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Home , Bruce Gowers, Live 8, Live Earth

CONCERTS Copyright Lighting&Sound America August 2007 www.lightingandsoundamerica.com

New York’s edition of was filled with new technology, logistical challenges, and lessons about conservation

By: David Barbour

he most important issue of our time got its due on you could have enjoyed a country fest at the National T July 7, when the world rocked to the global series of Museum of the American Indian with Garth Brooks and known as Live Earth. The brainchild of , Trisha Yearwood. and conceived in the tradition of and , the There are many ironies associated with Live Earth. concerts, held in New York, London, , Tokyo, Traveling out to to check out the load-in, it Kyoto, Shanghai, Hamburg, , , was impossible not to notice that this ecological event was and Washington, D.C., were designed to raise world staged in the Meadowlands, that stretch of industrial consciousness on the issue of . (Counting wasteland and urban development that is a testament to an appearance by Nunatak, a pickup band of scientists in much that’s wrong with our modern consumer culture; from Antarctica, the event took place on all seven continents.) the stadium’s parking lot, one could see the hulking, half- Depending on what city you were in, you could hear finished structure of Xanadu, a giant new shopping mall. The Police, plus and , singing Furthermore, all concerts were overseen by the same “Message in a Bottle,” and performing “I design team: Ray Winkler, of Stufish, in charge of the set, Need to Wake Up,” the Oscar-winning theme song from and Patrick Woodroffe, the head lighting designer. In the the documentary . Or you could see past, they’ve been responsible for some of the biggest The , dressed in green suits, followed by spectacles in -touring history, the kind of energy- performing a new song, “Hey You,” urging guzzling events that critics of Live Earth love to cite when political action. You could have seen the sun set on accusing Gore and his entertainment-world friends of Copacabana Beach with and Macy Gray. Or hypocrisy. Yet, at the event, the message of energy- Photo: Todd Kaplan Photo: Todd

64 • August 2007 • Lighting&Sound America www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • August 2007 • 65 CONCERTS

efficiency was heard loud and clear— for the NFL Kickoff, held in Florida, he most reminiscent of the LSD Icon and, in many cases, the design says, “All the plywood built for the set fixture, which is something a lot of us pointed the way to a new green was donated to Habitat for Humanity have been looking for.” Bravely, the approach to concert touring. to build houses in the Miami area, and designer took the first 18 units off the The set was a three-sided array of all unserved, prepared food was assembly line—and, he reports, “We tires in scarlet and gray, with a long, donated to soup kitchens. We also buy had exactly one color issue the entire narrow horizontal band of video wall carbon offsets for most of the flights week, which was resolved by cutting across the center. “Due to the we take, and for our daily operations.” resetting the unit from the console. multitude of venues, locations, and Dierson says the event’s lighting These units were deluged with rain for stages, we had to come up with a design had two major green aspects. three straight days during setup. One unifying look that tied the show “Patrick Woodroffe focused on morning, the guys fired up the rig together as a global TV experience,” making a lighting rig that used much and, literally, a gallon of water came says Winkler. “The tires were a higher-wattage fixtures—but far fewer out of each of the downstage units— symbolic gesture towards our carbon- of them,” says Dierson. “We had and the units came on. We were dependent culture. Their size and about 70 moving lights onstage in a blown away.” form allowed us to replicate the world show where we might normally have Filling out the moving light rig was map logo used for the event in a way 200—that way, we had much less a set of Coemar Infinity Wash XLs, that would read well on and off energy consumption. Of course, there chosen because they were the cameras. The long, narrow band of was a big push to use LEDs.” brightest units available and thus video on the wall allowed the Live Earth in New York marked the could hold their own with the organizers to use it as a giant ticker, debut of the SHOWGUN, the new Showguns. Artfag’s Spike Brant, the to scroll statistics and images in a moving light from High End Systems. broadcast LD for the event, also news-flash style.” It’s a large-scale unit that can project specified a package of Martin In London, the wall was made of images, mix dichroic colors, and Professional MAC 2000 wash units oil drums. “As a mass-produced, switch from hard to soft-edge mode. and Vari*Lite VL2416s and VL5As, industrialized object, it shared the It uses a 2,000W short-arc metal- most of which were placed in same symbolic and practical halide lamp, designed with Philips strategic positions around the characteristics of the tires,” says Lighting. Also, the unit contains an stadium to light the audience. Winkler. The and Rio LED tracking system, which forms a Then there were the LEDs. shows, because of budget issues, circle around the lens. “Woodroffe came up with the concept instead used a printed vinyl backdrop The Showgun “puts out a of the EcoPod,” says Dierson. of the world map logo. ridiculous amount of light,” says “Basically, it was to be a lighting/set Woodroffe specified a basic Dierson. “The LEDs on it alone are element—a chandelier style thing. He lighting rig, although the gear in each almost 5,000 lumens. At first you wanted it to be somewhat organic city was different, depending on think, [the LED ring] is just another and also to represent something that availability; also, each city had a gag. But you can change their colors everyday people could use. After lighting designer who worked with the independently, you can pixelmap bouncing ideas back and forth with local acts. As Patrick Dierson, the them into your video system. You can Woodroffe, I came up with a version lighting designer in charge of Giants have a magenta light beam with that was comprised of sticks of mini- Stadium, notes, Woodroffe’s rig yellow LEDs, for example. You can beam truss, wrapped in a Rose Brand incorporated many energy-saving swing the units back and light the set cloth called Brussan Molding Cloth, ideas. All of which was fine with with only the LEDs.” He adds, and based to look like stone. I took Dierson, who recently officially laughing, “We actually used them as compact fluorescent lightbulbs—the became a member of the design firm a work light one night, when the kind you can buy in any hardware Artfag (along with Justin Collie and stage had to be painted and we store—and had them circuited to do Doug “Spike” Brant). “Environmental didn’t want to keep the rig’s chases. Chris Daly at PRG New is extremely important discharge lamps cooking. Also, the Jersey helped greatly in finding the to Artfag,” says Dierson, adding that LEDs have 16-bit color mixing, which proper bulb that would respond well his colleagues have persuaded some is super-smooth—that’s one of the to [ETC’s] Sensor rack dimming, as high-profile clients—including Bon deadly things on most LEDs; they’re compact fluorescent lamps can be Jovi and the NFL—to switch to usually extremely steppy.” quite sensitive to that. They had the biodiesel-fueled trucks for their Also, Dierson says, the Showgun brightness of a 45W bulb, but with events, among other things. Indeed, “has some really cool effects. They’re only 8W of energy.” After the show, he Photos: Todd Kaplan Photos: Todd

66 • August 2007 • Lighting&Sound America Winkler’s set design wrapped the stage in a wall of tires, lit by LEDs plus a horizontal band of video. adds, the units were given to lighting MR16 striplight. And, with the color worldwide.) Kevin Lawson and companies to use in their offices— mixing, you can flavor your color Michael Appel were the programmers setting an example by recycling. temperature to your taste—you’re not for New York. Dierson notes that the In addition, PixelRange, the LED stuck at 3,200K. We were really grandMA’s ability to be broken up into company recently spun off of James pleased with them. We’re slowly “worlds,” allowing more than one Thomas Engineering, acting as a starting to see the ability of LEDs to person to program at the same time sponsor of Live Earth, donated a replace traditional stage units.” without interfering with the others, number of its products for the Completing the LED complement, the was extremely useful here. concert (in London, as well). Among tires on the set walls glowed “Many acts came in with their these were PixelLine 1044 battens. throughout the evening, because they lighting designers, which was “Again, the emphasis was on being were outlined in Versa Pixels from helpful,” says Dierson. “We were in able to light the stage really well, with Element Labs. contact with as many of them as bold colors and fewer fixtures,” Of course, there were some good possible beforehand. I told them, ‘If Dierson says. “We decided to take an old conventional units as well. “We you get me a simple breakdown of energy-efficient source—the LED had 29 nine-light Molefays and a your songs ahead of time, I can have battens—and make them the eye complement of ACLs to give us a rock the programmers try and create that candy for the crowd.” Also, ‘n roll look, which is a real Patrick for you before your arrival. You’re only PixelRange PAR 90s were attached to Woodroffe idea; we used them to going to have an hour of time during the bottom of each EcoPod, adding focus out on the stadium for white soundcheck; you can spend it making more bursts of color for the audience. audience light. I didn’t use strobes; one cue, or you can send the Coemar also donated LED units, in instead, I opted to do strobing with information in ahead of time and this case the Striplite LED 4. “We the PixelPAR 90s, because they were spend that hour fine-tuning it.’ We used them on the downstage torms more energy-efficient.” only overrode people for things that to get some sidelight for dancers and Controlling the lighting was a set didn’t look right on camera but background singers, and to replace of six grandMA consoles—three otherwise tried to be as traditional striplights,” says Dierson. active, three for backup—and four accommodating as possible to the “The Coemars have a true 3,200K set NSPs. A PRG Mbox media server guest LDs.” of LEDs in them—they’re the first delivered video to the LED units. And, indeed, a number of lighting truly cost-effective replacement for an (PRG supplied the lighting gear designers/directors came in to work

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live, including Danny Nolan on The Police, Mark “Sparky” Risk on , Bobby Bascome on Akon and , Fenton Williams on Dave Matthews, David Hamilton on Melissa Etheridge, Greg Scott on Bon Jovi (an Artfag client), and Jonathan Goldstein on Kanye West. Among the challenges, Dierson adds, was dealing with the transition from daytime to nighttime looks. Fortunately, he says, with the Showguns, “we weren’t just locked into using white light during the day. We could use color and make it read properly with the sun blazing down. I can’t remember the last time I lit a stadium show and the bulk of my rig viewers pledging to support green was only 18 fixtures. It really efforts, IMAG of the performers, shots promotes a new way of thinking from Live Earth concerts in other about doing these shows.” cities, or close-ups of Al Gore or Top: The Showgun. Dierson And, again, energy-efficiency was other political advocates as they (center) with Dave Thomas (left) never far from his mind. “The made their speeches. and Blaine Engle of PixelRange. temptation is always to throw lights at To control it all, XL built a media a problem—but you just have to be a center in a 53' long trailer in the HD500 to take in all the high-def little more thoughtful and creative parking lot, next to trucks from NBC, material from other sources—and about it. It forces you to do your job which presented a three-hour there was a little media room with an differently.” Exactly how differently can highlights show on the evening of editing suite, so they could edit stuff be seen in the following remarks: “We July 7, and Bravo, which covered the on the spot.” t right: Courtesy of JBL basically powered the consoles with a event all day, plus the truck Mitchell adds, “We had received recycle bin, which was set up at the containing the director , all the different feeds from different front of house lighting position. We who edited feeds from the rest of the places—all kinds of media, from all were all drinking water out of bottles Live Earth concerts. In the XL trailer, a over the world. To do it, we had to all week. Every bottle you recycle will Vista Spyder media server was used have a lot of technical resources power a computer for 25 minutes— to deliver content to the concert- interface together.” “It was a huge after 150 bottles, we were able to stage screens. Also available were challenge for us to do a one-off show recycle enough power to generate all eight channels of Grass Valley this large in both New York and six grandMAs for the entire show Profiles, for high-definition playback. London,” says John Wiseman, CEO day.” Now that’s thinking green. A two-channel EVS began recording and president of XL Video. “We had performances from other cities hundreds of LED tiles and a design The global video mix beginning at 4am, providing a that changed up to the last minute. The show’s video component was database of visual material from Danny Parise, Live Earth’s production equally complex. According to Chris which to draw on throughout the day. manager, was the master planner. We Mitchell, the engineer in charge for XL “Stimulated [a Burbank-based firm] were just one element of this show, Video, the task involved merging handled the created content,” says and it was masterfully put together several different technologies. The Mitchell. “Also, Roger Waters brought by him.” narrow band screen and the IMAG his own content, which was screens at stage left and right were composed for the dimensions of our Focused audio and constructed out of more than 700 screen layout. We also shared feeds guest consoles Barco D7 LED tiles. At any time with the broadcasters—a Sony MFS On the sound side, the big task was during the show, one might see on 2000, the main IMAG switcher, took to put together a system that was the screens content created for the camera feeds from the three TV flexible enough to suit the needs of musical numbers, text messages from trucks. We also had the Sony DST- each act. The rig was provided by Photo left: Courtesy of High End Systems. Photo insert left: Courtesy of Pixelrange. Photo right: Todd Kaplan Photo inser Photo left: Courtesy of High End Systems. insert Pixelrange. right: Todd

68 • August 2007 • Lighting&Sound America Firehouse Productions, the New York- “Also, it’s easier to set up than many tough pace. Being able to get area company that has carved out a other desks.” massive amounts of I/O where you substantial niche in music-related The Venue was used by need it—and not having to wire television productions, such as the approximately half the acts; the rest everywhere—is extremely important. MTV Video Music Awards, the Rock brought their own consoles—both You can run long distances without and Roll Hall of Fame ceremonies, analog and digital. The guest boards any loss of sound quality, and it sets and the VH1 Fashions Awards. were accommodated in a space up very fast. With the Riedel For the production’s enormous below the FOH mixing station. In equipment, there are no hums or loudspeaker rig, Firehouse used 154 monitor world, the board of choice buzzes, because it’s on fiber-optic JBL VerTec line array elements. The was the Yamaha PM1D. cable.” To interface with the 13 main stage reinforcement system The mics supplied by Firehouse trucks outside the stadium, Firehouse included two main arrays of 16 VT included a set of 16 Shure UHF -R used three networked frames of 4889s each, twin 14-box out-fill wireless series, plus two Sennheiser Riedel Artist 64 equipment. The arrays, and twin 14-box suspended SKM 5000s. What with the mics, the setup also involved Riedel’s Digital arrays of VT4880 subwoofers. Three broadcast trucks, and other wireless Partyline system and more than 30 delay towers included a total of 36 equipment in use, Dittmar says, “We Riedel C3 digital two-channel VT4889s, with supporting VT4880 had over people coordinating over beltpack stations. subwoofers for additional coverage at 285 frequencies using helical Was it worth it? Live Earth was the the rear of the stadium. antennas and everything else in the largest entertainment event in world Mark Dittmar, the system engineer from Firehouse, says the JBL units were chosen “because they’re very easy to hang and they provide highly focused sound without a lot of tinkering.” He adds, “Equally important is their reliability, which is a huge benefit in a large event like this, when time is at a premium and we have to sound-check for about 20 acts.” In addition, Dittmar also installed 18 d&b audiotechnik B2s, in downstage front positions, as front- floor subs. Amps used in the rig included Crown Itec 6000s for the mains and Lab.gruppens for the delays. Onstage, side fill was provided by more JBL VT4889 and Firehouse’s F12 wedges. Not that all the acts relied on stage monitors; Vinny Left: Part of the JBL rig. Siniscal, Firehouse’s RF coordinator Above: The Police perform. for the event, assembled a Sennheiser G2 wireless IEM system history—it was broadcast on with 32 body packs and an A 5000 book” to eliminate any interference. television networks in more than 100 CP antenna. Siniscal managed Of course, coordination was the countries. MSN has delivered more approximately 150 channels of RF. big challenge here. Firehouse chose than 30 million video streams of the “Every single artist used at least two Riedel’s Artist Intercom system to event. According to a press release, mixes of Sennheiser ears,” he says. keep everyone up to speed on what “Millions of personal commitments At the front of house could be was happening. “We’re using Riedel have been made via the Web and found two Digidesign VENUE because it’s the best tool for the job,” SMS in 178 countries and 35 consoles—one for the bands, one for said Dittmar. “Our first load-in day is territories.” Will it spark fundamental announcers, etc. “A lot of the acts also our first soundcheck day, and changes in the way we live? It’s a here are familiar with it,” says Dittmar. that, on a three semi-truck show, is a question that will linger.

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