Seal @ Moscow, Russia
Tonight's show was in the smart, new, purpose built theatre at Crokus City on the outskirts on Moscow.
The traffic in Moscow is of epic proportions, with even the artist himself falling foul of the jams.
With a full house of energetic fans, the show was one of the best yet.
James
Views from a Train
Of all the train trips I thought I'd take in my life, St. Petersburg to Moscow wasn't one of them.
The view from the window on the trip was such a vastly varied one. Leaving St. Petersburg with it's many stonework buildings, the view quickly turning into builders' yards and sheds ending up with vast forests and fields with a scattering of wooden shacks.
On the route we crossed over quite a few large rivers and passed some vast lakes, all surrounded by huge expanses of trees.
You could see the variations in wealth as the train passed through the regions, some dwellings appear as if they are near collapse while some obviously belonging to the more affluent.
As we neared Moscow, very quickly the yards and sheds appeared, followed by huge swathes of tower blocks, often with little space between them.
Moscow is certainly a world away from St. Petersburg, the area around the train station being very commercial and industrial, with little of the stonework architecture previously seen.
Unfortunately on this trip I wont get to see Red Square, only the traffic jam ridden roads to our venue and accommodation.
Here's looking forward to a good show!
James
Seal @ St. Petersburg, Russia
Basic Monkey is back in St. Petersburg after a year of absence, this time indoors at the city's arena with Seal.
After a lively night in the hotel, serenaded by Markus, Ben and Holly from the band and a night of little sleep due to the 24 hour daylight, we loaded into the ice arena to interface with local suppliers.
The show went smoothly as ever and a last minute influx filled the arena nicely.
James
Seal @ Couleur Cafe Festival, Brussels
After a few days down in Brussels, band and crew rolled into the Couleur Cafe festival, located right in the heart of Brussels city.
The main stage took the form of a giant boom box with circular screens flanking the stage. No LED screen at the back of the stage for this show, content was cut with cameras to the side screens which was tough work considering the interesting shape!
Next stop, Russia!
Seal @ Upa Hall, Vilnius, Lithuania
After a day off in Vilnius, Lithuania we had our second show of the tour at the city's ice rink.
The venue was the first opportunity lighting operator Theo Cox has had to program the show in complete darkness which was a welcome bonus.
Seal went down a treat with the crowd who seemed to love the classics and welcome his more recent material.
Next stop is Brussels where some of the crew have a break before our next show on Sunday at the Couleur Cafe Festival.
Seal @ Watergate Festival, Parnu, Estonia
Tonight was the first show of Seal's Summer 2011 European tour in Parnu, Estonia. With a packed crowd under the late evening sun, his performance was full of energy and the band played with true finesse.
Basic Monkey's new touring Catalyst system integrated seamlessly with the LED screen provided by Eventech and was triggered by the lighting console, operated by Theo Cox.
Theo is ably covering for show lighting designer Sean Burke who will be joining the tour further down the line. Tony Fagan is managing contact on site with local lighting suppliers.
Next stop is Vilnius, Lithuania by plane after a morning to relax in the beautiful town of Parnu.
Hello from Tallinn
Straight off a plane and to the rehearsal studios to meet the team.
First impressions of Estonia from the back of the minibus are far from expectations. Tallinn is a modern, fast developing and picturesque city. I was expecting to see stereotypical ex Eastern Bloc but instead was greeted by something very Scandinavian.
Beautiful old buildings surrounded by new, smart developments sit either side tree lined streets. The view out to the Baltic sea on this lovely, warm summer day is stunning although Tallinn being the busy port that it is, means an unfortunate smattering of container ships.
Today is a chance for introductions as I wait for my kit to arrive.
James
Basic Monkey is Video Supplier for Seal’s Summer European Tour
Basic Monkey has been asked to supply our new dual touring Catalyst system for Seal's Summer European tour starting tomorrow.
James will be accompanying the tour, looking after the system and interfacing with locally provided LED screens and projectors.
The tour starts in Estonia, working back across Europe down towards Portugal with a few days in Russia in between, finishing at the end of July in Poland.
Our new dual touring system is completely self contained, only requiring power and screen outputs to be connected. UPS, monitor, processing, multi-viewer, DAs and monitor are all within the rack to reduce truck space and enable swift load-ins.
Keep checking back for updates over the next 5 weeks!
Unite Rules Conference
Following on from the success of Unilever's conference at the ExCeL centre in London earlier this year, Steven Williams at CSP asked Basic Monkey to design and supply video for Unite, the Union's rule conference at the ACC in Liverpool.
Irene Reed from Frameworks Events produced the event and asked long standing partner CSP to realise the technical requirements.
The video system included 3x Barco FLM R22+ projectors, the best in class, which shone onto an 18m x 4.85m super-widescreen surface. These were driven by our 'Gorilla' Catalyst system, which took in feeds from cameras and IML voting.
Three cameras in total were used; two Grass Valley HD channels from Basic Monkey, one with a Canon Super 70 long lens and also a locked off Sony Z7 above stage. These were ably cut by Kevin Watts on a Panasonic HS50.
The remit from Frameworks was very specific for the layout on screen and James was tasked with using Catalyst to make it work. A scrolling news ticker at the top of screen could be slid in and out, displaying dynamically updated text which was remotely input. The current topic information was displayed in a box to the left of screen which again was dynamically updated remotely over a network.
IML handled all the delegate registration and card voting, the results of which could be displayed in place of the camera PiP. When delegates approached the stage to talk, they scanned their smart card at the graphics desk which in turn sent their name, region and sector details to be displayed as a lower third graphic over their camera image.
A second Catalyst machine was used to arrange the above information into a feed that was distributed around the building on relay plasmas, ensuring that delegates knew the current order of business and could see what was going on outside of the auditorium.
This complex signal routing and flow of information again showed the flexibility of the Catalyst system, combined with the ease of programming on the Jands Vista console.
Range Rover Evoque Launch
After three weeks, three cities and 64 shows, the new Range Rover Evoque has been well and truly launched to the public.
Starting in Earl's Court, London, then to the NEC in Birmingham and finishing at the GMEX in Manchester, the show was designed to cause hysteria amongst the invited guests with fast paced music, energetic dancers and attractive models.
The show was produced by Doll Events and managed by Paul Devine who called upon Delta to provide the surround sound system, ELP to supply lighting, ERP to install the laser system, Stage One to implement the automation and XL Video to realise the complex video requirements.
From a technical standpoint alone, this has to be one of the most impressive car launches to date:
The guests enter what appears to be an enclosed cinema area with raked seating and a large projection screen with the words "Evoque LIVE" on, all surrounded by blue set panels.
Once seated and the big green button is pushed, the lights dim and mechanical and atmospheric noises are heard all around. The message on the large projection screen disappears and the raked seating starts to rotate to the left. As the guests are rotated, video images of flocking birds follow round on what are now realised as 18 more projection screens.
When the audience is facing 180 degrees from where they started, a stunning cityscape appears with wireframe images of the Evoque driving through. The city scape is then covered with rain and as it is, some of the screens begin to move away from the crowd revealing men in black striking poses in silhouette.
Following this dramatic introduction there are three sections to interpret each of the three specifications available:
"Pure" is shown with the screens all fully retreated in white forming a background for the first wave of models, all dressed in white.
"Dynamic" starts with the crowd rotating left to reveal three men in red, backed by a sunset. After a change in music they break pose and perform a variety of impressive free running moves around the stage area with the audience rotating to follow. The performance is then handed over to the dancers who perform an energetic routine to a fast paced and catchy track with the screens showing 18 different video clips of the car driving around a city. This culminates in the dancers grouping together centre stage and lowering down to the floor.
"Prestige" is represented by a ballet dancer who is revealed as the dynamic dancers reach the floor who then glide away across the stage. She performs a solo piece and then interacts with the two male dancers either side of stage. The ballet is backed by images of the dancer herself surrounded by smoke with only 6 of the screens retreated. This is followed by another show from the models, now in evening attire.
The show finishes with the dancers returning to the stage to more energetic music backed by a medley of images from the previous sections. They are then joined by the models and free runners who all run round either side of the audience to where the larges projection screen was. As the audience is rotated back to their start position it becomes apparent that the screen has gone and behind it are two Range Rover Evoques, back lit with intense white and surrounded by the performers.
Basic Monkey provided two of the four Catalyst media servers required to drive the 19x projectors, the content for which was created by Colin Rozee in collaboration with Nigel Catmur who designed the slick and impressive lighting.
James was on site to manage the video team of Jim Fisher (Projectionist) and Alex Roberts (Assistant Projectionist) for Tim Riley at XL Video. James was also tasked with taking the content from Colin and 'pixel bashing' it to work across the 4x Catalyst machines.
The show was run using timecode, meaning that the sound, lighting, video, lasers and automation would always remain in sync and be the same for each show.
Hopefully we'll get the chance to work on the next big Land Rover launch.
