Brilliant Stages designed the vertical tracking system to support the six sections of moving high-resolution video screen. Four towers and a header truss pick up the screen sections, which are arranged three wide by two high. The towers transfer a portion of the weight of the video screen down to the stage to avoid overloading the roof steel, and the header truss carries the hoists and drives during transit. Removable wheel units pin to the existing video screen frames and capture the DS tower chords. The screens pass within 15mm of adjacent columns while moving at up to 9.8mpm (32fpm) lifted by variable speed chain hoists under computer control. The customized CM chain hoists and metal fabrication were supplied by Tomcat UK.
The system was designed to keep the setup and operation of a complex system tourable. The experience and capabilities of Brilliant Stages and Tomcat UK came together again and produced equipment to support a very impressive show. The show also features 235 meters of Dutch manufacturer LagoLED's Neon Line LED-based lighting effects.
The show's designers needed a strong central effect that could combine visual impact with video imagery: the solution came in the form of six flown video screens arranged in three columns of two panels. The answer to the problem of moving the screens with millimetre precision, and in a manner that was both easy to use and fast to rig and de-rig lay with Kinesys and the 'Elevation 1+' variable speed chain hoist controller.
Each screen was suspended from a pair of converted 8m/min 1 tonne Lodestar motors with Elevation 1+ controllers. The Lodestar conversion involved fitting a silent double brake, a high-resolution encoder and a multi-pin combined power and control connector. Two of the key features of the hoist conversion were that it was possible to perform it as a retro-fit to existing hoists and secondly that with the addition of a simple adaptor cable, the hoist could still be used as a fixed-speed chain hoist controlled by a standard chain hoist controller.
The second component in the system was the Elevation 1+ control unit. This compact unit was located next to the Lodestar, turning it into a full variable speed chain hoist capable of running at between 5% and 130% of its standard speed. Precise position moves were programmed from Kinesys' Vector computer system. The Elevation 1+ controller's power and data outlets allowed multiple units to be linked together - meaning that the twelve hoists in the Bon Jovi system only needed three power cables and two data cables to be run from the motor and controller location in the roof to the mains distribution on the stage. Kinesys also supplied an Array PD-ES unit to the tour which combines power distribution, emergency stop monitoring and data conversion from Ethernet to the rugged data bus which links the Elevation 1+ controllers together.
Bon Jovi will finish the European leg of the Bounce Tour in London, England on 28 June, and the equipment will cross the Atlantic in time to open the final US leg in Chicago on 11 July.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
