Bristol based lighting and visual specialists Fineline continued their busy summer / autumn event season supplying lighting, LED screens and rigging to Boomerang Hickstead, a brand new two day music event staged at the high profile All England Jumping Course and Showground at Hickstead, West Sussex, UK.

With a stellar line up including Jesse J, the Vamps, Soul II Soul, Simple Minds, The Proclaimers and a host of other popular artists, Fineline worked closely with TAO Productions and event technical production manager Andy Cotton.

Fineline’s Rob Sangwell commented, “It’s always exciting to support and be part of a new event, and we did everything possible to meet headliner requirements and also ensure a great looking lightshow for the many other artists on the bill”.

The stage was a 16 meter Supernova supplied by Serious from which Fineline’s crew sub-hung their trussing.

Guest lighting designer’s Stephen Pollard and Vince Foster from top-of-the-bill Simple Minds (Saturday) and Jesse J (Sunday) respectively both had touring designs which the Fineline team matched as closely as possible, a plan which involved an intensive overnight re-rigging session.

Incorporated into the general production design for the event was a ‘house’ lighting scheme designed to work for all the other acts. “Flexibility was imperative here,” commented Rob, “There was a wide range of music, and we tried to vary lighting and visuals as much as possible so everyone looked different”.
Fineline’s Stu England led their site crew of Tim Williams, Will Dale and Ben Desousa.

Upstage, space was needed for changeovers, so the depth of the overhead lighting had to be kept relatively expedient.

The back truss therefore facilitated a drape hung off the far upstage rail. A movable video truss (on motors) was rigged below it for the video wall which could be raised and lowered to get various band backline kit through and onto the stage below. On the same truss were two movable sub-hung lighting trusses, also on motors.

On the front rail, supporting band backdrops could be accommodated … all things considered, things were a little tight on this truss!

Moving downstage from this were a mid and a front truss.

Lighting fixtures were all chosen for their light weight and multi-functionality and included 20 Robe 600E Spots, 20 x LEDWash 600s, 16 x Pointes and 18 LEDBeam 100s for the moving lights, complimented by 8 bars of 6 PARs and six strings of ACLs.

Twelve ETC profiles on the front provided key lighting and specials, four 8-lite and eight 4-lite blinders facilitated some lively audience illumination, together with eight Atomic strobes.

House lighting control was an Avolites Sapphire Touch, dimming was also all-Avo and atmospherics and distro were included in the overall Fineline package.The LED screen supplied was Lighthouse R7, configured in a 5 meter wide by 3 meter high upstage section, a production element that remained the same on both nights. It was used for IMAG images from three Sony PMW-500 cameras also supplied by Fineline, together with a Blackmagic ATEM 1 M/E 4K Production Studio. The cameras were positioned one at FOH with a long lens, one in the pit on track-and-dolly and a hand-held onstage.

Boomerang Hickstead is one of many festival style events for Fineline which have included Love Saves The Day, Somersault, The Eden Sessions and Glastonbury.

Bristol UK based technical solutions company Fineline provided lighting for four main music performance areas at the 2015 Somersault festival, a five day extravaganza of music, fun, food, discussion, debate and outdoor adventure located amidst the heart of South West England, in the picturesque environs of Castle Hill country estate near the north Devon coastline.

It was the second year that Fineline has been involved as a production supplier, following their very successful introduction to the event last year via Andy Cotton of TAO Productions. This year, the scope of their work was lighting the Main Stage, The Communion Stage, the Forest Party non-stop dance experience and the Bandstand.

The Main Stage was 15 meters wide and housed in a tensile structure with no room to build a ground support system, so a grid had to be constructed between a triangular structure upstage and a big steel arch at the front.

Fineline created a V-shaped spreader truss at the back and sub-hung another large trussing V-shape from that, coming forward and secured to the front arch. Front, mid and rear cross-stage trusses were then rigged from this grid.

The production lighting rig was designed by Fineline’s Stu England, and based around the requirements of the various headliners, an eclectic and interesting line up of Bombay Bicycle Club, Laura Marlin, The Staves, Imelda May, The Shires, Passenger, Chrystal Fighters, Jimmy Cliff … plus others, as well as being able to provide dynamic and different looking shows for all the other acts.

The moving lights included 12 x Robe 600E Spots, 12 x LEDWash 600s and 12 Pointes, which provided all the main washes, specials and effects, together with base lighting from eight 4-lamp PAR bars, ACLs, 4 and 8-lites, strobes and key lighting via ETC Source Fours. This balanced combination of moving and conventional lighting offered numerous options.

The ‘house’ lighting desk was an Avolites Sapphire Touch, all the dimming was Avo and the data and power distribution was a mix of Avo and ChamSys, looked after by programmer / operator Tim Williams, rigger / crew chief Ruben Pinkney and tech Chris Randall.

Fineline also provided the two 12 meter PA towers – their own design – to facilitate flying the sound system.

Taking Communion

On the Communion Stage James Box and Sam Kenyon, James Harrington and Rob Sangwell created a great visual picture focusing on the oak framed marquee structure, emphasizing the intimate nature and energy of the space.

The idea was to retain the integrity of the carefully crafted oak features. Truss use was minimal, instead lights were rigged directly off the structure, reducing the presence of the technology and highlighting all the oak work.

Over 300 meters of festoon lighting was rigged in a fanned out pattern from the stage to the back of the arena, a fiddly and protracted exercise … which looked fantastic and again emphasized the cosines of the space. It was “a detail well worth the time and effort” commented Rob.

The lighting fixtures here composed eight Robe 600E Spots and eight Chauvet R2 Wash, chosen for their expedient size, together with assorted PARs picked for their warmth and incandescence … and various LED uplighters & PARs to highlight the structure.


Forest Party united an underground rave environment with some great dance sounds staged in a natural forest clearing and organically lit with a miscellany of kit spread around four PA towers, two 20ft high lighting towers, erected to add some height to the clearing … and the trees.

Lights included more Chauvet R2 Beams and 12 x IP rated LED floods complete with a 2 metre mirror ball rigged in the trees which helped make some fabulously ‘au naturelle’ disco-tastic moments together with two seriously heavy fog machines and fans for strategic atmospheric engineering.

The Bandstand was an 8 metre octagonal raised stage, decorated with Pea-lites in the roof canopy and on the supports and LED PARs concealed in the roof.

Fineline also environmentally lit the ‘talkie’ spoken word and debating tents, the bars and a long table feast tent, utilizing a selection of LED PARs and battens to enhance the mood lighting, together with more festoon and ever-ubiquitous LED uplighters as appropriate. As we know, good lighting is fundamentally linked to the sensation of enjoyment!

“We were really pleased to be involved with Somersault again and in an expanded role this year” says Rob, “It was good to be able to design both traditional stage lighting as well as work in a variety of other areas which needed a different approach”.

Bristol based lighting and video rental specialist Fineline enjoyed another ‘Sessions’ season at the Eden Project in Cornwall, providing production lighting, LED screen, trussing and rigging for the 2015 Eden Sessions - seven high profile concerts with a diverse line up including Elton John (2 shows), Paolo Nutini, Paloma Faith, Motorhead, The Stranglers, Spandau Ballet and Ben Howard.

The Fineline team led by Rob Sangwell, were delighted to be back at this very special location for the third consecutive year, and once again worked closely with the Sessions events’ Production Manager Andy Cotton and his team from TAO Productions.

Using the Eden Project’s eye-catching crescent shaped tensile structure as a roof for the stage, Fineline made some additional modifications to the ingenious hybrid part-flown-part-ground-supported system they have developed to facilitate the 17 meter wide by 11 meter high supertruss mother grid and stage space.

On the mother grid a flexible all-round production lighting rig was hung, designed to offer a comprehensive lighting package to acts utilizing the ‘house’ system, with capacity to accommodate visiting productions’ flown and floor based packages smoothly and seamlessly.

This year improved draping - incorporating around 750 square meters of blacks - added to the overall aesthetics, producing a more finished and theatrical look, with clearer definition to the stage area.

Fineline’s Stu England created the house lighting scheme, flown on three 16 meter wide LX trusses and incorporating 18 x Robe LEDWash 600s, 18 x Robe 600E Spots and 12 x Robe Pointe moving lights, plus 12 x bars of 6 PARs, 20 x ETC Source Four profiles for specials and keys and

8 x 4-lite and six 8-lite Molefeys for a bit of audience interaction.

The stage floor was kept completely clear to allow easy access for guest lighting packages.

Another upstage truss was provided to fly the house LED screen, made up from around 40 square meters of Lighthouse R7 LED panels, measuring 8.5 meters wide by 4.5 high.Fineline supplied all the necessary processing and scaling, leaving the front-end free for visiting productions to hook in their respective media servers and control systems.

A final far-upstage truss was utilized for stage blacks, cloths and backdrops.

A large ArtNet data network was installed to ensure control was adaptable and fully accessible, with an Avolites Sapphire Touch as the house console and four ArtNet and four DMX lines running between FOH and stage via Fineline’s ChamSys R8 Nodes. This was designed to allow incoming grandMA - and other – desks, plus assorted video controllers, to easily be connected.

All the dimming and DMX buffering was Avo. The network was installed by Stu and tech’d for the events by Will Dale.

The Eden Project’s six famous Biomes were also lit for the concerts, becoming an attractive and intriguing part of the event landscape.

They had been lit in previous years, but always as a static architectural installation. That changed this year, and for the first time visiting LDs could integrate this cool environmental aspect of the location into their show if desired.

This was achieved with the help of a WDMX system, with a transmitter stationed at the stage and receivers in every Biome.

The Biomes themselves – which house thousands of plant species - were lit with some of Fineline’s new Chauvet kit which included 32 x IP rated LED colour changing floods – needed because the tropical domes are around 40 degrees with 100 per cent humidity … and have a hyperactive ant population!


The two biggest biomes also had a high-powered Dominator flower effect added to project breakup patterns on the inside of the roof. “This definitely brought a new layer of depth to the overall visual picture” commented Rob.

Fineline’s crew – in addition to Stu England - were Ruben Pinkney (Crew Chief), Steve Armstrong (Rigger), Tim Williams (Racks) and Will Dale who co-ordinated the incoming LDs and managed the network. They were joined by Peran Odgers as rigger and Sam Kenyon as lighting tech on the in and the out.

“It was another great Eden Sessions” stated Rob, “All the acts were very happy with the production elements, as was the Eden Project. The whole production team did a fantastic job and it was a pleasure to be involved and play our part.”

Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts (Glasto to regulars), arguably the world’s best known and highest profile festival presented another fantastically diverse melting pot of music, performance, entertainment, culture and fun from around the globe descending on the massive Worthy Farm site at Pilton in Somerset.

Bristol based lighting and visuals specialist Fineline Lighting renewed their excellent and fertile long term working relationship with the event – at least 24 years to date – and supplied lighting for the Acoustic Stage, Astrolabe Theate, Cabaret and Circus venues and also the WOW stage in the Silver Hays dance area featuring some of the best underground DJs.

Says MD Rob Sangwell, “We all love working on Glastonbury and imbibing the spirit of the festival, and are very proud of our history with the event. I have seen many changes over the years, all for the better. The excellent line-ups plus the clamour to perform and be part of the community makes it even more special”

The Acoustic Stage also yielded one of the most civilised and chilled backstage areas in a very convenient location right at the heart of the action!

Acoustic

Fineline has built up the décor element of this stage over the years and especially more recently to include lush red drapes, and masking around the stage and in the ceiling, which really enhances the theatricality of the space.

This year, the Fineline team designed and custom fabricated a special chandelier with 40 spiral filament lamps to complete these deco elements, which looked very cool.

With an impressive line-up of both established and breaking artists keen to show their talent in an acoustic environment, stage lighting was designed by Rob and Fineline site crew chief Stu England based on three trusses spanning the 40 x 22 ft. ground support system also installed, trimmed at a decent 9.5 meters.

This was rigged with 10 bars of PAR 64s and some ACLs, together with Martin MAC Quantum Spots on drop bars on the back and mid trusses. Quantum Wash moving lights on the mid truss were used to create the general stage washes, while MAC 101s on the back truss served as effective tab ‘warmers’, highlighting the sumptuous red drapage.

On the mid truss MAC Aura XBs and XB Plus’s provided the beam work and rear key lighting, supported by Robe LEDBeam 100s for effects.

The overall lighting reinforced the desired theatrical style ambience, although all genres of music were embraced over the weekend, from rock to blues, jazz to soul, folk to funk!

Avolites dimming and a Sapphire Touch control completed the lighting package, and joining Stu and Rob on the crew were Callum Ostell and Sam Kenyon. They also accommodated guest LDs and caught up with a lot of industry friends who passed through this popular venue.

Lighting in the Astrolabe theatre tent was co-ordinated by Hal Himsworth, resident LD for several years, with a great line-up of eclectic artists – from dance to physical theatre. With numerous specific requirements for various acts, the pace was relentless and virtually non-stop for 12 hours between performances and rehearsals.

A substantial amount of trussing was rigged in the roof to create a usable theatre grid and most of the base washes were created by static LED wash lights.

The rig incorporated all the performer specs, together with specials and extras as needed and featured about 80 fresnels, profiles, floods and PARs which were re-worked and often refocussed and re-gelled between acts – true theatrical style.

An Avo Pearl Expert with a Wing ran the lights, with Avolites dimming throughout.

Circus.

Lighting designer James Loudon (Judge) is another Glasto regular who has weaved his magic in this space for close to 20 years. Another vibrant line up saw a host of aerial artists, pole, trapeze, hoop and silk acrobatics, balancing acts etc.

The idea was to make the venue almost in the round, so lighting had to fill 9 metres of headroom and a 3D space about 10 metres square.

The upstage truss was horizontally hinged at approx. 45 degrees along the sides to form an arc around the stage, supported from this truss, at the mid stage ends, and were vertical trusses for side lighting positions.

Additional lights were on the floor and rigged to the tent king poles and flown trusses suspended from the king poles and cupola. A mix of Robe 600E Spots and Chauvet Rogue R2 wash lights on the deck were combined with LED battens serving as knee kickers. These were joined by a good selection of generics – PARs, profiles and fresnels.
All the shows were rehearsed, pre-programmed and cue-stacked on the console – in another gruelling schedule - so everything triggered at the right times, with an Avo Sapphire Touch console and Avolites dimming.

James was joined by techs Charlie Denny and Johnny Westall.

Cabaret

Just across the field in the single king pole square shaped Cabaret tent, Fineline’s Wingnut designed lighting and was joined by Alex Shenton, Ben Desousa and Croat.

Fixtures were rigged on a 4 x 2 mere box truss built around the king pole to give FOH and audience positions, and on two trusses over the stage, with two vertical trusses on the downstage edge for booms.

Fixtures compromised about 60 PARs, 20 Source Four profiles for gobo projections plus fresnels. The moving lights were 10 x Chauvet Rogue R2 Beams and eight Rogue R2 washes.

Wingnut also created some really cool custom paper globe lanterns internally lit with special LED rods which were strung up throughout the space adding depth and a bit of visual scenery to the otherwise black void above the audience. These look set to become a regular Glasto feature! He also produced a bespoke mirror ball installation at the rear of the stage.

The Wow Stage lighting was designed by James “Chimpy” Harrington one of the creative mainstays of Motion, Bristol’s most cutting-edge clubbing experience.

He used a variety of kit including 10 x Chauvet R2 beams, six Robe LEDBeam 100s, eight 2-lites, Atomic strobes and Chauvet Nexus 7x7 panels, PARs and ACLs and also lit the exterior of HMS Wow with PARs and MBIs and ensured the funnel billowed with smoke curtesy of Gem Roadie smoker below!

Clocking up a landmark quarter of a century of business in the industry, lighting, rigging and visuals rental company Fineline celebrates its 25th glorious year in 2015, with a schedule that is already action packed with a wide range of work from music tours and festivals to corporate events.

The Bristol based operation was founded by Darren Wring in 1990 as a lighting rental and touring company and expanded in 2004 to include a manufacturing facility for bespoke staging and scenic elements.

Current MD Rob Sangwell joined in 2002 and managed the production lighting and rigging aspects of Fineline until 2011 when he purchased the company with a view to focusing more on the rigging and lighting production, leaving Darren to concentrate on the more esoteric design and manufacturing projects.

Rob enjoyed the vibe and the challenge of running Fineline enormously in his initial nine years, and having built up copious amounts of goodwill and a great client base, the time was perfect to re-launch another era of Fineline.

Rob was able to make a really strong start with the ‘new’ company.

“The messages and sheer volume of goodwill we received on the start-up were truly humbling” he commented, “It was clear that people appreciated and respected Fineline and understood where we came from and where we’re heading, which really reinforced the decision. Although it had been an easy one to make in some ways, it was a big risk in others”.

He added ‘MD’ to his job title of Senior Project Manager and is every bit as involved hands-on in the day-to-day running of Fineline. Sevim Sangwell is the Financial Director and they are joined by Operations Manager Stuart England, Warehouse Co-ordinator Patrick Watson and their first apprentice Ben DeSousa, who has just enrolled.

The main objective is to forge ahead and establish Fineline as one of the best and most respected SME production rental specialists in the UK.

The process of investing heavily in new technology started immediately and has continued steadily over the last four years, along with the task of getting – and keeping - all the right people on-board.

In addition to the full time employees, Fineline has a regular pool of freelancers which peaks at around 40 – 50 during the busiest periods - many of whom have worked for the company for several years.

Rob highlights the desire to keep the company small and agile in terms of full time employees. “I was wary of having to become a full time personnel manager as my skills are needed at the front end, generating new business and project managing some of the more ambitious undertakings,” he comments. Above all Rob believes that with staffing compact and manageable, clients know they can talk directly and easily with the person at the heart of their job.

Surrounding himself with experienced, knowledgeable and hard-working individuals who share the same work ethic and dedication to excellence has been a key to Fineline’s success and has enabled him to stay at the sharp end of the business action.

There has been a big commitment to new moving light and quality LED technology. “The requirements have moved on massively – and quickly – so we need to be able to deliver the best and most appropriate technologies for all our work,” he says.

The first major bookings for the new Fineline included work associated with the 2012 London Olympic Games. They supplied lighting and rigging for the Coca Cola Torch Relay Concerts in Cardiff, Birmingham, Leeds and Glasgow, and won the rigging contract for the Box Hill Road Cycling circuit.

The latter involved a gargantuan amount of ‘technology cabling’ which had to be run across a huge site and over roads, through trees and some very challenging terrain. Fineline won the tender for this in part due to their experience in specialist rigging and knowledge of working on various greenfield sites.

“Getting these jobs directly after purchasing the company really set us on our way” confirms Rob.

New work like the Eden Sessions – which Fineline is servicing for the third year this summer soon followed, while long term clients like Glastonbury continue. Glasto comes at one of the busiest times of the year and everyone in the company loves supporting the festival where they regularly look after lighting and rigging in the Acoustic, Theatre, Cabaret and Circus arenas as well as the Wow Stage.

In fact, Fineline’s involvement with the world’s most famous festival of Music and Contemporary Arts dates back to the company’s origins 25 years ago!

Another new festival client is the Bristol based music extravaganza Love Saves The Day, which this year moves to a new site with an expanded capacity, and Fineline supplying lighting and rigging to the three largest stages and also video to the main stage and 2nd stage.

Motion is regularly voted one of the UK’s best dance clubs creating some of the best EDM grooves in the country with a busy line-up filling their charismatic old warehouse space in central Bristol each week. They are another regular long term rental client for rigging, lighting and video.

In addition to the action-packed music events, Fineline’s corporate work continues with brands like Tesco, Dell, Sainsburys and Agusta Westland.

New dynamics in the company are developing all the time, and a full rebranding exercise took place at the start of 2014 to consolidate the new directions and outlook.

The structures side of the enterprise is being consciously developed so that a variety of both off-the-shelf staging and roofing products can be offered, as well as innovative custom solutions with all the relevant safety certification.

Rigging and structures consultancy is another developing area. At the end of last year, Rob was commissioned to oversee all of the structuralsafety elements of a high profileFootball Fan Park in Mumbai, India, including the construction of a 100 square metre video wall using entirely local contractors.

Looking forward, video and LED screen technology is an area that Fineline has in its sights, which started with the integration of new Ai media servers and LED screens during 2013.

With the increasing convergence between lighting and video, “There’s definitely a market for Fineline Lightingalso being able to supply LED screens and media servers as a more integrated ‘visuals’ package”, states Rob, who appreciates it’s more efficient for production / tour / client project managers to only deal with one source for both disciplines. “We now supply video packages on a large proportion of the shows we are involved with”.

As for a 25th anniversary party, current plans are to schedule this next year which will also coincide with the 5th anniversary of the ‘new’ Fineline.