It’s not often we get to see our products in the wild and even rarer is the opportunity to see them being used by a bonafide Rock ’n’ Roller, but that all changed when Oli Brown & The Dead Collective hit the road for their latest run of shows.
Oli Brown is a British singer, songwriter and guitarist who has shared stages with the likes of Buddy Guy, Taj Mahal, John Mayall and Joe Satriani, among many others. He has recently launched his latest project, Oli Brown & The Dead Collective, who have released three EPs and just announced a series of shows across the UK.
With a career filled with accolades, acclaim and chart-topping albums, we were honoured to have the chance to chat with Oli and find out what spurred him to bring his own lighting rig to shows, and how he settled on our range of lights for the job.
‘I wanted to have complete control of our light show to help amplify the intensity of the songs,’ says Oli. ‘I considered how best to put this together and whether we should use in-house lighting with our own engineer, but at this point, with every venue providing different lighting, I wanted to create something consistent and powerful enough to hold its own in any size room.’
With this in mind, Oli set about assembling a lighting rig that can be transported from show to show that is capable of providing professional and powerful lights whilst giving him a consistent light show regardless of the venue.
‘We use four BeamZ LCB288 on stands fixed horizontally behind us facing the crowd. The versatility of these lights is what pulled me to them,’ explains Oli. ‘We then have eight BeamZ SlimPar35s. Two on drums, two on stage left, two on centre stage and two on stage right. They’re all on the floor looking up as we wanted a darker atmosphere for the show.’
With the lights taken care of, Oli began the small matter of building a whole show that integrates the lights to operate in time with the music, highlighting key parts of the songs and adding to the atmosphere.
Whilst these lights come with a series of standalone modes for simple plug-and-play operation, for Oli’s needs, these pre-prepared lights shows wouldn’t quite cut the mustard.
His performance requires DMX to ensure the correct colours and operations of the lights are triggered at the perfect moment. DMX is a communication protocol that allows for the control of stage lighting and effects systems from a single control point. This gives the user greater control over the lights and their functions, allowing them to be set to operate in time with music. You can find out more about DMX lighting here.
‘We run our light programming through Ableton with my Macbook. We play to track, so it made sense for me to run it through one system’, Oli explained. ‘The programming is then sent to Enttec’s EMU software into the Enttec USB DMX. I tried a couple of software options, but I loved EMU’s interface and being able to create a setlist within the software meant I could break down the detail and colour scheme of each song really clearly to craft bigger moments.’
Talking about the BeamZ LCB288, Oli told us that DMX capability was key to his decision-making when it came to selecting the lights. ‘The versatility of these lights is what pulled me to them. 192 RGB and 96 White LEDs gave me so many creative options. I currently have them patched individually as their own 9 DMX channels, but I intend to expand that to the 32 channels for our next set list as I know there’s even more capability with these beams,’ says Oli.
Gig-goers may not always consider lighting to play such a key role in the performance, but without the atmosphere created by stage lighting, performance suffers. For Oli, the inclusion of lights tailored to his show is invaluable.
‘This lighting has completely transformed our show,’ agrees Oli. ‘We get to take the listener on a fully visual journey that supports the music. I wouldn’t want to do a show without this system, and the way we have it set up makes it quick to bring on stage and take off. The quality of the BeamZ lights is incredible, and importantly, the lighting is bright and powerful enough to light us well on all stages.’
If you have any lighting requirements for your live band or venue, get in touch with us today to find out how we can help you transform your next performance!
See our lights in action:
Band photographs by Paul Hutchings, courtesy of Oli Brown & The Dead Collective.
