Lighting The BossHoss’ latest tour

24 GLP impression X5 Compact fixtures, arranged as a floor package across four custom-built sixbars, define the look of the 2026 summer tour for German group The BossHoss. Thought up by lighting designer and operator Pascal Wagner, the bars are reminiscent of classic ACL arrays, the tightly grouped aircraft landing lights that have given rock concerts a signature beam look for decades. Simultaneously, this rig leaves that motif open to reinterpretation on a song-by-song basis.

The tour covers about 35 dates from mid-May to mid-September, with predominantly standalone open-air concert venues. It marks the first involvement of hell begeistert. GmbH, based in Ötigheim near Karlsruhe, as technical service provider for lighting and for the custom and scenic construction of the floor package, which the company planned and built to Wagner’s design specifications.

Wagner joined the band for a club tour last fall. The current tour runs under the motto “Back To The R(B)oots”, which is rock’n’roll in its purest form. Wager’s brief, one he set himself, followed from that.

“I wanted to combine the classic rock’n’roll look with modern functional variety and a high degree of flexibility so that I would have the greatest possible creative freedom at every show,” says Pascal Wagner.

The impression X5 Compact is conceived as a washlight, but at a tight zoom position, it produces clearly collimated beams. Six fixtures were grouped into each vertical sixbar. For much of the show, Wagner uses the closely spaced units as a single bundle of sharply defined beams, leveraging that visual language of a classic ACL group.

Movement and colour extend the familiar rock’n’roll motif into contemporary imagery without surrendering the underlying form. On two or three songs, Wagner also draws on the single-pixel control of the impression X5 Compact, adding further graphic layers to the bars.

“It means I can reinterpret a classic ACL rock’n’roll look,” says Wagner.

hell begeistert. GmbH develops and delivers technical solutions for live productions and events. Alongside lighting design, lighting technology and rigging, the company covers the development and realisation of custom structures for both lighting and scenic elements. The starting point for the unusual six-way configuration was a conversation at LEaT X in Munich.

“The idea came out of a spontaneous conversation with GLP managing director Udo Künzler, who told us about the FR2 four-way bar,” recalls Nikolai Stefansky of hell begeistert. “It immediately occurred to us to adapt it as a six-way bar with the X5 Compact, which fortunately uses the same camlock as the FR2.”

GLP produced the extended bar specifically for the project. hell begeistert. GmbH took on the planning and the complete structural realisation to Wagner’s design specifications, developing the dollies and articulated joints for touring use, commissioning structural calculations and then having the assemblies manufactured by a metalworking firm. Together, these elements became a self-contained touring package built for daily get-in and get-out.

For sixbars mounted on dollies, Wagner needed a fixture that combined compact dimensions and low weight with high output and a precise beam look.

“The X5 Compact is an excellent fit for this application. It is small and light, but delivers very high output,” says Wagner. “What particularly convinces me is how well the tungsten simulation works in both the dimming and the colour behaviour, along with the tight beam. That’s why I specified the fixture from the outset.”

The GLP impression X5 Compact delivers full X5 Series performance in a compact 7.5 kg format. Equipped with seven high-output 40 W RGBL LEDs, its iQ.Gamut colour algorithm generates high colour quality and completely stepless dimming. A wide zoom range of 3.6 to 66 degrees covers everything from tight beams to homogeneous washes, and individually addressable LEDs allow pixel mapping and graphic effects.

The impression series also has a long history at hell begeistert.

“The X5 Series offers great flexibility for a wide range of applications. And thanks to its good colour rendering, it even works as camera light,” says Stefansky. “We have been using the impression series since the earlier impression 90 and X4 models, and we are very happy with the latest generation too.”

Four GLP JDC Burst 1 fixtures complete the lighting setup, supplying strobe, colour, wash and pixel effects in a single weatherproof IP65 unit. With a segmentable white strobe line and two RGBW LED surfaces carrying a combined 1,200 individually addressable pixels, the fixture produces precise, powerful accents, while 185 degrees of motorised tilt adds further movement to the design.

“I use the JDC Burst 1 for backdrop lighting and as a strobe kicker,” says Wagner. “A great fixture, and in this position definitely the first choice.”