Led by world-renowned Lighting Designer Guy Pavelo and Tour Director Steve Kidd of GP-SK Design & Production, the Drake “Summer Sixteen” tour represents a massive undertaking in audiovisual theatrics. The artist came to the table with some highly imaginative show elements in mind, requiring a mammoth production effort: an expansive stage and set design, an 86’ curved video wall, and a Kinetic system comprising hundreds of custom LED spheres. 

Pavelo specified a significant amount of Barco and High End Systems gear to augment the extensive automated lighting package supplied by PRG: six MMS-100 moving mirror systems mounted on Barco HDF-W30 projectors, 66 SolaSpot Pro 2000’s, 77 SolaWash 37’s and 62 SolaWash 19’s.

Dramatic lighting delivers on efficiency

“The SolaRange fixtures are proving to be incredibly bright and efficient effects lighting workhorses on the show,” comments Pavelo. “I really like the LED engine in the SolaSpots, and am truly amazed by how white the light is. They have enough horsepower to compete with lights that I’ve used previously, but are a much better option when comparing the cost, weight and power consumption of alternatives – ditto for the SolaWash 19s and 37s!”

Innovative projection and moving mirror system steals the show

Pavelo says he is also highly impressed with the Barco MMS moving mirror system and Barco HDF-W30 projector solution. “It’s providing a plethora of stunning, previously unachievable laser effects – looks that Drake has been after for a long time. We’ve made it a core element of the show due to its versatility and incredible effects-generating capabilities. We were able to push it even further with the integrated media server function, manipulating aspects independently on different layers of the same content.”