UK - Amon Tobin’s life and work in production and sound design spans over 25 years. His different approach to intricate, cinematic electronica continues with the recent release of the album How Do You Liveon Nomark Records. To give listeners in London a preview of the work, the label partnered with Pitchback Playback and L-Acoustics Creations to offer an immersive experience in a 24.1 immersive sound space designed by L-Acoustics. Pitchback Playback hosts listening sessions for music lovers staged in total darkness to eliminate distractions and ensure that everyone present enjoys an opportunity to fully engage with remarkable albums from start to finish. With the lights out and optionally blindfolded, the sense of hearing is heightened in the absence of visual stimuli. This allows guests to fully surrender to sound and the physical sensations and detailed nuances of
Germany - Founded in 2012, Ruhrtriennale is a three-yearly cycle of music and arts events, which take place from August to October in Germany’s industrial Ruhr region. The prestige of staging this year’s opening production fell to Ensemble Modern, a global collective of soloists, whose sound designer Norbert Ommer chose a Yamaha Rivage PM10 digital mixing system for the surrealist, unconventional opera Bählamms Fest. Ruhrtriennale is a festival which embraces a wide range of performances, all taking place in venues created within the region’s industrial architecture. A new artistic director is appointed for each cycle. For 2021-2023 it is renowned German theatre producer and director Barbara Frey. To open the 2021 programme, Barbara chose the premiere of Bählamms Fest, a production which blurs the lines between reality and virtuality, based on the
UK - South London’s Clapham Common hosted three successive festivals organised by event promoter Festival Republic that covered a range of genres beginning with the YAM Carnival, which celebrated the music and culture of the Afro diaspora; RTRN II Dance, a day of bass heavy raving featuring electronic music stars like Chase & Status; and ALT+LDN, a first-ever rock and rap mash up with international headliners Smokepurpp and The Kid LAROI. Although very different music emanated from the festival stage on each of the all-day festivals, the visuals supporting the sound remained consistently bright, bold and dynamic, thanks to a powerful and flexible lighting kit design and installed by Bigabox Production. Featuring Chauvet Professional fixtures, the lighting system had the versatility needed to support all the varied artists, yet it was also powerful enough to cover
UK - Wigwam Acoustics, part of the Solotech UK Group, supported multiple stages for both Parklife and Isle of Wight festivals, with just 24-hours to repurpose the Parklife systems into the package for the Main and Big Top stages on the Isle of Wight. With so many festivals happening over such a short period of time, Wigwam's hire department and its UK partners SSE Audio, Capital Sound and BCS Audio have been at full capacity during the 2021 summer season. The team has had to get used to quick turnaround of gear to support back-to-back festivals. It is a testament to their experience and expertise that these events were handled successfully. Located on the grounds of Heaton Park, Manchester, Parklife is the UK’s third-largest festival. Working with system technician Paul Stevart, Wigwam supplied the Main, Valley and Palm House stages while UK partner BCS Audio was b
USA - When The Muny, America’s oldest and largest outdoor musical theatre, was given the green light to commence its 103rd season, Masque Sound once again returned to the historic venue with a custom audio equipment package. Working directly with sound designers John Shivers and David Patridge, Masque Sound helped the team reboot its outdoor season after presenting an online season in 2020 due to COVID-19. With the support of the City of St. Louis Health Department, The Muny’s 2021 season operated at full capacity, including the 1,500 free seats available for each performance on a first-come, first-served basis. The five-show season began with Smokey Joe’s Café and was followed by The Sound of Music, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, On Your Feet!, and Chicago. “Masque Sound graciously added equipment that we asked for from p
USA - There is nothing ‘routine’ about the design Alexander Lehman chose when lighting the annual I Am Woman conference for Faith Church. Every year, Lehman strives to give the two-day event, which takes place in both St. Louis and West Palm Beach, a visual flourish, not just through the use of brightness and colour, but also with a commanding geometrical centrepiece. “It’s something that we do working for Pastor Nicole Crank, the visionary behind this conference,” he said. “We want to wow people. So, three years ago we used scaffolding to create towers and bridges on stage. Two years ago, we had three large LED diamonds. It’s our way of strengthening the connection to the audience. This year, Lehman and his team technical director Marcos Machado, Jonathan Becker, Andre Quirino, Garrett Callahan, and Tim Parfitt created a giant inverted V-structure
USA - Robe Esprites and Spiider moving lights helped lighting designer Myles Mangino create a range of vibrant and dynamic scenes and effects for a three-day Rolling Stone on Twitch digital celebration streamed over the 2021 New York Pride weekend back in June. The event was recorded and broadcast from PMC Studios in midtown Manhattan, New York City - recently re-opened after their last COVID wave - and was presented by daily hosts from Rolling Stone on Twitch, complete with a line-up of entertainment talent from the LGBTQIA+ community, and assorted Rolling Stone staff writers and editors who presented discussions on relevant issues, topics and perspectives touching on politics, music, and culture. Thinking laterally and on his feet, Myles - asked onboard the shoot by ATD Audio Visual who provided all the sound, lighting, and video kit - spec’d t
Australia - The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) has often been a first adopter of new technologies in the audio sector. The centre recently made the choice to add two new DiGiCo Quantum 338s to its digital mixing repertoire. Soundcorp - a Diversified company (SADC) are a supplier and integrator of professional AV systems nationwide. As one of MCEC’s approved suppliers, they were on hand to coordinate delivery of the consoles and provide local support. “The Quantum 338 offers a fairly dramatic step up in connectivity and processing within the DiGiCo workflow, and so was the logical choice when MCEC enquired about the acquisition of new workhorse systems,” notes SADC’s Scott Jamieson. “As its team is already very familiar with the DiGiCo eco-system, we were excited to provide them with the latest Quantum iteration as the upgraded capabilities
UK - The ‘Who Cares Wins awards, celebrating the achievements of healthcare workers around the UK, took place on Tuesday 14 September at London venue Roundhouse. The awards ceremony was organised by The Sun newspaper and attended by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Duke of Cambridge, David Beckham and many more celebrity guests. It was broadcast on Channel 4, Sunday 19 September. The show featured video clips telling the stories of the winners, in categories such as Best Doctor, Ultimate Lifesaver and Unsung Hero, as well as multiple musical performances. Lighting was supplied by Full Production, who were brought in by lighting director David Bishop and Thames TV. Bishop has worked on some of the UK’s most high-profile TV, including the Duke of Sussex’ Royal Wedding and the BBC Proms. Bishop and Full Production have previously collaborated on many o
UAE - The Dubai Expo opened its doors last Friday, 1 October, with Van Damme cabling playing a key role. NMK Electronics, Van Damme’s export partner in the Middle East, was asked to provide Van Damme cables for the Expo which was rescheduled from 2020 due to the pandemic. Van Damme Quad Microphone, Black Series 2×1.5mm speaker as well as Tourcat 6A S/FTP was selected for the job. Many kilometres of each are being used to ensure crisp sound to the many speakers throughout the venue. as well as for the many lighting fixtures needed for the miles of pavilions the expo has. All of the cables were chosen for their ruggedness and ability to stand up to pressures of a busy and dynamic environment, as well as outstanding flexibility and performance. NMK was able to supply the cable from a significant stock holding in its warehouse in Sharjah. To finish, Neutrik and Switchc
France - The centrepiece of Roland-Garros in Paris, the 15,000-capacity Court Philippe-Chatrier, host to one of the most anticipated events in the tennis calendar and the only Grand Slam tournament to be played on clay, has received a major makeover with the completion of a new retractable roof and night lighting installation. The project also marks a new era of sound for the fabled court, with the installation of an L-Acoustics K Series PA, which was managed by the French Tennis Federation (FFT) with the support of French acoustic and audio consultant, Scenarchie, and installed by integration company, SNEF. The global renovation programme at Court Philippe-Chatrier was launched three years ago after the court was almost completely rebuilt to accommodate the strengthening required for the retractable roof, which weighs half that of the Eiffel Tower and was finally comp
UK - Outdoor event specialist Ethix has been supplying its services to high end corporate clients and the live events market for the past 20 years. The company made its first investment in DiGiCo consoles a couple of years ago, purchasing two SD12 consoles and SD-Rack systems through HD Pro Audio. Before lockdown, the consoles were working constantly, and the investment now sees them ready to take on the challenges of the restart of live events. “The SD12 ticks all the boxes,” says Ethix director, Paul Jones. “It’s the most popular console across the festivals that we work on and we had noticed for some time that the monitor engineers’ desk was almost always an SD12. “The SD12 is such a versatile console and can do anything from a basic, generic set up to those that are really complex. We can do pretty much anything with it and it’s really rider friendly,
UK - Based in South Kirby on Production Park, XPLOR is a £9m research, development and innovation centre that aims to support SMEs across the creative industries from music, film and TV to sports, theatre, corporate events and the arts. The scheme secured grant funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Circlesphere is Tschida’s first exhibition in Europe and is being hosted at Neon Workshops Project Space: 7A and The Art House in Wakefield from 29 September – 28 November. Fred Tschida, retired Professor at Alfred University, New York, was one of the first generation of artists and professors to explore and teach neon for nearly 40 years, since the 1970’s, and - until now - his artworks have not been exhibited in Europe. The exhibition was the brainchild of artist Richard Wi
Canada/USA - Having famously removed his left ear, Vincent Van Gogh would have missed the full impact of the Immersive Van Gogh exhibitions currently selling out in nine North American cities and coming to at least eight more before the end of 2021. What the visitors hear is integral to the complete experience, with the all-enveloping projections of the artist’s paintings enhanced by an original musical score reproduced through Meyer Sound loudspeaker systems. All audio and video technology for the nationwide rollout is supplied and installed by Production Resource Group (PRG). Immersive Van Gogh is produced by Toronto-based Lighthouse Immersive, with the company’s director of production Sean Richards charged with supervision of technical systems at all locations. Richards notes that while the importance of visuals is obvious, the role of audio often is ove
Gibraltar - For the past two years, Steve Richardson has been on a journey of his own inside the 60m-deep St. Michael’s Cave perched high on Gibraltar’s Upper Rock Reserve, leading a crew from Full Production tasked with designing, installing and programming the lighting for The Awakening, an immersive show inside St. Michael’s created by Christian Wright and the team at Pixel Artworks. Asked to describe the site, Richardson says: “It is a massive cave, in a rock, in Gibraltar. It is damp, humid, hot, and massively acidic. It is pretty much the worst place to be installing lights. However, that said, the cave is also the hero. Nothing compares to its natural rock formations. There are stalactites in the millions there, ranging from small 300mm to 900mm outcrops to large 12-30m structures. The cave and its history were the heroes - they were the two defining cr
Spain - La Citi at Barcelona’s popular La Maquinista retail centre is not the kind of dining experience one normally expects to find in a shopping mall. The outdoor rooftop space is a celebration of culinary diversity and pop-up and food-truck dining, with a choice of the type of vendors more commonly found at festivals and street food markets. Creators of the 1000sq.m specially designed experience have spent years meeting in food-truck markets and directing some of the leading restaurants on the city’s culinary scene. Gastronomic kiosks and pop-up stalls feature vendors like the Van Van Chicken Bar, Chivuo's, The Fish & Chips Shop, Mosquito Asian Tapas, Dos Coyotes, Taiyaki Born Japanese waffle bar and Café Crem specialty coffees, as well as a bar and a cocktail counter. Billed as a ‘street food and cultura urbana’ La Citi also presents ‘cultural workshops
USA - Brooklyn-based Volvox Labs (VVOX) tapped into the disguise Extended Reality (xR) workflow with Unreal Engine to create a visual experience for Dubfire’s recent live streamed concert from The Met Cloisters Museum in New York City. Part of the Sonic Cloisters virtual electronic music series, which explores the parallels between techno and the art of The Middle Ages, Dubfire’s xR performance was the first time that the Cloisters had undergone such a digitally-enhanced display of its artwork. “It was amazing to be able to take this project into such a location for one day and basically launch a full xR experience without any kind of rehearsal,” explains Kamil Nawratil, creative director at VVOX. “We would never have thought of delivering this kind of project without the disguise and Unreal Engine workflows. The creative possibilities, the photorealism of
USA - In early August, the San Diego Symphony celebrated the grand opening of its new outdoor performance space, The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, after a 13-month delay due to Covid. The centre sits on the edge of the bay in Downtown San Diego, serving as a gathering ground for live performances and public city events. Solotech specified and installed all AV equipment, including a Clear-Com Eclipse HX Digital Matrix system with integrated FreeSpeak II Digital Wireless Intercom, HelixNet Digital Network Partyline and LQ Series of IP Interfaces. In previous years, the symphony had been hosting outdoor performances, from June through September, weather-permitting, in a temporary manner with a portable stage and AV equipment they would bring to the site with each performance. The goal for this new venue was to create a facility designed specifically for elevated outdoor performan
USA - The up-and-coming Miami neighbourhood of Brickell is not only recognised as the financial district of the city, but it is rapidly developing into a much sought-after residential area. And with that comes a demand for bars and restaurants. 8Street Brickell is a boutique bar owned and operated by Mark Meram with a capacity to host VIP parties and DJ sets whilst also offering an intimate hangout for locals, as well as international and national tourists visiting the city. Mark’s vision was to create a sophisticated modern twist on a classic Speakeasy style, with the interior of this venue creating an homage to the style and design ethos of the 1920s. Including wood and button tuft upholstery and a soaring and undulating ceiling enhanced with LED lighting. 8Street Brickell was designed by Callin Fortis and his team at Bigtime Design Studios as part of a new
UK - Online home fitness start-up GRNDHOUSE recently equipped its studio with a custom LED lighting rig designed by Hayden Borgars, featuring Martin Professional VDO Sceptron 10 LED video fixtures supplied by Colour Sound Experiment. Conceived and launched during the Covid-19 pandemic, GRNDHOUSE provides daily workout videos with professional instructors via a subscription service. Members can follow along at their own pace with a flexible schedule, on-demand access and a range of intensity levels. When launching the service, GRNDHOUSE’s founders knew their broadcast studio needed excellent lighting and a distinctive visual design to establish the company’s brand. To achieve this goal, GRNDHOUSE hired lighting designer Hayden Borgars, who designed a dynamic LED lighting system using Martin VDO Sceptron 10 creative LED fixtures, which were provided by Harman distrib
Australia - Some of Broken Hill's key locations have been lit up as part of Australia's Heritage Perfectly Highlighted project. The project involves permanent coloured lighting and projection installations at the Town Hall facade, Civic Centre, Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery, Town Square and Sturt Park. Broken Hill Mayor Darriea Turley said the installations would add a new level of vibrancy across the city once completed advising, “This lighting will ensure these key areas and buildings around our city are an attraction even at night. “We can also use it to complement events and initiatives - I can imagine all our prominent spaces being lit up green for St Patrick's weekend, or in Christmas colours for the festive season. It will add a whole new element to the city after dark.” After winning the tender, Mark Hammer and Matthew Tunchon of Silver Bullet Pr
Brazil - The Masked Singer Brasil, the latest in the worldwide television franchise of the reality singing competition, premiered on 10 August with Claypaky Sharpy and Mythos 2 fixtures, illuminating stage at WTC Golden Hall, São Paulo. Spectrun Design e Iluminação supplied 24 Sharpy moving beams, 24 Mythos 2 spot and beam lights and other Claypaky visual effects moving heads for the new series airing on TV Globo. “When I was invited by the production company, Endemol Shine Brasil, and the director, Marcelo Amiky, to work on this project - which is unprecedented in Brazil [for its size and scope] - we needed high-performance, precision equipment, so Claypaky was my main choice for fixtures,” says Alexandre Augusto, the lighting designer and director of photography. Inspired by the Fibonacci sequence, the lighting team filled the stage’s entire spi
Australia - Griffith University recently collaborated with Videopro, ThreeOneFive Innovations and Harman Professional Solutions to create an immersive active learning space using AMX networked AV solutions. Founded in 1971, Griffith University is a public research university in South East Queensland with five physical campuses spanning three cities, and a sixth digital campus. With more than 50,000 students and 200,000 respected alumni, Griffith University is one of the world’s top-performing universities. “The client requested a high-tech solution to connect two rooms so that staff could deliver multiple lectures without having to travel across campus,” said Chris Duckworth, owner, ThreeOneFive Innovations. “They also wanted to improve the learning experience for students with state-of-the-art solutions. To create a class-leading engagement space, we selected
UK - After two years away from the fields of Daresbury, Cheshire, LarMac LIVE delivered the electronic music festival cinch presents Creamfields with a line up of artists including Tiësto, Eric Prydz, Chemical Brothers, Carl Cox and Basement Jaxx. Event specialists LarMac LIVE produced Creamfields’ return alongside its familiar technical partners. “It’s like we’ve never been away,” said Ian ‘Lar’ Greenway, director of LarMac LIVE. “We’ve run countless scenarios and drafted numerous budget versions over the last two years, so when the time to get our first acts on stage and deliver finally came, it was really quite special.” LarMac LIVE’s number one priority for Creamfields 2021 was to get the festival set up in a safe working environment. “We knew there was going to be challenges, but I felt quite strongly that as long as we got th
