Last Call for Robe on Alan Jackson Tour Mason Felps, with 46 Entertainment. has created an eye-catching lighting design including 68 Robe iFORTE and 16 iSpiider moving lights, supplied by Backstage Productions, for the 2025 leg of country music superstar Alan Jackson's Last Call: One More for the Road Tour. Felps, also the tour's production manager/lighting director, started working for the Alan Jackson camp at the end of 2017 initially as a backline tech. The 270-degree visual production design fitted expediently into six semi-trucks, with Felps taking care of lighting, video, and set, working closely with Wesley Owens, from PXLBOX, who programmed the Disguise media server. The video content was a starting point for Felps and Owens to build looks and scenes for all songs in the set, typically using re-edited footage from Jackson's archive and back catalog of music videos. These images from the videos are displayed on the 64'-wide upstage screen, juxtaposed dramatically with the star live onstage. The lighting style was also developed around the playback content, combined with the IMAG mix cut by Steve Thomason, with Felps creating looks that match and complement the stage and onscreen action. When the tour started 2022, Felps used Robe ESPRITEs as his main workhorse fixtures. After a break in 2023, the essence of this design was reimagined for the 2024 and 2025 legs, with Felps wanting to retain the look and feel but max it out more and make it bigger to suit even larger venues. "We swapped [the ESPRITEs] out for iFORTEs, which gave us that extra brightness and punch with their excellent optics, color-mixing capabilities, and camera compatibility," he says. The roof is filled with a tiered, wide-truss design with iFORTES scattered across the trusses and positioned perfectly to deliver all the basic beam work and specials, while the iSpiiders are the main stage washes, picked for their "smoothness and reliability." Felps had used FORTES and iFORTES prior to this tour; Backstage Productions' Brad Brooks consulted him in 2022 when the product was being launched, seeking his opinion on what he thought were the best fixtures coming to the market with a view to investment. Mason recommended them as a solid rental product, calling them "bright, tough and rider-friendly." Felps has also utilized Spiiders and iSpiiders many times. Although the tour uses house spots at each venue, Felps did use the RoboSpot with iFORTE LTXs for one show. He thinks it is an "incredible" system, adding that he noticed how the color mixing matched with the Robe fixtures onstage. "The iFORTEs' color correction is amazing and they are ideal for both back and front key light!" he says; with the zoom, the optics are optimized to allow the colors to punch through at all points. Joining Felps on the lighting crew for the latest leg are Matt Stigile (crew chief) and lighting techs Claude Thomas and Miles Shelton from Backstage Productions. "I love how light it is for the output," says Matt Stigile, production lighting department head at Backstage Productions, speaking about the iFORTE. "I also love the zoom range, colors, and gobo set. As an IP65 fixture, it's super easy to work on since it has an internal pressure test, and that makes a big difference." The video vendor is 46 Entertainment, looked after on the road by crew chief Jesse LaVallee and LED techs Tim Wilbanks and RJ Cavanaugh. Audio is supplied by Clair Global; the front-of-house engineer is Glen Collett with Carson Brannock on monitors. 
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