USA - In the face of tight travel restrictions and the industry-wide slowdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, music producer to the stars Garth Richardson has spent several months focused on renovating and updating his The Farm Studios. Nestled within the Sunshine Coast region of British Columbia, The Farm Studios offers a tranquil cabin-in-the-woods workshop atmosphere for recording and studio production. The seven-acre property features several cabins and a main house where the control room is located. Richardson's goal for the extensive renovation is to expand the studio's footprint and create a varied set of indoor and outdoor recording spaces. Rooms in the main house are connected throughout with a Dante network, and Richardson is now extending the network out to another large cabin adjacent to the main house and other locations. Dante allows audio, control
USA - When Caesars Entertainment, who operate Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, planned their next expansion phase – Caesars Forum, a new conference centre - they needed a first-class technical infrastructure for site wide multi-signal transmission over this large facility, and opted for BroaMan, the video and data based sister company to Optocore. Locally based design and engineering specialists, National Technology Associates (NTA) have a long track record working with the Caesars Entertainment family, including LINQ promenade, the High Roller, and many restaurants and venues. Thus, they were again contracted, and as their project manager Shane Snell recognized the building was way too big to run traditional SDI cabling, he instead turned to a BroaMan fibre solution. The Conference Centre itself measures a massive 550,000sq.ft including more than 300,000sq.ft of flexibl
USA - The colourful floats were there, 26 of them in all; so too were the giant helium balloons, bands and street performers, but the 2020 version of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was unlike any of its 96 predators. The usual throngs of fans were nowhere to be seen, and instead of following its normal route down 5th Avenue, the entire ‘parade’ took place within a designated area in front of Macy’s flagship store. For the 20.7m who watched on TV, this year’s parade offered all of the pageantry, excitement and holiday spirit that people have come to expect from this popular tradition, pandemic restrictions notwithstanding. Helping to create this image on television was a Geoff Amoral lighting design that artfully relied on lighting and props to support the parade with an engaging background, despite the absence of fans. “The normal look for the parade
UK - Exhibition London is a new multipurpose live music and events venue in White City, West London initiated and operated by Broadwick Live and Venue Lab, offering 1400 seated to 2800 standing capacity. It is designed for conferences, exhibitions, gala dinners, awards presentations, location filming and live music events. Opened in early 2020, Exhibition London’s complete technical infrastructure was specified and procured by consultant and technical production director Simon Jones of SJ-TPM who also coordinated and oversaw all elements of the technical installation and commissioning. Simon had started work on the project in the second quarter of 2019 after having been involved in other Broadwick Live venues. He chose both Robe and Anolis products to be core house lighting system elements for the main show-space where the spec features 28 x Esprites and 30 x Robe
Russia - Moscow’s Vakhtangov Theatre marked its upcoming 100th anniversary with a special 10-minute music and light show featuring more than 100 Claypaky Axcor Profile 900 LN high-wattage moving head LED spotlights and HY B-EYE K25 moving head LED wash. The theatre’s lighting designers Ruslan Mayorov and Alexander Matveev created the lighting spectacular with Sergei Dobrikov, software engineer from equipment supplier and installer Doka Centre, choreographing the intricate play of beams to music by Faustas Latenas. An invited audience was in attendance for the show, which featured forests of parallel beams, dancing beams, textured curtains of light and giant beams that broke the boundaries of the proscenium to sweep the audience. The theatre’s heads and the Russian government’s Minister of Culture were on hand to offer congratulations. “When we were loo
UK – Luxury fashion brand Dior’s flagship London store has launched its festive Christmas display, unveiling an entirely video mapped frontage powered by a Hippotizer Nevis+ Media Server. Motion Mapping is masterminding the technical set up, control and running of the festive projections, having been commissioned by Dior’s creative agency to deliver the project. Motion Mapping’s creative director, Stuart Harris, specified the Nevis+ as the main show control and media player, driving two Panasonic RZ21 projectors protected by Tempest Outdoor Enclosures. The projection and visual control and manipulation equipment is installed on the roof of Dior’s neighbour Louis Vuitton, which is situated directly opposite in London’s New Bond Street. “The small form factor of the Nevis+ has made the setup of equipment on the top of a six-storey building, in
USA - Under normal circumstances, Kyle Upchurch, doesn’t have to think much about the area directly in front of the concert stage, as it’s filled with fans. His goal as a designer is to create the kind of immersive looks that pull fans into the performance on stage. But during a pandemic, rules have to be rewritten. When lighting a drive-in concert by The Petty Junkies at the new Oasis outdoor theatre in Marion, IL, Upchurch had to weave the empty area in front of the stage into his overall design. “With safety protocol, you typically have the area in front of the stage empty,” he said. “Unless you address it, this creates this jarring blank space in front of your design, which disconnects your stage from the audience.” To avoid this, Upchurch extended his design by covering the area in front of the stage with bold gobo patterns and colourful crossing beams
USA - With safety measures limiting the number of fans who can physically attend university football games, one Midwest top-ranked football team lost a major component of home field advantage - the sound of 100,000-plus fans reverberating through their massive stadium. To recover this advantage, a temporary distributed system of 66 Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers was deployed to reproduce the crowd with uncanny realism by applying dynamic sonic movements via the new Meyer Sound Spacemap Go spatial sound solution. “A crowd of 100,000 football fans does not produce a flat, static sound,” explains Rob Snyder of Rob Snyder Productions, one of the originators of the college stadium concept. “The sound is almost like its own living, breathing entity, something that pushes and pulls, that changes dimensions. You can’t make that happen with a typical distributed PA sys
USA - Bellevue Baptist Church, the largest house of worship in Memphis and one of the leading churches in the Southern Baptist Convention, recently finished a complete renovation of its audio systems, which also included extensive acoustical work throughout the sanctuary. The project was led by the church’s long-time systems integration partner, Springfield, Missouri-based Paragon 360, which had previously designed and installed the scenic, lighting and video systems there. The new installation, in the church’s 6,800-seat main sanctuary in the suburb of Cordova, features three Quantum7 consoles deployed at FOH, monitors, and broadcast. In addition, an SD12 console is now also deployed in the church’s fellowship hall, wrapping up what Mark Coble, audio/acoustics design & commissioning lead for Paragon 360, calls “a full DiGiCo solution for the church”.
Australia - Queensland Theatre - usually - sits at the heart and soul of Brisbane’s lively arts and performance scene, producing around eight or nine main stage productions a year between the 351-capacity Bille Brown Theatre in the south of the city and at the four-venue Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC). The theatre also has a strong youth and educational programme which allows school-aged artists to stage shows with the company. On top of that, they also receive shows at both the Bille Brown and QPAC, and tour productions across Australia throughout the year. The Theatre has Robe LEDWash 300+s, eight of which were in residence when technical coordinator Lachlan Cross arrived in May 2017, which has since increased to 32 fixtures. The main increase in fixtures came when they finished renovating the Bille Brown Theatre in October 2018, after a A$ 5.5m renovati
Czech Republic - KV2 Audio has introduced D Series amplifiers with onboard control and diagnostics. The first deployment of these is at the Volksoper or People’s Opera in Vienna where 56 units are in use every day. KV2’s D Series amplifiers use a range of topologies including Class AB for high frequency response, a unique high current switching topology on low frequencies, and consistent power delivery that features toroidal transformers hand-wound in the Czech factory, specific for each model. In terms of control, the D Series amplifiers offer the option to set up gains, operate mutes, configure the limiters, or select filter, EQ and bridge modes depending on the model, whilst the diagnostics section provides information on the temperature of heatsinks, mains voltage, real-time health checking and the output levels relative to limiting. This is a crucial feature
USA - Live music has proved it will find a way despite the lockdowns on performances compelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the more imaginative examples of this was the 9 October performance of Verdi’s iconic opera Rigoletto by the Tulsa Opera, which was staged at ONEOK Field, home of the Tulsa Drillers minor league baseball team and Double-A Affiliate of the LA Dodgers. Every note of the operatic repertoire of Rigoletto was heard clearly and sweetly by the 1,685 socially-distanced audience members seated in the 2,700-capacity stadium thanks to an L-Acoustics Kara PA system provided by locally-based Axiom Audio. The system consisted of 24 Kara enclosures, six SB18 subs, and three four-speaker clusters of Kiva II used as centre and side-fills, all powered by six LA12X and three LA4X amplified controllers. These components were on an Optocore fibre
UK - During UK Friday night primetime television, disguise showcased its xR technology on Channel 5’s The Gadget Show, highlighting how extended reality offers virtual production and performance in immersive real-time video environments. The Gadget Show presenter Georgie Barrat was treated to an all-encompassing xR experience, taking in the disguise London HQ and filming a series of one-to-one interviews about the origins and ambitions of xR technology with disguise’s executive leadership team, including CSO Tom Rockhill and CTO Ed Plowman. The show was also taken across town to experience a cross-location meeting on disguise certified solutions provider White Light’s SmartStage at London’s Science Museum. White Light technical solutions director Andy Hook said, “It was fantastic to see xR and our SmartStage solution getting such a great reacti
UK - On 3 December, TFG Stage Technology teamed up with Laing O'Rourke to light up Manchester arts venue The Factory, currently being built in the heart of the city, in support of International Day for People with Disabilities. PurpleLightUp is a global movement that celebrates and draws attention to the economic contribution of the 386m disabled employees around the world. It has been driving momentum for disability inclusion across hundreds of organisations, reaching thousands of employees in different ways. This includes lighting up prominent buildings purple, holding events, developing workplace policies for disabled employees and sparking conversations about disability inclusion worldwide. The Factory is designed by Rem Koolhaas’s OMA and backed by Manchester City Council, HM Government and Arts Council England. It will be Manchester International Festival’s p
Estonia - Robe featured on the rig for the Estonian launch of the new Škoda ENYAQ iV all-electric SUV. The press / VIP event took place at the Škoda dealership centre – Aasta Auto – in Tartu, Estonia’s second city, with technical production coordinated by Andres Sarv of creative visual design and production company Pstudio, and lighting designed by Tõnis Sarv also working for Pstudio. They work with Robe equipment as often as is possible and, on this occasion, chose to work with eight Robe LEDBeam 100s, 12 LEDWash 800s ,12 300E Spots and two CitySkape Xtreme LED floods. Pstudio has been involved with previous Skoda promotional events and delivers technical design and production for other car brands like Audi. The show involved a presentation element followed by a reveal of the new vehicle, demanding a combination of different styles and approaches, and
France - The city of Bordeaux has a new Anolis lighting scheme for its La Porte de Bourgogne landmark. The Roman-style stone arch was built in the 1750s at the end of one of the major roads traversing Bordeaux, now called the Cours Victor Hugo, which is a thoroughfare for both cars and pedestrians crossing the city. It is also clearly visible from across the River Garonne. With its prominent position and historical significance, the city council are keen for La Porte de Bourgogne to be a highly visible ‘communication portal’ welcoming people to the ancient centre, so they wanted a great looking, energy-efficient lighting scheme to replace the old one which was installed over a decade ago and was starting to look dated. Above all, they wanted more dynamic lighting that could redefine and celebrate La Porte de Bourgogne’s significance as a symbolic gateway to
UK - Created in conjunction with parent company Clair Global, Britannia Row Production’s Virtual Live Audience (VLA) platform represents the latest in interactional and remote entertainment experiences (watch out for a feature on the new solution in the upcoming LSi December, out next week). Like video conferencing, music fans and TV audience members utilise a propriety browser-based video platform to experience a live performance or be part of a TV filming production – from the comfort of their home. However, the VLA experience has been created with real time engagement in mind. The VLA system allows for the performance artist or TV host / panellists to both interact and reconnect with confidence during Covid-19 audience restrictions. Viewers at home also benefit from multi-camera broadcast feeds and can watch the entertainment remotely while feel
France - Celebrating all things glamorous, sensual and flamboyant, Folies Bergère is one of Paris’ most revered nightspots. Originally a cabaret music hall and variety-entertainment theatre, The Folies made its mark during the Belle Epoque of the late 1800s with its music hall revues featuring stunning dancers. More recently returning to its musical production roots, the Folies Bergère stage has been graced by famous artists from Charlie Chaplin, Ella Fitzgerald, Marcel Marceau, Frank Sinatra, Charles Aznavour through to Elton John. This year, the theatre’s impressive programme has been matched with equally impressive audio technology when the Folies Bergère became the first performing arts centre in France to permanently install L-Acoustics L-ISA Hyperreal Sound technology. The venue’s operating contract is handled by specialist live sound company Potar Hurl
USA - NY-based Sound Co-op began in 2015 as a conversation between freelance production sound mixers Jon Moore and Phil Shipman. Their co-operative is a sustainable business model to increase career security and bolster clients’ confidence at the same time. To standardise wireless and other equipment across their team, they chose Lectrosonics Digital Hybrid Wireless gear, including the SMV and SMQV transmitters and SRc receivers, supported by pairings of the T4 and R1a for IFB applications. They shared how their Co-op model has helped them thrive and work safely during the coronavirus pandemic - and the supporting role Lectrosonics equipment has played. “Our Co-op is a legal structure,” says chief financial officer Shipman. “It’s just like how some apartment buildings and food stores are co-ops. We’re not only worker-owned, but democratically controlled. In a for
USA - Visuals are an important part of most modern church services. More and more churches are switching to LED video walls due to the increased brightness and contrast they can offer. This was the direction chosen by Calvary Christian Centre, which recently installed a pair of ADJ LED video wall displays alongside a lighting package from sister company Elation Professional. Located in Yuba City, Northern California, Calvary Christian Centre is a thriving and growing church which is part of the Assemblies of God fellowship. Pastor Michael Ciociola and his wife Dona have led the church since 1991 and head up a large team of both full-time staff and volunteers. The leadership recently decided to upgrade the AV system in their 900 capacity sanctuary, replacing old video equipment with a new LED video wall system to display song words, scripture readings and other visual c
USA - The deep history of Bridgewater Church of the Brethren in Bridgewater, Virginia stretches back into the late 1700s, when the first Europeans migrated into the area. Centuries of branching and growth led to the construction of the church’s current sanctuary in 1998. The fan-shaped room seats approximately 500 people and is open, inviting, and sympathetically appointed. However, its existing sound reinforcement system (as old as the sanctuary itself) was broken and behind the times. The church's property is on the campus of Bridgewater College, a facility that earlier in 2020 received a Danley upgrade for their chapel. A member of the church was very impressed and excited about bringing local integrator RTW Media, of Orville, Virginia, into Church of the Brethren to transform their old system. RTW replaced the previous system with a Danley Sound Labs point source
UK - For the thousands of fans throughout the UK who viewed the recent Lockdown Bingo Charity show, getting swept up in the immersive panorama supporting the livestream’s performances came quite naturally. The tightly woven imagery captivated the livestream audience. But for the team at Tapestry Live Studio that created the visuals, the massive curved video wall and lighting rig were treated as two distinct design elements. “The LED wall and lighting installation are two completely independent installations, but they complement each other beautifully,” said Sarah Winters of Tapestry Virtual Events, which created the studio in the face of the pandemic. “Our LED wall needs to be kept most flexible as it is used for a wide range of activities, but the lighting selected allows us to add different effects to suit every use of the studio. This ranges from corporate
UK - Martin Audio partner Old Barn Audio (OBA) has completed its second major VR installation, in which an immersive environment is created with stereoscopic 3D headsets coupled with a mixed-reality sound system. Designed by MagicBeans and commissioned by MXT Reality, it combines open-backed binaural headphones with a full procedural 3D speaker environment, fulfilled by a Martin Audio CDD system. Two years after creating an immersive theatre for SOMNAI at Clerkenwell, in central London, OBA partnered with the same immersive audio production house, now known as MagicBeans, to deliver a similar environment for the simulation and training of Highways England personnel - in order to give them real-world exposure to motorway scenarios. The installation was carried out in a repurposed 30m x 8m long rectangular office space in one of their warehouses, at a new distribution c
The Netherlands - AVL Rent of Wervershoof chose a range of Pioneer Pro Audio systems to meet the needs of multiple applications at Oscar Romero school in Hoorn. The school recently underwent extensive renovation and refurbishment to provide its students with state-of-the-art facilities. With a focus on sustainability, increased space and improved resources, the project was completed in November 2020. Improvements to the school’s audio provision were considered essential, and its management team engaged with local installation specialists AVL to deliver new systems for twelve different spaces across the building. The systems required by Oscar Romero needed to meet a diverse set of requirements. Where two gymnasiums would require powerful solutions that could fill large spaces, the lecture hall would require crystal clear reinforcement for speech, music and film audio.
