Clay Paky Supports Rodeo Concert Series

When LD Systems' lighting designers John Dickson and Nate Brittain lit the entertainers at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo at Reliant Park this year they took 28 Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20 LED-based moving lights along for the wild ride.

The Houston Rodeo took place over a 20-day period, March 4-23, and featured performances by major country and pop touring artists, including Brad Paisley, Usher, Keith Urban, Maroon 5, Luke Bryan, Reba, REO Speedwagon, and Blake Shelton. Shows sold out and audiences of 50,000-60,000 were the norm.

Once the day and evening rodeo events were completed and the concerts were set to begin a stage rolled to the center of the stadium and a lighting rig dropped down over it. "It was a full-blown rodeo each day, followed by a unique performance from 1 of 20 different artists," says Dickson. "Every day at about noon we (myself, Nathan Brittain, and Jim Brace) met with the artist's LD, and spent 4 - 5 hours programming the show on our two grandMA2s with two NPUs."

For the rodeo concerts they had 14 B-EYEs positioned on either side of the perimeter where they were used for standard wash lights, beam effects, and on occasion, pixel mapping. "We used Hippos to drive a ton of video content," Dickson says. "We wanted the B-EYEs to mimic the video. Clay Paky and A.C.T helped write software to enable us to pixel map and still have the shaper macros for the light."

The lighting designer notes that the B-EYEs "really held their own" in the rodeo's stadium environment. "We had a lot of video and other light sources but they really stood out. We love them!"

LD Systems Lighting Team includes Dickson and Brittain as lighting designers / main stage programmers / operators and Jim Brace as lighting designer / director. Also included are Brian Stephenson, Bobby Dominguez, and Will Anglin in Lighting Tech.

Francesco Romagnoli, Clay Paky area manager for North and Latin America, says, "This is a very impressive undertaking and we're glad the B-EYEs are able to be a part of it. It was great to work with the LD Systems team on this project."