Chameleon Touring Systems has gradually increased its stock of ShowPRO DiamondBack effect lights to a massive 90 units.
“They are never in the warehouse such is the demand,” commented Tony Davies, Chameleon’s Managing Director. “They offer our clients fresh creativity and are by no means a one-trick pony.”
As well as going out on tours with artists like Florence & The Machine and Keith Urban, a large chunk of Chameleon’s DiamondBacks have spent the last few weeks ensconced in Sydney’s Coliseum Theatre for Australian Idol.
Idol’s lighting designer and technical producer Ian Anderson deployed 48 DiamondBacks on the Idol set filling in the spaces for the cameras. More DiamondBacks were regularly added for individual performance designs.
“I wanted an LED bar product that moved and we like our strobes to fill in the backgrounds,” explained Ian. “The warm white and cool white strips, top and bottom, work super well’.
The DiamondBack is capable of stunning strobe effects generated by the CW+WW pixel controllable outer linear LEDS. It also boasts a super smooth tilt range of 205° and 1100W of LED power.
Ian remarked on the brightness of the DiamondBack (ultra high brightness of 60000lm) believing they are brighter than similar fixtures on the market and is particularly impressed by their zoom.
“The zoom range of 3°-56° is excellent,” he said. “They line up well in there rows and look good from any angle on TV. We always get some form of light output from them which is important because if the camera is facing one way and the lighting fixture another, it’s disappointing when you don’t see them!”
Ian says that he finds the DiamondBack to be a useful light aside from simply an effect light. “There are heaps of configurations we can put them in and they are very reliable,” he added. “We had them on set for ten weeks and there wasn’t one issue. It’s also nice to have a LED fixture that can be controlled well. They really are an extremely good and reliable unit.”
Ian remarks that he’ll definitely use the DiamondBacks again and they will be specified them for a couple of top-secret upcoming projects. “I suspect there will be a good quantity of them around!”
Australian Idol Lighting Rig
12 x Prolight ECL Panel
7 x Prolight ECL Jnr Panel
2 x Prolight ECL Nano Panel kits
35 x Martin Atomic LED
20 x Aryton Mistral
17 x Aryton Diablo-S
2 x Aryton Perseo
104 x Martin MAC 101
14 x Martin MAC Encore
24 x Martin ELP CL profile
58 x Martin MAC Viper Profiles
8 x Martin MAC Viper Performance
34 x Claypaky Sharpy Plus
24 x Claypaky Sharpy
14 x Claypaky Sharpy Wash
48 x ShowPRO Diamondbacks
20 x ShowPRO Dreampix bars
45 x Prolights VersaPars
2 x JEM ZR45
2 x Martin 365 Hazers
3 x MA Lighting MA3 light
1 x MA Lighting MA3 compact XT
1 x MA Lighting MA3 compact
4 x MA Lighting MA3 PU Node