Spectacle of Lights - PLSN.com

UK Music Hall of
Fame Contracts
Video Screens
LONDON — XL Video Ltd. supplied LED
screens, VersaTUBES, projection and Catalyst
Playback for the 2006 UK Music Hall of
Fame event, staged at London‘s Alexandra
Palace on Tuesday, November 14. It is the
second year running that XL has supplied
the prestigious Endemol-produced show.
XL’s team was project managed by Paul
Wood, working with production manager
Paul-Ant Violet and set designer Bill Laslett.
The main “Awards Package” screen was
a traditional 6 x 4 meter BP screen, positioned
stage right and fed by one of XL’s
new Christie Roadster S+20 HD projectors.
The up-stage LED screen was composed
of 80 panels of Lighthouse R16, flown in
three columns.
Scenic projection was used on a silvergrey
gauze in the mid-center stage area,
with XL supplying four further Christie
Roadster S+20s that were double stacked
and soft-edged together to form one 9-meter
wide by 5-meter high image.
XL also supplied 112 Element Labs 1-
meter long VersaTUBE LED fixtures, which
were used to create a hall through the
set, consisting of 10 seven-meter VersaT-
UBE ribs upstage and six
ribs downstage. The raised performance
platform stage left was also dressed with
15 VersaTUBES around its base.
For video playback, XL supplied three
dual-channel Catalyst v4 digital media
servers, with sources either fed through to
the CTV OB truck and mixed with EVS, or
straight to the screens.
XL’s crew were Graham Vinal and Gareth
Manicom (on LEDs), Gerry Corry (projectionist)
and Simon Pugsley (who took care
of all-things Catalyst and VersaTUBE), working
in collaboration with Catalyst director/
operator Ian Reith.
The Scissor
Sisters Glitz It Up
PHOENIX, AZ—The 2006-2007 NFL season
kicked off with Spyders in the studio,
Vista Systems Spyders. A pair of networked
Spyder 380 and 204 models support a large
LED wall in the background of the new set
for NFL On CBS, the CBS Sports studio show
that airs Sunday in High Definition during
telecasts of NFL games.
Using Vista Systems software, the
Spyders control the display of game clips
and other video feeds, as well as animations,
stats and other graphics. The Spyder
supports an upstream Leitch HDSDI
NEWS
NFL On CBS Updates Stage
NFL on CBS set
router for access of any source required
for display.
CBS Sports was exploring a number of
image-processing options when it visited
the Vista Systems booth at NAB earlier this
year. “Ease of use and superior image quality
were prime factors in CBS Sports’ decision to
purchase Spyder for its NFL On CBS telecast,”
notes Victor Vettorello, director of applications
engineering at Vista Systems. “Having a
control environment that a broadcast technical
director can comfortably be at ease with
was vital to the decision.”
The Scissor Sisters show
LONDON — New York rockers the Scissor
Sisters are currently on tour promoting
their new album Ta-dah. Flamboyant by
name and by nature, this band doesn’t do
low-key.
Lighting designer Dave Ross first met
the band over two years ago when they
headlined their first ever show in the UK at
The Scala London. Dave specified numerous
PixelLines 1044s for the gig, which started
an 18-month stint of touring. The 1044s soon
became a big feature of the show, especially
in the US, where 1044s were relatively new
to the market.
For this tour, Dave works alongside show
and set designer Roy Bennett. An integral
part of the design is a flat wall of 144 PixelPar
90s 16 fixtures wide by nine fixtures high
upstage behind two Kabukis.
Dave explains, “The band has very set
ideas concerning the use of lighting and
video, and they are always keen to build
their show gradually. An although the PixelPars
are only really used for the last two
songs, it’s well worth the wait.”
The concept behind the wall of PixelPars
is to produce a ‘70s light box. Programmed
by Dan Hardiman using an M-Box extreme
to play video across the matrix, it was not
the intention to make the video obvious,
and the whole wall is intended to look like a
lighting fixture, rather than a low definition
screen.
Dave continues: “The songs where the
PixelPars are introduced have very different
inspirations, and the wall is used to try
and reflect those influences. Be it a giant underlit
dancefloor for ‘Dancin’ or sleazy strip
club signs for ‘Filthy Gorgeous.’ The ‘70s look
keeps the back white backdrop to diffuse
the light and give a more colourful backdrop.
For ‘Filthy’ we drop the Kabuki to give
more beams and a heavier backlit look.”
The show is controlled by a Wholehog
IPC, and all lighting is supplied by
PRG Europe.
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PLSN DECEMBER 2006 39