Roger Waters’ The Wall Live tour is enthralling audiences worldwide on its 2010/2011 run. Besides bricks, there are many building blocks bolstering the updated recreation of The Wall - which Waters and the rest of Pink Floyd originated 40 years ago. High End Systems (HES) Cyberlight 2.0s and the Road Hog Full Boar are just two names on LD Marc Brickman’s lengthy spec list.In direct control of the HES gear on the show are Mark “Sparky” Risk as lighting director/programmer, David Lancini as lighting tech/production electrician, and Philip Haynes as server operator.
More than just a fleeting glimpse, the 32 Cyberlight 2.0s in the rig are employed in full view constantly throughout the show. There are 24 used on eight pods outfitted with three fixtures on each. The pods are automated to track around a 40-foot circle - an identifiable scenic element over the years from Pink Floyd and Roger Waters tours. There are also two front trusses tucked behind the PA arrays - one stage left, one stage right - with four Cyberlight 2.0s on each.
The Cyberlights are used predominantly as key light, picking out band members for solos and specific points in the show. Says Lancini, “Because our trim height is 65 feet, a bright fixture was needed to punch through at that height, which the Cyberlights do nicely. The Cyberlights are working out well. They're easy to use and maintain.”
Risk elaborates further. “The use of mirrored fixtures on the pods was indeed necessary to avoid the movement of the wire-suspended pods. Traditional moving head fixtures would have presented huge problems with regard to pendulum type movement issues. The 65-foot trim also required a bright source to produce the desired intensity levels at stage level. While the show lighting levels are overall relatively dark, due mainly to the extensive use of projection, the Cyberlights are predominantly used as key light for the musicians, and are therefore used at a higher intensity level than most of the other lighting fixtures. We’ve been happy with the Cyberlights’ performance.”
Haynes uses the Road Hog Full Boar console mostly as a control for the media servers, which project images onto the Wall.
“I use the Full Boar to control the Catalyst media servers which have a ‘Wall build’ movie, that is used for masking the Wall and revealing bricks as they are placed down by the carpenters during act 1. There are some 600-odd cues for act 1. The output of the mask movie from the Catalysts is then fed into a Barco Encore system and used as a key layer,” Haynes says. “Because certain elements of the Wall change from show to show because of the different venues, I have daily masks for each venue that I program on a daily basis on the Full Boar. I also control 15 custom Tait constructed softedge DMX controlled shutters for the overlap between the 5 projection zones and the 15 HD20s used. I created a custom fixture via the fixture builder to control these devices, which works flawlessly.”
Haynes enjoys using the Road Hog Full Boar. “The Road Hog Full Boar has been my weapon of choice now for the last 14 months because of its familiar interface, sensible footprint and reliability. I like to just program without having to read the manual for a week. A console needs to be intuitive - as the Full Boar is - plus having a DP8K (Data Processor 8000) built in is the deal maker. The complexity in ‘Video Land’ is enough from the media server and beyond without having to second-guess the console. It’s all about workflow and the Full Boar suits most of the workflows I face.”
Risk says he and the crew have been pleased with the level of backup from High End Systems. “It is always a pleasure to deal with a company with whom we already have a good working relationship, since this means that responses are always extremely prompt and helpful.”
Roger Waters’ The Wall Live tour is currently in Europe/UK with dates set through July.