UK - Multi-disciplinary consultancy Plann and its director Jack Tilbury celebrated a third high-profile theatre opening in two years when Bristol Old Vic reopened in September following a £13m capital project. Tilbury led the venue’s redevelopment working alongside chief executive Emma Stenning and artistic director Tom Morris. He was also a project director during the relocation of the Bush Theatre (completed in March 2017) and managed the construction of the Bridge Theatre (opened in October 2017). Architects Haworth Tompkins designed all three schemes. Tilbury comments: "After spending 10 years in design meetings, it became apparent to me that the building industry is just not set up to cope with the unusual demands of a theatre scheme. The projects are architecturally complicated, can involve millions of pounds of high-tech specialist equipment, funding mileston
UK - Signify’s new effects luminaire, the Philips Vari-Lite VL10 BeamWash, is delivering a dynamic performance for Tom Odell’s current European tour. Lighting designer Joe Beardsmore is among the first lighting designers in the world to use the VL10 BeamWash on a touring show. With a set ranging from gentle, solo ballads to big, high-energy rock numbers, he looked for lighting fixtures capable of producing endless effects versatility. The VL10 BeamWash delivers this, along with the brightness, beam quality and colour palette typical of the Vari-Lite brand. “The VL10 honestly blew me away,” he says. “Tom trusts me to complement his show with my best design ideas,” says Beardsmore, who has worked with Odell for two years. “For this tour, I wanted to add some more theatrical elements, to supplement some of the quieter songs in particular. On the UK leg I use
Japan - The Tokyo development of Roppongi Hills is a large complex that incorporates office space, apartments, shops, restaurants, cafés, cinemas, a museum, a hotel, a major TV studio, an outdoor amphitheatre and parks. Located within the development, Roppongi Hills Arena is an entertainment venue with a retractable roof that will host live entertainment as well as high-end events. In February this year, Roppongi Hills Arena underwent a major refurbishment to enable it to adapt to even more types of entertainment. With its new outdoor capability has come the imperative to decrease neighbourhood noise pollution, and thus an improved sound system and monitoring capability was required. After auditioning many loudspeaker brands, Martin Audio’s CDD series was selected. The venue requisitioned 12 cabinets which have been installed on the round shaped truss at the top of
USA - Nashville-based production company 44 Designs was an early adopter of Elation’s Artiste DaVinci and recently used the award-winning LED moving head spot in their production design for country music artist Jake Owen’s Life's Whatcha Make It tour. 12 of the full-featured DaVinci fixtures were put to creative use by lighting designer and production manager Chris Nathan on a successful six-month long tour that’s been on the road since last spring. Owen played sheds and baseball stadiums around the country over the summer with a recent fall leg moving into arenas. Nathan found the Artiste DaVinci a quality spot luminaire for both the outdoor and indoor venues. “For the first leg we used the DaVinci as overhead profiles for key light and aerials while on the fall leg they lived on side trusses and focused on the runway and thrust as well as aerials,”
Iceland - Lava Tunnel is a spectacular lava tube tunnel - one of the longest in Iceland at 1360m. Its majestic and intricate interior collage of colours and textures is the result of massive volcanic eruptions 5000 years ago. At the entrance, three openings in the ceiling create columns of light, while at the end, it splits into three smaller tunnels all equally imbibed with natural beauty. All these geological masterworks are now releveled by a creative lighting installation designed by Agust Gunnlaugsson, senior lighting designer at Oslo, Norway and Reykjavik, Iceland based company EFLA Engineers, utilising 100 Anolis ArcSource LED fixtures. The tunnel’s proximity to Icelandic capital Reykjavik had made it popular with visitors for some time, so much so that in 2016, it was closed due to vandalism, littering and health and safety concerns. (Jim Evans)
Croatia - HUST has installed over 1,000 Apart and Community loudspeakers as part of new audio and video systems at the Valamar Girandella Resort. The complex, located in Rabac on the Adriatic coast of northern Croatia, comprises the Girandella Family Hotel, the Girandella Maro Suites - Kinderhotel, the Girandella adult hotel, the Girandella Premium Villas, the Bellevue hotel and the Sundance Beach Club. In the system design, HUST chose Apart loudspeakers for background music zones, while Community loudspeakers were used for AV and conferencing and in the pool areas where all-weather capability was essential. To ensure maximum versatility, the complex has over 40 independent audio zones, which can be further divided into separate areas in several facilities. To provide this level of zoning, and control with ease of use, HUST installed a Biamp TesiraFORTÉ system with Tesira T
USA - My Bloody Valentine has a well-earned reputation as one of the loudest bands on the road. Faced with the problem of how to mix at the group’s excessive levels without doing long-term damage to his own hearing, FOH engineer Philip J. Harvey found a solution: Sensaphonics 3D AARO in-ears with Active Ambient technology. “The fans get free earplugs with their tickets, but I’m out there every night and definitely at risk,” notes the Amsterdam-based engineer. “I’ve tried everything, including regular IEMs and custom earplugs, but the 3D system is really the only thing that lets me do my job effectively. It’s basically replaced my headphones out at FOH.” My Bloody Valentine shows hit 110 dB and can sometimes exceed 120 dBA SPL towards the end of the show. “It’s sort of a trademark for the band, and definitely part of my job description,” says Harve
Switzerland - Powersoft amplification has been selected as a key component in the newly installed audio system at Roadhouse Luzern - a bustling venue at the heart of the city’s party scene. Roadhouse hosts jam sessions, live concerts, special events and parties. The venue originally sought a company to perform a general service on its existing audio setup, in addition to replacing a handful of defective or outdated components. After an exhaustive inventory - and with the future in mind - it became clear that a more comprehensive overhaul was the way to go. Swiss company Skuma AG - a sound reinforcement specialist with over 40 years of experience - was awarded the contract for its Dante-capable overall concept, with the Powersoft gear distributed by Go Wild AG. During the implementation period, the venue’s restaurant was to stay open seven days-a-week, with
UK - SXS Events recently used Current RMS’ Open API to create a number of integrations to streamline workflow. The Open API is available for any of their software users to access and build with, for them to develop exciting and useful integrations that utilise their data within Current RMS. Established in 1998, UK-based SXS Events specialises in event production and dry hire, and has grown to be a multi-million pound event production company. Using the Current RMS Open API, they created X Hire, a platform for their clients to view products directly on their website and hire them. Built to work alongside their normal website, this space allows them to pull across products and key information from Current RMS and onto a platform their new and existing clients can easily access and view. “The website is a great tool for both the office team and clients. Instead of t
Denmark - Popular Danish band Nephew reunited this year after a four-year hiatus, announcing two major gigs in October 2018 at the Jyske Bank Boxen Arena in Herning and the Royal Arena in Copenhagen. Over 30,000 tickets sold out in a day. Lighting designer Theis Wemuth of design company Create This was tasked with the production design - lighting, video and set - for the shows. He specified 149 x Robe MegaPointes as the main moving light fixtures. The fixtures were chosen for their multifunctionality and brightness which Wemuth knew would be a perfect complement and contrast to the 420sq.m widescreen video backdrop that was central to the look and aesthetics of the stage. Eight BMFL Spots were on the front truss, six working as remote follow spots in conjunction with six Robe RoboSpot systems, together with other lights, all of which were supplied by Copenhagen-b
USA - The new 200,000sq.ft Texas Live! entertainment complex features an array of dining, live music, and other entertainment options - and, next year, the first Live! by Loews boutique hotel. Backed by the Texas Rangers and City of Arlington, among others, the $250m complex recently celebrated its grand opening, an event heard loud and clear via Kara and Kiva II systems in two of its primary performance spaces networked via AVB and processed by the Lone Star State’s first installed P1 digital audio processor. The performance venues include a 5,000-capacity outdoor event pavilion, Arlington Backyard, and the Live! Arena, a 35,000sq.ft, two-level concert and festival space featuring a gourmet burger restaurant owned by Dallas Cowboys icon Troy Aikman. Both venues now sport L-Acoustics systems specified and designed by Las Vegas-based consultant Coherent Design, instal
South Africa - Rock band Prime Circle have invested in Robe fixtures. Marco Gomes the band’s bass guitarist, songwriter and manager together with lighting designer Benjamin ‘Benji’ Muir-Mills chose Robe miniPointes, LEDBeam 150s and VIVAs which the band have purchased from distributor DWR. Gomes and Muir-Mills explained that touring in South Africa can be challenging - many venues on the circuit offer minimal lighting, so having their own rig now means that wherever they go, they can enjoy the continuity of a great lightshow, fans get better production values and less time is needed for re-plotting each show. Instead that creative clawback can be spent in developing the core lightshow they now enjoy with their own kit. It also makes get ins and outs significantly quicker and more efficient. The decision to go with Robe was based on having used the products on ma
Austria - Studio Due Light, in collaboration with Laman Gmbh in Austria, has recently illuminated the Novomatic Forum in Vienna as part of a façade lighting overhaul. The previous fixtures installed were traditional luminaries with a high-level of energy wasted. The project included replacing the façade uplighters on the ground and first floors, along with the balcony lighting around the forum. Confronted with new challenges to accommodate the LED fixtures, the specifiers noticed the impossibility to run DMX cable to the bottom part of the building, to replace the in-ground fixtures with the energy-efficient ones. Faced with this issue, Mr. Robert Makovsky of Leman Gmbh turned to Studio Due to come up with a cost-effective solution. After several tests on-site, Studio Due implemented W-DMX into their Terra Plus RGBW RDM fixtures. “We have implemented Nano TRX modul
South Korea - Merging Technologies has delivered one of the largest Ravenna/AES67 installations for its networked audio interfaces. It features 16 Horus units, 11 Hapi units and 35 8-channel Premium A/D cards and 37 Premium D/A cards. It is also the first major installation to feature Aneman Enterprise as the master control for the whole system and the list of show control and playout servers is no less impressive. There are eight Ovation systems for all zones matrix routing and processing and six Emotion systems for audio-on-demand playback which can all operate in DXD by virtue of the premium cards being fitted. Paradise City is such a huge complex and the audio network is across four buildings and features 35 zones with 69 subsidiary zones and these zones encompass four floors of a hotel, three floors of pools and spas, two conference rooms, public areas including a patio
Europe - Grammy Award-winning artist, Imogen Heap, has taken to the road for the first time in eight years on a 40-week long Mycelia world tour, accompanied by an Allen & Heath dLive system and frequently partnering with a d&b audiotechnik Soundscape, to provide an immersive 3D audio experience for concert goers. The full live set-up includes a dLive DM0 MixRack along with two DX168 expanders, purchased specifically for this tour (through Ampco-Flashlight-Sales), which are used in a multi-surface configuration to control both FOH and MON from a single MixRack. The configuration employed on the tour sees the DM0’s 128 input processing channels split to provide 64 input channels with discrete processing for both monitors and FOH. dLive Director software is utilised for monitoring system control with all musicians having access to individual iPads runni
Denmark - More than 130,000 people and 184 artists saw the AVB debut of Luminex Network Intelligence in a cooperation with Bright Group and Meyer Sound at the Roskilde Festival. On thr Orange stage and the Arena stage, audio was running on AVB protocol from Meyer Sound Galileo Galaxy 816 network platform through a network of 28x GigaCore 10 switches of Luminex Network Intelligence. “We were very happy to have Luminex on board for the Roskilde festival. There are many reasons to go for the GigaCore range of Luminex but definitely the easiness, the GUI and the rock-solid reliable performance of their switches is remarkable,” says Fredrik Arwidson from Bright Group Sweden. “Furthermore, we were delighted with the upfront training, the intensive testing in our Stockholm warehouse and with the presence of Roel Apers (Support engineer) of Luminex Network Intelligence during
Norway - In Tønsberg, 60 miles from Oslo, the magnificent Foynhagen has grown into one of Norway’s most important venues for concerts during the summer time. This year they presented a very impressive line-up of acts, from Röyksopp, Seigmen, Young Neils, Bo Kaspers Orkester, Cezinando, The Waterboys, Lars Winnerbäck, DumDum Boys and Åge Aleksandersen & Sambandet, among others, in a five-month run of concerts. In previous years the event has been faced with the challenge of excessive noise pollution outside the venue, with the implementation of various delay systems being used, in an attempt to achieve coverage while keeping leakage to a minimum. This year, the promoter was introduced to the force of MLA Compact. Inspired by the solution in Hyde Park at British Summer Time, where maximum off-site levels are restricted to 75 dB(A), Spekter AS, the Lillestrøm-
Latvia - In July, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the independent republic was celebrated with an event featuring a choir of 16,5000 voices. Purpose-built in 1955 the Mežaparks Great Bandstand where the event was staged is an open-air venue of unexpected dimensions. Not unlike a Roman amphitheatre, except that the curved stepped crucible is where the 16,000 plus performers are arrayed, facing onto an audience of up to 30,000. With so many voices and the presentational environment, promoter Girts Majors of Positivus Event turned to audio provider UBS to design an audio solution. “The implementation of a d&b audiotechnik system was a key component in making this event truly memorable,” says Edmunds Verners Zazerskis, MD of UBS. “UBS was founded in 1998 and we have been providing sound for different choir song festivals for many years; Nordic; Baltic
UK - After two years of building works, the revamped front of house spaces at the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden opened to the public this autumn. As part of the renovation, a number of exhibitions and displays now enhance the new spaces and offer visitors the opportunity to learn more about the Royal Opera House and the art forms it supports as well as showcasing the ROH's past and present to inspire every day audiences. Unusual Rigging were brought on board to help devise a way of installing a number of scrims over the escalator leading to the newly refurbished spaces on Level 5. Sarah Tatham, exhibitions manager at the Royal Opera house explains: "We approached Leon Ingram, Unusual's rigging project manager, in March 2018 to discuss the best way to hang the scrims. A principally artistic endeavour, the scrims required a technically complex hang and design. Un
UK - London’s Tobacco Dock venue was the place to get the inside track as BBC Introducing staged its annual three-day discovery festival in November. Now in its second year, the BBC Introducing Live event again benefitted from a strong musical partnership with Yamaha. Attracting around 15,000 musicians and industry people to east London, BBC Introducing Live aims to discover unsigned and upcoming artists, as well as helping young people to gain knowledge about the music business. Presented by well-known artists, DJs, managers and A&R people, the wide-ranging programme included over 100 masterclasses and interactive sessions, practical workshops and Q&A sessions, as well as performance opportunities for all levels of talent from amateur rappers to Deadmau5. In addition to providing extensive technical support for the performance and seminar areas, Yamaha show
UK - Back in the mists of time, dinosaurs roamed and ruled the world . . . and now with the arena spectacular Walking with Dinosaurs, they are doing so again (see production report in LSi November). This time the mist, or rather haze and low fog, is courtesy of MDG with three ATMe haze generators and three ICE FOG Compack HP low fog generators supplied by Sonalyst, the South Wales-based production company looking after the UK and European tour of this show. Sonalyst was already aiming to expand its investment in some serious haze and fog equipment when Walking with Dinosaurs LD John Rayment approached them with his requirements for the tour which called
World - Shania Twain is hitting the road with her Shania Now tour. Twain has wowed audiences in North America and Europe this summer and autumn with her fast and ever-changing stage show. The constant motion and changing looks on stage are aided and abetted by Ayrton’s MagicPanel-602 fixtures. Creative director and lighting designer Rob Sinclair, and lighting director Michael Straun were specific in what they needed to achieve the stunning visuals for this show which are based around five large, automated LED video cubes with dancer platforms placed on top. Sinclair stated, “Shania wanted a fast-paced show where the appearance of the stage and people constantly changed, with the band, the video cubes and the dancers in constant motion. We needed to find some square-faced lights to complement the square video cubes, and the MagicPanels were the perfect answe
South Korea - For the past 13 years, Incheon, has hosted the Pentaport Rock Festival, held in the city’s Pentaport Park for three days each summer. Produced by Yescom Entertainment, it is one of the country’s biggest live music events and covers a wide variety of musical genres. This year, it featured the industrial rock of Nine Inch Nails, the moody electronica of Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda, the shifting nuances of My Bloody Valentine, and rocking performances from local favourites including Jaurim and Daybreak. For all of the diverse styles, the L-Acoustics K1 and K2 system, supplied by local rental company Seoul Sound, delivered consistency of SPL and tonal balance across the main KB Kookmin Starshop Stage’sextensive field. When Yescom Entertainment’s An Heung Chan accepted the role of production manager for the festival, he was both honoured and excited
Poland - The church of St Brygida (St Bridget) in Gdańsk recently hosted a televised concert to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s appointment. An Alcons Audio pro-ribbon audio system was the solution to tame the church’s difficult acoustics. St Brygida is a large, brick-built church, famed for its amber altar and its 1980s role as a sanctuary for the leaders of the Solidarność (Solidarity) trade union, when Poland was under martial law. Staged to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Polish national Karol Józef Wojtyła being chosen as Pope John Paul II in August 1978 - the first non-Italian Pope for 455 years - the concert featured Cappella Gedanensis, a vocal and instrumental ensemble which performs traditional music from the region around Gdańsk and represents the city all over the world. The group’s performances often include well-known s
