TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL

TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL

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JULY 2014 ISSUE 179
LIVE EVENT DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY • JULY 2014 • ISSUE 179

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Total Production International June 2014 Issue 5/23/14
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 PRELUDE

PROTOUCH STAGEOPERATOR

8,4“ Colour Touchscreen

SUMMERTIME SASS
Nope, we’ve not run away to join a non-governmental environmental organisation,
but rather just back from a trip to Glastonbury festival (Hannah and I are pictured
here with the lovely Sarah Rushton-Read), where we saw this year’s incredible stage
offerings. There will be much more on the event in the next issue, but for now we’ll
power through in recovery mode - if you’ve seen the TPi Facebook page, you’ll
understand why!
Back to the current issue, and we’ve made another jam-packed edition of TPi.
The July magazine explores live event technology in varying settings and scales. Ibiza
takes a focal point as we look at two very contrasting events from our recent trip;
firstly the IMS closing party at the Unesco graded site of Dalt Vila and secondly the
ultra modern surroundings of Ushuaia, where XL Video brought the hotel’s outdoor
• Linkable Motor Distributions
space into an innovative LED haven. Read all about it on Pg. 16. The company also
• Integrated Software for
feature in this month’s interview with a look at the group’s rental business. From the
System Configuration
biggest tours in the world to the understated touring outfits, XL Video explains how
• Password Management
it has fought its way to competitive success.
• Group-Shutdown Functions
Perhaps the most heart-warming story of all in this issue, however, is the one in
• Displaying of Positions
which industry support really shines through for the benefit of its touring members.
and Destination Runs
The community spirit surrounding live production is often noted by our peers and
• Load-Measuring with integrated
colleagues, and Rock Against Cancer is a true testament to that. This story can wet
Shutdown Functions for
your eyes on Pg. 8.
Over- and Underload
Our cover story - on Pg. 52 - Arcade Fire’s Reflektor tour is quite a production, • Displaying each Drive Status
with themes of light and reflection being interpreted throughout. The Grammy- Position, Load and Errors
winning band also made a headline appearance • 15“ Touchscreen as Option
at Glastonbury, making the seamless transition • Network-Based System
from Earls Court to globally televised outdoor Configurations avaialable on request
stage.
Our other production profiles this month “The community spirit CHAIN HOISTS • CONTROL SYSTEMS • SOLUTIONS
inlcude the mammoth report on 1D’s stadium surrounding live production
tour (Pg. 36), Where We Are. The phenomenon
of the boy band takes centre stage as the latest
is often noted by our peers
fresh faces of pop learn what it takes to perform and colleagues, and Rock
in front of thousands courtesy of some of the Against Cancer is a true
most experienced touring production suppliers in testament to that...”
Europe. Lorde also hits the headlines thanks to
her headlining Brixton Academy shows.
There’s lots more international coverage too,
from Patrick’s trip to the Zlín Film Festival in the
Czech Republic to our look inside Dubai’s Beach Polo Cup, Dream Theater’s US tour,
Vienna’s Wiener Festwochen and Germany’s Lightpower Open Days. Germany is also
home to microphone manufacturer, Sennheiser whose colourful past has birthed a info@chainmaster.de
legacy from wartime Europe into the world-renowned brand we know today. We
take a look back at the history of the company on Pg. 70.
Plus there’s another installment of Clocking Off featuring the Bosom Beard Buddies and
CHAINMASTER BÜHNENTECHNIK GMBH
a Market Focus directory on the latest pyrotechnics and special effects innovations. Uferstrasse 23, 04838 Eilenburg, Germany
Tel.: +49 (0) 3423 - 69 22 0
I hope the content keeps you busy until next month. Enjoy the read!
Fax: +49 (0) 3423 - 69 22 21
Kelly Murray
E-Mail: info@chainmaster.de
Editor www.chainmaster.de

05
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 ITINERARY

EVENT FOCUS
CREW
a member of

08 Rock Against Cancer

Editor TPi attends Concert at the Kings, the industry-led
Kelly Murray charity gig colloquially known as ‘Grubbfest’.
Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8360
Mobile: +44 (0)7738 154689 14 Lightpower Open Days
e-mail: k.murray@mondiale.co.uk One of the most revered events in the lighting
industry returns to unite lighting professionals.
Assistant Editor
Patrick McCumiskey 16 Tech Takeover: Ibiza
Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8385 TPi explores Ibiza’s live production climate.
Mobile: +44 (0)7929 249169
e-mail: p.mccumiskey@mondiale.co.uk 18 Dream Theater
We take a look at the prog rockers’ video set up.
International Advertising & Sponsorship
Hannah Eakins 22 Zlín Film Festival
Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8360 Robe invites Patrick McCumiskey to one of Central
Mobile: +44 (0)7760 485230 Europe’s oldest Film Festivals.
e-mail: h.eakins@mondiale.co.uk
24 Sound Moves
Graphic Design & Production Sound Moves opens its new logistics facility.
Dan Seaton: d.seaton@mondiale.co.uk 4 BLADES
Mel Robinson: m.robinson@mondiale.co.uk 26 Dubai Beach Polo Cup
TPi reports from the Middle East. FOR A BETTER CUT
General Manager Justin Gawne
30 Pinkpop
Mondiale Group Chairman Damian Walsh Mojo Barriers suppliers The Netherlands’ oldest
festival.
www.tpimagazine.com • www.tpiawards.com
32 Vienna Festival
Cover Photography: TPi gets an insider’s perspective of Vienna’s pro
Arcade Fire by Simon Duff audio scene from Alex Schloesser.

Printed by Buxton Press PRODUCTION PROFILE

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Subscription enquiries to: Subscriptions, 52 Arcade Fire
Mondiale Publishing Limited, Waterloo Place, The critically acclaimed Canadian band visit
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State-of-the-aing module
e-mail: subscriptions@mondiale.co.uk TPi were on hand to assess the 17-year old New 4- bl ad e fram
io use
Zealand sensation’s intimate live production. theatre & stud
Issue 179 / July 2014 Designed for
INTERVIEW Platinum
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Contributors 66 XL Video divulge its secrets for success. 35 lamp
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Simon Duff & Kate Lyon Ultra Fast 8-50
CLOCKING OFF
Intern 69 Pink beards: raising money for breast cancer.
Megan Hughes
COMPANY PROFILE
70 Sennheiser welcomes TPi to its premises in
TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL is a controlled circulation magazine,
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published 12 times a year by Mondiale Publishing Limited under licence. ISSN
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Total Production International USPS: (ISSN 1461 3786) is published 12 times
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07
 EVENT FOCUS: Rock Against Cancer

ROCK AGAINST CANCER 2014

THIS ISN’T A TYPICAL TPi STORY. FOR ONCE WE’RE NOT PARTICULARLY INTERESTED IN WHO USED WHAT
KIT OR WHY, INSTEAD, ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGY TAKES A BACK SEAT AND THE REASON THE EVENT
EVEN EXISTS BECOMES THE KEY TO THIS STORY. TPi’S KELLY MURRAY TALKS TO THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE
THIRD INDUSTRY-LED CHARITY CONCERT AFFECTIONATELY KNOWN AS ‘GRUBBFEST’.

At first glance, Concert at the Kings could
be any local event, a small local gathering
in the British countryside, where some of
the UK’s best-known stars have gathered
to party. The reality is that an idea birthed
out of a few sunken pints in a local pub has
become a beacon of fundraising and hope, a
community thriving with strong friendships
and charitable actions.
The Kings Arms in All Cannings, Wiltshire, is
a signature English village pub. It serves home
cooked food, is home to friendly landlords and
now, for the third year in a row, is a perfect host
to an annual industry-led charity gig, Concert
at The Kings, a concept which sees rock stars
fundraising for cancer.
Rock Against Cancer was an idea thought
up five years ago by John ‘Grubby’ Callis, Sound
Engineer to Sir Paul McCartney, Andy Scott of
The Sweet and Richard Baulu, landlord of The
Kings Arms pub. Cancer treatment was a cause
close to their hearts, as both Grubby and Scott
had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The
news had a big impact on the pair and while
trying to maintain a social life at the local pub,
inspiration struck the pair. Before they knew it,
the planning of a cancer-battling rock concert in
the field behind the Kings Arms pub had begun.
This year, the word has truly spread
throughout the touring industry and the
support of world-class rental suppliers was
back up with some well-respected artists and
up and coming bands. The main stage line
up saw performances from The Troggs, Los
Pacaminos, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, The
Straits and headliners, The Boomtown Rats. The
B stage had entertainment from Jake Meeking,
The Greasy Slicks and The Funkin Skunks. The
concert was compared by BBC Radio Presenter,
Dan Chisholm.

08
 EVENT FOCUS: Rock Against Cancer

Opposite: The Boomtown Rats, led by frontman Bob Geldof closed the 2014 proceedings; The local village pub where the concert is held. Below: The country way: Clair UK provided audio equipment
which was brought on site with the help of a tractor; The Vanguardia team ensured the noise license was adheared to; BBC Radio Presenter and Rock Against Cancer compare, Dan Chisholm with TPi
Awards Production Manager and NoNonsense Project Manager, Liz Madden.

HE GETS BY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM HIS
FRIENDS
Event Director, Grubby explained how Rock
Against Cancer has benefited cancer patients
so far: “We have financed a pioneering prostate
program in Bristol with gold implants that target
the cancer with very little side effects - I wish
it was there six years ago - and 30 guys have
benefited from that treatment so far.
“The whole idea behind this when myself
and Andy had the treatment was to raise
awareness in our industry to ensure crew,
musicians and management make time for
regular check-ups.”
Grubby also credits his wife Cheryl and their
children Milla, Bertie and Ned for getting him
through the tough time and supporting and
him through the treatment process, and also
encouraging his goal with the pub gig.
STAGING AND PRODUCTION
To bring the concert into fruition for a
third time, Grubby enlisted the help of his
industry friends, who willingly obliged. TPi
Awards Production Manager, Liz Madden
of NoNonsense had known Mark ‘Wolfie’
Wooliscroft, Event Manager and Grubby for
many years when they asked the staging
solutions company to get involved in putting
the concert together. Like many of the event’s
suppliers, NoNonsense did everything possible
to help out. “We jumped at the chance,” noted
Madden. “Tim Bricusse, Site Manager also looks
after the production elements of the gig and I
help him by running the production office. This
year Jo McLoughlin - Production Manager for
Village Green - volunteered to help me which
was very much appreciated.”
This year NoNonsense provided the main
stage deck including the new Event Deck
product which was developed by NoNonsense
Director Steve ‘Jumbo’ Richards. NoNonsense

09
EVENT FOCUS: Rock Against Cancer
Below: Grubby with his crew; Power Logistics provided generators to the event for the third time; The Kings Arms Landlord, Ginny and Richard; Lighting supplier Neg Earth’s Phil ‘Crazy Old Man’
Freeman; Sir Paul McCartney’s FOH Engineer, Paul ‘Pab’ Boothroyd showed his support.
also supplied the roof, PA masts, FOH
structures, wheelchair viewing platform, a
follow spot tower, the event control tower and
the backstage VIP viewing platform. Actus
Industries looked after the smaller B Stage.
Continued Madden: “The event has grown
in stature over the last three years and has built
on its own success each year. The villagers and
surrounding community play an integral part. So
many volunteer either during the build, during
the event itself, or the de-rig. Many take time
off work and donate supplies.”
This sentiment was echoed by Site Manager,
Tim Bricusse: “Without the support of all our
production suppliers, local volunteers and the
hard work put in by all concerned behind the
scenes this would not have turned into the
success it is. This event has a great vibe behind it
and is quite unique in that respect alone.”
The gig also attracts the interests of bands
and artists wanting to support the event. “The
introduction of the B stage this year was very
popular and provided up and coming local
bands the chance to showcase their talents.
There are always plenty of offers from bands
and artists wanting to support the event.”
Extra stage support for the event came in the
form of a crew from Stage Miracles, led by Mike
Groves.
10
POWERFUL FRIENDSHIPS
Power Logistics founders, Beverly and Pete Wills
have a great working history with Grubby. Upon
his very first thoughts about holding the gig,
he approached the company to see if it could
support the event. The answer was simple and
the willing team pitches in each year to raise
money for the worthy cause.
Said Pete Wills: “Everyone at Power Logistics
is really happy to be involved and play their part.
It’s one of the most enjoyable gigs that we work
on and it’s lovely to be a part of something that
is totally non-commercial. The local community
is fantastic too; they’re so welcoming and really
get behind the event - it makes for a brilliant
atmosphere.
“It’s lovely to see how the event has grown
in stature with the acts and attendance growing
every year. For 2014 to be a sell-out was
amazing, and a real testament to the hard work
all the people involved in organising the event
have put in.”
In contrast to the humble surroundings of
Rock Against Cancer, Power Logistics is currently
working with Queen (ft. Adam Lambert)
on their North American tour. During pre-
production, the gig came up in conversation
with legendary guitarist Brian May who actually
played at the first event in 2012. The result
was the donation of his signed guitar that was
auctioned at this year’s event. The cause again
hitting a personal note with May, who in 2012
told TPi: “I was devastated to hear the news
that my good friend and esteemed Monitor
Engineer, John ‘Grubby’ Callis, had been
diagnosed with prostate cancer, but relieved
that it was discovered relatively early and that he
had received fantastic treatment. I immediately
agreed to support him and perform at Concert
at the Kings.”
SOUND SAVIOURS
Vanguardia Consulting has been an avid
supporter of Rock Against Cancer since its
inception, having been introduced to the event
three years ago by Independent Consultant,
Andrew Lennie. Noise management consultants,
Vanguardia are employed to ensure the festival
maintains and adheres to the local noise license.
Coincidentally, like many of the people
involved, Co-Director of the company, Jim
Griffiths, received a cancer diagnosis of his own,
making the event all the more personal. Said
Vanguardia’s Claire Wimpress: “This is such a
worthy cause to get involved with, to work on
the event is an absolute delight and we’d do
anything we could to get involved and help
out again. The great thing about this gig is
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EVENT FOCUS: Rock Against Cancer
Below: Pyrojunkies and Aardvark FX supplied a joint effort of outdoor fireworks to signal the end of the gig; NoNonsense created the main stage structure, using its new Event Deck product;
Impromptu auctions were started with guitars from the day’s performers; The Concert At The Kings team raised an incredible £35,000 for their chosen charities this year.
that unlike some events where there’s a hidden
agenda, there are no egos. Any attitude is left at
the door, all you need to bring to the site is your
skill and professionalism so that we can all raise
money together.”
Once the noise levels had been regulated,
it was down to the sound team to deliver the
equipment. Also for the third year running,
Clair UK has supported the concert. Clair
UK’s C.O.O. Andy Walker has a long-standing
friendship with Grubby, making the fund raiser
an important gig to support from a personal
stance. “I’ve toured with Sir Paul McCartney and
I’ve known Grubby a long time,” Walker told
TPi. “I used to be part of Paul’s stage crew. Of
course when Grubby asked me to be involved
with this, I said yes straight away; it’s a great
cause to make people aware of in the industry,
but Grubby is also a great guy.”
The 2014 audio crew composed of Swanny,
Will Fisher on monitor duty, Tom Cossovich at
FOH, Stage Tech Tarqs and Clair’s latest trainee,
Nathan Hayward manning the B Stage with
Tom Pryce. For the main stage, Clair provided
a DiGiCo SD8 at FOH, a Yamaha PM5D for
monitors and a Clair i5 PA system with Clair’s
BT-218 subwoofers, Clair P2 cabinets as front fill
12
and Clair SRM speakers for on-stage wedges.
The B stage audio set-up comprised Clair S4
boxes in a ground stacked position and a
Yamaha M7CL console for both the FOH and
monitor mix. Said Walker: “I think the S4’s are
about 30 years old now… but we use them
because they still sound great!
“We actually call this event ‘Grubbfest’
because it’s basically all of Grubby’s mates
working together and he really takes care of
everyone. That makes it an event that everyone
wants to be a part of, year after year.”
LIGHTING THE LEGENDS
Lighting rental company, Neg Earth, has enjoyed
providing the stage lighting for the Rock Against
Cancer since the first event in 2012. Tracy Fraser-
Ryan, Project Manager for Neg Earth described
her role as a “pleasure”.
She praised the hard work of those involved
in putting it together: “This year I was able to
meet many of the people behind the event. The
lovely Tim Bricusse, with whom Neg Earth has
a long, happy working relationship over various
events, Wolfie and Liz, and of course the legend
that is Grubby too; whom we have worked with
on Queen and Paul McCartney over many years.
“We have had the lighting legend that is
Phil ‘Crazy Old Man’ Freeman designing the
system for the last two years. As it doesn’t get
dark until the last act, and even then, it doesn’t
get very dark, Phil came up with the idea of a
bright and beautiful back wall of LED fixtures.
They included Martin Professional MAC 301’s
and Philips Colorblaze TRX battens to bring in
some life and colour where usually you’d find
a black backdrop. Using this look along with
some rock ’n’ roll ACLs, with effects and drama
from the Clay Paky Alpha Profile 1500’s, Phil
adds a rainbow of life to a stage seen mainly in
daylight.”
Like every supplier of Rock Against Cancer,
continuing involvement seems to be high on the
list of priorities. “We hope to continue with this
wonderful project for as long as they’ll have us,
and wish them all the very best, looking forward
to next year,” concluded Fraser-Ryan.
THE FIREWORK FINALE
With the fundamentals of staging, power, audio
and lighting being taken care of, it was down
to pyrotechnics to allow the event to end with a
dazzling finale.
Sean Caulfield, Director of Pyrojunkies said:

“This is the first year we have been involved
with Concert at The Kings. I have known
Grubby for 15 years. When he told me what he
was organising and why with this event we felt
duty bound to help out for a great cause, and
we had a lot of fun at the same time!”
The Pyrojunkies team was completed by Dan
Mott and Cian Caulfield, and the crew worked
in conjunction with Aardvark FX which sent
Mark Lewis and Andy Adams to the site. “As
it’s for a good cause, we were keen to help,”
explained Lewis. “We provided a 90-second
firework finale for Bob Geldof and The
Boomtown Rats, which beautifully signified the
end of the day’s music.”
TRANSPORT
The idyllic location of The Kings Arms pub is set
in the leafy green fields of South West England
but the charitable operation was produced with
the utmost professionalism. The production
logistics were handled by Redburn Transfer and
the acts playing were still chauffeured by tour
buses, giving the event the authenticity of a
tour, not just a low-key pub affair. Phoenix were
involved for the first time this year.
On previous years Beat the Street supplied
tour and crew busses to the gig, but as every
bus in its fleet was in use in the UK already,
Phoenix stepped in. Paul Hattin, Operations
CONCERT AT THE KINGS
GOING THAT EXTRA MILE ...
Manager at Phoenix explained: “I dare say that
in future it may well be a joint venture between
the two companies, depending on who has
what buses and where! It does seem to be
a very worthy cause not least because on a
personal level, I have known Grubby and Tim
Bricusse for more than a ‘few’ years.”
POSITIVELY EXCITING
The event’s compère, Dan Chisholm has seen
the gig develop from the very start into the
success it is today. He commented: “I think the
first two events were superb, but this year’s was
a very smooth operation - the second stage
was a real asset. Most events learn from their
mistakes, but Concert At The Kings has really
been a gentle refinement and evolution from
very ambitious beginnings.
“Behind the scenes, it was like a well-oiled
machine and for that reason alone, I’m not
surprised this year was the most successful
event so far: £35,000 is a phenomenal total for
the chosen beneficiaries. It’s been enormous
fun being part of such a special occasion and
I’m certain its reputation will spread among top
artists.” The last thought goes to Madden who
re-affirmed the positivity surrounding the event.
In the spirit of the event this year, at the end of
his set, Steve Harley of Cockney Rebel started
an impromptu auction prize: his guitar. The bids
EVENT FOCUS: Rock Against Cancer
kept coming in and the prize raised £10,000 for
the chosen charities, MacMillan Cancer Support,
Above and Beyond and the local Parish Council.
A local supporter of the event bought the
guitar; he’s a huge Steve Harley fan! Concluded
Madden: “Steve was so delighted by the bid
that he will be hand delivering the guitar and
playing a private gig for its new owner in their
home.”
“There has been so much positive feedback
this time; it’s been really amazing. So much
so that the date has been penciled in for next
year: 30 May 2015. There have already been
conversations with a number of artists and the
line up options are looking very exciting!”
TPi
Photos: Wardpics & Kelly Murray
www.aboveandbeyond.org.uk
www.macmillan.org.uk
www.concertatthekings.co.uk
http://clairglobal.com/clair-uk
www.powerlog.co.uk
http://vanguardiaconsulting.co.uk
www.negearth.com
www.phoenix-bussing.co.uk
www.redburn.co.uk
www.nononsensegroup.com
www.stagemiracles.com
http://actusindustries.com
13
 EVENT FOCUS: Lightpower Open Days

NO FUTURE WITHOUT ORIGIN

IT’S 20 YEARS SINCE LIGHTPOWER - FOUNDED IN 1978 - ORGANISED ITS FIRST OPEN DAYS EVENT. THE
SEVENTH SUCH INCARNATION TOOK PLACE ON 12-13 MAY THIS YEAR IN THE COMPANY’S HOMETOWN OF
PADERBORN, GERMANY. ONCE AGAIN, THE EVENT BROUGHT TOGETHER OVER 700 LIGHTING DESIGNERS
AND PROFESSIONALS FROM ALL CORNERS OF THE GLOBE FOR TWO DAYS OF PRESENTATIONS, SEMINARS
AND DEMONSTRATIONS. TPi DELVED INTO THE WORLD OF LIGHTING IN PADERBORN FOR WHAT PROVED TO
BE QUITE AN ILLUMINATING EXPERIENCE...
Playing host at the Open Days, Managing an evening of live music with Lilly Martin and her led by Rene Berhorst and Ben Marquardt entitled
Director of Lightpower, Ralph-Jörg Wezorke band; providing guests with an ideal opportunity ‘Showlighting - From the Planning Stage to
commented on the significance of the event: to socialise and relax over a few drinks. Realisation’ offered an insightful deconstruction
“Indeed, our industry is often called the On the morning of the second day, Video into the processes behind executing an entire
‘People Industry’, but in reality we meet Specialist Matt Finke and Lighting Designer show design.
each other in person rather rarely. Just like Thomas Gerdon presented several light design In between lectures and seminars, guests
nomads of the modern era, many of us are case studies from live shows and corporate could browse around the foyer area of the HNF
permanently touring across the globe. How presentations. In addition, Finke led an all Heinz Nixdorf Forum where products from
nice it would be to have some kind of oasis day interactive permanent presentation all across Lightpower’s spectrum of brands
where all of us can get together from time demonstrating how real time tracking can be including Clay Paky, Philips Vari-Lite, Robert
to time. This is exactly what the Open Days realised via the PosiStageNet-Protocol and an Juliat, DTS and MA Lighting were displayed. In
stand for: an international congress based MA Lighting grandMA2 console. For the final addition, a photography exhibition from Neal
around stage and show lighting and visuals, lecture, award winning Theatre Director Kay Preston - one of the most revered Rock ‘n’ Roll
where all of us can meet with each other.” Voges offered an insight into the world of photographers of the 20th Century - displayed
The theme underpinning this year’s series experimental theatre design, and put forward a selection of iconic images from key figures in
of lectures was ‘No Future Without Origin’; the many strong arguments as to why the theatre recent music history from the likes of Iggy Pop,
implication of this cryptogram became apparent is still relevant in 21st Century society - a Brian Eno, David Bowie, Jimmy Page and Bob
during the course of the lectures. The first fascinating opportunity for guests to reflect Dylan.
lecture of the day entitled ‘Expressive Lighting upon one of the many aspects of the lighting Perhaps most importantly, the emphasis
Design’ was presented by esteemed musician, industry. of Open Days is in encouraging creativity and
componist and Lighting Designer, Bertil Mark. In addition to the four well-attended lectures, discussion in a continually developing industry.
In the lecture, Mark - having designed Lighting three seminars were on rotation throughout New developments in technology are, of course,
for the likes of German indie band Sportfreunde the two days. George Masek, Vice President important; but of what use is technology
Stiller, attempted to convey to the audience his of ACT Lighting, treated guests to a session on without the creativity of the individuals using it?
creative design process. Lighting Designer Peter ‘How Technology Influences the Art of Lighting’, With this in mind, the importance of Open Days
Morse presented the second lecture of the day. in which he demonstrated how developments is affirmed.
In his entertaining ‘Concert Touring’ lecture, in LED technology have altered the manner in Wezorke concluded: “We listen to interesting
Morse guided the audience through various which Lighting Designers use light, and how insiders’ lectures, expose ourselves to the latest
projects throughout his 35-year history as a audiences - armed with smartphones to record innovations from some leading manufacturers
Lighting Designer; having designed complete shows - are becoming more conscious and and enjoy the time in between to network. Quite
lighting shows for the likes of Madonna, Michael critical with regards to the visual aspect of a a few people describe this as like ‘coming home’.
Jackson and Prince. It was certainly an eye- show. Another seminar, ‘Signal Distribution in At the close of the event everybody was really
opening account of how show lighting has Lighting Systems - Current Requirements and pleased again. This is something that makes us
evolved through almost four decades of popular Challenges With More Complex Products’ was not only feel proud but also very happy.”
music. led by Oliver Ditter and Sebastian Fecke, and TPi
For the evening’s entertainment, guests were tackled the increasingly complex nature of signal www.lightpower.de
invited to Paderborn’s Capitol Musiktheater for distribution systems in lighting. The final seminar www.opendays.de

14
 EVENT FOCUS: Tech Takeover: Ibiza

TECH TAKEOVER: IBIZA

IBIZA STILL HOLDS ITS OWN WHEN IT COMES TO EUROPEAN PARTY DESTINATIONS. CROWDS GATHER FROM
ALL CORNERS OF THE GLOBE TO ATTEND THE ISLAND’S OPENING AND CLOSING PARTIES WHICH ENCLOSE A
FOUR MONTH SEASON OF TRADITIONAL CLUBBING AND INNOVATIVE AND UNIQUE LIVE EVENTS. TPi LOOKS
AT TWO SHOW-STOPPERS WHICH EXPLORE THE CHALLENGES OF IBIZA’S LIVE PRODUCTION CLIMATE.

VIVA DALT VILA to be cross-loaded onto smaller vehicles about a

Due to its Unesco world heritage status, it
took a year and a change in the law before
Dalt Villa was granted a license to hold live
music events. TPi spoke to Simeon Friend,
owner and founder of The Shop Ibiza, and
discovered how he wanted to mark the end
of the IMS - International Music Summit
- with “the ultimate closing party” on the
unique and challenging gig site.
Planning a party on the fortifications of
Ibiza’s old town was never going to be without
challenges, but for Friend, who acted as Project
Manager on the venture, it had the potential to
be the “best outdoor event in Ibiza”. Not only
did they have to jump through legal hoops to
obtain a license, but the team also encountered
difficulties with obtaining insurance due to the
unique nature of the site.
The state of roads leading up to Dalt Vila also
posed significant problems. “It’s a nightmare
event to put on, nothing heavier than 3.5 tonnes
is allowed on the site,” he said. “Everything has
mile away from the venue, then driven up a very
narrow old track that was originally made for
horse and cart.”
For an event to celebrate the end of the
International Music Summit, sound quality was
paramount. Friend looked to two line arrays,
one either side of the stage, each configured
with 14 d&b audiotechnik J-Series cabinets,
while three J-Series subwoofers were deployed
as onstage DJ monitors. Pioneer DJ supplied four
CDJ-2000NXS multiplayer systems and two DJM-
900NXS four-channel digital mixers, and next
year will see Pioneer Pro Audio’s new XY Series
replace the J-Series subwoofers. “We’ve been
testing their double 15-inch boxes, and with
two stacked we’ve found the result is a tighter,
punchier kick which cuts through all the sub
from the FOH,” explained Friend. The lighting
came in the form of 32 Martin Professional MAC
101 moving heads, 24 MAC Aura wash lights,
and 10 Atomic 3000 DMX strobes, and Robe
Robin 1200’s. DJs also made use of a 30 m2 LED

16

Opposite: Dalt Vila’s Unesco site by night and day. Below: Dalt Vila’s IMS closing party was sponsored by Pioneer DJ; XL Video supplied screens to Ushuaia’s opening party in the ultra modern hotel
setting.
screen installed at the venue.
In terms of crew, preparation for the party
required a small army of staff: 17 local crew
members, two electricians, two decorators,
two riggers, eight site cleaners, five drivers /
production runners and a carpenter to set-up.
On hand to ensure the event got off without a
hitch were two sound technicians, three lighting
operators, 29 bar staff, 33 members of security,
22 registration desk employees and two IT
technicians - quite the professional rave!
Friend credits Gary Sharpe with putting
the sound system together, Arran Lomas
with lighting design and Heiko Wiertelorz
for his support and input as Dalt Vila’s Head
Technician. “For me, when top artists are calling
you to play again at the next one, it’s a good
indication of the venue’s success,” concluded
Friend.
USHUAIA’S OPENING PARTY
In contrast, super hotel - Ushuaia is a very
modern gig location. The hotel is home to
an outdoor opening party for early summer
revellers. Its live production is something
quite spectacular.
Two years ago, XL Video’s Sales Director, Ian
Woodall and Project Manager Connie Glover
were contacted by show producers High Scream
to provide LED screens for Ushuaia’s opening
party. With the Ibiza party season in mid-flow,
he talked to TPi about providing state of the art
video equipment for one of the island’s biggest
venues.
For Woodall, providing a screen able to
cope with the environmental and logistical
demands of Ushuaia’s summer season was
not a straightforward task. The beachfront
venue is exposed to the elements for more
than 20 weeks of the year, and all of the
equipment installed at the start of summer
must be totally reliable for the rest of the party
season, regardless of heat and moisture levels.
Not only did the screen need to be durable
and dependable, but also flexible enough to
accommodate a change of set-up on a daily
basis for each of the different parties.
Following a preview with Romain Pissenem,
Owner and Creative Director of High Scream
Productions, who produce the shows at
Ushuaia, XL Video’s Radiant MC-18 Hybrid LED
screen was selected for this year’s opening
party. As Ushuaia is a daytime venue it was
key that the selected product could have the
same impact in the Ibiza sunshine as well as
during the nighttime hours, this is why the
MC-18 Hybrid with its inbuilt LED spot lights
made it the obvious choice. The screen would
be used for every act to appear this summer,
supplemented by an LED sphere for Hardwell’s
appearance at the club on Tuesdays. Once the
screen had been installed and set-up, under the
supervision of Project Manager Connie Glover,
the operation of the video system was down to
the team at High Scream.
According to Woodall, their technical
knowledge and understanding of LED has
facilitated the whole process, while XL Video
made sure that the right people received the
training needed to make the operation run
EVENT FOCUS: Tech Takeover: Ibiza
smoothly. “We held a design and demo day
in Belgium for the technical manager to be
fully trained on the equipment, so they were
confident they could achieve the fast turn
around schedules,” said Woodall.
Once the screen was in place, Woodall acted
as the Account Manager on the project with
Glover providing the technical support. Woodall
commented: “I have a great relationship with
the management team, and it’s quite often
that other artists we work with may put in an
appearance at Ushuaia,” he explained. “So it’s
about working with them and making sure it all
goes seamlessly.”
Over the last couple of years, XL Video has
seen its equipment used in a variety of venues
on the island from Cream’s Amnesia, Circoloco
at DC-10, Ibiza 123 Festival, Dalt Vila 2012 and
most recently, a party at the Hard Rock Hotel
with Chic featuring Nile Rodgers. XL Video has
had a productive year so far, having also worked
with Steve Aoki at Pacha, which Woodall
attributes to its shrewd approach to projects:
“Ibiza is an amazing place and with the likes
of High Scream pushing the level of production
required on the island to new heights I’m
confident that we will continue to grow and
support their ambitions, but it’s always about
making intelligent decisions...”
TPi
Photos: James Alexander Chapman & Ushuaia
http://theshopibiza.com
www.internationalmusicsummit.com
http://pioneerdj.com www.xlvideo.tv
www.ushuaiaibiza.com
17
 EVENT FOCUS: Dream Theater

DREAM THEATER
WITH 20 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE ON THE PROGRESSIVE ROCK SCENE UNDER THEIR BELT, US METAL TITANS
DREAM THEATER RECENTLY EMBARKED ON A 36 DATE EUROPEAN TOUR. TPi REPORTS ON THE TOUR’S
VIDEO DESIGN, WHICH FOR THE FIRST TIME INCORPORATED A TOURING LED CURTAIN FROM PIXELFLEX.

With two decades of road skills to their
name, the Dream Theater members
are certainly well-versed in what a live
production needs for a smooth touring
transition. As part of their 2014 outings,
the band is using PixelFLEX products for
the very first time, allowing for a new
dimension to their touring credentials.
The band’s Tour Manager, Rik Feulner,
had his work cut out in trying to impress
Dream Theater’s cult-like fans yet audiences
showed nothing but praise for the band’s
tour. Feulner explained: “Dream Theater’s
fans are the most loyal of any band I
have ever worked with. They sing every
song, play air guitar, air drums and air
keyboards.”
The Dream Theater members themselves
are known worldwide for their technical
expertise with their instruments, each
member has a flurry of honours for their
respective talents, and their penchant for
development is ongoing. With tickets selling
fast, Dream Theater is the first rock act ever
to see the touring benefits of a PixelFLEX LED
curtain, after their production team chose to
implement the 20mm FLEXCurtain.
Production Manager TJ Rodriguez - who
began working with the band in 2005 -
explained the simple reasons for choosing the
product: “We chose PixelFLEX because of the
LED wall we wanted, the small amount of truck
space it takes up and the competitive cost.”
The LED screens can be easily folded,
ensuring that tricky touring applications can
be met. PixelFLEX’s David Venus described
the new collaboration: “PixelFLEX curtains
and Dream Theater are a perfect marriage.
Our products allow for acts that have
transportation space constraints to be able to
carry substantial amounts of LED video screen.
Over time, we listened to what our customers
were asking for and carved a niche with a new
style of LED screen in various pixel densities
that is foldable.
“The ability to fold the screen makes for

18
 volution 900 Series
German Engineering — Uncompromisingly Reliable.
EVENT FOCUS: Dream Theater
First Page: The band has been touring for 20 years, and has a very loyal fanbase thorughout the global progressive rock community. Below: The PixelFLEX LED curtain was toured for the first time with
Dream Theater, the product’s lightweight design made the band’s show set up and transportation more efficient than traditional video panels.
an ideal storage and transportation package,
making our curtains a great choice for touring
applications.”
The equipment and staging crew had to step
up to the mark on this tour, as Tour Manger,
Rikk Feulner noted: “The band are perfectionists
and their crew need to be too.” The band is
impressed by the crew’s dedication; this is
due to the same experienced operators and
engineers coming back each year to support the
band.
As Video Director, Johnny DeKam’s role has
grown thanks to the use of LED. He told TPi:
“This is our first time using the product, Dream
Theater runs a very tight ship, and previously,
LED video was not a possible option due to our
budget and truck space. PixelFLEX solved that
problem for us!”
Weighing in at just 26lbs per sq metre, this
cost effective and consequently environmental
factor was one of the main reasons why Tour
Manager Feulner chose the product: “We chose
PixelFLEX because it’s lightweight and therefore
easy to ship around the world.”
The PixelFLEX LED curtain wall measures in
at approximately 32 ft wide by 12 ft tall and has
an eight by three aspect ratio. The new video
20
element went down a storm in Europe as the
curtain competes perfectly with a hard wall of
the same pitch; DeKam explanied: “When you
see the curtain up close, you might be skeptical,
but from the house, it is hard to tell it apart
from a hard wall. This is due to the relatively
high density.”
The staging design was the responsibility
of Lighting Designer Steve Baird, who was
amongst the crew that decided early on to go
with LED in a ‘super wide’ format for the video
elements.
Tour Manager Rodriguez concluded: “I think
the PixelFLEX products are great, I’d definitely
use them again.”
Dream Theater’s tour was serviced by
Elite Multimedia, based in Nashville, which
provided the PixelFLEX curtain and Barco
FLM-20K projectors. The rental house provided
equipment for both the international and US
legs of the tour. However, this was not the only
supplier, as high quality video equipment for
the tour also came via Video Director Johnny
DeKam‘s own company; BEJOHNNY. He
provided the video ‘backline’ comprising control
system and cameras.
Said DeKam: “We are using an Arkaos
Mediamaster Pro for our media server,
combined with a ROSS Crossover switcher,
as well as an Apple Mac, which is running
customised software. We scale for the wall
processor externally using a low latency GEFEN
HD scaler too. Our Lighting Director, Jason
Ahn, triggers the content on the Arkaos server,
some of it by Timecode from Avid Protools.
The media lives ‘upstream’ of our switcher,
so ultimately I am deciding the mix between
content and cameras each night.”
Cameras on the tour include one manned
FOH HD camera Canon XL-H1’s which was
converted to fibre optic, three Replay1080HD
Tactical Cameras with custom built HDSDI /
power interfaces (to provide close-ups) and
two Sony EVI PTZ cameras providing additional
downstage support shots.
With clear support in tow for their new
touring visuals, Dream Theater will continue
to tour this summer, with a headline show at
Sonisphere in the UK.
TPi
Photos: John Zocco
www.dreamtheater.net
http://pixelflexled.com
www.elitemultimedia.com
 EVENT FOCUS: Zlín Film Festival

ZLÍN FILM FESTIVAL

NESTLED IN THE SOUTHEASTERN CORNER OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC, THE TOWN OF ZLÍN WAS
TRANSFORMED BETWEEN 30 MAY AND 5 JUNE INTO A BUSTLING HUB OF CULTURE ONCE AGAIN FOR THE
54TH ANNUAL ZLÍN FILM FESTIVAL FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH. TPi’S PATRICK MCCUMISKEY WENT TO THE
FESTIVAL WITH ITS OFFICIAL PARTNER, ROBE.

In its 54 years, the Zlín Film Festival
has established itself as a significant
international event; and despite the
emphasis on children and youth, the festival
offers film and supporting programmes such
as concerts and exhibitions for university
students and adults too.
This year’s festival attracted no less than
107,000 visitors from the Czech Republic and
abroad - effectively doubling Zlín’s population
for the duration of the festival. All in all, 365
feature and animated films from 55 different
countries were shown, 10 of which were world
premieres. the Austro-Hungarian Empire. By the time Bat’a
Jaroslava Hynštová, Senior Programmer
for the festival for the 10th year running, was
responsible for selecting international films
from some 3,000 applicants: “Zlín Film Festival
is a festival for children but beside that we try
to attract the attention of students and adult
audiences as well. Part of the programme is
aimed at older audiences but the films keep the
‘young’ angle - about young people dealing
with their problems and feelings about the
contemporary world.”
ZLÍN
As the backdrop to the film festival, the town
of Zlín has a fascinating and colourful history.
The cultural and economic development of
Zlín - birthplace of several notable people such
as adopted British playright Tom Stoppard
and ex-wife of Donald Trump, Ivana Trump - is
inextricably linked with the expansion and
investment of the world-renowned Bat’a shoe
company in the first half of the 20th Century.
Founder Tomáš Bat’a created his first shoe
factory in Zlín in 1894 - a time when the 3,000
population were still under governance from
handed over the business to his brother Jan in
1932, Zlín (at that time part of Czechoslovakia)
had a population of around 35,000 people -
the vast majority of which were employed in
the factory. By 1939, 100,000 people were
employed by Bat’a throughout the world, and
Zlín profited enormously from this growth.
Thanks possibly in no small part to the
fact that Tomáš Bat’a became Mayor of Zlín
in 1932, Bat’a had a major hand in designing
the functionalist layout and aesthetic of the
town (the Czech architect employed to design
the layout of the town, František Lydie Gahura
had been a student at functionalist artchitect
pioneer Le Corbusier’s atelier in Paris).
Part of Jan Bat’a’s development of the Bat’a
shoe company and Zlín in the inter-war period
was the creation of the largest cinema in Central
Europe in 1932 - still operational today with
a capacity of 1000 - and the famous Zlín film
studios in 1936. Although the studios were
created primarily with the intention of creating
promotional films for the Bat’a company, it
nevertheless provided the region with the tools
with which to sow the seeds of a thriving film
industry; branching out to create all kinds of film
genres ranging from animation, documentary,
and popular science - subsequently leading to
the creation of two film schools.
THE FESTIVAL
In addition to the Karlovy Vary film festival, the
Zlín Film Festival upholds the one hundred year
Czech and Czechoslovak filmmaking tradition.
Several impressive locations around the town
showed films or held events such as concerts,

22

Opposite: A selection of Robe lighting fixtures were used in a number of venues at the film festival, including the Closing Ceremony, where awards were presented in numerous categories. Below: The
Congress Centre functioned as the base of the festival, hosting film screenings, exhibitions and even a red carpet on which the crowds could interact with actors and actresses.
activities and even a 3D video mapping
competition. Locations included the Golden
Apple Cinema, the Congress Center, the main
square (Námestí Míru), the Open Air cinema and
concert site just under the House of Art and the
‘Chateau’ - a new addition to 2014’s film festival.
In total, 9,000 people visited the Chateau,
which provided an assortment of games and
activities for children and families. Although
closed since 2013, the Chateau’s new tenant,
the company Zlínský Zámek has begun to
work with the municipality of Zlín in finding
meaningful use for the center of Zlín with such
projects.
“For us and for our child-focused program,
the chateau is advantageous in all respects,”
said Zlín Film Festival’s Press Agent, Martin
Pášma. Hoping for long-term cooperation with
the company Zlínský Zámek, Pášma added: “The
interior areas, courtyard and chateau park are
ideal in terms of the production needs of our
programs, safety and health of the children.” supplied by Robe, situated in the nearby town
The Executive Director of Zlínský Zámek,
Martina Dlabajová also welcomed this
cooperation with Zlín Film Festival. She added:
“We are truly pleased to bring awareness of
the chateau back to the city’s residents. It is a
unique place and an ideal centre for social and
cultural life.”
Each year at the festival a focus is given to
a particular country. This year, the focus was
on Poland, and guests could watch a number
of animated and feature length Polish films
celebrating its filmmaking heritage. Speaking
of the importance of choosing Poland for the
festival, Pášma added: “Poland is a country that
is geographically, linguistically and culturally very
similar to the Czech Republic.” He continued:
“The Grand Prix of the Zlín Film Festival was
awarded to Polish Animator and Director
Tadeusz Wilkosz, who began his artistic career
by studying in Prague and for whom the Czech
school of animation was an inspiration.”
Hynštová continued: “This year there was a
huge amount of short animations and student
films submitted to our festival so the most
difficult thing for me was to choose ‘only’ 86
short animations for the competition.
“I must say that this edition was personally
the best from all editions I was priviliged to
be part of. This year we were lucky that we
could welcome a fantastic group of foreign
delegations, our friends from other festivals, film
professionals and jury members. We are very
satisfied with the programme and so were the
jury members and other guests.”
EQUIPMENT
The lighting equipment used to illuminate
several key buildings, stages and the big open-
air film party at Zlín Film Studios was partly
of Valašské Mezirící, as well as other Czech
companies.
Jirí Baroš, Marketing Manager at Robe
commented: “I was working for the film festival
for five years during my university studies. The
idea to connect Robe and the film festival came
to my mind four years ago. The main thing was
to help the film festival create something new
and to provide support for the event that is
known worldwide.
“This year was our fourth year supporting
the festival. We started with the smaller events
and this year we supported the Gala Evening
- involving a live television broadcast Ceská
Televize (Czech Television) channel one.”
At the Gala Evening Award Ceremony,
in which awards were given out in several
categories, including the two most prestigious
EVENT FOCUS: Zlín Film Festival
accolades of the festival, the Zlatý strevícek
(Golden Slipper) and the Zlínsky Pes (Zlín dog),
several Robe fixtures were utilised. These
included 20 Robin Pointes, eight Robin MMX
Spots, four Robin MMX WashBeams, eight
Robin 600E Beams, six Robin DLS Profiles,
eight Robin 600 LEDWashes and eight 1200
LEDWashes. In addition, other rental companies
supplied 12 GLP impression 90’s, 30 Showtec
LED PARs, 64 short floor 21 3W, 12 Sunstrip
Active DMX LED bars, an MDG Atmosphere
hazer and an MA Lighting grandMA2 light
console.
In the party tent and the open-air film
party at Zlín Studios eight ArcLine Outdoor
Optic 80MC / SW (23°), two ArcPower 384
Rackmount for driving the ArcLines, eight Robe
CitySkape 48, and four CitySkape Xtreme were
utilised. A further four CitySkape Xtreme, and six
CitySkape 96 were used for the afterparty.
Baroš concluded: “The film festival in Zlín is
bringing together lots of important professionals
from the film industry and we’re trying to focus
on this segment with our latest LED luminaires.
But the most important thing for us is to
support this cultural event. Seeing the smiling
faces of the young people attending is the main
satisfaction for us.”
TPi Photos: Louise Stickland
www.zlinfest.cz, www.robe.cz
23
 EVENT FOCUS: Sound Moves

SOUND MOVES FINDS NEW HOME

SOUND MOVES UK RECENTLY UNVEILED ITS REFURBISHED LOGISTICS FACILITY IN ASHFORD NEAR
LONDON’S HEATHROW AIRPORT. SPECIALISTS IN PROVIDING BESPOKE LOGISTICS TO THE CREATIVE
INDUSTRIES FOR NEARLY 20 YEARS, SOUND MOVES RECENTLY ACQUIRED ITS LONG-TERM HOME,
ABBEYGATE HOUSE, MARKING AN IMPORTANT STEP IN THE COMPANY’S CONTINUING DEVELOPMENT.

During the official launch event, guests
were invited to tour the refurbished building
including the crew break room, the state-
of-the-art boardroom with video-training
facilities and the 1950s theatre-themed
reception area. The artwork for the
reception area was specially commissioned
by Sound Moves, and completed by artist
Jonathan Minshull.
Abbeygate House also features an 18,000
sq ft warehouse for transit cargo and long-term
storage, two cargo docks capable of handling
hi-cube trailers, overnight parking for trucks
and tour buses and an X-ray with dual-view
screening for cargo departing via air freight.
Managing Director, Martin Corr said:
“Since our founding in 1995, we have grown
significantly as a company both in terms of
our client base and our team of operations
specialists. The new facilities will allow that
development to continue.
“Not only does the office have more square
footage, the space has also been rebranded and
refurbished to our specifications. This will allow
us to bring the organisation to the next level of
high-touch customer service.”
Sound Moves provides freight forwarding
and logistics services to a wide variety of touring
clients including The Rolling Stones, Arcade Fire,
Katy Perry, Beyoncé, P!nk, Kasabian and Sadlers
Wells Theatre, as well as providers to the live
concert and touring industries such as VER and
XL Video.
“Sound Moves is well-known and highly
respected in the Music Touring sector both in
the UK and worldwide. For example our London
team has won TPi Favourite Freight Forwarding
Company five times,”said Simon Jackson,
Business Development Manager.
“As a business we are often thought of as
the ‘last minute life-savers’ with an operational
team who will do everything possible to ensure
the show goes on as planned. Because of this,
we have clients who work with us year after
year, trusting us with their most important and
toughest freight moves.”
The investment in Abbeygate House is part
of a larger development plan for Sound Moves.
According to Jackson: “Along with the facility
we have also invested in the commercial side
of the business with new members joining the
sales team to specialise in additional creative
industry sectors including Sporting Events and
Corporate Live Events.
“The focus is to continue to grow market
share in these areas utilising the same
operational excellence that Sound Moves
is known for. Our wholly owned facility is a
statement of intent at its foundations.”
TPi
www.soundmoves.com

24
 EVENT FOCUS: Beach Polo Cup Dubai

BEACH POLO CUP DUBAI

10 YEARS AFTER ITS CREATION AT THE HANDS OF MAMEMO PRODUCTIONS, THE BEACH POLO CUP HAS
SPREAD TO 30 CITIES WORLDWIDE. AT THE JULIUS BAER BEACH POLO CUP 2014, WHICH TOOK PLACE IN
THE WORLD’S LARGEST BEACH POLO VENUE, SKY DIVE DUBAI, THE TOURNAMENT BEGAN AT SUNDOWN FOR
THE VERY FIRST TIME. TPi REPORTS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST.
A ‘modern twist on traditional polo’, the Dubai-based Lighting Designer Sonu and Audio Operator Dave Lee.
Beach Polo Cup Dubai’s Founder Sam Katiela AB worked in partnership with Lighting
decided that this year’s event would be the Programmer and Operator Steve Shipman, while VISUAL SPECTACULAR
inaugural dusk-to-evening games. As well as Tim Wardman acted as the event’s Technical The arena was divided into four primary sectors;
polo, audience members were treated to live Director and took control of audio design. different strategies were needed to illuminate
music and mamemo production’s signature Working alongside Wardman was Dan Clark, the service areas, including guest walkways and
‘Symphony of Light’. Technical Production Manager and Show Caller, emergency exits, the public Shams area, the

26
Live Ad_TPi_Dec13_Layout 1 16/12/2013 17:43 Page 1

www.solidstatelogic.com/live

SSL Live

live@solidstatelogic.com
EVENT FOCUS: Beach Polo Cup Dubai
Opposite: The event featured a three-minute, close proximity firework display coordinated by Flash Art. Below: Towers installed behind the seating areas enabled Lighting Designer Sonu AB to cater to the
varied lighting requirements of the different areas within Sky Dive Dubai.
VIP Majlis area, the field and the entertainment
space. With the tournament set to take place
at night, Sonu AB was aware that achieving
bright and even coverage of the polo field was
paramount.
Sonu AB erected four 14-metre towers
behind the Majlis and Shams areas. “After
checking the angles of lighting with a basic
model of the seating areas and the field, in
Cast’s wysiwyg software we could calculate
the distance between the towers, and the
total number of fixtures required to cover the
polo field and to help lighting the VIP Majlis
top deck,” he explained. For washing the top
deck, 120 LED PARs were attached to these
towers, each of which also featured eight A&O
Sky Falcon Arc lighting fixtures with a variety of
different lenses, to ensure even lighting of the
playing surface.
To be sure no unwanted light would filter
into the spaces where brightness had to be
controlled, AB opted for 32 lighting bars, each
holding six PAR 64s, to illuminate the arena’s
walkways, which included the guest entrance,
kitchen staff area, service areas and restrooms.
“All the PARs were on DMX-controlled dimmer
channels in order to control the amount of light
that might bleed into the field, and to dim the
PARs to 30% during the entertainment acts,” he
continued.
To light up the red carpets and the display
cars, provided by event sponsor Cadillac, AB
chose 30 Arri 2K Fresnel lighting fixtures with
frost filters. “Each was on separate dimmer
controls which were set to a level expected by
the camera crew for pictures and interviews,” he
explained.
The most challenging aspect of lighting up
the Beach Polo Cup Dubai was the ‘Symphony
of Light’, which was designed to “add spectacle
28
and value” to the evening and showcase the
event’s partners SLS and A&O.
For the first ‘Symphony of Light’, which
marked the opening ceremony, the 22 Falcon
Beam 7Ks and two 7K Falcon Flower fixtures
provided by A&O were placed on the field in a
circular pattern. SLS supplied 24 CityColor LEDs,
18 Cyclops CPX 91-MZ moving head washes,
32 Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 1200s and 40
Clay Paky Sharpys, all controlled via a single MA
Lighting grandMA2 full-size console. For the
second ‘Symphony of Light’, during the closing
ceremony, all of the Falcon fixtures were placed
between seven Pyrotechnic towers.
Video was provided by two Absen A6 LED
screens measuring nine-metres by five-metres,
supported by 16 LG 42-inch plasma screens, a
Samsung 22-inch monitor and two Video Wall
LVP603 Series LED processors for content.
PYROTECHNICS
Later on in the evening, guests enjoyed a
close proximity, digitally-synchronised musical
fireworks display which had took four days and
eight licensed pyrotechnic technicians to set up.
Lasting three minutes, the display was designed
by Flash Art for mamemo productions, which
took care of music production and contributed
its own artistic input.
Over 2000 individual close proximity firework
effects were used, including single shoot
mines, comets and cossets, all of which were
produced in Spain and shipped to Dubai by
Flash Art. To run the show, Flash Art made use
of 120 Pyrotronix PTX IC48 controlling system
modules, along with two Pyrotronix PTX C4
controllers.
AUDIO
Eight Crown I-Tech 4000 and 6000 Series
amplifiers powered 16 Harman JBL VerTec
Series VT4887A loudspeakers and 12 JBL VerTec
VT4880A subwoofers, processed by one XTA
DP448 loudspeaker management system. There
were also 20 PR:O 10 X loudspeakers from HK
Audio coupled with six Martin Audio LE400
stage monitors, powered by another Crown
I-Tech 4000 Series amplifier.
Additional audio equipment came from
Nexo. Two Nexo PS15 loudspeakers and two
Nexo LS1200 subwoofers were amplified by two
Nexo PS15 TDcontrollers. Additionally, 19 JBL
Eon 10 powered loudspeakers were used.
A wireless microphone system was used, and
comprised three Shure UR4D wireless receivers
working in conjunction with six Shure Beta 58A
and Beta 87 handheld microphones, while in-
ear monitors were a pair of Sennheiser ew 300
IEM G3s.
TPi
Photos: mamemo productions
www.beachpolo.net
www.mamemo.tv
www.flashart.com
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 EVENT FOCUS: PinkPop

PINKPOP: THE NETHERLANDS’ OLDEST FESTIVAL

THIS YEAR MARKED THE 45TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE NETHERLANDS’ OLDEST FESTIVAL, PINKPOP. IT
CERTAINLY CELEBRATED IN STYLE, PULLING IN MAJOR HEADLINERS, THE ROLLING STONES, ARCTIC
MONKEYS AND METALLICA FOR ONE OF THE BEST LINE-UPS IN ITS HISTORY. BEHIND THE SCENES, THE
FESTIVAL LISTS SAFETY, SECURITY AND LONG TERM SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIPS AS THE SECRETS OF ITS
SUCCESS. TPi FOUND OUT MORE.

Established in 1970 Pinkpop takes place
annually and attracts over 70,000 people
to the region of Landgraaf in the south of
Holland. Visitors come from across Europe
to soak in the atmosphere and catch the big
name acts the festival consistently attracts.
This eclectic name, ‘Pinkpop’, comes from
the Dutch word for Pentecost, ‘Pinksteren’
due to the fact that every year, Pinkpop is
held over the Pentecost weekend.
Pinkpop took place from 7 - 9 June 2014
and despite some ominous weather on the final
day, this year’s event was another resounding
success, thanks to those headliners, and the
close knit suppliers who have been with the
festival since the early days.
One such supplier is Mojo Barriers. Cees
Muurling, Managing Director, commented:
“Pinkpop festival is always a highlight of the
festival calendar, and we’ve worked with the
organiser, Jan Smeets for over 25 years, since
Mojo Barriers was first formed. We’ve grown
our offering alongside the expansion of the
festival itself, introducing new products and
approaches each year. We’re based in Holland
so supporting local festivals is hugely important:
we’ve all grown together within the industry.
“This also made Pinkpop the perfect choice
for us for a project that we’ve been working on.
We’ve just finished filming with the Discovery
Channel, who are featuring the making of
Mojo Barriers in its How do they do it? series.
Pinkpop was ideal for the festival for the last leg
of the filming, to showcase exactly how barriers
are used, and why they’re so important. It was
very unusual to have the camera pointed at us
for a change though!”
This year was one of the most complex yet
for Mojo Barriers, with headliners The Rolling
Stones, Arctic Monkeys and Metallica all
needing bespoke barrier configurations for their
productions. Mojo Barriers worked through
each night to reconfigure the main stage layout
to meet requirements.
For The Rolling Stones, Mojo utilised
485-metres of straight aluminium barriers and
supporting specials such as gates and corners,
creating a thrust which followed the line of the
Rolling Stone’s catwalk, bringing Mick Jagger et
al closer to the crowd.
The Sunday night saw Arctic Monkeys take
to the stage, with catwalk thrust removed and
replaced with two golden circles. For Metallica,
their infamous snake pit configuration was
welcomed back, putting lucky fans right in the
middle of the action.
Mojo Barriers’ Project Manager Erwin
Sprengers explained: “With 70,000 people in
attendance, and such a diverse demographic,
it was vital to have control of the number of
people at the main stage.
“For all three configurations we integrated
20 of our Gatekeeper 2.0; 10 on either side
of the stage counted people in and out the
golden circles, ensuring audience safety
by guaranteeing that capacities were not
exceeded.”
“The Gatekeeper lets you set a limit on
a central computer and control when the
turnstiles open. For Pinkpop, six people needed
to leave before another six could enter.”
A further two Gatekeepers were used on

30

Opposite: The festival - the oldest in The Netherlands - is kept secure with the expertise of Mojo Barriers which became a focal point for the Discovery Channel’s How It’s Made series.
a newly-introduced activation for the beer
company Brand. The company installed a huge
beer crate themed structure with capacity for
100 people on the roof, giving unparalleled
views of the festival’s impressive vista. The
Gatekeepers were a vital tool in ensuring safety
procedures and capacities were controlled.
Like many of the others we met on site,
Gerard Van Duykeren, CEO of The Security
Company (TSC) in the Netherlands and Showsec
in the UK, has also been part of the Pinkpop
family since the early days. He said: “My first
Pinkpop was when I was 16 years old, helping
out with the security. I’m 51 now - so you do
the maths! I was just a young lad, going to
school, needing some money so I started as a
security staff member. It was a hobby, which
has since evolved into my entire career.
“At Pinkpop the main change in security over
the years is less about the actual safety side
of things, as Pinkpop has always ensured the
highest levels of safety from the beginning. It’s
about customer experience. As a company we
are not simply the security firm, we are here to
help you: we are not here to give you a hard
time. We want to become a positive part of the
experience, after all people pay a lot of money
to come here.”
The security operation is a huge one, with
between 280 and 320 staff for 24 hours a day
across the three days of the festival. With 60
entrance gates, the need for a detailed team
plan and strategy is vital.
Van Duykeren continued: “We implemented
a new system this year with cameras and
staff who are strategically placed to monitor
crowd flow and make changes to the set up
in real time. With 60 entrances to cover this is
no easy task. For safe egress we remove the
infrastructure at each of the exits so that we can
avoid bottlenecks and get the crowds out more
quickly and efficiently.”
The other focus is the main stage, with TSC
carefully tailoring its staff numbers in the pit to
match the bespoke barriers layouts mentioned
above, and the predicted behaviour of the
crowd, which - thanks to the diverse headliners
across the three days - varied greatly.
“The crowds in Holland are very well
behaved in general,” said Van Duykeren.
“Pinkpop is predominantly a Dutch
demographic, with some visitors from Belgium
and Germany. They know how it works. We
have had a crowd surfing ban for years across
the entire country to ensure the wellbeing
of festival-goers. We don’t accept it and will
remove people from site if need be.”
The one thing beyond the control of even
EVENT FOCUS: PinkPop
the most experienced organisers is the weather.
Pinkpop was at the mercy of the skies this year
on the last day, when the festival site was hit
with torrential downpours ahead of Metallica’s
set.
As the rain began to fall, famous Dutch
celebrity presenter Eric Corton took to the main
stage urging visitors to remain calm and patient
while organisers assessed the situation. In true
Dutch style the audience listened and the rock
legends’ start time was delayed by just an hour,
with visitors able to enjoy the set safely, if more
than a little damp.
This year saw two major changes at Pinkpop;
the addition of a tented fourth stage for smaller,
more intimate performances and an adaption to
the main stage, supplied by Belgium’s Stageco,
another long term supplier to the festival for
the last 28 years (first time was in 1986). The
roof’s height was increased by an additional
two metres 30cm (the total clearance was
15-metres), making room for Metallica’s LED
screens for the festival’s last performance.
TPi
Photos: Plaster PR
www.pinkpop.nl/2014
www.mojobarriers.com/
www.stageco.com
31
 EVENT FOCUS: Vienna Festival
12 DAYS IN VIENNA
AUDIO ENGINEER ALEX SCHLOESSER HAS BEEN INVOLVED WITH THE AUSTRIAN PRO AUDIO SCENE FOR
18 YEARS, DESCRIBING IT AS “VERY EXCITING AND INTERESTING,” AS AUSTRIA, PARTICULARLY VIENNA,
IS RICH IN CULTURE. HE REPORTS FOR TPi FROM THE VIENNA FESTIVAL...
Being of German heritage, I am still only
a guest here, but have been welcomed a
lot and supported even more. One of the
main cultural events every year in Vienna
is the Vienna Festival Weeks or Wiener
Festwochen, traditionally opening in the
first week of May and lasting for seven
weeks with multiple theatre, music and
opera performances. The grand opening
ceremony is always held on a Friday night
where the mayor of Vienna invites the public
for a taste of local and European culture on
a large open air stage downtown in front of
the historical city hall, the Rathausplatz. The
event hosts about 50,000 people live on site,
plus millions on the screens as it is broadcast
live in three countries.
This year the theme of the opening was
Europe Sings where the top eight choirs,
which had participated in a European contest,
each presented a song of their own choice
and then the choirs together with the Arnold
Schoenberg Choir of Vienna and the Vienna
Radio Symphonic orchestra performed a few
famous classical choir pieces from various
composers including Verdi, Haendel, Mahler and
Beethoven. The job at hand was to produce and
present all this on stage to a live Audience of
50.000 in a way that keeps it interesting for the
32
listener and makes it a good sonic experience
for the TV audiences.
The task to present this brings along quite
a number of challenges and over the years
we have developed a few good solutions to a
challenging task. First of all, the acoustic space
is huge with about 100m width and more than
150m depth. Secondly, it is a classical event
with a substantial range of dynamics that are
normally not suited too well for open air and
amplified performances Finally, there are quite a
number of inputs which need to be handled by
the audio system.. redundant rack.
Doing the event acoustically with no
amplification is impossible due to the size and
the audience in attendance. Also, producing
a classical orchestra and a number of choirs
on an open air stage in a way that keeps the
image and the idea of a choir and also of the
philharmonic orchestra alive, is a rather difficult
task.
So how did we accomplish it? With the
number of inputs in mind we decided to split
the mixing task amongst three main engineers
and therefore the idea of networking three
main FOH consoles was born. Those three
boards would then play in to a fourth board
with multiple mixes and sources to play out
the signals onto the PA system. The main PA
mixing desk was planned redundant for obvious
reasons. In this case we decided to use an
Allen & Heath iLive system. The philharmonic
orchestra was mixed on an iLive-144 surface
with an iDR10 MixRack, the choirs were mixed
on an iLive-T112 with an iDR-64 Mixrack, and
the Arnold Schoenberg Choir plus wireless
systems and multiple other signals and feeds
have been mixed on an iLive-T80 surface, iDR-
48 rack and an XDR-16 expander rack. The main
PA control was handled by an iLive-R72 surface
with an iDR0 Mixrack plus iDR-16 as a back up
All Mixracks and surfaces were backed up by
computers running iLive Editor control software
and all surfaces were accessible through iPAD
via dedicated IP addresses on a wireless LAN
access structure. That way, multiple redundant
back up systems were in place to guarantee a
flawless performance.
When working with classical orchestras and
choirs the sound crew never gets the amount of
sound check time required to do the individual
tunings and equalisations, so a system with
two 64 track hard disk recorders was employed
for virtual sound checks during the setup and
rehearsals. That way, individual recordings
of the Orchestra and also of the choirs were
available for sound checks and further tunings
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#40811 - StudioLive AI PA Line.indd 1 03/07/2014 09:27

EVENT FOCUS: Vienna Festival
First Page: The view from the stage with the Arnold Schoenberg Choir. Below: Alllen & Heath’s iLive consoles were the event’s desk of choice; The festival’s audio crew.
once the artists had gone.
All this led to quite a sophisticated audio
network setup. A dual fibre optic link between
FOH and stage was installed and this was
backed up by a single fibre optical link and two
copper CAT 5 cable connections. The Fibre
optical links were connected via redundant
D-LINK switches, which had a number of VLAN
systems configured, so that 10 VLAN networks
have been available for various use between
FOH and the stage.
The overall number of input channels coming
in from the stage required the best possible
and available microphone solution to allow
the noise floor to be under control. As such,
the philharmonic orchestra was picked up by a
variety of Schoeps CCM 5, AKG CK 391, AKG C
414 , AKG C 417 , Neumann KM-84, Neumann
U-89, Neuman TLM 170, Sennheiser MKH 40,
Schertler and DPA lavalier microphones. Choir
microphones were completely Schoeps with 64
CCM 5 Colette systems. The Arnold Schoenberg
Choir and the Solo voices also used Schoeps
CCM 5 Colette and Neumann microphones.
Last but not least, eight wireless Handheld
Microphones by Sennheiser were used for the
TV hosts, the Mayor, the Orchestra conductor
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34
and the head of the Arnold Schoenberg Choir.
A total number of 176 inputs were
accumulated for the event. Those signals were
actively split by KT active Splitters for P.A. and
the broadcast OB van. The entire stage and
PA system were powered over a large UPS to
avoid any problems with local power supply.
A container UPS with a 125 KVA capacity was
employed for the purpose.
As for the PA system, only very capable
high power, long throw and systems with very
controlled acoustical pattern were used for the
job. A mix of Meyer Sound, d&b audiotechnik,
Renkus Heinz and DAS Audio loudspeakers were
used. We used a center cluster of three Meyer
Sound MSL-6 for long throw, a number of
Meyer Sound subwoofers and Melodie boxes for
near fill through a Gerzon matrix and 12 UPA’s
for surround. From the d&b audiotechnik range
we used 10 pieces of d&b C-7 for a Gerzon
Matrix System on a dedicated audio truss on top
of the stage plus eight each J-Series for Delay
one with seven pieces J-8 and one J-12 plus
four J-SUBs a side and then four Q-7 plus two
Q-SUBS a side for delay line two. The left and
right line array hangs were Lars systems by DAS
Audio, owned by the Vienna Festival.
dimensions SETUP
132’ X 56’
(40 m x 17 m) X16 16h00
dimensions SETUP
132’ X 56’
(40 m x 17 m) X16 16h00
The surround setup was handled by an
ambisonic system that was fed from a stereo
left and right feed from each of the mixing
consoles with additional spatial information
from a few dedicated microphones on stage
(choir hangers and orchestra hangers). The
production was quite an undertaking but the
result and the response of the audience was
very rewarding. The Allen & Heath iLive systems
performed absolutely flawlessly and having one
platform across the production made things
very easy so the engineers in charge could help
or back each other up if necessary. No external
signal processing of any sort other than the
loudspeaker processing was required. The two
Gerzon matrix systems used the iLive effects
library and the ambisonic setup was handled by
a dedicated computer with Ethersound interface
card. Hearing the final performance on Friday
night after 10 days of setup, preparations and
rehearsals were spectacular. I always encourage
engineers to keep on trying and experimenting
with the technologies that are available to us
today.
TPi
www.festwochen.at
www.allen-heath.com
SPEARHEADING
STAGING EVOLUTION
 PRODUCTION PROFILE: 1D

A JOURNEY IN ONE DIRECTION

THE PHENOMENON OF THE BOY BAND BEGAN ABOUT HALF A CENTURY AGO WITH THE MANIA THAT
FOLLOWED THE BEATLES’ EVERY MOVE AND IT’S FAIR TO SAY THAT EVERY GENERATION SINCE HAS
PRODUCED ITS OWN VERSION. FROM THE BAY CITY ROLLERS TO THE OSMOND BROTHERS AND, OF COURSE,
THE FIRST VERSION OF TAKE THAT, EACH ONE HAS FOLLOWED A SIMILAR PATH. A CLEAN CUT AND CUTE
PROFILE PRODUCING A MASSIVE FOLLOWING IN THE GIRL TEEN AND PRE-TEEN MARKET; GLOBAL SALES
AND AN INTENSIVE TOURING SCHEDULE FOLLOWED BY ANOTHER ALBUM. KATE LYON REPORTS ON THE UK’S
LATEST BOY BAND AS THEIR GLOBALLY TOURING LIVE SHOW VISITS MANCHESTER.

Somewhere about here on the journey
tends to come a desire to be seen as a more
mature package: the music takes on a harder
edge; live production values become more
sophisticated and the band members begin
to shake off their innocent, shiny clean
image. From this point, the route becomes
less defined and sustained success tends
to rely more on talent and musicality than
clever marketing and directed publicity.
So, as One Direction arrives at the Etihad
Stadium in Manchester as part of their global
tour, whereabouts on this journey is this most
recent incarnation of the boy band genre?
Well, cursory glances along the endless queues
waiting for the doors to open confirm that 1D’s
audience is still overwhelmingly female and very
young despite the recent media outpourings
about less than perfect politically correct
behaviour from some members of the band.
Most over-30s women were accompanying their
daughters while the occasional father could be
seen looking very much like they would like to
be anywhere else but here.
There was little doubt this was a massive
event on the Manchester calendar. Roads
were blocked for hours before the show, the
car parks were overflowing and the unofficial
merchandisers and ticket touts were out in
force. Inside the stadium, the atmosphere was
all about eager anticipation as the incoming
audience got their first view of the stage and
the set - fortunately, all bathed in afternoon
sunshine.
HOW IT LOOKS
It’s immediately clear that this show is all about
making sure the audience can see as much
of the boys as possible. A 30-metre Thrust
extends all the way past the FOH positions
and terminates at the B stage (more of which
later) and runways, known as Screamers extend
past each of the screens either side of the
central stage area. As Production Manager,
Wob Roberts explained this is all about visual
accessibility: “Although we opted for a non-
customised stage from Stageco, it has been
utilised in such a way that makes it appear to
have been designed specifically for 1D. The
stage itself is placed effectively downstage
of the roof’s front line. By cantilevering the
screens on the left and right we’ve been able
to sell seats up to 180° each side of the stage
- and those seats are in no way restricted. The
audience there can see everything from the
drums and keyboards downstage. Add to that
the amount of time the boys spend on the

36
 PRODUCTION PROFILE: 1D

Opposite: VER supplied 480 sq metres of Winvision Air LED panels, a first for a European production. Below: A total of six Robert Juliat Lancelots were brought on tour to accentuate the boys’
appearance on the LED screens; Wigwam Acoustics provided a J-Series PA rig from d&b audiotechnik.

Thrust and the Screamers and we know that
we’re delivering a show that the whole audience
can fully access.”
The huge scale of the event in terms of kit,
touring personnel and very excitable audience
members meant that health and safety elements
were of the utmost importance. The tour’s
H&S needs were handled by The Event Safety
shop, led by Simon James. Safety barriers came
from EPS and were account managed by Okan
Tombulca and security was via All Star.
The bespoke nature of the set design is
credited to Creative Designer, Lee Lodge as Ray
Winkler of Stufish remarked: “Lee was clear that
the set had to generate a signature language
that was specific to 1D. The strong geometry
and symmetry of design creates a partnership
between the set, the stage and the boys. There
is an immediate presence of the boys’ identity
and their entrance point is the epicentre of the
entire set: the thrust, the screamers, the shape
of the lighting truss are all designed to lead
the eye to that central upstage point where a
central upstage screen is manoeuvred through
a Kinesys system to act as an opening reveal for
the boys’ entrance on stage. All Kinesys hoists
were controlled via the Kinesys K2 motion
control package.
The artwork on the fascias that is blended
into some of the video content continues to
build on presenting an identity for the boys. The
graffiti is a representation of sea containers,
reflecting a world without borders and the
boys’ constant international travel. “To create a
three dimensional reality of such a concept takes
massive coordination from everyone involved,”
concluded Winkler, “and the value of that
cooperation cannot be over-rated.”
At the end of the Thrust is the B stage that
incorporates a video lift and provides a final
destination for the boys as they reach the climax
of the show. Matthew Hales, Tait Technologies’
Senior Project Manager expanded: “This
was actually an existing system for us from a
previous show that Wob had been involved in.

CELEBRATING
15 YEARS
SPECIALISTS IN THE ART OF
TOURING & ENTERTAINMENT

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37
PRODUCTION PROFILE: 1D
Below: The bespoke skatepark themed set design was created by Lee Lodge; an assortment of Clay Paky Sharpys, Martin by Harman MAC Auras, Philips Vari-Lite 3500 FXs and Robert Juliat Flo
1800Ws made up the lighting truss spec.
We modified it to create a large
monolithic hi-resolution video cube
that rises up from under the B
stage platform in the middle of the
stadium. The components were all
there originally, but the challenge
was reconfiguring them in a way to
provide a unique visual gag while
at the same time not breaking
38
the bank for the production
with a cost associated to custom
manufacturing such an element.”
The importance of the visual
component of the production is
apparent long before the screens
come alive or the band walk
on stage. The video element is
supplied by VER who are using
Winvision Air LED panels to create
the 240 sq metres of each screen
- the first time this has been used
in Europe. Roberts was more
than happy with the choice: “The
Winvision Air is about half the
weight of its predecessor which
has made a massive difference
to what else we’ve been able to
rig on the stage and it looks just
fabulous. We start the show quite
early in the evening and this time
of year on a sunny day that can
mean that the show only really
runs in darkness for the final few
numbers. This new lightweight
Winvision really delivers whatever
the weather or time of day. I have
yet to see better. The only practical
issue with it is that - owing to its
construction - we’ve had to rig
what is effectively a window-
cleaning gantry behind each screen
to allow for technical access which
has added a bit of weight back
onto the roof’s total load.”
Weight and load is a challenge
that has occupied the minds of
most of the departments on this
production. Tait Technologies’
Hales continued: “We were
responsible for the surrounding
scenic element and one of
our challenges was finding a
lightweight yet cost effective
way to simulate the sides of sea
containers on the scenic fascia
that surrounded the main stage
video screens. We settled on a
corrugated polycarbonate sheeting
with custom machined and bent
plastic channel to reinforce the
sides and give the panels some
visual depth. On the inside of each
of the fascia panels we mounted
an outdoor RGB LED tape so that
each panel would have individual
colour control to add some extra
pop to the graffiti artwork of the
fascia. Weight has been an issue
from day one, and we found
this to be the most suitable way
to provide something that still
appeared very large and stable, all
the while maintaining an ultra-light
finish weight for installation and
load out purposes at the same
time not adding unnecessary
weight to the Stageco structure.”
The large contingent on the
video crew is an indication of
how important this facet of the
production is. Director Ruary
MacPhie is supported by Ray
Gwillliams, Ellie Clement and
Richard Turner who’s responsible
for the video playback and
synchronisation side of things.
Crew Chief Andy Joyes heads up
the team of Rob Brewer, Garry
Dunn, Ed Lawlor, Robyn Tearle,
Gordon Davies, Barry Minter,
Sacha Moore and Saria Ofogba. In
addition to the 480 sq metres of
Winvision Air LED screen there is a
total of 120 sq metres of Radiant
Linx 18 LED screen that is used on
the central stage as three more
separate screens.
The five screens are all used
for a combination of very dynamic
content and IMAG - there are a
total of seven Sony HDC 1500
cameras - three Fuji 88x lens;
two 22x lens and two 14x lens.
Anecdotally, this is the largest
amount of screen yet to be used
in any single stage production.
Control is through a VER
Advantage Touring PPU with a
 Concert stages
in all sizes,
temporary
structures
for every event.

Stageco Belgium N.V.

Kapelleweg 6
3150 Tildonk
Tel : +32 16 60 84 71
Fax: +32 16 60 10 61
info@stageco.com

20130925_Stageco_Zomer2013_Intern_A4.indd 1 25-09-13 12:29

PRODUCTION PROFILE: 1D
Below: Wob Roberts, Production Manager; Robyn Tearle and Garry Dunn, Video crew; Dave Lee, Lighting Operator; Kinesys supplied the backstage hoist platform. Opposite: Dinner Menu courtesy of
Sarahskitchen.
Grass Valley Kayak 250 desk and Evertz routing.
“We’re also responsible for the Blades,”
explained Robyn Tearle and Garry Dunn from
the video crew over dinner. “These are LED
battens that run all round the central walkway
and the side runways. In total we have 200
Revolution Display Blade HD LED Battens and 30
Revolution Display Blade 1260 LED Battens. They
are amazingly bright and really serve to bring
all the parts of the performance area together.
Mind you, they need to be, to work with the
brightness of the Winvision. As technicians
we’ve been really impressed with these new Air
LED panels: it’s a good solid product straight
out of the factory and surprisingly robust
for its weight and comparatively lightweight
construction.”
The Blades themselves presented something
of a control challenge as Video Technical
Director, Richard Turner explained: “During
rehearsals it became clear that for perfect
synchronisation between the main screen and
the Blades, both needed to be sourced from
the same feed, but at other times we wanted
the freedom to run from the Catalyst and synch
with lighting. We made use of the new Tessera
M2 LED processor from Brompton Technology
that allows us to do this on a song by song or
even cue by cue basis. The changeover from
pre-programmed content from the Catalyst
media server to the main show screen feed
40
was seamlessly achieved from the Hog 4 DMX
console at FOH.”
Video content was created by Montreal-
based Geodezik (Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry)
and headed up by Director, Gabriel Coutu
Dumont who came to London to put the
finishing touches to the visuals during pre-
production.
With such a vast investment in video, how
does a lighting designer make his mark on the
look of the production? Paul Normandale is no
stranger to this sort of challenge. “The stage
set and video design were already completed
when I first got involved,” he explained. “My
design was really determined by the set and
the video - where space and weight load was
available I put lights that I knew would be
able to perform against so much screen and
sunlight. The on-stage rig consists primarily
of Philips Vari-Lite 3500 FXs and Clay Paky
Sharpys that can always be relied upon to cut
it in this sort of environment. The hundred plus
Martin Professional MAC Auras, rigged on the
edges of the Screamers and the long stage
Thrust are what really define the scale of the
show. Alongside the Blades that are part of
the set edging, the Auras really give definition
to the shape of the whole set. Remembering
there is no front truss, it is the Auras and the
followspots that provide lighting for the majority
of the show.”
The followspots in question are rigged on
the delay towers. A total of six Robert Juliat 4kw
Lancelots (one for each band member and one
spare) provide vital key lighting for the cameras.
Lighting Crew Chief, Wayne Kwiat was full of
praise for their performance: “I just love these
spots. They outclass anything else on the market
as far as I’m concerned in terms of brightness,
performance and reliability - there’s nothing to
touch them. The job they and the truss spots
do is such an important component to the
show. We’ve used Robert Juliat on the truss as
well: the Flo 1800w. They’re the same size and
weight as an equivalent 1200W unit but that
much more powerful; they create great back
light on the boys a long, long way down the
thrust.”
Normandale has entrusted his design to
Dave Lee who is a something of a veteran in
operating shows for boy band productions.
“I’ve known Dave a long time but this is the
first time he has operated for me and the whole
experience has been an absolute pleasure. He
is far more than just a safe pair of hands: his
intuitive creativity is a real asset, as is his calm
and patience when in the eye of the storm.
Simply being credited as the lighting operator
massively underrates his importance to the
show.”
As we wait for the band to appear, Lee
himself is affability personified with no sign

of nerves or concerns about running the
show. “I’ve been doing this sort of act for
about 15 years now, from Westlife and JLS
to Ollie Murs and now One Direction - and
this is the second time I’ve worked with
them. Along with my crew chief, Wayne
who we’ve seconded from Upstaging in
Chicago and the System Tech Phil Sharp,
I’m doing the whole global tour. We started
down in South America and I’ve been able
to tweak bits and pieces of the show as we
go along and I hear different things in the
music. It’s one of the reasons that I like to
run the show for the support band - it gives
me a feel for the gig before the boys come
on stage. My console of choice is the new
Hog 4 from High End Systems. Paul’s design
allows me to really add impact towards
the end of the show when they play the
newer, rockier songs and the darkness is
providing more definition to the light show.”
The lights and the crew all come courtesy
of Lite Alternative: Normandale, Lee and
Kwiat are all equally full of praise for the
whole package. “I know the show has had
great support from Lite Alternative,” said
Normandale.
“Speaking as the outsider from
Upstaging, I can say the Lite Alt guys are
absolutely the ‘A’ Team,” conceded Kwait.
PRODUCTION PROFILE: 1D
“Europe has been a really smooth ride and a
lot of that is down to them. As well as our
Kinesys Operator, Paul Burke and system
tech, Phil Sharp, the crew are Ricky ‘Avo’
Butler, Ben Rogerson, Martin Garnish, Jonny
Gallagher and Gaz Horridge. And I know
Dave will agree with me when I say that our
truck drivers from Stage Trucks who do the
followspots also deserve a mention here. It’s
always a pleasure working over here when
you use regular operators who really know
the show and these guys are just great.”
“Because of the amount of time the boys
spend on the thrust, the followspots are
necessarily a big part of this show,” agreed
Lee. “I always call the cues but I’m pretty
sure if I lost my voice one night they would
help me out. It’s great to have operators
who get into the show - from the way they
entertain the crowd from the delay towers
they certainly seem to enjoy themselves!”
At the epicentre of the Thrust and the
Screamers is the stage for the 1D backing
band. With the drums and keyboards placed
strategically under perspex roofs they
continue the angular vision of the rest of
the stage. Designed by Ray Winkler and Ric
Lipson of Stufish and constructed by Brilliant
Stages, the set is a three dimenstional
diamond-shaped skate park that
41
PRODUCTION PROFILE: 1D
Below: The open stage, as photographed from the B stage; The Sarahskitchen catering crew; The thrust was a key element of the shows design. Brilliant Stages developed a customised, extra-
strength anti-slip coating to sensure maximum grip for the performers in the face of changeable weather conditions.
incorporates multiple levels for performance
and adds perspective and depth to the stage.
The whole stage measures 54-metre wide by
21-metre deep; the colour ways of black, silver
and most striking of all, poster paint red create
a vivid and dynamic visual effect before any light
show or video begins.
Built into the design is as much consideration
for the working crew as for the band, offering
as much storage and technical areas for crew
to work in. Head Carpenter, Darren Davidson
expanded: “The extreme gradient of the
skateboard slopes onstage along with the
potential for slippery wet weather conditions
in outdoor stadiums called for something more
heavy-duty than a standard non-slip finish
to the decking. Brilliant Stages developed a
customised, extra-strength anti-slip coating
that gives the performers more grip. As well
as finding solutions to potential problems like
that, they are very good at the little details
that make life easier for the crew: they’ve built
upstage laser platforms and fixings for the in-ear
system transmitters directly into the set and
incorporated quick change space along with
guitar and drum tech areas sub-stage. We have
Brilliant’s CAD designer, Mel Welch to thank
42
for designing a series of hooked spacers that
connect the Stageco sub-stage to the Brilliant
Stages set. This orientates the stage alignment
precisely on every load in. It’s a brilliantly
simple way to save time for all the crews during
construction. The result is that the stage set
goes up in six hours, and the entire production
in just 12 hours.”
HOW IT SOUNDS
1D may not have reached the stratosphere that
is inhabited by the likes of Robbie or Coldplay
just yet but this production is playing the same
size stadiums and requires a PA system to suit.
Filling venues like the Etihad and Wembley with
a level and quality of audio expected by an
increasingly sophisticated audience is the job
of Wigwam. Client management supremo, Chis
Hill from Wigwam, stated: “We chose to use a
J-Series rig from d&b audiotechnik for several
reasons but if I had to narrow it down; firstly,
this is the sort of environment that the J-Series
loves - we knew that the J8 arrays would
deliver a superlative performance whatever
the challenges of the show and secondly, its
relatively light weight made it ideal as weight
restrictions played a big part in the final sound
design.”
System Tech, Nick Mooney explained both
the challenges and the solutions: “The high
levels of screaming from the audience and the
boys being out in front of the system for the
majority of the show could have been an issue
but the J-Series arrays were more than up to
the job. Flying subs would have been great but
weight limitations were against us so the J-SUBs
were ground stacked. Great effort was taken
in positioning the subs to create an even and
full response throughout the stadium while not
creating a huge hot spot of sub bass for the
audience at the front. We achieved this by the
careful positioning of the J-SUBs and creating
a sub array with use of the d&b ArrayCalc
simulation software.
“Although we were only able to hang 20
loudspeakers in the main arrays due to the
set design and weight restrictions, it didn’t
compromise their role of covering the floor
area of the stadiums evenly. The side hangs of
J-Series cover up to about 150° and we choose
to use V-Series as rear hangs filling in up to 200°
or even 220° if required. For venues of this size,
delay towers were a must.
“We opted for two hangs off each tower
 CALVIN AURAND

CONGRATULATIONS ONE DIRECTION ON A SUPERB TOUR

PROUD TO CONTINUE OUR ONGOING RELATIONSHIP
WWW.BRILLIANTSTAGES.COM
TEL: +44 (0)1462 455 366

BRILL_STG02_225x312_AW_jun14_2.indd 1 6/22/14 11:36 AM

PRODUCTION PROFILE: 1D
Below: Sarahskitchen were in charge of catering for the tour, feeding 200 mouths for breakfast, lunch and dinner; Strictly FX provided an assortment of hazers, foggers, pyrotechnics and streamers
for the concert.
positioned about 70-metres from the front edge
of stage. This was determined by the maximum
effective throw of the followspots. The delays
were used to enhance the main system on the
rear part of the floor and lower tiered seating
and provide coverage to the upper tiers.”
FOH Engineer, Mark Littlewood is using a
Digico SD7 console - as is Monitor engineer
Ant Carr: “Digico is my first choice of console,
no matter what the show is it’s the first thing
on my rider. We have three SD7 surfaces on
the road, one at each end of the snake and a
touring spare.”
However, Carr has more challenges than
usual to contend with on stage: “I have no
line of sight to stage so I have been given
a duplicate of the video directors screen; I
can see nine camera feeds so I have a pretty
good overview of where the boys are. The
difficulty is the loss of eye contact that is often
so important between an artist and monitor
engineer. I have a few shout microphones
positioned around the stage with a push-to-talk
foot pedal so they can relay any requests they
have to me. This can range from levels up and
down to fetching a banana!
“For most of the show the boys are in front
44
of the PA but the Thrust and hydraulic B stage
are the challenge. With five open microphones
in front of the PA you get a world of pain. It’s
the washing machine effect of their voices, the
PA mix and the incessant screaming coming
back down the mics. As they get further down
the Thrust and away from the PA the timing is
harder to deal with.”
“We were delighted to have secured this tour, as was my nine year old
daughter!”
“The boys don’t soundcheck,” continued
Carr, “so the first time they get onto the Thrust
in the show is the first time I hear how the
microphones are reacting that day with the
room, the audience level and the spill. I tend
to make any changes on the fly and respond to
feedback (No pun intended!). I use a mixture
of Shure, Sennheiser, Audix and Neumann
microphones on the drums and a Beyerdynamic
M88 and an Avalon DI on bass. All the DIs are
Countryman. For me, the success story on this
tour has been the Milab DC96B; we are using
a pair on the drums as overheads and one on
each of the two guitar amps. Our FOH Engineer,
Mark Littlewood has used these for a while now
but this was my first time and I love them.”
Although Carr may feel as if he is flying by
the seat of his pants occasionally, he is more
than confident with the level of support he’s
given by Wigwam. “We have a long term
relationship with Wigwam; they have covered
all of 1D’s European touring and will continue
to provide our full control package worldwide.
Chris, Simon, Alex, Barney and Katie have
worked so hard to make sure the package Mark
and I have is exactly tailored to our needs. I
 PRODUCTION PROFILE: 1D
THE GLOBAL TRUSS
Below: Wayne Kwiat, Lighting Crew Chief; The Stageco team backstage: Project Manager Dirk De Decker, Crew Chief Patrik
Vonckx, Rene Maas and Rene Paasch.
TRUSSTOOL
have Ralph Smart working with me as my tech
and Ali Viles is dealing with all the RF: a first
class team that makes my day so much easier.”
It is the same Ali Viles who takes the time to
elaborate on the RF element of the show. “Each
member of 1D has their own IEM mix which
is fed to two IEM systems in different ranges,
running a constant 100% redundant system
at all times. We are using one Sennheiser IEM
system and one RF system from Shure. As is
often the case on shows of this scale, one of the
biggest problems for the RF system is competing
with spurious RF emissions of the other
elements of the tour. The quantity of video
wall on this tour is enormous and in certain
circumstances it emits a considerable amount
of RF interference. I have worked closely with
VER, the worldwide video vendor, to isolate
this interference and to be able to manage it as
> Fast & easy ol much as possible.”
struction to
> Online con “All the equipment is supplied by Wigwam,”
constructions
> Save & load
added Viles. “Added to that we get superb
4 systems service and support. When we were deciding
> F32, F33 & F3 on the specification, I worked really closely with
tool
> Innovative them to create a system that works seamlessly
to guarantee the band’s requirements
worldwide.”
!
E - FOR FREE HOW IT WORKS
NOW ONLIN om None of this happens without power and it is
ol.c
www.trussto Fourth Generation who are supplying that vital
ingredient through two 480 kVA generators and
two 500 kVA generators. There are a total of
28 distribution boxes connected by a whopping
10,000 ft of cable. “The tour has been going
well for us and we’re delighted to be working
with Wob Roberts and his team again,” said
Laura Hurlocker from Fourth Generation. “The
www.GlobalTruss.de
tight touring schedule has kept our three-man
46
crew on its toes and the pressure has been on
with some load-ins taking place on the show
day itself. However, our crew are taking it all in
their stride.”
HOW IT HANGS
The Stageco roof provides the rigging points
for everything except the delay towers.
UsOneProductions are the tour riggers and
Project Manager, Jerry Hough explained the
details: “Our rigging crew is headed up by
Colin Raby. Altogether, there are 121 points to
hang plus 24 inverted hoists that are used to
lift columns of video screen. This is a relatively
straightforward gig for us as we rig from
the same Stageco roof at every venue so no
unforeseen surprises first thing. A normal day
starts with marking out points and dealing with
any issues that might arise during set-up of the
video, sounds or lights. When everything is up
to trim, the video screens are wind-braced as
are the line arrays on the delay towers out in
the auditorium. The Lite Alternative guys deal
with the Kinesys hoists that are used on the
lighting rig and of course there are more Kinesys
involved in the platform lift that is used to get
the boys on and off upstage centre.
“We are also providing the Skyclimber access
platforms - something like a window cleaning
gantry - which are situated stage left and right
behind the video screens to provide technical
access for the video crew to the Air Winvison
panels as these new units cannot be climbed on
directly,” he added.
Lite Alternative’s Jon Greaves expanded:
“Kinesys offers huge options for movement and
truss positions to both the Show Designer and
Lighting Designer, and Lite Alt have regularly
supplied Kinesys system and control packages
Headoffice Austria: joerg@beatthestreet.net | klaus@beatthestreet.net | hannes@beatthestreet.net
Office UK Buses: tim@beatthestreet.net | garry@beatthestreet.net
Office UK Cars & Vans: ian@beatthestreet.net | mark@beatthestreet.net

www.beatthestreet.net
PRODUCTION PROFILE: 1D
Below: Despite the enourmity of the production, everything could be built, set up and ready to go in just 12 hours.
to many of our major shows for several years
now. We appreciate its versatility, reliability and
the fantastic service from Kinesys themselves.”
HOW IT TASTES
This production army, like any other, marches
on its stomach. The task of keeping band
and crew happy, healthy and well fed falls to
Sarahskitchen who cooked for 1D on their first
theatre tour and was subsequently asked back
to reprise the role on the arena tour. Boss Sarah
Nicholas even created a ‘mini’ Sarahskitchen as
the band travelled the globe in 2013.
“It doesn’t matter how few or how many you
are catering for, the quality always has to remain
consistent,” said Sarah. “Now we’re doing
stadiums, everything has to be scaled up. We
are cooking for around 200 people on a show
day. Breakfast starts an hour before load in:
48
everything is available from cereals, croissants
and yoghurts to a full-on full English. The coffee
and cappuccino machine is hard at work from
the moment we get power. Lunch consists
of a couple of hot dishes with lots of salad,
cookies and cakes. Our four chefs who prepare
the ‘main’ dishes are Paddy, Jesse, Stevie and
Gordon while Lisa, Sophie and Helena are
in charge of salads and baking. Everything is
freshly made.
“At dinner time, we always do a plate
service so the chefs can cook to order for
every individual,” continued Sarah. “Even on
a production as large as this one, we know
everyone’s name and make sure they feel they
are relaxing in a personal ‘home’ environment
- a place that is the social hub of the tour.
Specials like ‘egg ‘n’ chip’ days, Italian nights or
a hogg roast like here in Manchester are always
popular and the crew really appreciate us going
that extra mile.
“As far as the menus are concerned, we
always try to strike a balance between providing
healthy choices and offering the kind of comfort
dishes that you tend to crave when you’re away
from home. That is equally true for the crew
as well as the band who are continually on
the move. So lots of chicken, pasta and salads
plus those perennial favourites: ice cream and
chocolate cake.”
“Richard and Felix are our advance shoppers
who arrive a couple of days before us and shop
to the planned menus, set up the kitchen and
dining areas before the rest of the crew arrive
on production day to complete the set up. It is
Vikki and Sharon who take care of the dining
room and produce the very welcome bus food
at the end of the day. It takes us about two
PRODUCTION PROFILE: 1D
Below: The boys take the opportunity for a quick sit down during an acoustic number performed - as was the case with many songs - on the thrust.
hours to clean down and pack away when we
load out which is much quicker than the rest of
the show!” she said.
HOW IT MOVES
“At a venue like the Etihad we’ve got the load
out time down to four and a half hours,” said
Roberts. “We have a total of 32 trucks from
Stage Trucks on the tour ranging from Mega
Cube boxes to Taut-liners, PSKs and a Double
deck trailer to accommodate the variety of
loads - both in size and weight - so there is a
lot to shift! We’ve opted to have a total of three
steel sets out with us to make load in more
time-efficient so there is always a crew working
ahead of us on pre-production.”
“The set takes a good part of our load-
in time even though we have six carpenters
working on the set and we have a great
crew across all departments who function
together as a single professional unit to put this
production together. The weight restrictions
on the stage, which have affected decisions
taken by both sound and light designers, have
been overcome in simultaneously pragmatic
and imaginative ways. The choice of an ‘off the
shelf stage’ was initially for budgetary reasons
but, as is often the way on shows of this size,
it doesn’t always work out to be the cheapest
option. That doesn’t detract from the fact that
this production has success written all over it.
50
Technically, artistically and financially this is a
great show.”
“Playing the Etihad here in Manchester is
something of a homecoming gig for the boys,“
continued Roberts. “And the vibe here has been
astonishing. We’re playing Wembley shortly
but for me it seems like Manchester is the new
London.”
In charge of transporting the show from
city to city, Adam Hatton of Global Motion
commented: “We were delighted to have
secured this tour, as was my nine year old
daughter! The first dates were a comprehensive
dash through South America taking in
Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and
Brazil and then straight back to Sunderland,
UK to start the European dates. There was
only one day between each city so using
scheduled aircraft was out of the question, so
we chartered a freighter. Fortunately Wob and I
have done a number of large tours through this
part of the world and know the drill. He always
provides me with the most comprehensive
manifests for customs and its customs that will
cause delays if there are any discrepancies in
the paperwork. I’m happy to say that it all went
swimmingly we delivered early to every venue.”
The band and crew were transported by Beat
The Street tour buses in the UK and Europe.
Beat The Street’s Gary Lewis said: “We would
like to thank 1D for using Beat The Street  on
this tour. We are delighted to have been
involved and would love to work with them
again soon.” 
THE FINAL DESTINATION
As for the show itself, there’s no doubt that One
Direction have worked hard to keep up with
the phenomenal success they’ve enjoyed in the
last couple of years. The set, the video and the
Kinesys assisted entrance for the band are all
really impressive. The J-Series produces the level
and clarity of sound that they are renowned
for and as the subs kick in you know you are in
for an audio treat. Lee makes the most of the
Lite Alt rig at the start of the show, using an
abundance of white to cut through the early
evening sunlight. Even in these conditions, the
MAC Auras do their job for the cameras and the
Sharpys are as punchy as ever.
As for the boys themselves, their vocals have
matured and there’s little sign of nerves: they
are clearly becoming more attuned to working
audiences of this size. The audience itself has
been at fever pitch for several hours with the
stadium security doing a sterling job of offering
water to a packed floor and helping those
unable to cope with the physical and emotional
exhaustion of the day out of the crush to
recuperate away from the thronging masses.
The show is pacey with just occasional
lulls for various members of the band to visit
 PRODUCTION PROFILE: 1D

Below: Despite their size and output capability, the VER supplied Winvision Air LED panels are extremely lightweight - half that of their predecessors - ensuring transportation and set-up efficiency.

the little boys room. As darkness approaches summer, Robbie and Timberlake to name just www.upstaging.com,
Normandale’s design shows its true worth two? The answer has to be: there is still some www.stufish.com
amidst the Orca Foggers and DF50 Hazers; the way to go. This is the Where We Are tour - it www.lite-alternative.com
pyros and streamers supplied and operated seems as if the boys themselves are aware that www.brilliantstages.com
by Strictly FX add some spectacle towards they’re on a journey that still has some way to www.wigwamacoustics.co.uk
the end of the set as does the B stage during go. There’s no doubt they have a direction; they www.fourthgenerationltd.com
‘One Thing’. However, this is still a band with a just haven’t reached their final destination quite sarahskitchentouring.com
journey ahead of them if they are to establish yet. www.globalmotion.co.uk
themselves as this generation’s boy band that TPi www.strictlyfx.com, www.stagetruck.com
survives its first flush of adulation. The show Photos: Calvin Aurand www.eps.net, http://geodezik.com
certainly does its job - the audience go away www.onedirectionmusic.com www.beatthestreet.net
happy - but if you ask the question: how does www.stageco.com www.the-eventsafetyshop.co.uk
it match up to acts playing similar venues this www.taittowers.com, www.verrents.com www.allstarsecurity.co.uk

51
 PRODUCTION PROFILE: Arcade Fire

REFLEKTOR : LIVE
GRAMMY WINNING CANADIAN BAND ARCADE FIRE’S FOURTH ALBUM REFLEKTOR IS A BOLD ELECTRONIC
DANCE WORK PRODUCED BY JAMES MURPHY. THE LIVE SHOW IN SUPPORT OF IT DRAWS STRONGLY
ON MIRRORS, OFF CENTRE SURREAL CARNIVAL DISCO INFLUENCES AND EPIC SOUND REQUIREMENTS.
WITH SOME HEAVYWEIGHT SUPPLIERS FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC, ARCADE FIRE’S TWO EARLS
COURT SHOWS IN JUNE PUT ON A LIVE PRODUCTION WORHTY OF THE ICONIC VENUE. SIMON DUFF
REPORTS FROM LONDON.

The Reflektor tour started last year in New
Zealand before arriving in America early
in February. The current European leg of
the tour sees the band playing their own
shows and festival headliners including
Glastonbury, Pinkpop, Hyde Park, Fuji
Rock in Japan before returning to the US in
August for further shows. The band is well
known for unusual, surreal, original ideas.
Richard Stembridge (Sigur Ros, Florence and
the Machine) Show Designer has been working
with them since the Neon Bible Tour in 2008,
when he was brought in by Paul Normandale to
design video content. With the Reflektor tour
Stembridge he has now stepped up to the job
of full creative production design, gaining plenty
of plaudits along the way. Commenting on the
brief for the design he explained: “From an
artistic point of view in the past the band have
favoured a very organic, raw, homemade look.
This time out with 12 people on stage, and a
new electronic dance edge to their music, they
wanted to go for a very clean, well-defined,
dance club, warehouse influenced look and
really step up the production values - and
achieve that in arenas to a budget.”
From the outset Stembridge wanted an
expedient but versatile lighting rig for the tour,
and during initial design thought about how
his set and video surfaces could be developed
to also reflect light in the process becoming
secondary light sources. That all the video
surfaces should be truly multi-purpose and look
interesting and relevant even when no footage
is playing is one of his trademarks, together
with using the medium subtly, intelligently
and judiciously throughout the set. He started
investigating the possibilities of using a mirrored
video screen at the back of the stage that would
reflect light when not in use, and then jump to
life as a screen when video was running. During
the warm-ups he hit on the solution for this,
which was to cover XL Video’s Pixled F-11 LED
tiles which they are using on tour.
Another key element are two lighting truss
pods for the stage ceiling both containing
21 Martin Professional MAC Auras, equally
spaced and each fitted with bespoke hexagonal
acrylic mirror pieces, made by Upstaging in
America, who provided lighting. In Europe PRG
supplied all the lighting including regular 500kg
Loadstar JJ Kinesys hoists, four per pod. Four
large mirror pieces, which sit upstage and 12
500kg Lodestar JJ Kinesys converted variable
speed hoists. Paul Mundrick from Upstaging
in America is on the whole tour looking after
all Kinesys motors along with rigger, Bjorn
Melchert.
Stembridge also designed the important
video content. He said: “The band said very
early on that they did not want to look like they
were playing in front of a music video so all
of the video is very short loops and seemingly

52

Opposite: Richard Stembridge was responsible for the creative production design for the tour. Below: Unusual Rigging and PRG required two days to rig 450-metres of truss, some of which held the
flown L-Acoustics PA.
inconsequential, nothing that is in any way
narrative. It is often quite random. I spend a
lot of time looking for things that fit. There is
one song in the set Haiti where the video was
designed by Montreal video production house,
Moment Factory.
A major challenge for Greg Dean, Production
Manager and Stembridge was turning the
auditorium at Earls Court into the desired
warehouse club look. Helped by the use of
seven static triangular low lighting rigs placed
above the audience, a large circular lighting
truss above the B stage, and one large triangular
rig directly in front of FOH high up, on the
Kinesys hoists that lowered during certain
songs. The large triangle used six JJ 500kg plus
an additional six hoists to lower and raise a
festoon, comprising of standard glass filament
bulbs, dipped for safety, placed between the
triangles. Lighting fixtures on the auditorium
trusses included PixelPars, Vari-Lite VLX Wash’s,
Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700s and Mirror balls.
Not surprisingly there was a huge amount
of trussing and cabling at Earls Court, which
required PRG along with Unusual Rigging to
do a two-day pre rig. Andy Sweet, Unusual
Rigging’s Earls Court Contract Manager worked
closely with Dean and Scottie Sanderson, PRG
Account Handler for Arcade Fire. They planned
and pre-rigged the cable bridges, which were
required to service the triangular and circular
lighting trusses. On the day of the event
they pulled all the chains and hooked them
into Unusual Rigging’s rigged steel. Scottie
PRODUCTION PROFILE: Arcade Fire
Sanderson added: “For the Earls Court audience
additions the guys handled over 15km of soca,
data, and power. There were over 450m of
trussing to achieve the cable management for
lighting and audio, and the lighting trusses. It is
always a pleasure working with Rich. He can see
things others can’t, but an even rarer quality is
being able to assist with the solution of making
them a reality. For example, the bank of four
Hexagons that made up the SR and SL IMAG
screens came from Rich, and how to fabricate
the engineering.”
XL Video provided full video production,
including projection, LED screens, media server
control and full camera, PPU package. XL
Video’s Project Manager Phil Mercer comments:
“It’s fantastic that Rich has become Show
53
 PRODUCTION PROFILE: Arcade Fire
Below: Bespoke hexagonal mirror pieces on the ceiling were made by Upstaging in America, who also provided all the lighting for Arcade Fire’s US leg of the tour.
Designer. The show is real proof
of his imagination, vision, talent
and ability to think differently.
As always we are really enjoying
working with him, and it’s great to
see show video encouraging a real
engagement with the audience,
rather than just blasting out
DEFINING
generic looks and images.”
A total of 120 F-11 LED tiles are
THE
used to create two rectangular
screens with mirrored fascias,
FUTURE
and these are flown in an out
throughout the show via a Kinesys
automation system. There are
nine Barco HDF W26K projectors,
three of which beam on to an
impressive 60ft wide by three ft
tall video back-wall made from
Ai Infinity Frazzle, a metallic sheen fabric
EX Media Server
etched by half circle slits that
track across the entire surface
from Rose Brand. The other six
Barcos are used to feed the IMAG
screens, which are also integral to
the overall stage aesthetics. Their
intricate hexagonal lines are based
on Arcade Fire’s logo and made
up from four individual interlinked
Tiger Touch II mini-hexagons.
The show’s playback content is
run from four Catalyst V4 media
Avolites and Avolites Media: T: +44 (0) 208 965 8522 servers which are triggered from
W: www.avolites.com W: www.avolitesmedia.com a High End Systems Road Hog
Full Boar console operated by
54
PO32943-Avolites-May Ads Ad 92x136 no flashes..indd 1 23/06/2014 15:16
Stembridge at FOH. Alongside
him on the riser is Chris Bushell,
whom he asked on-board as
Lighting Designer. The two have
collaborated closely on evolving
both elements of the show,
together with Video Director
Charles Woods who is directing
the camera mix. Other key staff
are Clarke Anderson and Jeroen
‘Myway’ Marain (Engineering), Ted
Cognata (Projection/LED), Steve
Falconer (Projection/Cameras) and
Mark Inscoe (LED).
The camera package comprises
five of XL Video’s Sony HXC-100
operated and two Sony BRC H700
robo-cams. The operated cameras
are positioned two at FOH with
long lenses, two in the pit on
track-and-dolly and also pneumatic
pedestals, specified to provide
the dynamic range of movement
that Stembridge wanted. The final
operated camera is a hand-held
onstage, and the two robo-cams
are clamped to the upstage riser to
cover the percussion and keyboard
areas.
Woods cuts the cameras
backstage using a Blackmagic 2M
/ E Switcher. He does a full live
cut for the IMAG screens and also
sends four auxiliary camera feeds
to Stembridge’s Catalysts, so the

Below: Yan Stile, Director, SSE; Marc-Olivier Germain, PA System Tech of Solotech.
latter can make use of these to do his
own camera cut to the onstage screens.
Stembridge is highly complementary about
working with XL Video. “I have worked
with XL as a freelancer and used them
as a vendor for about ten years. When I
first made the move to video I started by
freelancing for XL and then I started to
get my own production gigs I used them
as a vendor and there is definitely a loyalty
there that has served me incredibly well
over the years.”
Chris Bushell (Amy Winehouse, Florence
+ The Machine, Lily Allen, Goldie Lookin
Chain) mixes on an Avolites Sapphire Touch
console supplied direct from Avolites.
He said: “I started my working on Pearl’s
and built up from there. It is as good as
any of the other consoles these days and
does what I want better than any of the
others would. Mix wise I work manually
with no time code or external triggers.”
Along with the large amount of Martin
Professional MAC Auras other main stage
fixtures on the rig include Clay Paky Sharpy
Wash 330’s, Martin MAC Viper Washes,
PRG Best Boys with additional Q-Pix LED
wrapped around the trusses along with
Nexus LED panels from Chauvet Lighting.
We would like to thank
Amy Davidson, Greg Dean, Richard Stembridge and Chris Bushell.
T +44 845 470 6400
PRODUCTION PROFILE: Arcade Fire
SOUND WORLD
Mixing sound at FOH is Jim Warren
(Radiohead, Peter Gabriel, Nine Inch Nails,
Crowded House, Duran Duran) who has
worked with Arcade Fire since the 2011
The Suburbs tour. With a twelve-piece
line up on stage, including two drum kits,
strings, brass, guitars, accordions, unusual
keyboards, percussion and vocals, Warren
has plenty to keep himself busy. But it is
a challenge that he is more than happy
with. He commented: “The band are great
musicians, the songs are very well thought
out and very well arranged. There is a lot
of detail and attention to detail. Part of my
job is to create space and room for those
elements to come through and to create
the right dynamics.”
Microphones used on the two drum
kits include a kick drum with a hole in it
for which Warren uses a Beyerdynamic
M88, for the other kick which has no hole,
a Shure Beta 52. Sennheiser 604s on the
toms, Beyerdynamic 201 for the snare -
Warren’s favourite snare microphone, and
Audio-Technica 3050’s for over heads and
ambience. A new addition for Warren on
the high hats is a matched pair of Rode M5
stereo mics.
PRG.COM/UK
55
 PRODUCTION PROFILE: Arcade Fire
Below: Richard Stembridge Show Designer; Charles Woods, Video Director.
On the guitars Shure SM57s are the order
of the day. For bass guitar a Sennheiser 609
supercardioid combined with a DI was his
preference. Warren added: “I leave the 609
pretty clean and straight as whichever of
our four bass players happens to be playing
has his own effects but across the DI I use a
Sansamp plug in to tweak with.” For brass it’s
a pair of M88s, with the strings looking after
all their pickups and pedal board effects with
FOH simply getting a stereo DI feed from each
ensuring a self contained string unit that never
feeds back and who create their own effects.
For the accordion a pair of Audio-Technica
ATM 350’s clip on cardioid condensers
are deployed wirelessly and similarly used
for marching drums and other percussion
instruments that need to be mobile on stage.
For vocals Shure SM58’s are used, except for
Regine Chassagne and instrumentalist Owen
Pallett who use Sennheiser MD 431’s.
Warren mixes on an Avid VENUE D-Show
system with a total channel count of around
90 plus a few utility channels available for new
ideas and guest vocalists. Mixing at monitors
is John Ormesher who has been with the band
a number of years, working on a DiGiCo SD
7. Monitors on stage are comprised of d&b
audiotechnik M2’s and M4’s, customised in
white paint by Solotech for the band. IEM’s for
the band were all Sennheiser 2000 systems.
For the Earl’s Court shows Ian McCulloch from
Echo and the Bunnymen joined Arcade Fire for
a version of The Cutter. At the Coachella festival
in the US, it had been Debbie Harry for Heart
of Glass. Warren has scene memories for every
song and for certain ones three recalls within
the song.
Marc-Olivier Germain is FOH System Tech
for Arcade Fire, employed by Solotech who
provide PA, consoles, mics, monitors and IEMS.
56
In addition for the two nights at Earls Court SSE
supplied further L-Acoustics requirements. The
main LR hang consisted of 14 L-Acoustics K1 per
side, with KARA used as downfills and K1 subs,
flown subs.
The side hang included 14 K2 per side. For
ground subwoofers eight SB28’s were deployed.
Lip fills for the main stage were all KARA. SSE’s
work included 40 V-DOSCs used for delays.
Five hung in configurations of eight. Over the
B stage SSE designed a hang of 16 L-Acoustics
ARCS configured in a donut ring shape, all
driven by L-Acoustics LA8 amplifiers. Germain
tunes his system using L-Acoustics SoundVision
with measurements undertaken with Meyer
Sound Sim 3 audio analyser. Commenting on
working with the Solotech team Warren said:
“They are great, always up for anything, and
there is a lot to be up for on this show. A lot is
decided last minute and they react every time.”
PYROTECHNICS
Pyrojunkies supplied special effects with Stuart
Wickens travelling for the tour. “Essentially it all
comes down to one giant confetti / streamer
moment for us.” He explained: “As most of the
shows on the tour are outdoors, we spec’d our
XL Superblasters and Stadium Shot cannons to
deliver a massive 100kg of multicolour paper
each night!
“As the band were filming a DVD shoot for
the Earls Court shows, Richard and Greg wanted
to take it all up another gear. So in addition
to the touring kit we added in 24 Power shot
cannons around the balcony of Earls court and
an additional four XL Superblasters. Truly a
cleaners nightmare!”
STAGING
All Access Staging has provided Arcade Fire with
a customised riser package for the entire tour
 PRODUCTION PROFILE: Arcade Fire

Below: 14 Fly By Nite trucks were used on the Earls Court Shows while Coach Services supplied band and crew tour buses.

tour including white carpet fittings, mirror elements as

well as video and IMAG frames. Robert Achlimbari from
their LA office worked closely with Stembridge on the
design. For the Earls Court shows All Access Staging
London supplied Live Nation with a 60ft by 44ft, six ft
high rolling stage, offstage platform for monitor world
and FOH control.

KEY SUPPLIERS
Sound Moves UK is proud to continue the touring
association with Arcade Fire and their Production team.
At time of going to print, the company is coordinating
and implementing multiple freight sectors for the UK
and European shows and Festival headline slots.
For the Earls Court gigs, once Sound Moves had
freighted the production equipment to the UK safely,
securely and on time, Fly By Nite then provided trucking
logistics with 14 DAF XF 105’s for the Earls Court
shows. A further 10 trucks are used on other European
tour dates and six are deployed for the band’s festival
shows.
Coach Service supplied tour and band buses. At
Earl’s Court Showsec provided security and venue
assistance, and Eat Your Hearts Out were on the two-
day run catering dury.

SHOW TIME
The show began from the B stage, complete with
hydraulic lift, a man dressed completely in mirrors

57
PRODUCTION PROFILE: Arcade Fire

Below: XL Video supplied all video and projection for the Earls Court shows; 12 500Kg Lodestar JJ Kinesys converted variable speed hoists were among the secure technology used in the show’s rigging;
Richard Stembridge’s grandiose show design complemented the band’s increasingly complex and layered sound; Vocal microphones were a combination of Shure SM58’s and Sennheiser MD 431’s.

and a group of dancers as the the main stage with Pyrojunkies

opening number Reflektor kicked adding the finishing touch. When
in. A surreal punk funk grove with the last fans have left the building,
Warren delivering an epic detailed Dean, Stembridge and his team
mix. A perfect rock, disco balance, should be proud that this show will
further enhanced for the glam rock be remembered a long after the
thump of Joan of Arc. The calypso demolition of Earls Court.
funk influenced Flashbulb Eyes TPi
another highlight, as was Power
Out from the 2004 debut album Photos: Simon Duff
Funeral. Back to the new album www.arcadefire.com
and the subtle quiet dynamics www.xlvideo.tv
of It’s Never Over was another www.upstaging.com
Warren triumph, full of light and www.upstaging.com
shade dynamics, with the two www.flybynite.co.uk
singers dueting across the main www.livenation.co.uk
and B stages. www.prg.com
The show came to a close www.allaccessinc.com
with Here Comes the Night Time www.pyrojunkies.com
complete with the return of the www.showsec.co.uk
human mirror ball then a rum crew www.sseaudiogroup.com
sporting over-sized papier mache www.solotech.com
bobbleheads performing on the www.soundmoves.com
B stage mimicking the band on www.unusual.co.uk

58
 PRODUCTION PROFILE: Lorde

LORDE OF THE STAGE

17-YEAR-OLD RISING STAR LORDE MAY HAVE NO EXPERIENCE OF TOURING, BUT HER CREATIVE
VISION AND HANDPICKED CREW ENSURE HER TALENT IS SUITABLY REPRESENTED VIA THE
PRODUCTION. TPi CAUGHT UP WITH THE CREW AT HER HEADLINE LONDON SHOW AT BRIXTON
ACADEMY.

On the cusp of adulthood and fame, New
Zealand teenager Lorde steps out onto
centre stage, a single PRG Best Boy Spot
Luminaire casting her in shadow from the
truss above. Two more Best Boys light her
from either side as she begins to sing the
first lines of Glory and Gore and Brixton
Academy becomes filled with some of the
loudest cheers we’ve ever heard in the venue
(the crowd later pushes 104db at FOH).
It’s a raw, stripped back start that sets the
tone for an intensely focused gig, theatrical in
look and with dynamic use of a relatively small
production specification. The 17-year-old, who
had never travelled outside of New Zealand
before her world tour, has an enticing air of
confidence and maturity on stage that shows
she has a natural talent, and also indicates that
she has a great crew supporting her.
Behind the scenes is renowned Production
Manager Richard Young, who has worked with
the likes of Radiohead and P!nk. When asked
how you plan for and execute a worldwide
touring production for a new young artist who
has topped the charts in almost 100 countries,
he replied: “Peter Yozell, the Tour Manager who
I worked with on Radiohead, was looking to put
a team together. I was working on the P!nk tour
when both her and Lorde were performing at
The Grammys [where she won Song of the Year
and Best Pop Solo Performance for Royals] so
we all engineered a meeting there.
“Because this was her first production tour
and she’s relatively new, it was the first time she
had thought about having a production, so it
was a kind of blank canvas from that point of
view.”
Brixton Academy, Shepherds Bush Empire
and a support performance for Arcade Fire
were her only London shows on the tour, which
had already stopped in the US, South America,
Mexico and Europe and was then heading off
to New Zealand, Australia (for re-scheduled
dates following her illness) and the US, with a
few festival dates over the summer. It was in
the latter two continents that her debut The
Love Club EP propelled her into the spotlight,
reaching number two on the New Zealand

60
 PRODUCTION PROFILE: Lorde

Opposite: Lorde’s performance was extremely well received at the Brixton Academy. Below: Baz Halpin’s stage design included three flown ‘picture frames’; PRG supplied the lighting rig, which
included fixtures from Martin by Harman and Clay Paky; Capital Sound’s Paul Timmins and Robin Conway; FOH Sound Engineer Philip J Harvey.

Albums Chart, with its second song Royals
topping the US Hot 100 chart in 2013.
“No one really knew how the tour was
going to sell because although she is really
popular in terms of records and downloads,
you don’t know about ticket sales so everyone
was a little bit cautious,” said Young. At such
an early stage in her career it’s clear to see why
you would want to be cautious with budgets
(although looking at ticket sales to date you’d
probably have more confidence); that said,
Lorde herself was keen to maintain the quality
and authenticity of the show from the start.
“People think she’s a pop act and I guess the
music is pop-like, but her performance is very
edgy and a bit grungy. She wanted to reflect
that and ensure nothing was too cartoony or
fake. Her thoughts were that if there’s going to
be a chandelier on stage, make it a chandelier,”
said Young.
Lorde (Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor

61
PRODUCTION PROFILE: Lorde
Below: Production Manager, Richard Young; Lighting Engineer David McIntyre; Philip J Harvey mixing on his Avid Profile; Lighting Engineer Marcel Cadac.
to her friends) was so keen to have a real
chandelier that Set Designer Baz Halpin visited
rental houses in LA until he found one she liked
which happened to be one that had featured
in the West Wing. It was too expensive, heavy
and unprotected to tour so the production team
rented it for a week and ShowFX set about
making a replica.
“Lorde was very instrumental in the visual
look of the show and has her own opinions,
so she sent us a lot of references,” said Young.
“Getting clear direction from someone is much
better than indecision.”
LIGHTING
Young’s sentiments echoed the rest of the
production team, who were pleased to be
joining Lorde on her ascent to worldwide
success. Lighting Designer David McIntyre, who
was previously touring with Crystal Castles,
said: “I started working with her last August
when she was doing small gigs in New York and
LA for 200 people. Lorde is very hands-on and
an intelligent girl, which you can tell from her
songs and writing.”
Baz Halpin’s stage design is classic and
minimal, with three large flown gilded picture
frames in front of two ruffled drapes upstage
(the drapes were custom made by Sew What).
McIntyre, who is supported by Lighting Tech
Blaine Dracup, uses lighting equipment from
PRG in the UK and Europe. The rig comprises
62
Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlaze 72 LED fixtures
around the picture frame edges and the quick-
moving spots of the Bad Boys to sharpen up
the look for some of the more electronic songs.
“Richard asked me to use PRG for all the lights.
I wanted to use the MAC3’s and some Clay
Paky fixtures, but instead I ended up trying the
PRG Best Boys for the first time and I have to
say they are pretty amazing for a 700 lamp, the
optics are amazing and they have really crisp
sharp gobos,” said McIntyre. He uses five Best
Boys on an overhead truss and five positioned
on the floor, both to light her and her band, and
for facing into the audience for a kaleidoscopic
look.
McIntyre is also a “huge fan” of the
ColorBlaze products for their brightness, zoom
and good transition between colours, with 20 in
total positioned around the stage for different
effects. Some are used to highlight the layers
in the drapes, other reinforce the picture frame
edges, some are on side truss towers, some are
on the floor and others are used as an audience
blinder. McIntyre uses an MA Lighting grandMA
desk to control the lights, with four universes.
VIDEO
Logistics and budget practicalities meant the
video from the US shows was not brought over
the Atlantic for the one-off London shows,
but it was due to be reinstated for the next
US leg. Creative Technology’s Graham Miller
was at Brixton Academy and explained that
they would be taking three three-metre by
three-metre GLUX 10mm screens to the shows
which fit into the three picture frames flown on
stage. “Richard Young asked for screens that
were lightweight and tour-worthy so the GLUX
was a perfect choice,” said Miller. “Because
they’re made of carbon fibre, the tiles are super
lightweight and you can also fit 20 tiles into a
flight case so it’s a very cost effective product to
transport and extremely easy to assemble.”
Said Young: “In the States, which is her
biggest market, we used Andi Watson’s
Scenographic to do the control systems for CT’s
screens.”
AUDIO
Firehouse will also be supplying audio for the
US tour, but here in the UK, it’s all about local
suppliers, and Capital Sound has provided the
Martin Audio MLA line array system mixed by
FOH Sound Engineer Philip J Harvey.
With limited pre-production before the first
full production dress rehearsal at the Austin
Music Hall in Texas [where Philip is from] back in
February, Philip spent a lot of time beforehand
studying the albums. Philip faces the usual
problems of Brixton Academy’s acoustics due to
the sloping floor and position of FOH, but also
talked of the challenges of mixing Lorde: “Some
of her songs are quite sparse so it is painfully
obvious when elements are missing or aren’t

Below: Lorde in the spotlight as she took to the stage to sing hit such as Glory and Gore.
mixed correctly. I feel to make
her live sound successful, it really
needs to be dynamic and dramatic.
Otherwise, it’s too easy to get into
the ‘just compress it and make
it sound like the CD’ paradigm,
which I don’t think would have as
much of an impact.”
Since digital consoles started
overshadowing analogue desks,
Philip has always taken to the Avid
Profile. “Digidesign [now Avid]
desks seemed to be most prevalent
in venues / festivals and available
practically anywhere in the world,”
said Harvey. “The choice was for
consistency and small size footprint
fundamentally. With Pro Tools and
DAW plug-in integration, it seemed
to be a logical progression and
has become the digital desk I have
become most familiar with now.
“I’ve found that clocking the
Profile from an Apogee Big Ben or
my Metric Halo UL8 really improves
the quality of the sound.”
Harvey’s main go-to plug-ins
are the Waves v9 C6, API2500
Compressor, Renaissance
PRODUCTION PROFILE: Lorde
Compressor, Renaissance
Reverb and H-Delay. Lorde has
a 30-channel input count and
when the sound leaves the desk
Philip runs the main L / R through
a Meyer Galileo system processor
provided by Capital Sound. “For
metering and measurement I use
an Earthworks QTC1 microphone
into my Metric Halo 2882 +DSP
interface for the room signal
and AES of my main L / R mix
output from the Profile for
console signal fed into Metric
Halo’s Spectrafoo software on
my Macbook Pro,” said Philip. “I
have come to rely quite heavily on
Spectrafoo to give me an accurate
visual representation of what is
happening in the venue over these
past number of years.”
On stage Lorde sings into a
Shure UR4D wireless microphone
with Beta58A capsules. “We tried
a long list of other microphones,
but the Beta58A seemed to work
best with her voice and sounded
the most open,” said Philip. The
other microphones on stage are
63
PRODUCTION PROFILE: Lorde
Below: Monitor Engineer, Marcel Cacdac; Lorde used a Shure UR4D microphone with Beta 58A capsules; Quantum Special Effects provided custom blowers to fill the room with confetti; the crowd
pushed 104DB of noise at one point during the gig.
for the drum kit and mostly a Shure package:
Beta52 on the kick; SM57 on snare top /
bottom; SM81 on the hi-hat. A Sennheiser
E604 is used on the floor tom and an AKG C414
B-ULS is used for overheads. DI’s are radial SW8
switchers.
Monitor Engineer Marcel Cacdac (MGMT,
Of Monsters and Men, The Flaming Lips)
had worked with TM Peter Yozell on Atoms
for Peace last year. He said it was “great”
working with Lorde and felt lucky to be one
of the handpicked crew. He introduced Lorde
to Sensaphonic in-ears before her Grammy
performance. “I put almost every artist on
Sensaphonics,” continued Cacdac, “and have a
really good relationship with them.” Both Lorde
and keyboard player Jimmy McDonald are on
Sensaphonics 2-MAX IEMs, whilst drummer Ben
Barter uses Shure SE535 earphones and a Shure
PSM6HW hardwire beltpack. Marcel has six
Sennheiser SR 2050 mixes (with two spare). On
stage Jimmy and Ben have d&b audiotechnik M2
wedges, with L-Acoustics ARC and SB28 side
fills for the stage sound. For FOH near fills and
stage lip fills are a combination of Martin Audio
loudspeakers.
At side of stage Cacdac handles the monitor
64
mixes on an Avid Profile with Waves plug-ins McGuinness. In the US, Coming on board the
and a Big Ben external clock. I notice a custom production for the next bigger, worldwide
made switcher on his Profile desk, he explained: shows were Quantum Special Effects, Youngs
“I call it the Sully ‘SS8’ switcher made by Sean own RFIDentikit, Upstaging for trucking
Sullivan, which I use to fire snapshots and and Firehouse for audio and Andi Watson’s
mutes. It improves the functionality of the Scenographic for cameras.
Profile for me. I prefer to mix live but I snapshot As the show closes with a confetti-filled
the top of each song and go from there.” room (custom blowers from Quantum) after an
Cacdac, who recently became an official energetic encore ending on A World Alone, TPi
Waves Artist, has used Avid ever since they has a feeling we will be seeing Lorde return on a
released the Venue. “I really like being able to larger scale to the UK in the future. “Everybody
use Waves plugins, the integration is great and wants her to go everywhere,” concluded Young,
it’s seamless to use,” he continued. “Being able “but we don’t want to wear her out!”
to use Pro Tools and Virtual Soundcheck is key.” TPi
There are a lot of electronic elements http://lorde.co.nz
feeding into the desk’s 30 inputs, meaning www.capital-sound.co.uk
it’s a challenge to get the sound in her ears to www.prg.com
sound live. “Sometimes with electronic sounds www.sewwhatinc.com
it can be very immediate and dry, so being able http://uk.ct-group.com
to blend that with a room type of feel is key, www.appointmentgroup.com
otherwise it sounds very narrow,” he said. www.upstaging.com, www.q-sfx.com
www.soundmoves.com
A CROSS ATLANTIC PRODUCTION www.showfx.net
The Appointment Group Manchester www.silent-house.com, www.mcguinness.eu
(formally ET Travel) handles the crew’s travel www.firehouseproductions.com
arrangements whilst Altour LA manages the www.altour.com
band’s travel with European trucking from http://rfidentikit.com
Reality Shows | Big Screen Feeds
Congress Centres | Festivals | Events
Concerts | Tours | Sport | News
+44 (0)1590 622 440
www.bradeng.com
 INTERVIEW: XL Video

RENTAL RELIANCE
IN THE LAST DECADE VIDEO REQUIREMENTS IN CONCERT TOURING HAVE ALTERED THE LOOK OF LIVE
PRODUCTIONS DRAMATICALLY. WE’RE WORKING IN AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE VIDEO KNOWS LITTLE
BOUNDARIES AND WHETHER YOU’RE A HEAVYWEIGHT ROCK ACT, AN UPCOMING DJ OR A SINGER-
SONGWRITER ON A BUDGET, CHANCES ARE YOU’D PROBABLY LIKE A BIT OF VIDEO WITH YOUR STAGE SET
UP. THE QUESTION IS: WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO ESTABLISH, DEVELOP AND SUCCEED IN THE TOURING VIDEO
MARKET? TPi’S KELLY MURRAY FINDS OUT...

XL Video is one of the world’s largest
video solutions providers, with 14
locations worldwide. It has supplied the
entertainment and events industries with
LED rental solutions since 1996 when it was
founded by the de Keijzer brothers in the
US. XL UK joined the group in 2000 when
Lee Spencer, Chris Mounsor, Des Fallon and
Richard (Dicky) Burford started operations
from a warehouse in St Albans “Our first
touring show was with Five in Spring 2000,”
stated Spencer.
He recalls working with Mounsor on an
Ocean Colour Scene show at Sterling Castle.
“We’d finished building the two side screens
and the last panel was still on the bench in
Surrey! It arrived 10 minutes before the band
went on, Chris and I lifted that last panel into
position and plugged it in and it worked. Ocean
Colour Scene would never know that, but the
Production Manager, David Wright, did. The
point is, when the band came on, that tile was
in place and working. That was the point at
which we realised we had the same approach to
the business.”
This ‘can do, must do’ attitude has enabled
the company to become a global contender
in live event and concert touring video rental,
honing its skills as a knowledgeable business
with a core value of going to whatever lengths
are necessary to make the job happen on time.
Spencer and Mounsor established XL Video
with a strong structure in place, that structure
has been fundamental to the group’s expansion.
Continued Spencer: “The most important
thing today, for us, and what differentiates our
company from another, is providing the best
quality of service. I still believe that XL Video
achieves this. We don’t want to change what
we are; we don’t want to become a cheap LED
supplier just to service a market. We want to
stay as a premium brand, with a high quality
of service. People know they can get hold
of us 24/7, literally. In the past, we’ve gone
to incredible lengths to make sure the show
happens including chartering a private jet to
get equipment to site on time.” When probed,
it turns out that this is no exaggeration. “Some
time ago, we had a show in Spain, and for some
reason the header parts were missed off the
production truck. We chartered a plane in order
to get the screen up in time for the show. Those
are the kind of lengths that we’re prepared to
go to, to make a show work.”

66

Opposite: XL Video’s Head of Concert Touring, Phil Mercer, Managing Director, Lee Spencer and Director of Sales, Ian Woodall. Below: XL Video’s Radiant MC-18 Hybrid LED was sent on tour with the
Kings of Leon; XL Video supplied a customised curved LED screen for James Blake’s Moon Landing world tour.
With a head honcho this meticulous about
customer service, his team has to be on the
same page. “The word team for me is absolutely
crucial; you have to be a team player in this
game. We have to be able to fit into a tour and
for that I want people who are prepared to give
110%. If you’re not prepared to give that then
you’re in the wrong company and probably the
wrong industry as far as I’m concerned. The
doors will open, that band will go on stage,
and so we have to be ready. If that means me
jumping on the back of a motorbike with a lens
in my pocket to get there in time for that to
happen, I’ll do it,” he said.
“The reality is that XL Video has changed the
opinion of what a true video company is. We’ve
become the fourth element of a show: lighting,
audio, staging and video. I was stood on stage
once chatting to a rigger and he said, ‘you make
our life easy now. You were a pain in the arse
before, video was always last in and first out.’
Now from the guy in the thick of it, hanging
our gear, he was basically saying, ‘you’re one
of the gang now.’ This means a lot to me; it
really pleased me to know we were making
a difference on tours because this industry is
incredible. You can bring so many people from
so many different disciplines together and
create something that thousands of people then
get enjoyment out of.”
LED LEADERS
Head of Concert Touring for XL Group, Phil
Mercer has been instrumental in bringing XL
Video to the forefront of live event technology,
project managing tours and keeping
relationships on the road ticking along. During
his 10 years at the company, Mercer has seen
some significant changes throughout its core
staff; Chris Mounsor has retired, Des Fallon
unfortunately passed away suddenly and
now Mercer is at the helm of the industry’s
youngest touring team. He told TPi: “They’ve
all come on board in the last three or four
years and the majority of them are from a
touring background, so there’s still a lot of road
experience in the Concert Touring division. It’s
actually allowed us to really embrace technology
and work at the pace that today’s industry
demands, maybe in a way that other companies
haven’t quite bridged with that generational
gap.”
Today, XL Video is a fiery combination
of strong technical minds and dedicated,
passionate people. “It’s quite exciting really. I
think perhaps our secret is to involve them in
our big projects from the outset. That’s certainly
what happened to me and I see it as a good
thing.”
However, it’s not just the arena and stadium
tours which keep XL Video at the top of its
game, to name a few recent accomplishments
for the rental house, it has serviced acts as
varied as Arcade Fire, Bombay Bicycle Club,
Coldplay, Disclosure, Ellie Goulding, Il Divo,
Kings of Leon, Massive Attack, Robbie Williams,
and Steve Aoki. The multitude of genres and
varied scale of tours is what allows Mercer and
his team to be truly diverse. And of course,
there’s the appeal to keep projects fresh by
continually investing in tours of a complex
nature or those featuring up and coming live
acts. Part of this ‘risk taking’ with newer acts
with young designers and management is what
Mercer feels keeps the company on its toes.
“Our role is to keep understanding technology
and continue finding smaller companies with
little ideas and back a few.”
INNOVATIVE INTEGRATION
Having joined XL off the back of media server
technology, Mercer is enthused by the impact
media servers had on touring video. The
integration in the form of lighting designers
running video from media servers was a huge
step for live event technology. “Media servers
are just incredible. In many ways, they’re the
hidden element of the show. A punter would
INTERVIEW: XL Video
never know what a media server was, but it’s
the engine room, it’s the brain. The R&D money
behind them is from something far bigger than
our unique world; it’s from the gaming industry.
We take all the benefits of their R&D and use
it in a way they never would have dreamt of.
In some ways I think that’s exciting, to know
that their technology is being used in an
environment that it was never designed for.
“In the end, it’s not the technology that’s
limiting, it’s the imagination, and it’s the bravery
to go forward. Projectors, LED screens and
cameras are cool, but without the imagination
to drive them, they’re just cold pieces of
technology.
“Looking back at Daft Punk’s 2006 Alive
tour; they had a pyramid with a completely
bespoke LED set up. That was the moment that
started it for DJs; since then it’s been like an
arms race. Every DJ or EDM act is trying to blow
the next one off the stage. It was a key project
for XL in that market and we were there first
because we were prepared.”
XL is certainly pro-active in doing ‘firsts’.
It’s the first company to win 10 TPi Awards, for
example. As a company, it also relishes sending
new equipment out on tour. The MC-18 Hybrid
LED screen went on the road for the first time
in the US with Kings of Leon’s Mechanical
Bull tour, where it was specified by Production
Designer, Paul Normandale. The high-impact
74 ft wide by 38 ft high Radiant MC-18 Hybrid
screen was used at the back of the stage,
showing playback visuals. Yet as previously
mentioned, it’s not just the Daft Punk and
Kings Of Leon style outings that strike a chord
with Mercer. “Sometimes I’m the most proud
of the smallest things we do, because they’re
the people who’ve got a modest budget, and
they require you to take a risk. Ellie Goulding
and Disclosure are great examples of this. A
small project is perhaps more of a challenge to
design, but ultimately those challenges are very
rewarding.”
67
INTERVIEW: XL Video
Below: Arcade Fire’s recent Reflektor tour was kitted out with XL Video’s Pixled F-11 LED tiles; Ellie Goulding’s tour used XL Video’s newest LED products including the Radiant MC-18 Hybrid,
Radiant MC-7T and Radiant MC-18T , plus the popular Pixled F-12 screen.
For the continued success of this trans-
Atlantic operation, it’s not just the equipment
that is cementing the company’s reliability.
Mercer clearly cites “a very good crew” as a vital
piece of the touring puzzle, ensuring they’re
properly equipped to take care of the job in
hand. “Moving from the UK to head up our
US Touring team, Gareth Jeanne is taking over
the day to day running and, repeating the UK
formula, has a team which blends youth with
relevant experience.”
“For us, the technology on a tour should
always be what is right for the show and not
just what we have in the warehouse. This is
demonstrated perfectly by XL’s new business
with Frederic Opsomer and his team at Projects
BVBA which can create custom video solutions
to almost any brief.”
“One of our values is to be a bespoke people business and that’s never
changed...”
“As we’ve invested heavily in our own
equipment, we can ensure the suitability and
quality of what we send out on tour. 99%
of what we send out is owned by XL Video.
We’re not in the business of simply marking up
equipment that we’ve sub-hired from others.
“One of our values is to be a bespoke people
business and that’s never changed. We have to
have good relationships and communication
with our clients because it’s a business and
it has to work, but it’s got to be more than a
transaction, so personality is very important
for us. That’s the ingredient that is often
overlooked.
“You get some salespeople and they do the
deal and it’s all about the money, but what
about those guys on the road for nine months
of the year who are going to either make it or
break it for you? If it’s all about the money, what
happens to them?”
68
CONQUERING THE WHITE ISLE
In XL Video’s case, the concept of a cold sales
person couldn’t be further from reality. With
Spencer in the driving seat and Mercer project
managing XL’s live outings with ease, the man
behind recent commercial ventures is Sales
Director, Ian Woodall who with five years at the
company under his belt, has already created
substantial relationships with some of the most
attended venues in Europe as well as artists
themselves
So technical is Woodall, that when he started
at the company, he ‘naturally assumed’ the role
of IT Manager turning up to work and creating
an IT infrastructure across the entire group,
globally. Yet he’s so devoted to the success of
the company’s longevity that his current role
came about by identifying a gap in the market
that was solely built on long-term relationships.
After working in his first sales role for the
company at the prestigious Under the Bridge
club in Chelsea, UK, for six months, Woodall
had an idea that would lead XL Video into new
territories and place them right in the middle
of some of Europe’s most popular live events:
Ibiza’s summer season in all its party-hard glory.
Said Woodall: “In 2012 after we first ventured
out to Ibiza, I came back and said to Lee, ‘if you
trust me to do this, I can make money out of
something really exciting.’”
While this plan was being hatched, in
parallel, co-founder Chris Mounsor was retiring.
“Now, I suppose I’m Lee’s right-hand man
when it comes to keeping an overview on all
things sales and consequently it turns out that
Ibiza has been really busy for us this year also,”
he explained. The mere mention of the island
makes Woodall’s face brim with animation,
and his seamless ability to put innovative
technology into the rave-ridden shores of the
notoriously difficult-to-crack island has in fact
left him with a very driven work ethic - which
goes far beyond gross profit margins. “Ibiza is a
dangerous place. That island can eat you up and
spit you out in 24 hours and you’ll be broken for
a week. You need to be exceptionally focused
on what your job is and what your goals are,
and how you want to achieve them if you want
to make viable business choices. There are a lot
of people in this industry who are in it solely
for the party and then the balance gets all out
of kilter. We’re doing really well because we’ve
managed to keep that balance and because
we’re very personable, I don’t think anyone
could ever think of us as a boring company…”
If you’ve ever wrestled around a sushi
conveyer belt with Mr. Spencer’s crew, it’s fair
to say that ‘boring’ wouldn’t be your adjective
of choice. XL Video is a driving force within
an ever-changing industry, built on a solid
foundation of industry legends, of innovative
firsts and trust earned by taking risks. Yet
perhaps what stands out above anything else
in a warehouse in Hemel Hempstead on a rainy
day, at the bar of an opening party in Ibiza or
on any given tour date around the world, is
that this company has a willing obligation to
genuinely service the needs of global touring
and live event productions no matter what
the circumstances, regardless of what part of
the company they work in. Woodall summed
it up in a heartbeat: “I don’t clock in and out,
I just really like coming to work. You can have
the biggest company in the world, renting
everything that you can possibly think of at the
cheapest price but if you phone up and speak to
employee No.34, and you’re customer No.567,
well… where’s the fun in that?”
TPi
Photos: Rachael Wright
Kerry Woo Photography, Scott Davies
Louise Stickland
www.xlvideo.tv
 CLOCKING OFF: Bosom Beard Buddies

Below: L-R: Hunter Frith; Andy Beller; Samwise Seidel.

THE MERE MENTION OF THE WORD ‘ROADIE’ WOULD TRADITIONALLY CONJURE UP IMAGES OF FACIAL HAIR CLAD TATTOOED
MEN WEARING SHORTS ADORNED WITH BAND PATCHES ROUGHLY STICHED ON DURING A 12 HOUR BUS RIDE. BUT
TRADITIONALLY, WE DON’T LIKE CLICHES. SO SCARP THAT AND MEET THE NEW BREED OF TOURING GENTRY; THE MEN
READY AND WILLING TO DYE THEIR BELOVED BRISTLES BRIGHT PINK IN THE NAME OF BREAST CANCER. HUNTER FRITH
WRITES FOR TPi ABOUT HIS PLIGHT WITH HIS PALS, BOSOM BEARD BUDDIES. SIRS, WE SALUTE YOU!

I guess it all started on a frosty Christmas
evening in Vienna, Austria. A few of the
crew from the Placebo tour ventured out to
the Christmas market for some Glühwein.
Over the summer Andy Beller had grown a
very impressive beard of which had to be
removed before he returned to his love in
Toronto. After a few more glasses of the
warm spicy wine, we thought that before
the shave Andy should dye his beard. To us
the very obvious option was bright pink. For
those who know Andy, will know that then
his beard will match his phone cover, iPad
cover and hardhat.
It was at this point that we decided that
we should do this for a good cause. We chose
Breast Cancer for two reasons, obviously the
pink colour and because we have people close
to us that have been affected. I think everyone
knows someone who has been affected by
cancer. So that evening I went back to the hotel
and started a Just Giving page.
Within five weeks Mr.Beller had raised
£2300. After realising the potential of this I
decided to take on the challenge myself. This
is when Bosom Beard Buddies was formed. In
February Placebo played Soundwave Festival
in Australia, so I chose this time to take on the
challenge. It is quite a daunting experience
walking out in public for the first time; many
strange looks, people not sure where to look
and people coming straight up to you to find
out what is going on (except for Soundwave
festival where I basically just fit in.) Very quickly
though, I started to forget that I have a pink
beard and wondered why people were looking!
“To date we have raised £5600 for the Breast Cancer Campaign...
A couple of months ago I was invited by the Breast Cancer Campaign
to an event at the House of Lords.”
Fortunately the trend started to catch on and
a few more decided to take on the challenge.
John Dodkin, whilst stage managing for Jack
Whitehall did it, and Jack even helped with
promoting the cause. Then Samwise Seidel
followed suit while working with Katy B. A guy I
know, who works as prison guard in Shropshire,
he also donned pink whiskers. Even a guy whom
I have never met heard of the charity and set up
his own page to join in the cause.
To date we have raised £5,600 for the Breast
Cancer Campaign. A couple of months ago I
was invited by the Breast Cancer Campaign to
an event at the House of Lords. It was an event
to show recognition to those who have been
raising money for the campaign. The aim is to
encourage other men to take on the challenge
to show their support for the women in their
lives and help raise awareness and money for
cancer research. Any man can do it! Set your
own target, set your own length of time and
start your own Just Giving page, if you’re brave
enough...
Hunter Frith
TPi
www.facebook.com/BosomBeardBuddies
http://twitter.com/bosombeards
www.justgiving.co.uk/Hunter-Frith

69
 IN PROFILE: Sennheiser

SENNHEISER
SENNHEISER - A NAME REQUIRING LITTLE INTRODUCTION. THE REPUTATION OF THE GERMAN BRAND IS
SO RENOWNED THAT EVEN THOSE NOT WORKING WITHIN THE LIVE EVENT PRODUCTION OR BROADCAST
INDUSTRIES ARE FAMILIAR WITH ITS PRODUCTS - MORE THAN LIKELY WITH ITS COMMERCIAL RANGE OF
MICROPHONES AND HEADPHONES. IN THIS SENSE, SENNHEISER IS SOMETHING OF A RARITY, HAVING
SUCCESS AND APPEAL IN BOTH PROFESSIONAL AND CONSUMER MARKET SECTORS. TPi’S PATRICK
MCCUMISKEY WENT TO THE COMPANY’S GERMAN HQ IN WENNEBOSTEL, HANNOVER FOR A TOUR OF ITS
FACTORY AND PREMISES.

“This is where it all started,” enthused
Stephanie Schmidt, PR Manager Professional
Systems of Sennheiser Germany and - for
one day only - TPi’s official Sennheiser
Guide. Pointing to an 18th century house in
a quiet corner of the Sennheiser complex,
Schmidt continued: “Fritz Sennheiser
founded the company (at that time called
Labor W) after the end of the Second World
War in these premises with just seven men.
The whole enterprise grew from here.”
70 years later, despite having factories and
bases in numerous countries around the world
and with a total workforce of some 2,300
employees, the HQ still resides in the small
Hannoverian village of Wennebostel - albeit with
greatly expanded premises. The story of how
Sennheiser came into being is a very unlikely
one, determined and guided to a large extent
by circumstance, chance and - to the credit of
late Prof. Dr. Fritz Sennheiser - opportunity. Fritz
Sennheiser, founder of the company, actually
wanted to study landscape design at university.
However, given the uncertain economic times
in early 1930’s Germany, Sennheiser decided to
study electrical / communication engineering
at Berlin’s Technical University, a choice that
he deemed to be more tangible in upping his
chances on the uncertain labour market.
Before the outbreak of war in 1939,
Sennheiser was given the post of assistant at
his university institute. In a move intended to
be temporary, Sennheiser and his boss, Dr.
Vierling, moved to Hannover in order to found
the institute for radio frequency engineering
and electroacoustics. Of course, with the
advent of war, his plans to return to Berlin were
scuppered, and Sennheiser was forced to stay
in Hannover to work for the Government in
encrypting speech and the radio transmission of
encoded messages.
With the Institute for Radio Frequency
Engineering burned to the ground after
significant bombing raids by the allies in
1943, Sennheiser relocated the laboratory to
Wennebostel, a location that - unbeknownst
to Sennheiser - would become the permanent
location of the company. At the end of the war,
the laboratory was ceased by the allies, who
confiscated most of the equipment - bar seven
50 uA moving-coil ammeters. Having already
amassed significant knowledge in voltmeter
circuitry, the seven-strong team led by Fritz
Sennheiser decided to put their expertise into
action and the laboratory slowly morphed into
a company - initially making voltmeters - in
the uncertainty of the immediate post-war
atmosphere.
The growth of the burgeoning company
(named Labor W - Laboratorium Wennebostel)

70

Opposite: Sennheiser’s German HQ is in the leafy village of Wennebostel, Hannover. Below: Founder Fritz Sennheiser (1912-2010) with son and current Chairman, Jörg Sennheiser; Current CEO’s
Daniel and Dr. Andreas Sennheiser; A selection of microphones and products of yesteryear on display at Sennheiser’s miniature museum; The SK9000 wireless transmitter next to its ancestor, an
early wireless transmitter complete with valve.
was rapid. When in 1946 Siemens was
looking for a supplier who could rebuild a
microphone originally designed by Henry Radio,
Sennheiser seized the opportunity. Soon after,
the engineers began to develop their own
microphone designs, spawning Labor W’s
DM/MD series. Inside the original laboratory
building - now partly a museum displaying
Sennheiser products of yesteryear - Stephanie
Schmidt showed us the original microphone. “It
looks a bit clumsy… a bit like a showerhead or
something. And it weighs a tonne!”
In the ensuing years, Labor W released a
string of its own microphones, most notably
the MD21, and the MD82 tele-microphone - the
first shotgun microphone for use in recording
outdoor events such as motor races or football
matches. By 1953, the company had already
garnered a strong reputation for quality and
had an ever-expanding workforce - the number
of employees rose from 94 in 1953 to 600
by 1958. Quality and longevity were traits
associated with the Sennheiser brand from early
on.
In 1958 Labor W changed its name to
Sennheiser following an incident on the other
side of the world. Schmidt elaborated: “As
Labor W was beginning to become known
around the world in the late 1950’s for its
range of microphones, the Australian Prime
Minister refused to use a Labor W microphone
because he associated it with the opposing
Labor Party. Of course, Fritz Sennheiser had
never considered what misinterpretations could
be drawn from the name ‘Labor’ from the
English-speaking world. And as Labor W had
long since grown from a small laboratory to a
fully-fledged company, he settled on something
more neutral: Sennheiser electronic.”
Throughout the 50s and 60s, Sennheiser
products attained a certain period design;
still recognisable with many products to date
including the ever-popular MD421 microphone,
which remains a favourite all-rounder both live
and in the studio.
Throughout the 70-year history of
Sennheiser, the company has constantly been at
the forefront of change; developing, improving
and creating new products for a wide range of
applications. On the subject of the company’s
infinite product diversification, Fritz Sennheiser
stated: “We were always dissatisfied with
current technology and wanted to create
something new and improved. We had so many
ideas that even when other companies copied
our products, we always had something new up
our sleeves.”
From the 1950’s the company embarked
on a string of diversification products, such as
geophysical measuring equipment, conference
and information systems, products for the
hearing impaired, active speakers, amplifiers,
IN PROFILE: Sennheiser
wireless microphones and headphones. It was,
in fact, Sennheiser who can be credited with
creating the world’s first ‘open’ headphones
with the HD 414 - at the time the most popular
modern headphone selling over 10,000,000
units worldwide.
Perhaps this constant state of development
can be attributed to the fact that by 1978
11% of company turnover was reinvested into
research and development. Besides a large R&D
department at the head office, the company
today has further R&D offices in Germany,
Singapore and the USA. Sennheiser still remains
a family run business to this day, with its own
factories in Germany, Ireland and the USA
and sales subsidiaries and partners across the
globe. The current Chairman of the Board, Jörg
Sennheiser, son of Fritz Sennheiser, took over
the reigns from his father on his 70th birthday
on 9 May 1982, and consistently developed the
network of sales subsidiaries. After several years
with non-family managers, the third Sennheiser
generation is meanwhile active in the company.
Daniel Sennheiser and Dr. Andreas Sennheiser
have been CEOs since 1 July 2013.
Sennheiser has collected numerous awards
over the years in acknowledgement of its
contribution to developments in technology.
These have included a Scientific and Engineering
Award in 1987 from the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences for the MKH 816
71
IN PROFILE: Sennheiser
Below: The original poster depicting the name change from Labor W to Sennheiser in the late 1950’s; The original 18th Century house where Fritz Sennheiser founded the original company at its
current Wennebostel site; Sennheiser’s anechoic chamber.
shotgun microphone; an Emmy Engineering
Award in 1996 for RF wireless technology from
The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences,
and two German Industry Innovation Awards.
Additionally, founder Fritz Sennheiser received
a lifetime achievement award from the Audio
Engineering Society in 2002 and was inducted
into the Consumer Electronics Association
(CEA) Hall of Fame for his contributions to
the advancement of the consumer electronics
industry in 2008, two years before his death.
Most recently, Sennheiser was honoured with
the prestigious Philo T. Farnsworth Award at the
65th Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards in
2013.
SENNHEISER RF WIRELESS SYSTEMS
In the realm of live event production,
Sennheiser’s wireless systems have had
an indelible effect on the landscape of
the production of live performances. The
beginnings of this were laid in 1957, when
Sennheiser launched its first wireless
microphone but it wasn’t until the 1980s when
this technology took off to serve increasingly
larger events. As early as 1986, engineers
supplied a 36-channel system for Tokyo’s
Imperial Theatre. Eleven years later in 1997,
engineers were able to configure a record-
breaking 88-channel system of SK 50 pocket
transmitters and EM 1046 receivers for the
Bregenz festival in Austria. This feat was to
be topped again in 2000, when the record
was set for 104 separate RF channels for the
transmission of the French national holiday TV
broadcast.
The portfolio has been continually expanded
throughout the years. Today, the 9000 Series
is providing wireless digital RF support to
large-scale events and broadcasts around the
globe, most recently at the Eurovision Song
Contest. Time to take a look at two more recent
projects…
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
On 10 May 2014, Sennheiser equipment played
a crucial role in the final of the 59th Eurovision
Song Contest in Copenhagen, Denmark,
72
broadcast live to an audience of approximately
125 million people worldwide. Sennheiser’s
Digital 9000 RF Wireless Series was used for
the show - comprising EM 9046 receivers, SK
9000 bodypack transmitters and SKM 9000
handheld transmitters. In total, 96 channels of
digital wireless microphones were deployed for
the contest. Added to this were 24 channels of
wireless monitoring with 2000 Series systems.
It wasn’t all plain sailing for the RF
production team in charge with organising the
RF for the enormous B&W Hallerne venue - a
former shipbuilding hall that was specially
converted into a show arena for the contest
on the Refshaleøen Island. Jonas Næsby, RF
Specialist with Sennheiser Nordic, was on hand
to describe the difficulties relating to the venue:
“We knew that the available spectrum was very
limited as 22 TV channels were already fully
occupied. This made frequency planning slightly
difficult - especially as the wireless microphones
were not the only devices that needed
spectrum. However, the biggest challenge we
faced was unquestionably the hall itself.”
With both the walls and roof of the huge
shipyard made of metal (also the stands that
were specially erected for the audience of
12,000), the reflectivity posed some difficulties
for the RF technicians.
“Never before have I encountered such a
huge amount of reflections and if somebody
had told me that they knew of an arena that
could affect RF transmission this much then
I would never have believed it prior to this
experience.
“We had pretty much optimised everything
that was there to be optimised: the fine-tuning
of the Digital 9000 system, the antenna
positions, everything. And of course conditions
improved a bit when the audience was in place.
In addition, we had also adapted the digital
signal processing of the system which meant
that even signals that arrived at the receiver
extremely late and with high signal strengths
were correctly combined with the RF signal that
had arrived earlier. This meant that the Digital
9000 firmware was able to detect such critical
instances and could cope with such extremely
rare problems. This could not have been
achieved with an analogue system or, in fact,
any other digital system.”
SENNHEISER AT THE 2014 WORLD CUP
Sennheiser equipment also made an
appearance at this year’s Fifa World Cup in
Brazil. Production company Host Broadcast
Services (HBS) used Sennheiser’s new Esfera
surround microphone system for the first time,
which produces complete 5.1 surround sound
from a stereo microphone. “For us, high-
quality images and high-quality sound go hand
in hand, and with Esfera we can create 5.1
sound with ease - even in post-production,”
commented a spokesperson from HBS. A total
of 36 Esfera microphones (SPM 8000) recorded
sound in 12 stadia; while in the International
Broadcast Centre, two Esfera processing units
(SPB 8000) produced 5.1 sound from the stereo
signals.
The on-pitch sounds of volleys and goal
kicks were captured using 300 shotgun
microphones - these included the MKH 8070
long gun, MKH 8060 short gun and MKH 418-S
stereo shotgun microphones - descendents
of the original 1950’s designed MD82 tele-
microphone. MD 46 reporter microphones were
also employed on the touchlines.
A total of 24 plug-in transmitters from
the 2000 Series were used for wireless boom
microphones and for spidercam-mounted MKH
8060’s. Each camera team were also kitted out
with a wireless set (EK 2000 camera receiver
and SK 2000 bodypack transmitter with MKE 1
clip-on microphone) including having a wired
MD 46 reporter microphone at its disposal.
With continued user confidence and
satisfaction in Sennheiser products the world
over, we can be sure that when the company
becomes 70 years old in June 2015, it will
continue to set the benchmark for products in
the live event production and broadcast arenas
for the foreseeable future.
TPi
Photos: Patrick McCumiskey
and Petra Schramböhmer
www.sennheiser.com
Mötley Crüe [ Las Vegas Residency, Sept. 2013 ] Photo © Todd Moffses

w w w .f f p – f x .n e t
 MARKET FOCUS: Pyrotechnics & Special Effects

PYROTECHNICS & SPECIAL EFFECTS

AARDVARK FX www.aardvarkfx.com

Aardvark FX is a market leader in all areas of the industry providing technicians and equipment to high profile
events such as the 2012 London Olympic games and The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. As the sole UK dealer /
distributor for the World Leading Galaxis wireless firing system, Aardvark offers a hire and sales service to all
UK Special Effects and firework companies. It also provides a custom engineering and design service for the
industry and has manufactured special effects equipment such as the McBusted flaming sign for Pyrojunkies,
fuel pump and robot head for Cirque Bijou for the recent Muse tour, Batman’s flaming balloon for Quantum
SFX for the Batman Live Worldwide Tour and Bold Dogs FMX flame trays for Shock FX on Britain’s got Talent.

BPM SFX www.bpm-sfx.com

BPM is an internationally recognised special effects and Production Company working with some of the
most prestigious artists, touring, television, and event production companies to provide breathtaking live
shows. BPM has a wide range of special effects to tailor to any event, occasion or need. Whether it is part
of a larger production team working directly with an event manager or a smaller occasion, BPM makes sure
its SFX packages and effects successfully integrate into a production with minimal fuss. No matter what size
the venue, show or production, BPM can deliver that jaw dropping finale or subtle addition to a show that
its customers require. BPM are happy to provide a service to give that safe, dynamic and memorable moment
- whatever the brief.

FFP www.ffp-fx.net

Born out of live touring around the world, ffp Spezialeffekte & Veranstaltungslogistik, based in Berlin,
Germany, became the home for a circle of professionals who have devoted their lives to pyrotechnics and
special effects excellence. ffp loves being challenged with ideas that seem impossible to realise introducing
custom made special effects such as burning roof panels, the first charcoal waterfall effect and the latest LFG
two flame system that shoots up to 20m flames among many other astonishing flame and pyro effects. Its
team has also over 20 years of experience providing high end SFX to the entertainment industry. FFP’s clients
include Rammstein, Robbie Williams, Mötley Crüe, Slipknot, Björk, Genesis and Marilyn Manson.

FLAIR SFX & PRODUCTION

Flair SFX & Production is a leading special effects company in the Middle East. Supplying a wide range of
effects solutions such as stage and indoor pyrotechnics, confetti, streamers, fire and CO2, lasers and much
more, its custom built SFX can be tailored for any event or occasion. With a highly qualified team, and an
extensive inventory of in-house equipment, Flair have worked on many major concerts and events in the
UAE, including Swedish House Mafia’s 2012 One Last Tour, Tiesto’s 2013 World Tour, and David Guetta Live
2013. Combining experience with imagination, SFX is our passion. So whether a jaw-dropping finale or a
subtle addition, Flair can deliver the extra spark that your event needs.

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 MARKET FOCUS: Pyrotechncis & Special Effects

FLASH ART DUBAI www.flashart.com

Flash Art Dubai, like many pyrotechnics companies, is a family business. In this case the family is a group
of four friends who grew up together before starting their pyrotechnics careers, plus a small number of
valuable new members. In technical terms the organisation uses a state of the art firing system handmade in
Germany, and holds by far the biggest fire power permanently stored in the Middle East. Important shows
are pre-visualised in 3D and later delivered using mostly Spanish and Italian product shot off hundreds of
firing positions. Its mission has always been to use the non-verbal communication of music-synchronised
pyro displays in order to touch people’s emotions.

HAZEBASE www.hazebase.com

Hazebase is a supplier of professional hazers, fog machines and fog liquid, all made in Germany. Its products
are characterised by reliability and robustness. Detailed advice, service and short delivery times are a matter
of course for Hazebase. The hazebase base-hazer is the first 19-inch hazer combining compact size with
power and economy - its fluid consumption is only 0,6 Ltr / hour on highest output and only 0,04 Ltr / hour
on a pump output up to 5%. Further Hazebase products include the base-cap, base-classic, base-highpower,
base-battery, base-cap-cased, base-classic-cased, base-highpower-cased und base-touring - all specially
tailored for the needs of the customer.

LE MAITRE www.lemaitreltd.com

Le Maitre Events’ pyrotechnic specialists are available to deal with every aspect of an event however large or
small, from a one-off corporate product launch to a year-long concert tour. It has been responsible for some
of the most spectacular pyrotechnic and special effects displays at concerts, theatres, TV awards, theme
parks, corporate launches and private functions around the world. Le Maitre continues to set the benchmark
for excellence in the innovation and manufacture of pyrotechnics, as well as smoke, haze, flame machines
and special effects. With over 500 products including the PyroFlash and ProStage II ranges, HazeMaster and
Salamander flames, it continues to bring out cutting-edge products distributed worldwide.

LMP PYROTECHNIK www.lmp-pyrotechnik.de

Founded in 1999, LMP Pyrotechnik is today one of the leading pyrotechnic companies in Germany and
Europe. The company specialises in indoor pyrotechnics for touring, TV shows and galas. Over the years and
according to the demands of its touring clients, LMP Pyrotechnik started to install a complete department
for outdoor pyrotechnics and aerial fireworks displays. Additionally LMP Pyrotechnik has set up a complete
department for all kinds of special effects like smog machines, snow machines, confetti and glitter blowers,
flame projectors and water curtains. LMP Pyrotechnik has the exclusive rights for the products of Le Maitre,
Wells Fireworks and TBF. All of these companies are European manufacturers with high quality product
regulations.

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MARKET FOCUS: Pyrotechncis & Special Effects

PYROJUNKIES http://pyrojunkies.com

Now in its 11th year trading and as one of Europe’s leading special effects companies, Pyrojunkies specialise
in supplying a wide range of amazing special effects to the entertainment sector around the world. Recent
projects include: Mcbusted and Little Mix Arena Tours, Arcade Fire festival tour, fireworks for Concert at the
Kings (Rock against Cancer), custom effects for the Doritos World Cup advert and a tonne of everything
explosive for the Capital FM Summertime Ball at Wembley Stadium. As an exclusive agent for Magic FX in
the UK, Pyrojunkies also offers an online Webshop for confetti, streamers and hardware. Its expanding
equipment portfolio also allows us to offer a dry hire service for everything special effects.

PYROTEK http://pyrotekfx.com

With over 35 years of experience, Pyrotek Special Effects is an award winning special effects company
offering innovative designs and execution of special effects for live productions including stadium and arena
tours, award shows, festivals, live television and much more. Pyrotek serves worldwide tours from the initial
design consultation of the show to providing dedicated licensed technicians, insuring that the effects are
safely and professionally executed. Along with pyrotechnic special effects, its laser design productions and
aqua visual FX teams provide breathtaking laser and water screen effects. Pyrotek’s design team work side by
side with clients to create spectacular enhancement to live and televised performances, customising effects
to meet any vision. Pyrotek’s designers and engineers work tirelessly to create new and groundbreaking
special effects.

QUANTUM SPECIAL EFFECTS www.q-sfx.com

Voted the Event Production Award’s Special Effects Company of the Year in 2012 and 2013 and the Event
Awards Supplier of the Year 2014, Quantum Special Effects is one of the industry leaders in close proximity
pyrotechnics and special effects. Quantum’s work ranges from intimate settings of private events and
television; live and recorded, to large-scale touring and one off productions and experiential marketing
events. Providing traditional pyrotechnic finale or completely new effects as yet unseen, Quantum takes you
from initial design to visualisation and engineering through to manufacturing and delivery across the world.
Recently, Quantum has set up its US office, trading under the name Quantum Corp. This further enables the
Quantum teams to service the touring industry in both the US and Europe. Having provided effects for Biffy
Clyro’s headlining performance at Isle of Wight Festival and Katy Perry’s Prismatic tour, Quantum have also
been working with Gary Barlow, Robbie Williams, Muse and Lorde at Coachella, Britain’s Got Talent and
The Voice.

ROSCO www.rosco.com

Designed to meet the demands of concerts, theatrical productions, theme parks and film sets, Rosco’s
new Vapour Series Fog Machines offer the perfect balance of performance, durability and cost. The range,
including the Vapour, Vapour Plus and V-Hazer provide affordable, compact, professional-quality fog
machines delivering a powerful, solid, continuous stream of fog. All products share common interchangeable
core components such as the detachable remote control and DMX interface, and all offer air input for easy
cleaning on the bench, thus making repair and maintenance drastically simpler.

76
 the
pyromaster
flame
projector
with
sparkle
effect

www.gearsourceeurope.com cre ating specia l effec t s

w w w.t bf-p y rot ec.de
MARKET FOCUS: Pyrotechncis & Special Effects

SFAT www.sfat.fr
SFAT specialises in the manufacture of machines and fluids dedicated to the creation of stage special effects.
With the Energy Streamer L and XL, SFAT presents a new range of very powerful confetti cannons working
with compressed Air (easy shoot with remote). Different models to perform projections from 10 to 40-metres
depending on projectiles. Its large range of special effects allows you to propose many solutions to wide
demands. We answer all needs from shooting confettis, snow, foam, bubbles, artificial fog and scents to
the realisation of animated inflatables, virtual flames and many others. The effects are made to meet the
requirements of professionals in different fields of activity such as leisure, event, show, cinema, television,
theatre and advertising.

SMOKE FACTORY www.smoke-factory.de

Smoke Factory is a key player in the smoke business. It has developed and produced smoke machines for
almost 25 years. Its user-friendly, safe and robust vaporising fog generators are built for all applications. The
equipment is highly professional, reliable and is designed and made in Germany. The range is far-reaching,
from the small battery operated Scotty II, to the standard machine, the Captain D, or the high powered
machine, the Data II. The Smoke Factory range has standard and touring versions available for all machines,
complete with high quality German made cases. Each Smoke Factory employee and worldwide distributor is
technically trained to give its customers a fast, uncomplicated and top quality level of service.

TBF PYROTEC www.tbf-pyrotec.de

TBF-PyroTec has 15 years of experience in the manufacturing of high performance SFX machines. The
company has set new pyrotechnical standards several times over, with flame projectors like the Flamemaster,
the 5-Master or the Fountain Flame - a combination of fire and water effects. The innovative product line
reaches from the simple yet successful Spraymaster to powerful systems of 5-Masters and Single Shots, used
on the world’s largest live stages. TBF-PyroTec’s effect machines are on tour with Metallica, Paul McCartney
and Michael Bublé, as well as live shows like Holiday on Ice and Apassionata. The company also offers
custom-built effect machines for theatres, festivals and architectural use. From flaming water installations to
Olympic firebowls - TBF PyroTec turns SFX ideas into reality.

UNIVERSAL EFFECTS www.universal-effects.com

Universal Effects Europe is a French Company making its mark on the Special Effects market with a
large choice of machines covering all kinds of live Special Effects from Atmospheric Effects (snow, foam,
bubbles), Cryogenic Effects (Smoke streams and tsunami), Visual Effects (Airflame) to Fragrance ambiance.
Its philosophy is based on three words: innovation, quality and efficiency. After more than 13 years of
experience, the company now offers special custom effects to suit individual demand with its new brand,
SFX DESIGNER. To deal with the challenges that 2014 brings, Universal Effects Europe has also launched its
new e-shop - www.ue-europe.com - to improve upon its quality services.

78
 THE BIGGER PICTURE
THE BIGGER PICTURE
CDM PT.2 - HANG ON A MINUTE
Serves us right really, scanning a fresh-off-the-printer consultation document and writing a broadly
supportive piece. A second reading threw up a couple of issues.
Let’s begin where we ended in May;
the principle of identifying who is
responsible for what when it comes to
safety management is a good one. The
Construction Design and Management
(CDM) regulations do that. So, if you’re
doing it already, no problem. In fact, CDM
has always applied to us.
But what if you’re doing it but not in the
way that the new CDM regulations prescribe?
As it stands, from April 2015, all ‘projects’ that
involve two or more contractors will require the
client to appoint a principal designer (to design
in safety in the design phase) and a principal
contractor (to manage safety during build and
dismantle phase). Fairly simple in construction,
kind of easy to identify those roles in certain
ever scenarios, but what about tours designed
overseas, exhibitions with thousands of stands?
INTO THE UNKNOWN
Just what projects will be affected is unknown,
HSE hasn’t published any guidance. If they do,
it’s hard to believe that it will be published
before any proposals become regulations
in April 2015. Not one single representative
from the live events sector has been invited
to develop guidance, it seems that it will be
written by the construction sector. Sure, we
can develop our own, but what use will that
be without official approval, and what liability
will the authors carry? It is certain that the
construction sector will be affected because
the scope of CDM will be expanded to cover
domestic projects; can’t wait to see Grand
Designs in 2015.
The expansion into domestic projects
and the complete lack of guidance for clients
and enforcers leaves everything open to
interpretation. Builder and electrician; two
contractors, CDM applies. DJ and magician at
a child’s party setting up their kit...who knows?
Once you’ve built a house, construction stops
80
and someone moves in, a line is drawn. The
removal men who carry the bed upstairs and
find the kettle are not part of the construction
team. Does that mean that scene changes in
theatres are akin to moving furniture or are they
construction activities? Same goes for band
changeovers. The theatre sector has genuine
concerns that authorities may start insisting on
fencing to separate scene changes from the
audience. No guidance leaves everything open
to interpretation.
A POSITIVE IMPACT?
It’s all about impacts; on cost to business
and on accident rates. If you’ve read the HSE
consultation document, you’ll have seen their
assessment of the potential impacts on the
domestic market, creating a financial cost from
the need to train and educate, and generate
paperwork. This cost is seen as proportionate
to the potential reduction in accidents. In
construction, there was a demonstrable
reduction in accidents on large projects after
the original introduction in CDM. This didn’t
happen in the small to medium side of the
sector, so HSE is hoping that simplification
will lead to better safety management and
fewer deaths and injuries. In short, the SME
Construction sector has a big number to have
impact on, therefore the costs are reasonable.
For live events, it’s a different story. First of all,
there hasn’t been an impact assessment; that’s
because, technically, CDM has always applied to
us; it’s just been HSE policy to not enforce CDM.
Sounds daft, but they’d have great difficulty
doing so as it’s designed for construction. What
they do enforce is the Health and Safety at Work
Act and all the regulations that sit underneath
it like Work at Height and Control of Noise at
Work. It’s not like the lack of CDM has meant
that we can escape prosecution if someone
is killed or injured. Of course, the impact of
changing this enforcement policy has not been
measured; a bit of a faux pas on the part of HSE.
Any change in policy will have an impact on
business and these impacts can be measured
in financial terms. Sitting at the Department
of Business (BIS), Innovation and Skills is the
Better Regulation Executive (BRE) who have a
mandate to reduce the regulatory burden on
business. Dipping into tedious technicalities, as
we like to do on occasion, notwithstanding the
fact that CDM applied and therefore no impact
assessment is required, the potential change
in policy requires that a Business Engagement
Assessment is carried out, so that’s what we’d
like to see.
This is where all those surveys and economic
impact studies come in. We have the palette
to paint an economic picture of the various
sectors affected; live music, business events,
theatre, exhibitions and so on. We can, with the
help of clever economists (we know a couple)
and a few extrapolations, demonstrate how
many ‘projects’ might be affected and the extra
burden that will be placed on those managing
them. The third impact, as with construction,
is the real positive, the reduction in deaths
and injuries. Zero is a good place to be; SME
construction is a lot further from zero than our
sector, any reduction that we see will have a
disproportionately high cost for a negligible
increase in safety on the ground. To those
that have lost loved ones, to those that have
received life changing injuries, would CDM have
made a difference? Probably not; CDM is just as
easy to ignore as the Health and Safety at Work
Act.
BLAME THE EU… FOR CARING
There’s the question of Europe too. CDM
exists because of an EU Directive - 92/57/EEC
temporary or mobile construction sites, if you
are remotely interested - so our Government is
obliged to ensure that its own legislation meets
the requirements of that directive. This is a bit
 www.psa.org.uk

Below: Meetings like this can help reduce the regulatory burden. We sit in them so you don’t have to. Well worth
the membership fee.

of a challenge, as the BRE insists on reducing
the regulatory burden yet the directive says
that domestic construction should be covered
by CDM regulations. What we’re not sure of
is where the directive actually stops and if
one thing is for sure, BRE is not going to allow
anything that goes beyond the requirements
of an EU directive; no way. What is certain is
that, in the UK and the UK alone, contravening
the CDM regulations is a criminal offence.
Picture the scene; local charity organises fete,
there’s more than one contractor, HSE asks to
see principal designer or principal contractor,
organiser hasn’t got a clue what they’re talking
about, criminal charges can be brought. It’s a
possibility, however unlikely.
Now, if HSE enforcement were to be placed in
the private sector, we’d probably see a great
deal of enforcement activity in easy money, high
revenue areas. And you thought parking fines
were annoying.
YES, WE’RE ON THE CASE
Naturally, all of these concerns have already
been raised and noted. Not just by us, but by
those that took the time to respond to the
HSE consultation that closed recently; thank
you once again for your efforts, it makes a
difference. PSA is also involved with a group of
fellow trade bodies that is gathering facts and
figures in advance of the obligatory Business
Engagement Assessment (and yes, we’re also

“To those that have lost loved ones, to those that have received life
changing injuries, would CDM have made a difference? Probably not;
CDM is just as easy to ignore as the Health and Safety at Work Act.”

Criminal cases can be expensive, but the getting to grips with the official guidance on
fee for intervention can be quite lucrative. It’s such matters). There’s work to be done over
something we’ve mentioned before; if an HSE the summer, our members’ support helps
inspector finds you to be in material breach of us continue that work towards a practicable
the law, any work relating to that breach can solution.
be charged back to you in the name of cost Stay safe.
recovery (around £125 per hour per person, TPi
per breach and they have a £17m target to hit). www.psa.org.uk

81
 MOVERS & SHAKERS
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Liverpool, UK-based sound, light and visual
production solutions provider, Adlib, has just
appointed Mike Docksey as General Manager
to oversee its fast expanding Lighting and AV
divisions. In a challenging economic climate,
Adlib, headed by Andy Dockerty which this
year celebrates its 30th anniversary, has been
steadily building an infrastructure to support
and evolve its growing global portfolio of
clients.
Managing Director Andy Dockerty said: “Mike
has undertaken to work alongside the directors
and managers at Adlib to help strengthen the
brand across all genres and disciplines. He will be
overseeing the whole lighting and AV operation
with a view to implementing positive and
progressive steps to fulfil the aspirations of the
company.
UK-based engineering company, Blumano,
has recently been launched to provide a whole
range of specialist services, expertise and
consultancy related to lifting and load-bearing
equipment for stages and other areas of
entertainment industry production.
The company is headed by two industry
professionals, Cristiano Giavedoni and Amedeo
Guizzi - bringing many years of experience
and a vast knowledge of the professional
entertainment industry as well as their respective
individual areas. Services offered include system
integration of structures and machinery,
structural calculations; site installation
consultancy and project management; and
safety assessments and engineering approvals.
Doughty Engineering has appointed Mathew
Brake as the newest member of its export team,
where his experience and customer service skills
will provide customers with greater continuity,
complementing the two existing part time
members of staff.
Speaking of Brake’s appointment, Laurence
Dyer, Doughty’s UK sales representative,
commented: “In the short time that Mathew
82
has been with us, we’ve already noted his great
potential. He hit the ground running on day one
and has demonstrated his excellent customer
service skills, expertly dealing with some very
challenging customer requests. Being a full time
member of the export department, Mathew’s
skills and experience will allow me to focus on
carrying out my customer facing role to greater
effect, which will inevitably lead to a better
experience for both new and existing clients.”
Brake, who was previously with K-Tech
Racing, where he worked across both UK sales
and export, added: “I’m delighted to come
on board at Doughty. While my job centres
on my sales ability, I am fortunate to have
completed an apprenticeship in engineering
which undoubtedly helps me to understand the
customers’ needs.”
Bosch Security Systems’ Communications
Systems Division has announced the
appointment of Michael Doucot to the position
of Product Marketing Manager, Electro-Voice
Portable Sound, North America.
Doucot moves into this key marketing role
after a successful ten years in customer service
and sales with the company, most recently as
a Regional Sales Manager for the central U.S.
region. Doucot will continue to be based at
EV HQ in Burnsville, Minnesota. Doucot’s new
responsibilities include the development and
implementation of marketing strategies for EV
retail products - including portable loudspeakers,
microphones, and electronics - and serving as a
focal point for the voice of the customer.
Harman Professional has announced
the appointment of Erik Tarkiainen as Vice
President of Global Marketing and in doing so
signaled its intent to advance its branding and
communications with stronger understanding
and engagement among partners and customers
worldwide. Tarkiainen will lead global marketing
strategy and execution across the Professional
Division and will drive new initiatives in online
Sponsored by
www.interfacio.com • +44 208 986 5002
marketing, social media, public relations, events
marketing and education.
Commenting on his new role at Harman
Professional, Tarkiainen enthused: “It’s an honour
to represent the legendary brands in the Harman
Professional portfolio. Through a combination of
digital and traditional marketing, I look forward
to extending our reach and introducing our
products and services to customers and partners
across the globe.”
As part of an ongoing process of preparing
for its next wave of growth, Martin Audio has
recently made two new strategic hires. Firstly,
Bash Akhtar has joined as Operations Director.
He has previously served as Operations and
Manufacturing Director of RLC Callender, Smiths
Detection, and Harmonic. Bash has earned a
Fellowship in Manufacturing Management from
Cranfield University and is a Manufacturing
Systems Engineer from the University of
Hertfordshire.
Secondly, David Morbey has joined as the
company’s first dedicated Product Manager.
He has previously served as Global Product
Marketing Manager at D&M Professional.
Commenting on the hires, James King,
Director of Marketing, said: “We’re delighted to
have Akhtar and Morbey join us as we continue
to build a world class team. Their expertise will
enable us to further grow the business and
support our customer base.
“Akhtar comes to us with a wealth of
operational experience and knowledge from a
variety of industries and I look forward to his
leadership in creating a world class manufacturing
facility right here in High Wycombe. Morbey will
bring new discipline to product development and
life-cycle management, alongside developing
deeper insights to application opportunities that
will lay the path for a better defined and even
more successful product line up.”
Harman’s Martin Professional has appointed
SF SES vs ISIK Sistemleri A.S., also known as SF,
www.interfacio.com • +44 208 986 5002 MOVERS & SHAKERS

Opposite: Mike Docksey has been appointed General Manager of Lighting and AV at Adlib; Doughty Engineering has appointed Mathew Brake to its export team; Harman Professional has
announced the appointment of Erik Tarkiainen as Vice President of Global Marketing; Powersoft has appointed Gilberto Morejon as Regional Sales Manager for the Caribbean and Latin
American (CALA) market.

as the exclusive distributor of Martin products
in Turkey. Istanbul-based SF has been a valued
member of the Harman distributor network for
over 25 years and this partnership will enhance
the sales, distribution, and support of Martin
Professional lighting solutions throughout Turkey
as well as Azerbaijan and Northern Cyprus.
“As distributors of top brands in audio, video
and lighting systems, we are sure that Martin will
be a valuable addition to our existing distribution
lines, as our reseller and solution partners always
look to offer more sophisticated and robust
turnkey lighting solutions to present to their end-
user customers” commented Samim Mutluer,
CEO SF SES ve ISIK Sistemleri A.S. “We look
forward to providing our resellers and partners
with the value-added services in support of
Martin’s complete lighting system solutions.”
Powersoft has appointed Gilberto Morejon
as Regional Sales Manager for the Caribbean
and Latin America (CALA) market. Morejon
will be handling sales for Powersoft, facilitating
product demonstrations, and providing design
assistance and technical support throughout the
Latin American region from his office in Miramar,
Florida.
An industry veteran, Morejon worked in
professional audio for 30 years, including sound
engineer for Grammy Award-winning artists like
Carlos Vives 1994-2011, Franco de Vita 1992-
1998, Luis Enrique, Julio Iglesias, and many
others.
A significant part of his work will be to
increase Powersoft’s presence in the pro audio
CALA market (Latin America and the Caribbean).
“I believe that Latin America needs to be
brought to a point where the consumers in those
countries are aware not only of Powersoft’s
products, but of the science and philosophy
behind them.”
Elsewhere, Stephen Lambright has joined
Production Resource Group LLC (PRG) as vice
president of marketing. With over 20 years of
international marketing and brand development
experience, Lambright will be responsible for
the company’s global marketing strategies,
implementation of marketing programs that
enhance and expand PRG’s industry leadership,
and promotion of PRG innovations to partners
and clients.
“It is an honour to join the exceptional team
of people at PRG,” stated Lambright. “The talent
and passion at this company is remarkable. I
look forward to helping continue to shape and
fortify the PRG brand in the global marketplace
to ensure our continued growth and success.”
XL Video has announced the creation of a
new business focusing on the rapidly expanding
market of bespoke LED and video solutions.
Projects BVBA, led by Frederic Opsomer,
has a team with more than two decades of
experience in the design and manufacture of
structural solutions for the integration of LED.
The team has a global reputation for excellence.
Projects BVBA will be located at XL Video’s Head
Office in Oostende, Belgium.
SGM has announced the appointment of LTT
Lighting & Theatre Technology as its new sole
Polish distributor. LTT is Poland’s leading, and
longest serving distributor of professional lighting
fixtures, consoles and other technology.
LTT commercial director, Paweł Mrozinski
commented: “It has become clear that the
foreseeable future belongs to LED fixtures
with their reliability, efficiency and excellent
colour mixing. That’s why we were searching
for a partner that offered the most innovative
solutions in this technology - and in our opinion
SGM is precisely that company.”
TPi
www.tpimagazine.com/jobs/

Advertising Sales
TPi Magazine is Recruiting
TPi Magazine, part of the Mondiale Publishing Ltd group is looking for an experienced
Account Manager.

The position will require an understanding of print, digital, sponsorship and event
sales processes as well as the ability to identify new market opportunities. The ideal
candidate will be self motivated and have the skill to work within a close-knit team.

As part of the role you will be required to work out of standard office hours which
involve considerable international travel, whether visiting clients or attending trade
shows. The position is based in our Stockport offices.

Salary is negotiable, dependent on experience. If interested please send your CV with

a covering letter to General Manager Justin Gawne at j.gawne@mondiale.co.uk.

Mondiale Publishing Ltd is a market leading publisher that produces high quality print
magazines, multi digital channels, events and conferences for the live and installed
entertainment technology industries, architectural lighting sector and the hotel
design and development markets.

83
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85
 VITAL STATS

VITAL STATS 160

ALEX BARRAND
Profession:
Manager, Pioneer Professional Audio

Place of birth:
Essex, UK

How did you start out in the industry?

I started working for an audio company after I passed
my electrical exams, working on live shows, loading
trucks, and setting up systems for bands. I attended a
sound engineering course in Essex and then Hertford
where I was learning the fundamentals of live sound.
“Pioneer has always had its roots in
I then started to move into the fixed installation
area where I designed and specified club systems
great quality sound - that’s our core
for commercial bars and clubs around the UK. While
working on a project, I heard about a position at
Ministry of Sound London. I applied and fortunately
competency and our passion...”
got the job as Production Technician. I held this role
for three years until I was offered the position as
Technical Manager.
I wanted to make a change to the system in the
main room as it was starting to show its age and become outdated. I
contacted Martin Audio and that’s when we started to create the current
system after many hours spent with [R&D Development Director] Jason
Baird and his superb team testing and building prototypes until we finally
came up with the winning combination that ticked all the boxes from both
sides.
The next step was to upgrade the BSS Audio Soundweb original
units within the venue to the new BSS Soundweb London range where I
used the Cobra Net versions for distribution of audio and its redundancy
capabilities. After completing the total upgrade of the venue, I was
looking for a new challenge. I had two job offers from a couple of well
known audio manufacturers and then, at the very last minute, I was
presented with a proposal from Pioneer HQ. After attending a meeting in
Japan to discuss the position, I was appointed as part of the planning team
to develop Pioneer Pro Audio.
You’ve toured, been a sound designer, installation manger and successful sales
person representing a global brand. What has kept you glued to the pro audio
industry?
Working on tours, installations and technical sales has taught me so many
things about the different areas of this business. It’s really helped me focus
on the bigger picture; making sure the audience - no matter how big or
small the gig - walks away happy. That’s what we all want.
The Pioneer brand was launched in 1937, what core values do you think have
developed the company into the success it is today?
Pioneer has always had its roots in great quality sound - that’s our core
competency and our passion. Pioneer is a big company but we like to keep
focusing on the finer details such as quality and customer care. Sure, we
make mistakes along the way, but we always listen to feedback, good or
bad, and try to implement this in our planning for new products.
Pioneer DJ supports the IMS conference in Ibiza. Why is this an important event
in the electronic music calendar?
The Internatonal Music Summit (IMS) is one of the most important
conferences for professionals in dance music. It’s more of a focus for
the Pioneer DJ arm of our company and that’s why they’ve sponsored
the event since its launch eight years ago. Every year, artists, producers,
labels and technology companies gather to discuss ideas and trends in
the industry, the content of which is invaluable for making future business
decisions.
The Dalt Vila gigs, held as part of IMS are an interesting event. Can you explain
the concept behind it?
The idea behind the Dalt Vila party was originally created as a way to give
back to Ibiza residents; held at the Unesco world heritage site of Ibiza’s
old town, which is no easy feat! The parties a are held over two nights
and signal the end of the IMS conference, and are now recognised as
opening parties of the entire Ibiza season. One of the International Music
Summit’s founding partners, Simeon Friend, owner of live production
company in Ibiza called The Shop, is responsible for putting on the show.
It’s a challenging one in the best conditions because of Dalt Vila’s Unesco
status, but somehow he pulls it off every year.
Pioneer Professional Audio has recently launched a loudspeakers series for fixed
install applications, the GS Wave Series. How was this received by the industry?
The GS Wave reactions around the world have been very positive and
currently have four locations soon to be completed. The GS Wave and XY
Series have been designed to the highest standards using the most up-to-
date speaker driver technology and of course built in our factory in the UK.
Are there any plans to launch a live-specific line array too?
It’s too early to say at this stage, but what we can say is we’ve got a great
product line-up in the pipeline, so watch this space!

86