Protec delivers for UNITE with Tomorrowland
- Details
Six other locations across the globe were also connected to the Tomorrowland main stage in Belgium, with Italy, Malta, Spain, Taiwan, Mexico and Lebanon also enjoying dance extravaganza.
The Abu Dhabi event featured live local and international DJs including the duo Lucas & Steve, SmokinGroove, Marcus Santoro, Regi, Barry Fore, Omar Basaad, D.O.D and Ummet Ozcan.
Protec were called on by Envie Events to deliver audio, lighting, video, scenic, staging and rigging solutions. Having successfully delivered the technical production for the festival held in Dubai in 2017, Protec’s project manager Pieter Smuts said, “The show in Abu Dhabi was almost a breeze - which was fantastic because the heat of the UAE summer can really put a lot of pressure on the crew as temperatures hover in the high 40s.”
Abigail Bates, heading up Protec’s lighting crew, comments: “The major difference for lighting was that the venue was smaller than last year. This meant that we didn’t need to implement a large amount of audience lighting, as we did last year, because the audience area was not as spacious.”
The lighting spec was outlined by the main Tomorrowland show designers in Belgium and Protec’s broad inventory had all the required fixtures. These included Robe Pointe, K10 Wash, Scenius Profile, VL3500 Wash, Stormy CC Strobe, SGM P5, and Molefay 4 light/Par 36.
“It’s important that we used fixtures as specified in their lighting rider so that all the Tomorrowland UNITE shows around the world have the same visual aesthetic. In addition, we used SGM P2 and some more Pointe to light the VIP deck, and a combination of SGM P2 and LED Parcans to add some colour and atmosphere to the catering/bar area outside,” Bates explained.
Ed Ross, Protec’s HOD, describes the audio setup: “It was all relatively simple this time with no challenges at all. We used our L-acoustics K2 with K1-SB flown above and SB28 subs on the ground. It differed from last year as we had a lot more weight loading capacity this time round so we were able to fly a very large array for the main hang and then a small kara array for delays for the VIP deck.”
The hangs Protec used were L-Acoustics four K1-SB and 18 K2 per side, identical to each UNITE venue worldwide. The delays were six L-Acoustics Kara and two SB18 per side. Ross chose 24 x SB28 for subs. For communications Protec used three Clearcom Helixnet master stations networked together and 10 x Clearcom Freespeak II wireless comms.
Protec project manager, Pieter Smuts paid tribute to the excellence of his crew for the weeks of planning, preparation and successful delivery, turning an ambitious concept into a reality. “The show itself was amazing to be a part of - it looked great and sounded great,” he says. “There were no issues and I could not be happier. We look forward to partnering with Envie events again very soon.”
(Jim Evans)
