Ronan Keating-Ronan: Live Destination Wembley 02 (2002)

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Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    This concert features Keating performing live at Wembley Arena, close to the start of his Destination Everywhere world tour, a tour that took in Australia during the middle of this year (2002). The concert is lively, with Keating and band hitting every mark with perfection, never leaving room for doubt or worry, and keeping the (mostly female) audience in raptures for the entire time. The progression flows easily from faster, more energetic songs to the slower ballads. The only real problem in this regard is that the concert finishes with two very slow songs, giving it a somewhat anti-climactic feel.

    There does appear to be a problem with the presentation of the concert in terms of the lighting. When a concert is shot for video, it is not unusual to use considerably more lighting than otherwise would be the case. For this recording, it appears that the lighting technician must have had shares in a light-manufacturer, as the entire stadium is lit to resemble broad daylight. This is a concert - do we really need to see the audience at all times? The effect of this extreme brightness (and not in terms of the visual quality - see below for that) is quite disconcerting, and makes the whole feel of the concert "cheaper".

    Overall, this is a fantastic concert, delivered by a performer who is one of the nice guys of the musical world. It is certainly a must-have for any die-hard fan, and the generous running time (the concert last just shy of an hour and a half, and does not include much in the way of dialogue) makes it a very worthy purchase for the casual fan.

Video

    Presented at 1.78:1, this transfer is 16x9 enhanced. This is most likely the original aspect ratio as it was shot for European widescreen TV.

    Sharpness is only passable. There is enough detail present to make out medium level detail, but fine detail is often obscured. This not helped by the almost constant presence of "grain". There are a number of instances of extremely obvious grain, such as at 0:22 - 0:32 and 44:48 - 45:00, and only a very few shots that are totally clear of it. Shadow detail is passable, although given how brightly lit the concert is, it never really plays any part. There is no low-level noise present.

    Colours are only "alright". The whole concert has a "washed-out" feel thanks to the excessive lighting, and once Keating removes his jacket (and hence performs in a white shirt) the spot-light on him causes numerous instances of blooming (such as at 34:48 and 51:20).

    The whole 90-minute concert, plus a 20 minute extra have been squeezed onto a single layer. This leads to a feeling of over-compression throughout the concert. The image is usually not as clear as it otherwise might have been, and there is more background pixelization than would normally be expected under the circumstances, and virtually any block of colour contains at least some posterization. There is a very large amount of aliasing, although it is almost always restricted to single areas of the image - there are no instances of image-wide shimmering. Probably the worst offender is the edge of the stage (such as at 5:31 or 42:38), but the guitar, as usual, provides more than its share of difficulties (such as at 50:49). There are no flecks or specks on this transfer.

    There are no subtitles on this disc, and as it is a single layered title, there is no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only a solitary soundtrack on this disc, being the original English audio in Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448 Kbps.

    The vocals are mostly clear and distinct, although as this concert is early in the tour (it had only been going for just over a week at this point), there are a few issues with the mixing used in the recording, as the vocals are occasionally a little low. The music is well represented, with the instruments clear and full bodied where necessary. It is easy to distinguish the individual instruments, and musically, this soundtrack is a pleasure to listen to.

    The audio sync is spot on throughout, and is never a problem.

    The surround channels are used very effectively to provide a "concert" feel. They provide good levels of crowd noise - not deafening, but loud enough to be heard - and also echo a little of the concert audio, as if it were reflecting off the back wall of the auditorium.

    The subwoofer is extremely well used, being well reserved, but still used for the bass guitar. It provides a very nice "bounce" to most of the songs, and gives them an added depth.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Featurette - Destination Everywhere (21:59)

Photo Gallery (2:09)

    The video quality is disappointing, and while watchable, is certainly not ideal.

    The audio quality is much better than the video, and is extremely good. This is a very impressive sounding concert.

    The extras are somewhat interesting, but lacking in production value. With the quality of "behind the scenes" featurettes becoming available elsewhere, the extras present here will soon look very amateurish indeed.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall