The event was hosted by MC Villain, produced by Matt Chromatic and promoted by Q-dance Australia. Norwest Productions provided complete sound production; staging, lighting, and pyro were executed by LX- PRG, Lasers- Oracle, and Pyro-Howard & Sons.
Audio system design was executed by the event FOH Engineer Scott Harrison, on the new Adamson Blueprint AV Software, enabling the plotting of the four hangs plus a front-fill. "The prediction really matched well what we experienced on the day. And it was great being able to plot all four hangs at once, giving us a great idea of our coverage, and our expected SPL."
The main E15 hangs per side were made up of 16 boxes in each, outer hangs had 10 Y18 boxes and the subwoofer extension was provided by three clusters of eight T21 Subs arrayed in a two high four wide configuration at each location. Front-fill featured three stacks of three Y10s, and for DJ Monitors EAW's SB730 with KF730 subs were used.
"With an area of 80m wide x 100m long to cover, including a VIP viewing deck at the100m mark, we needed something that was going to have the ability to make it all the way to the back, without sacrificing clarity and SPL. We have used the Y18 in previous years, so we knew an Adamson solution was going to do the job. From all reports about the Energia system, I was very excited to get hangs of sixteen boxes out - and give its legs a stretch' comments Harrison.
"It was the first time I've flown the E15, and after getting back from lunch, we decided to hit the two main clusters. It was system tech Jonathon Warren and I, and we had a 16-box hang flown to trim in 25 minutes; and most of that time was spent getting the boxes into place inside the scaffold towers. The E15 is easily the fastest and easiest rigging system I've seen."
All processing was provided by Lake LM Series, and amplification was Lab.Gruppen totaling in four racks of six FP6400 for the subs, eight racks of four FP6400 and two 10000Q for all the Adamson tops, and two PLM10000Q's took care of the DJ monitors. For a FOH missing console a DiGiCo SD8 was chosen because of its Optocore link, allowing them the 90m to the FOH position without having cable joins in the run.
"It was great to get the E15 out and have a listen to what everyone has been talking about. I was impressed by the speed that the rig went up, and how even the sound was from the front all the way to the rear, and how the PA sounded like it was right in front of my face, even when it was 100 meters away," concludes Harrison.
(Jim Evans)
