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Presented by James Cordon, the awards featured live performances from eight of the world’s leading acts culminating in a grand finale from Pharrel Williams and Nile Rodgers. With television feeds going out live the show demanded world class production and precision change-overs. Britannia Row provided audio requirements including an L-Acoustics PA system, lighting came from PRG Europe and included High End Systems Hog 4 consoles. XL Video supplied LED, screens and projection with ER Productions on laser duties. The award trophy for The Brits 2014 was designed by milliner Philip Treacy, famed for his fashion designs for the likes of Kate Middleton, Alexander McQueen and Chanel. A sleek, shiny, modern and triumphant design; it set the tone for this year’s main event. From set design to sound, lighting, video and special effects; the event reflected all of those values. Production

Manager, Tony Wheeler from Nine Yards Productions worked with Kate Wright and Lisa Shenton of Papilo Productions to manage the production of the event, contracted on behalf of the BPI. Other key suppliers included Outback Rigging, Steel Monkey, Blackout, Eat Your Hearts Out, Show & Event Security, Showstars, Stage Miracles, Oglehog (cameras and PPU) and Lovely Things (furniture). StageCo created a 30 metre by 60 metre stage structure and an assortment of other structures including FOH control which was designed by Peter Bingemann, and featured curved LED elements and a giant Brit statue. A crew of eight from StageCo worked day and night shifts to get all the structures built in four days.

SOUND WORLDDerrick Zieba has been sound designer for every Brits since 1994 and for 2014 was reunited with Britannia Row and Sennheiser, a team that also

worked together on this year’s MTV Europe Music Awards. An affable, good-humoured natural leader and hugely talented designer, he started his professional career at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, before becoming head of sound at the newly opened National Theatre on the South Bank. He has gone on to design some of the biggest and most complex events in theatre, events and rock ‘n’ roll. “One of my main challenges at The Brits is to ensure great auditorium PA coverage for the live show, without introducing too much colouration to the live broadcast sound,” he explained talking prior to the show. “I am a big fan of L-Acoustics K1 system and in keeping with last years Brit Awards, I specified a K1 line array.” The main left and right hang comprised 16 L-Acoustics K-1 elements, along with four L-Acoustics KARA and two sub bass hangs made up of eight L-Acoustics SB28 subwoofers. For the outer hang 14 V-DOSC and three dV-DOSC

THE BRIT AWARDS 2014 IN ASSOCIATION WITH MASTERCARD WERE HELD FOR THE 4TH YEAR RUNNING AT LONDON’S 02 ARENA, DEMONSTRATING THE CREATIVE FORCE OF BOTH THE BRITISH RECORD AND PRODUCTION INDUSTRIES. SIMON DUFF REPORTS FROM BACKSTAGE.

PRODUCTION PROFILE: The Brits

THE BRITS

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: The Brits

Opposite: Pharell Williams and Nile Rodgers; Ellie Goulding won the Best British Female Solo Artist award.

elements were used with similar numbers used for the far outer hangs and delays. Distributed front coverage consisted of eight L-Acoustics 108P in fill cabinets and eight SB28 subwoofers. All amplification came from L-Acoustics LA8’s with Lake LM26 processors. A Dante returns system was employed throughout, with two separate fibre returns for stage end and delays. Zieba stated: “I have specified the same PA that worked so well last year. Don’t try and fix what isn’t broken! Nico Royan was my System Tech from Britannia Row. He is an incredibly skilled and experienced System Tech that I have had the pleasure of working with for decades. He was ably assisted by Cesar Lopez - another very experienced System Tech with Dee Miller working as Audio Crew Chief, a hugely experienced Monitor Engineer in his own right, having worked for the likes of Led Zeppelin at The O2 Arena.” Josh Lloyd from Britannia Row mixed artists at FOH with Chris Coxhead handling presentation, VT and playback mix duties, another long-term Brit awards worker. Console wise Midas Pro 9 and DiGiCo SD7 consoles were the order of the day at both FOH and monitors for the band mixes and a Midas Pro 2 at FOH for Presentation microphones, VT inserts and walk-ups. Zieba added: “I have chosen the consoles

for their quality, flexibility and reliability and the fact that most of the ‘A List’ bands on this show are on tour using these consoles.” Outboard audio consisted of a standard package of valve compressors and high-quality reverbs supplied as standard plus additional extras added at the request of specific artists, for example a FOH Waves Sound Grid Server package. In the monitor world Pete McGlynn,

another Brit veteran, was Mix Engineer. “Preparation, preparation and more preparation is the key to all of the audio,” emphasised Zieba. To give an example he added: “For just one artist collaboration on this year’s show we have in excess of 24 stereo channels of in-ear monitors in use. Wedge mixes are down this year with less than 10 discrete mixes being needed.”

Below: Ellie Goulding; Disclosure and AlunaGeorge.

PRODUCTION PROFILE: The Brits

All changeovers ran perfectly with both Lloyd and Coxhead’s assured mixing at FOH pleasing both broadcast demands and that of an expectant arena audience. Zieba concluded by looking back over the past 20 years with the five audio technologies that have made a difference to his sound design since he started on The Brits. He said: “Digital consoles, line array loudspeaker systems, fibre optic multicore, networked audio and Lake digital processors.” Here’s to another 20 years of impeccable ground-breaking sound.

MICROPHONESAll presenter microphones including James Cordon’s were Sennheiser’s digital 9000 SKM Series with ME 9004 heads. It’s a microphonethat Zieba has become very fond of: “It’s extraordinary. It is the first microphone that I have used for this type of work that has no handling noise. So it is utterly silent in people’s hands, which is really good. The quality of it is just superb. There is no EQ on it, it’s flat and

what you hear is what you get. We tried it last year on The Brits in rehearsal but didn’t go live with it. This year I have 100% faith in it. We have used it on the MTV EMA’s too and Sennheiser used it on Eurovision this year so now we are at a point where we can go live with it on a show like this.”

Zieba has successfully worked with Sennheiser as his radio frequency partner on The Brits for over a decade. “Their logistical and engineering help has been invaluable,” he said. “There are now so many hand-held microphones, instrument packs and in-ear monitors on the show that supplying all of the show’s needs would be impossible without Sennheiser’s assistance. Unlike other award

shows, I always try to give the artists their own radio frequency microphone preference, be it Sennheiser, Shure, Audio-Technica or another and to let artists bring in their own radio frequency if they wish. This gives even more of a headache to my excellent radio frequency Supervisor, Sapna Patel, who has to coordinate

frequencies and licensing between Britannia Row kit, Sennheiser kit, the band’s own kit, instrument kit from UK backline companies and radio frequency products brought in from the US. This is where Sennheiser’s assistance comes into its own. Often when we have a specially ‘blinged-up’ standard Sennheiser microphone from the US, Andrew Lillywhite will have to completely remove all of the US

“I have specified basically the same PA that worked so well last year. Don’t try and fix what isn’t broken!”

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Below: (top) Arctic Monkeys frontman, Alex Turner, had playful banter during his acceptance speeches for the groups latest accolades - Best British Group and Best British Album; The stage was designed by Peter Bingemann and built by StageCo, it provided a grandesque centrepiece; (Below) Chris Coxhead, FOH Mix Engineer; Rudimental, winners of Best Single.

PRODUCTION PROFILE: The Brits

electronics and replace them with UK licensable electronics just for their one song in the show! We often end up with a spreadsheet showing over 150 coordinated pieces of radio frequency kit just for the live performance part of The Brits, excluding any TV or commercial use. The challenge of achieving that on a live-to-air show without a whisper of interference is huge. I take my hat off to Sapna, Mark Saunders and Andrew from Sennheiser who make that happen every year.”

LIGHTING AND VISUALSDave Davey was stage production Lighting Designer with PRG handling the lighting specification and Dave Hallet as Project Manager and lighting crew boss. A huge amount of ceiling truss hung over the arena to light what is essentially a TV and rock show combined. This included on the stage rig were 44 PRG Best Boy 4000 Spot luminaires, 54 Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Washes, 24 VL3500 Spots, 12 GLP X4 impressions, and 24 Martin Professional Atomic 3000 Strobes. An impressive 70 Clay Paky Sharpys were also used on the main stage russes and a further 148 Sharpys

were used to cover the arena floor table lighting. A total of 14 Virtuoso Node Plus were used for data networking. At FOH High End Systems Hog 4’s were the lighting console of choice also supplied by PRG. For Clay Paky The Brits 2014 was a success in more ways than the main event. In January, the company’s new B-Eye’s were installed on the lighting rig at The Brits launch show held at ITV Studios in Central London. Glyn O’Donoghue, Managing Director of Ambersphere Solutions, Clay Paky’s sole distributor for the UK, said: “The B-Eye is a whole new category of fixture. Customers are amazed at how versatile it is. It’s really a perfect wash light with a really powerful beam light with a defined beam and super fast movement, people really like this combination.” Back at The O2 Arena, XL Video supplied the main curved stage set LED pieces, made up from Absen six mm LED tiles, 462 in total. The circular closedown screen used three Barco HDQ-2K40 projectors and on the Brit statue, four Barco HDF-W26 projectors. Side of stage relay screens used two Barco HD-20 projectors on each side. Centre

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Below: Beyoncé in the spotlight; Lorde picked up a Brit for Best International Female Solo Artist; Katy Perry’s neon Cleopatra inspired set was designed by Jonathan Perry from Perry Scenic; Bruno Mars’ set was also designed by Jonathan Perry from Perry Scenic with set construction by LS-Live.

PRODUCTION PROFILE: The Brits

of House relay screens consisted of four Barco R12+ projectors. XL Video, with Paul Wood as Project Manager, also supplied specific artists requests throughout the show, including front projection gauze screen and two Barco HDQ 2K40 projectors for Beyoncé. The accompanying cameras, PPU and control system were managed and supplied by Oglehog and Chris Saunders who continued his long relationship with The Brits. SNP Productions Ltd supplied Oglehog with eight Catalyst media servers and two Full Boar 4 consoles. SNP’s Managing Director, Simon Pugsley was tasked with programming SNP’s new HES Full Boar 4’s consoles and Catalyst media servers for Beyonce’s performance working closely with Paul Wood and his team to provide graphics to the onstage projection and sculptural LED screens.

SPECIAL EFFECTSFirst to perform on the night were Arctic Monkeys, complete with a giant flaming A and M sign created and run by pyrotechnics specialist FFP FX. For the third time in their career they picked up the award for Best Group and Best Album in the same year. For Ellie Goulding, winner of Best British

Female Solo Artist, FFP used 10 LFM 1 liquid flames and fabricated two dozen burning drumsticks and several handheld pyrotechnic devices as well as confetti rigged above downstage and the presenter’s catwalk for her set. FFP also rigged 10,000 balloons above the audience for the Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers finale. In the arena and on the night it has to be said that it was Beyonce who stole

the show with XO. The staging for her was a triumph of modern theatre design powered by a huge inspiring sound. Other notable award winners on the night included David Bowie who picked up Best British Male Artist; Rudimental, Best Single; Sam Smith, Critics Choice and Daft Punk, Best International Group. Lasers had to be big for 2014 and to that

end, ER Productions - fresh from working on the Grammys - supplied 23 high-powered OPSL systems totaling 497W. Ryan Hagan Director at ER commented: “Three artists requested lasers for their performances and we worked closely with Dave Davey to ensure all effects required were executed correctly and safely. It was the quality of the OPS diodes that helped ER Productions produce the TV white looks along with the vibrant colours required.”

Arctic Monkeys used three 21W RGB OPS lasers systems up-stage centre, just behind the band and used white and yellow colours. Katy Perry’s neon Cleopatra theme suited the laser looks incredibly well. Hagan added: “It was important to achieve different styles from the three laser rigs so for Katy Perry it was decided to concentrate the

“It was the quality of the OPS diodes that helped ER Productions produce the TV white looks along with the vibrant colours required.”

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PRODUCTION PROFILE: The Brits

majority of the power on-stage. It was also a great opportunity to utilise the large matte white Brit Statue with some laser mapping effects. This came from two 25W RGBYC OPS systems with high-speed 60k scanners located at FOH. This was a truly unique effect and one ER Production’s has never delivered for a live TV show. The neon theme also allowed us to use really bright greens, magentas and cyan’s which show up on camera really well. The end result looked great and added an effective layer to the laser display. To top this up we rigged six 21W RGBB OPS systems onto the curve trusss, stage left and right with two 24W greens hung centrally on a mid-truss. The focus for these were the pit cameras, which shot up through the

performance catching all the laser effects.” For Ellie Goulding ER Productions used 12 21W RGBB OPS systems and diffracted burst effects. The lasers accompanied the track Burn with white and yellow effects throughout with the final verse using red diffracted effects. DRAPING AND STAGINGDraping and rigging specialist Blackout created a bespoke fabric backdrop for Beyoncé as she performed a glittering rendition of herempowering anthem XO - the first live TV performance of the single. Led by Blackout Project Director, Kevin Monks, who collaborated with Brits TV and Beyoncé’s production team to install an eight metre wide by 12 metre fine gauze high speed roller screen which

became the centrepiece of Beyoncé’s simple yet glamorous performance. In collaboration with set company, Steel Monkey, the team installed three steel boxes upstage of the screen, clad with multiple layers of white voile to create a series of projection surfaces for XL Video to display creative content. At the opening of the performance, Beyoncé stood between the fine gauze and a giant close up of her face was projected live onto the screen, appearing to the audience as if suspended in mid-air. As Beyoncé sang the lyrics ‘turn the lights out’ the projection disappeared and the main central set frame was revealed by a kabuki fabric drop system and the gauze screen was raised at over one metre per second by the roller screenmechanism. Both systems were controlled by

Below: Josh Lloyd, FOH Band Mix Engineer; Ellie Goulding used extensive designs from FFP FX and ER Productions.

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SPEARHEADING STAGING EVOLUTION

dimensions SETUP

X16 16h00132’ X 56’(40 m x 17 m)

dimensions SETUP

X16 16h00132’ X 56’(40 m x 17 m)

PRODUCTION PROFILE: The Brits

the Blackout team to reveal the singer in her sparkling green dress. On stage, the three 2.5-metre square boxes were positioned behind her and used to project stars, fireworks and abstracts of the New York City skyline. Monks commented: “Beyoncé’s performance gave us the opportunity to use two of our reveal products, especially our fast roller screen system which is an ideal mechanism to create dramatic effects or to deploy projection surfaces within the content of even the most technically challenging shows.” Katy Perry wowed with her Egyptian themed neon Cleopatra set design by Jonathan Perry, Director of Perry Scenic, complete with a replica Tutankhamun Chariot and 3D Sphinx Cats perched upon stunning UV columns. Jonathan Perry also designed Bruno Mars’ set, a New York themed apartment that included a two metre in length rotating fan. A late request direct from Bruno saw the team work through

the night to create the graffiti themed effect that graced the stage. “It was a pleasure implementing Bruno Mars’ creative vision and a joy for Perry Scenic to work with him again,” said Perry. Working under time constraints, LS-Live was contracted by Perry Scenic to deliver structural requirements for Mars’ set, which included an upstage wall and rolling riser structure in front for the musicians. LS-Live’s Director, Ben Brooks commented: ”The whole set needed to roll on in just three minutes, so we designed it in different modular Prolyte LiteDeck components that fitted together quickly on stage via the easy top lock system, which we use for all our rental LiteDeck. We built the structure in line with Perry Scenic’s designs and installed lighting fixtures round the edges and an automated aluminium fan in the rear wall to complete the industrial look. Time was tight, but the lines of communication with Perry Scenic were great as

always and we delivered the set the day before the show.”TPi

Photos: JM Enternationalwww.brits.co.uk

www.britanniarow.comwww.blackout-ltd.com

www.er-productions.comwww.ffp-fx.net, www.ls-live.com

www.nine-yards.co.ukwww.oglehog.com

www.outbackrigging.comwww.perryscenic.com

www.prg.comwww.showandevent.com

www.showstars.co.ukwww.snp-productions.co.uk

www.stageco.comwww.stagemiracles.comwww.steelmonkey.co.uk

www.xlvideo.tv

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Below: The 2014 Brit Awards marked the ceremony’s 20th year; Fans enjoyed performances such as Beyonce’s, and the event was broadcast to a TV audience.