UK - Leeds-based digital solutions provider UXG has recently completed the works on a project to upgrade the digital strategy and wayfinding media for Leeds Playhouse, as part of the theatre’s eight-figure transformation.
The newly redeveloped Leeds Playhouse includes upgrades to the Quarry and Courtyard theatres, a new studio space named the Bramall Rock Void, revamped front of house spaces as well as a new city-facing entrance and improved access throughout the building.
The new digital displays and integrated software platform have been implemented over a three-month period by UXG, which designs, manufactures and installs bespoke digital solutions for branded environments. The project delivery has included implementing a large-format 6x3m outdoor LED Display (Digital 48 sheet) alongside a mixture of freestanding and wall-mounted external high bright advertising and wayfinding displays.
Internally there is a spectacular feature LED Display in the entrance running up three floors and over 45 high definition wall-mounted screens showing a mixture of content from box office releases and menu displays to live feeds from within the theatres.
Robin Hawkes, executive director at Leeds Playhouse, said: “This is the beginning of the next big chapter for Leeds Playhouse and a major part of our transformation is ensuring that the internal and external appearance is attractive and inviting to embrace and engage with the Leeds City Region and beyond.
“As a fellow Leeds business, UXG understood our heritage and how this shaped our vision
USA - It was quite a run for the Brummies in 2019. Since making a splash a year earlier with their breakout LP Eternal Reach, the indie folk trio has maintained a global touring schedule appearing at festivals from Electric Picnic to Bonarro. The rapidly rising band capped off the year with a homecoming of sorts, returning to their native Birmingham, Alabama to perform a NYE show at the city’s Saturn live music venue.
Contributing to the good time atmosphere was a Jessica Sanders designed lightshow that featured a whirlwind of colours along with some intense audience lighting, all provided by a house rig anchored by Chauvet Professional Rogue, COLORado, and STRIKE fixtures.
Positioned overhead on ceiling mounted truss structures, the rig gave Sanders the opportunity to create dome-like colour panoramas over the stage. “It was a really good arrangement that let me come up with some unique downlighting specials and saturated looks,” says Sanders. “I got to create some colour combinations that I never worked with before. The idea was to create a backyard party atmosphere, since this is the band’s hometown, and there was this great sense of familiarity in the crowd.”
Sanders had six Rogue R2 Spot fixtures spread evenly across the overhead truss, and four Rogue R2 Wash oriented more toward the centre. She used the spot fixtures to highlight individual band members, while relying on the washes to reflect the festive mood with bold colours.
The five COLORado Batten 72 and eight COLORaodo 1-Quad Zoom Tour fixtures in the house r
USA - Living Water Bible Fellowship in Alamosa, Colorado, had a pair of related problems that frustrated the staff’s ability to deliver a transparent, distraction-free service. First, the pastor could not get his microphone nearly loud enough before feedback threatened to overtake his voice, with predictable wincing among the assembled congregants. Second, even when feedback wasn’t a problem, lack of intelligibility and impact made it difficult for congregants to fully lose themselves in the music or the moment.
Local AV integration firm Lambda Audio Visual designed and installed a new Danley Sound Labs sound reinforcement system that did away with both issues via pattern control and phase-coherent, point-source fidelity.
“Living Water Bible Fellowship contacted us looking for some ideas to help improve the sound system in their main worship room,” explains Ryan Durbin, owner of Lambda Audio Video. “We visited to check out their system and immediately noticed the unique shape and orientation of the room.
“It’s a rectangle with a peaked ceiling, with the stage set up on a long wall. There are balconies on both sides that look down on the stage from above. The space fits about 150 people. The orientation and loudspeaker placement created a ‘boomy’ reverberant sound in the main worship area. They were having a lot of difficulties producing defined sounds. Moreover, the room shape and a soffit area above the stage left no obvious place to put a loudspeaker for general coverage.”
Durbin worked with his CAD designer to model the
South Africa - The Mosaïek Teatro, a large-capacity venue that forms part of the Mosaïek Church in Fairlands, Johannesburg is the first in South Africa to invest in KLANG’s 3D in-ear monitoring system to complement their new DiGiCo SD5 mixing consoles.
In October 2019, technical manager at the Mosaïek Teatro, Estian Els and his team took delivery of two DiGiCo SD5 mixing consoles, purchased from DWR Distribution. “Earlier this year, the Mosaïek Teatro hosted the third season of M-Net’s The Voice South Africa, which gave our technical team the opportunity to work on the DiGiCo SD10 console that was used for the show. We all became really comfortable with the technology and, therefore, when the time came for us to invest in new consoles for the Mosaïek Teatro, we decided to go with two DiGiCo SD5s,” Estian explains.
While the team have been very happy with their DiGiCo consoles, they did experience a few challenges with musician’s in-ear monitor mixes. “In the past, musicians were able to log onto our console remotely and arrange their own in-ear monitors mixes ahead of Sunday morning worship services. This was no longer possible once we adopted the DiGiCo platform, which created a lot of pressure on our monitor engineer ahead of Sunday services. Our worship band has very limited time to rehearse ahead of services, and we only have fifteen minutes to try and accommodate everyone before we have to go live,” says Estian.
DiGiCo product manager at DWR Distribution, Kyle Robson has been assisting Estian and his team with their ne
UK - Lighting and video specialist Colour Sound Experiment supplied lighting equipment, LED screen, rigging and crew to the most recent UK leg of Respect: The Aretha Franklin Songbook tour which has just finished.
The vibrant and animated two-hour live concert was created by Adrian Grant (producer of Thriller Live) and directed / choreographed by Tiffany King, celebrates the huge success and songs of Aretha Franklin - the Queen of Soul. It was delivered by three leading vocalists - Stacy Francis, Tanya Edwards and Cleo Stewart - together with a live band, a gospel choir and ‘preacher man’ AJ Lewis.
Colour Sound had supplied the tour earlier in the year, so production manager Aaron Booth again returned to Haydn Cruickshank and the team in West London.
For this one, they were also asked to supply a lighting and visuals director, so regular Colour Sound collaborator Sam ‘Kenny’ Kenyon stepped up and took over programming and running of the show’s lighting and video.
Utilising the same basic rig as before, they wanted to recreate the looks, scenes and atmosphere that had worked so well previously.
The venues were mainly theatres and concert halls, all with a wide variety of stage spaces, so it was essential that the rig was adaptable. Combining a bit of rock ‘n’ roll with some theatre methodology, using trusses for some shows and house fly bars for others, Kenny ensured that there was maximum production continuity each day.
The lighting rig was based on three trusses - front, mid and rear - plus a fourth tr
USA - Lighting designer Mason Delman lit an NYU Tisch School of the Arts production of Legally Blonde with Elation Artiste Picasso moving heads and praised the multi-functionality and responsiveness of the high-performance LED profile luminaire. 4Wall Entertainment in New York, with Al Ridella as key account manager, provided 10 Artiste Picasso fixtures for the Tisch New Theatre student organisation production at the Skirball Centre in November.
Delman comments, “This is a theatrical show and the Picasso fit in well. It was a bit smaller and we didn’t need the extra bells and whistles that the Monet has. Being compact was convenient and better fit our needs.”
At roughly two an a half hours, Legally Blonde is not a short, easy-to-light pop musical yet a fairly complicated show as Delman explains. “Most musicals that are adapted from movies are a bit more intricate than a show written for the stage because they tend to have many locations and quick scene jumps, even in a single number. That necessitated a fixture that could fulfil a number of roles.”
On top of that, the designer says the schedule was extremely tight with only 12 hours of tech time and six hours for a dress rehearsal. “Because of that, we needed a fixture that could do what we needed it to do quickly and the Picasso fit the bill.” With speed of the essence, a feature of the Picasso that the designer says was a big time saver was the auto focus on the gobo wheels, as well as the fast zoom and ability to quickly call up saturated reds or blues using the CMY c
India - Based in Mumbai, Chakor Sound’s recent investment in a Yamaha Rivage PM7 digital mixing system has paid dividends.
Established over four decades ago, Chakor Sound has grown to become one of India’s leading providers of live sound and other audio solutions, as well as servicing international tours. Maintaining an inventory of audio systems, its relationship with Yamaha dates back to its investment in analogue mixers, later upgrading to the LS9 and M7CL digital mixing consoles.
Since then, the company has entrusted all of its investment in digital consoles with the Yamaha brand. This has included most of the Yamaha range, including the CL5 and QL5. The company has recently purchased a Rivage PM7 digital mixing system
“Rivage PM7 offers similarly high standards of operation and workflow efficiency to Yamaha’s flagship Rivage PM10 digital mixing system, but in a relatively compact, portable package. Features like the Rupert Neve Designs SILK processing and the advanced DaNSe noise suppression plug-in raise everything to a whole new level," says Ankit Purao, mixing engineer at Chakor Sound. “It has changed the way how I mix shows, the console layout is so intuitive and user-friendly.”
(Jim Evans)
China - The annual two-day Rolls Royce sales meeting, hosted for the marque’s worldwide network of dealer partners, maintains an impressive standard of event production, for which this year, as for the last five, global brand experience company, Imagination, pitched for and won.
The realised design brief incorporated an engaging daytime dealer gathering setup and an intricately designed immersive experiential dining experience for 280 guests, supported by TiMax object-based spatial audio.
Imagination’s head of sound design, Crispian Covell, states: “TiMax was pivotal to our sound design across the whole event. As far as I’m aware, TiMax is still the best and only way of doing what we needed. Nothing else can work site-specific surround sound simply by importing a PDF of the room; nothing else allows you to configure the entire loudspeaker system offline or adjust loudspeaker image definitions virtually live. TiMax is completely fluid and its innovative features are invaluable.”
The daytime sales assemblage was distinguished into two distinct sections, characterised by a change in room set up. In just 15 minutes the room configuration transformed from a traditional presentation style, end-on seating set up, to traverse seating positions, like a fashion show. At the flick of a switch, TiMax changed the audio set up to suit the new environment.
The afternoon session relied upon TiMax to keep attention on presenters and moderators as they spoke across three stages. The 280 attendees were seated around the central stage, and presenters
Australia - The International Queen of Burlesque, Dita Von Teese, returned to Australia with Glamonatrix, her most lavish touring show to date. It was the first outing for Phaseshift Productions’ Claypaky Sharpy Plus fixtures. Dita’s production manager and lighting designer, Alex Goldberg, was thrilled to have the new fixtures at the beginning of her world tour.
In Glamonatrix, fans were treated to a full evening of comedy and striptease that celebrated diverse beauty.
“This is the type of show that provides a lighting designer with the opportunity to be an active element in the presentation itself,” says Goldberg. “Often, when you have one performer on stage the lighting becomes an essential part of the show that interacts with the dancers’ performances, keeps everyone looking glamorous, and transforms the entire atmosphere to create beautiful moments. It’s important for me to help the audience focus clearly on the performer while sculpting a beautiful stage picture.”
Nine Claypaky Sharpy Plus fixtures helped Goldberg sculpt the stage and create an environment, which impressed the lighting designer.
Sharpy Plus is a full-fledged hybrid light. In beam mode, its aerial effects stand out thanks to the unit’s extraordinary light output. In spot mode, its light is diffused more evenly allowing the projection of wonderfully uniform visual effects.
“Considering their form factor, their output is really remarkable,” says Goldberg. “I think the gobo selection has been really well manicured and provides a var
Singapore - When Singapore-based lighting design company, Roadie Pte purchased a substantial number of Ayrton lighting fixtures from exclusive local distributor, Total Solution Marketing Pte, it was an opportunity to find out what persuaded them to choose their 24 MiniPanel-FX and 18 Diablo-TC fixtures.
Roadie’s professional team of individuals provides lighting design for productions, shows and events locally in Singapore and internationally. They were pleased to explain that the fixtures had been purchased primarily to support their lighting designs and that they chose Ayrton for good reason: “As lighting designers who are constantly on the ground, we look out for multiple factors in our equipment - quality of light, flicker-free LED sources, uniqueness, versatility and form factor are vital. The quality of light from both Diablo-TC and MiniPanel-FX is superb. The fixtures have high energy efficiency, with an impressive output and great colour rendering. Both fixtures also dim smoothly, are flicker-free and broadcast-friendly, which are all crucial for our purposes.”
Explaining in more detail, the team adds: “A key point of Diablo-TC, which helped to win us over, is the inclusion of framing shutters. All this is jam-packed into a small, lightweight and sleek body. And for MiniPanel-FX, the square face, lens type and individual pixel control combine for a unique look that makes the fixture truly versatile. Plus, the ease of fitting it into our design concepts gives it an edge over the other LED washes available in the market.”
The Roadie
UK - Pantomime season in the UK and Ireland brought another crop of hilarity and slapstick to stages up and down the countries.
One of the most high-profile presentations for this season was UK Productions’ Peter Pan at Blackpool Grand Theatre, directed by Anthony Williams and lit by Andy Webb.
Andy specified all-Robe LED fixtures with the T1 Profile at the core of his lighting scheme. The design also included Spiider wash-beams, ParFect 100s and 150s, DL4S Profiles, LEDWash 300s and CycFX 8s.
Andy has a lot of experience in lighting the world of pantos, which requires some classic theatre treatments, but also leaving room for experimentalism and fun. He has also worked at the Grand Theatre before, an original Frank Matcham designed house - and now a Grade II Listed building - dating back to 1894 that is exceptionally tight for space when staging complex contemporary productions.
Andy explained how he wanted to light Peter Pan differently from a standard panto as the storyline “had the latitude for us to be much more ‘musical’ in approach”. His idea was to emphasise and build up the characters and locational compositions rather than relying just on the slapstick - which was there, but more understated and thoughtful that you’d expect!
Consequently, lighting went the same way, offering a lot more multi-layered cues, depth and texturing than might be found in traditional panto. Also, being Peter Pan, there was the great dramatic vehicle of flying to add excitement to the performance!
Three Foy flying tracks over t
Canada - Hillsong Young & Free have been inspiring audiences around the world since first uniting to compose and perform contemporary worship music in 2012 at Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia.
To support their most recent studio album, III, the group spent the majority of 2019 touring Canada and the U.S. with a production package supplied by Canada’s Soundbox Productions, including a versatile audio system anchored by Adamson Systems Engineering’s sub-compact S-Series loudspeakers.
“The Canadian leg of the III tour was the second time we deployed a complete Adamson S-Series system with the Soundbox crew, and for the U.S. run, we decided it was too good not to use it again,” begins Y&F FOH engineer Nate Balderston. “The S10 is a fantastic product. The mid-range and clarity really make creating space within the mix so easy.”
Considering the wide range of venues the group visits - from churches to theatres of varying sizes – the fall U.S. dates made use of a variety of set-ups from a total of 24 S10 two-way, full-range enclosures and 14 complementary E119 subwoofers.
“Our biggest hurdle each day was obviously coverage,” Balderston adds. “Some days, we had 120° seating; other days, we had three-tier-balcony theatres. What we loved about using the S10s was we always had a solution for whichever configuration we might encounter.”
As Soundbox Audio head and systems tech Jamal Bleasdell explains, in most churches, they didn’t have access to a rigging point for the PA, so they carried Sumner Eventer 25
Australia - For the tenth year in a row, AGB Events has produced its Lights of Christmas spectacular in Sydney. It has become a tradition, and a much-anticipated event for families throughout the city - and beyond.
The first Lights of Christmas was established by AGB Events in 2010 with the support of the NSW State Government.
“We take great pride in creating meaningful and memorable public celebrations that draw communities together so successfully that they become an integral part of the cultural landscape,” comments Anthony Bastic, CEO and creative director of AGB Events. “That’s what Lights of Christmas has become.”
“While it’s a unique event, Lights of Christmas is representative of the kind of events we’ve created for governments and city/state councils around the world - not just Australia, but the United States, Europe and Asia - on many occasions, and many of them have become annual fixtures,” continues Anthony. “What we do is to create public events that contribute to the cultural fabric of a city and that use light and sound, digital storytelling and cutting-edge audiovisual equipment from leading suppliers to engage a diverse range of community groups.”
Lights of Christmas presented by Paynter Dixon and created and produced by AGB Events, returned to St Mary’s Cathedral from Thursday 5 December 2019 until Christmas night. It saw AGB Events once again using St. Mary’s Cathedral as its 75m-high backdrop to deliver Ascension, drawing on the principles of religious architect
UK - So successful has been the debut of Martin Audio’s new WPS line array on the Eddie Izzard tour that Capital Sound has taken the opportunity to extend its inventory, after winning the bid for the Tim Minchin tour - since the two UK itineraries overlapped.
WPS is the latest model in the Wavefront Precision series, which features scalable resolution for greater flexibility in amplifier management and optimisation of coverage, consistency and control. WPS comprises 2 x 8” LF drivers, 4 x 4” midrange drivers and 4 x 1” exit HF compression drivers loaded by a moulded HF horn which occupies the full width of the enclosure.
In addition to stand-up comedy, WPS this time also needed to reproduce a full band, with the artist’s grand piano supported by brass, keys, bass and guitar, requiring 56 inputs at the sound desk. FOH engineer would be the experienced Dave Roden, who has worked through many generations of Martin Audio PA’s over the years with his regular charges, the Stereophonics (and recently with their lead singer Kelly Jones).
Roden had been asked to seek alternative bids for the tour when Capital Sound’s Paul Timmins intervened. “Dave had possibly been considering another brand solution due to its weight and size when I mentioned the Martin Audio WPS system which I thought would also meet the criteria, when other systems would have been too heavy,” he states. “I told him about the success of WPS on the Eddie Izzard tour and he seemed happy with the solution. Martin Connolly worked up the quotation and we were successful, afte
UK - For the past seven years, an impressive selection of high-profile bands and artists has taken to the Great Hall stage at Central Hall Westminster for BBC One’s live New Year’s Eve concert. Most recently, multi-award winning singer Craig David entertained the nation in the countdown to 2020.
As the in-house technical production partner at Central Hall, White Light (WL) provided all lighting and rigging for this live show, produced by BBC Studios for BBC One.
Performing with his band, the Craig David Rocks Big Ben Live celebrations kicked-off with a string of Craig’s biggest hits, before the clock struck midnight. Then following the Mayor of London's New Year's Eve Fireworks, BBC One coverage returned to Central Hall for one of Craig’s world-renowned TS5 DJ sets to close the party.
WL’s venue technical manager at Central Hall, James Thurlow comments: “With the different sets taking place before and after the fireworks, we worked closely with lighting designer Steve Abbis to achieve a slightly different look and feel, to mark the significance of entering a new year and decade. Our sophisticated lighting rig for the show was specifically designed to complement the architectural features of the Great Hall.”
The lighting specification included 45 Ayrton Magicblade-FX fixtures, vertically rigged behind the performance area to enhance the aesthetic for the camera shots. Ayrton Ghibli luminaires were also utilised for aerial gobo effects.
Paul Southern, managing director of Central Hall Westminster adds: “We were del
Canada - LD Érik Nowosielski-Lamoureux lit a Christmas concert at Montreal’s Salle Marguerite Bourgeoys performing arts centre by Petit Chanteur de Laval with 30 Chauvet Professional Rogue moving fixtures in his design.
“My Rogue R2 Spots were on cases, and rather than space them evenly, I had almost all of them go to the right to accent the band,” he explains. “A pair of R2 Spots were placed close to the band and behind them, so I could create dramatic effects back lighting them. Another R2 Spot was at the downstage right corner, and two of the units were placed along the stage right deck for side lighting the choir. My sixth R2 Spot was on the downstage left corner for lighting solos, side lighting, and audience lighting.”
In addition to the Rogue R2 Spots, Nowosielski-Lamoureux’s rig featured eight Rogue R3 Spot, 10 Rogue R2 Wash and six Rogue R2 Beam fixtures. These units we flown on two upstage trusses and one mid-stage truss. The truss furthest upstage held four R3 Spots and four R2 Washes, while the unit closer to mid-stage held four R2 Washes and six R2 Beams.
Adding to the distinctive looks on stage was Nowosielski-Lamoureux’s use of dark space. “My favourite quote as a lighting designer is ‘darkness is the LD’s best friend,’” he says. “I always try to keep dark areas in the air, especially when I use smoke. This trick gives the impression that the stage is bigger and deeper. Also, I love to play with shadows and side lighting. This creates an emotion that can’t be just said with colours.”
(Jim Evans)
USA - Design group Lightswitch first turned to Elation Professional’s Fuze Wash 575 LED white light luminaire in 2017 and again utilised the auto show-optimised moving head to light three top car manufacturer booths at the 2019 edition of the LA Auto Show.
“The Fuze Wash 575 is one of a very small number of automated LED fixtures that we use extensively in the auto show market,” states Chris Medvitz, partner and principal at Lightswitch. “Because of its light weight, feature set and price point, it has very quickly become a workhorse in automotive lighting for shows.”
Held 22 November to 1 December at the LA Convention Centre, Lightswitch used the Fuze Wash 575 on the Subaru, Nissan and Infiniti booths at this year’s LA Auto Show. Medvitz designed the booth lighting working with booth designers George P. Johnson on the Nissan and Infiniti booths, and designers EWI Worldwide/Hansen Productions on the Subaru booth.
Some 775 Elation Fuze Wash 575 and 75 Elation Artiste Picasso fixtures were used on this year’s LA Auto Show, supplied by 4Wall Entertainment. Other booths lit using the Fuze Wash 575 include Honda, Volkswagen and Acura with the latter also utilising the Artiste Picasso.
Some 96 Fuze Wash 575 units were used on the Subaru booth for launch of the new 2020 Subaru Outback, an immersive National Park-themed environment that Lightswitch helped design. “The Subaru booth touched on all of the senses. We used a lot of lighting on the exhibit properties and scenery, more than in other booths simply because there was so much of
Denmark - For Alphabeat’s two arena shows in November, Theis Wermuth of Create This relied on trussing to envelop his client in a tulip blub style configuration of light created with 78 Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 Wash fixtures.
He arranged his trussing on four high columns on either side of the stage, with the area over centre left empty to create the effect of cradling the band in light.
“Our overall idea with this design was to create an open, yet sharp, look,” says Wermuth. “We had more or less turned the trussing up side down, so it surrounds the stage and band below them - and not from above them as you usually see on tours. There were some challenges in creating this trussing concept, but Nordic Rental of Denmark, which supplied us with the rig, came up with the perfect customised solution.”
Wermuth had the fixtures mounted on modular pipes with wings extending to both sides of the truss structure. This created myriad opportunities to change the looks of his lightshow, sometimes directing light from the RGBW moving fixtures inward to immerse the band in brilliant colours; and at other times, directing the washes outward to create the exhilarating effect of a light flower opening up to reveal the artists on stage.
“The Rogues served as our main fixtures,” says Wermuth. “Given their compact size, we were able to fit them nicely into our truss configuration. We were also able use 78 of the Rogue units, which made quite an impression. Despite their size, the Rogues had plenty of output and brightness. They had no trouble
USA - Mexican super-group Bronco recently played at the The Rave/Eagles Club in Milwaukee, much to the delight of their legion of fans. Known for their modern interpretation of grupero music, which blends elements of rock, cumbia, norteño, and mariachi, the band adds modern instruments and incorporates elements of pop to create a big, bold sound.
Miguel Angel Pecina Torres, the band’s lighting designer, matched this sound with some power-packed looks when the appeared recently at the club’s spacious (25,000 sq. ft.) Eagle Ballroom. Helping him in this endeavour was a rig anchored by Chauvet DJ fixtures supplied and installed by High Frequency Productions.
“Bronco’s music is really interesting,” said Juan Ocampo, owner of High Frequency Productions, who specified the fixtures for the show. “They blend a variety of traditional genres to create something completely unique. The music is bright, effervescent, and rhythmic, so the lighting needed to match. Miguel’s design style really complimented the band’s music. It was also in keeping with my own personal aesthetic, so working on this project was a lot of fun.”
To match the energy and intensity of Bronco’s performance, Ocampo placed 16 Intimidator Hybrid 140SR fixtures on the upstage and midstage truss, eight units on each.
Torres gave the fence spanning the width of the stage behind the performers extra definition by placing 24 COLORstrips along its front, back and sides. This fence served as a dynamic design element during the show thanks to the chases and fades Torres c
USA - Willowbrook Baptist Church’s main campus in Huntsville, Alabama recently implemented its first step of a multi-phased initiative to update its worship centre, and a key part of that process was the implementation of a KLANG:fabrik immersive in-ear monitor mixing system.
Installed by Memphis, Tennessee-based integrator Redwire Audio Visual in October, the new KLANG system offers up to 16 musicians their own individual IEM mixes over RF transmitters, or headphone amps via XLR. At the same time, the KLANG:fabrik is a fully flexible audio network router of up to 64 MADI, 64 Dante and 32 ADAT-compatible inputs and outputs.
“The new KLANG system was part of the first phase of the church’s update, and it has proven to be a critical component of it,” says Redwire AV president, founder and general manager, Tim Johnson. “Their worship orchestra had been frustrated by the lack of flexibility with their old IEM system, so we brought the KLANG:fabrik in for a demo, and they experienced a huge difference immediately.”
Johnson says the KLANG:fabrik’s ability to operate at 96kHz offers a much higher level of sonic fidelity to the musicians. Furthermore, the ability to move mixes around in a fully immersive space has changed how they hear themselves and the music.
“They literally had no idea this science was possible,” says Redwire AV lead designer Charles Thompson. “They can put the click above their heads, for instance, and build a virtual stage that reflects where each of them are standing on the actual stage. This creates a reali
Poland - Warsaw’s PGE Narodowy Stadium scored a first in its history when it sold out a concert of Polish artists to an enthusiastic audience nearly of 60,000 fans. Co-headliners hip-hop artist Taco Hemingway and pop artist Dawid Podsiadlo are recognised as a new wave of talented Polish performers so Pawel ‘Spider’ Pajak gave them the star treatment with a complement of Claypaky fixtures lighting their acts.
“This was a very special gig for the music industry in Poland; I would say it was a kind of game changer for Polish artists and the music market here,” says Pajak, who is founder of creative collaboration platform, Percepto [LAB]. He acted as lighting designer, production designer and creative visual director for the show and is a long-time collaborator of Podsiadlo’s.
“The overall design of the show was based on a huge LED canvas with a total width of about 60m,” he explains. “The huge LED wall consisted of five surfaces joined together at different angles as one screen. One of the key lighting design elements was a frame made of LED lights all around to emphasize the shape of the stage. There were also eight separate truss block elements joined at angles and hung on Kinesys motors to get variations of truss positions above the stage. Four of them were dedicated to lighting only and four to lighting and LED screens.”
Pajak selected nine Claypaky Scenius Profiles, nine Scenius Unicos and 32 A.leda B-EYE K20 fixtures for the two artists. “Claypaky fixtures have been one of my first choices for many years,” he reports. “I
Australia - Sydney’s Rooty Hill suburb is now home to a new $100m theatre space.
The 2,000-seat proscenium arch theatre will be able to house large-scale musicals, ballet, opera companies and symphony orchestras.
HF Events Pty, headed by Colin Baldwin, was tasked with supplying and installing the theatrical lighting, dimmers, power and lighting control system.
“When we were asked to look at the design and installation of power distribution and dimming for the new Coliseum Theatre, we immediately went to LSC Lighting,” comments Colin. “I have a long-standing relationship with LSC and have great respect for their product.”
Consequently, a shopping list of LSC products was made including 240-way Redback Patch Panels, Redback 36-way Patch Panels, MDRX 10-way data splitters (RDM-enabled), GenVi 12 x 10A dimmer/ power distribution and of course, APS 12 x 10A Advanced Power Distribution.
“LSC’s APS advanced power distribution systems were precisely what was needed for this venue,” adds Colin. “Automatic turn on and off of the entire system, inrush surges minimised, and everything plugged in and worked the first time around. LSC has been very supportive and I would not hesitate to recommend the APS power distribution, GenVi dimmers and MDRX data splitters to any who need professional Australian made products at an affordable price.”
The automatic turn on and off feature (called APSPower) mentioned by Colin is triggered by the presence of DMX. Turn the console on, and the APS senses that the console is on, and automatica
Australia - Novatech Creative Entertainment Technology (NCET) orchestrated an impressive re-branding event for Australian painted steel business Nexteel in Adelaide and Perth. Brompton Technology LED processors were chosen to support the array of large LED screens, which were suspended above the stage and delivered pulsing content, teasing the audience with what was in store.
Tasked with ‘breaking the usual norms’ for the project, Novatech deployed two Brompton Tessera SX40 processors along with two Tessera XD Data Distribution units for its ROE CB3 and CB5 LED panels in order to realise the ambitious concept and create a series of innovative and memorable experiences.
“The project had eight screens of various sizes built from ROE Visual CB3 and CB5 screens, so the team needed something that would make mapping and running the screens as simple as possible,” says Novatech’s technical lead - video, David Murdoch. “The combination of the SX40s and XDs were a perfect choice for the show. Being a 4K processor, we were able to run all eight screens on one raster which made mapping and data distribution incredibly quick and easy.”
Held at Adelaide Entertainment Centre, and Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, the event was repeated twice in Adelaide and twice in Perth to ensure all potential clients were reached and for maximum impact and brand awareness. Novatech worked with Adelaide-based event management and marketing agency jennie bell ink to push the creative boundaries.
The main feature of the stage was the central ROE CB3 s
Switzerland - On 22 November 2019, the Maag Music Hall in Zurich hosted the final of Switzerland’s Next Top Model, broadcast live on the ProSieben TV channel.
Estec Visions, a creative company specialising in the events field, took care of the set up by choosing Prolights Digistrip IP 100.
Andi Gschwend, project manager for Estec Visions, comments: “Our motto is ‘Aesthetics Meets Tecnology’. We believe that every single work of art is the development of a precise vision. Our goal is to implement that vision and then make it possible. Prolights Digistrip IP 100 perfectly suited our needs because they’re a creative solution to satisfy today’s stage design high standards. The fixtures were controlled through Art-Net with Mad Mapper and the final result exceeded expectations. Thanks to Plusmusic, Prolights’ distributor for Switzerland, who provided continuous assistance and support.”
(Jim Evans)