Liverpool-based Adlib designed and supplied lighting and sound equipment plus technicians for comedian Jack Whitehall’s Gets Around UK arena tour.

An in the round format presented some interesting challenges to the technical team. Neil McDonald was production manager and Johnny Dodkin stage manager, working with Adlib’s audio engineer Sam Proctor who specified a Coda Audio PA system and was joined on the road by systems tech George Puttock and PA techs James Petch, Richard Cook, and Michael Madsen.

The Coda system was chosen as the most suitable option for two primary reasons – its light weight meant more boxes could be flown in the centre of the rooms, and the HF planar wave drivers ensured they could get clarity and detail into every corner of the room.

The venues all varied slightly, but the average set-up featured eight hangs of Coda, each comprising 12 LA12s and four ViRAY downs per array, all flown on their own individual points.

C10 amps drove the Coda speakers, and Whitehall used an IEM system. Four Adlib AA1214 speakers driven by Lab.gruppen PLM 20000Qs were positioned discreetly on the floor around the stage, used as fillers for the front rows of seating.

Whitehall used his own directional DPA headset mic, chosen by Adlib, which worked brilliantly in the arenas, rejecting any reflections and enabling maximum gain-before-feedback. Adlib also provided a concealed DPA LMK4060 lavalier mic as a spare.

A number of ambient mics were positioned around the stage to capture the reactions of the first few rows of audience, which were fed into Whitehall’s IEMs.

Proctor mixed the show and monitors from one console, a Midas PRO2, picked for its warmth, great sounding preamps, and ability to use dynamic processing, with a Soundcraft Vi1 toured as a spare.

Both consoles fed into one of Adlib’s standard Lake Processing racks, with three LM 44s at FOH and three LM 26s at amplifier world, giving a total of 36 zones of PA and a high degree of control in all the different rooms in which they played.

www.adlib.co.uk