ADLIB is supplying lighting, sound equipment and crew to the current UK tour by Welsh rockers Lostprophets.
Lighting
The lighting design was a collaboration between ADLIB's Ian Tomlinson and freelance LD Rob Lister (also the tour's production manager), with active input from Lostprophets lead singer Ian Watkins, who always has a myriad of ideas and concepts to add to the mix.
Watkins specifically wanted a moody, edgy feel to the lighting and a complete departure from their previous 'rock' style light shows, so there is no front truss, and much of the set is darkly lit. The only front lighting directly on the 6 band members is supplied by 3 pairs of individual PAR36 DWEs which are mounted on custom mic stands, about 30 cm off the floor. These were picked for their low intensity and because they emit an understated warm glow that creates nice shadows and movement across the backdrop.
All 24 of the moving lights in the rig are Martin Professional MAC 301 LED moving wash lights, which have an incredibly shallow profile, weigh just 9Kgs and can be squeezed into a myriad of small gaps and spaces. There are 10 MAC 301s on the back truss, 6 on two downstage booms - 3 a side - for low level cross stage lighting as well as blasting into the audience, 4 along the downstage edge of the wedge line and 4 on the set risers.
These are part of a batch of new MAC 301s that ADLIB has just purchased, and have been an immediate hit with Lister. They are incredibly bright, offering a very "tasty" 13 - 36 degree zoom, and their light weight means that their back truss - built from Thomas Stacker truss and also containing 3 linear 4-lite Moles - complete with motors and rigging - weighs a mere 250 Kgs!
They are using Light Tape to produce two glowing phosphorescent strips of blue and red along the bottom rail of the back truss and another one along the front of the risers.
Lister is using a WholeHog 3 console to run the show. This was chosen by Ian Tomlinson, and is the first time that Lister has used one on tour, which is proving a good experience. He has been working for the band for 6 months and is really enjoying working their wide dynamic range of music as well as experiencing the ADLIB treatment which he describes as "First class" from both a production manager and an LD's viewpoint.
He explains that Watkins wanted a pseudo Bladerunner feel to the show, and designed the backdrop to reflect this, incorporating lighting and visual ideas to accompany the theme.
Sound
The sound department is being looked after by ADLIB's Hassane Es Siahi (FOH) and Paul Roberts (monitors) working closely with the band's two engineers, Alan "Doof" McCann (FOH) and Dave Belis (monitors).
It's a Nexo Alpha system, spec'd by Doof as an ideal PA for the theatre/town hall type of venues on the itinerary. The left and right stacks go up to a maximum of 11 x M3 mid high boxes per side, and a total of 22 B1 bass cabinets giving a serious rock 'n' roll look and a sonic attitude to suit! There are also 12 Nexo Alpha S2 subs a side ground stacked, and a row of ADLIB A122s for infill.
This is all time aligned and EQ'd with a Lake system, which is also used to create a number of zones so different areas of the PA can easily be turned up or down to suit the room and the space. The crossovers are Nexo NX242, and it's powered with Camco Tecton amps for the mid highs and Crown VZ5000s for the bass and subs.
The FOH desk is a Soundcraft Vi6, chosen by Doof because it had intuitive and easy-to-use touch screens and methodology. He's taking full advantage of all the onboard effects and facilities, and there's also plenty of headroom to accommodate the 2 opening acts. A fibre multi is used to connect to stage.
ADLIB is supplying another Vi6 for monitors, with a total of 14 d&b m2 wedges, 5 of which are used for the supports, all driven by D12 amps. The side fills are an L-Acoustics ARCs box and an SB28 sub each side. However these are all for the vibe, atmospherics and air movement only - as the entire Lostprophets band uses IEMs.
Seven mixes of Sennheiser IEMs (the bands own) go to the desk plus an additional channel for listening.
Keith O'Neill the band's Tour Manager has worked with ADLIB on several tours, "They are a joy to work with - we all make a great team, and everything is running extremely smoothly".