Alain Corthout Balances Diverse Los 40 Music Award Show With ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M

MADRID – “Music Inspires Life,” so went a slogan created a few years ago for radio network Los 40. In the process, the sweet sounds and beautiful harmonies that fall under the umbrella of “music,” also inspires a wonderfully rich level of diversity. This is clearly evident in the story of this global broadcasting behemoth, which has affiliates in 20 countries, airing songs in both Spanish and English.

Fittingly, the 17th edition of the network’s Los 40 Awards Show showcased a wide range of talent representing a broad mix of musical styles and personalities. Taking place at the 17,00-capacity WiZink Center in the historic center of Madrid, the show celebrated the achievements of artists, ranging from Rosalia and Adele to Yungbood and Bad Gyal, to The Black Eyed Peas and Dani Martin.

The eclectic mix of artists appearing during the ceremonies satisfied fans’ taste for a variety, but the breadth and sheer number of performances on stage presented a challenge for lighting designer Alain Corthout and his team.

“This was a big production,” said Corthout. “We had over nine different types of spots and six types of washes, so we had to keep things simple to avoid becoming messy. We also had to be fast, due to the number of acts and the volume of last minute changes.”

Helping Corthout meet these challenges were his two ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M Stadium consoles supplied by Fluge, the main rental company for the show. “Our ChamSys desks have been a great asset in this project,” he said. “The programming speed we can achieve with it was a game changer; we got so much music last minute, so we had to be very quick.

“The way we can timecode Cue Stacks in ChamSys is really fast,” continue Corthout. “We had our two MQ500M desks in a master-slave setup which works perfectly to keep things moving fast. To give you an idea of the our speed, there were short clips between the musical performances and the actual award presentations, and we were able to transition from one to the other in only two seconds.”

Corthout notes that the color function of the faders on the MQ500M was essential. “We needed to have a lot of faders for quick access, “ he recalled. “Because of this, the color function of the faders came in really handy; it made it really easy for us to see instantly which fader to touch.”

Working with Timothy De Mets, Arf&Yes, the first programmer/operator, and Mario Lopez Fernandez, Magic Studio, assistant programmer/operator, Corthout programmed the Los 40 show in Capture, Depence & Vectorworks. “ChamSys worked perfectly with the visualisers,” he said. “The connection was flawless!”

Drawing on the performance features of his consoles, and collaboration with his talented team Corthout was able to achieve a harmonious balance in his show, creating dynamic looks for each song without losing anything in key lighting. Embraced by his big immersive design, every facet of this diverse show flourished.