The Netherlands - Story Event Engineering recently deployed multiple Harman Professional Solutions audio systems at Emporium Festival, including JBL VTX A12 tour sound solutions. Founded in 2005 by Dutch promoter Matrixx Events, Emporium Festival is an annual dance music festival held near the city of Wijchen in Berendonck Park. This year, 30,000 dance music fans came together to enjoy a robust lineup of DJs and performers across nine stages. Story Event Engineering equipped the entire festival with end-to-end Harman live sound reinforcement systems, including JBL VTX Series line arrays, Crown I-Tech HD Series amplifiers and Soundcraft Vi Series consoles. “We’ve been providing sound for Emporium Festival for over 10 years, and every year our company grows along with it,” said Paul Lehmann, sales representative & system engineer, Story Event Engineering.
USA - For residents of the historic Buckeye-Shaker neighbourhood, the concerts that take place on the sprawling grounds of St. Luke’s Manor offer more than a chance to enjoy good music, they also serve as a celebration of their community’s rebirth. The impressive building that provides an emblematic backdrop to the concert series had stood empty and neglected for 14 years after the hospital that originally occupied it closed its doors in 1999. When the five-story structure reopened after extensive renovations in 2013 as a multi-use facility, it served as a catalyst for a neighbourhood-wide renaissance. Designer Brent Schmidt of B Productions reflected this hopeful spirit and accented St. Luke’s Manor’s memorable architectural features, when he illuminated the building in an array of colours. Helping him in this endeavour were 24 Freedom Par Quad-4 IP and six I
UK - Aurora Lighting supported lighting designer Gurdip Mahal and gaffer James Tinsley for the 2018 Stand Up to Cancer live show. Hosted by Alan Carr, Maya Jama and Adam Hills in front of an audience at Central Methodist Hall, Westminster, the evening featured appearances from John Legend, Liam Gallagher, Little Mix, Michael Bublé and James Corden taking part in celebrity versions of some of Channel 4’s most popular shows to help build awareness of the fight against cancer. To help set the stage for the show, Aurora provided a mix of automated fixtures, tungsten and LED which the crew used to great effect, creating a stylish contemporary look that contrasted perfectly against the grandiose interior of the venue. Martin MAC Auras delivered intense colour washes to the performance areas, matched with ProLights Smartbat and SGM P5 LED uplighters plus GLP X4 Bar20
UK - Dry hire and production company Fiend Productions provided a Sixty82 trussing system for the Progress Wrestling 2018 shows at London's historic Alexandra Palace and SSE Arena Wembley. Progress Wrestling, a British professional wrestling promotion, ran its first show in 2012 at The Garage in Islington. Since then it has grown t into major venues in the UK, including Ally Pally and the Wembley Arena. Jess Matthews, managing director of Fiend Productions, approached A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) to invest in high load trussing for the shows at Ally Pally. After being provided with a range of options by Steven Farnsworth in UK sales at AC-ET, Matthews decided on Sixty82. He comments: “The quality of the welds and construction of the Sixty82 truss is very noticeable, and the high load capacity allows us to be a lot more creative.” Each secti
Europe - American-based psychedelic rockers, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, have set out on a mammoth world tour this year with veteran FOH engineer, Dave McDonald, and an Allen & Heath dLive system. The band’s set-up includes a dLive S Class system, usually comprising an S5000 or S7000 surface and DM MixRack, with a Dante card for live recording. Dave McDonald, who has been using dLive for a number of years, comments in an interview run by Muzyka i Technologia magazine; “I like the ability to work at 96kHz sampling and thanks to this, I have a much wider signal spectrum and greater depth in the mix. dLive also enables extremely intuitive work, almost like an analogue desk.” He continues: “dLive includes a variety of plug-ins, from those emulating old studio equipment, up to the latest virtual blocks. The DEEP processing I use for the mix really feels like the o
Asia Pacific - This summer saw Canadian chanteuse Céline Dion tour the Asia Pacific. Kicking off in Tokyo and Macao, where she had last performed 10 years earlier, the tour moved on to new territory for the five-time Grammy Award winner, including Jakarta, Taipei, Manila, Bangkok and Australia, before concluding in Auckland, New Zealand. The logistical feat of picking up each system locally, which was dependent on equipment availability, was accomplished seamlessly by Céline Dion’s long-time audio provider, Solotech, achieving consistent sound across the venues on a 22-date marathon thanks to L-Acoustics’ K1 and K2, its international network of suppliers, and its consistency of product worldwide. “We needed a loudspeaker system that would be available at every venue on the tour,” says Francois Desjardins, VP R&D, technological solutions at Solotech, an L
Peru - Prodjmedia recently installed a full complement of Martin Audio CDD and CSX in Lima’s popular Lyra nightclub, which is dedicated to providing a truly world-class club and dance experience for its customers. Founded by Fernando Vidal and Arturo Dyer, Lyra features local and international DJ’s in the main room and rooftop bar/dancefloor, and as Prodjmedia’s CEO Renzo Silva explains, “they wanted to create an environment with no compromises in terms of sound quality, so the first choice was obviously Martin Audio.” According to Renzo, the sound system includes two Martin Audio CDD15’s with two CSX218 subs on the dancefloor, four CDD6’s on the first floor, four CDD6’s on the second floor and four CDD6’s and one CSX112 sub in the rooftop café. The speakers are powered by Martin Audio MA 2.8Q, MA3.0 and MA 5.2K amps. A DX0.5 loudspeaker management s
Italy - Although Florence and Pisa without doubt top Tuscany’s tourist charts, Lucca (with traces of Iron Age settlements, good wines and more) is well worth checking out and music fans have the ideal chance to do so during the annual Lucca Summer Festival, organised by D’Alessandro & Galli in the city’s main square. The festival’s 2018 edition was a particularly high-profile showcase for loudspeaker manufacturer Outline and the ideal debut of new-born rental firm VVP International, since, apart from Roger Waters, who performed in another location, the cast on stage featured a wide range of music genres: from California’s stoner rock with Queens of the Stone Age, the latest (triple-drummer) incarnation of Prog Rock icons King Crimson, Joe Perry, Alice Cooper and Johnny Depp’s Hollywood Vampires, Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band, jazzy-pop songstress Norah J
USA/Columbia - Columbian interdisciplinary architectural and events company Sonic Design recently designed and built a multi-sensory Art Car, Jaguara - a project that portrays a jaguar emerging from the Amazon River. The scheme, which was presented this summer at Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, incorporated Elation Cuepix 16 IP LED matrix panels in the design to help spread its environmental message. Sonic Design’s director, Leo Vilar, comments: “Through this artful celebration of the jaguar, we want to raise awareness about the vulnerability of the main refuge of the jaguar, the Amazon Rainforest. “Jaguara is inspired by the symbolism and powerful spirit of the jaguar, which represents, for most ancestral American tribes, the connecting force between the world of gods and the world of men. In a time where our trends of living are disrupti
Austria - Hire and events company GETEC Eventtechnik has completed many demanding projects over the years, such as Red Bull’s Wings for Life World Run, Air Race, Formula 1 and PlayStreets, as well as the world cycling championships. The company relies on the exclusive use of Milos aluminium structural components and roofs systems. “Milos is the only trussing and support structure company that is able to meet our exacting demands. They’re a real partner for us and are able to work quickly and at a high technical level”, says Jakob Gailhofer, owner of GETEC. The largest structure they have ever provided was for the Andrea Berg stage this year at the Open Air Concert in Aspach, Germany. The structure was a Milos 16m x 12m MR4 roof with four MT2 towers. It featured a versatile arched rain cover system based on M520 truss with specially designed polygon elements.
Serbia - In September, LITEC delivered its Alusfera 2.0 roof structure to the Novi Sad 2021 Foundation for use in a classical concert staged in the Novi Sad town square in Serbia. The Alusfera structure was specifically selected not only for its shape and impressive loading characteristics, but also to assist in the creation of an outdoor “opera house effect”. The company who delivered the Alusfera structure to the Novi Sad Foundation for this event was AVL Projekt, a leading distributor in Serbia. Projekt design, engineer and install tailor-made solutions for their clients and ensure their efficient operation with on-site training. The also provide acoustic calculations and light & audio designs. “The service we received from LITEC for this event was greatly appreciated. LITEC’s sales representative, Jan Cernota, worked with us during the selling process a
UK - Tasked with providing supporting visuals for a recent theatrical run of at the Bournemouth Pavilion theatre was LD Ryan Joseph Stafford, who specified a number of Chauvet Professional Ovation E-910FC and Maverick MK2 Spot fixtures in support of his lighting concept. “A lot of the audience coming to see the show are people that know and love the classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang film, so it was important for us to recreate the feel of the original film,” comments Stafford. “To keep pace with the complex location and set changes during the show, the Ovation and Maverick combination gave us the flexibility and versatility to adjust to all manner of scenes.” Thanks to the 910FC’s full RGBA-Lime colour mixing and colour temperature pre-sets of 2800 K to 6500 K, Stafford was able to provide a number of effects on stage, including low face light from the
Norway - In the autumn of 2010 Riksscenen, Norway’s national venue for folk and traditional music and dance opened a purpose-built venue in Oslo’s Grünerløkka and invested in two DiGiCo SD8s. This summer, it invested in an additional DiGiCo console, this time opting for an S31, which has been installed in the venue’s Klubbscenen (the club) for smaller gigs. “The SD8s were chosen by my predecessor in the first instance because of their audio quality and I/O capacity, particularly when compared to other products in their price range,” recalls Magnus Opsahl Smaadahl, head of technical development at Riksscenen who, starting as one of the in-house engineers, had instantly fallen in love with the console’s sound quality and ability to be customised. “Initially, the two mixers were on two different stages - one in the main hall and one on the Club stage - the idea
Estonia - The Ugala Theatre in Viljandi is one of a number of state-funded theatres and a major premium quality producing house. The most recent round of refurbishment at Ugala in 2017 resulted in a new stage machinery system for the 300-capacity main house, which also means they can now configure the space in any format. With this new versatility, they decided the time was also right for some new moving lights in the rig, and after a lot of consultation, decided on 10 x Robe DL7S Profiles and 10 x BMFL Blades. The town also has the only technical theatre training facility in Estonia which is a department of the Tartu University, and happens to have a Robe moving light rig! Mari-Riin Villemsoo is one of the venue’s four person lighting technical team, who are all also lighting designers in their own right, and she reports that having these new moving lig
USA - When two members of Swedish House Mafia - Axwell and Sebastian Ingrosso - played a one-off show at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco recently, it was seen by fans as a precursor for a band reunion (along with third member, Steve Angello) in 2019. Charged with maintaining dynamic visuals, with spectacular effects throughout the performance was Sam Tozer of Vision Factory, who once again drew heavily on GLP’s catalogue for his serious ordnance. He had three key goals: to create a shape onstage that reflected the artists’ logo; to thrust the two artists out into the middle of the auditorium, and to immerse the audience in video and lighting. He succeeded spectacularly on all three. To meet Tozer’s design, Christie Lites supplied 40 of GLP’s impression X4 Bar 20 battens and 58 of the JDC1 hybrid strobes, while video effects came from PRG.
USA - Originally built in 1963, the Guardian Angel Cathedral has been serving both residents and tourists in Las Vegas for more than 50 years. With a multitude of stained-glass mosaics created by world-renowned artists Isabel and Edith Piczek, the sanctuary inside is a stunning showcase of colour and architecture. Desiring an updated LED lighting system to more effectively illuminate their worship environment, the church worked with lighting consultant Bill Brennan, principal with Just Lighting, Inc., and 4Wall Entertainment who supplied the design with Gallery and Spectra Cyc 100 luminaires from Altman Lighting. “This was the first time that 4Wall had worked with the church which was originally built in the 1960’s, and it really is a Las Vegas landmark,” began Barbara Brennan, 4Wall senior account executive. “Their existing lighting system was about 10 years o
World - Foo Fighters have recently wound down their 18-month Concrete and Goldworld tour which launched back in May 2017 at BottleRock Festival in Napa Valley in support of their 9th studio album released in October 2017. The Concrete and Gold tour has played literally every size and type of venue: stadiums, arenas, amphitheatres, surprise club gigs and festival headlines, including the famous Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury. “I think we’ve done somewhere around 120 shows all told,” says the band’s long-term lighting designer and director, Dan Hadley. “We even had a week in April where we did an amphitheatre followed by a stadium, followed by a festival, followed by an arena!” Foo Fighters are well known for the length and dynamism of their shows and this, often, three-hour long extravaganza is no exception. The responsibility falls to Hadley to
Canada - University of Toronto’s newly built Principal Hall is designed to serve as a multi-dimensional public platform for the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design (DFALD). To ensure the highest quality of audio, the University tapped Mulvey & Banani Audio Visual (MBAV) to assist in the design of a sound reinforcement system consisting of EM Acoustics loudspeakers. With seating for 400 people, the design of the hall allows for multiple configurations and uses, ensuring maximum utility for students and faculty, and greater flexibility for a wide range of events. “The compact size and audio quality of EM Acoustics loudspeakers was a driving factor in deciding to use them at Principal Hall,” explains Gregory Rushton, vice-president, MBAV. “The loudspeakers were required to fit into five-inch spaces between wood slats covering a
Hungary - Located on the banks of the Danube near the Chain Bridge with a view over the famed Buda Castle, the Marriot Budapest is a popular tourist destination. Earlier this autumn, the hotel hosted a gala for Russian pharmaceutical company Garant Optima in its main ballroom. Lending an extra air of glamour and excitement to the event was a bright, fast-moving light and video show featuring Chauvet Professional Maverick fixtures supplied by Mobile Audio and Light kft. “The goal of the organisers was to create a bold international nightclub atmosphere,” comments Mobile Audio and Light technician András Praksch, who installed and ran the lighting system for the event. “We were able to do this with help from the Maverick MK2 Spot, which provided a lot of colour and brightness.” A total of 10 Maverick MK2 Spot fixtures were used to energise the gala. Praks
South Korea - Kinoton Korea recently installed a range of sound reinforcement solutions from Harman Professional Solutions at Sarangsaem Church. Located in Busan’s Gijang-gun county, the church was founded in 2010 to offer the local community a gathering and events space. AV integrator Kinoton Korea was commissioned to outfit the Great Chapel and additional classroom, and the company selected a range of JBL loudspeakers to deliver clarity, versatility and balanced coverage. “We wanted to make sure our Great Chapel could be used for a variety of events by our members and by members of the local community,” says GyeongHwan Park, representative minister of Sarangsaem Church. “To achieve this goal, we required robust loudspeaker solutions to support a range of activities and functions, including weddings, holiday celebrations, and art therapy sessions
USA - The Kinnick Wave is an event that happens at every University of Iowa Hawkeye home game. The newly-completed Stead Family Children’s Hospital is adjacent to the Hawkeye’s 69,000-seat Kinnick Stadium, and someone suggested on social media that after the first quarter, everyone in the entire stadium should turn and wave to the children in the hospital. To kick off the 2018 season, AV integration and live sound production company Sound Concepts brought in a portable Danley Sound Labs system for the half-time show. The show featured the Pat Green Band performing Wave On Wave with the University of Iowa and Northern Iowa University marching bands while fans did the Kinnick Wave. A few years ago, Sound Concepts oversaw the installation of a massive Danley J5-4015 Caleb Horn that covers all of the seating in Kinnick Stadium, and its tight pattern control was
Belgium - Creative engineering specialist WIcreations has designed, developed and installed a bespoke wireless laser-guided system to move eight seating tribunes holding audiences watching Studio 100’s 40-45 Spektakle Musical around the performance space. Each stand is 8m high at the back, 19m long x 8m wide and weighs 28t, with a capacity for 209 people. The tribunes were constructed by WIcreations and each one contains around 14,000 parts, the majority of which have been custom machined. The 40-45 production is directed by Frank Van Laecke. The artistic supervision is by Gert Verhulst, the co-CEO of the Studio 100 Group together with Hans Bourlon, and the technical producer is Bart Caels. The automation concept that moves the audience into multiple positions around the substantial area throughout the two-hour show, is right at the heart of this theatri
USA - At the entrance to Bassrush Massive AZ was a massive art display that featured two cubes, a smaller one wedged inside a larger version of itself. Emulating the signature artwork of the festival’s promotional material, the object attracted the immediate attention of fans, most of whom stepped inside the mesmerizing cubic structure for social media photos. It was the first, but certainly not the last, immersive experience they would enjoy that evening. Kicking off the Sun Valley’s Fall Music Festival season on Saturday 25 August 2, the event took fans on a head-banging journey deep inside the heart of bass-heavy sound, serving up a relentless sonic barrage from the likes of Zeds Dead, Nightmre, HEKLER and other artists. Keeping pace with every bass drop and trapstep was a searing, fast-moving lightshow designed by Joe Musico and run by lighting director Luis Torres t
Indonesia - Bandung’s GBI Aruna Church recently invested in a new audio system built around the IS-Series from Adamson Systems Engineering for a flagship 1,600-capacity venue. The church welcomes over 16,000 weekly congregants across its 15 campuses. Built in 2007, GBI Aruna has enjoyed significant growth over the years and its pastoral team made the decision to upgrade its house audio system for the second time in mid-2018. The church invited representatives from three loudspeaker manufacturers to demo their systems in the main sanctuary. After extensive evaluations, the IS-Series system comprised of IS7 two-way, full-range cabinets and IS118 and E218 subwoofers showcased by Big Knob Audio, Adamson’s Indonesian distributor, was chosen for the project. “The Adamson IS7 is so lightweight and compact, it’s amazing to experience such powerful sound coming fr
