Billy Corgan
2005
Products: Versa TUBE, Versa TILE

Billy Corgan's tour in support of his first solo album, TheFutureEmbrace , featured a curved back wall of Element Labs' Versa TILE panels Versa TUBEs outlining and accenting the wall. Michael Keeling of Project X designed the set-up at the former Smashing Pumpkins front man's request because he was impressed with Keeling's light box design for Justin Timberlake's "Rock Your Body" video.

"The Versa TILE product really blows me away and since Billy has gone down this whole 80s electronica phase with a disco vibe, it works perfectly for him," says Keeling. "I told him we should have a good time with this. It's not a video wall; it's like the Justin Timberlake video on steroids. Plus, the tour is an all-LED tour-no incandescent lighting on it all. It's 95% Element Labs products because I feel they're a cut above the rest. Nils [Thorjussen] and those guys are definitely pushing the envelope."

Designers aren't the only ones who've noticed. In his review of the concert in the New York Times, Jon Pareles commented on the "wraparound scrim that showed an eye-popping grid of lights, flashing in op-art patterns," and even said that the backdrop was a highlight of the concert. The 3-meter tall by 14-meter wide TILE wall is set up as half of an octagon, surrounding the band. Up the side and around the top of the curve and then down the other side are Versa TUBEs.

Martin Philips programmed and designed most of the show's visual content. "Mike did the overall design of the wall and where the fixtures went. Then I came in and I decided what content would go where," Philips explains. "We used a Wholehog II console and PRG's MBox-so we had all the standard stock content from that. Plus, Mike had a couple of animators come up with some footage for specific numbers."

For control, a Versa DRIVE C1 controller, which is making its touring debut, handles the TUBEs while the TILEs are driven by a Versa DRIVE D2 receiving a DVI signal from the MBox. This marks the first tour to use the Versa DRIVE C1 controller. "It's a compact controller that allows you to store movies and patterns onto a compact Flash card like a digital camera uses," explains Element Labs' Jeremy Hochman. "Then, via DMX, you have six channels to play back video and adjust the intensity or the color. On the C1, I created patterns that allowed Martin to use DMX to control the light going up and down the TUBEs as well as strobe patterns and control of individual segments of the TUBEs. Because the wall was curved in sections, the TUBEs were also laid out in sections, so he has control over each section of TUBEs, in case he didn't want all of them to be on at the same time. I created all of the content for the C1 in black and white so that via red, green and blue on his console, he was able to mix whatever colors were necessary.

"Martin is a really great programmer and he was really able to fully use the capabilities of the MBox, which I think really showed off the versatile aspects of the Versa TILEs," Hochman adds. "He had very subtle flows of changing colors that were excellent, but he also had very geometric patterns that were quite contrasting from one pattern to the next. They showed off the capabilities of the product so well. Of course, the versatility of the product itself really allowed him to create such different looks from song to song, whether it was from color range to pattern to effect. Everything tied together very nicely, but at the same time each song had a much different impact over the previous song. Martin did an incredible job."

Although Element Labs created the C1 controller for architectural installations that don't require real-time control or need a live video input, it allows the user to trigger pre-stored content. "That makes it very easy for operators because you can load 200 patterns onto your compact Flash card and play each one individually or all of them sequentially, etc.," Hochman says. "So for a concert tour where you know ahead of time that you will have preprogrammed effects that are the same for each show, it was very easy to load all of the effects on to the C1 and then allow for triggering. It's a very small unit and doesn't require a computer. They were very happy with it. There are two C1 controllers on the tour; one is for live and one is for backup. Both of them attach together to make a one-unit rack mount piece."

Because the Versa TILEs and TUBEs are so easy to install and take down, the crew was even able to take them along for Corgan's live appearances on "The Late Show With David Letterman" and "The Tonight Show." Video technician Eric Belanger attests to the products' ease of use. "We had exactly 42 panels, 39 were 10x10 and three of them were 5x5," Belanger says. "We chose the 5x5 panels because if we went into a smaller venue and needed to reduce a wall, we could use those without losing too much of the concept. They're perfectly easy to set up; it goes up really fast. They're light and need very little power and there isn't much to it when it comes to troubleshooting. It's fairly simple to figure out-they're also really durable and really strong. For how powerful they are, they are quite simple. It's almost plug-and-play, as long as you're a little bit computer literate. Instead of buying a DVI snake, which would have been very expensive, we just ran an internet cable and away we went."

"I've been very impressed with the Element labs product," Philips concludes. "I did New Year's Rockin' Eve and a Coldplay video with the Versa TUBEs, and I have a good relationship with both Matt and Jeremy. They've always been very keen to try and iron out and issues or problems and any time I've had a question they're very responsive. I like the products and I like the people. I already have several ideas cooking in my head of how I'd like to use them again."