XL Touring Video was chosen as video contractor for the Queen & Paul Rodgers North American Tour 2006, which is promoting their recent live DVD and CD release, Return of the Champions.

XL worked closely with video consultant Aubrey “Po” Powell, one of the founding members of the influential 1960’s album cover design groups, Hipgnosis, which is responsible for many of the famous Pink Floyd album sleeves, as well as Led Zeppelin and Bad Company.

President of XL Touring Video, John Wiseman says, “To find out that Po was also involved immediately made me realize that this was going to be a first class project and I was honored to be a part of it. From the design all the way down to the video handoff from Freddie Mercury to Paul Rodgers, it was a class act.”

Some of the show highlights are moments when film clips from Queen’s and Rodgers’ respective pasts appear on a big video screen behind the stage. The audience always cheers loudest whenever former Queen singer Freddie Mercury, who died of complications from AIDS in 1991, appears.

Touring on behalf of XL is chief engineer Chris Mitchell; crew chief Jimmy Johnston; projectionist Dave Jacobs; and technicians Mark Stutsman, Victor Victoria, and Joe Melkerson. The equipment was a projection package, which included five SLM-R12s, two ELM-R18s, and an SDI camera package.

The tour, which began in March in Miami, ended April 13th in Vancouver, B.C.