The 1975 soar to arenas with 84 GLP X4 Bar 20's posted: 21/10/2016
Tobias Rylander features award-winning battens in visual art showcase
A key member of Los Angeles' leading lighting design collective, Seven Design Works, Tobias Rylander has been making extensive use of GLP's award-winning X4 Bar 20 LED battens to illuminate various touring lighting sets, generating giant colour fields and sweeps from the innovative fixtures.
Such has been the growth in Manchester indie band, The 1975's fan-base following the chart-topping album I Like It When You Sleep, that production has had to scale up from the originally booked theatre-sized venues to full-size arenas.
Fortunately I started by designing an arena sized show, that could be scaled back, smiles the Swedish-born designer, because we had a feeling it would go that way.
Introduced to the X4 Bars at local Los Angeles based rental company, Volt Lites he quickly recognized that these multi-functional lights would generate a wall of color but at the same time their compact form factor would leave the source hidden.
The way I use the X4 Bars is to create these big fields in straight lines; they butt up to each other seamlessly and when we need to scale back we simply cut a fixture from each side.
The fact that Tobias has already picked up a prestigious Knights of Illumination Award for his innovative visual art on this tour will come as no surprise to those who have seen the inspired way in which he has conceived what he calls an artistic lighting installation rather than a lightshow . This perfectly reflects the band's own influences.
Fortunately the band had been recording in LA - just half an hour from Tobias's house - which enabled intense discussions to take place prior to the tour. They discussed everything from artwork color themes to the impact of social media. We bounced material back and forth and when they talked about visual artists such as James Turrell as influences, it suggested big fields of color interspersed with monochrome and pulsating, random strobing. It made perfect sense to use the X4 Bars.
To achieve this, VER supplied 28 X4 Bar 20's on the first leg, increasing inventory threefold to a mighty 84 of the battens for the larger arena shows, which continue into the new year.
For the big UK dates, he and his programmer Darren Purves have added 56 of the X4 Bar 20s under a graduated floor, as a pool of lighting which comes to life when lead singer Matty Healy steps into the circle. The Bars also feature as additional lip fills in the downstage area.
In a largely monochromatic setting, the lighting juxtaposes with a number of 9mm LED video pillars, which are used as light sources, he says. I have lines of X4 Bar 20s both on the downstage edge in front of the band to create a wall of color and one on the upstage edge in front of the main video screen to create and match the color of the video content. I have different color fields for the video screen - with solid block color from the Bars operating seamlessly off the back wall. It's a way to not only give more depth to the video but to be able to tilt them down and zoom them out to create a field of silhouette. And silhouetting is an integral part of the presentation.
Aside from the X4 Bar 20s' form factor, enabling the sources to be hidden, the production designer is equally effusive about the feature-set. The FX are extremely easy to program - and unlike a lot of fixtures they deliver a true white and have a good dimmer curve. Also, they color mix very well and very smoothly - and it's so nice to be able to program a gradient with a wall of light constantly changing color. With their long throw distance their range will easily fill a whole proscenium.
And with so much video content up against them - particularly with plans to install eight imag screens in a constellation at London's O2 Arena - the X4 Bar 20s need to fight their corner. When you are up against 16,000 sq ft of 9mm pixel LED screen where we are using the video purely as light, the X4 Bar has shown not only that it is sufficiently powerful, but that it complements the video very well.
I never get tired of using the X4 Bars - they are a real workhorse for me right now.
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
02/12/2025
Case Study: How Mid-Atlantic Sports Network Moved to All-IP Distribution in 60 D...
02/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Lee Corso, Coach, Commentator, FirebrandBy Ken Kerschbaumer
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 7:00 am
Print This Story | S...
02/12/2025
SVG All-Stars: Dan Nabors, Senior Director, Remote Engineering, TNT SportsThe veteran tech leader is helping guide Warner Bros. Discovery's at-home' re...
02/12/2025
National Lacrosse League Opens Season With New Cloud-Based Official Replay-Revie...
02/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: The Cinematic Look in Live Production - Bridging Aesthetic...
02/12/2025
SVG India Announces Advisory Board; JioStar's Prashant Khanna Named ChairmanBy Ken Kerschbaumer
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 11:15 am
Print This Story |...
02/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: New AI Production Tools Workshop' Features ESPN, F...
02/12/2025
Written and directed by Hailey Gates, Atropia won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival....
02/12/2025
The lightweight and highly portable CORVUS-RAVEN, recently demonstrated at the V...
02/12/2025
The lightweight, rugged Panther 2 tri-band VSAT delivers high-speed data communications for Internet, VPN connectivity and video transmission over commercial an...
02/12/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
02/12/2025
NGID volunteers in the United States
NGID volunteers in Mexico
NGID volunteers in India
NGID volunteers in Spain
NGID volunteers in Australia
NGID voluntee...
02/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau has issued a reminder that stations in DMAs 111 through 120 must implement its audio descrip...
02/12/2025
SAN DIEGO Sony Electronics today introduced the Alpha 7 V (ILCE-7M5), the fifth generation of its Alpha 7 full-frame mirrorless lineup, powered by the newly dev...
02/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has opened a docket for comments on Nexstar Media Group's proposed $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna and se...
02/12/2025
WASHINGTON The National Association of Broadcasters has added a trio of media executives, Veronica Rodriguez, Matt Schnaars and Jeff Warshaw, to its board of di...
02/12/2025
MILAN, Italy Brightcove has released seven new features designed to expand global reach, improve audience engagement, enhance live-streaming quality and streaml...
02/12/2025
BCNEXXT, the developers of the advanced playout platform Vipe, today announced a new Service Provider Partner agreement with NPC Media, the Australian managed p...
02/12/2025
DPA Microphones today announces the immediate availability of its new N-Series Digital Wireless Microphone System for customers throughout the U.S. In addition ...
02/12/2025
Hiltron Communications reports a well attended and successful Space Tech Expo exhibition, held at the Messe Bremen from Tuesday November 18 through Thursday Nov...
02/12/2025
The beginning of September saw Riverfire by Australian Retirement Trust, in association with Channel 9 and Triple M, kick off the 2025 Brisbane Festival in spec...
02/12/2025
SGM Lighting is pleased to announce an exciting new partnership with ACT Entertainment, under which ACT will serve as the exclusive distributor for SGM's ne...
02/12/2025
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that Telia, the second largest telecom operator in Norway, is modernizing its broadband network with the company's i...
02/12/2025
European cloud data protection specialist Keepit is expanding its sales network in the DACH region and has gained TIM AG, one of the leading value-added distrib...
02/12/2025
Featured products at ISE 2026
This year s ISE 2026 theme "Push Beyond" reflects Calrec s direction of travel. The company is dedicated to supporting the AV an...
02/12/2025
Czech Television, the national public broadcaster, has deployed one of the largest LiveU live production projects in the region for live sports and news coverag...
02/12/2025
Test & measurement innovator, Leader Electronics, has announced the release of v8.2 software for its ZEN and ZEN-W Series, bringing advanced cinematic camera se...
02/12/2025
Global provider of video streaming software and services, Accedo, and OTT platform provider, Magine Pro, have signed a binding agreement to carve out and merge ...
02/12/2025
With proven success in broadcast, OTT, and content supply chains, K.S Avinash set to scale Skandha's service-first approach across APAC
Skandha Media Servi...
02/12/2025
AJA Video Systems has joined the RAVENNA community, a network of partners devoted to advancing the RAVENNA standard for distributing real-time audio over intern...
02/12/2025
HUNT VALLEY, Md. Sinclair and its wholly-owned subsidiary One Media Technologies have released a new report focused on how ATSC 3.0, the IP-based NextGen TV sta...
02/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau has issued a reminder that stations in DMAs 111 through 120 must implement its audio descrip...
02/12/2025
WASHINGTON Members of the Advanced Television Systems Committee have elected four industry veterans to three-year terms on the organization's board of direc...
02/12/2025
A new survey from S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan highlights how important social media is for younger consumers, with Gen Z spending 5.1 hours a day on so...
02/12/2025
Faculty Notes: Fall/Winter 2025 Recent accomplishments, releases, and events by Berklee faculty.
December 1, 2025
By
Editorial Staff
The cast of Kind of M...
02/12/2025
Ring In The Holidays With Our Biggest Sale Ever On Ivory II Pianos!From now until December 31st, you can save 50% or more on every Ivory II piano and collection...
02/12/2025
Back to All News
Made in America: How Stranger Things' Electrified the US Economy
Entertainment
02 December 2025
GlobalUnited States
Link copied to cl...
02/12/2025
Back to All News
Culinary Class Wars' Season 2 Trailer Teases New Rules, R...
02/12/2025
--
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the International Telecommunication Unio...
02/12/2025
Harmonic's cOS Platform Will Redefine Subscribers' Quality of Experience, Lowering Churn SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 2, 2025 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today...
02/12/2025
At AWS re:Invent, NVIDIA and Amazon Web Services expanded their strategic collab...
02/12/2025
S an Nollaig
Hollywood blockbusters The Banshees of Inisherin, Barbie and Oppenheimer make their Irish TV debut
Tune into the classics such as Love Actual...
02/12/2025
Showcasing fresh Irish storytelling and emerging talent Storyland 2025 signals a fantastic time for Irish drama
RT and F s ireann/Screen Ireland are proud to...
01/12/2025
L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...
01/12/2025
Artemis II is NASA's first crewed flight test of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. The crew, from left: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Vic...
01/12/2025
IRVINE, Calif. Wooden Camera has introduced its new Accessory Collection for the Canon EOS C50. The new lineup includes a low-profile, gimbal-ready cage, expand...
01/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for its Dec. 18 Open Commission Meeting that will include a vote on a report an...
01/12/2025
In most years, a graph of annual local TV ad spending is about as predictable as an electrocardiogram of a reasonably healthy patient in a doctor's office. ...
The 1975 soar to arenas with 84 GLP X4 Bar 20's posted: 21/10/2016 
