Sinatra: Live at the London Palladium
Digital Antics provided IT consultancy, network design, show control programming installation and support services to XL Video for the show, working closely with Project Manager Malcolm Mellows, his Technical Manager Gerrard Corey and the team from New York-based Scharff Weisberg, including Sean Cagney, John Ackerman and Josh Weisberg.
Although Frank Sinatra died in May 1998, his memory lives on - and nowhere more vividly than in London, where Sinatra: Live At The Palladium opened in March this year. Thanks to the wonders of technology, he appears to perform alongside a 24-piece orchestra and special guests.
At the heart of the show control system lie two off-the-shelf Dell desktop computers running bespoke software developed by Digital Antics especially for the show. The software is in charge of marshalling communications between eight Digital Projection Lightning 30SX projectors, CVBS and DVI matrix switchers, a GrandMA lighting console (being used for media server control) and the automation department’s programmable logic controllers (delivering positional information for the various projection surfaces on the stage via IP multicast).
Beyond the use of one MOTU MIDI interface per show control computer to receive commands from the GrandMA console, the entire system is based on an Ethernet topology. Several Moxa NPort 5610 serial device servers are in use to which the software communicates at direct protocol level (open and published by Moxa for this exact purpose) to allow fine, granular control as well as promiscuous play between the two control computers (essential for backup purposes).
The operators interact with the software by way of a touch screen monitor while much of the show runs automatically. This includes matrix switch operations triggered by MIDI from the GrandMA console and projector shutter operations flawlessly triggered by the various projection surfaces moving in or out of the field of view. The software also provides the operators, led by head of department Damian Ridge, with essential feedback and maintenance control of the projectors.
Digital Antics’ managing director and show control technical lead on the project Quintin Willison comments that:
Our choice of Microsoft’s C# .NET rapid application development platform enabled us to design, prototype and debug the system during rehearsals as well as have the ability to organically adapt to the constantly changing requirements of the production. Essential given the short time frames and manic working environment!