and thought that this show would be perfect for them.
The innovative Alligator boasts a double-sided design, offering unparalleled flexibility and adaptability for various applications. It can serve as a beam, wash, and strobe moving bar, allowing you to achieve captivating lighting effects with ease.
A total of 32 x Alligators were mounted on a 9m 300mm tri truss circle, hung on a 35-degree elevated angle. There were a further 16 x ShowPRO Neptune 400 fixtures mounted on a 6m Tri Truss circle, again hung on an elevated 35-degree angle upstage of the 9m circle. A single Ayrton Diablo was centrally mounted on a bridging truss to purpose as a DJ backlight, along with two Nitec LED Blinder IIs as a soft sidelight. Control was via an MA Lighting MA2 light console.
“The Alligators are a seemingly fresh concept for a fixture,” commented Nathan. “Having three main elements of zoomable pixel side, flat plate side and two outlining WW/CW strips meant the creative options were plentiful for LD Nate McGregor who programmed and operated the show.
“The endless pan and tilt, whilst normally I’d consider a “tacky” feature, opens up great aesthetic options when mounted in a circular fashion. The Neptune 400s were also a great support fixture for the Alligators.”
When Michael Eather, Production Manager/Head of Lighting at FOHP, first saw the Alligators at Show Technology’s Melbourne office, he straightaway knew he wanted them.
“I thought I’ve got to have these!” he said. “We do a lot of dance gigs where having a versatile fixture, one that you can get multiple different looks out of is a benefit. Instead of having a rig with four fixtures, you can rig one of these and have your wash, beam, strobes, and blinders all in one. The incredible daytime eye candy offered by the Alligator was probably one of the biggest features that drew me to it. We do a lot of outdoor events that start in the early evening where you want that big wash eye candy look, but then when you get to nighttime, you really want beams. In terms of value for your clients, you just have this one fixture that does it all which means you can have more of them, giving you bigger, bolder looks.”
Michael commented that he believes that LDs will fall in love with the Alligator. He did a few social media posts after the event and he had quite a few LDs reach out to find out more about them
“There were lots of comments on how amazing they looked,” he added. “I even had venue staff like bar staff and security go, wow, what are those? I haven’t seen a reaction to a fixture like that in quite some time!”
Production supply by FOH Productions, circle truss by CLS Australia and DJ gear from South West Solutions.
Photos by Jake Ploss
