ON THE ROAD: Britney Spears Below: Automation Engineer, Bianca Beauregard; CyberHoist Technician, Mike Rock; RF Manager, Luis Espinal.
of songs they were a part of. Most of the seven lasers featuring in the
production were multi-coloured; ranging from 5W up to 15W. The reliability, brightness and easy maintenance of full colour OPS laser systems made them an obvious choice for Blair. “Britney likes pink and purple so those
colours of laser were used a lot. Compared to other shows I’ve worked on, the number of lasers in Femme Fatale is quite high. It all depends on the requirements of the designer and the look they want to create,” the Laser Operator explained. “The lighting crew for the show were very
accommodating to us using lasers and designed the lighting around them to achieve the best possible look. There were a fair few late night programming sessions back in May, during which I would work on a part of a song so the LDs would know when to dip the lights so they don’t conflict. It’s an effect after all, so you want to be able to see it.” With safety being of great importance in any
laser show, time needed to be spent thoroughly planning the use of the special effects in Femme Fatale. Said Blair: “You can’t audience scan and there are certain limitations every laser operator needs to be aware of. We made sure we set up our different zones above and to the side of the crowd so they weren’t hit at all.”
SMOOTH AUTOMATION Upon finding her way into the touring world, Automation Engineer, Bianca Beauregard, tried her hand at carpentry and rigging before deciding automation was her calling. “I got into the industry by accident. I was doing an advertising degree and needed a job to fit in with my school schedule. A friend was working at an arena and said to me “If you show up at 10 o’clock, you can earn $50 helping them load out.” “One thing led to another and the longer I was in the industry, I knew automation was
56 • TPi JANUARY 2012
the area I was the most interested in. It’s much more fascinating than working in an office! It’s nothing to do with what I went to school for and I tried to work in my field but I was bored out of my mind. I called up an old boss and got back into live production.” Most recently, Beauregard has been on tour
with Disney favourtives The Jonas Brothers before spending 14 months travelling with swing charmer Michael Buble, she exclusively used Tait and FTSI kit. For Britney Spears, Beauregard operated the parting video wall that moves the lifts in which Britney and her 16 dancers enter the stage. The lift was an air over oil hydraulic tension lift with a single piston, which moved up to the second level, placing the entertainers in full view of the audience. Mid stage were five Tait Flaggavators, named
after its designer, Kevin Flagg, who originally created them for Tait Towers. On the Femme Fatale tour, the flaggavators moved 4ft above and below the main stage deck, and were used constantly throughout the show. In front of the flaggavators were three prop lifts (72 by 72 inches), which all the major props move up and down on. As the lifts are integrated within the set, the carpenters built the components into the stage, which Beauregard then cabled, and transferred all the data and power to make all the lifts work safely and in time with the show. Beauregard also programmed and operated
Britney’s fly gag, an FTSI t-winch, which lifted and traveled 56’ out into the audience over the B-stage in America, but just lifted in the Europe / UK / Asia / South America version of the show. Said Beauregard: “The wear and tear during travel is a big challenge, just keeping it in working order with the amount of cabling we have is important.” The Automation Engineer is working on a Fisher Navigator System from FTSI (which is also vital to the TPi covered Batman Live tour), after years working with the navigator; it has become Beauregard’s system of choice for its reliability.
Beauregard is an independent engineer but
exclusively uses Tait Towers and Fisher products. With so many dancers on stage, the health and safety issues for the automation dept are at the forefront of the backstage cues. Under the stage and at the cue callers HQ, all safety precautions are in place and spot-checked, continually ensuring that no one is in danger. Beauregard also has overhead cameras on the lifts, allowing all safety angles to be covered. Working closely to Beauregard was
CyberHoist Technician, Mike Rock, who worked with CyberHoists provided by PRG. Rock supervised 14 half tonne / 20m per minute hoists which wre controlled by a G4 Mac with dual displays. A staple of Rock’s kit is PRG’s back truss which the CyberHoists sit in to save daily load in / loud out times. “PRG are actually manufacturing their own brackets for their inverted motors, allowing us to get more headroom because these hoists are on the truss higher than we’d usually be able to hang them,” explained Rock. The automation and CyberHoist elements
to the Femme Fatale tour were very important to the smooth running of the show, the gear chosen and used around the world had to have a good track record. Said Rock: “This CyberHoist is a lot better than other motion systems I’ve used; it can even reach down to a 1000th of a mm.” The health and safety procedures for the
hoist department include three emergency stops located upstage right, upstage left and in the operation position. Rock concluded, “If one of the dimmer techs or myself has an issue, we can use the E stops instantly, removing power from the hoists and stopping motion instantaneously. Other than that, it’s about being a conscious operator and making sure that all of the parameters are acceptable.” TPi
www.britneyspears.com Photos by Roderick Trestrail II
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96