For the third year, we were asked to provide full production support for Spalding Festival. This year we opted to increase and expand the setup from previous years to really up the game.
Staging
Starting with the all important staging we fitted a very similar staging layout to 2017. This nearly doubled the stage floor space provided by the venue in 2016 and raised it up to 3ft including a fixed drum riser at 4ft. We used Litedeck 8ft x 4ft deck to create a 24ft by 20ft stage space complete with step access USL and USR and 3 sided handrail. With this increase in stage size, meant an increase in the roof structure which leads us into the Rigging and Lighting section. Not only this, the improved quality of the staging was both stronger and safer for performers.
Rigging and Lighting
With the increased stage size and increases in lighting equipment, we opted for widening and deepening the flown grid above the stage. Going up to 8 points and 12m wide by 8m deep structure, we were able to implement a more interesting and visually pleasing lighting system to the more simplistic system of previous years. The extra 2 motors were rigged to provide roof support to better position the flown PA and also provided an additional location for lighting.
The main roof system was constructed from 2 outer 12m lengths of H30V hung downstage to upstage located just offstage SL and SR and a central truss of 8m in the same orientation. Hanging under this was a 12m H30V length running across the US edge of the stage to support the lighting hanging below it, as well as the rear US black drapes hang to provide a masked corridor around the rear of the stage. A similar support of Astralite A03 was hung across the downstage edge. Hung from beam clamps and safetied securely in place, we were able to get an approximate 7m trim height.
To create some good visual impact at the rear of the stage, a combination of Sunstrips, LED battens and Mac 101s were utilised on 2 underhung A03 Astralite lengths designed to keep the roof weight down but provide eye candy for the audience.
FOH wise, we used a simple simple Astralite A03 length with some Source 4 zooms for front light. We also mounted some LED Blinders to provide ambient lighting at the rear of the venue.
Total lighting equipment amounted to 6 Mac 550 Spots, 8 Mac 101s, 4 Chauvet Intimidator Hybrid 140SR, 6 LED wash moving heads, 14 LED Battens, 4 Sunstrips and 4 Sharpies.
Audio
This is the area we continue to improve the space year on year. Firstly, we needed to try to overcome the RT60 time that hung in excess of 10 seconds. We cut this to 3s through substantial draping of the venue. We used BWS drapes hung around the rear of the venue behind the stage and down the sides and then a section of drape across the rear wall of the venue to prevent the high end slap that was giving us a lot of problems in previous years.
We also used a large amount of pipe and drape around the stage for masking, but this also aided in reducing reflections from the onstage wedges.
Our TW AUDiO system was our major improvement this year. We hung 5 VERA36 high packs a side from the roof structure allowing us to angle the array to provide audio where we needed it and not having it bounce off the rear wall. The difference in overall sound and clarity compared to the flex array was instantly noticeable.
For subs, we chose the VERA S33 sub from TW AUDiO, implementing a distributed system of subs across the front end of the stage to provide even coverage. At spacings of 1.2m, the subs are very controllable, designed with a front facing 18″ driver and rear facing 15″ driver for native cardioid arrangement. This means we were able to create a quiet stage and keep noise away from the housing estate that the venue backs onto.
For front fill, we chose our TW AUDiO M8s. The small profile and rotatable horn meant we were able to place these across the front edge of the stage without obscuring site lines.
Monitor wise, we used TW AUDiO C12 and C15 wedges – both coaxial boxes with 3 pairs across the front, 2 floats and a C15 over 2 B18s for a drum mix.
All TW speakers are driven by PLM12k44’s from Lab Gruppen. With the Lake software, we were able to control the entire system with a control point at Monitor World and another at FOH.
Our control system was all Allen and Heath, with a DLive S7000 and DM64 rack for FOH and iLive 176 with iDR10 at monitors. Dante fed all the Lab amplifiers with analogue backup and a 64 channel multisplit implemented for simple gain control on both surfaces.
If you would like to find out more about this event, or how we could help you with a similar event – get in touch using our Contact Page