Lighting designer Dave Sherwin wanted to move some of his trusses, while video director Blue Leach's design was based on having five differently shaped moving high resolution video screens (supplied by XL Video), so HSL decided it was the right time to buy a system.
"We'd been looking into this for some time," says HSL's technical director Howard Dean. "We explored the options and reckoned that it's the best automation system on the market, so it was really just a question of 'when?'."
Kinesys, complete with its proprietary PC-based Vector software, seemed to be the most flexible and user-friendly choice. The system was rigged and operated by HSL's rigging manager Rupert Reynolds, who also took care of all the tour's other visuals-related rigging aspects.
He spent a day training with Kinesys' Dave Weatherhead, where he quickly learned the basics and felt confident with the system. "I got to grips with the software immediately. It's extremely easy to set up and adjust each day according to the different stage and headroom dimensions," says Reynolds. "It's just a question of setting the upper limits of the motors, and that's it!" He adds that it's a particularly simple system for anyone from a lighting background to use. Tweaking the motor positions each day is similar to updating preset focuses.
Snow Patrol's three moving trusses each measured 20ft and were aligned in a row upstage. They had four default positions - high, mid, low and 'abstract'. The low position brought them right down to floor level, so the fixtures shot right through the transparent Chroma Q Color Web low-res LED screen, downstage of the truss.
Each moving truss was heavy on effects lighting, with three Robe ColorSpot 2500s, eight 4-cell moles and 12 Hungaro Quazar Strobes.
HSL also purchased a substantial amount of Color Web LED screen, for Snow Patrol, supplied by AC Lighting, with a 60 wide x 30 ft high section of it used by Sherwin as a 'live' upstage backdrop.
Sherwin specified 33 Robe ColorSpot 2500ATs another recent HSL buy, and these were positioned across three trusses and on the floor. Other fixtures included over 90 ChromaQ DB4 LED fittings, scattered all over the rig, across the floor, backline and riser fronts.
The front truss featured six Source Four profiles, plus 1200W Robert Juliat Manon spotlights, 8 8-lite Molefeys with scrollers and twenty-two 4-cell Moles. Sherwin ran the show from a WholeHog 3 console and a USB playback wing.
HSL's six-person crew was chiefed by Johnny Gallagher, and included Tim Oliver on dimmers and Syncrolite tech Paul Elbreste plus Johnny Harper, Oli James, Color Web tech Donald Campbell and Kinesys and lighting Rigger, Rupert Reynolds.
Sherwin says: "HSL have been fantastic! They've really looked after us and the crew are top - they are always smiling, the gear flew in and out - and there was a lot of it - and nothing is ever too much trouble for them."
Other Key Snow Patrol touring personnel are tour manager Neil Mather and production manager James Monkman, plus stage manager Tony Gittins and James Heath who was the production rigger.
(Chris Henry)
