Night at The Abbey

St Alban’s Cathedral is the oldest site of continuous Christian worship in Britain, dating back about 1,000 years. In partnership with the cathedral Soul Survivor run an evening celebration attracting over 2,500 young people which focuses on a more acoustic style of worship that reflects the history and grand nature of the building.

For this event SFL provided the full technical production. This also meant working around the cathedral’s busy service schedule including Morning Prayer, Eucharist and Evensong. There was also an overflow venue that comprised additional tech support and cameras fed from the main venue.

Video saw a dual camera setup and VT system go in, allowing people to see the stage from all angles (including the main nave and side aisles) and overflow venue. Canon XEED 6500 projectors were used for all screens. Running DVI over CAT6 meant the resolution of the HD cameras was maintained and high brightness was achieved. All switching and camera mixing being handled via a Roland V-800.

Lighting needed to be indirect and atmospheric for the most part. This was achieved by the use of LED uplighters and battens throughout. Colours were used that sensitively accentuated the architecture of the building whilst maintaining an atmosphere of worship, a key requirement for Soul Survivor. Front light was kept simple using fresnels to lift the stage light.

To work with the inherent acoustics of a Cathedral a distributed point source PA system was deployed. This had the key effect of keeping the direct to reverberant sound at a good ratio for the listener. This kept the fidelity of the strings and acoustic instruments to a maximum while retaining headroom for the praise and celebration sets.

A Midas Pro2 with DL251 was used as control interfacing with M48s, for the bands IEMs, via a DN9650 and S-MADI units feeding S4000-D PoE distributors. The M48s allowed the band to adjust their mixes as and when they needed, which 3 different patches in operation for band members, the string quartet and backing vocalists. Using SFL custom made Hybrid stage boxes, we could send power, CAT-5 and XLR down single cables, reducing clutter and keeping stage clean.

The event was a great success, which saw people empowered and uplifted and was a fantastic one-off night for Soul Survivor in the Cathedral. SFL continue to work to develop the technical side of this event, looking to further support the Soul Survivor celebrations while remaining sensitive to the venue and atmosphere.

Photo credits Tundun Obidipe & Jez Godlonton