South Africa - Absen LED has appointed DWR Distribution as its new distributor in South Africa. With subsidiaries in the USA, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Russia, UAE and Hong Kong, DWR is confident that Absen LED Display Applications will provide clients with a wide range of quality and affordable products. Shenzhen Absen Optoelectronic was founded in 2001 as an integrated service provider and manufacturer within the Optoelectronics industry, focusing on premium quality turnkey LED display solutions. Since this time, Absen products have been shipped off to over 120 countries, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa included, and used in over 30 000 projects. From the design of each product until its completion on the production line, strict quality control is put in place. “From the very beginning we carefully select the material used for each product and only work with the highe
USA - College Football Hall of Famer Eddie Robinson holds the record for the second-most victories of any college football coach while leading the Grambling State University Tigers in over 50 seasons of play, from the 1940s to 1997. Robinson coached over two-hundred players who went on to the professional AFL, CFL, and NFL leagues, and in any discussion about who was the best football coach of all time, Robinson is always in the running. Indeed, many pundits put him at the top. Thus, the small, historically-black Grambling State University is indebted to Robinson for elevating the school’s exposure and reputation. When the school constructed a new 20,000-seat stadium in 1983, it named the stadium in his honour. Recently, Eddie Robinson Stadium underwent scoreboard and sound system renovations, and a new, powerful, simple Danley Sound Labs Jericho Horn and BC-subwoofer syst
USA - On a crisp autumn morning in Bloomsburg, it’s a day of worship at Columbia-Montour LCBC church as friends and new arrivals gather for what they wish to be, a life changing experience. But this is no ordinary church. LCBC Columbia-Montour is a satellite campus, a sister church if you will, one of many in Pennsylvania that are part of a growing congregation born from the original LCBC in Manheim, Pennsylvania. People enter the impressive and welcoming lobby of the church, gathering with anticipation and shared knowledge that something exciting is about to happen. Seats are taken in the sanctuary, lights are lowered, and music begins. A live band is on stage, teasing forth deep bass notes with a kick drum beat designed to move a crowd. Electric guitar and keyboard interplay build around the beat, creating a sound that is the pillar of the LCBC brand and the reason
USA - The Global Leadership Summit is a live HD broadcast that is simulcast to more than 600 satellite locations around the globe. On 10-11 August, Relevant Audio Visual provided production for a Global Leadership Summit satellite site in Wichita, Kansas, the third largest satellite site in the country, and turned to inspirational lighting from Elation Professional to liven up the environment. “In past years, there’s been little thought put into lighting this satellite location,” explains Brandon Deibler, creative director and project designer at Relevant Audio Visual (RAV). “Traditionally, there’s been a very flat, non-dimensional look to the room. It needed a more energetic, inspiring look to complement their message so we freshened it up with effects and colour from Elation lighting.” It didn’t help that the
USA - The light show at the Nightchaser Stage at the 2017 Burning Man Festival held in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert was controlled with the ChamSys MagicQ MQ40. The stage was radiantly covered in multi-colored light, courtesy of LD Bryce Cherpelis. “My ChamSys desk and I both stood up to some harsh elements here in the middle of the desert, but it was well worth it,” said Cherpelis, who used four universes in his show. “I loved the looks we were able to create. We played with a lot of different colors and intensity levels to set a very free flowing feeling for the performances. The FX generator in my MQ40 was essential in this regard. Between intensity FX, Position FX and color FX, it was always there for me. Whenever I wanted to push the boundaries of the show, my console was ready for more.” Not surprisingly, busking was the order of the day for
USA/Europe - Experienced LD Cosmo Wilson has been lighting Aerosmith’s shows since 2012 and was at the helm of the band’s farewell tour Aero-Vederci Baby. Cosmo first started thinking about the latest set design while the band were in South America back in 2016, and when it came to speccing the equipment he decided to go big into GLP’s impression X4 LED moving head portfolio, commandeering 272 fixtures as a direct replacement for the classic Par can. “I wanted to create a design that was reminiscent of Aerosmith’s earlier tours, back in the 70’s and 80’, with the enormous Par can rigs and ‘finger’ style trusses,” he explained. “The big difference is the video wall which is definitely not 70’s or 80’s, but I helped to create some of the content that is at least reminiscent of the band in that era.” The LD has been using the impre
USA - New York-based public relations agency CP Communications has purchased 17 DiGiCo S21 compact digital consoles to support its ongoing work with Fox Sports’ and CBS Sports. The gear will primarily be used as effects submixers during broadcasts of NFL and college football games, with additional sports-broadcast applications expected in the future. The consoles are assembled into flight-pack configurations for use in a variety of sports venue environments, taking full advantage of the S21’s compact form factor and the console’s exceptional processing power - based around its FPGA core and new ARM QuadCore RISC processor - allowing the S21 to be deployed in virtually any broadcast location and environment. These 17 new DiGiCo S21 desks join the more than half-dozen DiGiCo SD10B broadcast consoles already in CP Communications’ inventory, being used in remote-pr
UK - Robbie Williams’ long-term audio supplier Britannia Row Productions (Brit Row) brought a combination of L-Acoustics K1 and K2 loudspeaker system for the pop star’s tour in support of his album Heavy Entertainment Show. Brit Row has been deploying L-Acoustics K1 for Robbie for the past five years and each tour has seen developments in the system the company carries as new products become available. In 2014, they switched to K2 for rear-hangs and down-fill cabinets, this year they have updated amplification to the latest LA12X amplified controllers. “Updating to running the whole system on the new LA12X amplifiers is our big step forward this year,” says Brit Row’s Josh Lloyd. “Not only have we seen an improvement in how the system sounds, but the LA12X also provides the incredibly helpful Load Checker feature that measures the attached loudspeake
UK - Quested has announced the appointment of Sound Network as its UK distributor. Sound Network has already started an extensive demo programme for Quested monitors, with support available through the Sound Network team and its dealer network throughout the UK. Stuart Down, director of Quested, says: “Sound Network has earnt a fantastic reputation as one of the best distributors in the UK, and one that only partners to brands and products it truly believes in. After initial meetings with the team and witnessing the way they operate, I felt immediately at home and could see the value they would bring to our growing user base.” Adam Pierce, sales & marketing director for Sound Network, adds: “We only want to be associated with the brands that deliver extremely high quality and we think Quested firmly fits in this c
Exit Stage Left - Lucy Woollatt has announced she will stand down as executive director of the Young Vic in December. Woollatt's departure comes as artistic director David Lan also prepares to leave the London theatre, in February 2018, to be replaced by Kwame Kwei-Armah. Speaking about her departure, Woollatt said: "My decade at the Young Vic has been the most rewarding of my career to date. I'm incredibly proud of what we have achieved night after night at the Young Vic, on tour and in the West End." Interval Act - Justin Timberlake is to headline next year's Super Bowl half-time show, 14 years after his role in Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction". The US pop star revealed the news on his Twitter feed - with a little help from talk show host Jimmy Fallon. Timberlake sang at the 20
UK - Cheshire-based event production company, dBS Solutions, has just invested in a significant dBTechnologies self-powered VIO line array system to keep pace with their expanding order book and the increase in demand to service large events. dBS opted for VIO after two convincing demos: the first at Manchester’s international concert venue, the Bridgewater Hall, and the second at the Morecambe Carnival where the VIO system was put through its paces on the Bay radio live stage. dBS managing director, Chris Bogg, says: “We’ve been impressed by the build quality of other dBTechnologies products, having added the multi-purpose DVX range to our hire stock a few years ago,” he explained. “When VIO was released last year, I really liked the integrated networking, the ease of the prediction software and the touring packaging. “The “plug-and-play” aspect
Europe - Rammstein live tour lighting directors Bertil Mark and Faren Matern used four TimeCore units from the Dutch manufacturer Visual Productions. The TimeCore is a modern timecode toolbox capable of generating, converting and displaying timecode. It supports and converts between SMPTE, MTC and Art-Net timecode and can convert between different frame rates. The TimeCore also handles various non-timecode protocols: MIDI. MMC, MSC, RTP-MIDI, sACN, Art-Net, OSC, UDP, TCP and HTTP. This allows the unit to be triggered by many external signals and devices. TimeCore can be configured as a timecode master and in this case generates a stable timecode signal. Alternatively, it can also be used as a timecode slave. The LCD display shows the current running timecode in real time and the two push buttons are user-configurable. "We use TimeCore at the key points of our ex
Spain - Robert Juliat added some French flavour to the celebrated Spanish music festival at Cap Roig, Girona this summer. Local rental company ABS Entertainment Service supplied two Robert Juliat Merlin 2500W and two Robert Juliat Aramis 2500W followspots as front of house support for the duration of the two-week event. The festival originated in 1927 when it began as an art and architectural and music show. This, the sixth edition of the festival in its present form, ran from 7 July to 22 August 2017 in a site spread over 17 hectares of gardens, complete with castle. The line-up of singers and bands included Anastacia, Passenger, Silvia Pérez Cruz, Norah Jones, Wilco, Woody Allen, Els Amics de les Arts and The Pretenders. Merlin and Aramis are two of Robert Juliat’s most popular followspots and the team from ABS rigged two of each on front of house towers fo
UK - CPL returned to the attractive leafy environs of Ragley Hall in Warwickshire to provide a full video production package for the Main Stage at the 2017 Camper Calling festival - a new event staged by Jazz Events, part of the Jazz Publishing Group. Building on the success of last year’s inaugural two-day Camper Calling, this year the capacity was doubled from 3000 to 6000 and another day of fun and entertainment for all the family was added, making it three days, which allowed people to enjoy some rare and endangered glorious late August bank holiday weekend weather – apparently the hottest on record. Main Stage headliners included Cast, The Lightning Seeds and the Flying Swordfish, and CPL was working for Urban Audio, with a team on site led by Simon Haydon. Fifty panels of Roe 3.4 mm LED screen was installed onstage, flown off a mid-stage truss and confi
USA - OneRepublic headlined this summer’s 34-date Honda Civic Tour of North America, with support from Fitz and the Tantrums, and James Arthur. Core to the strikingly impressive lighting design by Mark Butts, production and lighting designer at LA-based Preset Productions, are 103 Ayrton MagicPanel-602 fixtures, supplied by global rental company VER. For Butts and co-production designer and show director Raj Kapoor, it was the first time of touring with OneRepublic. “We have worked with the band before, but never on a big tour, and we were keen to start developing a visual style and brand for them which really captures their personality and image,” explains Butts. “We wanted this tour to be the first step in defining the OneRepublic style and to make them known for their live shows in a similar way to iconic bands like Muse, Rammstein, U2 or Nine Inch Nails.
Italy - A selection of Audient’s USB audio interfaces have arrived at Italian music education facility CAMP Academy in Naples. “We have connected the iD4s to our 12 iMac stations to provide all of our students a perfect sonic experience, and the two iD22s are now part of our recording and production studio,” explains Luca de Gregorio, music production and sound technologies director. A graduate of Milan’s SAE Institute as well as being active in the industry - he’s currently working on Asif Kapadia’s latest movie - means de Gregorio is ideally positioned to know how to inspire his students. “The interfaces are simple to use and easy to understand. The students simply plug them in and start to work,” he says. “We connected each iD4 to an iMac, and use them to train students mainly on Logic Pro X. They can record some live vocals and instruments taking
USA - Texas-based Mexican Tejano band, Grupo Siggno, recently staged a performance in San Antonio, TX. Global Productions, owned by Adrian Gallegos and Daniel Martinez, helped brighten their stage by utilising moving heads from PR Lighting and several fixtures from Mega Systems, who distribute the Chinese brand in the US. The event took place in the Cowboys Dance Hall, where over 4000 people enjoyed the concert, produced by Global Productions. In addition to PR Lighting’s XLED 3007, production also included four XLED 4022RZ and four Phantom from PR Lighting. Both Global Productions and Grupo Siggno’s lighting designer, David Luis Rosas, expressed their amazement at the XLED 4022RZ, which is equipped with a beam angle zoom range of 5° to 60° and can create illumination and colour mixing in both near and far distances. When used in Wash mode, the beams come togethe
UK - Event Sound and Light were contracted to provide a full turnkey production solution for Outside Live 2017, which took place at Taverham Hall, Norwich on 28-30 July. Sound designer Jason Fenn deployed a full Martin Audio system for the event, preferring a combination of MLA Compact cells with MLX subs in cardioid format. He says: “The concerts were sold as a ‘picnic’ style event so we knew we had to have even SPL from the front row to the very back. On top of that, the event site was very close to a neighbouring village so keeping our off-site noise to a minimum was essential. “The other deciding factor for choosing Martin Audio MLA was the superb audio quality and sonic excellence that the system delivers.” Additional Martin Audio DD12s were deployed for in-fill and centre-fill duties, with the entire system managed by Martin Audio’s dedicated M
Denmark - Lighting designer Sune Verdier of b-ql.dk and scenographer Benjamin La Cour collaborated to produce a dynamic lighting aesthetic for a new production of Green Day's American Idiot rock musical staged at Den Grå Hal (The Grey Hall) in Copenhagen. They chose Robe moving lights - DL7S Profiles, DL4S Profiles and Spiider LED wash beams - to be at the core of the lighting, which was developed as a co-design for the show. Benjamin’s almost bare stage set features three large moving scenic pieces initially making up the stage floor, which resemble giant slabs of concrete, representing the crushing of individuals refusing to conform to the norm. These move constantly throughout the show, each rigged on four half tonne vari-speed motors - creating different spaces, rooms and locations as the story – of life, individuality, expression and being someone - un
UK – Chauvet fixtures have been installed at one of Manchester’s most famous industrial-era buildings, Victoria Warehouse, which was transformed into a multi-purpose cultural hub with a corporate event space, The Bays. Installed by the Sterling Event Group, the venue benefits from a collection of 165 Chauvet Professional COLORdash Accent Quad fixtures. Richard Nicholson, project manager at Sterling Event Group, positioned the COLORdash fixtures next to the industrial-era steel columns to ensure more immersive coverage. “Given the architectural setup within both bay areas, the compact build of the COLORdash Accents ensured that we could provide a discrete solution for downlighting each pillar,” he said. “What’s more, we know from past experience that these fixtures are incredibly easy to set up and install. As a result, we were able to integrate them s
Germany - Neumann & Müller Veranstaltungstechnik (N&M) have been busy with some major outdoor musical productions, supported by their TiMax SoundHub spatial reinforcement processors and TiMax Tracker stage-tracking automation. N&M, one of Germany’s largest supplier of event technology, perennially services two of the grandest outdoor performances in the country: Erfurt DomStufen‑Festspiele, where this year the opera Der Troubadour played through August; and Schlossfestspiele Schwerin which hosted West Side Story for a mid-summer run. Staged in the Old Garden of Schwerin Castle for two months, the Schlossfestspiele has been dramatically transformed from an insider opera lovers’ secret pleasure that it started as a quarter of a century ago, into the technically complex large-scale premier outdoor production that is today. The transition w
UK - Students from The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) are preparing for a rare London revival of David Hare’s Stuff Happens, supported by the launch of the new Video and Digital Design training strand. As the new academic year gets under way, Edward Kemp returns to the Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre to direct Stuff Happens. Premiered at the National Theatre in 2004, David Hare’s examination of the build-up to the Iraq War combines verbatim theatre with speculative conversations. This new RADA production will integrate projected video into the design to counterpoint the action on stage, adding to the layers of documentary and drama already present in Hare’s script. Designer and illustrator Jane Heather is collaborating with video artist Ali Hossaini on the production. In the Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre, and with the support of state-of-the-art equipment provid
UK - White Light has been called upon to provide the lighting equipment for I>The Toxic Avenger’s West End debut at the Arts Theatre, London. The show is written by Tony Award-winning duo Joe DiPietro and David Bryan and is lit by Nic Farman, who has worked on the show since its first London run. He comments: “I’ve worked with the director, Benji Sperring, many times before and my brief for this production was to have a lot of fun and be brave with my design. We often like to create bold stage pictures filled with colour and, for this show, it was especially important to create the cartoon style world in which the musical is set.” The show first opened at the Southwark Playhouse last year and Nic believes that the musical still embraces its B-Movie origins. He comments: “For the West End version, we wanted to ramp up the rock feel of the show and add more
Nigeria - Multi-Media Event Trading recently purchased two DiGiCo SD10 consoles from DWR Distribution and two SD Racks on HMA Optics, Wave Servers, Orange Box and option cards, all of which went straight onto The Voice, Nigeria. In March this year, renowned sound engineer Adriaan van der Walt joined the company. His was first exposed to DiGiCo was over 10 years ago. “I was working in the UK with audio rental company Capital Sound as a freelancer and DiGiCo was the thing. The moment I mentioned anything else, someone would want to hit me over the head! Since then I’ve known it’s a premium brand and the preference for serious people in the know.” Subsequently, the first DiGiCo Adriaan worked on was a SD8, a workhorse to this day. Multi-Media’s SD10s are currently on The Voice, Nigeria. “DiGiCo is an amazing system because you can design it, lay
