Photo by Andy Murrell
EDINBURGH, Scotland – Audio specialist tube uk provided JBL and d&b components to support the sonic needs of Where to Begin, a three-night spectacle that kicked off the 2024 Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) in early August at the George Heriot’s School near Edinburgh Castle.
More details from tube uk (www.tubeuk.com):
Photo by Andy Murrell
tube uk worked closely with creative agency Pinwheel under the artistic direction of Katy Fuller and composer Roma Yagnik.
Roma created the musical highlight for an immersive pre-show experience followed by a large projection spectacular, with video content produced by Yeast Culture, which was mapped and beamed by Graymatter Video onto the north façade of George Heriot School, founded in 1628, which is overlooked by Edinburgh Castle.
Photo courtesy tube uk
The ticketed event kicked off the 2024 EIF with great flair. It ran over three evenings and was enjoyed by 3,000 people each night, celebrating the energy, vibrance and spirit of the city and the alchemy of invention and artistry connecting audiences with the emotion, inspiration and imagination of a festival atmosphere.
tube was asked onboard by the event’s two production managers, Dan Adams from DAT Events and Alastair Pickard (Al), who coincidentally didn’t at first realize that they both knew Melvyn Coote and had previously worked with him and the team from the Manchester-based company.
Photo by Jess Shurte
Dan and Alastair both concluded that tube would find a perfect solution to deliver the very best audio for this complex and detailed project.
“It was absolutely brilliant to work with such a talented and imaginative team on such an outstanding project,” enthused Melvyn, adding that it is this collaborative style of workflow – together with a bit of sonic magic – for which tube uk is known.
The show was divided into two acts. The first was an interactive performance and pre-show area entered by guests who mingled for an hour getting in the mood for the second act which was the projection show.
Photo by Jess Shurte
The audience entered the site from the south direction and could then choose to stand either on the left or right (east or west) lawns of the school, both featuring an identical preshow set up. Drawing inspiration from Scottish heritage and mythology, the history of the festival and the current year’s theme, “Rituals that Unite Us,” the audience entered an immersive environment filled with fire, performers and references to whisky making, relating to this year’s principal partner, The Macallan. They were even invited to take part in rituals including donating a piece of coal to feed the fires and raising a toast to the angel’s share – the whisky that evaporates during the distilling process.
tube’s Dan Steele was designated by Melvyn as sound designer to work alongside Roma. Their respective talents harmonized, and Roma’s musical composition was strategically infused with sound effects and movement which were programmed by tube’s John Redfern.
Opening Event – Where to Begin – at George Heriot’s School on Aug. 2, 2024. Photo by Maxime Ragni
Pre-show
The sonic requirements of both pre-show areas were identical. tube supplied 40 x JBL Control 1 speakers for each one – 80 in total – configured as an immersive multichannel audio field to deliver the soundscape everywhere around the spaces.
The speakers were positioned around the peripheries of the east and west lawns at ground level. Achieving that perfect clarity around the capacious environment, tube drew on its extensive experience with designing Christmas and other illuminated trail audio systems. The requirement was to produce an even and realistic sound for guests as they moved around a route designated by trackway and rope-and-post pathways.
The source files were stored on a Mac Mini running QLab, using 80 outputs for the 40 speakers per side. The QLab machine ran 146 concurrent cues in total, creating random movement in the audio content as it ran.
A huge cabling infrastructure and diligent management were necessary to facilitate the pre-show installations and ensure that every speaker was precisely in the right position to deal with all the nuances and idiosyncrasies of the space.
Main Show
The main show was also run via QLab on 2 x Mac Studios for full redundancy. A data connection between the pre-show and main show sites sent timecode and OSC signals between the two systems, so audio for the whole site was triggered from the one source.
The projection show sound system comprised main left and right arrays made up of d&b KSL, ground stacked, sitting on Steeldeck risers, a set up chosen for the tightest footprint and offering maximum stability in case of wind. This also ensured the best sound clarity.
The physical set up needed to be very neat as the arrays were partly protruding into the audience in line with the building structure, made up with 5 x KSL tops and 3 x KSL SUBS per side.
Two middle stacks flanked the school’s central door, rigged with d&b Y-Series speakers, 6 tops and 2 subs a side, and the system was completed with four Y7P front fills strapped to the top of an architectural balustrade in front of the building, equidistantly spaced out over the 60-metre width of the projection canvas.
Behind the audience were 6 rear points for FX speakers – flown d&b Y7Ps – one speaker per point at 3.5 meters high – above head height – on upright poles secured in place via tube’s patented concrete ballasted base-boxes.
The whole system was running through 10 x d&b D80 amplifiers receiving their signals via Dante and d&b DS10 interfaces.
Dan also devised a collection of effects for Roma’s main show musical score.
Melvyn was on site as tube’s head of department, John Redfern was the FOH sound engineer / operator and Adam Taylor was the senior PA tech. PA rigger Jamie Sharman made sure that all the audio elements were securely positioned in the right places.
The challenges of site-specific work like this are something that the tube uk team relish!
A major one was the 120 metre width of the audience who stood on the school playground for “Where to Begin” – an area that was offset from the building façade, an asymmetric set up that required the music and effects to appear to be coming from the building, so the audio reaching the offset portion of the audience effectively had to be twisted, so they had the same experiences as those directly facing the façade.
Melvyn quipped that even lighting designer Phil Supple was commenting on how many people thought it sounded fantastic!
“That’s a real compliment when lighting starts telling you it sounds great!” he declared, “Everyone else was also very happy with the results including Roma and Katy, and it was our pleasure to be part of a great team helping deliver their creative visions for such a high-profile event.”
Katy Fuller echoed the teamwork aspect. “It was so reassuring to work with a company as professional, knowledgeable and committed as tube uk. The results were fantastic – we were even able to sonically hold our own against the Tattoo which was running simultaneously on a neighboring site! It was a joy to work with Melvyn and the crew on site, who were always ready to make any adjustments requested to ensure the best outcome. I look forward to the next time we can collaborate and bring something extraordinary to life.”
