This year Giovanni has incorporated 34 Robe BMFL Blades and 16 BMFL Spots into the design, which are the work-horse spot fixtures of the tour. He has also deployed 100 of Robe's LEDBeam 100s which are dotted around the back wall of the main set. One of Italy's leading designers, he has been using Robe products in his work for some years, but this is the first full-on project for which he has specified BMFL Spots.
Giovanni worked closely with Claudio Santucci and Florian Boje from set design company Gioforma who produced the imposing industrial stage set constructed from aluminium and fabricated by Rome based rental company BOTW, who are also the tour's lighting supplier. Giovanni ensured that the set was designed so that his lighting fixtures could be fitted into and around it.
As usual, the stage presentation contains a lot of video. The set has a 68m span widthways and is built around a Space Roof giving 22m of clearance from the stage to the roof. Behind the central set centrepiece is over 200sq.m of Pixled F-37 LED surface, and eight lighting pods in the ceiling - moved on a Cyberhoist system - are also bordered with the same LED surface.
There are four large portrait IMAG video screens (two stage left and two stage right) in the stage wings made up of Compass 8 mm LED which are angled to offer good viewing to all watching the show from the sides of the stadiums, so they can also receive the full Vasco Rossi experience.
Having attended the very first 'soft' launch of the then new BMFL Spot last year at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, Giovanni reveals that BMFL Spots were "Number one on my wish list for this tour". He wanted them for their extreme power and brightness and incredible range of effects.
They were positioned all over the set. Eighteen were on the back wall of the centre section of the set. Sixteen were on the moving pods and another 16 were spaced out on the wings stage right and stage left - all nicely spread for maximum coverage and impact and lots of 'power' looks.
Giovanni operates all the Robe units and other lights from a grandMA console and a grandMA light is used by Marco Piva to run the media servers playing back the scenic video elements.
The show also features a large laser system from ER, a serious battery of large CO2 effects and sound system supplied by Audio Rent.
(Jim Evans)
