GLP’s IP Hybrid makes its mark with Snow Patrol, as LD Davy Sherwin supercharges his JDC1

Ask Davy Sherwin, Snow Patrol’s lighting designer for the past two decades, what three attributes a fixture needs to exhibit in order to earn a place in his tool kit, and he will probably reply: “Colour, colour… and colour!”

When GLP’s next generation strobe hybrid, the XDC1 IP Hybrid, returned to the LCR Lighting warehouse in Blackburn after making its auspicious debut on Ed Sheeran’s +–=÷x tour, directors Michael Oates and Ryan Hopkins wasted no time in apprising the LD of the properties of the XDC1. Davy Sherwin was confident that the GLP JDC1 hybrid strobes he had used in front of the riser on the previous dates could now be supercharged, with something of a steroid rush – thanks to the arrival of the XDC1 IP Hybrid. This merges a high‐performance strobe with a very powerful wash light, offering superior colour quality – all packaged in a weatherproof IP65 housing, making it perfect for the festival season.

Sherwin says he took 18 of the fixtures based entirely on trust and GLP’s reputation. “I didn’t know [their capabilities] until I got them into the pre‐viz room. So I wasn’t entirely in the dark. Besides, I know and trust GLP and I knew the colours would be bang on if they were anything like the JDC1.”

The stage scenography for Snow Patrol was based on straight lines of lighting. A row of straight truss at the back of the stage bore tubes and movers but it was on the 24ft‐wide band riser that Davy Sherwin had a design rethink, breaking from convention to conjure up a fascia of XDC1s across the full width, all seamlessly butted together and with the colour accurately cloned from a JDC1.

Davy Sherwin was responsible for his own programming, using GLP’s Mode 4 Multi‐channel (full pixel mappable, 97 DMX channels) to derive full benefit (despite the heavy parameter count). And it proved well worthwhile, as he managed to derive some unexpected benefits from the individual mapping capabilities.

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Photos © Bradley Quinn Photography