We haven’t stopped…
It’s been a super busy year for us and it doesn’t look like letting up as we start preparing for the run up to the festive season. The last month alone has seen us supplying kit and engineers in Istanbul, Cannes, Copenhagen, Malaga and Barcelona as well as the usual haunts around the UK. At this very moment we are de-prepping after a beautiful event at Stirling Castle where we supplied staging, lighting, audio and video wall and media server as well as all the crew. It was hefty steep get in up a seriously steep cobbled hill but as you can see the results were worth the effort.
Recently we’ve added the Soundcraft Vi 3000 to our stock as well as the AKG DMS700 wireless microphone system. Give us a call… we have everything you need to a great event in stock and ready to roll.
2014 is go!
Here at Madhen Productions we’ve had a great start to the year. Events have taken us all over the UK and to Paris, Malta and Milan. We’ve supplied crew, logistics and tech for corporate parties, awards shows and even a lovely intimate Q&A session for the Irish Literary Society with actress Lisa Dwan. Whether we’re supplying stadium sized rigs for a rock band at the Liverpool Echo Arena or lavalier and lectern mics for subtle sound reinforcement we always pay the same care and attention to detail, take time to understand the needs of the client and give them the reassurance they deserve.
Party Season
We’ve had another busy few weeks at Madhen Productions. A last minute call meant flying Mark (our technical guru) out to Venice with CandyAmp to look after the front of house mix and on stage requirements for the band before flying straight back to another CandyAmp gig at the Park Lane Hotel in London. Both gigs were absolute rockers.
Last week had us back at one of our favorite venues, Koko as well as putting in full production at Lingfield Racecourse for Fidelity and Milton Keynes Hilton Hotel for Volkswagen.
Even though the team are rushing about for the Christmas party season the warehouse has to stay in tip top shape, which includes maintenance of the huge stock of kit. All our equipment goes out in top working order and looking pristine.
The view from stage side control
Lighting control and video server
December is nearly here…
December is nearly here which means the run up to Christmas. The coming week sees us supplying tech and crew for three events in London (Planet Hollywood, Victoria Embankment Gardens and Altitude 360) as well as events at Peterborough Arena and Burgess Hall in St. Ives.
The Planet Hollywood event is a last minute affair (the call came in yesterday) but due to our huge stock of perfectly maintained kit and roster of highly professional technicians and crew we can make it happen. So if you have a last minute booking and need anything with regards to lighting, PA, video, staging, stage management, transport or crew don’t hesitate to call and we will move heaven and earth to make your event a success.
The Joy of Autumn.
October was a very busy month for Madhen Productions. We had events all over the UK including Koko, Celtic Manor and Alton Towers and two major events for Unilever and Capco. As well as delivering technical support and management for all of our events we were also delivering creative content with video edits galore. With two of our full time staff being whizzes with Final Cut Pro X and with the hardware to back it up we can edit content for you in any format as well as supplying the servers and presentation medium (from Plasma and projection to hi-res video wall) to suit your requirements.
The Soundcraft Vi1 is proving to be one of our favourite new workhorses. With a 64 channel digital stage box it’s easy to install, reliable, tidy and will handle the biggest jobs.
A Busy Winter
Madhen productions have been busier than ever in the last couple of months.
December and January have had us running around from venue to venue.
We’ve supplied engineers for gigs at venues like Koko and the Troxy in London.
We’ve put in PA, lighting and video systems for playback and live feeds at live music
events, awards ceremonies and seminars . Our printing and carpentry departments
have been making some classy, beautiful displays…. We’ve worked hard and travelled
far but we’ve had a blast.
Seasons Change
Seasons Change.
With summer seemingly coming to an abrupt end and the excitement of the
Olympics fading into the past it is time to look forward to the run up to Christmas.
The Olympics saw us putting in all the technical requirements for Cadbury at their
Olympic receptions at Quaglinos in London and on The Silver Sturgeon sailing up
and down the Thames.
Autumn has found us busy with the usual corporate and private work including two
events for Tesco at Celtic Manor in Wales. On each event we had to get in, set up a
ground stacked D&B Q system line array PA and sound check the band in the space
of 90 minutes. All happily completed in a calm and orderly fashion by a team
running like well-tuned clockwork.
We’ve been sending out engineers overseas too. Tarqs found himself in Beirut in a
huge open-air roof top club called White Club running the PA for the MADHEN band at a
massive event for Marlboro. Mark was flown to Vienna to do the same at an event
for Momentum 2012, a global conference for IT companies. Whilst it is work, with
the statutory early flights and little sleep, I think they both secretly enjoyed
themselves.
November found the MHP team putting in a PA at a large private event near
Gloucester. The combination of the late autumn showers and the location left us
with a British festival style get in and get out. Tractors, a quad bike, Land Rovers
and sturdy towing equipment have never been more welcome. Despite the mud the team
were smiling even though they faced a grubby de-rig back at the warehouse the next
morning.
Winter and the run up to Christmas have us whizzing around for preparatory site
meetings getting ready for festive parties and awards ceremonies…. All of which
you’ll hear about after the festive rush.
We can help you organise your event from crew and logistics to full event
management and production supplies from our own extensive stock of PA, lighting,
video and staging. Call us to find out how we can bring our wealth of experience to
your event.
Across the UK… and beyond!
The last month has seen Madhen Productions supplying, installing and managing PA, lighting, staging, crew and engineers for various events throughout the UK and even in the Caribbean. We’ve worked with Toyah, Limahl, Katrina (formerly of Katrina and the Waves) and of course our favourites Madhen.
Venues included the orangery at Syon Park, a roof-top at the The Cedar Court Hotel in York (which required a large fork lift truck for the get in), Sywell Aerodrome, The Mayfair Hotel in London and a handful of beautiful private country houses including the wedding of French rugby star Benjamin Kayser. Absolute highlights of the month include a fantastic gig in Camden Town’s Koko and a great trip to mix the Madhen band on a beautiful beach in Barbados where they were working alongside Radio 1’s DJ Fearne Cotton for Virgin Travel.
The Madhen Productions team have worked their socks off with some tight get-ins not least of which was an 8ftx24ft steel deck stage, truss, lights, PA, projector and screen all rigged in record time. A special huge thank you goes out to Mark (the man in charge and an awesome sound engineer) John, Steve and Colin for some amazing sounding and visually stunning events and always being happy to go that extra mile.
One client emailed the following after an event with the Madhen band for Sharpefibre in Colchetser:
“I would just like to thank you for the whole Madhen experience, with all that we put into our event at five lakes, you guy`s completed our event, from set up/sound/the band/breakdown, what a professional/slick operation, and without doubt, and from the emails we have received (and the fact we had some top people from our industry who have attended many events) you are the BEST live band we all have all seen, LEGENDS, and everyone says it won’t be topped.”
If you need creative, well-managed and efficient production for your event don’t delay in contacting us.
Geek Talk!
MADHEN have never been shy of technology and in the world of Party Bands they are certainly at the forefront of integrating wizardry with their performances.
Running HD video on a Video Wall perfectly in sync with their show is just one instance of how they embrace technology to give the audience an even more breathtaking experience. The video has to be shot, compiled and edited. The guys at MADHEN keep all this in-house, but the video editing is a matter for another blog.
There is a great deal of technology incorporated in the show which the audience may be unaware of. This week the band have all been fitted for new In-Ear-Monitors(IEMs). These are like tiny personal ‘walkman’ headphones but they are moulded to fit inside your ear and block out a lot of the external sound offering hearing protection, a real clarity to what each member of the band can hear and a perfect fit so they can’t fly out when the band are leaping around the stage. They do the same job as the monitor speakers you often see on the floor facing other bands, this is why you won’ t see old fashioned ‘wedges’ on stage at a MADHEN gig.
MADHEN went down to ACS (Advanced Communication Solutions) near Banbury to see their friend Andy Shiach. Andy has looked after and maintained the bands personal ear pieces for the last five years but due to the fact that they are constantly in use and the shape of your ear alters with time it’s now time for new ones. Each ear piece is moulded from medical grade silicone and contains separate drivers (speakers) to handle different parts of the sound spectrum (bass, middle and treble). The moulds are taken by injecting foam into each ear which sets and then can be removed as a plug….a little like having a mould taken for a brace or false teeth at the dentist. Andy Shiach is a professional, he really knows what he is doing, under normal circumstances pushing things into your ears is not to be advised, it’s a really bad idea!
Be warned this is where it gets really geeky……and we give away some of the secrets. On stage the hub of the technology is built around Paul, MADHEN’s drummer and musical backbone. To his left is a rack of equipment which contains a 16 channel digital mixing desk (Yamaha LS9) connected up to four radio transmitters. The individual sounds of all the microphones and instruments on stage (including two audio inputs from the Apple Mac) come into the mixing desk and at the press of a button each band member can access their own personal mix and change the levels of each sound to suit. Each of their mixes is sent via a cable to a separate radio transmitter which in turn ‘beams’ their mix to a belt pack which they wear and plug their headphones into. Paul, as he is stationary for the gig, and is next to the mixer, plugs straight into the mixer itself. Simple. The mix that the audience hears is handled at another mixing desk by our front of house sound engineer.
The rack also contains, amongst other things, radio receivers for the bands wireless vocal mics and a Mackie HDR24 multitrack recorder which is digitally connected to the LS9 (mixing desk). The recorder allows the band, at the push of a button, to record anything they play at a gig or a soundcheck. It records every input on a separate track. This multitrack recording can then be loaded onto a hard drive and taken back to the studio where it can be mixed and if necessary synced up with live video of the performance. You can see and hear the results in our videos on MADHEN’s youtube channel or on the media page on the band’s website.
So there you have it….unless you’ve fallen asleep already.
If you’re interested in a similar system for your own band MADHEN PRODUCTIONS can configure and supply one to suit your specific needs and budget, either for sale or hire, with or without an operator depending on your requirements. Feel free to contact us at info@madhenproductions.com for any technical requirements from a simple microphone or CD player, to a live video crew or festival staging, lighting and PA.
Silverstream TV.
Here is a little interview Andy from Madhen Productions did for Silverstream TV at Confex 2012 where Madhen Productions provided all the PA and AV for the Main Stage.
Madhen Productions at Excel for Confex 2012… and winning an Award.
The Madhen Productions crew have just got back from Excel where we supplied and ran the Main Stage for Confex 2012. After a safe and speedy get out the crew will be going through all of the kit at the warehouse, checking it al back in and making sure it’s all spic and span for the next job.
All in all four trucks worth of gear including steel deck, video wall, video servers, lights and PA went up to Excel.
All the effort was well worth it as Madhen Prodcutions were recognised by the organisers and won the Confex 2012 award for Best Stand. You can see the guys and girls from Madhen Productions and the Madhen (the band) in one of the photos below looking justifiably pleased with themselves.
Thanks to all the bands that performed over the three days for helping to make it a slick affair.
Final Preparations
This month has been non-stop for MADHEN PRODUCTIONS. On two separate occasions at the start of the month we found ourselves battling with snow in an attempt to get a van full of equipment up steep, icy country roads. We didn’t let it stop us though.
We’ve also been spending a lot of time getting the central performance area for Confex2012 ready. Confex is a trade show for event organisers in the corporate market held from the 6th to the 8th of March at London’s ExCel.
MADHEN PRODUCTIONS are supplying, installing, crewing and managing all aspects of the performance area. This includes a 24ftx16ft stage, PA, video wall and banners, two video servers, backline and lights for over 20 acts. The acts range from a classic band line up (including MADHEN) to string quartets, a samba band, opera singers, acrobats, a juggler and even a belly dancer. Confex’s own talent show “The Next Big Thing” will also be showcasing new talent on the stage everyday.
Scheduling the performance slots has been a juggling act in itself but it’s going to be an exciting show with three ten minute performances every hour. There will be plenty to keep you entertained. If you’re attending Confex come and say hi and find out what we can do for you at your next corporate event. You’ll be able to find MADHEN PRODUCTIONS at the central feature by the stage and you’ll be able to find the band at stand P330.
Confex2012 runs from the 6th to the 8th of March at ExCel in London.
Confex 2012
MADHEN Productions is proud to be providing and managing the staging, lighting and PA for the central feature at CONFEX 2012. The designs are looking great including a video wall at the back of the stage, which will be displaying video and graphical content for performing exhibitors at the event. There will be live entertainment throughout the day including the MADHEN band.
It looks like being a very busy but fun few days.
Come across to the central feature to say Hi and find out how we can help you with any technical requirements for your next event whether in a small conference room or the O2 arena.
International CONFEX 2012 runs from the 6th to the 8th of March at EXCEL in London.
