Show and lighting designer Will Potts has been with them every step of the way as the tour stopped off at venues and festivals in North and South America, Japan, Australia, Korea, mainland Europe and the UK. PRG XL Video's lighting account manager Roy Hunt and video account manager Paul McCauley take care of the band's event technology needs as they stride around the world, performing sell-out shows and whipping audiences into a Disclosure frenzy.
We caught up with double Knight of Illumination winner Will Potts when Disclosure played three sought-after nights at London's Alexandra Palace at the end of last year. The short UK tour, which stopped off in Glasgow, Manchester and London was the first time the new Vanish, high transparency LED screen had been used. There are lots of products on the market which have a reasonably high-transparency, but Will was after a product which became invisible when switched off, yet still had a decent resolution and was very bright.
In the summer of 2015, Will organised a demo with co-designers Okulus (James Scott and Louis Oliver), during which they tested the beta version of Vanish screen against similar products alongside the Robe BMFL, Aytron Magic Blade and some profile lights to select which high-transparency LED screen he'd like to use on upcoming Disclosure shows.
Behind the upstage 22.8mx6M Vanish screen sat two trusses, fitted out with 32 PRG Best Boy HP spots and 32 Martin Atomic strobes to blow through the screen. Will is a huge fan of both products: "The Best Boy is an exceptional product, now they've been upgraded to high power output with the 1500W lamp and overdriven to 1640W, they are the perfect product to use for the blow-through effect which penetrates the Vanish panels. The Atomic strobe is a complete workhorse-no matter how many strobes I've seen, you'll never beat the Atomic strobe for that look of pure electricity."
Although the Vanish screen was the main feature of the video design for the show, there was plenty more LED on and around the stage. Two 6x3.6M ROE MC-18 side screens displayed image magnification, with footage being provided by four of our Sony HXC-100 cameras.
Curved around the riser from where Howard and Guy were performing was 7.2x1.2M strips of ROE MC-7; above the performance area was a further strip of ROE MC-7 LED screen, referred to as the Venetian, which pivoted down into view at certain points during the show. All video content was run through two d3 4x4 pro media servers - specified and programmed by Icarus Wilson-Wright.
Roy Hunt commented: "Working with Will is a real pleasure, he always comes to me with a precise vision of what he wants to achieve - then we work together to realise the design he's come up with. Some of the ideas Will has are so exciting to be part of, he continually pushes the boundaries of what is and isn't possible with the technology available to us. His attention to detail is second to none and that's visible when you watch one of his shows, so much work goes in in the background, but the result is a seamless, awe-inspiring light show which Will makes look effortless."
Will programmed the show with James Scott and runs it from a GrandMa2 lighting console.
(Jim Evans)
