LONDON — With a life-sized giraffe and elephant to contend with, AV supplier XL Events said the CBeeBies Live Treasure Hunt arena tour has been anything but child’s play. "This is the 4th year that I have been involved in this project and every year brings a new set of challenges,” said XL Events' Rich Rowley. The combination of a 32-by-24-foot projection screen, fed by a triple stack of rear-projecting Barco ELM R18 Director units fitted with 1.2 wide-angle lenses, required “some pretty creative keystoning,” Rowley said, “to allow the beasts to move around backstage.”
Under the direction of Ade Moore, the rear-projection units receive content programmed into two coolux Pandoras Box media servers, which are independently triggered by show caller Erica Southon from FOH. She activates all the VT cues using Pandoras Box Media Manager control.
Video runs continuously throughout the show and is used to create dynamic backdrops and digital scenery, allowing the stage to be kept clear and clean for all the action. All video content was supplied by the BBC and was programmed into the Pandoras Box by David Mulcahy, XL Events’ technical director, with show director Ian Loughlan determining the order of the cues.
Moore voiced appreciation for various coolux software functions like the Warp function, ease the task of line up and image perspective correction, allowing for greater flexibility when positioning the projectors.
The crew spent four days rehearsing at LiteStructures before the tour got underway, and there is a load-in day at each venue followed by two shows a day.
Lighting is being supplied by PRG. The LD is Mark Cunniffe, and lighting operator Markus Robinson uses a grandMA full size console for control.
The arena tour is being production-managed by Nigel Mousley for BBC Worldwide.
For more information, please visit www.xlvideo.com.
