Lady Gaga Joanne Tour Visuals Powered by d3 Video System

The Lady Gaga Joanne Tour uses a d3 video system to add a rotating visual element to the pop singer’s live show, complete with lasers and motion-sensing.

Leave a Comment
Lady Gaga Joanne Tour Visuals Powered by d3 Video System

LADY GAGA 2017 © Steve Jennings

The Lady Gaga Joanne tour, featuring the chart-topping pop artist and a wild array of d3 video system visuals, kicked off earlier this year in Vancouver, Canada.

Scheduled to run through early December, the artist is augmenting her show’s live experience through the use of equipment from d3 Technologies.

Gaga’s tour supports her fifth studio release Joanne and features five d3 4×4 Pro Media Servers in tow as part of a stage show that revolves around an 85-foot wide main stage with three automated lifts.

The live show also features five performer wave lifts with LED video panels, and three overhead inflatable lighting pods from TAIT.

In total five d3 4×4 pros with three DVI VFC cards, along with 3G-SDI inputs, timecode and Art-Net products are employed for Gaga’s shows.

The d3 products were chosen because they enabled the Lady Gaga Joanne Tour engineering and design team members to pretest the systems to ensure reliability.

“[The production staff] needed to be able to previsualize and model the articulated movement fo the bridges and lifts,” states Loren Barton, media department head and programmer, Lumentech Inc.

“The VFC cards allowed us to minimize the number of machines required to playback the content to the 28 projectors and LED outputs. d3 also allowed us to mockup, test and troubleshoot the automation system within the 3D space, which was incredibly helpful since we had limited time in the space with the actual set.”

d3 Video System Role in the Lady Gaga Joanne Tour

Show production features a stage that moves in unison with performers.

Appearing as a single structure, the stage is engineered to shift into different configurations that include flat, elevated, criss-cross, diagonal and staircase, with content that follows the stage configurations that are powered by a d3 video system.

d3 points out the inflatable lighting pods from TAIT stretch across the venue and employ articulated bridges that unfold into an oval projection surface.

The bridges can land on two raised automated platforms to create a path over the audience to connect stage “A” with stage “B,” which is outfitted in dichroic plexiglass and a geometric piano that incorporates laser lights.

“Using d3 to previsualize the production was key to evaluating which lenses we would need and which angles would work to hit all of the surfaces in this design,” comments Barton.

“The many mapping options to program the show also allowed us to look at ideas and projector locations quickly without having to re-render content to see if an effect would work.

“Using UDP feedback from the TAIT’s Navigator automation system we had to design and implement a solution to project onto the morphing objects with minimal calibration time. Ben Keightley, system designer and programmer, d3 Technologies, used a three-part model for each bridge and developed formulas to mimic the motion of the folding and unfolding to make sure the projections in our models stayed locked to the objects in reality.”

If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our digital newsletters!