Best Cover Ever

Best.Cover.Ever.
YouTube

ER Productions created a one off laser design for the final of YouTube’s premier music series, Best.Cover.Ever.

The show, which invites aspiring musicians to submit a cover track by their favourite recording artists and win the chance to perform the cover with them in Los Angeles, on an all-expenses paid experience of a lifetime.

With thousands of applicants from around the world, the show’s panel of musicians must pick their favourite two cover tracks, which are performed live on the show.

With very little preparation time, the lighting and effects crew that have been supporting the production are required to programme different show looks for each finalist over the course of 24-hours which, although challenging, resulted in an impressive, polished finale.

Brought in to lend some laser magic to the series finale by Lighting Director Tom Sutherland, ER Productions USA created a stunning and intricate laser design for Latvian finalists, the Double Faced Eels, who took to the stage to cover singer/songwriter Bebe Rexha’s The Way I Are.
Lawrence Wright, general manager of ER’s US operation, comments “this was one of the most laser-dense TV spots we’ve ever worked on, which involved cramming tons of lasers and SFX into a very small stage area”

In addition to operating the show without a timecode, Wright spent a significant amount of time ensuring the safety of the show and briefing both crew and performers on exposure limits. To that end, performers and crew alike were positioned in clearly marked safe areas, while off-limit areas were used as termination points for the lasers surrounding the stage.

To achieve the almost exclusively laser-lit winning performance by the Double Faced Eels, four Unique Hazer flanked the performance zone creating an atmospheric, lights-down intro. The wall behind the performance area was rigged with twenty Laserblades from the floor to the ceiling, which covered the artists and dancers in a full covering of intricate beams.

Scanning effects were provided by three of ER’s newly launched Storm lasers, which were fired above the performers, and twenty Lynx lasers that cast safe diffraction effects onto the stage area. The scanning effects were programmed using Pangolin's Beyond software and DMX control was handled by HighEnd Road Hog.

The winning performance was filled with rapidly changing colours and effects throughout the four minute show, providing some of the most intricate and intense displays that ER has produced on TV to date.
Lawrence comments, “This was such a challenging show – having to program twice, once for each finalist, gave it an edge of excitement. Tom has such good creative ideas and it’s always a pleasure to help bring them to life.”