France - David Guetta played a live New Year’s Eve set at the Musee du Louvre in central Paris.
Celebrating the roll-over from 2020 to 2021 in this special environment, 116 x Robe iPointe moving lights on the rig helped make it impressive. It was also the third in David Guetta’s United at Home concert series to raise money for those in need in what’s been a tough year for everyone.
Director Romain Pissenem’s and his UK and France based creative production company High Scream were also the stream’s executive producers, working directly for the artist and collaborating closely with staff from The Louvre. The 15-camera stream was directed by Job Robbers.
Romain’s team included lighting designer Ian Tomlinson and lighting programmer and operator James Betts Gray.
His starting point for the production design was the 21.6m-high glass and metal pyramid structure designed by architect I M Pei with its 603 rhombus shapes and 70 regular glass triangle segments, a timeless contemporary masterpiece that defines the Louvre’s main courtyard.
While Romain and High Scream have been producing David Guetta’s live shows for the last couple of years, working on a show of this stature and significance took everyone to new levels of show production.
“The biggest challenge was to respect the wonderful aesthetics and integrity of this very special space and add in a complex, high-impact, show-stopping electronic music show capturing the sheer magic of this incredible moment,” comments Romain.
The pressure was on for ever
USA - Located in Nashville, Tennessee, The Belonging Co. (TBCo) is becoming one of the fastest growing in the USA: its congregation has increased from just seven at its outset to many thousands in only six years. Along with weekly worship services, the church also includes a worship collective comprising a number of well-known Nashville-based artists who call the church home, an annual conference, and even a college.
TBCo has always prioritised excellent live production. With a recent video system installation by integrator Diversified, in partnership with THOR AV, developer of LED video walls and headset microphones, TBCo now has a LED video wall to match, driven by Brompton Technology’s Tessera S8 LED processor.
TBCo has lots of experience with LED wall products from multiple manufacturers and of various quality levels, but when it was time to develop the look and feel of its new facility, it was determined that a large LED canvas would be a critical, central component of the visual brand in the new space. Each week, the church’s online broadcasts increase their reach exponentially beyond the in-person gatherings, making the on-camera performance of the LED wall especially critical and existing products in its inventory would not meet the performance expectations of the new space.
“Our teams collaborated closely with the client and manufacturer on the design of the stage, placement of the LED wall and its relationship to artists on stage and camera positions, as well as associated sight lines throughout the space,” says Tim Corder, directo
USA - Livestream concerts are not just for rock. The Augusta Symphony demonstrated that in spirited fashion recently with its A Little Night of Music, a pay-per-view Friday night show that drew an enthusiastic response from music lovers throughout its market.
Taking place at the historic Miller Theatre in downtown Augusta, the livestream performance followed strict social distancing guideless. A very limited crowd was allowed to buy tickets for the performance in the spacious venue; and there was no intermission during the show to minimize contact. The orchestra itself was reimagined to include a smaller number of musicians on stage, led by music director Dirk Meyer, and featuring principal violinist Anastasia Petrunina, oboist Brian Lyons, and trumpeter Brian Winegardner.
Despite the limited number of musicians, the livestream show encompassed a bold and diverse musical mix representing different eras.
Supporting this far-ranging musical mix was a versatile lighting design by Cliff Smith of Quest Sound & Productions that drew on the flexibility of the Chauvet Professional fixtures in the Miller Theatre’s recently installed lighting rig.
Part of the theatre’s $23m renovation in 2018, the new lighting, system, which includes Ovation, Rogue and STRIKE fixtures installed by Bandit Lites with input from Rob Boggs, production manager of Miller Theatre. The new system was put together with the idea of having something with the flexibility needed to support the diverse range of programs, both musical and non-musical, that take place a
Singapore - Founded over half a century ago by 25 original members, Bartley Christian Church has grown organically into one of the largest churches in Singapore.
To keep up with that growth, the church built a new fan-shaped sanctuary in 2006 that can accommodate 1,200 congregants. However, sightlines were challenging from the start, and as the system aged, it could not keep up with the church’s shift to higher impact music. Local AV integration firm and regional Danley distributor, Soundsmith Solutions, designed and installed a new sound reinforcement system for the church that centres on two Danley J7-95 Jericho Horns, a variety of Danley smaller full-range boxes for fill, and four Danley TH118XL subwoofers for low-end support.
“The existing system at Bartley Christian Church, being 10 years old, was showing its age and struggling to keep up with the higher impact music they are playing these days,” said Nicholas Loe, regional manager, Danley Asia. “Additionally, the way the previous system was designed and installed interfered with the line of sight to the projection screen. Many seats had an obstructed view of the stage and screen. After two years of research and discussions with existing users, church officials made the decision to go with Danley Sound Labs.”
Soundsmith Solutions was tasked with designing and installing a new Danley system that would provide even coverage, great intelligibility, and big musical impact without obstructing any sightlines, despite a relatively low ceiling for the size of the room.
“The Danley J7-
USA - The Floridian in St. Petersburg, Florida, began life in the 1920s as a bank, then was transformed into a cinema, and later a concert hall known as the State Theatre before being shuttered in 2018. Designed in the neo-classical architecture style - arched doorways, Greek columns, ornate carvings - the venue has stood the test of time.
Now, purchased by St. Pete native and entrepreneur Kevin Chadwick, who oversaw an estimated $1m-plus renovation that he described as ‘a passion project’ it has become the Floridian Social Club, a lounge, concert venue, and event space in the heart of the city’s downtown Central Avenue entertainment district.
At the heart of the Floridian is an L-Acoustics Kara PA system, installed by local integrator ESI Production Services. The new loudspeaker setup comprises two hangs of nine Kara boxes per side and a single flown ARCS Focus centre-fill speaker, collectively powered by three LA8 amplified controllers, and three LA12X-driven KS28 subs installed under the stage of the venue’s 800-seat main theatre. Two more LA12X are used to power eight X12 wedge monitors, with one SB18 sub integrated into the system and dedicated to drum kits.
All that stands between the venue’s history as the State Theatreand its new incarnation as the Floridian Social Club is the abatement of the COVID pandemic. “When the time comes, the Kara will be ready and waiting,” says ESI Production Services president Erick "Otto" Celeiro.
Celeiro also specified the system, installed by colleague Conrad “Deke” Andrews and calibrat
UK - Crosstown Concerts made a successful entry into the broadcast market, with its first online concert for English folk act Bellowhead, selling 8,200 tickets on 5 December 2020.
After live shows fell casualty to pandemic shutdown from March 2020, Crosstown Concerts spent months researching options for their artists to connect with fans, and start reinstating the all-important revenue streams.
Stabal’s concert broadcast for Bellowhead’s first show in four-and-a-half years, proved very popular with gig-starved fans, with 70% of ticket sales being the higher value option for 30-day video-on-demand passes. Irish singer Damien Dempsey also enjoyed a successful stream on 23 December, with further streamed concert tickets available for Seth Lakeman in February.
Crosstown Concerts director, Conal Dodds, said: “We knew the return to full-capacity shows would be some time away and we needed to find an alternative platform for our artists. Our search to find the very best broadcast solution for our artists led us to Epping Forest-based broadcast platform Stabal. After several online meetings and lots of negotiations, we entered a partnership. Their whole team are super friendly and professional, sharing with us a desire to produce the highest quality events.
“I believe this collaboration between Stabal and Crosstown solves all of the issues artists have encountered broadcasting concerts, as we can handle all the aspects required between us. We cover all the costs, handle all marketing, ticketing, rights and publishing clearances, with audio-vi
The Netherlands - For more than 25 years, Euroconcerts Audio Control has called on DPA Microphones to provide reliable sound reinforcement for a wide array of musical productions. Included among the Euroconcerts mic locker are the DPA 4015 Wide Cardioid, 2011 Twin Diaphragm Cardioid, 4023 Compact Cardioid, 4037 Compact Omnidirectional, 4099 Instrument Microphone, 4061 Miniature Omnidirectional and d:facto 4018V Vocal Microphones.
Most recently, the company implemented the 2011 Cardioid for a classical music production that aired on Dutch National TV. “In previous years, we would record a choir with a stereo mic set up,” explains Euroconcerts founder, Johan van Loo. “However, due to COVID restrictions this year, we were only able to have a small number of singers on-stage. Therefore, we had to switch to a close-mic'ing setup - and the 2011 proved to be the perfect solution. It not only has a great, natural sound, it also looks nice on camera because it is not obtrusive.”
A long-time user of DPA, van Loo got his start with the brand when it was still part of the Brüel & Kjær family. “Since I first began using DPA’s small diaphragm microphones, all of the artists with whom I work have come to prefer DPA over other brands,” he says. “They especially love them for close-mic'ing their instruments because the mics sound better and provide more gain before feedback. It’s been the same for vocals, especially since the launch of the d:facto 4018V.”
When it comes to other mic features, van Loo says “DPA mics make EQ’ing a lot easie
UK - Television lighting rental company Version 2 supported lighting director James Tinsley, gaffer Adam Mitchell and the production crew behind the latest run of I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here!.
The impact of COVID-19 resulted in a well-publicised relocation of the show, from the Australian jungle of New South Wales to the atmospheric setting of Gwrych Castle in Abergele, North Wales. The combination of a new venue plus the global pandemic presented a multitude of challenges, which the production team overcame to make this 20th season of the show one of the most successful runs yet.
As one of the first UK TV shows to make a full return to regular production, including nightly live broadcasts direct from the location, the IAC team implemented stringent operational guidelines across the board. Alongside this, Version 2 added their own set of carefully constructed working protocols to help ensure the safety and well-being of everyone involved.
Commenting on preparing for the show, Version 2 managing director, Nick Edwards says: “Staging what has become an iconic TV event, in a new location with the additional challenges of the pandemic, required meticulous planning. Operating within strict guidelines, which included our own custom protocols, we worked closely with the production team to help protect the well-being of all concerned.”
V2 delivered illumination on a massive scale, deploying three articulated lorry loads of equipment to the show, for use throughout the entire location. The comprehensive lighting package, mixed
USA - The Wonder Years’ November livestream was a homecoming of sorts, not only for the Top 20 alt rockers, but for Victor Zeiser who lit the 90-minute show. “This band is one of our oldest clients, so working with them again was a real thrill,” said Zeiser, the owner of Squeek Lights. “Earlier during the pandemic, the guys did a more-low key livestream at a recording studio, but they decided they wanted to cut loose and do a full production show, so they came here to the Ruby Stage in our new facility.”
Drawing on the versatile rig at the new Ruby Stage (it opened this summer), Zeiser and the Squeek Lights team delivered the dynamic show the band was seeking. Wrapping itself around The Wonder Years’ distinctive sound, the lightshow reflected the mood and spirit of the music with its colourful crossing beam patterns, intense side lighting, and evocative silhouettes.
Playing a key role in creating this supportive vista was the rig’s 30 Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 BeamWash fixtures. “They did a lot for us,” Zeiser said of the 40-watt RGBW movers. “Their most critical use was as our key light. Silhouette moments are great, but people want to see the band. With the 10 units out front we were able to hit them with a nice quality white light, which looked great on camera.
“We also used BeamWashes for mid-stage down washing, back washing from our upstage wash, and on tail-down pipes upstage,” continues Zeiser. “We love the versatility of the beam washes in the rig. It's great how such a small unit has so much punch when used as
USA - The Holiday Road drive-thru experience in Calabasas, CA features larger-than-life festive displays and millions of Christmas lights arranged throughout a two-mile track, which families can enjoy from the comfort and safety of their own car. ADJ fixtures are used extensively for the theatrical and architectural lighting of the various scenes that make up the experience, with over 300 ADJ 12P HEX IP and 7P HEX IP units spread throughout the attraction.
Holiday Road has been put together by the same creative team - Ben Biscotti, Bobby Rossi and Tony Schubert - that hosts the annual Nights of the Jack Halloween attraction. Originally launched as a walkthrough experience in 2018 and 2019, this year Nights of the Jack pivoted to a drive-thru model so that it could go ahead despite COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings in California.
Following the success of this, the creators decided to use the same venue - King Gillette Ranch – to host a totally new holiday-themed drive-thru event. The large estate, filled with mature trees and areas of open grassland, is a suitable blank canvas for the creation of magically-festive displays.
Made up of a variety of different scenes, each with their own soundtrack, the Holiday Road experience is an all-inclusive celebration of the holidays, including displays dedicated to Hannukah, Kwanzaa and every imaginable aspect of Christmas. From the Nutcracker to Santa’s workshop, snowmen to the a crib scene, all kinds of holiday traditions and imagery and combined into a non-stop display
UK - The Parish church of St Giles’ in Wrexham, North Wales, a grade one listed building, is considered one of the finest examples of a medieval parish church in Wales. Built mainly between the end of the 15th and early part of the 16th Century the church annually welcomes around 33,000 visitors through its doors.
Unfortunately, the performance of the sound system no longer met the church’s needs and in 2017 the Parochial church council engaged Richard King Systems to provide a scheme for improving the audio facilities.
With over 30 years’ experience of sound system design in places of worship RKS turned to the Harman Professional product portfolio, distributed in the UK by Sound Technology. Harman’s JBL range of passive CBT column loudspeakers were selected for sound performance and discrete appearance. At the opposite end of the audio chain, AKG microphones were specified, together with dbx ZonePro signal processing and Crown DCi DriveCore Install Series amplification.
With the support of Sound Technology, including their pro audio application team, Richard King Systems installed a complete demonstration system at the church for evaluation purposes. The vast improvement in the sound reproduction was widely acknowledged and led to the church council approving the proposed scheme.
Following the necessary building works consent, the installed equipment comprises a pair of JBL CBT70J column speaker in the main nave, plus three JBL CBT50 column speakers to act as delay in-fill in the nave and the Royal Welsh Fusiliers North Chapel. A Crow
USA - Canadian singer producer, The Weeknd, was one of a number of artists performing at unusual outdoor settings in Manhattan to mark the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards.
His designated location was the rooftop of the new Edge observation deck at Hudsons Yard, 387m high, and consequently the highest in the Western Hemisphere. This presented challenges for lighting designer LeRoy Bennett and his long-serving collaborator, Jason Baeri; but with the help of GLP’s X4 Bar 20s, The Weeknd gave a dynamic rendering of Blinding Lights, the song which earned him gongs for Best R&B Video & Video of the Year.
Bennett worked closely with La Mar Taylor, The Weeknd’s creative director, to come up with the concept. GLP’s award-winning battens not only lit the stage platform but also lined the perimeter of the building’s triangular balcony architecturally. Wearing his signature red suit, black gloves and the bloodied face featured on the After Hours cover, the staging was in stark contrast to other artist sets featured on the show. “Where most relied on XR technology, [our concept] used no special effects; there was nothing virtual, it was all real.” But it had been an intense shoot.
As for the deployment of the X4 Bars, he said, “I liked the idea of a linear light and the X4 Bars were used to outline and define the space itself, to accommodate the helicopter shots from above. They also worked really well as keylights.”
Everything was run in white, with extreme brightness due to the nature of the event. “We created a sheet of whit
USA - Lighting design bridges gaps, connecting sometimes widely different elements, and fusing them into a unified whole. Jason Patsel of 81 Productions demonstrated this recently at a socially distant outdoor benefit show at the Five Points Music Sanctuary in Roanoke, VA, where he melded different eras and expanded space with help from a collection of Chauvet Professional Rogue fixtures.
For the Five Points benefit, Patsel lit a concert by the popular Pink Floyd tribute band Darkside Experience, a quintet that captures the essence of the British band with their evocative and challenging sound. Patsel‘s design reflect the quintet’s music and onstage persona with its bold colours and unsettling light angles.
However, with this being the third decade of the 21st century, and the band including its own contemporary flair in their performance, Patsel also wanted to add some distinctively modern touches to this show. The big challenge, as he recalls it, was to create an old school vibe without being old fashioned.
“Bringing old school music into the new age can be tricky,” he said. “I wanted to keep it low key, until the time was right. By not using gobos often, and keeping the focus out, I got that retro feel spotlight. Then, when I had a nice hard bridge in the music, I would snap the focus back in and go with a gobo that fit the mood.”
A new look that Patsel particularly favoured was what he called the “stairs”. He created this by having four different tilt positions for his six Rogue R1X Spot and six Rogue R1 Spot fixtures. “T
UK - Born from a disused china clay mine and a need for environmental sustainability education, Cornwall’s Eden Project was created in 2001. Eden has two large geometric bubble-like biomes, the Rainforest and the Mediterranean. The rainforest is the world’s largest indoor rainforest at 50m high and 16,000m2 and the Mediterranean houses some of the world’s rarest horticultural specimens.
For the second year, GLX Productions has designed and delivered the biome lighting for Christmas at Eden, using over 300 lighting fixtures, 3km of cable and 5km of fairy lights.
The dramatic landscapes of the biomes were lit in rich colours to create a compelling world of shadows and light. The crowning centrepiece of the Mediterranean Biome this year is a giant mirror ball casting a blizzard of snowflake-like points of silvery light across the giant structure.
The biomes themselves catch light well provided you have the right positioning throughout. The rainforest, due to its immense height, looks incredible when lit but does present its own challenges. Whereas the Mediterranean structure picks up light easily from the floor due to smaller plants, in the rainforest the vegetation is so thick it is borderline impossible to get light from the floor to the roof.
To combat this, 40 LEDJ Spectra Par 7Q8, 30 LEDJ Spectra Par 15Q8 and 35 LEDJ Spectra Flood 18T3 are deployed across the space. This picks up the intricacies of the plants from below and rig additional Chauvet Colorado Q40 Panels and Strike 1’s from the roof of the biomes to tie the entire
USA - Lakewood Baptist Church in Gainesville, Georgia has purchased two KLANG:fabrik immersive IEM mixing systems for use in its main worship sanctuary. The units were acquired through Production/Co, the Chestnut Mountain, GA-based AV systems integrator, which also installed the system earlier this year, readying it for when the church resumed live capacity-limited and socially distanced services last June.
Together, the KLANG:fabrik units provide a total of 32 inputs and 12 individual immersive IEM mixes for the church’s band members, connected through Lakewood’s existing DiGiCo SD9 FOH console.
“They had taken their existing in-ear monitoring solution as far as it could go - they needed a more flexible and sophisticated IEM solution, and the KLANG:fabrik was it,” says Cason Cleveland, owner of Production/Co.
“The ability for the musicians on stage to completely control their own mixes was important, because the church often relies on volunteers to mix services. Each musician having their own app onstage means that monitoring is one less thing the front-of-house mixer has to worry about, allowing them to focus on making the house sound as good as it can be.”
Cleveland says the SD9’s own intrinsic routing flexibility was of assistance here: he was able to assign a feed from the inputs from the stage to the KLANG units through the console, connected via MADI, giving the stage every input needed to create local mixes. “We just copied the input assignments internally on the SD9 and assigned that to the KLANG:fabrik units - it was
UK - When Ronald McDonald House Charities UK needed support to stage its Christmas fundraiser - A Starry Night - at Lambeth Palace last month, a fundraising group on Facebook recommended Absolute Events.
The charity supports families across the UK who need a warm and comfortable place to rest, eat and relax while their children are receiving hospital treatment. Like most charities, it has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, losing around 40% of its annual income - equating to around £6m.
Each year the charity stages an annual event at St Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar Square but due to the pandemic, this was unable to go ahead. Instead, the charity set about organising an outside concert with a limited audience but with a live stream so that the event, sponsored by Coca Cola Europe could be viewed around the world.
To support the complete process and enable RMHC UK to produce a high-end concert to both a live and virtual audience, Vanessa Simmons, head of community fundraising, brought Absolute Events on board. She explained: “This is the first time we’ve staged an outdoor concert and we needed to be confident that we were working with a team that really knew their stuff. Absolute Events were recommended to me through social media. From start to finish they were a joy to work with and we felt that they were just as invested in the event as much as we were in terms of how successful they wanted it to be.”
The event, which took place on the evening of the 15 December, saw guests greeted by a magical winter wonderland. Ente
Estonia - Pärnu Concert Hall in Estonia’s fourth-largest city is internationally renowned for its performance programme and has just taken delivery of new Robe moving light fixtures - eight T1 Profiles, six Tetra2 LED battens and four LEDWash 800s - which have been supplied through Tallinn-based Estonian distributor, E&T.
The striking modernist Concert Hall building constructed in 2002 and designed by architects K. Koov, K. Nõmm, H. Grossscmidth, offers two flexible halls - a main hall and a chamber hall - and a diverse concert schedule including - in normal times - a prestigious line up of visiting artists. It is also home to the Pärnu Music School and the Pärnu City Orchestra as well as hosting special events and civic celebrations in this seaside resort in southwestern Estonia.
Ave Martin is the head of lighting. She graduated from the Viljandi Culture Academy in 2003 having studied Theatre Lighting Design and has been working at Pärnu Concert Hall for about 12 years, where she is also the resident lighting designer.
The lighting rig upgrade had been planned for the early part of the year but was delayed until autumn due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They specifically needed versatile, silent running and flexible fixtures that would also save energy, so the T1 series - which is designed especially for theatre - was an appropriate choice for Ave and the venue.
Ave lights many of the shows herself. “The main hall needed some new, modern and high-quality lighting fixtures. As we stage so many different shows and events, this latest Ro
USA - The World Equestrian Centre in Ocala, Florida already occupies 380 acres and is ready to grow in the coming years on an additional 300 acres. When it opens in January 2021, visitors from around the country and from around the world will be able to stay in a five-star hotel or claim a site in an expansive RV park.
Over 2,000 stalls exist for the four-legged stars of the centre, and four indoor arenas and 17 outdoor arenas will showcase their talents.
International AV integration firm All Pro Integrated Systems, of Pensacola, Florida, designed, and is in the process of installing, the sound reinforcement systems for the centre, relying on Danley Sound Labs’ fidelity, coverage, and weather resistance for all mission-critical outdoor systems. By the time it opens, over 200 Danley loudspeakers and subwoofers will be in place, supported by dozens of multi-channel Danley DNA amplifiers with onboard DSP.
“The Roberts family [owners of the facility] and Vinnie Card, director of operations, made it clear at the beginning of our discussions that horses have very sensitive hearing and that the sound reinforcement system should not upset them or break their concentration,” said Mark Salamone, sales manager at All Pro Integrated Systems. “Think of the stress the horses are potentially under - many will have flown in from across the Atlantic and will be housed in unfamiliar stalls with unfamiliar neighbours. The Roberts family and Vinnie Card didn’t want the sound to be shrill or overly loud.
“Danley is our go-to. We know from experience w
USA - Hosted by Ana Brenda Contreras, Victor Manuelle and Yalitza Aparicio, the 21st Latin Grammy Awards were celebrated in late November to honour the cream of the Latin music scene.
This year saw a rather different format from the usual star-studded occasion due to the dictates of the COVID-19 pandemic: to ensure the safety of the artists and the production team, the nominees were showcased to the world in a remote, live broadcast by Univision from the American Airlines Arena in Miami, with breakout performances streamed from other cities throughout Latin America.
Despite the lack of a live audience, this year’s performances were no less glamorous, and the line up - which included the likes of Bad Bunny, Camilo, Kany García, J Balvin, Jesse & Joy, Natalia Lafourcade, Ricky Martin, Fito Páez and Carlos Vives all competing for Album Of The Year - were presented in their best light, bringing some much-needed joy and warmth to its worldwide viewing audience.
The Awards show’s lighting designer and director, Tom Kenny, operating from the Miami base, chose to enhance the appearance of the artists with the elegance and subtleties of a number of Robert Juliat Dalis 860 LED fixtures. Nine of the 8-colour LED battens were arranged at ground level in a horseshoe configuration bordering the front of the performing area, from where they were used as footlights and for low level front lighting.
With Music Makes Us Human as the evening’s theme, Kenny used the Dalis fixtures to bring a warmth and depth to the performers’ faces; Ricky Martin
France - Designed by architects Rudy Riciotti and Jean-Michel Battesti, 6MIC (pronounced ‘seismic’) in Aix-en-Provence has been turning heads since opening its doors for the very first time this summer. Its lichen-covered concrete structure - both a technical feat and a world first - is designed to give a mountain-esque appearance to the building, seamlessly blending into the natural landscape.
6MIC’s goal is to become an epicentre for music and culture throughout France. Therefore, they required a sound reinforcement system to reproduce various performance styles and keep a minimal carbon footprint. 6MIC chose to install L-Acoustics throughout all performance spaces to hit both of these goals.
Although structural work commenced in 2018, it was not until September the following year that the 6MIC technical team started working on the audio concept. With an ambitious goal of deploying sound equipment that would be of the highest calibre and future-proof, 6MIC technical director Rémi Droesch’s brief was simple: “We wanted the best sounding system.” After consulting with a number of premium loudspeaker manufacturers, L-Acoustics was retained by the 6MIC team for several reasons.
“Out of all the companies we spoke to, L-Acoustics ticked our boxes right from the outset,” explains Droesch. “First of all, the comprehensive loudspeaker range and excellent performance of L-Acoustics make it the best audio manufacturer we know. Price was equally important to us, and the L-Acoustics team provided a very competitive offer. Finally, following
UK - The technical team at the National Theatre have been working tirelessly since August to re-purpose its venues in the face of COVID-19 restrictions.
A COVID-secure performance of Dick Whittington in-the-round in a newly-configured Olivier theatre opened on 11 December - only to be closed shortly thereafter due to London’s tier three restrictions - whilst the Lyttelton Theatre has been temporarily transformed into a film studio for the upcoming Romeo & Juliet original film. In both instances, Martin MAC Encores from the theatre's in-house lighting resources proved highly flexible core fixtures in the respective lighting rigs.
"Our investment in MAC Encore units has proven invaluable over the last few months as the National Theatre has adapted to the current restrictions for live indoor performances.” commented Paul Hornsby, lighting resources manager, National Theatre. “We found with Dick Whittington that the units were called into use in a way not envisioned when we first bought them - big splashes of bold colour moving around the auditorium creating a magical environment for cast and audience alike. And again, in the Lyttelton Theatre, creating wonderful colour temperature controlled soft light boxes for filming Romeo & Juliet.”
For Dick Whittington, directed by Ned Bennett and with lighting design by Jessica Hung Han Yun, a total of 55 Martin MAC Encores are in the rig - comprising 31 x MAC Encore Performance Warm, 16 x Performance Cold and eight Warm Washes.
They are mostly positioned o
UK - Seen from a distance, the Steam Illumination Christmas Train appears like a rolling band of moving light cutting through the dark night as it rolls past the farms and fields of the Hampshire countryside. To those inside, the experience is even more magical, as they find themselves immersed in a rotating tunnel of brilliant colours and patterns.
Covered entirely by LED lights, this special 120m-long train seems like something out of a fantastical Hollywood Christmas movie suddenly come to life in South East England. In reality, however, it was the result of extensive of planning and hard work by the non-profit Mid Hants Railway's Watercress Line and a creative team that includes Simon Horn.
The owner of Purple Lighting in West Sussex, Horn was responsible for designing and programming the 78-universe Steam Illuminations lightshow with the help of his ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M console and MagicVis software. “This was the kind of project you become completely immersed in,” he said. “The Watercress Line typically has visits with Santa every December, but this year that was impractical because of COVID, so the foundation turned to something new.”
Horn spent two weeks programming and four months on background research for his show, which involved two Steam Illumination trains, each adorned with 14,000 individual fixtures. (Some fixtures are banked, so the console sees just shy of 10,000 heads and pixels.) He programmed roughly 1000 cues for his show, breaking them down into an internally timecoded cue stack for each section, which cover the inte
USA - Founded in 1980, The House in Modesto hosts dynamic services that bring the community together with live music acts, special events and a diverse pastoral team. The church's recent PA upgrade to an Adamson system is changing the way that congregants in the 1,800-capacity auditorium can experience worship. And while the pandemic limited live services temporarily, The House has kept the community close with online worship and outreach.
Jason Rightnour, audio director at The House, chose to install Adamson speakers in the auditorium after auditioning speakers from several other manufacturers. Rightnour was impressed by both the clarity and power of the Adamson product line: “I went to trade shows, conventions and speaker shootouts but I couldn't find a system that fit our needs until Adamson. Once I heard this PA, I was in shock with how clean the box sounded with its crystal-clear highs and no distortion."
As a church with a congregation of diverse age groups, it was important for the AV team that this new system provide quality sound without any tonal loss, harsh tones or distortion for both their regular services and special events like concerts or youth services, which tend to be run at a higher decibel level. With its minimal footprint, the Adamson system has also allowed the church to maintain great sight lines and a clean aesthetic in their auditorium.
The PA, installed by Clark Productions, includes two main arrays of eight boxes of S10; the top four boxes are S10n while the bottom four boxes are S10. Low-end coverage is provided by six
Australia - Hollywood heartthrob Channing Tatum’s popular dance show Magic Mike Live opened in Sydney on 17 December, with a dynamic all-new lighting design created by Philip Gladwell, using a rig supplied by TSL Lighting.
In contrast to its runs in London, Las Vegas and Berlin, the Australian production takes place in a specially-designed Spiegeltent named The Arcadia. For the Sydney dates, The Arcadia has been constructed in the city’s entertainment quarter in Moore Park. Within this ‘circus-like’ venue, the production team has created an immersive lighting experience that complements the energetic, exhilarating dance routines performed in the show. All of the action is performed in the round, facilitating acrobatic routines and synchronised 360° dance spectaculars that envelop the audience.
Gladwell, who has designed all versions of Magic Mike Live around the world, worked with TSL Lighting to specify the sizeable lighting rig, which uses some of the most powerful LED technology on the market.
“Gaz Clowes is our very talented and very hard-working production electrician, and he introduced me to TSL as he had worked with them on some projects before,” says Gladwell. “With a huge rig to source and supply, this was a challenging project in terms of lighting. I had a large wish list and some of the fixtures I wanted were non-negotiable, but TSL completely understood this and simply sourced them ready for use.
“Right from the start, it was clear that TSL really cares - it never felt like a business transaction, fa