CHASING THE DRAGONFLY WITH SPIKIES
Formed by LD Tom Mason-Smith three years ago and run together with his wife, Stella, Dragonfly’s core vision has been to supply lighting equipment and services geared towards the needs and demands of working lighting designers.
Tom was working for SBTRKT at the time he started Dragonfly, and was becoming increasingly frustrated by not being able to get the exact kit on his spec from assorted rental companies, so he thought he would buy it!
This quickly led to starting the company not just to service his own shows and projects, but to focus on LDs and offer a boutique, personal styled operation sourcing kit for anything from one-offs to complete international tours.
The Spikies grow the ever-increasing rental inventory of Robe which includes LEDWash 300s, Pointes and CycFX 8s.
Initially he’d started out with LED wash and beam fixtures from other brands, but these were soon swapped … first with LEDWash 300s - which is when he “fell in love” with Robe … and shortly afterwards his older beam fixtures were replaced with Robe’s popular multi-purpose Pointe.
The CycFX 8s he purchased off Robe’s PLASA stand in 2015 ... and this year, he followed the same procedure with the Spikies … which have been out constantly since the end of September.
He’s already cross rented them to a number of other LDs including Ollie Suckling (Maximo Park), Miles Weaver of Cue Design (Mura Masa) and Luke Edwards, founder of Cue Design (Gary Numan) among others.
As well as taking care of his expanding client base, Tom designs and operates his own shows and sub hires from Panalux Lighting. He also works with corporate clients as well as doing specialist projection and laser projects.
His clients include singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Theme Park for whom he is LD, and Boiler Room Productions, live division of the global online music broadcasting platform for which he production manages. They are well known for presenting and streaming DJ performances and webcasts from challenging and idiosyncratic locations.
One of the many things he likes about Robe is the good range of dynamic products and the excellent service, backup and support from Robe UK. “It’s rare to have an issue with any Robe kit, but if I ever need them to do anything, it’s dealt with super-quickly and efficiently … with a smile,” he says.
He’d already been using Robe for some time before he made the first investment and as he says, “Wherever you rock up in the word for the show … you know that if you see Robe fixtures there … they are going to work.’
Robe is now the only moving light brand that Dragonfly stocks.
Tom was born in the industry. His step-father owns a PA system and looked after the house system at London’s famous Electric Ballroom, so he regularly saw shows there, and started lighting bands seriously aged about 15. There were only 18 PAR cans in the venue at that time, but he learned the basic groundwork of how even a small amount of lights can contribute to the ambience and drama of what’s happening onstage, and this fired the enthusiasm to make it his career.
