When Keith Urban joined Kenny Chesney’s 2008 Poets & Pirates tour, the F LED 11 semi-transparent LED screen chosen by production designer Marc Brickman went along for the ride. Supplied by XL Video, the F LED 11 is one-fifth the weight of comparable LED tiles, simplifying installation in venues with low rigging weight limits, and XL Video can provide an optional lightweight touring frame as well.
Brickman used the F LED 11 for a screen that measured 52 feet wide by 28 feet high. It could be split in half and hidden behind the stage left and right sound wings during opening acts. “There was only a 20-minute set change, and the F LED was easily deployable in that time frame,” said John Wiseman, president of XL Touring Video. “We worked with SGPS ShowRig, who made a fantastic tracking system to move the screens. The resolution was unbelievable,” he added. “The images looked fantastic.”
The F LED 11 offers 12-bit color and 5,500 NITs of brightness, with a viewing angle, both horizontal and vertical, of 160 degrees. The screen also includes a flexible serial data interface. Modules measure 17.7”x17.7”x2.4.” Each square meter of the screens weighs in at about 33 pounds and consumes 1,000 watts per square meter. A 25-square-meter screen occupies about five feet of truck space.
“Production designers are always looking for something to set their work apart,” said Marcel DeKeyzer, president of XL Video. “As a company, we are constantly researching, looking for the right manufacturers and for the right products. We then spend a lot of time and resources working with them to produce some of the most visually interesting and effective LED video products.”
XL Video, the worldwide distributor for F LED 11 LED modules, also has exclusive rights to distribute the Spider 40, with a 40 mm resolution. Unlike the F LED 11, an indoor product, the 40mm pixel pitch SMD LED Spider 40 is IP65 rated for outdoor use as well.
XL Video said the Spider 40 is “over twice as bright as comparable 40mm LED screens.” Made with 44 percent video transparency, it weighs in at 41 pounds per square meter, and can be built to a variety of sizes and shapes. It has 16-bit color and a brightness of 5,000 NITs, enabling it to be used outdoors in bright sunshine. It has a viewing angle, both horizontal and vertical, of 120 degrees, and consumes a maximum of 96 watts per 25.2”x25.2”x4.5” tile.
XL Video cites those features that led lighting designer Wady Rodriguez and production manager William Cortes to use 1,000 square feet of the Spider 40 on the recent U.S. tour of Latin recording artist Juan Luis Guerra, who is now gearing up to tour South America. XL Video has also supplied semi-transparent video screens for the Stereophonics’ recent tour in the U.K.
For more information, please visit www.xlvideo.com.
