Germany - For Rammstein’s latest stadium tour, lighting designers Patrick Woodroffe and Roland Greil specified four grandMA2 full-size consoles, one grandMA2 light, 15 x MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) and seven MA 8Port Nodes.
Roland Greil explains: “Together with our programmer Marc Brunkhardt, we made the decision to specify a proven workhorse in the form of a grandMA2 system. The reasons are its reliability, performance and all our positive previous experiences with this console.
“Our concept from the beginning was to create a range of unique scenes,” continues Greil. “Our approach was quite theatrical. Obviously, the whole design needed to work hand-in-hand with the overall production design and be different to the more regular concert designs out there. Besides the very industrial look, we also wanted to create a modern aesthetic for part of the show. All that said, whatever we did needed to fit into the very specific world of Rammstein.
“We didn’t want the design to be too generic. It had to be potent and memorable in every way. Therefore, we designed various lighting elements to be integrated into Florian Wieder’s set design, which could be used on their own to create incredible scenes, or combined with other elements for the later parts of the show, making bigger and even higher impact looks. The overall lighting design follows a strict dramaturgy and story line running through the whole show, and gets bigger and more energetic towards the end.”
The show design was realised by Woodroffe Bassett Design. Florian Wied

UK - The d&b audiotechnik A-Series is set to make its UK debut at this year’s PLASA Show (15-17 September, London Olympia), with visitors also able to see the new d&b series at the SFL and SSE booths.
The A-Series introduces a new sound reinforcement concept: the augmented array. An advanced loudspeaker concept born from the d&b applied evolution system development philosophy. Combining variable splay angles, two approaches to acoustic optimization, and advanced waveguide design, the A-Series addresses applications where coverage flexibility in both the horizontal and the vertical is paramount.
“PLASA Show is a great place to showcase some of the latest innovations, and we are delighted to be able to give our partners the opportunity to bring the d&b A-Series to the show and introduce it to the UK market,” comments Gianni Abruzzese, d&b commercial manager.
At 16:00 on Sunday, 15 September, Steve Jones, d&b EAS, and Ollie Jeffery of the Royal Albert Hall (RAH), will present More than a Venue: Creating unforgettable audience experiences.
Hosting 1,401 events across multiple spaces over the course of a calendar year, the RAH is the world’s busiest venue. The session will explore the motivation for their multi-million pound audio system upgrade, the technical outcomes and the impact the new system is already having on this iconic auditorium and its many visitors.
Additionally, the new high performance, ultra-compact B8 Subwoofer will make its PLASA show debut on SFL’s stand V60, along with the DS10

The Netherlands - The Bridges of Madison County is a musical based on Robert James Waller’s 1992 novel produced by OpusOne that is mid-way through an extensive Netherlands tour with lighting designed by Benno Barends who is using Robe DL7S Profile and ColorWash 700 moving lights at the heart of the touring lighting system which us being supplied by P3 Podiumtechniek.
Benno has worked for Opus One for 10 years, starting as an intern and becoming their principal lighting designer. The Bridges of Madison County initially completed two successful runs in Amsterdam Zonnehaus and DeLaMar Theatre before hitting the road with Benno staying onboard as the lighting designer.
The main challenge was adapting the lighting to ensure it was practical to tour, play one night stands and fit into a wide range of venues - although most Netherlands cities are well endowed with at least one good standard theatre / performance space as culture and the arts are extremely popular.
The romantic drama, popularized in Clint Eastwood’s 1995 directed movie, flips between night and day, dawn and dusk, so getting correct and naturalistic lighting was a key requirement. The objective was to let the audience ‘feel’ the heat of the sultry summer days and intense emotional states on the actors faces.
Benno also didn’t have much time to change and renew the design between the last run finishing and the tour starting, and the updates were strategic and practical.
The moving lights that had been rigged above the audience on the long runs were moved ba

Europe/USA - Mark Knopfler is on the road once again, supporting the release of his new Down the Road Wherever album with an epic show presented in L-ISA Hyperreal Sound technology by L-Acoustics. Having hit venues throughout Europe and headed to North America, Knopfler has once again raised the rock bar with a 10-piece band, and a 7.1 L-ISA configuration provided by SSE Hire, part of the SSE Audio Group.
Front of house engineer Dave Dixon and systems engineer Ulf Oeckel specified L-ISA technology, with Maxime Menelec – an experienced L-ISA operator - joining during production rehearsals to take over systems engineering duties from the beginning of the tour, setting up the initial design with creativity and audience impact in mind.
"The idea of moving to L-ISA technology is a direct result of a request made by Mark during the last tour," Dixon recalls. "He asked me to pan a guitar, and I bravely - or stupidly - said over the mic during sound check that I couldn’t do that in an arena as half the audience wouldn’t hear it.
“The constraints of left/right sound systems mean that I have always mixed pretty much mono. When you’ve got 11 musicians on stage, that's not an easy task. So when I heard about what L-Acoustics was doing with L-ISA, and understood what the technology is all about, I realised that it was exactly what we needed to fulfil Mark’s vision."
With creative ambitions realised, attention was turned to one of the most important requirements from the production team: that it could not take additional time to rig the

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 sounds like the singer isn’t actually using a mic,” adds Mørch. “You get the full, natural sound of the artist’s voice, not what the microphone ‘thinks’ the artist sounds like. This gives the sound engineer a lot of freedom to be creative - and instead work on crafting individual sound for the performance based on a clean, natural vocal track.”
With the expected wear-and-tear that comes with live performances, both the outer grille and the inner pop filter of the 2028 can be detached and rinsed. The 2028 is offered in three variants; a wired XLR with handle and two wireless mic configurations that are compatible with the industry’s most widely used wireless microphone sy

UK - London-based live AV production company, JD Pro Sound, is currently taking on the UK’s theatre circuit with the Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons touring tribute show, Bye Bye Baby, and an Allen & Heath SQ digital mixing system.
With more than 15 years’ experience, JD Pro Sound provides AV services for live music shows, private and corporate events, and touring theatre shows. Having worked with Bye Bye Baby since 2015, Jay Dimoff (owner and main touring engineer) has tackled audio needs for the production at 400 theatres around the UK, mixing exclusively with Allen & Heath consoles. Most recently, Dimoff decided to add an SQ-5 mixer to handle the current run of shows.
“We’ve been working with Allen & Heath products since 2015 and we just love every single moment using all these fantastic desks and additional equipment,” comments Dimoff. “In particular, we were very, very impressed with the crisp and precise sound quality of SQ and after working with some other brands’ consoles, we can definitely state that Allen & Heath is at the top of the digital live mixer market right now. With 48 processing channels and a 96kHz mix core, we think the SQ mixers are the most powerful in their class, particularly given their extremely compact physical format.”
Bye Bye Baby’s production centres around the SQ-5 at FOH, connected via a Cat 6 cable to two cascaded and rack-mounted AB168 remote AudioRacks placed on stage. All analogue I/O (including IEMs) is handled by the AB168s, with a further digital conne

UK - Martin Audio has reported sales growth following a series of product launches and an overseas expansion.
The Buckinghamshire-based business has recorded a 22% increase in sales in its financial year 2017/18, growing from £16.5m to £20.1m. The company is now forecasting a further 20% increase in sales during 2019.
Over the same period, Martin Audio has added a number of major global rental clients to its roster, including US-based Soundworks, Southard Audio and Twilight Audio which were part of efforts to consolidate the brand’s footprint in North America, where it is now established as a direct distributor. In addition, Jamaican brand Main Event Entertainment, and Dominican Republic-headquartered Group AR were also added joining the ranks of Martin Audio rental companies that manage tours, corporate events and major festivals including London’s British Summertime Festival at Hyde Park, Rock in Rio and Rock in Japan.
The brand has also launched 15 new products over the past 12 months and extended its scalable acoustic technology offering. Its new range of sound solutions has enabled the business to expand into the commercial install space, allowing it to compete successfully with major industry players.
In 2018, Martin Audio completed a management buyout from global audio specialist Loud Audio. The manufacturer was backed by LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group, which invested £12m in the company alongside its existing management team.
Following the divestiture from Loud, Martin Audio has invested in developi

USA - The ADJ Group of Companies has announced the appointment of Robert ‘Bob’ Mentele in the new position of vertical market manager with a particular focus on the worship, theatre, TV/broadcast and education markets.
Already a familiar face in the industry, Bob served as the lighting category manager at Full Compass Systems for the past six years. Previously, he was the rentals supervisor at Full Compass and technical director and lighting designer for The Armory Theatre in Janesville, Wisconsin.
“As we continue to grow within the theatrical, worship, broadcast and educational markets, we’re pleased to be welcoming Bob Mentele into our tightknit team in the new role of vertical market manager concentrating on these areas,” comments Toby Velazquez, president of the ADJ Group of Companies.
Following an initial period of induction, which is already underway at the company’s global headquarters in Los Angeles, Bob will work remotely from his home-based office in Madison, WI.
(Jim Evans)

USA - Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre is a popular five-week summer festival in Logan, Utah, that presents four fully staged works in repertory at the Ellen Eccles Theatre. Lighting designer Chris Wood, who just wrapped up his seventh season working on the festival as part of a top-notch cast and crew, had the opportunity to use Elation Artiste Picasso LED profile moving heads on this year’s productions - Newsies, West Side Story, Mary Poppins, and The Marriage of Figaro.
4 Wall in Las Vegas recommended the Picasso to Wood and although the fixture entered the lighting specification somewhat late, which didn’t give the designer much time to familiarize himself with it, he says he got better acquainted with the light through fixture documentation. “I appreciate that Elation puts out a lot of photometric data,” Wood says, “which gave me really good information about what the fixture could do and what the light would look like without actually seeing it in person. That was very helpful in planning.”
This was the first year they went completely with LED moving lights with the Artiste Picassos replacing some noisier arc source fixtures. “When you’ve got 30 moving lights in a theatre and it’s basically an opera company, trying to keep arc sources cool is a substantial problem,” says the designer. “Once manufacturers started coming out with fixtures with cold white LED engines in moving lights, like the Picasso, we knew we wanted to start shifting in that direction and as a consequence, the noise level

USA - Although Union College in Schenectady, New York, has only 2,600 undergraduate students, the private liberal arts college’s men’s ice hockey team competes successfully with much larger schools in NCAA Division 1. The Union Dutchmen even won the 2014 national championship over such sports powers as Minnesota, Boston College, and Providence.
Four years later, the Upstate New York school brought in AV systems integrators Com Tech of neighbouring Albany to update the video production systems in Frank L. Messa Rink, the home of Union’s men’s and women’s hockey teams. As Com Tech’s owner Chuck Zarriello recounts, the project grew to include designing and installing a new audio system for the venue.
“The old system was inadequate, with outdated technology,” Zarriello reports. “It had been slowly failing over the years and had issues with intelligibility. We ended up installing an almost entirely new sound system.” Zarriello specified a powerful, flexible Dante audio system based on four Linea Research 44C06 power amplifiers, EM Acoustics loudspeakers, and a Symetrix Radius EX 12x8 DSP.
“This was one of our first Linea Research installs,” Zarriello reveals. “Their manufacturer representative, Rich Trombitas of Cardone, Solomon & Associates, brought them to our attention. We were impressed with the fact that Linea Research amplifiers pack plenty of power in a small footprint, since we didn’t have the capacity to add more rack real estate to the sound booth.”
In addition to needing high-quality sound and modern net

Russia - ETC and High End Systems’ dealers will present the latest product innovations from both companies at the 2019 Prolight+Sound NAMM Russia tradeshow. From 12-14 September, visitors to the Sokolniki Exhibition Centre in Moscow will find the latest additions to ETC and High End Systems’ fixtures and controls families in Hall 4.
DOKA Centre will demonstrate Augment3d, ETC’s new fully integrated 3D programming environment in Eos v3.0 on stand C6. Users can interact with their fixtures through augmented reality as well as controlling and designing in a three-dimensional space. Augment3d will be shown on an Eos family console desk.
They will also present Relevé Spot, ETC’s moving light specifically designed for theatre which brings affordable, high quality color mixing to smaller venues. Alongside this there will be EchoTouch, a standalone intuitive touchscreen that provides control of lighting in architectural spaces and can work as an interface with other Unison Echo products.
ETC dealer, Sistema Ltd will be on stand C8 and will showcase the acclaimed Source Four LED fixtures as well as the compact and powerful Ion Xe, and Gio console desk which has the full programming power of the Eos family software.
Theatre Technical Corporation, a partner of ETC, will be on stand C12 at Prolight+Sound NAMM. A Gio @5 and selection of Source Four LEDs will be displayed on the stand.
On stand B27, dealer LLC Imlight-Showtechnic will also provide a demonstration of Augment3d and present a selection of ETC products including Relevé Spot an

UK - Lighting console manufacturer ChamSys is opening new headquarters in Southampton’s Brooklands Courtyard.
The facility features a multi-line manufacturing centre, which will enable the company to build its MagicQ Stadium and MagicQ Compact consoles simultaneously. Also inside are storage and dispatch warehousing area, R&D facilities, service department and customer training area along with a dedicated repair centre, two training rooms, and a pre-visualisation suite for visiting programmers.
Chamsys, which is celebrating 15 years in business this year, is officially opening the new HQ with an event on 2 September - contact the company on openhouse@chamsys.co.uk for details on how to attend.
“The new headquarters reflects our dedication to maintaining the highest quality standards as we grow,” comments Chris Kennedy, managing director of ChamSys. “We’re extremely happy with how our new facility will enable us to accelerate our product development whilst maintaining our high product quality and software excellence. ChamSys is committed to providing the best value and service to the customer.”
(Jim Evans)

Poland - Projection Artworks has completed Poland: First to Fight, an ambitious outdoor live immersive experience to mark the 80th anniversary of World War II at Museum 1939, Gdansk.
The Projection Artworks team scripted, storyboarded, choreographed and produced Poland: First to Fight in collaboration with Museum 1939. The Museum’s dynamic external architecture is transformed into a skyline canvas, creating a 20-minute live sensory experience that integrates archive footage, animation, projection mapping, live action, music performance, narration and sound effects to tell the heroic story of Poland’s journey through the war. An interpretive dance is woven through the show, with dancers and actors interacting with the projection, choreographed by dance and theatre artist Rhiannon Faith.
Museum 1939’s façades are manipulated using 3D mapping illusions, with their surfaces becoming flexible parts of the show. Other surfaces are also projection-mapped, creating slow-animated bas-reliefs to fuse the physical with the digital.
Notch, the real-time VFX engine, was used to enhance the pre-rendered show and extend the creative tools available to Projection Artworks. This was achieved through image magnification of the live camera feeds of actors on stage, by treating them with stylised effects such as double exposure to filmic grain & camera reel effects to match the historic archive footage.
Creative director Gavin McArthur comments, “World War II represents a significant era in Poland’s history and it was of the utmost importanc

USA - At the turn of the year, Lady Gaga kicked off two multi-year Las Vegas residencies at Park Theatre at Park MGM, both of which are presented in L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound technology from L-Acoustics.
Lady Gaga’s first show, Enigma, which has now completed 18 sold-out performances is a nonstop, eye-popping spectacle taking its 5,200 audience members on a full-throttle, futuristic odyssey through two hours of her club classics.
Her second show, Jazz & Piano, is a glitzy return to classic Las Vegas style with the artist accompanied by a full big band complete with string section. Alternating between stripped down solo piano and vocal arrangements of her pop numbers and swinging orchestral versions of Great American Songbook staples.
Although the two productions could hardly be more different in terms of design and execution, the sound technology remains the same, underscoring the ability of L-ISA to enhance all types of music.
The L-ISA configuration is made up of K Series long throw enclosures. Three central arrays each comprised of 12 K2 are flanked by two 13-enclosure Kara arrays on each side, while outfill arrays of 12 K2 are positioned between each of the two Kara hangs to address the far left and right seating sections. The proscenium rig is rounded out by a dozen KS28 subs centrally flown in two cardioid hangs of six enclosures and bolstered by a linear horizontal arrangement of 10 SB28 located under the stage lip.
Front-fill is delivered by a dozen X8 and two X12 short throw enclosures, with a special side

USA - Creative Technology has selected the ROE Visual Sapphire platform to expand its rental inventories with a NNP LED system. After a thorough selection process, the Sapphire platform was chosen as the best performing product.
CT has invested considerably in the Sapphire platform with 1,5mm LED panels. Using the latest 1in4 Mini LED technology, the visual performance is unmatched. The native 4K panels, with 16:9 measurements will be running on the new MVT processing platform by Megapixel.
“As soon as we noticed a rising market demand for NNP displays, we have been interested on adding this to our rental inventory”, states Graham Andrews, CEO of Creative Technology Group. “We always try to offer our customers the best and latest technologies available. However, applying an NNP LED system for rental purposes has proven to be challenging for many LED manufacturers. If we were to invest in such a system, we had to be able to offer a 100% guarantee of a flawless performance.”
(Jim Evans)

Italy - The Milan Latin Festival is a 10-week celebration of Latin American artists. They converge on the external area of the Assago Forum in Milan for 66 days of celebration from mid-June to mid-August, to deliver a varied programme of concerts to enthusiastic crowds. Artists such as the king of Reggaeton, Daddy Yankee and fellow Puerto Rican, Ozuna, lit up the stage for sold-out shows.
At outdoor events such as this, where the hazards of dispersion are more pronounced, the true qualities of an audio system are laid bare and event technology provider Suono e Luci, chose Coda Audio to ensure that every artist performing during the two-month duration of the festival was heard loud and clear.
Claudio Saoncella, head of audio at Suono e Luci, customers of Coda Audio’s Italian distributor Decima 1948, opted for a ViRAY solution configured in Bi-Amp. The system was installed into the festival’s 1500sq.m outdoor area, which contained seating for more than 6,500. Reliability and precision were key to the task, given the duration of the event and the huge variety of acts to be presented.
For the main PA Suono e Luci installed 15 ViRAY (Bi-Amp) per side with three ViRAY per side for delay. Front-fill was delivered by four HOPS8 and side-fill by six TiRAY, 2 TiLOW and two SCV-F subs. Eight SCP-F subs arrayed across the front of the stage completed the system.
Front of house engineer for the festival William Geroli reports, “the system has a very good response across all the frequencies and the Dual Diaphragm coaxial wave driver and coupler technolo

Europe - Area Four Industries have continued to promote various trussing products through its video channel A4i.tv, dedicating the latest one to the Milos Corner Brace HD.
This piece of kit has been designed to add full support for small- to medium-sized roofs and eliminate the need for guy wires.
In the video, available here, Area Four Industries’ technical director Norbert Tripp discusses the design, features and advantages of the Corner Brace HD. Designed for use with standard two-way and three-way 90° corners, it eliminates the need for guy wires by ensuring stabilisation, reducing ballast requirements, providing more access to the stage, and requiring less time to install.
(Jim Evans)

South Africa - MGG is the first rental technical company in South Africa to invest in Braceworks, an add-on module for Vectorworks Spotlight, which helps ensure safety and compliance and is an easy way to assess a temporary structure under load.
Gone are the days when a truck would arrive on-site and the technician would quickly chat to the client and only then decide where the stage and gear would be positioned. “Now everything is so well planned, right to the point of where the motors need to go,” explains Kevin Rieck, head of drafting at MGG. “Everyone can see what the final product is going to look like before the truck is even loaded, but with events getting bigger, we had to ensure safety first and this is where Braceworks comes in.”
MGG recently took ownership of Braceworks, purchased from DWR Distribution, and have used it on shows such as Miss SA, Classics is Groot a corporate event for Sasol. “We received Braceworks just in time for Miss South Africa 2019, and it helped me to come up with solutions and made the process immensely easy,” says Riek, who is typically given the stage, lighting and gear design that he puts together into one drawing. “Miss South Africa incorporated thin LED walls, which were placed very high up in the rig. The weight was in a central spot and we used four one tones just to pick it up.”
With heavy equipment, such as LED panels, suspended above people, safety has to be a priority. “Because of the way weight can be distributed, there is a lot of tension on the motors. Braceworks shows you when a m

Belarus - Thousands of lighting fixtures and LED devices supported the Bright Year, Bright You theme of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2019 Second European Games earlier this summer. Dinamo National Stadium in Minsk, Belarus was aglow with the glittering pageantry, and a network of High End Systems Hog lighting consoles controlled it all.
The main lighting control system was comprised of two Hog 4-18 flagship consoles plus two Full Boar 4 consoles, all networked in a multi-programmer setup, outputting data via five DMX Processor 8000 units. A near identical backup system was also on standby.
The physical set featured eight stages. In addition to the more than 1,000 moving head fixtures, Hog consoles controlled all the LED pieces, including the set decorations, the interactive audience bracelets and pixel tubes. Because of the massive amount of pixel mapping required, Hog connected with the Madrix LED control as the interface to trigger the LED devices.
The ceremonies captivated the crowds and worldwide broadcast audience with the story of Belarus - from folklore to the future. Lighting designer Evgeniy Toma of the Sechenov agency and Russian company Art City 5 were in charge of the production, whose planning spanned more than a year.
For this large-scale stadium event, the LD insisted on using the Hog line of consoles. As a longtime Hog user, Toma wanted a flexible, powerful and reliable control system plus the speed of programming he counts on for this complex show.
Russian distributor SiM, together with ETC’s local

UK - Music for Dementia 2020 and Live Music Now have launched a new Musical Care taskforce with the aim to make music an essential element of dementia care.
The taskforce, which brings together more than 60 leading representatives from across the music, dementia, health and social care sectors, will look at ways to bring music to people living with dementia who are not able to access music otherwise.
A wide body of research has demonstrated significant benefits of music for people living with dementia, including reducing anxiety, depression and agitation, providing an alternative channel of communication and connecting people with those around them through shared musical moments.
Music for Dementia 2020 is a campaign to make music available for everyone living with dementia by the end of 2020. To create this taskforce, Music for Dementia 2020 has partnered with Live Music Now, a UK-wide charity that delivers interactive music programmes in care homes, hospitals and a range of community and healthcare settings.
Grace Meadows, programme director at Music for Dementia 2020 and a senior music therapist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, says: “This is an exciting opportunity to grow and enhance the excellent work already happening in many care settings across the UK. Through the taskforce we aim to significantly accelerate and expand the understanding of the benefits of weaving music through the care that is provided to people living with dementia. We believe having a strong network in place will help achieve this and as an outcome see more ca

USA - Six-piece band Fitz and the Tantrums are currently touring with Young the Giant. Lighting design is by Jeremy Lechterman and his team at FragmentNine.
Working with co-designer Jackson Gallagher from FragmentNine, and associate designer Mike Hankowksy from Hemlock Design & Technology, Lechterman uses a collection of 28 Chauvet Professional COLORado Solo Batten fixtures supplied by LMG.
The bright RGBAW linear fixtures are arranged in two layers of semi circles behind the band and in vertical stacks between video panels. From these positions, they backlight the performers, separating them from the upstage area. This seems to bring the band closer to the audience. At the same time, the straightforward geometric configuration of the bright, colourful battens draws the crowd’s attention to the stage bringing them closer to the band.
“Our client’s music spans the gamut of many genres. However, if you look at the branding and the visual language that accompanies their digital presences, it’s all grounded in these simple neon hand drawn shapes,” says Lechterman. “We dug into that aesthetic quite a bit during the design process. This is reflected in the video content, and in the way we used the COLORado Solo Battens.”
Drawing on the intensity of the batten fixtures and their seamless end-to-end colour mixing, the FragmentNine design team has them create old school neon looks, evoking an engaging sense of intimacy on stage. “The battens are used like super bright neon, backlighting the artists, and projecting fun colours and