One Big Weekend for Maxxyz

The One Big Weekend show in Cardiff, the final of three main Radio 1 shows this past summer, was a big success and produced a good quantity of quality material for live broadcast. The show also proved a big success in another respect as Nick Jevons of Electric Fly Productions tried out Martin’s new lighting console, Maxxyz.

Staged in a Kayam Marquee on the grounds of the Cardiff Castle in September, the free gig was promoted by BBC Radio 1 for 10,000 people per day. The Saturday was a dance event and the Sunday a concert featuring acts like The Darkness, Dido and Travis.

Lighting and visuals for One Big Weekend were created and co-ordinated by Nick Jevons, who was given a very broad brief. Bandit Lites supplied a mostly Martin lighting package for the two day event operated via a Martin Maxxyz console.

Martin and Maxxyz
Nick opted for a heavily Martin-based lighting rig because he knows and likes the fixtures and has used them on innumerable events and tours in the past. He also decided to try the new Maxxyz desk. He had been talking to Martin UK for a while about the lighting console, after first having seen it at PLASA 2002, where he liked a lot of the features.

Nick contacted Martin a couple of months before the Big Weekend show, as he definitely wanted to use the desk, which was now available. Nick then went to Bandit’s UK headquarters for a couple of days to familiarize himself with the board.

ShowDesigner
Nick is also a regular user of the Martin ShowDesigner (MSD) software package, which he used to draw and render the rig, etc. This tool has been invaluable in this and subsequent pitches for jobs he says, giving the chance to create nicely presented drawings and visualizations to the client.

The rig was designed on the MSD and then patched into the Maxxyz. During two days of pre-production at Bandit, Nick built up his preset focuses, palettes, etc. Some 36 LED modules were integrated into the MSD drawing as well at this point.

Maxxyz confidence
After the two days at Bandit, Nick’s next opportunity with the desk was the get-in/programming day at the One Big Weekend event – so it was quite a baptism of fire! He used it to control the audience lighting for the dance day on Saturday, and by the end of the day was confident enough to use it to run the main stage lighting rig for all the bands on the Sunday (the one exception being Travis).

“I love the total approach to programming and the way I can lay the show out in layers,” Nick commented. “It’s a different concept, but highly flexible once you get your head around it. The ability to edit and store running ‘live’ is excellent. It’s quick, useful and easy. I could add things to the show extremely fast on the fly.”

“It’s the first time I’ve used the desk properly,” he continues, “and it really was an ‘in-at-the-deep-end’ situation, so I was very happy with the results. It’s a great desk, and Simon Allan and Chris from Martin UK have been fantastic.”

Electric Fly took care of the full visual picture, integrating lighting and visuals. In this case they also supplied all the video content sources, vision mixers and engineers, control equipment plus 36 LED panels that were dotted around the stage across three trusses in a random fashion (Jevons first pioneered this design concept with the Super Furry Animals in the mid 90s, using television sets as that was the only available technology then). Challenging and worth the extra effort, it enabled each band to have a unique visual look and entity. 

Nick is currently out with a Maxxyz on the Super Furry Animals UK and European tour (more on that soon).

Stage
12 x MAC 600
10 x MAC 2000 Profile
4 MAC 2000 Wash
4 MAC 500s (on floor)´
12 Atomic 3000 strobes

Audience
8 x MAC 2000 Profile
8 x MAC 600
8 x MAC 500