UK: Utopium supplied a range of lighting, rigging, staging and screens to Bristol’s Lloyds Amphitheatre over two consecutive weekends this July. Both Bristol Sounds (June 21 – 24) and Grillstock (July 1 – 2) entrusted Utopium with their assorted production needs, and between them welcomed acts such as Bonobo, Craig David, The Manic Street Preachers, The Pharcyde, The Darkness and the Hot 8 Brass Band.
With different stages in different positions and an eclectic variety of genres on offer over the course of the two events, Utopium had to be creative and astute when creating its base concert lighting systems for each event.
For Bristol Sounds, Utopium utilised a range of new equipment which included Martin Sceptron VDO 10 LED 1m video battens, an Avolites Pearl Tiger Touch 2 and a Hippotizer Amba. Along with new kit, Utopium also supplied Q-7 LED Flood / Blinder / Strobes, Martin Mac Quantum LED Profiles, Martin Mac Aura XB LED Washs, Chauvet Rogue RH1 Hybrids and 4 Lite Molefays. The team also supplied main stage rigging in the form of 9m and 6m Lighting Trusses flown using Prolyft; Double braked hoists, 9m drapes truss and 10m video wall truss flown using Prolyft; and Double braked hoists.
To control the lighting Utopium supplied an Artnet networking system, an Avolites ART 2000 Dimmer, Distros and a Wyswyg system to enable touring LDs to pre-program their lighting designs. The team also provided a floor package for Bonobo which consisted of six lighting towers which incorporated Chauvet Rogue RH1 Hybrids, Chauvet Q-Wash 419z LED washes, Chauvet Rogue FX-Bs, 4 Lite Molefays and 2 Lite Molefays. The team also designed and delivered architectural lighting to illuminate the Lloyds Amphitheatre building with colour changing uplighters.
To create the perfect atmosphere at Grillstock, Utopium kitted out not just the main stage, but also the King of the Grill stage, Weber’s demo stand and the main bar, as well as providing festoon lighting across the site. For the main stage, the team provided a flown lighting system and floor package which included Martin Mac Aura XB LED Washs, Martin Mac Quantum LED Profiles, Chauvet Rogue RH1 Hybrids, SGM Q-7 LED Flood/Blinder/Strobes, 4 Lite Molefays and LED Starcloth to dress the back of the stage.
In addition, it engaged with Production AV to supply event screens and cameras, including a 6.4m x 3.4m video wall for the main stage, cameras for the relay of images to the screen, studio channels for use at the front of house and on stage, full HD camcorders for use as locked off shots on stage, a full HD PPU with all the control hardware and a Vision mixer operator to control the mix and direct the cameras. For the Weber stall, the team supplied two plasma screens with a camera and operator.
Utopium’s Jon Newman commented: “Being a Bristol based company it’s great to be involved in two brilliant events on our home soil, which are both two great dates in the summer festival calendar. These shows were the perfect opportunity to put our new products to great use, enabling us to offer increased creativity to the incoming lighting designers, and impressive light-shows to the thousands of music-lovers who attended.”
