USA - In its vision statement, Hope Lutheran church in Fargo proclaims its commitment to reaching out "in increasingly innovative ways" to members of its community in North Dakota's largest city. This promise is reflected in the church's enthusiastic participation in imaginative charities like Backpacks for Kids, through which it collected 10,748 weekend meals for school children; and in its Christmas YOU-Tensil Tree that invites worshippers to donate cooking tools for disadvantaged families by hanging ladles, spatulas and the like on an evergreen.

Not surprisingly, when Hope Lutheran was ready to upgrade its lighting system, they were interested in something vibrant, colourful, engaging, and forward looking in keeping with the church's commitment to innovative ou

UK - Held at the SSE Hydro, the 2014 MTV EMAs was, as always, one of the biggest nights in the music calendar. For the 12th consecutive year, Sennheiser UK supported Britannia Row Productions in its provision of audio equipment for the event.

The two-hour spectacular was hosted by Nicki Minaj and saw performances from artists including Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande and Charli XCX. Ozzy Ozbourne hailed as 'global icon', three awards went to boy band One Direction, and amongst others there were wins for Ariana Grande for Best Song and Best Female, Just Bieber for Best Male and 5 Seconds of Summer for Best New and Best Push Act.

All presenters, including Nicki Minaj, used Sennheiser's flagship 9000 series handheld microphones, whilst all performer and presenter IEMs, with the exception of one act, were Sennheiser 2000 Series. Additionally, Ed Sheeran used an SKM 2000 with 9235 capsul

The Netherlands - Bierfabriek Delft needed a versatile, unified sound system that could create the right atmosphere in its three zones. The Bierfabriek experience combines laid-back drinking and dining, plus DJs until late at the weekend. So the speaker system needed to provide high-quality, comfortable sound at all volumes. Plus the venue's reflective surfaces made creating a natural sound a challenge.

Pioneer Pro Audio worked with Bierfabriek's installation partner Discovery Sound & Vision to specify a sound system and EQ settings that overcame these challenges and delivered a warm, clean sound throughout the venue.

"The sound is amazing. Unlike other places, we can cater for people who want to talk and relax, and people who want to dance and party. With the Pioneer system, we can deliver the highest-quality sound in both environments - so everyone's happy," says A

featured content

ETC Halcyon Silent

High End Systems Halcyon Silent builds on ETC’s legacy of fanless automated fixtures by incorporating features from the highly sought-after Halcyon family. Halcyon Silent perfectly balances silent operation with brilliant output of 18,400 lumens and high-impact features. 

For more information visit us at www.etcconnect.com

Ireland - The Athlone Institute of Technology recently added a high specification Indoor athletics arena to its campus. Representing a €10m investment this IAAF-standard six-lane track surrounded by 1,500 spectator seats, required a sound system that offered high intelligibility.

However, Dublin based Sound Productions were only introduced to the project after it had been completed. According to senior project manager Peadar Carley, the budget was limited and the performance of the PA system specified by the previous contractor had suffered as a result. Sound Productions were therefore asked to evaluate and propose a solution.

With an RT time in excess of five seconds Sound Productions wasted little time in specifying a solution that has stood them in good stead on many previous occasions when working in highly reverberant spaces, by turning to a pair of JBL Professional Inte

featured content

New Touring Series by Gravity – Every Scratch Has A Story

When the stage heats up, you need equipment that can keep up without compromise. The Gravity Touring Series has been specifically designed to meet the highest demands – for rental companies, professional musicians, concert organizers, and large event venues. Premium materials, exceptional durability, and impressive longevity make these products stand out. Whether on tour, in constant use, or under the toughest conditions: the Touring Series delivers maximum reliability and performance – every day, on every stage.
FIND OUT MORE >>>

UK - With its relocation to Coombe Abbey Hotel in Warwickshire for next year's Exhibition and Networking Dinner, the ISCE (Institute of Sound and Communications Engineers) has announced a formidable programme of seminars to coincide.

The event, which takes place over two days (3-4 March) with a Networking Dinner as its curtain raiser on day 1 and the exhibition on day 2, continues to expand. "This is one of the reasons we have upgraded the location this year to this luxurious four-star country house hotel," says secretariat manager, Ros Wigmore.

The seminar programme will open at 10am on 4 March, when Kevin Sherwood, sales director of CIE-Group, will posit Is the Market Really Ready for Audio-over-IP?.

It will ask whether the installation industry is ready to adopt a whole new way of thinking for public address and whether clients are generally ready to let

Germany - To commemorate 25 years since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, German Chancellor Angela Merkel led Peter Gabriel and the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra in a celebratory spectacle that drew more than 100,000 people to the Brandenburg Gate. To provide utmost clarity for the music and speeches at this monumental milestone, the event organizers chose a Meyer Sound Leo large-scale linear reinforcement system.

"Leo has a slim profile, yet it has a massive sound and incredible output," notes Marcus Mechelhoff, production manager for Berlin-based event management company mediapool, who designed and coordinated all lighting, video, and pyrotechnics for the event. "It was the perfect tool for every requirement. Speeches were clearly heard everywhere, while rock, pop, and classical music were perfectly reproduced. I received only positive feedback about the sound q

featured content

AZOR® SP2 IP - Compact IP65 Spot Profile Moving Head

Compact design and IP65 protection for indoor and outdoor applications: the new AZOR® SP2 IP is the ideal solution for open-air events and outdoor theatres that require a powerful, weatherproof lighting system. An optimal partner for lighting designers and event service providers looking for a versatile LED show light in a compact housing.

AZOR® SP2 IP – the next generation of robust, weatherproof, and compact lighting for maximum creative freedom, both indoors and outdoors.

READ MORE >>>

India - The blueFROG in Pune is the latest in India's classy line of blueFROG bars, which have built a reputation in the territory for successfully fusing fine dining, live entertainment, and a lush ambience, all under one roof. Pune is the third blueFROG venue; two successful establishments already exist in Delhi and Mumbai, the latter of which was recently voted in the top 20 bar designs in the world.

The blueFROG mission statement is to make every performance memorable for the artist, production team, and audience, by delivering "an unsurpassable aural and visual experience". The Pune venue would need to cater to a diverse, young and demanding local community. blueFROG commissioned Munro Acoustics India to specify a high-end sound system that could deliver enough power and warmth to accommodate the eclectic mix of musical genres that would grace the venue's stage, f

UK - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light will exhibit at the inaugural PLASA Focus Glasgow event on 2-3 December. The event, held at Glasgow's SECC is the first PLASA Focus event to take place in Scotland.

On Stand A12, White Light will showcase the latest in LED, lighting control, and effects solutions for the entertainment and presentation markets. The company provides hire, sales, installation, and technical service to a variety of clients across the UK.

White Light sales director Peter Threadgold explains the value of the event, "The format of PLASA Focus events is very beneficial - visitors get to see new equipment and get their questions answered straight away. For us, it's a good environment to hear directly from customers and professionals in the region, so we can better deliver what they need."

White Light will bring a range of products to PLASA

South Africa - A new dome has been erected on Krugersdorp hill, forming part of Tsogo Sun's Silverstar Casino, based in Muldersdrift. The attractive structure, designed and built by Otto Wijnberger of In2Structures, has been equipped with a basic lighting rig, stage and PA System making it a suitable self-sustained venue for smaller gigs hosted by Silverstar. At the same time, a similar structure, though not as large, was erected at Tsogo Sun's The Ridge in Emalahleni (Witbank), Mpumalanga.

In2Structures, a member of the Gearhouse Group of Companies, created the portable structures - there is a SupaDome, 71m x 35m x 17m high, at Silverstar and a Maxi Dome, 49m x 28m x 13m high, at The Ridge. Unlike other conventional aluminium framed assemblies such as marquees, they have the ability to withstand large imposed loads such as suspended equipment and high wind pressure and importan

The Netherlands - Volt is a new night spot in Sittard, The Netherlands that opened in March after a refurbishment that transformed the previous venue into a top quality, professional live music venue. A key element of the refurbishment project was a professional lighting package made up of Elation Professional LED moving heads and LED PAR Cans.

The reason behind the rebuild, a total refurb that saw only the outer walls remain, was to rebrand and expand the venue in order to attract bigger name bands. Installation of the Elation gear was by BOS Event Support, a full-service event production company located in Sittard.

BOS Event owners Jamie Borger, Davy van Onna and Dennis Siemonsma handle projects collaboratively, choosing equipment and suppliers carefully based on the needs of each individual project. "Eventually for the Volt install we chose Elation because of its favou

USA - At the heart of LD Darragh Guiney's lightshow for Killswitch Engage's appearance in the three-city Monster's Mosh tour was a trio of video walls created with PVP S7 LED video panels from Chauvet professional provided by JDI Productions. Providing a frighteningly heart-pounding background for the concert, the panels were used to create four video walls: a larger (4m by 2.5m) display positioned on upstage truss, and three smaller (1.5m by 1m) units in set carts that were arranged behind the drums, as well as on stage left and stage right.

The panels were used to display chilling scenes from scary horror flicks along with evocative images of the band. "Josh Mihlek, production manager for Killswitch Engage, buried himself in his office for weeks going through old stock footage of Hammer horror movies and other real old-style scary stuff," said Guiney. "We offset

Australia - There's a fair chance you may not have heard of G.E.M. a Hong Kong based singer-songwriter, dancer, musician, and actress. Her stage name is an acronym for Get Everybody Moving and she is big in Asia.

G.E.M. is currently touring her G.E.M. X.X.X. Live World Tour, which stands for "more to eXpose, more to eXpect and more eXciting", and Mandylights, the Sydney collective of talented lighting designers, were charged with making it a tour to remember.

"I'd describe G.E.M. as the Lady Gaga of China and in the past year she has exploded in popularity," commented Richard Neville, director of Mandylights. "Her music is less mandarin-pop and more western-pop as her musical director is Austrian, in fact many of her team members are from outside of Asia."

Mandylights were required to design the lighting and visuals so that the live shows would

South Africa - Gearhouse South Africa was recipient, for the fourth consecutive year, of the Best AV Supplier Award at the EXSA (Exhibition and Event Association of Southern Africa) Awards held at The Forum, Bryanston on 26 November.

"Exhibition work is a very exciting market for us because our service appeals on both the exhibitor and the organiser levels and we have solutions for pretty much every size and type of display" says Gearhouse South Africa's marketing manager, Robyn D'Alessandro.

"We have seen the exhibition market taking an increasingly strong position in the marketing mix of late. There is a growing trend for buyers to seek to engage with sellers in a face-to-face scenario and exhibitors are using a variety of technology combinations to engage the senses in that interaction. Luckily Gearhouse has been able to continually diversify to accommodate t

UK The first week of December sees Sennheiser UK head to Scotland for the inagural PLASA Focus Glasgow, which is being held at the SECC, Glasgow. Stand C04 will see the company showing products from its distributed brands including the K-array Kamoflague wall, DAS Artec series loudpeakers, Apart Audiocontrol12.8 and its own LSP 500 wireless loudspeaker.

K-array Kamoflage was developed by Sennheiser UK in response to the need for an 'invisible' loudspeaker system. This solution enables K-array loudspeakers to blend into any background or mounting surface, making them an attractive proposition for audio system designers tasked with installing loudspeakers into sensitive locations.

Available in both powered and passive configurations, the Artec series from DAS spans ten models, five of which are self-powered: the Artec 506A, 526A, 508A, 510A, and S15A subwoofer.

Featuring Class

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) will be showcasing the latest product highlights from their extensive brand portfolio at the inaugural PLASA Focus Glasgow tradeshow - stand D19, the SECC, 2-3 December.

Recently launched to great acclaim at the PLASA London international tradeshow, and selected as a Finalist in the PLASA Members Choice Awards, the new Chroma-Q Color One 100 LED Par will be showcased. Featuring an innovative fully homogenised beam which virtually eliminates the colour separation and shadows synonymous with LED lighting, the Color One 100 delivers above Par performance from ONE source.

Other Chroma-Q highlights include the award-winning Chroma-Q Inspire and Inspire Mini LED house lights range - powerful multi-purpose creative lighting tools that can transform the look and feel of performance spaces and commercial, retail or leisure environments.

Th

USA - "Clay Paky's success this year at the LDI show was resounding from every point of view". Pio Nahum, Clay Paky CEO, did not mince his words to describe their accomplishments at the lighting show in Las Vegas.

After the PLASA Award for Innovation at PLASA in London, the Clay Paky Mythos has received an Honourable Mention at the LDI Award for Best Debuting Product of the Year "for providing a high-quality, feature-rich fixture with great optics".

Nahum stresses that "the secret of the Mythos lies in its ability to do what the most powerful effect lights do in half the space and with half the power". But the Mythos is even more than this: it is today the only light capable of perfectly combining a spot and beam light thanks to a special optical unit created and patented by Clay Paky.

The SuperSharpy and the Stormy also met with great success:

UK - The back catalogue of composer Hans Zimmer reads a little like a review of some the best films of the last 20 years. Academy Award winner for The Lion King in 1994; Grammy Awards for The Crimson Tide and The Dark Knight through to the WAFCA Award for 12 Years a Slave in 2013, the list is quite remarkable. So the opportunity to see the man in action with a live orchestra at a venue like the Hammersmith Apollo is one not to be missed.

Lighting such a special event fell into the safe hands of designer Marc Brickman and it was PRG who were contracted to supply the rig. Part of the spec included units for a strobe effect light; PRG opted to supply the brand new Clay Paky Stormys to fulfil the request as PRG's Rich Rowley explains, "We purchased the units from Ambersphere Solutions and the Hans Zimmer show was their first outing. PRG is always sen

Europe - Kylie Minogue has been touring Europe this autumn before heading back to her native Australia, and Sennheiser microphones and in-ear monitor systems have played a vital role in Eighth Day Sound's audio production. The tour's microphone package features Sennheiser SKM 5200 series mics with MD 5235 capsules and EM 3732-II receivers, with monitoring via Sennheiser SR2050 IEM transmitters and EK2000 IEM belt packs.

"The SKM 5200/MD 5235 combination really suits this show, as Kylie spends a lot of time out in front of the PA system on the B stage," says Kevin Pruce, Kylie's front-of-house engineer. "Other combinations gave me less headroom, while the size and weight of the microphone are also very important."

Pruce adds: "We have a great relationship with Sennheiser, in particular Mark Saunders. He is always available for advice and the backup is s

Germany - Every summer since 2007, Wolfsburg, Germany's Autostadt has put on a series of laser and light shows featuring effects staged on the areas of water in the sprawling park's grounds. Following up on the huge success of last year's show, which ran under the Made in Germany banner, this year the United Kingdom was up for treatment. The series of weekly changing shows, entitled Rocking UK which were the world's largest water shows of their kind, ran from 8 August through 7 September and took attendees on an audiovisual tour of Great Britain.

The series' choreography portrayed the history, culture, and lifestyles of the British Isles. The first week's show, which opened on 8 August, focused on the UK's Stars & Legends. Magic & Mystery was the topic 17 August through 23, while Culture & Tradition occupied the foreground 24 August through 30.

Germany - Events become more and more spectacular, and thus the demand for durable laser systems increases. HB-Laser has launched a new IP68 waterproof laser line. These new LightCube 851 show laser light projectors are submergeable up to 3m depth. They are fully graphics capable and equipped with the latest diode laser technology with a pure diode setup. The Apollo ScannerMax scanners (with Pangolin ScannerMax scanners and Apollo driver) run at ca. 45kpps (kilo packets per second) @ 8° and make the LightCube 851 suitable for professional laser show applications.

Multi-media shows with water fountains and water effects as well as normal outdoor laser show installations require water proof equipment - the HB-Laser LightCube 851 is the right choice for these applications. It is available in two different power levels: 3.2W RGB (LC-851 RGB 3) and 5.5W RGB (LC-851 RGB 5.5).

Th

UK - A trio of Soundcraft Vi consoles created a special workflow recently when one of the legends of the 'Disco' era, Nile Rodgers, performed with his nine piece band in a special one-off concert at London's IndigO2, performing under the name 'Chic featuring Nile Rodgers'.

Production manager/FOH sound engineer John Ryan and monitor engineer Marco Dellatorre, who have worked together with the artist for 10 years, were pleased to be onboard the house's two installed Vi6 digital consoles, while Eduardo Puhl, a house engineer at another premier London venue where Vi's are installed (Koko in Camden Town) brought his Vi1 (and Vi Compact stage rack) to handle the broadcast and recording feed. The show was streamed live via Living Indie, enabling thousands of fans to watch it online.

All three sound engineers bring considerable digital mixing experience and favoured the idea of using

Latest Issue. . .

Save
Cookies user preferences
We use cookies to ensure you to get the best experience on our website. If you decline the use of cookies, this website may not function as expected.
Accept all
Decline all
Analytics
Tools used to analyze the data to measure the effectiveness of a website and to understand how it works.
Google Analytics
Accept
Decline
Advertisement
If you accept, the ads on the page will be adapted to your preferences.
Google Ad
Accept
Decline