Event Safety Insights Issue One | Fall 2016 | Page 39

Evolution
of the

GroundControl

Follow
Spot
By Mike Wharton

PRG

introduced its revolutionary
GroundControl (GC) Followspot System at the
2015 LDI tradeshow. The impetus for its development began on U2’s 360 Tour in 2009,
for which PRG provided the lighting system. The infamous “Claw” that provided and
housed the set for the tour offered many new
challenges to hanging a lighting, video, and
audio system.
Chris Conti, Product Manager for PRG was
managing tour support at the time. His position kept him intimately involved providing
technical training and support before and
during the tour.
“Followspot placement and operator access
presented a major design problem that needed to be addressed,” he says. “Time was a
major factor, as it was difficult for operators to
get into their positions. Once there, the chairs
needed to be able to rotate and allow for
emergency egress.”

Willie Williams, production designer for U2,
had not been entirely happy with the solutions
arrived at for the tour. Bob Barnhart, designer with Full Flood, was looking into alternative
solutions at the time and had gone so far as to
mock up a couple ideas that he urged PRG to
consider.
“The fact that two high profile clients were
looking to us and saying there’s gotta be a better way, set this confluence of events in motion”, recalls Conti, and in 2014, “all the planets
aligned. We had the resources- staffing and
money and, most importantly, the technology
we needed was there.”
The resources of staff and technology came
from a group of engineers gathered by PRG
to address the issue. The men and women involved in these disciplines did not necessarily
come from a background that included familiarity with live event productions.
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