Faith Hill and Tim McGraw
Faith Hill & Tim McGraw
Soul2Soul Tour
ER Productions is touring with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on the duo’s Soul2Soul tour. The visually impressive two-hour show, which is on the road until October, was directed by Raj Kapoor and designed by Mark Butts and Raj Kapoor, who collaborated with ER on the Backstreet Boys Las Vegas residency earlier this year.
Project manager, Andrew Turner, said “we relished the opportunity to be involved in such a high-profile tour in the USA. This is the first-time ER Productions has been involved with a Country music act, which was an interesting creative opportunity from the outset.”
Once the laser concepts had been agreed with the design team, Turner devised a rig consisting of sixteen Laserblades, thirty-two BB3 units and eight of ER’s new Excellent 25 fixtures, which spanned the length of the stage. To integrate the lasers into the slick set, custom frames were fabricated by Tait Technologies for the BB3 and Laserblade units, which also simplified the load-in process for the technical team.
"We were lucky enough to join the show’s technical team at the Rock Lititz facility in Pennsylvania during the set building process. From there we went with the tour team and the artists to rehearse at Feld entertainment in Florida where we programmed the show."
Two Excellent 25 units were floor mounted out wide, while another four were rigged onto two, 5-metre long steel poles, which were operated using Tait’s automation software.
The pole rigged lasers were flown in to trim during laser numbers, creating a unique effect that could be pulled back to avoid a 24-metre video wall, which provided effects when the lasers weren’t in use. The remaining two Excellent 25 units were rigged onto custom brackets creating laser effects that terminated on stage around the Country music stars.
Finally, to frame the stage and achieve a lovely static focus, ER’s skilled technicians set the Laserblades in trays along the left and right downstage edge.
Turner concludes, “Raj, Rita Maye Bland and Lighting Designer Mark Butts gave us the freedom to throw our creative hats into the ring for the laser moments, which is always a dream for us and we are thrilled with the results.”