TPi June 2017 - #214 by Mondiale Media

TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL

LIVE EVENT DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY • JUNE 2017 • ISSUE 214

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02/06/2017 15:38

EDITOR’S LETTER

This Is The Place by Tony Walsh AKA Longfella In the north-west of England. It’s ace, it’s the best! And the songs that we sing from the stands, From our bands set the whole planet shaking. Our inventions are legends. There’s nowt we can’t make, and so we make brilliant music We make brilliant bands We make goals that make souls leap from seats in the stands And we make things from steel And we make things from cotton And we make people laugh, take the mick summat rotten And we make you at home We make you feel welcome and we make summat happen We can’t seem to help it And if you’re looking for history, then yeah we’ve a wealth But the Manchester way is to make it yourself. And make us a record, a new number one And make us a brew while you’re up, love, go on? And make us feel proud that you’re winning the league And make us sing louder and make us believe That this is the place that has helped shape the world And this is the place where a Manchester girl Named Emmeline Pankhurst from the streets of Moss Side Led a suffragette city with sisterhood pride And this is the place with appliance of science W’re on it, atomic, we struck with defiance, and in the face of a challenge, we always stand tall Mancunians, in union, delivered it all Such as housing and libraries and health Education and unions and co-ops and first railway stations So we’re sorry, bear with us, we invented commuters… But we hope you forgive us, we invented computers. And this is the place Henry Royce strolled with Rolls And we’ve rocked and we’ve rolled with our own northern souls And so this is the place to do business then dance Where go-getters and goal-setters know they’ve a chance And this is the place where we first played as kids. And me mam, lived and died here, she loved it, she did. And this is the place where our folks came to work

Where they struggled in puddles, they hurt in the dirt And they built us a city, they built us these towns And they coughed on the cobbles to the deafening sound Of the steaming machines and the screaming of slaves They were scheming for greatness, they dreamed to their graves. And they left us a spirit. They left us a vibe. That Mancunian way to survive and to thrive And to work and to build To connect, and create Greater Manchester’s greatness is keeping it great. And so this is the place now with kids of our own. Some are born here, some drawn here, but they all call it home. And they’ve covered the cobbles, but they’ll never defeat All the dreamers and schemers who still teem through these streets. Because this is a place that has been through some hard times: Oppressions, recessions, depressions, and dark times. But we keep fighting back with Greater Manchester spirit. Northern grit, Northern wit, and Greater Manchester’s lyrics. And these hard times again, in these streets of our city But we won’t take defeat and we don’t want your pity. Because this is a place where we stand strong together With a smile on our face, greater Manchester forever. And we’ve got this place where a team with a dream Can get funding and something to help with a scheme. Because this is a place that understands your grand plans. We don’t do “no can do” we just stress “yes we can!” Forever Manchester’s a charity for people round here You can fundraise, donate, you can be a volunteer. You can live local, give local, we can honestly say We do charity different, that Mancunian way. And we fund local kids, and we fund local teams. We support local dreamers to work for their dreams. We support local groups and the great work they do. So can you help us help local people, like you? Because this is the place in our hearts, in our homes Because this is the place that’s a part of our bones. Because Greater Manchester gives us such strength from the fact That this is THE place, and we should give something back. Always remember, never forget, forever Manchester.

EDITOR Kel Murray Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8360 Mobile: +44 (0)7738 154689 e-mail: k.murray@mondiale.co.uk

CHIEF EXECUTIVE Justin Gawne Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8360 Mobile: +44 (0)7768 850767 e-mail: j.gawne@mondiale.co.uk

ASSISTANT EDITOR Ste Durham Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8385 Mobile: +44 (0)7891 679742 e-mail: s.durham@mondiale.co.uk

GRAPHIC DESIGN & PRODUCTION Dan Seaton: d.seaton@mondiale.co.uk Zoe Willcox: z.willcox@mondiale.co.uk

STAFF WRITER Stewart Hume Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8385 Mobile: +44 (0)7702 054344 e-mail: s.hume@mondiale.co.uk ADVERTISING SALES Georgia Guthrie Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8399 Mobile: +44 (0)7501 597837 e-mail: g.guthrie@mondiale.co.uk ADVERTISING SALES Lauren Dyson Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8360 Mobile: +44 (0)7415 773639 e-mail: l.dyson@mondiale.co.uk EVENT MANAGER - TPi AWARDS Mo Naeem Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8358 Mobile: +44 (0)775 9272 313 e-mail: m.naeem@mondiale.co.uk GENERAL MANAGER - TPi MAGAZINE & AWARDS Hannah Eakins (on materninty leave until July 2017)

ACCOUNTS Lynette Levi / Sarah Miller: ar@mondiale.co.uk MONDIALE GROUP CHAIRMAN Damian Walsh

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COVER DESIGN Manchester Bee EDITORIAL INTERN Luke Wainhouse PRINTED BY Buxton Press • www.buxpress.co.uk Annual subscriptions (including P&P): £42 (UK), £60 (Europe), £78/$125 (RoW). Subscription enquiries to: Subscriptions, Mondiale Publishing Limited, Strawberry Studios, Watson Square, Stockport, SK1 3AZ, UK. Tel: +44 (0)161 476 5580 Fax: +44 (0)161 476 0456 e-mail: subscriptions@mondiale.co.uk www.tpimagazine.com www.tpiawards.com www.tpmeamagazine.com Issue 214 - June 2017

TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL is a controlled circulation magazine, published 12 times a year by Mondiale Publishing Limited under licence. ISSN 1461-3786 Copyright © 2017 Mondiale Publishing Limited. All contents of this publication are subject to worldwide copyright protection and reproduction in whole or part, in any form whatsoever, is expressly forbidden without the prior written consent of the Publishers. Every effort is taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this publication but neither Mondiale Publishing Ltd, nor the Editor, can be held responsible for its contents or any consequential loss or damage resulting from information published. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the Publishers or Editor. The Publishers accept no responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, illustrations, advertising materials or artwork. Total Production International USPS: (ISSN 1461 3786) is published 12 times a year by Mondiale Publishing Limited United Kingdom. The 2017 US annual subscription price is 117USD. Airfreight and mailing in the USA by Agent named Air Business, C/O WorldNet Shipping USA Inc., 155-11 146th Avenue, Jamaica, New York, NY11434. Periodicals postage paid at Jamaica NY 11431. US Postmaster: Send address changes to Total Production International, Air Business Ltd, C/O WorldNet Shipping USA Inc., 155-11 146th Avenue, Jamaica, New York, NY11434. Subscription records are maintained at Mondiale Publishing Ltd. Waterloo Place, Watson Square, Stockport, SK1 3AZ, UK.

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7/11/2016 8:37:09 AM

ITINERARY

FROM MANCHESTER, WITH LOVE 08 22.05.17

EVENT FOCUS

12 Royal Blood LD Sam O’Riordan puts an abstract theory into practice for the rock duo’s academy tour. 16 L-Acoustics joins Nitelites The Newcastle-based rental company takes delivery of a full K1 system. 18 Britannia Row & Clair Global The two rental giants join forces. 20 Envision Festival Funktion-One provides a sound sensation in Costa Rica. 24 Shure’s Axient Digital The company hosts an open day to showcase its latest RF innovation. 26 Soulwax Allen & Heath hits the road with the Belgian electro rockers.

PRODUCTION PROFILE 30

Eurovision 2017 Ste, TPi’s resident Eurovision expert, returns to the annual extravaganza.

48 Stormzy Kel meets the touring family behind the biggest name in UK grime.

The Vamps TPi heads to Glasgow’s SSE Hydro Arena to witness the band’s latest tour.

GEAR HEADS 72

Pioneer DJ’s Rik Parkinson discusses the TOUR1 TOUR system’s abilities.

ROAD DIARIES 74

Anastacia’s Monitor Engineer, Becky Pell, talks subterranean & mountain touring.

CLOCKING OFF 76

DiGiGrid’s Dan Page saddles up in the name of cancer care and support.

PSA: THE BIGGER PICTURE 78

The PSA tackles the issues of diversity within the events industry.

INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS 82

The latest movers and shakers.

BACK CHAT 90

Meet Jessica Allan, Knight Of Illumination Awards’ newest Chairperson.

INTRODUCTION

LOVE IS LOUDER THAN BOMBS, MUSIC IS LOUDER THAN HATE 22.05.17

In the UK on 22 May 2017 a suicide bomber attacked Ariana Grande’s show at Manchester Arena, killing 22 innocent people, hospitalising 60 others. The terrorist, like all terrorists, had undoubtedly set out to create widespread fear among ordinary people living their lives, people doing their jobs or enjoying a night out with loved ones. As we painfully know, it’s not the first time such a tragic incident has affected concert touring. Not that the setting makes terrorism any easier to digest, regardless of where it takes place in the world. However, this particular attack resonated with families around the world due to the nature of its chosen event: a concert with 16,000 fans, primarily of a very young age, celebrating in the release that live music brought to their lives. Just days later, another attack was carried out on London Bridge. At the time of going to print, 8 people have been declared dead, with 29 still being treated in hospital. Many of them were immigrants, defending their fellow British neighbours in the face of death. They were part of a community. The bravery of

these people, the lack of fear and the unfaltering courage shown as they looked terrorism in the eye, is inconceivable. We know this kind of human reaction happens around the world, daily, but in the midst of being emotionality affected by the result of terrorism where I live and work, I noticed something: the force of kindness in love, not only shown by my fellow Mancunians, but shown in the capital, throughout the UK and around the world, is astonishing. Walking around my streets in the days that followed is something I’ll never forget for as long as I live. The impact of this violation is an entirely different heartbreak to what I’d previously experienced as an adult. It’s a heartache shared with a city of 2.55 million. On the night of 22 May, the uncontrollable tears of utter shock, drowned out only to the sound of helicopters overhead, were temporarily silenced as I read a postcard next to my bed, a framed quote from Elbow’s Guy Garvey which read: “They return the love around here, don’t they?” It’s not there because I’m a huge fan of the band, it’s there as a

FROM MANCHESTER WITH LOVE

reminder that this is a place of community and support. For the majority, that’s an everyday mindset. In that moment of abhorrent disbelief, I had faith in that notion. If you watched the TV reports about the shared love of our city, you’ll know it transends race, religion, gender and sexuality. Manchester, we are you what you make us, and you made the world proud, just as the world stood with us. It’s a juxtaposition of that proud emotion and the aforementioned heartache that to this day, I struggle to find the vocabulary for. Not only did this happen in my city, but it happened in ‘our world’. Manchester Arena is our hometown venue, we’re there weekly. I’m not being overly sentimental when I tell you that we’re greeted with a smile upon arrival, and endure light-hearted mickey-taking on the walk to the production door. It’s the those faces who keep that venue ticking. It’s those hearts who will no doubt be broken too. I can’t wait to go back to work there and tell them how much we appreciate them. This Arena hosted the first concert I ever attended. I was 11 years old. And like the children who were in their element at Ariana’s gig, it was the realisation for me as a child that has led me to crave the transformative environment of live music years later. Manchester’s been on the map for some pretty brilliant things throughout history; the Suffragette movement - led by Emmeline Pankhurst, the breakthrough of the Atomic Theory - developed by John Dalton in 1803, the founding of socialism; Karl Marx and Frederick Engels first met in Manchester in 1842, and not to mention the English speaking world’s oldest library, Cheetams, was established here in 1653 by Mancunian Humphrey Chetham. In modern times it’s our football clubs and rock stars that have drawn attention to the talent found here. But unity felt as a Mancunian - whether that’s your birth right or your adopted choice, is something that never ceases to surprise or amaze me. This is one of the most tolerant, creative and energetic places I’ve ever known. Yet, just like our lovely capital London, and the countless citites the world over, we will never tolerate terror. In fact, we promote zero tolerance for that word. Our symbol of the Manchester Worker Bee - given to Manchester’s coat of arms in 1842 to represent the ‘hive of activity’ found in the city’s hard-working industrial past - has become an international symbol of solidarity, of love and of togetherness. Please remember the importance of that each and every time you see a bee from now on. As the world stood together and watched, the live production industry didn’t hesitate to continue.

Not only did a young artist in life-altering shock return to a city she was traumatised in, but she did so solely to help the Britons affected. Ariana, we cannot thank you enough for helping to make our children dance again. 13 days after the Manchester atrocity, a benefit gig took place at Manchester’s Old Trafford Cricket Ground. Over 60,000 people were in the live audience and over 22 million people watched online. I spoke to Clair Global’s Toby Francis about the show: “This was something that was conceived in a day, implemented over 5 days and completed in 7. It was a real community effort, worldwide - people came from countries all over the world in the hope to make it as special as possible due to the nature of the event. “It was very personal to us for many reasons. Our crew were there on that terrible night. The benefit gig was a unique experience for every person there. I’ve never seen a prouder group of people at work, knowing we were giving it our all to help raise further funds. And as exhausted as we were, there was a feeling of elation, and yet the complete realisation and understanding that this achievement was in reaction to a terrible disaster. The courage the people of Manchester showed that night and in the days following was immeasurable, and this concert was all we could do to show them that we’re in this together. “It was such a magical concert, and because it was a worldwide stance on how we feel, despite everything, I personally hope we get to do it every year, to continue to raise awareness and funds for those in need. What happened on the 22 May affected everyone, much more than we could have ever imagined.” The audience from the original show were situated at the front of the stage in Old Trafford, as close to Ariana as they could be. Toby continued: “If you saw their faces on TV, you could see how emotional it was for them. My daughter is a huge Ariana fan, and she was very concerned for her emotional state. Her fans mean the world to her, and her distress was very, very real.”

FROM MANCHESTER WITH LOVE

When Toby landed in LA following the concert, he relayed the reaction the immigration officer at LAX had upon questioning, a reaction he’s never experienced in 40 years of touring. “When the officer asked where I’d travelled from and I said Manchester, he immediately asked what I was doing there. I told him, I was a part of the benefit gig and he knew exactly what I was talking about. He smiled from ear to ear and said he was so proud of what that concert meant for people around the world. We’re not going to let them win.” It goes without saying that the concert was a phenomenal success; watched by over 22 million people wordwide, it brought the current total for the I Heart Manchester emergency fund to almost £10 million GBP. It was also a hugely important step in showing the evil behind these terrorists’ actions that not only are we as a city, as a nation, and as a world seeking peace, but that we will not live our lives in a state of fear. There is no possible scenario for it to win. Whenever I personally feel the slightest bit of anger about what happened creep up on me, I refrain, and ponder that just maybe, the biggest threat terrorists have in the world, is

to themselves. Imagine living a life so filled with hate that all you wanted to do was take joy from others. Although we’ll never, ever forget what has happened here, we will live life fully, just as every person who left us too soon did, and would want us to continue to do so in their names. As for you, Ariana, I know you’re an international A-lister and the like, working with some of the very best crew in the industry, but let’s face it, you’re as Mancuanian as they come! Visit us again soon love; we’ll have the kettle on and the posh biscuits out when you do, because to echo the man who was known as ‘Mr. Manchester’, Tony Wilson of Factory Records fame, “This is Manchester, we do things differently here.”

Kel Murray Editor

In live music they loved. Thank you for being a part of our world. ❤ Saffie Rose Roussos ❤ Michelle Kiss ❤ Chloe Rutherford ❤ Liam Curry ❤ Eilidh MacLeod ❤ Wendy Fawell ❤ Elaine McIver ❤ Courtney Boyle ❤ Philip Tron ❤ Sorrell Leczkowski ❤ Olivia Campbell ❤ Martyn Hett ❤ Nell Jones ❤ Alison Howe ❤ Lisa Lees ❤ Jane Tweddle-Taylor ❤ Angelika Klis ❤ Marcin Klis ❤ Kelly Brewster ❤ John Atkinson ❤ Georgina Callander ❤ Megan Hurley

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17/05/2017 11:05

EVENT FOCUS

ENCAPSULATING ROYAL BLOOD When Lighting Designer Sam O’Riordan was tasked with pitching a new design for rock duo Royal Blood, the idea of ‘encapsulation’ came rather quickly. The result? A stunning mix of visual technology that brought an academy-sized show to the forefront of TPi’s attention, as Kel Murray reports.

Many people would describe part of their touring life as getting to work with their friends. This was literally the case for Lighting Designer Sam O’Riordan when he joined the Royal Blood camp with frontman & bassist Mike Kerr and drummer, Ben Thatcher. He elaborated: “I met Mike and Ben in 2009, when I was just starting out in the industry. A good friend of mine, Phil Jones, who is now their FOH engineer and production manager, had just started working for a Brighton-based band who were playing at Download Festival. Phil asked if I’d like to come along and flash some lights for them. Turns out Mike was playing in that band, and I also met Ben at the same festival. Years later, they were making music together and had just been signed as Royal Blood when Phil and I walked into a bar and found them celebrating with their manager. I actually remember him saying, in jest, “we’ve got the whole team here!” A bit of pub banter soon became reality and O’Riordan began lighting Royal Blood’s very successful first campaign, and now they were hot property. O’Riordan assumed nothing, yet quietly had an array of ideas for

a follow up. “I had been thinking over the last year, who I would I like to work with if I was asked back to design for the second album. One designer I kept bumping into that I already had a huge amount of respect and admiration for was Tim Routledge. Last year he asked me to come on board and work for him as ALD on one of his smaller projects, while he was focussing a lot of his time on Beyoncé’s world tour, Formation. His way of working was eyeopening to me; the way he and his colleague Tom Young would organise a project from start to finish, such as how they would put together a showfile, and have every song pre-programmed and captured in WYSIWYG before production rehearsals. I really enjoyed the process and felt so comfortable with both Tom and Tim, that not only did I find a couple of guys that I creatively gelled with, but I’ve also learnt a whole lot from them - and it completely changed my mindset on how I manage my projects.” ENCAPSULATION “When I was asked back to pitch for another campaign, it was a no-brainier 12

ROYAL BLOOD

Opposite: Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher play encased in technology. Below: ER Productions LaserBlades created a box of light for the performance space.

for me to ask Tim if he’d like to collaborate on the design as the project moved into bigger spaces. We were asked to pitch with the arena tour in mind at the end of the year and so the ‘encapsulation’ concept came out of a brainstorming session we had. With a strong concept in the bag, pitched and won, it wasn’t too difficult for me to develop a design around that for this first Underplay run. That would get the campaign off the ground and to a strong start before Tim came on board for the Festival and Arena run,” he continued. There are three coherent designs that all deliver a slightly different punch - unique but notably consistent in concept. They breakdown into Underplay, Festivals and Arena.“We wanted something that visually represents the huge dynamic they have in their songs, yet comes from one small space - and just two instruments.”

because you get the energy of a strobe light without any distracting impact - they’re perfect for detail. “The concept stays strong throughout the campaign & the design stays largely the same too; the only thing that really changes is the key products for each design. For example, Royal Blood are playing a lot of outdoor festival stages - typically during daylight hours - so we will be altering the design to suit this setting. For Underplay, we’re currently using Sceptron, which is an LED product and fantastic for the venue legs of the tour. “With this first tour leg, which is largely being held in a club / academy setting, there was a number of different factors I had to cater for, such as to design around smaller stages. I wanted to use something a little more tangible than solely a light source and, as everything within the design is very linear, I wanted to continue that theme.” O’Riordan found the right product, Sceptron by accident: “I randomly stumbled across a Martin by Harman demo in a lighting supplier’s yard and remembered how interested I was in the Sceptron product and the different types of diffusion you could get for it - the tubular diffusion was something I really liked. From there, our lighting vendor, Neg Earth, arranged a demo for me, followed by a full design demo, at which point I was sold! I knew this was the right product to help deliver our concept for the Underplay leg of the tour.

THE KEY PRODUCTS FOR UNDERPLAY O’Riordan continued by explaining the key products needed to bring the Underplay segment to life: “The walls behind the band are built from a florescent style tube, the Martin By Harman Sceptron product, with tubular diffusion. The front wall is created from ER Productions’ LaserBlades. The contrast between those two light sources really compliment each other. This design is edged with TMB Solaris Flares. I particularly like these strobes

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ROYAL BLOOD

ER Productions LaserBlades and Martin by Harman Sceptron 10 feature heavily in the Underplay section of this 3-part touring design; LD Sam O’Riordan with his grandMA2 Light console.

“Although we are using a ‘video’ product with Sceptron, we’re not actually running any video, as again, we’re controlling it as a lighting fixture via DMX - which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed,” he added. In total O’Riordan, who is operating the design throughout, is utilising 88 fixtures with the Sceptron units with frosted tubular diffusion being run as a lighting product and arranged in a ‘V’ formation - 22 pipes of 4 Sceptron units, 4m high with 2 wings of 11 pipes. He continued: “This creates our backdrop and the back of our box that encapsulates the band and the space they play within. In a similar formation, we used 10 LaserBlades arrayed on the floor, focussed straight up. This product creates the front 2 wings / walls of the performance space. It was important to use a product that we could reveal at specific times within the set, without creating a permanent barrier between the boys and the audience, as that would create a feeling of disconect,” he explained. “There’s only one time during the set the lasers are on fully in all their glory as two bold white walls, and that’s during the interlude ahead of Little Monster. The roar from the audience as it drops when the boys hit that first note is tremendous! It’s used almost like kabuki drop, as in we reveal a new space on the stage. I think with the progression of technology and manufacturing with products like Sceptron make options for smaller tours so much more realistic. “LaserBlade, which is a DMX product, means I can include it within all of my lighting programming without the need of a laser operator, which on a small tour is an essential saving, and potentially the difference between a green or red light for your propsed budget. The third key fixture is TMB Solaris Flares, not a new product exactly, but a product new to O’Riordan all the same: “I have - embarrassingly so! only recently discovered Solaris Flares while working with Tobias Rylander on London Grammar shows. I instantly fell in love with them! It’s basically 3 in 1, effects light, wash and strobe. We edged the base of the Sceptron with 12 Solaris Flares to give a fantastic glow and ease of movement around the backline area on stage. It really fills the stage with colour and does exactly as I want in the design.” O’Riordan also stated that no rock show would be complete without molefays. He uses 12 2-cell generics edging the bottom of the Sceptron. “With the Flares giving a beautiful, classic, bellowing tungsten glow silhouetting the boys, it’s all worked out as we wanted.” CONTROL & PRE-VISUALISATION For control, O’Riordan is using an MA Lighting grandMA2 Light. He stated: “In my opinion there is no other system on the market that has the scalability MA does; in terms of processing, backup and functionality. We have a very simple setup on this, we run one grandMA2 Light as our primary console, we have a grandMA2 OnPC and Fader Wing running as our tracking

backup, plus two MA NPU’s. We use this setup for the full Underplay rig, but we also carry the grandMA2 OnPC setup with us for all fly shows. “I’ve also always been a fan of Cast’s WYSIWYG CAD and previsualisation software - probably because that’s what I started with. WYSIWYG is an essential tool for me, without it I wouldn’t be able to do half the stuff I do, I’ve come to rely on it fairly heavily. It’s a very varied tool, not only does it help sell a design or idea to a client, it also helps secures in my mind whether a particular product is up to the task at hand, or whether I need to reconsider and / or play with other products. It’s also a great tool for ‘offline’ programming, to help get showfiles in a good place before rehearsals start. Not to mention an absolute Godsend at many festivals especially if your arriving the same afternoon as your set.” CREATIVE INTENTIONS, FANTASTIC DELIVERY “Throughout these three design incarnations, we want to create an environment that the band feel comfortable and excited in. With a concept like ‘encapsulation’, the band become immersed in it as they’re literally surrounded by activity, visually representing what they’re playing live - such as kick drums and snare hits, guitar drops and stabs. It’s not a set that’s just towering behind them,” O’Riordan said. “It’s so important to me that they enjoy the experience as much the audience does, and that it helps to generate energy on both sides of the stage. It goes without saying that the band and crew are all here for the audience. They are the ones paying to be entertained, who we want to appreciate the art of a live show, musically and visually - they are our end client! “The beautiful thing about a live show of this nature, is that it gives a lot of different creatives, from many different backgrounds and experiences with their individual skillsets and talents, the opportunity to work together to deliver something unique and special, only to be truly tangibly experienced in that moment. “I’ve really enjoyed having this design out. We’ve received a lot of love for the Underplay leg of the tour. A personal highlight was being able to bring elements of it into Later with Jools Holland. Working with the BBC and having fun with integrating our set and identity with theirs was a lot of fun and required a lot of trust from both parties. It looked fantastic and was a huge success. I’d also like to say a big thanks to my Lighting Tech, Adam La Femina.” TPi Photos: Kris Goodman, Hannah Meadows & Alice Exaddi www.royalbloodband.com www.affectivedesign.co.uk www.negearth.com 14

EVENT FOCUS

NITELITES BECOMES L-ACOUSTICS’ NEWEST PARTNER Newcastle-based Nitelites is the latest UK rental company to become a certified L-Acoustics K1 partner, having recently taken delivery of a full K1 system.

Nitelites plans, designs and delivers events both in the UK and around Europe. It was founded in 1983 and is one of the most well-known and respected rental companies in the North of England. Nitelites’ dedication to providing a first-class service and the latest equipment has ensured steady expansion. Its investment in K1 underlines this continued commitment. “Everyone who works for Nitelites has a passion for the technical side of audio,” said the company’s Andy Magee. “This means that we want the best equipment we can get and for a large-scale line array, that means K1.” “The K1 network in the United Kingdom is already top flight,” affirmed Paul McMullan, Regional Sales Manager at L-Acoustics. “The fact that Nitelites is creating business opportunities in unique new areas warrants the addition of a new partner to the K1 roster.” Nitelites’ K1 system, which comprises 48 K1, 24 K1-SB and 24 KS28, complements its existing stock of K2, KARA, SB28 and ARCS II cabinets and LA12X amplified controllers with LA-RAK II. Jochen Frohn, Director for Business Development at L-Acoustics explained: “The Nitelites team have already shown their expertise and success, deploying L-Acoustics K2 systems for prestigious events. As their

expertise and client base grew, they were getting requests for a stadium sized PA. Nitelites has consistently impressed us with their technical proficiency and commercial strategy, and we are happy to have Nitelites as part of our K1 network of partners.” “We’re very well known for our concert touring business,” Magee added, “But we also work on sporting events such as the Great North Run, where, overnight, we fly a mile of line array into the centre of Newcastle. Likewise, we provide sound to big art installations and an increasing number of bespoke touring solutions, such as a 6.1 system for 10,000 people we supplied for the Lumiere Festival in Durham. Increasing our offering of L-Acoustics with K1 means we are able to expand all areas our business further and we’re looking forward to working with the K1 network in the UK.” In fact, Nitelites K1 has already made a difference at We Are FSTVL, where the company has upped the number of stages it is supplying from three to eight for this year’s May bank holiday weekend in Upminster, London. Launched in 2013 and winner of several awards including Best UK Dance Event in the UK Festival Awards for the 2016 edition, We Are FSTVL is two days of dance music across eight stages in a 122-acre site. The event 16

NITELITES

combines some of the world’s biggest names in Electronic Dance Music (EDM) with leading club brands and labels including Carl Cox, Brandon Block, Basement Jaxx, Craig David and Loco Dice and attracts 50,000 fans. The main stage deployed a total of 24 K1 with 12 K1-SB and 12 KS28 subwoofers, along with 12 KARA as delays at the 75m point to cover VIP platform shadows, whilst the second stage featured the same combination minus the K1SBs. The third stage was a combination of 24 K2 with 12 K1-SB and 20 SB28’s. “The two main stages both covered an area of around 50m x 120m and it was definitely the addition of K1 to our supply that allowed us to be able to take on these larger stages and redistribute our existing inventory to the other stages.” Soundvision was used to design the two main stages in advance of the festival, with Magee working alongside L-Acoustics applications consultant Paul Van Baasbank, who remained on site for Nitelite’s first deployment of K1. “Soundvision is a fantastic tool,” commented Magee. “It makes life so much easier when you can design the system off site and know that it will work exactly as predicted.” Whilst Nitelites designed the audio systems for the two K1 stages, for the third stage they worked to a system design from a German company that looks after all the DJs performing there. Here, a larger amount of subs were deployed, with all DJ fills and side fills being a mixture of SB28 and Kara, along with ARCS II depending on the DJ, in the now classic L-Acoustics ‘Texas headphone’ style. “This was also our first major deployment of the LA12X and we used all 82 in our inventory,” Magee recalled. “They worked exceptionally well, the sonic improvement was considerable and the transient delivery of the loudspeakers was impressive. “Even though we have only just taken delivery of the K1 system, we’re already seeing a large volume of requests for events and with new customers that we’ve never dealt with before. Our investment is proving its worth already!” TPi www.nitelites.co.uk www.l-acoustics.com

EVENT FOCUS

BRITANNIA ROW PRODUCTIONS GOES GLOBAL The pro audio powerhouses join forces to expand and stregthen their worldwide client base.

Following a successful strategic alliance which has been in place since the beginning of the year, Britannia Row Productions has announced its acquisition by Clair Global. Clair Global has a long-established history and is one of the most respected entertainment industry suppliers with serval international operations. Britannia Row Productions is one of the leading UK audio companies with links throughout the world. “Both companies see this as the perfect way to expand and strengthen their worldwide client base, allowing them

to offer consistent service in all major territories,” said Britannia Row Directors Bryan Grant and Mike Lowe in a joint statement. “The synergies we’ve experienced with the entire Britannia Row team have been overwhelmingly positive. Culturally and professionally, we are on the same page. We are excited to bring this new level of global support to our clients and better serve their passions to advance this industry,” said Troy Clair, President / CEO, Clair Global. TPi www.clairglobal.com www.britanniarow.com

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EVENT FOCUS

ENVISION FESTIVAL

ENVISION FESTIVAL Envision set up camp in Uvita, Costa Rica on 23-26 February, for the seventh edition of the multicultural festival. Once again, the event’s sound was delivered by a Funktion-One sound system. This year, however, rather than being rented in from the US, the system has been newly purchased by Envision’s technology partner, Decente Showtec.

Decente Showtec has bolstered its stock of sound equipment with the addition of 6 Funktion-One Evo 7T touring loudspeakers, 2 Evo 7 TH touring mid-high speakers, 8 F221 bass enclosures, 4 F121 bass enclosures, 4 Res 2U horizontal loudspeakers, 2 Resolution 2 loudspeakers, 2 PSM 12 monitor speakers and 2 BR218 bass reflex speakers.

Over the last six years, Envision has nurtured a special festival culture in a unique part of the world. The site at Rancho La Merced sits where the rainforest meets the golden sands of Playa Hermosa. The festival provides a platform for different cultures to co-exist in sustainable community, and inspire one another through art, spirituality, yoga, music, dance, performance, education, sustainability and humanity’s fundamental

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connection with nature. Funktion-One’s Evolution Series marks a significant step in development for the company. The Evo 7T is a tour-ready adaptation of the Evo 7E. The fully hornloaded speaker features 15in mid-bass, 10in Funktion-One signature mid-range and a 1.4in compression driver, as well as integral flying gear. It has 40° nominal horizontal dispersion and physically arrays at 30° three wide, giving smooth coverage to 100°. Since the Evolution Series was launched, Funktion-One has experienced huge demand from around the world. This, however, will be the first outing for the Evolution Series in Central America. The sound set-up for Envision features Funktion-One’s renowned range of bass reinforcement. The F221s are fully horn-loaded, making it a high-intensity bass enclosure that provides fast, accurate and physical bass frequencies. The BR 218 is very effective at close range and provides an effective sub-bass complement to the F221s. The system is powered by Lab.gruppen PLM20K amplifiers. These are some of the latest Funktion-One products, featuring the latest technical innovations from the company’s founder, Tony Andrews. Andrews has been at the forefront of the professional audio industry for more than 40 years. Funktion-One loudspeakers rely on precise engineering, rather than system processing, to produce its signature sound. The company is intent on sonic accuracy. Its technological approach avoids the use of both system EQ - with its inherent phase and headroom problems - and compression driver mid-range - with its inherent harshness and distortion. Its loudspeaker systems also have excellent directional control allowing sound to be focused where it’s needed and minimising off site environmental impact. Funktion-One’s designs also focus on maximising efficiency - conversion of amplifier power into acoustic energy - as this produces dynamic and responsive sound. It also means that less electrical power is required for a given acoustic output. TPi Photos: Eric Allen www.envisionfestival.com www.funktion-one.com 22

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EVENT FOCUS

Shure’s Pro Audio Manager, Tuomo George-Tolonen; Shure’s Axient Digital system on display at the open day at RADA.

SHURE AXIENT DIGITAL WIRELESS SYSTEM With the release of its latest product, Shure organised an afternoon at RADA London to give industry professionals a chance to get a closer look at the two branches of the Axient Digital family. Throughout the world of professional audio, the ever-growing issue of the shrinking UHF spectrum has been a dominant topic of conversation and one that will be a continuing battle for the coming years. In an event hosted by Shure UK, Tuomo George-Tolonen, Shure’s Pro Audio Manager, set out the issue matter-of-factly: “Over the past few years we have seen the continuing shrinking of the UHF-R spectrum. We have lost 800MHz in the UK and we are going to lose 700MHz in May 2020. It’s not going to get any better so we have to recognise that we are in a far harsher environment.” It was this issue that the company attempted to tackle with its latest release to the market place; the Axient Digital Wireless System, Shure latest high-tier product for the RF market. Following the launch of the of the system at the 2017 NAB show in Las Vegas, Shure opted to host a London-based open day at RADA to showcase its new offering. Axient Digital features a receiver that is compatible with two transmitter offerings, the AD Series and ADX Series. AD Series transmitters deliver a tremendous level of core product benefits, including exceptional RF performance and digital audio. Axient Digital ADX Series transmitters incorporate ShowLink, which provides real-time control of all transmitter parameters with interference detection and avoidance. The ADX Series also includes the first micro-bodypack with an integrated self-tuning antenna, enabling greater concealment and comfort. Nick Wood, Category Director for Wireless Products at Shure commented on the launch: “Shure has been at the forefront of the ongoing spectrum conversation, working alongside professional wireless users to deliver first-class solutions that support seamless, interferencefree productions. Given the increasing challenges of RF spectrum, it’s more

essential than ever that users have access to a system that can deliver the critical audio inputs of a production reliably over the air.” He continued: “With unparalleled RF stability and spectral efficiency, Axient Digital offers users the flexibility to work in the available spectrum, whether the number of channels required is great or small.” Ideal for a variety of users and applications, Axient Digital features numerous user-friendly features and benefits including High-Performance RF and audio quality. To meet the demands of professional productions, Axient Digital is designed for maximum signal stability featuring a true digital diversity with Quadversity receiver technology. Quadversity mode allows users to place sets of diversity antennas in different zones, or double the number of antennas in a single zone, to improve RF signalto-noise in challenging environments. Axient Digital is compatible with Wireless Workbench as well as the ShurePlus Channels App for efficient control and configuration, optimal spectrum management and frequency monitoring. “It was a pleasure to host Axient Digital Open Day for anyone who wants to attend,” concluded Tolonen adding, “For years, Shure has been at the forefront of our ever-changing spectrum landscape. Having listened carefully to our customer’s needs, we’re excited to demonstrate Axient Digital as the future of high-tier digital wireless.” Axient Digital is due to begin shipping later this summer with the AD series handhelds and bodypacks. The ADX series transmitters, including the ADX1M, the first micro-bodypack with an internal, self-tuning antenna, will be added in the new year. TPi www.shure.co.uk/axientdigital 24

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EVENT FOCUS

SOULWAX The Belgian electro rockers set out on a limited run of European shows to mark their first new music in 11 years, Transient Program For Drums And Machinery, and to put a complete Allen & Heath audio setup through its paces.

For the latest run, Soulwax’s crew had to deal with a number of challenges, not least the band’s on-stage touring set up. Soulwax’s Production Manager, Chris Walker, explained: “There are a lot of custom made components that make up the entire package, and with 7 musicians, 3 onstage vintage mixing consoles, 3 drum kits, a plethora of new and old synthesisers, and some interesting set elements, having an audio package that integrates seamlessly with our stage set up is absolutely vital. “Luckily, the Allen & Heath gear, and Ampco Flashlight’s audio department in general, is extremely well organised and efficient,” Walker said. “As well as the excellent audio system side of things, their gear is a joy

to deal with from a production / stage management point of view. The level of thought and effort that’s gone into the practical design of the gear makes my job a lot easier, and I only push the boxes around!” Although the crew had worked with Ampco Flashlight as an audio supplier many times in the past, the 2016 Soulwax tour was the first time they decided on a complete Allen & Heath audio ecosystem along with inhouse PAs. Walker commented: “As we moved through the pre-production phase it became clear that the Allen & Heath system was the only one that could provide everything we needed in a neat and efficient package. “We were searching for the best solution to get the entire audio signal routed as the artists wanted on stage, and the Allen & Heath dLive system 26

SOULWAX

just kept coming out on top of all the competition. Without the seamless connectivity between FOH, monitors and the onstage personal mixing stations, we’d be a lot slower and have less reliability. I have also been particularly impressed with the support and back up from Allen & Heath, they are so helpful, so fast and always super nice to deal with.” FOH Engineer Hugo Scholten picked up the story: “We came across the desk by coincidence last summer and it behaved and sounded so well that

we decided to retain dLive without a second thought. At that point we had 97 recording inputs coming from stage, which is actually more than enough on a festival run. I think we are able to cut it back to around this tour.” He added: “The workflow of the dLive is amazingly good and when you’re working in sunshine without a roof you can still see what’s happening on your screens. There is always more room for improvement and I must say the guys from Allen & Heath are on top of our requests.”

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Above: FOH Engineer Hugo Scholten chose an Allen & Heath dLive S7000, while Monitor Engineer Marc ‘Mackie’ De Vulder used an S5000.

The engineer had an Allen & Heath dLive S7000 at FOH with a 19-inch rack that contained a DM32 Expander fitted with one gigaACE and two Waves V3 cards. For this tour in particular, Scholten decided to use a variety of Waves plugins on snares, groups and masters through a SoundGrid Extreme Server. He said: “Three drum kits and a lot of analogue synths definitely warrant some extra attention. The on-board effects in the dLive are very good so there’s no need for outboard effects. I do multi-track all the shows on Reaper for virtual soundcheck and to track those onto a USB for the band members.” Monitor Engineer Marc ‘Mackie’ De Vulder also used an Allen & Heath desk, this time an S5000. He said: “My task is very simple on this tour, because the band all use Allen & Heath ME-1 personal mixers, which allows them to stay on top of their own monitor mix. All our shows have been going very well despite the fact that we have a lot of vintage equipment on stage interacting with our digital world. The results are very satisfying to myself, the musicians, and a lot of people around us.” The band’s on stage setup is imposing to say the least, with the three percussionists on stage each housed in their own bespoke ‘enclosures’ that featured their own lighting and risers. Walker said: “This tour isn’t the largest scale I’ve done with the band, but compared to the previous Soulwax backline / stage set up, it is quite a change. Some of the venues we played earlier on in the spring tour were on the edge of being too small for the production we were carrying, but we shoehorned it all in somehow!!” The design and build process for the set was relatively fluid, which allowed

the artists to make late changes and incorporate new ideas in the set up as they happened. Walker added: “I owe a massive thanks to all the suppliers that worked with us to produce the finished spectacle.” FOH Engineer Scholten and Monitor Engineer Mackie are regular faces on the road with Soulwax, and Walker was quick to point out their importance to the touring dynamic: “Not that I’d ever choose anyone else, but Hugo and Mackie are the first two on the crew list every time for Soulwax. They’ve been with the band for a long, long time, and the level of understanding that’s been built over the years allows our show and tour to run smoothly, and lead to “a lot o’ fun” on the road.” Walker concluded: “In my slightly biased opinion, the new Soulwax tour is a spectacle that has to be heard and seen live. Even I will finish a load in, look at the stage and think, “how did we make that all fit on there? “I’m incredibly proud of the way the Soulwax crew and band have thrown everything in to making it the best show we can. It’s been a journey to say the least, but the hard work has paid off for sure. A large part of the audio quality of the show is thanks to the ingenuity and craftsmanship of the A&H gear, but is also down to Hugo, Mackie, Jasper and all the other people at Ampco Flashlight that designed the touring audio system and pulled out all the stops to get us on the road.” TPi Photos: Babycakes Romero www.soulwax.com www.allen-heath.com www.ampco-flashlight.com 28

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EUROVISION 2017 After setting the bar so high at Eurovision 2016 in his native Sweden, Ola Melzig knew the follow-up in Ukraine would be a different prospect altogether. Despite a laundry list of challenges and more than a few logistical complications, Melzig’s hand-picked international crew managed yet again to deliver a truly world class production. TPi’s Ste Durham was on site in Kyiv to find out how.

While the technicalities of Ukraine’s border conflicts are far too complicated to dissect in these humble pages, the fact remains that the country would perhaps have rather won the right to host the competition when it wasn’t as diplomatically ‘busy’ elsewhere - if only in terms of its resources and infrastructure. That said, Ukraine’s Jamala did indeed triumph that night in Stockholm, and the possibility of hosting an event of this scale in the country quickly became stark reality. Although an organisation to deal with the situation was installed in relatively short order, preparations quickly ground to a halt, prompting the arrival of an anti-crisis manager Pavlo Grytsak in mid-December 2016. Following this, and due to his extensive history with the competition, TPi’s Production Manager of the Year, Ola Melzig, was quickly drafted in as Head of Production to help steady the ship. In his own inimitable style, Melzig took up the story: “The anti-crisis manager, who later became our Executive Producer, was brought to Kyiv at the end of 2016 and minutes after he accepted the challenge from the

government he called me to ask if I would fly to join him the next day, which I did. We go way back as he was Executive Producer of the contest in 2005 and, to be totally honest, I love a challenge! They wanted me to stay in the city indefinitely to start work but I explained there was something called Christmas and New Year’s and I would like to spend it with my family and friends. I was back by 12 January and have been here more or less full time since then.” While it is clear how much of a coup it was for this year’s host nation to secure a Eurovision veteran as recognised as Melzig, the question remained about where his own motivation came from. Put simply, in the face of such adversity, why say yes? He paused for a second, and answered: “It was the realisation that I was the only person in the world who could do the Eurovision in this amount of time. Anyone else trying would have failed miserably. “Not only do you need massive knowledge of the contest and concept, you need huge networks of suppliers and crew, as well as experience of 30

PRODUCTION PROFILE

Opposite and Below: This year’s show design included a variety of iconic elements, including the sweeping proscenium arch and Independence Day-esque ‘Beehive’ lighting matrix.

working in Ukraine, or at least Eastern Europe, at the highest level - which includes prime ministers, presidents and cabinets. That’s the level it’s at, and this was recognised by Pavlo from the start. It’s cocky to say that you saved the Eurovision but, in many ways, my team and I did.” Without a doubt, Melzig’s decision to return to Ukraine at least saved the competition from being moved away from the country to a venue elsewhere. He explained: “The EBU [European Broadcasting Union] always have a plan b - they’ve done this for 60 years - but their deadline to pull the handbrake was late December, because the backup nation needs a fair chance to produce something. Admittedly this would have been a scaled back production in a theatre venue - but there would still be a contest.” The decision was made that the semi-finals and Grand Final of the contest would take place between 9-13 May at the International Exhibition Centre (IEC) in Kyiv, and work was to begin as soon as possible. As you’d imagine, having essentially lost seven months, time was at a premium for Melzig and his crew. He continued: “The country recently went through a major anti-corruption campaign which, quite ironically, meant that everything took even longer than usual as we were spending government money. We had to get all of the equipment we wanted to through public procurement, which was announced on a bidding site. There are a certain amount per day, then we get the tenders back and review them with bidding committee, which allows us to begin work on contracts. “We were not able to act as fast a we wanted to but we can’t kick and scream about it because it is for a well-needed cause. We just had to be very precise in our RFPs as the laws are very stringent on adding provisos once a contract is agreed. They installed all these laws and legislation to get rid of corruption but they did it a little too well - the biggest irony of it all for me was that it was a Swedish company helping them with this process!” Despite this added layer in the event’s timeframe, Melzig managed to retain a certain amount of empathy for the host nation. He said: “As soon as we had everything, the RFPs for the main

departments flooded the lawyers’ offices, which was fairly new to them and on the largest scale you can possibly imagine. I’ve had enough experience of Eurovision by now to know how difficult this side of the job is. Being head of production here isn’t just overseeing a big show; there is a hell of a lot of diplomacy and politics to add into the equation as well.“ The process resulted in PRG and Litecom both being on site to provide lighting, rigging and video equipment, while Black Box Music supplied the audio, Finland’s Pyroman brought the special effects and Dutch company Unbranded manufactured all of the staging elements. In addition to that, NEP supplied all OB and camera, Opertec supplied special cameras, Powershop provided generators, Gravity supplied video content and Riedel supplied the IT infrastructure, Intercom and commentary. As is always the case with Eurovision when Melzig is around, there were a number of other companies also on site to either supply additional equipment and crew or maintain the kit that was there as Official Technical Partners. This included Beacon together with Green Hippo, Cyberhoist, Elation Professional and MA Lighting. With this list in mind, it could be easy to argue that the public tender process has resulted in an enviable selection of suppliers nonetheless, though Melzig pointed out that this is not always the case. He explained: “If you put out a public tender for something as specific as crew catering, for example, the cheapest bidder is not necessarily the one you want - it never is when it comes to food! It was a struggle but we managed to bend the rules a little to get the caterer that fit the bill the best, which was a Ukranian company called Food Factory. We’ve been really happy and they’ve done a great job looking after us. We also brought in a catering coach from the US for the first month to help them to understand the values that are important to us.” As well as securing a strong roster of technical partners, it was imperative that Melzig’s crew was just as reliable. He continued: “To stitch all this together in three months instead of 10 has been difficult to say the 31

EUROVISION

Above: The competition in Kyiv was billed as a celebration of diversity; The IEC was packed to the rafters on the night of the Grand Final; Switzerland’s Timebelle made the most of the imposing stage.

least, but the solution was hand-picking a team with massive Eurovision experience - we didn’t have the time to teach them about it - and making sure we built a much bigger team than usual. Those were my demands from the outset. The first thing I said to the crew was to promise them an adventure and everyone has agreed that I kept my word!” Although funds were a major consideration for Melzig in this situation, it was also essential to strike a balance between standing firm on some aspects and retaining the will to compromise on others. He said: “It’s not that different from most other jobs - you always have some kind of budget and time is always money. We compromised with as few things as possible and there were a number of elements that I made sure we could secure early on in the process.” An example of this was the 7.6mm LED floor that was build into Unbranded’s stage structure. Melzig explained: “There were other shows trying to get it, which would have been a catastrophe because it is the best of its kind in the world. The pitch is super sharp and it’s lined with the right kind of glass so you can walk and dance on it.” He continued: “Starting this late has absolutely impacted the budget so we’ve had to kill some darlings. We were supposed to do augmented reality but there was no way we could in this timeframe. To be honest I’m not convinced there was ever really a focussed idea on how to use it - it was one of the ideas that still hung around for a while from the previous organisation.”

A UKRANIAN PRODUCTION Rather than being a chance for Melzig to better his previous Eurovision outings, Kyiv presented a completely different kind of challenge. He explained: “Stockholm last year was the perfect storm; it was only three years since we hosted the competition in Malmö, with the same team, a fresh memory, and a long list of potential improvements. Two years would have been too soon, but three was just right so everyone was hungry to better the success we had in 2013. Unless you get that same situation again, in a country just as experienced as Sweden, you will never beat Stockholm. “But that was never the goal here,” Melzig asserted. “We are making a Ukrainian show. There are other values in place here and, although the current state is a young country, this is a very old country with old traditions that it is extremely proud of, and should be.” In order to ensure that these elements remained a focal point throughout the production, Melzig made the decision to bring in a number of local crewmembers. “We brought in a creative supervisor, who is actually a cultural attaché, to help with the legacy aspect of the show, which included the style of the pre-act postcards, the opening VT, and the interval acts,” Melzig said. “We wanted everything to have a distinct Ukranian flavour and the only way to achieve that is to involve people from within the country - you can’t have an outsider tell that story. The first organisation tried, and it failed miserably!” This ethos extended to Melzig’s inner circle, more specifically to the 32

EUROVISION

Above: The arch could be used as a giant projection surface; The Beehive at its highest point; The green room area at the back of the venue where the delegations watched the show and awaited their scores.

entire site and venue team, the entire production crew for Hall 1 (press centre, press conference, delegation areas and fan zone) his Associate Head of Production for Broadcast, Roman Keryk, and of course his assistant for the duration of the build and show in Kyiv, Victoria ‘Vika’ Yavorska. Although she originally applied for a more familiar position within the contest’s accreditation department, her exceptional English and experience of other large-scale events earned her a chair in the production office. “That was the happiest day of my life,” she beamed. “Ola is a great boss and it’s really easy to work for him. He gives you freedom to make your own decisions and trusts you to do your job. This is great because you can calmly get on with what you need to do. Every part of the machine is working and every person is responsible for his or her own job. I am used to working with stressful situations but it’s easier because the crew is international, friendly and experienced with this scale of event.” Although this was Yavorska’s first time working out of the production office, she served as accreditation manager at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and volunteered during Euro 2012 in Kyiv. She continued: “When I came here I thought it would be closer to the sports events I’d done before but I soon changed my mind! I met almost all of the team on my first day and I was so happy to see how many great and talented people I was going to work with.” As well as facilitating communication between production and local crewmembers, Yavorska also acted as an inter-departmental liaison: “By now I understand who is responsible for what, so I know that I can help to find the right person to help someone if I can’t help directly myself.” She concluded: “The job is extremely cool when you see the mother grid and the stage being assembled - I’ve never seen anything like it, it’s amazingly beautiful. You come to the venue and are astounded by

everything, and that motivates you to work hard and do whatever it takes to make this show as great as possible.” LIGHTING One of the key figures in Melzig’s Eurovision 2017 A-Team was worldrenowned Lighting Designer Jerry Appelt, who began his design process for the 2017 show by engaging in a good, old-fashioned napkin brainstorming session with Set / Stage Designer Florian Wieder. Appelt’s lighting rig was centred around a fresh take on the proscenium arch, which curved from upstage, and was further complemented by an LED floor and an arena-wide video wall backdrop. He harmonised this with an entirely kinetic rig, based around a huge, three-dimensional structure affectionately known as ‘the Beehive’ – a structure armed to the teeth with lighting technology such as Ayrton MagicPanel FXs and PRG Icon EDGEs and hung above centre stage, behind Wieder’s arching scenic projection surface and in front of the video backdrop. This, in turn, was encircled by layers of curved, automated truss elements, Appelt and his crew arrived in Kyiv 11 April after three weeks of preprogramming in Hamburg. He commented: “We did this without most of the video content as the contracts for Gravity were still not finalised. It was a hard way to do it as there are different mapping layers on the arch, as well as varying intensity and brightness from the upstage wall and the addition of on-stage projection mapped specials for some delegations. Sometimes the back wall is telling main story and sometimes it’s the arch or the lighting - this has to be considered for each act. “My primary goal was to design a lighting architecture that could be as multifunctional as a Swiss Army Knife,” explained Appelt. “I needed a rig that was supremely flexible from all perspectives and that would also look 34

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EUROVISION

DAN SHIPTON, BLACK SKULL CREATIVE (UK) Lucie Jones - Never Give Up On You

Above: The Beehive could be lowered in a number of configurations to adapt the stage for each performance.

good on TV. It had to offer an inexhaustible selection of looks for the cameras. Every truss is automated with a view to creating countless singular spaces by manipulating light, shadow and darkness, height and depth, angle and colour, hard and soft beams.” With this monstrous rig finalised on paper at least, it was then a case of communicating with delegations to discern any potential stumbling blocks when it came to their own wishes. “One trend this year is white light and the other is the use of strobes for big, powerful looks,” said Appelt. “Part of Eurovision is a lot of interaction with delegations, and it’s about offering them guidance as well as me receiving it - though sometimes it’s not particularly specific. Some countries are really well-scripted and technologically minded while others are more broad. Some give us fixture requests while others will only say “I need a majestic light”, or “at this point I need a hurricane on stage” and it’s my job to translate that.” Elation Professional served as another of the official technical event suppliers to the 2017 show, with 351 Elation Paladin hybrid strobe / blinder / wash lights rigged behind the upstage screen, and 132 Platinum FLX hybrid moving heads, 140 Platinum 1200 Washes and 70 Platinum Seven moving head LED wash lights, rigged on the audience trusses, as well as 110 SixBar 1000 LED battens. To give the LD as much creative freedom as possible, Melzig set up a shootout of fixtures in Cologne during pre-production, and Appelt liked what he saw in the Paladin: “I wanted to create an additional layer behind the LED wall, something that had impact but that could also work together with the LED video and other lighting. We chose the Paladin and it did a marvelous job.” Making its global debut, the full-colour Paladin fixtures were used in a large back wall matrix. “We used them independently and also pixel-mapped video across them,” said Appelt. These effects popped through the LED screen, sometimes as impactful strobe / blinder effects or chases and sometimes as more subtle eye-candy or warm or cold light twinkle effects, then stealthily disappeared when not in use. Appelt specified another new fixture, the Claypaky Scenius Unico, as his main stage workhorse, citing the need for flexibility in the rig. He said: “I needed it to perform the role of two, maybe even three different types of fixture, without compromising on colour, output, mechanical precision or effects. The Scenius Unico was the only solution because it is so versatile; it can be a spot, a wash or a beam light, it is also high output and relatively compact in size and weight.” The 160 Scenius Unico provided Appelt with a superior quality of light and 6500K output colour temperature to work alongside the production’s considerable video presence. “I primarily use the Scenius Unico as a spot and beam light. I needed a fixture that could deliver a consistent colour range, a bright output and enabled me to convey a wide variety of different looks; the Scenius Unico does this. It also offers a rich colour palette, it’s super bright and it has an old fashioned, punchy beam replete with hot spot, which I love and is perfect for this kind of show.” 36

“The song is beautifully simple and so we wanted to strip everything back to match this vibe and create a stunning world around Lucie. Initially we started exploring reflections and the magical world behind the glass that can distort our perception of reality. We started researching installation artists who have worked with light and mirrors and decided we wanted to create an infinity star universe around Lucie that left the audience unsure of where reality started and ended. “I designed the mirror shard to make the vast stage feel more intimate, with the gaps in the shard and starbursts on the video content, all ultimately drawing the viewer’s eye towards Lucie as the epicentre to the performance. “We had to build and transport any set pieces ourselves and we soon discovered that constructing it in the UK and trucking it over was not cost effective or practical. The Eurovision team recommended a Ukrainian company to us and we sent a production manager from the UK to make sure that our CAD was being followed to the letter. They did an amazing job and we’re really happy with the outcome. “It’s funny how the practical side of things has really driven some elements of the design. I wouldn’t have necessarily chosen that particular mirror product in the UK - we ended up with something typically used in the exhibition market - but it works perfectly. Originally there was also an idea to have the gaps in the shard filled with strips of LED but they didn’t have the availability in Ukraine. Instead we decided to shine beams of light through from behind and I’m so glad we did. “We decided to work with NorthHouse Films for the video content, which meant we could keep the dialogue open and achieve the detail we needed. The guys bent over backwards for us with revisions to get it perfect and we couldn’t have done it without them. “All delegations have had the same toolkit at their disposal adhering to the same Eurovision rules whilst using the same stage, screen layout and lighting rig so you really do have to think creatively to make your performance stand out. “Working in Ukraine made this process more challenging but I was lucky enough to work with an amazing team at the BBC who really believed in delivering an outstanding performance and were willing to push the process and not give up on the idea despite these challenges. The Eurovision production team have also been amazing to us and supported us throughout the journey. “We weren’t expecting the reaction we got here after the first rehearsal but it’s been amazing. The voting side of things is always difficult but if we can do better than last year and make the people in the UK feel proud of their entry, then we will go home really happy.” www.blackskullcreative.com

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EUROVISION

Above: The stage’s proscenium arch was designed and manufactured by Unbranded.

Melzig added: “One of Jerry’s biggest challenges is to balance the lighting and the high-power video for cameras. This demands a high impact fixture with great features, fantastic output and a lovely quality of light that stands apart from the rest of the lighting and video in the room. To that end, Jerry was insistent that he have the Scenius Unico. We love the colour, especially for TV and I, as a production manager, love the relatively low weight and the pleasing ratio of high light output to low power consumption. It’s a very powerful design tool, but for me it’s also very cost-effective.” Another versatile new fixture specified by Appelt for the design was the GLP JDC1, 24 of which were placed under the main LED wall. The fixture contains a traditional single tube element with a bright white output and a surrounding full face of RGB LED power, which can be used independently or in tandem to create a variety of effects. Appelt said: “The JDC1 have a very special look, and with their different features they give me certain extra possibilities. It’s often the little extra effects that are the icing on the cake, especially in such a large setup as the Eurovision.” Large is certainly the word. The full lighting arsenal in Kyiv was close to matching the quantity of its jaw-dropping predecessor from the previous year, clocking in at some 1,816 lights of all shapes and sizes. Providing the lighting, video and rigging technology for the show was PRG, in cooperation with Litecom, which meant that a number of its proprietary products were up for grabs, including 130 of the brand new Icon EDGE beam / spot / washes, 68 Best Boy HP2’s, 56 Best Boy Wash Blades, and 55 Best Boy Washes, as well as 4 of the new remote GroundControl Follow LongThrow followspots and 14 GroundControl Follow BadBoys. Melzig keen to express his admiration for PRG’s new fixture: “We are not using the new GroundControl systems because we can, we are using them because they’re an enormously practical invention. It’s so much easier and safer for the crew and it allows us to get the followspot source exactly where it needs to be, without compromise. Although we haven’t broken as many records as last year, it’s cool to have one at least - this is the biggest GroundControl install that has been used anywhere so far.”

Other fixtures that were used in Appelt’s design on stage and around the arena included GLP X4 Bar 20’s; Ayrton MagicPanels in the Beehive and around the downstage edge; SGM Q7’s, Q7 Ws and P2’s; Robe BMFL Wash/ Beams; Martin By Harman MAC2000 Wash XBs and ETC Source Four LED S2 profile spots. A total of 112 CyberHoists were used to move the grid over the stage, which was supplied by Ampco - Flashlight Rental and CyberHoist Germany in cooperation with Litecom, and programmed and operated by Ingo Koenzen, Bastiaan Commeren, Joeri Swagemakers and Pepijn van den Berkhof. Mathias Sontag, from Litecom Germany, planned the full production, operating the motors in the roof which played such a key role in adding the dynamic extra dimension to Appelt’s lighting design. “The Cyberhoist system was really complex, due to the weight of the lighting centrepiece and due to the stage area being packed, with moving heads and video literally back-to-back,” explained Sontag. “The task was controlling the dynamic weight, getting the loads into position at the right time without risking transfer of load to any critical level to the mother grid, which was monitored by loadcells at every point, ensuring the safety of the artists and crew working under these heavy items.” For control Appelt opted for an MA Lighting grandMA2 full size, as did the rest of the visual departments, allowing them all to work in the same session efficiently and create greater interaction between operators. The LD also used CuePilot software to analyse pre-recorded camera movements and plan his design around when certain sweeps or wide shots would allow him to display the full stage on television in all its glory. VIDEO The upstage video wall consisted of a combination of 12mm and 18mm ROE LED panels, with the former serving as the central area inside the arch and the latter outside it. The LED floor, which was one of Melzig’s essential components when it came to the stage design, consisted of 7,6mm panels protected by three layers of glass. The content that was projected onto the 38

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EUROVISION

Above: Head of Production, Ola Melzig (alternative job title on the palque); Head of Audio Kai Reiss; Serkan Güner and Benedikt Liester of Riedel; Unbranded’s Marco Kempen.

scenic arch came from a total of 56 Panasonic PT-RZ31Ks - a 31,000 lumens Solid Shine laser phosphor projector designed specifically for large venue applications such as Eurovision. Melzig also specified another of his Eurovision staples, Barco HDQ40 projectors fitted with MMS-200 moving mirror system, to map the on-stage specials that Appelt alluded to, such as Ukraine’s giant head set piece and the hologauze screens used by Greece and for the delegations during the flag parade introduction to the Grand Final. Media Server Engineer, Nick ‘The Greek’ Charalampidis, explained: “The complex shape of the arch means we triple stack the Panasonic projectors in the central areas to ensure that it is all being mapped correctly. The Barco units with the mirrors are also very handy because you can have an image anywhere on the stage and still control the focus, pan and tilt and zoom via DMX. “We are also pixel mapping a number of elements like the MagicPanels on the Beehive, the LED strips that line the arch and green room stairs, and the Paladins behind the video screen. We all work together through video, lighting and the server farm to ensure that everything is 100% in sync. It’s a very cohesive way of working.” Charalampidis was personally responsible for content management, mapping and signal distribution for all of the delegations. To help him do so, Digigobos / Beacon Gobo Group supplied 16 Hippotizer Media Servers with full support from Green Hippo. While some of the content was created by the delegations, the majority of it was created or at least approved by Gravity - or as Appelt affectionately referred to the company – the “style and technical police”. Charalampidis continued: “All of the Hippos are running to the timecode that comes from the playback departments, and none of them are fully active during the show. Eight of them are mainly redundancy / back up and we’re also using three networks. “We use HippoNet to handle any configuration that is required within

the software and to monitor the systems throughout the arena, while MAnet is controlling all of the servers. It’s very efficient and makes workflow a lot easier. The third network is ArtNet, which is used to pixel map the lighting fixtures and LED strips.” As is the nature of Eurovision, the video department were at the mercy of the delegations, to an extent at least, when it came to making changes up until the last minute. Despite that, Charalampidis was still happy to have made the journey to Kyiv with the rest of this handpicked team. He concluded: “It’s always a challenge to please all the delegations, and having so many rehearsals means the countries often have chance to suggest changes, but we have to remember that we are here to help them, and they all have to be treated the same way. 42 songs is a lot of content, but it’s nothing we haven’t done before!” STAGING Netherlands-based staging company Unbranded was another of the official technical suppliers for the event, engineering and constructing the majority of the scenic elements including the main stage, arch and green room pods for each delegation. Project Manager at Unbranded, Marco Kempen, explained: “We engineered everything at home and brought 20 trucks of material over to Kyiv using Himex Logistics, which have a depot in the city. This meant we had no problems at the border at whatsoever – a lot more than can be said about some of the other departments who weren’t as lucky. As well as giving us an advantage on site for the build, this will also be a major plus for us during the out.” Having been in talks with the client since the second half of February, Unbranded had a good idea of what was required of them - the arch having been a key part of the concept from the outset – though some compromises still ad to be made. Kempen said: “They said that they didn’t want the arch to be bright white, even though that would have been better 40

EUROVISION

LED Effects Technology made in Cologne

Above: The UK’s Lucie Jones with the mirror shard, designed by Dan Shipton.

from a projection point of view, so we ended up going with a champagne colour. We also had to add a series of beams to the Stageflooring (LED floor) in order to alleviate some of pressure on the glass that came from some of the heavier set pieces. At the end of the day these changes are always going to happen and are no problem at all.” The arch and stage structure that Unbranded manufactured was lined with Schnick Schnak Systems’ proprietary C-Series LED strips, which were controlled by the video team from FOH. Solveig Busler, Member of the Executive Board at the company said: “More than 2,000 C25-250 LED strips were installed in the video controllable lines around the main stage, the B stage and the stairs to the green room, which were controlled by 40 System Power Supplies 4E and two Pixel-Gates.” Kempen added: “We liked how organically they can pulse and interact with the songs. I just love it when the delegations use everything that is available to them, and the arch was something this year that had the potential to be really powerful. “Take for Portugal for example; they used the whole arch as a huge projection in a really homogenous way, which is a striking counterpoint to such a small song and the lone singer out at the B stage.” As well as being full of praise for the delegation that turned out to be the eventual winner [well done Marco!], Kempen was also keen to express just how much of a strong team dynamic was in place day after day at the IEC, despite the potentially fraught circumstances. He said: “There’s a great family feeling here among everybody from the delegations to the journalists to the production. The crew is made up of 18 nationalities and still everyone gets on great - we’re here together for two months here and we all know that we have to help each other whenever we can. Eurovision is all about bringing people together and that really does extend backstage as well.” “I suppose it’s the same as a touring crew become like your family, except that you are in the same venue every day instead of travelling city to city,” Kempen mused. “If you have a problem, you tell these guys, not your friends at home, because you see them more. Even so, we still love it! It’s like the saying: ‘If you love what you do, you never have to work a day in your life’, and that’s what we all believe as international touring crew. It’s in your veins.” IF IT AIN’T BROKE… A strong contender for gold in Eurovision 2017’s ‘Short-Notice Olympics’ was Pyroman’s Markku Aalto, who was asked at the last minute to resume his role as the contest’s resident special effects guru. He said: “Due to the lead time we have basically recreated the setup we had at last year’s competition in Stockholm. We have 24 pyro positions for both single shots and flames around the stage, confetti cannons, and falling star and pyrotechnic waterfall effects rigged onto the rear truss, as well as heavy fog and wind machines.” Aalto again used FireCTRL Firing Desks and Field Modules to sync the pyro with the timecode running the show, and an MA Lighting dot2 DMX desk for manually shooting the heavy fog and smoke jets. The products themselves were a combination of Le Maitre, NextFX, Ultratec, and MagicFX kit. As well as arriving relatively late on in the pre-production phase, Aalto also had to contend with the, quite understandably, stringent regulations that the host country had in place when it came to explosive products. He explained: “It really is a different world. Everything we stock is approved to a European standard but that means nothing here - it’s the local inspectors that have to give

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EUROVISION

you the green light. “This doesn’t sound like too much of a problem, but let me give you an example: All of our gas bottles come from Finland all approved in Europe but not in Ukraine, so we cant use them. However, they can’t fill the bottles as much as we can, so we need more bottles. Then there are too many bottles in building, but we can’t leave bottles outside because of the

danger of them overheating in the sun… and on it goes.” He continued: “The silver lining I suppose is that we would still have these difficulties even if we had more time, though I’m sure we could have designed around it. The crew and production team are second to none and we still came out of this with a great looking show, but it’s certainly been one of the most challenging Eurovisions I’ve been involved with.” AUDIO In the midst of what is undeniably a visual feast, it’s easy to forget that Eurovision is still, at its core, a song contest. As a result, Melzig and his team needed to find an audio system to live up to what is such a significant event in millions of people’s musical calendars. Audio supplier Black Box Music provided a full L-Acoustics setup that included a total of 84 boxes of K2 for the main left and right hang, rear hangs and delays for the first and last parts of the grandstand. Head of Audio for this year’s Eurovision, Kai Reiss, also opted for flown KS28 subwoofers and hangs of KARA for side delays. A total of 20 X12’s were flown in the outer trusses over the grandstand provide fill duties for the last rows, which couldn’t be covered by the main system. Six more KS28’s and 10 ARCS Wide were hidden under the stage, while four hangs of ARCS II were flown to cover the first few rows of audience. As is tradition, a maximum of six vocal microphones are allowed on stage during any one performance, all of which this year were Shure Axient wireless units with DPA d:facto capsules. The headset microphones used by the presenters were DPA d:fine 4088’s and the one instrument mic for the accordion [you had to be there] was a d:vote DPA 4099. Shure was again the choice for wireless IEM, namely PSM1000’s. Reiss chose to run two Optocore rings for full redundancy, with Dante for returns to the PA system. The system was connected with the Lawoequipped OB vans via MADI, which is where the timecode clock originates that keeps the pace for the entire show. The audio department also served as part of the ‘show control’ playback system, sending timecode for lighting, video, and OB CuePilot as well as MIDI notes to trigger lighting cues. This system consisted of ProTools software with RME and DirectOut hardware (including DirectOut Exbox.BLDS for redundancy switching), which was connected via Optocore DD4MR-FX into the DiGiCo loops. Reiss added: “We also have Riedel MediorNet to exchange some signals for communications. I like everything to be separate to minimise the mistakes that are often caused by an overly complex system.” Although more L-Acoustics systems were put to use in other zones around the venue, such as the press and delegation areas, Reiss specified something altogether different for the post-show viewing rooms. He explained: “the executive producers and delegations like to go down and listen to the performances during rehearsals to analyse and make adjustments in audio, camera cuts and so on. I chose to have a 5.1 setup in there with Meyer Sound Amie studio monitors (the broadcast mix is also produced in 5.1) and it sounds really amazing. I love those speakers. 42

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EUROVISION

NICOLINE REFSING, ROCKART DESIGN (Ireland) Brendan Murray - Dying To Try, (Switzerland) Timebelle - Apollo

Above: The view from the raised FOH platform in the IEC that housed all of the visual departments.

Meyer invited me to listen to them at Prolight+Sound last year and I was really impressed. I knew we had to use them.” Reiss went on to explain his team’s duties on site: “My crew does everything audio-wise but we split FOH into two to make life easier - one side for music and other for programme sound. I always planned on asking for DiGiCo but Black Box was kind enough to supply six SD7’s. DiGiCo SD9’s were in place on the way to the stage to act as pre listening desks. We also used Waves SoundGrid Servers to implement automixing for the hosts’ channels but also for FX and Cedar DNS8Live, which is a great tool and also helps to improve the OB mix.” He continued: “The system is flown really high to accommodate the sightlines for the TV cameras, which added to our main concern during the design phase - the venue. We had a lot of difficulty to place and tune the speakers due to the sloping shape of the roof. Luckily there is plenty of time on site to calculate everything so we have it sounding great by the time the show comes around.” The audio crew used a pair of TiMax SoundHub units to manage the level and multi-channel delay alignment between the main and B stage performance areas in the IEC, revisiting a technique pioneered for Adele’s last arena tour. SoundHub-S16 systems were inserted between the SD7’s and Lake master system processing, feeding the amps which, in turn, fed the line array hangs, subs and fills. As the performance switched between the two stages, the TiMax dynamic delay-matrix delivered all mix outputs from main and backup console/system processor chains via on-board 96KHz SRCs, to seamlessly re-align and focus all PA elements onto the current stage. TiMax was also used to provide an emergency interrupt for the PA to playback recorded audience announcements in English and Ukrainian languages from its on-board SSD, an added bonus feature over other delay processors which were considered for the matrixing task. “The main thing as engineer is to make delegation happy,” Reiss concluded. “We continue to get mix notes for effects and such and we do our best to make that happen. As is the case with other departments, we always ensure that no one is left wanting, and everyone’s performance is as close to perfect as it can be.” Reiss’ compatriots Serkan Güner and Benedikt Leister of Riedel Communications were also on site to talk TPi through their varied duties at the IEC. Leister began: “Basically we are providing something of a technological ecosystem here on site, helping to ensure that everything from the IT infrastructure and commentary booths to communications and accreditation is linked together efficiently from start to finish.” Güner added: “We are essentially keeping on top of everything from walking 44

“With Ireland we wanted a simple, audience-orientated B stage performance in the round, but it was ultimately decided that it would be better for the cameras if we had it on the main stage. We reworked performance and I think the height we have with the riser and the lighting is really helpful to create the illusion of flight that we were after. “The song is all about taking off on a journey into the unknown and we thought that the hot air balloon, manufactured by ABC Inflatables, really matched the symbolism of the lyrics and airy music. We refined a few of the finer points during the second rehearsal and when we saw the shot over the balloon with Gravity’s LED floor content travelling and the fog above we couldn’t believe it. The use of negative space helped us to break out of confines of the stage - we didn’t use the proscenium at all, which set us apart from the rest of the countries. “The creative process for Switzerland started in summer 2016 through the country’s selection process. Timebelle are really dynamic musically and have a funloving personality that I wanted to shine through. They had gone for a femme fatale theme with roses and a red dress during selection so we wanted to do something surprising for Kyiv. “We wanted to avoid the clichéd depictions of Apollo as a Greek god and go with a more surreal, pop art representation. It was also a case of the singer, Miruna, working with the space by moving from the central pedestal that she starts on, to the piano, before finishing downstage in a classic rock ‘n’ roll performance section. The central lighting grid and blinders behind the screen were really useful for those intense moments. “We decided quite late in the day to scrap our original video content and have Hello Charlie create something new for us, which I’m sure was the right decision overall. Blackfriars Scenery in London again helped us by manufacturing the set pieces for both acts, as well as organised trucks and dealing with any potential hassle at the borders. The truck left on 7 April to account for delays so I had to have everything designed, built and costed in time - only three weeks after the delegation meeting. “The production team here has been working overtime and the whole crew has been been terrific. Everything out here comes down to communication, preparation and working together, and to pull this off yet again in these circumstances is a great achievement.” www.rockartdesign.com

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Above: Lighting Designer extraordinaire Jerry Appelt; Media Server Engineer, Nick ‘The Greek’ Charalampidis; Pyroman’s Markku Aalto; Assistant to the Head of Production, Victoria ‘Vika’ Yavorska.

in the door to walking on stage to the press conference after!” The company had 90 of its intercom panels on site, 80 RCP28 and 10 DCP1060, which were spread all over venue. Some of the main areas included FOH, stage left and right for controlling cameras, and the production office, press centre, and rehearsal rooms. Riedel’s MediorNet MultiViewer app, and its MediorNet MicroN and SmartPanel hardware were also in use at the IEC. The company chose to use Eurovision to field test six of its new Bolero units, employed in this case for use by the commentary support staff. The system can be applied three ways: as a wireless beltpack, a wireless keypanel, and a walkie-talkie radio. Leister commented: “For now it looks very good and we have great coverage despite having basically just laid the antenna on a table! At the moment it’s just a case of gathering information about it and learning more. We have loads of frequencies here, which makes things difficult anyway, but it’s proving to be really impressive already.” Riedel also provided the IT infrastructure, including Internet, for the production, press and VIP areas. Güner concluded: “Although it slowed us down when one or two departments were delayed, it simply meant that we had to work hard to recover the time that was lost. To be honest, we expected more difficulties but production is so good at their job and have been great at helping us out. In addition to that, there is a great relationship between suppliers, which is essential on such a huge production.”

Associate Head of Production, Tobias Åberg. He said: “We’ve done maybe 10 Eurovisions together, including the infamous Moscow show of 2009, so it’s been great to have him on the crew during another adventure! He’s been enormously helpful as there is so much to stay on top of regarding protocol and so on. We’re both educated on the format and know exactly where we stand with each other.” Melzig went on to sing the praises of his Operation Manager, Anders Karlsson: “I’ve always seen Anders as a role model of how to do proper productions, and therefore we share the exact same point of view of how things should be done. It’s been such a great pleasure to have him on this show as my wingman.” “No matter what, I knew we’d be rehearsal-ready with this crew and these suppliers. It’s not been the easiest gig I’ve done but it’s also been far from the hardest. The most important thing for us is that the Ukrainians are proud of this show and that the Europeans and global audiences enjoy it. Even though it was far from the perfect conditions to do Eurovision, it was still an opportunity to do Eurovision, and to do it my way.” TPi Photos: Saskia Gaulke, Ralph Larman, Marco Kempen, Nora Ryan, TPi www.eurovision.tv www.m-m-pr.com www.prg.com www.litecom.dk www.fix8group.com www.green-hippo.com www.elationlighting.com www.riedel.net www.black-box-music.de www.pyro.fi www.gravity.de www.nepinc.com www.opertec.tv www.cyber-motion.com www.malighting.com www.digigobos.com www.unbrandedexperience.com www.ampco-flashlight.com

THE LAST WORD Despite the numerous challenges, we have still pushed the boundaries. We hung 212 tonnes in that ceiling, which is 100 more than in Stockholm, and everything over the stage was automated. We’ve had trucks stuck in customs, machinery missing and even no water at one point! It certainly has been a challenge but my entire team thinks it has been a fun one - who wants to be imprisoned in an Excel sheet all day!?” As well as paying tribute to his crew, Melzig was keen to mention his 46

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GANG SIGNS & PRAYER At just 23 years of age, Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo, Jr, or Stormzy as he’s known to his masses, has become one of the UK’s most respected grime artists. Yet his talents aren’t restricted to a recording studio; the genre defying south Londoner is working alongside a dedicated team of touring professionals who ensure his live shows are worthy of a global audience. TPi’s Kel Murray attends the Gang Signs & Prayer tour finale at Brixton Academy, which was filmed live for YouTube and included guest appearances from Wretch 32 and Ed Sheeran.

PRODUCTION PROFILE

STORMZY

Equipment for the visuals was supplied by PRG XL Video and Neg Earth Lights; 21 Gun Salute, a duet with Wretch 32, featured intricate automation of the video screens via a Kinesys system.

Upon arriving at Brixton Academy, fans were lining the streets, waiting patiently in the early summer heat for the hottest ticket in town: the last of urban artist Stormzy’s hometown gigs following his biggest headline tour. What’s intersting about this artist is his ability to reach fans from all walks of life. There are high school students adorning the pavement outside and backstage there are celebrities turning up to show support. Accoustic guitar wonderkid Ed Sheeran took to the stage with a surprise rendition of Shape Of You (following his own sell out O2 Arena shows), and let’s just say there are famous faces attending this gig who have more Instagram followers than the TPi office has had cups of Yorkshire Tea all year. In short, this is an artist in demand and everybody wants to see his live show unfold. Tour Manager Trevor Williams greeted TPi with a wide-eyed smile at the venue’s back entrance. The eager school uniforms look on in anticipation as he begins his story on the walk inside: “I was working with Wretch 32 - who is one of our guest vocalists tonight - when I met Stormzy’s Manager, Tobe Onwuka. Although I’d heard the name, I’d never seen him perform before. Right from the start, I could see his energy was crazy and his potential as a touring artist was massive. Even though there’s just two of them on stage, him and his DJ, Tiny, they really take control and get the whole crowd going. “I was already working with his Production Manager, Bronski, with some of my other artists. We then approached our Lighting Designer, Steve Bewley and it all came together brilliantly - we’re really happy with how the show looks; we wanted to go big and we did!” he affirmed.

this evening would confirm Williams’ thoughts... “A brilliant thing about working with him is that he gives us, the crew, the freedom to develop his shows, he trusts us and knows what we can bring to the table, so he’s happy to invest in something that’s is going to move his career forward. He is a lot of fun to be around - his energy is huge on and off stage! - but he’s also a real professional; he trains hard, he eats well and almost treats each show like a work out - trying to beat his PB! This show is a statement and he’s as blown away as we are that it all came together.” PRODUCTION AND SHOW DESIGN Production Manager Bronski is a man of many crafts, an audio engineer who has in the last five years taken on the challenge of becoming a visual and creative designer alongside his partner Amber Rimell. He explained: “I was brought in originally at the start of the summer 2016 when Stormzy was first discussing how to ‘up’ his production values, utilise house video screens and make his shows more unique to him. On the whole, we kept it fairly simple, yet punchy - it felt too early to walk in and start talking timecode at that point!” he laughed. “Our show for BBC Radio1 Extra at the end of 2016 was the first time we added some set pieces and special effects, and that allowed us to visualise what we could achieve for a full UK tour. “When I first got the dates though, the Brixton dates stuck out like a sore thumb… Stormzy wanted these homecoming shows to be a real spectacle so his brief was fairly simple, and went something like this: “I want this to be the biggest production Brixton Academy has ever seen!” The determination to deliver the best show of his career allowed Stormzy’s crew to get results with ease. Continued Bronski: “We spoke about how he still wanted to put on a show everywhere else in the UK, but the Brixton residency really needed to blow people away. He wanted everyone - fans, the music industry, critics and social media to be talking about these gigs. On top of this, I also had his full trust, which was an amazing starting point.”

TOURING WITH TALENT Williams continued: “The thing about Stormzy is that it his genre doesn’t define him. It doesn’t matter that he’s known for making grime music, because when you see him perform, he does so much more than that. It’s been great watching him grow as an artist and to see his biggest headline shows bring in the likes of Ed Sheehan and Wretch 32 coming to perform alongside him, it’s really cemented him as a valuable artist.” The recpetion 50

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STORMZY

ER Productions provided lasers, as designed into the show by Bronski; Notch software was utilised with d3 Technologies 4x4 media servers, used to operate parts of the visual content; SSE supplied an L-Acoustics rig alongside a monitor control package; Pyrojunkies was asked to deliver a sparkling finale to Brixton; The show was designed to deliver a range of looks, focussing on the idea of movement throughout.

SHOW DEISGN Bronski commented on the first video concepts: “I had it in my thoughts from very early on in the process that I wanted this show to have a lot of movement within it. I worked on a few design ideas over the Christmas period and felt that with the size of the Brixton venue, we could get away with it being lots of smaller screens. It was a challenging design… so naturally I went down that route! “We also wanted to avoid having screens and trusses in a straight line, so almost everything was angled. It’s got to be said, our Head Rigger [and TPi Award winner] Pete The Greek did a great job; the mother truss ended up covering over half the roof! “I was really keen on having the lower half rotate, except for Tiny’s DJ booth, which would remain static. The Revolving Stage Company had great automation software, which meant we could really be precise and creative with how we positioned the six lower video screens and the Martin by Harman Sceptron video product hidden behind them,” he noted. The Revolving Stage Company supplied the tour with six revolving stages measuring 2m x 1.8m diameter, 2m x 2m in diameter and 2m x 2.4m diameter, all of which were 305mm in height. The revolves were all connected to the company’s own programmable software package ‘RevolveSolve’ which allowed operator Russ Stretton to move them at a specified time, either separately or in unison. “With everything being able to move, it allowed us to have an element of surprise,” continued Bronski. “Myself and my partner, Amber Rimell run a creative company called Tawbox. We decided the show should start by spelling his name out, with Stormzy himself becoming the ‘Y’ in silhouette. We kept it small at the start and built up the visual capabilities as the show went on. It’s only at two thirds of the way through the show that the audience actually see everything we have offer.” The show was broken up into sections: 7 lower screens, 7 lower screens and 1 row of truss; 7 screens and 2 rows of truss, 14 screens (straight) and 2 rows of truss; 14 screens and 3 rows of truss (broken up); 14 screens and 3

rows of truss (formation). “Adding lasers and the rotating screens within this, and we were able to create a lot of varied looks,” he added. The intricate show design was loaded into Brixton four days before the first show took place and two days of programming followed before Stormzy came in to rehearse. “Myself and Amber have done a lot of content design and concepts over the last five years, we make some in-house and have some [secret!] colleagues and freelancers we work with too. In this set, nine pieces of content were created in-house, and the rest was outsourced to two trusted designers. Some content was traditionally made as per a standard map, while other content was created on bespoke loops, which we then parallel mapped. For automation, we used Kinesys and programmed the information into our d3 Technologies media servers, therefore the screens moved with perspective and the content design stayed true,” he said. An example of this could be seen during 21 Gun Salute, a duet with rapper Wretch 32 who made an appearance on the night. “We had a black and white sky parallel mapped, and the reflective chrome guns were all directly mapped into the centre of each screen. We utilised the new Notch software within the d3 server directly mapped, and then we parallel mapped.” The video equipment supply came from PRG XL Video, a favourite of Bronski’s: “Our PRG Project Manager, Paul ‘Macca’ Macaulay, has been a massive part of my career move from audio to production / creative. He really has been super enthusiastic with watching me become more adventurous with video. Michael George at PRG put together a great broadcast package for us too.” The video rider comprised ROE MC-7 black face 7mm formed screens, d3 Technologies 4x4 media servers, the Notch Playback software used on the media servers, and Sony HXC-100 cameras for media server input. In addition, the YouTube live webcast and recording utilised Sony FS-7 cameras, Polecam, Movi Rig, a Panasonic 450 camera switcher/PPU and 52

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STORMZY

Stormzy was joined by several special guests: children who were freestyle dancing, Ed Sheeran and Wretch 32; The visual content was commisioned and created by PM / Show Designer, Bronski; ER Productions created the laser looks.

Ki Pro recorders used with LiveU Webstreaming, an element of the show which was a huge success. “We always had the broadcast element for YouTube in mind when creating this show, so there weren’t any major additions apart from extra audience lighting,” commented Bronski. “The live stream was a massive success - Stormzy got 10,000 new YouTube subscribers in one hour!”

with; I was dying to get them on tour and have a play with them! They’ve really impressed me and I’m so glad we could use them for this show. “I like to use the Solaris Flares because of their amazing colour options - you can create different scenes throughout the set, so they’re a very versatile fixture to work with. The Claypaky Mythos were also a key fixture for both the first part of the tour where we had the smaller rig, and here in London. They’re able to punch through everything else on stage and I knew they’d do the trick - the colour is perfect for what I wanted to ahcieve. The Mythos are placed in positions where they shine through the architecture of what we’ve physically placed on the stage.” MAC Viper Profiles are being used for side lighting too. An interesting aspect of this rig is the heady number of almsot 100 Jarags, a square, tungsten fixture. Bewley continued: “I remember when I first specified the Jarags, everyone thought I was mad! But it’s created massive depth to the stage in such a subtle way; it’s enabled it to look bigger than it is even though we have a lot of things happening up there. “This has been such a great show to be a part of, and we’re all really proud of it. For me, this job was all about effects lighting, and doing as Stormzy wished: making his hometown show look huge. We really wanted to give the stage everything he would give it - a varied, and high energy and big impact prodcution. He’s crossed over into a lot of different genres - from grime to gospel, hip hop to love songs, so the themes of ‘gang signs’ evolved from the grime side and the ‘prayer’ derived from the gospel element of his music. You might not think it’d work, but it does, really well. It’s a unique juxtaposition to be working with. ” For the UK tour excluding London, Bewley requested some bespoke elements to feature in the smaller shows, and turned to Light Initiative’s Technical Project Manager, Simon Cox to fulfil a key look for the other UK dates. Cox noted: “Steve came to us looking for a flexible solution to cope with the challenges of smaller venues, yet it was a very different design for the larger rooms. We made a bespoke creation for Stormzy’s tour that consisted of custom-built 4m towers with a 20mm profile and fixtures with 14mm profile. It was a really clean design which helped to minimise any visual clutter on the smaller academy stages. “Essentially we needed to create a cost effective, slim line lighting

LIGHTING Over in lighting world, Steve Bewley took up the reigns for design and operation of the rig. Having already worked with Bronski during a Wretch 32 production, the LD was keen to help develop the possibilities of this project. He told TPi: “The camera manipulation system is pretty incredible; the Notch used within the d3 server allowed the content to look as though it’s pre-mapped but it’s actually happening live, following his movement. The more and more things we added, the more we knew we wanted everything to move - we’ve been lucky in that we got everything we wanted and it all came together as we’d hoped for the entire visuals of the show.” Bronski added: “I’ve trusted Caroline Beverly at Neg Earth for a few years now - both for touring and television performances because the crew and equipment at Neg is always top class, so it was a no-brainer to use them as our lighting vendor here.” Bewley was operating on an MA Lighting grandMA2 Full Size console, with 2 NPUs and Neg Earth’s own networking. His chosen fixtures included: 24 Claypaky Mythos, 6 Martin by Harman MAC Viper Profiles, 54 Martin by Harman Sceptron 10’s, 30 TMB Solaris Flares, 38 Ayrton MagicPanel R’s, 10 Ayrton MagicBursts, 3 Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlasts and 92 Jarag 5’s. A Follow Me followspot system with 4 Robe BMFLs were used for follow spots duties. Bewley elaborated on the reason behind this design choices: “The Follow Me followspot system is fairly new to the market, and I’ve been really impressed with it. We’ve got a shiny floor and generally, if you have a floor that is reflective, it interferes with your screens, yet the Follow Me system works around that by being on the truss instead of manually operated - it’s a great bit of kit. The Aryton MagicPanel R’s worked really well for picking up the drum rolls, and certain elements of the songs that should be highlighted and the Magic Bursts are the brightest fixtures I’ve ever worked 54

Congratulations to Stormzy and Bronski & Amber Rimell at TAWBOX on 3 sold-out nights at O2 Academy Brixton!

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STORMZY

Lighting Designer Steve Bewley with his grandMA2 is said to bring “innovative and creatively complex designs to our attention” according to Light Initiative’s Simon Cox; Tour Manager Trevor Williams saw “Massive potential in Stormzy”; Production Manager and Visual Designer, Bronski knew early on that this design would feature many moving parts, leading up to a big reveal as the show went on; Sound Manager Raphael Williams has a close professional relationship with the UK’s No.1 grime artist.

solution. Existing, off-the-shelf lighting fixtures weren’t suitable for his design - Steve needed something similar to LED battens but more elegant and much brighter. The output of our product is much brighter than found in standard fixtures and the whole system was run though our IntelliFLEX DMX personality. The system gives the flexibility to create video-style looks, without the need for a media server.” As always for a tour, speed of assembly was important, especially considering this was a bespoke item. Continued Cox: “The build took us around 10 days and the main priority in that time was stability. We created thin lines with maximum light output, and we had to ensure we could keep a continuous 8m horizontal line across the stage, which would remain perfectly straight. Steve is a pleasure to work with, he always brings innovative and creatively complex designs to our attention! He has used our IntelliFLEX personality for many different tours, so it was great to see it being used to its full potential with Stormzy.”

“Although we had a relatively tight budget, the laser kit packed a punch. Our technician rigged 12 red and 12 blue Burstboxes onto the upstage and downstage truss and 2 full colour Tripan scanning systems were located upstage right & left. To enhance the beam profile of the lasers, a Viper deLuxe smoke machine and Unique hazer filled the venue with allimportant atmospheric effects.” With so many moving elements in the performance, ER worked closely with the show’s motion control operator to ensure that the lasers cleared the larger set pieces/screens. “Safety is also paramount - all the laser effects were tested and cleared by the venue’s Health & Safety officer and we used our propriety show stop solution, the ER E-Stop Interface, at FOH and on stage, providing an additional layer of security,” noted Webber. “Although it was the first time we’d worked with Stormzy, it’s always a pleasure to work with Bronski. When he calls, you never know where it’s going to take you!” he laughed. “It was an exciting project with a very high standard of production. And, it was great to have had quality programming time scheduled in ahead of the live shows.” TPi Award-winner Pyrojunkies was asked to deliver a sparkling finale to the Brixton shows via some special effects gags. MD Dan Mott spoke to TPi: “We were called in to work on Stormzy’s last three London shows. When we got the call from Bronski, we knew we had to make it happen!” The pyrotechnics expert was tasked with supplying the show design with effects that included, as Mott explained: “6 wireless positions of the Pyrotechnic 1/4sec by 6m jets and 2 Line Rockets that shot over the audience’s heads from the stage lighting towers all the way to the back wall of Brixton Academy! “We also deployed 2 MagicFX Superblaster XL Cannons in the pit with a whopping 20kg of white & silver confetti per night. This created Stormzy’s own confetti storm!” The Special Effect Op on the night was Dan ‘Hesky’ Eske who used a Galaxis Wireless Firing System from Galazis Showtechnik.

LASERS & SPECIAL EFFECTS In addition to the complex video and lighting designs, Bronski and Bewley also wanted some extra ‘wow’ factor bringing to Brixton, and opted to use ER Productions for laser effects. ER’s Marc Webber commented: “Bronski sent me the show design and asked us to come up with a laser design based on the existing lighting and production design. We opted for single colour Burstboxes, which maximise the effects and can be integrated well into show designs. “This show design was the perfect backdrop for Stormzy’s characteristically energetic performances and gritty lyrics. Bronski created an edgy and mesmerising scheme of lasers, moving lights and video screens - the effects were well paced and helped to punctuate key elements in the show,” he said. Lasers were used at all the Brixton shows on tracks including Lasers were used at all the Brixton shows on tracks including Cold, Big for your Boots, Cigarettes & Cush, Shape of You and Know Me From. 56

STORMZY

AUDIO Looking after the tour’s sound requirements is Manchester native Raphael Williams, whom TPi first met when he was mixing monitors for Tinie Tempah. Some five years later, and the sound engineer has made quite a name for himself within the rap and grime world - albeit by accident! Williams was managing both FOH and monitor mixes for the tour, moving solely to FOH for the Brixton shows due to the scale of the 5,000 capacity venue. Williams, who has long been a supporter of Soundcraft desks, was managing the mixes on his own Vi2000. He said: “I use other desks, but for me, Soundcraft is something I’ve invested in and still love to use. This desk feels very natural to me - it’s a warm sounding desk and has a great dynamic range, so it suits many kinds of artist. “I have confidence in my FOH set up - once I know what the PA is doing following soundcheck, I do all of my ear checks and I’m ready to go. Although, before a show I am always nervous - I think if you’re not in that fear zone, something’s gone wrong! My personal point of feeling calm is the first time I hear his vocal line when we go live.... “I’ve worked with a lot of grime and rap artists over the last few years now - I’m almost labelled as a grime engineer! And although it’s not necessarily my favourite genre, the music Stormzy is putting out is just so approachable; he really eases you into grime and, in my experience, turns people onto the genre. He’s made it more accessible for people who wouldn’t have listened before. That’s partly down to the way he invites you, as the audience, into his performance and it’s also partly down to how the show is mixed - it’s a team effort and it’s converting people!” he laughed. (Don’t just take Williams’ word for it - Stormzy’s tour is in support of his debut album of the same name - Gang Signs & Prayer - the very first grime album to reach No. 1 in the UK charts.) Williams had been working with Stormzy for two years when the young rapper was totally new to touring. During this time, Williams states Stormzy’s performances have improved ten fold. “His whole character just wants to make things better - for him and for his peers. His attitude towards this means that we have a great relationship. We understand what we can do for each other; I know he can deliver a good vocal and he knows I can deliver a good mix!” Having been a monitor engineer beforehand, Williams believes it’s that experience that has allowed him to become a better FOH engineer. “It’s personal to each artist, but I can really pick up what kind of mix an artist wants everyone else to hear out front. Stormzy really likes clarity, almost like ‘clean’ Grime and that’s why he’s so listenable. He’s a great listener too, so if I say don’t do a certain thing with the mic, he won’t, because he trusts me to know the show will sound better because of it. He’s always wanting to learn and improve his performance as much as he can.” This was evident when Ed Sheeran took to the stage and Stormzy praised his friend for giving him invaluable advice on the music industry and touring. For his vocals, Stormzy uses a Sennheiser 935 microphone, which Williams is a big fan of: “This microphone works perfectly for his strong and dynamic range vocal range. I tend to turn it down but turn the receiver up as I get more output into the desk and can make it as loud as I want - before any feedback happens! “My role has changed for the bigger shows, and we now have SSE helping out with both sound reinforcement and crew in London. SSE’s Paul Keeble is mixing monitors on a Yamaha QL5, which has been working out really well. Stormzy is also using in-ears for the first time on tour. We’re using Sennhesier G3 transmitter packs and he’s using personally moulded Cosmic Ears in-ears. He loves them! It’s a whole new world of sound that he’s appreciating, which as an engineer, is really great to see. Having in-ear systems has taken him to a new level on stage; he feels like he’s able to give a more professional performance with them in.” The PA system for the Brixton shows was an L-Acoustics K2 rig, which was already in the venue from a previous show, left installed upon request. “We have created two PA zones with two systems: 1 downstairs for the standing crowds and another for the balcony area. The system is comprised of K2 boxes for front hangs, KARA for infill and KS28 subs. We wanted to keep it in because... well, you can’t really go wrong with L-Acoustics, can you?” Williams smiled. CATERING, CARRIAGES AND KUDOS Eat to the Beat provided crew catering, artist catering and dressing room riders during all 16 sold out shows across the UK and Ireland. Eat to the Beat served up freshly-cooked food, which included some of the artist’s personal favourites such as Jerk Chicken and Duck Spring Rolls. Extra crew for Brixton was provided by Stage Miracles, trucking was via Fly By Nite - which supplied 6 in total for the London residency - and tour 57

STORMZY

The #Merky touring crew; Stormzy is said to treat his shows like an athletic workout, delivering a high octane live performance to the fans who sent his album to No.1 - a first for UK grime.

bussing was supplied by Phoenix. Tour Manager Trevor Williams summed up his thoughts: “The residency in Brixton has been incredible to see. The progression from seeing Stormzy begin his touring career in 200-person venues to doing three lots of 5,000 capacity nights in his hometown basically equates to him playing to an arena full of people - we’re all excited to see what happens next because Stormzy’s character allows you to have an opinion and run with hit - we feel very supported and supportive here.” The last word goes to Production Manger Bronski, who concluded: “The Brixton shows were a huge success and I couldn’t be happier. We wanted to show his fans, the media, the internet, that Stormzy is a master in his chosen craft, and I feel we’ve achieved that - and then some! Everyone who worked with us on these shows were magnificent - we experienced pure professionalism and enthusiasm throughout - special thanks to our amazing Stage Manager, Felix Baird who ran a tight ship, every single one of the show crew and local crew (champions!), Steve Bewley for hitting the show hard, Trev for the ease of getting everything passed through from initial meeting to the very last show. And of course, my partner in crime

Amber Rimell who inspires the craziness!” TPi Photos: Joe Okpako http://thefifthestate.co.uk www.mabdulle.com http://andrewtimms.co.uk and TPi www.stormzy.com www.tawbox.com www.stevebewleydesign.com www.prg.com/uk/en www.negearth.com www.sseaudiogroup.com/Group www.pyrojunkies.com www.er-productions.com www.ightinitiative.com www.therevolvingstagecompany.co.uk www.globalinfusiongroup.com www.stagemiracles.com www.flybynite.co.uk www.phoenix-bussing.co.uk

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PRODUCTION PROFILE

THE VAMPS

“Massive - it really was massive,” enthused The Vamps’ Tour Manager James ‘Fin’ Findlay, reflecting on the stage set-up for the opening night of the band’s UK and Ireland arena tour in Sheffield the night before. Here at Glasgow’s Hydro the available floor space means that the stage has been greatly reduced, yet it is still an impressive set-up. The idea is to give the fans, regardless of their position in whichever venue on the 13 UK dates, a close-up view of the band.

Fin has a solid team of suppliers with him. Production is being managed by Production North, Wigwam Acoustics is on audio duties, PRG XL Video is responsible for the lighting, video and stage technology, Over The Top for rigging, and special effects from Pyrojunkies. The promoters are Global Live, AEG Live and Aiken Promotions. The tour is on the road thanks to travel agents Altour International, Fly By Nite trucking and Jumbocruiser. Drawing from its young fleet of modern vehicles, the latter has supplied three double-deckers - including a brand new Ayats Eclipse - for band and crew and a single decker for the support act. Jumbocruiser’s owner, Stephen Lee, commented: “We’ve been working with the band’s Manager, [Prestige Management’s] Richard Rashman, for a number of years - since he managed McFly. We’re proud that he’s still using us for his tours.” Fly By Nite has supplied seven trucks and specialist drivers to ensure the tour runs like clockwork, while Altour International is in charge of the travel arrangements. Altour’s Nicky Cheeseman said: “My assistant Cameron Carroll and myself look after the travel arrangements for The Vamps and have done for some time now. The whole production team and management are really good to work with and the band always put on a great show.” As we wait for Fin, it’s clear that the specialist tour catering from Home Cookin is going down well with crew and band alike.

We kick things off with a tour of the venue. “These boys enjoy playing live – it really is their thing,” he said, talking about a band he has tour managed for over five years ago, since before they were signed. Everything from a technical and content point of view is geared towards making the live show as special as possible. That started in the planning stage when Creative Director, Dean Sherwood, sat down with Production North’s Iain Whitehead, Head of Production. Sherwood explained: “It starts with stage design - what looks good, what can we do, what can’t we do within budget. So, what you see out there is basically me and Iain Whitehead drawing to start with and then me saying, ‘Is there any chance we can have the screens on the risers at the front as well?’, ‘Can we go bigger and bigger?’ And then a lot of it is discussions between me and the boys - they’re very heavily involved as well, especially Tristan the drummer, who’s very keen on how things look.” Working with colleague, Ben Levitt, Whitehead has realised this vision with a dynamic stage configuration that thrusts out via left and righthand side runways that meet halfway up the floor to form a second stage position with a second drum kit on a stage lift. A central runway and third stage position form a T shape. It takes up the full depth of the Hydro’s floor, meaning FOH is as far back as it possibly can be, just inside the entrance. This stage configuration forms two standing pits; the Wow Pit at the front for VIP ticketholders, and the Brad Pit on one side of the floor, which allows 61

THE VAMPS

fans to get close to lead singer Brad Simpson. Sherwood continued: “If you’re on the floor, you’re going to get close to the boys - and that’s the idea. We’re just trying to get the audience as close to them as we can. It’s great having the big screens and feeling like you’re close to them, but to actually have them physically coming towards you is really special for the fans.”

He’s fond of the Blackmagic desk too: “I’m a massive fan of the Blackmagic stuff. People go on about expensive PPUs, like Grass Valley and Ross, but they’re broadcast PPUs. They’re great, but I don’t think they’re needed in this environment. I can do a lot more with a Blackmagic and they’re a great company; really up-and-coming in this world. The support that you get from them is second-to-none. You say you want something, or you want a desk to do something, they’ll say, ‘Sure, we’ll look in to that. We’ll get back to you. We’ll make that happen’.” Content is a mixture of Sherwood’s footage - captured over the last five years, starting before the band were even signed - mixed together with live shots. VideoDust embedded into Catalyst is then used to add effects and to tie the video content together with a contemporary and dynamic look. Created by Smith, of Brighton based technologists Thundering Jacks, VideoDust is a user-friendly tool for creating video content in real-time from a live source. It’s possible to take video footage and break it into different shapes, rotate those shapes around three axis, change the colour and have it pulse in and out to the rhythm of the song - all controlled by simple faders on an iPad. This technological marriage, dubbed CatDust, is in the latter stages of development, with an official launch date pencilled for later this year. Merser has been the only video director outside of Thundering Jacks to use VideoDust on touring productions. He explains why he’s a fan: “I’ve been touring for over 20 years and VideoDust is one of the most impressive tools I’ve worked with. It gives me the ability to make, change, or manipulate content live, as a show is taking place. I can take a camera feed and run it through VideoDust, apply a number of effects and output the content to the main video screen. It’s also reactive to light and sound,

VIDEO The band was backed by a huge video backdrop. The 33m wide screen was made with over 700 Pixled F12 tiles from PRG, and split into six zones that are then stitched together to create a coherent digital canvas. LED technician, Colin Mudd, is responsible for making sure it’s up in time and running smoothly: “Building it is a challenge. It took us eight-and-a-half hours today, and it took us 14 hours the other day. It’s bigger than the stage, so you can’t build it from a flat surface. Plus, it’s got angles; it curves round, so we’ve had some custom brackets made. We’re running everything with active backups, so if we lose something the screen won’t go down. When it’s up and running, it looks fantastic.” The screens are fed by VideoDust embedded into Catalyst running on Apple Mac Pros. Stuart Merser and Stuart Smith are at the helm of the video operation, with Merser in the hotseat controlling things via a Blackmagic 2ME desk and Smith as wingman and VideoDust specialist; apt, really, considering it’s his software. There are four Sony cameras - two 86x lenses and two 22x in the pit on track and dolly, plus NatCam minicams on the drum kit. “They’re my minicam of choice, they’re great,” said Merser. “They’re small and you get great picture quality out of them.” 62

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THE VAMPS

Above: Video Director, Stuart Merser, and VideoDust Creator, Stuart Smith.

which makes it even more creative. “We take various audio lines and feed these into VideoDust to generate the effects we use. Everything is pre-programmed to timecode, this includes the segments of the show which use VideoDust, but even though the effect was pre-determined, I always took the control iPad and manually manipulate the effect in a different way each night. That way, no two shows are ever the same, despite the fact it’s all pre-programmed.” Smith reveals how VideoDust came into existence: “My background is in gallery based, interactive visual art. In around 2011 I was invited to create some unique content for a Peter Gabriel tour. Word got around and people in the touring industry thought it would be amazing to have the capability to do stuff like this on more live shows. “Shortly after that I met my business partner Phil Woodhead, who was working on Kings of Leon. I ended up joining the tour with a very early version of VideoDust - the effects were great, but it wasn’t very user friendly. I came home from that tour and overhauled the whole thing.” Merser added: “I love working with VideoDust and what it does. I want to make it as easy as possible for other people to use, so we came up with the idea of embedding it into the Catalyst, so that it’s all one machine. Until now, you’d go to a supplier and he’d go, ‘Well you need a machine to run VideoDust and you need a machine to run Catalyst as well’. Before you know it your budget’s out the window because you’ve blown it on machines. It’s a very new concept and it’s very much ‘watch this space’, because there’s a lot to come from it.” “You can build and then drop it all the way back down for those low moments. Just putting a simple effect on it can really change the entire feel of the song – so it’s a really great tool from a video director’s point of view. You’ve got a massive toolbox that you can access to make everything really

different without having to go into ‘Right, here’s the content we want for this’ and then you spend hours in edit with stuff. It’s real time. There’s zero latency; it’s as live as it gets.” LIGHTING DESIGN The lighting concept has been designed by Peter Barnes, who has lit The Vamps since their first theatre tour in September 2014. Discussing the layout of the lighting and choice of fixtures, Barnes explained: “The band wanted a giant video screen, as they’d seen another show with something similar, so we came up with a screen that’s around 33m wide. The size of the screen means that all the lighting fixtures need to go either above or below it, which pretty much determines the style of lighting, with trusses over the stage and above the video wall, as well as lights lining the back of the risers below. Because of the amount of video, I needed something punchy to compete with the light output from the LED wall; Claypaky Mythos and Icon Beam from PRG cut through the ambient light very well.” Additional lighting used includes Vari-Lite VL3500 wash lights, plus A.leda B-EYE K10 LED effects light and CC LED strobe from Claypaky. Followspot power was provided by Robert Juliat Lancelots. Barnes continued: “The challenge as always with so much video is having enough lighting to show up against the screens and making sure that the screens themselves are not too bright. Depending on the LED screen product, when you turn the screens down in level too much you can get banding where there are no longer enough different levels between the LEDs being on or off to allow smooth gradients on softer more photographic images that have soft transitions between bright and dark. For more graphic images, that have hard edges and transitions, it is not an issue.” 64

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THE VAMPS

Dom Crookes worked with Barnes during pre-production, programming the show lighting on WYSIWYG and during production rehearsals - with Fraser Walker taking over as lighting operator for the tour, running everything from a High End Systems Hog 4 Full Boar console. “I literally came back off a gig and on to this the next day, straight into production rehearsals,” explains Walker. “I’d learnt the material and Dom had it all programmed up and ready to go, so then we were just making changes in rehearsals as we went.” “I’m predominantly an MA programmer, that’s what I use 99% of the time, but this is Dom’s show and he’s a Hog guy. I’ve done little bits on the Hog but not anything as major as this, so it’s been good for me to try another desk and just see what it’s like. I mean, I’m still MA through and through, because I’ve just been using it for so long and I’m just so fluent in it. But it’s been nice to learn something different and see things that you can do that the MA can’t or vice versa, and just seeing different ways of working. It’s been interesting.” PYROTECHNICS The lighting and video elements are complemented by special effects from Pyrojunkies that are under the command of SFX Supervisor, David Taylor. His arsenal comprises two Le Maitre low smoke machines, four Magic FX CO2 jets on the main stage, another four Magic FX CO2 jets on the second stage, four Magic FX Super Blaster XL Confetti Cannons placed around the thrust and a Wells Fireworks 15 second waterfall in the truss. There are four pyro hits: one hit of XL white flash, one hit of eight-metre comets and two hits of quarter by six jets – all from Wells Fireworks, which is owned by Pyrojunkies. There are also eight Galaxis Showtechnik G Flames dotted around the set. A special addition for the Glasgow show, and then used for the remainder of the tour as the band loved it, is a 10 second by two-anda-half metre Gerb that Taylor has placed onto Connor Ball’s bass guitar. It is fired on the first chorus of Middle of the Night. Taylor reveals: “We use a wireless Galaxis Showtechnik firing system. It’s fast becoming the industry standard. It’s very reliable and being wireless it makes life a lot easier, especially when you’ve got pyro spread out all over the stage. Things like the bass guitar is done with a wireless pack. In the past, you wouldn’t have been able to do things like that without building a custom system that the artist would fire themselves.” Taylor’s own musical background supports his ‘freestyle’ approach: “I 66

THE VAMPS

Above: Monitor Engineer Ben Thomson; Creative Director Dean Sherwood; Lighting Operator Fraser Walker; Stuart Merser and Stuart Smith; System Tech, Don Park, and FOH Engineer, Chris Pennells.

was a drummer at school, which helps with the timing. A lot of people fire on timecode but I don’t - in my eyes it’s cheating. Also, I’d much rather press the button because it’s easier not to press a button than it is to press a stop button.”

two stage racks to accommodate our 87-channel input list and we’re gain sharing, which helps with saving space on the truck. They’re great sounding consoles. I think it’s the closest digital consoles have got to sounding analogue. You get a lot of consoles that over-extend the bottom end or the top end will sound really brutal, but I think DiGiCo have got everything sounding just right.” He is fresh from his debut with the band: “Last night was my first ever show with The Vamps. Obviously, it was pretty nerve-racking to begin with but everybody seems to be really happy with the work I’m doing, which is great and I’m really happy to be part of the team. The boys are lovely, the crew is ace and the management are great guys.” Thomson has a silent stage, which, he said: “Really works with pop music.” There aren’t any guitar cabs or monitor wedges, instead a Shure PSM 1000 personal monitor system is being used with Ultimate Ears UE 11 Pro in-ear monitors. The mic system is a Shure UR4D+ with Shure Beta 58A handheld mics. “They will run at line level and we attenuate the mics themselves, just to bring down their sensitivity, so we don’t get any distortion,” explained Thomson. “Again, our backline is on wireless Shure as well, so everything’s networked. It means I can turn on my laptop, see all the Shure equipment - the mics, the IEMs, the wireless guitars - and I can do my frequency scans and assign all the frequencies without even having to move from my laptop. “It requires rolling out a bit of cat5. You can do it wirelessly as well, but I’ve got it on an automatic DHCP, so as soon as I open my laptop and I want to bring in another rack and plug it in, it automatically assigns an IP address to that rack. It means we can just keep on going, networking – it’s really good. That’s why I’ve kept everything Shure. Plus, I just really like Shure. I

SOUND Wigwam Acoustics has supplied the audio crew and equipment, including a d&b audiotechnik J-Series PA system and two DiGiCo SD10 digital consoles – one for FOH and the other for monitoring. Chris Pennells is FOH engineers, Ben Thomson is on monitors, Richard Cook is stage tech, and the PA is being looked after by Don Parks and Andy Squibb. Pennells reveals: “My first choice of PA is always d&b. It’s just a bit more of a rock box. From working in a pre-production - where I was set-up with a couple of Genelec nearfield monitors, squaring up certain things in the mix - it’s an easy transition to the first show on the full d&b system.” The PA comprises left and right hangs of 14 J8 loudspeakers and four J12 loudspeakers, together with five flown J-SUBs behind the main arrays on each side. There are also side hangs made up of four J8s and eight J12s and four ground-stacked J-SUBs on either side. The Wow Pit at the very front has eight d&b Y7P infill speakers. Amplification comes from two six-way D80 racks per side for the main system, sides and flown subs, and a three-way D80 rack on each side for the grounded subs and infills. d&b’s R1 control software is used for level, EQ and delay. There are four XTA 448 for summing AES and analogue signals from the SD10 at FOH and an Allen & Heath Qu-Pac mixer. Two Optocore X6R convertors provide digital audio and network down the returns multicore. Pennells added: “Ben and I are both working on DiGiCo SD10 desks with 68

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THE VAMPS

Above: The 33m wide screen was made with over 700 Pixled F12 tiles from PRG, and split into six zones that are then stitched together to create a coherent digital canvas SFX Supervisor, David Taylor.

think they’re ahead at the minute in what they’re doing.” Thomson goes on to highlight the importance of skilled people and good suppliers: “Wigwam provide great gear and great people, like Richard Cook, who’s stage tech and a good friend of mine. We all work together to make things happen, no white gloves. I’d like to mention Chris Spears, audio tech from Bastille, for giving me some pointers on antenna placements as well. We use the very new RF Venue Diversity Fin antenna for the back line receivers, which have replaced our Shure Active antennas. They consist of just one paddle to achieve A+B diversity, which makes them very easy for our backline techs to setup and point in the direction of the performers. I’d recommend them.” After Glasgow, The Vamps continued on to Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester, Dublin, Belfast, London, Cardiff and Nottingham, before wrapping up this leg of their world tour in Birmingham. It’s difficult to overstate how passionate young fans are about bands like The Vamps and how equally enthusiastic the band are about putting on unforgettable shows. It’s also tricky to understate how important the suppliers, crew and technology are to ensuring everyone has an evening that they’ll never forget. Fin reflects: “The tour was a great success - I am immensely proud to have been part of it. We have now done three UK arena tours in three years and they keep getting better. Obviously, as there are more albums there is a wider pool of songs to choose from and from a production perspective this tour was the

best to date. “We have a great core crew, they are very professional and have grown along with The Vamps into a very efficient touring machine. With a band as versatile as The Vamps we can do full production arena shows and then be doing an acoustic TV performance on a single wedge mix the next day and the crew roll with the hand they are dealt. “Iain at Production North is key to the whole operation. Not only does he know the venues, crew and production inside out, he has a very keen eye as to what works in terms of visuals and lights, etcetera, and he runs a very tight ship. I would like to thank all the crew who took part in the tour and look forward to welcoming them back when we do it all over again next year.” TPi Photos: Andrew Benge www.thevamps.net www.productionnorth.co.uk www.sseaudiogroup.com/Wigwam/Home www.prg.com/uk/en www.pyrojunkies.com www.flybynite.co.uk www.jumbocruiser.com www.aegpresents.co.uk www.aikenpromotions.com www.altour.com 70

GEAR HEADS

PIONEER DJ TOUR1 TOUR SYSTEM As 2017 festival season approaches, TPi speaks to Rik Parkinson, Product Planning Manager for Pioneer DJ, to discuss the company’s latest DJ prodcut, the TOUR1 system.

Pioneer DJ’s latest addition to the electro-music landscape, the TOUR1, is set to make several festival appearances throughout the summer. First teased at the NAMM show last year with the offical release in July, the system has been designed to provide reliable sound for the world’s biggest stages while giving DJs a control surface they can be confident in. The system itself is made up of two parts; the CDJ-TOUR1 multiplayer and the DJM-TOUR1 mixer, both building on the professional sound quality achieved with Pioneer DJ’s flagship CDJ 2000 NXS2. Rik Parkinson, Product Planning Manager for Pioneer DJ, discussed the development process of the TOUR1 system: “We felt there was a gap in the market for a festival-ready player and mixer. Although at this point our CDJ 2000 NXS2 is considered by many as an industry standard, we believed there was a need for a higher tier product specifically designed for high quality digital distribution. The TOUR1 is the first product to feature the AES EBU output which can connect directly to a FOH mixer or digital amplifier, giving engineers the strongest signal possible.” With the proliferation of EDM festivals, the demand for solid, reliable DJ equipment is at a premium and, as Parkinson explained, a key factor in the design process. “When creating the TOUR1, our R&D team at Pioneer DJ ensured the festival stage was at the front of their mind,” he said adding, “The control surface allows for easy browsing and faster track searching. Additionally we have lockable LAN ports for secure connections so they can withstand any vibrations or knocks, consistent with touring packages.” Other features of the new system include an ES9018 32-bit D/A converter for low distortion and a dynamic range of up to 129 dB. Similar to the NXS2, the TOUR1 has a 96 kHz/24-bit sound card with a direct digital connection via SPD I/F port and USB port. Other additional features include 64-bit floating point mixing processing, enhanced dithering technology and a low-jitter clock – which combine to deliver an accurate, natural sound. 72

PIONEER DJ TOUR1

Opposite: The CDJ-TOUR1; Product Planning Manager for Pioneer DJ, Rik Parkinson. Above: the DJM-TOUR1 and CDJ-TOUR1.

Since its launch, several DJs have expressed their admiration of the system. “Ferry Corsten used the TOUR1 at Miami’s Ultra Music Festival and it sounded amazing due to the benefits of completely digital connection from CDJ-TOUR1 to FOH through DJM-TOUR1,” commented Parkinson. “American producer Kevin Sanderson is another big name who has changed his tech rider to now include the TOUR1 system. Kevin loves the speed he is able to browse through his huge library on the 13-inch fold-out touch screen.” A year into the release cycle and with more people getting their hands on the TOUR1 it’s set to make several more appearances in various sectors of their performance. “In the DJ world particually, it takes some time for new products to make an impact on the market,” explained Parkinson. “As we launched last July, most artists didn’t have the chance to use it and

change their rider requests mid-season, but now people have seen its capabilities it’s going to be seen on several stages this summer including Movement Electronic Music Festival in America and Tomorrowland in Belgium. Since the launch, Pioneer DJ has also released several firmware updates including the 16 beat which gives DJs more creativity with beat jump and triple looping options.” As for the future, Parkinson speculates that there would be further developments of this product to further synchronise the TOUR1 system with FOH consoles. He elaborated: “I would like to see this product ‘talking’ to FOH consoles. There are massive possibilities to further synchronise the two with timecode which would give the product even more value.” TPi www.pioneerdj.com

ROAD DIARIES

BECKY PELL Monitor Engineer, Anastacia

Hunting High & Low This tour has reached new lows. Not in a negative sense, but quite literally - today we’re heading 500m underground to do a show in Merkers Mine in Germany. This place has a dark past - it’s where the Nazis hid looted Jewish gold - but has been positively repurposed for events and gigs, using music to bring people together and celebrate life. We’re all quite intrigued and excited… and slightly apprehensive about claustrophobia. It’s no mean feat getting an artic’s worth of gear down there to make this happen, but the mine staff seem relaxed about it - going half a kilometre under the Earth’s surface doesn’t hold any great novelty for them. Along with our Production Manager, Keely Myers of Global Touring Office, half of us squish into a rather tiny & somewhat scary lift and head below to receive the equipment; the rest stay above to send it down... In 90 seconds of vertical descent we’re down, and we transfer into an open truck that drives us along miles of dark, narrow tunnels. I’m not especially loving feeling trapped, but when the tunnel opens into a vast, cathedral-like space, which was once full of rock salt, anxiety gives way to wonderment. Gradually the gear appears. It starts to feel like a normal load-in, and we all agree that as long as you don’t think too much about where you are - and how the hell you’d get out - it’s very cool. Acoustically it’s much as you’d expect an underground cathedral to be, and it certainly feels like Thor is having a moment when our drummer, a loud-hitting chap at the best of times, starts up. On the plus side, the RF is as clean as whistle and catering is unexpectedly fantastic! We have a great show, and we enjoy the mad return ride through the tunnels after load out. Standing in the cold night air as we emerge, I’m very happy to be back on top of the world, and also very grateful to this job for

the frankly bonkers places it takes me to! Shortly after the mine, we find ourselves having the opposite experience. We’re up a Swiss mountain for an end of ski-season open-air gig, cross-loading our gear from a cable car to a snow-cat and marvelling at the beauty of our surroundings - our FOH engineer, a keen skier, is already planning his post-gig piste action. The show is tomorrow lunchtime, so we have a load-in day. It’s lunch by the time we have all our gear onstage, and with transport off the mountain finishing at 5pm, we need to crack on. In the shade of the stage it already feels sub-zero and the cold slows us all down, frozen fingers fumbling with icy metal equipment. We get set up and line-checked, then tarp up and leave everything switched on so that it doesn’t freeze and get damp overnight, before heading back down the mountain to warm up in our cosy chalet hotel. Show day brings perfect blue skies and sunshine, and there’s just time for a soundcheck and a fabulous buffet lunch - we’re on a roll with catering! - before showtime. I feel sorry for the band and dancers shivering in their flimsy stageclothes, but everyone gives a great performance, and the audience are clearly well up for it - the atmosphere is really upbeat and good-natured. It’s a disco load-out as the DJ plays his set, and once we’re done we head to our dressing-room terrace to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine and a few Aperol Spritzes. Everyone’s in great spirits - really, how could we not be?! As we make our way back down the mountain via an assortment of chair-lifts, snow-cats and cable cars, this job feels like a huge privilege. Yes it’s long hours and hard work, but days like these, where we get to entertain thousands of people with a bunch of our mates in crazy places - make it all so very worthwhile. What other way of life could possibly offer such dramatic highs and lows? Becky Pell 74

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1,000 Miles, 10 Days, 1 Bike DiGiGrid’s Dan Page cycles in the name of cancer care and support.

When my older brother, Andy, got sick, we were all stunned. As the dust Cancer Support and Marie Curie - as I had thought that, at some point in settled I felt totally helpless. It’s difficult as there’s nothing you can really the future, these were the people that we might rely on to help with Andy’s do except wait. He smashed his “few months to live” diagnosis and while end of life care. Friends who have been through it all say that it would have none of us assumed he was fixed, as the months went by, I wanted to do been so much harder than it already was without this help. In the end, Andy something to help - if not him, someone… other people going through declined very quickly and left us within a week of taking himself to hospital, the same thing. I guess I always wanted to do the JOGLE - John O’Groats so we never needed the services of these nurses and carers. Yet in some to Land’s end (or the LEJOG if you do it heading north) and this was the respects, and it’s a hard and almost strange thing to say, we were lucky; his motivation I needed. How many times in life do we say one day? I booked end was relatively quick. These charities rely heavily on donations. £20 pays a week off work and started to plan my training; there’s no way it would for an hour of Marie Curie nursing. So the £5,000 I’ve raised for them so far be as hard as what my brother was going through. pays for 500 hours of nursing. At eight hours a night, that’s nearly two weeks Andy passed away in March, a month before his 48th birthday and 15 of overnight nursing that gives families a break from the stress of having to months after his initial diagnosis. Something changed then, and no matter deal with it alone. how hard (or stupid!) this might be, I knew from that moment on that I I’m doing the cycle on my own. I’m sort of banking on it being wouldn’t be doing it alone. I’d like to raise £10,000 for my 1,000 mile bike cathartic, part of my healing process. I had planned on camping along this ride. £10 per mile seemed like a nice round number… and I’m currently half journey but it turns out that I’ve managed to blag some free hotel nights on way through my target with a few months still left to go. the way and have paid for the other hotel nights myself, scrapping the idea I’ve had some amazing support from our industry. of sleeping in a tent after 10 hours in the saddle! So far, Cancer is something that affects so many of us and my training is my commute to work - a 20 mile round trip I’ve been lucky enough to gain sponsorship towards plus a lunchtime ride. equipment and other costs as well as the charity This isn’t just a physical challenge, as I’m sure you’ll donations. It’s humbling. I’m convinced I’m going to end understand; it’s a pretty big emotional one too. The hours up wearing some colourful outfits; funky shorts and of solitary cycling will require a lot of mental strength and custom cycling jerseys are on the cards, Maria [Fiorellino, I have no choice but to give it my all. DiGiCo] is talking about “decorating” a bike helmet and If you would like to sponsor me, I’d really appreciate it... even my bum was up for auction at one point! Bottom much more than I can say. https://en-gb.facebook. line is that everyone wants to get involved. Media Lease TPi have provided a GoPro, Nifty has paid for the website - I http://digigrid.net com/1000milesonabike/ feel blessed to have all this help from my friends. www.macmillan.org.uk When I started this, I chose two charities - Macmillan www.mariecurie.org.uk

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EQUALITY BACK STAGE Since the Equality Act 2010 replaced previous anti-discrimination laws with a single Act, making the law that legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society, easier to understand, movement has been made in theatre and across the Flat Stage, towards greater inclusivity at concerts, theatre, festivals and all entertainment venues.

The Association of Lighting Designer’s (ALD) Prema Mehta, who drives the ALD sub-committee for Equality, describes her desire to see in live entertainment spaces, a representation of society as a whole. “The prevalent want is to make our theatres - front and back of house - as diverse as a tube carriage. Diversity is all around us but not making its way representatively onto our stages. And that’s a shame. We’re working in an industry where it hasn’t quite caught on,” she said. Great strides have been made Front of House, to encourage and welcome a broader audience. Tireless campaigning from groups such as Attitude is Everything has made access to live music, for deaf and disabled people, a condition of licence. Continued lobbying has ensured its Charter is an events industry standard in access. Act for Change states on its website that, “The arts are for everyone, regardless of race, gender, class, sexual orientation, age or disability, and they should reflect the societies we live in.” The PSA has been very involved here Inclusivity has traction Front of House, though the reality is that progress is slow and for many venues accessibility is possible but inclusivity is a great challenge. Though work still needs to be done the process is underway to make front of house accessible to all. Essential guidance from publications such as Becoming a Dementia-friendly arts venue: A

practical guide; Alzheimer’s Society; Access London Theatre: Audio-described, Captioned, BSL-interpreted and Relaxed performances in the capital; and Society of London Theatre; are go-to references for building re-purposing. Now from the back of the stage, what were once small voices are now also demanding to be heard. Again, the ALD’s Prema Mehta, describes the moment that galvanised her to pursue the balancing of inequality, with particular interest into how to mobilise the BAME community towards the theatre. Attending the launch of Act for Change at the Young Vic theatre, she describes: “I’d never been in an auditorium full of such diverse people with such passion for wanting to make it in the industry. I felt like I was a part of something. But then, I felt very isolated when I realised I was the only one from technical theatre there. That made me really think ‘something needs to be done here’.” The Professional Lighting and Sound Association, in 2014, polled technicians who work in a range of professions across Live Event, Music, Corporate, Theatre and Broadcast, to find 93% of respondents were male. This figure was found to mirrored within the ALD. The discovery sparked action within the association. A seminar Encouraging Diversity in design and Technical Theatre, led to a column in the ALD’s Focus magazine 78

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PSA: THE BIGGER PICTURE

collating experiences of discrimination across the lighting industry. One very personal story of how the industry was not set up for people with disabilities (see inset) caused the expansion of this general topic of diversity - which initially covered race, gender and socio-economic status - to also include disability, both physical disabilities and more ‘invisible’ disabilities, such as, but not limited to, dyslexia / dyspraxia - and of course mental health. The technical production industry is in itself a very inclusive body. Not documented, but anecdotally acknowledged, are lighting and sound designers who have found their way into technical production by the very fact of their learning difficulties that precluded them from other avenues of employment. In an environment not always conducive to physical safety and positive mental health, the Flat Stage Family is supportive, welcoming and generous. The ALD is once again reaching out, with the Production Services Association to ensure that momentum already gained is maintained and pushed further to accommodate a far broader range of experience to match to broadening audience and to meet the vision of the tube carriage. The resolve exists to promote diversity and inclusivity of Race, Religion / Belief, Disability, Gender and age in the work force of live performance. Associations like BECTU are very active setting out approaches to deal with all levels of discrimination for its members. Stage Directors UK (SDUK) is opening nominations for its new board in the hope that it will more broadly represent the demographics of the UK. Liz Holmes, General Manager of the SDUK, stated, “We want to diversify our membership - we don’t want to be tokenistic, or to assume things on behalf of members.” In the area of disability, barriers in venue design as well as attitudes must be surmounted if physically disabled people are to access the fast-moving and demanding world back stage. Guidance from the Yellow book, directed at Front of House, but equally relevant to Back of House, states: “Consideration should be given to how to make the environment, facilities and programming of arts venues, accessible to people with mental impairment and diverse neurological conditions. Impairment or behaviour may be as a result of conditions which include but are not limited to, dementia, autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and Tourette syndrome.” The ABTT’s Robin Townley, explained: “We’ve tried to reinforce the idea that it’s not just physical access, it’s also access for those that have different sensory experiences.”

The 9x%

Addressing diversity and everyday “-isms” in our industry

he seven areas of equal opportunity and diversity focused on by the British Council are age; disability; race/ethnicity; gender (which includes transgender); religion/belief and culture; sexual orientation; and work–life balance. In our technology-led industry, how can we use that technology to support those with hidden disabilities? F has some suggestions that come from personal experience:

“D

uring my training in London I was lighting programmer for a large opera. I was working with a lighting designer who – to his credit – was very patient and understanding. As we began the first dress rehearsal there had been some major changes to the action outside of plotting and the lighting needed an overhaul. As soon as I had extinguished the working lights my ear was ringing with channel numbers and intensities... then silence... followed by, “What’s happened? I never asked for any of these channel to be changed... I asked for...” and he repeated the numbers again. Looking at the command line I read back all the numbers

the LD just repeated with intensities in my head and they were correct. I froze for a moment. I didn’t know what to do. What was the problem? I looked over at the LD and tentatively said, “I am not sure what is wrong. The numbers are right.” He replied, “No, they are all wrong.” Confused, I looked back at the monitor to see I had reversed every digit pair. I felt incredibly stupid. I couldn’t believe I had not noticed this. Sadly, the rehearsal never got any better as I continued to reverse numbers unknowingly. In my amateur life I had never had this problem, but in this situation I could hear a number and see that number and yet my hands typed it in backwards. After the dress I remembered that I had noticed this problem when using a phone years ago: when someone told me a telephone number I would often type it in wrongly so I would ask them to text or email it. Face to face I never had this issue and I realised that as long as I could read the person’s lips my brain would not reverse the numbers. After the rehearsal I spoke to my lecturer about it and his response was, “Well, don’t become a board op.” While this seems

Page 42

sound advice, especially for my longsuffering LD, if I knew the problem (i.e. not being able to read the LD’s lips), to what extent would it be reasonable to expect the industry to find a workable solution? At first this may sound a little implausible but the technology is pretty much there already. For example, I was programming an Eos desk and the designer had the remote module sitting next to him. What if you could plug a cheap webcam into the USB of the remote module which allowed the Eos operator to run that feed onto one of the external desk/built-in monitors? I agree this function is rather specific so it may not be cost effective for ETC to develop but I wonder what other features could help technicians at a small cost rather than disadvantage them.”

Please share your experiences with us by emailing katharine.williams@ald.org.uk. All submissions will be kept anonymous.

Focus – the magazine of the Association of Lighting Designers 80

PSA: THE BIGGER PICTURE

Early on, the ABTT were able to support the work of the British Sign Language (BSL) Technical Theatre Glossary. The initiative was undertaken by a group working in technical theatre and backstage management, to provide a glossary of specialist terms for young people, who were studying through the medium of BSL, and found they were interested in the production side of theatre. He said: “Obviously an extensive BSL vocabulary for that area did not exist. So the group, with Arts Council funding, identified a basic set of technical equipment and terminology, made translations filmed the dictionary.” Increasingly, disability-led theatre companies are breaking through to ‘mainstream’ theatre and performance. This is mirrored in other discrimination groups: the first transgender led-company was launched under the creative direction of Kate O’Donnell, whilst British Asian Drag Queen community inspired Miss Meena & the Masala Queens is breaking boundaries simultaneously in race and gender. Ramps on the Moon is a co-producing group comprised of six regional theatres in cooperation with GRAEae - a theatre company established as ‘a force for change in world-class theatre, boldly placing D/deaf and disabled actors centre stage and challenging preconceptions.’ Each of the six theatres: New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich; West Yorkshire Playhouse; Nottingham Playhouse; Birmingham Repertory Theatre.; Theatre Royal Stratford East and Sheffield Theatres; has committed to address under-representation of D/deaf and disabled people throughout the theatre industry. Each year the consortium members take turns to produce a mainstream production title and fully-integrate disabled and non-disabled performers and practitioners. The acting, technical and stage management teams are also culturally diverse. In year two of the Arts Council, part-funded project, it is the turn of the New Wolsey Theatre who are currently touring The Who’s Tommy. David Philips, the New Wolsey Theatre’s Head of Production, explained: “All the six theatres have a lift back stage and depending on the age of the theatre are very accessible.” Two of the backstage team are disabled. Johnny, Sound 3, is a manual wheelchair user. Emily is Assistant Stage Manager, and has hearing

impairment. Alongside other relevant criteria, the rest of the team ‘was created around how they would engage with the access elements of the show’. Speaking of the challenges the production faced, Philips said: “This tour proved firstly that we are all people - we just have a different method of communicating or a different method of getting around.” He continued: “During the rehearsal process we brainstormed potential problems and one of those things was: how does Emily say, ‘standing by for cue’ if she can’t hear the instruction? And the solution was a very simple one. The sound department built Emily a box that plugs into her radio cans pack so that she can use her T-loop to hear on cans. She speaks into the regular headset as usual.” Emily’s disability is an advantage when touring a production of the Guinness-verified world’s loudest rock band: “Emily can just switch off from that sound when she needs to. She switches over to cans and isolates that backstage noise to some extent.” Similarly, Philips explained: “Most of our stage management team can sign. They’re BSL users to a high level. And that’s where you see BSL is a glorious way of silently communicating back stage. The guys can pass messages to each other across stage and be understood perfectly. Deafness in that environment presents as an ability, not disability at all. “There were challenges, but actually even I underestimated people’s ability just to get on with it. Most processes we didn’t have to support very heavily. The company are very young. The spread of disability is fairly conventional - and that’s the next challenge for us - to push that a little further.” The work of Ramps on the Moon proves that with an open attitude there is scope for disabled people to be fully integrated into a backstage team. The ALD would like to combine efforts in an industry-wide push, to encourage more diversity into technical production. If you would like to be further involved with an industry-wide taskforce for Equality, please contact Prema Metha, by email at the ALD office: office@ald.org.uk TPi www.psa.org.uk

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Altman’s new International Sales Director, Jaime Friedstadt; Penn Elcom’s Martin Drumm; POLAR’s Business Development Manager, Will Turney; DiGiGrid has appointed Budee Technology Development as the exclusive distributor for the complete family of desktop and rackmount solutions for Greater China.

In a move to expand its international sales division, Altman Lighting has appointed Jaime Friedstadt as its new International Sales Director. With a wealth of knowledge in both the architectural and entertainment lighting industries, Friedstadt will now manage the Altman Lighting sales channels in the Caribbean, Latin American, European, Middle Eastern and African markets. “With the expansion of our product offerings and our growth in a worldwide market, we are very fortunate to have Jaime join us to reinforce our efforts and expand our market presence accordingly,” stated Julie Smith, Altman Lighting General Manager. Friedstadt has over 20 years of experience providing sales support and generating client relationships for a number of entertainment and architectural lighting manufacturers. Prior to joining Altman Lighting, Friedstadt worked with Chauvet Lighting, Philips Vari-Lite, Philips Strand Lighting and Hubbell Lighting. “The global lighting markets are expanding exponentially with the introduction of many ground breaking and energy efficient lighting technologies,” said Friedstadt. “When reviewing both the current and upcoming solutions provided by Altman Lighting, I am confident we will be able to expand our multinational client relationships and further

strengthen our position as a market leader.” Arena Group has welcomed John Farrell to the senior management team as the new Group COO. The company continues to grow both organically and through acquisitions, and Farrell’s addition to the team adds additional resource to support group management and leadership teams given the ever-increasing international size and spread of the business. Group CEO, Greg Lawless said: “We are delighted to have secured the appointment of John as his breadth of business experience will further bolster a strong senior management team and enhance the Group’s international expansion capabilities in line with our ambitious growth and acquisition plans.” Farrell added: “I join Arena Group at an exciting time given the most recent growth of the business which includes the addition of the five year contract for the PGA Championships in the US as well as the recent acquisition of Wernick Event’s seating and mass participation divisions. I look forward to working with the board to help oversee further expansion of the Group’s international offering to the events industry and continuing to put our customers and people at the heart of what we do.” DiGiGrid has appointed Beijing Pacific Budee Technology 82

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Arena Group’s John Farrell; Elation Professional’s Regional Sales Manager Scott Kinnebrew; The Ayrton and Vari Internacional teams at Prolight+Sound 2017, Ayrton Sales Global Sales Director, Michael Althaus, Juan Francisco Alvarez, General Director, Hugo A. Patiño Valdez, President, Bruno Carranza Rogerio, Sales Director.

Development - known as Budee - as the exclusive distributor for the complete family of desktop and rackmount solutions throughout Greater China. The deal is part of DiGiGrid’s continued investment in the rapidly growing Chinese marketplace. Founded in 2002, Budee serves the media and entertainment industry providing expertise as a leading distributor of pro audio, broadcast and AV equipment via their seven offices throughout Greater China. “There’s great momentum building for the region and Budee is the ideal partner to help us continue developing our presence in this complex and dynamic market,’ said Dan Page, Brand Manager, DiGiGrid. “As we continue to expand our audio portfolio, our regional partners are absolutely key to our ongoing success, and we are looking forward to working in collaboration with Budee to extend our reach in this key region.” “We are excited to bring DiGiGrid’s leading audio solutions to the Chinese market,” stated Mills Xu, Director of Strategic Alliance Budee. “DiGiGrid’s interfaces are well known for helping customers capture and deliver premium audio quality, real-time DSP and networking to a much wider user base. The brand has already been very well received by Chinese broadcasters and studio customers as these intuitive solutions help audio and music professionals to work more efficiently, maximise their creativity, and take on the most complex projects.” Designer and product specialist Martin Drumm has joined Penn Elcom, bringing his experience, zest for innovation and imaginative flair to the company’s flightcase and racks hardware division, where he will design and develop new products and bring them to the market. Roger Willems, Chairman of Penn Elcom, said: “It is a fantastic opportunity for Penn Elcom’s global operation to have someone of Martin’s calibre on-board and we are all very excited. He completely understands our industry and will help shape and influence Penn Elcom’s key product strategies in the mid and long term futures. We welcome him

enthusiastically.” Drumm has worked for many high profile industry flightcase manufacturers over the years and his inventions in this area have included SIP foam inserts for moving lights, together with various ingenious wheel plates, butterfly catches, corner handles, cap locks, rivet protection dishes, and so on, all of which are now essential everyday working solutions used universally across the professional entertainment and AV industries. Known for lateral and ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking in the quest for neat solutions, Drumm will be travelling to Penn’s manufacturing facilities worldwide - currently the UK, the US, Latin America and Asia - where he will be working with existing staff, training new personnel and co-ordinating a network of design studios. All of this will add to Penn Elcom’s efficiency and ability to respond quickly to new industry and client demands and trends. Drumm’s initial projects at the company include the organisation of a whole new production range of flightcase hardware which will benefit customers building their own quality case products who will be able get all the materials needed from a single source, Penn Elcom. POLAR has appointed Will Turney as its new Business Development Manager. With seven years experience in the AV industry, Turney joins the company from Harman-owned AMX, a manufacturer of control and switching equipment, where he was a channel account manager concentrating on the higher education sector. A Marketing and Management graduate of Newcastle University, Turney’s role at POLAR will be to bring his dynamism and expertise to grow sales and revenues in the Integrated Solutions division. POLAR Director, Stuart Leader, who heads up the Integrated Solutions division, commented: “Will has a comprehensive understanding of AV technologies and their application, as well as a thorough knowledge of the UK marketplace. He was a standout performer in his previous role, 84

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recognised with numerous sales awards and we’re really pleased to have recruited a team member with the skills and personality that will help us continue to grow and move forward.” Turney looks forward to the challenge: “My main focus at POLAR will be to grow sales and revenues by maximising every opportunity. Whilst I am confident that my career to date has equipped me with a strong set of skills and a high level of technical understanding, I remain aware that success depends on continued learning in an industry that never stands still. POLAR is held in high regard and I’m very much looking forward to bringing my energy to this exciting new challenge.” Elation Professional has hired Scott Kinnebrew as Regional Sales Manager for the Central US. He will focus on helping to grow Elation’s central US territory and will work alongside Elation’s rep firms to bring a higher level of service to the company’s ever-growing customer base. Kinnebrew is a well-known industry veteran who started down his career path in the industry in the late ‘80s. He joins Elation from High End Systems, where his most recent position was Regional Sales Manager Northeast US. Kinnebrew also spent several years with Christie Digital and brings with him a wealth of industry knowledge in areas like digital lighting, projection and media servers, as well as traditional lighting. “I’m excited to join the team at Elation,” he stated shortly after his start with the company on 15 May. “The people, the products - it’s an amazing group and they’ve really made me feel like part of the family.” Norwegian pro audio specialist, Scandec Systemer, has been appointed by Optocore as the manufacturer’s new exclusive territorial distributor for Norway. Scandec set up as a distribution company back in 1984 and today has 37 employees representing a number of premium brands. The market segments in which they specialise include touring and concert sound, broadcast AV and permanent installation. To develop the broadcast market further in Norway the company has also taken on a dealership for Optocore partner company, BroaMan, with Andreas Bergum charged with overseeing this market. Scandec’s Sales Manager for pro audio and MI, Frode Øygard sees other primary markets for Optocore fibre solutions as being large concert halls and theatres, concert and touring sound - and the company is already working on touring systems combined with DiGiCo SD consoles. Although the new arrangement is effective immediately, this is not Scandec’s first experience of Optocore, as they have previously sold a system comprising X6R-FX-16MI and V3R-TP-8LO interfaces, along with a DD4MR-FX as part of a DiGiCo mixing desk package to Hålogaland Theatre. Scandec also recently purchased an Optocore demo system. “We are a knowledge based company offering extensive training, workshops and seminars, combined with roadshows,” stated Øygard. Summing up the new relationship, he added: “Optocore will enable Scandec to offer turnkey solutions to the pro audio market in combination with our existing distributed brands, in particular DiGiCo, L-Acoustics, Biamp and Calrec. “The reliability and reputation Optocore has built over the years will definitely be a door opener in our upcoming projects and we look forward to introducing the Optocore range to markets such as broadcast, touring and permanent install.” Ayrton has announced the appointment of Vari Internacional, as its new exclusive distributor for Mexico, taking immediate effect. Vari Internacional provides professional products for video, sound and lighting offers services for installation, maintenance and technical training to the end users. The Vari team will continue to promote the full range of Ayrton products at major tradeshows in Mexico, and with its own road shows, training sessions and open houses. “With Vari Internacional we are very happy and proud to present our new distributor for the Mexican market,” said Ayrton’s global Sales Director, Michael Althaus. “Vari’s team is very experienced in the market and has gained a great reputation for its reliability and support. Our company philosophies, in terms of dedication to providing great product and fantastic service are closely matched. We are looking forward to having such a strong and focused partner to represent Ayrton in Mexico.” Tour Supply has announced the opening of a new Nashville headquarters for its groundbreaking playback rig; Playback Control. Tour Supply’s CEO Lance Wascom, stated that the new headquarters will serve as a demo and programming space for artists interested in building, buying and customising their own Playback Control system. “Our new headquarters provides bands, performers and technicians with an inspiring and eclectic space to see and experience what their show could be like with Playback Control,” said Wascom, adding, “Playback Control is the one solution that comes with programmed software and reliable hardware, wrapped up in a bow and ready to go.” www.tpimagazine.com/category/industry-jobs/

Scandec Systemer co-founder, Håkon Rønning; Optocore director Tine Helmle; Scandec Sales Manager Pro Audio, Frode Øygard.

NEW GIS LP500 HOIST

AVAILABLE FROM LIFT TURN MOVE LTD

UP TO 60% INCREASE IN LIFTING CAPACITY ON D8 MODELS LP500/1 D8 MODEL – 800KG (LG50, 500KG) LP500/1 D8 + MODEL – 500KG (LG50, 320KG) IP65 PROTECTION AS STANDARD, LOW P WEIGHT AND LOW HEIGHT, PERFECT FOR ENTERTAINMENT APPLICATIONS. QUIET - REDUCED DECIBEL READING AT 1 METRE FROM 75 TO 65DB 3 YEAR WARRANTY

CALL +44(0)151 649 0467 SALES@LIFTTURNMOVE.CO.UK