Festival Focus

As is the annual tradition, we at Team TPi have packed our tents and wellies to bring you this year’s Festival Focus. Running every issue from July to October, the editorial crew will be speaking to the wonderful men and women who make the festival season what it is - legendary.

PINKPOP FESTIVAL

ROE Visual LED screens are an essential eye-catcher on the 2 main stages of this long-running Dutch institution. Using a combination of Carbon CB5 panels and an Air Frame support system, Faber Audiovisuals premiers this product on the European market.

Held for the 49th consecutive year, Pinkpop boasted a line-up including Pearl Jam, Bruno Mars, Foo Fighters and many more. Faber Audiovisuals, commissioned by the Production Factory, is responsible for the supply of all LED screens, camera work and live streaming from the festival.

Framing both the Main (South) Stage and 3FM Stage, ROE Visual LED screens are used to capture the on-stage action and live performances. “For the 3FM stage we use 2 side screens of both 74sqm, the LED display we use there is the MC7,” explained Steven Embregts, from Faber Audiovisuals. “While for the Main Stage we use 2 huge screens of 104sqm each, consisting of the Carbon series CB5 panels.”

The CB5 panels are supported by the newly released Air Frame support system. Air Frame is a lightweight touring system that is compatible with the Carbon series (CB5, CB8) panels. It provides a convenient allin-one solution for hanging, stacking and transportation. The use of innovative technology for this carbon-fibre touring frame reduces valuable production time. The lightweight, folding frames minimise trailer space, contributing to cost savings when compared to conventional touring frames.

“The LED screens for the main stage are really massive,” continued Embregts. “Measuring 13m high and 8m wide, we really had some considerations building these screens, building had to be both quick and safe. Structurally calculated to absorb high wind speeds, the ROE Visual Air Frame offers the ideal solution for us. We’re lucky to have them delivered just in time for this production.”

“We continuously monitor our customer’s needs,” commented Roelof Bouwman, Managing Director of ROE Visual Europe. “As soon as we knew the Air Frames were ready for production we informed Faber Audiovisual on the possibilities. A sneak-preview was given during the Prolight+Sound show, held in Frankfurt last April, this convinced Faber Audiovisuals to invest in this system. ROE Visual will officially launch the Air Frame system this week.”

“At first, we were a bit worried to damage the screens during the build; although very lightweight, with measurements 120cm x 120cm the CB5 panels are quite large, but during the build everything went smooth. The panels and the frames fit together perfectly and building a large LED wall like this is amazingly fast,” concluded Embregts.

www.roevisual.com www.pinkpop.nl

HANGOUT MUSIC FESTIVAL

Nearly 40,000 people flocked to the sandy beaches of the Gulf of Mexico for Hangout Music Festival, featuring artists such as The Killers, Zedd, The Chainsmokers, Halsey, Logic, Kendrick Lamar, Odesza, Foster the People and SZA.

Bandit Lites provided the lighting for 3 of the festival’s stages, including the mainstage, taking careful consideration of supplying a variety of gear that would accommodate the artists traveling with their own packages.

“Hangout is the official start of festival season for us and always a blast to be involved with,” stated Client Rep and Production Director Dizzy Gosnell. “The brief for the main stage was for the system to be able to work for the 3 headliners, The Killers, The Chainsmokers and Kendrick Lamar, and of course have enough toys for bands on earlier in the day to have some punch in daylight if needed. It helped enormously that the headliners had sent out their needs weeks ahead of the design, build, and prep.”

The mainstage had over 200 fixtures including Martin by Harman Atomic 3000 Strobes, Philips Vari-Lite VL 3500 Washes, VL 3000 Spots, Chauvet Illuminarc Panel 80 LED Washes, Claypaky Sharpys, 8-Lite fixtures and 4 Lycian M2 spots with 2 MA Lighting grandMA2 full size consoles for control.

“The mainstage also featured our new truss weather protection system on the 60ft front truss, which got a full evacuation level storm workout on Thursday night and there was not one damp light the next morning,” Gosnell added.

“The Surf Stage was fundamentally a 3-truss rig, but as the stage is called The Surf Stage and is literally 10 yards away from the lapping waves of the Gulf, I thought about making those 3 trusses a bity wavy and outlining them with the IP Elation Professional 6bars and WW2 Cuepix blinders to emphasise the curves during the day or night,” said Gosnell. “We had to keep the rig high as the rear video wall obviously couldn’t have ladders or low trusses in front of it, and this approach seemed to work well. I was really pleased with the end results; the headliner LDs for that stage really cranked that rig hard and it looked fabulous.”

The Surf Stage featured Atomic 3000 Strobes, GLP X4S fixtures, IP65-rated Elation SixBar 1000’s, Elation CuePix WW2 Blinders, Chauvet Professional Rogue RH1 Hybrids, Chauvet Illuminarc Panels, Claypaky Sharpys, and Bandit’s exclusive GRNLite Moving Washes with 2 grandMA2 Full Size consoles for control.

Bandit Lites supplied the Beach Stage with 6, 8ft tall ladder trusses and outfitted with Elation SixBar 1000 IP65’s, Elation SixPar 100’s and Elation Paladins, with Gosnell emphasising: “This stage had the Gulf behind it and minimal wind walls for protection on the stage so all the fixtures had to be IP rated, and they worked wonderfully.”

In addition to the 3 stages, Bandit also supplied packages for some of the artists performing, including Logic and The Chainsmokers.

Logic’s set on Saturday was outfitted with Martin Atomic 3000 Strobes, VL 6000 Beams, Claypaky B-EYE K20 and Robe CycFX8 and The Chainsmokers took the stage Saturday night with LD Josh Beard using a Bandit-supplied lighting package of VL 3000 Spots, Ayrton MagicDot-Rs and Elation Paladins.

Bandit’s crew for the weekend included Terese Fensler, Steve Strickland, Jimmy Murray, Ty Veneziano, Alex Gagnon, Elliot Martin, Vanessa Tuttoilmondo and Jason Giaffo with additional support coming from Project Manager Gene Brian who helped facilitated all the lighting logistics for the massive weekend.

“Geno in the shop and Terese and Ty’s crews on each stage worked so hard on this show and really did a fantastic job,” finished Gosnell. “When all is said and done, a lamp is just a lamp, and it is the people that hang it and make it work that make the difference.” www.banditlites.com www.hangoutmusicfest.com

FIELD DAY FESTIVAL

Field Day 2018 celebrated its short move from Victoria Park, Hackney, to Brockwell Park in Brixton by spectacularly overcoming the noise pollution issues with which both these sites have traditionally been dogged.

Field Day 2018 celebrated its short move from Victoria Park, Hackney, to Brockwell Park in Brixton by spectacularly overcoming the noise pollution issues with which both these sites have traditionally been dogged. PA specialist, Capital Sound, ended up equipping all 7 stages, with Account Manager Paul Timmins able to declare an astonishing SPL of 100dB(A)15 on main stage - thanks to the deployment of Martin Audio’s award-winning MLA, with its ability to limit offsite noise thresholds while maintaining unprecedented levels in the main bowl. Timmins was mindful of Lambeth Council’s restrictions on sound escape at the nearby Clapham Common. But with careful orientation of the stages, and strong focus on rear rejection - coupled with some inspired optimisation programming in the Martin Audio software - they were able to deliver the anticipated sonic atmospherics to nearly 30,000 fans, while maintaining offsite escape to within the maximum 75dB(A) stipulated.

Aside from Martin Audio’s ground-breaking PA, Timmins accredited this success to the amount of early planning that had taken place, involving promoter Broadwick Live, production company Ground Control, noise consultant Three Spires Acoustics and F1 Acoustics, which undertook site modelling.

Capital had been brought in by Production Manager Tommy Sheals- Barrett. “We’ve done Field Day for many years and it was good to be working with a new team at a new venue,” Timmins continued. “Everyone was aware this was a notoriously difficult site. It was obvious Tommy was aware of MLA, and knew this was the way to move forward - but the levels we were able to achieve surprised everyone.”

The promoter’s confidence in MLA grew further when Martin Audio’s R&D Director attended the early planning meeting and put forward constructive suggestions, at the same time overseeing some clever optimisations in the PA. “We made sure all stages were facing inwards and worked hard on the sub arrays to keep rear rejection to a minimum,” Timmins continued. This was in the form of a castellated broadside array of 14 MLX subwoofers.

The main stage PA design comprised 13 MLA elements and one MLD Downfill enclosure per side, and a single (stage left) outfill of 8 MLA Compact enclosures. There were 2 delay points, respectively comprising 12 and 8 MLA Compact. “We set 4 MLA Compact enclosures on top of the castellated sub array, comprising 14 MLX,” said Timmins. Stage monitors for a bill headlined by Erykah Badu, comprised 16 LE1500 floor wedges and 4 of Martin Audio’s new SX218 subwoofers, 2 enclosures per side.

While some 20,000 assembled in front of the main stage (at peak), a further 8,000 crammed into The Barn (stage 2), a DJ-oriented performance area that kicked in on Day 2. Here Capital hung 10 MLA and a single MLD Downfill per side - spaced 16m apart, in from the wings on an extremely wide 24m stage. To cater for those out wide, they placed 2 clusters of 3 MLA Compact on each stage wing, with 8 W8LM Mini Line Array providing nearfield coverage. Here Capital deployed a generous 18 MLX subwoofers in broadside, with the Capital Sound man explaining, “We wanted better controllability over the horizontal dispersion.”

Supervising the system on main stage were Mark Cleator and Hungarian MLA expert, Marci Mezei, while Mark Edwards system teched The Barn. Crew Chief was Jonny Buck and Amy Newton Smith looked after the project on site. www.martin-audio.com www.fielddayfestivals.com

STAGECOACH & COACHELLA

Rat Sound Inc provided Focusrite RedNet Technology for some innovative audio solutions for the sound on the main stages at both Coachella and Stagecoach Music Festivals in North America.

An estimated 300,000-plus came to Coachella 2018, which took place 13-22 April, to see and hear artists including Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Lion Babe, LANY and Vance Joy. Meanwhile, sister festival Stagecoach, where artists such as Florida Georgia Line, Keith Urban, Garth Brooks, Kelsea Ballerini, Kacey Musgraves and more performed, set new records with over 75,000 per day over 3 days, 27-29 April.

What both festivals had in common was the sprawling Indio, CA festival site, excellent sound provided by Rat Sound, and critical and innovative use of Focusrite’s RedNet range of Dante-networked audio converters and interfaces.

At Coachella’s main stage, all 15 delay towers used RedNet D16R 16-channel AES3 I/O’s to connect the loudspeakers with the L-Acoustics LA8 amplified controllers powering them through the sound system’s main matrix and QSC Q-SYS fibre network. On the main stage at Stagecoach, 27 RedNet D16R units performed the same task, assuring an effective and reliable connection. In addition, the FOH position for the main stage at each festival had both a RedNet D16R and a RedNet A16R 16-channel analogue I/O interface. These could accommodate both digital and analogue FOH consoles brought in by performers.

Perhaps the most innovative use of powerful RedNet technology was the application of RedNet MP8R 8-channel mic pre and A/D converters for each row of delays towers at both festivals, a total of 10 in all. These allowed Rat Sound engineers to remotely change the positions of measurement microphones that were used to gauge the SPL at each row of towers, via RedNet Control software.

“We have to keep the SPL within the guidelines established for each festival, and usually that meant physically going out into the crowd with the microphones to measure the volume at each row, which was incredibly time-consuming and exhausting,” explained Bjarne Hemmingsen, Audio Systems Engineer at Rat Sound and the Crew Chief for the main stages at both festivals.

“I had gotten pretty tired over the years of battling the crowd to get these measurements, so I looked at the MP8R and thought, ‘Wait a minute...’” recalled Hemmingsen, who also did the initial system design work on the PAs for both festivals. “This was the first time we’d tried this, and it worked brilliantly, allowing us to adjust the mics as needed at each row of delay towers, saving us time and lot of effort. We’ve used RedNet at these and other shows and they keep finding new ways to make our lives easier.” www.coachella.com www.stagecoachfestival.com www.ratsound.com www.uk.focusrite.com

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CITY 65 FESTIVAL

The Fort Gate at Fort Canning Hill in Singapore provided a stunning backdrop for the 2018 edition of City 65 Music Festival. The location, renowned for its lush greenery and expansive lawns has become a hub for cultural and creative activities and a venue of choice for many outdoor events.

Craig Burridge was asked to coordinate the Main Stage production and lighting design for the 1-day event by organisers Michael Spinks and Rachel Mason from City 65 Music. The main stage line up featured 5 diverse bands, 3 playing in daylight and the final 2 in the dark, for which Burridge used 50 Robe fixtures - 24 Linees, 10 ColorStrobes, 6 PixelPATTs and 10 LEDWash 600’s - positioned prominently on the rig.

The venue is managed by the National Parks, and there are some strict rules and regulations designed to protect the environment. No production elements can be within 2m of any tree, so the 9m wide x 8m deep stage was allocated a space between 2, right in front of a ‘heritage tree’ that “made a fantastic backdrop”, explained Burridge.

He had a free creative hand with the design with a few important prerequisites, including that it was a functional and practical space for the bands and audio / backline crews to achieve quick changeovers. This meant leaving the stage floor relatively clear.

In addition to this, his aesthetic goal was to provide 3 distinct but related visual themes that would work for the diverse genres of music covered by the final 3 bands on the bill - hard rock / metal, indie jazz and progressive rock, respectively.

Power is also a consideration on the site as they have to use generators, so being able to use LED fixtures allowed the generator size to be smaller, and conserve diesel - a bonus for the environment and the show budget! The strong natural tree setting also played a part in the look of the stage. Burridge wanted to keep the sides of the stage uncovered and feature the intricate branches and leaf formations, pulling them into the picture. This approach also helped the stage to appear much bigger!

The 4-legged ground support was trimmed at 7m to maintain rectangular form to the stage, and 2m and 3m drop bars were used on the back ground support truss and 2m ones on the mid ground support truss, which enabled lights to be more dynamically positioned. Each drop bar was rigged with 2 Robe Linees and a pixelPATT.

The 3 LEDWash 600’s were on both the mid and front trusses, with 2 more each side on the downstage edges of the floor, utilised as the main band washes.

4 Robe ColorStrobes on the front truss made highly effective blinders and Burridge positioned 2 more on the ground behind the stage to illuminate the heritage tree and make it pop out.

The spectacular tree measures 7m wide at the base - with multiple trunks - and 20m high. Being able to light it with just one fixture a side meant that all the shadows and its intricate form were beautifully illuminated.

Four 2m sections of vertical truss on the deck were each populated with 3 Linees and a ColorStrobe. The flown Linees and the pixelPATTs were all hung on 2m and 3m drop bars, and used for eye-catching effects.

LEDWash 600’s are a go-to luminaire for Burridge. He covered the essential stage positions effortlessly with the 10 fixtures and the was able to zoom in or out and highlight the musicians with the floor based ones, as well as wash out and saturate the stage with colour.

Linees were selected as a non-standard fixture. Rather than use ‘traditional’ beams, Burridge instead used the Linees in full pixel mode 3 but programmed as a light source rather than video mapped.

He likes the ‘blade’ look of the Linee beams when they are all in a tight zoom, giving a “wide flat slice of light that is very different from a typical round beam”.

Burridge’s favourite Linee effects are a pan / rotate with a single pixel beam, and having the fixtures at angles where the wide swath of light is created by all the cells being in a sharp zoom. Another one is a wide zoom look for total saturation of the air on a stage or in a space. The Linees worked excellently with the pixelPATT chases.

The pixelPATTs were also placed to work as a stand-alone visual effect, rather than to light up the stage, and Burridge spent considerable time programming chases so they appeared to rotate or move left / right and up / down. They proved “great for the pastel palette looks I ran for one of the headliners”.

Burridge operated all the lighting himself using a WholeHog FullBoar3. For third on the bill metal band Terminal Cry, who played in daylight, he chose all-white lighting with lots of beams created from this punchy selection of fixtures.

They were followed by co-headliners, neo-vintage soul band The Steve McQueens, who were lit primarily in pastel shades. By now it was getting darker so the Linees and PATTs were used to fill the space with abstract flowing shapes that morphed and moved with the groove.

Co-headliners Addy Cradle closed the show with an intensive prog rock performance, which Burridge lit with lots of saturated colours onto the tree and from the flown LEDWash 600’s, with the floor-based LEDWash 600’s contrasting in warm or cold whites, while the Linees produced big asymmetric static looks interspersed with pixel chases and layers of different shapes.

Burridge has been using Robe products in his work for some time and was keen to emphasise all the Robe products he’s seen and used in recent years.

The lighting equipment was supplied by Singapore rental company CSP Productions. “They were brilliant,” stated Burridge, “really going the extra miles to get it all up and working when time was really tight”. Burridge had just one evening of on-site programming.

“The Robe fixtures were a big part of making it look really outstanding,” concluded Burridge. www.robe.cz www.city65music.com

MERLEFEST 2018

Digital meets wood: SE Systems deployed numerous SD-Range consoles for 31st annual acoustic music event featuring country, bluegrass and Americana artists.

Featuring the best in country, bluegrass and Americana, this year’s MerleFest hosted performances by the Steep Canyon Rangers and Friends with special guest Steve Martin, Buddy Miller and the North Mississippi All-stars, Kris Kristofferson, Jamey Johnson and many more roots acts. And as has been the case for a number of years, DiGiCo consoles mixed and processed nearly all of the music emanating from the festival’s stages, helping to cement MerleFest’s reputation as a highly celebrated perennial American music event.

Since the festival’s beginnings in 1988, Greensboro-based SE Systems has been handling the sound for MerleFest. SE Systems CEO and Founder Cliff Miller helped put the audio production in place for the first MerleFest in the John A. Walker Auditorium that was quickly expanded to an additional location outdoors on flatbed trucks, which is now the site of the Doc Watson Theatre.

“The SD-Range consoles have been the workhorse of the festival for the last several years, to the point now where it’s nearly all we use,” said Miller, who sat in on guitar at many of founder Doc Watson’s later gigs. SE Systems has its own SD consoles on site, with DiGiCo distributor Group One bringing in multiple additional consoles, racks, and personnel to support the sprawling event. In fact, this year DiGiCo consoles were used on 9 of the event’s 10 music stages.

The Chris Austin Stage, named in honor of Reba McEntire’s late touring guitarist and home to the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest during MerleFest, had a pair of compact DiGiCo S21 consoles for FOH and monitors, both sharing a single D-Rack. The Watson Stage, namesake of the festival’s icon, is the largest of all and had an SD5 console for FOH and an SD10 for monitors, as well as 2 SD-Racks fully loaded with multi-mode optics and Waves bundle.

The Creekside Stage used 2 SD10-24 consoles and a shared SD-Rack; this stage uses fewer inputs but takes advantage of all the power of the SD10. The Dance Stage had a pair of SD12 desks and an SD-Rack equipped with the new 32-bit Ultimate Stadius Mic Pre-Amp cards. The Americana Stage used a D-Rack and Little Red Box for its 2 SD9 consoles covering

FOH and monitors. The Traditional Stage kept it simple with one S21 and a D-Rack, while the Hillside Stage used 2 SD12 consoles for FOH and monitors with one shared SD-Rack loaded with the new 32-bit input cards.

The Cabin Stage had to be different: an SD11 console for FOH linked with a single D-Rack; this stage has limited inputs and can still be run from the front-of-house mix position, so having two separate FOH consoles gave SE’s engineers the flexibility to reset the main stage while the Cabin side stage fills in between the main acts. Finally, at the Walker Center, 2 SD10 consoles shared an SD-Rack between them, also featuring the new 32-bit cards.

The Archive Recording Studio set up to record various performances at the festival used a DiGiCo S21, which fed signals to a converter that output .wav files to a Glyph drive. And as Miller noted, other artists performing there brought their own DiGiCo SD9 consoles with them, including the Steep Canyon Rangers and Friends with special guest Steve Martin, further expanding DiGiCo’s coverage of this festival. www.merlefest.org www.digico.biz www.sesystems.com