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Tube UK supports ‘Made in Hull’ installations

Hull launched its year as the 2017 UK City of Culture with ‘Made in Hull’, a week of mixed media sound, lighting and visual installations telling the story of the city and its people over almost a century. Audio specialist Tube UK specified, rigged and fine-tuned audio systems for six separate interactive works around the city centre.

Tube, based in Manchester and London, was working closely with sound designer and composer Dan Jones who created content and curated each of the installations. Tube was chosen to undertake the work by Ground Control, ‘Made in Hull’s technical suppliers who were in turn appointed by Chris Clay, Technical & Operations Director at Hull UK City of Culture 2017.

Melvyn Coote, who founded the company fifteen years ago, worked with a crew of 12 sound engineers - seven for the week long run of shows and five more for the get-in which commenced 27th December and for the out on 9th of January.

The biggest ‘Made in Hull’ site was Queen Victoria Square in the historic heart of the city. The audience was surrounded by three different PA systems rigged on the three major buildings around the Square - Hull City Hall, Ferens Art Gallery and the Maritime Museum. A left and right speaker array was flown either side of each building on 9 metre high masts, each comprising four D&B V8s and a V-Sub per position. Central to each building were two B2s and two Y7Ps for fill.

This amounted to a 360 degree coverage supporting the three large format projection displays each telling the same story via video content created specifically for each building surface. In the surrounding streets leading to the square, three ‘distance’ PAs - each made up from a ground-stack of four Y8s and 1 Y-Sub - were located and fed with ‘distance’ effects.

All the PA structures and various infrastructure like cable bridges and picks were supplied by Star Events, and the area was also architecturally lit and was supplied by DBN Lighting, also from Manchester. Each aspect of these PAs was individually controlled so sound could be shifted around and spot effects applied via a Yamaha CL5 console run in unison with a Yamaha Rio 3224 rack to handle additional outputs.

Amplification was eight D&B D80s for the V arrays with five D12s driving the distance PAs. Apple Mac Minis running QLab’s multitrack audio were used for all the playback. Video content was designed by Hungarian animation director and video designer Zsolt Balogh, and the projection kit was delivered by Bluman Associates.

Zebedee’s Yard was the location of a pop-up football experience ‘105+dB’. Tube set up four PA arrays, one in each corner of the yard consisting of two Y7Ps and two Y-Subs on ground mounted poles, with another four Y10P fills and four Y-Subs per side. Each of the 12 points of sound were individually addressable and powered by D12 amps.

Moving on to The Deep, visitors entered a viewing platform on the opposite bank of the River Hull. From here they could enjoy a projection show and its accompanying soundtrack. The main PA was made up of D&B J series speakers. Two stacks of six J8s a side - were located outside The Deep, ground stacked on PA risers, both for stability and to optimise the long throw distance of approximately 120 metres across the estuary.

Adjacent to the viewing platform was a smaller near-field PA of four V12s, four V-Subs and two B2s also ground stacked in left and right arrays. Both near and far-field speaker stacks were driven by D80 amps and the sound track was run on a QLab system via a Yamaha QL1 console. The far-field PA was linked into the overall PA system and timecode control via wireless RF link. Tube and Ground Control also collaborated closely with environmental noise consultants Aria Acoustics for this work.

The Underpass was a northern club inspired environment beneath the Myton Bridge flyover created by the artist Jesse Kanda which required a quad PA system to re-produce the unusual juxtaposition of a sound track to accompany club/rave scenes playing on three projection screens. With a low roof, compact speaker arrays were needed, so they went with two Y8s and a Y12 per hang, flown off trusses installed by Star. In the centre of the ‘dancefloor’, a sub sculpture was created from 8 x D&B V-Subs run off D12 amps. Another QLab system for control was run through one of tube’s Yamaha QL5 consoles.

Scale Lane Staith is a small pedestrian street and a projection work was beamed onto one of the walls and five D&B E8 speakers together with five D&B E12 Subs were concealed behind a fence and foliage to deliver the sound track.

Over at Whitefriargate the shop windows came alive as tube supplied Apple MacBook Pro 13.3 machines for playback and Yamaha XP3500 amps to power a series of transducers which were fitted to the shop windows, turning them into speakers.

(Photos: Lindsay Cave/Loosplat)

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