PSN Live 2016 Digital

2016 BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE MAKERS OF PSNEUROPE www.psneurope.com

VOLUME 11

Jess the ticket... The PSNEurope annual report for the live sound business is back!

P24

P28

P40

LIVE HERE NOW

EXTREEEEME!

PIER PRESSURE

JUST HOW IS THE TOURING/ FESTIVAL MARKET IN 2016?

THE DEEPEST, THE HIGHEST, THE COLDEST GIGS… EVER!

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01 PSNLive August 2016 FIN.indd 1

21/07/2016 22:22

Tomorrowland Festival - Boom, Belgium

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Pollstar Top 20 Worldwide Festival grosses 2014

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05/07/2016 09:51:38

2016

03

Views from the top P6 The FOH engineer

P8 The festival programmer P10 The classical engineers P11 The synth guru P12 The innovator P14 The sound designer

is brought to you by the makers of PSNEurope

P24 Touring/festival industry Are there challenging times ahead for the market?

P28 Extreme gigs Musicians playing deeper, higher and colder...

P32

P16 The noise expert

Rental agnostics Capital Sound have shifted up a gear... by buying lots and lots of gear

P18 The security chief

P36

P20 The ight case maker

03 Contents PSNLIVE FIN.indd 1

2016

P7 The production manager

Loudspeakers and R&D A round-up of some of the big launches

P40

P21 The monitor engineer

Seaside attraction The music is back on the coast with the return of a reďŹ tted Hastings Pier

P22 The festival publicist

P42

P23 The PR expert

Fancy festivals For those ready to splash some cash

21/07/2016 22:24

2016

04

H

ello and welcome to PSNLive 2016, our annual reading of the live sound industry’s barometer.

What’s the pressure like this time around, huh?

We’ve taken the same tack as last year, because, well, it was fun talking to a wealth of different names. So then, no big survey, no graphs and charts. I’m very fond of this potted Q&A format to start the issue with, and although the words “passion for the industry” gets over-used, if you ask the right questions, you get some interesting answers alongside the more obvious ones. (Very pleased to hear back last minute from Keith Sykes of 5 Star Cases this time around, thanks Keith!)

You’ll see we haven’t named the writers for these Q&As, but they’re all there in the side bar on the right. You’ll just have to guess who wrote what…

This is not a promise (so don’t quote me, as I’m so often told when I meet pro-audio bods!) but I think a return to the survey approach might be appropriate next year, when there has been a greater roll-out of networking technology, more of the emerging loudspeaker technology (discussed

on p36) is appearing on riders, and the fuller economic and logistical effects of the Brexit vote have made an impact.

What of David Davies’ overview of the touring/festival market for 2016 though (p24)?

The resurgence in the levels of interest in live performance over the last ten years has been a truly heartening development – and a very necessary one for a music industry battered by decimated revenues from recorded output (thank you so much, streaming). But whilst mid-to-high level touring is still doing robust business, there are signs of stress in some areas of the festival market, with too many events competing for music lovers’ attention. Now with the uncertainty of Brexit and a spike in the number of terrorist incidents threatening to affect demand, David ponders the road ahead.

A few bits of housekeeping: thanks to James Cumpsty for the superb cover shot (Jess Glynne performing with Capital Sound in Gloucester – see p32). And that’s Rick Pope mixing Jamiroquai on p3, a pic by Mark Cunningham from 2007: see Kevin Hilton’s fantastic story on Extreme Gigging, starting on p28 for more on that. Not quite so extreme, Kevin pops along to the revamped Hastings Pier on p40.

And finally, I asked our old mate and ex-staffer Jon Chapple to come up with something special for the back page – and he did it in spades. Though, one of the luxury packages is fake. Can you spot it…? Cheers and enjoy the rest of the summer!

Dave Robinson, Editor

2016

Editor Dave Robinson drobinson@nbmedia.com

Advertising manager Ryan O’Donnell rodonnell@nbmedia.com

Deputy Editor Sarah Sharples ssharples@nbmedia.com

Account manager Rian Zoll-Khan rzoll-khan@nbmedia.com

Group managing editor Jo Ruddock jruddock@nbmedia.com

Head of design Jat Garcha jgarcha@nbmedia.com

Content director James McKeown jmckeown@nbmedia.com

Production executive Jason Dowie jdowie@nbmedia.com

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04 Editorial PSNLIVEl v1SS.indd 1

Our contributors and their fantasy gig line-up…

David Davies A one-day festival of classic album performances by the habitually stageshy sounds pretty good to me. Visitors to the electronica tent would be wowed

by Boards of Canada’s recreation of their magnum opus, Music Has the Right to Children, whilst Brian Eno’s performance of Ambient 4: On Land would become the stuff of legend. What remains of Can would be on hand to deliver a turbulent Tago Mago, before the reunited Talk Talk bring the main stage proceedings to a close with a shimmering Spirit of Eden...

Simon Duff “The New Forest”, a festival in Hampshire, England, held at a secret lakeside location (phone for details). Top of the bill: ‘Rain Trees Crowing’, improv supergroup featuring: Dawn Upshaw and Ian Curtis, vocals; Steve Jansen, drums; Mick Karn, bass; Robin Guthrie, Hans Zimmer, Tom Rowlands, textures. FOH mix by Jim Warren, system tech

by Dr Christian Heil. Other acts confirmed: Kraftwerk, Sir John Tavener, Grimes, The Cocteau Twins, Burial, The Durutti Column.

Kevin Hilton The perfect gig would need several guarantees even before getting to the music. A great atmosphere without crushes of people; unencumbered access to a bar serving chilled ale in glasses; and a mix balancing the spirit of the studio original and the excitement of live interaction. With that, a bill of Robert Johnson, late ’60s Beatles, Meddle-era Pink Floyd, Otis Redding with Booker T and the MGs, Radiohead and John Carpenter would approach perfection.

John Dexter Jones It’s an August evening in Conwy Castle.

The setting sun casts its dying rays through West Gate; stilt-walkers and fireeaters teeter above on the ramparts and 750 lucky punters wend their way up the ramp into the keep. Steeleye Span open proceedings and give way to an acoustic set from Kris Kristofferson. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss next: T.Bone Burnett bounces off the walls. The headline?

My band, JUMP, obviously!

Guillaume Schouker When I touch the recall button, I Hold The Line with Toto, remembering that very special night of 26 March, 2007 at Zénith de Paris where I first met Bobby Kimball backstage. Simply The Best, Tina Turner performing on that magical evening in March 2009 with Dave Natale engineering. Then, Rêver by Mylène Farmer at Stade de France in 2009, featuring pianist Yvan Cassar and sound engineer Stéphane Plisson.

Unconnected now with solid ground, I can dream of my perfect gig…

Phil Ward I would happily erect a marquee in our back garden and order six acoustic guitars from FX Rentals and a Bose L1 system.

Then the invitations would go out to Andy Partridge, Roddy Frame, Neil Finn, Boo Hewerdine (who lives just down the road, actually), Jake Thackray and John Lennon to pop round for a tankard of Doombar, a plate of hummus and a case of Chateauneuf du Pape. An open mic evening to end all open mic evenings… In fact, make that seven acoustic guitars. + Also contributing: Marc Maes, Mike Clark, Jon Chapple

22/07/2016 12:34

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22/07/2016 09:31:46

2016

P6

Views from the top

“I’d like more hours in the day please...and every venue MUST have decent Wifi...”

Who are you and what do you do?

What is ‘the’ perennial problem you face?

Alastair Lindsay — I work in the live audio industry mainly as a FOH engineer and system designer. I’m also the owner of ARL Sound in Beverley, Yorkshire.

There are two. Time: I’d like more hours in the day, please... and personnel. Sometimes it’s hard to find people with the right attitude for the industry. The hours are very long and it isn’t glamorous as some people are maybe led to believe.

It can be a very rewarding job, but can also be stressful and more demanding than newcomers sometimes expect.

Where do you do it?

Local, national and international: wherever my work takes me. I’m currently working on The David Gest tribute review in the UK with Dina Carroll and Peabo Bryson amongst others, having just come off Fish’s Return to Childhood European Tour. Plenty of variety!

Why do you do it?

I’ve always had a passion for live music from a young age and I first got the taste for it when I picked up the guitar at seven years old. My parents allowed me to go to music school in Hull and it was there that my interest in live music production begun. I love my job, pure and simple.

What makes life hard for a FOH engineer?

Plenty! A good example would be microphone technique, as there are some seriously interesting ones out there (without mentioning any names). I’ve worked with some tremendous vocalists over the years with stunning results but then there’s always the one that thinks they can sing with their mic at the knees. You’re sitting there tearing your hair out, thinking of nice ways to explain how things might work better for them!

What makes (or would make) life easier?

What is your greatest achievement to date?

I don’t think I could isolate a particular achievement. Being a successful engineer is all about consistently delivering the goods and maintaining high standards whatever the challenges, so whilst I’ve experienced a few horrors (like all of us) I think that the greatest achievement is to be in regular demand. Watching an audience leaving the venue smiling and in good spirits is what it’s all about – knowing that you play a key role in making that happen. Getting compliments from punters about the sound after a show is always satisfying as well...

What do you consider to be the biggest challenge coming up?

Brexit! I know that might sound a bit tongue in cheek but I do think there may be some effects on the touring sector. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if there are any casualties

6 Alastair Lindsay PSNLIVE FIN.indd 1

Well the obvious one would be good planning, especially if you’ re going on tour. Getting decent specs and proper venue technical details is a high priority, otherwise you really are walking into the unknown. The different characteristics of venues old and new present a vast range of acoustic propositions – challenges are mitigated by being forearmed with good information. Good loading access is a must as well, it seems that some architects seem to bypass that little detail! The most frustrating issue of all is Wifi, every venue MUST have decent Wifi. It drives me mad when you need to send emails or files and you can’t get a signal on your mobile or tablet because the Wifi is rubbish or non-existent.

Has the live scene changed a lot during your time?

Yes indeed it has. There are so many more festivals these days, especially in the UK. It seems that from April to

September most engineers are stuck in fields knee deep in mud somewhere. That’s when I envy the studio boys, sat behind their nice console, warm and drinking posh coffee.

Technology is moving so fast these days especially with digital consoles. It wasn’t so long ago that you had racks and racks of kit and a large console that took four to six guys to lift. Now you could literally put the lid on and walk out with it under your arm, job done. It certainly makes life a lot easier and helps with transportation and speeds up the load-in and soundcheck process.

How do you keep abreast of technical developments?

I do try and attend trade shows if I can but since I’m out there in thick of it I don’t get to as many as I’d like.

Obviously the industry press is important as well.

I’m in the happy position of being approached by manufacturers or distributors asking me to try out and demo new products, so that keeps me in touch and of course I meet all manner of technical folks out in the field, so there’s always plenty of opinion out there!

How do you assess the prospects for new engineers coming into the live sound arena?

That’s an interesting one. I often have this chat with my daughter as she is keen to study music technology and get involved with the industry as a career. If a young newcomer is prepared to work his or her way up from the bottom and really put the hours in to learn their craft, the rewards are there. I’ve seen some young engineers who expect to able to jump straight onto a console with very limited experience and it certainly doesn’t work like that. There are sacrifices to be made as well, particularly in respect of your personal life but if you’re prepared to listen and learn (and keep learning) and keep up with the latest technology, there’s a fantastic career to be had. www.arlsound.co.uk

21/07/2016 22:25

2016

Views from the top

P7

Def Leppard’s long standing production manager talks about his life at the helm of one of rock music’s most successful acts Who are you and what do you do?

Phay Mac Mahon — I began my career in the music business in Dublin in the 1970s driving trucks and doing lighting for The Boomtown Rats until 1980. I then made a move to the Def Leppard camp as lighting designer working with Jake Berry, and have been with the band since. I work primarily in the USA as many of the acts I work with have LA-based management companies. That said, I have toured all over the world many times. I have been doing it for 40 years and I love the business. I took a break in the mid ’90s and did a lot of corporate work, but eventually the industry enticed me back in.

What PA and consoles are Def Leppard currently deploying for their 2016 USA and European run?

We are using an L-Acoustics V-DOSC system in the USA and Canada, and a d&b audiotechnik J Series system in the UK and Europe. Ronan McHugh is the band’s studio engineer and produced their last album, but also mixes FOH for them. He uses a DiGiGo SD5 for FOH. Ted Bible looks after monitors and he also uses a DiGiCo SD5. Audio in the USA and Canada is supplied

by Sound Image and they have done so for over 16 years; in Europe, it’s Skan that take care of things.

Ronan specs the equipment and the companies Def Leppard use are his choice. He has a great relationship with both suppliers and the support they both give is excellent.

How do you evaluate such PA systems and how can the standard still improve?

For me its all about what the engineer wants and is comfortable with. After that its down to what the hire cost is and how much truck space it takes up, as well

7 Production manager PSNLIVE FIN.indd 1

as the weight as it has to hang in every venue.

Something may sound great but the logistics of carrying it and putting it into buildings each day could be cost prohibitive.

The L-Acoustics K1 and K2 system are usually the one almost every engineer speaks about and requests.

Spandau Ballet, who I was PM for last year on their world run, used a K1 system supplied by SSE, and it was excellent.

Robbie McGrath mixed FOH on that tour and he flew the PA way upstage vertically in line with the drum riser, which was behind the band, so it allowed way more seats to be sold at the sides of the stage, therefore generating a lot of extra revenue in ticket sales for the band. Robbie would time-align the system each day so the band could perform in front of the PA, plus sell more tickets , and it was a great result.

Pentatonix are a younger act I look after, and they have just been out in Europe using a K2 system also supplied by SSE. The venues were mid-sized, as in the Zénith in Paris and Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam. The K2 worked perfectly for this size of venue. SSE can take a bow for an excellent job on both of these tours.

Another tour I take care of is (US singer/songwriter) Maxwell and his FOH engineer Wayne Trevisani has specified the new Clair Global CO-12 for the tour this year. I have heard it a few times on Paul McCartney as well as U2, and it is great. So many acts have moved over to it: Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, U2, Guns N’Roses and many more are touring with it.

What are the main differences between the USA and Europe when it comes to logistics… and fines?

The system is very compact and lightweight. A typical arena system of CO-12 takes approximately 30 feet of truck space. Most other arena size touring systems, take just over one truck. This makes it very appealing to artists, management and production for budget reasons.

Engines cut out at 35,000 feet on a charter aircraft, due to what they called a ‘surge’.

The Captain had to put the plane into a dive to restart it, as we sat wearing oxygen masks! Fresh underwear was required all round! www.defleppard.com

Most arenas in the USA have loading docks unlike the UK and Europe, and that makes life a lot easier. In general it is easier in the USA for both stadiums and arenas. However, in saying, that Europe is coming along with the newer venues.

Fines are very much in place, or even cutting the power if you go beyond the curfew. It happened a few years ago with Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney in Hyde Park where they cut the power.

The Hollywood Bowl will cut the power if you go past 11pm and there is absolutely no leeway.

Other venues across the USA will charge you $10,000 for going over the curfew, and then $1,000 per minute you keep playing on top of that.

What is the issue that never seems to go away when touring?

Bad routing. Tours are so often planned without consulting the people that have to make them happen.

After the Bataclan attacks and political instability in certain regions, have you seen a rise in security at venues?

Yes. Audiences are slower coming in due to the checks now in place and we see ‘bomb dogs’ now at a lot of venues prior to doors opening.

Your scariest moment ever on tour?

21/07/2016 22:25

2016

P8

Views from the top

August will see the 14th edition of the three-day FiestaCity festival. Last year’s edition attracted an audience of 70,000 people to Verviers in Belgium Who are you and what do you do?

Francis Geron – I select the bands that play at the ‘Spirit of 66’ club in Verviers. The club opened in 1995 and rapidly became a popular venue for live concerts by local bands from the Liège area. Today, we stage up to 20 shows per month. We’re the only venue inviting bands like Camel, Pavlov’s Dog, Uriah Heep and guitarists like Robin Trower or Pat Travers – bands from the past, but with extremely loyal and motivated fans, willing to travel from anywhere in Belgium, Germany and France. I also take on the organisation, programming and technical side of FiestaCity.

How did you get started in the business?

I started playing music in the early ’60s. As a bass player I toured with Pierre Rapsat until 1979. In 1995, I helped my son Ronald to rebuild an old cinema in the centre of Verviers, which then became the Spirit of 66.

Where do you do it?

FiestaCity is staged in the very centre of Verviers – alongside the main stage on the Place des Martyrs, and a stage at “Spirit of 66”, we set up two other stages.

How did you get involved with FiestaCity?

I was asked by the city of Verviers to set up the festival and take care of the practical side of the three-day free festival. FiestaCity is now staged in the very centre of Verviers.

Why do you do it?

I work as a volunteer: it’s the challenge and the cosiness, as well as being together with a great team that are the reward.

What’s been your biggest success to date ?

We’ve had many headliners over the years, but the

8 Francis geron PSNLIVE v1FIN.indd 1

festival really attracted a massive crowd in 2011 when we had Supertramp’s Rodger Hodgson, 10cc, (Belgian pop band) Puggy and Uriah Heep playing. By then, FiestaCity had become a household date on the festival calendar, attracting several tens of thousands of visitors. But in 2011, we had to take extra security measures near the main stage.

Since then, the festival has kept growing and today, I feel like we are near the maximum capacity of the available public space. The fact that we don’t have ‘edgy’ bands on the stage and that the programme appeals to a very broad audience, with artists from Axelle Red to The Stranglers, adds up to our popularity.

What is the issue that never seems to go away — the biggest challenge?

The festival takes place under the umbrella of the nonprofit organisation Verviers Music Festivals. We get an annual subsidy from the city of Verviers and the Liège province, adding up to a festival budget of 250,000 euros. That pretty much covers the production cost and the artist budgets – but the challenge we face annually is the quest for financial resources allowing to continue organising the festival. And, of course the (Belgian) weather – people seem to hide in bars and café’s when it’s raining – the first dry stretch makes the squares fill up with crowds again.

Are there any implications in being a publicly financed festival?

In terms of logistics, we are committed to carry out a thorough market survey every year: a minimum of three entries from three different suppliers for elements such as stage, rigging, audio and lighting. We have been working with audio rental company Arto since day one. (For the main stage, Arto provides a

system consisting of Nexo STM M28-B112-S118 with a Midas H2000 console on FOH and Nexo PS15 and a Yamaha PM5DRH on monitors.)

Not only do they have the best equipment available on the market – they also manage to enter the best tender for the festival. They cater for the main stage – the two other street stages are amplified by Euromusique and Art Scenic.

What are the consequences of staging an open air festival in the middle of a city?

In terms of noise hindrance, I’m happy to say we’re not having any problems at all. We don’t have techno or heavy bass on stage… you cannot accuse artists such as Rodger Hodgson or (French singer) Pierre Perret of excessive decibels. And we’re pretty much relying on ‘autocontrol’: if the music’s too loud I turn it down, it’s as simple as that. We also make sure that the last concerts are finished at 1am.

How can a city festival play a role in building a positive image?

FiestaCity is undoubtedly a key element in Verviers’s image as a city. Everybody’s happy when the festival is on: the audience, the bands… we don’t have financial issues. After we had the terrorist attacks in January last year, I’m convinced that FiestaCity gave a positive boost to Verviers. I’m well aware that you cannot compare FiestaCity to festivals like Rock Werchter or Pukkelpop, but we have built a strong brand image. Verviers is not a wealthy city but we bring international headliners to a free concert, positively focusing on the city. + This year’s FiestaCity festival takes place from August 26-28, with artists including Hooverphonic, Canned Heat, Rory Gallagher’s Band of Friends(Gerry McAvoy and Ted McKenna) and 70 other bands. www.fiestacity.be

21/07/2016 22:25

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2016

P10

Views from the top

That opera singer who sang after the Leicester City premiership victory? His man

If you’ve seen Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, you’ve heard this man’s handiwork

Who are you?

Who are you?

Andrea Taglia – I’m 45 years old and live in Firenze, Italy.

systems must be much more accurate as a drop of just 6dB makes the difference between hearing and understanding the words or not!

What do you do?

As well as working as FOH engineer for almost ten years with Andre Bocelli, I also provide consultancy for several companies, design sound systems for installation, support manufacturers of audio products and hold masterclasses on sound design.

Where do you do it?

Worldwide – over 100 flights per year!

How did you get started in the business?

When I was at college, I wrote reports on shows and often complained about the poor audio, so was invited to help.

What’s your biggest success to date?

Every time a spectator comes to the console, starts asking for details of the sound system and congratulates us for the sound, it’s a success for us.

What is the ”issue” that never seems to go away?

Sourcing precise venue information and explaining to promoters that 70 or more orchestra musicians and 60 choir singers on stage is not like a rock band. Our average sound pressure level is much lower than a rock concert, which means that sound

10 Italian engineers PSNLIVE vFIN.indd 1

Fabio Venturi – I have a science college diploma and conservatory diploma in flute!

What do you do?

What’s the biggest challenge coming up?

We have been discussing a project for a concert with the stage hosting about 140 performers floating on a lake.

Apart from your globetrotting work with Bocelli, what have been your biggest satisfactions in other audio fields?

Rome’s Parco della Musica is a musical and cultural centre, originally intended to host only acoustic music in its three main halls (seating 700, 1,200 and 2,800 spectators), but it was decided the rooms would also host events ranging from film festivals to jazz and pop concert, so to avoid visiting production teams having to deal with the rooms’ problematic acoustics, I was called in to design a sound system for the largest room.

I also coordinated the communication systems for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, which included 2,900 wireless in-ear monitors.

A total of about 135 frequencies were used for what was a truly unique with some very special requests – such as snipers on top of the roof, who had in-ears to follow the show – but it was good fun!

I’m FOH engineer and responsible for the audio direction of all the concerts by Ennio Morricone worldwide: Radio City Music Hall in New York, the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Kremlin in Moscow and the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Over 300 venues in total. I’m also live and studio sound engineer, lecturer in information technology in music at Campobasso conservatory.

How did you get started in the business?

I studied at Saluzzo’s Advanced Music Training School, on a course of sound and recording engineering, obtaining a practical course at Rome’s Forum studio, where I remained as an employee from 1988. I’ve worked with Morricone since then, firstly as a studio assistant, then as sound engineer on the recording of his soundtracks.

What’s your biggest success to date?

I recorded several soundtracks with great musicians, three of which won an Oscar for the music: Il Postino: The Postman by Luis Bacalov, Life is Beautiful by Nicola Piovani and The Hateful Eight by Morricone. Also, Live, the Morricone concert at the UN HQ in New York, for the extremely prestigious nature of the venue.

What is the “issue” that never seems to go away?

It’s normally the time frame, due to production and logistics as far as live events are concerned and, on recording projects, time is always tight, which doesn’t facilitate combining the various artistic requirements, such as those of movie directors and composers.

What’s the biggest challenge coming up?

The recording and mixing of the music for a film based on Mozart’s The Magic Flute re-arranged by Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio, Europe’s biggest multi-ethnic ensemble, composed of 18 musicians from four continents.

At concerts with chorus, orchestra and soloists, what brief does the maestro give you?

Morricone takes great care with all technical aspects, starting with monitors and my work on the mix during performances, for example, highlighting orchestra sections or soloists, as was done in the studio.

Events you’ve worked onapart from Morricone gigs?

I’ve worked for several years with the Filarmonica della Scala for the concert they stage for the city of Milan, held every summer in Piazza del Duomo, with 45,000 to 50,000 spectators.

21/07/2016 22:26

2016

Views from the top

P11

A synth technician’s remit covers a wide range, including programming, DAW playback, sync, MIDI and MAX/MSP programming…. Matt Cox has it all Who are you and what do you do?

Matt Cox – I have worked for The Chemical Brothers, looking after their live synth rig, since their early success. My other clients include Air, Sub Focus, Snow Patrol, Jeff Lynne and I worked on Take That’s 2015 world tour, programming and running Gary Barlow’s synth set-up. My company is called Gravity Systems. We design, build and deliver reliable playback/music tech systems for both EDM and rock acts. There’s a degree of bespoke software creation using apps like Lemur, and Max for Live or Max/MSP within our rigs.

How did you get started in the business?

I cut my teeth as a tape-op/assistant engineer at Manchester’s now defunct Planet 4 Studios in the early ’90s. The studio was designed with electronic music production in mind from the off and had a fantastic collection of analogue equipment including many classic synths from manufacturers like ARP, Moog, Roland, Sequential Circuits and Korg.

Engineering in that environment was almost as much about programming the synths and samplers as it was about actual mixing so it gave me a great grounding in using music technology in general.

You have a really busy summer/autumn touring season with The Chemical Brothers coming up. What are your responsibilities?

I’m responsible for building the live set-up used on stage, maintaining it during the show and keeping on top of any sound/patch/programming changes that occur as we go. The guys are constantly refining the live show, trying new arrangements and sound ideas and pushing the mix in new directions so there’s a degree of backing up and note-taking in addition to the DAW work. I’m also recording every show so

11 Synthy guru FIN PSNLIVE v1 SS.indd 1

there’s some work to be done checking our various mic and line feeds before and during the show, and managing the large amount of data that multitrack recording can produce.

The stage set up is a pretty extensive, with a varied collection of old and new technology. Quite a few vintage analogue synths, sequencers, drum machines, trigger pads and effects units, coupled with more modern performance-related controllers like NI Maschine and Ableton Push, all running in tandem and always ‘on’. Everything is mixed live by the band through a 32-channel analogue mixer to FOH and monitors.

In the last almost 20 years things have shifted quite a bit in terms of how we re-produce the show although the main idea of a live mix has remained almost unchanged. That’s always been the case and always will be, to keep the show fresh, it’s not just a press play gig, but a live arrangement of the bands tracks with cuts/drops and extended sequenced sections all decided on the fly.

There’s a massive reliance on MIDI clock with this rig. Now we are laptop based we’ve moved to sample accurate units that exist outside of the computer to provide this. There’s also an extensive SMPTE capability to tie in lights and video which run in time with the set audio.

Festival changeovers can vary from two hours down to 20 minutes, so you have to be ready for anything and have systems in place to make it a quick turn around if necessary.

On the Take That 2015 run, what did you do?

That was quite a different role to The Chemical Brothers. There is a very theatrical feel to their live shows with dancers, live band and Take That all performing together to produce the show. Obviously,

something of this nature is quite heavily timecodebased so I was responsible for looking after a large offstage Pro Tools set-up, which provides timecode for lighting and video in addition to setting up two keyboard rigs for the players on either side of the stage.

We planned and built the playback side of things two months before rehearsals started, so that it was in place and fully functioning on day one of a six week rehearsal schedule.

What are the major differences between working with an EDM act and rock act?

Rock bands don’t perform at 5am in a loud, dark tent!

What do you always take with you on tour?

These days, a waterproof jacket and wellies.

What is the issue that never seems to go away when touring?

You can’t get a decent cup of tea outside the UK!

Your scariest moment ever on tour?

The Chemical Brothers played in a bullring in Madrid a long time ago and when the house lights came on at the end – at 11pm – there was a full-scale riot as the audience was expecting an all-night rave I think. It was pretty early by Spanish standards! We had stones, bits of floor tiling, batteries, even a bike thrown at us. One guy was gesturing cutting my throat at one point! We had to abandon the stage and barricade ourselves in a production office until it all calmed down as a stage invasion was imminent. The kit took a bit of a hammering but strangely nothing was stolen. Not so much scary, but a moment of concern, you could say! www.thechemicalbrothers.com

21/07/2016 22:27

2016

P12

Views from the top

Sound engineer and ‘Johnny 2-hats’ Simon Hodge runs comms and networking specialist Surfhire, from which position he’s been influencing a quiet revolution in workflow from monitors to FOH and beyond…

Who are you?

Simon Hodge — I’ve been a sound engineer for 25 years working for a mixture of artists and disciplines. I’m also the director of Surfhire, my own rental company providing comms, walkie-talkies and networking kit to the touring and events world.

Surfhire has grown so much every year that each summer is a huge challenge in terms of kit and, however much time I spend over the winter buying and building things, there’s never enough. In the last month I’ve bought another 300 walkie-talkies, but I’ll still be short of them next week.

What is the ‘issue’ that never seems to go away?

What do you do?

I’m currently mixing FOH for Robbie Williams and have been for the last few years. I’ve worked for some other artists, recently Stevie Wonder and this week Shirley Bassey and Bryn Terfel.

Why do you do it?

You can guess the obvious answers: paying the bills… glory… good times. I think I’ve recently returned to the values I had when I first started, which are: a sincere passion for music and for it sounding musical; and playing my part in communicating the performance to the audience in the best possible way. I’m lucky to have been touring over the last few years with colleagues who have a similarly undimmed enthusiasm for listening to and appreciating music. I try to remain focused on the music and not the technology and, actually, that’s what gets me out of bed in the morning – if I have made it to bed in the first place.

What’s your biggest success to date?

I suppose that when I was standing at the board for Stevie Wonder at Buckingham Palace I was quite smiley and felt like the cat that got the cream.

What’s the biggest challenge coming up?

The biggest challenge is always balancing the three biggest things in my life: audio, Surfhire and home time. I had planned for this year to be all about Surfhire, which I thought would be like having an office job and going home at five o’clock every evening, but I’ve been busier than ever.

12 Simon Hodge PSNLIVE v1SS.indd 1

’The Wi-Fi has gone off…’ is surprisingly similar to ‘can I get more vocals in my wedge...’ Often the factors involved are completely outside my control and I just have to do everything I can to help whoever is asking. It drives me slightly mad that technological ‘progress’ can sometimes be a substitute for common sense. Making things overcomplicated for the sake of it is complicit across both audio and IT: true wisdom lies in using the path of least resistance.

Some examples might include plug-ins, digital wireless, multiple networked speaker processing and so on.

How has Surfhire improved comms on largescale tours?

Improving talk systems in monitors was significant: the talk system on my first Robbie tour was described as ‘ridiculous’ but frankly the band loved it as they could communicate easily. Optical talk switches, foot switches, fist mics and few other clever bits made life a lot easier. The use of digital matrix and duplex wireless comms has helped a lot, along with the monitor system being integrated into that matrix, so that the show caller can talk into the artist ears and shout system when needed. It sounds like I’m being hypocritical after my last answer about overcomplicating things, but it’s all implemented very simply and with thought for it not causing more trouble than it’s worth.

How can you further enhance the links between comms and monitoring?

I would like to see the manufacturers moving towards better implementation of comms integration. From

a technology point of view it would be easy to plug a digital comms matrix into a digital desk and make useful facilities. Other than that it would be nice if the RF spectrum would settle down: it seems like we’re constantly being shoehorned into smaller bits of available RF and manufacturers are responding by moving into things like Wi-Fi and DECT – which, in the situations I end up in, doesn’t work that well. Some of the gigs I do seem to have an enormous amount of copper cable on, so I think that – now that most departments are using fibre and/or IP-based transit – there should be an argument for sharing the enormous bandwidth that is available to us and save some time and money. But I think we’re all a bit scared to do that.

What is the technology that makes Surfhire tick?

I’m going to keep it simple: sensible choice of kit; careful prep and provisioning; and using the same wisdom with, which one gaffers a cable down across the stairs where the public walk applied to provisioning a large network or building a desk file.

If you were 18 what advice would you need?

Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to learn – anad continue to do so – from some very wise people: John Roden, Jerry Eade, George Hogan and loads more. I understand that it’s easy now to learn everything you know on Google and to emerge into the industry believing that you know everything. OK, earth hums, and balanced line theory, and arraying conventional speaker systems aren’t as important as they used to be but all the best people I know – now god-like sound engineers standing at mixers – are the people who have done their time fixing wires and lugging heavy cases up stairs. The same goes for mixing: there is actually no amount of arriving with a desk file on a USB stick that compares to the craft of actually building a mix cold on an analogue board. www.surfhire.net

21/07/2016 22:47

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4/21/2016 9:50:05 AM

2016

P14

Views from the top

Spend too much time listening to bands in the Eighties, and this is what happens to you Who are you and what do you do?

Ben Harrison – I’m a sound designer for theatre and live events.

Where do you do it?

All over the world, but predominantly in Europe.

Why do you do it?

From an early age, I was fascinated by sound. My Dad managed a band (The Farm) in Liverpool while I was growing up and I probably spent too much time hanging around rehearsal rooms and mix positions.

I became interested in ‘theatre sound design’ at Wirral Youth Theatre which I joined as a teenager, and was lucky enough to be given pretty much free reign of the equipment and space, where I spent a long time discovering what worked and what didn’t!

I guess that’s more about how it happened rather than why I do it though!

What is your greatest achievement in sound design to date?

I think every ‘first’ along the way, my first West End musical which was a Motown musical called Dancing In The Streets, my first US show which was the tour of Whistle Down The Wind, my first international tour Evita – and the first time my eldest son saw a show and came out telling me ‘That sounded cool, Dad!’ That was Starlight Express.

What is the perennial problem you face?

Increasingly it’s becoming vocal foldback on stage. My aim is usually to keep the stage as quiet as possible so that it doesn’t cloud the sound in the auditorium. Musical theatre performers are very used to listening to what they need to in an onstage mix, and listening to each other.

However, I’m finding myself working with actors who have crossed over from the music industry and have different techniques and different needs on stage which don’t always sit well with 40 ambient hairline microphones.

Of course we’ve developed technical solutions to help us cope with that, but a lot of it is down to the team on the show and how well they communicate with the cast and gain their trust.

Describe how the job role has changed in the last ten years (PSNEurope first met Ben in 2006 at the opening of Cabaret in the West End).

14 Ben harrison PSNLIVE FIN .indd 1

Technology has moved on an incredible amount since then, in particular the interfaces we use which means I have far more things instantly at my fingertips, but whether the job role itself has changed is arguable. I still have the same goals to achieve but over the past decade I have learnt a lot about how to reach them.

Every show I design throws up new challenges to overcome, which means the learning never stops. I enjoy working collaboratively, and my aim is that everyone in my team should feel they can bring a suggestion to the table, it’s interesting how different people approach the same problem – as the boss it just means I can take the credit!

What essential qualities does a sound designer need to have?

I think the most important qualities are being personable, and approachable. Sound design has so much impact on other people’s ability to work. The sound designer has to act as an interface, mediator and collaborator between all these people, often converting people’s ideals into a technical form, whilst still having an overall vision for how the show should sound.

I began my career as a ‘Number Two’ looking after radio mics on stage and worked my way up through different roles within sound departments. It means I have a knowledge of what everyone in my team is up against, which I hope means I only ever make reasonable requests of them!

Can you outline the sort of issues that arise in touring productions.. Is it just different size rooms?

It’s not just different size rooms but the room is certainly the main thing we have to contend with on touring shows, and not always for the audience.

When I sit down to specify a touring show, I’ll work with the tour list in mind, aiming for a system that is flexible

enough to be able to present the show in each venue as it’ll be signed off by the producers on opening night.

I often have to write spec lists months before the first day of rehearsals for a show, which can be difficult, particularly if it’s a new show that will develop and evolve during the rehearsal process.

Out on the road, it’s over to the touring team to make decisions on speaker positions, line array calculations and system set up, which is why I work so closely with my teams making sure they have a complete understanding of what I’m trying to achieve in the first place.

The one thing we can never change is the acoustic properties of an auditorium and trying to fight against them will never end well. You have to remember that although it might take the sound operator a couple of shows to get used to the venue, this is the venue that this audience see all their shows in.

It’s actually harder to keep things consistent onstage for the cast between venues than anything else. They hear so much of the room back on stage, that it can be really unsettling to go from a dry 600-seat house to a cavernous 4,000 seater.

What’s coming up?

I’m about to go into production for Exposure the Musical – Life Through a Lens in London, which is a brand new musical with an original contemporary rock score. Then I’m designing the European tour of Million Dollar Quartet before rounding the year off with a couple of pantomimes.

Oh no you’re not!

That’s enough of that. www.benharrisonsound.com

21/07/2016 22:33

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20/07/2016 10:37:42

2016

16

Views from the top

Experienced sound engineer and latterly sales consultant Roly Oliver recently joined UK-based audio management specialist Vanguardia as a consultant, bringing real-world FOH chutzpah to the party Who are you?

Roly Oliver.

What do you do?

I am head of live business for Vanguardia. We are acoustic consultants for live events in the UK, among many other things. In particular, we help with licensing for events, including negotiating the terms of the licence and then helping events to stay within the terms of the licence while still giving the best results inside the venue. Whether it be a charity event at Kensington Palace, a stadium concert or a multi stage festival, this is what I do.

Where do you do it?

We cover everything from Wembley Stadium, Hyde Park and Readjng Festival to fan parks at Kings Cross and outdoor theatre performances in Bishop Auckland.

Why do you do it?

I’ve worked in sound for 30 years [for Britannia Row, then Eighth Day Sound in the UK]. Doing this job gives me the opportunity to help sound engineers and promoters deal with the noise issues that they face from the point of view of someone who knows of what it’s like to mix a show within prescribed limits. I feel as though I’m giving something back to the industry I love, in both a literal and a metaphorical way.

What’s your biggest success to date?

Having only started in May I will report back after the summer!

What’s the biggest challenge coming up?

This would definitely have to be the Lovebox Festival. It’s a multi-stage dance event for thousands of people in a lovely park in a very built-up area. This year we will be using ten

16 Roly Oliver PSNLIVE FIN.indd 1

MeTrao units to monitor on and offsite levels – I’ll tell you a bit more about these units in a minute. We work closely with the festival and audio providers to discuss the best approach prior to the festival, including the site layout and the system design. We then work hard to give the best levels at each stage over the whole weekend.

classic case in point was my first gig for Vanguardia: we did the Portsmouth Summer Show, and it just so happened that the lobe from the subs was pointing at one resident’s house. Cardioid subs offer lots of control, but there is some ‘ballast’. We went back to FOH, added a few milliseconds to the centre subs and it pushed 5dB off the LF at that position.

What is the ‘issue’ that never seems to go away?

How can you further enhance the links between measurement and mixing?

Weather. It can hugely affect the levels achieved at the agreed off-site monitoring locations. The really big variables are caused by cloud cover and high winds – they can lose us a significant amount of SPL that the stages can run at.

How can Vanguardia improve off-site noise even more?

Starting at Reading Festival last year we have been running MeTrao. This is a standalone unit that inputs audio to a database. By matching the audio at source to off-site locations, it allows us to pinpoint the problems much more accurately – right down to third octaves. It’s allowing us to get the best possible results, and also allows us more freedom with the stages that aren’t causing a problem.

Altogether, these techniques are improving the experience of the events for the audiences.

“What we do is noise modeling based on generic systems. It’s standard practice to punch your numbers into prediction software and come up with your sound propagation. We would then take a look and make recommendations. Even without prediction software, I can go to FOH and suggest alternatives based on my experience, sometimes of specific venues and their foibles.

“When people are shown a heat map of the distribution of sound – whether that’s using the d&b audiotechnik software, or Martin Audio, or L-Acoustics – I can actually show them how to make meaningful changes to the patterns rather than it being just a random monitor. A

The display on the MeTrao unit gives the engineer the information he needs to be in control. Instead of it being relayed to him, he can clearly and easily see the frequencies and levels he needs to change. It does all the work for you and appears completely un-technical. You set it up; it does all the thinking, and just gives you the solutions. Instead of you having to trawl through data, MeTrao looks at the frequency response from the local, off-site microphone, looks at the algorithm and tells you which frequency is the problem – and which stage is the problem. It gives you so much more control over what you’re trying to achieve.

What is the technology that makes Vanguardia tick?

Now and moving forward it will be MeTrao. The units are called AB units, which stands for acquisition box. You can use them to throughput all manner of data from meteorological statistics and air quality to load sensors for motors and vibration sensors. Beyond live sound, this is a technology that covers all the many areas that Vanguardia as a company is involved in.

If you were 18 what advice would you need?

Find something you love and make a career out of it.

Thirty years since my first paid gig and I’m still loving being involved in the music industry. www.vanguardiaconsulting.co.uk

21/07/2016 22:33

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21/07/2016 14:55:24

2016

P18

Views from the top

Post-Bataclan, an ex-marine reveals how military precision is helping the live industry play catch-up Who are you?

What’s your biggest success to date?

Pete Murphy – co-founder and operations director for Priavo Security Ltd.

Everywhere! Our network spans the globe. Our operatives have worked in over 50 medium- and high-risk countries worldwide.

We measure our success on how little happens in terms of risk, threat and security incidents.

But our biggest success event-wise? One that springs to mind was arranging executive protection for an A-lister’s week-long birthday party. The celebrations were held across multiple venues in Morocco and Paris and included day trips, parties and many other events on a daily basis for 60-plus guests.

As well as providing executive protection throughout the week we provided full logistical coordination of all private jet and ground movements. In total we provided 15 operatives, five local venue security, coordination of local police and military support.

Why do you do it?

What is the “issue” that never seems to go away?

Security is a necessity in the current global landscape.

Violence has become an acceptable medium to send political and religious messages. Kidnapping and extortion have become a thriving business. Lone-wolf and terror attacks are a regular occurrence. Large venues and events are getting hit. With the unlimited availability of information on the Internet, individuals who were previously under the radar are now easily accessible by adversaries. Corporate executives, celebrities, artists, bands and private individuals are all at increased risk.

I created Priavo to provide security globally, enabling our clients to live the lifestyle they choose without fear of personal safety. It is our mission is to make each and every one of our clients feel safe without intruding on their lifestyle.

Complacency.

It seems the industry is well aware of the risks and the need for security, but not everyone will invest in a robust security solution. After Bataclan [the Paris music venue attacked by gunmen in November 2015] we saw a dramatic increase in enquiries for security across Europe – not only from the music industry, but from the corporate and events sector too.

Security reviews and solutions have been adopted quickly within corporate events but it seems the live industry has been slow to buy into this trend.

Security is a non-tangible product and, like insurance, people are reluctant to pay. Some managers seem willing to compromise their duty of care to artists and production teams – however, the appetite for risk varies considerably, and certain groups are not willing to ‘run the gauntlet’.

What do you do?

We provide executive protection and event security services for private and corporate clients globally, including touring musicians. In summary, we protect people, secure assets and manage risk.

Where do you do it?

How did you get started in the business?

My career in security began while serving in the UK Special Forces. I deployed to Afghanistan, serving as part of a close protection cell for high-profile British dignitaries and VIPs up to ministerial level. The private security industry was a natural progression upon leaving the military.

18 Pete Murphy PSNLIVE FIN.indd 1

How has the security sector changed since you first started out?

The industry has grown exponentially since I first started, and is now one of the fastest-growing sectors globally – something that’s not surprising considering

the state of the world and the ever-evolving terror threat.

For many years the security industry seems to have been driven by price, with many professionals finding it hard to compete with the low prices that have flooded the market over the last decade since the introduction of the Security Industry Authority (SIA) [a UK quango set up in 2007 to regulate the private security industry but which was beset by controversy from the outset, with revelations including that it had given over 6,000 bouncer licences to illegal immigrants, overspent its budget by £17m and failed to background check even its own staff – Security Ed]. The SIA allowed the security business to be saturated with inexperienced and under-skilled operators, diluting a once-professional industry.

Now, however, it appears the market for professional, experienced and credible security providers is once again resonating with many clients, and the industry is moving towards self-regulation, with many committed to driving up standards beyond those set by the SIA. Priavo is at the forefront of this change.

You obviously can’t name any names, but can you give us a clue as to any of your music industry clients?

Our first music task was for a well-known American rock group who had concerns about travelling to higherrisk countries on their tour. Additional security was requested to give the band members the confidence to continue the tour in areas experiencing civil protests and anti-US sentiment. This job was executed as we would any other, with military planning and precision backed by our global military and civilian networks.

We have been lucky enough to have worked and supported some very high-profile artists across the globe – though I’m sure you appreciate the nature of our business doesn’t allow us to disclose identities! www.priavosecurity.com

21/07/2016 22:34

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22/06/2016 10:39:49

2016

P20

Views from the top

From building light-boxes and speakers in his DJ days to running a flight case company that has designed boxes to house a GP2 racing car Who are you?

Keith Sykes.

What do you do and how long have you been doing it?

I’m the managing director of 5 Star Cases Limited. I’ve been MD since 2008, after purchasing the company from Jim Willis, but I’ve been a director since 1998 and joined 5 Star in June 1991. So this is my quarter century at the company!

Previously, I owned a small flight case business in Ipswich, which merged with 5 Star, and well, the rest is history.

Why do you do it?

In my early DJ’ing days, which began whilst I was still at school, I started building light-boxes, speakers and suchlike for the mobile disco. An all-too familiar story when it comes to many of my colleagues in the lighting and sound industry. I seemed to acquire a bit of flare for building these boxes, which gradually turned into something resembling a flight case.

My DJ’ing friends started to ask me to build products for them and I suppose that’s where the seed was planted. Whilst 5 Star has a dedicated design team, to this day I still enjoy designing cases, and associated products and probably always will.

What’s the highest profile event 5Star have supplied the cases?

This is actually quite difficult to answer. When we supply cases to many of the leading tour companies around Europe, we don’t always get to find out which particular event or project they are destined for. And 5 Star doesn’t just service the lighting and sound industry, but a wide range of other sectors too, such as telecommunications, engineering, exhibitions, medical, scientific and more recently motorsport.

20 Keith Sykes PSNLIVE FIN S.indd 1

When was your biggest period in terms of demand?

I suppose it has to be 2015-2016 period where our turnover exceeded £4.8m.

What is the “issue” that never seems to go away?

Weight (cases, not mine!) This has been an issue with most flight case companies around the world and still continues to be a headache. Oh, I’ll add another one as well –short lead-times!

What’s the biggest challenge coming up?

If this was being published in a couple of months, I could mention something that’s really exciting and will definitely be a challenge. But until then, the challenge is to remain at the forefront of case design and manufacture. At the end of the day, they’re boxes, but with a bit of flare you can add so much more to a case.

What’s your most popular case?

One of the most popular is the ‘Arena’ range of generalpurpose road trunks. We introduced these many years ago, after success with the ‘Eurotrucker’ road trunk. But not all lighting and sound companies are the same. Many of them do smaller events, which means smaller vans and smaller budgets! The ‘Arena’ range is pretty much a lighter and less expensive version of the ‘Eurotrucker’.

Same dimensions, give or take a few millimetres and available in three flavours, the 1200, 900 and 600.

What’s the key to a decent case? Good locks?

Good hinges?

The main hardware is a key point of any flight case, as is the overall construction. 5 Star only use quality hardware, which of course costs more but the durability is important. We use traditional methods as a rule, for the case construction. We have done this for years, and

there’s no immediate rush to change. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

What’s the biggest case you’ve had to make and for what?

It has to be a set of six cases to each house a complete GP2 racing car. Although it was quite a few years ago now, it was a challenge to say the least. But for the more standard project we produced over one hundred cases to house the Panasonic 103” plasma screen (the largest in the world at the time), for a Midlands-based rental company, and whilst it was not the size of a racing car, they were pretty substantial cases.

In recent years, the newer LED screens have increased in size but decreased in weight, so the cases that house them are very different.

Your biggest order for one job?

Well, I’m going to answer this in a different way. Whilst we frequently produce orders for well over 200 cases, the quantity isn’t really relevant. At 5 Star, we prefer to build long-term relationships with our customers.

Take for instance DiGiCo, we first made contact with them back in 2007 and let’s imagine they ordered 300 console cases from us, at that time. They didn’t, but in the almost ten years since then, we have produced thousands of console cases for DiGiCo. Again, it’s all about relationships!

When they fail, why is it? Beer? Fire? Run over by a tour bus?

Yes… all three! Seriously though, from time to time even the best made cases fail, for whatever reason. The important thing to remember is how to address the situation. We do pride ourselves on our service and when something has gone wrong, we’ll do our best to solve it, quickly. Let’s then worry about whose fault it is! www.5star-cases.com

21/07/2016 22:34

2016

Views from the top

P21

This Frenchman likes his IEMs, but he says there is still work to be done Who are you?

Laurent Midas.

What do you do?

I am a sound engineer, mostly on the monitoring side.

Can you name a few venues where you have worked?

As well as the theatres and concert halls of France, there are international venues such as the Bacon Theatre in New York, Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv, the Royal Albert Hall and the Olympic Stadium in Moscow.

What kit do you like working with?

The list is neither exhaustive nor exclusive, but I would point out the Soundcraft Vi7000 console, Wisycom MRK960 modular wireless-microphone receiver system, Sennheiser IEM 2000 Series, Adamson M212 M-Series wedges, Lexicon 480L reverb, among other nice pieces.

Where do you do it ?

I follow artists or projects on most of their tour dates: artists such as Mylène Farmer, Johnny Hallyday, Charles Aznavour, Julien Clerc, Etienne Daho, and MC Solaar. Right now I am touring with Michel Polnareff in France.

Why do you do it?

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Passion, and a taste for a challenge. I would say it is a mix of craving, beautiful encounters – those that influence your routes – and personality traits that means I am happy in my job.

Where did you first enter the trade and where did you work in the past?

Some 20 years ago, I progressed through the ranks within the Dispatch PA hire company that merged [with others] into Dushow SAS. I met some great people there to whom I owe a lot for getting me to where I am today.

What’s your biggest success to date?

Balancing this time-consuming and absorbing job with my life! If we are talking about technical success only, the Christophe Maé 2010-2011 tour was undoubtedly a real challenge. The evening we were capturing the concert in Brussels, I had to manage two consoles, one singer, seven musicians, a great number of guest stars including gospel choirs, a string quartet and a New Orleans band, plus more than 100 inputs, 64 outputs, frequency coordination and the sound. We did a good job.

What’s the biggest challenge coming up?

At a time when mobility on stage is essential in most shows, IEM wireless systems are an essential link in the chain. This is the field in which progress still needs to be done. Also, the great challenge is to last even though everything changes around you.

What is the issue that never seems to go away ?

The recurring issue is money. It has a direct impact on the working conditions of the technical teams.

21 Laurent midas PSNLIVE FIN.indd 1

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21/07/2016 22:36

2016

P22

Views from the top

A team of hardworking hedonists have put a Serbian dance festival on the map of international must-attend events Who are you and what do you do?

We are Global Publicity, and I am Nikki McNeill! The festival season has started and we are never in one place for very long at this time of year as we do PR for music festivals, events and techno DJs, including Richie Hawtin and Dave Clarke.

great that so many media reply to the press releases and emails we send out, but then dealing with all those requests and not missing deadlines can be tough!

What’s the perennial problem that you face?

We are based in London and Berlin, but often travel the world attending events we work on or gigs our DJs are playing at.

Mostly artists not wanting to do interviews at festivals, which in turn makes the events media partners unhappy. They need content to report on the festival, especially when it’s for radio or TV, and have been planning and advertising shows about the festivals for months in advance.

Why do you do it?

What would make life easier?

We love what we do and once the work is done we can always be found on the dance floor, where our passion for music first started.

Journalist having the guts to say ‘No, this is not for us’, instead of ignoring emails and calls so you keep chasing them thinking there is a chance of them covering your artist or event. We are all adults, we’re not going to cry, we know not everything will be suitable all the time and we won’t take it personally.

Where do you do it?

What is your greatest achievement?

We have worked with the EXIT Festival for 11 years, which is such a special event considering it’s rooted in a student protest against the Milosevic regime.

A client since 2004, we have helped grow awareness of EXIT both in the UK and internationally, cementing its reputation as one of Europe’s leading music festivals with a unique history and location. Winning the highly coveted title of ‘Best Major Festival’ at the 2014 European Festival Awards reflects how EXIT has grown over the years, attracting a global audience of 2.5 million visitors from over 60 different countries. What was once a movement is now one of the most prestigious music events in the world, achieving recognition from media around the world.

What do you consider to be the biggest challenge coming up?

The biggest challenge is being a slave to your inbox. It’s

22 Global PSNLIVE FIN.indd 1

Describe, briefly, how the job role has changed in the last ten years.

just the acts you book. A festival with the biggest acts can have no atmosphere and the weather can be bad making for a miserable experience. Think about the atmosphere, the lighting, stage design. It’s also often the little things that make the difference and they are not always the most expensive.

What’s the best festival location?

The best place for electronic music is definitely the EXIT festival dance arena, which is a dried-out moat and makes a natural amphitheatre for 20,000 people. The atmosphere here is like no other place in the world and the fans don’t want to leave. They stay until 8am!

Eurosonic Noorderslag is hard to beat for checking out new bands as there are hundreds of amazing new artists playing in small intimate venues across the city of Groningnen in Holland. For big headliners, I’d have to say the Positivus Festival in Estonia, as the crowd is so receptive to the artists and they really do go crazy, proving big is not always better. globalpublicity.co.uk

We now have to have all encompassing knowledge of digital developments too. PR is no longer limited to print, radio and TV, so our workload has increased and we have to keep up with trends. Clients expect a lot more from their PR person these days.

What makes a winning festival?

They need a unique selling point to attract an audience outside their own country. It’s also all about the experience and atmosphere, not

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2016

Views from the top

P23

It’s not all getting drunk with editors, you know… those activations aren’t going to experientialise themselves Who are you?

Graham Brown – founder and managing director at Plaster Creative Communications.

What do you do?

We’re a creative comms team. Our approach has always been to guide all aspects of a company’s brand presence and support them by implementing the elements they need help with, from PR to websites, marketing literature and social media. Our team are all very digitally savvy, and we have in-house designers so we can look at the whole brand.

Where do you do it?

We’re Bristol-based – but with clients all over the world, on any given week you may find one of us in Manchester, London, Dubai or Hong Kong. This summer we’ve been getting muddy/wet at festivals and gigs.

Why do you do it?

I love the people and companies we work with in the live events industry, and the fact that no two days are the same in PR keeps it fresh. The core of all of our strategy and activity is to create business opportunities for our clients. There’s a real passion at Plaster to push our clients’ comms strategies and deliver creative campaigns that improve their brand presence in front of key audiences to make them more profitable.

How did you get started in the business?

Let’s just say my progression from a biochemistry degree to playing in bands, sound engineering and launching the events trade magazine Access All Areas

23 Graham Brown PSNLIVE FIN.indd 1

was a journey a careers advisor could never have mapped out! From working on Access All Areas, I got into the DNA of some very talented companies which were great at what they did but appalling when it came telling the world about it. When you see inferior companies doing well because they have the ‘gloss’, you get motivated to help the real talent get the opportunities to win the work.

How has PR changed since you first started out?

It’s unrecognisable from the days of faxing press releases and posting photographs. When I started the core skills were to be able to write in a range of styles, take a good press shot and get drunk with editors! Friday afternoons are no longer considered ‘pub meetings’. We build strategic campaigns to reflect our client’s business objectives. These operate across multiple platforms, whether that is supporting experiential activations, exhibiting, digital and social media or more traditional print media (and still occasionally getting drunk with editors!).

What’s your biggest success to date?

Finding great partners to work with at Plaster.

Communications consultancies are so often one or two people, so with Kellie [Hasbury, director], Emily [Burrows, account manager] and Dani [Andres, account director] to have built a team of 16 like-minded people who care about our clients is a key achievement I am extremely proud of.

What’s the issue that never seems to go away?

Team Plaster often come up with more creative ideas

than can be achieved with client’s budgets, so our challenge is maximising the exposure of our clients, but working within a variety of finances and making the seemingly impossible happen.

How does working in the live industry compare to other markets?

There’s a passion in live music and events that you just won’t find if you’re doing the PR for make-up companies or regional healthcare authorities. You have to love it, because the budgets are probably a tenth of other more financially lucrative sectors – and I do, because it’s unpredictably exciting and varied.

Does good (or bad) sound at events have an impact on your business?

Whatever the event, the sound can have a significant bearing on its effectiveness and the enjoyment of people. When we’re organising an event such as a launch we’ll work with our supplier to make sure there is good coverage for speeches or playback across the room. If we’re doing the PR for a concert or festival with dodgy sound you can bet our team are going to be busy dealing with complaints – particularly in this age of quick-fire social media – and we have to support our clients in taking customer concerns seriously by responding promptly in line with clients’ directions. We’re working on a lot of outdoor shows this summer, so being aware of how factors such as licensing conditions or a strong wind can affect the sound allow our teams on site to respond appropriately. www.weareplaster.com

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The touring/festival market

Festivals like Rock in Rio in Lisbon have seen a demand on the vendor end

Live in the balance?

Levels of touring activity in the first half of the year have been robust, but with the festival market evincing signs of a slowdown and now the uncertainty of Brexit, could it be that the sector is on the verge of more challenging times? David Davies reports

T

he unsettling air of complete uncertainty and trepidation that descended upon the UK on the morning of 24 June – the day after a thin majority of the electorate decided to vote in favour of leaving the European Union – is difficult to describe with total clarity even from the vantage point of one month’s distance.

At the time of writing, a new prime minister has been installed and a new cabinet taken shape – but the timetable and nature of the actual ‘Brexit’ process are still very much up in the air.

‘If there’s one thing that business doesn’t like it is uncertainty’ – or variations thereof – has been repeated so much over the last month as to become almost mantra-like. But of course it is true, and so perhaps inevitably this concern has been voiced in many of the interviews that fed into PSNLive’s latest overview of the current touring and festivals markets. Possible longterm drawbacks – and even the odd advantage – for the live industry were aired by multiple contributors, but until the roadmap is clear (turn off junction 50?), no one is really in a position to make confident predictions.

All of which is rather unfortunate given the fact that the UK and mainland European live business is generally felt to have had a strong first-half of the year.

Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce and Coldplay have been among the acts keep things busy at the arena and stadium level, while Latitude, Reading and Roskilde were among the many festivals either at or approaching ‘sold-out’ level at the time of writing.

24 25 26 Festivals PSNLIVE FIN.indd 1

But even without Brexit, there had been some troubling signs that the long-term future of the sector might not be quite so rosy as it seemed a few years back. In June, new research from ParcelHero revealed a picture of precarious finances at festivals, with a prediction that as many as 1 in 10 might not reappear in 2017. In addition – and there is no easy way to put this – the remarkable number of rock-related deaths during the first half of the year has raised further questions about the current reliance in some quarters on the ability of ‘heritage acts’ to shift tickets.

“Change begets change”, as Charles Dickens famously wrote, and that could prove to be true of the live industry over the next few years.

Road-worthy By common consent, declining and/or unpredictable income from recorded revenue has led to a substantial increase in live activity over the last ten years. At the higher-end of the market, 2016 has showed few signs of a slowdown, with Phil Bowdery – the London-based executive president of touring at Live Nation, the world’s largest live entertainment company – describing the year as “without question one of the busiest outdoor years” (that is, at stadiums).

“Our business is very much feast or famine,” he says.

“You will go through years where people are out of touring or album cycle, and that is sometimes simply down to the law of averages. You might have everyone out of cycle, and then all in cycle where there is an

abundance of things going on.”

This year is clearly very much “feast”, with Rihanna, Coldplay, Beyoncé and Billy Joel among the Live Nation-promoted acts to be doing strong business.

Bowdery and team have even made a start on 2017, with Jeff Lynne’s ELO picking up encouraging sales for a Wembley Stadium show that isn’t due to take place until next June.

Bryan Grant, managing director of Britannia Row Productions, alludes to tours with The Cure, Kasabian, Munford & Sons and Robbie Williams as he describes what he thinks has “probably been our best first quarter ever. There has been a lot of activity and we are fortunate that people want to use us.” The company’s current bouyancy is underlined by the fact that it has already invested £1.7m in new equipment this year – with more due expected to be added in the second half.

Brexit blues The post-Brexit mood of uncertainty can hardly be seen as welcome. “It’s possible we could see a reintroduction of the ATA Carnets [international customs document] – oh god, those days! – as well as the necessity to have visas everywhere you go. But the honest answer is that nobody knows,” says Grant.

Bowdery says currency fluctuations might cause “some US acts to think again about coming here. There are certain cases where it will be a problem because the currency is killing them in terms of being able to make the offers work.”

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HERITAGE ROCK: BRINGING DOWN THE CURTAIN?

UK Music’s director of communications James Murtagh-Hopkins

UK Music is an umbrella organisation representing the UK recorded and live music industry. Director of communications James Murtagh-Hopkins acknowledges the current uncertainty and says that any future “changes in free movement, taxation and the application of other duties would obviously inhibit both exports and, in particular, live music professionals. At this stage it is really too early to speculate.”

In order to be prepared for whatever eventuality, UK Music has put together a working group from its members to generate a list of key concerns that will be brought to the attention of “the Departments of Culture, Media and Sport, and the newly-formed Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in order to ensure that our sector needs are part of the wider discussions when the Government begins to negotiate our exit from Europe.”

UK Music is also contributing to an initiative by the Creative Industries Council that will identify challenges

The Eagles’ Farewell 1 Tour in 2004 took a playful swipe at the then-burgeoning tendency of older artists to announce final tours – only to then return to the road once more at a later date. The Eagles themselves carried on touring on a regular basis for more than a decade thereafter, until the January 2016 death of co-leader Glenn Frey brought an end to the group’s 45-year countryrock odyssey.

Of course, Frey’s departure is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this year’s unnerving record of rock-related deaths. Whilst David Bowie had retired from touring in 2004, Prince remained a touring powerhouse until the final weeks of his life. The loss of so many icons in such a short period of time inevitably raises questions about the continued financial contribution of the ‘heritage’ acts. And even among those still active, there is the risk that over-saturation – with touring cycles more like every two years than the pre-download age of five – could start affecting ticket sales.

Keeping the offer fresh is crucial, then, and in this regard the current trend towards joint tours seems like an astute move. Phil Bowdery reports that Sting and Peter Gabriel are “doing brilliantly” with their current, Live Nation-promoted Rock Paper Scissors Tour in the US. “Putting packages together can really help to generate some fresh interest, especially if you may have seen one of the artists the last time ‘round,” he says. “There is also the curiosity factor about what the artists will be like performing together.”

Whilst it’s highly unlikely we will see a return to the 1960s heyday of the package tour – when

A feast of festival acts this year, including Beyonce, who was a Live-Nation promoted act. Photo credit: Daniela Vesco

24 25 26 Festivals PSNLIVE FIN.indd 2

Phil Bowdery, executive president of Live Nation

(as happened in 1967) promoters were able to put together a mouth-watering bill featuring the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Pink Floyd, The Move and The Nice – more imaginative offers could enliven what sometimes seems like a fairly static scene at the arena level. For now, lovers of heritage rock with generous amounts of disposable income are directed towards this October’s Desert Trip festival in California, where a line-up of The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Roger Waters, Paul McCartney, The Who and Neil Young promises to render the event as something of a book-end for the Woodstock generation.

and opportunities for each creative sector caused by the referendum. Other members of the CIC include Arts Council England and the British Film Institute.

Among the most pressing concerns, MurtaghHopkins highlights the “sharp drop in the value of Sterling, which means fees and guarantees in Euros and Dollars are immediately affected.” Having hit a 31-year low in early July, Sterling had rallied somewhat at the time of writing – although as with nearly everything these days, it seems, all bets are off when one ponders the long-term trajectory.

The same might be said of the escalating number of international terrorist incidents. Speaking ahead of the devastating truck attack in Nice that killed 84 people, Grant says that “the more these incidents take place, the more reluctant audiences might become to gather in public places. I would also say that it has had an impact on some American bands’ decisions about coming to Europe since they regard it as being more dangerous than America – which is one of the great ironies when you think about Orlando or any number of the terrible mass killings that seem to occur there all the time. But ultimately, it’s all about perception, isn’t it?”

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P26

The touring/festival market

DATA: FESTIVALS’ ECONOMIC IMPACT A recent independent report commissioned

by AIF and Live Nation from Optimy provides some valuable information about the economic contribution that a festival can make to the local area. The report revealed, says AIF general manager Paul Reed, that a 5,000 capacity festival “can generate approximately £800,000 in net gain to the local area, while a 110,000 capacity festival can generate £18 million for the local area. Benefits include supporting local farmers and landowners to diversify their income; supporting local supply chains including shops, accommodation, equipment hire and land preparation; and supporting local charities and community organisations.”

In other recent research, AIF’s 2015 audience survey posed the question, ‘When buying a ticket for a festival what is the single most important factor when deciding which one to attend?’ 54% of those replied that it was the ‘the general atmosphere and overall vibe, character and quality of the event’, 7.7% replied ‘headline acts’, and 26% answered ’the music generally’. This trend has developed over six years and in 2015 was based on more than 3,000 survey respondents.

Festival fever?

It is perhaps just as well, then, that there isn’t too much time to sit around and worry about the future. ‘Peak’ festival season ensures that equipment and people are

24 25 26 Festivals PSNLIVE FIN.indd 3

Promoters do have to work harder than ever to carve out an identity for a festival in what is quite an overcrowded marketplace.”

Paul Reed, AIF

in heavy rotation, and certainly at the medium to large end of the market, summer 2016 appears to have been another successful chapter.

Dom Harter, the recently appointed managing director of Martin Audio, is among those to acknowledge the demand at the vendor end. “The MLA [Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array] family continues to be a massive hit – with Martin Audio having six Glastonbury stages this year, and the switch of the main stage at Lisbon’s ‘Rock in Rio’ to Martin Audio, being just two examples of our growing presence. We have a number of orders for both new partners and existing companies’ expanding inventory.”

But while the likes of Glastonbury, T in the Park and Latitude continue to perform strongly year in, year out, there are signs of stress at the lower end of the market.

The aforementioned ParcelHero research highlighted the scale of the expansion in recent years, with an estimated 1,000 festivals taking place in 2016 – six times as many as 12 years ago. But it also indicated the extent to which many exist on a shaky financial footing, with VAT, energy costs and security provision all meaning that profits can be minimal-to-non-existent.

The situation is likely to be particularly acute at those smaller festivals run by enthusiasts, says the report.

The Temples heavy metal festival in Bristol and Forgotten Fields in Tunbridge Wells are among the British events to have been cancelled outright – although it’s hardly a trend that is restricted to the UK. There has also been a spate of cancellations in the US, Canada and Australia, among other countries, as multiple markets evince signs of over-saturation.

The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) represents more than 60 UK festivals, and general manager Paul Reed confirms the suspicion that “this has been a bit of a slow year. People are not quite where they were in terms of sales at this point last year.

A number of factors play into this – the weather, the economic uncertainty after Brexit, and the increasing competition in the marketplace. One of the trends we are seeing now is that festivals experience an uplift in sales much later on – for example, I know of one event

in recent times. “I think there is the element of it being a correction as there are only so many events people can go to physically, irrespective of how much they cost to attend,” says Bowdery, who in addition to his Live Nation duties is chairman of the Concert Promoters Association. “It’s unfortunate but there will be some natural wastage, for want of a better word.”

Reed readily acknowledges the pressure on organisers and promoters, noting that it “can take a minimum of four years for our members to break even, and as long as seven years in some cases. It’s a high risk activity.” Nonetheless, he is optimistic that new events with “the right formats” can continue to find an audience, and by way of example points to “strong sales” for this year’s debut appearance of Blue Dot. Taking place at the Jodrell Bank site in Cheshire, the diverse event promises headline sets from Jean-Michel Jarre, Caribou and Underworld – alongside a full science and cultural programme that includes lectures, workshops and a live recording of BBC Radio 4’s The Infinite Monkey Cage.

“Promoters do have to work harder than ever to carve out an identity for a festival in what is quite an overcrowded marketplace,” says Reed, who thinks there may also be an argument for promoters to avoid over-fixation on digital marketing and newer platforms as a way to reach potential audiences. “I’ve noticed that there has been a bit of a reversion to more traditional marketing methods, such as flyers. That can work particularly well in the case of smaller independent festivals, which may be appealing to a localised audience. And those small events are really important as gateways for young people. Their parents might not be willing to let them to attend Glastonbury, but may be fine with them going to LeeFest, for example!”

Further challenges no doubt lie ahead – not least what is destined to be a final ‘encore’ by many ‘heritage’ acts [see Box left] – but the dynamism of the live business over the last 10 years means that we should perhaps not be too concerned about its long-term future. The desire of young people, in particular, to escape the digital world for a while and re-engage with

where they saw significant sales in the last two days before it was due to take place.”

But the competition aspect is critical, and as regrettable as it may be to see any event close there is a feeling that this year’s spate of cancellations was inevitable given the phenomenal growth of the sector

the live experience shows no signs of abating – and is perhaps part of a wider cultural movement in favour of ‘realness’ when so much of life is lived out online. In this context, it seems inevitable that those promoters and event organisers who are able to offer something new, fresh and attractively-priced will flourish.

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2016

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Unique gigs

Matt Tuck played and sang as he skydived out of a helicopter above Norway for a recent Jägermeister Ice Cold Gig

EXTREEEEEEEME! The ‘extreme’ gig has become a technically achievable phenomenon over the past ten years. Musicians have played deeper, higher and colder than even before but, as Kevin Hilton reports, there are more records to be broken and more boundaries to be breached

S

taging live concerts can be difficult enough, what with the logistics of getting artists, crew and equipment from one venue to another, loading all the gear in and then contemplating the get-out even before the first note is played. Despite these routine, everyday challenges, some performers, managers and promoters have pushed the boundaries further to stage ever more elaborate shows on a grander scale, marshalling all the technology and technical know-how available to them.

This has led to a succession of gigs that now nestle in the pages of the Guinness Book of Records as the deepest, highest altitude or coldest musical performances. But the bible of extreme achievement no longer includes an entry for loudest band or performance, presumably because it does not want to be seen encouraging anything that could cause hearing loss and lead to lawsuits.

The stage for The Who’s infamous show at Charlton Athletic FC’s The Valley stadium, at the time one of the largest in Britain with a capacity of 75,000

Bigger...

During the 1970s Pink Floyd began to set a new standard for production, with lasers, projected images, lights and what was for the time a sophisticated surround sound system based on quad. This was used to recreate the soundscapes of albums, such as Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. After Roger Water’s acrimonious departure, each ‘faction’ carried on exploiting this technology. Pink Floyd’s last major tour, for The Division Bell album in 1994, involved quad

The beast grows ever bigger: the immense world of the current U2 iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE tour

Louder...

For many years the Guinness Book of Records recognised The Who as the loudest band on the planet.

This was set on 31 May, 1976 during the Who Put the Boot In mini tour, which played three football grounds in England, Wales and Scotland. The performance at Charlton Athletic’s The Valley stadium hit a peak of 126dB, measured at 32m from the loudspeaker stacks.

Like Pink Floyd and other bands at the time, the group had set up its own equipment company, ML Executives, to support its technical needs. But with the size of the venues being played ML realised it did not have enough gear and so brought in additional cabinets from Tasco.

Gary Marks is now managing director of ML Executives, but in 1976 was starting out in the live sound

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Tickets for the infamous gig, where levels reached a record breaking 126dB

business with Tasco. “The two companies both used Martin Audio systems and they put their stocks together for the three shows,” he recalls. “This made a four-way rig including Philishaves and 4882s. Because the band and the crew had a lot of equipment, they turned it up.

The Who were fairly loud in those days but the aim wasn’t to break any records.”

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2016

P29

stations comprising eight Turbosound long-throw Flashlight cabinets and four wider dispersion Floodlight boxes. These were fed from a custom-built Midas XL3 16-channel desk designed by the band’s hire company, Britannia Row Productions. For his stagings of The Wall at Wembley Stadium during 2013 Roger Waters, used Clair i5s in eight arrays; two left and right with six round the venue to create an all-encompassing surround effect. Clair UK managing director Tim Boyle describes this as “like a Mexican wave”.

The template for spectacular productions involving masses of equipment and technology was reset by synth noodler Jean-Michel Jarre. He first made the record books with his show at Place de la Concorde in Paris in 1979. He appeared again for Rendezvous Houston in 1986 and for a third time after the 1990 Paris La Défense performance to 2.5 million people. His water-logged Destination Docklands shows in London in 1988 did not set any records but gave a sense of JMJ’s ambition, featuring eight cranes each loaded with 16 Meyer Sound MSL3N systems and eight sub-basses.

U2 took the idea of creating their own environment and made it their own for the big, involved tours they undertook during the 1990s. The Zooropa stadium shows employed a Clair rig of 150 S4 cabinets in two stacks of 75 left and right, with the venues divided into separate foreground, centre and back zones with their own equalisation settings.

Zooropa started a trend for bands to play on two stages during one show, with a smaller performance area located usually in the middle of the audience.

Because this put the musicians right in front of the main PA stacks U2 relied on in-ear monitoring, using Radio Stations in the 90s. The band has kept the format for this year’s iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE tour, with the

Jamiroquai Photo credit: Mark Cunningham

Deeper...

Cover of the DVD, made after the Katie Melua Statoil Troll A gas rig gig

shows at the O2 arena using the length of the venue from one stage to another, linked by a walkway. “It was almost in the round but very long,” comments Tim Boyle.

Main PA was the new Clair Co(hesion) 12 system, with the band monitoring on Ultimate Ears units.

As the biggest has become something just about any band — with enough clout and budget — can do there have been some notable attempts to push the barriers of live sound production outside of conventional spaces, often in inhospitable surroundings. Ex-Busted member Charlie Simpson and Metallica have taken on the cold at either end of the world (see box on page 30), following in the slightly unlikely record-breaking, underwater footsteps of MOR songstress Katie Melua.

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In what, even ten years on, appears a very strange brief for a gig, Melua and her five-piece band performed two 35-minute shows 303m (994 feet) below sea level at the bottom of one leg of a North Sea gas platform. The performances marked the tenth anniversary of the Statoil Troll A gas rig and were given to members of the platform’s crew who won ‘tickets’ in a ballot. Wearing bright orange survival suits, the musicians travelled to the base of the shaft in a small lift, which was also used to transport their equipment. The main PA comprised 12 cabinets of Meyer M1D, arranged as four boxes a side with the others in zones round the space. Mixing was on a DiGiCo D5, with Melua and her players using Sennheiser 3000 in-ear monitors. Melua described the show as “the most surreal gig I’ve ever done”, one that earned her an entry in the Guinness Book of Records for deepest concert.

The following August, Finnish metal band Agonizer set the record for the deepest concert underground by playing at 1,271m (4,160 feet, 11 inches) below sea level in the Pyhäsalmi Mine at Pyhäjärvi, Finland. Earlier in 2007, British soul-pop act Jamiroquai went to the other extreme, setting six records for highest concert ever, fastest concert ever, highest concert in an aeroplane, fastest concert in an aeroplane, highest ever recording and fastest ever recording.

Higher...

The Gig in the Sky took place on 27 February during a flight from Stansted Airport to Athens, via Munich.

The 25-minute airborne live performance was relayed to the onboard audience through a small Turbosound rig, supplied by Britannia Row, with one 308 a side, a 115 sub bass and two 308 delays in overhead lockers. Jamiroquai’s regular sound engineer, Rick Pope, mixed on a 16-channel Yamaha LS9. Jason Kay

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2016

P30

Unique gigs

FROZEN NORTH AND SOUTH: THE COLDEST GIGS The record for the coldest music performance was set by former Busted singer and guitarist Charlie Simpson in 2012. Playing in temperatures of -30 degrees Celsius, Simpson played for 15 minutes, with 30-second breaks between songs, to an audience of nonplussed but welcoming locals in the Siberian village of Oymyakon. Simpson was accompanied by a three-person support team and performed unamplified on his acoustic guitar.

Matt Tuck and friends toast their air, sea and land Ice Cold gigs under the aurora borealis in northern Norway

UK metal band The Defiled play an iceberg, with Soundmaster Horizon 2012 power mixer

At the other end of the world heavy metal monsters Metallica went to Antarctica to play for an equally captive audience, but with a bit more technology. While they were not able to use loudspeakers, the band plugged into a mixing desk, which in turn fed a wireless network picked by a headphone-wearing audience.

Metallica played in a dome at the Carlini Scientific Base to contest winners and curious scientists in 2013. The hour-long show was recorded and released as Freeze ‘Em All – but it was not the first rock gig on the continent of Antarctica. That honour reputedly goes to Nanatak, a group made up of British scientists and engineers at the Rothera Research Station.

Their involvement in Live Earth ensured the 2007 event featured music from all seven continents.

Charlie Simpson’s adventure was organised in conjunction with German drinks brand Jägermeister, which has turned that jaunt into an ongoing series of concerts in frozen wastes.

What is now known as the ‘Ice Cold Gigs’ continued in 2014, when industrial metal band The Defiled played another world first, this time on a floating iceberg. Audio equipment was supplied by Studiomaster and included a Horizon 2012 powered mixer, a pair of stand-mounted XPX 12 moulded loudspeakers and KM92 dynamic microphones.

More ice-bound music followed in 2015 when neo-prog outfit TesseracT performed on a ‘stage’ created out of ice and snow in Lapland, Finland. Logistics for the gig were organised

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by Tom McShane, a former soldier and now operations director of Secret Compass, a specialist in organising expeditions and events in unusual, exotic or inhospitable places.

McShane brought in local audio hire company EventWorks to supply the PA; this comprised d&B audiotechnik boxes – threea-side Q1s with Q and J subs – with six D12 amps. Monitors were also d&b (M4s) with additional AKG IVM4500 IEMs supplied by Sound Technology in the UK. TesseracT also used their own rack-based system instead of backline, with mixing on a Behringer X32.

Temperatures varied between -10° during the day and -15° at night but Vellu Käkilehto, who heads the technology department of EventWorks, says it was nothing out of the ordinary for the company. “That’s normal for northern Finland,” he says. “We left the amps on after testing to prevent freezing and had a heater in the FOH tent so the mixers worked correctly.”

This year’s Ice Cold Gig was simpler in terms of instrumentation and audio gear but more ambitious regarding where it took place. Matt Tuck, vocalist and rhythm guitarist of heavy metallers Bullet for My Valentine, performed for three friends as they travelled over air, sea and land in northern Norway.

Tuck played and sang as they skydived out of a helicopter, travelled by speedboat across the Lyngsfjord and then rode on a dogsled.

Tom McShane says that even though this was acoustic music he still wanted to make it like a gig: “During the skydive I got the sound from the guitar and Matt’s voice on a Zoom H6 recorder through Zaxcom receivers, transmitting it to his friends using a Sennheiser system. The main consideration with these gigs is to make them authentic and even though it is effectively a ‘PR stunt’ I want the musicians and audience to have a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

monitored on two Turbo 420 wedges, with the rest of the band working with in-ear units. On arrival at Athens International the band played another set, a first for a performance airside at an airport. This featured a Turbosound Aspect rig with Yamaha PM5D consoles.

An initial problem for this gig in the air was powering the professional equipment. Palettes of dry cell batteries and inverters, weighing 1.5 tons, were built to provide the necessary power, which the on-board circuits could not provide. Similar problems faced the technical team behind an earth-bound but no less tricky extreme concert that took place on 30 March, 2016. To celebrate the launch of Virgin Radio UK, a live broadcast was made from a train travelling between Manchester and London via Crew, Birmingham and Rugby (see PSNEurope August 2016 for broadcast report).

More complicated...

On the train, one carriage was designated the performance area. Seats were removed to create a space for the bands, with the audience on either side of them as well as in front. Freelance sound engineer Sam Cunningham, working with rental company Capital Sound Hire, came up with a system that would feed not just the gig coach but four others in the rest of the train.

“It was straightforward to put the live rig in one carriage, even though we only had half-an-hour to look at the carriage before the day of the show itself,” Cunningham comments. “What we had to work out was how to get the sound to the other carriages, because we couldn’t run cables from one to another due to the doors. Luckily, even though we had only a short time for prior testing, we discovered that there was an Ethernet backbone running between the coaches. So we built a series of Dante stations using laptops to send and Irish indie band Walking on Cars play in the Virgin Train performance carriage, with Martin Audio DD6 cabinet clearly visible to the right in the luggage rack

www.eventworks.fi www.britanniarow.com www.capital-sound.co.uk www.clairglobal.com www.mlexecutives.com www.secretcompass.com

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The full AquaSonic ensemble pictured in performance Photo credit: Jens Peter Engedal/FuturePerfect Productions

receive. This worked well except for the last carriage, which didn’t have the same connectivity. In the end we used Ethernet Powerlink plugs in the mains to get the signal through. I wouldn’t usually be comfortable with that in a professional situation, but it worked.”

The main show rig comprised Martin Audio DD6 cabinets with PSX sub bass, powered by Full Fat Audio amplification. The other carriages were fitted with DD6s for delay feeds from the performance coach.

Bands were mixed on a DiGiCo SD11. Cunningham

observes that running a live rig, plus radio broadcast and video equipment, from the 5A feeds on board the train was not easy because of the power draw but it did cope.

As most train travellers know, getting a wireless signal while en route is difficult and in this case meant that the musicians could not use regular in-ear monitoring. Instead members of Mystery Jets, Travis, The Feeling, Gavin James, Emmy the Great and Walking On Cars wore wired monitor units.

Fran Healy, left, and Dougie Payne of Travis play in one of the audience carriages for the Virgin Radio train-bound launch

Wetter...

There is the thought that, after playing below sea level, in the air, on a train and in bigger and bigger venues, there is little left to do in the way of extreme gigs. Until someone comes up with the idea of performing underwater. That was the goal of Danish singer, composer and sound artist Laila Skovmand, who formulated the concept in 2004 and has spent the intervening years perfecting specially-made instruments and recording/amplification techniques to make it a reality.

Skovmand and her musicians, under the banner of Between Music, have been presenting their AquaSonic compositions live this year, performing in heated, custom-made tanks. Musician Robert Karlsson, who is also co-founder and head technician of Beyond Music, explains that Skovmand wondered how water

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would act as a reverb effect: “She experimented and performed with this a couple of years, before she tried to sing totally submerged. One thing led to the other and the concept started to develop. I entered the project in 2012 as a violin player. The idea of playing music under water appealed to me as a totally new and challenging environment.”

The special instruments include a hydraulophone, an acoustic instrument played using direct contact with water, electromagnetic harp, chimes and percussion.

These are picked up through hydrophones built by Aquarian Audio of Washington, with the performers listening to what they are playing on waterproof in-ear monitors. Mixing is on a Behringer X32, which is connected to a PA provided by the venue, although Karlsson says L-Acoustics K Series or d&b audiotechnik T, V or Y Series are preferred.

As Karlsson concedes, electricity and water are a dangerous combination, so a custom-made safety system was designed to bridge between the hydrophones and the tanks to ensure there is no direct power connection. Each performer comes to the surface during performances to breath, usually at predetermined points in the piece. “To sing under water Laila had to invent a whole new technique,” Karlsson explains. “If you sing regularly under water, you will get a lot of air bubbles that sound louder then the actual vocal sounds. So the singers keep an air bubble in their mouth and sing through it. When they feel the air bubble is on its way out of the mouth, they suck it in again to sing the next note. They also have a technique where they sing on both exhale and inhale.”

As might be expected, the acoustics of this have been a big challenge. “Water acoustics are very different from air and we had many years of trial and error,” says Karlsson. “With the help of underwater acoustics expert Professor Preston Wilson of the University of Texas and instrument builder Matt Nolan, we found ways of making the instruments stable, meaning that they sound similar every time.”

At the end of the report on Jamiroquai’s Gig in the Sky, this correspondent pondered as to what would be next after the deepest and highest gigs. We’ve now had the coldest, and people are singing underwater.

Which probably means a PSNEurope special about a gig on the first passenger flight into space sometime in the future... www.aquasonic.dk

22/07/2016 12:43

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Rental house boom

Mumford & Sons at BST in Hyde Park with MLA

Capital gains Capital Sound’s recent warehouse shake-up reveals more than you might expect, reports Phil Ward

W

ithin the space of a month or so, London-based full-service rental company Capital Sound began this year by announcing its investment in, firstly, Italian manufacturer Outline’s GTO long-throw line array, and then the German J Series by d&b audiotechnik: a thoroughly pro-European series of gestures that suddenly seems desperately welcome.

Regardless of politics, Capital’s decisions have redefined the company’s role and strategy in the thick of top-drawer international touring, where it is right and proper nowadays to expect enterprises forged in British rock show business to be crossing Continental borders on a daily basis. The multinational and multicultural nature of Capital’s diary and inventory sends out its own message, but there’s more: the “one size doesn’t fit all” advertising campaign is a real sign of the times.

The Jess Glynne Capital Sound team, with Paul Timmins in red, and d&b rig behind

We are Divo The roots of this change, like so much else in history’s unclipped hedge, are technological. Rising standards across multiple pro-audio brands are forcing a rethink of business policy as buying habits – you might call these ‘revenue’ habits, as this is rental – change: expenditure decisions are registering new criteria.

Proof of the acumen of Capital’s manoeuvres is already visible, with a few striking successes for both new systems. To begin with, the GTO has been out for some time on ‘popera’ quartet Il Divo’s Amor & Pasion

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tour, covering Europe and now awaiting confirmation of an extension into the US leg. Capital has been servicing Il Divo production from the beginning, with FOH luminaries Chris Pyne and Davide Lombardi, among others, presiding on various different occasions. In the past Capital has employed Meyer Sound on Il Divo tours, but recently engineer Matteo Cifelli has used Martin Audio’s MLA: a successful decision that served to deepen relations between

Capital and the four tenors’ current choice of guardian at FOH. Capital’s purchase of Outline’s GTO cemented this relationship further, as it’s a Cifelli favourite.

Apart from the Il Divo tour, early outings for Capital’s GTO have included the classic rock Stone Free Festival at London’s O2 Arena and an important showcase at Wrexham Racecourse featuring faithful clients The Stereophonics.

“That was a benchmark for us,” admits Paul

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OUTLINE PLAN Capital Sound project manager Robin Conway found himself working alongside MLA devotee Dave Roden for a showcase Stereophonics ‘home’ gig in Wrexham last month – except that no MLA was available…

“With Hyde Park and other festivals on-going no MLA was to be found anywhere, but Dave is a loyal customer and agreed to try out our new Outline GTO line array for this particular gig. We matched what would have been the MLA specification very closely – 15 C-12s and a downfill per side on the main hang and nine C-12s and a downfill on the sides, plus 24 GTOSUBS in a broadside cardioid configuration.

That’s how we use the MLX subs and I thought it would work very well with the GTO… and it did.

“Although the GTO does not have the complex DSP that makes the MLA such a special proposition, it is a very clever system with intelligent DSP amplifiers driven over Dante – which falls in line with everything else we’ve developed this year. This was a great opportunity to give the GTO a good workout, as it’s well documented that it’s been used a lot for orchestral applications. It rocked…”

them and that we have their trust: when we explained the situation to Dave he was quite happy to take the GTO for that show.”

This was not, Timmins stresses, a case of settling for the only boxes left in the warehouse. In fact, the wider range of high-quality line array now available to Capital Sound clients is a deliberate strategy to update the stock and to broaden the brand horizons.

“We’re moving a lot of the older kit onto the used PA markets overseas,” he reveals, “and this year has been the first year that we haven’t had what you would once have called a ‘B’ system. Our situation has changed and we want to offer customers premium choices every time, and not to be associated with only one brand. We want to be a company of real choice.

“We’ve made these investments because where we sit in the marketplace does not make us a global powerhouse like some of the others out there, but neither are we a company that has to rely on just one or two of the leading brands. We all know that L-Acoustics and d&b are ahead in terms of most riders, but we’ve got four excellent systems and a reputation for unrivalled service. Production people want to work with us, but nowadays they also have to make sure their engineers are getting what they want: one or two choices is no longer enough.”

Salade Nisoise Timmins, general manager at Capital Sound, “as engineer Dave Roden’s first choice system is usually the MLA. The show came about late in the day and we weren’t able to supply MLA – we had it at Hyde Park, at festivals in Hungary and finishing the Barry Manilow tour – so we had to look at it very carefully.

Fortunately, like Il Divo, the ‘Phonics are one of our long-term clients and we feel we can be honest with No place I’d rather be....

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Just to clarify, then: Martin Audio’s MLA remains on board – “our primary brand for the past four years,” confirms Timmins – as does the Meyer Sound brand, plus now Outline’s GTO C-12s, DFs and SUBs as well as J12s, J8s and T10s from d&b. There is of course an additional inventory of point source and other formats of loudspeaker, including L-Acoustics ARC. Timmins acknowledges that breaking in a new kid on the truss is a long game. “We put a lot of work in with MLA to bring it to where we feel it’s a little closer to the market leaders,” he says, “and we knew we’d have to go through the same process with GTO. It was a big decision, but one we know will be worth it as the market changes.”

MLA has just ticked off its second year on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, and other festival breakthroughs for the system now include main stages at Lisbon’s Rock In Rio and Budapest’s Sziget.

Hyde Park has been established, of course, and Martin Audio finds itself in a position it has not occupied for at least two decades.

“Addressing the noise pollution issues that suddenly became the hot topic it is today certainly helped MLA,” says Timmins, “but

FEEL THE NOIZ With Al ‘Nobby’ Hopkinson mixing Jess Glynne in Gloucester recently, Capital Sound faced an early test of its expertise with d&b’s new NoizCalc 3D modelling software.

“It was outdoors, a pretty big d&b system and we were the new boys, if you like,” explains Capital’s general manager Paul Timmins.

“Nobby’s worked with VER, Eighth Day and others and will always want d&b; meanwhile Jess’ production manager Giles Woodhead very much wanted to use Capital. He told me straight that Nobby wouldn’t use Meyer or MLA, and at the time we were just securing the d&b deal. So we got the gig, but we had to prove that we weren’t coming into it as an MLA ‘house’ in alien territory! I think they were very pleasantly surprised…”

With a little help from a certain local lynchpin? “Oh yes, the guys at Nailsworth gave us a lot of support. Gianni [Abruzzese] has been my main point of contact, but on the day Wayne Hall did a lot of work on NoizCalc and was invaluable. It was a difficult site, and Giles even considered trying to talk Nobby into using MLA, but with NoizCalc we achieved the numbers recommended by Vanguardia. We pulled it off, basically, and I’m sure it’s helped to widen our reputation for customised solutions.”

of course d&b are now challenging with new solutions – and others will follow suit. That will shift MLA’s USP to some extent, but it’s still a totally original concept.

We’re now examining d&b’s NoizCalc software developments to see how that works, and we’re getting into a position where we can advise customers on the subtle differences between the two systems and help them to tackle their noise issues with a sensible option. Even in off-site noise management, one size doesn’t fit all and more!”

So all of the rigs are first among equals, in the hope that none will pigeonhole Capital Sound along traditional lines. It makes for a challenging new public profile…

“We’re making it clear that we are still a Meyer ‘house’,” says Timmins, “although the other three brands all offer the most current models and the full range: with Meyer, we’re still in the process of renewing and refining the inventory. It all depends what comes into the office, the type of project and the

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Rental house boom Outline GTO for the Stereophonics in Wrexham

kind of tour, so we can assess what they’re looking for and look at what we have. Then we can go back to them with advice and choices, customised options that really tackle their needs – as opposed to only a couple of years ago when we might recognise what they wanted and yet not be able to provide it.”

In not being able to provide it, Capital would then find itself in the position of promoting what it did have available, quite possibly at odds with the customer’s actual requirements. And this was the realization: the revenue motive was flawed, doomed to fall short of expectations and, at best, able only to generate compromise. “It’s a lot harder to secure business that way,” Timmins underlines.

Sound balance A rental company can’t buy everything, of course, and risk having three-quarters of the stock lying idle in the warehouse. But according to Timmins, the speaker market has now matured to a similar point to the console market, at which specific requests must be honoured. “You can’t say to someone who asks for a DiGiCo [digital console] SD7, sorry, we haven’t got one – we’ll give you a Midas PRO 6. It just doesn’t work like that, especially with consoles that have unique operational characteristics. But loudspeakers have almost become as subjective, and engineers are getting used to securing their first choice every time in most departments. And, of course, if you can’t supply it, somebody else will…”

The balancing act, then, is to arrive at a competitive range of brands that cover as wide a margin of preferences as possible, without over-stocking. “It does make it harder to manage,” says Timmins, “especially when you consider that every system might need different power supplies, drive racks and all the rest of the infrastructure. We decided to make sure that everything we offer runs on consistent

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power solutions and drive racks, and that makes the whole operation easier. We also have to make sure that the expertise is there: that people are confident we’re not just experienced with MLA but we can also get the best out of an Outline, Meyer or d&b system.

You’re only as good as your last gig…”

Capital Sound’s new strategy is put into even sharper relief when you consider that the business continues to focus on rental – apart from moving on its outmoded stock – at a time when many competitors are diversifying into fixed installation, sales and even distribution. These dynamics, says Timmins, are risky. “We’re not doing that: companies can become their own competitors. It’s not a policy that we see positively, and I think it’s a bit short-term.

There’s been a spate of venue installations, most of them in the last three years, and we’re on the cusp of

a change when all the maintenance contracts run out.

When the kit all gets a bit older, the venues won’t want to spend any money on it: we’ve seen that happen with the few that were carried out 15 years ago, and we hear a lot of complaints.

“It’s not such a good solutions for artists because, even though they may be carrying control, they have to encounter different conditions every day – not all of them set up perfectly, in my opinion – the people aren’t there to take care of things and, nine times out of ten, there’s no tech support on the tour because the control and the console mixes are in these compact, low-cost packages. We get a lot of calls asking for our help, after people have arrived somewhere and the system is out of phase, for example. It muddies the situation.”

Sale or rental, sound reinforcement is entering a new phase. Timmins confirms speaker boxes are now the horses for the many new courses.

“Most systems now do a good job,” he reflects, “and sound quality as a measure is becoming more subjective: it’s harder to say well, system ‘B’ would obviously never stand up to system ‘A’ but it’s cheaper… and that subjectivity has to be addressed in a new way. The show may sound amazing, objectively, but if the engineer is not personally happy with that sound it’s not going to work. You just get a difficult situation that runs through the duration of the project.”

There’s a certain irony to this: improved specifications all throughout a PA are actually making it harder to sell individual systems. The margins of competition are being transferred from scientific judgement to some other kind. Whisper it gently, but the changes expressed by Capital Sound’s recent alteration of some of its business models could auger a new type of consumerism within pro audio: in which highly sophisticated marketing plays its part. capital-sound.co.uk Jess Glynne in full swing

21/07/2016 22:38

Inspiring Every Moment Audio-Technica’s In-Ear Monitor Headphones Bringing the worldwide critically acclaimed sonic signature of the M-Series to an in-ear design, the Audio-Technica in-ear monitor headphones have been designed to fully answer the needs of demanding sound professionals and musicians from the studio to the stage and the DJ Booth.

ATH-E70

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New technology

In action: the Funktion One from Vero

The launch of the Martin Audio Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array system in 2010 arguably ushered in a new phase of touring PA design. David Davies takes a look at some of the major launches to have come along since then.

S

peaking to PSNEurope in 2010, newlyappointed Martin Audio managing director Dom Harter remarked that “most manufacturers would love to have a technology like MLA (Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array), so at Martin Audio we are aware that we are very privileged to now have these amazing R&D building blocks that we can move anywhere [and incorporate into other products].”

The system’s ability to deliver highly directed and consistent coverage immediately struck a chord with a touring and festival market where noise issues were a burgeoning concern. But more generally, MLA’s innovative credentials might be argued to have raised the bar for the PA sector – and helped to usher in what has proven to be an exceptionally creative half-decade in loudspeaker design.

This overview rounds up some (if not all) of the most exciting launches, and begins with a product that proves Martin Audio’s own focus on fresh innovation remains undimmed…

CDD-LIVE! Series by Martin Audio: Introduced at PL + S 2016, CDD-LIVE! has been designed to cover all manner of professional standalone and distributed applications – from SR and monitoring for live bands, DJs and corporate events, to fixed installations.

Combining the ‘point-source’ benefits of coaxial designs with the consistent coverage of Differential Dispersion technology, CDD-LIVE! sports onboard Class D amplification, DSP and Dante digital audio networking.

“We have certainly been getting a lot of requests for Dante integration,” said Harter in the same PSNEurope interview. “The people at Audinate are very smart and

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The CDD Live! Series from Martin Audio

understand their business model very well. They deliver a good product that solves a number of problems, so for the foreseeable future it will be Dante [around which we focus our efforts regarding networking].”

Vero by Funktion-One: One of the other undoubted stars of Frankfurt this year was Funktion-One’s Vero.

In the works for six years, Vero is a complete system comprising speakers, amplifiers, cabling, rigging, transport dollies, weatherproof covers and software.

The Vero speaker range includes six low distortion hornloaded units – the V60 mid-high, V90 mid-high and V315 mid-bass, with a choice of V221, V124 or V132 bass – while amplification comes from a trio of Lab.gruppen PLM 20K44 amplifiers. Vero also provides support for Dante networking.

Speaking in 2015, Funktion-One founder Tony Andrews highlighted the system’s careful balance of

quality and user-friendliness. “While Vero’s primary aim is to achieve the best sound quality possible, its intelligent design features ensure that the user experience is straightforward, making efficient use of tight production timeframes,” he says.

Scale Through Modularity (STM) by NEXO: Given the forbidding nature of the turnarounds facing many touring personnel, as well as a wide variety of event types and sizes, it is to be expected that many recent launches emphasise their versatility. NEXO’s Scale Through Modularity (STM) system is a case in point, with a range of four modules making it possible to put together everything from a simple ground stack to a ‘massive stadium system’.

Integral to the operation of the STM is the NEXO Universal Amp Rack, which feeds 12 STM modules

NEXO’s Scale Through Modularity

21/07/2016 22:40

Steerable sound isn’t just about being heard, it’s about being understood.

ICONYX Gen5 steerable loudspeakers deliver clarity to every seat.

It didn’t matter how far back their seats were. Or how cavernous the hall was. All they heard – all they felt – was sound that was warm, intelligible and personal. With clear, precisely-controlled sound from Iconyx Gen5 steerable loudspeakers, their seats were the best in the house. To learn more or for a demo, visit www.renkus-heinz.com.

renkus-heinz.com/iconyx-gen5

©2016 Renkus-Heinz

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New technology

VHD5.0 Constant Power Point Source Array

KH8 from the Firenze range from K-array

in any combination of groups of three. The NUAR comprises NXAMP4x4 amplifiers, two digital input patches, two digital output patches and an optional EtherNet or Dante network card.

Speaking last year, NEXO international touring manager Stuart Kerrison outlined the lengthy period of consultation that preceded the development of “a versatile system that could provide outstanding performance in all sizes of venue. At the same time, system riggers wanted a system they could rig alone without having to involve local hands in the critical operations of flying a PA.” Firenze by K-array: The variations that manufacturers have continued to find in line array technology over the last half-decade have been many and impressive.

Firenze by K-array has been one of the launches to receive a rave response, and comprises the KH8 – a flat, self-powered line array with ‘slim array technology’ (SAT) and the ability to independently tilt each loudspeaker within the totally straight enclosure – and the KS8 subwoofer.

Speaking to PSNEurope’s Jon Chapple last year, K-array product specialist manager Francesco Maffei highlighted the system’s suitability for touring and

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installation alike. Nonetheless, it is certainly “a rock and roll system where you can really get a lot of SPL” (145dB to be precise).

Redline Powered Loudspeaker Series by EAW: With many sound suppliers working across touring and install sectors, the commercial value of multi-purpose systems speaks for itself. EAW is among the other manufacturers to have acknowledged the trend, with the Redline family of powered loudspeakers launching in 2015. The series comprises two powered, two-way loudspeakers – the RL12 12-inch and RL15 15-inch – along with the RL18S 18-inch powered subwoofer.

Other features include 1,250 watts of fanless Class-D

and Power Factor Corrected amplification, along with EAW Focusing sonic processing to deliver ‘the impulse response of a studio monitor with the impact demanded by live sound applications’ Commenting at the time of the Redline Powered Loudspeakers’ launch, EAW president Jeff Rocha remarked: “EAW engineers focused on designing a product with a streamlined, robust feature set with no extraneous widgets that can break or get in the way of working professionals. They utilised years of touring product experience – the KF, JF, SB and Adaptive Systems product families – to create a product our customers will find incredibly useful and that will be a solid performer, day in and day out.”

K2 Large Format WST Line Source by L-Acoustics: Undoubtedly one of the most important launches of recent years, the K2 Variable curvable line source system remains a hugely popular choice among tour sound personnel for its combination of feature-set and performance quality. Able to be deployed as a standalone system, with K1-SB/SB28 subwoofers, or as a complement to the K1 system, K2 features a horizontal steering technology (patent pending) with four different settings: two symmetric (70° or 110°) and two asymmetric (90° as 35°/55° or 55°/35°).

VHD5.0 by KV2 Audio: Recently – at PL+S 2016, to be precise – the company unveiled the VHD5.0 Constant Power Point Source Array. The objective was to accommodate 50,000+ people and ‘reproduce the low-mid energy that certain line arrays provide though the summing of multiple drivers, while maintaining the key benefits of point source technology, such as minimal destructive interference in the higher frequency range and accurate impulse response.’

The current level of excitement around creating more immersive audio environments in the home seems almost certain to inform the next generation of live sound and concert designs. If, as seems likely, this will necessitate a further phase of intense R&D, then the launches profiled above suggests that manufacturers are more than able to take on the challenge.

At a gig in Brixton, London the K2 Large Format WST Line Source by L-Acoustics

21/07/2016 22:40

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2/24/2016 11:31:42 AM

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Rebuilding history

The first gig was performed by Madness: lead singer Suggs lived in Hastings in his youth

Hastings Pier has a historical place in the annals of rock music as an important, if quirky, venue.

After major setbacks the seaside attraction is looking to regain its position on the gig circuit.

Kevin Hilton looks at the background and potential problems of concerts (almost) at sea

A

seaside town that has lost its pier can seem a sad place, somehow less seasidey.

The pier in Hastings on the East Sussex coast of England was destroyed after a devastating fire in 2010, an event that affected the town’s regeneration. A high profile campaign to save and ultimately rebuild the 19th century structure culminated earlier this year with an official opening featuring Madness.

The live show by the Nutty Boys, fronted by Suggs (born in Hastings and resident there until he was four), can be seen as a statement of intent by the charity that now operates the pier. During the 1960s and ’70s it hosted some of the biggest names in rock and pop, including The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Geno Washington, 10cc, the Sex Pistols and Squeeze. The aim now is to make the ‘new’ pier not only a major attraction again but pay its way by building on that history.

Following the lead of Madness will be Dizzee Rascal, Happy Mondays and The Orb, supported by Formation and local electronica duo Vile Electrodes, and Levellers with Turin Brakes playing on a festival-style weekender bill on 16, 17 and 18 September. These acts will perform in the open air on the same temporary stage brought in for Madness, set up at the end of the pier.

In the past, bands performed inside the old ballroom, which local historian Andre Palfrey-Martin, who played the pier as DJ Chris Gentry at the time, describes as having a “horrific” acoustic. “In the ’60s and early ’70s most of the sound systems were made up of the standard amps and loudspeakers,” he says. “Trying to be as loud as possible to be heard over the punters was a priority – 100W went nowhere. Most PAs were simply operated from the stage.

Mixing was unheard of in most cases, all the mics when through the PA amp, which would hopefully have enough channels to cope.”

The ballroom was not designed for amplified music; it

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The opening gig showing the Deck, the only permanent building on the refurbished pier

was built in 1922 to replace the original Victorian music hall that was part of renowned pier engineer Eugenius Birch’s design and construction of 1872. That building burned down in 1917, one of several fires the pier has endured over the years. The 20th century ballroom and much of the other superstructure were destroyed in the 2010 fire; the western Pavilion shelter was the only survivor.

The shelter now houses a bar and restaurant; that structure and a central visitor centre and viewing points called The Deck are the sole permanent building on the renovated pier. Much of the decking area has been left open, allowing carousels and concession huts to be moved as necessary. The seaward end of the pier has been similarly vacant to allow a stage and ancillary areas to be

constructed for concerts. “We didn’t consider building a Victorian ballroom again because we’re not Victorians,” explains Pier Charity spokesman Tim Fordham-Moss.

The £15 million renovation has produced what FordhamMoss describes as “a fully renewed, 21st century model of a Victorian British seaside icon”. He adds: “To be able to resurrect the pier’s reputation as a live music venue is equally pleasing and to have Madness, Dizzee Rascal, The Levellers and Happy Mondays all play live within five months of opening is a real statement that the pier is back and the music is live.”

Suggs screwed the last plank into position on 22 March 2016 as a precursor to the band’s concert on 21 May. It was a fitting debut, Suggs remarks because Madness has

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always been an “end-of-the-pier” act. Unfortunately the weather, as ever, was no respecter of an occasion. The day of the show saw heavy rain and strong winds, although this didn’t deter the ticket holders on the pier itself or all those who were able to watch from the beach and the seafront.

The stage was set up facing the land, with a tented front of house area and a backstage marquee. The FOH tent housed an Avid Profile console with approximately 38 channels, at which Madness’ long-time engineer Ian Horne mixed their show. Regular monitor mixer LJ (John) Evans ran the on-stage d&b audiotechnik M2 system from a Yamaha PM5D. The main rig comprised d&b V Series cabinets flown with six narrow and two wide boxes a side, plus J Subs for the low end. Horne says there were no side or out fills because there was no room on the stage, which was already pretty crowded with the nine-piece band. “The space works well but they do need more room,” he comments. “We were basically playing in the sea but weren’t driving the hell out of the system. The people who ran the show were all very happy.”

The open-air nature of the venue, susceptible as it is to the elements, poses potential problems in terms of noise management. About a mile away on the West Hill overlooking the town it was quite clear to anyone outside that Madness started their set with their hit Embarrassment. There will be some changes for the next shows, which feature acts with a more intense sound than the Nutty Boys.

The September weekend is promoted by One Inch Badge and produced by C3 Productions, both of which are based in Brighton. (PSNEurope readers have encountered the name a couple of times in relation to annual The Great Escape festival in the city.) C3 Productions director Jon Crawley has lived in Hastings and says he saw the potential for live music on the pier when it was rebuilt: “I’ve been working as a consultant to the Pier Charity and the idea of live acts, encouraging ‘music tourism’, got a lot of support from the local authority, which felt it would be beneficial to the town.”

Crawley says the size of the audience being limited to 2,500 people has partly dictated how productions are organised. “We have to think about access to exits and also where things can be put on the pier in terms of weight loading,” he explains. “Which is why we have a structural engineer working with us.”

A major change from the Madness show is that the

“We have to think about access to exits and also where things can be put on the pier in terms of weight loading” Jon Crawley

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An archive shot of the pier, before the 2010 fire

Work in progress on the pier, showing the wreck of the ballroom and the west shelter almost intact

stage will face out to sea, with The Deck acting as the backstage area. Madness’ appearance was regarded by the organisers and operators as a community event, which is why people not on the pier were allowed a view of what was going on. Subsequent shows are more commercial, so that earlier freedom will not be available. Crawley adds that this arrangement could also aid sound control. “The

performance area is a fair way out to sea, although we will be putting noise management in place. There will be measurements at nearby properties, following the guideline of not exceeding 75dBA for 15 minutes.”

To further contain the audio as much as possible the main rig will be a L-Acoustics KARA line array plus cardioid subs. Crawley says this configuration means there is very little back spill but with the capability for a “fairly pumpy” sound as well. The FOH desk will be a Midas Heritage H1000, with space available for Happy Mondays to bring in their touring console. The monitor system will be Turbosound TFM-560s, mixed from an Avid Profile.

The choice of bands – and the potential for overspill noise – will doubtless alienate some sections of the town.

But with the continuing search for new and different venues in the live event market, plus bookings into 2017, the pier is poised to put Hastings back on the music map. hastingspier.org.uk www.c3productions.co.uk

21/07/2016 22:51

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Ultra-glamping!

Or, the definitive guide to festivals for those with more money than sense

G

ot a spare mil burning a hole in your pocket?

Ever wanted to see the inside of a volcano first hand and/or think what Glastonbury needs is more fresh linen? In the unlikely event you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above, read on to find out which of this summer’s festivals offer more bang for a LOT more bucks…

Festival No6 (£5,206.95)

Billboard Hot 100 ($10,000) According to Hits’ Rumor Mill column, Billboard owner Eldridge Industries has been “haemorrhaging money at the rate of $20m+ per year”, which might explain why for the second edition of its New York festival the magazine is offering, for the low price of $10,000 a ticket (plus $28.26 in fees), a ‘Poser Package’ that includes a seat on the main stage, a helicopter ride to and from the venue and meet-and-greets with Martin Garrix, Awolnation, Nervo and Sleigh Bells.

Wave Week (£9,792.31) [pic] Sort of an aquatic version of The Great Escape, multivenue festival Wave Week, taking place for the first time this year, will see 250 dance music fans on 40 yachts sail to see DJs playing seven different coastal venues on multiple Croatian islands. Yachts start at £3,877.59 for the six-person Bavaria 37, but we recommend the £9,792.31 Beneteau 57 instead – you can’t put a price on class.

Tomorrowland (€30,000+)

Every year Belgium’s Tomorrowland, the world’s most successful EDM festival brings together 180,000 people from across the globe to take drugs, dance to overpaid DJs, paint each other’s faces and generally share the love like it’s perpetually 1989. If, however, you’re some kind of super-rich Withnail who hates other human beings, Tomorrowland has you covered: for €30,000, plus the price of a ticket, you can have a whole mansion nearby to yourself! You can split the cost with 11 other people… but what would be the point?

Secret Solstice ($1m) SpanFest (£2,000) Standard camping tickets for the “most sophisticated festival in Europe” (The Guardian) are only slightly overpriced – at £190 plus booking fee – but if you really want to push the boat out, you can.

PSNLive got the total price for two people up to over £5,000 by including all three meals by celebrity chefs James Knappett, Gizzi Erskine and Aiden Byrne (£72.50 a pop) and staying in an Airstream caravan (£4,510 for two). Can anyone do any better?

A high-end rival to Fairport’s Cropredy Convention, SpanFest is hosted by fellow British folk revivalists Steeleye Span in the grounds of Penshurst castle in Kent. For its 13th year, the festival is introducing its first VIP package, Go Folk Yourself, which includes backstage tickets, travel from Tonbridge in an authentic plague cart, a signed Jew’s harp, a pottery lesson with frontwoman Maddy Prior and a year’s subscription to Morris Dancer Monthly.

Bonnaroo ($30,000) Glastonbury (£13,000) It should be no surprise that the ultimate middle-class festival has some suitably middle-class festival packages, courtesy of Camp Kerala (an “Indian tent” with a spa, kitchen and backstage passes – prices start at £8,225) and Land & Sky (luxury yurts – £5,999 plus VAT for two people). For the minor nobility among you, however, there’s also the Pop-Up Hotel’s Tenthouse Suite, which for the princely sum of £13,000 for three days offers three bedrooms, a living area, a bathroom with a shower, sink and flushing toilet, power sockets and “luxury linen” for all. Perfect for those with an allergy to mud.

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American teen rite-of-passage Bonnaroo’s luxury offering, Roll Like a Rockstar, includes backstage access to the festival, an on-site concierge on call 24 hours a day and, of course, an Almost Famous-style tour bus. Quaaludes/ hangers-on with which to sing Tiny Dancer optional.

This is it: the motherlode. After making headlines in 2015 with its US$200,000 ticket – then the world’s most expensive – Icelandic festival Secret Solstice has upped the ante for 2016, unveiling an even more insane package for bored 1 percenters that will set you back no less than cue (Dr Evil voice)… one million dollars! What do you get for that $1m? Among other things, a private jet (“Gulfstream G300 or similar”) to fly you and five other people into and out of Iceland from anywhere in the world, a six-room villa in Reykjavik for seven nights, festival tickets, 24/7 access to two cars, drivers and private security, a private concert in a lava field by a “prominent Icelandic act” and access to a concert inside a dormant volcano by Deftones frontman Chino Moreno – aka the most metal thing ever.

(With thanks to Jon Chapple and IQ Magazine)

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