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Crowning the King of Bachata

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Regal Looks for Romeo Santos’ First Solo Tour

When Romeo Santos kicked off his Formula Vol. 1 Tour with three sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City, the audience was treated to an elaborate design — and one that was conceived and pulled together in a mere 45 days. Creative producer and tour director Veikko Fuhrmann and production designer Eduardo “Wady” Rodriguez collaborated on the sourcing as well as the set, lighting, and video designs.

Warp Speed

Originally from Argentina and now based in Miami, Rodriguez has designed for a variety of artists including Ricky Martin, Maná, Shakira, Calle 13, Juan Luis Guerra, Ednita Nazario, and Aventura. Working with Aventura, he had earned the trust of Santos, who was the band’s lead singer at the time. This helped streamline communications when Santos brought Rodriguez in for an initial design meeting in late December 2011 to discuss his solo tour, which would launch at Madison Square Garden in Feb. 2012.

Rodriguez knew it was not much time to design and source everything for a major tour. “I met with Romeo on Dec. 22,” says Rodriguez. “I went back to Argentina for Christmas and spent time drawing ideas.” When he came back to the U.S. after the holidays, he met up with Fuhrmann to get the process rolling. The two of them knew they were in a race against the clock to pull everything together to make the open show date of Feb. 11. “It was great to be involved so much artistically and Wady had a great design, but it was a challenging task, time-wise,” describes Fuhrmann.

They went to Los Angeles to meet with Accurate Staging and ShowFX, Inc. about getting the set elements started and then to PRG and PRG Nocturne to discuss the lighting and video needs for the tour. Fuhrmann notes, “All of the vendors did an amazing job of helping us get this in the air within days; not months, not weeks, literally days! It was only 10 days from the artist’s design approval on Jan. 13 until the first load-in at PRG’s hang facility in Las Vegas for tech rehearsals. Having the hang facility available really saved us; that we were able to start programming in there was huge. Also, we were fortunate all of the equipment was available. From the original design, I think that we kept 85 to 90 percent of what Wady’s vision was, even with the tight timeframe.” The tour did final programming and prep at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ for four days leading to the load-in at the Garden.

A royal debut in MSG, photo by V. FuhrmannFit for a King

Rodriguez’s design was intended to reflect Santos’ musical pedigree along with his emergence as a solo artist. An established leader in the Bachata genre, a guitar-centered ballad style that comes from the Dominican Republic, Santos crosses over into other musical genres, reaching a diverse audience. His MSG shows, for example, included guest artists Usher and P. Diddy. “Romeo Santos is the King of Bachata; one could see his first show at Madison Square Garden as a music coronation,” Rodriguez explains. “I wanted it to be ‘Rebirth of the King’ as a solo artist.”

Rodriguez created a five-pointed truss crown as the heart of set, “at an angle similar to that of the Statue of Liberty,” which references New York as a key part of the artist’s life, Rodriguez says. The show opens with the five fingers of the truss crown in a downward position, and they rise (via CyberHoists) as a center video cylinder lowers onto the stage. The cylinder — 10 feet, 5 inches tall and eight feet in diameter — is covered with PRG Nocturne V-18 18mm LED video modules.

While down, the cylinder conceals an eight-foot square elevator that rises, with Santos seated on a golden throne. When the video cylinder flies up, it reveals the throne, which then rotates to reveal Romeo to his audience while backlit with PRG Bad Boy Spots. Rodriguez is particularly pleased with the opening of the show. “It represents the start of his new journey as an artist.”

A Golden Stage

“I chose to work with gold and black colors,” explains Rodriguez. “I drew on collections of Versace as well as influences from Caesars Palace and the Venetian in Las Vegas. I think that combination of glamour and power can be very interesting.” Along with the crown, Rodriguez has also bracketed the throne with two winged lion set pieces, representing wisdom and power; symbols that are repeated in the coat of arms for Santos that is used often in the visual content and branding.

For the construction of the set, Fuhrmann and Rodriguez worked with Accurate Staging and ShowFX. “Both companies worked very hard and contributed a lot to get what we have onstage,” says Rodriguez. “It is extremely rewarding to work in an environment where people get personally involved in the project.”

The rolling stage is from Accurate Staging, and they also provided the gilded crown of truss. “Once again they did an incredible job,” comments Fuhrmann. “We were able to pull so much stuff out of the warehouse, but they also fabricated and powder-coated all of the golden trusses, including the circular crown trusses’ tips and inside rings. Accurate also welded and pieced it all together as well as the outside circle trusses. It is very impressive, especially considering the limited time, but they just jumped in and made it happen.”

ShowFX fabricated the scenic elements that reinforced Rodriguez’s design concept. “They were involved with all the gold borders with LED lighting, the lions, and the ribbon lifts — the icing on the cake,” Fuhrmann says.

Rodriguez also credits ShowFX’s David Mendoza as “very creative,” noting that the hand rails, stairs, and the gold borders, all with DMX-controlled LED strips, were all custom made. The two center lions, by the throne, also have cryo jets built into them for effects.

“We didn’t have time for permits for fire, so we had to go with cryo,” says Fuhrmann. In addition, two winged lions on zip lifts on the downstage corners rose during the show with a circle of Clay Paky Sharpys below them.

The King’s Content

To deal with time constraints, multiple creators worked on the video content.  Rodriguez worked with Carlos Serrano of NeoDG, based in Buenos Aries, who also provided imagery for Aventura. “He knows the musical genre and can really translate the ideas I propose and is very agile. He produces very versatile work and has a team in Argentina and Thailand. We also worked with Olivier Goulet with Geodezik out of Montreal, Canada. Olivier did an incredible job for the intro to the song “Black Magic” and for the opening.”

PRG Nocturne provided the video equipment and the video crew, led by video director Omar Montes. They also handled all of the cameras, including the handheld and robotic, as well as mixing I-Mag with created video content. Rodriguez praised PRG Nocturn for the quality of their screens, rigging systems and staff. “Everything is designed to achieve the best result.” For Fuhrmann, they also provided time. “I love how fast the V-LED screens go up during load-in; they were up in 45 minutes,” he says. “The design that PRG Nocturne has, with the magnetic panels, is just incredible. And they look so good, you don’t lose any image quality.”

There are two outer video screens on each side using PRG Nocturne V-28 28mm LED video modules and three screens in the middle with their V-9 9mm LED modules. Montes can send content or camera feeds wherever he wants. “We have four Barco Encores, because the way the video for the show is designed, we needed to have picture-in-picture capability,” explains Montes. “We are switching all panels between I-Mag and content. We overlap and we’re not just using the center or the outside; we’re mixing it all up where we see I-Mag and content.”

Montes worked closely with Rodriguez to program all of the looks. “Working with Wady is great — we were able to collaborate together and he would incorporate ideas. This was all done in one week; it normally would have taken four weeks for a show of this size.” The resulting show is very visually active and it is a solidly integrated element into Rodriguez’s dynamic design.

Regal Lighting

For his lighting design, Rodriguez started with a base of Philips Vari-Lite VL3000 Spots and VL3500 Wash units. For backlight, he had 12 PRG Bad Boys in the air and eight units on the stage to provide strong beam effects. “I wanted to create different atmospheres that allowed me to handle the emotional arc needed for the show,” he notes, opting for the Bad Boys for backlight and the big beam effects and the Clay Paky Sharpy for its “amazing” beam, speed, accuracy, colors, gobos and prisms. Rodriguez also chose the Martin Professional Aura LED units for the golden rings of the finger truss crown.

The show is run and was programmed by programmer Jorge Caraballo. For the tour, PRG is providing the lighting, trussing, and rigging including the PRG Series 400 Power and Data Distribution System and the CyberHoist system. “PRG is a very solid company, which was a joy to work with,” says Rodriguez.

From Concept to Reality

Fuhrmann is still amazed at how it all came together so quickly. “Everyone worked hard to make this happen, all the vendors really committed to pulling this together. It’s a great design; Wady and his team did an amazing job on it.”