New Order of MegaPointes

Photo © Lindsay Cave Legendary post‐punk electronic rock band New Order played two hugely memorable one‐off shows ahead of a London O2 Arena show scheduled for November, which also celebrated the re‐opening of full capacity live shows and performances in the UK … in what we all hope will be the start of a new ‘post pandemic’ era of music, creativity, and fun.

Lighting designer Andy Liddle – who celebrates his own landmark of 40 years as the band’s LD this year – specified 66 x Robe MegaPointes as the only effects moving lights on the rig for these two banging outdoor shows.

Needing to make a visual impact, lighting was combined with lasers and video, and Andy wanted one fixture that would work equally well as a spot, wash, and beam light … and Meg‐aPointe was an easy choice! The lighting kit was supplied by rental company Siyan. The MegaPointes were rigged on three overhead trusses above, below and around the sides of the screen, effectively framing it, with another row upstage on a low truss, blasting through the band from behind.

In a show characterised by heavy and dramatic back lighting, “I relied on them for absolutely everything in terms of effects, expression and power,” stated Andy, who was delighted to be back designing and running live shows after 18 months of the industry being shut down due to Covid. “Having the one fixture also made programming hugely easier and more expedient in the short timeframe we had available as I could do all the palette work simultaneously,” he explained.

He programmed and ran the show using two Avolites Arena consoles running Titan 15 soft‐ware, assisted in the lighting programming by Nathan Wan, with Paul Bird as his associate LD, programming some of the newer material and minding the backup console.

Lasers were supplied by BPM/SFX and programmed by Toby Macknight and Cosmin Bar‐ buceanu.

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