Czech Republic - Colours of Ostrava is the biggest international music festival in Czech Republic and one of the largest in Central Europe. With its unique location at the Dolní oblast Vítkovice, an old Czechoslovak mine with UNESCO World Heritage status, the festival draws some of the biggest musical acts from around the globe. This year, it treated fans to performances from the likes of Imagine Dragons and alt-J on five stages. Tasked with creating a high octane lighting rig for one of the festival’s Absolut stage, lighting designer Martin Vocetka supplied a number of Chauvet DJ Intimidator Spot 375Z IRC and Chauvet DJ SlimPAR Pro H USB fixtures. Vocetka used four Intimidator Spot 375Z IRC fixtures from Chauvet DJ to set the right visual tone for the intense musical performances on stage. Particularly stunning was the interaction between the Intimidators and the
USA - Grammy award-winning bluegrass singer Alison Krauss recently concluded a 21-city autumn tour with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites. Lighting designer William Anglin held a singular focus in his design: make the artist shine. “Her talent and the talent of the band do not require a cue intensive show,” he said. “We treat her show in more of a theatrical style. It's always such a pleasure to work with a performer of her level.” Bandit Lites supplied Martin MAC Viper Profiles, GLP X4S and GLP X4 Bar 10 fixtures, Elation CuePix WW2 Blinders, Robe Robin 600 LED Washes, Coemar Halos along with two grandMA2 Lite consoles. “Alison is not a fan of spotlights, so it is very important to light her with two nice warm tungsten key lights,” said Anglin of the design. “We were really surprised by the Coemar IWash halos. They are a bit older fixtures but
Germany/Spain - DirectOut has entered into a distribution agreement with Spanish company SeeSound, covering Spain and Portugal. Effective immediately, the Spanish pro-audio distribution company is responsible for the complete product portfolio of the German networking, routing and conversion specialist, including sales and technical service. SeeSound presents more than 25 of the leading brands dedicated to the live sound, broadcast, install, vision and acoustic treatment for the Spanish and Portuguese markets. Nacho Alberdi, SeeSound’s CEO comments: “We are extremely pleased to have been appointed as the new distributors for DirectOut. Many professionals from the broadcast, install and live markets appreciate their products because they allow them to have solutions that make their life easier and can free them from their hassle when interconnecting digital devices
Lebanon - EDM festival Tomorrowland went global for the first time. Dubbed Unite, the concept connected Tomorrowland’s mainstage in Belgium with eight locations around the world, attracting in excess of 400,000 people. L-Acoustics has been the choice of PA system for Tomorrowland in Belgium for many years and was also chosen for several of the new locations, including the Lebanese city of Byblos, where local rental company Loud N Clear provided the audio system. The Byblos venue measured 120m deep by 50m wide, with VIP and VVIP areas to the left of the venue measuring 60m deep by 20m. To cover this, the main system comprised 32 K2 with 16 K1 SB, plus 32 SB28. For delays 16 K2 were positioned left and right with six Kara for front-fills. For the VVIP and VIP nine by nine Kara were deployed, with four ARCS and four SB18M for the DJ booth. The entire system was
USA - Prolyte Group has appointed Hawai-based ProVision Staging as a distribution partner for North America. The company will be serving the Hawaii region. Andy Boujikian, general manager of ProVision Staging comments: ”There’s a growing demand to raise the level of knowledge and creating awareness on safety issues within the local event industry here. With Prolyte as a partner we have the perfect package. We can offer a combination of high quality products and training events, like the Prolyte Campus. In my own work practise I have experienced how raising the level of knowledge can enhance workfloor safety.” Distribution manager Matthijs Meijer adds: “Finding a partner whose intention matches our company’s philosophy so seamlessly is really rewarding. With this addition we have created better access to our product range, so more US based customers can b
Middle East - Protec has signed a MOU with German turntables and revolves manufacturer Bumat Motion Systems. The deal is expected to improve Protec's rental offering in the region. Protec’s Founder and CEO – Stephen Lakin says: “Over the last year we have had more and more requests for revolves, particularly in the motor industry. We felt that working together with a world leader like Bumat would be the ideal solution to beef up our stocks with a quality product that we could offer our clients." Bumat’s managing director Timo Burgmeier adds: "We are very excited and we are sure that our agreement with Protec will be a positive step - both for us as well as the Middle East region”, Burgmeier added. Bumat’s modular system can supply turntables of any size and carrying capacity, made of aluminium or steel, in diameters ranging from 0.1 m to 5
Europe - Chilean composer Nicolas Jaar brought in Colourblind to design the lighting and video on his European tour. The tour made its way through a host of venues and famous festivals, including Glasgow’s Barrowlands and Barcelona’s Sonar. Colourblind, headed by Lynden Gare, designed a show to compliment the Chilean’s explorative music creations, and centre to the operation was a Hippotizer Media Server. The Karst unit used both SDI outputs, as well as splitting the DP to feed the LED strips. Running Hippotizer, it also fed IMAG screens at a number of the festival appearances. Scenarios covered during the run included projection at front of house on to a special 3m reflection surface (replaced with upstage LED at festivals); rear projection through smoke; LED strips by Light Initiative; and IMAG were present at festivals. The lighting team also used Marshall SDI
USA - The annual Lincoln Centre Festival in New York City festival featured 46 performances that covered dance, music, theatre, and film. This year David Jensen and David Meschter, head of production and sound supervisor for the festival respectively, decided to utilise an Eastern Acoustics Works (EAW) Adaptive system to meet the needs of two of the events. To do this, they worked closely with Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based Anderson Audio, who supplied the system and support for the festival. The first event was a showing of the film Naked Lunch with live orchestral accompaniment at Alice Tully Hall. “Composer Howard Shore was adamant that the dialogue be localised on the screen,” explained Meschter. “This was challenging since the screen was upstage with the orchestra in front of it and the jazz quartet positioned even further downstage. I was look
UK - Harman Professional has appointed Sound Technology as its UK distributor for Martin. The deal is hoped to streamline logistics for customers, with Sound Technology holding substantial Martin stock in the UK and a supply of spare parts locally. The Hertfordshire-based company has distributed Harman audio solutions and services since 2008 and has now expanded its operations with a dedicated professional lighting team helmed by former Martin UK sales director Ritchie Reed as business development manager (professional lighting). Jonas Stenvinkel, group director entertainment EMEA, HARMAN Professional Solutions, comments: “We are very pleased about this expansion of our partnership, Sound Technology has been our distributor in the UK for many years, and with their strong representation across the country, we believe the expansion of our great partnershi
USA - A cosmetology salon with 26 stations isn’t something you normally find at a high school. Neither are an industrial certified welding shop, nor a fully scaled commercial kitchen, but the $28m Career Education Centre opened this year by the Wichita Falls Independent School District is clearly not your ordinary high school. Dedicated to providing its 1,300 students with real-world experience in everything from microbiology to farming, the 123,000 sq. ft. school provides students with realistic learning centres in 26 different career pathways. To round out the hands-on educational process, the school gives students an opportunity to market their newly developed skills. So, the cosmetology centre welcomes visitors who want their hair and nails done. The culinary centre operates a thriving bistro. And students in the AV programme get to showcase their work on a giant video
Germany - Audio rental company 8 Days a Week recently deployed a complete JBL by Harman VTX Series audio system for a major concert by German pop-rockers PUR at Veltins Arena. PUR has played multiple concerts at the arena since it opened in 2001, and Frank Müller of 8 Days a Week has been the systems engineer for all of them. One of the biggest challenges at Veltins is the lack of good options for deploying subwoofers. When PUR played the arena in 2014, Müller hung the subwoofers in a 40-cabinet cluster above the centre of the stage, which created weight and placement issues for the video and lighting deployments. To avoid those difficulties at this year’s show, Müller forwent a traditional subwoofer deployment and instead relied on the superior bass response of JBL VTX V25-II loudspeakers to cover most of the bottom end for the performance. "If you set up a VTX V
UK - Specialists illumination company LED Creative supported the Infinity Creative Events production crew with a variety of products at the 2017 Best FIFA Football Awards filmed live at the London Palladium. Featuring a set designed by Dominic Tolfts built using clean, modern lines that added a dynamic sense of perspective and depth, the design created a tunnel like effect that cleverly drew viewers inwards, beyond the iconic theatre’s proscenium arch. The sci-fi stylish installation included almost 400m of LED Creative Sigma flex controlled using the company’s proprietary BYTE Controllers. The designer’s smart utilisation of LC Sigma, which included framing the entire width of the stepped stage front, allowed the team full creative control of colour, intensity and movement over a host of key elements throughout the ceremony. The flexibility of the LED inst
Korea - Furniture retailer IKEA has opened its second store in Korea, in the city of Goyang near Seoul, with Inter-M Corporation providing the background music and announcement system across the new 164,000sq m building. Handling design, supply and commissioning directly, Inter-M used the services of Samjin Elex to assist with installation. For the high ceiling height of the warehouse-style store, Mr. Byoung Dock Choi from Inter-M’s SI Team chose Community pendant loudspeakers for their acoustic performance and aesthetics. The system designed by Inter-M uses a combination of Community’s DP6 and DP8 two-way, high output pendant loudspeakers. The coaxial six and eight-inch designs use separate magnets for the LF and compression HF drivers, giving reduced distortion and sensitivity. In total, the system uses 105 x DP6 and 62 x DP8 loudspeakers, driven by Inter-M DPA
USA - Superfly, organisers of the inaugural Lost Lake Festival in Phoenix, Arizona, entrusted long-time collaborator Bandit Lites with providing the lighting for the event’s two mainstages. The lighting company supplied the lighting package for the Camelback and Piestewa stages, where performances included The Killers, Chance the Rapper, Pixies, Huey Lewis & The News, The Roots, Dreamcar, Run the Jewels, Odesza and Major Lazer. “The main brief for the two SAM575 stages was to make them individual, so they each had their own character, and to make them logistically friendly for changeovers and any band lights or scenic pieces that would come in,” said Bandit production manager Dizzy Gosnell. The Camelback stage had over 130 fixtures and featured Magic Panels, Rogue Hybrids, Cuepix WW2, VL6000 Beams and Illumipanel architectural washes controlled w
USA - Robe’s BMFL Blades and BMFL WashBeams were specified as a major element of the house lighting rig at the new Little Caesars Arena in midtown Detroit. Crossfade Design’s Eric Wade specified the fixtures, while his team – comprising Jason Robinson, Michael Nevitt and John Early - coordinated the installation and programming of the new lights. The crew chose 36 x Robe BMFL Blades and 24 x BMFL WashBeams for their brightness and optics and flexible future sets. They also chose Anolis ArcDots, 450 of which are mounted on the tensioned wire grid covering 80% of the ceiling and combine with 1,700 LED strips for a vibrant, dazzling environmental effect. The BMFLs Blades are around the perimeter of the ice (for the ice hockey events), with the BMFL WashBeams rigged in the high corners of the building, all trimmed at around 100 ft. above the floor. They n
UK - White Light is providing the lighting equipment for Venus in Fur, a Tony Award-winning two-hander starring Natalie Dormer and David Oakes that recently opened at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London. The set design features a raked floor pushing through the proscenium into the house with a steeply-angled ceiling overhead, which meant there was no opportunity for overhead lighting. Hugh Vanstone, lighting designer for the show, comments: “The play itself dictates a lot about the setting and lighting as the action takes place in a New York rehearsal room whilst a thunderstorm rages outside. The room is initially lit with fluorescent strip lights but also has a small improvised lighting rig, which the mysterious Vanda commandeers to soften the mood in her attempts to win over Thomas.” “The way I approached this play was to ensure there was a marke
Backstage Wages - Backstage and FOH staff are being urged to vote in favour of a pay offer from West End managements that is less than half the increase they originally demanded. In August, backstage and front-of-house union BECTU announced it was seeking a one-year deal for West End theatre staff that included a 9% pay rise. At the time, BECTU said it had submitted an ambitious claim that was justified by the increasing cost of living in the capital. However, after "intensive" negotiations with the Society of London Theatre at the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service failed to secure an agreement, members will now be balloted on a significantly reduced proposal. It sets out a 3.5% increase for 2017/18, and the same again for the following year, with a 2.5% rise in 2019/20. Under the offer, the third year's deal would be subject to the Consumer Prices
UK - Technology with Heart was the theme of Jaguar and Land Rover's inaugural Tech Fest which took place at Central Saint Martins in London in September. Organised by London-based creative agency Imagination, the event explored how technology contributes to the auto industry and was packed full of innovative displays which demonstrated how technology is being used to make a positive difference. Jay Plomer, senior production manager, Imagination commented: "The venue for this event is a fantastic space but it is a listed building and right from the start we were told that it would not be possible to install any fixing points in to the walls and ceiling. This posed the challenge of how to light all exhibits in a big area within the space – and so we brought Unusual Rigging on board to help us solve that problem." Paul Rhodes, senior rigging supervisor, Un
UK - Since Pyrojunkies first dipped their toes into the world of MA control they have been busy servicing the needs of productions such as Bros, Jason Derulo, the Diversity Genesis Tour, the Ghost European Tour, the Kaiser Chiefs, Stormzy at Brixton Academy and the Capital FM Summertime Ball. “We have been using an MA dot2 console to control our effects for a while and been really impressed by what the system offered us in terms of programming and creating new profiles,” opens Pyrojunkies’ sales and project manager, James Priddle. “By the time we took the Kaiser Chiefs’ system out we were confident that we had found the console that was perfect for our unique requirements. For that tour, we hired a dot2-XLF as a final test before we took the plunge and ordered a dot2 Core from Ambersphere Solutions. ‘We worked very closely with Thor André and the rest of
USA - Miami-based Mix3 Sound recently added 24 Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW) Anya array modules to their rental inventory, bringing their total up to 48 Anya and 24 Anna. James Newhouse, North American sales director for EAW, says: “John Ferlito and the folks at Mix3 have been fans of Adaptive since they purchased their first Anya system in 2015. Since then they have found that the flexibility and adaptive nature of the systems keeps it in high demand. It was an easy decision to increase their inventory to meet their clients’ needs.” Mix3 put the new boxes to use at CAP (La Conferencia Apostólica y Profética) 2017, an Apostolic and Prophetic Conference held at the American Airlines Arena in Miami. Mix3 also provided an EAW Adaptive System for the stadium last year. The event draws more than 20,000 every year. “We have used Anya for CAP since 2015,” add
USA - Anthem Community Church in Gainesville, Florida, holds itself to a high standard of contemporary worship, matching its affiliated church, Atlanta-based North Point Ministries, which is among the largest churches in the US. High-energy music is a characteristic of both churches, so when Anthem built its new location, which opened in January 2017, it sought out the best professional audio systems possible. That included the Roland M-5000 OHRCA Digital Mixing Console as the hub of the church’s sound infrastructure. “Anthem Community Church is a very tech-savvy church, and they had a very specific set of input/output requirements in mind,” recalls Jeremy Moyers, president of the Moyers Group, the AV integration company that has worked with that church since 2008. “For instance, they mix all of their monitors, including eight stereo channels just for IEMs, from the
Italy - On the 10th anniversary of Luciano Pavarotti’s death, Friends & Partners Group and the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation produced a show paying tribute to the world-famous tenor. Un Emozione senza fine (An endless emotion) was staged in the Verona Arena and aired live in prime time nationwide on TV and radio. As well as a 70-piece orchestra, an electric rhythm section and numerous singers performing virtual duets with ‘Big Luciano’, the engineers had to mix a variety of sounds, from the raunchy tones of Zucchero, to the crystalline flute of Andrea Griminelli, Giorgia’s soaring jazz-tinged vocals and young opera talents from the Pavarotti Foundation. Agorà of L’Aquila, the event’s audio and lighting contractor, deployed no less than six DiGiCo consoles at the impressive event, manned by several of the country’s most respected engineer
Taiwan - Winly Engineering & Trading was tasked with designing and supplying an L-Acoustics system for the 28th Golden Melody Awards (GMAs), the Chinese speaking territories’ highly-regarded music awards. Winly, who has worked on the GMAs from its first edition, designed and prepared a lighting system to cope with the venue’s deep, narrow configuration, basing its design on L-Acoustics K1, K2, Kara and SB28. “A big challenge for the system design was the shape of the venue, its limited rigging possibilities and the fact that the production requested no fill system in front of the stage,” says Winly’s president and production manager for the event, Andy Chen. “With the help of L-Acoustics’ Alvin Koh, we made an initial design of the system with L-Acoustics 3D acoustical simulation programme, Soundvision, to provide us with the optimum result.”
South Africa - Philips Lighting's latest lighting fixtures are playing a key role in the current series of South Africa's TV talent contest Idols. The LED-based Philips VLZ Profile are enabling more finely colour-balanced television pictures for the latest series. Produced by Mzansi Magic channel 161 DSTV, Idols is currently in its 13th season. The lighting designer, for the seventh consecutive year, is Joshua Cutts, one of South Africa's leading practitioners of the art of lighting entertainment shows for television. For this year's run, Cutts, along with director/executive producer Gavin Wratten, wanted to build on the show's highly successful 12th season by further enhancing the set and lighting design. "I was looking for two things," says Cutts, "a strong, iconic backlight and a strong profile with framing capability for my keylight. It was al
