Danish Band Superloader Uses Martin Creative Video Panels to Stunning Effect in New "City Light" Single

	Superloader creating the video for their song "City Lights."

An array of creative video panels from Martin by Harman provide a visually dazzling backdrop for Danish rock band Superloader's video for the song "City Light." Award-winning Croatian cinematographer, Vedran Rapo, who is well-versed in capturing the full potential of lighting fixtures on camera, deployed Martin by Harman solutions because of seamless integration between video, lighting, and control products.

"Getting involved in this project was a welcome opportunity for us to demonstrate the new VDO Face 5 video panel's ability to integrate with the VDO Sceptron 20 and the MAC Quantum Wash fixtures to create dramatic scenarios for a music video," says Simon Allan, Harman product manager, integration and visuals. Allan acted as visual designer for the video.

Working off the song's titular theme, the design is based around the VDO Face 5 panels emulating building-like structures. Three planes create a sense of depth for the band members to walk between and various video content was used to create a high-impact, gritty feel. VDO Sceptron 20 units fitted with lens arrays were used to mimic the out-of-focus street lights and offer alternate light source sizes. Finally, MAC Quantum Wash fixtures and JEM Compact Hazer Pro units were used to create the feel of a burning, smoky cityscape.

Like all Martin creative LED video products, both the VDO Face 5 and VDO Sceptron 20 run on the P3 System Controller. A near-infinite number of panels and video products can be integrated within the system, significantly simplifying setup.

The Martin range of creative LED products all have consistent pixel-to-pixel calibration and color output. This ensures that even when full bright colors are used, the panels look completely uniform across product types and production cycles. Uniformity is especially important on camera as when it comes to flat whites or colors on the panels, if they're not completely identical the viewer will be able to spot it immediately.

"Nowadays, where cameras and sensors are becoming more sensitive it is very important that you're able to run the panels at a lower intensity without sacrificing the color quality or losing the depth of the image," says Rapo. "Also, being able to quickly change the shape of the panels is a huge time-saver on-set."

Three P3-150 System Controllers were deployed to match the three rows of video panels in the design. Each layer is a mix of VDO Face 5 panels and VDO Sceptrons. Fortunately, these creative LED video products can be mapped out very easily on the P3 controller by simply creating the layout as it appears physically on the set.

"Besides running all fixtures as video products via the P3 controller units, we also had them set up on the M6 lighting controller as RGB DMX fixtures," says Bjørn Stolt, Harman senior product specialist. Stolt operated the creative video content on the production. "This gave us the maximum amount of flexibility in terms of control as it allowed us to adjust colors by pulling down DMX values from the M-Series console."

The band's lead singer, Bjørn Poulsen, who had never worked with creative video, didn't know what to expect before the video was finished.

"Wow, just wow," says Poulsen. "The creative content that Simon designed gives the video a visually exciting impact that emphasizes the feel of the song. It has indeed exceeded our wildest expectations and we're all super happy about the result."

Check out the music video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLvr5qLR7vY and an exciting "making of" bonus video with interviews and in-depth behind the scenes footage here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oouJIm8m1sQ&feature=youtu.be.