Technical solutions specialist Adlib supplied sound and lighting for recent solo shows by rising young Australian pop star Cody Simpson, who took time out from his busy schedule opening for Justin Bieber to perform in the key cities of Glasgow, Birmingham and Manchester promoting his first studio album, Paradise.
Adlib was asked by AEG Live to supply full technical production to the shows which played true theatre / concert halls rather than traditional pop-orientated venues.
Adlib's Sam Proctor was systems engineer and worked closely with Cody's FOH and monitor engineers, Justin Sinclair (also production manager) and Ryan John. They used Adlib's Coda Audio LA12 system with SCP-F subs. For the largest show in Glasgow, this was configured as 12 x LA12s a side and four SCV-F Subs ground stacked and run in cardioid mode.
This robust set up was completed with Coda ViRay speakers for front-in / out and lip-fills. The consoles were both DigiDesign SC48s, which enabled Sinclair and Ryan John to import and use their showfiles and plug ins from the Bieber tour, so the solo set-up mimicked their existing one.
The neat and compact monitor system consisted of two L-Acoustics ARCs and two SB28 subs a side, plus a Sennheiser G3 IEM system from Adlib, with Cody and his band supplying all their own mics and stands. Sam Proctor is very enthusiastic about the Coda system. "Everything went extremely smoothly in all venues," he says.
At the Birmingham and Manchester shows, they stacked the ViRays four high as in-fills and dispensed with the lip-fills around the front of the stage. With these low stages - around a metre high - and the audience standing throughout the show, the 120 degree dispersion of the ViRays in this format proved an excellent way to cover the required width and fill out around the auditoriums.
Adlib Design's Ian Tomlinson designed the show's look and Adlib Lighting's Michael Summerfield created a very smooth moving pop vibe ambience, using a combination of house rigs and a small but extremely well spec'd and multi-purpose 'specials' rig.
This comprised of four Martin Professional MAC 700 Profiles and six MAC 101 LED wash lights, added to the house lighting systems at each venue.
