UAE - Creative Technology (CT) was this year's official communications partner for the Mai Dubai City Half Marathon, which took place Friday 23 October at Dubai International Financial District. The event which saw more than 400 runners from over 40 countries take part was the first mass-running event to take place in the UAE since the start of the pandemic in March.
With a range of measures in place to ensure the safety of all participants, this year's marathon was able to have three different race categories ranging from 5km, 10km and 21km.
Adding to the event’s safety protocols, CT provided site-wide communication to support the event organisers across the 21km site. This enabled seamless communication between the event organisers and their teams while adhering to all social distancing parameters and guidelines.
The Mai Dubai City Half Marathon organisers received support from Dubai Sports Council, Dubai Police and the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in organising the event.
CT's Middle East integrated networks technical manager, Rob Turner comments, "As physical events start back up we are seeing an increase in demand for communication systems. What once was an afterthought on an event is now at the forefront of everyone's mind as people become more conscious to carefully manage people's movements. Our communication systems are helping clients provide a safe solution for event crew and delegates to communicate while adhering to socially distancing guidelines."
"Promoseven sports marketing (PSM) extend an acknowledgement of o
USA - Hunter Hughes and his crew at Scout Productions hadn’t worked on an event in well over six months, when they signed on recently to provide lighting and sound for a small outdoor country music show near Landsdale, PA.
“Although 10 years of experience certainly hasn’t been forgotten, it was good to be able to go back to a gig with familiar gear like Chauvet DJ’s ShowXpress, and the ease of use that’s associated with it,” said Hughes. “We are really comfortable working with ShowXpress, so it was nice have it on our ‘return gig’. We use many different fixture profiles with ShowXpress software. Having it at this event enabled us to programme our show quickly.”
Hughes worked his Xpress-Rack 1024 with a split power line that enables the unit to run without the need for a laptop by using pre-programmed cues with either the onboard buttons or via IR remote.
“The rack features True1 power in and out, three-pin DMX out with five-pin adapters that stay in our rack drawer, plus USB B 3.0 inputs for programming computers with the ability to run two 1024 units at the same time in one rack,” said Hughes. “The unit also features 15A Edison power outputs which run through our M8X power conditioner for protection. There are two available universes that the Xpress 1024 rack provides onboard as well as additional ArtNet universes available.”
Programming his show with this setup, Hughes created a variety of colourful looks on the open bandstand stage for the country quintet. A collection of six RGB washes that were hung upstage pr
UK - Having sat through one too many ‘tin-pot’ live performances during lockdown, a group of live event professionals have got together to create audio and video production service, AfterLive Music. Inspired to help bands, performers, record labels and promoters to present live performances in a way that provides audiences with an authentic and captivating ‘in the room’ viewing experience (whilst keeping within COVID-19 guidelines) performances are recorded, mixed and mastered with the help of Audient gear.
“It was our love of live music that brought us together, and drives us and this project forward,” says Adam Bonner, who along with Jamie Tinsley looks after all things audio. “We didn’t feel that early lockdown live performances were representing the artist in a good way at all. Poor audio quality was my biggest issue.” Adam has spent his last five years as FOH/PM for prog rock act, Haken and taking on high-end corporate work. Jamie, who has toured and mixed monitors for Rag’N’Bone Man, Sam Smith and Will Young was also keen to get back to ‘live’ work, as well as spend more time honing his studio recording techniques.
Handpicking his team, Adam set up at Subfrantic Production Services in Bromley, where AfterLive Music hires a purpose-built studio comprising three spaces: live room, green room and control/mix room. The audio is captured in the live room and recorded via Dante into two machines running Logic (main and backup), providing up to 64 channels of multitrack recording.
All of the post-production (audio and vid
USA - More than 55m viewers watched as President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden met for the final presidential debate at Belmont University. Bandit Lites supplied the university’s exterior and site lighting, illuminating the campus in striking patriotic and branded looks.
Lighting designer Chris Lisle designed the exterior event lighting, working to up light and enhance any building or structures that would be seen as part of the televised broadcast, including the two main entrances to the Curb Event Centre (where the debates took place), the Bell Tower (the main focus point of the campus) and the historic Freeman Hall (which boasts high visibility from Wedgewood Avenue).
Lisle contacted Bandit Lites vice president Mike Golden about a year prior, and even then he had a plan for the exterior. “To look back at that preliminary work seems more like a lifetime ago, but Chris’s specification remained solid and aside from the questions regarding the debate schedule, everything went according to plan,” said Golden.
The lighting was placed two weeks prior to the debate, meaning the fixtures would need to be hardy enough to survive the weather. Bandit Lites supplied more than 160 fixtures for the event.
“For overall building wash, I used the Elation Paladin,” explained Lisle. “Since its debut, it has been my go-to fixture for these type events. For column and building uplight, we used a mixture of the Elation SixPar IP and the Chauvet Solo Batten; both fixtures are super bright and gave us that punch we needed to accent
USA - Signalling the start of the new NFL season, The Killers staged a special, highly symbolic one-off performance of their anthemic Mr Brightside on the rooftop of Caesar’s Palace for the Las Vegas Raiders who have just moved into the newly completed Allegiant Stadium.
Produced for ESPN, the segment’s lighting design was created remotely by The Killers’ long-term lighting designer Steven Douglas, who included 43 x Robe MegaPointes and 14 CycFX 8 moving LED battens on the rig, supplied by lighting vendor LMG.
Steven was working from home in Ireland, unable to travel due to international restrictions during the Coronavirus pandemic. He received a brief about the look of the piece from director Dagen Merrill plus ESPN’s creative team, and his design was realised on site by lighting programmer and operator Josh Spodick and the LMG crew.
The brief specifically called for lots of glitzy beamy through-shots for this clip celebrating the new stadium and welcoming the Raiders to the new season.
A couple of weeks earlier, the band - who come from Las Vegas - had performed a special set in the same location including songs from their new album Imploding the Mirage for Radio 2’s Live at Home series. Prior to that, the band also streamed two shows from LMG’s extensive rehearsal space which has numerous such events since the pandemic began and effectively shut down the live events industry.
A small stage deck was built on the rooftop at Caesar’s Palace measuring 48ft wide and 16ft deep and 2ft high to elevate the
Germany - Johannes Spieß, project manager from technical specialist MKM Event Show Technik based in Darmstadt, launched a new initiative of his own –Bergstraße leuchtet (Bergstraße Lights) – to highlight some of the famous Bergstraße mountain route’s monuments, historical buildings and public spaces.
With events halted, normally busy rental company MKM had an abundance of lighting products including an extensive Astera inventory of AX3 LightDrops, AX5 TriplePARs and AX7 SpotLites sitting in the warehouse, so these were used to support all 12 of the lighting installations which were carefully crafted and delivered over a two month period.
Astera AX7s were used at all locations, culminating with a spectacular and innovative event at St. Peter’s church in Heppenheim.
“Everyone in the area knows and loves the highlighted buildings and spaces,” stated Johannes, “and with tasteful and well-planned lighting and the application of colour they were transformed and could be seen literally in a ‘different light’ each time, so people could enjoy and take away new perspectives from their immediate environment.”
He adds that in a time when events have not been possible, this was a safe and imaginative idea to provide something interesting in which people could engage.
“The Astera lamps are very efficient in saving setup time, and with the AX7s and AX5s being IP65 rated, we were also confident in using them irrespective of the weather.” Also, with less cabling needed, the team could take a smaller vehicle full of kit to the
USA - Fuse Technical Group turned to 13 disguise gx 2c media servers with Designer software and Sockpuppet control features to help deliver a home game feel for teams and fans at home, as the NBA resumed its season.
The NBA has set up a ‘bubble’ isolation zone at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida to enable professional basketball to resume in the US, while keeping players safe. Although spectators were not permitted in the stands at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex where the games were held, fans have been able to watch televised basketball once again.
“This was a totally new experience for the NBA as well as the teams involved,” says Charles Dabezies for Fuse Technical Group. “Our largest challenge was understanding how to adapt 22 different team’s shows for this new environment. Adapting a traditional basketball game to this layout was new for everyone.”
From July to October, the bubble has been host to the final games of the 2019–20 NBA regular season and the 2020 playoffs. Four production teams ran 33 scrimmage games and 88 regular season games across three courts, amounting to over 9,000 minutes of basketball broadcast to millions of viewers worldwide - making this one of the longest running live TV productions powered by disguise.
“We have a long history of deploying disguise on large-scale projects, so we knew we were picking the right tools for the job,” Charles notes.
Three basketball courts were created in the sports complex and giant wraparound LED video screens topped by graphics displays were
Spain - Producciones Yllana captures the swirl of emotions and music that surrounded violinist Niccolò Paganini’s life in Maestrissimo, a 90-minute show that is being performed before limited, socially distant audiences in Spain. Weaving together the action and music on stage, while also making performers comfortable in near-empty venues, is an immersive three-universe, 150-fixture lightshow created by Fernando Rodriguez Berzosa.
A longtime ChamSys user, Berzosa programmed his show on a MagicQ with a PCWing. He is running the show at venues throughout Spain on his MagicQ MQ80, and notes that the compact size of this console makes it an ideal traveling companion.
“Nowadays I always use a ChamSys for any project I am involved in,” said Berzosa. “My reason is simple: dependability. I can’t afford to have a console fail; that is why I always depend on my ChamSys. There are many other things I love about the ChamSys consoles, like how logical and user-friendly they are, but things always have to begin with dependability. This was my first show after the long lockdown, and it was comforting to have the MQ80 with me.”
Like the life and music of Paganini itself, the Maestrissimo moves through intense mood changes. Drama gives way to a comedic moment at one point, while frantic action settles into a soft contemplative scene the next. Being able to run his show smoothly has been essential to Berzosa, who praised the user-friendly features of his MQ80 with its 12-inch display.
“The Plan View Grids in the output window that al
Italy - The Arena di Verona recently hosted the RTL 102.5 Power Hits Summer 2020 while following the Covid-19 rules issued by the Italian government.
The event was held on 9 September, celebrating the singles with most radio plays during the summer. Several famous Italian singers took part in the event, performing on stage and filling the arena with their music.
Mod Srl, which is part of Rooster Srl, was in charge of the lighting project. Emilio Lombardi, owner of Mod Srl who oversaw the works, reports, “Because of the pandemic, the 2020 edition of the RTL Power Hits has been different compared to previous years. The stage was not on the south side of the arena. Instead, it was in the middle. The chairs that usually fill the grounds were removed to give us the chance to assemble the stage and to work safely. With those changes, it was equally important to make the event and the venue even more stunning than before. That's why the lights were key.”
Lighting designer Francesco De Cave drew up the list of the products and installed the fixtures himself. He picked Prolights SunBar 2000FC, EclCyclorama 100, SunBlast 3000FC, Stark 1000, SunRise 4, Solar and Luma 1500SH.
”The SunBlast and SunBar were mounted on the risers at the back of the stage, acting as the perfect lighting background needed for the cameras,” he says. “In my opinion, the EclCyclorama bars are very good asymmetrical projectors, perfect for backgrounds. In this specific production I used them to light up the musicians from downstage and avoid shadows under the chi
USA - Production and rental houses across the entertainment technology industry have had to think creatively in order to continue to serve the industry and stay in business. One of the more successful has been Synergetic of Bensalem, Pennsylvania, which has converted a portion of their warehouse to a professional TV studio for live streaming complete with a full Elation Professional lighting system.
President and CEO at Synergetic, Jason Weldon, says that opening the studio has allowed them to pivot from their usual business of supplying entertainment technology gear for live events in the Mid-Atlantic region. “We’ve been able to offer customers the ability to hold a virtual event in a professional setting,” he says while acknowledging that the redirection to a live streaming and professional recording space has also been an economic lifesaver. “While we’re not 100% or anywhere close to it, it has allowed us to stay in business and offer something unique, easy and useful for our customer base.”
Last spring, it took the team at Synergetic a month to solve how they were going to make the pivot to a TV studio space and another few weeks to educate and train themselves on the setup. “It’s a TV studio so it’s a different ballgame compared to our usual touring setup,” Weldon states. “Once it got out and people saw what could be done, our customers got excited. We’ve been able to give them a nice solution at an affordable price to hold a professional online event and importantly we were able to keep some jobs and pay some bills.”
South Korea - Located in the city of Paju, South Korea, CGV Paju Yadang is the latest movie theatre in South Korea opened by CJ CGV - the country’s largest multiplex cinema chain and the fifth largest in the world. Opened at the end of July 2020, it has five auditoriums, all with recliner chairs and Barco laser projectors.
The main auditorium features an Alcons pro-ribbon system, specified and supplied by specialist cinema company Yuyukorea Co, based in Seoul. It was installed by the company’s head engineer, Mr Kang.
“We helped the customer with A/B demonstrations of different systems,” he says. “They were very satisfied with the Alcons Audio demo, saying ‘We love the HF from the pro-ribbon tweeter and could definitely hear a cleaner sound than from other systems’. They made an instant decision after the demo to choose the Alcons system.”
The system comprises three CR4 (three RBN401 4” HF, 2x 6.5” MF, two 15” LF) large-format screen systems for the main left, centre, right channels, with two CB362 (2x 18”) high-output full-size subwoofer systems and 18 CRS8 (1x RBN401 4” HF, 1x 8” LF) medium-format reference surround. The system is powered and controlled by two Sentinel3 and two Sentinel10 amplified loudspeaker controllers.
“It is very rare in South Korea that an independent movie theatre chain chooses high-end audio like an Alcons pro-ribbon system, but the customer is very happy,” says Mr Kang. “It is not only the quality they feel and hear from the system, but also the response of movie-goers.
“Staf
Mexico - At the start of 2020, Ana Casillas released Tú a tu vida y yo a la mía which roughly translates to ‘You To Your Life, Me To Mine’. It is an apt title for the Baja California born singer at this point in her career, as she sets out the path to interpret regional and traditional Mexican music in a bold new way.
Drawing on her Michoacan and Jaliscience roots, she has worked with renowned composers and executive producer Juan Páez, Casillas to create a sound that builds on traditional music that celebrates the majesty and beauty of Mexican culture.
Casillas’ new sound was on full display this summer when she recorded a video at the Morelos Theatre in Toluca. Reflecting her music with intensely dynamic and colourful looks was a lightshow that featured the Maverick MK3 Wash, Maverick MK 1 Hybrid, Maverick MK3 Profile, Maverick MK3 Spot and Rogue R3 Spot from Chauvet Professional.
The impressive stage of the theatre was dressed in colours to complement Casillas’ interpretations of Mexican music, which were supported by melodies from the Mariachi Selección Especial company. The theatre staff were particularly impressed by the power of the equipment of the Maverick MK3 Profile with its 820 W LED. This fixture’s adjustable CRI helped the design team achieve optimal lighting to match the tones of skin and colourful costumes.
With the intention of continuing the promotion of her new album and in honour of the national holidays that are celebrated in September, Ana Casillas later streamed a performance from the Chauvet Profess
China - A watch tower that overlooks China’s second-longest river - the Yellow River - is lit by Christie laser projectors for a light show aimed at promoting Yellow River culture and boosting the local cultural tourism industry.
Located in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province, the 90m high Yellow River Tower is the centrepiece of a night-time extravaganza titled The Great Lanzhou, which made its official debut on 29 September ahead of China’s 71st National Day celebrations. The outdoor show features 3D projection mapping, stage lighting, lasers, atmospheric effects and live performances to tell the story of the Yellow River basin - birthplace of ancient Chinese civilisation, and the most prosperous region in early Chinese history.
Projection is accomplished by Christie’s newly-appointed distributor Zhongqing Yingye Group using 32 Christie 1DLP and 3DLP laser projectors comprising DWU2022-HS and Crimson WU31 models featuring Christie BoldColor Technology, which offers enhanced colour performance and saturation. They are strategically installed to deliver bright and colourful visuals on the Yellow River Tower’s eastern face, as well as the grand stairway and podium in front of it.
A spokesperson for Zhongqing Yingye Group said: “We are proud to be involved in this landmark 3D projection mapping light show that highlights the history, culture and development of the Yellow River and Lanzhou. Christie’s high-brightness HS Series and Crimson Series laser projectors, known for their long-lasting solid-state illumination in a rugged and
Australia - The 2020 Parrtjima Festival of Light at Alice Springs in Australia’s Northern Territory provided a rare reminder of the community, camaraderie, magic and imagination evoked by lighting art.
Moved from its original April slot to September, the 10-day event organised by the Northern Territories Major Event Company (NTMEC), and produced and curated by AGB, went ahead due to the state’s successful Covid-19 management strategy.
Featuring a carefully picked collection of amazing and fun light artworks together with a spectacular nightly lightshow designed by Richard Neville from Mandylights delivered to a locally produced soundtrack, 80 x Robe MegaPointes were used to throw lighting and effects onto a section of the West MacDonnell mountain range.
The lighting equipment was supplied by Melbourne-based MPH Australia, who have been involved as event suppliers for moving lights, LED, and other specialist fixtures in conjunction with Mandylights, for the last four years.
The first year MPH was involved, their Robe BMFLs were utilised for the task of lighting the mountains. However, in 2018 these were all in Jakarta on the Asian Games, so MPH’s founder and MD Matt Hansen made a decisive investment in the MegaPointes.
When the new Parrtjima 2020 dates were confirmed as going ahead, Matt and his team re-prepped everything in their Melbourne HQ – it had been two days away from loading for the original dates when lockdown was imposed – and the kit journeyed from Victoria by rail, while Matt and MPH’s production manager Michael
Germany - The Mercedes-Benz Classic Centre in Fellbach is the official Mercedes-Benz showcase for classic cars and is a must-visit for any car enthusiast. It offers original parts, repairs, restoration and information for historical Mercedes-Benz vehicles that have been out of production for at least 15 years.
Mad Music Event Technology of Stuttgart was called on to upgrade a portion of the vehicle lighting at the Classic Centre and chose a large number of full-colour Elation Professional KL Panel LED softlights for the job.
The KL Panel creates soft white or full-colour washes of up to 24,000 lumens at a 100° half-beam angle. According to Mad Music CEO Mathias Bremgärtner, the decision to go with the KL Panel was because of the "very good options for colour temperature adjustment, the very good CRI value, the excellent homogeneous coverage and the exact colour rendering of the vehicle paint."
USA - Spanning 14 floors and featuring dining options, a gym, more than 3,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, and a rooftop pool with a terrace bar, cabanas, and a fire pit, the Canopy by Hilton Downtown is a boutique lifestyle hotel in Tempe, AZ, USA.
To provide sound reproduction throughout the venue, management invested in the installation of a healthy assortment of loudspeaker systems drawn from catalogue of Valencia, Spain-based DAS Audio.
Skinny’ Greg Gilman, who is involved in a wide range of music and sound endeavours, including both work as a DJ and as an AV installation professional, was contracted to manage the Canopy’s sound system installation. Working in conjunction with Oakland Park, FL-based TM Sound, an AV design/build firm, the combined team deployed an assortment of DAS loudspeakers that drew from the company’s Quantum, Ovi, and WR Series catalogues.
“The hotel’s entrance is equipped with two black DAS Quantum Q-43-T loudspeakers and, due to installation limitations, we got creative and installed them facing the building so they reflect in the high-rise entryway,” Gilman reports. “Just past the front desk is the lobby, which also doubles as the first restaurant/bar. This space was fitted with ten white Ovi-12s, suspended 14ft above the concrete floors and 2ft from the ceiling, providing equal coverage for Alter Ego (the restaurant & bar) and Myrtle Corner (a lounge/waiting area) - without the undesired reflections from a nearby large room with glass garage doors.
“We also managed to hide four Q-10 subwoofers
USA - The oldest, continuously operating motor race track in the USA has seen its share of historic moments since it opened in 1904. But on 18 September, the Fairgrounds Speedway gave lockdown-weary Nashvillians a chance to ride off into the future when it served as the site of Tempo Presented By Eamotion, a 60-minute drive-through experience that engaged the senses with an immersive array of sights and sounds.
Entering the track’s winding two-mile course, visitors were greeted by a dazzling mosaic of colourful images created by a sea of sparkling lights, along with over 2,000 video panels and 400ft wide projection mapped surfaces. Tying this panorama together was a matrix of laser light that seemed to envelop the entire course in its glow.
Dustin L Derry programmed and ran the laser show on his ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium console. “This was an exciting project to be involved with,” said Derry, the owner of Stonewolf Studios. “Erik Anderson of Eamotion and Cour Designs, the creative force behind this project invited me to participate and I jumped at the chance to work with such a highly regarded team on something that has never been tried before, at least not on this scale. The future potential of this concept is incredible.”
Derry programmed the show “as I would any other laser project.” Putting his show on a 60-minute timecode loop, he had 825 unique laser lighting cues, which were triggered via a single timecode stack. (For some of the more complex sequences, he had some cues reference other smaller cue stacks.)
Descri
USA - Combo’s modern approach to hostelling has materialised into an ambitious architectural and urban redevelopment project that has already opened its doors in Venice, Milan and Turin and is scheduled to extend to other Italian cities very soon. Here, travellers are greeted by airy common spaces, a trendy bar and eatery, and relaxed workspaces with several dedicated event, exposition and meeting spaces. There is also music throughout most of the common areas, thanks to a Genelec sound system.
Far more than the hostels of old, Combo bills itself as a cultural hub for citizens of the world, combining hospitality with music. The hostels in Turin and Milan boast their own radio booths, which broadcast full time in the hostels and online, and all sites offer rooms equipped with AV technology to host talks, screenings, live sets, listening sessions, art workshops and more. The AV systems across all three sites were conceived by Italian AV specialists Advicted and supplied by local Genelec AV distributor Prase Engineering.
Combo’s reception, restaurant, bar and public areas all boast a Genelec sound system based on the ubiquitous 4000 Series installation loudspeakers. These active loudspeakers were specifically requested by Advicted founder Salvatore Brigaglia for their combination of clean Nordic design and characteristic crystal-clear sound, and welcomed by architect Ole Sondresen. Dozens of 4030 and 4040 loudspeakers were chosen in black, whilst a number of smaller 4020s were selected in white.
"Genelec was an all-around quality choice,” says
Austria - With this year’s Summer Night Concert, an event that has been taking place since 2004, the Vienna Philharmonic wanted to send a signal of hope in the year of coronavirus. As a result, the concert went ahead - albeit with a small number of spectators on site - as a live broadcast event on the TV channels ORF2 and 3SAT.
The concert production itself, under the direction of Valery Gergiev, and featuring soloist Jonas Kaufmann, had to be optimised for television broadcasting. With highly experienced DoP Jerry Appelt at the helm, the production was able to fall back on a proven concept.
“The Summer Night Concert had already been broadcast on TV in previous years, so we didn't have to reinvent the wheel in terms of TV-compatible lighting,” stated Appelt.
For the important white light, he opted once again for the GLP impression S350 and S350 Wash. “The S350s are really an excellent solution when it comes to lighting specific situations,” said the designer. “I've been using them continuously over a long period. Their extremely beautiful, camera-compatible white light is usually the best choice.” As in 2019, he again set the S350 to the keylight positions, while the S350 Wash in the lower stage area gently brightened the entire stage scene.
Oliver Schwendke, key account manager at GLP, confirms that there is currently increasing demand for the impression S350, especially in the TV sector. “The feedback from this sector has been excellent and we are pleased to announce that the models are currently in active deman
Romania Two luxury hotels from an eventual complex of three have just been opened by Romanian-based Phoenicia Hotels Group in the popular coastal resort of Olimp / Mangalia.
Operating under the Phoenicia Blue View brand, the first two - Belvedere and Panoramic - which will flank the Amfiteatru Hotel when it opens next year, have been equipped with Martin Audio’s Adorn loudspeaker series.
These were supplied by Martin Audio’s long-term partner, Paradigma Teknik, who were awarded the contract.
Traditionally a popular tourist destination, the hotels had been closed for more than 20 years and became derelict until the Phoenicia Group purchased and rebuilt the original structures, investing €35m (a figure that is expected to rise to €50m by the end of 2021).
Paradigma have called on the powerful Adorn A55T several times on projects since its launch early last year, and along with the A40T these have been perfect for the outside terraced areas, installing over 50 of the two transformer based products, finished in white. They have been weatherised courtesy of Martin Audio’s AIPKIT weatherised cover, which upgrades these speakers to IP44 rating.
Explaining the layout, Paradigma project designer, Marius Craiu, said that all three hotels were designed to create an overall amphitheatre, which will be completed with the arrival of the Amfiteatru Hotel. While this is being built over six levels the two on either side occupy three levels only, with a total room capacity of 769. “When the complex was originally built, it was considered an a
USA - Now into its third year, Nights of the Jack is a Halloween experience which sees the historic King Gillette Ranch in the Santa Monica mountains of Los Angeles filled with thousands of hand-carved jack-o’-lanterns. Arranged into themed displays, the pumpkins are further enhanced by colourful background lighting from ADJ IP65-rated LED wash fixtures as well as smoke and bubble effects from ADJ atmospheric generators.
Named after King C. Gillette, founder of the Gillette razor brand, who owned and developed the land in the 1920s, the King Gillette Ranch is a 588-acre site in the Calabasas region of Los Angeles that is now owned and operated by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority.
Having successfully launched in 2018 and experienced considerable growth last year, Nights of the Jack 2020 was put in jeopardy – as with so many events – by Covid-19. In past years the attraction had a walkthrough format, with crowds of visitors strolling between the displays at their own pace. However, there was no way that would be allowed to happen in 2020. Fortunately, the organisers were able to pivot the attraction to provide visitors with a fun family activity that is also fully COVID-secure.
“For a long time we weren’t sure if Nights of the Jack was going to happen or not this year, because LA county is pretty locked down,” explains lighting designer, Michael Hoffman. “Then in July we did a site visit with the owners and creators of the show - Ben Biscotti, Bobby Rossi and Tony Shubert - and they came up with the idea of transitioni
USA - Foo Fighters recently played the #SOSFest livestream with Brit Row providing the virtual remote mixing solution. Performing at West Hollywood’s Troubadour, the gig was streamed to fans on 18 October as part of a collective action weekend in support of independent US-based music venues.
A total of 35 artists - including Miley Cyrus, The Roots, Major Lazer and Leon Bridges - played in multiple venues in cities across the US and joined the Foo Fighters in raising awareness and funds to keep North America’s cherished independent concert venues from closing indefinitely.
Named #SOSFest, the three-day virtual music festival was created to support the Save Our Stages initiative and America’s National Independent Venues Association’s (NIVA) Emergency Relief Fund. NIVA’s YouTube hosted the festival, with individual sets also aired on artist channels.
Prior to the gig, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl told Forbes why raising awareness is vital: “The smaller music venues are the ones that are really struggling and are not only culturally important, they are emotionally important.”
The LA-based rock band’s production team had just five days to produce an unforgettable show for the cause. With the pressure on to deliver a clear message, the long-time clients of Britannia Row Productions were in capable hands when travel restrictions called for a creative approach to their traditional monitor set up.
Monitor engineer Ian Beverage - the band’s longest serving crew member - was unable to travel from his home in Canada t
Israel - Established in 1991, Mandel Cultural Centre is a community space located in the Jaffa region of Israel. The centre caters to the needs of the local community, and because of its prime location beside one of the largest stadiums in Israel, it is in high demand for private functions.
For this project TechTop Marketing, importer of professional audio equipment, worked with installers Charmer Group installers to upgrade the facility's audio system using LEA Professional solutions.
“Once Charmer Group recognised the team behind LEA Professional, they knew the technology and solutions provided would be nothing short of revolutionary,” explained Shimon Pick, director at TechTop Marketing. “LEA has a huge depth of pro audio experience behind them, and going into a significant local project like this, that level of expertise is incredibly reassuring to all parties involved."
What initially started as a system upgrade led to a complete new install in the centre with Charmer Group choosing four Connect Series amplifiers from LEA Professional, including three Network Connect CS704 amps, and one Network Connect CS352. Suited for small- to-medium scale installations, these two-, four-, and eight-channel amps feature direct HiZ (70V or 100V) or LoZ selectable by channel. With three ways to connect, integrators can engage the built-in Wi-Fi access point, connect to the venue’s Wi-Fi, or use the FAST Ethernet to connect to any local area network via Cat5 or Cat6 cable.
Mandel Cultural Centre is a 200-person multifunctional space that is split
Italy - A Lawo 24-fader mc²36 All-in-One console and two compact Lawo stageboxes are at the heart the new 4K OB truck that Lawo partner ARET Video & Audio Engineering has designed and built for a Middle East customer. The Gulf state client manages a culture-based television channel in addition to various tourist, cultural and media activities, and plans to expand into the filming of sporting events.
The new OB van features a layout that maximizes internal space while allowing interoperability between all three operational areas: the main production area, with monitor wall, slow motion equipment and character generator stand, the Audio room, with its custom acoustic insulation, and the engineering and camera control area with control of up to eight cameras via fiber-optic connection, plus two wireless cameras. Each of these areas, including the racks, has its own independent air conditioning system optimized for the area’s tough weather conditions, ensuring operation under any climate conditions.
The OB van’s video workflow is complemented by an audio system just as sophisticated. A fibre Ravenna IP connection to two Lawo Compact I/O stageboxes ensures maximum flexibility during remote productions and dramatically reduces cabling infrastructure needed to send audio back to the truck - without sacrificing sound quality. The van’s mc²36 console interfaces directly with the video router via MADI, giving router operators direct access to all audio signals, plus the powerful audio signal processing toolbox offered by Lawo.