A 48-way Kinesys automation system with Vector control is in action on the current Queen & Paul Rodgers tour, utilised for moving lighting trusses and an 85 square metre horizontal-splitting upstage video screen.
This was specified by lighting designer Baz Halpin, is operated by Barry Branford and supplied through Bandit Lites UK for the UK and European sections of the tour.
The screen is constructed from a combination of Barco O-Lite frames – a solid section in the centre and asymmetrically populated frames radiating outwards, along with 304 ACL bulbs. It's 17 metres wide and 5 metres tall, weighs 7 tonnes and was fabricated by Brilliant Stages. On the road, it's suspended by 24 half tonne Lodestar motors with Kinesys Elevation 1+ drive units.
Twelve motors are lifting the top half of the screen and 12 are attached to steel stingers passing through the centres of the bottom panels, picking up from the bases of the frames.
The main lighting trusses are 7 upstage/downstage fingers, all of which move and are rigged on a total of eighteen 1 tonne Lodestars with Kinesys drive units. The centre 3 fingers are hinged at the downstage edges, the centre one has 2 hinges and 4 motors, the two flanking it have one hinge and 3 motors and the other 4 fingers all have 2 motors each.
Upstage of the fingers is a ‘Syncrolite truss' rigged on four 1 tonne Liftket motors with Kinesys Elevation 1+ drives, containing seven 5K Syncrolite units, 8 Martin Professional Atomic 3000 strobes and 10 Martin MAC 2000 Wash moving lights.
A large mirror ball is suspended over the B stage at the end of the main stage thrust, hung on two Prostar motors, also on the Kinesys system. The ball is attached to a solid bar with one motor, and it's centrally hung rotator on another, allowing the rotation to start on cue.
The set contains approximately 30 automation cues, and fluid and dramatic movement is a big part of the overall show visuality.
Branford has used Kinesys on several previous tours including Katie Melua, The Darkness, Led Zeppelin, the Foo Fighters and others, and comments, “It's a great system which is becoming ever more popular as people realise its full potential”.