UK - Women in Data, the UK’s largest female data professional event, pulls in over 1,000 attendees from around the world. Held within the surroundings of the InterContinental, London O2 on the banks of the River Thames, WiD features keynote presentations from a host of guest speakers.
Having worked with Light Fantastic Production Services on a succession of previous events, WiD once again called upon the team to provide a complete technical, equipment and logistics production solution, custom designed to cover all aspects of the prestigious conference.
Branding for 2019 Women in Data was characterised by red to signify confidence, ambition and drive. Following this theme, LFPS applied bold, crimson hues throughout the stage set and lighting design, emphasising the colour as a symbol of strength and vitality. Continuing the look, the team extended the lighting design into the auditorium to create a more intimate feel within the space.
With a limited time frame in which to build the event, LFPS worked throughout the night to transform the hotel’s Arora Ballroom, taking care of all lighting, audio, video, rigging and scenic elements ready for the 9am start.
At its focal point, the main stage featured a sharp, smart design conceived around a central ‘W’ concept and flanked with distinct WiD branding and sponsor graphics. Designed in-house and constructed by the LFPS fabrication department, the scenic elements added depth and form to the substantial stage area.
WiD co-founder Roisin McCarthy says: “Once again Light Fantastic deliver
France - For a major project in France, several hundred meters of Milos M290 Quatro truss took on a strong supporting role. It took on a total of seven supporting roles, for seven TV studios, in four buildings, on the Altice Media Group campus in the French district of Porte de Versailles, Paris. The Altice Media Group campus hosts a total of up to 6,000 students per day and supports the activities of the news organizations Libération, L'Express, and 01 Net.
In 2016, the Altice Media Group needed to expand the number of studios on its campus and held a national tender for the construction of seven new studios in four buildings. The company who won the tender for this massive TV project was Red Bee Media, a sister company of Ericsson. Red Bee is the system integrator of NextRadio TV, a sister company of Altice Media Group, and manages the activities of seven TV channels in France: BFMTV, BFM Business, BFM Paris, I24 News, RMC, RMC Découverte and RMC Sport.
Working together with Red Bee Media for this project was Eric Brancherie (TV lighting designer for NextRadio TV), who was responsible for selecting and sourcing all materials in the construction of the seven studios.
A total of € 2.5m was budgeted just for the lighting (light, trussing, wiring, installation). The cost for the studio, control board, video equipment, control room and audio components were in addition to this amount.
For a project of this size and importance, Eric needed to source his studio materials from a supplier he could trust and that had a proven track record. The c
UK - The Taunton Amateur Operatic Society’s costumes for Cats provided the inspiration for Chris Sealy’s lighting design for their production of the musical at the Brewhouse Theatre.
“The costumes were amazing,” explains Sealy. “I was lucky because the cast wore them to the rehearsals. So when I went to watch, I was able to see them in the flesh, which aided me greatly in selecting colours for my lighting. Every cat in the play tells a different story, each with a different feel, and that of course is tied tightly into the different costumes.”
Helping Sealy accent the costumes and enhance the unfolding narrative on stage with light was a collection of six Chauvet Professional Maverick MK2 Profile fixtures supplied by Bright Production Services. Hung on overhead electrics, the 440W LED fixtures were used as as a primary light source.
Adroitly mixing colours, Sealy relied on the fixtures not only to light the play’s memorable characters, but also to bring out the unique personalities that lay within their costumes, using cool whites to accent the tuxedoed Mr. Mistoffolees, casting evocative hues on striped felines, and endowing Rum Rum Tugger with a radiant golden glow.
“The colour rendering capabilities of all my fixtures were especially important,” says Sealy. “Coping with the mood changes in Cats is a challenge. Oftentimes, I would get around this with a colour change, or a shift from front light to side light.
“Basically, all of the Maverick’s many features came into play. I created moods using
UK - Liverpool-based production specialist Adlib continued its working relationship with vocal harmony group The Overtones, supplying lighting equipment and crew to their latest UK tour, supporting LD and set designer Neil Holloway.
Adlib has been an equipment supplier for the band since their career took off in 2010, and it’s been a great journey for all involved to see the band’s success. Neil, now a busy freelance designer working internationally for a diverse range of clients, was working full time for Adlib back in 2010, and that’s also where his association with The Overtones started.
Understated elegance and a gentle symmetry defined the set which comprised of a central staircase flanked by two risers each side for the band, plus four signature big band art deco set pieces.
There was no video on the tour, but an Overtones LED sign at the back - custom built by Light Initiative - set the scene, positioned just in front of a silver lamé Austrian curtain from Adlib’s drapes inventory.
Every lighting fixture on the rig had to be multi-purpose and work hard in several different contexts to earn its place on the tour.
The core moving light fixtures - Robe Spikies for the beams and Martin MAC Auras for the LED washes - were selected for their small size, power, and functionality.
Twenty-four Spikies were distributed on the back and mid trusses, 12 on each, while six of the 10 Auras were on the floor, three per side, for low level cross stage washes, with the other four on Manfrotto stands for cross lighting the band standi
USA - The historic Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro, California, is an opulent art deco venue that is moving into a new era of performance excellence with the help of Kinetic Lighting and Elation Professional’s theatrical-grade Artiste DaVinci LED moving head.
Originally opened in 1931 and listed on the National Historic Register, the 1500-seat theatre features a vaudeville-size proscenium stage with T-guided fly system that makes it an ideal venue for concerts, dance performances, multimedia presentations, film screenings or any cultural event.
Great strides have been made in recent years to restore the theatre, with a lighting upgrade the latest in a series of on-going improvements. Kinetic Lighting worked with the Warner Grand and the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs to convert the theatre from conventional lighting to an entirely LED-based system, assisted by Victor Prudeaux, master Electrician at the theatre.
Seeking to achieve the technical sophistication of a contemporary performing arts venue while maintaining its historic integrity, a highlight of the new lighting package are Artiste DaVinci LED moving heads, full-featured spot luminaires and the first moving lights the theatre has ever owned.
Spread across box booms, the deck and overhead electrics, the award-winning DaVinci is an energy efficient CMY and graphics luminaire with a 300W LED engine and 7° to 48° motorized zoom that powers out over 12,000 lumens. “They will be able to make more artistic choices now that they have not only the functionality of moving
Mexico - Drone light shows specialist Verge Aero has delivered Mexico’s first drone light show. Working with local partner Sky Precision, Verge Aero provided a system of 150 drone lights to create moving, colour-changing pictures in the sky to open the performance by Dutch DJ Martin Garrix, marking Mexico’s Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) at the FIG19 hot-air balloon festival.
Founded in 2002, the FIG (Festival Internacional del Globo) hot-air balloon festival, which takes place each year in the city of León in central Mexico, has become one of the leading balloon events in the world. This year, organisers were keen to provide a cutting-edge visual treat for visitors and called on Sky Precision to deliver it. Taking up the challenge, specialists from Verge Aero and Sky Precision created custom choreography to accompany a set of four songs, including an opening number by Mexican guitar maestros, Rodrigo y Gabriella.
Escandra Salim Alle, CEO of FIG, says: “We are excited to have hosted the first drone show ever here in Mexico. The show content was amazing, Verge Aero did an excellent job. The enormous crowd loved the drone show and our social media had a blast.”
As with every public drone light show, safety was the primary concern for all involved. Emerging from their protected safe landing zone, the drones took to the air to create colourful, dynamic, pre-choreographed movements and shapes including guitars, balloons, flowers - and the grinning Día de Muertos skull - in the sky above the performance stage.
Israel Canino, CEO of Sk
UK - White Light recently supplied the Royal Albert Hall with a range of Martin MAC Encore fixtures, continuing the phased upgrade of the in-house lighting rig.
As it hosts concerts on an almost nightly basis, the venue houses its own in-house kit which is used by incoming shows. The rig has to be flexible in order to adapt to such a varied programme, as well as needing to be energy efficient and sympathetic to the needs and requirements of a wide range of different lighting designers and productions. The existing ETC Source Four Revolutions, whilst having served their time very well, were due for replacement in line with the Hall’s ongoing replacement programme. As a result, the venue approached WL in order to invest in some LED alternatives for these new fixtures.
WL’s business development manager Jonathan Haynes explains: “I met up with lighting design manager Richard Thomas who told me about their existing set up and what he was looking for to replace the ageing Source Four Revolutions. The main priority was that the new fixtures were LED and provided a tungsten colour match that was at least as bright as the fixtures they were replacing. They also needed to be quiet, as well as have the ability to provide a high output in cool white to cut through the rest of the rig for aerial work.”
WL put forward a range of options and held an on-site demonstration at the Royal Albert Hall for the lighting team to see each one in situ. Haynes explains: “It is so important to shoot out fixtures in the venue for which they are intended, to see how t
Poland - When production, lighting and multimedia designer, Pawel ‘Spider’ Pajak, and PERCEPTO [LAB] - the team responsible for creative visual production - were approached by production company, East Eventz, to design and deliver creative solutions for a one-off concert, they chose Ayrton MagicPanel-FX and Khamsin-S fixtures to provide contemporary, densely-coloured and dramatic effects for this very special evening.
The two-artist concert featured singer Dawid Podsiadlo and rapper Taco Hemingway, and was the first sold-out gig for Polish artists in the history of Warsaw’s PGE Narodowy Stadium, attracting an attendance of 60,000 people.
Spider chose Ayrton’s state-of-the-art technology - 64 MagicPanel-FX and 44 Khamsin-S fixtures, supplied by Transcolor - after many successful years using the brand: “I have also adopted Ayrton’s range of more classic, but still distinctive, moving lights, starting first with Ghibli, and this year added one of the latest releases, Khamsin-S, and I want the brand to become even more available in the Polish market,” he explains. “I’ve been able to rely on Ayrton fixtures for several years on so many different productions, from club tours and special events, right up to large scale stadium shows.”
The MagicPanel-FX units were hung in four groups of 16 pieces each on separate truss structures run by Kinesys motors and used for various truss looks, both as lighting effects and in combination with the video content as low-res screens.
The Khamsin-S fixtures were rigged on four straight trusses
UK - Lighting designer Jacob Gowler took the opportunity to use Robe’s new T1 Profiles and LEDBeam 150s for the first time on a Cambridge Theatre Company (CTC) production of the crime-and-passion fuelled musical Chicago (High School Edition), staged over six performances in the 337-seat Great Hall at The Leys School in Cambridge.
CTC was founded in 2015 by Louis Ling to offer a range of opportunities for performers - young and old - to participate in high-quality theatre, and it now performs to over 9000 people annually. Since 2017, CTC has developed its focus on the youth community, and by working with professional directors, LDs, choreographers and musical directors, enables its young performers to experience unique opportunities to develop their skills.
For this production, the professionals were Jacob, director Chris Cuming, set and costume designer Frankie Gerrard and sound designer Nick Hall. It was the first time that CTC had worked with a professional lighting and set designer as part of the creative team.
Jacob was asked onboard for this project by Louis Ling. Jacob specified the Robe elements, which were supplied by rental company CEG and used in conjunction with the Great Hall’s mainly LED-based house lighting rig.
Of the seven T1 Profiles, five were in the overhead rig, three for backlight and two as a top light over the set following its V shape. Two more were positioned out front in the house, all in high positions.
Two LEDBeam 150s were rigged on the circle rail and two in the ‘under slip’ positions beneath
UK - The Tony Award-winning Best Musical Dear Evan Hansen opened in London 19 November at the Noel Coward Theatre with video projection comprising the shows entire stage scenery.
Supplied by Stage Sound Services, three disguise vx 4 and four gx 1 servers powered projections for the show, highlighting the impact of social media on daily life and create an immersive social media environment on stage for the actors.
“The cornerstone of the play is Evan and his interaction with the real world through a social media lens,” says projection designer Peter Nigrini. “To successfully tell our story, social media needed to be a visceral part of the theatrical environment. After the set designer created a physical environment, my job was to bring this virtual world to life on stage and give it the emotional power that so many teenagers clearly feel in their day to day lives.”
Every surface of the playing space can be covered by content. Display surfaces include a front projection system, a series of portals and tracking panels, flat-panel LCD monitors and the stage floor. Eight projectors and 32 monitors are deployed.
Nigrini notes that, “every piece of scenery that moves in the design is automated, and we can track it in real time. In moving the show to London we were also able to pre-visualise the entire production in New York, make decisions about automation and scenery in response to the changed dimensions of the London production. We were able to feed this back to other departments so it could all be pre-programmed. Integration with
USA - The Gaylord National Resort & Convention Centre in National Harbor, Maryland near the nation’s capital likes to celebrate Christmas in a big way. Set in the property’s 19-story glass garden atrium with its views of the river, Christmas on the Potomac is the hotel’s myriad holiday installation crowned by Cirque Dreams Unwrapped, a six-week-long, 25-minute Christmas fable combining artistry and showmanship from around the world with Christmas music, a dancing fountain, laser-light show and indoor snowfall.
Bringing this production sonically alive was the task of an L-Acoustics Kara system, designed and installed by Showtime Sound LLC of Frederick, Maryland. The system was split between the atrium’s lower and upper terraces: the former comprised a left-right design of one SB18 subwoofer ground-stacked with five Kara enclosures per side to cover the ticketed seating areas, and a flown LCR delay system of three hangs of one SB18 over seven Kara for standing and balcony areas.
Six LA12X amplified controllers powered the delay system while three LA12X were used for the ground-stacked enclosures. The system also used the L-Acoustic P1 processor for system management, routing, and time alignment, as well as for its AVB compatibility for long-distance signal transport. Audio came into the P1’s AES inputs and was sent as AVB over fibre to the amplified controllers.
Showtime Sound LLC had two distinct challenges on this project. “The atrium is huge,” explains Showtime Sound LLC director of operations and production Brian Li
UK - Rising British singer and rapper Little Simz played her flagship show at London’s Kentish Town Forum in December, making video a priority for the first time to enhance her show for the tour’s largest audience.
Production AV was brought on board by Little Simz’s production manager, Eric Wade of EZ Services, who was on the lookout for a new video supplier. Wade was keen to ramp up the visual effect of the show and capture quality footage, not only for live stage to IMAG screens, but also for use in promo material.
“We had a pretty tight schedule to implement the video aspects for the biggest show of the tour and going with Production AV made perfect sense,” says Wade. “We wanted to give everyone in the audience the same experience, regardless of whether they were on the balcony or tucked away some place where sight lines weren’t so great.
“Production AV were quick to meet, quote and crew the show. The efficiency of their work, the fluid nature of the crew and the fact that they were all stand up people made the overall experience very pleasant.”
Technical project manager Nathan Dunbar, who joined Production AV in 2019, oversaw the delivery and execution of the video solution, drawing on his experience on some of Europe’s largest AV projects including Glastonbury and the MTV Europe Music Awards and tours for artists such as Fall Out Boy.
“Production AV was brought on board because we understand the challenges of live music video in a demanding environment,” says Dunbar. “You only get one chance to make it per
Slovakia - Bratislava’s new year celebrations, held in the heart of the Slovakian capital at the Rázusovo nábrežie (the banks of the River Danube) were brought to life by a spectacular lightshow masterminded by Kvant Show Production.
The laser specialists, who are also PR Lighting’s distributor for Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia, have been the event lighting contractors since the concept was introduced three years ago, and in addition to their own lasers, 24 pieces of PR Lighting’s Aqua 580 Beam helped provide a spectacular show as the city counted down to 2020.
Organised by Biela Noc (White Night), the artistic department of the Slovakia and Bratislava municipality, a crew of around 25 people were responsible for creating the infrastructure, including Layher structures, lighting, sound and lasers, and all programming.
This year’s event was based on an original design from Brano Bernar of Showmedia, with lighting and laser choreography and programming this year undertaken by Kvant’s Martin Gabco. The main timecode show lasted seven minutes and was designed as the countdown show for the midnight new year celebration.
The PR Lighting Aqua 580 Beam is an IP66-rated moving head. Stated Kvant CEO Michal Simkovic, “The main benefit of these fixtures is their IP rating; since they are waterproof there is no need for rain covers. In addition, the power of the beam is impressive, as is the price, while the prism is both visible and sharp.”
These lights formed an essential part of the timecode show, in combination with the l
Italy - The University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli in Naples is turning to a different use of immersive audio technology with one of its new physics research labs. The lab at the university’s Aversa campus is exploring the relationship between temperature, audio and visuals, and to do this in a scientific way the researchers required a space where each element could be precisely controlled. To achieve this control from an audio standpoint, the researchers turned to Martin Audio’s Sound Adventures.
The new lab has been purpose-built as a small, dedicated space within a historic building. Radiant heating panels on the walls and the floor and air conditioning system allow for the room’s temperature to be raised or lowered, while the intelligent lighting system allows for the management of this element.
The Sound Adventures solution controlling the sonic environment resulted in the installation of 26 Martin Audio Adorn A55 two-way passive speakers and a pair of SX110 slimline subwoofers, all controlled via the Astro Spatial Audio SARA II Premium Rendering Engine.
“The university was specifically looking for a high-end wave field synthesis-based solution which could offer natural features such as depth experience, making SARA II the obvious choice,” explained Astro Spatial Audio managing director, Bjorn van Munster. “The wide, even dispersion of the A55 over the frequency range was a major reason for selecting these cabinets.”
With the components selected, designing the solution became the next part of the project. “One of the majo
Europe - Sergio Herman is a successful Michelin-starred Dutch chef. His restaurant, The Jane, in Antwerp, is internationally renowned for its food and carefully created ambience. At Strandhotel in Dutch Flanders, Herman is responsible for the hotel’s three restaurants, including the recently opened Blueness. In order to fully realise Herman’s vision for Blueness and breakfast restaurant Pine House, new audio systems were considered essential and his team were clear about what they wanted.
A Pioneer Pro Audio system had been installed at The Jane back in 2014 and had left an indelible mark on The Herman Group. At the Strandhotel, the team needed a system that could deliver a chilled experience for guests at the beginning of their day, maintain a relaxed output on weeknights and then inject some energy for weekend DJ sets.
A flexible system was essential given the diverse music policy that ranges from jazz to rock, live funk and house. After making an assessment of the spaces, Erwin Nuyts of Belgian installer DiscoStore, concluded that Pioneer Pro Audio XY Series would be the right choice.
Working closely with Herman’s team, Nuyts recommended the use of XY-81 8-inch two-way loudspeakers, XY-115S 15-inch bass reflex subwoofers and XY215S dual 15-inch quasi-bandpass subwoofers to meet the requirements of the spaces. Nuyts explains the choice:
“The speakers are voiced flat for a natural sound, so they can accurately reproduce different genres of music. They are great at lower volume and give that warm sound we were looking for but despite
USA - The new Capital Hills main campus of Summit Church looks right at home in North Carolina’s famed Research Triangle, which is routinely ranked as one of the most tech-savvy areas in the US.
Once inside the 90,064sq.ft house of worship, the visitor is greeted by a welcoming and engaging environment created with help from an advanced AVL system engineered and installed by the CSD Group that features an immersive 360° sound system, massive video walls, and a state-of-the art LED lighting system anchored by close to 100 Chauvet Professional fixtures and two Net X II nodes.
Opened in 2019, the new building serves as Summit Church’s broadcast centre. Services from its 1,800-seat worship area are live streamed to the church’s nine other campus in the Research Triangle. Accurate, precisely controlled key lighting and colour temperatures are critical to maintaining high quality broadcast standards for the church’s sophisticated audience, which is why the CSD Group paid careful attention to stage lighting.
“Quality of lighting for video was essential,” said David McCauley of CSD Group. “The church attracts 10,000 worshippers weekly mostly in its satellite campuses. No one wanted to distract from services with lighting that didn’t look absolutely correct on the live steam videos.”
The CSD team positioned 29 Ovation E-160WW ellipsoidal fixtures with 26° lens tubes, 18- Ovation P-56FC par units and 26 Ovation F-915FC full colour Fresnels around the stage. “We have most of the ellipsoidals arranged in groups of three acr
UK - Specialist equipment supplier and production house, Light Fantastic Production Services apply their stock of Robe MegaPointe fixtures to a variety of live events.
Having made a significant investment in Robe MegaPointe fixtures to extend their growing lighting inventory, LFPS director, Rob Myer, says: “We have a long-standing relationship with Robe so naturally we are delighted with the performance of our MegaPointes. Over the past few months we have been making great use of them on a host of projects, from creating aerial searchlight effects and gobo projection across building facades to adding incredible theatrical looks to prestigious large-scale live events, including a particularly spectacular product launch installation on a roof at Chelsea Harbour.”
Working both on their own in-house projects and in collaboration with a broad range of industry partners, LFPS provide service and support to a variety of live event, television and music productions. Supplying lighting, audio, staging and full technical back up, the company continues to gain prominence as a respected, responsive, reliable production resource.
The company has been making key investments throughout all areas of it’s business, including expanding it’s lighting offering, to continue the organic growth of the organisation and maintain the service levels on which they pride themselves.
Myer concludes: “Our lighting inventory, including our MegaPointe stock, is prepped, packaged and ready for the summer season. We are delighted to already have a number of exciting p
South Africa - For the past 17 years, British lighting designer Graham McLusky has made his way to South Africa to light the annual pantomime. This season, Jack and the Beanstalk was presented at the Joburg Theatre during November and December.
McLusky utilised the theatre’s new lighting gear, which included 12 Claypaky Sharpy Plus fixtures recently purchased from DWR Distribution.
McLusky’s history with the production dates back to when director Janice Honeyman and producer Bernard Jay wanted to hire an established UK panto lighting designer to launch their new production. They consulted with UK pantomime producers Qdos, which creates and maintains spectacular stage sets and more than 100,000 costumes for an enormous portfolio of shows.
Over the years, Honeyman and Jay have adapted the well-established and successful pantos to convey a distinctly South African flavour. Honeyman weaves in aspects of South Africa’s multi-cultural and multi-lingual society that keep audiences entranced and coming back for more.
McLusky sends his lighting plots and plans for the season’s panto before arriving on site; he usually stays in South Africa for two weeks during production. The crew has an entire week to set up the rig before the show moves into the theatre; they strip out most of the theatre’s permanent rig to accommodate McLusky’s needs.
Jack and the Beanstalk marked the first time McLusky had a chance to use Claypaky’s Sharpy Plus luminaires. “I’ve never used a Sharpy before, though other lighting designers have
USA - 2020 is set to be very big for the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, with events centred around what would have been the former Beatle’s 80th birthday.
The Lennon Bus - a mobile audio and HD video recording and production facility - regularly provides free digital media production workshops to schools across the US and Canada, enabling students to learn how to write, record, and produce original songs, music videos, documentaries, and live multi-camera video productions.
The bus’ two onboard studios have recently been upgraded to Genelec’s The Ones coaxial three-way point source models.
“We go to a lot of under-served schools and a lot of communities that are under-resourced, so bringing something that really represents the best of the industry is eye-opening and can be life-changing for kids and communities,” explains Brian Rothschild, co-founder and executive director of the Lennon Bus. “Having the new studio monitors onboard continues that trajectory for us.”
Genelec has been a long-term sponsor of the Lennon Bus with the two-way 8240A Smart Active Monitors and 7260A subwoofer having originally been installed in each of the Bus’s 5.1 studios. “When we installed those Genelecs, the difference in the sound was just readily apparent and really impressive, and we thought that it had to be as good as it could get,” recalls Jeff Sobel, creative technology director for the Lennon Bus.
“Then when The Ones came out and we had the opportunity to use the 8341s, we thought we would give it a try. I think we we
UK - Over 170 Adamson loudspeakers were deployed for three days of spectacular events for Edinburgh's Hogmanay.
Marking the 27th edition of the famed New Year party, the three-day festival combined Scottish traditions with contemporary artists and acts from across the world in Edinburgh, the home of Hogmanay.
Working directly with Dave Watson and Scottie McKean from producers Underbelly, The Warehouse designed an Adamson system for Hogmanay in the Gardens headlined by Mark Ronson, the Waverley Stage headlined by Marc Almond and McEwan Hall’s three-day celebrations with Symphonic Ibiza, Eddi Reader and Ronnie Scott’s Big Band.
In addition, Adamson partner Live Systems Ltd provided the system for Ceilidh under the Castle.
Across the whole event, 170 Adamson loudspeakers were used, including the E15, S10, S7 line array loudspeakers, E119, S119 and S118 sub bass cabinets, all powered by Lab Gruppen PLM 20K44 and 12K44 amplifiers running Lake Processing. Adamson’s new CS7P point source loudspeakers were also used for front-fills.
This year’s Hogmanay theme, Be Together, was celebrated by bringing together tens of thousands of friends old and new to share in a warm and welcoming night of friendship creating a suitable atmosphere across the Street Party hosted by Johnnie Walker.
At Hogmanay in the Gardens Mark Ronson dazzled the partygoers with some of the best tracks of the decade in a full throttle countdown to the midnight fireworks. Daniel Merriweather joined him for Stop Me and Shallow. Meanwhi
USA - East Shore Sound is based about a half hour north of the Baltimore Metro Area but the company handles event production, system design and installation, and broadcast communications nationwide.
This past October, East Shore Sound owner Bill Saltzer and his team were responsible for the intercom systems at Telemundo Networks’ 2019 Latin American Music Awards, held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. To connect the intercom system throughout the venue, the East Shore Sound team relied on Luminex GigaCore network switches.
“We started using Luminex GigaCore switches about two years ago, primarily with Riedel’s Bolero wireless intercom product,” Saltzer recalls. “We mostly use GigaCore switches for Bolero systems because the integration with Bolero is seamless, and we like how GigaCore handles PTP [Precision Time Protocol] clocking. Also, GigaCore’s PoE capability allows us to deploy a single cable to each antenna so we don’t have to run separate cables for signal and a power supply, which is handy.”
For the 2019 Latin Music Awards, Saltzer specified a Luminex GigaCore 26i and a GigaCore 14R. “We had 54 Bolero wireless users on the system, with between 10 and 12 antennas deployed throughout the facility, including the backstage area, the downstairs dressing rooms, the stage up top, the main house seating area, and the loading dock,” he relates. “We had 18 device endpoints plugged into the two switches.”
Luminex’ GigaCore 26i provides 24 RJ45 1 Gbps Ethernet connections and 6 SFP cages, which Saltzer finds handy, a
Sweden - Singer and songwriter Carola Maria Häggkvist – best known as Carola – has been one of Sweden's most popular performers since the early 1980s, releasing a range of albums over that time encompassing pop and disco to hymns and folk music.
She has just played 12 sold-out festive shows at the Slottsladan (Castle Barn) in Steninge Slottsby, around 35km north of Stockholm with special Christmas lighting designed by Danne Persson of Roxy Lighting and including a selection of Robe moving lights – 18 x MegaPointes, 8 x T1 Profiles, six BMFL Spots and one RoboSpot system.
The venue is newly refurbished. The old barn was ‘discovered’ by Carola when she relocated to Steninge Slottsby a couple of years ago and it became her dream to perform there.
The charismatic space is 60 metres long, 20 metres wide and dates to 1900. It’s now adjacent to a collection of retail outlets and restaurants which have been built more recently. Construction company Gelba thought restoring the barn was a great idea and started rebuilding it – tastefully – specifically as a performance venue in 2018. The goal was to retain all the old world ‘barn-like’ charm, and with creative use of contemporary materials like Plexiglass, insulation, and modern heating, offer some cool 21st-century event production facilities.
In December 2018, Carola played seven shows at the newly opened Slottsladan which sold out immediately. The shows were so universally popular that this year she doubled the number of gigs to 14 and recorded Carola’s Advent, a four-pa
Croatia - A property of the Maistra Hospitality Group, the five-star Grand Park Hotel Rovinj is set at the edge of a pine forest on the Adriatic coast of northwestern Croatia. The six-story hotel offers 193 guest rooms and 16 suites, plus three restaurants, three bar/lounges, a spa, indoor and outdoor pools and tennis courts, a grand ballroom, and three combinable multifunction conference spaces.
Recently, systems integrator HUST d.o.o. finished the design and installation of a 40-zone networked sound system at the hotel that employs Linea Research amplifiers, managed by a Biamp Tesira Server-IO AVB digital network server.
“Linea Research amplifiers are one of the most reliable amplifiers that we’ve used in our projects,” reports Tomislav Stubican of HUST d.o.o. “We have never had a problem with them, so they were the right choice for a demanding system that needs to be always running. We especially like their sound quality and their performance. Price is also a big benefit of Linea Research amplifiers.”
The hotel’s grand ballroom is equipped with Community V Series and D Series loudspeakers. More than 700 Apart CM series ceiling loudspeakers and MASK Series surface-mount speakers deliver background music to the public areas, such as the lobby, restaurants, conference rooms, and pools. An audio mixer supports live performances.
To drive these loudspeaker systems, the HUST team chose Linea Research XiB4 and 44C amplifiers. The XiB4 is a four-channel amp that delivers up to 1,250W RMS continuous power per channel into 2 ohms, with a
Germany - Schauspielhaus Bochum has recently completed a major installation featuring multiple Allen & Heath dLive systems, alongside new digital network technology across all of its venues and finished a successful first season with the new systems.
Schauspielhaus Bochum is one of the biggest and most acclaimed theatres in Germany. Founded in 1907, it was completely destroyed in World War II and rebuilt in the 1950s with a capacity of 811 seats. A second theatre – the 400-capacity Kammerspiele – opened its doors in 1966. Former directors of the theatre include Peter Zadek, Claus Peymann and Leander Haußmann.
Christoph Bonk has worked in the sound department for 28 years and has seen many technical changes during that time. His final goal as technical director was to guide the theatre into the future of digital technology and networking.
“In Bochum we offer many different genres – classical theatre and musicals but also concerts, so we have to be very flexible in the sound department,” explains Bonk. “We realised that our workflow wasn’t up-to-date anymore and we’ve been looking for the perfect solution for this theatre to address that. We needed flexibility, redundancy, good sound and wanted to be futureproof – dLive ticked all these boxes for us.”
The two main venues deploy three dLive surfaces each, an S7000, S3000 and C1500 in the Main Theatre and an S7000, C3500 and a C1500 in the Kammerspiele, plus various MixRacks and stage boxes, which are connected via CAT and fibre networks. The theatre also uses Qu series