UK - Ever the travelling troubadours, Two Door Cinema Club are currently touring the UK with sound engineer Ian Laughton at the controls of a Britrow K2 system. “I first met the band two years ago,” he said. “They have loads of talent, excellent musicians; I’d always liked them and wanted to work with them. Listen to their latest third album Gameshow, and I defy you to find a song you don’t like.
“The first shows at the Manchester Apollo was my initiation to Britrow’s L-Acoustics K2 system with the new’ish KS28 subs. I don’t really need the low end weight – I’m not looking to flap trousers, but I do want that low frequency information to be present. The PA gives me the room to put the full character of what is a very musical band into the mix, neglecting nothing.”
Craig Ross (aided by Steve Donovan on stage) looks after the system for Laughton. “Ian is very undemanding,” said Ross. “So long as the system is nice and flat he has the platform he wants to work with. His comment about the KS28s is right; that first day in Manchester I had to rein them in to where he needed them, but that’s my job and we got there in short order.”
Ron Sharpless is the band’s monitor man; he does similar work for Alt-J and is no stranger to UK shores. “I use a Midas Pro2 like Ian. What I like about it is the tactile feedback; when you twist the pots you feel you’re doing something. When you’re working in the dark at the side of stage such physical feedback is very meaningful – I don’t have to look down at the desk to g

South Africa - The Joburg Theatre has invested in seven more Robin LEDWash 800s to supplement their existing stock and which have been the workhorses on productions like Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood, the new pantomime adventure from Janice Honyeman which ran until 30 December 2016.
“We chose the Robin LEDWash 800s two years ago because of their popularity amongst visiting companies,” said Enos Ramoroko, technical manager at the Joburg Theatre. “The lamp shaper is quite handy for theatre, and we have received positive feedback from lighting designers who love their output and colour mixing.”
While the Robin LEDWash 800s were a hit on Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood, they have been used on all shows performed at the Mandela Stage over the past year with highlights including Supreme Divas and Burn the Floor, the ultimate ballroom sensation.
(Jim Evans)

Italy - A classical music concert, Noi Per Napoli, was hosted at Naples’ Teatro Delle Palme theatre managed by Allen & Heath’s Qu-SB ultra compact digital rack mixer.
The event comprised performances from members of Naples’ San Carlo Opera House, who performed waltzes, classic folk songs and operetta. Audio requirements were managed by PA company, Megaride, and comprised a chorus of 40 people, a piano, harp, two violins, a cello, and the principal singers, two tenors, a baritone and a soprano. The faderless Qu-SB, with additional AB168 IO rack, provided FOH and monitor mixes, set up and controlled via the Qu-Pad app.
Sound engineer, Luigi Esposito, commented, “Qu-SB is a fantastically flexible, fast mixer. Simply plug in your inputs on stage, and then enjoy the freedom to set up your channels and change your settings from anywhere in the venue using the Qu-Pad app.
“The app controls everything, and runs without any problems or interference. With AB168, you have 32 input channels available for all patching and routing. The ability to configure a custom fader strip provides the possibility to assign channels in DCA and Groups and work with only one screen for the entire performance.”
(Jim Evans)

USA - Bandit Lites provides its clients access to its Venue One rehearsal facility, consisting of virtual programming suites, accommodations for 80,000 pound hang capacity, bus parking and easy access. Up and coming urban pop dance artist Taylor X utilized the space for her recent music video shoot for the song, No Ceiling.
In addition to using the Venue One rehearsal space for the shoot, Bandit Lites supplied VL 3000 Spots, GLP X4S, Martin Atomic Strobes, and ETC Source Four Pars, giving lighting designer Erik Parker the tools to tailor a high energy look.
“My role in this shoot was to add the ‘rock and roll’ effect in the video with moving lights, but the looks were much more about lease-flare and how the lights interact with the lens than what an audience member would see,” said Parker. “For a live production I try to make large pretty pictures to be seen from the front row and back of arena alike, whereas for a music video shoot my aim is to make the viewfinder look epic, which brings everything in much tighter than for a live experience.”
Even with the video calling for multiple scenes, Bandit’s expansive Venue One facility allowed for all scenes to be built within the 8,000sq.ft space, while still leaving room for both a Bentley to drive through and space for the dancers to rehearse choreography.
“I took their vision in the treatment and added lights around it to help expand the video and add some ‘pop’ in each scene,” Parker explained. “Some of these would use the ‘less is more’ approach having a light

USA - Time: its passage and the way it shapes our lives, is at the heart of Gulf View Drive, the third and final drama in Arlene Hutton’s classic Nibroc Trilogy, which follows the lives of a young couple over a decade during the post-World War II era. Helping to convey this evocative theme at the Rubicon Theatre’s production of the play is a powerful Mike Billings lighting design that creates a visually rich and textured sense of time’s inexorable flow with help from the Chauvet Professional Ovation E-910FC colour mixing ellipsoidal.
“Early in the design process, the creative team discussed the colour arc for this show, which was incorporated into costumes, scenery and, of course, lighting,” said Billings.
“The show is set in 1953 Florida. It starts off very warm during a hot day. Then as the story unfolds, things become more tense, which we convey by using cool colours. At the conclusion, the mood becomes bright and warm again as conflicts are resolved over time. The playwright used time of day and weather to underscore the emotional quality of the scene. We show a broad spectrum of times and weather changes in the show, which made my job as a lighting designer fun.”
Contributing greatly to Billings’ enjoyment were the six Ovation E-910FC ellipsoidals he used. Arranged on taildowns, the RGBA-Lime fixtures were hung at an angle between head-high and pipe-ends to deliver colour and texture to the stage at a low angle.
“The colour mixing of the Ovation E-910FC was wonderful,” said Billings. “The lime was esse

USA - Whether working as tour manager for Mike Posner or mixing for such groups as Rixton and MisterWives, Robert Dugan has found one common element that keeps his artists happy: Sensaphonics 2MAX.
“I’ve been using Sensaphonics since I started working with singer/songwriter Mike Posner in 2011,” says Dugan. “He turned me onto them, and I’ve been using them ever since. The 2MAX is so well balanced, with such accurate bass response, it feels like you’re listening to a full PA. I like referencing through them, even for studio work.”
On the road, Dugan uses the 2MAX even when he's not mixing monitors. "When I'm mixing front of house, I record my house feed most nights, then listen to it through the 2MAX on the bus or in my hotel. I know I'm hearing all the details, and it's a great way to keep both myself and the band happy with the mix."
Recently, Dugan was on a tour where he mixed both FOH and monitors from one console. He found the fit and isolation of custom silicone earpieces in the 2MAX to be ideal for that task. “We were playing two hours per night, so we needed something that was comfortable, easy to pop in and out with a good seal,” he recalls.
“The show is all live, so you don’t get the luxury of having tracks to build on. My job is to make them sound big out front while also providing a clean, clear monitor mix. The response of the 2MAX is so accurate, you can hear a lot of nuances. It helped me with adding some breath into a vocal and making it sound more organic in the in-ear mixes."
Another benefit that Du

USA - Lamar University serves 15,000 students on its Beaumont campus in south eastern Texas and one of the biggest sports on campus is basketball. Their basketball team, the Cardinals, has played in eleven NCAA tournaments.
Now over 30-years-old, the 10,080-seat Montagne Centre hosts all of the Lamar Cardinals’ home basketball games, as well as graduation ceremonies, athletic banquets, rock concerts, and touring entertainment. Until recently, it was limping along using the original sound reinforcement system that came with the building. Those forty-plus boxes have now been replaced by a single Danley J1-94 Jericho Horn and five Danley SM-80 full-range loudspeakers for fill.
“The old system lacked fidelity, coverage, and intelligibility, all of which was compounded by the fact that boxes were failing,” explained Chase Daigle, system designer at Beaumont-based MSC Systems, the firm that designed and installed the new system. “We worked with Kim Comeaux at Anderson Sales & Marketing, the regional Danley rep, to come up with a design that would provide even, impactful coverage with excellent intelligibility.”
The best solutions centred on a single Danley J1-94 Jericho Horn, the same box that lights up some of the biggest football arenas in the world. To provide proof of concept, Daigle and Comeaux arranged a J1-94 demo. They brought the J1-94 to the Montagne Centre’s concourse level and played program music and live spoken word so that all the stakeholders could experience Danley fidelity in the very place it would be used. “They were

UK - Lighting Design International has used the MentorLED Remote from Light Projects in conjunction with Soraa's AR111s to help illuminate and accentuate the beautiful Human Nature artwork in the Shard’s 37th floor Aqua Shard restaurant.
This stunning Christmas feature was a collaboration between Timothy Hatton Architects and Sir David Attenborough in aid of the charity Flora & Fauna International. It comprises a beautiful nine-metre high cascading leaf sculpture made from 3D-printed recycled plastic leaves in the shape of English Oak, Silver Birch, Dogwood, Wych Elm and Field Maple.
During the day, the white leaves are silhouetted against the dramatic London skyline. At night, the soft light from the MentorLED grazes up through the leaves which seemingly float in space, casting gentle shadows on the ceiling.
The MentorLED Remote uses the latest SR111 LED dimmable Soraa lamp technology contained in the fixture’s compact steel and aluminium housing on a small surface plate. The lamp ensures consistent light continuity with beam angles available ranging from 4° narrow through to a wide 60° at 12V. Additional beam spreaders, eggcrate louvres, scrims, colour and frosted glass accessories give the Mentor huge versatility.
In addition, Soraa’s innovative Snap system allows for CCT Shifter filters which can provide colour temperatures that are rare or impossible to find such as warm glowing natural 2200K CCT along with other louvres, beam spreaders and shapers.
(Jim Evans)

Australia - As part of their pitch for the rebranding of the Australian Open, Landor, Tennis Australia’s chosen branding agency, created a video rendering of their proposed logo. The rendering depicted a 3m high three-dimensional logo, complete with a video screen on its front and LED pixels covering the side surfaces.
Whilst not part of Landor’s actual deliverable, the concept inspired Tennis Australia to test the market to see if it were possible.
The technical team at Tennis Australia prepared and issued a specification in August last year. Sydney’s The P.A. People, who had worked with Tennis Australia on many events over the years, took up the challenge.
“Our experience in designing bespoke mechanical solutions as part of AV systems integration, coupled with our work around the world on large scale events, led us to believe we could create a viable and cost effective solution” said Chris Dodds, managing director - The P.A. People and lead designer of the AO logo project.
“The P.A. People took a concept and brought it to life with an extraordinary feat of engineering. The AO installation became a cornerstone of our international brand roll out and it captivated our audiences with its sheer size and stunning imagery. The team at The P.A. People are to be commended for working with us on such a complex project in such a short timeframe; the evidence of its success is in the exposure the installation had during the tournament,” said Jo Juler, head of marketing for AO.
Chris Dodds outlines the process: “Our solutio

UK - Following the successful deployment of Martin Audio’s MLA system at Regents Park Open Theatre this summer, Autograph Sound has been using the manufacturer’s CDD-LIVE 15 15” powered, point source solution in some of its recent theatre productions.
First, sound designer Nick Lidster — the man responsible for designing the Jesus Christ Superstar sound in Regents Park — had four CDD-LIVE 15 out on duty at the Jason Robert Brown musical Last Five Years, repurposed for London’s St. James Theatre. Then his colleague Avgoustos Psillas fielded a complete proscenium system, with surround and fills, at Hackney Empire for Sleeping Beauty, the seasonal pantomime.
In this challenging environment, a three-way L/C/R CDD-LIVE 15 system, with three enclosures each side of a clustered centre fill/down-fill, was mounted overhead on the motorized horizontal truss.
“We were curious to hear it after having had such a good experience with MLA,” said Lidster. “Although our existing 15” point source solution is still reliable it is 30-year-old technology so we had been looking for a replacement to handle this kind of show.”
The Autograph team listened to the CDD-LIVE 8”, 12” and 15”. “While the first two were both nice and clean, producing good horizontal coverage with a flat response, it was the 15” that really stood out,” noted Psillas.
“It didn’t colour the sound, it had a flat response, and it delivered the fullness of sound that you would normally expect from a large PA. We spun it round so it

China - The Parisian is an integrated resort located on the Cotai Strip in Macau, China. It officially opened on 13 September 2016 and contains a half-scale Eiffel Tower along with a luxury hotel which houses 3,000 guest rooms, covering 200,000sq.m.
The site is also filled with attractions, including the recently-opened Parisian Theatre which is located on the hotel’s fifth floor. The construction of the theatre was overseen by Shalleck Collaborative and, following a successful tendering process, White Light was brought on board as the specialist contractor, tasked with providing the theatrical lighting installation along with the production lighting system.
The Parisian Theatre is a 1,200 seat theatre that is not only designed for theatre performances but also conferences, themed events and even weddings. WL’s special projects director Simon Needle comments, “Our role was to supply and install the lighting equipment and infrastructure for the space, which included kit fixtures, dimming and power controls, lighting control desks, architectural control and dimming. We would essentially be helping turn an empty auditorium into a space fit for performance.”
Working from the architectural specification, WL worked closely with Shalleck Collaborative to develop an intricate set-up. Simon adds, “The theatre is quite large and had to be multi-purpose. The equipment needed to be adaptable, have longevity and, most importantly, be able to get the most out of the space.”
The lighting fixtures used included ETC Source Fours, City Theatrical El

UK - The largest collection of Audient iD14s in one education facility is hard at work at Middlesbrough College, where 54 of of the USB audio interfaces are a split across three music labs.
Technician and lecturer, Jamie Donnelly explains, “The iD14s offer seamless audio experience between both our PCs and iMacs. Also, 16 out of the 24 available channels, in four out of our five control rooms are Audient ASP800s, taking us up to 64 channels worth of Audient pre-amps.”
With each iD14 offering two channels of Audient’s classic console mic pres and Burr-Brown converter technology, Donnelly is impressed with the audio interfaces. “They’re utilised in every module of the course that requires audio,” he confirms. “Students think they’re great - indeed there are a number of students who’ve purchased their own.
“A favourite feature of the iD14 has to be the big knob,” he adds. “It’s nice to know there’s a sturdy knob for controlling the output as opposed to the finicky ones found on competitors’ units.” The same knob can also be switched into Audient’s ScrollControlTM mode, which turns it into a virtual scroll wheel, enabling students to adjust DAW hosts, plug-in parameters and more.
With places limited to around 30 seats per year, Middlesbrough College’s BSc (Hons) Music Technology degree course (accredited by Teesside University) is in the strong position of having more UCAS applicants than places available. Successful applicants are chosen on the basis to their performance at interview, at which they get the oppo

USA - American rock band Chevelle recently completed the west coast leg of their tour with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites. The band, made up of brothers Pete and Sam Loeffler and Dean Bernardini, were promoting their latest album, The North Corridor which included the hit singles, Joyride (Omen) and Door to Door Cannibals.
With a new album to promote, the band sought to shake up their previous production. Lighting designer Craig Richter built this tour’s lighting design around the new scenic set elements created by Robb Jibson of So Midwest Inc.
“With Robb being a well-respected and talented lighting designer himself, he was able to come up with something that would allow some of the lighting fixtures to be incorporated into the set pieces,” said Richter. “Then I just had to choose the fixtures that I wanted to go on the set as well as the rest of the package.”
For that package, Bandit supplied Martin MAC Viper Profiles, Chauvet Rogue RH1 Hybrids, Elation Sixpar 100s, GLP X4S, GLP X4 Bars along with Martin Atomic 3000 Strobes and a Grand MA 2 lite console for control.
“I try not to use a bunch of different fixtures; I like keeping it to a profile, beam and wash/LED type fixture,” Richter explained. The GLP X4S illuminated the main focal points, as their compact size allowed them to be mounted on the set while still being powerful enough to give beam looks or wash out the stage. GLP X4 bars lit the scenic elements, backdrop and cabs in addition to occasionally backlighting the band. Richter referr

Denmark - With one of the largest community participation events ever held in Denmark, Aarhus recently celebrated its inauguration as one of the two European Capitals of Culture 2017. The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by the European Union for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong European dimension.
The opening ceremony was created by artistic director, Nigel Jamieson, one of the world’s leading creators of theatre and large-scale events. Working with Berlin-based creative production company battleROYAL, lighting designer and programmer Chris Moylan was asked to create a lighting design representative of this landmark event. Using two grandMA2 full-size, two grandMA2 light, six MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) and 1 x MA onPC command wing as back-up Moylan controlled a show with more than 600 fixtures.
Aarhus opened their ceremony with a poetic and traditional lantern parade stretching from one side of the city to the other. Along the way many architectural wonders of Aarhus were lit and used as beacons to provide a design that encompassed the entire city.
Moylan commented, “We are passionate grandMA2 users and were able to use some advanced workflow techniques to easily program and prepare everything beforehand, saving us precious hours on the ground.
“We used three different control stations for this project”, explained Moylan. “Two spread across the city and one 3D programming station. The MA NPU were distributed in areas were groups of lights were clu

Thailand - Proel has supplied a complete sound and lighting system at the headquarters of the Thai Life Insurance company in Bangkok.
Founded in 1942, it is one of the largest insurance companies in Thailand and is known for producing some of the most consistently brilliant television advertising campaigns in the Asian region. The company's multi-purpose auditorium was recently given a complete upgrade of its audio and lighting system, enabling further usage such as hosting conferences, workshops, theatre events, recitals, and general purpose live music performances.
The auditorium itself is a rectangular room with an approximate surface area of 1500 sq metres, but with a rather high reverberation time which required some acoustic treatment before work on the audio and lighting commenced.
The audio system was designed by Proel's technical sales engineer Daniele Massaccesi, who opted for an Axiom mid-sized flown line array system supplemented by point source models for near field coverage.
"Considering the size of the room and the long reverberation time, we recommended a true vertical array as the main sound system so as to be able to control the vertical coverage angle over the whole audio range down to the lowest frequencies," he said. "And to provide good coverage at the front of the auditorium we suggested compact passive point source loudspeakers across the front of the stage to maintain a correct sound balance for the first few rows and be visually unobtrusive."
The main speaker system consists of 12 AX2065P dual 6.5" passive line

USA - Bar mitzvahs provide memories that last a lifetime, not only for the young man who comes of age in the traditional Jewish ceremony, but also for his family and friends. In the case of one recent bar mitzvah, those memories are likely to be in vivid colour, thanks to some stunning lighting by John Farr, using an impressive collection of Chauvet DJ products, along with the Ovation E-910FC ellipsoidal from Chauvet Professional.
Farr, the owner of John Farr Lighting Design, turned the reception area for this suburban Washington, DC bar mitzvah into a cornucopia of bright vivid colours by using 48 Wash FX, 24 Freedom Par Hex-4 and eight Intimidator Spot 355Z IRC fixtures as well as 12 Ovation E-910FC units.
For added impact, he also included an Amhaze II haze machine and Chauvet DJ Mirror Ball in his design for the room, which was set up to resemble a sports complex with large soccer ball wall graphics, bleacher seating and a ball court pattern on the floor.
“Our goal was to make the area bright and colorful to reflect the spirit of the event and build on the sports theme,” said Farr. “We relied on the Wash FX, Freedom Pars and Ovation fixtures to give us very bold colors and subtle color changes, while covering a wide area of the room. The Ovation E-910FC did double duty by allowing us to make bold statements with our gobos. We used it extensively for gobo projection and for color changing gobos. The ability to change color on a projected gobo gave the room an assortment of looks for this event. Plus, the Ovation’s lens provided an HD cris

Europe - Grammy award winning singer/songwriter The Weeknd kicks off his 2017 world tour this month in Stockholm, with concert dates scheduled through July in Europe and the Americas. The dynamic stage design boldly features 88 new Solaris Flare Q+ LR linear fixtures.
“The Flare LRs are lining trusses inside the flown structure,” explains lighting designer, Sooner Routhier. “They are very bright and create a smooth linear light effect that you can’t get out of most LED strips. We were looking to line the trusses in a smooth field of light that could give us some beautiful modern looks. The Flare LRs are the perfect choice for this tour and we’re very happy with the results.”
Sooner continues, “In addition, the Flare LR linear fixtures have all the features of the original Flare, which we’ve used for a very long time on The Weeknd and several other designs. I absolutely love running content through Flares. There are ethereal sounds in some of The Weeknd’s tracks that lend themselves perfectly to the effect created when slow moving video content is pushed through the LED engine. I also love using Flares as a powerful wash light behind a band. They create a beautiful, even field of colour and do an incredible job of lighting the air in a hazy room.”
Sooner Routhier, Parnelli 2015 lighting designer of the Year, is co-owner of SRae Productions, with partner Robert Long. She’s worked as a lighting designer and director for many shows in modern dance, theatre, and concert touring. In addition to The Weeknd, she’s worked with Rage A

China - For Ocean Park, staying at the top of Hong Kong’s hotly-contested amusement park market means luring audiences with ever more thrilling attractions. Running up to five times per day from mid-December 2016 to mid-February 2017 in the park’s Applause Pavilion, this holiday season’s major event was the Cyber Illusion Spectacular.
Built around the visual excitement of magicians, illusionists, aerialists, quick-change artists, acrobats, dancers and a master fan manipulator, this 30-minute, energy-charged, attack on the senses was performed on a constantly-changing stage, featuring striking visuals from LED panels, moving lights, pyrotechnics and atmospheric effects.
The primary scenic element for the show was an impressive 8m x 15m (26ft x 50ft) wall of 8.0mm LED panels, complete with sliding sections in the centre for fast scene change access. Additional irregular panels of 3.0mm LED flanked the stage to provide an immersive video environment.
It was Hong Kong-based Cosmo Pro AV who supplied, installed, configured and programmed the complete video system, including LED wall panels and the AV Stumpfl technology to drive them.
Given the short and intense production period and the tight integration of the video content with the performance, in particular where some acts were interacting directly with the images, it was critical that the video content could be swiftly adjusted during rehearsals.
Cosmo Pro AV’s Jason Yeung, CTS, selected AV Stumpfl’s WingsVIOSO system to control the production’s video content. “It’s an e

UK - Lighting designer Andy Webb seized a recent pantomime production of Aladdin staged at the Grand Theatre in Blackpool as the opportunity to design an all-LED moving and specials lighting rig which was all Robe.
Andy had been working on an LED lighting concept for the last two pantomime seasons with an increasing percentage of the rig becoming LED, and this year he felt the time was right to make a complete switch to LED moving lights and specials.
“Robe currently has an excellent selection of LED products which are suitable for any theatre or performance show,” he commented, after making Robe’s DL4 series, LEDWash 600s and Spikie moving lights plus their PARFect 100s central to this design.
The demands of panto are quite specific. Lighting has to be colourful and psychedelic to mimic the outlandish fantasy sequences at the core of the genre, and everything has to be mega-fast to keep pace with the onstage action, snappy dialogue, not to mention the endless one-liners and constant innuendo.
Given all that, Andy also decided to take an aesthetic departure this year in making the show darker, edgier and altogether more sinister. “I wanted to really ramp up the contrasts between the evil environments like Abanazer’s Cave and the bubble-gum pop-tastic full cast scenes,” he explained.
Eight out of the 10 Robe DL4S Profiles were rigged on LX bars 1 and 2, with the other two on the FOH balcony position for front gobo coverage and texturing the numerous cloth drops, a job at which they excelled in the Grand, which was desi

USA - For Ghost’s North American Popestar tour, lighting designer Christian Wienberg Bonde specified 11 High End Systems SolaSpot Pro 2000 fixtures as the floor lighting package.
Operated by lighting director Mike Holm and supplied through Gemini Lighting Sound Video, the SolaSpots serve as powerful workhorses, providing massive looks and amazing special effects lighting to the band’s high energy live performances.
Bonde says, “We’ve been touring since 2014 and have had the opportunity to use many different fixtures, including a variety of LED instruments. The SolaSpots fit perfectly in our fixture sets. In this design we always have a line of floor fixtures, as a wash from the back, so we place 11 SolaSpots on the ground.
“This design requires a big, powerful fixture, and we surely got that in the SolaSpots. We like their LED colours, because we get a little more out of the dark colours compared to metal halide sources. We use them in all songs in the set.
The designer originally specified the SolaSpots while Ghost was touring in Europe. “Victory, the Danish rental company used by Ghost in Europe, performed a shoot-out with fixtures from all major manufacturers. Among all the great fixtures we tested, the SolaSpots came out on top.”
(Jim Evans)

Vietnam - Three Vietnamese houses of worship have recently installed a Qu-16 digital rackmount mixer from Allen & Heath to manage all of their audio requirements.
The Vietnam Quoc Tu national pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City, and Long Toan and Long Dien churches in Ba Ria, Vung Tau province, all required a new compact digital mixer as part of an audio upgrade. Specified by installation company, Nguyen Vinh Hoang, the Qu mixers manage all of the audio sources for the venues’ services and ceremonies.
“All houses of worship installation projects require an audio system offering premium sound quality for speech intelligibility,” explains Mr. Khuong, technician at Nguyen Vinh Hoang. “The Qu series is renowned for easy and precise audio control, and also has the added benefit of a comprehensive suite of FX to manage the challenging acoustics of the building. All of the venues are very happy with their new sound systems.”
(Jim Evans)

Germany - For the long-awaited inauguration of the Elbphilharmonie concert hall located on the harbour-side in Hamburg, a massive light and video setup was installed. It all culminated with a spectacular show in the evening of 11 January. As a crucial part of this show, no less than 500 P-5 and P-2 wash lights from SGM were applied.
Hamburg’s new concert hall is one of the largest and most acoustically advanced in the world. It is popularly nicknamed Elphi. The 108m tall building consists of two sections. The new glassy construction resembles a hoisted sail, water wave or quartz crystal, which is constructed on top of an old warehouse building. A terrace placed in middle, ties the new and the old sections together. This is where most of the P-5s were installed. Additionally, all balconies on the upper part were also equipped with P-5s.
The overall concept was thought-out by the global agency, Jung von Matt. Their task was to visualise the concert taking place inside the opera house on the outside of the building in real-time. Jerry Appelt was the lighting designer who ensured that the light was synchronized with the music and video content displayed on the bottom part of the building.
All lighting was supplied by PRG and their account manager for the event, Michael Casper, explains why they chose to apply P-5s over other wash lights for this event: "They are water resistant, bright and reliable – that's why we have a lot of them. They absolutely live up to all our expectations. The role of the P-5s was to bathe the new part of the building in

UK - Any major refurbishments on cruise liners are best done when the ship is in dry dock to minimise passenger disturbance. However, when Fred Olsen decided to upgrade the stage lighting in the Neptune Lounge on board MS Braemar a more unconventional option was taken. Hastings UK-based EW Production Services Ltd. was able to make the upgrade during a fully booked cruise to minimise costs and expedite the process (dry dock opportunities are often two-three years apart).
To fit the requirements of the Neptune Lounge and the stringent install conditions, EWPSL specified six Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 Spots, four Rogue R1 Washes, two COLORdash Batten Quad 6s and 12 COLORdash Par-Hex 7 fixtures. EWPSL worked alongside the crew on MS Braemar to make good use of the lounge overnight, on port days and at other times when not in use by passengers.
“The beauty of the Chauvet install was that having previously prepared all the cable runs, we could perform the fixture swap out overnight when the ship docked at port, thus saving all parties time, money and effort,” said Paul Byrne, operations manager at EWPSL. “This is a testament to the light weight and ease of install of the Chauvet fixtures.”
Given the multiple roles filled by the Neptune Lounge – which functions as a conference room and activity centre by day and theatre venue in the evening – it was essential that the new lighting system offered maximum flexibility. “We require a fantastic all round level of performance for both day and evening programmes from any fixture we installed,”

Germany - Described as ‘in the daytime a modern convention and congress centre, in the evening a classy concert and event location’, Eurogress Aachen is a major multi-space venue in Germany’s westernmost city. The installation of a pair of Yamaha CL5 digital mixing consoles has brought the mixing facilities in its main halls right up to date.
Eurogress Aachen’s many spaces range in size from the Europa, Berlin and Brüssel halls (which accommodate up to 1700, 650 and 430 people respectively) to a number of rooms of varying smaller sizes. For the past 13 years, the Europa and Brüssel halls have each featured a Yamaha DM2000 digital console with AD824 and DA824 I/O units, but the recent installation of a CL5 console with Rio3224-D in each hall by Köln-based Teqsas GmbH has upgraded the facilities.
A DME24N digital mixing engine was already in use as a central matrix, managing the network of analogue feeds between the various spaces. This was fitted with a Dante-MY16-AUD interface card, allowing seamless integration of the Dante network for the new consoles and R-series units into the existing infrastructure.
“The Eurogress sound engineers were comfortable with the DM2000 and so, when they compared the current consoles from several different manufacturers, they preferred the Yamaha CL series,” says Teqsas technical director Rainer Laschet.
“They found the CL5 easy to transfer to and were very impressed by the ease of use, the flexibility and the neutral sound. For them the Dan Dugan automixing functionality is particularly useful