The high-impact digital scenery and projections elements were designed by Jon Driscoll. He was asked onboard by the anniversary show's designer Matt Kinley and by Cameron Macintosh's production manager Nic Harris. Driscoll also designed the projections for Phantom sequel Love Never Dies which ran at the Adelphi Theatre.
Driscoll in turn asked XL to provide the hardware, with XL's Paul Wood project managing their elements of the three RAH shows, the final one of which was broadcast live to movie houses in the US, Japan, Australia, Europe and across the UK. Driscoll has worked with XL in the past and says, "As soon as I was confirmed for the job I requested that XL came in to supply the equipment and expertise to deliver the show's video. I have worked with Paul before at the Albert Hall. He knows the venue and its specifics very well and I thought he was the man for the job."
The overall creative brief was to keep the show's look and feel faithful to the late Maria Björnson's original Phantom design which is loved and respected worldwide.
However, the use of digital scenery elements was vital in adapting the show to work smoothly and slickly in the 5,500 capacity RAH, as were certain classic set pieces like the moving bridge and the opera house Proscenium arch.
The video was split into two sections. Upstage, above the raised central orchestra platform was a 20m by 10m grey sharks-tooth gauze, projecting onto this were 10 overlaid Barco FLM HD20 20K projectors located in the Grand Tier boxes.
Below, upstage on stage floor level, were nine 4.5m high x 2-3m wide tracking set panels filled with a total of 75sq.m of XL's Pixled F11 LED screen. The five inner panels moved into a series of different entrance and exit positions for cast and scenery trucks to move on and off stage.
All video content was played in via two Catalyst media servers, one feeding projection and one for LED screens. All the images were controlled and output via a Barco Encore screen management system.
Paul Wood comments, "The timescale was the major challenge in building such an ambitious and high profile one-off show to such exacting standards of excellence, and one to which all departments responded, delivering a truly world class experience fitting the landmark occasion."
(Jim Evans)
