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NEWS
Massive Attack of Color Backs Tour
LONDON—Massive Attack’s “Collected”
2006 international tour features a hemispherical,
curving LED screen for lighting and video
effects. The group, who are currently touring
Europe to promote their tenth anniversary
“Best Of” compilation, recently returned to the
UK to play high profile headline slots at the
Wireless Festival 2006 in London and Leeds.
For this 3 rd successive tour collaboration
with the band and lighting designer Vince
Foster, United Visual Artists provided an entirely
new, more organic and audio responsive
show for their onstage visuals, while still
retaining the essence of the last two tours. To
help implement their design they used 240
Chroma-Q Color Blocks for the backdrop.
UVA had discussed the idea of surrounding
the group with LEDs capable of displaying
images and text, but which also doubled as
a full lighting rig. After getting the go ahead
from singer Robert Del Naja to develop the
concept, the team then went through many
different designs before settling on a hemispherical,
curving screen.
UVA then commissioned LiteStructures to
create a custom stand support for the fixtures,
taking into consideration all possible viewing
angles and beam directions before they were
satisfied with the curved screen. LiteStructures’
rehearsal facilities were then used to
construct the support and test out the screen,
which consists of 24 evenly spaced supports
each containing 10 Color Blocks.
The show is run from UVA’s custom software,
Dragonfly 3, on custom-built PCs in a
dual rack mount system. The Color Blocks
are DMX controlled via a USB trigger and six
channels of live audio from the band, input
via a Firewire sound card.
Songs are sequenced visually to the music,
as the band plays all cues are triggered
live by Joel Gethin Lewis, UVA’s interactive
designer, using a combination
of their click track and
his own judgment. UVA
have also created many
audio responsive layers
which, coupled with come
creative audio routing, allows
the band to “play” the
visuals live.
All visual content was
chosen in collaboration
process between singer Massive Attack
Robert Del Naja and UVA,
and was created specifically
for the show. Most of the songs feature
a blend of both UVA’s video effects and Vince
Foster’s lighting, but for certain songs one
of the two elements comes to the fore. For
example, “Unfinished Sympathy” uses only
conventional lighting, whereas “False Flags”
is dominated by video content.
The lighting rig, which was supplied by
HSL, consists of 14 x Robe ColorWash 1200
AT E, 2 x ColorSpot 1200 AT E with a conventional
rig of 24 x James Thomas floor cans
fitted with Chroma-Q color changers. The
lighting rig is looked after on the tour by Rohan
Harrison (LD) and Jonathan Williams.
Product Launch Party Is A Kick
HOLLYWOOD, CA—The vibe was cool, the
featured product was high-tech and the projections
provided by Kinetic Lighting let a starstudded
crowd know they were attending the
launch event for T-Mobile’s® Sidekick 3 at the
Hollywood Palladium.
Event producer Brent Bolthouse of Bolthouse
Productions commissioned Kinetic
to help create a “Dream World” atmosphere
inside this exclusive Hollywood event. This
gave lighting designer David Jacobi an opportunity
to utilize some of the latest visual
technology. A myriad of video and large-format
film projection, moving lights and LED
Sidekick Launch Party
technology were integrated into
an orchestrated display of color,
texture and branding.
“This was an amazing event
to light,” Jacobi said. “We were
we given a lot of creative latitude,
and were able to use a lot
of different visual tools.”
The interior space was awash
in pink, blue, and turquoise hues,
augmented with large, vibrant projection.
Meanwhile swirling video
projection of the Sidekick 3 and
the T-Mobile logo swept about the
Palladium walls, ensuring no guest
missed the promotional excitement. Lighting
was also supplied for the main stage, where
guests were treated to the sounds of She Wants
Revenge and The Futureheads.
Branding extended outside, compliments
of Finelite® projection onto the Palladium sign.
Beneath the historic marquee, Kinetic provided
press lighting for the red-carpet entrance for
an A-list of celebrities such as Jessica Simpson,
Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie.
Guest’s entered the party through a
glowing foyer, illuminated with Color Kinetics
ColorBlast 12 LED fixtures. LED tubes created
a similar color-changing effect behind
an oval-shaped Plexiglas bar that served at
the venue’s centerpiece. Bolthouse Productions
enhanced the ambiance with a sandbox,
playground, grass and trees.
Large format projection layered with fullmotion
video was featured nearly 360˚ around
the circular room. Abstract imagery projected
with High End Systems DL2s and Finelite® projectors
enveloped guests in this surreal environment.
The elaborate rig was centrally controlled
via two Flying Pig Systems Hog iPCs.
Radiohead Breezes Through North Ameri-
Radiohead’s 2006 Tour
Photo by Steve Jennings
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Los Angeles—XL Video’s UK and Los Angeles office teamed up to support Radiohead’s
2006 North American Tour. Des Fallon of XL UK worked with Production Designer,
Andi Watson, to bring the tour to the company, while XL Los Angeles’ John Wiseman is
managing the North American leg. XL provided 10 Sanyo projectors in custom made
hanging frames which Watson used with six dome cameras and five static POV cameras
for the theatre tour. Touring on behalf of XL LA is Damion Gamlin.
42 PLSN AUGUST 2006
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