One of the first things Madden did was drop in to VDC's premises in North London. He reports, "I'd worked with VDC before on a few smaller projects and had a strong feeling they would be the right choice, based on the technical expertise, manufacturing quality and ability to work to very short deadlines. But I just wanted to drop in for a chat and see their facilities for myself, before even talking about the We Will Rock You project. When I left a couple of hours later I was certain."
As it turned out the audio infrastructure was relatively straightforward, even though it was more complex than the average touring rig. Dug Guthrie, VDC technical director, said, "The brief in terms of audio was for power and signal distribution cabling for a Meyer self-powered PA system. That was complicated slightly by a large number of balcony-fills, hotspots and other auditorium in-fills. In essence, our role in that area was to make recommendations in terms of specific cables, assemblies and connectors. The team at Sonalyst did the rest."
The ground control infrastructure, which encompassed comms, CCTV, cues and prompting for a complex show, was a far bigger challenge given the timescales. Guthrie said, "Time was tight, so the overall technical plan was worked out during a two hour briefing session with the Sonalyst team. Between us we decided on a system based on Van Damme AVI series 5 x miniature video and 4 x balanced audio multi-core cable, along with Van Damme VDM 25 pole connectors. This would allow multiple CCTV images along with dedicated Comms, cues and prompting audio lines to be sent around the theatre using only one cable."
The final ground control system, built for Sonalyst by VDC, included 55 1U XLR/BNC loaded panels, custom panels and breakout stageboxes, 35 VDM 25 multicore looms and breakout tail sets, 100 XLR comms and cue leads, and 100 BNC leads. The whole solution, based on Van Damme and VDC products, was built, tested and delivered, along with nine Kramer VM-1010 Video Distribution Amplifiers, in just four weeks.
"That ability to deliver quality so quickly and based on unrivalled technical know-how just blew me away. I doubt you'd find better advice anywhere in the world." said Madden. "This equipment will play a vital role in delivering one of the slickest, most complex live shows I've ever been involved with, and will do so across 14 months and 14 different venues."
(Jim Evans)
