LarMac Live handles Sonisphere UK 2011

London-based production company LarMac Live were hired to manage and co-ordinate the technical aspects of this year’s UK Sonisphere Festival.

The three-day event, held in the grounds of Hertfordshire’s Knebworth House, hosted a number of high-profile acts from the world of metal, including Metallica, Biffy Clyro and Slipknot.

LML’s Ian Greenway took care of production management, assisted by Anthony Norris, overseeing all the technical production departments and requirements site wide, which featured four main stages and a sold out capacity of 60,000. The company was working for Stuart Galbraith from Sonisphere’s promoters Kilimanjaro Live.

The main technical suppliers for stages one and two were PRG for lighting and Britannia Row for sound respectively; both also companies with whom LML works regularly.

LML brought in rental company STS from Manchester to supply combined lighting, rigging and sound packages for stages three and four, which were both inside tented structures.

Ian Greenway commented that they have found this to be a much more effective way of dealing with the production requirements of tented and enclosed stages, "Using one production supplier to supply full circle production in these tents is a much more efficient way to advance and deliver a show – simplified conversations, less trucking, streamlined technical cover … all of which helps us to deliver the wider event."

Part of LML’s brief was to manage all the environmental noise parameters, for which they worked closely with specialists Vanguardia. For an area highly reliant on weather, throughout the three days they experienced a full gamut of meteorological extremities – sun, wind, rain, radical temperature shifts – and everything in between. The three off-site monitoring points had to be at a steady 65dB, while the onsite level was hitting 105dB.

The stage configuration helped massively with this. Britannia Row was closely involved with the design of their systems for both stages, which were an L-Acoustics K1 on Stage One and an Outline Butterfly on Stage Two.