TPI August 2015 - Issue 192

TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL

WWW.TPiMAGAZINE.COM AUGUST 2015

ISSUE 192

MONTREUX JAZZ FESTIVAL

SWITZERLAND’S FAMOUS EVENT SEES CONTINUED SUCCESS WITH ITS OFFICAL PRO AUDIO PARTNERS

QUADROPHENIA • GLASTONBURY 2015 • JIMMY CLIFF • THE CHARLATANS • FESTIVAL SPECIAL AC / DC • IN THE SPOTLIGHT: COLUMBUS MCKINNON • IMAGINE DRAGONS • RICHIE HAWTIN

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ENTRY CRITERIA – PEOPLE CATEGORIES To enter a person you must specify the tour / event they have worked on and the reason you believe they are a worthy winner. This must have taken place from September 2014 - September 2015. The winners will be decided by an industry vote.

The TPi Awards will be held on 22 February 2016 at Battersea Evolution, London. Since 2002, the TPi Awards has been celebrating those who have made an impact in the world of concert touring.

2016 Will mark the 15th consecutive year that the TPi brand has honoured the winners, as voted for by you.

ENTRY CRITERIA – COMPANY CATEGORIES To enter a company you must state the project they have undertaken.

This tour / event must have taken place between September 2014 - September 2015.

EARLY BIRD TICKETS Early bird tickets are now available for the 2016 awards dinner at 2015 prices – we’re offering you the chance to get tickets at £195.00 + VAT for an individual ticket, £1795.00 + VAT for a table of 10 and £1990.00 + VAT for a table of 12, until the 30 September. Thereafter prices will increase. The 2015 awards sold out in record time, so book now to avoid disappointment.

GENERAL VOTING Voting for the entered nominees will be opened to the whole industry from 8 October via www.tpiawards.com. Please note that this is an industry-only vote. We will accept one vote per person and have systems in place to identify block voting. As a result of the industry vote, nominees will be announced on 9 November. The winners of company awards will be determined by a combination of the academy ranking and the industry vote.

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PRELUDE

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NEW CHAPTER I’m not entirely sure where to begin this month, partially because it seems to have gone in a heartbeat and partially because it feels like the above photo was taken a decade ago. Does that make me terrible at time keeping? I’m pictured with Hannah at Glastonbury, where we’d just watched a secret gig by recent cover star, James Bay. For another year, we braved and survived the muddy trenches and unexpected sunburn associated with the flakey British summer. This year we directed our main focus towards the John Peel Stage, an area renowned for hosting breakthrough artists. It’s also become home to some of the most talented and creative crew the UK has to offer. Following that, look out for your name in our Glastonbury tech highlights.

Our cover story this month features the eternally stunning location of Montreux.

The 49th edition of the jazz festival - founded by Claude Nobs - saw a welcome return to its three audio sponsors: DiGiCo, Shure and Meyer Sound. The manufacturers laid claim to 15 stages at MJF and as you can see from the photo of Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett, they had as charming a time as we did.

From here I ventured to South Africa for the first time for the Media Tech tradeshow in Johannesburg. The vibrancy and community shown in the industry out there was impressive to say the least. The hospitality we were shown was incredible and I think it’s fair to say we’ve made some great new colleagues.

“A special mention has to I was lucky enough to enjoy a sarafi for the first go to our pals from Robe time on a trip to Pilanesberg National Park. It’s hard to put into words what exactly the emotion for getting us to the airport is when you see a lion, a rhino, an elephant in the on time despite being wild, but it’s somewhere between unprecedented blocked in by a family of joy and being completely overwhelmed as a mere elephants. Honestly!” human. Thanks to everyone who experienced that trip with me - it felt like an adult summer camp. A special mention has to go to our pals from Robe for getting us to the airport on time despite being blocked in by a family of elephants. Honestly!

And so, as you may have gathered, I’ve been away a fair bit over the last few weeks. It’s all good though because as you may have read in a recent newsletter or been eagle-eyed enough to spot in our contents page, we have three new staff members. Our new TPi Awards Event Manager is the suave Mo Naeem, who has recently worked on prestigious events such as Manchester International Festival.

TPi magazine’s brilliant new additions are Assistant Editor, Ste Durham and Editorial Assistant, Stewart Hume, both of whom I’m pleased to report have settled in effortlessly. They’ve brought a new dynamic to the office (there’s a lot of talk about guitar amps and in-ears at any given moment) and they’ve also proved invaluable already. So thank you for all your effort so far guys! Lovely stuff.

I’m really excited for you to get to know the new team, and no doubt bond over plectrums, metal music and real ale. Stand by!

Kelly Murray Editor

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Editor Kelly Murray Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8360 Mobile: +44 (0)7738 154689 e-mail: k.murray@mondiale.co.uk Assistant Editor Ste Durham Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8385 Mobile: +44 (0)7891 679742 e-mail: s.durham@mondiale.co.uk Editorial Assistant Stewart Hume Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8360 Mobile: +44 (0)7712 607419 e-mail: s.hume@mondiale.co.uk General Manager - Magazine & Awards Hannah Eakins Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8360 Mobile: +44 (0)7760 485230 e-mail: h.eakins@mondiale.co.uk Advertising Sales Charlotte Goodlass Tel: +44 (0)161 476 9126 Mobile: +44 (0)788 0208 226 e-mail: c.goodlass@mondiale.co.uk Event Manager - TPi Awards Mo Naeem Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8360 Mobile: +44 (0)775 9272 313 e-mail: m.naeem@mondiale.co.uk

OBITUARY 08 David Cartwright Le Mark Group pays its respects.

EVENT FOCUS

Shure, Meyer Sound and DiGiCo return to support the 49th edition of the festival.

20 Quadrophenia Live

Manchester gets an Avolites and i-Pix lighting show at Castlefield Bowl.

26 Richie Hawtin

Lab.gruppen takes to the stage with the worldfamous DJ.

28 Jimmy Cliff

C3 Productions uses the JBL VTX V20 in Brighton.

30 Imagine Dragons

Moment Factory talks visual design techniques.

32 Tinie Tempah

Why Not People? holds its first event at the Troxy.

PRODUCTION PROFILE

Accounts Donna Barlow / Sarah Miller: ar@mondiale.co.uk

44 Glastonbury 2015 Highlights

A tech rundown from the world’s largest festival

Chief Executive Justin Gawne

Mondiale Group Chairman Damian Walsh

62 AC/DC

Sarah Rushton-Read goes backstage at Wembley

Cover Photography Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga by Marc Ducrest

Contributors Sarah Rushton-Read Editorial Intern Matthew Jones

76

Issue 192 / August 2015 TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL is a controlled circulation magazine, published 12 times a year by Mondiale Publishing Limited under licence. ISSN 1461-3786 Copyright © 2014 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.

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24 The Charlatans

34 Glastonbury

TPi talks to the crew behind the John Peel Stage.

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NEW LOAD TABLES [EUROCODE 9]

The RAH sees The Who perform with an orchestra and an Allen & Heath FOH rig.

Graphic Design & Production Dan Seaton: d.seaton@mondiale.co.uk Mel Robinson: m.robinson@mondiale.co.uk

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In this installment: Pistola Blues, Tramlines, Rock-im-Ring, Sweden Rocks, Exit Festival, Rock Werchter, Tomorrowland and Wireless.

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MOVERS & SHAKERS 96 The latest industry appointments.

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OBITUARY: David Cartwright

REMEMBERING DAVID CARTWRIGHT LE MARK PAYS ITS RESPECTS TO BOTH A COLLEAGUE AND FRIEND. It is with the greatest of sadness that Le Mark announces the death of a respected colleague and friend, not only within the company, but also the UK entertainment industry. David Cartwright passed away on Sunday 12 July 2015 at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge. David suffered a severe stroke on the evening of Thursday 25 June, having spent a ‘usual day’ with friends and colleagues at the ABTT trade show. He had returned home that evening to his partner Kirsty Fisher, in St Ives, Cambridgeshire where he was taken ill. To say that he will be sorely missed would be an understatement.

His career in the entertainment industry had encompassed many skills and experiences from 08

his early days with Stage Electrics through to his time at Lighting Technology before joining Le Mark in 2010. David had enjoyed many successes during his career. To become a part of the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremonies installation team made him very proud. He took on the incredibly difficult 7,500 sq metre London street map stage floor design challenge set by Danny Boyle, creating new and innovative installation methods and using groundbreaking printing technology in order to accomplish the largest outdoor installation of custom printed performance floor in the world. David as many will know was both gregarious and fun loving and enjoyed life to the full. He was never more at home than on a stage or show floor and

became a well-known figure at trade shows around the world.

He also kept a private life that was respected by his colleagues; his three children were the centre of his world and he spent as much time as possible with Oscar, Harvey and Phoebe.

David had found love again with Kirsty and our hearts and sincere condolences go out to both her and his family. David’s funeral was held in Bury St Edmunds.

The Le Mark team collectively wanted a picture that would celebrate and reflect Dave’s personality and philosophy of life, we hope you agree.

TPi www.lemark.co.uk

EVENT FOCUS: Montreux Jazz Festival

MONTREUX JAZZ FESTIVAL 2015 THE 49TH EDITION OF THE MONTREUX JAZZ FESTIVAL ATTRACTED 240,000 FESTIVALGOERS OVER 16 DAYS OF ECLECTIC MUSIC OFFERINGS, A TESTAMENT TO THE EVENT, WHICH WAS FOUNDED AND MANAGED BY THE LATE CLAUDE NOBS IN 1967. AT THE CORE OF ITS CONTINUED SUCCESS IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE FESTIVAL AND ITS AUDIO SUPPLIERS: DIGICO, MEYER SOUND AND SHURE. TPi’S KELLY MURRAY VISITED THE STUNNING SURROUNDINGS OF LAKE GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, TO GRASP THE SECRET BEHIND MONTREUX’S TECHNICAL PARTNERSHIPS. Although not a typical musical affair, the Montreux Jazz Festival has proven over 49 years that it is a ‘must see’ event, captivating generations of European music fans. Despite its pedigree, the line up across the festival’s 15 indoor and outdoor stages showed no sign of letting up on attracting world-class performers. When TPi visited the charming and picturesque lake-side town of Montruex, on three consecutive nights the headliners included The Chemical Brothers, Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett and Sam Smith to name but a few.

Paris-dwelling legendary music producer, Quincy Jones, was present for almost the entire festival, and regularly introduced the public to established artists and rising stars who were dear to his heart, creating a boundless atmosphere of musical celebration. During the 10

16-day period, many artists, visiting engineers and press teams talked about the hospitality - a legacy that Montreux Jazz Festival founder, Claude Nobs, was determined to become synonymous with. This ethos has extended to MJF’s partners and suppliers too.

THAT DIGITAL BIZ For the seventh consecutive year, British digital console manufacturer DiGiCo has been a technical partner of MJF. For the audio manufacturer, the non-stop circuit of engineers walking by at any moment is a situation that allows for genuine networking opportunities.

Alongside Meyer Sound, Shure and Waves, this little slice of Swiss culture offers the crème de la crème of pro audio expertise throughout an entire 16-days of world-class line-up.

It’s been two years since I was last sipping

vodka (and or working, who’s really counting anymore) in the effortlessly beautiful setting of the Lake Geneva shoreline. The atmosphere, professionalism and calibre of artists are as impressive as ever and yet it’s a festival like no other for a lot of reasons: tents and wellies are best left elsewhere, Belvedere vodka is served on tap should you be so inclined and you can actually sit down with touring engineers and chat without a post-show 100mph de-rig getting in the way. Did I mention the posh vodka bar?

David ‘Webby’ Webster, DiGiCo Marketing Director explained: “You have 200 engineers that you get to actually spend time with at Montreux. It’s very hands-on and having our products set-up and ready to use in our office is wonderful because at most festivals they simply don’t have the time.”

EVENT FOCUS: Montreux Jazz Festival

Opposite: Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga performed their jazz set at the Stravinsky Auditorium.

Below: The outskirts of the festival offer entertainment areas for audiences even after the concerts have finished; This year Meyer Sound added the Leopard line array to MJF’s sound design.

James Gordon, DiGiCo MD agreed: “Montreux has a more relaxed environment in that engineers will come in for morning soundchecks, mix a show and can hang around for the evening. It’s very unusual for them to be rushed in and out in one day. That means they have more time to see our latest software for example, or even just catch up on a personal level because our industry is still very much about relationships and trust. We are a genuine part of that.

“We originally partnered with Montreux because we had a new product line, the SD range. We wanted to get engineers familiar with the desks and because it’s run over a couple of weeks as opposed to just a long weekend, you get much more quality exposure to your products.”

Perhaps one of the most significant progressions to have happened over the course of DiGiCo’s partnership with Montreux is that at the beginning of its involvement, there wasn’t a lot of DiGiCo on riders (the company is only 13 years old after all) but now a large percentage

of both FOH and monitor engineers already have DiGiCo on their everyday specs. The festival’s Head of Sound, David Weber of Studio des Forces Motrices, estimated that over half of the visiting consoles were also now DiGiCos. Continued Webby: “Most engineers are happy to use our products and there’s far less of a learning curve these days. Our own engineers are there to give tech support at each of the locations. An example of a situation which is easily rectified is when a desk is running at 48k and we’re running the system at 96k.”

TonSpur AG, DiGiCo’s Swiss distributor has been “fantastic” too. “They’re here for global support and they bring their customers on site to show them how everything works,” said Webby.

DiGiCo Product Specialist, Dave Bigg is one of two support staff alongside Fernando Delgado, Technical Sales Engineer who attends Montreux. Said Bigg: “My role on-site is to act as a support for the house engineers. So I liaise between David Weber and any bands coming in. Sometimes an engineer’s choice of console is

limited by production budgets but here they can play with what they like.

“It’s very difficult in this day and age to get people in front of consoles and convince engineers to use a console for a one off show when they’re used to a certain desk. They have got to mix a show for an artist who is paying them, so they have got to be able to deliver what the artist is expecting and make them happy.

“We had the new S21 console here this year, so a lot of people came to see that. It’s a new piece of equipment and they may not have had a chance to play with it before, or even look at in person.”

Delgado agreed: “Engineers really appreciate that we supply any training needed in our dedicated office. There are always engineers who want to know some extra things about the new updates and methods on a specific product.”

DiGiCo kit comes from various companies in Switzerland that have invested money into the equipment. “We pay them back by getting it

11

EVENT FOCUS: Montreux Jazz Festival

Below: FOH Engineer for Tony Bennett, Tom Young, used a DiGiCO SD7 for his live mix at the Stavinsky (main stage) venue; Tom Young with DiGiCo’s Dave Bigg who worked at MJF in a technical support capacity; Head of Sound, David Weber.

locally. They then get the best out of it; we can get the brand in front of people and they get them walking into their country, wanting their business,” continued Bigg.

With Claude Nobs passing away in 2013, there have been a lot of changes behind the scenes. Gordon noted: “It’s important that we keep our relationships up. Seeing the crew and making sure the engineers know that I still exist is vital. I really wanted to meet Tom Young, Tony Bennett’s FOH Engineer, because he is so highly regarded. To get him in front of our consoles was important and he seemed to love it.

“Watching him mix a show like Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga is a once in a lifetime opportunity really; Tony’s been doing this for so long, to be the last in a generation of original swing singers and still knocking it out of the park is quite something. And then there’s Lady Gaga... She’s got an undeniably good voice but it’s such an unusual set-up. It’s crazy how well they work together, but five years ago you would never have predicted that duo.”

THE DYNAMIC DUO & THE RISING STAR The engineer in question, Tom Young, is indeed highly regarded. He received a Parnelli award in 2007 for ‘FOH Mixer of the Year’ and has worked with the best in showbusiness since his early career. “In 1978 I moved to Atlantic City to work at the very first casino doing its audio, which was a great experience. It’s where I honed my craft. Then I was working at The Golden Nugget Casino when I got the call to mix for Frank Sinatra,” said Young of his own colourful history. “My live mix retains the same 12

philosophy I have had for my entire career; rule number one is that you must be able to hear the vocal and rule number two is remembering rule number one!

“For Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, the integrity of the vocal and acoustic instruments is the challenge of this show. I used the best DI for acoustic bass which in my opinion is the Radial PZ-DI Orchestral Acoustic Direct Box all of those made a big difference for me. I always ride Tony’s vocal in relationship to the band, however now I have to ride two vocals in relationship to the music.”

Taking to the stage in the Stravinsky Auditorium, Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett - introduced by Quincy Jones - gave a showstopping performance. With more outfit changes than you could keep track of, Gaga sang in the sultry jazz tones akin to a ‘50s starlet, beautifully enchanting next to the old school gentlemen swagger of Bennett. And the sound was as clear as you’d hope for, every note from the band and every harmony flowed across the audience, transporting us to another time altogether.

“Montreux is the premier jazz festival every year on a production level,” continued Young.

“The support of manufacturers at that festival is unparalleled. The ability to use the best and newest gear available every year in the marketplace is very enjoyable. It is not every day that when you arrive at load in a manufacturer product specialist is there to make sure your show is loaded and up and running.

“On this tour, I had the opportunity to mix in Monaco on a DiGiCo SD5 and an SD7 in

Montreux. After mixing those two shows I am definitely a believer that DiGiCo makes the best products available today for live mixing. The flexibility of the desks with their excellent sonic characteristics makes them a product that I would highly recommend and I can see DiGiCo being added to the Tony Bennett rider for future shows. I like the flexibility of the consoles and that files can be converted easily for use on any of the SD range.

“For monitors we use DiGiCo consoles exclusively as our Monitor Engineer, Jim Corbin, has been using DiGiCo desks with Lady Gaga since her very first tour.”

Another engineer key to the DiGiCo fold is Brian Evans, Monitor Engineer for Sam Smith.

He explained his stance on the brand: “I first starting using DiGiCo products during the last Barabara Streisand tour where I mixed monitors for the orchestra on an SD10. Between FOH and monitors we had five DiGiCo consoles on that tour linked through a fibre optic system. When I turned on my desk every morning the noise floor was so quiet I had to double check to see if my console was passing audio! I became a fan of the SD series on that tour.

“Today my ‘go to’ monitor desk is the DiGiCo SD5. I like the way it sounds, its flexibility and its layout. I have had very few problems with the SD5 over the years and when needed, I’ll utilise the stand-alone translation software and convert back to the SD10. Of the major brands producing digital monitor desks, DiGiCo has been the only manufacturer that answers my questions directly, with a solution. I never get the “we’ve never heard of that” or “are you

EVENT FOCUS: Montreux Jazz Festival

Below: The festival is set on the Lake Geneva shoreline, which once upon a time made it into a Deep Purple song; Meyer Sound’s Jose Gaudin with Shure’s Michael Wolf; The Chemical Brothers headlined in early July; The Park Stage is one of the festival’s outdoor venues.

using it properly” responses I get from other manufacturers. This kind of little detail is very important to me.

“At Montreux for Sam’s mix, he has a full band sound. It’s slightly piano-heavy with the vocals loud and clear on top. Sam likes a fair amount of verb and I tap in a delay manually for every tune. Sam describes the sound he is going for from his microphone as “having the mic sing for me.” I translate that as me not interfering with the tonality of his voice and setting gain properly so he can cruise comfortably without pushing every night.

“As far as the supportive relationship goes, the folks at DiGiCo are easy to deal with and very professional… but I was already a fan so there was no selling needed! I had a few questions about snapshot functions on the desk and my queries were very quickly answered. For an engineer, Montreux Jazz Festival is a cool experience all round; it’s a beautiful place with enthusiastic audiences and an amazing selection of artists.”

RIDING THE WAVES In addition to the product support offered

by DiGiCo, audio effects software company Waves, acts as plugin support for the festival’s official console sponsor. Waves Live Product Specialist, Fabrizio Piazzini explained his role at 14

the festival: “Waves is fully integrated inside the DiGiCo SD range of consoles so we offer a great user experience without altering the workflow.

Waves also offers a lot of tools that are not available natively inside mixing consoles, thus giving the end-user an extra set of processing to further improve and enhance the live mixing experience. My role is to go around and meet all the visiting FOH and monitor engineers and assist them in choosing the correct Waves plugins and new Waves technologies that could suit their needs, and offer solutions and demonstrations to any problems they may be experiencing. The challenge with live engineers is to get them to break away from old perceptions.

“The paradigm is shifting, and consistency can be achieved with different platforms you can now take presets across different sessions and different desks very easily. Once I communicate these concepts to sound engineers, they are onboard, and once they see what we can do with Waves plugins in a live setting, they can’t wait to get out there and do it themselves!

“Most of the engineers had time to come down to our office to have a chat and see firsthand the technology and the tools available. It was kind of a hands-on / one-to-one training session and the majority of engineers walked

away as Waves converts.”

Bjoern Seelaender, Waves Live Product Specialist for the EU market added: “Montreux Jazz Festival is a great opportunity to meet, demonstrate and educate the festival’s engineers in the latest breakthrough technologies from Waves, be it new Waves plugins, SoundGrid technology and DiGiGrid networking units, which will tremendously benefit their workflow. Our guidance is tailored to every level, from those that have little or some experience using Waves products, to those that are experienced but are not up to par with the latest and recent advances. We pinpoint and offer solutions to any problem they may have with their current set up and workflow.

“We are part of the family of audio professionals. In the Stravinsky, the Jazz Lab and the Jazz Club there are DiGiCo consoles utilised for both FOH and monitors including the SD7, SD5, SD8 and SD9. State of the Art processing and networking capabilities is a crucial aspect to the workflow. A lot of engineers use Waves in a live environment and once they have entered the world of plugins, they never go back! Waves is integrated into DiGiCo consoles which in itself makes the engineering experience smoother and simpler than ever before. For instance, you can operate Waves MultiRack on the built-in

EVENT FOCUS: Montreux Jazz Festival

Below: Tony Bennett can still captivate audiences decades after he began performing.

screen of the console, simplifying your control and engineers can load their DiGiCo session and the Waves plugins are reloaded as well. This, together with demonstrating the benefits of using new plugins was a real success with the visiting engineers.”

A POWERFUL NEW BEAST The Leopard linear sound reinforcement system headed a lineup of almost 400 Meyer Sound loudspeakers at MJFl, marking the company’s 29th year as an official sponsor.

Meyer Sound’s history with the festival extends back to the 1970s, when founder Claude Nobs and Meyer Sound co-founders John and Helen Meyer met and began a friendship that lasted until Nobs’ passing in 2013. In 1986 he invited Meyer Sound to become the festival’s system provider.

Technical Support for Meyer Sound, José Gaudin, explained: “Meyer Sound will celebrate 30 years of partnership with the festival during next year’s 50th anniversary edition. It started when John was invited to participate in research in Switzerland on acoustics and sound reinforcement. John and Helen moved here and have been living in Montreux for at least a year. They met Claude Nobs, the founder of the festival and developed a friendship that lasted after their return to Berkeley, CA. In the following years both the festival and 16

Meyer Sound worked together on providing great sound, but also a place to introduce new speakers or to try prototypes.”

The Leopard loudspeaker and its accompanying 900-LFC low-frequency control element was heard in three venues at the festival: the 2,000-capacity Montreux Jazz Lab, Music in the Park, and the Auditorium Stravinsky, where it complemented a Lyon linear sound reinforcement system.

The newest and smallest member of Meyer Sound’s growing Leo Family, Leopard boasts tremendous power-to-size ratio with ultralow distortion. Each Leopard loudspeaker is optimised for an array of six cabinets or longer, with default low-mid array compensation for utmost simplicity out of the box. The audio equipment supplier for the festival is Swiss rental company Skynight.

“When we hear all the incredible musicians playing through our systems, and see the audience completely enthralled by the performances, we feel the satisfaction of knowing we’ve done something good for everyone involved and for the music,” said John Meyer.

The Auditorium Stravinsky audio rig was comprised of Meyer Sound Lyon, Leopard and M’elodie line array loudspeakers, a 1100LFC low-frequency control element, 700-HP subwoofer, UPA-1P and UPA-2P loudspeakers

and an MJF-212A stage monitor. The lineup was completed by Galileo Callisto 616 and Galileo Callisto 616 AES array processors.

In the Montreux Jazz Lab, Meyer Sound Leopard and M’elodie line array loudspeakers were used again, as were JM-1P, UPQ-1P, UPA-1P and UPJunior VariO loudspeakers. This setup used a 900-LFC low-frequency control element, 600-HP subwoofer, an MJF-212A stage monitor and a Galileo Callisto 616 array processor.

The Leopard and M’elodie line array loudspeakers were also deployed on the Music in the Park stage, while the Studio stage based its audio setup around the M’elodie line array loudspeaker. Aside from this, the UPJunior VariO loudspeaker made an appearance on the Montreux Jazz Club, Music in the Park, and El Mundo. Although the UPA-1P and UPQ-1P loudspeakers were employed elsewhere, they formed the base of the setup on The Rock Cave stage.

Meyer Sound’s Senior Technical Support, Oskar Meijer, said: “On site we manage the setup with our distributor TonSpur and the technical provider, Skynight. Every venue gets tuned once it is ready. During the festival we manage changes to the systems for guest production requests, extra add-ons, and generally make the experience easy for the visiting engineers as well as the local ones.”

According to Gaudin, the festival allows

EVENT FOCUS: Montreux Jazz Festival

Below: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club brought rock lovers to Montreux.

Meyer Sound to test new systems in “real life” situations, as well as providing space to work and refine new tuning techniques, and consolidate or validate design concepts.

The MJF-212 stage monitor in particular was tested at MJF on (the previously named) Miles Davis Hall stage, where prototypes are tested and subsequently improved based on crew feedback.

As well as opportunities for experimentation, the MJF also presents challenges for the crew, specifically in the design and setup phase.

Gaudin added: “Every year brings changes and improvements to the festival’s venues, but Meyer Sound also brings new products to the equation, so really the design phase is challenging because we need to be on the spot with a design that can afford very different styles of music, keep its headroom, and work flawlessly.”

As one of the main audio companies at MJF alongside Shure, DiGiCo and Waves Audio, the crew at Meyer Sound have become increasingly aware of their position. Meijer commented: “We are the last link in the chain, but our speakers are dependent on the previous links, just as the first link is dependent on the rest of the gear.

So we all are very serious about our part. I’d say there is a real community of people who care, meaning there is a part of the industry that is strongly tied because of this.”

Head of Sound, David Weber, liaises with all manufacturers, tech support personnel and engineers as and when required. He told TPi: “Meyer Sound is our longest running audio partner, with 29 years experience at Montreux.

For the last two years we have utilised the Meyer Sound Lyon system with 1100LFC subs as the main PA in the Stravinsky, which was a big step up in terms of sound quality. This year we introduced the new Leopard system with 900LFC subs in the Jazz Lab and Music in the ParK - a free outdoor stage - and like the Lyon, the Leopard helped with precision and the dynamics of the sound.

“This year we only had two special requirements in the sound department; Portishead asked us to reinforce and change the angle of the central cluster as they used it as the main vocal PA, and Lenny Kravitz asked us to rearrange some curtains in the Stravinsky auditorium as he likes a reverberant sound. Of course we obliged; we’re always try to do the most to make our artists happy.”

19 YEARS OF A SHURE THING “We are delighted, as ever, to provide our usual support to Montreux Jazz Festival in terms of equipment and expertise,” explained Nils Proesser, Marketing Director at Shure Europe.

Shure’s man on the ground is Technical Support Manager for Shure Europe, Michael

Wolf, who has been with the company for 21 years and has served an impressive 19 years at the festival so far. Said Wolf: “I take care of all the technical support issues during the festival.

This begins with working on the equipment list with the festival production several weeks prior to identify what is needed at each different venue. This year we provided microphones and wireless systems to 15 different venues including the Voice Competition, for which Shure is the sponsor.

“For the support of the Voice Competition we also had a group from our marketing dept. During the festival I ensure that all our equipment is operating properly - especially the wireless systems. We supplied over 100 channels of wireless. I programme to the respective frequencies during setup in our EMEA headquarters and I handle the frequency coordination during the festival and adjust the setup if necessary,” he said.

Regarding the RF spectrum, Montruex, like many other festival sites, is getting busier every year. Continued Wolf: “The is additional wireless used by the production team, radio crews and TV channels. We communicate on-site and also prior to the festival to coordinate our frequencies. A lot of preparation is done prior to festival, but there are always adjustments necessary during the setup on-site. A lot of bands arrive with full production and also 17

EVENT FOCUS: Montreux Jazz Festival

Below: This year’s MJF line up included TPi cover stars, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, The Marmozets, Sam Smith and Lenny Kravitz, the sound engineers of which utilised the DiGiCo SD range, Shure and Meyer Sound systems.

carrying their own wireless packages. I contact their crew during the setup / sound check days to coordinate frequencies.

“There are also several cases where bands have special requests, like extra wireless for guitar, bass, percussion, vocals, brass and horns.

I supply the extra gear and coordinate the frequency setup accordingly. On the main stage we use the Axient wireless system, including a spectrum manager / analyser. The system is completely remote controlled and networked so I can ‘see’ what is going on RF-wise on stage even from my office! It’s a great opportunity to explain the benefits and features of our Axient system to the engineers.

“The quantity of equipment we supply to the festival has been quite consistent over the last couple of years. The venues we support and supply gear to are pretty much the same every year with just some minor changes. Of course we would like to present our new products whenever possible. And therefore we update the equipment list accordingly. The size of most venues doesn´t change but sometimes there are special events with choirs or orchestras which require some extra equipment. But we usually know this and have prepared in advance,” said Wolf.

This year Shure supplied 16 Axient wireless systems on the main stage (Auditorium 18

Stravinsky), 50 UHFR wireless systems, 24 PSM1000 wireless In-Ear systems, a handful of PSM900 and ULXD systems and an impressive 800 wired microphones including the SM, Beta and KSM models.

“The experience of supporting the festival for many years means that I also have a considerable amount of extra equipment in my office on-site,” said Wolf.

“With this extra gear I am usually able to handle all the extra requirements or requests.

And there isn’t a day without extra requests.

You always need to be ready for last-minute or short-term changes too. Every day can bring something new and unexpected but I like and really enjoy working at this festival. Even after all these years working at Montreux, it´s never once been boring. Plus, to top it all I get to hear a lot of great music,” he concluded.

TALKING THE SAME LANGUAGE It’s clear upon TPi’s second visit to Montreux that the festival is still working seamlessly and doing the Claude Nobs legacy justice. From the curating of sought-after artists to an unfaltering, multi-venue / location sound quality, MJF is truly a bucket list gig for any sound engineer worth their salt, but it’s the pro audio community which also leaves a lasting impression backstage, especially on the DiGiCo clan.

Delgado furthered: “I love working at Montreux.

It’s long hours but it’s also so much fun that when it’s over I get a strange feeling of wanting to stay another week and that’s because the crew I work with here are so fantastic.”

Webby has the final word: “After working for seven years at this festival with the same audio team, I can honestly say it’s a lovely environment. The team here actually know our products as well as we do, inside out! It’s the same with Meyer Sound and Shure - we’re all top brands talking to the same people in the same language and that has become a very friendly situation. The people in the festival’s hospitality department are a dream to work with too. There’s a reason Montreux is such a well-oiled machine…”

TPi Photos: Marc Ducrest Arnaud Derib Lionel Flusin Steven Klein Mathieu Bitton Universal Music www.montreuxjazz.com www.digico.biz www.shure.co.uk www.meyersound.com www.waves.com

EVENT FOCUS: Quadrophenia

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EVENT FOCUS: Quadrophenia

Opposite: Quadrophenia is part of Pete Townshend’s ongoing project to produce a written folio of all his works. Below: The Allen & Heath iLive-112 control surface at FOH position is linked to the racks using fibre optic and cat5 working in tandem.

QUADROPHENIA AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL ALLEN & HEATH’S MODULAR ILIVE DIGITAL MIXING SYSTEM WAS EMPLOYED TO MANAGE FOH FOR THE RECENT PRODUCTION OF PETE TOWNSHEND’S CLASSIC QUADROPHENIA, TAKING PLACE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL IN LONDON. In a classical reworking of The Who’s Quadrophenia album Pete Townshend’s production featured the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Oriana Choir, and guest singers Billy Idol, Phil Daniels and Alfie Boe. The whole production was orchestrated

by Townshend’s partner, Rachel Fuller, as part of his ongoing project to produce a written folio of all his works. The album was recorded last year conducted by Robert Ziegler.

FOH Engineer Ian Barfoot explains the reasoning behind using the iLive: “The brief was to emulate the Quadrophenia studio album, and provide clean, open sound, so I knew I had to choose iLive because it fits the bill exactly. It has great audio processing, it is super flexible, networkable, and is customisable so I can make it work for me, rather than the other way round.

With an 80-strong orchestra, a 90-strong choir and various guest celebrity singers, there was a lot going on, so iLive is just what I needed.”

The PA was provided by Capital Sound, and the iLive system comprised two modular iDR10 MixRacks installed on stage and linked using ACE, with an iLive-112 control surface at FOH position linked to the racks using fibre optic and cat5 working in tandem. The system needed to manage a total of 128 inputs, with approximately 12 outputs, 16 DCAs, and provide orchestral stems to the monitor board, left and right to the main venue system, and recording feed to the mobile broadcast trucks.

The main house audio, once again, came courtesy of Capital Sound, which also supplied various Meyer Sound Milo loudspeakers for the main flown system as well as Mica, Mina, 700-HP powered sub bass loud speakers and

UPA-1P powered speakers for the side flown and ground speakers.

The choir utilised an L-Acoustics ARC loudspeaker system, also supplied by Capital Sound.

Barfoot went on to say: “The iLive-112 surface has a compact footprint which is ideal for theatre situations but the impressive thing is that I can run the console as a 224-strip surface, using the soft keys to recall different control strip configurations as scene recalls, greatly expanding the scope of what I see in my layers. By programming various soft keys to provide completely different control strip setups for different parts of the orchestra, I can instantaneously recall a different channel configuration all at the touch of a button. In fact, I could multiply up to nine times the 112 channels… but that’s madness!” Barfoot also 21

EVENT FOCUS: Quadrophenia

Below: FOH Engineer Ian Barfoot dealt with an 80-strong orchestra, a 90-person choir and celebrity guest singers.

used a laptop running iLive Editor as an extra meter bridge so the system tech could monitor the first 50 microphones, mainly the string section, where most sound reinforcement

Production Manager Mark Dawson, gave TPi his thoughts on the event: “With only one rehearsal scheduled for the evening before the concert, it was imperative I brought in the right

“I had to choose iLive because it fits the bill exactly...”

Ian Barfoot, Front of House Engineer. problems occur. They used a range of microphone brands including AKG, Shure and DPA. He also used an iPad with the app as a remote control during rehearsals.

22

people. Having previously worked with Barfoot on Rick Wakeman’s Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, I knew he walked the perfect line between orchestral and rock ‘n’ roll, making

him my first choice for the FOH engineer.”

Dawson added that, “The result on the day was spectacular. I was very pleased with how it turned out and not only that, it looked great on telly the following night!”

TPi

Main Photo: Andrew Benge ©Getty http://thewho.com http://capital-sound.co.uk www.allen-heath.com www.meyersound.com www.l-acoustics.com

TPI_S-Series_Launch.indd 1

23/04/2015 4:26:35 PM

EVENT FOCUS: The Charlatans

THE CHARLATANS LIGHT UP THEIR HOMETOWN AVOLITES TIGER TOUCH II CONSOLES AND AI MEDIA SERVERS WERE THE PERFECT PARTNERS FOR MANCHESTER INDIE HEAVYWEIGHTS, THE CHARLATANS. THE BAND PERFORMED AT THE CASTLEFIELD BOWL FOR SUMMER IN THE CITY DURING A SUCCESSFUL HOMECOMING SHOW WITH BRAND NEW I-PIX FIXTURES. Appearing after a special event at Hotel Football the previous night, the band captivated the audience with an assortment of crowd-pleasers from their extensive catalogue, as well as new material from their latest album, Modern Nature.

Andy Liddle programmed and operated the lighting using an Avolites Tiger Touch II console, which controlled an array of lighting fixtures including Martin Professional MAC Vipers, Quantum Washes, Atomic 3000s and Clay Paky Sharpys supplied and rigged by Adlib Lighting with a floor package from Lite Alternative consisting of Solaris Flares, i-Pix Satellite IIs and SGM X5s.

Chris Ewington of i-Pix programmed and operated the video content for the show, using 24 of the amazing Db1 video and lighting projectors. Designed by Ewington, the simplest - or even monochrome graphics - are impressive to see projected from the Db1, in which light valves projects a light forward from the screen in a defined, soft24

edged beam.

For the Db1 fixtures, driven by both DMX and video input, this was a first high-profile UK show. Prior to this, as many as 64 units had been used in Japan.

Control of the Db1s came in the shape of an Avolites Tiger Touch II console, which Ewington in conjunction with the Ai S8 media server to send content to the 24 i-Pix fixtures, supplied and rigged by DBN, AtoV supplying signal management for the Db1 array.

“Full control of the console added to the excitement of working with this new technology,” said Ewington. “I chose the Tiger Touch II after being introduced to it at Frankfurt [and] I was a little surprised at just how good it was!”

Having previously operated using a Pearl console, Ewington has come into Titan at V9, after being introduced to the Tiger Touch II at Frankfurt. He has quickly gotten to grips with the newest version of the Titan operating system, noting that “Avolites have really

EVENT FOCUS: The Charlatans

Opposite: Chris Ewington of i-Pix programmed and operated the video content for the show, using 24 Db1 video and lighting projectors. Below: As a hometown show, the concert was a perfect opportunity to experiment.

listened to their customer base.

“They’ve gone into the software and delivered some stuff that is out of this world! Things like Key Frame Shapes allows you to get a lot out of the desk very quickly.

“If you’re used to Avolites, it all makes sense. It’s great that I’m able to create my own buttons and to use Quicksketch. I particularly like the CITP functionality and the thumbnails, it’s very easy to programme and operate.”

Speaking about the Ai media server that drove the content, Ewington stated: “The interface is really intuitive. With 24 songs to programme, and limited time to do it, I needed the power of the media server to help manipulate the content.

“I learnt the software by simply reading the instruction manual, watching some video tutorials online, and by playing,” he noted.

“I had a rough understanding of how these things work, but it comes very naturally, and it was easy to bounce around once I had the basics. There is so much functionality in the server [and] there’s always more to learn. It was a pleasure to work with, and the support was brilliant. Definite thumbs up!

“As a hometown show, this concert was a big deal for the band, and as such was a good opportunity for try something different. I got a big thanks off the management and Andy who were very happy!”

TPi

Arist photos: Shirlaine Forrest www.thecharlatans.net www.dbn.co.uk www.adlib.co.uk www.lite-alternative.com www.i-pix.com www.avolitesmedia.com 25

EVENT FOCUS: Richie Hawtin

LAB.GRUPPEN AND LAKE POWER RICHIE HAWTIN CNTRL TOUR RICHIE HAWTIN’S RECENT TOUR OF THE US AND CANADA, AN EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVE CREATED TO INSPIRE NEW GENERATIONS OF PRODUCERS AND PERFORMERS OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC, WAS POWERED

BY A UNIQUE COMBINATION OF LAB.GRUPPEN AND LAKE PROCESSING. Over 12 days and eight cities, Richie Hawtin’s innovative music technology tour touched down at colleges and hot spots in eight major markets across North America - from Boston’s Berklee College of Music to Montreal, Toronto, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. During the day, events were staged in lecture theatres at colleges and universities, while at night the tour played in up to 5,000 capacity clubs such as the Palladium in Los Angeles, as well as in a number of 1,000 person rock and roll venues.

Ever the innovator, Richie Hawtin is constantly pushing the frontiers of performance and technology. He is well known for DJing techno sets, making use of laptops and digital mixing equipment, and his current setup is no exception. His longtime audio tech Johannes 26

Kraemer has designed a truly unique monitor rig that was inspired by a desire for the purest audio quality possible.

“On this tour the PA is different every time as we’re always using the house system, but Richie’s monitor setup is something special,” he explained. “We have two versions of the monitor system. Most of the time in clubs we are using a pair of Funktion One PSM318 DJ monitors. We output straight from the Yamaha 01v96i digital desk, fitted with a My Dante option card, via Dante over Cat-5 straight into the two Lab.gruppen PLM20000Q amps that drive the monitors. In the larger scale events we use two L’Acoustics SB28 subs and two Arcs II per side.”

The system runs at 96kHz throughout, with only one A/D conversion and one D/A conversion taking place in the signal chain.

EVENT FOCUS: Richie Hawtin

Opposite and Below: Ever the innovator, Richie Hawtin is constantly pushing the frontiers of performance and technology.

“The reason we chose the PLMs is that we’re big fans of 96kHz signal transmission and for the clarity of the signal chain - and Lab.gruppen totally delivers that. There are details you just don’t hear at 48kHz with the usual signal chains.

The PLMs have plenty of power and great bass channels limiters, which suits Richie’s very dynamic style. I love the low latency on the desk side and the fact we can fire it with Dante.”

“There’s no EQ at all on the monitors,” said Kraemer, “and even the crossover between the double 18-inch subwoofers and the high bass is set to a 12 dB per octave slope as this gives more flexibility when increasing or decreasing the sub level because the acoustical crossover is only like the electrical crossover point when sub and high bass are equal. The subs are fed from a mono aux send on the desk.

“The monitor system takes only 15 minutes

to set up each night, and the only adjustments we make is to increase or decrease the sub level depending on whether there is an open stage or a more closed DJ booth.”

When asked to describe the pristine quality of audio in the DJ booth, Kraemer commented: “Our DJ booth sound is a kind of a reference on the scene, and when other DJs know that they can play on our setup, they skip their riders!”

Kraemer has worked with Richie Hawtin for many years, for the first time in 2000 and then with a stronger collaboration from 2008 onwards. He learned his trade as an electrician in the highly disciplined environment of largescale power plants, and became passionate about quality audio through working with rock and roll bands in his local area around Cologne.

He developed his concept for the current monitor setup as a result of the highly advanced

digital technology available today. “I explained my ideas to Richie,” recalled Kraemer, “and we experimented and rehearsed at length to improve the sound from the source.”

According to Hawtin, “Electronic music is innately tied to the technology used to create it - as the tools evolve, so will the art.” His state of the art Lab.gruppen and Lake DJ monitor system is clearly no exception.

“Sound quality is the fundamental driving force,” said Kraemer. “Transient behavior is really good as we have no filters, and the sub frequencies are very defined. Richie often mixes two or three bass lines - this is not a sine wave thing anymore, it’s a really personal sound where you need precise control of the subs and bass.”

TPi www.labgruppen.com www.lakeprocessing.com

27

EVENT FOCUS: Jimmy Cliff

JIMMY CLIFF LIVE IN BRIGHTON WITH HIS 2015 TOUR IN FULL SWING, GRAMMY AWARD-WINNING MUSICIAN, ACTOR, SINGER, SONGWRITER, PRODUCER AND ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE, JIMMY CLIFF, STOPPED AT THE BRIGHTON DOME TO HELP PREMIERE JBL’S VTX V20 LINE ARRAY SYSTEM IN THE UK. TPi’s STE DURHAM SPOKE WITH THE TEAM BEHIND THE LIVE-ACTION DEMONSTRATION. Considered by many to be the pioneer of reggae on an international scale, Jimmy Cliff has enjoyed hits outside of Jamaica as far back as 1969. Despite the security of being able to take anthems such as You Can Get It If You Really Want, Many Rivers to Cross and I Can See Clearly Now out on the road with him, Cliff has returned with his first studio album in seven years, Rebirth.

It is the subsequent tour that has seen component parts of c3 Productions, JBL Professional, Sound Technology Ltd and Harman come together to unveil a brand new piece of tech in the UK. The Brighton Dome, whose vaulted exterior was originally inspired by an etching of the great Friday Mosque in Delhi, lent its cavernous auditorium to the JBL line array system, complete with a full set of VTX V20s. The highoutput V20 is a mid-sized box, with two 10-inch drivers in the low frequency section.

JBL’s VTX technology has gained good traction worldwide, with the V20 being the newest addition to the family and little brother 28

to the heavily-toured dual 15-inch V25 box, which is ideally sized for small or secondary festival stages, theatres and medium-sized music venues.

Director at c3 Productions, John Castrillon, explained: “We do production management and supply sound and lighting for The Great Escape festival over 10 to 15 venues, one of these venues being the Brighthelm Centre where two VTX V20 boxes a side were deployed in a ground-stack configuration, on top of two of the accompanying dual 15-inch S25 subwoofers.

This was our first experience of VTX in the field, and while it met the demands of the gig, it didn’t allow us to get a good enough feel for the full capabilities of the system.

“I met the teams from Sound Technology and Harman at the event, and it was agreed that the Jimmy Cliff gig would be the perfect place to have a full live demonstration.”

The 3-way high directivity JBL VTX line array system at the Brighton Dome comprised eight VTX V20s per side and four VT4886 front fills, augmented with four dual 15-inch S25

EVENT FOCUS: Jimmy Cliff

Opposite: Jimmy Cliff has returned to the touring circuit in support of his first studio album in seven years, Rebirth; JBL’s VTX V20 is the newest addition to the family and the younger sibling to the heavily-toured dual 15-inch V25 box

subwoofers per side and two dual 18-inch S28 subwoofers per side. The configuration was completed by two 12-inch VTX F12 bi-amplified 2-way systems employed as side fills (placed under the balcony). The system was powered by 4-channel Crown iTech HD amplifiers and managed by Harman’s JBL HiQnet Performance Manager software.

From up in the balcony, Castrillon was quick to point out the notable precision and clarity of the system. “Usually you’d bring up extra speakers to reach the balconies but this system didn’t need it.”

Many of the venue’s employees commented that they hadn’t seen anyone fly the PA as high in the rigging. This allowed use of more extreme angles on the lower boxes, which gave coverage over the balcony while also being able to fire in underneath it to the audience on the ground.

Designer of the array configuration, Ed Jackson, Harman’s EMEA Senior Application Engineer, Tour Sound, and Stuart Strachan, Sound Technology’s Live Sound Project Engineer were both on site to assist with the setup and system tuning. Jackson commented: “In terms of flying the array, the compression style rigging system allows you to set the angle of the boxes while it is on the ground and change it while it is in the air quite easily without having to drop

the system, which is useful going into a venue that you have not worked before.

“The Brighton Dome was a very sympathetic venue to work in. It has its own motors, which makes it easy to get in and get started on working straight away. Although it looks different to what [the venue] is used to, the promoter and engineers were happy and the local staff reported that it was one of the best systems and configurations that they had heard in there.”

Chand Nazir, Promoter for the Brighton Dome, was also quick to add praise. He said: “The JBL VTX system has a really crisp, clear sound with the bass projected correctly at all times. There was no distortion - just a beautiful sound. The rigging and de-rigging couldn’t have been simpler, making logistical deadlines smooth. The VTX speakers are more compact than other systems, which was to our benefit.

It meant that the sightline in the Dome wasn’t compromised, which meant we could sell more seats. Despite the system’s compact size, it delivered 110%. I hope to work with JBL again in the near future.”

Castrillon concluded: “It’s useful to be able to listen to a system in a real world situation and I’m hoping now to evaluate it at an outdoor event soon.”

Joe East, Sound Technology Business Development, Pro Audio confirmed: “We are investigating other opportunities to assist John with his VTX evaluation, and are subsequently now also working together on a potential large installation combining other Harman audio components with Martin lighting.”

He concluded: “This was a great exercise for all involved and something we intend to repeat in order to get the new system exposure while simultaneously building stronger relationships with rental companies, venues and engineers.

The feedback we received was excellent, not just on the audio performance, but also on the ease and speed of getting the system up and down.

“We’re keen to talk to venue operators and rental companies who see the V20 as a potentially useful system for them, and would welcome the opportunity to arrange similar ‘real-world’ demos. In between gigs, our demo rig is installed at our facility in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, which is a good opportunity to hear and learn about the system.”

TPi www.jimmycliff.com www.jbl.com www.soundtech.co.uk

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EVENT FOCUS: Imagine Dragons

MOMENT FACTORY AND IMAGINE DRAGONS JOIN CREATIVE FORCES SINCE IMAGINE DRAGONS RELEASED THEIR DEBUT ALBUM BACK IN 2012, THE BAND HAVE GONE FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH AND WITH THEIR CURRENT TOUR, PROMOTING SMOKE + MIRRORS, THEY HAVE JOINED FORCES WITH MOMENT FACTORY TO PRODUCE AN IMPRESSIVE STAGE SHOW. STEWART HUME SPOKE TO CREATIVE DIRECTOR AND PRODUCTION DESIGNER JESSE LEE STOUT TO FIND OUT MORE. Imagine Dragons burst into the mainstream in 2012 with their debut album Night Visions that featured the Grammy award winning single, Radioactive. Still riding the wave of success, the band released their second album, which they are currently promoting on their Smoke + Mirrors world tour. For this tour the band decided to employ the services of Moment Factory to create their live show. Jesse Lee Stout, Creative Director and Production Designer of the show talked TPi through how this new collaboration came about.

“They contacted us about developing their then upcoming tour, Smoke + Mirrors,” said Stout. “I did some research into their photography, past music and touring history. I 30

then put together a bunch of ideas across the board to see what the guys would respond to.” Stout went on to say how there was a great back and forth between the designers at Moment Factory and the guys in Imagine Dragons. He recalls: “They were very responsive to a handful of ideas and that really set the course for me. From there, we’d chime in on group emails, calls and go back and forth on ideas for the show. It was all very fluid.”

This is not the first time that Moment Factory has worked with Imagine Dragons.

From the music video for Gold to the launch party for Smoke + Mirrors, the band and the media studio have built up a great working relationship. Stout explained that, “All of the projects we’ve worked on with Imagine Dragons

have been following this theme of perspective, perceptual shifts, and surrealism.”

Stout’s vision for this project was to exhibit various optical deceptions for the audience as well as to create an evolution in the show within the realms of dimension, colour, and shape.

These ideas were inspired by themes explored in Imagine Dragons’ new album, which deals with the idea of deception and that things are not always what they appear to be.

As to the design, the stage is revealed as eight LED towers, interspersed with eight lighting towers, aligned in a forced perspective, a classic optical technique to create the illusion of infinite depth. At the 30 minute mark of the show, the stage changes shape, and continues to do so throughout. The LED towers are

EVENT FOCUS: Imagine Dragons

Opposite and Below: Imagine Dragons’ impressive stage show explores the themes of perspective, perceptual shift, and surrealism.

wrapped with two-way mirrors creating a sleek glossy look and you never see the LED product, but it also leaves an evocative warped reflection of its surrounding environment. There are some subtleties too, like an inlay grate on the stage floor that forms a ‘+’, a recurring symbol over this album cycle.

Technical Production Manager for Moment Factory, James Richardson, talked through some of the suppliers that made the stage show come alive: “The automation for the tour was supplied

by SGPS in Las Vegas who also supplied rigging and staging. The LED screens are Win9Air LED tiles from VER who also supplied the lighting and video.” He went on to say that: “It’s important to note that the screens are not actually rotating. There screens track back and forth across the stage but with the combination of the effect of depth that the mirrored panels, that were applied to the LED screens, and some great content by the Moment Factory Content Team the screen really come to life and feel like they also rotate and shift in bizarre ways.”

For this project, video and lighting teams had to work closely. Stout explained: “From day one, I wanted to play visual tricks between

the video and lighting. For example, there are moments in the show where the spotlights are aimed at the video walls and the content mimics the lighting. At times it looks as if the light beam is burning the video wall, at other times the light beam appears to go inside the video wall and bounce off of its edges multiple times.

The audience surely doesn’t know the specifics of what is happening, but it creates a feeling.

This took a lot of back and forth between the video and lighting designers.” The media server used during the show is an X-Agora, Moment Factory’s own proprietary software. VER supplied Barco Projectors to the tour, and James Valpey operates the system on the road.

The band are still out on the road and throughout August they are doing the Asian leg of the Smoke + Mirrors tour. It seems that the partnership between Imagine Dragons and Moment Factory has led to a stage show that has been very successful for the band, not to mention their energetic fans the world over.

TPi Photos: Moment Factory www.imaginedragonsmusic.com www.momentfactory.com 31

EVENT FOCUS: Why Not People?

WHY NOT PEOPLE? WITH ONE IN FIVE PEOPLE IN THE UK LIVING WITH A DISABILITY, FORMER RADIO ONE DJ JAMEELA JAMIL HAS EMBARKED ON THE CHALLENGE TO TRANSFORM LIVE MUSIC EXPERIENCES FOR DISABLED EVENTGOERS, BANISHING SEGREGATED VIEWING PLATFORMS AND OPTIMISING THE EXPERIENCE FOR EVERYONE. NEW SOCIAL ENTERPRISE WHY NOT PEOPLE?, THE UK’S FIRST MUSIC AND EVENT CLUB FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES, HOSTED ITS FULLY ACCESSIBLE LAUNCH EVENT AT TROXY. Taking place at East London’s Troxy on 1 July, production teams from all across the UK demonstrated how a live music event can overcome accessibility barriers and welcome everyone, regardless of disability. Why Not People? (WNP) used a bespoke ticketing system that allowed all attendees to book their tickets online using the same platform, as well as choose their own seats.

Headlining the night’s gig was Tinie Tempah, who took a break from his Ibiza schedule to return to London for one night only. He was supported by dance troupe Flawless, F2Freestylers, Aluna Francis (AlunaGeorge), The Noisettes’ Shingai Shoniwa and comedian Romesh Ranganathan. Jameela Jamil hosted the night with WNP ambassadors The Last Leg’s Alex Brooker, Presenter Sophie Morgan, CBBC Newsround presenter Martin Dougan and Team 32

GB’s number one wheelchair tennis player, Jordanne Whiley.

The event was produced by Nadu Placca (NP Presents) and Troxy’s production and security teams also supported both in planning and on the night. “We investigated how we could make Troxy as suitable for the night as possible,” Troxy’s Event Manager, Atif Malik, explained.

“Researching the possibilities around seating, accessibility, production and security.

We found all that was needed was simple procedures which could dramatically enhance the experience for everyone. For example, we opened the doors at 6:30pm, a little earlier than normal, to allow extra time for everyone to enter the venue. We were expecting around 40 wheelchair users so we placed ramps at the entrances and throughout the venue where needed.”

Further design changes to the venue included dropped-down accessible bars and additional disabled toilets and a Changing Places Unit, for those with extra requirements.

As usual with Troxy events, the night opted for Headline Security; health and safety was paramount for with a detailed briefing given to the staff beforehand. The Grand Hall also included a pop-up paramedic station and first aider in preparation for any requirements.

WNP is being led by their MD and cofounder Divya Daryanani. “One in five people in the UK have a disability, yet no audience at gigs is ever representative of that, let alone the experience they receive. We want to lead by best practice and our inaugural event at Troxy did just that. We selected the venue as it has brilliant access and Atif and his team are masters at work. We have worked tirelessly for

EVENT FOCUS: Why Not People?

Opposite: The night reached its climax with a performance from Tinie Tempah.

two years to understand everything needed to enhance the experience had by all in a safe and engaging way.”

As Jameela Jamil pointed out during the gig, Troxy was one of just two venues in the UK who had the capabilities to host this level of accessibility for a live gig. Maximising on its two-tiered layout, the ground floor was reserved for those with mobility issues and wheelchair users with their friends. The front of the circle however was reserved for those with sensory impairments, for two reasons.

Their seats boasted SubPac technology, a tactile wearable speaker that linked to the sound desk allowing them to ‘feel the music’; whilst also having an unobstructed view of the stage and show.

Freelance FOH Engineer, Lavar Bullard, supported with a Yamaha M7 desk. He explained: “I’m responsible for transforming the dynamic sounds of the music onto the audience and into the SubPac. The sounds are filtered through the system to create a dynamic and exciting range of frequencies, allowing the audience with impaired senses to feel as immersed in the performance as possible.”

WNP hired charity Stagetext to deliver live captions throughout the night to numerous screens giving the needed support to people

with hearing impairments.

Stagetext supports over 630 arts events each year for the hard of hearing in the UK. Roger Graham, Technical Consultant at Stagetext, explained: “There are over 10 million people in the UK who suffer with some sort of hearing loss, and only 5% of those use British Sign Language. Our captions are a support for everyone. Speech to Text Reporter Orla Pearson can type 300 words a minute and has a 99% accuracy rate. Using a specially-designed keyboard which prompts expected key words, Orla types the text of songs and speech to deliver the information in real time.”

WNP realised that, although captions solved most of the issues, comedy will often be lost in the text translation. To ensure that nothing got lost for the audience, comedian Romesh Ranganathan took to the stage with signer and friend Adrian. The combination brought hilarious results, bouncing jokes off each other.

The night reached its climax with Tinie Tempah who performed a full set including his number one single Not Letting Go. Nick Hamblin was freelancing as the house LD on the night, responsible for lighting control and fixtures. His choices prove that extensive strobe lights are not always needed to create an exciting production. Before the show, he

explained: “Tinie Tempah’s performance is when we’ll bring out the most lighting with B-EYE, floor lights and chasers. I’m using sensitive lighting including a Clay Paky B-EYE K20, K10, a Robe 600, four pointes and four LED batons.

The in-house rig at Troxy has been really easy to work with; the prism structure of the venue makes it straight forward to create different effects and different layers.”

Working closely with Tinie Tempah and the other stage acts, was Felix Milton, the Monitor Engineer for the night. “I’m in charge of what the artists hear, not what the crowds hear.

Tonight we’re using audio equipment from Flair, the British loudspeaker technology company which isn’t even on the market yet. Troxy is a beautiful building to work in and I love being in East London; fundamentally tonight is a great cause, working with great people.”

Media was managed by PR agency Lineup Media, who created a fully accessible backstage press area to accommodate all journalists on the night and hold artist interviews.

There’s no denying that, and as Jameela stated “exclusion ends today” it seems the great people behind this great cause are heading for exactly that.

TPi www.whynotpeople.com

33

PRODUCTION PROFILE: John Peel Stage

GLASTONBURY 2015: THE JOHN PEEL STAGE IT’S BEEN SEVEN YEARS SINCE LIGHTING AND VISUAL TECH COMPANY BRYTE DESIGN FIRST BEGAN WORKING WITH THE JOHN PEEL STAGE AT THE UK’S MOST SOUGHT AFTER FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE. THIS YEAR, THE SOLID TEAM BEHIND THE POPULAR NEW BAND PLATFORM TALKED TPi THROUGH THEIR LOVE FOR THE TENT WHICH HAS BECOME A MAINSTAY FOR ITS EXPERT CREW. Production Manager and Head Rigger for the iconic stage is Phil Tickle. Originally starting out as a rigger only, Tickle has worked his way through the ranks witnessing the iconic stage grow both in size and in popularity. He stated: “The growth of John Peel Stage has been extraordinary, both in terms of its physical size and more importantly, the experience that it provides for both the audience and the bands who play on it.”

The tent itself (formally know as the New Band Stage) over the years has grown from a one or two king pole tent to the current six king pole arrangement. According to Tickle, the people involved with John Peel have developed wonderfully: “We’ve simply got better at our respective jobs over the years. Some of the team are considered industry leaders in their 34

fields. This collective experience brings the best industry ideas back in to the team and allows the growth of the John Peel operation. This year was the best yet. I don’t do Glastonbury because it is Glastonbury. I do it so that I can continue to work with an extra-ordinary group of people.”

Originally the PA for the stage was flown via two PA towers either side of the stage creating a small 30ft wide performance area, far to small for the larger bands. It was for this reason that the stage moved to a Prolyte ST system. Tickle explained: “We moved to a Prolyte ST system which had a new raking system that I designed, utilising components from the ST roof apex.

Credit here must go to Abigail Matthews at Momentum Engineering (Structural Engineering firm for both Glastonbury and Above Ltd) and to Prolyte, the manufacturers, for their advice and

PRODUCTION PROFILE: John Peel Stage

Opposite: Rising indie-electro stars Years and Years. Below: Over time, the John Peel Stage has expanded both in size and the calibre or acts taking to its stage; Phil Tickle Production Manager, Gary Churchill, Managing Director at IMAX; Mark Bott, Operations Manager at SWG Events.

approval. The ST system (based on a 52cm raked truss grid) allowed us to ditch the separate PA towers and spend that money on a larger overall grid. We are now 44ft wide and big enough to accommodate bigger bands and to fly the PA from the ground support itself.”

As well as the Production Manager for the JPS, Tickle also heads up the Rigging Department. Explaining how he juggles the two roles he states: “The solution is to surround yourself with excellent people. In practice, I run the build myself on stage for two to three days, but when I need to run to the production office, I delegate to excellent riggers. During the show, my riggers are on hand for any requirements during band changeovers. I am rarely on stage in my production role. The operation of the stage during the weekend is directly handled by the Stage Manager, Jim Elvey.”

The rigging needs for the stage aided by Above Ltd and Rigging Services. According to Tickle the two companies have an, “excellent relationship”. Talking about Rigging Services specifically he stated that: “I want the Prolyte ST system that they own. It’s simply a superior trussing system to the alternatives, especially in the time taken to build it. Dave Rogers runs the Birmingham Branch of Rigging Services, it’s him and his expertise that wins the contract.”

The ground-support structure for the stage was a Prolyte ST system, utilising a partially raked S52SV grid. The IMAG screen and side trusses were on Proltye H30V via the king poles. The PA

was flown from the king poles for the first time this year. The audience/auditorium triangle truss was Prolyte H40V. STAGING AND HEALTH & SAFETY The John Peel Red Deck stage C platform and ramp, rigged by Serious Stages, stood 36 metres long by 14.4 metres deep, with the stage deck at various heights. There are three sets of handrail-fitted steps (front stage, stage left and stage right), which were 1.2 metres wide from stage deck to ground.

audience.

At FOH, the gear was housed in a 9.6 metre wide by 4.8 metre deep split level platform with a handrail surround. The adjoining TV tower, which was supplied by the BBC, had a main platform that was 7.2 metres wide by 7.2 metres deep and stood at one metre high.

A secondary platform leading to a rear ramp, which also stood 1 metre from the ground, measured 2.4 metres by 2.4 metres.

The 7.2 metre wide by 7.2 metre deep main disabled platform (also built by Serious Stages)

“The solution is to surround yourself with excellent people. In practice, I run the build myself on stage for two to three days, but when I need to run to the production office, I delegate to excellent riggers...”

Phil Tickle, Production Manager, John Peel Stage

A two bay ramp was situated downstage right that lead to a 2.4 metre wide by 14.4 metre long walkway. This lead to a 12 metre wide by 4.8 metre deep loading dock, which stood 0.5 metres high. Although the stage dressing varied from artist to artist, a 18 metre wide by 1.5 metres high black drape remained throughout to hide the wings from the

was positioned arena left and stood 1 metre high, with a 2.4 metre by 2.4 metre platform at one metre high leading to a rear ramp.

For all of the Glastonbury stages, health and safety is always a huge concern. The festivals health and safety operation was led by TESS (The Event Safety Shop). Tickle commented: “I work industry wide, and they’re simply the 35

PRODUCTION PROFILE: John Peel Stage

Below: 2015 saw a more elaborate lighting package used to improve the audience camera shots for BBC TV coverage.

best that I have seen. Tim Roberts from TESS is World Class and it is no accident that this year saw him promoted to Glastonbury’s Operations Director.”

THE CREATIVE CONCEPT The visual and lighting design for this years JPS was handled by Bryte Design’s Cate Carter, Pablo Beckett and Mike Smith. According to Tickle: “They are the creative designers where as my design role is to turn their vision in to reality. That can be quite a challenge. We kick around ideas for a number of weeks, sometimes meeting up, sometimes on Skype or FaceTime.

Once we have some ideas, I go away, do the 3D CAD drawings and figure out if the design can physically be built or paid for.”

Cate spoke about what it was like to once again work for the famous stage: “As the Stage is within a tent we have the luxury of some darkness during the day and also we get a lot of BBC coverage thanks to the diversity of artists we see coming through the stage.

“In the early years working at John Peel, we had a lot of freedom to be creative with the lighting and video design as our brief was to create something that stands out and makes the stage look unique. In recent years we have begun to see higher profile bands being booked on the stage and with this often comes a higher level of touring production.”

The BBC coverage of the stage has added a lot of extra pressure on the team. Beckett 36

commened: “When we design the JPS we say we are designing for two audiences, the 6,000 plus capacity crowds we regularly see in the tent and even bigger audiences across the world watching on the BBC.” This creates two unique design criterias.

Firstly designing a stage that looks great for the people inside the tent and for the people watching on their TV. Secondly having to design a stage that looks good no mater how much or how little production the performers bring with them. This year the team attempted to improve both factors.

Beckett explained: “Each year we try to identify where we can improve things and do a better job with the resources available to us.

“This year with a modest increase in budget from the festival we were able to provide a TV lighting package which I think made a massive improvement to overall design and the audience experience.” Smith added: “This year we also added a more elaborate audience lighting package to try and improve the audience camera shots for the BBC.” The Bryte team also brought in Martin Professional MAC Quantum Spots this year for the first time. Smith got us up to speed: “These are a new LED Moving Profiles. They are a first for the stage. We were extremely impressed with the brightness of these fixtures. We also used Clay Paky Stormy CC Strobes. These were something new that we hadn’t tried before but we were also very impressed with and are

confident that they are a replacement for more traditional strobe fixtures.”

VIDEO In terms of video production Beckett explained that there were two main areas of production: “Firstly the i-mag system which is specified and headed up by our video crew boss Paul Maddock-Jones. Our IMAG video requirements are fairly straightforward. We run three HD cameras out to four projectors either side of stage and take a TX from the BBC which we use when they are filming. We also have great little team of people who run our screen graphics, running orders, adverts and social media feeds from the festival.

“One of the objectives for this year was to streamline the i-mag system, after tendering for suppliers we eventually went with XL Video who along with Paul were able to put together a great HD system for us which included four lightweight Panasonic 20k projectors. It’s a little thing but each piece of equipment we are able to make more efficient or streamlined the more we are able to put energy and of course budget into other areas which may need it.

“For the onstage video elements we often start with a concept and then look for the right kit to achieve this. Vortex have worked with us for a couple of years and supplied us with an Elements Lab Stealth screen. It isn’t a highresolution screen (which seem to more in favour recently) however it looks great on TV with it’s

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18/06/2015 16:32

PRODUCTION PROFILE: John Peel Stage

Below: Years & Years’ LD Squib Swain; Years & Years frontman and keyboardist, Olly Alexander.

25mm pixel pitch it really enhances the broken effect.”

Having recently purchased a Green Hippo Hippotizer V4 Karst media server, Vortex Events then put it to the test immediately on the John Peel Stage. Matt Gourd of Vortex commented: “We looked at many different media servers and having used a wide range onsite for events, it was easy to see that the V4 range was one step ahead in many ways. These include the value for money and great support they offer.”

that is able to be a textural element as well as a video surface. The system was also designed with the help of Simon Harris from Green Hippo to accommodate either custom designed video content for our screen design or more general video content which wasn’t mapped for our screens. The flexibility of the Green Hippo servers in a live situation made this really easy.”

One extra feature for this years was the inclusion of a pre-programming suite backstage, which included a Green Hippo server which

“Light Initiative took every requirement of my brief to deliver a unique, tourable end product...”

Lighting Designer for Years & Years, Squib Swain

When it came to visiting operators Bryte Design attempt to be a accommodating as possible. Beckett explained: “For video we provide full control for visiting LDs or Content Designers whether it be through lighting desks or directly via the media servers and the attached control surfaces. Giving easy access for LDs, in particular to the video elements, is something we have been developing over the years.

“We now treat the video elements on stage as an extension of the lighting rig, in as much as we want people to think of it as lighting fixture 38

could be used to setup a show to then be send to the main servers at FOH. This created a great pipeline for use to get last minute content from artists prepped for our screens on to the system as quickly as possible.

Carter explained how further assistance was also available this year: “We had Philip Norfolk from Ambersphere with us onsite providing MA2 support with the FOH control system for both onstage and TV lighting rigs.”

Talking through this year event Beckett reflected on how their staging could accommodate such a broad range of artists:

the stage design was able to compliment all performances, filling space as necessary but not over powering when there was more production on the stage. It was a very proud moment to see the design really working with such different acts.”

LIGHTING IMAX Lighting was brought in by Bryte Design to supply the lighting fixtures, networking, power distribution and control for the John Peel stage for the second year running.

Managing Director at IMAX, Gary Churchill, said that the John Peel stage is one of the busiest stages on the Glastonbury site, both in terms of bands per day and stage turnaround times. This also means a large volume of the incoming Lighting Designers (LDs), and an extremely busy FOH. He explained: “We have a turnaround of about four consoles on a network in our FOH, plus our house back-up console, a grandMA MA2 main light- so that all rotates for the incoming LDs.” The activity on the John Peel stage is not confined to FOH either, as Chrurchill claims there is “easily four trucks a day of lighting equipment” coming into the loading area. He explained: “The headliner has a 45-footer, full of extras, while the first and second pre-headliners have got another 18-tonner, with extras. There’s always splitter vans full of extra backline and extra lighting equipment coming in, busier than you’d think!.”

All of the lighting equipment on the John

PRODUCTION PROFILE: John Peel Stage

Below: Bryte Design’s Paul ‘Pablo’ Beckett.

Peel stage goes up in less than a day, thanks to a crew of between eight and 10, according to Churchill. The 2015 incarnation of the stage was equipped with 18 Martin Professional MAC Quantum Spots, 16 MAC Quantum Washes, 12 Robe Robin Pointe Beams, 12 i-Pix Satellite Mk2s and six Clay Paky Stormys. There was also 12 Robe 100 LED Beams in the wings.

A selection of James Thomas Molefay blinders, ETC Source 4 profiles and 240 volt PAR 64 Bars completed the rig, which was controlled by the MA2 Full Size (with an MA Lighting grandMA2 Light as back-up), and a Luminex Network running between FOH and stage.

The LED screen panels Vortex provided on the John Peel Stage rig were designed to be used primarily for textural video and lighting effects, rather than highly-detailed ‘cinematic’ video content.

This setup allowed LDs to engage their creativity, assisted by those such as Light Initiative

Technical Director Ben Vaughan, who operated the media for rising indie-electro stars Years & Years.

Vaughan created a pixel-mapped show using Avolites’ custom LED flex screen, designed as an extrapolated version of the band’s album artwork for their debut, Communion.

“Light Initiative took every requirement of my brief to deliver a unique, tourable end product,” said Years & Years’ LD Squib Swain, who approached the company with his concept at the beginning of the album campaign tour.

“As well as looking amazing, Light Initiative made the screen ground-supported and freestanding, with short festival turnarounds like Glastonbury in mind.”

An Avolites Ai Infinity EX8 server powered the vibrant content, devised by Adam Young, through the structure. “As Light Initiative provided me with a perfect visual representation of the structure in After Effects, designing

IMAXLighting Lighting & Rigging equipment, Designed, installed and crewed Tel: 0117 971 96 25 | www.imaxlighting.co.uk | info@imaxlighting.co.uk

Photo: Philip Norfolk

Photo: Marc Aitken

Photo: Rob Hollingworth

39

PRODUCTION PROFILE: John Peel Stage

Below: All of the lighting equipment on the John Peel stage goes up in less than a day, thanks to the hard-working crew of between eight and 10 people.

the content was made far easier.

The LED refresh rate of the screen was also fantastic, with the colours I chose in the designing stage perfectly represented in real life.”

Swain agreed: “Light Initiative turned my vision into a reality and we had an amazing reaction to it from the Glastonbury crowd.”

Also on John Peel, Andy Liddle used a Tiger Touch II to control a dynamic light show for La Roux, while Francis Clegg used Avolites’ fully-featured, compact console, the Quartz, to control the lights for energetic punk two-piece, Slaves.

AUDIO The main PA system on the John Peel stage was centred on L-Acoustics hardware, with VDOSC, dv-DOSC and ARCS speakers serving as the main hang and frontfill, augmented by 18 L-Acoustics SB28 subwoofers.

FOH Control was taken care of by a Digidesign Profile System with an XTA GQ600 graphic equaliser and two XTA DP 224 speaker management systems.

One Yamaha PM5D RH and two Yamaha PM5D power supplies supported the monitor system that was made up of 16 L- Acoustics 115XT Hi Q wedges and two L40

Acoustics 118 Sub Bass boxes.

Extra amplification on the John Peel stage came from a selection of Lab.Gruppen fp 2400 Qs, fp 3400s and fp 6400s with an XTA 224 speaker management system The crew had access to four Sennheiser G3 300 Hand Held 845 Transmitters, four Sennheiser G3 300 Receivers, a Sennheiser G3 300 Antenna splitter and two Sennheiser Antenna Paddles. A team of five engineers from SWG Events were on site to look after the system.

Mark Bott, Operations Manager for the John Peel Stage audio supplier, SWG Events, supports the John Peel stage team through the entire process, ensuring all of the audio requirements are fully covered and making sure any touring audio production integrates efficiently. This also has to combine with the BBC’s broadcast systems.

Bott commented: “The considerations with the John Peel Stage are a combination of venue coverage, sight lines and off site noise. When we were asked to get involved in 2014 one of the major design factors was having no subs in the centre of the stage as there is a large camera platform already,

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7/6/15 9:46 AM

PRODUCTION PROFILE: John Peel Stage

Below: A Green Hippo Hippotizer V4 Karst media server was utilised; Staging was supplied by Serious Stages to supoprt and house the creative design by Bryte.

so in order not to push the barrier line further back and separate the audience further from the stage we needed to ensure even sub coverage from the stage left and right positions.”

SWG used to supply sound and lighting to the John Peel Stage during the late 90s when it was called the New Bands Tent through to 2002. Although the company had a break for a few years, it was approached by the John Peel stage’s Production Manager, Phil Tickle, in 2014 to supply a fresh audio solution.

Friday headliners on the stage, Enter Shikari, used an Allen & Heath GLD-80 mixer to keep their levels in check.

“The GLD is now a pretty essential part of the Shikari show,” explained Monitor Engineer, AJ Sutherland.

“We’ve done 74 gigs so far this year, 68

42

with the GLD. I think it nails the midscale console market. The IO, functionality and audio quality are suited to the demands of high level productions and it’s small enough to fly around the world and fit on cramped stages.

It’s really helped the remaining band members migrate onto in-ears, and they seem to be enjoying discovering what is possible, plus the management can’t complain about the price.

“Being able to have the same console for each show makes my life a massive amount easier and the band’s show a lot better. A&H is my first choice of console as they are so fast and easy to use which is vital on such a high-energy show.”

Bott concluded: “There is no festival in the world like Glastonbury, it is a completely unique place to work. John Peel is like one big extended

family. Everyone involved has been there for years and it’s always a great to come back to.

Add the artists we’ve looked after there over the years and that’s why we’ll always want to go back.”

TPi Photos: http://thefifthestate.co.uk & Simon Harris www.vortexhire.co.uk www.brytedesign.co.uk www.lightinitiative.co.uk www.imaxlighting.co.uk www.riggingservices.co.uk www.swgevents.co.uk www.aboveltd.co.uk www.xlvideo.com www.ambersphere.co.uk www.stages.co.uk

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: Glastonbury 2015

GLASTONBURY HIGHLIGHTS AFTER LOOKING AT THE CREATIVE AND TECHNICAL TEAMS BEHIND JOHN PEEL, TPI LOOKS AT GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL’S MANY OTHER STAGES AND INDUSTRY PROFESSINALS WHO HELPED TO BRING THE ECLECTIC LINE UP TO LIFE WITH LIVE PRODUCTION.

JANDS

WWW.JANDS.COM

Renowned Lighting Designer, Rob Sinclair and Programmer Louisa Smurthwaite used a Jands Vista L5 lighting console to deliver a memorable performance for Florence + The Machine’s Friday night headlining slot on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival.

When Florence + The Machine were promoted to top of the bill just one week before the show, after an injury to Dave Grohl forced the Foo Fighters to pull out, Sinclair and Smurthwaite were faced with the challenge of completely redesigning the show to incorporate the production values of a headliner slot.

Willo Perron’s innovative overall show concept and set design for the band’s current How Big 2015 international tour, along with Sinclair‘s elegant lighting design, formed the basis for the Glastonbury performance’s production values. Set pieces included rows of Par Cans custom painted in a metallic copper finish, providing side and back lighting for the band. In addition, the upstage featured a huge 48ft by 28ft kinetic wall animated by 22 DMX fans, which reflected front light and glistened at various points of the performance.

The process began with Sinclair and

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© Sarah Rushton - www.thefifthestate.co.uk

Smurthwaite reviewing every technical aspect of the show and how they could change it to make the very best of the rig that they had at their disposal. With the help of Neg Earth Lights, the lighting rig supplier for the Pyramid Stage, Sinclair was able to add an additional two front trusses containing 30 Martin Professional Viper Air FXs, to light the back surface.

Although a considerable amount of work to reprogramme the show, Smurthwaite knew that Vista’s Generic Fixture Model and FX Engine would make light work of this task.

She commented: “There was plenty of fixture swapping required to reprogram the touring show for the Pyramid Stage. The thing that I love about Vista is that once you ask it to swap one fixture to become another, it simply works.

I don’t have to go in and update additional elements or manually link features from one fixture to the next.

“In addition, I was really impressed with the FX Engine’s Matrix feature.

“During the main tour pre-production, we had spent a lot of time making sure that all of the lighting effects that reflected off the backdrop moved in a linear way, to create this

fluid, organic type of movement. We used the Matrix feature to achieve this.

“As these five angled trusses were not in the Pyramid Stage’s design, instead we now had two straight front trusses. All I had to do was visually re-arrange my fixtures in the Matrix to reflect the new design. After doing this Vista automatically updated all of the pre-recorded cues to maintain our intended looks.”

During the performance, Smurthwaite operated the main show lighting from the Vista L5 console, while Sinclair took charge of key lighting for TV via two Vista M1s. Having only used the L5 on one previous tour, for Kylie Minogue, Smurthwaite was further impressed with its overall ease of use and reliability. She commented: “The L5 definitely makes a big difference. Just having that wide screen to work on is invaluable. Plus having the extra faders at your disposal is great.”

The Florence + The Machine international tour resumed at the beginning of July in Europe, and is to be followed by dates in North America and Australia before a UK tour leg. The full tour lighting rig is supplied by Nashville-based Premier Global Productions.

PRODUCTION PROFILE: Glastonbury 2015

VME

WWW.VME-UK.COM

VME provided production for The Beat Hotel at this years Glastonbury Festival. This was the first year that VME was involved with this stage, and provided sound, lighting and site power for the 2,000 capacity bar stage. The Beat Hotel has DJ’s playing continually from lunchtime through to 3am, with acts including Groove Armada, Simian Mobile Disco, Greg Wilson, Erol Alkan, Maribou State and Gerd Jason.

The design of the Beat Hotel changes each year, but is designed to mimic a fairly cheap and unsophisticated American 70s hotel.

The stage set was built by Gorilla Events, which was then lit by VME architecturally. A combination of Sunstrip, Chroma-Spheres and LED wash fixtures were utilised to subtly light the venue, which was controlled

by Avolites’ Tiger Touch. Kling & Freitag Line 212, 1001, Passio and Scena loudspeakers were used across the stage run by a Yamaha CL-1 console.

VME’s crew consisted of Ben Hyman who looking after audio while Aaron Harvey-Holt looked after lighting.

Sister company to VME, Euro Screens, provided the outside broadcast facilities for the BBC Introducing Stage.

Euro Screens provided their latest high definition Outside Broadcast Unit to facilitate audio and video streams to be sent to the BBC’s televised and online services. Euro Screens provided four Sony HSC2400 cameras to cover the weekend with all vision mixed and processed using Blackmagic Design hardware.

From an audio side, Euro Screens provided all talkback and communications for the BBC team using Riedel and Glensound equipment, and managed all audio routing via a Yamaha QL-1 to put together a packaged live broadcast going straight to air. Euro Screens crew were Vision Engineer Brian Gray and Audio Engineer Mark Cleator.

www.dbaudio.com

MAX2 stage monitor.

Remarkable vocal presence.

Packing a punch.

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: Glastonbury 2015

TMB

WWW.TMB.COM

Florence + the Machine’s “infectious enthusiasm” at Glastonbury 2015 was enhanced by an elegant stage set with powerful lighting by Lighting Designer Rob Sinclair. To complement Florence’s dramatic and eccentric music Sinclair combined new and traditional technology in unique ways to reinforce Florence’s grandiose performance on the festival’s celebrated Pyramid Stage.

Central to the backline were 36 ProCan PAR 64s, with custom finish turned around in record time by TMB. Six rows of six ProCans, at 1000W each, could be seen by a Glastonbury audience of over 100,000 from any location at the world’s largest greenfield festival.

Also across the backline a large kinetic wall of mirrors, made by Jeff Wickley, was agitated to great effect by 20 DMX-controlled ProFan wind machines. Built into the stage risers was a Firefly LED festoon system with clear Filament version V12 lamps for a traditional festive look.

“I wanted something that looked like tungsten bulbs but was more reliable and rugged,” said Sinclair. “The Firefly festoons have worked out very well and give a lovely glow.”

Available on the Glastonbury main stage rig were 50 Solaris LED Flares.

An additional 36 Flares were brought in as a band-add for Florence’s set. Sinclair commented: “I have to say that I adore the Flare! It produces a lovely, even field of color in smoke, is super-bright, and does wonderful pastels.

We have 11 shades of white in the show and the Flares carry them all, particularly in the coppery bastard amber/rose gold range. I’ve used the Flares before, notably with Kylie and Marina and the Diamonds. We used a pile of them on Bastille’s festival show also.”

The band’s world tour continues this summer with the same set design. Lighting Director

SERIOUS STAGES

for Florence at Glastonbury and on tour is Louisa Smurthwaite. Set Designer and Creative Director is Willo Perron and Narci Martinez is Production Manager. Equipment from Premier Global Productions, lighting supplier to the tour, augmented the Glastonbury Pyramid Stage’s lighting rig, which was supplied by Neg Earth.

WWW.STAGES.CO.UK

©Plaster Communications

Artists have been appearing on Serious Stages for four decades at the world’s most famous festival, but the company’s focus is on the future.

Serious Stages Managing Director Steven Corfield stated: “The ever-increasing production expectations of bands combined with Michael and Emily [Eavis’] desire to give audiences the best experience led to discussions about creating a new Other Stage better suited to Glastonbury. Those conversations went through our CAD designers and engineers, on to keeping our fabrication facility this spring manufacturing the new flat roof system. Then our on-site team under project management of Simon Fursman have done a phenomenal job constructing this new stage for the first time at Glastonbury.”

The new look Other Stage presented an impressive viewing experience for the audience. With a total height of 20 metres and an overall width of 43 metres along with the addition of the installation on the front facade by artist Joe

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Rush, it made for a stunning design.

From the band and production teams’ perspectives, the 777 sq metre main deck with a 190 sq metre rear shed combine to deliver phenomenal performance and working areas. There are fully enclosed wings and dual ramps upstage left and right giving extensive loading facilities. The five tonne capacity per cross stage truss, plus three tonne capacity on the cantilever mean that the roof can take 35 to 40 tonne weight loading.

Given the on-going relationship between Glastonbury and Serious Stages, the company was confident to invest substantially to produce the new system, which will be a great stage at the festival in future years.

For Glastonbury 2015 Serious Stages once again provided almost 60 structures, including the four main stages, The Temple and The Ribbon Tower, plus multiple indoor stages, media platforms, television camera towers, PA towers and structural supports for video screens and viewing platforms across the 900 acre site.

BRIAN YEARDLEY.COM UK & EUROPEAN LIVE EVENTS LOGISTICS

PRODUCTION PROFILE: Glastonbury 2015

FINELINE LIGHTING Bristol-based lighting and visuals specialist Fineline Lighting supplied lighting for various stages this year.

Managing Director Rob Sangwell said: “We all love working on Glastonbury and imbibing the spirit of the festival, and are very proud of our history with the event.”

ACOUSTIC This year, the Fineline team designed and custom fabricated a special chandelier with 40 spiral filament lamps. Stage lighting was designed by Sangwell and Fineline site Crew Chief Stu England, based on three trusses spanning the 40ft by 22ft ground support system also installed, trimmed at 9.5 metres.

This was rigged with 10 bars of PAR 64s and some ACLs, together with Martin MAC Quantum Spots on drop bars on the back and mid trusses. Quantum Wash moving lights on the mid truss were used to create the general stage washes, while Martin Professional MAC 101s on the back truss served as effective tab ‘warmers’, highlighting the sumptuous red of the drapes. On the mid truss MAC Aura XBs and XB Plus’ provided the beam work and rear key lighting, supported by Robe LEDBeam 100s for effects.

ASTROLABE Lighting in the Astrolabe theatre tent was co-ordinated by Hal Himsworth. A substantial amount of trussing was rigged in the roof to create a usable theatre grid and most of the

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© Louise Stickland

base washes were created by static LED wash lights. The rig incorporated all the performer specs, together with specials and extras as needed and featured about 80 fresnels, profiles, floods and PARs which were re-worked and often refocussed and re-gelled between acts.

CIRCUS Lighting Designer James Loudon is another Glastonbury regular. For the venue lighting had to fill 12 metres of headroom and a 3D space about eight metres square. The upstage truss was horizontally hinged at approximately 45 degrees along the sides to form an arc around the stage, supported from this truss, at the midstage ends, were vertical trusses for side lighting positions.

Additional lights were on the floor and rigged to the tent king poles and flown trusses suspended from the king poles and cupola. A mix of Robe 600E Spots and Chauvet Rogue R2 wash lights on the deck were combined with LED battens serving as knee kickers. These were joined by a good selection of generics: PARs, profiles and fresnels.

CABARET Just across the field in the single king pole square shaped Cabaret tent, Fineline’s Wingnut designed lighting and was joined by Alex Shenton, Ben Desousa and Croat.

Fixtures were rigged on a four by two metre box truss built around the king pole to give FOH and audience positions, and on two trusses

GREEN HIPPO

As well as Green Hippo being invited by Bryte Design to work with them on the John Peel Stage for the sixth year running, they were also present with a range of V4 Media servers elsewhere on Worthy Farm. One of the biggest touring shows passing through Glastonbury to use Hippotizer was Deadmau5, headlining the Other Stage. Operated by touring LD Whitney Hoversten. Designed by Leroy Bennett and programmed by Loren Barton, Canada’s most successful electronic music artist brought a stunning stage show comprising two Hippotizer V4 Boreals supplied by Upstaging, delivering a combination of video, to the downstage LED wall,

WWW.FINELINELIGHTING.COM

over the stage, with two vertical trusses on the downstage edge for booms.

Fixtures compromised about 60 PARs, 20 Source Four profiles for gobo projections plus fresnels. The moving lights were 10 Chauvet Professional Rogue R2 Beams and eight Rogue R2 washes. Wingnut also created some really cool custom paper globe lanterns internally lit with special LED rods, which were strung up throughout the space adding depth and a bit of visual scenery to the otherwise black void above the audience.

WOW STAGE The Wow Stage lighting was designed by James ‘Chimpy’ Harrington. He used a variety of kit including 10 Chauvet R2 beams, six Robe LEDBeam 100s, eight 2-lites, Atomic strobes and Chauvet Professional Nexus 7x7 panels, PARs and ACLs and also lit the exterior of HMS Wow with PARs and MBIs and ensured the funnel billowed with smoke courtesy of Gem Roadie.

WWW.GREEN-HIPPO.COM

and ArtNet/KiNET from PixelMapper to a custom fabricated ‘DJ booth’. This dome structure, made up of Color Kinetics Flex nodes and Upstaging’s own Saber LED product along with Ayrton magic panels resulted in an audio visual onslaught which Glastonbury’s revellers adored.

Elsewhere on site Darren Parker Lighting continued their annual tradition of driving all the West Holts stage’s video elements with Hippotizer Media Servers. DPL’s hospitality area was the preferred location for industry catch-ups and a discussion ensued regarding upgrading their Hippotizers to V4 despite the company’s relentless summer schedule.

Green Hippo were also invited, by Alan King of Rockin Horse Limited, to work with Igloo Vision - the specialist immersive content creators who used Unity (a third party software package) to project a map onto a huge 30ft by 50ft structure above the DJ booth in the Block 9 area, namely Genosys!

King, Technical Project Manager and Lighting Designer, stated: “With Genosys now in its third

year as part of Block 9, our aim was to make it more accessible to visiting acts and their VJs. As powerful as Unity is, it lacks in any kind of UI and therefore I wanted to combine its functionality with Hippotizer’s customisable interface and plethora of control functionality. Having an industry standard server working in conjunction with Unity gave us the best of both worlds and I couldn’t have been happier with the results.”

All content was rendered live and in real-time. Igloo Vision played out all the effects and mapping, live through two Hippotizer V4 Amba units and projected it onto the huge wall with the powerful Christie 35K projector. “It was a great first ‘test’ for Multi-controller – a new feature of V4 that combines and replaces Midi/ OSC/TCP and Phat Controller from the previous V3 software,” said David Butler from Green Hippo. “We used Multi-controller with the Unity application to create parameters and timelines and also control the live projection during the show. It proved to be a much more efficient and simplified workflow.”

PRODUCTION PROFILE: Glastonbury 2015

EAT TO THE BEAT QUANTUM SFX WWW.EATTOTHEBEAT.COM

As the line-up was announced featuring some of the biggest names in the business, it was an Eat To The Beat army who put on wellies and returned to Worthy Farm for its 17th year catering the festival. ETTB were onsite throughout the build-up, show days and the all-important post-event clear down keeping the crew and artists fed and refreshed.

From the Other and Pyramid main stages; the Interstage Crew & BBC, and of course not forgetting the Aggreko compound, ETTB could be found in all of these dining rooms. Over the main festival days they served up to 16,000 meals and ETTB’s Global Operations Director Mary Shelley-Smith explained: “During the festival we had

WWW.Q-SFX.COM

25 chefs providing a 24-7 service with full cooked breakfasts, hot lunches and salad bars, a deli selection and homemade cakes. Lunches were three courses with lots of choice to suit every taste.

Our planning for Glastonbury started back in September and a critical element of the service provided was to ensure balanced, wholesome meals for everyone. This involves meticulous research and information gathering on any allergies, intolerances or special requirements.”

Glastonbury is always a highlight in the ETTB calendar and baking a special cake for the Dalai Lama this year and delivering it to the Pyramid Stage will be remembered by all involved.

In true Paloma Faith style, she stormed the Pyramid Stage with her usual high energy and infectious, bubbly personality with a classy black and white theme.

She performed a lively hour-long set, covering many of her hits from Ready for the Good Life to Only Love Can Hurt Like This in a vintage, American jazz and blues style. Joining Paloma on stage to end the show were Sigma in their collaborative track, Changing.

During this Quantum SFX released white, bio-degradable confetti over the crowd at the end of the song using our four large Stadium Shot X-tremes.

In addition to supplying the fl ames for the beacons at The Park stage, Quantum was proud to supply some of the fl ame effects for the Arcadia Spectacular. Its

in-house engineer has been working arduously for months to create the Arcadia Spitfi re System, located on three towers surrounding the Spider with three fl ames on top of each tower. The 30ft fl ames were fi red randomly during each DJ set so as to continue to maintain an excitable momentum in between acts.

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Quartz

Compressed but not compromised Super compact, the Quartz is the ideal companion for all your lighting projects, from touring and festivals to clubs and houses of worship. Offering Avolites’ unique Quicksketch, and the industry’s most powerful Pixel Mapper, Quartz also supports our ground-breaking Key Frame Shapes effects creator.

Featuring the high quality faders and hardware you’ve come to expect from Avolites, the Quartz can go anywhere you can, ideal for life on the road.

Quartz networks with the entire Titan range to create a fully expandable control system, with no annoying restrictions.

Quartz. The Compact Console With Unlimited Capabilities

avolites.com Tel: +44 (0)20 8965 8522 Email: sales@avolites.com

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: Glastonbury 2015

CPL

WWW.CPLAV.COM

© Louise Stickland

West Midlands-based Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) returned to Glastonbury Festival as part of the incredible and unique Arcadia Spectacular, for which the company provided Panasonic projection onto the legs of the giant spider.

The massive construction lurked ominously on what is now a designated area of the site set aside for the Arcadia team’s incredible immersive show. This year the new Arcadia Metamorphosis show was one of the most

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talked about and enjoyed events of the Festival.

After working with Arcadia last year, Managing Director Matthew Boyce commented: “We were delighted to be back at Glasto this year and working with Arcadia’s hugely ambitious new show and their wonderful team of people, all of whom ensured that the ‘spectacular’ concept thrilled and entertained record breaking crowds each night.”

CPL’s Richard Burrow was on site to help coordinate the show’s projection elements

collaborating closely with Video Illusions, whose Dave Whiteoak first originated the idea of adding texturing and movement with video to the spider’s three legs, and with Tom Wall from BlinkinLAB who created bespoke video footage and animations. The projection system comprised six Panasonic PT-DZ 21K projectors, each beaming onto the front and back of each spider leg.

The video footage was mapped precisely on to the legs using an AI media server, and the cues for the Metamorphosis show were all triggered by timecode generated by the overall show control system. The projectors were rigged in weather-proof hides on six platforms placed around the Arcadia arena approximately 40 metres away from the spider structure.

Adding to the general craziness and fun, video material resembled mechanical and machinery movement bringing an additional layer of crisp definition and animation to the massive beast.

In addition to Arcadia, CPL also supplied projection, screen and playback to production company TLF Worldwide for the tent in the Williams Green, the Festival’s own village green area ensconced on the road between the Pyramid and Acoustic stages.

Another Panasonic PT-DZ 21K machine and Coolux Pandora’s Box media player provided the HD projection, and the kit was in action again in the same tent on the Sunday for one of the Guardian’s debate. Meanwhile, over in Shangri La, another colourful epicentre of late night action, CPL supplied lighting equipment to PF Events for the Hell Stage.

PRODUCTION PROFILE: Glastonbury 2015

XL VIDEO

WWW.XLVIDEO.TV © Nic Diacre

XL Video, working with Technical Producer Nick Diacre, has followed its 2014 Glastonbury success by 180˚ live mapping Shangri-La’s Heaven Stage for 2015.

The Heaven structure was built organically

by Andrew Cross and his team onsite at the festival only a few days before the event, and the construction is different every year.

The wide, wooden structure consists of 419 tessellated triangles that were mapped using photogrammetry and stitched into two composites: one 2D map and a second 3D model.

XL Video’s technical team, led by Christian Dickens, collaborated closely with Diacre and together selected XL Video’s Avolites Ai media servers for the project. Their plan was to explore Ai’s abilities and to test its live mapping skills on an organic structure. In addition, the Ai was used as a video playback engine as well as for generating live visuals.

The 2D map was supplied as a template to content producers from throughout the Shangri-La community to enable them to design their visuals. Contributors included Enjoy Kaos, Olly Robertson, and Jouna Landsman.

The content ranged from organic forms to audio reactive patches created within Ai. The system also used triple and dual head capture systems, remapped within Ai patches to cover the whole structure at the maximum resolution.

Will Young and Thomas Hogan also programmed generative patches within VVVV, which were mapped to a 3D model with audio reactive effects and shading and then remapped to the main model within Ai. The entire system used full redundancy using two of XL Video’s S8 Ai servers, along with a Lightware DVI matrix switching between main and backup systems, as well as routing capture sources.

The capture sources were held by a bank of four Barco ImagePro HDs, as well as additional an ImagePro providing a source in the DJ booth.

The system was designed by Diacre, who also managed engineering onsite working with XL Video’s Erica Frost and Matt Barlow.

Frost also programmed an elaborate projector and source control surface using coolux’s Widget Designer interface. This allowed easy switching of multiple sources simultaneously, routing of main and backup signals as well as automated shuttering and powering down of the projection systems.

The projection canvas was 7680 pixels wide by 1080 pixels high, and was covered by four Barco FLM HD20 projectors. A second bank of FLM HD20s ran as hot backup, having been warped onto the elaborate surface using

Barco’s on-board warping software. Projection was managed by XL Video’s Head of Projection, Warren Galt, with the assistance of Ella Galt.

Diacre commented: “The rock solid system design, cutting edge technology and team of absolute professionals ensured this project was delivered flawlessly. The spectacle of Heaven was a huge improvement on previous years with the introduction of custom content based around the structure.

“Thanks goes out to the team at Avolites Media for demonstrating the abilities of Ai in pre-production and helping us develop a workflow that worked for both mapping, capture and content delivery.

“Heaven never looked so good. Thanks again to Debs Armstrong and the ShangriLa team and Seain Loughlin of PF Events for getting us all involved.”

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: Glastonbury 2015

MILLENNIUM STUDIOS The A Stage rehearsal space at Millennium Studios was able to assist last minute when the Kanye West UK production team needed a studio large enough to enable them to build and test their impressive Glastonbury lighting rig.

Thanks to the excellent facilities at Millennium Studios, they were able to use the 10 metre high, load bearing roof to do their technical rehearsal before it was transported to The Pyramid Stage for Kanye’s headlining Saturday spot.

Co-ordinated and managed by the utterly fabulous Helen ‘Hels Bells’ Smith, the rehearsals took four days with pre-rig taking up day one, the build taking days two and three, and a five hour loadout into three Fly By Nite trucks constituting day four.

All catering was dealt with onsite for the 20-plus crew enabling them to maximise their time on

WWW.MILLENNIUMSTUDIOS.CO.UK

site. Millennium Studios arranged for the team to stay at the nearby Swan Hotel in Bedford Town Centre, which is a regular choice for all their clients.

Millennium Studios has been booked solidly over the last few months in the lead up to the busy festival season. Acts such as Bastille, John Legend, Enter Shikari, You Me At Six and The Overtones have all used A Stage before going out to the major 2015 summer festivals. Due to a last minute cancellation, Millennium Studios were delighted to be in a position to assist with the Kanye West rehearsal.

With a fully sound-proofed stage, en-suite dressing rooms, production office and onsite catering facilities, the competitively-priced Millennium Studios is proving to be a popular location for music productions.

RIGOROUS TECHNOLOGY & KINESYS HTTP://RIGOROUS-TECHNOLOGY.CO.UK WWW.KINESYS.CO.UK

Rigorous Technology (RT), specialists in the Kinesys Libra Digital Load Cell system, were well represented on the Other Stage at Glastonbury 2015. The company provided load documentation for some popular acts on all three days of the festival, including two headline acts, having weighed rigs for Rudimental, Ben 52

Howard and the Chemical Brothers when they rehearsed earlier in the year.

Rudimental’s Tour Rigger, Yose Lawson, specified a 4-way LibraCELL / LibraBASIC system to monitor loads on the bands impressive railway bridge set, lighting structure during rehearsals in April. Achieving good load

distribution proved tricky, and as such the load cells were retained for the festival tour. RT proved an invaluable part of the production, with the legs of the bridge needing to be removed during the day and reinstated during a 30-minute changeover.

Second on the bill on Saturday night was singer songwriter Ben Howard and his production team who are long standing clients of RT. Production Manager Phil Murphy and Tour Rigger Simon Lawrence booked a 10-way Kinesys LibraCELL / LibraWATCH system, with a dedicated NRC (National Rigging Certificate) Rigger, for rehearsals at the LS-Live studios earlier in the summer.

And, to finish off the spectacular weekend, Sunday night saw British dance legends The Chemical Brothers close the Other Stage with an outstandingly energetic set. Tour Rigger Andi Flack appointed RT to weigh the festival rig during rehearsals at Elstree Studios in June. RT provided another 10-way LibraCELL / LibraWATCH system, once again with NRC qualified crew members. This was in addition to the 7-way LibraCELL system already on the tour rider as a sub hire to rental company Lite Alternative, integrated with a brand new Kinesys DigiHoist controller from Lite Alt’s own inventory.

Glastonbury Festival 2015

...A Headline Performance from Florence &

Photos © thefifthestate.co.uk

When Florence + The Machine agreed to fill the Foo Fighters’ cancelled headline slot, lighting designer, Rob Sinclair and programmer, Louisa Smur thwaite had only 8 days’ notice and only 1 night of programming time to relight the band’s original Glastonbury show.

“We needed to be able to move fast. Vista’s timeline, clone and, crucially, copy & paste features allowed us to relight 13 songs entirely in a pressured 24 hour period.”

“I have found all the Vista consoles incredibly reliable and robust over the years, but I am always impressed with just how far you can push the L5, and it simply continues to deliver on performance.”

Rob Sinclair, show lighting designer

Louisa Smurthwaite, show programmer

Show control by Vista L5 Congratulations Rob & Louisa on a fantastic performance!

Visit us on stand G47 at:

Lighting and Media Control by:

12th - 14th Sept 2015, the NEC, Birmingham, UK facebook.com/jandslighting

twitter.com/jandslighting

Phone +44 (0)1494 446000

www.ac-et.com/jands

PRODUCTION PROFILE: Glastonbury 2015

COLOUR SOUND EXPERIMENT

WWW.COLOURSOUND.CO.UK

© Louise Stickland

Lighting and video rental specialist Colour Sound Experiment supplied lighting and visuals equipment to some of the coolest, most creative elements to Glastonbury.

The crew of 25, chiefed by Andy Melleney, also supplied the touring lighting rig for Friday night’s Other Stage headliners Rudimental (Lighting Designer Jonny Gaskell) and kitted out over 20 major bars around the vast site with practical and effects lighting.

Colour Sound’s Hayden Cruickshank commented: “Being involved in some of the edgier more off-beat and imaginative elements of the festival is always exciting. We are very proud to be part of it!”

Arcadia’s awesome new immersive spectacular, Metamorphosis, saw the return of the giant spider. Complete with three new mini spiders, the Lords of Lightening and a jawdropping 30 minute show uniting the cultures and spirit of rave and theatre.

Colour Sound worked closely with its

ROBE

WWW.ROBE.CZ

Glastonbury Festival once again proved a massive hit for Robe moving lights with over 600 deployed on a multitude of stages. Lighting equipment was delivered by Colour Sound Experiment, who joined several different rental companies involved in supplying Robe products, including the South West Group, which lit the trendy Park Stage and BBC Introducing, and DPL who took care of lighting at West Holts.

Bath-based Enlightened Lighting took care of © Louise Stickland

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Technical Production Manager Tim Smith and supplied Technician Stuart Barr to co-ordinate all the kit with the Arcadia crew who rigged it.

Four Robe Pointes were attached to the spider’s three legs with another 10 units deployed on its belly, underneath the DJ booth.

Over 70 Dragon LED PARs were used to light various scenic elements of this incredible structure, with Clay Paky Alpha Beam 1500s making the piercing eyes, of which there are 3 sets for the full 360 effect!

Four Martin Professional Atomic strobes adorned each leg and three on the belly, alll controlled via an Avolites Sapphire touch console running in conjunction with the overall Arcadia show control system dealing with hydraulics, winches, fire, pyro, and lightening.

Block 9’s Lighting Designer Alan King of Rockin’ Horse ensured that all three main scenic sculptures constituting Block 9 received careful and considered lighting and visual treatments as this vibrant area came to life as another nucleus of Glasto ‘after dark’ action. Toby Lovegrove oversaw this for Colour Sound.

The Genosis power plant, a 50ft high sculpture crafted with incredible detail was lit with 17 Robe Pointes, 16 LEDWash 600s and 9 Atomic strobes which were secreted in the pods and on the floor, hidden by foliage. The pod windows were illuminated by around 30 Chauvet Professional Colorband Pix LED battens.

King was the main lighting operator for Genosys, utilising a ChamSys MQ300. ER

supplied lasers and the projection mapping onto the building was co-ordinated by Green Hippo.

Opposite, the stage and dancefloor in the eclectic NYC Downlow building had a lighting rig comprising Robe Scan 575s, Diamond LED beams and LED PARs woven into an onstage structure of LED battens from Light Initiative.

The exterior was lit with more LED PARs and MBIs. The Glade provided an intimate haven for the very best electro beats, as Colour Sound continued its long term working relationship with the organisers via lighting designer Jasper Johns of Fruit Salad Lights.

A network of trusses was flown from The Glade’s stylish tensile roof superstructure, loaded with 24 Robe Pointes which were right at the heart of the action: a multi-purpose fixture that is perfect for this semi-tented environment. They were joined by 8 Atomic strobes, SGM XC5 LED strobes and a 6 by 4 metre surface of 6mm HD LED screen made up from Colour Sound’s new proprietary BT6 product. Jasper created, designed, and ran the video control from the FOH nerve centre and also created some of the content. A set of eyecatching LED cubes from Vortex Events were flown and controlled separately.

The Common was a completely new area for Colour Sound in 2015, brought in by King to provide kit for four fully-scheduled performance areas: The Temple, The Cave, the ACAB bar and the Rum Shack.

lighting a number of areas all using a backbone of Robe kit, including the Sonic Stage in the Silver Hayes dance area, the Mavericks venue, the Glasto Latino hub and the eclectic Summer House.

Arcadia’s incredible new Metamorphosis show continues to unite and push all the boundaries of technology and art, and this year featured a primarily Robe rig, including six BMFLs on the perimeter towers and Pointes rigged on the legs and belly of the spider centrepiece.

Block 9 is another popular late night section of the festival to which devotees negotiate the long hike down the old railway track catching some clubbing craziness in London Underground, Genosys and in NYC Downlow. Lighting design was created and co-ordinated by Alan King. The imposing 50ft high post-industrial power facility of Genosys this year was lit with 17 Robe Pointes and 16 LEDWash 600s among other lighting.

The animated club dancefloor in NYC Downlow was illuminated by some club classics including Robe 575 Scans, while two BMFLs highlighted a container that looked dropped from a great height and embedded in the ground, signalling the start of the Block 9 adventure.

Colour Sound also supplied lighting to The

Glade stage, an area co-ordinated and designed for them by Jasper Johns of Fruit Salad Lights, complete with 24 Pointes central to the rig.

The Park stage lighting was run by Ben Perrin and Mark Bott of the South West Group, and also featured BMFL Spots and Robe’s new LEDBeam 1000s plus Pointes and LEDWash 600s.

West Holts LD Adam Power’s production design included 24 Pointes, 24 LEDBeam 100s and 12 LEDWash 1200s, crew chief was Darren Parker.

The lighting rig for the Sonic stage included 24 LEDBeam 100s, 24 Pointes and LEDWash 600 looked after for Enlightened by Paul de Villiers.

At the Mavericks venue, Anthony van Sertima ran lights utilising 600E Spots, LEDWash 600s and LEDBeam 100s, Sam Walder lit the Summerhouse with Robe LEDWash 600s and ColorSpot 575E ATs and Mark Aitken ensured that everything salsa’d and sizzled in Glasto Latino with ColorSpot 575E ATs. Last but not least, one of the Silent Discos was lit by Jenny Howes using ColorSpot 250E ATs, LEDBeam 100s and 250 CT Club scanners.

Three of Robe’s ‘PLASA Students’ were also working on site, all proving that the student scheme, an initiative of Robe UK, is a great potential stepping stone into the industry!

PRODUCTION PROFILE: Glastonbury 2015

AVOLITES

WWW.AVOLITES.COM

Avolites’ lighting and video control solutions provided an integral part of this year’s Glastonbury Festival. Their team of 15 were onsite to liaise, support and connect with the many talented industry professionals working on the festival. Their equipment included consoles, dimmers and media servers being used across the festival site.

Saturday headliner, Kanye West, drew plenty of comment before the festival began, but after his appearance it was the lighting that garnered the most discussion. Powered by 16 Avolites ART2000 dimmers and two Powercubes, Kanye’s Pyramid Stage performance was lit by a simply massive 792 par cans. Supply and rigging came from ELP. Also on the Pyramid Stage, John Barker brought along his trusted Tiger Touch Pro console, which he used to control the floor packages for George Ezra.

Nearby, on the Other Stage, Shaun Moore of Nitelites utilised a Tiger Touch II to control the lights for Frank Turner’s hugely popular set that got the crowd dancing, before Ben Howard took to the stage with Andy Rowe at front of house, using an Expert Pro and Wing to illuminate the Other Stage as the evening sun set.

Moving to the former Jazz stage West Holts, two 48-way ART2000 dimmers powered the generics for the stage that featured artists such as George Clinton, Hot Chip, and Flying Lotus.

The dimmers were supplied by DPL. 2014 was a huge year for the team behind the Arcadia stage but this year they turned it up to another level with the incredible new Metamorphosis show. The returning spider was this time accompanied by three web-walking mini-spiders, the Lords of Lightning, and some amazing new Ai-powered costumes and zorbing balls, created by Light Initiative.

Tim Smith of Smash Productions once again oversaw the visual proceedings, evolving the lighting for the spider in conjunction with Colour Sound Experiment. Rachel Moule took control as lighting designer for the spectacular stage with support from Dave Cohen of MIRRAD, both operating from Avolites flagship Sapphire Touch consoles.

The media content that was projected onto the body of the spider was created and controlled by Tom Wall of blinkinLAB from a Sapphire Media console, while the LED panels were provided and installed by Video Illusions.

Avolites’ Selvin Cooper mapped and supported the video projection for Arcadia, with the six projectors he used provided by CPL. Avolites products were selected by Alan King of Rockin’ Horse for a number of festival areas, including the three venues that make up The Common. Avolites’ Arran Rothwell-Eyre took charge of visuals at the Temple, as media server technician for the stage.

Controlling four Ai S8 media servers from

a Quartz console, Temple featured amazing projection-mapped visuals across 16 outputs for a total surround, including the elaborate DJ booth.

Also in the Common, The Cave, complete with crashing waterfalls, was controlled by Julian Weare who was using a Quartz console plus wing, with a Titan Mobile for backup. The Rum Shack also had a Quartz console, with a number of operators stepping up to operate at the lively bar.

Avolites control was also to be found at the ever-popular Block 9 nightspot London Underground, a run-down apartment block adorned with a crashed London tube train teetering out of its façade. The venue, reliably blasting an eclectic range of electronic music, was lit using an Avolites Tiger Touch II and Fader Wing, operated by Jonny Godsmark.

Fineline Lighting, which has been closely involved with Glastonbury over the last 24 years, supplied lighting equipment including a wealth of Avolites consoles and dimming racks for the Acoustic, Astrolabe Theatre, Cabaret and Circus venues, as well as Silver Hayes’ Wow Stage.

Designed by Rob Sangwell and Stuart England, the Acoustic stage featured performers such as The Proclaimers and the Moody Blues, with control coming from an Avolites Tiger Touch II plus wing, and ART2000 dimmers powering the generics.

The Astrolabe Theatre featured a lineup of performers spanning dance and physical theatre. Lighting was handled by Hal Himsworth, with a Pearl Expert Pro providing control, plus ART2000 dimming throughout.

Dimmers were also used in the Cabaret tent with Wingnut controlling lighting.

The high-flying acrobatics of the Circus stage were operated by James Louden on a Sapphire

Touch console with ART dimming.

Towards the northern tip of the festival site, Paul De Villiers was in charge of the Silver Hayes dance area’s main stage, Sonic, where he operated a Tiger Touch II and wing. Also guesting on the stage was Stephen Abbiss, lighting designer for Idris Elba and Roni Size, who both performed on the stage.

Abbiss had a particularly busy Saturday, lighting for these two acts before heading over for Fatboy Slim’s raucous headline set on Brazilian favela-inspired stage The Blues.

Also in the dance area, an Expert controlled

by Matt Spencer, graced La Pussy Parlure, while A1 Events supplied a Tiger Touch II to The Gully, with Paul Wiltshire and Nick Szerencses taking control.

Light designer for Public Service Broadcasting, Dom Adams used an Expert to control the lights on Glade stage, nestled amongst the trees, with James Dickson also running lights for pyro-circus performers Slamboree on the stage, after also performing on Shangri-La’s Hell Stage.

Also in Shangri La, the jagged, manysurfaced Heaven stage was this year expertly projection mapped by Nick Diacre, who accomplished the complex feat using two Ai S8 media servers provided by XL Video.

The art installations all over the site, designed by Joe Rush, who also designed the frontages of the Pyramid and Other stages, were lit by Nick Rominini and Christian Smith, using Titan Mobiles.

Avolites’ MD Steve Warren said: “With so many areas and artists trusting their shows to Avolites’ fantastic products, we really wanted to be able to catch their performances and share in their excitement. Glastonbury provides the perfect opportunity to do this.”

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: Glastonbury 2015

LOAD CELL RENTAL The appearance of Kayne West on the main stage line-up courted controversy from the outset, but the performance went ahead in true Yeezus style. An old school parcan wall big enough to make the mighty Iron Maiden long for the 80s was installed on a Cyberhoist system for the show.

Overseen by Production Manager Joel Stanley, and rigged by Jerry Hough, the system was pre-built at Millennium Studios.

Appropriately, the Glastonbury production team was concerned with the static and dynamic loads that the assembly would place on the Pyramid stage roof, and requested a full load cell report in advance of load in.

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© Sarah Rushton - www.thefifthestate.co.uk

Load Cell Rental’s Colin Luke headed down to Bedford with a set of calibrated wired load cells, providing the production with an independent report of the load on each motor as well as a total weight for the system.

The report was emailed to Glastonbury’s production team, securing the go ahead to commence load in that evening.

Tour Rigger Jerry Hough said of the service provided by Load Cell Rental “From my point of view, your report was invaluable and a great deal of help in showing the festival production we were serious as we rolled with the changes in the days before getting our thing up. Good to work with you and thanks for everything.”

LIGHT INITIATIVE

Trailblazing controllable LED design and manufacture house Light Initiative (LI) has lit up this year’s Glastonbury Festival with stunning bespoke creations on the Arcadia Spectacular stage.

For Arcadia’s audio-visual feast Metamorphosis, LI worked alongside costume designer Joanna Peacock to create six custom performance wearables, integrated with LED, and six Zorbs. The costumes transformed Arcadia’s dancers into fantastic alien/jellyfish hybrids, or Jellyfish Light Queens, who appeared from the Zorbs as if hatching from an alien egg.

“The moment we saw Jo Peacock’s sketch of a performer being released from a Zorb we knew the LED solution must be above and beyond anything ever delivered before,

WWW.LOADCELLRENTAL.COM

HTTP://LIGHTINITIATIVE.CO.UK

and pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved is what really excites us,” Light Initiative’s MD Bryn Williams.

LI’s immediate task was to develop a fully diffused ultra-high definition LED product in both semi-rigid and flexible versions that would stand out in an incredible performance environment.

Arcadia performer and costume creation project manager Claire O’Neill explained: “The Jellyfish Light Queens certainly surpassed that expectation and have become one of the show’s big new reveals. The roar of the crowd when the creatures bungeed from the eggs and the lights burst to life was incredible.”

The costumes also had to meet a rigorous creative brief, with a durability, flexibility, weight

© Sarah Rushton - www.thefifthestate.co.uk

and safety proviso. “As the costumes were worn by aerialist performers, a full range of movement was essential,” continued O’Neill.

“The wiring was so well stitched into the costumes that we didn’t notice it at all. It also withstood being squeezed through a small trapdoor and Zorb hole, sat on, shaken about, bungeed and span at high speed, all in proximity to pyrotechnics and flames.” Arcadia’s lighting team was able to fully bring the costumes and Zorbs to life with Light Initiative’s unique control system.

The Electron-V system, an embedded micro media server with integrated LED drivers, was chosen following its faultless performance on the UK’s Eurovision entry in Vienna. The tiny wearable system is designed to operate in radiodegraded environments and has a playback capacity of hundreds of cues for over a hundred hours of content. This, coupled with LI’s latest dynamic battery management software, proved a winning solution for Arcadia.

Tom Wall of blinkinLAB created the beat-perfect pixel-mapped content that the Electron-V system pulsed through the LED in time with the show. “We wanted to visualise Metamorphosis’ underlying musical score and sound track by creating various animations,” said Wall.

“LI took care of all the technical aspects of mapping the eggs and costumes, providing us with a template that we used to create the content. We were then able to visit LI’s office once the costumes were complete and test out some initial ideas.”

Light Initiative was also on hand during the festival to deliver full technical support. “As all the different disciplines came together on site, we found a lot of technical and scheduling challenges cropped up,” he added.

Alike for ease. Distinct to suit.

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Both the D20 and D80 are controlled by intuitive user interfaces and incorporate four truly independent channels. Each provides extensive DSP capabilities for comprehensive loudspeaker management, switchable filter functions, two 16-band equalizers and up to 10 seconds of delay. Two amplifiers, alike in form and functionality but distinct in power output: D20 for small to mid sized applications, D80 for up to large scale needs.

PRODUCTION PROFILE: Glastonbury 2015

RG JONES and MLA

RG Jones Sound Engineering deployed for the second year running Martin Audio’s Multi-Cellular Loudspeaker Array (MLA) system on The Pyramid Stage, proving a palpable hit with FOH engineers. MLA’s ability to control noise escape beyond the site perimeter while maintaining pristine fidelity and high sound pressure levels for the audience meant that FOH engineers could simply focus and enjoy mixing their artists to entertain crowds of up to 120,000 people.

System Tech Andy Davies explained: “We drove each acoustic cell in each MLA to direct sound at the audience, and then cut it off sharply just beyond the perimeter of the field to dramatically reduce noise pollution. As a result, acts including The Who, Florence and the Machine, Kanye West, Paul Weller and Motörhead could comfortably play at between 104 and 105dB. When a FOH engineer doesn’t have to constantly worry about sound levels they focus on what they do best - mixing - and so they enjoy the experience more and that translates to the audience experience too.”

FOH engineers completing their set left the control position with a smile on their faces and many reported being delighted with the quality and power of the sound. One of the many artists that packed The Pyramid field from front to back was James Bay. His FOH engineer Rob Sadler commented: “I used the system during Rock in Rio and it was great then and it was fantastic today. I barely had to touch anything on the EQ and in very little time I got my show up and running. Fantastic.

“Vocal clarity is so important with James Bay, I can’t really hide the vocals in the mix and with the MLA today it was clarity all the way.

I can’t fault the system, no sound check and yet everything I needed on that gig was pretty much there from the off… Brilliant.”

FOH Engineer for Motörhead Arnie Annables was pleasantly surprised. He said: “I wasn’t looking forward to Glastonbury because of the noise restrictions; as you can imagine we like to play loud! However from the off things went

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WWW.RGJONES.CO.UK WWW.MARTIN-AUDIO.COM

surprisingly well and I was very happy with the outcome. The system sounded good, not what I am used to, but my ears were pleased. The RG Jones guys did a fantastic job looking after me, as did everyone on stage; it’s been a real pleasure.”

Christopher Lee, FOH Engineer for Pharrell Williams, had to be his usual meticulous self at Glastonbury and was pleased that the accompaniment of MLX subs was up to the challenge. Mixing on the DiGiCo SD7, he said: “Pharrell likes the bass and mix to be identical to the record so the subs were a real surprise to me - right up there where I needed them every time. I was really impressed, not just with the configuration but also with the excellent tuning of the system.”

System design was similar to 2014, comprising 72 MLAs for the main hangs, eight MLA Compacts for stereo infill at the pit barrier and a total of six delay positions of both MLA and MLA Compact as required. One key change this year was the addition of two extra delay systems. RG Jones’ Project Manager, Simon Honywill, explained: “This was primarily because Glastonbury production decided to split the FOH control platform from one to two platforms located left and right in front of the stage. They also moved the platforms closer to the stage and along with them the first set of delay towers.”

With the centre of the field opened up visually the aim of the festival site was to increase the experience for the audience right at the back of the field close to the camping area, a space previously regarded as out of coverage for the Pyramid stage. These changes necessitated the extra MLA Compact delays.

There was also a massive broadside array of 38 MLX stretched across the entire width of the stage to provide sub-bass support to the entire system. “The system has knitted together really well,” continued Davies. “It has allowed us to put more energy through the middle two delays and push a big thrust of power up the centre of the site. We then use the outer delays to fill

© Sarah Rushton - www.thefifthestate.co.uk

in and keep coverage going out to the edge, which has worked really well.”

Huw Richards, FOH Engineer for Paloma Faith, was delighted: “I’ve used the MLA system many times and I love it. Paloma is a complex sound and it’s hard to thin it out and get some space in the mix but the MLA enabled me to do this. From the get-go I didn’t feel in the least bit uncomfortable, I had a great day. So often with festivals you’re transposing a mix from a completely different venue so it can feel a bit shaky at first but not with the MLA, I love it, it’s a great PA and the coverage up the field is excellent.”

Iain Slater, working with surprise act The Libertines, warmed quickly to the system. He added: “This is the first time I’ve used MLA and it sounded impressive, I didn’t have to do any tuning at all everything I needed was there.”

During sub-heavy Kanye West, Honywill reported that his clothing was physically moving at 250 metres distance from the stage, achieved by the tried and tested broadside sub cardioid array. “We have 22 MLX cabs facing forward and another 11 facing backwards to give us cancellation and to make sure we’re not disturbing the other stages on site,” explained Davies.

“We’ve also electronically arc’d the array so there is delay time incrementally added from the middle box out giving coverage to the sub array that matches up with the site really nicely.”

Toby Francis, FOH Engineer for Kanye West commented: “What I really liked about the PA is that even at the volume limit for the festival it sounded big and full. The Glastonbury limits are considerably lower than Kanye would prefer it, so yes I was really impressed.”

For John Carroll, Managing Director of RG Jones, Glastonbury has been the affirmation of what he’s known for some time: “There really isn’t anything out there to match the clarity and warmth of the MLA system. Again the continued support from Martin Audio has been second to none which makes it a robust investment from all perspectives.”

PRODUCTION PROFILE: Glastonbury 2015

NEXO

WWW.NEXO-SA.COM

The Rabbit Hole is a festival highlight.

Theatrical, interactive, artistic and superexclusive, the Alice-in-Wonderland themed live venue attracts top-end DJs and artists such as Mark Ronson to perform in the 600-capacity tented space. In 2015, the dancefloor system was comprised of Nexo STM modular line array loudspeakers, featuring the new M28 cabinets.

8TH PLATE Food waste project 8th Plate has collected and will redistribute over ten tonnes of edible food waste from Glastonbury this year. The project, which was launched at Glastonbury following a successful trial last year, is an initiative led

by FareShare South West, supported by The Nationwide Caterers Association (NCASS) and A Greener Festival.

8th Plate intends to salvage 60 tonnes of unsold food during 2015, to provide 143,000 meals for the most vulnerable, distributing the produce amongst food banks and soup kitchens in the South West. At Glastonbury,

© Sarah Rushton - www.thefifthestate.co.uk

Production Manager Posh explained: “Our music is primarily house-based dance, and we have live bands with DJs in between, so the sound system is integral to the success of the venue.

Nexo’s STM set-up looks as though it’s not going to do that much but, when you turn it on, it does an awful lot!”

Set up as a quad system, STM modules were groundstacked in the corners of the venue.

Each stack comprised one STM S118 subbass, one B112 bass and two M28 main modules, supplied by rental company Sound of Music, and directed by Sound Supervisor Hugh Sadleir.

System Tech Giorgio Labbate praised STM: “It has a very small footprint, which is great for a small tightly-packed venue like The Rabbit Hole, and it’s very efficient: you get a lot of power out of those small boxes.”

Posh added: “Although this is the first time with STM. We’re lucky enough to get some of the best underground DJs, who want to come and play for us. This is an opportunity for them to play through a premier system, and for the audience to hear that quality. Frankly, it would be embarrassing to use anything less! And they have loved it!”

With stellar guest spots from Mark Ronson and Dermot O’Leary, the highlights of the Rabbit Hole included Damian Lazerious, Jamie Jones, Heidi from Radio One, Richy Ahmed, Craig Richards, jack master and Eats Everything.

WWW.NCASS.ORG.UK the team is still in the process of collecting the leftover food that is estimated to exceed 10 tonnes and has so far included 4,000 bread rolls, 300 eggs, 250 sausages, 600 carrots and 90 lettuces.

Emma Dyer, Project Manager at 8th Plate, said: “We are so pleased with the leftover food waste that we have been able to collect from Glastonbury. We estimate that we will be able to produce over 24,000 meals from this festival alone, which will be able to support those most in need.”

It is believed that half of all food produced

globally goes to waste and with more than four million people in the UK unable to afford a healthy diet, public opinion is slowly turning against this culture of waste.

NCASS Director Mark Laurie said: “We are working closely with our members to assist them in managing their stock as effectively as possible in order to minimise waste. Where inefficiencies do occur though, we are keen to help those people that need it most. 8th Plate is a great cause to be supporting and we hope that the project can be rolled out across all festivals in the future.”

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: Glastonbury 2015

ALLEN & HEATH

WWW.ALLEN-HEATH.COM

Gaz Coombes, singer of Supergrass, is on the road with the new Allen & Heath Chrome GLD-112 for FOH along with a ME-1 personal monitoring system. It was this set up that was used for his performance on the Park Stage at Glastonbury.

Mikko Gordon, FOH Engineer, talked about the recent shows. “The GLD-112 is a perfect fit for mixing Gaz Coombes. Powerful, compact and fast to operate. The ME-1 personal monitor mixer system allows Gaz and his drummer Lawrence Colbert to set-up and adjust their own in-ear mixes which they have both been really pleased with.

There are a lot of open mics on stage and Lawrence is a loud drummer so programming scenes with mutes for each song is important and it is easy to do on the GLD. Sometimes Gaz will decide on the set order only a few hours before the show and the ability to quickly create custom scene lists has been very helpful for this. The small physical form factor of the desk means that crew can always deliver and fetch it from mix position even at the muddiest festivals.”

CLARKE CABLE

Clarke Cable’s reputation as the UK’s leading wiring and cabling solutions provider hit an even greater decibel level after working on some of this seasons largest and most prestigious music gigs.

Neg Earth, specialists in lighting and rigging hire, commissioned Clarke Cable to supply discretely branded Y and Tri splitters for Glastonbury, the Ed Sheeran Tour and T in the Park. Bob Dunstan of Neg earth said: “Clarke Cable’s solution is the most robust solution

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WWW.CLARKECABLE.CO.UK

around and stands up to the rigors of life on the road; their customer service is exceptional and nothing is too much to ask”. Y splitters allow incoming feeds to be split between two or three outgoing sockets. This speeds up installation, reduces cabling and improves connector reliability, essential when the pressure is on and a live performance is looming. The triangular shape of the splitter has softened edges with no corners and is available in a range of colours, although discrete black is current favourite!

Inside, the splitter has a rigid inner cage acting as secondary insulation for increased safety.

Durability is enhanced with a further ‘over mould’ providing triple electrical insulation and high impact and tear resistance.

An indelible logo can be created on the surface of the splitter during the manufacturing process to promote brand identity and reduce equipment losses during rig break down. Julian Baseley, Managing Director of Clarke Cable said: “We offer free in house design services, comprehensive tooling capabilities, prototyping and testing to industry-standards through to finished production and delivery.

“We welcome all enquiries and ensure that everyone receives the highest standards of personal service; it is this dedication that is earning Clarke Cable the reputation it deserves in an industry that can’t afford to miss a deadline”. Clarke Cable offers free in house design services, comprehensive tooling capabilities, prototyping and testing to industrystandards through to finished production and delivery. It also offers solutions in power, video, DMX and audio.

For many in the music and entertainments industry Clarke Cable is now the ultimate one stop solutions provider of wiring and cabling requirements, no matter how complex or diverse.

PRODUCTION PROFILE: Glastonbury 2015

SGM

HTTP://SGMLIGHT.COM

SGM’s groundbreaking IP65-rated LED solutions featured heavily across this year’s vast Glastonbury Festival site. Starting at the iconic Pyramid stage, a wide range of powerful washes, LED strobes and dynamic 3D effects cascaded down to a number of smaller stages where they performed long duty cycles flawlessly over the four days.

While 14 of the G-Spots, provided by HSL, graced the main stage (seven on each PA wing) elsewhere the scramble was on to secure inventory, in particular, for the popular and award-winning P-5 washlight.

Main stage lighting was supplied by Neg Earth, and with The Who headlining, their LD Tom Kenny, had nothing but positives to say about G-Spot. “I was impressed with its power, and the way it fought through everything else.

I also loved the colour and they matched the other fixtures well.”

Enlightened Lighting’s Simon Marcus was one who drew on the P-5s to light the landmark Ribbon Tower - a beacon that can be seen right across the site. He praised the saturated colours produced by the ultra-efficient washlight, deploying 24 P-5 RGBW in pairs on the ground to uplight the full 29 metres of the tower and eight TW (Tunable White) washes, subbed in from Vortex Lighting by Neg Earth, on the minaret-style top.

“The P-5s were sufficiently powerful to fire all the way up to the top and we could change the whole tower and snap the colours instantly from warm saturated reds to cold blues with a spin chase. As people use it to navigate from it was important it was lit through 360°,” he said.

“The P-5 is far superior to the old discharge lights used previously - the colour saturation is better and in terms of usability it’s a lot less intrusive. “The SGM products were brilliant in every respect, and lovely to work with.”

This year, their lighting manager Ben Perrin specified eight SGM X-5 strobes and four P-2 washlights for the Park Stage, with the P-2 units used to uplight the Park’s new pillars. “The design team was ecstatic with the results,” he said.

For the BBC Introducing stage, Perrin specified 12 SGM Q-2W white fixtures and six SGM P-2 fixtures, adding: “I wanted a versatile strobe / eye candy light with a small footprint which at the same time could deliver as much colour as possible.

“The P-2 provided the answer - in fact everyone was amazed at the amount of output the fixture produced, with incredible smooth even colours.”

The fixtures also met the BBC’s requirements for a flicker-free LED solution. “The Q-2W, with the 12 individual cells per unit, I knew would produce some unique effects, and the fact I

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could put so many units into a venue without affecting the overall power consumption was a major bonus.”

As a result SWG Events now own all three SGM products. “They left such a good impression that we had to buy them,” was Perrin’s rationale.

Finally, Pussy Parlure, overseen by SWG Events’ Alister Pook, featured further P-2 washes and SGM’s LS3.75 video screen. “The venue designer wanted lots of coloured light but hidden fixtures to create atmosphere,” said Perrin. “We put four P-2 units in the king poles to illuminate their logo, along with eight washing the room and four to create a glow behind the slatted walls.”

The result was a thoroughly satisfying outing for SWG. “Many venues have requesting the same products and designs again for the future,” Perrin confirmed. “The SGM products exceeded every expectation we had. Many touring lighting designers were blown away by them and the house engineers also loved the ease of rigging the fixtures with great little features such as the retractable safety bond point. SGM provided us with the tools to have the most successful Glastonbury Festival yet.”

Also putting a highly creative spin on events using SGM tools was Ben Bailes at Oculux, who is the long-term lighting designer for Greenpeace at Glastonbury.

This year’s theme was sustainable fishing quotas and the centrepiece was a monster trawler called the Cornelis Vrolijk. Like a themed attraction it took visitors through a real life experience, showing what happens to tuna fished over quota and thrown back - and this also included a Crawl / Wiggle / Slide area which was lit separately (Crawl formed the first phase of a chilling journey).

Bailes was tasked with enhancing the visitor experience by creating total 3D immersion, both sonically and via illumination, and accomplished this with tools from SGM Lighting.

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: AC/DC

AC/DC – ROCK ‘N’ ROLL AIN’T NOISE POLLUTION AC/DC’S ROCK OR BUST TOUR SLAMMED INTO LONDON’S WEMBLEY STADIUM LIKE A ROCK ‘N’ ROLL FREIGHT TRAIN, TO THE HEADBANGING DELIGHT OF A 60,000 STRONG AUDIENCE, MANY OF WHOM HAD DONNED THEIR FAVOURITE AC/DC TOUR T-SHIRTS FOR A NIGHT OF THUNDERING STAGE ANTICS. SARAH RUSHTONREAD WAS LUCKY ENOUGH TO DISCOVER THAT HELL AIN’T A BAD PLACE TO BE! Providing the perfect setting was Ray Winkler and Patrick Woodroffe’s grungy, buffalo horned, Mad Max-style set, which saw lighting, video and Paul ‘Pab’ Boothroyd’s imposing PA cohesively welded together in a corrugated steel-clad, domed stage and fascia. The look is big, bold and tenacious, yet conversely the dome shape of the stage, complemented by the toppy lighting and flanked by chunky video and PA, brings a certain intimacy to the stage.

It’s vintage, it’s brassy, it’s two-colour, parcan-style lighting, massive speaker hangs and lots of IMAG. It’s dynamic yet not distracting, it makes sense, it pulls you in it’s brilliant!

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As ever, the AC/DC show concept was the astute creative work of design colossi of Ray Winkler from Stufish Design Studio and Patrick Woodroffe of Woodroffe Bassett Design Ltd. “AC/DC’s identity is distinct, they’re a straight forward rock and roll band,” stated Woodroffe.

“We wanted to reflect that in a way that’s engaging, yet reminiscent of the old days. This is a big show and it has to be scalable. It has to have spectacle and it has to give 60,000 people something interesting to look at for two and a half hours.”

And so it does - by the bucketload. Fans across Europe were delighted to see that the customary exploding cannons, massive Hell’s Bell, distinctive wall of Marshall amps and giant

inflatable Rosie were still bathed in chunky, dynamic beams of bold-coloured light on the 28-date European sortie, which kicked off at Arnhem GelreDome in the Netherlands and arrived at London’s Wembley Stadium on 4 July.

HIGH VOLTAGE Woodroffe says inspiration for the design came from many places, but the starting point for him is always to understand what the artist or the director is trying to say. In this case the raw style of the design reflects the band’s inyour-face, viscerally loud, straight-up rock and roll, occasionally combined with moments of comedy and self-deprecation.

“AC/DC demands bold, bright, spectacular

PRODUCTION PROFILE: AC/DC

Opposite and Below: Fans across Europe were delighted to see that the customary exploding cannons, massive Hell’s Bell, and distinctive wall of Marshall amps were still bathed in chunky, dynamic light on the 28-date European sortie, which arrived at London’s Wembley Stadium on 4 July.

(yet uncomplicated) lighting and I think we gave that to them in spades this time!” explained Woodroffe. “It was our Production Manager, Opie Skjerseth, who pointed us in the direction of the arched roof and Ray worked this up into the screen surrounds that tie the whole composition together. My job is to get everyone thinking in the same straight lines and bring the band on board to understand and support the concept.”

randomly-angled, acid-coloured light.

Lighting was supplied by Upstaging, and Neg Earth for Europe, and fixtures were chosen for their power and versatility as Woodroffe explained: “We were looking for powerful, bright lights that would work particularly well with no colour. We also wanted some more delicate effects, some tight beams and some hard edge source points. We chose a variety of fixtures including the new Philips Vari-Lite

“AC/DC demands bold, bright, spectacular (yet uncomplicated) lighting and I think we gave that to them in spades this time!”

Patrick Woodroffe of Woodroffe Bassett Design Ltd.

The result was a seamless fusing of lighting and set. The corrugated iron façade was peppered with Clay Paky Sharpy Washes, housed inside transparent domes, which were interspersed with two and four-way Molephays and SGM Q-7 strobes fixed into the horns. All brought texture, colour and dimension to the set and regularly bathed the audience in sharp,

VL4000 BeamWash, the VL3500 washes and profiles, Clay Paky Sharpys and Sharpy Washes along with some Robe BMFLs, a handful of strobes and bulkhead lights, which in combination gave us all this in a variety of permutations.”

Woodroffe stressed that he doesn’t work in isolation and his approach is always

collaborative: “That is both the joy and the strength of working with people you know and like,” he said.

One of his closest colleagues on this show is Lighting Director Cosmo Wilson, who is responsible for taking the show on the road.

The pair have worked together for over 25 years and in that time both have seen the evolution of stage lighting from the traditional Parcan and other conventional fixtures to intelligent luminaires and beyond.

For this tour Woodroffe and Wilson took a leap of faith and specified the brand new, as yet untested, Vari-Lite VL4000 BeamWash, which alongside the VL3500 Wash provided the mainstay fixtures on the show: “I’m fast approaching my 700th AC/DC show,” laughed Wilson, “and all of them apart from this tour has had PAR cans in the rig. However I’m a big fan of Vari-lite and although at the time the VL4000 BeamWash was unproven, we were assured Vari-lite would deliver.”

According to both Woodroffe and Wilson they’ve worked brilliantly. “The VL4000 BeamWash lens system is unbelievably good,” continued Wilson. “We use it as a wash but then we tighten it up and it’s a great profile. I’m not a big gobo person. AC/DC isn’t exactly a 63

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: AC/DC

Below: Pyrotechnics and bold lighting designs have always been a big part of the AC/DC live production; Lighting Director Cosmo Wilson; FOH Engineer Paul ‘Pab’ Boothroyd and his son, who came to watch his dad in action; Philips Vari-Lite fixtures featured heavily in the lighting rig.

gobo band, however the rare times we do use them they work well. Yes, they’re big lights, but they move fast and that enables me to change the look on the stage in an instant. Colour is also important as we wanted to reproduce all those grungy and acid colours with a raw, almost analogue feel. AC/DC lighting is all about using intensity to accompany the music, we want the audience to feel the heat, feel that sense of attack and decay alongside the attack and decay of the guitar.”

Also interspersed in the rig are a number of Robe BMFLs: “I saw these at LDI and I loved them so we’re using them for effects. We also have a load of Clay Paky Sharpy Washes and Sharpys, which are being used to light the PA and fascia of the set. We have a load of VL3500 Profiles from behind the Marshall Amps for the aerial finger looks and on top of the amps we’re using the Sharpy Washes.”

For control Wilson has recently switched 66

from grandMA1 to grandMA2: “I am a very hands on kind of programmer and the MA2 suits my style better. For many years I was an Avolites / Celco user but on the last tour I used the grandMA1 and liked it. However, the MA2 is faster and easier to programme on the fly as it has more faders. I do prefer the buttons of the MA1 as occasionally I get that fat finger issue when I’m working too fast!”

As ever Woodroffe and Wilson worked alongside their regular team of collaborators including: Terry Cook, Project Director, Programmer Dave Hill, who was unfortunately taken ill just after he had finished the WYSIWYG part of the programming, which left the live programming to Pryderi Baskerville who thankfully stepped in at a moment’s notice.

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL AINT NOISE POLUTION Keeping the sound the rare side of raw is the much sought-after FOH Engineer Pab. “I’ve

worked with this band since 1995 and I loved their music way before I joined the industry. It’s a pleasure and an honour to mix them, they’re great guys and they do what they do brilliantly.”

Pab’s genuine love of AC/DC is more than echoed in his gritty mix on the Midas XL4 analogue console. The sound is 3D and hovers just on the right side of distorted, with a mash up of beefy riffs that evoke a time in live music long before in-ear monitoring, clean digital sound and quiet stages. As a result, it drills right to the core of anyone who has found the slightest thrill in banging their head to superloud music until their ears are ringing and their head is spinning.

Remembering when he first got the job, Pab said: “I was busy tweaking my mix to try and get a really good, clear sound and just as I believed I’d perfected it the band manager came up and said ‘Pab - great sound mate, now can you dirty it up because that’s what the fans want, don’t

PRODUCTION PROFILE: AC/DC

Below: Guitarist Angus Young and Monitor Engineer Jon Lewis.

make it too pretty!’ And it’s true, AC/DC punters want to be deafened, they want to be blinded, they want to feel the heat of the pyro. That’s what makes a great AC/DC concert. So for this band we don’t try and tame the beast, instead we turn it up and duck!”

The 40 Marshall amps and plenty of on-stage foldback undoubtedly presents challenges to Pab and Monitor Engineer Jon Lewis, but both acknowledge that it adds an essential flavour to the mix. The wailing guitars of Angus and Stevie

and SM beta 57 on backing vocals, with Audix on drums. Guitars are handled via the AT 4047 large condenser on stage. In addition we’re trying the amazing Rode NTR ribbon mics in our guitar ISO boxes under the stage - awesome beasts - and for in-ear and press feed ambiance we use the Rode NT4 shotguns. We under-mic the cymbals with four DPA 4061 mics, which give maximum isolation from the guitar and drum coming from the Marshall wall and side fills. At the end of the day it’s been an evolution

“When we measured just the snare drum with the local authorities we’re close to 125dB, and that’s before we put the rest of the band on!” Paul ‘Pab’ Boothroyd, FOH Engineer.

Young remain completely unprocessed. There’s no boxes, no plug-ins, just pure unadulterated sound straight to the wall of Marshall amps upstage, from which the resulting tsunami of sound barrels into the audience.

“When we measured just the snare drum with the local authorities we’re close to 125dB, and that’s before we put the rest of the band on!” chuckled Pab. With that level on stage, the choice and positioning of mics is critical: “I use mics from all sorts of manufactures,” Pab continued, “but we like the trusty SM beta 58 on main vocals 68

over many tours, it’s about creating little gains that help bring the whole mix together.”

Regarding his choice of console Pab added: “I use whatever is right for the job.

This band doesn’t like anything digital, they’re old school analogue. For that reason we’re using copper multi cables to and from the stage to keep digitisation to a minimum. We have some really old 1980s BSS line drivers boosting the output signals to the front end of the amps. Of course today’s processing mainly happens in the amps but we do our best to keep

the analogue flavour. Whether I can tell the difference or not I don’t know but I feel the difference and that’s the point,” he laughed.

When it came to the choice of PA traditionally the band would use a large format modular curvy PA system that joins together to make one big old style wrap. “With AC/DC the show is about theatrics, if the PA looks big it will be perceived to be loud. I chose to use Clair Global’s i5D cabinets and the B-sub base joined together to make one big box. I then took that box and added two rows of i5b sub-bass to it and flew the lot. The PA is 18 deep by two wide per side. In total there’s 22 tons of PA in the air.

That’s a whole lot of power.”

System Tech Chris Nicholls concurred: “AC/ DC takes a personal interest in the sound. The system had to look big but still work sonically.

The full range i5D enclosure was our first choice, powered by the new Lab.gruppen PLM 20000Q and it’s worked well. We can also get a tremendous amount of up-tilt on a side hang. For Wembley the very top cabinet has 26 degrees of up-tilt, something many other manufacturers struggle to achieve. From the top row to the front row every member of the AC/ DC audience expects the band to be in their face and that’s what we give them.”

Complementing the main system are four delay towers, also provided by Clair. For Wembley they were supplemented with eight separate hangs of K2 provided by Britannia Row. “Clair Global and Harry Witz, who has always worked on AC/DC tours with me, redesigned some of the rigging and grids so the whole system can be flown safely,” concluded

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: AC/DC

Below: Pyro King, Casey Lake with the famous AC/DC cannons which are rigged in pairs; Video Director Michael Duquew.

Pab. “There are no speakers on the ground and minimal front fill. We now have four massive zones of controllable PA and those four zones are broken down into zones themselves.”

Pabs’ counterpart in monitor land is Engineer Lewis. “In addition to the Marshall amps the stage is packed with Clair Global’s new CM22 monitor wedges. We also have four IDLs a side and the ground, side and rear fills comprise the Clair Global’s Vision system, which is a high mid and a low mid box and they are in various configurations around the stage.”

Lewis has worked with Pab on a number of projects, including AC/DC’s last tour and the pair have developed an intuitive relationship.

This makes dealing with the issues of a loud stage much easier. In addition they’ve managed to persuade most of the band, excluding guitarist Angus Young, to use in-ear monitoring (IEM). “The nature of Angus’ performance 70

makes it impossible for him to use in-ears,” explained Lewis. “Angus is constantly running around in various states of undress, rolling on the floor with his guitar or swapping guitars out - there’s no way we could attach or keep the IEMs on!”

Because of this Lewis has zoned the on-stage sound: “We’ve created pockets of sound,” he explained. “Although singer Brian Johnson uses IEM, he’s a one in and one out kinda guy.

The zoning allows him and Angus to retreat somewhere they can hear and get a handle on a song. It also gives the rest of the guys an opportunity to get away from the tsunami of sound from the Marshall amps.”

Like Pab, Lewis is also using an analogue Midas console, a Heritage 4000. He explained: “It’s a joy to go back to analogue. When I make a small change on the desk I can really feel and hear it. It makes me feel connected to what I am

doing. Not only that, it’s a bonus to have to go around the back of the desk to plug in a gate as opposed to just pressing a button and latching it. it’s the little things!”

Monitor outboard is pretty simple added Lewis: “Drawmer gates and comps, with Avalon 737 across the main vocal. I’m using a BSS 901 multi band comp across Brian’s vocal for the IEMs to give me more control. I’m loving the Dramer 1973 FET stereo compressor, which I’m using for the first time on this tour as a final stage compression across a few in-ear mixes.

It’s subtle and gives me so much control on the final mix.”

The band uses Shure PSM1000s with the JH Roxanne Siren earpieces. Lewis explained: “Some of the band are using IEMs for the first time so I wanted something smooth and natural sounding which made JH the first choice. In terms of radio mics for both Brian and Angus

PRODUCTION PROFILE: AC/DC

Below: Cannons have become an iconic part of AC/DC’s stage show.

we’re using the Shure Axient system, which has got a frequency avoidance system built in. That gives us a safety element and makes the frequency management of the system easier. Some of the places we’re playing are quite weird, such as the sides of airfields and football grounds. This means we don’t always know what the frequency environment will be, having a system like this gives us an essential edge.”

FLICK OF THE SWITCH In charge of video direction is Michael Duque, who moved over from lighting to video a couple of tours ago. With two huge 15mm pitch IMAG screens - supplied by video rental partner Screenworks - placed either side of the dome stage plus a Screenworks 12mm stage wide central screen and a delay screen and with content primarily being dynamic camera work, Duque’s has a busy two hours each night.

There’s also an element

of grungy retro style content animated effects and wordplay as Duque explained: “Most of the content was designed by Sam Pattinson and his team at Treatment Studio in close association with Woodroffe. The nature of the content is eclectic, but we try to keep things fairly simple. For playback we’re using a 2 by 2 Channel Blackstorm and a Ross Synergy 3 Switcher. We’re not actually using a media server here.

In terms of cameras we have Sony HXC-100s in the stage right pit, on the stage left boom and SR and SL FOH. We’re using Toshiba IK-HD1s for drum POV and on the FOH lift for Angus’s big solo.”

Duque says as video director he strives for the camera operators to be in total sync throughout the show. “Our strength comes from the way we illustrate how the band and the crowd interact. The more connected we are with band the more dynamic, exciting and engaging the IMAG content is for the audience. This fires the camera

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: AC/DC

Below: Mojo Barriers’ Opie Skjerseth (L) Cees Muurling (R) ACDC Paris May 2015.

guys up and they seek out interesting characters in the crowd to mix in. It’s then about us making an engaging mash up between band and audience.”

Fortunately for Duque, three of his camera operators were on the last tour: “They intuitively know the kind of shots I like. They also know the music intimately. Gabriel Lopez, who has worked with me for almost 10 years, knows instinctively where he can help me. However that’s not to say that the band doesn’t catch us out on occasion. It’s definitely never boring!”

HARD AS ROCK Pulling all these elements together in a postapocalyptic whole is Ray Winkler’s 66.3 metre wide arena filling set. Created by Tait, it’s built around a Stageco arched roof and topped with a pair of Angus style horns.

Long term AC/DC Production Manager Skjerseth discussed: “The look of the show is crucial to the band. It’s presentation with a capital ‘P’. AC/DC have a seriously loyal following who know exactly what they want to see. The band therefore remain heavily involved in, and are very particularly about, the look and feel of the production.”

Stageco and set fabricator Tait worked with technical consultant for the tour, Jeremy Lloyd of Wonderworks: “Although in simple terms Stageco provided the steel structures and Tait focused on the ‘rusted’ corrugated cladding and horns that fix to the roof, the partnership was more interwoven than that,” explained Lloyd who, alongside Skjerseth and Project Manager for Tait, Matthew Hales, worked in collaboration with Stageco Project Manager Bert Kustermans and R&D Manager Dirk Van Der Goor.

Hales added: “Tait has been providing stage sets for AC/DC for years. Skjerseth contacted us at the end of 2014 and by January 2015 we had a well-developed show. We worked closely with Ray Winkler on the stage set and Terry Cook, Patrick’s Project Director, on the integrated 72

lighting. Jeremy Lloyd helped co-ordinate everything for the Production itself.”

And with any production as large as this there’s always a lot of back and forth between technical realisers and the creative team: “Mainly in how we approach things from a technical perspective, while maintaining the creative aesthetic of the project,” explained Hales. “This involves much prototyping and development. In this case to break the relatively complex fascia into a simple set of workable components to make installation, deconstruction, and transportation as efficient as possible.”

The biggest design hurdle however was the Scenic Fascia with integrated LED. “The whole Fascia had to break down into pieces that were small enough to transport and install efficiently,”

venue a few days in advance and build the framework, production comes in after that and eight hours later we’re up and running.”

For the European tour Stageco is leapfrogging three systems with crews headed

by Stefaan Vandenbosch, Hendrik Verdeyen and Johan ‘Bellekes’ Van Espen.

SHOT DOWN IN FLAMES Adding further dimension to the stage is pyro king, Casey Lake of Stage and Effects Engineering: “We have a number of elements to this show. The opening works in conjunction with video to create a big meteor explosion that work their way across stage as the band make their entrance. We also have a number of flame bar and CO2 effects for Highway to Hell, along with six liquid flame heads at the side of the

“The structural design has ensured we don’t have to fight through each day...” Opie Skjerseth, Production Manger.

Hales continued: “We were faced with literally thousands of unique individual components that had to go through multiple processes to end up in a very specific location on the set. Thankfully the entire group from the creative team to the guys on the ground that make it happen everyday have been incredible.

It’s an amazing show that travels with an unparalleled operational efficiency.”

Production Manger Skjerseth agreed: “The structural design has ensured we don’t have to fight through each day and the set is relatively easy to tour. In general Stageco get to each

stage, which will reach 30 to 40ft.”

However the iconic AC/DC pyro moment has to be during For Those about to Rock, as Lake discussed: “We have 12 large cannons, three either side of the stage and six upstage, which rise up over the top of the Marshall amps and then roll slowly forward. When the band sing “fire” the cannons go off. It’s a great effect.

This is further emphasised by the fact that each cannon has a recoil action built in, adding weight and authenticity to the effect.”

The finale of the show is accompanied by around 15 seconds of set wide fireworks, but

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: AC/DC

Below: The structural design has ensured that the crew does not have to fight through each day and the set is “relatively easy” to tour.

given that the Wembley show was on the 4 July, Lake added in a few extra bangs in for good measure.

BLACK (ALUMINIUM) ICE But with all the theatrics of the AC/DC show a major consideration for crowd safety has to be made. PM Skjerseth explained: “AC/ DC have sold over 1.7 million tickets in Europe alone, it’s all sold out venues and they are lively audiences, so we take our responsibility for their

properly and they care about getting it right.

Having used Mojo on many previous tours we all know their system, so our own crew can assemble it without the need for a Mojo supervisor to come on tour.”

Mojo’s project manager Stanley Jilesen consulted with Skjerseth to design the configuration for the front of stage barrier, following the contours of the stage and spanning the width of the stadium pitches. The additional touring barriers surround the two

“Mojo give me confidence to know we can get whatever we need, they always find a solution to any situation that arises.”

Opie Skjerseth, Production Manger.

safety, along with that of the bands, crew and equipment very seriously.” Mojo Barriers were contracted to supply 218m of black aluminium touring barrier for AC/DC’s 2015/16 World Tour.

Skjerseth explained why he placed his trust in Mojo: “Mojo give me confidence to know we can get whatever we need, they always find a solution to any situation that arises. They have the equipment and people to get the job done 74

FOH mixing positions. At all of the European stadium shows the local promoters have then brought in additional Mojo Barriers for use as secondary barriers, as Mojo Barriers’ CEO Cees Muurling commented: “Most venues in Europe are hiring in additional secondary barrier to allow for effective control of the crowd on the pitch with a secondary line and barriers around PA delay towers. We can support

that requirement for stage barriers (including curves and gates), plastic bar barriers and trained supervisors anywhere across the three continents from our local offices or network of distributors. This highlights the value of our global network.”

ROCK THE BLUES AWAY There’s no doubt that AC/DC’s Rock or Bust tour is a magnificent gift of a show. Pure, loud, dirty rock and roll. For two and a half hours the Wembley skies were alight with guitar bite, rock took the right of way, and 60,000 sweaty members of the audience stood up and were counted as AC/DC gallantly saluted them in the best way they know how.

The current tour runs until 15 December when the band finish their Australasian leg at Western Springs Stadium in Auckland. However there are plans to extend the tour into 2016.

TPi Photos: http://thefifthestate.co.uk www.acdc.com www.claircompanies.com www.stageco.com www.taittowers.com www.treatmentstudio.com www.woodroffebassett.com www.stgfx.com www.nepinc.com www.stufish.com www.mojobarriers.com

TPi FESTIVAL SPECIAL

FESTIVAL SPECIAL ROCK WERCHTER DIGICO & ADAMSON

Belgium sound company PRG EML has been involved with providing production support and sound reinforcement for Rock Werchter since it transitioned from a small, one stage event into what it is today.

The year 2015 marks a first for the festival with the Head of Sound for PRG EML, Patrick Demoustier, making the decision for the house system to go completely digital. In contrast, this is the 15th year Demoustier has deployed Adamson sound reinforcement systems at each stage.

“We have worked with Adamson since we started using line arrays in 2000 and they have been tremendous partners for us – they are second to none,” added Demoustier. “The decision to move to a digital house system was not taken lightly, but after much consideration I felt confident that DiGiCo consoles would provide exactly what engineers require.”

GO DIGITAL OR GO HOME “In the analog world, everyone was very familiar with the brand of console we used previously – it was an easy choice,” Demoustier continued.

“In the digital world there are many different systems with different session settings, but if you know how to use an analog console you can pretty much mix on a DiGiCo straight away.

This made the decision to use DiGiCo easier.”

Demoustier noted that it didn’t hurt that all of the PRG EML engineers were very familiar with the DiGiCo boards, he added: “If you have someone sitting next to you that really knows xx 76

the console it makes life much easier and gives confidence to the visiting engineers.”

PRG EML supplied a combination of SD7s at FOH with SD10s at monitor for all three stages while DiGiCo’s Belgian distributor Amptec replicated the live sound set up with an SD7 and SD10 for the newly-instated backstage prep area, where engineers were able to check their sessions, or make new sessions if needed.

An engineer from Amptec and another from PRG EML were present in the backstage prep area, making sure the right sessions went on to the right desk. As an added level of comfort, DiGiCo sent support from its UK office in the form of Product Specialist Dave Bigg.

With a proportion of bands carrying control systems with them on the festival circuit, uptake for the house consoles was consistent with expectations. “On the main stage we had an average of two out of eight bands a day using the house consoles,” said Demoustier.

“On The Barn and the kluB C stages that increased to around 50%. Everyone really liked the DiGiCo boards.”

IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT Unlike the digital system, utilising Adamson PAs for all stages has been a consistent choice for Demoustier since 2000. “I’ve been a supporter of Adamson line arrays since we invested in a Y-Axis rig years ago. They create loudspeakers that are one step above everyone else.”

The main stage at Rock Werchter is an outdoor area capable of hosting up to 70,000

fans. Once again a number of high-profile bands graced the stage including The Chemical Brothers, Mumford & Sons, Pharrell Williams, Lenny Kravitz and Muse.

To reinforce these heavy hitters, PRG EML provided a main left-right PA made up of 24 Adamson E15 line arrays each with outfill covered by two more line arrays, this time consisting of 12 E15 enclosures. Eight stacks of three E12 boxes were placed along the stage for frontfill.

Low end was bolstered by two E219 subwoofer arrays– 12 enclosures each – hung to the left and right of the main arrays. Two stacks of 12 EML S318 (L - R) and a centre stack of six EML S318 subs reinforced the bass from the ground level.

Two sets of delays ensured that all of the fans would have the same musical experience.

The first delay line was a left-center-right set up consisting of three sets of 12 EML arrays. The second delay line was made of two Adamson Y18 arrays, 12 enclosures each.

“Most Engineers are very familiar with Adamson line array and are quite happy with the system,” explained Demoustier.

“The E15 has fantastic horizontal dispersion with even better LF than the Y-Axis, and I have been a tremendous fan of the Y-Axis since the beginning.”

Y18 line arrays took the spotlight at The Barn and kluB C stages. Both of the venues are enclosed performance areas with The Barn capable of hosting 15,000 and kluB C more

FESTIVAL SPECIAL: Rock Werchter

than 10,000.

The Barn is reinforced with two Y18 arrays made up of 12 enclosures each. Hard-hitting bass is delivered compliments of 28 Adamson T21 subwoofers. Frontfill is supported by four stacks of three Adamson S10 enclosures. PRG EML covered the areas further from the stage with two sets of delays, delay line one was made up of two S10 arrays features eight S10 enclosures each. The second delay was also S10 line arrays, this time seven per side.

END RESULT It takes a large commitment to ensure that sound reinforcement for a festival the size of Rock Werchter. Fans expect bigger and better with PRG EML proving themselves more than up to the task once again. Demoustier said he takes great pride in ensuring that artists, bands, and visiting engineers have the most positive experience possible.

He concluded: “It could have been risky making a move to digital consoles but DiGiCo

delivered on all three stages. My impression is that it was even better than previous years – we have maintained our standards of excellence with both DiGiCo consoles and Adamson loudspeakers. I am already looking forward to next year.”

TPi www.rockwerchter.be www.digico.biz www.adamsonsystems.com

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FESTIVAL SPECIAL: Exit Festival

EXIT FESTIVAL

EUROTRUSS & SKY MUSIC Following Skymusic’s successful stint in charge of production for the Dance Arena stage at last year’s Exit Festival, the pair decided that the 2015 event was the ideal place to enhance their cooperation. This resulted in Skymusic buying a package of shares of Exit Festival and becoming a coowner. According to President of Skymusic, Milenko Škaric, the first order of business was to significantly improve both main stage and Dance Arena productions.

During the festival, Skymusic used Eurotruss roof systems and sub-rig, Meyer Sound and

EAW sound reinforcement, SGM, DTS, Coemar and Martin lighting, and MR Led screens. Škaric said: “We were especially happy with Eurotruss in general and SGM Q7 strobe, G-spot and DTS Raptor. This was essential for our new production design.”

“We strongly believe that the ET Pitch roof is the best option for festival productions. We can carry a lot of weight, and it looks fantastic, is easy to set up, and has a totally closed by canopy so is very safe in case of rain. At the same time, the roof is very cost effective.” Škaric went on to discuss the challenges of

ROCK-IM-RING

producing the Exit Festival, many of which arise due to a “very dynamic” changeover and the different riders required for various artists.

He added: “For me, this year, Faithless was the best lighting production and Emeli Sandé had the best sound. We will continue with our plan to make Exit Festival production more impressive every year and that we will work on that together with our vendors just like we have done up to this point.”

TPi www.exitfest.org www.eurotruss.nl/en/

JB LIGHTING The Rock-im-Ring festival took place for the second time at the Hinwil motorway-roundabout of the TCS Touring Club Switzerland. This area is also the seat of the largest Road Safety Training Centre in Switzerland, which is also one of the most modern in Europe.

But once a year, this area is the meeting place of the entire Swiss hard-rock fan community, which has in mind anything but slip and grip courses. The line-up was again top class with artists such as

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Limp Bizkit, Nightwish, Billy Idol, Toto, Judas Priest and Alice Cooper. The technical management of the event was provided

by Winkler Multi Media AG from Wohlen. Ronald Huber was responsible for the stage design and Ben Schiller was Festival Tour Operator. A total of 240 intelligent moving lights were used. A total of 36 JBLED A7 and 44 A12 were the dominant lighting elements on the stage.

TPi www.rock-am-ring.com www.jblighting.com

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FESTIVAL SPECIAL: Pistoia Blues & Brianza Rock Festival

PISTOIA BLUES AND BRIANZA ROCK FESTIVAL LITEC

Litec’s 21 by 16 metre ‘Black Box’ roof system with loading capacity up to 18 tonnes, was used at two popular summer festivals in Italy this summer at the Pistoia Blues Festival and the Brianza Rock Festival.

The 36th annual Pistoia Blues Festival in Italy’s Tuscany region and is an almost one month long event that running from the 1 - 24 July. Bands playing at this massive musical cornucopia include Santana, Sting, Dream Theatre and

Passenger. The fifth annual Brianza Rock Festival was in held at the world famous Monza racetrack near Milan, Italy from 12 – 14 June.

It featured secondary school rock bands during the day followed by well-known Italian artists in the evening and a special area with exhibits from local painters, sculptures and writers.

The special Black Box roof from Litec gets its name from the matt black painted RL105A truss used in its construction and was provided to the Italian company Electra Service. Litec’s RL105 series truss features uniquely designed steel fork connections that safely

handle the highest load and stress levels while providing extreme wear resistance. They are especially effective at supporting heavy loads on larger spans.

Litec is now part of Area Four Industries who on 15 April this year at the Pro Light + Sound Exhibition in Frankfurt, announced their new brand and now under one roof own four leading truss brands including Litec, Milos, Tomcat and James Thomas Engineering.

TPi www.pistoiablues.com http://brianzarockfestival.com www.litectruss.com

TOMORROWLAND A&O TECHNOLOGY Falcon searchlights conjure magical moments at the Tomorrowland Festival in Belgium. For the first time, Falcon searchlights have been integrated into the imaginative design of the main stage at the Tomorrowland festival. The robust searchlights proved once again that they also make ideal festival luminaires. Their exceptionally far-reaching, colour-drenched lighting effects turned the festival’s main event this year into a truly vibrant spectacle.

When colourful internationalism, electronic beats music and surreal mysticism come together, the ravers gather at the Tomorrowland Festival near Boom in Belgium. This year, some 180,000 of them braved the storms, rain and sunshine. The open-air festival featured a gigantic stage, 60 metres high by 40 metres wide, in the form of a fairy-tale castle, realised in loving detail. A lavish array of effects were also employed.

Tomorrowland’s Lighting Designer, Sander Den Otter, succeeded brilliantly in integrating the Falcons into the spectacular overall image,

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managing, on the one hand, to project the stage show far into the night sky with the Falcon Beam 7,000W, and, on the other, to realise a beautiful illumination of the festival grounds behind the main stage. Bright moving lights from the Falcon range complemented the music, waterfalls, pyrotechnic and other lighting effects that made up the opulent Tomorrowland show.

According to the organisers, visitors from 200 nations flocked this year to the De Schorre National Park to celebrate with 300 of the most in-demand DJs on the planet, including David Guetta, Avicii, Hardwell, Armin van Buuren.

TPi Photo: A&O Technology www.tomorrowland.com/home www.ao-technology.com

FESTIVAL SPECIAL: Wireless Festival

WIRELESS FESTIVAL OGLE HOG

Managing Director of visual specialist Ogle Hog, and self-styled ‘all-around video bloke’ Chris Saunders is a festival and entertainment industry veteran. With 25 years of experience under his belt, Saunders has serviced high profile televised events and festivals for MTV, Radio 1, Download Festival, and, for the 10th time, Wireless Festival.

Saunders has managed the broadcast infrastructure and facilitated the festival’s in-house and visiting artists’ screens since its inception, which has evidently helped shape Wireless’ modern incarnation. This year saw Ogle Hog live-stream the entire festival worldwide to millions of online viewers on behalf of Live Nation and Yahoo.

To put that technical feat into perspective, Saunders quoted CTV’s Engineering Manager Adam Berger, who said: “The delivery of the output was a combination of nearly six miles of cable for all the cameras and audio, which were

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produced into one feed that travelled nearly 44,000 miles via the stratosphere, and then across the Atlantic over 4,000 miles of fibre no thicker than human hair. And the output was flawless.”

Working with Live Nation TV’s Mike Kaufman, Ogle Hog facilitated 29 hours of live footage for online titans Yahoo over the course of the weekend, and it took a great deal of technical ingenuity get that far, as Saunders explained: “We had one area cutting cameras on the main stage, and another cutting cameras on the second, and then we had Pres, which takes either live or recorded feeds from either of those stages, and links it together to create the live TV programme which is sent to Yahoo for the stream.”

The footage was captured, edited, and broadcast from two OB trucks provided by CTV, with EVS software allowing Ogle Hog to record and play footage from multiple streams simultaneously, with the option to stagger airing

schedules to allow for editing or to integrate previously recorded footage.

On top of the virtual experience, there was still the very physical experience of the 50,000 people in attendance to account for.

An impressive 110 sq metres of Lighthouse R7 screen from CT was used to frame the main stage on both sides, along with delay screens behind FOH and another screen at the food court further down the site. Furthermore, VER supplied a ground-stacked 9mm for the Pepsi ‘activation area’ which played back the live feed of stage 2.

Provided by VER, WinVision 9 screens were used for all of the on-stage screen setup.

Saunders commented: “We had an additional 200 sq metres of screen that was reconfigured between the artists as they arrived - when Avicii turned up with one design, we’d build that screen, and overnight we’d turn it into another design for David Guetta. Meanwhile, we would use bits of the screens throughout the day for

FESTIVAL SPECIAL: Wireless Festival

any supporting artists.”

Further still, Ogle Hog installed an IPTV system, essentially providing an internal broadcast network across multiple channels, on which coverage of the festival aired around the site.

There is indisputable finesse to the kind of calculated improvisation that goes into an event of such a large scale as Wireless; as considered and organised as the operation can possibly be, there’s still an element of unpredictability. Ogle Hog’s contract was only confirmed five days before the festival began, and it’s in navigating blind spots like this that Saunders and his crew’s

seasoned expertise really proves invaluable.

Saunders recalled one instance: “Nicki Minaj turned up very late and she was plugging into a screen that was actually David Guetta’s, so we were rigging her playback equipment while he was already performing. We didn’t know what was going to happen when we threw the switch for her to come on stage.” Of course, it went off in Ogle Hog style without a hitch.

Saunders is a conductor of sorts, as he and his production team provide a complete service.

With the invaluable assistance of his Production Coordinator, Kate Gibbs and Technical Project Manager, Connie Glover, Ogle Hog specify the

equipment, track it down, manage and navigate the installation, coordinate the operation and ensure its safe return. Saunders, Gibbs and Glover successfully carried off this holistic approach at Wireless 2015, bringing together 10 individual suppliers to cover the festival’s screen and broadcast requirements, and simplifying the entire arrangement from the client’s perspective.

TPi Photo: Danny North, Scott Salt & Andrew Whitton www.wirelessfestival.co.uk www.oglehog.com

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FESTIVAL SPECIAL: Sweden Rock Festival

SWEDEN ROCK FESTIVAL

MEYER SOUND

Sweden Rock 2015 Production Manager Pelle Åberg, selected a Meyer Sound Leo linear large-scale sound reinforcement system for the main stage to support headliners such as Judas Priest, Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, Slash, and Toto. With its exceptional headroom, the system provided the crew with excellent coverage control, while eliminating the need for delay towers.

“I talked to many sound engineers that I trust about our options, and I decided to go all the way on our biggest stage with Leo,” said Åberg.

“We have very strict limits on sound outside the festival grounds, with fines for any breaches, so we needed a system that could effectively cover large areas at high levels, but 84

with precise control. The Leo system achieved this goal - I could hear clear, powerful music all the way to the back of the huge crowd.”

Main hangs for the Festival Stage were 15 Leo-M and two Lyon-W wide-coverage line array loudspeakers per side. Out-fill hangs were five Leo-M and two Lyon-W loudspeakers per side, two JM-1P arrayable loudspeakers provided front fill, and 36 1100-LFC lowfrequency control elements were deployed in two end-fire arrays.

A Galileo Callisto loudspeaker management system with four Galileo Callisto 616 and two Galileo Callisto 616 AES array processors provided system drive and alignment. System provider was Starlight, part of the Bright Group.

Starlight / Bright’s Fredrik Arwidson was system

engineer for the Festival Stage, with Anders Häggblom serving as FOH System Tech.

“The sound from the Leo system was excellent,” stated Bright Group’s Håkan Alfredsson. “Several FOH engineers expressed great satisfaction with the results. Martin Walker with Judas Priest told me he was very happy with what he heard, and I saw Ken Freeman, Toto’s FOH engineer, shaking Fredrik’s hand and smiling ear to ear.”

TPi

Photo: Josefin Larsson www.swedenrock.com www.meyersound.com

FESTIVAL SPECIAL: Tramlines

TRAMLINES FESTIVAL DBSL

Tramlines effectively turns the city of Sheffield into one big festival, with a variety of stages and music styles to explore throughout the weekend. In particular, the 2015 event featured main stage performances from hip-hop royalty such as De Le Soul and Mobb Deep.

UK-based rental company DBSL Limited supplied the audio for the festival’s mainstage including the FOH system, which was situated 30 metres from the front of the stage and comprised of a Yamaha CL5 Digital Mixing Console and two RIO3224-D Stage Boxes.

On stage, nine L-Acoustics K2 Line Array Cabinets were used per side, along with 16 L-Acoustics SB28 Sub Enclosures (six per side, four in the pit). Two L-Acoustics ARCS II Cabinets per side were used as front fill, as were three L-Acoustics KARA Line Array Cabinets.

The monitor system was made up of a Yamaha CL3 Digital Mixing Console (including two RIO3224-D Stage Boxes), 12 L-Acoustics 115 Hi-Q Bi-Amp Monitor Wedges, an L-Acoustics

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SB18 Sub Enclosure for the drums, one L-Acoustics SB28 per side, and two L-Acoustics ARCS IIs per side. In addition to this set-up, eight Sennheiser G3 EW300 IEM monitors were made available.

In terms of microphones, DBSL supplied a combination of Shure, Audix, AKG, Sennheiser and BSS hardware.

As well as the full audio system DBSL provided a full lighting rig, supported by a brand new Avolites Arena Console with a Tiger Touch II as a back-up, three Avolites Titan Network Processors and a Fibre Multicore. The main stage’s front truss design consisted of 10 Martin Professional MAC 700 Washes, 16 Showtec LED Light Bar 8 Battens, and five generic 4-Cell Molefay Blinders, while the Mid-Stage Truss housed six Martin Professional MAC 700 Profiles, five Clay Paky B-Eye K10 Easys, six Clay Paky Stormy CC RGBW LED Strobes and five 2-Cell Molefay Blinders.

The up-stage truss featured five Martin Professional MAC 700 Profiles, four Clay Paky

B-Eye K10 Easys, five Clay Paky Stormy CC RGBW LED Strobes, and four 2-Cell Molefay Blinders.

There were also four rolling towers, each consisting of three Clay Paky Sharpys, three Showtec Sunstrip Active DMXs, and a Martin Professional Atomic 3000 DMX Strobe.

Atmospherics were covered by two Look Solutions Unique 2.1 Haze Machines, two Look Solutions Viper 2.6 Smoke Machines, and two 18-inch fans.

DBSL also provided rigging duties, drapes and rolling risers, as well as mounted LED video screens and a package of three cameras, to ensure that the main stage audience was involved from front to back. This rental package is being supplied by DBSL on five consecutive weekends during festival season.

TPi Photos: Tarquin Clark & Carolina Faruolo www.tramlines.org.uk www.dbsl-live.co.uk

INTERVIEW: High Scream

A NATURAL PROGRESSION ROMAIN PISSENEM EXPANDS HIGH SCREAM WITH GLOBAL SHOWS AND PARTNERS WITH INDUSTRY PROFESSIONAL IAN WOODALL, SETTING NEW STANDARDS OF CREATIVITY.

Romain Pissenem, Show Director and 2011 founder of High Scream, has always had ambitions of taking his creative mind to new heights. Pissenem, who has worked in the industry for 20 years (since he was 17-yearsold), knew that he always wanted to build a team of dedicated and passionate people within the already established High Scream.

He explained: “I’m a Show Director. I’ve probably directed 1,000 shows for TV and theatre in my time, and I will always want to direct shows. I always wanted to create truly amazing shows that I would expect to see if I was in the audience.

“For this you need to be in full control of all the different ingredients and the best way for that to happen is to have a design and production company filled with industry professionals.”

One such professional who has aided Pissenem’s vision is Ian Woodall. It’s been a year since TPi spoke to Woodall about his career in the live event industry as XL Video’s former 88

Sales Director. In that year, a lot has changed.

Although you would be forgiven for thinking his break away move may have been spurred on

by XL’s recent acquisition by PRG, his own plans had been brewing for some time.

Woodall and Pissenem have often collaborated - notably in Ibiza’s superclub at Ushuaia. It was at the opening party in 2011 that Woodall first found himself in the office at Ushuaia. He was on holiday and straight from the beach donned in the usual brightly coloured shorts and flip-flops - “not very crewlike” Woodall added. Pissenem had called him about a problem with a LED screen, not one of XL’s it should be noted! According to Pissenem, Woodall solved the problem within just five minutes after he arrived. This chance encounter was the start of their future collaboration.

“I was with XL Video for five years and I really did love my time there. I honestly couldn’t say a bad word about the company or the people there,” Woodall smiled. “But obviously XL is a service provider for video and I wanted

to do more than that. When I left XL it was the natural time for me to join High Scream.” By adding this experienced, skilled individual to an already established diverse and professional team at High Scream, there is no stopping them!

With a view to achieving auteur-like vision, High Scream has aggregated a vast collective of industry professionals - dancers, acrobats, stylists, a battalion of designers - costume, stage, graphic, digital and visual, and special effects, while fully sourcing their equipment and stage decoration with their own in-house specialists to handle construction, operation, and disassembly. Not to mention, High Scream uses the technical equipment service suppliers from many sources, allowing a certain freedom to explore the advancements in live production without the financial implication of owning what could potentially quickly become outdated technology.

As you might expect from such a visionoriented operation, the equipment in use is for a High Scream show is not simply based on the

INTERVIEW: High Scream

Opposite: Woodall and Pissenem have often collaborated - notably in Ibiza’s superclub at Ushuaia. Below: Wyclef Jean engaged in zip-wire acrobatics; The High Scream show is not simply based on the technology, but the skills and people behind it.

technology, but the skills and people behind it.

Pissenem remarked: “When we think about how we can build interesting shows we don’t say ‘we want to work with a particular brand’, it’s the humans which handle the products who can really make a show. I mean, I love technology but when I speak to it, it doesn’t reply!” Woodall agreed: “I think that we pay more loyalty and allegiance to the crew and operators, than we do to a piece of equipment. We know it’s the team both on and off the stage that make it happen.”

Pissenem speaks affectionately of his work, with more than just pride, there is a clear passion to provide a service to the public experience, and get on the map for it. It’s evident his heart is in these live shows. “The only thing we want to do is make a perfect show, and every night to have every member of the audience say ‘wow’ - that is our goal and we must do everything to make that possible,” he said.

As TPi sat in the sunshine on the upper VIP area of Ushuaia (with a glass of water by the way!) just prior to the 2015 opening party, it was extremely easy to see that assembling a team which really does deliver and make it happen is no small achievement. Ushuaia hosts seven different shows on a weekly day-after-day cycle over four months, and this year the Hard Rock Hotel has three more weekly shows to add to the calendar along with a few other locations around the ‘white isle’. With all this adding up to more than 100 shows in less than 20 weeks, it’s amazing to consider that each show has been individually conceived, constructed, and directed by High Scream.

The company was working on the upcoming

Creamfields Ibiza Festival when this interview took place, but you can only imagine their work to be a constant with these 100 plus shows built on a bespoke basis for each artist night after night. It’s these creative components that really speak to the High Scream team, the décor and customisation elements.

Pissenem furthered: “When Avicii played a set last year, Wyclef Jean appeared at the top of the Ushuaia Tower next door and came down on a zip-wire to land in the Ushuaia Club pool while singing No Woman No Cry. Those details

at Ushuaia or even Ibiza, they are producing shows all over the world.

There’s little doubt that the production and events company is quickly gaining significant recognition, having just wrapped up a massive event at Le Grand Palais in Paris, the variety and location of jobs really do seem endless.

Whilst Ibiza and Ushuaia maybe in full-on operation mode over the summer, Pissenem and the team’s aspirations certainly don’t end there.

The ultimate ambition is to produce a universally observed, grand-scale show for a prestigious

“I think that we pay more loyalty and allegiance to the crew and operators, than we do to a piece of equipment. We know it’s the team both on and off the stage that make it happen.” Ian Woodall, Technical Director of High Scream.

make a show memorable as there is no room for complacency if that’s what you want to achieve at every show.”

This is High Scream’s raison d’être, to realise the ultimate show, and to have the ambition to redefine that concept each and every time.

Having observed and contributed to the transition of the DJ from the club into the arena, and from the party into the show, Pissenem and Woodall’s careers are defined by their ability to evolve and reinvent standards, and its no surprise to hear that High Scream doesn’t stop

event such as the Olympics’ or Commonwealth Games’ opening ceremonies, and why not?

With a combination of unyielding momentum, creativity and technical expertise, we can only imagine what they will have to talk about next time we meet. Who knows where that interview will take place… somewhere equally as lovely we hope. The water probably won’t make another appearance.

TPi Photos: Ushuaia www.high-scream.com 89

15,000+ SQ/M SPACE 1 AIRPORT 100 GLOBAL DESTINATIONS 300+ BRANDS 16,500 PARKING SPACES 8 CLOSE-BY HOTELS 10,000+ VISITORS RUNS ALONGSIDE

PERFORMANCE AND VENUE TECHNOLOGY SHOW Audio | Lighting | Video | Effects

SPONSORED BY

12-14 SEPTEMBER 2015 THE NEC BIRMINGHAM UK OUR SPONSORS

While experiencing products first-hand is a key aspect of PRO, so is our carefully curated educational programme. That's why we have put together a range of informative learning sessions for PRO 2015 that will run across the three days of the show and span two dedicated Learning Spaces.

We’ve not finished yet... more to be announced soon!

SATURDAY • Jobs in The Industry Panel • Introduction to Live Sound Engineering Brian Hillson, ISCE

IAMPRO

POWERED BY

VISITPROSHOW

SESSIONS 2015

• What you really need to make it in the entertainment industry Derby University • Backstage Academy Hosted Learning Space

SUNDAY

HOSTED BY

• The Benefits for using Networking Technology for Sound Wayne Powell & Karl Christmas, Yamaha Commercial Audio UK • The Reinvention of Super Clubs Panel

• The Convergence of Lighting & Video in the Live Production Industry Panel • Real vs Virtual Ownership Remo Martufi, AED • Houses of Worship - The Installation Venue Opportunities Brian Hillson, ISCE

MONDAY

MIXERS PROVIDED BY

• De-mystifying Lasers Denis Phoenix, Laserworld

HOSTED BY

• Are You Sure You’re Self Employed PSA

rental company? Stuart Kerrison, Nexo • Scenarios and Concepts around Live Sound Ben Hammond, AudioTechnica • Audio in an Outdoor Environment Panel • Hearing Loss: Are you Listening? PSA

REGISTER ONLINE FOR YOUR COMPLIMENTARY TRADE TICKETS WWW.VISITPRO.CO.UK/TPI

MICROPHONES PROVIDED BY

• Fully Scalable Modular PA, is this the road to profitability for the modern

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: CM-ET

CM-ET LAUNCHES 2-TONNE LODESTAR HOIST ALTHOUGH THE 2-TONNE VARIANT OF ITS WORLD-RENOWNED HOIST IS RELATIVELY NEW TO THE MARKET, COLUMBUS MCKINNON ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGY HAS ALREADY BEEN INNUNDATED WITH POSITIVE FEEDBACK. TPi SPEAKS TO THE COMPANY’S ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCT SALES MANAGER FOR EMEA, TRACY HALL. Can you explain a bit about the initial research and development behind this new 2-tonne product release?

The 2-tonne Lodestar was designed because we had a large number of customers request a single fall motor at 2-tonne capacity. After consultation with customers and sales staff, we came up with a design brief and Columbus McKinnon Entertainment Technology (CM-ET) engineers set about designing a Lodestar that retained the traditional safety and reliability while meeting current entertainment standards.

Introduced 60 years ago, the CM Lodestar was engineered to be the best electric chain hoist in the world. What began as a breakthrough in the material handling industry has become an industry standard. Professional riggers around the world have come to rely on the CM Lodestar for the most demanding 92

and challenging applications. For this reason, we’ve never stopped reinventing and improving it to satisfy the needs of every customer.

Every Lodestar is designed, built and tested to our exact standards that meet industry requirements. Our newest 2-tonne single reeved model is no exception to this.

What are its main features and how do they further benefit CM-ET users?

The RRS 2-tonne single-reeved unit is ideal for a variety of lifting applications and, because it is a single-reeved unit, overall weight is decreased, making it easier to transport and rig compared to a traditional double-reeved unit.

Furthermore, the single fall of load chain design prevents the bottom block assembly from capsizing, thus preventing a twist forming in the load chain.

From a user perspective this makes the motor safer to use in entertainment applications. Other features include: improved chain life via a five-pocket lift wheel, easy access to internal components for ease of maintenance, long service life, and zinc-plated Star Grade load chain for protection against corrosion.

Where does this new hoist fit into the CM-ET family of products as a whole?

CM-ET is known globally for supplying a large range of material handling equipment for the entertainment market that not only includes hoists, but rigging products and chain as well.

The New RRS 2-tonne single fall unit adds to our already extensive portfolio of equipment and provides a lighter weight option for entertainment riggers.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: CM-ET

Opposite and Below: Features of the new hoist include: improved chain life via a five-pocket lift wheel, easy access to internal components for ease of maintenance, long service life, and zinc-plated Star Grade load chain for protection against corrosion; The product debuted at the Prolight + Sound tradeshow in Frankfurt, Germany; Tom Hobman, Internal Sales Support on the show floor.

This 2-tonne motor was unveiled at this year’s Prolight + Sound in Germany. How was the response on the show floor?

Prolight + Sound was a very successful exhibition and a good chance for us to meet all our international distributors. The RRS 2-tonne was certainly the star of the show for us and resulted in a lot of interest and some early orders.

riggers were very happy with the hoist and its performance. The units were easy to rig being lighter weight and having less chain to manage.

They were roadworthy and held up to harsh conditions, as users have known to expect from our iconic Lodestar motors. They also fit in the same road case as the 1-tonne new generation Lodestar which was quite convenient.

Can you reveal if any rental companies have invested in the product since the show took place?

We have received many orders from rental houses and the feedback has been positive.

In terms of health and safety, training is obviously of the utmost importance when it comes to live events and rigging, does CM-ET have a training course or similar for people purchasing its products?

CM-ET offers professional training programmes specifically designed to meet the unique needs of the entertainment industry. Our training curriculum ranges from a basic hoist introduction and maintenance to our intense three-day Mega School suited to everyone from small theatre riggers to international sporting event designers, though this is currently only available in the US. Our dedicated full-time instructors lead

What kind of feedback have you had from riggers / staging companies? Are there any you work very closely with?

At CM-ET we had one of our largest rigging distributors beta test multiple 2-tonne units before we launched the product. Shows on the tour took place two to three times per week, so the motors got a lot of use supporting their large video walls during the performances. The

professional classroom and hands-on classes both onsite or at one of our nationallyrecognised training centres.

As a company, how do you support touring riggers should they need it?

Wherever the show takes place our global network of distributors is available to offer assistance with parts, service and advice.

Where can we expect to see it over the summer months - will it be used for any sets during the festival season?

Our hoists are being used all over the world in various productions, including: the Essence Music Festival at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, the Chautauqua Institution, the 2015 Pan-American Games, Eric Church’s recent tour, the Al Bano & Romina Power performance at the Arena di Verona, the 2015 NCAA March Madness Final Four, and the Rock in Rio USA show.

TPi http://www.cm-et.com/ 93

CLOCKING OFF: First Night Riders Below: The riders visited a number of interesting venues, including Theatre by the Lake Keswick.

THE FIRST NIGHT RIDERS CHARITY RIDE THE 2015 FIRST NIGHT RIDERS CHARITY MOTORBIKE AND CLASSIC CAR TOUR OF BRITISH THEATRES, WHICH RAISES MONEY FOR THE THEATRICAL GUILD’S VITAL WORK, TOOK TO THE ROADS ON FRIDAY 3 JULY. BRENDA AND DAVID AT FIRST NIGHT RIDERS TELL TPi WHAT ADVENTURES THEY HAD HAD THIS TIME. This year we started in the seaside town of Scarborough visiting the Spa Theatre and Grand Hall, then on to the lovely 1930s Stephen Joseph Theatre, the Theatre Royal York’s temporary theatre at the National Railway Museum, and concluding at the beautiful Royal Hall Harrogate.

On the way, we visited the Theatre by the Lake and were amazed by the commitment and zeal of the Friends of the Winter Gardens Morecambe, who are desperately trying to save their wonderful building. We also visited the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, which boasts an impressive six entertainment spaces. The ride finished at the flashy new Everyman Theatre Liverpool.

We are incredibly grateful to the participating theatres who were so welcoming, and to our brilliant sponsors without whom we could not do the event.

The ride was an amazing experience with fabulous people through wonderful British scenery. This year we had a rider who took his motorcycle test a couple of months before the event so that he would be able to take part.

We have participants from across the UK, 94

Europe and North America riding a whole manner of vintage motorcycles and classic cars, all in aid of The Theatrical Guild (TTG).

Fundraising is open until September and all donations, however large or small, are gratefully received. Every participant pays their own expenses so 100% of the money raised

goes to the TTG. Don’t miss out on the fun and make sure you join the 2016 ride. Registration will open very soon!

TPi www.firstnightride.com www.firstnightride.com/fnr_concrete/htdocs/ sponsors-riders

UK FESTIVAL CONFERENCE 2015:

PANELS AND CONFIRMED SPEAKERS REVEALED CASHLESS RULES EVERYTHING AROUND US Greg Parmley – ILMC Gareth Cooper – Snowbombing Mark Laurie - NCASS Alex Dixon – Count of Ten CDM REGULATIONS 2015 - A REVIEW Andy Lenthall – PSA Steven Corfield – Serious Stages Roger Barrett - Star Events Q Williams – PRG USE YOUR IMAGINATION – IDEAS FOR MORE INTELLIGENT CURATION Michael Baker – Festival Insights Vincent Koreman – Incubate Festival Tim Hubbard – Eroica Britannia Alexia Higgs – Meltdown Festival Nick Green – Arts Council England Luke Bainbridge - Festival No. 6 THE STATE OF WELFARE Chris Kemp – YES Group / MOM Consultancy Michelle O’Loughlin - Chill Welfare SUSTAINABLE STRATEGIES – MAKING GREEN FIELDS GREENER Jacqui Reeves – FareShare Southwest Chris Johnson – Shambala Festival Chiara Badiali - Julie’s Bicycle Hamish Skermer - Natural Event Liz Warwick - Cambridge Folk Festival

APPLICATIONS FOR THE UK FESTIVAL AWARDS CLOSE ON SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2015 EARLY BIRD TICKETS FOR THE UK FESTIVAL AWARDS & CONFERENCE CLOSE ON MONDAY 31 AUGUST 2015

www.festivalawards.com

MOVERS & SHAKERS Sponsored by www.interfacio.com • +44 208 986 5002

MOVERS & SHAKERS

The Event Safety Alliance (ESA) has appointed Take1 Insurance Executive Vice President and Program Director Scott Carroll to its board of directors, where he will also serve as Secretary.

“Carroll and Take1 Insurance have been tireless advocates for the ESA’s mission since day one, and have played a crucial role in helping the ESA become the industry’s preeminent voice for safety that it is today,” said ESA President Jim Digby.

According to Digby, Carroll has invested considerable time and resources into positioning the ESA in many industry publications and singlehandedly conceptualised and promoted a three-part webinar that introduced the ESA’s message of ‘life safety first’ to a large and diverse audience.

“In addition, Carroll has personally attended and supported nearly every public event produced by the ESA and has consistently promoted the relevance of our mission wherever he goes. He has demonstrated an unparalleled commitment to the cause, and we’re honoured to have him on the Board of Directors.”

Carroll added: “The cause of the ESA is the cause of Take1 Insurance. We share the same commitment to making live events as safe as humanly possible. I am proud of the work we have achieved together and I look forward to making significant contributions to the alliance’s future success.”

Elsewhere, Creative Technology (CT), a firm that specialises in customer-oriented audio, video and lighting solutions for the corporate events, sports, entertainment, and exhibition markets, has hired Albert Deltour.

Deltour’s career has included senior roles at De Hallen Studios in Amsterdam, Backbone International, Natura Artis Magistra in Amsterdam and as founder and owner of the Amsterdam Convention Factory and the events communications agency; Deltour & Waerts.

He commented: “CT produces fantastic audiovisual projects around the globe, many 96

delivered from its Dutch base. The challenge for me, along with the CT colleagues and an experienced management team, is to keep creating impressive and distinctive events and continue working on the growth of CT.” CEO of CT Europe and the Middle East, Dave Crump, concluded: “I believe Deltour will provide a dynamic drive to our business both in Holland and across the wider mainland European region.

His wide network of contacts coupled with broad experience across all of our market sectors makes him an ideal candidate for this challenging role.”

Hans-Peter Nüdling has been appointed as d&b audiotechnik’s new Chief Sales Officer.

From 20 July, Nüdling will be responsible for global sales and services, bringing over 25 years of sales, business development, electronics, and technology experience to the team.

As a member of the managing board, Nüdling will be responsible for global sales and global services including education, application support and services. He has direct and channel sales, and business development expertise, and will help to establish solid, best-practice processes to further expand the business.

Nüdling has worked in Europe, the Americas and Asia, which means he has an in-depth understanding of the international markets in which d&b does business.

“Based on Nüdling’s international experience, excellent sales capabilities, and technology expertise, I am confident that he will significantly contribute to our global growth strategy,” said Amnon Harman, CEO at d&b.

“He will play an important role to expand our business in new market segments, both in live entertainment as well as in the installation business.”

Nexo is reinforcing its sales team with the addition of industry sales heavyweight Michel Brouard.

To be based in Hong Kong in the newlycreated position of Greater China Business

Development Manager, Brouard will play a “critical role” in increasing the presence and success of Nexo in the Asia Pacific area.

A well-known name in sound reinforcement circles, Brouard began his career in project management in his native France. He has been most prominent in the role of International Sales Manager for L’Acoustics, where he worked for 16 years. Most recently, he has been part of the sales team for Italian company K-Array.

Brouard said: “I am really pleased to join Nexo, one of the most innovative and respected French pro-audio companies. Although I’ll be working in a territory I know very well, this will be an interesting new challenge for me, but I know that there is great potential to build on Nexo’s existing foundations in China, and leverage that success in other parts of the region.”

Michel Brouard will be working alongside Nicolas Kirsch, Sales Manager Asia, and Denis Baudier, Sales Director of Nexo.

Riedel Communications has appointed Peter Robberechts to the role of sales manager for Belgium. In this position, Robberechts will be responsible for managing and developing both new and existing sales channels; contributing to product, marketing, and project management strategy; and contributing to the ongoing optimisation of the company’s sales organisation.

“Over his career in the media and broadcast industry, Robberechts has shown himself to be a creative and engaged team player, capable of successfully taking on a variety of roles and challenges, and his professional background lends itself well to addressing the demanding requirements of our customers,” said Wilbert Kooij, General Manager of Riedel Communications.

“We are confident that he has the character, experience, and expertise to be a great asset to our sales operation in Belgium.”

Robberechts joins Riedel having most recently served as Manager for the Outside Broadcast NV Mediasense division, which provides technical

www.interfacio.com • +44 208 986 5002

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Opposite: Hans-Peter Nüdling has been appointed as d&b audiotechnik’s new Chief Sales Officer; Scott Carroll has joined ESA; Michel Brouard has recently joined Nexo, pictured with Denis Baudier. Below: Allen & Heath has appointed Info Muzik Elektronik (Infogroup) as its exclusive distributor in Turkey.

facilities to television stations and production companies for high-profile productions including many of the world’s most popular sports competitions and largest corporate events.

He earlier worked with production company Talent & Vision NV, beginning as a Camera Operator in the field and eventually becoming the company’s COO. In this role he initiated negotiations for an asset deal that brought the company, including Robberechts and his entire team, to Outside Broadcast.

Prior roles included Freelance Camera Operator for Videosense BVBA, Helicopter Camera Assistant and Operator at Wim Robberechts NV, and General Assistant at

Videohouse NV. & Heath has Allen appointed Info Muzik Elektronik (Infogroup) as its exclusive distributor in Turkey. With more than 20 years of experience, Infogroup is one of the leading sound and lighting companies in the country, representing other wellknown names within the audio industry that will complement the Allen & Heath brand.

“Allen & Heath is one of the best brands in the world and we are very excited to be able to add the name to our portfolio. Allen & Heath’s superior and diverse range of products, and our focus on quality customer service, will give us a huge advantage in advancing the brand in Turkey. We are certain our collaboration will see many successful sales and installations,” said Emre Abdurrahman Maras, Managing Director at Infogroup.

Enttec Americas of Hillsborough, NC, a supplier of LED solutions, including luminaires, lighting control, and specialty products, announces the appointment of Crystal Lee in the

position of Business Development Manager.

In her new capacity within the firm, Lee will be responsible for larger-scale, solution-oriented products; will assist with inside sales/support duties; and will put her personal signature on the firm’s social media interactions.

Lee will also be a regular presence as an integral part of the ‘Pixel Punk Revolution’ at the Enttec booth at industry trade shows throughout the year.

She brings a wide variety of experience.

Recently, she has participated in the Fellowships, Assistantships, Internships, and Residencies programme at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where she assisted in both projection and lighting design.

Prior to that, she served as Production Manager at Crystal Cruises, a luxury cruise line headquartered in Los Angeles. Lee has a theatrical background and has been the lighting designer for a number of regional productions.

Lee said: “One of my goals is to increase the knowledge of the Enttec brand to a wider customer base, as well as to get the long time loyal customers accustomed to the fact that we now make many more products!”

TPi www.tpimagazine.com/jobs/

WE ARE RECRUITING! Based just south of Manchester, VME is a growing provider of sound, light and video solutions to the live events industry. Due to continued growth and expansion we are looking for dynamic and creative people to join our team in Knutsford, Cheshire.

PROJECT MANAGERS Working on a wide variety of events from corporate conferences to outdoor festivals, we are looking for skilled project managers to join us taking our projects all the way through from initial enquiry through to leading the project on site. Ideal candidates will have previous experience within the live events industry in a similar role, be technical across sound, light & video and have a proven track record of delivering large scale events.

Salary: £26,500 - £35,000 dependant on experience

DRY HIRE MANAGER Overseeing all dry hire enquiries, you will work directly with our clients ensuring all their rental requirements are met. From initial enquiry, through to working with the warehouse teams for prep and delivery, you will oversee the whole process and ensure the rental part of our company runs smoothly. The perfect candidate will have good all-round knowledge across all technical disciplines, expert planning & logistical skills and join us with experience from a similar role.

Salary: £18,000 - £25,000 dependant on experience

Full job descriptions can be found at www.vme-uk.com/careers Please send your CV and covering letter to recruitment@vme-uk.com no later than 30th September 2015 VME Limited Unit 11 Longridge Trading Estate, Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 8PR www.vme-uk.com // 01565 652 202 // recruitment@vme-uk.com

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THE BIGGER PICTURE

THE BIGGER PICTURE EMPLOYMENT STATUS - PROS, CONS AND CONFUSION It’s been decades since overseas earnings were tax free. Imagine, you leave these shores on tour and stay out of the country just long enough to ensure that your earnings are tax free. Some readers don’t have to imagine, they just have to remember those heady days before tax, returns and shocking bills.

Things have changed.

Those were the days when self-employment was the route to choose. Nowadays, if you live here, you pay tax here (let’s not get into withholding tax this month), unless you’re one of those famed ‘non dom’ tax avoiders whose days are numbered, apparently.

So what advantage self-employment, and what about the age-old question of sole trader or Ltd company? As we said, things have changed recently, so we took a look at HMRC’s online Self Employment Manual.

Well, to be honest, we took a look at bits of it, so please don’t take any of this as definitive guidance. You see, there’s nothing really definitive in the manual, save a bunch of legal precedents set out in case law conclusions such as the oh so dramatic Lane vs. The Shire Roofing Company (Oxford) Ltd. It’s not exactly easy to follow either, click the link to the introduction and you find four of them.

The first paragraph of the first introduction refers you to two further chapters; and there are plenty of chapters dealing with all manner of rules and regulations. We gave up counting at 150, we hope your accountant knows them all inside out. Of course, there are immediate issues that we can deal with, boiling those chapters, skimming off the froth and reducing it to a tasty consommé of 98

key points. Buon appetito.

First let’s tackle self-employment.

Sure, there are advantages to the individual when considering the variety of business-related expenses that can be deducted from taxable income.

That said, PAYE employed individuals usually get out of pocket expenses refunded without tax anyway. So what’s the advantage? Who gets the real benefit? Well, the sector as a whole works in such a way that employing full time technicians is complicated and challenging; some do manage it. The majority still cite the nature of the business as the reason for using self-employed subcontractors, many of those are engaging them in the right way too, some aren’t. Of course, there are advantages to the engaging company too, let’s not ignore the fact that self-employed subcontractors don’t enjoy any employment rights such as maternity, holiday, redundancy or sick pay and, without a contract or any that constitutes one, workers can be dropped with no notice. It’s getting harder to see the advantages for the individual.

Simply registering with HMRC as selfemployed doesn’t necessarily mean that you are self-employed; nothing on Planet HMRC is that simple. The way you behave the nature of your relationship or, don’t laugh, contract with your client indicates your status. And no, the fact that you work for more than one company is not enough - you can be PAYE with more than one company. In fact, you can be freelance and PAYE; freelance doesn’t necessarily mean selfemployed, but that’s semantics.

What you really need to do is act like a business rather than an individual. You’re not a sound engineer, you’re a business supplying sound engineering services and that business can make a loss as well as a profit. To that end, HMRC needs to see that you charge a fee for providing a service rather than a rate per hour or day. Sure,

calculate your fee on how long the work might take, but your contract to supply services and your invoice is one price for supplying those services.

If you make an error and end up spending time correcting it, that’s down to you, they need to see an entrepreneurial risk. Also, as you’re a company supplying services, it doesn’t necessarily have to be you doing the work. True self-employed status requires you to have the ability and, if needed, the responsibility to provide a substitute if you can’t carry out the work. The substitute has to be suitable, in agreement with your client, but it’s down to you to source them. It’s no good just having terms and conditions that state this; if HMRC see it as a sham and can prove it, they will question your status; that said, the amount of Facebook posts in certain industry groups where people shout out for deputies on long-running shows that we do use source and use substitutes.

Some companies insist that their individual subcontractors operate as Ltd companies in the misguided view that this protects them from HMRC seeing those individuals as employees; the difference seems to be, although it’s a little unclear, that any income derived by the contractor will have to be treated as salary from their Ltd entity rather than as dividend from profit, thus increasing the amount of tax they pay on that income, if HMRC see the relationship as employer/ employee rather than contractor /subcontractor.

Again, the advantage to the engaging company is obvious; the disadvantage to the individual is the increase in accountancy and compliance costs. Of course, with a Ltd set up, you are free to declare a minimal salary and treat much of your income as dividend, which is taxed at a lower rate… until tax rates on dividends increase in April 2016, another advantage that being whittled away.

There used to be a great way to avoid the PAYE / Self-employed question. In many sectors, including ours, companies formed overseas companies that paid their workers. The overseas company (often referred to as an intermediary)

www.psa.org.uk Opposite: This time the PSA took a look at HMRC’s online Self Employment Manual - let’s hope your accountant knows it inside out!

would pay workers gross; the UK company would then pay this overseas company for providing crew. This was one loophole that Government wanted to close so, in 2014, new regulations stated that the ‘client facing’ business entity is the one responsible for paying tax. So, agencies providing workers to an end client where the end client pays the agency rather than the worker direct are responsible. Furthermore, they changed the rules on employment status. Forget substitution and working for more than one client, if you work through an ‘agency’, then if anyone in the workplace has any say in where, when or how you work, you are PAYE. At first glance, this could apply to every company that uses self-employed techs but, as with all these things, it depends. In our sector, some companies act as intermediaries, some simply use subcontractors to help them provide a service to a client. So, a crew company that is contracted to provide a number of people for a period of time is subject to agency rules; those individuals must be paid PAYE, with all the rights and additional costs that brings. However, a lighting company using self-employed techs and designers to deliver a service to a show is engaging those people directly, if they’re not asked to supply a certain number of people for a certain amount of time, they are not an

intermediary. To put is another way, we look back at ‘entrepreneurial risk’. I ask for some lights for a show, my supplier gives me a price and they agree, I don’t care how many people it takes, I just want to see a working show. If it goes Pete Tong, the supplier may need to throw more people at the job. Not my problem, within reason. It’s all down to the nature of the contract with your client. Of course, clever wording could prevail; a client may request four crew on an eight hour call to tip some trucks, or they could ask for a company to provide truck tipping services and their supplier could hire self-employed truck tippers to help them provide the service. That’s not a recommended course of action, past practice will inform any investigator. Another fly in the contractual ointment may also exist if inhouse staff are carrying out similar tasks to self employed subbies.

Many crew companies have revised the way they pay their people, especially since April this year when the ‘Intermediary Reporting Regulations’ were introduced. Any company acting as a supplier of labour only now has a legal obligation to report quarterly to HMRC, giving details of any individual they engaged as selfemployed and why they did so. Sure, Ltd status has this covered, but local crew work can simply not pay well enough to warrant the costs of

accounting and compliance. In addition, anyone trading as an Ltd company opens themselves to investigation as HMRC will have a detailed breakdown of any income that should be treated as salary rather than dividend.

In conclusion, it’s best to repeat that this is not to be taken as advice, merely as an awareness of changes in tax legislation that, although intended to tackle rather nefarious practices, has the perhaps unintended consequence of changing the way some of our members work.

One final point though, HMRC say that it is difficult to disprove a contractual relationship when a written contract exists. If that contract contains clauses that reinforce employment status, it is down to them to prove those clauses are a sham, something they might find difficult. We know that contracts are few and far between, but protection for both individual and client should be a driver towards better practice.

We’re working with our Business Support Line providers to develop a checklist for terms and conditions, as well as a discounted service for writing documents specific to everyone’s needs.

Members will be made aware once it’s online.

Meanwhile, it might be time for a chat with your accountant.

TPi www.psa.org.uk

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VITAL STATS 173 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

James Oliver Profession: Director of Marketing and Sales, Adamson Systems Engineering Date & place of birth: 7 February 1982, Ontario, Canada How did you get started in the pro audio industry?

I started on the stage as a performer spending close to a decade as a recording and touring artist. The last band I played in had some success in Canada culminating in a Juno nomination for Folk Recording of the Year. Because I was married and we just had a child, I thought if I joined a manufacturer in pro audio I could still be involved in music and get off the road to spend more time with my family - I was way off on that!

“I’ve never worked with a group that I respect more than the one we have today...”

Did you ever have what you would consider to be a mentor?

Working with Brock Adamson has led to a bit of a renaissance in my career. He is a strong personality and he challenges his staff to dig deeper than you ever thought possible. If you’re working side by side with a guy like that, you’d better know what you’re talking about and be quick on your feet. It is not a surprise that he’s one of the industry’s most recognised figures and has kept Adamson positioned as a market leader for more than 30 years.

You’ve been with Adamson for a couple of years now, how do you feel the company has developed in that time?

During my first year we underwent a lot of change which forced us to really analyse the company. We ended up overhauling quite a bit of it. Thankfully I inherited a great group in Europe and a rock solid customer base that was ready for change. Brock laid out a plan for our future and once we were all on the same page it just started rolling. This year felt like a real breakthrough for us as we’re poised to grow 40%. We’re in the process of increasing the building with another 40,000 sq ft and we’ve added staff all over the world. I’ve never worked with a group that I respect more than the one we have today. It feels like there is a buzz around the company and I’m happy to be a part of such a talented team.

We’ll be focusing much of our energy on North America and the UK in the coming years. The US in particular has been the biggest growth area for us and I want to see this trend continue. Demand is driven from acceptance in the market. We are in the process of developing a strong team and incredible rental partners in North America that will have a huge impact on brand awareness globally in the coming years.

You’ve had some important launches recently. Which tradeshows do you feel bring the most response on the show floor?

Without a doubt Messe Frankfurt / Prolight + Sound is the highlight of the Adamson calendar every single year. Our European office is based in Hamburg and we have so many strong European distributors. Of course our annual dinner is a tradition we share with our friends at TPi. It is always a great show for strengthening partnerships and showing the world what is next from Adamson.

You have products on countless international festivals and tours, how does Adamson manage tech support for its engineers?

Our summer months are so busy with festivals and tours that it feels like we’re never at home (note answer #1). The good news is that most of our user base is very proficient and most of the time we’re there as ambassadors more than technical support. We have a presence in as many places as we can. Our staff likes working with our systems, so they don’t mind being on the road. We have one of the most powerful and dynamic systems in the world – setting up an E-Series rig for 90,000 people is a great part of the job.

TPi has covered many live events which feature your systems, including our Pharrell cover story this year. What has been the most memorable live moment in your career with the company to date?

I just got back from Equador where we were supporting a massive Adamson deployment for the Papal tour of Latin America. We were trying to enter the grounds through the production entrance and the military decided to cut off access. Somehow I slipped through while my film crew got caught on the other side of the fence. I started filming as the crowd started losing patience with the authorities. Tensions boiled over and crowd lifted the fence out of the ground pushing back the officers and giving way to a disgruntled group of Catholics. I must have looked terrified because some little old lady came up to me and said in perfect English: “Don’t worry my son. No harm will come to you”. That was memorable - for so many reasons.

As a manufacturer, you’re well-known in the global rental market but what are your goals over the next year in terms of brand awareness? Is there a certain part of the world you’d like to tap into?

And, after work.... If you could only see one live band for the rest of your life, who would it be?

Wu-Tang Clan, obviously.

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