The entertainment industry is continuously evolving, and professionals must stay ahead of the game if they want to remain competitive. That’s exactly what John Orduna and Lighting Stage Co. in Colombia are doing. We were able to catch up with John to ask him a few questions about his experience using BlackTrax for some recent concerts his production company was hired to do. A big name like Carlos Vives caught our eye and we decided to reach out to learn more.

John learned about BlackTrax about six years ago in 2017. Jose Rojo teaches wysiwyg courses in Spanish there in Colombia and he was the one who first started talking about BlackTrax and its capabilities. After going to multiple trade shows around the world, John realized that BlackTrax was everywhere and decided it was a piece of gear he wanted to include in his company’s toolbox.

What made Lighting Stage Co. think of using BlackTrax for Carlos Vives?

“We have been showing Colombian and Latin American illuminators how to incorporate BlackTrax in their shows for several years. This time, William Gallo, LD from Carlos Vives Live decided to use BlackTrax for the first time for follow-spot lighting, color washes, and being able to create several lighting cues. Secondly, William Gallo created solo cues for the musicians when they were moving around the stage. BlackTrax helped to solve these very common problems in the show.” – John Orduna, Lighting Stage Co.

John shares how BlackTrax is revolutionizing the live performance scene in Colombia and how it has helped Lighting Stage Co. generate extraordinary experiences through video tracking, lighting, sound, and robotic cameras, all perfectly synchronized for a unique experience every time. With artists benefiting from perfect follow-spot lighting, programmers gain access to powerful tools at their fingertips and have full control over fade-in/fade-out automation, which can sometimes be tricky.

And with BlackTrax being so new in Colombia, how has the support been from the BlackTrax Team at CAST?

“The team support has been very good, so good in fact that we have learned to use BlackTrax online. The system came to us at the beginning of the pandemic, and since then we have taken some online training and learned to use it, speak regularly with Diego at the head office for BlackTrax, and now we are working to do face-to-face training in Colombia.” – John Orduna, Lighting Stage Co.

Has BlackTrax been used for other shows in Colombia? Yes. Lighting Stage Co. has worked with other top artists in Colombia such as Juanes (stadium show), Yuri Buenaventura (theater show), and Morat (stadium show), and continues to offer it to all production requests that come to them as a way to create magic and an unbeatable audience experience as well as shows that artists enjoy being part of.

Here’s a video showing the lighting setup: