Michael McIntyre gets big laughs with CT’s screens

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As one of the biggest stars in British comedy today, Michael McIntyre required some vast visual display screens to enable the entire audience to see his one man show.

One man, stand up comedy shows would have little impact if the audience are unable to see and hear what is happening on stage. Thanks to Creative Technology’s LED screens, 500,000 plus fans attending the 54 sold out shows in UK arenas during Michael McIntryre’s 2009 tour didn’t miss a single nuance.

Michael McIntyre has become one of the biggest stars in British comedy over the past few years. His UK arena tour included five shows at the 18,000-capacity O2 and six more at Wembley. Playing such large venues meant the comedian required some vast visual display screens to enable the entire audience to see his one man show.

An total of 150m2 of Lighthouse R7-ER made up the impressive LED backdrop, configured as a giant 16:9 aspect central screen, with two square IMAG side screens meaning that even the seats at the very back of the largest of the country’s arenas were a viable prospect for the audience. The majority of venues were supplied with a 10.16m x 6.1m central screen (10 panels wide x 8 panels high), with the side screens measuring 5.08m x 5.34m (5 panels wide x 7 panels high).

CT’s Project Manager for the tour, Steve Purkess, commented: “Our R7 screen has been used for a large number of high profile live events over the course of the year. For many applications it’s the first choice and, because of its high resolution, small or large screen formats all look fantastic.”

CT bought its first Lighthouse R7-ER panels in 2008 and due to the success it has seen, has recently increased its stock with an additional 72m2.

Purkess adds: “The screen was driven using our Vista Systems’ Spyder switcher, which allowed us to ‘pixel match’ to the Lighthouse LIP processor’s native resolution, getting pixel for pixel representation of the HD cameras and playback. The picture quality achieved was fantastic.”

The tour kicked off in Cardiff in September and took in Nottingham, London, Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Newcastle and Belfast, closing in Brighton in November.