Portugal - Martin Audio’s Portuguese partner LVT Audio recently supported a landmark 40th anniversary performance by rock band, Xutos & Pontapés and the Portuguese Philharmonic Orchestra with a Martin Audio MLA Compact rig. The band itself was founded in Lisbon by the late Zé Pedro, Zé Leonel, Kalú and Tim, and the Porto-based rental company were determined to cut no corners at Porto’s 8,500-capacity Super Bock Arena. With audio direction by LVT principal, and technical director, Miguel Lindo and support from Martin Audio’s North American technical specialist Joe Lima, LVT provided Xutos’ FOH engineer, Carlos Vales (Cajó) and system tech, Antonio (Touché) Costa with a powerful system. This comprised hangs of 18 elements of MLA Compact per side, with a further 12 MLA Mini and three MSX subs on each flank performing out-fill duties. LF reinforcem
USA - To provide the Oak Ridge Boys with dynamic and reliable lighting for their recent 2022 tour, lighting designer David Boots selected the lightweight but powerful Martin Professional ERA 300 Profiles supplied by Entertainment Rental Group. Starting life as the Oak Ridge Quartet in 1947, the Oak Ridge Boys are one of the longest-running groups in American country music. The quartet’s current line-up -lead singer Duane Allen, tenor Joe Bonsall, baritone William Lee Golden, and bass Richard Sterban - was responsible for the band’s most well-known hits including Elvira, American Made and Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight. After touring with the now-discontinued Martin MAC 250 Entour fixtures for 15 years, the group needed new, durable and long-lasting fixtures for the recent 2022 tour capable of providing an immersive and riveting exper
UK - Released in 2019, the movie Joker quickly became one of the top-rated films of the year. The flick’s pop culture relevance made it a perfect fit for London-based concert promotion and production company Senbla Live Events’ ‘film in concert’ series. As pioneers of this production model, the team at Senbla knew that translating the film into a live show would require an audio solution with a pristine level of clarity. With 25 years’ experience using DPA Microphones, Phil Wright, sound designer and front of house engineer for Joker Live in Concert, trusted the brand to deliver. Working with AV production supplier SFL, Wright chose to make it a fully DPA spec. “I’ve always had DPA on strings, but it has been my dream to do a solely DPA show,” says Wright. “Some people were hesitant about whether it would truly make a difference, but no
Sweden - Club After Dark is a new supper club / cabaret concept, created by Swedish drag artist and performer Christer Lindarw, a colourful extravaganza of music and dance directed and choreographed by Hans Marklund, with music directed by Kent Olsson who is also a co-creator of the show together with Christer and Hans. Staged at the Vasateatern (Vasa Theatre) in Stockholm, the show is lit by Mikael Kratt, who was asked onboard by Hans and producers My Blomgren and Mikael Jernberg, to craft an appropriately spectacular and dynamic lightshow for the evening, which unfolds over three acts embracing multiple musical genres. Mikael immediately thought of Robe’s MegaPointe for this task and specified 14 of these multi-purpose luminaires to be at the heart of the show’s lighting supported by nine Robe Spiider LED washes. Two Robe BMFL WashBeams together wit
Poland - Wise Clubs is an AV consultancy and integration firm based in Kraków. The company was recently called upon to design and integrate systems into two of Katowice’s leading nightspots – the P23 club located in a former porcelain factory, and its little brother, the recently opened CEL club in the centre of Katowice. Both venues have been equipped with comprehensive KV2 sound systems - the first KV2 systems to go into clubs in Poland - designed and installed by Wise Clubs and supplied by KV2’s polish distributor, Arcade Audio. P23 has a true post-industrial feel with its natural brick walls, steel girders and lofty ceilings. One of the city’s premier live music venues, P23 plays host to a variety of events, from acoustic concerts through to rock music and – perhaps the genre for which it is best known – techno. The biggest names in techno and electron
USA - Joe Bonamassa is touring this year in support of his 2021 LP, Time Clocks. The 23-date US spring tour leg kicked off in February in Orlando, Florida and concludes in Washington, DC this week. Out on the road with him are a new pair of DiGiCo Quantum5 mixing consoles manned by front-of-house engineer Mike Lavielle and monitor engineer John Kaylor. Also on the trek are a DiGiCo SD-Rack, with 32-bit microphone inputs feeding both consoles, and a SD-Nano Rack used for ancillary duties at front of house, all on an Optocore loop. The two desks also recently accompanied Bonamassa and crew aboard the Norwegian Pearl for his sold-out Keeping The Blues Alive at Sea VII cruise from 21-25 February, where they proved seaworthy on their maiden voyage. All of these early-2022 shows mark the inaugural deployment of the new desks by the tour’s systems provider, Special
UK - The Albany, a multi-disciplinary arts centre in the heart of Lewisham in south-east London, has been serving its community for over 100 years. The original Albany Institute opened in 1899 with the aim of improving the lives of local people. It became the Albany Empire in the 1970s and gained a reputation for its pioneering work in radical community arts. The building was destroyed by fire in 1978 but was rebuilt, and today the Albany is a theatre in the round that hosts a diverse range of disciplines, from music of all types to theatre, children’s shows, workshops, lectures and more. The venue has recently replaced its ageing PA with a new Reference Series system from EM Acoustics supplied by Stage Electrics. Head of production at the Albany, Ben Stephen, explains that the prime requirement when specifying their new system was flexibility and ease of use. “We
USA - Riedel Communications is collaborating with SailGP Technologies and Skyroads to deliver new and more immersive imagery as well as a substantially reduced CO2 footprint at major public events. Announced during SailGP's Season 2 Grand Final in San Francisco on 26 March, Riedel and Skyroads AG are entering into a strategic alliance to deliver a $20m order of Skybot-Cam systems, which combine high payload drones with professional broadcast gyro stabilized camera systems with live video, audio, and data downlinks. Riedel will be the global partner of the Skybot-Cam system for major events and sport series, and with Skyroads, they are building a joint product to further push the boundaries of sustainability and technical innovation for sports broadcasting. Riedel will serve as an integrator, utilising their existing communication infrastructure for the purpose of the S
UK - Two EVO 4 Start Recording Bundles (EVO SRB) have made an instant and significant improvement to the audio of the monthly Virtual Planetarium video on Sky At Night Magazine’s YouTube channel. Aimed at all stargazers, this is a video guide to the best things to see each month in the night sky, with graphics put together by digital content producer, Adam Crute and two expert amateur astronomers providing the audio. Pete Lawrence, an astro-photographer recognised by the Royal Photographic Society and Paul Abel, theoretical physicist and director of the British Astronomical Associations Mercury & Venus Section have been recording their half-hour script for each month’s episode from their respective homes since the beginning of Covid-19 lockdown. “Paul and I have been recording the Virtual Planetariums for Sky at Night Magazine for many years,
Canada - Simon Fraser University (SFU), ranked one of the top universities in Canada, has campuses spanning three of British Columbia’s largest cities -Burnaby, Surrey and Vancouver. Last year, the university needed to replace a 10-year-old amplifier system to support a new learning environment for students. For this installation, the learning experience of SFU’s students was the school's top priority. When some of the previous amplifiers powering classrooms began to fail, Adrian Bisek, AV system designer at SFU Surrey campus reached out to SC Media, LEA Professional's Canadian representative, to secure the right technology to support the university for the next decade In his role, Bisek is responsible for the design and implementation of audio-visual systems for the school. His department supports all classroom learning, collaboration, interaction at distance, and
USA - Dan Michie, who lit metalcore band Falling in Reverse on their recently concluded Live From The Unknown tour, enthusiastically reflected his client’s menacing sound with a broad palette of vivid colours. “There’s nothing wrong with using a wide range of colours,” said Michie. “Typically, I’ll stick to three main colours per song, but I’m not strict about it. Some songs I’ll listen to and see different coluors in my head for the verses than I do for the choruses. One of my favourite looks is to run a rainbow effect on the washes or any kind of RGB/CMY fixture and cut through that with white spots or beams. Falling In Reverse is also a fun band and I felt that the rainbow look fits some of their songs really well.” Michie worked his colour rendering magic to perfection on the tour, as evidenced in his lighting for their 2022 hit “Zombified,”
USA - It may never rain in southern California, but it pays to be prepared because when it does, it pours. Full Flood lighting designer Noah Mitz and lighting director Bryan Klunder opted to use 40 IP65-rated Ayrton Perseo fixtures for Adele’s surprise CBS special, Adele One Night Only, at the landmark Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles last November. The two-hour show no sooner finished than the skies opened up in a dramatic and torrential storm that found crews scrambling to cover non-IP-rated gear. “It was one of the most intense weather systems that LA had seen in some time,” recalls Harrison Lippman, co-founder of Burbank-based Volt Lites which was the production lighting vendor for the show with additional support provided by PRG Los Angeles. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton lighting in North America. “Being equipped with t
China - In 1959, the Wuhan Theatre was the first large theatre built since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Still standing as a prominent historical site today, the 1,459-seat theatre serves as a cultural centre that stages art performances for the local community. Having undergone only a few minor renovations during its sixty-year lifespan, the theatre received a very extensive renovation project in October 2020. The theatre's management executed some structural repairs, some cosmetic work on the exterior, and upgraded the technical infrastructure. The main hall's interior received acoustic improvements with a constructed fold-line design on the walls to achieve sound diffusion and even sound coverage for the audience. Management also upgraded the wooden surface in the rear of the hall with fire-resistant magnesium oxide panel boards, which will furth
Denmark - Opened for instruction late in 2021, the new Aarhus School of Architecture is equipped to educate future architects in all elements - aural as well as visual - of contemporary building design. The school was established in 1965. Prior to construction of the new campus, the learning facilities were spread out across the city in nine separate locations. The new four-story main campus building brings together all nine addresses under one roof and leverages advanced AV technologies to provide optimum classroom communication and remote learning opportunities, including a Meyer Sound Constellation acoustic system in the main auditorium that allows students to directly experience the acoustic response of various room designs. The school’s extraordinary investment in advanced AV technologies for learning was made possible by funding from the A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-
UK - The Bridge is a new addition to the PRG UK network, opening a hub for productions of all sizes in the heart of the country. The space has been designed to be completely flexible and has the facilities to support most production needs. Located just next door to the PRG UK headquarters in Longbridge, the space benefits from a direct link to PRGs equipment and expertise onsite. From truck splits and prep to full studio productions and pre-production rehearsals, The Bridge can deliver, says PRG. Production teams have complete privacy at The Bridge, with access to the space and the resources to run their projects through from planning to show day. Backstage, it offers a spacious 170sqm office space including a modern kitchen, showers, fully accessible bathrooms, bright and comfortable green room and artist dressing rooms, plus spacious production offices, a board roo
UK - As if reopening the venue after a little problem with storm Eunice wasn’t enough, UB40 managed to implement several notable firsts of their own for their show at London’s slightly ragged O2 Arena on 25 February. “Grant Hickey, who took the reins as LD in 2018 was stranded in Australia by travel restrictions,” explains Oli Metcalfe. “Things in our business are currently so unstable but we have to roll with it. Fortunately Grant set me up with a starting showfile which I ran with and then added to on the load-in day. Even so, it was quite something to go in hot with nothing more than a quick sound check for the London show.” Metcalfe had formerly designed for UB40 himself and indeed on that last tour had directed video while Hickey ran the lights. “Luckily mine and Grant’s histories with the band goes back some way and this design is still his. With t
South Korea - To outfit the Ulsan Munsu Football Stadium with the latest in sound system technology, TechDataPS Co selected and installed a range of Harman Professional audio solutions. Built to host the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the Ulsan Munsu Football Stadium is a 43,544-seat venue at the heart of the Ulsan Sports Park. With three stories and two basement floors, the stadium features a roof covering 87% of the four-sided stands supported by steel trusses designed to emulate the whale skeleton found in the hemisphere petroglyphs at Daegok-ri, Ulju. Additional pillars allude to the Silla Gold Crown, which inspired the stadium’s nickname, Big Crown. A spokesperson for TechDataPS Co reported that the client requested a comprehensive revamp of the stadium’s 20-year-old audio system, but the venue’s unique structure left the installation team with limited placement opt
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
