An overflowing team effort awakens Planetshakers

AUSTRALIA: With music at the centre of its worship style, the Planetshakers Awakening conferences have a reputation for high production values. Themed overflow, the 2016 edition of the youth conference from Planetshakers church at Melbourne’s Hisense Arena did not disappoint.

Designed to create a ‘wow’ factor, the lighting system provided a stunning visual effect. ‘The theme of the conference was overflow,’ explains the event’s lighting designer and programmer, Paul Collison. ‘I had the inspiration of a massive wave, encompassing both stage and audience. I wanted to create an all-inclusive feeling for the event by dispensing with the pretence of band on stage and audience on the other side of the venue. It was quite an ambitious concept that was exceptionally well executed by lighting vendor, Resolution X.’

‘The idea more or less was to go for a flat, basic stage appearance and to use the lighting to spill out into the room,’ furthers Planetshakers production manager, Jim Monk. ‘The wave-like open look was quite different to previous years and really reinforced the theme.’

Resolution X, supplied a solution comprising almost 600 fixtures controlled by MA Lighting’s grandMA2. The MA Lighting setup, which was purchased through the manufacturer’s local distributor Show Technology Australia, consisted of two grandMA2 ultra-lights alongside a grandMA fader wing, an MA onPC command wing and three MA NPUs (Network Processing Units).

‘The grandMA2 system is something I never stray from,’ says Mr Collison. ‘After doing the initial designs in Vectorworks, the fixture data was ported to the MA showfile via the grandMA2 plugin. After a few tidy ups, the show was ready for some pre-programming in MA 3D.

‘All of that work paid dividends once we hit the venue,’ he continues. ‘The combination of integrated tools at our disposal prior to getting on site makes the grandMA2 the only choice for an event of this size. Using the grandMA2 enabled a potentially very complicated setup to work quickly and seamlessly. Being a designer/programmer, the MA system allows me to try many idea variations fast and efficiently.’

Away from the lighting, the audio side of the project once again called on d&b audiotechnik speakers. The system was designed by Guto Monteiro and consisted of J Series as the FOH PA system with 14 J8 and a pair of J12 loudspeakers deployed per side. A further eight J8 and two J12 loudspeakers per side were used as side hangs. Low end was catered for via four J Subs flown per side and 12 B2 subwoofers deployed on the ground, spread across the main stage.

Rental company, Monitor City, provided the full stage package, including the consoles, stacks and racks, as well as the RF of which 36 channels were utilised alongside a 78-channel input count. The system was powered by D80 amplifiers with three Lake LM44 processors on the front end. The consoles deployed included a DiGiCo SD5 at FOH, an SD10 providing monitors for vocals and frontline, and an SD8 as a monitor control for the band.

The visual equipment for the conference came from Norwest Productions in the form of an 18m x 4m LED video wall deployed at the back of the stage. ‘There was a great deal of time spent on media content to enhance the stage look by use of silhouetting and moving away from the traditional method of words on screen,’ recalls Mr Monk.

With a large crowd anticipated, the event required a stage design which would meet the overflow theme and maximise the capacity of the Hisense Arena. ‘In order to take the venue to its maximum seating capacity, we needed to push the stage as far down the room as we possibly could,’ states Mr Monk. ‘The venue was designed as a velodrome and tennis arena that is best suited to in-the-round and early discussions suggested that this would not work for what we were doing as it meant that the trim above the stage would need to be lower in height as it would be situated beneath the raised seating.’

In addition, to the concerns regarding the height of the stage, weight restrictions and rigging time were also to be taken account for the stage design. ‘The weight limit under the seating is approximately 25,000kg compared with nearly 100,000kg distributed in the main part of the room,’ Mr Monk explains. ‘With this in mind, the stage design came about as a group collaboration of the creative department in the church. We went through three complete stage designs before settling on the one we ended up with.’

With the setup complete, it was down to the Planetshakers technical crew to ensure the event went smoothly. Amos Yeo joined Mr Monk at FOH, while Terence Ong, Matt Wong, Dane Walsh and Terry Kay worked at monitors. Julian Williams served as lighting assistant and Brendon Allen took on the role of live stage manager and producer.

A combination of technical knowhow and good team work ensured that the crew delivered an event that was warmly received by everyone concerned.

www.monitorcity.com.au
www.norwestproductions.com
www.resolutionx.com.au
www.showtech.com.au