One of the main visual elements of the set was a flown wall of upgraded LC Series LED panels supplied by Axxis of Louisville, KY. The enhanced panels were upgraded with many features of Martin's LC Plus LED panels including compatibility with Martin's advanced video signal processor, the P3-100 System Controller.
Production manager and set design duties for the tour were handled by Jerry Holcomb (along with his usual audio duties) with bands performing on a 360o set with views from all angles.
"Sometimes we'd get no one behind us and sometimes there would be a lot of people behind us, you just never knew. That's one of the reasons we used the LC panels - you can see through them," Holcomb commented.
The original design had the panels mounted along the bottom of a hexagonal truss, but once out on tour Holcomb wondered if they were really achieving the best bang for their buck. He comments, "We really weren't utilising them the best we could and it seemed obvious that they would look better closer together. So we sat down with personnel from some of the other bands and reconfigured the panels as a wall inside the hexagon truss."
The idea for the new design was called into Axxis who rather incredibly delivered updated engineered drawings in less than an hour
What sounds like a tedious redesign of the LED panels from a horizontal orientation to a vertical proved rather simple thanks to the LC's lightweight design and ease of connectivity.
"Another reason I like the panels so much is that the P3-100 allowed us to take the content and easily reformat it to the new design. It also allowed bands to bring in their own content which we imported into a Martin Maxedia media server and the P3 formatted it to fit and function on the fly which was great," Holcomb states.
The new configuration involved separating the panels and hanging them vertically in seven strips of varying height, effectively filling in a large space. "Because the eye fills in the gaps between the panels, we were able to expand the space with basically unbroken content across a wall," Holcomb states. "Even though they are low res you can fill up a lot of space and do a lot with them, and for our budget it's a great product."
Other Martin gear used on the tour were Stagebar 54 LED battens rigged on the hexagonal truss for audience washes, as well as MAC 700s and MAC 250s. All of the lighting gear for the tour, as well as the audio and video equipment, was supplied by Axxis.
(Jim Evans)
