Colouring Creamfields 2016 posted: 25/09/2016
Colour Sound Experiment supplied lighting, rigging and Kinesys automation to two high profile arenas at the 2016 Creamfields dance music extravaganza staged in Daresbury, Cheshire, UK.
The festival was memorable for many reasons including the brand new Steel Yard venue -an awesome 50 metre wide by 100 metres long space offering up to 26 metres of headroom with a capacity of around 9,000, designed and built especially for Creamfields by Acorn Structures.
We were very excited to be asked by the event's technical producers LarMac LIVE to supply lighting and rigging for Steel Yard, says Colour Sound's H (Haydn Cruickshank), it's always interesting and invigorating to work in new spaces, you have to think out of the box and everyone - all the individuals and companies - involved in creating the amazing Steel Yard vibes worked very hard and as a tight team to deliver a great experience for the Creamfields community .
Colour Sound also provided lighting and rigging for the CF 06 arena, used to present three dynamically different nights of cool sounds over the weekend - club phenomenon Paradise, U.K. DJ and radio presenter MistaJam's Jam Packed' and U.S. DJ MK's MK Area 10' on the Sunday.
On site, the Colour Sound's crew of 10 were chiefed by the unflappable Alex McCoy
Steel Yard
The lighting design for the structure was created by Dave Kyle for Colour Sound working closely with Colour Sound's Fletch who fine-tuned it to fit harmoniously into the massive roof space.
It was an ambitious and off-beat design that included flying lighting pods over the audience which looked fantastic and brought plenty of elements of visual surprise.
Colour Sound also asked Simon Barrington on-board to operate lighting for Steel Yard, who brought his vast fund of EDM lighting and visuals experience to the party.
Sixty rigging points were installed in the roof by Colour Sound's riggers - Jamie Hogan, Toby Lovegrove and Az Khalid - including bridles and spreader trusses to distribute loads and get everything in exactly the right places. Colour Sound also provided the required rigging for video supplier PRG XL Video and audio company Britannia Row as well as all their own lighting points.
Over the stage three lighting trusses were sub-hung from the video trusses, four more lighting trusses rigged in the wings and four vertical totems' were positioned onstage which were shared between lighting and video, with another two used exclusively for lighting.
The onstage lighting fixtures were 36 x Clay Paky Sharpies, 36 x Martin Atomic strobes plus 30 x Showtec Sunstrips which delineated the vertical profiles of the onstage trusses and mimicked the form of the LED screens.
Simon undertook some serious pre-visualisation work using Capture which helped onsite as time was exceptionally tight and the pressure especially with this being a new venue with all eyes watching was intense!
Out in the Steel Yard arena, the lighting took on an architectural aesthetic to compliment the raw industrial magnitude of Steel Yard's interior, with a 10 metre circular truss in the centre surrounded by eight 4-metre equilateral triangle truss pods, each moved on three axes of Kinesys driven Liftket motors.
Either end of this, at the top and bottom of the arena, were two 8 metre trussing triangles - four in total - which remained static.
The smaller triangles were each rigged with three CP Alpha Spot 1500s on the truss apex's, together with two 2-lite Moles and an Atomic strobe, and they were also filled with Stealth LED video mesh.
The larger triangles each featured six Sharpies, four Sunstrips and three Robe LEDWash 1200s and eight Robe LEDWash 1200s provided the main wash lights on the circle.
Choosing powerful fixtures like the LEDWash 1200 and the Alpha Spot 1500 enabled the vast space to be filled with intense beams of light and the audience to be pulled into the action with the tight, bright Sharpies punching through for contrast. The moving triangles dramatically added to the scope of the design.
Simon operated using a ChamSys MQ200 and also ensured that any guest LDs had all the facilities and assistance they required.
CF 06
The asymmetric stage design gave this arena a nice visual edge, together with the random and slightly chaotic 24 metre wide 7 metre high scaffolding stage set, harking back to the early days of pop-up warehouse parties, to which Colour Sound's Fletch added yet more flair and style with the lighting.
Fifty Sunstrips were rigged directly to the scaffolding, following the flow of the asymmetry. Six i-Pix BB7 (the famous flower shaped ones) and four Robe LEDWash 600s made up the crown' which was cantilevered out over the DJ booth and had both lighting fixtures and video elements sub-hung from it, all of which were pixel mapped for additional flexibility.
At the core of the stage lighting were 28 x Robe Pointes, with another 10 upstage shooting through the scaffolding and video mesh, paired with 10 x Atomics.
Out in the room, three 18 metre trusses were flown from the tent king poles, each loaded with four BMFL Spots, four Pointes and two Atomics.
The DJs were illuminated from two LEDWash 1200s on the downstage edge of the stage, shooting across, with all lighting run via a ChamSys MQ80 operated in shifts by Toby Lovegrove and Doug Coppell with Mel Cornish as the systems tech.
The other Colour Sound crew members - not already mentioned - working between the two arenas were Katie Flanders, Lewis Beal and James Bunning.
Alex comments, Non-conventional lighting schemes as we saw like both of these arenas - are always the most challenging to deal with in terms of prep and installation, but all the extra effort is so worth it as they ultimately yield the most rewarding results
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Colouring Creamfields 2016 posted: 25/09/2016 
