Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. There’s safety in numbers. Hedge your bets! There is no shortage of advice, telling us that we should avoid finding ourselves in a position where we rely on only one solution with no alternative. After all, it is common sense, right? Well…not always!

Fortunately for the fans who thronged to Edinburgh’s popular FLY Festival at Princes Street Gardens not long ago, Nick Jevons didn’t follow the crowd when it came to this advice. Drawing up plans to light the two-day festival’s 40-meter long main stage, Jevons opted to go with a single lighting fixture model: The CHAUVET Professional COLORado PXL Bar 16 supplied by Liteup.

Daring? Perhaps, but based on the reactions of fans who saw the dynamic, multi-faceted looks that supported the music of internationally acclaimed DJs from Peggy Gou to Henrik Schwarz, Jevons’ decision was brilliant.

Of course, selling doubters on the idea that his single fixture idea would made sense did require some persuasive skills. “Convincing others that the concept of having one fixture type would work to deliver enough different looks for a two day dance festival was a challenge,” said Jevons. “I’m proud to say the results did not disappoint.”

Persuading everyone to go alone with his one fixture plan was one of the challenges Jevons faced, the other was to ensure that the two rows of 1000 x 139 x 273 mm (39.37 x 5.47 x 10.75 in) fixtures in his design, each consisting of 40 units, were aligned in two straight lines. He credits the production team, notably Chris Canavan from 19MIL “who come up with the stage design and had faith in my lighting design,” with making this arrangement work.

The two rows of PXL Bar 16 battens, flanking a large horizontal video wall on either side ran across the entire width of the stage. There were also some atmospheric effects, but from a lighting standpoint, no other fixtures were there to help. (A row of mirrored panels angled at 40-degrees, reflected the light from the fixtures, adding to the depth of the show with some very unique angles.)

In the end though, it was the PXL units that were responsible for generating all of the lighting looks. “Drawing on this fixture’s full pixel mode gave us incredible creative flexibility when it came to programming,” Jevons said of his 23-universe show. “My programmer, Steve Mac fully mixed everything live to follow the ebb and flow of the music.”

Elaborating on the COLORado PXL Bar 16’s performance, Jevons noted, “Thanks to the flexibility of the fixture, we could get huge looks with full intensity, and then break the lighting down into individual pixels for really small intimate looks.” The smooth movements of the motorized battens, which has a 200-degree tilt also added to the variety of the festival’s lighting, as did their fully pixel mappable 45 W RGBW LEDs with their 5.8 to 47.9 degree zoom range.

Working with the video content and atmospheric effects, the versatile PXL battens helped Jevons and his team come up with just the right visuals throughout the festival, whether it was a glowing purple haze for Mr.G’s famous heartfelt funk, or ice cool looks for UK wave maker Max Dean. It didn’t matter what the sound was, the looks were spot on. Proving indeed that sometimes one is enough.