TPi August 2013 - Issue 168

TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL

TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL

WWW.TPiMAGAZINE.COM

ISSUE 168 AUGUST 2013

LIVE EVENT DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY • AUGUST 2013 • ISSUE 168

RISE OF THE PHOENIX

GLASTONBURY

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Close Date 6/24/13

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PRELUDE

CREATIVE GENIUS AND TECHNICAL GLORY TPi has ventured far and wide to gather thrilling production stories for this bumper edition. As soon as the July issue had been sent to the printers, the team set off for the sunny fields of Glastonbury Festival - an event still capable of creating a bigger buzz than almost any other. The many highlights of this year’s installment included a colossal pyrotechnic spider entertaining festivalgoers in the Arcadia zone and a legendary performance from the Rolling Stones - complete with The Phoenix soaring above the Pyramid Stage. Extraordinary moments like these reiterate why Glastonbury is many people’s favourite musical extravaganza of the festival calendar - myself included. Head over to page 6 to read Kelly’s in-depth feature on one of the summer’s most talked about events.

The festival theme continues with a Manchester International Festival flavoured article, focusing on how The xx’s intimate shows were created. The event saw the band perform to just 60 lucky fans at a time, and I was one of the intrigued audience members led through a tunnel of mazes to the show’s secret location. This summer has also seen Robbie Williams’ titanic Take The Crown tour entertain packed stadiums - with the production’s collection of giant head structures making a lasting impression. I spoke to the team responsible for producing a show of creative genius, stage and set innovation and technical glory.

Also amongst this issue’s touring features is Electric, the latest outing from synth-pop stars, the Pet Shop Boys. With exceptional audio clarity - thanks to NEXO’s new STM system - spectacular laser effects and a bespoke venetian blind projection set piece from Total Solutions, the show excelled all round. Read the full production story on page 52.

Meanwhile, the latest installment of In The Spotlight concentrates on TAIT’s Constellation series of consoles and Quantum SFX takes pride of place as August’s company profile.

Kelly chatted to MD, Shaun Barnett, about the high-profile clients the company is proud to have been associated with, thanks to its pyrotechnic perfection.

TPi also remembes two much-loved individuals from the live event industry this issue, who sadly passed away - stage and set design genius, Mark Fisher, and maestro of the audio world, Steve Watson. Friends and colleagues have paid their respects in our tribute pieces and it was touching reading through the comments we received, emphasising just how influential both characters were to those who knew them well and the audiences that have enjoyed their work.

“Extraordinary moments like these reiterate why Glastonbury is many people’s favourite musical extravaganza of the festival calendar.”

Until next time, Zoe Mutter Assistant Editor

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ITINERARY

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Assistant Editor Kelly Murray Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8360 Mobile: +44 (0)7738 154689 e-mail: k.murray@mondiale.co.uk Assistant Editor Zoe Mutter Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8360 Mobile: +44 (0)7793 048749 e-mail: z.mutter@mondiale.co.uk International Advertising & Sponsorship Hannah Eakins Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8360 Mobile: +44 (0)7760 485230 e-mail: h.eakins@mondiale.co.uk Advertising Sales Kieren Gardens Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8360 Mobile: +44 (0)7733 113284 e-mail: k.gardens@mondiale.co.uk Graphic Design & Production Dan Seaton: d.seaton@mondiale.co.uk Mel Robinson: m.robinson@mondiale.co.uk General Manager Justin Gawne Mondiale Group Chairman Damian Walsh

CONTENTS 08/2013 NEWS FOCUS 6

Kelly Murray reports from Pilton, Somerset, on the production of the world famous festival.

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Printed by Buxton Press

ON THE ROAD 36

Issue 168 / August 2013

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Pet Shop Boys Zoe Mutter goes West for the electropop production of Electric.

TRIBUTE 64

Mark Fisher The industry says goodbye to one of staging’s greatest and most influential designers.

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Steve Watson A fond farewell to the sound engineer.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT TAIT’s Jimmy Love and Kevin Taylor give Kelly Murray the lowdown on automation control with an insight into the manufacturer’s Constellation Series.

COMPANY PROFILE 70

Quantum SFX talk to Kelly Murray about starting again, developing brands, expanding to America and going global after winning the televised Olympic contract.

PSA: THE BIGGER PICTURE 74

TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL is a controlled circulation magazine, published 12 times a year by Mondiale Publishing Limited under licence. ISSN 1461-3786 Copyright © 2013 Mondiale Publishing Limited. All contents of this publication are subject to worldwide copyright protection and reproduction in whole or part, in any form whatsoever, is expressly forbidden without the prior written consent of the Publishers. Every effort is taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this publication but neither Mondiale Publishing Ltd, nor the Editor, can be held responsible for its contents or any consequential loss or damage resulting from information published. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the Publishers or Editor. The Publishers accept no responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, illustrations, advertising materials or artwork.

Total Production International USPS: (ISSN 1461 3786) is published 12 times a year by Mondiale Publishing Limited United Kingdom. The 2013 US annual subscription price is 117USD. Airfreight and mailing in the USA by Agent named Air Business, C/O WorldNet Shipping USA Inc., 155-11 146th Avenue, Jamaica, New York, NY11434. Periodicals postage paid at Jamaica NY 11431.

US Postmaster: Send address changes to Total Production International, Air Business Ltd, C/O WorldNet Shipping USA Inc., 155-11 146th Avenue, Jamaica, New York, NY11434. Subscription records are maintained at Mondiale Publishing Ltd. Waterloo Place, Watson Square, Stockport, SK1 3AZ, UK.

Robbie Williams Zoe Mutter sees the singer’s solo show in all its staged glory.

68 Annual subscriptions (including P&P): £42 (UK), £60 (Europe), £78/$125 (RoW).

Subscription enquiries to: Subscriptions, Mondiale Publishing Limited, Waterloo Place, Watson Square, Stockport SK1 3AZ, UK; Tel: +44 (0)161 476 5580; Fax: +44 (0)161 476 0456; e-mail: subscriptions@mondiale.co.uk

The xx at MIF Zoe Mutter gets to grips with the Manchester arts festival’s unique approach to gigs.

www.tpimagazine.com • www.tpiawards.com Cover Photography: Jason Bryant, courtesy of Robe Lighting.

Glastonbury Festival

The Bigger Picture Powerful Thinking discuss reducing diesel consumption at festivals.

MARKET FOCUS 76

Draping TPi’s round-up of the draping companies you need to know.

MOVERS & SHAKERS 82

Appointments The latest industry jobs.

VITAL STATS 86 Joe Sanchez Rihanna’s PM takes the hot seat...

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NEWS FOCUS: Glastonbury

GLASTONBURY 2013 900 ACRES OF SOMERSET FARMLAND, 177,000 PEOPLE ON SITE AND THREE FULL DAYS OF MUSIC, ENTERTAINMENT, POLITICAL SPEAKING, CAMPAIGNING, AND OTHER WORLDLY ACTIVITIES MARKED THE RETURN OF GLASTONBURY. NOW CONSIDERED THE WORLD’S LARGEST GREEN FESTIVAL, MICHAEL EAVIS AND THE FESTIVAL’S 25,000 STAFF ONCE AGAIN DREW A WORLDWIDE AUDIENCE TO SOME OF THE MOST SPECTACULAR LIVE PRODUCTION FEATS OF THE BRITISH SUMMER. ALTHOUGH THE ROLLING STONES MAY HAVE CAUGHT THE ATTENTION OF MANY, TPi’S KELLY MURRAY DISCOVERED THERE WAS MUCH MORE TO GLASTONBURY THAN A GLOBAL ACT ON A FAMOUS STAGE...

Backstage in the busy production area of Glastonbury’s technical helm is Head of Production, Dick Tee. The experienced PM has had connections with the festival since 1996, but it wasn’t until this year that he became head honcho for the entire event’s technical needs. Originally intending to be a farmer, Tee only got involved in the live event industry in order to save up for his own farm. Decades later, he’s not running a farm but he has bagged one of the most influential jobs in his sector.

He told TPi: “Michael Eavis contacted me in 1996 to get involved in the Classical Extravaganza at Glastonbury Abbey, so I set that up with him and the following year I did some work at Glastonbury Festival on The Other Stage. The following year after I managed 06

the Pyramid Stage, then I became head of production for West Holts, Pyramid, John Peel and Other. In the last few months - with the new management team in place - I’ve assumed the role of Head of Production, which means I’m responsible for the whole festival.

“It’s an enhanced role, as the festival has so many different areas. The stages are autonomous units in their own rights and they’re got very experienced people working on them and I act as a supporting role if they have a problem.”

The 2013 management system was completed by Paul Ludford, Operations Director, Tim Roberts maintaining Safety and Medical Welfare and the site’s Silver Controllers, Security Director Adrian Coombs, Phil Miller, Infrastructure Manager (for permanent

structures) and Water Provisions (the festival used four million litres less water than in 2011).

Jackie Slade, Site Manager, Steve RussellYarde, the Offsite Manager, Robert Richards, Commercial Director, and unofficially on the board of managers, Teresa England, who looked after Licensing.

Tee continued: “Everybody looks at Glastonbury for the Pyramid Stage, those big commercial moments, but it’s also very different because at the real heart and soul of the festival are areas like Shangri La, Arcadia, The Healing Fields, Uncommon Ground and the like. All of those areas are what it’s all about.

The commercial aspect of the festival has been demanded, almost by necessity, and it gets the most TV coverage but there’s fantastic areas out there. Some people come here and never

NEWS FOCUS: Glastonbury

Opposite: Pictureworks created a stunning projection The Tree Of Light in the Block9 area. Below: This year the Pyramid stage had a feature of its very own.

even see the Pyramid, they spend their time in an alternative world. Most other festivals can’t compete with getting under your skin the way the creative elements of Glastonbury does.”

On the technical front, Tee has a longstanding relationship with the festival’s suppliers. “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it,” said Tee. “That’s my motto. A lot of the suppliers on the site have long term existing deals with us. We are price competitive, so the large majority of our suppliers do the festival at a much-reduced rate. Principally, the three main charities we have are Oxfam, Water Aid and Greenpeace, so at the end of the day we’re doing this so that

we have profits for charity. The artists also don’t do this for their full fees. While ethos of the festival is to raise money, nobody does it at a loss, as we all need to maintain our businesses, but it’s somewhat easier as there’s a lot of kudos involved with Glastonbury.

“That being said, we do review suppliers, but the key from my perspective is that the vendors understand our event. We’ve picked up where we left off in 2011 with vendors. With the new management structure, we tried to make sure that we came back confident that we could deliver the festival with a new team. There will probably be a much greater review after our

four year run, so the time to look at possible changes may be in 2016,” concluded Tee. STAGING One of the longest supplier relationships with Glastonbury is Serious Stages. Michael Eavis recently hosted an industry open day for the Somerset-based temporary structure supplier.

In his invitation, Eavis described the start of the relationship thus: “It must have been about 40 years ago that Steven Corfield, Serious Stages Managing Director, turned up here at the farm on a BSA Bantam looking for the commune.

Not the best way to create a first impression.

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NEWS FOCUS: Glastonbury

Below: DiGiCo was spec’d for various bands at the festival, including The Smashing Pumpkins who performed on The Other Stage.

But then he bought a little farm in Pilton with a small herd of Jersey cows. I employed him to help build the original Pyramid with a crew of professional stage builders and from there he started his own staging company and the rest of course, is history.”

No small wonder then, that a coach (yes, a coach) load of industry luminaries gathered at the farm for a tour of the site and a good look at Serious’ product range, devoid of sound, lights and video. As well as the farm tour, visitors were shown around their facility in nearby Wells, where Corfield gave a glimpse of products that are being developed specifically to further improve worker safety during build and dismantling.

Corfield explained the company’s role this year: “We supplied 54 structures in total across the festival site. These range from the bespoke decking in the famous main Pyramid Stage, plus four other large stages, stage decking, specialist structures; the Bullring, The Ribbon Tower and BBC towers. The main skeletal structure of the Pyramid stage stays in place permanently, but all the sheeting, decking, ramps, steps, goalposts are removed each year. For 2013 we have installed a permanent back stage ramp substructure.

“We’ve supplied these stages and decking in the big tops and tents, which have evolved slowly over the past few years. The main new feature this year, in line with Michael’s vision, were the additions to the Bullring, and putting 08

up a mezzanine level as a back stage area.”

“At Glastonbury we are joined at the hip to The Event Safety Shop (TESS) and the HSE. We have worked alongside the HSE for a number of years and have built very strong relations with them in the Bristol and Somerset Area. We’ve been working with the HSE directive to improve methods of staging and safe working systems on temporary demountable structures. They are very thorough in wanting to understand how our industry works, to work with us and support the introduction of practical improvements, so we’re pro-active in communicating with the HSE consistently. We have also engaged with the Joint Advisory Committee for Entertainment (JACE) since last year,” he said.

“The sheer scale of Glastonbury differentiates it from other festivals, working over 500 acres of site poses huge logistical challenges. It’s our local show so we are all very proud to be involved in it. It really is the iconic ultimate festival. All the crew would like to work at Glastonbury, so we never have a problem staffing the event!”

REHEARSALS LS-Live was the facility of choice for both production rehearsals and staging rental for four headline acts. Arctic Monkeys, Dizzee Rascal, Hurts and Chase & Status all performed headline shows with production support from the stage and set, equipment rental and studio complex based in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

The rental company welcomed Glastonbury’s Friday night headliners Arctic Monkeys to the 17,664 sq ft rehearsal studio for six days full preproduction in June where the band and crew made use of the 14 en-suite bedrooms on site to work round the clock. Production Manager, Ian Calder, oversaw the production build, which incorporated two huge letters ‘A’ and ‘M’ clad in LED lighting on stage, to represent the band’s name, part of a show that frontman Alex Turner later hailed as “one of the best gigs we’ve ever done”. LS-Live was able to provide last minute risers for the performance from its hire warehouse of industry standard staging equipment right next to the studio.

Dizzee Rascal’s lighting crew made a quick pit stop at LS-Live en route to Glastonbury to build and test the lighting rig for his performance on the Pyramid Stage ahead of Arctic Monkeys. Production Manager, Adam Murray, booked the studio and production offices for a day, so that HSL and lighting designer Steven Bewley could pre-build the lighting rig. Again the onsite hire warehouse meant the team could pick up a rolling riser package whilst on site to transport the lighting gear onto the stage for quick changeovers.

Proving once again that LS-Live is one of the first choice solutions for staging rental, both Hurts and Chase & Status travelled to the festival with multiple risers from the company, whether for band risers or rolling equipment on stage.

Chase & Status Production Manager, Richard

NEWS FOCUS: Glastonbury

Below: The lighting rigs were taken care of with weather resistant holders; Mutoid Waste Company and designer Joe Rush created the show enhancing Phoenix.

‘Wes’ Wearing, built the band’s stage set for the Other Stage entirely from LS-Live’s band risers.

Over on the John Peel Stage on Saturday night, synthpop duo Hurts performed on a series of 12ft by eight ft risers that Production Manager, Rick Smith hired for the duration of the band’s summer festival tour, with an identical B rig for overlapping events.

Said LS-Live Director Ben Brooks: “LiteDeck is the industry standard, lightweight staging product that every production wants. We can create so many different configurations out of

our rental stock, so we can always achieve the results required by the performance. When Dizzee Rascal’s production crew turned up on site, they wanted a rolling structure for the show, so we built something there and then for them to take away that day.”

THE PYRAMID STAGE A very noticeable addition to the iconic Pyramid Stage was the The Phoenix, which production Manager, Dick Tee, explained marked the return of the festival. The huge bird came to life during

the Rolling Stones’ headline set on Saturday night. “The Mutoid Waste Company was approached by Michael and Emily (Eavis) and they came up with the idea, which was revealed over the course of the weekend. They worked with award winning Misty Buckley (Emily’s friend) and designer Joe Rush. To bring some fresh looks to the festival, Mutoid did several structures and sculptures around the festival which helped to bring it to life over the weekend.”

Staging titans TAIT also provided a staging element for the Rolling Stones’ set,

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NEWS FOCUS: Glastonbury

Below: Inside the Silver Hayes area.

which Senior Project Manager, Brian Levine, explained: ”We needed to provide something that was extremely flexible to deal with the uneven ground and the surprises that we often encounter while doing festival gigs and outdoors. We provided a package that was easily adjustable and could adapt to the environment while still giving the crew adequate lighting and monitor positions along the runways and giving the band a set of dynamic runways that needed to be very stable and also maintain the same floor surface that the band is used to having on their Touring Stage.”

LIGHTING Fans had the pleasure of seeing headline acts lit by some of the best rock ‘n’ roll lighting designers in the world play the famous Pyramid Stage.T aking care of the festival house rig was head of lighting, Andy ‘Fraggle’ Porter, who chose Clay Paky’s extremely bright, effects-rich Alpha Profile 1500’s and Alpha Wash 1500’s to deliver dynamic beam shaping, vibrant colour and super bright effects to the long-running event. 2013’s headlining acts included the Rolling Stones’, lit by Patrick Woodroffe, Arctic Monkeys lit by Andy Watson and Mumford & Sons lit by Ed Warren. Each put Fraggle’s house rig through its paces and all made dramatic and creative use of the Alpha 1500 Profiles and Washes. In addition each designer specified his own additional requirements for Clay Paky fixtures. For the main rig Neg Earth supplied 29 Alpha 1500 10

Profiles, 10 Alpha 1500 Washes, 20 Sharpys and 10 Sharpy washes. However the Rolling Stones’ LD added more Alpha Washes and Profiles and a number of Sharpy’s to the mix.

Rigged at varying levels upstage, the Sharpys provided razor-sharp architectural backlight that gave depth to the stage for the audience and television cameras alike. Meanwhile, the additional Alpha Washes and Sharpys were rigged onto a custom Arch Truss to deliver strong key and feature lighting effects.

Working alongside Neg Earth’s Account Director, Julian Lavender, Fraggle and his team of skilled riggers and technicians managed a gruelling schedule of overnight turnarounds to rig, focus and programme each headlining act’s bespoke rigs.

“We positioned the Alpha Wash 1500’s in the house rig on LX1 and LX 2 to provide the powerful backlight required,” said Fraggle.

“This was not just for the main acts but also for the bands playing during the daytime as they needed something that would still have an impact on the stage and pick out the performers from the backdrops.” While Patrick Woodroffe added a number of Alpha Profiles to the front truss and specially built side trusses, Andy Watson brought in a considerable number of Sharpys to provide dramatic beams to balance the Arctic Monkeys’ dynamic laser show. “Designers love the Alpha Wash 1500’s for their high output and, with the profile, the precise framing system,” explained Fraggle.

“They are incredibly reliable and extremely

robust, which is an absolute must when you are working in all weathers, outside! As for the Sharpys - well everyone loves a Sharpy and Andy Watson used them to great effect to set off his crowd pleasing and very lively design.”

Philips Vari-Lite’s powerful VL3500 Washes also provided backbone for Glastonbury’s famous Pyramid Stage’s versatile house-lighting rig. Fraggle continued: “I knew I needed something powerful and reliable,” commented Fraggle. “I also wanted a fixture that I knew was familiar to all the incoming LDs and that would provide the feature set for each of the very different lighting designs they wanted to deliver. Obviously many of the supporting acts are playing in daylight, so we needed something that would cut through on a sunny day. VariLite VL3500 Wash and VL3500 Spots are ideal for this as they are super bright, extremely reliable and robust in all kinds of atmospheric conditions.”

Not only that, but with only a few hours of darkness for each designer of the headline acts to plot the night before their show, all lighting kit has to be super reliable. “LDs only get one hit at the stage in the hours of darkness before they play. Not only that, but the show is broadcast on TV, nationally and internationally, so it is crucially important that they are working with fixtures that are familiar and that they know will deliver.”

For control, a total of three MA Lighting grandMAs, and a High End Systems Hog 4 were deployed. Completing the Clay Paky and Vari-

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NEWS FOCUS: Glastonbury

Below: RG Jones supplied a Martin Audio MLA system to the Pyramid Stage; Picture Works’ Robin Wealleans; the Williams Green Stage; The Aggreko crew on site.

Lite rig were Martin Professional Atomic Strobes and MAC Vipers. The fixtures were a mixture of house kit and kit brought in by bands. For the Rolling Stones’ tour set-up, they use Vari-Lite and Clay Paky but they wanted to try some MAC Vipers and the Artic Monkeys bought Sharpys.

The Rolling Stones were lit from the floor with James Thomas Engineering MR16 batons, Spotlights mounted on the A goal post and front truss spotlights for cross shots to outside catwalks and 360 degree ones for backlight.

“We were keen to keep the rain off so we house a lot of the outer lights in pods. They can act as sails though in the wind!” said Fraggle. “So we put them under the Robe eco-domes in order to keep them dry. We’ve been landing them every night and re-rigging them to make sure they’re tight. I think it’s worth doing as the pyramid is about 28 metres wide… Mick Jagger moves so fast, he’s like a rabbit on stage!”

Fraggle summed up: “I try to form a consensus between what everybody wants, ensuring it’s complementary to what each act needs. Some people have design elements that they’re more emphatic about than others.”

For gig goers at the back of the Pyramid arena, left and right I-Mag screens (8.13 by 5.33 metres) were supplied by Carmarthenshire and London based Picture Works. Made up of Lighthouse R7-ER LED panels, which were 12

digitally processed. The side screens were flown off the main structure and an additional FOH screen was 5.08 by 3.85 metres in size and mounted. Creative Technology (CT) also enhanced the stage’s video elements and provided its Flyer 12 LED display for the backdrop to The Arctic Monkeys set.

AUDIO RG Jones once again turned to the tried and trusted Martin Audio W8 Longbow system, which again dominated the Pyramid Stage.

With visiting artists and sound engineers were so complimentary about the sound system two years ago, specialist sound company RG Jones had no hesitation in fielding a similar PA rig, knowing that this would meet all compliances and propagation tests set by the acoustics consultants and organiser Michael Eavis and at the same time satisfy the vast crowds of around 150,000 who converge on the site for the extravaganza. The Longbow hangs are now a familiar sight, book-ending either side of the iconic Pyramid, having fulfilled similar duties for the previous four festivals.

Once again dual inner and outer PA hangs comprising 14 W8L Longbow elements per side, with two W8LD Downfills at the base provided the full range dynamic - making 64 boxes in total. However, this year RG Jones changed the subwoofer design from the Martin

Audio WS318X (three by 18-inches) subs fielded in 2011 back to 54 of the WS218X (two by 18-inches) enclosures used previously - still maintaining an electronically curved, cardioid broadside array configuration.

With the subs delayed incrementally from the centre outwards, the overall wavefront was tuned to fill the Pyramid Stage area, and ensure that spillage beyond the site perimeter was minimised. According to RG Jones’ Project Manager, Ben Milton, a Glastonbury stalwart who was taking on the role of project manager, for the first time, “We have tried various configurations of the bass array and this solution - with two enclosures front facing and one reversed - works particularly well; the rejection from the stage is great and it enables us to bend, shape and steer the sound.”

In addition, two clusters of four W8LC Compact Line Arrays, situated at each end of the crash barrier, provided nearfield infills, and four delay masts each comprising a further 16 W8LCs were positioned 100m back from the downstage centre, split into an arc.

“This solution worked great,” said Milton.

“The organisers wanted to leave nothing to chance when it came to maintaining levels and this was virtually a carbon copy of the 2011 system. We had plenty of opportunity to walk the field and conduct measurements, to ensure the accuracy of the system.”

NEWS FOCUS: Glastonbury

Below: Production Manager, Dick Tee, described The Phoenix as a symbol of resurection for the spirit of the festival.

One advantage was the additional zoning that could be applied for tighter control. “All the tops were on individual circuits so we could turn them down very discreetly if necessary and sculpt the system. When the sun goes down the air temperature changes and we back off the top boxes, and as it cools we can bring them back up again,” he said.

This is the domain of seasoned PA System Technician, Mark Edwards, who has vast experience with all Martin Audio’s premier systems. He was an essential member of RG Jones’ specialist team, which included Steve Carr and Damian Dyer at FOH (with the vastly experienced Simon Honywill occupying more of a ‘floating’ role this year). Down at the stage logistical duties were shared by Ben Milton (who also mixed monitors for some acts) and Mark Isbister. Supporting the system throughout was Martin Audio’s R&D Director, Jason Baird.

Summing up, Glastonbury veteran, Simon Honywill, could not have been more positive, “This year’s Festival was the most professional, slick, calm, enjoyable experience I can remember at an event of this stature. The Rolling Stones sounded absolutely incredible, with all the requisite punch and fidelity you could have wished for. Coverage was superb - the Stones’ FOH team were extremely happy, and the punters were testament to that. As a neutral platform for all the acts, it would be very difficult to criticise the sound, and I was proud to be associated with such a brilliantly well 14

delivered system.”

Milton added, “We now have bands and their technicians fully confident in the system and happy to use our racks, stacks and control.

It makes for a great British synergy a British production company using a British PA system at the greatest of British festivals. The only thing Glastonbury lacked, reflected Honywill, was [sound engineer] Steve Watson, who sadly died the weekend before. “He is sadly missed, and the industry won’t be the same without him,” he said in tribute.

For RF, a mixture of Shure and Sennheiser was used. Shure UHF-R handheld mic systems with B58 / SM58 capsules were on hand.

Artists who used Sennheiser microphones over the Glastonbury weekend included Dizzee Rascal, Alt-J, Vampire Weekend, Editors, Arctic Monkeys, Haim, Rita Ora, Example, Two Door Cinema Club to name a few. As well as the individual artists using their microphones at the festival, Sennheiser supported South West Group with some additional equipment to supplement the Park Stage wired microphone and RF requirements, over and above South West Groups own Sennheiser mics. RG Jones supplied Sennheiser G3 IEM systems.

At FOH, RG supplied a 48 input Midas XL4, was utilised alongside a Yamaha PM5D at the monitor position. Audiocore XTA 448 processing was available on every mix. Friday and Sunday headliners, Arctic Monkeys and Mumford and Sons specified DiGiCo consoles for their sets.

THE OTHER STAGE Lighting Designer, Tom Lesh of Lushious Design, also used a Clay Paky heavy rig for his time at the Other Stage. He said: “The 17 Alpha Spots 1500 HPE and the 23 Alpha Wash 1500 were picked for being bright, reliable all-rounders. To have lamps that read for daylight shows with visiting LDs using the house consoles and in some cases, their own consoles, to enhance headliners productions to give them a solid air package that worked with the respective LD’s floor packages and to read over their visual screens.

“The final three acts each day cloned the rig into their shows using their own consoles and pre-programmed shows with no issues and the results were suitably impressive. The units were first fired up on Wednesday afternoon and not turned off again until Sunday night once the festival had finished, during which time we had no issues with any of the fixtures considering the environment we were in and weather issues, rain and shine, damp and dust.

“One of the best features is the stay sharp zoom function for automatic focussing, especially in a festival situation where you have time constraints are not able to see in daylight to get a good sharp focus to your gobos, especially with the option to go from narrow to wide zoom and be sure that it’s going to look good. This was a great feature in this somewhat challenging situation for myself, and visiting LDs alike,” he concluded.

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NEWS FOCUS: Glastonbury

Below: Simon Honywill, Patrick Woodroffe, John Penn; The Event Safety Shop’s Mike Herbert; Serious Stages held an open day before the site opened.

Stage during the festival, being used by LDs for A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) the three high-profile headline acts, as well as Ltd’s Lighting division supplied a significant many others further down the bill. quantity of SGM X-5 Strobes to Neg Earth for For those bands that played in the daylight use on the Other Stage. Lesh chose to rig 28 the SGM X-5’s were also welcome additions.

SGM X-5 Strobes across three trusses as he Bands including: the Foals, Alt-J, Tame Impala, explained: “We rigged 28 of them across three The Lumineers, Enter Shikari, Amanda Palmer, trusses - and kept two spare - to add some The Hives and Beady Eye, Example, Two Door visual depth to the stage both for the audience Cinema, Alabama Shakes, Noah and The Whale, and of course for the TV cameras. We also Azealia Banks, Dry The River The 1975 & The needed something that would cut through in Staves, Smashing Pumpkins, Editors, Of Monster the bright summer sunshine and these strobes & Men,1PiL, I Am Kloot, Stornoway, The Heavy were ideal.

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LDs programmed either from the house consoles or their own touring consoles. “They either cloned or fixture swapped using the four-channel mode to replicate their own strobe effects,” explained Lesh. “This worked every time and the SGM X-5s slipped seamlessly into shows without any hassle.”

Julian Lavender, Neg Earth’s Project Manager at Glastonbury, where the company supplied lighting equipment not just for the Other Stage but for The Pyramid as well, concluded: “The

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NEWS FOCUS: Glastonbury

SGM X-5 strobes worked out brilliantly - they really did make a big impact.”

Left and right I-Mag screens were again supplied by Picture Works. Each screen was 6.10 by 3.81 metres in size and once more comprised Lighthouse’s R7-ER LED panels.

AUDIO DiGiCo consoles were specified on the many band riders for 2013-14 tours. This is reflected across the global festival scene, not least at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, including Smashing Pumpkins, who played the Other Stage on Sunday.

“Despite the popularity of our consoles, it’s still relatively unusual for bands to take their own equipment into a festival, due to the restrictions imposed by the quick turnarounds between sets,” said DiGiCo Managing Director, James Gordon. “The fact that three top class bands (including Mumford & Sons and Arctic Monkeys) are insisting on taking their DiGiCos into a festival as vast as Glastonbury shows just how much they have come to rely on the ease of use and great sound quality of our products.

“I only use DiGiCo consoles, so I will be using my SD7, while our monitor engineer John Shearman will be taking his SD10 on stage,” confired Smashing Pumpkins FOH Engineer, Jon Lemon. “There’s nothing else that works for me at this point and they’re still the best sounding live console there is.”

For the PA spec, Chris Fitch of Skan PA Hire who was on site as the Other Stage’s manager, alongside Assistant Stage Manager, Ade Assistant Ade Burt, provided its d&b audiotechnik rig. The main hangs comprised 16 J8’s and four J12’s, 14 J8’s for the side hangs, the centre hang was made up of four V8’s. As the subs couldn’t be flown on the Other Stage structure, the alternative was a pit sub array which comprised 20 J Subs and eight J-Infra’s. The d&b set up was completed by 64 D12 amps.

The PA target was implemented to avoid as much spill into the adjacent performance areas as possible and it was noted by TPi various times this year that the audience were complimenting the sound at the Other Stage, with one festival goer describing the audio as “better than it’s ever been.”

The d&b system was praised by onlookers for its clarity and farreaching splay.

Skan also provided control and monitors, desks, wedges and IEM systems. The house kit comprised two Midas XL4’s at FOH, one Midas PRO1 to collect feeds from all FOH consoles and send to the PA drive, two Midas Heritage 3000’s on monitor and XTA GQ 600’s for EQing.

Monitor reinforcement was handled by four d&b V8’s and four V Subs per side, two d&b C7’s and four C7 subs for drum fills. A total of 20 d&b M2 wedges were also placed on stage. An incredible 150 microphone were also on hand, made up of Sennheiser, Shure and AKG models. Six packs of Sennhesier G3’s IEMs were used and four Shure UHF-R c/w B58A and KSM9 heads.

The Other Stage Audio crew was completed by System Designer, Matt Vickers, Crew Chief and FOH minder, Tom Tunney, FOH minder, Rob Collett, Monitor minders Chris Barton and Scott Essen, Patch / wingman, Richie Gough, RF Engineer, Nick Jackson, Mic duty, Matt Besford-Foster and Dan Parkinson.

STRICTLY LASERS Brit indie darlings, The xx drew an impressive crowd over on the Other Stage, even when competing with the main stage contenders.

The band’s show design was focused around their logo which was a focal point thanks to visual effects experts, Strictly FX. The company used lasers to make a bold statement on stage.

“The xx was shot with a Pangolin Beyond console, using four FB3 cards and one of our workstations. Eric Gorleski, Lead Programmer, programmed most of the show in rehearsals and I programmed and tweaked both during rehearsals and in the office afterwards, and I also did some tweaks at Glasto as well,” noted David Kennedy of Strictly FX of Chicago, IL. “For The xx, programming is key to the look of the lasers,” furthered Strictly FX Partner and Visuals Director, Ted Maccabee.

There were four high-powered, full coloured 30W lasers, two on the upstage towers, two on the mid stage blocks and four mirrors, to create the double ‘x’ in lasers used in the band’s production.

He continued: “The xx show is comprised on a lot of nuanced laser looks that are a showplace for our gear, and the talents of our crew.”

As for being part of the Glastonbury experience, Maccabee noted: “In a summer filled with festivals, Glastonbury is always a high point for us in the European summer circuit.” The Strictly FX Glastonbury crew was completed

by Shooter and Lead Tech, Michael Hartle, and Programmer, David Kennedy.

THE JOHN PEEL STAGE Essex based DPL, once again handled the production lighting for the John Peel Stage. KOI nominated MD, Pete Watts spec’d a colourful lighting rig for the festival’s only indoor stage. The fixtures comprised 12 Philips VariLite VL3000 Spots, 12 Robe Robin LED Wash 1200’s, six Studio Due LED 600’s, 10 ChromaQ Color Punches, six Martin Professional MAC 301’s, four Martin Atomic 3000’s, nine 4 Cell Molefays, 16 Micro Blinders, six ACL Bars, eight ETC Source 4 Junior Zooms, six

Arri ST1 Fresnels and an Avolites Pearl Expert with Touch Wing for control.

VIDEO For the video elements, DPL supplied 92 two metre LED strips and 12 one metre LED strips with individual pixel control. The Phoenix set on the John Peel Stage also utilised CT’s Flyer 18 LED display while a variety of cameras providing content to both the BBC and red button options and to the screens were also supplied out of CT’s own inventory. For control, Green Hippo Critters were the media server of choice.

Green Hippo’s Simon Harris was invited down to join the John Peel team including Lighting Designer Cate Carter from Bryte Design and Lighting Chief Pete Watts. Running two HippoCritters on stage (one an unused backup) and a ZooKeeper tablet PC front of house, the design contained over 60 DMX universes of LED Strips controlled

by PixelMapper.

“Every year we strive to implement the video / media server into the design in a way that

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NEWS FOCUS: Glastonbury

Below: The Event Safety Shop’s Tim Roberts during wetter years; Avolites’ Steve Warren at the Arcadia arena.

doesn’t scare away the visiting LDs. This year we are really pleased with the end result based on the number of operators who chose to use the system and the positive feedback we received from them all.” explained Carter.

The HippoCritters were then patched to the Avolites Pearl, however a decision was made to create a custom fixture personality that only included level, RGB and speed with all other values via PresetManager on the tablet PC. This made the system simple to use even if the visiting operators had no previous Hippotizer training.

“The systems were tested back in the warehouse as we were aware that 60 DMX universes was a big ask from a HippoCritter but I’m very pleased to report the system ran seamlessly for the entire weekend” said Watts.

This year also saw the introduction of a volunteer programme in partnership with Rose Bruford, LIPA and Backstage Academy.

Students Jeff Hinde, Jon Nunn, Harry Harrison, Nick Ashcroft and Roxane Mirza were all invited to be part of the team to give them valuable experience of working on one of the world’s biggest festivals.

“I had the most amazing experience; it really opened my eyes to the world of live events. I learnt a lot, and it was really beneficial to have the chance to busk and find that connection between the music and light.” explained Hinde, for which Glastonbury was his first festival experience, and what a way to start!

“The student volunteers were absolutely fantastic and some even got the opportunity to operate lighting and or video for some of the early performances on our stage. Having never used such a large rig of lights and some of them never operating video at all, those who took up the challenge exceeded both their own expectations and ours. This is a prime example of what is possible with a great team of people and a cunning technical yet attractive design for the audience both on site and watching at 18

home,” Simon Harris, Head of Training, Green Hippo highlighted.

AUDIO Yamaha has worked with The John Peel stage for a number of years to help introduce visiting engineers to new products in a working environment, alongside supplier, APR Audio.

Yamaha’s Senior Manager, Karl Christmas, highlighted: “Typically, the John Peel stage hosts many bands that go on to be next year’s big hit so we have the opportunity to meet as many as 60 FOH and monitor engineers who may well be about to embark on a year of touring with their particular act.

“We normally send a couple of guys to Glastonbury who act as technical support or babysitters to anyone who may need assistance.

Anything can happen in those muddy fields so having a spare pair of Yamaha eyes and ears can sometimes help to diffuse a stressful situation.”

Along with the usual PM5D on monitors, a CL5 with stageboxes was supplied for both the FOH and monitor duties this year. Fabrizio Piazzini used the CL5 as his house monitor desk and mixed all the acts that didn’t bring their own engineer.

Continued Christmas: “Fabrizio connected up his Waves processing on his MacBook Pro, but such was the intensity of the weekend we didn’t get enough time to experiment fully with all the features. We worked closely with APR Audio during all stages of the festival and had the pleasure of meeting up with David Ogilvy (FOH for Tom Odell) who was touring with a CL5 at the time when he appeared at the John Peel stage. The occasion was made all the more poignant when Tom used the occasion to announce that his album had just reached No. 1.”

APR Audio also supplied an Avid Profile for the tent’s FOH mix. For microphones, a selection from Sennheiser’s E Series and Shure’s Beta and KSM models were chosen alongside

four AKG C414’s. The PA comprised 24 Electro Voice XLC DVX cabinets, 24 EV X-line subs, eight XLE 120 degree fill cabinets and an EV P3000rl remote amp system.

THE WEST HOLTS STAGE DPL and APR Audio also supplied lighting, video and audio for the West Holts stage. 12 Robe Colorspot 1200AT were spec’d with various Martin Professional fixtures including seven MAC 2000 Washes, six Martin MAC 2000 Beams and three Martin Atomic 3000’s. A total of 28 James Thomas Pixelpar 44 (Cree Led), 11 4 Cell Molefays and eight 4 Lamp Bar completed the house rig. Control came via a High End Systems Road Hog 4 Full Boar. For video at West Holts, again Creative Technology CT Flyer 18 video screens were used with a Green Hippo Critter for media control.

AUDIO Electro Voice was again the choice for PA by APR Audio. For this outdoor stage, the PA boated 20 EV XVLS 90 degree cabinets, four EV XVLT 120 degree cabinets, 32 EV X Line subs and six XLE infill cabinets. The EV P3000rl remote amp system was also in place. The trusty Yamaha PM5D desk was used in monitor world and an Allen & Heath R72 desk with an A&H iDR 16 mix rack. Microphones comprised of Sennheiser, Shure, AKG and two EV RE20’s.

THE PARK STAGE Around 400 Robe fixtures were on site in various areas at the 2013 Glastonbury. Robe UK’s own Ian W Brown took his tent, clothespegs and Wellies and got into the festival spirit.

Brown spent time hanging out at some of the coolest Glasto spaces including The Park with its abundance of open air stages, late night bars, lounges and cafés, tee pee villages, art installations and 17 metre high illuminated Ribbon Tower that overlooks the entire festival site.

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Below: The Event Safety Shop crew; Miltec’s EP3W moving head.

ARCADIA When Avolites Media formed in 2011, it did so with the clear objective of bringing holistic show control to market. At Arcadia - Glastonbury’s most theatrical space - the company didn’t only reaffirm that it had succeeded in doing that, it helped to deliver one of the most memorable visual spectacles the festival has ever seen.

Created around a giant 30ft spider structure, Arcadia came alive on three consecutive nights in spectacular style, with video, lighting, lasers and flames filling the darkened landscape. As the clock struck midnight, the metallic beast exploded into action with a scripted 20-minute performance, followed by two hours of immersive audio-visual entertainment, set to the soundtrack of some of the UK’s finest DJs. Video Illusions, Immersive and Avolites Media collaborated to deliver the technical infrastructure for the visual elements, while Blinkin Lab supplied the animation and VJ, CPL the projection and Sir Henry Hot the flames.

It was a truly collaborative affair, with the Arcadia’s visionaries Pip Rush and Bert Cole and their team providing creative direction and event production.

Immersive was briefed with visually enhancing the giant spider through a tightly time-coded video projection, LED, pyro, laser, firework and lighting display. This was the first 20 minutes of each evening’s performance, which brought together all of the visual elements under the cue of the recorded soundtrack, and drew massive crowds in the process.

Using the Infinity Ai Infinity Media Server, Sapphire Media and Saphire Touch platforms, Immersive programmed and virtually rehearsed the video animation; lighting looks and laser positions offsite, over two weeks of preparation.

The Arcadia team was close by with art direction throughout. Pyro and fireworks were then added onsite, which was a new experience for Immersive’s MD, Mark Calvert: “The Pyro 20

was incredibly exciting, as this was an element we had not personally time-coded before.”

An Alesis HD24 hard disk recorder was used to playback the audio and time-code information, thus connecting each department together. Immersive took responsibility for project managing the departments during programming work off and onsite.

“With so many people involved, naturally there were challenges,” said Calvert: “So many departments all had to work together for the first time, all of which had never met before, and all of which were working to a tight budget.

In addition, the Arcadia team are incredibly passionate about their show, which, in parallel, made them nervous about the time-code element - they hadn’t done that before either.”

Despite the concerns, the show was in safe hands.

The Ai Media Server is the fruit of a strategic partnership between Avolites Media and Immersive - who had developed its predecessor, the Addict Media Server. Dave Green, who remains as Technical Director at immersive, joined Avolites Media as Head of Development and worked with Trey Harrison to further develop the Ai. The duo combined the ‘Salvation’ node based engine with a slick user-interface and controls. The result, as Green explained, is formidable: “It’s a very powerful tool and extremely flexible. It allows you to create whole new ways of working in a matter of moments. You’re not rigidly stuck with the interface you’ve been given, you’re able to quickly create your own.”

At Arcadia, two Infinity Ai 8 Media Servers were used together with two Avolites Sapphire Media consoles to control all of the video elements. Two Sapphire Touch consoles controlled the lighting and other DMX cues.

“Each Ai offers eight HD outputs and delivers smooth playback of multilayer 8K media, using the AiM Codec and 32 media layers,” explained Green. “Features include soft-edge blending

of multiple projectors, timeline and time-code sequencing, support for 3D displays and remote vertex adjustment. Users can map and warp onto any 3D surface and on moving scenery.

Intuitive modular LED support widens the capability further.”

The variety of the performance at Arcadia showed off the system’s flexibility; not only in terms of the number of elements involved but also in the transition from the pre-programmed segment to the live performance. As soon as the time-code ended, the audio and visual performances moved to live, with DJs, VJs and LDs taking off from the end of the automated show. The Ai Media Server, an ever-present throughout, ensured the change was absolutely seamless. Dave Green explained: “Once the choreographed show finishes its rave time and it’s all done live. That’s one of the nice things about our system actually, it’s very good for doing pre-programmed content and it’s also very good for doing live stuff. A lot of the other systems don’t really have that intuitive live thing going on.”

The Ai Infinity server is also the only fully featured media server on the market which has eight outputs, Green elaborated: “These are all fully synchronised unique GPU outputs, each with internal EDID management and an internal DA to enable on board monitoring of the signal. Being in the round with only one side visible from any viewpoint made the Arcadia stage a video mapping challenge. We tackled this using the auto map feature of Ai over VNC from a variety of points around the structure.

We actually video mapped the entire structure in around four hours total.”

The Ai is designed from the ground up with both pre-sequenced and live control in mind, which enables the operator to seamlessly mix between a time-coded show and an improvised live performance - this was essential on Arcadia.

The Sapphire Media control surface is designed for shows that need an extremely flexible

NEWS FOCUS: Glastonbury

Below: Happy campers; crime was down this year by 33%.

The game changes now interface that can be tailored to the shows requirements, whilst also showing previews of all of the eight outputs from the system.

These outputs can be monitored whilst operating the show or installing / mapping the structure.

“The AiM codec is the industry’s best quality codec,” continued Green. “With 24-bit true colour there is no loss of quality whilst maintaining very high performance from the GPU decompression. This is how we can drive eight 1080p outputs with beautiful true colour video.”

“Arcadia demonstrates collaboration at its very best,” added Steve Warren, Managing Director for Avolites Media. “I feel honoured to be able to work with such creative teams. The artistry produced by Jaz Bhullar on lighting and the video content from Blinkin Lab’s, Tom Wall, was magical. It’s great to know that the successful realisation of their work was made possible with the efforts of the Avolites Media team, Immersive and Video Illusions. Arcadia’s Pip and Bertie have both been appreciative, supportive and 100% focused on the highest show values. Together we truly delivered the ‘spectacular’ in the Arcadia spectacular.”

Testament to this is the fact that audiences flocked to Arcadia – drawn in by the enchanting imagery and theatrical performances. After weeks of preparation, the team combined onsite to astounding effect. With each performance, the numbers

grew, as word spread around the site. For Immersive’s Mark Calvert, overseeing the shows as FOH Technical Manager, it couldn’t have gone much better: “It was a total success. On Saturday night the crowd was calculated at over 47,000. We’re really looking forward to seeing what the future holds for Bert, Pip and the whole Arcadia Team.”

Immersive Ltd and Video Illusions Ltd’are the AV experts responsible for the jaw dropping video aspects of the Arcadia Spectacular witnessed by the thousands that attended and many thousands more that viewed live broadcasts of Glastonbury 2013’s Arcadia stage. Known as the ‘Arcadia Spectacular’, a giant mechanical spider was the centrepiece for an audio visual experience that included explosive pyrotechnics, high definition projection mapping and stunning choreography set to a soundtrack from some of the UK’s finest bass DJs including Andy C, Fatboy Slim, Ratpack, Plump DJs and more.

To help Immersive bring the show to life, Panasonic provided six of its very finest twenty thousand lumen DLP projectors, which were located in three areas and beamed vibrant coloured textures, geometrically mapped images and excitement building info such as a countdown onto the legs of the nearly 10 metre high spider. The results were truly phenomenal with the spider ignited in a scene of animated colour and illusion.

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NEWS FOCUS: Glastonbury

Below: Tony and Ann Andrews of Funktion-One are Glastonbury audio veterans.

FUNKTION-ONE Funktion-One and three of its rental network partners delivered audio solutions to Sonic, Arcadia, and WOW at the UK’s biggest festival, continuing a relationship that began during Glastonbury’s formative times in the early 1970s. Audio Plus worked closely with Funktion-One to design an audio spec for Sonic, which presented some unusual challenges.

Funktion One made sure that the aural spectacle matched the visual extravaganza at Arcadia. And Audio X supplied the sound to WOW, which, like Sonic, formed part of the Silver Hayes area.

Sonic was built by Silver Stage, using its SaddleSpan modular truss framework.

Structured in a three-pronged-shape essentially a Y with a short stem - it presented an intriguing space for festivalgoers and a rather challenging environment for the audio specialists. Tony Andrews worked with Audio Plus’ Owner, Stefan Imhof, and Project Manager, Mark O’Neill, to create a solution, which ensured the entire space was covered in a consistent spread of Funktion-One-quality audio.

The stage occupied the short stem of the 22

Y, providing views from beneath its arms and outside in the central V formed by those arms.

Coverage was needed for both arms of the structure and in the central zone - which had the potential to stretch back as the audience grew.

Left and right stacks of eight Funktion-One Resolution 5 loudspeakers and six Funktion-One F221 bass enclosures, positioned on either side of the stage, covered the canopied area. Two delay stacks, consisting of three F221s and five Resolution 5’s were placed at the edge of the tent, in the central zone. While three FunktionOne BR221 bass reflex speakers delivered infill bass frequencies.

“We also tried some BR221s in the middle – taking advantage of their shorter range,” said Andrews. “They were between the two main horn-loaded bass stacks, on each side of the stage. The bass was fantastic. There was a DJ playing who had decent files and it really was a joy.”

An inventory of Funktion-One RM18 point source monitors and BR118, BR218 and BR221 bass reflex enclosures, as well as stacks of Funktion-One F218’s and Resolution 4’s formed part of a high-performance monitoring

system - all using MC2 E100 amplifiers and XTA processing.

“It was an awkward and challenging tent.

The consensus of opinion at the end of the festival was that we’d absolutely cracked it and they were very pleased, which is nice. We had a lot of good feedback – we were using PSM 318’s for the DJs and they were all loving it.

The crowd were absolutely loving it. The bass - we had gallons of it. It was rocking,” added Andrew. “It was certainly different. And hats off to the Sonic guys for trying something unusual.”

If Sonic was unusual, Arcadia was unconventional, to say the least. It was formed by a giant 30ft high spider structure, which came alive at night with video, lighting, lasers and flames animating the darkened landscape and high fidelity audio filling the air. The audience formed beneath its three legs and body, and all around the metallic arthropod.

Audio Funktion deployed 30 Funktion-One Resolution 5T loudspeakers and 18 FunktionOne F221 bass enclosures in a six-point hexagon layout of outer stacks. These were powered by MC2 E100 racks, with XTA 448 control.

For inner fill, six Funktion-One Resolution 4T speakers were flown from the spider structure in three different positions, along with a total of six ground stacked Funktion-One F218’s. Six outer-fill positions at the rear of the main stack used Resolution 2SH loudspeakers – the skeletal mid-high section of the Res 2. And the ARC Bar, situated on the outer edges of Arcadia, was reinforced with two Funktion-One Resolution 4E speakers and four F218’s. Power came from MC2E45 and E25 amps, with XTA 448 control.

“They’ve got this really interesting set-up at Arcadia, where they’ve got this three-legged spider, as people call it,” explained Andrew.

“What they do is set up six blocks of Res 5’s on F221’s around it, all pointing in from a fair distance out. And it all shoots into the middle.

In the middle, underneath the legs, they’ve got a pair of Res 4’s, just spraying the middle area, where you’d expect a bit more intensity because it’s right underneath the DJ pod.”

WOW was split between outdoor daytime performances and evenings in the WOW tent, which demanded two different set-ups. WOW Outdoors used three Funktion-One Resolution 3 loudspeakers, together with eight F121 bass enclosures. WOW Tent employed six FunktionOne Resolution 9 speakers, eight F221’s and two Resolution 2’s for infill. Full Fat Audio and MC2 amps were used with XTA processing.

Reflecting on Funktion-One’s involvement at Glastonbury 2013, Tony Andrews said: “We find ourselves involved and associated with the people who are pushing the creative side of the festival - they’re focused on performance and audience satisfaction. The people on the fringes tend to be the ones who are willing to experiment with new ways of doing things, which makes it interesting for us. Inevitably, there were challenges, but we’re really happy with the way things worked out.”

NEWS FOCUS: Glastonbury

Below: Music Bank’s Jimmy Mac with the PSA’s Andy Lenthall; Head of Production, Dick Tee.

THE PARK STAGE Supplying lighting to the main stage at The Park was South West Lighting, with a production design created by Ben Perrin and Mark Bott.

This involved 24 Robe LEDBeam 100’s, eight LEDWash 600’s, four LEDWash 1200’s and 10 each of ColorSpot and ColorWash 700E ATs. Around ten acts a day played here, including Solange Knowles (Beyoncé’s younger sister) and Southend-on-Sea’s finest, The Horrors, whose LD Matthew Button, like many others, was very impressed with the Robes.

The LEDBeam 100’s were all facing the audience for eye-candy effects and helped increase the general depth and back lines of the stage. The LEDWashes were used for side lighting for some artists and as effect lighting for others.

For the first time The Park’s main stage was televised, so the LEDWash provided ‘rider compliant’ LED illumination which was perfect for camera, with no flicker issues and a great range of white colour temperatures.

BLOCK9 Come witching hour in deepest, darkest Glastonbury, the late night world of Block9 came to life. Here, visual innovators The Picture Works helped to create something quite spectacular. Two Christie 35K projectors were used to create a projection-mapped design onto the area’s ‘Tree of Light’. Previously seen at The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, this 24

50ft tall 3D creation became home to a kind of dystopian tree in which DJs performed while graphics raced around the mighty technological structure. Meant to celebrate the environment through technology, the Tree of Light was designed by Gideon Berger & Steve Gallagher.

Visuals were controlled using Green Hippo Hippotizer HD servers by LD Alan King, using content supplied by Ben Sheppee.

Picture Works owner, Robin Wealleans, has been a fan of Glastonbury festival ever since he can remember. With his parents working there from the early years, Wealleans actually had his first experience of the charitable festival at 20months old. Now in his thirties he is quite an anomaly for his age - still passionate & with a wicked sense of humour. Having been involved in the live production industry since his teen years, the enthusiastic Welshman this year enjoyed his 26th Glastonbury Festival. “Even Eavis was surprised at that” joked Robin “it’s way more than just another gig to me, it’s the soundtrack & annual highlight of my life really.”

Clearly delighted with what his innovative company achieved at the Somerset event (project managed by Rhodri Shaw & in conjunction with Production Network) he told TPI: “We had 2,359,296 LEDs (150sq metres) of Lighthouse panels elsewhere onsite - showing everyone from Portishead to the Rolling Stones.

From the start, we were on fire! But actually it was our projection in Block9 that I was the proudest of. It wasn’t the easiest of conditions

- but the end results spoke for themselves and became a bit of a talking point. It looked like the best kind of nightmare, with a soundtrack to match!”

SILVER HAYES The rumours began circulating weeks before the event that Grammy award winning musician and DJ, Skrillex would perform a surprise DJ set at the Glastonbury festival. The rumours proved to be correct when he appeared on the Gully Stage in the Silver Hayes dance area. The whole area was packed even though the official announcement was made only hours before and the show was one of the highlights of the weekend.

MilTec UK Ltd supplied the bulk of the lighting via A1 Entertainments of Bristol who supplied the complete package of staging, sound and lighting for the Gulley. It is believed that they are the first company to supply the whole package at the festival.

All of the Miltec equipment was LED powered and consisted of 10 Batten2’s, four EPW2 and two EPW3 moving heads, 20 144Q LED pars and two 324W moving head washes.

The EPW fixtures were very popular, being used for profile beams, washes and pixel effects.

Paul Wilshire, owner of A1 Entertainment commented: “The MilTec products were both innovative and reliable, the unique features on some units allowing me to be very creative throughout the duration of the festival. I even

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NEWS FOCUS: Glastonbury

Below: The Pyramid audio and lighting rig.

saved on the return costs by buying the Battens.”

A focal point of Silver Hayes was the SaddleSpan structure supplied and installed by the aptly named Silver Stage Event Structures. The structure became the ‘Sonic’ stage, billed by organisers as the flagship venue within the newly created area. The Silver Hayes area utilised five of Silver Stage’s S5000 SaddleSpan’s, which were configured in what is termed the ‘5V’ layout. The finished structure allowed for greater crowd flow in and out of the structure through the two open ends, with the stage situated at the bottom point of the V shape. A tapered end wall provided a fully covered backstage production area.

As a result of the unique design, the truss framework of the SaddleSpan structures was used to suspend the majority of the lighting production within the Sonic arena, with the main audio system being ground-stacked.

Silver Stages’ unique structures have the ability to be configured in a number of different ways, giving production designers the scope to shape and create a covered area that is far more dynamic than a traditional marquee or big top.

Silver Hayes organisers also opted for the S5000’s silver coloured skins as opposed to white in order to maintain a continuation of their theme and branding.

ELSEWHERE… Audile maintained three duties at the festival; sound for the William’s Green stage, sound and lighting for the Beat Hotel and the Everything Everywhere Recharge Stations.

26

For the William’s Green area, Audile supplied a d&b J-series system with V-series fills, M4 monitors and C7 sidefills; a Digidesign Profile FOH; a Yamaha PM-5DRH on monitors; Shure UHF-R radio mics and Sennheiser EW300 G3 IEMs. The stage featured high-profile acts likes Alt-J, Django Django, Everything Everything, The Vaccines and Martha and Rufus Wainwright playing in an intimate setting, supplementing their higher-profile performances on the big stages.

With a packed line-up playing on a compact stage, the Audile team had their work cut out managing changeovers, but an exceptional response was received from the artists, who greatly appreciated the full Audile festival service being provided on a smaller stage.

Lighting at the William’s Green stage comprised mainly of Martin Professional fixtures. “The MAC 101’s were a great tool for the William’s Green Stage. The fixtures were small enough to adapt to the limitations of the size of the stage yet powerful enough to provide the main focus of the rig. The fixture was excellent at providing output even during daylight bands. Many incoming LDs also commented on what a great looking rig it provided them,” said LD Mark Jones.

“The LC panels provided depth to a shallow stage, the content from the screens along with the entire lighting rig being LED fixtures (apart from some Atomics and moles) gave us a limitless selection of looks on what was a very busy stage. The LC gave us options to change the look of the stage throughout the four days it was open from 10:30am right

NEWS FOCUS: Glastonbury

Below: Primal Scream in action.

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through to 3am. The screen played a key part in providing incoming artists with not only content but backdrops and logos something that would not have been possible on that particular stage otherwise.”

Over at the hugely popular Beat Hotel, Audile provided a Funktion One Resolution-4/F-218 sound system with Pioneer and Technics DJ equipment, to cater for big names like Fatboy Slim (playing under his Beats International moniker), T.E.E.D., Simian Mobile Disco, The 2 Bears and Seth Troxler vs Eats Everything. Lighting supplied included architectural fixtures from Studio Due and Pulsar alongside Source Four Juniors and an Avolites Pearl Tiger.

For the two ‘EE Recharge Stations’, Audile supplied background music systems using Tannoy speakers and MC2 amplifiers, with a DJ set-up in the larger venue. Lighting included architectural fixtures from Studio Due and SGM. Over at EE’s VIP area, Audile provided a Funktion One Resolution-1/F-121 sound system and Turbosound TFM450 wedges to cater for not just DJ sets, but an intimate acoustic performance and Q&A session with the legend that is Nile Rodgers. Uplighting of this area was provided by Chroma-Q DB4 units.

The numerous features, nooks, crannies, hideaways and eclectic spaces around The Park including the entrance arch, Ribbon Tower and Glasto sign were designed

by Misty Buckley and lit by Simon Marcus MD of Enlightened Lighting from nearby Bath, using a plethora

of Anolis fixtures. While Marcus enjoyed the relaxed vibe on ‘the hill’ at the Park, Enlightened’s Dave Thorpe took a trip to the wild side – down to the East side of site and to The Common in particular, where they had supplied Robe moving lights to the two main venues, The Temple and the Rave Cave.

Six of Enlightened’s brand new Robe Robin Pointes moved things in The Temple, which featured a heterogeneous mix of interactive and experiential happenings curated by Bearded Kitten during the daytimes, and Bristol based Invisible Circus at night, followed by full on DJ sets pumping into the small hours.

The LD was Paul de Villiers, who also used LEDWash 600’s and LEDBeam 100’s and a bunch of other kit. The Rave Cave had a spectacular rock-faced frontage, complete with real waterfall and abundant foliage, which was spectacularly lit with Anolis ArcLine LED fixtures. Inside the Cave itself were Robin 600E Spots and LEDWash 300s. Moving further into site and staying in Enlightened territory, was the Glasto Latino Tent at the hub of a South American themed area, replete with salsa lessons, Cuban bands and heaps of fun - all lit with Robe ColorWash and ColorSpot 575E ATs operated by David Johnson one of Robe’s PLASA 2012 student team.

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NEWS FOCUS: Glastonbury

Below: Arcadia was home to various dance acts thoughout the weekend; The very different areas which make Glastonbury stand out from other festivals.

products. SSE won the Glastonbury contract in 2002, and the amount of rolling risers required has grown each year as the festival has developed, to it now being the company’s largest single riser contract.

“We’re now up to 12 stages on the site so it’s a major logistical operation - as that amounts to two full artic loads of platforms and you can get a lot in a 40 ft trailer! In total we supplied 190 decks and 19 DJ tables across the site at a variety of rolling risers,” stated Owner, John Penn.

“We also supplied two collapsible quick change rooms to both the Pyramid and the Other stage. It’s a part of our business which is much less glamorous than our core PA rental activity, but all of the parts add to make a very successful whole!”

BACKLINE Music Bank has been officially involved with the festival for 21 years. As well as supplying individual artists on request the company also supplied the generic backline and risers to so many of the iconic stages and areas of the festival. These requests come from the production team running that area. Music Bank’s Jimmy Mac explained: “Seeing the festival grow and transform every year is great.

Dick Tee and his team are amazing to work with and even with the biggest artist in the world on the Pyramid, the team always make sure we have what we need to service all the stages on site. Simply put there is nothing to compare with the Glastonbury experience rain or shine!

“Of course being based on the dock of the Pyramid stage makes it a bit easier to service The Other, John Peel, BBC Introducing, and The Park but we also were supplying West Holts, The Acoustic, Queens Head, Leftfield, Silver 28

Hayes, Avalon, Rabbit Hole, West Holts, Latino, Crow’s Nest, Bandstand all of which meant frequent drives through punter land!

“We carried 39 backlines this year and had two spares which made it our biggest ever!

Some of our favourites this year were The Bank’s regulars Primal Scream, Chic, Public Enemy and Nas. The stand out moment has to be when we were approached rather timidly by The Rolling Stones’ crew for backline; Mick and the boys had an on the spot jam in their dressing room.

We helped them out and were even asked up on stage as a thank you!”

GREEN POWER “Originally myself and some school friends used to do lighting for Michael’s gigs in the Wagon Shed next to the farm house in the late ‘70s,” Aggreko’s Bill Eagan told TPi. In 2013, the power company’s 29th year at the festival, even the very moment where it all began is a memorable one. “One year my friends were at the festival when the Pyramid Stage generator stopped, and being mechanically minded they wandered round the back to help (you could in those days). It turned out that nobody had thought to fuel the set, nor knew how to get it going again. They sorted that out and the next year got the gig to refuel the six generators on site.

“I joined them in this enterprise the year after in 1984 after my university finals, sleeping on the back seat of my old Hillman Hunter and driving around in a tractor with a load of jerry cans. This then developed into us setting up our own business, Entertainment Engineering, then supplying and operating the generators for a few years as the festival grew slowly. Eventually we also took on the wiring of the site and stages, the market stalls were run separately then, by now as part of the original Templine

Ltd. I have then continued my involvement through the enormous growth of the festival and its transition into a national institution, and through the various corporate changes that have lead to Aggreko being the primary contractor for all the temporary power at the festival. Over the years, one of our key learning’s has been that it is worth spending the money on good distribution especially not scrimping on individual RCDs. Although the initial costs are a lot higher the difference that having a coherent RCD discrimination policy and the means to implement it makes to the safety and reliability of the system is enormous,” added Eagan.

This year around 250 generators with an installed capacity of approximately 30MW (20,000 houses worth) were supplied by Aggreko. 1400 distribution boards, 34kM of Festoon lighting and 90 staff, 1,000 floodlights and thousands of metres of cable from 16A single phase extension led up to 150mm five wire power-lock feeds.

“We make considerable efforts to run as much as we can on 100% Waste Veg Oil derived Bio Diesel, achieving around 20% of the total fuel burn. This is technically challenging with only certain engines suitable and separate fuel handling required and it does cost significantly more so there are commercial pressures too.

We have also invested in improving both our refuelling equipment and processes to ensure we minimise the risk of a fuel spill and also that we can react quickly if one occurs.

“This year we engaged, with the Festival’s Sustainability department and other interested parties, in a process of recording more data from the sets when they are running throughout the show so that we can try and reduce genset sizes and increase efficiency across the event.

Obviously this can be difficult as no Area

NEWS FOCUS: Glastonbury

Below: The Avolites team were on hand for technical support. L-R: Mary Taylor, Steven Baird-Smith, Koy Neminathan and Jessica Allan of TAIT.

Organiser wants to have too small a generator and in general there is little actual data as to what loads really look like (rather than how big the plugs are). We are continuing this work with other festival organisers too to develop this approach across the industry.

“Another aspect of the greening of events that affects us significantly is the very rapid adoption of new stage technologies, especially anything LED. This is dramatically reducing the power required to put on a show but is also causing very significant power quality issues that many users are unaware of but that can wreak havoc with a generator system if you are not prepared for it,” he concluded.

SAFETY The Event Safety Shop’s Tim Roberts was working on Glastonbury for the 30th time.

Having started his Pilton experience playing bands, he then became site crew until he was appointed the Health & Safety Coordinator in 2002. Roberts had also worked as a Stage Manager, Site Manager and Production Manager for the festival. With the change in management and licensing this year, Roberts explained the challenges the eight management sectors faced: “We have to cover our objectives including legal compliance and customer satisfaction. We’re always seeking practical solutions to the challenges that we face. I’ve had involvement in a wider range of planning discussions than previous years, this year TESS took on the Glastonbury Silver role too.”

The Silver is a group of operational controllers. With three in the main compound and three around the site as troubleshooters, TESS is at the helm of safety welfare. Roberts 30

continued: “The number of attendees are broadly similar to the last festival. We sought to increase the number of public transport to decrease the amount of cars on site and so integrated ticket packages and worked on promotions for National Express. We’re content with the numbers of people that attend. The site is at a safe capacity. We could let more people in, but we want to keep people happy and maintain the customer experience.”

Another point to mention this year was the incredible weather, which wasn’t traditional for England. Roberts called in professional weather service, Weather Ops, of Oaklahoma, USA. “They gave us a first rate service. This year we weren’t worried about the weather but if we had have been, we’d have had the detailed information if we’d needed it. You can call a Forecaster at their offices 24 hours a day.”

The festival also has a long-term relationship with a company called festival medical services, which provides nurses, x rays or any clinical equipment needed to deal with medical situations. “There is an overall duty of care for the workers on site. This year we implemented a new GP service, where staff can get prescriptions. Seeing a paramedic is fine, but they can’t prescribe medicine, so we set up this new service via a local clinic,” added Roberts.

Welfare services meanwhile provides a service for psychological or emotional issues during the festival. “We’ve implemented strategies to help prevent crime as well. We saw a reduction in crime this year, down by 33%.

And we put together a new safe guarding policy for children and vulnerable adults on site,” he said.

“We all have a little part to play in the great

festival, it’s unlike any other. This is a charitable organistion. Millions of pounds are given away to charities each year, both internationally and locally to create affordable housing for Pilton and other local villages. No other festival I know gives away a huge amount of the profits to a needier cause like in Africa or to locals who need somewhere to live. Michael’s position on that is absolutely admirable. He’s beyond committed to the cause and my admiration for him keeps me returning to the festival,” concluded Roberts.

FENCING For the second time, Eve appointed events crewing firm Gallowglass to construct the 16 km of Eve fencing that secured the festival site.

Work began on the 20 May on the 4.12 metre high Super Fortress fence running around the site’s 8km perimeter, plus the second, interior mesh fence.

Rick Barnett, Managing Director at Eve, said: “Owing to the enormity of the project, we work very closely with the event organisers from start to finish so the temporary infrastructure is constructed on time and to exacting standards.

For this reason, we have been working with Gallowglass for several years now on a range of projects, and our priority, in addition to speed, is to work with a safety-conscious, professional outfit. We also know Gallowglass has sufficient resources to cover all eventualities.”

TPi Photos: Sarah Rushton-Reed www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk www.greenpeace.org.uk www.wateraid.org/uk www.oxfam.org.uk

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NEWS FOCUS: The xx

THE XX CAPTIVATES AT MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL WHEN ATMOSPHERIC ARTISTS THE XX EMBARKED ON A SERIES OF ONE-OFF PERFORMANCES AS PART OF MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL, THE PRODUCTION DELIVERED AN INTIMATE EXPERIENCE, UNIQUE IN CONCEPT AND A POLAR OPPOSITE OF THEIR LARGER FESTIVAL PERFORMANCES AT COACHELLA AND GLASTONBURY. TPi’S ZOE MUTTER WAS ONE OF 60 PEOPLE PER SHOW TO BE LED THROUGH TUNNELS INTO A DARK ROOM WITH THE BAND POSITIONED IN THE MIDDLE BENEATH LOW CEILINGS THAT GRADUALLY ROSE TO CREATE AN ENLARGED SPACE FILLED WITH PROJECTION. “The key concept behind this show was about The xx building their live experience,” explained Show Producer and Production Director, Antony Randall. “I initially sat down with Tour Director, Chris Connor, and the band to talk about how we would build their touring show into one for outdoor festivals such as Coachella and their Glastonbury headliner.

“At the same time we wanted to give their core fans a different experience, the reverse of Coachella and Glastonbury so this show at Manchester international Festival (MIF) is unique in design and concept. It’s a totally intimate experience, you’re stripped of everything you know going in - you don’t know where you are and then you’re in this immersive experience.

“It’s a continuation of the tour in some ways - such as the music programming - which has exploded out of the tour and been reengineered to fit this performance. One is a mechanical moving piece and a big show and the other is a complex moving art piece.”

Tour Director, Chris Connor [Drake, Stereophonics] was proud to have been given the chance to work with a band as “young, talented and exciting” as The xx. Connor 32

was part of the whole campaign, from the tour through to Glastonbury and Coachella appearances along with The xx’s curated festival, Night + Day, before their succession of intimate shows as part of MIF. The production team began talking late 2011 and loaded into tour rehearsals in April 2012. “The band were already booked for an extensive European festival run in the summer of 2012, which doubled as a promo run for the new record” said Connor. “From there we are on our second trip around the world, with a fourth run in north America, Australia and a couple of runs in Europe. Now we’re back in festival mode again with some headline shows dotted around.

From the MIF residency we go to Eastern Europe and Asia so it’s extensive to say the least.”

The MIF production’s concept differs to their other live appearances, explained the tour director. “The band didn’t want it to be just another show. As it’s such a prestigious event and they are in the company of acts of the stature of Massive Attack, they wanted it to be something special.”

For the MIF show band members Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim and Jamie xx worked closely with Show Designer Willo Perron,

Randall, Connor, Tour Production Manager, Phil Broad, management and the band. The initial concept came from MIF and management and was fairly straightforward - it had to be intimate as the succession of 18 shows would only have an audience of 60 for each performance.

It also had to be in an unusual setting such as the ‘secret’ 120ft by 120ft by 80ft disused building in a central Manchester location that was revealed to ticket holders on show day.

Management then went to Perron and Randall to push the concept into a full show design. Randall then brought in Paul Normandale to work with touring LD Michael Straun to design the lighting part of the show. The precise location was kept secret because audience members were told to meet at a specific point in Manchester Victoria train station, before being ushered through a maze of tunnels to enter a space surrounded by draping. Here the audience stood a few feet from the band, who performed in the centre of the constructed space.

“It’s been adapted to suit the reality of the situation, which is a concrete room that brings its own challenges in terms of infrastructure,” continued Connor. “The show starts in a tight almost claustrophobic environment and

NEWS FOCUS: The xx

Opposite: The key concept behind The xx’s appearance at Manchester International Festival was building the live experience for fans. Below: The visual brief for the band’s productions is for the lighting and video to tie in with the emotions of the songs; The biennial Manchester International Festival celebrates new and innovative work from the world of performing arts, visual arts and popular culture.

gradually a number of mechanical movements occur. The set reaches a peak as the roof lifts and you are in the room in its entirety. Then it all comes back together and the ceiling lowers almost onto the audience’s heads.”

Production Manager, Phil Broad, who has been out on the road with the band since last July, added: “It was all about the band being in the middle and creating an intimate space that grew. Very few bands would be able to get the audience as close to them as they are here.”

Dealing with 60 people per performance lends itself towards creating an intimate environment, pointed out Connor. “It’s something a bit special and fans snapped tickets up quickly. The experience of being used to the band being 6ft above you and now they’re 3ft below is unusual in itself. There is no barrier between you and the band, so you get a real sense of the dynamic between Oliver and Romy and get to see exactly what Jamie xx is doing.

It’s something a real fan could come to five times and see something different every time.”

The venue, although mysterious and unique, presented some obstacles for the team. Broad elaborated: “There were some issues getting the show in, but once it was running it was fine. It’s never easy to put a show on in something that’s not a venue - it’s more of a bunker. Access was not good because we had one little doorway.”

Randall seconded Broad’s opinion: “The build was tough because we’re on a building site with no access so vendors had to be up for the task so I have to commend all of them. All of the MIF crew have been amazing too.”

Backline Technician, Rory Saklas, also had to adapt to the unusual premises the shows were held in. He said: “The fact there’s dust everywhere makes it tricky to keep electronics and amps dust-free. As the band are performing in the round, I have to think about where the amps are placed and powering them because they are further away than normal.”

Although some vendors were the same as the tour, the team tried to work with local suppliers for the most part. “We tried to keep as many suppliers we have on tour for this, but some came through MIF such as UK Rigging and Lite Alternative, who were more local than some touring companies so it made financial sense.

I’ve worked with all of them before, but only the sound company Wigwam as a touring partner and they’ve been great for these shows.”

Pre-production time was tight, admitted Broad. “We did a show at the Eden Project and then came straight here and now even though we haven’t finished these shows I have trucks loading to do the touring work after this. They are at over 180 shows on this whole campaign so it’s been intense.”

Randall was on site to build the produciton, ahead of the touting team arriving. He wanted to make sure by the time the touring team arrives, everything was built, working and ready to go for rehearsal.

SIMPLE AND CLEAN Three months before the show was scheduled to start Randall contacted Lighting Designer, Paul Normandale, to create a design that worked with the concept Perron had created. “The lighting had to follow the ebb and flow of the process and the design was really left to myself.

Stage wise, a simple diffused series of lighting cues with no visible sources was needed,” he said. “This responded to the changing physical environment of the set dynamic.

“It needed to be simple and clean and the Martin Professional MAC 101’s worked really well in the confined spaces. It gives a great range of colours from such a small fixture.”

Operating the lighting and bringing Normandale’s design to life was Lighting Director, Michael Straun, who has been on tour with The xx since last May. Prior to this Straun’s creative abilities were recognised when he was awarded a Knight of Illumination award for his work on Glasvegas’ tour. “I used to do theatre lighting design and this production is quite close,” he explained. “It’s an interesting band to work for - it’s all about the way they feel about a particular song.

“There are colours we try to use throughout the whole campaign for this album and everything is based on the album artwork. That’s the same with the videos we use, which were the rushes used for the album artwork. They are oily multi-coloured images and we used that colour palette for all the lighting.”

The creative brief emphasised the importance of emotions. Straun said: “You’re already confused from walking through the tunnels when you come into the space and it takes a couple of songs to relax into feeling you’re in a nice environment again. Just as the audience do we change the roof height. So the key with

the lighting was to keep it simple, it wasn’t about hitting every beat like in the large show. It followed more of an art theme.”

Whilst PRG supplied The xx’s tour, Lite Alt provided fixtures for the MIF shows - having been involved in some other productions taking place as part of the festival.

The 24 MAC 101’s were used underneath the floor, along with nine MAC 101 CTs dotted around as keylight uplighters. Above the roof were four MAC Vipers and four MAC 2000 XB Washes, along with iPix BB4’s around the floor are and 12 MAC 250 Beams dotted around and six Atomic Strobes too. “We have a Reel EFX DF-50 under the stage to diffuse the output and another, which we run for five minutes,” continued Straun. “The 101’s offered tight beams so when we shine them up we can diffuse the ceiling or pick out individual band members. We’re also lighting across the floor so the bounce makes it illuminate the whole room.

We’ve now frosted the floor for a more diffused look.”

Straun recently made the move to the MA Lighting grandMA 2 and The xx’s shows were the second time he had used it to programme.

“We had a cue list, with each one triggering a bank of faders,” he said. “There’s a great group working on this and the band is very arty so we can explore new ideas. For example, the way we used projection in previous shows is not only about seeing beams hit a wall or projection screen, you can also see it in the haze.”

PROJECTION TECHNIQUES Once Catalyst Programmer, Dan Bond, had prepared the video set-up, Straun was left to operate video along with lighting. Projection was carried out by Steve Highgate, using the four Panasonic DZ21Ks from Creative Technology, which The xx has toured before. “They are lightweight so you can put them at FOH and the footprint isn’t big,” said Straun. “We project on the roof, the gauze walls and then into the air.”

Catalyst was used in combination with two Mac minis. “This means we can just put it in hand luggage,” he added. “I’m triggering direct off the Catalyst, it’s not going through the grandMA 2. I’m literally doing it as a cue list running separately. The reason behind that was programming time was tight so we took the decision to keep them separate so we could work on different elements. The graphics came 33

NEWS FOCUS: The xx

Below: Audience members were led through a maze of tunnels through to the secret show location; FOH Engineer, Rik Dowding; Lighting Director, Michael Straun; Catalyst Programmer, Dan Bond; Head Rigger / Kinesys Operator, Andy Roberts; Monitor Engineer, Craig Donaldson; Backline Technician, Rory Saklas; Projectionist, Steve Highgate.

from XL Recordings, which were the rushes they made for the album artwork.”

SHEER INTENSITY Monitor Engineer, Craig Donaldson [Erasure, Goldfrapp, Super Furry Animals] had used an Avid Profile for five years leading up to The xx’s MIF performance. “When I joined the touring team they were just starting to switch over to in-ears for the first time - now they use the Sennheiser G3’s, with a couple of d&b audiotechnik C4 subs on stage to give Jamie xx a bit of oomph,” he said. “The Profile is perfect for in-ears. It’s such a clean mix, which for electronic music is exactly what you want.”

Donaldson works with snapshots while creating monitor mixes for the band. “There’s a lot of space in their music and from a monitoring point of view this is not too different for me compared to their other shows. The environment is different - speakers are pointing at the stage for some of the show because the band like hearing a change in the room. It’s a very intense and dark show, not like a normal gig,” he added.

The MIF performances add to a list of memorable moments Donaldson has enjoyed whilst touring with the band, including headlining the Other Stage at Glastonbury and performing at Coachella. He said: “I believe the sheer intensity and small audience numbers and the fact they’re right face to face with the band and could almost touch them is what makes it special. The audience don’t know what to expect and everything is turned upside down.”

FAITHFUL TO THE ALBUMS Prior to mixing at FOH for The xx, engineer Rik Dowding mainly toured with Portishead, following a career in studio audio engineering.

“I joined this team because The xx are fans of Portishead and their manager asked who their FOH Engineer was,” he revealed.

Through friends at Wigwam, Dowding was guided down the DiGiCo route and has found it to be an incredibly reliable desk. “I like the EQ on the mics and the SD series is so user friendly - you can manipulate the ins and outs with the SD8 I’m using, which is why it’s become the main desk for things like the Grammys. It also 34

runs on MADI, which is great,” he continued.

“For this type of show macros are fantastic because you can set one to change any state of the board at any time. That’s handy when something’s going on with Jamie’s effects and the vocals that I couldn’t do at the same time.”

Around 32 channels are run for the threepiece band, with an external TC Electronic Reverb 4000 used for two tracks. “The Lake LM 26 has been great on this too because you can give yourself more level. They used to do a song called Fantasy, with a massive amount of sub in the middle, and the Lake’s are brilliant for that,” he commented.

Mics for The xx’s live productions couldn’t have too much of an extended bottom end so Dowding opted for the DPA d:facto 2. He commented: “They are completely flat mics and perfect for us because the band whisper quite a lot and they deal well with low end pick up and their rejection is brilliant.”

Sennheiser 409’s were used on the guitars, with a beyerdynamic M88 on bass. Shure Beta 57’s were chosen for snare along with a Neumann KM 184 on the tambourine and symbals. “They don’t require many vocal effects.

I tried to be faithful to the albums and Jamie likes his plates and old style reverbst o give it more of a digital feel,” added Dowding.

INTIMATE BUT POWERFUL During the MIF shows Dowding, doubled up as PA Technician. “When we were on the road in the US we used Firehouse Productions in the same way we use Wigwam here in the UK for this show,” he said.

The PA set-up comprised B2 subs under the audience, 16 d&b audiotechnik E6’s on top of the audience - four a side in stereo pairs - along with stacks of six V8’s a side in each corner for the louder moments of the set, along with eight V12’s and 12 D12’s. He added: “The sub needs to just tickle when required. It needs to be loud, but not beltingly so.

“It’s completely different to the touring system - we weren’t able to take a touring system with us so we used local systems. At Glastonbury we were lucky because we had 20 boxes of d&b J Series a side. For this band they

need a nice top end to allow them to sound intimate but powerful.

“The MIF show is completely different and we’re running two systems - a V system outside of four stacks and an E6 system above the truss facing down into the audience as they’re surrounding the band, so you get that intimate feeling and it sounds like the noise is coming from the band.”

As soon as Dowding discovered the band would be in the centre with the crowd around them he knew it would be best to put speakers in the top in a cluster facing out. “We put three a side - 12 in total - B2 subs underneath the audience so they could rise with intensity as the big system comes in,” he explained. “The idea is to give people the sense of claustrophobia in a small space and then as the kabuki drops you see there are four stacks of PA.” A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE Randall approached LS-Live to build the entire stage set, incorporating the band and audience staging, and the truss ceiling above, which was automated by UK Rigging. LS-Live provided a cost-effective rental package using its off-theshelf, industry standard staging equipment. One of its house stages was built in a configuration of 40ft by 40ft for the audience stage, which incorporated a central 20ft by 20ft area sunk 1ft below the audience where the band performed.

The lightweight and quick assemble house stage is based on a LiteDeck stage system, complete with legs, handrails and step units.

Above the stage, a 40ft by 40ft white ceiling was created from LS-Live’s hire stock of truss in a square configuration, wrapped in white stretched joelastic material provided by J&C Joel. Said LS-Live Director, Ben Brooks: “We were pleased to be involved in such a unique event that gave the audience a very memorable experience. Antony Randall is a very good client of ours who knows we can build stage sets of high quality very quickly and efficiently because of our large hire stock of modular components and skilled crew.”

RIGGING / AUTOMATION / DRAPING UK Rigging has been involved with the rigging

NEWS FOCUS: The xx

Below: The band’s performance at Coachella festival was a stark contrast to the succession of more intimate MIF shows.

for MIF since it began in 2007. This year, the company was tasked with the challenge of rigging The xx in a ‘secret’ venue, which has rigging beams approximately 60ft high with no roof access. As the load in door was small and elevated from the ground, mobile elevated work platforms with enough elevation could not be taken into the building.

Prior to the event, a small team of experts employed by UK Rigging used a catapult to launch a thin line over the first beam. This was then used to draw a set of static lines over the beam, which were anchored to the ground via a descent system in order to carry out a rescue if required. Riggers then accessed the beams by ascending the ropes to install an access ladder, backup device and horizontal safety line onto

each beam so rigging points could be installed as normal for the show.

UK Rigging worked closely with the venue structural engineers, as although the beams had sufficient capacity, the load had to be spread as evenly as possible. More hoists than necessary were therefore installed and bespoke brackets were used. The company supplied and installed a grid system of rigging steels, hoists and truss in addition to a Kinesys motion control system and operator to create a moving ‘ceiling’ which formed part of the show.

Andy Roberts [Westlife, McFly] from UK Rigging joined the band and crew just for the run of MIF shows, working on rigging and automation using the Kinesys Vector system along with 20m per minute Liftket motors. “I mainly work as a touring rigger, but for the past five years I’ve been using Kinesys along with other automation equipment,” he explained. “I work most closely with LD Mike, who gives me cues for when things have to move. The Vector system is well suited because it offers a multiple speed motor and is very accurate.

“It’s mainly used when the ceiling, which starts off at 9ft, rises up slowly to make the room bigger and then right up out of the way so the projectors can shine onto the walls. At the end of the set it drops in quite fast and stops just

above the audience’s heads.”

For Roberts, the challenge was getting the equipment into the building: “It’s not a well suited venue for this sort of thing and it was a bit of a struggle. For the health and safety aspects, method statements and risk assessments were done by production. With things moving over people’s heads it has to be very accurate.”

After the points were put in for rigging, Roberts was brought in to handle the James Thomas Super Truss, Slick Mini Beam and bespoke trussing for the ceiling, along with the grid and motor control. “There was a team of four to do the points and then a couple more for building the truss and cabling.

Meanwhile, Blackout provided the white sharkstooth gauzes used for projection, along with a kabuki drape. The company also supplied 6m black wool serge, which was used as backing to the gauzes, along with some pipe and drape for masking and creating areas.

TPi http://thexx.info uk.ct-group.com, www.ukrigging.net www.wigwamacoustics.co.uk www.lite-alternative.com www.blackout-ltd.com www.kinesys.co.uk, www.ls-live.com www.reallycreativemedia.co.uk

35

ON THE ROAD: Robbie Williams

STADIUM SUCCESS AS ROBBIE WILLIAMS TAKES THE CROWN FOR AN ARTIST KNOWN FOR HIS LARGER THAN LIFE STAGE PRESENCE, ROBBIE WILLIAMS’ EXQUISITELY DESIGNED STADIUM PRODUCTION, TAKE THE CROWN, NEEDED TO BE AWASH WITH INVENTIVE PYRO, AMBITIOUS FLYING SEQUENCES, INCREDIBLE SCULPTURAL ELEMENTS AND EXPLOSIONS OF COLOUR. TPi’S ZOE MUTTER SPOKE TO THE INNOVATIVE TEAM BEHIND THE TOUR AT THE ETIHAD STADIUM. Robbie Williams was the first artist Wob Roberts [Snow Patrol, Coldplay] production managed, working on every tour since they first joined forces in 1997. “I was asked if I wanted to be production manager

by Robbie’s management who were managing Bryan Ferry at the time and I was his keyboard tech / stage manager,” said Roberts. “It’s been great and a steep learning curve - from a club tour to a multiple date arena tour to stadiums.

Packaging the show was demanding, requiring a monumental 38 production trucks for 26 European shows. “There are more gadgets on this tour - set piece items Robbie’s never used. We’ve always had extravagant stages and video, but we have various gags and heads this time around which drive around and emit balloons, fire and water vomit,” he said.

FANTASTICALLY FUN Design work was a collaborative process between Creative Director, Willie Williams, Set Designer, Mark Fisher and Show Producer, 36

Lee Lodge. “I’ve worked with U2 and REM on stadium-sized shows and was asked out of the blue if I wanted to be involved in this,” said Williams. “It was an entirely new thing to me because I was not familiar with his music so I came at it in an objective way - it can be good to be an outsider. As it’s Robbie there has to be humour so that was where I was coming from.”

Willie Williams teamed up with the late, great Set Designer, Mark Fisher, following a long working relationship. Robbie Williams dedicated the 25 June show in Hampden Park in memory of creative genius Fisher. “We had a great rapport and it was really fun to look at Robbie Williams - this guy who is so incredibly successful - and work out what his show should be like,” said Williams. “Mark and I have done a lot of projects together so we know the way each other works. We started doing club shows when the first single was launched, three nights at The O2 and now the stadium show.

“Mark - my primary collaborator - and I wanted continuity in the shows. In terms of iconography and scenery, one issue is justifying

why everything is there. We came upon the idea of the heads because you don’t have to explain why they are there, whereas it was tougher to justify why anything more scenic was chosen.”

The central concept - the heads - came from the album artwork, featuring graphic designer, Tom Hingston’s creations, who had taken around 50 3D scans of Williams’ head. “They are incredibly detailed and you can put all sorts of textures on. I used the phrenology head - that has words on it - as a backdrop for the first shows and for the O2 shows we made six heads into mirrorballs, which was fantastically fun,” said Williams. “It dawned on me this was how it should be - a big back wall with two big doors and during the show various heads appear and blow up, release things and light up.”

Williams enjoyed working alongside inspiring individuals as much as he did developing creative concepts. “When I’m Creative Director I have to be a big picture person so I really need people that understand the show,” he said.

Knowing the bulk of the show would be in daylight had an impact on how Williams

ON THE ROAD: Robbie Williams

Opposite: Dramatic flame effects were produced by pyrotechnics specialists FFP. Below: Treatment were entrusted with creating all visual content for the tour; On the sculptural side, Prolyte worked in collaboration with Perry Scenic, Brilliant Stages, MDM and 2D3D.

approached his designs. He elaborated: “At the beginning I begged to reschedule the show so we knew at least half would be in daylight. I looked for gags that would work in daylight creating somewhat of a carnival feel. We then made the gradual transition into darkness, which is when the video kicks in.”

Two months into the show, a set list change was made, impacting on the show’s visual elements. “It is very much set list based around the heads and each one is linked to a song,” said Williams. “There was a bit of negotiation and Robbie was great. Some parts were

important for him in terms of being able to deliver the show so this meant some heads were used for different songs. The skull head at the end, was designed for a different song, whereas now it’s used for Feel. It’s so perfect I can’t imagine it being right for anything else.”

A POWERFUL SOLUTION “This was the first job I’d done with Robbie and Willie too - although I had teched a show with him years ago,” said Lighting Designer, Mark ‘Sparky’ Risk, who carried out lighting pre-vis at PRG’s offices in East Molesey with the help

of Senior Account Manager, Scottie Sanderson.

Meanwhile, Take The Crown marked the third time Lighting Operator, Alex Murphy, had joined the artist’s production team. “I’m calling the show and we work with four MA Lighting grandMAs. We’ve had amazing support from the company once again in the UK and Germany,” he said. “They always go above and beyond.”

When designing lighting for an outdoor show without a roof there are two options, said Willie Williams. “You can either put in a little roofette like we have or one that comes and

37

ON THE ROAD: Robbie Williams

Below: Williams performed to a packed venue at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester; Flying By Foy provided a flying system for Williams’ grand entrance.

goes depending on the weather. The issue until now is if there is something covering the band unless it’s clear - you have to light through it to light the stage. This means the brightest thing is the sneeze guard above the band, whereas for the first time the LED lights are bright enough to go underneath the roof and light the band brightly.”

All lighting fixtures were provided by PRG, a supplier Willie Williams used on U2’s tour. “Only a few companies can look after a production of this size properly,” commented PM Roberts.

The bulk of the fixtures were PRG Bad Boy 1400 Spots, with 130 featuring in the rig. A further eight PRG Best Boy 4000 Spots were also chosen along with 79 Martin Professional Atomic 3000 Strobes, 152 MAC Auras on the runways and underneath the roofette and 79 Atomic Colors, 12 Novalight Nova Flower Effects, 10 Zap Technology Biglites, 11 Solaris Flares, 36 Chroma-Q Colorforce 12 LED strips, 24 Chroma-Q Colorforce 48 LED strips, 67 PixelRange PixelPar 90l, 58 4-lite PAR, eight Strong Spot 3000W Xenon Gladiator iii and four Lycian M2 followspots. An additional 12 Le Maitre Stadium Hazers and four Martin Professional Jem Roadie X-Streams were also chosen for the show.

Sparky said of his chosen rig, “The Bad Boys are a proven winner for large scale events because of their power,” said Sparky. “They’re great lights and it helps to be familiar with the unit.

“With the Auras being LED fixtures, they allow us to get a lot of light under the roofette without generating heat that makes musicians pass out. We were impressed by their size and amount of light they emit. They’re the workhorses and then we have elements such as Nova Flowers and lights that appear occasionally and have great impact.

“We also have lots of strobes, which are a powerful solution for problems with daytime.

The key instrument of the show is Robbie ultimately - that’s the most dramatic element.

You’ll never outshine a talent like that and his personality is as big when the sun’s up as when it’s down.”

38

A RELIABLE RIGID STRUCTURE TAIT joined Robbie and his team for the first time on this tour. Working on the project in the TAIT camp were Project Manager, Oli Clybouw and CEO, TAIT Belgium, Frederic Opsomer.

“We were asked to design and manufacture the LED integrated back wall, 3D sculpture of Robbie’s head and two moving doors for prop entrance and exit,” said Clybouw. “We provided a two dimensional 40.8m wide by 23.1m high gold coloured back wall, integrated with TAIT pixel tablets that sat inside custom shaped polycarbonate panels. These are the same tablets used during the London 2012 Olympics.”

The wall had two giant 45 sq metre doors to allow props to travel through, which tilted back 6º and raised 7.35m when fully opened. TAIT also created a huge 3D sculpture of Williams’ head, which was also integrated with LED (Barco FLX-24 pixels). 50,000 pixels were used to bring the face sculpture to life. The head was 12.6m high by 7.5m wide and had a hole at the top of it for Williams to fly out of.

“The main challenge was designing a reliable, rigid structure to compensate for the weight of a 7,500kg head sculpture that protrudes up to 3m,” said Clybouw. “At the same time it had to be constructed and transported easily, provide good maintenance access and work in all weather conditions. The solution was a lightweight standardised ladder system that assembles quickly and has compact packaging.”

All components were lifted manually from transport dollies and quick-connected. The head structure sat in base tracks connected to Stageco Supertowers, countering the weight and making it possible to build row by row, top-down. TAIT confirmed the position for the pixels on the fibreglass by projecting all pixels onto it and then marked the position and drilled 50,000 12mm holes to insert them into.

“Another challenge was reducing the weight and volume of the sculpture. We did this by fabricating large ladders with grate floors and X-bracing, which allow us to walk inside the sculpture and give us easy access to maintain and troubleshoot the display when necessary,”

said Clybouw. “Integrating the 3D sculpture into the 2D backwall was done using TAIT’s pixel tablets.”

Displaying TAIT’s ability to constantly innovate, this is the first time a tourable 3D video model of this scale has been manufactured.

Roberts said: “The back wall was only ever going to be realised by TAIT; no-one else could have come close. Oli Clybouw was instrumental in getting this thing out of the workshop and into rehearsals, and Frederic Opsomer was a man of his word when he said that the job would be completed before the deadline.”

ACCURATELY MAPPED VIDEO CONTENT “I’ve had a long relationship with XL Video during Coldplay and Phil Mercer - the account handler - has been brilliant. We worked together before Des Fallon passed and have a great relationship,” said Roberts.

Video content for the tour was programmed

by Video Director, Stefaan ‘Smasher’ Desmedt.

XL Video continued its long association with Williams, supplying over 46,000 Barco FLX-24 pixels, HD camera system, d3 control, IMAG screens and crew.

The 3D head was fully pixel mapped, with the pixels all manually drawn by Smasher using Maya software for the mapping process, which was completed on the d3 Technologies d3 platform. This took around two months of intense work. As well as Ash Nehru from UVA, he worked closely with TAIT’s Frederic Opsomer.

The d3 server - running with fully redundant backup - was programmed with the prerecorded video content by Smasher and Luke Halls from Treatment. For the show it received timecode triggers from the backline.

The show used two active d3 4U servers, one for the main and side LED, and the second as an active backup. d3 was responsible for all video content playback to the backdrop LED and the LED head - it also relayed live video (as a 720P stream) from the camera rig to the side IMAG LED screens.

“The chief task was accurately mapping video content onto just under 48,000 Barco

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100212_Stageco_TPi.indd 1

10-02-2012 12:34:36

ON THE ROAD: Robbie Williams

Below: Production Manager, Wob Roberts; Lighting Programmer, Mark ‘Sparky’ Risk, Crew Chief, Nick Barton, Lighting Designer, Willie Williams and Lighting Operator, Alex Murphy; Britannia Row, FOH Engineer, Josh Lloyd; PA Technician, Sherif El Barbari; Monitor Engineer, Simon Hodge; George Hogan was responsible for communications and IT; RF Technician, Ali Viles; Video Director, Stefaan ‘Smasher’ Desmedt; Fourth Generation’s Tweed Hurlocker.

FLX pixels arranged in non-uniform panels, managing the complexity involved in the mapping, addressing and wiring tasks within the short amount of time available during preproduction,” said d3 Software Director, Ash Nehru. “d3’s strong abilities in 3d visualisation and spatial mapping were augmented by a new spreadsheet-based fixture database system, capturing the raster coordinate and wiring position of every pixel in the head. During preproduction, d3 generated a range of test patterns (visualised in 3D) allowing wiring errors to be identified and corrected in software.”

The two portrait side IMAG screens supplied

by XL Video were made up of Pixled F-11 product, each measuring 8.1m high by 5.4m wide, and XL supplied eight Grass Valley LDK 8000 cameras and an additional remote Bradley Engineering CamBall2 on the drums.

These were fed into Smasher’s Grass Valley Kayak mixer - he cut the show from the FOH position - and the mix was sent to the d3 where it was output and fitted to the side screens. It is a technique he and Willie Williams developed since the last U2 tour. Robbie Williams is also a great live artist for a video director to work with as enjoys playing up to cameras.

XL’s crew chief was Stu Heaney and the engineer was Myway. There were 13 video crew in total on the tour, 10 from XL Video and three from TAIT. The video department get in before lighting and after set - and have over 80 video dollies to be unloaded and rigged at each venue. Seven trucks alone were dedicated to transporting video elements with an eighth carrying cameras and side screens.

A LAUNCHING POINT FOR CONTENT Through several discussions with Willie 40

Williams, Lee Lodge and Content Producer, Sam Pattinson, production company Treatment Visual Productions fleshed out a rough outline for how video content would be used. Central to the video design was the LED head, which was a launching point for all content design.

“Once we had crafted the initial reveal, the rest of the content fell into place quickly,” said Video Creative Director, Luke Halls, who worked alongside Pattinson, Shoot Producer, Rhyannon Hanbury-Aggs and Animators Mark Hough, Gareth Blayney, Laura Hulme, Uzo Uzoigwe and Ida Andersson.

“The content stayed close to initial ideas, discussed during meetings with Willie, Lee and Sam,” said Halls. “There were only one or two ideas that changed drastically during the preproduction and storyboarding process, I think mainly due to Willie having a strong original vision and a close core design team. The style of content was graphic pop fun; tongue in cheek playful with everything from a ‘60s psych film for Me and my Monkey to Rorschach patterns for Be a Boy. We also did a rather indulgent LA Americana excess shoot for Hot Fudge here at our studio. I think Robbie Williams trusted the creative team’s ideas; he was excited about the potential of using the 3d head surface.”

The greatest task was the shoot the team did of Robbie for the initial head reveal. “Working with Video Director, Smasher, we extensively tested the process for unwrapping his head in order to rewrap it around the LED structure,” he explained. “We did this by filming Robbie from three angles, effectively creating a 180º panorama of his head whilst lip-syncing, which was then rewrapped around the LED screen. We then merged images of a 3D animated monkey head into Robbie’s face.

“We’re particularly proud of Me and My

Monkey as it contains seven and a half minutes of 3D monkey facial animation, which we’d never attempted before for a show of this scale.”

HIGH QUALITY SOUND FOH Engineer, Nick Allen’s console of choice was the Avid Profile, having used it on some of Williams’ promotional shows. Although the desk accepts plug-ins, they were not used extensively, with the only special effects on the vocal being a TCM-6000 external reverb. Josh Lloyd, Britannia Row FOH Technician, said: “The inputs for this show are around 80, but there is quite a lot of talk back, taking it up to near 96.

“We’re using the Midas 431’s, mic splitters for their PRO series, and then converting it to MADI. This means we can split it to a main and redundant console. Nick gives our PA Tech, Sheriff, a mix of the band and vocal and then we take a full mix, which is a back-up. The vocal mix has pretty much just got Robbie’s vocal effects and that goes into a Yamaha DME64.”

Allen could zone his vocal to different elements of the PA so if there were feedback issues when Robbie walked around, Sheriff and Lloyd could attenuate it quickly. “We have a bank of faders that controls that and then it goes through a variety of Lake LM44 and LM26 Lake processors and gets distributed around the system using Dante. Pre-cueing and timing is done inside the Lake kit and then we have L-Acoustics LA Manager for the amps,” he said.

Williams used a Sennheiser 5235 vocal mic, which was chosen for its high quality sound.

Said Lloyd. “Sennheiser give us great support with their mics. Because we’re outside and there’s no stage we were concerned about the mics getting wet so they put a waterproof coating on the mics.”

Elsewhere, the band used a mixture of

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ON THE ROAD: Robbie Williams

Below: The PA system comprised L-Acoustics elements and the IMAG screens were made of Pixled F-11; Fourth Generation supplied reliable power throughout the tour; The overall show design was a collaborative effort between Mark Fisher and Willie Williams.

mics including Sennheiser e906’s on guitars, Neumann TLM 103’s on overheads and Shure SM57’s on snares, keyboards were on e906’s and Sennheiser e904’s on toms.

SOLVING INTERFERENCE ISSUES RF Technician, Ali Viles, needed to take into consideration any RF noise produced by the large video screen. “Ali has his work cut out day to day, but does a good job of it,” said Lloyd. “There are 24 ways of in-ears, which is all Sennheiser 2000 series. He’s had to address things like making sure Robbie gets in-ear coverage when he comes out of the top of the head.”

Last time TPi met Ali Viles he was working on Coldplay’s stadium tour - another RF intensive production. This time around he was looking after RF for mics, instrument wireless and all in-ear monitors along with the frequency management for wireless comms. “The difference with this is the rather large video wall, which causes a lot of interference issues,” said Viles. “The noise it spits out is very wide banded and does the same thing across the whole radio spectrum, so it’s not something we can fit in between, which is often the case with these things. It has meant we needed to be more focused on what we’re using and how we deploy it rather than fitting in spaces in between where the interference exists. There’s no easy solution - it’s just a case of deploying it as sufficiently as we can.”

Viles also had to deal with licencing for all venues throughout the tour. “All the band are on radio packs and pretty much everyone apart from the keyboard player, the drummer and one of the guitarists is on radio inputs and then there’s almost 30 channels of wireless comms.

There are over 50 in-ear packs which are deployed during the show.”

Meanwhile, communications and IT for the stage crew, carpenters, set builders and production was provided by Surfhire and handled by George Hogan, working with Cisco and Telex systems. “It’s a busy load-in and we cover all artist areas including dressing rooms, catering, production office and management office,” said Hogan. “This takes until about 4pm on load-in day and then we move onto the stage to do the comms part of the show, for which we have 13 wireless stage crew.”

42

AN ELABORATE SET-UP Simon Hodge has created Williams’ monitor mix since the middle of last year, working on promo shows and the O2 shows. His working relationship with the singer extends back further than this, however, to Take That’s Progress tour.

“We’ve gone for the DiGiCo SD7 and have a fairly elaborate set-up with things like talk mics to and from the band and the communications system so the creative team can talk to Rob or the MD,” said Hodge. “We’re using a lot of ins and outs on the desk, which is why it’s become a bigger desk than before. It sounds amazing and it’s flexible and you can keep adding stuff to it, but it doesn’t run out of resource.

“Robbie tends to trust me to make it sound nice for him so I concentrate on giving him a great mix. Other than that, he likes to be able to hear people like the choreographer and designer.”

The SD7 was teamed up with Sennheiser 2000 IEMs and Sennheiser 5200 handhelds with MD 5235 dynamic heads. Hodge continued: “I love Sennheiser equipment - it reduces the spill so when he’s close to it the mic excludes sound coming from the PA. It’s all in-ears apart from the keyboard player and drummer who have a d&b Q sub each.”

AN AUDIO GENIUS The PA system provided by Britannia Row was similar to the one PA Technician, Sherif El Barbari, used on the last tour. “It’s an evolution of the L-Acoustics V-DOSC rig,” said El Barbari.

“This time we’re using the K1 rig and decided wherever possible to put a ring delay system in the stadium to improve sound quality for the audience. Before we started out in the last five months I’d done a lot of design work within the simulation software, L-Acoustics Soundvision.”

The main hang comprised 16 L-Acoustics K1’s with three KARA underneath. “The sidehangs are quite large and we couldn’t put these up in rehearsals. We were allowed in a stadium situation for one hour 15 minutes on the first day and 1.5 hours on the second day to do everything so it was nice for me to be confident because all the stadiums are simulated in this L-Acoustics software,” El Barbari continued.

“We’ve done more or less the same here yesterday but because of the noise curfew we weren’t able to run the PA live yesterday so I

used Systune measurement software.”

The same universal L-Acoustics PA set-up was used for each venue. The audio team first adjusts the angle between the elements to project the power in an appropriate way. “It blends really nicely and the transition is great. We’re using K1 on the main rig and on the front fills in the pit we’re using 12 ARCs and then some underhung near fills, which are KARA and also some of them as frontfills on the outer side.

“We’re using rear PA because this is the first time we have done 210º so we’re using some hangs of KUDO and a ring delay with KUDO. Wembley was the biggest venue we played and we used hangs of KUDO speakers to cover the top bowl. In most other places where we’re using ring delays we have up to 14 hangs of six cabinets, but because of how high Wembley is we needed the coverage.”

SB28 subs also featured in the PA set-up.

“On the outside, in combination with the flown subs, there are the K1’s flown side by side with the sidehangs. These do a nice job throwing the sub back into the upper bowl. The SB28’s on the ground also fill more horizontally - all in all 44,” said El Barbari.

The service provided by Britannia Row has been outstanding, according to Roberts. “Bryan Grant was the first person I turned to when I became a PM and while I’ve used other audio companies before, Brit Row have never let Robbie down and Sherif is an absolute genius on audio.”

A BESPOKE FLYING SYSTEM Flying By Foy Ltd [U2, Black Eyed Peas, One Direction], has provided aerial special effects for live touring, TV, film and corporate events for several decades. The company has been at the cutting edge of system design and development, recently focussing on custom automation software designed to integrate with performer flying systems.

Three personnel were involved in the tour: Adam Bailey, Senior Flying Director, System Designer and Project Manager; Martin Peralta, Flying Director, System Operator and Rigger and Ryan Geronimo, Flying Supervisor and System Rigger.

“We were originally contacted to provide a ‘straight-forward’ zip line, but it soon became clear there was requirement for a more complex

ON THE ROAD: Robbie Williams

Below: A flurry of helium balloons were released from one of the many heads featured in the show; 3D sculpture of Robbie’s head and two moving doors for prop entrance and exit.

system. The only stipulation was the system needed to be completely de-rigged and out of sight during the show once the effect was completed,” said Bailey. “We provided a bespoke flying system, which simulates a zip line style entrance from the top of the video wall to a satellite stage at the end of a thrust runway.”

The system was suspended on two 16mm ropes, which were pre-tensioned, and the tension constantly monitored to ensure accurate and repeatable positioning throughout the tour.

“As there is no take off platform the system includes a lifting element, which can adjust the height of the performer in relation to the suspension lines above,” continued Bailey. This element of the system was used primarily to lift Williams from an internal preset position within the 3D video head structure, up and out of the head as a reveal. It was then used to reduce the deflection in the suspension ropes once he had landed to ensure a smooth and simple dismount from the system. There was also a winch, which controlled the descent towards the front of the stage down the suspension ropes. Both winches were pre programmed and controlled by Foy’s own Pegasus control software.

“Obviously with an effect of this nature the safety of the performer is of upmost importance. We have engineered the system to have a minimum safety factor of 12:1 and in many areas the safety factor is closer to 20:1. Also, every active part of the system has a redundant secondary system acting as a backup.”

Williams traveled from his starting position, stood 20m up on top of the 3D head structure, down to the stage below, a distance of 45m in 10 seconds.

Flying By Foy was challenged by the angle of the system. Most zip lines rely on the lower anchor being above ground level, and the natural deflection in the suspending cable to provide natural braking to slow the performer.

In this case, this was not an option, the system descends to the stage at 35º and the anchor had to be below the landing height of the performer. Continued Bailey: “To overcome 44

this, we used a second suspension rope to share load and therefore reduce deflection and help keep the performer higher. We also had a winch controlling the exact position along the suspension ropes.”

Perhaps the biggest challenge with the system, Bailey pointed out, was that it had to be possible to de-rig and get everything out of sight as soon as possible. This took a lot of planning and consideration. “We came up with a system which is able to be deployed, used in performance conditions, and removed from view with minimal time and a small workforce, all critical for a system which needs to be easy to tour,” he said.

PM Roberts commented: “The flying gag here is spectacular. Originally Robbie wanted to come in from the back of the stadium on a zip line and we would have never got it through health and safety so we confined it within the stage. But this means our zip line is 45º, a standard zip line is between five and 10.”

CREATING HEALTHY DISHES “We have catered for Robbie Williams for a number of years. I remember doing a gig at Middlesbrough Town Hall around 1999.” said Popcorn’s Wendy Deans. Requirements on tour haven’t changed since the early years - the dishes need to be healthy. “They like the same familiar crew around them, so many of the same ones are here today. Steffy Head and Darren Staats were there then and they are here today,” continued Deans.

“On this one we are concentrating on the crew, with Feedback taking care of dressing rooms and hospitality needs. It works well for us as we did the same on Take That’s tour.

“Our company has gone from strength to strength in recent years - we keep our regular clients because our staff are amazing and regularly provide a service far greater than expected. We have done T in the Park for 20 years this year and V Festival not far behind. We were TPi readers’ favourite catering company this year and have never been busier.”

Feedback Event Cuisine looked after the

band party on Take That’s Progress Live tour delivering a service that the team was so happy with the company was chosen for Take The Crown to cater for Williams, his friends and family, band members and their families and management.

Due to Williams’ love of sushi, a fresh selection is available on his arrival, as well as fresh fruit, prepared and made by David Vanderhook, partner at Feedback Event Cuisine. “Rob eats very healthily, about two hours before the show he has a healthy, energy boosting dinner that may involve lots of fresh vegetables, generally chicken breast done with a variety of twists, brown rice or homemade pasta,” said Vanderhook. “We have dietary requirements within the group, which include, vegetarian, vegan and dairy and wheat intolerance.”

While Vanderhook is in the kitchen with Nigel ‘Wham’ Popperwell, Jo, Vanderhook’s wife, looks after front of house, dressing rooms and riders with Jos Mills. Lunch is mainly a light affair with salads, stir fries, fresh home made pasta, mussels, made to order very much like a restaurant. Dinner will always have a fish, meat, vegetarian, vegan option with several hot and cold starters and salads.

“In Wembley we served rack of lamb with a tian of Mediterranean vegetables, celeriac puree and char-grilled sweet potato chips, fillet of wild Atlantic turbot with wasabi mash, stir fried pak choi,” said Vanderhook. “Puddings are not a massive seller although the individual tart tatins all went. After the show we serve sushi, sashimi, sticky back ribs, baby burgers, home made ham hock terrine and substantial canapés.

“Popcorn have been catering for up to 400 people, all to a very high standard. We, on the other hand, cater for up to 45 people. We are able to spend time making sure personal dietary requirements are met and dressing rooms and riders are covered. We don’t cater for breakfast.

There’s always an after show when we cater for about 25 - obviously Wembley was a lot busier.

We also provided a VIP bar looking after 100 guests before and after the show.”

Perry Scenic Creative Ltd proudly provided the Robbie Williams ‘Crown Head’ and ‘Skull Head’ for his ‘Take The Crown’ tour. With thanks to Wob Roberts, Brilliant Stages and Stufish.

FIND OUT HOW WE CAN HELP YOU… +44 (0)121 552 9696 enquiries@perryscenic.com Bespoke stage sets and scenic solutions for the entertainment, leisure, corporate and presentation industries.

Photo: Stufish

ON THE ROAD: Robbie Williams

Below: In lower light, the screen behind Williams came alive with colour, while Williams stood on the performance platform in the crown structure.

CUSTOM SYSTEMS Although Rigger Jerry Hough has worked for Roberts for a number of years, he only joined Williams’ touring team last year.

Hough’s company - UsOneProduction - supplied two teams of rescue trained touring production riggers, management and advance planning of rigging along with specification of lifting equipment required for the production. It also provided two packages of hoists, rigging, control, rescue equipment and lifelines for production, along with smaller packages of equipment to rig ring delay systems in some of the venues.

While PRG supplied its own Lowpro truss for lighting, UsOneProduction provided Thomas 52cm and 76cm Supertruss for ring delay. “Bespoke truss required came in the form of a curved header that framed the top of the video screen,” said Hough. “It is built around four custom curved trusses manufactured by Prolyte.”

Two teams of four touring riggers - three for production and another man on each team for the ring delay - were needed for the production. The rigging team was made up of Colin Raby, Jules Grommers, Richard Brennan, Gary Currier, Pete English, Craig

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Rattray, Raphael Ulm and Jerry Hough.

Kinesys was contacted by Nick Evans and Jerry Hough and asked to come up with a safe solution for opening and closing the doors quickly and safely. The mechanics of the system incorporate a counterweight system driven by Kinesys Elevation varispeed hoists to lift the doors, and linear actuators to operate the tilt mechanism, driven by Kinesys Evo drives.

The custom control system combines the actuator movement to tilt the door back with the Elevation hoist lifting operation into a single open and close sequence. Safety features such as dead man’s handles, interlocking between the tilt and lift operations, and group halt on error or position difference make a safe system for operation during fit up and show conditions.

On the road, the door movement was looked after and operated by riggers Jules Grommers and Craig Rattray.

Grommers commented: “The system is good and provides a very straightforward way of executing a complex move,” adding that he was also impressed with the full instruction manual that accompanied the system when it was handed over by Kinesys.

In addition, the two onstage follow spot

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ON THE ROAD: Robbie Williams

Below: The entire show had a three dimensional feel to it, thanks to the giant head behind the artist and band; The steam punk head fired CO2 as it moved; As darkness fell, colour in both lighting and video was used to change the mood of the production.

trusses were flown in on Kinesys Elevation motors pre-show so the operators could be picked up and taken up to their positions - as opposed to having to climb. A Kinesys Rigger 8 hand-held control was used.

Two teams of 15 Stage Miracles crew were also toured to cover steel, scaffolding and rigging. “They are invaluable, as it means all the work at height is covered by people trained for the specific job in hand, and under our control, as opposed to teaching a rigger what needs to be done on a show by show basis,” said Roberts. “I’ve done this before on the last Robbie Williams tour and Genesis in 2007. Due to the expense of labour in Europe, financially it doesn’t cost any more than the crew they are replacing.”

THE SALT IN THE SOUP Nicolai Sabottka, Managing Director of pyro company ffp, got to know Roberts when he was working as a promoter rep on Williams’ shows in Germany. “I told him I was doing pyro and special effects with my company and he contacted me a couple of years later asking if we would be interested in working for Robbie,” said Sabottka. “We did the Close Encounters tour in 2006 and were pleased to be involved again when Robbie played the O2 in November 2012 and again on this tour.”

Willie Williams gave ffp a detailed script explaining what he wanted and the company spent an extensive amount of time with R&D to work towards what Sabottka now refers to as ‘a perfect show’. “As always, with pyro and SFX, it’s the salt in the soup,” said Sabottka.

“You can do a show without it, but it’s so much better creating the special moments in a show that you can’t do with lights, video and lasers.”

Pyro features in seven songs out of the set, the first being the opening number Hey wow, during which yellow smoke appeared on the runways, three liquid units fired at 90º for five seconds from towers and red smoke appeared on Williams’ chair. Liquid units could also be found on the stage right and stage left towers for five seconds, whilst sweeping left to right.

At the end of Let Me Entertain You three liquid units fired at 90º for seven seconds and then 11 seconds into Not Like The Others the stadium shots are fired in pairs, starting from the main stage out to the B stage - in total there are eight 48

cues over 10 seconds.

During Bodies the Steampunk head moved along the stage left track to the B stage turntable, whilst shooting flames come from the head and CO2 comes from the cart. When the head came to a stop ffp shot two 1S30’s, whilst a hazer was active throughout. Two vomit cues from the head on the B-stage turntable were activated by ffp during Come Undone. Towards the end of the song the Steampunk head made its way back to the stage left doors, firing CO2 as it moves. Six seconds into Rock DJ five 1S30 jets were fired from the end of the the five roofette spines and then during Angels 140 Evolution HA mines and 110 comets were fired on the header truss during the guitar solo.

“All pyro, water vomiting effects in the Steampunk head and stadium shots that release the beautiful gold and red metallic streamers are controlled by a wireless Galaxis system. The alcohol based flames in the SPH and the Isopar L flames on the stage towers are controlled via DMX / timecode. Our Crew Chief, Nick Thompsett, was the man in charge,” said Sabottka.

For the pyro on the header truss ffp had to look for very small calibers that would still produce the desired effect. “We were working very closely with our friends at Evolution Pyrotechnics in Acton Montana that were able to produce a long strobing high altitude mine that only has a 40mm caliber and a duplex comet that fires 240ft out of a 30mm tube,” said Sabottka.

“Another headache was the water vomitting. it took us several weeks to find the right nozzles that would do what Willie Williams called an elephant sneeze. We like the challenge, this is what makes this job one of the most interesting in the entertainment industry. You get paid for things your parents would have punished you for just a few years back.”

A COLLABORATIVE PROCESS Brilliant Stages is known for delivering ‘offthe-wall’ projects and boasts a client list that includes U2, Coldplay, Muse and Take That.

In July 2012, Prolyte Group acquired Brilliant Stages and the two entities have pooled their knowledge to deliver several impressive projects. Brilliant Stages turned to Prolyte UK to assist with elements for Take the Crown.

The team comprised Brilliant Stages General Manager, Tony Bowern working as Project Manager, CAD Manager, Mel Welch overseeing the design, CAD Draughtsman John Prentice overseeing the wagon and head design and Mechanical Design Engineer, Andy Edwards overseeing all the mechanical design elements.

James Chapman, Head of Prolyte UK Projects oversaw the roofette and header.

Brilliant Stages already had a working relationship with all parties, from previous projects. “The first point of contact was Wob Roberts who sent us the Mark Fisher and Willie Williams portfolio of required effects. From there we decided what we were able to take on in the time frame,” said Bowern. “We have worked with Robbie Williams before and on Take That’s: Progress Live to create the giant Om figure and boom arm on which Robbie Williams skimmed above the heads of the audience.”

Brilliant Stages was required to produce a set true to Fisher’s and Willie Williams’ design concepts that worked as a practical design and engineering solution and would withstand the elements. The company produced the Steampunk GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastic) constructed lattice-work head, incorporated around the head were performing platforms for musicians and the fibreglass GRP head, which contained helium balloons that were deployed through the top of the head.

The GRP translucent finish skull head was backlit to produce the desired look. These heads were built on wagons that travel on tracks to the B stages. The crown head was deployed on a scissor mechanism on the downstage edge of the stage and has a performance platform in the crown. The company also built the main stage, which consisted of three performing levels, painted in a non-slip gold with rope light embedded into the surface. The tracking system to guide the wagons around the set was also the handiwork of Brilliant Stages, along with the bed and the revolving platform on the stage left thrust designed into the B stage to rotate the Steampunk head to face the audience.

Prolyte UK worked with Brilliant Stages to supply the curved header, which incorporated uplit LED batons and PRG Bad Boy lighting fixtures, and the roofette covered the main performing area. As additional support to the

ON THE ROAD: Robbie Williams

Below: Brilliant Stages made the fibreglass head containing helium balloons that were deployed through the top.

production, the company assisted Jacqui Pyle to supply the mechanisms to deploy and rotate her four Robbie mirror heads.

Overseen by Brilliant Stages’ John Prentice and Andy Edwards, they worked together with Warren Services to supply the chassis and hydraulics, tracking the wagons that supported the heads to enable them to be driven along the track into their cue positions.

“We worked in collaboration with several suppliers on the sculptural side and manufacture of the heads. For some of the scenic elements and fibreglass we worked with three partners: Perry Scenic, MDM and 2D3D, all were overseen by Brilliant Stages,” said Bowern.

Challenges the team faced included sourcing an acceptable non-slip material that met with the designers’ colour references for the set. This problem was overcome by prototyping various paint additives.

Weatherproofing the stage set also needed to be carried out so the company designed a guttering solution under the upstage technical area.

Scenic solutions company Perry Scenic Creative was commissioned by Brilliant Stages to design and create a crown head

and skull head that were tour-worthy and replicated the shape of Williams’ head.

Willie Williams wanted Perry Scenic to create two very different looking heads, whilst replicating Williams’ face. Explained Perry Scenic’s Jon Perry: “Both heads were created using a 3D scan of Robbie’s face, cut into a model using CNC technology, before moulding it further to match his face shape.

“We felt very fortunate to be involved in Mark Fisher’s design and we were very saddened to hear of Mark’s passing.”

Perry Scenic was working on set pieces for the Rammstein tour so they moved pre-production of the skull head to LS-Live’s secondary pre-build space in West Yorkshire.

The 6m high by 6m wide skull head is white and designed to be translucent. “We built a framework for each head and constructed them using GRP material in panels, but treated them in different ways to achieve the desired effects.

The skull head had special paint treatment on the inside so it could be internally lit for a ghostly effect. Robbie is seated on a platform up inside the head’s mouth and he slides down a pole attached to the front of the face for his spectacular entrance onto the catwalk.

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ON THE ROAD: Robbie Williams

The crown head is slightly smaller and more classical looking. “We used paint treatment on the outside of the crown head to give it a regal gold look. It fits onto Brilliant Stages’ scissor lift so that Robbie stands in the crown and rises magically above the stage,” said Perry.

CUSTOM-BUILT STRUCTURES Stageco supplied an innovative XXL custom stage system for the tour after being asked to develop a fully custom built stage structure that supported the tour’s unique design. Stageco engineers calculated that the company’s XXL tower system was best suited to accommodate the weight loadings and heights required. The additional strength of the XXL towers was particularly important considering the artists movements, as Williams appears at the top of the stage via specially adapted elevators and crane hoists.

The end result consisted of an open plan stadium wide structure 50m by 25m deep, centred on three giant central towers at heights of 26m in the centre and 23m on each side.

Two PA towers positioned either end of the open top stage overlooked a central performance area, where the artist performed alight several different sized steel heads of around 8,000kg in weight. Stageco created a reinforced trackway on both sides of the stage and along the catwalk, on which the heads moved throughout the show.

PM Roberts commented on the service delivered by Stageco: “Who else do you choose for staging? There’s nobody else I trust with the lead time we had to put together a monstrosity like that and come up with all the engineering backup and paper work needed to take this out through Europe.”

Each of the two Stageco touring systems took three days to build and one day to disassemble. Two teams of 11 Stageco supervisors and 17 truckloads of staging gear were used on each system.

Stageco Project Manager, Dirk de Decker, said: “Once again Stufish created a stage concept in keeping with Robbie Williams’s desire for a stunning stadium show. The design team were aware of the extra weight carrying capacity and additional height our XXL towers offered them and factored these extra capacities to allow them to expand creative boundaries.”

Specialz were tasked with reprising a lit floor they completed for the Take The Crown video shot at The O2 last November. However, with each stage deck essentially becoming a lighting instrument, and being dismantled into component parts daily, all rope light had to be pre-installed as well as the majority of the distribution, which was designed to fit into the underside of the deck. The decks were then coupled with custom built 1m link leads.

With the branding elements and various sigils, the system comprised over 4km of old style tungsten rope light, culminating in a 10-day build at Brilliant Stages to install the various elements.

50

Keith Owen -Specialz Technical Director commented: “We had to work closely with Mark and Willie to ensure the original artwork was reproduced onto the stage and that there was a visual continuity between the stage decks so that the sigils read correctly. You simply can’t see the join!”

PRODUCTION POWER Robbie Williams and Fourth Generation have a long relationship as he was their first contract.

“They bought generators and formed the company effectively to do Robbie Williams.

Tweed Hurlocker was working for CAT and then wanted to buy his own generators,” said Roberts. “I gave him the tour in 2006 and it offered him the security to buy his first generator and Fourth Generation have been involved since. They’ve got various high profile jobs on now such as Coldplay and Muse so Tweed has a good company there.”

The company supplied two 440 kVA Twinpaks, one 420 kVA Twinpak and one 500 kVA Twinpak - all built by Intertech. The distribution package consisted of 52 units manufactured by Indu, in addition to 12,500m of cable. “Of course, we must give a mention to the two sets of crew that we have out there, who are doing a great job in ensuring that everything is rolling smoothly,” said Fourth Generation’s Tweed Hurlocker.

Hurlocker - whose first show with Williams was at The Forum, London - explained why this tour was important: “The fact I have continued to be Robbie’s power provider throughout his career and to still be doing so after 10 years is fantastic. It’s been great to see him go from strength to strength. Long may it continue.”

It was important to maintain a stable power supply when strobes were used during the show, as well as providing a clean audio service. “As always, ensuring that the earthing and bonding procedure is done by the book,” he continued. “It’s such a buzz for me - the adrenaline and knowing that we’ve done our job well and that Robbie is back and doing what he’s best at.”

EVENT SAFETY SHOP “When it comes to health and safety where else do you go?” said Roberts, discussing The Event Safety Shop. “Simon James and Tim Roberts look after us when we need to provide the required paperwork to run a show like this,” said Roberts. “In 2003 I did it all myself - risk assessments and checking of insurances - but I’ll now pay someone I trust to do it and that’s TESS.” The team was made up of Simon James, Director of TESS and Safety Advisor, and Richie Brown, Safety Advisor. “The brief is fairly simple - ‘is it safe’,” said James. “Key considerations are twofold: The safety of the crew whilst building and de-rigging the show and the safety of the public whilst watching the show.” eps barriers were also selected for the tour: “It was hard for me not to go to eps because I am eps Brasil effectively,” joked Roberts. “My

partner, Taka and I became part of the Okan’s portfolio of companies at the beginning of this year when eps Brasil was founded and we were appointed directors.”

Meanwhile, Gary Marshall at Blink360 was responsible for Williams’ personal security and Cary Nightingale at CN Security oversaw venue security and crowd management.

RELIABLE TRANSPORT SUPPLIERS “Beat The Street supplied eight 45ft crew sleeper buses and two 45ft band buses - all of the highest quality of course for the European leg,” said Beat The Street’s Tim Fortnam-King.

“I remember planning to have a tour bus pickup at Robbie’s house in Wiltshire and going there myself before to make sure we could get the bus to it as it’s down a narrow country lane with over-hanging trees. Suffice to say we did - a bit of forward planning always lessens any un-wanted surprises,” said Fortnam-King.

“I think we were chosen because we provide the highest standards of buses and drivers, we react immediately to any changes or issues and the production team know they can rely on us.”

PM Roberts commented on his experience of the supplier: “Jörg Philipp is a great guy and Tim Fortnam-King has looked after me well.”

A total of 38 Stagetruck trucks were required for the main production, along with five on each of the two advance systems. “We have been a part of Robbie’s shows from the beginning of his solo career - when he had one small truck. Wob gets Stagetruck to do planning of drive times to see whether the dates can be achieved in the time frame, either with one driver or more,” explained Stagetruck’s Will Johns.

“I hope we were brought on board because we care about making the tour work smoothly and that we have built up our fleet to be of a size where we can cope with the amounts.”

Roberts continued: “Stagetruck were the first trucking company I used and I went with my trusted supplier. You need to go with people you know will deliver.”

TPi Photography: Zoe Mutter www.robbiewilliams.com www.prg.com, www.xlvideo.com www.britanniarow.com www.treatmentstudio.com www.prolyte.com www.taittowers.com www.perryscenic.com www.brilliantstages.com www.stageco.com www.flyingbyfoy.co.uk www.ls-live.com www.feedbackeventcuisine.com www.popcorncatering.com www.ffp-fx.net, www.kinesys.co.uk www.beatthestreet.net www.stagetruck.com www.specialz.co.uk, www.eps.net www.stagemiracles.com www.fourthgenerationltd.com www.eventsafetyshop.co.uk

ON THE ROAD: Pet Shop Boys

PET SHOP BOYS: ELECTRIC WHEN ELECTRONIC POP DUO THE PET SHOP BOYS EMBARKED ON THE ELECTRIC TOUR, THE CREATIVE MINDS OF ES DEVLIN, ROB SINCLAIR AND TREATMENT STUDIOS JOINED FORCES WITH THE TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE OF NEXO’S STM SYSTEM FROM CAPITAL SOUND, CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY, PRG, TOTAL SOLUTIONS AND LASER MAGIC FROM ER PRODUCTIONS. ZOE MUTTER MET WITH PRODUCTION MANAGER THOMAS STONE’S TEAM TO EXPLORE ELECTRIC’S ICONIC STYLE AND TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENTS. “This is more of an art and design or theatre based production than a normal music show,” revealed Pet Shop Boys Production Manager, Thomas Stone, as the crew prepared for the Manchester Arena performance. “I’ve done shows in the past featuring content, video walls and projection, but this is a gig with a story to it. It’s interesting to work with people such as Show Designer, Es Devlin, and feed off their experience and knowledge. This is such a great show because it has everything - big lights, content, lasers, incredible choreography, the hits and new songs - and it’s full of energy.”

The task was to achieve the look and feel of a large show, whilst it being compact to transport.

“When we freight this show around South America using Sound Moves, for example, we’re a one truck show, with four freight palettes weighing nine tonnes,” continued Stone.

“People would probably say this production was a five truck show by looking at it. In the UK we provide our own production, but when we do flyaway or freight shows we pick up lights and PA locally so we only carry certain production, 52

control, projectors, lasers and set.

“Its very much a huge jigsaw puzzle and I spent a lot of time making sure we could take this to every part of the world, we have used every single SQM on every pallet, which is usually not possible, but through meticulous planning and scale models of the freight pack I pulled it off.”

The production manager selected suppliers for the tour based on their reputation or having worked with them previously. “The service from Capital Sound made them stand out,” he said.

“I’d worked with Creative Technology before and chose to use them again to supply video equipment because they’ve worked with the group for a long time and we knew our Video Director, Jack James, likes working with them.

“We also have the brand new NEXO STM system from Capital Sound, who have been working closely on this technology in terms of R&D, Our FOH Engineer, Holger, was really interested in using the system, and we had great results with it at the O2.”

Before the Pet Shop Boys, Stone selected long-time provider of the band, Neg Earth, to provide the lighting whilst working on The

Hoosiers’ tour. “They have a tonne of stock, good crew and are helpful at getting stuff off the ground whilst making it easy as possible to integrate into a small pack,” added the PM. Another of Stone’s selected suppliers, Eat To The Beat, provided crew and band catering for the London and Manchester shows, with Anna Hanks, David Lesh and Richard Huggins making up the catering team.

SEAMLESS AUDIO COVERAGE Electric has the distinction of being the first tour in the world to deploy NEXO’s new STM line array system in a unique ‘double-bass’ configuration, made possible by its modular design. PA system planning was carried out by Capital Sound’s Ian Colville, using the plots for London’s O2 and Manchester Arena.

Capital’s sound design presented a main left / right system in the ‘double bass’ configuration, with each array having a hang of 15 STM M46 main cabinets in the centre, and two hangs of 15 STM B112 bass units, one on each side of the mains. The out-fill arrays covering the sides of the arenas used 15 M46 main cabinets per side.

There was also a flown line of nine STM S118

ON THE ROAD: Pet Shop Boys

Opposite: Visual content for Pet Shop Boys’ Electric tour was created by Treatment. Below: The band is known for their iconic visual style and vibrant costumes; During one section of the show the band members appear to be in a bed as images were projected onto the surface of rolling set pieces.

subs per side, and nine S118’s ground-stacked per side.

The unusual three-wide configuration of the main hangs was designed at the request of FOH engineer Holger Schwark, exploiting the flexibility of Nexo’s modular design. “Often, a proper full range setup on the side has adverse effects in front of the main PA - things get too ‘boomy’, so I use EQ to reduce the low mids and lows on the side PA. It felt logical to move the LF elements from the side hangs to the main hangs, maintaining the total number of required speakers and amps. And using the same box for the mids and highs, between the main and side

hangs, brings exceptional uniformity in the tonal balance when walking from the main zone into the sides.”

Describing his subwoofer setup, Schwark explained, “we went for a combination of flown and groundstacked subs, with the flown ones running at a slightly higher volume. They sounded great - a massive, punchy bottom end.”

Val Gilbert, NEXO Technical Support Engineer, was in attendance at the Electric shows to support the Capital Sound crew, including System Engineer, Al Woods.

According to Gilbert, one of the main features of the STM that made it the system of choice was

its horizontal coverage. “We have a really true 90º coverage from the HF horns, which I think is appreciated. We can also scale it into different formats so the outfills are the same cabinets as the main array, which means when you walk out from one to the next, it’s seamless.”

Schwark continues, “This is the first time I’ve used STM and it’s proved very consistent. It’s so smooth when you walk the room; the sound it produces is very clear, and I like the clarity of the top end; in the arena, it covers well right up to the last rows. I could hear pretty much every detail I mixed at FOH, while it had a punchy, exciting overall sound quality. I also got quite a

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ON THE ROAD: Pet Shop Boys

Below: Production Manager, Thomas Stone; Monitor Engineer, Seamus Fenton and NEXO Technical Support Engineer, Val Gilbert; Stage Manager, Matthew Gurney; FOH Engineer, Holger Schwark; The Eat To The Beat team; Jeffrey Bryant has produced the Pet Shop Boys’ costumes; Mark Webber and Andrew Turner from ER Productions; Tour Manager, Andrew Crookstone.

few positive comments after each concert, so I can safely assume that many others liked the sound.”

Ian Colville, Capital Sound Hire’s Technical Manager, offered his perspective: “Capital Sound has been involved with the STM project from day one and it’s very rewarding to be able to introduce the system to our clients and for it to be so well received. These two shows are the largest that we have undertaken with STM to date and I think that the speed with which the system can be rigged and de-rigged was particularly impressive. The ability to tailor a STM system design to suit a particular type of programme material or just the engineer’s personal taste is also a massive advantage and I’m looking forward to creating bespoke designs utilising the STM building blocks, as we’ve done with The Pet Shop Boys.”

MIXING AND MERGING MADI STREAMS Monitor Engineer, Seamus Fenton’s career has seen him mix for the likes of Paul Weller and The Fugees before working on three of the Pet Shop Boys’ tours. Fenton selected the DiGiCo SD10 console, believing it to be best suited. “It had to be DiGiCo because the console needed to work with MADI generically,” explained the engineer.

“We chose it on the last tour too because the whole gig evolves around mixing and merging two MADI streams. The beauty of this desk is its macro features and the new software version of Nitrous has turned what was a fantastic monitor desk into the best.”

Fenton generated six in-ear mixes during the show. On the previous tour, Chris Lowe, used wedges, but because the original brief for Electric was for the band members to appear in different positions throughout the show, in-ear monitoring was necessary. “Speakers were a no go,” said the band’s longtime engineer, “because they’d be moving about a lot. So Chris is new to in-ears and Neil’s never done 54

a gig on wedges. After the digital switchover we needed to look at different in-ear options and I’d worked on Jesus Christ Superstar with Roger Lindsay, who was a big Shure man. He gave me a PSM 1000 to try out and I found it to be brilliant. It was a no-brainer, mainly because they are true diversity in-ear packs and have two balanced antennas. The RF is robust and they are much more hi-fi sounding.

The Pet Shop Boys own their own radio rack, which was built on the first tour and then adapted. It was a fresh start for mics for this production, however. “My friend, Barry Macleod from Britannia Row - who is my guru in terms of the radio world - said I should try the new digital Shures. Since we were buying six PSM 1000’s anyway we looked at getting the Shure UHF-R wireless systems.”

For the first show in Mexico the audio crew took both the UHF-R originals and new ULXDs to test out. “The first thing we noticed at rehearsals was they sounded incredible. The other option with the ULX-Ds is they can be connected to the system digitally,” said Fenton.

“In the SD rack on stage there’s also a Dante card so effectively the mics are patched digitally and analogue, with FOH taking the digital and me taking the analogue one.”

All mics were Shure ULX-Ds with Shure KSM9 capsules. “The entire radio system is bespoke because the boys always need a radio rack, which is owned by the band although supplied

by Capital Sound.”

FOH Engineer, Holger Schwark, was also a fan of the quality of the ULX-D microphones, having already had positive experiences with the UHF-R. “You notice such a difference in clarity.

It’s like switching from an MP3 to a CD on a good stereo system - it has more clarity and definition in the mid range,” he commented.

EXTRA FLEXIBILITY Similarly to Fenton, Electric was not FOH Engineer, Holger Schwark’s first experience

of mixing the Pet Shop Boys. DiGiCo desks featured at FOH as well as in monitor world, with Schwark also opting for the SD10-24.

“DiGiCo desks are my desks of choice, for their sound quality and usability. In 2009, we started adding a network system made by Optocore because I didn’t want to use copper MADI cables at festivals,” he explained. Schwark used a Waves SoundGrid server for the first time. He elaborated on the benefits this brought with it: “It’s basically technology for running plug-ins on the desk. It’s a new addition to my set-up and has been great fun to work with. I’ve been using plug-ins on previous tours, running inside my laptop, but it’s of benefit to have them all integrated with the mixer system because if there should ever be any problems with the plug-in processors, the mixer will bypass those inserts automatically.”

One snapshot was run per song, with Levels, EQ and Plug-in effect settings being changed for certain elements. The engineer worked with a TC 6000 reverb along with a TC-Helicon VoicePro processor. “This gives me some live vocal doubles that are really cool,” he added.

“I’m doing quite a bit with the vocals as it’s an essential part of the show.”

For processing and control he carries a Meyer Sound Galileo 616 AES - his favourite system EQ, which sits in the side rack.

Schwark and Fenton relied on an Optocore ‘multicore’ system to transfer signals, and keep the sound within the digital domain.

While the SD10 consoles come equipped with an optical loop interface, they decided instead to run Optocore as an entirely independent network, giving them greater flexibility to patch signals between the MADIequipped multitrack playback computers, the SD-Rack, the two mixing desks, a MADIequipped Mac Mini at FOH, and finally an independent additional MADI output for occasional multichannel recording - keeping

ON THE ROAD: Pet Shop Boys

Below: Video Director, Jack James; Carpenter, Michael Maguire; The crew wore orange jackets and glasses while the group performed; NEXO’s STM system was supplied by Capital Sound.

everything digital.

“Once we started using Optocore DD4ME’s as a MADI-to-fibre multicore solution with SD8’s on an earlier tour, it quickly became obvious how much extra flexibility it gave us in patching communication mics across, or sending FOH special effects back to monitors, without needing an XLR return core,” said Schwark.

Meanwhile, Fenton has been running two fibres out of his Optocore linked to FOH, which is effectively merging two MADI streams. The DiGiCo SD-Rack, which provides inputs for mics (as well as live keyboards), is connected to the monitor console via BNC MADI cables, with full control over gains. from the monitor desk. A second MADI output on the SD-Rack feeds one of the DD4ME inputs, to be picked up by FOH and the recording output. “We decided early on that gain control from FOH is not required, as we only have a few mics anyway and rarely change their gains.”

Schwark continued: “Optocore is our entire backbone. It allows me to patch everything through the network. I connect both of the consoles’ ports to the network, as well as my peripherals, and can now use the desk’s builtin tricks for virtual soundchecks for, say, 40 recorded channels, while still connecting to my reverb engines and analyser software on the higher-numbered channels.”

A GIANT PROJECTION SURFACE The initial idea behind the visual design was to have a completely open stage, but this soon

56

evolved. “The start of the show features gauze number one, which goes up for the first three tracks and almost acts as a TV screen for the guys to perform behind,” said Stone. “There is a box around the band for the first four songs and then when the kabuki falls away, it becomes semi-open and the projection screen comes into play as our venetian blind closes.”

One of the stars of the show, Stone pointed out, is the venetian blind bespoke set piece created by Total Solutions. “It’s fully automated and retracts on itself for storage in festivals, whilst offering a tilt function. It is fully independent over four surfaces so the basic premise is for the first three acts of the show it’s a projection screen and then in the fourth we have drop trusses behind with molefay strobes and some hard edged moving lights. It’s like a big wall of light - aka ‘the blast shield’.”

Another gag within the show were the rolling set piece performance spaces. “On one side there’s an upright bed, which the boys stand in. We put a duvet around the front and then we map it so we project on the front. Later they revolve to become dance booths,” he said.

Total Solutions’ main brief was to invent a giant projection surface that disappears in the blink of an eye to reveal a wall of lights and strobes and then to return as if by magic.

“The venetian or V Blinds as they became known had to be invented as nothing on this scale previously existed,” said Chris Cronin, Total Solutions Group CEO. “We used as much of the standard concept as possible, but beyond that

there was a lot of trial and a bit of error.”

Total Solutions used DC motors to drive the rotation of the blinds, which were linked to computerised drive modules that accept DMX inputs. The limits - both max speed and movement - were pre-set by the Total Solutions team so LD Rob Sinclair could control these parameters from a fader on his lighting desk.

“One of the trickiest things was finding a wire that was light and flexible enough to support all blades - which are 3m long by 200mm deep - and strong enough to rotate them all simultaneously,” added Cronin. “We eventually discovered a shark fishing line with a breaking strain of 100kg. The line is thinner than a guitar string so it’s not visible to the naked eye. This makes the blades look like they are floating in mid air.”

APPEARING IN A DREAM Electric is the second show Lighting Designer, Rob Sinclair, has lit for the Pet Shop Boys after being brought in by previous Production Manager, Joe Sanchez, for Pandemonium.

“Their shows are not a normal pop show - it’s an unusual combination of concert, West End musical and art installation,” said Sinclair. “You have to treat it differently from a normal rock show. Everything is very well thought out and nothing is left to chance.”

Show Designer, Es Devlin, contacted Sinclair in January with a brief - stating she didn’t want to go with a conventional design or use moving lights. “The idea was that this show would be

ON THE ROAD: Pet Shop Boys Below: Show Designer, Es Devlin, wanted to avoid a conventional show design.

very projection based and the lighting would burst through occasionally - so that’s what we did for most of the show. The production is in four acts with four very different feels. The usual constraints of a show that’s projection based is the level of projections has to be the thing below which everything else sits,” said Sinclair.

The LD wanted to take fixtures that were small, bright, light and that could be packed into a small space for freight. “We came across the new Clay Paky Sharpy Washes and 12 of them go around the world with us. Otherwise I have 25 Sharpys and then we have 16 QWO 800’s, 30 Martin Professional MAC Auras along with Reel EFX DF50’s and ZR44’s. As most equipment is specified locally we had to think of something I could replicate in the Philippines or Germany,” he explained.

Colour throughout the lighting design was dictated by video in the vibrant and popinfluenced show. “It’s a very primary and bright production. Our lighting supplier, Neg Earth, with the help of Julian Lavendar, gave us Mike Bowerman - my crew chief,” the LD explained.

“It’s also a source of constant amazement for me that we have a venetian blind with a web server in it!”

Sinclair worked closely with Es Devlin, Content Creator, Luke Halls, the team from ER Productions and Projectionist, Jack James. “They were fantastic and tied it together so the lights, lasers and video sit together very well,” he commented. “I’ve been very proud to be part of this. I learn an enormous amount from Es - she has a fantastic eye and approaches things in a different way. Due to her background in opera and theatre it feels tremendously refreshing to work with her on a rock or pop show because she has this different viewpoint to steer me in directions I wouldn’t have thought of before.”

Sinclair operated the lighting from a Jands 58

Vista S1 desk, his console of choice for eight years. “I know how it works and it is important you can use a desk quickly. Production rehearsal time is expensive and you need to be able to work efficiently and respond to changes quickly,” he explained. “The show runs to timecode so nothing is left to chance. We do some very complicated things - video coming in and out quickly in synch with lighting and the same with lasers,” added Sinclair.

The draping and gauze were also crucial to the show’s visual appeal, highlighted Sinclair. The drapes were printed by Service Graphics with the band’s custom circuit board designs drawn by Es Devlin’s associate Chiara Stephenson. “The front gauze gives us our reveal and shrouds the band in mystery for the first few songs - they describe themselves as ‘appearing in a dream’,” he said.

IMMERSED IN VIDEO “Really Creative Media has worked with the Pet Shop Boys since the launch of Elysium last year.

The production agency specialises in integrating creative content from all formats including graphics, video or social media feeds into live events, with a technical team that works alongside production teams and set designers to make the technical elements happen.

Recent projects include the creation of 3D and motion graphic content and live camera capture for Capital Rocks at London’s Roundhouse. For the Pet Shop Boys tour, the company worked alongside the production team to get their ideas on stage, putting the systems in place for all video playback and projection.

“Video has always been a key element in any Pet Shop Boys show - and this one is no exception. The content is truly spectacular thanks to the creative talents of Luke Halls, the

Content Designer who interprets the visions of the electronic pop duo perfectly,” said James.

“We worked closely with Luke to put the show together, syncing the sections in time with the music to military precision, as being just a frame of two off can drastically affect the performance for the audience.”

All content for the show was projected, mapping onto a variety of surfaces including gauzes, set items and the back wall built to look like an enormous venetian blind, which opens and closes as part of the show. The gauzes were strategically placed around the stage to help the performers to become immersed in the video content, as well as the audience.

“We’re using five Panasonic DZ21Ks, which are from the manufacturer’s flagship 20k series, sourced along with all of the playback and distribution from Creative Technology, which has worked with the group for years.

They perform well and have been built with the touring environment in mind, from the size and weight of the design through to the good remote control options and easy remote monitoring systems for factors like temperature, which as the tour travels to increasingly hot climes has been essential,” said James.

Video was controlled using Catalyst and Resolume media servers for playback. These were locked to timecode, driven by the audio production and Ableton Live for extra sequenced control - and the opportunity to busk a little if the set list changed. “Using a Blackmagic Design HDSDI matrix system and OpenGear conversion frames, we run each projector from an individual feed enabling total control over the multiple line ups within the media servers. This is critical for getting everything set up quickly and easier than doing the same in the hardware itself,” said James.

“Working with Resolume - this is our first

ON THE ROAD: Pet Shop Boys

Below: The Electric production was full of energy and colour; Panasonic DZ21k projectors were selected for the shows; Video equipment was supplied by Creative Technology.

serious outing with it - has been great. It’s so quick to line up and really responsive. It’s changed so much since the original VJing tool it was when I first used it years ago. It’s a serious contender. We follow the timecode of the audio, which is the backbone of the production, keeping everything together. Synchronisation is important within such a video heavy show.

“Space and weight has been a challenge we’ve had to be very economical with servers to save space. We’ve done that using Datapath X4 units to get several outputs from one server.

Typically this process takes slightly longer to perfect, but is more reliable once complete so worth the extra programming time.”

Stone continued to explain the video aspects

of the show: “We’re doing something really interesting with the side screens because Rob and I came up with the idea of using Catalyst on the IMAG. So we use some things in the main content as masks on the screen. Instead of it just being a general IMAG screen where you see an image magnification, it makes it more personal to the show.

“For example, Neil performs inside a masking silhouette of his head with the IMAG appearing inside. It makes it part of the show without taking people’s eyes too much away from the main performance.”

“Blue Leach directed the IMAG at the UK shows and did a fantastic job with such little time,” added Sinclair.

A DISTINCT VISUAL STYLE Creative Director for the Electric visual content was Treatment Visual Productions’ Luke Halls, who worked in unison with Producer, Sam Pattinson, and Production Manager, Rhyannon Hanbury-Aggs. The animation team was made up of Dave Shepherd, Damian Hale, Bruno Casterello, Chris Krupa and Warren Chapman.

Meanwhile, video promo work was created by Producers, Pattinson and Kristin Rathje; Video Directors, Luke Halls and Judge Greenaway; Cinematographer, Frank Dow and Production Manager, Hanbury-Aggs.

Show Director, Es Devlin, initially storyboarded her vision of the show and approached Treatment to discuss working

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ON THE ROAD: Pet Shop Boys

Below: Total Solutions crafted the bespoke venetian blind projection surface; Unusual visual effects were deployed so the duo were displayed on IMAG screens inside masks in the shape of their own heads.

these into the projected environment. “We had worked on their Pandemonium tour and knew they have a distinct visual style we wanted to stay true to,” said Halls.

“We’ve worked with Es many times before and we’re particularly pleased the content stayed true to her original vision whilst we contributed our own visual style to build the look of the show. Rob Sinclair did a great job working around the limitations of the projections with his lighting design.”

The aim was to capture as much of the content as possible in camera during an intensive four-day shoot, which was a real departure for Treatment. This led to a lot of time and care being put into the shoot prep, which meant post production was lighter than usual. “We created around 16 pieces - each containing a bespoke choreographed dance sequence designed exclusively for the video content by Choreographer, Lynne Page,” continued Halls.

This tour was a leap forward in quantity of video content, with three of four acts almost end-to-end video. “Neil and Chris were involved throughout the creative process, it was a compliment they asked us to rework ideas from the tour for the Axis music video,” said Halls.

The main challenge was getting all shoots shot on time and in budget. “They were very ambitious with four long intense days to shoot everything and then the first show two and a half weeks later. The whole production time from concept to delivery was just over five weeks,” explained Halls.

Treatment was proud of the intro and first song One More Chance as it was a technically challenging shoot. “We enlisted Immersive to track the dancers’ movements using infra red and projected content over them whilst rear projecting the background behind to create outlines, enabling us to project a separate image on the dancers to the background. We then re-projected that over the 3D head scans of Neil and Chris, creating a unique visual which would be hard to recreate digitally.”

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INCLUSIVE LASER DESIGN “Where the lasers are used the lighting’s dimmed and no video is used so it all fits in really well,” said ER Productions, Marc Webber.

ER Productions first provided lasers for the band during their Mexico show a couple of months before the tour. “It wasn’t going to be part of the show design, but one of them must have liked what they’d seen and asked us to come back to talk about the tour,” he added.

Marc Webber operated the lasers alongside Andrew Turner, creating the spectacular effects using eight Tripan 8.5W white lasers along with two 21W white lights facing towards the audience from the stage and from the edges up in the seating area. One more 21W laser also pointed towards the stage. Sinclair decided the songs he wanted lasers to feature in - which this time around were six from the set - before ER Productions began programming and worked out what fits in best with the music.

“Rob doesn’t like lasers creating a barrier between the audience and artist or for the artist to stand behind a load of lasers,” said Webber.

“He wanted them to be inclusive for the artist.

The venetian blind at the back made positioning of lasers difficult. You can only put so many heads on the side and it’s pointless putting loads next to each other so we made specially designed white covers that slip over the lasers, allowing us to put systems in the middle of the stage as well.”

Like every show, safety is at the forefront when ER Productions creates effects.

“Manchester is the only city in England that won’t allow you to do diffraction beams into the audience. The show still looks impressive, but that last bit of audience participation is not there. When putting beams into the audience in London we have to measure the power output of each laser into the audience at the closest point so when we run the show it’s safe for the human eye,” said Webber.

During programming one difficulty revolved around the lasers low down on the back of the stage. “This meant we couldn’t use those at the

same time as dancers were in front of them. We need to think about safety of the audience and performers because it’s quite a powerful laser.”

Stone, who used lasers for the first time on a gig, commented on that element of the show: “Rob has used ER before and when we used lasers in one Mexico show everyone was blown away. The Pet Shop Boys said they wanted lasers so we integrated them into the show.

“We also have confetti from cannons in the pit and four spinners on the front truss. The combination of confetti from the floor and above is great. Pyro was supplied by Pyrovision and we supplied the custom PSB orange cone confetti.”

LOGISTICAL MATTERS On a typical show day Matthew Gurney, Stage Manager, juggles loading in, helping build the set, running timings during the show for cues and calls, marshaling the load-out and ensuring everything is packed into the correct trucks. “If we go abroad then the team need to make sure we have the right amount on each palette and the weight’s right,” he said.

Although Gurney has been in the industry for years, obstacles arise occasionally. “The difficulty logistically is getting everything built in the correct order so you can do the four planes of projection line ups and mapping in time,” he said.

Working closely with Gurney was Carpenter, Michael Maguire (George Michael, Metallica and Paul McCartney), who joined the tour through his connection with Total Solutions. “A general day for me involves setting up the stage, fascias and kabukis with a bit of pyro mixed in,” he said.

“I build two beds and the fascias across the four trusses and then the big venetian blind at the back of the stage. This takes between four hours and all day.”

For Maguire, the different venues visited can test the crew. “We just visited South America, which had various styles of venue, from theatres to concert halls,” he explained. “The venetian is very delicate too so you have to be careful.

It’s heavy so six guys are needed to lift it. The

ON THE ROAD: Pet Shop Boys

Below: The NEXO STM system produced smooth and consistent sound; Distinctive outfits coupled with dancers carrying out complex routines supported the Pet Shop Boys’ performance.

venetian is unlike anything I’ve worked with before - it’s very well made but it’s delicate.”

During rehearsals, Load Cell Rental’s Colin Luke headed down to Millennium Studios, to complete a weight report on the custom elements of the flown production. With the band playing a series of festivals, it was important to have an independently certified weight of the items that would be installed for each show. LCR also weighed various combinations of lighting fixtures, giving a clear picture of the total weight to be hung.

Cells were installed on each point at load in, and readings we taken throughout the rehearsal period, allowing a comprehensive report to

be produced. “The independent nature of the report, backed by calibration certificates and appropriate insurance, removes any doubt when negotiating the installation of touring production elements into a festival,” said Luke.

ICONIC STYLE As anyone who has attended a Pet Shop Boys’ live production will know, extravagant outfits are key. The man behind the unique, wacky and vibrant creations is Costume Designer, Jeffrey Bryant. “It all began when I went to an open casting for one of their videos in 1991. There were about 50 other dancers auditioning and I was in these mad clothes. They liked the way I

looked and even though I couldn’t dance I got the job making their costumes based on my outfit,” said Bryant.

“I started making clothing for them on the Discovery tour in 1994 and worked constantly for them since 1999. They wanted mad outfits and we bounced ideas back and forth. They’ve always had an iconic style. We’re the same age group and have the same interest in designers.”

One example of Bryant’s handiwork on this tour are his jackets made completely from straws - an idea that has been in the back of his mind for some time and was evolved into a design that was both practical and not too heavy. “The first one we made you couldn’t actually move in

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ON THE ROAD: Pet Shop Boys

Below: Incredible laser effects that engulfed the entire venue were the handiwork of the ER Productions team.

so this is the revised version,” he added. “Once they have it on they need to be able to sing so that’s why the area under the arm has cuts in it.

“The Pet Shop Boys want to push boundaries really. I source my materials from a range of places, but try to keep it economical.

Some costumes are made from £1 a metre fabric from the market.

Sometimes we use absurdly expensive £8 per metre fabric though. I also use industrial high-vis road sweepers wear - it’s hard to tailor, but the colour is so neon intensive because it’s high-vis.”

COMPANIES YOU CAN RELY ON Although Fly By Nite had worked with PM, Stone, on Hoosiers’ and James’ shows, amongst others, Electric was the first time the company had been involved in the Pet Shop Boys’ tour.

The company had one truck out for the run of festivals and first shows. However, when the tour visited London and Manchester five extra trucks were added. “We are then involved in all European shows that can be trucked - pretty integral as if the truck does not make it to any of the shows then they simply won’t happen,” said Managing Director, David Coumbe.

Stone said: “I’ve never used 62

another trucking supplier - they’re a company you can rely on and know will deliver a perfect service.”

Stone first met bussing supplier Mike Moulds from MM Band Services when he was touring with The Hoosiers in 2007. “They were having a very successful year and Mike’s company was recommended to me. It worked so well - he’s adding to his fleet all the time and has really nice drivers and buses - you can’t ask for any more than that when it come to a home on wheels.”

The Sound Moves team responsible for freighting comprised Tour Principal, Andy Lovell, and Paul Jones, who will be overseeing all freight operations when the tour enters Asia throughout August.

TPi Photography: Zoe Mutter www.petshopboys.co.uk www.ct-group.com www.negearth.co.uk www.capital-sound.co.uk www.trussing.com www.er-productions.com www.treatmentstudio.com www.mmbandservices.co.uk www.flybynite.co.uk www.eattothebeat.com www.pyro-vision.com www.loadcellrental.com www.soundmoves.com

BIGGER. BRIGHTER. LOUDER.

PLASA London will take place at ExCeL London for the first time from 6-9 October 2013.

New products, world-class speakers, co-located conferences & special events, live demo areas and networking.

ExCeL is a world-class venue located 5 minutes from London City Airport. It is within easy reach of Central London via the Jubilee line and DLR train services. For more info on how to get there, check out the interactive guides on our website.

NEW FOR 2013:

See website for details www.plasashow.com

OBITUARY: Mark Fisher

MARK FISHER: THE CREATIVE FORCE BEHIND THE INDUSTRY’S MOST ICONIC PRODUCTIONS THE LIVE EVENT INDUSTRY LOST A TRUE VISIONARY AND ONE OF ITS MOST PROMINENT CREATIVE FIGURES ON 25 JUNE WHEN LEGENDARY SET AND STAGE DESIGNER AND ARCHITECT, MARK FISHER, PASSED AWAY IN HIS SLEEP AGED 66, WITH HIS WIFE CRISTINA BY HIS SIDE. TPi SPEAKS TO THOSE WHO KNEW THE TALENTED DESIGNER OR WERE INFLUENCED BY HIS PHENOMENAL CREATIONS. Born in Warwickshire, Fisher graduated from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in 1971 before setting up the Fisher Park Partnership with Jonathan Park in 1984. A decade later Fisher launched his studio, Stufish, after which he went on to design the stage sets for some of the biggest artists on the planet including Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, U2, Tina Turner, Elton John, Peter Gabriel and Madonna. Other highlights from a glittering and innovative career include the 2012 Diamond Jubilee Concert, the opening ceremony for the 2010 Asian Games and opening and closing ceremonies for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Fisher was also an Executive Producer for one of this country’s most iconic live events - the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

Through his masterpieces of live design, Fisher has been responsible for defining the rock ‘n’ roll spectacular over the past three decades. His creations were not only elaborate and unique, they pushed the boundaries in 64

terms of size and vision to give audiences an unforgettable show that would be imprinted on their memories for decades to come.

Not many event industry professionals can say they’ve created a four-legged Claw structure for U2, produced the monumental staging for Roger Waters’ The Wall or a giant moving medieval castle for Lady Gaga, but these were the sort of truly spectacular and bespoke designs the creative genius’s imagination produced, much to the delight of peers and fans.

Fisher’s studio, Stufish, said in a statement on the company website: “Mark’s work as a set designer and artistic director has transformed the landscape of rock concerts and large scale events over the last 25 years. Together with his practice Stufish, Mark created the groundbreaking designs for all the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and U2 tours for two decades as well as scores of other artists all over the world. As well as his work in live music performance he also created designs for theatre productions and musical theatre including We Will Rock You, and Ka and Viva

Elvis for Cirque du Soleil. He was the senior designer for the Beijing Olympics Opening and Closing Ceremonies and was one of the three executive producers at the London 2012 Games ceremonies. His work influenced not only the colleagues and crews with whom he worked but also surprised and delighted the many millions of people who experienced his designs all over the world.”

TPi asked friends and colleagues to pay tribute to one of the live industry’s most influential stage designers...

“We are all extremely saddened to hear of the death of our dear friend Mark Fisher. The remarkable sets he designed for us over the last two decades played a major part in the success of all those tours. His passion, dedication and professionalism was infectious.

“We all loved his dry sense of humour and unflappable demeanour. A quietly soft spoken genius, Mark will be sorely missed - not only by us, but by every single member of ours and any crew he worked with.

“Our sincere condolences go to his wife and family.”

The Rolling Stones

OBITUARY: Mark Fisher

Opposite: Mark Fisher has been responsible for creating some of the most exceptional examples of live design the industry has ever seen. Below: Stageco’s Hedwig de Meyer presented the 2008 TPi Lifetime Contribution Award to Fisher; The designer played a crucial role in Roger Waters’ The Wall; The Rolling Stones’ A Bigger Bang tour stage was designed by Fisher; Fisher with one of the puppets from The Wall in 1980; The infamous Lemon from U2’s Fisher-designed PopMart tour of 1997.

“I first met Mark in the early 1980s. I would be present during many design meetings ahead of some of the largest tours of the time. I would sit and admire the beautiful simplistic sweeps of Mark’s fountain pen across the blank paper after those present had been discussing ideas for an hour or so. Within seconds the ideas and and hopes of those present would materialise before our eyes. Mark was a genius at listening and converting ideas into reality. Mark was one of the most charming, funny and professional people I have ever had the privilege to work with. I will miss him and our whole industry will be a poorer place without him.”

Dave Keighley, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Syncrolite LLC “Rock ‘n’ roll just lost its Steve Jobs.”

Willie Williams, Stage and Lighting Designer “We have lost one of the greatest designers in the history of live events. Without ever knowing his name, millions have experienced the spectacular stages conceived by Mark Fisher. In the biz, he was recognised without question as the preeminent master of the genre.

Those of us who were fortunate enough to work with Fisher directly saw his creative genius unfold with every new idea. In a perfect blend of artistry and function, his elegant designs belied their inner complexity.

“With his intuitive sense of scale, his concepts were a lighting designer’s dream and a set builder’s challenge. Fisher, with his dry sense of humour, was the consummate diplomat, deftly guiding the most fickle of clients to a result that enhanced without overshadowing.

“As a friend he was generous, patient, funny, modest, sincere, honest, and sarcastic in a kind way.

Architect. Artist. Sage. Words alone cannot describe

his talent. His work speaks for him. It will live on as inspiration for the next generation of designers and as the benchmark against which they shall be judged. Long live rock and roll.”

Michael Tait, Founder, TAIT “For my entire career in rock ‘n’ roll I have been honoured and privileged to work with Mark Fisher.

Without a doubt, he was the most intellectual and inspirational person one could hope to meet. He was dedicated and passionate about everything he produced and he transformed the world of staging in concert touring from its embryonic stages to the amazing spectaculars that are now produced the world over.

“Without his drive, insight and architectural background our industry would never have produced such incredible wonders as the Stones’ Voodoo Lounge and U2’s 360°. Mark was both professionally and personally tremendously supportive; a true north in our sometimes seemly chaotic world. To paraphrase a few words from Angels by Robbie Williams, ‘I know he won’t forsake me, I’m loving angels instead…’

“Peace be with you Mark.”

Carol Scott, Tait Technologies COO “Like everyone else, I was saddened to hear of the passing of Mark Fisher. Although we knew he was ill, it was still a huge shock for all of us. We have all seen the letter on what Mark meant to our industry, but to me he was more than that so I would like to speak a little about Mark the person.

“I first met Mark in the early ‘80s, I was working for Murray Head and Mark was designing the show. A small show which involved Murray being fired out of a cannon and landing in a net at the other end of the arena. Of course we never launched Murray, but it gave a great

insight to the mind of Mark.

“Years later, when I got the position as Production Manager on the Rolling Stones I met Mark again, and he really helped me get used to the larger shows - and I think he took me under his wing. Since then I had the good fortune to work with Mark on the Stones, U2, Tina Turner, AC/DC, Madonna and a few others.

“He changed the way that groups and people looked at the design of shows. I will miss him as a designer, but more than that I will miss the person that was Mark Fisher.”

Jake Berry, Production Manager “I first met Mark Fisher in 1980 during the run of Pink Floyd’s The Wall shows at Earls Court. It was a brief encounter, but one that instantly opened my mind to the possibilities of show design. Many years later, it was Mark’s innovative work that inspired my own vision for a new production industry publication called Total Production International.

“From the start, Mark was tremendously supportive of TPi and was generous with his time and advice, as well as allowing rare access to his enormous archive of set drawings and photography. When the immediate shock of Mark’s passing began to subside, I looked back on the many adventures I shared on the road in America and Europe with photographer Diana Scrimgeour, as we documented Mark’s landmark design projects for TPi. “Our interviews with him were educational and hilarious in equal measures, and I’ll remember those times as a golden period. Mark was a real gentleman with a rare intelligence and a sharp wit beyond compare. He will always be remembered with affection as a giant of the live industry.”

Mark Cunningham, Co-Founder & former Editor-in-Chief, TPi 65

OBITUARY: Mark Fisher

Below: Fisher took to the stage at the 2008 TPi Awards; Pink Floyd’s The Division Bell tour was architecturally realised by the designer; Fisher had a long history with the Rolling Stones, working on many tours including 1997 Bridges To Babylon production; He also produced the stage set design for the Millennium Show; A drawing for The Wall, 1979.

“For me, most of the ‘90s were taken up with building Mark’s monumental stagesets. Mark was a joy to work with and a lovely man, his loss to the industry is deeply profound.”

Charlie Kail, Consultant and Set Designer “We’ve lost a colleague, a collaborator and a friend.

And in the wider world artists and audiences across the planet have lost the genius of this incredibly gifted, courageous and decent man. Someone said to me the other day, ‘What are we going to do now that Mark has gone?’, and the answer is that I have no idea. Just keep going, I suppose. But perhaps now we’ll see life a little differently as we view it through the unique prism of Mark’s imagination. I just wish he was still around to take a wicked delight in all the fuss he’s caused...”

Patrick Woodroffe, Lighting Designer “Mark had a remarkable talent and his premature death is a great loss to the industry and the wider world.

“He was a quiet, gentle man within a brash business and he taught us all how to behave. He was highly intelligent and possessed a subtle sense of humour, a generosity of spirit and a strong sense of loyalty.

“Inside, he had a will of steel and he pushed, to the very limits, what was achievable within the time restraints of temporary structures. He was a trained architect and knew what was possible; he knew what he wanted and persisted until he got it. The companies that fabricated his fabulous sets adored him and the crews who took his stuff on the road had nothing but greatest respect for him; as did all his clients of course.

“Without doubt, he took the whole visual aspect of major events up to a previously unimagined level.”

Brian Croft, Retired CEO Vari-Lite Europe “From rock music’s evolution, from clubs and pubs 66

into arenas and stadiums, Mark brought his very own inventive, architectural mind to some of the most spectacular shows ever created with music. When we worked together on the Millennium project, Mark was always interesting, challenging and supportive.

Although the collaboration with him was pitting one strong minded, obstinate character against another, I grew very fond of him.”

Peter Gabriel “He was a unique mind and seemed to achieve the seemingly impossible time after time, an artistic, technical and architectural pioneer. From early in his career he understood that in stadiums it was possible to shrink their scale to genuinely make an audience feel important and inclusive, time after time giving them something new and totally inspired. He was the Andy Warhol of production and every bit as important.”

Simon Duff, Industry Journalist “R.I.P Mark Fisher, music’s greatest architect. He will be missed.”

Robbie Williams “Mark Fisher was a 20-21st century icon who will be remembered through the works he created for his long list of world renowned clients. His sets bolstered and empowered his clients to project their personas and display their talents far beyond what they might have done alone. Over the last many years he transformed the performance art form from the mediocre and the mundane to a higher level of experience. From intimate arenas to grand cavernous stadiums, audiences around the world will measure their lives by the shows they saw that carried them away. Mark’s visions help make that possible.

Mark was very much a thinking man and relied on

his mechanical insight to work out all the problems with a set or structure before he released it for development by a vendor. Mark also mentored many aspiring designers to go beyond themselves.

“He did this in his basic love of architecture too, with imaginative designs for the next generation to have as memorable cornerstones in their lives. He was a remarkable man and one I was privileged to call my friend. I am so thankful our paths crossed and I will miss him.”

Richard Hartman, Production Coordinator “Brilliant Stages and I have had the privilege of working with Mark and Stufish for the last 20 years. Mark showed humour, professionalism and calmness during the most challenging of projects. Working closely with Mark he became a friend and a mentor to me personally and I will miss him greatly. Our thoughts and sympathy go out to his wife Cristina and his dedicated team at Stufish.”

Tony Bowern, General Manager, Brilliant Stages “Mark was an extremely special man to both me personally and our industry. Mark was the most inspired and deliberate set architect in the history of rock and roll. Every element of his designs played a distinct role in creating a performance experience that highlighted artists and enveloped concert goers with unexpected surprises. He was a once in a lifetime industry icon who will be sorely missed. My heart goes out to Cristina and the Stufish team. Rest in peace my friend. You touched so many with your quiet but bigger than life demeanour.”

Mitch Clark, Founder of TOMCAT GLOBAL TPi

INBOX OBITUARY: STEVE WATSON

AUDIO ENGINEER AND PRODUCTION MANAGER, STEVE WATSON, REMEMBERED Steve Watson, a well respected and much loved audio engineer and production manager, sadly passed away on Sunday 23 June. Steve had been working with Capital Sound on the Killers’ Wembley Stadium production when he was taken ill on the day of the show.

After being attended to by medics at the stadium, Steve was subsequently taken to hospital where he underwent an operation. Sadly Steve suffered a heart attack on the Sunday afternoon. A Thanksgiving and memorial service was held on 18 July at St Bartholomew’s Church, Hyde, Winchester. Steve’s family, paid tribute, saying: “Steve was such a big part of our family and we are still in denial and finding it hard to accept that he has really gone. We will miss him always.”

Those who knew or had worked with Steve have been deeply saddened that the industry has lost such a vibrant character and talented engineer. TPi spoke to some of the people wanting to pay their respects to a man who will be sorely missed...

“Whilst he was not a regular here at Capital, he had worked with us on numerous projects over the past 10 years and was a top guy in every way, both with his engineering skills and his lovable character. Steve was due to join up with his good friends at RG Jones for the Glastonbury Festival Pyramid stage on Sunday 23 June.

Steve was working on one of our largest projects ever undertaken, he was working for us because we wanted the best. Steve was the best at what he did, a true professional in every way. Steve had a great character and will be missed by many, including everyone here at Capital Sound that has had the privilege to work with him and our thoughts are with his family.”

Paul Timmins, Capital Sound “Steve was very much a part of our RG Jones family and will be hugely missed. My experience of him was that he had an amazing sense of humour with a Muttley snigger, a strange obsession with badgers and his mixing talents extended to producing the perfect cocktail. His relationship with RG Jones spans back over many years, he has been an integral part of our crews, a great teacher to our youths and attended every knees up - from raft building to iceskating, he was always at the centre of it. There will always be an empty seat… and his well known motto ‘Don’t be lost when the time

comes’ will resound with us forever.”

Sarah Muggleton, Director, RG Jones “R.I.P. my great friend Steve Watson, our wonderful monitor engineer and production manager.”

Nitin Sawhney “Above all, Steve was my friend. As a fellow noisy, there are very few others I can think of who I would rather have at the other end of a multicore. We have enjoyed each other’s company on shows of every kind of madness, from the Nolans to the Olympic Stadium, via martian invasions and whatever bizarre sonic lunacy Henley Festival could throw at us. Everything about Steve was solid, physically, professionally and metaphorically. For every tour bus we shared, there was always a wine society, for every day off, there was always a restaurant to be investigated.

One of Steve’s favourite expressions was ‘Now then, what have we learned from all this?’. Well mate, I think we’ve learnt that life is precious, let’s make the most of it and look after ourselves, our loved ones and those around us, and try and maintain a balance between this crazy industry and all it demands, and the other things in life that are important. Oh, and don’t be lost when the time comes.”

Simon Honywill, RG Jones

and colleagues alike. He was always at the centre of whatever was happening and his legendary mixing skills were not limited to the purely audio variety.

I had the privilege of working with Steve on a diverse variety of shows, worldwide. Wherever he went, his professionalism, warmth, humour, and bear hugs were a constant part of everything that he was involved with.

Steve will be greatly missed throughout the industry and my thoughts go out to his family. In Steve’s own words: ‘Don’t be lost when the time comes’.“ Ali Viles, Sound Engineer “Having known Steve for many years, we faced the frustrations of the Olympic experience together (including the pedestrian and cycling regulations), finding back routes via the Regents canal to get on site and enjoyed many happy evenings unwinding at the waterside pub near our digs. Always wise and able to draw on his life experience with calmness and humour, he is sorely missed.”

Richard Sharratt, Sound Engineer

“Steve was one of the few UK engineers that frequently worked for Ampco, on major touring shows and most of the Womad festivals worldwide. Due to his humour, skills and reliability, but more over for his attitute towards clients and fellow crew members, he was beloved and respected. The news of his tragic death has left us speechless...“ Fred Heuves, Former CMO Ampco Flashlight Group “I’ve worked, laughed, ate, drank, talked, joked and traveled around the world with Steve for 22 years. He was a very gentle person who we all loved at Ampco, he will be missed on future shows and we’re all shocked that he passed away so quickly. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends.“ Dieter van Denzel, Ampco-Holland “Steve was a great friend and colleague and an exceedingly talented engineer. His love of life and jovial approach to it was infectious to friends, crew

A tribute was paid to Steve Watson on the big screen during this year’s Glastonbury Festival.

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IN THE SPOTLIGHT: TAIT

TAIT’S CONSTELLATION SERIES TAIT’S CONSTELLATION SERIES OF CONSOLES WERE LAUNCHED AT LAST YEAR’S LDI SHOW IN LAS VEGAS TO AN ENCOURAGING RECEPTION. 10 MONTHS ON, THE CONSOLE DESIGN HAS GONE FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH. TPi’S KELLY MURRAY SPOKE TO KEVIN TAYLOR, PRESIDENT OF AUTOMATION AND JIMMY LOVE, DIRECTOR OF R&D, PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT, TO GET THE BEHIND THE SCENES VIEW ON THE AUTOMATION WORLD’S LATEST CONTROLLER. The Constellation Control Console was developed around the idea of modularity and the ability to serve small to large-scale applications in various markets. The basic console includes a QNX server, Windows GUI, a console and an E-stop controller combined into one product. Based on the architecture of the Navigator system, the console serves as a user-friendly tool for communicating with other control nodes on the network. It contains two computers that utilise separate power systems to provide redundancy.

The concept for the Constellation control console series arose because TAIT wanted to improve on its previous automation system.

“The console is the first product in the new automation control line and offers many new key features. We included more efficient realtime feedback, an upgrade of our safety features, a sleek new modular / scalable design enclosure, and touchscreen interface with 68

customisable controls - making the operator’s job much easier,” said President of Automation, Kevin Taylor.

“We combined several of our current products into one compact unit, as a way of simplifying and upgrading the unit allowing our clients to do more with less equipment.

Every show varies in scale and scope, so we challenged ourselves to design a console that accommodates every show no matter the size or complexity. The basic console is small enough to fit in a standard rack enclosure and is typically used for smaller shows. For larger applications the console is designed to link together additional consoles mechanically and electrically - making a larger operating system,” he continued.

A high power Windows computer with multiple monitor outputs runs the Navigator GUI, 3D on the built-in 15.3-inch widescreen.

The second computer, a high power QNX machine, provides both server and Navigator

functions, outputting to the built-in 7-inch screen. With the QNX server, the console reports realtime feedback from each node.

The system redundancy within the console is achieved by two separate operating systems should either system fail or need to be reset, the second is able to provide user feedback during the down time.

If desired, additional options can be added to the Constellation by adding various Polaris units. They can be easily linked together, electrically and mechanically, to form a more customised operator interface. Consoles are typically set on a tabletop, with the handles attached for ease in mobility. A Constellation, with the handles removed, can also fit into a standard rack enclosure on a pull-out tray.

Two types of integrated monitor mounts are available; a stationary mount with up-down tilt may be used with an 18.5-inch monitor or an articulating arm mount may be used in conjunction with a 23-inch touch screen.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: TAIT

Opposite: The console series was launched at LDI in 2012 to a great response. Below: Jimmy Love, Director of R&D; The console can be adapted to the the operator’s live environment, depending on the size of the event; President of Automation, Kevin Taylor; The console series boasts a two axis joystick.

Standard desktop monitors may also be used.

As the live market continues to grow with artists and production companies pushing the boundary, TAIT wanted to meet and exceed that demand with top of the line products with an emphasis on safety. R&D Director, Jimmy Love, furthered: “The console is a tool that every operator will use to control safety systems, system configuration, running cues, moving equipment, etc. It’s used during load-in, set-up, rehearsals, the show, and load-out. Its scalability offers proficiency in live production shows with one axis of motion or 200 axes of motion.”

LDI 2012, held in Las Vegas, was the first reveal of the new console to the public and TAIT had a lot of positive and valuable feedback. “It was exciting for us. The feedback opened the door for us to expand on many of the features and make the product better as a whole. Everyone liked the customisable hardware controls where the operator has the choice between a two axis joystick, LCD screen buttons, an encoder wheel and a jog wheel with enable button, and could choose to have certain components on the right or left,” Love stated.

All consoles in this line make use of the

same custom steel enclosure with angled sides to allow for ventilation between linked consoles. The surface of the console is covered in high strength Gorilla glass while the body and handles are black, creating sleek, simple design aesthetic while remaining easy to clean and maintain. To ensure safe operation, each joystick has an enable button integrated into it to prevent accidental movement. The main internal electrical components have been protected by colour coded steel enclosures for ease of maintenance and troubleshooting. An illuminated, red emergency stop button and yellow Reset button are located in the upper left hand corner, four macro buttons spread out across the top edge.

The team at TAIT believe this product stands out due to its modularity and scalable application. “The top surface components are the only parts that change. This allows us to get our clients what they want in a short amount of time. The electrical components are also identical among the different consoles, certain components are just removed if they aren’t needed,” said Love.

With FTSI’s experience in the permanent installation world and software industry, and

TAIT’s expertise with touring live shows, Taylor and Love believe they’ve created a product that can facilitate a variety of markets and applications. “Constellation is one of several new products in our new control product line.

We’ve developed new rack mount enclosures, handheld controllers and a slew of other products to go along with the console series.

The new aesthetic is rugged, tactical and stealth black. We focused on developing our products around the idea of portability, modularity and scalability. Since these products are developed around the same core ideas, they look and work really well together,” concluded Taylor.

TPi www.taittowers.com

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COMPANY PROFILE: Quantum

IN PROFILE: QUANTUM SPECIAL EFFECTS IT’S NOT VERY OFTEN THAT A YOUNG COMPANY CAN BOAST AN ACHIEVEMENT OF OLYMPIC PROPORTIONS, BUT BRITISH PYROTECHNIC EXPERT, QUANTUM SPECIAL EFFECTS, CERTAINLY CAN. TPi’S KELLY MURRAY CHATTED TO MD SHAUN BARNETT ABOUT HOW IT ALL BEGAN AND WHY GLOBAL EXPANSION IS ON THE HORIZON. In just four years, Quantum Special Effects has established itself as an industry leader in stage, indoor and close proximity pyrotechnics. If you haven’t heard of it, there’s a very good chance you’ve seen its work.

Founded by Shaun Barnett, Managing Director, Pyrotechnic and SFX Designer and Consultant, the story of Quantum is a heart warming one. With a vested interest in professional fireworks, Barnett gained experience at Pains Fireworks, arguably the UK’s longest established firework display company.

Following that, a training day at Le Maître led to his first pyrotechnics employment opportunity - through sheer persistence over anything else.

As his hunger for creativity grew, so did his business ideas and he became a partner in pyro company BPM. Following some directional changes, Barnett then set out on his own. With contacts firmly made, a personal reputation to uphold, yet no established company title.

These unexpected circumstances marked the beginning of Quantum…

The team of experienced designers, 70

engineers and crew are now able to deliver safe and spectacular effects to every client from creative directors and TV producers to promoters and production managers, but at the start, it was an uncertain venture as Barnett explained: “I was meant to start working on the Circus Live tour with Take That but I rang (production manager) Chris Vaughan and told him that I’d left BPM. He said ‘I don’t care what you call your company, I want you on the tour.’

That was April 2009, and I went straight on the road with Take That. It was hugely stressful because we started with nothing and had to heavily invest in kit.

“The main kit we built for the tour was for the song Relight My Fire. In a normal indoor environment, you’d use LMP (LPG) flames, but as this was a stadium tour outside, the gas flames can get really affected by wind conditions. And the health and safety conditions obviously wouldn’t allow for the flames to blow towards the crowd so we had to have a rethink. We were aware that some people made pressurised liquid systems so I asked a friend in Belgium to build us one, and we modified it. The

high pressure is then much less affected by wind conditions. After the tour finished, we looked at how we could improve the system once we had the time. We modified it again and we now call the finished product our Spitfire Flame™ system.

Since 2009 it’s been used for lots of gigs, and can be adapted for indoor use too.

“In hindsight, the mistake I made was that I went out on the tour, so once it was over, we had no work in place. We then had three months without work, so it was decided that Circus marked the end of my touring days. It was a big lesson. It was such a horrible place to be that we never want to go back - now part of my job is bringing in new business,” he noted.

“With the recession, a lot of corporate work had dried up, so it was actually the touring and rock ‘n’ roll industry that kept us going.”

Being highly experienced in television SFX, Quantum has recently developed memorable effects including the smoke filled bubble cascade on ITV’s Dancing On Ice, rain and smoke for Rihanna’s unforgettable X Factor performance, David Walliams’ jet pack on The 100th Royal Variety Performance and Graham

COMPANY PROFILE: Quantum

Opposite and below: Quantum won a contract for Katy Perry’s tour in the US; Quantum has supplied effects for music awards shows and delivered the incredible feat of setting alight the Olympic rings.

Norton’s BBC1 Christmas special.

Utilising the company’s expertise, Quantum designed and developed special effect solutions and bespoke effects including Spitfire Flames™ and its Smoke Filled Bubble system. These effects add dramatic energy and visuals to any one off show or tour.

BESPOKE ADAPTATIONS Quantum developed smoke filled bubbles originally for a Katie Melua tour. The pop star had got the idea from a fashion show and asked for something similar to be designed. “We developed a system for her and built a product that was going to last for a three month theatre tour and survive being in the back of a truck.

“After the tour ended, we could look at what worked and what didn’t. We knew no one else had this effect on the market so we built a mark two and then a mark three version. Now you can take the lid off, fill it with helium if you want the bubbles to rise or Co2 if you want them to fall, and you’re done. It looks great and is very easy to use; it’s a plug and play device, so it works quickly for busy technicians,” noted Barnett.

From that initial design, Quantum went from building a bespoke product for one client to building tourable products which the pyro masters subsequently got quite a lot of work out of as no one else had made a version of that system. “We learnt from it and we know that coming up with new ideas, investing in new technologies and R&D is the way forward.

“We’ve just taken on an amazing fulltime engineer, Mike Badley, he was one of the guys who built the Batmobile for a Batman film (The Dark Knight). I’m very happy he’s on board with us now.”

Another quirky gag the Quantum team created was the idea of confetti style life size money. American rockers Foo Fighters first used the idea and Muse later created the Bank Of Muse. Barnett highlighted: “I spoke to Oli Metcalfe, who is Muse’s Artistic Designer. I told him about what we did for the Foo Fighters and Muse wanted to do their own bank notes. They actually look worryingly authentic. The band’s solicitors had to sign the final design off. Luckily we’ve not had any reports of people trying to use them. It’s a really fun part of a show and it’s relatively inexpensive.”

THE RING OF FIRE Having begun trading in the first instance with the mighty platform of one of the most talked about tours in recent years, the Quantum UK team, which includes Phil Mundy as Project Manager and Mike Badley as Engineering Manager, was able to build on a solid reputation from the very beginning and the company’s steady progression hasn’t gone unnoticed.

By 2012 Quantum had provided effects for over 300 shows across the globe, covering every major continent for shows including Katy Perry at the IPL opening concert in Chennai, India & the F1 Grand Prix in Singapore and the London 2012 Olympics. Working alongside the Opening Ceremony creative teams, QSFX developed bespoke effects that contributed to the show being hailed the ‘best opening ceremony ever’.

Quantum’s in-house engineers and designers produced the now iconic pyrotechnic waterfall on the Olympic rings, managed the flames, pyro, confetti and bubble effects throughout the ceremony and were also heavily involved in the Paralympic Opening Ceremony.

Said Barnett: “When we did the Olympics last year, we had to go from a small company 71

COMPANY PROFILE: Quantum

Below: Quantum’s MD, Shaun Barnett; The Quantum UK HQ; The company has become a serious contender for touring pyrotechnics across the globe; The Take That tour which started the company on a path to success.

to a relatively large - medium size company over night. Because of the nature of the way the contracts were given, we had to be prepared and ready to take on the job if we won the contract. Quantum was initially just myself and Phil in a small barn in the middle of Wiltshire - which is how we got through those three months without work - but you have to move with the times and respond. We moved from that barn to a 10K sq ft warehouse in the middle of London. It was a huge risk, but it paid off.”

With Quantum’s main body of work at the event being to bring to life the globally recognised symbol of the five Olympic rings with the design brief set by the Ceremonies Design and Production team, Quantum used its expert knowledge of effects and industry products to bring to life an iconic image that was shared world wide and as well as featuring on the cover of over 75 newspapers internationally. Quantum also incorporated the Spitfire Flames™ on the Prodigy’s hit Firestarter.

With just three months of pre-production before the ceremonies began, Barnett explained the pressures of truly entering a global market.

“It was a poisoned chalice; it was very hard work but we came out the other side and we’re very proud of it. Just getting the Olympics contract, 72

for them to have that amount of trust in us, was amazing.”

TRADESHOWS AND TRAINING One area of the industry that Quantum doesn’t buy into is tradeshows. “I think they’ve very over priced and we’ve always relied on word of mouth. I do go to tradeshows and have meetings with clients, but I don’t need to exhibit. I know a lot of people do go to exhibit and it works for them, but I don’t think it works for Quantum, or arguably special effects companies as a whole,” he said.

“Quantum has grown a fair amount, so we’re using the company as a platform for people who want to excel at what they do. Hopefully we’ll continue to have an amazing company. We can teach anyone the skills to do pyrotechnics, but what they must have as well is the people skills. It’s about attitude in this industry, so while networking at trade events can do a lot of good, we don’t need a stand to show people why they should want to work with us.”

THE AMERICAN DREAM Across the pond, things are also, dare we say, hotting up for the Quantum team. With offices now on both sides of the Atlantic, the brand is

highly ambitious and prides itself on offering comprehensive effects delivered professionally and efficiently to any type, budget and size of event around the world. “We’re using the Olympics to position ourselves as a global company and let people know that we’re able to do these events absolutely anywhere,” enthused the MD. Just four years down the line, a total of nine people work for Quantum, and the US office is going from strength to strength with five tours lined up in the US already for 2014.

The initial ‘big break’ in the American live and touring market came from supplying Katy Perry and Pink’s recent tours. Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream tour lasted nearly two years but when Barnett and Co were supplying the tour in America, they were relying on other companies to help out when needed, and this was a turning point. “Because we were relying on outside companies, our standards were slipping.

Phil Maggs was the technician on the tour, he’s brilliant and when we came off the road, we approached Katy’s Production Manager about the possibility of setting up a US office.

He said he would help us and he did. We actually employed his wife - Rhonda Schmit, Corporation Secretary, Accounts & Coordinator.

“Depending on which State you go to, you

COMPANY PROFILE: Quantum

Below: Katie Melua asked Quantum to design some smoke filled bubbles, which have now become a mainstay of the company’s inventory.

need a locally licensed technician.

When we first went over it was just to maintain our brand but when Pink’s Production Manager, Richard Young, asked us to supply her tour, we had to up our game. Richard said he wouldn’t be changing suppliers and he wanted us but that he couldn’t then justify the cost of us bringing us and our gear over to America for rehearsals and the US leg.

“It made the decision for us; we would have lost the whole tour if we didn’t set up the US office. Last October I went over to set up the company so that we were ready for the rehearsals by the end of January. The two companies are separate but the brand is the same and we’re building on that all the time. Katy Perry is going back out on tour next year and I can confirm that we’ll be supplying that again.”

THE FUTURE “We like to support local businesses where we can,” explained Barnett.

The US office is located in Dallas,

Texas (chosen for its easy access to either coast) but the expansion doesn’t stop there. When business growth is this enjoyable, the plans don’t stop in the Lonestar state.

“We’re looking at opening an office at another location but I can’t say where yet. The best thing about Quantum really is the people I get to work with. We’ve got such a team of good people at Quantum now, if you want something weird or unusual or you’re not sure if it can be done, we’ve got the experience and knowledge to work it out and that’s why 95% of our work comes from returning customers.

“When we turn up to a show, we want people to be glad it’s us.

Reputation is everything. We know that we’re on the right track, and that’s important to us,” concluded Barnett.

TPi Photography: © 2013 Joshua Mellin and Kelly Murray www.q-sfx.com

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THE BIGGER PICTURE

THE PSA BUSINESS SUPPORT HELPLINE IS KINDLY SPONSORED BY

THE BIGGER PICTURE LESS POWER TO THE PEOPLE Climate change or cold hard cash; alternative energy or simply using less energy; Powerful Thinking tackles energy use and emissions from all angles. This month’s contributor Chris Jonson, as Chair of Powerful Thinking, talks the talk and, as Co-Founder and Director of Shambala Festival, he also walks the walk.

Despite the entrenched nature of our current global energy infrastructure, change is inevitable as fossil fuels become more expensive and less accessible. It is widely accepted in science and politics that unchecked emissions pose a significant threat to the climate system, and we are already seeing the current economic and energy infrastructure being remodelled to account for this. The consequent profound changes will be nighon impossible to achieve in a way that does not impact on all aspects of the festival sector: energy costs are volatile, carbon pricing is already happening and it is these business realities that are stimulating change, much more effectively than climate science.

Protecting energy and resource supply, understanding demand, and capital interventions that will buffer the sector from price and supply volatility are of critical importance. New technologies and business relationships in energy and resource supply, distribution and consumption have already begun to transform the creative industries.

Investing now will ensure that the UK can meet its legally binding 80% reduction target by 2050 and will, in large part, determine the future shape of how we power the festival industry.

If festivals are to play their role in the wider context, and mitigate for potentially significant cost increases, we must actively work together across the industry to develop new practices, technology and business models.

Powerful Thinking is the ‘Industry think-do tank’ which provides the forum for this change, bringing promoters, suppliers and contractors together to tackle energy sustainability in a way that will benefit us all.

So how did Powerful Thinking emerge, and who’s on board? In autumn 2010 50 industry professionals from festival teams, power companies and environmental organisations spent an afternoon discussing how we power events; what issues are common for promoters and power suppliers, and what could the future 74

look like? From this initial exploration came a surprising enthusiasm for creating a forum to work across industry to solve prevalent wasteful energy management practices and explore the role of new, and existing, technologies.

Kambe Events and Julies Bicycle spearheaded the creation of the Green Festival Alliance, renamed Powerful Thinking to better represent the groups focus on power. In 2011 a founding steering group was formed with the support of Bestival, Festival Republic, Firefly Solar, the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) and A Greener Festival. More recently the Production Services Association (PSA), the Association of Festival Organisers (AFO) and NCASS have joined, giving the group a uniquely broad representation in the industry, with over 400 festivals, contractors from across the supply spectrum, and concessions.

Initial research published in 2011 in partnership with Sussex University, along with plentiful anecdotal feedback, sets the scene for the issues the industry faces and the work of Powerful Thinking: • The UK events sector used in the region of 12 million litres of diesel in 2011.

• Power is generally one of the five largest single production costs for a festival.

• The quantity of fuel consumed is often considered a fait accompli by festival managers.

• Initial research suggests that inefficient generator use is common at events in the UK. • The main cause of fuel wastage is lack of information about requirements and lack of communication between contractors and festivals, festivals and suppliers.

• Power can represent up to 70% of an event’s ‘core’ carbon footprint (core excludes audience travel and transport).

• Fuel costs are rapidly rising, and the energy market is forecast as increasingly volatile.

• The festival sector has a unique opportunity to contribute to carbon reduction, showcase new technologies and engage with

audiences.

Subsequent research in 2012 with the Institute for Sustainable Energy, De Montfort University, found that of generators monitored at eight events, every single system had periods of working below 25% load, and some of them operated entirely below 25%. In 60% of cases the generator was more than double the capacity required. In one case the main stage generator was seven times the capacity of peak load, i.e. seven times the required size. Although indicative, this suggests that there is significant scope for making efficiency savings. So why is a there a culture of wasteful energy management?

In the often hectic world of production for temporary events, power efficiency has taken a back seat in favour of security of supply and ease of process. Whilst this is understandable and prudent as an approach in theory, it often leads to over specification at every part of the decision making chain (everyone making sure they are well covered). Coupled with a lack of knowledge about actual requirements from users, and in many cases a lack of detail provided to power suppliers by festival organisers, the end result in many cases is larger generators than are actually required, and wasted fuel.

Artists and sponsors also play their role, often making demands for large single source power supply, which can be difficult to argue with due to their weight in the relationship.

A classic scenario which illustrates the potential for quick-wins is build and break fuel wastage, whereby generators are sized to deliver peak load during the event, but run for weeks for an office with a laptop.

Another key issue is contractual arrangements. If contracts have heavy penalties for power failure, power suppliers are naturally not going to take risks. In this scenario, the client effectively pays more for a contingency which may not be required, in addition to potentially paying much more for fuel

www.psa.org.uk

consumption, and creating more emissions. No-one is advocating prioritising the possibility of a power-out during a headline show over modest budget savings or indeed desertification per se - that’s not the choice. More that the tools are available to us to more accurately specify requirements, design smarter distribution and use technology that simply uses less power, and all without compromising a sensible redundancy in systems or the quality of the show.

Things are starting to move toward improved efficiencies in the industry. The number of events engaging with energy management and solar technologies has increased, and the price point and quality of LED lighting have improved markedly, but the main area which needs to be tackled is the approach - placing more value on power efficiency, making using less intrinsic to the culture.

It is largely in the court of festival organisers; to provide better information, work with contractors more closely, and design contracts with an emphasis on efficiency.

Whilst this is by no means exhaustive of the causes of unnecessary costs and emissions, it gives an indication of what is contained in the Power Behind Festivals; A guide to sustainable power at outdoor events, published by Powerful Thinking in 2012. The guide provides more context, case studies and comprehensive advise to manage energy for all roles in festival management.

Inevitably, there are those who say that the costs involved in managing energy more efficiently cancel out any potential gains, that the potential gains are insignificant, and that in such a temporary

environment with inevitable last minute changes to site layout and requirements, the gains are simply not realistic. But this is yesterday’s approach, one which both ignores the business reality of increasing costs, and shys away from our ability and responsibility to make changes for the better.

Shambala Festival, with an audience of 10,000, acts as a litmus test for what can be achieved. In three years they transformed their power infrastructure from 100% red diesel to 99% waste vegetable oil, sun and wind. Whilst this was a challenge, production values were not compromised, and between 2012 and 2013 they managed to reduce fuel consumption and fuel costs by 30% for a like-for-like production. They achieved this by tackling the energy culture within the event, working with their contractor to collect requirements directly from users, and rewarding fuel reduction in the contract.

When we consider that a stage entertaining 2,000 people at Croissant Neuf Summer Party is run with less power than is required for a domestic hair dryer, it puts the potential in perspective. But whilst solar is still an emerging technology at larger scales, even the big shows can dramatically reduce their power with LED rigs and digital amps.

But it’s not just the small-scale events who are tackling energy.

Festival Republic have worked with their suppliers to meet WVO biofuel targets, and both Latitude and Bestival are actively monitoring energy to identify potential gains, in addition to working with renewable suppliers to deliver aspects of their infrastructure.

Technological solutions are emerging in the market, from hybrid generators to larger solar capability, and a handful of power

suppliers are innovating with their practice to deliver both renewable options and more cost effective system design.

The research Powerful Thinking has done so far suggests that almost all events can reduce their fuel bills by 10% with relative ease. This summer’s research focus will be the most comprehensive power monitoring project ever undertaken in the festival industry.

A partnership between Midas UK, De Montfort University and Powerful Thinking will take detailed readings at over 20 events to map how energy is being used and managed in detail, and provide more information about how we can make gains.

We invite festivals and power suppliers to get involved; read the guide, share your experiences and knowledge with us, and help to make the shift. As festivals, we are clients, and this change requires us to take the lead and create the demand on the supply chain to provide better solutions.

In the very technical world of electricity provision, the complicated language involved

can often obscure the simplicity of what we are aiming for - less fuel, less costs, less emissions.

The Power Behind Festivals guide is available as a free download from www.powerful-thinking.org.uk.

Website coming soon TPi Chris Jonson, Chair, Powerful Thinking; Co-Founder and director Shambala Festival; Sustainable Event consultant, Kambe Events; Associate for Festivals and Events, Julies Bicycle.

Chris Johnson is a speaker, author, festival manager and consultant.

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MARKET FOCUS: Draping and Backdrops

DRAPING AND BACKDROPS ACRE JEAN

www.acrejean.com

Established in 1984, Acre Jean has been at the forefront of hire and manufacture of soft goods to the entertainment industry. Acre Jean drapes are used at concerts, conferences, product launches, trade and fashion shows, weddings, parties and many other events. From the company’s facility in South West London it can offer a fast response delivery service, by its own fleet or national carrier. Acre Jean’s clients are global, so a close affiliation with its international freighting agent ensures that the product is delivered on time. The company has huge stocks of black and coloured wool serge drapes, velvets, treviras, filled cloth and gauzes, LED, RGB and fibre optic starcloth hire and sales and an extensive range of pipe and drape. Other specialist items include bespoke touring curtains, electic kabuki systems and a very high quality and fast turnaround digital printing service.

BLACKOUT

www.blackout-ltd.com

Blackout’s dedicated sewing department and experienced project managers have been providing draping and fabric solutions to live events and venues for over 20 years. From simple drape dry hire to one-off, bespoke creations Blackout has the skills and stock available to meet any brief. All products are of the highest quality, comply with all health and safety and fire regulations and are meticulously inspected and cleaned before commission. With premises in London and Paris, Blackout’s reliable and creative services span across Europe, covering all sectors including broadcast, sports, conferences, exhibitions and concerts.

Recent projects have seen the team supply custom-made fabric creations for both the Olympic opening ceremony cauldron reveal and Justin Timberlake’s performance at The Brits. Blackout. Where the people make the difference.

CHAUVET

www.chauvetpro.com

The Chauvet Professional SparkliteLED Drape is a fully controllable and expandable tri-colour LED star field drape. Each drape holds 128 LEDs distributed into eight controllable zones for a variety of effects via the required SparkliteLED Controller, which can control up to four drapes. Multiple units can be easily joined through hook-and-loop fasteners and controlled separately to create original shows. Alternatively, the drapes can be mounted as a dramatic ceiling.

FOS GLOBAL

www.fos.uk.com

FOS Global Ltd produce a wide range of drapes in many different types of fabrics, ranging from black wool serge backdrops in fibre and LEDs and many other fabrics. The company also manufactures a unique fibre optic carpet. FOS Global’s highly trained staff are all skilled in all aspects of drape manufacturing and whist meeting extremely tight delivery schedules, a very high standard of workmanship is always maintained. They have worked with many companies - HSL, VME, PRG and Bill Kenwrights, to name a few.

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• 9m wide LED stage screen • Dance floor and VIP booth areas for 550 capacity • Two large bars • World-class light, sound and recording system • Two luxury backstage rooms • HD camera recording facility • Secure parking for tour buses and concert goers • In-house ticketing • Unique industrial interior • Licensed until 2am (later on request)

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MARKET FOCUS: Draping and Backdrops

GERRIETS

www.gerriets.com

For years, theatre technicians have been confronted with a dilemma - how to lift irregular, heavy, scenic elements within the constraints of a standard house flying system. The new Gerriets Batten Clew is an innovative load distribution device that has been produced to cope with such a predicament. Developed by the Bavarian State Opera, the Batten Clew allows awkward loads to be evenly distributed over several flying bars whilst still using a theatre’s existing system. The Gerriets Batten Clew has created significant interest since its launch, winning the ABTT 2013 Stage Engineering Product of the Year as well as receiving a great deal of attention from visitors to this year’s Showtech 2013 in Berlin.

HANGMAN

www.hangman.co.uk

For Hangman, 2013 has been a year of metallics - an effect that’s notoriously difficult to achieve in touring sets. For Jessie J’s 2013 tour, the company’s brief was to create a backdrop that would look like solid metal but be light and flexible enough to tour with. Hangman created an interlinked industrial steel slab effect using bespoke metallic appliqués on a gauze drape over-painted by Hangman’s scenic artists to create a 3D effect. Ellie Goulding’s Lighting Designer, Cate Carter, was also looking for a dynamic industrial theme.

Hangman sourced malleable metallic mesh from America which was soft enough to tour, but when pulled out on stage - at 50ft by 30ft - retained a crushed solid metal effect. Meanwhile, The Vaccines received a sensational day to night foldable trevira printed drape. This unique, new soft fabric printing process has paved the way for arena size backdrops to be day / night lit.

J&C JOEL

www.jcjoel.com

J&C Joel are renowned as one of the world’s leading manufacturers of flame retardant fabrics, bespoke drapery, backdrops and stage machinery. It envelops the creative world of the entertainment industry with its unmatched ability to manufacture and design bespoke drapery, which can include appliqué and embroidery, as well as offering digitally printed backdrops. Appliqué is an established method of curtain decoration typically found in theatre, but more recently J&C Joel’s in-house fabric artists have been experimenting with different types of fabrics to produce interesting innovations in modern appliqué. The expert team of bespoke drapery artists use their extensive knowledge to manipulate traditional fabric into a more contemporary fashion and in turn have been able to broaden the design prospects involved in modern appliqué for backdrops that encompass the live entertainment world.

PERRY SCENIC

www.perryscenic.com

Through working with the industry’s top creative designers, bespoke scenic solutions company Perry Scenic has continually pushed the capabilities of soft goods way ahead of the trend. Said Perry Scenic’s Jon Perry: “There are standard techniques when it comes to 3D, kabuki and applique backdrops, but not many people are doing 3D backdrops in the way we do, with clever fabric and artwork techniques, or the scale we do them on.” Its highly experienced team has worked with creative talent Roy Bennett and Peter Aquindes to break new ground in the field of large-scale 3D backdrops. Working on direction from Bennett, the West Midlands company created a huge 70ft by 30ft 3D backdrop for Rammstein’s festival shows this summer.

Although a solid collapsible soft, the use of multiple fabrics with paint effects and air brushing makes it look like a 3D collection of organic cells. “When light is shined onto the fabric at different angles you get some amazing effects out of it and lots of depth,” said Perry. “It’s almost like a spiderweb of ghostly cells with a rusty metallic fascia outline. “The band and the designer were really happy with it.”

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CREatE inspiring EnViRonMEntS

PSCo Rental and Samsung have formed a powerful partnership to bring new innovative products to the rental market. Super-slim and extremely lightweight, Samsung’s new displays are cost effective and easy to transport – an absolutely perfect rental solution.

Samsung 46” (UE46C) & 55” (UE55C) LED Videowalls features include: • LED edge light technology provides clear images and improved colour saturation

new edge-lit videowall display with a lightweight and slim design.

• Full HD Resolution • Lightweight for easy transport • Built in media player allows for flexible content display options • Samsung Smart Signage Platform supports dynamic screen editing and split screens whilst showing different content at the same time Samsung products in our new portfolio include: • SAMSUNG 46” & 55” LED Videowalls UD46C & UD55C • SAMSUNG 65” & 75” LED LCD Displays ME65B & ME75B

For more information on rental opportunities, please contact:

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MARKET FOCUS: Draping and Backdrops

PROMPT SIDE

www.promptside.co.uk

Prompt Side is excited to announce the launch of seamless, their innovative textile welding solution for printed, backlit cycloramas. Showcased in London’s West End for Privates on Parade and swiftly taken up by the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal Court Theatre, this break-through product will revolutionise how set and lighting designers visualise printed backlit backdrops. Its pioneering textile welding solution creates inconspicuous joins in printed cycloramas, making traditional seams obsolete. By combining their award winning dye-sublimation textile printing, their crease resistant fabric and this revolutionary technology, seam-less offers a unique solution for printed, backlit backdrops of any size.

RUTTERS

www.ruttersuk.com

By working closely with major production companies for many years, Rutters is one of the market leaders in the creation of exceptional, bespoke drapings and backdrops for the global live entertainment market.

Rutters’ innovative and highly professional work ethic is also extremely diverse. Projects range from the creation of a pair of giant wings designed by The Mutoid Waste Co for the Rolling Stones at Glastonbury to full sets of opera cloths. Their expertise in the production of scenic cloths is exceptional, having produced backdrops for a wide range of stage shows and theatrical productions. In addition, Rutters’ knowledge of studio backdrops for live TV shows is almost unrivalled. Rutters takes pride in their ability to continually turn jobs around in the ideal time window.

SHOWTEX

www.showtex.com

International textile supplier ShowTex offers an extensive print fabric collection for both indoor and outdoor use and is equipped with 3 metre and 5 metre large scale printers. The company now also guarantees the best high resolution printing results in the industry on stretch materials up to 300cm wide and provides the latest in precision laser cutting technology. Personalised backdrops can be cut out nearly any flame retardant fabric of virtually infinite length with a seamless width of up to 5 metre wide with millimetre precision. This production form is becoming more and more popular during the manufacturing process of bespoke stage curtains and event furnishings. It’s an extremely accurate cutting method that allows for fine cut detail and a clean edge without fraying.

UNIVERSAL STARS

www.universalstars.co.uk

Universal Stars is burgeoning ahead with robust UK manufacturing alongside hire and installation. The company creates some of the world’s best white and RGB starcloths, and are experts at running LED strips to any surface. Universal Stars offers LED system replacements for broken or cheap imported starcloth products. In 2013 it quoted for buggies, ice sculptures, water features and exhibition set designs. Add to this its draping expertise, with a huge hire stock that boasts lots of white draping as well as the usual starcloths and blacks. The company manufactures wedding backdrops and DJ Starlight kits on a daily basis.

Its free quotations mean customers can turn their LED ideas into reality, with a fast turnaround and reliable products.

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

MOVERS & SHAKERS Eurotruss has appointed Peter Draaisma as its new Commercial Director. This fits in perfectly with the company’s growth plans to extend its sales network and leadership in the global truss market.

Draaisma joined the entertainment industry 14 years ago, starting as an international account manager for Prolyte Trussing in Germany and the Netherlands. Soon his scope was extended to UK, North American and Latin American markets. For the last two years Draaisma worked for rigging hardware company; Doughty Engineering, which resulted in a spectacular growth and market share for Doughty in North America and Latin America.

Draaisma enthused: “It is a great opportunity for me to step on board at Eurotruss now that Martin Kuyper, owner of Eurotruss, has decided his focus will be more project based and on setting up a new American Eurotruss facility.

“This is an offer which I could not turn down.

My affection for the truss market has never stopped, although my recent job at Doughty gave me great satisfaction. Eurotruss is a high quality brand with lots of potential to grow further. Together with our distributors and endusers I am looking forward to expand the market in close cooperation with them for Eurotruss.”

Community Professional Loudspeakers has announced John T. Wiggins, Community’s Vice President, will retire after a distinguished career spanning 41 years with the company.

Wiggins joined Community’s founder, President and Chief Engineer, Bruce W. Howze, in 1971 and became a partner in 1972. He has held multiple roles during his time at Community, including VP of Sales, VP of Marketing and his current position as VP of Business Development.

Along with the development of electroacoustic design software like EASE, Modeler, CATT, Ulysses and others, Community’s leadership in providing accurate loudspeaker data has been instrumental in revolutionising the computer-aided acoustic modelling of performance venues and predicting the performance of sound systems.

Howze, Community’s founder, stated: “It is with equal parts sorrow and joy that we accept 82

John’s decision to retire. John has been a trusted partner and colleague for over 40 years and has made numerous contributions to Community. He leaves the company at a time of unprecedented achievement, much of which can be credited to his contributions. We will miss him. However, I am pleased that he is making time to pursue other passions in his life. Christine and I wish him success, health and happiness.”

Elsewhere, Ethix Management has announced Doug Maddison will become Technical Director of the company. Maddison has been working for Ethix for almost five years and has given a huge amount of his personal time to the success of the business. “There has long been a need for someone to take on the responsibility of running the technical side of the business and with me concentrating on winning new and more varied contracts it seems a very logical step to ask Doug to take on the responsibility,” said Paul Jones, Director. “Both Doug and I have discussed this and we both feel that this will only help the business grow and ensure we continue to deliver the same quality and service that we have been doing with all of your help to date.

“As some of you know I split the business up into two companies last year during the Olympics, leaving Ethix management to deal with the existing clients and Ethix production services to service the Olympic contract. After the success of last year both companies, especially Ethix production services business, is increasing so I have had to make some decisions on how to take both businesses forward into the future and keep up the momentum.”

Group One Ltd’s lighting division has been given a major boost thanks to the addition of Avolites to its distribution roster. Additionally, the diversified domestic importer and distributor of professional audio and lighting equipment has appointed Brad White as National Sales Manager to head up the Avolites division.

White is charged with the development of the Avolites business in America, working with lighting designers, specifiers, dealers, production companies and facilities. The appointment reunites White with Avolites in the US, where he served as Technical Support and Sales Manager

(and affectionately known as ‘Mr. Avo’) for a dozen years.

Meanwhile, Harman Professional has recruited Steen Matthiesen as Sales Director, EMEA, for its Lighting Strategic Business Unit (SBU), Martin Professional. Matthiesen, a 14-year veteran of Martin Professional and former Chief Financial Officer of EMEA, fills the role previously held by Villads Thomsen, who was recently promoted to Global Sales Director.

“Steen Matthiesen is a proven leader with a deep empathy for our customers’ needs and a highly evolved understanding of the various markets that Martin Professional serves,” stated Lars Dige Knudsen, Vice President and General Manager, Martin.

Harman Professional has also announced the appointment of Vincent ‘Vinnie’ Perreux as Market Manager, Tour Sound for its Asia Regional Sales Office (RSO). In this role Perreux will provide support for existing tour sound customers in Asia and work with the RSO team in expanding product awareness and increasing system sales throughout Asia. He will report to Stuart Dingwall, Applications Manager, Asia, Harman Professional.

Perreux brings 20 years of global touring experience to the position, with extensive touring experience in Asia and worldwide as a system engineer, front-of-house and monitor engineer support technician, crew chief and product trainer. Most recently he served as a tour sound specialist with rock band Muse and on U2’s 360° tour.

Stanley Lee has been named Business Development Director for Asia of NEXTproaudio, the professional audio systems manufacturer from Portugal.

The appointment was announced in PALM EXPO BEIJING 2013. Lee will develop the brand across the whole Asia region and will serve as a key point of contact with NEXT-proaudio.

Lee will identify growth opportunities and coordinate company efforts working as part of the company’s sales team, Lee will report to the sales department in Portugal.

As the company continues to expand its talented team of professionals to meet

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Opposite: Brad White has been appointed National Sales Manager of the Avolites division of Group One; Harman Professional has recruited Steen Matthiesen as Sales Director, EMEA, for its Lighting Strategic Business Unit, Martin Professional; Ethix Management’s new recruit, Doug Maddison; Eurotruss has appointed Peter Draaisma as its new Commercial Director.

Below: Solid State Logic has appointed Jay Easley as Vice President of Live Consoles in the Americas; Robert Juliat’s new Export Service Manager, Thierry Dupont; QSC Audio products LLC has appointed Phil Sanchez; Harman Professional’s Vinnie Perreux; Stanley Lee has joined NEXT-proaudio; John Wiggins has required from Community.

growing market needs, QSC Audio Products LLC has announced the appointment of Phil Sanchez to the newly created position of Senior Communications and Public Relations Manager. In his new role, Sanchez will be responsible for driving QSC messaging, developing and strengthening mutually beneficial media partner relationships, and seeking opportunities to promote the QSC brand across a wide range of media worldwide.

“I am incredibly pleased to have Phil on our Marketing Communications team,” said Ray van Staten, QSC Senior Director, Marketing Communications and Training & Education. “His diverse experience and wealth of product and industry knowledge make him ideally suited for this role.”

Robert Juliat has announced the appointment of Thierry Dupont as its new Export Service Manager.

Dupont comes to Robert Juliat with more than 30 years of experience in the entertainment industry, with assignments in France and the UK. Dupont is responsible for providing technical assistance on behalf of Robert Juliat to lighting professionals throughout the world. “The appointment of Thierry

will help us move to the next level in terms of offering our customers the best possible service, all the way through the fixture’s lifecycle,” said Robert Juliat Sales Director, Claus Spreyer.

SSL Inc., the U.S. operation of Solid State Logic, has recruited Jay Easley as Vice President of Live Consoles in the Americas.

Previously with Midas and Klark Teknik (MKT), Easley has had a successful sales and marketing career in the live sound market, with many years experience in global audio console launches, acquiring new business and increasing market share. In this new role, Easley brings his vast understanding of the live market to promote SSL’s recently introduced ‘Live’ console, which brings the industry standard, sonic legacy of the SSL brand to the stage.

Working closely with the team in the Americas, Easley’s initial goal is to build industry awareness of the SSL Live Console. He will also work closely with Jason Kelly, SSL’s newly appointed Live Product Manager, to define future product enhancements tailored to the needs of specific clients.

TPi www.tpimagazine.com/jobs 83

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VITAL STATS

VITAL STATS 149 Joe Sanchez Profession: Production Manager, Rihanna Date & place of birth: July 18, 1970, London, England How did you initially get a break working in live production?

I left college when I was 18 and went over to New Jersey, in the US, for the summer. Whilst I was there I met British rock band, The Cult, and I started out as their personal assistant.

I had three jobs on that tour: I used to walk the guitarist’s dog and pick up the dog’s mess, carry the band’s bag in and out and put the VIP fan packs together, which involved getting a stack of about 50 passes to give to select fans so they could get backstage and hang out in the bar.

After that tour I came back to the UK and at that time my friend Martin is The Manic Street Preachers’ Manager, so he got me a job selling tee shirts for them. It was just as they were getting really big and their Tour Manager, Martin Hall, asked me to try tour managing some smaller bands for his company.

How did tour managing suit you?

By 2001, after 10 years, I was sick and tired of it! I’d had a couple of bad experiences with bands that I won’t name and it became like looking after kids having tantrums. Serious disruptions happened over still water instead of sparkling! I was considering leaving the business and getting a job in Homebase!

What convinced you to stay on the road?

A guy called Chris Griffiths, who is an old friend of mine, asked me to PM for Lisa Stansfield, whom he was the tour manager for. I said I wasn’t sure, as I’d never done it before. He said it’s the same kind of work you’re doing now, but you’ll be looking after the kit, not stroppy people.

I PM’d for Lisa and never looked back. Since then, I’ve done tours with Razorlight, Snow Patrol, I spent eight years with the Pet Shop Boys, I’ve done Moby, the Arctic Monkeys and a cool project for Oman National Day, where I was based in the Middle East for five months.

So how did your working relationship with Rihanna begin?

I got a call about Rihanna needing a Production Manager and I met up with Jay Brown (President, Roc Nation) had an interview and got the job. That was two and a half years ago and we haven’t stopped since. In 2011 we did the Loud tour, and in 2012 Jay said we were having a year off.

Just when I thought I’d better get looking for another job, it became non-stop promo. We did a big festival run last summer because Rihanna doesn’t stop working. She’s putting out a record every year at the moment and last year she was celebrating her 777 gigs; her seventh album in seven years in seven countries in seven days! That was interesting to say the least.

She’s non-stop all the time, that’s how she lives her life and it’s how she keeps the rest of us in a job! It stays interesting for sure; she certainly keeps you on your toes. We just did a 900 capacity sports club venue in Monte Carlo, then went straight to headlining T In The Park festival then came back to Manchester Arena for her own tour.

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“20 years ago I didn’t set out to do this. I never thought I’d be running one of the biggest tours in the world!”

Did you have a mentor?

As a PM, no, but in the early days, Chris Griffiths showed me how to run budgets and a lot of other tasks as he was the guy who really got me working in tour management. There’s a network of PM’s my age, people like Richard Young and Chris Vaughan and as there aren’t loads of British PMs our age who work at this top level, it’s like a small club so we can ask each other for advice if it’s needed.

What’s the most essential skill to do your job?

Patience. Knowing when to keep your mouth shut, and knowing when to speak up is pretty important.

What advice would you give new blood?

In many ways, there are a few guys who I see as the next generation. Joel Stanley who is now PMing for Blur started out assisting me. Tom Keane has just got promoted as Head Carpenter with Rihanna’s tour and he started out 12 years ago when he was 17 years old unloading trucks for me.

You should get as much experience in as many different positions as you can and get as much training as possible. I mean 20 years ago, I didn’t set out to do this; I never thought I’d be running one of the biggest tours in the world at some point. When I get chatting in cabs, taxi drivers often ask me how they can get a job doing what I do, and I say my education was rock school.

You have a lot of responsibility when picking vendors for a high profile tour such as this. What do you look for in a supplier?

What I look for and what we look for as Roc Nation are two things: honesty and reliability. Once you’ve gained our trust and my trust, you’re in. You’re part of the family. We trust each other. Every single vendor we have on this tour is the same as on Loud. Everything has to be accountable, but at the same time we do have a great relationship with our vendors.

What is your desert island disc?

A Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin mix. That’s what it’s always been about for me. That rock ‘n’ roll side of music is what I grew up with and still love.

Portable control.

V276 ON MAC Controls 4,000 multiple parameter luminaires Complete tracking Front panel layout same as V676 Superior media interface 6 encoders & 10 submasters 4 universes DMX direct out 8 universes Art-Net direct out 1 DMX input SMPTE, MIDI, & remote triggers Connect via USB to Mac w/ VX76 software Compact: 21.5”W x 13.25”D x 3.2”H

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Tom Celner, tcelner@prg.com, +1 847 257 4570

WWW.PRG.COM

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