By Zoe Mutter (AV Interactive Magazine)

A breathtaking expanse of LED screen, more than 1,300 proud volunteer cast members and a pioneering production – the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony was a joy to behold. Zoe Mutter Editor of AV Interactive Magazine went behind the scenes at Celtic Park to talk to the technical team responsible for the standout event.

An opening event with impact launched this year’s biggest celebration of sport and culture in the UK, the Commonwealth Games. With 4,500 athletes from 71 nations and territories competing and a host city with a vibrant cultural background, communicating the sense of pride and enthusiasm surrounding the event was imperative.

On the night all eyes were on Glasgow’s Celtic Park – one of Scotland’s most renowned sporting venues – as it became home to a boundary pushing production and the focal point for the 40,000-strong stadium audience and a global audience of millions.

Aside from the technological innovation – which included an immersive screen almost 100 metres wide – the human aspect of the event was apparent. More than 1,300 people volunteered to join the ceremonies cast, proud to be a part of the Commonwealth community.

The technical team’s preparations for the opening ceremony included 7,900 man days and a total of 66 days on site. The event was a long time in the planning, with Jack Morton Worldwide appointed as producer of the ceremonies in August 2012 and Glenn Bolton brought on board in January 2013 to head up the technical team.

Core team members included Melissa McVeigh, technical administrator; Malcolm Birket, technical designer; Andy Loveday, technical manager systems and James Lee, technical manager performance.

SPEAKER PLACEMENT IS KEY
Since forming Delta Sound in 1988 with Mark Bonner, Paul Keating has been involved in a number of opening and closing ceremonies including 2002’s Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games. Last year saw him join the Glasgow Commonwealth team as sound designer, with Delta Sound supplying audio and comms equipment.

“In venues like this it can be tricky because they are not acoustically designed for high-end theatrical shows so speaker placement and type needs to be correct. Here we’re trying to focus the energy off the building and on to the seats,” he said.

Similarly to the 2012 Olympics, an L-Acoustics system was chosen for the ceremony. This comprised a 13 flown ring system featuring 122 L-Acoustics V-Dosc speakers, an additional 80 ground stacked L-Acoustics Kudo and SB28 elements along with four flown screen relay positions totalling 20 K1 elements.

“We have a long history and a lot of success with L-Acoustics. This system is split as a flown and ground set-up – the roof positioned speakers placed on the three sides of the canopy, the ground supported positions on the field of play and the sub woofers on the ground,” Keating continued.

DiGiCo SD7 consoles featured in FOH, monitor and broadcast positions, with 112 microphone inputs and 112 MADI inputs available at each control position. “So many shows like this use digital consoles now for the sound quality and the fact everything is scalable and networked together,” added Keating.

Additional audio equipment included 16 d&b audiotechnik M2 monitor loudspeakers, three kilometres of speaker cable and seven kilometres of fibre optic and analogue cable in the stadium. The comms aspect of the project was extensive too, including 270 hand portable radios across 55 radio channels, covering up to a seven mile diameter across the city.

A total of 53 radio channels of radio mic and in-ears were also selected, comprising some 2,650 IEM receivers and 36 handheld and body pack transmitters. Encompassing the stadium’s Glasgow Operation Centre were 100 wired positions, linked together to support communication through a unified system.

“We’re working with 24 channels of a combination of Shure and Sennheiser handheld and body worn packs. In terms of in-ear monitors, we chose stereo Sennheiser transmitters and receivers which each cast member will wear to hear musical and vocal cues,” he said.

“These sorts of events are predominantly playback shows so we are using Merging Technologies’ Pyramix system, one of the most robust systems in the industry. We then have multi-track playback which in this case includes 32 tracks of playback and 24 channels of radio mic.”

Delta also supplied a variety of Riedel equipment including broadcast FM transmitters and receivers, aeronautical radio kit to allow communication from the Matrix system to the Red Arrows and portable radios (Tetra) for production communication.