The hilariously funny, successful Brendan O’Carroll comedy creation “Mrs Brown’s
Boys’ continues its popular live touring version, leaving a wake of smiles and laughs,
with full technical production – lighting, sound, video, rigging and crew – supplied by
Adlib.

Adlib has been involved with Mrs Brown’s Boys live since its very first theatre tour in
2000, and since then it’s become a multi award winning TV show and a massive arena
live show phenomenon.

The show has continued to invest in production values and technology. Adlib’s director
and account handler, Dave Jones, looked after the audio elements, alongside senior
account manager Dave Eldridge who oversaw the lighting and video requirements.
Jones comments, “We are immensely proud to have worked with Brendan and the
cast over the years and to see the concept grow and develop. We’ve enjoyed a
fantastic, very honest relationship for over a decade and it has been an amazing
journey’.

For this latest run of arenas, Adlib’s project manager Kevin Byatt returned to oversee
the team. Dave Jones, Dave Eldridge and the Adlib team worked closely with the
show’s producers Gareth Woods and Fiona Gibney, executive producer Martin Delany
and SJM tour manager Neil Brighouse – combining talents and experience to deliver
another ground-breaking production package.

Lighting was again designed by Mike Summerfield, who has been on the Mrs Brown
production team for some years, each tour creating something new and original.
This time he was also lighting for the video cameras as well as the live audience, so
wanted to use powerful lights to get the full stage wash effect, and also be able to
approach lighting the stage from several different physical angles.

For this reason, and for their excellent CTO, he chose Martin MAC Viper Wash and
Viper Profiles for the primary moving lights. These gave him both the tungsten
emulated warmth that suits elements of the show and all the features needed to
create additional dynamics.

There were three main overstage trusses – front, back and mid. The back truss was
loaded with MAC Viper Washes and profiles plus Claypaky Sharpy Washes which were
used to hit a 24-inch mirror-ball rigged on its own personal truss and flown in and out
at strategic moments. The mid truss contained a row of Viper Washes to fatten up and
enrich the overall stage wash, and then on the front truss, 14 more Viper Washes
were added, together with four Viper profiles for keylight and specials.

A tab-track truss was flown in line with the downstage edge of the set carpet with
returns on each side, so the tabs could draw open and then be concealed from view.
An “offstage truss’ then mirrored the line of the tab-track along the front and around
the sides, which provided positions for another 9 Viper Washes and two Viper profiles.
These fixtures were invaluable to help with extreme side lighting.

Atmospherics for the final scenes were supplied via two DF50 hazers left and right of
stage. A Road Hog Full Boar was Mike’s console of choice, fully networked with a
second desk for backup, and Mike also controlled six set practicals (wall lights)
powered from an Avo ART2000 dimmer, together with all the stage lighting.

The biggest challenge for Byatt and the crew has been the load ins. There was a lot
infrastructure, and an elaborate set-build all happening simultaneously. Adlib supplied
additional techs for the ins and outs, who assisted Rob with the screen builds and de-
rig, while Ian and the touring video crew looked after the rest of the video set-up. It is
a formula which has worked extremely efficiently.

Lighting and video manager Dave Eldridge commented, “It has been an exciting
challenge to devise a plan that ties all disciplines together and can be delivered
efficiently. The speed of the process is a testament to Byatt and the team’.

Audio crew chief Alan Harrison led a 4-strong Adlib sound team of Hassane Es Siahi
(FOH engineer), Shona Steadman (monitor and stage engineer) and systems
engineers Steve Norman and George Puttock.

Getting the right sound for comedy shows is as vital as lighting them correctly, which
is why Harrison specified Coda Audio. The products are: “astoundingly clear, detailed
and with less distortion,’ he said, adding that coverage is extraordinarily predictable
and will throw for miles.

Harrison commented that it is near-impossible to make the Coda feedback – even with
14 DPA headsets onstage. Two 16-deep Coda AiRAY arrays made up the main hangs,
with 8 x Coda LA12 / 4 ViRAY downs for the side hangs plus a centre cluster of four
Coda ViRAY. They used TiRAY in / outfills and eight SCP-F subs, with two hangs of 8
ViRAY a side for delay, (three of 6 in Glasgow), completing the system.

As well as delivering the usual superlative quality audio, there are a few sonic brain-
teasers with this show. No speakers onstage, both for the overall show aesthetics and
for sightlines – hence the use of the centre cluster to fill the triangle between the main
stage hangs and the front of the audience.

Being a spoken word show, creating a focus towards the stage is important for the
audience. So, by using multiple overlapping sources as centre / main infill or main and
delay and adjusting levels and delay times, it draws the audience towards the stage
and – naturally – in the same direction as their eyes.

The system was powered by 36 x Coda Linus 10 amps with inbuilt DSP. For zonal and
EQ control they utilised 3 x Lake LM44s at FOH feeding a pair of LM26s and a
Focusrite Rednet. These were networked with redundant Dante for audio over TAC-4
fibre. The stage rack streamed AES into the Linus amps which utilised AES over Cat5
up to 96kHz, and the whole system was clocked at 96 via an Apogee Big Ben to
preserve the full clarity and detail from the DPA mics, which the Coda speakers excel
at delivering.

The FOH control, a DiGiCo SD10 with SD rack, was also clocked by the Big Ben at
96kHz, with a Lake LM44 for EQ inserts, a fully redundant dual QLab system for cues
and stings and a MacBook at front of house using a DAW to perform virtual
soundchecks.

The SD10 is Hassane’s console of choice for a number of reasons. It’s a familiar
surface that makes it easy to create a powerful snapshot system (there are 120
snapshot cues in the show) and audio processing which he reckons is “sonically
perfect’.

The monitor console was a DiGiCo S21, taking post mute stems from FOH of the Boys,
the Girls and Mrs Brown’s mics, blending these with various QLab stings, VTs, among
others. The monitors comprise two flown L-Acoustics ARCS per side – a legacy going
back to the start of the show’s touring history, allowing the cast to receive precisely
the fold-back they are used to.