The crew - which peaked at 24 technicians, programmers and operators - was led by dbn's Pete Robinson, and they started their various get-ins across the site on the Wednesday. There were a few logistical curved balls thrown into the mix for good measure, including a Friday night concert by the Courteeners which was slotted in by promoters SJM on Stage 4. While dbn were not lighting this, the licensing restricted access to other areas which therefore had to be ready ahead of time.
The main stage this year was up-scaled to a 24m Space roof from Serious three weeks before the event to accommodate the two headliners - Disclosure and Rudimental.
As both artists were bringing in substantial lighting and video packages, dbn's 'house' lighting design was kept straightforward and based around accommodating this. Disclosure's requirement was also that the entire house rig be gridded out so their complete show could be rigged 'underneath'.
dbn installed three straight trusses which could be flown out into the roof for Disclosure, and then back in again to provide lighting for the rest of the two day line-up. These were accompanied by drapes, masking and a full cable management system, all designed to make the process, safe, smooth, sensible and streamlined.
For moving lights 12 of dbn's new Clay Paky Mythos took centre stage - having been delivered just in time. Joining them were four CP Super Sharpies, 16 x Robe Pointes, 16 x Sharpy Washes and 12 brand new Stormy LED strobes from CP, plus the usual array of festival must haves like 2, 4 and 8 lite blinders and Atomic strobes.
As soon as Disclosure's set finished on Saturday, dbn and the Rudimental advance crew rigged as much as possible of their production, including three circular trusses and an upstage projection screen, with two projectors hung on the front truss which was also clad with a scenic London railway bridge covered in graffiti art and CCTV cams. The scenic elements all arrived from the new Wild Life sister festival in Brighton at 7 a.m. Sunday morning, so it was a gruelling session for all involved. Rudimental also used the house rig as part of their show.
dbn added their own daytime floor package for certain artists comprising 12 x ColorForce 72 LED battens horizontally rigged on upright trussing sections, together with six Patten 2013s.
The house lighting console was a Pearl Expert Pro with Touch Wing.
Stage 2 featured a primarily DJ line-up, headlined by Fatboy Slim. dbn built a four legged ground support system cantilevered out from the stage at the front which provided all the lighting positions and rigging points for the two main PA hangs. The design was inspired by Fatboy Slim's lighting scheme, and the moving lights comprised another 8 x Mythos, four CP Alpha 1200 HPEs, 16 x Sharpies and 16 x Alpha Wash 575s.
Stage 3's set-up included 16 x Alpha Spot QWOs, 16 x Alpha Wash 700s, 12 x A.leda K10s fitted with B-eye lenses, 20 active Showtec Sunstrips, 8 x Atomics and 28 x Showtec Spectral Zoom PARs.
On Stage 5, a ground supported circular truss was rigged in the middle to provide front lighting positions, together with a straight truss hung in each of the three stage mouths, plus a selection of loose fixtures made available for the stage. The kit included 16 x CP Alpha HPE 300s, 8 x Alpha Beam 300s, 8 x Alpha Wash 300s - all picked for their compact sizes, along with 12 Atomics, and 10 x 5 way Chroma-Q db4 battens rigged vertically across the back of the stage for general eye candy. A new Avolites Quartz controlled everything operated by Paul Crompton.
For Stage 6, a custom Serious Stages structure was erected in front of Heaton Park's famous Colonnade (once part of the
