World - Lighting designer Ben Inskip is using the new Vista 3 by Chroma-Q lighting & media control system to deliver his dynamic design for fast-rising British rock band, Don Broco's current international tour. Following the release of the album, Technology, the group has been touring prolifically for the past year. This has included a sold-out date at London's Alexandra Palace and other headline shows across Europe; festival gigs at Reading & Leeds and the Vans Warped Tour; and high-profile support slots on massive arena shows in Europe and the US for Thirty Seconds to Mars and Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park. A Vista user for the past six or so years, Inskip has been impressed by the platform's simple approach to lighting control whilst still enabling programming of complex shows. As well as upgrading his Don Broco core lighting design of bright and
Thailand - Mahajak Development recently updated Phrarajasatta Pavilion’s aging sound system with a full-on sound reinforcement solution by Harman Professional Solutions. Built in 1993, Phrarajasatta Pavilion is an addition to Wat Pathum Wanaram, a mid-19th century Buddhist temple in Bangkok. Religious devotees and general public alike use Phrarajasatta Pavilion as a sacred place to conduct daily Buddhist activities, including worship, meditation and dharma practice. After 25 years of service, temple leaders hired audio integrator Mahajak Development to replace their rapidly aging sound system with a complete networked sound system, comprised of solutions by JBL, Crown, dbx and Soundcraft. “Houses of worship like Wat Pathum Wanaram require premium audio solutions to provide guests and members of the community with immersive worship experiences,” says Pongsakorn
Sweden - Allen & Heath’s dLive system has recently provided support for the long-running Swedish TV game show, Så Ska det Låta, based on the Irish precursor The Lyrics Board. A DM64 MixRack and S7000 Surface forms the backbone of the system, with the demanding monitoring requirements of the presenters, contestants and musicians all handled by dLive’s configurable 64 bus architecture and flexible routing options. Peter Fredriksson, monitor engineer for the show, comments: “It’s quite a special experience as you have to be on your toes all the time, particularly when you have four competitors trying to win points by guessing songs from intros, words, pictures or something performed by the local studio orchestra.” The set-up also includes four DX168 expanders, which provide remote inputs and outputs to IEM systems for the musicians in t
UK - Celebrating the world of entertainment, the BBC Radio 1 Teen Awards recognises some of the UK’s unsung heroes alongside stars of music, sport and screen. The live event, held at the SSE Wembley Arena, fronted by Greg James, Mollie King and Maya Jama, featured a host of acts including Little Mix, 5 Seconds of Summer and Sigrid. Working alongside gaffer Richard Gorrod and PRG, LED Creative assisted in building the vast ‘neon’ archways and circular truss system that spanned the areas above both the stage and the audience. The installation allowed the team to create a truly immersive viewer experience that extended beyond the main performance stage to fill the entire venue with a spectacular array of shape and movement. LED Creative also provided a range of proprietary products, including the company’s Pulse Wands and Sigma Fairground fixtures paired with BYT
South Africa - Cape Town’s first Green Hippo Amba+ was put through its paces at the Shoprite Super Service Awards held in at the ExecuJet Hangar at Cape Town International Airport, with one third of the 2400sq.m space used for a jet plane parked inside. Solid Group were appointed by Venturescapes Events to supply the full technical at the awards, attended by 600 guests. They took ownership of the Hippotizer Amba+ a few days before the event. “We initially came up to visit DWR Distribution purely to attend the L-Acoustics Kiva demo with Richard Smith,” Alex van Dyk, owner of the Solid Group, explains. “Luckily we set aside enough time so that we could go through all the toys. Dylan Jones spent time with us on the Green Hippo, and we completely fell in love with it. Even having the baby Amba+, it’s incredible how powerful such a small unit can be, and this is t
South Africa - In Die Kollig (Afrikaans for In the Spotlight) is a new TV music show in South Africa produced by one of the country’s most famous TV personalities, singer and entertainer Johan Stemmet, recently broadcast on SABC 2. The first series’ episodes were produced by Stemburg TV and recorded at the Urban Brew Studios at Randburg Waterfront, and the show was creatively lit by Ryan Lombard, head of lighting at Blond Productions, using around 100 Robe moving lights and other fixtures. All the lighting and video equipment was supplied by Blond Productions. Each show featured a local music artist whose story was revealed thorough a series of 12 songs, which included a tribute, a ‘legend’ song, a duo, and other variants. The intense seven-day shoot schedule entailed recording two episodes per day, so Ryan had to light 24 songs - each one l
Europe - Lighting and production designer Mitchell Schellenger has been using an Elation lighting rig to put a mark on the Imagine Dragons worldwide Evolve tour throughout 2018. Schellenger, who joined the tour early in 2018 in time for the first European leg, has been lighting several legs of the tour using Platinum Beam 5R Extreme moving heads, ZW19 LED wash lights, and Protron 3K Color strobes supplied by Christie Lites. Inspired by artist Beeple’s colourful Evolve album art, Schellenger’s setup features eight angled video screens of varying sizes, five high res upstage and three blow-through screens on the floor. Lined vertically along the sides of the upstage video screens, on finger trusses, on wings and on a free-standing B-stage used for an acoustic set are Platinum Beam 5R Extremes, which Schellenger calls the workhorse of the gear. “They are a g
Europe - Walking with Dinosaurs - The Arena Spectacular (read report in LSi November) is a $20m production based on the award-winning TV programme of the same name. The show benefits from major improvements to animatronics, which have enabled the life-like dinosaurs to 'eat' and 'breathe' - and live arena experience has already been seen by over nine million people in more than 250 cities globally. Experience and expert technical knowledge has been essential in executing the brief, and South Wales-based Sonalyst was called upon to deliver. The audio, lighting, BlackTrax system and comms for the production were all provided by Sonalyst. Project manager George Pakenham explains: “Being a
China - NeuroTech Asia has become the first owner of the Prolyte Space Roof System in the Asia Pacific region. The company, which provides AV and staging services in China and throughout the Asia-Pacific region, first contracted with Prolyte in early 2018 to purchase staging systems from its Mammoth ground support system. To meet the increased demand for staging equipment, NeuroTech recently purchased Prolyte’s Space Roof system. The roof can be suspended from standard Prolyte CT towers and can be built up to 37 x 22 meters in size, offered a loading capacity of 30t UDL + 2x 4T PA which was easily installed, which helps meet the needs of touring artists. With reducing the stage opening (standard 31m), the loading capacity can be easily increased up to 50t. The space roof structure can also be easily adapted in size every 2.072m in width and depth. With maintaining
USA - The pop-up Museum of Ice Cream (MOIC) continues its celebrated tour across the nation, with locations such as Miami, San Francisco and Los Angeles all getting a glimpse at this special attraction. Production company Envizion provided the lighting for the travelling museum, with their lighting designer Will Chandler choosing the impression X4 atom as one of the key fixtures for the lighting of the exhibit. “With the locations only being temporary, and with the exhibits inside each one continually changing, it's been important to have fixtures on hand that are adaptable,” Chandler said. And the X4 atom is precisely that; with its small size and powerful capabilities the fixture lends itself perfectly to this format. One of the key aspects behind the choice of the X4 atom was the importance of the museum being camera friendly. Chandler made good use of the
Indonesia - The 2018 Asian Games Opening Ceremony, staged in Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Main Stadium, saw LD Yves Aucoin to deliver an impressive lighting design. The OC of Asia’s largest sporting event featured a general cast of around 4000, produced by Scott Givens and Libby Hyland working with Indonesian creative director Wishnutama Kusubandio. Staging direction was by Michael Pena working with Indonesian choreographers Denny Malik and Eko Supriyanto, and the breathtakingly visual extravaganza was produced by live event specialists FiveCurrents. Montreal based LD Aucoin specified 270 x Robe BMFLs to be a major part of the lighting rig. “It was BMFLs or BMFLs,” he says. “They were the only fixture option for a selection of key positions around the venue.” These high-powered fixtures once again proved their ruggedness and reliability as
Sweden - Each year in October, the Swedish town of Alingsås near Gothenburg turns into a fun lighting event, attracting more than 80,000 visitors from around the world. For this year’s Lights in Alingsås, six groups of talented lighting and electrical students created beautiful light installations under the professional guidance from seven established lighting designers using over 50 fixtures from SGM Light. The almost 400-year-old Swedish town Alingsås started off mainly as an iron trade city, which later turned into a city for the textile industry. In the city river, the manufacturers would wash out the colour of the textiles, giving the name for the first site for this year’s Lights in Alingsås, Färgeribron (Dyers’ bridge). Led by Nielsen and van der Velden, this team focused on the visible energy from the water as well as the communa
UK - Adlib first supplied audio kit for American singer and actress Janelle Monáe in 2008. A decade later, Monáe was back in the UK and Europe for a short, high-impact leg of her Dirty Computerworld tour, and once again Adlib was involved in supplying the technical production elements - sound, lighting and video - to her production team led by tour manager Reneeka Rae and production manager Jeff Cochran. Adlib account handler Phil Kielty commented, “Janelle is one of the most energised and innovative artists of the moment and it was our pleasure to work with her and her crew again.” In keeping with the spirit of inclusion, the FOH creative team was all female with sound engineer Amanda Davies, video director Erica Hayes and lighting designer Lauren Sega leading the way. The equipment package was effectively a dry hire, however Adlib sent engineers t
Canada - Lighting designer Karl Gaudreau has added a large complement of Claypaky fixtures to the lighting at Bell Centre for the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens. Gaudreau selected Claypaky SharBar advanced moving LED bars, Axcor Profile 900 LED spots and Axcor Beam 300s for the arena. Montreal’s Bell Centre is consistently one of the busiest arenas in the world. It is the largest arena capacity to regularly host an NHL team, the Montreal Canadiens who make their home at the downtown venue. “I wanted to increase the fan experience and be able to create different lighting effects during the games as well as for rock ’n roll shows,” says Gaudreau. “The design is mostly based on audience lighting that delivers a true 360º experience.” The lighting designer notes that when adding new lights to the arena, “the idea was to be fully green by using only LED fix
Australia - Built in the early 1970s, the University of Newcastle’s Great Hall, in the Australian state of New South Wales, is a significant landmark building on the University’s Callaghan campus, located in the western suburbs of Newcastle. The building is multi-functional and used by the university and Newcastle community for a wide variety of functions ranging from formal University graduations, public performances, sit down dinners, open days, community events as well as teaching and learning activities. The new audio-visual Infrastructure upgrade was focused around providing a significant improvement in audio and video quality and reliability within the Great Hall. The end-result, based around a Martin Audio WPM PA, achieved that and more. It is flexible, scalable and supports the University’s teaching, learning and community outreach activities. The
USA - Once counted among the South’s leading cinemas, the Miller Theatre in Augusta had sat boarded up and empty for over thirty years, until being reborn as a community performing arts centre in January with a sold-out gala featuring Tony Award-winner Sutton Foster performing with the Augusta Symphony. The theatre had undergone a $23m makeover. To serve the community that saved it, the theatre features a diverse mix of shows that offers ballet one week, and kick boxing the next, with shows by stars like Chris Isaak and George Thorogood thrown in for good measure. Helping the theatre support this eclectic mix of talent is a robust new lighting rig anchored by Chauvet Professional Rogue and Ovation fixtures. “I’ve been a big fan of Chauvet fixtures ever since I learned about the line from my friend John Berrett, who I respect a great deal as a lighting designer,
The Netherlands - Story Event Engineering recently deployed multiple Harman Professional Solutions audio systems at Emporium Festival, including JBL VTX A12 tour sound solutions. Founded in 2005 by Dutch promoter Matrixx Events, Emporium Festival is an annual dance music festival held near the city of Wijchen in Berendonck Park. This year, 30,000 dance music fans came together to enjoy a robust lineup of DJs and performers across nine stages. Story Event Engineering equipped the entire festival with end-to-end Harman live sound reinforcement systems, including JBL VTX Series line arrays, Crown I-Tech HD Series amplifiers and Soundcraft Vi Series consoles. “We’ve been providing sound for Emporium Festival for over 10 years, and every year our company grows along with it,” said Paul Lehmann, sales representative & system engineer, Story Event Engineering.
USA - For residents of the historic Buckeye-Shaker neighbourhood, the concerts that take place on the sprawling grounds of St. Luke’s Manor offer more than a chance to enjoy good music, they also serve as a celebration of their community’s rebirth. The impressive building that provides an emblematic backdrop to the concert series had stood empty and neglected for 14 years after the hospital that originally occupied it closed its doors in 1999. When the five-story structure reopened after extensive renovations in 2013 as a multi-use facility, it served as a catalyst for a neighbourhood-wide renaissance. Designer Brent Schmidt of B Productions reflected this hopeful spirit and accented St. Luke’s Manor’s memorable architectural features, when he illuminated the building in an array of colours. Helping him in this endeavour were 24 Freedom Par Quad-4 IP and six I
UK - Aurora Lighting supported lighting designer Gurdip Mahal and gaffer James Tinsley for the 2018 Stand Up to Cancer live show. Hosted by Alan Carr, Maya Jama and Adam Hills in front of an audience at Central Methodist Hall, Westminster, the evening featured appearances from John Legend, Liam Gallagher, Little Mix, Michael Bublé and James Corden taking part in celebrity versions of some of Channel 4’s most popular shows to help build awareness of the fight against cancer. To help set the stage for the show, Aurora provided a mix of automated fixtures, tungsten and LED which the crew used to great effect, creating a stylish contemporary look that contrasted perfectly against the grandiose interior of the venue. Martin MAC Auras delivered intense colour washes to the performance areas, matched with ProLights Smartbat and SGM P5 LED uplighters plus GLP X4 Bar20
UK - Dry hire and production company Fiend Productions provided a Sixty82 trussing system for the Progress Wrestling 2018 shows at London's historic Alexandra Palace and SSE Arena Wembley. Progress Wrestling, a British professional wrestling promotion, ran its first show in 2012 at The Garage in Islington. Since then it has grown t into major venues in the UK, including Ally Pally and the Wembley Arena. Jess Matthews, managing director of Fiend Productions, approached A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) to invest in high load trussing for the shows at Ally Pally. After being provided with a range of options by Steven Farnsworth in UK sales at AC-ET, Matthews decided on Sixty82. He comments: “The quality of the welds and construction of the Sixty82 truss is very noticeable, and the high load capacity allows us to be a lot more creative.” Each secti
Europe - American-based psychedelic rockers, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, have set out on a mammoth world tour this year with veteran FOH engineer, Dave McDonald, and an Allen & Heath dLive system. The band’s set-up includes a dLive S Class system, usually comprising an S5000 or S7000 surface and DM MixRack, with a Dante card for live recording. Dave McDonald, who has been using dLive for a number of years, comments in an interview run by Muzyka i Technologia magazine; “I like the ability to work at 96kHz sampling and thanks to this, I have a much wider signal spectrum and greater depth in the mix. dLive also enables extremely intuitive work, almost like an analogue desk.” He continues: “dLive includes a variety of plug-ins, from those emulating old studio equipment, up to the latest virtual blocks. The DEEP processing I use for the mix really feels like the o
Asia Pacific - This summer saw Canadian chanteuse Céline Dion tour the Asia Pacific. Kicking off in Tokyo and Macao, where she had last performed 10 years earlier, the tour moved on to new territory for the five-time Grammy Award winner, including Jakarta, Taipei, Manila, Bangkok and Australia, before concluding in Auckland, New Zealand. The logistical feat of picking up each system locally, which was dependent on equipment availability, was accomplished seamlessly by Céline Dion’s long-time audio provider, Solotech, achieving consistent sound across the venues on a 22-date marathon thanks to L-Acoustics’ K1 and K2, its international network of suppliers, and its consistency of product worldwide. “We needed a loudspeaker system that would be available at every venue on the tour,” says Francois Desjardins, VP R&D, technological solutions at Solotech, an L
Peru - Prodjmedia recently installed a full complement of Martin Audio CDD and CSX in Lima’s popular Lyra nightclub, which is dedicated to providing a truly world-class club and dance experience for its customers. Founded by Fernando Vidal and Arturo Dyer, Lyra features local and international DJ’s in the main room and rooftop bar/dancefloor, and as Prodjmedia’s CEO Renzo Silva explains, “they wanted to create an environment with no compromises in terms of sound quality, so the first choice was obviously Martin Audio.” According to Renzo, the sound system includes two Martin Audio CDD15’s with two CSX218 subs on the dancefloor, four CDD6’s on the first floor, four CDD6’s on the second floor and four CDD6’s and one CSX112 sub in the rooftop café. The speakers are powered by Martin Audio MA 2.8Q, MA3.0 and MA 5.2K amps. A DX0.5 loudspeaker management s
Italy - Although Florence and Pisa without doubt top Tuscany’s tourist charts, Lucca (with traces of Iron Age settlements, good wines and more) is well worth checking out and music fans have the ideal chance to do so during the annual Lucca Summer Festival, organised by D’Alessandro & Galli in the city’s main square. The festival’s 2018 edition was a particularly high-profile showcase for loudspeaker manufacturer Outline and the ideal debut of new-born rental firm VVP International, since, apart from Roger Waters, who performed in another location, the cast on stage featured a wide range of music genres: from California’s stoner rock with Queens of the Stone Age, the latest (triple-drummer) incarnation of Prog Rock icons King Crimson, Joe Perry, Alice Cooper and Johnny Depp’s Hollywood Vampires, Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band, jazzy-pop songstress Norah J
