With RG Jones supplying a complex Synco by Martin Audio based sound system, the touring production was as grand a concept as the original record. Creating the spectacle were a 10-piece band, 36-piece string orchestra, five singers, a flying bridge, an 80' wide video screen, a 3D holographic projection of narrator Richard Burton and a 10m high Martian fighting machine with pneumatic legs, all supported by nine trucks and 44 crew.
Mixing front of house was RG Jones engineer Simon Honywill, who comments: "I've been attempting to convey the honeyed tones of Richard Burton to thousands of people along with the huge sound of the band and orchestra and surround sound effects - with a reasonable level of success, I feel."
He adds, "Arena acoustics don't always lend themselves to intelligibility, and the devotees of the original work are very quick to criticise if they miss a single syllable of the iconic script, but it was a privilege to be able to have the voice of Burton under my fingers, and every show was a different challenge."
Touring a theatrical rock & roll production in venues ranging in size from the Bournemouth CIC to the 02 Arena meant there was plenty to keep production manager Kevin Hopgood and his team busy. Special effects were incorporated from the original album multitracks into the live show, as well as some musical elements so as to keep the musician count practical. But most was completely live via the band and orchestra, precisely timed to the CGI movie that runs all the way through, along with the numerous effects, props and the mighty Martian fighting machine and bridge that descend to dramatic effect.
With clear sightlines to the huge projection and set vital, using conventional positions for the PA hangs wasn't possible. Instead the RG Jones team flew the main PA of up to 48 Synco W8LCs and 16 W8LMs, depending on venue, very wide and high upstage, supplemented by a pair of eight deep Synco W8LM hangs arrayed as stereo in-fills. L-Acoustics ARCS provided surround sound effects.
Honywill says: "We wanted the PA to be as discrete as possible, whilst needing it to deliver. The infills were angled down quite heavily just to cover the first block and we added some front-fill on the stage lip and covered the main arena with the big arrays."
To help maintain a clean stage sound there were no wedges, with all musicians and vocalists on in-ear monitors, with a mix of Sennheiser and Shure radio mics and DPA cardioid headsets, Sennheiser wired and wireless in-ears, and a Canford in-ear orchestral monitor system.
Orchestral miking was achieved using DPAs, with violins and violas on 4061s and cello and basses on the new 4099 miniature cardioids. Stage sound was mixed by Steve Watson on a DiGiCo D5 with an external processing rack.
Simon Honywill mixed FOH on a Digidesign combination of a D-Show and a Profile, using automation throughout across 25 scenes, set up for each section of the show.
For more on this production of War of the Worlds see the July issue of Lighting&Sound magazine, available to view FREE, online now.(Jim Evans)
