It’s been a long two years since the last legal rave in Sydney and to bring the season back into action, HSU presented the second episode of EPIK, playing at the Showgrounds in Sydney Olympic Park.
As the event name suggested, production on this show was going to be epic.
Of course, this calls for automated lighting trusses, huge laser displays, pyrotechnics, and visuals. Consequently, 516m of truss were loaded with just over 450 lighting fixtures.
A total of 96 x Claypaky Sharpy Beams were stacked up top and bottom rail of the twelve audience trusses whilst 24 x Martin LED Atomic Strobes, 24 x GLP X4 Bar 20s, 24 x Chauvet Professional Colourdash Pars and 24 x Versuvio vertical smoke machines also filled the automated audience trusses.
Eight 3x3m video pods were sub-hung from a Eurotruss mother grid on either side of the stage and were loaded with GLP JDC-1s and Colourdash pars for truss toners, along with Lasers rigged top and bottom of the pods.
Even the mother grid trusses housed lighting fixtures with 32x Claypaky Mythos and more X4 Bars.
A 51m wide drape truss at the rear of the stage also played as a mother grid for eight ladders that each had three GLP X4 Bar 10s and two 4lite Molefay vertical strips.
Another 72 x Colordash pars toned all the Eurotruss around the stage. Claypaky B-EYE K10s were the DJ booth fixtures that provided key and backlight for the DJs.
Two MA Lighting grandMA2 full-size were in control of the 11,800 parameter count from FOH. In all, there were 32 x lighting universes one pyro and one laser universe.
At racks, there were eight NPUs, four 72way StageSmarts distros, four 48way and one 60way HPC racks, all powered from three separate Powerlock feeds. 35 litres of smoke fluid was drunk by four Look Solutions Viper 2.6 smoke machines and two DF-50 hazers.
Only 18,335m of cable was installed for the lighting and automation system this year. 2235m of Motor cable, 1280m of Kinesys control cable, 7940m of singles and 6,880m of Socapex.
88 Motors lifted the 31,700kgs rig into the Showgrounds timber beam roof. 24 variable speed motors capable of travelling at 24m per/minute moved the audience trusses into different looks all night.
“Our chain sliders obviously played one of the most important roles of the show,” commented Danyon McCue of Touring Industries. “Because the show uses motion over the 100m long dance floor, it’s extremely important we are confident that our cable systems are installed in such a way, that the possibility for malfunctions is as minimal as possible.
“Over 150 motion cues were executed and we didn’t have a single problem with any of the 72 cable sliders, loops, or coils associated with the automated trusses.”
JPJ Audio installed an L-Acoustics K1/K2 PA and Kara DJ fill with DiGiCo consoles and Shure RF equipment. We also supplied an Artist Comms system with Bolero Belt packs to make sure no one missed a cue.
Production: Integratd
Lighting & Rigging Supplier: Chameleon Touring Systems.
Audio Provider: JPJ.
Video Supplier: Big Picture.
Laser Supplier: Lumina Visuals.
Site Management: SIMS Events.
Production Manager: Arian Yaganeh.
Production Design: Rob Francis.
Lighting Operator: Michael Hicks + Koen Van Elderen
Automation Operator: Danyon McCue.
Video Operator: Toby Royce.
FOH Audio: Tim Jones.
Laser Operator: Nathan Aveling.
Show Design: Bart De Ridder
