Another brick in vast video wall
95 trucks needed to bring in stage for Roger Waters concert at BC Place tonight.
The stage of the Roger Waters concert The Wall has a giant video screen that runs 500 feet across BC Place Stadium and stands 40 feet high.
It’s the equivalent of a 20,000- square- foot movie screen that will dazzle the crowd of about 37,000 who have so far bought tickets to today’s concert in Vancouver.
“This is about double the size of other arena shows on the [ Wall] tour,” explained Kathy delisser, assistant general manager of BC Place, during a tour Friday as hundreds or workers were building the giant stage, which arrived in 95 semi- trailer trucks.
“They did a show last night in Seattle, which went to 11: 30 p. m., and the trucks arrived in Vancouver at 5 a. m.,” she said.
It is the first big rock concert since the $ 563- million renovation, which included a new roof and seating, at Vancouver’s biggest venue.
Neighbours living near BC Place were sent notices to expect some loud music and sound effects during the 2 - hour show, including a 15- minute intermission, delisser said.
She hoped the fact that the new cable- supported roof is higher than the old inflated roof will improve the sound quality. About 37,000 fans had bought tickets for The Wall by Friday, just short of a sellout — seating behind the stage not being available because the huge video screen runs up into the seats, almost to the concourse, on both sides of the stage.
After Vancouver, Waters takes the production to Edmonton on Monday, Winnipeg on Thursday and will end the two- year world tour in Quebec City on July 21 with the biggest Wall show ever — the screen there will be expanded to more than 800 feet long.
“We’re going to go out with a bang,” tour production manager Chris Kansy said Friday about the final concert.
He said the BC Place show will use 41 video projectors, compared to 19 for most arena shows for The Wall, and will feature a surround sound system, so fans will hear sound effects like a helicopter swirling around the stadium.
“It really adds to the experience,” Kansy said.
The show is more of a spectacular experience than a traditional rock concert, with the music integrated with computer- controlled video imagery, lights, pyrotechnics and giant figures that will be inflated as the musical storyline progresses.
The concert is a staging of the 1979 Pink Floyd concept album, which was first staged at the Berlin Wall in 1990.
Pink Floyd’s former frontman, Waters, now 68, launched this tour in 2010.
“This stadium show couldn’t have been done 40 years ago,” Waters said in a statement issued Friday.
“We couldn’t have filled the space in a way that would have been emotionally, musically and theatrically satisfying. Technology has changed. Now we can.”
Kansy said BC Place was one of the easiest venues to work in because of its size. “It’s very user friendly,” he said.