Entec won the contract after being recommended to production manager Brett Enzensperger by Milwaukee based Clearwing Productions, the company that supplies technical production for all Steve Miller's US based live work, and with whom Entec also has a close association.
They wanted an operation that could deliver a competitive all-in production package for sound and lighting. Says Enzensperger, "I asked Clearwing's Gregg Brunclik who I should use for production in Europe, and Entec was the clear choice. Gregg knows the standards I expect from a rental company, so I knew that Entec would fit the bill - and also that account manager Noreen O'Riordan would put up with me."
Steve Miller's show was designed by Norm Schwab of design consortium Lightswitch and is being operated by Randy Garber.
The main set drape at the back featured a constellation of guitars, some of them edged in small LEDs plus two other set drapes that curved up from stage right and left to meet the rear drape. These were also inlaid with guitar cut outs/pictures, again laced with twinkling LEDs for which Entec supplied a 10 Volt power supply. The central scenic element was a 4 ft high guitar head stock, with Neoflex LED strings running down a transparent fret board constructed from silver pipes. This had 6 of its own onboard LED Pars.
The set trusses were made up from two spans of Slick minibeam that also facilitated lighting positions, and so were rigged with Vari*Lite 2500 Spots and Martin Professional MAC 700s on drop arms. The upstage lighting truss was 40ft of double hung pre-rigged truss with 10 bars of PARs in total plus six MAC 700 Washes and one V*L2500 Spot in a straight line.
The front truss was built from A-type, with four V*L2500 Spots on drop arms, another 10 bars of six in double rows, four ETC Source Four profiles for specials and key lighting, and four 4-lite moles for audience illumination.
On the floor were four bars of 6 PARs on vertical stands, together with four MAC 700 Washes and three V*L 2500 Spots, some of which were positioned on varying height plinths to bring additional depth to the equation.
Entec supplied 10 PixelLine 1044 LED battens for shooting rich colour washes up the back drape, and two Gem 247 hazers for atmospherics. A standard Entec distro system was part of the package, together with Avolites dimmers, and two new Lycian M2 follow spots, which were purchased specially for the tour.Control was via a grandMA full size Series 1.
For sound reinforcement, the main hangs were d&b J-Series, 10 cabinets a side, a combination of J8s and J12s, along with side hangs of 6 Q-Series a side. d&b Q7s were utilised for front-fill and there were 10 J-SUBS ground stacked for plenty of low end 'ooomph'. All of this was powered by D12 amps.
Booney used a Midas Heritage H3000 console for his mix, while monitor engineer Steve McCale preferred a DigiDesign D Show Profile. Their set up included a full ProTools HD recording facility.
The monitors were all in-ears - primarily Sennheiser 2000s - which they own. The only wedge that Entec was asked to provide was an M2 to give out some low end atmospherics for the keyboard player.
(Jim Evans)
