Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20 "Perfect Addition" to RÜFÜS tour

Indie dance trio RÜFÜS recently embarked on their latest Australian tour, with lighting designers Matthew James Smith and Lynden Gare of Colourblind incorporating some Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20s into their production for one of the first times in Australia.

Smith and Gare's design evoked a 3-D, trapezoid-shaped custom LED set piece provided by Eness that was positioned in the center of the stage. The B-EYEs, supplied by Alive Technologies, were part of the floor package around the piece.

"We used the B-EYEs in the Shapes mode, with the on-board macros and effects giving us a fantastic way to open the show and the battery-powered menu system making them easy to prep--it's a nice feature that Clay Paky has been doing for some time." says Smith. "I was particularly impressed with the B-EYEs' kaleidoscopic effects, which I've never seen from any other moving light. I even had people from the crowd come up and comment on the B-EYEs, specifically."

Over the course of the 15-date tour, the band played at a variety of venues, including two nights at Sydney's Enmore Theatre and three nights at Melbourne's (now defunct) Palace Theatre, which are both 2,500-capacity, and a headline show on the 15,000-capacity Mix Up stage at this year's Splendour in the Grass festival.

"The B-EYEs really came into their own at the festival," says Smith. "They had no trouble competing with the 40+ fixtures on stage, or 60+ other moving lights in the space. It's fantastic how bright they are."

Due to the ranging sizes and types of tour venues, it was important that the B-EYEs were portable.

"Although the B-EYE is quite a large fixture, they are light and easy to move around. They were also extremely reliable; we had no problems with them over the 15 shows," says Smith. "On top of that, they're a very versatile fixture--in simple beam/wash mode they go from a super tight column of light to a massive wide wash look in an instant. I'm really looking forward to using them on upcoming shows--they will be a favorite here for a long time."

See Clay Paky at PLASA Focus: Orlando, February 17 - 18, 2015.