Brazil - Sennheiser brought an experiential demo space to Carnival in Salvador to welcome artists, audio engineers, music producers, and lovers of the brand. The House of Carnival has been a tradition for over 10 years, previously functioning only as an official service centre to greet customers who needed technical assistance or new audio equipment before the Brazilian revelry. This year, in addition to the service centre, the big attraction was an immersive room equipped with Neumann monitors and the AMBEO Soundbar. According to economists, without Carnival in 2022 Salvador lost an estimated R$2 billion of economic value - a loss that impacted millions of people that contribute directly or indirectly to the world famous street party. This time of the year accounts for 11% of the yearly profit of the city. Every year, Sennheiser´s technicians move from the headquart
USA - Illuminate Production Services (IPS) plays an integral role in creating the visual magic that is The Thorn and again this year enhanced the drama using a large package of Elation Professional lighting. Lighting Designer Caleb Franke of IPS uses the dynamic lighting to help sculpt the inspiring story while wowing audiences with a variety of visual effects. The Thorn is a modern-day Passion play, a theatrical depiction of the life and death of Jesus, yet with a modern touch. The immersive theatrical show combines modern dance, music, martial arts, aerial acrobatics, and emotionally powerful performances, with state-of-the-art lighting and visuals. The play is known for its stunning visual effects and has been staged yearly since 1998. The current 10-city tour launched on 1 March in Loveland, Colorado, and ends on 8 April in Miami. This year, IPS prov
Australia - Anita’s Theatre in Thirroul is no stranger to change. On Saturday December 18, 1965, when the curtain went down on a double billing featuring Stephen Boyd in Genghis Khan and Carl Gonzales in The Little Ones, the classic venue, then known as the King’s Theatre, closed its doors after more than 40 years as the main cinema in this seaside village located 60km south of Sydney. Less than three years after the theatre stopped showing films, all seats were removed, a concrete floor was laid in the stalls area, and the venue was reborn as Skateland. In 2007, long after its days as a roller rink had ended, the venerable building began anew again as a multi-purpose live performance venue. Today, as Anita’s Theatre, the classic-looking site is continuing its tradition of change, having recently become Live Nation’s first regional live music venu
Belgium - A fusion of pop and classical music from the world’s greatest composers, Night of the Proms (NOTP.com) is one of Europe’s biggest annually organised indoor events. With the 2022 edition including Amy Macdonald, Kool & the Gang, Bart Peeters, Axelle Red and Fine Fleur, the Antwerp Philharmonic Orchestra (AOP) and house band, NotP Backbone, the audio for this complex and demanding show was skilfully executed by a highly experienced team, who have relied on the quality, flexibility and reliability of DiGiCo consoles for many years, along with a KLANG immersive in-ear monitoring system for 2022, all supplied by PRG Belgium. At front of house, Tom Vuerstaek, who also designs the audio system, took care of the final mix on a DiGiCo Quantum 7 and Philippe Bosmans was on an SD10 for the wood, brass and percussion premix. Ben Artois handled premix for the choi
Singapore - The latest edition of the world’s largest e-sports championship, Dota 2’s The International 2022, was held in Singapore at the end of last year and attracted 67.74m hours of worldwide viewing. Singapore-based system integration company, Cgangs International Pte, partnered with the game’s developer, Valve, to create a Brompton Technology-powered virtual production set, used during the filming of the opening video and teaser campaign featuring the top four participating teams. Cgangs was introduced to Valve via PGL, a renowned esports tournament organiser, to provide its cutting-edge virtual production services for the event. "Our primary objective was to construct a temporary virtual production setup for Valve's pre-match and opening campaign," says Cgangs' director of strategic partnerships & business development, Alvin Lim. "These were used
World - Touring in support of fifth studio album, Being Funny In A Foreign Language, The 1975 turned to Eighth Day Sound. “We’re collectively trying to make this the best-sounding show in any room that we go into, regardless of whether it's an acoustically or architecturally challenging one,” says FOH engineer, Lee McMahon. Ready to react within the 112 input mix on his DiGiCo Quantum SD7, the nuances of the band’s live sound are driven by each band member - and can change at any moment. “It's certainly the most complex show I've ever worked on, and I want that attention to detail to come across. It’s part sound reinforcement, part sound design, all audience/band interaction. When you have a two-hour long show, you have to manage everything down to the precise SPL exposure, so I really want to push and pull on the audience’s reactions and wh
France - The recent robotics exhibition at the Eurexpo Lyon in France saw the use of 20x Prolights Astra Wash19Pix and 24x Astra Wash7Pix lighting fixtures, at the FANUC stand, a Japanese automation company. Camille Roblin, technical director at Toulouse-based events company SAS Melomane, commented: "I think Prolights is a wonderful brand with a great quality of fixtures. The Astra Wash19Pix has a powerful wash output, and the pixel ring give it some unique effects. I love their products, and it's great to see it being adopted more and more in France.” The Astra Wash19Pix is a 19x40W RGBW moving wash light with 4°-54° zoom, pixel control and pixel ring. The Astra Wash7Pix has similar features but with 7x40W LEDs, and built in a compact form, providing silent operation, smooth and fast movements. Over the past year, Prolights has launched several moving light
Bulgaria - Nova Broadcasting Group recently opened an ultra-modern studio complex of nearly 17,000sq.m in Sofia. To provide professional illumination in the new facility’s multiple studios, Nova Broadcasting Group worked with Elation distributor Luminis on a broadcast-optimised lighting solution. Nova Broadcasting Group is one of the biggest multi-platform media and technology companies in Bulgaria, part of United Group, Southeast Europe’s leading telecom and media operator. The new facility, designed for high-quality television and radio production of international standards, features five television studios, four radio studios, spacious equipment rooms, editing rooms and newsroom. The capacity of the new studio complex allows Nova Broadcasting Group to produce impactful content using the latest technologies. Luminis worked with a local lighting designer on the s
USA - For the creative team involved in designing the production for Daddy Yankee’s La Ultima Vuelta tour, the brief was quite simple, you create something “fit for a king”. This was the directive that production designer Rodrigo Proal of Darmah Studios received when he was asked to work on the Puerto Rican born superstar’s 84-date official retirement tour of North and South America, which concluded with a January show in San Juan. Proal, joined by a gifted and inspired creative team, didn’t disappoint either; the production they collaborated on, with its bold, vibrant colours, intense aerial effects, beautiful scenic elements, and evocative video content created by screens director Bianca Moncada, did justice to the career of the singer who is credited with coining the term ‘reggaeton’ and whose 2004 party favourite Gasolnina introduced modern Lat
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
