Commissioned by Mainstage Festivals Limited
Project Title: Suzuki Presents @thedrivein
Project Contract: Production Manager / Technical Manager
Locations: UK Tour - 13 Cities throughout the UK
London - Birmingham - Manchester - Leeds - Newcastle - Edinburgh - Glasgow - Liverpool - Cardiff - Bristol - London - Southampton - Brighton

Scope of work:

Production / Project Management solutions that include:

360˚ planning and consultation production management services

Design and deliver each individual site City by City

Produce full local authority licensing documentation and operational plans

Infrastructure & Power requirements design and procurement

Technical equipment and staff procurement and management

Site and event management staff procurement and management

Equipment logistics, fuel & planning management

FM Licensing via Ofcom for each site City by City

Technical delivery plan

On site management of all aspects

Production Management

Production director Giles Bristow worked alongside the Festival Director and Event Manager to develop and deliver a 'socially distanced' drive in cinema 13 week UK tour, that included pre - show comedy, entertainment and games. Delivering a drive thru experience, transmitting the audio from the live entertainment and the film via FM frequency directly into the audiences vehicles.

Technical Management

Technical director Simon Ryder spent a couple of days researching FM transmission and came up with a package of a FM mastering processor with multiband AGC and limiting as well as crossover filters to ensure that the optimum signal reached the transmitter. The transmitter itself is a simple affair, digital frequency control and currently running on 4% power to produce the 1 watt that the events are licensed for. APH are using a DAS Audio DSP2060s to attenuate the signal coming out of the mixing console to give more resolution on the fader, apply an alignment delay so the sound in the cars is synced with the screen and convert to AES3 which then connects the rest of the system. The results have been very pleasantly surprising. Dynamic and punchy, the output sounds better than the commercial local radio stations.