Strange Stage Acoustics

[John Bell]

I provided and engineered my 4k rig and stage lighting for The Ultimate Elton Band at a corporate gig at Heathrow on Friday.

The portable stage at the Riverside Venue was built under one of the large concave dishes in the ceiling, which had lots of LED's.
It looked great above the LED embedded, portable dance-floor, but the on-stage acoustics were a night-mare.
It sounded like your head in a large goldfish bowl in the middle of the stage.
The FOH rig sounded great, even though there were several more of these things in the ceiling.
www.riverside-venue.co.uk/ ( Royal Gallery)

Anyone else had to deal with these? John.

[ian hasell]

Hi
These sorts of ceilings are a nightmare, best thing is to really argue not to rig any sound kit underneath them. The sound bounce can really mess up what you hear especially if you have any monitors pointing to the band.
I would really try to negotiate siting the band in a different position.


Ian

[John Bell]

Unfortunately, when the band sent me a stage plan, it did not show where in the room the stage was situated.
It was not possible to move it, due to the tables and seating already having been set-out for the event.

Another problem was, that one of the stage boards had a 2" upwards warp in it and it took the venue an hour to replace it. I couldn't believe that they thought it was safe to use.

I also had to rig my FOH position alongside stage right and monitor on head-phones. Andy Horne and the band's manager, advised me on the mix from out front.

Other artists included a female forces type trio with a male accompaniment using vintage style mics and a separate classical acoustic guitar soloist, all in front of the stage with a separate monitor. There was also a female opera singer on stage.

The DJ booked for the event went though my PA and did a great job, including introducing the acts.

I was not made aware of the additional performers prior to the gig, but as I had brought enough kit with me, it was not a problem.

Apart from the stage acoustics, everything went very well and the show was greatly appreciated by the MBNL audience. John