PRG Europe has been busy at London’s O2 Arena. For Prince’s 21-date residency, part of his Earth Tour included over 100 Martin MAC 2000 luminaires, Atomic strobes, Color Kinetics ColorBlaze 72s, and B52 Syncrolites.
The most interesting part of the rig, however, were the “Prince’O’graphs,” 28 custom manufactured PRG pantographs, each with a MAC 2000 on the end that could be lowered and raised at varying speeds. The control of the pantographs was via a Kinesys Elevation hoist control system programmed by Stuart Hale.
Lighting designer and director Garry “Sport” Waldie explains, “Prince didn’t want any overhead lighting, which made things interesting for us—a lot was pushed to the outside and hidden behind the PA and video. He likes a lot of different looks, which is why we used the Prince’O’graphs—they gave us a lot of options to bring the lighting in lower. I think because we felt the last tour was very cluttered with a lot of overhead lighting, this time we went to the other extreme.”
Project manager for PRG Europe Robin Wain says, “Originally, the tour was going to use simple drop arm pipes with the luminaires on the end. This is the first time pantographs have been used with a Kinesys system in this way in the UK, and they were designed and constructed in eight days. The lights can be lowered or raised up to 10 meters in a matter of seconds but still keeping pinpoint accurate positioning.”
PRG Europe also supplied all trussing, rigging, and mains distribution for lighting, video, and audio.