Puerto Rico. Born in New York to parents originally from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico (his mother is Carmen Santos of "Las Chicas del Can"), and raised much of his youth in Puerto Rico, the internationally renowned singer Arcángel fuses a diverse mix of musical and cultural currents to create his own style of Reggaeton.
Their mind-blowing mix of rap, hip-hop, electro and Caribbean sounds has ignited passions around the world. That music invites to combine with an intense light show, and is precisely what David Ayala created for the recent concert "Los Favoritos" of the superstar, using a collection of high-performance luminaires from Chauvet Professional, supplied by Musique Xpress.
Ayala, head of production and lighting designer for the "Los Favoritos" concert held at the José M. Agrelot Coliseum in Puerto Rico, used 24 Rogue RH1 Hybrid mobile devices (which function as a spot, beam or wash), 20 Colorado 4 IP linear wash equipment, and 18 Next NXT-1 mobile panels. The intense brightness, vivid colors and rapid movements of these luminaires, harmonized with the video walls, laser equipment, blinders and smoke generators of the set to create an endless variety of visual effects and textures that seemed to follow note after note the dynamics of Archangel's music.
"The promoter of the 'Los Favoritos' concert, Raphy Piña, also known as 'Señor Localidades Agotadas', contacted me after seeing our work for 'El Reino Daddy Yankee vs Don Omar', last December," Ayala said. "I wanted to achieve a show with the same strength to reflect the passion of Archangel's music. Therefore, all equipment in the system had to be in line with that intensity. I like Chauvet luminaires as they have a great range, are reliable and keep their colors lossless."
The Rogue RH1 Hybrids were especially important for performing a wide range of tasks in Ayala's multifaceted design. "I chose the Rogue RH1 because they can project powerful beam or spot effects, amidst a large number of LED screens and other lights," the LD said. "Their power is enormous and the colors are quite solid, so they stand out even among many other elements that converge on stage."
Ayala placed the Rogue on the stage deck, and on the musicians' platforms, in addition to installing several more equipment on vertical structures between the video walls. The luminaries bathed the artists and dancers on stage with a rainbow of colors that reflected the different passages of the music. At other points in the concert, the Rogues were used as cross-aerial effects, and forming part of shocking and captivating sequences.
Next NXT-1 panels and COLORado 4IP panels also played an important role in Ayala's design. Symmetrically arranged at the back of the stage, the NXT-1 units created a vibrant colored background equal to that of the wash equipment, with movements in sync with the rhythm of the music.
"I used the NXT-1 to create the background of the scenes," Ayala said. "This was an excellent foundation in my design for the show."
Aligned vertically and horizontally in the structure, the COLORado 4 IP contributed to integrate the audience. "I chose the COLORado for the system, as they look great and the RGBW color mixes are very powerful," Ayala said. "They had the ability to cover the audience of the place. We were very happy with the way these lights brought the audience closer to the artists."
The characteristics of the COLORado provided new ideas for Enrique Núñez, president of Musique Xpress. "I had no idea how well the COLORado 4 IP aimed at the audience worked," he said, "They did very well a job that on paper had to be done by other teams, and provided the audience with a very colorful visual effect that turned out to be quite immersive."
The creation of this immersive lighting show was especially impressive, considering the time constraints Ayala and his team had. "The biggest challenge in this project was the little time we had to move from another production we were working on," he said. "Richard Vicens and the 'La Guerrilla' team at Musique Xpress deserve great recognition for the great effort they put in. They worked long hours to make the show possible, but we had fun and the end result was very good."
