Whitney Hoversten Drives Bruno Mars' The Romantic Tour with Ayrton Rivale and Veloce Profiles

	"One of the main feature sets that I love most is the continuous pan and tilt that comes in so many of the Ayrton fixtures, including both Rivale and Veloce," says Hoversten. Photo: Daniel Ramos

Bruno Mars' first full global tour since 2018, The Romantic Tour returns to North America from August to December, setting Live Nation's record for the largest single-day ticket sale with 2.1 million tickets.

Adding to the dynamism of Mars' 30-song show are 212 Ayrton Rivale Profiles and 40 Ayrton Veloce Profile fixtures, chosen by lighting designer Whitney Hoversten in a very stringent selection process.

Hoversten, who has worked with Mars for over ten years, says, "We had the tricky task of devising a completely new rig that would be ready for anything, capable of expanding on old looks for the back catalogue and creating fresh new ones for the new numbers, many of which were created during rehearsals. It was a fast and organic process, and we needed a Swiss Army Knife of a fixture to be sure we had all the tools to deliver everything that would serve Bruno's needs."

Working closely with production manager Joel Foreman and the lighting team, Hoversten developed and streamlined the lighting elements, integrating them into the set design.

The set is a highly mobile configuration comprising ten rotating truss pillars, each rigged with 14 Rivale Profiles, six of which track on- and offstage behind Mars, and four non-tracking rotators that flank him on either side of the stage. Two mini ladders -- half-size copies of the rotators -- are located downstage, rigged with seven Rivale Profiles. The set is constantly on the move, reshaping the performance space.

Overhead, a circular video screen, named the Puck, is outlined with ten Rivale Profiles, and four circular dynamic pods carry 12 Rivale Profiles on each. These change the shape of the performance space, provide dramatic surround lighting for drum solos, a multiplicity of aerial beam looks, and an additional layer of texture and depth. Upstage of the video wall are 40 Veloce Profiles on ladders, spaced to mimic the rotators in front of them. These do everything the Rivales do, but with the added punch to get through the screen and augment the video content without revealing the lights behind or washing out the content.

"The Ayrton fixtures are a very dynamic part of our design," states Hoversten. "We are using the majority of the feature sets: a lot of songs use gobos and animation wheels, and we love all the gobos in them. You need big bold looks for stadiums, so we often use them open with narrow or wide beams, plus there's a lot of dimmer effects and strobing. We even introduce the prisms at times -- I doubt there is a feature in them that we are not using!"

The designer adds, "I've used Ayrton many times before, but this is the first time I've used Rivale and Veloce. Weight and size were a huge consideration because of the size of the set, wind rating at the outdoor venues, and the dynamic load from the number of moving elements. One of the most difficult engineering projects was the Puck that tracks up and downstage and lowers to a vertical position with the weight hanging on just a couple of points. Rivale's light weight at 30.8kg and compact size fitted the bill as well as the set, and were a major factor in our decision.

"One of the main feature sets that I love most is the continuous pan and tilt that comes in so many of the Ayrton fixtures, including both Rivale and Veloce. That whittled down a lot of the options and fitted exactly with the kind of visuals we were aiming for.

"We needed lights that have enough horsepower for stadiums, and I was very particular about the aperture size and the front of the fixture: Rivale's large lens is signature to the look and functionality of the pillars and the lighting pods. One show in Toronto had virtually no haze because of the strength of the wind, yet the show still looked fantastic because you could still see the effect of the light when it was doing its dimmer chases, hits, etc. I attribute that to that big source on the front of Rivale and the intensity it brings for stadiums.

"Rivale has so many features and options which really impressed me, but it's also a really good quality light for lighting the performers! It is so versatile: I can switch from beams to graphics to spinning movements in a moment, then instantly transform it into a light source for the artist or band members with all the subtlety and colour mixing that entails. It's a very flattering light source for the human body. It's a great tool and the Swiss Army Knife we were looking for."

Hoversten also liked the fact Ayrton has a large, medium and small option in each fixture range -- Veloce, Rivale and Stradale in this case. "It gives you the ultimate flexibility and uniformity of choice," he says. "The reason we have the 40 Veloces behind the video wall is they have the exact same features as Rivale. It was a great opportunity to combine the extra foot candles of Veloce with the exact same feature set as Rivale, giving us more punch to get through the video wall when needed.

The Ayrton fixtures were supplied by the tour's lighting vendor and long-time collaborator with the Bruno Mars camp, Fuse Technical Group.