It was the eighth year that XL has supplied these central London events, which were once again project managed for them by Chris Saunders, working with an XL crew of 15.
The headline acts for Hard Rock Calling were a blend of classic rock genres represented by Pearl Jam, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney. XL supplied a five-camera PPU 'house' IMAG system which was directed by Ruary MacPhie using a GV Kayak, and this stayed in place for the whole run of shows.
The cameras were positioned two at FOH with long lenses, two in the pit on track-and-dolly and the fifth mounted on a remote pan/tilt head above the stage, all of which combined to give a selection of dynamic and interesting angles and shots.
Stevie Wonder brought in his touring video production - also supplied by XL - for Saturday night, and director Matt Askem's mix took feeds from some of the house cameras in addition his own.
On the Sunday, Paul McCartney's production used the XL house camera system, which was directed by Paul Becher and installed their own screens - portrait format for the left and right sides, with an onstage backdrop of LED.
XL also installed a Barco B10 mobile truck screen into the VIP Hard Rock Cafe area, and a Lighthouse R7 screen in the public Hard Rock Cafe area at the other end of the Park.
XL has also been on tour with Kings of Leon throughout the summer. For this show, they used their own touring production, complete with Pixled F11 backdrop screen fed via a media server, plus their own cameras, directed by Phil Woodhead. The XL house cameras were used to produce the side screen IMAG cut.
Wireless wrapped up the run of Hyde Park shows in style with three days headlined by Pink, LCD Soundsystem and Jay-Z.
Pink has been on tour for the last year with another full HD video production from XL, and utilized her full touring video system for this show, including a large Pixled F15 screen upstage. They are touring five Thompson LDK8000 Cameras positioned FOH, in the pit, hand held and unusually for a tour, on a Jimmy Jib operated by Gary Tepper, all this brought together in a lively Pink-tastic mix directed by Larne Poland.
Jay-Z's performance also featured a touring XL Video rig, including columns of the ever popular Pixled F15.
Additionally for Wireless, Saunders and his team supplied a projection system for DJ Shadow on the second stage.
A series of plasma screens from XL were dotted around all over site, switching between sporting action from the World Cup football in South Africa and championship tennis from Wimbledon and the various shows. These were fed via a microwave link from XL's production portacabin backstage.
(Jim Evans)
