Soundgarden Takes Elidy LEDs and grandMA2 on its King Animal Tour

Seattle-based rock band Soundgarden's new King Animal Tour has hit the road with Chromlech Elidy LEDs -- the first tour to use the fixtures -- and an MA Lighting grandMA2 console supplied by Upstsaging. A.C.T lighting is the distributor of Chromlech Elidy fixtures and the MA products in North America.

The national tour is in support of the rockers' sixth studio album, also called "King Animal," which was released last November. Their first engagement played Washington, D.C.'s D.A.R. Constitution Hall in January.

"We designed a show very specific to a theater space," says Justin Collie, production designer with PEDG. "The tour is a high-tech 'old school' theater production. We used 60 of the S panels, arrayed as truss fascia. We selected them for the novelty of the fixture and because they fit in very well in terms of the color temperature. They feel like an old-school lamp but have an ultra-modern effect. They give a nice warm tungsten color temperature, and you cab map media servers to them. It's very easy to get effects, and we can make specific QuickTime Movies to get very precise effects."

French-made Chromlech Elidy fixtures are the world's first LED matrixes capable of projecting volumetric graphics. They combine high-output, calibrated, warm white LEDs with specific optics to generate extremely narrow beams that far exceed the intensity of LED screens. Elidy fixtures are also decorative items that can blend easily into scenery, backgrounds and décor by using a wide range of accessories, including unique new customized covers. These covers are attached either magnetically or as a snap-on and change the panels' appearances to take on different colors and textures, including wood, metal, mirror, leather, stone, and even grass.

Lighting designer Kille Knobel configured the Elidys in three large rectangular panels rigged "like a roof" with two horizontal and one vertical. "I saw a demo online and thought they looked really beautiful," she recalls. "I'm a huge fan of tungsten fixtures, and these really had a true tungsten feel about them for an LED. Also, I could pixel map them as well as use them as a light source. They've got a beautiful look, and we've gotten some really good effects out of them."

Knobel says once she tracked down the still new Elidy fixtures, "A.C.T Lighting and Upstaging worked tirelessly with us to make sure we could use them on this tour. I like them a lot!"

See A.C.T Lighting at PLASA Focus: Orlando, May 15-16 and PLASA Focus: Austin, September 10-11.