Marking the start of its year as joint European Capital of Culture for 2017 – along with Aarhus in Denmark – the ancient city of Pafos in Cyprus staged a dazzling Opening Ceremony – supported by tube uk’s sound provision and expertise.

tube was put forward for the project by Liz Pugh from outdoor arts specialists Walk the Plank, who produced the event together with a team of Cypriot creatives and artists. A soundtrack for the show was written by Pafos-born composer and music director Christina Athinodorou, who combined classical and electronic elements in an intricate soundscape.

tube’s Melvyn Coote took on sound for a cast of hundreds and an enthusiastic audience of around 12,000 who packed into the 28th October Square in central Pafos to enjoy the occasion, which was also broadcast live by national TV network, Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CYBC). He liaised with a number of locally based audio suppliers and compiled a control specification which was sourced from tube’s rental stock in Manchester, UK.

The project involved three site visits by Coote to scope out the location for the ambitious mixed-media show – arguably the largest integrated live event held on the island. From a sonic standpoint, this required considerable organisation and communication ‘to amalgamate kit from around seven different companies, who are all geared up to provide a good system for about one medium sized live show – which is the market in Cyprus’.

The control package comprised a Yamaha CL5 console – Coote and tube FOH engineer Adam Taylor’s choice of main show mixer – supplied with a Yamaha DME64 matrix control system, two Yamaha RIO 3224 racks and two Mac Mini servers, which were configured as an active machine plus ‘hot’ backup. These were used to run a QLab system for the audio playback. This set-up was operated in conjunction with locally supplied control, including a Yamaha QL5 and another RIO 3224 for additional inputs.

tube also shipped a comms system to be used for show communication.

A 3D surround-sound reinforcement system was set up around the square, with nine loudspeaker points,  including two stacks either side of the Town Hall for the two main performance stages, and the remaining seven for the soundscape that underpinned the show narrative.

‘Getting the audio movement flowing between all these nine point sources was a crucial element of the sound design and vital to the storytelling, where certain effects needed to be in certain places at specific times,’ Coote explains.

The PA stacks included 20 L-Acoustics Kudo boxes and subs, 16 Martin W8LCs and subs, 12 Nexo Geo-Ds and 12 Turbosound Flex Arrays. One main PA of three four-deep stacks of Turbosound Flex was rigged into a scenic constructed Lighthouse towering 10m above the square – these created the ‘voice’ of the lighthouse, which was the essential narrative for the whole show. A 100m-ling catwalk provided a runway entry for 300 children, 40 young dancers, and gymnasts and 15 professional dancers onto the main stage under the lighthouse.

These groups took to the Town Hall stage at different times – among them, the Choir of the Pafos Music Lyceum directed by Isabella Christofidou, the Pafos Municipality Band directed by Zacharias Evangelou and the Aarhus Jazz Orchestra. Ensuring that all performances and areas had unobstructed audio for the public’s enjoyment was a major task.

An additional consideration fro Coote, Taylor and the audio team was a massive concert by famous Greek singer Alkistis Protopsalti that followed the Opening Ceremony, requiring a completely new and different FOH set-up, monitors and backline that could be turned around in just ten minutes. All of this had to be factored into the overall audio management, the plans for stage layout.

Poor weather made rehearsals difficult. A mini storm, blustery winds and driving rain on the ripped the structure off the FOH position soaking all the control kit. Sorting this out ate into the  rehearsal time made crucial by the number of artists involved – but everyone pulled together to salvage the situation in challenging and stressful conditions.

‘It was definitely a “moment” Coote says. ‘Of course, this is also all part of the edginess and unpredictability that makes site specific work like this so exciting. The camaraderie between the UK production team and the Pafos suppliers really developed during the week, with the adverse weather also encouraging all to work together and deliver a smooth, successful and very special event.’

More: www.tubeuk.com