Avolites provides 360° control for Arcade Fire
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The indie heavyweights are performing from a 360° stage in the round and Bushell worked closely with creative director Tarik Mikou from Moment Factory on the production.
"The overall brief was for a visceral lighting and video design that both formed and blended with the show's scenography,” says Bushell. "The arena design features a strong sporting event vibe, with a boxing ring stage in the centre of the room."
Much of the programming for the arena tour is developed from Bushell's preceding design for the band's festival circuit this year. The 'boxing ring stage' - a central, in-the-round performance space, is crowned with a square lighting grid clad in LED video screens. Out in the arena, vertical towers provide additional lighting positions to cover the stage and provide strong beam looks around the room.
"Working in the round comes with its challenges," says Bushell. "I can't check or update positions and cues until every piece of lighting and automation is up and running. This leaves me little time to get the pin-point accuracy required. To overcome this, I programme remotely from the console using a wireless router and the Avolites Titan v10.1 app. The app allows me to roam around an arena venue, updating fixture positions as I go."
The Avolites Titan v10.1 app works alongside any Avolites Titan console to provide moving light control from an Apple or Android device. Using the app, Bushell can modify fixture attributes such as dim, pan and tilt. He can also create, update and apply palettes, play cues, command style fixture selection, intensity control, quick sketch legends and view DMX address patch remotely.
He says: "This show is 100% live, so the Sapphire's two screens and multiple handles mean I can keep an open palette of cues to work with and manipulate live, rather than getting locked into a cue stack or timecode. It's important to me to feel part of the live experience, rather than just pressing a 'Go Button' from time to time."
For the band's festival shows earlier this year Bushell chose to use an Avolites Arena console and Titan Network Processor (TNP), both supplied by production design company MIRRAD through PRG.
Bushell explains: "The TNP with the Arena console was essential for festivals. We were running eight universes for our touring system, so it was helpful to keep all that safely separate on the TNP and allow the console to do the daily grind of looking after the wildly differing festival lighting systems that we were presented with."
The Arcade Fire Infinite Content tour is currently on its American leg and will visit the UK and Europe in April 2018, beginning with a show at the 3Arena in Dublin Ireland.
(Jim Evans)
