Finally Living the Dream…
When you get used to tour buses, busy airports and crowded planes; any change is welcome.
As a last minute addition to the tour, Faithless were asked to travel to St. Petersburg in Russia to perform at a VIP concert as part of a big financial event. To make the trip work, the event organisers chartered a Boeing Business Jet from Royal Jet to fly the band and crew to the city in style...
We arrived at the Signature Air Services terminal at Heathrow (not like your average terminal) to find a grand piano, comfy sofas and tea and biscuits on tap. Realising that the band were slightly delayed and that there was no drink at the terminal, we headed over to Wetherspoon's at T4 for a couple.
Upon return to Signature, we were transported to our plane on mini-bus past the Sultan of Brunei's and many other smart private jets. After a quick security check, we boarded the plane to a welcome of fruit bowls, chocolates and smiling stewardesses. A huge step up from the Ryanair trip to Poland a few weeks ago!
During the flight we were served some of the best food I've had. For starter we had a selection from a plentiful seafood buffet, for main there was a choice of 6 dishes (or a combination) and then a rather sickly sweet trolley! When I asked for a brandy and coke, I was informed that the only brandy available was Remy XO, this wasn't a problem.
Arriving in Russia, Maxi started a chant of 'It's not over, we're not getting off', a sentiment I think most of us agreed on.
I have a strong feeling that this was a once in a lifetime experience and it will be appreciated as such.
James
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!
Samsung Korea, Photos and Video
YouTube Video, in 6 parts. Intro, White, Yellow, Pink, Green and Wrap-up.
Some photos of the setup.
Samsung Corby Launch, Seoul
Basic Monkey's first venture outside of Europe has just come to an end, a very exciting 11 days in Seoul, Korea leading to a very successful event.
Following on from the Milan Fashion Week Launch, Jack Morton Worldwide were asked to travel to Seoul with the same team that created the holographic experience in Milan. Lighting, sound, set, staging and side screen video would be provided locally by Yonhanaro. XL Video provided the 16 Barco FLM HD 18 projectors, 2x Catalyst systems and processing, also bringing in James from Basic Monkey and Nev Bull of Pixels Plus to program and run the show. Basic Monkey provided a Jands Vista S3 lighting console, a high-spec Catalyst media server with suite of video software and network gear for content distribution.
Learning from the challenges encountered at Milan, James was involved from an early stage to design the pixel specification and consult with the rest of the team regarding Catalyst capabilities and methods. JMW also decided to help on three fronts to reduce workload and the chance of issues from Milan reoccurring: 1) Bring in a second Catalyst operator, Nev Bull 2) Supply a software producer (and body guard), Sharon Stansfield and 3) Ship the team out well in advance of the event and program offsite at the offices of D'strict (the graphics and content team).
The team worked really well. James would, as before, program and operate the show, with Nev acting as Catalyst technician, handling hardware issues and setting up the complex video input system. Sharon acted as intermediary between the team at D'strict and James and Nev, this meant that any content alterations wouldn't impact too much on programming and ensured a common schedule to work to. James was also responsible for processing the video files provided by D'strict and provided 'pixel crunching' and technical support to the local video team in charge of the side screen content.
For those that don't know, the holograms are created by projecting images onto the floor which then reflected using a very high-tech plastic stretched at 45 degrees along each side of the catwalk. This is provided my Musion, based in the UK and rigged by Steve from Nippy Industries. The technology is amazing and is best appreciated in person, please check out the YouTube videos.
All this technology is nothing without the amazing videos created by D'strict, along with their incredible 'Gesture' system that tracks the presenter's hand movements and also 'Vision Blob' which tracks dancers' movements along the catwalk and maps graphics which appear above or infront of them.
The team on the ground was as follows:
Rob Oliver - Senior Production Manager (JMW)
Jeavon Smith - Producer (JMW)
Tim Riley - Video HOD (XL)
Warren Galt - Projectionist (XL)
Sharon Stansfield - Software Producer
Nev Bull - Catalyst Technician (PP)
James Cooksey - Catalyst Operator (BM)