Mariah Carey

MARIAH CAREY

4Wall made use of its recently launched UK base to supply lighting for Mariah Carey’s latest Caution World Tour alongside the live offering’s visual partner, Transition Video.

The award-winning US songstress returned to the UK earlier this year as part of her wider Caution World Tour in support of her 15th studio album. As part of the European leg, the singer performed a rare threenight residency in the Royal Albert Hall – marking Mariah Carey’s first headlined performance in the historic venue.

With a touring production that had carried over for her previous American leg, the artist’s internal team called upon the services on 4Wall UK to oversee lighting duties.

4Wall UK, established in April following the complete asset purchase of Blackburn’s HSL Group Holdings, offers a transatlantic service for touring productions. Mariah Carey’s latest European run was the first tour undertaken by 4Wall UK since the purchase.

TPi spoke to Jordan Hanson, Account Executive from 4Wall about the experience. “The tour was brought in via the 4Wall US,” he began. “It was a nice rig with all pre-rigged truss. There was one straight UK truss with six angled truss with a further six upright towers.”

The flown rig comprised Robe BMFLs and Mega Pointes along with a selection of Solaris Flare Q+s. The side towers housed GLP impression X4 bar and Robe MegaPointes. While the floor was filled with six GLP impression X4 Bar 20s on US risers in a line with six Robe MegaPointes split between stage left and right, located next to the towers.

“There weren’t really any major challenges,” enthused Hanson. “It was a great run with great people from Production and Stage Managers to LDs, riggers and video crew. A fantastic team to be part of.” The 4Wall team on the site consisted of Crew Boss Ian Stevens and two lighting technicians Marcel Wijnberger and Joe Willcox.

Also on the tour was Transition Video, aiding the visual feast. “We were initially contacted by Jordan from 4Wall to come on board as video Supplier for the European leg,” explained Rhodri Shaw, Director of Transition Video. “The design for the show meant that we had several different planes of LED screen, not just an upstage ‘slab of telly’. This meant the load-ins took a little longer as the different screens were flown on different trusses. This did

have the benefit that they could scale down the show for each venue if the full show would fit, which was the case at the Royal Albert Hall.”

The company supplied, 105m 2 of the ROE Visual CB5 along with dual Panasonic DZ21 video projection IMAG screens. We supplied two operated cameras at FOH, two Sony HXC FB80 with Canon XJ95 Long lenses along with four Marshall mini cams and a Panasonic AWUE70 hot head camera.

“The CB5 was actually specified by Mariah’s rider due to it being lightweight, hi-res and bright. It’s also a solid product that you can now get access across the globe.” Also supplied as part of the video system was an active and backup PRG MBox media server package which drove the content on the LED.

The video crew comprised Director, Dan Ormerod, Video Crew Chief, Will Wight, LED Tech, Kieran Yates, Systems Engineer, Bjorn Parry and Camera Operators, Jamie Cowlin and Rupert ‘Pesh’ Dean.

“This was the first time working with 4Wall, the guys thoroughly enjoyed the experience and we look forward to hitting the road with them again soon,” stated Shaw. “It was an absolute pleasure working with 4Wall and Mariah’s production team on this tour. The whole team worked really well together and we look forward to working with the production team in the future.”

In conclusion, Hanson commented: “It was a pleasure to be involved and couldn’t have asked for a nicer bunch of people or a smoother run from the first tour to happen as 4Wall UK.” TPi Photos: Joe Okapo www.mariahcarey.com www.4wall.com www.transitionvideo.com