After spending the last few years at her Las Vegas Residency in Caesar’s Palace, Celine Dion launched her 14th World Tour with another extraordinary set designed by an incomparable production team. For the Courage World Tour, TAIT engineered and manufactured an automated mainstage featuring a modular lift system equipped with 20 custom-built TAIT Mod Lifts.

TAIT Mod Lifts are modular, high capacity lifts that are easy to use and almost infinitely configurable. Each Mod Lift is a 42 in. square and can lift a payload capacity of 2,000 lbs. at 1 ft. per second. They are engineered at that capacity with a 10:1 safety factor to ensure the safety of performers and reduces the risk of failure to nearly impossible.

“TAIT custom-built the Mod Lifts with production designers in mind. By manufacturing the Mod Lifts separate from the payload, we were able to offer more flexible design solutions as the operating height of the lifts can vary from 4 – 12 ft. above the venue floor.” – Todd Vernon, Project Manager at TAIT

For Celine Dion’s modular lift system, TAIT built various stage elements equipped with TAIT Mod Lifts and controlled by TAIT Navigator. This includes:

1 Stair Lift

• Located in the center of the mainstage is the stair lift which is 10 ft. wide by 6.5 ft. deep and is fully surrounded with LED fascia.
• Due to the weight of the video stage deck, 4 TAIT Mod Lifts support the stair lift.
• TAIT engineered a custom truss that is installed underneath the stage deck to ensure it would not deflect. The custom truss was required because the payload itself is so heavy that the span between lifts required additional structure.
• On several occasions throughout the show, Celine Dion is lifted 5.5 ft above the venue floor using the stair lift to stage level.

1 Drum Lift

• Located upstage is the drum lift which is 10 ft. wide by 8 ft. deep and supported by 4 TAIT Mod Lifts.
• During the show, the drummer is lifted 16 ft. above the venue floor to reveal a 6 ft. tall circular structure for Celine Dion to walk through for her grand entrance.

1 Light Wall Lift –

• The light wall acts as both a stage deck and a light wall equipped with 20 Intellipix light fixtures in a 5 ft. wide by 4 ft. high configuration.
• The light wall lift is 10 ft. wide by 3.5 ft. deep and lifts 10 ft. above the venue floor via 2 Mod Lifts.
• To create a silhouette affect during the show, the light wall lift rises 10 ft. above the venue floor and back lights Celine Dion while she is in the drum lift structure.

1 Video Wall Lift –

• The video wall lift is located downstage of the drum lift and features a video wall that displays video content throughout the show.
• During Celine’s Drum lift reveal, the video wall lifts up in sync the drum lift and then the video wall lowers to reveal Celine Dion inside the drum lift’s circular structure.
• The video wall lift is 10 ft. wide by 3.5 ft. deep and lifts the video wall 10 ft. above the venue floor via 2 Mod Lifts.

2 Band Lifts – 

• Each band lift is 14 ft. wide by 8 ft. deep and is supported by 4 TAIT Mod Lifts.
• Due to the width and capacity of each band lift, TAIT engineered a custom truss that is installed underneath the stage deck to ensure it would not deflect. The custom truss was required because the payloads were so heavy that the span between lifts required additional structure.
• Celine Dion’s musicians rise 8 ft. above the venue floor via the Band Lifts
• When the band lifts are lowered down to venue floor level, there are automated soft goods that cover the band lift’s area to give the illusion of an empty stage with the spotlight on Celine Dion.
• On Navigator cue, the soft goods to open and the Mod Lifts lift the band to stage level

Fun Fact: The light wall, video wall and drum lifts weigh a total 30,000 lbs. To create a more efficient load in/load out process for such heavy equipment, TAIT built these 3 elements into 1 module of the entire stage so that it can be manually pushed into position as one single unit.

Above the stage is an automated rig housing a kinetic display. The rig is outfitted with LED tubes that float above the stage and 31 Nav hoists that lift the u-shaped video screens and lighting pods up and down via TAIT Navigator.