The ground-breaking expanding video screen that added a WOW factor to the current U2 360° tour was designed by Chuck Hoberman, founder and president of Hoberman Associates, Inc., a New York-based design firm, in conjunction with Innovative Designs and its parent company Barco. Hoberman joins U2 designer Willie Williams and Frederic Opsomer of Innovative Designs on a special panel on the design on the U2 360° tour at LDI2009 in the PRG Light Lab on Saturday, November 21 from 2:00-4:00pm, followed by the LDI awards ceremony at 6pm where they will be honored for their innovative design.
Hoberman, along with Williams and scenic designer Mark Fisher, conceptualized the fusion of architecture, stage scenery, and extreme technology the led to an elliptical video display, approximately the size of a tennis court that morphs into a seven-story high cone-shaped structure, enveloping the band as it extends.
Constructed of stainless steel and aircraft aluminum, the display is made of 888 LED screens, with 500,000 pixels spanning across them, providing concertgoers with clear and visually stunning images. It has a screen area of 3,800 square feet, and weighs approximately 120,000 pounds.
Hoberman bio: Nowhere do the disciplines of art, architecture and engineering fuse as seamlessly as in the work of inventor Chuck Hoberman, internationally known for his “transformable structures.” Through his products, patents and structures, Hoberman demonstrates how objects can be foldable, retractable, or shape-shifting. Such capabilities lead to functional benefits: portability, instantaneous opening, and intelligent responsiveness to the built environment.
Hoberman Associates is a multidisciplinary practice with clients ranging across sectors including consumer products, deployable shelters and space structures. The firm is collaborating with architects such as Foster + Partners, Kohn Pedersen Fox, SHoP, Nikken Sekkei and others. For these projects, Hoberman is developing retractable facades, responsive shading and ventilation, operable roofs and canopies. Examples of his commissioned work include the Hoberman Arch in Salt Lake City, Utah, installed as the centerpiece for the Winter Olympic Games (2002). Other noteworthy commissions include a retractable dome for the Worlds Fair in Hanover, Germany (2000), the Expanding Hypar (1997) at the California Museum of Science and Industry, and the Expanding Sphere (1992) at the Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, and the Expanding Geodesic Dome (1997) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
Hoberman’s work has been exhibited several times at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2008 his commissioned installation, “Emergent Surface,” was part of the exhibit, “Design and the Elastic Mind.” He holds a bachelor’s degree in sculpture from Cooper Union and a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University. He won the Chrysler Award for Innovation and Design in 1997.
Register today for LDI and meet Chuck Hoberman, Frederic Opsomer and Willie Williams for a look at U2 360° and check out the weeklong professional training options that give LDI the leading edge.