We Wonder If It Has Force Feedback?
Factoid: The entire US$50Million stage lighting system for the Vertigo Tour is controlled via a Playstation video game control.
4/19/05 Update: Factoid based on this clip.
posted by The Captain at 4/15/2005 11:32:00 PM
17 Comments:
"Factoid" means something that only seems to be a fact, as "a piece of information that has the appearance of being reliable or accurate, as from being repeated so often that people assume it is true".
So is this true?
this sure lacks evidence. I'd like to know how they did it.
This was quoted from the actual mouth of Willie Williams who you see holding the playstation control in the picture. The only assumption of truth is coming from the person quoted, who in this case seems to be a fairly reliable source...
i have worked as a lighting tech for 5 years and have never heard of that happening. it is not impossible, but highly unlikely.
We've posted a follow up to this on the blog, but in case you're only following this thread, you can view a clip where we got this information here: http://www.dubbia.com/Playstation_Evidence.wmv
So, you think Willie Williams is playing a little joke on VH1?
So does that mean U2 is in violation of patent law?
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Has it not occured to anyone (other than dthree) that maybe he's joking? They probably have a Playstation 2 hooked up to one of the control monitors.
I think it's pretty funny that folks are taking this so seriously.
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Geez.. why is it so hard to believe that they use a PS2 controller? They don't say anywhere that they are using a PS2, just the controller. It is a damn fine controller and easier to use than something complicated with a million buttons.
It's hard to believe because some of us actually do this sort of thing for a living.
I mean, if the production manager said that the crew got paid in cashew nuts, and you had video of it, would you all be arguing that it must be true?
Well, straight from the horses' mouth, the U2 tour is using 3 WholeHog IIIs and 12 DP2000 processors to control the lighting. In the case, the horses' mouth is PRG Lighting, who rents out the gear.
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According to LD magazine, the PS2 controller is only used to control cameras hidden in some moving lights. The cameras feed the image to the IMAG screens.
two things. w00t! and so? Stating that it runs off of a playstation 2 controller implies that the magic happens inside the controller. Which I'm sure we all know is not true. The playstation controller has been modified to control very expensive, extremely involved lighting controllers. So? What is particularly interesting about that? What might be interesting is if they coded playstation software to use ps2 hardware to control all aspects of lighting. As it is this is still just a minimal hardware hack.
It wouldn't be that difficult to use the controller to fire off cues. The buttons are just contact closures, and you have several buttons in an already ergonomic controller. So as far as firing off some cues to the beat of the music, it could work...
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