Belgium: Renowned lighting designer Luc Peumans, founder of lighting design company Painting with Light, is debuting the spectacular effects of the Clay Paky B-EYE during rock sensation Clouseau’s nationwide tour.
Peumans is known for his large-scale, innovative designs for TV and musical theatre. For this show, however, the lighting designer went back to basics. Tasked with creating a rich, ‘large-looking’ design with minimum fixtures, Peumans designed a highly versatile rig that could deliver a varied amount of lighting states.
“The idea with this tour was to really strip back the lighting and show design elements,” explains Peumans. “This meant cutting back on video and really pushing the lighting to deliver those big, impressive, rock looks. I saw the B-EYE last year at PLASA, and they had been on my wish list ever since. They inspired a lot of looks for this show.”
In total, Peumans specified 12 x Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20s for the tour, sub-rented from hire house AED Rent Belgium as part of the overall lighting package provided by hire outfit Coruna.
“I wanted to create a fully flexible rig that would look great in a variety of venues,” explains Peumans. “The rig needed to be quick and easy to assemble and needed to pack down really tight – we had to fit the entire production into one truck. Because of this I had to be very mindful of what fixtures I used. They had to be lightweight and extremely versatile with a low power draw yet be bright and punchy enough to give a good show.”
Peumans rigged 8x B-EYE K20s in a row above the bands cloth backdrop, which featured eight columns. The lights provided powerful wash and graphic effects drawing the eye across the stage. A further four B-EYEs were rigged in between the band members to provide interesting eye-candy effects.
The Clay Paky B-EYE K20 offers lighting designers the choice of three operating modes; Wash, Beam and FX. For lighting designers like Peumans who are working with limited time and budget the B-EYE K20 provides a formidable lighting solution combining the power of three traditional fixtures in one cutting edge piece of kit.
“The B-EYE is a very powerful fixture,” finishes Peumans. “It has vast creative beam possibilities and can provide everything from backlight washes, distinctive multicolour effects and of course its ‘beam breaking’ kaleidoscope effects.”