American Idiot, a Broadway musical based on the album of the same name by pop-punk band Green Day, utilizes extensive modern display technology to provide its splashy visual effects, according to technology blog CrunchGear.
That blog's John Biggs recently took a backstage tour through American Idiot's equipment. He said that, because the show uses 44 different video screens on stage in addition to its other visual effects, the production crew had to use all of 11 Hippotizer video processors to keep the show's systems up and running, including a "massive" HDMI projector, displaying video at 1080p resolution.
The production team told Biggs that they had "originally used off-the-shelf components during the musical's first run and found they failed far too often. This set-up - as complex it seems - offers seamless control and ensures that the lightboard guy doesn't mess anything up."
Visual artists have been expanding their use of digital technology in recent years, using anything from antiquated electronic equipment to the glossiest of high-def screens to create both static and moving visual effects.
