[New] ALICIA KEYS

Photos: James Bridle

For the singer’s latest world tour – The Alicia + Keys World Tour – 4Wall Entertainment provided the lighting, video and rigging for shows on both sides of the Atlantic. 4Wall’s Jordan Hanson and Rhodri Shaw walked TPi through the lighting and video delivery. While 4Wall’s US branch coordinated the deal with the singer’s production, the tour started in the UK before heading Stateside. The show boasted a large video and lighting package, with TAIT providing a mother grid, which accommodated numerous automated hoists along with a large rear LED screen, which could be split in the middle, providing a wealth of options for the production to create different looks during the set.

“T here were nine GLP X4Ls included within TAIT’s mother grid with their automated hoists,” stated Hanson. “It’s something I’d never seen before, but it looked great.”

Below this were custom pods that created a roof canopy made up of 457 CHAUVET Professional E-Pix Strips, which were all mounted within the pods to ensure a quicker load-in for the crew on each of the stops.

“Below the canopy, we had five on-stage trusses running horizontally consisting mainly of Ayrton Perseo fixtures,” Hanson added. Other fixtures on these trusses included 2-Cell Moles, 4-Cell Linear Moles, Rush Par 2s and

GLP impression X4 Bar 20s. The lighting team also deployed three Robe BMFLs operated by Robo Spot controllers on the ground.

Also upstage were two tower trusses that were placed just behind the rolling stage and had an array of Arri S60s rigged in custom brackets to create a “perfect wall of light for the moment when the video wall parted during the artist entrance,” stated Hanson.

There were an additional two trusses racked up at an angle to match the rack of canopy with more Ayrton Perseos and 2 Cell Moles. There were also two wing trusses that were positioned between the main stage and the IMAG screens, as well as a front truss, which featured more Ayrton Perseos as well as Robe BMFL FollowSpots.

The show also featured a B–Stage with four trusses. Three of the trusses were arranged in a horseshoe configuration with GLP impression X4 Bar 20s, SGM P5s and Ayrton Perseo Profiles, along with 1.5m of truss in the middle of the B-Stage, which featured two GLP X4Ls.

For the floor package, there were more CHAUVET Professional Epix Strips, which were integrated into the moving floor set created by TAIT, along with 18 Perseos, three GLP X4s, 16 SGM P5s, and 20 2-Cell Moles.

“One of the main missions was to ensure that this multi-layered show was able to be loaded-in and out as quickly as possible,” Hanson recalled. “We made sure we had great cable management throughout, taking into account that a few of our trusses were automated. It meant working as a team with the other departments – especially TAIT, as we shared cable management trusses.”

Moving onto the video side of the show, TPi spoke to Rhodri Shaw. His company Transition Video was acquired by 4Wall in late 2021 and the Alicia Keys tour was one of the first projects he and his team worked on under this new moniker. “We were acquired back in November 2021, and we’ve grown dramatically since then, virtually doubling the amount of work that comes out of our warehouse,” explained Shaw.

Despite the increased workload, Shaw revealed that little has changed in terms of work methodology. “Transition was acquired for its people rather than its equipment, so the main office has let us carry on in much the same way,” he stated.

“T hat said, we are now benefiting from being part of a far larger organisation, which means more resources to buy more kit. I’m not sure we’d have done nearly as well over the past year if we hadn’t been tied to a big company like 4Wall Entertainment.”

One of the aspects that Shaw pointed to as a benefit of being part of 4Wall was the ability to service clients on both sides of the Atlantic without the need to ship gear – a fact that was certainly taken advantage of with the Alicia Keys tour.

For the main LED screens, 4Wall provided ROE Visual CB5. “It was specified by the production as they wanted to show a lot of high-resolution content,” stated Shaw, who also complemented the T4 Touring frames in which the LED frames travelled in.

There was also an extensive camera package deployed on the tour, with Sony HXCFB80s and Panasonic AW-UE70 PTZ, as well as three Marshall CV503s deployed to capture the action. The IMAG content came via Panasonic 20K Laser projectors, while disguise media servers drove all the content.

To close, Hanson gave his personal highlight for the tour. “There is a moment when Alicia Keys moves from the main to the B-Stage when the kabuki is covering the stage; there are lights shining from the back of the stage into the musicians playing, creating a shadow projection onto the kabuki, alternating between the different musicians. This was a very cool effect and I thought it looked great.” www.aliciakeys.com www.4wall.com