Germany - The CLW in Bonn-Bad Godesberg is a protestant free church and open to believers of all nationalities and generations. The parish has a church with an adjoining kindergarten and offers, among other things, services for the whole family every Sunday at 10.00 am. The Living Word (CLW) is an acronym for Centrum für Lebendiges Wort) is the focus of the services, in the form of sermons and musical contributions. The live music component in the church has grown steadily in recent years, so an upgrade of the sound system was necessary. Julian Betker, trainee pastor and vicar at the CLW, states: "We have been working on a new sound reinforcement solution to meet our many requirements for a while. On the one hand, we wanted to use our existing technology, including mixing consoles, microphones and subwoofers. “Our church lives through, and with, live music - which c
USA - Innovation Nation, the CBS Saturday morning TV show about change-making technologies, recently called on Verge Aero, to find out more about the new aerial technology. Produced by The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Litton Entertainment, Innovation Nation presents stories of history’s technological turning points, as well as looking at the innovations that are changing the world around us. With drone light shows offering spectacular additions - or even alternatives - to traditional fireworks displays, the technology was ripe for further investigation by the educational programme. Verge Aero’s drone fleets have been seen performing aerial celebrations at high-profile events including Joe Biden’s victory speech in Wilmington, Delaware, back in November. Presenter Alie Ward visited the company’s headquarters at Pennovation Works, part of the Uni
Australia - Cutting Edge has been a leading provider of sound and picture post production for the advertising, features and television industries, both in Australia and internationally, for almost three decades. The company recently announced Edge Lab, its newest venture in Virtual Production (VP) based in Brisbane, Queensland. The facility is a research and development (R&D) hub for production industry professionals, developed in partnership with Big Picture, part of the NEP Worldwide Network, and motion caption integrator Logemas. Brompton Technology processing is used for the main LED screen as well as ambient reflection and lighting walls. Cutting Edge is able to facilitate all its clients’ needs across commercial, television and feature film productions. Now, the company can also tap into the latest technical innovations in VP with its Unreal Engine po
UK - Dan Ridd, Steven Haynes and a team from Clearsound Productions in Shipston on Stour marked the culmination of a week of #LightItInRed ‘heart’ actions around the country with a livestream broadcast featuring mixmaster DJ Benji surrounded by a heart-shaped lighting rig designed by Steven and featuring Robe moving lights. With overall direction by Dan Ridd and camera and humour direction by Andy Cox, the multi-camera broadcast included two drone feeds plus assorted visual highlights from the last year of #LightItInRed campaigns. These have focused on keeping the entertainment, production, and performance industry visible and relevant during the pandemic and consequent shut down, and this content was eloquently wrangled by #LightItInRed’s Sarah Berryman. Working alongside Steven on lighting were two fellow Rose Bruford College students, Sam Jones, who programm
Saudi Arabia - Noor Riyadh is a citywide annual festival of light and art that showcases individual artists and talent and promotes creativity. The event produced by Balich Worldwide Shows (BWS) brings together artists from all over the world. Star in Motion by renowned lighting designer Koert Vermeulen, is a powerful focal point in the middle of the city of Riyadh - a shining star, suspended from the top of the famous Kingdom Tower more than 300m in the air. Balich Worldwide Shows has worked with Unusual Rigging on other events in the past, and as such they were the natural choice when it came to rigging this spectacular installation. Steve Porter, director at Unusual, explains: “Having worked with BWS on several projects in the past, when they approached us to hang the centrepiece for the festival, it was a pleasure to collaborate with them again. We were approach
UK - The National Theatre’s production of Clint Dyer and Roy Williams’ Death of England was performed at the Dorfman Theatre in spring 2020 before the venue closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The one-man show was an intense study of grief and identity in Britain, performed in-the-round on a cross-shaped stage by Rafe Spall in an explosively energetic performance. Dyer’s direction, and Sadeysa Greenaway-Bailey and ULTZ’s stark set demanded equally dramatic lighting from the outset, which was provided by dance and theatre lighting designer, and NT regular, Jackie Shemesh. Shemesh chose four Ayrton Diablo 300W LED profile fixtures as central features of his design, which he mainly deployed as followspots to track Spall’s every move. The Diablo fixtures were rigged above the four inner corners of the cross stage, side-mounted and droppe
Italy - The Lucca region has given birth to many of the greatest voices in opera, but every spring and summer, Tuscany’s historic piazzas resonate with the impassioned sound of another kind of music, as they play host to world famous blues festivals. In 2015, Lucca joined the list of Tuscan cities celebrating the musical genre by starting a blues festival of its own. Given the city’s evocative charm and rich musical tradition, the Lucca Blues Festival was an overnight success, attracting internationally acclaimed artists and legions of fans. This year, because of the pandemic, the live event was cancelled, but the Lucca Blues festival continued its robust celebration of all things blues with a series of livestreams from Amandla Productions Studios, a versatile broadcast facility set up inside the city’s 1,500sq.m event centre by locally-based Amandla Productions
USA - Towards the end of 2020, the new leadership at Houston’s Sagemont Church, which was established in 1966 and is associated with the Southern Baptist Convention, introduced a contemporary worship music service to appeal to a younger congregation. To meet the demands of the new modern service, the church upgraded the aging sound system in its 2,500-seat sanctuary, installing a SSL Live L350 digital mixing console and replacing the PA speakers. Lead audio engineer Evan Warren says, “We have a new pastor, a new worship leader and a whole new direction, and we wanted to do modern contemporary rock ‘n’ roll-style worship music. But our PA and console were pushing 10 years old and falling apart. The faders on our old console were moving on their own and the old PA just wasn’t cutting it.” Having already spent a lot of time dreaming about equipment as a
Israel - The Weizmann Institute of Science is a renowned public research university in Rehovot which offers graduate and postgraduate degrees in the natural and exact sciences and hosts an annual event honouring the work of Israeli scientists and their contributions to an assortment of projects. This year for the first time, the format went fully digital in delivery and was still staged at the Weizmann Institute campus’s Sela Auditorium, without a live audience but with as much ‘live’ presentational content as was possible which included lectures, seminars, presentations, Q&A sessions and the bestowing of honorary doctorates and other awards. Lighting designer Eran Klein of Cochavi&Klein was asked to create lighting for the event and chose an all-Robe moving light rig to provide the flexibility needed to deliver this high-profile broadcast which was co-
USA - The Illuminate Cities Project recently incorporated Martin VC-Grid LED video tiles supplied by Hayden Production Services into an ‘information-as-art installation’ called Illuminate: COVID-19. Co-founded by architect Domingo Abrusci and urban planner Alexandra Payne, the Illuminate Cities Project is dedicated to improving cities through data exploration, art, design and engagement. Its pilot project, Illuminate: COVID-19, is an art installation that combines data mapping and lighting design to visually display COVID-19 infection and death rates alongside racial and economic demographic data, highlighting how the pandemic has affected specific communities in New York City. Brought to life in collaboration with fabrication and design specialist Robyn Squires of RYSQ LLC and lighting designer Elisa Forlini, a RIBA-certified architect, the installat
USA - The University of Houston recently updated the projection mapping content for its basketball team, the Houston Cougars, creating a dramatic, on-court pre-game show at the Fretitta Centre. The bright, 3D graphics were created by Quince Imaging, and enabled by a range of Christie solutions installed by Quince, including 3DLP projectors, Mystique, a Pandoras Box Server, and Terra, an AV-over-IP system. The University sought to refresh the on-court projection mapping content to align with both in-person and broadcast viewing, says Eric Gazzillo, director of innovation, Quince Imaging. “What’s important now, during COVID, is being broadcast-centric, so we’re using the displays and technology to fill the arena with content, designs and projection mapping. We use the technology in a way to make the arena feel full, if they’re doing partial or limited seating, and to a
UK - Since it opened in 1899, the Town Bridge in Northwich has been a source of pride to local residents and tourist attraction. During the past year of the pandemic, it’s also served as rallying point, inspiring hope and reflecting determination by being illuminated in various colour schemes during holidays and on special occasions. The visual and emotional impact of these colourful displays has been evident when CSP Audio Visual has illuminated Town Bridge with a collection of Chauvet Professional COLORado Panel Q40 rectangular wash fixtures and Ovation E-260WW IP ellipsoidal units. “Northwich Town council contacted us to light Town Bridge for VE day celebrations,” says Alun Williams, director of CSP AV. “The bridge was to be lit in the red, white and blue colours of the Union Jack. After the success of that project, the council invited us back.” Pos
UK - To complement the technology on display at Samsung KX, Snelling Business Systems and Cosmic Electronics recently outfitted the venue with a complete Harman networked AV, lighting and control system. Situated in the recently developed Coal Drops Yard shopping district in King’s Cross, London, Samsung KX is a destination for the public to ‘experience Samsung’s range of innovative connected technologies working seamlessly together’. The 20,000sq.ft space features a 32ft Screenmax LED display wall, connected “smart kitchen,” immersive augmented reality experiences and an ever-changing list of temporary installations. To further enhance the futuristic experience, Samsung KX required a facility-wide immersive AV, lighting and control system with enough flexibility to serve any current or future needs. Audio-visual integrator Snelling Business Systems and li
Canada - A multi-venue arts centre in downtown Calgary, Alberta, Arts Commons (formerly EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts) has invested in a complement of Ayrton lighting fixtures and Robert Juliat followspots from Sapphire Sound. Arts Commons is located in Calgary’s Cultural District and is one of the three largest arts centres in Canada. Its five theatres and concert hall are home to six resident companies and host a wide array of guest performers annually. While Arts Commons is currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the centre has been busy upgrading and expanding its lighting inventory in anticipation of reopening. According to Kris Ladd, head of lighting at Arts Commons, 16 Ayrton Huracan-X and four Ayrton Diablo-S fixtures were purchased for the Jack Singer Concert Hall, the permanent home of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the largest venue
Russia - Lighting designer Vladimir Lyubimov continues to use Astera Titan Tubes as a key lighting feature for concerts by Russian rock musician, singer and poet, Svetlana Surganova. The most recent of these took place at Crocus City Hall in the Krasnogorsky District of Moscow, staged in the autumn - at the time this was during a brief period when concerts and large gatherings were allowed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Surganova & Orchestra presented their In Contrast programme to a full live audience at the venue after the show was moved at short notice from the famous 1930 Club, also in Moscow, to the larger 7,300 capacity venue. Having planned to use their most recent touring lighting and stage design from the start of 2020, Lyubimov and the crew were left facing the challenge of making their production work in the new space. Delighted to be
France - Immersive sound experience creator, Des Sons Animés (DSA), has recently outfitted its specialist 3D sound studio in Paris with 32 APG iX6 loudspeakers, with more bass reinforcement from the French manufacturer to be added in the near future. This new audio system will aid DSA in the creation and production of spatialised audio content, as well as facilitating streamed performances, training, research, design, and integration of immersive sound installations. “The Des Sons Animés studio really is a special place,” says Mathieu Rossier, co-founder and president of the company. “It is a space for creation and research where artists can produce, compose, transform and spatialise their productions using 3D audio technologies. These spatial scores can be broadcast outside the studio, with faithful scaling on many other broadcasting systems.” The comp
South Africa - On Sunday 25 April, Jerusalema hitmaker Master KG, and the Ndlovu Youth Choir, will be performing live on Robben Island for Africa Rising and the Live Love non-profit, along with international personality Maps Maponyane as master of ceremonies. The performance will be live streamed for free and audiences will have the opportunity to win an exclusive VIP experience at the event on Robben Island by making an online donation of at least R30, benefiting the music and events industry, and charities in sustainability, education and conservation. Africa Rising brings music and travel to the world by telling inspiring African stories through uniquely produced music experiences. These are brought to life by broadcasting live performances by Africa’s biggest artists, set in the most iconic locations on the continent. Through these stories and our platform
USA - Back in July, Mike Cristella, owner of Live Wire Productions, and Bob Sallade, who owns Sound Track Production Services, based in Hammonton, NJ, pooled their resources and expertise in lighting and sound to create Wired Studios, a 30‘ x 20‘ space that would allow customers of both companies to reach people during the lockdown with livestreams. “It became apparent to Bob and me and that the pandemic wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so we got together to create this space in our warehouse,” said Cristella. “The space isn’t the largest in the world, but we outfitted it with excellent sound and lighting gear as well as cameras so our customers could produce livestreams and video recordings that would reflect well on them.” In terms of lighting, Wired Studios packs an intense punch with a high-output and versatile rig anchored by Chauvet Professiona
USA - When Glenn Polly, founder of VideoSonic Systems, Inc., an audio-visual integration company, was tasked with integrating a high-quality, low-cost microphone solution for use with Zoom rooms at a leading university in New York, he opted for MXL Microphones' AC-404s. “Zoom engineers have dedicated countless hours to writing the original algorithm, enabling mics to behave as beam tracking mics,” says Polly. “Up to 12 MXL AC-404 mics can be installed in a Zoom room without the need for a DSP processor, which is a nice benefit. The latest version of the Zoom algorithm is even better, so naturally, the mics work even better.” Near-end audio capture is the most difficult component of a Zoom call and can represent the largest chunk of the project’s budget. “To optimise the performance of the audio capture devices, it’s important that the room itself has acc
UK - FIX8Group’s The Hub was the centre of one of the largest virtual global meetings recently, as more than 500 speakers from over 70 countries joined a worldwide conference for a think-tank organisation. A global, full-service events agency collaborated closely with FIX8Group to deliver the optimum solution for the project, which was by far the most technically challenging yet for The Hub - FIX8Group’s broadcast and connectivity centre. Due to the company’s significant investment in advanced infrastructure to ensure resilient connectivity capabilities and robust data security protocols in the delivery of virtual solutions, the project was made possible. This incarnation of the organisation’s global conference moved into the virtual realm as a consequence of COVID restrictions. The range of speakers included thought leaders from Fortune 500 CEOs, government of
Germany - For the presentation of the new e-tron GT, Ingolstadt-based car manufacturer Audi staged a special demonstration at the Munich Zenith. The world premiere of the ‘electric spearhead of the four rings’, as it was termed, took place in February with two digital events; a cinematic intro, using spectacular lighting technology, was produced in advance at the Munich Zenith, and developed by LD Raphaël Demonthy. Demonthy, who has focussed entirely on lighting design and programming over the past 10 years, regularly realises his own design projects, but is also happy to make his talent available to other designers as an associate designer or operator. As part of the world premiere of the new Audi e-tron GT, a reveal trailer had to be produced. For this purpose, a driving circuit was installed in the Zenith Munich, which was constructed exclusively from light ele
USA - Broadcast live outside the Los Angeles Convention Centre, the 63rd Grammy Awards offered viewers a night to celebrate music with elaborate performances from top artists across different musical genres. The audience-free show combined a mix of performances with the outdoor ceremony for select artists who were on-hand to accept the awards. The majority of the show’s 23 musical productions, as well as the ceremony, relied on Shure’s AxientDigital Wireless System and Microphones. Throughout the ceremony, host Trevor Noah used an Axient Digital SM58 Handheld Microphone set to frequency diversity mode. The evening’s big winners included Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, and Megan Thee Stallion. Dua Lipa, who won the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album, sported a blinged-out pink Axient Digital KSM9 Handheld Microphone and was joined on stage by D
USA - For nearly 120 years, the distinguished Brooklyn Law School has been training and empowering lawyers in a wide range of disciplines. In response to the COVID pandemic this year, the Brooklyn Law School wanted to make sure that specific classes could start up and continue as safely and efficiently as possible. The school contains some seminar-based classrooms where the instructors and law students typically engage with a lot of interactivity as they debate a range of different concepts and theories in the class. To achieve a safe level of social distancing, the school decided to shift to a hybrid attendance model with only half the students in the classrooms at any one time. In order to facilitate this model, the faculty needed the seminar- based classrooms to be equipped with an AV solution that would allow remote students to hear and interact as efficiently as p
USA - A new technical infrastructure, including a premium Martin Audio Wavefront Precision (WPS) PA, has been installed at the River City Christian church in Rancho Cordova, California. The full integration was undertaken by Sacramento Production Services (SACPS), whose project manager, Keith Wackford co-designed the system with the church’s director of technology, Brian Webber. Both men are long-term colleagues who have over a 10-year history working with Martin Audio systems. The church had been faced with the need to expand its facilities due to surge in attendance prior to COVID-19. An architect was brought in and the decision taken to move from all flat seating to stadium style arena seating. By also reducing the stage thrust this would expand capacity from 850 to around 1200. “In addition, the previous control booth was up on the balcony but the new one has b