Lighting programmers/directors Alex Murphy and Mark “Sparky” Risk are touring with U2’s Innocence + Experience tour, taking care of the simple, yet massive, lighting rig for creative director Willie Williams.
Risk notes that, in addition to the PRG Best Boy Spots, Best Boy Washes, Bad Boy Spots, Harman Martin Professional Atomic Strobes, and DWEs in the rig, a major element is the set of custom LED tubes that look like fluorescent tubes. "These are built into the set and help define both the 'I' stage and runway," says Risk. "The floor units are able to either lay down flat or be placed in a vertical position, which allows for a variety of very different looks. In addition to the floor tubes, there are also flown tubes above the 'I' stage—a combination of horizontal and vertical orientations—and horizontal tubes that are located on the bottom of the screen. All of the flown tubes are on winches." There is also a yellow strip built into the stage that represents the tour logo and was designed by Stufish Entertainment Architects. (Check out the full equipment list.)
Murphy, who also worked with Williams on U2's massive 360 tour, has had a positive experience with the Bad Boy Spots, which he calls "the surprise of the tour. The backlight ones just look incredible, and the real surprise for me is that we lose no intensity when we add the frost in," he says, noting that he also calls the spots for the tour. "We have 18 in total. It may seem a lot for an arena show, but it's such a vast space to cover. I control the overall intensity when I need to, such as snap blackouts at the end of a song. The operator has intensity and iris control on the great custom control handles that Chris Conti and the other ladies and gents in PRG have made. We first tried these out last November when we did a one-off show in Times Square and loved the idea from there."
The show runs on two networked MA Lighting grandMA2 consoles, with one networked backup using two grandMA NPUs. One console is solely for Bad Boy Spots and run by Murphy. "We spent a lot of time during the rehearsal period on determining the best way to light the band members when they were within the screen," says Risk. "Obviously, we also had to determine ways of allowing the band to see what they were doing within the screen even when we did not want them to be visible to the audience.
Murphy notes that the lighting team had huge support "from Oli Rump at MA in Germany, and together with the UK office, we have been spoilt with the level of tech support for our lighting control system." But such a huge tour isn't without its trials. "Hazing up some of these North American arenas has become a bit of a challenge," Murphy says. "The air handling has become so severe. I just sit there and watch it all just go vertically up directly out of the machine. I think we need to work harder with the venues to see what we can get away with comfort wise and not making the look of the show suffer."
Williams has noted that his two programmers spent “forever building manual chases to simulate random fluorescent tube flicker and non-linear strobe effects.” Risk replies to that observation, saying, "There is a general tendency, largely due to time constraints, for shows to rely heavily on effects engines, for which there is a time and a place. However, a lot of the looks we have been trying to achieve are non-linear looks that are best achieved by building chases in the old tried-and-trusted method of building them from cues. This can take a much longer period of time but allows you to delve into the chase in far greater detail that makes it far easier to disguise any repeated patterns. This approach used to be the only way of programming chases way back when, so essentially it's not a new approach, but rather a hearkening back to earlier times."
Check out our full coverage, sponsored by SHS Global at our Project In Focus on U2's iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour here, and check back often for continuing updates.