Orbital and LCS win gold at The Jubilee and provide complex communications support

Sound specialists, Orbital, has recently been appointed by UK production house, Unusual Services Ltd, to supply a sound and communications systems for the massive Golden Jubilee weekend celebrations.

These were principally employed for the Jubilee Parades on Tuesday 4th June when over 20,000 performers and One Million spectators descended on The Mall.
Working closely with Hilary Westlake – the Director of the ‘50 Years' parade – Orbital's Creative Director Sebastian Frost was commissioned to compile the sound tracks sequenced to accompany all the Golden Jubilee processions and the spectacular fireworks display. As broadcast live around the world by the BBC, the 30, 60 minute tracks were produced by Sebastian who spent over 50 hours at Orbital's in-house Pro Tools editing suite exacting the FX requirements for this sensational landmark occasion.
The main system, comprised nearly 100 d&b E9 / C6 cabinets – each fixed to trees North and South of The Mall, an unusual rigging challenge that worked extremely well.
As one of the most complex LCS installations to date, the design was also used to channel the soundtracks for all the five other processions down The Mall including the Notting Hill Carnival Parade, Chicken Shed Theatre, the Gospel Choir Parade, the Services Parade and the Commonwealth Parade.
The LCS solution was chosen as the only tool capable of handling the movement of up to 14 sound sources simultaneously traversing down The Mall. Audio was routed through the most complicated LCS SpaceMap design ever created and was synchronised with its related Parade float, so that the audience only heard the track related to the float in view at any point in time.


Sebastian commented:
"Many weeks of hard work went into the system's design and the support from LCS was fantastic! Richard Bugg, LCS's Technical Training Representative, visited Orbital the week prior to work closely and finalise the design details of this high profile system - the software was specifically modified for the first time to achieve this effect! Underlining the fact that the LCS Matrix 3 digital control platform is an extremely flexible design tool that also sounds fantastically better than it's analogue predecessors".
Orbital also were commissioned to supply an audio distribution system throughout the site and was achieved by the deployment of a BSS Soundweb network programmed by George McKechnie. Fifty-Eight Soundweb DSP and hubs were employed and used some 18 KM's of ethernet cable spanning from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square. This enabled distribution of all the "comms" infrastructure and audio to the various centres of activity like North and south sides of The Mall and the stage and technical areas at the Queen Victoria Memorial. Audio and ‘comms' were thus distributed to the many crews working for the varied suppliers.

To facilitate smooth communications on site, Orbital's Head of Communications, Tim Sherratt, supplied a network of Radiocom BTR 700 wireless duplex intercom linked to RTS 2 and 4- wire products for stage management, the sound teams, and broadcasters based on-site. Employed extensively by roaming Stage Managers throughout, the BTR 700's played a vital role as the official cue mechanism as the Queen ignited the Jubilee Beacon, setting off the chain of beacons across the UK and the sensational Palace fireworks display.


In Picture:
A Giant Float in '50 Years" Parade – courtesy of Louise Stickland
From L to R: Richard Bug of LCS with Orbital's Sebastian Frost working on The Jubilee designs with the Cue Console.