Poland - The Brzeskie Cultural Centre in the southwestern town of Brzeg recently reopened following a programme of modernisation. The centre, which stages a wide range of entertainment productions, cultural events, cinema and arts education classes, comprises three principle event spaces - a Main Events Hall, a Chamber Hall and a Cinema. The centre enjoyed a significant investment in its facilities, aimed at providing its users and audiences with a first class experience. In order to furnish each of the spaces with a high quality audio system, the main construction company working on the project, MPM Development, recommended audio specialists Tommex to supply and install Coda Audio systems throughout - a choice accepted by the centre’s team. Each hall required a distinct independent design to meet its specific needs, using loudspeakers and amplification combinations drawn
UK - Opened in 1970, Blair Drummond Safari Park is located just outside the Scottish city of Stirling, the site is home to over 350 rare and exotic animals, including the country's only giraffes. Opened to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary this year, the park’s new World of Dinosaurs attraction features 20 full-size model dinosaurs arranged throughout a trail laid in a 10,000sq.ft area of woodland. The models, which include a towering tyrannosaurus rex and a diplodocus are constructed with steel frames, covered with silicone skin, and are controlled with infrared sensors that trigger realistic movements including blinking eyes, breathing stomachs, arm gestures and head movements. Since the park opens well after dark in the winter months and also hosts special events for Halloween and Christmas, management were clear that lighting would be an integral part of the new
USA - DCR Nashville and lighting designer Nathan Alves, a partner in Darkroom Creative in Franklin, Tennessee, answered the Live Event & Entertainment Professionals’ call to action by bathing some of Nashville’s leading landmarks in red light on 1 September. Their contribution to the WeMakeEvents #redalertRESTART initiative was the Mobile Visual Art Platform (MVAP) outfitted with 38 Claypaky Scenius fixtures. The MVAP rolled through Music City with surgical precision, lighting up the Tennessee State Capitol, the AT&T Building (popularly known as the Batman Building), the Ascend Amphitheatre, downtown’s Bank of America building the Shelby Street Bridge and the neo-classical Parthenon. Nathan Alves and DCR Nashville’s owner and president Howard Jones had been sharing news on COVID-19’s impact on the Nashville live event industry when Alves sent an ema
Canada - The organisers of the 21st edition of the annual MUTEK electronic music and arts festival in Montréal navigated a delicate pathway between virtual and live performances at the two venues hosting in-person/live-streamed performances: the Society for Arts and Technology (SAT) and Cinquième Salle at Place des Arts. The event adapted to the times with a hybrid model that depended heavily on Meyer Sound products and highlighted the company’s new spatial sound design and mixing tool, Spacemap Go for iPad. According to MUTEK sound designer Jonathan LaFontaine of One Wave, the festival’s approach had to adapt to the evolving restrictions on live performances. Once the venues were confirmed, One Wave worked closely with GerrAudio Distribution and Meyer Sound to put together effective solutions. At Place des Arts, the system consisted of eight Meyer Sound LINA lin
Kazakhstan - Earlier this year, lighting designer, Dmitriy Karabetskiy utilised Vista by Chroma-Q’s Vista 3 lighting & media control system to deliver spectacular lighting for the inaugural series of Central Asia’s Got Talent. A spin-off of the Got Talent TV show franchise - one of the world’s most successful reality TV formats, with versions in over 68 countries - Central Asia’s Got Talent showcases acts from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Season 1 premiered on the Khabar, Zo'r TV, KTRK, and Safina TV channels. Dmitriy, who had previously worked on The X Factor Kazakhstan, was brought in to oversee the lighting production. Dmitriy needed to create a lighting design tailored to the particular aesthetics of each performance, which ranged from dance and vocal acts, to magicians and acrobats. An important factor i
South Africa - The tallest building in Africa – The Leonardo, a 234m mixed-use property development in Sandton, Johannesburg – was lit up for the South African launch of the new Microsoft Xbox Series X console – standing out against the night sky highlighted in green by Robe BMFL moving lights, with the Xbox logo emblazoned onto the top of floors of the tower. The lighting, crew and technical production were delivered by event technical specialists MSTARR working for event producers Penquin. Amassed media, press and VIPs watched the spectacle unfold from the rooftop balcony of the nearby Radisson Blu Hotel on Rivonia Road, a vantage point offering the best views, with the event also clearly visible from all around the Sandton CBD and beyond. It brought plenty of positive energy and vibes to the city amidst a challenging year. The launch lighting scheme was
UK - In celebration of their upcoming new album For Those That Wish To Exist, Architects performed an exclusive livestream show at The Royal Albert Hall on 21 November. PRG supplied all lighting, rigging, media server (D3) and LED for the live performance which was streamed globally via the streaming service Veeps. Production designer Paul McAdams utilised the space, creating a high energy design to showcase the venue and ensure viewers watching the stream could experience that same live energy from behind their screens. “The team at PRG were extremely professional and supportive as always, constantly coming up with creative and effective solutions to any issue that arose on this show,” explained McAdams. “It was great to call on all members of the team’s vast wealth of knowledge to help deliver the design as intended. The shoot went off without a
Italy - When opera singer Andrea Bocelli performed on the steps of the impressive baroque cathedral in the Sicilian city of Noto this October, the UNESCO world heritage site was turned into a unique stage, full of atmosphere and historical splendour. The artist was accompanied for the performance by the orchestra and choir of the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania, directed by Alberto Bartalini. The televised event, adapted for COVID-19 health guidelines, aimed to celebrate the island’s seven UNESCO sites and to promote the region to the wider world. Italian lighting designer Massimo Tomasino was responsible for creating the atmosphere and enhancing the features of the cathedral for the occasion. Tomasin chose to use 40 units of ArenaCob 4FC - a full colour LED flood and blinder fixture - in his rig. 10 where used under the orchestra as back-lighting, 20 for the high
UK - Back in September when it was announced that theatres could play to socially-distanced audiences, this saw a range of venues prepare for their re-opening. One of these included the Charing Cross Theatre which re-opened with the world premiere of GH Boy. The lighting designer was Tony Simpson, who approached White Light to supply the lighting equipment. Prior to its Charing Cross run, the show was originally going to play at The Vaults. Tony explains: “We were initially supposed to be opening in April and heading into the Waterloo tunnels. We had site visits, meetings and I’d even formulated a design. Then the outbreak of Covid happened and the entire production had to be pulled.” Like many other freelance designers, Tony found his entire workload for the rest of the year suddenly disappear. He remarks: “It was an incredibly worry time as overnight
Switzerland - Each summer, The Montreux Jazz Festival (MJF) takes place for two weeks in Switzerland, on Lake Geneva's shores. Shure has backed the festival each year since 1995 by providing onsite support and a large number of wired as well as wireless microphones. Sadly, this year is different, and like so many events across the globe, MJF 2020 was unable to take place. Determined to ensure music lives on despite the current global crisis, the team at The Montreux Jazz Artists Foundation (MJAF) - a non-profit foundation helping to promote up-and-coming talent - has maintained its activities despite the cancellation of July's annual MJF festival dates. Coined Autumn of Music, a series of COVID-secure performances and workshops were successfully staged in October. The free week-long event consisted of concerts by emerging Swiss talent and the Montreux Jazz Acade
Australia - During the Covid-19 era, production companies have sought many ingenious ways to keep clients satisfied and the work coming in. In June, Australia’s Big Picture launched its’ premium live event studio offering a technologically advanced and connected virtual event space. This high-tech studio supports clients in delivering a broadcast-quality online event, corporate theatre, and live performance experiences. Big Picture’s flexibility and technical prowess recently led to a mammoth two-day shoot with country superstar Keith Urban. Keith’s production house Human Person approached Big Picture to facilitate and coordinate the ambitious project. Keith recently launched a new album The Speed of Now Part 1 and he was keen to produce a bunch of different performance videos, shot at the same time, for various television shows. These shows included
Lithuania - This August saw a production of The Flying Dutchman, Richard Wagner’s fifth masterpiece, brought to Lithuanian opera fans for the first time. Staged in an open-air setting by the Klaipėda State Musical Theatre and featuring leading Lithuanian soloists including Sandra Janušaitė, the event became one of the most celebrated musical productions of the year, selling out all of its socially distanced 1,000 seats to lucky spectators. Dual DiGiCo SD12 96-channel consoles with two SD-Racks and D2-Racks were selected by one of the largest audio rental companies in the Baltics, NGR Service, to bring the magic of this one-act opera to life. Fitting its original theme, the opera production took place on the slipway of Paul Willy Lindenau shipyard complex in Klaipėda, with its colossal structures and hoists, as well as frequently changing weather condition
UK - Popular UK rockers Nothing But Thieves recently played a series of Live from The Warehouse pay-per-view live stream concerts, designed by Warren Hutchison and directed by Tim Perrett, that traversed three time zones - USA, UK and Australia / Asia Pacific - having just released the new single Impossible and announcing a major UK, Ireland and European tour for autumn 2021. The warehouse was Fareham, UK-based lighting rental specialist Liteup’s premises - part of which has been repurposed and energised for streaming activities since the first coronavirus lockdown started in March. Warren – who specified Robe fixtures as the majority of the lighting rig and is also a regular freelance LD and technician for Liteup – pitched a production design to the band for the streams which showcased hits, plus new music from their forthcoming album, Moral Pa
The Netherlands - Transformed into an online experience, the 2020 edition of Defqon.1 still attracted considerable interest. The three-day festival saw more than 80 artists preform and featuring every key element of Defqon.1 resulted in ‘one of the most spectacular live streams so far’. Together with the Q-Dance team, LD Robbert-Jan Vernooij was in charge of lighting. The design features a significant amount of CLF fixtures, supplied by Rent-All. The 360° perspective asked for a full waterproof lighting package. Since the design was based on a flat surface of 160x200m, rain-covers and domes were not required. Placed on this surface is the well-known Defqon.1 sign, fitted with 96 CLF LEDbar PRO fixtures. Q-Dance’s Jonas Schmidt, Dennis van Harten and Tamil van Draanen were responsible for set design. In order to create spectacular aerial and geometric effects, L
USA - Despite being launched just six years ago, Eikon Group has already established itself as a leading player in the digital audio mastering, versioning and localisation industry, with a client list that includes many major studios and entertainment distribution companies. Eikon recently opened a major new facility in Burbank, California, which features Alcons Audio pro-ribbon systems in four of its audio-critical, Dolby Atmos screening rooms. With clients that include Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Disney, 20th Century, Netflix, CBS, Universal International Pictures and Warner Bros, Eikon has to maintain the highest audio standards. The new 20,000sq.ft (1860sq.m) Burbank complex houses a range of post-production suites, ranging in size from 125sq.ft (12sq.m) to 1200sq.ft (112sq.m). These include two large and two mid-sized Dolby Atmos listening rooms, all using
UK - The fashion marketplace app Depop recently approached Flipside Soundsystem to design and install an audio visual AV system for its recently established front-of-house area - intended for holding team meetings of up to 150 employees while also showcasing new products from its sustainable fashion portfolio. Requiring a comprehensive audio visual installation that was in-keeping with the brand’s niche aesthetic, the Flipside team were on-hand to deliver a solution that could disappear into the background when not in use. In terms of sound, the speakers included two Yamaha VXL1W16 column speakers, one VXL1B8 and a final VXS10SW in white and black to match the walls they were installed on. The amplification and processing called upon a Yamaha MTX5D and an XMV4280 located in a hidden rack. Audio-Technica were the brand of choice for the wireless mics with two ATW-32
UK - A.C. Special Projects (AC-SP) supplied all the show lighting, as well as the power and data infrastructure for Bodmin Jail’s new immersive visitor attraction, designed and delivered by Sarner International. Built in 1779 for King George III, Bodmin Jail has played an important role in Cornwall’s history and this bold redevelopment gives visitors the chance to delve into an intriguing hidden history. A massive investment in Cornwall’s tourism and visitor economy, this was the biggest attraction opening in 2020 with its state-of-the-art technology allowing for a more immersive experience. The new attraction has used the latest technology to create a fully immersive experience, bringing back to life the chilling stories of this medieval prison’s dark past. Each part of the experience tells its own gruelling tales - visitors can walk along the jail's original
Albania - Prosound, Martin Audio’s Albanian distributor, has recently carried out two diverse installations of the manufacturer’s systems - a new urban bar in Tirana, the Albanian capital, and a seasonal holiday beach resort in Dhërmi, in the south-west of the country. The Grand Bar has been constructed on the premises of the recently reconstructed Air Albania Stadium in Tirana. Prosound had already worked with the same owners on another bar of the same name. “The owners were looking for a sound system that could function both as a background and foreground system, with even distribution,” said Prosound technical director, Endrit Veleshnja. Containing an inside room with around 70 capacity as well as an outdoor terrace, the bar trades all day through until 11pm, and the clients were happy to adopt the Adorn series, based on Martin Audio’s reputation and its
USA - It was “like riding a bike” is how John Garberson described his experience working the lighting console for the opening acts at Arizona Bike Week. The president of Creative BackStage, Garberson hadn’t run the boards at a show in six years (his work managing his business prevented that, when he sat down at the desk for this four-day festival. Given the way Creative BackStage was growing, Garberson really didn’t expect to be running boards again. But in 2020, few things have gone as expected. With his festival and event business halted in March, he occupied himself by turning his home office into a viz suite and “relearned“ programming. On Wednesday 7 October, Garberson got the chance to put his resharpened skills to work when the festival’s first act, Threefold Fate, took the stage. Like the proverbial bike rider, his comfort at the console came righ
Russia - This year, the Dream Island, a cultural and entertainment complex in the Nagatinskaya floodplain on the banks of the Moskva River, opened its doors to its first guests. The park is part of a major renovation project of the former ZIL industrial area covering some 600 ha. It is divided into four areas: sports grounds, a residential complex, a stadium and the Dream Island entertainment complex. It includes Europe's largest indoor theme park, a city promenade and a 44-hectare landscape park. The complex has dozens of attraction rides, restaurants, cafes, a multiplex centre with 17 cinemas, a concert hall, playgrounds for outdoor activities and sports, various shops and retail outlets. The 300,000sq.m indoor all-season amusement park with rides has nine theme zones. Four of them are owned by foreign copyright holders: Hotel Transylvania - Sony Pictures Cons
USA - The University of Tennessee, Knoxville held 10 in-person commencement ceremonies 19-22 November at Thompson-Boling Arena for spring, summer and fall 2020 graduates. Bandit Lites supplied a lighting system for the socially-distanced event which included additional health and safety protocols, allowing graduates and their families the opportunity to safely gather to celebrate their momentous accomplishments. “Though the ceremonies will look a little different, we have worked to preserve the spirit of a typical commencement so we can celebrate all our graduates, who have worked so hard for this moment,” said Provost John Zomchick. Bandit Lites donated nearly 100 fixtures including VL 3000 Spots, CUEPIX Blinder WW4s, Chauvet COLORdash Block Lights and Bandit’s GRNLite Moving Washes. “Much of the lighting we do for commencement could be considered utilitarian,
USA - Like many churches adapting to conditions around COVID-19, Winter Garden, Florida’s Mosaic Church has had to limit the number of, and attendance at, its Sunday gatherings. However, the pandemic has not muted the church’s sizable and enthusiastic music complement for those services. Twice each Sunday, as many as 12 musicians and vocalists assemble on stage for an authentic worship experience before those seated, socially distanced, in the 1,500-seat auditorium. In December 2017, following the renovation of a 78,000sq.ft former big-box store into its new main sanctuary, Mosaic Church acquired its first KLANG:fabrik immersive in-ear mixing solution, installed by Altamonte Springs-based integrator AVnew. Much more recently, Mosaic Church has now added a second KLANG:fabrik unit, further expanding what those performers on stage can accomplish and substantially lig
Germany - Located on the river Rhine, the town of Oestrich-Winkel is perhaps best known for being at the heart of the Rheingau wine-growing region and its annual Rheingau Musik Festival. But in a quiet residential street, Studio 22 owner and audio engineer Stephan Weber is at the cutting edge of live and recorded sound with Yamaha Rivage PM5 and Nuage systems. Stephan started as a professional IT networking specialist but, like so many who graduate to the audio industry, worked as a musician in his spare time. A small home studio and mixing local bands led to more audio work, including mixing musical theatre and events at the Kurhaus resort, casino and conference complex in Baden-Baden. A request by cruise company Hapag-Lloyd for his IT skills led to Stephan being asked to assist with his entertainment technology knowledge, leading to the creation of Studio 22. Since t
France - In a positive sign for the French exhibition and conference industry, the Savoie Expo has completed a sizeable investment in Nexo sound reinforcement systems for its new auditorium, anticipating a return to large-scale live events in 2021. Savoie Expo is located in Chambéry, in the Alpine heart of France’s second tourist region. Strategically placed to take advantage of close links to Lyon and Geneva, as well as both winter sports and summer recreation, the venue organises a range of trade fairs and exhibitions and hosts major seminar and conference events. Hall E was opened earlier this year, a substantial and versatile auditorium which can offer 2000sq.m of exhibition area, conference facilities for 1000 people, or accommodate 1200 people for a formal dinner. Equipped with retractable seating, the auditorium required an audio system that would adapt to it
