Rental company Adlib continues its work with top comedians, having just supplied full production including DiGiCo consoles for Jack Whitehall’s sold-out, three-week At Large UK arena tour.
The Liverpool based company previously supplied production for his 2014 arena tour, which was staged in the round.
Having appropriate production in the right proportions and places is a key to delivering comedy on a large scale. It is about presenting this very intimate and personal style of entertainment and communication in a way that ensures audiences in larger venues enjoy all the same essential experiences as a one-to-one scenario.
Steve ‘Patto’ Pattison mixed front of house, working with a strong team from Adlib including monitor engineer / sound crew chief Marc Peers and systems tech Tony Szabo, who was responsible for the precision and detail required to ensure that every seat in the house had crisp, clear and audible speech.
Pattison’s console of choice was a DiGiCo S31 – a first time out with this particular product for both him and Szabo – while Peers used an S21 for monitors. As only eight channels were being used, the tiny footprints of the consoles were an ideal mix of quality and size for the application.
The stage box was a DiGiCo SD-Rack. This was connected via BNC coax cable from front of house to stage and run at 48K for full redundancy in both directions, allowing each console to back up the other if necessary.
Peers’ set-up utilized one of Adlib’s Wardrobes, a fully configurable double width case – in this case containing SD-Racks, UPS and RF units, shout speakers and power distro – designed for push-in-plug-in-power-up convenience and speed.
Adlib client manager Phil Kielty comments, “When we did Jack’s last arena tour it gained rave reviews for making live comedy an event, and since he rode onto stage on horseback for this one, we can safely say he repeated the feat.”
Kielty says that Adlib is fortunate to work with some of the world’s top comedians in the UK – from Jerry Seinfeld and Louis C.K., to Russell Howard and Ricky Gervais.
“Jack is up there with them all,” he says. “He is a fearless comedian and his production is one of the best live stand up shows out there at the moment. We are all thrilled that Adlib is supplying audio, lighting and video to the amazing At Large tour.”
