It also includes 15 Robe ColorSpot 250ATs, which are attached to the bases of 15 custom Barco O-Lite video columns which join together to make a 15m wide by 3m high upstage screen.
It's very much styled as a back-lit show, however there are also eight Robe ColorSpot and ColorWash 700E ATs positioned on stands and flightcases on both sides of the stage. These deliver the front, side and required key lighting.
The REDWashes are attached to eight custom designed trussing sections - fabricated by HSL to ensure that rigging them during the get-in is a fast and efficient operation. The eight vertical truss sections all sit on the floor behind the screen, attached to a mother grid in the roof via steels, which is hung on a three-way Kinesys automation system. This glides the trusses up and down throughout the show.
Haddow describes the REDWashes as his "favourite" lighting moment of the show. "The light output is amazing," he comments, adding that the fact that they also have a white LED in addition to RGB functionality really gives them the edge, as they produce a "real" white - something that can be problematic for LED units. Different colours, qualities and layers of white light are crucial to the Massive Attack show.
Haddow operates the show using a Hog 3 set up. This is also driving a PixelMAD computer that runs video content sent to the REDWashes some of the time, and they are also programmed into the Hog as regular lightsources. The D3 system running video content for the screen also controls specific lighting cues. The tour is scheduled to continue until the end of November.
For more on this tour, see the October issue of Lighting&Sound International magazine.
(Jim Evans)
