As a technical person himself, Andy C wanted to provide a live audio visual experience showcasing what is possible when you "merge the leading technologies from sound and video into one system and hand the controls over to the number one drum and bass DJ in the world".
The Alive tour produced by Made Up Ltd brought in Picture Works who specified Green Hippo's Hippotizers.
"The Hippotizer was the only media sever capable of creating the complete multimedia, fully interactive, audio visual performance that Andy C required," says Jon McMullan, project manager, Made Up Lld.
The DJ booth took inspiration from the Alive logo which was one of the main features. This 8 x 4m structure made up the face with one GrassHopper containing 10GB of HD Media and 20,000 lumen projectors mapped onto the screen.
The Hippotizer was used because the concept of the tour was based on giving Andy C the ability to be completely interactive with his audience. In order to stick to this concept, the Hippotizer was programmed to allow him to take control of the visual FX, trigger clips synchronised with his audio tracks and graphical content which was customised with the development of exclusive Midi solutions.
Andy C's access to multiple FX and multiple layers of the Hippotizer gave him visual representation of the audio as he triggered them, which included one layer displaying a camera feed from above his head, one triggering bespoke content that matched certain tracks in his set list and 16 arcade buttons, each one triggering an effect of both audio and visual displays which added a bespoke complexity to the performance.
(Jim Evans)
