AUSTRALIA: When Perth band Karnivool brought its In Verses Australian tour to Brisbane’s Riverstage, lighting designer Sam Jarousek turned to a combination of Martin Professional MAC Viper XIP and MAC One fixtures to build a clean, architectural lighting design. The rig also provided a showcase for IJS Productions’ expanding Martin inventory, with the company deploying its newly acquired MAC Viper XIP fixtures for the production. Show Technology Australia & New Zealand, the official partners of Martin Professional Lighting in the region, supplied the local brand support behind the deployment.

IJS Productions had already invested in 24 Martin MAC Ones and recently expanded its inventory with 24 MAC Viper XIPs. According to Jay van Lieshout, General Manager, the decision was driven largely by increasing demand from lighting riders and the fixture’s growing presence in touring productions. “We had a gap in our inventory and kept hearing great things about the MAC Viper XIPs. They have been appearing on more riders, and we were reaching the point where we could no longer substitute them in increasing numbers, so buying made sense. We made the decision to invest in our own inventory rather than subhire. Everyone loves the colour palette and the brightness, so it certainly seems like it’s the light to have!”

Feedback from IJS Productions’ lighting team has also been positive, with the MAC Viper XIP’s smooth dimming curve, wide zoom range and fast colour changes among the features highlighted by Jay. The company sees further growth ahead, with its initial purchases of 24 MAC Ones and 24 MAC Viper XIPs representing the beginning of a broader inventory expansion. “Our MAC Ones have been very popular, and again, it’s about numbers,” he said. “We regularly see riders asking for 48 plus; it seems to be a trend for lighting designers to use sizable numbers of that fixture, so it makes sense to grow our inventory to be able to cater to the market”.

For Karnivool’s In Verses tour, Jarousek used the MAC Viper XIPs as the core of the overhead lighting package. Two 45-degree V trusses were configured with a gap between them, incorporating a smaller centre section and larger outer sections. MAC Ones occupied the front chord, with MAC Viper XIPs positioned on the back chord to create an overhead arrangement that echoed the design and layout of the risers. “We used two 45-degree V trusses with a gap between them,” he explained. “The setup included a smaller centre section and larger outer sections, with MAC Ones on the front chord and MAC Viper XIPs on the back chord. The goal was to create an overhead look that echoed the riser design and layout. It worked well because I’m often hesitant to build overly complex shapes overhead.”

The MAC Viper XIP’s colour output was a particular draw for Jarousek, who describes the colours as gorgeous and flat, without ‘the little colouring around the outside’. The fixture’s physical dimensions also proved useful on a touring rig where weight and handling matter.

“I also like the size and weight of them, the fact that I can pick one up relatively easily, whereas I used to struggle to wrangle a classic Viper,” he said. “What you get in the size of this fixture is fantastic. The zoom range is incredible. It moves from a tight beam to a beautiful wide look, and the speed is just as impressive. With Karnivool, I often use ‘strobe zoom hits’, where the light comes on narrow and snaps wide. Because there’s no fade time, the move needs to feel instant, and many other fixtures are too slow to achieve that effect properly.”

While Jarousek says the MAC Viper’s gobo set may not be his favourite, the fixture still offers considerable scope for creating effects. Among his preferred Martin features is the animation wheel, which he has used since working with MAC 700s to produce rolling cloud effects. “One of my favourite features will always be the Martin animation wheel,” he commented. “Even back with the MAC 700s, the horizontal animation wheel could create a rolling cloud effect, depending on how it was used. I used that look extensively on previous tours. I didn’t rely on it as much for Karnivool, where the design focused more on gobo textures than animation, but it remains one of my favourite effects.”

The Martin MAC Ones provided the overhead wash, with Jarousek deliberately moving away from a conventional wash/spot arrangement in favour of clean lines of spots and washes. The overhead rig comprised two trusses of eight fixtures and two trusses of 16. “Because of their size, the MAC Ones look fantastic in large clusters or long lines,” he added. “They created beautiful, uninterrupted lines of wash overhead.”

Control was handled via an MA Lighting grandMA3 full-size running in MA3 mode, with Jarousek relying heavily on its workflow for the production’s recipe-based programming approach. “I’m firmly on MA3 mode now, and if I had to go back to MA2, I’d start crying!” he stated. “I’m so used to all the MA3 workflows now. It makes cloning into a new rig so easy. Since the show’s 100% recipe-based, I just do the basic clone and then store it in the groups. The console basically then takes control of everything else. Thankfully, there were no fixture drops, so it was like a one-to-one fixture swap going from the previous shows into the Brisbane show. That meant the console didn’t have to do much work, like recalculating pixel orientations or pixel counts.”

For the Brisbane show, IJS Productions also sub-hired additional MAC Viper XIPs and MAC Ones from Resolution X (ResX), supplementing its own Martin inventory to meet the requirements of the production.