Page 221 - Protec PR Book Volume 2

Commented Protec senior audio engineer, Dan Dignan, who was supported by Ed Ross and William Morrison: “The Sensation guys were great to work with, particularly Niels from [Sensation’s] NoizBoyz audio production team. He took care of the desk whilst I took care of the system. The guys from Backbone were also great, Tom and Roden especially. The benefit of a good team was an amazing production.”
Protec lighting department in the shape of Aaron Russ, the company’s lighting HOD and Paul Coopes, provided a mixture of their front line Robe, Martin and Claypaky fixtures. This included 45 Robe Pointe fixtures mounted on the triangular backdrop set, both on stage left and stage right screens, and also on the main triangle for the main stage. Inside the scaffold structure was a combination of 37 Claypaky K10 B-Eyes and seven Claypaky K20s, which were positioned in various parts of the scaffolding structure for uplighting effects, giving the scaffold a funky industrial look.
A further 28 Martin Atomic strobes were positioned on the floor, the walkways where the dancers were performing and within the set itself. Another 50 Par36 single par pinspots were mounted onto the structure as well as onto the bars above the Robe Pointe fixtures to create a tremendous blinding effect, while along the front edges of the stage 28 Claypaky show battens lit up the dancers.
All were brought to life by a combination of Le Maître and MDG hazers with all lighting dynamics under the control of three grandMA full-size consoles at FOH, (including spare), and two grandMA NPUs.
Popular SGM low-profile LED fixtures were also involved in the shape of P5’s for the VIP decks and Q7s to light up the bars.
For the front of the DJ riser, Protec chose 16 Jarag lights, all DMX controllable, so they could be programmed to have words flashing through. This provided an extra dimension to what was already a really well-lit set.
At FOH Protec also placed Claypaky Scenius Unico fixtures – little spots that served as various lighting positions for the dancers. Finally, for the entrance, Protec featured
12 Claypaky Super Sharpys to create a welcoming effect, controlled from a ChamSys MagicQ MQ60 desk.
Under the direction of Scott Walker Protec’s video HOD, the company deployed three screens on stage; on stage left and stage right they used 6mm Mambo LED panels
(13 panels wide by seven panels high, ten metres by five-and-a-half metres high) in a triangular shape. For the main screen they used 9mm panels (21 panels wide by 11 panels high, 16 metres by eight-and-a-half metres high) also in triangular shape. These were controlled from NovaStar VX4S processors, fed from the media servers of the Sensation production team.
Three Panasonic remote cameras were focused on the DJs, which could be controlled from a single remote at FOH, and were vision mixed through a Roland V1200HD. Signals were run from FOH to the LED control backstage via Protec’s Lightware 220pro fibre transmitters and receivers and three 150m Neutrik fibre cables. Lightware MX DVI-PRO matrices were used at FOH and backstage to control the signal routing and switch between main and backup signals. The live footage was mixed to the screens and overlaid with content provided by Sensation, operated by the touring LD.
Because of the triangular shapes of the screens Protec was unable to hang the screen from truss so instead had to ground stack which, because of the size of the screen, presented them with rigging challenges which were all overcome easily enough. All panels had to be safely secured to a scaffolding structure at the rear of the screens. Rigging was managed by the technical team from Sensation. All external runs were rigged using Protec’s Total Fabrications XO truss system. The black XO truss took
care of the external runs of the set to form the straight runs, so they could also attach the lighting poles and the set panels. On the larger triangle this had to be craned
up because the Protec team pre-rigged the entire truss structure with all the cables which was then set in place and locked off.
For the main rig the smaller triangles were set flush against the layered scaffold but for the outer triangle it was in at the bottom but hung out at the top for which they used their Tomcat Superbeam truss which enabled it to be attached throughout the structure and provide really strong points which they used as their spreaders.
For backline, Protec provided its industry standard Pioneer DJ equipment, including Pioneer DJM 900 Nexus, Pioneer DJM 2000 Nexus and eight CDJ 2000 Nexus; this allowed them to have two complete DJ set-ups plus spare.
Summing up the event, Simon Travis said that the unique race-track venue had presented its own challenges. “There were a lot of horses which we had to watch out for in terms of noise levels. We also had restricted time slots where we could carry out the work. The noise was very strictly controlled as they didn’t want to freak out the horses but they did move them off site for the show day.”
The event itself had been fantastic, he said. “This was due to the combined efforts of Envie Events, Backbone International who were hired by Envie Events to help coordinate the technical production, the Sensation crew and Protec. We worked together as a great team to ensure we could get everything built and the show delivered to the plan that had been designed.”
Commenting on the production and working together with Protec, Envie Events said: “Protec has extended experience in AV technology in the region and that it’s very pleasant to work with professionals of the industry on projects like Sensation and Tomorrowland, which the two companies recently worked on together as well. The Protec team always has a solution ready for every obstacle during build up and thinks along with the promoter to satisfy the needs of the customer and the overall show experience. Working together with Protec is an easy job since they have all knowledge and equipment to make them the perfect partner for the technical production for Sensation any many other shows.”
They added: “Dubai is one of the world’s greatest cities in terms of tourism traffic including entertainment, lifestyle, shopping, nightlife, fashion, music. This has not only been the main reason why we started operations here, but also why we think the future is so much more bright with this market expanding exponentially sue to its immense potential to attract the foreign and global population throughout the year. As for the venue, Meydan, it brings its challenges but having experienced partners really makes the difference. From the account manager to the stagehands on the floor and everyone in between, they all are very professional and always try to work towards the best solution.” Travis responded on the challenges: “We thrive on these challenges and it’s always good to be able to come up with innovative and creative solutions. What resulted was
a fantastic show for an audience with great energy.”
Nicolas Vandenabeele, director of Envie Events concluded: “It’s been an absolute roller-coaster with Sensation this year. I loved the sky-rocketing energy and innovations that were in the show, and all of it would not have been possible without the support of all our partners.”