London based Orbital Sound have supplied a myriad of individual sound systems for the 4th year running to both The Pleasance and The Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh's two largest venues situated at the heart of the Fringe Festival. Orbital's Sebastian Frost has designed the sound for The Pleasance for 6 years and for the last two has worked with Tom Lishman, who provides on-site Technical Support and Co-ordination.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, now in it's 53rd year, is a unique open arts Festival and remains one of the world's only platforms for free artistic expression. The artists and performers who participate fund and fend for themselves, investing huge costs and emotional commitment. This year 600 companies presented over 17,000 performances in a variety of venues all located in the heart of Edinburgh's hugely charismatic and majestic city centre.

The Pleasance is the largest, comprised of 12 small venues which are "reclaimed" from Edinburgh University every year. The central cluster of 8 venues at the Pleasance is made out of the University Societies Centre; itself a magnificent group of buildings situated around a quaint cobbled courtyard. For the Festival, many of its rooms are transformed into mini auditoriums where the atmosphere can be very intimate.

The Festival's spirit is young and creative, working as an active learning ground for artists and production companies alike to advance their future careers in the theatre industry. The Pleasance and The Gilded Balloon have 20 theatres that seat between 60 and 500 people, a total of around 20,000 tickets available on each day of the Festival.

It takes over two weeks of intensive preparation to fully transform this part of the University Campus into a 'multiplex' of theatres. Sebastian Frost and Tom Lishman work closely with The Pleasance's young production team to create this unique theatre environment. Frost says "Keeping the sound configuration simple is the key to success; it allows for sound operators, production engineers and designers, to work with a common system that is as foolproof as possible."

The Festival is an extremely challenging ground for the technical support teams. To pack in all the shows, each venue is used by a number of companies each day. Often there is only a 20 minute turnaround between shows for the props, performers, equipment and the audience to be changed, making for an intense and pressured working environment. Tom Lishman explained:
" The atmosphere is unlike any other conventional theatre environment. It is completely frenetic with so many shows happening simutaneously; this is where a huge amount of pressure comes in. As the only qualified and experienced sound engineer present, my role is as much one of 'teacher' as it is technical support. The crew are all incredibly enthusiastic, but lack the experience of real performance. There is nothing like the hands-on experience offered by Edinburgh to educate and make them aware of real situations."

Although most systems are basic, even more technology is being employed, and radio microphones being used even in the smaller venues seating 60 people. This is due in part to the increasing accessibility of advanced technology, and to the theatre companies themselves who can use sound as a simple, effective, creative tool.

Lishman and Frost have also worked closely with BBC Radio 4's Paul Wones to ensure that over 24 programmes are successfully produced for broadcast. "It all comes down to team spirit", Lishman explained. Apart from mixing the BBC shows for the live audience, Lishman ensured that Orbital provided the necessary interface to facilitate the production and smooth channelling of the sound from the venue into the BBC OB truck, located in The Pleasance courtyard.

The most extensive system at the Pleasance was used for 'The Donkey Show'. a 70's disco musical adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Brought to Edinburgh by Christopher Richardson and David Babani, after a successful 2 years in New York. Its huge success has secured the show's transfer into London's West End to continue appropriately in the nightclub environment at The Hanover Grand.