USA - With just less than a month to go until LDI 2019, organisers have announced they expect record attendance and participation in this year’s events. LDI runs from 18-24 November at the Las Vegas Convention Centre, starting with the LDInstitute and LDIntensives sessions and LiveXperience Symposium, culminating in the exhibit hall tradeshow from Friday 22 to Sunday 24 November. “We’re thrilled that this year’s LDI Show looks set to be the most well-attended yet, bringing the global live production community from over 80 countries to Las Vegas to share ideas, exhibit and do business,” says LDI's managing director, David Johnson. “Our registration process shows us that people are coming from a wide range of international live and broadcast venues - festivals, corporate events, theatre, concerts, clubs, theme parks, architainment, and houses of worship. LDI
UK - CPL supplied full technical design and production for show producers Pandora Events, who delivered Tropic Skincare’s 2019 Glambassador motivational event, a high-energy day action-packed with new product launches, presentations, awards and live entertainment, complete with a gala dinner. The extravaganza for 2,500 people - themed Carnival of Colour - was staged in Hall 4 at the NEC, Birmingham, UK. CPL’s production and project manager Lee Gruszeckyj worked closely with Pandora’s Vanessa Carter and a crew of 27 technicians specialising in all the disciplines who started with the installation of a 20m diameter circular stage in the centre of the room. The inner 10m diameter section was a revolve. Above this, four large screens were installed, which were fed by Barco UDX high-powered projectors, giving 360° viewing angles. The stage was a fu
Germany - After the successful opening of the Rathausmarkt Open Air in Hamburg Germany last year, the classical music event with general music director Kent Nagano and the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra returned in August. For the first time the Farao Studios from Munich provided the acoustics at the event and started with a complex concept, that combined acoustic measures on stage with elements of virtual acoustics and a high-resolution pro-ribbon sound system from Alcons Audio. The concept, originally developed for Audi’s ‘Vorsprung Festival’ in 2014, was brought by the experienced team of Farao Studios at the Hamburg Rathausmarket square this year. A setup consisting of 15 Alcons LR28 large-scale pro-ribbon line array systems (l / r) and 14 Alcons LR18 as centre cluster was installed. A total of 20 of the powerful BC543 3x 18'' cardioid subwoofer system
Italy - Rental company CLS has upgraded its Martin Audio inventory by investing in a new Wavefront Precision Mini (WPM) PA rig. The sale to the company, which was set up in the Florence region last year by Duccio Mitola, was handled by Audiosales, Martin Audio’s Italian distributor. However, Duccio’s experience of the brand extends back seven years earlier when he was operating a W2 as his PA; when he started CLS Martin Audio was again his first port of call as he purchased a Blackline S15 and F10 rig (along with some EM series speakers). As the company expanded its work base he upgraded to a W8LM Mini line array, and it is this that the new technology of the WPM has replaced. Explaining the purchase Duccio says he had initially been looking to extend his stock of W8LM and approached Audiosales. “But they said ‘why do you want to take the old W8LM when there is
Brazil - Sao Paulo-based R3 Estudio Movel has chosen a Calrec Artemis Ray audio console for its OB truck ‘PowerTruck’. Isaías Rosa, R3’s recording/mixing engineer and multi-Latin Grammy nominee, says: “The Artemis met all our requirements. The truck is set up for mixing and recording music. The Artemis Ray has excellent sound quality; we use it in a 72-fader configuration, which is great for mixing live music as we have the faders set up on one layer.” R3 Estudio Movel uses two Waves cards, one Dante card and six MADI cards in the truck. The on-stage setup includes 128 mic pre-amps and two MADI cards. The company creates about 40 music DVDs a year - including one recently for Sony Music’s Brazilian funk artist Nego do Borel, in addition to its work on live broadcasts and streaming. “This project is a great example of how the Artemis console can r
UK - Entertainment Technology Partners Europe (ETP Europe) has acquired UK-based video and audio technology companies Pixl Evolution Limited and Audio Evolution Limited. The two companies will retain their individual identities whilst gaining access to ETP’s resources. “These are the first two companies to join ETP Europe’s portfolio and are perfectly aligned with our existing brands in the US and our ongoing global strategy,” comments Paul Hutton, ETP Europe president. “Pixl Evolution and Audio Evolution are young businesses that have attracted a wealth of industry talent and have made an impression on the events market in a short amount of time. They will continue to operate as independent companies and now have access to significant investment opportunities plus ETP’s global technical inventory and support structure. This platform will enable the businesses to
UK - The Royal Academy of Art’s new Benjamin West Lecture Theatre in London presents some unusual acoustic challenges. Ensuring high quality sound is a prerequisite for such a prestigious building and it was therefore imperative that the right microphones were chosen – ones that could cope with the unusual acoustics and with the wide variety of uses that the lecture theatre covers. “DPA microphones have proved to be the ideal solution because they allow any technician or engineer to jump in and achieve quality sound.” says Benji Fox, AV events manager at the RA. “We are using a selection of the company’s products in a number of different ways, including acoustic mics for lectures, belt packs and lapel mics for panel discussions and the new 6066 CORE Subminiature Headset Microphones for smaller panel discussions, filming and live streaming.” Opened i
UK - This year’s Hackney carnival was the biggest to date, with its attendance expected to be confirmed as well above the 60,000 who attended in 2018. The borough was awash with colour as the streets played host to dancers, entertainers, food stalls, children’s areas and sound stations. , with seven sound stages around the Hackney Central area, one of which was supported by online radio station NTS and Island Records. The stage was located in a large supermarket car park on Morning Lane and featured artists such as Wiley, Donaeo, Ms Banks, Lil C, Felix, Kemal, Rockers LDN And Dubplate Pearl. NTS approached Pioneer Pro Audio with a view to providing a top quality sound system for what was effectively a day-festival briMusic played an integral part in the eventef, covering a broad range of live music styles. Keen to help, Pioneer Pro Audio in turn consulted with The
South Africa - Johannesburg-based Sound Stylists was founded in 1987 to provide full technical turnkey solutions in event production, and has become one of South Africa’s most respected rental companies. Kevin Glover’s company has had a long association with Nexo, but recent line array technology from the French manufacturer has really hit the spot for Sound Stylists’ projects and clients. Glover has invested in the new Geo M6 and M10 compact and mid-size line array systems, which are being rolled out for a wide variety of clients. For a corporate event at the Thornleys club in the spectacular Drakensberg Mountains, Sound Stylists deployed a stacked configuration comprising of the Geo M10 mid-size line array. Main PA was eight M1012s, two M1025s and four MSUB15s with four LS18s, and six M6 compact cabinets, used as delays. The M10s were powered by two NXAMP4x2Mk2
USA - Founded and organised by Eric Clapton, the Crossroads Guitar Festival is a two-day music event and trade show that benefits the Crossroads Centre substance-abuse rehabilitation facility in Antigua. The 2019 edition was held at American Airlines Centre in Dallas, with the indoor arena augmented by an all-day outdoor Village Stage featuring special guests and surprise performances in a master clinic format, sponsored by Ernie Ball. The sound system for the Village Stage was an Electro-Voice X-Line Advance X2 line-array loudspeaker system, powered by the latest Dynacord DSP amplifiers. Notable performers included John Mayer, Eric Johnson, Joe Robinson, Andy Timmons and Paul Reed Smith. The system was supplied by Gulf Coast Sound (Rayne, LA), with owner Larry Habetz doing most of the mixing for crowds of up to 5,000. Electro-Voice applications engineer Mike Reynolds was on
UK - As is now customary, Hyde Park played host to the final weekend of its long season recently, with Proms in the Park on the Saturday making way for BBC Radio 2 Live in Hyde Park the following day. This also brought the curtain down on a successful summer at the Park for Capital Sound, and their MLA PA from Martin Audio, following its 10-day stint at British Summer Time two months earlier. Designed to coincide with Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, headliner, Barry Manilow was, supported by Bonnie Tyler, the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde, Jack Savoretti, Gabrielle and soprano Aida Garifullina. Bigger ensembles included two choirs, while the cast of Les Miserables also shared the bill, and the 60-piece BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Richard Balcombe, performed the traditional Last Night of the Proms anthems - including Pomp and Circumsta
Portugal - For its 2019 international distribution meeting in Porto, NEXT-proaudio welcomed over 70 international distribution partners, dealers, customers and designers from 18 countries. This event started with a welcome dinner on 14 October. This was followed by a factory tour, demo presentation on the demo room and LA26 official presentation. Demos of LA212x, LA122.v2, LA122A and LAm114xA were staged at Multiusos de Guimaraes, a leading arena for international concerts on the north of Portugal. On 16 October, everybody was welcomed on the NEXT-proaudio facilities again where Powersoft started the day with Armonia presentation based on N-rak (The power rack solution using Powersoft X8 amplifiers). After this, Antonio Correia, R&D director and NEXT-proaudio owner presented the manufacturer’s own software (Soundware, Audio Tool and AST).
South Africa - Audinate and its local partner, Stage Audio Works, are offering free certified Dante Level 3 training courses in South Africa at the end of October. The two-day courses will be lead by Audinate’s Kieran Walsh and will take place in the distributor’s Johannesburg and Cape Town offices on 29-30 October and 31 October – 1 November respectively. Dante Level 3 training is an advanced level course aimed at those who have already been using the networking protocol and want to gain more insight and knowledge in setting up and managing larger Dante-enabled systems. Building on what has already been learnt in previous Dante training sessions, the Level 3 course delves deeper into various advanced networking concepts, mixed-use networks, networking best practices and troubleshooting techniques. “Dante is the networking protocol of choice for audio professi
UK - Turbosound has introduced the Manchester Series line array system which aims to ‘bring the brand back to premier live sound reinforcement’. The Manchester Series is ‘the culmination of listening intently to customer’s requirements, obsessing over their needs and chasing down the relentless quest for sonic accuracy, clarity and detail in providing the best sound reinforcement available’. Manchester has been tested to withstand the extremes of any given application and can be deployed in virtually any environment. Turbosound is confident that no matter the environment or situation Manchester series will perform. Chris Hinds, Turbosound brand leader at Music Tribe, comments, "This is Turbosound pushing back with an exceptionally strong product to cater to all aspects of professional audio installation and touring applications’ “I’m inheren
Tunisia - The Fairground Festival is based in Sousse, on the east coast of Tunisia. This past summer the festival hit a whole new level in just its fourth year, where more than 7,000 attendees made their way to the festival, from all over Tunisia and other countries. This year’s Fairground theme was Amazing Culture and highlighted popular acts such as Giorgia Angiuli, Jan Blomqvist, ARTBAT & Tantsui, as well as 36 other electronic music artists including 23 artists from Tunisia. The Clair Brothers gear was provided by Pro Audio & Light (PAL), Clair Brothers’ exclusive distributor in the region. On the main stage, 32 C8 line arrays provided the overall sound, which according to Yasmine Bejaoui, stage manager at PAL, “is one of our best systems, if not the best. Since we obtained this PA, it’s the one we highlight the most.” Along with C8s,
Slovakia - One of Europe’s premier air shows is the annual Slovak International Air Fest (SIAF) and, this year, the Slovak Aviation Agency added a new air festival to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of celebrated Slovakian politician, diplomat and aviator General Milan Rastislav Štefánik. Yamaha audio systems were an essential part of both events. The Slovak Aviation Agency stages SIAF at Sliač airport every August. The crowds enjoyed flying displays by aircraft from Slovakia and 12 other NATO and EU member states. Before this, in May the new Aviation Fest Piešťany (FLP) was held at Piešťany airport, located between Sliač and the Slovakian capital Bratislava. Systems integrator MediaTech was asked to supply the public address systems to both events, trusting Yamaha systems for these safety critical applications. “At both events, the mai
Italy - Performers at The Lucca Summer Festival included Take That, Toto, Macklemore, Tears For Fears, New Order, Elbow, Mark Knopfler, Janelle Monáe, The Good the Bad and the Queen, Scorpions and Sting, as well as Italian stars Eros Ramazzotti, Giorgia and Francesco De Gregori, all of whom performed in Piazza Napoleone, the main square of the ancient Tuscan city’s centre. To satisfy the sonic needs of such a wide variety of genres, an Outline PA was chosen for the second consecutive edition, supplied by this year’s audio contractor, Target Sound, one of Poland’s largest full-service production companies and an Outline GTO Partner based in the southern Polish city of Chorzów. Lorenzo Patellani and Paolo Calza were the Outline system engineers at the event and the former explains, “Ensuring all the spectators an unforgettable sound experience was no easy tas
UK - London-based Spiritland Productions recently commissioned its new large-format Spiritland One sound and video OB truck, featuring a BroaMan point-to-point fibre transport system running between the truck and the stagebox. The luxury mobile production vehicle, built by Megahertz, contains an end-to-end IP infrastructure, and audio runs entirely on a Dante network, which the BroaMan environment supports. Their system is based on two new Repeat48WDM-24 with 2Fiber boards, the layout allowing BNC SDI ports to be combined with SFPs, with all signals able to be multiplexed into common fibre. Spiritland Productions co-directors, Gareth Iles and Antony Shaw, adopted this solution following a meeting at IBC 2018, and the order was duly placed with BroaMan UK dealers, HHB. Built around a single 1RU device, the BroaMan architecture allows bi-directional multi-format,
France - The Cartel des Mines is an annual three-day sporting event that was created in 1962 at the initiative of the École des Mines de Paris engineering school. The occasion brings together teams from European Mining Schools (Paris, Douai, Nantes, Alès, Albi, Saint-Etienne, Nancy, Madrid, Vigo, Oviedo, Turin, Bochum, Krakow and St. Petersburg), as well as the Emines-School of Industrial Management in Benguerir (Morocco), to compete in different sporting disciplines before enjoying evenings of entertainment. The 2019 edition of the Cartel took place in Albi and drew some 2,000 students each night. French technical services company, SC Management, was on hand to provide the audio reinforcement for the associated festivities, which included a rousing opening ceremony at the Sainte Cécile cathedral square and evening parties at the Parc des Expositions exhibition cent
USA - Front of House Engineer Sean Quackenbush and Maryland Sound International recently deployed JBL VTX A Series Line Array Loudspeakers at Brandi Carlile’s Madison Square Garden performance. “The coverage is the most important thing, so everybody is getting the exact same show that I'm hearing at the mix position,” said Quackenbush. “We wanted to make sure there was coverage from the front row to the top row of the arena, and have the tonality stay the same from front to back. With some manufacturer’s boxes, they throw a long way but the actual sound of the mix drastically changes, whereas with this system, the sound was the same from Row 1 of the floor to Row Z of the balcony upstairs.” For the performance at MSG, Quackenbush and MSI deployed a JBL audio system including 64 VTX A12 loudspeakers, 12 VTX S28 subwoofers, 12 VTX G28 subwoofers, an array of
USA - At the 1,300-seat sanctuary at Eastmont Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, pews wrap around a stage that is much wider than it is deep, and a large balcony overhangs much of the main floor in a similar wrap-around design. With the deep overhang, good sound reinforcement for Eastmont’s orchestra and choir would be challenging under the best of circumstances. To replace a failing system, AVL integration firm Emmaus Media & Design, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, worked with Eastmont to design and install a high-fidelity Danley Sound Labs sound reinforcement system. Danley’s point-source pattern control allowed Emmaus to hit every seat with high-intelligibility, high-SPL coverage that varies by no more than 1dB. “In addition to its regular Sunday services with orchestra and choir, Eastmont hosts a lot of touring acts,” explained Tim James, owner of Emma
Europe - Radio Active Designs CTO James Stoffo has announced the appointment of Jim Bakker to the position of EMEA sales and technical support director. Bakker is based in France and will manage the sales and distribution of Radio Active Designs products throughout Europe as well as the Middle East and Africa. Well known for his sales representation and strategic consulting capabilities, Bakker will spearhead efforts to increase sales and distribution for Radio Active Designs UV-1G wireless, analogue intercom systems as well as the company’s catalogue of wireless intercom accessories. "Radio Active Designs is fortunate to have someone with Jim's experience championing our products in the region," explains Stoffo. “We are excited to have him on our team and are confident he will contribute greatly to the company's growth world-wide." Bakker, who is also the s
UK - This year’s Cool Britannia at Knebworth Park built on the success of last year’s inaugural event, and now looks to have become a consolidated festival. Capital Sound were again brought in to work alongside production manager Keith Morris, with whom they have historically partnered on the Rewind festivals - and as was the case last year they equipped both the Main and Ministry of Sound stages. Both presented star-studded line-ups with James, Embrace, Sleeper, Basement Jaxx, The Coral, Starsailor, Fun Loving Criminals dominating the main stage and Danny Rampling, Seb Fontaine, Goldie, Norman Jay, Phil Hartnoll and Graeme Park the MOS Stage. Capital Sound’s Robin Conway noted, “The biggest upgrade this year was that we were able to fly the MLA side hang stage right, thanks to the redesigned structures, whereas it was ground stacked last year. This not o
France - Amate Audio’s new X212AF advanced three-way line array was FOH for Boris Brejcha at the Positiv Festival on 5 September in the Roman Théâtre antique d'Orange in southeastern France. Sound hire company DIDO Music supplied an all Amate Audio FOH system, comprising left / right stacks of just five X2121AF line array elements together with two further X212AF / X218WF pairings for front-fills, flooding the 9000-capacity filled Roman amphitheatre with sound. The festival line up, featuring Nicolas Cuer and Reinier Zonneveld, was headlined by Berlin DJ and producer Boris Brejcha: purveyor of his own genre of ‘hightech minimal’ techno and man in the Viennese carnival mask. (Jim Evans)
