BRIT GIRL GROUP, THE SATUROAYS, CONTINUEO TO PACKA POP PUNCH ON THEIR LATEST ARENA TOUR· ALL FIRED up· WHICH PLAYEO HOSTTO AN AUOIO OEBUT ANO AL1GHTING OESIGN THAT LEO TPI ON AVINTAGE TALE ANO AFUTURISTIC JOURNEY.

Production North Ltd's Iain Whitehead has snow's physical structure was 90% buüt eno put run the successful touring company. bas ee in tcqetber in Production North ·s warehcuse. Leeds, smce 1999 with partne r, Steve tevtn . ln terms of dençn, tnere were only a few mmor Together, they've accurnutated il combined changesneeded ta the initiai set vrsuels. wnen a expertise of over 55 years in live production beek watkway initially intended ta be one levet and have carved out il niche in th e touring becarre raised in the centre.Said Whitehead- world , making sorne of ërüafn's best know n olt erceo uo belng reseo in the mrddtedue to a pop acts sound record fresh in fan-filled arenas. central entranceomo a serm-crcutar rarsed section He's currently heading up The Saturdays' UK beiow. A turntable meoen wlth ln the stage, a arena tour. hydrauhcscescr lift, nve man lifts and an eievator êeaoesthe Ali Fired Up ounrq, Production prop ln whrch the band makean eotrance at the North also caters for the X Factor /.ive tour, Ronan stan of the show was ail inccrporated toto the set Keatmç, Olly Murs, w estute.Isle Qf Wight Festival, createo in-bouse al Pr oduction North." JLS. MeFly and Girls Aloud amongst ethers Four deyswasspent ln ts-uve's reheersal Wh itehead was brought cnte this tour by Pele studios. allowlflg a day for the tcad-m follow ed tora.ne, The Sdturdays' Manager, the connecuon by the band, thelr ca-c ers and musceos for a belng toat toreee woneo at the seme record label tnree-day full reneerser run. The pre-producuon tnat GirlS Aloud was s igm~d to, and they were one time enoec on tst December. making useof the of Production Ncrtti's blggest live hus. catenng erea. (WO production ottces and en-sene Sard Whitehead: "1got askec down to London dressing rocms. ail located al the side of the ar ène. for a creative meeunç w ith management, stylist From ts- uve's en-site hire department. the pop and choreoqrapher. We went tbrcuqh vanous group rented a 60' wide by 32'deep by 6' high show roees and then molded them ta fit wlthln the rolhng bouse stage, with 16' wide by 8' deep by 6' ccosue.ms set by the bueqet." hfgh WlngSstage left and nqht. Playing to an arenaaudienceof 5,500 people Whitehead led a total tounng crew of 27 and at the Nottingham tour date tbat TPI eueocec. the ernployed an addmcnal 32 • 36 local crew for load-

S2 . TP ffaRUARYznl~ ON THE RaAD: The Saturdays

Opposite. The Saturdaysgot Ali Fired Up at NOllingham's Cap.tal FMArena; Th e girls used Sennhelser customlsed 'bling' SwarovskyG2 935wireless halldheldvocalnues.Below:The production designVias abundarn l'<'Ih colourtram start IDfinish.

ms1 ou S, WI h an adomonal SIX on the daily on the ground, the E15 IIg shrpped home ta was reduced 0 Just four by the time Il reached nggmg cali She ield-based Stardes Ltd supphed Wigwam . The rernammq dates were covered by No tinqharn's Capital FM Arena. six trucks 0 carry ail the equiprnerrt. Wigwam's d&b Audiotechru J Senes. '" wou ldn't be the first ume t've been sent Thiswas a JOInt decision made by Wigwam oui with a new product and it's been great. Il AN AUDIO DEBUT and Adamson, as there were slgns of HF fatigue. sounds fantastic wi thout much tweakinq • the Havmq already worked on previous shows wrth As the E1 5 IS currently wrapptng up the first resuhs have been irnpressr ve straight out of the Production Manager, Whitehead, FOH Engineer, phase of rnecharucal beta testing, ail part ies box," added Warren. NIC k Warren, was confident thar bemg part of agreed that there was no point in ta ing an One of the E15 systern's strenqths was hls team for The Saturdays' production wou ld unnecessa ry risk and made the move. Jesse hiqhliqhted dunng rehearsals at LS-Llve's be a rewardinq expenence. Adamson, Adamson's Director of Marketing studios in South Kirby. Yorkshire. Said Warren: A ter 12 years0 mixing FOH for Prodigy, and Sa les. commented, "We've been extremely "Normally l'II have one run through with the Warren made the leap to workinq on pop ours cauuous wrth ail field testing in Energia's PAand then Iisten through two üttte spea ers - providmg hlm wuh the slcills needed to mix Phase 1. This Phase of the release is designed on my desk for the rest 0 the day. During a whole hos of genres. He explained: ·S,nce o optimise the performance of our sys em rehearsals, he smaller speakers weren't 2008. l've malnly been domg three or four acousucally and mechantcally. In thrspar icular available,so vve had he PAon for hree ull arena pop ours a year ln the U 1 was my pop situation, vvediscovered and rmplemen ed an days The grea thmq was no matter ho lood repu auon that elped me ge he job on The acous IC unprovernen thou a ghtch We are Vouhad Il, the system didn't causeany a gue Saturdays • now nearly m'Shed Wl h Phase 1. and plan ta o he ears. and 50 you can lis n ta 1 or hours The group's stllng 0 UK arena shows unveu Phase 2 a Pro ught+Sound ln Fran'fun and not feel li e you've been stood in fron 0 a ma ed the Adamson EIS system's 'trst U at he end of arch tthou companies PA. outmq 1 a tounng band and was the perfeet Il e Wigwam and our eam of Phase 1 sera ·Wlth a 10 of ether systems, you can come oppor uru 0 oeta test the line source PA panne s, Enerqia would be a near Imposslbdity. away after an hour and no be able ta hm' Being qrven he chance tO trial the system was We are not simply repackaqmq our old hne arra straiqht. 1would deltnllely use he EI5 system anadded bonus for Warren when he joined the and calling It sornethmq new What we have aqain: 1used the otcer Adamson system ln group's tounng crew. "When 1got the cali from coming is unique, powerful and n has never France on RoxyMusIC and really liked hal tao. Iain, l'd Justflnlshed two years touring with been done." The next tour wnh RoxyMusic, we're using Bryan Ferry and Roxy MUSIC. 1saId yes straight The production news had been irnpressed Adarnson." away because it was a great chance to play with with the systern's performance and were keen ln addition 10 the E15, four d&b 0 10's were a new system and l've been involved with PA to use it on fut ure show s. According ta Warren, used for front fill spread, while four Ol's were com pany Wigwam, wh ich supplied the audio the system, which was ground driven on the pointed out sideways to projeet sound over a kit," saId Warren. tour by Lab.gruppen PLM 1000Qs, provided triangle of uncovered area. After the scheduled TPI visit on the tour'5 ail the necessary low-end for The Saturdays' Although he was touring with a completely Not Ingham date, where the objective was to tlrst arena productions - 50 much 50 that the new PA system, Warren used his trusty AVld ta~e a consensus of the first EI5 ImpressIOns tour, which had started with 12d6b 82 subs, Venue des at FOH, whlch he has become

·ru ·53 Below:""(o'd,nglO V,deoOire<:to'. 5"""1 Mer...... the '>how" a m.. 01"dance pllmped dllb b.lnge's and Iil/f pop video a(lIon"; AII Firf' d Up ma,ke

familiar wrth over the pëst four years Said the ba nc's first arena performance was listed as and a pair of AKG 414 mes were usee fo r the Warren: ·Wlt h mixing consoles, It'S like having one of w arren's hrqh po ints fro m the to ur.•He drums and 12 Radiai J4S's fo r kevs, track and a Mac or a PC. it's what you get used to using com mented : "They said it was Just t he soun d bass synt h. For two trecks , the band sang into and wbatever mekes yo ur hfe eas!e r. As rve they had w ant ed. Somenrneê th èse tou rs can be custo mised 'SOssty le Shore 55SH rnks. been wrth the console for a while now 1know qurte har d w ork, but tnere's been sueh a lovely ·We'v e useoindustry standard microphones my way arouod the deskweil and know what bunch of people on uns one and tnat's wnat throuqhout," sald Warren. "Of course u belps it should sound likë. whlch res helped when Ifs ail about l'm so glad to have been mvnlved thal the grrls can slng weil live whilst they are tnahng the new E15 system. ~ beceuse 1gol ta try a new PA and say w e were dom q dance routines and they have a great When mllung an 45 mours on the Af/ Fired the nrst people to use It in arenas in th e UK,~ band behtnd them, The girls denver the goods Up tour, Warren enJoyed the versatlhty 01 belng down the ml( and as a sound enqmeer, \hafs a ~ able to use staroaione plug-Ins along wrtn tte ENGINEERING EXCELLEN CE yeu can ask tor." Ali Access package that cornes as standard wrth uke Warren, n was MonltOI Enqmeer. Craig The Saturdays havea longstanding the oese ~In addition to the standard package, Pryoe's first tour wrtn The Seturdays and 1'115 rerauonsmp wrth Mark Saunders at Senoneser rve used piuq-ms from Wave such as the CLA expenence01wcrkmq wrth pop acts Alexandra and. as Pryde h'ghllghted, th e company tas comoressors and sorne TC aecrrcoc reveres." Burke, roe McElderry and Mika stooo hlm ln always offe red excellent support to the arusts he added. good steac for mixing mon itors fo r the band. and crew. 'Techmcally, Ifs predo mmantiy a "l'rn arso workmq w it h Wave's Voca l Rider croce of conso le wa s down to Pryde. wh o Sennheiser band " th e voca l rrucs have been voca l mlxlng pluç-in. Wh en the girls are singing, cot ee for the DiGiCo SDS due to the amoum of used for eigh t mo nth s 'lOI".' and they are very ttus suoc iocr no rmally pulls back the fader po we r it offered fo r its small tootpnnt solid producu. The rad io mi es and lEM systems to rnaka the vocal sn in the mrx For tbrs show, -n bas a high output. wtuch is what we need have ail been bnlham," setd Pryde rve turned It around the ctner way so when whën everyone ISon stereo ln-l'ars and tnere The SDS desk was nearly full on tour wrth they SlOg, u turns the fader up and then when are soenus. uncersteqe lills, tech mixes and ail The Saturdays. wrth Pryde usmq it to qenerate they're not Slnglng, il pulls It back down. ThiS manner 01 thlngs leavlng the desk. We're up 12 stereo mixes, Ihree mono mixes and seven glve5 me more t1eadroom and not as much to 30 outputs on the desk and 1can't thlnk 01 reverbs. COping Wlth fIVe vocal!sts and a large noise. nol that there's a lot of noise on stag e another console of tha t Slzetha t could do Ihe number of mixes olt once meant scenes were because all the girls are on in"ears ~ Job 50 weil: safd Pryde Important ln momtor W()(ld and olt least one BelleYlng It can make mllong al FOH more The Saturdays have always used in"ear snapshot featurE!'d ln each song "Everythlfl9 comphcalE!'d on thls type of tour, Warren mOfll\or systems" wlth custom JH Audio lO"ear about the show 15 programmed.uSlng tlmecode, opts not to work wlth '>Cenes ~Llve mlXIng IS pleces select ed lor Ail Flred Up - and the band lrom lights through to video,· explained Pryde. about throwmg fad ers about and €Very day ifs are fans al th em because lhey keep t he noise "lt's a very technically mlOded production, It's dlfferent depend ing on where you are, If 1used down on stage, Conlinued Pryde "As there are really busy tao and 1would strugg le to make ail scenes, l'd end up tn pplng myself up pretty five voca l mies up there It can get quite loud . th e changes on an analogue boa rd , The show qUickly, However, in mof1ll0r world Craig w ill but the stage is qUiet w ith m-ears and there are wouldn't fit on an analog'ue boar d anywa y" use a scene fo r l' Very song, but 1need It ta be on lya pair of d& b cn and ano ther pair of C4's StandlOg behind the Adamso n E15 system a 1IIIIe bit more free form: he explalned,~ But for slde /llis up th ere 50 dancers can keep tlme. whilst mixing monitors was a pleasant wlth flve girls to mlx. 1still have a CUl'sheet There's not ano ther speaker on the st age ." experlence for Pryde, in part due to the level telhng me who's slflglflg what WI(h a lot of pop Sennhelser mICrophones featured heavrly 01 nOise cancelialiOn olt the back_ He added songs 5Omeol'1e Will just slOg one Ilfle and you III Ali F"ed Up, wlth SIX customlsed 'bhng' "Because nothlog comes out th e back of Il. as a can't !eave flve mics UP ail the tlme. Ifs simllaf Swarovsky nooG3 wlreless handhelds wlth monitor guys. Il'S greot. Ifs very amp Iow. wlth 10 a theatre prodlJCtion where you follow lhe 935 capsules as vocal mics, one Sennh elser 901 only SIX amps a Sicledriving It aIl. The system IS show CUl' style ~ placE!'d on the kick drum, !lve e904's on the clever and neal and l'm hoplng to be us.ng It Belng congratulated by The Saturdays' toms and two e906's on gUltars Elsew here, a agam in 2012." Managel'5, Peter Lora,ne and Adam Klein, alter Shure Beta SMS2, Shure SM57, one AKG 451

S4 . 1p fi U~RY2 12 ON THE RaAD:The Saturdays

Below, P,oductHlll M~na.qH. Ia,n WMe,",~d; lrqhlm9 0"'9_. Ope'~lo' ~rtd OWIK'I' 01fl1l8Group, Neil ' fHleIi.wilh MA l i9h lil\l) ' s9f~ndMA1 ; Video O'fK tOl', SIU~ fl Me'stf,

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REFINING THE SYSTEM ampllfiers ta be controseo DVef the convenuooer ..pots olt the back on the vertical drops. which wneo Systems tecbruoan, Rob Priddle. came on tQOm dl..tance jock tbet IS on ememet cable. were Oftglnatty, spec'd as 600·... °They got tour worklng lfl a treeience capecny, he already Explalned Pflddle: °50 w.m the cctcer system, reptaced by the 300's due to budget and Jwas had grOlJnding in the WOfklng.. of the EIS from we have up ta 25 6 analogue noes al our a brt apprehenswe at 1lr..t becau..e 1dldn't think taklng part Ifl training days held al Wigwam. disposai. The fibre allows aUlhe ampliners they'd be bnght enough, but l'm happy, NOW During the sessions. representanve.. from la lalk toqeth er and then we use the Lake 1ttunk the 600's may have been 100 bnght lOf Adarnscn cove-eo Ihe theory belund the design controner olt FOH for domg any qenenc system th e sparkle 1weotec and havlng the bnghtness of the box. how ta ny rt and the compeny's control" reoocec slightly is great teceuse It'S become prediction software more effective. ~ he added "The system IS desrqned lor ail venues. tram POP THROUGH THE DECADES The main lighting on th e rig w a.. Rcbe's ..mali eeetres up ta erenas Alter the training, lighting De..qoer, Operator and owner of 25 00 wa..bes and spo ts do ing ail th e hard work. we used it on Lord of the Dance, w hich was a Che..ture-ba..ed FIX8Gro up. Neil treneu ha.. "Ih e 2500 's are grea t un it s. they're really brighl far safer envnonroent becau..e we were working beee working wnh liçht s since Il becarne a and punc hy, and th ey throw a IOrl9 way and w ith a backing treck. but th i.. was the tnst ti me hobby as a tee n and ha.. workec in profes..io nal have g reat gobas. We have a mo re rock 'n' it was testeo wlth a band o n tour ta ..ee il there light ing w ith live bands for the lasl 12 yeats. roll sty le goba for th is tour and Ihey really eut were any problems flying n," said Priddle recently putting Ed Sheeran, aoyzone, iTunes t hrough givi ng a much bigger look." "Maybe next ume we're on the reac we'n Feslival and Pixie Lait into the soo thqht. Tren ell Joining t reneü's Robe kit w ere th e Ro bin have the Adarnson trent fill ..o rt will be a was brou ght o n ta Ihe tour again by Produ cti on 300 bearns, whïch set on t he floor and made complete set-up. d&b is s1111 a great product • Manager, Whitehead, and has worked with th e ..how look wrder, allowing the roof ta the Q1's and QIO·s sound bnlsant on their own Production North lId on severe! projects over look rersed Robert rouet 4 kW ..pot.. and sorne and are a race addition ta thi ....ystem." the tast four year.., HSLsuppüed IightJng to the qenenc LED futures were eue neœ....ary 10 For the band's Nottingham show the EIS lour wlth FIXSGroup supplyTng Video control in create the vanous and diverse looks. °Each gll1 WolS on the main hang facing the audience and the form of Hippotizer V3 il media servers and has a followspot. we alsa had a stage full of 12 boxes of Adamson SpekTnx were onlhe an MA LJghting grandMA2 lite. dancers, who cannat be ignored and add ta the s'des. "These are goOO becavse they have a The lightlng design lor the Ail Fired Up SColie of the show. There is also a nil:e section 120° dispersion sa we can caver past the 180° lour comprtS€'d three distinct sections; retro where Wf! doo't use the 1011owspotta allow lor Ilne. Il we go ta venues that need caverage past '70s. 2ooo's and a fulunstlC dimension. The a more relax feel: Trenell exp~ined. ~There's the ..tage. the box allows u.. ta do that: sald Video was Vlta! ln showlng thase tranSitions, a!ways challenges wlth creatlv,ty. and people Priddle and the Iightmg design was done wlth careful can be obJectlve.~ • "The E1S has a great high frequency consideration of the video design, utllising th e for lightlng control, Tfenell used one delinltlon and It glves very even coverage extensive rang e of Robe flxtures that HSL carry of hls own MA llghling grandMA2 desks, throughoul. Ifs still ln beta testing stage and ln their Inventory. The system was based on flXSGroup have six in total. ~They're great fOf there are a couple more stag e.. ta go when three straight trusses with an extended front networking, at lS-live we had bath consoles fOf They Will mlgra le the amplifier from the floor ta truss abo ve the catwalk. There were also vert ical prog ram mlng. and 1brought in Paul Nichais ta the box, We've faund rigg ing la be very qUlck, drops in between the LED Screens tha l we used he lp progra mme as we w ere running bat h IIgh1l Yau cart pre rrg ail yo ur artgle... making It easy to great effe ct ta tle together the vlsual effects, and video from th e singl e platfarm," artd mearting orte persa n cou ld fly th e PA by Alter fou r day's at Wakefield 's LS·l ive. As The Sat urdays' last tou r was held ln themselves," Trenell and his lighllng crew w ere able ta set up th eatre venues. a circular look wlth light boxes Ta enable the lab,gruppen PLM 1000 the lightJng rig in four hours, Trenell staled: "Fo r WolS also adapted lor th is arena tour,PM amplillers ta be cantrolled. an optical unit WolS the kil, we chose Robe products because we Whitehead said: HA Schnick Schnack Systems placed at FOH. stage f1ght and stage lell. These know Ihey·re ..o r eliable,~ light box WolS brought in because It had a were Interconnected by fibre ta enable the The rig benefllted from Robe Robin 300 lot of strong cofours, Ihe girls ail have thelr ". ONTHE ROAD: The Saturdays

ow n Indrllld uai coicurs which are bold and girls and tner management have been gr eat v.bra nt. and the Schr noc 5chnack provsfes as weIl,- the LOcorcjuoec th~t light, but atsc keeps rt 100l(ing dean." rreoen eooec: 1 thinl<. the show and th e AVISION OF VIXENS structure loo ks reatly good. Ccrnpared la VIdeo Directcr. Stu art Merser, oescnbeo the amount of kit w e have on It, n looks a The Saturdays' Ali nred Up video element lot blgger tben it really is. but It'S a very l'lice as a "Great Show". W ith just tw o cameras compact show. It ceo't be tao flashy beceuse in th e pit o n 24f t of track and do lly one The Sa turdavs have gol tc be seen as the enner noe of th e tbrust an d on e long lens al mast Import ant feature and the hght ing FOH, th e challenge was mak ing Its stmphoty shouldn't detract away lrom tbet." come across as ente rt aimn q for the girl Pop through the decades may be a Simple qroup'sdiverse fan range. olt tsa very simple way of lookmq at rrenen's overan etfect. but camera -tc-videe screen set up." add ed tus abllity 10 app ly creauvity on a mooest Merser. budget for an erena tour Iightlng flVi! pop Creative Technoloqy, for whom treetaecer stars sirrwltaneoeslybas been made eaver Merser olten coaetoeres. supphed the orthe prodocuon crew as a wnote. large maJoflly of Video ecuœment and th e Trë nëll woneo dosely w lth the HSl cameras. new, Rob Starksferd , Jason Doon and Steve M erser connnuec. "t he b'ggest 'Stcoa' Russell , He commentee:"r be erew challenge was mailing sure 1had the right were qreat. we had very light turn around girl up on screen at the f1ght urne. because and it wesgreat la w or k with such a good tbere's live of them singrng but only tb ree team." cameras." The cameras scec'c fo r th e Job "T he producti on came togeth er really we re tb e Sony DX(-D55's w lth a 72 lens The weil, vee've got a really qooc crew and Sony PPU 1 SD camera sel up wa s u1ihsed team on this tour. The plannrng soe came wrth the new AV-H S 4 S0 dig ital swëch er. mtc trumon stralght away It was ail very "n's a very basic IMAG package. ICs professlona l, shcll and smcoth wtncti very dean and cree. sa there's no ettects eraolec us to get on and be creative, the but there are suu tracks thar teature ether

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Dco't just take our woro for il though, Sc an lhe OR code for exc lusive video otevews wrth sorne 01 the leadlrlg system erig lneers using LM 44 today,

TP 11RJI~Y Il · 5? 8elow:SyslemsTt(~n"i~n, RobP,iddle: Tou'ingP,odU(\lon Rlgge', t.l ~ ,k W~d e : T~ e S ~ l u, d ~1'S m~de 1 d'a mall( ewanct 10lne stage: A ( o m ~" so n of t ~ e hnisned production bf'Side the iMiai ID 'enden; DiGiCo'! S08 desk inmoMo, wo

arusts like FloRlda and [Gym rtass HefOes') For media control. Merser usee two tbere, l'VI" probabty worked on it." IravreMcCoy where we nm video content," he Hippotizer HDiTs, which were suppliee! by Nell Wade aise 'oceeo alter the rneuma t explemed The overa illook of thèse aspects in rrunneu's Fix8 Group. The VIdeo and hghllng automation ccnes required for t he show. parucularare a mixture of dance pumped club crewsverified tbet both elements of the tour For motion control, he oper atec an tbex banqers and live pop VIdeo action. The FIeld tan very smootnly Merser etetcretec. MThe programmable hon t conucüer system, which TV developed the content creation for the hve mece servers are run tc urne code which makes featured an eobanceo control panel and shows. wtuist pre-show video footage came vra my hfe eese r! Ifs ail come together w eil" Video integrated Ethemet port. The Ibex ren 24 Blink TV Enqmeer. wüns Spencer, Danny Sheldon on cbenners of rcrnputensed control in a 3U case, The screens provided by Lonoon-basec CT camera and proje ctio n duties. Rob Brewer as a and had a digltalload cell port fo r werçht featu red the nyer 18mm design. In particular, Came ra Operator and LED Tech along side Tom rneasurement wrth overtoad and uncerloac il struck a cbcrc w ith Product ion M anager, Copleston. arso an LED Tech, co mpleted th e protection teatures. n wa s used to cperate the wluteheed, w ho commentee: "lIike the Flyer Video crew. lif t, wh ich teaturedat th e beqm mnqof th e 18mm screen trom CT, w e've usee Il tetore and show, Wade rowereo the lift onto the stage t've seen how curck it go es up and how good It READYRIGGIN G for The Saturdays' initIa i appearance to the actually looks. For what we wanted. it was spot Touflng Production Rigger, M ark Wade, is The audi ence. on, Ifs the same screen type usee on thelf tast Saturdays' only road rigger who consequently Production Manager Whitehead concluded theatre tour, but we've doubled th e Quantlty for renee on local riggers at eecn new venu e - four TPi's visrt with an explanation of what keeps tus the erena venues." cJimbing, two grounded - tc secure the set production company in sucb demand on the Also present was a 10 by 4 main soeen desIgn. The truss for the Ali ftred Up ounnq pop creon. "We know tnat what marestnese wtth a total of Si~, 2 by 4 soe connws. In compns ed a cornbmanon of brands incJudlng shows and our company soccessture the people addition, two se-cc R12 Prcpectors wereusee James Thomas Englneering's A type ness. who won on them. tt's ail about the (few and m cOflJunctlon w l!h two 16 by 12 CT Fastfold Prolyte drop frames and Tomcat. the servxecomparues that we ~se . The rest of screens. The job took just 2.5 hours to qet aIl the u rsn'trocket SCience, n's very stralghtforward. Merser coououec: "The girls haVf! cancers points in. Said Wade: "ThIS ISone of the eesest The guys we use have ctten worked wlth us and a backing band, but the focus is the gIrls, show l've rigged ln lS years, but It helps when tete-e. and for tbose who baven't - certamly M people have come here to sel" thelr favouflte yeu have such good nggers. on th,s tour - we've been happy wlth what artlsls, sa If s 1I1erally about makmg sure 1 A leveling laser tS Wade's most useful tool. they've done and would 'use th em agaln. The have the right glfls at the f1ght lime on the he admltted, "But saymg that. 1dldn't haVf! on e suppllers on th,s tour mcludmg CT, HSl, Over sereen: To achieve his precise goal for optImum when 1flr st started ! It does speed things up, The Top, WI gwam & Snakatak· we've used on a audIence satisfaction in the arena environment, but kno wl edg e is key, if local riggers know the multitude of tours before." M erser app lied the lengthy process guess who. venue, it makes my Job a lm easier tao." TPi Merser explamed the show's th eatri cal eue Wad e is a po p rigging expert and has Photography by Zoe Mutter call ing between the video crew : "1 have a copy previo usly rigged fo r some of Bflt ain' s wwwproductJOnnOrlll,co,uk of every on e of the ir song s in lYriCfo rm and 1 pre m ier pop act s in the last decade, mo slly Ils/group corn worked ou t wh o was sing ing which line so t hat on Produ ct ion Nort h tou rs. Tve worked w lt h www!lx8group com now 1can make sure that we have th e cameras Boyzo ne, W estlife, Girls Aloud and the X Facto r wwwct london com ready for whoever IS comlng next." stars," said Wade If there's a bIg pop band out wwwwlgwamQcoustJCscouk

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