The Festival drew some top names with 2003 headliners including Radiohead, Yes, Bonnie Raitt, Jethro Tull, Cypress Hill, Morcheeba, Craig David, Herbert Gronemeyer, Stereophonics, George Benson and The Pretenders - plus just about every musical genre you might care to mention.
The production elements of this ambitious schedule were managed by technical co-ordinator Andre Vouilloz, while audio aspects were in the hands of Patrick Vogelsang, MD of Meyer's Swiss distributor Niveau2 and the festival's technical director for audio. The lighting and set design elements were directed by Laurent Zumofen, assisted by Patrick Boeufve, Cedric Muller and Laurent Jaussi - all from the nearby Vevey-based Scenetec.
Scenetec's 17 technicians and operators and 32-strong crew installed and operated the lighting and plasma screens and also provided the trussing for various exhibition stands, as well as for the performance stages.
For the flagship Stravinski Hall, Scenetec's brief was to design a system that would work satisfactorily with the broad spread of artists and musical styles on offer. "It was not an easy mission," said Laurent Zumofen. "We had to find an attractive solution that could provide a variety of lighting scenes appropriate for anything from small jazz combos to full-blown rock 'n' roll gigs. As a centrepiece, we decided to use LED ChromaPanels from Pulsar, hanging 40 units in the air to create a backdrop. They were fantastic and very bright, but occasionally too bright for TV. Between these LED panels we installed three projection screens on to which we projected different types of media through the Catalyst Media Server which, in turn, was controlled by a Hog 1000." The LCD projection, sponsored by Sony Switzerland, came from three Sony PX40 LCD video projectors capable of outputting 3500 lumens.
The conventional lighting for the Stravinski comprised 172 dimmer channels and 62 moving heads (Martin MAC 2000 Washes and Spots, SGM Giotto 400W spots and eight Vari*Lite VL2202 spot luminaires) whilst in the smaller adjacent Miles Davis Hall, Scenetec supplied 120 conventional dimmer channels and 54 moving heads.Part of what makes the Festival a success is the fact that it works closely with a number of partner companies. The pro audio and musical instrument 'technical partners' for this year's festival were Dr W A Günther (currently celebrating 70 years in business), Ecler, Gibson, Hug Musique, Meyer Sound, Shure Inc, Soundcraft, Stanton, Steinway and Yamaha.
All of these worked closely on the event: for Soundcraft this was the second year of involvement and careful planning by local distributor - Roland Bricchi of Dr W A Günther, and audio production companies Hyperson and Dispatch - ensured that the right desks, with the correct channel configurations, were in place to provide the maximum flexibility/controllability for sound engineers working across the Festival's eclectic programme.In total, Soundcraft supplied 17 desks, with 48+4 input and 40+4 input Series Fives occupying the main mix positions respectively in the Auditorium Stravinski and Miles Davis Hall. Other than when acts - such as Bonnie Raitt - carried their own production, these were in use throughout the Festival.
Patrick Vogelsang noted: "As with every rental company we like to run with the best products in the market and to a great extent that is driven by the sound engineers rather than us. They like Soundcrafts, for example, because of their accessibility. We have also been associated with Meyer since 1988 and are impressed with the ne
