equip supplies THGO at The Empire
- Details
The ensemble, founded in 2015, has ignited an appetite for their energetic reimagining of some of the UK’s biggest house and garage hits.
When production manager Kevin Jianoran joined in November 2018, they were an eight-piece with guest vocalists and just him on the crew as the touring sound engineer. Since then it’s quickly upscaled to become a 20-piece orchestra, complete with brass and string sections, 14 guest vocalists and a technical crew of eight.
equip, based in Brixton, London, were approached by Kevin, who is also the band’s monitor engineer, to work on their tour last November, which was a big success. He then returned to James Cooper and the equip team and asked if they could work on the high-profile Shepherd’s Bush gig, plus their upcoming tour.
“Everyone at equip has always been very accommodating and friendly. Nothing is ever a problem, they come up with smart and imaginative solutions and work sensibly within designated budgets and other parameters” he commented.
He also specifically wanted a single production supplier able to deal efficiently with all the technical elements and co-ordination, and being local to the London venue was considered a bonus.
Dan Barley, equip MD, states: “We were all super-excited to be working with Kevin and THGO band again. Shepherd’s Bush was a high pressure one off with great public interest and many expectations, with a few technical and logistical challenges which we ensured went smoothly.”
equip’s production and project manager for the event was James Cooper. He received their rider and set about scheduling the kit required, which included two Allen and Heath dLive S7000 consoles for the FOH and monitor control package.
Production wise, this show was approached differently from previous THGO gigs. The usual format is around 15 people on stage, but, the numbers - with guests - tripled for this gig!
Kevin wanted to use the Allen & Heath dLive S7000 as they were an ideal interface with the A&H individual ME-1 monitor systems used for most of the musicians. Apart from that, it is “one of the best sounding desks I’ve ever used,” he explains.
The FOH console was connected via two DM64 stage boxes on splits and FOH engineer Kieran Edmonds used a selection of additional Lexicon outboards for specific effects.
The project entailed a lot of mics as part of the equip package, of which the vocal ones were KSM8 capsules running on a Shure wireless system.
Both equip and THGO decided early in the planning to use the Empire’s in-house equipment, which for sound is an all EAW speaker system utilising a mix of KF850 main hang speakers plus a combination of SB850s and SB1000s for the low end. It is a good, solid all-round spec that works unilaterally well in the space for a diversity of artists and productions.
Kevin decided to use a network of Allen & Heath ME-U and ME-1 A&H personal mixing systems for some sections of the orchestra, mainly so brass and strings could each have individual control of their own personal monitor mixes via their Shure IEMs.
The rest of the band including MD / conductor Benjamin Burrell and some of the vocalists ran on Sennheiser IEMs, which were strategically combined with equip’s d&b M4 wedges for THGO’s vocalists, DJ / THGO producer Alex Mercier and the monitor engineer foldback.
All the mics were supplied by equip as per the rider with DPA 4099s for each of the strings and Beyer Dynamic M88s for the brass. Percussion and drums featured mainly AKGs and Shures, with KSM8s for the vocals.
The brain of the monitor system was similar to FOH - an S7000 with a DM64 stagebox. There were 64 inputs, 11 IEMs for vocalists, technical mixes and Benjamin Burrell, 5 x Shure P9HW wired belt-packs for the band and 14 x ME-1s for the string and brass sections. Kevin mixed for the band, vocalists, conductor and techs, and sent out stems and individual channels to the ME-1s for the string and brass sections.
On the lighting front, James and the equip team communicated extensively with THGO’s lighting designer Nick Jemicz.
The upshot of this was that Nick used the comprehensive house rig comprising Robe MegaPointes, LEDBeam 150s and LEDWash 600s in the overhead rig, together with ACLs plus ETC Source Four Revolutions for key and front light.
equip supplied active Sunstrips as extras which were on tank traps and positioned upstage on the floor and used to break-up the black upstage cloth and add depth to the overall lighting picture. The floor package also featured eight Chauvet Hybrids.
Nick spec’d an Avolites Tiger Touch II console for control which was supplied by equip. “I thoroughly enjoyed working with THGO again, and with the all of the technical team involved for this show” stated Nick.
Kevin Jianoran worked closely with James and the equip crew preparing the kit in advance, so they would have as stress free a day as possible on site. Also instrumental in ensuring the whole operation run smoothly and seamlessly were equip’s warehouse manager Sheldon Saunders and technical manager Neil Drewitt.
(Jim Evans)
