XL's account manager Phil Mercer says: "It's always interesting working with Blue. He's demanding and always pushes imaginative boundaries, which is challenging, stimulating and hugely rewarding for everyone working with him. His work speaks for itself!"
Leach - much acclaimed for his creative video design on the 2006 Depeche Mode Touring The Angel tour (also supplied by XL) - has produced an original and unusual show. He worked very closely on developing integrated show visuals with lighting designer Davy Sherwin and Catalyst programmer Robin Haddow. The show is an integrated three-way mixed-media montage of live video, lighting and LED visuals.
XL is supplying 32 panels of Lighthouse R16 high resolution LED screen split into five surfaces of different shapes and sizes. These glide in and out and are formed into different configurations with a Kinesys motion control system (supplied by lighting contractors HSL. Each song therefore has a different screen 'look', and the show also has a 'signature' screen formation.
There's four Sony D50 cameras from XL, three pedestal-mounted in the pit on a tracking system, one of which goes hand-held onstage at various times plus one at FOH. Then there's a new Sony pan-and-tilt head rigged up above stage in the truss, controlled by chief engineer Gerry Corry, four mini-cams dotted about the stage, and a DV cam mounted on a magic arm that protrudes from the side of the centre pedestal position - effectively giving two simultaneous shots from one camera. Leach is cutting the mix with a GV Kayak mixer switcher.
The two 8-layer Catalysts (featuring some special hot-rodded software written for the tour by Richard Bleasdale) are run by Haddow at FOH. One media server is used exclusively to drive all the LED lighting fixtures, while five layers of the other connect to the outputs of Leach's camera system. Instead of using Magic DVEs downstream, Leach is using the Catalyst to treat, manipulate and throw effects onto the camera feeds.
"It does everything a DVE does and a whole lot more," says Leach "It's an incredibly flexible and creative tool in the hands of the right operator/programmer."
He adds that setting it up this way has enabled him to explore a whole new realm of camera special effects. "Using Catalyst means I can apply the really fine, quick and precisely timed sort of accenting with the camera mix that you can do with lighting sequences. The whole effects package can become as 'live' as the actual camera mix," he explains.
"Working with XL, the project management team of Phil Mercer and Jo Beirne and their crew is a fantastic experience." In addition to himself and Corry, XL's crew are Darren Montague, Ricardo Alfano, Sandro Bruni, LED tech Matt Gourd and Graham Vinall, who worked on the set up and first section of the tour.
(Chris Henry)
