China - League of Legends’ World Championship 2020 Finals were staged at the new Pudong Football Stadium in Shanghai, a high-profile, hi-energy event notable for many things, which – in addition to being an eSports calendar highlight – included a spectacular production lighting design by Mat Stovall of LampedUp and his team.
Thirty-seven Robe RoboSpot systems were part of a large lighting rig for the event, specified by Mat and associate LD Trevor Stirlin Burk of Visual Noise Creative, and supplied by Christie Lites out of their UK and US bases to the event’s main technical contractor, Creative Technology (CT) Shanghai.
Robert Roth coordinated for Christie Lites, working closely with the CT Shanghai team headed by Aaron Ross Durdin, Sam Tibble and Daniel Sun.
Mat wanted RoboSpots on the event for several reasons. He needed “a quality white light source” to key talent for the opening and closing shows and during the gaming action, with capacity to cover specific choreographed aspects, plus coach and team ‘moments’ throughout the tournament.
With a massive performance area to cover in the centre of the stadium, Mat was not sure that it would be possible to physically get operators into all the required locations, so RoboSpot was his go-to solution.
The 37 x Robe BMFL moving light units were positioned everywhere - on the downstage trusses, above and below the two giant LED screens onstage that flanked a huge central scenic Paifang arch, and on top of this elegant 33m-high centrepiece of Joe Kale’s scenic design which w
USA - Home to the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League, the Budweiser Events Centre (BEC) at The Ranch Events Complex in Loveland, Colorado is a 7,200-capacity multi-purpose arena that hosts everything from hockey, basketball and indoor football to concerts, rodeo, family shows and more.
Less than an hour drive from both Denver and Cheyenne, Wyoming, BEC has become the focal point for sports and entertainment in Northern Colorado, offering approximately 200 events each year, including the 2021 NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Loveland Regional Tournament held there in late March.
Larimer County, which owns the Spectra-managed venue, recently took advantage of the COVID-mandated downtime to make several notable renovations to the arena. The most significant of these was integrating a new L-Acoustics A Series loudspeaker system, which was designed and installed by Denver-based Brown Note Productions (BNP).
Although the facility is only 16 years old, the arena’s original loudspeaker system - a distributed point-source design - was no longer meeting BEC’s clients’ and patrons’ needs. “The main issues with our former system were coverage deficiencies, poor intelligibility and the lack of availability of replacement parts,” says Spectra director of operations Tom Manning. “With increasing numbers of dead spots throughout the bowl seating areas, trying to equalize volumes was very difficult. In fact, in all of the customer satisfaction surveys that we did following sports or concert events, sound was the number one complaint, so it
Bahrain - Woodroffe Bassett Design (WBD) recently designed and delivered a new lighting and video installation on the façade of the Sakhir Tower at the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in time for the first Grand Prix of the Formula One season. The circular viewing tower is the centrepiece of the BIC and has become a key visual element of the television broadcast of the race, seen all over the world.
The design of the scheme enhances the night-time drama of the track illumination installed in 2014 and follows the original visual concepts that were developed in collaboration with architectural design practice Stufish in London five years ago.
The dynamic and colour-rich scheme is a deliberate counterpoint to the myriad of powerful white lights that illuminate the track during the night races. The design explores the geometry of the spectacular building and articulates its elegant circular form, but also gives the tower a dynamic that reflects the speed and power of the motorsport that literally surrounds it.
The content that plays on the tower was developed by Dandelion and Burdock in London and is a mixture of Bahraini cultural elements, abstract patterns, FIA and F1 related logos and schedule information. This plays out over the period of the race weekend, building to a climax for the race itself. Particular care has been given to avoid distracting the drivers when they are on the track to the point that no red, yellow or green content plays during the race to avoid being mistaken by the drivers as part of the FIA warning lights.
The tech
Lithuania - Sonus Exsertus, based in Vilnius, is a specialist in stage technologies with a 20-year history of providing turnkey solutions for a wide range of venues, from theatres and houses of worship to cinemas, arts centres and retail settings.
The company also acts as a distributor for many leading brands across Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and Georgia, offering comprehensive sales and servicing. For the last five years, Sonus has been distributing DiGiGrid products in the region, and has overseen a steadily upward trajectory in sales during that time.
Whilst recent world events have seen turbulent times across the industry, Sonus has adapted to circumstances and continued to perform well. Its sales of DiGiGrid units continued to grow strongly throughout last year, something that head of sales Ramunas Alenskas attributes to a combination of factors:
“As far as our overall business is concerned, when the pandemic struck, we were working on a number of projects that we’d already designed. Our government had invested funds into the infrastructure of the culture sector, so it was a case of right place, right time in that respect. We actually expanded our team during the pandemic, employing designers, project managers and integrators. We worked in shifts to minimise contact.
“More specifically in relation to DiGiGrid, I feel that we benefitted from a lot of groundwork that we had done in previous years to acquaint customers with the brand and its strengths. We put a great deal of effort into public and private demonstrations, sometimes
The Netherlands - The sustainable AFAS Theatre, which is incorporated in the new HQ of software developer AFAS, named the AFAS Experience Centre in Leusden, has recently been equipped by Rolight with 74 Infinity TS-260C7 Profile engines from Infinity’s Signature series.
The AFAS Experience Centre has been designed from the ground up to create an “experience” for clients, employees and visitors - a complex that includes office space, meeting rooms, relax areas, demonstration rooms, fitness area, gym, educational spaces, studios, patio & atrium suitable for events, exhibitions and social gathering. The complex takes ecological and environmental aspects into account as much as possible.
Almost energy neutral, it is fitted with solar panels, sedum roofs, heat pumps, heat exchangers, triple glazing, a multitude of sensors and 50 charging stations for electric vehicles.
When it came time to furnish the theatre area, specialists from Rolight found a fitting candidate in the Infinity TS-260C7 Profile engine to light up the main stage. Its efficient, high output LED light holds up to the principle of environmental awareness that has been used throughout the Centre’s design, making it a solid choice for the application, while ticking all the boxes.
74 fixtures with a total output of over 330,000 lumens were used to provide lighting to the main stage. The TS-260C7 is able to produce light in seven colours with a CRI of over 96, ensuring a very natural illumination of the stage. The fixtures are combined with 58 Irises, 54 TLT-235- and 4 TLT-1
South Korea - Harman Professional Solutions recently partnered with MIX Media and TechDataPS Coto upgrade Seongnam Arts Centre’s AV system with AMX networked video solutions.
Seongnam Arts Centre is the largest venue for cultural arts in the city of Seongnam. The facility features a 1,804-seat opera house, a concert hall, ensemble theatre for smaller performances, two visual art galleries and an outdoor amphitheatre with seating for 11,000 people.
The centre hired MIX Media to upgrade its video infrastructure with a HARMAN networked VoIP solution consisting of AMX encoders, decoders and controllers supplied by TechDataPS.
To provide a scalable AV control platform with intuitive operation, network security and backward compatibility, MIX Media selected the AMX NX-3200 NetLinx NX Integrated Controller as the core of the AV infrastructure. For transmitting and receiving AV signals with latency, MIX Media installed AMX N1000 Series encoder and decoder units throughout the facility.
To make operating the system easy and intuitive for staff, MIX Media provided Seongnam Arts Center with AMX MCP108 Keypad Controllers and a MT1002 Modero Touch Panel. Combined with the ability to control the NetLinx controller via tablet, the keypads and touch panels allow centre staff to conveniently control the AV system in real time from anywhere in the facility.
Seongnam Arts Centre staff reported being completely satisfied with the new AMX AV network’s user-friendliness and reliability, saying it gave them integrated control of the equipment inside the c
Germany - Fine & Bright’s Hybrid Studio Berlin is located in the bustling heart of Germany’s capital. The new 425sq.m space is housed in a century-old former malt factory. Its black and white tile floor and industrial fittings serve as reminders of the building’s past, whilst its advanced design make it suited to provide clients with COVID-safe options for connecting to customers through virtual productions, or (once it is permitted by the government) with combined virtual/live events accommodating an audience of up to 50 people.
“We developed this studio with our partners ICT AG and the Malzfabrik, in order to offer our customers a high-quality and fully equipped space for digital and hybrid events during the COVID-19 pandemic,”explains Robert Ulm, CEO of Fine & Bright. “The studio has all the digital tools required for the quick and direct implementation of virtual conferences, interviews, live streams, press briefings, panel discussions, product presentations and music events in a safe, attractive environment.”
Helping to ensure that Hybrid has the flexibility to fulfil its mission is an adaptable studio stage outfitted with four separate rigs. By lowering one of the rigs over the stage, the design team can create a new setting quickly, depending on the needs of the client.
“Our technology here is permanently installed,” says Ulm. “Our philosophy is to be ready to play at any time, so we can also enable our customers to carry out projects at short notice.”
The studio’s lighting system is critical to helping i
Germany - The CLW in Bonn-Bad Godesberg is a protestant free church and open to believers of all nationalities and generations. The parish has a church with an adjoining kindergarten and offers, among other things, services for the whole family every Sunday at 10.00 am. The Living Word (CLW) is an acronym for Centrum für Lebendiges Wort) is the focus of the services, in the form of sermons and musical contributions. The live music component in the church has grown steadily in recent years, so an upgrade of the sound system was necessary.
Julian Betker, trainee pastor and vicar at the CLW, states: "We have been working on a new sound reinforcement solution to meet our many requirements for a while. On the one hand, we wanted to use our existing technology, including mixing consoles, microphones and subwoofers.
“Our church lives through, and with, live music - which could be heard with our old system outside the church building as well. However, the positioning of the loudspeakers meant that there was always a risk of feedback. The last important point was to stay within budget. We are a donation-financed institution and thus have to pay particular attention to expenditure.”
Several loudspeaker manufacturers were approached to develop a solution. The company Klein Beschallungs- und Kirchentechnik from Cologne, together with Audio-Technica, created a concept with loudspeakers and power amplifiers from Martin Audio. Emphasis was placed on seamless integration into the existing system.
Owner Paul Klein states: “We have been working with Audi
USA - Innovation Nation, the CBS Saturday morning TV show about change-making technologies, recently called on Verge Aero, to find out more about the new aerial technology.
Produced by The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Litton Entertainment, Innovation Nation presents stories of history’s technological turning points, as well as looking at the innovations that are changing the world around us. With drone light shows offering spectacular additions - or even alternatives - to traditional fireworks displays, the technology was ripe for further investigation by the educational programme.
Verge Aero’s drone fleets have been seen performing aerial celebrations at high-profile events including Joe Biden’s victory speech in Wilmington, Delaware, back in November. Presenter Alie Ward visited the company’s headquarters at Pennovation Works, part of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Alie met with Verge Aero founder Nils Thorjussen to see how the team “choreographed their engineering, artistic, computing and aviation skills to create a dance of lights in the sky”. They discussed the process of design and preparation, and the powerful proprietary software that makes it all possible. As she found out, it’s not just about complex choreography.
“In order to get to the point where you can actually do this, there is an incredible amount of engineering work that goes into creating the software that allows you to do it - reliably, and also safely,” explains Nils.
In a live demonstration Nils and Alie watched a
Australia - Cutting Edge has been a leading provider of sound and picture post production for the advertising, features and television industries, both in Australia and internationally, for almost three decades. The company recently announced Edge Lab, its newest venture in Virtual Production (VP) based in Brisbane, Queensland.
The facility is a research and development (R&D) hub for production industry professionals, developed in partnership with Big Picture, part of the NEP Worldwide Network, and motion caption integrator Logemas.
Brompton Technology processing is used for the main LED screen as well as ambient reflection and lighting walls.
Cutting Edge is able to facilitate all its clients’ needs across commercial, television and feature film productions. Now, the company can also tap into the latest technical innovations in VP with its Unreal Engine powered virtual production stage with a high resolution 12m by 4m LED wall and moveable LED side panels.
The set up comprises a Uniview Tekken 3mm main LED screen with two Tekken 3m by 2.5m ambient reflection walls and a further two ROE Visual CB5 5mm ambient lighting walls. The entire system runs on four Brompton Tessera SX40 4K LED processors and four Tessera XD 10G data distribution units.
“Because our LED stage has been built with high quality components and is powered by Brompton processing, we are able to achieve realistic virtual environments that help with experimental shooting and environment creation,” says Cutting Edge CEO Michael Burton.
Josh Moffat, special p
UK - Dan Ridd, Steven Haynes and a team from Clearsound Productions in Shipston on Stour marked the culmination of a week of #LightItInRed ‘heart’ actions around the country with a livestream broadcast featuring mixmaster DJ Benji surrounded by a heart-shaped lighting rig designed by Steven and featuring Robe moving lights.
With overall direction by Dan Ridd and camera and humour direction by Andy Cox, the multi-camera broadcast included two drone feeds plus assorted visual highlights from the last year of #LightItInRed campaigns. These have focused on keeping the entertainment, production, and performance industry visible and relevant during the pandemic and consequent shut down, and this content was eloquently wrangled by #LightItInRed’s Sarah Berryman.
Working alongside Steven on lighting were two fellow Rose Bruford College students, Sam Jones, who programmed and operated the grandMA console running the lighting, and technician Daniel Bow, who were joined by George O’Connor of Dragonfly Lighting in Banbury. Also assisting the Clearsound livestream on the night were drone pilot Danny Gibbs and Matt ‘Toff’ Roff.
Seventeen Robe Spiiders were at the heart of the matter, set up in the yard in front of the Clearsound warehouse.
It was during the drawing and pre-vis stage that Steven and the lighting crew realised just how complex it is to create a heart shape accurately!
The Spiiders marked the outline of the heart contour, with the intervening spaces filled by LED battens and the DJ console right in the centre. The rig wa
Saudi Arabia - Noor Riyadh is a citywide annual festival of light and art that showcases individual artists and talent and promotes creativity. The event produced by Balich Worldwide Shows (BWS) brings together artists from all over the world.
Star in Motion by renowned lighting designer Koert Vermeulen, is a powerful focal point in the middle of the city of Riyadh - a shining star, suspended from the top of the famous Kingdom Tower more than 300m in the air. Balich Worldwide Shows has worked with Unusual Rigging on other events in the past, and as such they were the natural choice when it came to rigging this spectacular installation.
Steve Porter, director at Unusual, explains: “Having worked with BWS on several projects in the past, when they approached us to hang the centrepiece for the festival, it was a pleasure to collaborate with them again. We were approached by Ollie Green, BWS technical director, to hang a lighting feature or star in the space at the top of the building. We loved the idea but never really thought permissions would be granted so we were thrilled when BWS overcame many difficult hurdles to secure this.”
Unusual’s design team and production rigging department worked in conjunction with Ollie green and BWS’s independent structural engineer Rasti Bartek from Cundall. “We had to work quickly and efficiently in the design and fabrication process of all the heavy-duty bracketry and Dyneema which was supplied by Marlow Ropes. Load cells were also an issue due to short notice in order to make the freight shipment dates a
UK - The National Theatre’s production of Clint Dyer and Roy Williams’ Death of England was performed at the Dorfman Theatre in spring 2020 before the venue closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The one-man show was an intense study of grief and identity in Britain, performed in-the-round on a cross-shaped stage by Rafe Spall in an explosively energetic performance. Dyer’s direction, and Sadeysa Greenaway-Bailey and ULTZ’s stark set demanded equally dramatic lighting from the outset, which was provided by dance and theatre lighting designer, and NT regular, Jackie Shemesh.
Shemesh chose four Ayrton Diablo 300W LED profile fixtures as central features of his design, which he mainly deployed as followspots to track Spall’s every move.
The Diablo fixtures were rigged above the four inner corners of the cross stage, side-mounted and dropped 1m lower than the rest of the rig to allow clear sightlines to every angle of the stage. “I felt very strongly that the Diablos should be lower than the height of the Dorfman as I wanted them to be visible to the audience as part of the overall design concept,” says Shemesh. “Diablo’s small form factor proved a definite advantage: they just looked right and their compact size did not obscure the audience sightlines.”
The Dorfman Theatre is the smallest of the National Theatre’s three spaces with a 450-seat capacity, and a balcony on a level with the lighting rig. “The Diablos were rigged only 2m - 2.5m from audience yet we had no complaints about noise,” says Shemesh.
Italy - The Lucca region has given birth to many of the greatest voices in opera, but every spring and summer, Tuscany’s historic piazzas resonate with the impassioned sound of another kind of music, as they play host to world famous blues festivals.
In 2015, Lucca joined the list of Tuscan cities celebrating the musical genre by starting a blues festival of its own. Given the city’s evocative charm and rich musical tradition, the Lucca Blues Festival was an overnight success, attracting internationally acclaimed artists and legions of fans.
This year, because of the pandemic, the live event was cancelled, but the Lucca Blues festival continued its robust celebration of all things blues with a series of livestreams from Amandla Productions Studios, a versatile broadcast facility set up inside the city’s 1,500sq.m event centre by locally-based Amandla Productions.
Helping to create an immersive, camera-friendly environment for the blue performances, as well as the wide variety of other shows filmed at the studio, is a flexible lighting rig installed by Audiosales Entertainment Solutions that features 34 Maverick MK2 Wash fixtures, 10 Ovation E-910FC colour-rendering ellipsoidals, and 25 COLORdash Batten Quad12 units from Chauvet Professional. Controlling this rig are a ChamSys MQ500 Stadium console along with a ChamSys PC Wing and an extra wing.
Amandla Studios began on New Year’s Eve when, with lockdown restrictions still in place from 2020, the city of Lucca moved its popular celebration indoors for livestreaming. “Creating an indo
USA - Towards the end of 2020, the new leadership at Houston’s Sagemont Church, which was established in 1966 and is associated with the Southern Baptist Convention, introduced a contemporary worship music service to appeal to a younger congregation.
To meet the demands of the new modern service, the church upgraded the aging sound system in its 2,500-seat sanctuary, installing a SSL Live L350 digital mixing console and replacing the PA speakers.
Lead audio engineer Evan Warren says, “We have a new pastor, a new worship leader and a whole new direction, and we wanted to do modern contemporary rock ‘n’ roll-style worship music. But our PA and console were pushing 10 years old and falling apart. The faders on our old console were moving on their own and the old PA just wasn’t cutting it.”
Having already spent a lot of time dreaming about equipment as a young engineer, Warren says, it didn’t take him long to narrow down the mixing console choices to an SSL Live L350. “I thought, what can do the I/O count, what is flexible and, bottom line, what sounds the best? I wanted sound quality to be a high priority, because you don’t get to upgrade a desk and PA at the same time very often.”
AVL equipment supplier and integrator Hairel Enterprises, based in Conroe, Texas, installed the SSL Live desk and the new d&b audiotechnik KSL speaker system all on the same day, shortly after the church’s final Christmas service.
Warren can handle front-of-house, monitors and a broadcast streaming mix from the 24-fader L350, which offer
Israel - The Weizmann Institute of Science is a renowned public research university in Rehovot which offers graduate and postgraduate degrees in the natural and exact sciences and hosts an annual event honouring the work of Israeli scientists and their contributions to an assortment of projects.
This year for the first time, the format went fully digital in delivery and was still staged at the Weizmann Institute campus’s Sela Auditorium, without a live audience but with as much ‘live’ presentational content as was possible which included lectures, seminars, presentations, Q&A sessions and the bestowing of honorary doctorates and other awards.
Lighting designer Eran Klein of Cochavi&Klein was asked to create lighting for the event and chose an all-Robe moving light rig to provide the flexibility needed to deliver this high-profile broadcast which was co-ordinated by communications agency FaZa.
Their team comprised Liron Zabari, Yoram Friedlander, Dana Klein and Hadas Vilensky, and the goal of all involved in the production was to ensure that director Liron Zabari brought an essential ‘as live’ ambience to all those tuning in to the stream.
In addition to the action being broadcast, recorded, or streamed from the venue, more presenters joined in live by Zoom, Teams and other remote conferencing platforms and three live entertainment segments featured performances by Miri Mesika, Ilanit and Arik Davidoff.
Set designer Izaq Ronen Wasserstein created an impressive diagonally orientated stage that was dramatically minimal
USA - The Illuminate Cities Project recently incorporated Martin VC-Grid LED video tiles supplied by Hayden Production Services into an ‘information-as-art installation’ called Illuminate: COVID-19.
Co-founded by architect Domingo Abrusci and urban planner Alexandra Payne, the Illuminate Cities Project is dedicated to improving cities through data exploration, art, design and engagement. Its pilot project, Illuminate: COVID-19, is an art installation that combines data mapping and lighting design to visually display COVID-19 infection and death rates alongside racial and economic demographic data, highlighting how the pandemic has affected specific communities in New York City.
Brought to life in collaboration with fabrication and design specialist Robyn Squires of RYSQ LLC and lighting designer Elisa Forlini, a RIBA-certified architect, the installation is a large hanging lightbox which Abrusci designed as a map of New York City’s five boroughs. To illuminate the piece, the team required a highly adaptable lighting solution, and chose Martin VC-Grid LED video tiles and P3-PC control software to create an eye-catching design with a flexible, data-driven backend.
“My partner and I both live in Brooklyn, and our other collaborators live in Harlem and the Lower East Side,” said Payne. “All of the neighbourhoods that we were living in were highly impacted by COVID-19. When Domingo and I started talking about the project, he imagined having the entire city turn off their lights to symbolise how the life had gone out of the city.
USA - The University of Houston recently updated the projection mapping content for its basketball team, the Houston Cougars, creating a dramatic, on-court pre-game show at the Fretitta Centre. The bright, 3D graphics were created by Quince Imaging, and enabled by a range of Christie solutions installed by Quince, including 3DLP projectors, Mystique, a Pandoras Box Server, and Terra, an AV-over-IP system.
The University sought to refresh the on-court projection mapping content to align with both in-person and broadcast viewing, says Eric Gazzillo, director of innovation, Quince Imaging. “What’s important now, during COVID, is being broadcast-centric, so we’re using the displays and technology to fill the arena with content, designs and projection mapping. We use the technology in a way to make the arena feel full, if they’re doing partial or limited seating, and to add some drama to the pregame broadcast that can be lacking if the arena is empty.”
The new content was designed by Quince’s in-house art director, Zubair Parkar.
The projection mapping system, installed in the Fall of 2018, uses eight Christie Boxer 4K30 3DLP® 30,000 lumen projectors, a Pandoras Box Server, Terra and Mystique. Says Gazzillo of the decision to install an all-Christie system in the arena: “Having a complete Christie solution allows us to simplify workflows. It’s one of those things that we’ve really encouraged pre-COVID, and now during COVID, it has become even more important to have an integrated system of projectors, control and transmission that allow
UK - Since it opened in 1899, the Town Bridge in Northwich has been a source of pride to local residents and tourist attraction. During the past year of the pandemic, it’s also served as rallying point, inspiring hope and reflecting determination by being illuminated in various colour schemes during holidays and on special occasions.
The visual and emotional impact of these colourful displays has been evident when CSP Audio Visual has illuminated Town Bridge with a collection of Chauvet Professional COLORado Panel Q40 rectangular wash fixtures and Ovation E-260WW IP ellipsoidal units.
“Northwich Town council contacted us to light Town Bridge for VE day celebrations,” says Alun Williams, director of CSP AV. “The bridge was to be lit in the red, white and blue colours of the Union Jack. After the success of that project, the council invited us back.”
Positioned across the bridge and at the ground level of adjacent buildings, the RGBW IP65 rated COLORado Panel Q40 fixtures have been used to wash the span and its environs in vivid colours. The colour scheme called for in the CSP AV design changes throughout the period when the bridge is illuminated to keep the visuals interesting for those who pass the site on a regular basis.
Playing off against the rich colour washes of the COLORado units are gobo patterns projected from the Ovation E-260WW IP fixtures. Arranged along the base of the road, the units are used to project crisp thematic gobos across its surface of the bridge.
More than simply a historic and symbolic structure, the
UK - To complement the technology on display at Samsung KX, Snelling Business Systems and Cosmic Electronics recently outfitted the venue with a complete Harman networked AV, lighting and control system.
Situated in the recently developed Coal Drops Yard shopping district in King’s Cross, London, Samsung KX is a destination for the public to ‘experience Samsung’s range of innovative connected technologies working seamlessly together’.
The 20,000sq.ft space features a 32ft Screenmax LED display wall, connected “smart kitchen,” immersive augmented reality experiences and an ever-changing list of temporary installations. To further enhance the futuristic experience, Samsung KX required a facility-wide immersive AV, lighting and control system with enough flexibility to serve any current or future needs. Audio-visual integrator Snelling Business Systems and lighting integrator Cosmic Electronics outfitted the space with JBL, Crown, BSS, Martin and AMX solutions.
“In terms of design, we didn't approach Samsung KX like any other traditional shop,” said Tanya Weller, director, Samsung Showcase. “It was very much about creating an incredible space to bring the latest innovations to life and showcase our products working seamlessly together, but also a flexible environment that we could invite the community into for various events and experiences. The beauty of it is that it's incredibly adaptable. If we've got an event in one zone, we can ensure the sound is great in that area, or we can have total takeover of the space.”
The cent
Canada - A multi-venue arts centre in downtown Calgary, Alberta, Arts Commons (formerly EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts) has invested in a complement of Ayrton lighting fixtures and Robert Juliat followspots from Sapphire Sound.
Arts Commons is located in Calgary’s Cultural District and is one of the three largest arts centres in Canada. Its five theatres and concert hall are home to six resident companies and host a wide array of guest performers annually. While Arts Commons is currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the centre has been busy upgrading and expanding its lighting inventory in anticipation of reopening.
According to Kris Ladd, head of lighting at Arts Commons, 16 Ayrton Huracan-X and four Ayrton Diablo-S fixtures were purchased for the Jack Singer Concert Hall, the permanent home of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the largest venue in the centre. It seats 1,800 and boasts the 6,040-pipe Carthy Organ.
Three Ayrton Mistral-TCs have been installed in the Engineered Air Theatre, a 185-seat space used for concerts, films, plays, weddings, receptions and galas, while a pair of Robert Juliat 800W LED Arthur followspots have been added to the 750-seat Max Bell Theatre, home to Theatre Calgary.
Brian Cloutier, in sales and design for lighting at Sapphire Sound, worked with Ladd during the upgrade process, providing equipment for demos and shootouts and furnishing the fixtures selected for the three venues. “Kris knows what he wants, which makes it very easy for me,” he notes. “I’ve also had a long relationsh
Russia - Lighting designer Vladimir Lyubimov continues to use Astera Titan Tubes as a key lighting feature for concerts by Russian rock musician, singer and poet, Svetlana Surganova.
The most recent of these took place at Crocus City Hall in the Krasnogorsky District of Moscow, staged in the autumn - at the time this was during a brief period when concerts and large gatherings were allowed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Surganova & Orchestra presented their In Contrast programme to a full live audience at the venue after the show was moved at short notice from the famous 1930 Club, also in Moscow, to the larger 7,300 capacity venue.
Having planned to use their most recent touring lighting and stage design from the start of 2020, Lyubimov and the crew were left facing the challenge of making their production work in the new space.
Delighted to be back working in a concert environment after so many months of livestreams and studio recordings, he and all the production crew from rental company ZavodShow relished the task.
“Sixteen Astera Titan Tubes does not sound like a lot of lights,” says Lyubimov, “but this is more than enough to fill a standard stage area.” They were used in tandem with other lighting fixtures and moving lights on the rig.
The Titan Tubes were deployed to create three layers of depth - some were sitting on their floor mount stands and positioned around Surganova and her six-piece band, while others were attached at different heights to an arc of eight upstage totem truss towers, with all these
France - Immersive sound experience creator, Des Sons Animés (DSA), has recently outfitted its specialist 3D sound studio in Paris with 32 APG iX6 loudspeakers, with more bass reinforcement from the French manufacturer to be added in the near future.
This new audio system will aid DSA in the creation and production of spatialised audio content, as well as facilitating streamed performances, training, research, design, and integration of immersive sound installations.
“The Des Sons Animés studio really is a special place,” says Mathieu Rossier, co-founder and president of the company. “It is a space for creation and research where artists can produce, compose, transform and spatialise their productions using 3D audio technologies. These spatial scores can be broadcast outside the studio, with faithful scaling on many other broadcasting systems.”
The company regularly organises open days, training sessions, and specific workshops around sound spatialisation and interactivity technologies, and has even adapted its services to host various COVID-mandated initiatives, like showcase events for artists and full live-streamed 3D sound events hosted by Rossier himself, who is also known by his electronic music alias, Elephantmat.
“We believe that 3D audio technologies are a natural evolution of the creative process in the world of music, and something that could profoundly affect future artistic and event landscapes,” says Rossier.
Other electronic music producers, such as Christopher Kah and Calling Marian, were keen to sing the p
South Africa - On Sunday 25 April, Jerusalema hitmaker Master KG, and the Ndlovu Youth Choir, will be performing live on Robben Island for Africa Rising and the Live Love non-profit, along with international personality Maps Maponyane as master of ceremonies.
The performance will be live streamed for free and audiences will have the opportunity to win an exclusive VIP experience at the event on Robben Island by making an online donation of at least R30, benefiting the music and events industry, and charities in sustainability, education and conservation.
Africa Rising brings music and travel to the world by telling inspiring African stories through uniquely produced music experiences. These are brought to life by broadcasting live performances by Africa’s biggest artists, set in the most iconic locations on the continent. Through these stories and our platform, we aim to raise money to invest back into the industries decimated during the pandemic, and into African communities that desperately need it.
Master KG is a South African musician and record producer and his album Skeleton Move achieved acclaim including an AFRIMMA Award for Best Artist/Group in the African Electro category. He is also known as the pioneer of Bolobedu dance
The Ndlovu Youth Choir’s run on America’s Got Talent (season 14) made them the first choir in the history to reach the final. Their soul-stirring performances won hearts and minds around the world. Their first album debuted at number one on iTunes.
During the coronavirus crisis the