NaSTA 2012
This year the National Student Television Association Awards Ceremony was held in Nottingham and hosted by the university’s television station NUTS. The venue for this event was Studio 7 in the now decommissioned Carlton TV studios, this facility is now owned by the university. It was one of the largest studios in the country when production finished and is now a huge space with even larger possibilities for an amazing rig to be created using touring equipment and the infrastructure provided by a TV studio.
Rigging began six days before the ceremony with the building of the trussing structure that some of the lighting rig would hang off. This consisted of three goal posts made of Pro-Lite H30V trussing, the largest of which was a 7m high 12m span above the stage. The lighting rig had to provide sophisticated lighting for the ceremony and also bright enough for the cameras used to stream the whole ceremony live on the Internet. It also had to make a great impression with a light show during the opening of the ceremony and transform into lighting worthy of a huge nightclub for the DJs after the ceremony. This was done using Clay Paky Alpha Beams, Alpha Washes, Martin MAC 250s, Atomic 3000 strobes and many bars of ETC Source Four Pars in addition to these fixtures impact sails were hung from the 10m high lighting grid. Pinspots were positioned on the catwalks running around the studio to extenuate each table. It wasn’t just the studio that needed lighting though, the corridors needed to set the mood for the evening, this was done using ETC S4 90s and a star gobo in a gobo rotator to project stars onto the walls.
The PA system was 25kW of Nexo Alpha and was mixed on a Yamaha M7CL. This was loud enough for the party after the ceremony and with no worries about noise limits due to the room being completely soundproofed the system could be pushed hard!
The event was an overwhelming success with us receiving complements from the professional camera crew, organisers and audience who could hardly believe that all the technical endeavours were achieved by a group of students.
Summer Party 2012
TEC once again provided the technical expertise for Nottingham University Students Union’s Summer Party. Despite the rain and mud we started work on the sight six days before the event. This year the festival consisted of a main stage, a DJ position at the side of main stage, two dance tents and a societies stage.
The main stage was headlined by Labrinth with Whetus gracing the stage earlier in the day. The PA system was Nexo’s GeoS12 line array with 12 S2 subs and a Soundcraft Vi6 at Front of House, the monitor rig consisted of Nexo PS15s with an Avid Venue SC48 at the side of the stage. The lighting rig comprised of Clay Paky Sharpys, Alpha Beams, Alpha Washes, Martin Atomic strobes, bars of PAR64s and Showtec Sunstrip on the back of the stage to make use of the new pixel mapping feature of the latest iteration of the Titan software on the Avolites Pearl Expert with touch wing at Front of House. Dimming was via an Avolites Art 2000t.
One dance tent was dedicated to “cheese music” playing the crowd pleasers everyone expects on a night out while the other played drum and bass, house and dubstep and was headlined by Sub Focus. The PA system in the tents was Nexo Alpha and Alpha-E. Each tent had a different lighting rig to set the right atmosphere for the music and both were controlled with Avolites Pear Experts running Titan software.
The Societies stage allowed students to showcase their talents to a large audience during the day with acts ranging from rack bands to magic shows. This stage had a medium sized PA system and was controlled by a Yamaha LS9-16.
An army of volunteers mainly comprising of the Students Union Executive Committee spread straw over the site to minimise the effects of the mud generated by nearly a week of rigging. The weather picked up for the day of the event and the audience had a great day. We look forward to next year’s festival and hope to help make it as much of a success as this year!
Graduation Ball 2012
Once again TEC were asked to transform the car park of Colwick Hall into an unforgettable venue for a magical night to end students time at the University of Nottingham. As ever the challenge with this event is the venue, it is a temporary marque, this combined with tight noise regulations makes for some difficult challenges.
The lighting rig was based around a ground supported double arch design made from Pro-Lite trussing. This year we utilised Clay Paky sharpys to create intense beams through the stage and over the audience and a wall of Martin Mac 101’s at the back of the stage. Control was via an Avolites Pearl Expert with touch wing running Titan software. The roof of the Marque was covered with LED star cloth to twinkle above the graduates, this helped set the magical atmosphere and make a car park seem much more elegant.
The sound rig was 25kW of TEC’s Nexo Alpha with a PS15 monitor rig. It was mixed on a Yamaha M7CL. Acts in the main venue this year included Moonlighters, the University of Nottingham’s big band, X-Factor finalist Amelia Lily and Radio 1’s Huw Stephens.
The other venue at Graduation Ball is where the food is served. During the meal a jazz quartet provided background music and after dinner was served the room was transformed into a club. This change in use presents challenges, it requires a low even level of music across the room during the meal and then loud levels for the DJ’s later in the evening. This is achieved by using PS15’s over LS1200 subs at the stage and PS10’s on stands set further back in the room, the PS10’s are then delayed to allow for the time it takes the sound to travel from the stage to them. This is done using one of the features of the Yamaha LS9-16.
Once again the event was a great success and TEC were glad to be helping create the setting for the universities students night one last time.
Hu Stu Summer Party 2012
Billed as the largest hall party of the year TEC were once again asked to provide the lighting and sound system for this huge night in the hall of residences year.
The challenge with this venue is the fact that we can’t use smoke machines due to the smoke detection system in the room, consequently we have to find a different way of helping the lighting rig make maximum impact. This was done by building a large trussing box with a cross in the middle and a dropdown in the centre out of Pro-Lite. From this we hung white impact sails. The fixtures we used were Martin MAC 250’s, Atomic 3000 strobes, High End Technobeams, UV canons and crowd blinders. To make the stage more interesting we used many Martin MAC 101s mounted on scaffolding bars at the back of the stage. This created a wall of light and allowed us to achieve effects with the heads moving around in different patterns and pixel mapping using the Avolites Pearl Expert with touch wing. The PA system was 25kW of Nexo Alpha with PS15’s used as monitors for the DJ’s.
The event ran smoothly for TEC and the crowd enjoyed the night. It was an impressive party to end people’s time in Hu Stu hall.