Radiohead”ing” for a green lighting future: MA Lighting and Element Labs join the British artists on their innovative tour

Photo: Copyright - Katie Friesema - courtesy of MA Lighting Technology.

Lighting Product Stories Published: 10 january 2009
There are some bands that have inspired lighting design for decades to come. Bands such as Genesis, Pink Floyd, U2, The Rolling Stones and The Cure have done so in the past. In many ways their shows are still remembered as some of the best ever. Right now Radiohead is following in these footsteps with a lighting design that illustrates exactly what the words “creative LED” mean. Based totally on LED, the lighting and visual design of their current tour was done by Andi Watson, and is controlled via two grandMA full-size and four MA NSPs.

“I wanted to create a physical space of lighting within the performance area”, explains Watson about his design. Therefore he planned a three-dimensional array of 548 x Element Labs Versa TUBES HD that frame the band and act like a virtual stage forming a low resolution 3D video ‘screen’. The Versa TUBE HDs form curtains of six and nine meter long vertical strips from the back to the front of stage. The entire array is controlled from a custom 3D version of Catalyst, specially written by Richard Bleasdale for the tour.

Additional audience and band lighting comes from 48 x i-Pix BB4 and 48 x i-Pix BB7 LED fixtures. Floor lighting is from seven Color Kinetics iW Blasts, seven Pulsar ChromaFlood 200 TriColour and 12 i-Pix Satellites. A 2.75 metres high and 15 metres wide Saco V9 screen in the back displays specially designed content and live video of the band members while a 1.2m by 12m Barco D7 screen is used on the floor as backlight and video texturing. Both, media content and live video, complete the whole design scheme. “Lighting and video is artistically the same for me,” says Watson.

“I started designing the show at the end of last year. In February it was approved by the band and here we are. The grandMA helped me a lot on the road. It’s very nice to think about the lighting without thinking about the desk because it is so very reliable. The grandMA has been fantastic and has never let me down.”

The design concept for the 3D video screen called for a modular linear LED fixture to create the vertical strips. After researching available products the Element Labs Versa TUBE HD was selected due to its high brightness, high resolution and wide colour range. “I chose the diffuse covers in order to create lighting that appears to be almost physical on the stage. The colour range, especially the fixture’s white level, is beautiful” says Watson.

Last year, Radiohead commissioned a study by UK analysts “Best Foot Forward” to examine the band's recent tours and to work out how they could reduce their carbon footprint. The solution is a first in touring history: the band bought two sets of live equipment, which include the low-emission LED products like the Versa TUBES. The two sets will respectively be used in the US and in European legs of the tour, thus cutting travel costs significantly. Instead of leasing equipment and shipping it from the US to Europe, Radiohead Production bought just over 1000 Versa TUBE HDs, which were then split into two sets.

Radiohead Production Manager Richard Young worked together with Watson from the initial design stage. The custom fabrication of the various elements of the design was by Specialz Ltd. Lighting Crew for the tour are Andy Beller (Crew Boss), Nick Barton (Lighting/Live Cameras), Blaine Dracup (Lighting/Live Cameras), Johannes Soelter (Carpenter/Live Cameras), Ed Jackson (System tech), Ian Lomas (Lighting Crew Europe) and Tommy Green (Lighting Crew USA), John McLeish (Video Technician) and Seth Cook (Head Rigger).

Source:

MA Lighting Technology