CONCERT Copyright Lighting&Sound America July 2013 http://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/lsa.html Ultra Design 48 July 2013 Lighting&Sound America
An inside look at the audacious main stage design at Ultra Music Festival By: David Barbour Ultra Music Festival, the Miami-based celebration of electronic dance music, this year featured a highly original and eye-catching production design for its main outdoor stage, designed by James Klein and Bruce Rodgers, with lighting by Richard Neville. One of the major dates on the world s EDM calendar, Ultra Music Festival (UMF) unfolded throughout six days during two weekends in March, with 330,000 people in attendance. It was viewed live online by more than 10,000,000 people via UMF-TV's webcast. Ultra featured a starry lineup of DJs that included David Guetta, DeadMau5, Kaskade, Afrojack, Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, Avicii, and many more, with a memorable finale supplied by Swedish House Mafia in what was apparently its P Klein, an Australian, whose company, James Klein Events, is based in New York, teamed up with Bruce Rodgers, of the design firm Tribe (and a regular presence in these pages), to create a design for their first UMF main stage that would make a big statement. We spoke on the phone for three hours and went down a number of different design paths, Klein recalls. Among the points taken into consideration, he says, It was important to feature the UMF logo because this was the festival s 15th anniversary; we also talked about automation and various other stage effects. After that, we finalized the design together. Speed was of the essence, as the time frame was extremely short. From the time Bruce and I were confirmed, we had six weeks, notes Klein. The time was especially short because of the project s size: The stage was 200' wide and 105' high, says Klein. A key need was sourcing the large amount of high-tech, quality lighting, video, automation, and LED equipment with the technical expertise required to pull off such a spectacular. For that, we turned to VER and TAIT Towers. The set was made up of 176 aluminum pyramids custom-built by Tait, Klein continues. Each pyramid was 7'- by-7' and 4' deep and lined with Tait s LED Pixel Tablets, the same product that was used at the London Olympics last summer. We used 6,500 Pixel Tablets. The scenic pyramids Left photo: Rutger Geerling Right photo: Drew Ressler More than 12,000 shots of pyro and arrays of willows and fountains were used over the six days of the festival. www.lightingandsoundamerica.com July 2013 49
CONCERT created the illusion of supporting the 50'-by-50' UMF logo, which was built for us by Mountain Productions in addition to the stage s infrastructure. The logo incorporated VER s Linx 30mm LED video screen and was surrounded by 65 LED Solaris Flares from VER. These color-changing LED lights offer incredible brightness and impact. Ultra was one of the first productions to use them on this scale in the world. The latter product, which is new to these pages, can function as both a color wash and a strobe, and it comes with a pixel-mapping feature. Also lining the logo were 25 Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlaze 72 and 30 ColorBlaze 48 LED strips. Built into the set design at stage right and stage left were 20'-by-13' WinVision 12mm video screens, used for IMAG. At stage center was another WinVision 8mm screen, 26'-by- 13', which opened to reveal a series of different looks. One look had a 4'-by-27' WinVision 18mm screen; this would get loaded out to be replaced by other systems, depending on who was headlining, explains Klein. Also, four 10'-by-6' robot screens made up of VER 9mm video. We designed the first dynamically changing DJ booth, which used the Tait video matrix lifts [also seen on the recent Madonna MDNA Tour]. These consisted of 32 individual lifts that can rise up 8' from the stage deck and transform into different configurations. (Tait also supplied 10 programmable water fountains.) Jason Rudolph, who managed the video technical system design, says, For Ultra Music Festival, we had a number of video design challenges to overcome. First, we had a number of uniquely shaped screens that needed fairly complicated mapping to make them look correct. Second, we needed a huge variety of systems to incorporate the content of artists who have their own VJs. Therefore, we engineered a system that incorporated a large DVI router, an array of image processors, and 12 Green Hippo Hippotizer media servers. Using DVI capture cards in the Hippos, we were able to remap incoming signals from the various sources so that they would look correct on the screens. At the same time, we could bypass the Hippos completely, or only for certain sources if the signals provided could be mapped correctly for the various screen surfaces utilizing a touch-screen interface for the router to trigger the servers. We could take a single feed from either the stage or a VJ setup at the front of house and map it onto all of the surfaces, or we could have someone show up with an individual feed for each screen. We basically had to handle every possible scenario and handle it quickly, as some artists video departments showed up only minutes before the set. Screen content was created by Vello Virkhaus, of V Squared Labs, with additional content from Robert Montenegro, of New York-based Guy Smith Productions. UMF branding, live VJ performances, and set change looks were created by the team at V Squared Labs and directed by Virkhaus. V Squared Labs also VJ d for any artists that did not have their own production teams, improvising and bringing the stage to life using their generative visual technology, says Klein. Among the many special effects, the stage featured twelve 30W RGB lasers provided by Wood Dale, Illinoisbased Strictly FX. I have nothing but respect for Strictly FX and the work they do the use and programming of the lasers was an amazing addition to our production, and I was very pleased to have them on board our team, notes Swedish House Mafia production manager Robin Scott. The lasers, which were programmed by Grant Sellers and David Kennedy of Strictly FX, were an integral component of the second half of the band s set, including the colorful visual onslaughts present in the songs In My Mind, Quasar- Photos: Rutger Geerling The flame system included four high output liquid flame units capable of shooting flames 100' high. The pyrotechnics also include 20 liquid flame heads and five sunshine five-way flame units. 50 July 2013 Lighting&Sound America
Robe LEDBeam 100s were placed in the center of each pyramid, chosen because of their light weight and a custom slot-and-lock installation mechanism designed by Tait. Photo: Drew Ressler Spectrum-Insomnia, and Knas. The band was gutsy in taking the amount of lasers to the show that they did, says Strictly FX visuals director and partner Ted Maccabee. Klein adds that throughout the six days there were more than 12,000 shots of pyro and multiple arrays of willows, fountains, and other effects. The system, designed by Farmingdale, New York-based Pyro Engineering, also used multiple styles of stadium mines, comets, gerbs, and flares to create astonishing moments on the stage. Twenty-four CO2 jets with more than 800 tanks of CO2 were used across the two weekends. The flame system included four high-output liquid flame units capable of shooting flames 100' high, 20 additional liquid flame heads, and five sunshine five-way flame units. Twelve confetti blowers used more than 1,000lb of confetti, while 12 Big Shot double barrel streamer cannons combined with six Stadium Shot streamer cannons also lined the stage structure. The final touch were 12 Bubble Masters bubble machines with UV bubble fluid. Lighting Lighting was designed by Richard Neville, of Sydney, Australia-based Mandylights James and I started working when we were teenagers in Sydney together, he says, adding that he studied Klein and Rodgers design and suggested placing a lighting unit inside each pyramid, choosing the Robe LEDBeam 100 for the job. Another new product, the LEDBeam 100 is a moving unit with three LED zones that allow the creation of various color chases and a 7 beam angle that can be amplified with fast strobing; the unit is also lightweight, a feature that really mattered here. Video Equipment Rentals (VER) supplied the lighting gear. The 100s were located in the center of each pyramid, Neville says. They weigh almost nothing, and Tait designed a custom slot-and-lock mechanism with one removable pin, which made it easy to install and service them. Out of 176 fixtures, we swapped only three and they were outside in the dust and the rain; to have that kind of reliability was incredible. The Robes were the workhorses, Neville adds. It was an incredibly imposing structure during the day, and the challenge at night was to maintain the shape of the stage. Ultra invested a lot of money in the stage design, and we designed the lighting to make sure everyone saw how cool the structure looked, even in the dark. The LEDBeam 100s are ridiculously fast, and they ve got white, which means you can do color mixing with very little in the way of shadows. With all these 1,500W fixtures, the LED moving light was the star of the show. Also crucial in outlining the stage were Clay Paky Sharpys. We lined the perimeter of the structure with 58 of them, says Neville. To be able to use them for big fan looks allowed us to keep the profile of the pyramid at night. We also had a smattering of them on the stage, with chrome finishes that looked fantastic. For stage lighting, Neville says, I designed a basic set of five trusses in the roof setup with some vertical towers; the idea was to have as many units in positions to be used in as many ways as possible. We have 30 [Philips Vari*Lite] VL3000s inside the stage and a further 94 across the rest of the stage structure. In addition, there were 16 VL3500 Wash www.lightingandsoundamerica.com July 2013 51
CONCERT FX and 16 VL3000 Spots for front light. We were trying to keep the fixture types to a minimum; we used [89] Robe 600 LEDWashes and [26] 1200 LEDWashes because the colors and parameters were the same. The 600s were placed in vertical columns on the stage deck, where they could shoot up color between the pyramids. We also had two vertical towers of Robe 1200s, which filled a gap in the structure. In addition to the [87] Solaris Flares from VER, which were amazing, we also had six Super Nova space flowers, for additional effects. Additional gear included 67 Martin Atomic strobes, 60 Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12 RGBs, 63 CK iwhite LEDs, 40 Elements KR25 panels, 27 four-way Molefays, three Strong Gladiator followspots, four TheONE hazers from MDG, and eight Martin Jem foggers. Overall, Neville says his approach was to make the design as user-friendly as possible. We put in big blocks of fixtures to make it easy for other LDs to put their shows across; we had 1,000 moving lights, and it was a case of how could we make it accessible to others. We wanted to avoid having them use only 10 or 20% of the rig. One way involved the use of a visualization suite, fitted out with the LightConverse 3-D Show Platform, also provided by VER. We ve been using it for about a year now, he says. It allowed us to put in an almost complete geometry of the stage every pyramid, every door control, and automation. A designer could work with it and have a realistic idea of how it would look. The suite was fitted out with two MA Lighting grandma consoles. Available controllers included six grandma2s plus 12 NPUs, two High End Systems Road Hog Full Boars (for Deadmau5), and one ChamSys (for Tiesto). It was exciting to see how various lighting and video designers brought their own vision to this very flexible stage interpreting it in their own unique way, adds Klein. With an event like this, there is no rehearsal, and if an act didn t bring along an LD, the job fell to Neville, who prepped himself as best he could. I spent three months before listening to podcasts of artists to get an idea of their music, he says. Especially when you get into the evening hours, when lighting is playing a bigger role, it s vital to know the music and the artists. He was assisted by Alex Grierson, his associate LD. EDM relies on the creation of visual interest, Neville adds. At the end of the day, it s a DJ standing behind his decks. It s really important to create a spectacle. It s also important for the bigger EDM events to have a strong visual identity. Living as far from Miami as you can get, I nevertheless grew up with Ultra because they have always placed an importance on being visually spectacular. With so many fixture types and so many possible combinations, managing the programming and operation was a huge task. You have 1,000 moving lights, and there are so many different looks and effects that you can make. With that kind of fixture count, things can look very busy and very messy. For the programming, I put a lot of thought into managing the fixtures. We could have done another two weeks of festival and still produced new looks. There were lights that we didn t use until the last two days because part of James and Bruce s vision was that the stage would be revealed in parts, and I always had to have new tricks. It was great to have that many tricks up my sleeve. The audio system, supplied by Miami-based Beach Sound, consisted of d&b audiotechnik J-Series and V-Series boxes, plus L- Acoustics KARA and sb18 units. Consoles included a DiGiCO SD5, Midas PRO9, Avid VENUE Profile, and Soundcraft vi4. 52 July 2013 Lighting&Sound America