Clay Paky and Ambersphere in control with The Wombats at Ally Pally

posted:

27/01/2016

Alexandra Palace in North London was the venue for the Wombats’ largest production during their current tour, which has encompassed the UK, Europe and Australia since the beginning of 2015. Dan Hill is the LD at the helm, “This was essentially a larger, more intense version of the lighting rig we’ve had out lately. In London earlier this year, The Wombats played Brixton Academy and the show at Alexandra Palace really grew from that... nothing crazy, but extensions of what was already there to cater for both the larger crowd and the bigger, wider stage that Ally Pally provides. I wanted to keep things as dynamic and as fun for the band on stage and for people in the crowd as it was back in Brixton.”

Hill’s rig is heavy with fixtures from the Ambersphere Solutions family with Clay Paky and with a grandMA2 Light FoH.

An often repeated reason for choosing Clay Paky Stormys is that they are an LED fixture that, due to its design and reflector, behaves like a traditional strobe. Hill is happy to add his name to that list: “I don’t like to see a cheap looking block of LED strobes; the Stormy gives me the RGBW colour changing capability of an LED fixture but it looks and acts like a real strobe. Add to that, I use them to back light the band. It works brilliantly and with a good colour spectrum from pastels to primary colours. Although I wouldn’t spec them as a pure washlight – they are after all, a strobe first and foremost - they were vibrant and punchy and created some great silhouette and shadow work on stage, ticking my boxes perfectly.

“The Clay Paky Sharpy remains the ‘go to’ beam light for me,” continues Hill. “There were over thirty on this rig. If I want a solid beam, a strong gobo selection, speed and reliability, I can go anywhere in the world and find a bunch of Sharpys that can do the job and do it exactly as I want. They are simply my first and only choice. All my fixture selections are integral to my final design and on the few occasions when we had to go without certain lights I had to seriously revaluate how the show was run to compensate for the negative differences.”

Hill is already looking forward to his next projects, which will include a range of Clay Paky fixtures run, naturally, by his console of choice, the grandMA2. “These fixtures are now firmly on my ‘tried and tested’ list and I’m confident they will work really well with my upcoming projects. As for the Wombats, they are now firmly embedded in the design.”

Clay Paky is part of the multinational company Osram and a worldwide reference brand in the professional lighting industry. Clay Paky lights are used in top productions in the theatre, television, live events, the fashion world, fairs and exhibitions, and are installed in the best clubs, bars, theme parks, shops, conference rooms and architectural environments.