Viva Elvis! Part 2: Sound & Light, Fit For A King

Viva Elvis is sound designer Jonathan Deans’ 13th show for Cirque du Soleil and from the outset he was clear about the direction given by Gilles Ste-Croix.

    “Cirque didn’t want to recreate anything they have done before,” said Deans. “They wanted to create something new and special for Elvis and for Las Vegas, drawing on the energy of Elvis’s live shows performed here.

    “We were to do a concert performance with Elvis’s voice and with live musicians, which is very different for Cirque and it’s the closest to a rock’n’roll show that Cirque has done in Vegas. It’s a concert performance with more up-to-date versions of the Elvis classics.

    “The big difference in musical terms between Love and this show is that Love is all playback — a recreation of The Beatles’ music that gives the audience a feeling of being in the studio or even inside the band’s imagination — while Viva Elvis is a presentation of Elvis’s music with Cirque allowing the musicians to perform a present day take on it.

    “On Love and KÀ we put speakers in the seats but we didn’t need to repeat that here — we have a great performance system using the traditional Cirque-style surround sound but very beefed up, so we have a full PA around the audience which we move around when it’s appropriate for the focus of the performance of the acrobats, dancers and musicians.

    “If you close your eyes during the show you should have a completely unique experience, not just louder because it’s in a bigger room, but in the way it’s mixed and the soundscaping surround. The environment that the body is sitting in should be — and is — totally unique for the theatre.

    “Anyone can buy a loudspeaker or a microphone or hire acrobats, but it’s the style and the way you present it. This is about the way the music sounds through the system that I designed and knowing what I want — it is a very personal thing of how I feel about sound and how it affects me emotionally.

    “I translate that from everything that our music arrangers Erich van Tourneau and Hugo Bombardier do into hardware to make it special for the audience. Erich and Hugo take the masters, lock themselves up in their studios and do their stuff which they then bring to me to listen to, I do my mix version of what they’ve given us, I put the band in, and the arrangers come back in again to make final adjustments based on different points of view.

    “Erich has created a different and brilliant presentation of that music which has been blessed by the Elvis estate and everyone involved. He’s made me go and revisit all of Elvis’s songs again, just to gain a greater appreciation of the man.

    “It’s Elvis’s voice singing but with a complete re-arrangement of the song you thought you knew, and he has done everything. The show goes from ’70s rock (‘Burning Love’) to contemporary rock, to a tango (‘It’s Now Or Never’), and every song has a different flavour.

    “On the one hand it’s been really exciting translating this into surround sound but also a total nightmare because these guys are crazy!”
   
THE REALITIES OF DESIGN
Deans emphasised the difficulty of what the musicians have to do: “They are amazing musicians and the direction requires them to enter in one place and then be in another, going from one set of instruments to another — it’s all live and so phenomenal.

    “For example, ‘Got A Lot’ is a big acrobatic number so the band are off-stage playing off-stage as they walk downstairs into the basement so they can come up an elevator to do the next number on-stage. You can put a design on paper but then there’s the reality of doing it... enter this extraordinary sound crew who make this happen!

    “Kevin Owens, our head of department, is mixing the show live and Jason Rauhoff, my associate sound designer, is doing the programming. There’s a huge monitor system and we have Dave Robertson working in a room on stage level at the back because the wealth of scenery means there’s no place for him on-stage.

    “We have Whitney Day looking after the ton of RF that’s in the show. Ezra Fowler and Jason Bauer are on either side of the stage looking after RF mics, handing them to artists, swapping guitars and saxophones.

    “Due to all the set changes, the band has to be in multiple locations so we have four sets of both drums and percussion, but with the same player jumping from one kit to another and we cross patch. These guys are running!”

    The most unique thing for this theatre is the Optocore Fibre Optic Audio Transport System which provides 504 inputs into an optic ring that the crew can output anywhere in the theatre.

    Optocore used the system on the Beijing Olympics, but it was in multiple rings — Viva Elvis is the largest single ring fibre optic network it has ever created.

    Deans was clear about its importance: “Under the time and financial constrictions we wouldn’t have been able to do this show with copper. We wouldn’t have had the infrastructure to allow the ideas to grow and change — we started off with one drum kit and one set of percussion, now we have four of each, and this is just over the last two months!”

    Assistant head of sound Aaron Beck has been working in the theatre since August 2008 when there were no walls. As sound project manager, it was his task to ensure that the concept, design and drawings were put into place correctly by the contractors and builders.

    He concurred with Deans: “Without the fibre, the logistics of four different drum sets would have been a real challenge. On our ring we have 504 audio inputs and 776 outputs. It’s completely flexible, all software patched, so once an input makes it into the ring you can output it anywhere on the ring so, for example, once the kick drum makes it into Optocore you can output it to FOH, monitors and recording all at the same time, so it becomes the split system.

    “We also have the ability to take the main show file and open a playback file because we have the ability to record 128 inputs at once on a computer and then we can switch the file and play back all of those inputs real time and basically have a virtual soundcheck.

    “With LCS and optical we’re seriously pushing the limits of these systems. So it’s fun and somewhat challenging and frustrating at times to be on the edge of the technology really pushing these companies!  Jonathan Deans is always pushing the edge of technology — ‘The Bleeding Edge’, as he calls it!”
   
SYSTEM CHOICE
The audio installation company for Viva Elvis is Canadian operation, Solotech, while the three main equipment brands in use are Meyer Sound, Sennheiser and Optocore.

    Deans said of his favoured loudspeaker brand: “I like Meyer Sound for many reasons — one is that when you take it out of the box and hang it, you know exactly how it’s going to sound and their quality control is amazing.

    “We don’t know how a room is going to sound when we’ve just built
it, so I’m not going to throw something into a room when I don’t know how it sounds with performers. There has to be the track we can put our train on to get us going, and that’s what Meyer Sound give us.”

    Aaron Beck described the system: “This is the first fully digital show that Jonathan has ever done. Both the FOH and monitor consoles are Meyer Sound LCS LX300s; each consists of 11 frames and everything is AES/EBU fully digital in and out, right across the board into the LX300s.

    “Both FOH and monitors each have four fader packs, three meter packs and one transport pack for control. FOH has 24 channels of Wild Tracks playback and two TC 6000 reverbs.

    “Monitors have eight TC Electronic M1 XL reverbs. There are four engines for vocals and four for orchestra at FOH and any time there’s a live vocalist we use reverb. Dave Robertson on monitors uses four of his eight for vocalists and then the other four bounce to certain band inputs. I did a rough count and we are using around 25 Mac and PC computers in our department alone, just running the audio side.”

    The speaker system consists of 179 Meyer cabinets plus Danley sub-woofers — main L/R subs: eight Meyer Sound 700HPs; main centre subs: eight Meyer Sound M3Ds; bunker subs (below concrete slab): 20 Danley Sound TH-115s. The Danley subs were buried in the floor, covered with concrete and then carpeted on top to create a resonant feel of the room.

    Deans said: “The acoustician Jaffe Holden has done such an amazing job that when the audience come into the theatre it’s minimal change. What will be the change is how much they get involved in the show with regard to how much you can elevate the sound.

    “It’s going to change the sound of the buried speakers in the floor because they’re all going to be sitting on top of it and we haven’t had that experience before, but I believe it’s going to become more of a feeling rather than a sound.”

    The main PA consists of 48 Mica speakers, each hung in wraps of 12 — two in the centre and one each left and right of proscenium. The front fills are nine Meyer M1-SM at the front, and two UPJs and four M’elodies at the sides.

    Then there are all the surrounds: eight MSL-4s, eight UPQ1-Ps and 10 UPJs on the sides, plus 14 M1-SMs, six M’elodies, six UPJ-1Ps, and a further 11 UPJ-1Ps distributed between the back wall, the orchestra, the balcony and its shelf.

    Additionally there are overhead surrounds: five MTS-4As at front, five CQ-1s at centre and five UPJ-1Ps at the rear of the theatre. Stage monitor speakers consist of 10 M1-SMs and two CQ2s. All the speakers are on an RMS loudspeaker monitoring system.
   
CABLE NETWORK
The sound department also delivers the production video requirements — all the cameras that allow stage management and automation operators to see what’s happening — and to do this they have created their own in-house 26-channel cable TV network, explained Aaron Beck.

    “All the cameras are in areas which have been requested by different departments to see different things,” he said. “We have one in the basement looking at the scissor lift to allow the automation guys to make sure it’s parked in a spot that’s not going to get crushed (which did happen once). We monitor this on a daily basis, but the departments using them rely on them for cueing as well.

    “SVC [Sound Video Communications] are the areas we are responsible for and we work in conjunction with our consultant, Matt Ezold at Auerback Pollock Friedlander.”

    Further communication within the theatre is aided by a high-spec Dynacord Proannounce paging system which uses an Electro-Voice Netmax N8000 digital matrix as its ‘nerve centre’.

    The band use 11 different guitars, two upright acoustic basses and two electric basses, plus horns, saxes, and the four different sets of drums and percussion. “They have 92 microphones for drums and percussion alone,” smiled Beck.

    In choosing the ‘microphony’, Deans went for Neumann (32 KM140s and six TLM-170s), Sennheiser (24 MKH 40s) and Audio-Technica (12 4040s and 12 4041s), plus 12 DPA 4099 horn, sax and guitar mics, and six DPA 4066 headsets for the singers. There are five Audix DP-7 drum microphone kits and various other Shure, AKG and Radial microphones, and DIs.

    The wireless system has close to 125 frequencies, 40 channels of wireless mics (Sennheiser EM 3732 UHF receivers), 30 channels of IEMs for both the artists and band (SR350 IEM G2s with EK300 IEMG receivers) and 40 channels of wireless intercom — all overseen by wireless tech, Whitney Day.

LIGHTING
This production is LD Marc Brickman’s first collaboration with Cirque and for him and his long-time programmer Mark ‘Sparky’ Risk it was interesting settling into the lengthy process that characterises the creation of a Cirque show — a major contrast to rock production rehearsals.

    As Brickman pointed out: “You have to leave your baggage at the door and just jump in. This is a very all-encompassing and ambitious project and it’s been a really long process, a lot of it long-distance before I moved here. All I know is that my daughter, who was four months old, is now wearing shoes and I think by the time we’re finished she might be driving!

    “I’ve never sat in a city for four months and come to work day-to-day like this before so that’s been really different. For me there are a lot of really big players at the table and a lot of other things going on in the show so the lighting just waits until the very end — patience is probably one of the things I have learned.

    “This show was a challenge to understand. For me, designing a show is like playing a guitar — I show up, I have my rig and then I go ahead and start playing, so here I used larger instruments and did things a little differently than I normally do.

    “There were a lot of limitations for me: the overall scale of theatre meant that all the distances were great in terms of being able to get light into places, plus the physical size of the sets and the way the lifts worked created restrictions. The trim height was also very high which affected things — I’m using Syncrolites as front lights which is just crazy. Nobody does that!

    “I’m told we now bear the mantle of being the largest moving light show in Vegas, but that’s not the way I work so I don’t really pay attention. However, I do know that to make that rig work there’s a lot going on especially with the automation cues — there are so many people in all these other departments involved to make the lighting work it’s like building the pyramids. My crew keep me pretty much shielded from all that stuff, otherwise I’d probably lose my mind!”

    ‘Sparky’ Risk shared his perspective: “A huge amount of this show is dance more than acrobatics at the moment so it’s quite a different vibe from what you’d traditionally expect from the Cirque. For parts of it we can light it more like a rock show and part of it not so much, so we have to try and strike a balance.

    “There are so many things going on in this show with all of the automation that the whole configuration of the rig effectively changes with almost every song, so from that point of view it’s also quite different. Also the mechanics of getting things into position on-stage is quite a bit slower than in rock’n’roll with a lot more departments involved, so consequently it takes much longer to set up a look before you can light it.

    “We deliberately went for very bright lighting instruments because the space is so vast that you need the punch. The people at the back are a long way from the stage so if you haven’t got the power there it’s going to be a very alienating experience.”

    Brickman gave his overview: “The system I designed is one that I could turn on a dime, so that when everything goes upside down, which it typically does in productions, I would not stop the forward progress of the rest of the show.

    “I designed the rig to be like a sports car — for it to drive really fast, be able to manoeuvre and be able to stop when it has to. It does all those things and the rest of it becomes a function of that. If you get that right then you can pretty much light anything, because you just don’t turn stuff on.

    “The emotional side of the story is not reflected in the lighting, it’s reflected in the music, dance and sets — if anybody has the least to do with Viva Elvis it’s probably me.

    “I saw Elvis back in the ’70s; he had 12 follow spots and they had a six-pack of Coca-Cola for the crew so he didn’t really have lighting back then as such. It’s not like I’m trying to emulate anything, if anything I’m trying to illuminate and translate everyone else’s extraordinary creativity here, colour it and make it pretty. I’m the icing on the cake.”

    Head of lighting, Janine Pettus has the most Cirque experience amongst the lighting team and was one of the first into the building as lighting project manager.

    “I worked on the construction side to get the installation done and make sure that the building was working. I then looked at the plot and made sure that everything got purchased,” she said. “Making the decisions made it very easy for me — I don’t have to argue with myself!

    “Lighting acrobatics is a very particular two-sided thing: you have to bring an ability to light the acrobats and maintain a safe, comfortable environment for them to work in, but you still want to make it dynamic. You want the lighting designer to be getting the look he wants and also for the acrobatic department to know that the people doing the tricks are able to perform in that light.”
   
CONTROL
The main console running the show is a grandMA plus another as back-up, said Pettus. “We are also running an MA Lite for SFX and another that runs relays, power, work lights and runlights in the building. There is also an MA Replay to run the house lights and the lobby — it’s quite a large system, mainly run from the catwalk’s FOH control booth.

    “There’s a lot of networking so having the four desks has been perfect because they are all linked and all the show files are backed up on a server.

    “Our system is basically ETC-driven Ethernet. We have 12 ETC Sensor dimmer racks that are all talking to each other in different dimmer rooms on a different floor to Ethernet and back to each other. Jim Holliday from PRG put the system in for us and it’s the ETC-Net with Crestron that’s controlling all of our house lights.”

    The rig is predominantly moving lights supplied by PRG. There are four straight trusses above the stage, two are on winches for high-speed movement and two of them are on Cyberhoists which are slightly slower — but soon to be changed to winches.

    They are currently beta-testing the new Vari*Lite 3500 Wash FX units of which there are 110 on the show: the rear truss alone carries 30. The other three trusses right above the stage each have five Syncrolite MX3s plus eight VL3500 Wash FXs and there is also a truss further downstage with 13 VL3500 spots.

    There are six more VL3500 Wash FXs on each of the ladder trusses on the sides — known as TORMs from the old theatre term derived from the bright side wash light tormenting performers — which Risk pointed out is excellent for dance because it sculpts the body much more than a top or front light would.

    In the house there are 10 Syncrolites for lighting the stage, and four box booms — each of which have five VL3000 spots — in traditional theatre lighting positions in the side walls of the auditorium. There are six follow spots, four in the spot gantry and two in the lighting booth to get better angles on certain numbers.

    For special effects there is one 85kW T-Light strobe and 15 Quasar strobes both made by the Hungarian company, Solaris. In one sequence, Tokistar Tapelight, an architectural product resembling rope light, is hung from the ceiling and the star cloth used in another sequence is  Rosebrand’s classic ShowLED.

    Advanced Entertainment Services Las Vegas is supplying all the pyro and fire effects, and in the case of the lassos for the Western sequence, real fire is used: the lassos are dipped in fuel and lit.

    Pettus added: “We’re getting ready to put in Pixeline 1044s in the pods and some more strobes because we like them so much. Normally we don’t use strobes in Cirque shows because of the danger for acrobats, so we have been having some issues getting everybody comfortable with them — knowing where it’s going to happen helps too.”

    Solotech supplied the smoke machines which Risk was enthusiastic about: “We’ve got six MDG hazers and the 5000 Max smoke machines that Marc and I use all the time. They’re great, the best smoke machines in the world because of the quality and the volume of the smoke. The Max gets smoke in really quickly so you’re not having to feed it in during something that’s inappropriate, and in a theatre this size it dissipates fairly easily.”

    Viva Elvis finally premièred on Friday 19 February. A blue, not red, carpet affair — in tribute to the star’s suede shoes — it was naturally attended by Elvis’ daughter Lisa Marie and widow Priscilla, as well as the great and the good of the American entertainment industry.

    The reviews were largely ecstatic, immediately justifying the show’s US$100 million production investment.

    Writing for Time magazine, Richard Corliss commented: “No tribute show can touch this one in its level of sophistication and its power of evocation. Luxe, energy, sexual threat and primal rock’n’roll are back in fashion on the Aria stage, where Cirque is throwing its most joyous party ever.”

    Elvis may have died at his Graceland home on August 16 1977, but for the thousands who will pour into the Aria over the coming months, the King is still very much in the building.
TPi