The BRIT Awards 2024 required the audio team to ensure the overall production comes together cohesively, a task Britannia Row took on.
Head of Engineering – Event Support, Josh Lloyd, who also acted as the BRITs audio
designer, commented: “People like to remain involved in this show as it has always been an
annual milestone in the UK music calendar and has generated some iconic moments
including Adele’s performance of ‘Someone Like You’ which I was lucky enough to mix, Geri
Halliwell’s iconic Union Jack dress and Santan Dave’s incredible rendition of ‘Black’. The
production team is made up of an amazing group of people, so it’s a real pleasure coming
back.”
This year, the PA system was an L-Acoustics mixture: K1, K2, K3 and KS28, with the
principal design priority being to minimise spill into microphones for both musical
performances and presentation and awards segments.
Lloyd, who mixed the event at FOH, explained: “The key to this during the design phase is
understanding how and where performances and presentations will happen, working out
where coverage is and is not possible. Having very granular control and routing within the
system allows us to ensure we have good gain before feedback and a clean mix into
broadcast.”
For control during musical performances, DiGiCo Quantum 7 consoles handled the mixes, two monitor consoles formed an A/B flip flop system, the FOH surface mixed all live musical
elements, and a fourth ‘hot spare’ was on hand for quick patching if needed.
“The presentations are handled by a redundant pair of Yamaha PM5s. The
whole backbone of the system is based around a redundant set of Direct Out Prodigy MPs
which deal with playback and radio mic routing as well as system drive with all signal
distribution from microphone to amplifier, staying in the digital domain. We then have 96
channels of analogue inputs to handle live instruments on stage. This design is an evolution
over many years of doing this show,” Lloyd continued.
Account Executive Tom Brown added: “Britannia Row has supplied live audio solutions to the BRITs for 29 years, and it’s an honour to be asked back again. Our involvement in the show begins on day 1; Josh and his team look at PA design and placement to ensure everything from lighting to set and Spidercams are not obstructed. As it’s a televised live music show, all the elements need to be balanced with no single department having priority over the other.
“The relationship between the BRIT Awards and Britannia Row is a long-standing one, so
the channels of communication for interdepartmental collaboration are well established.
Josh’s team also look after generic input and output lists for seamless connectivity between
the live and broadcast elements to ensure we’re singing from the same hymn sheet, and that our live audio mix doesn’t overly colour the broadcast audio. This is a fine balancing act by a team who have worked together for years and have the process homed in very well. Having the level of in-house design capability that we do benefits our client for this type of show, where we are very much a solutions provider rather than an equipment rental house,” he continued.
Lloyd agreed: “The success of what we do is down to the skills in each department of our
organisation. Communication between the account handler, the engineering team, the
operations team, and the team prepping the equipment in the warehouse is so important. We pride ourselves – both at Britannia Row and as part of the wider Clair Global Group – on
having Engineering and Tour Support teams who work together globally to support our
clients. We have constant communication internally to ensure smooth delivery and very high standards. A common ethos that runs through the show support team is a group of people who are deeply passionate about audio and achieving the best possible result – that’s what drives us all.”
The event was also an opportunity for new talent to shine, with Britannia Row welcoming two trainees into the crew each year. Lloyd elaborated: “A big part of Britannia Row’s DNA is training new talent. Our two-year training programme nurtures new audio techs and engineers and gives wide-ranging on-the-job experience. When we joined Clair Global, we could see they shared our passion for training with their incredibly successful RSIT (Road Staff In Training) programme. It’s the key to the ongoing development of our industry and supporting the next generation. The BRIT Awards is an important platform for this in the UK.”
