Like most creatives, Niklas Fuchs loves a challenge. What better way is there, he believes, to expand one’s horizons and to grow as a designer and programmer than to light something that lays outside your previous experience?
This February Fuchs got the opportunity to do just that when he was called upon to light Red Bull Symphonic, an event where “Austropop Meets Classics,” held on three consecutive nights at Vienna’s historic Wiener Konzerthaus concert hall. In this capacity, he would have to reflect the music of a symphonic orchestra in light, in addition to supporting the usual pop and rock artists that he typically lit.
“I was asked to light the three concerts they did with Max Steiner Orchestra conducted by Christian Kolonovits,” said Fuchs. “For me it was a new challenge to design a lighting system for an orchestra, especially challenging was lighting the orchestra and the band in a way that is suitable for a TV recording as well as a live audience.”
Helping Fuchs rise to the occasion was his ChamSys PC Wing Compact and Extra Wing Compact. “I used the Extra Wing only for Master Intensity Faders and stuff that’s important for key lighting. The whole show was programmed from scratch, with the PC Wing. I didn’t use a single cue from my usual Seiler & Speer Showfile.
“A really good thing about ChamSys is that it allows you to do a lot of stuff with very little hardware,” continued Fuchs. “I’ve played headliner shows on very big stages with up to 36 DMX Universes, just with my laptop and a PC Wing. During one of those times, I would be standing between 12 full-sized lighting consoles from other major brands that cost a fortune. It was hilarious to see the stunned faces of the other LDs seeing what this ‘tiny’ setup is able to do.
“Along with my ChamSys desk, there were quite a few people who helped me at this event,” added Fuchs. “I am very happy and lucky getting support from a lot of people like Christian Kummer, who was head of the lighting crew, Robert Breunhölder, head of production for Seiler & Speer, Matthias Pfeiffer, Production Manager with the company System Provider, Ingeborg Doblander, head of technical production in the Wiener Konzerthaus, Martin Kames, equipment provider, and Daniel Fellner producer of Seiler & Speer.”
Given that Red Bull Symphonic was filmed to be broadcast on TV later, and in deference to the venue’s magnificent architecture with its towering Corinthian columns and august rotunda, Fuchs had to exercise discretion when placing his fixtures. Nevertheless, he was able to create an engaging lighting design that flowed effortlessly with the music whether orchestral or pop.
At times he covered the columns and walls of the building with mesmerizing gobo patters; during other points in the performances, he captured the tenor of the music with various color washes, ranging from bold reds to soft pastels. He even used white light to make it appear as if sunlight was coming down to the stage from the circular ceiling above.
“I tried to design the lighting in way that would not interfere with the impressive architecture of the room,” said Fuchs. “I put lights behind pillars, uplights behind the orchestra and so on. It also was a big deal to find lights that are suitable for this project, they needed to be small and bright. As far as effects go, I really picked out some parts of the show that I deliberately did not do any, because I wanted to give the music the attention it deserves.”
Also the haze turned out to be a challenge in this venue, since it has so much gold-plating and is an Austrian historical heritage site. We had to make sure to use a hazer that doesn’t leave any oil slick on the venues wall and could produce a perfectly even haze in the whole room.
The rig, which was supplied by Martin Kames, also had to be versatile for the shows, which were about 110 minutes long, and involved around 90 various musicians. Reflective of the show’s diversity, there was the largest organ in Austria, performances by the solo violinist Lidia Baich, opera singer Juliette Khalil, and Wiener Kammerchor.
“It was a difficult effort to fit all musicians onto the stage, even though it is quite big,” said Fuchs. “We ended up putting the choir, the drummer and the percussionist on an elevated passage behind the orchestra, which meant I had to deal with a lot of compromises lighting-wise because of a lack of space for positioning lights.”
The Timeline Editor and Group Cues function in his ChamSys desk were critically important in helping Fuchs create his stellar show despite spatial limitations and other compromises he had to make along the way. Even though he did not have any timecode in the actual show, he used the timeline as an inbuilt music player, setting loops when programming more complex bits of the songs, and then jumping to those part quickly during the show.
“I found the Timeline Editor to be very handy,” said Fuchs. “Meanwhile, the Group Cues function is a real game changer. Just sort the heads in the group the way they are hung and all your FX, Fades, etcetera are correct. No more headache while cloning. Although I designed the lights and show the way I wanted for this particular stage, it was clear that we would have to change some fixture positions on setup day. Some LED Pars needed to switch position with wash lights, therefore the order of my groups was changed, and some effects were wrong. The Group Cue function allowed me to correct all my cues very quickly in one step by just reordering the heads in the groups.”
Working Red Bull Symphonic was the first time Fuchs used the Timeline Editor for preprogramming, as well as the first time he tried the new Groups Cues feature of the software.
“It was a new experience,” he declared. And like the other “new experience” of lighting orchestral music, it was one that helped this young designer and programmer, grow and expand his talents.