ED SHEERAN. PRODUCTION PROFILE: Ed Sheeran

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1 ED SHEERAN ED SHEERAN IS AN ARTIST THAT HAS RISEN FROM PLAYING LOCAL RECORD SHOPS TO ARENAS ACROSS THE WORLD IN JUST A FEW SHORT YEARS. HIS LATEST ALBUM X WAS AN INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS WITHIN ITS FIRST WEEK, CHARTING AT NO.1 IN 12 COUNTRIES AND REACHING THE TOP FIVE IN 11 OTHERS. DESPITE THAT METEORIC RISE, THE SONGWRITER REMAINS EQUALLY AT HOME PERFORMING TO CROWDS LARGE OR SMALL, LEAVING THE TECHNICAL CHALLENGES TO THE TALENT BEHIND THE SCENES. TPi CAUGHT UP WITH THE TEAM AT GLASGOW S SSE HYDRO TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HOW THE AV SOLUTIONS HAVE SCALED UP ALONGSIDE THE TICKET SALES. When TPi first saw Ed Sheeran play live, it was back in 2011 at the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, Germany, a showcase event for relatively unknown acts on the European stage. Playing to a room of disinterested Germans, he silenced the crowd on several occasions, just a boy and his guitar, some self-generated loops, expertly bringing the venue to a standstill better than the myriad of bands we d seen that weekend. Fast forward a few years, and the unassuming songwriter who shyly said a softly spoken Danke at the end of that set has found a home on the arena-sized stages across the world, having risen to become one of the biggest selling acts of recent years. He s supported the brightest star on the planet including Taylor Swift on her Red tour, and is now out on tour himself as the headline act, playing out to sold out arenas across the UK and Europe in support of his most recent album, X. ONE MAN BAND It was Lighting and Production Designer Mark Cunniffe s vision that drove the technical requirements for the shows, having worked with Ed for a number of years and knowing the level of intimacy required for what is essentially a one man show, even as the crowds and venues have become bigger and bigger. While that meant an increased use of video to enhance the visual element of the tour, Cunniffe was determined not to take the lazy approach 40

2 Opposite: Ed Sheeran is touring in support of his No.1 album, X. Below: Audio vendor Major Tom supplied a Meyer Sound LEO PA system. to arena touring video, (large screens either side of the stage.) The real challenges here were taking what is essentially one man and his guitar and turning the visual performance into the kind of show suited to an arena, commented Cunniffe. Production wise, one of our biggest problems was how to achieve that without completely dwarfing the performer visually. That was my big conundrum and Chris Marsh and I spent the best part of six months trying to do exactly that. For me the best way to do that was get rid of the traditional left / right IMAG screens. We wanted to still make it a creative show, but decided to keep all of that creative inside the PA hangs, to keep it as compact and intimate as possible. We re treating all of the screens using an amazing piece of software called Demolition, and on top of that we have some bespoke content, a lot of which is hand drawn. ARTISTIC VISUALS For the overall visual element, Cunniffe took inspiration from Ed Sheeran himself, certainly in terms of artistic outlook. A lot of this is based around the mood, the melody or the lyric really, he said. I think Ed is a real poet, and we felt a lot of the hand drawn content, which we then digitised, gave it a real, organic feel in keeping with his performance. One of the clips for the track One features over 2000 hand drawings from a talented guy called Mushtashrik. I think there is something really personal about that kind of approach, very much in keeping with the approach of the artist. London creatives Treatment were brought in to design and produce the screen content, as Cunniffe explained: Treatment were in charge of collating all of the different inputs we wanted to put into the show, and we worked a lot with Creative Director Damian Hale. So they created a lot of the stop frame animations, the hand drawings were scanned and digitised, and then we combined those with all of the other visual elements. It was a great marriage of low tech and high tech really, I mean some of the artwork looked like a Cezanne painting or an impressionist s watercolour. The beauty of Demolition - which was developed by a great technical talent 41

3 Below: CT Touring supplied the tour s video package; LD Paul Smith opted for an MA Lighting grandma2 console; PM, FOH and Monitor Engineer, Chris Marsh chose a DiGiCo SD7 desk for the tour, as seen in use by System Tech, Charlie Albin; Sheeran dressed up as a convincing Austin Powers. called Matt Swoboda - is that you can take the artistic approach from the content and then treat live images of Ed with it as well. So if the content is watercolour, we can treat the images of Ed to look like watercolour and in real time. It really is a very creative tool, perfect for working with this artist. It means we don t have such clear lines between creative content and IMAG, it s all treated as one canvas. Phil Mead, Head of Video on the tour, said: Mark was adamant that he didn t want the traditional approach of using IMAG, he didn t want people in the auditorium to be looking left and right, so everything visually had to be within the PA lines, which kept the feel of intimacy and closeness, despite the scale of the venue. The tour uses lighting gear from independent, London based, entertainment lighting and rigging hire company Neg Earth. Video is from CT Touring in the US. In the end we ve ended up with this approach, which is a number of screens at different angles, some which move and adapt according to the set, and we map video to all of them, so that everyone looking at the stage will be entertained visually by the show, even if they are far from Ed at the back of the room. There are a total of 14 screens on this show, six Flyer 12mm that are static and eight Viper 7mm, which are on automation. The screens are fed by a d3 Technologies media server and we have a total of six cameras, four of those are Bradley Engineering Camball 3 s and two Sony 1550 s. The screens are adjusted with the aid of a Kinesys Elevation system comprising of 16 points using elevation variable speed chain hoist controllers and 16 liftket motors. Kinesys Vector software was used to tell the d3 solution the vertical location of the video walls so the mapping was flawless. Also a Kinesys Rigger handset was used for a fast setup / de-rig. Although Treatment in London were commissioned to do the pre-recorded content, Cunniffe wanted to use mainly live imagery. The live cameras go via our Video Director Lindsey Haney and then into d3 where we are running Demolition, which takes the live video capture and treats it, Mead told us. We can take the live camera feeds and distort, add fire / water effects and colourise the image. There s really only a few times during the set that you ever see Ed clean on the screens, the rest of the time it always has some element of treatment, this is our content. For a solo performer there is a lot of tech on this tour, not even just on the video side. The d3 software really is truly amazing - we used it at the start of this project on private release, but now most of these tools are included in 11.3 for all to use. The d3 and Demolition gives us so much creative freedom. The d3 servers are controlled over Art Net and the video feeds come from a switcher. Lindsey is our Video Director and directs the shots - she s got four busses to cut with. The shots are then sent to d3 where our Lighting Director Paul Smith makes the decision to take them to screen. It s all done via the lighting console, there s no Timecode. Ed loves to change the set list around, add choruses or segues into other songs, it can t be automated. In charge then of both video and lighting during the live show is Lighting Director Paul Smith, who also highlights the new software solutions as being an important part of the show s presentation. The Demolition software in the d3 which does all of the post processing effects on the IMAG, is amazing, like Phil said. It s essentially looking at contrast ratios and playing with those, that s where it fills its effects out from. So we ve got a single Robert Juliat Lancelot Follow Spot that we key light Ed with, and we balance that to the right lux level and colour temperature every day, and that s what drives the video content for the show, that single follow spot. INTERLINKED LIGHTING On the lighting side, Smith is running 16 Martin Viper Air FX and 36 Clay Paky Sharpys for 42

4 Below: Neg Earth supplied both lighting and rigging elements to the successful tour. support. He also has four Vari-Lite VL3000 Spot Luminaires, which provide Ed s backlight, and they run at about 50% for the whole show. The lighting is rounded off by a further 32 Clay Paky A.Leda B-EYE K20s all supplied by Neg Earth. The lighting and the video are completely interlinked in this show. It really is about the whole visual package, explained Smith. It gives a more coherent approach to it all. We run two MA lighting MA2 consoles. We have a grandma2 Full Size here at FOH, we run a back-up MA2 Light backstage. I did start the tour with the MA2 Light here alongside me at FOH, but I feel that the grandma is so reliable, it s unlikely I will ever need the back up. They re bomb proof, just absolutely solid. You can throw absolutely anything you like at them and they just keep asking for more. So we run MA Net back to a pair of MA2 NPU s, which live at Dimmer Beach, again as a master and a backup. We re also sending a couple of Artnet feeds out into the D3s, and also a couple of Artnet nodes up in the rig, because each of the Kinesys Screens is on its own DMX feed to avoid the need for returns and links coming back up the Kinesys hoists and over to the next. It sounds complicated, but it s a really simple, coherent system. Neg Earth have been fantastic, as you would expect. Everything we ve asked for they ve delivered, such a great service and great kit that s been super reliable, we couldn t have asked for anything more from them really. SHEERAN S SOUND Another crewmember that has worked with Ed for a number of years is Production Manager Chris Marsh. Due to the close nature of his relationship with the artist and the nature of the show centering on Ed onstage, Marsh is also the FOH and Monitor Engineer. I use the DiGiCo SD7 mixing console. I used to mix on a little SD11, because it is 44

5 Below: Sheeran uses Senheiser s 2000 Series as his microphone of choice. effectively just a guy and his guitar, but the input list has grown and the requirements for certain effects and output routing meant that we ran out of space on the SD11, he said. I do an awful lot of effects on Ed s vocals and loops, so it s very nice to use a big console and see FOH mix, monitor mix, effects and outputs right there in front of you. For outboard, I am running an Avalon 737 on Ed s vocal, which is something I ve always used on vocals, I just really like the sound of it, the compression is really effective but also very transparent, it s also great for broad strokes of EQ before it comes into the console. I use a couple of the on board effects augmented with a pair of Bricasti M7 s and an Eventide Eclipse. Marsh uses a Sennheiser 2000 Series microphone system, with a customised 5235 capsule. It was a long process of figuring out the right set up, he said. But now we have and it works great and sounds great, no matter what Ed does onstage. He s quite a loose, freewheeling performer, so the balance has to be right. With no in-ear monitors for Ed, onstage Meyer Sound MJF 212 wedges and Meyer Sound Hp700 / JM1P sidefills are utilised. With Wiltshire-based supplier Major Tom providing all of the audio equipment, System Tech Charlie Albin is in charge of their Meyer Sound LEO system. Ed did Madison Square Gardens and other big gigs in the US with it, and both him and his management loved the sound of it, so we were able to carry on with that on this leg of the tour, he told TPi. On the LEO system, Marsh commented: It really throws well. On the back seat, it sounds as good as if you were on the barrier, which is especially important on a show like this when its only one guy onstage. It needs to feel close, it needs to feel intimate. Secondly, the loops sometimes get quite complicated and layered, and this PA seems to maintain the separation that works really well. Finally, the sub bass is just phenomenal, so fast and so tight. 45

6 Below: Lighting Director, Paul Smith; Chris Marsh with his Production Manager hat on; Charlie Albin, System Tech. I ve really struggled to fi nd another cabinet that can deliver quite so much with so little. I only have six aside on the fl oor, and three aside fl own in the air. On the set up, Albin commented: Here, we are using a main left / right system with fi ve zones, Meyer LEO with LYON underhangs with a wide dispersion, LYON just to do the downfi lls and get that front section of the audience, then we have side hangs of MILO. A ground package of six subs a side, some UPAs along the front as front fi ll, some JMPs as an outfi ll and then our three cardioid subs fl own per side. It all works perfectly and sounds great. But for Marsh, the real star is the DiGiCo SD7 FoH console, as he admitted: If I was only able to take one thing, I would take the desk. Faced with a different PA, a different room, even different guitars, then I d take the SD7 and be able to make things come out alright, no matter what the circumstances or challenges we were faced with, it really has so much fl exibility that I wouldn t want to work with anything else on this tour. The guy responsible for hanging the AV package for each venue is Head Rigger Omar Franchi, well known in the UK industry as one of the best, having toured extensively with British heavy metal legends Iron Maiden. On Ed Sheeran s tour, my job is to hang the show and keep the shape of the show everywhere we go in relation to the interior of the different venues. On this tour, once I ve fi nished rigging, I m also handling the Kinesys system, so I ll move all of the screens during the show, hit all of the different cues for the different songs to fi t the overall image the video guys want to project to the audience. It s only 45 points - which isn t much, and it sounds easy - but because of the nature of this show, the measurements and positions are all very precise, and they have to be for it to work. I do all the rigging points on AutoCAD in advance, then I send it to the local promoter and the venue, and if there are any problems or workarounds, then we fi nd out about them beforehand. This means that in the morning when we arrive for set up, everything is already worked out and read to go, it just makes life a whole lot easier for everybody. In this show, we are talking about the rigging and everything hanging in less than two hours. Getting it down, so far we re at 110minutes, which isn t bad at all. As well as being the lighting vendor, Neg Earth also provided all of the trussing equipment. It s all the normal Neg Earth gear and service, smiled Franchi. We re using the HUD truss by Tyler for the back truss, which is the new one where the lights stay on the truss. When it comes down, they just put the wheels on it and put it straight on the truck. Easy. TRUCKING AROUND But of course, at the end of the night, as Franchi said, it all goes back in the box, onward to the next show. In this case the travelling boxes came in the shape of six 16.5-metre Scania Highline Megacube Artics from KB Event s fl eet of vehicles, who provided transport logistics on the UK and European X Arena Tour. Crew tour buses were provided by Four Seasons, while Steve Matthews Travel supplied Ed s personal tour bus. Furthermore, Catering was taken care of by Eat Your Hearts Out, while Tour Management was dealt with by Mark Friend and Amanda Thompson of AM Touring. For Cunniffe, the success of the tour provides an ideal moment for refl ection on a job well done by all of the teams involved. To me, this has been one of the most successful collaboration I have seen in live music, said Cunniffe. Ultimately, this whole thing is driven by the artist and his music, and that s how it should be. We re all support acts for Ed, effectively. This tour, as an overall product, is a fantastic collaboration between sound, lighting, creative content, video content, and the Demolition. I think it has produced a really seamless visual and aural experience, in support of an ultimately very, very talented singer-songwriter. TPi