South Africa - With limited funds available for festivals in South Africa, it takes people who are able to give of their time and resources to keep the arts alive and to support the organizers who so tirelessly give of themselves. One such individual, is Brandon Bunyan of Black Coffee, a Durban-based technical supply company. Black Coffee is the main technical sponsor of The Hilton Arts Festival. This year, the show was hosted from 13 to 15 September at Hilton College in KwaZulu Natal. In the early days Bunyan worked on the event as a young technician and for the past 16 years, Black Coffee has sponsored gear and technicians to the Hilton Arts Festival which has grown from one to eight performance art display venues, making it the second largest festival in the country. “I first became involved because of my passion for theatre, to keep in the theatre game as a mark
UK - Martin Audio has announced the first sale of its new Wavefront Precision WPS array into the rental community. The 8” ultra-compact system -featuring scalable resolution optimisation technology - met the requirements of its premier partner, Capital Sound, and has gone out on Eddie Izzard’s UK and Ireland tour. Izzard has toured with Martin Audio PAs on many occasions in the past, but it was his sound engineer Alan Behr, a fan of the Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array (MLA) technology on which it is based, who had requested the brand. However, looking at the tour itinerary, Capital realised that while some venues would require the comedian to play through existing house systems, in others the restricted rigging and loading points would preclude the hanging of heavy incoming rigs. Capital account manager Robin Conway comments: “We had to look at lighter opt
UAE - Protec recently took delivery of the first Outline Newton in the region. Newton product specialist Middle East Luca Gianni helped to organise a demo in the field during an event in KSA and hosted a complete in-depth training course exclusively dedicated to Protec technicians, to ensure that the new processor’s possibilities were exploited to the utmost and the team was able to make the best possible use of its great processing capacity and versatility. Tim Allison, head of Protec’s audio department, stated that the Newton processor would be put to use on large-scale events in the UAE and KSA, and continued, “I envisage the Newton as an integral part of all our FOH main processing racks.” Luca Gianni confirms: “The Protec team is highly qualified and will definitely make the very most of the Newton, thus increasing the company’s in the field and part
USA - Multiple EMMY Award-winning lighting designer Bob Barnhart chose 80 VL2600 Profile luminaires from Vari-Lite as his “workhorse” tool for the 16th season of Fox’s popular TV show, So You Think You Can Dance. The new LED fixtures helped Barnhart to deliver an endless variety of looks in the tightest of time-frames. Produced by 19 Entertainment, Dick Clark Productions and Conrad Sewell Productions, the show sees around 900 dancers compete to be declared “America's favourite dancer”. During the show’s final stages Barnhart needed to light almost 80 dances, usually with just 20 minutes available to decide each different design. “The challenge is keeping the different looks fresh, so we try to use lighting equipment that can do a wide variety of things,” says Barnhart. “A ‘workhorse’ in this situation is much more valuable to me than a ‘o
Egypt - Green Hippo reports that its Hippotizer Media Servers are driving a range of custom high-resolution displays at the newly renovated Panorama 6th October Museum in Cairo, which commemorates the 6 October War of 1973. Using Hippotizer’s advanced mapping capabilities and flexible third-party integration options, local AV specialist Audio Technology was able to meet the many challenge of this complex installation, which includes custom HD projection mapping solutions in three interior halls, as well as on the outside of the building itself. The museum is now able to pursue its educational remit with a full-day entertainment program which brings the history of this troubled period back to vivid life for audiences of all ages. The building’s exterior is the projection surface for 4k resolution content, mapped and fed to six high-power 30,000 lumen laser projector
Italy - One hundred Claypaky Xtylos units were used to create the Il colore del suono (the colour of sound) lighting rig, conceived by the Giò Forma studio and created in conjunction with Claypaky's lighting designer Marco Zucchinali. The installation was put together for the Jova Beach Party on the runway of Milan Linate airport, which has been closed since July for major refurbishment works. The event was the final stage of Jovanotti's tour of the beaches of Italy. It saw over 100,000 people attend over eight hours of music with various guests, and culminated in a concert by Jovanotti himself, Italy's most loved rap singer-songwriter. Claudio Santucci from Giò Forma reports: “It all started with Jovanotti's and the creative team's request to have a light installation which could be seen from afar. I went to the Claypaky showroom to see their new light, th
USA - Located in Toppenish, Washington, four hours southeast of Seattle on the Yakama Nation reservation, is Legends Casino Hotel. Wanting to attract new guests by expanding their entertainment programme, Legends recently built a new events centre and sought to maintain their high standards by equipping the space in modern entertainment technology systems. Legends contacted Elation Professional dealer Morgan Sound of Lynnwood, Washington, for a vision to transform a 200' x 200' ballroom into a top-notch 1,750- seat concert and performance venue. Contracted to design and install the audio, lighting, video, staging, and drapery systems at the new events centre, Morgan Sound called on its team of AV experts to transform the space into a first-class venue. 1,750- seat concert and performance venue Morgan Sound equipped the centre with a cutting-edge Elation lighting syste
USA - Part Broadway-style stage show, and part story-driven concert, Nick Jr. Live! Move to the Music is on a national tour. The lively and colourful show, which is Vstar Entertainment’s third collaboration with Nickelodeon, has many of the network’s characters like The Bubble Guppies, PAW Patrol, and Dora The Explorer sharing the same stage for the first time. Supporting this cast of children’s favourites as they sing, dance and charm their way into young hearts is a collection of 47 Maverick and nine Ovation fixtures from Chauvet Professional. Colour rendering is very important when it comes to working with such a recognizable intellectual property, according to Jessica Mrovka, technical services manager at VStar Entertainment. Because the audience loves the characters presented on this tour and knows everything about them, even slight deviations from f
USA - High End Systems’ Sola Series automated luminaires drove the main Honda Stage at the 2019 Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, TX. For two consecutive weekends in October, 28 SolaFrame 3000 and 18 SolaHyBeam 2000 cut through day and night performances for Tame Impala, Billie Eilish, The Cure, Idles, Third Eye Blind, Cardi B and Robyn, among others. Houston-based LD Systems provided the gear, while its LDs Nathan Brittain and Lance Williamson worked with ACL Music Festival designer Chris Lisle on the overall design. The team deployed the 37,000 lumens of each SolaFrame 3000 for profile fixtures and band specials, while the SolaHyBeam 2000 washed the downstage with bold beams, animated gobos and effects. This year’s larger stage was 20ft wider, measuring 80ft wide by 60ft deep. Weather was a study in contrasts for the event with intense record-bre
UK - Northern Ireland’s new wave indie pop returned to touring with their fourth studio album, False Alarm, continuing a worldwide relationship with Britannia Row Productions. At FOH is Ian Laughton, a long-time Britannia Row customer who has live engineered the Club’s shows for over five years. “A great thing about mixing this band is that they want you to put your own stamp on it. They want a pretty different vibe compared to their recorded sound, and I love that; I have to be able to put my own touch on whatever I work on,” says Laughton, who works closely with monitor engineer Steve Donovan. The band’s engineers are joined by Britannia Row’s seasoned system tech Cesar Lopez, newly qualified stage tech Jacopo Fois and second system tech Giacomo Gasparini. The audio team’s combined efforts have been noted in the band’s close circles.
Australia - Lighting designer Alex Berlage used 36 Astera Titan Tube battery-powered wireless LED fixtures, each rigged on two individual winches, to produce a range of lighting, location effects, architecture and scenic elements for a new production of Lord of The Flies staged at Roslyn Packer Theatre by the Sydney Theatre Company. Directed by Kip Williams, the production has been acclaimed for many aspects including its diverse mixed gender 11-person adult cast who brought new energy and insight into William Golding’s tense psychological novel that explores some brutal, uncomfortable and uncompromising issues related to chaos, power and human behaviour. Alex is a theatrical director as well as a lighting designer and he’s constantly looking at different and more spatial ways to use lighting for building dramaturgic foundations and challenging some of the m
UK - When looking to up-grade the sound system in their council chamber, Newcastle Civic Centre turned to long established supplier Gary Nicholson of Newcastle-based Rock Warehouse to propose a solution. Having previously installed an HK Audio system in the Civic Centre’s largest space (the baronial style Banqueting Hall, capable of seating up to 600 guests), HK Audio was Nicholson’s first choice. Paul Frankcom was responsible for looking after the full gamut of AV requirements throughout the Civic Centre. He explains: "With the principal use of the Council Chamber being to host meetings for up to 200+ delegates using a variety of microphones positioned around the room, first rate speech intelligibility was the priority, with the objective being to commission a system capable of delivering a uniform audio experience for all delegates, with even coverage from the fr
USA - Milwaukee may be widely known for its Germanic roots and mass celebration of beer, bowling, and bratwurst, but this town is also the site of Irish Fest - a celebration of Irish music and culture - which this year utilised dLive and SQ Series consoles from Allen & Heath. Held downtown at Henry Maier Festival Park along the shore of Lake Michigan, Irish Fest 2019 featured 100 musical acts and 300 different performances spread across 16 stages. With Clearwing Productions handling the bulk of the event’s sound reinforcement needs, the Ingleside, Illinois-based independent rep firm Audio Biz deployed five dLive and six SQ Series consoles across seven of the stages plus a preshow/demo suite. Among the dLive systems were S5000 and C3500 control surfaces supported by DM48, DM64, and CDM48 MixRacks. Utilised at smaller stages where space was at a premium, SQ-5
France - For the past five years, XCPH has been responsible for designing the lighting rig for du Tour Vibration, a popular five-city back-to-school tour sponsored by Radio Vibration. Each year, their designs have been greeted with enthusiasm by the event organizers, performing artists, and the fans who turn out by the tens of thousands in France’s Central Region for the free concerts. This year, in a bold departure from precedent, Maxime Perrey scaled back the role of LED video walls that had dominated his previous designs in favour of a more lighting-oriented rig that featured Chauvet Professional fixtures. “The tour has continuously grown,” said Perrey. “This was the first year that I had carte blanche to create a plan. I wanted something different from the four previous editions. Before, video was much more present, with larger, more imposing, surfaces. S
Estonia - A Robe moving light rig supplied by Tallinn-based rental company E&T was used for Estonia’s two highest-profile annual summer opera festivals, the Birgitta Festival organised by the Tallinn Philharmonic Society and Saaremaa Opera Days organized by Eesti Kontsert. Saaremaa took place on a 60 x 30m stage built beside Kuressaare Castle on Saaremaa Island in the Baltic Sea. The castle is one of the best-preserved medieval fortifications in Estonia and provides a magical backdrop for all the operatic action to unfold. For the Birgitta festival, the same staging company constructed a temporary roofing / staging structure adjacent to the elegant ruins of the Pirita Convent in Tallinn, which dates to the 15th century. In both cases, the lighting rig comprised around 120 Robe fixtures – a mix of Spiiders, MMX WashBeams, MMX Spots, LEDWash 800s, Cyc FX 8
Europe - Rozbark Dance Festival is using Prolights to mark the return of a major international event to Silesia This new dance theatre festival is a 10-day international event, presenting the most captivating dance theatre projects from Portugal, China, Israel, the UK, Poland and across the world. The Kamea Dance Company is home to 14 versatile dancers, Israelis side by side with dancers from all over the world who bring their creative talent to the works. Based in Beer Sheva, the capital of the Negev, Kamea tours extensively in Israel and abroad whilst enjoying acclaim from audiences and critics alike. The broad repertoire includes works from internationally renowned guest choreographers. Kamea Dance Company discussed production needs and fixtures with Teatr Rozbark and looking at the original rider and assessing the desired outcome the teams unanimously chose
China - The Liaoning Ballet has taken delivery of 40 ADB Klemantis AS1000 LED cyclorama lights, half of them for fixed installation for the Liaoning Ballet and half for the ballet company’s worldwide touring performances of Hua Mulan. The Liaoning Ballet is known for producing new Chinese cultural works and performing well-known ballet classics. The story of a powerful female general in Chinese history, Hua Mulan has had many incarnations, including a Disney animated film. The Liaoning Ballet’s new production interprets the iconic tale through modern ballet choreography and music. It is now touring globally. Lighting programmer Ma Liang from the Liaoning Ballet chose the new Klemantis cyc lights and 40 ADB Warp 12º-30º 800W Zoom Profile spotlights, which were previously purchased by the Centre, for the production. Sergey Martynov is Hua Mulan’s
UK - Since the National Theatre’s initial investment in 42 MAC Encore Performance LED moving heads for the Olivier Theatre in May 2018, a planned roll-out has seen the venue on London’s Southbank install MAC Encores in the Lyttelton and Dorfman Theatres and add further units to the Olivier. In total, 156 MAC Encore Performance and Wash fixtures are either permanently installed or held in shared lighting resources. Selected for their feature set, durability and near silent operation, the roll-out has been supplied by a number of Martin dealers including White Light, Stage Electrics, Hawthorn and Flashlight - all themselves supplied by UK Martin distributor Sound Technology. In the Olivier Theatre - the largest of the three theatres within the National - lighting supervisor Jack Williams is preparing to install additional MAC Encore Performance CLD fixtures as the p
UK - CPL supplied full technical design and production for show producers Pandora Events, who delivered Tropic Skincare’s 2019 Glambassador motivational event, a high-energy day action-packed with new product launches, presentations, awards and live entertainment, complete with a gala dinner. The extravaganza for 2,500 people - themed Carnival of Colour - was staged in Hall 4 at the NEC, Birmingham, UK. CPL’s production and project manager Lee Gruszeckyj worked closely with Pandora’s Vanessa Carter and a crew of 27 technicians specialising in all the disciplines who started with the installation of a 20m diameter circular stage in the centre of the room. The inner 10m diameter section was a revolve. Above this, four large screens were installed, which were fed by Barco UDX high-powered projectors, giving 360° viewing angles. The stage was a fu
Germany - After the successful opening of the Rathausmarkt Open Air in Hamburg Germany last year, the classical music event with general music director Kent Nagano and the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra returned in August. For the first time the Farao Studios from Munich provided the acoustics at the event and started with a complex concept, that combined acoustic measures on stage with elements of virtual acoustics and a high-resolution pro-ribbon sound system from Alcons Audio. The concept, originally developed for Audi’s ‘Vorsprung Festival’ in 2014, was brought by the experienced team of Farao Studios at the Hamburg Rathausmarket square this year. A setup consisting of 15 Alcons LR28 large-scale pro-ribbon line array systems (l / r) and 14 Alcons LR18 as centre cluster was installed. A total of 20 of the powerful BC543 3x 18'' cardioid subwoofer system
USA - Brian Wilson recently wrapped another tour with a lighting system from Bandit Lites. The tour showcased the Beach Boys classic album Pet Sounds as well as featuring the 1960 album Friends. The Zombies opened the show by performing Odessey and Oracle in its entirety. “Bandit has had a very long and positive relationship with Brian Wilson and it is a true honour to work for him and the entourage that handle his production,” said Bandit Lites vice president Mike Golden. “In this day and age, I am so fortunate to work with so much real talent on one stage,” explains lighting designer Chris Stuba. “Brian is in a big band with a lot of amazing soloists, so there has to be a good amount of isolation so each band member can be highlighted.” Stuba balances his design by focusing on where the lighting falls and, more importantly, w
Italy - Rental company CLS has upgraded its Martin Audio inventory by investing in a new Wavefront Precision Mini (WPM) PA rig. The sale to the company, which was set up in the Florence region last year by Duccio Mitola, was handled by Audiosales, Martin Audio’s Italian distributor. However, Duccio’s experience of the brand extends back seven years earlier when he was operating a W2 as his PA; when he started CLS Martin Audio was again his first port of call as he purchased a Blackline S15 and F10 rig (along with some EM series speakers). As the company expanded its work base he upgraded to a W8LM Mini line array, and it is this that the new technology of the WPM has replaced. Explaining the purchase Duccio says he had initially been looking to extend his stock of W8LM and approached Audiosales. “But they said ‘why do you want to take the old W8LM when there is
UK - For the 14th year running, dbnAudile has installed the technical infrastructure for the Sacha Lord/Sam Kandel promoted Warehouse Project pop-up, through its various venues in Manchester. Originally working under separate guises, before dbn Lighting merged with Audile, the technology specialists recently put in infrastructure at the Project’s latest home, the 10,000 capacity Mayfield Depot, which sits adjacent to Manchester’s Piccadilly Station; this includes large quantities of GLP X4 Bar 20 battens and JDC1 hybrid strobes in the main room for the four-month season which runs until January 2020. Starting life at the old Boddington’s Brewery, the event now sees high-profile dance acts including MK, Diplo, Disclosure, Aphex Twin, Soul II Soul and Hacienda Classical performing under a lighting rig designed by dbnAudile director, Pete Robinson. He says the
Brazil - Sao Paulo-based R3 Estudio Movel has chosen a Calrec Artemis Ray audio console for its OB truck ‘PowerTruck’. Isaías Rosa, R3’s recording/mixing engineer and multi-Latin Grammy nominee, says: “The Artemis met all our requirements. The truck is set up for mixing and recording music. The Artemis Ray has excellent sound quality; we use it in a 72-fader configuration, which is great for mixing live music as we have the faders set up on one layer.” R3 Estudio Movel uses two Waves cards, one Dante card and six MADI cards in the truck. The on-stage setup includes 128 mic pre-amps and two MADI cards. The company creates about 40 music DVDs a year - including one recently for Sony Music’s Brazilian funk artist Nego do Borel, in addition to its work on live broadcasts and streaming. “This project is a great example of how the Artemis console can r
