Spain - Occupying a downtown location just a stone’s throw from the famous Passeig de Gracia, the Khalijia Lounge & Restaurant is Barcelona’s newest nightspot with an oriental twist. Offering everything from Lebanese and Moroccan-inspired food to exotic cocktails coupled with live music, Khalijia aims to cater for a discerning clientele that appreciates quality at every level. Barcelona-based AV systems integration specialists, Silence Electroacústica S.L., were commissioned to design and install the audio, lighting and DMX control systems throughout the new venue. Silence opted for a KV2 Audio system based on the EX Series of active loudspeakers. From an audio perspective, the system needed to handle a wide spectrum of requirements, from extremely high quality, low level music reproduction for the lunchtime and early evening crowds going right through to high
USA - New York City may be over a thousand miles away, but local company, JEM Productions, created the look and feel of Manhattan jazz club at its warehouse- turned-studio in Wausau, WI, as it hosted a livestream fundraising show by the Sara Rifleman Trio. The performance by the Wisconsin-based musicians was the latest in a series of livestreamed shows emanating from the lighting and audio company’s makeshift studio. It was the smoothest production to date, according to Joe Ellis, president of JEM Productions. “We’ve been doing these for weeks now, ever since the Covid-19 shutdown started,” said Ellis. “I think we’re getting familiar with this process! Our lighting and production crew did a really great job creating the look of a classic New York jazz club on the set. Sometimes, the simpler the look, the harder you have to dig into the art of design. This
USA - Chicago-based Charles Ford and his business partner Brandon Clark from Creative Live Control have developed a professional streaming production service - lighting, audio, cameras and broadcast - that meets all the social distancing requirements, can be installed and run by the two of them. While the challenges of producing special high impact lighting for community lighting projects like Chicago Unite at Night have been stimulating and fun, Charles and Brandon also need to generate some business as all their touring work has currently been cancelled, so they hit on the idea of the professional live streaming service. The living room of Charles’ condo has been transformed into a pop-up studio space and after a couple of test runs, there is a queue of local artists lined up to visit and use the facilities. Brandon completed all the networking, intern
USA - Bending Lite Productions’ Erik Mahowald has enjoyed a long tour of duty with American electronic musician and DJ Dillon Francis, noted for popularising the ‘Moombahton’ genre - a fusion of house music combined with reggaeton. Last summer, Erik conceived a lighting design for Coachella 2019 based around 60 GLP JDC1 hybrid strobes, but with the intention of bringing it to major headline events following the reveal. Working alongside creative content director and VJ, Mario Adato; production manager, Nathan Rebolledo and tour manager, Mike Finn, Mahowald programmed the lighting to animate a set that combined complementary surround elements with creating big moments of drama to produce a high-octane party vibe for audiences to become immersed in. In the centre of this was Dillon Francis himself, performing from an elevated booth, housing his CDJ setup. The
Albania - Headquartered in Tirana, ASLV (Albanian Sound, Lighting and Video) has operated nationwide since 2013 and, with its team provides sound, lighting, video, staging and structures, as well as creative technical solutions for concerts, festivals, theatre and opera productions, key corporate events, expos and more throughout the country. Specialist services also include consultation and design. Recently appointed as exclusive Outline distributor for Albania, following its corporate policy of ensuring its clients equipment that is technically the best for perfectly meeting their requirements, ASLV has also taken delivery of an Outline Superfly Silver audio package, one of the three turnkey set-ups conceived in recent months by the Italian audio manufacturer. Superfly loudspeaker systems have a true three-way (HF-MF-LF) design, but the dual high-efficiency 10” tra
UK - Seventy-five years after the end of the Second World War in Europe, London’s Royal Albert Hall (RAH) hosted We’ll Meet Again for VE Day 75 with Katherine Jenkins to honour those who gave their lives so that subsequent generations could come to know peace and freedom. Event production supplier, SFL provided the audio and video production for the live performance. The event was organised by TBI Media and Snappin’ Turtle Productions, both long-standing clients of SFL. With the world overcast by the threat of the Covid-19 pandemic, the SSAFA armed forces charity and The Mayor of London joined together with the noted London venue, brought the nation together by offering an authentic musical experience. For the first time since The Blitz, the RAH stood empty for an event, but its true life force - the audience - were able to enjoy the performance of Welsh m
UK - GoboPlus.com continues to operate in these difficult times with reduced staff numbers, but remains determined to support to its customers with a continued service of both custom and stock gobos. In recent weeks the company has seen a huge increase in gobos celebrating the NHS. Goboplus.com responded by designing a range of NHS gobos for its website and has seen this move mushroom into an online campaign which is steadily growing week by week. “We have received orders from across the UK from many customers who have been expressing their support on Thursday nights as they #clapforcarers in celebration of the commitment and strength being made by all front-line staff,” says GoboPlus.com’s Paul de Ville. “We have been sharing these pictures on social media in the hope that the message will spread far and wide to show how proud we are of all the hard-work
USA - Just as it does at outdoor festivals, nature can work with or against the LD who lights a drive-in concert. Matt Collier got a taste of both on Saturday, 23 May when he lit a two-hour show by jam band Spafford at the Digital Drive-In outside Phoenix. The brilliant orange sunset that filtered through the feathered clouds at the start of the show served up one of those breath-taking spectacles that happen on special evenings this time of year in the dessert. Along with this gentle touch, however, nature also showed its harsher side with some strong southwest winds. Drawing on his extensive experience touring the festival circuit with Spafford and other bands, Collier adroitly handled whatever Mother Nature dished out, incorporating the colourful sky into his design for the drive-in show, while also coming up with a substitute for the fog he planned to use before t
USA - XR Studios leveraged the latest technology from disguise to bring the future of broadcast to primetime American television when Katy Perry performed her new single Daisies on the season finale of American Idol. The project relied on the collaboration between the creative and technical teams led by XR Studios, with content by Silent Partners Studio using Notch VFX, direction by Silent House Productions and PRG North America as the production vendor. “Started on the #AmericalIdol stage, ended up in a whole new world,” as Katy Perry wrote on her Instagram, the performance has since been watched by over 9m viewers around the globe with over 2m Youtube hits on top of the 7.3m strong viewers on the night. “Having disguise for delivery of this content was crucial. There's simply no other solution out there that I would trust with this,” says JT Ro
USA - The 62nd Grammy Awards became the first major broadcast event to utilise a large complement of Claypaky Xtylos fixtures when lighting designers Bob Dickinson and Noah Mitz of Full Flood Inc. deployed 60 Xtylos for Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani’s duet, Nobody But You. In addition, 118 Claypaky Mythos 2 fixtures were part of the main set rig and the dish stage at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. PRG was the lighting vendor. The show’s creative producer Raj Kapoor asked the lighting designers for a lighting installation that would separate Shelton and Stefani from the band and enfold them as they performed the romantic ballad. “Raj was looking for lighting as architecture to surround the duo,” says Mitz. “We first thought of Mythos 2, but when we realised Xtylos would be available we made the switch.” He notes that Xtylos had been
USA - The new Cross Church DFW satellite campus that sits on 27 acres on the busy Blue Mound Road is reflective of the dramatic expansion that has taken place in North Fort Worth recently. Parent church, North Richland Hills Baptist, opened the spacious satellite in September 2019, after two years of planning, to reach the increasing number of worshippers settling in the area. Reflecting the forward-looking orientation of the new campus is an AVL system designed and installed by Paragon 360. Outfitted with the latest audio and video equipment, the new system is used to broadcast services and events to lobbies and classrooms throughout the expansive Cross Church facility, as well as to the North Richland Hills Baptist home base, strengthening the connection between the two campuses. Helping to ensure the quality of those videos is a stage lighting rig that features Cha
South Africa - On the evening of 19 May, Mark Gaylard of technical production company MGG and his crew of 20 replicated a version of the South African flag using 214 lighting fixtures, predominantly Robe, at the company’s premises in Johannesburg. During the Covid-19 lockdown, MGG has thought on its feet and adapted to the new environment, becoming an ‘essential service’ provider by offering a virtual studio for broadcasting and streaming. Other activities have included assembling information noticeboards, developing a hands-free door opener, and producing essential PPE kit like masks. “I wanted to shine our lights in solidarity for South Africa, and I wanted to reach out to Robe and the other various #TogetherWeAreStronger and #LightTheSky projects,” Mark explained. “Also, I wanted to highlight the plight of the thousands of freelancers in our industry, m
Belgium - The 150-year-old Koningklijke Stadschouwburg (Royal City Theatre) is the largest and most prestigious of five venues managed by Cultuur Centrum Brugge (CC Brugge) in the historic Belgian city. In late 2019 the organisation invested heavily in new Yamaha digital mixing systems for all venues, with eight CL and QL series digital mixing consoles, associated I/O racks and Ethernet switches installed on new Dante networks. Opened in 1869, the 700-seat Koninklijke Stadschouwburg was originally designed as an elite temple of culture. Nowadays, together with the Magdalenazaal, De Biekorf, Daverlo and De Dijk theatres, it welcomes a diverse audience to a variety of modern theatre, live music, dance, seminars, movies, presentations and much more. Philip Van Loo of PVL Sound & Light BV is a long-time supplier, consultant and project manager for CC Brugge. He i
USA - Funk/rock fusion quartet Katastro played to a near-empty LIT Lighting warehouse, as part of the COVID-19 driven LIT Live livestream shows. Much of lead singer Andy Chaves’ on-stage fluency is due to his natural talent and experience, but some of the credit must also go to the warm, welcoming vibe that Chris Broadman and his team have created at their warehouse turned livestreaming studio in Tempe, AZ. This is the second incarnation of LIT Live for Brodman, Cody Lisle (also of LIT), and Rodger Pugh of Devus Designs. They began collaborating on the livestreaming programme early in the pandemic, but closed up shop after the governor of Arizona declared a general lockdown. In May, with the crisis easing and restrictions lifted, they restarted LIT Live – and as they’ve moved forward, they’ve picked up new bits of knowledge with every step along the way.
Sweden - Since 1959, the Swedish Eurovision entry each year has been chosen via an annual televised talent competition, known since 1967 as the Melodifestivalen, organised by public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). In 2002, the Melodifestivalen upped the ante further in terms of a selection event and started touring to six key cities around Sweden with a final in Stockholm, this year at the 65,000-capacity Friends Arena. The finale broadcast is among the most popular programmes on Swedish television. Top Swedish LD Fredrik Jonsson of Eyebrow Designs has lit Melodifestivalen since 2002, capturing all the glamour, glitz and drama. This year, he enlisted the help of 168 x Robe moving lights (upped to over 300 for the final show) including MegaPointes, Spiiders, LEDBeam 150s and six BMFL WashBeam follow spots runnin
UK - Thousands of people in Chorley and Bolton witnessed Rivington Pike turn blue last on Thursday 21 May in tribute to the NHS and other key workers. The Pike Tower, one the area’s most prominent landmarks, was bathed in a brilliant blue glow from a number of LEDJ Spectra Par 15Q8 Exterior Fixtures as part of the weekly ‘clap for carers’ initiative. The event was the brainchild of Chris Beesley and his company CDS Events UK with support from another local firm Paul K Sound, as well as United Utilities, Rivington Heritage Trust and Chorley Council, which owns the Pike structure itself. CDS’ Chris Beesley said, with so many public events cancelled because of lockdown, the firm’s traditional workload had tumbled so they had hit on the idea of lighting up buildings for free to raise a smile. One recent cancelled event was the Rivington Terraced Gardens’
Ghana - Accra recently staged its own ‘behind closed doors’ Ghana Covid-19 Heroes Concert in order to raise funds for both UNHCR, to help protect refugees from the pandemic, and the National COVID-19 Trust Fund. It was also a way to thank all frontline workers who have risked their lives in saving others. Charterhouse Ghana, a one-stop production house, staged the event, in partnership with Ghana Music Awards Foundation, at The Grand Arena, located on the premises of the Accra International Conference Centre. It was transmitted to audiences through television (TV3) and through social media streaming. WABlighting, run by Ernest Awuah, was brought in to handle the production design and drew heavily on fixtures from PR Lighting. “PR is rated number one brand in Ghana over all others due to its explicit features,” he explains. Both Wablighting and Charterhouse Ghan
The Netherlands - 013 is one of the largest and most frequented pop music venues in the southern Netherlands, hosting a slew of international touring acts and popular festivals every year. Now, it features venue-wide live audio systems from Adamson Systems Engineering. Located in the city of Tilburg in the southern province of North Brabant, 013 Poppodium is comprised of the 3,000-capacity Main Stage and 700-capacity NEXT Stage. Following a substantial overhaul in 2015, both spaces boasted custom audio reinforcement solutions from Adamson Systems Engineering, sourced via the company’s exclusive Dutch distributor, Audio Acoustics. More recently, however, 013 augmented its Main Hall system with new components from Adamson’s flagship E-Series and sub-compact S-Series for a more consistent and impactful performance to benefit patrons and visiting productions alike.
Malta - Powerhouse, a Malta-based integrator specialising in lighting, sound, projection and custom-built staging, began working with AV Stumpfl in 2009. For the past year, Powerhouse has been using Vario64 projector screens throughout its projects and recommending them to clients. Currently, Powerhouse has seven different Vario64 screens in total, including: an 8.3m x 3.7m model, a 12m x 4m model, and a 5.2m x 2.8m model. “What is unique about the Vario series is its robust and durable frame and surface, without compromising on ease of set up or mobility,” says Justin Portelli, Powerhouse’s operations manager. “It’s a design that has considered not only the visual aspects of projection screens, but also the practical build aspect. It takes half the time and workforce to set up compared to what we used previously.” When AV Stumpfl entered the rental and sta
Russia - Despite its relative solitude in Russia’s vast Siberian region, the city of Irkutsk is a thriving seat of culture that embodies all the best of Russia’s storied theatre tradition. Irkutsk boasts an impressive number of theatres and Irkutsk Academic Drama Theatre of N.P. Okhlopkov, the oldest theatre in Eastern Siberia and the cultural hub of the region, epitomises that artistic vitality. Founded in 1850 and currently celebrating 170 years as a cultural institution, the theatre recently worked with Light Power Design (LPD) to upgrade its stage lighting to an automated lighting system from Elation Professional with lighting control consoles from Obsidian Control Systems. Established in 1986, LPD focuses on sales and installation of professional lighting and sound equipment and has served as Elation’s Russian distributor for several years, enjoying exclus
Germany - Last year, music resonated throughout the Festwiese Apolda. Stars from Germany and around the world journeyed to this central German setting to perform. These sounds went silent following the Covid-19 lockdown. For weeks, the pastoral fairgrounds remained void of public entertainment. Happily, that changed on Friday 15 May when Studio D4 launched Autokino Apolda, a pop culture throwback to the 1960s-style American drive-in, but with a decidedly high-tech touch provided by a bright 10m by 6m LED video screen built with Chauvet Professional F4 IP panels supplied and installed by Materie Event Production. “The panels give us brilliant colours and sharp definition thanks to their 4.8 mm pixel pitch,” said Heiko Ullrich of Materie Event Production. “The black body of the LEDs means that we have great images even during sunlight. This was important, because t
Thailand - The newly opened Rosewood Bangkok Hotel features a building-wide networked AV system featuring Harman Professional Solutions components. Completed and opened in 2019, the Rosewood Bangkok features a striking modern architectural design that evokes the image of two palms pressed together in the traditional wai greeting. The 30-story tower in the heart of downtown Bangkok contains 159 guest rooms, each with a private terrace and plunge pool. The complex also features two spaces for events and functions: the 3,400sq.ft Pavilion, which can accommodate up to 300 guests or be divided into two separate spaces, and the 1000sq.ft Ploenchit Boardroom. Throughout, The Rosewood Bangkok deployed a range of JBL Professional loudspeakers, Crown amplifiers, BSS signal processors, AMX AV and control systems and Martin Professional lighting solutions. “A venue such as
Australia - Nalini Tebbey owns and runs Floating Lotus, a yoga studio based in Helensvale, on Australia’s Gold Coast, offering a busy weekly schedule of 36 yoga, pilates and meditation classes. Recently, helping to create a harmonious ambience in the studio have been six Astera Titan Tubes. The business had just moved into a tranquil new premises with large windows, lots of incoming natural light and panoramic views, a fully conducive environment for relaxation and concentration, when the coronavirus pandemic and resultant lockdown meant the doors had to be temporarily closed to the public. Ever resourceful, Nalini started streaming her classes. The Studio space needed additional lighting to keep up the quality and style associated with Floating Lotus. Nalini wanted her broadcasts to look polished and professional and Astera Titan tubes were recommended, and
USA - For more than half a century, Atlanta’s Mount Paran Church has been celebrated by the evangelical world as a beacon of effective ministry and engaged, growing membership, evidenced by its 13,000-plus-member congregation. Mount Paran is forward-thinking when it comes to the technology it uses to communicate its message, a point that was clearly underscored by its recent distinction as the first house of worship to install a sanctuary loudspeaker system built upon L-ISA Hyperreal Sound technology. “Good sound is one of the most essential elements in today’s churches, and achieving consistent, engaging audio throughout an entire worship space is mission-critical so that the congregation has a shared community experience,” says Tim Corder, strategic accounts director - house of worship for Diversified, the technology solutions provider that delivered the project.
