Kinesys
on Queen & Paul Rodgers
Stage
Product Stories Published: 13 January 2009
A 48-way Kinesys automation system with Vector control is in
action on the current Queen & Paul Rodgers tour, utilised
for moving lighting trusses and an 85 square metre horizontal-splitting
upstage video screen.
This was specified by lighting designer Baz Halpin,
is operated by Barry Branford and supplied through Bandit Lites
UK for the UK and European sections of the tour.
The screen is constructed from a combination of
Barco O-Lite frames – a solid section in the centre and
asymmetrically populated frames radiating outwards, along with
304 ACL bulbs. It’s 17 metres wide and 5 metres tall,
weighs 7 tonnes and was fabricated by Brilliant Stages. On the
road, it’s suspended by 24 half tonne Lodestar motors
with Kinesys Elevation 1+ drive units.
Twelve motors are lifting the top half of the
screen and 12 are attached to steel stingers passing through
the centres of the bottom panels, picking up from the bases
of the frames.
The main lighting trusses are 7 upstage/downstage
fingers, all of which move and are rigged on a total of eighteen
1 tonne Lodestars with Kinesys drive units. The centre 3 fingers
are hinged at the downstage edges, the centre one has 2 hinges
and 4 motors, the two flanking it have one hinge and 3 motors
and the other 4 fingers all have 2 motors each.
Upstage of the fingers is a ‘Syncrolite
truss’ rigged on four 1 tonne Liftket motors with Kinesys
Elevation 1+ drives, containing seven 5K Syncrolite units, 8
Martin Professional Atomic 3000 strobes and 10 Martin MAC 2000
Wash moving lights.
A large mirror ball is suspended over the B stage
at the end of the main stage thrust, hung on two Prostar motors,
also on the Kinesys system. The ball is attached to a solid
bar with one motor, and it’s centrally hung rotator on
another, allowing the rotation to start on cue.
The set contains approximately 30 automation cues,
and fluid and dramatic movement is a big part of the overall
show visuality.
Branford has used Kinesys on several previous
tours including Katie Melua, The Darkness, Led Zeppelin, the
Foo Fighters and others, and comments, “It’s a great
system which is becoming ever more popular as people realise
its full potential”.