Liverpool based ADLIB kicked off the 2011 music festival season in style - supplying sound systems to three stages and lighting to Radio One's Big Weekend at Carlisle Airport in Cumbria.
It was the fifth consecutive year that ADLIB has supplied equipment and crew to the event, and their team was headed by James Neale on site and co-ordinated by Dave Jones in the office.
The stages were In New Music We Trust (stage 2), unashamedly rocked on Saturday night by headliners the Swedish House Mafia, ahead of their upcoming tour for which ADLIB is also providing sound; and stage 4, The BBC Introducing Stage which showcased some of the hottest new talent.
INMWT
ADLIB's new CODA Audio system made its Big Weekend debut and filled the large tented space with high quality sound, configured as two flown left and right main hangs each comprising 10 x CODA LA12 speakers, together with 16 x LA8s for front fills and 16 ground stacked SC-8 sensor controlled subs for a precise bottom end.
The consoles were a Soundcraft Vi6 at FOH and a Yamaha PM5D onstage. Monitors were 16 x d&b M2s with d&b Q-SUBS for the drums, plus 4 x L-Acoustics ARCS and 4 x SB28s a side for the side fills.
Saturday night headliners The Strokes required their own consoles, for which ADLIB supplied another PM5D for monitors and an Avid Profile for FOH, complete with a Pro Tools record system.
Walter Jaquiss looked after all the FOH elements & visiting engineers, with Otto Kroymann on monitors and Michael Flaherty & James Neale taking care of the stage. They worked closely with Sennheiser on this stage, who supplied a G3 in-ear monitor system for general use plus a selection of E935 hand held mics, with on site support from Sennheiser UK's Mark Saunders and his team.
BBC Introducing
ADLIB supplied both sound and lights for this busy arena. The audio system was a ground stacked Nexo Alpha rig sonically designed and engineered similar to the one that proved so successful last year.
To save space and for added convenience, both FOH and monitors were mixed from one console, an Avid SC48, positioned at FOH. Its 48 channels offered plenty of scope to accommodate an exciting and eclectic line up that included Friends Electric, Aaron Delahunty, Rizzle Kicks, MyElectrik, MOPP and many others.
Eight ADLIB MP3 low profile wedges and an ADLIB drum fill made up the monitors, and for both this stage and INMWT, ADLIB also supplied a DJ set up for between-band sounds, consisting of two Pioneer CDJs and a mixer.
The Introducing sound crew were Alan Harrison and Jay Smith.
A lighting rig was designed by ADLIB's award winning LD Ian Tomlinson and looked after on site by Andy Rowe, this neatly fitted to the shape and size of the stage, with 4 upright sections of pre-rigged truss along the back of the stage, each loaded with 2 bars of 6 PARs, and additional bars of 6 vertically mounted on downstage boom bases for front lighting.
On the sides of each of the pre-rigged sections were 2 x Martin Professional MAC 350 moving lights, with another 8 distributed on the floor, together with 4 bars of ACLs upstage. All of this was programmed and operated by Rowe on an Avolites Pearl Expert.
Opinions Count
The final area in which ADLIB was involved was the Opinions Stage, which featured a compact audio system of 2 x ADLIB AA122 speakers on stands, 4 x MP3 wedges and a Yamaha LS9 console, plus Shure Beta 58 hand held mics. Highlights here included an acoustic set by Ellie Goulding , also one of ADLIB's regular artists - following her main stage appearance on Saturday.
ADLIB's AV department supplied 3 x 50 inch plasma screens for this area, which relayed action from the main stage and other camera mixes from around site. This aspect was looked after by Carlos Herreros and Chris O'Neil.
Says ADLIB Director Dave Jones, "It was a great pleasure to be involved in the Big Weekend again. Having worked on the event for the last several years, we know which technology will work best for the different spaces, their individual needs, and have a well practised operation which again ran like clockwork".
For more press info. on ADLIB, please contact Louise Stickland on +44 (0)1865 202679 or +44 (0)7831 329888, or Email ‘[email protected]', Contact ADLIB direct on +44 (0)151 486 2214 or check www.adlibsolutions.co.uk