He continues. "It's been brilliant having The Voice based here at Elstree as we've been able to instantly provide LD Mark Kenyon and his head rigger Dave Morrell with all the gear they need right from our Elstree office. We worked closely with them on-site throughout the whole process, from creating technical drawings during the planning process right through to supplying extra components on actual show days."
ELP were involved even before The Voice UK came to Elstree. The show was broadcast in three stages. The first stage involved blind auditions from BBC TV centre where contestants were judged on their voice alone and judges turned around in those iconic chairs once they were impressed. ELP supplemented the BBC's rig with Clay Paky Sharpy's and an assortment of LED fixtures.
Next the show moved to Fountain Studios for the head-to-head battles and ELP's involvement included more moving lights and LEDs but with extra truss and rigging support.
Finally, the live shows took over stages 1 and 2 at Elstree Studios with an awesome set. ELP supplied LD Mark Kenyon with 63 Clay Paky Sharpys which became part of the signature look of the show.
The vast rig needed an unprecedented amount of trussing and rigging infrastructure and ELP were able to supply everything required as earlier this year they acquired specialist rigging firm Nippy Industries and now hold one of the largest dry hire rigging stocks in the country. With over 100 motors and hoists plus miles of black truss including Quadralite, Light Duty and Thomas Heavy Duty truss, it read more like a rock concert inventory rather than one for a light entertainment broadcast.
As LD Mark Kenyon explains, choosing black truss was a deliberate stylistic choice. "Black provides the illusion of more space as you don't see any metalwork framing the set. So although we were in a confined studio setting we were able to achieve an 'expansive' effect as if we were in a much larger stadium venue."
The rock and roll styling was further enhanced by Kenyon's use of tungsten Four Lights on vertical truss structures and much less LED lighting than you'd normally get on an Saturday night entertainment show to create a 'cool' look. Video walls enveloped the back and side of the set and even the stage floor had video screens inset into its structure.
Roger Williams was kept busy controlling seven active video content outputs from his Vector desk while Darren Lovell and Tom Sutherland shared the moving lights and generics between them, also via Vector desks.
ELP provided a 400kw twinset generator to power all the lighting and sound on show days while their 110 KW Lite Power generator served the OB scanners and production offices. Colin Goodachre was ELP's generator technician.
(Jim Evans)
