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Coldplay in Everyone’s Face - Thanks to Unitek V9s
The 17.5 pixel pitch media displays — which provided a reference for crowds of up to 30,000 in Crystal Palace, Glasgow and Bolton — were provided by rental company Laser Grafix, whose project manager Arran Hopkins confirmed that the displays had been specifically chosen by the band’s video director, Alan Yates, following their performance at the Brit Awards.
The screens took their feeds from a camera/hothead PPU, with further live video and visual effects generated later during the show from a pair of RADlites. These formed part of the imaginative lighting set — designed by Brian Leitch’s Siyan and operated by Nick Whitehouse.
But while the Unitek display had to operate 80% of the show in high brightness conditions (reinforcing the images of two support bands during daylight hours), its other attribute, suggests Arran, is its lightweight but rugged design, giving the units amazing rigging speed and durability.
“From a performance point of view we only had it operating at 38% — so there was plenty of welly — but for touring purposes the screens have also been great. Weighing just one and a half tons each, with their aluminium frames and metal louvres on the front, they are comparatively lightweight, quick to set up and highly practical.”
The unusual feature of these build-ups, he says, has been that the Vari*Lite truss, the video and line array PA have all been erected on site the same day — inside four hours. “The people from Shirley’s, who built the stage, reckon this is a first.”
He also remarked on how durable the system was. “In Glasgow (Bellahouston Park), for example, the screens got drenched, and dried out three times; it must be the most tour-friendly screen on the market.”
The video element of the production also used a ‘letterbox’ projection screen, upstage centre, for spot projections during Coldplay’s set, with Alan Yates himself positioned behind the Christie 25K 3-chip DLP Roadie and Andy Bramley handling the vision mixing.
Following their UK stint, Coldplay head for the States until the end of the summer, before returning to play dates in eastern Europe.
5th July 2005
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