Europe - Progressive rock act Haken, a multinational six-piece, recently returned from a European tour mixed on a Yamaha Rivage PM7 digital mixing system. Haken’s most recent album, Vector, took the band into harder-edged ‘progressive metal’ territory. Getting the heaviness of the music across, while ensuring audiences also hear the intricate musical phrasing, needs an audio system that puts equal emphasis on audio quality and high-end features. FOH engineer Adam Bonner has used Yamaha digital mixing consoles for 15 years, mixing the band’s last three tours in Europe and the US on a CL5. “I really wanted to see what we could achieve with the FOH mix when using Yamaha’s flagship system, effectively removing any processing limitations. I knew that Rivage PM7 was the perfect fit for this tour,” he says. Bonner contacted Steve Davies at L
USA - Audinate has announced that California Baptist University has deployed a Dante audio network which runs through the entire campus to support the ever-increasing demands of several diverse departments. From high-end music productions and performances to academic lectures and sporting events, California Baptist University (CBU) relies on a Dante audio network, Dante Domain Manager, and Dante AVIO adaptors for deploying an efficient, cost-effective, reliable and secure, campus-wide, IP audio network. California Baptist University is one of the top private Christian colleges and universities in Southern California, hosting nearly 11,000 students with a 160-acre main campus comprised of more than 30 buildings, including the 95,000sq.ft Eugene and Billie Yeager Centre, the 270-seat Wallace Theatre, and the JoAnn Hawkins Music building - one of the nation's most advanc
South Korea - Christie Digital reports that Gyeongnam Masan Robot Land, the world’s first theme park dedicated to intelligent robotics, has installed an extensive range of its laser projectors and real-time video processing and show control systems, which deliver spectacular visuals and enhance the visitor experience. Located in the city of Changwon on the southeast coast of South Korea, Gyeongnam Masan Robot Land occupies 1.25m square meters and comprises a research and development centre, convention centre and theme park. Its main attractions, which combine robotics technology and entertainment, are powered by Christie GS Series and HS Series 1DLP laser projectors, as well as Christie Pandoras Box’s Single and Quad players, Dual and Quad OCTO Servers, Pandoras Box Manager and Widget Designer. These systems were installed by Christie’s Korean partners Star Networks an
UK - Women in Data, the UK’s largest female data professional event, pulls in over 1,000 attendees from around the world. Held within the surroundings of the InterContinental, London O2 on the banks of the River Thames, WiD features keynote presentations from a host of guest speakers. Having worked with Light Fantastic Production Services on a succession of previous events, WiD once again called upon the team to provide a complete technical, equipment and logistics production solution, custom designed to cover all aspects of the prestigious conference. Branding for 2019 Women in Data was characterised by red to signify confidence, ambition and drive. Following this theme, LFPS applied bold, crimson hues throughout the stage set and lighting design, emphasising the colour as a symbol of strength and vitality. Continuing the look, the team extended the lighting design
France - For a major project in France, several hundred meters of Milos M290 Quatro truss took on a strong supporting role. It took on a total of seven supporting roles, for seven TV studios, in four buildings, on the Altice Media Group campus in the French district of Porte de Versailles, Paris. The Altice Media Group campus hosts a total of up to 6,000 students per day and supports the activities of the news organizations Libération, L'Express, and 01 Net. In 2016, the Altice Media Group needed to expand the number of studios on its campus and held a national tender for the construction of seven new studios in four buildings. The company who won the tender for this massive TV project was Red Bee Media, a sister company of Ericsson. Red Bee is the system integrator of NextRadio TV, a sister company of Altice Media Group, and manages the activities of seven TV channels in F
UK - The Taunton Amateur Operatic Society’s costumes for Cats provided the inspiration for Chris Sealy’s lighting design for their production of the musical at the Brewhouse Theatre. “The costumes were amazing,” explains Sealy. “I was lucky because the cast wore them to the rehearsals. So when I went to watch, I was able to see them in the flesh, which aided me greatly in selecting colours for my lighting. Every cat in the play tells a different story, each with a different feel, and that of course is tied tightly into the different costumes.” Helping Sealy accent the costumes and enhance the unfolding narrative on stage with light was a collection of six Chauvet Professional Maverick MK2 Profile fixtures supplied by Bright Production Services. Hung on overhead electrics, the 440W LED fixtures were used as as a primary light source. Adroitly
UK - Liverpool-based production specialist Adlib continued its working relationship with vocal harmony group The Overtones, supplying lighting equipment and crew to their latest UK tour, supporting LD and set designer Neil Holloway. Adlib has been an equipment supplier for the band since their career took off in 2010, and it’s been a great journey for all involved to see the band’s success. Neil, now a busy freelance designer working internationally for a diverse range of clients, was working full time for Adlib back in 2010, and that’s also where his association with The Overtones started. Understated elegance and a gentle symmetry defined the set which comprised of a central staircase flanked by two risers each side for the band, plus four signature big band art deco set pieces. There was no video on the tour, but an Overtones LED sign at the back - custo
USA - The historic Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro, California, is an opulent art deco venue that is moving into a new era of performance excellence with the help of Kinetic Lighting and Elation Professional’s theatrical-grade Artiste DaVinci LED moving head. Originally opened in 1931 and listed on the National Historic Register, the 1500-seat theatre features a vaudeville-size proscenium stage with T-guided fly system that makes it an ideal venue for concerts, dance performances, multimedia presentations, film screenings or any cultural event. Great strides have been made in recent years to restore the theatre, with a lighting upgrade the latest in a series of on-going improvements. Kinetic Lighting worked with the Warner Grand and the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs to convert the theatre from conventional lighting to an entirely LED-based system, as
Mexico - Drone light shows specialist Verge Aero has delivered Mexico’s first drone light show. Working with local partner Sky Precision, Verge Aero provided a system of 150 drone lights to create moving, colour-changing pictures in the sky to open the performance by Dutch DJ Martin Garrix, marking Mexico’s Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) at the FIG19 hot-air balloon festival. Founded in 2002, the FIG (Festival Internacional del Globo) hot-air balloon festival, which takes place each year in the city of León in central Mexico, has become one of the leading balloon events in the world. This year, organisers were keen to provide a cutting-edge visual treat for visitors and called on Sky Precision to deliver it. Taking up the challenge, specialists from Verge Aero and Sky Precision created custom choreography to accompany a set of four songs, including an opening number
UK - White Light recently supplied the Royal Albert Hall with a range of Martin MAC Encore fixtures, continuing the phased upgrade of the in-house lighting rig. As it hosts concerts on an almost nightly basis, the venue houses its own in-house kit which is used by incoming shows. The rig has to be flexible in order to adapt to such a varied programme, as well as needing to be energy efficient and sympathetic to the needs and requirements of a wide range of different lighting designers and productions. The existing ETC Source Four Revolutions, whilst having served their time very well, were due for replacement in line with the Hall’s ongoing replacement programme. As a result, the venue approached WL in order to invest in some LED alternatives for these new fixtures. WL’s business development manager Jonathan Haynes explains: “I met up with lighting design manage
Poland - When production, lighting and multimedia designer, Pawel ‘Spider’ Pajak, and PERCEPTO [LAB] - the team responsible for creative visual production - were approached by production company, East Eventz, to design and deliver creative solutions for a one-off concert, they chose Ayrton MagicPanel-FX and Khamsin-S fixtures to provide contemporary, densely-coloured and dramatic effects for this very special evening. The two-artist concert featured singer Dawid Podsiadlo and rapper Taco Hemingway, and was the first sold-out gig for Polish artists in the history of Warsaw’s PGE Narodowy Stadium, attracting an attendance of 60,000 people. Spider chose Ayrton’s state-of-the-art technology - 64 MagicPanel-FX and 44 Khamsin-S fixtures, supplied by Transcolor - after many successful years using the brand: “I have also adopted Ayrton’s range of more classic, but
UK - Lighting designer Jacob Gowler took the opportunity to use Robe’s new T1 Profiles and LEDBeam 150s for the first time on a Cambridge Theatre Company (CTC) production of the crime-and-passion fuelled musical Chicago (High School Edition), staged over six performances in the 337-seat Great Hall at The Leys School in Cambridge. CTC was founded in 2015 by Louis Ling to offer a range of opportunities for performers - young and old - to participate in high-quality theatre, and it now performs to over 9000 people annually. Since 2017, CTC has developed its focus on the youth community, and by working with professional directors, LDs, choreographers and musical directors, enables its young performers to experience unique opportunities to develop their skills. For this production, the professionals were Jacob, director Chris Cuming, set and costume designer Franki
UK - The Tony Award-winning Best Musical Dear Evan Hansen opened in London 19 November at the Noel Coward Theatre with video projection comprising the shows entire stage scenery. Supplied by Stage Sound Services, three disguise vx 4 and four gx 1 servers powered projections for the show, highlighting the impact of social media on daily life and create an immersive social media environment on stage for the actors. “The cornerstone of the play is Evan and his interaction with the real world through a social media lens,” says projection designer Peter Nigrini. “To successfully tell our story, social media needed to be a visceral part of the theatrical environment. After the set designer created a physical environment, my job was to bring this virtual world to life on stage and give it the emotional power that so many teenagers clearly feel in their day to day
USA - The Gaylord National Resort & Convention Centre in National Harbor, Maryland near the nation’s capital likes to celebrate Christmas in a big way. Set in the property’s 19-story glass garden atrium with its views of the river, Christmas on the Potomac is the hotel’s myriad holiday installation crowned by Cirque Dreams Unwrapped, a six-week-long, 25-minute Christmas fable combining artistry and showmanship from around the world with Christmas music, a dancing fountain, laser-light show and indoor snowfall. Bringing this production sonically alive was the task of an L-Acoustics Kara system, designed and installed by Showtime Sound LLC of Frederick, Maryland. The system was split between the atrium’s lower and upper terraces: the former comprised a left-right design of one SB18 subwoofer ground-stacked with five Kara enclosures per side to cover t
UK - Rising British singer and rapper Little Simz played her flagship show at London’s Kentish Town Forum in December, making video a priority for the first time to enhance her show for the tour’s largest audience. Production AV was brought on board by Little Simz’s production manager, Eric Wade of EZ Services, who was on the lookout for a new video supplier. Wade was keen to ramp up the visual effect of the show and capture quality footage, not only for live stage to IMAG screens, but also for use in promo material. “We had a pretty tight schedule to implement the video aspects for the biggest show of the tour and going with Production AV made perfect sense,” says Wade. “We wanted to give everyone in the audience the same experience, regardless of whether they were on the balcony or tucked away some place where sight lines weren’t so great. “Pro
Slovakia - Bratislava’s new year celebrations, held in the heart of the Slovakian capital at the Rázusovo nábrežie (the banks of the River Danube) were brought to life by a spectacular lightshow masterminded by Kvant Show Production. The laser specialists, who are also PR Lighting’s distributor for Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia, have been the event lighting contractors since the concept was introduced three years ago, and in addition to their own lasers, 24 pieces of PR Lighting’s Aqua 580 Beam helped provide a spectacular show as the city counted down to 2020. Organised by Biela Noc (White Night), the artistic department of the Slovakia and Bratislava municipality, a crew of around 25 people were responsible for creating the infrastructure, including Layher structures, lighting, sound and lasers, and all programming. This year’s event was based
Italy - The University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli in Naples is turning to a different use of immersive audio technology with one of its new physics research labs. The lab at the university’s Aversa campus is exploring the relationship between temperature, audio and visuals, and to do this in a scientific way the researchers required a space where each element could be precisely controlled. To achieve this control from an audio standpoint, the researchers turned to Martin Audio’s Sound Adventures. The new lab has been purpose-built as a small, dedicated space within a historic building. Radiant heating panels on the walls and the floor and air conditioning system allow for the room’s temperature to be raised or lowered, while the intelligent lighting system allows for the management of this element. The Sound Adventures solution controlling the sonic environment
Europe - Sergio Herman is a successful Michelin-starred Dutch chef. His restaurant, The Jane, in Antwerp, is internationally renowned for its food and carefully created ambience. At Strandhotel in Dutch Flanders, Herman is responsible for the hotel’s three restaurants, including the recently opened Blueness. In order to fully realise Herman’s vision for Blueness and breakfast restaurant Pine House, new audio systems were considered essential and his team were clear about what they wanted. A Pioneer Pro Audio system had been installed at The Jane back in 2014 and had left an indelible mark on The Herman Group. At the Strandhotel, the team needed a system that could deliver a chilled experience for guests at the beginning of their day, maintain a relaxed output on weeknights and then inject some energy for weekend DJ sets. A flexible system was essential given the d
USA - The new Capital Hills main campus of Summit Church looks right at home in North Carolina’s famed Research Triangle, which is routinely ranked as one of the most tech-savvy areas in the US. Once inside the 90,064sq.ft house of worship, the visitor is greeted by a welcoming and engaging environment created with help from an advanced AVL system engineered and installed by the CSD Group that features an immersive 360° sound system, massive video walls, and a state-of-the art LED lighting system anchored by close to 100 Chauvet Professional fixtures and two Net X II nodes. Opened in 2019, the new building serves as Summit Church’s broadcast centre. Services from its 1,800-seat worship area are live streamed to the church’s nine other campus in the Research Triangle. Accurate, precisely controlled key lighting and colour temperatures are critical to main
UK - Specialist equipment supplier and production house, Light Fantastic Production Services apply their stock of Robe MegaPointe fixtures to a variety of live events. Having made a significant investment in Robe MegaPointe fixtures to extend their growing lighting inventory, LFPS director, Rob Myer, says: “We have a long-standing relationship with Robe so naturally we are delighted with the performance of our MegaPointes. Over the past few months we have been making great use of them on a host of projects, from creating aerial searchlight effects and gobo projection across building facades to adding incredible theatrical looks to prestigious large-scale live events, including a particularly spectacular product launch installation on a roof at Chelsea Harbour.” Working both on their own in-house projects and in collaboration with a broad range of industry partners,
South Africa - For the past 17 years, British lighting designer Graham McLusky has made his way to South Africa to light the annual pantomime. This season, Jack and the Beanstalk was presented at the Joburg Theatre during November and December. McLusky utilised the theatre’s new lighting gear, which included 12 Claypaky Sharpy Plus fixtures recently purchased from DWR Distribution. McLusky’s history with the production dates back to when director Janice Honeyman and producer Bernard Jay wanted to hire an established UK panto lighting designer to launch their new production. They consulted with UK pantomime producers Qdos, which creates and maintains spectacular stage sets and more than 100,000 costumes for an enormous portfolio of shows. Over the years, Honeyman and Jay have adapted the well-established and successful pantos to convey a distinctly Sou
USA - 2020 is set to be very big for the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, with events centred around what would have been the former Beatle’s 80th birthday. The Lennon Bus - a mobile audio and HD video recording and production facility - regularly provides free digital media production workshops to schools across the US and Canada, enabling students to learn how to write, record, and produce original songs, music videos, documentaries, and live multi-camera video productions. The bus’ two onboard studios have recently been upgraded to Genelec’s The Ones coaxial three-way point source models. “We go to a lot of under-served schools and a lot of communities that are under-resourced, so bringing something that really represents the best of the industry is eye-opening and can be life-changing for kids and communities,” explains Brian Rothschild, co
UK - Over 170 Adamson loudspeakers were deployed for three days of spectacular events for Edinburgh's Hogmanay. Marking the 27th edition of the famed New Year party, the three-day festival combined Scottish traditions with contemporary artists and acts from across the world in Edinburgh, the home of Hogmanay. Working directly with Dave Watson and Scottie McKean from producers Underbelly, The Warehouse designed an Adamson system for Hogmanay in the Gardens headlined by Mark Ronson, the Waverley Stage headlined by Marc Almond and McEwan Hall’s three-day celebrations with Symphonic Ibiza, Eddi Reader and Ronnie Scott’s Big Band. In addition, Adamson partner Live Systems Ltd provided the system for Ceilidh under the Castle. Across the whole event, 170 Adamson loudspeakers were used, including the E15, S10, S7 line array loudspeakers, E119, S119 an
USA - East Shore Sound is based about a half hour north of the Baltimore Metro Area but the company handles event production, system design and installation, and broadcast communications nationwide. This past October, East Shore Sound owner Bill Saltzer and his team were responsible for the intercom systems at Telemundo Networks’ 2019 Latin American Music Awards, held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. To connect the intercom system throughout the venue, the East Shore Sound team relied on Luminex GigaCore network switches. “We started using Luminex GigaCore switches about two years ago, primarily with Riedel’s Bolero wireless intercom product,” Saltzer recalls. “We mostly use GigaCore switches for Bolero systems because the integration with Bolero is seamless, and we like how GigaCore handles PTP [Precision Time Protocol] clocking. Also, GigaCore’s PoE
![The concert featured singer Dawid Podsiadlo and rapper Taco Hemingway (© PERCEPTO [LAB] / H.Karapuda)](/images/118975/percepto-lab--h-tn.jpg "The concert featured singer Dawid Podsiadlo and rapper Taco Hemingway (© PERCEPTO [LAB] / H.Karapuda)")
