UK - The natural sound of Point Source Audio’s SERIES8 CO-8WL omnidirectional microphones is helping the audio team at Kings Place enhance the sound for a variety of events. The central London venue hosts a wide range of events every day, from corporate presentations to live music and recording sessions. The new microphones are put to use daily across a wide range of these applications. “The adventure with Point Source Audio started out with us looking for some new lav mics,” recalls Gerardo Marrone, audio & recording manager at Kings Place Music Foundation. “We had always used a different brand in the past, but we decided to try something else through our long-term supplier, Autograph Sound. We were looking for something that could work just as well but be more contained within the budget. They sent us a lot of options from various brands and quite a few models
New Zealand - Auckland based Spot-Light Systems – now part of the NEP Live Group – is among New Zealand’s leading lighting live show and event rental companies, and one that has continued to invest in Robe moving lights as the country emerged from the pandemic, adding 24 x MegaPointes, 12 x Tarrantulas to their existing fleets, and for the first time, 20 x Esprites joined the inventory. While New Zealand managed – via strict quarantine and travel restorations – to keep Covid cases to a minimum, full-scale and capacity shows and live events did not properly re-start until several months into 2022, when things became busy, related Spot-Light Systems’ head of lighting, Matt Tong, and this is what drove these latest Robe purchases. Business and enthusiasm for the arts, performance and events is now surpassing 2019 levels as promoters, organisations and event or
UK - Harris Academy based in St Johns Wood, London, is a high achieving secondary school that promotes creativity and academic scholarship. Keeping up with the latest technologies, Harris Academy upgraded their audio system including an installation of over 100 speakers and new cabling infrastructure to achieve an automatically timed class bell system and music at class change over time. Following a site survey, specialists in audio visual design and integration, Excite AV had scoped a design proposal for the project that would deliver on the brief, in a very time pressured environment. Gareth Thomas, Director at Excite Audio Visual LTD comments: “Working alongside the academic calendar meant this was very much a time critical project. Within two weeks of the site survey and proposal we were on to installation during the half term holiday, having the new system up a
UK - For nearly a decade, Martin Audio partner, Manchester-based VME, has been providing PA for major boxing events in the nation’s arenas, on an accelerating basis. Starting out with an inventory of 48 MLA multicellular loudspeaker array enclosures, such has been the demand from this sector that the rental fleet has now more than doubled, and this month the rental company announced that it has increased its inventory of MLA family products to over 100. This makes VME one of the largest MLA rental stagers in the UK. Explaining the underlying reason, operations manager Aaron Harvey-Holt says that this is in recognition of the fact that his company is now servicing over 40 events a year for TV transmission through Sky Sports, BT Sports and DAZN - all in major UK venues such as Wembley Stadium, Wembley OVO Arena, The O2 Arena, Cardiff International Arena and Manchester
UAE - Unusual Rigging & Engineering was the rigger of choice for IDEX – the largest defence exhibition in the Middle East – when it took place at ADNEC in Abu Dhabi last month. The show attracted over 130,000 visitors from 65 countries, with more than 1350 exhibitors across 165,000sq.m of space. For such a prestigious and sizeable event, David McKean, head of mains and rigging services at ADNEC, brought Unusual Rigging on board to assist the venue rigging team in the installation and management of rigged items throughout all 15 halls for the event. David commented: “The Unusual team works with us numerous times each year and are well versed in our expectations. This year there were over 100 stands, and Unusual received rigging plans from the rigging manager for each individual stand. From this they were required to mark out and provide both primary and secon
Australia - In the nine years between their 2013 debut album Atlas and now, Grammy Award-winning group Rüfüs Du Sol has undergone one name change, received three ARIA certifications – two platinum and one gold - for their style of house, electronica, and alternative dance music. Multi-citied continental tours have been the norm for the three-piece outfit. Recently, Rüfüs Du Sol wrapped up an Australia-New Zealand tour of eight shows performed in four territories for over 30,000 people. For the concerts in Adelaide and Perth, tour promoters Fuzzy Entertainment chose L-Acoustics certified rental partner Novatech to supply sound, visual, lighting and communication solutions for the outdoor sites. The Novatech team’s open communication and collaborative style have made the company a returning partner for the band and mix engineer Cam Trewin. Novatech was ta
UK - Smart technology and office design specialist Coodart relied on Shure Stem Ecosystem to transform the head office of one of Europe’s largest mineral producers. With new communications technologies playing a key part in the renovation, Coodart chose Shure’s flexible portfolio as the solution to bring high-quality audio into this major new project. The Shure Stem Ecosystem, which was recently awarded the 2022 Global Enabling Technology Leadership Award by Frost & Sullivan, provides a fully customisable solution that integrates with other communication platforms such as Barco ClickShare and Huddly cameras. This is why a mix of Stem Ecosystem devices were chosen to fit in the space. The solution included Stem table and ceiling speakers and microphones, combined with the Stem hub to connect all the devices together and complete the solution. Future flexibility
Israel - Contemporary multipurpose venue Gray in Modiin is filled with colour and atmosphere thanks to a versatile Robe LED moving light rig installed to enhance this new and lively 900-capacity entertainment space that opened in 2021. Managed and run by the municipality, it is popular and successful in offering a wide range of live music and performance shows in a supper club format. The lighting, LED screen, trussing – including two elegant circles above the audience – and rigging was supplied and installed by Danor Theatre & Studio Systems working in conjunction with consultant Dror Herrenson, who assessed the requirements and compiled a tender based on a robust, practical, and flexible LED lighting system to cover a multiplicity of events. Several companies bid on the tender, which was won by Danor with their specification of 12 x Robe VIVA CMYs and 12 x L
Canada - Hugo Angers, TV mixer and sound engineer and co-owner of Quebec-based Euphonie Sonorisation, has worked with a plethora of audio consoles throughout his career. However, since first operating a DiGiCo console in the mid-2010s, he has developed a strong affinity for their products and used them on many different shows and festivals. During the summer of 2022, Angers purchased the company’s first DiGiCo Quantum 225 and has already utilised it at a Cajun Festival in Drummondville, opera shows in Montréal, and several corporate events. This summer, the Q225 will be used at a number of festivals. The purchase of the DiGiCo Quantum 225 was prompted by Angers' experience mixing monitors on an SD10 for Belle et Bum, one of Quebec's longest-running live music shows. "I've been using the SD10 twice a week, every week, for two years, and I've learned a lot abou
Curaçao - Everyone on this island country looks forward to the two-day Curaçao Carnival which consists of the Gran Marcha (The Grand Parade) and Marcha di Despedida (The Farewell March). People on the island being work on the carnival six months in advance. The event itself involves 6,000 participants and 1,500 ‘helpers’ who either play music or keep the beverages flowing. The carnival’s parades snake through the streets of the island’s capital city, Willemstad. Enhancing the vibrant atmosphere of the parade, each carnival group has at least one party trailer. Massive Production supplied and outfitted audio video and lights for 16 of these trailers. For some, the company went all out turning the vehicles into moving concert stages. Adding a level of bling to these 45ft ‘boombox trailers’ was a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures from Massive Prod
India - Founded in 1940, Patna Women’s College was the first higher education facility of its kind to be opened in India’s Bihar state. The college recently invested in audio, video and lighting systems for its newly completed 2,500-seat Veronica Auditorium. Following the successful completion of another project for Patna Women’s College, Punjab-based Soundxperts won the contract to supply a complete turnkey solution for the auditorium, including audio, video, lighting, control, acoustics, seating, and flooring. Soundxperts worked closely with professional audio distributor, Sun Infonet, which was able to supply leading brands for the crucial audio component of this prestigious project. According to Soundxperts owner, Amninder Warraich, “Having the complete audio solution under one roof from renowned brands like Shure, Allen & Heath, Audiofocus, Quest Engi
Europe - Italian group Måneskin are rocking their way through Europe with their Loud Kids Tour Gets Louder shows, backed by a highly technological lighting system that can morph into multiple different shapes to convey story and structure. At the heart of the lighting rig are Vari-Lite VL10 BeamWash luminaires from Signify which are used to beam bright vivid colours and pastels onto the stage and as powerful followspots. During each show, operators are manually utilising the pan and tilt functions on each of the VL10 BeamWash fixtures, highlighting each member of the band as well as washing the stage with dynamic lighting states. All the other parameters of the VL10 BeamWash are controlled by a lighting console, allowing the team to program the lighting in advance using timecode. The lighting is the creation of Milan- and London-based lighting design company Blearred.
UK - disguise has announced that it has partnered with London’s Lightroom – a new home for spectacular artist-led experiences in King’s Cross – to power its inaugural art experience by David Hockney. Called David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away), the show was designed by 59 Productions, who used disguise’s end-to-end location-based experience solution for everything from pre-visualisation to show control and delivery. With the venue only open for a month, it has already attracted an average count of over 2,000 visitors a day. David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) takes visitors on a journey through 60 years of the artist’s paintings, digital art and set designs through a 50-minute, large-scale projection show powered by seven disguise vx 4 servers. In six themed chapters featuring an original
USA - The Emmy and Tony-award winning Broadway producer Michael J. Moritz Jr. calls Broadway home, and it seems quite happy to call him a marquee resident. He is a co-producer for Hadestown, earning him a 2019 Tony Award for Best Musical, and most recently before that he won an Emmy for his audio work on From Broadway with Love: A Benefit for Orlando. Other tips of the accolade iceberg include a Tony nomination for Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and On The Town, as well as collaborations with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Bernadette Peters. As muso and techie, he keeps his personal Lectrosonics M2 Duet kit - comprising M2T transmitters and M2R receivers - at arm’s reach. “I’m usually the showrunner or producer or wearing the musical director hat - or all of them,” says Moritz of his role. But where production personnel that far “above the
USA - Lighting designer Vin Pugliese recently lit a headliner hometown show for The Elovaters at the House of Blues Boston. Using a mixture of cue-to-cue programming and busking, Pugliese unfurled ‘an endless stream of evocative looks’ during the 90-minute show, each reflecting the reggae band’s music in a distinctive way. Helping him do this was a collection of over 60 Chauvet Professional fixtures from the venue’s house rig, and the extensive ground package from his own company VFX Design Studio that he brought to the show. “I brought my own ground support package to fill out the bottom half of the stage since the House of Blues Boston has a high trim height,” explained Pugliese. “Using a mixture of beams, spots, hybrids, washes, LED pars, LED battens, strobes, LED blinders, and other fixtures, I had the tools at my disposal to create a dynamic show whe
India - Mezzo, Powersoft’s flexible Mezzo 604 amplifier platform is driving the multi-zone background music system providing the soundtrack for Fig at Malcha, a new high-end dining experience in the heart of the Indian capital, Delhi. Fig at Malcha is an ‘eco-contemporary’ café, bakery and bar offering all-day dining at Malcha Marg, near Chanakyapuri, New Delhi's historic diplomatic quarter. The second Fig restaurant, after the original destination in Gurgaon, Fig at Malcha combines Japanese design with Nordic lifestyle, featuring a curated menu based on local and seasonal produce from local farms, GMO-free meat and cage-free eggs. It is also home to a Parisian-style bakehouse that offers fresh breads, pastries and ‘farm-to-cup’ speciality coffee. According to Gunbir Sing, founder and co-owner of BBW Distributors, for their second café the Fig team desired
UK - A new K-array sound system has been installed at Homerton College’s architect-designed dining hall as part of a multi-million pound extension to the Cambridge college’s campus. Providing natural vocal reinforcement in the vaulted dining hall, the Vyper-KV52 line arrays complement the warm timber-panelled interior, blending into the strikingly modern architecture. Originally founded in Homerton, East London, the college relocated to Cambridge in 1894 as a teaching college and only in 2010 became a full part of the University of Cambridge. The city’s newest college is also the most populous, with accommodation blocks housing upwards of 900 students, and had outgrown the original the timber clad neo-gothic Great Dining Hall which was no longer sufficient to cope with providing some 1,000 meals a day. A new dining hall was commissioned early last year with
Taiwan - With offices in Taiwan and Australia, award-winning production house for film and television, Reno Studios, has created Taiwan’s latest pixel pitch virtual production facility. Opened at the end of last year, it is located at the longest-running Taiwanese movie studio, Central Motion Picture Corporation (CMPC). Helping bring clients’ stories to the screen is Brompton Technology LED processing. “In collaboration with partners, Reno Studios provides a one stop service for international shooting projects, with access to essential services such as scenery construction, camera rental, lighting post-production and sound processing,” says Peter Huang, general manager of Reno Studios. Huang knows that image quality is one of the most important elements for virtual production, with LED panels and LED processors fundamentally determining whether image deta
Germany - Chart topping rapper Kontra K avoids the “tough guy” persona that many other artists in this genre adopt, but, as the old saying goes, “looks can be deceiving”. Emerging from the mean streets of some of Berlin’s roughest neighbourhoods, the popular artist is busy being a bona fide martial arts expert and a boxing coach when he isn’t performing on stage. These street creds notwithstanding, however, Kontra K takes a more positive uplifting approach in his music and live performances. True to his motto Towards The Sun, he manages to convey an uplifting message without losing any of the raw intensity that are so much a part of this past and personality. Both sides of this complex artist were conveyed in a recent arena tour of Germany, Switzerland and Austria, not just in his music and stage presence, but also in an immersive and fast-moving lig
France - Home to the French rugby league team the Catalans Dragons, Stade Gilbert Brutus in Perpignan underwent a two-phase expansion in 2006 and 2010 to bring capacity up to 13,000 with three all-seater stands. The southern French city is also home to the rugby union team USAP, whose home stadium Stade Aimé Giral is equipped with a Nexo Geo S12 sound system, installed by local AV technology specialists Sud Media System. Impressed by the sound at their neighbour’s stadium, Stade Gilbert Brutus recently contracted Sud Media System to install a Nexo system at their ground, following a public tender process. The choice of several prestigious sporting venues including Croke Park in Dublin, Optus Stadium in Perth, Japan’s Toyota Stadium and the French national stadium the Stade de France, Nexo’s Geo S12 has earned a reputation for performance, dependability and
China - Christie has announced that its high-performance 3DLP and 1DLP laser projectors are illuminating a new night-time tourist attraction at the picturesque Jiuge-Shangui scenic area in Zhangjiajie, a prefecture-level city in Hunan Province. Inspired by stories in the Chu Ci poetry anthology by renowned ancient poet Qu Yuan, Jiuge-Shangui integrates the legends of Xiangxi with cultural heritage of the indigenous Tujia and Miao ethnic groups, as well as the natural beauty of Zhangjiajie to deliver a large-scale extravaganza. Live performances staged across the scenic area spanning over 5 square kilometres are lit by close to a dozen Crimson WU31, DWU2022-HS and DWU1612-HS laser projectors supplied and installed by Christie’s trusted partner, Jianye Display. “Jiuge-Shangui night-time spectacular is the first of its kind in the world and
USA - To provide incoming productions and touring artists with a rider-friendly sound reinforcement, Warner Theatre’s production manager Ryan Patsy teamed up with consultant David Bateman, CTS-D, of Acentech and integrator Todd Pander of Dobil Laboratories to outfit the historic theatre with new JBL VTX Series line arrays and subwoofers. Commissioned in 1929 by the then-named Warner Brothers Productions and opened in 1931, the Warner Theatre is a landmark located in Erie, Pennsylvania. The venue operated as a cinema theatre until it was sold to the city of Erie in 1976 and converted to a performing arts centre. In addition to being the home of the Erie Philharmonic, Lake Erie Ballet and the Erie Broadway Series, the Warner Theatre regularly hosts concerts and performances by touring artists like Kenny Rogers, Jerry Seinfeld, ZZ Top, Kenny G, Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie and ma
Germany – tvONE’s powerful CORIOmaster2 video processor has been installed at the heart of German AV distributor Kern & Stelly Medientechnik’s new showroom in Hamburg, driving a wide variety of displays throughout the space. When Hamburg-based Kern & Stelly moved into its new premises, the team took the opportunity to completely redesign their showroom to showcase AV technical possibilities and configure it for events. The tvONE CORIOmaster2 is now the central video management processor for large and small screens hung around the showroom, including an artwall installation with seven displays. The content ranges from digital signage and demonstration videos to marketing messages and partner information. “The CORIOmaster2 offers endless creative possibilities and helps to present the products of our display partners in an optimal way,” says Mario Mühr
Belgium - Drag Race Belgique, a French-language reality television series based on the American series RuPaul's Drag Race, has been using Prolights' fixtures for their studio soft lighting. The lighting was supplied by CST, where designer and DOP Nathan Melchior from RTBF (Belgium's national TV) chose 14x Prolights EclPanel TWC and 12x EclPanel TWCJr with Chimera lanterns. "My choice naturally fell on the Prolights EclPanel series. I placed EclPanel TWCJr with Chimera lanterns in a very symmetrical way to ensure good homogeneity of light and the same level on the whole surface of the set. The other panels were placed around the perimeter of the truss and were used to reinforce the various light axes." When asked about the use of a real set instead of a virtual one, the choice was clear: “Drag Race is an existing format in the United
