Its roof might weigh less than the air inside it, but London’s new arena is a gargantuan heavyweight. Welcome to a new dawn in arena entertainment…

“This is the best arena in the world.” It’s a dramatic claim from Mike Potter, general manager of The O2, but in an industry powered by hype and headlines, there’s conviction in his words. And you know what? He just might be right.

Its roof might weigh less than the air inside it, but London’s new arena is a gargantuan heavyweight. Welcome to a new dawn in arena entertainment…

“This is the best arena in the world.” It’s a dramatic claim from Mike Potter, general manager of The O2, but in an industry powered by hype and headlines, there’s conviction in his words. And you know what? He just might be right.

The history of London’s new arena is well documented. When it was first planned to house a year long celebration of the new millennium, its political, financial and cultural failure was predicted from the off. In 1996, Wonderbra ran an advertising campaign with the slogan, ‘Not all domes lack public support’ – a remarkably prophetic phrase.

A black hole of public funding, lambasted by the media and responsible for sinking more than one politician’s career, when the Millennium Dome closed on 31 December, 2000, visitor numbers were half of original estimates, and the entire project had cost £789million (€1.16billion), £603m (€888m) of which had come from lottery funding.

Reports of £1m (€1.47m) monthly maintenance costs for keeping The Dome closed drew further condemnation. But by May 2002, a deal was announced for property developer Meridian Delta to redevelop the surrounding Greenwich peninsula in London’s Docklands while American billionaire Philip Anschutz would transform The Dome.

The Phoenix Effect

Fast forward through five years of planning, design, appointment of suppliers and partners, and a naming rights deal that saw The Dome renamed The O2, and while the original glass-fibre fabric canopy with its 100-metre high support towers remains, inside, an immensely different beast has been born.

The heart of The O2 is a state-of-the-art, 20,000-capacity arena that will host up to 150 music, entertainment and sport events per year. Outside of the arena sits Indigo2, a smaller 2,350-capacity venue; an 11-screen cinema complex; a world-class 6,500m2 exhibition hall and a vibrant entertainment district the length and breadth of London’s Bond Street.

Far from being just a venue, The O2 is designed as an entertainment centre; a leisure destination for a public that is increasingly hungry for future-facing, modern facilities. And while muddled public management of the initial Dome caused it to run £204m (€300m) over budget, Anschutz Entertainment Group’s (AEG) background in arena construction and management saw The O2 finished on time, and under the £350m (€515m) budget.

Considering the scale of what’s involved, it’s surprising that The O2 hasn’t attracted more headlines. But, given that the year-plus build time has all taken place under the original canvas – even in the case of a 20,000-strong workforce toiling under one of the UK’s most recognisable landmarks – it’s a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’.

However, underneath the world’s largest single-roofed structure, what has emerged is remarkable. Put frankly, it’s about as far from a makeshift stage and a few seats as Vince Power is from quitting the festival business.

The O2 is stuffed with new technology and ‘firsts’ never before seen, and where the technology can’t yet fulfil AEG’s vision, the architectural design has allowed space for it in the future.

NEC Enterprise Solutions is a founding partner for information technology, and has been involved with ticketing solutions, networking, communications and digital cinema. And for NEC’s Richard Farnworth, the ticketing systems are unique, with RFID – near-field communications where a small chip or tag in a smart card or mobile phone acts as a ticket – having played a dominant role.

“Ticketing is the most important area for the arena,” he says. “We’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for the clients to access the venue. The solution starts at the turnstile and ends at a back end customer database so the promoter and AEG can understand exactly who’s coming through the venue and where.”

As future mobile phones will include an RFID device, Farnworth predicts a gig goer pre-purchasing their gig ticket, train ticket and even merchandise together, watching exclusive content on the way to the show, and being able to make cash-free purchases once inside.

“We’ve provided an infrastructure that flexes with wherever the venue goes in the future,” he says. “All of the solutions might not be there yet, but they’re on the road map.”

With its long term US relationship already in place, Ticketmaster was the obvious ticketing partner. Chris Edmonds, MD of Ticketmaster UK, views The O2 as a worldwide showcase venue for his company’s technology, and the options available are numerous: traditional paper tickets, RFID smart cards, mobile tickets and ticket printing kiosks. 

“AEG has a very clear vision of the technology solution they’re trying to get in,” he says, predicting that the opening exhibition, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs, will shift a million tickets alone. “For us it’s about extending our existing technology platforms, whereby we can meet their expectations and deliver on a consumer experience. This is the next generation of ticketing in the UK.”

Sound Concern

 The last large purpose-built music venue to open in London was the Royal Albert Hall in 1871. A hundred and thirty six years later, acoustic design has moved on somewhat, and the innovative solutions that have gone into the main arena are another example of The O2’s future-proof technology.

The entire roof is a huge acoustic panel, 800mm thick and weighing in at 65kg per square metre. It’s the largest acoustically treated roof in Europe, and with cranes unable to fit inside the arena, it was constructed at ground level and lifted into position by 16 computer-controlled stand jacks over a period of six weeks. It can bear an unprecedented 50 tonnes of production weight.

But, the acoustic treatment far from ends there. The plastic underside of the seats are especially treated; the rear walls are cloaked with acoustic liners and bass traps; balcony fronts and the rear walls of some corporate suites are treated with acoustic panels and acoustic plates are hung behind the main stage.

“Everywhere you look there’s acoustic treatment,” says senior technical manager Q Willis. “There’s just no reverb.”

Also, in the roof is a membrane structure called ‘The Cloud’ which can be lowered on a 10,000-seater show, closing off the upper bowl and changing the volume of space in the arena.

“It’s been done on a very small scale in tuning concert halls, but never on such a large scale,” says Nick Reynolds, design principal at architects HOK. “It doesn’t perform acoustically, but it changes your spatial awareness and it also provides a surface you can project onto and animate. The opportunities are huge.”

Architects HOK have been involved in the project since September 2001. “It’s a pretty exciting project for us,” Reynolds says. “We do a lot of arenas in The States, and most of them are driven by sports. Because this arena is driven by concerts instead, it makes for a far more interesting building because of the variety of configurations.”

Versatility Factor

The key to The O2, and in many ways the most difficult obstacle that its team have struggled to overcome, is its flexibility, both in terms of configuration and the build process itself.

“As more and more events have been secured like The Olympics and World Gymnastics, we’ve had to adapt the design,” Reynolds says.

And there have been significant changes to the original plan. When it was first announced, the arena capacity was touted at 25,000, a figure which has since been reduced to 20,000 (around 15,000 for shows in the round), allowing Manchester Evening News Arena to retain its title as the UK’s largest shed. Not that Willis is concerned.

“There’s a lot of stuff talked about capacity, but somebody coming to watch a show here will have a much better experience than being corralled into a flat floor show or a seat with 500mm of room,” he says. “Our seats have a lot more legroom.”

But, while a little capacity was sacrificed for the comfy cause, the biggest change to the original plans occurred when The O2 lost its bid to house the UK’s first super-casino. The casino had featured heavily in the initial designs, and a large area of space inside London’s biggest bubble is now boarded off until further notice.

“The biggest disappointment for me was that along with the casino would have come a fantastic five-star hotel,” Potter says. “It would have supported the project and been a great addition to it. We’ve already got 85 days booked before Christmas and I think that once we open, we will be doing a deal with a hotel operator before the casino bid is sorted out.”

As part of the casino plans, a 2.5km long cable car service would have run between nearby Canary Wharf, The O2 and London City Airport. This is also now on hold, although, having bought the Thames Clippers riverboat fleet to ferry gig-goers, and with a purpose-built underground station on site, the venue is hardly difficult to reach. 

The Wider World

While strong public transport links ensure that The O2 is accessible, its wider national reach has been assured by both smart technology and two corporate deals. With AOL on board as the official online and broadband provider, promotional content will be given maximum exposure. But the involvement of mobile telecommunications provider O2 goes even further.

The six-year, £36m (€53m) naming rights deal, which was announced in May 2005, guaranteed the venue extensive reach beyond its curved façade. Where possible, O2 customers will get 48-hours of priority ticket buying for shows and fast track entry, and inside the venue is a further array of benefits.

Exclusively for customers, The O2 Blueroom is a bar area featuring Europe’s largest video wall (40m x 8m), while The O2 Lounge is available for those wishing to upgrade their experience. Depending on the act, various free content downloads will be available, and customers can even get a free car wash!

“If you’re not an O2 customer, it’s still a really great experience, but if you are, you get some extra special bits,” says Amanda Jennings, head of sponsorship and interactive partnerships at O2. “We want other customers to see what ours get.”

From an O2 concierge scheme to interactive music videos and a timetable of branded events outside of the arena, O2’s involvement is unparalleled as a naming partner. And Jennings is thrilled that the relationship has progressed a long way from when AEG first called and, “we thought they were a fridge company!”

“Now, our name is on that roof so our fates are entwined,” she says. “It’s been a big learning curve on both sides but the chemistry is right between us. Everybody was up for getting it right. I think we’ve absolutely struck a gold mine here and it’s as good as our imagination.”

Neither does the level of big-business involvement end with its founding or naming partners. Based on AEG’s flagship LA venue, The Staples Centre, The O2 hosts 96 corporate suites which have been sold to the likes of Credit Suisse, KPMG and Redbull. The suites are just another way in which the arena is a step ahead of anything that has come before it.

But to list all of the extra production facilities, bars, private lounges and broadcast suites, let alone the innovative solutions and ultra modern infrastructure (40,000km of network cabling, 300 ‘trunked’ radios across 10 sectors etc.) that makes it so flexible, would take another article on its own. Put simply, the only way to experience The O2 will be to go and have a look.

And, until the first season of concerts gets fully underway, it’s impossible to know whether everything that’s been crammed underneath the giant big top will perform as expected. As other London arena operators rightly point out, The O2 is untested, but with a million tickets sold before the first customer enters the complex, it’s impossible to ignore the signs: the London venue landscape is on the verge of dramatic change.

“We will compete with Wembley and Earls Court,” Potter says. “Personally, I think that once people have been here they’ll vote with their credit cards.”

Prince sold out the first seven of his 15 shows in a single morning and tickets for the eight Take That shows were snapped up in just three hours. And promoters who have already signed shows up are almost evangelical in their praise.

“It’s going to be the best gig in town.” says Solo’s John Giddings who’s co-promoting dates with the Rolling Stones and Barbara Streisand. “All singing all dancing; a great arena with great sightlines. I think it’s fantastic for London. It’s a landmark.”

“Up until now, the gig-going public has had to suffer a converted swimming pool and an exhibition hall to see acts in,” says Rob Hallet at AEG Live. “London finally has an arena that can compete with the rest of the world.”

Show producers Feld Entertainment have gone even further and signed an exclusive five-year deal. “That’s how confident we are of doing the business,” says Feld’s Gerry Richard, who has two weeks of Disney On Ice booked in for October and new show, High School Musical for a week over the Christmas period. “It’s a tremendous facility and I think we’re going to have a fantastic future here.”

But for Potter, The O2’s scope extends far beyond the local market. “We’re not really setting ourselves up as a London venue or even a national venue – we’re international,” he says.

So it seems that the only link in the entertainment chain left to convince is the general public, and Potter is nonchalant about any remaining negative association with The Dome of old.

“There will be a lot of people out there who might be sceptical or unsure about what’s going on but nobody I’ve taken round has left being anything but convinced,” he says. “By the end of the year we’ll have had a huge cross-section of people here, and whatever name the place had will be erased.”

So as Bon Jovi takes the stage on 24 June, some 18,000 fans will be the first to experience a new dawn in arena entertainment; a smart venue connected to the outside world with enough facilities and flexibility to wow both 21st Century punters and promoters alike.

Greg Parmley