A 7.8-meter-high mechanical elephant, which was used to transport band members to their places on the stage during the opening of Take That’s Circus Live Tour, was only part of the high-wire technological feat performed for Take That’s 20 Circus-themed stadium shows, which were attended by over 1 million fans in the U.K. The production, dreamed up by show producer Kim Gavin and set designer Es Devlin, was carried out by Brilliant Stages, with support from Summit Steel, XL Video and other companies, also included a giant Ringmaster puppet at the finale.
One of the most technically-challenging staging/rigging show-stopping moments, however, was the transformation of the Big Top tent set element into a circular frame for the main video screen for the show.
Brilliant Stages supplied the 15-meter-by-23-meter structure beneath the scarlet big top. The tent structure, which weighed about 8 tons, was raised 90° to a vertical position, on two hinges weighing 2.5tons each, to form a surround for the central video screen.
“When designing the hinge system for this lift, we had to calculate the wind load and devise a method of controlling the framework as it reached the point of zero resistance in the vertical position,” says Brilliant Stages project manager for the event, Clay Brock. “This was a huge engineering point which we solved using a catcher arm to take the load.”
“This element was easily the biggest challenge for us,” agreed Chris Walker, senior project manager from Summit Steel, who was involved from the early design and concept stages starting September 2008. Along with Brock, Walker also worked with Chris Vaughan from The Production Office to make the fanciful show concepts work safely.
Brilliant Stages built the tent structure using a 15-meter diameter circular truss with fins reaching down, finishing just before the ground. The back of the circle was attached to two large hydraulic hinges, each weighing 2.5 metric tonnes, while the rest was supported by four 16mm steel wires run off at 45 degree angles to four of the upstage StageCo towers.
Each of the four wires was fed through a diverter pully rigged in the towers, all double-purchased. Each wire was then pulled by a rocker-beam attached to the pulley. Beneath each rocker beam were two quad-reeved CM Lodestar model LL hoists, all wired for the Kinesys Elevation motion control system.
At the cue point, the covering cloth was speedily removed from the tent structure. The eight hoists all pulled together to lift the circle – (complete with integral lights rigged in the trussing) as it hinged out and up, transforming into a vertically orientated frame for the large upstage center LED screen. This smoothly-progressing action took place over a five-minute time frame.
Summit also supplied over 100 Lodestar hoists to the tour — a combination of half, 1 and 2 tonne versions — which were used for rigging PA (Capital Sound) and video (XL Video & CT).
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For the tour, XL Video sourced and purchased 140 square meters of 15 mm pitch high resolution PIX LED F-15 LED screen — a new 6000 NITS product. This was framed by a circular truss, hidden beneath a Big Top tent at the start of the show.
XL Video’s Des Fallon and his crew worked closely with The Product Office’s Vaughan. XL designed custom metalwork for the panels to streamline the rigging and de-rigging process and help it dovetail with the other rigging and set design elements. That also minimized the screen assembly time for the large video surface area.
The PIX LED F-15 was driven by inbuilt dual processors running in parallel for redundancy. It is also IP65 rated, which was necessary because despite its Big Top disguise, the stage design does not include a roof. “It took a lot of research, but proved the perfect product that absolutely fulfilled all the criteria,” Fallon said.
XL also made new purchases for the playback side of the TT video equation — four new HD Hippotizer digital media servers. These were operated by Richard Shipman, running an array of custom content produced by Onedotzero.
XL also supplied a full camera and PPU package, consisting of eight HD compatible Sony E30 cameras with an assortment of lenses, which were positioned around the stadiums for coverage of both stages. The mix was cut by Matt Askem using a Grass Valley Kayak console. GVG DVEs were used to deal with the different aspect ratios of the show’s four screens.
“Take That and their production team have always been prepared to push technical and imaginative boundaries to help deliver the very best in live performance,” said XL’s Fallon, whose experience working with the band as video crew chief dates back to the 1990s. “It’s refreshing and inspiring working with those embracing the spirit of creative audacity and adventure.”
