Slovenia - Ales Pirman runs a successful lighting rental company, Intralite, and in 2018 decided to promote his own event - Castle - Kolpa Music Festival, staged over four days at a beautiful site near the Kolpa River, close to the Croatian border. Around 12,000 people enjoyed an international line-up of over 25 artists including Swedish / Norwegian rap metal band Clawfinger, darlings of the avant-garde Laibach, singer songwriter Magnifico, Serbian alt rockers S.A.R.S., Bosnian pop rockers Plavi Orkestar, Slovenian rock band Big Foot Mama and many others. To ensure that they and all the other artists enjoyed the best possible lightshow and production values, over 100 Robe moving lights graced the main stage. This included Intralite’s newest Robe purchase, 20 x MegaPointes, which joined the inventory earlier this year. Ales had dreamed about running his o
UK - The Young Vic recently hosted a different take on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The tale received a shake-up as soulful melodies and R&B beats weaved through an enchanting musical adaptation with sound reinforcement courtesy of KV2 Audio products. It was the latest in a long line of successful KV2 theatre productions featuring sound design by Richard Brooker – who once again chose to use KV2’s EX products to transfer every detail of the performance and energetic musical arrangements from the stage to the audience. Twelfth Night follows in the footsteps of Dream Girls, Annie, Sister Act and Funny Girl in successfully deploying KV2’s range of True Point Source loudspeakers and Richard has been instrumental in the rapid rise in profile of KV2 in UK theatres – a trend that has now been emulated on Broadway and in
UK - Given the time of year, chances are, if you told your friends you saw two 8m slugs flying above the skies of Chelsea, they'd think you'd had a few too many drinks at the office Christmas party. But this is exactly what happened earlier this month as Unusual Rigging was brought on board by Tate Britain to help install their seasonal decorations. Sam Carter, Unusual's rigging project manager, says: "Every year, Tate Britain commissions an independent artist to come up with a scheme for its Winter decorations. This year it was the turn of artist Monster Chetwynd, whose gastropod inspired artwork also includes swathes of blue and white LED slug trails across the facade of the building." The Turner Prize nominated artist took inspiration from Sir David Attenborough's 2005 nature series Life in the Undergrowth. The piece also reflects "her interest in alternative ener
Australia - For a company specialising in events, a festival that takes over an entire city can be both the best of times and the worst of times. Tasmania’s Dark Mofo winter festival is all of that for the Hobart-based Alive Technologies Group, but it’s a challenge the team delights in rising to. Dark Mofo, created and run by MONA - Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art - is a fortnight of festivities which celebrates the dark through large-scale public art, food, film, music, light and noise, all held at venues which may be created or re-designed just for the occasion. A huge amount of that venue staging, lighting and audio is taken care of by ATG and the company’s lighting project manager Nathaniel Collins was at the heart of much of the work. “We do a lot with MONA so as a result of that connection, they brought us on, as the largest local supplier. W
UAE - Qasr Al Hosn is the oldest and most significant heritage site in Abu Dhabi. It was built after more than 11 years of restoration and the site has now reopened its doors as a museum to the public, showcasing the development from a community reliant on fishing and pearling to the modern Abu Dhabi. Creative Technology Middle East (CTME) were on hand to deliver 9,750sq.m of projection for the historical event on behalf of client, People. The Qasr Al Hosn Inauguration was opened by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi on 5 December 2018. The large projection show featured content supplied by Fly Studio, showcasing the UAE’s heritage and the history of Qasr Al Hosn Fort. The content was delivered across three buildings, the Musalla, the Cultural Foundation and the Qasr Al Hosn Fort. The projection covered such a large area of the event that the
Europe - Capital Sound recently completed one of their more unusual mini-tours when they provided sound reinforcement, including Martin Audio’s MLA, for three shows by Japanese ‘android diva’ Hatsune Miku. The ‘Vocaloid’ music sensation uses a computer generated voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media. This virtual persona is actually a 16-year-old blue haired girl, who is seen onstage as a 3D hologram projection. Her repertoire is entirely original and she has over 2.5 million followers on social media. The Expo 2018 Europe tour came to Capital via Jamal Chalabi of Proper Productions, with whom they work frequently. Since the London date was the densely populated Kensington Olympia, a hugely noise sensitive site, it was obvious that only MLA would offer the level of containment necessary while reaching the considerable levels required by the Japanese pro
UK - Pearce Hire regularly collaborates with corporate production specialists Hawk Audio Visual on large scale events. This successful partnership recently provided a circus themed entertainment and dining space for over 1,000 company staff and stakeholders at the BGL Awards Ball held at Manchester Central. BGL Group is a financial services company based in Peterborough and the biennial event which celebrates and rewards staff achievements, was also part of the company’s 25th anniversary celebrations. Pearce Hire’s project manager John Huson provided some insight into the support and co-operation between Hawk and Pearce Hire. “Hawk Audio Visual has been a client of Pearce Hire for over 20 years and during that time we’ve actually partnered with them on four previous BGL Balls alongside many other events which usually averages 15 to 20 jobs every year. Hawk Au
USA - British musician and singer-songwriter Steven Wilson is about to wrap the 2018 leg of his To the Bone Tour (see LSi May 2018), named for his fifth studio album. Bandit Lites provided the lighting package for the production, helping to provide a layer to the visuals of the show while keeping the emphasis on Wilson’s music. Lighting designer Tellson James credited the visual experience to the video footage produced by Steven Wilson, Lasse Hoile and Jess Cope, lighting the scene around the video and song accordingly, all the while paying special attention to the mood each song suggestions. He utilises Claypaky Sharpy washes on the front truss, illuminating the
Belgium - The Jacques Brel musical La Vie Est Brel captivates a blend of classic and contemporary, both in its songs and in the powerful lighting design that supports them. Created by Revolution Event Support, the design relied on the intense output and versatile performance features of 12 Chauvet Professional Maverick MK2 Spot fixtures. “The general idea of our lighting concept was retro, going back in time to the period Brel was performing his shows in the 1960s and 1970s,” says Revolution Event Support’s Bart Faut. “As a result, the look of the stage retained a classic and minimal feel, with a lot of classic visual elements such as warm white lighting required to create the appropriate atmosphere within the auditorium in Ostend.” Hung on downstage and mid-stage truss as well as stage left and stage right booms, the 440W moving fixtures create
UK - At the end of 2017, Pete Tong, Jules Buckley and the Heritage Orchestra, treated UK fans to a live production of his acclaimed album, Ibiza Classics. Such was the reception that dates for the outing in the run up to Christmas 2018 were booked almost immediately. While the essential elements of last December’s tour remain the same, changes have been made. “For me, what has made it different this time around is the change of musicians, with different players in the orchestra; their physical technique affects how it looks and feels and consequently where I place the cameras,” explains video director Mark Davies, pointing to one area that has been refreshed. “That’s a subtle distinction but when you get to an instrument the size of a cello posture and playing technique has a big influence.” Paddy Hocken Productions are once again using the services of Vi
USA - With a nod to Game of Thrones, the Vegas Golden Knights hockey team now enters the ice through a 20ft, 2,375-pound medieval jousting helmet accented with 60m of FloppyFlex Digital LED neon. Originally conceived for the Stanley Cup, the team’s entrance is now a standard feature for all home games at the T-Mobile Arena. Designed and built by Water FX, the large helmet features lighting by Sean Guarino, with the FloppyFlex provided by PRG Las Vegas. “Outlining the helmet to create a portal worthy of the team required something cooler than conventional LED tape,” says Golden Knights LD, Sean Guarino. “I wanted this to pop, and Tim Brennan of PRG suggested FloppyFlex Digital, which exceeded my expectations. Using the pixelated Digital RGB version, I can create spectacular multi-colour chases. The colours are bright, vibrant and warm, and installation wa
Mexico - Lighting designer Pablo Gutierrez utilised 52 of Robe’s Pointe multi-functional moving lights for the launch of Mexican singer Fey’s new Desnuda (Nude) tour. The tour kicked off in full-on style at the 18,000 capacity Arena Ciudad de México (Mexico City Arena) in the country’s vibrant metropolis. Fey is a multi-talented Latin Grammy nominated singer, songwriter, designer, dancer, record producer, director and actress who has recorded seven successful studio albums and was massive in the 1990s following the release of her first album Fey in 1995. The proactive celebrity wanted to make maximum impact for her singing and live touring comeback, so her management team asked Gutierrez to create a suitably high impact production design for the show. As well as being spectacular, the design had to be scalable for an arena tour which follows
UK - S+H Technical, specialists for LED visual effects, drapes and starcloths, supplied around 350sq.m of its LED Animation cloth and 450sq.m of standard RGB starcloth drape for the BBC’s 2018 Children in Need telethon, broadcast live on BBC One and BBC Two. Featuring a star-studded line-up, the event raised over £50m for the 2018 appeal in what was the crescendo of this year’s fundraising activities for disadvantaged children and young people in communities across the UK. The telethon production design was created by Alex Craig - working on his 10th Children in Need - and this new look for 2018 featured some threads from the previous design to keep a strand of continuity, together with some spectacular new elements including lots of LED and a large upstage LED wall, 14m wide by 5m high, which split in the middle and opened for performer entrances and exits.
UK - London-based LD Dan Saggars had the opportunity to put Elation’s new Artiste Picasso LED profile to the test on the new Park Theatre drama, Distance in September. Saggars required a flexible light that could both wash wide to cover the stage and isolate for dramatic specials and placed the units in overhead and side positions to achieve the desired result. “I was able to get massive coverage with the overhead units,” the designer states, “and then extremely specific specials from the sidelights that were able to perfectly isolate areas, people, even body parts.” Distance, which played 5-29 September in the theatre’s intimate Park 90 space, is a powerful examination of the trials and tribulations of mental illness. Male suicide provides the context for the play, an intense dramatic experience played out on an express train and through a s
France - Pirates Paradise, a pirate-themed restaurant in Lille, offers more than an array of delectable dishes as well as an interior complete with shipwrecks, treasure chests, mysterious coves, and live shows. Lending colour and excitement to this immersive spectacle is a Jocelyn Morel lighting design that features Chauvet DJ Intimidator, COREPar and EVE fixtures. Morel, whose impressive body of work includes the renowned Au Bonheur des Dames cabaret, was contacted by Grégory Devilder, the CEO of Public Address, the company that owns the 500-seat venue, to create a versatile lighting design that would enhance the restaurant’s shows as well as its unique themed flourishes. “I know Grégory quite well and understood what he was looking for from the lighting design,” explains Jocelyn. “The lighting system here must do more than merely illuminate the room
USA - The Bellamy Brothers play over 150 shows, large and small, annually. Several years ago, pro audio veteran Tim Thomas stepped up as act’s production manager via his production company, ShowPro, LLC. With the help of just two Danley SM80F loudspeakers and a Danley DNA 20k4 Pro amplifier (with integrated DSP), Thomas works his magic to give the brothers consistent sound regardless of the circumstances or venue. “Apart from some big festivals where the PA is provided, the Bellamys typically play shows for between 500 and 3,000 people,” explained Thomas, who, in addition to all things live-sound, has headed ShowPro, LLC. his full production and installation company, for over two decades. “House systems are always hit or miss depending on the venue. We were traveling with our own system, but as they started to get more outdoor dates, I knew we needed something that
USA - The 19th Annual Latin Grammy Awards Show, held on 15 November at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and broadcast live on Univision, brought together Latin music’s future and past. What they all had in common was the audio, thanks to the deployment of four DiGiCo consoles for the show. Comprising two SD7 FOH desks, two SD10 consoles for monitors and eight SD-Racks, the equipment was supplied by Firehouse Productions whose VP Mark Dittmar and system technician David Crawford designed the event’s sound system, with Luis Espinal serving as a system tech. FOH music mixer Ron Reaves and production mixer Andrew ‘Fletch’ Fletcher both used SD7 consoles, while monitor mixers Mike Parker and Mike Bove used the SD10 desks. “The DiGiCo consoles are a very powerful platform to work from on shows like this, where the engineers are potentially confronted with co
USA - Microphones and wireless systems from Audio-Technica were employed at the Country Music Association’s CMA Country Christmas broadcast event, shown on ABC on 10 December. Audio-Technica’s third-generation 5000 Series frequency-agile true-diversity UHF wireless system powered the vocals for the event: Dustin Lynch sang through an A-T ATW-C6100 capsule, and Michael W. Smith and The Isaacs both used the A-T ATW-C5400 capsule. The show, which was taped on 27 September, also used an assortment of wired A-T microphones, including eight A-T AT4050 large-diaphragm condenser microphones used on the choir, an AT4050ST large-diaphragm stereo condenser microphone used for the backline grand piano, and an AT5045P cardioid condenser microphones (stereo pair) on Diana Krall’s piano. Clean Wireless Audio Owner Jason Glass, the wireless RF coordinator for the CMA on t
USA - Evanescence’s latest album Synthesis is a dramatic, orchestral-backed reworking of many of the band’s most beloved songs, plus a few new ones thrown in for good measure. To properly preserve the atmosphere of the recordings on a live tour supporting the release, the band performed its shows accompanied by orchestra members that were hand-picked in each city and brought together by the tour’s conductor, Susie Seiter. Furthermore, fans of the group got a special treat on the most recent second North American leg when violinist Lindsey Stirling joined as a co-headliner, featuring songs from her album, Brave Enough, and acted as an electrifying extra member of Evanescence for specific songs like Hi-Lo. LMG Touring of Orlando has worked with Stirling extensively in the past and served as the full-service audio, video, and lighting provider f
South Africa - Comic-Con Africa, a three-day event showcasing comic books, science fiction/fantasy related film and TV, as well as similar popular arts, was hosted for the very first time in South Africa at the Kyalami International Convention Centre in Midrand, Johannesburg. MGG was appointed as the main technical supplier for the sold-out event, enjoyed by over 45 000 superheroes, villains and sidekicks. Geeks, gamers and superheroes were spoilt for choice with an enormous exhibition area and were enthralled by gaming panel discussions, cosplay contests and a chance to rub shoulders with celebrities like Travis Fimmel of Vikings fame. MGG meticulously executed the technical setup for Comic-Con Africa, that included a main stage, four pre-screening rooms, two VS gaming areas, kids’ entertainment area, an MTN outdoor stage which included a VIP and screening area, an
Indonesia - The Indonesian Choice Awards 5.0 NET, presented by the NET TV Network, aimed at families and youth audiences, is one of the leading entertainment events in the country. “For an entertainment and music event of this magnitude and size,” explains Sadat Effendy, technical director at Total Audio, the company that produced the show, “there is only one sound system we had to consider. That’s Clair Brothers. The Indonesian market loves Clair Brothers speakers because they always deliver.” This event always coincides with, and marks the anniversary of, the NET TV Network. This year is its fifth anniversary and the Indonesian Choice Awards show did not disappoint. Performing for an audience of 9,000, local and international musical acts filled out the evening of awards and tributes for the best in movies and music. Effendy says: “An event of this p
USA - Located in Melborne, Florida, Church at Viera holds four modern worship services in two different venues each week using Allen & Heath dLive, GLD and SQ Series mixers for FOH and streaming broadcast and a ME-1 Personal Mixing System for monitoring. Production director Eli Higginbotham, alongside technical director Brock West, leads Church at Viera’s production team. “We had an older digital mixer with reliability issues,” says Brock. “So, when I came on board, I looked for a replacement. We considered several brands but there wasn’t another console in the same class and price range as the dLive.” The church has standardised on Allen & Heath digital mixers for FOH, broadcast and their Youth Centre. “The architecture is very similar so it’s easy to train a volunteer to mix in one space and then move them to another,” says Eli. Churc
USA - On Sunday 30 September at Pine Trails Park, the Actions for Change Food and Music Festival Fundraiser took place. Born out of the tragedy of the 14 February Stoneman Douglas shooting in Parkland, FL, its goals were to provide healing by bringing love, light, and hope through the arts, register people to vote, raise national awareness about gun violence, and raise funds for organizations committed to helping all our nation’s youth. There was a good mix of speeches in addition to both live and recorded music to keep the action going and, to ensure the best audio performance, a loudspeaker system drawn from the Aero Series 2, Action, Road, and UX catalogues of DAS Audio was utilised. Dynamic Productions USA of Orangeburg, NY, a full-service events production company, was contracted to handle the sound reinforcement requirements for the festival. Brian Rosenblum, t
USA - E-sports - the world of competitive video gaming - has become an international phenomenon, with millions of fans watching both in person and on Internet livestreams, rooting for players that might take home millions of dollars in winnings. Where better to build a premium Esports venue than in the gaming capital of the world - Las Vegas? That’s what Allied Esports International set out to do, with a new venue in the Luxor Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. “Our mission was to build a turnkey infrastructure to do many different live events, as well as produce content in a style and quality that meets or exceeds current broadcast standards,” says Drew Ohlmeyer, head of content, Allied Esports International and Esports Arena Las Vegas. To repurpose a former nightclub space, Allied hired CBT Systems to design and build an A/V system tailored for high-availability streaming
