C3 News...

The second week of June saw the glitz and glamour of the catwalk at the Brighton Corn exchange. C3 was on the case to create the technical backing needed for such an event, that was the build up of Brighton’s new fashion week. What was originally Brighton Frocks the brain child of Liz Bishop has become grander in its design with designers like Jez Eaton with her recyclable style ‘Trashion’, plus a special appearance of channel 4’s Gok Wang. Thanks to the help of all the crew at Brighton’s Corn Exchange and the Brighton Frock’s production team the week went with an explosive interchange of fabulous ferocious frocks.

Not but a stones throw away from the Theatre Royal was the infamous Spiegeltent in which our very own Tom Cossovich created a brilliant speaker layout design which incorporated more of the Turbosound Flex Array. The result was a near perfect dispersion of sound in a circular venue, not an easy thing to do, and all the festival goes got the full spectrum of enjoyment when it came to dancing the night way to Bananafana Social Club’s 1920s style swing. Of course the live shows sounded all the sweeter with Coco Rosie, Swervy World and Big Black Cadlillac. Then of course last but very much not least was the star attraction for the Spiegeltent, the spectacular ‘La Vie’. The French –Canadians from Montréal gave a show set in an audience engrossing purgatory. With a twisted after life narrative and amazing aerial performances La Vie is a show you can not miss.

In the Spiegeltent we had 4 unit of Flex Array flying ether side of the stage with NuQ15s and NuQ10 covering the dead areas behind them, plus 4 of the NuQ8s hung as a centre array in the top middle of the tent. This was all controlled by the Yamaha LS9.

C3 left the seaside of Brighton behind for a couple of weeks to travel up to the lovely city of Norwich for the Norfolk and Norwich Festival. We had the delight of kiting out the Theatre Royal with Turbosound’s distinct line array. The Turbosound Flex Array, as it is called, had the pleasure of projecting the music of the legendary John Cale, the latin passion of Paco Pena and the jazz infusion of John Mclaughlin plus many more. Thanks to all the members of the Theatre and touring production crews for the time we spent on keeping the smooth running of all the shows.

The theatre was fitted with our aspect 880H and 218 bass bins for the lower ground level while the Flex Array with the 880L sub units for the upper balcony. Front of house had the Sound craft MH3 and on monitor was the Yamaha M7 controlling our TQ315s

After a successful year conquering the festivals with the only truly live drum and bass band touring at this level, Roni Size teamed up with the Emerald Ensemble to create and unique collaboration at the re-opening of the Colston Hall in Bristol.

C3’s Jon Crawley has been with the band for 18 months as monitor engineer and took up the challenge of mixing 88 channels into 24 mixes across the crowded stage. Using a Yamaha PM5D and the DSP5D to tackle the channels Jon also introduced the band members to the ACS T1 and T2 bespoke moulded in-ear monitors. ‘these devices are incredibly transparent and can handle the extreme low-end and fast transients prevalent in this music’. C3 continues to support Roni Size supplying full monitor systems for rehearsals and one-off gigs.

To promote the release of their latest single, the Scandinavian indie group Alphabeat called upon C3 to provide a live band setup for a gig in the middle of a shopping centre. The band performed their hits and the new track to an enthusiastic young crowd for half an hour before signing copies of their new single.

To minimise the disruption to the browsing shoppers C3 provided a Yamaha LS9 digital desk running a punchy compact self-powered Turbosound PA, onstage were 6 biamp wedges to keep the band happy. The whole system was setup and take down in less than half and hour.

Brighton and Sussex Universities combined their resources again this year to put on the largest Freshers’ event in the UK, filling the Brighton Centre with over 5000 new students. C3 continues its long-standing relationship with both student unions, again providing full production for the Graduation Ball held at Stamner House earlier in the summer, and supporting the busiest Freshers week to date. The university events teams provided a full fortnight of parties including gigs on the pier, festivals on campus, and culminating in the Freshers Ball at the Brighton Centre.

In the Ball main room 16 stacks of Turbosound Aspect PA easily coped with the full-on bass demands of drum and bass legends Pendulum. Radio 1s Zane Lowe and Judge Jules also headlined the event. In the 2nd live band room 6 stacks of Aspect for FOH were complimented by 14 Turbosound TQ315 Bi-amped wedges on 7 mixes on stage to create a big stage sound for Bombay Bicycle Club and the headliners Kissy Sell-out.

The London 2012 Open Weekend celebrating Britain's art, culture and sport came to Norfolk in July. ‘La Marea’ (the tide) presented the secret stories and private emotions that bring Norwich to life in real time, moving from the pavement to illuminated windows, from balconies to café terraces. This unique theatre featured nine fictional scenes, repeated over the course of the evening in shop windows and on street corners. The audience was placed in a subtly voyeuristic position, experiencing the actors’ thoughts only through projected subtitles. This was the first showing of La Marea in the UK, following its premiére in Buenos Aires in 2005.

An already technically demanding production spread over 300m, the additional Health & Safety complications of putting on a show in a public space was smoothly handled by our team of technicians who lived on site for the week. The whole production was coordinated at a central digital desk running all audio systems. We chose Turbosounds weather-resistant NUQ speakers fixed to the street furniture to provide a suitably discreet yet powerful sound-scape.

Brighton Pride is the UKs largest free festival celebrating sexual diversity. In 2008 the festival attracted an estimated 160,000 visitors. The celebrations lasts for a week culminating in a carnival parade through the centre of Brighton, a free festival in Preston Park and then a 2 day street party in Kemptown.

The 2 day street party attracted up to 40,00 people in the Kemp Town area of Brighton. Our project manager Tom Cossovich worked closely with the council and the police to design a sound-system that satisfied all the strict requirements. C3 provided a professional UHF radio link system on licensed frequencies and 25 separate audio systems to ensure consistent audio coverage over the 2 mile party. Being in a residential area there were strict noise limits imposed by the council however the central transmission base provided a neat universal volume control for the whole event, and also a means for the police to communicate with the entire crowd in any emergency.

C3 was also the preferred supplier of audio and power to the community floats on the parade. Our knowledge of safely installing PA systems to moving vehicles proved invaluable as our technical team supplied 12 generators and over 40 loudspeakers early on the Saturday morning to the various groups.