UK - At this year’s Cheltenham Festival, one of the key meetings in the UK horse racing calendar, upwards of a hundred Martin Audio loudspeakers were on duty throughout the event. The Jockey Club once again turned to their regular sound and lighting supplier, Unique Sound Systems (USS) to fulfil the brief. The company was informed that in addition to the many regular venues and pop-ups on the site, there would be a new venue, the Gin and Jazz Lounge. The Lounge would need feeds divided between live racing commentary, background music, DJ performing on a pop-up pod and live jazz bands. This was also one of the first deployments of Martin Audio’s ADORN A55, with four speakers in the Magners Bar and six in the Gin and Jazz venue, where they were accompanied by six Martin Audio XD12 and four SXP118, handling the live inputs. Explaining his investment, company dir
UK - 9 to 5 the Musical is getting down to business playing to packed out audiences at the West End’s Savoy Theatre. Full service technical production provider Hawthorn was chosen to supply lighting equipment to the show. Starring Louise Redknapp, Caroline Sheen, Amber Davies, Natalie McQueen, Bonnie Langford and Brian Conley, the musical features a book by the movie’s screenwriter Patricia Resnick and a score by Dolly Parton. Hawthorn worked closely with the show’s award-winning lighting designer Howard Hudson to supply lighting equipment to his specification. Drawing on Hawthorn’s vast inventory, the rig features a combination of moving lights, LED fixtures and generic lanterns. This included Martin MAC Viper Performance, Martin Mac Aura XB, Claypaky Sharpy Wash 330, ETC ColorSource Spot and ETC Source 4 Profile fixtures. Hudson said, “It was d
UK - Adlib supplied sound, lighting and video to the recent tour by Liverpool indie rockers The Wombats. Tour manager Simon Fuller used to work for Adlib and knows many of the staff and crew. “Their way of working is excellent, and I always like to try and rent kit from Adlib when possible, fully confident that we will be well looked after.” Adlib was the sole production supplier for the previous Wombats UK tour back in March 2018, and the set-up was similar this time around, so it made sense to keep the continuity. Adlib’s Rob Bickerstaff looked after video and lighting for The Wombats lighting and video designer Dave Jackson from Creative Productions and was also out on the road with them this time and during the 2018 tour. Adlib supplied a lighting floor specials package and a 5m by 3m upstage video wall comprising Adlib’s new Unilumin UpadIII H5 5mm
UK - The fire at Battersea Arts Centre in 2015 sent shockwaves through the local community and the performing arts sector. However, fast forward four years and Battersea Arts Centre has been rebuilt and reopened with the fire contributing a notable and visible chapter to the venue’s colourful history and the overall look of the venue’s re-design. Acousticians Gillerion Scott required variable acoustics to serve the wide programme of events planned for the Grand Hall of Battersea Arts Centre. Theatre consultants Theatreplan had the task of engineering a solution and explored possible product options with Triple E whose roller banner solution emerged as the most practicable solution. The design and manufacturing challenge was not insignificant but was one readily taken on by Triple E. “One of our areas of expertise is the provision of variable acoustic solutions,
Qatar - Qatar’s remarkable new National Museum launched in spectacular style at the end of March, offering visitors an immersive and experiential journey through the country’s rich history, current identity and aspirations for the future. Much of its 430,000sq.ft. of indoor space is made up of cinematic display zones, onto which specially-created film content is projected. The result is the world’s biggest ever permanent video installation – the result of a collaboration between RES, the Doha Film Institute (DFI) and MAN Enterprise / EMPTY Joint Venture. London-based visual technologists, RES, started work on the project in 2014, providing technical consultancy and video media system expertise to The Doha Film Institute (DFI) on technical realisation and pre-visualisation of each film. As part of its ambitious ‘Art Film’ project, the DFI commissioned nine
Australia - Melbourne-based audio visual integration company, Disco Doctors, recently completed an installation at the Albion Hotel in the south of the city, using a Martin Audio CDD solution. The equipment was supplied by Technical Audio Group (TAG), Martin Audio’s long-term Australian distributors, with whom Disco Doctors has also enjoyed a partnership stretching back eight years. “Prior to that myself and my business partner had worked in many other various areas of the audio industry so my experience with Martin Audio dates back to the early club systems from the 90’s,” explains Disco Doctors’ Justin Mackay. “Since we started Disco Doctors we have utilised Martin Audio on many of our projects.” As bigger club installs made way for smaller multipurpose venues and bars, versatile and quality distributed sound assumed paramount importance “both f
Algeria - Prase Media Technologies, an Italian distributor of premium AV brands, has supplied the audio system for the Djamaâ el Djazaïr Mosque located by the Bay of Algiers. Also known as the Bouteflika Mosque, it will be the third largest mosque in the world when it opens in 2019. The building covers 20 hectares and is designed to welcome 120,000 faithful. Its 270m minaret is the highest building in Africa and the world's tallest minaret. Architects Drees & Sommer worked with Jürgen Engel Architekten and the engineering consultancy Krebs und Kiefer on the project, with AV integration by Advantex and CSCEC (China State Construction Engineering Corporation). Marco Cappellotto, Prase’s manager for the project, commented, “Community R Series loudspeakers were chosen for audio reinforcement of the Cour, the Esplanade and the Minaret. The choice was made on the
Belgium - Lighting designer Jan Van Lindt from PRSPKTIV Design has been working with one of the most hotly tipped young artists of the moment –Belgian-Egyptian singer songwriter Tamino. Fresh from winning a 2019 MIA (Belgium’s top music award) for Best Alternative Artist, the performer has been gaining critical acclaim as fast as fans on the cusp of his career and his first album Amir which dropped at the end of 2018. Jan recently lit three high-profile sold-out showcase evenings at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels where he used five Robe MegaPointes on the floor behind the artists as the main dramatic lighting tools. He chose the versatile MegaPointe - sourced from the venue’s 24 new house fixtures - to accent the intensity and drama of Tamino’s performance. “It’s all about the music with him and my job as LD is to support with interesting visuals
UAE - Abu Dhabi welcomed over 7,500 athletes from 190 nations when it hosted the Special Olympics World Games 2019. This is the first time the event has been held in the Middle East and North Africa region. The Opening Ceremony took place at Zayed Sports Stadium in Abu Dhabi on 14 March. Thousands of people from fans, families, heads of state and the Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan filled the stadium to watch this event unfold. The show featured performances from the Global Unified Choir, DJ Paul Oakenfold, Avril Lavigne and Luis Fonsi to name a few. CT worked alongside its client People to deliver all live video aspects of both the opening and closing ceremony for this prestigious and heart-warming event. CT supplied a 600sqm upstage screen, a total of 270sqm relay screens, 580sqm LED Floor, 90sqm tracking screen, and 2500sqm of mapped floor p
New Zealand - Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School puts on six productions a year covering a range of genres, from drama, to comedy, to musicals. In 2019, these shows will not only be more rewarding for the community to watch, they’ll also afford students at New Zealand’s largest theatrical arts school with a more enriching learning experience, thanks to the addition of 55 Chauvet Professional Ovation fixtures, supplied by MDR Sound & Lighting. “Colour mixing with LED fixtures is playing an increasingly important role in stage productions, so I think the school felt that adding these lights was essential to helping their students develop the skills needed to prepare for their future careers in theatre,” said MDR Sound & Lighting’s Brodie Noon. “The school received a Lotteries Grant to upgrade the kit in its main Te Whaea Theatre, which had consisted of generic
Mexico - Christie has announced that Mexico’s Cinemex has recently opened an impressive cinema complex, featuring RGB pure laser projectors based on Christie RealLaser illumination, along with Christie Vive Audio systems. The Cinemex Market ARTZ Pedregal multiplex in Mexico City has fitted each of its 23 auditoriums with Christie’s CP2315-RGB and CP2320-RGB 2K-resolution offerings. In addition, all auditoriums are equipped with the Christie Vive Audio cinema sound solution. “Having put Christie’s CP2315-RGB and CP2320-RGB cinema projectors through extensive testing, we were impressed with their performance, making us confident that Christie’s RealLaser illumination technology is the way of the future, now,” says Rolando Maggi, operations manager at Cinemex. “Audiences are commenting on the brilliant colours and sharp contrasts, leading us to believe that
USA - From bar band performances to the ‘hot-ticket’ sets, Allen & Heath was once again all over this year’s South by Southwest Music and Media Conference (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. Mixers from across the whole range were in attendance, from ZED, Qu, and SQ mixers in lively bars, through to the flagship digital dLive system, powering events like Billie Eilish’s pre-supernova set at the Uber Eats House and the eclectic new music British Music Embassy (BME) showcase. Hosted at Latitude 30, the BME events highlight the best up and coming British musical talent, with four nights in partnership with BBC Music. Some of the standout acts on the bill this year included Annabel Allum, Grace Carter, The Pearl Harts, The Howl & The Hum and recent Brit Award winner, Sam Fender. Running at a rapid-fire pace, the BME showcases welcome a new act and engineer every
USA - California-based Thrice seems to move effortlessly in multiple musical directions at once, weaving elements of punk, alternative, hardcore, and even indie rock into their passion-driven and beautifully balanced sound. This virtuosity has earned the quartet an ever-expanding following, so it came as no surprise when they were tapped to provide direct support for Bring Me The Horizon on the US leg of the UK band’s First Love tour, which ended in February. The tour, which stopped at larger live music venues and small arenas, allowed Thrice to reach more music fans. At the same time, though, it also raised some issues for the band’s lighting designer Lenny Sasso, who had to contend with short breakdown times. He was able to meet this challenge and create a dynamic, multi-faceted lightshow by drawing on the compact size and versatility of Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 F
USA - Parker McCollum’s debut album was entitled The Limestone Kid, a reference to the nickname he earned as a teen working on a ranch in remote Limestone County. Although his first LP scored only regional success, McCollum’s second effort reached the Top 20 of Billboard’s Country Charts. December marked another milestone, when he performed for sold-out crowds at the House of Blues in Dallas and Houston. Supporting him at those shows was a lightshow designed by Richard ‘Wookie’ Whitley and Josh Peikert that featured a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures, supplied by Hoopty Lights. Run by lighting director Jarret Reynolds, the lightshow for McCollum’s Dallas and Houston performances was on five 45” x 30” carts, three of which were 4.5’ tall, while two were 6.5’. A pair of Rogue RH1 Hybrids was mounted on the top of each cart. T
UK - Scottish synth-pop trio Chvrches went on a stepped-up UK tour in support of their latest album, Love is Dead (see LSi March for the full production report). Glasgow-based concert audio supplier FE Live designed a d&b audiotechnik KSL System to deliver the group’s journey through pop, indie and EDM to audiences in venues of varying capacity. “Having used the d&b GSL System for the first time in America last year, I was excited to specify the new KSL System for our UK shows,” says Chvrches’ FOH engineer, Paul ‘Gal’ Gallagher. “I’ve been a huge fan of the J-Series over the years and despite how good that is, I was blown away with the massive
UK - When the new lights are turned on at Southwell Racecourse this Saturday, it will not only usher in a new era of floodlit racing at the historic venue, it will also be the first time a European racecourse is lit using LED technology. Opened in 1850, Southwell is one of just six all-weather tracks in Britain, the only one with a fibresand surface, and now operates some of the most the most advanced lighting technology of any racecourse in Europe. The LED lighting was designed and engineered by Musco Sports Lighting, and features the same technology that’s been installed at several English Premier League football stadiums, Manchester Arena, and Wimbledon’s Centre Court, in just the past few years. The system was highly customised to meet the distinct needs at Southwell. It includes 641 of Musco’s Total Light Control fixtures, mounted to 56 poles, providi
Germany - Berlin-based Complete Audio, the first adopters of Martin Audio’s MLA platform anywhere in the world back in 2010, continue to impress their clients with the system. They have been providing sound reinforcement for German rapper, singer, producer and DJ Alligatoah for many years, and recently completed the mainly sold-out Wie Zuhause Tour 2019 of arenas. Alligatoah was promoting both his new album, Schlafenabletten Rotwein V, and performing classics from his archive. The artist’s FOH tech Claudio Malaguti is a big fan of MLA and he was given a massive inventory of Martin Audio enclosures to work with, including 38 MLA, four MLD Downfill, 20 MLX subwoofers and 24 MLA Compact enclosures. Venue capacities ranged from 8,000-18,000 (at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne), and therefore the rig was scalable. The left/right hangs consisted of between 12
USA - Michael Bublé’s world tour, An Evening With Michael Bublé, in celebration of his 10th studio album, Love, marks the singer’s return to touring after a two-year hiatus. It is a major production with an intense schedule, with 12 performances already taking place in just the first two weeks of the tour. The inaugural show opened at the Amalie Arena in Tampa Florida on 13 February, from where it will travel to arenas throughout North America until April, then on to Canada, Europe and Australia later in 2019, and onward into 2020. The show has a ‘big band’ feel to it and the elegant set, designed by international entertainment architects, Stufish, provides a stylish backdrop for the Canadian crooner. “It’s all aimed to focus on the man and his music,” explains Bublé’s long-term show and lighting designer, Kurt Wagner, who has worked with Bublé for the pa
India - Bangalore-based freelance lighting engineer, Guru Somayaji, recently worked on a production designing shows for premier local live music venue and festival / events production company, The Humming Tree. One recent show was the concert for rising Indie artiste, Prateek Kuhad, when PR Lighting fixtures unexpectedly came to the rescue. The design brief for the show was that it should be ‘minimal and space like’, and the visual brief was to bring together the stars through the signs of the Zodiac. The show was to have been operated by the artiste’s lighting engineer, Mumbai-based Abhishek Roy. “Using this brief, I wanted to design a rig that would have a lot of colour wash, and spots that would focus on key moments from various positions,” said the LD. “I settled on specifying 16 Spot fixtures, 24 Wash fixtures, 10 Profile Spots, eight Par Cans and fou
China - The One Yeah Pop Up+ Festival took place on 16-17 March in Xi’an, gathering China's pioneers in electronic music and rap, as well as Chinese traditional style, cool street ball and B-box. After deep consideration and careful selecting, the organiser chose NEXT-proaudio, which was supplied by Real Music Acoustics, local distributor of the Portuguese manufacturer. “The electronic music sound effects were controlled fantastically and the sound pressure with the LA212x line array was really amazing allowing all the audience to have a fantastic music experience,” comments Richie Wang, CEO of Real-Music. The system comprises more than 120 NEXT-pro audio speakers. The main hang adopts Next-Proaudio 's flagship product line array series, 15 LA212x per side, and 18 LAs418G per side stacked in front of the stage. Another nine LA212x per side for out-fill. 12
Mexico - Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) Mexico 2019 took over Mexico City’s Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez racetrack for two days of electronic dance music, multi-media art, and a charged carnival atmosphere. The flagship event for EDM-event promoters Insomniac, which takes place annually in Las Vegas as well as various other locations globally, drew over 120,000 participants and featured sets from many luminaries of the dance music scene including Alesso, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Kaskade, and Paul Van Dyk. In addition to its record-breaking attendance and stacked artist line-up, the festival also marked its fourth year of collaboration with Calgary, Alberta-based sound system manufacturer PK Sound, which provided the immense deployment for the kineticFIELD main stage. “We first became involved with Insomniac events at EDC Las Vegas 2015 when we provided
UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) provided the Welsh National Opera with a new surtitling system utilising AlphaPIX2 by Prolights LED video panels. Welsh National Opera (WNO) was founded 75 years ago by a group of people from South Wales as an opera company that represented Wales as the ‘land of song’. With over 120 performances a year, the company now tours across Wales, England and internationally, with the aim to open up the world of opera to everyone. A key part of this is with the use of surtitles. Ian Jones, head of lighting and sound for WNO explains: “Surtitling has become a very important part of an opera performance. It provides an easy way for the audience to follow the libretto whilst enjoying the music and dramatic performance.” Ian was looking to upgrade the existing surtitling system; and after speaking with Chris Beardwell, tech
UK - Classical Spectacular, one of the UK’s most popular classical music showcases, returned to the Royal Albert Hall over the weekend to celebrate its 30th anniversary at the venue, backed by a major production featuring an indoor firework display, rifles and cannons. Lighting designer Durham Marenghi selected a variety of Claypaky fixtures for the Raymond Gubbay production. “Each season I create a different truss architecture to keep the show fresh for repeat customers,” says Marenghi who has worked on the production for 30 years. “In addition to being visually entertaining, the structure must create the correct positions for lighting the orchestra, choir, military bands, and solo singers without glare, so they can read their music.” Marenghi specified 16 x Claypaky Sharpy, 48 x Claypaky Sharpy Wash, 12 x Claypaky Scenius Spot, four Claypaky Scenius
China - Top Chinese names from their respective fields were appointed to stage the large-scale lighting and fireworks art performance A Warm Welcome to Friends from Afar. Director Zhang Yimou, stage designer Sha XiaoLan, sound engineer Jin Shaogang and music producer Laozai, supported by sound specialist EZPro, delivered the spectacular performance at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit held in Qingdao. The summit was chaired by the president of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, who welcomed leaders from SCO member countries around the world. EZPro handled the setup, commissioning and operation of the sound system, meeting the challenges of design and build in the show area that was adjacent to the sea. EZPro sound engineer and international project manager, Zheng Lungang, explains: “The system was installed for two months of typical seas
