The design debuted in London's Hyde Park, where Faithless was one of the headline acts at the O2 Wireless Festival. Lighting director Jvan Morandi has conceived a visually stunning backdrop for the show, which has been realised by PSL's Pod Bluman and team, using the latest high-resolution projectors from Christie, bought by PSL especially for this event and other summer/autumn touring commitments.
Morandi's design was based around 18 8ft x 6ft rear-projection screens, split into a 6 x 3 matrix. He specified 40,000 ANSI lumens to front-project onto each block of six displays, a brightness quotient dictated by the fact that Faithless go on-stage around 8.30pm when there is still high ambient light.
Pod Bluman introduced Morandi to the new Christie S+20K projectors, which they have stacked in pairs to deliver the required power, front-firing over typically a 10-12m distance. For the early part of the show, Morandi chose 'brute power', sending pulses across the screens in sequence to create a dance-club atmosphere. As the dusk settled, the high-resolution Christie projectors were brought into play, delivering graphics effects, line art and moving psychedelia and using the screens in different combinations to impressive effect.
The experience of the design and production team gave them the confidence to rig and operate the display at Hyde Park without a full production rehearsal. "We had to make sure everything was on site as there was no opportunity to go back and get anything we were missing," says PSL's Pod Bluman. "But we were confident enough to know what we were doing and Jvan Morandi was very pleased with the result, considering the difficulties we were facing."
(Jim Evans)
