NASHVILLE – For the Oak Ridge Boys’ 27th Annual Christmas tour, production designer Dave Boots included FLEXCurtain HD 12.5mm LED video from PixelFLEX as a key component of the overall visual design. The trek marked Boots’ 23rd tour with the band.
More details from PixelFLEX (www.pixelflexled.com):
Known worldwide for their distinctive four-part harmonies, The Oak Ridge Boys have created dozens of Country smash-hits and have earned a number of industry awards. Continuing their four decades of tradition, the group recently embarked on their latest nationwide tour, but this time they decided to bring a new LED video system along for the ride. Headed by production designer Dave Boots, the design team wanted the new system to inject a completely new energy into the high-energy and colorful production design, and they were able to create that energy using FLEXCurtain HD 12.5mm LED video from PixelFLEX.
“This was the groups 27th Annual Christmas tour and this is my 23rd tour with the band,” began production designer Dave Boots. “As far as the video goes this was a completely new production design, but while the original plan was for one big wall behind the band, I wanted a bit more creativity. I’ve always liked the idea of using multiple LED walls, so we went with a 12 foot wide by 8 foot high main wall, two additional vertical walls on both the left and right, and then four panels on the front of the risers on stage. We then added Christmas trees lit by LED fixtures in between all the FLEXCurtain LED walls, and when it all came together, it really looked great.
The Parnelli Award-winning FLEXCurtain HD is a lightweight and flexible LED video screen ideal for high resolution video playback and video effects for a wide range of touring and live event applications. Its hi-res LED video can be driven by any DVI output, and the multi-directional, flexible design makes it easy to store and transport. FLEXCurtain HD is 60-90% lighter than the competition, and using the quick-lock system, 500 square feet of FLEXCurtain HD can be set up and broken down in under 15 minutes.
“As our tour manager started speaking with Elite Multimedia about their various PixelFLEX products, we really liked how compact the FLEXCurtain HD would be and how easy it would be to set-up and tear down each night,” continued Boots. “They really helped us find the ideal LED video system for our production design and at the right budget.”
With the FLEXCurtain HD 12.5mm LED video technology now in the show, Boots and the team got straight to work on completing the new design. Since the LED video was a sort of last-minute addition to the gear list, Boots would not have very long before the first audience was in the house.
“We took the PixelFLEX gear to Branson, Missouri, for our rehearsals and then we had two days to set-up and complete the design. To help us with the content and programming, we brought on Trevor Drawdy who did an amazing job and deserves a lot of credit. We used an Arkaos media server to drive the system and we literally finished the programming an hour and a half before the first show, but it really worked out well.”
Now that the show was complete, it was time for Boots to enjoy the show. Knowing how hard the production team worked, he was extremely pleased with the new production design for the Grammy, Dove, CMA, and ACM award winners.
“The FLEXCurtain HD absolutely enhanced and changed our touring production design,” concluded Boots. “I’ve always been pleased with the tour, but this year everyone worked very hard and we really took it to a completely new level. When our executive producer Jon Mir was taking photos, he commented on how impressed he was with the LED video panels and how it all blended together for a beautiful new production design. The FLEXCurtain HD really made the show bigger and it was very exciting to see.”
