Iwan Hutapea Covers Diverse Range At Soundrenalin With ChamSys

BALI, INDONESIA – The iconic and influential British pop rockers Suede felt right at home when they headlined the Soundrenalin. The upbeat spin on alt music that the band spearheaded in the 1990s was reflected in the sounds of some of their coheadliners at the two day festival, such as the popular Indonesian quintet Padi Reborn. But pop music in Indonesia is every bit as diverse as it is in the UK, so sharing the stage with alt rockers was a wide range of artists, from the hard driving Indonesian metal band Jamrud, to local R&B legend Glenn Fredly. 

Tying this diverse musical offering together visually on two stages, while still creating unique looks that reflected the unique personalities of each of the more than 40 artists who appeared at Soundrenalin, was a challenge, according to festival lighting designer Iwan Hutapea. It was one he met, however, in beautiful fashion with help from two ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium consoles. 

“The diversity on the stage was impressive,” said Iwan, owner of Etcetera Lighting. “We designed the lighting rig to be very flexible. As for the console, we used ChamSys, not just for its capabilities, but also because it is very user friendly for programming and networking, which made it easy to add ArtNet.”

When Iwan ran the boards during the festival he was grateful that he could work with playbacks and preset faders without swapping between modes, which made it easier to busk.  “We did a lot of busking, because many of the bands gave us their song lists only at the last minute,” he said. “This is when you really appreciated that the ChamSys is so user-friendly.”

Iwan also appreciated how easy it was for LDs who have never worked with the MagicQ MQ 500 Stadium to familiarize themselves with the new console. “ChamSys was the festival console, so visiting LDs were given the opportunity to use it of course,” he said. “It was really a very straightforward process for them to learn the console and make personalities for their floor package fixtures. Really, my biggest challenge was to convince new LDs how simple the ChamSys was to use. But once they tried it, they were convinced.”