ROTTERDAM — Extending a tour attended by close to a million fans, Queen and Paul Rodgers are supporting the recent album The Cosmos Rocks this fall with a four-month, 14-nation European tour. An LED screen measuring 17 meters wide and five meters high is traveling with the tour, flashing images of Freddie Mercury. Design company Stufish, which has created stage designs for Pink Floyd, U2, The Rolling Stones and others, designed the set, which includes the backdrop screen containing 2,500 of Barco’s OLite 612 LED modules.
“Barco’s OLite 612 fitted our design perfectly,” said Mark Fisher, managing director at Stufish. “We wanted to present the audience with a spectacular video and light experience befitting a band of this stature. OLite’s modularity once again enabled us to create something very special with a unique mix of video and lighting effects.”
The screen frame, made for the tour by Brilliant Stages, mixes high and low resolution and combines elements of both video and traditional lighting into one screen.
In the center, Barco’s OLite modules form a high resolution elliptical screen, which delivers the main show video. Fanning out from the circle’s edge, the OLite modules are spread apart, allowing for a checkerboard effect during the course of the show.
A number of PAR 64 lighting fixtures are built in among the OLite modules on each side to blend video and lighting effects. The cabling system lets the massive screen be split into different sections during the show.
“We are proud to be accompanying Queen + Paul Rodgers on their 2008 tour,” said Andrew Healey, global marketing manager of Barco’s Live Events business. “The design team at Stufish uses the modularity of OLite to brilliant effect, delivering a very unique visual element throughout the show. This tour is another great example of how the worlds of video and lighting are converging.”
Barco’s OLite 612 is a multifunctional indoor/outdoor SMD LED display with a 12mm pixel pitch, 6,000NIT light output and 15 bit processing which can be used in daylight conditions.
One OLite 612 can be split into 48 modules, allowing for a wide range of display designs. The use of SMD technology expands the viewing angles and helps unify the look at relatively short viewing distances. An outdoor IP65 rating lets the OLite panels be used in all weather conditions.
For more information, please visit www.barco.com.
