Entec was working for JLP Events headed by Guy Kersey who handled all the technical production for end client, ESA Live.
The show was divided into two sections. The first saw the presentation of a series of Toni & Guy Achievers Awards, and the second part was a highly theatrical catwalk show, designed to illustrate the trends in creative hair design. Special guest appearances by LA based band Iglu & Hartly and hip-hop dance troupe Frank2louise also upped the excitement of the evening.
Entec pulled-in fashion lighting design impresario Simon Tutchener as lighting director. The rig had to light a double tiered set at the stage end, flanked by two sweeping staircases, with a revolve entrance in the middle, and a 40m runway - all designed by Kersey and built by Scene Set.
Outback Rigging hung a 50m box truss above the runway, with trusses crossing it horizontally at both ends. Onto this, the Entec crew, chiefed by Willie Coster rigged 38 Martin Professional MAC 700 moving lights and 12 4-lite Moles.
On the floor, carefully positioned up the staircases and behind the sliding doors of the revolve were 12 JTE PixelLine LED battens. Another 16 MAC 700 Profiles were dotted around the floor at the stage end.
In the roof were 26 bars of 6 PARs, spread out around the box and trusses providing general wash cover for as much of the action as possible. The job entailed running out over a mile of Socapex cable to power the lights, running between the rig and dimmer world up on the gallery of Olympia's Great Hall.
Dimming was all Avolites and Tutchener ran the show from a GrandMA console. For full redundancy, the show was tracked with a GrandMA Lite and 2 NSPs located at the dimmers. Followspots located on the balcony spotted the catwalk.
Simon Travis, who also mixed monitors and was joined by Lloyd James and Kevin Smith, led Entec's audio team of three. The system was a d&b Q1 line array, with six elements a side for the main hangs and 3 d&b B2 subs a side ground stacked in a hyercardiod pattern for even dispersion throughout the Great Hall.
Entec supplied a Yamaha M7CL console for the FOH mix that was engineered by Ross Anderson. He used all the onboard effects facilities, adding parametric inserts over the lectern mics, with CD players for additional sources, so this kept a neat, expedient footprint. Monitors were mixed on a Midas Verona 16 mono/8 stereo channel desk with 6 mixes, and the band used d&b M4 wedges.
(Jim Evans)
