Radio 1 had stepped up its One Big Sunday events from last summer to include two entirely different production platforms. In the 10,000-capacity Kayam theatre tent, Jevons’ crew was ready to break down the projected Saturday night ‘in-the-round’ 3D dance production format overnight and replace it with a conventional stage (and three-plane video backdrop) for a rock concert on Sunday - until rain forced the cancellation of the Saturday show at short notice.
The principal design tools were 36 of Screenco’s 25mm LED modules, measuring 1220mm x 813mm. Electric Fly had intended to hang these in portrait format, from three concentric lighting trusses for the dance event, along with Jevons’ purpose-designed graphics. But despite the disappointment of the cancellation, the Sunday show went ahead as planned, showcasing The White Stripes, Stereophonics, Badly Drawn Boy, The Coral, Feeder and Aqualung.
"All the band graphics were triggered from a G4 laptop," explained Jevons. "The content was created in Director, which allowed us to manipulate and control the computer graphics in real-time."
Electric Fly also shot the video footage on a Mini DV. This was looped and played back on a Sony DV-1000 and mixed on a Panasonic MX-50, while separate cameras, from Black Pig, relayed the live action onto the screens either side of the set.
For the conventional rock concert stage, the set comprised a three-plane video backdrop, with lighting playing a more prominent role. Supplied by Bandit Lites, the lighting rig consisted mostly of Martin Professional MAC moving yoke fixtures (16 MAC 500s, 23 MAC 600s and 18 MAC 2000s) along with 20 Atomic 3k strobes. Bandit also supplied pre-wired Par 64 lighting bars for the generics. A 72-way and two 36-way Avolites digital dimming racks were employed, with overall lighting control from an Avolites Diamond 2.
Electric Fly Productions used Martin’s MSD modeller software programme to create the rig geometrics and optimum beam positions, and Nick reported that the rendered drawings originally presented to Radio One were precisely how the rig was realized.
Audio supplier Skan was contracted by Dave McCalmont at Radio One, through production manager Neil McDonald, to provide the sound solution for the event.
The audio system was required to provide optimum coverage throughout the entire 12-pole Kayam large tent structure. This brief was complicated by the requirement of a traditional stage for the live bands day and a stage in-the-round for the DJ day. Despite the cancellation of the latter event, Skan successfully achieved its brief for both days by using a carefully focused line array system - an Adamson Y10 line array system with Funktion One Festival subs. In-fills were a mixture of Turbosound Floodlight and TQ-440SPs, with Turbosound TFM-450 monitors and flown Floodlight 21" subs for side fills. All amps were Lab Gruppen with all processing by XTA. By varying the position and type of infill boxes, Skan was able to effectively control the audio across the different arenas for the two shows.
Skan supplied a single line system for the Stereophonics with a Midas XL4 as front-of-house console and an InnovaSon Grand Live on monitors. A further line system consisting of a Heritage 2000 and Heritage 3000 were employed for the six other acts, including Feeder and the White Stripes.
The FOH system was operated by Scott Essen and Ade Barnard, with Rob Hodkinson and Simon Higgs as monitor engineers. Systems and patch were handled by Ant Carr, Peter Whitelaw
