The first Robe DigitalSpot 5000 DT’s in the UK have been delivered to Leeds-based Zig Zag Lighting, with one immediately dispatched on tour in Europe with leading Pink Floyd tribute band, Off The Wall. ,

The DS 5000 DT is rigged at the centre of the front truss, and is used to project all the band’s visuals onto a 5 metre diameter circular screen positioned centre-stage.

As with any Floyd show, visuals – a carefully selected assortment of video clips, graphics and animations - are critical to the show. Off the Wall’s video designer and manager Paul Barker has produced a full show’s worth of material, all of it original high quality, inventive interpretations on classic Floydesque visual themes. Off The Wall put immense importance on production values and their growing popularity has enabled them to steadily plough more into the production budget.

The DS 5000 DT is being looked after by LD Paddy Sollitt and his crew, and Zig Zag are also supplying all of the lighting equipment and lasers, which are also central to the show.

In addition to projecting the video (stored on a separate video machine with VGA signal sent to the DS5000), the DigitalSpot 5000’s onboard digital media server is also being utilised to create a host of liquid style effects. All its outputs are being triggered via Sollitt’s Avolites Pearl 2004 lighting console, with some of the video sequences are a synched to a click track.

Sollitt has been working with Off The Wall for the last 18 months and comments,“The DS 5000 has taken us into another dimension of flexibility and creative scope – it’s vastly superior to the equivalent video projector”. He notes that the fixture also makes a great lighting and beam effect, and has aroused plenty of interest from local crews, most of whom are seeing for the first time.

Sollitt created the DS 5000’s media server content from the onboard library sources and also added some of his own Particle Illusion originated clips.

It’s movability is extremely useful, specially with the variety of gigs they are playing, explains Sollit. These range from 2000 seater theatres to 500 capacity clubs, some of which are limited in terms of points and flying. No matter how much repositioning of the screen and whatever the distance of the front truss or the given projecting position, the DS 5000 makes adjustment and line up extremely easy – a task that can be a complete nightmare with a video projector!

He’s also finding the zoom, focus and keystone correction facilities, plus the digital flags for reshaping the image, equally useful great to speedy adjustments.

“The first software release was close to being perfect, which is a great tribute to the Robe’s R ‘n’ D team, and their attitude generally – in releasing a product that is actually roadworthy rather than still at Beta test stage!”.

The fixture has been extremely reliable and has worked faultlessly since the first time it went up on the rig. It is relatively light in weight (32Kgs) for what it is and apart from anything else, maintains Sollitt, the aesthetics are sleek and “It looks fantastic”.

Off the Wall have a growing fan base and reputation for being one of the best of their genre. In addition to their superbly authentic replication of ‘the real thing’ interspersed with their own musical pastiche-based twists, the visuals show is a large part of their success.

Sound is mixed by Gerrard Rolf (FOH) and Paul Nichols (monitors) and supplied by Coast To Coast.

They tour in Europe until December, take a short break for Christmas and will resume in the New Year for the foreseeable future.

For more press information contact marketing department ROBE Show Lighting on e-mail: marketing@robe.cz