In 2017, Britannia Row provided live audio for the closure of Tottenham Hotspur’s ground White Hart Lane. Now a trusted audio supplier to the Premier League club, the rental house was recently asked to supply engineers and a control package for the opening of the club’s new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Although just ten minutes long, the event involved three performances, 62,000 fans and a TV audience of millions…

Working closely with Donaldson Creative, event producer Gary Beestone Events & Theatre contracted in Britannia Row to ensure smooth delivery of the highly anticipated production. ‘We had some of our expert TV and touring crew working on this job,’ says Britannia Row Client Liaison, Tom Brown. ‘With an event like this, there’s simply no room for glitches.’

Britannia Row also brought in broadcast sound supervisor Toby Allington [The BRITs/MTV EMAs] to provide a music feed which Sky then mixed in with its sports ambient mics. The broadcaster had final control over what hit viewers’ screens.

Before the match against London rivals Crystal Palace, fans were treated to 45-minutes of team favourites by The Tottenham Hotspur Marching Band before the official Opening Ceremony was broadcast live on UK TV. The artists comprised a choir from Gladesmore Community School [orchestrated by Steve Sidwell] with Lanya Matthews leading the vocal celebrations. The pupils were also joined by Spurs super fan and Welsh tenor, Wynne Evans.

Britannia Row provided the live audio mix and a broadcast feed for the Sky Sports crew. The mix was handled by Yamaha QL1 consoles, which received stems from the Britannia Row playback system. A package of Shure handheld microphones, Shure IEMs and 32-channels of RF were also used.

‘The RF needed some figuring out, with the channel list fitting for TV coverage,’ Brown says. ‘As far as our equipment goes, we deliberately designed the system with a small footprint. We built the spec around the varied line-up [from a soulful songstress to rap and operatic vocals], which played for around ten minutes.’

‘This mini concert had a huge audience and called for a collaborative approach between both our team and Brit Row,’ adds Beestone. ‘We had a very intense task ahead but with Tom Brown in place handling audio from the very beginning, it meant the project benefited from absolute continuity; from conception right through to the delivery, I knew we were in safe hands.’

Britannia Row has managed audio for a number of high-profile live sporting events such as the Rugby World Cup, Game 4 Grenfell (the tragedy’s charity football match) and a host of NFL and FA games to name but a few. ‘Taking a gig in and out of a football or rugby stadium is difficult and requires some precise logistical management, obviously nothing can get in the way of the game,’ Brown reflects. ‘This show went very smoothly; we had a very happy client and a great crew in place to mix the performance and get it right the first – and only – time.’

According to Beestone, Spurs’ 2-0 victory wasn’t the only success of the night: ‘Brit Row is well suited to both high-pressure and large-scale outdoor events, and able to deliver huge coverage. As usual, the sound was faultless.’