UK - Built in 1894, Theatre Royal Wakefield is a Grade II listed traditional proscenium arch theatre in the heart of Yorkshire’s cathedral city of Wakefield. The design and vision of the famous British architect, Frank Matcham and one of the smallest remaining Matcham auditoriums today, Theatre Royal Wakefield is a good example of his ability to create a beautiful theatrical environment within a very tight space. The time had come to replace the theatre’s old and failing PA with a new, modern system that would provide high quality, even coverage across all the seats in the auditorium. Theatre Royal Wakefield’s technical manager, Ms Di Clough, turned to Huddersfield-based systems integrator, Sound and Light Concepts, who supplied and installed a full Halo-C compact line array system from EM Acoustics. Despite its bijou proportions, Theatre Royal Wakefield neverthe
France - Creating an immersive environment at a music festival starts with the stage, but it by no means ends there. This was the guiding philosophy that Vincent Rautureau and his team at Giglam SA followed when lighting the Weather Festival, which returned to Paris’ La Seine Musicale on 27 April after a two-year hiatus. Rautureau and his associates certainly endowed the stage with dynamic looks to support the pulsating sounds of international EDM and alternative music stars like Daniel Avery, OKO DJ and Ciel, but their creative vision also extended beyond the immediate performance area. Seeking to engage the festival crowd on multiple levels, they turned much of the event’s island venue into a vibrant panorama with help from 140 Chauvet Professional EPIX Strip IP fixtures, supplied by Alive Events Angers. “We positioned the EPIX Strips on all of the festival s
Sweden - One of the largest and most beautiful of Stockholm’s churches, the Gustav Vasa Kyrka, in the city’s Vasastaden district, has carried out a major refurbishment and technical upgrade. The Gustav Vasa Kyrka was designed by August Lindegren and completed in 1906, with a capacity of up to 1,200 worshippers, generations of whom have no doubt marvelled at the lavishly decorated marble surfaces, and soaring arches. They also can’t have failed to notice the remarkable reverberation time. Jacob Julin of Soundcop, the company brought in to solve the church’s intelligibility woes, says, “The acoustics was the biggest challenge. When we started, the hall had an acoustic reverberation of six seconds, so that was of course an issue.” Later however, following the building’s refurbishment, including new treatments to the floor and walls, that reverb time
The Netherlands - For 77 years the locomotive repair facility in the Dutch city of Tilburg was a vital part of the Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS, or Dutch Railways) network. Employing hundreds of local people, its 2009 closure had a profound effect on the area. But now the building has been reborn as a major cultural and learning centre, where Yamaha audio systems are helping to drive the train of new innovation forward. Originally opened in 1932, the impressive 90m by 60m steel and glass building was a busy workplace, playing an important role in local employment. When it closed, rather than demolish it there was a strong desire to ‘return the building to the Tilburg people’. It was decided to use it to form the centrepiece of a contemporary, fashionable new ‘railway zone’ in the city. “Impressed by the enormous size of the space, the design team realised that
UK - LED illumination specialists LED Creative supported scenic designer Andrew Gates, lighting director Stuart Pring and the team at Joe Lycett's Got Your Back. Filmed in front of a studio audience at h Studio, London, the series features comedian Joe Lycett serving up a healthy dose of consumer justice as he exposes a variety of scams, appalling customer service and unacceptable consumer standards on behalf of the people of the UK. Helping to acheive the show’s bright, playful look, LED Creative provided their Pulse Wands, Alpha 60 and Byte System to deliver vibrant colour and optimum control over the set illumination. In building the boldly coloured design, the scenic designer cleverly integrated LED Creative Alpha 60 throughout the structural components and backdrop. Additional runs of Alpha 60 were concealed above and below the raised stage area to
UK - Taiwanese singer and film star Jay Chou has starred in Hollywood blockbusters, broken records for the most expensive live production in Australia and sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Chou recently entrusted Britannia Row Productions to deliver one of the biggest PA rigs that London’s O2 Arena has ever seen. For the final three concerts of his 120-date The Invincible 2 World Tour, Chou played two nights in London before deploying the Britannia Row rig for a final show at Paris’ Accor Arena. These three shows were promoted by Magic-Sound Entertainment. Britannia Row crew chief, Scott Maxwell, says: “Jay is a huge star. We’re essentially working with a stadium-sized PA in an arena-sized production. Everything else in the design had to shrink down to fit inside the venue, but the PA remained the same.” The entire production weighe
USA - As technical director at the Collinsworth School of Music at California Baptist University, Matthew McConnell holds the equipment he purchases to the same high standards expected from the school’s students. When McConnell recently found that he wasn’t satisfied with the sound he was capturing on the string bass and cello instruments during performances, he turned to Jeff Suchy at Apex Audio to find the best solution. After testing various clip-on mics and pick-ups, the duo ultimately selected DPA Microphones’ d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphone as the right tool for the job. Though these have now become a staple at the school, the use of the d:vote 4099 wasn’t McConnell’s first foray into DPA mics. “I initially discovered DPA a decade ago, when I was trying to close-mic a grand piano, with a closed lid, through a PA system,” he explains. “DPA’s d
UK - On the three days before Good Friday, the streets of central Birmingham were taken over by The Birmingham Passion Play 2019, an ambitious, contemporary retelling of the Easter story, organised by Christian charity and theatre company Saltmine Trust, with support from The Passion Trust. To help bring the creative vision to life, Saltmine partnered with UK audio visual production supplier SFL. The Saltmine Trust Theatre company puts on regular public, partner, and education tours, as well as one-off shows, all inspired by the Christian faith. Even for Saltmine though, The Birmingham Passion Play 2019 was an ambitious undertaking as it was delivered on the move - a travelling street performance that started at Birmingham Bullring, progressing along New Street to Victoria Square, and finishing inside St Philip’s Cathedral - effectively making the stage over half a mile w
UK - Lighting designer Stuart Pring has used Chroma-Q Space Force LED soft lights to illuminate the JW Anderson February Autumn/Winter Fashion Show. Pring has previously worked on The 2018 Teen Awards, a variety of television studios including for NBC/ESPN’s Wimbledon Studio, and TV series John Bishop in Conversation. The JW Anderson Fashion Show was hosted on an 11m square catwalk, which required Stuart to deliver an even coverage of light across the entire area. For this, Version 2 - lighting rental specialists for the Television, Broadcast and Event industries - provided Stuart with 36 Space Force tuneable white LED soft lights. Pring comments: “I needed to achieve an even wash of daylight white light, to faithfully reproduce the colours of the models' clothing. The fixture's output was flawless in creating a seamless coverage across the entire ca
Denmark - SPOT, an annual music festival in Aarhus showcasing up-and-coming Danish and Scandinavian talents, saw 300 artists and bands perform across 25 stages throughout the city. Lighting designer and programmer Heiða Kristín Ragnarsdóttir used a grandMA3 light console to run lighting on her stage, reserved for WILM (Women In Live Music) a European non-profit organisation that supports women working behind the scenes and backstage. For the first time, this stage was run by an all-female tech crew. Ragnarsdóttir reports: “The MA system is my first choice for everything from theatre to concerts. It is very important for me to be able to personalize the setup to fit my needs of the moment which the grandMA2 software does easily. It is highly reliable, has intuitive controls and a lot of flexibility in programming which makes it ideal for ‘busking’ festivals.
Turkey - Allen & Heath’s Turkish distributor HEC PRO recently completed a four-year project to construct its new four-floor HEC Plaza ‘experience’ centre in Istanbul. The grand opening of the new facility took place in the presence of influential designers and installers, as well as prominent figures in the Turkish music industry. The vision of director Berk Ozan and his team was to create a setting comprising different environments into which relevant integrated technology solutions were placed, allowing customers the chance to experience first hand the practical application of the brands HEC PRO represents. The suites include a fully immersive cinema room, a hotel suite, conference facilities, office areas and an impressive bar/nightclub. As part of HEC PRO’s impressive portfolio, Xone products feature prominently at HEC PLAZA, with all models on demonst
Philippines - Resorts World Manila (RWM) has created El Calle Food and Music Hall – a space that celebrates the Filipinos’ passion for jam sessions, delicious food, and good times over drinks. El Calle, the city’s latest acoustic chill-out spot, features nightly entertainment from some of the best acoustic performers in the country today and special performances from the country’s top acts. Past performers have included True Faith, Ben&Ben, Clara Benin, Top Suzara, Luke Mejares, and more. With El Calle’s special focus on raising the bar for live acoustic music, choosing the optimal sound system was essential. “El Calle is a very intimate space seating a maximum of eighty people, so we needed a sound system that could deliver powerful sounds but with the necessary clarity for clean acoustic performances,” said RWM technical director for theatre and ent
USA - Established in 1968 and sponsored by the Olympic Committee, the longstanding International Children’s Games branched out in 1994 with the launch of the Children’s Winter Games. This year the competition was held in Lake Placid, New York, giving young athletes from across the globe the chance to compete at the highest level in a wide range of winter sports. While the Games are all about exceptional sporting achievement and fostering the exchange of ideas between athletes from different countries and cultures, it’s also about putting on a memorable show for the spectators. And that’s where ADJ comes in. Having worked with the historic Olympic Centre on countless competitions, lighting designer Eric Wilson was brought in to deliver an epic lightshow for the Children’s Winter Games opening ceremony, jumping at the chance to work on a prestigious sporting ev
Europe - Hayden Borgars has covered a broad spectrum of shows during his career as a lighting designer, including a wide range of music genres, corporate, dance and theatre. Most recently he joined forces with American rap artist, Hoodie Allen (Steven Markowitz) for a British and European tour, at venues ranging from the 700-capacity Garage Glasgow to 2,000-capacity Shepherds Bush Empire. Travelling with him throughout was an inventory of 18 VDO Sceptron 10, four MAC Encore Performance Colds and two AURA XB, which combined as the cutting-edge Martin Professional lighting package, supplied by rental company, Siyan. The tour was set up essentially as a pre-album promo tour in advance of Hoodie’s next album release. Given the nature of the venues, Hayden drew on his vast theatre experience where he’d deployed Martin fixtures previously, generally the MAC 250’s
USA - When The Grove Community Church of Riverside, California built its current Worship Centre more than a dozen years ago, Olympia, Washington-based CCI Solutions facilitated the design and installation of the sound system for its 1,800-seat main auditorium. Since that time, like many churches, The Grove’s music sets have gradually moved toward a more contemporary praise style requiring a robust sound system to best capture both the band’s impact and vocalists’ intelligibility. When CCI Solutions recently got the call to once again assess the room’s sonic needs, the integrator recommended a new system built on L-Acoustics’ Kara(i) and Kiva II platforms. “The Grove definitely takes a more contemporary approach to music, but the only thing that’s safe to expect is the unexpected,” notes CCI Solutions vice president of sales and integration Duke DeJong.
USA - Wiz Khalifa’s Coachella performance was filled with dramatic moments. But for the Grammy-nominated star’s long-time lighting designer Jason Bullock, the real drama started about 24 hours before the show began. It was then that the New York-based LD received the ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 desk from Upstaging that he would use to run his 90-universe show. “Coachella is a very important festival for all artists involved, so there was some pressure,” acknowledged Bullock. “I didn’t see the ChamSys desk until I arrived at the festival. I built the patch and show file in a Viz room on the site. Being able to build a show with a few hours and only get on the lighting system for three hours made time of the essence. ChamSys was the ideal tool, given that I was in a crunch. “The Sahara Tent at Coachella was primarily EDM acts,” said Bullock. “Since Wiz brought
Qatar – The world’s largest permanent video projection installation has opened at the new National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ). Inside 21 billion pixels are being processed every second by nine Avolites Ai Q3 servers, alongside another 163 Ai Miami software licences, running on 1U 8K media servers custom designed by the London-based visual technologists, RES. The video projection aspects of the project involve a series of ‘Art Films’, which were produced by the Doha Film Institute (DFI) in collaboration with handpicked directors and videographers, to immerse visitors in a journey through Qatar’s past, present and future aspirations. The projections cover a vast area, co-created by RES, MAN Enterprise / EMPTY Joint Venture and the DFI. “Avolites Ai is always our go-to software for demanding projects like this - the AIM Codec and Salvation Engine are both powerful
USA - Located in Otisville, Michigan, Richfield Church of the Nazarene is dedicated to serving the community through an inspirational and heartfelt worship environment. Offering both contemporary and traditional services each week, the church recently underwent a lighting renovation to better create a positive and life-changing experience for all their members and guests. Needing an upgrade to the complete lighting system, they worked with the design professionals at Mercury Sound and Lighting who installed a new house design filled with Chalice LED downlights from Altman Lighting. “This was actually our first time working with the church and they wanted us to take a look at their theatrical and house lighting equipment which was reaching the end of its life cycle,” began Japheth Boivin, A/V solutions facilitator, Mercury Sound and Lighting. “The existing house l
USA - Calvary Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania is a non-denominational house of worship with a lot of heart and room for nearly 2,800 congregants. Although Calvary Church’s services involve all of the elements of a contemporary approach, including high-definition IMAG, a live band, and online streaming, it takes a softer approach and blends plenty of traditional elements as well, including a choir and orchestra. As one of the largest venues in the area, Calvary Church also opens its doors to outside groups and events, such as local high school graduations and (mostly Christian) concerts. Because of Clair Solutions’ staff’s expertise and cheerful willingness to provide helpful demos, the company has been Calvary Church’s preferred AVL integration firm for over a decade and helped pilot the church through its most recent – and most significant – technology upgrade
USA/UK - Electronic wizard and Mercury Prize winner James Blake has been touring the States prior to returning to his native UK for theatre dates, and appearances at European festivals, starting with All Points East. On the road with him is Blake’s long-serving, and experienced LD, Chris Bushell, accompanied by an inventory of GLP fixtures, chosen, he says “for their uniqueness and versatility”. These include 18 of the JDC1 hybrid strobes (which he affectionately dubs ‘J-Dogs’) and 16 award-winning X4 Bar 20 battens (which with a wink he refers to as Twizzlesticks). When James Blake’s Assume Form album touring cycle was announced he zipped into action, production designing to a brief that was to have less equipment on show “and less of the circus that can surround a show as it increases in size.” He explained, “Last time we went out, there was
Belgium - The Ancienne Belgique - AB as it’s universally known - sits right in the bustling heart of old Brussels as part of a vibrant multicultural metropolis and a thriving music scene. The venue has just purchased 24 x Robe MegaPointes which join the 50 x Spiiders that have graced the house lighting rig since 2017. Together with some other lights, these ensure that the very best production values can be offered for all incoming shows - for those who might be using the full house rig and not carrying any of their own kit as well as those touring with specials packages and hooking into the house ‘top’ rigs each night. Head of AB’s lighting department, Renaat Van Hee, explained that they were extremely happy with the Spiiders and looked to Robe again to invest in new spot / beam fixtures. “We have good contact and have enjoyed great service from
UK - Yamaha’s VXL series slimline, column-type line array speakers are proving a very popular solution for houses of worship where large, ambient spaces need covering with tightly-controlled, high quality audio. A new installation at a 160 year-old church in London demonstrates the difference they can make. Located a short distance south of Elephant & Castle, the church of St John The Evangelist in Walworth faces all the usual acoustic challenges of historic houses of worship. Here, solutions are also potentially more complex because it is Grade II listed. But systems integrator Flipside Soundsystem was equal to the task, assisted by Yamaha’s VXL line array loudspeakers. “The existing sound system was about 20 years old, only partly operational and the sound it did produce was tinny and artificial,” says the church’s assistant priest Simon Askey. “We wa
Switzerland - Built in 1910, the rustic Alpine-style Volkshaus concert hall in Zurich provides a stark contrast to the many sleek glass and steel structures that dot the trendy western section of Switzerland’s largest city. Volkshaus offers excellent acoustics, which explains why so many internationally renowned bands representing every music genre have performed at the venerable venue. For all its charm and other attractive qualities, though, the Volkshaus’ small stage can present a challenge for a lighting designer seeking to create big majestic looks. Massimo Tomasino overcame this issue in early May for two sold-out shows by Antonello Venditti, thanks to some help from Chauvet Professional Maverick fixtures, supplied by Fumasoli Audio & Lights Rental. Tomasino used 14 Maverick MK2 Spots and 12 MK2 Wash units in his floor package. He arranged six of the spot
UK - Continuing a working relationship that stretches back nearly 20 years, Adlib is supplying full technical production - sound, lighting, video and rigging with over 100 points - to the ongoing 2019 arena tour by Brendan O’Carroll and his Mrs. Brown’s Boys phenomenon. Presenting its first ever musical tour, Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Musical! the show has just finished the first of three one-month segments, each covering four major cities where they play for a week. Hassane es Siahi is the FOH engineer, the Adlib systems engineer is Alan Harrison, Steph Fleming is the monitor engineer and Shona Steadman is looking after mics and RF. Lighting has been designed by Mike Summerfield. Fiona Gibney & Gareth Woods are the producers. With up to 18 people onstage at any one time as the cast and creative elements push the envelope, as a technical solutions p
