Australia - Queensland Theatre - usually - sits at the heart and soul of Brisbane’s lively arts and performance scene, producing around eight or nine main stage productions a year between the 351-capacity Bille Brown Theatre in the south of the city and at the four-venue Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC). The theatre also has a strong youth and educational programme which allows school-aged artists to stage shows with the company. On top of that, they also receive shows at both the Bille Brown and QPAC, and tour productions across Australia throughout the year. The Theatre has Robe LEDWash 300+s, eight of which were in residence when technical coordinator Lachlan Cross arrived in May 2017, which has since increased to 32 fixtures. The main increase in fixtures came when they finished renovating the Bille Brown Theatre in October 2018, after a A$ 5.5m renovati
Czech Republic - KV2 Audio has introduced D Series amplifiers with onboard control and diagnostics. The first deployment of these is at the Volksoper or People’s Opera in Vienna where 56 units are in use every day. KV2’s D Series amplifiers use a range of topologies including Class AB for high frequency response, a unique high current switching topology on low frequencies, and consistent power delivery that features toroidal transformers hand-wound in the Czech factory, specific for each model. In terms of control, the D Series amplifiers offer the option to set up gains, operate mutes, configure the limiters, or select filter, EQ and bridge modes depending on the model, whilst the diagnostics section provides information on the temperature of heatsinks, mains voltage, real-time health checking and the output levels relative to limiting. This is a crucial feature
USA - Live music has proved it will find a way despite the lockdowns on performances compelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the more imaginative examples of this was the 9 October performance of Verdi’s iconic opera Rigoletto by the Tulsa Opera, which was staged at ONEOK Field, home of the Tulsa Drillers minor league baseball team and Double-A Affiliate of the LA Dodgers. Every note of the operatic repertoire of Rigoletto was heard clearly and sweetly by the 1,685 socially-distanced audience members seated in the 2,700-capacity stadium thanks to an L-Acoustics Kara PA system provided by locally-based Axiom Audio. The system consisted of 24 Kara enclosures, six SB18 subs, and three four-speaker clusters of Kiva II used as centre and side-fills, all powered by six LA12X and three LA4X amplified controllers. These components were on an Optocore fibre
UK - During UK Friday night primetime television, disguise showcased its xR technology on Channel 5’s The Gadget Show, highlighting how extended reality offers virtual production and performance in immersive real-time video environments. The Gadget Show presenter Georgie Barrat was treated to an all-encompassing xR experience, taking in the disguise London HQ and filming a series of one-to-one interviews about the origins and ambitions of xR technology with disguise’s executive leadership team, including CSO Tom Rockhill and CTO Ed Plowman. The show was also taken across town to experience a cross-location meeting on disguise certified solutions provider White Light’s SmartStage at London’s Science Museum. White Light technical solutions director Andy Hook said, “It was fantastic to see xR and our SmartStage solution getting such a great reacti
UK - On 3 December, TFG Stage Technology teamed up with Laing O'Rourke to light up Manchester arts venue The Factory, currently being built in the heart of the city, in support of International Day for People with Disabilities. PurpleLightUp is a global movement that celebrates and draws attention to the economic contribution of the 386m disabled employees around the world. It has been driving momentum for disability inclusion across hundreds of organisations, reaching thousands of employees in different ways. This includes lighting up prominent buildings purple, holding events, developing workplace policies for disabled employees and sparking conversations about disability inclusion worldwide. The Factory is designed by Rem Koolhaas’s OMA and backed by Manchester City Council, HM Government and Arts Council England. It will be Manchester International Festival’s p
Estonia - Robe featured on the rig for the Estonian launch of the new Škoda ENYAQ iV all-electric SUV. The press / VIP event took place at the Škoda dealership centre – Aasta Auto – in Tartu, Estonia’s second city, with technical production coordinated by Andres Sarv of creative visual design and production company Pstudio, and lighting designed by Tõnis Sarv also working for Pstudio. They work with Robe equipment as often as is possible and, on this occasion, chose to work with eight Robe LEDBeam 100s, 12 LEDWash 800s ,12 300E Spots and two CitySkape Xtreme LED floods. Pstudio has been involved with previous Skoda promotional events and delivers technical design and production for other car brands like Audi. The show involved a presentation element followed by a reveal of the new vehicle, demanding a combination of different styles and approaches, and
France - The city of Bordeaux has a new Anolis lighting scheme for its La Porte de Bourgogne landmark. The Roman-style stone arch was built in the 1750s at the end of one of the major roads traversing Bordeaux, now called the Cours Victor Hugo, which is a thoroughfare for both cars and pedestrians crossing the city. It is also clearly visible from across the River Garonne. With its prominent position and historical significance, the city council are keen for La Porte de Bourgogne to be a highly visible ‘communication portal’ welcoming people to the ancient centre, so they wanted a great looking, energy-efficient lighting scheme to replace the old one which was installed over a decade ago and was starting to look dated. Above all, they wanted more dynamic lighting that could redefine and celebrate La Porte de Bourgogne’s significance as a symbolic gateway to
UK - Created in conjunction with parent company Clair Global, Britannia Row Production’s Virtual Live Audience (VLA) platform represents the latest in interactional and remote entertainment experiences (watch out for a feature on the new solution in the upcoming LSi December, out next week). Like video conferencing, music fans and TV audience members utilise a propriety browser-based video platform to experience a live performance or be part of a TV filming production – from the comfort of their home. However, the VLA experience has been created with real time engagement in mind. The VLA system allows for the performance artist or TV host / panellists to both interact and reconnect with confidence during Covid-19 audience restrictions. Viewers at home also benefit from multi-camera broadcast feeds and can watch the entertainment remotely while feel
France - Celebrating all things glamorous, sensual and flamboyant, Folies Bergère is one of Paris’ most revered nightspots. Originally a cabaret music hall and variety-entertainment theatre, The Folies made its mark during the Belle Epoque of the late 1800s with its music hall revues featuring stunning dancers. More recently returning to its musical production roots, the Folies Bergère stage has been graced by famous artists from Charlie Chaplin, Ella Fitzgerald, Marcel Marceau, Frank Sinatra, Charles Aznavour through to Elton John. This year, the theatre’s impressive programme has been matched with equally impressive audio technology when the Folies Bergère became the first performing arts centre in France to permanently install L-Acoustics L-ISA Hyperreal Sound technology. The venue’s operating contract is handled by specialist live sound company Potar Hurl
USA - NY-based Sound Co-op began in 2015 as a conversation between freelance production sound mixers Jon Moore and Phil Shipman. Their co-operative is a sustainable business model to increase career security and bolster clients’ confidence at the same time. To standardise wireless and other equipment across their team, they chose Lectrosonics Digital Hybrid Wireless gear, including the SMV and SMQV transmitters and SRc receivers, supported by pairings of the T4 and R1a for IFB applications. They shared how their Co-op model has helped them thrive and work safely during the coronavirus pandemic - and the supporting role Lectrosonics equipment has played. “Our Co-op is a legal structure,” says chief financial officer Shipman. “It’s just like how some apartment buildings and food stores are co-ops. We’re not only worker-owned, but democratically controlled. In a for
USA - Visuals are an important part of most modern church services. More and more churches are switching to LED video walls due to the increased brightness and contrast they can offer. This was the direction chosen by Calvary Christian Centre, which recently installed a pair of ADJ LED video wall displays alongside a lighting package from sister company Elation Professional. Located in Yuba City, Northern California, Calvary Christian Centre is a thriving and growing church which is part of the Assemblies of God fellowship. Pastor Michael Ciociola and his wife Dona have led the church since 1991 and head up a large team of both full-time staff and volunteers. The leadership recently decided to upgrade the AV system in their 900 capacity sanctuary, replacing old video equipment with a new LED video wall system to display song words, scripture readings and other visual c
USA - The deep history of Bridgewater Church of the Brethren in Bridgewater, Virginia stretches back into the late 1700s, when the first Europeans migrated into the area. Centuries of branching and growth led to the construction of the church’s current sanctuary in 1998. The fan-shaped room seats approximately 500 people and is open, inviting, and sympathetically appointed. However, its existing sound reinforcement system (as old as the sanctuary itself) was broken and behind the times. The church's property is on the campus of Bridgewater College, a facility that earlier in 2020 received a Danley upgrade for their chapel. A member of the church was very impressed and excited about bringing local integrator RTW Media, of Orville, Virginia, into Church of the Brethren to transform their old system. RTW replaced the previous system with a Danley Sound Labs point source
UK - For the thousands of fans throughout the UK who viewed the recent Lockdown Bingo Charity show, getting swept up in the immersive panorama supporting the livestream’s performances came quite naturally. The tightly woven imagery captivated the livestream audience. But for the team at Tapestry Live Studio that created the visuals, the massive curved video wall and lighting rig were treated as two distinct design elements. “The LED wall and lighting installation are two completely independent installations, but they complement each other beautifully,” said Sarah Winters of Tapestry Virtual Events, which created the studio in the face of the pandemic. “Our LED wall needs to be kept most flexible as it is used for a wide range of activities, but the lighting selected allows us to add different effects to suit every use of the studio. This ranges from corporate
UK - Martin Audio partner Old Barn Audio (OBA) has completed its second major VR installation, in which an immersive environment is created with stereoscopic 3D headsets coupled with a mixed-reality sound system. Designed by MagicBeans and commissioned by MXT Reality, it combines open-backed binaural headphones with a full procedural 3D speaker environment, fulfilled by a Martin Audio CDD system. Two years after creating an immersive theatre for SOMNAI at Clerkenwell, in central London, OBA partnered with the same immersive audio production house, now known as MagicBeans, to deliver a similar environment for the simulation and training of Highways England personnel - in order to give them real-world exposure to motorway scenarios. The installation was carried out in a repurposed 30m x 8m long rectangular office space in one of their warehouses, at a new distribution c
The Netherlands - AVL Rent of Wervershoof chose a range of Pioneer Pro Audio systems to meet the needs of multiple applications at Oscar Romero school in Hoorn. The school recently underwent extensive renovation and refurbishment to provide its students with state-of-the-art facilities. With a focus on sustainability, increased space and improved resources, the project was completed in November 2020. Improvements to the school’s audio provision were considered essential, and its management team engaged with local installation specialists AVL to deliver new systems for twelve different spaces across the building. The systems required by Oscar Romero needed to meet a diverse set of requirements. Where two gymnasiums would require powerful solutions that could fill large spaces, the lecture hall would require crystal clear reinforcement for speech, music and film audio.
USA - The arched front-entry sign of Southgate Shopping Centre in Lakeland, Florida, is now shining brightly again thanks to Firefly FloppyFlex, the professional LED neon replacement. After being dark for decades, property managers Crossman & Company decided it was time to bring this beloved sign back to life. Retrofitting it with the latest technology, delivering a variety of bright colours and animated looks, promised to re-energise this historic commercial area. “The main motivation behind the project to revive the Southgate sign was the love the local community has for it,” says Stephanie Carten, marketing manager for Crossman & Company. “We purposely kept the iconic look and stylized script, taking the sign back to its former glory but with a technical edge.” The famous 26m-tall and 42m-wide Arch has been a pop-culture icon since it was built in
China - Ge’s Fairy Village Resort, located in Shangrao, Jiangxi, has long been a tourist hotspot famous for its religious culture and natural scenery. In order to keep the resort as attractive as possible, the administrators have undertaken construction of a new attraction, known as Lingbao Fairyland. To ensure that the audio infrastructure lived up to the scale of the attraction itself, Chinese company EZPro was hired to design and install an impressive sound system powered by 20 Powersoft amplifier platforms from across the company’s extensive fixed install range. A total of 160 loudspeakers were deployed across Lingbao Fairyland, made up of 136 Hi-Z and 24 Lo-Z systems. To drive this, EZPro used three Powersoft Duecanali 1604 DSP+D, four Duecanali 804 DSP+D, six Mezzo 602AD, two Quattrocanali 1204 DSP+D, and five X4 DSP+D, all Dante enabled. “The origin
UK - One of the more widely acclaimed, and viewed, virtual concerts during lockdown has been the recent live internet performance from psych-pop stars, Glass Animals. The Oxford-based quartet were all set to tour their chart-topping Dreamland album this Spring until lockdown came along. When their lighting team (Cassius Creative) were eventually called into play (by tour/production manager, Simon Lutkin), it was to produce a viewable online show only (Live In The Internet) -a dynamic concert masterminded by the band’s inventive front-man, Dave Bayley. Set up nearly five years ago by Chris 'Squib' Swain and Dan Hill) Cassius Creative dipped into their armoury of GLP fixtures and at the same time became one of the first adopters of the new JDC Line hybrid strobe batten. This combines a powerful linear white strobe element and two separate RGB LED pixel ma
UK - South London studio Belly of the Beast has become the first facility in the UK to install a Neve 8424 console. The studio pre-ordered the desk prior to its release in June, following an in-depth demo that highlighted its full range of features. Designed to offer a centralised platform between the worlds of analogue and digital, this small format console delivers the large format sound of the Neve 80-series console range and is well suited to studios like Belly of the Beast where esoteric and vintage outboard equipment play a significant role in the facility’s workflow. “For studios like ours where you have a large and varied collection of preamps, EQs and interesting bits of outboard gear, this desk is ideal because it provides a very logical system to bring all of those elements together,” says producer, mix engineer and studio manager James Rand. “We no
USA - Fulcrum Acoustic's FL283T Line Array provides the throw and tight vertical dispersion needed to distribute uniform coverage to the multiple levels of seating at Heritage Apostolic Church in Holly Springs, MS, without energising the full vertical expanse of the open space. Fulcrum’s Passive Cardioid Technology provided the broadband control needed to keep sound energy off the altar. Church leaders decided to build a new sanctuary to fit their modern worship style as their congregation continued to grow beyond their original location. Their new church is an open two-story space with tiered seating along the stairways on either side. The stairways lead to a small balcony that wraps around the back of the room with two rows of seating. When designing the church, extra care was put into acoustics. Room geometries were developed to reduce standing waves while padded
USA - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell formed his band, The Dirty Knobs, as a side project 15 years ago. Although the band seldom ventured outside SoCal, it built up a loyal following throughout the region, not unlike a tucked-away club treasured by locals, but beyond the reach of outsiders. That began to change with the death of Petty in 2017. No longer able to work with his frontman, Campbell (who is also the guitarist for Fleetwood Mac), began pushing his band into new musical directions, culminating with the release of their debut LP Wreckless Abandon. On Friday 20 November, the band introduced the new album to the world with a livestream from the Troubadour. Although the influence of the Troubadour in the history of rock has been huge, the stage at the famous LA club is rather small. Nevertheless, Julien Reux was able to create a bo
Canada - As long-time audio solutions providers for the Canadian government, GerrAudio and Engineering Harmonics have a steady grasp on the needs of its officials. When the companies’ principals were presented with the challenge of creating a custom podium microphone solution for the interim House of Commons, they turned to DPA Microphones. The custom solution is based off DPA’s 4081 mics along with a DPA TSM 4001 shock-mount, which fit into the cut-outs of the Parliament’s existing podium units. “When you’re working with such a high-level client, there are no compromises,” explains Martin Van Dijk, senior consultant/partner at Engineering Harmonics. “There were really specific requirements for how the microphones worked, how they picked up the sources and, obviously, for their sound quality. Given the need for a clean aesthetic and simple solution, body-
USA - Billie Eilish’s Where Do We Go arena world tour, scheduled to run from March to September 2020 halted abruptly after three shows, so the recent <|I>Where Do We Go Livestream Concert re-united many talents from her creative team. Under the creative direction of Billie Eilish and Moment Factory, collectively they worked to script and stage this XR pay-per-view stream. Lighting designer and director Tony Caporale from Tennessee-based Infinitus Vox was working as LD on the tour, and also came onboard in the role for the livestream concert, where he collaborated closely with lighting director Madigan Stehly of 22 Degrees who was working for XR Studios Burbank in Los Angeles which staged the performance, directed by Tarik Mikou from Moment Factory. The overhead lighting rig at XR Studio comprised 48 x Robe Esprites. Six of the Esprites were running on a Robe Ro
USA - First Christian Church in Elizabethtown, Kentucky recently called in JCA Media for the latest upgrade to its campus. Having already completed several installation projects for the congregation in the past, JCA Media was on-hand to deliver a Martin Audio main PA system and ceiling speaker installation for the church’s worship areas, classrooms and children’s play areas. The decision to go with Martin Audio was a simple one. “The tech directors were already familiar with Martin Audio and we always rely on their systems for these types of installations,” explained Alex Peake, integration specialist at JCA Media. JCA Media installed three Martin Audio CDD10s as LCR speakers alongside a pair of SX112 subs flown above the stage to deliver smooth, even coverage across the space. “For this project, the CDDs merged together so beautifully within the main worsh
