With numerous hit singles, sell-out tours and television appearances, it’s fair to say that Niels Destadsbader is one of Belgium’s most popular entertainers. In recent years, Niels is also known to have been partial to creative collaborations. One recent collaboration with fellow Belgian music producer Miguel Wiels for a special “Niels & Wiels” four-concert tour has succeeded in showing just how powerful collaboration can be. Providing equally powerful visual support for the duo’s unique blend of pop music was local creative studio Painting With Light, who specified 11 Chauvet Professional Maverick MK1 Hybrid, two Maverick MK2 Spot, ten Maverick MK3 Wash and six Rogue R2 Wash fixtures in support of their visual concept.

Providing the central visual element to Painting With Light’s entire design concept was an enlarged photo of both artists, which occupied the space normally dominated by large LED video screens. Surrounding this, LD and designer Luc Peumans constructed various visual elements within the stage space, utilising the selection of Chauvet Professional lighting fixtures.

Key to Peumans’ visual concept were 11 Maverick MK1 Hybrid fixtures, which were positioned on the ground to provide cutting beam and split wash effects. In addition to the versatile performance package of the fixture, which includes two six-position rotating slot and lock gobo wheels, a seven-position plus white colour wheel and three-facet prism, visual punch for the pair’s plethora of upbeat numbers was guaranteed thanks to the 440W Osram light source and 13º – 37º zoom range.

For side lighting, six two-metre high stands were each rigged with the Rogue R2 Washes to illuminate Niels’ backing band. Working in harmony with the beam effects of the MK1 Hybrid to achieve an all-encompassing effect, the saturated RGBW coloirs of the LEDs were able to accentuate the backing band and photo backdrop by spreading saturated tones smoothly throughout, simultaneously succeeding in shaping a number of varied and contrasting atmospheres for the pair’s eclectic catalogue of songs.

In addition to two Maverick MK2 Spots specified to project crisp, clean spotlighting upon Niels & Wiels, Peumans incorporated a further ten Maverick MK3 LED washes to introduce a subtle blanket wash element to cover the whole band on stage. Thanks to the 27 x 40W pixel mappable LEDs of the Maverick MK3s and features such as pixel mapping effects and CTO colour mixing, programmer Jeroen Opsteyn and Niels’ regular lighting operator Kristof De Dycker were able to craft a number of diverse looks and interactions with the rest of the Chauvet fixtures.

To provide visual support for Belgium’s most talked about collaboration, Peumans and his team were ultimately required to perform a collaborative effort of their own. Thanks to their decision to utilise the versatile effects and features of the array of Chauvet Professional fixtures, they succeeded in creating a unique visual display of energy and colour to induce unique looks for Belgium's hottest band.