UK - Now in its third year, the three-day Ramblin Man Fair is an annual music festival celebrating classic and contemporary rock, progressive rock, blues and country music. Promoted by Spirit Of Rock it is billed as “a rock festival designed for rock fans by rock fans”. Set in Maidstone’s familiar Mote Park, sound production company Capital Sound were contracted to provide the audio infrastructure for the first time this year, and they were eager to show off the power of Martin Audio’s MLA PA to Kent’s rock community. Project manager Robin Conway was himself responsible for winning the contract after meeting with the event’s technical production manager, Kev Sutherland. “I think he was impressed that we were able to come up with a total production package built around MLA,” he said. Capital provided sound reinforcement for all four stages b
Germany - Forty years on the air and 1,000 episodes are really a reason for celebrating 1, 2 or 3, the legendary children’s quiz show from ZDF - with a 150-minute prime time show from the MMC Studios in Cologne. Moderated by Steven Gätjen and Elton, prominent guests included actress Stephanie Stumph, comedian Bülent Ceylan and singer Mark Foster. Günther Jauch, who presents Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, also made an appearance and superstar Helene Fischer appeared on stage. For the lighting design of this special anniversary show, MBTV, the production company for ZDF, awarded the design work to mo2 design, run by lighting designer, Manfred "Ollie" Olma. Olma is one of the long-time users of GLP fixtures, and on this occasion he also made the most of it - specifying more than 100 impression X4 atom, as well as 92 GT-1 hybrids and 60 impression X4. "W
UK – The 2017 Knight of Illumination (KOI) Awards has announced this year’s shortlist of lighting and video designers, recognised for their creative work in the Concert Touring & Events sector. The winners will be announced at the 10th anniversary KOI Awards ceremony, to be held at London’s Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith, on 17 September. The KOI Awards was established to publicly celebrate the achievements of lighting and video designers in the sectors of Television, Theatre and Concert Touring & Events. The annual Awards are open to designers whose work has been showcased in the UK in the previous twelve months. The Awards is now one of the most celebrated nights in the live entertainment design industry calendar, with more than 500 leading creatives and professionals in attendance at last year’s celebrations. The Concert Touring & Events shortlist is the
USA - It isn’t often that a rock star coming off three successive Billboard Top Ten albums takes time before a big show to hold a yoga class, but then Michael Franti has made a habit of defying expectations, whether it’s with his genre-bending music, or unconventional dress code. (He gave up wearing shoes in 2000 and hasn’t donned a pair since, save for the flip-flops he puts on to board airplanes.) Franti’s iconoclastic and richly fertile imagination was on full display at his 13 July appearance with his band Spearhead at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Supporting their multifarious performance was a Matt “Jonezy” Jones designed light and video show run with a ChamSys MagicQ MQ80 console. Kicked off after the conclusion of his Love Out Loud Yoga class, Franti’s show took the audience through a weaving musical journey that touched rock, hip hop, blues, da
USA - The Moody Blues have been touring since the fabled moment in music history referred to as the British Invasion, and while they have 18 platinum and gold albums, retail sales of more than 70m units and decades of touring behind them, the trio, consisting of Graeme Edge, Justin Hayward and John Lodge shows no plans of stopping any time soon. The band’s illustrious career stretches across more than half a century. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the album Days of Future Passed, Bandit Lites supplied the lighting and video elements for the legendary group’s latest tour. Bandit Lites supplied lighting designer Mick Thornton, now in his fifteenth year with the band, their exclusive GRNLite Moving Washes, GLP X4, Robe Pointes, 4 Lite Moles and LED Pars, along with Chauvet Video Panels (6mm) and Clay Paky Mirage Video Panels (20 mm). “The bal
Europe - Front of House engineer Pete Johnson is impressed with DPA’s d:facto Linear Vocal Microphone, which he is using on the current Glass Animals tour. “It’s absolutely great,” he says. “At points in the set Dave Bayley (Glass Animals’ vocalist) often sings quite softly while at the same time we want the show to be big, punchy and powerful. The d:facto Linear has excellent feedback rejection and lets me keep the amount of surgery I need to do to a minimum - always a bonus. We’ve used it in all different settings too, from tiny clubs to football stadiums. It’s taken all the stress out of achieving a solid vocal sound.” Johnson has been a FOH engineer for 15 years and has worked with an impressive list of artists including Bonobo, Coldcut, Laura Marling, Leftfield and Django Django. He’s been mixing Glass Animals since May 2016 and is currently to
UK - The successful Brendan O'Carroll comedy creation Mrs. Brown’s Boys continues its popular live touring version with full technical production – lighting, sound, video, rigging and crew – supplied by Adlib. Adlib has been involved with Mrs. Brown’s Boys live since its very first theatre tour in 2000, and since then it’s become a multi award winning TV show and a massive arena live show phenomenon. The show has continued to invest in production values and technology to keep everything moving forward along with the humour. Adlib’s director and account handler Dave Jones looked after the audio elements alongside senior account manager Dave Eldridge who oversaw the lighting & video requirements. Jones comments: “We are immensely proud to have worked with Brendan and the cast over the years and to see the concept grow and develop. We’ve
UK - Old Barn Audio has completed its third Martin Audio CDD installation within Olympic class venues owned and operated by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA). Following successful fit-outs of the Lee Valley White Water Centre and Lee Valley Ice Centre, they have now completed a challenging installation at Lee Valley Athletics Centre in Edmonton. This required the company to install a 30m-long roof truss section down the middle of the 200m six-lane oval track, six and a half metres up in the air, to support over half a tonne of Martin Audio’s popular CDD 12, CDD 10 and CSX sub woofers. Built 10 years ago at a cost of £15m, the Centre plays host to a wide range of athletes - operating as an elite venue for Olympians as much as a walk-in facility for the general public. Boasting 4,000 admissions a week, it is the busiest indoor athletics facility in the
UK - Live Recording’s Rob Baldock took himself and his six Audient ASP880s up to Nottingham’s Splendour festival last month, to capture multi-track recordings of all the artists on the main stage, including Gabrielle Aplin and Busted. Hired by local TV station, Notts TV, Baldock is in his fifth year at Splendour - where this year a record-breaking 25,000 people partied at Wollaton Park in the rain - and wasn’t fazed by the increased audience, or the weather. Indeed the eight-channel ASP880 mic pres from the British manufacturer continue to serve him very well. “The patch at a festival changes with every band, and the advantage of having the same mic pres across every single channel means that I can rely on that sound quality and gain without compromise - regardless of what microphone or line signal I'm being given,” he says. “It did rain this year at Splend
Brazil - A personal dream to bring state of the art recording facilities to the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre has led producer/engineer Rafael Hauck to invest in PMC MB2 XBD monitors for his new studio, Audio Porto. The monitors have been installed in the facility’s main control room, which links to five recording spaces including a large live room with a fibre optic internet connection for live streaming. Audio Porto also has a second, smaller control room and a 250-capacity lounge area with a stage for live gigs, presentations, courses and events. Rafael Hauck chose PMC monitoring after hearing the MB2 XBD system at Metropolis in London and subsequently visiting PMC’s facility in the UK for further demos. “I was immediately hooked,” he explains. “It didn’t take long for me to realise that this system was exactly what I wanted for Audio Porto. It
UK - Miss Saigon has recently embarked on a major UK tour, taking the full West End production to every corner of the UK. The show opened at the Curve, Leicester in July before moving to Birmingham Hippodrome, from where it travels to Ireland, Wales, Scotland and back to England, culminating at Norwich Theatre Royal in September 2018. Travelling with the show, with its lighting design by Bruno Poet, are two MDG ATMe haze generators, purchased specifically for the tour by White Light. “My Associate LD on this show, Warren Letton discovered the ATMe hazer and recommended that I take a look at them,” says Poet. “I have used MDG’s Atmosphere machine many times before and love the fabulous haze they deliver. And we used two Atmospheres on both the West End and Broadway productions of Miss Saigon where they stood the test of time. “But it was the extr
Europe - Robbie Williams’ latest European tour takes in all points east and west of the continent throughout the summer, culminating in two shows in the Russian cities of St Petersburg and Moscow in early September. Touring in support of Williams’ 11th studio album, The Heavy Entertainment Show, the production reflects the nature of both the artist and the album, mixing full-on schmaltz with in-your-face entertainment in an atmosphere that is cheeky, loud and proud to be brash. In a design set to dazzle in keeping with the effervescent star, lighting designer, Mark Cunniffe, opted to use 200 Ayrton IntelliPix-XT LED matrix fixtures to line the front edges of the stage, which is – what else – star-shaped. “One of the major challenges of a stadium show is that 50%-60% of the show is played in daylight, before transitioning into night-time later on. The further
Europe - Lighting and production designer Mark Cunniffe knew what he wanted to create his vision and met up with SGM to provide the right luminaire. Besides this newly developed G-4 Wash-Beam, a vast amount of Q-7 and SixPacks are to be found in his design. When creating the plot for the Robbie Williams Heavy Entertainment Show Tour, or for that matter any other lighting design, Cunniffe is very much driven by the artist, for whom he is working. “I try to achieve something out of the ordinary and wherever possible something thought provoking, but at the same time I stay clear of any approach that could be considered to be overpowering the performance. “I still believe very strongly that the role of a lighting and production designer is to be supportive and sympathetic as opposed to overpowering. I consider myself to be nothing more than a support act for th
South Korea - A 1500 seater church in South Korea is installing speakers made by Lincolnshire-based Logic Systems Pro Audio. The church has chosen to install 18 of Logic’s Ethos VA range, a vertically arraying front of house PA system suited to a wide range of applications. A minimum array is composed of three boxes, with more typical configurations being composed of six to 12 boxes. Leigh Comins, Logic Systems’ operations manager, explains: “The installation also includes two Nd315 cabinets for extended bass response and a ground-stack of four Nd218. “The Nd315 can be flown above an array or used as the basis of a ground stack. If required, multiple Nd315 cabinets will lock together when ground stacked. For larger applications, where substantial sub bass reinforcement is required, the Nd218 cabinet can be ground stacked with the system. Twelve compact a
Spain - BBC Radio 1 made its annual pilgrimage to Ibiza during the first weekend of August, with an extensive programme of live events and studio broadcasts. The showcase event of the weekend was two days of live TV and radio broadcasting from the Café Mambo Sunset Stage, set up on the rocky coastline and seashore directly in front of this iconic venue in San Antonio. The event was powered by a Funktion-One Evo sound system from Cheshire Event Production. “Café Mambo asked us to supply the complete audio production,” explained Cheshire Event Production’s Olly Wayman. “This is the second time the event has taken place on the rocks and the second time we have been asked to supply. We provided everything audio, right up the BBC splits.” The Funktion-One rental partner deployed a main system comprising six Evo 7E (three per side) and 12 F121 single-21in bass en
USA - Two EAW sound reinforcement systems have been installed at the First Baptist Burleson, located in Burleson, Texas for use in their traditional sanctuary and their contemporary multi-purpose worship space, named three1seven. First Baptist Burleson technical director JimBob Brown worked closely with Tim LaPrade from Pro Audio, a Texas-based distributor and systems integrator in Grand Prairie, Texas, to design and install the new systems. “When I came on board the church had recently installed a system in the sanctuary that just wasn’t getting the job done,” explains Brown. “It was the wrong system for the space with poor coverage of the room. It got to the point where they decided to do something about it when I joined the organization, so I contacted Tim LaPrade at Pro Audio, to see what our options were.” The original church sanctuary is a tradi
South Africa - The line-up for Huawei Joburg Day held earlier this year at Emmarentia Dam included Freshlyground, Jeremy Loops, Locnville and Gangs of Ballet. For. Sound Stylists came to the party with DiGiCo and were commissioned as the full technical suppliers of the event. The owner of Sound Stylists, Kevin Glover, is no stranger to Joburg Day and remembers the early days when the festival was hosted at Gold Reef City. A capacity crowd in those days was 2 500. “This year we supplied the full infrastructure from power to lighting, audio and screens,” said Colin Loock, branch manager at Sound Stylists. As for Kevin, he was stationed at FOH, looking after each of the band’s FOH engineers while sound engineer Shaun Hershel took care of the monitors on stage. Colin managed the stage with the rest of the team. The sound system included a DiGiCo SD10 which was used f
Spain - The annual Premios Max Awards celebrate Spanish individuals and organisations who have making outstanding contributions to the performing arts and are organised by the General Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE). This year they were staged at the Palau de les Arts in vibrant Valencia. Lighting designer Juanjo Llorens took up the challenging task of lighting the high-profile event which was also broadcast live on TVE2, for which he utilised luminaires in the venue’s house rig, together with some specials, notably 30 x Robe Pointes, six BMFL WashBeams and five PATT2013s. These were all supplied by Madrid based rental company, Fluge Audiovisuales. Juanjo’s starting point for the lighting was this year’s theme of the Mediterranean and in particular the famous and beautiful Levantine light as depicted in the works of Spanish painter Joaquin Sorolla. From
UK - On a hot and sticky evening in early July, revellers packed pop-up central Manchester venue, the Castlefield Bowl, spilling over onto the adjacent railway viaduct and the balconies of nearby apartments - intent on witnessing the Abba-like anthemic indie rock of Arcade Fire. PRG supported production manager Bob O’Brien and the show designers, Moment Factory, with a versatile package of lighting and video to facilitate a 32- date European tour, taking in a variety of indoor and outdoor venues, as well as headline festival performances. Lighting designer Chris Bushell discussed the nature of the tour, and the processes between him and the other creatives on the design team: “I worked with the creative director, Tarik Makou from Moment Factory, as well as video director Icarus Wilson-Wright and the band themselves to design the look of the show. The concept we sta
USA - The North American phase of Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic World Tour is now in full swing, with 63 dates from July to November. Opening in Las Vegas after 44 dates in Europe, the tour will continue to Latin America and Australia through next year. 214 Solaris Flares are key components of a spectacular show that celebrates the artist’s musical roots. “Flares are my go-to light,” says lighting designer, Cory FitzGerald. “I like to use them in pixel mode so that we can take full advantage of the wash/pixel features as well as the powerful strobe. We have 68 mounted in the stage facing up, to under-light the transparent floor “cells”; 70 are mounted vertically, end-to-end, as a single ‘bar’ downstage for our main audience effect lighting, with a further 76 hung throughout the rig and upstage from trusses, for stage strobing and more effects.” FitzGerald
USA - Sonic Bloom, Colorado's premier EDM festival, is held at Hummingbird Ranch in the spectacular surroundings of Colorado's Spanish Peaks. Denver-based Nexus Productions has been working the festival for the past four years and this year served as the main stage lighting vendor (Bloom Stage) for the first time, supplying all trussing, lighting, motors, distros and more. “Sonic Bloom’s lighting is focused around creating an intimate environment that compliments the many diverse acts throughout the weekend,” said Nexus Productions owner Chuck Williams, who served as lead lighting designer for the Bloom Stage. “I've had this stage concept brewing in my head for a while now and I’m glad we were able to execute it. I really enjoy watching it go from our cads to a full-blown festival stage.” All three of the festival’s stages had their own distinct are
UK - Designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, Christ Church, situated in Swindon's Old Town was dedicated in 1851 and now enjoys Grade II Listed status. It was built to cater for Swindon's growing population as the town became a centre of trade. The church, affectionately known as The Old Lady on the Hill, occupies an elevated position and its graceful spire is visible for miles around. The church was recently closed for the first time in its 166-year history to allow major remodelling and upgrading of its interior. Integrator Enlightened was invited to design and install a completely new lighting system that would best complement and enhance the beautiful interior architecture. The system was to offer flexible control over daily and specialist lighting states, at the same time as being economical to run and maintain. Director Simon Marcus of Enlightened designed an entir
Italy - Philips Lighting reports that its lighting technology was used for the Global Denim Awards Triennale in Milan, an annual celebration of the best of denim couture. Visited by His Majesty King Willem-Alexander and Her Majesty Queen Máxima of The Netherlands, this year's event focused on Italian and Dutch collaborations in design, innovation, sustainability and craftsmanship. Philips Selecon Accent LED BeamShaper fixtures were used to illuminate the mannequins displaying the outfits inside Milan's Palazzo della Triennale. The lighting was installed by Dutch lighting specialist Jurlights, whose experienced art director Pol van Veen was the lighting designer for this special international showcase. As a specialist in lighting high-end international fashion events, van Veen's priority is to enhance the appearance of the clothing on display, bringing to the fore all
UK/UAE - 7thSense Design has announced their key technology supplier status with Dubai Parks and Resorts, the Middle East’s largest theme park destination. 7thSense Media Servers drive a total of 16 rides and attractions across two parks under the wider destination which includes Motiongate Dubai and Bollywood Parks Dubai. Motiongate Dubai is a Hollywood-inspired theme park uniting three legendary film studios in one theme park – Columbia Pictures, DreamWorks Animation and Lionsgate – where visitors go beyond the screen and immerse themselves in the magic of Hollywood. Spread across five zones, guests of all ages are entertained by 27 key rides and attractions including roller coasters, multi-media dark rides, interactive play labs, media-based theatre shows, plus a full program of roaming entertainment and live dance performances. Bollywood Parks Dubai is
