UK - The Royal Albert Hall recently decided to invest in a range of Robert Juliat Cyrano 2500W HMI followspots and approached White Light to make the purchase. The lighting design manager at the Royal Albert Hall is Richard Rhys Thomas. He comments: “My role covers a few broad areas, namely overseeing the running of the lighting department as well as delivering a high-quality lighting service to incoming as well as internally produced shows. I also have to oversee the upkeep and maintenance of the systems and installations, specifying new lighting equipment and improving the design of the lighting rig as needs change.” It was Richard who decided that the previous rig required an upgrade of its existing followspots. He comments: “We wanted to replace our followspot provision with up-to-date and more efficient technology. Having used the Robert Juliat Cyrano magne
USA - Philips Lighting’s new VLZ range of LED-based stage luminaires have been chosen for the busy Novo by Microsoft, a live entertainment venue at the L.A. LIVE sports and entertainment district in LA. The 2,356-capacity Novo by Microsoft is a flexible venue hosting live music of many genres, as well as comedy shows and a full and varied events program. Consequently, its lighting demands are of the highest order. In their search for new lighting tools, theatre manager Jennie Perkins and lighting designer Keith Mitchell prioritized fixtures that were bright, silent and responsive, with state-of-the-art LED technology to bring the benefits of energy efficiency and low maintenance. "We do over 200 events a year and energy consumption is very important to us," says Perkins. "Equally, the busy programme means we simply don't have time to have fixtures out for repair."
USA - Control products from ETC have been specified to modernise the lighting control at the Anderson Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum in Albuquerque. The museum’s facade is the silhouette of a hot air balloon, with the top of the building a dome newly washed with colour-changing LED fixtures. The museum wanted to take advantage of capabilities of the LED fixtures and reinforce the iconic nature of the building. The solution was an ETC Paradigm system. Lighting looks were programmed into the system and now the museum staff can choose custom colours for different themes or special events. “Because we are used a lot and we do a lot of activities all year round in the very early morning or late at night, it gives us a way to add an element of beauty to the building,” says Paul D. Garver, manager of the museum. He has plans to let the lights react
USA - The Gordon Centre for the Performing Arts is a 550-seat venue in Owings Mills, Maryland, Baltimore that hosts all manner of musical acts from local to national, dance performances, comedies, plays, lectures, family shows, and films. With the help of Baltimore-based A/V integration firm HP Electronics, the Gordon Centre recently upgraded its sound reinforcement system with Danley’s Pure Groove PG-96 loudspeakers, Danley TH-118 subwoofers, and Danley’s new DNA-Series amplifiers, with onboard DSP and presets for every Danley loudspeaker and subwoofer. “When the Gordon Centre decided it was time for an upgrade, several loudspeaker shootouts were arranged that ultimately pitted a dozen or so loudspeaker manufacturers against each other,” explained Joe Schwartz, A/V sales designer at HP Electronics. “At the outset, they wanted to avoid a line array solution b
UK - For the dance anthem generation, it seems there’s nothing in the musical universe that cannot be enhanced by the augmentation of a classic orchestral string section. Pete Tong, with conductor Jules Buckley leading the New Heritage Orchestra, have just completed a triumphant campaign that saw them present Ibiza Classics through the major arenas of the UK. Whereas once the dance rave genre relied heavily upon the use of light and laser to animate what is essentially a static DJ performance, now the combination of live video and the addition of so many musicians makes for a heady concoction. The stage was dominated by visceral images portrayed upon a set of moving LED screens immediately upstage of the musicians and Tong. Veteran concert director Mark Davies was shooting the show with all video equipment and camera system provided by Video Design. “B
Belgium - Luc Peumans of Painting With Light created the lighting and stage design for the 30th anniversary tour by rock band Clouseau. The visual concept of Clouseau 30 tour - an extensive itinerary visiting 500 2000-capacity venues across Belgium - is based around a lounge-style environment with carpets on the floor, standard lamps dotted around and an upright piano onstage. Charismatic lead singer Koen enthusiastically engages with the audience as he tells assorted stories related to each song. The set list can also change - with no warning - depending on this audience interaction, as they will often shout out requests for specific songs the band might decide to play. This improvisation keeps Luc and the crew on their toes and is an exciting and invigorating way to work ‘live’. Luc is celebrating his own anniversary, being back behind the lighting
Europe - Feeling the heat and helping create the energy and industrial-strength visuals for award winning Swedish heavy metal band In Flames, lighting and production designer Fredrik Stormby of creative practice Greenwall Designs AB used 156 x Robe BMFLs - a mix of 102 x BMFL WashBeams and 54 x BMFL Spots for their most recent tour. The band was founded in Stockholm in 1990, since when it has been highly successful and prolific, steaming through a full-on career that’s seen them produce multiple best-selling albums and be credited for founding the nuanced metal sub-genre ‘Swedish melodic death metal’. They have built up a loyal international fan-base over time and tour extensively, known for the passion and vitality of their live performances. This tour is still part of the 2016 Battles album cycle, and the very latest autumn-winter European arena section
Europe - Colour Sound Experiment supplied lighting and crew to the most recent UK and European leg of synth pop duo Hurts Desire tour which included many adventures and the presentation of some superlative shows in more off-gig circuit reaches of Europe. These included Moldova, Siberia, Belarus and Ukraine, and was a test to the tenacity, ingenuity, commitment and camaraderie of production manager Craig Sherwood and his team combined with the ardent enthusiasm of the band’s fan base. Award winning production designer Rob Sinclair created the scenic and lighting design and worked with Matt Arthur as lighting director / programmer and operator on the road. It’s the third Hurts’ album cycle for these two, who have worked together in a similar format for the last 10 years. The band’s production and the relationship with Colour Sound as a lighting and
USA - New Year's Eve festivities at the luxury hotel Fontainebleau Miami Beach isn't just another NYE celebration. The oceanfront resort, with its celebrated poolscape, has featured the likes of Lady Gaga, Drake and Justin Bieber at past celebrations and this year saw Demi Lovato and popular DJ KYGO ring in the New Year. Lighting director and production designer Tyler Frank and the team at Everlast Productions created a lasting memorable experience for Fontainebleau and their guests. By blending a creative solution with innovative technology and technical expertise Everlast produced an engaging live event experience. The South Florida-based production company supplied the entire production; from dynamic graphic content, to impactful lighting atmospheres, to premium audio quality, cutting-edge technology that adapted perfectly to the environment Everlast’s Tyler Frank
Bahamas - While an estimated one million people crowded into Times Square on New Year’s Eve to watch the famous ball drop, a far smaller crowd was gathering 1,102 miles away, under much balmier conditions, for another NYE tradition. The ringing in of the New Year is as eagerly anticipated at Albany Resort, a 600-acre upscale island paradise (poolside condos go for $6,000 a night), as it is in the heart of the Big Apple. Every New Year’s Eve, organisers of this paradisal resort’s Albany White party (named after the white outfits that guests wear) try to outdo their previous year’s celebration. 31 December 2017, was no exception, with 50 different performers, including DJ Ignite, providing entertainment and a gourmet dinner worthy of a world-class restaurant. The centre of attention for much of the evening was the Las Vegas-style dancefloor that was create
Egypt - Philips Lighting reports that the prestigious new National Army Conference Centre in Cairo has chosen a state-of-the-art lighting system and data infrastructure from Philips Entertainment Lighting for its 1,700-capacity main auditorium. Requiring a top quality, professional lighting system suitable for a modern, multi-purpose venue, the specifiers needed a trusted brand - one with a product catalogue capable of encompassing a complete system solution. State-of-the-art LED technology, where possible, was a key requirement, as was first-class technical support throughout the project. Working closely with local specialist installer Egyptian Engineering Projects (known as Quality Egypt), the team from Philips Lighting helped to make these demands a reality. Philips Lighting's sales and technical teams from both EMEA and USA provided comprehensive on-site support th
UK - It’s panto season again and as innuendos fly, slapstick humour is trowelled on and extravagant costumes and characters abound, entertaining thousands of people up and down the UK. Lighting and visuals rental and production specialist HSL supplied equipment to a record 31 premium UK pantomime productions for the 2017-18 season for leading pantomime producers, Qdos. That is 11 more shows than last year’s schedule of 20, which are taking place all over England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as far north as Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh and as far west as Plymouth and Llandudno, as far south as Southampton and also including Belfast, Cardiff and London. The equipment has included lighting – conventional and intelligent fixtures (LEDs / moving heads), rigging and a raft of special effects like smoke, fog and atmosphere, together with humungous amounts o
World - Imagine Dragons are members of a group of current rock bands that have gone from playing basements and dive bars to major arenas within the past 10 years, and for their Evolve World Tour in 2017, it was an Adamson E-Series system rocking the crowds from continent to continent. “Adamson is always my first choice when it comes to Imagine Dragons,” says FOH engineer Scott Eisenberg. “The E-Series offers a perfect blend of power and musicality and I love the overall impact we get with this system.” The trek was the band’s biggest to date in terms of scale and overall production value and featured a unique stage design that wraps the audience around the band in an almost 360-degree configuration. That necessitated an equally unique audio system design with a package that, like those for all of the band’s previous production-carrying tours, was su
Europe - After lighting the band for nearly 13 years, experienced Irish LD Steven Douglas knows how to bring the best out of The Killers’ dynamic stage set. Now in the midst of the Wonderful Wonderful world tour, he has been exploring new dimensions and challenging perspectives by introducing GLP’s hybrid JDC1 strobe to his toolbox, along with the GLP X4 Bar 20 battens, to help maintain the band’s status as being one of the world’s leading touring rock bands. Whereas on previous albums there has always been jumping off points such as artwork to inspire the design, he says that this time the process began while the band was still recording. “Therefore, we were able to start with a clean sheet. “We knew there would be Las Vegas references as it’s such a huge part of the band’s DNA. Once the set designers, Fireplay, were onboard, we moved quic
Poland - The city of Zakopane in southern Poland kicks off each year in a spectacular fashion with a high-energy NYE party hosted by television station TVP2. This year the show, with its massive stage, which was produced by TVP, was even more impactful than usual, thanks to lighting and video delivered by ARAM, lighting designed by Adam Tyszka and a stunning stage design by production designer Giorgos Stylianou-Matsis. Central to creating this unforgettable experience was a collection of 44 Chauvet Professional STRIKE 1 fixtures, which Tyszka utilised to produce a multitude of stage and audience effects such as blinding and strobing. Positioned at the very top of the custom built cosmic influenced stage structure - which was located at the foot of the spectacular Tatry Mountain range, the STRIKE fixtures were used to accentuate the performances of the Polish and inte
UK - Among the most exclusive live music venues in London, The Arts Club has recently invested in an Allen & Heath dLive digital mixing system as part of a significant audio upgrade programme. Founded in 1863 by Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope and Lord Leighton, The Arts Club is a premium members-only venue that attracts a top-end clientele, for live music, art and fashion events, and private parties. Supplied by SSE Audio Group, the new set-up is based around a dLive S5000 surface – with both Dante and AES3 I/O audio networking cards installed – and DM48 MixRack. An Allen & Heath ME-1 personal mixer is also now employed for drum monitoring duties. “The mainstays of The Arts Club tech team use dLive systems out on the road,” explains Richard Watts, SSE Audio Group sales manager, “including Jonathan Lewis (Travis FOH) and Dave McDonald (Frank
Europe - Taking the challenges of the audio industry in its stride one tour at a time, rental company Major Tom has built a stunning reputation for itself, providing world-class sound to some of the biggest touring acts on the circuit. With a wealth of choice available when it comes to mixing consoles, there is a reason it keeps going back to DiGiCo. Major Tom’s credits include Ed Sheeran, Rod Stewart, Maria Carey and Passenger amongst others. These world class acts demand the very best equipment and Major Tom is committed to ensuring that those demands are met. This includes keeping a full range of DiGiCo consoles in its inventory. Passenger’s monitor engineer Charlie Bryson has been working with Major Tom for around five years now, with his choice of console being an SD10. “I’ve used a DiGiCo SD10 on monitors for the last year with Passenger, with a short st
USA - Fall Out Boy has embarked on their sold-out arena Mania Tour whose North American leg kicked off in Cleveland in October and wrapped in Phoenix in November. UK dates will follow in the first quarter of 2018. The rock band has had five consecutive Top 10 albums. The new tour, in support of their Maniaalbum due out in January, features hip hop artist blackbear and actor-rapper Jaden Smith. The size and scope of the tour marks “the next chapter in the band’s history”, notes production designer Robb Jibson of Chicago-based So Midwest, Inc. “It’s a much larger endeavour than previous tours with lighting, scenic, pyro and visuals. We had 14 trucks in the first load out and hope to get that down to 12. Typically, we’ve had six to eight trucks in the past.” Large numbers of Claypaky Mythos 2 and A.leda B-EYE K20 fixtures play key roles
UK - Really Creative Media was entrusted to design the stage content for British pop group Steps’ Party on the Dance Floor arena tour, a vibrant celebration of 20 years since their formation. Fresh off the back of working with Rudimental and Dua Lipa, Really Creative Media’s lead creative Jack James and head of video James Adkins were brought on board by the tour’s production manager Steve Reeve from Pull The Pin Out to deliver the tour’s live visual content. Working with creative director Frank Strachan, Really Creative Media first captured footage during a one-day shoot with the band and dancers, destined to populate five LED square hero screens flown above the stage on a Kinesys system and two LED IMAG side-of-stage screens, helping to give the show a larger than life feel for the audience. LED continued to be used on stage with a 18m wide back wall a
UK - In December 2017 SXS Events provided the technical aspects for the official X Factor VIP after party as appointed by experiential agency, Experience. The longstanding events company was in charge of creating a backstage style experience while sticking to the designs and format of the main television show. SXS provided audio, lighting, rigging and LED video walls for the event held at London’s Excel centre. Throughout the evening guests were immersed in a full wardrobe, makeup and photo shoot experience before heading to the main stage for performances from previous X Factor contestants. A Sennheiser MMK-965 was the mic capsule of choice for the evening which George Shelley used to present the party and later used by X Factor 2017 winners, RAK-SU. The front of house audio seamlessly ran through a Martin Audio system consisting of W8LM line array, W8LMD downfill p
UK - Event lighting and Christmas lighting specialists, Event Power Engineering, were enlisted by Littlehampton Town Council to create a magical yet innovative Christmas lighting display in the town centre. The display ran throughout the festive period starting with the annual light switch on during November, right up until the 12th night of Christmas in January. In addition to traditional Christmas lights, the council requested projections of colourful images around the town to help get its residents into the Christmas spirit. The desired effect was achieved by using eight Chauvet Professional Ovation E-260WW, 15-30 plus 25-50 degree HD zoom lenses and gobos specified by the Leisuretec sales team. “We found the lengths that Leisuretec took to ensure the order was fulfilled on time very refreshing. Without the help of the sales team we could not have completed the pr
Vietnam - Goldenduck International recently installed complete audio systems by Harman Professional Solutions in multiple CJ CGV Cinemas across Vietnam. CJ CGV is the largest film distributor and cinema chain in Vietnam, and is one of the top five cinema brands in the world with 401 locations in seven countries. CGV calls its theatres ‘Cultureplexes’, which offer fusions of upscale shopping, dining and entertainment. In addition to standard and IMAX presentation formats, CGV Cultureplexes feature proprietary technologies, such as the multi-sensory 4DX and 270-degree panoramic ScreenX. In order to ensure a consistent, immersive audio experience for movie-goers, CJ CGV hired Goldenduck International to install premium cinema audio systems in all of its Vietnamese locations. Goldenduck International, a Harman Professional distributor in Vietnam, supplied and integrat
South Africa - Tasked with providing technical services for the inaugural BCX Disrupt Summit in South Africa, production company Lucidity fielded a Martin Audio MLA Mini rig, and used all their expertise in taming a difficult, ‘active’ venue, with high reverberation time. Lucidity acquired its first MLA cabinets back in November 2014 from Audiosure, Martin Audio’s South African distributors. They then followed this up with a further purchase in mid-2015. For the Summit, they were able to equip the Kyalami Conference Centre, where it was held, with their full MLA Mini inventory of 24 MLA Mini and six MSX subs. The system was specified by Lucidity owner, Paul Newman, deeming it to be the most suitable PA for this venue. The convention itself was designed to urge delegates to change their way of thinking in the modern age, and the concept was put together by
USA - Bicentennial Park was aglow with the lights from Bandit Lites as the city bid farewell to 2017 and kicked off 2018. Voted the best destination to ring in the new year by USA Today, Jack Daniel’s Music City Midnight: New Year’s Eve celebration boasted an estimated 100,000 in attendance. Following the famed Music City Note dropping at midnight, country music super star Keith Urban took the stage, while earlier performances included Maren Morris, Cheap Trick, Carly Pearce, Jonny P, Larkin Poe, and the Fisk Jubilee Singers. In a collaborative effort between lighting designer Erik Parker, production managers Chris Lisle and Mark Anderson and the Nashville Convention and Visitor Corp event producers, the massive event featured spaces built on the previous year’s show with different areas needing various lights, including a selfie station, street arc