Steven Cohen Productions, in conjunction with Epic Production Technologies and Syncrolite supplied a large lighting package that includes Martin MAC III Profiles, MAC 700 Profiles and MAC 2000 Washes with lighting control from a Martin Maxxyz and Maxxyz Modules. Video control for low resolution LED screens is from a Martin Maxedia Broadcast.
Production designer for the show is Steve Cohen. Lighting design is by Cohen and Mark Foffano. Foffano programmed for both artists and served as the overall system designer. Kevin 'Stick' Bye serves as Elton John's lighting director.
The lighting rig includes 32 Martin Professional 1500 watt MAC III Profiles located upstage on three separate hinged trusses that conform to the angle of the upstage.
"The MAC IIIs are extremely bright, and their optics are amazing," states Foffano, who has worked with Joel since 1998. "They're brute lights that push themselves through anything, the video screen, the background..." For both John and Joel the powerful MAC III beams are used to shine through the low res LED screen / scenery in what Foffano describes as an awe-inspiring look.
"The colours of the MAC III Profile are outstanding and colour changes are incredibly fast," Foffano continues. "The colour mechanism is crisp and the colour saturations are excellent - the cyan and magenta are really clean and pure." When asked about reliability, Foffano reported no issues.
The MAC 700 Profiles sit atop LED built into a Tait Towers lifting system that allows the look of a skyline. The MAC 2000s are located in trusses both upstage and downstage.
Two Martin Maxedia Broadcasts feed graphical content to low resolution LED screens over the stage. One Maxedia Broadcast is used for pixelmapping and the other for video content purposes. Maxedia programming was executed by Curtis Cox.
The entire show and Maxedia servers are controlled by just one Martin Maxxyz console using more than 26 universes of DMX. The DMX is transmitted from the Maxxyz console backstage over ArtNet.
"Maxxyz is a platform we are comfortable with," says Foffano. "We've been using it for about five years now. Its ease of programming is a great time saver - you can get to where you're going without having to push a thousand buttons. The support is great too. It doesn't matter where we are in the world, we can always call someone."
The Face 2 Face tour is expected to run periodically over the next two years with a stadium tour this summer and more dates set for November.
(Jim Evans)
