LONDON – Summit Steel recently completed one of its busiest phases at The O2 arena in London, where the Kent-based company provides the venue's in-house rigging services. The schedule included a 12-night residency by Bon Jovi and shows by Leona Lewis, Aerosmith, Rod Stewart, George Benson & Marti Pellow and Al Green & Michael McDonald.
The dates for Leona Lewis's four shows and Aerosmith's one performance, all dotted within Bon Jovi's run, made for some challenging logistics. Leona's show entailed four separate ins and outs – three of them either side of Bon Jovi's – with Aerosmith slotted right in the middle.
Summit project manager Simon Frost and administrator Kate Parsons dealt with the challenge with a big-picture view of the three main shows – Bon Jovi, Leona Lewis and Aerosmith, gauging what could stay in and what would have to be de-rigged and re-rigged.
The Bon Jovi show was the most complex in terms of rigging, involving 117 points – 33 dead hangs and 84 bridles – and totalling 52.3 tonnes of flown production equipment. It also entailed a 40-foot-wide upstage trussing section with tracking for the video screen staying in the venue, and being flown out to 25 meters so the other shows could be easily and comfortably rigged and accommodated underneath.
Frost and Bon Jovi's chief rigger, Mike Farese, worked closely together to ensure that the operation ran as smoothly as possible.
Eight spreader trusses were dead-hung from The O2 arena's roof beams, and this allowed the video tracking truss section to remain in the building without affecting the rigging of any of the other shows.
All Bon Jovi's bridles were pre-built and labelled up in the U.S. to save time on the load in – a task that needed the show to be positioned totally correctly in the venue to succeed, so all the bridles were spot-on.
The custom written load analysis software enabled Frost to calculate the length of each bridle leg and send the information to Farese, who had the bridles assembled at their last show in North America.
The tactic paid off, with only a minimal amount of adjustment being necessary when it came to rigging the first show.
The Leona Lewis and Aerosmith shows had to fit in around Bon Jovi, therefore it was essential that these three shows were considered as a whole.
Leona's show involved 85 points, 15 dead hangs and 70 bridles and weighed 28.3 tonnes, while Aerosmith had 50 points (11 deads and 29 bridles), weighing 26 tonnes and luckily, both shows featured straight trusses for lighting and video, and standard PA rigging out of the roof, with four and three hangs a side respectively for Leona and Aerosmith.
Where possible, Summit keeps the same riggers working on the same shows for continuity and efficiency with teams structured to be overseen by experienced rigging supervisors to ensure a swift and safe operation.
Each show is assessed individually and based on the number of points required, with Summit recommending the optimum number of teams, working on each team rigging approximately six points an hour.
This is averaged out over the load in, and varies according to whether the production needs the points to be in the air by a certain time – and how much budget they have allocated for this to happen.
"Constant communication and co-operation between all parties ensures that everything stays on track and is a testament that pre production planning is vital," Frost said.
"Thorough preparation and planning together with getting a strong, consistent team of riggers was a crucial factor in the successful turnaround of these shows, enabling everything to run smoothly and efficiently," Parsons noted.
For more information, please visit www.summit-steel.co.uk.
