Adlib stands up with Jack Whitehall
- Details
All the crew were pleased to be working with TPi Award-winning production manager Neil McDonald who made sure everything was well organised and that there was a great flow of communications. Johnny Dodkin was the ever-cheerful tour manager who kept everything in check and Adlib were thrilled to be back working with Chambers Touring Ltd on another exciting comedy project.
Steve “Patto” Pattison mixed FOH, working with a strong team from Adlib including monitor engineer / sound crew chief Marc Peers and systems tech Tony Szabo, KSE, who were responsible for the precision and detail required to ensure that every seat in the house had crisp, clear and audible speech.
Tony worked with Kenny Perrin on the system which was an L-Acoustics mix of K1 and K2 specified by Adlib. The front PA hangs - in their largest configuration - comprised 14 x K1 with four KARA downs, with side-hangs of 12 x K2, increased to 16 for the largest venue, London’s O2 Arena.
The delays were typically six K1 in two hangs with flown amp racks for easier cabling and improved sightlines. A total of 46 x amplifiers were used, mostly the new LA12X (including flown racks). A total of eight SB28 subs were only active for the grand entrance at the top of Act 2 and for the walk-in / intermission music.
All of the front and lip-fills were Kara, picked for their low profiles and to cover the first 10m of the stalls, and one additional Kara box was on the front centre of stage as a prop! Taking care of the processing was one of Adlib’s Lake/Dante fibre systems and Tony used Meyer SIM 3 and SMAART v8 for audio analytics and measurement.
Patto’s console was a DiGiCo S31 – a first time out for both him and Tony – while Marc used an S21 for monitors. Needing only 8 channels, the tiny footprints of the consoles were an ideal mix of quality and size for the application.
The stage box was the DiGiCo SD Rack bringing the same pre-amps as the larger consoles connected via a hi-definition BNC coax cable from FOH to stage, run at 48K to allow for full redundancy in both directions – so both consoles effectively would have backed each other up in the event of an incident . . . a contingency that happily wasn’t needed!
The lighting and video elements of the production equation were co-ordinated by Adlib’s Kevin Byatt who was also a crew-chief on the road. Four lighting trusses were installed. The upstage one featured Martin MAC Aura LED washes with one MAC Viper Profile and there was an LED starcloth drop right behind.
The upstage mid truss was rigged with 10 x Viper profiles and six Auras, and the downstage mid truss had another four Viper Profiles and six Auras. The front truss was in front of another that suspended the scenic pros arch, and on this ‘were five more Auras.
Flown in front of the stage was an advanced truss with six Viper Profiles, 12 MAC Quantum Washes and 13 Chauvet Strike 4 LED blinders to highlight the fans.
There were also 10 x MAC Auras on the floor along with four ARRI 2Ks and eight CK ColorBlaze LED battens for some additional colouring to uplight the set. Jeff Bond came on-board as lighting tech and worked alongside Tom who operated the show, himself using two Hog 4s running in sync as live and backup.
(Jim Evans)
