UK - Illumination specialists LED Creative supported set designer Rudi Thackray and lighting director Gurdip Mahal, in helping set the scene for James Corden and The Late Late Show’s recent visit to London. Filmed in front of a live studio audience, The Late Late Show transferred its regular format of star guests, sketches and musical performance from its US home for a run of shows at Central Hall Westminster. Maintaining the general feel of the US show, Rudi Thackray’s vibrant set, shrouded in fluorescent pinks and blues, was a perfect backdrop to the show, contrasting perfectly against the grandiose surroundings of the venue. One of the key features in the design was the inclusion of over 40 LED Creative Sigma Pulse Wands, cleverly placed throughout the set to provide ultra convenient, colour shape and movement. Quick to install and easy to control,
UK - Garsington Opera Pavilion has undergone a number of major additions to its existing structure ahead of its summer 2017 programme of events that started at the beginning of June, thanks to Unusual Rigging. Visitors to the pavilion will this year experience enhanced protection from the unpredictable British weather as well as additional flexible space beneath the seating tier which will increase the champagne bar area as well as acting as a gallery space. Angus Boyd-Heron, events manager for Garsington, said: "The award winning pavilion which Unusual constructed in 2010 was built as a demountable structure and has gone from strength to strength. Each year, we bring Unusual Rigging back to make some additions and improvements, which have escalated into some pretty major works as our ideas have become larger. As our ambitions grow and our season now extended enabling more p
UK - Having successfully produced Edinburgh’s first open air dance festival for the Fly Club in the city centre’s Princes Street Gardens last Autumn, alongside sister company Creation Live, Martin Audio partners VME moved to the outskirts of the Scottish capital, and the spectacular 6500-acre Hopetoun House Estate overlooking the River Forth, for the second Fly Open Air Festival. Unlike the fixed Princes Street bandstand a festival infrastructure needed to be created in the grounds of the 17th century mansion and sound levels closely observed - a challenge that Martin Audio’s award-winning MLA Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array was more than equal to. “The scaffolding structure didn't help us - we couldn't get the height we wanted, which created a number of physical challenges,” admitted VME head of sound, Mark Cleator. “This required some late changes to the
Ukraine - Within the vast sound production called upon for this year’s Eurovision 2017 in Kyiv, a pair of TiMax SoundHub audio delay matrix units were supplied by Black Box Music (BBM) to manage multi-zone PA level and delay alignment between Main and B-stage performance areas. The setup revisits a technique pioneered for Adele’s recent record-breaking world-wide arena tour. The TiMax SoundHub-S16 systems were inserted between Digico SD7’s and Lake master system processing feeding the amps, which in turn fed multiple distributed L’Acoustics line array hangs, subs and fills. As the performance switched between the two stages, the TiMax dynamic delay-matrix delivered all mix outputs from main and backup console/system processor chains via onboard 96KHz SRC’s, to seamlessly re-align and focus all PA elements onto the current stage. The power and versati
Israel - Tel Aviv based Light Architects Cochavi & Klein are known for their style and propensity for invention and they are also impressed with Robe’s Spiider LED wash beams. The designers seized the opportunity of the Picnic Passover with Black Coffee, a pumping electronic music event presented by The Tripping in Tel Aviv’s most famous urban oasis, Hayarkon Park, to utilise 48 x Spiiders and 24 x Robe Pointes on a circular trussing structure, forming a massive ‘sun’, which was winched above the crowds on a crane. The sold-out event featured sets from award-winning, rising-star South African DJ and music producer Black Coffee, plus DJs Jenia Tersol & Benji. They, together with a hugely enthusiastic audience, enjoyed the unique setting of the park, which is known for its magical aura and ancient rocks brought from all over Israel. These ro
Europe - Canadian industrial band Skinny Puppy might not be mainstream airplay but the band has been around for decades and is currently touring Europe beneath an intelligent lighting rig that includes Elation Professional ACL 360 Bar effect lights and SixBar 1000 LED colour-changing battens. Pioneers of the electro-industrial genre, Skinny Puppy, known for their theatrical and sometimes controversial live performances, enjoys a dedicated following and has charted in both North America and Europe. They have just completed the European leg of their Down the Sociopath tour. Lighting has been designed and is under the direction of Eric Price (Thrice, Underoath, Bayside), who, although working with the group for the first time, has meshed with the band to create a design that complements the band’s complex and layered sound. “For the Skinny Puppy design, everythi
Iberia - For Ricky Martin’s monitor engineer, Steve May, DiGiCo consoles hold two big advantages: their I/O capacity - which means he never worries about running out of inputs or outputs - and the ability to switch seamlessly between consoles in the range. Both have made life easier as he and Front of House engineer Chris ‘Privet’ Hedge travel round Spain and Portugal on the current leg of Ricky Martin’s tour. The tour has taken in many of the major cities in Spain, including Madrid, Granada, Valencia, Seville, Barcelona, as well as the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, and finishes in Bilbao. Three rental companies are supplying equipment, with PRG Spain and Llusovi each handling six shows and Fluge two. The equipment inventory varies from company to company and although Steve specifies an SD7, depending on availability, he has used both this and an SD5 as his monitor
Bermuda - The America’s Cup sailing race is the oldest trophy in international sport, dating back to 1851. And for the 35th edition, presented by Louis Vuitton, the location was Bermuda, as the event moved to the iconic Great Sound. Local Bermuda Broadcasting Company (BBC) was appointed as the official broadcast partner, and they responded by creating an advanced fibre network between the America’s Cup Village at the Royal Naval Dockyard, the transmission, editing and news gathering hub, and their own studio back at base. They did this via a BroaMan advanced fibre network - this has not only enabled them to provide viewers and listeners with live coverage of all the racing over the five weeks via terrestrial TV and radio broadcasts over IP but also to feed its web and social media platforms. This has included taking video and commentaries out on the water, from he
UK - WI has supplied staging, elevators and extensive automation elements to the Take That ‘Wonderland’ tour which kicked off at the Genting Arena, Birmingham. The lively, colourful carnivalesque aesthetic is the vision of the band’s creative director Kim Gavin and the result of some serious creative and technical talents who have collaborated to bring action packed drama to a strong, highly entertaining performance by the band. The WI team was led by Hans Willems and Koen Peeters and the company was asked on-board by production manager Chris Vaughan. They worked closely with production designer Ray Winkler for Stufish, scenic designer Misty Buckley, lighting designer Tim Routledge and video designer Alex Leinster to specify and construct the numerous custom elements. To deal with the complex and rigorous health and safety aspects of the project WI brought
UK - Symphotech has been entrusted to oversee health and safety and sound monitoring at Let's Rock - The Retro Festival as it heads to eight locations throughout the summer, June 2017. Famed for its retro throwbacks and vintage fun, The Let’s Rock concert has already visited Cookham, Shrewsbury, Bristol and Leeds, heading onto Norwich, Exeter, Southampton and London. Organisers, UK Live, keen to take their responsibility seriously, brought in Symphotech to ensure the highest level of health and safety services and to make certain noise levels didn’t affect local residents. UK Live first contracted Symphotech to oversee health and safety last year and following a successful run of the events, UK Live has continued this relationship and also brought in Symphotech’s noise monitoring team to ensure minimum disruption to the local area. Symphotech’s legal and
USA - Early June was rocking in Music City. The hometown Predators were selling out the Bridgestone arena for the Stanley Cup finals, and the Country Music Awards celebration was in full swing. Although the city's hockey team came up a little short in its championship quest, the CMA festivities were all they were cranked up to be, as Nashville's downtown rang out with parties and festivals during the awards weekend. Among the hottest CMA celebrations was the one at Piranha's, a 10,000sq.ft sports bar and music hall on Second Avenue, where 38 bands performed over three days, supported by a Jeff Hinton-designed lightshow that featured Chauvet DJ Intimidators. Hinton used six Intimidator Beam LED 350 and six Intimidator Spot 255 IRC fixtures in his design for the Johnny B Enterprises-produced event. He flew his moving lights on two different levels of overhead tru
UK - Liz Hobbs Group, one of the leading promoters and producers of concerts and events in the UK, has invested in a complete LED video wall system from the video division of A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd. (AC-ET). Liz Hobbs, who are promoting and producing tours and concerts by Tom Jones, Little Mix, Olly Murs, Craig David and Shane Filan this summer, started using the system at the first gig of the UB40 tour, which opened at Inverness‘ Northern Meeting Park in late May. The 33sqm, IP65 rated ProLights AlphaPIX6T LED wall consists of 72 panels and was supplied with a full range of rigging, networking, control and ancillary equipment. It will provide the main stage backdrop for many of the shows this summer. In addition to the LED wall itself, AC-ET supplied video transmission equipment including, Luminex GigaCore data switches, tvONE video switcher / s
UAE - Lighthouse Productions (LHP) from Dubai created a unique visual design for the Islamic Art Awards 2017, staged at the Abu Dhabi National Theatre. Organized by the UAE’s Ministry of Culture & Knowledge Department, the Awards - a poetry, calligraphy and ornamentation competition open to local and non-local poets from within and outside the UAE expressing themselves in classical and Nabati verse - is widely recognized as one of the most important Islamic Art events worldwide. The LHP team was led by Terry Miranda. When it came to lighting, he and Adrian Guzman specified 80 x Robe luminaires to be right at the centre of the aesthetic. LHP has successfully been awarded the contract to deliver the event for the last 11 years, chosen for their understanding and appreciation of Islamic art, design and history, parameters which have been evident in all the differen
UK - The Beach Boys and Deacon Blue are two of the latest acts to utilise the Adamson E-Series and S-Series loudspeakers. Adamson's UK partner The Warehouse Sound Services working with promoter LCC Live designed a substantial Adamson sound reinforcement system for Montrose Music Festival’s 10th Anniversary event last month. The three-day festival featured headline performances from The Beach Boys and Deacon Blue alongside a range of other artists. LCC Live has worked in conjunction with MoFest since 2013 and has been responsible for bringing top musical acts to the town including Status Quo, Madness, Jools Holland and Bryan Adams. Montrose Music Festival or MoFest as it has become affectionately known as takes place at the end of May each year in Montrose, Angus. It has become a much anticipated, annual event across Scotland. 10,000 fans packed out the festival
USA - Describing Father John Misty’s recent shows as “concerts,” doesn’t quite do them justice. There’s plenty of good music on the artist’s current tour in support of his Billboard chart topping Pure Comedy album, but his engrossing and provocative performance is almost as theatrical as it is musical. Throughout his two-hour plus show the artist, whose real name is Josh Tillman, moves from captivating the audience with his rich lush sound, to startling them with theatrical flourishes. Dropping to a knee and clutching the mic to his heart one minute and emulating the hand gestures of a preacher the next, he enthrals audiences with his mix of music and drama. Supporting this multi-faceted performance every step of the way is an equally engaging and varied lightshow that designer Peter Zellan is running with a ChamSys MagicQ MQ80 console. Zellan,
USA - In May, some of Elation Professional’s newest, cutting-edge lighting gear was used by lighting designer Daniel Cortes of Everlast Productions on the Haitian Compas Festival in Miami, one of the largest Caribbean festivals in the United States. The Haitian Compas Festival is a yearly celebration of the Haitian community that features popular musical acts along with traditional Haitian food and other facets of Haitian culture. After 18 years as a one-day event, this year’s festival was held over two days from 20-21 May at Bayfront Park in downtown Miami. For Miami’s Haitian community, Compas was an opportunity to put the méringue sounds of konpa (compas) music in focus while partying beneath the bright lights of a truly contemporary rig. This year an all Elation rig provided the visual dynamics with some of the company’s newest lighting products in action:
UK - Since 2007 HL Audio has covered all the audio and lighting needs for the Glastonbury Avalon Cafe Stage. Based in Frome, Somerset, the company began a long association with German sound reinforcement specialists HK Audio, first purchasing an Actor DX system and haven’t looked back since. Over the years, they have used two linked Actor DX systems, and at times a Projector system. These days, directors Tom Pepler and Will Angeloro at, finding the full sound and amazing dispersion perfect for the eclectic mix of acts that frequent the Avalon Cafe Stage at Glastonbury. From rock bands to 10-piece funk bands, folk acts to world music, the LTS Systems deliver a crystal clear and highly efficient sound, making both FOH and monitor mixing a breeze. For stage monitoring, they use a mix of the Premium PR:O PRO 15XD and Linear 5 L5112XA cabinets, as the quick changeov
Canada - Technology from audio specialist Sennheiser will help deliver an immersive audio experience for visitors to the upcoming Revolution exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA). The exhibition, which originated at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London, looks at the social fabric of the late 1960s - the pivotal period when youth culture initiated a new sense of identity, solidarity and idealism, bringing people together to question established power structures. Like the V&A, the MMFA employs Sennheiser’s AMBEO immersive 3D audio technology and guidePORT audio guide system to deliver a fascinating museum experience and bring the spirit of that era back to life with an unforgettable soundscape. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, which collaborated closely with the V&A on the exhibition, will open it to the public on 17 June, inviting
Russia - Top Russian rapper Баста performed in front of a sold-out, 35,000-strong crowd at Moscow’s Olympic Stadium, setting a new record for an in-the-round performance by a Russian artist. Front of House sound engineer Ruslan Dmitriev chose the Yamaha Rivage PM10. Rivage PM10 has already established a good reputation as a stable, reliable system in the Russian touring market. Ruslan needed a console that was big enough to manage the complex, 360° format show and also be absolutely certain that he wouldn't have any problems. Alongside the console, he also specified a PC with AIC128-D Dante interface for a 66 channel, 96kHz recording to Steinberg Nuendo Live. “This was the second time I had mixed a show on Rivage PM10 and both times I found it very easy to use,” says Ruslan. “I had used the Yamaha PM5D for many years, as well as the CL series, and the Riv
UK - Victoria House in London’s Holborn was home to the 2017 NEC Solutions Showcase and Green Hippo’s UK team played a key role in delivering one of NEC’s sweetest exhibits to 1,500 trade visitors. A Hippotizer Boreal Media Server created a ‘virtual sweet shop’ set-up, using a total of 11 screens, three Datapath X4 video splitters, and playing back 4K video. The resulting display immediately grabbed the attention, and show visitors immediately grabbed some time with Green Hippo’s on-hand team of technical experts. The NEC-hosted event is a valuable opportunity for Green Hippo to demonstrate its cutting-edge line, as well as meet and greet hundreds of members of the trade. Recognised as one of the UK’s leading events at which to ‘bring technologies to life’ Green Hippo was one of 36 NEC partners present at this ninth show, and the Boreal’s sweet shop
Europe - Metal supergroup Soen has just completed a month-long tour of Europe carrying a compact dLive touring rig from Allen & Heath’s new dLive C Class range. The tour visited 19 venues in three weeks including dates in France, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, Austria, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Comprising a C2500 Surface, CDM32 MixRack with a DX32 expander rack, the FOH engineer purchased the system especially for the tour to provide consistent FOH sound on the road. “On tour, I have never had so many compliments about the sound quality as when I travel with dLive! The system’s onboard FX and compressors are amazing, and without doubt, the best I have ever used,” comments FOH Engineer, Peter Droneberger. (Jim Evans)
USA - Destination Imagination, the non-profit organization that works to inspire and equip the world’s next generation of innovators, held their annual Global Finals event. Bandit Lites once again facilitated a lighting package for the enormous competition that centres on promoting logic skills and inspiring creativity, while encouraging where more than 17,000 attendees including 8,000 students from 21 countries gathered to competeenthusiasm in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This year’s Global Finals featured guests included CW television actor Victor Rodriguez III, singer-songwriters Levi Kreis and Drew Gasparini along with NASA astronaut, Dorothy “Dottie” Metcalf-Lindenburger. With a weekend of celebrating creativity, Bandit Lites general manager Giff Swart strives each year to create a unique and fun design for the Opening and Closing Cere
UK - Lighting designer Nathan Alves has a penchant for invention and thinking out of the box, so he has enjoyed the challenge of developing the lighting scheme for the new John Mayer Search for Everything world tour which just finished its UK and European leg. The set / production design created by Sam Pattinson of Treatment Studio has a strong cinematic feel and is heavily video orientated. Adding an appropriate and effective lighting aesthetic to compliment this environment with its strong geometry and definite lines energized Nathan who specified exactly 100 fixtures. However, with 40 of these being Robe’s BMFL Spots, this brought massive scope and plenty of flexibility, and as everyone knows, it’s not just about throwing kit at a stage, it’s about imagination, technique and how the tools are used! The BMFL Spots were positioned on eight upstage/do
The Netherlands - One of the Netherlands’ biggest dance festivals took place recently during the Pentecost weekend - and to bring the main stage alive were no fewer than 60 of PR Lighting’s premium PR5000 Beam and Spot moving heads. Fully featured, and one of the most advanced fixtures on the market, they were largely responsible for the spectacular light show that enhanced performances by acts that included headliners Headhunterz, East & Young, Showtek and Nicky Romero. The PR Lighting fixtures were supplied by a collaboration of Innovation Audio, 4AV Technical Productions and Rolight, the PR Lighting distributor of the Netherlands. Freshtival provided two days of music and camping in Enschede’s Het Rutbeek recreational park 4AV’s Merijn van Kruijsbergen’s was responsible for the overall design, in collaboration with the event’s LJ, Gerwin Sanderman.
