Recently I performed a 30 minutes set with fully automated lights and visuals all controlled by the OP-Z, using 24 patterns across 2 projects (organized in 3 pattern chains) and 5 Photomatic rolls. We used some other synths for some voices, but all midi is coming from the OP-Z. I learned a lot while preparing for this, so if anybody is interested I can share some insights later. This was the opening for a small film festival, so for the visuals I mangled snippets from all the movies in the competition plus some photos & videos taken on location just before the show. For the live performance I wanted to concentrate on shaping sounds, therefore a lot of prep went into fully automating lights & photomatic (with some exceptions in places where manual fades needed to happen)
(The OP-Z stuff starts 5 minutes in, before that weāre mangling a live recording of the host announcing us and some ambient noise to clean the earsā¦)
Let me know about any questions, happy to share some lessons learned!
First off - I should say Iām trying to promote my own wireless lighting technology (see https://thinkrad.io )
How was it terms of having sufficient time to rig for your performance?
Was it difficult to ensure that your rig was correct, and matched to what you had pre-rehearsed?
Was it difficult or a nuisance to comply with safety restrictions on trailing cables etc?
Were you able to place light fixtures where you wanted them, or did you have to compromise?
Iām trying to understand (of course) what fully wireless DMX, and battery-rechargeable tech can add to helping with your creative work.
Cool stuff! In general, I think the DMX part of the OP-Z doesnāt get the attention it deservesā¦ after all, which other portable groovebox can do that?
About your questions, honestly the venue was small and I only ran 2 LED bars, so no issues about cables, etcā¦ but:
During the pandemic we played a lot outdoors and DMX lights were the only thing we couldnāt get battery-poweredā¦ so if there would be a wireless and battery-powered, lightweight LED strip with addressable DMX channels, Iām all inā¦
Astera Helios tubes and Titan tubes are battery powered and wireless and work great with op-z through dmxā¦ but yeah they are expensive, I could use a cheaper solution
Wireless LED strips are more difficult, because of the power consumption.
To give reasonable run-times, combined-with reasonable brightness - and you end up with quite chunky batteries (and a quite chunky charger) - and hence product costs climb!
The approach Iām developing into a product uses the brightest available single RGBW led, combined with USB charging from any source - a ābuilding blockā approach (so that compact individual lights can be rigged as strips/arrays etc) or, as I originally intended - to create an environment, by lighting features/equipment/structure/ etc - to accentuate the space.
