12 minute read
Westlife: The Twenty Tour
WESTLIFE: THE TWENTY TOUR
CELEBRATING 20 YEARS SINCE THE BAND’S RISE TO FAME, THE LATEST LIVE OFFERING FROM THE IRISH FOUR-PIECE ARRIVES AT DUBAI’S COCA-COLA ARENA. TPMEA’S PETER IANTORNO MEETS THE TEAM BEHIND THE EVENT.
Two decades since the band first burst into the charts as fresh-faced youngsters, Westlife still pack out arenas across the UK, Ireland, mainland Europe and Asia. Back together after a seven-year hiatus, the Irish four-piece embarked on a 51-show tour, beginning on 22 May at Belfast’s SSE Arena before drawing to a close on 15 September, with a massive finale at London’s Hyde Park. Comprising two European legs and an extensive Asia leg, The Twenty Tour saw the band stop off in Thailand, China, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and, on 29 August, the UAE’s Coca-Cola Arena. Prior to doors opening and the 10,000 screaming fans streaming into the arena, TPMEA caught up with Mark Ross, Project Manager at eclipse Staging Services – the company tasked with providing the kit for the event. Although
eclipse provided monitors for the Russell Peters Deported World Tour in June, this was the first time the company brought a full set-up into the Coca-Cola Arena. The Twenty Tour also marked the first major project that eclipse had collaborated with Live Nation Entertainment on. “It’s a great opportunity for us to show what we can supply,” Ross said. “It’s pretty much a sell-out tonight so it’s a big deal for us and the arena.” Live Nation’s Vice President of Middle East and South Asia, Zaed Maqbool, was in agreement at the success of the show. “W e knew that we needed to get ahead of the holiday and get ahead of the summer,” he explained to TPMEA over a coffee in the backstage area. “T hankfully, we struck the right balance in terms of pricing and we hit the sweet spot that
was able to create an almost sold-out show in the middle of the Dubai summer.” The event, which was promoted in collaboration with India-based ticketing company BookMyShow, was one of the first to take place in the Coca-Cola Arena, and Maqbool was full of praise for the venue. “A show of this scale hasn’t really been done before, right in the middle of summer,” he said, “but that’s why having an indoor arena is such a blessing, because suddenly it opens up an entire year of touring.” Coca-Cola Arena’s Director of Technical and Production, Malcolm Giles, was also happy with the take-up. “It’s the right gig at the right time of year,” he commented. “Everyone is back in Dubai after their summer holidays now and up for going out again, so I think it’s been pitched perfectly.” Gi les was in relaxed mood as the arena doors opened, confident that everything was in place
“d&b and ArrayProcessingis fantastic – it’s our weapon of choice. We have been using it since day one, and this event was no exception.” Senior Audio Engineer, Wissam Shaheen
for the show to go off without a hitch. “I’ve been working with eclipse for years,” he commented. “They are always very professional and do the job without any fuss. All I have to do really is open the doors for them, then kick them out at 6am the morning after.”
FLYING WITHOUT WINGS Sounding out the spectacle, eclipse supplied a d&b audiotechnik J-Series PA system. The main hangs comprised 12 J8s and four J12s per side, along with two hangs of eight J Subs. A total of 16 d&b V8s and eight V12s were purposed as
outfills to cover the raised seating along the sides of the arena. The floor package was made of up six J-Infra Subs along with eight Y8s for front fills. All this was processed by 10 D80 amplifiers. After walking TPMEA through the PA specs, Ross introduced eclipse’s Senior Audio Engineer, Wissam Shaheen, who was busy making some last-minute tweaks using d&b’s ArrayProcessing. “W e use this to modify the system to fit the venue. There are all sorts of acoustic challenges in arenas, with sound bouncing off every surface, and what we are trying to do is minimise that,” he explained, opening his laptop to reveal a
graphic showing a representation of the arena with different colours, representing varying levels of audio coverage. “The most important thing for us is to keep a unified coverage for all the listeners, so everybody in the arena gets the same experience of the show.” For Shaheen, ArrayProcessing was “the star of the show”. He commented: “d&b and ArrayProcessing is fantastic – it’s our weapon of choice. We have been using it since day one, and this event was no exception.” With the acoustical challenges that arenas present, Shaheen said that AP allowed him to “minimise the reverberant
Top left: eclipse Staging Services’ Head of Rigging, Andreas Ehrenberger; Above left: Head of Video, Richard Bearpark; Top right: Project Manager, Mark Ross and Senior Audio Engineer, Wissam Shaheen; Above right: Senior Lighting Technician, Sam Connolly.
field’s ‘counter attack’ and focus the sonic energy where it was wanted” – and that was all done stealthily “without affecting the overall tonal balance”. Precise measurements were taken across the venue and the results were as “astounding as ever”. He furthered: “Obviously, there is no perfect solution – it’s physics. What this technology helps us to do is minimise any issues and give us a clear picture of exactly what we are going to do before we have even arrived at the site.” Fo r control, Shaheen specified a DiGiCo SD7 console, while in monitors, a DiGiCo SD12 was the mixing console of choice, sounded out by Meyer Sound MJF-212A wedges. Commenting on the importance of preparedness, Ross chimed in: “Everything is
prepped in the warehouse, so we are as close as possible to plug and play when we arrive on site – all we should be doing when we’re setting up is optimising. The only thing that doesn’t get built in the warehouse is the speaker systems.” In terms of the amps, all of them were located backstage. “Everything is done over ethernet, so all the information is sent straight through to the amps, and each amp knows what it should be doing depending on which part of the building it is being used for,” Ross commented. “It’s a really clever system.” Shaheen continued the conversation: “All that means is that you’re at a good starting point where you can start measuring and tuning the room and doing a few tweaks here and there. Then the touring crew comes in, has a listen to
what we’ve set up and it’s all theirs to handle from then on.” Shaheen had nothing but praise for the touring crew. “It’s been amazing working with them,” he enthused. “FOH Engineer, Chris Pine and Monitor Engineer, Becky Pell are great people. They are very experienced and comfortable working in any kind of stadium or arena, so they know what to expect.”
I’LL SEE YOU AGAIN The truss lighting comprised eight Lycian followspots (four on the front and four on the back), 48 Robe Robin VMFL Blades and 32 Claypaky Stormys, while on the floor, 16 Claypaky Mythos 2s and 10 Martin by Harman MAC Auras were used. Two 9m towers either
side of the stage were lit with 32 Chauvet Professional COLORado Batten 144s with 20 Claypaky Mythos 2s fixed at intervals in between. “These fixtures were specified by the tour,” opened eclipse’s Senior Lighting Technician, Sam Connolly. “We had to make a few alterations to what the tour would usually use to fit into the venue, but we’ve been very careful to keep almost exactly the same look and feel to the show as when it goes anywhere else.” For Control, eclipse supplied two MA Lighting grandMAs utilising Luminex GigaCore 16RFO
switches. “It was a relatively easy install,” Connolly told TPMEA, also in a relaxed mood backstage as the arena started to fill up with expectant punters. “We had everything in within two days, and we will be out within six hours.” Connolly went on to talk TPMEA through his favourite, albeit the most challenging, part of the install. “The towers were the most difficult thing to do,” he said, pointing towards the two 9m pillars either side of the stage. “It was vital that all of the measurements were correct and aligned with the truss beams.
They are pixel-mapped in blocks of three so the FOH can change colours and other stuff. A lot of Bitmap FX is used on this. While the rest of the set-up is fairly standard, the towers are something a bit more unusual and definitely worth the extra effort when you look at them.” Connolly was also keen to point out the Robe BMFL Blades: “They are the newest addition to eclipse, so we are excited to show those off and show how great they can look,” he added. For video, a pair of IMAG screens displayed either side of the stage were supplied in-house,
while eclipse provided a large 4.8mm LED screen. At 17m by 8.5m, the screen was an impressive point of focus, providing the main storytelling elements of the show, displaying a mixture of old images and videos of the band from its heyday, as well as creative visuals for each song. “It’s the largest screen that eclipse has ever supplied for an event. It works up to 4k and it’s absolutely beautiful,” commented Ross. Richard Bearpark, Head of Video at eclipse, joined the conversation: “We only got the screen about six months ago and it’s brilliant,” he said. “It is 3,536 pixels by 1,768. We’ve run it off an analogue wear sender fed by four processors, then we have another four processors as a
backup.” Bearpark went on to explain how the visuals work for this particular show. “All our video processing is at the back,” he said. “Best Broadcast Hire does all the camera work for us; they send the images for the IMAG screens and any images that need to be mixed into the main screen.” All of the visuals were provided by the touring company; they then run via fibre back to video world. “Basically, we work as the main processing unit and mix to either the side screens or main screen,” Bearpark commented. Reflecting on his experience working with the touring crew, Bearpark had nothing but praise. “It’s been great working with them again,”
he continued. “We just get the signal on screen, stitch it together to make one big image. We’re always on standby should anything go wrong.”
YOU RAISE ME UP Unusual Rigging’s Alex Taylor explained the brief to TPMEA as Senior Project Manager of the in-house rigging team. “The brief from the client was to install a total of 68 rigging points,” Taylor began. “We needed 12 for PA, 12 for video, 34 for lighting and 10 for drape truss.” A total of 68 motors were hung, ranging from a quarter to two tonnes. “Due to the versatility of the Coca-Cola Arena roof rigging beams, you can put a rigging point more or less anywhere
for each different show,” Taylor said. “We ended up installing 25 dead hangs and 43 bridles, with most of the bridles installed under the catwalks.” From Taylor’s point of view, the main challenge for the event was making sure that all of the video points were in line with one another. “This is done by putting some of the bridles on a slight angle to one another in the roof, but at the same time keeping the motor in its correct position.” He also pinpointed the need to ensure that PA points were in the correct position to avoid delays when hanging the PA. Taylor worked alongside eclipse’s Head of Rigging, Andreas Ehrenberger. Chatting to TPMEA after the four spotlight operators had been winched into position above the stage, he highlighted the importance of health and safety. “These people are sitting up there isolated from
regular evacuation routes, so if something was to happen and the venue needed to be evacuated, we need to be able to get them down to the ground as quickly and safely as possible without involving a lot of people to do so,” he said. “We found that the most effective method of doing this was to install a simple abseil rope on a quick-release system. This means that the operators can drop a rope within seconds, clip in a rescue set and abseil down the truss and be on the floor within seconds.” In fact, eclipse utilised three different methods to ensure the safety of the spotlight operators. “There’s a quick-release system that comes off on a pully, there’s an abseiling system that’s on old-school rope, and there’s a chain and hoist system that brings them up and down,” commented Ehrenberger. Ross joined
the conversation: “It’s the first time that we have had an opportunity to use all three of these systems together at the same time,” he added. On the whole, Ehrenberger was delighted to work at the Coca-Cola Arena. “It is fantastic,” he said enthusiastically. “It can handle pretty much any type of event that you throw at it. The roof is capable of handling 190 tonnes of loading capacity, which is more than enough for any calibre of show. Everything is done from a raised catwalk at chest height so there’s no need for any climbing around and no areas are difficult to access.” He also praised the trim height of the “brilliant” venue. “The beams are 26m, which gives us the opportunity to fly PA well out of the way of any visual content, so the video guys are happy and the audio team is happy, too, as they
have enough height to be able to fire sound downwards over the crowd.”
SWEAR IT AGAIN With the band bringing out slick performances of all its biggest hits on the night, including Swear It Again, My Love and You Raise Me Up, and even performing an unexpected Queen medley including I Want To Break Free, Radio Ga Ga and We Are The Champions, the throngs of adoring fans remained enraptured throughout the set. And by the time the four-piece remerged for an encore of Flying Without Wings and World Of Our Own, the crowd reaction left little doubt that the show had been an overwhelming success. Photos: eclipse Staging Services & TPMEA www.eclipse.ae www.unusualrigging.com www.livenation.me www.coca-cola-arena.com
