GLP lights up Mayday: the mother of all raves

Gerdon Design gave Mayday a new look with the video-capable hybrid strobe from GLP, including a premiere for the FUSION Creos, as Headliner recently discovered…

This year, Mayday – known as ‘the mother of all raves’ – once again offered around 20,000 techno enthusiasts the rare opportunity to dance for 12 hours straight in Dortmund’s Westfalenhalle, among the who’s who of the international techno scene.

The four large Mayday dancefloors have always been impressive, with their spectacular stage constructions, huge LED surfaces and lighting technology finesse. This year, the Gerdon Design team created a completely new highlight: deploying a total of 102 of the brand new video-capable JDC2 IP hybrid strobes from GLP. These characterised the look of this year’s event, which carried the slogan ‘United’.

Every year the design team, led by lighting and content designer Marek Papke from Gerdon Design, is faced with the task of giving the EDM event a new look that, on the one hand, retains familiar style elements such as the Mayday rocket, but on the other hand constantly features new lighting and video technical design ideas.

“With the JDC2 IP this year we had the opportunity to give the event a powerful and at the same time extremely versatile new look,” confirms Gerdon Design founder and managing director, Thomas Gerdon.

Papke designed 72 GLP JDC2 IP into the stage area. Behind the DJ position were six 8 x 2-meter LED strips, next to which were MLT trusses equipped with eight JDC2 IP. In this configuration, the devices expanded the video content of the LED surfaces, with content transmitted via NDI stream. In addition, another 12 JDC2 IPs were placed on a truss at the front of the stage, which were mirrored by a further 12 devices positioned at the front edge of the stage. All 72 JDC2 IP installed in the stage area were integrated into the NDI-based pixel mapping and, together with the large LED areas, formed an overwhelming overall picture whenever played out simultaneously.

“The ability to easily add video content to the new JDC2 IP via NDI is really a huge advantage,” says Papke. “NDI is now a standard format for event productions. Any media server, even a laptop, can output it. An NDI stream can be set up in just a few minutes. The advantage over previous solutions is clearly that this intuitive way allows a large system to be set up quickly, allowing for fantastic, large looks. In the case of Mayday, a media server simply outputs a full-screen image via NDI stream, with the JDC2 IP included in the feed. In terms of workflow simplicity, this is definitely a game changer in pixel mapping approach.”

In contrast, the remaining 30 devices endemic to the floor design functioned only as strobe and washlight. This year, the trusses above the dancefloor replicated the event’s well-known rocket logo. Here the JDC2 IP provided the necessary raw power to bathe the entire dance floor in blindingly bright light or strong colours.

“The JDC2 IP’s strobe output is, as expected, heavy and powerful,” says the lighting designer. “I expected nothing less from the successor to the JDC1. In fact, the JDC2 IP kills three birds with one stone: Wash and strobe are still combined in one device, plus the pixel mapping options and the graphic effects of DigiFX, which are always cool.”

Furthermore, the programming of the new hybrid devices was also straightforward, as Papke emphasises: “The programming team were very happy with the JDC2 IP. We worked closely with GLP product manager Michael Feldmann, who supported us well. We also played extensively with the GLP DigiFX integrated into the device and saved many effects for Mayday. This makes it very easy to generate very strong looks.

“It was a great pleasure to be able to use this new 3-in-1 fixture in large numbers for the first time, at such a traditional event as Mayday. The JDC2 IP actually offers a number of great new possibilities for expanding fragmented content beyond the LED surfaces and thus pushing the boundaries of creative design. Not only did the devices run smoothly, they gave Mayday a never-before-seen futuristic look that impressed everyone involved, without exception.”

The new Creos from FUSION by GLP also made a strong appearance at Mayday in smaller quantities. 16 of the new LED washlights were positioned in a row behind the DJ booth. The word ‘row’ doesn’t really do justice to the FUSION Creos, because with 18 x 40W RGBL LEDs in three rows of six pixels, several devices next to each other look more like an oversized LED bar. This equipped the DJ position with ultra-strong beam looks, with light curtains of a quality that have never been seen before, providing them with a lot of visual space.

PHOTOS: Julian Huke