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Stage Technologies Swinging with Sinatra
Stage Technologies has supplied the automation control equipment for the West End production 'Sinatra' at the London Palladium. This new production mixes live performance with audio, video and automation to create a multimedia show that uses previously unseen footage of the legendary Frank Sinatra.
Accompanied on stage by dancers, singers and an energetic 24-piece live band, Sinatra's image is projected onto multiple moving screens and other white surfaces. Stage Technologies' rental department has supplied equipment to automate a large number of moving scenic elements in this show. These include moving projection screens, an aircraft wing that lowers onto the stage to become a platform for the dancers, a microphone stand and classic jukebox that appear through a stage trap and a large stage truck that moves downstage carrying the live band, bringing the action closer to the audience during Frank's classic numbers.
The show uses a total of 20 BigTow winches and a mixture of MaxisMX and MaxisID systems, controlled from an Acrobat console. Stage Technologies' equipment provides precise positioning data, in real-time over Ethernet, to the projection software for each moving screen. The projection software can then interpolate and add smoothing to allow the image to follow the screens seamlessly as they lift and track around the stage, even when the automation operator makes adjustments to the plotted movement on-the-fly.
With only two weeks to install the complete automation system before the technical rehearsals, Stage Technologies worked with Unusual Rigging to resolve a numbers of complicated engineering challenges. The projection screens were required to move up and down, and from side to side using the London Palladium's existing counterweight system. Due to the weight and speed of the screens Stage Technologies provided seven counterweight assist winches to overcome the limitations of the existing system that was originally designed for manual flying.
24th May 2006
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