USA - Originally completed in October of 1917 at a cost of more than half a million dollars, the impressive Greek Doric-style Central Branch of the Indianapolis Public Library, naturally clad in Indiana limestone, officially celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. A big part of the institution’s more recent history is Clowes Auditorium, an intimate 300-seat, 2,800sq.ft venue that was added during the Central Library’s extensive expansion in 2008. Hosting everything from classical chamber performances and Latin jazz bands to children’s theater and corporate presentations, Clowes Auditorium is now truly ready for the future, thanks to a new L-Acoustics Kiva II sound system installed in May by integrator Mid-America Sound. The auditorium, which had been using temporary ground-stacked PA components as needed, now has its first-ever flown system consisting of six
USA - DCR Nashville has expanded its inventory with the recent addition of three DiGiCo mixing consoles: two SD10 desks and a new SD12. Inclusive with that purchase are three SD-Racks - each fully loaded with 56 channels of DiGiCo’s brand new 32-bit ‘John Stadius’ mic preamp modules - three DiGiGrid MGB interfaces and three Waves SoundGrid Extreme servers. According to DCR Nashville general manager John Schirmer, who joined the company in January of this year, the purchase underscores the company’s commitment to offering what its touring and corporate clients are looking for. “Although DCR Nashville has been providing full production services for Brantley Gilbert’s The Devil Don’t Sleep tour and a host of others events—including CMA Fest, Music City July 4th Celebration and Dave Ramsey Solutions - DCR’s owner originally started this company 12 years ago in
Ireland - The annual Galway International Arts Festival is one of Ireland’s largest cultural events. This year’s line-up features musical performances by Dublin’s own Gavin James, England’s Passenger, original Beach Boy Brian Wilson, and many others. Lighting for the eclectic series of nightly concerts in the festival Big Top is provided by Light Source, with data networking by ProPlex. “We have used ProPlex cable and devices for every show over many years,” says Light Source general manager, Ciaran Donnelly. “This gig has two GBS 10-port switches, four Opto-Splitters including two Minis in the truss, and an IQ Two 1616 16-universe DMX node. Tying the system together are over 200m of ProPlex Fibre, and 200m of ProPlex Cat 5e and DMX cables.” Donnelly added, “Additionally, we are using 200 meters of ProCable Multicable, fanouts, and 16 amp TRS mains cables.
Czech Republic - Once the steel and coal powerhouse of Czechoslovakia, the city of Ostrava in the East of the Czech Republic has transformed itself since the fall of communism in 1989 into one of central Europe’s most vibrant cultural centres. In addition to hosting one of the most famous music festivals in Europe in a disused mining complex turned UNESCO World Heritage site (Colours of Ostrava), Ostrava is home to one of the most progressive theatres in the country, Divadlo Mir. In keeping with Ostrava’s transformative theme, the theatre – a former cinema – recently called upon Ostravská Kulturní S.R.O to upgrade its ageing lighting and audio systems. For fresh visual input, the theatre opted to install eight Chauvet Professional Ovation F-165WW and 12 Ovation F-95WW Ovation ellipsoidal fixtures, supplied by Chauvet Professional distributor, Audiomaster. “
Croatia - Lighting designer Miro Hrg from top Croatian rental company Promo Logistika chose Robe BMFL Spots, CycFX8s, LEDWash 600s and MMX WashBeams to light the main conference plenary session for the Microsoft WinDays 2017 conference, staged at the Valamar Rubin Hotel in the beautiful historical city of Poreč in Istria. The four-day event caomprised a series of lectures, seminars, networking and interactive sessions aimed at Windows developers and administrators and involved two locations – the Rubin Hotel just outside the city centre and at the Valamar Isabella Island Resort on the picturesque Island of Saint Nicolas in Poreč Harbour. It was the second year running that Miro has designed set and lighting for the WinDays event’s main conference room. The client was extremely happy with last year’s results and this year raised the bar on the production values.
New Zealand - As one of New Zealand’s top providers of full, turnkey production solutions for all types of events, Forge Audio has taken total advantage of the flexibility offered by Adamson Systems Engineering’s compact S-Series loudspeakers. “Adamson offered us a highly flexible and powerful product in a very compact package,” begins Forge Audio president Marc Benedict about adding Adamson to their inventory. “From a business perspective, we’ve achieved a very high return on investment in a very short period. The system’s flexibility and popularity means it’s constantly out and working hard on all kinds of applications.” Forge Audio’s fleet includes a significant complement of Adamson S10 two-way, full-range line array cabinets and companion S119 subwoofers, plus several active Point 12 conventional two-way enclosures. The system was supplied by D
UK - In June, Baldwin Boxall’s customer satisfaction survey was completed and the company is “extremely proud” of the results. Customers were asked questions about the products, technical assistance and also the purchasing experience that they received - and the results were excellent! Over 98% of the customers surveyed said that Baldwin Boxall products are of a very high quality and that they are extremely likely to purchase again. In addition to this, 97% said they were very satisfied with the company overall. The Baldwin Boxall mission statement has four clearly defined areas of focus and these results confirm that the company is on target for the customer mission part of this. Customer comments included: “Excellent support and back up and an extremely reliable and well recognised product” “All the staff offer first class service from sales
UK - The five-day Henley Festival, featuring a celebration of UK and international music, comedy and the arts, continued it ascendancy by pulling in over 25,000 people this year. The event itself dates back to 1983, and as its longest-serving contractor RG Jones Sound Engineering was again contracted to deliver the PA system under the direction of overall head of sound and production manager, Jim Lambert. Once again, they fielded Martin Audio’s premium MLA Compact system - a winning formula for the main Floating Stage over the Thames, which has a difficult audience profile to cover, being only 30m from front to back but over 80m wide due to the Festival taking over the site from the Royal Regatta the week immediately prior. And with a change of stage this year, RG Jones’ Simon Honywill - himself a Henley stalwart who was first involved as far back as 1984 - w
Italy - Pop band Collage is currently on tour with two GLD digital mixing systems from Allen & Heath. Provided by PA company, Service SLS, the band is on an extensive 30-date tour across the country including several key festivals, carrying two GLD-80 mixers with AR2412 remote IO racks, connected via Dante. “GLD is the perfect choice for this tour – the mixer is very compact, the AR rack provides plenty of additional IO, and the sound quality is excellent,” comments Collage’s sound engineer, Francesco Rega. (Jim Evans)
Italy - What could be better on a summer evening than dining and dancing outdoors in the beautiful countryside of central Italy? Ristorante Al Boschetto, on the fringes of the town of Fondi, understands this. However, it also has close neighbours, making environmental noise protection just as important. After many problems with other systems, Yamaha provided the answer. Before July 2017, relations with near neighbours had been a problem for Ristorante Al Boschetto (translated as The Restaurant In The Grove). The outdoor dining area and dance floor was popular with customers, but the generic sound systems used meant that there were frequent complaints from neighbouring residents about noise. It was obvious that something had to change, so the restaurant contacted Riccardo De Simone of Remix Multimedia, based in Sperlonga, for help. What was needed was a high-quality au
UK - Opera North has called on the video division of A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) to complete phase two of their upgrade, by supplying control and transmission equipment to work alongside the existing front-end display system in the Howard Assembly Room, Leeds. Back in 2014, Opera North approached AC-ET to supply the first part of the system upgrade - front end display. A Christie WU14K-M Series projector was selected because of its high performance, high efficiency and flexibility. At the same time, an Audipak Silencer Housing was also installed to minimise the ambient noise levels of the projector within the auditorium. Jamie Saye, senior technician, Opera North commented: “We were so pleased with the products and support AC-ET provided for the Howard Assembly Room previously, there was no question about using them again. It is incredibly convenient th
UK - The National Film and Television School (NFTS) has installed 66 PSI Audio speakers as part of a £20m development, which includes two new buildings, a second cinema and a 4K digital content training studio. A number of teaching facilities have been fitted with PSI Audio monitoring supplied by UK distributor, emerging. The NFTS provides practical tuition across its postgraduate courses including its Sound Design MA and Composing MA. To ensure the utmost teaching quality, both two-year courses enrol only eight students per year, so each student benefits from the luxury of their own fully equipped room for the duration of the course. Comprising A14-M, A17M, A21-M and A125-M sub units, a total of 66 PSI Audio speakers have been installed throughout eight surround post-production rooms, a large dubbing suite, a TV production room, a small studio and eight music composi
USA - QSC and WyreStorm have announced integration between the QSC Q-SYS platform and WyreStorm’s NetworkHD AV over IP solutions. This technical partnership enables two distinct technologies to seamlessly integrate WyreStorm video over IP distribution with the Q-SYS Platform. First, the Q-SYS Media Stream Receiver software component within Q-SYS Designer Software has been updated to allow for simple connection to the audio stream generated by any NetworkHD 100, 200 and 400 Series AV over IP encoder. This allows Q-SYS to ingest the audio content presented to the encoder by its HDMI source device, and then process and route to any destination on the network. Second, QSC will release control and monitoring plug-ins for the NetworkHD Series to allow for simple source switching, control and monitoring directly from the Q-SYS Platform and Q-SYS touch screen contro
UK - The Institute of Sound & Communications Engineers (ISCE) has been approved by the Electrotechnical Certification Scheme (ECS) to assess and issue ECS approval for sound engineers and has also been accredited as an ECS Health & Safety assessment centre. This new agreement allows ISCE to issue and renew ISCE Sound Engineer ECS cards to existing and newly accredited personnel. Partnered with the Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS), an ISCE Sound Engineer ECS card will allow sound engineers to prove their identity, qualified status and occupation when working on-site. The ECS card scheme matches the requirements of the CSCS scheme, in that it is compulsory that all participants must hold an up-to-date health & safety qualification in order to be awarded with a card. The ECS card scheme is designed to certify the skills and qualifications
Turkey - Absen Europe recently hosted a two-day partner summit in Istanbul. The aim of the event was to bring together Absen Europe supporters, to promote open dialogue, synergies and business opportunities. Twenty-five companies attended, from the UK, Ireland, Finland, Hungary, Turkey, DACH, Italy, Spain, and France. Kadir Serkan Arabaci, deputy general manager of Astel, Absen’s Turkish VAP and host of this first VAP reports: “This summit was conceptually very different to a usual distributor meeting. Absen invited its partners and clients from different countries, who are professionals in different verticals, to present their companies and success stories. Absen has an important place in the market, with its reliability, quality, service and its own company culture. It has been important to meet and share experiences with the Absen partners. I believe there will be new
USA - X Games Minneapolis 2017, held over four days in mid-July, brought a few “firsts” for ESPN’s extreme-sports flagship event, including the first X Games held in the Midwest as well as the first to offer live streaming of a virtual-reality component. Capturing a 360-degree view of flying skateboards and BMX bikes is no easy task, and keeping the audio on top of them is even more of a challenge. VR producers Digital Domain and Samsung relied on a DiGiCo SD11 console. Rented from Windy Shores Sound, the SD11 was onboard a B-unit trailer of remote-production services provider Dome Vision, where VR A1 Nick Tveitbakk manned the console, taking individual microphone feeds and a stereo program feed from the Calrec Artemis console in the main remote unit, where it was mixed for the six VR cameras ESPN deployed at the Skateboard Vert, BMX Street and Skateboard Street
Iran - Milad Hall is the Iranian capital of Tehran’s premier concert venue and has the distinction of being the only site in the city that is permitted to hold pop concerts. With demands on the venue to update its outdated sound system and a challenging room shape making it hard to cover the audience evenly, Milad Hall chose an L-Acoustics Kara and ARCS WiFo system for even coverage from front to back. The system was designed and installed by L-Acoustics Iranian distributor, Farasout Negar, which was founded over a decade ago by brothers Hossein and Hassan Ardestani, who are managing director and technical manager respectively, along with project designer Mohammad Javad Hedyelou. The company has both a distribution and rental arm, the latter handling Milad Hall’s audio requirements on a day-to-day basis. The 2,000-seat space presented challenges when it came
Russia - This month, some of Russia’s best eSports gamers descended upon Cyberspace, a new event venue located at Moscow Riviera shopping centre to play League of Legends RT CyberCup. There are lots more tournaments, competitions and events planned in the pipeline over the upcoming months. During the day, these competing gamers have regular day jobs or study. Rather than battle in the office or on the sports field, the battles are fought in cyberspace. At night time and in spare time, they aim to win big-figure prizes and prestige not known to their real-world colleagues. Videogaming giants’ Vega Squadron, ASUS Republic of Gamers, MSI and Acer are just a few of the latest partners of the new Cyberspace venue which opened on 1 July, that is equipped with the very latest presentation technology innovations. A 16m wide main stage in front of a spectator audience
UK - The Robert Juliat DALIS 860 LED cyclorama batten fixture has been added to the extensive lighting inventory at White Light as technical director Dave Isherwood explains, “The decision to invest in the Robert Juliat DALIS batten lights was part of our strategy of continually updating and renewing the WL catalogue. The product is a natural progression of what has come before and, as a result, there is a vast improvement in technology. After seeing the capabilities of the Dalis I had no hesitation in placing an order through Ambersphere Solutions.” With a total of eight coloured LED emitters (red, green, blue, royal blue, amber cyan, warm and cool white), the 860 opens the door to an extraordinarily broad palette of colour choices as Isherwood acknowledges, “This is a unique product that doesn’t really have a rival on the market. Robert Juliat have incorporated a g
UK - Jeremy Lechterman and Jackson Gallagher of production design and creative direction partnership FragmentNine selected the dense light beams of the Claypaky Mythos2 to add texture to their lighting design for Mercury Prize-winning indie rock band alt-J in their first arena show of 2017, held at The O2 Arena in London. FragmentNine's design has since been nominated for a prestigious Knight of Illumination award. The design was an upscaled version of the production's touring lighting design, also by FragmentNine, for The O2 Arena's 10th anniversary showcase. "As a band, alt-J fly fairly under the radar in terms of their visual appearance and personalities; we set out to create something that wraps them and shrouds them in mystery," reveals Lechterman. "The catch phrase 'immersive' was always on the tip of our tongues, and we feel the end result is quite evocative of
UK - A Zero 88 FLX lighting console has been chosen by Cardiff’s popular St David’s Hall venue, primarily to control lighting for their Foyer Stage (also known as the L3 Lounge). The venue hosts a wide variety of shows and events encompassing all types of live performance, from R ‘n’ B, jazz, folk rock, and classical music to comedy, children’s shows, musicals, spoken word events, conferences, presentations and even darts competitions. The FLX was selected by stage technician and main house lighting operator Emma Nicholson, who until recently was part of a technical team of five running all the in-house audio, lighting and staging requirements, which involved working with WIFI, CCTV, phone integration and other IT systems. St David’s Hall has lighting rigs installed in all three of its main spaces and fixtures can be coloured and re-focused as needed
USA - Shure has again been recognised by the Global Presence Alliance (GPA) as a recipient of the 2017 Vendor Excellence Award. This year, Shure scored among the very highest within categories that are stringently reviewed and voted on by more than 28 companies in 40 countries. Members evaluate the leading audio, visual, and UC manufacturers and vendors. Shure first joined the GPA Accredited Vendor Programme in 2016 and was also awarded the Vendor Excellence Award that same year. “Providing a consistent world-class service and support experience for integrators and end users around the globe is of the utmost importance to Shure, and a business focus where we have invested significant time and resources.” said Chris Schyvinck, president and CEO at Shure. “This prestigious industry award validates Shure’s commitment to all of our global markets, and we are proud
Germany - The Open Air classical concerts in Ingolstadt are a cultural institution for German music-lovers. The summer season, sponsored by Audi, brings 22,000 to the Klenzepark in Ingolstadt to picnic and listen to the orchestral performances, amplified by Nexo STM modular line array systems supplied by Showem. A regular feature of the summer concerts are the performances of the Audi staff orchestra: this year, nearly 60 musicians of the Audi Bläserphilharmonie played for conductor Christian Lombardi. Another concert was headlined by the Georgian Kammerorchester, playing the melodies of Georges Bizet and conducted by Ruben Gazarian. Showem Veranstatungstechnik is one of the leading suppliers of Nexo systems in Germany, and the Ingolstadt open-air concerts are one of its largest single deployments of the STM M28 modular line array. Designed by Dieter Mantzel, th
Peru - He has been called the “heir to Pavarotti”. Dazzling crowds with his immaculate, crystal clear voice, he is universally regarded as “one of the greatest tenors in history” Still, even as his celebrated career has taken him from La Scala to Royal Albert Hall, Juan Diego Florez has kept his heart in Peru. So, when his homeland was struck by a series of natural disasters this spring, the famous operatic star stepped up and announced that he would hold a benefit concert to help those afflicted by these events. On 1 July, this benefit took place at Lima’s national stadium. Produced by Tito Vattuone and Milagros Florez, Homenaje al Peru featured stirring performances by Florez and the Orchestra and Symphony Chorus for Peru. Supporting this unforgettable music was an evocative lighting design by Gianfranco Di Vitto that captured the spirit of the Peruvian la