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
UK - Harrogate-based JSAV UK Ltd has carried out two major installations at German-style Bierkellers, using RCF Media and Acustica series loudspeakers, supplied by dealers, Leisuretec. The first Original Bierkeller opening for Paul Kinsey’s Latenight Bars in Sheffield has now been followed by a second in Lincoln, which opened last month. Jaye Selway, who runs JSAV, is no stranger to RCF, and has used their solutions for other late night brands in Paul Kinsey’s estate, including Hemingways Bar and Kitchen, The Moko Lounge and The Kings Club. But for the special German environment, resplendent with oompah bands and lederhosen, she needed a versatile, compact loudspeaker with wide dispersion, since much of the dancing is conducted on the bench tables and bar tops under a low ceiling. With separate DJ, band and background music inputs feeding the system she
UK - Twisted Audio, the Peterborough-based events production company, recently utilised nearly 18sq.m of IP65 rated ProLights AlphaPIX6T 6.6mm pitch LED video wall for the Lovebullets house and disco parties stage, which this year was re-located to the Glade area at Glastonbury Festival. Owner Barry Williams, who has been supplying to the UK dance scene for over two decades, purchased the system from the specialist video sales division of A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd, the UK distributor for ProLights AlphaPIX. Since purchasing the video wall last year for a major European sporting event, Barry has been really pleased with its performance and thought it would be ideal for the Lovebullets stage at Glastonbury, where it was configured as a large 'eye candy' backdrop behind and along the front of the DJ booth. The screens were fed various hi-energy graphical video
Hungary - J&C Joel, has appointed Szinpadtechnika Kft as its new bronze dealer in Hungary. Szinpadtechnika was established in 1998 and is now one of the leading theatre engineering companies in Hungary. They design and produce stage machinery for theatres, cultural centres and film studios as well as providing machinery maintenance services for more than 50 venues all around Hungary and getting involved with scenery design. The firm is also gaining recognition from the theatres in neighbouring countries and in light of this is aiming to be the leading company on the field of theatre engineering in the Carpathian Basin region. Norbert Horvath, sales manager at Szinpadtechnika, said: “We are really excited to introduce the innovative solutions of J&C Joel in Hungary. I’m sure our customers will be really interested in the great product range that J&
Middle East - After several years of close collaboration and projects in the region, Procom and Prolites are now the official distributors for MADRIX for the Middle East. With this move, MADRIX has expanded the distribution rights from Lebanon to all Middle East countries. "We are very proud of the trust that MADRIX has put into us in expanding our distribution role. This is a great opportunity but also a responsibility to support the thriving MADRIX community. We are committed to offer the best support for MADRIX users in the Middle East", said Rami Harfouch, business development manager at Procom. "While there is a strong brand recognition of MADRIX, we believe there is room to increase the awareness about the full potential of the MADRIX software and hardware and emphasize its role in creating robust, trouble-free solutions with superior levels of control", said Wi
Belgium - AED Display and AV Stumpfl have organized a Wings Certified Operator Bootcamp from Monday 28 August until Friday 1 September 2017 at AED Studios, Lint (Belgium). The trainer will be Rainer Brandstätter, project manager & trainer AV Stumpfl. Says Rainer, “On the first day of this five-day bootcamp we will tackle every aspect of setting up your show, starting with the physical installation and the troubleshooting of the system. On the second day we will learn more about the different modules (Wings / Vioso / Avio / Touch) and their capabilities. “One by one we will introduce you to them and show you the basics which will allow you to explore them further on your own pace. This part will be mainly focused on the Wings software. Days three and four will include more advanced use of Wings and Avio. At this point you will dive into the Avio software and l
USA - With just under a month of setup, DNJ Pro’s west coast office is now complete. “I am very excited to now have an office in California,” said Doug Brown, CEO of DNJ Pro. “Initially with only one office in Baltimore, I was concerned clients thought we were partial to the East Coast, which was not the case at all, but now everyone can see that we are dedicated to the entirety of the United States.” DNJ Pro’s west coast office is based in Glendale, California, about 20 minutes from Los Angeles and features a larges showroom and demo space with all of the products that the company represents. “I am also excited to announce that we now have a dedicated west coast outside sales team,” Brown said, “This is going to be great for us and our clients and I am very much looking forward to the future.” (Jim Evans)
