XL Video has worked with Westlife since their first Coast to Coast tour back in 2001. They have always used video elements inventively, and this one is no exception. XL account handler Phil Mercer comments, "It's good to see the band going to another completely new and highly imaginative dimension of video for this tour."
With a central high resolution Barco S-lite LED screen midstage (8 x 8 tiles in surface area), show designer Peter Barnes specified three 45 degree angled strips of XL's new Barco MiTrix 'invisible' low res LED screen per side, mounted on custom frames built by XL Video Belgium. These are criss-crossed horizontally by three banners of half-populated Barco O-Lite, chequerboard style, rigged at different heights underneath six upstage lighting trusses.
XL is also supplying two side screens, which are front projected onto by a pair of truss-mounted Barco R12+ machines each side. Barnes worked closely with Production North's Steve Levitt and choreographer Priscilla Samuels on the set and the whole show presentation.
The MiTrix and the O-Lite screens are all driven by custom video content made by Barnes and stored in a dual output Catalyst V4 digital media server supplied by XL. This is run from lighting director Dave Lee's WholeHog 2 lighting desk. Special playback material has been produced by Helene Spencer and The Field, and this is stored on a Doremi hard drive, and woven into the mix by Robinson - along with the live IMAG footage - primarily on to the centre and side screens.
The playback footage corresponds to specific songs, some of which have to be lip synched, and these are manually cued by chief engineer Stuart Merser. Billy Robinson has the challenge of cutting the IMAG mix from four FOH cameras, two with 55cm lenses and two with 70mms.
(Jim Evans)
