The America's Cup World Series, Plymouth

This post is a 'personal' from Josh Small, he managed AV and IT systems support on behalf of Nub Sound Ltd for the ACWS in Plymouth.

Well, that was hectic! First off though, a bit of background. The America's Cup (AC for short) is a world class sailing event featuring "the best sailors and the fastest boats". The AC World Series (ACWS from here on in) is about bringing this type of high speed sailing to millions.

In coming to Plymouth, the ACWS provided excellent opportunities for many local businesses. Having supplied equipment for Plymouth University's Graduation Ceremonies on the Hoe for many years. Nub Sound gained the contract to supply Sound, Lighting and AV equipment for the ACWS. Shortly after securing this, I was contacted to provide AV and IT systems knowledge and support for the Media and Press suites (located in Milbay). I was only too thrilled to take this work on.

The brief was simple for the Media Suite: distribute multiple format media sources to multiple locations with zoned sound and paging systems. The press suit had an equally simple brief: provide sound, lighting and AV systems for multiple live international press conferences. This all sounds too simple to be true, yes? No. We later went on to learn that there would be 8 boats in the harbour, each with 16Ch of wireless microphones and cameras on them. For those of you with a quick head, you'll have already worked out that this meant 128Ch of simultaneous radio transmissions at the same time we were trying to run 12Ch of Shure UHF-R. Luckily, I have experience in working with large numbers of frequencies simultaneously (and even more luckily, Shure have an excellent "live" frequency planner to allow Active frequency calculation based on local interference once we got on site) with this in mind, I specified highly directional antennae and used the optimum placement within the room to give the highest possible signal to noise ratio.

With that obstacle out of the way, I moved onto lighting. Now, TV lighting is very different to Theatre and Live Music in that there needs to be a lot more of it! In a large studio with good Air Con, this is easily do-able. In a (HxWxD) 2.4x12x10m room, this is a bit more of an issue. The original design was 8x 1.2k Fresnel on a front truss with 6x S4 Par as back light and 8x 500w Cyc for the backdrop as fill. unfortunately, it quickly became apparent that this wouldn't work (after the site plan changed for the 3rd time) so the Back light went, and we dropped down to 6x 1.2k on the front bar. Some judicious focusing allowed this to become a workable, satisfactory solution, if not an ideal one.

All in all though, the job, along with all 250m of installed Cat5, hundreds of frequencies, multiple plasma screens, multiple format and content changes and over 200 man hours on site went off without a hitch. The ACWS Plymouth was a highlight of the year for me and I am proud to have been involved.

Keep on living!

Josh

"Cinderella - With a Twist" - Multistarz Theatre Company

There's no better way, that we could think of, to end a year than a Pantomime. This year, "Cinderella - With a Twist" served perfectly to end the year on a high. With an excellent cast and crew the show went perfectly.

This end of the year show included a large selection of our Lighting Equipment including:

• MVS575SP - 575w Discharge Moving Head
• LED Par56 - Lightweight, Compact and Efficient LED
• QTX FX1000 - Machine

"Babes in the Wood" - Touchwood Musical Company

As is always the case in Plymouth, Touchwood Musical Comapny started off both the City's and Tornado Multimedia's panto season. They presented the highly successful "Babes in the Wood" at the Devonport Playhouse.

Tornado Multimedia provided all technical support for this production, this included:

• Lighting Design
• Sound Design
• Stage Lighting Hire
• Stage Sound Hire
• Technical Crew

Touchwood Musical Company - Oliver

Touchwood Musical Company have always put on the highest quality shows. This time however they have surpassed themselves in quality and quantity in the sell out show "Oliver!".

Tornado Multimedia are proud to announce their involvement in this show. We not only designed the Lighting, Designed the Sound, Provided the Crew and Equipment for the show but we also found and supervised the construction of the highly praised set. All of us at Tornado Multimedia would like to say a massive thank you to Touchwood's Stage Manager, David Hunter, for all of his hard work.

This show is a brilliant example of people working together under Tornado Multimedia's management to make the production both successful and economical to produce.

Credits:

• Josh Small: Lighting Designer, Sound Designer, Crew Co-Ordinator and Set Supervision
• Tom Freeston: Sound Engineer and Mic Co-Ordinator
• Alex Gooding: Asst. Sound Technician
• David Hunter: Stage Manager
• Sam Matthams: Stage Crew
• Ben Small: Stage Crew
• Sam May: Stage Crew

Eggbuckland Community College - Spring Concert

Having become the preferred hire company for Eggbuckland Community College's Music Department, Tornado Multimedia were once again asked to provide their knowledge and experience in both sound and lighting. This time for their spring concert.

With our new handheld wireless microhpones and increased cable stock, the event was handled seamlessly by our experienced team of technicians.

Hyde Park Junior School - Bugsy Malone

After a successful event last year, Tornado Multimedia were asked to provide a complete sound and lighting solution to Hyde Park for their production of the much loved 'Bugsy Malone' We provided them with a full sound system including a pair of our dB Technologies Basic 100 Speakers and 3 Sennheiser EW112 G2 Radio Mics. Being a school hall, we were required to dismantle and store our equipment in a classroom between shows due to the multi purpose nature of the school's hall.

Four Sell Out Performances completed the magic of the event.

Eggbuckland Community College - Christmas Concert

Tornado Multimedia was asked to provide both sound and lighting for Eggbuckland Community College's Christmas concert.
The brief was simple, make sure it could be seen and heard. This was easily achieved by the experienced team here at Tornado Multimedia. We provided PA for the 250 seat venue, the school's hall. Among the various items provided by us was our newest stock addition of a pair of dB Technologies Basic 100 Active Speakers we also included wireless microphones and instrument amplification for the event. For the Lighting we provided a full system including moving mirror effect lights and the Advanced MagicQ software lighting controller.

Touchwood Musical Company - Annual Christmas Concert

Every year, Touchwood Musical Company produce a Christmas Concert featuring a selection of Christmas songs, carols and dance.
Since Touchwood introduced their Christmas Concert they have been Employing Tornado Multimedia to provide the lighting and sound equipment and Technicians for the event. Tornado Multimedia was able to provide "excellent personal service" which a larger company would have failed to provide.

"We are delighted to have received such a great service, and will be contacting you for future events and shows" David Bailey, Touchwood Chairman

Touchwood Musical Company - "Dick Whittington" Christmas Pantomime

When Tornado Multimedia was contacted by Touchwood Musical Company to provide services and equipment for Dick Whittington, we were only too happy to oblige. We worked along side Touchwood’s Production team to ensure one of Touchwood’s most successful shows went off without a hitch. We came in on budget and two weeks ahead of schedule. We provided all of the equipment and Engineers for the Show including Tom Freeston as Sound Engineer and Josh Small as Lighting Designer and Event Organiser.

"Many thanks for all your hard work and dedication to Touchwood" David Bailey, Touchwood Chairman

Touchwood Musical Company - "You Can't Stop The Beat" Musical Revue

Having proved ourselves, working on many of Touchwood Musical Company's smaller productions, Tornado Multimedia were asked to provide services & equipment for the Summer 2008 Show "You Can't Stop The Beat" Staged at the Globe Theatre. We provided all of the required Sound & Lighting Equipment complete with two Technical Staff who stayed on site for the show's duration.

"Thanks for all your hard work with the show" David Bailey, Touchwood Chairman

Touchwood Musical Company - 1940's Tea Dance

After the Services offered by Tornado Multimedia at their annual Christmas concert, Touchwood Musical Company decided to involve us at their Tea Dance event in Meavy. We were happy to provide all of the required equipment at a competitive price we also provided both sound and lighting technicians to setup and operate the equipment.

Easter Weekend Celebrations in the City Centre

Plymouth Methodist Central Hall contacted Tornado Multimedia for help in organising the Sound System for the Event, which was to be staged outside of Drake Circus Shopping Mall's Cornwall Street entrance. By using as much of the Church's equipment as possible, we managed to keep costs to a minimum. Tornado Multimedia also provided an assistant to the Church's In-House Sound Engineer.