Germany - Every year the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra performs two free open-air concerts in the German city’s main park, the Rosental. The popular Klassik airleben concerts this year attracted more than 60,000. The shows play an important part in Leipzig culture, bringing orchestral music to many who are presumed to rarely attend concerts in the Gewandhaus concert hall. Conducted by musical director Andris Nelsons, this year’s shows featured soloists Kristin Opolais (soprano) and Thomas Hampson (baritone) in a programme of works by Italian composers Rossini, Verdi and Puccini. The show’s production company is Leipzig-based Frontsound Veranstaltungstechnik GmbH, headed by Gunnar Gosch and Christian Arnold. They chose Yamaha QL5 and CL5 digital consoles to mix the show, with two Rio3224-D2 and two Rio1608-D I/O racks, on a redundant Dante network. "A
USA - As the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of the moon landing in 1969, a new play endeavours to recreate the thrill of this event with an immersive theatrical experience. Apollo 11 tells the story of the 400,000 men and women who worked to accomplish this extraordinary mission. Told through the eyes of a retired NASA aerospace engineer as he recounts the story to his teenaged granddaughter, Apollo 11 is staged in a, purpose-built venue that plays host to 20 actors, 40,000sq.ft of 360-degree video projection, a life-sized rocket and a powerful KV2 Audio sound system designed by Broadway and West End theatre sound designer, Bobby Aitken, and supplied by Stage Sound Services in Cardiff. The first run has just finished in Pasadena, CA, with the next shows scheduled in Houston, TX in December. “This was a very interesting production to work on as
Europe - Medialon, specialist provider of show control solutions, has hired Robert Chong as product specialist to service customers and installation sites across the EMEA region. Chong brings more than 27 years of experience working with the Medialon brand and product range as engineer, consultant and integrator. His career includes sales and technical leadership roles for a range of AV companies across Europe and Australasia including Barco, Gibson International, Atea and ZKM. Eric Cantrell, VP of business operations for Medialon, comments: “At Medialon, we are committed to ongoing to the support of customers and installations - both existing and new. Robert has worked closely with our team, customers and product line for many years and in his new role, will allow us to carefully consider the needs of all projects - developing and delivering the very best show con
Mexico - Castelein Audiovisual Services of Mexico City has upgraded its audio equipment with the Bose Professional ShowMatch DeltaQ Array system. Castelein has more than 15 years’ experience in renting audio, video and lighting equipment to corporate events and live shows. The company’s clients range from top event planners, PR and promotion agencies, production companies to AV rental companies; it services small conferences as well as live shows in 1000-seat venues. The Bose system recently acquired by Castelein includes 16 ShowMatch line array modules, eight SMS118 subwoofers, suspension accessories, and four compatible Powersoft X4 amplifiers. With this ShowMatch DeltaQ system, Castelein can deliver the intelligibility and coverage that the voice of a presenter needs to get a message through, the audio clarity required to enhance the experience from a corporate
UK/USA - Celebrating World Pride in New York on the 50-year anniversary of the Stonewall riots, Autograph’s special events department was charged with providing the inflight sound system on Virgin Atlantic’s celebratory Pride Flight (VS69) from London to New York. Neutrik’s Xirium Pro made it all possible. Revellers, celebrities, DJs, drag queens and assorted entertainers aboard an Airbus A330 at 35,000ft was a special event which presented some very special challenges - to be met by head of special events Andrew Hedges, who headed up the project design, and David Prosser and Adam ‘Fabulous’ Taylor who engineered the event in the air. “Production company One Green Bean approached Autograph to facilitate DJs and other entertainment onboard the flight,” says Hedges. “The brief was for ‘a big party atmosphere’. At the same time Virgin Atlantic’s engi
Russia - d&b audiotechnik has appointed Anna Kovyza as country manager for Russia, as the German pro audio manufacturer prepares to open a new office in the country this year. Kovyza is a former head of sales and marketing for A&T Trade’s professional audio and lighting division. She will be based in Moscow and will focus on developing d&b sales in Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) whilst also working closely with Aris Pro, d&b’s Russian distributor. Amnon Harman, d&b Group CEO, comments: “The Eastern European region and in particular Russia are important markets for d&b audiotechnik. With Anna Kovyza, we are preparing for the next phase of growth in these markets. Anna’s appointment is part of our strategic growth plan to build strong teams across the globe and being close to our partners and customers with sales and
South Africa - DWR Distribution presented an exclusive demo of L-Acoustics’ L-ISA sound technology to over 100 representatives from rental companies and TV studios in Johannesburg. The system, which was used in South Africa for the first time during the live edition of The Voice South Africa 2019, was demo’d at the Mosaïek Teatro in Fairlands, where the TV show took place. The demo was presented by Tim McCall, regional sales manager and Tony Szabo, head of touring applications at L-Acoustics, along with Chris Pugh, technical support at DWR Distribution and Adriaan van der Walt, audio engineer at Multi-Media who specified L-ISA technology for The Voice. “I think it’s awesome that L-Acoustics have invested so much into South Africa,” comments Duncan Riley of DWR. “We are one of their smaller markets, yet they treat us no differently to th
UK - Cadac’s CDC six mixing console was used FOH this year at the Glade Stage, partnering Funktion-One’s Vero system making its Glastonbury debut. Sound rental company and long term Funktion-One partner Audio Plus deployed a Cadac console for the second year running, at the behest of Funktion-One co-founder Tony Andrews. “It was at the personal request of Tony Andrews that there should be a Cadac CDC console front of house,” explains Audio Plus tech, Dan Hull, who is part of the company’s onsite team. “He especially wanted it paired with the Vero, because of his love of its pre-amps and its sound quality, and his familiarity with the console and what he knows he can achieve with the Vero, mixing on the Cadac.” The CDC six was the principal FOH console with a DiGiCo SD10 on standby for engineers using show files, with the latest DSP-enabled XTA MX36 consol
Spain - Holidaymakers staying at SMY Costa del Sol will now be able to enjoy music throughout the hotel's public areas thanks to the installation of a new sound system that has Equipson's Work Pro products at its heart. Located opposite Los Alamos beach in Torremolinos, SMY Costa del Sol wanted a superior system that reflected the quality ethos of its accommodation and facilities. The system also needed to be powerful enough to cover a large area including the lobby, restaurant, restrooms and outdoor terrace. Malaga-based installation company Servicios Integrales M3 was chosen for the project on the basis of its extensive AV knowledge and its reputation for delivering exceptional results. The company specified a large selection of Work Pro speakers, amplifiers, control and multiplayer units because it had previous experience of Equipson's Work Pro range and had always
UK - Over 10,000 people attended the inaugural Abingdon Summer Fireworks Festival which saw four showcase firework displays choreographed to music, culminating with a spectacular performance from the evenings’ hosts, double British Firework champions, Illusion Fireworks. Quality audio plays a key role in the success of the event, so Illusion turned to AV productions specialists, Surrey-based Sound Solutions who provided a significant Halo-C line array system from EM Acoustics. Sound Solutions’ James Richardson explained that Illusion came to them having been impressed by the clarity of the audio on other fireworks and pyrotechnics shows that both companies had supplied. “They know that we do a good job, and they wanted the same audio quality for Abingdon - for shows like this, what you hear is almost as important as what you see, so it had to be absolutely top qu
USA - As the co-founder of Diablo Digital, which provides turnkey live recording systems and services for concert, touring, festival, installation and broadcast applications, Brad Madix has accumulated an impressive resume. He has worked alongside artists such as U2, Shania Twain, Shakira, Van Halen, Rush, Alanis Morissette, Jessica Simpson, Linkin Park, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and many more. In his current role as live FOH engineer for Florence + the Machine, Madix relies on a range of DPA Microphones to help deliver pristine percussion to audiences. For instance, he depends on the company’s 4099 Instrument Microphone for the drum kit and the brand’s 2011C Compact Twin Diaphragm Cardioid Mic for overheads, which pick up the sound from the band’s various percussion instruments including cowbells, cymbals and a wood block. He also positions a pair of 2011C’s above t
USA - SRB Consulting & Design recently installed a Martin Audio system consisting of WPC line arrays, SXH218 and SX118 subs and CDD12s as part of an upgrade at the Speaking Rock Entertainment Centre in El Paso, Texas. Describing the venue, SRB owner Scott Brown explains: “Speaking Rock is located on a native American reservation and they have live entertainment seven nights a week with outdoor concerts once a month in their parking lots and a large park nearby. It’s the ‘go to’ area for entertainment because people know there’s always something going on there.” Concerts at Speaking Rock include a wide variety of artists such as Chubby Checker, P.O.D., RATT, Molotov, Buckcherry, Sammy Hagar and more. In terms of the performance venue, Scott explains, “The main room has a kind of large club atmosphere with two storeys and wraparound balconies, a main st
Europe - Allen & Heath’s compact SQ digital mixer recently wrapped up a 22-date European tour with Brass Against, including working FOH and monitors for the band’s support slot with Lenny Kravitz at London’s O2 Arena. The band called upon Production & Touring Ltd. (P&T) to support their shows on both sides of the Atlantic. “At P&T, we work with artists all over world, from first timers to larger seasoned acts, and our goal is to make it financially viable to tour without compromising on expertise or gear,” explains P&T’s director, Mike Taylor. “Brass Against needed an affordable package that had to facilitate everything from a 500-capacity venue right up to the O2 Arena and festival stages. The final kicker was that the whole lot, including the backline, had to fit into a bus bay.” In designing a compact, cost-effective system
Finland - Established in 1872 in Helsinki, the Finnish National Theatre is the oldest Finnish-speaking professional theatre in the country. Its current venue was built in 1902 and the combination of Alcons Audio Q series and L series pro-ribbon loudspeakers means the 900-capacity main stage enjoys quality sound and coverage, without impacting on its historic decor. The horseshoe-shaped auditorium has three balconies, providing a challenge to projecting seamless, high quality sound to every seat. This was solved when sound and lighting specialists Electro Waves installed an Alcons QR series pro-ribbon system several years ago. This comprised L-C-R arrays of QR36 modular line-source array columns with QM36 modular line-source LMF array extensions. QB363 modular low-frequency array columns were added to the centre cluster, all powered and controlled by Alcons Sentinel3 and Sent
Australia - The popular Spin Off festival returned in 2019 with an of over 20,000 at the massive 84m x 64m mainstage tent, presenting organisers, Five-Four Entertainment, with major technical requirements where the need for screens was paramount. To meet this demand, technical provider, Adelaide’s Novatech Creative Event Technology, employed two onstage ROE Visual Carbon 5 IMAG screens, an upstage screen, a delay screen behind FOH and two delay screens outside of the tent, controlled from two Brompton Technology SX40 processors with three Brompton Tessara XD distribution units vastly simplifying cabling requirements. “With such a big footprint, we needed to ensure that not only everyone inside the tent could see a screen but also outside,” explains Phil Pieridis, senior video project manager from Novatech. “Using many screens generates a lot of signal distribu
The Netherlands - MOG Technologies, supplier of end-to-end solutions for professional media, will present its latest developments at IBC 2019 (13-17 September, RAI Amsterdam). The focus will be on the latest advances for the production management platform with MAM4PRO; a new professional media deck station; new enhancements to Vizzi online video platform, and various technical deployments throughout its solutions. MAM4Pro is an enterprise solution designed for managing and executing all media operations - record, ingest, play, stream, encode, transcode and decode - in a native virtualised environment. MAM4PRO brings to the market a set of software services that focus on asset management, resources management, and media operations. mDECK is billed as “the ultimate professional media deck appliance to record, ingest, transcode and play in any format of video con
USA - The latest addition to ADJ’s range of professional lighting equipment, the Starship, is a modern take on a classic centrepiece effect. Designed for installation in nightclubs, as well as for use as part of mobile lightshows, this fixture features six motorised bars loaded with quad colour LEDs that generate “a myriad of intense moving and colour-changing mid-air beams”. The Starship’s six motorized bars each offer independent tilt control with a range of 95° and are positioned in a star-shaped configuration extending out from a central hub. Each bar is fitted with four individually-controlled 15W 4-in-1 RGBW LEDs, which generate razor-sharp beams that cut through a haze-filled room. The combination of the six independent motors and 24 separate LEDs allows the Starship to create a wide variety of exciting effects that feature a mass of intense beams changing co
UK - Exhibiting at the upcoming PLASA Show (15-17 September, London Olympia), Coda Audio will be showing the recently-launched two-way arrayable point source, N-APS. N-APS is the smaller sibling of Coda Audio’s APS system. Where APS addressed the limitations of traditional point source systems by delivering unprecedented performance standards, to deliver a range of functions in small to medium-sized venues, N-APS places new patented technology into an even smaller box to offer incredible power to weight ratio and flexibility. For smaller venues or corporate events where, for example, the geometry of a space might be considered to make coverage awkward, N-APS provides an unobtrusive yet powerful solution, says the company. Complementing the tradeshow debut of N-APS, Coda Audio is also introducing the N-SUB, a 15” subwoofer that reaches as low as 30Hz. Like N-
Malaysia - Singesen Technical Production and Chan Lee Sound & Light selected a combination of Powersoft’s X8 and X4L amplifier platforms for American singer-songwriter Jason Mraz, who stopped off in Kuala Lumpur for the third Asian date of his Good Vibes world tour. The main hangs at the arena were made up of 12 JBL VT-4889-1 per side, with eight JBL VT4888 flown per side as side-fill and six JBL VT4888 in the centre. The 20 JBL VT 4880 subwoofers were ground stacked at the side of the stage, while a series of Nexo PS15 wedge monitors were placed along the downstage edge. A total of six JBL VTX A8 were used as front-fill. The main system was driven by 11 of Powersoft’s X8 amplifier platforms, while a pair of the company’s latest touring product, the X4L (look out for a product review in the September issue of LSi, out next week) - were also use
New Zealand - When TV comedy show 7 Days Live, produced by MediaWorks NZ, visited the Queenstown Winter Festival, the festival’s production supplier TomTom Productions was on hand with its Hippotizer Karst media servers from Green Hippo. The Hippotizer enabled them to deal with the additional visual requirements of the television recording. “The brief was fairly simple,” says Hamish Edh, director of TomTom and designer of the festival’s live stage video elements. “Background eye candy that looks great on camera, as well as for the live audience, and having the 7 Days logo on the screens for the wide shots. “The design concept was based around mis-matching elements with different LED pixel pitches,” explains Edh. “To create contrast between the different pixel pitches, I use Martin Sceptron 20 battens in an array to complement the 6mm LED panels a
Australia - Huddle Room Technology (HRT) has appointed Jands Australia as its new distribution partner for the Australian AV and ICT markets. HRT is the maker of Huddle Hub One, a multi-session wireless presentation system that supports up to seven concurrent sessions on the same hardware. Jands is showcasing the Huddle Hub One and One Plus at Integrate Show in Melbourne this week (27-29 August, Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre). “Having a partner like Jands with their extensive experience in the Australian market is a big win for HRT,” comments Stefano Spattini, CEO for HRT. “We are greatly looking forward to working with such a respected and professional distribution partner.” “HRT's Huddle Hub is an impressive innovation that further complements our existing AV conferencing product portfolio,” adds Phil Muffet, national sales manager a
Australia - Stampede has announced the appointment of former Hills Limited AV national sales manager Nick Cocks, to serve as general manager of Exertis Australia ProAV, the new name of Stampede Australia that is making its debut at Integrate 2019 (27-29 August). “Integrate 2019 marks the start of the next great chapter in the history of our company in Australia and southeast Asia with the rebranding of Stampede as Exertis, the global AV and IT distribution company that Stampede joined last year when it was acquired by DCC,” says Stampede president and CEO Kevin Kelly. “With this rebranding, we send a clear message to the Australian and southeast Asian region that the combined resources, and commitment, of DCC and Exertis are now being put to work on behalf of our resellers and end user customers throughout the region. Under the leadership of Nick Cocks, our cust
South Korea - To deliver arena-filling sound as efficiently as possible, TechData Co recently installed an end-to-end JBL Professional networked audio system at the Changwon NC Park baseball stadium. Changwon NC Park is a 22,000-seat baseball stadium which opened in 2019, replacing Masan Stadium as the home of the NC Dinos professional baseball team. The stadium features four tiers of seating that curve around home plate, leaving the outfield side open to the air. To deliver premium sound across every seat while minimizing sound leakage to neighbouring residential and commercial areas, Changwon NC Park required an ultra-focused, efficient and highly scalable sound system. To achieve the client’s goals, TechData designed and installed an extensive Harman networked audio system featuring JBL loudspeakers, Crown amplifiers, Soundcraft mixing consoles and BSS signal proc
Denmark - DPA Microphones has introduced the 2028 Vocal Microphone for live stage performances, broadcast and pro AV applications. The 2028 has been designed to provide the same sound as the brand’s flagship handheld mic, the 4018 VL. It has also been optimised, like the 4018, for the challenges of the live stage. “We have seen a need for an excellent vocal microphone that has the sonic qualities of our d:facto 4018 Series, but at a lower price-point,” says René Mørch, product manager, DPA Microphones. “At only $700 USD, this mic is an overachiever - it performs significantly better than anything else in its price range.” The 2028 features a new fixed-position capsule, as well as a specially designed shock-mount and pop filter. It exhibits a supercardioid polar pattern, with the DPA uniform off-axis response. “We've designed this mic so that it so
