USA - The Atlanta Braves hadn’t won a National League pennant since 1999, and few ‘experts’ expected them to do so this year, even though they managed to squeak into the post season playoffs. But baseball is, if nothing else, a game that has a way of turning improbabilities into realities. Perhaps because of this, Mike Grabowski and the team at The Lighting Design Group were ready for anything when the Braves began their playoff against the favoured Milwaukee Brewers. Their interest, or course, involved more than baseball; as they were tasked with lighting the pre and post-game commentary for the National League Championship Series, between the winners of the Braves-Brewers and Dodger-Giants clashes. “It was a bit of an unusual situation,” said Grabowski. “We didn’t know where we’d be going to light the first game of the NLCS, because of the way the ba
UK - When the Waterboys embarked on their current British tour, they did so safe in the knowledge that their new production supplier, Entec Live, would be able to provide the same integrated sound and lighting package as their old. Entec, head of sound, Dan Scantlebury had brought the Waterboys into the fold, at the blessing of his previous company, dbnAudile. “They introduced us to the band owing to their heavy workload - and since the two companies have similar inventories it has been an easy transition. You generally find both L-Acoustics and d&b on tour riders, and we have the latter. In this instance they fielded two hangs of d&b V series, with a Soundcraft Vi7000 console at FOH and DiGiCo SD12 on monitors. “The major advantage is that the band has one point of contact,” says Scantlebury, who was previously the band’s system tech. “Whether a soun
Romania - Interest and anticipation for the first SAGA Festival in Romania, a collaboration between two dance world operations – ALDA Events and Insomniac - was so popular that the site was changed up to a bigger venue on the land of aerospace company Romaero in Bucharest. Helping create this electronic music festival experience and new chapter in Romanian live event history was Andre Beekmans and his team from Netherlands-based design practice, The Art of Light, who specified over 200 Robe moving lights for the largest stage - Source. Eindhoven-based Andre created the production lighting designs and supplied programmers and operators for Source plus the two other big stages, Heat and Spark. With some stages in the open air, SAGA also took advantage of a selection of enormous airplane hangars on the site, which is still a fully functional working aircraft repair and
USA - Founded in 1836, Emory & Henry College is consistently ranked among the nation’s best private liberal arts institutions. Central to the college’s southwestern Virginia campus is Memorial Chapel, a 500-seat church building that has served as host to thousands of worship services. This past summer, Memorial Chapel was host to renovation with the installation of a new Danley Sound Labs point source sound reinforcement system. “The previous installation used ceiling speakers that were installed 35 – 40ftt in the air,” said Justin Plaster of JMP Productions. “This prior design required the speakers to be quite loud to drive sound to event and worship service attendees. With the reverberant nature of the Chapel as well as the height and arch of the ceiling, this made intelligibility of the audio from those speakers very poor. The system was also quite d
USA - To provide country star Kane Brown with impactful onstage visuals for his 2021 North American tour, Ahlstrand Productions selected Martin Professional lighting solutions provided by lighting company DCR Nashville. Kane Brown is a multi-platinum singer-songwriter and the first artist to simultaneously claim the number one spot on all five of Billboard’s main country charts. After postponing his Worldwide Beautiful Tour in early 2020, Brown is back on the road with the Blessed & Free Tour, playing some of the biggest arenas in the country including Madison Square Garden. Because the songs in Brown’s setlist range from tender acoustic ballads to loud and rollicking anthems, lighting designer Trevor Ahlstrand of Ahlstrand Productions wanted to design a rig that supported the music’s stylistic changes and gave fans an exciting visual experience while also a
France - In the picturesque setting of the Arenes de Nîmes, in the south of France, lighting designer Pierre Wendels shed light on the history of the city, in a visual spectacular specifically designed for the Roman amphitheatre. Les Nuits de Nemaus featured more than 200 professional actors, dancers and stuntmen and a plethora of effects; with lighting controlled by two ETC Eos consoles, with Philippe ‘Pilou’ Roy at the helm. Accustomed to major projects, Wendels created a poetic atmosphere by combining lighting and video content for the remarkable show. “If the team around me is confident, everyone is willing to take risks and that’s good for fostering creativity,” he says. “I try to connect with the audience through visual perception. My first consideration is the human experience; the method is only a tool.” For this project, Wendels relied o
Austria - For this summer’s Oper Im Steinbruch production at St Margarethen’s amphitheatre, once a Roman quarry now billed as Europe’s largest natural stage, little could outshine the vast projected visual backdrop for the performances of Turandot. The audio for the lavish production, however, was enhanced with TiMax SoundHub object-based spatialisation integrated with an Amadeus active acoustics system which immersed the 4,700-capacity audience, delivering consistent focus and intelligibility across the 80m wide, 30m deep stage. St Margarethen’s sound designer for Turandot, Volker Werner, consistently relies upon TiMax SoundHub so that audiences can easily follow the classical opera narratives, this year specifying two Dante-equipped main and backup units as the spatial processing core of the system. Werner states, “We have always
USA - When Ridgeview Classical Schools in Fort Collins, Colorado, a public K-12 charter school serving approximately 750 students, realised it was time to upgrade their auditorium AV system they chose LEA Professional to give them reliable amplifier power within an affordable package. Local AV systems integrator Sight + Sound Technologies was sub-contracted in to help Ridgeview Classical with a sound system upgrade within the school's main auditorium. The project was actually started a few months earlier but was running over budget, and school managers wanted a re-look at the project to see if cost-saving adjustments could be made. "The original estimates only included equipment costs, not labour, and the school had a strict budget they needed to adhere to, but of course, quality and usability were still important," said Kris Johnson, chief operating officer, Sight +
UK - The University of Bedfordshire, a multi-site academic facility including campuses in Bedford and Luton, recently upgraded three of their performance spaces with theatrical lighting control from Zero 88. “We had three different theatrical spaces in need of upgrades, and we wanted a consistent experience across all of them,” explained Jamie Spirito, technician / demonstrator at the University of Bedfordshire. “The smaller Luton Campus theatre needed a powerful, yet straightforward console. Our Bedford Campus Theatre and Studio Theatre needed a bit more refined control capabilities, but with the same product quality and ease of use. That’s why I went with Zero 88 control solutions.” Stage Electrics supplied the university with two Zero 88 consoles, a FLX for the 110-seat Luton Campus Theatre and a FLX S48 for the 125-seat Studio Theatre, both of which run t
Spain - The Elton John-Lee Hall coming of age musical Billy Elliot continues to be staged in theatres worldwide. Reflecting the deep sea of emotions that run through this story in light, requires a design that is not only colourful and aesthetically balanced, but also subtle and nuanced in its portrayal of different moods. Carlos Torrijos of Fábrica de Luz, and Juan Gomez-Cornejo provided that for a current production of the musical presented by Som Produce at the Nuevo Teatro Alcalá in Madrid and the Teatro Victòria in Barcelona. "Billy is a show more about colour temperature than colour itself," said Torrijos, when discussing the subtle and emotive lighting design. Helping him and Gomez-Cornejo achieve this balance in Barcelona were 52 Chauvet Professional Ovation E-910FC ellipsoidal fixtures supplied by Proyect Arte. For many of the musical se
France - The Ultra Son company, founded in 1996 by Patrice Polak in Saint Quentin in the Aisne region of France, initially concentrated on the rental and sale of equipment for DJs and local services. Maxime Polak, Patrice’s son, gave the company new impetus when he took over it in 2011, expanding its activities to servicing concerts and events, providing sound, lighting and structure. This vision paid off, as has its investment in DiGiCo consoles over the years, with the latest addition to its inventory being a Quantum 338. Ultra Son’s DiGiCo console fleet started with the purchase of an SD8 in 2015 and has grown over the years, with S21s then an SD12 added. This July saw them add the Q338, the first Quantum console for the company, its processing quality, flexibility of flexible configuration combined with redesigned ergonomics to cope with any operating req
South Korea - The National Theatre of Korea has upgraded its dimming control to a range of products from Strand to add functionality for its diverse range of luminaires. A recent remodelling of the multi-theatre complex saw a Strand EC21 Advanced Technology Dimmer Rack installed by Total Plus - the Vari-Lite and Strand distributor for Korea. Total Plus also deployed an EC21 Advanced Control Electronics Processor Assembly with Dual processor, an EC21 Dual 25A Powerthru Module 435us Dim/ND/Bypass, an EC21 Dual 25A 200us Single Pole module and a Dual 20A CD80SV Non-Dim C21-style module and housing. “The theatres use a mixture of LED fixtures and conventional halogen lamps, and the Strand dimming curve helps to streamline such diverse equipment efficiently,” says SH Koo, senior lighting designer of the National Theatre of Korea. “Strand's dimmer modules have wi
USA - Podcasters on the San Francisco-based Pantheon network are using the AKG Podcaster Essentials bundle to great effect, enjoying improved sound and ease of use from the AKG Lyra USB microphone and K371 headphones. Pantheon Podcasts is a network of more than 70 music-focused shows, running the gamut from casual music exploration to history, production, banjo culture and much more. Pantheon founder and CEO Christian Swain is also the host of Rock N Roll Archaeology, a chronological, episodic podcast that tells the story of how the music of the late 20th century intersected with the changing culture of the times to create what is now one of the greatest moments in music history. According to Swain, the AKG Podcaster Essentials toolkit makes it possible for less-experienced hosts to achieve professional sound easily and lends a cohesive sound to the network’s many shows.
USA - Crusader Stadium is the home of the NCAA Cru Football team at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. During the summer of 2021, Daktronics upgraded the end-zone scoreboard and sound system with the goal of doubling the size of the video display area while minimizing changes to the existing structure. For long-throw coverage, Daktronics deployed six Fulcrum Acoustic AHS speaker modules in the horizontal ‘ribbon’ above the video area of the scoreboard. Each AHS module packs a lot of output into a 31” tall package, with up to four coaxial compression drivers and four horn-loaded 10” woofers per module. The available space within the scoreboard structure allowed for three stacks of two modules each. This provides sufficient output to achieve the project’s sound level goals for the seating areas. The high-frequency driver density provides the output needed to
USA - Ayrton is playing a key part of The Doobie Brothers tour in celebration of their 50th anniversary, which will play to around 50 venues across the USA and Canada throughout 2021 and 2022. Solotech of Nashville supplied 17 Ayrton Khamsin LED profile fixtures for this tour which were chosen by the production design team at Darkroom Creative, Seth Jackson and Nathan Alves. The team wanted the Khamsin fixtures as part of their retro design which they use to summon up a 1980s vibe. “In celebration of the Doobie Brothers’ 50th anniversary, Darkroom Creative did a little celebration of our own,” explains Jackson. “We figured since the band was celebrating 50 years, and the concert lighting business is roughly the same age, we would give a nod to the guys that inspired us when we were getting started. The lighting rig, though completely LED, is reminiscent of the
UK - Britannia Row Productions marked its return to outdoor live music in the UK by providing a control package for Anne-Marie’s Saturday set at the 2021 Pirelli British Grand Prix, held at Silverstone. The package for the Formula 1 fixture was made up primarily of DiGiCo consoles, DPA microphones, Shure and Sennheiser IEMs and KLANG processing. During the show, Anne-Marie - a judge on the Voice UK who is known for hits such as 2002, Don’t Play and Friends - was looked after by Niccolò Antonietti at FOH, while Scott Maxwell took the reins on monitors. “This was my first-time mixing Anne-Marie. I really like her music because it’s a good mix of garage, electronic beats and pop melodies,” said Antonietti. “I tried to replicate the atmosphere of her records as closely as possible, particularly on her vocal effects. She’s us
Slovenia - Ljubljana Puppet Theatre (Lutkovno Gledališče Ljubljana) is famous for both puppet productions and live acting dramas, musicals, and other performance entertainments in and around its various spaces, which are also available for business events. The 200 capacity Saint Jacob’s (Šentjakobsko) Hall auditorium has recently re-opened after a complete eight-month renovation plan. This latest technical upgrade has included the installation of 16 new Robe T1 LED Profile moving lights in the Saint Jacob’s (Šentjakobsko) Hall. They join more recent Robe purchases across the venue’s other four performance spaces including The Tunnel which burrows into the hill beneath Ljubljana Castle and has 12 x CycFX8s which are used for lighting the long corridor audience areas. The 180-seat St Jacob’s Stage, the Main Stage, Small Stage and the Stage Under the Stars l
UK - After its enforced break last year, the traditional black-tie Henley Festival returned this summer with sound system providers, RG Jones Sound Engineering’s association with the event now approaching 40 years. However, the site on the banks of the Thames is not without its challenges when it comes to creating optimum audio. This is highlighted by its main Floating Stage, situated on the river itself. The auditorium here is only around 40m from front to back, but over 100m wide. Obtaining even coverage without hotspots for audiences, both inside and outside the main sound field, is a challenge that has been met head on by a combination of the service providers’ technical expertise, led by designer Simon Honywill, and their deployment of Martin Audio’s MLA. The festival production team had previously acknowledged that MLA’s advanced control technology had en
Italy - Outline’s ET System now boasts more than 1,500 customers globally. In daily use by in a multitude of industry sectors, it is also found in universities and research institute. High-profile users include Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Intel, Lucasfilm, Dolby and MIT where it is used on a daily basis to measure everything from antennae, solar panels, hearing aids and smart devices to loudspeaker systems and transducers, mobile comms devices, microphones, domestic appliances and even medical equipment. Outline’s original concept of a high-precision, computer-controlled turntable capable of ‘placing significant loads with perfect accuracy in a measurement environment has now been developed further’, with the creation of two new models (the ET50-3D and ET250R2-3D) to suit different speed and load requirements. Both models feature a revolutionary n
Korea - With a total area of 11,265sq.m and the largest LED wall in Korea, VA Corporation’s new VA Studio Hanam provides in-camera visual effects (ICVFX) facilities optimised for immersive content production. Created in partnership with ARK Ventures Inc South Korea, this virtual production infrastructure is powered by Brompton Technology LED processing, with 4K Tessera SX40 processors driving four large LED walls. The new facility offers a full spectrum of creative possibilities for content production, from films, drama, advertising, and gaming to XR broadcasts and live performances, allowing each production to be tailored to the specific needs and budget of the client. VA Studio Hanam includes three main facilities, all featuring cutting-edge technology provided by ARK Ventures, including ROE Visual LED screens and Brompton Tessera processing. With a floor ar
UK - When asked to light a special video celebrating the launch of the new Lotus Emira sports car, lighting designer Nick Jevons reached for Astera Titan Tubes to create the desired effects. Nick was asked onboard by technical co-ordinators Anna Valley who were working for producers, Blueprint Partners. The filming was directed by Mark Anand and the location was at the Lotus factory and test facility in Norfolk, UK, and was divided into two sections. The first took place in a pop-up studio built in one of the factory spaces which was to get an assortment of amazing hero shots of the car. The action then shifted to the test track, where the vehicles were filmed in action and tearing up some tarmac as they were put through their paces! Nick specified four Astera Titan kits comprising eight tubes each - which were supplied by lighting rental company Lite Up togeth
UK - After two years away from Daresbury, Britannia Row Productions returned to cinch presents Creamfields on the UK’s August Bank Holiday to provide sound solutions for the North Stage, the South Stage, and the 15,000-capacity Steel Yard (see a production report on the event in the upcoming LSi November, out next week). Britannia Row has enjoyed a long and productive relationship with the dance festival, and its production company, LarMac LIVE, so as soon as it was announced that the 2021 event would go ahead, Brit Row’s team - led by Audio Crew Chief Alex Hore - were eager to pick up where they left off. “As with many events that have managed to go ahead this year during the pandemic, I think there was a general sense of relief and joy that we could be back in a field enjoying our favourite DJs and the live event atmosphere once again,” says Hore. <
USA - Magnum, a full-service entertainment technology company based in Atlanta, was asked to light the grand opening celebration of The Epicurean Atlanta, a culinary-themed hotel with a demonstration kitchen/theatre. To light the exterior of the hotel for the 23 September event, Magnum needed a powerful IP65-rated fixture that could project eye-catching effects while handling any weather condition and chose 24 Elation Proteus Maximus fixtures to get the job done. “We were presented with the challenge of making a unique and memorable experience for the grand opening of Epicurean, and Elation’s IP-rated Proteus Maximus fixtures were ideal for this situation,” said Taylor Chandler, project manager at Magnum. “The evening event was outdoors and the weather was questionable. We needed a powerful, bright fixture to light the hotel, and the Proteus Maximus gave us the
USA - Clair Global CEO Troy Clair and ATK Audiotek president Michael MacDonald have announced that their companies have reached a definitive agreement for the sale of ATK to Clair Global. The deal is expected to close in mid-November. “Everyone in the industry has worked with the ATK team for years to support our clients on major broadcast events,” comments Troy Clair. ATK developed the enviable position of being in the driver’s seat at huge events that span entertainment awards, sports, and political events, and developed techniques to ensure that the sound provided to a live audience is flawless, while maintaining the integrity of audio for broadcast.” Clair went on to say, “Everyone at Clair is excited to have the opportunity to work with ATK.” Scott Harmala, a senior partner at ATK, is enthusiastic about the potential created by this joining-of-forces.
