Portugal - NEXT-proaudio has developed a new expanded warehouse space to enable an increase in stock holding, as well as adopting a new line for ‘express orders’, using the website. The registered user, can find on the website distributor´s reserved area an updated list indicating the availability status of products plus the possibility to place ‘express orders’ directly on the online platform. “We are looking to the future with these improvements to enhance the excellence of the service for immediate needs and provide the best service for our clients,” says Andre Correia, NEXT-proaudio manager. (Jim Evans)
UK - Technical production specialists Light Fantastic Production Services have just made a large investment in the latest Robe moving light technology. The order includes Robe’s new MegaPointe and LEDBeam 150 moving light fixtures plus a selection of Pointes, Robin 600 LED washes and DL4X Spots in a custom white bodied finish. Based in Elstree just north of London, UK, the company services a wide range of prestigious projects providing lighting, audio, video & scenic services. The company also provides extensive dry hire services to other industry clients. The total investment value is over a quarter of a million pounds and the kit will be used to service Light Fantastic’s action-packed ongoing project schedule and dry hire requirements. Working primarily in the premium events sector, from high profile experiential events to spectacularly jaw-dropping pr
UK - The Hammond Theatre is a contemporary theatre situated in West London. Seating 380 people, the venue features a range of performances and attracts professional companies from across the UK. It is also an accredited venue for National Theatre Live, Royal Opera House and the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company screenings. The venue recently decided to upgrade a range of its existing fixtures and approached WL to supply them with the latest equipment. The technical theatre manager at The Hammond Theatre is Daniel Dar-Nell. He comments: “I manage all aspects of the theatre on a day-to-day basis with my assistant, which includes managing the box office and the bars all the way through to the technical side. Our programme is mainly a 50-50 mix of school shows and external hires. We also offer live cinema screenings, conferences and concerts; meaning we need a technical set-up t
UK - Lighting designer Davy Sherwin has created a 'formidably cool' lighting set for Wolf Alice's latest album campaign, Visions of a Life. Conceived in collaboration with the band to keep the focus tightly on-stage, Sherwin's stripped-back yet versatile design supports what The Guardian's Gwilym Mumford describes as an "exuberant jumble of dream-pop and grunge", confidently melds with the emotional peaks and troughs, uncertainty and angst of Wolf Alice's catalogue. Using a modest selection of lighting fixtures, all supplied by specialist concert touring and event lighting solution provider Lights Control Rigging (LCR), Sherwin's sculptural, atmospherically diverse design is as intoxicating and pounding, and by turns as sparkling and dark as the eclectic collection of songs it's there to enhance. "The band was keen to develop a fresh new look. They wanted
UK - Thousands of festival-goers experienced the interactive AV environment of the Samsung Hypercube as part of the Samsung Galaxy S8 UK launch this summer. The Samsung Hypercube toured its 360 Infinity Selfie' Experience to Boardmasters, Bestival and Reading festivals, with Avolites' Ai media control at the heart of its complex technical infrastructure. Containing a reflective panelled interior separated by strips of colour changing LED and a 27m x 1m continuous wrap-around LED video screen, the Hypercube immersed audiences into a 360° infinite display of light and colour. Samsung's new Galaxy S8 smartphone acted as a control interface allowing visitors to influence the cube's audio and infinite visual effects created through its multiple reflective surfaces. "We were tasked with delivering the technology and functionality to make the concept of the project's
USA - Rental company and production house Creative Technology used Elation Professional’s Fuze Wash 575 luminaire to highlight cars on the Kia and Volvo booths at this year’s LA Auto Show. Creative Technology has used Elation Design PAR 575 opti par moving heads on auto show booths for years - as have many other production companies - and plenty of Design Par 575 fixtures were to be found at the 2017 LA Auto Show. The company sought the benefits of an LED solution and turned to Elation’s new cool-white Fuze Wash 575 LED PAR moving head luminaire with motorized beam control. Held 1-10 December at the LA Convention Centre, the LA Auto Show is one of the most influential auto shows in the world. Elation has a tradition of lighting excellence on auto exhibitions and has designed the Fuze Wash 575 to optimise the way a vehicle looks and assume the role as a new workho
The Netherlands - The TivoliVredenburg in central Utrecht features seven different music performance spaces and is in the process of having its house and public area lighting upgraded with Anolis Ambiane RGBW LED luminaires. With around 300 fixtures installed so far, approximately 650 Ambianes will be in place when the project is completed. The spectacular building designed by Herman Hertzberger was part of the CU2030 urban redevelopment scheme and opened in 2014. The new dedicated arts and performance complex incorporates Vredenburg, an original live music venue standing on the site since 1979, with six brand new venues, all fully sound-proofed and self-contained, ranging in capacities from 175 to 2000. These include Rhonda, which continues the spirit and vibe of Tivoli, another historically significant Utrecht music club at the heart of the city’s music sce
UK - The Killers have again taken Capital Sound’s MLA PA on their current world tour, with the British Isles leg culminating in two spectacular nights at London’s O2 Arena. Mixing at FOH was Kenny Kaiser, and alongside him experienced system tech Toby Donovan, arguably one of the most experienced MLA system techs in the world. Promoting their fifth studio album Wonderful Wonderful, the band were playing through a familiar Martin Audio set-up comprising main hangs of 17 x MLA elements plus two MLD Downfills per side, with side hangs consisting of 12 x MLA plus one MLD Downfill per side. Also deployed were secondary side hangs of 10 x MLA Compact enclosures on each flank. This was to ensure that while the main side-hangs provided coverage up to around 8ft-12ft upstage of the downstage edge, the secondary hangs would infill the complete side stage seats with de
China - Legally Blonde - The Musical opened in December to glowing reviews in Shanghai’s Culture Square Theatre at the start of its China National tour. From China it will move to Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands Grand Theatre in May, before returning to the USA in October 2018. Produced by Big League and directed by Jeff Moss, with choreography by Grinch veteran, Bob Richard, Legally Blonde the Musical is a celebration of pop culture. Responsible for the smooth running of the technology on tour is the team from Intelligent Lighting Services (ILS), led by lighting engineer and company founder, Paul Gould. As part of the tour’s lighting inventory Gould’s team supplied two MDG ATMe haze generators to provide the haze with which to show off Kirk Bookman’s fun and vibrant lighting design. The two ATMe units were purchased specifically for the tour, but
USA - With go-karts, mini golf, bounce houses, an arcade, rock climbing, zip lines, and plenty of food and drink for patrons of all ages, Sonny's Place is a top family fun destination. It's located in Somers, Connecticut, an easy drive from New York City, Boston, and all of the large and small New England cities between. Success feeds on success, and Sonny's Place recently completed its third expansion. Because the sound system from its second expansion had proven so reliable and headache-free, Sonny's Place again hired ALSS (Advanced Lighting & Sound Solutions) from Manchester, Connecticut for its latest expansion. And because the reliable Ashly Audio amplifiers that ALSS had installed in the second expansion were a big part of its success, ALSS owner Glen Aliczi again called on Ashly amplification, this time adding Ashly processing and Ashly's custom iPad interfa
UK - Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, one of the UK’s leading drama schools, utilised effects lighting fixtures from Chroma-Q and ProLights for its recent annual Christmas Concert - supplied by A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET). This evening of songs, speeches and a chance to see all of Mountview’s undergraduate and foundation students perform under one roof, took place in St. George’s Catholic Cathedral, Southwark, Central London. Mountview senior lighting tutor, Alex Cann, created the Christmas Concert's lighting design in partnership with a student of the Academy's 3rd year BA (Hons) Theatre Production Arts course. The lighting brief was to enhance the overall production, but also to ensure that the whole audience could see the performers. The design therefore needed to be practical whilst also subtly enhancing the overall performance. Whe
USA - Sid Gattis, owner of Gattis Pro Audio, heard Danley Sound Lab's new SM-80F point-source loudspeaker with built-in subwoofer support at InfoComm and specified it for the First Baptist Church in Lincolton, NC. Gattis had always been sober-minded about the limitations of even the best line array systems, and he saw that the Danley SM-80Fs would save the church $12k, provide higher-quality sound, and – at half the size of the line array – limit the visual impact to First Baptist Church's aesthetic. "First Baptist Church has a large, traditional sanctuary, and they've long had a traditional Baptist service to go with it," explained Gattis. "But they're also making a slow shift to a more contemporary service. However, the audio system they had in place for the past twenty years was not going to support that shift. On top of being just plain old, it was buried in th
USA - The iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour presented by Capital One visited 12 cities from 28 November to 7 December. Select dates included Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, the Chainsmokers, and many more – with a spectacular lighting rig including many Solaris Flares. “Love those Flares,” says the shows’ LD Tom Kenny. “A few years ago, TMB gave me some Flare demos to try out. Since then, after using Flares very successfully on many TV shows, including Kids’ Choice Awards, as well as the VMAs and Europe’s EMA award shows, I specified them for The Who Hits 50! tour. “I always get wonderful compliments when I use Flares because of the fixture’s terrific colour and strobe effects. I was introduced to the Linear Flares last year and eagerly used them on this year’s iHeartRadio Music Festival, and then on the Jingle Ball tour. Both of those
USA - Seattle-based duo Odesza (Harrison Mills, Clayton Knight) wanted to make an outstanding visual impact with their current A Moment Apart Tour that kicked off in San Diego and Staples Centre in LA and ran through Barclays Centre in mid-December. Their creative team led by Luke Tanaka, Sean Kusanagi and the two artists called on Kyle Kegan of Voyage Productions to help sculpt a lightshow and add extra visual magic that would work harmoniously around their video and striking overall concept. Kyle, known for his lighting and visual designs for Major Lazer and others, specified 185 x Robe fixtures to assist him in the task, with 27 x BMFL Spots, 74 x Pointes and 84 x Spikies. “By the time we came on-board the concept design had been evolved and developed by Luke and the team, so we took that and applied practical elements like truss, motors, fixtures an
Germany - Independent lighting and show designer Patrick Rabus used SGM's new all-in-one P-10 for the recent Itchy tour. Being on tour with the punk band posed certain challenges when it came to equipment - Rabus needed to achieve maximum output with just few resources and he chose four SGM G-4 Wash-Beams, two SGM P-5s, and six of the brand new SGM P-10. Rabus says: “The new features that SGM has implemented, such as the power-out and the degree indicator on the side of the lamp, make setting up much easier. So, if it has to be really bright and flexible, I'll take the P-10.” “For bands this size, the budget and the equipment weight are usually the main challenges. Since we were traveling with two Sprinters, there was not much room for lighting gear,” he reveleals. “In this equipment situation, I needed a fixture with a large coverage and, of course, th
USA - Worship technology provider AGI has joined the Adamson Network and is now providing sales and integration services for Adamson loudspeakers. The Oregon-based company recently installed a S-Series audio system at Capital Christian Centre in Sacramento, CA. “We had the opportunity to hear the Adamson S10 when [applications engineer] Rick Woida set up a system in our parking lot. Within moments, I knew we needed to be involved with this ground-breaking product,” says AGI CEO Greg Slape. “Being able to offer our customer base new technology in form factors designed for their market is exciting. The new IS-Series, along with the S-Series, are premium products with a very good cost-to-performance ratio, providing the HOW community with excellent premium loudspeaker solutions.” Rick Cole, lead pastor with Capital Christian Centre, explains: “AGI provide
UAE - La Perle by Dragone is the Middle East’s latest resident show, featuring a cast of 65 artists including acrobats who perform aerial and aquatic stunts diving into an on-stage pool (read more in LSI December 2017). The immersive production is staged in a purpose-built, 1,300-seat theatre in newly-constructed, multi-use Al Habtoor City in Dubai. The theatre is not only vast, but is a complex space, with real estate for the L-Acoustics audio system shared with automation lines, water pipes and nozzles for water effects, as well as lighting, projection and rigging. Franco Dragone was the creative mind behind Cirque Du Soleil. In 2000, he set up Dragone, which has been the visionary behind some of the
USA - The Thomaston Opera House in Thomaston, Connecticut, recently added an Allen & Heath dLive S Class digital mixing system with an S5000 Surface, DM48 MixRack and DX32 Expander. The Opera House is home to the Landmark Community Theatre which performed Spamalot, Hairspray, Grease, Mamma Mia!, The Diary Of Anne Frank and It's A Wonderful Life during its 2017 season. The Opera House’s new audio system was designed and installed by DNR Laboratories of Watertown, CT. DNR’s Ian Jones (‘Dr. Jones’), who also acts as an independent FOH engineer, recommended the dLive and mixes many performances at the Opera House. “The dLive is the perfect console for a theatre of this type,” says Jones. “For Hairspray, we had around 50 mics and I could put any of them anywhere on the desk. And all of this can be cha
USA - Roughly 7,000 dairy farms closed in Wisconsin between 1993 and 1998 according to the US Department of Agriculture as part of a reorganisation of production facilities in America’s “dairy state”. While most of their barns faded from the landscape, in the northwest part of the state one farm was given new lease of life. The 180-seat community theatre and concert venue St Croix ArtBarn, expanded its production capabilities with the addition of a new colour rendering lighting system featuring Chauvet Professional COLORdash fixtures supplied by Monkey Wrench Productions. “The time had come for a lighting system replacement,” said Chad Leonard, technical director of the St Croix ArtBarn. “The fixtures that we had were almost 20 years old and were in bad shape. We replaced all of them. Aside from greatly improving our lighting for shows and concerts and giv
Poland - The Voice of Poland was recorded in the ATM studios in Warsaw, with the set featuring about 100 Prolights fixtures. Those were 16 Panorama IP AB, 24 Sunblast3000FC, 24 Starbar1000, 44 Arenacob4FC. Artur Szyman has been entrusted as lighting designer and director of photography for The Voice of Poland and he took responsibility for artistic, visual and technical direction of the production. An experienced LD in Polish TV, he says, “I was aware that Prolights fixtures were performing well and collecting lot favourable reviews on several tours and rental productions around Poland. When I was designing the lighting and video concept for TVoP, and knowing that ATM could supply this equipment, it was a good chance to try them in a TV application, where quality and refinement of the details are on top of my checklist. The fixtures have done the
UK - The latest tour by Gorillaz proved one of the must-see events of 2017. The band, production and technology all conspired to present something so much more than a bunch of musicians in front of a giant TV screen. “In the beginning, we didn’t know how the tour would be received. It’s been quite some time since the last one,” muses lighting designer Matt Pitman. “Joel’s [Stanley, production manager] remit to me was to give the show something better than they’d had before,” Pitman continues. “We did our first show at the Printworks in London in March. It was a one-off in a small venue, but Joel gave us a generous production budget. He hasn’t turned down any of my technical requests at any point since, with lighting or video, and it’s the same in all departments. We have grown the production to where we are now.” They are now at the end of a ru
UK - The OXO Tower on London’s South Bank was the scene of a recent sound system upgrade at its popular Restaurant, Bar & Brasserie. London-based Evolve Install has upgraded the brasserie's existing JBL system with a bespoke JBL Pendant speaker solution and also equipped the fine dining restaurant with a similar sound system. The work was project managed by Evolve Install director, Elliot Patterson, who saw the layout of the existing speakers was awry while surveying the site. He notes: “They were not positioned in the right area to get optimal coverage and there were a number of blind spots - the sound would reflect off the large windows and bounce around. Also it had been zoned in a clumsy way.” He consulted the application team at Sound Technology, the UK and Ireland distributors for the Harman Pro brands, and with the venue mapped using JB
World - Philips Lighting reports that its stage lighting fixture, the Philips VL6000 Beam, is delivering a powerful impact for the Crazy World Tour by German heavy metal band Scorpions. The power and quality of the output from the 36 Philips VL6000 Beams solves several challenges for Scorpions' lighting designer, Manfred Nikitser. His lighting fixtures need to provide enough punch to cut through the light from the LED screens on the stage, and be strong enough to deal with long throw distances, as the lighting trusses are trimmed at between 10m and 14m above the stage. "The VL6000s give exactly the strong look this kind of rock show needs," says Nikitser, "and even with full content on the screens, I can still make an awesome light show! If you look for fixtures that will work with this amount of video, the selection is small. And with this height, it's even ha
UK - The Natural History Museum in London made waves on New Year’s Eve with 700 guests celebrating Under the sea festivities inspired by the Hintze Hall’s newly-installed blue whale skeleton. The evening saw celebrations of oceanic proportions organised by Amy O’Brien, senior event co-ordinator, in partnership with Guilty Pleasures who provided DJs and live entertainment. During highly competitive games of Musical Bingo, guests battled it out marking off songs played in Museum-themed rounds to win a range of prizes from the shop. Revellers also engaged with the latest ‘Massaoke’ craze sweeping the nation, a mass participation karaoke sing-along with crowds guided by big screen lyrics. White Light enhanced the spaces with lighting and audio elements to create an immersive experience for the party-goers with atmospheric soundscapes throughout to h
