McFly 2011 Arena Tour Production Build
For two days this week, James has been in Wakefield at Litestructures' "LS-Live" venue to set-up and help program the Catalyst systems that will be touring with McFly for the next 3 weeks.
XL Video are providing the systems along with the F11 back and riser screens and MiSTRIP stage.
James has been working closely with Dan from THC Design, who normally uses Mbox media server, to integrate the Catalyst content in with his lighting show.
Tomorrow is the first show in Sheffield and James will be around for any last minute changes and to make sure the first show goes well. Steve from XL Belgium will be looking after the systems for the rest of the tour.
Can you spot the cheeky Basic Monkey in the photos?
The Doves @ The Edinburgh Picture House
Tonight saw James in Edinburgh at very late notice to provide the Doves with our Catalyst media server for their show.
Mark Wynne-Edwards is the Doves lighting designer, using his own Jands Vista T2 console which works easily with Catalyst.
Once the content was uploaded to our server, it was simply a case of testing a few cues in Mark's pre programmed show and all was ready. The output was a Sanyo 10k projector onto a white drape behind the band. This allowed images to cast over the band members and kit.
Check out the photos!
St. Etienne at The Ritz, Manchester
Today James acted as rigger/technician for St. Etienne's show at Manchester's Ritz venue.
Having received sketch plans yesterday, James had 6x Robe ColorSpot 700 and 6x Robe ColorWash 700 moving lights, 2x Martin Atomic strobes, 8x James Thomas Pixellines, 6x 2lite molefays and 6x S4 19deg profiles to fit intro the notoriously tight venue. All equipment was provided along with James by HSL in Blackburn.
The moving lights were split between the floor, boxes, truss towers and a goalpost truss across the back on 2no Litech wind up stands. Matt Waterfield the LD arrived late morning and was happy with the deviations from plot made by James to fit into the venue. Room was made for the band's fastfold screens under the goalpost truss with a minimum of clearance.
James to de-rig Sting’s Durham Cathedral DVD Record
HSL have asked James to assist with the de-rig at Durham cathedral of Sting's new show recorded for DVD.
Not sounding a very glamorous role, it did involved working in the bowels and heights of one of the most beautiful buildings in the UK. 100x Robe ColorWash moving lights in both 1200 and 2500 models were used on specially built rigs strapped to columns, on cases around the organ, or high up on the cathedral's walkways. Also, 9x A&O Falcon 7000 moving lights were used, in both beam and flower varieties with 2x hung from a truss suspended from the bell tower, a 200ft drop!
Harnessed up, James and Paddy spent most of the night lowering the wash moving lights from the high walkways on a builder's wire hoist. Then they made their way to the bell tower to drop the two huge falls of wire and motor chain.
James to rig for Kooks in Blackpool
The Kooks are playing tonight in an old ballroom in Blackpool, not suited to touring bands and their production requirements. To adapt for this, Ian from HSL created a ground support truss system to accommodate the band's lighting and PA rigs.
Since this installation is done overnight, Ian would be in no fit state to go climbing all day to pull the motor chains up. James was asked to spend the day on site to cover Ian's responsibilities. This involved positioning the rigging points on the GS truss, pulling and attaching motor chains and rigging the two house points for the audience truss.
