MILAN, Italy – Brilliant Stages' new stage set for the stadium venues on Muse's The Resistance world tour, based on the design concepts of Oli Metcalfe and Es Devin, consists of a 62-meter-long video header, a suspended ceiling grid, a diamond-shaped stage flanked by projection screens, drum riser fascias and on- and off-stage rear fascias, a tracking B stage with inset revolving scissor lift and tech bunkers and screamers. The dominant feature is the video header, which appears as a forced perspective ranging from 13.25 meters in height downstage to 4.5 meters in height upstage. Brilliant Stages' CAD team, managed by Kevin Edwards, devised the logistics to transform the design into reality.
"With an overall height of 25 meters from ground level, wind was one of the major considerations," said Brilliant Stages' Tony Bowern. "We produced numerous structural calculations to ensure the video header could withstand wind speeds of up to 20 meters per second (45 mph) and came up with a combination of steel verticals to take the wind load and aluminum fascias to minimize the static load."
The video header is composed of a double layer of 3-meter-wide panels – a random mix of 51 LED video panels behind rear projection screens and 49 projection surface panels of gray PVC. This gave lighting & video designer Oli Metcalfe the maximum number of variables on which to project 3D video effects, back-projected LED mapping and standard front lighting."
The vertical guides are secured to steel upper and lower header trusses provided by Stageco of Belgium "We worked in conjunction with Koen Peters and Dirk de Decker of Stageco, who provided all the trussing sub-structure for the set," explains Bowern.
Brilliant Stages also worked closely with XL Video to accommodate the integration of the video requirements, incorporating video panel attachment points into the design before sending the completed structure to XL Video. XL Video then added the Barco MiTRIX LED video tiles.
The whole video header packs into trucking carts and is deployed with each panel rising out of the touring cart on chain hoists and secured to its adjacent panel. In this way the whole structure can be assembled from ground level in a fast and efficient way.
The ceiling grid beneath the video header was constructed by Brilliant Stages' sister company, LITEC, from supplied plans. This consists of 64 ladder truss cells manufactured using LITEC' s custom Libra System.
The cells are clad with stretch vinyl, and each cell houses a Martin MAC 301 Wash moving head within the recess. (All lighting for the tour was supplied and coordinated by Dave Ridgeway of Neg Earth.)
Brilliant Stages manufactured the diamond shaped stage using their own custom decking system and gave it a non-slip surface for outdoor use. Artwork to the stage was then applied in a silver-grey geometric diamond pattern.
The stage design was developed around the sub-stage requirements, giving clear passages for the "underworld" activity, and supported on aluminum rolling frames interconnected by Brilliant Stages' Hook and Channel system.
A B-stage was created using a trucking system designed to simultaneously track, revolve and extend a hydraulic scissor lift carrying the band into the audience.
Finally, tech bunkers with viewing louvers for the crew, screamers and all access platforms were also provided by the Brilliant Stages team.
The Muse Resistance Tour is due to continue across Europe, North America and Australasia until the end of 2010.
For more information, please visit www.brilliantstages.com.
