Tuesday 28 July 2009

U2 360° Video Screen

All of the "360" concerts feature a stunning feat of engineering: the four-taloned "Claw" stage. The 390-ton, green cabana stands more than 10 stories above the band as they strut through the crowds on moving bridges and a ring-shaped stage with concertgoers inside and out.

Once it was designed and engineered by “the dream team” of Willie Williams, Mark Fisher, Chuck Hoberman, and Frederic Opsomer, the high-tech, expanding video screen that visually stuns the audience during the U2 360° tour had to be moved. In other words, the 888 individual hexagonal panels that support 500,000 Barco LED pixels has to move in order to transform during the show, as it expands from seven meters to 22 meters high. That job fell to UK-based Kinesys and their K2 3D software control package.

For Kinesys, “This is probably the biggest job we’ve done in terms of coordinating so many devices all moving at the same time,” says Weatherhead, referring to the 48 interconnected devices that it takes to move the screen. “Fortunately we had a good period of time before the first show to assemble and test everything.”

No comments: