ADLIB’S NEW FACILITY
ADLIB’S NEW FACILITY Following a long search for a new Liverpool premises, Adlib opened the doors of its new HQ for a housewarming party on 29-30 January. TPi’s Jacob Waite braved the snow to see how things are done ‘the Adlib way’.
During an unusually snow-stricken week in late January, TPi, along with hundreds of students, engineers and technicians, made the trip to Knowsley Business Park to spend two days at Adlib’s new facility to get an insight into the company’s latest audio, lighting, rigging and video offerings. With over 83,600sq ft to play with, including a large preproduction space, WYSIWYG and programming studio, training suite, showroom, dedicated service facilities and a huge open plan office it is a fantastic investment within the continual development of Adlib. The first day was tailored towards the education market, enabling students, tutors, and educational institutions to get hands on with product, meet the manufacturers, and attend seminars on emerging technologies. L-Acoustics presented demos of the L-ISA hyperreal sound concept, and Sennheiser showed the possibilities and future of the Ambeo VR mic audio capture system and their 3D immersive audio experience. Adlib’s sales, installation and rental teams were on hand and two panel sessions were hosted by the PSA’s Andy Lenthall to discuss how to get into the industry, career pathways and Adlib’s proven apprenticeship scheme. Adlib’s crew bookers were also available to discuss possible work experience and register opportunities for future work. The second day was focussed on business and the industry, featuring all of the manufacturers, seminars and demos from the educational day plus giving a relaxed environment for clients, technicians and engineers to reacquaint themselves or really get to know the Adlib team. It was a good opportunity for people to explore the new facilities network and discuss any upcoming projects. For people looking to get hands on, there were many opportunities to try out Adlib’s most recent investments such as grandMA3 consoles, Robe RoboSpots, or even have a go at programming some video looks into a Green Hippo Karst+ system. All with expert advice from their in-house technical team. The event was supported by many of Adlib’s leading partner brands including – on the audio side – L-Acoustics, CODA Audio, DiGiCo, Allen & Heath, Midas, Soundcraft, DPA, Shure, Sennheiser and Yamaha Commercial
Audio, with lighting and video represented by Avolites, Astera LED, Chauvet, Martin by Harman, Ayrton, Robe, Panasonic plus Canford and many more. A spectacular lighting and visual show illustrated some of Adlib’s creative visual technology and capabilities, created by a collaboration of their in-house team of lighting and visual designers. This showed off several different lighting fixtures and the scope of the ever-growing video rental department and some of its recent acquisitions including Unilumin LED screen and a variety of media servers. The new warehouse space has 11m of headroom and several industrial cranes. The general ‘shop floor’ workflow steps into a new dimension of efficiency. This includes designated areas for audio, lighting, rigging and video kit, plus drapes, set and soft goods, specialist rooms for projectors, mics and radio systems, networking and control and a purpose-built stock room. A massive central prep area is at the hub of the operation, enabling large touring systems to be fully prepped and set up in ‘pre-production’ configurations, while a controlled checking area ensures that all elements from each discipline for the project will leave the warehouse together. The front of the building has over 200 car parking spaces and the loading bays at the back can accommodate Adlib’s ever-growing fleet of vehicles which includes their own artics, 26-tonners, transits and smaller run-around vans. The new facility is well worth checking out but how did Adlib become the company that it is today and who are the team behind it? 34 YEARS IN THE MAKING Time has flown by since Andy Dockerty established the company in 1984, taking the first steps in building a brand that would grow steadily and diversify to provide technical and production solutions in the UK and across the globe. Dockerty has brought together a team of people who have built up a 107
