PRG and PRG Nocturne Soar on the History of the Eagles Tour

	Eagles's History of the Eagles tour. Photo: Scott Davies

The Eagles brought their History of the Eagles tour to London's O2 Arena in June in a worthy celebration of a lifetime of work. Performing classics and songs from their top-selling documentary, the concert is an exploration of one of the world's biggest-selling and culturally significant American bands.

Butch Allen, in collaboration with lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe and the band, designed the set and show. PRG provided lighting and rigging and worked alongside PRG Nocturne UK, who supplied video and a live camera package for the show.

Lighting director Dave HillStateside Lighting crew, led by Jason 'Atta Boy' Statler, crossed the Atlantic with production to reproduce the success of the North American run. Statler was joined by his team of professionals, including Russel Lyons, Greg Gore, Brian Monahan, Errol Reinhart, Matt Schnieder, and UK addition, Tim Probert.

PRG account manager Roy Hunt worked with Hill and his team to provide a lighting rig consisting of Vari-Lite VL3500 Washes, VL3000 Spots, Clay Paky Sharpy Washes, Clay Paky Sharpy Beams, Clay Paky Alpha Wash 700, and Martin Mac Auras. All equipment was carried, and flown, using PRG BAT Truss; control was driven by MA Lighting's grandMA2 and console. Bill Martin, PRG's project manager, assisted the coordination.

PRG Nocturne supplied an integrated video system handled by account director Stefaan Michels, who had previously toured with the Eagles. He said, "I'm used to the level of service and quality of equipment expected from Nick Jeen and his team. I know a lot of the guys from my two years spent touring with the Eagles. It's good to be able to support them not only in the US, but also in the UK."

The video team included Dave Neugebauer, video director; Justin McLean, crew chief and lead protectionist; and Josh Alberts, assistant director and media controller. Neugebauer, in appreciation of working again with Michels, said, "It's always nice to do shows in Europe as Stefaan Michels and the rest of the PRG Nocturne UK group have proven to be fast and reliable support."

The camera package was a GVG Kayak video console with five GVG LDK-6000 manned cameras. Three of the cameras were front-of-house, one in the pit, and the other was a hand held. There were two wireless via Teradek HDMI RX/TX GoPro cams -- one was Joe Walsh's "hat-cam," and the other was a guitar-mounted cam. To complete the camera package, the team also utilized a Panasonic robotic cam and fixed POV cam.

Others in the video crew team included Graham Holiwill, video systems engineer; Brian Bateman, lead LED and camera operator; Peggy Powers, Stephen Gray, Matt Thonus, and Mike Johnson were the floor crew and camera operators.

Crew chief McLean explained the projection set up, "The tour is very projection heavy. We used eight Barco 2K40 projectors, all shooting and converging on the tracking upstage video surface. Our signal path and projector communication all ran down fiber. The signal is converted from fiber to HDSDI at the projector with all of the tracking moves being controlled within the light window by our Photon servers, operated by Josh Alberts."

In addition to the projectors, a PRG Nocturne V9, 9mm LED screen 24' x 13' was provided. There were four Barco FLM 22K for IMAG with each IMAG setup consisting of two 22K projectors stacked, converged by Matt Thonus.

McLean, commenting on the effective Nocturne UK team, said, "Having toured with Stefaan myself for many years, I know he is fully aware what is required on the road, he is there for us 24/7. The communication is quick, efficient, and reliable."

Leading the control set up, assistant director Alberts details working with the Photon servers that were used. He explained, "The Photon system allows us to stitch together four projection zones (left, right, top, and bottom). Each output (screen) is assigned it's own track. The Photon interface allows these tracks to be assigned to XSI 3D models, thus allowing for projection in a 3D environment."

"With the Photon's built in virtualization options we were able to pre-program many of the looks without interfering with the rest of production rehearsals."

The Eagles continue to perform History of the Eagles concerts to audiences in North America and is scheduled to visit Oceania in early 2015.