A Capital Celebration

On March 12, 2001 a crowd of about 30,000 crammed the foreshores of Lake Burley Griffin to watch the story of Australia’s first 100 years of nationhood unfold. The concert, designed and produced by Showcorp Production Services, was the culmination of a day of celebrations which included Canberra’s announcement of Citizen of the Year, an aerial display by the RAAF Roulettes, a horse drawn carriage parade, Bananas in Pyjamas, Hooley Dooleys and other kids entertainment, as well as the planting of the International Tree of Peace in the Peace Park near the National Library.

Governor-General Sir William Deane addressed the crowd, saying the night was not only a celebration of Australia, Federation, democracy and unity but also a celebration of Canberra. The celebration included messages from Prime Minister Howard and former Prime Ministers Gough Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawke.

Two big television screens enabled the huge crowd to view what was unfolding on stage. Each decade was represented through television and film footage shown on the large screens either side of the stage. Showcorp Video Solutions produced the informative and entertaining historical footage. Large format pigi projections supplied by The Electric Canvas were an integral part of the set construction and scrolled through a collage of images representing the highlights of each decade. This unique concept was then further enhanced by song, dance, narrative and special effects such as an FA18 fly past, air raid sirens, pyrotechnics by Syd Howard Fireworks International and searchlights supplied by The Great Outdoor Lighting Company.

The Concert
The concert itself was a celebration of Australian talent, an entertaining variety-style concert utilising some of Australia’s iconic artists and performers to project one hundred years of Australian culture, history and hopes. Each segment to the show represented a decade.

Djakapurra Munyarryun set the tone of the evening by performing a traditional welcome. Julie Anthony kicked off the concert with the national anthem, followed by Barry Crocker, the Funky Divas, Amelia Farrugia, a “Salute to the Armed Forces”, Troy Cassar-Daley, Ross Wilson from Daddy Cool and Mondo Rock, Normie Rowe, David Campbell from Shout, Todd McKenney and Madison Avenue representing the 1990’s. A special tribute to cricketing legend Sir Donald Bradman, Master of Ceremonies Michael Caton and comic performance by Magda Szubanski were amongst the crowd favourites. Musical accompaniment was provided by The Canberra Youth Orchestra and Woden Valley Youth Choir under the watchful eye of Musical Director and Conductor, Michael Harvey.

Colin Baldwin, Managing Director of the Showcorp Group and also event producer for ‘A Capital Celebration’, formed his event management team for the project well over a year ago. “Our creative concepts for this project were reconstructed several times as logistics and budget parameters unfolded during the past 12 months,” said Colin. “From the outset it was my intention to produce an event that not only concentrated on historical significance but also on entertainment values. I wanted to produce a show that could celebrate the history of our federation and at the same time give the audience an experience they would not forget for some time.”

Technical requirements
With high quality sound reinforcement, spectacular lighting, large format moving slide projection, pyrotechnics, themed staging and historical video, Showcorp staged a spectacular event.

The set-up took over a week and the night before the show the heavens opened and saturated the site. Don’t believe Australia is a dry, dusty country because I’ve never seen this amount of torrential rain in England. At 10am on the morning of the show, God was still producing his own spectacular production of thunder and lightning. At lunchtime the sun appeared and by mid afternoon it was blistering. The searchlights had a chance to dry out and the crew breathed a collective sigh of relief.

For the concert, four major sites in Canberra were integrated into the show. The stage site on the shores of Lake Burley-Griffin; Peace Park, (where the “International Tree of Peace” ceremony was celebrated); Old Parliament House; and the Australian War Memorial.

The “Federation Stage”, as it was called, was located at the waters edge of Lake Burley Griffin in sight of both Parliament Houses (old & new being located directly behind the audience with the War Memorial directly in front). Colin commented “what better place to stage our Capital’s Centenary of Federation. The Federation stage site sits perfectly between both Parliament houses with Anzac Parade on the other side of the lake leading up to the War Memorial with Mount Ainsley in the background”.

Technical Direction
For technical direction and to call the show Colin chose Peter Milne. Peter, who worked on the recent Sydney Paralympics Ceremonies as technical director and his company The Electric Canvas also provided large format Pigi projection for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Sydney Olympics. Peter is regarded as one of Australia’s foremost technical producers. The Electric Canvas was the obvious choice for the large format moving slide projection, which was projected onto giant scrims each side of the stage. “The Pigi projection imagery that Peter’s team created was full of nostalgia, colour and movement and perfectly formed part of the overall themed staging” said Colin.

The Great Outdoor Lighting Company, which was formed two years ago to service this style of event with powerful and weatherproof lighting equipment, was employed to light the three main venues of “A Capital Celebration”. For the Australian War Memorial, six 2.5k Griven Kolorstreams were used to saturate the unique building in vibrant colour. Six Griven 4k xenon searchlights became WW2 beams of light as part of the 1940 – 1949 segment of the show. A veteran Douglas Dakota DC3 flew overhead as the searchlights and pyrotechnics explosions simulated a dramatic air raid effect. The DC3 then flew over Lake Burley Griffin and the Federation stage audience where six 4k xenon Space Cannon Ireos colour changing searchlights and six 2k xenon Space Cannon Easy searchlights continued the aircraft’s pursuit as it disappeared behind the audience.

Lighting
For the Federation stage lighting design, Colin chose renowned lighting designer Alan Stone who opted for a rig dominated by Martin moving lights. Al managed to create period-style looks for each segment. Despite having sixty-two moving lights, the audience didn’t see them move until the 1980’s segment.

“I kept it as true as I could,” said Al. “Overall I’m very happy with the end result. It took a lot of work to unite all the technology – the video, live camera shots, PIGI projection, lighting and audio.”

Showcorp and Bytecraft supplied the lighting equipment. The lighting gear included 280 x Par 64’s, 16 x 8-lite DWE’s with scrollers, 24 x MAC600’s, 36 x MAC500’s, 6 x Cyberlight Turbos and a Whole Hog II.

“I am very impressed by the professionalism of the crew and the quality of the equipment,” he said. “The rig consists of 140 metres of chromed Total Fabrication concert truss. There were 42 lighting points in the rig with 20 moving motors enabling the truss to move into different configurations throughout the show. We hung 22 of the points to get some weight out of the roof. I think there’s about half a ton of weight left in the roof which was a real challenge to erect!”

In keeping with the overall theme, the audience did not see any truss moving until near the end of the show. During the earlier Decades of the show the truss was moved between segments when the stage was blacked out and the audience was focused on the archival video footage that introduced each decade. Specials include a cluster of mirror balls that were lowered for “The Funky Divas” during the 1940’s segment and also “Madison Avenue” for the 1990’s segment.

“For the 1950’s segment a mid truss, with eight chain motors and six hinges, formed a theatrical proscenium arch behind David Campbell and the dancers,” described Al. “For the 1960’s a scrimmed 3.9 metre diameter circle truss descended behind the artist. On to this I projected graphic gobos from the Cyberlights which recreated the psychedelic sixties oil wheel look. In the 1970’s we really introduce the PAR cans with four truss fingers which come in from the horizontal to 45 degrees. The 1980’s song is a ballad so we didn’t want truss moving. By the 1990’s every piece of truss in the show consistently moves throughout the performance.”

When it comes to choosing a moving light Al is fairly flexible stating that they all have their pros and cons.

“I don’t believe any manufacturer has got it right,” he said. “However Martin is reliable and fitted within the budget. Considering the amount of moving lights we have, I’m amazed we haven’t had one single problem with them.”

The Audio
The audio system design was by Garry Hall and Dave Rennie. Norwest Productions, who supplied the audio production for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Sydney 2000 Olympics and Paralympics, provided additional audio to complement Showcorp equipment for the Tree of Peace ceremony

The main PA clusters were EAW KF860/861 line arrays in six high festival configurations with the top cabinet trimmed at 12 metres. The top 4 cabinets were KF860 (60 degree) and the 2 lower cabinets KF861 (90 degree). A three high EAW KF750/755 cluster flew on the outside of the main left and right PA to cover out fill areas near the large video screens. 4 EAW SB850 subs each side were fed off an auxiliary buss. Stage focus for VIP seating at the front centre was covered with 2 EAW KF650 cabinets. 2 KF750 cabinets on the top deck (10 metre trim) of each delay tower provided coverage to the rear of the amphitheatre and filled in the acoustic shadow created by the tower.

To give maximum sightlines to the audience, a compromise was achieved with one tower directly in front of each main PA. The towers were 15 metres either side of the centre line and 65 metres from the stage. FOH control for sound, lighting, video replay and show call was in a tent directly in front of the house left delay/ follow spot/ Pigi projection/ searchlight tower.

System measurement, analysis, alignment and tuning were done with Smaart Live. Equalization and delay for the XTA DP226 processors were controlled via RS 485 using XTA Dcore software.

FOH sound was mixed by Garry Hall on a Soundcraft Series 5/52 with a 16 channel Mackie handling orchestra and choir submixes from the broadcast facility. FOH FX units included TC Electronic reverbs, DBX1046 compressors and Klark Teknik 1/3 Oct graphics.
Des O’Neill was responsible for playback of all music inserts, pre recorded voice-overs and audio from pre-recorded video. Des was on headsets with the Show caller listening for audio and video cues, leaving Garry free to concentrate on the live music components and levels of the show. Two 360 Degree Systems Instant Replay machines, one for music inserts and the other for voice overs worked perfectly for the tight cues and cross fades that were characteristic of the show. Backup audio replay was on Tascam DAT and Denon 1050 minidisk.

Randy Fransz mixed the monitors on a Soundcraft SM 12/40 with DBX equalizers inserted on all mixes. The monitor system was designed to minimize spill into the orchestra and choir mics. Zeck T52S 6”/1” speakers mounted near ear level on heavy duty mic stands for the conductor, electric bass, electric guitar and choir minimized spill. EAW Sm200 wedges were used for the rhythm section drummer and electric keyboardist. Perspex screens enclosing the rhythm section provided some acoustic isolation to the nearby sensitive orchestra mics. EAW KF650 side fill cabinets were mainly used with a full orchestra mix to give the feeling of wall reflections to the orchestra on the large outdoor stage.
Shure PCM-600 UHF in-ear monitors were specified for all solo artists to reduce the amount of sound from the EAW Sm200 frontline wedges, but most artists chose to go with the front wedges and natural sound of the orchestra on the day.

16 Shure UHF radio mics were used for solo artists. SM 87 for handheld vocals, DPA headsets for choreographed performers and Sennheiser lapel capsules for recital pieces and didgeridoo. John McFarlane was the radio mic technician.

Due to the limited audio facilities in the OB truck, George Gorga engineered the TV broadcast mix in an acoustically treated site shed situated near the stage and fed a stereo mix to the main OB truck for recording. George and assistant engineer, Ian Cooper, designed and assembled the broadcast mixdown facility. The main solo mics, rhythm section, choir, lecterns, playback feeds and audience mics were mixed on one of George’s favorite consoles, a 56 input Recall by Langley supplied by Audio and Recording. The on board dynamics were programmed before the event and adjusted during sound checks and rehearsals. DBX 566 tube compressors were inserted across rhythm section, orchestra, choir and vocal subgroups. A DBX 160s compressor was inserted on the left and right recording mix. TC Electronics and Lexicon reverbs were assigned to orchestra, choir, instruments and vocals.

The broadcast mix down facility also contained a Midas XL3 40 to mix the orchestra mics for the broadcast mix and provide low stings, high strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion sub mixes to the FOH and monitors.

XTA DS-800 active mic/line splitters provided the audio signal electrical isolation between broadcast, FOH and monitors.

System Engineer, Dave Finch was proud to see all the warehouse preparation Randy and himself applied, paid dividends with a smooth set up, on time rehearsal and a great show. Dave even had time to help with the mixing of the pre show afternoon entertainment.

Event Management Team
Colin Baldwin – Event Producer
Paul Venables – Co-Producer
Sarah Ploughman – Co-Producer
Tony Townsend – Production Manager
Peter Milne – Technical Director
Brian O’Connor – Site Manager
Chris Murphy – Assistant Site Manager
Sarah Stinson – Production Office Manager
Maggie McKinney – Event Co-ordinator
James Klein – Production Co-ordinator
Barry Mair – Site and Technical Drawings
Steven Johnson – Creative Writer
William A Forsythe – Choreographer
Michael Harvey – Musical Director / Conductor

The Production Team
Lyndel Molloy – Historical Video Co-ordinator
Michael Rampe – Historical Video Editor
Karleen Meeenahan – Video Research & Compilation
Toby Waley – Video Tape Operator
Alan Stone – Lighting Design / Direction
Roger Hind – Outdoor Lighting Crew Boss
Hunter Firth / Matt Fordham – Stage Lighting Technician
David Hartley – Stage Lighting technician & Rigger
Paul Waterhouse / Donald McGregor – Lighting Technician
Glen Williams / Joe Murray – Pigi Projections Technician
Gary Hall – Live Sound Audio Director
Des O’Neill – Live Sound Technician
George Gorga – Orchestra Engineer
David Finch / Randy Finch – Audio Technician
Dot Russell – Stage Manager
Di Kingston / Kirsty Lowder – Asst Stage Manager
Tony Butler – Outdoor Stage Manager
Larry Eastwood – Stage Theming Carpenter
Ray Calcutt – Stage Theming Carpenter
James Duke – Asst Stage Theming Carpenter
George Boziakis
Catriona Strom – Photographer & Media Liaison
Peter McGill – Crew Boss Syd Howard Fireworks

In all, over 30 crew, 180 performers, security officers and ushers, ACT government personnel, utility service, 32 various sub-contracted companies were engaged to work on what turned out to be a huge success.

“My 28 years in live event production has been full of exciting and challenging times,” concluded Colin Baldwin. “A Capital Celebration has given me a few more grey hairs I’m sure. Now that our involvement in Australia’s Centenary of Federation Celebrations has come to an end, one can not help but feel that emptiness that engulfs you when you finish a large project like this, as I’m sure many of the people reading this article have felt before. My sincerest appreciation to Sue Baker-Finch and her ACT Government team. One of the best clients I have had the pleasure to work for.”