Martin by Harman's New Atomic 3000 LEDs Hit the Road with Live Nation's 2016 Ones to Watch TourFreelance lighting designer Robert Sanders recently purchased six of Martin by Harman's new Atomic 3000 LEDs specifically for use on Live Nation's 2016 Ones to Watch Tour. The tour, which featured up-and-coming alternative rockers Finish Ticket and Vinyl Theatre, kicked off in Florida and wrapped up in Houston. On the road, the versatile new LEDs worked in harmony with Sanders' trusted array of Martin products, including a portable M2GO lighting controller, a Martin M-Touch, four MAC 250 Entour moving head spots, and a Jem Compact Hazer Pro haze machine. Prior to the tour, Sanders had been in the market for a new set of strobes to supplement his existing inventory of lasers, LEDs, and effects, which are used for his lighting design and rental business, RAGERLAZER. Outside of being a San Francisco-based freelance lighting designer for more than 12 years, the versatile Sanders is also the head lighting designer for Mezzanine, a live music venue, and a laser show designer. His diverse credits include festivals, clubs, circuit events (including Matinee and WE Party), fashion, and live music -- so his creative toolset needs to be as multifaceted as his opportunities. "I had gone to LDI in Las Vegas last year before I even knew about the tour, wanting strobes," said Sanders. There, he considered several competitors' offerings, and eventually met up at the Martin booth with his dealer, Jason Reberski, president of JR Lighting Design Inc., and Matthias Hinrichs, product manager at Martin. "I knew that the Atomic LED was coming out, and I was familiar with the original Atomic as a workhorse," said Sanders. "So I said, 'Let's see how good this Atomic LED is.' They had a little demo booth, where you go and press the red button, and when it came on I was blown away with how bright it was. Then Matthias demoed the eye-candy Aura Effect system of the Atomic LED, with the effects running inside the reflector." In addition to the intensity of the strobe features, Sanders was impressed with the Atomic 3000 LED's versatility. "It's definitely something more than just a strobe light," he said. "If you integrate it into a lighting rig, whether it's a floor package or a bunch of them in a grid, you can have the punch of a strobe light, but it's also there as a visual effect. So I talked with Jason and told him I was very interested in the Atomic 3000 LEDs, and not too much long after that, the tour was booked and confirmed. That's when I told Jason, 'Let's make this happen, I need to get these specifically for this tour!'" The 2016 Ones to Watch Tour was the first co-headlining tour for the San Francisco-based Finish Ticket and the Milwaukee-based Vinyl Theatre, so Sanders consulted with the bands' management to help them make the most of their limited production budgets. "They wanted to look good on a variety of stages and venues, so they combined their budgets and brought me on as lighting designer," said Sanders. "Having the Atomic 3000 LEDs was definitely, for my part, an easy thing to integrate into my rig. I could have them serve as strobe lights, as blinders, or they could be LED fixtures behind the band that actually put out a great amount of color. Out of both bands, the auras on the Atomics were used 95 percent of the time." Sanders also brought a Martin M2GO lighting console with an M-Touch as a wing, which performed flawlessly throughout the tour. "It's a great console -- it held up perfectly," said Sanders. "I'd go into venues that had bigger legacy consoles, and I'd set up my little console next to them, and lighting designers would say, 'That thing can't run a show. Let's see what this console can do.' Some of them didn't know what the M-Series desks were, or hadn't heard of them yet, so being able to show off what the software could do was definitely cool; people were really impressed by its capabilities. On the road, I also encountered a few other M-Series users, and it was great learning and trading a few tricks with them." "Another great thing about the Atomics was being able to run on 110V. I could put two on a circuit, with other fixtures, and not have to worry about tripping a breaker on my distro," said Sanders. "A lot of venues had limited power; my entire rig was almost all LED. The only things that weren't were the MAC 250 Entours. I was able to incorporate the best new strobe on the market, and still only need four circuits." Learn more about:
RAGERLAZER http://www.ragerlazer.com/
JR Lighting Design, Inc: http://jrlightingdesign.com/
Live Nations Ones to Watch Tour: http://www.onestowatch.com/
Finish Ticket: http://www.finishticket.com/
Vinyl Theatre: http://www.vinyltheatre.com/ 
|
