Superstar
DJ Eric Prydz premiered his EPIC 4.0 shows in America this spring, backed up by
his \’dream team\’ of long-time entertainment technology collaborators, RES, to
create a colossal visual show driven by Avolites Ai S4 servers.
Playing a
total of seven shows spread across New York\’s Terminal 5, LA\’s Hollywood
Palladium and the San Francisco Armory, EPIC 4.0 was the fourth incarnation of
Prydz\’s now legendary assault on the senses. They mix, as online electronic
music magazine Resident Advisor states, \’an arsenal of big room tunes with
stadium rock-level visuals\’.
The
behind the scenes team is comprised of Mark Calvert of RES as Production
Director, Liam Tomaszewski as Creative Director and VJ, Ross Chapple as
Lighting Designer, Ian Gotts as Tour Production Manager, Dave Green as Ai
Programmer, PRG, PRG Nocturne USA and Lightware USA.
The core
element of the ambitious show was another magical-looking hologram, which
seemed to float centre stage in front of Prydz as he performs.
\”The
visual effect for the audience is that Eric appears behind or even as part of
the hologram visuals,\” explains Calvert. \”The hologram content was
projected onto a gauze cube surrounding Eric at double the normal speed – 50
frames per second instead of the often used 25 fps, via the Avolites Ai S4
server. This was used to achieve a fluid smooth look which meant that the Ai S4
processors were working twice as hard to drive the content, which they handled
comfortably.\”
\”The
S4 worked perfectly throughout and never missed a beat. Unbelievably, the
entire show was just two HD outputs: one to the projectors and one to the LED
screens, which is remarkable considering how much is going on. It is also
testament to Ai that we can pixel map and control in such a way with only two
outputs – all live, absolutely no timecoded, timelines or
pre-programming.\”
The team
toured with one S4 as the main server and another as backup. Dave Green set up
the Ai servers to be triggered by Liam Tomaszewski\’s Livid MIDI device which,
due to Tomaszewski\’s long term collaboration with Prydz and the S4\’s speed,
mixing was spot on every time. All of the animation content was pre-designed by
Tomaszewski and beamed via projectors onto the cube. The opening content was
designed by LA-based visuals supremo GMUNK.
\”People
who work in the industry and came to the performance thought the whole show was
timecoded rather than triggered live,\” adds Calvert. \”Eric changes
his shows each time he performs, so Tomaszewski and LD Ross Chapple had to be
on it to ensure the whole thing came together as beautifully as it did.\”
Surrounding
Prydz on stage were more PRG LED screens, giving the shape of a cube to the
audience. To add to the visual effects, Chapple created a fast-paced design
using a rig which consisted of Clay Paky Sharpys (in NYC), Robe Pointes (in
California), Mac Auras, Atomic Strobes, Blinders and six 30Watt RGB Lasers.
The
concept was the brainchild of Calvert, Green and Tomaszewski who created the
initial drawings before passing the designs to PRG who devised CAD drawings to
reflect the dimensions of each venue.
Further
EPIC 4.0 shows are in the planning stages for later in the year.
