Les 7 doigts de la main: Cadence

Even in snow-covered Quebec, outdoor skating shows are a rarity. One has to deal with harsh meteorological conditions on top of the usually demanding environment of a live production. Montreal-based company Les 7 doigts de la main and VYV did brave the elements to present Cadence, an ice show featuring acrobatics inspired by circus, barrel jump, traditional figure skating and free style skating.

VYV’s team mission on this production was to provide an interactive solution to automate lighting control based on the movements of the skaters. Since the average speed of figure skater in a routine is of 16 km per hour, the selected optical tracking system had to offer performance that exceeds the usual demand for stage productions.

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Fortunately, locking on fast-moving targets and generating precise positional data with very little delay is one of the strong points of VYV’s tracking system. 20 Copernics— VYV’s active optical markers— were fitted onto 16 performers skating over an area covered by 20 Optitrack cameras which relayed their feeds to ALBION—VYV’s media server dedicated to data capture and lighting equipment interoperation.

Stormed over by freezing rain, snow and wind, Cadence was definitely a test for our team who had to quickly deploy a tracking system in hazardous weather. However, the ultimate challenge was to keep on target with the fastest performers we had met yet. Thanks to the responsiveness of our tracking system, we achieved synchronicity between the choreography of the skaters and the ballet of the 24 SGM G Spot-Turbo moving lights that were projecting their beams over Montreal’s largest downtown ice rink.