TRNSMT Festival

PRODUCTION PROFILE

TRNSMT FESTIVAL

The TRNSMT takeover of Glasgow Green saw DF Concerts produce 5 days of inner-city festival action over 2 weekends. With serious pedigree in festivals and other largescale music events in Scotland, the promoter has transferred from the rurality of what was T in the Park’s longest running location in Perthshire, to Glasgow’s oldest and most central park.

Weekend number 1 had 3 consecutive days of shows, with headline slots from Stereophonics, Liam Gallagher and Arctic Monkeys. The second weekend saw Queen + Adam Lambert headline on the Friday and The Killers on the Sunday, with no show on the Saturday. This programming mix would require vision and adaptability on the production front, particularly in light of the fact that Queen + Adam Lambert agreed to a very rare festival appearance on the basis that they would have a near replication of their arena tour production.

Adlib supplied sound, lighting and crew for the main stage, and subcontracted in UK Rigging, while Creative Technology handled the video elements, Serious Stages looked after all of the staging requirements and Mojo Barriers provided the crowd control infrastructure. Sound for the King Tut’s Stage was supplied by FE Audio and lighting by Nitesky. Buffalo Power ensured the whole site - including bars, concessions and all the production - had reliable power throughout.

DF Concerts’ James Walker was the festival’s Production Manager. As he planned for this year’s event, there were a number of considerations that helped to inform his decision-making. The nature of the programming meant that the production set-up would need to be as universal and as adaptable as possible.

“When we’re booking the artists, it’s generally on the basis that the festival production provided will be utilised by most performers,” stated Walker. “We try to put something in that will meet most people’s needs. All of the headliners have wanted to do different things that have required additional production modifications, which we’ve been able to accommodate.

“We’ve got a very meticulous building control system in Glasgow, which can make life very difficult if the plots aren’t together, out in advance and signed off - both from a staging point of view and in terms of what’s going in the roof. Both UK Rigging and Adlib have been great in getting everything done in plenty of time so it could be signed off. We’ve not had any surprises on the day, so credit to the artist teams for having their plans together and giving us what we need in good time.”

Discussing the decision to work with Adlib for the second consecutive year of the event, Walker added: “Adlib have obviously got a big base in Scotland now and they’re able to do what we need for audio and lighting. It went out to tender and they came up with the best offer. The kit they carry is great and it is essentially local - a company with a Scottish base. They’re great guys to work with.”

The company supplied an L-Acoustics PA system, featuring V-DOSC, KARA, K1, K2, ARCS II and KS28 subs - powered by LA12X amps - with K2 delays powered by LA8 amps. Side fills were ARCS with SB28 subs, while wedges were MP5 and dv-Sub.

Adlib’s Graham Cochrane - Stage Manager for the main stage -

explained: “Last year we did an audio design and then reviewed it after looking at the Vanguardia report. We made some changes to the system, altering subs to cardioid arrangement so not as much bass goes out the back and we changed the speaker system on the delays so that it didn’t throw quite as far.”

Adlib’s Sam Proctor added: “We spent quite a lot of time with Vanguardia during noise propagation, testing what each part of the system contributes to offsite noise. That means we know that during the headline act when we’re getting up to a decent level of SPL, if there are any offsite complaints or you’re getting close to the limit, we know which part of the system contributes the most to this. This means we can tweak part of the system rather than alter it for everyone by bringing everything down.”

There were 2 DiGiCo SD12 consoles at FOH and 2 SD10’s onstage for monitors. Adlib’s Andy Russell explained: “We’re running an AB system, so people can get on the consoles and we switch that over at stage end. We’re running a live system onstage and a backstage system, so bands can line check backstage and when they roll on they can go to the live system – it’s all proved and patched, so it’s seamless.”

Adlib also supplied a package of tour-proven lighting fixtures across 3 - front, middle and back - trusses. Each one featured a combination of Claypaky Mythos, Stormy CC, Martin by Harman MAC Viper Profile and Wash, Showtec 4 Lite and 8 Lite Molefay and Par 64 6-way bars. The truss arrangements were complemented by a floor contingent of Claypaky Mythos, Claypaky Stormy CC and Martin by Harman MAC Quantum Wash, plus Robert Juliat Lancelot 4k followspots, and special effects from Martin by Harman JEM ZR44 and Reel FX DF-50. Lighting control was handled by a High End Systems Full Boar 4 and an MA Lighting grandMA2 Light.

Adlib’s Chris Neary commented: “Designing the lighting for TRNSMT was very much a two-step process. At the outset we designed a house festival system which was intended for use across every day of the event. As headliners were confirmed, we then started designing a custom rig for each day of the festival. The individual rigs for each day were based on the original festival design with various changes and additions made to suit any artist requests or feedback from their LDs.

“The choice of fixtures was a no brainer for us. The Vipers and the Mythos 2 are our workhorses for shows of this size. We find them to be incredibly reliable, with plenty of a punch to compete against the daylight for opening acts. At FOH we were running grandMA2’s - which we see as a must have at festivals these days - with a WYSIWYG suite available for any visiting LD’s needing to do pre-programming whilst the festival was live.“

The Lighting Crew Chief was Jon Barlow, FOH was looked after by Tom Webber and stage end was run by Charlie Rushton with Ash Dawson, Peter Lea, Chris Little and Jim Johnson.

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TRNSMT FESTIVAL

Stage Manager, Adlib’s Graham Cochrane with Production Manager, James Walker of DF Concerts; The Adlib crew: Alan Harrison, Andy Russell and Sam Proctor ; Creative Technology’s Senior Project Manager, Rob Day.

Neary continued: “Part of our remit at TRNSMT was also to oversee all the production rigging, this included the house audio, lighting and video systems as well as any touring extras that came through the festival. To achieve this we had Jimmy Johnson on site as our head of rigging. Jimmy had a comprehensive rigging plot for each day of the festival and worked with a team of local riggers to accommodate any changeovers or additions that were needed across the show days.”

Creative Technology flew 2, 7m x 4m Lighthouse R7 IMAG screens stage left and right and installed a Grass Valley Kayak based PPU in its backstage cabin for the purposes of mixing between BBC feeds, changeover advertising content, the FOH camera with long box lens feed or a mix from any acts that wanted direct control of the screens. The company also supplied a Playback Pro System for content (from Screen Activation) playback and liaised with the BBC for the management of feeds to and from the stage for the acts that needed it.

Creative Technology’s Senior Project Manager, Rob Day, explained: “Our festival FOH camera was provided to numerous bands for input into their media servers and everyone seemed pleased with being able to have access to this additional manned camera from us that was part of our package supplied to DF.”

The AV specialist also provided bands with access to its Clear-Comm Freespeak wireless comms system, which alleviated the need for patching of tallies and comms between touring video systems and Creative

Technology’s. “This worked a treat,” enthused Day. The company is also providing fibre distribution from FOH to its cabin for bands that require signals in different places on stage, mainly using Blackmagic Design Open Gear Frames and Hicon Fibre lines to achieve this.

On top of this, there were individual requests, such as a Marshall CV365- CGB MiniCam package for the Arctic Monkeys and a 15.5m x 8m Glux 10mm upstage screen for The Killers, which was also used by the Friendly Fires and Franz Ferdinand.

For the King Tut’s Stage, FE Audio supplied a d&b audiotechnik V Series PA system, d&b monitors, d&b D80 amplification, a Midas Pro 2 digital console at FOH and a Yamaha CL5 monitor desk. Nitesky’s setup included Claypaky, Robe and Lanta lighting fixtures with ChamSys control, Look Solutions Unique hazers, plus a Video Illusions wall utilising Novastar processing. Photos: Ryan Johnston, Euan Robertson, Ryan Buchanan and Brendan Waters www.trnsmtfest.com www.adlib.co.uk www.ukrigging.net www.ct-group.com www.stages.co.uk www.mojobarriers.com www.fe.live.com

AirX proudly announces

Queen + Adam Lambert

as first music ambassadors

For Private Jet bookings contact music@airx.aero www.airx.aero +4473 8838 2494

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