Möbius was a stage element that we built for the live show of the drum’n’bass duo Camo & Krooked. It was our first tour production and despite massive time constraints, we were able to conceive and produce the project in time for their Austrian Winter Tour. The structure is made of a custom aluminum frame and covered in over 3000 LEDs, with all the electronics embedded within the object itself. For ease of transport, the object can be disassembled into 4 identical pieces. This required meticulous mathematical precision in the planning phase, the formulas for which were handled by several experts including a university professor at the Technical University of Vienna.
Before the construction of the final aluminum object, we created a prototype object that was based on projection mapping and not LEDs. After we had proof of concept, we went ahead with the construction of the final structure, employing the help and expertise of Simon Weißhäupl as lead fabricator and 3D designer. Within 3 months of conception, we had a polished product to use for the Austiran Tour.
To read more about the Austrian Winter Tour 2013, click here
Technical Details
The installation uses 2 different kinds of LEDs. The standard “dumb” LEDs for the horizontal lines, as well as WS2812 individually controllable LED strip for the outlines. The two different kinds of LEDs work together smoothly, though they are both controlled in completely different ways.
The two universes of dumb LEDs are controlled with 2 Artnet nodes that are connected to the visual server via an Ethernet switch. This switch is also connected to the shared Ethernet switch of Camo & Krooked’s laptops. Through this connection, the visual server can receive OSC data from their MIDI controllers and Ableton set, and send DMX data to the Möbius all over the same network.
The WS2812 LED strip that cover the outlines are controlled with a Teensy 3.1 that is outfitted with both an OctoWS2811 Adapter and a WIZ812 Ethernet Adapter. The Teensy is setup to act as a normal Artnet node, so it can receive normal Artnet / DMX signals through the Ethernet Adapter. The OctoWS2811 Adapter is used to split up the signal into 8 lines, which is the perfect amount for the Möbius.
The content is controlled by a custom Max/MSP patch using David Butler’s imp.dmx plugins to interface with the Artnet components of the Möbius. The content is a hybrid of generative content and pre-produced content. Because the setup is hooked up to that of Camo & Krooked, it can react and be controlled directly from their inputs: a Wii-controller, e-drums, a MIDI keyboard and 2 iPads. Despite being partially controlled by Camo & Krooked, I retain the bulk of control of the light show, using a APC40 to control diverse parameters and to trigger content.
Hardware:
“Dumb” LED strip
WS2812B 30LED/meter LED strip
2 x Enntec Artnet ODE
Ethernet switch
Teensy 3.1
OctoWS2811 Adapter
WIZ812 Ethernet Adapter
APC40 MIDI controller
12 x 48-channel DMX dimmer
12 x 12V 10A power supply (for the dumb LEDs)
4 x 5v 10A power supply (for the intelligent LEDs)
