Songs of Praise 50th Anniversary
Alexandra Palace, September 2011
 |
For a show that was only ever intended to run for six weeks back in 1961, Songs of Praise could be said to be doing well, especially reaching the fifty year milestone and being rarely uttered in a sentence without “national institution” following it. For this 2,248th show, a unique venue was sought out to reflect the magnitude of this achievement. Of course, Alexandra Palace, with its BBC Broadcast history, its popularity with the live music world and iconic architecture seemed ideal.
Primarily a television event, it means that the demands of the PA team play second fiddle to the aesthetics of the show. That in mind, system technician and project manager David Shepherd designed a Meyer Sound MICA curvilinear array-based system that not only pleased the ears, but the eyes also. With two hangs of MICA and ground stacks of Meyer’s smaller M’elodie, this system not only had to make conductor Paul Leddington Wright’s SOP orchestra sound lush and vibrant, but compete with 7,000 audience members singing, something it did effortlessly. Phil Wright was in control out front, this time with a DiGiCo D5, and a not unusual 120+ inputs. For any other company or engineer this might prove to be nerve racking but orchestral and classical shows of this scale are right in Sound By Design’s comfort zone. Phil stated “It was a great experience for me to turn up and have everything sorted and be able to mix on a beautifully set-up rig”. As stated, the production of this show lent itself to its aesthetic needs. With this in mind, monitor engineer Stephen Hughes was hidden well and truly out of sight from any cameraman or member of public with a weak disposition, mixing monitors on a DiGiCo SD7 from under the stage. For this show, he had a large amount of stereo in-ear monitoring (Shure PSM900s with Shure E5 earphones), stage monitoring for the shows stars (Meyer UM-1Ps and MJF-212As) and choir fills (Meyer UPM-1Ps). Indeed, anyone mistakenly thinking this show would be a staid sing-along of humdrum hymns would have been surprised with this shows fresh take on celebrating its heritage, with world class turns from Andrea Bocelli, Katherine Jenkins, Beverly Knight and LeAnne Rimes. Having worked on Song of Praise’s larger events over the years at the Royal Albert Hall, the team successfully pre-empted any problem that may normally trip up other suppliers, and their close relationship with the BBC and broadcast teams meant that conflicts of interest did not arise and there were no complaints of colouration from Tim Davies, heading up broadcast audio in the truck. As Project manager David Shepherd commented “we had nothing but praise from the various Producers, Production Managers and Stage Managers, all of whom said they look forward to working with us more in the future... a fine effort by all!” |
||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
