WYSIWYG Tours with Roxette

WYSIWYG, the previsualization suite from CAST Software, of Toronto, Canada is on the current world tour of the superstar band Roxette. The Swedish band, headed by Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle, was formed in the late '80s and is known for its international hits, including "The Look," "Listen To Your Heart," "Joyride," and the classic love ballad "It Must Have Been Love," which was featured on the soundtrack Pretty Woman and sold nine million copies. The group has had 33 singles and total record sales exceeding 75 million.

Roxette began its current world tour in Feb 2011, and will travel internationally with over 120 performances.

Calle Brattberg is the lighting designer, set designer, programmer, and operator for the tour, as well as creator of the WYSIWYG design used for lighting the show.

The main lighting for the fall leg of the tour was supplied by Starlight in Sweden, consisting of 40 Martin MAC 2000 wash, 39 Vari*lite VL3000 spots, 11 Vari*lite VL2500 spots, 10 SGM Ribaltas, 11 Cromlech JARAGs, 14 Martin MAC 301 LED washes, and 18 2-lights by James Thomas Engineering. Brattberg's own company, LXworks, is the supplier of the MA2 lighting desks and signal racks and Hippo Critter media servers by Green Hippo. The 2012 part of the tour will pick up different kits from different vendors at almost every show, although using the same design.

Pre-programming for all lighting and video was all done by Brattberg using WYSIWYG Perform, beginning in September 2011 in his previsualization studio in Stockholm. Video content was created by Brattberg, alongside Peppe Tannemyr of Digigobos.

Brattberg explains, "The benefit of working with WYSIWYG is enormous. All preprogramming including video content was made and adjusted in WYSIWYG before we went to production rehearsals and it saved me a lot of time since the rehearsal time was only three days with the band."

Brattberg happened to be one of the winners of the daily prize drawing at the CAST booth during PLASA 2011, winning a one-year WU+YSIWYG Perform Membership. "This was just icing on the cake," explains Brattberg, "I was already using WYSIWYG - in fact it's such a standard in Sweden that it's actually difficult to work efficiently with others if you don't have it. So winning a year Perform membership was the perfect prize. Thanks CAST!"

Brattberg adds, "I'd also like to thank Starlight for their great support of gear and great engagement in the project, and One Two sales in Sweden, the retailer for WYSIWYG and all of the LXworks lighting gear. Finally, the whole Roxette band, management, and crew for just being fantastic professionals for being so great to work with."