As earthquakes go Japan arguably has the edge in terms of World Cup Rugby and
seismic shocks. Yet the opening ceremony, conceived and executed by Take That’s
creative Director Kim Gavin firmly focussed the attention of the world’s TV cameras
upon the contest in uncompromising terms.

“I’m really pleased with what we did at Twickenham Stadium,’ said Production
Manager Steve Nolan of Chromatic Productions Ltd, who were contracted to manage
the event. “We put fourteen truck-loads of gear on the field without damaging the
turf. When the Opening Ceremony was over it took just nine minutes and twenty-six
seconds to clear the ground so the teams could enter for the warm-up. That’s all
down to planning, and Tom Brown from Britannia Row Productions Ltd (Britrow) who
provided all the audio infra-structure in the stadium and to broadcast, was highly
instrumental in realising that plan.’

“The pitch system was relatively straight forward,’ explained Brown. “The
earthquake sequence demanded additional weight in the low end so we doubled the
Subs for the occasion. The pitch system which stays in for the duration of the
competition, comprises fourteen stacks of L’Acoustics K2 and SB28 Sub, but for the
ceremony we doubled the subs to twenty-eight. The Twickenham house PA system
is still used, but naturally it doesn’t have the power and fidelity of a K2 system, so
we just fed audio to the upper tier, the Britrow pitch system covering lower two
tiers. But it was in the realms of show management where the challenge lay.’

Gavin drew on his experience with the ceremonies for the London Olympics in 2012,
with all cast members and event controllers taking their cues over an In Ear
monitoring system. “Some 320 IEMs to stage manage them all,’ informed Brown.
“Steve Lutley who ran monitor world is easily the most experienced man with these
sorts of ceremony events and did a superb job. Add in the skills of Gary Bradshaw
who did an equally superb job front of house, and such enormous events quickly
transform into entirely manageable proportions.’

Bradshaw did express some reservations just before the event. “I must confess I
was a bit nervous, a live broadcast to 80 million people gives you a different
perspective. But with Kim Gavin directing, Steve Lutley beside me on monitors, and
Britrow providing all the sound I was on firm foundations. I must have worked with
Britrow hundreds of times, and Kim and Steve on Take That only a couple of
months ago. I mixed from up in the Press Gallery at the top of the first tier. The
system did look a bit small from up there but I had a good walk around in the run
up to the show day and the coverage was excellent. You might have spotted all the
Subs on TV? That was Kim Gavin’s thing, “when the ball hits I want the ground to
shake’ he said, and it did. Yes, the system had to go flat out, just two or three K2 at
each stack position, but it did remarkably well. When we made the final test the
night before we did some music playback and some speech stuff and the clarity was
really good.’

Nolan pronounced himself well pleased with the event, “We had volunteers as they
did for all the Olympic ceremonies, one hundred and forty of them for us to help
clear the pitch, and they did a fantastic job, they really got involved. Likewise, the
Twickenham ground staff were really helpful, enthusiastic even, and their
knowledge with products like Enkamat (a soil erosion protection product) really
contributed to us not damaging the turf. Steve Lutley and the Britrow monitor crew
worked like Trojans. The amazing thing was Tom Brown had to leave a few days
before the ceremony to concentrate on the sports presentation systems Britrow are
providing at the other stadiums, and Lez Dwight took over. You wouldn’t have
noticed the difference: that’s a very slick operation.’