TPi Magazine – August 2019

Twenty years after they first burst onto the music scene, the UK and

Ireland legs of Westlife’s The Twenty Tour began at Belfast’s SSE Arena in

May. Spanning 32 shows, the grand finale was played out to more than

170,000 fans across two nights in July at Dublin’s Croke Park.

Central to show design was a 20m x 7.5m LED screen provided by video

supplier, The LED Shed. According to the supplier, this centre LED was a bit

of a challenge – “Mainly due to individual venues and their quirks,” began

Director Tom Levitt. “Sometimes the roof might not take that weight, or at

Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena, for example, the roof is just too low. We couldn’t

do the split there; it had to be a full solid screen,” he added. “We also had

to rethink our usual tour workflow based around how the show itself was

designed and set up.”

Four channels of Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 4.6K were placed FOH,

instead of the usual one or two. This meant there was one for each band

member, capturing a head-and-shoulders mid-shot for the picture-in-

picture (PIPs) on screen. Each of the 21 tracks had its own individual

styling, and so the PIPs were integrated with custom graphics and

animations, designed by America’s Got Talent’s Sila Sveta.

“We used a wide range of real-time rendered Notch effects on the

incoming camera images themselves, such as pencil-drawn outlines of

the band or cartoons, all in an effort to make them look less jarring with

Sila Sveta’s content,” explained Levitt. “Then we had a fifth camera in the

pit on a tracking dolly, providing a simple relay feed for the two IMAGs

either side of the stage.”

Levitt outlined the three main components making up the show’s look.

“There’s the pre-rendered animation graphics from Sila Sveta, and there’s

the quirky Notch effects. Those two elements, combined with all of the live

camera imager y, work together to create the final look.”

Cameras relied on B4 optics and Blackmagic’s fibre backs, which were

converted back to SDI in the PPU and routed via a patch panel to the

switcher. Skaarhoj control panels were used to colour match the incoming

camera feeds, while an ATEM 4 M/E switcher and 2 M/E broadcast panel

were used to cut the programme feed.

“Because of the four cameras FOH, we used ATEM’s super source

WESTLIFE: THE TWENTY TOUR

The Irish quartet return to the stage after a seven-year hiatus, with a sell-out UK and Ireland

tour celebrating two decades of hits. TPi was on site at Manchester Arena to get the inside story

from the tour’s tireless video team, The LED Shed.

EVENT FOCUS