ELECTRIC PROMS

With a cast that included the Kaiser Chiefs with David Arnold, Bloc Party, The Kinks’ Ray Davies, Edwyn Collins, The Flaming Lips, Siouxsie Sioux, the Chemical Brothers, Editors, The Coral, Mark Ronson & Lily Allen, Sigur Rós and the ever-fab Sir Paul McCartney, the BBC’s second Electric Proms series at the Roundhouse in Camden Town was another runaway success.

Held over five days and nights in late October, and also featuring a programme of films, BBC Electric Proms once again benefitted from the crew and expertise of sound rental giant Britannia Row Productions, and an Outline Butterfly line array for the main system.

The PA consisted of 24 high/mid cabinets and eight Subtech 218s, powered by Outline’s new T9 amplifiers and controlled via Dolby Lake processors. Harman Pro UK supplied a wide range of AKG microphones for Ray Davies.

Production lighting for the acclaimed event was designed by Bryan Leitch and Nick Whitehouse of Visual Light Design, and equipment was supplied by Siyan. They were commissioned to incorporate both stage/live and TV/audience lighting into their very dynamic design.

The shows were run by Siyan’s team of programmer/operators — Ewan McRobb, Dom Smith and Stu Farrell (all designers in their own right) — along with Siyan crew chief Iestyn Thomas, who worked closely with all of the headlining artists’ LDs.
Whitehouse and Leitch chose two Avolites Diamond 4 Visions as the most flexible control option. “We use Avolites for all our major shows,” affirmed Whitehouse, who has also been touring a D4 with Justin Timberlake.

The brief for the eye-catching Electric Proms lighting rig was that it should be a highly flexible design that combined and offered the different aesthetic requirements for TV and live performance. Leitch and Whitehouse also ensured that the Roundhouse’s charisma was instantly recognisable on camera.

They flew two semi-circular trusses around the back of the stage area, attaching 12 random height ‘drop’ trusses made from 30cm trussing. These trusses contained SGM Giotto Spot 400 CMYs and Giotto Wash 400s, toned with i-Pix Satellite LED ‘bricks’. Four-lite Moles were rigged to the bottom of the drop trusses along with 2-lite Moles and VL3000 spots.

In the archways — part of the house superstructure — at the rear of stage were five trusses on motors for positional variations, with five of the new Vari*Lite VL6C spot units attached. Further back, on the house balcony rail and above, were another nine VL3000 spots and nine 2-lite Moles.

Higher still, rigged off the house catwalks, were 11 Martin MAC 2000 Washes, and hung either side were Novalight High Grounds for large, dramatic cross stage beam effects. For key lighting, they utilised VL1000s on the front truss, and ETC Source Fours hung from assorted upstage pipes.

A tight white gauze was stretched around the stage behind the arches for projection supplied by XL Video. The idea was that the orchestra sitting behind this were concealed when not playing, and revealed by the projections and subtle lighting when in action.

For audience lighting, the designers specified 12 MAC 2000s on the balcony rails of the high house catwalks, plus SGM Giotto Spot 400 CMYs and SGM Palco LED Wash lights rigged under the balcony rail. They also used the house MAC 2000 spots plus assorted house generic lights. Special fixtures were added as requested by the different headliners each night.

All of these fixtures were controlled from the two D4 Visions running via ArtNet. Everything over the stage was controlled by one console, while the house and key lights were run off the other. Siyan also supplied six Avolites ART 2000 dimmers for the project and four follow spots.