102 GLP JDC2 IP for the mother of all raves

Mayday – known as ‘the mother of all raves’ – once again offered around 20,000 techno enthusiasts the rare opportunity to dance for 12 hours straight in Dortmund’s Westfalenhalle. This year, the GERDON DESIGN team created a completely new highlight: deploying a total of 102 of the brand new video‐capable JDC2 IP hybrid strobes from GLP. These characterised the look of this year’s event, which carried the slogan ‘United’. It’s no surprise that the JDC2 IP appeared early on GERDON DESIGN’s wish list for Mayday.

“With the JDC2 IP this year we had the opportunity to give the event a powerful and at the same time extremely versatile new look,” confirms GERDON DESIGN founder and managing director, Thomas Gerdon.

Marek Papke designed 72 GLP JDC2 IP into the stage area. Behind the DJ position were six 8 x 2‐metre LED strips, next to which were MLT trusses equipped with eight JDC2 IP.

In this configuration, the devices expanded the video content of the LED surfaces, with content transmitted via NDI stream. In addition, another 12 JDC2 IPs were placed on a truss at the front of the stage, which were mirrored by a further 12 devices positioned at the front edge of the stage.

All 72 JDC2 IP installed in the stage area were integrated into the NDI‐based pixel mapping and, together with the large LED areas, formed an overwhelming overall picture whenever played out simultaneously. “The ability to easily add video content to the new JDC2 IP via NDI is really a huge advantage,” says GERDON DESIGN lighting designer and managing director, Marek Papke. “NDI is now a standard format for event productions. Any media server, even a laptop, can output it. An NDI stream can be set up in just a few minutes. The advantage over previous solutions is clearly that this intuitive way allows a large system to be set up quickly, allowing for fantastic, large looks. In the case of Mayday, a media server simply outputs a full‐screen image via NDI stream, with the JDC2 IP included in the feed. In terms of workflow simplicity, this is definitely a game changer in pixel mapping approach.”

In contrast, the remaining 30 devices endemic to the floor design functioned only as strobe and washlight. This year, the trusses above the dancefloor replicated the event’s well‐known rocket logo. Here the JDC2 IP provided the necessary raw power to bathe the entire dancefloor in blindingly bright light or strong colours.

“The JDC2 IP’s strobe output is, as expected, heavy and powerful,” says the lighting designer. “I expected nothing less from the successor to the JDC1. In fact, the JDC2 IP kills three birds with one stone: Wash and strobe are still combined in one device, plus the pixel mapping options and the graphic effects of DigiFX, which are always cool.”

The new Creos from FUSION by GLP also made a strong appearance at Mayday in smaller quantities. Sixteen of the new LED washlights were positioned in a row behind the DJ booth.

The word ‘row’ doesn’t really do justice to the FUSION Creos, because with 18 x 40W RGBL LEDs in three rows of six pixels, several devices next to each other look more like an oversized LED bar. This equipped the DJ position with ultra‐strong beam looks, with light curtains of a quality that have never been seen before, providing them with a lot of visual space.

The JDC2 IP were supplied by CGS Dry Hire, pre‐assembled in trusses according to Vectorworks’ plans. In order to be able to provide the maximum number of features and DigiFX, CGS also installed a new software version on the devices in advance, in close coordination with GLP.

Mayday’s technical service provider was schoko pro GmbH. GERDON DESIGN would like to thank Oliver Reis (project manager, schoko pro), Jens Diefenbach (technical manager and project planner) and the entire crew.

www.glp.de

Photo © Julian Huke