Brompton Technology have launched a raft of new features for their Tessera M2 LED processor this spring and the current One Direction tour has been quick to adopt two of them for their mammoth 7 month Where We Are Now tour.
The tour makes use of 226 Revolution Display Blade HDs and 29 Blade 1260s running from the Tessera M2 processor. This takes advantage of the new sub-fixture support feature which allows the use of creative mesh and batten type products.
The content for the Blades is fed alternately from a Catalyst Media Server (DVI) under the charge of lighting programmer Dave Lee and on some numbers the main screen feed (HD-SDI). The changeover is seamless and is triggered at will from the Hog 4 DMX console during the show. Not having to use a separate switcher to accomplish this reduces overall system latency.
Brompton Technology supported tour video supplier VER on site when the new features were added.
One Direction Video Technical Director Richard Turner said:
“During rehearsals it became clear that for perfect synchronisation between the main screen and the Blades, both needed to be sourced from the same feed, but at other times we wanted the freedom to run from the Catalyst and synch with lighting. The M2 allows us to do this on a song by song, or even cue by cue basis.”
James Morden of tour video supplier VER said:
“The decision to control with DMX was made when the Blade content was altered for the tour after the South American leg. Given the tight turnaround before the European leg, Brompton came up to the Stadium of Light for the upgrade, assisting Lighting console programmer Dave Lee and LED technician Ed Lawlor with support and training. The changes ran smoothly and that level of support is a big reason why we have chosen Brompton ahead of stock processing for our products.”