TPi November 2018 - #231

TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL LIVE EVENT DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY • NOVEMBER 2018 • ISSUE 231

KYLIE: GOLDEN

The singer strides into her latest effortlessly glamorous live creation.

BETTER THE DEVIL YOU KNOW...

GEAR HEADS: COSMIC EARS • HSL TURNS 30 • SOFT CELL WAVES GOODBYE 40 YEARS ON • JACK WHITE’S ANALOGUE WORLD • MARKET FOCUS: TRUSSING • DRAKE’S RIGGING REQUIREMENTS • PSA

NOVEMBER 2018 #231

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EDITOR’S LETTER

(Top right) TPi Staff Writer Jacob Waite; (Bottom right) James Robertson, Digital Editorial Assistant.

VARIO-LIFT

Capacity 125 kg - 6000 kg (BGV-C1) YOUNG BLOOD This month, the TPi team will be in Wakefield for Production Futures on 7 November, to celebrate the most recent influx of young production talent. This year’s occasion is set to be bigger than ever; Stew has been busy putting the panels together for the event which links industry pros with industry hopefuls and seeks to match graduates with genuine employment opportunities. Best of luck to our TPi Awards Breakthrough Talent finalists!

Speaking of young talent, back in magazine world, we’ve secured some of our own, in the form of football & vinyl enthusiast, Jacob Waite. As TPi’s new Staff Writer, Jacob has come up nicely through the ranks. In just over a year, he’s gone from having completed his studies in Journalism & Digital Communications at UCLan, to becoming our editorial intern, finding his feet in a new social media role within Mondiale’s Entertainment Technology sector, and now, on to TPi to cut his teeth in technical writing.

We also welcome James Robertson into the fold, having moved from his TPi internship to fill the social media role. He’ll be working across our brands as a Digital Editorial Assistant.

Jacob’s first foray into tour profiling is with a man he just happens to be a big fan of, Mr. Jack White. The Nashville-based guitar star & his band descended on Liverpool’s new Space venue, and Jacob was thrown full throttle into the world of analogue mixing and singer’s obsession with the number 3! Turn to Pg. 44 to find out more.

We also chat to cover star Kylie’s crew in Glasgow, say farewell to Soft Cell in London and hear how load cell management is a hot topic in North America as Drake’s rigging vendor, Paradigm Rigging, lends its thoughts on concert safety.

Kel Murray Editor 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 Stew Hume Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8385 Mobile: +44 (0)7702 054344 e-mail: s.hume@mondiale.co.uk

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

STAFF WRITER Jacob Waite Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8385 Mobile: +44 (0)7592 679612 e-mail: j.waite@mondiale.co.uk ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE Lauren Dyson Tel: +44 (0)161 476 9119 Mobile: +44 (0)7415 773639 e-mail: l.dyson@mondiale.co.uk ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE Lyndsey Hopwood Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8360 Mobile: +44 (0)7800 557094 e-mail: l.hopwood@mondiale.co.uk COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR Hannah Eakins Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8360 Mobile: +44 (0)7760 485230 e-mail: h.eakins@mondiale.co.uk www.tpimagazine.com www.tpiawards.com

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

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DIGITAL EDITORIAL ASSISTANT James Robertson EDITORIAL INTERN Benjamin James Wainwright COVER Kylie by Andrew Whitton PRINTED BY Buxton Press • www.buxpress.co.uk Issue 230 - November 2018 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

TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL is a controlled circulation magazine, published 12 times a year by Mondiale Publishing Limited under licence.

ISSN 1461-3786 Copyright © 2018 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 2018 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.

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ITINERARY

EVENT FOCUS

14

08

HSL Celebrates 30 Years TPi visits HSL’s Lancashire HQ to commemorate a landmark birthday.

14

Electric Light Orchestra Jeff Lynne’s ELO hits the road with Video Design in toe.

16

The Chemical Brothers Electro music pioneers return with Robe MegaPointe’s providing illumination.

20 European Championships 2018 ADI delivers LED across 12 venues.

22

26

16

Aubrey & the Three Migos Tour Live!

Paradigm Rigging discusses large-scale touring productions.

Music & Lights TPi travels to Italy for the grand opening of the company’s impressive new office.

28 Martin Audio Demo Days

The loudspeaker company showcases

products and Astro Spatial Audio technologies.

PRODUCTION PROFILE 30 Kylie The pint-sized popstress brings glamour to her latest series of stage outings.

44 Jack White Jacob chats to the crew behind the eclectic musician’s latest live offering.

TPi profiles the innovations in truss manufacturing.

PRODUCTION FUTURES 84

20-year-old LD, Yann takes a break from operating Black Queen’s latest tour.

INTERVIEW 86

44

Sir Tom Jones’ FOH Engineer, Matteo Cifelli, follows the development of Crest Audio’s Tactus digital mixing system.

GEAR HEADS 92

Kel takes an exclusive look at Cosmic Ears’ latest IEM range, the Luna Series.

ROAD DIARIES 96

Stuart Smith of Thundering Jacks goes back on the road with VideoDust.

PSA: THE BIGGER PICTURE 98

t mpac st co o m e Th hybrid t CMY marke e h t on

tool esign s, ate d Ultim + 13 color erlay v CMY rism o els, p e h w o 2 gob ens 0 lum 14.00 in its class test Brigh lamp hour ,000- fixtures 6 o t r Up simila Double nality unctio sh f ilt mu , Wa True Beam Spot,

IMATE LT

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ARRAN

A roundup of the Venues Day 2018 action.

INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS 100 The latest movers and shakers.

58

WITH

TY

30

MARKET FOCUS 70

YBRID H T C OMPA SMARTS! THE C E STAG

U

58 Soft Cell Say Hello, Wave Goodbye; the 40th Anniversary and heartfelt farewell.

BACK CHAT 106 ADJ’s Marketing Director, Brian Dowdle,

takes the hot seat.

ELATION PROFESSIONAL EUROPE www.elationlighting.eu info@elationlighting.eu +31 45 546 85 66 GET SOCIAL

EVENT FOCUS

#HSL30

Opposite: Lighting and visuals rental specialist, HSL, commemorates 30 years in the industry.

HSL CELEBRATES 30 YEARS Notwithstanding the revolving door of the professional entertainment industry, one audio visual equipment rental service in rural Lancashire stands proudly among its European counterparts for its achievements, development and progression over the course of three decades.

A focal point in the delivery of design, technology, crew and production services; hundreds of industry guests flocked to HSL’s HQ by Blackburn, England to experience two action-packed open days in celebration of the company’s landmark anniversary, aptly titled: #HSL30.

Comprised of individuals passionate about the business and committed to bringing the core values of innovation and integrity to a dynamic international client base. HSL Managing Director and industry stalwart, Simon Stuart, works tirelessly to attract global clientelé in the fields of lighting and visuals, with bases in Ireland, in addition to northern and southern England.

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“I am so impressed and extremely moved by the sheer number of friends who turned out to share this very special moment. So many have been truly inspirational in shaping my life, and that tp my family. It’s been really incredible,” he commented.

Embedded in its 165,000 sqft facility, #HSL30 boasted an expo-style space draped with a digital backdrop; created using two 60-metre-long by 2.5-metre-high runs of HSL’s new Unilumin Upad III 5 mm LED screen.

Among the screens were three bars and 32 HSL suppliers, who supported the event with a range of innovative technology demonstrations.

On hand to showcase knowledge and wares were all 32 of HSL’s

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#HSL30

key suppliers and partner companies: Lightware; Rosco; Le Mark; Vista The full 3D video scenes were delivered from the Notch-hosting disguise Creative; Big Hand 4 Business; TMB; Green Hippo; Bates Box Power; Sound GX2 media server via 5 12K projectors: two focused on the main wall, one Technology; Area Four Industries UK; Chauvet Professional; High End on each side wall, with the fifth providing overall fill on the main wall for Systems; ETC; J&C Joel; Tech LED; SES Entertainment Services; GLP UK; greater coverage.

Elation Professional; Prolight Concepts Group; LED Also rigged were 6 Blacktrax cameras set Limited; SGM Light UK; Robe; Avolites; Abstract; up via a Cat-6 cable and calibrated to calculate Studio Due; Philips Vari-Lite; Rope & Rigging; AFS the positional coordinates of the room and Media; Unilumin; Novastar; Lucid Technologies. the trackable items. Blacktrax transferred this Using a disguise gx2 media server, each run positional data into the disguise server distributing of LED was divided into 16 equidistant portions it to Notch. At the same time, Blacktrax combined to delineate the stands. Standing firmly in the information from an Avolites Sapphire Touch centre section of each company’s stand was a lighting desk controlling 4 Robe Pointe spotlights.

LED surface laced within the ornate 3.9mm static All processing for Blacktrax was handled by Lucid “Simon has always been picture frames.

Technologies’ custom rack with networking supportive and we’re here in disguise gx servers were programmed and systems by Luminex. coordinated by creative video specialist Lucid Avolites demonstrated its AI media server in force to reciprocate. The open Technologies - who - in the immersive feature area, another self-contained area, while Green Hippo days have been amazing – impressed attendees with a wider range of its and ETC also had dedicated studios, to showcase capabilities. TPi’s Lauren Dyson experienced firsttheir latest technologies in a relaxed and quiet fantastically productive and hand the technology’s integration of automated environment. a bit like PLASA 2.0 coming so movement into Notch-created 3D virtual scenarios; “Simon has always been supportive and we’re donning a construction helmet - she was able here in force to reciprocate. The open days have soon after that show!” to demonstrate the company’s proficiency with been amazing – fantastically productive and a bit Avolites Business Development Blacktrax, by exploring an immersive 3D cave like PLASA 2.0 coming so soon after that show!

Director, Steve Warren. scenario - utilising the headgear as a torch.

As a southern based company, it’s vital that we 10

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#HSL30

continue to venture north, and we love all that famous warmth and friendliness! We are really chuffed to be here,” explained Avolites Business Development Director, Steve Warren.

HSL seized the opportunity to inaugurate its Coral Cooper Training Centre for Excellence. A large classroom training facility – inspired

by Coral which is at the disposal of all the training and educational courses being run at HSL. Visitors were also treated to tours of HSL’s vast warehouse facility and were able to engage in plenty of social and business interaction over three airy and attractive gallery spaces which were especially dedicated to the event.

Ian W Brown, Sales Manager from Robe UK stated: “I’ve known Simon for 30 years, in fact, I sold him his first moving light 30 years ago when he owned a snooker club,” he reflected. “Over the years Robe has supported Simon and HSL enthusiastically and seen it grow from a small business into the powerhouse it is now.” Rob Beamer, Sound Technologies Sales Manager, said: “It’s important for us to be here today supporting Simon – the Martin brand has been a big part of Simon’s commercial life. All in the room are friends and the networking has been fantastic between suppliers but apart from that, it’s just nice to see people… and not be in the whole trade show type scenario”.

Shaun Robertshaw, Key Account Manager at Philips Entertainment Lighting, agreed: “We are a long-term partner of HSL and were one of first to do business with the company, so it’s great to show our appreciation of 30 years hard work and dedication by Simon and his team.”

Everyone working in all areas of HSL’s busy operation, which also kept running full tilt throughout, contributed to the event and ensured that the all aspects - from the catering to the car parking - were organised and ran well and efficiently. While everyone was there to celebrate HSL’s remarkable achievements, development and progression over 30 years, they also received a snapshot of the substantial and very busy operation it is today. “Being a business for this amount of time is hard!” exclaimed Stuart. “A lot happens in 30 years and I wouldn’t have got through it if not for all of these wonderful friends and people in my life.” #HSL30 reflected Stuart’s approach to business; working hard and valuing the art and benefits of real face-to-face-time for everyone which is integral to his enterprise philosophy. “Time is the one thing we can’t manufacture these days,” he declared. “To snatch a few precious moments where we can all collectively spend time together for no other reason than to spend time together is incredible.”

Stuart concluded: “My brillaint team mean the world to me; they are a reason to get up in the morning and their passion and commitment on all levels help drive me. I am also lucky enough to have this fantastic team here in Blackburn. #HSL30 is about everyone here and the chances and opportunities we have shared and built together over the years to move forward and become the HSL community of today”.

TPi www.hslgroup.com

CONGRATULATIONS TO SIMON AND THE HSL TEAM ON 30 YEARS 01282 476029 | WWW.BATESBOX.CO.UK | INFO@BATESBOX.CO.UK 12

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EVENT FOCUS

ELO ACROSS THE OCEAN Jeff Lynne’s Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) may have their own distinctive flying saucer but sometimes taking the boat is the smarter option.

“The thing was, we were down to the wire,” was Production Manager Richard ‘Wez’ Wearing’s terse assessment. “We simply had no time from the band finishing prior commitments here in the UK to going onto ELO in the States. The only way to get any proper production rehearsals for the US tour was to set up everything in Neg Earth’s LH2 production facility here in the UK, then put it in a sea container and ship it straight to the US.” Not an insignificant call? “There are pros and cons on the financial side, yes it was a cost but there was no time to do anything else. When we got there we had just one set up day then straight into the first show.”

Fortunately, since the triumphant return of Jeff Lynne and ELO, which first began in the UK almost six years ago, they have always used the widely experienced services of Chris Vaughan as Tour Director, his company CV Productions, of which Wearing is a key part, steering the production management role. “That well-established relationship worked both ways,”

said Wearing. “We in turn have built strong relationships with all the key production suppliers, Video Design, Skan, Brilliant Stages and Neg Earth in particular. If we’d had time we would have looked at other ways, but there are more important considerations than just gear; even with the gear you’ve got to find the ideal product. For example, we’d used Video Design before and knew their system worked and worked well. This tour is not dissimilar to the one two years ago in terms of the video element. Take the long view and it makes a lot of sense to keep the suppliers you know. Day to day, having a similar team meant we arrived in the US with a crew who were all very much, good work colleagues. That first show in the US just slipped in as if we’d been on tour for months; that’s testament to how good a job Alex Leinster the boss at Video Design does and how good the teams are he puts together. It all just worked. Because that experience and the friendship already forged from previously working together is all in place, it works. That takes time to build up with new companies. And then there’s 14

ELO

the big question of engaging new US suppliers at extremely short notice – basically twentyfour hours to set up and go - would they go that extra mile when we need them to? Video Design certainly do: Alex and his guys are brilliant for that.”

Which proved to be a defining skill when the tour moved back across to Europe? “The risk was the same coming back; again, Alex was right on the ball. When we got to the first venue in Stockholm it was as if we’d just done a long overnighter from the US eastern seaboard. Looks easy but wasn’t; the shipping schedules slipped so we had to get the containers offloaded in Belgium, that was the closest we could get to Sweden.

We then had to cross-load onto trucks and use double drivers to make Stockholm in time: Alex helped with all that with a cross-load crew to Belgium, an excellent job. He never drops the ball.”

“Nor do CV Productions,” chimed Leinster.

“The fact is all such complex logistical operations require not just a skill in coordination, but a good eye for detail as well. For Video Design we make our contribution as friction free as possible, Chris and Wez are expert in creating a touring environment where everyone else wants to do the same.”

TPi www.jefflynneselo.com www.video-design.co.uk

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EVENT FOCUS

CHEMICAL HIGH FOR MEGAPOINTES At forefront of inventive, interesting and infectiously rhythmic electronic music for nearly 30 years The Chemical Brothers returned to UK arenas, fusing effervescent ideas with vintage visuals in one of their most impressive production designs to date.

On the back of a hectic festival schedule, followed by a week of highprofile headline shows. The Chemical Brothers delighted crowds with a fantastic visual experience created by Adam Smith and Marcus Lyall.

The Show Designers decision to specify 50 Robe MegaPointe fixtures led to Blackburn-based lighting rental company Lite Alternative making its first investment in Robe moving lights.

The Chemical Brothers are well known for their interactive, eye-catching and entertaining visual shows, a perfect confluence of lighting and video which, with the band’s preference to remain in silhouette, is a significant element of all their live performances.

The electronic music duo’s shows are renowned for their high production values and for not comprising on the end result. The Chemical Brothers is also a desirable tour to be on and the crew and their friendly vibes are kept running smoothly and efficiently by Production Manager, James Baseley.

Smith and Lyall both have interesting careers. The former is a wellknown film and TV drama director, while the latter creates art projects,

many of them using lighting and other visual media. Together as SmithandLyall the two have been involved in multiple imaginative projects including - since the early ‘90s - The Chemical Brothers.

Both originally coming from filmic backgrounds has given rise to a highly individual cinematic styling for their live music visual work; the lingering narratives and introduction of characters with whom the audience connect and identify.

The Chemical Brother’s visual show is crafted with a script and a strong sense of theatricality. While they play the same set every night, each performance is unique as they constantly re-mix and improvise from their centre-stage hub; a heterogeneous laboratory of rare and unusual synths and other fascinating music apparatus.

Smith and Lyall receive the music in advance of the tour and start planning the looks, styling and ambiences from there. Together with a team of visual artists create all the video elements taking the peaks and dips in the music as start points, developing ideas which will fit, some segueing from one section or song to the next, others involving a completely fresh 16

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The essence of the show design is about connecting with the audience and helping move the energy coming offstage out and all around the space, creating that big, immersive environment and serotonin-synchronised place at the heartbeat of The Chemical Brothers show.

And while it is essentially all about the visuals in terms of what is happening onscreen, the lighting plays an a vital supporting role that must be bang on – every cue that’s programmed and executed.

With the new album still in the works, these latest shows featured a mix of favourites and new work.

For this run of own-shows, all in arena venues, a large 20m-wide by 11m-high LED screen filled the upstage area, with the 50 Robe MegaPointes – which were also part of their festival package – as the main lightsources.

“We wanted beam lights,” explained Lyall. “The show is all about beams, and MegaPointes are the perfect lightsource to reach out and touch the audiences and help draw them into the show.”

When it came to the actual decision on which moving lights to choose, there were a few other criteria as well, including good CMY colour mixing and brightness, both needed for impact and to reinforce the visuals.

Lite Alternative – The Chemical Brothers’ lighting supplier since 2015 organised a shootout between three different types of moving light, all potential contenders including the Robe MegaPointe, and from this it was chosen as the best option to add all the right elements to their design.

A total of 12 Robe MegaPointes each were positioned in lines along the upstage and downstage edges of the stage, with another 12 rigged on the downstage truss. There were another ten behind the LED wall, rigged onto 5 moving pods together with some LED battens.

The pods flew up and down with lights shining and blasting through the screen, adding an ephemeral mysterious touch and another layer of optical depth and texturing to this very multi-faceted picture.

Robe MegaPointes were joined on the rig by a load of strategically placed strobes, some LED washes, LED squares and battens, plus a 30-Watt full colour laser, a 30-Watt green laser and 22 Kinect beam lasers, supplied

by ER Productions.

From a rental company perspective, it was a major move for Lite Alt to invest in Robe – although some PATT2013’s had previously managed to sneak into the rental stock.

However, Lite Alt Director, Jon Greaves observed - pragmatically – that “The compact size and the versatility of the MegaPointes was a clear development to the other moving lights we stocked.”

Impressed by the brightness and the sheer amount of effects and options of Robe MegaPointe luminaires gives designers, he commented: “In all, we’re very happy to add MegaPointes to our rental inventory.”

On working generally with The Chemical Brothers and their team, he stated: “We were so pleased to be working again with a production that puts so much time, effort, consideration – and a not unsubstantial amount of cash – into creating their perfect show.”

Lighting for the tour was operated by Thomas Deschandon who came onboard earlier in the year after meeting Production Manager James Baseley through his work as a Lighting Designer for French superstars, Indochine.

“MegaPointe is the best beam light on the market right now, it’s very lightweight and the colours are fantastic” he commented, also mentioning that it’s super quick – in movement and all the effects – and extremely easy to programme.

Lighting programming was a complex process, with an average of 200 lighting cues per song, and around 6,000 in total in the current show, which he operated using an MA Lighting grandMA2 console.

It’s clear from a short visit to the tour that the entire crew has the same mentality and dedication to making the show rock, and this as well as the evolution of the music and freshness of live shows keeps The Chemical Brothers right up there as one of the most popular live acts worldwide.

TPi Photos: Louise Stickland www.thechemicalbrothers.com www.robe.cz 18

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EVENT FOCUS

ADI DELIVERS FOR THE GLASGOW 2018 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

Supplying in excess of 900sqm of LED screen hardware across all competition and non-competition venues for the benefit of over 250,000 spectators and the dynamic activation of brand partnerships.

TPi spoke to ADI about its delivery of seamless visuals to the first edition of this prestigious sporting event.

The largest sporting event to be held in Scotland since the 2014, Glasgow Commonwealth Games featured a combination of ADI’s mobile and modular LED screens - in addition to plasma displays - to suit 11 specific indoor and outdoor locations.

ADI’s Special Events Project Manager, Mark Kimber, told TPi: “ADI has worked with Glasgow City council (and Glasgow Life) for over 15 years now, providing LED screens for all major outdoor events and occasions; from the annual Christmas lights switch on, through to large one-off events like the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

“As a long-term supplier, we were invited to tender for the Glasgow 2018 European Championships in summer 2017 – we were made the official provider of large video displays, and also managed all vision distribution.”

Kimber continued: “The requirements outlined in the tender were a starting point for discussion, and once the contract was awarded, we site surveyed all 11 venues. We could then start to provide our recommendations and design a custom screen, structures and video distribution solution for each individual site. The brief grew for some venues, especially where there was a greater emphasis on the sports presentation, such as Tollcross International Swimming Centre. Athletes appeared from behind a 9m modular LED wall, with a super-wide 32:9 aspect ratio 90m screen hung from the roof above them – both in 6mm.

Tollcross also featured 4 other LED screens and 8 LCD displays. A later

addition was a 46m stretch of digiBOARD digital sinage alongside the poolside to deliver dynamic brand activation for official European Championship partners.

“The SSE Hydro hosted the gymnastics competition and the brief for this venue was driven by a vast modular LED screen we supplied there for the World Gymnastics Championships in 2015. Building on the previous solution we improved the technology for the European Championships, with the same 225m size of display but using much higher resolution product at 4.6mm. This created a gigantic 4k digital backdrop to the gymnastics, delivering in excess of 10,000,000 pixels in a single display.

“The screen offered image magnification and also supported the broadcast of multiple live data feeds. Multiple processors were used so that the sports presentation could be switched from super-wide to zoned content, including: 6 timing feeds, 1 mixer feed, 1 host broadcaster feed and 1 full screen background graphics.

“Some of the venues we supplied were also part of the Festival 2018 cultural programme, centering on George Square and Glasgow Green. With a huge line-up of live music performances, international collaborations and exciting evening events the screen requirements increased as the programme grew – for example we installed a 45m modular screen on the George Square main stage for Orbital’s set on the penultimate night.

“Essentially, we were working on sports presentations for Great Big 20

EURO CHAMPIONSHIPS

Events to help achieve their vision; advising them on zoning screens and providing technical specifications – many of the LED screens weren’t a standard 16:9 aspect ratio, we had super-wide, athlete entrances, digital ribbon, etc.

“In total, we supplied technology across 11 separate venues, which had a fairly wide geographical spread – beyond the sites in-and-around Glasgow we worked at the Royal Commonwealth Pool over in Edinburgh and Loch Lomond for the open water swimming. As a business, we work across multiple event sites every day of the week, so we could centrally project manage and employ operational expertise to achieve the client’s extensive requirements for every venue.”

Nick Robinson, ADI’s Director of Screen Rental added: “Nine months of planning came to fruition with diverse, tailored solutions across a variety of sports and cultural venues. We’ve been able to add value through centralised project management of the screens and HD video signal distribution across all 11 locations. Our delivery of market-exclusive mobile and modular LED provided the very best quality to enhance production values and audience experience, while creating impactful digital platforms that elevated the European Championship’s brand and all associated partners.”

At each site, ADI worked with a number of other suppliers and stakeholders - from structural engineers to rigging companies and power distributors. Outside of the SSE Hydro, many of the indoor sites are sporting venues that were adapted especially for the Glasgow 2018 European Championships. Kimber elaborated: “For example, the proposed screen solution for Tollcross International Swimming Centre required extensive structural calculations to be undertaken before it could be approved. There was also a large health and safety aspect to all of the event staging, and every venue needed to meet CDM regulations and Principal Contractors were not from the live events sector, so we needed to adapt to their way of working.”

The ADI team were on site for three weeks in total, building and derigging the variety of custom scree projects, which the company also

designed. As one venue was installed another de-rigged since the individual competitions were staggered and the venues were live on different days, so over the three week period there was very little down time for the team.

Tollcross International Swimming Centre took the longest to install at four days, but sites that only had a mobile LED screen requirement were much quicker, such as Cathkin Braes, with just a single day to load-in’.

With quick set-up times and sleek, manoeuvrable trailers, ADI’s awardwining iCONIC fleet provided big screen solutions for busy outdoor venues across Glasgow and the surrounding area.

Glasgow Green, which hosted the cycling road race championships and Go Live! at the Green, featured a mobile iCONIC 25 – the biggest LED screen on a non-HGV chassis – and the iCONIC 60S, which features a large 60m display and has the added bonus of a 25m stage that un-folds from the trailer.

ADI worked closely with Great Big Events, which managed the content, control equipment and operation of video. “We took their HD feeds (with the SSE Hydro using a 4k feed) and distributed them. We supplied the broadcast fibre or RF links at all venues to link sports presentation to the screens, and also worked with sound to embed audio.”

ADI also worked alongside festival and touring video supplier, Video Illusions for the European Championships 2018 . Robinson concluded: “We have worked with Video Illusions for five years and they’ve helped to supplement the modular element of our rental business. As a company, they’re a natural fit for ADI, like us they’re an innovative company and are happy to design and create bespoke solutions. They have an incredibly strong background in touring productions, concerts and festival rigs, and provide ADI with access to more product, as well as products that suit different projects with varied requirements.”

TPi Photos: ADI www.glasgow2018.com www.adi.tv www.videoillusions.net

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EVENT FOCUS

DRAKE As rapper Drake reaches the end of the US leg of his Aubrey & the Three Migos Tour LIVE! Michael Sorowka, President of Paradigm Rigging discusses the value of keeping a check on the loads of big-scale touring productions.

Load monitoring can sometimes be a tough pitch for any company in the load monitoring market. Historically, there has been a large divide between riggers with regards to load monitoring, but, as awareness grows around this topic, and more companies and venues are getting stricter on enforcing load restrictions, this divide does seem to be narrowing, and many are opening their minds to this technology and its importance…

Paradigm Rigging, the North American distributor of BroadWeigh Wireless Load Monitoring Products and Systems works across the US and Canada, offering complete wireless load cell monitoring systems for music festivals, concerts, theatre productions, auto shows and trade shows. TPi spoke to President, Michael Sorowka about the company’s recent touring work: “One of our current projects - Aubrey & the Three Migos Tour LIVE!, is a perfect example of how load monitoring really comes into its own. As we reach the conclusion of a 25-leg US tour, each performance by Drake and

hip-hop trio Migos has been performed ‘in the round’ - something which has many unique benefits as well as challenges.

“The arrangement of the seats for example, makes the audience engage intensely with the action on stage. When the audience looks beyond the performers they see other audience members, creating a feeling that everyone in attendance is ‘on stage’ - a real feeling of togetherness. But from a technical aspect, the challenges are aplenty. The set designer has to work in three dimensions and be inventive - the performer is always going to have their back to someone - and the audience will only tolerate the back of a head for so long. And of course, the safety of the rigging is as important (and as challenging) as ever.”

On this tour, the majority of the rig weights are condensed in the centre of each building’s structure and the mother grid trussing runs down the length of the arena. Head Rigger, Rob Gardner, had worked with some BroadWeigh kit that Paradigm had provided for The Killers’ North American 22

PARADIGM RIGGING TALK DRAKE

leg of their world tour. He continued: “Having found the kit to be highly talking about a shift of thousands of pounds of weight with a very minimal effective and easy to implement, he wanted to bring it onto this new travel of the motor. Put simply – it isn’t worth the risk. project. Veteran Production Manager, Paul Lovell-Butt, brought this idea to “One of the biggest challenges on a tour like this is the maximum life with a larger stock of load cells coming in for rehearsals. We were able allowable trim height available. This is often determined by the arena’s to have a shipment of 50 load cells sent to Tait Tower’s rehearsal facility video scoreboards and the maximum height that they can be brought to. in Lititz, Pennsylvania, in order to meet Paul’s timeline, where Colin Luke Specifically, the BlackTrax motion tracking and Verity Studios Drone Show of Load Cell Rental brought in an additional 50 rental units and handled systems require minimum heights to operate effectively so the pressure to the configuration and implementation of the system. Here, Colin worked get the rig as close to specified trim height as possible, always falls on the with the full kit of 100 load cells for weight reports and also to configure rigging department.” their touring setup within BroadWeigh’s LOG100 Whichever side of the load monitoring debate software, meaning that when it came to it, all the a rigger sits on, Sorowka states that his company rigging team had to do was simply open a laptop is finding that more and more that venues and use the BroadWeigh BW-BSue receiver to wake themselves are requesting load monitoring for up the load cells.” incoming shows. “Environmental factors such as So, why does load monitoring play such an snow loads also play a factor on the maximum “Of course, you could choose integral part in this production and countless loading capacity of venue roofs. With load not to use load cells – but in a others like it? “The reasons for load monitoring are monitoring software, weights that may previously two-fold. From a venue roof loading perspective, have been up for question can now be easily mothergrid situation this can shows in the round tend to centralise much more viewed on a laptop and can actually be more be akin to working blind with of their weight right in the middle of the roof transparent for tour production and venue staff spans rather than closer to the ends of the arenas alike. regards to load distributions. which might have higher loading capacities. This “It can be tough sometimes to have a load It can be next to impossible to makes it essential that the loads are monitored cell requirement specifically imposed on a to keep their distribution within safe limits. For see weight variances between tour - however a lot of the choice to use cells the second part of the equation, using stiffer grid comes down to best judgements based on the motors – you could be talking trussing can come with certain challenges around knowledge, training and experience of the head safe load distribution. It can be incredibly hard rigger. Venues are sent show weights ahead of time about a shift of thousands of to see uneven loading or flex within the truss, so to have engineers approve total show loads. This pounds of weight with a very using load cells in scenarios like this ensures that is where there is a great amount of value placed on overall no components of the grid setups are being generating load reports in preproduction to have minimal travel of the motor. overloaded – even within the roof loading limits. the most accurate figures represented beforehand, Put simply – it isn’t worth the “Of course, you could choose not to use load then having the cells on site to verify and ensure cells – but in a mothergrid situation this can these weights are within limits of approved risk.” be akin to working blind with regards to load loading.

Michael Sorowka, distributions. It can be next to impossible to see “On Aubrey & the Three Migos LIVE! weight variances between motors – you could be BroadWeigh’s kit really comes into its own, where President of Paradigm Rigging 23

PARADIGM RIGGING TALK DRAKE

the load distribution of the mothergrid trusses need to be managed effectively without impeding on the speed of the load ins. One of the reasons we specify the BroadWeigh kit time and again is because all the load cells can travel within the trussing which make them much easier to handle at the beginning and end of each show.

“Venue to venue, the BroadWeigh kit needs minimal to no additional thought at all. The kit offers configuration functionality to be able to move all cells over to different radio channels depending on varying RF environments, but this is something which rarely needs to be looked at.

With the full wireless system, load cells are set and ready to hook up the moment trusses are rolled onto the arena floor with no future thought on cabling and minimal setup to start viewing weights,” he added.

With tours now a-days growing larger and pushing many more creative and technical boundaries, it’s hard to classify a tour as a ‘typical’ tour, however Aubrey & the Three Migos LIVE! is far from your typical stage setup. “There’s no stage at one end of the arena with basic straight sections of lighting trusses overhead and standard upstage video wall,” stated Sorowka. “Instead, this tourbrings a basketball court-sized stage right where a court typically would be placed- in the middle of the arena, surrounded by the audience.

“Overhead, this means large amounts of the show are placed right at the

mid-span of the roof beams– arguably the lowest capacity parts of the roof.

This topic rears its head right from the start of technical planning where the show had to be designed with extra care to distribute these loads across larger sections of the roof. This is when you are seeing many of these mother grid trusses used on this tour, and would also see this similarly on other shows where we are trying to disperse a centralised load over larger areas.

“I sometimes hear the line ‘nothing’s happened in the past when we didn’t have load cells’. Thankfully, this seems to be a pretty limited viewpoint, and most individual riggers and companies always have the interest of safety and best practice at heart. I would agree that our industry has so many redundancies and safety factors built into it that you’d be pretty unlikely to have a catastrophic rigging failure from overloading, but the safety factors are just that, and not meant to be used as a replacement for safe working loads. When systems have become so accessible, easy to implement, and more affordable, you’d be hard pressed come up with justifiable reason to not use a load cell system.”

TPi www.drakeofficial.com www.paradigmrigging.com www.loadcellrental.com www.broadweigh.com

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EVENT FOCUS

MUSIC & LIGHTS:

A GRAND OPENING & THE ECO VISION Music & Lights celebrated the official opening of its new headquarters, dedicating a day of exclusive celebration for customers, partners and international distributors.

Music & Lights’ new Italian HQ represents a further phase of development, with over 40,000sqm surrounded by greenery and with a covered area of 10,000sqm, which brings together offices, research and development, production, laboratory and logistics. The grand opening on the 4th October welcomed a variety of industry personnel, and TPi was on the ground to experience the party in full swing.

As an organisation that has grown an international reputation in recent years, the Music & Lights brands (PROLIGHTS, TRIBE, DAD, ArchWork, PROTRUSS, ProAudio, GDE) today are at the top of the pro AV markets

thanks to the company’s continuous technological developments. This innovation has played a central role in the Distributor Conference, which was held on the morning of the event and reserved for the international sales network.

In the afternoon, the doors of the new exhibition areas opened up; a complex of over 1,000sqm, including a stage set up with 700 PROLIGHTS and TRIBE fixtures, loudspeakers from DAD and staging by PROTRUSS. “Our solutions are engineered to integrate and are the ideal partner for every type of event, and our development projects, determine a continuous 26

MUSIC & LIGHTS: THE GRAND OPENING

The Music & Lights team welcomed the industry as it celebrated the opening of its impressive new HQ, pictured below.

growth of professionalism and innovation,” said Managing Director, Fabio Sorabella. “As a group, we are engaged in the search for new technologies and an ever-increasing focus on the needs of the market.” Francesco Sorabella, Music & Lights President commented: “After more than 25 years in the entertainment sector, we are proud that our brands are among the most successful in the sector. In the last 10 years, each of our brands have grown considerably and all this is a source of motivation that pushes us to overcome and to continually challenge the status quo.”

Speaking of the move, and the event planning, International PR and Communications Manager Johanna Freytag added: “The effort made by the entire Music & Lights team - and our suppliers - in order to be ready for this deadline has been enormous, and we are very proud of what we have achieved together in such a short time frame.”

Music & Lights allow each of its brands full autonomy to develop their own identity, ideas and research which is so vital to the development process. Between all of the brands they cover everything from live events, architectural, system integration, broadcast and multimedia, staging and power distribution. Freytag continued: “The Live event industry still represents one of the main core markets for our organisation and we therefore devote a lot of resources in terms of R&D and marketing towards it.

“Our products have appeared on many large-scale tours and festivals recently, for example; Coldplay, The Chemical Brothers, Artic Monkeys, Tomorrowland or on live TV across many countries with shows like The X-Factor, The Voice, Britain’s Got Talent - to mention but a few” she added.

Whilst making its mark on the live and touring circuit, the manufacturer is also keen to note its environmental innovations: “The future vision of sustainability and the Music & Lights eco farm is deeply embedded within the company culture,” Freytag explained. “Our President, Francesco Sorabella, comes from a humble agricultural family and this has carried on into the second generation of the company. The company offers lunch in its canteen that is prepared by hand, made in-house using only fresh ingredients; we have planted more than 50 trees, including citrus, orange, olive, chestnuts in the garden; the owners produce 100% bio olive oil in

lands nearby which is given as a gift to our customers and also used in our canteen. The company invites the staff during breaks and lunch times to enjoy the outdoors in the seated garden area, as it’s been proved that this ethos allows the mind to re-fresh after spending hours in front of a computer.”

Freytag continued: “The grass is also kept trim by Helmet, our goat, who is the company mascot! The dream is to develop a self-sufficient field and farm area to feed our staff and visitors at the office, organising activities for the staff and their families, as well as having apartments immersed in the green landscape for the people who want enjoy the beautiful surroundings who may not have access to open spaces in their city apartments.”

As well as the TPi and mondo*dr press teams, there was 45 international distributors, 500 international customers, industry ambassadors and regional Italian customers on the new site. Freytag stated: “The event was highly successful, not only business-wise but also interest-wise thanks to the launch of the new PROLIGHTS PANORAMAIPSPOT. Many lighting designers were excited by the creative possibilities and the IP rating.

“The key for us is in this instance is that we are the only manufacturer in this industry to have a whole range of professional IP rated products thus requiring less maintenance but also a greater versatility – all whilst maintaining the trademark Italian quality and design. With the new fixture we were inundated with interest from designers both at the event and around the world, watching from our live streams, customers and distributors even placed orders during the event.”

The Music & Lights grand opening concluded with an array of entertainment, including ‘80s arcade games, a cabaret style burlesque show indoors and a lively band and bar area outside, with guests being treated to classic Italian party numbers. Freytag concluded: “The performances on stage were a good showcase of the fixtures, speakers and video panels in a real working environment and a lot of customers were thoroughly impressed.”

TPi Photos: Music & Lights www.musiclights.it 27

EVENT FOCUS

MARTIN AUDIO’S UK DEMO DAYS To coincide with PLASA Show in London, a stone’s throw down the M40, Martin Audio welcomed industry customers and collaborators to its High Wycombe headquarters for three days of pro audio demonstration.

Capitalising on its successful in-house formula, Martin Audio opened its doors for a series of demonstrations and presentations. Split into five two-hour presentation sessions, the open days showcased a myriad of products and pro audio offerings.

Martin Audio Managing Director Dom Harter reflected: “The timing was perfect. Not only were many of our partners and customers already in town but it gave us the perfect opportunity to showcase, and in some cases give world premieres to nine new products.”

Harter began proceedings by introducing Martin Audio’s VIA amplifier range - designed to partner all Martin Audio systems beneath the Wavefront Precision line arrays, and in particular the new ADORN series as well as CDD and O-Line.

“The market for commercial speakers is growing and is often served by poor sound,” Harter explained. “We thought it was time to enter this growing market and offer a no compromise solution of affordability and audio quality.”

Martin Audio ADORN 40 and ADORN 55, equipped with 4-inch and 5.5-inch drivers, were also demonstrated, along with Martin Audio’s latest SX110 slim line single 10-inch subwoofer. Product Support Engineer, Robin Dibble, then took over, presenting CDD and CDD-LIVE. “With quarter of a million CDD enclosures now out in the field this is our

most successful install range ever,” Dibble exclaimed.

Martin Audio showcased its CDD-LIVE 8, CDD-LIVE 12 and CDD-LIVE 15 were demoed, both with and without the new hybrid SXH218 sub, which contains presets for cardioid configurations.

Next, visitors experienced the loudest manifestation yet as the TH Series model was run in combo with the SXH218 subwoofer. The biamped TH Series is a 3-way, full range, horn-loaded point source series ideal as a powerful live venue or club system.

“Coverage, control and consistency to this level is something only Martin Audio can do, removing the trial and error approach,” Harter explained.

“Summation of sound at the audience plane is what we focus on.”

Harter showcased the latest development in optimisation — scalable resolution - and how the Martin Audio Wavefront Precision and O-line series behaves with different box resolution and the commercial advantages.

Visitors took time to hear scalable resolution in action, via O-Line, WPM and WPC demonstrations, with LF extension then boosted with the presence of SXH218 subwoofers.

However, Martin Audio still had one surprise left to reveal. While the previous demonstrations had satisfied every market segment from large scale touring to small AV, bars and corporate offices, Martin Audio showcased its partnership with Astro Spatial Audio in a series alluringly 28

MARTIN AUDIO’S UK DEMO DAYS

Opposite: Martin Audio showcase a range of products and an immersive 3D sound experience.

titled: Sound Adventures — Unrivalled Immersive 3D Sound Experience.

Bjorn van Munster explained the reasoning behind the multi-faceted approach to the system. “The more traditional solutions that require very rigid loudspeaker set-ups and which limit the user’s choices in terms of loudspeakers and other technology, they are not really designed with the live and touring sector in mind,” he continued. “They require large investment, lots of additional work and much larger overheads. That’s why our object based, scalable approach is already proving popular from Europe to Asia and the United States,” he explained. “We don’t make demands of our customers, we work with you to make your show a truly spectacular, immersive event.”

Dibble added: “This is a fully immersive 3D audio environment with no panning gimmicks or Doppler effects, made possible by the SARA II rendering engine,” he explained.

The demonstration theatre had been specially equipped with six overhead XD15 enclosures on the overhead truss, with CDD-LIVE 8’s in the surround and four arrays of O-Line on stage with SXH218 completing the audio environment, all Dante enabled.

Dibble showed how it was also possible to generate different room environments, changing the sound of the speakers to suit the application effectively creating an artificial acoustic environment. This was effectively demonstrated by the sound of a plaintive sax that slowly became embroidered with 3D reverb and other room FX. “Another key thing,” Dibble continued, “is that we can bring a much wider stereo image and deliver it to more members of the audience.” This was demonstrated via four O-Line hangs across the front of the stage with the effect demonstrated with the impact of switching between two standard left right configurations and all four. “The wide stereo image changes the whole perspective — in other words there are no longer any cheap seats.”

Joined by Harter, Dibble explained that throughout they had been

ASA TPi 1-2landscape v1.1 outlined.indd 1

wearing a device called Stagetracker II - which offers the possibilities of precise, multi-dimensional positioning. “It enables you to track over 100 cast members and position sound accordingly within the venue, for a truer visual and audio experience.”

Dibble and Harter then formed a tag team, with both representatives constantly tracked from left to right, before switching off Stagetracker to highlight how their individual audio was then completely removed from their current position.

“Sound Adventures produces unrivalled immersive 3D audio canvas,” concluded Dibble.

With the audience wowed by the presentation, they broke for refreshments at the end of the session with an opportunity to chat to Astro Spatial’s Bjorn Van Munster, Stagetracker II CEO John Skjelstad - and members of the Martin Audio staff.

TPi Photos: Martin Audio www.martin-audio.com

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28/07/18 01:39

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PRODUCTION PROFILE

KYLIE: GOLDEN Glasgow on the last day of September. The weather may be ‘dreich’ but the atmosphere inside the Hydro is bright and anticipative when Kylie’s in town for the ninth UK date of the Golden Tour, fresh from a three-night stand at London’s O2 Arena, as TPi discovers.

31

KYLIE

There’s a calmness and openness about the Pull The Pin Out’s Kevin Hopgood that comes from 18 years of working with an artist who has remained popular since breaking through with second single, I Should Be So Lucky, in 1987. Hopgood shared production duties with Pull The Pin Out colleagues, Stephen Reeve, Lauren Sass and Francine Hough.

“It’s a really good tour to work on,” said Hopgood. “Kylie’s brilliant!

She’s a super-pro, really on it and wants everything to be good – hence she looks after people. She’s one of those performers who can just go out there and hold a whole arena full of people in her hand - it’s a real skill.

That comes from experience and confidence and stagecraft which she’s got that in spades.”

There were plenty of familiar faces in the management team and crew, as well as some fresh additions. Hopgood continued: “We’re using some new suppliers on this tour including Christie Lites. It’s the first time we’ve done a Kylie tour with those guys, and that’s gone brilliantly well. Another are Creative Technology, who are doing video. I’ve worked with them on a couple of other projects, but it’s their first time with Kylie as well. That’s been good. But it does feel like the start of a new era on this tour, to be honest. Not purposefully, it just evolved that way - it felt like it was the time to change on a few things.”

SHOW DESIGN Having been LD on previous tours, Rob Sinclair made the transition to Creative Director although he was keen to downplay the title and highlighted the talents of the crew. “My official title is Creative Director. I helped Kylie create the show and had an eye across the whole production; the stage, props, lighting, and video content. But I think a better title would be Editor as so much of the creativity came from all sides of the amazing team. The Pull the Pin Out guys, Stylist Frank Strachan, Tom Colbourne and

the team at Blink, Choreographer Ash Wallen, Creative Producer George Sinclair, Associate LD Ali Pike, Musical Director Steve Anderson and, of course, Kylie herself.”

The show was split into chapters that span a dreamy, make believe day in America. It began with a 5am desert sunrise and a mission to get to New York, before taking in opening time at the High and Dry Bar, a road trip, a biker rally, an evening at Studio 54 and the morning after the night before in Nashville. Material from across the singer’s decade-spanning career featured throughout, with newer songs complementing older classics.

Kylie’s Musical Director, Steve Anderson, played an important role, said Hopgood: “The way he re-imagines older songs is really clever - they always sound very fresh.”

The story was guided by short, punctuating films (made by Blink specifically for the show) and continued with a mixture of pre-composed and live visuals behind the performance. Following a couple of one-off shows, Blue Leech joined the tour as Multi-Camera Director. Hopgood explained: “Video is a big part of the show and the thing we’re approaching very differently is the cameras and IMAG. We’ve got Blue in this time and he has a much more cinematic approach, which really works with the style of the show. The IMAG is much more integrated into the show than it has been in the past – it’s not just an addition on to the side so the people at the back can see her, it’s much more than that.”

Creative Technology supplied 206.6 sqm of ROE MC7 – made up of 5 distinct screens, all with 1.2m returns, giving the set a 3D look and greater engagement with members of the audience in seats nearer the sides of the arenas. The company also deployed 5 Sony HD cameras and additional Sony HDC-4300 cameras to shoot the tour film.

Jim Liddiard, Project Manager, commented: “It’s been a pleasure working with Kevin Hopgood and the team at Pull The Pin Out to bring the 32

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KYLIE

Above: Multi-Camera Director, Blue Leech.

Kylie tour together. It was also great to be working alongside Blue Leach and Rob Sinclair again, who always bring fresh and exciting elements to their shows.”

Leach’s design had long lenses mounted on pedestals to give the cameras more movement than is typically seen in arena tours. They were able to shoot through the crowd for more of a gig/club feel. Then there were 4 Q-Balls – 1 on an Autopod – again, for movement. They were fed through a disguise GX 2 server via a Panasonic AV-HS 6000 switcher. There was a dolly on track in the pit and the same at the end of the B-stage.

A Notch system was used for camera effects and the MediorNet system allowed signals to be pushed back and forth to server control and Leach’s FOH position from the PPU backstage with minimal delay.

“The main thing in terms of the screens is to provide movement within the close ups and mid shots and to provide a rather filmic style of live/IMAG photography of what’s happening on the stage,” highlighted Leach. “We’re mostly focused on Kylie but there are also a lot of relationship shots - with the choreography and dancers themselves - which help to explain the narrative that runs through this show on a song by song basis.”

While the technology provided the backbone, it was nothing without the right personnel. Leach said: “Well here’s the biggest must-have tool…

I think with any concert tour with cameras and video screens, an essential element is appropriate and well thought out photography. The public deserve great live imagery and in order to supply this I need to have experienced touring photographers. That’s the number one thing I can’t really leave home without. You have to have talent - a team who care and who understand that this whole process is an art form. In this case, Kylie’s art and performance.

“In terms of cameras, I would prefer everything to be moving whether in the sense that it goes up-and-down or left-to-right or it swings, plus something in the roof as well - choreography photographs well from overhead.”

Leach was positioned at FOH. “That’s something else I would always insist on where space permits,” he explained. “I get a better feeling for the show when I can see the stage and the screens - it puts all the elements into context. It enables a better relationship with the other visual parts of the show too - lights, pyro and lasers. Ultimately, it means better value all round both for artist and audience. Plus the desk, monitoring, comms and signal box take up no more than a 6ft x 8ft area.”

LIGHTING Of course, the lighting design was crucial to the delivery of that aim. Christie Lites laid down roots in Europe and is enjoying considerable success since opening its UK office in April 2017. It was the first Kylie tour the company had supplied all of the lighting fixtures, desks and truss. Pull The Pin Out’s Stephen Reeve said: “We had a very good meeting with Huntly Christie when he came over earlier this year and we decided that we quite liked their work ethics and style, so we gave them a chance on Trevor Noah – one of our other shows that was going in to the O2. From doing that we’ve moved this toward them, purely because we think they are a nice bunch of people to work with.”

Christie Lites’ Account Manager, Mathew Ilott added: “It’s a huge honour to supply Kylie’s tour – a very prestigious show to be involved with. We’re extremely grateful to Rob Sinclair, Ali Pike and all the Pull The Pin Out team for the opportunity to work on the tour and also to Aidan Mccabe our Crew Chief.

“The lighting design afforded us the opportunity to showcase some of the proprietary products within our inventory, such as our F-Type Carriage truss system, which was used extensively throughout.”

The top of the video backdrop and wings were adorned with Martin

by Harman Mac Viper AirFX luminaires, 6 Truss Ladders house a total of 36 GLP JDC1 Strobes, with a further 38 located around the 2 stages. The Viper Performances on the edges of the stage and Martin by Harman Aura XB 34

KYLIE

Above: Associate LD, Ali Pike; Laser and Special Effects Technician, Seth Griffiths; Monitor Engineer, Gavin Tempany; FOH Engineer Kevin Pruce.

wash lights on the side of the stage ramp that faced the audience.

The oval truss above the main stage featured another 30 Martin by Harman Mac Viper AirFX’s. A straight truss at the front of that oval kicked out like the leg of a lowercase ‘g’ to lead down to the B stage. That leg featured Martin by Harman Viper Performances, as well as Sharpys above the B-stage.

Due to the nature of the show, with different chapters and styles, flexibility in the lighting design was important. Ilott said: “The Vipers and JDC1 Strobes offer plenty of versatility that complement the visual elements.”

Associate LD, Ali Pike, was working on an MA Lighting grandMA2 full-size console. She explained: “I did all the initial show file build, timecode programming and band rehearsals - the normal setup stuff.

Then we brought the brilliant Ben Cash of Flare Lighting in to work as my programmer once we got into production rehearsals at Fly By Nite. That allowed me to concentrate on the creative side and him to concentrate on the functional side of things. It is a very video orientated show, so lighting has to work alongside that, and also work for cameras, as the IMAG is also extremely important.”

The lighting setup has been enhanced by Zactrack – supplied by UK distributor Ambersphere. This was the first full touring application out of the UK. Zactrack is a 3D tracking system that uses ultra-wide band radio frequency to handle positional data. Anchors are set up within the performance area and are measured to produce a 3D map of that space.

Tags are then placed on performers and as a performer moves around, the Zactrack system knows exactly where he or she is in that 3D space.

It is then possible to calibrate lighting fixtures so that they are dialled in to a particular Zactrack tag, meaning some or all of them can be pointed at a tagged performer at any stage of the show. Because it’s a radio tracking system, it doesn’t need line of sight – meaning tags can be hidden underneath costumes.

Ambersphere’s Sales Director, Philip Norfolk, explained: “Kylie performs over quite a large stage - she’s very mobile over a big area. Rob was very focused on ensuring that at any point she was correctly key and backlit for camera, so she maintains a steady illuminance and steady colour temperature.

“That’s typically very difficult to do when you’re dealing with a large performance space but Zactrack gives them the ability to manage that automatically. Wherever she goes, different units can pick her up and follow her around accurately so that at all times she appears correctly lit, as per Rob’s wishes. At one point we have 60-70 units pointing towards her – the entire rig could point towards her if necessary.”

The show also features SFX and lasers from ER Productions. With the video screens covering the entire upstage wall, the challenge for ER was to deliver a retractable laser display around them. The solution was a new automation technique - 50kg winches dropping 4 Phaenon 30’s and 2 Artic from the grid during Lost Without You. A diffraction effect splits the light into multiple beams, scanning the audience with gold, green and red lasers.

Once the track is over, the winches move the lasers back to the grid quickly and smoothly. A similar feat is delivered during On a Night Like This with purple and blue lasers.

The feedback data from the winches mean that the Pangolin control software is able to monitor the winch positions, which let Laser and Special Effects Technician, Seth Griffiths know that the positioning was totally safe and accurate. Griffiths commented: “It’s great to be the first ER technician to use the new winches. The system works really well with the video screen and looks really clean. It’s been a battle working lasers around video in the past, but this solves that problem, meaning we can be more creative.”

Alongside the innovative laser choreography, ER’s special effects kick off in the second half of the show. Two Swirl Fans above the stage blow out autumnal coloured maple leaf confetti over the audience during Especially For You. Six Stadium Shots blasted rainbow colour confetti over the 36

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KYLIE

Above: Kylie performing with an ER Productions’ laser display.

audience for All The Lovers, and gold glitter during In Your Eyes.

ER Productions brought another new product into play with its electro kabuki driven ‘flop and drop’ system - 15m gold mylar streamers, which the dancers interact with, drop during Spinning Around. Finally, six Stadium Blasters give a gold and white confetti burst for the show’s finale track Dancing, providing a spectacular end to the show.

Brilliant Stages supplied all of the staging and set elements, including the rolling house stage with quick change areas and a custom changing room for Kylie, hydraulic scissor lifts with bridging platform, toaster lift, catwalk, and the B-stage with lift for access.

Brilliant Stages’ Client Director Ben Brooks explained: “We have a strong and long-standing relationship with the Kylie camp, as we helped out on the KylieX 2008 tour that rehearsed in LS-Live. Over the last 10 years we have worked closely with the Pull The Pin Out team on many productions, meaning that when we all got together to discuss this it, we already knew the way we needed to approach it.

“Working closely with Rob and George [Sinclair] to realise their fantastic design, we modelled the ramp and complexed areas, and prototyped the finishes, which were the elements that were going to make the set look really special. I spent a few days in rehearsals with the show and was really happy to see the final finished product come together so well.”

AUDIO Kylie toured with a d&b audiotechnik J-Series PA system, specified by long time FOH Engineer Kevin Pruce and supplied, along with the rest of the audio infrastructure, by Capital Sound.

“I like the J-series with array processing,” stated Pruce. “It has improved a good system by making the coverage of the arena more even. I’m using Meyer Sound Galaxys to EQ and time align the system, with Smaart and a wireless tablet to be mobile around the arena. The two Galaxys feed the d&b D80 amps with AES and analogue inputs via an Optocore fibre from FOH.” Capital Sound’s Head of Operations and Sales, Paul Timmins, said: “To

work, once again, with Kylie and her team has been a pleasure - 18 years providing her tours and to be back in Europe’s largest venues and sold out shows is testament to a great performer.

“Kevin Pruce’s wish to take out a sizeable d&b J rig and our policy of providing customers with the equipment of choice, led to us calling on the resource of the SSE Audio Group we are now part of. Our continued global support of Sam Smith with d&b resulted in us asking Wigwam to supply the array processed d&b package on this occasion. This also enabled us to maintain our day-to-day customer supply of smaller d&b jobs.”

Pruce was spotted during setup moving around the audience area with the tablet in his hand. “I use 4 analyser mics placed around the venue for data collection and then walk the venue for a listening test with music or playback from virtual soundcheck, using the tablet to adjust the levels and EQ of the various system zones.”

He had a DiGiCo SD7 console at FOH: “I really like DiGiCo consoles, and my favourite is the SD7. It just feels right ergonomically to mix on and has good metering - it sounds good too! I use Waves plugins, via Extreme servers, for effects. Every engineer has a favourite console, for various reasons. Take Gavin Tempany (monitor engineer), he is using the SSL, which is undeniably a great sounding and powerful console. It is all subjective and a personal choice.”

Indeed, Monitor Engineer Gavin Tempany is working on a Solid State Logic L500 Plus. “I love it,” he exclaimed. “For me it’s like a sports car – it’s unreal. The sound of it is just mega – it’s really good. Like audio steroids – but not cheating, if you know what I mean?”

Tempany was looking after Kylie plus two backing singers and five musicians. While he described the 50 or so instrument and vocal inputs as, “not too much compared to my usual madness,” the aesthetics and design of the show have created a few side challenges. First, the monitor console position is under the stage, so video feeds are used for sight to stage. The backline is also under the stage, out of sight, as were the guitar and bass pedal boards.

This meant good communication is even more critical than usual: 38

ER PRODUCTIONS A R E P R O U D TO S U P P LY LASERS AND SFX

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KYLIE

“There are a lot of talkback mics,” said Tempany. “All the musicians and techs have shout mics and there are a few techs with switches that route their talk either to the band and crew or just to the crew.

“The production comms are also fed to my cue bus so we can follow what is happening at the top of the show. This all means that the cue mix is quite busy with not only the solo bus in play, but a lot of information being passed around on top of it.”

“We’re using all Sennheiser radio with 16 Sennheiser 2000 series transmitters and 8 5200-II Series handhelds. Then some Sennheiser 6000 series radio for the instruments – for the guitars and bass and stuff.

Everything’s on rechargeable batteries, including the in-ears. We haven’t used any alkaline for the whole run. Due to the large amount of IEM receivers in use, by using rechargeable batteries we have saved over 4500 AAs during the seven-week rehearsal and UK tour period alone.”

Kylie used 4 Sennheiser SKM5200-II capsules in custom colours to match her costume choices, working over a Sennheiser EM3732-II system.

Tempany uses the SSL’s Stem Group path type to group all 4 microphones as a single input to the monitor mixes. “It becomes one fader and one channel where I can adjust levels, EQ, and dynamics for all four mics during a show,” he explained. “If one player wants to vocal up a bit, I simply do a group automation change in relative mode on that stem in their mix. It then scales for all mics through the show.”

RF Tech Joshua Thomas was in charge of the getting coverage in all the places that matter. He said: “The main challenges with doing this Kylie show is that her in-ears need to work on the stage, under the stage, on the B-stage and under the B stage. So, you’re trying to cover a large part of the arena. To do that I used a small RF amplifier and split the signal to get two points of coverage.

“The next issue is with the band and the techs, because they need coverage on top of the stage in case anything goes on up there but also

under stage for when they come on and off, and also the guitar pedals were offstage at the back, so they needed coverage there as well. I again employed a split system in there, where I was splitting the output of the IEM signal, so there was an antenna onstage and off stage.

“We also had the dancers on in-ears - that works with a hidden antenna under the stairwell at the back, which wide-covers all of the stage. The guitars are also on wireless.”

Thomas deployed Sennheiser A5000CP and Sennheiser omni-antennas for transmission and A2003 UHF passive and AD3700 active antennas for receiving. He added: “Sennheiser make very good equipment and they give good support, so it was great to have a full Sennheiser system. Kylie always uses Sennheiser mics.

“I work very closely with Gavin the monitor engineer because, at the end of the day, I’m the person between him and what the artist hears. Obviously, he has his own preferences and decisions on what is best audio-wise, which is another reason Sennheiser is used. He likes the sound of them and has always used them.”

Before the tour hit the road, it spent two weeks at Fly By Nite (FBN) Studios. The number of technical elements that make up the show meant the production needed a bespoke space to ensure the crew and kit were up to speed in advance of the tour. FBN Studios is a state-of-the-art facility with onsite accommodation to maximise productivity during the rehearsal period.

FBN’s Studio Manager Scottie Sanderson said: “I spent 20 years on the road myself, including four tours with Kylie, and know how demanding it can be. The camaraderie of the right mix of people is second to none, and a great feeling. I always look forward to seeing who is on the crew list for incoming shows, and there are always old faces to catch up with.”

Discussing the facilities at FBN Studios, he said: “We pride ourselves in having what we believe is the best facility in the UK, if not Europe. Not only 40

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KYLIE

can the production stretch out and make the most of the vast floor space, we also have 21 en suite bedrooms to offer, five dressing rooms, a gym, sauna, rooftop terrace and a laundry facility - pretty much everything you want is immediately close to hand.

“Being able to facilitate core crew staying onsite means you can really spend the most amount of time possible fine tuning what are usually very complicated stage and lighting designs. We are close to Birmingham Airport and minutes away from Arrow Valley Lake where you can escape for a while. But, also, the volume of glass in the building lends itself to a light and bright and airy environment, which really gives people a positive outlook throughout their stay.”

The tour then went out with 15 Fly By Nite trucks. This seamless transition from rehearsals to road has a number of advantages, explained Fly By Nite’s Managing Director, David Coumbe: “We’ve worked with Kylie and Pull The Pin Out for a number of years and we’re happy that our relationship has extended to include tour rehearsals at FBN Studios. Joining these two key elements of the tour provides more flexibility, as any changes or alterations that come out of rehearsals can be very quickly and easily applied to the trucking itinerary. It simplifies the process and gives the production team peace of mind that they’re in the best possible shape.”

Phoenix Bussing has supplied six 14m Setra double-deckers in various combinations – one artist, one band/dancers, and four crew. The artist bus features a bedroom and en suite, plus eight bunks. The band/dancers and crew buses are all 16-berth - with two (band/dancers and production) boasting a brand new layout.

Transport Manager Andy Gray said: “Phoenix has looked after Kylie for years now and we’ve worked with Kevin since before he started Pull The Pin Out. The Pull The Pin Out team are great to work with, as they are lovely people, easy to deal with and are all experienced in the touring industry.

They know that they want quality suppliers - they are very loyal to that and build good relationships with them.”

The company recently placed an order for 10 brand new Setra 531 double-deckers, with the first hitting the road on 1 November. The others will be delivered and built every eight weeks. Gray added: “Everyone has been loving our new layouts and it will continue on the new models as well. There will be two additional artist buses in the order, which will be

ready early next year.” Another key component of the logistic team was The Appointment Group who took care of all other travel needs for the 100-strong production.

All-important sustenance is being provided by Popcorn Catering.

Head of Catering Simon Raynor revealed: “You get a wide range of dietary requirements but for the amount of people - considering there’s over 100 – it isn’t too vast. Vegetarian, vegan, couple of allergies, but nothing too crazy.

“The atmosphere is fantastic – it’s a good one, it really is. That comes from Sean (Fitzpatrick – Tour Manager) and the management all the way down. The production guys are great as well. We’re pretty much left to our own devices, as long as we’re doing what everybody wants - which seems to be working well.”

That sentiment spreads across the production team and into the show, as Kylie delivers the type of performance one would expect from the queen of pop and mistress of reinvention. Rob Sinclair’s design and all of the technical elements feeding into it add up to a captivating visual spectacle.

Kevin Hopgood concluded: “Having good suppliers is fundamental to a show and tour like this. It’s a relationship that’s integral to the whole thing.

You’re not going to have a good delivery of the design and you’re not going to have a good tour where everyone works well together unless you’ve got that relationship. And once you bring all those suppliers together, they’ve got to mesh together as an overall team. Sometimes if departments butt heads, it’s never going to work - it’s been good on this.”

TPi Photos: Andrew Whitton & TPi www.kylie.com www.pullthepinout.co.uk www.gribiche.org www.christielites.com www.ct-group.com www.er-productions.com wwwcapital-sound.co.uk www.flybynite.co.uk www.fbnstudios.co.uk www.phoenix-bussing.co.uk www.appointmentgroup.com www.popcorncatering.com 42

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PRODUCTION PROFILE

JACK WHITE Following the release of his first solo album in four years, Boarding House Reach, the unrelentingly-eclectic Jack White returned to arenas and theatres in the UK and Europe with an analogue-heavy rig — extending the medium of his back catalogue — as TPi’s Jacob Waite discovers.

XX

JACK WHITE

Overlooking the former King’s Dock, TPi arrived at Space by Echo Arena Liverpool, an exhibition-centre-come-music-venue, to witness Jack White plunge a throng of digitally-engaged revellers into the depths of Boarding House Reach. Upon entry, gig goers are instructed to place their mobile phones into specially-sealed bags supplied by Yondr — a convention of all Jack White gigs — put together to avoid distraction during the show. The results? Bliss, actually.

appearances, they brought the same high-level production values as Neg Earth does,” enthused Blanchard. “The way that the video and the lighting are intertwined, it was imperative that the video and lighting companies worked well together.”

Wigwam Acoustics was also a supplier to the camp. “Wigwam has a relationship with our audio vendor in the United States, Firehouse Productions, so that was seamless when we crossed the Atlantic, as they carry very similar, if not the exact same gear. There’s also a clear similarity in mind set between the two companies,” Blanchard explained.

Trucking specialist Fly By Nite navigated the kit across a series of European pitstops while global freighting was achieved by EFM Group.

Bittersweet Catering fed the troops at their show in Liverpool, while Beat The Street was brought into the fold by Tour Manager, Lalo Medina, as a home-from-home comfort. “We’ve used Beat the Street before and it worked well in the past; if it’s working well and the costs are relative to other providers, then there is no reason to change. Especially because we’ve got a great crew that works so well together. The team we have [on tour] are what makes it so pleasant to be here,” assured Blanchard.

For the creatives tasked with bringing the Boarding House Reach tour vision together, the job was equal parts exhilarating and daunting: “We have an idea of who fits Jack’s aesthetic — because he doesn’t have a setlist every night — the lighting and video directors need to be very comfortable hands-on, running the show. Jack never wants us to do the same show twice, meaning timecode is out of the question.

“It’s a very creative, fluid and dynamic show – so you’ve got to find people comfortable. There is never a setlist and it’s all done on the spur of the moment, off the top of Jack’s head. They’re changing it up constantly to get the right feel and sound at that time.”

The tour’s Lighting Director, Michelle Sarrat, concurred: “He also changes the way he plays songs a lot. Sometimes he’ll play the piano to

SEVEN NATION ARMY Leading us into the 8,100sqm venue was Production Manager, Kit Blanchard, an industry mercenary who cut his teeth as a modern dancer before finding his feet behind the curtain. “I toured with a band called Phish from 1997 to 2012,” he began. “And when they weren’t on the road, I worked for several other bands, as a stage manager or as a rigger.” However, a change was due. “I wanted to do more production management for bands rather than events.” In 2013, [following stints working as the Stage Manager for Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits Festival, Outside Lands, Life Is Beautiful, and Bonaroo music festivals from 2004 to 2012], I got a job working as a Production Manager for Vampire Weekend. Jack White and Vampire Weekend share the same management team, and I expressed an interest in working with him, should the opportunity arise after Vampire Weekend had finished touring.”

Blanchard praised the familiar and fresh faces who supplied wares to the tour. In particular, Video Design, which provided video screens to the earlier 2018 summer run [the show had been scaled back for the winter version, only carrying lighting for the visual package]. Neg Earth Lights provided lighting in the UK and Europe. Blanchard continued: “Video Design is a new company to me, but I’ve collaborated with their vendor rep before and they have worked closely with Neg Earth on previous projects, so during the A rig in the summer months and festival 46

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JACK WHITE

start off Dead Leaves and Dirty Ground and it will be this piano-y ballad-y thing and sometimes he starts it off on guitar and its really rock ‘n’ roll – so there’s a lot of flexibility we had to build into stuff.”

Sarrat joined the tour following the departure of Emmanuelle ‘Gigi’ Pedron [who had set sail with Queens of the Stone Age]. “We have some stuff which is loosely cue-stacked but I run everything manually — so there’s no setlist and there’s no timecode. Everything has to be manual and be changeable if he decides to stop, change tempo or vamp out a whole thing.”

FOH Engineer Brett Orrison agreed: “Jack could come out and blast six rock ‘n’ roll songs, or he could play three acoustic songs; we just have no idea! His music and the records he’s done are kind-of all over the place, so we can go from that acoustic vibe into something like Seven Nation Army, which is a huge arena rock song.

“It’s volatile, it’s in your face, he wants you to feel like you’re going on a ride with him. I think most of the crowd realises halfway through the show that he really is going for it. He’s giving everything he’s got, and the band is just waiting patiently to what they’re going to play next. It makes it really fun!”

into something else. So, we worked closely with him and his team to find the rhythm for what we do,” Larivée reviewed.

In keeping with the tour’s aesthetic and Jack White’s penchant for upholstery; the male crew members donned smart suits and hats, while the female contingent wore dresses, skirts or trousers and blouses.

A total of 71 Martin by Harman Viper Air FX fixtures are used in the show.

Sarrat talked us through the 9 fixtures rigged in a centre circle, and 9 in the centre pod. “The main theme is blue and 3s with a bunch of [Martin

by Harman MAC] Vipers. He’s very fond of the number 3. So, you’ll see that everything is in 3s or multiples of 3. The pods on either side (SR and SL) have 9 lights in each of them — plus there are 3 more pods of 9 lights each above the 5 in total.”

Larivée opted for a total of 54 Claypaky Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures, supplied by Neg Earth Lights, to support the show design, “because it has a Fresnel lens instead of a LED pixel look.” The overall show design featured “3 column-shaped rotators upstage with video on one side and there are 12 Sharpys on each rotator — 3 columns of 4 rows on each [Claypaky] Sharpy Washes on the other, which can be positioned individually allowing for a wide variety of looks,” Sarrat added.

A series of video screens with blooming flowers, swirling patterns and, before Jack White hit the stage, a slowly ticking countdown augmented the lighting design. Sarrat avowed: “This is the first time Jack has actually carried any video at-all or branched out to moving lights. He’s traditionally had very conventional heavy rigs.”

On-stage, Galaxia Electronics Winvision 9mm LEDs formed 3 large video walls (3m wide by 6m high) configured in the shape of the Roman numeral III and powered by a Green Hippo Hippotizer Boreal media server, supplied by Upstaging and put into motion by 3 Atlanta Rigging Services rotators. The show design met critical acclaim having been shortlisted in the inaugural Knight of Illumination Awards USA’s highly-competitive video category.

Larivée noted the trials and tribulations of managing the backdrop to fit Jack White’s creative approach to performance. “It was really a gig that

FLY FARM BLUES Montreal-based Lüz Studio Creative Director, Matthieu Larivée designed the show and its visual content. The brief on Jack White’s end was exactly that, brief. “We were told ‘all blue and use the number 3’. That’s it,” Larivée quipped.

Utilising a blue-and-white colour palette to bathe the band in a sea of eerie blue [“12 different types of blue but they’re really subtle!” declared Sarrat] that has become the hallmark of the Jack White’s aesthetic and flanked by a multitude of 3s (3 video screens; 3 pianos and 3 microphones, et al.)

When it came to the tour design, Jack White adopted a hands-on approach: “He approved the aesthetics first and he explained how he going to perform. There is no set list and sometimes he starts a song and switch 48

JACK WHITE

Production Manager, Kit Blanchard; Lighting Director, Michelle Sarrat with her trusty Macro Mistress (the MA Lighting grandMA2) & her tour mascot, Grumpy Cat.

you had to follow what was going on stage. If he goes to the piano, the video director would use camera on the screen to show that. We used a VFX software called Notch to treat the image to blue or BW, there were 10 robo cameras and a main FOH camera [supplied by Upstaging]. All run as a live feed through Notch for treatment,” he reflected on scaling the video content to fit an array of locations. “For some smallest venues, we had to remove the screens rotator but we staggered the lighting and video on the back wall so there was not much difference. That way, we could integrate the aesthetics. Of course, when we were doing biggest festivals or arenas, the direction was to use more camera IMAG compare to a smaller theatre venue but even in biggest venue situation, we wanted to do only lighting songs.”

Larivée designed the staging with Jack White surrounded by stage risers in a semi-circle, comprised 64 Upstaging Saber LED 250’s, 60 Upstaging Saber LED 500’s and 12 Upstaging Saber LED 1000’s. “The staging worked well with the different scale of venues, was perfect for the dynamic on stage.

There is an LED backlit stepped semi-circular riser, which the band plays on top of, while Jack’s world is downstage center allowing him to travel between the band members freely.”

In addition, 2 rows of 9 Claypaky Sharpy Washes situated on the floor

upstage and downstage provided aerial looks and band illumination. “The show has no set list – it’s all live. We have a pool of about 70 songs, and the show is always different. Having flexibility in how we use lights and video is great for the show,” clarified Larivée.

A total of 19 TMB Solaris Flares joined the lighting rig for the arena show.

Operating duties were achieved via an MA Lighting grandMA2 console.

Sarrat explained how she juggled with the hands-on nature of busking on an active console. “It’s been my usual desk for years now. It would be hard for me to set up the show with anything else; I use the layout views extensively as a busking system and have it set up with visual icons, so I don’t have to read during the show. This makes it quicker and easily identifiable. That’s one thing I love, and I love the flexibility that comes with creating lots of macros. My console is affectionately called the ‘Macro Mistress’, because it’s got a gazillion macros that do everything from blacking out to resetting. That’s something pretty specific to grandma, they’re the best!” she exclaimed.

Sarrat also praised Lüz Studio’s approach to show design. “I love them!

They’re really funny, creative and have a great attitude. They work really, really hard; we were at Upstaging, some days, for almost 20 hours during rehearsals. They are so invested in making the show awesome – they care a 50

JACK WHITE

Analogue vikings: Brett Orrison & Taylor Nyquist; Jack White steps it up a gear in Liverpool; Firehouse Productions’ RedNet-based drive system racks on site.

lot.”

Larivée gleamed: “I’m super happy. The staging worked well with the different scale of venues, it was the perfect dynamic. It was also the perfect link between scenic and video elements. Originally, the team were not sure how visuals could be integrated. However, Jack and his team are very happy with look and the feedback from the tour. I’m also happy that it fits with his aesthetic and the music.” He concluded: “On our end, doing that kind of show for an artist with no setlist was a great challenge, but we are very happy. I think that we found our role in that production.”

“When you carry a big console, it means you have to carry quite a bit of outboard gear too because you have no on-board compressors or any dynamics whatsoever – all your effects are from the outboard too. Jack likes the finer things in life, as do I, so we have a bunch of Rupert Neve products.

Rupert Neve is one of mine and Jack favourite people – he actually invented the equaliser and his consoles are what we use in our studios.”

The audio control system assembled by Firehouse Productions, in the US, utilised elements from Orrison’s bespoke analogue recording space in Austin, Texas, and the company’s array of RedNet units that allowed the audio crew to record up to 72 channels of audio every night for archiving, as well as allowing those same recordings to be used for virtual soundchecks through the FOH console. A stack of 4 RedNet A16R 16-channel analogue I/O interfaces take signal from the stage to a pair of Mac Minis using 2 RedNet PCIeR Cards as interfaces.

“Jack wanted an all-analogue rig for the tour, and the AoIP system we built for this tour lets the audio stay analogue right up to the console,” stated Chris Russo, Firehouse Productions’ Director of Touring. “At the same time, the band has all the benefits of being able to record every show digitally, ready for archiving, remixing or for virtual soundchecks.

“Touring analogue these days is very rare and it’s a real treat, and to compliment his idea of analogue, we went and took it a step further and added a real tape delay and real tape echo and tape reverb – and just tried to accent what he wanted - his whole vocal chain is going to tape, literally, and going through all analogue signals. It’s a treat!” Orrison exclaimed.

On the outboard sat a Universal Audio 1176 compressor, 2 Rupert P2MB Portico II Master Buss processors, 2 Drawmer DL241 compressors, 2 Drawmer DL441 compressors, 2 Rupert Neve 5035 Shelford Channel compressors, an AMS Rupert Neve 33609 stereo compressor, a Demeter RV1 spring reverb, a Yamaha Professional Audio SPX2000 processor, a TC Electronic 2290 signal processor, a George Massenburg Labs 8200 Parametric Equaliser, an Avalon VT-737SP, a Focusrite Octopre MKII, 2 Lake LM44 digital audio processors, 2 UBK Fatso dual channel compressor, 9

CONNECTED BY LOVE Also, in tune [literally] to the singer’s needs was FOH Engineer, Brett Orrison, who was no stranger to analogue mixing. “Jack and I share the same console in our home studio, we both have a love for analogue gear. When he’s touring, his only rule is; the FOH and monitor engineers need to use analogue consoles and an analogue signal chain. For me, it was the best of both worlds to hear that.”

After extensive research and consulting with friends, Orrison opted for a Midas XL4. “I picked the XL4, the best sounding console available, that rental companies still stock. When we switch out the consoles, it’s pretty seamless – there’s no drastic changes in the sound – which is cool. You never know with these old consoles, but Wigwam really look after their kit; the desks are very well-maintained.”

Orrison utilised Midas XL4 mic/line button, along with a pair of Genelec 8050A powered studio near-field monitors (sitting on the console) which makes virtual playback achievable. “I called Firehouse Productions because of the reputation they have with analogue gear, and that fact that they like to work with rock ‘n’ roll, plus they were really interested in working with Jack. For the European run, we the teamed up with Wigwam, which provides our stuff in the UK and Europe. They carry nice XL4’s – so it was a no brainer to pick that desk, and the rest of my gear is literally from my studio at my house! [which doubles as a recording space in Austin, Texas].

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Monitor Engineer, Marcel Cacdac & monitor mascot, R2-D2 alongside Monitor Technician, Adam Bannister; The d&b audiotechnik J Series main hang.

Rupert Neve 5043V duo compressors, an Alan Smart C1 compressor, a Fulltone Musical Products Tape Echo, a Roland RE201 Space Echo, a Bricasti M7 reverberation processor. While iSEMcon EMX 7150 mic, Lectrosonics R400A wireless and Sound Devices USBPre2 preamp were responsible for time aligning the system.

To record the virtual soundcheck, the FOH utilised Focusrite RedNet AD/ DA technology and a Focusrite RedNet MP8R preamp, for ambient mics, redundant Mac Mini’s on Dante A and B. “There are 2 keyboard players on this run, which is something Jack has never done before – so there are a lot more RNDIs than normal, but Brett [Orrison] picked out the active Rupert Neve DIs, which have been great and transformer in them. They’ve been rock solid, as some days we’re hanging understage when we have our taller risers – so they’re suspended by carabiners. They’ve really taken a beating and been great,” Taylor Nyquist, Systems Engineer, remarked.

“For microphone choices, I went for things I felt comfortable with and spoke with Marcel [Cacdac, Monitor Engineer] a lot before we jumped on the gig,” stated Orrison. A popular choice with the pair is SE Electronics microphones.

Chris Dauray, SE Electronics Brand Manager, enthused: “We’ve really enjoyed expanding into the live sound market over the last few years, and knowing that Jack White’s team utilises our V7 X dynamic microphone for one of the most tone-conscious guitarists on the planet makes us extremely happy.”

In addition to SE Electronics, the crew deployed Shure SM58’s on the downstage mics and on all the vocals. “We’re using an Avalon VT-737SP processor, over gaining the 2 pre-amps to create a classic tube distortion.

Jack has also got a clean mic which has the tape delay and the reverb on it, which creates a real thick analogue sounding vocal — not heavy FX but there is a kind of warming agent. Then he has another vocal, which is his pedal board FXs – which is anything from harmonisers to distortion, octave

– it’s all over the place, in a good way.”

Wigwam Acoustics also supplied the UK / Europe PA. The rig in Liverpool’s newest event space was a d&b audiotechnik J rig which comprised a main hang of 16 boxes per side — 12 J8’s over 4 J12’s. The side hang saw 16 V’s (8 V8’s over 8 V12’s per side) both arrays utilised d&b audiotechnik’s ArrayProcessing.

The subs were 18 d&b audiotechnik B22’s (6 groups of 3 on end in CSA), and all amplification was via d&b audiotechnik D80’s (only 34 units were needed since the V’s are passive boxes). Fibre via Optocore (AES from Lake to Optocore / Fibre to Stage / AES from Optocore) to the amps with analogue backup was the system drive design.

Nyquist explained: “We’ve had dates where, because Jack plays all kind of venues, we’ve had to scale the system up and down, and so every day is different, there’s never 2 shows the same.”

“Taylor set the PA system up to be modular,” added Orrison. “That’s why we have 4 little racks,” he pointed out. “Because we could, if we had to, put the console on-top on these [flight cases], or we can stack these – we’ve done 7 different combinations because we’re going from arena to theatre to Third Man Records, which fits 120 people.”

Nyquist, also expanded on Jack White’s obsession with the number 3, which the keen-eyed gig-goer may have spotted: “Jack has 3 wedges, 3 mics and multiples of 3 for all the lights. You can see it when the cardioid subs are stacked on end [3 high flat stacked] with a 5ft stage gets to be too tall, so we do them up on end with the middle reversed to create a cardioid dispersion.

This helps Marcel out because he’s got quite a loud stage already. It’s just a happy accident that they happen to be in groups of 3 in alignment with Jack’s favourite number.”

Meanwhile in the wings, Monitor Engineer Marcel Cacdac talked of mixing on his Midas H3000. “Having mixed the show since March, it’s definitely the right tool for the job. Working in analogue allows me to be in 54

JACK WHITE

Connected by love: Jack White and the band embrace following a rapturous performance in Liverpool.

several different places at once rather than having to page screen by screen of click through snapshots.”

Monitor Technician, Adam Bannister joined Cacdac in monitor world.

“Coming into the world of touring, digital was full throttle, so it’s pretty cool for me to be a part of such an analogue tour. I started out mixing on analogue a long time ago and it’s a really cool workflow. Being able to have everything in front of you instead of having to dig through for what you need, is great.”

A total of 15 d&b audiotechnik M2 wedges and 2 d&b audiotechnik B6 Subs provided sound at the monitor positions. Despite the hands-on approach to mixing on a Midas H3000, Cacdac noted: “It is a long desk, so it’s a stretch to get from one end to the other but I’ve got a pretty good wingspan. I can get quite a few things done just in that alone - it’s a lot quicker. Being able to have that type of workflow is paramount in the show because everything happens off the cuff, it’s happening very quickly, and if you look down for too long, you’ll miss the cue. Jack has 3 different positions on stage, so he can appear at any of those positions just like that.”

The custom-tailored outboard offering comprised a unique and prestigious punch; an Avalon VT-737sp for vocal distortion, a Yamaha SPX 900 multi effects audio processor, a TC Electronic D2 Delay, a Lexicon PCM70 digital effects processor, a Lexicon PCM 96 stereo reverb/effects processor, 2 Meyer Sound CP-10 Parametric EQs, 16-channel BSS FCS 960, 2 BSS DPR-901 II compressors, 2 Drawmer DL251 compressors, 4-channel dbx Professional Audio 160A compressors, 4 Empirical Labs EL-8 Distressors, 2 BSS DPR-404 compressors, 4 Drawmer DS404 noise gate signal processors, a Radial Engineering Phazerbank and XTA GQ600 graphic equaliser.

The backline team of Dan Mancini (guitar technician), Josh Smith (keyboard technician) and Derek Brown (drum and bass technician) supported the band.

Simon Hall, Wigwam Acoustic’s Project Manager for Jack White’s Boarding House Reach tour, commented: “From Wigwam’s perspective, this was a great tour to work on and another example of how we can work with American artists when they cross over the Atlantic. For Jack White,

we worked with Firehouse and designed a scalable d&b J-Series PA for the combination of arena and theatre venues. It was a good example of how we can mix old technology with new: there was a completely analogue control package, yet the J-Series was utilising the latest d&b ArrayProcessing software, ensuring even coverage to every seat.”

The greatest advertisement for the Boarding House Reach tour is in the DNA embedded in its attendance – thousands of children, teenagers and adults — regardless of location (“if there is some legendary venue that holds a thousand people then we’ll play that for three nights because Jack wants to play there,” Orrison delineated) – his ability to transform and overlook modern conventions of live touring (mobile phones, in-ears, digital mixing consoles, et al.) to champion traditional technologies; in favour of making the old feel new again is unparalleled and no deep shade of blue aesthetic can drown Jack White’s irrefutable live prowess. But don’t take it from a writer during his first backstage tech tour – listen to those on the road who made the vision possible – onstage and behind the curtain.

Cacdac explained: “All of the idiosyncratic functions that are contained here are perfect and to have anything less – then that would be weird – because it seems completely normal to us that there is no setlist and there are no snapshots.”

If you witnessed the tour this time around, you’ll know how slick the show looked, how tight the band were, and how incredible it sounded. As far as Jack White’s crew goes, 3, it seems, is indeed the magic number, even when it is a ‘happy accident’…

TPi Photos: David Swanson, Ray Spears, Lüz Studio & TPi www.jackwhiteiii.com www.sseaudiogroup.com/wigwam www.firehouseproductions.com www.negearth.com www.upstaging.com www.flybynite.co.uk www.beatthestreet.net www.bittersweetcatering.co.uk www.overyondr.com 56

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PRODUCTION PROFILE

SOFT CELL For one night only, synth-pop innovators Dave Ball and Marc Almond joined forces onstage for the last time to celebrate 40 years of Soft Cell. For their final curtain call, the duo ensured it was an event to remember. TPi’s Stew Hume was on site at the O2 Arena to see how this heady production was pulled off without technical rehearsals‌

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Undoubtedly, many readers will understand the pressure of the ‘one-off show’; you know you’re only going to get one crack at the live performance. This was magnified for Soft Cell’s Say Hello, Wave Goodbye, as the concert was streamed live to cinemas across the UK and Ireland.

Despite not performing together for 17 years, both Ball and Almond were keen to keep the time-honoured tradition of delivering their all onstage. With a large, automated square lighting truss and a giant 3 segment LED backdrop, the O2 venue is certainly a long way from the ‘80s club circuit when the band made their name.

One of the first to join the band’s 40th celebration was Ric Lipson from Stufish. Speaking to TPi about his induction into the world of Soft Cell, he recounted a story which wouldn’t be out of place in an espionage novel: “It all started with this rather out of the blue phone call,” he recalled. “I was asked to meet a guy called Mark in a female fashion outlet. Intrigued, I made the trip to Mayfair, still unsure what this mysterious show was all about.” The Mark in question was Mark Langthorne, Almond’s long-time manager. “We spoke for an hour or so about Soft Cell and his vision for the one-off performance. From the outset, he let me know this project would not have the biggest budget but they wanted to make an impact. Despite this, I was still very interested. Our ethos at Stufish states that if a project is intriguing, we’ll give it the time of day.”

Lipson spoke to Lighting Designer, Rob Sinclair. “Both Rob and I had just collaborated on the latest Queen + Adam Lambert tour and I thought this show would be right up his street!”

“Mark Langthorne – who took on the role of Creative Director – already had some strong ideas for the video content, along with laser and pyro elements,” explained Sinclair, who joined the conversation. “It sounded like a fun job, so naturally I said yes!”

With the two creative leads in place, the task of pulling together the suppliers was the next port of call, a role that was gladly taken up by Production Manager Kamal Ackarie.

The last time TPi crossed paths with Ackarie was backstage at Festival No°6 while he was working for the legendary outlandish performer, Grace Jones. With several years’ experience in live events, the PM has made a name for himself within the high-end art scene, putting on shows in venues including the Tate Modern. “But I have never tackled a show of this scale,”

admitted Ackarie. “It was 6 months of incredibly hard work, but what an experience! I remember so vividly dancing to tracks like Tainted Love in discos throughout my teenage years. The fact I’m here at 53 years old putting on their final show is really quite a trip - and such a huge honour.”

Despite not being from the world of arena shows, Ackarie had plenty of established relationships with the suppliers he could count on. These included Colour Sound Experiment, Really Creative Media, Adlib and ER Productions. “The whole show was frankly unrealistic,” laughed Ackarie, about the big vision of the performance. “It’s only thanks to the faith of the people we brought together that it happened. We never even had a full production rehearsal and the first time the set was put together was hours before doors. I dare say it might have taken a few years off me, but my God, it was worth it!”

SHOW DESIGN Although the likes of Really Creative Media, Colour Sound Experiment, Stufish and Rob Sinclair had all worked with one another previously, respectively, this was the first time all 4 had joined forces on a single show. “We have all been in the wars together many times,” stated Sinclair.

“I couldn’t have wished for better people. I have to give thanks to Liam Griffiths, who put so much work into programming the show, and to Kamal for holding it all together.”

Colour Sound Experiment provided the entire lighting and LED package, and leading the team was David ‘Fletch’ Fletcher. Speaking prior to the performance he discussed how Colour Sound Experiment entered the picture. “It was around February when we learned of the project. It’s been quite the experience as it’s an ambitions design for a one-off show. Not only that, but Soft Cell haven’t performed on stage together in some time, so expectations are high!”

The backdrop to the performance consisted of 160sqm of ROE CB5 configured in 3 segments to create a cross. The centre screen measured 11m high by 6.5m wide and was flanked by two 6m-high by 8.4m-wide side screens. The ROE CB5 is still relatively new to Colour Sound Experiment’s stock and is part of a £1m LED screen investment by the West Londonbased company this year. “The CB5 is such a reliable product,” enthused Fletch. “Both Rob and the team from Stufish have created a stage which 60

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Colour Sound Experiment’s David ‘Fletch’ Fletcher and Production Manager, Kamal Ackarie.

has moved away from traditional IMAG settings, with all the video surfaces renders,” explained Fletch. “As is the nature of the beast, we had a few lastbehind the band. From what we’ve seen so far it looks fantastic!” Colour minute additions including 4 Claypaky Scenius Unicos to light the truss set Sound Experiment’s video crew was chiefed by Fergus Noble who worked border.” alongside Ed Blackwell and Gareth Manicom.

When creating the show design, Sinclair was conscious both of how “The idea was always to have both Dave Ball and Marc Almond at the the performance looked for the live audience, and for those watching in forefront of the performance,” explained Lipson. “The stage is not actually cinemas up and down the country. Although it’s a factor he has become that big, coming in at 32ft, but we had to recognise and compete with the accustomed to in recent years, he explained: “I kind of light everything grandeur of the O2, hence the ginormous LED wall. On top of that, we also for television these days as everyone is always filming with phones. We had the idea of an automated truss structure above the band which would metered the spots and key light prior, then I spent the show looking at the give the show scalability and be cladded with neon pink cells – provided by monitor while Liam Griffiths ran the show.”

Brilliant Stages.” The staging specialist also provided two lifts.

Griffiths talked through the choice of fixtures. “We used the JDC1’s both Colour Sound Experiment supplied the 6 Kinesys Elevation 1+ motor as a strobe and an up stage wash,” he began. “This worked well on camera systems, which was used on the square 9 x 9 as it really filled in the empty space behind the square truss. During the show, it descended at a band. We also got to use the Spiiders in a similar 45° angle. “Having this extra automation element way along with their striking ‘flower effect’. Going really added something to the show,” enthused from a wide wash to the power effect works so Ackarie, explaining how Lipson’s vision of using well. Since seeing them in action on this show, I’m “It’s only thanks to the faith automated elements created a more “intimate” sold.” moment within the set, harkening back to the For control, Colour Sound Experiment supplied of the people we brought band’s small club shows. “Essentially, lowering the an MA Lighting grandMA2 with the new grandMA3 together that it happened. truss creates a small venue space for the band to as a back-up. “The grandMA3 is still very new for perform in within the O2 bowl,” stated Ackarie. us,” stated Fletch, noting the flight cases for the We never even had a full The front and wing truss was made up from desks are still in production. “They’ve been out for production rehearsal and Litec pre-rigged truss which was extremely quick a few smaller shows but this is the first time they’re to assemble and rig on the day, commented being used on a rig of this scale.” the first time the set was put Colour Sound Lighting Crew Chief, James Hind: “It The entire show was time coded with Griffiths together was hours before literally flew in and up!” having control of a selection of faders to ride levels Collectively, the lighting rig consisted of an doors. I dare say it might have and saturation throughout. “This was a necessity impressive collection of Robe fixtures: 46 BMFLs, as we didn’t have any rehearsal time with the taken a few years off me, 22 Robin MMX Spots, 56 Spiiders and 12 Robin rig,” Griffiths stated. “This level of control meant 600 LEDwashes. Also on the rig were 174 Martin by Rob and I could adjust on the fly. Cast Software but my God, it was worth it!”

Harman VDO Sceptrons, 6 Novalight Super Novas, Wysiwyg was also of the utmost importance as it Production Manager, and 9 GLP JDC1’s “Despite some shifting around, meant I could visualise how it would look. During Kamal Ackarie the design remained very true to Rob’s initial the load in everyone was so pushed for time. I 62

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couldn’t just stop the Kinesys ops from moving the truss while I was making final tweaks – it was just a matter of being patient.”

On site providing support for Griffiths and Sinclair were the strong crew of Sam Kenyon, Jon Rickets, Sam Akinwale, Alex Bratza and Adam LaFemina. Fletch gave his final thoughts on his involvement: “The whole experience has been a bit of a nostalgia trip. I remember when Soft Cell first came out - and to be working on their last ever show 40 years later is certainly one of those ‘full circle moments’. It seems that right now lots of bands are reforming but I am particularly happy to be involved in this reunion!”

Colour Sound Experiments’ Managing Director, Haydn Cruickshank added: “As always, it was excellent working with Rob and we were all very proud to be part of such a landmark show and do our bit to make it memorable for the many Soft Cell fans everywhere.”

VIDEO CONTENT Really Creative Media (RCM) handled the content which would play throughout the performance. TPi sat down with Content Director Jack James and Director of Really Creative Media, Nick Dew to discuss what they brought to the table.

Having worked with Rob Sinclair on several projects, RCM were one of the first on his list. “We have taken on two roles for Say Hello, Wave Goodbye,” explained Dew. “First is producing the visual content for the show. Second is the camera package and media servers used on the night.”

James continued: “The content was really driven by Mark Langthorne who had a clear vision of what he wanted to achieve with the project. What we have produced is very much a modern imagination of the aesthetic that made Soft Cell so famous in the ‘80s.”

Alongside the content streamed on the LED surfaces, RCM also

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incorporated several IMAG shots. “We ended up splitting the pit in half,” explained Dew. “We have taken one side to capture the IMAG content with the other side being used by Live Here Now who are handling the live stream.” For its pit and FOH cameras RCM utilised Black Magic URSA Broadcast cameras along with a selection of Agile pan and tilt robo cams, to get those close-up shots without being too much of a distraction for the performance on stage.

For control, RCM deployed a pair of Catalyst V6 media servers with an MA Lighting grandMA2 Light and OnPC Wing for control. These were tamed by programmer Jake Whittingham. “It’s certainly one of our go-to setups as it’s very flexible,” stated Dew. “Practically on these one-off shows where it’s very ‘run and gun’, you don’t have time to learn a new technology and you need to be comfortable with the system.” James agreed: “The Catalyst is very adaptable and deals with issues as they pop up. So, for a show with

no rehearsal time, it was a no brainer. It’s a very similar package to that which we created for the Liam Gallagher tour which was a great success.”

All the camera feeds were sent to a Panasonic Touring PPU system which was overseen on the day by Video Director Phil Jennings and engineered by Bjorn Parry.

SFX ER Productions were also on site providing a selection of lasers and pyrotechnics to support the visual feast. “Rob first got in touch with us during the summer,” recalled ER Production’s Ross Marshall. “We have worked with Rob before on numerous projects, most recently for the Pet Shop Boys, Queen + Adam Lambert and Shania Twain. Soft Cell are one of the iconic British pop bands and as this was a one-off show, and the last one, it was a great opportunity!”

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The Adlib audio team consisting of James Coghlan, Billy Bryson and Stuart Watson; FOH Engineer, John Gale.

Lasers were always an element that Creative Director, Mark Langthorne in,” reminisced Ackarie. In total, the broadcast team consisted of 60 crew had been keen to include from the initial design meeting with Stufish. In members – that’s right, 60. “Each one of them was very professional and total, ER Productions supplied 6 Phaenon Pro 30000’s and 24 Kinekts. Along worked well with the rest of the live production team,” he noted. with the lasers, the company also delivered 10 Galaxis G-Flames along with For the performance, Live Here Now partnered with Toward Infinity 8 Magic FX Stadium Shot 2’s and 2 Look Solutions CRYO-FOG. “We used the who took care of the filming for the stream. The show was broadcast in G-Flames with power upgrades, for 8m flames for the track Heat,” stated 5.1 surround sound audio and filmed in full HD with a comprehensive 13 Marshall. “Prior to the show received the pyro cues from Kamal. Meanwhile camera set-up. The cut was directed by Tim Sidwell who has also worked for the Stadium Shots we fired 17 x 17 silver metallic streamers during on similar performances for Bring Me The Horizon, Marillion, Steps, and the finale track, Say Hello Wave Goodbye and the CRYO-FOGs emitted low Bananarama. The live broadcast surround sound audio mix was engineered smoke during the track Martin. by specialist Will Shapland.

According the Marshall, the main challenges The company is also responsible for the release for the team and ER Productions were the timing of the show onto multi-format fan deluxe editions. of the special effects, as there had no rehearsals These products will include CD, DVD, Blu-ray, for the production. “Thankfully we had a very Heavy Weight Coloured Quadruple Vinyl, Audio experienced team on site who we trusted to Hardback photobook and a very limited-edition think and respond quickly and were capable of box set. delivering cues in a safe manner,” he stated. Along “I’ve worked with James with Marshall handling the special effects were AUDIO Joey Jackson and George Baker.

John Gale, Almond’s long time FOH Engineer, (Coghlan) on several other handled audio duties for the performance. shows and it’s always a great BROADCAST Speaking to him at FOH by his DiGiCo SD10 Handling the broadcast end of the shows was console, he discussed the set up. “I remember the collaboration. I have full faith leading Live Recording Label and Production conversations being thrown around while on tour in him and the rest of the Adlib with Marc’s orchestral show this time last year,” Company, Live Here Now who partnered with event cinema distributor More2Screeninema to Gale stated. “I have been working with him for crew, who are always on top stream the performance in screens across the some time but this show is certainly a lot bigger of things!”

UK and Ireland. “I don’t think any of us knew how than we are used to. Marc’s tours are usually in extensive it was all going to be until they rolled theatre so this is a different level!”

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Alongside Monitor Engineer Clem Southgate - another veteran of the Almond camp - the two engineers went into band rehearsals with the Soft Cell duo and a collection of other live elements prior to the performance.

“Along with Dave and Marc we also have 4 backing vocalists, some extra live percussion and a small brass section,” detailed Gale. “During this time we worked with Producer Philip Larsen who went through all the original stems of the band’s tracks and recreated elements for a digital playback mix.”

Although there were several elements of digital playback, Gale explained how the large majority of the show was live, most of which coming from Bell’s spaceship of synths. For the synth-aficionados amongst you, his current set up includes a myriad of Korg products including a Prologue, an MS-20 and MS10. Also present was a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5. “For Dave I actually just get a stereo feed from his onstage mixer,” stated Gale.

“He’s also in control of a lot of the ‘trap’ elements pulled from the album.

Then I’m at FOH blending both those elements along with the other live aspects.”

For control, Gale opted for a DiGiCo SD10 while Southgate chose a Yamaha CL5. “For me, like L-Acoustics, DiGiCo is my first choice for nearly all tours. It’s handling of snapshots is so versatile and really suits my style of mixing.” Adlib provided its standard Waves multi rack system run on a Mac mini along with a DiGiGrid MGB with 2 Waves SoundGrid Extreme Severs.

Gale was keen to comment on the latest Waves integration with the console. “It’s fantastic how Waves now amalgamates with each of the snapshots.” In total Gale was handling 16 outputs including timecode which was sent out to all other departments. “In fact I think audio is one of the only departments not using time code,” laughed Gale. “There simply was not time to time code each of the cues with the 33 songs for which we ended up producing cues.”

For microphones, Gale made use of Almond’s “trusted companion” – the Shure Beta 58. “He’s used it since the early days and it’s become part of his tone,” said Gale. “It’s great for levels which Marc has plenty of. It’s a microphone I’m really comfortable using having used the model on Björk’s latest tour. Sometimes it’s good to stick with what you know.”

Originally, the idea was to keep the stage as clean as possible although, in the end, production opted to add a selection of stage monitors for stage sound using d&b audiotechnik M2’s along with L-Acoustic KS28’S and Arc II’s for side fills.

Adlib supplied the entire PA and control package along with the crew of James Coghlan, Billy Bryson, Steven Selby and Stuart Watson. The PA of choice was an L-Acoustics K1/ K2 system. “It’s a pretty tried and tested

setup,” discussed Bryson, PA Technician. In total, Adlib deployed 12 K1’s and 6 K2’s each side, all powered by LA12X amps. The sub setup consisted of 10 stacks of 2 high KS28’s. Additionally, every sub stack also featured a Kara box for extra coverage for those close to the stage. Further down the O2 bowl in delay world were 2 hangs of 8 deep L-Acoustics K1 array. “This was a collective decision between Adlib and John, our FOH Engineer,” explained Bryson. “The K1’s power ensured every seat in the house got the same audio experience.”

“A K1 and K2 L-Acoustics set up was always at the top of my wish list,” stated Gale, clearly satisfied with the system he had control over during the performance. “It’s the brand I use most and it feels comfortable.”

He continued to enthuse about the Adlib team he worked alongside.

“I’ve worked with James on several other shows and it’s always a great collaboration. I have full faith in him and the rest of the Adlib crew, who are always on top of things!” It was a sentiment shared by PM, Ackarie: “This was my first show of this scale, and having such a reliable supplier like Adlib was such a blessing. The team knew exactly what needed to be done and really kept my mind at ease.”

SAY HELLO, WAVE GOODBYE With the stage set in the nick of time the O2 gradually filled with those eager to witness Soft Cell’s swan song performance. Kicking things off with their first single Memorabilia, while Bell began tinkering behind his fortress of synths, Almond ascended via the stage lift to raucous applause. “So here we are!” he exclaimed, before launching headlong into Soft Cell’s nostalgic back catalogue. Throughout the performance, between the impressive laser show, the imposing lighting rig and the giant LED backdrop, it was hard to grasp that this was the first time the full production pieces had slotted into place. Certainly a fitting farewell for the final Wave Goodbye…

TPi Photos provided by Stufish www.softcell.co.uk www.stufish.com www.gribiche.org www.coloursound.com www. reallycreativemedia.co.uk www.adlib.co.uk www.liveherenow.com www.brilliantstages.com www.er-productions.com 68

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“When designing the MILOS range of steel truss, we considered many factors and requirements that needed to be addressed in the final products,” said Area Four Industries Technical Director, Norbert Tripp.

“One of these came directly from MILOS clients, who had often expressed a desire for their mother grids to achieve the greatest possible clearance heights, especially in fixed installations. With our new ultra-high strength steel truss, even the smallest models are able to support a significantly higher load capacity than aluminium truss at much lower heights. You can imagine the range of new possibilities that have now opened up for our customers.”

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• Pinned connectors for increased strength and safety • Integrated forklift pick up points • End frames with lateral connection options • Matt black impact-resistant industrial paint finish • Optional: metalizing for additional protection • Exchangeable with aluminium truss with equivalent dimensions for achieving up to 3x more strength • Optimised webbing pattern for ease of use when assembling cross trusses • 200 cm truss is foldable TOWER: Up to 20+ metres high Up to 40+ ton loading capacity Up to 60+ metre spans (60 metre spans with UDL 140 kg/m) Head section equipped with wheels for double fall chain hoist, which can lift up to 10 tons with 2.5 ton chain hoist Steel base lugs come with a variety of guy wire attachment points Wheels on tower truss segments Multi-directional sleeve block with a mechanical safety lock system that prevents drop and lift www.milossystems.com

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The new, self‑contained environment of the MyT Virtue roof system achieves 24 to 30m spans and has been designed to cover large-scale events. Part of this new system is a recently designed heavy‑duty tower and mechanical safety block. Also, as part of the MyT family of roof systems, customers can count on it to provide the support you need for your most important events.

The MyT Virtue is a compact, but strong, line of truss designed to provide the support the requirements for large-scale events. Part of the MyT family of truss, which recently won the gold star product award from PLSN in the United States, it bridges the gap between the MyT standard line and RL105 series. MyT Virtue combines the best qualities of different truss lines, such as a folding feature, compact form factor, and 60mm main chords that allow use of standard clamps.

STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS IN THE SYSTEM: • MyT Virtue truss • New Maxitower 63 with 50mm (diameter) x 6mm EN AW 6082 T6 aluminium main chords • Steel sleeve block • New mechanical safety block www.litectruss.com

SPECIFICATION • 850 x 670 mm • EN AW 7003 T6 aluminium • 24–30m spans • 60mm main chords

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TOMCAT TRUSSING The new Lighting Pod from TOMCAT offers lighting designers a much broader canvas for their creations and affords them the opportunity to present ‘walls of light’ on a much larger scale than with traditional truss profiles. Extreme adjustability and flexibility allow for the use of multiple lighting options within one framework that can be utilised both vertically and horizontally.

The Lighting Pod is constructed from 2 inch x 1/8 inch and 1 ½ inch x 1/8 inch tubes for strength and durability, and measures a healthy 6ft x 2.6 inch x 6ft (L x W x H) for extending your lighting wall possibilities. Stable stacking and convenient transport are ensured with steel spigots, forklift pockets and heavy-duty casters. www.tomcatglobal.com

GLOBAL TRUSS MULTIBASE Global Truss offers, with the new Multibase, a multifunctional basement that convinces with high quality standards. Furthermore it is useable with different truss systems as for example with our standard F34 as well as the F44 and iM-Type system. The Multibase can be used as ground support as well as for free standing tower constructions or stage roofs. Some more intelligent features are the 90° adapter for the outriggers or the flexible motor pick point. The motor pick point can also be used as a connection for the tight rope system in stage roofs.

SPECIFICATION • Includes four spindle feet with M27 thread • Dimensions: 80 x 98 x 34cm • Weight: 60.5 kg • Material: Steel • KTL powder coated • Compatible: F34, F44 & iM Type www.globaltruss.com 74

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completed with less people. Also the dolly is rigid so no more tipping over truss destroying your expensive and precious light fixtures. There is no point investing in pre rig truss if the dolly is not designed to do the job. In other words, the ultimate Pre Rig Truss for Professionals on a Tour.

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PRT Truss is a versatile truss structure to carry moving heads permanently.

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The Pre Rig Truss also has an innovative feature - the counter positioning nut at the fork connector. This gives users the perfect fitting and angling it for corners and other complicated regions of a rig.

The truss has fixed cross bracing in the sides and on the top side straight braces and a linear tube for centric positioning of the lights. The truss can be stacked with or without the dolly. The stackable dollies are adjustable in height by using telescopic legs and enables one person to do the stacking, tipping and inserting the legs. Eurotruss developed a unique and ultimate dolly allowing faster and safer workflow that can be

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Prolyte’s massive Mammoth M145RV truss can now be combined with a complete ground support system, consisting of a specially designed base section, top section, D75T tower and sleeve block to accommodate heavy loading and large spans. The goal is to provide customers with one completely integrated system for extreme loading needs.

Complex systems like the Mammoth truss are used by a few, well-experienced and knowledgeable companies like Malecon. With its feedback, Prolyte developed the individual components into a complete integrated system. As Thorsten Klein, Managing Director of Malecon commented: “We see a growing demand for these extreme load-bearing structures. You need the user expertise as well as the truss components to be able to fulfil that demand. Prolyte is both competent and capable of translating that demand in a great product.”

While the D75T towers can be loaded up to 30 tonnes at a height of 20m, building a complete grid or ground support system requires more elements, designed to absorb substantial loads. Using the M145RV Mammoth truss customers can build spans up to 60m, still allowing a centre point load of 2,000kg. For use in ground support systems, Prolyte has designed a sleeve block for the D75 tower, the D75T-010M145RV, which combines the D75T towers with the M145RV Mammoth truss.

The sleeve block can handle a cantilever point load of 2,000kg at a 10m cantilever.

Furthermore, the sleeve block is equipped with a pinned dead hang system, which facilitates a dedicated dead hang position within the tower and increases the tower 78

loading capacity significantly. Sliding the dead hang pin into its integrated holder within the tower is easy, quick and safe.

The Mammoth ground support includes to following items to be combined with the D75T tower, sleeveblock and the Mammoth M145RV truss; the box corner, base section and top section.

The specially designed box corner for Mammoth truss, the BOX-M145RV equals the loading capacity of the Mammoth truss and can be used to make grid structures. Both the sleeve block and the box corner have integrated dedicated attachments for guy wires and lifting points. Meanwhile the base section can be integrated into a Layher 2072 x 2072 system and creates integral stability for the tower section, which results in an increase of the tower capacity. It features integrated dedicated attachments for guy wires and lifting points.

Providing a user-friendly solution, the base section can be used as a ballast element.

The self-weight of the base section can be increased by filling this element with concrete.

Combining these elements into one grid, a temporary structure can be created, capable of absorbing massive loads. Using such structures as mother-grids for indoor and outdoor situations creates larger possibilities to create stunning events or projects.

“We definitely see a trend here,” commented Ralph Stockley, CCO for Prolyte Group, “with the Mammoth ground support we can extend our customer’s possibilities to meet the growing demand for larger spans or structures that can handle heavier loads and build all these great structures in a safe way.” www.prolyte.com

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YANN SCHIRRMEISTER This month, TPi catches up with Lighting Op Yann Schirrmeister while on tour with The Black Queen to discuss lighting design and juggling life on the road as a university student.

“I must have been about 14 when I first started working on live shows,” recalled Schirrmeister as we sat down, hours before The Black Queen was to hit the stage at Manchester’s Deaf Institute.

Born in Lugano, Switzerland, Schirrmeister moved to the UK in 2016 to study a Lighting Design course at Rose Bruford College; simultaneously building quite the resumé via touring. “When I was younger, I worked with various Swiss lighting companies, but I always had a dream to work in the UK,” stated Schirrmeister. “I didn’t have any contacts over here, so while applying for a place at Rose Bruford, I started reaching out to smaller companies to try and get my foot in the door. It was exciting to be in the UK which has a much bigger events market than Switzerland - and many more opportunities.”

Having made a new home in London, Schirrmeister threw himself equally into his university work and the world of live touring. “The course has really filled in some of the gaps in my lighting knowledge,” explained Schirrmeister. “As lighting went from my hobby to a career, I wanted to learn as much as I could.” Schirrmeister went on the explain that for him, this wish to learn went much further than technical expertise. “One aspect of our course has been the study of human sight and how it is affected by lighting. From there, you can understand how an audience perceives a show.”

Although his passion currently lies in live events, Schirrmeister has explored other realms including theatre and television. “They’re both areas I might go into down the line, but right now touring is where I want to focus. However, I have been able to take some of the methods used in both theatre and lighting and translate them into some of the tours I have worked on.”

On the subject of recent tours, Schirrmeister talked about some of the laminates he’d collected since being in the UK. “A lot of the shows I have done recently have come off the back of meeting Tom Campbell of Mirrad,” said Schirrmeister. “We had Tom down to be a guest lecturer, although during to a schedule conflict he was unable to speak. However, I got in touch with him and after a few conversations he invited me along to All Points East festival to help out!” [with Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes], he exclaimed.

Since then, the has assisted Campbell on several shows as a Lighting Technician, working with The Amazons and John Grant, and now, he’s operating Campbell’s design for alt electro outfit, The Black Queen. “It was Tom who secured my work with the band,” he said, as he gestured to his surroundings.

“He wasn’t able to work this one-week tour, putting it in my hands. I really owe him a lot.”

On this latest run, Schirrmeister made use of Campbell’s selection high-end fixtures, including German Light Products impression X4 Bars, Philips SL Nitro 510C and the Robe MegaPointe, all of which were supplied by Siyan. “They’re the kind of fixtures I would never have had a chance to work in Switzerland. The Nitro especially was a new one for me on this run which I have used for a backlight to pick up some more minute details. I was also contrasting the big pixels of the of the Nitro 510C and the smaller ones of the X4’s through the show. ” Despite being in the midst of a tour, the eager LD already has his eyes set on his next adventure – namely another stint with American singer-songwriter, John Grant. “I’m very lucky to have tutors that are really understanding and work around my touring schedule,” stated Schirrmeister, answering how he’s able to balance touring work and study duties. “Although, it does mean it’s a lot of work when I get back from tour, especially if I have a presentation due.”

With only 7 months left on his course, Yann’s certainty raring to start the next chapter of his career.

No doubt TPi will be bumping to him on the road soon enough...

TPi www.productionfutures.co.uk

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INTERVIEW

TOM TAKES TACTUS ON TOUR In the midst of Sir Tom Jones busy festival season, TPi caught up with the singer’s long time FOH Engineer Matteo Cifelli who discussed his current audio rig. Specifically, the Tactus digital mixing system from Crest Audio with integrated Waves eMotion LV1 mixing software.

Even at 78 years old, Sir Tom Jones is the consummate showman. Over the span of his long career he has been through many incarnations, but what has remained unchanged throughout is his unmistakeable vocal signature, and his evident delight at being on stage. Having recently headlined at a sold-out Summer Sessions gig against the stunning backdrop of Edinburgh castle as part of the Edinburgh Festival. TPi caught up with Sir Tom’s FOH Engineer, Matteo Cifelli, who took us through his latest box of tricks – namely the Tactus digital mixing system from Crest Audio with integrated Waves eMotion LV1 mixing software.

While readers may be familiar with the Waves mixing platform, you might not yet have come across Tactus from Crest Audio. First launched in 2016, Tactus is a modular mixing system that comprises a FOH audio

processing core powered by Waves SoundGrid and a 32-in/16-out remote stagebox plus an optional external control surface which acts as a physical extension of the Waves LV1 touchscreen mixer application.

Cifelli has been a fan of Waves since the beginning: “I was at Waves in 2014 and saw the prototype of LV1 and was instantly hooked,” he recalled.

“I’ve had it with me as a support desk ever since. I love the way the software works and the fact that it is based on plug-ins to extend functionality. There is a huge selection of plug-ins so it’s incredibly versatile, and the integration with the Tactus hardware is just a fabulous solution because it opens up the software for use on much bigger shows.”

“The main gap for me using LV1 was the controller – or rather lack of it,” he continued. “It was great for small shows, but anything over 16 channels 86

MATTEO CIFELLI

Previous: Sir Tom Jones’ FOH Engineer, Matteo Cifelli. Below: The legendary singer on stage at the Edinburgh Festival.

becomes difficult to manage on a touchscreen as there just isn’t enough real estate. The integration into Tactus has changed all that – now that Crest have brought out their controller, I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way.

There is perfect physical alignment between the faders on the screen and the physical faders on the controller, and if you need more channels, you can just connect a second control surface. It’s a fantastic feature for me and one that makes it possible to use as a primary mixing console on bigger

shows. What’s more, the build quality is amazing and that’s really important when you’re working on live shows. You need to know that when you plug it in and turn it on, it’ll just work, even if it’s taken a few knocks as things often do on the road.”

Something else that Cifelli appreciates is the modularity of Tactus and the fact that it is ultra-portable. “Even compared to a standard digital console, the footprint is tiny,” he asserted. “Our next gig after Edinburgh was

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MATTEO CIFELLI

Above: FOH Engineer, Matteo Cifelli.

in Jordan just two days later, so the timeframe was pretty tight, but Tactus is so compact, we checked it in as hand luggage!”

In Edinburgh, Cifelli’s setup was straightforward with one TACTUS FOH processing core connected to a Lenovo Touchscreen laptop PC and a Tactus Stagebox by a single CAT5 cable. The monitor engineer was responsible for establishing the gain structure, so Cifelli used a Madi stream from a DiGiGrid MGB to take a feed from the monitor desk. The MGB is an interface that lets users plug any coaxial Madi-enabled device into the Waves SoundGrid network. The PC running LV1 was connected to a touchscreen and the Tactus control interface, and that was it – all very simple. “Where I can, I like to run everything on two computers for redundancy,” he said. “I’ll have a main PC connected to a touchscreen and the Tactus control surface plus a laptop also running LV1. That way if the external touchscreen goes down for any reason, I’ve still got the laptop touchscreen. There’s no redundancy the only mixing system that is 100% customisable,” he said. “The concept built into the system yet, so it’s safer to do it yourself! On the other hand, is revolutionary, and its plugin architecture it gives me unlimited soundwhen you consider the cost of a Tactus and everything you get for your shaping abilities. Combined with Tactus hardware, I have a rugged, roadmoney, it’s no big deal to bring along an extra laptop…” worthy mixing system that takes up a tenth of the space of anything else For Cifelli, the modular approach is definitely the way forward. “In currently available and offers me ten times the functionality and scalability. its simplest form, all you need is the FOH unit and a laptop and that’s it, And sound quality-wise, we are at the top! but of course you can add elements however you like to support larger “I like to say that this system is the internet of mixing consoles – in configurations. I love that you can increase or the same way as the arrival of digital technology reduce the number of interfaces, as well as inputs revolutionised the live mixing industry, the Tactus/ and outputs, and the different connectivity options LV1 concept will change the game yet again but this provided by Tactus gives me compatibility with time moving us into an IP world. I believe that in years interfaces from other brands which is just great. I can to come we’ll be seeing more and more Tactus/LV1 use SoundGrid, Madi, AES, and now Peavey have just or similar systems around the world with the ability come out with a SoundGrid-to-Dante bridge which to talk to and exchange data with different devices means I can connect to Dante-enabled PA systems (or from different manufacturers all over simple network other Dante devices) as well. Personally, I think this is cables, and maybe even Wi-Fi and 4 or 5G! – that’s the the future of digital mixing.” future I see in a digital world.” www.tpimagazine.com/ He believes that Peavey’s decision to build Tactus TPi category/tpi-tv/ based on the Waves LV1 software was simply inspired.

Photos: Peavey He is certainly not alone in considering LV1 to be www.tomjones.com the best software mixing platform available. “It’s www.peaveycommercialaudio.com

WATCH THE VIDEO 90

3 A P RIL 2019, FR ANKFUR T OPEN FOR ENTRIES

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COSMIC EARS LUNA

Phil Gartell, Managing Director of Manchester-based in-ear monitor company, Cosmic Ears, chats to TPi’s Kel Murray about its latest Luna product, a solution designed for the robust nature of touring duties; bringing a new comfort to ear fatigue caused by those familiar long hours...

How did the development of the new Luna in-ear monitor begin?

Around 18-months ago, we said how can we get better? The most important thing for us is to listen to our customers. Many of them had heard the full product demo range in our HQ, and importantly, on the road, so we took their feedback on board. Since then we focussed on making research & development a key priority at Cosmic Ears. Due to the rough and tumble of tour life, you need a tough product, so we’ve used less parts within the new range, whilst manitaining our sound quality. It’s a game changer for backline crew and monitor engineers.

We wanted to maintain the Cosmic Ears house sound signature while at the same time drawing on our learnings from customer feedback, which was to create a more rugged in-ear, and with the Luna product, we have

achieved this. We have made the Luna sound signature balanced and smooth enough to appeal to almost all musical tastes and requirements.

Luna is going to be one the of best all rounded in-ear we have produced.

Have you worked closely with musicians to ensure this new system will fill any current concerns with IEM’s?

We listen to all our customers; engineers, musicians and audiophiles, and we have used their feedback to address any concerns. We have worked closely with a select few sound engineers while Luna was in the development stages.

As a result of this, we’ve made the sound smoother at higher frequencies, this is important for two reasons: to allow the product to be 92

COSMIC EARS

used for longer performances, and also for comfort; engineers who will wear them all day and may suffer from ear fatigue will find this model far easier to use during long sessions.

all help make an audio tech’s job easier. Recently, 3D technology has helped us to develop a stronger and consistent shell to protect the components inside. It has also allowed us to create an internal mould to keep everything securely in place. With 2019 beckoning, we will also be launching a new socket system, based on the Estron T2 design, across the full product range.

What new features does it offer to the industry?

When we talk about the industry we don’t just talk about the performers; we talk about the backline crew too, and within that, we talk about reliability of your in-ears being a major feature. A more robust shell, and now a cavity on the tip of the canal to reduce sweat and, ultimately, wax build up problems

Does it utilise any new technology?

It does, and it also benefits from a more effective system design. Many in-ear designers will say you simply need to add more drivers, but this

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COSMIC EARS

is not always the case. Look at the car industry - from Ford to Ferrari they’re downsizing the number cylinders in their engines for reliability and efficiency, and we are achieving the same thing in our in-ears by utilising less drivers.

We’re not saying that having 8, 10, 12 or 16 + drivers is wrong, but on tour they are vulnerable and prone to damage. So, in essence we’ve utilised some new drivers and also implemented a few tweaks within existing components to make the sound delivery even more effective… but that’s top secret!

for ad-hoc session musicians. The generics will be ready for release when the custom range goes live.

Have any tours or events decided to take Luna on the road?

The product is brand new, so we are working with a hand-picked selection of engineers and have also identified some events we’d like to roll the Luna range out to. If there are any touring companies, studios or production houses looking to demo the Luna range, then we’d love to hear from you!

TPi www.cosmicears.com

Where will it sit in the pro audio market place - is this a low end or top of the line range?

It is most definitely sitting in the top line of our product family, yet vitally, it’s also affordable. Luna will be a model that will hit the spot with professionals, yet the price point will be very competitive, which will likely surprise a few people!

WATCH THE VIDEO

Where does Luna fit in the Cosmic Ears product line?

The Luna model will fall under the new range known as Nova and will be aimed at the professional and tour market. We will also be releasing Luna in conjunction with an identical sounding generic version, the main reasoning for generic version would be to support artists or band members who may lose their custom set on tour and need a backup set without needing changes to the mix. It will also allow tours to carry generics that can be used

https://youtu.be/ W1i4zq7m1RY

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ROAD DIARIES

STUART SMITH VideoDust Designer

implement changes to the software to make VideoDust more effective in the live environment.

Whether that is working with media sever companies to integrate VideoDust into their software or working with video and lighting directors to help speed up their workflow.

Although I enjoy the touring side of things, both Phil and I have cut back on touring to concentrate fully on VideoDust, it’s taken a long time to get to this level but seeing VideoDust being used on many different productions really makes it worthwhile.

With Josh we are using VideoDust very subtly so it doesn’t overpower or take away from the camera shots Stuart Merser is using.

It’s one of those things, some productions want VideoDust to create mind blowing effects that are a visual feast for the eyes. For example, the effects produced for the Stone Roses, and then some need the software to subtly enhance the graphics as we did with Production Designer, Cate Carter, for Elbow. With VideoDust it is possible to do both with ease.

We have our new twin input/output version available which allows production designers to have one effect on the stage LED screen creating realtime content from the camera pictures and then manipulating the IMAG screens with different effects.

This would not have been possible without the knowledge I gained from being on tour and chatting with different designers.

As with the media server side of things, we have been working with Richard Bleasdale from Catalyst and also Matt Corke from PRG M-Box to bring VideoDust into their software with more and more control from the lighting desk.

This has only come about due to the chance to speak and work with different media server operators and lighting directors, as their input is invaluable for us as a company.

Of course being an American it is always nice to get back to the States and see some of my family again, although my two brothers are actually in the UK at the moment while I’m over here [in the UK]. I guess that’s the way the cookie crumbles when you have your own business.

We are actively taking VideoDust into different markets and we have a great colleague called Matt Walden from Houston who is our man on the ground over in the States and it’s been a pleasure to recently work with the award winning theatre designer, Nina Dunn.

Nina has been using VideoDust on theatre shows including the award winning The Assassination of Katie Hopkins.

So, VideoDust looks healthy for the future, we have some very exciting plans for next year allowing us to reach more and more designers and as always there are new effects coming on line all the time.

I’m looking forward to sleeping in my own bed soon though...

Stuart Smith

Stuart Smith on the left and Stuart Merser.

As the designer of VideoDust, it is always beneficial to collate information on how the software is needed and used on different shows.

So when our touring colleague, Stuart Merser of Visavis Video, asked if I was available to tour with Josh Groban in the States for a couple of weeks, I had a chat with my business partner Phil Woodhead and we recognised it was a perfect chance for me to check up on how our software VideoDust performs in a live, touring environment.

During the past few years, I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to experience tours that have allowed me to delve a little deeper; develop and

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PSA: THE BIGGER PICTURE

NURTURING LIVE MUSIC FROM THE ROOTS This month we’re rounding up the action from Venues Day 2018.

Research and development, R&D, it drives industry. Not many of us get to see it in action, we generally only see the hits rather than the great ideas that just didn’t make it into production, and we don’t really get the chance to see the honing of new product. Live music’s different though, get away from the choreographed churn of arena-friendly hits and you have every opportunity to discover some rough diamonds, songs in the raw, bands developing, the real original t-shirt and a selfie with the singer who sold it to you.

The price of this experience? Negligible compared to the online dash for the latest tout-fest, with tickets viagogone in seconds, 6 months before you get to see the show. In fact, you can probably pop into a live music R&D department tonight, they’re known nowadays as Grassroots Music Venues (GMVs) and they’re under threat.

Should we, the production people, be bothered? Too right we should, for they are where our next generation cut their teeth too, it’s where all manner of tips are shared, mistakes made, skills honed. It’s why we’re keen to support the work of the Music Venue Trust (MVT), the organisation set up to protect GMVs from very real threats.

HER LOVE (OF GMVs) IS COOL From the growing number of artists that have become endorsees and supporters of MVTs work, Wolf Alice’s Ellie Roswell (pictured) delivered an opening address that epitomised the very essence of the Grassroots Venue scene, creating success from zero knowledge of the business, from open mic slots at the, here’s the killer, now closed Purple Turtle in Camden through a tour that took in the venues that they played when they were starting out to a mind boggling world tour schedule sprinkled with a dash of Mercury Music Prize along the way (quick dash from Bangkok to pick it up, leg it back to Oz to continue tour).

Like she said: “When it seems as though the government doesn’t care about such things, it shouldn’t just be down to the likes of the people at the Music Venue Trust to campaign for their importance and lend a helping hand. Musicians can be perhaps one of the greatest helps of all. Last summer my band and I made a conscious decision to play in the venues where we’d first been given some of those early opportunities. Sometimes you think the world is against you when you’re making the grind in those early days of touring. It is easy to forget that just by being at these little 98

PSA: THE BIGGER PICTURE

venues, there is someone cheering you on – the venues themselves! And you know, the dinner you get made by the owner of the Kasbah Coventry or the invitation to return back to play the Guildford Boileroom despite having sold a total of zero tickets, might just have been that saving grace for you and your band.”

continue. Across Europe we have seen direct action taken, by government, the music industry and the cultural sector. We are reaching out to our own music industry, government and the cultural sector and asking them to join us and take the lead on this. Let’s stop talking about all the obstacles and start from the basics: We are asking you to sign up if you believe you should be part of the solution we need.”

The proposed solution comes in the form of a Pipeline Investment fund, something that can take shape only with the backing of the wider music industry. To that end, the MVT has issued a statement of intent, a key step in reaching consensus, it reads thus:

DRINK TO THE FUTURE (OF GMVs) One of the early MVT initiatives was, and still is, Fightback, a fund created to provide emergency assistance to GMVs facing seemingly insurmountable problems such as noise complaints, nearby redevelopment or business rate hikes. Fightback fundraisers have included a series of shows, more upcoming shows and the sale of artist-designed, limited edition t-shirts.

The next Fightback fundraiser is a Fightback Beer, the profits from which are ploughed back in to this vital support system. If lager’s your tipple, drink it if you see it; if lager is on the rider, make it Fightback Lager, the band will understand.

There’s no wonder that Venues Day is a sell out, MVT are constantly active on all fronts, having played a leading role in the successful fight to change planning laws and engaging artists and parliamentarians to keep the foundations of the live music business actually strong and actually stable is all good, but there’s still a chasm between what goes into GMVs and what comes out; not every successful band returns to sell out shows at venues that put them on when ticket sales were seriously south of break even. But they have a plan.

We, the undersigned, are committed to the concept of the creation of a Pipeline Investment Fund within the UK Music Industry. We agree that such a mechanism is vital to the sustainability of our grassroots touring network, which we consider is essential to the future health of the UK Music industry.

Funds generated by the Pipeline Investment Fund should be used to support activity in the grassroots sector of the music industry to include (but not limited to): 1) Investment into modern, sustainable sound and lighting for Grassroots Music Venues to permanently reduce venue costs and increase profitability.

2) Investment into the physical infrastructure of Grassroots Music Venues, to address issues of access, capacity, health and safety, and artist facilities.

3) Acquisition of the freehold of grassroots music venues so that they can be placed into protected ownership and permanently leased back to local communities.

4) Support for new and emerging artist touring costs through a grant application process.

5) Creation of a training and apprenticeship programme for support roles within grassroots music venues.

6) Support for central legal, licensing and planning advice related to music venues, and for campaigns to ensure that future legislation recognises the economic, cultural and social value of those venues.

The fund would be administered by the established UK registered charity Music Venue Trust. The charity will establish advisory boards from within the UK music industry to guide and oversee its investments in each of the chosen areas. The charity will provide a full, annual, public report on all income and expenditure related to the Pipeline Investment Fund.

Since its formation, the Music Venue Trust has helped GMVs rise to huge challenges; sustainable support across the board is no small undertaking, but the financial support required is tiny in comparison to the rewards felt by the wider economy. Of course, we’ll be signing up to the statement of intent, we’ll also be offering the benefit of our contacts and experience in some areas.

Look, learn and get involved: www.musicvenuetrust.com TPi www.psa.org.uk

PROPOSING THE PIPELINE What funds this R&D thing? The successes usually, perhaps, with the help of a little tax relief; if we think of our music industry as a single company, the money from the success doesn’t seem to be making its way back to the R&D department. MVT CEO, Mark Davyd outlines the need for a solution: “Music Venue Trust strongly believes that our own music industry understands that these venues are vital to the future of the health of the whole industry.

“Last week in Parliament, we heard directly from artist representatives who know this, and today at Venues Day we’ve heard repeatedly from artists demanding action to support the venues that are vital to their development. We’ve heard a lot from key stakeholders, from government through Arts Council, live music industry partners and major record labels, about how these venues need support. We’ve heard a lot about what can’t be done, and what the obstacles are, let’s move past that. These discussions, some with positive results, haven’t resulted in the decisive direct action that is needed. We have to restart this conversation from the basics, and move quickly to practical action everyone can support.

“In a thriving and expanding £4.4 billion music economy, UK Grassroots Music Venues have been closed down for the sake of £2,000 in legal fees, £10,000 of programming money, or £20,000 of infrastructure investment.

Less than 0.1% of the UK music economy invested into the grassroots would permanently end these problems.”

Beverley Whitrick, MVT’s Strategic Director continued: “We can’t let this

Technical design from concept to reality www.wonder.co.uk

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INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS

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INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS

ACT Lighting’s James Suit and Doug Mekanik; The Venuetech team; Audiologic’s Kamil Hamidou and Ayrton welcomes the Ampco Flashlight Sales team.

ACT Lighting has appointed James Suit as Northeast Regional Sales Manager. He will represent all of the brands distributed by ACT Lighting to clients in the Northeastern US, which comprises Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and the New England states. At the same time, Doug Mekanik, former Eastern Regional Sales Manager for ACT Lighting, has been named Southeast Regional Sales Manager. His territory now extends from Delaware south to Florida.

“Doug has been with the company for many years and exemplifies success at ACT Lighting,” said Ben Saltzman, President and CEO of ACT Lighting. “Like Doug, James’ technical background, his values and his skills make him a perfect fit for the ACT team, our brands and the community we serve.”

As APG’s exclusive distributor in the region, Venuetech will cover the UAE, Saudi, Oman, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt, Qatar and Bahrein. This partnership opens a new market for APG – and is in line with the company’s strategic expansion. After reinforcing its presence in France and European countries (including Spain, Denmark and Benelux), the French loudspeaker manufacturer successfully developed its brand in Asia with the opening of regional offices in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Grégory Dapsanse, APG’s Marketing & Business Development Director, explained: “The Middle East was for us the next logical step for our regional expansion, and this move further validates the strategic alliance with our sister company, Active Audio, who has been represented by Venuetech for

a number of years already. We are thrilled to welcome this amazing partner as our latest distributor.”

Audiologic has announced the appointment of Marketing Coordinator Kamil Hamidou. Recent significant expansion has seen the Harlow-based company engaged in a recruitment drive on all fronts of its business, adding personnel in its sales, technical and marketing departments.

Hamidou joins Audiologic with a Music Industry Management degree, during the pursuit of which, he acquired hands-on experience of helping to organise and run marketing campaigns for a variety of artists and events.

Hamidou also possesses a good understanding of the production side of the industry, having worked on a number of tours.

Ayrton welcomed Ampco Flashlight Sales as its latest exclusive distributor in its rapidly expanding international sales network. Based in Utrecht, Ampco Flashlight Sales will be responsible for the distribution of the entire portfolio of Ayrton products across The Netherlands, with immediate effect.

“We are happy to welcome Ampco Flashlight Sales to the Ayrton family,” said International Sales Manager for Ayrton, Jerad Garza. “Ampco Flashlight as an organisation proved to be top-notch, especially from our collaboration on Eurovision this year. The reliability and road-worthiness of Ayrton products were more than evident on the show, which was the spark of interest that led us to this point. We agree that Ayrton’s products are an excellent match for Ampco Flashlight’s sales division as well and are excited 100

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INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS

Biamp’s Sandra Kellerman; Ben Viro joins Chauvet; GLP US appoints Brian Dowd; Elation Professional’s Erich Meitzner and Green Hippo hires Juha Kiuru.

by what our further collaboration will bring.”

Biamp has hired Sandra Kellermann to support its sales channel throughout Eastern Europe and the Nordic countries. Kellermann will assume the role of regional manager responsible for driving sales of Biamp products within the region while providing channel partners and customers with system design assistance, technical support, and a regional understanding of how best to address the needs of the European market.

“Biamp is committed to growing its sales within Europe and is expanding its sales and support organisation to achieve that goal,” said Stephen Patterson, Sales Development Director, Europe and Africa, at Biamp. “The addition of Sandra to the team strengthens Biamp support in Eastern Europe and the Nordic countries and is the latest move in a longterm plan to significantly expand Biamp’s European sales organisation.

These investments demonstrate that consultants and integrators can depend on us for the solutions and technical support needed for success with all of their projects.”

Ben Virgo has joined Chauvet as European Senior Product Specialist for the company’s Chauvet Professional lighting products. A 10-year veteran of the lighting industry, Virgo brings an extensive technological background to his new position, having previously served as Head of Technology at Factory Settings, where he was tasked with integrating technology into large-scale production projects. Prior to assuming that position, he was the European Technical Manager at Enttec lighting controls.

Virgo will work out of London but will be traveling extensively throughout the EU. “I’m very excited to interact with Chauvet customers and learn from them,” he said. “Chauvet has grown tremendously by understanding and addressing the needs of customers. I look forward to being part of this process with a very supportive and talented team of people.”

Event technology specialist D2i has appointed two new directors; James Clerke rejoins the business as Operations & Delivery Director and Matthew Wilson is promoted to Sales & Marketing Director. With operations in the UK and the Middle East, the bigger board will help D2i’s expansion plans and its long-term strategy to be the leading software company in the

event industry.

Matt Blain D2i CEO commented: “Both James and Matthew joining the board of directors further strengthens an already successful team; both bring excellent skillsets to our rapidly growing event tech company.”

Elation Professional confirmed the addition of Erich Meitzner to the Elation team as the company’s new Regional Sales Representative for Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana. Meitzner, who hails from Kansas, has a broad knowledge of the lighting world and brings with him a wealth of real-world experience as a touring lighting designer/director for acts like Grouplove, Walk the Moon, Liz Phair, and Bleachers, among others.

Elation National Sales Manager, John Dunn, commented on the hiring: “As an experienced touring professional, Erich brings important on the road insight to the position and knows what it takes to deliver a designer’s vision. He also has excellent hands-on product knowledge and is already well acquainted with the Elation product line. He will fill an important role in helping support our dealer and customer network and we are excited to have him onboard as a valued member of the Elation team.”

Brian Dowd has joined GLP US in a new position as Sales Director for the company. From an early start, building his first lighting rig at age 15, Dowd has enjoyed a career encompassing positions as electrician, rigger, designer and production manager. Through a subsequent illustrious career within the sales and marketing side of the industry, most recently as Sales Director for another lighting firm, Dowd brings an extensive combination of skill and knowledge to this new position.

With 40 years of experience in the industry, Dowd will be well equipped to move into the new position smoothly. “My role at GLP in the America’s is to create growth in the marketplace. Product innovation combined with world class support and the best team you could ask for, will fuel that growth. There are some very exciting opportunities out there, and I am looking forward to them all.”

Green Hippo unveiled the appointment of Juha Kiuru as International Sales Manager. Juha, who has been working in the lighting and video sector since 2000, will represent Green Hippo throughout northern European territories, including his native Finland.

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INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS

infiLED’s Ed De Lucy; Radial Engineering’s Craig ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson; Outline’s Patrick Wong.

Radial Engineering has announced that Craig “Hutch” Hutchison has joined the company as a Senior Design Engineer. In this role, Hutch will be working with the engineering team and product management to develop the next generation of Radial Engineering products.

“Like many working professionals, Radial has been on my radar for over 20 years. I’ve always respected the products and their quality. I took special interest in the company when I heard about the Key-Largo keyboard mixer and the new leadership of Mike Belitz. The company is propelling forward and I’m excited to be working with new products that leverage the latest technology while meeting the needs of professionals.”

TSL has announced the appointment of two of its highly experienced account handlers, Dominic Sheerman and Loz Wilcox, to its board of directors. The two respected event production professionals now join TSL’s founder and Managing Director Sam Tamplin in steering both the TSL and Blinding Light operations in their future growth.

Vanguardia has moved into its new London offices, representing a significant step for the business putting the company at the heart of the UK’s creative industry and follows the opening of a similar new office in central Manchester. As part of the world-famous Ministry of Sound, the cutting-edge facilities acoustically designed by Vanguardia mean the company continue to be at the forefront of delivering a bespoke client experience in a modern working environment.

Lohan Presencer, Chaiman of Ministry of Sound said: “We’ve worked with Vanguardia for a number of years and are delighted that they’ve chosen The Ministry as their new home, they will be a vibrant addition to the creative community that we’re building here.”

TPi www.tpimagazine.com/category/industry-jobs/

Juha Kiuru said: “I am really pleased to join Green Hippo. I have always been thoroughly impressed with its range of award-winning media servers, and I look forward to helping the company continue its success all over northern Europe.” infiLED has announced the immediate appointment of Ed De Lucy as General Manager of its Sports Division. Joining from Techfront UK, De Lucy brings a wealth of industry knowledge and long-established customer relations, forged over 10 years in the LED industry. De Lucy’s new role as General Manager at infiLED will focus on launching a new arm of the business. Due to be announced in Q4, infiLED plan to revolutionise LED solutions for the sports industry.

“Ed’s unique experience and passion for sports, combined with the technical knowledge and market understanding, makes him an ideal asset for our team at infiLED,” commented Ben DaCosta, co-founder and Managing Director of infiLED. “Ed will be a crucial part of our expansion and growth and will contribute to building on our reputation as a leading provider of LED solutions.”

Patrick Wong has joined Outline as its Regional Sales Manager, APAC. This, the latest in a series of major recruitments within the company over the last few months, is a new position for Outline and has been created in response to the steadily increasing demand for their products throughout the region.

“Outline is a brand with great heritage and reputation in the industry,” Wong said. “My role will be to build upon this heritage while introducing our innovative loudspeaker systems and unique FPGA-based technologies to the APAC region. I will be heavily involved in product training and market development, engaging regularly with our current distributors, key users and commercial partners alike.”

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BACK CHAT

BRIAN J. DOWDLE ADJ Lighting, Global Marketing Director

As a Marketing Director, how do you ensure your products are known to LDs of choice?

Capturing a moment in front of a busy LD is very challenging. They have so many choices. ADJ Lighting has grown from a US-based disco light company to a global mid-market lighting brand of choice. I think the keys are being at trade shows, advertising in the right places, informative demo videos and a really good global sales team!

ADJ has just returned from the LDI Show in Las Vegas. Why is this an important platform for the brand?

LDI is one of the most important shows for ADJ each year.

All the biggest LDs, touring companies, rental houses and installers attend LDI. It’s truly an international show. We have to be at the top of our game. This last LDI was our best yet. ADJ introduced some great mid-market products that will be very useful for touring and installation professionals.

What’s been a key moment in your career so far?

It’s been a steady journey meeting so many great people, visiting places I’d never dreamed of going, launching new products and watching products develop. I also enjoy seeing our products being used across the globe.

The power of branding is incredible.

What initially sparked your interest in lighting?

As a teenager, I used to go to under 21 dance clubs... I loved the atmosphere of the people dancing and going crazy to the music, the coloured lights, strobes and fog.

When I joined ADJ, I immediately understood how important entertainment lighting was for any venue or event to provide an experience for its patrons. Lighting is definitely part of the entertainment journey.

You’re a huge music fan… can you recall your favourite concert moment?

There are so many great moments. But, actually I have two clear favourites. The first concert I ever attended was Howard Jones. After wearing out his cassettes in my walkman - knowing every word to every song - to be in the same venue live with one of your favourite artists at the time really blew my mind.

How did you find your way into the industry?

While going to university to study graphic design, I worked for the printing company that produced the ADJ catalogues. I found out the company was looking for a graphic designer and made the call. A week later, Scott Davies, who later became my boss and mentor, called me back. I was subsequently interviewed and hired. Little did I know, almost 25 years later, I’d see so many technology changes, or travel across the US and Europe to meet so many great people in our industry.

The second memory was seeing U2 on the original Joshua Tree tour at age 14, then going back 30 years later seeing the Joshua Tree 2017 tour with my wife at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles. It was a full-circle moment that brought me to tears when the organ and guitar stated playing, Where the Streets Have No Name. Good glory!

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