TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL
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TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL
WWW.TPiMAGAZINE.COM DECEMBER 2014
ISSUE 184
LIVE EVENT DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY • DECEMBER 2014 • ISSUE 184
MTV EMAs
THE POP WORLD IS HONOURED IN GLORIOUS GLASWEGIAN PRODUCTION
HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!
XTA’S APA-4E8 • ED SHEERAN • SIGNAL FESTIVAL • RICHARD MARTIN LIGHTING TURNS 30 ONEREPUBLIC • KATY B • TPi AWARDS SHORTLIST • DRAPING MARKET FOCUS • CHVRCHES
PRODUCTION PROFILE: Katy B
KATY B RADIATING MUSICAL VERSATILITY AND RAW EMOTION, KATY B HAD NO TROUBLE IN GETTING CAMDEN’S ROUNDHOUSE JUMPING. THE FIERY R&B, DUBSTEP, GARAGE STYLE SINGER-SONGWRITER TOOK THE VENUE BY STORM, HITTING THE STAGE LIKE A WHIRLWIND AND SUCKING EVERYONE INTO HER WORLD WITH CONTAGIOUS ENTHUSIASM AND ENERGY. WITH A PLAYLIST FOCUSSED ON HER LATEST ALBUM LITTLE RED, AND PLEASINGLY PEPPERED WITH HER RECENT HITS, SHE PRESENTED A CLEVERLY ARRANGED MIX OF REBELLIOUS STYLE DANCE SONGS AND EMOTIONAL BALLADS. TPi CAUGHT UP WITH KATY B’S CREW AT THE ICONIC LONDON VENUE... Katy B’s show kicks it up a notch for a club and theatre size tour. Katy B’s huge stage presence and rich bass filled sound accompanied by a generous helping of cleverly choreographed grunge style dancers is enhanced by Lighting Designer Tom Campbell’s lively club style lighting, making this show feel bigger than ever before. Supersized and ambitious, this is by no means a high budget production. Driven by the healthy imaginations of the design team, alongside a dynamically resourceful production department - this show definitely punches above its budgetary weight. Busy Tour and Production Manager, Trigger, who has been in the industry for over 25 years, takes charge of a small but resourceful team. Campbell has judiciously selected a versatile floor package of fixtures, supplied by Siyan 48
Lighting, which augments each venue’s inhouse, workhorse rig overhead. “It’s easy with the Roundhouse,” he commented. “The venue has a stunning house rig, which is certainly not the case with every venue! “I’m pretty flexible and happy to use anything a venue has to offer,” continued Campbell. “Here at the Roundhouse I’ve got some tungsten floor lamps, which give the show a warm vibe. My aim has always been to achieve a strong nightclub feel. I make sure all the venues have Molefays plus some spots and washes, preferably Philips Vari-Lite fixtures. I’ve got 20 of each in my Avolites showfile and I just exchange and edit if I have to.” Supporting Campbell on tour by managing the practical side of things is experienced Lighting Technician, Daniel Everett. “Dan is very good at biting his tongue when I show him a
wacky design,” laughed Campbell. “And he always does what he can to make it happen.” Everett will get into a venue and ascertain the space and power, which trusses can hold what, and get rid of any redundant fixtures from the house rig. Campbell does not like it to look cluttered on stage. “It’s important to keep it all looking tidy, especially for a show where each song has been thought through and built up in detail,” said Everett. “I basically take some of the pain from Tom so he can focus on programming the show rather than looking at the ins and outs of how it’s going to get in and be rigged.” Campbell’s design relies on defining effects from his floor package which includes Clay Paky A.leda B-EYEs and Stormys along with Philips Showline SL NITRO 510C strobes and Light Initiative’s IntelliFlex LED tube sticks. Campbell
PRODUCTION PROFILE: Katy B
Opposite: Camden Town’s Roundhouse provided the perfect setting for Katy B’s sold out visually energetic concert. Below: Tom Campbell’s lighting design comprised Clay Paky A.leda B-EYEs and Stormys along with Philips Showline SL NITRO 510C strobes and Light Initiative’s IntelliFlex LED tube sticks.
says he really likes the technology and says he has tried to make a look that will become synonymous with Katy B herself. “This tour has the same approach as the March run, and the festival shows. We used the Light Initiative sticks on those as well. It’s such a strong look and they’re easy to rig almost anywhere. During the last tour Katy played Camden’s Koko Club and I brought in double the usual amount and rigged them randomly around the venue as we saw fit. They really made the space Katy’s own, combined with the laser as seen on the Crying for no Reason video.”
“I’m using the RGBW Stormys as block colour washes,” explained Campbell. “They give a more mature look than other strobes. They’re great fixtures and I’ll definitely be specifying them again!” The designer also employed the Showline SL NITRO 510Cs, using them for colour blocking and super bright backlight wash effects. “The cool thing with the SL NITRO 510C fixtures is that you can also create a fantastic stop frame animation effect,” added Campbell. “I’m already making plans with them for my next tour.” The defining fixture of the floor package is the sheer versatility of the Clay Paky A.leda
B-EYE K10 and K20. Campbell uses these in combination with lasers to deliver a plethora of the shows more distinctive looks, working them hard to sync with each musical phrase. “One of my favourite parts of the show is when the B-EYEs deliver this big ‘old school’ disco look, an effect I don’t usually like as it can be borderline tacky!” laughed Campbell. “However the B-EYEs pulled it off perfectly and in a unique way. Also, for the song Still I took inspiration from the music video, which is heavily backlit with a lot of white light. For this I’ve used the rotating lenses on the B-EYEs to achieve lots of twinkling parallel beams.
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PRODUCTION PROFILE: Katy B
Below: Backline Tech, Sam Seidel; Daniel Everett, Lighting Technician and LD, Tom Campbell; Sound Engineer, Martin Hildred; Tom Campbell pictured in front of his trusty Siyan Lighting-supplied Avolites Sapphire Touch console.
“The LED output on them is stunning,” added Campbell. “For example, in the song ‘5am’ I’m using them as beam fixtures and they produce a spectacularly bright, almost parallel column of light and most of the time I am using them under 50% output.” Campbell also programmes the B-EYE K10s to deliver some striking pixel-mapped effects that work in sync across all the fixtures. “Once you get your head around all the different layers and all the different things you can do with these fixtures (because there’s a lot!) it’s
“I’m using the Sapphire for this because it allows me to speedily program multifaceted, multilayered effects, explained Campbell. “I’m a big Avolites fan, they’re great consoles, easy to use and fast to programme,” he continued. “They come with all the features I need, I also own two myself - the Tiger Touch and the Titan Mobile.” To add to the dance-infused atmosphere, the show design sees some striking aerial laser effects, controlled by Daniel Briggs from AC Lasers: “The set up here is two RTI PikoRGB-14 lasers, with Coherent OPSL, outputting
““I’m using the Sapphire for this because it allows me to speedily program multifaceted, multi-layered effects...” - LD Tom Campbell
surprisingly simple to programme them,” said Campbell. “There are lots of different shapes you can put through the fixture, for example I’ve got a propeller look going across all the ones at the back and they look as if they’ve been pixel mapped and animated. I’m really loving them, they’ve allowed me to have a more compact rig and my show is a million times more varied and exciting visually because of that.” Campbell controls these complex looks through an Avolites Sapphire Touch console: 50
just under 14W of white light,” he explained. “We’re controlling it from Pangolin LivePro using QM2000.NETs, running over our remote safety system.” Briggs overlays a range of laser effects onto Campbell’s looks such as broad sweeping sheets and single beams that strike to the beat. “I play off the colours that Tom is producing and integrate the laser effects into the show,” explained Briggs. “We’ve split the projection areas to above and below the audience so
wherever you’re seated in the venue you get an excellent view. It’s not all up in the roof; it’s quite immersive, whilst maintaining a high level of safety.” AUDIO Keeping the characteristic Katy B sound true is freelance Sound Engineer Martin Hildred. New to the team Hildred joined the tour on the Birmingham show and he’s been honing the sound ever since. “It’s been getting progressively sweeter as we’ve been going along,” said Hildred. “The Roundhouse is a challenge acoustics-wise, it’s not easy to get a uniform sound. However we’ve been lucky up until now with venues that have sounded great wherever you’re standing.” Using an Avid Venue desk, Hildred is in charge of 39 channels, including 15 channels of drums - acoustic and trigger, a bass guitar and two synth bass channels, alongside percussive and pads that can’t be played live, with some backing vocals attached. “The Avid is an affordable console that allows me to record multi track recordings, a facility which renders it incredibly useful, especially when acts may not have the time to sound check,” Hildred continued. Alongside the control system, supplied by BSC Audio of Hampshire, Hildred has bought in his own microphone package, however he is using the in-house PA at each venue. In the Roundhouse, it’s an L-Acoutics V-DOSC system. “The mic package is handpicked for the job. In terms of in-ears we are using an Ultimate Ears
PRODUCTION PROFILE: Katy B
Below: Sound Engineer Martin Mildred specified an Avid Venue desk to control all 39 channels of sound, which was played through the house PA, an L-Acoutics V-DOSC.
package alongside a Sennheiser system.” When it comes to processing, Hildred is particular about which plug-ins he uses: “I’m a fan of one called Transient Designer made by German manufacturer SPL. It tightens up the drum sound to make it super punchy. It’s something I’ll do before EQ-ing, to make it snappier and sound better in the mix. The other thing I always use outboard is a Waves Max Bass BCL, it has an excellent limiting system so you don’t ever blow anything up.” In order to know exactly what to head for before rehearsals began Hildred said he spent two weeks listening solely to Katy B’s back catalogue: “Her songs became ingrained in my mind. When I actually got to rehearsals I knew what I was aiming for, which made these shows pretty straightforward. It’s what I do with every band, just to make sure I know what the hell is going on. There are a lot of very technical and musical engineers out there but if they don’t understand the artist’s sound or what the end product is supposed to be they wont get it right. And that’s what I enjoy - the end product.” Unlike Hildred, Monitor Engineer Alex Cerutti has been with Katy for 2.5 years, ever since her single with producer Mark Ronson Anywhere in the World was recorded for the Coca Cola Olympics promotional campaign in 2012. “This job has its challenging moments, but both Katy and the band are really professional and really good at getting across what they need without anybody noticing,” said Cerutti who is using a Midas Pro 2 console to control 52
the in-ear situation on stage. “It’s a pretty clean set up, everybody’s on in-ears, the drummer has a sub, and there’s a little bit of kick and side fill for the dancers. But there are no wedges, and there’s enough bass coming out of FOH that I don’t need to add any on stage.” Cerutti added he chose the Midas console as it’s compact and so works for the smaller venues on this tour. “As you can see, I’ve got one box to put it on and that’s me!”
her in-ears out when she’s chatting with the crowd, and I must be getting it right as she never does,” explained Cerutti. In terms of reverb, Cerutti is using one external system for her voice: I’m using an M3000 from TC Electronic, and an internal one for drums, keeping everything simple and on budget. I’m using snapshots for every scene and there are subtle changes in levels but that’s about it. I have a scene per song. Some tracks are two or three scenes that segue into each
“When I actually got to rehearsals I knew what I was aiming for, which made these shows pretty straightforward. It’s what I do with every band, just to make sure I know what the hell is going on...” - Sound Engineer, Martin Hildred
The preference on stage is relatively uniform; Cerutti mixes a nice flat sound, with each member of the band hearing more of him or herself. He spends most of his time listening to Katy and adding ambient venue mics in her ears when there’s a response from the crowd. The biggest capacity venue on this tour was the Roundhouse and the Birmingham O2, at 3000 each, so for most of the gigs Katy has been just a metre away from the audience and regularly interacts with them. “I try to make sure she doesn’t need to take
other but they still only have one snapshot, just to boost the elements that people want to hear more than others.” In terms of communicating with Katy and the band during the show the playback technician, drummer and Cerutti all have microphones. “Not everyone has them because there’s not a moment when they can pick it up and talk to me. There are three songs where it’s just Katy and the pianist and the band come and speak to me then. To be fair, it’s a pretty straightforward gig. Between the lot of us, band included, we
PRODUCTION PROFILE: Katy B
Below: Ultima Ears were used for the in-ear monitoring systems used all round; LD Tom Campbell wanted to achieve ”a strong nightclub vibe” with his lighting rig.
kind of make it easy. They’re all really nice people to work with.” Backline technician Sam Seidel agreed: “This tour has been pretty smooth with very little stress. The main thing has been getting the kit up there in good time. It’s not massive but it takes a little while to set up and making sure it’s right for sound check.” Seidel also does the allimportant job of making sure the stage is set for the band with towels and water and that everyone is happy. Also keeping everyone happy and making sure the show gets to each venue in a timely manner is Stagetruck which supplied a single 30ft tractor and trailer to the tour, while Silvergrey Carriage supplied tour buses. “The tour production
team were a pleasure to work with and we hope to tour with them all on the next one,” said Will Johns of Stage Truck. Sometimes emotionally raw but more often feel good and bouncy, the lights were on, the Katy B team were, ahem, on a mission, the audiences jumped and nobody cried for no reason. Katy B rocked and the Roundhouse rocked with her. TPi Photos: Sarah Rushton-Read http://thefifthestate.co.uk www.katybofficial.com www.tclightingdesign.co.uk www.ac-lasers.co.uk www.stagetruck.com www.silvergray.co.uk www.bcsaudio.com www.siyan.co.uk
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