Entec provided lighting, rigging, sound equipment, and crew, plus site and local co-ordination services for shows at Le Zenith in Paris and Indigo at the O2 Arena in London, and arranged pyrotechnics, video, trucking and buses.
L'Arc-en-Ciel, formed in 1991, have sold over 13m albums and 16m singles and are completing a monumental world tour celebrating 20 years at the very top of Japanese pop / rock.
Entec's project manager Noreen O'Riordan received the call from the band's production director Richard Ames. His relationship with the company dates back many years, and Entec handled full production and co-ordination for him on two massive X-Japan shows last year.
As well as supplying sound, lighting and rigging directly, O'Riordan co-ordinated video requirements via Bluman Associates and special effects from MANIC, trucking by Fly By Night and buses from Phoenix.
She comments, "It is always an interesting challenge to co-ordinate a project with decision makers spanning several continents and time differences adding to the logistics of the confirmation processes. It was my first time working under the direction of (New York based) production manager Tom Hudak, which I enjoyed immensely.
"Both venues were incredibly helpful and the support given to us by Allen Spriggs for the London show and Pascal Larre for co-ordinating Paris was superb."
Entec's Ryan Brown crew chiefed the lighting element of the production and dealt with the various challenges of fitting L'Arc-en-Ciel's complex stadium spec'd lighting rig into the Zenith, for which they were sent a plot by LD Yasumasa Yuasa.
The starting point was an overhead mother grid constructed from 30 cm Thomas Supertruss which provided the main overhead lighting positions.
The moving lights were 50 GLP Impression XLs (the super-sized version of GLP's LED wash light with 240 LEDs), plus 20 x Vari*Lite VL3000 Spots.
These were joined by a large array of PAR cans. Twenty-four bars of 6 PARs were wrapped around the back of the stage for a full-on 'wall of death' effect, and in front of these was a 6m high by 20m wide Stealth video screen - supplied by Bluman Associates.
The front truss featured more PARs and a scattering of 8-lites for audience blinding.
There were 22 x 4-lite Moles with scrollers, 10 in the air and 12 on the deck, plus 12 Atomic strobes and 12 Martin Professional MAC 700 Profiles on the floor.
Entec's Ed Hammond took care of sound at Le Zenith, with a large d&b racks-and-stacks system, into which L'Arc-en-Ciel hooked their own control and monitor system, featuring an Avid Profile console for FOH and a Yamaha PM5D onstage.
The system was controlled with Dolby Lake processing and driven by d&b D12 amplifiers.
For the Indigo show, Entec's sound division supplied the same premium grade service although the kit list - at one wedge and three transformers - was slightly reduced, as the band rocked with the house JBL VerTec system.
Richard Ames says, "Noreen again was fantastic with attention to detail, great co-ordination and communication, keeping everyone in the loop and continually updated."
(Jim Evans)
