UK - London-based Capital Sound Hire has added yet further to its Outline inventory with the addition of the Italian company’s latest multi-role processor, the Newton. Officially launched at Prolight+Sound in Frankfurt recently, the flexibility of Newton offers “a new level of convenience and system integration possibilities to professional users throughout the audio industry”. Capital’s Paul Timmins reports, “We were introduced to the concept by the Outline team when we were buying into the Outline GTO C-12 system during late 2015 and early 2016. We took an immediate interest and, having then followed its development over the last two years, we are incredibly excited we have received our first production units.” Robin Conway adds, “My interest was immediately piqued during my first introduction to the unit and the concept, then our internal team
UK - KV2 Audio’s rise and rise within the Broadway, West End and UK touring theatre world has happened in no small part due to a band of sound designers willing to listen to products outside of the so-called established mainstays of the theatre market. One of these designers reaping the rewards of KV2’s True Point Source approach to loudspeaker design is UK based Tom Marshall. First exposed to KV2 in 2014, Tom has been specifying KV2 products with increasing regularity and currently has five UK-wide touring productions out with KV2 – An Officer & A Gentleman, Jungle Book, Sunset Boulevard, Crazy For You and Flashdance. These are in addition to numerous other shows at Leicester’s Curve, pantos in Richmond and Glasgow and the recurring UK winter tour of Nativity! The Musical2017-2020. “I was introduce
Europe - Philips Lighting reports that its Philips VL6000 Beam luminaires are delivering stand-out visuals for American rock band Foo Fighters' current world tour, which heads towards Europe this summer. Foo Fighters' long-term lighting designer Dan Hadley chose the powerful, retro-styled Philips VL6000 Beam fixtures for very particular reasons. With the diagonal square artwork of the band's ninth studio album Concrete and Gold as the inspiration for his basic motif, he wanted to incorporate its distinctive 45˚ and 90˚ angles into his lighting design. "The main thing I needed from the ground row was a fat beam and a fixture that would keep a balance with the fixtures that hang above," says Hadley. "Once I saw the VL6000 I knew there was no substitute. There wasn't another fixture that I knew of that came close to offering the look of the fat beam and the big reflecto
Denmark - With the summer festival season just round the corner, bringing live productions from small to huge out into the open air, sales of Yamaha’s new Rivage PM7 digital mixing system have made a strong start throughout Europe. In Denmark three companies have already invested in four Rivage PM7 systems. The first Danish company to take delivery of Rivage PM7 was Dansk Lyd og Lys A/S (Danish Sound and Light) in Odense, a company with 45 years at the heart of the country’s music and entertainment market. As one of Denmark’s foremost technical production companies, the company provides sales, dry hire and full productions to high profile national / international performers and corporate clients. ”We have been using Yamaha digital mixers since the LS9 and M7CL, through to the CL and QL series,” says Dansk Lyd og Lys chief operating officer and partner Kristia
World - Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the release of their eponymous debut album, Irish rockers The Script are currently on a world tour, with FOH engineer Steve Pattison (Amy Winehouse, Wet Wet Wet, Glasvegas) behind the controls of an Allen & Heath dLive system. Supplied by rental and production specialists Adlib, Pattison’s dLive set-up comprises an S7000 console, DM64 MixRack (with Dante, Waves V3 and superMADI cards) and DX32 Expanders. As Pattison explains, he chose the dLive primarily for its overall sound quality and powerful built-in processing. “The dLive system is really clear and open-sounding, so I can mould the sound and tones of the instruments to get the result I want,” Pattison says. “If I want to warm up an instrument and give it a valve edginess I can do that, just by choosing a preamp from the library and tweaking away. It’
The Netherlands - Around 500 CLF Lighting fixtures were deployed during De Coolste Baan van Nederland which was held at Olympic Stadium Amsterdam. Centre of attention was the 400m speed skating track that was used for the ISU World Allround Speed Skating Championships 2018 on 9-11 March. In co-operation with production company For Live, LD Henk-Jan van Beek (Light-H-Art) chose different CLF Lighting fixtures to illuminate the speed skating track and all the areas around it. With 350 pieces, the CLF Yara LEDPAR was everywhere. Most fixtures illuminated all the flags in the surrounding area. Ruud van den Berg, owner of For Live, comments: “We have seriously challenged the fixtures. The fixtures were deployed 24/7 with temperatures below zero for a significant period but the fixtures didn’t flinch. We have a large rental stock of multiple CLF fixtures and we wi
USA - A High End Systems Hog 4 console is touring the world with rock group Evanescence. LD Marty Postma of NY-based Retinal Resonance has been using the Hog 4 console to control Evanescence’s Synthesis Live tour in North America. Postma designed and operated this tour until the end of 2017 and for the 2018 leg, he turned the reins over to LD Dan Hardiman to direct the tour in Australia in February, followed by dates in Europe and the UK. Considering crazy weather patterns, unpredictable festival rigs in fields, to the bumpy cobblestones of European truck touring, Postma finds the Hog 4 console to meet and beat all challenges. "It’s been through extreme cold and extreme heat. I’ve run the console at minus 20 and minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit, and the console booted up, no problem. Through three tours of South America, bouncing off air freight every day
Canada - Being creatively involved with emerging artists is always exciting, and lighting designer Matthieu Larivee has relished the chance to work with American singer-songwriter Børns on his current Blue Madonna tour. Matthieu decided to put 15 x Robe MegaPointes right at the heart of the lighting design. The founder and artistic director of Lüz Studio in Montreal also designed set and lighting for Børns’ first tour, Dopamine, having received a call after his management saw and heard good things about his creativity for indie rockers, Broken Bells. For that first Børns’ tour there was no LD on the road, so Matthieu produced a design and spec which could be followed by local LDs. With Børns’ rising popularity, everything has moved up several levels on the production for this one, and the visual starting point for the Blue Mado
Romania - When Romanian sound engineer Alex Serb left distribution and integration company Paradigma Teknik to become a freelancer, he soon started to provide technical support in live shows for Hard Rock Café Bucharest. He contacted his former colleagues to indicate the facility needed a new sound system - and Paradigma wasted no time in recommending a Martin Audio W8VDQ and CDD solution based on trust and the reputation of previous Martin Audio installations undertaken by the distributors. "They wanted to change the entire sound system with a new modern setup and we provided a solution. We sent a technical proposal, taking into consideration the specification put forward by Alex," recalls Paradigma general manager, Laura Angelescu. She added that the bid had been highly competitive, with several other front-line speaker manufacturers delivering proposals. Paradigma
UK - Lighting designer Will Potts found inspiration in the subtle shapes of nature for his current lighting and show design for award-winning singer Rag'n'Bone Man (see LSi April 2018 for a detailed report). Potts' design incorporates 'sacred' geometric shapes and an illustrated backdrop of personal significance to the singer. To carefully light these elements, he chose the Claypaky Scenius Unico. Having worked with the singer for little over a year, the designer delved deep into the psychology of Rory Graham's (a.k.a Rag'n'Bone Man) music, drawing on recurring themes within the artist's debut album 'Human' to inspire and craft his detailed show design. "There's lots of religious and spiritual references in
USA - Stars from all musical genres came to headline shows and after parties during the Masters Golf Tournament this month. Among this stellar group is rapper and film star Nelly. The double Grammy winner, who has sold 21m records in his career, got a jump on the festivities this year, when he came to Augusta in early March to perform a Masters warmup concert of sorts at the city’s popular Country Club live music venue. With an artist of Nelly’s stature visiting his mid-sized venue, house LD John Berret wanted to go all out to create some special looks on stage. He did just that, with help from a collection of ground stacked Chauvet Professional Rogue fixtures, supplied by Quest Sound & Productions LLC. “Normally, we keep a lot of intense lighting on the dance floor, but with Nelly we wanted to pull everyone’s attention to the centre of the stage,” says
USA - Known colloquially as RodeoHouston, The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLSR) is the world’s largest livestock show and richest regular season rodeo, dedicated to benefiting youth, supporting education, and facilitating better agricultural practices through exhibitions and presentation. It draws more than 1.4m people each year to the 72,000-capacity NRG Stadium and over 2.5m people to NRG Park to enjoy the entire festivities. Running for 20 days in February-March, it attracts the very top names in country music, from Garth Brooks through to Brad Paisley, who perform after the main rodeo event each day. Such high calibre artists demand top concert production values and this year the Rodeo boosted its technological infrastructure by purchasing a new stage - built by TAIT in Lititz, PA. Working closely with TAIT, and leaning heavily towards GLP fixtures, were H
UK - Lighting and visuals rental specialist Colour Sound Experiment supplied lighting and video for the recent UK tour by Welsh rockers Feeder, who are back on the road with their Arrow album tour. Bryan Leitch is the band’s LD and visual designer and the person who took the tour to Colour Sound after previous excellent experiences with the west London based company. “It was a video-based tour so ideal for Colour Sound,” he comments. Colour Sound also invested in some new lighting fixtures to ensure that Bryan had exactly the rig he wanted. Bryan has worked for Feeder since 2004. On this tour he was joined on the road by technician / crew chief - and Colour Sound regular - James Hind. His creative inspiration for the design started with three festival shows last summer where they used an upstage screen split into three sections, a format that lead si
USA - Systems integrator OSA International recently deployed a complete Harman Professional Solutions audio system at Navy Pier in downtown Chicago. Located on the shores of Lake Michigan, Navy Pier is one of the city's biggest tourist attractions, both in popularity and size. As part of a comprehensive redevelopment of the entire Pier, management decided to install a permanent audio system for the newly-created Polk Bros Performance Lawns, a free outdoor concert space designed to host artists from Chicago's vibrant local music scene, as well as occasional touring acts. Navy Pier has relied on Harman audio solutions for more than a decade, so when it came time to design the new system for the Lake Stage and City Stage, the Pier hired audio consulting firm Threshold Acoustics to design an all-Harman audio solution based around JBL Professional VTX V20 line-array louds
Poland - The Leonardo da Vinci Energy of the Mind exhibition, which recently opened in EC1 Łódź City of Culture in Poland, is being lit with 120 x Robe ParFect 100 LED luminaires. Taking centre stage in the EC1 building, an impressive fusion of industrial art, heritage and modern design that sees the original power station of Poland’s third city reimagined as a vibrant science and technology centre. The acclaimed exhibition - which has previously appeared in Paris, Munich, Brasilia and London - is a collaboration between EC1 Łódź, the Cité des Sciences et de l’industrie in Paris and producers, the Muzei Nazionale della Scienza et della Tecnologica Leonardo da Vinci. Installed in the majestic former turbine hall of EC1, over 70 exhibits include historical models, interactive installations, films and contemporary examples of bio-inspired robotics,
UK - Housed on the UK's largest broadcast entertainment set, Revolution is Sky One’s new extreme sports show which pits skateboarders, BMXers and skaters against each other across a custom-built course. Filmed in front of a live studio audience, the show is centred around an extensive track layout, constructed at Cardington Studios against a super-vibrant set created by scenic designer Dominic Tolfts and art director Ben Telford. Working alongside the production crew, illumination rental and installation specialists LED Creative provided their Sigma 60 and BYTE Control system to the show, allowing the team to create the fast-paced mix of electric-bright colour and movement that encircles the on-track action. The BYTE Controller units have been developed by the company specifically to work in unison with their Sigma product range, allowing maximum artisti
USA - The stage was set up to resemble a wrestling ring, but the 1000 or so students from four states who gathered at suburban Naperville North High School recently didn’t “duke it out”, they belted it out, in the form of beautifully sung and choreographed musical arrangements. Their spirited performances were part of the third annual Clash of the Sequins, a competition involving 22 show choirs from across the Midwest that raises funds for performing arts programs. Providing a sparkling and rocking high-energy visual backdrop for the day of non-stop singing and dancing was a Garrett Vander Veen-designed lightshow, anchored by 48 Rogue R2 Wash fixtures from Chauvet Professional. Vander Veen, owner of V2 Productions, covered the entire 48’ wide by 32’ deep stage with his Rogue fixtures, flying eight of them on upstage truss, 24 on the mid-stage ‘claw’ and
USA - The Cincinnati Zoo features a world-class menagerie of animals from far and wide, including lions, monkeys, manatees, and a baby hippo named Fiona that has recently stolen the hearts of its 1.8m annual visitors. Emphasising an innovative approach, the Cincinnati Zoo emphasises education, outreach, conservation, and giving every visitor a unique experience with wildlife that they would not have anywhere else. What the zoo lacked until recently was a reliable audio system for delivering messages throughout its sprawling campus. “Innovation is one of our core values and something that we take very seriously,” says Chad Yelton, vice president marketing & communications, Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens. “It informs everything we do, from our sustainability program and our green initiative to how we build habitats, to the people that we hire and every
UK - Lighting designer Michael Straun recently deployed a full array of Martin by Harman fixtures to create a dynamic lighting design to support James Arthur’s UK headlining Back From the Edge arena tour. James Arthur has scored numerous chart-toppers and awards since winning the ninth season of The X Factor in 2012. In support of his new album Back From The Edge, Arthur recently embarked on his first ever UK arena tour. Tour manager JP Firmin and creative director Meggan McKenzie from UK creative production company The Live Dept. hired Straun to join their team, and together created a fresh and exciting lighting design for the tour. Straun partnered with McKenzie, tour lighting director Dan Williams and lighting supplier Christie Lites to create a dynamic visual experience for the tour, powered by a robust selection of Martin fixtures. “Megga
USA - In 1984, the US federal government added the Capitol Theatre to its National Register of Historic Places. When it comes to the history of rock music in the US, few venues have packed more of it into their confines than this 92-year-old former vaudeville/cinema house just north of New York City. Eric Clapton performed here; so did Bob Dylan, David Bowie and the Rolling Stones. The Grateful Dead played 13 dates here in a one-year span, and Janis Joplin debuted her signature Mercedes Benz song on its stage, much to the surprise of her band, after writing it in a hurry at a local bar. History wasn’t the only thing glowing at the 1,800-seat theatre on Saturday night 10 February, when Pink Talking Fish paid tribute to some iconic music from Capitol Theatre alumni with a concert that ran through Pink Floyd’s The Wall album, along with some juicy tunes
Australia - TRC, the Australian distributor for the ARX signal processing product range, recently supplied Norwest Productions with 20 units of the ARX industry standard USB DI USB audio interface for use at the Commonwealth Games that took place on the Gold Coast this month. As audio contractor to the Commonwealth Games, Norwest Productions specified the ARX USB DI for converting computer audio to balanced analogue signal as required throughout the complex AV setups across the Games. Designed to get audio from a computer into a professional audio system easily and smoothly, the ARX USB DI Audio Interface is a plug-and-play 24bit high resolution digital to analogue pro audio interface that removes the need to use any existing sound card outputs, with their inherent noisy environment and problematic grounding. Featuring full transformer balanced output isolation to elim
Finland - Built in 1845, Maaninka church is a 1,200-seat traditional church building that forms part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. The existing sound system had been in place for several years and presented a number of problems in terms of coverage and intelligibility which was affecting the overall experience of church-goers. The church turned to local integrators, AVEK Esitystekniikka and Genelec to bring the audio system into line with modern-day expectations and improve the audio experience for everyone. Genelec’s technology service manager, Markus Kahelin, recalls that the project posed several challenges; firstly, the sheer size of the space to be covered (985 sq.m with very high ceilings and a central dome), and secondly the fact that the church is a listed building which is a challenge for the integrators: “The shape and size of building re
Indonesia - Multi-platinum and Dove Award-winning recording group Hillsong United have told interviewers that their sixth studio album Wonder was inspired in part by the things they’ve experienced visiting new places. It is fitting, then, that the group recorded some songs on their new record in Bali, home of their church’s first campus in Asia. Located in a pleasant, low-key new building on a tree-lined street, the recently opened Bali campus embodies the warm, inviting and uplifting spirit that draws over 80,000 people each Sunday to Hillsong churches on five continents. Although the Bali church building itself is relatively simple in its structure, it quickly engages visitors with help from its immersive and colourful lighting, created with Chauvet Professional fixtures, supplied and installed by ASIIS. “The people from Hillsong first saw us at an exhib
UK - Eat to the Beat has recently returned from a tour with comedian John Bishop. Following the success of his Winging It show, he was back on the road throughout the first quarter of 2018 with an additional 26 shows. Venues along the way included Birmingham's Genting Arena, the BIC in Bournemouth, Bristol Hippodrome, the London Palladium, Southend's Cliff Pavilion. The tour drew to a close with a homecoming show at the Liverpool Arena on 30 March. The team at Eat to the Beat provided crew and artist catering for the tour. In a bid to improve the impact on the environment, the tour provided all the crew with a refillable water bottle rather than offering individual plastic water bottles in catering. This was an initiative and fitted in with Eat to the Beat's own ethos of trying to reduce their plastic usage wherever they can. A spokesperson for the
