Says Haydn Cruickshank, "We were very excited to be offered the chance to contribute to both of these amazing and popular events that are mainstays on the festival calendar."
For the Slam Tent at T In The Park, the Colour Sound team worked with regular Slam Tent LD Scott McDonald to provide the kit to his specification, while for V, two very different and dynamic designs were developed by Colour Sound's Fletch.
The V North stage was crew chiefed for Colour Sound by Alex McCoy and V South by Frankie McDade, while Sam Campbell led the team of six at T.
The visual design for V North was based around a Y shaped Kayam style tented venue with a large stage in the middle of the Y section, complete with a flat floor. Lighting and video were combined to provide set architecture as well as atmosphere and effects in an ingenious design which started with the installation of a seven-legged ground support system supporting a trussing grid and a 10m truss semi-circle at the front combined with two eighth-of-a-circle pieces at the ends.
This created an exaggerated horseshoe shape for the set which was a perfect solution for this DJ stage.
Hung from the horseshoe were 18 individual panels of Colour Sound's proprietary BT-7 LED screen, with 12 x Clay Paky Sharpie moving lights in the gaps and either side of the stage, two IMAG video screens were built, also using the BT-7 product.
Lighting the stage were eight Robe LEDWash 1200s, six Martin Atomic strobes and 17 x ProLights Diamond7 Beams.
Two high powered Novalight Nova-flower effects were positioned slightly to the sides for a special moment during Craig David's set.
Out on the room five trusses were flown from the tent king poles which were around 18 metres high, configured as an arc of three trusses butted up on the middle, with two more 14m long 'wing' trusses a few metres away either side - on the same angle as the sides of the arc. Another truss was rigged in line with the downstage edge of the stage.
This downstage truss was loaded with four Robe BMFL Spots and six LEDWash 1200s used for illuminating both stage and audienceOn the three central arc trusses were 14 x BMFL Spots, six Atomics, 12 x LEDWash 1200s and one 4-lite Mole on each truss section.
The wing trusses were each rigged with six sharpies and three Atomics.
Visuals were supplied by Digital Insanity who used a Hippotizer v4 media server to run all the video components. Colour Sound's Ed Blackwell took care of all the lighting and video pixel-mapped elements and was systems tech for the video, working with Sam Campbell.
Lighting was run via a ChamSys MQ80 with two extra wings operated primarily by Kester McClure and Sam Akinwale working with LX techs Chris Brown and Aamir Riaz. They also provided a floor package for Australian act Flight Facilities which to Alex's delight reunited him with some industry friends from home!
The V South scheme was also designed by Fletch and again used the venue - a massive 8 pole big top - as a starting point coupled with his fund of knowledge and experience of lighting dance and EDM gigs.
"I wanted a big ravey, old-skool vibe in there with lights and visual matter all around the place in every direction," he explained.
Colour Sound was asked by Festival Republic to supply lighting, LED screen and a large ground support system to the Slam Tent at T in the Park 2016.
Colour Sound's crew of six comprised Sam Campbell, Afghan John, Mel Cornish, Simon Robertson, Ed Blackwell and rigger Simon Ambrose.
Additionally, Colour Sound supplied floor packages for three major artists appearing over the weekend.
Swedish superstar DJ and music producer Alesso headlined the Radio 1 Summer of Dance Tent on Friday night, with lighting designed and operated by Dan Robinson. His Colour Sound package included 48 x Clay Paky Sharpies, 40 x Atomics and some CP Alpha Spot 1500s.
Frightened Rabbit played a stonking set in King Tut's Wah Wah Tent on Friday with LD David McIntyre and their specials included Robe BMFLs, Pointes and LEDWash 600s, Chroma-Q ColorForce LED battens, SGM XC-5 LED strobes which featured prominently plus an assortment of generics.
Singer songwriter Tom Odell took the same slot in the same tent on Saturday, complete with lighting designed and operated by the ever-busy Johnny Gaskell who asked Colour Sound to supply his specials, which included Martin Sceptrons, Robe Pointes and LEDWash 600s, Moles, Clay Paky Stormy LED strobes and an array of ProLights AIR6PIX moving LED battens.
(Jim Evans)
