AV: To create this impact, the screen and projection needed to be very bright and large. Graeme, what did you use and how did you achieve this goal?

Graeme Trott: You’re right, it did need to be bright and it needed to have an impact. The images were all shot with this in mind, and were all in 1080p high definition. We projected onto the State Theatre’s rear projection cyc which is 16m x 9m. Our brightest available HD projector was the 12k and the next was the 10k, which in perceived brightness is pretty close, but a single projector was not going to cut it, so we used a fixed focal length 1.1:1 lens and double-stacked a 12k Christie HD12 with a 10k Christie HD10M. We probably achieved about 18 to 20k lumen equivalent brightness on the screen by double-stacking.

AV: Given it was such a large surface, did double-stacking provide any issues in relation to position and distance from your projection surface, especially with two different kinds of lenses?

GT: The initial placement of the projectors is critical – they have to be level and perpendicular to the projection surface – so we used the 12k as the reference point (as it has the fixed focal length lens) to get the right distance for the required image size. We then took the 10k, which uses a short zoom lens and is a bit longer than the fixed lens in the 12k, and sat it physically a little bit behind the 12k. Both being Christies at the same output resolution, the internal test patterns are the same, so you can match it pixel for pixel. If they are level and perpendicular, then you should just lens shift to match the image. However, as the 10k has a zoom lens, there was a bit of back and forth to get it right, but in the scheme of the show itself, it was a pretty seamless setup.

CLEAN FEED

AV: Given the importance of the language and lyrics, how did you approach the sound design?

JO: I had to make what was being sung incredibly clear. I had to make what the audience can’t understand incredibly clear, because there is a certain responsibility. I used an LCR setup. Left and right, I had Meyer MSL4, with a centre cluster of L-Acoustics Kudo. This whole project is about restoring language, so you needed to feel the emotion, but in saying that, it was about mixing for the arrangement, so with the LCR mix, I can get the vocal sections up in the mix without being so loud.

The audio component itself was pretty involved. There were 56 channels of audio off stage, with various percussion, orchestral lines, with reeds and horns, as well as a number of vocals and an interesting bush drum kit where the rack tom was a petrol tank of a motorbike. So I ran an analogue console for front of house, with a separate side console to take care of additional choir channels and instruments that were likely to stay the same throughout the performance.

All monitors were done on the Digico D1, as there were 30 wedges on 20 sends. The nature of the piece is a revolving door, where soloists come on and off stage on a song-by-song basis – so monitors benefited from the snapshot automation. For me out front, it was just one or two channels that really change at any given time and I like the feel of analogue console, so I was comfortable with that option.

Basically the design of the show is very organic – the concept is continuously evolving… a far cry from a stale theatre production.