Devon designs go worldwide
Hillside Product Design, based in Teignmouth, Devon have been instrumental in designing the Xyloband led wristbands used by Coldplay at Glastonbury in June and on their current, and previous world tours.
Coldplay headlined the famous Glastonbury festival’s Pyramid stage to a crowd of over 100,000 waving their LED wristbands.
This was the fourth time the band have headlined the Somerset Festival. The enormous field lit by the audience made for a different experience making the entire area look, and feel part of a piece of artwork that the millions on TV could only admire from afar. It must have been fantastic for those in the fields who had become part of the light show.
“I watched Coldplay on TV playing at Glastonbury and saw the crowd wearing the latest wireless LED wristband that we had designed for our client Regler Limited”, said Chris Howsam, Director of Hillside Product Design.
Chris continued, “The stewards had been giving them out all day and the true Coldplay fans knew what they were as they are now a main part of the bands current world-wide tour but many would have had no idea at all. Then, the music started and the wristbands glowed into life. The effect continued along the edges of the pyramid stage which had been festooned with wireless LED globes that Hillside had also designed”.
“Everywhere was a sea of lights, changing red, green, blue, white and yellow, constantly changing, sometimes pulsing and sometimes flashing. I had a huge lump in my throat because Hillside had played a big part in making this happen and I was proud of my team and grateful to Jason Regler, our client for his belief in us”.
“Coldplay displayed their showmanship and inclusiveness for the audience and the effect was sensational. It certainly energised the fans and left them all on a high at the end of the four day festival”.
The success of the original Xylobands for Coldplay during their 2012 XyloMyloto album tour, along with their use at many other events, firmly established the use of LED wristbands as a way of directly involving the audience in an event. When Coldplay launched their latest album ‘A Head Full of Dreams’ they asked Jason Regler of Regler Limited, to develop a new and improved LED wristband to use during their planned world tour. Coldplay required several iterations of wristband, some branded for the album tour, some branded for their headlining performance at Glastonbury and some built with an integral speaker to play a short piece of music during a key part of the album tour.
Hillside Product Design were commissioned to assist in designing, developing and manufacturing these new Xylobands. As the show dates are fixed in advance the timeline is critical. Hillside worked closely with the client, their strategic partners and their suppliers to schedule everything accurately before any design work began. Failure to deliver was not an option.
Chris continued “We worked side by side with the electronic designer to agree a concept design. This was developed jointly by using working prototypes to achieve approval from the client and culminated in a live audio test for Coldplay”.
“When a client and their design team are committed to a project they can achieve great things. This project deserves its story being told in much greater detail but that is for another time. Tight deadlines, tough cost constraints and the high expectation of the customer made this a demanding project. It was an amazing time for Hillside Product Design and once again we showed the world what a dedicated team of experienced professional product designers can achieve”, concluded Chris.
Hillside Product Design Limited prides itself on delivering exceptional design and engineering solutions for our clients.
To watch the performance click here via the BBC iplayer
