USA - In Dayton, Ohio, in the heart of the downtown Arts District, the Mead Theatre is the cornerstone of the Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Centre. Opened in 2003, the 2,300-seat venue hosts a wide range of performances, including the Dayton Philharmonic, Dayton Opera, Dayton Ballet, touring Broadway blockbusters, rock concerts, comedians and more.
Helping to inspire the imagination and refresh the spirit of the three-balcony facility, Scenic Solutions of Ohio specified and installed FloppyFlex LED neon into the architectural details of the venue.
In addition to the installation in the concentric rings of the ceiling that culminate in a representation of the night sky when the Wright Brothers took their first flight, “We used 204m of FloppyFlex White 2100K deployed in the existing coves that accent all three balconies,” says Andrew Persson of Scenic Solutions. “We were able to utilise the existing wire infrastructure - with the addition of magnetic dimmable drivers installed remotely - which made circuiting simple and efficient. FloppyFlex was a good solution because of the level of control it allowed, its smooth and consistent output, plus it fit the profile of the incandescent rope light it replaced.
“FloppyFlex was able to conform to the curved shapes of the architecture in which it was mounted and produces a far superior light output compared to conventional rope lights. It has been performing extremely well and uniformly.”
Persson continues: “The Mead Theatre is an important venue and we wanted to get it righ
USA - Lighting designer Justin Townsend specified 38 High End Systems SolaWash 2000 High CRI automated LED luminaires for Moulin Rouge! The Musical. Since its summer opening at New York City’s Al Hirschfield Theatre, the show has received critical acclaim not only for the glam costumes and glitzy scenery, but also for its rich lighting.
A review on Broadway World says it’s “sumptuously-designed in more shades of red than you previously knew existed on the colour spectrum”.
New York Stage Review notes “The real stars are the artists who don't appear onstage. Lighting designer Justin Townsend can evoke anything from a pulse-pounding nightclub to the shadowy alleys of Argentina to a hallucinogenic electric-green drunken dream.”
Townsend, a two-time Tony Award nominee, says: “The SolaWash 2000 unit has been instrumental for my work on Moulin Rouge! The Musical.” He chose the High CRI version of the automated luminaire for requisite features such as its accurate colour rendering and key light for face lighting.
“It is a silent, super bright light that can be Fresnel-soft and still sharpen razor-edge to its own shutters,” he says. “I was able to cut around the complex scenery in the show and really pop the costumes and faces with clarity.”
The silence refers to the fixture’s quiet cooling system. “The fixtures do great work for me front-of-house where fan noise is essential to eliminate in modern musicals,” he adds.
The designer also enjoys using the colour palette - using CMY colour mix
Germany - International Christian Fellowship Munich (ICF) has recently upgraded its audio system with an Allen & Heath dLive solution for its weekly services and events.
ICF Munich is a non-denominational free church, which in addition to its regular Sunday services, also hosts other live events with up to 800 participants.
Due to size of the services and events, a large number of microphones and extensive I/O is needed for the speakers and live performers. As such, one of the main requirements for ICF was an audio system that could meet the demands of a professional concert.
To serve its growing needs, ICF’s new audio system comprises a dLive S5000 paired with a DM48 MixRack and two DX168 expanders for additional I/O. A Dante card is utilised for multitrack recording, connection to wireless microphone receivers and the PA.
Head of audio technology, Marc Deisen, has been working at the ICF for five years and oversees the dLive system. “When we decided on a dLive a year ago, it was very important to us to have a straightforward, well-structured system,” explains Deisen. “Many of our technicians are volunteers and have very little trouble working with dLive, especially as we already had an iLive console in use. Above all, we quickly learned to appreciate the I/O patching matrix, which is very clear and easy to use for everyone.”
Aside from dLive’s easy and intuitive workflow, a large part of Deisen’s decision to use dLive came down to its processing features. “Now we have enough processing power for more than 50 channel
USA - Carrie Underwood recently wrapped up her Cry Pretty Tour 360 with a lighting package provided by long-time vendor, Bandit Lites. Underwood has been thrilling audiences around the globe all year with her all-female tour featuring a an ‘in-the-round’ lighting design by Nick Whitehouse of Fireplay production studio.
“This tour is by far the most ambitious design yet for Ms. Underwood and it has certainly paid off in terms of visual artistry,” said Bandit Lites vice president, Mike Golden. “Carrie has a veteran staff in tour Manager Geoff Donkin, production manager Graham Holmes, show producer BarrymLather and lighting director Nate Cromwell, and with Nick Whitehouse and the visionary team at Fireplay, this year’s production is unmatched and flawless.”
Drawing inspiration from the Cry Pretty album artwork, Fireplay designed a stage using the eye logo and infusing an impressive pod design that held the majority of the light fixtures.
“When lighting in the round, each side of the stage needs to have key lights, effect lights and audience lights as each person’s perspective of the lighting show will be different,” explained Whitehouse, “so each pod contains just that: an amount of each. The rest of the design came out of the necessity of lighting around the screens.”
Bandit Lites supplied nearly 400 fixtures for the design, including GLP JDC1 Strobes, Martin Professional MAC Viper AirFX, Claypaky Sharpys, Claypaky Mythos 2, VL 3000 Spots, Scenius Unicos and Robe Spikies. Two grand MA 2 full consoles provide Li
UK - Pixel Artworks has designed and delivered The Garden of Light, a multi-sensory installation for McArthurGlen Designer Outlet, Ashford.
The Garden of Light uses the latest LED pixel lighting and immersive audio technology to create a 360° virtual garden environment and is part of the expansion of McArthurGlen Designer Outlet. In tribute to Kent’s status as the ‘Garden of England’, The Garden of Light provides shoppers with a multi-dimensional walkthrough experience designed to stimulate the senses and reflect on visitors’ connection with nature.
The experience will also feature “Europe’s largest living wall installation”, made up of more than 120,000 leafy green plants, and although the experience is free, visitors are encouraged to donate money towards building a sensory garden for the William Harvey Hospital.
Light is the key factor of the installation, and the immersive and interactive experience offers shoppers a journey into a lush secret garden through projection and LED, with elements of the four seasons accompanying their journey.
Riaz Farooq, creative director at Pixel Artworks comments, “Producing The Garden of Light has truly been a creative journey through a multitude of artistic and technological disciplines. Collectively we have explored the boundaries of motion design and real-time graphics, effectively creating a living game-like environment, full of discovery and play.”
The Pixel Artworks team used TouchDesigner (TD), a visual development tool, to combine projected
UK - The Institute of Physics for the UK and Ireland (IOP) has an impressive new London HQ, built from the ground-up with a modern architectural statement that has AV designed-in from the start.
The site is an old plumbing supplies shop in the developing creative industries area near Kings Cross, London. Leaving just the original brick façade, it has been transformed into something completely new. The polished concrete structure of this £13.5m project brings focus to the large screens and interactive experiences that will greet more than 200,000 IOP visitors every year. It is a space that radiates cutting-edge science, and one that required visual and audio technologies to be as much a part of its essence as the concrete itself.
Recursive AV, the AV consultant on the project, had the opportunity to liaise with and influence the architects more than two years before completion, allowing them to achieve the best visitor experience possible.
David Yates, the managing director at Recursive, went about choosing premium technologies to complement the institute’s ambitious aims, including specifying L-Acoustics Syva and Kiva as the audio solutions. "We really felt that the IOP deserved a high-end audio approach," he explains. "They have people coming from all over the world: academics, policymakers, broadcasters, and so on. We wanted to be sure that the sonic quality and the visual impact would be absolutely correct, and that the system could cope with a challenging space. We needed to deliver fantastic intelligibility and a consistent sonic signature
Latvia - The Latvian College of Culture (LCC) in Riga is part of the larger Latvian Academy of Culture and is described as "the best place to study creative industries" in the country.
The college has a continuous and built-in effort to keep up with the times, which is why school administrators called on SGS Sistemas, Clair Brothers distributor in the region. Normunds Eilands and Guntars Bluss of SGS were asked to recommend the best loudspeakers for LCC’s next upgrade of its audio production equipment. After evaluating the school’s needs SGS recommended the Clair Brothers kiT12-i loudspeakers, and kiT-Subs.
Along with the selected kiT12-i loudspeakers and kiT-Subs, the Clair Brothers PLM 12K44 power amplifier was also specified and installed. Other equipment chosen by the college includes a Lab.gruppen power amplifier; a Midas digital mixing console plus a Midas input/output stage box; Beyerdynamic wireless microphones; Clay Paky LED moving lights; Chauvet LED moving wash lights; and a Swefog haze generator, among other international brands.
The Latvian College of Culture gives special thanks to the team at SGS Sistemas. “Likewise,” adds Eilands. “We appreciate our relationship with LCC and are always pleased to play a part in the development of education, offering the best for the students - the opportunity to use world-class sound equipment from Clair Brothers as chosen by professionals.”
(Jim Evans)
Norway - Touring theatre productions in rural areas of north Norway can be very challenging, especially with limited local facilities and equipment that has to cope with fast-changing extremes of temperature. But an Alcons Audio LR7 pro-ribbon system is proving equal to every challenge for the country’s northernmost regional theatre.
Established in 1971, Hålogaland Teater was the first regional theatre in Norway, serving counties of Troms and Finnmark. It occupies a modern building at Teaterplassen in Tromsø, built in 2005, which features two modern theatre stages, a cafè stage and a rehearsal stage.
It tours productions all year to 15 regular venues located throughout Troms and Finnmark, often in local dialects. The varied programme includes contemporary and classic drama, musicals, children's theatre and more. These shows need an audio system which can be easily transported and is very roadworthy, but delivers high quality audio for any kind of production in every venue where Hålogaland Teater tours.
Recently, the theatre needed to replace its touring system, so chief sound engineer Jim-Oddvar Hansen put together a technical specification based on all the needs, wants and challenges that it had to satisfy. He thoroughly researched every possible solution and system manufacturer and, after putting some systems ‘head to head’, an Alcons Audio pro-ribbon solution was the winner.
Supplied by Alcons’ Norwegian distributor and Pro-Ribbon Partner Lydproduksjon Tromsø AS, Hansen chose an Alcons LR7 pro-ribbon micro line array system, co
Qatar - The IAAF World Athletics Championships took place in the Middle East for the first time since the inaugural event in 1983. The 10-day competition saw nearly 2000 athletes from 209 countries compete. The 17th edition of the event took place at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha.
For 2019 a multitude of technical innovations were introduced to the event including light shows, new camera angles and increased engagement with athletes. Florian Weber, IAAF event presentation manager, was responsible for the athletics presentation concept and challenged Creative Technology (CT) to deliver.
In order to successfully deliver the track projection, it was essential that the stadium was dark which required the sports lighting to be switched off. Naturally, switching the stadium lights off during a televised stadium sports show is not something Broadcasters are comfortable with, so Florian Weber commissioned CT to deliver a VR model of the Khalifa Stadium featuring athletics apparatus, production overlay and the proposed LED screens and track projection.
CT supplied over 500sqm of its recently delivered curveable 4.8mm LED screens providing a high-resolution, high brightness, high quality solution to display all the sports presentation content including event information, live video feeds, athlete information, and live results.
CT also supplied eight mobile battery-powered LED Monoliths that could be positioned anywhere around the athletics arena displaying live data for athletes’ names and country flags.
Lighting enhanced the overal
USA - Peter Frampton recently concluded his Peter Frampton Finale - The Farewell Tour, where FOH engineer, Jim Yakabuski, used an SSL Live L550 to produce a signature analogue sound.
Yakabuski began mixing audio in 1981, and with almost 40 years of mixing and touring under his belt, was only introduced to SSL a few years ago – admitting he was at first reluctant to switch to the console manufacturer.
“I wanted to hear from my colleagues that stability on the road was not an issue – and I did,” he recalls. “So I knew I needed to get a board and give it a try. With an upcoming tour approaching, I decided to look further into using an SSL L550 for the FOH mixer. I made some calls, and then was treated to a few hours of one-on-one instruction from SSL's Fernando Guzman which peaked my interest. I was ready to dive in.”
Peter Frampton Finale - The Farewell Tour culminated in October 2019, and was Frampton’s chance to say farewell to fans that have been coming to his shows for over 50 years. After being thoroughly impressed with the L550, Yakabuski switched to the console for this tour, and hasn’t looked back since.
“The FOH mix on this tour could easily be done on a large format analogue console, but the previous FOH engineer and current monitor engineer decided to move it to digital for footprint reasons, and also ease of save/recall when using consoles brought in for private and one-off events,” Yakabuski explains – adding that he did not use automation scenes for each song or many of the other ‘digital' benefits the c
USA - Colombian reggaeton artist J Balvin recently wrapped his North American Arcoiris (Rainbow) fall tour, playing 25 cities from San Juan, Puerto Rico to LA.
The colourful visual production by The Squared Division who collaborated with The Friends With You Art Collective who designed his Coachella performance, featured a large complement of Claypaky Mythos 2 and Scenius Unico lighting fixtures from lighting and video vendor VER PRG.
Nathan Paul Taylor, Production Designer with The Squared Division, devised the show’s concept; Andre Petrus of Clear All Visuals was the associate lighting designer and programmer. “It was a very bright show – Nathan used every colour in the book and every song was taken to 100 percent,” says Petrus.
The rainbow theme was apparent in graphical elements and colour, and a cloud-shaped LED screen topped a stairway at centre stage. Cartoon-style characters appeared in animations displayed on the cloud and as dancers in costume. There were inflatable set pieces and characters, too: 18ft inflatable Little J sat on the steps for the duration of the show.
Lighting played a major role as well, notes Petrus. “The entire show was time coded; every song was accented with lighting – there were thousands of cues. There are a lot of intricacies with reggaeton music, and every bit was accented with light. We really pushed technology on this show to make things go as hard and fast as they could.”
Nathan Taylor mounted 68 Mythos 2 fixtures directly above the main stage with 16 more on the floor. He positioned e
UK - UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) has announced a partnership with Leeds City College, which commenced with the distributor supplying a full range of production technologies for the institution’s new £60m Quarry Hill Campus.
Leeds City College is one of the country’s largest further education providers, with over 20,000 students attending its courses. The new campus, which includes the college’s School of Creative Arts, puts students right at the heart of Leeds’ cultural quarter - surrounded by institutions such as Leeds Playhouse, Leeds College of Music and Northern Ballet, and the BBC.
To create learning environments where students can achieve their full potential, there is a significant programme of investment in the college’s campuses. This includes offering industry-standard facilities which allow students to fully develop the skills and experience needed to work in their chosen sector.
With the School of Creative Arts’ Media & Performance Production department offering backstage arts courses in technical theatre, TV and film production, it was therefore vital to equip the purpose-built facilities with technologies from some of the most innovative and popular brands.
Having a history supporting the college in various ways for a number of years, AC-ET’s Leeds-based Northern sales office was approached to tender for the supply of technical facilities equipment for Quarry Hill’s 200-seat theatre, dance studios, TV newsroom gallery, film studio, and media suites.
AC-ET’s external sales executive
Indonesia - To enhance the architecture of the Sopo Del Office Towers and Lifestyle Centre in Jakarta, Chayolite recently installed Martin by Harman lighting fixtures.
The Sopo Del Office Towers and Lifestyle Centre is mixed-use development featuring office spaces, premium retail stores and a lavish hotel. The complex consists of a massive 41-floor tower, a smaller 28-floor tower and a shared lifestyle centre. Sopo Del’s architecture and design showcases an interpretation of North Sumatra’s ulos heritage and value, representing bravery and strength.
In order to accentuate the buildings’ ulos-inspired design with immersive lighting, Sopo Del hired leading lighting and acoustic consultants PT. Litac to deploy a cutting-edge lighting display. To accomplish this task, Litac designed a lighting solution consisting of Martin Exterior Dot-HP fixtures.
“We wanted to emphasize Sopo Del’s ulos pattern and height,” said Hestu Widinugroho, Litac. “This was done using Martin Exterior Dot-HP LED fixtures and linear up-light systems with warm white color, giving a continuous flowing effect from the body to the crown of the building. The dynamic Dot-HP fixtures accentuated the diamond shape of the building, making for an exciting overall visual experience.
“One of the challenges our supplier faced during the installation was the placement of the Dot-HP fixtures in their precise locations while protecting them from exposure. We are thankful to the team at Martin Professional APAC for being so helpful in programming and achieving the perfect so
USA - With its fresh water springs, meandering wooded paths, and sparkling lake, Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Florida, is normally a tranquil, relaxing place. But on the last weekend in October, this 800-acre slice of paradise assumes a different, more frightful persona as the site of the Suwanee Huluween Festival.
Combining a bag full of musical treats from a diverse array of acts that includes a mix of big-name stars like Bassnectar and rising artists, with some tricky scenic elements that scare the senses, the three-day festival has become a Halloween ritual for a growing number of fans. Enhancing their experience throughout the grounds as well as at two of its stages this year were over 200 Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied and installed by The Design Oasis.
Abbas Ritscher and his team at The Design Oasis, which included John Hollingshead and Joe Donnelly, positioned 150 COLORado 1-Tri IP fixtures around the lake that served as the “festival centrepiece”. They used the high output RGB fixture to wash monsters, goblins, mad beasts and other freakish figures in a range of scary colours. Drawing on the Rogue fixture’s 16-bit master dimmer, they also relied on the interplay of moving light and shadows to endow the ghoulish scenery with menacing sense of animation.
In addition to illuminating scenic elements, the COLORado units were used to direct light on the lake itself as well as the surrounding trees to impart a haunting sense to the festival grounds. “The COLORados are a workhorse,” says Ritscher, who also installed the fixt
USA - El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie premiered globally on Netflix recently. Production sound mixer Phillip Palmer relied exclusively on Lectrosonics Digital Hybrid Wireless to record almost all of the dialogue and many incidental and ambient sounds that would normally be added in post-production.
His lab included three Venue 2 wideband modular receiver systems, eight SMV transmitters for body mics, four HMA plug-on transmitters for boom and plant mics, a couple of older UHs which were used for the ‘voice of God,’ on set, and a couple of LT transmitters for sound department communication.
“Wideband tuning is important given the increasingly crowded spectrum we have to work with these days,” says Palmer, “so the Lectrosonics Venue 2 was an obvious choice. It’s a rackmount chassis that can hold up to six receiver modules, so you can mix and match tuning ranges based on what transmitters and frequency blocks you’re using.
“People who are used to filming in New York or Los Angeles tell me, ‘It must be great to be out there in the wild west where you have free airwaves,’” he explains. “In fact, there is so much RF in and near Albuquerque. There’s a lot of military, industry, and push-to-transmit sources like walkie-talkies. What might be wide open in the morning can have interference in the afternoon. The frequency agility that Lectrosonics provides has saved my bacon on many occasions!”
Like the original series, El Camino featured a number of locations in extreme environments. Asked how his equipment fare
Finland - The New Children’s Hospital (HUS) in Helsinki uses art and play combined with the latest digital technology to provide the highest quality medical care in a safe, reassuring environment for the children and their families.
Part of the hospital’s innovative approach included the development of a building-wide soundscape to create a soothing sonic environment for patients and staff. The soundscape is fully networked, thanks in part to the use of 39 Genelec 8430A IP loudspeakers. The soundscape design was recently awarded the Grand Prix in the soundscapes and ambient sound category of the 2019 International Sound Awards (ISA) in Hamburg.
The idea was to create a soundscape based on the visual theme of each of the hospital’s eight floors. Inspiration was drawn mostly from the natural world as well as the much-loved Finnish Moomin stories. Antti Ikonen, head of Sound in New Media at Aalto university, and 10 of his MA students were responsible for the mammoth task of developing the content.
“First, the sound is generative, not looping, to avoid stress and ear fatigue,” explains Ikonen. “All the audio material is hosted in a single computer which generates and renders the soundscapes before feeding them out to each floor and location via the hospital’s IP network.
“The design and planning started before the building even existed,” he continues. “We discussed with the architects, doctors, electrical engineers, IT people, and Genelec how to implement this holistic technological system. The idea was not to fill th
Denmark - Lighting and audio rental company Allround Lyd & Lys, based in Struer, invested in two Robe RoboSpot systems, comprising two BaseStations and two BMFL Follow Spots with the integral cameras when they sought a straightforward follow spotting solution for the dry hire side of their business.
The company works in the live music, festivals and concert touring sectors and also services theatre productions. Dry hires are an important segment of their business, and they saw the demand rising for a plug-and-play remote follow spotting system.
The purchase was made specifically with local theatres in mind. They are often tight on prep time so their production schedules would always benefit from follow spots that were quick to calibrate and set up, explained Allround Lyd & Lys’s head of lighting, Martin Breinholt.
“The RoboSpot system is very straightforward to set up, it is intuitive, and the camera integration works well - it offered all the PNP functionality we wanted.”
The new system went out on a four-month hire almost immediately after it had been delivered by Robe’s Danish distributor, Light Partner.
The two systems were then used by Allround for some of their own shows and festival projects including a show with Sting at the Holstebro Theatre for which they were the equipment supplier, with three RoboSpot systems positioned on the front bridge.
They have also been subbed out to another rental company on another long-term hire.
(Jim Evans)
UK - The Collab in Walthamstow is, as the name suggests, a collaboration between food and drink providers Signature Brew brewery and We Serve Humans. The new east London venue aims to provide quality craft beers and freshly cooked food in an atmosphere geared to music lovers. Pro audio specialists, Amber Sound supplied an EM Acoustics system to provide audio for a range of live music events as well as traditional playback.
Co-founder Sam McGregor, who has a music industry background, explains that Signature Brew was born in 2011 as a result of being fed up with drinking terrible beer at gigs. “We decided that the way around it was to create our own beer in collaboration with a band, and things basically went from there.
“Music is such an important part of what makes Signature Brew special that we couldn’t possibly open a new venue with the aim of hosting live music sessions - either bands or DJs - and not have a great quality audio system,” says McGregor. “We talk so much about high quality music in combination with high quality beer, we had to be able to deliver that here. We went to Amber Sound for help and they recommended EM Acoustics.”
Marco Marini and Kelly Morris from Amber Sound along with EM Acoustics’ Dave Kelland went to visit the venue in order to assess the requirements. They recommended a pair of i-C12s with vertical yokes flown from a section of horizontal truss for the stage area. “We deliberately decided on the truss as it gives the look and feel of a small stage and a music venue vibe to the restaurant,” adds McG
UK - Mamma Mia! The Party has taken London’s O2 as its new permanent home. The high-octane immersive theatrical production which surrounds a dining experience, called for an active spatial soundscape to frame the energy of the event.
Abba’s Bjorn Ulvaeus approached Gareth Owen to bring both his theatre experience and the benefit of his rock n roll roots to the production. With its fully mobile cast and live band, Gareth centred the sound design around the powerful localisation and spatial control capabilities of two TiMax SoundHub-S64 3D audio processors, procured and supplied by Orbital Sound for the show.
Dining is established across two floors of the venue, styled as the Greek taverna straight from the Mamma Mia! movie set.
As band and cast move freely amongst the tables across the multiple levels of the space, the precise performer localisation and tight spatial control of TiMax enable diners to immediately make sense of the soundscape, locating voices and instruments to the exact positions at which they’re performing.
Image definition objects created in TiMax allow the restaurant space to be split into multiple zones on a Z-axis as well as X- and Y-. Delay-matrix imaging for those zones is then auto-calculated in TiMax PanSpace using selected loudspeaker channels within the distributed d&b system. As performers are cued into different positions, TiMax dynamically morphs them between the corresponding audio image definition objects.
The speaker system is comprised of four main d&b V-Series arrays, with s
USA - History runs deep at Washington’s City Tavern Club. Built in 1786, the venerable Federalist structure (one of the last such taverns in the US capital) counted George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson as regulars. Today, the venue hosts a variety of upscale events, and although it provides an evocative setting, power limitations in the 233-year old building can present challenges for anyone looking to light these affairs.
At a recent, corporate showcase at the historic building, Tarik Smith of Atmosphere, Inc. met these challenges and transformed its interior with elegant uplighting created by wireless, battery-powered WELL Fit fixtures from Chauvet Professional.
“As with any historic venue the biggest issue is power, so I had to pay a lot of attention to the design,” says Smith. “The limited power draw at the club meant we had to go wireless, but I still needed even, colourful light that would create an immersive, welcoming atmosphere.”
Smith tapped 60 WELL Fit fixtures to illuminate the main hall and upstairs lounge area. The compact dimensions of the WELL Fit units allowed them to blend easily into the background, while their four RGBA LED’s offered a wide palette of rich colours to deliver a bright, even uplight wash to the walls and architectural columns.
“For the Main Hall, I really wanted to create an entirely different look for the room,” says Smith. “The WELL Fits helped transform the space, to the point that even the house staff was impressed with how different it looked. I also used a few WELL Fits
USA - Robe’s new Esprite moving lights made their US live TV debut on the 2019 CMT Artists of the Year event, staged at the Schermerhorn Symphony Centre in Nashville, Tennessee.
“I absolutely Love these lights,” declared the event’s lighting designer Tom Kenny who worked alongside a talented production team which included set designer Anne Brahic.
The Esprites plus other extra lights on the show - which also included Robe BMFL WashBeams and Spiider LED wash beams - were delivered by Morris Light & Sound. They were used together with fixtures from the venue’s house rig.
Ten of the 20 Esprites were positioned on one of the rear LX production trusses installed at the Schermerhorn Symphony Centre for this event, and used for rear lighting the band, and for texturing, colouring and gobo work on the stage.
Another 10 luminaires on one of the downstage trusses provided key lighting for musicians onstage, and for pick-ups at the dinner tables distributed around the room including on the wrap-around balconies.
Tom’s lighting design also utilized 30 Robe BMFL WashBeams, 24 of which were on over-stage LX trusses 3 and 4 to provide band keys and highlighting scenic elements.
“Morris Light & Sound is very pleased with the output, colour and beam qualities as well as the feature sets of the Esprites which checks many boxes for us,” says Han Henze who also took on a lighting directorial role for this show.
Working alongside Tom, Michael and Han were gaffer Michelle Griesmer Stotts, lighting crew chief Todd Latia,
UK - The latest chapter of the Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes tour features live onstage content creation together with a custom video package from Universal Pixels
Thom Yorke’s latest tour is a live show that ‘immerses audiences in a sensory bath of abstract visuals and captivating music’.
Yorke is joined onstage by long-term Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich and audiovisual composer Tarik Barri, who is working in his own Versum software.
Universal Pixels has supplied the tour since it first set out for a short US run in December 2017, providing a curved array of three or five (venue dependent) projection screens. For the latest shows, which included tour dates and festival slots across Europe and the US, UP created a newly-devised, adaptable video package, which has been designed for quick deployment and speedy load-outs.
It features a custom dolly package of five 2.5m wide x 4.5m high 6mm Leyard CLM hi-res LED screens, that also create a seamless front projection screen, three Epson 25k projectors (to project onto the LED screen and across the band from FOH), and a compact five camera (five robos and one UP 3G minicam) package to provide IMAG feeds at festivals and larger venues with house screens, all interfacing with Barri’s custom servers and Pixel Taco’s Catalyst servers. The set-up has been supplemented by a locally-supplied FOH long-lens when available/feasible on a show by show basis.
Video designer, Jake Hogenson, comments, “The video element of this show impacts the entire performance greatly. Tarik’s visuals provid
UK - Magazine London, a purpose-built event space, opened adjacent to the O2 Arena in Greenwich Peninsula this August.
Its simple architectural form offers clean and functional spaces that provide ‘a means for large-scale creative expression’ with 3,205sq.m of versatile interior space for up to 3,000 people, and the capability of a further 7,000 people across the venue’s outdoor showground.
Technical consultant, Simon Jones of SJ-TPM, recommended MDG haze generators for this new venue. He supplied two MDG ATMe haze generators, complete with purpose-built touring cases for easy storage and deployment.
Jones was brought onboard by Venue Lab to review, recommend and deliver the technical infrastructure, establish and fine tune the requirements and purchase the equipment for this multi-purpose venue. Jones worked on the various phases in collaboration with Vibration Design and Production, which delivered the venue’s in-house technical production, to ensure the equipment installed aligned with the building’s innovative principle.
“Haze always has to look perfect on television and camera, and also work well with live events,” Jones explains. “It needs to be finely distributed, and quickly dispersed.
“The haze produced by the ATMe is great for the cameras because it is a good, clean haze, it doesn’t reflect, it’s not too dense and it’s nicely distributed across the whole space with two machines filling the venue quickly and easily. We chose to go with two ATMes because the venue is so large, and there are always points
UK - Bespoke productions specialist, Subfrantic has invested in Prolights' next generation OmegaPIX LED video screen to deliver a visual experience for client events.
Established in 1993, Subfrantic supplies high-end AV and lighting equipment to the events industry, including tours & festivals, one-off shows, theatre, corporate events, gospel and houses of worship.
As the first phase of a new investment in its Video inventory, Subfrantic director, Stephen Davies contacted one-stop equipment distributor, A.C. Entertainment Technologies to recommend a solution.
He comments: “We had made a small initial investment in an indoor LED screen to gauge our customers’ interest. After opening up new markets and clients from it, for the past 18 months we had been auditioning various LED products as we toyed with the idea of making a significant investment.”
After discussing options with Davies, sales executive Chris Beardwell in the company’s video division and customer relations manager Victoria Spurgin visited Subfrantic to provide a demonstration of the OmegaPIX OMEGAX39T 3.9mm pitch, IP65 outdoor LED screen.
Davies adds: “We had already decided that we wanted a screen which was supported by a big name in the UK this time. In addition, it needed to be 3.9mm pixel pitch, could be used outdoors, and ran on Novastar video processors.
“When we saw the demo and did an A/B test against our current screen, it became obvious that the panel just ticked all the boxes for us. The quality of the equipment we supply is very important, s