Willems and his team at the engineering and automation specialist, based in Heist Opt Den Berg, energised themselves to help bring a world class production right home to Mechelen, one of the many places at the centre of hostilities during the carnage and devastation of the First World War.
The laser controlled seating tribune that moves nearly 2000 audience per show 90m up and down the 150m long performance space in Mechelen's Nekkerhal is just one of many technical factors.
The seating tribune makes 13 moves back and forth throughout the show at different speeds and distances as the drama - sung live to a special backing track by Dirk Brossé and Allard Blom recorded by the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra - unfolds.
The aesthetic that 14-18 Spektakel Musical's creators - Frank van Laecke, Dirk Brossé and Allard Blom of Studio 100 - wanted to share with their audiences involves taking them collectively in and out of the scenes and playing area. It is a combination of classic musical and movie treatments on a basic level, with the moving stand being the zoom of the camera and an additional vehicle for opening up the playing space and distancing everyone from the action ... or closing it down for additional intimacy.
Wicreations applied their usual mix of ingenuity and engineering magic to produce three major production elements: the tribune, the 11 moving and repositionable scenery wagons and the control systems.
This involved three disciplines - the mechanical construction and design of the stand; the design and build of the set pieces and the automation and control of both. The process started in 2013, and with a separate Project Manager assigned to each element, it was a resource-hungry but extremely rewarding project.
The steel stand is 33m wide, 55m long and 7m high at the back and can accommodate 1880 people with full wheelchair access. It weighs 135 tonnes empty and 270 tonnes at full capacity.
The whole structure rests on 368 wheels, so getting the right ones was fundamental. Each powered wheel can hold up to 2.8 tonnes and the supporting wheels 3.2 tonnes.
The structure is actually moved by 24 of Wicreations' rental stock drive motors which are based on UK manufacturer Kinesys' Evo system - each of these drives two sets of wheels. The maximum speed is half a metre a second and the units are smooth so the acceleration / deceleration is mega smooth once the motion has started.
The laser guiding control is a customised version of a system made by Swedish theatrical and opera specialist Visual Act, which has been specially hot-rodded by Wicreations. This monitors all the information in realtime and, if necessary, adjusts the tribune's and scenic wagon's movements to keep them on track.
The innovative set which comes together like a giant multi-faceted jig-saw to form numerous complex scenes was designed by Stefaan Haudenhuyse, art director at Studio 100 who worked closely with Wicreations' project manager for set, Yves Vervloet.
(See our full production report on 14-18 Spektakel Musical in the June issue of LSi magazine.)
(Jim Evans)
