Borsato De Kuip

BORSATO DE KUIP

Dutch megastar, Marco Borsato, makes a landmark return to De Kuip, Rotterdam for five record breaking and visually encapsulating sold-out shows. TPi’s Jacob Waite was onsite to speak to the visual team behind this outlandish production…

Fifteen years ago, one of the most successful and biggest grossing artists in the Netherlands, promised to return to one of the nation’s most iconic stadium venues with a series of concerts that audiences would never forget. True to his word, Marco Borsato transformed the home of Feyenoord Rotterdam into his playground for five nights of visual and sonic revelry; opening the doors to 250,000 friendly faces with guest performances from a plethora of Dutch artists including, André Hazes, Lil Kleine and DI-RECT, Maan, Ali B, Davina Michelle and Armin van Buuren. For Show Designer Carlo Zaenen of Q.be the task was monumental – devise a stadium-filling set that not only fits the music, which is neither pop nor rock, but also showcase pioneers from all corners of the live music and entertainment technology industry.

MOJO Concerts’ John Mulder, Marco Borsato’s manager of ten years, explained the rationale behind the five-day spectacular. “Marco has played this historic venue nine times before, six times in a row,” he said. “As soon as he found out that The Rolling Stones had also played De Kuip nine times, he

promised that he would return to beat the record.” Mulder explained the tour’s modus operandi was to create a historic production at an equally historic venue. “Initially, we thought that we would only play a few shows here,” he conceded. “Now, we’ve ended up doing five consecutive, sold-out performances to a quarter of a million fans!” he proudly exclaimed.

However, with popularity comes expectation and a box-office budget. “We have had to create something really special to commemorate the occasion,” Mulder said with earnest. “Marco wants to give each fan who has spent their hard-earned money an experience, so they not only go home having witnessed a great show, but they also get their money’s worth.”

VIDEO In video village, TPi met Project Manager, Ben Augenbroe, by the team’s backstage ‘Fa-bar’ – a space adorned with tiki posters, beer cans and ROE LED Strips. “Everything was entirely LED,” Augenbroe reflected on the

Below: The Faber Audiovisual team in video village and Malf Media’s Michael Al-Far.

initial CAD drawings. “However, given the height, arched stage structure and unpredictability of the weather we had to revisit the drawing board to create a feasible solution.”

Step forward Faber Audiovisuals, who on behalf of Musica è & Mojo, supplied a monumental production package which included 1,000m² of ROE Visual Carbon CB5 LED screens, 4,000m of ROE Visual LED Strips, and ROE Visual Evision controllers.

ROE Visual Technical Engineer, Victor Kortekaas, provided comment on the company’s largest touring LED display to date, weighing in at 14 tonnes: “For projects of this scale, it is nice to be involved in the background at an early stage, so we can provide the best solutions as a manufacturer.”

ROE Visual provided some additional support in setting up the processors. Kortekaas said: “We support in the background, ultimately, it is about being of service to our customers, so that theycan deliver a good performance in the field. Faber Audiovisual supplies the hardware as manufactured by ROE Visual, however, without great content creators our screens won’t stand out. It’s about the total package, the cooperation between companies that make or break a production. We are really proud to be the engine that drives our customers’ projects.”

To capture content, Faber Audiovisuals supplied a camera package, playback and additional video facilities. The camera packaged comprised 17 Grass Valley LDX 86 N Series cameras, 21 on the date of

“For projects of this scale, it is nice to be involved in the background at an early stage, so we can provide the best solutions as a manufacturer.”

Victor Kortekaas, ROE Visual Technical Engineer

recording, and an entire data distribution system for content. As well as a technical container to hold technical racks with CCUs, 6 disguise VX 4 and 4 disguise GX 2 media servers, and signal routing.

Two backstage containers joined as a control room and housed a 30-person strong video and camera crew members, 40 people during the date of recording.

Malfmedia’s Michael Al-Far picked up the story from a content design point of view, he said: “ROE Visual LED screens are fantastic, because when you’re going from daylight to night in an outdoor venue the video screen is essentially the nucleus of the show. The quality and the size of it is paramount. The LED screens had to be ROE Visual CB5s because it’s the best screen out there, there’s no doubt about that.”

Under the creative supervision of Al-Far and his associate content designer Olav Verhoeven from Studio Regie, the songs were accompanied ofcinematographic footage, with a great eye for detail and finesse. When it came to content design, Marco Borsato adopted a hands-on approach, as Al-Far explained: “As a photographer and musician, he’s in a very creative phase of his life and that helps us enormously when it comes to devising video content.”

Using some of the latest AR techniques, the creative team added some interactivity to the show, unseen before on a live concert. “Every show Marco puts on, he tries to push the boundaries a little because he can, this year, we sat down and decided

to do some radical, like AR techniques to create an immersive environment for the audience.”

For the introduction of the show, Marco Borsato donned a motion capture suite in pre-production. “We transferred his image in 3D onto a live video feed and played it to the audience to make it look like he was walking the span of the roof of the stadium.”

To which end, the audience look over to the roof of De Kuip, as the artist jumps down, in VR, and flies onto the stage. “Seeing the confusion on the peoples face as they see Marco walking on the ridge of the roof on the screen was a great sight,” he enthused. “For that brief moment, the audience believed the illusion. As soon as he jumped of the roof and started flying, it became obvious that this was AR,” Al-Far noted with a wry smile.

Visual Solutions programmed the video content on six of disguise vx 4 media servers, making sure the right images at the right time were shown. Control of the E2 was also achieved by disguise servers. Realtime image grading was then added to the live feed in disguise, and the use of Notch effects during the show make way for a range of live feed integration in 3D scenes. Al-Far teamed up with Visual Solutions’ Jo Pauly because “you just don’t change a winning team”. He said: “For large canvas shows, like this one, it’s hard to provide a full end solution for every song and dotting the I’s for the perfect playback,” he noted on the mediaserver end of things.

“Notch allows us to embed live feeds in ways no other software package will let us do,” Al-Far explained. During one song, the camera travels through a futuristic city, modelled and fully rendered in 3D - the camera then moves through the billboards and during the chorus the team insert the AR to open windows to another world, duplicating to 30 versions of a female dancer flying on a disc, over the audience’s head on the

“Working with an Artist who is so excited and wants to be part of every step of the creative process has opened up a lot of creative solutions for us.”

Michael Al-Far, Malfmedia

screen. “There’s no other tool in the market but Notch that will allow us to manipulate and handle the live feeds in real time.”

Vrij Zijn had it all: glossy 3D renders with embedded dynamic live feed in a ground breaking new fashion and on-screen AR. “This lets us not only add a level to the content that would be impossible to achieve in the real world but sucks the audience into the screens - creating an audience participation and ties both on and off-stage worlds together. That, to me, is the future of live event entertainment.”

Al-Far stated: “This show ticks all boxes as a concert goer. You walk away visually, emotionally and sonically stimulated from a show of this magnitude and all of those elements fit together perfectly,” he stated enthusiastically, coining Borsato De Kuip as the “ultimate fan experience”. He stated: “I’m proud of what we, as a team, have achieved. Marco Borsato’s believe and encouragement has been excellent and as creators - it’s refreshing to deal with an artist with that mentality.”

Al-Far gleamed with enthusiasm: “Working with an Artist who is so excited and wants to be part of every step of the creative process has opened up a lot of creative solutions for us. Marco handled everything we threw at him with a professional enthusiasm he likes of which I have not often experienced before.”

For one of the songs, the creative team booked Europe’s biggest water studio and for the full duration of the day Marco was submerged inhurricane like waves. “It made for some spectacular footage and you just know that when this song is played in concert on those vibrant screens, in combination with the music and the spectacular lighting settings, something magical happens. MBDK is an accumulation of little magical moments like this.’’

The AR team boasted Hans Cromheecke, Maarten Francq, Scott Millar, Sebastian Barić, Frank Brusselman, Jeroen De Haan, Koen De Winne,

Teun Toebes. IMAG grading was handled by Lewis Kyle White. The content team comprised Ellen Cosyn, Marco De Ruyck, Bart Tauwenbergh, Sander Heynderickx, Lieven Vanhove, Tim Vandekerckhove, Miki Arregui, Aitor Biedma, Nina Caspari, Katrien Frenssen, and Enora Oplinus.

“Everything has to be up to par technically, and ROE and Faber Audiovisuals have been excellent in providing us that,” Al Far openly declared: “This is one of those projects where 10 years from now we’ll be talking about the fact 250,000 satisfied customers came to De Kuip over five nights and walked away happy. Simply put, Marco Borsato knows how to throw a party!”

Looking around the De Kuip, Augenbroe reflected on the undertaking: “It’s truly one of the best shows I’ve seen, as soon we see the crowd walk through the doors in their thousands, it makes it all worth it,” he conceded: “It was a long and often heavy road but I’m really pleased with the outcome. The entire team have put in a lot of effort to achieve this feat.”

LIGHTING Underscoring the visual elements of the show was a plethora of Robe lighting fixtures. On the rig were 84 Robe Robin MegaPointes, 8 Robe Robin BMFL Spots, 92 Robe Robin LEDBeam 150s, 280 Robe Spiiders and 16 Robe Squares.

A further 262 SGM Q-7 Wash lights were also placed at 110° along with 28

SGM P-2 Wash lights at 43° - while 1m worth of GLP impression X4 Bar 20s, 78 to be exact, added to the lighting arsenal along with half a metre of 11 GLP Impression X4 Bar 10s. Additionally, 22 Martin by Harman Atomic 3000 LEDs and 42 Briteq NonaBeam BQ1s contributed to the extensive lighting rig. For key light, 4 Robert Juliat Lancelots were positioned at angles between 2-5°, controlled by a Robert Juliat Follow-Me Remote follow spot control set. For control, a pair of MA Lighting grandMA2 Lights were utilised with a grandMA2 Faderwing and 8 MA Lighting grandMA NPUs.

Ampco Flashlight’s Daniel van Lochem, who was responsible for lighting, concluded: “Two things really stood out at this production for me,” he began. “One was the level of detail from all the companies involved achieved,” van Lochem praised the finishing of the materials as being taken care of to “perfection”. He concluded: “The other thing is the collaboration; whether it is with production or with the suppliers present, it was really nice, smooth and an easy-going affair.” TPi Photos: Jorrit Lousberg & Faber Audiovisuals www.borsato.nl www.faber-av.com www.roevisual.com www.visual-solutions.be www.malfmedia.co.uk

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