Leading London based rental company Colour Sound Experiment was the first in the
UK to purchase Robe’s brand new Spiider LED WashBeam moving light – with 30
being delivered directly after the PLASA expo in London in October.

These went straight out on the Placebo “Retrospective’ tour, with show visuals
designed by Jvan Morandi. The tour is a showcase of the band’s ground-breaking
work from 20 years at the forefront of indie and alternative rock.

“We were very excited to be the first in the country with Spiiders,’ enthused Colour
Sound’s Haydn Cruickshank (H), “I think they have great potential and I was really
pleased that Jvan could integrate them into his design which – as we would all
expect – is refreshing, ambitious and different’.

Jvan has worked for the band for 11 years and is known for his innovative “out-of-
the-box’ designs, of which this is no exception, bringing a raw but complex filmic
quality to the stage.

Central to the stage architecture are five I-shaped trussing pods running upstage /
downstage with LED video screens attached to the audience end, and four Spiiders
rigged to each truss piece via special bracketry.

These are the main show wash lights, bathing the band risers and stage area in
light, supported by four LEDWash 600s on the front truss.

The other six Spiiders are downstage on the deck, positioned at the stage right and
left corners and used for low cross and front lighting as well as for firing out across
the audience.

“We needed an interesting light and wanted to use these because they are small,
lightweight and bright’. With their positioning on the pods and their role in the
show, the size-to-lumen ratio was important. Being LED and without lots of
mechanical parts, they are ideal for being ensconced in the pods … and move up
and down into a series of different heights, angles and shapes throughout the show,
Jvan describes the flower as “A beautiful effect’ which is used quite a lot. He is
impressed that it’s working well in the arena sized venues with a large full-
brightness LED screen to contend with! “It’s a harsh environment, the lights are
worked extremely hard and so far have been an excellent tool’.

Also on the rig are 26 x Robe BMFL Spots – two each on the pods, eight on the front
truss and eight on the floor, and the four LEDWash 600s. Colour Sound has several
hundred Robe moving lights in its inventory.

Lighting and video on the tour are being run by lighting director / operator on the
road, Hunter Frith, with 11-cameras mixed by Fergus Noble.