A Hong Kong
Concert Stage in Toronto
Videoscope stages Jacky Cheung
Location
Ricoh
Coliseum, Toronto, Ontario
Assignment
Create a Hong Kong Concert Stage for Pop star Jacky Cheung
Staging Services
Videoscope is
renowned for its expertise in staging corporate events.
In February we put our diverse skills on the line by staging a
concert for the famous
Hong Kong
pop music star, Jacky Cheung.
It was a two night show at the Ricoh Coliseum in
Toronto
.
Videoscope
was hired to provide full service Staging with Steve Dunstall as
the Staging Consultant The
concert required a multi-level stage complete with an elevator,
lighting, sound, video production, video projection, pyro and
special F/X, as well as the back line instruments.
The show came to
Toronto
from
Hong Kong
, where Jacky Cheung has been a huge pop and movie star since
the mid 1990’s. Known
for his rich baritone, wide range and exceptional interpretive
vocals, he has been dubbed the “Canto pop king.”
He was crowned "Chinese Artiste of The World"
in
Monte Carlo
at the 1996 World Music Awards. In this period Jacky Cheung was
the biggest selling Chinese pop singer in the world and is still
one of the most respected. In 2005 he received a CCTV-MTV award
for “Pan-Asia Male Artist of the Year.”
The
show brought lots of challenges for Videoscope. The timeline was
very tight. The night before Jacky Cheung was to take the stage,
the Toronto Marlies played a hockey game in the Ricoh Coliseum.
Immediately after the game the coliseum had to be transformed
from “hockey mode” to “concert mode.”
The staging crew could not start to load in the concert
set-up until 7 am, with the first show scheduled for that
evening.
This
was not your typical five piece rock band. It was a combination
of rock’n roll, orchestra and theatre. Normal procedure for a
show this big, with such a short set-up time would be to rent a
vacant warehouse, lay out the entire show, pre-rig, label and
colour code everything. But there was no pre-design to lay out.
The Hong Kong designers were in the process of creating a whole
new lighting design for
Toronto
. “Creative
changes continued right into the show day. The final set-up was
180 degrees different from the first plan we saw”, says Steve.
“Our ability to adapt quickly to our customers requirements
was key.”
The
lighting rig was a huge and complex design. There was no way it
could be installed as a “one off” in the time available. The
only possible solution was to pre-rig all of the lighting
fixtures on swing wing trusses at the shop prior to the load in.
This process took three days of shop prep, but the timeline to
install it was still very tight. Steve negotiated with the Venue
to pre-hang the 54 truss motors the day before the Hockey game.
We could now load in with all points pre-rigged and the lighting
trusses loaded and ready to fly. Time was still a concern so the
massive 46’ x 60’ multi-level stage was built on wheels at
centre ice and then rolled into place after the lighting rig was
raised.
The
Hong Kong producer admitted that they couldn’t have pulled it
off in one day in
Hong Kong
. But it all came together.
The
Hong Kong
lighting designers were programming the new show right up until
the doors opened. The Meyer Array sound system, the three big
16:9 screens (24’ wide in the centre and 2 x 20’ wide on the
sides), the 25,000 lumen projector, the cameras, the pyro and
stage effects, the elevator in the middle of the multi-tiered
stage, the multitude of instruments
- all
performed well. The two sold-out shows delighted Jacky’s
Toronto
fans.
Videoscope’s
extensive staging experience stood the “test of time” for
this concert extravaganza.
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