UK – Adlib supplied full production – sound, lighting, video and rigging – plus crew for the recent UK tour by maverick US duo Daryl Hall and John Oates, whose impressive string of top 40 hits stretch back to the 1970s! It’s the first time that Adlib has supplied all technical disciplines for a Daryl Hall & John Oates tour.
More details from Adlib (https://www.adlib.co.uk/):
After the UK tour, an Adlib control package and video servers went on to the Latin American leg of the tour, and then returned to Europe with the addition of a full audio package for the third segment and euro festival run.
Immediately after the UK shows, Daryl Hall & John Oates headed to Latin America, for which Adlib supplied selected kit, including a World 110v transformer specially designed by their head of sound Ian Nelson. Ian shared his extensive knowledge and experience of the challenges and idiosyncrasies of touring in Latin America with the Daryl Hall & John Oates team.
Craig commented that they all enjoyed working with production manager Jesper Luth and his crew who were all-round great people and receptive to their suggestions and feedback.
Whilst in Scotland, Jesper and a small group of the crew fully embraced the local culture and are now aficionados in Scottish Whiskey and the Highlands after a hiking trip to Loch Lomond!
Lighting & Video
The original production design for the tour was by Paul “Arlo” Guthrie. Jesper did the retrofit for Europe which was directed and operated on the road by Chris Lose, who liaised with Adlib’s Dave Eldridge on how to replicate the rig they had been using in the US.
It was based on a large block of LED video screen upstage and then a pros arch – two legs and a border – of LED downstage of that, altogether totalling 150 square metres of Unilumin UPADIII H05 driven by NovaStar MCTRL 4K processing.
Sub-hung trussing pods were rigged with Martin MAC Aura LED washes and Claypaky Mythos over the stage, more Mythos on side torms with some MAC Viper Profiles to fill in the gaps.
A curved front truss featured more MAC Viper Profiles, Aura XBs and Mythos and on the top rail, an eye-catching arc of 11 Portman P1s.
Adlib custom built more side torms – to the same dimensions as their American rig – to house 15 x ColorDash PAR-Hex 12s which were flown downstage left and right. These were also built into touring cases so the individual LED PARs could stay on the frames.
MAC Viper Performances on the advanced truss were specified for key lighting and to fill in any gaps over the stage.
A grandMA3 full size was used for lighting control, and Chris utilised Adlib’s programming suite during the prep while the rest of the crew made the most of the excellent prep area in the company’s new warehouse / office facility in Knowsley, Merseyside.
The biggest lighting challenge, recalls Dave, was recreating the exact shape of the design and building it around the two sets of video screens: “It was a team effort with lighting, rigging and video working together to ensure that all the elements and trusses matched up perfectly.”
Kevin Byatt was the touring lighting crew chief on the road, working alongside technicians Andy Rowe and Dave McCulloch who were joined by tour rigger Jon Barlow.
Adlib supplied a fully integrated touring video system – based on the touring packages originally supplied by Nashville, USA based Moo TV. In addition to the aforementioned onstage LED screens, this included two 16 x 9 AV Stumpfl projection surfaces for the IMAG mix, fed by Panasonic RZ 21K projectors.
At the heart of the system was a Ross Video Carbonite Ultra 2ME switcher flypack and 4 x Sony HDC4300 cameras fitted with Canon UJ90, CJ45 and CJ20 lenses. There was also a range of Marshall Mini POV cameras which were dotted around the stage and clipped to instruments and other vantage points. The band’s live camera director was Jesse Byrd.
A Green Hippo Karst+ media server dealt with all the playback content which was supplied by Daryl Hall & John Oates’ production team.
Adlib’s video crew were Mark Taylor and Rob Bickerstaff who tech’d the LED, racks engineer Rob Fender and projectionist Ade Moore. The video was co-ordinated from the office by Rich Rowley.
