22 l July 2013 broadcastreport UNITED KINGDOM
The (broadcast) Sound of Change
An extraordinary celebrity line-up, a good cause, four stages and approximately one billion viewers watching from home: Erica Basnicki finds out how The Sound of Change went from live, to on-air…
AN AMAZING line-up of stars and celebrity presenters – including Beyoncé (and a surprise appearance by hubby Jay-Z for Crazy in Love), Jessie J, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna and Timbaland – assembled at London’s Twickenham Stadium for The Sound of Change concert on 1 June. The event was a focal point
for the Chime for Change campaign, founded by Gucci designer Frida Giannini, Beyoncé and Salma Hayek, which aims to improve education, health and justice for women around the world. The show raised over £2.6 million (€3 million) to fund approximately 200 projects in 70 countries. It was also broadcast live to 150 countries worldwide “but in my head, no one’s listening to it but me”, said Red TX director Tim Summerhayes just a few
Red TX’s Mike Silverston and Tim Summerhayes on board Red I
hours before the event. The company was commissioned by Splinter Films to handle the broadcast audio for the concert, which featured one of the tightest technical schedules many involved had ever had to work to, with as little as six minutes changeover time between artists performing on four different stages.
“It’s a complex show, but we’ve tried to keep it as simple as we can so if anything does go a bit sideways it’s not impossible to get in and sort out the mess. There’s various spares and contingencies... but God forbid we ever have to go to them,” he laughed. Red TX pulled out all the stops to cope with the intricacies of the show, (which, once over,
Summerhayes said “ran like clockwork”). Both the Red I and Red II trucks were installed ‘on site’ (a relative term – the vehicles themselves were over 1km away from the stage) along with a crew of seven. Summerhayes, his son Ben Summerhayes and Mike Silverston were on board Red I mixing stages A and B; Ian Dyckhoff, Huub Lelieveld and Rohan Igoe manned Red II for stages C and D, while Christian Postna acted as back up between the two trucks.
In total, 128 channels of audio were recorded using Merging Technologies’ Pyramix, with Cockos’ Reaper used as multi-track backup. Both Red I and Red II are equipped with a Studer Vista 8 digital console, plus PMC AML1 monitoring. Sub-mixes from each music mix truck were fed to Gary Moore from NEP Visions, who mixed the final presentation audio inside the company’s Atlantic truck, the UK’s first fully integrated 1080p 3G-capable OB vehicle. “It’s the pride of our fleet and our latest – it’s rather funky,” said NEP’s Brian Clark.
The Atlantic centres around
(L-R): Mike Silverston, Tim Summerhayes, Ian Dyckhoff, Rohan Igoe, Huub Lelievel and Christian Postma
(L-R): Chime for Change founders Salma Hayek, Gucci designer Frida Giannini and Beyoncé
an Evertz EQX Magnum 488x800 router to distribute
both audio and video throughout the 79sqm truck, with a 56-fader Calrec Apollo console and Genelec monitors handling audio duties. Moore also submixed the 24 audience mics and distributed this to himself and the two music mix trucks “to make it sound absolutely huge, and it does”, added Summerhayes. Red TX also worked closely with Britannia Row, which handled live sound for the event. “Britannia Row and Visions are companies we know and trust as we have worked with them on many occasions in the past,” said Summerhayes. “I was particularly impressed with Britannia Row and have no idea how they held it all together. Every detail was worked out in advance with military precision – even down to having all the vocal mics and radio packs individually labeled for each artist so that nothing was left to chance.” Veteran sound designer Derrick Zieba, audio crew chief at The Sound of Change, says it’s down to a process that he and Britannia Row have been developing over more than 20 years, building on their experience of providing audio for the BRIT Awards, Classic
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minutes changeover time between artists performing on four different stages
Jennifer Lopez was
one of the high-profile performers
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