Faithless European Summer Tour
James has been invited by Andy Hurst to act as video technician for Faithless' summer arenas and festivals tour. The tour will involve several UK and European venue shows, along with the usual suspects of summer festivals.
Equipment will be provided by PRG, including Martin's LC series semi-transparent LED screens which will be James' responsibility. He will also be helping with the lighting rig and roll on should he have any spare time!
Keep checking back for more news. Follow James' updates here: Faithless Posts
Jamie Tyrer’s 21st Birthday @ Craxton Wood
Lightech Sound and Light, one of Basic Monkey's longest standing clients, have asked us to provide projectors, screens and control equipment for Jamie Tyrer's 21st Birthday Party at Craxton Wood Hotel.
The remit was simply that above, but we also provided our Catalyst system and Vista console to make best use of the lighting installed by James along with Mike, Lee and Jack from Lightech.
Our Catalyst server was used to drive the projection screens and also Lightech's Traxon Mood Tiles. They are usually driven by eCue, but James and Mike decided to use the infinitely more flexible Catalyst system on this occasion with fantastic results.
The evening had a great atmosphere, with entertainment provided by DJ Kerry Spicer.
Report from the Desert
Well, it's warm and sandy.
The venue is an exhibition centre/festival site in the desert surrounding Riyadh, the route to the venue from the hotel varies every day and each has a huge number of new sights for a westerner like myself. Derelict amusement parks, go-kart tracks, vast camel trading areas and the Riyadh Aviation Club which consists of 4 tents by the side of the road.
We built the projection towers and had the projectors running on the first day with a very rough line up. The second evening I spent a few hours with Barco's Projector Toolset and some music to finish the job. Each night we have to cover the 4x Barco HD20s to shield them from the potential sandstorms at night.
Today I ventured with Jake Robertson, my assistant for the week, to the Kingdom Tower in the middle of Riyadh. After a short walk round the mall underneath, I headed up to the sky bridge to take a few photos. Quite a sight.
Some photos below, more to follow.
James
James is off to Saudi Arabia
Jonathan Bond of Vision Mill has invited James through XL Video to act as projectionist for an event at The King Abdullah University of Science & Technology in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The event involves large format projection using Barco FLM HD-20s onto a building, driven by Barco Encore.
New territory again for Basic Monkey!
Q&A Session at Manchester’s City College
I was invited by a friend of mine to talk at Manchester's City College, Sheena Simon campus today to talk about what I do and hopefully help with the production of the students' upcoming fashion show.
Public speaking has never been my strong point, however yelling across a stage I can do. I was more nervous sat infront of 20 students than on stage infront of 80,000 people!
We discussed the different elements of their show, my main response being that the most important aspect is timing and coordination. Even on the lowest budgets, you can still make a show feel coordinated in regards music, choreography, lighting and visuals.
I'd relish the opportunity again, next time I think I'll be a little more at ease.
James
Volvo Dealer Kick-off, Celtic Manor
This week James has been at Celtic Manor for HSL to implement and operate lighting and Robe DigiSpot 7000s for Volvo's Dealer Kick-off. The event was produced by Patrick from CWA, with lighting designed by Phil Wiffen.
Phil specified the 6x DigiSpots to project custom and stock content onto the cycs down the side of the room. Used in both 3 way merge and independent modes, James programmed the show on a Jands Vista T4 under the guidance of CWA.
ATC provided projection onto screens in the centre of each cyc, so when these were in use the DigiSpots would be used to project logos either side of the screen.
The day finished with an evening of X-factor styled karaoke, backed by appropriate stock video content and matching lighting colours.
Ruth Lorenzo was the special guest, performing 6 numbers. With access to the set list only briefly before the guests arrived, James programmed colour and gobo matched video and lighting states to re-enforce her performance.
