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Zero 88 Frog 2 Debuts in West End with Make Me A Song
Zero 88's Frog 2 console made its West End debut in March with William Finn's Make Me a Song at the New Players Theatre, controlling both lighting and video in a compact but complex design created by designer Ben M. Rogers.
Rogers has used the Zero 88 Frog 2 extensively on international touring shows including Noise Ensemble, The OperaBabes and Nicky Slater's Ice Times. Having owned a Frog 2 since 2005 and being very familiar with its operation, Rogers chose this as his control option, supported by Zero 88's Peter Kirkup.
"To combine video with the lighting in the short space of time we had during production, it was important to have full and instant control of all attributes of the system in one easy to use package - hence the choice of the Frog 2. This takes the established technology of the Arkaos video software and supports it in a user friendly interface which made the production programming very straight forward," states Rogers.
Video was used a on a projection screen located upstage and divided into three vertical sections, with video clips of New York city skylines, subways and roadways taking the place of conventional set to establish location and set mood within a limited space and budget.
The video content was comprised of original photography by Rogers and his associate designer Claire Bilyard and some royalty free stock content, all of which was loaded onto the Arkaos system. This, in turn, was then linked to the Frog 2 via Ethernet using the Artnet protocol. The Frog 2 was then used to manipulate, colour, position, control and add effects to the clips using same attribute control interface as would be used for programming intelligent lighting on the console.
Using a Matrox Triple Head to Go external video splitter, the single Arkaos widescreen output was split into three separate projector feeds, with layer control on Arkaos being used to define the output to each portion of the screen, and subsequently rear projected onto the three screens using Hitachi CPX1 projectors, to form a complete image of 1024 x2304 pixels. The media server system comprised of a quad core MacPro tower which provided ample processing power and system reliability for the design. This arrangement also offered considerable savings on such a small budget show, when compared to a networked system with one computer per output device. Rogers used the Arkaos in Maxi Mode which uses 51 channels per layer to give full control of the images employing a total of 6 layers - 2 per screen to allow for fading between layers - throughout.
"The speed at which I have been able to work using the Frog 2 has been invaluable," states Rogers. "Much of the video content was only introduced at about 5pm on the day before the first preview but I was able to drop it directly from my laptop onto the server via ethernet and run it through the Arkaos system onto screen immediately.
"You are effectively programming the video as you would an automated lighting fixture. Each layer is selected as a different fixture so all can be programmed into one sequence on the desk and cued with one button press. The Move When Dark control in the console also applies to the video control with the system pre-loading clips on hidden or turned off layers prior to them being used.
"I like and use the Move When Dark feature a lot," says Rogers. "I am a lighting designer who programmes and am not particularly interested in the technical complexity of how it is done. For me programming is just a by-product of achieving the design and this feature saves a great deal of unnecessary technical time - time which can be better used elsewhere on a busy show like this!
"There is often a perception that video can be very complicated thing to work with, and historically it may have been. However with a powerful media server application like Arkaos and it's integration with the Frog 2, I am able to access all the required level of control through a familiar interface and continue to work in the same way as I would plotting any other lighting show."
Finally, Frog 2's link with WYSIWYG (which fully supports Art-Net in its recent releases) also meant that Rogers could start with the pre-programming before he actually got to the theatre.
"I remain impressed with the Frog 2. It has the functionality and capability of high end consoles and can compete with them across all forums from theatre and opera to rock and roll," he says.
Photos: Ben M. Rogers
22nd April 2008
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