Directed by the highly-awarded John Foreman, Australia Day 2017 – Live at the Sydney Opera House brought together a collection of Australia’s best talent, including Tina Arena, Guy Sebastian, Human Nature and Dami Im. The concert was hosted by Grant Denyer and Kerri-Anne Kennerley.

JPJ Audio provided audio production with Will King in charge of the design and running front of house. It has been well publicized that the forecourt of the Opera House is a tricky venue due to its’ strict noise control limit. Added to that was the fact that the show was broadcast live and the television producers wanted the Harbour Bridge as a backdrop.“This meant that the stage wasn’t orientated in a way that was helpful in achieving that sound level,” commented Will. “The sound was directed towards the Botanical Gardens and in places, could hit the sandstone wall. We had to do our best to deliver a sound system that would shoot down enough to not hit the wall, only the audience.”

The PA system comprised of L-Acoustics K1, ten a side, with a side hangs of KARA enclosures to cover the steps of the Opera House, as well as SB28 subs. A single mono delay hang of eight deep KUDO enclosures was also utilized. A large number of Clair 12am wedges covered the stage and the thrust that jutted out into the audience. Usually a thrust allowing performers in front of the PA can cause problems but not in this case due to the concert’s strict noise limits.

“That was probably the only good thing about having a strict noise limit!” laughed Will. “I used a DiGiCo SD10 for control and it was the first time I didn’t have a single channel to plug anything into. The entire console was full – if anyone else had turned up I don’t know what we would have done!”

It was important that Will remembered the larger audience was at home watching the concert on the television and he had to be careful not to do anything that would affect the broadcast.

“For example, feedback is an absolute no-no on TV,” he elaborated. “If it happens once or twice at a gig, you can get away with it but with television it’s very noticeable in the quiet of your living room as opposed to a noisy gig.”
Those who have seen the broadcast of the show will remember what appeared to be a momentous audio fail when Grant Deyner’s microphone didn’t appear to work for what seemed like an age. However, JPJ are relieved to be able to state that the microphone was working perfectly at the gig.

Tristan Farrow ran monitors using a DiGiCo SD5 console.

Photos:

©Troy Constable

When it was released, over a decade ago, JPJ Audio was one of the first rental companies to purchase the Digico D5. Since then we’ve added SD10, SD7 and more recently SD5 Live Digital Consoles to our extensive rental inventory.

For more information on the consoles we use visit our equipment pages.

Australia’s foremost music festival, The Big Day Out, debuted on the 1992 Australia Day public holiday in Sydney and expanded to Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth by the following year. The Gold Coast and Auckland were added to the schedule in 1994. As of 2003, it has featured seven or eight stages (depending on the venue) accommodating popular contemporary rock music, electronic music, mainstream international acts and local acts.

JPJ Audio (previously trading as Jands Production Services and Johnston Audio) has provided the sound systems for every Big Day Out show since 1992 and 2014 was no exception. The festival usually takes place in late January and this year was held in four Australian cities: Gold Coast (Jan 19), Melbourne (Jan 24), Sydney (Jan 26), Adelaide (Jan 31) and Perth (Feb 2).

Gallery – All photos ©Daniel Boud

The world’s most famous virtual band, Gorillaz, made their live debut in Australia in December 2010.

After headlining the UK’s Coachella and Glastonbury festivals earlier in the year, Gorillaz headed to the Southern Hemisphere to tour Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and then Auckland.

The band – the brainchild of Blur singer Damon Albarn and Tank Girl cartoonist Jamie Hewlitt – consists of an eccentric animated quartet: singer and keyboardist 2-D, bassist Murdoc, guitarist Noodle and drummer Russel Hobbs.

As part of their first world tour the band included over 20 musicians on stage at any one time. JAS provided a D&B J system – and lots of it.

Date

December 11, 16, 19, 21

System

60 x d&b J series
16 x d&b J-sub
18 x d&b B2
Powered by d&b D12 amplifiers

FOH

DiGiCo SD7

Monitors

DiGiCo SD7
24 x L-Acoustics 115xt HiQ wedges

JAS audio crew

Craig Gordon
Conor Dunne
Guto Magic – Otavio Santos
Matthew ‘Boz’ Boaro

Having recently purchased the D & B J system JAS was contacted by the Who to supply the system for their Australian tour. Paul Ramsay their FOH operator was keen to use the system if it was available as they had been using it worldwide. The tour consisted of arenas and some outdoor shows.

The system also required 3 x Digico digital consoles and was the first, in Australia, to use the SD7.

The SD7 was doing the FOH duties and the 2 x D5 consoles were on monitors. All the consoles were running with dual racks (112chls) and we also supplied a recording system.

The schedule also meant JAS needed to supply a 2nd L-Acoustics VDosc system due to an overnight run back to the Melbourne Grand Prix. At the Grand Prix the Who played to a crowd estimated at 40,000.

The tour also featured the Counting Crows as support.

Dates

March 24, 26, 28, 29, 31
April 4

JAS Crew

Craig Gordon – D&B J system tech
Paul Kennedy – system rigger
Connor Dune – monitor rigger

Main touring System

56 x D & B J speakers
16 x D & B J-Sub
12 x D & B B2 Sub
8 x L-Acoustics ARCs

Winery show duplicate system

24 x L-Acoustics VDosc
24 x Wayloud 218 subs
8 x L-Acoustics ARCs

FOH Consoles

1 x Digico SD7 112ch system
1 x Recording 112ch system
1 x Nexo PS8 playback systems

Monitor System

2 x Digico D5 112ch systems
1 x Nexo PS8 shout system

Wedges

16 x D&B M2 Wedges

Sidefills

8 x L-Acoustics ARCs
2 x L-Acoustics DVsub

Drumfill

1 x D&B C4 sub

Counting Crows JAS console package Perth

2 x Digidesign Profile systems
1 x Full stage patching system

Bob Dylan continued his Never Ending Tour which began in the late 1980s with dates in Australia and New Zealand in August 2007.

The tour, his first trip down under in more than four years, included five Australian and three New Zealand shows and followed the release of Dylan’s 32nd album, Modern Times.

The Australian run of dates included the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on August 13, Sydney Entertainment Centre on August 15, Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on August 17, Adelaide Entertainment Centre on August 21 and the Burswood Dome in Perth on August 23.

Dylan’s tour follows a string of North American dates in June and July and performances earlier this year in Europe, where the legendary folk and rock songwriter has drawn on his rich back catalogue and new material.

The Oasis Australian tour saw Bruce Johnston finally make it home after almost a year of touring. The Oasis juggernaut is an amazing phenomenon, with the band pulling enormous crowds throughout Europe and the Americas, with a huge resurgence in their popularity.

The Oasis shows sounded amazing, with 32 Nexo Geo-T elements and 16 Nexo CD18 subs powered by Camco Vortex 6 amps.

Bruce operated on his DiGiCo D5 console, while former Aussie Ian Newton operated the monitor rig from a Yamaha PM1D console.

The Oasis Australian tour was sadly the last tour for Johnston Audio by Drew Menard, who has moved on to look after the DiGiCo brand for Group Technology. Other Johnston Audio crew on the Oasis tour were Ivan Ordenes, who rigged the FOH and Mark Crawley who rigged the monitors.

Dates

December 14-16 2006

JAS supplied DiGiCo D1 FOH and Monitor package for Simple Minds Asian and Australian tour.

Simple Minds’ Production Manager John Armstrong called to say that they were finding it hard to get the consoles for the Asian leg of their tour and fortunately JAS was able to supply a package including 2 x DiGiCo D1 consoles, 2 x Local racks, 1 x Stage Rack, 1 x return system and 1 x FOH FX system was dispatched to Hong Kong.

JAS also provided a V-Dosc PA system for the Simple Minds’ Palais Theatre show in Melbourne. The system included 18 V-Dosc elements and 16 Wayloud dual 18’ subs powered by Camco Vortex 6 amplifiers controlled by 3 Lake Contour processors.

Jock Bain was the CVE, Doug Pringle looked after FOH and Adrian Barnard rigged the Nexo PS15 monitor system.

Dates

May 3, 7, 9, 12 2006