Two stages were incorporated in the production: on the main stage the Sugababes, Enrique Iglesias and Busted wowed teen fans, as did sets by Sting and Texas, who added something for the more mature members of the audience, in line with the radio stations widening demographic. From a smaller stage in the centre of Earls Court Kym Marsh, Jamelia and Lemar played shorter acoustic sets. The whole show was broadcast live on AOL broadband, sponsors of the show, with live radio edits also featured on Capital FM across the night.
For the fourth-consecutive year Canegreen provided a PA system designed to overcome the challenging aspects of Earls Court. Pete Hughes, project manager for Canegreen used his past experience of working at Earls Court to design the PA system, with the assistance of a team of 14 crew on the night and little technology! The core of the system was the EAW 760 line arrays flown in stereo formation either side of the stage, with EAW SB 1000 Subs were stacked 12 high about 8m off stage and 8m up stage. The positioning was driven by audience sightlines and escape lanes but they were stacked in such a fashion as to give more coherent sub and to de-couple the sub from the building. An array of Meyer's new Milo Line array cabinets were flown either side of the stage to cover the audience seated on the side grandstands.
Pete Hughes commented: "Earls Court is a challenging venue to work at with its unique characteristics, I think the line array approach is the only way to get a good sound at all points in the venue. With such a variety of artists and engineers to work with, the quality of the sound we achieved throughout was a testament to the skill of our team."
The team in question were front-of-house engineers Jerry Eade, Andrew Thornton and Mick Williams, working on the three mixing desks in support of the artists' own engineers, with a further 10 people on the stage crew. The incoming engineers had all specified a preference for analogue consoles, so alternate mixes were varied between a Midas XL4 and a Yamaha PM4000 on the main stage, with a smaller 24-channel Midas Venice console running the remote stage. Splits were also taken from the stage for the radio and broadband broadcasts.
(Lee Baldock)
