Army Carols 2007

On the 7 December 2007, the Defence Force School of Music (DFSM) and Australian Army Band Melbourne (AABM) in conjunction with Defence Support Group Watsonia staged their annual Carols By Candlelight concert on the Long Green in Simpson Barracks. The event featured Adam Harvey, Raymond Khong, the National Children’s Choir & Youth Chorale of Australia (NCCA), and musicians from the Defence Force School of Music and the Australian Army Band Melbourne, performing to a crowd of around 4,000. The concert is a free community event and is growing in size every year. It is produced by members of the Australian Army Band Corps (AABC) with equipment being supplied by the following companies: Resolution X (Lights), Norwest (Sound), Showtech Australia (Tomcat system & Rigging), Pro-Stage (Staging), Southern Cross Fireworks and Southern Generators.

The lighting rig consisted of 8 MAC 700 washes, 10 Martin MX10 Scanners, 12 Martin Pro 400 Colour Changers, 36 Multi Pars, 2 Zoom Profiles, and 2 Robert Juliat Super Korrigan Follow Spots all controlled from a Martin Lightjockey USB system by Sergeant Jason Grimsted.

The FOH sound rig was an EAW line array system consisting of 8 KF730 elements per side flown from the stage structure and 3 ground stacked SB100z Subs per side. Infill was done with Acoustic Technologies SS24 speakers. All processing was taken care of by a Dolby Lake processor, which fed Lab Gruppen amplifiers. FOH mix was through a Digico D5 Live console, internal effects were used except for a TC Electronics MOneXL reverb unit. Onstage mics were a mixture of Rode, Audio Technica, Shure and AKG. Wireless needs were covered by 6 channels of Shure UHF-R receivers.

FOH mix was done by Sergeant Peter Bell. Monitors were supplied from our own in-house systems and operated by Musician Tim Brook. This comprised of an Allen and Heath GL2200 mixer run in flip mode with Symetrix eqs through XTA crossovers feeding Powersoft D class amps. Biamplified EAW JFX290 boxes were used for all foldback sends on stage.

The stage, built by Pro-Stage was 12 x 12 metres at 3 levels, and was surrounded by the Showtech Tomcat truss system, supporting the roof, and the lights and sound.

The fireworks for the night was supplied by Southern Cross fireworks and fired by our newly qualified Pyromaniac Sergeant Peter Mathison.

Thanks go to everyone that supported the gig. Marcus & Fuzzy from Res X, Paul and Chris from Norwest, Tiny & his team at Showtech, Trog and Frank at Pro-Stage, Southern Cross Fireworks, and a special mention to Southern Generators for coming through Thursday night with a replacement generator to get the lighting rig up and running for programming! The AABC is working hard to develop its in-house production capabilities and the skills of our members, and an event such as this demonstrates the results that are being achieved so far. However, none of it is possible without the support, advice and assistance provided by trusted external companies such as those listed above.