UK - A new family play-world has opened at The Alnwick Garden, with its imaginary inhabitants realised by the spatial sound capabilities of a d&b Soundscape system. Installed by Southby Productions, the system helps to bring the world’s magical inhabitants to life, via the work of award-winning theatre sound designer, Gareth Fry. Ten years in the making, Lilidorei delivers an enchanted world inhabited by fabulous creatures - dwarves, trolls, fairies, hobgoblins, and more - all of them invisible. With the only clues to their existence provided by special effects and immersive audio, much is owed to the d&b Soundscape. The behind-the-scenes story of Lilidorei’s creation - the result of the vision of Jane Percy, the Duchess of Northumberland - is revealed by a six-part television documentary. The Duchess And Her Magical Kingdom began on Channel 4 on 2
UK - One of London’s most talked about new openings, Outernet Venues, has put its trust in Clair Global Integration (CGI) for audio and networking solutions throughout three of its spaces. CGI worked on three state-of-the-art music venues: HERE at Outernet, a 2,000-capacity space frequented by touring artists, The Lower Third, a 250 capacity live music venue for smaller acts and DJs, and Forge, a 50-person capacity cocktail bar that caters for intimate singer-songwriter acoustic performances. Together, these contrasting spaces form part of an arts and entertainment hub built beneath the streets in the beating heart of Central London. Each venue required its own custom audio, network, and infrastructure for both independent and collaborative use, with all three utilising d&b audiotechnik loudspeakers, and HERE marking one of the UK’s first d&b XSL installat
USA - When pop music siblings Girl Named Tom - Bekah, Josh and Caleb Liechty - first set out in 2019 they would travel from city to city and gig to gig in an old minivan. Then, in 2021, Girl Named Tom made history as the first trio to ever win NBC’s The Voice, placing four songs concurrently on the iTunes Top 10 charts, with two of them reaching #1, during the show’s 21st season. Now playing to larger audiences in bigger venues across the United States, Girl Named Tom recently wrapped a several-month tour on which they used the new Sennheiser EW-DX digital wireless system for vocals as well as electric and acoustic guitars and the EW G4 wireless in-ear monitoring system for all five musicians in the band. “We were honoured to be the first American touring act performing with this specific set up, and we are thrilled to report that these microphones are th
Switzerland - Located in the heart of Rapperswil, Switzerland’s picturesque City of Roses on the banks of Lake Zurich, the ENTRA residential and commercial complex has rapidly established itself as a centre of bustling social and commercial activity. One of the chief features of the complex is its state-of-the-art events venue. The foundation of the complex’s design encompasses a modular space that can be configured to serve a versatile array of community programming needs including live music performances, corporate events, and cultural events. To ensure that the space would excel in all of these applications with high quality acoustics and sound reinforcement, the ENTRA leadership turned to global acoustic architectural consulting and A/V systems design firm WSDG (Walters-Storyk Design Group). The 1050-capacity events space was designed by architecture offi
USA - Earlier this year, LD Systems in Houston, Texas added a Solid State Logic Live L550 Plus mixing console to its sound equipment rental inventory to service the needs of the company’s diverse clients. The new L550 Plus was initially put to work at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the largest livestock exhibition and rodeo in the world, which runs for three weeks during February and March every year. “We decided to make the purchase of an additional SSL Live console so that we could have redundant L550 Plus systems managing the live announcers and program content mix for one of our largest annual events, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo,” says Thomas Ruffner, audio dept. operations manager for LD Systems. “The engineer at this position manages roughly 50 sources, including announcers’ mics, all video rolls, and a multitude of FX mics placed throughout t
Australia - Live entertainment supplier Chameleon Touring Systems has upgraded its communications solution from an old analogue party line system to a Green-GO digital package, to aid reliable communications between lighting teams on tour. Green-GO dealer Event Communications Australia masterminded Chameleon Touring’s investment, drawing on extensive experience of digital communications solutions for the live music touring market. “Chameleon’s previous comms systems were based around a basic single channel, analogue party line system which were starting to be less reliable, so it was time to update to current technology,” says Event Communications Australia’s Rod McKinnon. “We worked closely with Graham Walker at Chameleon Touring to curate a kit list of Green-GO products that we knew would offer clear, easy-to-use communications for the lighting crew worki
UK - Despite train strikes and inclement weather, Brighton & Hove Pride 2023 enjoyed another successful year, raising money for the Brighton Rainbow Fund supporting LGBTQ+ groups and organisations within the local community, as crowds of around 250,000 people descended on the seaside resort. It is estimated that more than £25m was brought into the city’s economy over the Pride weekend. With more than 150 LGBTQ+ artists performing across 12 different stages, attention was largely focused on the main Fabuloso stage in the 63-acre Preston Park. Here first night headliners Black Eyed Peas were followed by Steps on the Sunday, with Solotech UK for the second year providing their flagship WPL line-array. Working once again alongside production manager Dean Parker, at Wilde Ones International Events, their sound design was based around main PA hangs of 18 WPL per side,
USA - Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg creates art that explores our relationships with nature and technology. Her latest installation, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg - Machine Auguries: Toledo, explores this relationship by simulating a dawn chorus using generative adversarial networks - two neural networks that work in a ‘call and response’ and are sometimes used to create lifelike but fake images. “The work is really about making a copy of the natural world,” said Ginsberg in a recent interview. “We focus so much on innovation and the things we can do, but there’s intelligent life outside in our natural world that we depend on to exist.” The installation at the Toledo Museum of Art represents Ginsberg’s first solo presentation in the United States and her largest indoor installation to date. Taking place over 12 minutes, the experience features the growing
Serbia - The Kulturni Centar Zrenjanina (KCZR), or the Cultural Centre of Zrenjanin, stands as a multifaceted institution dedicated to the promotion of culture and is actively involved in curating concerts, thematic forums, exhibitions, film shows, and professional gatherings in the vibrant city of Zrenjanin. The centre takes pride in its own artistic endeavours for compelling productions. Such diverse activities demand the integration of top-notch, professional audio-visual equipment for the main stage. Through successful participation in a public procurement process initiated by the City of Zrenjanin, AVL Projekt, DiGiCo products Serbian distributor, was granted the opportunity to deliver, install, and commission a complete AV system, tailored to fulfil KCZR's requirements. The audio element is centred around a DiGiCo S21 mixing console which offers significant enhan
Korea - High-end fashion brand, Gucci, recently celebrated the launch of its Cruise 2024 collection at Seoul’s Gyeongbokgung Palace with the help of communication experts punQtum. The evening blended the innovative worlds of Italian and South Korean design and showcased the heritage of Gucci, alongside the multicultural style found on the streets of the capital city. The fashion show was attended by a star-studded line-up of guests, including Dakota Johnson, Liu Wen, Wen Qi, Mark Ronson and Gulf Kanawut. Parisian production company Bureau Betak was called upon to oversee the whole production of the VIP event. In search of a high-quality communications system, Bureau Betak reached out to Dasan SR, the South Korean distributor for Riedel Communications. The brief from the client was for an easy-to-use, reliable system that would make coordination across the evening as
India - Jiten Jariwala and Rajiv Jariwala co-founders and partners of Pro Sound, Bengaluru, founded in 2006, have expanded their audio inventory offering with L-Acoustics. Before investing in the L-Acoustics K2 and Kara II inventory, Jiten contacted Hi-Tech Audio & Image, who are Indian distributors for L-Acoustics. Both Jiten and Rajiv were familiar with L-Acoustics signature sound. “Over the years we have listened to all the major manufacturers of sound in various events and concerts across the world, but L-Acoustics has been always a class apart in sound quality and frequency response,” shares Jiten. “Be it the power-to-weight ratio, the design, the finish, and most importantly the technology we thought L-Acoustics aces in all. Whenever we listened to L-Acoustics, we were amazed by its clarity & depth of sound. Right from rigging the line array to tun
Germany - Holoplot has announced the expansion of its US presence with the appointment of James Bobel as sales manager for North America. With decades of sales and technical experience and a proven track record of building relationships in the commercial AV integration market, Bobel will be responsible for fostering relationships with US customers across all business sectors and identifying new markets. “I’ve worked in the professional audio industry over the past two decades for integrators, and manufacturers. I have a genuine appreciation and passion for technology, and the opportunity to join Holoplot was impossible to pass up,” says Bobel. “What gets me up in the morning is working with designers, engineers who are trying to do something that hasn’t been done before,” Bobel concludes. “The audio industry craves innovation but requires extensive
UK - From stand D3 with SES, at this year’s PLASA Show, Data Strategy will showcase the extensive benefits of the industry’s first choice electrical and cable safety inspection solution, the QC-Check workstation. Anticipating an extension to the summer festival season’s conversational theme of cable identification out on site, Data Strategy’s Iain Roche will be on stand ready to discuss the benefits of simple labelling solutions, as well as the latest rental system integrations and QC-Check’s most popular add-on modules, including the PowerCheck distro testing, LOLER inspection and SimplyPATS integration software. Integration with equipment hire software is central to QC-Check’s role in embedding practical safety inspection solutions into the heart of the warehouse process. Data Strategy is progressing two new and interesting integrations that will allow mo
UK - At this year’s PLASA Show (stand J5) OutBoard will preview the latest product innovations from the TiMax family of immersive audio and showcontrol products. Following another of the company’s busiest years, both in sales and in product development, OutBoard will showcase new software enhancements to TiMax2 SoundHub, including audio and workflow previews of their groundbreaking new spatial production reverb addition. Also at PLASA will be the award-winning TiMax TrackerD4 Precision Stagetracking system, with newly refined error correction filtering as a must-see update. This and other innovations further solidify the agility and robustness of the system to meet the growing demands of live production, cementing its status as the leading tracking system for real-time immersive spatial audio, and also paving the way for imminent exciting new advanced lighting and media
USA - Experimental Icelandic rock band, Sigur Rós recently embarked on a two-and-a-half-week tour of North America, complete with a 41-piece orchestra. It marks the third phase of support from their audio rental company 22live, who earlier covered their 2022 world shows, followed by European summer dates (where the orchestral idea was first introduced) and now tour dates in the United States and Canada. Each wave of dates has seen progressive iterations of Martin Audio sound reinforcement, culminating in monitor engineer Throstur Albertsson recently changing his monitor set-up for powerful XE500 wedges (to complement their IEMs) but more significantly 18 of the manufacturer’s new FlexPoint FP4 for local orchestral monitoring. Explaining the background, 22live hire director, Paul Timmins, who has a long relationship with Sigur Rós, said: “We needed some tiny
Australia - Sydney Showground was established in 1998 as a purpose-built home for major events as part of the multi-million dollar development leading up to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Today it's a multi-use venue, hosting nearly 150 national and international events annually, including music festivals, sporting events, exhibitions, trade shows and the Sydney Royal Easter Show, its flagship event and the nation's largest annual ticketed event. Sydney Showground comprises several buildings, including Giants Stadium, the Dome and Exhibition Complex, Charles Moses Stadium, Howie Complex, the Sydney Royal Stables, and more. After 25 years of nearly continuous operation, the AV system was in need of refurbishment, so they turned to Connect Series amplifiers from LEA Professional to return the AV system to its former glory. Showground staff contacted integrator The
UK - JBL Professional and UK distributor Sound Technology will be showcasing the latest JBL Portable and Performance Audio loudspeaker solutions throughout the PLASA Show on their main stand C22, and with a series of audio demonstrations in the Gallery Suite 2 on the Gallery Level. The showcase will include one of the UK’s first showings of the JBL VTX A6, which brings flagship VTX A Series performance to a subcompact form factor, and the newly shipping JBL SRX 900 system - a series of powered line arrays and subwoofers addresses the growing need for affordable, scalable small and medium-format professional sound-reinforcement solutions. The new powerful and intuitive JBL Performance control software for SRX900 will also be demonstrated. In addition, attendees will hear the latest addition to JBL’s portable PA family, the PRX 900 Series, together with the high-po
UK - With a presence across 25 countries and a total of 135 establishments, Vapiano Restaurants understands the integral role that ambience plays in customer satisfaction and engagement. Essential to this ambience is quality audio with appropriate music. Vapiano enlisted the services of installer Marquee AV to upgrade the audio system in their Paddington restaurant. After reviewing the client request and specifications, Stacey Tough, project director at Marquee AV, contacted Audiologic regarding the supply of the audio system. Through discussions with Paul Simpson, business manager at Audiologic, 11 x Ecler Drop 6 pendant loudspeakers and three Ecler Arqis SB10i subwoofers were specified for the project. Paul Simpson explains: "The Ecler Drop6 2-way pendant speaker suits this setting perfectly. It boasts a 6.5" woofer and a 1" silk dome tweeter, along with a 70/
UK - Based in the heart of the West Midlands with a satellite office in North Wales, sound production company CS Audio has made an initial investment in Outline’s Newton FPGA processor, supplied by UK distributor CUK Audio. “The unit had been on my radar for a while thanks to the industry ‘buzz’ it has generated - some products quickly develop a reputation for simply being the right tool for the job and Newton is definitely one of them,” says owner Paul Hatt. “It quickly became obvious that it was way ahead of any comparable product and ideal for our needs. Its ease of use, dual redundant PSUs and connectivity options, all in such a compact package, made it a very simple decision to invest.” Paul continues: “It has become our go-to choice for our FOH drive rack, using Dante as the primary network with AES backup, and it works so well with our inventory
UK - For more than 15 years, Oxford’s Event Production Services has been a major fixture at Truck Festival. In 2023 EPS provided sound and lighting for five of the eight stages. For the second year running sound systems in these spaces were entirely based around Nexo products, from the Geo, P+ and ID series, with control surfaces from Yamaha. Highlights included This Feeling and Rockin’ Chair stages, which both utilised Nexo Geo M1210 and MSUB18 with cardioid subwoofers; and The Tap Room, with a compact but potent system of Geo M620 and MSUB18. All systems were ground stacked but still offered consistent coverage and audio level across the spaces, with all the M12 systems running in active mode. Robert Nisbet, managing director of EPS, reported flawless operation from the Nexo systems. “Having bought into Nexo in large quantities over the past five years, our te
UK - South City Studios, a pre-production and rehearsal facility in Stockport, is expanding after using a six-figure loan from FW Capital Debt Finance, part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (npif). Established in 2017, South City Studios, formerly called The Stockport Studios, is located in Pear Mill, Stockport. Following strong financial performance over the past two years, the business was able to fund the development of additional studio spaces at its existing location, increasing overall capacity to 15 permanent rooms that can be hired on a monthly basis and a further four rooms available for flexible bookings. The investment will support plans to accelerate further growth following the acquisition of additional space at Welkin Mill, Stockport, close to the existing studios. The owners of the business plan to create additional rehearsal studios as well as
UK - Entec Live has extended its investment in Optocore fibre network devices, expanding its Record and Returns racks capabilities - thereby future-proofing them for the growing roster of arena, stadium and festival events they are undertaking. This was after the production company had invested in its first three M8-BNC MADI switches for the Gorillaz world tour early last year. Supplied by Optocore dealer, HD Pro Audio, the devices were designed to help optimise their Pro Tools rig, enabling connectivity with their Optocore-enabled DiGiCo SD7 digital consoles. This year they added a further M8-BNC, but equally significantly five X6R-FX-16AE interfaces (one with SRC sample rate conversion option, the other four without), creating an Optocore PA Returns rack that will become their de facto system for shows over the next year. Again, the order was fulfilled by HD Pro Audi
USA - By any measure, the numbers for the Dead & Company final tour of 2023 are impressive. Although among the top-grossing acts since its first tour in 2015, with this year’s outing the band shattered all of their previous totals. Across 28 shows in 19 cities, according to Billboard Box Score, Dead & Company grossed $114.7m and sold 845,000 tickets. However, the magnitude of this final leg of “the long, strange trip” must be measured by more than hard numbers. It marked the coda of a resilient cultural and sociological phenomenon - launched by the Grateful Dead - that has spanned nearly six decades and three generations. Appropriately, the tour’s significance as a milestone of Americana was recognised in a lavishly illustrated 2,500-word feature in The New York Times. As has been the case since the outset, Dead & Company was again accompanie
The Netherlands - At IBC, Sennheiser, Neumann, Dear Reality and Merging Technologies (D50 in Hall 8) will demonstrate immersive production workflows as well as solutions for audio capture, monitoring and processing. Creators and audio professionals of all levels are welcomed to stand. Four spaces invite IBC visitors to explore state-of-the-art solutions for today’s content production: the immersive presentation zone, active and passive product islands, a Neumann area and a separate Wireless Multichannel Audio Systems (WMAS) zone. In the immersive presentation zone, which is powered by a 5.1.4 Neumann monitor set-up with nine KH 150 monitor loudspeakers and two KH 750 DSP subwoofers, guests will be able to get hands-on with the Dolby Atmos/immersive broadcast workflows facilitated by the products of Merging Technologies, the latest member to join the Sennheiser Group.
