(21/12/2014) Liverpool technical production specialist Adlib is supplying the sound system and technicians for Pop mega-star Enrique Iglesias' latest UK and European tour.The multi-talented, multi-lingual and multi-award winning Enrique who also enjoys a highly successful writing, record producing and acting career as well as performing to an enormous fanbase worldwide has sold over 100 million albums and is dubbed King of Latin Pop' by Billboard. His meteoric international career kicked off in the mid-1990s after recording a demo tape as a supposedly unknown Guatemalan singer, not wanting to trade on the family name to get any breaks or opportunities.
Adlib's history with Enrique is slightly more recent, dating back to the 2014 Capital FM Summertime Ball at Wembley Stadium in June. Adlib supplied audio for the event, and the singer was amongst the star-studded line up.
Enrique's sound worldwide is co-ordinated by Mike Sprague of Sound Image from California, who Adlib are proud to have a close and proactive working relationship with.
Perfect Fit
Adlib's Alan Harrison had previously joined the team for selected dates on Enrique's Summer European Festival Run looking after monitor engineer Eddie El Brujo Caipo Enrique's production team aim for a family' vibe on tour, so when it came to extending this for the full blown headlining European tour Adlib was the perfect fit. Andres Restrepo is the friendly & unflappable Production Manager.
Adlib's crew consist of Marc Peers as crew boss and include Systems Engineer and L-Acoustics aficionado and KSE, Tony Szabo. Richard Cook also joined Tony working as PA tech.
The L-Acoustics K1 / KARA system was specified by Enrique's FOH engineer Brad Divens and comprised of 14 x K1 speakers per side for the main arrays complete with 4 x KARA downs, each supported by an array of 6 x K1SB subs flown beside them.
copyrighted by Shirlaine Forrest L-Acoustics K2 was used for the side arrays, with 12 x K2s left-and-right, together with two hangs of 12 x KARA for upstage. Eight KARA were utilised for front fills, positioned around the bespoke curved stage, which was one of the main set elements, together with a 56 foot long, 8 foot wide thrust from centre stage, going through the audience to FOH.
Eighteen SB28 subs were also strategically placed around the stage front, run in cardioid mode and in an L-C-R arrangement.
One of the biggest daily challenges for the Adlib crew was the physical one of positioning the speaker arrays where they needed to be for optimum sound, and fitting them in between the production's many video elements including a large curved upstage LED screen.
The system ran all-digital with AES out of the Avid Profile FOH console chosen by Brad and into the Lake LM44 control rack one of Adlib's standards. The FOH Avid Profile was running maximum DSP and 96 channels of stage rack.
The signal from the console was sent to stage via Dante protocol where it was zoned and distributed by Lake LM26s feeding AES signals into the L-Acoustic LA8 amplifiers.
The LA8s were all networked and run via their proprietary L2 software which was also accessible via the wireless tablet control for the Lake devices.
At FOH, Tony Szabo added his usual sonic magic and used a selection of regular tools including Meyer SIM3 combined with Earthworks and Josephson measurement mics and a Lectosonics RF unit.
At the stage end, Alan Harrison was joined by Chris Sharpe from Sound Image and together they looked after the monitor requirements and engineer Eddie Caipo.
Brad Divens (FOH engineer) stated My Avid Profile is loaded with Waves Mercury and SSL Bundles, Soundtoys Decapitator, Cranesong Phoenix and the SPL Transient Designer plug-ins. With only 2 days of rehearsal before starting the tour I relied heavily on previously recorded multi-tracks via the Avid Native Thunderbolt connected to my Macbook Pro. This in addition to virtual sound check allowed me to dial in snapshots for each song and tweak the mix to sonic perfection in a short amount of time.
copyrighted by Shirlaine Forrest The L-Acoustic's K1 combined with Tony Szabo and the rest of the Adlib crew, gave me the consistency that I needed to give Enrique, the band and especially the audience, the very best show that I could deliver.
RF Management
Their most galvanising task every day was planning 54 channels of RF for monitors, instruments and mics.
Alan explains that they have been helped massively in terms of administration by the serious advance work undertaken by Adlib's RF Co-ordinator John Fitzsimmons and Theo Holloway, who completed advance frequency plots and obtained the licensing for the majority of the venues on the itinerary.
This is an incredibly valuable resource, he comments.
To check the local environment on arrival, they scanned the site using Shure's WWB frequency scanning software combined with an analogue oscilloscope owned by Chris Sharpe, which was ideal for the quick real-time assessment of frequencies.
Eddie Caipo also uses a 96-channel Avid Profile console, and the entire 9-piece band and Enrique are all on IEMs so with no speakers onstage it makes for an extremely neat and tidy set up.
Eddie El Brujo Caipo commented, It's a complicated, yet simple show and there are a lot of mix cues during Enrique's performance and they are all easily accomplished via Scoped Snapshots on my Avid Profile. I am also using McDSP ML4000 Plug-ins on IEM's mixes, and Waves SSL and C6 Plug-ins on inputs.
Enrique and the band are all on Ultimate Ears with a combination of UE7s and UE11s.
Needless to say, Adlib and Sound Image have been instrumental in the success on all audio matters for this world tour. Their knowledge and professionalism goes far and beyond.
copyrighted by Shirlaine Forrest
