Working with acclaimed Production Designers, Louis Oliver and James Scott of Okulus Design, PRG XL Video supplied lighting, rigging, and video for Chvrches’ most recent UK tour.
The package combined specially adapted trussing, a variety of lighting types, plus custom-built LED video towers.
Oliver’s multi-layer design centred around three monoliths of LED video screen. This was built from PRG XL Video’s MC-7T LED, supplied by Senior Account Manager, Paul McCauley, and housed in custom units built specially for the tour. The seven-millimetre LED was selected because of its visual clarity.
The lighting package included 33 Martin Mac Auras. Okulus specified nine in a mid stage truss and 24 on the floor. Eight of these were used to surround the central monolith.
Between the towers and to the sides of the stage four large and two small floor towers, specially adapted from PRG’s Bat Truss, housed a combination of Clay Paky Mythos beams interspersed between trios of Philips Nitro Strobes arranged in horizontal lines. The taller towers included three rows of lighting with two each on the smaller side towers.
Above the stage, the flown rig included Clay Paky Mythos combined with 11 sets of high brightness Clay Paky Stormys to extend the look of stark lines from the floor to the roof (from Nitro 510Cs). For the tour Michael Cristino and Oliver looked after the lighting and video production. When it came to the Alexandra Palace show, the lighting team was led on site by Crew Chief Luke Jackson. Rich Menday was Technician for both lighting and video.
Roy Hunt, Senior Account Manager of PRG XL Video, commented: “This was an interesting and challenging design to fulfil. Our team did a great job in bringing the design to life and the Alexandra Palace show was a fitting culmination for this leg of the tour.”
For the tour’s final UK show at Alexandra Palace the production, led by Tour Manager, Cara McDaniel, and Production Manager Anders Karlsson, requested the addition of IMAG screens to give the audience a clearer view at the rear of the large London venue.
Okulus specified two IMAG screens, in portrait orientation, which were flown and angled slightly to front of house, giving the production a further level of depth. The two 15ft wide by 20ft high screens were each fed by PRG XL Video’s Panasonic PT-DZ21K high brightness projectors.
IMAG footage was supplied via four Sony HXC-100 HD cameras – two at FOH and two handheld in the pit – directed by Moose and engineered by Ray Gwilliams. Bradley Stokes joined the production as a supplementary technician for the Alexandra Palace show.