Vasco rocks Modena with 550 Robes in the rig
- Details
Lighting designer Giovanni Pinna, known for the imagination and flair of his work, wanted to make a serious impact for this show and utilized 550 Robes as the backbone of his rig – making about around two-thirds of the total fixture count – with 200 x Spiiders, 50 x BMFL Blades and Spots, 200 x LEDWash 1200s and 600s and 100 x LEDBeam 100s.
It's safe to say that most people in Italy have a ‘soft spot’ for Vasco, who was also celebrating 40 years of a tumultuous career which has had its thrills and spills, so it’s good to see the maverick rock ‘n’ roll showman right back on form - performing at his very best.
The show was also broadcast live by national TV network RAI, streamed live to selected Space cinemas around the country, recorded for a DVD release and enjoyed live by the hordes of adoring fans from all ages and demographics.
Vasco's regular production team were again united for this special moment in time. Giovanni has used Robe products in his work for some years, but this is the biggest concentration of them on one show to date. And it rocked!
The set back wall comprised 45 scenic panels overlaid with a semi-transparent graphic image. You could see the scaffolding skeleton behind for additional depth but as darkness fell, the panels became more solid. In front of these, Giovanni added a matrix of silver scaffolding pipes and a matrix of lights spreading across the whole expanse which were a vital source of back light.
Downstage of that, over 800 sq.m of 8 mm LED screens was divided into five sections, one central 18m wide by 15m high slab and four 9 x 15m sections which tracked 125m up and down into several different positions throughout the show.
The main sections of the overhead lighting rig were rigged on trusses making up the six ‘towers’ that supported the LED screens at the back and included four 10m x 10m lighting pods – two above the centre section and two above the two outer towers. These four lighting pods all moved in and out on a Cyberhoist system.
Two hundred Robe Spiiders were the main wash fixture. Ninety were attached to the back wall scaffolding matrix, 80 were positioned on the deck of the three tiered stage, with 30 on the moving lighting pods.
Giovanni wanted the house lighting completely integrated into the show, so 20 of the 30 x PA delay towers were rigged with 160 x LEDWash 1200s and 40 x LEDWash 600s, all supplied, together with the rest of the lighting rig, by Rome based lighting rental company, BOTW.
The BMFL Blades were all concentrated in one ‘power line’ of 42 x fixtures on the floor, their mega bright beams burning into the intense night sky ... creating memorable aerial and back-light-looks of the show. They were also used to colour and texture the 45 x set panels.
The eight BMFL Spots were rigged on the two offstage moving pods. They had a very specific role which was to assist the nine followspots in producing key lights, augmenting the drum and keyboard riser positions in particular.
He ran the show - a total of 58 DMX universes and around 23,000 channels of lighting - from a grandMA2 full size console. In addition to Marco, Nicholas and Ross, they were joined at FOH by Cyberhoist operator Fabrizio Astarista and Giovanni is the first to credit “amazing” BOTW lighting crew chief Fabrizio Moggio.
The d3 media server was run by Nicholas Di Fonzo. Lasers were supplied by ER from the UK with PRG Belgium delivering video, staging in conjunction with StageCo and LED screen automation via engineering experts WIcreations, whose Italian partners IK Project dealt with the heavy duty automation requirements. This operation was overseen by Matteo Marastoni on site.
The PA was supplied by Agora with the main arrays suspended on sky-hooks from two impressive 400 tonne cranes.
(Jim Evans)
