"Faithfully reproducing music for 65,000 is no easy task, but the Meyer Sound Leo system this year did an incredible job," states Gregg Perloff, CEO of Another Planet Entertainment. "Legends like Neil Young and Stevie Wonder sounded better than I had ever heard them before, and Leo also made it easy for sound crews to do their job. LEO is
This summer the venue hosted a diverse line up that included: comedian Tim Minchin, neo-soul queen Jill Scott, pop-dubstepper Katy B, Paloma Faith and indie lads The Enemy.
With such a varied programme Skramstad had his work cut out: "Key decision maker for me was brightness, plenty of functions, lightweight, and totally reliable," he explains. "The Clay Paky 700 HPEs were a godsend. They are the smallest 700W spotlight available, and weigh just 22 kilos, which means I can get enough fixtures into the rig to satisfy everyone without going over the weight loading limits. This ens
Two enormous screens mounted back-to back, floating on a gigantic platform and stage on the River Lea face out to acres of parkland areas on either side.
Sound Directions UK designed a distributed sound system for the parklands to ensure all visitors enjoyed high quality and evenly distributed sound.
Cloud VTX-4400 4-channel 400W amplifiers are used to drive nearly 100 SoundTube XT850i-GN in-ground loudspeakers using Cloud CXL-400T 100V transformers for the VTX amplifiers to provide nearly 16,000 Watts of amplification for the parklands.
Cloud VTX-WM1 web monitor cards installed in each of the amplifiers allow contractors for Park Live to monitor the performance of the amplifiers for the duration of th
D.T.S.' current streamlined production cycle and its extensive automation have been fully employed in the production of one of its most innovative products, the high-power compact moving head Jack.
D.T.S. has just issued a video clip titled The Art of Manufacturing, to illustrate this new phase of development. This can be viewed at www.dts-lighting.com/Company
(Jim Evans)
Peavey Hollywood is billed as "a unique brand experience that will give musicians, audio pros, systems integrators and music retailers a 360-degree view of the products, artists and philosophy that have made Peavey an iconic brand in music and audio". A high-end retail showcase for Peavey and its affiliated brands - Composite Acoustics, Trace Elliot, Budda Amplification, Crest Audio, Architectural Acoustics and MediaMatrix - Peavey Hollywood is designed "to create awareness for Peavey products and the company's legacy of innovation".
Peavey Hollywood will be an entertainment and informational resour
With one bar of four 100 Watt and two 75 Watt incandescent can lights to illuminate the stage, it was time to update the lighting and renew the atmosphere to harmonize with the excitement, which was happening on stage every Sunday. The decision was made to install 12 Cygnus 100 Watt LED Colour Wash luminaires, completely replacing the outdated incandescent system. The Cygnus fixtures were hung to light the st
tn.jpg "Innibos - the most popular festival in South Africa (photo: Lurina Fourie Photography)")
Rental company Sound Headquarters partnered with the organisers for the second consecutive year and provided the full technical for the main and Klipdrift stages.
"The first year was very stressful for us," said Anrika Bruinders from Sound Headquarters. The greatest fear was the unknown. "This year we fine tuned the production, the sound was awesome and the lighting was amazing." The most important aspect Sound Headquarters bring to a gig is their passion; that they partner with their client and that nothing is too difficult to ensu
For example, just this summer an over run in Hyde Park, London saw Springsteen unceremoniously switched off. This however did not deter him from concluding his 2012 European leg in Helsinki in true Springsteen style playing a personal record-breaking four hours and six minutes. Such capricious behaviour means Ravitz has to be quick thinking, focused and have a lighting design and system that offers maximum flexibility, power, and of course subtlety.
Forming the backbone of his lighting rig is a battalion of P
The 16th edition of the festival featured seven evenings of music in the fascinating setting of the Théâtre de la Mer, an amphitheatre with a breathtaking panorama of the Mediterranean right behind the stage.
Fiest'a Sète stage was lit with the new Jack and NRG 1201 high-power compact moving heads by D.T.S., provided by ESL. Lighting designer was Sebastien Serra.
(Jim Evans)
Kath Mainland, chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said it was "in fantastic health", with more than 1.8 million tickets sold. She said there were also more than 800 free shows at which attendance could not be measured. However, it is only the second time in more than a decade that ticket sales have fallen from the previous year. Sales fell in 2008 due to the disastrous implementation of a new ticketing system. Mainland said, "The Fringe has shown its resilience in responding so positively to the unique challenges of 2012."
Viva La Vi
With UK and worldwide bookings well up on last year and with a strong international flavour to its speakers and seminar sessions, the PLASA Rigging Conference confirms its status as the premier event worldwide dedicated to all things rigging.
Opening with an unmissable speech from original 'Disney Rigger' Roy Bickel, one of the founders of the modern rigging industry and closing with 'Question Time' hosted by Alan Jacobi LVO, MD of Unusual Rigging, the Conference is packed with sessions from industry experts.
On Monday 10 September, the thorny issue of developing standardised Common Practice will be debated by Rinus Bakker and Roy Schilderman from ARGH in Hol
Crow is based on a series of poems by the late poet laureate Ted Hughes, with the Handspring Puppet Company accompanying the telling of their stories through the medium of puppetry. Says Illuminate Design's co founder Ben Payne, "Handspring did such an amazing job on War Horse, that we all knew we had a lot to live up to. The poems can be quite dark, and so we wanted something suitably intimate."
Illuminate began by reversing the Borough Halls' traditional layout, with bleach
A concept of VJ Morgan Lavery, owner of Infinight Productions, the idea of the Borgore Cream Machine is to make Borgore look like he is driving inside an ice cream truck, equipped with real 30-inch rims that move and spun around on motors.
Forty-seven MVP 18 panels cover the main façade of the truck and 18 make up the rear screen behind the DJ booth, while two
David Liles is set to manage the company's New York office which will be opening shortly. Liles is currently undertaking FOH duties for Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings.
The Railway in Bolton has just upgraded to the LS1000M monitors from the Tannoy units previously used.
Sneaky Pete's in Edinburgh has ordered LS1000M floor monitors to replace their Logic Systems units. The new monitors are shipping next week.
Several other venues in New York State are about to close contracts to upgrade to LS1000 systems. Watch this space for these and other exciting develop
Pete's Big TVs has worked on many past Elvis in concert tours and anniversary shows - again with producer Stig Edgren Productions.
This year, Pete's Big TVs supplied 324 panels of the new digiLED MC7 high resolution video tiles to comprise all video screens in the show. The MC7 emit no radio frequency interference, making them a popular rental item in Pete's Big TVs' inventory.
The panels were split up into four screens. A screen over the stage displayed the show's EP 35 logo and IMAG. Of the three screens on the upstage, measuring 18ft tall,
Paradise, presented by Hot Creations, is one of the coolest club nights on the island and includes a residency by Hot Creations label owner, Jamie Jones, along with guest appearances from some of the best names in electronic music, including DJ Harvey, Soul Clap and Damian Lazarus.
XL Video is supplying a backdrop for the DJ booth constructed from Martin LC 2140 transparent LED, to complement the look of this unique club night.
This residency, along with other shows and events in Ibiza this summer including the International Music Summit, and Ibiza 123, reinforces XL Video's commitment to working with electronic dance music artists and clubs to help enhance their performances with the creative use of video technology.
Positioned at the top, smoothing out the colour, are 14 COLORado Batten 72 Tour linear wash lights while 44 COLORado 1-Tri Tour and 19 COLORado 1 Tour static wash lights light up the wider set pieces found between the ÉPIX Strip fixtures. For dramatic flair, studding the ÉPIX array, are simple incandescent work lights clipped into place. As side lighting fo
"Our Shure UHF-R systems will service many of our premium gigs," remarked Darren Russell, Elite's managing director. "So far we've found them to be very good, reliable and provide very stable RF performance. The Shure UHF-R's user-interface is very friendly and easy to follow. We really like the simplicity of use and the fact that they come with all the inter-connect cables and accessories in the box - with some other brands you have to purchase them as a separate item. It's great that you can easily patch up and configure your system straight out of the box. It's really all quite self-explanatory to set up.
"The Shure Wireless Workbench software with the network is
Among the biggest, best known and most popular metal fests in the world, over 80,000 rockers gathered over three days to enjoy a wide selection of metal genre artists which included headliners The Scorpions, Machine Head, Sepultura and many others.
Lighting for the double-staged Bullhead Arena was supplied by Crystal Sound based in Karlsruhe.
An impressive cityscape set was designed by Thomas Bartz from Konzeptsache Berlin.
The two stages were positioned side-by-side with a mesh-clad Layher scaffolding structure in the middle, complete with a boxing ring coming out into the audience. Artists used this to tease the crowd and strut their stuff.
The stages were operated in 'flip-flop' style to ensure that the
HSL has worked with Production North on many different projects. Once again, Mike Oates project managed for the Blackburn based company, with set, visuals and lighting designed by Peter Barnes, working in close conjunction with Diversity's creative director and leader, Ashley Banjo.
On the road, lighting was looked after and operated by Neil Trenell. An HSL crew of six took care of lighting and video and the Kinesys system, together with rigger John Ashton, who put in the 58 points each day.
Sarah Hollis, production manager for Production North, remarked that it was "Excellent" to deal with one company an
"We look forward to celebrating with all our friends in the lighting industry and invite everyone to our stand for a chat and a celebratory drink and not least the chance to get an up-close look at the new MAC Viper series and other innovations as well," says Martin UK sales director Mike Walker.
"The feedback we've received on the Viper series has been unprecedented as our pre-sales numbers attest to. It is truly a ground-breaking moving head and contains all of our accumulated knowledge over the past 25 years. It is nothing short of spectacular and we are confident that lighting designers will feel the same."
Martin will be showing a
With UK and worldwide bookings well up on last year and with a strong international flavour to its speakers and seminar sessions, the PLASA Rigging Conference confirms its status as the premier event worldwide dedicated to all things rigging.
Opening with an unmissable speech from original 'Disney Rigger' Roy Bickel, one of the founders of the modern rigging industry and closing with Question Time hosted by Alan Jacobi LVO, MD of Unusual Rigging, the conference is packed with sessions from industry experts.
On Monday 10 September, the thorny issue of developing standardised common practice will be debated by Rinus Bakker and Roy Schilderman from ARGH in Holland along with panellists Cris
Including Nortek's Aton, BlueBOLT, Elan, Furman, Niles, Panamax, Proficient, SpeakerCraft, Sunfire and Xantech brands, Core Brands has more than 190 years of combined experience in the residential, commercial and professional markets and over 4,300 direct customer accounts in multiple distribution channels in the US and worldwide.
Core Brands will be based in Petaluma, Calif., with offices in Carlsbad and Riverside, Calif., and Marblehead, Mass. Bill Pollock, who has served as president of Panamax, will lead Core Brands. Dave Keller, vice president of sales and marketing for Panamax/Furman, will handle worldwide sales. K
As part of a national programme of investment in infrastructure by Network Rail, who operate and are responsible for Glasgow Central, a new public address system was required as part of a wider renovation of this important transport hub. Previously, the station had a long-standing problem with intelligibility due to the cavernous nature of the iconic structure and its architecture, with expansive reflective floor surfaces, sandstone walls and a glass roof all contributing to a very lengthy reverberation time.
To handle the extensive audio upgrade, Network Rail and main contractor Babcock brought in respected UK-based sound and communications company TG Baker, having developed a strong working relationship with them over previous rail networ
