latest news headlines
Projected Image Digital Supplies CT with VersaTUBES for X-Factor
The VersaTUBES were specified by set designer Christopher George, and are integral to the large set. They are used as decorative delineative edges for the main X centrepiece above centre stage; for another X shape built into the floor directly underneath the main overhead X, and for marking out the centre stage staircase.
Measuring 1 metre in length, with a 16 pixel resolution, an IP65 rating and taking video input (DVI), the VersaTUBES are used to create incredibly complex and fast moving patterns and vibrant colours and effects.
They are also used statically, as neat, architectural outlining devices for the shapes and contours of the set, as a livening up effect for razzmatazz moments, and the show’s up-tempo performances. It doesn’t stop there … as the TUBES are incorporated into the show’s moodier moments and shaped and coloured to complement the lighting scenes accordingly.
With the set being so vast and wide, the VersaTUBES also play an important linking role, uniting the four separate set piece X’s in the studio. Being placed in the air, on the ground and over the audience’s heads, they’re effectively the common denominator of the entire lighting rig.
Although integral to the design of the show, because of the nature of the units and they way it’s controlled, the VersaTUBEs come under the auspices of the lighting department. This is headed by LD Al Gurdon and his two operators Ross Williams and Svend Pedersen, each of whom is working on one half of the series.
The three VersaTUBE ‘areas’ are all fully independently controllable as they are being driven via a customised version of PixelMAD software, triggered from the WholeHog II lighting console. It’s the first time that PixelMAD has enabled the zoning of different areas. PixelMAD is also a product distributed by Projected Image Digital.
Projected Image Digital’s Rob Fowler and Richard Stembridge oversaw the set up and commissioning of the VersaTUBEs, and the configuration of the PixelMAD (supplied by lighting contractors PRG). The ongoing weekly servicing and maintenance is being looked after by VERSAtech Tim Massey, who is supplied to the production via CT.
The footage being run through PixelMAD has been produced by Williams and Pedersen specifically for the show.
http://www.projectedimagedigital.com
24th November 2004
HEADLINES
news archive
search stories
FOOTNOTE: Select the news type you require in the red band above; this will enable you to see the current news stories from that section
© 1999 - 2012 Entertainment Technology Press Limited News Stories
