The ever-popular Pet Shop Boys are touring the UK and Europe, playing selected venues and the plum festival dates. Show designer Es Devlin's versatile screens, which allow dancers to perform inside them, act as the building blocks of a projection system which moves around, stretching from 4m to the full width of the stage. PSL has put its latest-model highly portable Barco projectors onto this show.
New indie band sensation The Fratellis are touring the UK with PSL projectors and screens, which can also be seen at this summer's big festivals, such as WOMAD, Rock Ness and Glastonbury.
For the second year running, PSL has supplied cameras and video production to Razorlight for the UK tour. LD Max Conwell's design, turned into reality by production manager Derek Fudge, is deceptively simple, cleverly using venetian blinds as the stage backdrop.
Eight blinds drop from truss to stage using a motorised system. When closed, they form the main projection surface, carrying the output of two Barco R12+ projectors mounted on the front truss. When open, the blinds reveal the action on eight LED screens, 2m wide x 2.5m high, which move around on a Kinesys motor system supplied by Neg. Earth.
Under the direction of crew chief Rod Martin, PSL supplied and managed a 4-camera PPU system, together with operators Simon Hudson, Dylan Price and Bruce Selkirk. Additionally, three unmanned mini-cams providing close-ups of the band gave video director Steve Price and the PSL engineers a choice of seven feeds from which to mix a rich and dynamic visual commentary to run live on the two side screens, each 16' x 12', running with Barco ELM R12 projectors.
More chalk-and-cheese entries on the PSL client list include a huge organised rave at Alexandra Palace; 10,000 people attended the Slammin' Vinyl event, for which PSL supplied all projection and LED lighting. Contrast that with the calm and elegance of the Prince's Trust Achievement Awards, staged at The Barbican, using PSL's Digital PPU, camera teams and large screens.
(Jim Evans)
