The software was added to PRG Europe's pre-production portfolio following a request from Marc Brickman, who is working with programmer Mark "Sparky" Risk on the lighting for Roger Waters' worldwide tour. Brickman and Risk are also using ESP with Mark Cunniffe for Il Divo's current tour.
"Marc and I asked for ESP as we've used it on previous tours and love it," explains Sparky, who is lighting director for Roger Waters and programmer together with Mark Cunniffe for Il Divo. "Marc's based in LA, and using a standard broadband internet connection on his Mac PowerBook, he can see exactly what I'm seeing on screen. It means we don't have to take a long flight to meet one another, and nor do we have to hire a rehearsal space and production crew just to programme the lights. In the case of Roger Waters, that's 30 or 40 people we don't need to bring in before the show to help with the lighting and rigging. I can talk to Marc using Skype and we can discuss what I've been doing."
Brickman is delighted with the fact that he can check how his programmer is getting on from the US, he says: "I don't have to leave home at all!"
Sparky programmed at PRG Europe's office, using a Virtuoso desk connected to ESP, which showed with remarkable accuracy what the lighting was doing. For example, unlike with other software, ESP will show the movement of the head of a lamp even if the intensity of the fixture is zero. It also offers fast accurate colour rendering and more realistic beam shaping and shading. For Sparky, this means when he's finished he has a show file that is extremely close to being show ready. "There's always something which needs tweaking," he continues, "but with ESP, I know when we take the show disc to the rehearsal venue, we're going to be 80% ready, because of the accuracy of rendering."
ESP Vision can also emulate pyrotechnics, lasers and water effects as well as streaming video. It also provides realistic characters and animation of characters, moving set pieces and moving trusses. The package consists of a customised PC and a lighting control console, enabling it to be used at PRG Europe's offices or at a location of the programmer's choosing - whether that be his home, office or hotel room.
"Not only is the software more advanced than others in the market," explains PRG Europe project director Carol Croft, "but with climate change becoming more of an issue, the ability to programme a show without transporting all the crew and equipment to site and running the fixtures for prolonged periods obviously reduces the carbon footprint of shows. I think that this, combined with the fact that this is an extremely cost effective solution for production to programme shows, will no doubt lead to increased use of our ESP systems over the next few months."
(Chris Henry)
