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Bandit has the X-Factor Again
Bandit Lites is once again supplying lighting equipment and crew to the X-Factor Live arena tour, which is playing a record number of shows over six weeks around the UK. This is lighting designer Matt Jensen’s first tour with X-Factor, which is production managed by Sarah Hollis for Production North and project managed by Bandit’s Lester Cobrin.
Jensen’s design is big and ‘televisual’ in keeping with the environment from which the show originated, and it’s also what “the majority of the audience would expect,” he explains. The set was designed by Production North’s, Iain Whitehead and includes a central staircase walkway and a series of hydraulic lifts from below the stage, which gives the show an epic feel. There are three upstage LED screens with the central screen splitting to form a stage entrance.
With 10 artists on the bill, the other aesthetic element that Jensen had to deal with was the wide range and scope in their performances. A substantial part of his job was trying to keep each one looking unique and individual.
The show is split into two halves – the first containing the seven out of the 10 finalists, with the second half featuring the final three, Ben Mills, runner up Ray Quinn and winner, Leona Lewis. Jensen chose four straight trusses; the downstage two are connected and flown as a box, of which one rail hosts a set of four electric kabuki silk roller blinds forming part of the set.
Arranged across the trusses are 28 Martin Professional MAC 2k profiles, 20 MAC 600 and 20 High End StudioColors. The StudioColors are used as full stage washes – it’s a large surface area and needs to be well lit for the six dancers who are active throughout the majority of the show. The MAC 2ks are used for his main effects lighting, for rear beamwork and also for some key lighting in front of the screens.
The stage is bordered at the top and front by a 22 metre wide x 2 metre high Barco O-Lite screen which shows a variety of content generated by a Catalyst digital media server also being run by Jensen from the WholeHog II console. This is output to screen via video director Dan Ormerod’s PPU, and also includes scrolling text of the performer’s names and carefully selected Catalyst clips.
Bandit is also supplying eight MAC 500 moving lights, positioned on the floor and rigged to the handrails of the set, and these are joined by another eight MAC 2ks on the floor. The front of house followspots are four Lycian 2ks.
Additionally, there are six Molefays on the front truss for audience illumination, plus another three behind the central video screen for silhouetting artists as they enter the stage. Another two Moles sit below the stage centre hydraulic lift, lighting up when this is in use for propelling people upwards onto stage.
Jensen has 20 JTE PixelLines placed in two rows, ‘edging’ the set steps in front of the band risers. There are also several circuits of Raylights underneath the Perspex set floor. He is working with a Bandit crew of three – Steve Rusling, Martin Garnish and James Such. Jensen said that the kit came out of Bandit perfectly prepped to the usual ‘Bandit Standard’, and that the support from Cobrin and the team back at base has also been “fantastic”.
Jensen concludes: “The crew are excellent – the rig just flies in and out each day, and everything is going really smoothly.”
12th March 2007
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