TPi December 2014 - Issue 184

TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL

www.tpiawards.com

TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL

WWW.TPiMAGAZINE.COM DECEMBER 2014

ISSUE 184

LIVE EVENT DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY • DECEMBER 2014 • ISSUE 184

MTV EMAs

THE POP WORLD IS HONOURED IN GLORIOUS GLASWEGIAN PRODUCTION

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

XTA’S APA-4E8 • ED SHEERAN • SIGNAL FESTIVAL • RICHARD MARTIN LIGHTING TURNS 30 ONEREPUBLIC • KATY B • TPi AWARDS SHORTLIST • DRAPING MARKET FOCUS • CHVRCHES

TOUCH THE FUTURE OF LIVE MIXING. New RM32AI & RM16AI with UC Surface™ touch-ready control.

Monitor not included. But you probably already figured that out.

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©2014 PreSonus Audio Electronics All Rights Reserved. UC Surface, XMAX, StudioLive and QMix are trademarks of PreSonus. Capture and Studio One are trademarks of PreSonus Software Ltd. All other brands are property of their respective holders.

W

e enhanced the feature set of our StudioLive AI mixers and engineered it into an intuitive, touch-readyinterface called UC Surface. RM Series I/O lives in a rack…but the real breakthrough is the ease and flexibility of control options you get with UC Surface.

It takes the concept of moving Capture™ 2 one-click recording faders into the future.

The UC Surface interface is designed for live sound mixing with contextual-based navigation for quick, intuitive access to all functions.

Studio One® Artist full DAW And of course RM Series AI mixers come with the seamless suite of software that makes QMix™-AI our mixers so useful in a for iPhone controls up multitude of settings: Capture to 16 separate 2 for one-click recording. monitor mixes.

Studio One Artist DAW. And QMixAI to adjust the RM16AI: 16-channel/25-bus mixer RM32AI’s 16 aux mixes. Get in touch with our web site or your PreSonus dealer today.

RM32AI 32-channel/25-bus mixer • 32 channels each with dual (A/B) Fat Channel processing (4-band parametric EQ, gate, compressor, limiter, high pass) • 32 recallable remote XMAX™ mic ­preamps with +48V phantom power • 16 aux mix buses with full Fat Channels • 4 internal FX buses (2 reverb, 2 delay) • 3 main mix buses (left, right, mono/center) with full Fat Channels • Front panel Mute All button temporarily mutes all inputs and outputs • 2 FireWire S800 ports, Ethernet control port, and S/PDIF digital output • 52 x 34 digital FireWire I/O recording interface

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15/10/2014 14:43

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Everything in one Space For 24 years we have been distributing the finest brands of Commercial & Pro Audio, Lighting, Video & Special Effects to the Trade.

You can now also browse and order on-line, using your trade pricing login.

So whether you are an Integrator, Installer, Re-seller, Hire or Events Company, let us become an asset to your business.

www.leisuretec.co.uk Experience • Choice • Value • Service Leisuretec Distribution Limited • Leighton Buzzard LU7 4UH (UK) • Tel: +44 (0) 1525 850085 • www.leisuretec.co.uk

PRELUDE

PROTOUCH STAGEOPERATOR

8,4“ Colour Touchscreen

AWARD WINNING BEHAVIOUR On Monday December 1 the 11th UK Festival Awards took place at The Roundhouse in London and Team TPi was in attendance with the brilliant Festival Awards crew. It was a night of celebration for all things live event and outdoor, from the best loos to the best summer anthem and all of the hedonistic fun inbetween. The awards were hosted by our favourite New Yorker, Huey Morgan who delivered a laugh-a-minute show. A highlight was Rob da Bank’s deserving win of the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Festivals’ award which was presented by Glastonbury’s Michael Eavis. You can read a full de-brief in our next issue alongside some of Patrick’s photography skills. Hannah and I are pictured here with Amy Wright and Tom Lawson from our Marketing and Events team. Congratulations on a great success, we had a lot of fun!

And of course, I should mention our very own awards news: the short list for the TPi Awards 2015 has been announced. Pg.8 reveals who did what to grab your attention this past year and it’s our pleasure to share the results so far. We’re very excited for the next event and hope to see many of you there.

In issue 184, there are also some noteworthy awards in the form of the MTV EMAs. Our cover story comes from Glasgow this month, where the cream of international pop talent descended on Scotland for a production spectacular. You can go backstage with us on Pg.28.

In true TPi style we also deliver an abundance of tech stories including Ed Sheeran’s X tour, Katy B’s live dub step and the technical sounds of OneRepublic’s arena dominating performances. In Europe, Patrick visited the Czech Republic (yes, again!) to dissect SIGNAL festival’s lighting and video mapping feat. Have a read of this charming event on Pg.60.

Interestingly, this issue brings news of two sound console launches: Roland Systems Group’s M-5000 OHRCA which was unveiled in the UK “The UK Festival Awards and Yamaha’s RIVAGE PM10 which launched in were a celebration for Japan alongside the InterBEE trade show. Find out all things live event and the details of these new products on Pg.12 and Pg.20 respectively. outdoor, from the best loos Elsewhere, I spoke to Richard Martin Lighting’s to the best summer anthem Richard Jasinski about the company’s 30th and all of the hedonistic anniversary. From its rise to production popularity fun inbetween…” via the BBC’s Top of the Pops studios in the ‘80s, the company has gone from strength to strength as a TV and live event rental supplier. Happy birthday from us!

There’s just about time to say that if you haven’t already met our lovely Charlotte, then NAMM may be your opportunity. She’ll be flying out to the West Coast next month so get in touch if you’d like to make an appointment to discuss your involvement with the magazine.

That’s all for now.... but we’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who has worked with us over the last year to deliver technology-led industry content for another 12 issues. We’ve travelled, toured, drank and learnt from you, so here’s to many more production triumphs and editorial collaborations in 2015.

Kelly Murray Editor

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ITINERARY

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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

EVENT FOCUS 10 Stand Up To Cancer

12 Roland Console Launch

TRUSS YOU CAN TRUST

We report on the launch of RSG’s M-5000.

14 Showstars at the Roundhouse

Assistant Editor Patrick McCumiskey Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8385 Mobile: +44 (0)7929 249169 e-mail: p.mccumiskey@mondiale.co.uk

VER supplies Channel 4’s charity show.

Showstars keep things slick in London.

18 Night Verses

Sennheiser endorses US post-hardcore band, Night Verses.

20 Yamaha Console Launch International Advertising & Sponsorship Hannah Eakins Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8360 Mobile: +44 (0)7760 485230 e-mail: h.eakins@mondiale.co.uk Advertising Sales Charlotte Goodlass Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8360 Mobile: +44 (0)788 0208 226 e-mail: c.goodlass@mondiale.co.uk Graphic Design & Production Dan Seaton: d.seaton@mondiale.co.uk Mel Robinson: m.robinson@mondiale.co.uk

Yamaha launches the first of its new breed of digital mixing console, the RIVAGE PM10.

22 Proms in the Park

EnTEEtainment assists in LED screen solutions at Hyde Park.

26 Eurotruss

The Dutch truss masters unveil new lifter range.

Production PRODUCTION ProfilePRODUCTION PROFILE PR30 28 MTV EMAs

We go behind the scenes at Glasgow’s SSE Hydro.

40 Ed Sheeran

TPi chats to the team responsible for the X tour.

General Manager Justin Gawne Mondiale Group Chairman Damian Walsh www.tpimagazine.com • www.tpiawards.com

48 Katy B

The songstress goes live with lasers.

54 OneRepublic

Simon Duff reports from the O2 Arena.

Cover Photography Getty Images Contributors Simon Duff, Sarah Rushton-Read Editorial Intern Usama Anjum Printed by Buxton Press Annual subscriptions (including P&P): £42 (UK), £60 (Europe), £78/$125 (RoW).

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

60 SIGNAL

Europe’s fastest growing light festival shines.

64 Chvrches

We deconstruct the Scottish trio’s live production.

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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AVAILABILITY RELIABILITY INNOVATION

CLOCKING OFF 68 The Mondiale ladies raise over £1,000...

MEET US:

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF...

10. - 12. February 2015

STAND: 7-C195

70 Production Manager Joe Sanchez spills all.

COMPANY PROFILE 72 Richard Martin Lighting celebrates its 30th year

Issue 184 / December 2014

QUALITY

in business.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT 76 XTA’s APA Series.

MARKET FOCUS 78 The world of draping and soft goods.

PSA

84 Noise at work, heard.

MOVERS & SHAKERS 86 The latest industry appointments.

VITAL STATS 90 Oliver Braun of Global Truss is in the hot seat.

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07

THE VOTES ARE IN...

TOUR MANAGER OF THE YEAR

FAVOURITE RIGGING COMPANY

sponsored by VER Emma Edgar Paul Higgins Dick Meredith Glen Rowe Sheep Tourdog

Blackout Cirque du Soleil Knight Rigging Services Mad Max UK Rigging Unusual Rigging

MONITOR ENGINEER OF THE YEAR

FAVOURITE LIGHTING RENTAL

sponsored by Yamaha Commercial Audio

sponsored by Robe

COMPANY

Ant Carr John Chadwick Mick Eggett Barrie Pitt Chris Woods

Adlib Lighting GLS Lighting Neg Earth Nitelites PRG White Light

PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR

RIGGER OF THE YEAR

FAVOURITE POWER SUPPLY

LIGHTING DESIGNER OF THE YEAR

OF THE YEAR

sponsored by Rigging Services

COMPANY

sponsored by Martin By Harman

sponsored by Brilliant Stages Lizzie Adshead Helen ‘Hells Bells’ Smith Behrad Emami Lizzie Graham Ximena Pineda

sponsored by SES Harry Box Michael ‘Pickle’ Ellison Pete ‘The Greek’ Kalopsidiotis Yose Lawson Oz Marsh

Aggreko Buffalo Power CAT Power Fourth Generation Pearce Hire Power Logistics

PRODUCTION MANAGER

FAVOURITE SOUND RENTAL

FAVOURITE REHEARSAL FACILITY

OF THE YEAR

COMPANY

sponsored by Medialease

sponsored by EFM

sponsored by Harman Professional

Chris Clay Kevin Hopgood Joel Stanley Dick Tee Chris Vaughan

FAVOURITE CREW COMPANY

Adlib Audio Britannia Row Productions Capital Sound Delta Sound Eighth Day Sound SSE Audio Group FOH ENGINEER OF THE YEAR

Black Box Music John Henry’s LH2 Studios LS-Live Millennium Studios Music Bank

Tim Routledge Ed Warren Christopher Bushell Patrick Woodroffe Rob Sinclair

FAVOURITE CATERING COMPANY

Eat to the Beat - GIG Eat Your Hearts Out Popcorn Catering Red Radish Sarah’s Kitchen Sugar and Spice

FAVOURITE VENUE

FAVOURITE STAGING COMPANY

Glasgow SSE Hydro Arena O2 Academy Brixton O2 Arena London Royal Albert Hall The Roundhouse Wembley Stadium

All Access Staging & Productions Impact Production Services NoNonsense Group Serious Stages Stageco Star Events Group

sponsored by Martin Audio Cato Music Gallowglass Rock City SOS Stage Crew Ireland Stage Miracles

SPONSORS AND SUPPORTERS

Steve Carr John Delf Davide Lombardi Jay Rigby Derrick Zieba

FOR THE TPI AWARDS 2015 THE MARK FISHER SET DESIGNER

FAVOURITE SECURITY COMPANY

FAVOURITE FREIGHT COMPANY

FAVOURITE VIDEO RENTAL

G4S Headline Security Show & Event Security Showsec Specialized Security Vespasian

EFM Management Global Motion Horizon Entertainment Cargo Rock-It Cargo Showfreight Australia Sound Moves

sponsored by d3 Technologies

FAVOURITE TRAVEL COMPANY

STAGE MANAGER OF THE YEAR

THE DES FALLON VIDEO

Media Travel RIMA SOS (Satellite Office Services) The Appointment Group The Tour Company Tour Travel

Ritch Ames Adam Carr Paul English Mike Grove Ian Lamb

sponsored by Green Hippo

OF THE YEAR AWARD

sponsored by Perry Scenic Misty Buckley Oli Metcalfe Nicoline Lindeborg Refsing Rob Sinclair Patrick Woodroffe

FAVOURITE SET CONSTRUCTION

COMPANY

COMPANY

Brilliant Stages LS-Live Stage One Steel Monkey TAIT Towers Total Fabrications

FAVOURITE TRANSPORT COMPANY

Blink TV Chaos Visual Productions Creative Technology PRG Nocturne VER XL Video

VISIONARY AWARD

Cate Carter Ash Clifford Blue Leach Oli Metcalfe Ben Miles

LIVE PRODUCTION OF THE YEAR

sponsored by Chauvet Professional Beat The Street Fly by Nite KB Event Phoenix Bussing Stagetruck The Wicked Company

Arctic Monkeys - AM Tour Ed Sheeran - x Kate Bush - Before The Dawn One Direction - Where We Are Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony

For all enquiries about the TPi Awards, including sponsorship opportunities, please contact: Hannah Eakins +44 (0)7973 291 044 • email h.eakins@mondiale.co.uk or Amy Wright +44 (0)161 476 5580 • a.wright@mondiale.co.uk

EVENT FOCUS: Stand Up To Cancer

VER-LIVE STANDS UP TO CANCER THE EYE CATCHING SET DESIGN FOR THE RECENT STAND UP TO CANCER LIVE TV SHOW AS SEEN ON CHANNEL 4 IN THE UK - WHICH HAS R AISED AN INCREDIBLE £15,585,444.15 TO DATE - COMPOSED OF INNOVATIVELY POSITIONED LED VIDEO SCREENS AND WAS CREATIVELY IMAGINED BY PRODUCTION DESIGNER, JULIAN HEALY, TEAMED WITH CONTENT DESIGNER, LUKE HALLS, AND THE UNFAILING ASSISTANCE AND SUPPORT OF VER-LIVE’S ADRIAN OFFORD AND PAT DORE. The show was staged in Methodist Central Hall Westminster, a beautifully ornate building with elaborate arches and a wrap-around seating arrangement. Healy explains the brief was not so much about the visual elements, rather: “anything we did had to not jar too much with the venue.

But I wanted the set to be technologically advanced and quite modern, so that was one of the key difficulties from the start.”

The biggest technical difficulty was that the time-honoured venue - though providing a perfect gala style atmosphere for the audience had very limited weight loading capabilities and as Healy stated, was ‘a very difficult venue to put scenery into’.

The complex scenery logistics lead the design discussions but Healy and Halls quickly decided that the all-important ‘totaliser moments’, where the money raised thus far is revealed would involve the audience who completely 10

surrounded the set. Each audience member holding a tablet screen aloft would provide one pixel square of the screen upon which the totals raised would be displayed.

With that decision made, the full set design lead on as a continuation as Healy describes.

“That is why VER-Live got involved very early, because in order to achieve what I wanted, I needed a lot of LED product and a lot of screens,” he said.

Healy continued: “I wanted to break away from just squares and do something a little bit different, so instead of one big screen I wanted to create an explosion of several fragmented screens. To change them from square I decided to tip them on their edges to become diamonds, and forward so the top overhung the bottom to create a rather imposing set.”

Healy went on to point out: “This would have been difficult to achieve even in a film studio - but it created a technical nightmare in

this venue.”

With no capacity to fly any of the video product from the venue’s roof house points, Healy and VER-Live, alongside Dave Morrell from DLM Rigging, commenced many weeks of planning meetings and drawings that were necessary to create a suitable ground support system for the complex arrangement of screens that would work within the weight constraints of the building.

Healy conceded: “VER-Live were pivotal to this design working. The combined knowledge and know-how of Adrian and Pat - and their commitment to the successful execution of any project they embark on is the reason I work with them on the television shows I design.”

The set comprised a robust BO 6mm LED screen floor presentation area. The focal point of the show was the central screen and the exploded and fragmented surrounding panels were designed to look as if they were floating,

EVENT FOCUS: Stand Up To Cancer Opposite: VER-Live achieved technical excellence at the venue. Below: The fundraising broadcast has raised over £15m so far and enjoyed some great production values; Justin Gorman, Head of Entertainment for Channel 4, with Production Designer Julian Healy.

so as to prevent the look jarring against the venue’s traditional setting.

Initially the central screen was designed with 5mm tiles, but difficulties rigging the product tilted on both axes provoked a change to the same 9mm Win Vision Air tiles which were to be used for the surrounding screens. Not only were the LED tiles easier to rig - they were much lighter in weight which considerably eased the

strain on the venue.

Behind the audience seating area, the exploded design was continued in Martin Professional LC 40mm LED tiles and the smaller platforms were clad in X-15mm LED screen.

VER-Live’s Adrian Offord commented: “It was a great pleasure to work on such an iconic show with Julian Healy. One of the main challenges was getting a suitable screen to

fit within the weight restraint of the building without reducing Julian’s vision - and the carbon fibre base 9mm Air proved to be the perfect product.”

TPi Photos: Kevan Smith www.verrents.com www.standup2cancer.org.UK www.cancerresearchuk.org

11

EVENT FOCUS: Roland M-5000 Launch

THE ROLAND M-5000 OHRCA LAST MONTH ROLAND SYSTEMS GROUP UNVEILED ITS NEW FLAGSHIP LIVE AUDIO CONSOLE. THE M-5000 OHRCA DELIVERS FLEXIBILTY, NETWORKING AND 96KHZ SOUND QUALITY. TPi WENT ALONG TO THE UK LAUNCH AT CATO MUSIC IN LONDON. The M-5000 is based around Roland’s proprietary O.H.R.C.A. (Open High Resolution Control Architecture) and features 128 freely definable audio paths, a flexible user interface and workflow, expandable protocols and multiformat I / O choices. All signal paths can be undertaken at 24-bit/96kHz resolution. Speaking at the launch event Peter Heath, Head of Roland Systems Group, Europe said: “The launch of the M-5000 represents a huge step forward for Roland.”

The key to the M-5000’s internal architecture is that it is not fixed to any configuration. It can be freely defined within a range of up to 128 input or output channels or busses, allowing the operator essentially to ‘build’ a console to suit the application. Each path can be used as a mixing channel, AUX, matrix, subgroup buss or MIX-MINUS buss in any input / output configuration. One primary application might be for the monitor position, 12

where a high number of auxiliary busses are needed. But the M-5000 is equally at home at the FOH position for live music in touring, theatre, broadcast and more. “These days, the boundaries between these three are getting blurred,” added Heath.

The audio networking capabilities of the console are another major selling point as Simon Kenning, Sales Director at Roland Systems Group, Europe explained: “The November launch formally recognised Roland becoming a licensee of Audinate’s Dante networking technology. The network options are very versatile on the M-5000. In addition to two REAC (Roland Ethernet Audio Communication) ports, the M-5000 has two expansion card slots to support a range of system configurations and audio transport protocols such as Dante, MADI, Waves SoundGrid and other formats of the future.”

The back panel includes 16 by 16 analogue I / Os; four by four AES / EBUs; a 16 by 16 USB

audio interface; connection for control via an iPad, connected or wireless; and control ports including footswitches, GP I / O, RS-232C and MIDI - enabling the console to see up to 300 inputs and 296 outputs, all at 96kHz. Furthermore, inputs can be patched to outputs independently of mixing channel resources.”

The system offers full compatibility with the family of Roland Professional Audio snakes, Roland’s M-48 personal mixing is a natural fit with the control surface’s ergonomics. There’s a 12-inch touch screen with ‘touch and turn’ operation and 28 freely scrollable, isolatable, or assignable faders and, says Heath, “numerous knobs and buttons, both contextual and assignable, to support rapid response.”

Effects wise the desk comes with Roland effects processors that include the SRV-2000, SDE-3000, SDD-320, RE-201, CE-1, SPH-323 and SBF-325. In addition, Distortion and delay (digital and analogue) modelled on BOSS compact pedals are also included as well as dull

EVENT FOCUS: Roland M-5000 Launch

Opposite: Roland’s new flagship M-5000 console has been designed with universal applicability in mind - the console with its 128 freely definable audio paths will happily perfm as monitor or FOH mixer in both live and broadcast applications. Below: A close-up of the console’s ergonomic display; Peter Heath (left), Head of Roland Systems Group, and Simon Kenning, Sales Director at RSG Europe.

dynamics and EQ processing.

“The scale, design and technology in the console clearly demonstrates our commitment to the professional live audio community,” added Heath. “Providing digital connectivity to various accepted protocols was a key factor whilst still supporting our large family of REAC based consoles and digital snake users.

The development process has been long, but

intentionally so, to allow a complete groundup approach: making sure that the product delivered on features, form and usability every step of the way. The result is a product that makes no assumptions, but uses some astounding technology to give users ultimate flexibility due to open configurability whether through DSP resources, expandable connectivity or workflow.

A shipping date of early Q2 2015 is planned for the system. Kenning reports that a remote control iPad app is planned for February.

Although exact pricing is not yet available at press time, it is believed that the basic M-5000 console will cost between £10-15k.

TPi www.rolandsystemsgroup.co.uk

13

EVENT FOCUS: Showstars

A LANDMARK YEAR FOR THE ROUNDHOUSE TPi HEARS HOW EVENT CREWING COMPANY, SHOWSTARS, IS CELEBRATING A SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP WITH THE ICONIC LONDON VENUE...

Festivals, major sporting events and a variety of other outdoor pursuits kept leading event crew company Showstars on its toes throughout the summer of 2014. During the same period, however, a number of its regular workforce could be found in residence at the Roundhouse in Camden Town, north London, maintaining a relationship that dates back to the legendary venue’s re-birth in 2006 when Showstars contributed to its redevelopment programme.

A former railway engine repair shed and gin warehouse, the historic status of the legendary Roundhouse cannot be overstated. Built in 1847, its role in the development of live music and the arts began 50 years ago when, in 1964, the Centre 42 Theatre Company laid down plans to convert it into a multi-purpose cultural centre.

Within two years, artists including The Pink Floyd and Soft Machine had put the venue in the driving seat of London’s influential underground 14

movement while, a decade later, performances

by The Ramones and The Clash helped to reinvent the Roundhouse as the kingpin of the capital’s punk circuit.

The lack of funding that forced the closure of the Roundhouse in 1983 coincided with the founding of Showstars by Graham Shaw. “It was sad when the venue disappeared because it had been one of the best places in London to see bands as well as theatre shows,” said Shaw. “By the time plans were being drawn up to bring the Roundhouse back to life with a £29.7 million facelift, Showstars had become established as a crew resource and so we were delighted to help the cause as a ‘360° Founder Member’.”

Since the north London venue reopened in June 2006 with the theatrical spectacular Fuerzabruta, Showstars’ crew has remained heavily involved and 2014’s summer calendar was no exception. The end of August notably saw the company busy with the venue’s

EVENT FOCUS: Showstars

Opposite: London’s Roundhouse began its production life in 1964 with a gateway into the theatre world; Soon various bands had put the venue on the underground music scene map. Below: Camden ‘Beach’; Fiona Greenhill, the Roundhouse’s Head of Technical and Production; Showstars Founder, Graham Shaw; Showstars Crew Chief, Tony Say; The venue was originally built in 1847.

transitions between Camden Beach, the eclectic Summer Sessions, the Imogen Heap-curated Reverb weekend of visionary music and, ultimately, a high profile live music festival that dominated the venue throughout September.

“We have a seating structure that is rather like a giant Meccano set. It takes three days to build and two days to dismantle, and along with other jobs such as placing art installations around the building, Showstars

have been working on that exclusively since it was introduced,” said Fiona Greenhill, the Roundhouse’s Head of Technical and Production.

“We always defer to Showstars because they are the company that knows this system inside out. Whenever possible, they bring back the same crew every time because it’s quite a precise, demanding job and their previous experience counts for a lot.”

ON THE BEACH One of Showstars’ more unusual projects at the Roundhouse, the annual Camden Beach, north London’s ‘urban summer resort’, saw the crew shovel 150 tonnes of fine sand into (and, later, out of) the venue’s car park to create a 900m2 beach environment, complete with deck chairs, beach huts, arcade stalls, a fish and chip restaurant and an ice cream van.

Tony Say, one of two Showstars Crew Chiefs

15

EVENT FOCUS: Showstars

Below: The Roundhouse uses the same Showstars crew whenever possible, generating expertise and consistency.

on-site this summer, commented: “We cleared the car park and placed sleepers around the perimeter of the beach area to act as barriers, and then emptied nine lorry loads of sand into that space, making it even and as authenticlooking as possible. Once that was in place, we erected beach huts, set out deck chairs and put toys around the sand for children to play with. In addition, we built a roof garden within a container that featured a swimming pool, bar and VIP area. It was great to see so many people enjoying it this year.

“At the same time we were clearing the beach, another section of our crew dismantled

16

the seating structure in the Main Space, moving it outside and packing it into containers, and then tidied the arena so it was ready for the load-in of the forthcoming live music season which had an all-standing audience on the floor. Depending on the nature of the event, whether it’s a concert, opera or arts production, the seating arrangement will change.”

Showstars’ average crew call at the venue involves 14 crew, each working three 12-hour days with two crew chiefs. “Our crew are all multi-skilled with numerous specialities between them and hold a variety of licenses for

activities including climbing, rigging, the use of plant such as forklifts and cherry pickers,” informed Say. “We normally arrive at 8am and the first day will start with us examining the plans and organising how we approach each job, and I’ll oversee the process.”

The Roundhouse’s seating will be re-installed

by Showstars in January 2015 for an eight-show run of the Royal Opera House production of Monteverdi’s masterpiece Orfeo.

TPi www.showstars.co.uk www.roundhouse.org.uk

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EVENT FOCUS: Night Verses

SOUNDS FROM THE UNDERGROUND US POST HARDCORE BAND NIGHT VERSES HAS BEEN HURTLING THROUGH THE DEPTHS OF NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE’S GRITTIEST VENUES FOR THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS, GAINING MOMENTUM ON THE LIVE CIRCUIT WITH PUNK AND METAL FANS. ON THEIR LAST UK TOUR, TPi’s KELLY MURRAY SPOKE TO NIGHT VERSES FRONT MAN, DOUGLAS ROBINSON, ABOUT HOW THE RIGHT MICROPHONE CAN TRULY CHANGE AN ARTIST’S COMFORT ZONE ON STAGE. ENTER SENNHEISER’S e935 DYNAMIC CARDIOID ‘WORKHORSE’...

“Sometimes bands think you have to be really ‘nerdy’ if to want to know about microphones, but I don’t think so; I think of my microphone as my weapon!” Robinson told TPi in the attic of Manchester’s Sound Control venue on the band’s most recent UK tour supporting Feed The Rhino.

Having been a touring musician for over a decade, the singer now fronts Night Verses - which formed in 2012 - and it is with this band that Robinson has found a new vocal appreciation for Sennhieser’s e935.

“Sennheiser has made me realise what I want in a microphone… the e935 is killing it! There’s a craft to keeping the artist feeling as comfortable as possible with their instrument and I truly believe the people at Sennheiser have mastered that craft with their incredible products,” he said.

“My mics have custom chrome tops because I think they’re able to take more of a beating than the matted ones. It’s very robust and I sound ‘crisper’ using this model. I actually have quite a loud voice in general and previously my mics have often blown out or I’d get too much sweat in them and they’d break. That never happens with this mic.”

Robinson was introduced to Sennheiser’s products by fellow frontman Corey Brandan Putman of Norma Jean fame, a band also known for its onstage destruction and ribrattling anthems. Putman put Robinson in 18

touch with Brian ‘Doc’ Dougherty, Wireless, Broadcast and Aviation Product Specialist at Sennheiser Electronics in the US, and a smooth collaboration between artist and product soon followed. Said Dougherty: “My knowledge base needs to run from on-site technical support, large frequency set ups for TV broadcast, along with use of shotgun microphones and aviation headsets to sales statistics and manufacturing quantities. Through all of this I have the ability to work with bands, both big and small.

“No musician starts out as a super star and Sennheiser knows that. We strive to find artists that we believe in, and who believe in our equipment. This helps us build a long lasting relationship. Sennheiser has worked with artists such as Paramore since they were playing in bars! When we see talent in an artist, we want to cultivate it and educate them on Sennheiser equipment and the premium audio our products can deliver to support their career.”

Why then, is the e935 the ideal choice for an artist such as Robinson? “The Sennheiser e935 is our workhorse microphone. It’s a dynamic cardioid microphone with a robust build to the capsule and case. The majority of microphones you see are dynamic or condenser. To simplify this greatly, a condenser microphone needs an electrical current to work creating a more sensitive response, whereas the dynamic capsule is more robust but with less sensitivity. Cardioid is the pickup pattern, which allows a musician

or FOH Engineer to know how that microphone will pick up sound. In Doug’s case, his voice projects a lot of power and he uses a variety of melodic singing with aggressive, relentless energy. You’ll see this capsule on stage with singers, rappers and metal artists.”

As seen with many a global star, Sennheiser also offers customisation on its microphones (P!nk is a fan) yet the stage diving, sweat swishing rock bands are no exception. Continued Dougherty: “I know a number of bands where laser etching on microphones seems to be in their thoughts. With the laser etching machine in my office I’ve made microphones for Bring Me The Horizon, Mastodon, Every Time I Die, Iwrestledabearonce, Norma Jean and many more. Doug had seen some of the designs I was doing via Instagram and said ‘I have the sound I want out of Sennheiser, now I want to update the look!” so I’m now working on getting the Night Verses logo etched onto his mics.”

“This has been the sickest microphone I’ve ever used!” concluded Robinson. “I’m so impressed with Sennhesier’s stuff that we’re definitely going to crossover and use their gear in the studio to record our next release too.”

The band’s debut album Lift Your Existence is out now on Southworld Records in the UK. TPi Photo: Kelly Murray www.nightverses.com www.sennheiserusa.com

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EVENT FOCUS: Yamaha RIVAGE PM10

YAMAHA’S RIVAGE PM10 THE LONG-AWAITED ARRIVAL OF YAMAHA’S NEW LIVE SOUND MIXING CONSOLE, WHICH THE COMPANY HAS DESCRIBED AS THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA, MADE ITS DEBUT ON THE EVE OF INTERBEE IN TOKYO, JAPAN, AT A DEDICATED, INVITE-ONLY EVENT, AND MONDIALE PUBLISHING WAS THE ONLY MEMBER OF THE UK PRESS TO ATTEND, MAKING IT AN EXTRA SPECIAL OCCASION. Taking place at the New Otani Hotel in Makuhari, Yamaha opted to launch the new console in its country of origin but the faces that filled the room were from all around the globe. Executive Officer and General Manager of Audio Products, Sales & Marketing, Hogan Osawa welcomed guests, before Terry Holton, General Manager at Yamaha R&D Centre in the UK outlined Yamaha’s history in the console world, which started back in 1972 with the PM200.

Fast-forward 42 years and meet RIVAGE PM10, the first console in a series - so more models will follow - and Yamaha’s new baby. It was introduced to the world by Pro Audio Applications Engineering Manager, Andy Cooper, who said: “It’s a privilege and an honour to present this product.” Cooper explained the PM10 through four channels; sound quality, operability, functionality and network ability.

The RIVAGE PM10 includes the newlydeveloped RY16-ML-SILK hybrid microphone 20

preamplifier. This unique design features an analogue section, which delivers supremely consistent, natural-sounding audio, even at high gain levels. It is partnered with a 96kHz, 24-bit A/D converter, followed by enhanced Yamaha VCM digital modelling of Rupert Neve Designs transformer circuitry and acclaimed Silk processing. The audio engineer can have a completely transparent audio input path or, using the Silk Red and Blue modes and the texture control in the console’s selected channel, can be very creative with the colour and character of each individual input.

As well as forging closer ties with Rupert Neve in the development of the RY16-MLSILK, new VCM models of the Rupert EQ773, Rupert Comp 754, Rupert EQ810 and Rupert Comp 830 are featured in the RIVAGE PM10.

Not only that, but Yamaha has worked with TC Electronic to include two reverbs, the VSS4HD room simulation reverb and the highly creative ‘NonLin2’ stereo reverb, as featured in their popular System 6000 devices. Yamaha has

also been working closely with Eventide to add the H3000-Live Ultra-Harmoniser as a future standard inclusion in the RIVAGE PM10 system.

One of the most important and attractive aspects of the RIVAGE PM10 control surface is a full selected channel section, 24 of the control surface’s channel strips extend virtually seamlessly into the twin, 15-inch touchscreen displays, while rotary encoders feature ‘horseshoe’ ring indicators for optimum visibility. A third display screen can be added via a DVI socket, if required.

Further innovations include greatly enhanced scene functions, dual monitor busses, the ability to run up to 384 effects processors at once and four USB connections for data storage, mouse / keyboard control and two track USB recording.

The backbone of the RIVAGE PM10 system is Yamaha’s newly developed TWINLANe ring network, which can handle up to 400 audio channels at 96kHz, 32-bit over distances of up to 300 metres. TWINLANe can connect up to eight RPio622 I/O units and, at launch, up to

EVENT FOCUS: Yamaha RIVAGE PM10

Opposite & below: Yamaha’s RIVAGE PM10 is the first in its new series and includes the newly-developed RY16-ML-SILK hybrid microphone preamplifier.

two CS-R10 control surfaces and up to two DSP-R10 DSP engines.

The RPio622 features six of Yamaha’s new RY card slots, into which can be inserted three different types of i/o card, providing up to 96 mic preamps per rack. In addition, the RPio622 and DSP-R10 feature the new HY card slots two and four respectively - for further I/O, while all three hardware components of the system feature two of Yamaha’s familiar MY card slots.

“For a number of years, the industry has

been asking when Yamaha will launch a new, state-of-the-art digital console for large scale productions. We have always said that, when it comes, it will be as much a landmark for the industry as the PM1D and PM5D were. So I am very pleased to say that, with RIVAGE PM10, that time has arrived,” said Chihaya ‘Chick’ Hirai, Director of Pro Audio Business Unit, Yamaha Corporation of Japan.

“We believe that RIVAGE PM10 will be another pivotal moment in the history of digital

audio mixing. It delivers a system, which will be the most versatile, the most user-friendly and the most reliable for all larger events. We look forward to introducing sound engineers to RIVAGE PM10 and inspiring them with the dawn of a new age for live sound digital mixing systems.”

Shipping dates and pricing for the RIVAGE PM10 have yet to be announced.

TPi www.yamahacommercialaudio.com

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EVENT FOCUS: Proms In The Park

PROMS IN THE PARK IN RECENT YEARS A LOT HAS BEEN HEARD OF HYDE PARK’S RESTRICTIVE SOUND LEVELS, ENVIRONMENTAL NOISE POLLUTION AND CURFEW INFRINGEMENT DURING ITS CONCERT SEASON. BUT THIS SEPTEMBER ATTENTION WAS DRAWN TO AN INNOVATIVE SCREEN RIGGING SOLUTION, DURING PROMS IN THE PARK AND BBC RADIO 2 LIVE FESTIVAL. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN AN OUTDOOR STAGE ROOF, AN LED SCREEN WAS MOVED FROM FRONT TO BACK TO ACHIEVE SOME SPECTACULAR REVEALS, AS TPi REVEALS. When Festival Republic Ltd appointed EnTEEtainment Ltd to handle the production for the back-to-back BBC events, they presented the team with an interesting challenge. The issue was how to have a large screen behind the Orchestra for the Saturday night Proms in the Park concert at around 22-metres from the down stage edge but then to have it repositioned to sit behind the Strings section for the Jeff Lynne concert on Sunday some nine metres further forward.

Historically this had been achieved by the laborious and time consuming process of dismantling the screen and reinstalling it in its new position overnight. However, this would have resulted in curtailing the time available for overnight lighting plotting and programming, and as such it was a very labour intensive, time consuming operation. Technical Production Manager Dick Tee, Managing Director of EnTEEtainment Ltd, spent some time considering the dilemma and came up with the idea of 22

‘tracking the screen’ - in theory a process that would take a matter of minutes rather than hours.

Festival Republic Event Coordinator Ian Donaldson, commented: “In credit to Dick, he was faced with the challenge of achieving a significant stage changeover in very limited time and he applied some lateral thinking to arrive on the front to back stage tracking system. Dick’s experience coupled with product knowledge and his thorough approach to following developments in technical production has given him a great understanding of developments, which led to him suggesting we tried this new approach. Given the profile of this show it was reassuring for us at Festival Republic to know that Dick would be attentive to every detail in planning and executing something that has not been done before.”

Tee explained: “The first issue was to deal with the weight. Previous LED screens had come in at approximately five tonnes so to move this

amount of weight up and down stage was not really going to be feasible. The answer was the recently introduced lightweight GLux10 screen available from Creative Technology. At a size of 14.5-metres wide and eight metres deep this weighed less than 1500kg inclusive of cabling, fly bar and rigging.

“Discussions with UK Rigging addressed the technical issues of attaching three I-beams onto trusses running upstage / downstage so that the Kinesys motion control system and tracking equipment could be installed, which would allow the screen to move and ‘track’ within the Serious Stages Space Roof.

“The lighting design prepared by Siyan Lighting also had to be modified to facilitate the tracking operation. The main implication was that all LX trusses had to run upstage / downstage rather than the more traditional cross stage arrangement which would have meant the screen passing through the trusses clearly not an option.

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EVENT FOCUS: Proms In The Park

Opposite: EnTEEtainment was approached by Festival Republic to provide a moveable rear LED screen solution which could be either set back or brought forward, performance depending.

“There was also the issue of stage clearance which meant that a trim height of 2.5-metres above the stage deck needed to be achieved in order to clear the Orchestra risers, handrails, and instruments as the screen moved overhead.”

So all in all it was quite a challenge and although confident in the suppliers and the technical advancing - it was only going to be known if it would all come together and actually work once the equipment was installed and the onsite team of riggers and technicians could put the weeks of planning to the test.

It was a great relief for the production teams when Head Rigger Seth Cook and Kinesys technician Dave Jolly successfully operated a number of test ‘screen moves’ once the production was installed in the days ahead of the shows.

Jolly commented: “Even with the weight of the screen reduced to 1,500kg this was still no simple operation but having UK Rigging’s Kinesys equipment on the event ensured that we could achieve millimetre perfect results. With such a tight broadcast schedule advance planning, equipment reliability, and on site communication were key; the moves had to go to plan first time, 24

every time!”

The screen started at the rear of the BBC Concert Orchestra for their Saturday morning rehearsal, before being tracked down by approx 12-metres and dropped to the floor to provide a backdrop for the afternoon entertainment. Then it was raised to give the required 2.5-metre clearance to then track back to the upstage position for the evening Proms concert which featured performances from Rufus Wainwright, soloists Pumeza and Vittorio Grigola, then Earth Wind and Fire.

Overnight the screen was moved to a mid-stage position so that the ELO Lighting Designer Tim Routledge could plot and programme the show, before tracking forward again to provide a downstage backdrop for the daytime acts including Chrissie Hynde, Bellowhead, Kacey Musgraves, Gregory Porter, Paloma Faith, Billy Ocean and Blondie. Then during the changeover into the headline act the screen was raised and tracked back to the mid stage position behind the 30 piece BBC Concert Orchestra strings section where it remained till the end of Jeff Lynne’s ELO performance.

TPi Photos: Getty Images

www.dicktee.com

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EVENT FOCUS: Eurotruss

PREMIER DUTCH TRUSS MANUFACTURER, EUROTRUSS, HAS ADDED A NEW RANGE OF LIFTERS TO ITS PRODUCT RANGE, ENABLING THE COMPANY TO BETTER SERVICE ITS CLIENTS. THE LIFTERS LINE IS INITIALLY ESTABLISHED WITH FIVE MODELS: TOP LOADERS TL-530 AND TL-660, FRONT LOADER FL-830 AND FRONT LOADER FOR FLYING PA, FLS-520 AND FLS-620.

Eurotruss International has announced the addition of lifters to its product range. This addition will expand the company’s range of products and services, which already includes Trussing, staging, stage decks and rigging equipment. There are five new models in the new lifters range, which include two top loaders the TL-530 and TL 660, front loader FL-830 and two front loaders designed for specifically flying PAs and working with heavy audio components: the FLS-520 and FLS-650.

In the top loader series there is the TL-530, which is a super compact telescopic lifter, which can lift a 150kg load up to 5.3-metres high. The second top loader lifter is the TL-660, which is also a telescopic lifter that can lift an impressive 310kg load up to 6.6-metres in height. Both products come with a high resistance cable for traction, which is guided by an auto-lubricated pulley. The lifters are fixed with a hyper safety fastener, which locks to bear lifter strain.

The front loader series boats the FL-830 with 26

a load capacity of 330kg up to 8.3-metres high.

This lifter is designed for the most demanding of live shows and is recommended for the most challenging of set-ups. Ensuring maximum convenience, total safety and the ability to lift off directly from the ground, the FL-830 is set with a slightly angled body to counter balance loads with perfect stability. The FL-830 features an internal safety system that locks the profiles in place, oversized steel cable and heavy-duty automatic brakes to assist with transportation.

The front loader series for flying PA includes the FLS-520, which is a compact and powerful lifter that has the load capacity of 420kg up to 5.2-metres high. The FLS-520 is only 1.66-metres wide when folded which makes it very compact and ideal to transport. The second lifter in this series is the FLS-620, which can lift an incredible 500kg load up the height of 6.2-meters. It has an enhanced reinforcement design to restrain heavier and larger audio systems. This lifter also includes a high quality automatic brake system; while steel pulleys,

reinforced profiles and oversized cable give it strength and safety. The position of the front legs and distance between them increases stability for the end user. It is also spacious enough to position a subwoofer between them.

All of the new Eurotruss lifters are in accordance to European Machinery Regulations.

All products are certificated to BGV C1.

Martin Meindertsma, Marketing at Eurotruss told TPi of the reaction so far: “Although this product range has only just launched, we’ve had amazing feedback from our customers, they think it’s great we now have our own lifters so here at Eurotruss we have very high expectations for the future.”

The Eurotruss Lifter range offers userfriendly lifters that have all been designed for professionals. The lifters come finished in black and are now available to order worldwide.

TPi

www.eurotruss.com

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: MTV EMAs

MTV EMAs CELEBRATE 20 YEARS EACH YEAR THE MTV EMAs HEADED TO A NEW VENUE IN EUROPE, AND FOLLOWING A PACKED SUMMER OF EVENTS, THIS YEAR’S CEREMONY WAS A FITTING FINALE FOR HOST CITY GLASGOW. TPi GOES BACKSTAGE IN SCOTLAND’S LARGEST CITY. The home of this year’s show is the SSE Hydro, which opened its doors in 2013 ahead of the Commonwealth Games. On a drizzly Glaswegian November afternoon the venue is a hive of activity as it gets ready to welcome arguably one of the biggest shows in the business.

Maggie Mouzakitis has held the reins as Production Manager since 2008, working band production before that - a role now in the capable hands of Jo Mackay. With plenty of experience under her belt, Mouzakitis isn’t fazed by the commotion around her and knows how to deal with the inevitable changes that come with a gig like this.

“When we start working on the show we don’t know what artists will be performing,” she explained backstage. “Florian Wieder (Designer) bases the set around a theme - this year time travel - and then the production work begins.

The editorial side of the show isn’t worked out 28

until really late, when most of the production and layouts have already been done.”

2014 marks the MTV EMA 20th anniversary, with the time-machine theme representing the exploration of the past, the present and the future. Opening the night is show host, winner of ‘Best Hip Hop’ award, and Anaconda singer Nicki Minaj. She appears on screen suspended in mid air, before being lowered onto the stage during her introduction.

“The artist performances are staged ideaswise by MTV,” Mouzakitis continued. “Then, once the artists have been announced, they work within the perimeters of what we have built. Props, additional lighting, screen content - all these things are easy to add in, but the show is built around the needs of MTV and the chosen theme.”

It’s something which is echoed on the arena floor later on; with jokes about whether or not Minaj actually knew she was going to be

hoisted into the air for the opening gag. We’re pretty sure she did though - she certainly looked comfortable enough so we can only presume that she doesn’t suffer from a fear of heights.

Ensuring that the same quality of show is produced every year is a vital part of the brief from MTV and Mouzakitis has secured a dedicated team of some of the best names in the business; PRG, Britannia Row, Blackout and Mojo Barriers to name just a few.

Although the core team remains the same, new additions this year include Quantum Special Effects and set build company HollandseHanden who worked on the show for the first time last year in their native Netherlands, when the show was held at the Ziggo Dome.

Mouzakitis explained: “We try to use as many local suppliers as possible but it can be tricky, depending on where the show is, to find the level of knowledge you need. We therefore tend to use the same core team of production

PRODUCTION PROFILE: MTV EMAs

Opposite: Glasgow’s SSE Hydro arena played host to MTV EMAs 20th anniversary event. Below: Slash ‘n’ burn - during a performance of Ozzy Ozbourne’s Crazy Train, Quantum’s six flame bars, attached to G-flames, ensured guitarist Slash’s incendiary tone was given extra warmth.

people. The added benefit is that they know what to expect - and to pack lots of extra stuff ‘just in case’. So, when you ask for that extra 20ft of truss...they inevitably have it! It gives peace of mind.”

So how is the new venue? “This venue is a bit smaller than past years and has a more intimate feel to it,” Mouzakitis said. “We’re a bit strapped for space in the backstage areas, and floor space is tight too - especially as we have 16 broadcast cameras. One’s a rail cam but most are on the floor.

“But then again 99% - no, actually 100% - of these venues aren’t cut out for a show like this.

We are the 1% show that comes by and there’s just never enough room. It’s just too big a show and we often have to build additional facilities such as dressing rooms.

Not many venues have the space to cater for this much infrastructure and staff.”

AUDIO A new addition to the MTV EMA family is Sound Supervisor Colin Pink. He joined the team following the sad passing of Derrick Zieba, a man who had a profound effect on those who worked with him.

If you look closely, the production

team are wearing badges made in his honour by Toby Alington, to remember a man who throughout the day is referred to as ‘sorely missed’ and a ‘true gentleman’.

Pink is contracted directly by MTV, acting as the bridge between the artist and audio suppliers Britannia Row. He said: “This year we have a number of vocal to track artists and a number of live bands, and the main challenge is working out the logistics of how you can achieve these sometimes massive changeovers in a very limited time.

The constraints of a live show are definitely felt.

“Some artists want to use their own sound desks and equipment, and I need to rationalise that into something that is technically achievable and make suitable suggestions for alternatives. Some MTV EMAs have had up to seven desks, this year we’ve got it down to just two - a Digico SD7 and a Midas Pro 9 - on both FOH and monitor positions, which is a lot more manageable.

“To be fair though, all of the artists have been really good, they understand and appreciate that this is a complicated show and they want to make it as easy as possible for us. After all, the last 29

PRODUCTION PROFILE: MTV EMAs

Below: Stageco custom built the stage for the event, on which U2’s Bono is pictured below.

thing anyone wants is for us to not achieve a changeover. No one wants a waffling presenter while the band’s still trying to get ready.”

Britannia Row also supplied an extensive selection of Sennheiser microphones and IEM wireless systems for the event. All presenters, including Nicki Minaj, used Sennheiser’s flagship 9000 series handheld microphones, whilst all performer and presenter IEMs, with the

As well as her hosting duties, Nicki Minaj took to the stage to perform the debut of her new single Bed of Lies using an HSP 4 wireless headworn mic with SK-5212 transmitter. For the first time Live Sound Supervisor for the show was Colin Pink, who took on the double challenge of filling the very large shoes of Derrick Zieba and working with an acoustically difficult venue. Pink commented: “The

“You’re not trying to make it sound good at sound check, you’re trying to take into account how it will sound when it’s full...” Sound Supervisor, Colin Pink

exception of one act, were Sennheiser 2000 Series. Additionally, Ed Sheeran used an SKM 2000 with 9235 capsule and SK 2000 itar radio pack, Ariana Grande and Charli XCX had SKM 5200s with MD 5235 capsules, Kiesza an SKM 2000 with 935 capsule and Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro using an e 945 wired mic.

30

Sennheiser UK team was fantastic at supporting us to make this easier. They provided all required IEM systems, which were very well received by the artists, both for their sound quality and their RF coverage.”

In line with the shape of the SSE Hydro, the entire set design is in the round, with the PA

following suit - instead of the traditional left / right hang. Pink explained: “It’s effectively a round room with a domed roof so acoustically it’s challenging. The venue has been fantastic though and they have added lots of additional absorption panelling and baffling.

“Lez (Dwight - Britannia Row) and I came up and watched Lady Gaga a month ago which gave us a chance to get a feel for the room.

Based on that visit we have six hangs around the edge of the stage so that we can distribute the sound in a more even way. We’ve also encouraged artists to go in-ear because it’s more controlled. We do have monitors (26 d&b audiotechnik bi-amped M2 wedges) but these are mainly for the dancers.

“The problem with rehearsing these shows is that you never really know how it’s going to sound until the audience shows up - it’s a lot of educated guesswork. You’re not actually trying to make it sound good at sound check, you’re trying to take into account how it will sound when it’s full of thousands of people.”

The Britannia Row team was led by Lez Dwight of Brit Row and Crew Chief Pete McGlynn. Dwight commented: “We have our own people running the desks at each end of the multicore for the main show, plus dedicated

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: MTV EMAs

Below: Sound Supervisor, Colin Pink; Chris Saunders from Ogle Hog engineered, specified and co-ordinated all the control systems required to handle media playback for the video.

band desks and a presenter desk. All acts at this level usually bring engineers, the FOH guys either jump in the broadcast truck to liaise specific artistic nuances with the broadcast sound supervisor or mix FOH for the audience in the venue.”

One of the main changes this year is the drop from 120 tonne rigging capacity at last year’s venue, to 60 tonne total at the SSE Hydro.

Dwight has worked with Pink to find a solution which is more than up to the task - using 72 L-Acoustic K2 boxes.

Dwight said: “We’ve lost about 40% weight loading capacity compared to last year, so we needed new, lighter products and the K2’s were ideal. They work really well because they are half the weight of the K1 which we would usually use on this type of show. ” LIGHTING PRG’S Richie Gorrod is one of the MTV EMA’s long-term family members, shedding his PRG

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job title of head of event services and becoming the show’s Lighting Crew Chief. His job: to make US-based LD Tom Kenny’s vision into reality.

“I met Tom up here about four months ago,” explained Gorrod. “He comes up with the design, following the show’s creative concept and it’s my job to get the kit together to make it work.

“This year it’s a time-machine theme, which is why we have the six silver truss spines with LED toners spanning out from the centre of the stage supporting the main rig of lights.

“The original plan was to have these on moving motors so they could be dropped in and out - it would have looked great but the budget couldn’t quite stretch. If there’s a budget for the core show lighting then MTV gives us a set amount per artist to cater for any specific requirements they have.

“A few people like Calvin Harris and Willie Williams (U2) do have a creative input, but the thing with these awards shows is that they

aren’t like a festival where you can come in and bring your own kit or your own LD.” “We added some new kit like 18 Clay Paky A.Leda B-EYE’s, 32 Jr Solaris Strobes from TMB and some Clay Paky Stormys.”

For Gorrod, it’s a similar set up to normal, with two operators out the front on MA Lighting grandMA2’s - one looking after bump and flash, and the other taking care of keying the bands and making sure they’re lit properly.

“The system runs as one big system and each desk can choose what it controls,” he continued. “We have nine follow sports in total too. The three guys out the back are on flown trusses, dropped in via Kinesys motors, which is great as they don’t need to climb a ladder to get into position, then there’s two either side and four out front.

“Overall, we’re really happy with the look of the show. It’s a different beast when dealing with a live broadcast though; it will look dark to the live audience but that’s just the way it is.

PRODUCTION PROFILE: MTV EMAs

Below: Long time MTV Awards supplier Mojo Barriers supplied 370-metres of black aluminium stage barrier.

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Trying to do both is pretty hard. If you go too bright it will glare on screen, so it’s a bit of a game. We spend our lives doing these types of shows though and I have a great team around me that makes it easy. ” RIGGING The motors for the six truss spokes as part of the lighting design were just one part of a complex rigging plot installed by Blackout.

Installation Director Kevin Monks led the team of 10, including EMA veteran Oz Marsh. The whole team had over 220 years of experience combined.

It was Blackout’s remit to rig all of those last minute additions for each performer. The resulting plot was suspended utilising the Hydro’s in-built mother grid and consisted of over 200 rigging points used to fly truss, lights, PA and special effects.

Monks told us more: “The main aim was to install a grid that offered maximum flexibility.

With so many artists performing, there are

inevitably a lot of last minute adaptations required and being able to make these as easily and quickly as possible is vital. To accommodate this we installed a mini grid over the main performance area which held the Kinesys systems for the lighting pods, pyros and set flown pieces for the bands.

“There was then another truss grid over the main set, with lots of Pro Star motors so the set company could come in and have the flexibility when installing the giant set vortex.

“There was a lot to fit in. As well as the sound, lights and special effects trusses which already congested the space; we then needed to add in projectors for the main set and the presenter’s area without compromising on sight lines. On top of this were the various elements for flying stunts. There were fewer this year, but they impact on the design of the rig; for example we needed to remove sections of two truss circles to make space for Ariana Grande’s flying track.”

The stunts were executed by Flying by Foy’s

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: MTV EMA

Below: Kevin Monks led Blackout’s team of 10 riggers. The teams’ 220 years of combined experience made light work of the complex rigging plot; Britannia Row supplied an L-Acoustics K2 PA system.

flying track.”

The stunts were executed by Flying by Foy’s Floyd Hughes, Luke Peck and Taz Wilmore. First up was Nicki Minaj, who as we know, opened the show in mid-air. Then, the first live performance of the evening saw Florida-born Ariana Grande fly in a clear, domed chair from the swirling vortex B-stage, across the standing audience and onto the stage where she performed her hit Break Free. The star went on to pick up two gongs for ‘Best Song’ and ‘Best Female’.

Blackout installed over 40-metres of truss, 400-metres of SWR, 40-metres of custom flying track, five half-tonne chain hoists and three custom-designed performer flying winches which formed the basis of Flying by Foy’s kit, which was controlled by the company’s specialist performer flying PEGASUS software and mobile console.

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Flying by Foy also provided a safety harness for Charlie XCX with the harness elements designed, fabricated and tested in its harness workshop in Borehamwood by onsite harness supervisor, Ryan Geronimo.

Blackout also supplied all of the truss and the masking drapes across the arena; as well as pipe and drape and additional equipment for the after-party venue.

“The most unusual element to the build was the big circular LED video screen which formed the central part of the stage set,” continued Monks. “It had to be flown pitched back on a slope.

Stageco and XL designed an ingenious solution of staging and timber bearers to take the guide wheels, fixed to the back of the screen. We then attached our hoists to the top of the scaffold to help facilitate the build.”

PRODUCTION PROFILE: MTV EMAs

Below: No.1 artist Ed Sheeran with a Sennheiser SKM 2000 Series microphone complete with 9235 capsule.

STAGING, SCREENS AND PROJECTION Stageco once again provided the custom-built stage, which featured a catwalk snaking into the audience. Surrounding this was 370-metres of black aluminium stage barrier provided by another long-time MTV supplier, Mojo Barriers.

MTV specifically asked for black barriers to suit the show’s theming and stay unobtrusive on camera. It’s a tricky request due to the amount of specials (corners / curves) required to create the configuration, which as well as separating the screaming crowds from the performers, kept those 16 broadcast positions out of harm’s way. Luckily, Mojo’s extensive product range meant that this wasn’t a problem for UK general manager Kevin Thorborn and his team.

XL’s crew, who worked with Stageco on the ingenious pitched-back screen solution, was led by Project Manager Guido Ruysschaert and assisted on site by two crew chiefs Kurt Verhelle and Daan Govaerts. A total of 170 sq metres of XL’s ROE Visual MC-7T LED was utilised with a 16- metre by 11-metre section supported by the custom-built Stageco structure.

Upstage centre on the presentation stage a surface of ROE Visual MC-18T Hybrid LEDwhich opened to allow presenter and performer access, and about a metre behind this, a small

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: MTV EMAs

Below: 2014 host, Nicki Minaj; Alicia Keys with Ariana Granda; Jenna Malona and Jourdan Dunn.

circular surface of MC-7T. The main stage set featured ‘windmill sails’ made from white gauze, representing the vortex / time-machine theme. Video projection onto these was fed by three double stacked pairs of Barco HDF-W26 projectors flown on a front truss.

By far the most challenging video

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component for XL to install were the 8,500+ Barco FLX 24 pixel strings - comprising individual pixels - which were fitted into the metal hoops encircling the vortex. (The FLX 24 is the same product that featured on U2’s seminal 360 tour’s ‘moving and twisting’ screen).

Bespoke video content was produced by Hello Charlie and Gravity, and Ogle Hog’s crew

headed by Chris Saunders engineered, specified and co-ordinated all the control systems required to handle media playback, including scaling, conversion, formatting, etc. of all the pre-recorded sources, managing their output to screen together with that of selected camera feeds. Servers for the show were operated by John Montague.

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: MTV EMAs

Below: Ozzy and Slash; Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro.

Bespoke projection was included for artists including Alicia Keys, who performed We Are Here in front of an additional 6-metre by 3.5-metre LED screen backdrop of VIL10 panels provided by Video Illusions, with 180° HD video projection mapping covering her Baby Grand piano.

Video Illusions’ Ross Gerry commented: “The demands of a live television broadcast meant picture quality was of paramount importance,

Minaj was lowered to the stage.

Next up, Ariana Grande performed with the help of waterfall pyro products, low smoke and eight mini volcanos bought to life with CO2 jets.

Charli XCX then took to the stage for Boom Clap with the help of an exclusively designed ‘flaming heart’ lit by G-flames in the last section of the song.

Quantum used its new Smokestorm XLSGs to create a haunting atmosphere for U2’S Every

“The demands of a live television broadcast meant picture quality was of paramount importance...” - Video Illusions’ Ross Gerry

so projection and LED had to work hand in hand to deliver unprecedented fidelity of lumen and colour rendition between the two very different mediums.”

SPECIAL EFFECTS No show of this scale is complete without its fair share of special effects and Quantum put its extensive arsenal into action, starting with an impressive 180 silver jet chase flash pyro which were deployed for the opening sequence, as 38

Breaking Wave performance, as well as firing 1.5kg of silver confetti and Nicki Minaj printed money as part of a skit before Ed Sheeren came onto stage.

The highlight for most though was undoubtedly the tribute made to Global Icon Award winner Ozzy Osbourne by Slash, Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators and Simon Neil from Biffy Clyro. For their performance of Crazy Train Quantum installed six flame bars, attached to G-flames, which fired during the instrumental

introduction of the song followed by hits from 16 G-flames which surrounded the stage.

Six Spitfires, positioned upstage, turned up the heat before 10 flaming black balloons exploded amongst a hit of gold strobe airbursts from the truss. The team, led by managing director Shaun Barnett, then threw in some fireworks with 40 seconds of yellow, green, red and blue mines released, plus white flitters with tails and silver spark bursts. Lasers were provided by ER Productions.

There is no doubt that 2014 was a fitting celebration of the MTV EMA’s 20th year and with next year’s venue just revealed as the Mediolanum Forum in Milan we can’t wait to see what the next 20 have in store.

TPi Photos: Getty Images www.prg.com www.er-productions.com www.britanniarow.com www.blackout-ltd.com www.q-sfx.com www.hollandsehanden.nl www.xlvideo.com/uk www.mojobarriers.com www.oglehog.com www.flyingbyfoy.co.uk www.kinesys.co.uk http://videoillusions.net www.stageco.com

PRODUCTION PROFILE: Ed Sheeran

ED SHEERAN ED SHEERAN IS AN ARTIST THAT HAS RISEN FROM PLAYING LOCAL RECORD SHOPS TO ARENAS ACROSS THE WORLD IN JUST A FEW SHORT YEARS. HIS LATEST ALBUM X WAS AN INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS WITHIN ITS FIRST WEEK, CHARTING AT NO.1 IN 12 COUNTRIES AND REACHING THE TOP FIVE IN 11 OTHERS. DESPITE THAT METEORIC RISE, THE SONGWRITER REMAINS EQUALLY AT HOME PERFORMING TO CROWDS LARGE OR SMALL, LEAVING THE TECHNICAL CHALLENGES TO THE TALENT BEHIND THE SCENES. TPi CAUGHT UP WITH THE TEAM AT GLASGOW’S SSE HYDRO TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HOW THE AV SOLUTIONS HAVE SCALED UP ALONGSIDE THE TICKET SALES. When TPi first saw Ed Sheeran play live, it was back in 2011 at the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, Germany, a showcase event for relatively unknown acts on the European stage. Playing to a room of disinterested Germans, he silenced the crowd on several occasions, just a boy and his guitar, some self-generated loops, expertly bringing the venue to a standstill better than the myriad of bands we’d seen that weekend.

Fast forward a few years, and the unassuming songwriter who shyly said a softly spoken “Danke” at the end of that set has found a home on the arena-sized stages across the world, having risen to become one of the biggest selling acts of recent years. He’s supported the brightest star on the planet 40

including Taylor Swift on her Red tour, and is now out on tour himself as the headline act, playing out to sold out arenas across the UK and Europe in support of his most recent album, X. ONE MAN BAND It was Lighting and Production Designer Mark Cunniffe’s vision that drove the technical requirements for the shows, having worked with Ed for a number of years and knowing the level of intimacy required for what is essentially a one man show, even as the crowds and venues have become bigger and bigger.

While that meant an increased use of video to enhance the visual element of the tour, Cunniffe was determined not to take the lazy approach

PRODUCTION PROFILE: Ed Sheeran

Opposite: Ed Sheeran is touring in support of his No.1 album, X. Below: Audio vendor Major Tom supplied a Meyer Sound LEO PA system.

to arena touring video, (large screens either side of the stage.)

“The real challenges here were taking what is essentially one man and his guitar and turning the visual performance into the kind of show suited to an arena,” commented Cunniffe. “Production wise, one of our biggest problems was how to achieve that without completely dwarfing the performer visually. That was my big conundrum and Chris Marsh and I spent the best part of six months trying to do exactly that. For me the best way to do that was get rid of the traditional left / right IMAG screens. We wanted to still make it a creative show, but decided to keep all of that creative inside the PA hangs, to keep it as compact and intimate as possible. We’re treating all of the screens using an amazing piece of software called Demolition, and on top of that we have some bespoke content, a lot of which is hand drawn.”

ARTISTIC VISUALS For the overall visual element, Cunniffe took inspiration from Ed Sheeran himself, certainly in terms of artistic outlook. “A lot of this is based around the mood,

the melody or the lyric really,” he said. “I think Ed is a real poet, and we felt a lot of the hand drawn content, which we then digitised, gave it a real, organic feel in keeping with his performance. One of the clips for the track One features over 2000 hand drawings from a talented guy called Mushtashrik. I think there is something really personal about that kind of approach, very much in keeping with the approach of the artist.”

London creatives Treatment were brought in to design and produce the screen content, as Cunniffe explained: “Treatment were in charge of collating all of the different inputs we wanted to put into the show, and we worked a lot with Creative Director Damian Hale.

So they created a lot of the stop frame animations, the hand drawings were scanned and digitised, and then we combined those with all of the other visual elements. It was a great marriage of low tech and high tech really, I mean some of the artwork looked like a Cezanne painting or an impressionist’s watercolour.

“The beauty of Demolition - which was developed by a great technical talent

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Connect with us... twitter.com/AudioTechnicaUK youtube.com/AudioTechnicaUK flickr.com/audio-technica facebook.com/AudioTechnicaUK

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: Ed Sheeran Below: CT Touring supplied the tour’s video package; LD Paul Smith opted for an MA Lighting grandMA2 console; PM, FOH and Monitor Engineer, Chris Marsh chose a DiGiCo SD7 desk for the tour, as seen in use by System Tech, Charlie Albin; Sheeran dressed up as a convincing Austin Powers.

called Matt Swoboda - is that you can take the artistic approach from the content and then treat live images of Ed with it as well. So if the content is watercolour, we can treat the images of Ed to look like watercolour and in real time. It really is a very creative tool, perfect for working with this artist. It means we don’t have such clear lines between creative content and IMAG, it’s all treated as one canvas.”

Phil Mead, Head of Video on the tour, said: “Mark was adamant that he didn’t want the traditional approach of using IMAG, he didn’t want people in the auditorium to be looking left and right, so everything visually had to be within the PA lines, which kept the feel of intimacy and closeness, despite the scale of the venue.”

The tour uses lighting gear from independent, London based, entertainment lighting and rigging hire company Neg Earth.

Video is from CT Touring in the US. “In the end we’ve ended up with this approach, which is a number of screens at different angles, some which move and adapt according to the set, and we map video to all of them, so that everyone looking at the stage will be entertained visually by the show, even if they are far from Ed at the back of the room. There are a total of 14 screens on this show, six Flyer 12mm that are static and eight Viper 7mm, which are on automation.

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The screens are fed by a d3 Technologies media server and we have a total of six cameras, four of those are Bradley Engineering Camball 3’s and two Sony 1550’s.”

The screens are adjusted with the aid of a Kinesys Elevation system comprising of 16 points using elevation variable speed chain hoist controllers and 16 liftket motors. Kinesys Vector software was used to tell the d3 solution the vertical location of the video walls so the mapping was flawless. Also a Kinesys Rigger handset was used for a fast setup / de-rig.

Although Treatment in London were commissioned to do the pre-recorded content, Cunniffe wanted to use mainly live imagery.

“The live cameras go via our Video Director Lindsey Haney and then into d3 where we are running Demolition, which takes the live video capture and treats it,” Mead told us. “We can take the live camera feeds and distort, add fire / water effects and colourise the image. There’s really only a few times during the set that you ever see Ed clean on the screens, the rest of the time it always has some element of treatment, this is our content. For a solo performer there is a lot of tech on this tour, not even just on the video side. The d3 software really is truly amazing - we used it at the start of this project on private release, but now most of these tools are included in 11.3 for all to use. The d3 and

Demolition gives us so much creative freedom.”

“The d3 servers are controlled over Art Net and the video feeds come from a switcher.

Lindsey is our Video Director and directs the shots - she’s got four busses to cut with. The shots are then sent to d3 where our Lighting Director Paul Smith makes the decision to take them to screen. It’s all done via the lighting console, there’s no Timecode. Ed loves to change the set list around, add choruses or segues into other songs, it can’t be automated.”

In charge then of both video and lighting during the live show is Lighting Director Paul Smith, who also highlights the new software solutions as being an important part of the show’s presentation. “The Demolition software in the d3 which does all of the post processing effects on the IMAG, is amazing, like Phil said.

It’s essentially looking at contrast ratios and playing with those, that’s where it fills its effects out from. So we’ve got a single Robert Juliat Lancelot Follow Spot that we key light Ed with, and we balance that to the right lux level and colour temperature every day, and that’s what drives the video content for the show, that single follow spot.”

INTERLINKED LIGHTING On the lighting side, Smith is running 16 Martin Viper Air FX and 36 Clay Paky Sharpys for

PRODUCTION PROFILE: Ed Sheeran

Below: Neg Earth supplied both lighting and rigging elements to the successful tour.

support. He also has four Vari-Lite VL3000 Spot Luminaires, which provide Ed’s backlight, and they run at about 50% for the whole show. The lighting is rounded off by a further 32 Clay Paky A.Leda B-EYE K20s all supplied by Neg Earth.

“The lighting and the video are completely interlinked in this show. It really is about the whole visual package,” explained Smith. “It gives a more coherent approach to it all. We run two MA lighting MA2 consoles. We have a grandMA2 Full Size here at FOH, we run a back-up MA2 Light backstage. I did start the tour with the MA2 Light here alongside me at FOH, but I feel that the grandMA is so reliable,

44

it’s unlikely I will ever need the back up. They’re bomb proof, just absolutely solid. You can throw absolutely anything you like at them and they just keep asking for more. So we run MA Net back to a pair of MA2 NPU’s, which live at Dimmer Beach, again as a master and a backup. We’re also sending a couple of Artnet feeds out into the D3s, and also a couple of Artnet nodes up in the rig, because each of the Kinesys Screens is on its own DMX feed to avoid the need for returns and links coming back up the Kinesys hoists and over to the next. It sounds complicated, but it’s a really simple, coherent system. Neg Earth have been fantastic, as

you would expect. Everything we’ve asked for they’ve delivered, such a great service and great kit that’s been super reliable, we couldn’t have asked for anything more from them really.”

SHEERAN’S SOUND Another crewmember that has worked with Ed for a number of years is Production Manager Chris Marsh. Due to the close nature of his relationship with the artist and the nature of the show centering on Ed onstage, Marsh is also the FOH and Monitor Engineer.

“I use the DiGiCo SD7 mixing console.

I used to mix on a little SD11, because it is

PRODUCTION PROFILE: Ed Sheeran

Below: Sheeran uses Senheiser’s 2000 Series as his microphone of choice.

effectively just a guy and his guitar, but the input list has grown and the requirements for certain effects and output routing meant that we ran out of space on the SD11,” he said. “I do an awful lot of effects on Ed’s vocals and loops, so it’s very nice to use a big console and see FOH mix, monitor mix, effects and outputs right there in front of you. For outboard, I am running an Avalon 737 on Ed’s vocal, which is something I’ve always used on vocals, I just really like the sound of it, the compression is really effective but also very transparent, it’s also great for broad strokes of EQ before it comes into the console. I use a couple of the on board effects augmented with a pair of Bricasti M7’s and an Eventide Eclipse.”

Marsh uses a Sennheiser 2000 Series microphone system, with a customised 5235 capsule. “It was a long process of figuring out the right set up,” he said. “But now we have and it works great and sounds great, no matter what Ed does onstage.

He’s quite a loose, freewheeling

performer, so the balance has to be right.” With no in-ear monitors for Ed, onstage Meyer Sound MJF 212 wedges and Meyer Sound Hp700 / JM1P sidefills are utilised.

With Wiltshire-based supplier Major Tom providing all of the audio equipment, System Tech Charlie Albin is in charge of their Meyer Sound LEO system. “Ed did Madison Square Gardens and other big gigs in the US with it, and both him and his management loved the sound of it, so we were able to carry on with that on this leg of the tour,” he told TPi. On the LEO system, Marsh commented: “It really throws well.

On the back seat, it sounds as good as if you were on the barrier, which is especially important on a show like this when its only one guy onstage.

It needs to feel close, it needs to feel intimate. Secondly, the loops sometimes get quite complicated and layered, and this PA seems to maintain the separation that works really well. Finally, the sub bass is just phenomenal, so fast and so tight.

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: Ed Sheeran

Below: Lighting Director, Paul Smith; Chris Marsh with his Production Manager hat on; Charlie Albin, System Tech.

SarahsKitchen 46

I’ve really struggled to find another cabinet that can deliver quite so much with so little. I only have six aside on the floor, and three aside flown in the air.”

On the set up, Albin commented: “Here, we are using a main left / right system with five zones, Meyer LEO with LYON underhangs with a wide dispersion, LYON just to do the downfills and get that front section of the audience, then we have side hangs of MILO. A ground package of six subs a side, some UPAs along the front as front fill, some JMPs as an outfill and then our three cardioid subs flown per side. It all works perfectly and sounds great.”

But for Marsh, the real star is the DiGiCo SD7 FoH console, as he admitted: “If I was only able to take one thing, I would take the desk. Faced with a different PA, a different room, even different guitars, then I’d take the SD7 and be able to make things come out alright, no matter what the circumstances or challenges we were faced with, it really has so much flexibility that I wouldn’t want to work with anything else on this tour.”

The guy responsible for hanging the AV package for each venue is Head Rigger Omar Franchi, well known in the UK industry as one of the best, having toured extensively with British heavy metal legends Iron Maiden. “On Ed Sheeran’s tour, my job is to hang the show and keep the shape of the show everywhere we go in relation to the interior of the different venues.

On this tour, once I’ve finished rigging, I’m also handling the Kinesys system, so I’ll move all of the screens during the show, hit all of the different cues for the different songs to fit the overall image the video guys want to project to the audience.

“It’s only 45 points - which isn’t much, and it sounds easy but because of the nature of this show, the measurements and positions are all very precise, and they have to be for it to work. I do all the rigging points on AutoCAD in advance, then I send it to the local promoter and the venue, and if there are any problems or workarounds, then we find out about them beforehand. This means that in the morning when we arrive for set up, everything is already worked out and read to go, it just makes life a whole lot easier

for everybody. In this show, we are talking about the rigging and everything hanging in less than two hours. Getting it down, so far we’re at 110minutes, which isn’t bad at all.”

As well as being the lighting vendor, Neg Earth also provided all of the trussing equipment. “It’s all the normal Neg Earth gear and service,” smiled Franchi. “We’re using the HUD truss by Tyler for the back truss, which is the new one where the lights stay on the truss. When it comes down, they just put the wheels on it and put it straight on the truck. Easy.”

TRUCKING AROUND But of course, at the end of the night, as Franchi said, it all goes back in the box, onward to the next show. In this case the travelling boxes came in the shape of six 16.5-metre Scania Highline Megacube Artics from KB Event’s fleet of vehicles, who provided transport logistics on the UK and European X Arena Tour. Crew tour buses were provided by Four Seasons, while Steve Matthews Travel supplied Ed’s personal tour bus. Furthermore, Catering was taken care of by Eat Your Hearts Out, while Tour Management was dealt with by Mark Friend and Amanda Thompson of AM Touring.

For Cunniffe, the success of the tour provides an ideal moment for reflection on a job well done by all of the teams involved. “To me, this has been one of the most successful collaboration I have seen in live music,” said Cunniffe. “Ultimately, this whole thing is driven by the artist and his music, and that’s how it should be. We’re all support acts for Ed, effectively. This tour, as an overall product, is a fantastic collaboration between sound, lighting, creative content, video content, and the Demolition. I think it has produced a really seamless visual and aural experience, in support of an ultimately very, very talented singer-songwriter.”

TPi http://edsheeran.com http://amtouring.com www.negearth.com www.majortom.org www.treatmentstudio.com www.kbevent.com www.kinesys.co.uk http://uk.ct-group.com www.fourseasonstravel.co.uk www.eat-your-heart-out.com

PRODUCTION PROFILE: Katy B

KATY B RADIATING MUSICAL VERSATILITY AND RAW EMOTION, KATY B HAD NO TROUBLE IN GETTING CAMDEN’S ROUNDHOUSE JUMPING. THE FIERY R&B, DUBSTEP, GARAGE STYLE SINGER-SONGWRITER TOOK THE VENUE BY STORM, HITTING THE STAGE LIKE A WHIRLWIND AND SUCKING EVERYONE INTO HER WORLD WITH CONTAGIOUS ENTHUSIASM AND ENERGY. WITH A PLAYLIST FOCUSSED ON HER LATEST ALBUM LITTLE RED, AND PLEASINGLY PEPPERED WITH HER RECENT HITS, SHE PRESENTED A CLEVERLY ARRANGED MIX OF REBELLIOUS STYLE DANCE SONGS AND EMOTIONAL BALLADS. TPi CAUGHT UP WITH KATY B’S CREW AT THE ICONIC LONDON VENUE...

Katy B’s show kicks it up a notch for a club and theatre size tour. Katy B’s huge stage presence and rich bass filled sound accompanied by a generous helping of cleverly choreographed grunge style dancers is enhanced by Lighting Designer Tom Campbell’s lively club style lighting, making this show feel bigger than ever before.

Supersized and ambitious, this is by no means a high budget production. Driven by the healthy imaginations of the design team, alongside a dynamically resourceful production department - this show definitely punches above its budgetary weight.

Busy Tour and Production Manager, Trigger, who has been in the industry for over 25 years, takes charge of a small but resourceful team.

Campbell has judiciously selected a versatile floor package of fixtures, supplied by Siyan 48

Lighting, which augments each venue’s inhouse, workhorse rig overhead. “It’s easy with the Roundhouse,” he commented. “The venue has a stunning house rig, which is certainly not the case with every venue!

“I’m pretty flexible and happy to use anything a venue has to offer,” continued Campbell. “Here at the Roundhouse I’ve got some tungsten floor lamps, which give the show a warm vibe. My aim has always been to achieve a strong nightclub feel. I make sure all the venues have Molefays plus some spots and washes, preferably Philips Vari-Lite fixtures. I’ve got 20 of each in my Avolites showfile and I just exchange and edit if I have to.”

Supporting Campbell on tour by managing the practical side of things is experienced Lighting Technician, Daniel Everett. “Dan is very good at biting his tongue when I show him a

wacky design,” laughed Campbell. “And he always does what he can to make it happen.”

Everett will get into a venue and ascertain the space and power, which trusses can hold what, and get rid of any redundant fixtures from the house rig. Campbell does not like it to look cluttered on stage.

“It’s important to keep it all looking tidy, especially for a show where each song has been thought through and built up in detail,” said Everett. “I basically take some of the pain from Tom so he can focus on programming the show rather than looking at the ins and outs of how it’s going to get in and be rigged.”

Campbell’s design relies on defining effects from his floor package which includes Clay Paky A.leda B-EYEs and Stormys along with Philips Showline SL NITRO 510C strobes and Light Initiative’s IntelliFlex LED tube sticks. Campbell

PRODUCTION PROFILE: Katy B

Opposite: Camden Town’s Roundhouse provided the perfect setting for Katy B’s sold out visually energetic concert. Below: Tom Campbell’s lighting design comprised Clay Paky A.leda B-EYEs and Stormys along with Philips Showline SL NITRO 510C strobes and Light Initiative’s IntelliFlex LED tube sticks.

says he really likes the technology and says he has tried to make a look that will become synonymous with Katy B herself.

“This tour has the same approach as the March run, and the festival shows. We used the Light Initiative sticks on those as well. It’s such a strong look and they’re easy to rig almost anywhere. During the last tour Katy played Camden’s Koko Club and I brought in double the usual amount and rigged them randomly around the venue as we saw fit. They really made the space Katy’s own, combined with the laser as seen on the Crying for no Reason video.”

“I’m using the RGBW Stormys as block colour washes,” explained Campbell. “They give a more mature look than other strobes. They’re great fixtures and I’ll definitely be specifying them again!”

The designer also employed the Showline SL NITRO 510Cs, using them for colour blocking and super bright backlight wash effects. “The cool thing with the SL NITRO 510C fixtures is that you can also create a fantastic stop frame animation effect,” added Campbell. “I’m already making plans with them for my next tour.”

The defining fixture of the floor package is the sheer versatility of the Clay Paky A.leda

B-EYE K10 and K20. Campbell uses these in combination with lasers to deliver a plethora of the shows more distinctive looks, working them hard to sync with each musical phrase.

“One of my favourite parts of the show is when the B-EYEs deliver this big ‘old school’ disco look, an effect I don’t usually like as it can be borderline tacky!” laughed Campbell.

“However the B-EYEs pulled it off perfectly and in a unique way. Also, for the song Still I took inspiration from the music video, which is heavily backlit with a lot of white light. For this I’ve used the rotating lenses on the B-EYEs to achieve lots of twinkling parallel beams.

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: Katy B

Below: Backline Tech, Sam Seidel; Daniel Everett, Lighting Technician and LD, Tom Campbell; Sound Engineer, Martin Hildred; Tom Campbell pictured in front of his trusty Siyan Lighting-supplied Avolites Sapphire Touch console.

“The LED output on them is stunning,” added Campbell. “For example, in the song ‘5am’ I’m using them as beam fixtures and they produce a spectacularly bright, almost parallel column of light and most of the time I am using them under 50% output.”

Campbell also programmes the B-EYE K10s to deliver some striking pixel-mapped effects that work in sync across all the fixtures. “Once you get your head around all the different layers and all the different things you can do with these fixtures (because there’s a lot!) it’s

“I’m using the Sapphire for this because it allows me to speedily program multifaceted, multilayered effects, explained Campbell. “I’m a big Avolites fan, they’re great consoles, easy to use and fast to programme,” he continued. “They come with all the features I need, I also own two myself - the Tiger Touch and the Titan Mobile.”

To add to the dance-infused atmosphere, the show design sees some striking aerial laser effects, controlled by Daniel Briggs from AC Lasers: “The set up here is two RTI PikoRGB-14 lasers, with Coherent OPSL, outputting

““I’m using the Sapphire for this because it allows me to speedily program multifaceted, multi-layered effects...” - LD Tom Campbell

surprisingly simple to programme them,” said Campbell. “There are lots of different shapes you can put through the fixture, for example I’ve got a propeller look going across all the ones at the back and they look as if they’ve been pixel mapped and animated. I’m really loving them, they’ve allowed me to have a more compact rig and my show is a million times more varied and exciting visually because of that.”

Campbell controls these complex looks through an Avolites Sapphire Touch console: 50

just under 14W of white light,” he explained.

“We’re controlling it from Pangolin LivePro using QM2000.NETs, running over our remote safety system.”

Briggs overlays a range of laser effects onto Campbell’s looks such as broad sweeping sheets and single beams that strike to the beat.

“I play off the colours that Tom is producing and integrate the laser effects into the show,” explained Briggs. “We’ve split the projection areas to above and below the audience so

wherever you’re seated in the venue you get an excellent view. It’s not all up in the roof; it’s quite immersive, whilst maintaining a high level of safety.”

AUDIO Keeping the characteristic Katy B sound true is freelance Sound Engineer Martin Hildred.

New to the team Hildred joined the tour on the Birmingham show and he’s been honing the sound ever since.

“It’s been getting progressively sweeter as we’ve been going along,” said Hildred. “The Roundhouse is a challenge acoustics-wise, it’s not easy to get a uniform sound. However we’ve been lucky up until now with venues that have sounded great wherever you’re standing.”

Using an Avid Venue desk, Hildred is in charge of 39 channels, including 15 channels of drums - acoustic and trigger, a bass guitar and two synth bass channels, alongside percussive and pads that can’t be played live, with some backing vocals attached.

“The Avid is an affordable console that allows me to record multi track recordings, a facility which renders it incredibly useful, especially when acts may not have the time to sound check,” Hildred continued.

Alongside the control system, supplied by BSC Audio of Hampshire, Hildred has bought in his own microphone package, however he is using the in-house PA at each venue. In the Roundhouse, it’s an L-Acoutics V-DOSC system.

“The mic package is handpicked for the job.

In terms of in-ears we are using an Ultimate Ears

Photo: ©Sarah Rushton-Read, The Fifth Estate Ltd

Katy B – LD Tom Campbell

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: Katy B

Below: Sound Engineer Martin Mildred specified an Avid Venue desk to control all 39 channels of sound, which was played through the house PA, an L-Acoutics V-DOSC.

package alongside a Sennheiser system.”

When it comes to processing, Hildred is particular about which plug-ins he uses: “I’m a fan of one called Transient Designer made

by German manufacturer SPL. It tightens up the drum sound to make it super punchy. It’s something I’ll do before EQ-ing, to make it snappier and sound better in the mix. The other thing I always use outboard is a Waves Max Bass BCL, it has an excellent limiting system so you don’t ever blow anything up.”

In order to know exactly what to head for before rehearsals began Hildred said he spent two weeks listening solely to Katy B’s back catalogue: “Her songs became ingrained in my mind. When I actually got to rehearsals I knew what I was aiming for, which made these shows pretty straightforward. It’s what I do with every band, just to make sure I know what the hell is going on. There are a lot of very technical and musical engineers out there but if they don’t understand the artist’s sound or what the end product is supposed to be they wont get it right. And that’s what I enjoy - the end product.”

Unlike Hildred, Monitor Engineer Alex Cerutti has been with Katy for 2.5 years, ever since her single with producer Mark Ronson Anywhere in the World was recorded for the Coca Cola Olympics promotional campaign in 2012.

“This job has its challenging moments, but both Katy and the band are really professional and really good at getting across what they need without anybody noticing,” said Cerutti who is using a Midas Pro 2 console to control 52

the in-ear situation on stage.

“It’s a pretty clean set up, everybody’s on in-ears, the drummer has a sub, and there’s a little bit of kick and side fill for the dancers. But there are no wedges, and there’s enough bass coming out of FOH that I don’t need to add any on stage.”

Cerutti added he chose the Midas console as it’s compact and so works for the smaller venues on this tour. “As you can see, I’ve got one box to put it on and that’s me!”

her in-ears out when she’s chatting with the crowd, and I must be getting it right as she never does,” explained Cerutti.

In terms of reverb, Cerutti is using one external system for her voice: I’m using an M3000 from TC Electronic, and an internal one for drums, keeping everything simple and on budget. I’m using snapshots for every scene and there are subtle changes in levels but that’s about it. I have a scene per song. Some tracks are two or three scenes that segue into each

“When I actually got to rehearsals I knew what I was aiming for, which made these shows pretty straightforward. It’s what I do with every band, just to make sure I know what the hell is going on...” - Sound Engineer, Martin Hildred

The preference on stage is relatively uniform; Cerutti mixes a nice flat sound, with each member of the band hearing more of him or herself. He spends most of his time listening to Katy and adding ambient venue mics in her ears when there’s a response from the crowd.

The biggest capacity venue on this tour was the Roundhouse and the Birmingham O2, at 3000 each, so for most of the gigs Katy has been just a metre away from the audience and regularly interacts with them.

“I try to make sure she doesn’t need to take

other but they still only have one snapshot, just to boost the elements that people want to hear more than others.”

In terms of communicating with Katy and the band during the show the playback technician, drummer and Cerutti all have microphones.

“Not everyone has them because there’s not a moment when they can pick it up and talk to me. There are three songs where it’s just Katy and the pianist and the band come and speak to me then. To be fair, it’s a pretty straightforward gig. Between the lot of us, band included, we

PRODUCTION PROFILE: Katy B

Below: Ultima Ears were used for the in-ear monitoring systems used all round; LD Tom Campbell wanted to achieve ”a strong nightclub vibe” with his lighting rig.

kind of make it easy. They’re all really nice people to work with.”

Backline technician Sam Seidel agreed: “This tour has been pretty smooth with very little stress. The main thing has been getting the kit up there in good time. It’s not massive but it takes a little while to set up and making sure it’s right for sound check.”

Seidel also does the allimportant job of making sure the stage is set for the band with towels and water and that everyone is happy.

Also keeping everyone happy and making sure the show gets to each venue in a timely manner is Stagetruck which supplied a single 30ft tractor and trailer to the tour, while Silvergrey Carriage supplied tour buses. “The tour production

team were a pleasure to work with and we hope to tour with them all on the next one,” said Will Johns of Stage Truck.

Sometimes emotionally raw but more often feel good and bouncy, the lights were on, the Katy B team were, ahem, on a mission, the audiences jumped and nobody cried for no reason. Katy B rocked and the Roundhouse rocked with her.

TPi Photos: Sarah Rushton-Read http://thefifthestate.co.uk www.katybofficial.com www.tclightingdesign.co.uk www.ac-lasers.co.uk www.stagetruck.com www.silvergray.co.uk www.bcsaudio.com www.siyan.co.uk

53

PRODUCTION PROFILE: OneRepublic

ONEREPUBLIC ONEREPUBLIC’S NATIVE TOUR HAS BEEN THRILLING FANS ACCROSS THE GLOBE SINCE IT BEGAN IN APRIL 2013, SELLING OUT ARENAS WITH EASE AND REELING OFF FAULTLESS PROMO TV PERFORMANCES ALONG THE WAY. PRODUCTION WISE, THE TOUR IS AN IMPRESSIVE BEAST AS SIMON DUFF REPORTS FROM THE 02 ARENA IN LONDON.

It is quite rare for a production manager to be also mixing FOH sound on a major arena tour but that is exactly what Zito, an affable and hugely talented individual from Nashville, is doing for OneRepublic.

“My ability to multi task has always kept me busy,” he commented. “I think the biggest challenge in combing FOH mix duties and role of PM is managing your time. It is hard to get a break during the day. It has also been very interesting because over the course of a year and a half OneRepublic have gone from playing large theatres to arenas, so my role has really grown as the size of the venues has increased.

“I do have a great deal of responsibilities to the show and I have to know all the detail. I guess ideally with my PM hat on I would have to say that I don’t like being anchored to FOH during the show. I would much prefer to be able to have roaming capabilities and keep my 54

eyes on things as a whole. But my crew are top notch. Our security Giovanni Gasparetti is fantastic and fills gaps for me when I need and my Production Coordinator Sators does the same. Other crew members I would highlight straight away are Brett Stec, System Technician, Bill Heinzimier, Chief Rigger, Aaron Draude, Stage Manager and Oliver Rawles, Carpenter.

But I could name everyone as well. They are a fantastic hard working crew.”

Zito started his career in the music business playing in bands before moving to mixing sound for a host of top acts including New Kids on The Block, Babyface, Billy Currington, Good Charlotte, Sum 41 and Back Street Boys with whom he has worked for seven years. He has been with OneRepublic since the start of 2013 and added: “Everything has grown exponentially for One Republic and that includes sound. At The 02 Arena the band added a harmonium to

their line up taking the channel count at FOH up to 101 inputs.”

Both Zito and Monitor Engineer Kyle McMahon mix on a DiGiCo SD7. “We are sharing head amps, DiGiCo I / O and eliminating the analogue splitter,” explained McMahon.

“This decision was twofold. It cuts down on troubleshooting time when we run into issues, and the sonic quality overall improved by eliminating extra connections and copper. We are able to hear inputs exactly how each other hears them and see meters react the same way since we have the same desks and head amps running at 96k. Switching to DiGiCo has allowed us to effectively and efficiently meet the artistic demands of the band and their evolution from gig to gig as far as monitors are concerned. ” Zito is equally complementary about the SD7. “I did the first leg of the tour on the SD5 and then we both switched to the SD7 sharing

PRODUCTION PROFILE: OneRepublic

Opposite: The Native Tour is driven by a combination of diamond shaped LED elements, video content, and abstract colour design.

Below: From the wings of monitor world, Monitor Engineer Kyle McMahon can be seen mixing on a VER Sound-supplied DiGiCo SD7.

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stage racks. I had some hesitation in trying this but, in the end, it has been a great decision.

Not only did it eliminate a tonne of copper from the splitters, but also it has really simplified our patch. We know that if one of us has an input, we both do! This desk sounds phenomenal, it is so clean and the EQ is incredibly accurate. I can’t see myself using anything else for a long time. DiGiCo has made its mark the world over because of high-quality sonic performance,

outside there is a kick Beta 52. For hi hats and ride cymbals the order is a Shure SM81. With additional triggers the drum count adds up to 21. For the two bass cabs it’s SM57 and Sennhesiser 421 and a custom made pick up on cello. No cabinets are used on guitars with Zito opting for DI Palmer feeds. All vocal mics are Shure Beta 58’s with one Shure Series 2 old school mic that is lowered from the stage trusses and used on one song.

“Switching to DiGiCo has allowed us to effectively and efficiently meet the artistic demands of the band and their evolution from gig to gig as far as monitors are concerned...” - Monitor Engineer Kyle McMahon

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He mixes using snapshots and recalls on the desk, mainly for the purposes of channel mute recall then mixes manually through songs. With a channel count at FOH at The 02 hitting 101 mute recalls is essential.

For the microphone line up on stage Zito uses Shure KSM 137 for drum overheads, Beta 56 for the toms, a SM57 for snare top and Shure KSM 32’s for the snare bottom. For the inside kick mic, a Shure Beta 91 is utilised and

McMahon has been working in sound since 1997, initially as a system technician then moving to monitor world working for a host of high profile clients including Earth Wind & Fire, Harry Connick Jr as well as many leading Christian acts such as Hillsong and Passion.

He took on OneRepublic’s monitor duties in September taking over the baton from Matt Manix. McMahon’s DiGiCo SD7 takes the 100 plus inputs to create some 14 stereo IEMS for band, techs, video and lighting world as well as six mono sends for a small amount of

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: OneRepublic

Below: Neg Earth supplied the lighting rig, including eight Showtex Matrix 5x5’s; While a custom made pick up was fitted to Brent Kutzle’s Cello, Sennheiser 421 and Shure SM57 microphones were employed for bass amplification.

stage wedges which are d&b audiotechnik M4’s. McMahon commented on the console: “Sonically the SD7 sounds great, the layout is easy for me to understand and DiGiCo’s audio network capabilities are beyond comparison.

DiGiCo are doing networking of racks and consoles, which can run over 500 channels of audio. People are getting much more into distributed I / O systems. Mix-wise I use snapshots, mainly for aux send levels.” All in-ears are Westone ES60’s. Shure PSM 1000

aux send as an effect. There are about four points during the show I use these to really drive the audience. All loudspeakers are run off d&b audiotechnik D80 power amplifiers.

There are four racks a side for the whole PA with Lab.gruppen LM 44 amplifiers for EQ.” Zito continued: “I love the J Series because it is very clean and musical. The D80’s bring a tonne of punch and headroom to the already amazing PA. My System Technician, Brett Stec, can get the system to how I want it so sound. I leave

“I am really enjoying the B-Eye. First and foremost it is an excellent wash fixture, and I like how the LED washes are now competing with HMI washes....” - LD Andrew Pen

Transmitter and receivers utilised for some 50 channels of RF with the Shure AXT 600 Spectrum Manager System. A d&b audiotechnik J Series PA hang was supplied for the 02 show and consisted of 18 boxes of J per side; four J12’s and 14 J8’s. In addition, a further six J Series subs were hung per side directly behind the hang in cardioid formation. Zito added: “It keeps the low end really tight and punchy.” For the Side hang 12 J Series units were deployed.

On the ground, two stacks of d&b audiotechnik J INFRA subs were used, four per side. Zito likes to run the subs very much as an effect, he explained: “The main hangs are fed off the LR bus. Then the ground stacks are fed off an 56

that to him so when we do a sound check we are already there as to how it should sound.”

All tour audio equipment was supplied by VER Tour Sound.

ONEREPUBLIC VISUALS The look of The Native Tour is driven by a combination of diamond shaped LED elements, video content, including a mixture of abstract colour design and some band footage as well as on occasion each band assigned an individual animal character cartoon, in addition to the use of IMAG. The stage was built by Accurate Staging in Nashville with All Access Staging providing risers, B stage and power

transformers. For lighting fixtures the look is of sharp bold well-defined lines and washes with blues, reds, yellows, greens and tungsten very much to the fore. Two follow spots were used at the 02 Arena. The band themselves take quite an interest in production and have a direct influence over the look of the show.

Lighting Director for the European 2014 run is the affable Montreal-based Andrew Pen who has been in the business for over 20 years.

His impressive lighting design and production credits includes the likes of Linkin Park, Jovanotti, The Goo Goo Dolls, Audioslave, Avril Lavigne, Walk Off The Earth, Matchbox 20, Van Halen, Weezer and now OneRepublic.

Neg Earth supplied all the lighting fixtures, consoles, motors and rigging for the tour. “My relationship with Neg Earth goes back to the Avril Lavigne tour in 2004,” said Pen. “Dave Ridgeway (owner) has always provided me and the productions with whom I tour top-notch, stellar service and support. When I joined the Native Tour the show was already built on an MA Lighting grandMA2. Since joining, I have worked to develop the look and programming.

All consoles are equally useful to me, however the grandMA2 is quite obviously the dominant player in the market.”

Chris Lisle’s truss design is all-straight. One of the unique features are the four stage truss ‘pods’ that are suspended from the upstage truss, containing both LED panel and lighting fixtures. Continued Pen: “Overall Martin Mac Vipers, Clay Paky B-Eyes and Auras provide the meat and potatoes while Sharpy’s add spice and the 5X5 Matrix contribute to the overall ‘diamond’ look of the set by virtue of how they

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: OneRepublic

Below: A J Pen, Lighting Director; Charles Signaigo, Video Director; Zito, Production Manager and FOH Mix engineer; Kyle McMahon, Monitor Engineer.

are hung at 45º angles. The main fixtures for the Neg Earth line up for The 02 comprised of 22 Martin Professional MAC Vipers, 25 Martin MAC Auras, eight Showtec Matrix 5x5’s, four Martin Atomic Strobes, 12 Clay Paky Aleda K20 B-Eyes, 20 Clay Paky Sharpys, 16 Chroma Q Colorforce 48’s, two Colorkinetics Colorblast TRXs and five 500W Edison Bulb Large base fixtures. Pen added: “I am really enjoying the B-Eye. First and foremost it is an excellent wash fixture, and I like how the LED washes are now competing with HMI washes. It is very unique in some of the effects you can get out of it.”

Hybrid panels in diamond formations with high-res tiles each with low-res bright pixels spread throughout. A Catalyst media server is programmed at video world and chases SMPTE for the high-res wall while the low-res is on the same Catalyst but triggered via ArtNet from the lighting console. All cues are run 100% manually by Pen during the show. He added: “I have an in-ear mix that includes the mix that Zito sends to the PA, the click, the crew talk back and a separate talk back for Bert Elliott, our audio playback guy who counts the songs in. My mix is delayed to be in time with the PA. I

“I like to feel the music and imagine how I’d want to see it if I were in the audience...” - Video Director, Charles Signaigo

Risers are fitted with fascia panels which are lit from within by custom LED tape, as is the band’s custom upright piano and some large drums that the band plays in the finale. The brand-new piano also incorporates Chauvet Professional Strike fixtures in the top as up lights for when singer Ryan Tedder stands on the piano during the encore. The LED wall from XL Video is made up of the MC-18mm 58

find it easier to ‘play’ ahead of the beat than to interpret conflicting ear mix, sub bass messages.

I can also fine-tune the timing of the cues based on how much of the crowd is in front or behind me. CO2 effects are triggered from the lighting console and are played just like lighting cues.”

Moo TV, the Nashville based live event video event specialists provided video content development with XL Video providing all

associated hardware. Video Director is Charles Signaigo who has done a lot of work in the house of worship sector prior to coming on board with OneRepublic. Signaigio cuts his mix on a Panasonic AV HS 410. For IMAG content on the LED and rear projected onto screens either side of the stage nine cameras are used, three manned and six unmanned. On how he approaches his show mix Signaigio commented: “I like to feel the music and imagine how I’d want to see it if I were in the audience. Zito as PM is great to work with as are the band and I mix the show differently each night and I have a fantastic tour rigger, Bill Heinzimeir.”

Other key suppliers on the tour are Fly By Nite which is supplying six trucks and Beat the Street, four buses, two for crew and two for artists. Eat Your Hearts Out is providing catering for the full run.

Come show time the band arrived as giant shadows behind a screen in true kabuki style before the curtain fell. The band has a wealth of talent beside front man Tedder. Bassist Brent Kutzle frequently takes up the cello and guitarist Zach Filkins finesse includes a solo segment of looped flamenco acoustic guitar.

Song highlights included Counting Stars, Love Runs Out, Apologize and Stop and Stare. The band combines their Coldplay, U2 and Gospel influences to create an up beat optimistic American pop sensibility and Zito’s mix faithfully creates a polished high-powered dynamic throughout.

The show ends with the bands worldwide hit

PRODUCTION PROFILE: OneRepublic

Below: XL Video supplied the wall of LED, which comprised a number of MC-18mm Hybrid panels. The panels became an integral part of the stage.

single If I loose Myself complete with confetti from the bands’ own purchased Artistry in Motion confetti cannons. Two at stage and two at FOH control. This band and crew really do have all bases covered.

TPi

Photos: Simon Duff http://onerepublic.com www.verrents.com www.accuratestaging.com http://allaccessinc.com www.negearth.com www.mootv.com www.flybynite.co.uk www.beatthestreet.net www.eat-your-heart-out.com www.xlvideo.com

59

PRODUCTION PROFILE: SIGNAL Festival

SIGNAL FESTIVAL SIGNAL FESTIVAL IS NOT ONLY THE LARGEST SHOWCASE OF LIGHT ART AND VIDEO MAPPING TECHNOLOGY IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC, IT IS ONE OF THE FASTEST GROWING FESTIVALS OF ITS KIND IN EUROPE. THIS YEAR’S FESTIVAL, THE SECOND INCARNATION, TOOK PLACE BETWEEN OCTOBER 16-19 AND ATTRACTED 463,000 VISITORS - ALMOST DOUBLE THE AMOUNT ON LAST YEAR. TPi’S PATRICK MCCUMISKEY WENT TO THE CITY OF ONE THOUSAND SPIRES TO EXPERIENCE THE VISIONARY SPECTACLE...

There’s no escaping the anachronistic sensation you get while walking amongst the decorative facades and beautiful squares in Prague’s old town - aside from the throngs of tourists, the area is the closest you’ll get to an 18th Century time warp. Not you’re most obvious place for a video mapping festival on first thoughts, but then again, SIGNAL Festival would have us believe otherwise. And having seen several of the mapping shows on offer, it became obvious that it is precisely this juxtaposition between the historical setting and 21st Century technology that gives SIGNAL its unique selling point.

Understandably, putting a video mapping festival complete with almost half a million spectators into a 400 year old city centre comes with its own set of challenges, as Festival Coordinator, Martin Pošta explained: “To find places which are good for mapping in the centre of Prague is not easy, because you have to have a fairly big space and big distance from 60

the building you’re mapping. Also you have to have space for the production, and you have to ensure that each space allows for crowd flow in and out of streets. The Saturday evening was absolutely packed - more so, in fact, than at a hockey game, and Czechs absolutely love hockey!”

Although SIGNAL began in 2013, the seeds of the festival were sewn back in 2009 when Pošta, together with his video mapping content company, The Macula, created a projectionmapping piece on the clock tower of the old town square. Continued Pošta: “The clock tower projection piece was the beginning of the SIGNAL festival, if you will. It was such a huge success, mostly because it opened the door for us to work with the city again.”

This year, there were a multitude of events and installations on offer all over Prague’s Old Town; from interactive light installations to large-scale video mapping projections. While some of the works had already been successfully presented at other light festivals, the vast

majority of the 20 featured projects enjoyed world premieres at SIGNAL. For this second edition, which was supplied with production equipment by Prague-based festival partner AV Media, the organisers of the festival received videomapping applications from over 450 artists in 57 countries. Although, unfortunately, we can’t cover everything at the festival, we’ve endeavoured to bring you a selection of the production offerings within the old town.

DREAMFORGE The Kinský Palace on the magnificent Staromestské námestí (old town square) was given the projection mapping treatment by the Hungarian consortium Maxin10sity.

In this particular piece - which opened the entire festival - the artists attempted to transform the facade of the 18th Century palace into a fascinating abstract playground.

András Sass and László Czigány, Maxin10sity’s Artistic Directors, stated: “The

PRODUCTION PROFILE: SIGNAL Festival

Opposite: Maxin10sity projected onto the Kinský Palace on Prague’s Old Town Square. Below: Nerdwerking’s show - which embraced 3D projection mapping technology - utilised two Christie HD18 FullHD projectors.

challenge was to keep the public enrapt for eight minutes. Our starting point was to create a surreal world where everything was possible and anything could happen. Video mapping projection is about creating emotions out of artistic ideas with the help of modern technology. So we created a parallel between the projection and a dream and transformed the façade into a playground with abstract imagery.

The combination of dynamic effects and the music helped to grab viewers’ attention from the first second to the last.”

The Hungarian mapping specialists designed the show in less than two months and dedicated a team of six people to develop both the story and the content.

Dreamforge was projected on a loop for the whole duration of the festival using a Barco HDQ-2K40 40,000 lumen triple chip DLP projector, housed in the technical tower 60-metres away from the façade. Maxin10sity used Resolume software to map the 40 by 23-metre façade.

“The Barco 40,000 Lumen projector was really bright, and it performed faultlessly. We normally work with Christie projectors if the rental company has them in stock. Last week, for example, Maxin10sity created a piece for the Moscow Light Festival using Christie projectors.

We also made a short Christie advertisementmapping piece that was projected onto the Bolshoi theatre in Moscow.”

Although Maxin10sity only came into existence in 2014, it has certainly had its hands full as Tamás Vaspöri, Project Manager and Sales Director at Maxin10sity, explained: “The organisers were aware of András and László’s former work, in particular since they were also involved in the Bucharest 555th anniversary project (involving 104 Panasonic PT-DZ21K three-chip DLP projectors giving a total of over to two million lumens output) which we curated; they wanted great impact for their own festival so they asked us if we would join.”

Posta commented: “We really like Maxin10sity’s work because they bring something different to the table.”

OUT OF PLACE Out of Place, a projection mapping show on the Mariánské námestí square, was created by Australia’s The Electric Canvas. Projected onto one side of the city library, the animated show brought six statues adorning the library façade to life, revealing the hidden stories of the library through a highly visual prism of experience.

Famous for lighting up landmark buildings in Australia and abroad, including the Sydney Opera House, The Electric Canvas was approached by SIGNAL earlier in the year to become part of the festival. Alison Gill, show coordinator from The Electric Canvas, explained: “The projection included animated characters and a clock countdown, it allowed the audience to get introduced to the characters we have in the show. The characters are based on the six allegorical figures that adorn the façade of the building, namely: Literature, sculpture, music, philosophy, recreation and construction.

“The presentation is based on these, and the show is called ‘Out of Place’ because the animated figures move around, trying to find their original spot on the building. We wanted to use a narrative for the animation, and not just project random patterns onto the building.”

AV Media supplied six Panasonic DZ21K projectors and two Coolux Pandoras Box Media servers. Typically, there were several hurdles that had to be overcome during the design stage.

Continued Gill: “As part of our process we are used do performing a thorough visual survey of the whole façade to begin with ourselves, except we weren’t here to do that, so we were relying on information from the team at SIGNAL. Then four weeks before the festival we discovered a huge obstacle: In front of the façade was a lamppost with four huge footballsized lights hanging down and obscuring the projected image. But the SIGNAL organisers managed to speak to the city and they took the lights down. Then two weeks before the festival, the city introduced a new bus route which just so happens to run right past the façade of the building, meaning that every 20 minutes, a bus and its passengers gets the 61

PRODUCTION PROFILE: SIGNAL Festival

projection mapping treatment. We didn’t even know about this until we arrived on site!”

The Electric Canvas’ creative team also composed the soundtrack to Out of Place, which provided integral support to the narrative.

AV Media supplied an L-acoustics KARA PA system to deliver the audio, comprising two small and two large KARA units per side fed through two L-Acoustics LA8 amplifiers. “The whole experience has been fantastic for The Electric Canvas,” concluded Gill. “It’s a great festival and we’re proud to have been involved.”

E:MERGE The E:MERGE video mapping show - the only one at the festival to harbour 3D mapping technology - took place at the Michnuv Palace. The creators of this particular show, Nerdworking, are a Turkish-based interdisciplinary network of designers, architects, computer artists, coders and engineers focused on designing spaces for new experiences in the area between human, machine and code.

The abstract interplay of lines and illusory spaces for this show at SIGNAL deconstructed and manipulated the palace and its façade.

“Nerdworking has always tried to maintain a different approach for creating visual content.

We take video mapping as a stage performance, much like opera or theatre,” said Production Coordinator, Erdem Dilbaz.

“Reaction was positive from spectators and critics alike. Creating a mapping experience you can watch with 3D glasses was a different level of challenge for us at the beginning, as we had never worked in 3D before. But we were delighted by the results.”

AV Media supplied two Christie HD18, FullHD projectors and a Coolux Pandoras Box media server for the E:MERGE team.

“We have used all different kinds of top level manufacturers, and they all perform well; but in our experience, the Christie projectors are the best products for video mapping. Most of the media servers are not enough for cutting edge performances; but the Coolux handled our content without any problems.

“The most amazing part of the whole festival process was that every 15 minutes more than 1000 new visitors were immersed again into the performance. After seeing different mapping performances at the festival this year, we were happy to have this chance to give our theatrical show for the audience.”

LIGHT BARRIER Light Barrier was an installation created by Kimchi and Chips on the Strelecký Ostrov, an island in the middle of the Vltava River. In this installation, graphic objects were projected onto a fog-lathered barrier of spherical shaped mirrors.

Elliot Woods, one half of Kimchi and Chips,

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explained: “We were approached by SIGNAL earlier in the year, initially discussing an outdoor commission of our installation [Line Segments Space, 2013] which draws into a space using tightly aligned projection and a complex network of strings. Then in July, we created Light Barrier, and immediately realised this new work would be the perfect fit for SIGNAL festival.

“We specified two 20,000 lumen EIKI SXGA+ projectors with a 1.2 lens throw ratio. Previously we used Christie projectors for the installation, but at SIGNAL we used Barco based on what was supplied by AV Media.

“Speaking about Light Barrier, I think if people need a term for what it does then it would be ‘light field projection’, and I’m expecting a lot of new ideas to come out of light field projection in the near future including lighting stage performers, creating beam effects and creating 3d floating graphic objects.”

Pošta concluded: “We want to make sure that people enjoy themselves - that’s the whole ethos of the festival. SIGNAL has grown so big in only two years, so we need to ensure that Prague can accommodate this growth for next years’ festival.”

TPi Photos: Michal Ureš and Alex Dobrovodsky www.signalfestival.com/2014/en www.avmedia.cz

PRODUCTION PROFILE: Chvrches

CHVRCHES SCOTTISH BAND CHVRCHES’ HYPNOTIC TAKE ON 80S ELECTROPOP HAS KEPT CONGREGATIONS ACROSS EUROPE CAPTIVATED. KNOWN FOR THEIR DIY APPROACH TO MUSIC, BAND MEMBERS IAIN COOK, EX JOURNALIST LAUREN MAYBERRY AND SYNTH WIZARD MARTIN DOHERTY WORK CLOSELY WITH THEIR CREATIVE AND PRODUCTION TEAM TO CRAFT A DAZZLING, SHARPLY FOCUSED SHOW, WHICH PERFECTLY COMPLEMENTS THE GLACIAL SYNTH SOUND OF THE BAND. SARAH RUSHTON-READ JOINS THE CHVRCHES DEVOTED FLOCK OF FOLLOWERS AT LONDON’S BRIXTON ACADEMY . . .

It’s hard to believe that in the last two years, besides a number of festival slots, popular act Chvrches has played surprisingly few official UK dates. This made the recent Brixton Academy appearance all the more special and presented the band with the ideal opportunity to once more captivate its UK audience.

The experience is sparkling and immersive, both visually and aurally. Designed by Show / Lighting Designer Louis Oliver of Okulus, the look accentuates the band’s identity by cleverly alluding to the artwork of its recently released first album - The Bones of What You Believe.

There is also a strong sense of unity that is undoubtedly aided by the close relationship the band members have with their small but highly motivated production / creative team, headed up by busy Production / Tour Manager Cara McDaniel.

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McDaniel, whose touring back catalogue includes Emeli Sandé and Razorlight, has been taking care of Chvrches for just over a year: “I’m not sure how normal my touring strategy is,” she laughed. “It can be challenging to take care of both production and tour management concurrently. I do my best to ensure that all the people I work with take ownership of their jobs and have control over their role in the touring party. That generally means everyone has a voice and I am not micro-managing him or her.

I really do enjoy working as part of a small unit and seeing the show grow.”

And in McDaniel’s mind that small team includes the band. “I’m lucky that all of the artists I’ve worked with have been supremely approachable. Of course we still put the band on a pedestal because that’s where they belong but at the same time we have a positive and productive working relationship with them,

which really helps.”

According to McDaniel, with a relatively small production / technical team, this approach has been crucial to the success of the tour: “At the start of this campaign the band was doing a lot of press and I would be with them. This meant I wouldn’t see the venue we were playing until around 4pm, when we’d all arrived for sound check. In terms of production and set up, I had to trust our small technical team wholesale to have everything in place and be ready to go for when we arrived.”

McDaniel and her team are clearly extremely proud of this tour. “It really helps that the management team is supportive,” she added.

“In fact the band’s Manager, Campbell McNeil, used to be the tour / production manager so he understands exactly what it takes!”

It’s also very apparent that McDaniel is a firm believer that doing her homework and

PRODUCTION PROFILE: Chvrches

Opposite: Show and Lighting Designer, Louis Oliver has been working with the band since 2012. Below: Backline / Monitors Tech, Ben Bodoan; Singer Lauren Mayberry performed with a DPA d:facto microphone; This tour incorporated lasers from ER Productions.

having go-to, knowledgeable people she can rely on close at hand, while establishing strong relationships with helpful and reliable suppliers, is 90% of the job. “It always helps if you can work with people you know and trust. My husband runs a PA company so in terms of managing in ear monitor frequencies both he and Campbell are great fonts of knowledge. No two tours are ever the same, but when you’ve done a few you tend to know what works. I have checklists as long as my arm, it’s just a matter of systematically running through them.

With things I’ve never done before, for example lasers, I double and triple check I have all the right health and safety paperwork and that I understand the issues that might arise.”

In terms of suppliers, the tour relies on Britannia Row for sound and HSL for lighting.

“Both are really organised companies and I appreciate the fact that when I call them I get a straight answer. For trucking we use Redburn Transfer - fantastic people. The rest of the team bring their own relationships as well - I hadn’t used HSL before but Louis wanted to use them and that’s his call. After all he’s the one that’s out there on the frontline and if something isn’t right he has to deal with it.”

Designer Louis Oliver has been involved with the band since Autumn 2012 and treats his stage like a canvas. For him designing the show and lighting the band is more of an art project than a gig.

The show has evolved over time and today Oliver’s concept is based on album artwork

by Amy Burrows. This sees various light up, ‘V’ shaped set piece used to focus attention onto the band. Oliver also uses these elements to affect the dynamics of the stage. All are outlined with a number of LED strips and collectively they form a stage wide lowresolution video screen. Oliver manipulates audience perspective and works with and in contrast to the tempo of the show, cleverly breaking musical phrases and synchronising with the multifarious layers of the songs.

“We take this set everywhere with us now,” said Oliver. “Even in the smaller venues we will use the floor pieces in front of the synths and the central floor based piece at the back, it really strengthens the bands identity.”

LS-Live built the pieces: “It’s definitely been a challenge getting these to work the way I wanted them to,” recalled Oliver. “The fabrication of the metal work and the build is fantastic but the LED strips were initially a struggle to pixel map, however it’s all sorted now.”

VISUALS Oliver’s determination to get it right has certainly paid dividends. From the first note played the band and audience are immersed in an atmospheric, heavily backlit, acid environment. Filled with haze each song sees

layer upon layer of sharply focused light and lasers complement the sometimes fast moving, sometimes static lit pieces of set, all of which conspire to pull you into Chvrches’ world and much like the music, the look is sharply on-beat, multi-faceted and unearthly.

Mirroring the set design and creating symmetry with fixtures in the air and floor is Oliver’s lighting package, which comprises 12 Robe Robin 600 LED Wash fixtures, 24 Robe Robin 100 Beams, 17 Phillips Nitro 510cs, 16 Martin MAC Auras and 19 Martin MAC IIIs. “Lighting has been built around the set pieces,” explained Oliver. “The content has been designed to draw your eyes in towards the act as opposed to being simply flashy, with no real thought or reason behind it. We certainly don’t want it to just be a light show with some people on stage playing instruments. There was always a danger that because the boys are hidden behind the synthesizers and midi controllers that the focus would be too heavily on Lauren. This is not something that the band or I wanted.”

MA Lighting’s grandMA2 is Oliver’s choice of console: “I’m not afraid of other things, it’s just what I know best and it does what I want to do very quickly,” he explained. “Everything is cue stacked bar a few stabs here and there for effects. However it doesn’t necessarily have to be a strobe stab, it could be a different effect on the set. I prefer this because there is quite a lot going on in this show and its good to have a 65

PRODUCTION PROFILE: Chvrches

Below: LS-Live built set pieces which integrated pixel-mapped LED lighting strips. The look was accompanied by a lighting rig comprising Robe, Martin Professional and Philips fixtures.

couple of overrides for great impact.”

Unusually Oliver chooses not to scan the audience with the lasers but rather keeps the focus on stage. At times they’re the only light source used: “In one of the new songs called Get Away I wanted to use very few lights,” Oliver explained. “There’s a slight glow from the washes but the rest is done with simple effects from the 7.4W lasers at the back, amplified with light a little bit during the chorus and breakdown.”

In total, ER Productions supplied three of the new ARCTOS REGUS lasers systems as ER Productions’ Director, Ryan Hagan discussed: ”The ARCTOS REGUS are a recent addition to ER’s stock. They’re incredibly small and lightweight but have high output of 7.4W balanced. They use the new direct diode 520nm green. Similar systems prior to this used a V-FOLD cavity green, which at times came out of alignment and would then need the kind of attention generally unavailable on the road.

These save on truck space and can be flown with the rest of the system if necessary.”

ER Productions also supplied 24 of the new RGB BEAMBURST, an even smaller unit capable of single beam effects and audience safe diffraction exposure. “Our brief was to programme the show but avoid making it look 66

like an EDM spectacular! The end result was a slick and classy display and it really did add a special dimension to the show. What’s even more incredible is the ARCTOS lasers exposure never left the stage with all FX contained in and around the band.”

AUDIO Also keeping the focus sharply on the band is FOH Engineer, Paul Gallagher. The band is not touring their own PA but Gallagher says that if they were they would definitely be touring the L-Acoustics K2, which luckily was exactly what Britannia Row supplied for Brixton! I like the curvature at the top and the fact that it’s not too breathy-sounding. It’s got a nice sweep, like a really expensive Hi-Fi.” This is important as one of the challenges for Gallagher is getting Lauren’s voice above the instruments whilst ensuring that the music still has lots of energy and punch. “Lauren has a great voice and it’s just making the most of it in the room,” he explained. “I’m using an Avid Venue console, which is pretty basic in terms of what it can do. However being able to use third party plug-ins, such as the Waves package, is crucial and I can get a lot more intricate with what I’m doing mix wise. From multiband compression to really specific EQ and parametric

EQ, the Venue opens up a lot more doors.

Definitely for this kind of tour it’s been the desk of choice.”

Gallagher chooses not to tour with outboard: “I am using an Apollo Twin interface

by Universal Audio. I really like the space echo emulation and I’m running that from an Apple MacBook Pro,” he explained. “I’m also using the Roland CE1 plug-in, which I really enjoy using on Lauren’s voice for that 80s chorus sound.”

Alongside such plug-ins Gallagher uses a TC Electronic VSS3 - an old reverb plug in from around 10 years ago. “I guess the algorithms are lifted out of the system 6000 and to me that sounds great.”

The microphone of choice for Lauren is the DPA D:Facto, which Gallagher said “is very open and natural sounding in the high frequencies.”

Although there is no monitor engineer to speak of there is Ben Bodoano. “I’m kind of everything rolled into one,” he laughed. “I am the midi, playback and backline technician. I was originally brought on board to take care of and set up the gear. Slowly over the course of the last 18 months I’ve built new systems and got the computers off the stage and into a rack on the side stage. The band still control the computers from the stage via an iPad controller I’ve built using the lemur app.”

PRODUCTION PROFILE: Chvrches

Below: LD Louis Oliver; Production / Tour Manager, Cara McDaniel.

All the kit, backline and set belong to the band. The move from onstage to off had to be completed in two parts: “I have two computers running Ableton, which function as the drums and also output the midi information to the various keyboards,” outlineed Bodoano. “Audio then comes back into Ableton so that the band members can set up their own monitor feeds. This mitigates the need for a monitor engineer or console.

It’s all in the box ready to go!”

What has delighted Bodoano is that the stage is now really neat, and with the band all on in-ears it’s relatively quiet too. “It’s all been pre-programmed by the band,” he explained.

“It’s still the system they put into place before I was brought on board, but it has definitely evolved. When Chvrches started off their IEMs were just in mono and now everything is in stereo, which is obviously much better.

In fact the band have it all under control; they might have a little tweak in sound check, notch something up here and there, but once the gig starts that’s generally it.”

Most of the instruments are electronic, aside from two physical guitars for a couple of songs as Bodoano explained: “Kit includes Moog Voyager, Dave Smith Prophet ‘08 and Roland Juno 6 keyboards. Martin has a

machine pad where he plays samples and various drum parts. There are no amps on stage, instead the band use a GTR Processor

by Fractual Audio called the Ax Fx, a top-ofthe-range guitar emulator, which the guitars feed into.”

The GTR audio signal is then split with one feed going to Bodoano and the IEMs off stage, and another to FOH. To keep the vox clean the mics are also split to FOH before it goes through the computers.

Everything about this show feels well considered and controlled. There is an primary intimacy, which the Chvrches trio share with their audience and with their production team. Sometimes anthemic and soaring and at other times fast paced and multifaceted, Chvrches dreamlike show is addictively stimulating and quietly intelligent on every level.

TPi Photos: Sarah Rushton-Read http://thefifthestate.co.uk www.chvrch.es www.britanniarow.com www.redburn.co.uk www.ls-live.com www.hslgroup.com www.er-productions.com

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CLOCKING OFF: Sober October

GO SOBER FOR OCTOBER: THE STORY OF TWO JOURNALISTS WHO SPEND A LOT OF TIME AT THE BAR...

According to a recent survey by MacMillan Cancer Support, Britons will spend an average of 315 days of their lives suffering with a hangover.

At first glance, it would seem that the ‘average’ Briton probably doesn’t work in this industry. 315 days in a lifetime surely can’t represent reality in this sector. Then I took a look at the stats for 7% of the UK population and noted that for the unlucky few, a shocking 3,024 hangovers were experienced. Research also found that a typical hangover for a man lasts seven hours while women face the situation for closer to nine hours. Harsh! You know the feeling: sickness, tiredness, and an unidentified object splitting your brain in two.

Oh tequila, you’re rarely worth it… MacMillian’s report surfaced in September, when the charity published the results in order to encourage people to banish the booze for 31 whole days.

And, it worked. The UK and Ireland has raised over £3.5m - at the time of going to print - by over 100,000 participants. Those hangover free days are clearly valued by some. At Mondiale 68

HQ, this was certainly the case. As many of you will know by now, myself and Rachael Rogerson (sister publication mondo*dr’s Editor) opted to look after our livers (and bank balances) by joining in. At times, it was tough. Though not tough enough to discourage either of us from doing it again. There were indeed trade shows, press trips, birthdays, holidays and an abundance of generic social life temptations,

word that will always cause shock, distress and heartache to those affected.

During the course of this 31 day challenge, I received a few phone calls and emails from our readers sharing their experiences with The Big C. Let us never forget that there is a community here. When we did finally see the light (or clear spirits, at least) thanks to your support, we were delighted to find out we’d raised £1,080.00.

“Thanks to your support, we were delighted to find out we’d raised £1,080.00. That’s a brilliant £580.00 over our target goal...” but we made it. Smugly so. Not least because testing ourselves was a big thing (neither of us had probably gone more than a week without the a drink since we started our jobs in the entertainment technology world!) but because the actual important reasons behind doing this challenge and becoming a ‘sober hero’ as MacMillan rather kindly put it, is for the people affected by cancer. It seems like such a commonly spoken word, yet it’s the kind of

That’s a brilliant £580.00 over our target goal.

Here we are, pictured above with a bottle of fizz from our pals at DiGiCo. I mean, if anyone was going to support you and then encourage you to fall off the wagon, it’s them!

Much love, Kelly xo TPi www.gosober.org.uk/team/mondialeeditresses

Merry Christmas and a rockin’ New Year to everyone we’ve worked with in 2014

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF... Joe Sanchez

PRODUCTION MANAGER, JOE SANCHEZ HE’S SPENT THREE YEARS ON THE ROAD WITH RIHANNA AND IS CURRENTLY WORKING WITH QUEEN AND ADAM LAMBERT’S WORLD TOUR. HERE’S A SLICE OF LIFE IN THE PM LANE ACCORDING TO BRITISH BORN, US-BASED, WORLD TRAVELLER JOE SANCHEZ. I’m always up early. If I’m coming in from an overnight run then I’ll drag myself off the bus and head into the venue 15 minutes before the floor mark begins. If I’m coming in from a day off then it’s a hotel lobby call and short bus ride in with the riggers, caterers and my Production Stage Manager, Roger Cabot.

I head in and walk to the arena floor where I’ll find my Head Rigger Todd Mauger. Roger will already be lining up trucks for load in, so I’ll go over to the production office where my Assistant, Jil Aram, is already setting up the office. We review sold map and ticket sales and as soon as the tour Wi-Fi network is up my inbox starts filling up with everything from Asian freight manifests to promo budgets and the need for mandolin strings in Texas… you know the deal!

My crew comes in hourly waves. The lighting and carpentry departments come first, then video, audio, backline, wardrobe and so on. On the Queen and Adam Lambert tour, life is somewhat straightforward. We don’t carry backstage furniture as the artists are happy with whatever is there. On Rihanna however, we always carry a truck of backstage furniture and another truck for wardrobe, but that’s the pop world... rock ‘n’ roll bands are great!

Jim Webb, my Show Stage Manager works with the carpenters before taking them over for sound check and show time as Stage Manager. Meanwhile, I’m busy with emails and advancing with the day’s schedule. I’ll check in with Juliette Slater (Tour Director) as to any updates for the day and spend some time planning those all important budgets.

Equipment is loaded in off the trucks for our routine; kit gets flown in, up and down and out in the same order every day. Once the first week or two of any tour is complete, everything else runs smoother. The load ins and outs speed up and everyone learns their specific role very quickly. Once the production is up and running, I find time to grab a sandwich from catering.

Queen like Jim and I to meet them as they pull into the arena. We’ll get a heads up from their security and then wait by the loading dock. Both Roger Taylor (drums) and Brian May (guitar) are great; they’re very laid back and respectful of the tour’s technical production, which makes our jobs a lot easier.

We walk the band to their dressing rooms and talk nonsense for a bit. Jim gets Queen and Adam in the arena for sound check while I sit with my department heads and go through upcoming shows and rigging plots. As soon as Jim gives the nod that the band are done, I give the go ahead to open the doors. Then the building really starts to come alive!

After Jim has put the band on stage, I watch the opening numbers from the side and walk through the arena to make sure it looks and sounds great from everywhere. Only when the show is underway do I have time to catch up with my other family. I Skype my girlfriend and our baby, but never for long enough!

Soon Jil and I run through logistics for the next day or two before I swing back out to the show and check out another song. I talk to Roger about that evening’s load out too. We have a load out map for every show that he draws up and posts. With the bigger (20+) truck shows, you need to be very organised and have the load out finished in 2-3 hours. Once the show has come down, I walk the band to their cars. Queen keep it old school; it’s straight into an SUV and they’re gone. No one uses stretch limos anymore, in fact the last time I saw one of those I was watching Led Zepplin’s The Song Remains The Same.

The various departments head to the buses and grab some after show food, which I avoid.

Beer and pizza is a no-go with my early starts… Unless we have a day off. Roger, Todd and I are always the last ones out in any event and I’m very lucky that I get to work with some of my best friends. They’re a group of guys that have been with me on many different tours over the years; we have each other’s backs. Like the Mafia. Well, the touring Mexican Mafia that is…

Joe Sanchez 70

COMPANY PROFILE: Richard Martin Lighting

RML: 30 YEARS OF PROGRESSION RICHARD MARTIN LIGHTING HAS PROVIDED QUALITY INTELLIGENT LIGHTING - COMPLETE WITH 24/7 BACK UP - TO THE LIVE PRODUCTION INDUSTRY SINCE IT WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1984, AND THIS MONTH IS CELEBRATING ITS 30TH ANNIVERSARY. YET BY THE COMPANY’S OWN ADMISSION, THE FUTURE OF THE INDUSTRY LIES IN TODAY’S LIGHTING DESIGN STUDENTS, AND THIS IS THE REAL REASON TO CELEBRATE, AS TPi’S KELLY MURRAY FOUND OUT DURING A CHAT WITH RML’S FOUNDER, RICHARD JASINSKI. Richard Martin Lighting - a premier British lighting manufacturer and rental company that specialises in live TV broadcasts - company ’s Founder and Managing Director, Richard Jasinski began his career working in various BBC studios. This initial grounding gave him the knowledge and understanding to eventually develop and build his own lighting products, the first of which was the Pillar - a three flat-sided column consisting of 24 PAR 36 lamps and produces a flat curtain-type effect. This step into building lights would cement the company’s fate.

“I was invited down to TV centre along with a group of others, including Lighting Designer, Mark Kenyon, who was a student then, and we visited the Top of the Pops (TOTP) studios. We were fortunate enough to visit the studio a numbers of times and began to 72

think that the TOTP set was rather out-dated and drab looking... It was then that I took the opportunity to speak to production about the possibility of building (not buying) some ‘fancy lighting’. I’m not sure if they weren’t keen or just testing me but we certainly had to jump through many hoops before they would even entertain the idea... something things don’t change! It was only when we introduced the Barrel that things really started to take off. It was definitely a snowball effect; I don’t think anyone could have foreseen how it was going to progress.

“Top of the Pops was definitely a defining time in our history. Not only did it put us on the map so to speak, the show ran for a long time with ever changing sets and lighting directors, which gave us the time to establish ourselves as a company.”

RML continued to provide lights to TOTP

COMPANY PROFILE: Richard Martin Lighting

Opposite: Richard Martin Lighting has built and supplied innovative lighting fixtures for a wide variety of TV production designs including BBC One’s Tonight’s The Night; The company was founded in 1984 and this month celebrates its 30th anniversary. Below: BBC Two’s Shooting Stars, BBC One’s Pressure Pad; Mountbatten music festival at the Royal Albert Hall; BBC Three’s Live At The Electric.

for many years. Jasinski nurtured his passion for innovation, after the success of the Barrel - a rotating egg-shaped bail on 2-axis consisting of 24 100w lamps by following it up with the Twist - a twisted column consisting of 24 PAR 36 lamps. Then came the Contra Pillars, Contra Twists, HMI Guns and Sound-to-Light Guns, all of which were used on top TV shows. Indeed since founding the company, RML has gone on to work with some of the most recognisable and entertaining TV shows in British broadcasting such as Blue Peter, Children in Need, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, A Question of Sport, The Pride of Britain Awards, Strictly Come Dancing, and Comic Relief to name but a few.

Jasinski told TPi: “The first five years were extremely hairy but with lots of hard work and determination we managed to steer through those very early years. Thankfully once we were on the other side, business just got better and better! Fortunately after having a number of successful years we managed to accrue a significant financial buffer.

“We have become moving light specialists who have continuously worked to remain at the forefront of technology, historically making

bold and pioneering investments. Today we offer an extensive range of the latest products at competitive prices, providing support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We are now the proud owner of over 5,200 products from leading lighting manufacturers, stored in our 3,130 sq metre premises. Our company’s creditability has also been cemented by an expert team of operational, technical and administration staff.

AT THE FOREFRONT OF RENTAL This growth has come as a result of clever management decisions and key investments.

“We are like one big family and everyone has their part to play in making sure the company runs smoothly,” stated Jasinski. The daily running of RML is overseen by Operations Manager, Steve Wells, who reports to Jasinski and Financial Director, Jackie Jasinski. There are currently 10 full-time staff employed, and a team of freelance technicians who carry out studio work.

RML has been the first rental house in the UK to add new products to its rental stock on several occasions, allowing it to lead the way in terms of trendsetting.

“In 2009 we bought 100 Clay Paky Sharpy

Beams, and were the very first rental house in the UK to own them! More recently we invested in the Philips Vari-Lite VL4000 Spots, again being the first rental house in the UK to purchase the product.

“We have been very lucky over the years, both as a company and myself individually, to work very closely with a lot of the major lighting manufacturers. This has meant that we have been able to see potential new products in their early development stages and even have some input into the potential design of these fixtures.

Because RML is an intelligent moving light specialist, we are able to move on new products very quickly, bring the latest fixtures to the wider rental market and remain at the forefront of technology,” he explained.

The process in choosing new rental fixtures depends on several points for Jasinski including demand, rent-ability and longevity. “We would first test the market with ‘demo’ fixtures to gain a response from our clients, before then looking to see where it sits within our existing inventory and rental price range. Lastly we would consider how long the fixture could last in terms of popularity and running costs.

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COMPANY PROFILE: Richard Martin Lighting

Below: Top Of The Pops was the TV show which catapulted RML into the ahem, lime light, thanks to the invention of the Barrel fixture.

“ Every new fixture starts off being popular, but the real test is to see the different ways in which a fixture can be utilised. To date the Clay Paky Sharpy, Martin Professional MAC Aura, Robe ROBIN 100 LEDBeam and the Philips Nitro 510C are proving to be very popular, so much so that we have actually just increased our stock of those,” he enthused.

THE NEXT GENERATION As well as celebrating three decades in business, RML also understands that lighting technology and design students are the future of the industry. “It is imperative that they are given the tools to develop to the best of their abilities and are shown the best and most recent in moving light technology,” said Jasinski, who is very enthusiastic about the company’s partnership with LAMDA, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. RML partners with the academy’s Stage Management and Technical Theatre students, allowing them regular access to cutting edge moving light and LED technology.

“There are many other aspects of the partnership, including work placements, providing equipment for their performances / productions and donating equipment for training,” continued Jasinski. “RML provides training in conjunction with the lighting manufactures, as this not only provides the 74

trainees with valuable knowledge to products, but they also gain a recognised training certificate. This is something we are hoping to expand on in the future.”

2015 AND BEYOND Going forward in its 30th year, RML’s continued mission according to Jasinski is to “simply to be the industry’s first choice for intelligent lighting equipment rental, supported by experienced technicians, delivering outstanding quality with

been doing more and more, including product demonstrations, training, music videos and preproduction rehearsals, product demonstrations and training, all of which is aiming for expansion next year.

“We also are looking at several new products for 2015, but you will need to watch this space as to what they will be!”

In the mean time, RML will continue to maintain and build new relationships with LDs, students and key decision makers in that

“It is imperative that they [students] are given the tools to develop to the best of their abilities and are shown the best and most recent in moving light technology...” Richard Jasinski.

an interpersonal service and competitive rates.”

This year the company rebranded its in-house demo room and gave it its own identity with the name Studio 24. Continued Jasinski: “When we moved to our larger premises in 2007 we were blessed with a huge amount of space, including a demo room, which we have developed so that it simulates studio conditions. With its own access, truss and power, the studio has

quintisentially British way: ”With lots of cups of tea, technology-driven chats, but most of all, we will continue to listen to their requirements and be a contactable rental house, 24/7,” he concluded.

From everyone at TPi, happy birthday to RML and may the next 30 years be just as fruitful!

TPi www.richardmartinlighting.co.uk

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: XTA

XTA’S APA-4E8 EARLIER THIS YEAR, BRITISH PROCESSING AND AMP MANUFACTURER, XTA, REVEALED THE APA SERIES AND ITS FIRST INSTALLMENT, THE APA-4E8. THE ADAPTIVE PROCESSING AMPLIFIER PROMISES TO GIVE THE PRO AUDIO MARKET SOMETHING IT HAS NEVER SEEN BEFORE. XTA’S TECHNICAL BRAND MANAGER, WARING HAYES, TALKS TO TPi’S KELLY MURRAY ABOUT THE APA STORY SO FAR...

XTA’s highly anticipiated APA Series is the result of several years of significant investment in R&D. Following on from research projects into loudspeaker protection and adaptive protection, the completely new power and DSP platforms of the 4E8 have been designed to interact intelligently and adapt to prevailing conditions, protecting drivers, and significantly enhancing performance from all speaker systems.

Technical Brand Manager, Waring Hayes, told TPi: “It’s true to say we have taken our time, but that’s not a bad thing, as far as the end result goes - we needed to get this right. This amplifier was never going to just be a big brute of power with a DSP crossover card inside - it had to be capable of more.”

The very first look at the APA Series was an exclusive preview held for XTA’s distributors at Prolight + Sound in Frankfurt. “They had a bit of an inkling that something special was coming soon, and some of this excitement filtered out via social networks - despite it being a ‘secret’ preview! So this was certainly reflected in the APA’s official InfoComm launch in the US,” he explained. In the UK, the APA’s first appearance on British soil was at the PRO Show in Birmingham. “We certainly generated plenty of interest at the show, and many of the UK’s top rental companies who wouldn’t have made the stateside trip came to see APA in the flesh.

Off the back of this many customers have been in to see us for more in-depth discussions, so it was successful as a launch pad in the UK. The show felt lively and there was a buzz not quite present at PLASA London, due in part to the BPM element and the DJ activity.”

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INNOVATIVE AUDIO PROCESSING “Apart from wanting to design the best sounding digital amplifier in the world, we also wanted it to have a technically innovative audio processing platform that would allow the amplifier to be adapted over time as we were able to augment its features to improve what it’s capable of,” said Hayes.

The ‘adaptive’ idea is core to the APA not only can the amplifier react and adapt dynamically to its conditions to keep things running at the highest performance levels possible. “At XTA we can adapt and improve its capabilities because we have future-proofed the design. For a period of years now, speaker manufacturers have been offering bespoke systems that offer a sort of ‘peace of mind’ because they choose the amplifiers and processing for their speakers on your behalf.

With this should come the guarantee that your system should perform as well as it possibly can, and the notion that it will be safely protected.

We have been offering our customers this choice with our processors for many years; simply use tuned settings for your system and get the best performance out if it,” he explained.

“The APA amplifier will allow you to precisely and safely get the very best from your speakers. Tools that XTA have been offering have become standard in the arsenal of so many engineers such as two stage limiting and dynamic equalisation, as well as more esoteric capabilities like FIR filtering that are part of APA. The amplifier platform will work alongside our stand-alone processors and can share settings that engineers already have.”

Whilst we think of APA as a whole, the combination of a big amp and some clever DSP offers some major advantages above what is currently available. Hayes continued: “On the amplifier side of things, we have massively over-developed our power supply’s capability so that we can deliver what we say on the spec sheet for as long as is needed and not just all note long, but, all night long, as Lionel Richie once sang…” Yes, thank you for that detailed explanation, Mr. Hayes!

“The adaptive nature of the amplifier relies on the fact that we aren’t just monitoring what’s coming in - we are also monitoring in real time and with the same resolution and bitrate (that’s 96k everywhere, including all processing) what is going out. So, 96k 24-bit converters at the outputs feed back the connected load voltages and currents to the DSP platform,” he continued.

“This feature ensures what comes out isn’t just louder, but also as faithful to the input as possible. That includes making sure your speakers aren’t being overdriven - not just with limiters for protection - which are there of course - but adaptive control to extract the last dB of power without stressing drivers past their limits,” he furthered.

Environmentally speaking, it’s going down the right route too: a quick start mode, and an ultra low power stand-by mode (with a power consumption of under 0.75W) mean reduced running costs in all situations. The APA-4E8 features four channels of power, totaling 20kW peak output into 4R, and continuous power available of 3.4kW per channel into 4R. In essence, while the amplifier appears as a four channel device to the outside world, internally

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: XTA

Opposite: The APA-4E8. Below: The newly built listening room and training facility at the XTA HQ; Service Manager Ian Davis and Waring Hayes at the PRO show in Birmingham for the product’s first UK showing.

there is in fact a further eight more channels of audio being constantly processed and compared to the inputs (four output voltages plus four output currents).

TECHNICAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT In March 2007 MC²Audio and XTA Electronics merged, joining together two well-respected British pro audio manufacturers, a move which has been a huge benefit to both companies.

“Their knowledge has been invaluable along the way, but XTA have stepped up and this design is brand new - we’ve developed innovative manufacturing techniques for the power stages to improve the already high class

D efficiency, and over the past three years we have increased our R&D resources by threefold to allow the power amplifier and supply work to run alongside the adaptive processing research. Yet the ‘clever stuff’ shouldn’t impact on the usability of the product. Hands-on intuitive access and thoughtful engineer-led interface design has always been central to XTA products.”

What’s more, with a complex design such as this, XTA has also decided to cater for the product’s new users; a brand new training facility, demo and listening room has been specifically set-up for the needs of APA customers at its Worcestershire HQ.

The APA-4E8 recently toured with musical theatre production, Dancing in the Streets (an evening of Motown hits, if you didn’t know) which had the product on the road with Thames Audio during a test phase. Following the 30-date UK run, joint Managing Director of Thames Audio, Peter Cox, enthused that the APA is the natural progression from the MC² E100, which itself is a very popular choice worldwide. The conclusion being that it is the APA’s audio quality, which allows it to stand out. TPi will certainly be keeping up to date with XTA’s potential game changer in 2015.

TPi www.audiocore.co.uk

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MARKET FOCUS: Draping

DRAPING ACTUS INDUSTRIES

http://actusindustries.com

Actus Industries is a leading supplier of rigging and automation equipment to the entertainment and exhibition industries. It also carries a large stock of drapes for dry hire, including black wool serge, filled cloth and gauzes, along with Triple E tracks and accessories. Its new warehouse facility in Bradford, West Yorkshire is ideally situated to service the North of England and includes dedicated drape preparation facilities. Actus Industries also provides a supply and installation service for both temporary shows and permanent venue installations.

ACRE JEAN

www.acrejean.com

Established in 1984, Acre Jean has been at the forefront of the hire and manufacture of soft goods to the entertainment industry. Acre Jean drapes are used at concerts, conferences, product launches, trade and fashion shows, weddings, parties and many other events. From the company’s facility in South West London it can offer a fast response delivery service, by its own fleet or national carrier. Acre Jean’s clients are global, so a close affiliation with its international freighting agent ensures that the product is delivered on time. The company has huge stocks of black and coloured wool serge drapes, velvets, treviras, filled cloth and gauzes, LED, RGB and fibre optic starcloth hire and sales and an extensive range of pipe and drape. Other specialist items include bespoke touring curtains, electic kabuki systems and a very high quality and fast turnaround digital printing service.

BLACKOUT

www.blackout-ltd.com

Blackout’s reliable and creative draping services span across Europe, catering for every need from simple dry hire to bespoke fabric creations and reveals. With a 50,000sq ft warehouse and demo space Blackout has the skills and stock available to meet any brief. As well as the highest quality of stock, Blackout prides itself on so much more than that. It’s about the people. Blackout’s draping team has years of experience and they are passionate about what they do, working with you to find the right solutions no matter how complex the challenge. Blackout’s dedicated sewing department has been providing draping and fabric solutions to live events and venues for 25 years. Recent projects include a custom-made fabric installation for Beyoncé at the BRITs, a bespoke drape set for Simply Red at the Royal Variety Performance, working with Peter Bingemann, and a stunning show opening for Kasabian’s headline spot at Glastonbury.

CREATIVE DRAPING

http://creativedraping.com

With over 20 years experience, Creative Draping has an innovative approach to draped installations. It can design, produce, cut and fit drapes to suite any size and style, always giving an immaculate tailored finish.

This picture shows one of Susie Carlino’s (owner, Creative Draping) latest designs in transforming a ballroom ceiling into a contemporary three-tiered Chandelier. With Carlino’s vast knowledge of the whole production process you are in the safest hands when you require that something special!

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MARKET FOCUS: Draping

CHAUVET

www.chauvetpro.com

The Chauvet Professional SparkliteLED Drape is a fully controllable and expandable tri-colour LED star field drape. Each drape holds 128 LEDs distributed into eight controllable zones for a variety of effects via the required SparkliteLED Controller, which can control up to four drapes. Multiple units can be easily joined through hook-and-loop fasteners and controlled separately to create original shows. Alternatively, the drapes can be mounted as a dramatic ceiling.

FOS GLOBAL

www.fos.uk.com

FOS Global Ltd produces a wide range of drapes in many different types of fabrics, ranging from black wool serge backdrops in fibre and LEDs and many other fabrics. The company also manufactures a unique fibre optic carpet. FOS Global’s highly trained staff are all skilled in all aspects of drape manufacturing and whilst meeting extremely tight delivery schedules, a very high standard of workmanship is always maintained. The company has worked with many entertainment technology companies including HSL, VME, PRG and Bill Kenwrights, to name but a few.

GERRIETS

www.gerriets.com

Founded in 1946, Gerriets is famous for its extensive experience in scenic equipment and entertainment technology as well as having an excellent reputation as a major drapery manufacturer and theatrical supplier.

Other than projection screens and dance floor, its wide product range includes technical stage equipment and track technology. Projects range from theatre and opera houses, cinemas, cruise ships, exhibitions, town halls, music halls and churches to permanent architectural installations. Among many prominent reference projects include the London Royal Opera House main curtain, huge cycloramas for trade show booths, like the IAA in Frankfurt, its FENCE scissor track system at the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre, or office acoustic curtain solutions. Gerriets solutions are innovative including verall project management from the design phase and engineering through to the installation. Gerriets employs state-of-the-art technology and highly skilled technicians on all projects to ensure our high quality standard.

HANGMAN

www.hangman.co.uk

Hangman and Metalman are the UK’s leading independent drapes and set company and have been producing extraordinary stage sets, drapes and 3D scenic art for almost 30 years. Its stage design and fabrication projects have earned us an international reputation for imagination, precision and build quality.

Unlike other specialist staging or soft goods companies, it can also build all elements of your set in tandem so there will be no ‘surprises’ once the kit arrives on site. Hangman is at the forefront of drape manufacturing technology, bringing together the best of the traditional set building techniques with the latest innovations in printing, fabrics and LED technologies with its expertise in design, manufacture and scenic artistry.

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MARKET FOCUS: Draping

J&C JOEL

www.jcjoel.com

J&C Joel is a world leading drapery company where everything is designed and manufactured in its specialist workshops in the UK, Hong Kong and Dubai. One of its latest projects was the drape that features in the new grand show THE WYLD in Berlin, Germany, the most elaborate show outside of Las Vegas. The team at J&C Joel worked closely with the show’s Production Team and Designers to create a beautiful sheer drape that cascades down onto the stage midway through the performance to help create an amazing effect for the 210,000 viewers that will see the show over the next two years. The team of drapery experts at J&C Joel knows that whatever the purpose of a drape, it always has to help inspire the performance.

PERRY SCENIC

www.perryscenic.com

Through working with the industry’s top creative designers, bespoke scenic solutions company Perry Scenic has continually pushed the capabilities of soft goods way ahead of the trend. Said Perry Scenic’s Jon Perry: “There are standard techniques when it comes to 3D, kabuki and applique backdrops, but not many people are doing 3D backdrops in the way we do, with clever fabric and artwork techniques, or the scale we do them on.” Its highly experienced team has worked with creative talent LeRoy Bennett and Peter Aquindes to break new ground in the field of large-scale 3D backdrops. Working on direction from Bennett, the West Midlands company created a huge 70ft by 30ft 3D backdrop for Rammstein’s festival shows this summer.

Although a solid collapsible soft, the use of multiple fabrics with paint effects and air brushing makes it look like a 3D collection of organic cells. “When light is shined onto the fabric at different angles you get some amazing effects out of it and lots of depth,” said Perry. “It’s almost like a spiderweb of ghostly cells with a rusty metallic fascia outline. “The band and the designer were really happy with it.”

PROMPT SIDE

www.promptside.co.uk

Prompt Side is one of the UK’s leading theatrical drapery manufacturers specialising in supplying bespoke drapery to the arts and entertainment industry. Customers include the Royal Opera House, English National Opera and Glyndebourne Opera, and it frequently collaborates with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Its knowledge, accumulated over 25 years of collaboration with designers and production managers, alongside its Managing Director’s decade of theatrical experience, lends us unrivalled technical expertise - highly valued and appreciated by its customers. Its digital printing services include seam-less its pioneering textile welding solution for printed, backlit cycloramas and it now supplies printed cotton sharkstooth gauzes up to 10-metres wide - all in one piece!

RUTTERS

www.ruttersuk.com

By working closely with major production companies for many years, Rutters is now one of the market leaders in the creation of exceptional, bespoke drapings and backdrops for the global live entertainment market. Rutters’ innovative and highly professional work ethic is also extremely diverse. Projects range from the creation of a pair of giant wings designed by The Mutoid Waste Co for the Rolling Stones at Glastonbury to full sets of opera cloths. Its expertise in the production of scenic cloths is exceptional, having produced backdrops for a wide range of stage shows and theatrical productions. In addition, Rutters’ knowledge of studio backdrops for live TV shows is almost unrivalled. Rutters takes pride in its ability to continually turn jobs around in the ideal time window.

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J&C Joel Ad TPI Half Page 136x190mm_Layout 1 04/12/2014 09:24 Page 1

730 days 480 shows 100 artists 210,000 tickets sold 1 amazing drape J&C Joel are a world leading manufacturer of flame retardant fabric, flooring, drapery and stage engineering to the theatre, television, film, entertainment and event industries. To discover how we provide the perfect backdrop to your performance:

email: info@jcjoel.com • call: +44 (0)1422 833835 • visit: www.jcjoel.com J&C Joel Ltd (HQ), Corporation Mill, Corporation Street, Sowerby Bridge, HX6 2QQ, West Yorkshire, UK J&C Joel Benelux T: +31 (0)5945 14787 beneluxsales@jcjoel.com

J&C Joel South Africa T: +27 (0)11 0836123 sasales@jcjoel.com

J&C Joel Middle East T: +971 (0)4 884 7801 sales@jcjoel.ae

Image kindly provided and approved by the Friedrichstadt-Palast Betriebsgesellschaft mbH

J&C Joel Macau T: +853 65451223 macausales@jcjoel.com

J&C Joel Hong Kong T: +852 2357 5333 hksales@jcjoel.com

J&C Joel

MARKET FOCUS: Draping

S+H TECHNICAL

www.starcloth.co.uk

Formed in 1992, S+H has established a reputation for quality and service. It believes that no job is too big or too small, and this flexibility has seen it providing its services to the entertainment industry globally.

S+H Technical has supplied specialist draping and ‘soft’ lighting effects lighting to several high profile TV shows recently including Strictly Come Dancing’s Blackpool Special as well as for the regular weekly show broadcast from Elstree Studios; the main Children In Need telethon studio; popular talent competition Stars in Their Eyes back on air in 2015 after a nine year hiatus; new ITV talent show Get Your Act Together and Bette Midler’s first ever ITV special One Night Only.

SHOWLED

www.showled.com

ShowLED designs and develops LED components that boost the flexibility and creativity of today’s starcloths.

As an innovator in the fast-paced industry, ShowLED recently added a brand new LED controller to the product portfolio, which can auto detect the type of LEDs connected, whether monochrome or RGB. It offers stand alone presets or DMX control over eight output channels (eight RGB), and creates a flawless dimmer curve by converting each control channel to a 12-bit resolution. All these features are packed in a compact device, weighing no more than 450g, with a capacity to power 512 monochrome LEDs, or 256 RGB LEDs. As featured on Stars in Their Eyes, Bette Midler, Dancing with the Stars, Children in need, and many more shows and touring events across the globe, ShowLED starcloths never cease to amaze!

SHOWTEX

www.showtex.com

International textile supplier ShowTex offers an extensive print fabric collection for both indoor and outdoor use and is equipped with three and five metre large scale printers. The company now also guarantees the best high resolution printing results in the industry on stretch materials up to 300cm wide and provides the latest in precision laser cutting technology. Personalised backdrops can be cut out of nearly any flame retardant fabric of virtually infinite length with a seamless width of up to five metres wide with millimetre precision. This production form is becoming more and more popular during the manufacturing process of bespoke stage curtains and event furnishings. It’s an extremely accurate cutting method that allows for fine cut detail and a clean edge without fraying.

UNIVERSAL STARS

www.universalstars.co.uk

Universal Stars is burgeoning ahead with robust UK manufacturing alongside hire and installation services.

The company creates some of the world’s best white and RGB starcloths, and is expert at running LED strips to any surface. Universal Stars offers LED system replacements for broken or cheap imported starcloth products. In 2013 it quoted for buggies, ice sculptures, water features and exhibition set designs. Add to this its draping expertise, with a huge hire stock that boasts lots of white draping as well as the usual starcloths and blacks. The company manufactures wedding backdrops and DJ Starlight kits on a daily basis. Its free quotations mean customers can turn their LED ideas into reality, with fast turnaround and reliable products.

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WITHIN TEMPTATION HYDRA WORLD TOUR

© Within Temptation

AMAZING STAGE FABRICS IN MOTION Blackout 'People' half-page LSI:Layout 1

T: O17O614:56 819746Page // INFO@SHOWTEX.COM // WWW.SHOWTEX.COM 1

11/2/14

The drapes and rigging people.

At Blackout we offer more than just the usual event equipment hire. It’s not just that we’re the only company in the UK supplying a complete drapes and rigging service, we also provide what others can’t. Our people.

Blackout people, from project management, through warehousing and manufacturing to rigging and installation, are skilled, dependable and enthusiastic - in fact, we thinkthey’re the best in the business.

Find out for yourself. To talkto Blackout about your next project or event, phone +44 (0)20 8687 8400 contact us at sales@blackout-ltd.com or visit www.blackout-ltd.com

Where the people make the difference.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

THE BIGGER PICTURE IT MIGHT GET LOUD When we last checked, live production is still in the business of creating noise, quite a lot of it in some cases. Now, we’re always keen to remind people that high levels of noise can, with time, damage hearing beyond repair. We therefore recommend avoiding noisy environments when at all possible.

As a last resort, hearing protection can be used, and the nice people at Limitear, purveyors of noise limiting devices for headphones and the like have given us permission to reproduce their white paper on the use of hearing protection in high ambient noise environments. Read on for a few considerations when choosing how to look after your ears.

Notes on the use of headphones and earpieces in high ambient noise environments where exposure to noise must be controlled in line with the Noise at Work Regulations.

1

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Glossary For consistency we refer to sound from outside the headphones or earpieces as “ambient noise” and to that heard electronically through the drivers / speakers in the headphones as “reproduced sound” THE LAWS OF PHYSICS: Sound is subject to the “Square Law”, the intensity of the sound decreases as the square of the distance. i.e. if you double the distance you get ¼ of the intensity. Thus moving away from the source of the ambient will reduce its intensity and will improve intelligibility of the reproduced sound.

As the dB scale, in which sound is measured, is logarithmic a 3dB change will either double or halve the sound level.

THE NOISE AT WORK (NAW) REGULATIONS The NaW Regulations in the UK and Directive 2003/10/EC – noise agents elsewhere in the EU, determine the maximum noise exposure a listener at work is allowed to experience. There are two key numbers, the first is a peak of 137dBC, and the other is an average of 85 dBA over an eight hour period. Whilst the first limit is easy to understand the second is more complex to understand and to manage as it allows the listener to experience sounds above the regulated average dose, so long as those listening periods are balanced by equivalent periods below the regulated average dose.

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The table above (1) gives examples of the regulated listening period for different average dose levels.

The regulations permit the use of the equal energy calculation which enables the listener to have a higher Average Dose Level so long as the Listening Period is reduced accordingly.

It is worth noting that the NaW regulations were changed and the maximum and daily Average Dose Level were reduced in 2003 in response to research that showed that exposure to sounds above these levels is harmful and that long term exposure to relatively modest sounds

can be as harmful as exposure to loud impulse sounds, but is much more difficult to monitor and manage.

INTELLIGIBILITY OF COMMUNICATIONS To hear communication clearly the reproduced sound has to be louder than the ambient noise.

Opinions vary about how much louder, though it is generally accepted that a listener will require somewhere between 4dB and 8dB of additional reproduced sound level over the ambient to understand speech. The precise amount of additional reproduced sound level is heavily 2

www.psa.org.uk dependent on the type of ambient noise (voices may require higher signal, music or continuous noise may be less) and on the listener’s ability to differentiate speech from noise which may be affected by their own physiology and other temporary biological effects such as fatigue.

CURRENT APPROACH Currently a common method of achieving the desired reproduced sound to ambient noise level is to turn up the reproduced sound in the headphones. However if the ambient noise level is high the listener will often be listening at levels from the headphones which are potentially damaging and risking breeching the average Noise Dose specified in the NaW regulations.

If we look at the situation described above and do a simple calculation we can illustrate the problem.

As can be seen from G in the table the listener would have exhausted their hearing dose within the NaW regulations in less than eight minutes and would risk sustaining permanent hearing damage.

SOLUTIONS As we aren’t able to change the Laws of Physics or the NaW Regulations the focus must be on the options under our influence and control.

Firstly can we isolate the listener from the ambient noise in some way (see square law), or increase the separation by perhaps enclosing them in some sort of screened area for example a booth?

Whilst this might be an option for certain operators isolating other production staff in a booth is not an option so they will have to continue to operate in the high ambient conditions.

AMBIENT NOISE REDUCING HEADPHONES As the option of isolating the user is not practical we should consider the use of more effective headphones specifically designed for use in high ambient noise environments. Many of these headphones are capable of providing reductions in ambient noise of between 20 dB and 25 dB. The calculation below (3) illustrates how the listener is better protected and their hearing dose within the Noise at Work regulations is extended from seven minutes or so to nearly two hours.

Given that the Average Ambient Noise level is 105 db there will be episodes where the ambient sound level will be much greater, usually at moments of excitement or tension (goal scored, 3

a foul committed, punch thrown etc) when the listener will need to increase the level of reproduced sound to maintain the intelligibility of the signal.

Unfortunately most of these ambient noise isolation headphones rely on a close fit to the listener’s head so can be heavy, hot or uncomfortable and it may be preferable to consider the use of In Ear Monitors (IEMs) which are widely used by musicians.

CUSTOM MOULDED IN EAR MONITORS (IEM) IEMs provide a very good solution to listening at safe levels in high ambient noise conditions as many of them can provide between 25 dB and 30 dB of ambient noise attenuation (manufacturer’s claims, some of which are certified) when fitted and used correctly.

They are also flexible, in low ambient noise environments, listening using one ear is acceptable, though users should be aware that the human ears have evolved to work as a pair in “stereo” to enable the accurate positioning of environmental sounds. So if you feed the ears with completely different signals (ambient noise in one, reproduced sound in the other), the brain may have difficulty understanding speech.

the second earpiece allows the IEMs to be used at their optimum level.

The calculation below (4) illustrates how the listener is protected and their hearing dose within the Noise at Work regulations is extended to between two and four hours.

Whilst the IEMs provide excellent ambient noise reduction some users find them unpleasant to use or too isolating.

Recent developments in the IEM sector have attempted to address these concerns, firstly by manufacturing the custom mould from different materials and adding two microphones to the electronics to enable the listener to adjust the level of ambient sound experienced by mixing it with the reproduced signal.

ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLING (ANC) OR ACTIVE NOISE REDUCTION (ANR) One other technology which may be worth consideration in certain conditions are headphones which use electronics to reduce the ambient noise level whilst allowing the reproduced sound through unaffected. They work by sampling the ambient noise and then re-emitting this signal out of phase into the earpieces which tends to cancel out some or all 4

As the ambient noise increases, this leads to unacceptable levels in the listening ear, because the “open” ear is subject to increased level, whereas the earpiece ear, which is better isolated from the ambient, will still be at the original level, so there is a tendency to increase the volume to compensate.

As the ambient increases, it is a good idea to use an “attenuating” earpiece in the open ear to equalise the level in both ears, which allows the listening earpiece to be operated at a lower level, and still allows the listener to take part in conversations nearby.

As the ambient noise rises further, inserting

of the ambient.

ANC/ANR is reasonable effective at low frequencies and with fairly continuous ambient noise and this may help to improve intelligibility of speech frequencies.

This is a clever technology but the active noise cancelling can prove unpopular with certain users (especially technical purists such as sound engineers!) as they can detect the ANC/ANR operating which adversely affects their listening experience.

HYGIENE – PERSONAL ISSUE HEADPHONES Many items of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) can be shared between individuals if the need arises – helmets, coats, hi-vis etc, but when these items come into intimate contact with someone’s body, then it is not reasonable to ask people to share them.

Ear infections are commonly caught and passed on from dirty earpieces and can cause, amongst other things Bell’s palsy and permanent hearing damage.

Consideration should really be given to making headphones and earpieces personal issue.

TPi www.limitear.com 85

MOVERS & SHAKERS Sponsored by www.interfacio.com • +44 208 986 5002

MOVERS & SHAKERS

d&b audiotechnik has strengthened its management by bringing on board Sabina Berloffa as Director of Marketing. She is responsible for global marketing and product management, with the aim of further expanding brand awareness, developing new markets and accelerating the growth of the company.

“Sabina Berloffa has great experience in B2B marketing, brand leadership and product management. She will take a key role in the company’s strategic growth over the coming years. I’m delighted to have Sabina on board”, said CEO of d&b audiotechnik, Amnon Harman.

Berloffa said: “I am excited to join d&b. For the last decade, the company has stood for quality in professional audio solutions. d&b has a fantastic customer base, especially in the touring and installation markets which we intend to expand continuously. Our aim is to continue to inspire our global customers and partners with products and solutions. Equally, we will seize new opportunities to grow our market leadership in the pro audio field, through technology leadership.”

Eurotruss is excited and proud to announce that the company has signed a Master Distribution Agreement with Procom ME for the Middle East area. This collaboration is a great opportunity to expand its leading presence in the Middle East market and responds adequately to the demand from today’s ever-changing market: instant delivery of stock, daily support and local appearance.

Procom ME offers the best possible service, through efficient and instant product delivery and full support all backed by the strength and reputation of Eurotruss. Procom ME - a company that specialises in professional lighting, sound, video and rigging - is well established in Dubai with a significant presence in Beirut too.

UK motion control specialist Kinesys is continuing to expand its Kinesys USA operation by welcoming David Bond to the team in the role 86

of Head of Sales for North America.

David will be leading the Kinesys USA sales department and travelling extensively to meet with and talk to customers throughout North America. He will be working closely with David Martin based at the Kinesys USA headquarters in Atlanta who will be focussing on the operations and training aspects of the company. Together they will continue to develop the company’s US brand and expand its market coverage. Both David Bond and David Martin will also work closely with the relevant departments at Kinesys’ global head office in London, UK. Kinesys USA’s CEO, Dave Weatherhead said: “We have had a very positive response to Kinesys putting down roots in the USA. David Bond’s approachable style and extensive knowledge of rigging standards makes him the perfect ambassador for Kinesys in North America. We are therefore delighted that he is joining us to spearhead our sales operation. We are looking forward to making more announcements in the New Year as we further expand the capabilities of our US operation.”

Pioneer Pro Audio has added David Ferreira to its team as Technical Sales Specialist, who will be adding to the growing team responsible for sales and installation of the brand’s sound systems for clubs, bars and restaurants. David brings with him seven years of pro audio experience, most recently as UK Sales Executive for Martin Audio.

Prior to that he worked at Loud Technologies as European Service Supervisor and Technical Support Specialist.

“It’s an exciting time to be joining Pioneer Pro Audio,” said David. “With Pioneer DJ’s legacy of innovation and Pioneer / TAD’s heritage in speakers, I’m looking forward to helping to develop and expand the Pioneer Pro Audio brand.”

Alex Barrand, Pioneer Pro Audio Manager, commented: “We’re delighted to have David on board. His experience and understanding of the pro audio market will be invaluable in taking our

versatile sound systems to even more venues across Europe and beyond.”

Renkus-Heinz has announced the appointment of PacificAV as the company’s new representatives for the Southern California region. Based in Oceanside, CA, PacificAV is a leading rep firm run by industry veteran Scott Wrege, specialising in Pro Audio and Installed A / V. PacificAV will represent Renkus-Heinz in Southern California and Southern Nevada.

“We’re very pleased to welcome Scott and the PacificAV team to Renkus-Heinz,” remarked Rik Kirby, Renkus-Heinz Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “They’ve got a great reputation and a stellar track record, and we’re looking forward to having them on board.”

“Renkus-Heinz is one of Pro Audio’s legendary brands, with a long history of innovation and a reputation for the highest quality products,” added Wrege. “We are honoured to be working with a great brand and a great group of people.”

Robe Lighting has appointed Craig Burross as Regional Sales Manager of the Western United States. Burross was most recently with Barco / High End Systems as the National Sales Manager for North America. Due to customer demand and increased popularity, Robe Lighting is expanding its reach in the US under CEO Bob Schacherl.

This is one of several strategic steps the company is making to provide Robe clients better sales support and enhanced customer service.

“About a year ago Bob Schacherl and I were speaking and I said, it would be great to work with you again,” said Burross. “Along with Bob, I have also known Harry von den Stemmen for many years as well. I’ve always had the utmost respect for both Harry and Josef and their collective accomplishments globally with Robe.

What really makes this an easy decision for me is my existing friendship with the Robe US sales team. Our goals are clearly aligned for supporting and prospering with Robe clients here in the United States. I’m elated to be a part of further growing this respected brand.”

www.interfacio.com • +44 208 986 5002

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Opposite: d&b audiotechnik brings on board Sabina Berloffa as Director of Marketing; Kinesys Head of Sales for North America, David Bond; NEXO’s new CEO, Jean Mullor; Renkus-Heinz has announced the appointment of PacificAV as the company’s new representatives.

Burross has more than 25 years of prior industry experience on a variety of sales teams including High End Systems, Vari-Lite and Victor Duncan.

Bob Schacherl commented: “I have had the pleasure of working with Craig for almost 15 years. He has a great personality, incredible energy and passion for the industry. His historical success throughout his career is widely known. As a result he has built an extensive list of contacts and developed long-lasting relationships with dealers, Lighting Designers and end users that span the nation. We expect Craig to have an immediate impact on our business. We’re thrilled to have him on board and he is a fantastic addition to the Robe team.”

TC Group has announced the appointment of Andy Rust as its Vice President of Marketing for install and tour, with responsibility for the marketing of TC Group brands, primarily Tannoy, Lab.gruppen, Lake and White Acoustic, in installed sound and touring markets.

Based at Tannoy’s headquarters in Scotland, Andy has assumed the lead role in the marketing of the Install and Tour verticals, the managing of the core I and T marketing team at Coatbridge, as well as the delivery of the marketing strategy and coordination of other marketing teams within

TC Group offices in North America, Japan and China.

In congratulating Andy on his new role, Andrzej Sosna, CEO of TC Group’s Install and Tour verticals, said: “Andy has a wealth of experience of marketing and the audio industry having spent 13 years at Peavey and the last nine of those as their European Marketing Manager. His diverse experience in traditional and cutting edge media tools will benefit us greatly in the Install and Tour market vertical in the coming years.”

Outline names Pan Asia as its exclusive Distributor for Singapore and Malaysia As part of its ongoing process of preparing for the next step of growth in the Far East.

With combined 25 years’ experience, Pan Asia is a professional audio / video lighting and control equipment distribution and technical service company founded by Chip Chong and TatNam Yee. NEXO enters 2015 with a new CEO, as Jean Mullor takes over the reins at the leading French loudspeaker manufacturer. Yoshi Tsugawa, who has guided the company for the past three and a half years, is returning to Japan, where he takes up new responsibilities as the General Manager for Band & Orchestra products in the MI & Audio Sales and Marketing Group of Yamaha

EXPERIENCED THEATRE AND CONCERT PRODUCTION MANAGER We are seeking a self-motivated team player with good interpersonal skills and proven knowledge of large scale UK and International touring to join our very busy and expanding company. If successful you will be primarily office based and will oversee ALL of our shows and be responsible for creating budgets, negotiating all supplier and crew contracts, creating production riders and managing all technical aspects of our productions.

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Corporation.

New CEO Jean Mullor comes to NEXO from Yamaha Music Europe, where he has spent nearly four years as Managing Director of the French subsidiary, in charge of the domestic distribution of musical instruments, commercial audio products, audio video products and music schools network development.

Trained as a lawyer, Mullor brings with him a wealth of management experience. A lifelong passion for music has taken him from US petrochemical giant Mobil to Yamaha Corporation, joining the French branch in 1992. Over the years, he has augmented his legal expertise with HR, logistics, finance, sales and marketing departmental experience.

Speaking of his appointment, Mullor described it as “a remarkable opportunity to join a company that has a 30-year record of technical achievement and an industry-leading reputation.

With its flagship technology making inroads at the very top of the international market, and a slate of new products scheduled for release, these are exciting times for NEXO, and I’m looking forward to being part of its talented team.”

TPi www.tpimagazine.com/jobs/

Project Co-ordinator Are you a dynamic individual looking for a rewarding career in the live events and lighting industry?

If so we currently have an exciting opportunity within our fast paced and rapidly expanding team for a proactive and results orientated project co-ordinator.

This role will develop your current good level of knowledge and experience of the lighting and live events industry. Working as part of our exceptional project team you will gain satisfaction from delivering prestigious live events to our high profile clients.

For further information please contact Delia Gibbs on 0208 963 0327 or via e-mail at hr@negearth.co.uk

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VITAL STATS

VITAL STATS 165 Oliver Braun Profession: Marketing Manager, Global Truss Date & place of birth: 22 September, 1979 Karlsruhe, West Germany

How did your career in the industry begin?

Actually I was born into this industry as my father has been in the business for almost 40 years now. I began working during the school holidays and helped out at exhibitions. After my studies I worked in marketing in the football business, but I came back to the event industry in 2011.

What led you to your current role at Global Truss?

I love marketing and I saw a lot of potential in growing the Global Truss brand. I now have the opportunity to realise innovative approaches like our TrussTool and our own app.

How has Global Truss’ position within the market place evolved since you joined the company?

Global Truss was already a well-known brand before I joined.

I think we have managed to become more professional in our marketing efforts and provide more technical information to our customers. Also, we started the Truss Academy and attended more international exhibitions. So I think we have strengthened and are continuing to strengthen our presence within the market.

“In the US, we distribute our brand under the name Cosmic Truss. We had a very busy stand at LDI this year, with lots of interest...”

What is Global Truss’ flagship product, and where is it most likely to be implemented?

There is not one flagship product as such. But there are certain ‘flagship’ products. For example, the F32-F34 range is particularly popular, as is our vast collection of couplers and clamps. The 812 coupler has sold more than two million units since 2001. They are being used throughout the whole event industry. Having said that, more and more industrial applications are being realised nowadays with Global Truss products, which just goes to show the variety of Global Truss product applications.

What has been the most significant development in truss manufacturing in recent years?

We have proven that it is possible to produce a truss that is not welded.

Unfortunately it might take some years to get this development into the market since the costs are still higher than a regular welded truss. But the trussing business is very stable and not many innovations are being introduced - that shows that the quality of truss is very good and the product has a long life.

How will the recent Eurocode changes benefit the truss industry?

More and more regulations will come sooner or later and Eurocode is just 90

one of them. That said, Eurocode is a big regulation since all load tables for the truss systems have to be recalculated. If these regulations help to make the industry safer then, of course, we support them.

You have just exhibited at the LDI show in Las Vegas. What has the reaction to your products been like this year?

In the US, we distribute our brand under the name Cosmic Truss. We had a very busy stand at LDI this year, with lots of interest. People realise that we stand for availability, reliability, affordability and innovation and although we had to rebrand in this market, we still offer the same good quality.

What can we expect to see from the company next year?

In Frankfurt we will show new and innovative couplers and we will release a new version of our online TrussTool. Furthermore, the Truss Academy will go international in Europe and Australia.

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