For his most recent endeavour with UB40, he presented himself with one of his biggest challenges yet; how to run an arena-sized light show complete with followspots, and call a four -camera video team, single-handed? The solution he's evolved will be more than a useful tool; to many it will be a salvation.
"I told the band what I had in mind, and that it might not work, so we had a touring video director on standby, but six weeks in it's working fine." It's no trick: Hardiman has harnessed technology to his needs, but in solving one problem he has also addressed another: "It's founded on an idea I've had for a long time. On my first tour of Russia with Moby I had a translator to call the local followspot operators, but he had no idea how lighting worked and it was a nightmare, expressions like 'Focus' or 'Tighten Up' were often lost in translation." All familiar so far.
"It occurred to me that if I could trigger samples from the lighting desk, then I could record followspot commands as WAV files." It's just a short jump from there to translating spot commands into different languages; but then there's the camera direction. "What's great about the D-Mix Pro is I can use it as a video mixer and router. I do have to do some heavy programming in the Hog III to mix between the three hand-operated cameras and the Hothead; or to change the routing so I can put feed from the M-Box onto any or all of the three screens while still maintaining the ability to change the camera mix on the fly. It's not as simple as it sounds, but it has gotten rid of the Matrix Switch-box, and provides a one-box DMX controlled solution, while still providing me with the ability to route anything, anytime, anywhere."
That gets video control onto the desk, but the spots? "Spots have always been a problem to me, and not just from the point of view of language. I believe a show should run itself as much as possible, so you can monitor what's happening and properly respond to the band. I also don't like the idea of having half my crew up the truss on spots with just one person at the racks. From talking to my crew, and the many truck drivers who've operated for me in the past, I developed a library of 15 core words needed to call spots. I recorded them all as separate samples, so they could be assembled in varying combinations, according to what's required." Sounds too simple, what were the hurdles to overcome?
"I recorded all the spot command samples using a pair of headphones as a mic in a clear, measured fashion; I soon learnt that when assembled these were way too slow, and had to re-sample, speaking much faster: speed is key. I also went to Wholehog's website to learn how the Hog III sends raw MIDI string commands, and called them up to checkI could trigger such things from the desk - they were supportive, and agreed it was theoretically possible."
Hardiman admitted that the process of establishing the idea beyond the theoretical took a week with no distractions. "As a director of THC, having unlimited access to my company's stock of Hog III control equipment helped; it meant I could do all the experimenting from the comfort of home, but it was intense. Speed and timing is crucial; I've built lots of little stack cues as commands and added timed delays to the 'Go' call that completes them."
For the tour, the custom front-of-house control is all supplied by Hardiman's company, THC, with the UB40 lighting system supplied by PRG. "I've been using them many for years and they always help me in the things I try. I didn't want to look like a typical TV lighting director with multiple headsets, so for this they've built me a magic box for my intercom headset with the followspots and cameras spl
