The huge portrait screen proved so successful that the Amnesty live show producer and Eddie's tour manager and promoter, Mick Perrin, wanted to repeat the concept on the artist's Sexie world tour - and CT Screenco was tasked with creating a touring version of the one-off display that had been seen at Wembley.
This time, the 25mm LED display was designed to be scalable from 72sq.m down to 42sq.m at the smallest venues, and form the centrepiece of a five-screen display. The large portrait display was flanked by four screens fed by Catalyst, the DMX-controlled digital media server, playing in graphics - but the main CT Screenco display carried exclusively live camera work. "Eddie is very much in charge of his own artistic direction and the concept from the beginning was for a single i-mag portrait screen - effectively presenting a 'large' Eddie looking down on the small, real-life one," said CT Screenco sales director, Mike Walker. He added that in its largest configuration, the 25mm portrait screen weighed just 3.6 tonnes - the lightest on the market. "When you have a screen that size, the resolution is less important than weight."
Since weight loading from the venue roof trusses was never an issue, the biggest challenge was that facing freelance technician and crew chief Mark Antoniuk, of keeping the artist framed on the centre screen throughout, since every show is unscripted and Izzard covers vast areas of the stage during his performance.
To avoid obscuring sightlines with jibs, the camera positions (including live back-up) were anchored in the roof and were remotely controlled. "All the pressure is on that one camera," emphasized Mike Walker, "but Mark remained steady and cool throughout the tour."
(Lee Baldock)
