WILD is a spectacular immersive drone light show produced by Celestial that transforms the night sky into a living celebration of the animal kingdom. Herds charge, birds take flight, and great beasts emerge in dazzling patterns of light, all accompanied by a cinematic soundtrack to enhance the excitement levels.
Recently the show came to Bristol’s Seat Unique Stadium, with local AV technology, production, and rental specialists Enlightened called in to provide light and sound for the event.
“This is our third season working with Celestial, supplying power, lighting, and effects, but this is the first time we’ve handled sound” comments System Designer Henry Parr.
“The stadium is home to Gloucestershire County Cricket Club and has a capacity of 8,000 with tiered seating ranging from nine to seventeen rows deep. We decided to deploy a total of 16 ground stacks of NEXO GEO M, using stacks of 3 x GEO M10 top boxes on 2 x MSUB15s for the deeper tiers, and 3 x GEO M6 on a single MSUB15 for the shallower tiers. A handful of P12s and ID series systems support the VIP areas and funfair.”
“We could probably have used fewer stacks and filled in with point source speakers in between, but ‘stepping and repeating’ stacks around the perimeter of the pitch brought a certain simplicity to the system while ensuring full bandwidth and plenty of SPL coverage for the entire crowd.”
With a boundary circumference of around 440 metres, well over 2 kilometres of cable was required to connect the stacks to NEXO NXAMPMk2 amp racks located in three stations around the pitch. Each rack contained 4 x NEXO NXAMP4X2Mk2 powered TD Controllers, with each amplifier powering 2 stacks with top boxes and subs on separate channels.
“The NXAMPs are equipped with Dante network cards so all the racks are connected with simple Ethernet cables” reports FOH Engineer Matt Shelbourn. “I can monitor the entire system using NEXO’s NeMo App from my position in one of the amplifier stations, with full visibility and control of all key parameters throughout the show.”
Lasting a total of 40 minutes and using hundreds of drones to render and animate the animals in extraordinary detail, the show is synchronised to the sound and supplemental lighting effects using timecode.
“We’re using almost our entire inventory of NEXO GEO M on this event and it’s another great example of just how flexible this is system is” says Henry in conclusion. “Sound plays a big part in creating the thrills for this show and that’s an area in which NEXO certainly delivers.”
For further information on the WILD Drone Light Show, visit: wilddroneshow.com
For further information on Enlightened, visit: enlx.co.uk
