CPL Supplies Gear for Overkill Stage at the Glade Festival

Central Presentations Ltd (CPL), West Midlands and Bristol, UK-based AV rental specialist coordinated and supplied a full technical production package encompassing video, lighting, and sound for the Overkill stage at the 2011 Glade Festival.

The completely sold out two-day event returned to the summer festival calendar in a new location, the beautiful environs of Houghton Hall near Kings Lynn, Norfolk.

Overkill at Glade 2011 was project-managed for CPL by Nick Diacre from the Bristol office. It is the second year that CPL has supplied the complete stage production package to Overkill and the fifth year that Diacre has been involved. This year's lineup included performances from Eskimo, African Hitech, The DJ Producer, Ed Rush, MachineDrum, Jacky Murda, 2 Bad Mice and many others.

The venue was a 65.5' dome from Gaia Nova, which was a challenging space in which to work in from a technical angle, with everything having to be rigged and fitted in a specific order. However, having one company responsible for supplying all the production elements made this hugely easier in terms of interdepartmental communication and flow in the course of providing a coherent and harmonious result.

Diacre comments, "It was a real imaginative collaboration aimed at producing a fabulous overall production design involving some great teamwork".

The idea was to make the space as dynamic as possible to support a wide range of different artists and styles over the two days, for which a fully flexible system was needed Diacre and CPL collaborated with Lumacoustics to produce the eye-catching visual environment.

Forty-eight panels of Barco MiTrix were installed upstage center stage in columns. This was using Resolume software and fed with custom content created specially for the event stored on Lumacoustics' own media servers. Some of the content was audio-reactive, so an input from the sound desk was also fed directly into the video servers, which were programmed by Tom Hogan.

CPL supplied three Sanyo 15K projectors which beamed footage onto a set of three bespoke printed scrims stage left, right, and center.

The center-stage scrim was rigged in front of the MiTrix columns, creating two different overlaid surfaces offering completely different and atmospheric properties that could be run in varying configurations during daylight and after dark.

During the day, the MiTrix provided an intensely bright surface and was a great visual effect, and then as soon as dusk fell, the projections onto the scrims started, completely changing the feel and ambience of the space. The two surfaces could also be run in unison which created some very unique looks.

The central scrim was over-painted with a 24' x 14.5' three-color (black, white, and red) image of a screaming ape's head. Video footage was precisely mapped -- also using the Lumacoustics software -- and fitted exactly to the white bits, producing some truly funky and zany 3D effects.

The side screens were also treated. They were warped and masked via the Lumacoustics software to give them the appearance of being a pair of retro CRT TV sets, complete with bulbous curves. The footage streamed onto them came complete with pockets of grainy jittering.

Artists pitching up with their own visual shows, and content were also hooked into the CPL system. This was treated and distorted similarly, then output to the side screens, again lining up perfectly with the curves and projected in the same style. This enabled their standard footage to take on new dynamics and a completely different look and feel for their Overkill shows.

Analog Way PLS-200 switchers were used to mix between the various video and audio sources and inputs.

Lighting was designed by James Bunning, with fixtures rigged off 6.5' x 29.5' trusses that were installed by the CPL team.

The moving lights were a mix of Martin Professional MAC 700 Profiles, MAC 250 Washes and MAC 250 Entours, joined by a bunch of Atomic strobes, four-lite Moles and PixelPARs, which were utilized for general stage washing and around-the-tent illuminations.

All of this was operated by Bunning using an Avolites Pearl 2008 console.

CPL brought Dirt Sound from Bristol onboard to apply the right sonic magic to the space. They used a Void Acoustics PA, the main arrays comprising 12 Stasys Prime mid-top cabinets -- six a side -- and 12 ground-stacked Psycho Subs, all powered by Lab.gruppen and Powersoft amps, with XTA processing.

The system was zoned and focused for accurate and precise directional control of the imaging and coloration, and so that different areas could be adjusted quickly and easily to contain and control the noise if needed.

The shows were all mixed via a Midas Venice console by Bryan McLean and Tom Tucker.

CPL's crew of 10 plus Diacre worked one long and full-on 12 hour shift to complete the entire technical installation.