Take Five Productions at FOH for 2013 Hong Kong Asian Pop festival
Published: ASIA
CHINA: Production company Image & Style hired Dubai-based Take Five Productions to provide the FOH sound mix for the recent 2013 Hong Kong Asian Pop music festival. Held in hall five of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the sold-out event attracted 6,000 music fans.
A DiGiCo SD8 was used at FOH, whilst a Yamaha PM5 D console was used as the monitor console. An Electro-Voice X-Line large concert loudspeaker system with X-Subs was rigged for the main sound reinforcement system, with XLD281 line arrays for front-fills. Meanwhile, Nexo PS15 cabinets were used as monitor speakers.
Take Five Productions configured the front of house system to be controlled from four outputs from the console, and approximately 48 inputs were used from the stage for the full band set up, cello, hand held radio microphones and radio headset microphones. At front of house there were 12 inputs set aside for the A/V system, sound effects, backing tracks and voice-overs, which were fed into a Mackie sub mixer.
Equipment contractor Action Impact supplied and installed the audio. ‘This pre-dated Take Five Productions’ involvement, but we were more than happy with the selection of audio kit used,’ said Trevor J Cronin, managing director, Take Five Productions.
‘We used an Electro-Voice line array at the 20,000 capacity Falls Festival in Tasmania for a few years, so were confident in its capability,’ he said. ‘The DiGiCo SD8 large format digital console was also perfect for the application.’
The show’s format had two elements: half comprised performances from well-known acts from seven countries, whilst the other half welcomed seven newcomers. ‘It was a pretty full on show, made a bit harder with a few communication and language issues,’ said Mr Cronin.
‘So it was 14 different performers from seven different countries in a nonstop format,’ he explained. ‘In between the performances there were live hosts interviewing performers, dance segments, and judges voting sessions, so there was a constant program to mix and a diverse selection of inputs to deal with. A few post rehearsal input changes were made, so it was quite an intense show to mix.’
Mr Cronin reports that the audience was particularly appreciative of South Korean girl group, Girls’ Generation. ‘The audience reaction was just amazing,’ he said. ‘They all rushed forward or jumped on the seats. They screamed so loud that I had to turn up the sound to around 12Db. I could not see the stage at all and I could barely hear the PA at first! Next time I will make sure that we are on at least a six-inch riser. I had no idea that that would happen!’
However, Mr Cronin insisted that the DiGiCo SD8 ‘worked really well. I had pre-programmed a basic show template in the office a week before I arrived on site. From that, there were some extra inputs added and 16 snap-shots created during the sound checks and rehearsals. The show’s format required switching between acts at a moments notice, so the DiGiCo’s memory system worked very well for this.’