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
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
