Text:/ Tim Stackpool
Time was when a music awards presentation consisted of a couple of double four-way stacks, 200 par cans, six smoke machines, a dozen off-air monitors, an assortment of dazed and ‘emotional’ musicians, and a few confetti bombs. Not so today.
The 2008 MTV Australia Awards presentation demonstrates just how far the humble awards ceremony has come. The reincarnated Eveleigh Locomotive Workshop (at the Australian Technology Park in Sydney) played host to a score of music stars and their screaming fans, as well as a symphony of world-class lighting, sound and visual technologies. A few camels were thrown into the opening number for good measure. Bytecraft Entertainment and Cairellie Showcraft joined with Media Server Programmer and Operator Alex Saad and the audio team from Norwest to deliver a production that makes for compelling youth television as well as popular fodder for fans on the web.
PERFECT VISION
While the nature and array of the luminaires, display devices and concert audio systems used on the gig is frighteningly extensive, they needed to be. “The vision control alone existed on various levels, with the Martin LC LED walls controlled completely by the HES Catalyst media server and were treated as individual sections of 1024 x 768 video per panel,” explains Stephen Knight from Cairellie. “We addressed them in an XY coordinate system from top left. Very easy. Initially we used 24 LC2140 panels, but the producers added another four mid-way through rehearsals, making a total of 28 panels.”
For video distribution to the LC panels Cairellie ran a DVI feed from the primary media server to a distribution amplifier (DA) then fed via fibre to other DAs in the roof on either side of the stage, for distribution to the panels. Although the LCs are equipped with a DVI loop-thru port, to minimise signal degradation, no more than four panels were looped on any run.
Included in the vision rig were two Thomas PixelArt screens located either side of the main stage. These were also fed with a split of the DVI from the Catalyst server. A VideoMapper interface was programmed to allocate the DVI video image to the 24 PixelArt battens, each being six pixels high by 72 wide. This was fed from the VideoMapper to the battens using regular Cat5 cable. The Catalyst server that generated the DVI signal was controlled by a Hog 3 console and dual DP2000 DMX processors.
“There was a second Catalyst server that was feeding 180 pixel-mapped Pro Shop LED tubes under the stage,” adds Knight. “The second Catalyst was outputting its DMX via Art-Net, initially feeding an ELC ethernet switch at front of house where two streams (main and redundant) of Art-Net were fed to the stage. There they were distributed via another ELC switch to feed three eight-way nodes converting the Art-Net to DMX.” This Catalyst was also controlled by the Hog 3.
Overhead, installed in the roof, another 180 Pro Shop LED tubes were controlled via a grandMA console with three Network Signal Processors and an Art-Net node. There were also 18 Thomas PixelLine1044s incorporated into the stage set which were controlled by Bytecraft’s Hog II. In all, there were 39 universes of DMX512 used to control the video components of the production.
General venue projection was provided by three Barco 6000 ANSI lumen RLM R6+ Performer HD projectors. The video signal was SDI, but because the plasma screens wouldn’t accept SDI it was converted to component video by a Folsom Image Pro scaler.
Additionally, Bytecraft supplied an LED screen above the awards area. A Cairellie fibre fed DVI to that screen from yet another Folsom Image Pro with content originating from a Green Hippo Hippotizer V3 media server (along with a back-up), both driven from a grandMA Lite via Art-Net.
Beyond the actual operation of the array of technology in use, Knight was pleased with the rigging and customisation required for the event: “I was happy with the presentation of the end product. All the rigging was neat and tidy,” he said. “We had to make some funky brackets out of Design Quintessence product to suspend the L-shaped LC panels, but nothing stopped working.”
ACCEPTANCE SPEECHES
Cairellie’s Stephen Knight sees future opportunities for Cairellie working with Bytecraft’s hardware knowledge and complementary control systems. “On this event Bytecraft were the lighting company but as a vision supplier Cairellie used lighting control equipment to run the vision (apart from the LED display controlled on DMX). However, the pixel-mapped LED, the LC content and event graphics over the awards area were all controlled via lighting consoles. So I guess the gap between the two is being narrowed with each production. I’d say we worked in well with Bytecraft on integrating the technology and general operation.”
For Alex Saad, his praise for the success of the show goes to those responsible for the interconnect, saying: “All the initial design was done by Production Designer Julio Himede, James Klein, MTV’s Technical Production Manager, and with Stephen Knight, they did all the planning and the implementations. They made it work, I just operated it!” Knight shares the love, saying: “Alex is a great guy. We had not used Catalyst in the past as we predominantly use Hippotizer and ArKaos. He was great to work with and he made our gear look great.”
Saad believes the greatest challenge for the event was in the initial planning, with Knight firstly having to source all the vision gear required to meet the performance specification, and then to determine a system to make it click. After that Saad was occupied with both the live event and its posterity. “I always bear in mind that the event is for TV, and that the product will be viewed on both TV and the internet for a long time to come,” he said, adding, “With one comes the other. If you make it look great live, it will be more dramatic on TV.”
ROUND SOUND
The nature of the TV production also delivered challenges for the audio folks at Norwest Productions. The old rail sheds are heritage listed and acoustically hostile, with large slabs of concrete making up the structure. Norwest’s Ian Shapcott and Ewan McDonald were principally concerned with a PA design that also took into account the staging of the show in the round.
Within Norwest’s design, four clusters of six Adamson Y10 line array cabinets were flown and configured as left/right arrays across the longest throw (north to south). Along the western side (a substantially shorter throw), two other clusters were suspended, consisting of four Adamson Y10s, this time underhung with two Adamson Spektrix. The staging on the eastern side had a ramp heading to the presentation area, where the team rigged two arrays of EAW KF650s to complete the fill. For subsonics, a total of 12 Adamson T21s were ground-stacked two high around the stage, rounding out the sound.
For the broadcast audio, Norwest deployed a completely separate speech system from east to west within the rig. The four main arrays for this purpose each consisted of four of their newly-acquired EAW NTL720 powered baby line array modules. Delays and infills for the system were managed via RCF ART 322i boxes. Ten of these were also used in the foyer area, along with a pair of EAW SB1000z subs. Similarly, for the red carpet, a third system also used RCF ART 322i units providing PA to the public stands.
Norwest’s inventory of L & K multi-pinned stage boxes and multicore cables were also extensively utilised with eight bands performing on separate ‘roll-in’ stages during the broadcast. The mobile staging comprised some 21 Megadeck rolling risers provided by Edwin Shirley Staging.
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES
From lighting supplier Bytecraft’s perspective, the job rates as one of the best in the country. According to Production Manager Paul Rigby: “it’s ultimately rewarding, as the results are always fantastic, plus [LD] Tom Kenny is a real pleasure to work with.”
Bytecraft’s inventory for the gig included 200 moving lights, comprising a mix of Martin MAC2000s and Atomic strobes, VariLite VL3000s, VL3500s and VL2500s and High End StudioBeam and Showgun fixtures. Color Kinetics LED (ColorBlaze 48s and 72s and ColorBlast 12s) were also supplied, along with a respectable catalogue of Pars, Source 4s, Molefays and other conventional fixtures plus eight followspots. A grandMA console controlled the moving lights, while a Hog II handled the VIP area, all LED and conventional fixtures. The Bytecraft hire register was rounded off with 30 panels of Lighthouse R6 LED screen to make the 9.6m x 0.96m rolling text ticker in the presentation area.
The 2008 Awards were reworked from the previous year, being a shorter but more intense show. It remains one of Australia’s most respected made-for-TV live music events. But as with all spectacular annual presentations, the challenge that remains after the de-rig is not the packing, storing and testing of the gear upon return, but more so the vision, ideas and creative inspiration required for next year’s broadcast. Rock on.
EQUIPMENT LIST
BYTECRAFT
VariLite:
42 x VL3000 Profile
18 x VL3500 Wash
12 x VL2500 Profile
Martin
32 x Mac 2000 Profile
56 x Mac 2000 Wash
46 x Atomic Strobe
High End Systems
12 x Studio Beam
10 x Showgun
ETC
24 x Source 4 Profile
80 x Source 4 par
168 x Par 64 cans
72 x Par 56 cans
2 x Robert Juliat Aramis followspots
6 x Lycian Starklite followspots
53 x 1 tonne chain motors
80 x 2.4m (8ft) box truss
1 x 9m circular truss
1 x 3.5m circular truss
NORWEST PRODUCTIONS
FOH System:
Speaker Cabinets
32 x Adamson Y10
8 x Adamson T21 subs
8 x Adamson SpekTrix
2 x Adamson SpekTrix W
4 x EAW JF260e
20 x RCF 322A
4 x EAW KF850
2 x EAW SB850 sub bass
Mixing Consoles:
Yamaha O1V96
Digico D5
Midas Venice
Yamaha PM1D
Mackie CFX20
Monitor System:
24 x Nexo PS15
In-Ear Monitor Systems:
5 x Sennheiser G2 receiver/transmitters
Signal Distribution:
8 x XTA DS-800 active mic split
5 x Optocore X-6 16-channel input frame
4 x Optocore Tactical Fibre Reel
6 x Optocore DD-32 64-channel
AES/EBU interface
1 x Optocore DD-32E Digital I/O Unit
CAIRELLIE
6 x Barco RLM R6+ projector
2 x Sony FX51 projector
28 x Martin LC2140 panel
361 x Pro Shop LED Tubes
10 x Thomas PixelLine 1044
24 x Thomas Pixel Art
10 x 42-inch Sony LCD
4 x Sony 50-inch plasma
2 x Folsom Image Pro
7 x ELC Art-Net Node 8
3 x ELC switch 8
4 x grandMA NSP nodes
2 x grandMA consoles
2 x Green Hippo Hippotizer V3
2 x HES Catalyst V4
4 x Jands DD6-2 DMX splitter
22 x ½ tonne chain motors
Lots x Gefen DVI Fibre DAs
RESPONSES