HSL has worked on the last few X Factor Live tours and seen the production values increase year-on-year as the live tour concept has proved every bit as popular as the TV show and a great showcase and learning curve for the new talents to start reaching out and building their own fan-bases.
This year, Fleur and Ben were joined by Andrea Faustini, Jay James, Lauren Platt, Only The Young, Stereo Kicks and Stevi Ritchi.
Peter's main challenge with lighting was to retain a televisual feel that threaded back to the series whilst creating no less than 30 lively and varied music numbers, all of which needed their own distinctive oeuvre.
He programmed the show with Dom Crooks who operated for the tour and worked alongside HSL's crew of Johnny Harper (crew chief), Matt Brown on dimmers and technicians Stuart Picton and James Townsend.
A major structural change from last year was the replacing of LED columns that had flanked the main central onstage video screen by two rectangular LED screens. Some of the vertical trusses that had been in between the LED columns were retained to provide back lighting, and new positions were added by trussing 'goal-posts' that framed the two outer screens on three sides.
The front truss was split into two - stage left and right - and augmented with two curved trusses onstage bordering the upstage and downstage edges of a video strip ceiling, and there were also two side trusses.
Moving lights on the front truss comprised 16 Vari*Lite 3500 Washes, eight a side, and six Martin Vipers (three per side), together with 12 linear 4-lite Moles.
On the most downstage - and larger - curved truss were eight Clay Paky Sharpies. Upstage of that on the back circular truss were another five Sharpies and four Sharpy Washes.
The two side trusses were each rigged with four VL3500s, and primarily used for dancer key and side-lighting as 11 dancers featured throughout the show.
The three screens at the back were delineated by the four 4m high vertical trusses, each loaded with three Sharpys, two Philips Nitro Strobes and two active Sunstrips, all providing a good variety of upstage dynamics.
More MAC Vipers were deployed around the goal posts framing the outer screens plus 10 more Sunstrips each side, 10 more Sharpys per side and another six Nitros on each.
With around 55 Sharpys on the rig - proving themselves as useful and effective as ever - eight of these beamers were dotted around the floor, four behind and four in the front of the set, together with another six VL3500s which provided a layer of more subtle and contrasting low level lighting.
The central video screen onstage split in the middle and tracked to the sides for stage entrances and exits. The void behind was filled with a selection of fixtures including 12 Chauvet Magic Panels, six MAC 101 LED washes and two MAC III AirFX moving lights which were programmed to produce a variety of effects and back-of-camera filler-looks for the IMAG shoot.
Above the B stage - located amidst the audience in the larger venues - a U-shaped truss was flown, rigged with six VL3500 Washes, four Sharpies and a Viper, supported from the ground by eight Sharpies, four Robe LEDWash 600s, two Nitros and 12 4-lites which blasted up though the Perspex floor.
Four RJ Lancelot 4k followspots completed the lighting picture and HSL also supplied all the trussing and rigging hardware. Dom Crookes ran a
