International. Chauvet Professional was the brand in charge of supporting the lighting design, at the hands of Tony Pérez, for the Aztlan Tour of the Mexican band Zoé.
Tony Pérez began his career in 1989 as a lighting technician, focused mainly on the operation of equipment, wiring assembly, dimmer banks and analog consoles, among other devices. Then, between 1994 and 1995 he had the opportunity to do shows with artists and bands that did not have a lighting programmer and that rented equipment to the company in which he worked.
The years that followed were of consolidation, as they allowed him to demonstrate his skills as a technician and programmer, earning the trust of clients and improving his job options in the middle of the show.
In general, throughout his career Tony has participated in different tours, of national and international scope, as well as in recognized shows such as the Festival Centro Histórico CDMX, the MX Beat Festival, the tour in Mexico of Cloude Bolling & Big Band, as well as that of Magneto and Mercurio, the Únete a la Fiesta tour and the programming of concerts by various artists such as Maldita Vecindad, Jaguares, Gloria Trevi, Pepe Aguilar, Ximena Sariñana and Alejandra Guzmán, among others.
Tony comments that in mid-2016 the production manager of the band Zoé invited him to do some substitute shows with them and on the Voluma de León Larregui tour. "Months later they invited me to join the band's Aztlan tour, which was about to start."
Working with Zoé
For the Zoé Unplugged show, Tony used 20 Maverick MK2 Spot, 16 Maverick MK3 Wash, 16 Strike 4 and 3 Net X, chauvet Professional brand products, supplied and assembled by the meridian pro audio company.
For the distribution, 12 Maverick MK2 Spot were arranged in the front truss, which were used to zenith each musician and reinforce the general wash during the show.
The other 8 Maverick MK2 Spot were placed on the floor, under the screen and behind all the musicians, which were used by Tony to achieve counterlight effects, taking advantage of the gobos and luminosity of the MK2 Spot.
It should be borne in mind that, among the functions of these luminaires, the variable color temperature stood out, since for this show the CTO was demanded to achieve a uniform and warm wash during the presentation.
In addition, 16 Strike-4 blinders were available to illuminate the attendees, so that the band can easily have eye contact with their audience. In turn, all this lighting was controlled with an Avolites Arena console, 2 Net-X nodes, 16 Chauvet Data Stream-4, which has a total of 16 Universes in ArtNet Protocol.
According to Tony, the lighting design arose from a set of ideas and general needs that had to be met, where he was working hand in hand with Gabriel Cruz and Rodrigo Guardiola. "In general in Zoé's shows the audience responds favorably and interacts all the time during the show, but definitely the visual part formed by the video and the lighting help to generate different sensations in the different moments of the show."
Finally he said: "For me it is very important to recognize and thank the great work and support of the entire crew of Zoé, the staff of Meridian Pro Audio and especially the help of two great friends, Germán Sevillano (production manager of Zoé) and Ismael Zavaleta, who assisted me in this and many other shows in the lighting part, without their support it would be difficult to achieve the results that are usually had in each presentation, I also appreciate the support of Chauvet Professional and its work team, for the support they have given me".
