Playhouse Disney Live! is on the road after many months of planning. Organized by Kathleen Gearhart, Disney’s special events director, and Jonathan Stott, production manager, Europe, Middle East and Africa, the tour runs for six weeks - with three free shows a day - from mid September to early November 2001. The tour, which features Avesco Group companies, Creative Technology and Dimension Audio in a joint collaboration, is designed to promote the Playhouse Disney Channel and is being staged in shopping malls across the UK.

The set was designed by Eye Design and built with the Barco iLite 6 indoor LED screen in mind. Owing to venue space restrictions, the Playhouse Disney Tour stage was a smaller, lightweight version of the TV set. Designed for durability on the road, the stage was made of a lightweight aluminium frame with cloth painted panels that Velcro onto the walls. The ‘Book of Pooh’ section was added to the set as Disney wanted to incorporate this into the show.

The ultra high resolution 6mm screen made it ideal for this event as Disney encouraged their audience to be as close to the stage as possible. CT project manager David Lawrence said: "The high resolution and brightness of the i6 were the two most important factors in choosing a screen technology that matched Disney’s high production values. Having to consider the varying levels of light in the different venues meant that it would have to be fully adjustable to suit the combination of artificial and/or natural light and the Playhouse stage itself."

Knowing that the target audience for this show would be around five years of age and younger, Disney and CT worked towards achieving the highest levels of safety. The future plan is to take this set on tour across Europe. Shows in each country will coincide with the Playhouse Disney Channel launch in each country. This tour will take place over the next three years with the i6 still being an essential part of the staging. Kathleen Gearhart has plans to use CT and LED screens for the majority of future projects, as she confirms, "I would not consider doing any future shows without a CT LED screen."


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