Central Presentations Ltd (CPL), West Midlands and Bristol, UK, based AV rental specialist co-ordinated and supplied a full technical production package encompassing video, lighting & sound for the Overkill stage at the 2011 Glade Festival.
The completely sold out 2-day event returned to the summer festival calendar with great style, flair, excitement, colour, energy and lots of love .... in a new location, the beautiful environs of Houghton Hall near Kings Lynn, Norfolk.
Overkill at Glade 2011 was project managed for CPL by Nick Diacre from the Bristol office. It is the second year that CPL has supplied the complete stage production package to Overkill and the fifth year that Diacre has been involved in ensuring that the visuals are as creative and cutting edge as the music .... which this year included performances from Eskimo, African Hitech, The DJ Producer, Ed Rush, MachineDrum, Jacky Murda, 2 Bad Mice and many others.
The venue was a 20 metre dome from Gaia Nova, which was a challenging space in which to work in from a technical angle, with everything having to be rigged and fitted in a specific order. However having one company responsible for supplying all the production elements made this hugely easier in terms of interdepartmental communication and flow in the course of providing a coherent and harmonious result.
Says Diacre, "It was a real imaginative collaboration aimed at producing a fabulous overall production design involving some great teamwork".
Video
The idea was to make the space as dynamic as possible to support a wide range of different artists and styles over the 2 days, for which they needed a fully flexible system.
Diacre and CPL collaborated with Lumacoustics to produce the stunning and eye-catching visual environment.
Forty-eight panels of Barco MiTrix were installed upstage centre stage in columns. This was using Resolume software and fed with custom content created specially for the event stored on Lumacoustics' bespoke media servers. Some of the content was audio-reactive, so an input from the sound desk was also fed directly into the video servers, which were programmed by Tom Hogan.
CPL supplied three Sanyo 15K projectors which beamed footage onto a set of three bespoke printed scrims stage left, right and centre.
The centre-stage scrim was rigged in front of the MiTrix columns, creating two different overlaid surfaces offering completely different and atmospheric properties that could be run in varying configurations during daylight and after dark.
In the day the MiTrix provided an intensely bright surface and was a great visual effect, and then as soon as dusk fell, the projections onto the scrims started, completely changing the feel and ambience of the space. The two surfaces could also be run in unison which created some very unique looks.
The central scrim was over-painted with a 7.5 x 4.5 metre 3-colour (black, white & red) image of a screaming ape's head. Video footage was precisely mapped - also using the Lumacoustics software - and fitted exactly to the white bits, producing some truly funky and zany 3D effects.
The side screens were also treated. They were warped and masked via the Lumacoustics software to give them the appearance of being a pair of retro CRT TV sets, complete with bulbous curves. The footage streamed onto them came complete with pockets of grainy jittering.
Artists pitching up with their own visual shows and content were also hooked into the CPL system. This was treated and distorted similarly, then output to the side screens, again lining up perfectly with the 'curves' and projected in the same style. This enabled their standard footage to take on new dynamics and a completely different look and feel for their Overkill shows.
Analog Way PLS-200 switchers were used to mix between the various video and audio sources and inputs.
Lighting
This was designed by James Bunning, with fixtures rigged off 2 x 9 metre trusses that were installed by the CPL team.
The moving lights were a mix of Martin Professional MAC 700 Profiles, MAC 250 Washes and MAC 250 Entours, joined by a bunch of Atomic strobes, 4-lite Moles and PixelPARs, which were utilised for general stage washing and around-the-tent illuminations.
All of this was operated by Bunning using an Avolites Pearl 2008 console.
Sound
CPL brought Dirt Sound from Bristol onboard to apply the right sonic magic to the space. They used a powerful but carefully balanced Void PA, the main arrays comprising 12 x Stasys Prime mid-top cabinets - 6 a side - and 12 ground stacked Psycho Subs, all powered by Labgruppen and Powersoft amps, with XTA processing.
The system was zoned and focussed for accurate and precise directional control of the imaging and colouration, and so that different areas could be adjusted quickly and easily to contain and control the noise if needed.
The shows were all mixed via a Midas Venice console by Bryan McLean and Tom Tucker.
CPL's crew of 10 plus Diacre worked one long and full-on 12 hour shift to complete the entire technical installation.
All enjoyed the imaginative freedom and camaraderie that came with Overkill and helping to bring a weekend of great vibes and music alive in what's been a massively successful reestablishment of one of the UK's best loved boutique festivals.
For more press info on CPL, please contact Louise Stickland on +44 7831 329888 or +44 1865 202679 or [email protected]. To Contact CPL direct, please call +44 1926 484609 or check www.cplav.com