The
UK-based artistic design firm, Oli Metcalfe Design Ltd working with
entertainment studio, Moment Factory applied an unprecedented combination of
interactive technology for the worldwide arena tours of British rock trio, Muse
and their new album Drones,
their seventh studio record.
Muse
made history on Friday, 15 April 2016 when they played to a
record-breaking 21,000 fans at The O2 Arena, London.
The Drones tour combines tracking, lighting, videos, flying elements
and a lot of creativity, to create visuals and spontaneous interactivity never
seen before in a liverock concert like this one.
BlackTrax real-time motion tracking
solution from CAST BlackTrax Ltd is used to track and manage three technical
elements, from band members to massive drones that fly above the audience as
well as for projection-based storytelling. The area tracked is BlackTrax’s
largest to date!
Drones warns of Orwellian dangers and choices in modern life
threatening to turn people into robots. Somewhat Sci-Fi, the audience revolts
and takes a thrilling journey musically and visually.
“We’ve worked with Muse for sixteen
years and push pioneering technology to its limits at each arena, in front of
around 24,000 people each time,” says Oli Metcalfe who also designs lighting
and stage concepts for a number of international artists.
Moment Factory co-founder and chief
of innovation Dominic Audet said: “BlackTrax is the only solution that was out
there that could reliably be used to track new interactive 3D technology on an
unprecedented scale. The immersive interactive and pre-rendered video content
experience we provided is one of the most ambitious and innovative concert
projects Moment Factory has ever undertaken.”
Taking
the stage to the spectacular
“Drones took a year to design and test,” adds Metcalfe. “We conduct
a laser scan of each venue and created workflows of video, lighting, and actors
using wysiwyg lightingdesign and previsualization software. This gave us
accurate data for placement of BlackTrax tracking cameras showing how the
system would work before we even got there. Running BlackTrax with wysiwyg is
critical.”
The stage set splits the arena floor
in half, creating a theatre in the round experience, and focus on a large
drone-like structure. As the concert starts, twelve clear spherical drones with
glowing lights float down above the band. Then, four drones each are launched,
from the North and South platforms above the stage, with two drones each being
launched from East and West platforms above the stage.
During the show, larger ‘Reaper’
aircraft-like drones with glowing LEDs are launched into the audience and are
tracked alongside lighting fixtures while flying through the arena. All drones
in the production are completely autonomous.
A large, cylindrical LED video
screen is hung at centre. Content is managed using Catalyst media servers, and
within it LED video strips come cascading out. The large LED wall comprises 85
squaremeters and is used for content as well as IMAG camera shots. In addition
to the wall, semi-transparent projection screens (voiles) run all the way
through the North and South sections of the stage in the middle of each
catwalk, which rolls in from above as needed. These voiles also form a
cylindrical column around the main center stage.
Here a holographic video effect is created using a hidden projection surface.
Enter
BlackTrax
In total, thirty-eight BlackTrax
cameras are used for tracking of drones and performers. The tracking system
includes fourteen drone trackables and three artist trackables. The system runs
on an active server with backup / slave system and integrates with twenty-four
Mac Viper Air FX, and six Clay Paky Mythos lighting fixtures. Positional
information is sent to Barco’s XPR media servers, which manage content across
twelve Barco HDF-W30 FLEX projectors. Each projector is fitted with custom-made
moving mirrors to focus on either the 200 square meters of projection voile or
to be used as area effects around the arena.
Fourteen BlackTrax cameras are
positioned in the roof structure of each arena, focused on performance areas
and audience. Twenty-four BlackTrax cameras are mounted onto the Muse stage
structure andrigged for purposes either covering the stage, or out into the
audience.
“Each day they are turned on and
work right away with no need for adjustment! The BlackTrax system allowed us to
go into areas of such high altitude and are placed in such a way that makes the
whole arena trackable – an important element, considering the drones fly around
the stage and above the audience – they are tracked by BlackTrax for
safetywatch and collision detection,” adds Metcalfe.
Each drone is piloted by the Dutch
company Path65 and their proprietary motion control system, which performs
remote control the drones through a predesigned flight path. BlackTrax is also
used to send the drones positional data in real-time to Path65’s controller
system and warns it in case a wind gust moves the drones away from the flight
path or if there is a potential risk of collision.
“Tracking the drones made sense as
BlackTrax integrates so well with third-parties and other visual aspects of the
show,” explains Metcalfe.
The three band members wear one
trackable beacon each, but each beacon uses three tiny LEDs that are recognized
by the BlackTrax cameras as tracking points. It doesn’t matter where the band
members go on stage, where they turn or how fast they run, BlackTrax provides a
solid tracking on stage. “The system works faultlessly and having up to 20
lighting beams on the front man at a certain point in the concert couldn’t be
possible without BlackTrax! The effect is magic! We deliver the best keylight
we’ve ever had,” says Metcalfe.
“We chose this route because the
show is in the round and uses a large number of follow spots. I felt that I
needed to try the new technology as it impressed me the first time I saw it and
that decision really paid off.”
For the interactive video
projectionelements, Metcalfe explains: “We created specific looks that rely on
tracking information to know the band member’s position. One of the looks is a
set of cables or ‘strings’ that comes down from a master puppeteer’s hands to
create an interactive effect. If the band member moves around, the wires
attached to them also move so they are always connected to the strings. Another
look to the show is a rocket which is fired down on the stage using a
silhouette effect.”
The Drones tour combines tracking, lighting, videos, flying elements
and a lot of creativity, to create visuals and spontaneous interactivity never
seen before in a liverock concert like this one.
Metcalfe adds: “BlackTrax will go
down in history as a disruptive stage tool that breaks all boundaries in terms
of creativity.\”
Photos: © Oli Metcalfe Design Ltd
