BAO: The Final Frontier

TECH PROFILE 21

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TECH PROFILE

When it comes to large-scale EDM events, there are few destinations in the world that do it better then Dubai. When news came through that BAO: The Final Frontier would be the largest dance music event of the year for the region, you know the organisers mean business. Produced by Envie Events and hosted at the Meydan Racecourse, the two-day extravaganza boasted a line up consisting of Afrojack, Don Diablo, NERVO, Alok, R3hab, Salvatore Ganacci Marcus Santoro, Brooks and Dante Klein.

The overarching theme of the event was a culmination of Middle Eastern and Asian cultures, all to the tune of some of electronic music’s biggest names. As Envie’s website states: “Bao pays homage to the grandeur of the past by celebrating with the musical heroes of today.” Envie Event Quote.

For the project to realise its production capabilities, Envie inducted Protec, Al Laith, Laser FX and Flash Art to make the dream a reality. Protec was called upon by Envie Events to provide full AV support for Bao: The Final Frontier. Having worked with Envie before on Sensation and Unite with Tomorrowland, Protec was delighted to continue this partnership and rise to the challenge. Mel Deighton, Protec’s Project Manager, worked closely with other

suppliers to make sure the show was delivered beyond expectation and on time. Faced with considerable challenges along the way, he credited his team on delivering under pressure. “Due to the complexity of the production, we were on-site for 11 days in order to set up, two days for the show itself, and a further two full days for load out,” stated Deighton.

“It was a challenging build which required cooperation with our staging company, Al Laith. The LED and lighting needed to be rigged intermittently and built into the structure, which took some extra time and careful planning. Unfortunately, we got unlucky with the weather as a thunderstorm hit us a few days before show, which resulted in our timeline being significantly affected. Thankfully, we had ample resources and a committed team to ensure we delivered on time, and as promised.”

Michael Clark, Al Laith’s Events Division Manager, discussed the company’s involvement with the event. “We have worked with Envie Events since its inception in the UAE and have been strong partners ever since. We were brought into the BAO project from the beginning. Our main goal was to design a structure bold enough to receive and support the complete ‘scenic set’ that was shipped in from Belgium,

yet be inconspicuous enough to allow the set to be presented in its full glory.” Al Laith’s design incorporated elements that formed part of the set, such as the six vertical steel space truss masts, which became the ship sail masts. It also supplied structures to host the heavily loaded LED and PA supply. In addition Al Laith supplied complete overlay to the event such as fencing, barriers, toilets, offices, picnic benches, VIP platforms, FOH, bars and powered access.

“Our build was approximately three weeks and we had an average of 60 crew throughout,” stated Clark. “The ultimate challenge was connecting the scenic elements to the stage structure. Primarily the Dragons head which was a clean two tonnes. A considerable amount of design and engineering went into this.” The Events Division Manager concluded stating: “This was an exciting project to be part of. We hope to see a lot more of this type of creativity being brought into music events increasing spectator experience -it was truly a spectacle!”

AUDIO Protec’s Chris McAleese operated audio at FOH and he gave us an insight into what he used to deliver sound that had both the crowd and DJs completely immersed in the moment. The FOH

audio team utilised an L-Acoustics K1 line array for the sound design which comprised 16 boxes of K1 per side, along with 30 V-DOSC (15 per side), supplemented by boxes of flown K2 under the downfill and Kara for front coverage and on stage, either side of the DJ. For the essential low-end for the high profile DJs, Protec supplied 40 SB28s.

McAleese stated: “We chose the L-Acoustics K1 and V-DOSC because of the distance we had to cover and due to the type of venue, which didn’t allow for delays. Coverage was linear throughout the venue and frequency response throughout was smooth.”

Working alongside McAleese during the show was Ed Ross, Head of Audio. He gave his thoughts on the system: “Having big hangs of K1 L-R allowed the low end to really carry into the back of the venue,” he stated.

“With Chris doing some EQ work and FIR filters in the LA-Network Manager, he was able to get an even frequency response across the whole venue, so it sounded and felt the same everywhere you went in the venue.”

McAleese continued: “We used a DiGiCo SD5 desk and Dante networking from FOH into a Focusrite Rednet to breakout the AES 3 signal for the amps on the side of the stage side.” Throughout the two-day event, McAleese handled both FOH and monitor duties bar one artist’s request to have their own engineer.

Protec also supplied the in-house DJ decks, a set up that included a DJM900 Nexus 2 and 4 x CDJ2000 Nexus 3 with a cloned set-up on site for a back-up. Also provided was a Shure UR4D+ with UR2/Beta58 handheld microphone enabling

the acts to interact with the crowd during their performance.

VIDEO As is now common-place with most large scale EDM shows, video played an integral role in the stage design for Bao. For the event, Protec deployed a Barco E2 large screen management system linked with Barco S3-4k image processor and EX Event Master Processor to provide the 3 x 4K inputs and outputs which were the split into 10 full HD outputs and distributed over fibre optic cable to 12 Barco HDF W30K projectors (6 in place for back up). There were over 300 panels of 6mm and 9mm LED tiles used with the fibre optic distribution over a Lightware 220 Pro Transmitter and Receiver.

“General content for the event was provided by Prismax with most of the headliners coming along with their own VJ,” commented Protec’s Scott Walker. Speaking of the challenges the video department faced, Protec’s Florian Hoss added: “The major challenge we faced was the building of the LED gradually into the set which unfortunately was met with delays due to the rain and high winds. This had a trickle-down effect, which led to a shortened period of time for our setup. But with excellent equipment, a strong team and an impressive amount of processing power, we delivered a large scale show we are proud of.”

LIGHTING Producing the lighting design for the production was Ronnie Santegoeds of 4Light ShowProjects.

Protec’s lighting team supplied and installed - from its extensive range of Claypaky fixtures - 20 x A.Leda K20 Washes, 7 x A.Leda K10 Washes, 32 x Prima Mythos 2, 31 x Scenius Unico and 20 x Scenius Profiles. From its Robe inventory, the selection was 88 x Robe Robin Pointes. The rig was supplemented with SGM P5 and P2 wash light fixtures, plus over 200 classic PARcan fixtures. Protec also provided the latest full size MA Lighting grandMA3 and a full size grandMA2 lighting consoles.

“I chose the Scenius Unico as it has a lot of output, a large lens, nice colour mixing and useful gobos,” explained Santegoeds. “The Mythos is a good multipurpose fixture and is useful as a wash and a beam. The Robe Pointe is the best versatile beam fixture on the market and the K20 is a nice, big LED wash with great zoom and output.” The LD went on to state how the main goals from a design angle were to illuminate the scenic elements and to highlight the dragon that resided in the centre of the stage design. “To solve this matter we used SGM P2 and P5 fixtures to illuminate the ‘house’ (roof and walls) then used the Claypaky Scenius Unicos to highlight the dragon with the Scenius Profiles with gobo projection over the set. The SGM P2 and P5 are nice LED flood lights which are suitable for outdoor use. The choice of the old school PARcans worked nicely as blinders.”

In the prep for the show, the 4Light team used Wyg R41 for the design and technical drawings along with the company’s in-house software for datasheets and stickers for fixtures, cabling, dimmers and networking. “For testing

LASERS Handling the arsenal of laser effects was Technician Oliver Yates of Laser FX. He told TPMEA: “Envie Events wanted us to provide lasers for specific artist riders, especially Martin Garrix, by making sure we used the whole physical structure. Their team specifically asked for lasers in the dragon’s eyes.”

Collectively, the rig consisted of 6 x 12w RGB lasers on the sail masts, 2 x 12w RGB lasers for the impactful dragon eyes, 6 x 24w RGYB Phaenons across the downstage edge and within the décor on both stage right and stage left. Additionally, 20 x Starbeams were placed on the entire width of the structure. Further effects comprised 4 x MDG fog machines and 4 x Pro fans at FOH and the pit.

Yates continued: “The brief for the clients was to have moments throughout the night in which the lasers in the dragons eyes - the main centre piece of their stage – were really notable. To prepare for this, I met with each DJs’ lighting designer to go through their set list and desired looks, and even made a few custom cues for Afro Jack on site.”

To control the laser effects, Yates deployed Pangolin Beyond 4.0 software - as requested by the Martin Garrix team – which was operated on Laser FX’s Pangolin controller. The Starbeams were operated by ChamSys PC wing with ASUS Laptop. He furthered: “Marin Garrix’s LD controlled the lasers via Protec’s MA Lighting

grandMA2 console which was linked into our Laser distro via his Laptop. One of the main challenges with using the lasers was working around the stage décor and Protec teams to get our lasers safely into in position,” said Yates.

For Martin Garrix’s set, the artist requested big some audience-scanning laser moments. To pull off the effects, Yates measured the leasers and kept them below the specific MPE. He added: “I thought the event was great, and the biggest EDM show I’ve worked on to date in Dubai… I hope it continues next year!”

PYROTECHNICS Also working within the special effects department was Dan Ivory, Project Manager at Flash Art. “We were first asked to supply the event’s pyrotechnics six months ago, and we began to locate the products which fit the DJs’ show riders. “ The Project Manager explained that this posed some interesting challenges, not only due to restrictions within the UAE, but venue itself poses tight limitations.

Throughout the show, Flash Art deployed a selection of 60ft and 200ft Comets and Mines alongside 60 Duration Gerbs and 100 Big Shot Jets. Ivory continued: “A lot of the looks I particularly liked were from Martin Garrix set,” said Ivory. “We were using two positions above and behind the stage, as well as either side of it. We opted not to use the front of the centre stage as the safety distance was too small for this event

so we went to the two wing stages and lifted the effects heights from 30ft up to 60ft.”

Ivory gave his final thoughts on the production: “I think it went very well and Envie Events did a great job, I was very pleased to be working with them and hope to do so again the future. I’d like to thank all 22 of my crew for doing such a good job.”

Envie’s Event Director, Tessa Sprangemeijer, echoed the sentiment: “A production the scale of BAO requires nothing but the best from all teams and suppliers,” she stated. “Therefore, we’re happy to once again have enlisted Protec who, with their extensive experience in AV Technology in the region, took this project to the next level. The difficulties faced when dealing with stage details of this magnitude, especially during the storms we had to endure, had everyone on their toes, but teamwork, dedication and in-depth knowledge ensured everyone came together and brought forward solutions for every obstacle faced. In the end, this surmounted to a show like never before seen in the region, and we’re very proud of the achievement!” Photos: Protec www.baofestival.com www.envie-events.com www.productiontec.com www.allaith.com www.laserfx.ae www.flashart.com