UK - Having its origins in the 18th century, British Sign Language (BSL) was frowned upon for centuries by an educational establishment that refused to teach it in school, believing that the deaf should learn to read lips instead. That all began to change in the 1970s, as schools throughout the UK incorporated BSL into their curriculums. By 2003, the British government had recognised BSL as its own language. On 28 March, this vibrant form of communication will reach another milestone with the debut of Sign 2 Win, the first game show played entirely in BSL. Hosted by deaf actress Fifi Garfield of Switch and Punk Chef fame, the show offers contestants a chance to win £1,000 in prizes. The programme’s producer, Drummer TV, turned to Pytch for help in creating the first 10 episodes of their breakthrough series. Pytch provided a virtual venue f
UK - Founded in 1982 by Ann Stannard and the late Christopher Gable, Central School of Ballet offers vocational degree courses in dance at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Earlier this year, when the school moved to its new home, the Countess of Wessex Studios in the South Bank arts community of London’s Southwark neighbourhood, it also undertook a major new audio installation. Adlib worked with Central to deliver an L-Acoustics Ai Series system that offers a multifaceted solution throughout the entire new venue. Boasting a fully equipped studio theatre, study, multiple resource centres, and a modern health suite, the Countess of Wessex Studios provides vital space to grow, nurture creativity, cultivate dreams, propagate ideas, and allow talent to blossom. The only thing missing was an equally impressive sound system. “Adlib was recommended to Central’s proj
South Africa - Located in Pretoria, Choose Life Church was founded in 2005 by Pastor John and Mandri Roebert. Embracing technology has been a part of Choose Life’s ethos throughout their journey, consistently ensuring that high quality systems are installed on their premises. In fact, after purchasing the building in 2010, the first thing they did was renovate and improve upon the existing system. The first major project in 2011 was centred around the installation of a d&b T-Series audio system in their main auditorium, which was supplied and integrated by Stage Audio Works (SAW). Recently, Choose Life Church called upon SAW once again, this time to implement a large Pixel Plus LED wall to act as the backdrop for their stage. A secondary requirement of this project was to upgrade their hardware and streaming infrastructure, to allow them more flexibility moving f
USA - In a city renowned for its iconic neighbourhoods and distinctive architecture, The Bollinger Canopy of Peace quickly established itself as a must-see New Orleans landmark after it opened in 2019. Soaring 148ft in the air, the bright white steel-and-fiberglass structure seems ready to take flight as it spans the entire campus of the National World War II Museum in the heart of the city. However, there is more than the aesthetic appeal of the 481ft long by 133ft wide canopy that moves observers. Equally compelling is its symbolic significance, as it representsthe sacrifices of the 16m Americans who served in the military in the Second World War. In preparation to unveil the Expressions of America interactive light and sound show later in 2022, the canopy was equipped to become even more powerful, thanks to a dynamic lighting display over its surface. Created
Lithuania - Keistuolių Theatre in Vilnius has reopened its doors after a two-year break to undergo a major overhaul of its underperforming sound system. The renovation brief required a versatile, modern audio system to optimise sonic distribution and quality around the venue, which led to the selection of DiGiCo, and its DiGiGrid networking solution, along with a compact S21 mixing console, as the centrepiece of the new system. Opened in 1989, the theatre was originally built as a conference space, providing a multi-purpose setting to cater for various events. Consequently, the main hall suffered with poor acoustics when staging concert and theatre productions, causing the theatre major problems. "We are a theatre that uses a lot of music in our performances, so the quality of sound is very important to us,” says Keistuolių Theatre director, Aidas Giniotis. “We h
UK - Academy Music Group (AMG) has once again enlisted the support of Liverpool-based Adlib, to co-design and install a high-end touring specification for its audio and lighting systems at its newest venue in Scotland, the 3,000 capacity O2 Academy Edinburgh. A category B listed building, the former Corn Exchange was built in 1909 and acquired by Academy Music Group in August 2021, to build on its legacy as one of the city’s largest standing, multi-purpose spaces, and develop it to become one of the major must-play venues in Edinburgh for live music and entertainment. The project was led by AMG’s group operations manager, Steve Hoyland with Adlib’s managing director Andy Dockerty, who together specified the L-Acoustics K2 system. “Our latest acquisition, O2 Academy Edinburgh, has huge potential, with the right capacity to bring more world-class shows to t
UK - When Matt Strigden of SRD Projects was looking for a track solution for a new drama venue at Channing School in Highgate, North London, he turned to Doughty Engineering. Having worked with the Doughty team for years, Strigden, who heads up the projects department at SRD, knew that they were the right team for the job. He said: “I know Doughty well - the people and the products. I have known sales managers, Dan Phillips and Laurence Dyer for nearly 20 years. Both are extremely helpful whenever I have a design question and are really good at providing the answers we need.” SRD Projects works across all sorts of sectors; theatres, education, fitness, houses of worship and retail, providing lighting and audio solutions in these spaces and so regularly find themselves turning to Doughty for the right kit. This project at Channing School involved restoring one of th
UK - The highly lyrically complex songs of Laura Marling, performing solo on an acoustic guitar, brings with it demands for a special kind of lighting. Showcasing her latest album, the Grammy- and Mercury-nominated Song for Our Daughter, her recent three-week sold-out club and theatre tour - her first in four and a half years - was highlighted by two nights at London’s Roundhouse. Marling’s long-term LD, Jon Barker, recently formed a collaboration with fellow designer and long-term colleague, Dom Smith, with the pair now operating under the name NeonBlack. Their mission: to tell the story of the artist through light. Since this was also a low-production tour, they were able to achieve most of their objectives by deploying 16 of GLP’s impression X4 Bar 20 battens. The rig needed to suit Academy-sized venues where the lighting needed to be nimble and d
Turkey - Earlier this year, Istanbul production company Autonomy partnered with virtual production facility MGX Studio and Formula 1 to deliver an immersive commercial project for the country’s financial hub and official sponsors of last year’s Formula 1 Turkish Grand Prix, Istanbul Financial Centre (IFC). The project was filmed at MGX Studio, with Brompton Technology Tessera processing delivering optimum colour management for the LED wall. From extreme close-ups of the F1 vehicle and the driver, to the revving engine sounds as the car navigates through the streets of Istanbul, and images of IFC reflected on the driver’s helmet, MGX Studio’s virtual production facility offered a spread of creative possibilities to the Autonomy team. “Achieving optimum colour profiles and creating realistic reflections and natural background lighting were key challenges for t
USA - Lighting designer/director, Brian Jenkins of Flicker Designs had specified two of MDG's award-winning, dual haze and fog generators, theONE, for the band’s 2020 tour before it was postponed due to the pandemic. After an 18-month enforced break, the tour resumed last summer, with the band visiting many of North America's largest outdoor amphitheatres playing to 15,000-30,000 capacity crowds. Rehearsals for the eight-week tour, which was in support of the band’s seventh studio album, Jordi, started in late July with the first show slated for 10th August 2021 at the White River Amphitheatre in Auburn Washington. The final date took place in October at the Concord Pavilion, Concord California. Jenkins chose theONE for both its versatility and powerful output capabilities: “We specifically needed a hefty, high-output unit for the outdoor amphitheatre show
France - At a height of 2,300m, the new Maya Altitude Restaurant is located in the popular ski area, Three Valleys, in the French Alps. Its terrace offers 360° views of the Belleville Valley and Mont Blanc. A newly-installed Nexo sound system provides music to drinkers and diners inside the venue and out by day, before stepping things up with a full DJ set for après skiers. A system design using another speaker brand was already in existence before Monaco-based audio-visual consultants Mediacom suggested that a Nexo system could deliver higher performance at a lower cost. “We worked with the Nexo engineering support team to design a system using ID24s supplemented by IDS110 subs inside the restaurant, and Nexo ID14 and P12s outside,” explains Mediacom’s Christophe Chary. “With a sumptuous, Tibetan-themed décor, it was important that the speakers create
Bosnia - The reputation of Martin Audio’s scalable resolution Wavefront Precision continues to spread. Last year, the company’s Bosnia & Herzegovina distributor, SD Sistemi, sold a large WPL system to prominent hire company ProRent, who followed up their initial purchase in September with a further acquisition three months later, with the upcoming events season in mind. “They really needed a larger system for big outdoor events and for general hire use,” reports SD Sistemi’s Tijana Milovanovic. The sale had been initiated as far back as February 2020, but the global pandemic brought a summary halt to proceedings. In the end ProRent committed to the system on brand reputation alone, in time to fire it up for the first time on 14 February in the Borik Sports Hall in Banja Luka for Croatian artist Massimo Savić. ProRent fielded 12 x WPL per side, with SXH21
Sweden - Sweden’s Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra performed a ‘musical adventure’ at the imposing Göteborgs Konserthus recently, enveloped in video projections driven by Hippotizer Media Servers. The 90-minute orchestral performance, entitled The Crescendoing City, immersed the audience in a ‘visual flow’ designed to complement the piece. Stockholm-based Pixelfield Studios - styled PXLFLD - was commissioned by the Gothenburg Symphonic Orchestra to design a visual concert experience based on ‘The City’ as an overarching concept. The PXLFLD team responded to the brief by considering what defines a city, taking in architecture, communications, culture and, most importantly, people. Over two nights of performances, audiences were treated to sweeping cityscapes, eerie urban scenes and flashes of abstract colour and patterns. “We needed a reliable
Israel - Atzmaut Beach (AKA Hilton Beach) is a popular destination for the young local surfing community and tourists (in more regular times) alike, and boasts plenty of bars and restaurants. Hilton Bay Absolut Beach & Surf features a high-end audio installation courtesy of Void Acoustics and Israeli Void Acoustics distributor – New Audio Pro. Established in 2018, Hilton Bay Beach & Surf occupies 300sq.m of prime seafront real estate immediately in front of (but not connected with) the Hilton Hotel. The venue has recently been transformed with a complete refurbishment from the structure itself, down to the soft furnishings. And front and centre of this transformation has been the deployment of a new Void Acoustics sound system. The venue is owned by Ronen Miley - a local nightlife entrepreneur of over 25 years’ experience. “These days our customers are lo
New Zealand - The Halberg Awards celebrates the country’s sporting excellence. The 2022 extravaganza was staged at the Spark Arena in Auckland, this time with a reduced live audience of 100 seated guests (usually 1000), a measure applied late-on as the country went to a COVID ‘red alert’ level. It broadcast live on Sky TV. The set, lighting and visuals were designed collaboratively by LD Jason Steel working closely with Simon Garrett of Big Picture. The company delivered lighting and visual equipment, including the nearly 100 Robe fixtures utilised on the show. The starting point for lighting the diamond-shaped stage was a 25m wide cross-shaped 6mm LED video surface, curving gently round at the ends, a monolithic structure that set the aesthetic tone and look of the event. The stage was built with wings at 45-degrees and featured a large ramped central run
UK - Britannia Row Productions deployed a full audio package for the annual awards ceremony while continuing its partnership with The BRIT School. The BRIT Awards returned to London’s O2 Arena complete with performances by Adele, Ed Sheeran, Bring Me The Horizon, Little Simz, Liam Gallagher, Sam Fender, Dave, Anne-Marie, KSI, and Rising Star Award recipient, Holly Humberstone. Britannia Row’s relationship with the event continues to go from strength to strength, with the company’s Josh Lloyd resuming his role as system designer and FOH mixer. Lloyd created a PA system design that would allow the music to blend effortlessly into the stage design by avoiding key sightlines, while giving clean and clear feeds to the experienced broadcast team. “The design changed in the weeks leading up to the event due to the stage and seating being reconfigured in the ven
UK - Sound Technology, the UK distributor of Martin Professional, has reported that a large quantity of the MAC Ultra Performance were supplied by various dealers, including White Light, Stage Electrics and Hawthorn. The high-output profile luminaires replace existing generics and tungsten sources. A total of 23 have been added to the standard overhead rig, replacing older generics within the 1,150-capacity Olivier Theatre, with a further 10, provided earlier by White Light, to be stored in Lighting Resources to be called on as necessary by lighting designers. Matt Drury, head of lighting, explains: “In the Olivier we needed a punchier fixture and had been looking at an alternative source prior to lockdown. We knew that by 2022 we would need something of that ilk but during the interruption the MAC Ultra Performance and MAC Ultra Wash came along, and they did so at just t
UK - The beginning of March saw spatial audio specialist, Sonosphere, take part in a world-first multi-venue event at the 5G Festival Showcase. Underpinned by 5G technology, it involved over 20 artists playing simultaneously across three UK music venues: Metropolis Studios, the O2 Blueroom at The O2 and Brighton Dome. Over the last two years, Sonosphere has been working with eight other heavyweight organisations - Audiotonix, Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival, LiveFrom, Mativision, Metropolis Studios, Virgin Media O2, and Warner Music Group - who worked collectively with Digital Catapult, the UK authority on advanced digital technology, to explore the untapped potential of 5G for the live music industry and provide a blueprint for how technology could play a key role in the future of the sector as part of the wider £200m DCMS 5G Testbeds & Trials Programme. T
USA - Technical Arts Group (TAG) provided SJ Lighting of Westlake Village, California with IP65-rated Ayrton Perseo Beam and Domino fixtures for the New York edition of the Rolling Loud global music festival last autumn. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton lighting in North America. TAG was formed in 2021 and specialises in lighting, audio, video, staging, special effects and event management. The company has offices in Secaucus, New Jersey and Miami. It furnished lighting, sound and video equipment for Stage 4 of Miami’s Rolling Loud fest last July then was asked to supply lighting for New York’s two main stages and sound and video gear for the third. The three-day event at Citi Field drew more than 80,000 fans to performances from some of hip hop’s biggest emcees. The IP65-rated Perseo and Domino fixtures proved to be an inspired choice fo
Serbia - Earlier this month, the Novi Sad Fair celebrated the Migration of Souls. Held in conjunction with the city being named a European Capital of Culture for 2022, the 11-day, multimedia event features presentations by writers and thinkers, as well as art exhibits and music/dance acts by an impressive global collection of performers. Each day’s session concluded with a concert, and as befits the theme of the event, the roster of artist was varied, beginning with Japanese experimental guitarist Miyavi, on to the Barcelona Gipsy Balkan Orchestra and The Chalaban band, which performs Moroccan music with a central European twist, plus Original Enigma voices. Chameleon Rental delivered the lighting with help from an impressive collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures. The rig featured 28 units of the Maverick MK2 Wash and 16 of the Maverick MK1 Spot, as wel
UK - Specialist audio visual design and installation company, North Star Engineers is behind the ship-wide AV system design and installation of the world’s largest civilian hospital ship, the Global Mercy - the newly built vessel of Mercy Ships. The project has been designed and delivered from the head office of North Star Engineers in the city of York. Mercy Ships is an international charity providing a team of volunteer nurses, doctors, surgeons and other crew from all over the world. The Global Mercy was docked and open for physical and virtual tours in the Port of Rotterdam between 26 February-14 March 2022, before setting sail on 15 March for Granadilla Tenerife to continue outfitting in preparation for service within West Africa, the first of many new missions expected over the next 50 years. The team at North Star Engineers has been responsible for all s
USA - Lighting metal band Killswitch Engage means slamming your foot down on the accelerator and never really letting up, according to lighting designer Cody James. The longtime designer for KSE, James describes the process this way: “Killswitch on stage has no brake pedal. Even during tuning breaks, it's a full-on experience the entire time. The lights have to reflect that. When the band is coming at you at 100 mph, so should everything around them on stage.” When lighting the band’s recently concluded 32-city Atonement Tour 2022, James powered his Chauvet Professional anchored rig with a ChamSys MagicQ MQ250M and extra wing. Innovative strobing played a big part in James’ design vision for this busked show. Reflecting the band’s intense sound, he conjured up a varied mix of bold strobing looks, mixing in different colours and coming at the stage and a
Australia - To gain the necessary power and versatility for their multi-functional event spaces, Rocco’s Bar & Gusto acquired a range of Harman Professional audio-visual solutions. Rocco’s Bar & Gusto is a restaurant and venue located inside United Cinemas in Warriewood, New South Wales that hosts parties, private business meetings, sporting and dining events in its multipurpose event spaces. Because the venue space can be divided into multiple separate areas to accommodate a variety of events and meetings, the restaurant required an audio-visual solution with the flexibility to route and matrix signals to their respective zones. To meet this request, Rocco’s acquired a fully networked audio-visual system featuring solutions by AMX, BSS, JBL Professional, Crown and AKG. “We wanted an immersive experience for Rocco’s Bar & Gusto, and the Harman sol
UK - The BandLab NME Awards 2022 returned to the O2 Academy Brixton in London on 2 March 2, with the crew from TSL Lighting responsible for installing the rig and lighting system in place for Renegade’s lighting designer, Nick Gray “As always, working with TSL was a pleasure,” says Gray. “Their attention to detail, prep and general approach is second to none. For this show, we had an awful lot of lighting, most of which couldn’t be accessed once installed so I needed to work with a team that did their utmost to make sure we didn’t have any equipment issues. “The team of technicians were very familiar and absolutely amazing. TSL were an ideal partner for Renegade on the show and proved again why we rate them so highly.” The main lighting rig extended out into the auditorium and was steeply raked to be visually impressive on camera. The show compris
