Page 70 - Protec PR Book Volume 2

The scenic design was conceptualized by Protec and the build of the venue and staging areas involved specialists road surfacing and scaffolding companies that were sub-contracted by Protec. The performers that only consisted of local military personnel had to be trained to act and were given specific direction for every move made, in order for the show
to be exciting, fast paced yet safe. Coordination was the key between all these drivers and performers. A clear and precise planning method with all the relevant documents that included structural drawings, artist impressions, evacuation plans, contingency plans, build and rehearsal schedules, pre-filming, military training, etc., all contributed to a smooth and efficient venue build and the actual show itself which was watched by thousands of international dignitaries, media, schools and colleges, members of royal families of the UAE, including the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and the Ruler of Dubai.
To deliver this show, Protec was commissioned to use the outdoor car park of the ADNEC Exhibition Centre to build
a temporary staging venue with an area of 250m x 60m. Another 100m on either side of the staging area was used as backstage areas for the performers and vehicles, including all the required plant, ablution units, pathways, holding areas, production offices, etc.
Protec’s founder and CEO – Stephen Lakin, was in charge of building the entire scenic set, staging area terrain as well
as the props, landscaping and paint finishing. “Under the temporary venue that Protec built, were the exhibition center’s utilities and drainage systems which had to be protected from the weight of the military vehicles some of which weighed in excess of 60 tons. Therefore it had to be built up to 1m above the existing surface, graded up with sand, road base and tarmac/asphalt”, said Lakin. In total over 6500 tons of sand, roadbase and tarmac was used to build up the bespoke designed surface to suit the show and creative delivery. Protec also built a temporary 65m long x 30m wide x 1m high ‘lake’ which held 2 million litres of water on which jet boats and a submarine were run to get involved in the action.
Lakin adds, “We built the artificial lake directly on the car park tarmac upon which heavy duty water proof protective liners were laid out to hold the water in. We placed concrete blocks along the edges to contain the water and liners and we finished it off with props, artificial greenery and landscaping that was laid out on the banks of the water feature.
We added working waterfalls that we built into the mountain set along with artificial greenery to complete the scenic visual.”
Protec’s staging department led by its HOD – Matthew Lakin, built temporary wooden structures with a high standard
of artistic paint finishing to resemble aged village houses, electric pylons, a mountain military outpost with a rotating radar antenna were added. A 100m long railway track that was shipped from the UK was assembled and put together on site which was then complimented by a ‘railway station’ and a working train that was built out of timber and metal frames and run using a jeep to power the train on. Protec then built a submarine that was powered with a custom designed motor pulley system. The submarine was built with steel frames and timber and had room for 6 crew in it, as well as
a working hatch for the crew to emerge out of it on the lake during the show to join the action.
A complete asphalt road network with road markings, road signs, artificial greenery, road humps finished off with a rock face artistic paint finish were added as obstacle challenges for the vehicles, each capable of taking up to 110 tons completed the vehicle and personnel performance area.
The mountains themselves were built out of base scaffold structures with carpet fascia that was painted to resemble rocky and moss/grass covered mountains and finished off with artificial greenery and landscaping. The mountains also had to be strong enough to withstand powerful pyro explosions at various heights, soldiers’ abseiling, zip lining and a lot of personnel movement. Over 400 tonnes of ballast was used to secure the structures which worked well with the high and dangerous wind speeds experienced especially during the build-up.
Two 16m x 9m LED screens were built into the upstage mountain structures with access to work behind them. “The venue we built looked as realistic as possible with high attention to details in order to look good even without any action on stage in case visitors stepped out for a view or a break from the actual exhibition,” added Lakin.
Protec also provided the complete AV and audio requirements for the show. The audio package included 40 x L-acoustics K2 in blocks of 4 ground stacked with L-acoustics SB28 subs positioned between each set of two K2 stacks. Protec’s head of Audio – Ed Ross explained, “We ran a dual redundant fibre network using Digico racks running digital outs and Optocore Sane units running analogue outputs to the LA8 amplifiers, this complemented our use of the SD10 mixing desk with SD-RE redundant engine which meant we could lose kit or connections anywhere in the network and not lose audio or control at all.” Ross continued, “For communications we used a Clearcom matrix and a selection of control panels, helix net belt backs and Motorola digital radios, these were integrated with Riedel RiFace units for seamless communication across platforms. The stage management were very much mobile across the entire site around large metal structures and tanks in a high noise environment so using digital radios with isolated headsets was the perfect solution for making sure there were no signal dropouts and every cue would be heard. The sound effects and music
all came from Mac laptops running qlab and dante straight into the Digico SD-rack.”