XL hardware used on Placebo tour

Lighting designer Max Conwell has designed a very different video aesthetic into his show for the current European leg of Placebo’s 'Sleeping With Ghosts' tour.
Conwell’s multi-layered approach seamlessly binds the visual mediums of lighting and video into Placebo’s powerful, hard-hitting performance.
Conwell and production manager Derek McVay turned to XL Video’s Des Fallon to supply production hardware for the tour, in this Placebo’s most comprehensive video-based production to date.
XL are supplying three upstage 10 metre square Barco D7 LED screens. These are hung low, and upstage of a heavy, commercial freezer industrial plastic curtain, slit into several sections. The curtain is also front projected onto by four Barco G10 projectors.
Conwell took the double-images of the album artwork as a starting point for his video content. He wanted two layers of video – strong and provocative images that were in the face on one hand, and a more subliminal after-effect to work on the subconscious. This psychological parameter prompted his decision to use the high-resolution LEDs blocks upstage, diffused and treated by the refractions of the curtain, juxtaposed with the more subtle projections onto the front of the surface.
The plastic, sourced by backdrop/scenic specialists Hangman, was originally clear. Conwell wanted it distressed for additional texture, so after experimenting with a variety of methods, they belt-sanded it to get an opaque and almost shimmering appearance. As it is in strips, the natural drafts of any venue, add gentle undulation and movement creating an additional aura of ‘natural magic’. The curtain is an excellent, unpredictable and offbeat projection surface for both video and lighting.
The pre-recorded content is supplied by two Catalyst digital media servers - one feeding the LED screens and one feeding the projectors.
An additional G10 is positioned at front-of-house, used only for the set’s tense intro, fed from video footage stored on a Doremi hard drive backstage. The intro content was compiled by Richard Shipman. Conwell himself worked on much of the other content, converting clips from band’s promos to Quicktime files for the Catalyst. Other royalty-free footage was sourced from Scene Change.
In addition to the insert material, XL is supplying five mini-cam surveillance type cameras. These are dotted around onstage capturing the band in raw, low-res moments, and are live mixed by Alistair MacDiarmid sitting side-stage with a six-channel switcher. MacDiarmid also receives a Catalyst feed from Conwell to spice up his mix.
(GB)