World - Two Door Cinema Club are currently embarked on one of those arduous festival circuits that sees them perform on three continents in as many weeks. As the band’s sound engineer for several years, Ian Laughton is not just adding to his air miles tally: he’s actually found a better way to tour. “We’ve just done five in a row here and in Europe and have three more before we depart for Australia where we do four shows in six days, crossing the country from West to East and then South. A quick gig in the Philippines and then back to Europe for another stint before we’re off once again, this time to the US. “Britannia Row provides our control package, a pair of Midas Pro2c’s and a line system and that’s a job well done but choosing them has proved even more important than usual. I have my basic rack which now goes with me world-wide, I’ve managed to
UK - Stone Roses completed their European tour last month, highlighted by a sold-out performance at London’s Wembley Stadium. For their 2017 tour, lighting designer Paul Normandale of Lite Alternative Design included two Solaris T-Light 85,000W Lightning Machines. “Two were plenty,” says lighting director and programmer Glen Johnson. “These over-the-top strobes are reliable and daylight bright. We needed something for maximum impact against a huge amount of video surfaces. The back screen alone was 35 x 6 meters, with an additional seven screens of IMAG. The T-Lights provided defining moments when used and dramatically ‘altered’ the stage surface each time. Love them.” Provided for the tour by Lite Alternative, Solaris T-Light Lightning Machines have a flash length from 1/30 to 3.5 seconds and an output of up to two million lumens. (Jim Evans)
France - Full audio-visual service company, Polygone Equipement, were recently brought in to provide auxiliary sound reinforcement for the prestigious European Athletics Team Championships at the 18,000-seat capacity Lille-Métropole Stadium. Formed in 1994, Polygone Equipement has been an RCF partner for most of that time, and working on the event for the first time they had no hesitation in picking a combination of high premium TTL33-A active line array and HDL20-A, RCF’s popular and huge selling composite system to supplement the stadium PA. They used 12 of the TTL33-A, supported by eight elements of HDL20-A, underpinned with four TTS28-A subs, while a pair of TT25-A were detailed for monitoring purposes for the official speaker out on the central field. The TTL33-A’s were arrayed in four main stacks, spaced around the stadium, each containing three enclos
UK - As part of its summer programme, English National Opera appeared at the Royal Festival Hall for a captivating production of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius. Multi-award winning lighting designer Lucy Carter used light – controlled with ETC Eos Ti and RPU3 – to create an additional layer of emotion and energy to support and reflect the music. Widely regarded as Elgar's finest choral work, The Dream of Gerontius relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory. To evoke an otherworldly feel, Carter opted for simple staging with abstract lighting energies that combined with the music to create an ethereal quality. “When I was researching this production and arrived at my eventual design decisions, I knew that in order to create the complex and detailed environments to match the ex
UK - Bryan Adams is the latest touring act to hit the road with Adamson E-Series and S-Series loudspeakers. Canadian, multi-platinum recording artist, Bryan Adams performed a series of special outdoor dates this July at Powderham Castle, Exeter, Sixways Stadium, Worcester, Bitts Park, Carlisle and Bught Park, Inverness. The shows promoted by LCC Live were a continuation of his on-going Get Up Tour. Adamson's UK partner The Warehouse Sound Services working with promoter LCC Live and production manager Mike Kerr to design a substantial Adamson sound reinforcement system for the dates. Bryan Adams latest studio album Get Up has received much acclaim. Produced by famed ELO front man Jeff Lynne it features nine new songs and four acoustic versions, highlighting Adams’ unique voice and depth. The tour featured a full complement of Adamson E and S Series
UK - Autograph Sales & Installations has recently supplied a DiGiCo SDT9 for LAMDA (London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art) as part of an extensive sound reinforcement system for its brand new £28.2m facility. The 220 UK and overseas students who take part in LAMDA’s seven validated degree courses (which include acting, direction, production and technical arts) will now benefit from a transformative 5,500m2 redevelopment which includes the 200-seat Sainsbury Theatre, the 120-seat Carne Studio Theatre, the Manny & Brigitta Davidson Foyer, the Sackler Library, a screen and audio suite, ten training/rehearsal studios and full technical and wardrobe facilities. Autograph has a long history with LAMDA, not only working with them on their own technical facilities, but providing in-house training for LAMDA students at Autograph’s London headquarters. They re
South Africa - The SOS Charity Fund, an initiative by DWR Distribution, hosted it’s very first auction dinner, raising a remarkable R97,500 from the event’s auction alone. With a focus on the SOS campaign during Mediatech, the charity fund raised over half a million Rand during July. Some 230 people - a mixed bag from rental companies and the entertainment market in Africa and Namibia, as well as a number of international guests - attended the SOS Fundraising Evening held at The Venue in Melrose Arch on 20th July 2017. As competitors sat side by side, both Jason Goliath (compere and comedian) and Dr Victor and the Rasta Rebels, provided top class entertainment, free of charge, in unison of the SOS. “Huge gratitude extends to The Venue’s Tony Raciti and Trudie de Kock, who hosted the event and went out of their way to provide a beautiful setting complimented wi
Something for the Weekend - With Glastonbury taking a year off in 2018, there's already one new festival hoping to fill the mud-and-music gap. The BBC has announced plans to host The Biggest Weekend while Glasto has its traditional fallow year. The four-day festival will take place in May across four sites in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Biggest Weekend is scheduled for the late May bank holiday weekend (25-28 May) - earlier than when Glastonbury normally is. More than 175,000 tickets will be made available, which is more than the number sold for Glasto, but this one is across four locations.The BBC said it will bring "the biggest artists in the world" to the event - but headliners won't be announced for some time yet. Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3 and 6 Music will all broadcast live sets from the weekend, while BBC Two and BBC Four wil
USA - The value of one million dollars in 1956 is equivalent to over 899m today. However, even that lofty figure doesn’t come close to doing justice to the success of the four superstars who are the subject of Million Dollar Quartet. The Tony Award nominated musical takes audiences back to 4 December 1956, a day when budding stars Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley got together for a jam session at Sun Records Memphis studio. A recent revival of the musical at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, New Hampshire captures the magic of that long-ago moment, thanks in part to a transformative lightshow designed by Carl Rajotte, who also served as artistic director and choreographer. Using a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Events United, Rajotte created big, engaging looks that took audiences out of the small recording
Malaysia - The Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios was the scenic setting for the TM Group Awards 2017, and AC Lighting Services Malaysia (ACLS) took charge of the prestigious event’s video design and programming. The annual gathering sees up to 2,500 TM Group staff, from across Malaysia, come together to recognise achievements from all divisions in the company. The TM Group is Malaysia’s leading telecommunications company, having launched in 1946 and since evolved to become the country’s largest broadband services provider. ACLS is Malaysia’s Green Hippo dealer as well as a lighting and visual creative. Charged with designing and planning projection coverage for the event, ACLS also handled media server solutions. The team, led by visual programmer Kumar Shan, specified a pair of Hippotizer Karst, a single Hippotizer HD V3, plus a Hippotizer Grasshopper V4. AC
UK - UK - Adam Young and Finn Ross, founders of Olivier Award-winning visual storytelling outfit, FRAY Studio, are the creators of the much-talked-about video environments showcasing in the current Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production of The Tempest, now on at The Barbican in London. FRAY worked in collaboration with Intel and in association with The Imaginarium Studios on the production's highly-acclaimed stagecraft, described by The Financial Times as 'State-of-the-art', and by the Daily Telegraph as 'true to the hype of breath-taking order'. Known to have a considered approach to modern stagecraft, FRAY has designed for critically acclaimed theatre productions including The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. For The Tempest, FRAY designed, produced and mapped the show'
UK - Fisher Productions, one of London’s leading event production companies, has invested in Surrey-based Setsquare Staging, the event construction business founded and run by managing director, John O’Gorman over the past 25 years. Chief executive officer of Fisher, Graham Beswick says: “We are extremely excited to embark on this new venture. Setsquare is a creative and technical hub, that has been manufacturing extraordinary work for over a quarter of a century. This is an exciting opportunity for both Fisher Productions and Setsquare Staging to develop a staging capability second to none.” John O’Gorman, founder of Setsquare says: “I first met Graham when I was approached by Fisher Productions ‘to do more business together’…By the end of our first meeting, I had an investor in the company. Graham is everything that myself and the staff at Setsquar
Italy - Tuscany recently expanded its boundaries with the Milan opening of Toscanino, a concept store developed with the intent to spread Tuscan culture, values and traditions outside of its region. Created to meet the growing demand for quality, Toscanino promotes and cultivates items made in Tuscany around the globe by providing top-of-the-line products and craftsmanship typical from the region manufactured by 150 of the most reputable brands and artisans in the gastronomic and home furnishings sectors. Located in the heart of the fashion capital, the store includes a restaurant, a food market and a kitchen for teaching as well as tasting. The project was developed by Tuscan Simone Arnetoli, founder of Galateo Ricevimenti, who aims to open another 8 outlets in Europe by 2020 and distribute worldwide to countries like Japan, China, the United States and Russia.
UK - Featuring over 53,000 performances across 300 venues, this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe promises to be the busiest year ever; none more so than for full technical production provider Hawthorn, who are supplying more equipment to the festival than ever before. Celebrating 70 years since its inception, the world’s largest arts festival returns to Edinburgh this August for another celebration of creative freedom. Attracting thousands of artists and many more spectators, the festival’s programme is jam packed with theatre, comedy, dance, music and cabaret performances. Heading to the festival for the 28th time, Hawthorn will this year be working with new client, Summer Hall as their full technical supplier providing lighting, sound, rigging, power and drapes. Describing itself as a vibrant cultural village in the heart of Edinburgh, Summer Hall will host 140
France - The Ecole du Louvre is a very prestigious higher education institution, one of the most important in the art history world, and situated at the heart of that world in the Louvre museum in Paris. Created in 1882, the school was originally dedicated to archaeology but soon expanded to related disciplines such as history of art and anthropology. With a long-standing tradition of providing lectures to the general public as well as an education to students, the Ecole du Louvre’s four lecture theatres play a vital part in the school. AV installation company Lagoona Lyon was chosen to renovate the audio speciifcation for these amphitheatres, choosing a mix of Nexo and Yamaha elements to create a visually low-profile high-performance technical standard for the Ecole. Astell Design, specialists in large-scale installations, was in overall charge of the renovation of
UK - CPL (Central Presentations Ltd) enjoyed another glorious Glastonbury Festival, supplying projection to Arcadia’s giant recycled metal spider, which hosted their Metamorphosis show. The west Midlands based rental specialist also supplied a lighting and rigging package which was utilised across the lively Shangri-La late night area - which this year saw the Truth main stage emerge from the embers of the previous Hell, and the site expanding its daytime activities via the Shangri-La International Television Centre (SHITV) transmitting debates and discourse on DIY culture and a range of other topics. A third area of the festival for CPL was delivering projection to the movie theatre at Williams Green, working with The Live Firm which screened Supersonic, a British music documentary directed by Mat Whitecross detailing the formative years of super-group
Europe - Swedish singing sensation, Zara Larsson, is currently on tour around European venues and festivals with an interchangeable dLive mixing system from Allen & Heath to manage FOH and monitor sound. Performing at venues across Europe, as well as on the festival circuit, the team wanted an audio system to suit both full concert and fly-in festival production. Consequently, PA company, Parashoot, provided an inter-changeable dLive system with S and C Class units to cater for both scenarios. “From experience, I know that dLive is trustworthy, and the fact that Parashoot was able to support us with a fly-in option meant dLive was the right choice for this tour,” explains monitor engineer, Sebastian Meyer. “dLive sounds great, and is really intuitive to use - I found everything I was looking for almost instantly when I started programming the system, and I ha
UK - West London-based lighting and visuals rental specialist Colour Sound Experiment supplied a bespoke built touring lighting ‘specials’ package to alt rockers The Kooks for their recent The Best of … so Far tour. This UK leg of the tour closed with a high-profile gig at London’s Alexandra Palace for which additional lighting production was added, together with IMAG video. The band has been a Colour Sound client for some time and this tour was project managed by Alex Ryan, who worked closely with Kooks production manager Dave Skelton, who is also their monitor engineer. The need was for a tourable, quick-rig solution to get their own lights in and up-and-running every day, which could then be used in conjunction with the venue’s overhead house rigs. Alex and the Colour Sound team designed and fabricated the five custom dollies which were
Europe - Depeche Mode launched a world tour to celebrate its latest album, Spirit in Stockholm on 5 May. In the first part of the tour, the band will be performing 34 shows in front of 1.5m fans in 21 different European countries. The musicians will then continue their tour in North and South America. In order to ensure that the Depeche Mode sound comes across as it should live in the various arenas throughout the world, sound engineer Antony King is placing his trust in a whole range of beyerdynamic products. “Unlike in the studio, where we have the optimum conditions for audio work, achieving a good live sound always involves successfully overcoming the challenges posed by the respective venue. And when it comes to dealing with such unavoidable circumstances, it’s great to be able to rely on technology that is designed to overcome any obstacle,” explains King.
Europe/USA - During an extensive tour that will see him play headline shows and festivals across Europe and the US, Bryan Ferry is relying on Audio-Technica AE6100 hypercardioid dynamic microphones to deliver his distinctive vocals. Other Audio-Technica models are in service for his 10-piece backing band, while monitoring duties for the tour are handled by Allen & Heath’s dLive S Class mixing system, distributed in the UK by Audio-Technica. Monitor engineer Tom Howat reports: “The AE6100 made a great impression on Bryan as soon as we started using it in rehearsals. He loved the sound of it – which is almost condenser-like in its openness. But because of the hypercardioid pickup pattern it minimises on-stage spill. We’re using two AE6100s, one for his main vocal and one at his keyboard position and it’s really an excellent choice. “We’re also using the
UK - MDG reports that two of its ATMe haze generators have been chosen for the current musical production of 42nd Street at London’s Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. This production, with ‘Sheena Easton in the starring role, makes the most of the stage area which is packed with props, sets and a huge cast. It was obvious from the start that a haze generator was required that could easily deal with the enormous stage space, for the entire show, without compromising the performances or the extensive lighting rig supplied by White Light. MDG’s ATMe haze generator proved ideal for the job. “I first came across MDG about 10 years ago on a show in South Africa,” says Declan Randall, associate LD to 42nd Street’s lighting designer, Peter Mumford. “I was so impressed with the haze that I went backstage to investigate what they were using. I’ve been a fa
UK - After a successful year with their first gandMA2 Light, Cambridge based CEG Hire & Productions decided to invest in a second console to ready themselves for the busy upcoming summer season. Director Ben Bowles contacted Ambersphere Solutions: “I’ve known our Ambersphere representative Matt Cowles for several years now: we have confidence and faith in his advice and support so he was our first port of call. His enthusiasm for working with us is a breath of fresh air. He’s always available for answering queries and is super-efficient at turning around requests.” Ben explains the rationale for another purchase, “Since we purchased our first grandMA2 products last year, both our Light and Command Wings have been used on a variety of theatre, rock ‘n’ roll and corporate projects in the UK and across Europe. Whilst we don’t always have particular jobs line
USA - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers celebrate their fortieth anniversary and 13 studio albums with their current five-month (53-date) tour of the US and Canada, with an additional date in London in July. The band’s long-term lighting designer and director, Stanley A Green, who has worked with Petty since 2001 in various roles, chose Ayrton LED fixtures as the backbone of his lighting design. He is one of the first to use the new MagicPanel-FX and MagicBlade-FX units, which he incorporates alongside Ayrton’s MagicBurst and MagicDot-R fixtures to form a palette of rich colours and variety of looks and textures that reflect the musical diversity evident in the band’s long history. “I first experienced Ayrton’s MagicPanel 602s when acting as LD for John Legend a few years ago,” Green says. “I wanted to use them again so I used both MagicBlade-R and MagicPan
The Netherlands - The newly built and inaugurated Atlas Theatre in Emmen, Netherlands is a multifunctional performance space in the heart of the city and part of a 250m euro development. In addition to the two Atlas auditoriums - with capacities of 822 and 300 – the complex also includes a full convention centre, catering outlets, offices and is an access point for the Wildlands Adventure Zoo - and Robe moving lights. The plan to replace the old De Muzeval theatre in the city actually took around 40 years to come to realization for a complexity of reasons. The construction eventually commenced in 2014 and was finished in 2016, with its spectacular, gleamingly modern architectural style, the state-of-the-art facility opened in autumn of last year. In the meantime, the technical specifications had been completed by acclaimed Amsterdam based theatre consultants T
