Brent Clark, CHAUVET Professional Create Fresh Looks on Stereophonics Winter Tour

	Clark also varied vertical and horizontal fixture configurations throughout the set, sometimes arranging them in different patterns and contrasting them. "I really like to define the space, and the lines help me do that," he explains.

The Welsh rock band Stereophonics kicked off its Winter Arena Tour at Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham. The show featured many sing-along moments, but designer Brent Clark did not light every sing-along with blinders; at times, he relied on the 38 CHAUVET Professional COLORado PXL Curve 12 battens in his Neg Earth-supplied rig.

"I think every other song in this tour was a sing-along, which is one of the things I love about the Phonics," Clark says. "Nothing like hearing thousands of people singing along! Some nights it is just overwhelming. One of the things I do is not use blinders for every sing-along. Calling on the battens at times added variety."

Contributing to crowd lighting at selected moments was not the only way the COLORado PXL Curve 12s helped Clark add a distinctive quality to his tour design. Arranged on vertical truss structures that narrowed as they approached the upstage backdrop, the motorized fixtures helped him create what he calls a "marquee" effect. Indeed, the fixtures coupled with the rest of the rig evoked powerful images of a theatre entrance, drawing eyes to the heart of the stage.

In addition to focusing attention, the marquee pulled together different elements of the set design, including the stage-left and stage-right video screens. "We wanted to have all of the screens included in the show," Clark says. "We didn't want the side screens to look like an afterthought, as they do on a lot of shows. The marquee framed the stage. We also thought a huge set of lights surrounding the stage would make the stage look bigger. We had been doing a few stadium and bigger festivals throughout our summer tour, so I really wanted to step things up and get a bit bigger on this tour.

"The PXL Curves formed the basis of this concept," Clark continues. "We actually broke them down into five trusses for ease of the in and out. I loved that we could zoom them out and create this really nice soft edge to the light. Then, we could run a dimmer chase through them to have this really nice, smooth chase. I could then add a tilt or wave chase and play with that, and they took on a life of their own. This turned out great for when I needed the punch. I could bring them to full, zoom them tight, and have an entirely new beamy effect. The lights were also really bright -- I could run them at 25%."

Clark also varied vertical and horizontal fixture configurations throughout the set, sometimes arranging them in different patterns and contrasting them. "I really like to define the space, and the lines help me do that," he explains. "I also enjoy having a symmetrical rig become asymmetrical -- so on one song you have this defined look, and then it changes on the next one. I like the challenge of changing things up. So, for some songs, the lines got broken. Also, I didn't have all the lights on all the time. It was nice to force myself to change things up on this tour. I found that I could do some really interesting punches by going vertical, then horizontal. I think that it was very impactful."

Looking back on the nine-city winter tour, which ended December 18 at the O2 in London, Clark expressed gratitude for Dave Ridgway and the Neg Earth team as well as the CT Video team, and content creators The Unlimited Dreams Company. He also reflected on his overall design goals, noting that he tries to do "something a bit different" on every tour. It was a mission he fulfilled for his iconic client this winter.