UK - The leader of Dudley Council was “bowled over” with the life-changing opportunities being given to students at Resonance during a recent visit. Councillor Patrick Harley stopped by the higher education facility based within the DY5 Enterprise Zone at the Waterfront in Brierley Hill to find out how students will be working alongside global company Sports Technology (ST) at next year’s Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Game ST is the specialist major multi-sports division of Creative Technology (CT) and has been appointed official provider of large video screens and audio services. Alongside LED and PA systems in the majority of the venues, ST will provide a broad range of audio-visual services including a flexible signal distribution network in every venue, providing a fully integrated IP based solution for all non-broadcast audio, video and data distribution. As
China - Hangzhou is more than 9,000km from the shores of Lake Geneva, yet for four days in October the first Montreux Jazz Festival China successfully bridged both distance and cultural differences with the universal language of music. Also, to ensure the same sound experienced for 35 years on the shores of Lake Geneva, Montreux Jazz Festival China collaborated with Meyer Sound. The festival was held from 5-8 October at the Sofitel Westlake Hotel, with the main stage outdoors on the terrace and a special immersive experience installed in the lobby bar. The live performances featured artists from six countries, though all currently reside in China, with musical styles ranging from jazz to pop, folk and R&B. Although prudently limited in scope due to continuing COVID-19 concerns, MJF China’s first edition proved a success in terms of both audience satisfaction and
Germany - On 3 October, 200 drones took to the skies above Burg Giebichenstein in Halle (Saale) and assembled themselves into symbols and catchwords of German Unity. The multimedia drone show by Jens Hillenkötter and his company JH Technology Arts was the highlight of the closing celebrations for German Unity Day, which were broadcast live on television. One floor further down - in the inner courtyard of the castle ruins - numerous moving lights from Ayrton set the scene for the multi-layered live setting in parallel. "The castle ruin is a very special location and combines the historical with the digital, because the whole show is designed to be followed via TV or digital streams," says Jens Hillenkötter, who has already been responsible for numerous sensational light and drone shows in recent years. "The lighting design plays an elementary role here, because we not
UK - Mike Oldfield’s magnum opus Tubular Bells was performed live at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London this summer, in a series of performances forming a prelude to the celebration of the album’s 50th anniversary in 2023. Tubular Bells – Live In Concert, with musical direction from Oldfield’s long-time collaborator Robin A. Smith, featured a nine-piece live band, with actor Samuel West replacing the late Vivian Stanshall as master of ceremonies. The music was brought to life on stage through a visual interpretation by the Circa Contemporary Circus, led by artistic director Yaron Lifschitz, with 10 acrobats presenting Oldfield’s work in its physical form, their movement woven together to reflect the music. DiGiCo SD7 front-of-house and monitor consoles, plus an additional array of equipment, were provided by RNSS Ltd, the productio
South Africa - Located in Bedfordview, an affluent area within Johannesburg, the newly opened Body Action Gym is a six-star wellness facility which provides access to fitness equipment, personalised nutritional guidance and a lifestyle environment. The gym boasts 5000 sq.m of cardio and weight training space; an array of dedicated aerobic, yoga, Pilates, HIIT and spinning studios; an open-air basketball court, boxing ring’ 50m sprint track and outdoor elite fitness training area—plus a kids area, in-house cafe and apparel shop. Key focus was given to the various entertainment systems which needed to seamlessly integrate into the gym’s overall vision for the facility. And this was highlighted by a Martin Audio BlacklineX PA system. John Greaves, audio specialist at Audiosure, the Martin Audio distributor, explained the various factors which led to the elabor
Japan - Based in Shinjuku, Paddy Field is a rental company which supplies audio, video and recording solutions to a wide range of small-to-medium sized performing arts productions. When company founder Ryodai Tanaka was looking for a compact front of house system that would deliver quality sound, he turned to Alcons Audio’s pro-ribbon technology. Ryodai founded Paddy Field in 2019, after 10 years as a freelance sound engineer. He was introduced to Alcons Audio pro-ribbon systems in July 2020, at a demonstration event held by Alcons’ Japanese distributor E’Spec Inc. Ryodai was immediately impressed. “The sound quality was excellent and, even at high volume, the high frequencies made the listening experience much more comfortable. At the same time, the bass sounded very tight,” he says. Ryodai was looking to invest in a compact line array FoH system for Paddy
USA - When officials at Oaklawn Racing Casino in Hot Springs, AZ greenlighted a multi-phased expansion project, one of the big ticket items they wanted to add to the resort was a versatile event space that could host conferences, concerts and more. As the vision came to fruition, the recently opened 15,000sq.ft event centre features the latest technology, including an ADAPTive PA system comprising 20 Anna loudspeakers and 12 Otto subwoofers from Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW). In addition, EAW monitors and side-fills were also employed on the project. The task of equipping the 1,500-seat venue with the latest in AV technology, including a 1,900sq.ft stage with a large video wall, was given to full-service AV integration firm TMG Systems. Designed by Jerrold Stevens of Marsh/PMK International LLC, this is the second project TMG Systems has worked on with Stevens in which
USA - The Atlanta Braves hadn’t won a National League pennant since 1999, and few ‘experts’ expected them to do so this year, even though they managed to squeak into the post season playoffs. But baseball is, if nothing else, a game that has a way of turning improbabilities into realities. Perhaps because of this, Mike Grabowski and the team at The Lighting Design Group were ready for anything when the Braves began their playoff against the favoured Milwaukee Brewers. Their interest, or course, involved more than baseball; as they were tasked with lighting the pre and post-game commentary for the National League Championship Series, between the winners of the Braves-Brewers and Dodger-Giants clashes. “It was a bit of an unusual situation,” said Grabowski. “We didn’t know where we’d be going to light the first game of the NLCS, because of the way the ba
UK - When the Waterboys embarked on their current British tour, they did so safe in the knowledge that their new production supplier, Entec Live, would be able to provide the same integrated sound and lighting package as their old. Entec, head of sound, Dan Scantlebury had brought the Waterboys into the fold, at the blessing of his previous company, dbnAudile. “They introduced us to the band owing to their heavy workload - and since the two companies have similar inventories it has been an easy transition. You generally find both L-Acoustics and d&b on tour riders, and we have the latter. In this instance they fielded two hangs of d&b V series, with a Soundcraft Vi7000 console at FOH and DiGiCo SD12 on monitors. “The major advantage is that the band has one point of contact,” says Scantlebury, who was previously the band’s system tech. “Whether a soun
Romania - Interest and anticipation for the first SAGA Festival in Romania, a collaboration between two dance world operations – ALDA Events and Insomniac - was so popular that the site was changed up to a bigger venue on the land of aerospace company Romaero in Bucharest. Helping create this electronic music festival experience and new chapter in Romanian live event history was Andre Beekmans and his team from Netherlands-based design practice, The Art of Light, who specified over 200 Robe moving lights for the largest stage - Source. Eindhoven-based Andre created the production lighting designs and supplied programmers and operators for Source plus the two other big stages, Heat and Spark. With some stages in the open air, SAGA also took advantage of a selection of enormous airplane hangars on the site, which is still a fully functional working aircraft repair and
USA - Founded in 1836, Emory & Henry College is consistently ranked among the nation’s best private liberal arts institutions. Central to the college’s southwestern Virginia campus is Memorial Chapel, a 500-seat church building that has served as host to thousands of worship services. This past summer, Memorial Chapel was host to renovation with the installation of a new Danley Sound Labs point source sound reinforcement system. “The previous installation used ceiling speakers that were installed 35 – 40ftt in the air,” said Justin Plaster of JMP Productions. “This prior design required the speakers to be quite loud to drive sound to event and worship service attendees. With the reverberant nature of the Chapel as well as the height and arch of the ceiling, this made intelligibility of the audio from those speakers very poor. The system was also quite d
USA - To provide country star Kane Brown with impactful onstage visuals for his 2021 North American tour, Ahlstrand Productions selected Martin Professional lighting solutions provided by lighting company DCR Nashville. Kane Brown is a multi-platinum singer-songwriter and the first artist to simultaneously claim the number one spot on all five of Billboard’s main country charts. After postponing his Worldwide Beautiful Tour in early 2020, Brown is back on the road with the Blessed & Free Tour, playing some of the biggest arenas in the country including Madison Square Garden. Because the songs in Brown’s setlist range from tender acoustic ballads to loud and rollicking anthems, lighting designer Trevor Ahlstrand of Ahlstrand Productions wanted to design a rig that supported the music’s stylistic changes and gave fans an exciting visual experience while also a
France - In the picturesque setting of the Arenes de Nîmes, in the south of France, lighting designer Pierre Wendels shed light on the history of the city, in a visual spectacular specifically designed for the Roman amphitheatre. Les Nuits de Nemaus featured more than 200 professional actors, dancers and stuntmen and a plethora of effects; with lighting controlled by two ETC Eos consoles, with Philippe ‘Pilou’ Roy at the helm. Accustomed to major projects, Wendels created a poetic atmosphere by combining lighting and video content for the remarkable show. “If the team around me is confident, everyone is willing to take risks and that’s good for fostering creativity,” he says. “I try to connect with the audience through visual perception. My first consideration is the human experience; the method is only a tool.” For this project, Wendels relied o
Austria - For this summer’s Oper Im Steinbruch production at St Margarethen’s amphitheatre, once a Roman quarry now billed as Europe’s largest natural stage, little could outshine the vast projected visual backdrop for the performances of Turandot. The audio for the lavish production, however, was enhanced with TiMax SoundHub object-based spatialisation integrated with an Amadeus active acoustics system which immersed the 4,700-capacity audience, delivering consistent focus and intelligibility across the 80m wide, 30m deep stage. St Margarethen’s sound designer for Turandot, Volker Werner, consistently relies upon TiMax SoundHub so that audiences can easily follow the classical opera narratives, this year specifying two Dante-equipped main and backup units as the spatial processing core of the system. Werner states, “We have always
USA - When Ridgeview Classical Schools in Fort Collins, Colorado, a public K-12 charter school serving approximately 750 students, realised it was time to upgrade their auditorium AV system they chose LEA Professional to give them reliable amplifier power within an affordable package. Local AV systems integrator Sight + Sound Technologies was sub-contracted in to help Ridgeview Classical with a sound system upgrade within the school's main auditorium. The project was actually started a few months earlier but was running over budget, and school managers wanted a re-look at the project to see if cost-saving adjustments could be made. "The original estimates only included equipment costs, not labour, and the school had a strict budget they needed to adhere to, but of course, quality and usability were still important," said Kris Johnson, chief operating officer, Sight +
UK - The University of Bedfordshire, a multi-site academic facility including campuses in Bedford and Luton, recently upgraded three of their performance spaces with theatrical lighting control from Zero 88. “We had three different theatrical spaces in need of upgrades, and we wanted a consistent experience across all of them,” explained Jamie Spirito, technician / demonstrator at the University of Bedfordshire. “The smaller Luton Campus theatre needed a powerful, yet straightforward console. Our Bedford Campus Theatre and Studio Theatre needed a bit more refined control capabilities, but with the same product quality and ease of use. That’s why I went with Zero 88 control solutions.” Stage Electrics supplied the university with two Zero 88 consoles, a FLX for the 110-seat Luton Campus Theatre and a FLX S48 for the 125-seat Studio Theatre, both of which run t
Spain - The Elton John-Lee Hall coming of age musical Billy Elliot continues to be staged in theatres worldwide. Reflecting the deep sea of emotions that run through this story in light, requires a design that is not only colourful and aesthetically balanced, but also subtle and nuanced in its portrayal of different moods. Carlos Torrijos of Fábrica de Luz, and Juan Gomez-Cornejo provided that for a current production of the musical presented by Som Produce at the Nuevo Teatro Alcalá in Madrid and the Teatro Victòria in Barcelona. "Billy is a show more about colour temperature than colour itself," said Torrijos, when discussing the subtle and emotive lighting design. Helping him and Gomez-Cornejo achieve this balance in Barcelona were 52 Chauvet Professional Ovation E-910FC ellipsoidal fixtures supplied by Proyect Arte. For many of the musical se
France - The Ultra Son company, founded in 1996 by Patrice Polak in Saint Quentin in the Aisne region of France, initially concentrated on the rental and sale of equipment for DJs and local services. Maxime Polak, Patrice’s son, gave the company new impetus when he took over it in 2011, expanding its activities to servicing concerts and events, providing sound, lighting and structure. This vision paid off, as has its investment in DiGiCo consoles over the years, with the latest addition to its inventory being a Quantum 338. Ultra Son’s DiGiCo console fleet started with the purchase of an SD8 in 2015 and has grown over the years, with S21s then an SD12 added. This July saw them add the Q338, the first Quantum console for the company, its processing quality, flexibility of flexible configuration combined with redesigned ergonomics to cope with any operating req
South Korea - The National Theatre of Korea has upgraded its dimming control to a range of products from Strand to add functionality for its diverse range of luminaires. A recent remodelling of the multi-theatre complex saw a Strand EC21 Advanced Technology Dimmer Rack installed by Total Plus - the Vari-Lite and Strand distributor for Korea. Total Plus also deployed an EC21 Advanced Control Electronics Processor Assembly with Dual processor, an EC21 Dual 25A Powerthru Module 435us Dim/ND/Bypass, an EC21 Dual 25A 200us Single Pole module and a Dual 20A CD80SV Non-Dim C21-style module and housing. “The theatres use a mixture of LED fixtures and conventional halogen lamps, and the Strand dimming curve helps to streamline such diverse equipment efficiently,” says SH Koo, senior lighting designer of the National Theatre of Korea. “Strand's dimmer modules have wi
USA - Podcasters on the San Francisco-based Pantheon network are using the AKG Podcaster Essentials bundle to great effect, enjoying improved sound and ease of use from the AKG Lyra USB microphone and K371 headphones. Pantheon Podcasts is a network of more than 70 music-focused shows, running the gamut from casual music exploration to history, production, banjo culture and much more. Pantheon founder and CEO Christian Swain is also the host of Rock N Roll Archaeology, a chronological, episodic podcast that tells the story of how the music of the late 20th century intersected with the changing culture of the times to create what is now one of the greatest moments in music history. According to Swain, the AKG Podcaster Essentials toolkit makes it possible for less-experienced hosts to achieve professional sound easily and lends a cohesive sound to the network’s many shows.
USA - Crusader Stadium is the home of the NCAA Cru Football team at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. During the summer of 2021, Daktronics upgraded the end-zone scoreboard and sound system with the goal of doubling the size of the video display area while minimizing changes to the existing structure. For long-throw coverage, Daktronics deployed six Fulcrum Acoustic AHS speaker modules in the horizontal ‘ribbon’ above the video area of the scoreboard. Each AHS module packs a lot of output into a 31” tall package, with up to four coaxial compression drivers and four horn-loaded 10” woofers per module. The available space within the scoreboard structure allowed for three stacks of two modules each. This provides sufficient output to achieve the project’s sound level goals for the seating areas. The high-frequency driver density provides the output needed to
USA - Ayrton is playing a key part of The Doobie Brothers tour in celebration of their 50th anniversary, which will play to around 50 venues across the USA and Canada throughout 2021 and 2022. Solotech of Nashville supplied 17 Ayrton Khamsin LED profile fixtures for this tour which were chosen by the production design team at Darkroom Creative, Seth Jackson and Nathan Alves. The team wanted the Khamsin fixtures as part of their retro design which they use to summon up a 1980s vibe. “In celebration of the Doobie Brothers’ 50th anniversary, Darkroom Creative did a little celebration of our own,” explains Jackson. “We figured since the band was celebrating 50 years, and the concert lighting business is roughly the same age, we would give a nod to the guys that inspired us when we were getting started. The lighting rig, though completely LED, is reminiscent of the
UK - Britannia Row Productions marked its return to outdoor live music in the UK by providing a control package for Anne-Marie’s Saturday set at the 2021 Pirelli British Grand Prix, held at Silverstone. The package for the Formula 1 fixture was made up primarily of DiGiCo consoles, DPA microphones, Shure and Sennheiser IEMs and KLANG processing. During the show, Anne-Marie - a judge on the Voice UK who is known for hits such as 2002, Don’t Play and Friends - was looked after by Niccolò Antonietti at FOH, while Scott Maxwell took the reins on monitors. “This was my first-time mixing Anne-Marie. I really like her music because it’s a good mix of garage, electronic beats and pop melodies,” said Antonietti. “I tried to replicate the atmosphere of her records as closely as possible, particularly on her vocal effects. She’s us
Slovenia - Ljubljana Puppet Theatre (Lutkovno Gledališče Ljubljana) is famous for both puppet productions and live acting dramas, musicals, and other performance entertainments in and around its various spaces, which are also available for business events. The 200 capacity Saint Jacob’s (Šentjakobsko) Hall auditorium has recently re-opened after a complete eight-month renovation plan. This latest technical upgrade has included the installation of 16 new Robe T1 LED Profile moving lights in the Saint Jacob’s (Šentjakobsko) Hall. They join more recent Robe purchases across the venue’s other four performance spaces including The Tunnel which burrows into the hill beneath Ljubljana Castle and has 12 x CycFX8s which are used for lighting the long corridor audience areas. The 180-seat St Jacob’s Stage, the Main Stage, Small Stage and the Stage Under the Stars l