CONCERTS Copyright Lighting &Sound America October 2019 complete issue: http://plasa.me/a4a92 It’s in their DNA The Backstreet Boys’ design team builds a show around the group’s singular identity By: Sharon Stancavage Photos: Ralph Larmann 62 • October 2019 • Lighting &Sound America The V-shaped video screen and upstage video wall are both automated using TAIT’s Navigator system and Nav-Hoists. his can rival any pop market tour going on right 40'-deep diamond-shaped thrust surrounding a central VIP now,” says Backstreet Boys production pit. The thrust has a scissor-lift elevator in its front, which designer/production manager Dan Mercer. He’s rises to 12' above stage level, almost 20' above the floor. been with the band for the past five years, begin - It’s like having a B stage.” A 17'-wide x 4'-deep lift in the ning as a production manager before moving into main stage is used for entrances. The stage and accompa - design. “The Vegas residency started a huge revival nying automation have been provided by TAIT. “Tfor the guys over the last three years that has taken them Mercer continues, “I call the stage riser design, inspired from ‘90s boy band to a sold-out world touring act,” he by that diamond shape Brian came up with, the wedding adds. cake. It has a [Martin by Harman] Sceptron [linear batten] Lighting designer Graham Anderson notes, “The band outline and it has [GLP impression] X4 Bar 10s, under - didn’t want it to look like all the other tours out there, so neath the stairs, that shine through. We don’t have a band we needed a design that had a unique identity.” To achieve onstage, so the risers give some height and staging this goal, the Backstreet Boys worked alongside the cre - dynamics to the boys dancing during the show.” ative team. “It was Brian [Littrell] who, in an early creative meeting, drew a diamond-shaped thrust on a piece of Video paper,” Mercer says. “He’s a big sports guy and he wanted “We have a 60'-wide x 24'-high video wall, as well as a a big, five-way baseball diamond. We took the idea and V screen in front that matches the shape of the front of ran with it. It’s the shape of the thrust, the risers, and sub - the thrust 32' x 12' high,” Mercer explains. Both are tly appears in other aspects of the design.” automated using Tait’s Navigator system and Nav- The stage, Mercer notes, “is 60' wide x 40' deep with a Hoists. The video walls, provided by PRG, consist of www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • October 2019 • 63 CONCERTS Above: The Vortex, made up of 400 Martin by Harman Sceptrons in custom frames made by TAIT. Opposite: Pyro, courtesy of ER Productions, adds another layer of excitement to the production. Winvision Air 9 panels. The answer was providing it with a mother grid truss and Video is delivered using two disguise [formerly d3 working with Tait to figure out the best way to tour this Technologies] gx 2 media servers with Notch, the real-time complex design, night after night,” notes Curry Grant, vice workflow for production of video content. Mercer explains, president, sales at PRG, the show’s lighting vendor. “The video content is from Core Creative Labs; it was “Nestled between each Vortex truss are six automated supervised by the creative directors, Rich +Tone.” Four lighting trusses to give the show even more dynamics,” cameras, directed by Randall Garriott, provide IMAG: two Anderson explains. Mercer adds, “We have seven lighting long lenses at the front of house and two handhelds in the pods full of Ayrton MagicBlade-R units; there are 63.” pit. A fleet of robo cams provides reference and safety Anderson confides, “I would say almost all of the fix - monitoring. tures are new to me. Dan Mercer and I wanted to move away from fixtures we’d used for years, so we definitely Lighting went looking for the latest and greatest in each area. I did Anderson notes, “I started as [the group’s] lighting director try each new fixture individually on various television per - towards the end of their In A World Like This Tour in 2015, formances with the Boys leading up to the tour. I had the continued as lighting director on their Las Vegas Larger [GLP] JDC1s, which are magnificent, on Ellen , and the Than Life residency, and am the lighting designer for all [Vari-Lite] VL4000 BeamWash on Jimmy Fallon . I sort of their festival and television appearances. The residency test-drove them before settling on exactly what I wanted [See LSA , December 2017] set the bar pretty high, so to us.” There are 41 VL4000s and 37 GLP JDC1 strobes in there was definitely a desire to give the fans something the rig. even bigger.” “The PRG Icon Edge [66 in all] is the workhorse of the To frame the stage, Anderson and Mercer created The show,” Anderson says. “Its versatility lends itself to being Vortex. “It is part of that unique visual identity that I utilized in every song. It doesn’t matter if you need a noted,” Anderon says. “It’s made up of over 400 Sceptrons super-bright beam look or a wide spot with a subtle fitted in custom frames made by TAIT, hanging from eight breakup; it can do it for you. I’m really loving that fixture.” trusses.” Fabricating it wasn’t easy. “The biggest challenge For followspots, Anderson is using a PRG was the rigging puzzle of the Sceptron Vortex structure. GroundControl system with PRG Bad Boys. “This is the 64 • October 2019 • Lighting &Sound America first time I’ve been able to get these for the Backstreet overnight programming that Joey absolutely smashed,” Boys and they are a real game-changer,” he says. Anderson says, adding, “There are layers upon layers of “Obviously, it’s great to have so much control over the fix - time code. I’m also calling the five followspots, which is tures from the desk but the best part is being able to have always a handful, so the more I can time-code the better.” five spots in a perfect position night after night. I’m sure David Commisso, onboard as the show caller, says, “We any LD with more than one principal has had to deal with have a team of about 20 people who run the production ‘Where are the spots going today?’ when you walk into the and I am the center point for the communication. It’s my arena, so I’m happy to be avoiding that.” responsibility to ensure that each team member knows Anderson notes, “We’ve worked closely with Curry Grant exactly what’s coming up in the show and where they need and Eamonn McCullagh at PRG through the residency and to be. The nature of the show is that things change, and no festival dates, so it was fantastic to have the opportunity to two nights are the same. I am in constant communication collaborate with them again. They’ve given me one of the amongst all departments, allowing us to quickly and seam - best lighting crews in the business—headed up by John lessly adapt to whatever situation may arise. There is also a Flynn—so I couldn’t be happier with them.” PRG also pro - lot of automation on the show; trusses move, the Boys vided a global solution for the tour. “PRG’s worldwide sup - come up and down on lifts, and the giant video wall flies in port made it possible to duplicate the exact same package and out. My direction as show caller allows for consistency overseas instead of shipping gear. This was especially of the original design.” important for this tour, which had rehearsals in Lititz and Commisso uses Shoflo event production software. “The then their first show in Lisbon, Portugal,” Grant says. best feature with this system is that the production crew Anderson operates the show on an MA Lighting can track the cue-to-cue progression of the show in real grandMA2 console, programmed by Joey Troup. “With so time,” he says. “We have all the different elements of the many pixel-based fixtures, there was a lot of tedious show split up in columns, and each of the rows broken up www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • October 2019 • 65 CONCERTS into verse/chorus and so on. As part of each row, the thing, but they are great to work with and here I am.” columns include sections of song, time code, lyrics, block - The Backstreet Boys perform without a band. “Other ing chart, wardrobe looks, screen content looks, plus all of artists are using tracks that are processed, mastered, and the cues for each department. Shoflo allows crew to track done in a professional studio,” McCullagh says. “They’re myself calling the show live and can be accessed by mixed perfectly, and you put it through the PA. The prob - Internet for people to track, whether they’re inside the lem with those tracks is that they are not live and dynamic, building or not. The amount of information I have stored on and it’s obvious to the audience that they are not real. The Shoflo means that, throughout each section, we have a way around it was to re-record everything and have the clear picture of every aspect, allowing me or any crew dynamics; if the drummer hits softly, it’s soft; if he hits member to see what else is going on at any given time.” hard, it’s hard.” McCullagh adds, “Financially and creatively, it made Special effects more sense not to have a live band onstage—there was no Special effects are provided by ER Productions.