There have been few shows more compelling this year than Massive Attack's 100th Window world tour, which hit the road in February. With lighting designed by Vince Foster and sound by Gary Young, production values were at the top of the agenda. However it was their spell-binding, high-impact use of text screen visuals to create awareness of global and local issues that set the show apart in terms of impressive production technology.
This has been the work of United Visual Artists (UVA), a new South-London based creative and technical media phenomena formed by video artists Chris Bird and Matt Clark. The pair have previously collaborated on many innovative visual projects, including Leftfield, the Pet Shop Boys, Nine Inch Nails and on corporate commissions for The Face, Adidas, Red Bull and Playstation.
For Massive Attack, UVA approached Autopilot director and creative software guru Ashraf 'Ash' Nehru, another long-term collaborator, to produce custom software - 'Mosquito' - for controlling the visuals going on to the screen, as traditional tools were inadequate for the task at hand. The highly successful result cements an already close working relationship between UVA and Autopilot.
The concept for the 100th Window show was based on the existence of 'information'. How digital information and statistics represent and pervade all aspects of our lives - from the smallest scales to the largest, and the social, psychological and political fall-out resulting from the deployment of this information.
The show's content included up-to-the-minute statistics on hot political issues like Iraq under occupation, weapons inventories, escalating costs of war and defence, the price of oil, the stock market, what's being spent where, and many other unsavoury elements of global capitalism and unilateral military action.
Using textual information to make points is a hardcore, confrontational and very direct way of communicating with an audience, especially in an entertainment context. The effect is truly shocking. There are no reassurances of fluffy pretty abstract graphics or banal I-Mag images - it's painful, real and highly emotional. Let's face it, 2003 has not been short of news and statistics.
The initial idea of a 'digital information screen' was mooted by Massive Attack's lead singer 3D. The content, which embraced a myriad of issues, was a combination of ideas from the band and UVA. They treated the LED screen (a 7.68m wide by 4.32m high, 15mm Saco supplied by Screenco) like a giant light source rather a video screen, taking inspiration from neon signs, fruit machines, and public information displays at stations or airports.
Video patterns were used to modulate the way the text was displayed in real time on the screen, combining pattern with information. These patterns had to be precisely synchronised with the music to create the desired effect, even though there was no guarantee that the tracks would be constant throughout the tour.
The 'real time' content of the show changed daily - news headlines, weather, stock tickers and up-to-the-second global statistics - reflecting the information pulled from the internet and other sources, ensuring everyone knew it was a show taking place "here and now".
Shows were also localised to each venue and translated into the local language, incorporating over 24 languages including Russian, Japanese, Basque and Catalan, Greek, Turkish and Czech. The daily on-tour updates were done by Chris Bird, working on a laptop and then uploaded to the main show computers. The updates were completed approx 30 minutes before show time, allowing the most up-to-the-minute news and weather info to be displayed. In Lisbon they displayed the results of an important local football match, to a tumultuous audience reaction!
Another interactive element of the show ran via the Massive Attack website (www.massiveattack.co.uk), where fans could leave messages targeted at specific tour dates to be woven into that specific show. The idea was to extend the online Massive Attack fan community on to the stage, creating a new level of intimacy between band and audience.
Accuracy
Producing this information 'effect' on-screen required pixel-for-pixel control accuracy, so the screen was driven in 'data' mode, with a standard VGA (Video Graphics Array) signal generated by the show computers. The controlling hardware was a pair of rack-mounted PCs, each with a 2.8GHz Intel P4 and NVIDIA Geforce 4 accelerator cards, and RAID hard disks for reliability. The PCs received MIDI signals from musical director Kerry Hopwood's computers, and from a Bitstream Pro control surface used to control the show live.
At the start of each number, the MD sent a MIDI signal to the computer that enabled Mosquito to identify the next track and to start a MIDI clock controlling the precise playback rate. This auto-synchronisation reduced the operator's workload, allowing a stronger focus on the live performance, and also meant that the show running order could be changed at any time without having to notify the visuals operator.
Mosquito uses OpenGL rendering to display text, graphics and video sequences in real time. It contains a number of rendering modules, each designed for a specific job; for example, one module for displaying video sequences, another for random text, another for modulating a text display, using a video sequence to create real time patterns. Each visual track is composed of up to eight overlaid modules.
Each module is controlled by several 'settings' parameters, which can be animated over time, using a key frame sequence. Mosquito includes a full key frame editing and sequencing interface, so each show can be completely sequenced from inside the software.
Mosquito also inputs complete audio tracks in MP3 format, so the entire show can be sequenced in a production studio and modified during rehearsals and/or on the road. Running live, any module parameter can be modified by the operator in real time, using the Bitstream Pro, adding a vital "live jamming" element to the show.
For each individual client, UVA aim to produce new and different visuals, based on three main platforms. Firstly, they consider the physical stage installation or production to be the most important part of the experience. The visual content design is always driven by the specific characteristics of the chosen medium. For Massive Attack, they presented several stage designs initially, from which the band selected the one they liked best.
Secondly, UVA always tries to integrate new technology, and will build custom software for each project. For Massive Attack, they created Mosquito to render all the visuals in real time, synchronised with MIDI signals from the band. This allowed unprecedented flexibility during both production process and tour, and generated visuals that would otherwise have been impossible to create within time and budget restraints.
Third, UVA's approach is always experimental. The exact final results are never known at the start of a project! Many ideas are generated and explored before being distilled near the end of pre-production. The Massive Attack show itself came together during production rehearsals.
While Mosquito was a one-off project created for Massive Attack's specific needs, for future clients, UVA will develop completely new pieces of software to meet their precise needs. For club and corporate clients, they UVA and Autopilot are currently developing a second piece of 'commodity' software called Dragonfly, which allows the operator to cut quickly between video loops stored on hard disk. The loops can be quantized to an external beat, creating a more rhythmic and energetic show than previously possible with video.
Dragonfly also processes video using similar technology to Mosquito, allowing new and abstract looks that are controllable via a MIDI keyboard. It also processes and samples live video, creates titles, plays audio and displays logos. Dragonfly has recently been in action at the Diesel U-Music Awards; the 2003 Barcelona DJ festival; and at the fashion designer Hamish Morrow's show in September.
Words & photography by Louise Stickland
Additional photos courtesy of
Jerry Gilbert, Graham Brown & Jem Kitchen
FUNKTION ONE ON
100TH WINDOW TOUR
Sound for the 100th Window tour was delivered by a Funktion One Resolution system, powered by QSC amps, controlled by XTA and mixed at FOH on a Midas Heritage 3000. Gary Young of GPA Hire fulfilled both roles of FOH Engineer and Audio Supplier. Production Manager Ivan Kushlick sought the same equipment and engineering package that he had used to good effect on Leftfield tours in the past. During rehearsals, Kushlick reported that the band's manager commented on how he was delighted with the quality of the audio which allowed his band to sound the way they always should have.
The Funktion One Resolution system comprised 40 F218 bass enclosures, 32 Resolution 5 mid-high cabinets, 10 Resolution 4D downfills and a few Resolution 2 full range enclosures used as infills. The system offered great flexibility for the different venues on the tour and was deployed in different configurations depending on the shape of the required coverage. Keeping the sound aimed precisely on the audience and off the walls produced consistently high quality results.
In big arenas the system was flown five wide, three deep with five downfills per side (see picture - left - of this configuration from Lisbon Coliseum) with the bass ground stacked two wide and up to eight high. In the smaller theatre venues on the tour, the system was ground stacked and the number of boxes reduced according to the dispersion required. Massive Attack used Shure PSM700 in-ear monitors, mixed through a Yamaha PM1D. For festivals, GPA supplied its own FOH and monitor desks, FX racks, IEMs and multicore.
Gary Young enthused: "We were doing such varied event sizes from 1,500 indoor venues to 15,000 outdoor shows and found the Resolution System suited these different event types perfectly especially when I contrast this with the lack of flexibility I have experienced with line arrays. Throughout the tour from March to the end of August we have done over 75 gigs and also hooked up with other F1 users in Australia and Japan as well as touring extensively in the UK and Europe."
System Technician Jem Kitchen commented: "The small size and low weight of the Res 5s [under 50kg each box], combined with the excellent and innovative built in flying system, makes the system extremely fast to set up - we typically took under an hour and a half from opening the truck to having an arena size system flown. There is much detail about the Resolution system's design that makes handling and usage a pleasure. In my opinion, this is also the best sounding system on the market with high efficiency, control and accuracy combined with low distortion. Also, equalisation is unnecessary - the XTA DP224s are just used for crossover point and frequency band level management. Tony Andrews has a very pure approach to loudspeaker design."
Owing to a number of logistical issues, the sound for Massive Attack's final tour dates at Creamfields in Liverpool and Bristol's Queens Square was serviced by Canegreen, who supplied Meyer M3D systems and EAW SB-1000 sub bass cabinets, processed via BSS Soundweb and the new Symetrix PA controller.