LONDON – Adlib Lighting and Sound provided full technical production for ventriloquist Jeff Dunham and his five characters, including Achmed The Dead Terrorist, known for his catchphrase, "Silence…I Keel You!"
Adlib's James Neale designing and tech'ed the system and also handled FOH/monitor engineering duties.
With vocal intelligibility playing a critical role to the enjoyment of the show, Neale opted on a JBL VerTec PA, primarily because of its ease of use as a combined flown and ground stacked system.
Neale knew that in the City Hall shows, he would have to split the arrays into these two positions to preserve the sightlines and ensure that the seats around the sides of the stage had uninterrupted views – and that would prove to be, for him, the biggest challenge of the tour.
Dunham's ventriloquism, Neale noted, was relatively straightforward. "His projection is excellent," Neale said.
Even so, Neale needed to keep a sharp ear out to control the sibilance when Dunham was talking through his teeth, and Neale found himself tweaking the EQ constantly as Dunham swapped between puppets, who talked both on and off mic.
The system consisted of 20 VerTec 4889 cabinets, 10 a side, powered by Camco amps. Four L-Acoustics ARCS a side were used for in and outfills, together with four dV-DOSC frontfills and two L-Acoustics SB28 subs per side. Lab.gruppen PLM 10000Q amps powered all the L-Acoustics elements.
The system was fine-tuned and optimized for each different acoustical environment.
Neale used a Digidesign SC48 mixer – chosen for its performance and compact size, and also for the venues, using an expedient left and right mix and two monitor sends.
Dunham's specified mic is a Shure KSM9 radio.
When they arrived at the O2 Arena London, the PA was swapped out for a V-DOSC system, with main hangs made up of 15 cabinets with three dV-DOSC underhangs per side, together with a side hang of 16 L-Acoustics KUDO per side, all powered by LA8 amps. In addition, two delay hangs of VerTec 4889 were installed to give added intelligibility at the rear of the top balconies.
Adlib has used this format in the O2 many times, so they knew it would be the right solution for this show. Opening act Guitar Man played guitar and cracked jokes, with Adlib supplying Sennheiser packs for the guitar and mic, which was a DPA 4088 headset. Using better-quality mics meant they could safely crank up the wedges.
Neale worked with PA tech Michael Flaherty on the tour, and for the O2 Arena show, Tony Szabo and Marc Peers joined Neale and Flaherty.
For more information, please visit www.adlibsolutions.co.uk.
