Here, Notch was used to add texturing to the IMAG, plus to add unique visual effects during a number of songs. “In many ways, Notch is an empty box that you can use to create amazing things,” he says. Smasher has been using it since he first saw it, in demo form, two-and-a-half years ago.

Working with the gx 2 is Notch, t he popular programme that combines live imagery and video content with minimal latency.

There are not many tours that are taking 4K, because you don’t need it-but we needed it because of the resolution of the screen.” If you shot this in just HD, you would have to stretch the image four times, and by then you’d be able to play chess on it, since it would look so digitized and ugly. It’s not just a normal, conventional video system.” The combination of its extreme width and 8mm resolution poses many challenges, he notes: “A lot of people make a mistake-they end up with this super high resolution screen, but there’s no money for the back end, like cameras and visuals. Video director Stefaan 'Smasher' Desmedt says, “I spent two months configuring 'The Joshua Tree’s' video system with the guys from PRG Nocturne, so that it would be actually tourable. “In Act III, there’s a film by the French artist JR about Syria and a couple more things made by me and my usual team, which includes Sam Pattinson, at The Third Company, and Ben Nicholson, at Empirical Studio.” “It was obvious from day one that Anton Corbijn should make the films for 'The Joshua Tree' portion of the show- it’s his aesthetic and he found the damn tree, after all,” Williams says. We suddenly realised that this was a really beautiful thing, which we knew, because we had a big video screen for the Innocence + Experience Tour in 2015.” The idea resonated, and the design team decided on a 200' curved LED wall comprised of ROE Visual CB8 8mm tiles, which was provided, along with the rest of the tour's video gear, by the Los Angeles office of PRG Nocturne. The design of the Salesforce show was a big slab of video, top and tail with lights, and a basic PA system. We put together a production loosely based on the concept of a drive-in movie theatre, because the site of the event, The Cow Palace, used to have.

“We were doing a one-night show for Dreamforce. As plans were being laid for the tour, U2's longtime creative director, Willie Williams, and the scenic design team at London-based Stufish Entertainment Architects, led by Ric Lipson, were involved in a corporate show “Salesforce, a corporate company, had an event in San Francisco called Dreamforce,” Lipson says.

U2 the joshua tree