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Delirium Perfects Fantasy with Wireless DMX
Wireless Solution Sweden AB plays a key role in Cirque Du Soleilīs extraordinary new touring production, Delirium. W-DMX distributor SAND Network Systems supplied Cirque Du Soleil’s equipment provider Solotech Location Inc. of Montreal with an extensive W-DMX system including 34 BlackBox R-512 Receivers, 11 BlackBox S-1 Transmitters, and 11 BlackBox B-1000 Boosters.
The show is a musical and acrobatic presentation of select Cirque Du Soleil songs in an arena format that is quite different from anything seen before. The show is performed with one massive rig, rather than a traditional circus tent. The stage, 130’x20’x50’, intersects the arena and effectively creates an intimate two-sided space that features an impressive line-up of lighting, projection, and motion technology. Like an enormous game of Tetris, each piece of the design requires specific coordination and timing.
The show presents huge technical and logistic challenges. It takes 24 18-wheelers just to haul the equipment from arena to arena. There are 145 people on tour, including 45 performers, 75 technicians and 25 management and support personnel, requiring 14 tour buses to transport them all. It takes custom-designed rigging (specifically two special rail bridges) to support 130,000 pounds of equipment above the stage.
But the actual performance is what really requires magic. Twenty-seven variable speed motors, provided by Microtrol, are needed to help characters ‘fly’, including four for the main character, who circles around in a giant balloon during the show. The show features singers floating across the stage, musicians roaming the floor and various performers who walk, sprint, jump, or even fly through each of the scenes. The only way to successfully create these illusions was with wireless technology.
Assistant LD Valy Tremblay was responsible for the wireless system and specified a system that includes a large number of custom made RF cables, antenna arrangements, and power options to accommodate this unique project. “W-DMX is my big discovery of the year! I just don't want to use cable anymore! It was so easy to set up and we never had any trouble with them!” he raves. “At first, we used them as a solution for 1000W 12v artistic lights. Those lights are called in the show the ‘luminous swings’. Performers use them as luminous acrobatic rigging equipment. It looks like they are swinging on moving stars!”
W-DMX is especially effective for the balloon. Tremblay explains: “We had Bill, a key character that keeps the whole show traveling under his 15-foot balloon. We needed to light up the balloon, and used 16 Color Kinetics iColor Cove MX Powercores inside with W-DMX units to control them. This was again only possible with W-DMX, since we had power but no data possible traveling with that moving rigged element. Then, we had to add some fixtures in trusses with the bundles already made. What an easy solution to use a W-DMX receiver to control those fixtures!”
22nd March 2006
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