This follows the massive success of their third album, The Suburbs, which topped the charts in many territories on release including the UK and US, and is shortlisted for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize.
The tour originally kicked off last year in the US, project managed for XL by Phil Mercer out of the LA office. In the UK and Europe, it is being managed by Jo Beirne.
Richie Stembridge is the visuals designer and video director. The actual stage screen design is a collaboration between him and LD Susanne Sasic, who also created the set concept.
Onstage, the main screen is constructed from 49 panels of Pixled F15, which for all the indoor shows is covered by a custom silver spandex skin which diffuses the image and gives the quality and appearance of a projected movie screen surface.
Above that is their 'Marquee' screen, made up from 96 tiles of Pixled F11 built in to 16 of XL's custom touring frames, which facilitate quick rigging and de-rigging. This screen is bordered by strips of individual incandescent light bulbs evoking a classic movie marquee feel.
Around Europe, where they have played some of the more off-beat and unusual festivals, often featuring smaller stages, having a light, highly transportable and very easily rig-able system has been a "major benefit" says Stembridge.
His design incorporates eight Sony BRC 300 robo cams which are dotted around, six onstage with wide angle lenses and two at FOH with tele lenses. There are also five static 'lipstick' cameras positioned around the drum kits and on the keyboard riser.
All 12 camera inputs are fed into two high spec'd Catalyst media servers, with everything running in composite allowing Stembridge to send 12 video inputs into each Catalyst. With 24 layers of control on each server, he can have a layer for each camera at any time plus a layer for playback content - giving him a hugely flexible system to mix the show live each night in his own style.
The Catalysts are triggered from a Hog PC and run live on two playback wings, so he has a fader for each camera.
(Jim Evans)
