Lighting and visuals designer Giovanni Pinna specified Pixled F-25 and F-37L screen surfaces, which were purchased by Milan-based AV rental company Event Management specifically for this tour.
For Live Kom ‘011, Rossi performs below a 37-meter-high trussing structure with 14 columns of Pixled’s new F-37L, positioned in two sections of seven, upstage on both sides. These are on a Cyberhoist automation system that moves them between level 1 (the stage) and level 2 of the set. They can also move apart into seven individual segments, or be run as one large surface on each side. Each column offers 32 by 192 pixels which, when together, gives a total surface area of 448 by 192 pixels.
Two horizontal strips of Pixled F-25 – also on Cyberhoists – run across the front of the stage. They are each 20 meters wide by 2.4 meters high — 832 by 192 pixels in total — split horizontally in the middle. These two strips can travel the full height between top and bottom of the trussing structure.
The front two main support legs of the triangular-shaped structure are clad up to seven meters high in more Pixled F-37L.
With no actual “traditional” scenery onstage, the video surfaces, movement and lighting provide Rossi with a constantly-changing performance environment. Video runs throughout 90 per cent of the show, played out via two Catalyst media servers, each running layers.
Mikkel Garro Martinsen created the content, working with stage designers GioForma and Giovanni Pinna, who came up with the show’s multiple video surface design idea.
The first 40 minutes of the performances take place in daylight, so video is the dominantly visible visual effect, with the first three numbers of the set featuring white animation effects.
Once Pinna and GioForma had secured Rossi’s approval for the stage design concept, show producers Live Nation asked the technical suppliers to bid for the tour. When Event Management was confirmed as the video supplier, Pinna and Event Management’s CEO Daniele Parazzoli began the search for the right video surfaces.
Pinna wanted a transparent mesh product so he would have the option of making it disappear by shining lights through. A demo of Pixled convinced him it would be suited to the needs of the tour.
“The Pixled is very light in weight and extremely quick and straightforward to rig – it literally flies up into place – and these were essential criteria, along with the actual look of the display when showing content,” Pinna said.
Parazzoli agreed. “It is great quality, robust and very tourable,” he said, of Pixled’s F-37L and F-25 products.
Custom designed flightcases were built for the F-37L, which lifts out of the box, hooks onto the truss and is then quickly hoisted into position. It takes the 12-person crew of technicians about 60 minutes to rig the seven columns of screen each side of the stage. The F-25 also travels in custom cases and is also quick to rig and de-rig. The F-37L cladding the structure legs is flown off a small fly bar on 250 Kg motors (it is static for the show).
Marco Denardi uses the Catalysts to execute manually-triggered cues via a grandMA full size console, under the direction of Pinna, who is operating the lighting using another grandMA full size console.
The crew spent six nights programming in Ancona stadium before the first show, taking care to ensure that the video and effects would be matched and contrasted in color and timing for visual coherence, alternating between big rock ‘n’ roll looks and a more intimate performance space on the tour’s 25-meter-wide stage.
For more information, please visit www.pixled.com.
