Austria - In 2005, the Oval, designed by lauded Roman architect Massimiliano Fuksas, opened its doors at the Europark shopping mall in Salzburg. The 227-seat cultural showcase stages unique shows ranging from music, drama, cabaret, cinema and more, and has earned a firm place in Salzburg's already rich calendar of events. Under the direction of Europark managing director Christoph Andexlinger, the Oval has added another attraction to its offering since July 2020: L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound technology from L-Acoustics. Right from the start, the room’s extraordinary architecture, which features a steep atrium grandstand and a 13m-wide stage that is only 15m from the control room, posed significant challenges to conventional L-C-R sound reinforcement systems. "Thanks to L-ISA, not only was the conventional technology replaced, but a completely new, immersive listening ex
France - When his international tour with the San Francisco symphonic orchestra got cancelled due to the spread of the pandemic, renowned French cellist, Gautier Capuçon, decided to bring music back to the towns and villages of France – all while respecting healthcare and social distancing measures – with a free tour entitled Un Été en France. And when his concert in Mansle got threatened by the weather on the 11 August, he was able to rely on a sound engineer and sound equipment that could adapt to the various challenges that were bound to rear their heads on that day. “When Gautier Capuçon's team announced that he was going to tour France, the towns and villages wishing to host the shows were invited to contact him,” explained sound engineer Léopold Randon de Grolier. “He received well over 600 requests in 48 hours.” Depending on the dates, the Fren
Europe This week’s Elation Coffee Break is hosted by Alistair Smyth and Frederik Afif and will focus on the creative possibilities unique to three of Elation’s most popular automated LED luminaires. The narrow-beam Dartz 360, Chorus Line pixel bar, and compact Rayzor 360Z will take centre stage for a discussion of their creative potential and the dazzle, drama and excitement they can add to stages big and small. The Elation Coffee Break (www.facebook.com/ELATION.Pro.Europe/live/) with a focus on creative LED luminaires will air live on Thursday, 12 November 1at 11:00 a.m. CEST. No registration is required. The Elation Coffee Break is an online presentation series from Elation’s European office in Kerkrade, the Netherlands that takes an up-close look at some of the company’s most popular product series. To view previous Elation Coffee Break webinars, vis
Germany - Lean-pro & Co has invested in Prolights EclPanel TWCJr. With the new LED softlights, the Paderborn-based company has equipped its livestream studio for trade fairs, product presentations, workshops, lectures, concerts, general meetings and much more, thus further expanding its professional image, lighting and sound technology. Joachim Flottmeier, managing director and partner, says, "The decisive criteria for me were the excellent price-performance ratio and the enormous output in relation to the size of the device. Thus the EclPanel TWCJr makes the competition look old. It is also unrivalled in this price league in terms of the range of functions. In addition, the wide range of accessories such as diffusion filters, egg crates and snap grids convinced me". The Prolights EclPanel TWCJr offers not only a wide range of colours, but also white tones from war
Japan - Adding powerful sound to its striking visual displays, Art Aquarium collaborated with HIBINO Corporation to enhance its exhibit with a state-of-the-art Harman Professional audio solution. Established in 2007, Art Aquarium has exhibited all across Japan and overseas at places that communicate history and culture, including Nihonbashi Mitsui Hall, Kyoto’s Nijo-jo Castle as well as the 21st-Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. With more than 10m visitors, Art Aquarium has expanded overseas into Milan, Italy and Shanghai, China. Wanting to elevate the ‘Kingyo’ Aquarium to reach the vision of its creative director, Art Aquarium required an innovative, cutting-edge audio system that provided pristine sound quality and an enhanced guest experience. “The client wanted a high-performance audio solution that would provide as much power and clarity
China - The Songcheng Group is the first performing arts company in China to go public and is also a global top 10 theme park group. With its core competence in performing arts, Songcheng Performance has built a number of established brands including Songcheng and the Romance show series. The company owns 74 theatres with a total capacity of 175,000 seats, which exceeds the combined number of seats available in two of the world’s most famous theatre districts, namely London’s West End and Broadway in New York. The spectacular Romance series of large-scale, hi-tech productions has broken box office records with more than 8,000 performances per year to an annual audience of over 35m people. Recently, six of Songcheng’s 10 dedicated Romance theatres – many of them sited in dedicated Romance theme parks across China – have upgra
UK - The Sugar Hut nightclub, bar and venue - made famous through its association with reality TV programme The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE) -returned to TV screens earlier this month boasting a new refurbished look featuring Void Acoustics kit. The venue has recently been acquired by the same experienced club operator who also owns London super club Studio 338 – a large music and arts venue on the Greenwich Peninsular, and sister club The Bridge (also in London). The team has consistently chosen Void as their audio system of choice for the last decade, starting with their install at Studio 338, which currently boasts a 4-point Air Motion system covering their large capacity multi-room club including one of the largest outdoor terrace arenas in Europe as well as a Loft Room and VIP level. Sugar Hut has been celebrating 10 years of TOWIE. The venue’s re-opening
UK – The 2020 final of popular TV show Britain’s Got Talent wowed millions of viewers with a spectacular LED screen stage set and virtual audience, powered by Green Hippo’s Hippotizer Boreal+ and Karst+ Media Servers. Three active Boreal+ and one Karst+ were used for the main system, with the same amount again running as backup for the live show. One Boreal+ fed the main stage LED display, driving 6K content to 3mm screens from supplier Anna Valley, with another Boreal+ dealing with camera overlay effects and live camera shots. The Karst+ fed Art-Net data from two lighting consoles to an array of SGM LED Tubes. This was a very different finale, with no physical audience present in the studio due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In substitute, more than 1000 live feeds from viewers at home were fed to a new LED ‘audience wall’, positioned behind the judging p
World - When Kim Kardashian-West celebrated her 40th birthday this year, her husband Kanye West gifted her a hologram of her late father. Presented on the Holopops Ultra Holographic Projection System, the event was the debut outing for the innovative product but thanks to the occasion it secured a global launch that most manufacturers can only dream of. Since then that single tweet has received over 35,000 quote tweets and over 18,000 retweets, with over 235,000 likes. Similar posts on Facebook and Instagram also went viral with over 14 million views of the hologram on Instagram alone. Liz Berry, CEO of Hologramica and inventor and creator of Holopops, explains: “A social media frenzy started when Kim Kardashian West tweeted: ‘For my birthday, Kanye got me the most thoughtful gift of a lifetime. A special surprise from heaven. A hologram of my dad. It is
USA - Smaller crowds equal smaller lighting budgets. Like virtually every designer working a socially distant show, Evan Antal faced this reality when he met with his client to draw up plans to light Le Getaway, a one-day October outdoor event featuring jam band masters lespecial and Eggy in the Camp Getaway Berkshire resort in Kent, CT. Despite these limitations, the event’s promoter had set lofty goals. “I was asked to put together a package that delivered big rock show looks on a pretty tight budget,” said Antal. “Because of the pandemic and the limited audiences, it’s become a razor-thin balancing act to make a show on a budget work for everyone involved.” Antal met this challenge in stunning fashion, turning Le Getaway’s small (24ft’ x 20ft) mobile stage into a panorama of overlapping colours. Swirling gobo patterns and fast-moving beams. Helping h
Monaco - Organised by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, the Monte-Carlo Gala for Planetary Health was held on 24 September on the terraces of the Monte-Carlo Opera. Dedicated to ‘Ocean, Earth, and Humanity’, an audience of ‘patrons, decision-makers, artists, and scientists’ gathered under an immersive dome. For this event, designed and produced by the event agency TUFF Consult, the technical setup relied on five Modulo Kinetic and one Modulo Player, supplying 1,500sq.m of projection. Since 2006, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation has been working to protect the environment and promote sustainable development on a global scale. Since its creation, more than 540 projects have been achieved by the foundation’s international branches located in France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Spa
UK - Shure supported students at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama who performed two new British musicals Catch Me and The Limit for their end of year productions with the equipment required to support a socially distant performance. Final year students at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama are required to perform what is usually a public musical to a live audience as part of their assessment. Due to COVID-19, their annual performance of Merrily We Roll Along had to be cancelled, leaving students with no end of year project and no opportunity to showcase their work to industry connections. In this case however, Adam Lenson director and course leader, Paul Barker got creative. The school made the decision to put on a socially distant performance which would be recorded live and streamed via YouTube allowing agents and industry c
Portugal - In April last year Porto-based rental company, LVT Audio, purchased a large Martin Audio MLA Compact and Mini array. Director Miguel Lindo notes: “Since the very beginning of our company we have placed our trust in the Martin Audio brand.” Their upgrade to MLA came after they experienced the system at the Rock In Rio festival in Lisbon, sensing that they would have plenty of deployment opportunities in a work roster that prior to the pandemic included all types of show, from arenas, festivals and touring, to corporate events. They were helped in their choice and set-up by fellow countryman and friend, Joe Lima, who now works as product support engineer at Martin Audio North America. “He is the best professional we know,” exclaims Lindo. “In March this year he trained our entire team.” LVT Audio’s most recent deployment has been at the hi
The Netherlands - Throughout the summer and fall, more than 80 of ADJ’s weatherproof moving head beam and LED wash fixtures were used to light a temporary beach club venue in The Netherlands. Insight Beach Brabant offered visitors an opportunity to enjoy drinks, gourmet food and music in a large outdoor setting at a lake-side venue in the heart of the Dutch city of Eindhoven. With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the cancellation of concerts and festivals, as well as the closure of nightclubs and music venues, opportunities for relaxing and socializing have been rare. Offering a solution to this, Insight Beach was a large pop-up beach club with a limited capacity that assigned guests dedicated day beds to allow for social distancing. From the comfort and safety of their designated space, visitors could enjoy a full menu from resident chef Pascal Ariëns of Restaurant By
Switzerland - The Muehle Hunziken (Hunziken Mill) in Rubigen, southeast of Bern in Switzerland, is a popular concert venue that has been in existence since 1976. Since the former windmill’s conversion, it has hosted more than 4,000 concerts, featuring around 15,000 artists of all styles and genres. The Mill houses an elaborate collection of quirky works of art, much beloved of its patrons, and regularly attracts internationally renowned artists to play intimate shows in its 500 capacity auditorium. In spite of the prevailing Coronavirus restrictions, this summer, the management team at Hunziken Mill took the decision to upgrade the venue’s audio system. The existing system was at the end of its viable life, and was proving unreliable and increasingly expensive to maintain. Chief technician and resident FOH engineer at Hunziken Mill, Tom Binggeli, arranged for
Germany - German Unity Day (Tag der Deutschen Einheit), celebrated on 3 October, marks the anniversary of the nation's unification in 1990, when the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic became one single, federal Germany. Being the 30th Unity Day, the 2020 event took on special significance, with even more resonance added to the mix due to the challenges faced by everyone in dealing with life during the Coronavirus pandemic, and broadcaster ARD highlighted a very special TV show staged at the Metropolis-Halle in Filmpark Babelsberg, Potsdam which was organised by the Brandenburg Staatskanzlei (federal government). The venue and Filmpark (dedicated to the history of moviemaking in the region) is a regular client of rental and production specialist Zound’z Unlimited Event Technology GmbH, also based in Potsdam, which was asked to provide ligh
UK - Vaudeville Sound made use of binaural audio technology for the podcast Amazing War Stories with Bruce Crompton. Vaudeville Sound, an award winning sound design and mix company, introduced the idea of creating the podcast in 3D Immersive sound, to surround the listener in the true stories taken from museum collections to help safeguard the nation's historical treasures before they are lost forever. As the shows were being compiled during lockdown, the voice recording and mix sessions were run remotely. Live output of the mix was shared with the director so the team could run through mix notes and make changes on the fly. Avid Pro-tools was used to edit and mix all shows with an array of tools from Nugen Audio, Noise Makers, Zynaptic & Blue Ripple Sound. With detail of sound design and field recordings at film level, it was vital to use the correct sound
USA - The crowds that normally fill the Rawhide Centre in Chandler, AZ, on weekends for headliners like Kayzo, Adventure Club and Nightmare weren’t there this October. COVID-19 restrictions saw to that. But the intensity that shook up the 13,000 sq. ft. outdoor venue for Relentless Beats’ aptly named The Pod Experience was impossible to miss, thanks to the driving textured tracks laid down by the EDM stars, the delirious reactions of the fans who were able to score the limited number of tickets, and some fast-moving lighting by Luis Torres. Wanting fans to be engaged with the artists on stage, despite being separated by pods, Torres dialled up the intensity level with some extra bright audience lighting and bold aerial sweeps. “Relentless Beats came up with a really good plan for providing fans with a way to enjoy this kind of experience safely,“ he said. “F
Greece - St. Catherine's British School in Athens, Greece, took delivery of Prolights fixtures as part of the audiovisual installation of the new building of the school. The scope of the project highlighted the importance of selecting equipment that was easy to use by students and staff, along with being cost-effective to run and maintain. Consultant and lighting designer Vagelis Delivasilis evaluated the LED range from Prolights, as well as other brands, and found Prolights to be a suitable solution for the project. Kariotis Audio & Lighting, Prolights' distributor in Greece, in collaboration with the consultant, came up with a comprehensive lighting package that could be flexible, allowing the school to run medium-scale theatrical performances, music events, conferences and orchestral plays. Delivasilis made diagrams with the chosen fixtures, while Kariotis Bros
The Netherlands - Opened in 1984, Omniversum in The Hague was the first IMAX Dome theatre in Europe. Showing spectacular films on a giant domed screen that makes the audience feel part of the movie, a new, €1m projection system was recently installed to improve the experience. To make sure that the quality of the sound matched the images, a new Alcons Audio pro-ribbon system was also installed. The Alcons Audio pro-ribbon installation complements a new Evans & Sutherland ESX projection system, which uses a blended array of five Christie D4K40 RGB laser projectors to produce a seamless, uniform image across the 23m diameter dome. Delivering high quality sound reinforcement in a dome-shaped room like Omniversum provided many challenges. These included acoustic issues, because the large projection surface also creates a lot of rearward reflection from the speakers,
Russia - Russia-based automotive photography specialist Denis Minchenkov used eight Astera Titan Tubes to enhance a night-time photoshoot featuring an Audi Q8 SUV for auto tune-up company MTR Design. That quest to capture vivid colours, glistening reflections and the richness of the dark, stark and deliberately wet floored environment of a low-ceilinged parking garage beneath an office block saw Denis choose Titan Tubes for his primary lightsource, having used the Astera products extensively in his work over the last couple of years. He positioned the Titan Tubes around the car, some hung from the ceiling of the parking garage on catenary wires and others on the floor on stands. The Asteras were all run wirelessly and controlled using the IR remote. “The IR remote control means I can shift the setting of the whole shoot in a matter of seconds,” he declared.
The Netherlands - Given all the highly original interpretations of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake that have beguiled audiences almost since the moment the ballet premiered in 1877, one may be tempted to think there is nothing much left to add to the mix. Not so. Guy Weizman and Roni Haver, the co-founders of Club Guy & Roni, which collaborates closely with Noord Nederlands Toneel, have created simultaneous live and online versions of the star-crossed love story that are not only outlandishly fresh and original in the way they interact with one another, but also deeply resonant during this era of COVID-19. Contributing to this impressive accomplishment are 18 COLORado Batten Q15 fixtures from Chauvet Professional that were supplied by Lichtpunt Theatertechniek. The designers rely on the IP65-rated RGBW linear fixtures, which were selected in a shoot out involving
South Africa - PlatformZA, a digital pay-per-view media channel which was germinated during the first COVID-19 lockdown, is a completely new concept for South Africa and the brainchild of Christiaan Ballot from technical supplier Blond Productions and production manager Pieter-Jan Kapp (Kappie) from PJK Project Management. A small subscription fee covers an amount of free content and the pay-per-view price varies for other material. Ballot and Blond Productions would usually be working together extensively during the arts festival season which has effectively been canned this year like almost every other ‘live’ event as the country fights the pandemic. Like so many new COVID-era inspired projects, PlatformZA started with a series of Zoom chats between connected industry people and influencers, during which, explains Chr
Germany - MOG Technologies has completed more than 350th installation in the German market, reports the company. With the support of Broadcast Solutions, who’s been a partner for a long time, MOG has successfully delivered its 354th order to Germany with SWR’s latest purchase of 10 units of mDECK Densu X-2. As a solution to increase flexibility in daily operational tasks, mDECK was developed to help production teams to record, ingest, transcode and play multiple channels of any media formats, while supporting file-based and baseband contents simultaneously. mDECK is also able to perform hybrid operations that can vary, according to its different models. “From well known Central Ingest System to Powerful Professional Media Decks, MOG has been present in the German market for years, and we couldn’t be more proud for once more, achieve this huge milestone,” says
