Europe - Since their formation a few years ago, The Smile, an English rock band featuring Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, along with Tom Skinner, has captivated over one million monthly listeners on Spotify.
Following the release of their second album, Wall of Eyes, earlier this year, the band delighted its fans with 21 performances between March and June, starting at Dublin’s 3Arena and playing to packed venues across 14 countries, including the UK, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece and Italy. The Smile's live shows featured an upstage LED wall supplied by long-time collaborators Universal Pixels, with Brompton Technology’s LED processing delivering the dynamic visuals.
Phil Mercer, commercial director at Universal Pixels, comments: “We’ve worked with Radiohead and their various side projects since 2017, just after Universal Pixels was formed. It was great to continue that relationship by working with The Smile on their 2024 tour, which was split across two legs – with the first show commencing on 7 March in Dublin and the final one taking place in Rome on 24 June.”
Working closely with show designer, Andi Watson, Universal Pixels supplied a compact, intimate upstage LED wall, built using ROE Visual’s latest V4ST LED panels. According to Mercer, they were the first rental company in Europe to adopt these newly released panels, further reinforcing their reputation for delivering leading-edge solutions to touring projects.
The LED wall was powered by Brompton’s 4K Tessera SX40 LED processor, with Tessera 10G data distribution units ‘ensuring flawless performance’. Additionally, a creative array of ROE LED Strip was positioned behind the band, driven by a Brompton T1 LED processor, chosen for its interpolation functionality. “Interpolated Mode in the T1 processor, which accounts for the physical size of the panel to keep the correct proportions of the image, was essential for mapping the ROE Strip LED element,” Mercer notes.
The combination of Tessera hardware and its software features played a crucial role in the tour’s visual success. With its advanced colour correction and colour management capabilities, Tessera delivered precise, vibrant colours, ensuring that the V4ST panels provided a flawless visual experience at every venue.
“This tour was a great example of using a newly launched LED product like the V4ST alongside something much more established such as ROE Strip. Both are supported by Brompton LED processing and can be run from the same physical processor – a feat that most other LED processing platforms would struggle to achieve,” says Mercer.
Patrick Goodden, technical sales manager at Brompton, concludes: “It was fantastic seeing Brompton used in conjunction with ROE’s latest V4ST LED panels for The Smile’s 2024 tour. With our roots embedded in live events, our primary goal is to ensure both the highest image quality and the durability of our products under the demands of touring. It’s rewarding to see the Universal Pixels team fully trusting our LED processing technology, and we’re excited to see what other shows our Tessera processors will support later this year.”
