LONDON – Avolites products, including Avolites Media’s Ai media server and the Avolites Sapphire Touch, are helping deliver fast moving evocative visuals on The Script’s sell out arena world tour. Designed by LD Jamie Thompson, in collaboration with content producers Immersive, the show visuals are operated by US-based Jeffrey Brown.
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LONDON – Avolites products, including Avolites Media’s Ai media server and the Avolites Sapphire Touch, are helping deliver fast moving evocative visuals on The Script’s sell out arena world tour. Designed by LD Jamie Thompson, in collaboration with members of the band and creative London based content producers Immersive, the show visuals are operated by US-based Jeffrey Brown.
“The theme of ‘3’ – reflecting the album and tour titles – was important, and dictated much of the layout of LED fingers and stage graphics,” says Thompson. “The Ai is being used to power a mixture of live camera feeds, video and visual content onto the main back video wall, and over the three, three-dimensional LED screens, which are embedded in the stage floor and run above the stage to reach into the audience like outstretched fingers. After witnessing the power of Ai at previous events, I knew we could create a stunning visual display for The Script, so I championed its use with the band and made it happen, and it was truly worthwhile – the results are fantastic.”
Visuals operator Jeffrey Brown adds, “The biggest benefit of using the Ai Media Server is that the content is easily built to fit the 3-dimensional model of our LED layout on stage. This model was then imported into the server and used as part of the interface to map the content to the LED screens. Its ability to map the video to the server’s physical outputs as it is required is also pretty exciting. For this production, we mapped the overhead and stage fingers to a Nocturne LED Processor, while the main upstage video wall is mapped to another separate LED Processor. As the production developed, we also added pre-show content, which is played direct from the Ai Media Server.”
Brown says it was easy to add another surface in the Ai and then assign that to the free DVI output on the server. Content, a mixture of QuickTime clips and live camera inputs, is controlled via a combination of Time Code and manual triggering using an Avolites MSC-1.
Mark Calvert, managing director for Immersive – the London-based design company that produced and directed all of The Scripts digital content and who worked alongside Jeff Brown to setup the Ai elements for the show comments, says, “The band directly approached Immersive with only six week until the tour kicked off in Ireland. We were commissioned to make seven bespoke template specific videos, which were to be a defined and obvious mix between film, 3-D and 2-D disciplines.”
According to Calvert: “The Ai makes dealing with the 3-D layout of the LED screen design a total breeze. It also means that significantly less time is spent mapping outputs on the road. This is vastly important (when on a pressured deadline) because Ai enables both our creative team and the guys in the band to 3-D visualize show content before rehearsals.”
Immersive uses Ai for its ability to adapt to ever-changing live music environments. Calvert explains, “This was proven again on The Script, when the band (during the tour) wanted to add clip preferences, new media and additional outputs on the fly. Working with Jeff was fantastic and he is now a key player in our US operations.”
Brown adds, “I discovered that I could manipulate the content on the model without worrying about how to map the individual clips. I believe the Ai Media Server has an excellent future ahead of it. Avolites Media is a responsive company and they listen to their customers. The Ai product is unique in the market. With the initial idea combined with positive industry feedback it has the potential to become the game changing piece of kit.”
“I’ve always been a big user of Avolites, not just for their products, which I love, but also because of the company itself and the support and friendly advice that is on hand, all around the world 24/7,” comments Thompson.
“I actually own the first ever manufactured Sapphire Touch – 001,” he adds, “and since I bought it have used it on every show I do. Once it’s set up and configured it’s a very easy and creative tool to use. It provides a smooth interface between the stage and me and I can find what I need in the rig and program it quickly. I can also load fixtures and effects very fast, which is a big thing for me with the obvious time constraints. The effects I can get out of the console are massive. It’s a clear choice for me.”
