Bringing Nashville to the UK posted: 07/07/2017
Adlib was delighted to be chosen by the production team from the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, to supply lighting, audio and crew to the recent UK arena tour by the stars of the CMT hit musical drama TV show, Nashville .
Tony Stephens was the popular tour manager who headed the ship with tour director Betsega Bekele.
This, the first arena size tour here for the phenomenon, featured an incredibly talented house band backing a selection of stars from the show like Charles Esten, Clare Bowen, Chris Carmack and Jonathan Jackson, who played a lively jukebox mix of favourite songs from the latest series, together with their own original material and some unexpected covers.
Adlib's Phil Stoker masterminded the audio elements, designing and specifying an L-Acoustics K2 / KARA rig that he knew would work well for the music and the vibe in the venues on the itinerary. Nashville's engineers John Dauphinee (FOH) and Mark Richards (monitors) worked alongside Adlib's Mezei Marci, Martin O'Grady and Antonio Calvi on the road.
Lighting was looked after by Charlie Rushton, with a design created by Adlib's in-house team to a brief received from Nashville touring producer, Steve Buchanan and their show caller, Ken McGriff, both of whom were on the road with the show.
The live matinee show
The Sounds of Nashville
The main PA hangs - in their largest configuration - were 14 x K2 loudspeakers with 12 x KARAs for the side hangs, supplied with all necessary rigging, complimented by 16 x ground stacked KS28 subs, plus some KARA and ARCS for infill and lip-fills.
The key was keeping the system flexible, solid and reliable says Phil. The country music and theatre style of the performance also made K2 an ideal choice.
Venues ranged from London's Royal Albert Hall to Manchester Apollo, where two shows were shoehorned into one day, to accommodate as many fans as possible when the planned Manchester Arena show had to be moved due to the building still being closed following the terrible events of 22nd May.
OH engineer John Dauphinee on his Avid Profile.
The FOH console was an Avid Profile, picked by John Dauphinee and the Yamaha CL5 on monitors was chosen by Mark Richards.
The processing was taken care of by a standard Adlib Lake rack loaded with two LM 44s, two LM 26s in conjunction with the L-Acoustics Network Manager which controlled the LA12X amps.
Adlib also supplied a 16-way Shure IEM system and 12 x d&b M2 wedge monitors plus a full mics-and-stands package. The mics included an assortment of Shure, AKG, Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, AKG and Audix products.
The rapport between the band and the soloists was very tight, and there was also a very proactive relationship between performers and audience as the whole Nashville musical concept transitioned seamlessly from the small screen into an epic live experience.
The Lights of Nashville
After the initial creative brief that it should resemble a large TV-style set with two side IMAG screens, Adlib introduced some basic touring elements with three LX trusses overhead and a drapes truss upstage to hang the straightforward Nashville backdrop.
The moving lights comprised 21 x Martin MAC Viper profiles, 12 on the front truss for key lighting, with five on the mid and six on the back for specials and effects.
The show at Manchester Apollo.
These were enhanced with 16 x MAC Viper Washes, five on the front and back and six on the mid truss.
Six Chauvet Strike Four LED blinders' completed the downstage truss, perfect for the audience participation moments. The stage was finished off with 20 x Chauvet COLORado Batten 72 Tour LED Battens to light the Nashville backdrop and focal point of the stage.
The grandMA2 full size console was run by Tom Webber, with a PC system as a backup. Tom was joined by Jeff Bond on the lighting crew to complete the Lighting team alongside Charlie Rushton.
The desk was set up and programmed to be flexible. Tom worked closely with Ken to adapt the show each day as the set varied from show to show. They needed adaptability and scope to operate on-the-fly, rather than be limited by regimented and pre-cued looks. Ken called the show and follow spots, while Tom took care of the lighting operation.
Adlib supplied a Green-GO wireless/wired combination comms system, running wireless out to the two Robert Juliat Merlin FOH follow spots. They had a show ring set up for all to hear and a dedicated channel for Ken and the follow spot ops - so the rest of the crew didn't have to hear the spot cues. The video crew's separate comms system could also be patched into the master Green-GO system, connecting all the technical departments which was extremely useful.
Adlib Touring Crew
The two shows in Manchester Apollo really captured the mood and emotion of the city which stood united and strong in the wake of the Manchester and London terror attacks.
Adlib account manager Phil Kielty reports It has been a real pleasure dealing with Tony and Betsega who pulled all this together so smoothly. At the Apollo show particularly, there was a great mix of poignant and rousing songs to which everyone in the venue responded, with lots of audience interaction, solidarity and energy - a classy show with plenty of heart, soul and substance, with which we were all very pleased to be involved, he concluded.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
When Canada qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026, OneSoccer knew this wasn'...
04/07/2026
Celebrates company's 80th anniversary
Rhodes have recently revealed that they will be producing a limited run of electric pianos in celebration of their...
04/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Empower Youth Broadcasting Program
Brie Clayton July 3, 2026
0 Comments
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and Blackmagi...
04/07/2026
iZotope Joins Boris FX
Boris Yamnitsky July 3, 2026
0 Comments
iZotope, the team behind RX and Ozone, is joining Boris FX. A letter from founder Boris...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV
3 July, 2026
Media releases
National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Death Star
Andy Marken July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate i...
03/07/2026
Berklee's New Visual Identity: Honoring Our History, Building for What's...
03/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance Two Gates Foundation grants will expand wastewater surveillance and AI-driven dis...
03/07/2026
Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration Using smell-sensing neurons and ad...
02/07/2026
Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD
In the live-sports...
02/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
02/07/2026
BLAST, a competitive entertainment company focused on esports, has announced more than $133 million in revenue for 2025, representing more than 40% year-over-ye...
02/07/2026
Riedel Communications has announced official SKAARHOJ panel support for SimplyLive production workflows, enabled through the SimplyLive 2.1 release. The integra...
02/07/2026
The Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic has deployed LiveU video-over-bond...
02/07/2026
Gravity Media USA has announced the appointment of Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development, effective July 1, 2026. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Bosto...
02/07/2026
TwelveLabs, a video intelligence company, has announced $100 million in Series B funding co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, with participation from Amazon, Radic...
02/07/2026
The Pro Padel League (PPL) has announced a broadcast partnership with USA Sports that will air five PPL championship matches on CNBC during the 2026 season, the...
02/07/2026
LiveLike, a digital fan engagement platform, has announced eight confirmed FIFA ...
02/07/2026
Cobalt Digital has received Future's Best of Show Award, presented by AV Technology at InfoComm 2026, for its blueCORE family of standalone signal processor...
02/07/2026
Synamedia has announced the appointment of Dr. Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transition...
02/07/2026
The Esports Foundation (EF) and Sony Group Corporation have announced an expanded collaboration for the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC), taking place in Paris, Fra...
02/07/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. ( Z') has announced exclusive broadcast and digital rights for the Bundesliga in India for five years, beginning with the...
02/07/2026
An effort uniting News, Sports, Local, and Telemundo, the 50+-camera live produc...
02/07/2026
Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Ben Wang appe...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
02/07/2026
A new era in unmixing and spectral editing
The latest version of Steinberg's spectral audio-editing software has just arrived, building on the strength...
02/07/2026
Aims to simplify additive synthesis
Sine Machine is the debut launch from Melatonin, a Vienna-based developer who have spent the past six years creating wha...
02/07/2026
Products to remain fully active & supported
Following the news of Native Instruments joining the inMusic brand line-up, Academy and Emmy Award-winning visua...
02/07/2026
What you missed!
Last weekend, Saturday 27 June 2026, saw the debut of Sound On Sounds new GearExpo UK event, the largest dedicated pro-audio event to take ...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Following the successful launch of its inaugural APAC Mentoring Programme last month, the Rise AV APAC Regional Council will bring the conversation around mento...
02/07/2026
Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Used to Shoot Director Takahisa Zeze's Cry Out
Brie Clayton July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Highly mobile camera supports tense and de...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE, expanding its lead in European broadcast, medi...
02/07/2026
Berklee Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's 250th Anniversar...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions GmbH, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is acquiring BFE Studio und Medien...
02/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has extended the ingest facility at leading Brazilian sports company LiveMode, work...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV
Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...
02/07/2026
Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...
Bringing Nashville to the UK posted: 07/07/2017 
