P!NK: Beautiful Trauma World Tour

P!NK

Systems Engineer, Johnny Keirle & FOH Engineer, David Bracey; Monitor Engineers, Jon Lewis & Horst Harmann. Audio Programmer, Joe Wolfe; Head Rigger, Gabriel Wood; Stageco’s Geert Van Heertum.

was so tight that Halpin and the creative team had to look at it from the perspective of an expansion rather than a completely different design. “The majority of the production elements over the stage remained similar, but we expanded the wings with custom surrounds for the outside LED screens, as well as pushing lighting trusses and pyrotechnics to fit.”

Recounting the entire production process, Halpin concluded: “I have been incredibly fortunate to have worked with P!nk for 14 years. She continually pushes herself to do bigger, better, harder things. I’m always very proud of what we create.”

BRIDGE OF LIGHT

In the midst of his third tour with P!nk, Lighting Director, Steve ‘Six’ Schwind retraced the roots of the project. “It’s got progressively bigger and more complex, as tours of this scale and popularity usually do – technology has also increased tenfold.”

The role of lighting was to “create an etched-out theatre show”. Six commented: “Silent House has provided a well-executed project, which I know looks good and performs flawlessly. As for the show, we hold nothing back. It’s full on from the time she hits the deck to the time she leaves.”

Six dubbed timecode as “essential” to the show’s success. “Not only because of the various moving elements but because it’s reliable when it comes to delivering continuity.”

Control came courtesy of his “go-to” MA Lighting grandMA2 console. “I can program things nowadays that I wouldn’t have been able to do while running the show manually. Particularly when it’s used as a tool as opposed to a crutch.”

The LD coined the TMB Solaris Flare Q+ LRs as “neat fixtures that you just can’t go wrong with”. However, his favourite units on the rig were the Claypaky Mythos 2 and Claypaky Scenius Unico fixtures. “There aren’t many lights that are that flat of field,” Six said. “We’ve got around 200 of them on the rig and they’re fantastic.”

Lighting Technician, Gabi Scheff was one of 12 lighting technicians on site and responsible for the Robe RoboSpot system. “This remote follow spot system is very intuitive because the camera is directly at the fixture. With one manual operator per station, it’s incredibly accurate even when factoring mental processing.”

Robe BMFLs covered the stage, as well as long throws on the delay towers. “We depend mostly on them during the show because of their impressive reach, as well as using conventional house spots to cover other on-stage action and, in particular, the ‘3D fly gag’ section further out in the field,” she said.

The tour marked Scheff’s first tour with Solotech. “It’s been a blast,” she said. “All of the gear from the warehouse is wonderfully packaged and maintained, making it easy to achieve a show on this scale with the support we need.” On a personal level, she enthused: “It’s such a spectacular show. Everyone in this entire crew is the best of the best; everything is taken care of properly and it’s great.” Six concluded: “For me, the best part about this tour is the lighting crew and I’m grateful to have them.”

FAMILY PORTRAIT Solotech provided 2,216 Saco S12 LED panels to the tour. The upstage centre LED wall comprised 804, while the onstage band risers used 60. Flanked either side of the stage were two giant IMAG LED screens, a left heart-shaped IMAG screen was made from 676 of the Saco S12 LEDs, while the right used another 676. A pair of disguise gx 2 media servers handled all content playback as well as some of the IMAG effects.

Given that many moments of the show were heavily theatrical, Halpin needed to rely on “digital scenery.” He said: “Most of the content became backdrops of sorts while still remaining musically dynamic.” During the straight-up rock songs, Notch affected the IMAG or musically graphic

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P!NK

Lighting Director, Steve ‘Six’ Schwind; Head Chef, Dan Lefevre; Wardrobe Assistant, Laura Spratt Lighting Technician, Gabi Scheff; Video Engineer, Tim ‘The Doctor’ Jones, LED Technician, Cameron Dixon & Head of LED / Camera Operator, Rob ‘RBYC’ Brewer.

content, produced by Gabriel Coutu Dumont and JT Rooney of Silent Partners, and programmed by Kirk Miller.

Airworks Inflatables was invited by Halpin to build inflatable heart surrounds for the left and right IMAG screens. Airworks Inflatables Matthew Whitehead explained: “We came up with the distressed metallic look as we felt it fitted well with the theme and suggested the use of our custom lighting units to illuminate the pieces from inside. There are 150 fixtures spread across the two hearts, which were installed inside the fabric permanently.”

Video Engineer, Tim Jones joined the conversation: “The IMAGs can be a little challenging for camera work because the screens are asymmetrical,” he said. “It’s crucial to get the camera shot to look nice in both heartshaped IMAGs because they’re mirrored essentially, so you have to be more conscious of your framing for the screens, which is the camera team’s biggest challenge.”

Solotech provided a full Grass Valley camera package. Onstage, two

INGENIOUS SOLUTION No. 909

Creating A Perfect Storm

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