CONCERT TOURING

1997 - The Prodigy, Fat of the Land. Chris was the first to tour using the very latest (as was then!) LCD video projectors, using them as part of a walk-on moment displaying a pre-recorded intro movie. Chris flew with the band across Europe as part of the core crew.

1999 - The Pet Shop Boys, Nightlife. Chris built a computer based media server, maybe one of the first ever, and developed a system to trigger and sync from the bands midi system. The tour was also the first to use 3D projection mapping techniques on the Zaha Hadid designed stage sculpture.

2001 - Leftfield, Rhythm and Stealth. Before forming a commercial partnership, Chris Bird and Matt Clark first worked on Leftfield’s seminal Rhythm and Stealth tour show design. Matt produced the concept stage design and visual content, with Chris being lead video editor and sequencer.

2003 - Massive Attack, 100th Window. Chris and Matt collaborated to deliver what was to become the first of many projects with Massive Attack. This ground breaking show was the first to use a real-time graphics engine that we custom built for the show. Mimicking a data display board, text and numbers triggered from the bands stage instruments would flood the ‘pixel perfect’LED screen. Chris toured with the band, editing the show content daily whilst also delivering the show in multiple languages.

2004 - Basement Jaxx, Kish Kash. Complimenting Basement Jaxx’s cut and paste album graphics and their musical style which heavily uses samples, UVA produced the show content and also enhanced their in-house real-time software to play video and images, with a range of customised real-time effects. Chris toured with the band and operated the rapidly evolving in-house hardware/software solution which eventually evolved into d3.

2005 - U2, Vertigo. Show Director Willie Williams originally contacted UVA to help create a single moment in the show, where an operator could secretly film people in the audience before incorporating them into the show using a custom real-time effect. However, the complex nature of the LED edged stage required a new approach to video mapping. Mosquito evolved into ‘dragonfly’, incorporating a real-time 3d stage visualiser. The touring crew was so impressed they commissioned us to build the first ‘dragonfly’ media servers which they took on tour around the world on tour.

2009 - Jay Z, The Blueprint III. UVA were invited by Jay-Z and his management team to create the stage design and visual content for his Blueprint III album tour.to coincide with. Working closely with the artist and his team, an LED backdrop resembling the city skyline of his hime New York was created, along with video content created specially for the unusual display.

2009 - U2, 360. U2’s long term creative director, Willie Williams, together with our industry friends Frederic Opsomer and the team at XL Video commissioned UVA to enhance the ever growing d3 platform in order to deliver the video content including live cameras to the 360 LED screen. The screen was not a perfect cylinder, expanding vertically on a series of motors.

2011 - Red Hot Chili Peppers, I’m With You. Having seen Massive Attack’s concert on a recent tour RHCP bass player, Flea, asked their manager to contact us to apply some different thinking on their forthcoming toury. We created a range of real-time effects for both pre-recorded and live camera footage and provided an exciting new stage design for the band.

2014 - James Blake, The Colour in Anything. Collaborating with the artist, UVA composed graphic content programmed in real-time and choreographed alongside complex lighting sequences using audio triggers. The track The Colour in Anything featured a new technique UVA created using a 3D ’tracking pen’ with Quentin Blake.