The New Kids on the Block “Full Service” tour kicked off in Atlanta on May 28th. After taking them up the East Coast to Boston and across the country to California, the tour finishes in Houston on July 18. The concerts are receiving rave reviews for the group and for Nocturne Productions' video. The Boston Herald felt compelled to comment on the “high-tech graphic displays.” Sean McCann of the Poughkeepsie Journal called the New Kids on the Block “Full Service” tour, “The best concert I've ever seen.” One reason he sites was the staging.
“We've got a brand-new stage,” New Kid Joey McIntyre told the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, “really exciting video elements and a whole new look, which is really cool.”
“This is one of the more elaborate shows I have done with Nocturne,” says Nocturne engineer on the tour, John McLeish. “It takes about three to three and a half hours to set up the video. Then it takes about one hour and forty-five minutes to tear it down and put it on truck.”
That video set-up is an integral part of the stage design by Butch Allen, with technical input from Nocturne to help him bring his vision on the road. The videos include seven 30 foot high by 5 foot wide V-Brite columns, used mostly for accents like flames, flashing colors and swirling patterns. A 3 foot high by 38 foot wide V-Lite truss screen over a semi-circular 7.5 foot high by 38 foot wide V-Lite truss screen feature both video accents and elements from the main Barco D7- 15 foot by 21 foot central video screen. The Barco screen is used for live video elements, shot by the crew on three Panasonic cameras, two with a long lens, and one operated from the photo pit. There is also a small Sony CCD camera on the stage for POV shots. This video goes through a Panasonic AV-HS400A switcher. The V-Brite and VLite screens were manufactured by Nocturne in conjunction with LSI-Saco.
“The easiest part of our set up is the VLite LED,” McLeish says. “It's newer technology and weighs almost five times less than the Barco D7 we are using. The Saco products are so easy to work with, they make setup and tear-down stressless.”
The Nocturne crew of McLeish, director David Davidian, and LED/Cam Ops Barrie Roney and Josh Marrano lend their extensive professional experience to the set up, tear-down, and actual production of the show.
Nocturne Productions leads the way in Live Event Video Production. Nocturne has earned Video Company of the Year for the last two years running for Tour Guide's Top Dog Award, The Parnelli Award and the Pollstar Award during that time. Nocturne provides HD and SDI systems, Video projection, V-9 High Resolution LED Screens, V-Lite Medium Resolution LED Screens, V-Brite Low Resolution LED screens along with innovative stagecraft and technology.