production news

Stars at the Castle with Electro-Voice

Running from August 5-8, this year saw the second edition of the Burghauser Konzertsommer mini-festival, featuring four evenings, four genres, and a setting with which few others in the world can compare: the inner courtyard of "the longest castle in the world," Burghausen Castle. With acclaimed performances by jazz star Roger Cicero and his band, Austrian bard Peter Cornelius, German Volksmusik charmer Hansi Hinterseer, and the similarly well-received ‘Night of Musicals’ gala, it was a formula that proved successful once again. Despite the wet and cold weather, organisers Creative Concerts were pleased to welcome 5,000 visitors.

This year as last, the festival’s sound production was the responsibility of a team from rental company MSE Tontechnik. As well as the sheer variety of the acts performing, the medieval venue—a 60 x 20 metre courtyard—also posed challenges for the crew of technicians: since the gates were so small, the equipment actually had to be transferred to a smaller transporter for the last kilometre of the route, and high trees and the risk of reflections from the castle walls further complicated the task. "It’s no easy matter here," commented MSE chief Johannes Schilling, "to deliver sufficient information in the midrange and high-frequency area, as well as a clear bass foundation to the furthest rows."

MSE Tontechnik’s specialists were, however, familiar with the problem from previous events—and knew exactly how to solve it: "The compact XLVC line-array system with XLD281 loudspeakers from Electro-Voice is ideal for the purpose," Schilling says. "It also carries long distances. In this case, the furthest row was over 60 metres away, yet, even there, the sound was powerful and precise." The quality of the projection, in fact, was something that startled other sound engineers attending the event. "They were amazed also at how much bass pressure the eight-inch woofers of the twenty-four XLD enclosures were able to generate," he added.

For their main PA, the MSE Tontechnik crew opted for 12 flown EV XLD281 array modules per side, with nearfield coverage provided by four EV T221M loudspeakers. EV Xi-1152/64F loudspeakers served as outfills; 12 EV Xsubs reinforced the bass.

Delivering reproduction at once detailed and rich in dynamics, it was a set-up that showed the lively swing of Roger Cicero and his band to the best advantage, as well as the subtle tones of singer/songwriter Peter Cornelius; that oozed Broadway flair throughout the ‘Night of the Musicals’, and warmth and good cheer when Hansi Hinterseer took to the stage. "The XLD is extremely versatile," remarked Schilling, "—and, thankfully, robust! There was a downpour during the Roger Cicero’s performance, but neither the equipment nor the morale of the audience took the hit."

Stefan Löwen, the head of Creative Concerts, summed up: "High-quality equipment that functions flawlessly gives us organisers one less thing to worry about. That’s why MSE-Tontechnik will be my first choice for next year’s event as well."

In picture: "The world’s longest castle": the Burghausen setting provides a spectacular setting for concerts, but the acoustics are decidedly tricky.

Chroma-Q Color Force LED Shines for Leading Hire Companies

The first shipment of the new Chroma-Q Color Force mighty output coloured LED fixture range has gone straight into the rental stocks of leading UK production companies in the event, broadcast and performance lighting sectors. Early adopters include Colour Sound Experiment, DBN Lighting and White Light.

Colour Sound Experiment managing director, Haydn Cruickshank commented: "I’ve used various LED battens before but in my experience, none of them have been bright enough to adequately light large stage backdrops. The Color Force fills this need perfectly. I expect it to do really well on our clients’ productions needing a powerful stage theatrical style cyc light."

DBN lighting designer, Stephen Page commented: "The Color Force batten offers exceptional brightness and versatility. There’s ample output to uplight or downlight stage backdrops, plus the RGBA optics deliver a full range of colours and varying colour tones. It does a great white too. Having separately controllable LED cells makes for some interesting coloured effects using a single fixture. The dimming is also the smoothest I’ve seen in an LED fixture of this type. We see a lot of potential applications replacing a traditional cyc flood with the Color Force. It's a great all rounder."

White Light hire and tectnical director, David Isherwood commented: "We are very pleased with the Color Force. It's already proving popular with customers and we are looking at increasing our stocks to meet demand."

The Color Force line-up includes super bright 12,000 lumens (1.8m) and 8,000 lumens (1.2m) RGBA battens that easily wash up to 8m high. Launching at PLASA 2010 and expanding the range is the new Color Force 12, a compact 30cm wide, 2,000 lumens version that provides the ideal multi-purpose LED fixture for floor, wall or truss mounting. Other range features include a huge RGBA full colour palette capable of deep cold blues and red hot lava looks in a single fixture, CRI of 92, independently controlled cells, theatrical grade dimming and an extremely smooth, uniform wash.

Also launching soon are the new Chroma-Q Daylight Force mighty output white LED battens, which produce a massive 48,000 lumens (1.8m) and 32,000 lumens (1.2m) of 5600K CCT light. Other features include theatrical grade dimming and an extremely smooth, uniform wash.

The full Chroma-Q LED range will be on display at PLASA 2010 (Stand 1-E11). For more information visit www.chroma-q.com

 

 

 

Entec's Night of Bliss at the Embassy

Entec Sound & Light supplied sound and lighting equipment plus 19 crew for a non-stop get-in, show and performance marathon "Night of Bliss", the biggest ever Christian Conference in the UK - for the Christ Embassy Church at the O2 Arena.

The event featured various Christ Embassy ministers who delivered blessings, prayers and sermons to the crowd. Speakers included Pastor Anita and Pastor Chris Oyakhilome. A live worship band and a choir of over 1000 voices accompanied them. The whole event was also recorded for DVD.

Entec's seriously gruelling schedule demanded some nimble logistics, so they brought Simon Tutchener onboard as technical production manager for the project, to integrate their services into a vast XL Video set-up, Hawthorn Set Design and 4 Rigging Teams from Summit Steel. Eat To the Beat and Stage Miracles completed the cast. Tutchener was also the anchor between client and the 02 staff Emma Beszant, Alex Donnelly-Palmer and Summit’s Simon Frost.

The get in commenced at 6 a.m. on the Thursday. Everything had to be rigged, sound-checked, focussed and ready for the first rehearsals at midday on Friday followed directly by the show from 5 p.m. Friday till 5 a.m. Saturday. All production equipment then had to be clear of the venue by 3 p.m. on the Saturday.

Liam Halpin was Entec's sound designer, who also worked on the 2009 Christ Embassy show - also serviced by Entec - at Wembley arena. The event utilised the whole of the O2 Arena with audience overspill accommodated in the O2's adjacent Indigo venue.

The main PA consisted of main & side hangs of d&b J8 cabinets, with J12s at the bottom of the hang for wider coverage of the nearfield, together with a centre cluster of d&b Q1s. The system was positioned to achieve the clearest and best possible coverage throughout the space, catering for many acoustic dynamics - from the spoken word to music and to multiple voice chorals/choir.

d&b J-SUBS were flown directly behind the main arrays, giving a zero point for all the delays and more expedient time alignment parameters than hanging the subs to the sides of the main hangs. Ground infills and outfills were covered by d&b Q10s and Q7s & the whole system was driven by d&b D12 amps & processing. Before the show, the sound system was modelled using the latest version of d&b's Array Calc software, explains Halpin, which helped enormously with positioning, especially time being so precious. The PA return system was a fully digital RME MADI interface, with the only analogue section being the mics and stage return boxes, which eliminated numerous potential issues like noise and weak signal transmissions.

FOH was mixed by Brother Mike using a DigiDesign D-Show Venue console, looked after by Kevin Smith & Owen McAuley. Additional sound feeds from the main stage were sent to Indigo.

A Yamaha PM5D was supplied for monitors mixed by Entec engineers Justin Grealey & Iain White. They worked in double shifts both ends of the multicore to ensure that there was always a fresh engineer at the desks.

The monitor system was a combination of d&b M2s and M4s wedges all over stage with a single C7 cabinet for side fill, flown each side. Another 2 hangs of Q1s were hung for choir monitors as they were in the seating behind the stage. E3s were utilised for the dressing rooms to enable the Pastors to hear what was going on during the event. One of the specific requests from production was to keep the stage as clean as possible, so the monitor wedges were all concealed in custom-built hides.

Entec also supplied multiple radio mics with Guy Gillen as radio tech along with full mics and stands package which included a number of mid-side & gun mics for the choir. Other stage & PA techs were James Kerridge & Lee Furnell.

Matt Hay assisted by Juan Ayala ran a D-Show Profile supplied as the recording console, hooked into a Pro Tools recording system. There was also a fully redundant Pro Tools system fed from analogue source as back-up.

The challenge was the tight timescale, and the installation of the recording system - it was a large amount of gear needing to be integrated very quickly, straight into sound check, rehearsal then directly into the live show.

Entec's lighting crew faced all the same time-based issues as audio. Ryan Brown joined the show delivery team again to design lighting following his highly successful work on last year's event.

The show provided many design challenges; combining a large stage area that had to be lit for TV as well as a complex set. Planning and modelling the truss locations were essential, as video and audio required clear lines of sight. Working with XL Video, Ryan and Liam planned the location of all the trusses. Over the stage lighting, video and set trusses as well as audio cable bridges all occupied the same space so precise trim heights became crucial. At this point Simon Tutchener stepped in to plan the load in and load outs as well as truck packs to ensure everything was built and flown in order.

Video also complicated matters installing a 50ft crane at the side of stage as well as remote 'hot-head' cameras on the lighting trusses. In the end Ryan settled on a truss grid that extended over the entire 60 x 70ft stage area as an advance truss. This was occupied by 2kW Fresnels and over a hundred par-cans in order to provide an even 'TV' wash throughout the stage.

The set was hung from two dedicated trusses and was lit by Martin Mac 2000 Profiles, Mac 700 profiles, Mac 250 Beams as well as JTE 1044s. The combined effect was stunning with the director of photography commenting, "it doesn't look real". Ryan said afterwards that: "the Mac beams were purchased by Entec as an effect light, however they worked amazingly well lighting the set’s 1m by 12m panels."

The set itself was installed by Hawthorn Theatrical and was made up of spandex panels and fabric strips. This was hung at staggered depths, which allowed lighting elements independently. "The complexity and depth of this set allowed us to make many different looks which was crucial for such a long show," commented Ryan.

Filming the show for DVD added another challenge, as it required the audience to be lit throughout. This was accomplished with a series of house trusses covered in Vari*lite 2500s, 2-lite Mole-fays and City Colours. "The audience reaction to what happened on stage was vital to the DVD so the house lights were extremely important to our client," explains Ryan.

XL video provided several jibs and cranes as well as the hot-heads and four projection screens. The client provided over twenty cameras that were mixed by XL onto the screens and recorded for DVDs.

The final tally of 160 moving lights filled 8 universes controlled by a grandMA Full size operated by Ryan, as well as two GrandMA lights, and two NSPs. Avolites dimmers and Entec's custom-built distros worked for the 24 hours straight of rehearsals and show without complaint.

Simon "Boff" Howarth looked after dimmers backstage while Sudip Shrestha took care of dimmers in the house. A dedicated crew consisting of crew boss Simon Chandler-Honnor, Simon Baker, Andy Emerson, Stephen "Sven" Jolly and Michael Straun assisted them. Steve 'Clem' Clements was the Entec production rigger. Dave Raven and Richard Letchford looked after the in house followspots for the duration of the event.

After all was said and done, the client summarised: "We were very happy with the level of the production, especially the sound and lighting and are already looking forward to next year."

Showsec is First Choice in Newcastle

Metro Radio Arena Newcastle (SMG UK Ltd) has announced a four-year contract and association with Showsec to provide customer safety and security for all events at Metro Radio Arena.

Paul Tappenden, marketing director and deputy general manager of Metro Radio Arena comments: "SMG’s worldwide expansion (recently adding venues in Leeds, Turkey and Poland to its portfolio) signals our intention to proactively expand our international offering to promoters and event organisers.

Showsec has received numerous awards over the past decade, reinforcing their credentials as one of Europe’s leading event security crowd management companies,

and therefore an association with Showsec is a natural progression for an SMG owned venue."

Showsec presently service many of the major UK Arenas including SMG’s European first and largest UK arena based in Manchester, the MEN.

Operations director for Showsec, Mark Logan says: "I view this as a natural progression of our ongoing partnership with SMG, who we have always worked closely with to introduce security and customer service innovations. At Newcastle we hope to provide the same quality of service at a corporate and customer level that helped make the MEN an award winning venue."

Showsec has developed a nationwide management and staff infrastructure that allows a consistently high quality product to be delivered to customers with the profile and high expectations of SMG Europe. The majority of staff will still be sourced in the immediate local area, boosting local employment.

 

 

We're off to see the Wizard!

Stage Technologies rental services department has been as busy as ever working on a diverse list of projects from Antwerp to Australia. They’ve recently provided automation equipment for Theatre Complicite, Vlaamse Opera and Guildford School of Acting, as well as for prime time TV, touring theatre, rock concerts, and even the latest Harry Potter film.

Now they’re over the rainbow to report that they will once again be working with the Really Useful Group, having been awarded the automation rental contract for Andrew Lloyd Webber's new West End musical production of The Wizard of Oz. (Dorothy and Toto were chosen in a BBC TV talent show earlier in the year.)

The set is designed by Rob Jones of Sound of Music acclaim and there will be around 70 major axes including performer flying, lifts, revolves, trucks, counterweight assists and sliders. The show starts its load-in at the end of November and Dorothy will be putting her red shoes on to join the rest of the cast for rehearsals from early January 2011.

www.stagetech.com

Tonight’s the Night with Richard Martin Lighting

As we wave goodbye to the summer and say hello to those cold and rainy nights – we can rest safe in the knowledge that our Saturday nights are sorted – ‘Tonight’s the Night’ is back!

John Barrowman presents the BBC1 prime time show which sees John and numerous artists and special guests making people’s dreams come true with once-in-a-lifetime-performances.

The show is back for its second series and Richard Martin Lighting hotly anticipated which fixtures lighting designer Roger Williams would opt for this time. Tom Sutherland programmed the show.

This season the lighting rig incorporated a heavy variety of the Clay Paky range – Alpha Spot 575 HPEs, Alpha Beam 700s and Alpha Wash 300s to name but a few. When asked about his choice of equipment Roger explained: "It’s the first time I have used the 700 beams which are astonishingly bright and so versatile. I used just the 700 beams for quite a few numbers throughout the series; they really made the show."

The rig also included Martin LC Panels with P3 Controller. Purchased in November last year, they are like DMX for video. Based on Gigabit Ethernet and Cat5e wiring, the P3 technology removes the inherent limitations of video-type protocols for easy connectivity and speed of set-up. Various LED Lights completed the look – including LED Par 36, 2-Lights, iCove QL and Chroma Strips.

The heart-warming and feel-good show is reflected in bold looks and tropical cabaret themes

 

grandMA2 joins Phish On Rock Band’s Summer Tour

Longtime grandMA user Chris Kuroda, who’s marking his 22nd year as the lighting designer for the rock band Phish, has taken a pair of grandMA2 full-size consoles along on the musicians’ cross-country summer tour. Lighting programmer Andrew Giffin suggested using the grandMA2 for lighting control, and Kuroda reports that the two desks have been "a 100 percent complete and utter success. They’ve been incredibly wonderful – I’m very happy with them."

Giffin was convinced that the grandMA2’s flexibility would be perfect for lighting Phish, a band known for musical improvisation, extended jams and performing a totally unique show each time it appears.

"Phish is a jam band. There’s no set list and you never know what song is coming next, so you have to pay attention," Kuroda explains. "We need to program the lighting so we can grab anything very quickly. So I have the grandMA2 broken up into two worlds: one is a punter mode than runs on the fly and follows the music as it goes, and the other is a cue stack. Sometimes we’re changing cue times by hundredths of a second, and the grandMA2 gives me the flexibility to respond to these complicated requests better and easier than anything else."

Kuroda runs the show from one grandMA2 console while Giffin makes adjustments and resets on his desk. "The way Chris runs Phish is very impressive, triggering things on the fly, dozens of cues all the time," Giffin points out. "When other lighting designers have to improvise like that it’s more random, but Chris carefully thinks out every single move in terms of timing. With grandMA2, that kind of precision comes naturally. Its new preset-based effects engine allows me incredible control. Chris comes up with very specific effect ideas and I can build exactly what he's looking for right there on the fly."

Kuroda applauds the grandMA2’s "great virtual playback" that enables him to put an array of tiles, or virtual touchscreen buttons, on the screen to choose from. "We use virtual playback to take the show to the next level," he says. "It helps us to not have to change so many pages."

Giffin says that the grandMA2’s "screens are massive, so we can fill them up with palettes and executer buttons and have all those cues on a line in a touchscreen and it all fits. We can also store timing info in the presets and recall them to create new variations of complex wipes and accents."

"We are also taking advantage of the new macro capabilities," he reports, "which are simply unheard of in any other lighting desk. We have a macro called ‘Loop,’ for example, which stores a variable into memory that running sequences check to determine whether they should play once and stop, or restart again automatically."

Kuroda likes the grandMA2’s power and enhanced capabilities. "It’s incredibly powerful and does things that other desks can’t. Andrew can customize the system in ways that he could never do before. That really distinguishes the grandMA2 from any other desk."

He notes that he and Giffin were even able to previz the show using their consoles and grandMA 3D, a free, state-of-the-art visualization program, that "works better than other previz system I’ve used. We were blown away with how good the previz came out and how well it was matched to the desk. MA has really wonderful tools to construct, program and run your show."

According to Giffin, the grandMA2 has been "rock-solid stable" during the Phish summer tour. "Considering the intensity of these shows, that’s really impressive." For Kuroda, adjusting to the new grandMA2 "was a lot quicker than I anticipated," he says. "I’d recommend the grandMA2 to anyone. We’re really in a happy place, and it’s only going to get better from here."

Upstaging provided the grandMA2s for the tour. MA Lighting is exclusively distributed in North America by A.C.T Lighting.

www.malighting.com

Vista Tours with Leading Portuguese Artists

Jands Vista I3 lighting consoles have provided show lighting control for the latest tours of high-profile Portuguese artists Blasted Mechanism and João Pedro Pais.

Portuguese lighting design company, Lamp On! Creative Solutions have three Vista I3 lighting consoles in their rental stock for use by its team of lighting designers; Vitor Azevedo, brother Pedro Azevedo and Rui Rodrigues. The company chose the mid-range Vista I3 model due to its combination of affordability and built-in Linux operating system, providing their ideal touring solution.

LD Vitor Azevedo used one of the Vista consoles on the recent João Pedro Pais Portuguese tour to launch their latest album, A Palma E A Mão. The wide variety of venue sizes, ranging from small clubs to large outdoor arenas, necessitated using different local suppliers and rigs on a daily basis. As with his previous tours using the Vista, Vitor found that the console’s generic fixture model allowed him to easily change fixture types as the rig changed from venue to venue.

He commented: "Touring means a lot of different things. We have to swap between different lighting equipment suppliers, different festival rigs with a lot more fixtures and theatre shows that involve a different patch every night. The Vista gives us the ability to cope with these daily changes and still maintain the same high quality stage looks. The console’s generic fixture model enables our shows to grow and be easily adapted."

Lamp On! LD Pedro Azevedo has been impressed by the Vista’s visually-based user interface, which has enabled him to build his shows more effectively.

Pedro commented: "I have found the Vista much faster for creating the stage looks and effects I want than on previous consoles I have used. In commercial terms, this means I can give the customer a more rapid and efficient show, and as a result exceed their demands for the final production."

Other Lamp On! clients whose shows have recently been controlled by the Vista include Buraka Som Sistema, TeraTron and the Anjos.

The company introduced freelance lighting designer, Cristóvão Veríssimo, to the Vista for the current international tour of electro-rock band Blasted Mechanism. After the introduction, Cristóvão received training and technical support for his first Vista tour from Portuguese dealer, Garrett Audiovisuals.

Blasted Mechanism have a reputation for their highly theatrical live shows, which involve elaborate

alien-themed costumes, visuals and unique musical instruments built for them. The Vista’s timeline has proved the perfect tool for the band’s vision, which requires perfect synchronisation between sound, image and light.

Featuring a main lighting rig supplied by Coimbra-based production company, Stageland, the show is timecoded, with a separate cuelist for each of the 27 songs and about 700 steps.

Cristóvão commented: "With the Vista’s timeline I can modify all parameters of fixtures and times of cues in a way that takes much less time than on other consoles I have used. I have finally found a lighting desk that really shares my visual way of thinking. Now I can do more sophisticated shows."

The Jands lighting product range will be on display at PLASA2010 (Stand 1-E10). For more information on the Jands Vista, visit

 

 

www.jandsvista.com  

photos: Joao Pedro Pais Tour, Paulo Maria; Blasted Mechanism Tour, Vasco Lopes.

 

 

Gearhouse South Africa Makes Major AV and Lighting Investments

Gearhouse South Africa has recently made substantial investments in the latest AV and lighting technologies to ensure that the company stays at the technological forefront - offering the very latest products and services to its clients in the dynamic and fast changing world of show and event production.

For those engaging the services of Gearhouse AV and Gearhouse Media on their projects, full HD video production and PPU facilities are now available from the recording right through to playback. The lighting department has purchased over 200 2K and 5K colour changing searchlights which can be utilized for stadium shows, film premiers and any large scale event needing powerful lightsources as part of an integrated lighting design or as stand-alone special effects. This rapidly follows another recent purchase - of 120 Vari*Lite moving lights - by Gearhouse Splitbeam, the company's specialist theatre lighting division. This premium brand product is now available as part of Gearhouse’s extensive moving light inventory. Here they join the latest fixtures from Robe lighting following another major investment just 4 months ago in Robe's newest power saving LED fixtures and moving lights, and large quantities of Martin Professional luminaires.

Gearhouse's AV division, headed by Bhans Sheomangal can now offer a fully digital facility from recording right through to playback in HD 16:9 aspect ratio. This has been party driven by the increased volume of global artists that Gearhouse has been servicing over the last 12 months.

"The fact that we are fully HD means we can offer the best technology to those visiting productions who are expecting a full HD service in SA," says Sheomangal, adding: "It also enables all our SA clients across all sectors to benefit from the latest international conferencing trends."

With the recent round of purchases, Gearhouse SA currently holds one of the largest HD projector stockholdings in South Africa.

New projection equipment includes the compact, entry level 6K HD Panasonic PT D 6710 projectors, which are ideal for boardroom and medium sized conference and exhibition applications, giving 1920 x 1080 resolution output and high clarity performance.

Many recent technical improvements include an expected lamp life of 3000 hours (previously around 700 hours) making the machine a highly cost-effective and reliable option. It also enables smaller conferences of, say, 50 people to easily afford and enjoy the same quality visuals as a conference for 300 or more.

For medium sized and larger events, Gearhouse's full HD Christie HD 10K and Panasonic PT DZ 12000 12K HD high performance projectors produce sharp, lifelike, large-screen images and are rock solid reliable. These also have a greatly increased lamp life, and low maintenance sealed light engines have boosted reliability.

Gearhouse AV's new Panasonic P2 HD Cameras allow any event to be recorded in full 1080 HD resolution with the footage stored on a P2 Card, for vastly higher recording quality and an infinitely more affordable and versatile solution than tape.

New Panasonic HS 400 Vision Mixers facilitate the mixing of multiple HD sources and new DigiBroadcast SWIT monitoring allows all feeds to be simultaneously monitored. The latest Christie Vista Spyder 1608 HD Switcher is ideal for multiscreen and widescreen events and presentations, offering a total of 16 inputs and 8 outputs.

Signal/data distribution via DVI fibre and HDSDI drums is now standard for all Gearhouse shows. It is stable and effective, giving consistently clear results free of interference from external sources.

Gearhouse AV still offers the full range of video services, equipment and opportunities to any clients wanting to work in SDI and standard 4:3 format as required.

Gearhouse SA's Lighting department has expanded rapidly this year, again reflecting an increased volume of work in all sectors. The latest purchase consists of over 200 Panther 2K P2 Skylights and 5K CM 5000 searchlights, from the Guangzhou, China based manufacturer, Panther Electronic Machinery.

These dramatically bright fixtures are more than just a white searchlight, they have full colour mixing capability with DMX control, plus zoom and shutter effects. They are electronically dimmable with automatic focus and precise full pan and tilt movement, and can be operated via any DMX console. Their versatility and effect was used with massive impact on the Closing Ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Soccer City Stadium, Soweto, and Gearhouse SA now has the largest stock of high powered searchlights in Africa.

In picture: Gearhouse's new Panther 2K & 5K searchlights in action at Soccer City Stadium, Soweto in readiness for the 2010 FIFA World Cup Closing Ceremony.

Eclipse Enjoys Scorching Festival Summer

Innovason is pleased to report an extremely busy and successful festival season worldwide for their Eclipse digital mixing console. Naturally, it has been used on many of the biggest festivals on its home turf in France, such as Les Vieilles Charrues (where three Eclipses were deployed) and Jazz a Vienne (which also used three consoles), and elsewhere such as at Sweden’s premier jazz festival, the Stockholm Jazz Festival, as well as further afield in China and Canada, numerous events in the UK and most recently a slew of major classical concerts in Germany. One of the most prestigious was the Thurn und Taxis Palace Festival in Regensburg that was held from July 16 - August 1.

Voted amongst the top ten best festivals in the world last year, the setting alone is something out of a fairy tale – the festival is in fact hosted by Gloria, Princess von Thurn und Taxis in the courtyard of her beautiful palace in Regensburg. In addition to performances of Verdi’s opera "Nabucco", Bernstein’s musical "West Side Story" and the cult rhythm & Blues show, "The Blues Brothers", the star of this year’s show was the internationally famed opera singer, Elina Garanca. Engineer and tonmeister, Carsten Kümmel, was responsible for the sound design for this event, and he specified an Eclipse to handle FoH mixing duties, and some monitoring.

"The Thurn und Taxis Schloßfestpiele is a very high quality festival where the equipment has to meet the expectations of both technicians and artists. Our primary objective was to deliver sound which was as natural as possible, which in the first instance meant that we opted for a surround sound configuration," said Kümmel. "In huge productions like Nabucco which come with an enormous stage setup, the orchestra was situated in the palace ballroom. This generated a total of about 100 input signals and around 30 output signals, all of which was managed from the Eclipse without the need for a complex monitoring setup. The most important thing for me in this situation - apart from the sound of the console - is to keep this amount of signals organized without losing the general overview of what’s going on. Here, the Eclipse’s Smart Faders proved themselves to be indispensable in keeping everything clear and instantly accessible. It really is a very elegant solution. Besides that, the sound of this console is mindblasting!"

"Another incredibly useful feature of Eclipse is the integrated M.A.R.S. Multitrack Recording System," continued Kümmel. "For example, on the Elina Garanca concert it was extremely hot on stage, so we had to keep the soundcheck as short as possible. I quickly turned on the recording function and was able to do all the finetuning using a virtual soundcheck without the orchestra. And this works without having to set up an external computer and hard disk recording program – it’s all onboard, which saves everyone a huge amount of time and effort. I really am impressed by every aspect this console."

In picture: Eclipse in action at Regensburg.

Electro-Voice at the Sonnenrot Festival 2010

The Sonnenrot Festival in Eching (near Munich) was held for just the second time this year, yet the event has already established an excellent reputation across Germany. Over 6,000 people attended on the Friday and 7,000 on the Saturday, drawn by a big-name line-up that included acts like Jan Delay, Maximo Park, 2Raumwohnung, Donuts, and Danko Jones. To spare festival-goers long pauses between acts, the organisers erected two stages for the occasion.

This year, the entire lighting and sound production for the festival was the responsibility of Olching-based rental company Magic Event- & Medientechnik. Long before the first act took to the stage, a team of sound engineers led by company MD Markus Thomae had already made the decision to rely upon sound reinforcement systems from Electro-Voice.

"We’ve been relying on Electro-Voice for years now," says Thomae, "and for many reasons: the equipment is reliable, its audio performance is exceptional, the technology is flexible, and the devices are light and easy to operate."

The fact that Electro-Voice – despite its long tradition of innovation and quality – also delivers excellent value for money only made the young company’s investment decision easier. It was a decision Thomae has never regretted for one instant: "As well as the arguments already mentioned," he says, "the service provided by Electro-Voice is also outstanding – an advantage never to be underestimated!"

At the Sonnenrot Festival, the EV systems had to prove their extraordinary resilience once again, or, to be more precise, their weather-resistance: "Despite the name ‘Sonnenrot’ [‘Sonne’ means ‘sun’ in German], the eponymous hero of the piece this year failed to show up," quipped Markus Thomae. "On Friday, the weather was simply appalling, with pouring rain, wind, and even lightning. Jan Delay had to stop midway through his set for safety reasons." But, as Thomae is quick to point out, it was the safety of the audience--not the equipment--that was at risk. The wiring was fully weatherproof and the Electro-Voice PA system proved impervious to the heavy rain. In fact, Jan Delay’s front-of-house engineer was actually disappointed by the decision to interrupt the performance," reports Thomae. "He said the sound was outstanding and that he was having a whale of time!"

Whereas whales are far happier with water than without, the source of the engineer’s satisfaction on this occasion was the exceptional sound at front-of-house position, for which he had an Electro-Voice XLC system to thank, comprising 2 x 3 XLC215 array elements, 2 x 3 XLC 907 DVX, and 2 x 9 XLC127. Eighteen Xsubs provided additional SPL in the low frequency range, and 14 EV TG5 and six EV TG7 amplifiers the requisite power. On the second stage, where acts including WhoMadeWho and Bonaparte left their musical visiting cards, Thomae’s team opted for a compact Electro-Voice XLD line-array system, with 12 XLD281 enclosures per side, on a foundation, again, of EV Xsubs (nine this time) driven by 10 TG5 amps.

The IRIS-Net software platform and RCM-26 dual-channel digital control modules also played an important role in the production. The software made it easy for the sound crew to control and supervise the performance of the entire system via an easy-to-use interface. "This allowed us to continuously oversee the performance of each link in the signal chain, as well as intervene at any moment to tweak whatever parameters we liked," explains Thomae. "Having that degree of control is extremely reassuring."

By age 17, Markus Thomae knew exactly what career he wanted to pursue, and for the last 15 years he has been a specialist in ‘sound’. His enthusiasm has never waned. "This job is quite simply enormous fun," says the 32-year-old boss of Magic Event- and Medientechnik. When you do a good job, your work is appreciated and people tell you so directly. What is more, you contribute importantly to the success of events that touch people on an emotional level."

It was in 2002 that Thomae decided to set up his own company, and for the last four years he has relied on equipment from Electro-Voice for most productions. A further plus, he points out, is that there’s a tremendous solidarity between EV users. "For really large-scale productions, we help each other out by chipping in with amps and enclosures. Since all the devices, besides being compatible, are highly robust, we can do so without misgivings."

In picture: flanking the main stage, Electro-Voice line arrays provided sensational sound.

Litestructures back to Nature with Wind in the Willows

Mike Kenny’s adaptation of the classic children’s tale, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame at the York Theatre Royal has proved to be the stage hit of the summer. Basking in the glow of rave reviews from the national press, the spectacular production has been billed (amongst other things) as a "technical triumph", thanks in large part to a daring design which called for the complete transformation of the existing theatre space in order to create the interior of Toad Hall. Structural aluminium systems specialists, Litestructures, were called in to help with the metamorphosis.

The design of Toad Hall, which was the brainchild of designers Lydia Denno and Catherine Chapman, necessitated the transformation of the traditional proscenium arch configuration into an in-the-round space. To achieve this, all of the seating was stripped out from the stalls, and Litestructures were commissioned to design and manufacture a raised LiteDeck modular staging system which completely covered the stalls seating area and created a brand new stage that went out to the edge of the dress circle at the front edge and back to the lip of the existing stage. As a result, the remaining theatre seating was now at the level of the stage and much closer to it than before, and an additional seating bank was placed on what was the old stage to create a truly in-the-round environment with seating on all sides.

In order to identify what would be necessary to achieve this, a number of representatives from Litestructures attended site to take measurements and proposed a system which was within budget and was accepted by the venue. The system consisted primarily of standard LiteDeck 8’ x 4’ sections, some custom LiteDeck sections, leg frames, hand rails and braces. The entire structure was erected by York Theatre Royal’s production team in just over six hours.

York Theatre Royal’s production manager Paul Veysey was extremely pleased with the installation. "Litestructures did absolutely everything that we asked of them, and the results speak for themselves. They delivered on time and on budget, and our team had no difficulty in erecting the new stage which was such a key part of this production. Everyone has worked really hard to make The Wind in the Willows the incredible success that it is, and I include Litestructures as a part of that. Thanks again guys, and I’m sure we’ll be calling upon you again sometime soon!"

www.litestructures.co.uk

Oman’s Salalah Festival with grandMA

The 45-day-long "Salalah Tourism Festival" (STF 2010) in Oman kicked off with a spectacular pageant staged by some 2,500 performers. Every year the festival draws thousands of tourists from Oman and the other Gulf states. This year’s programme was specifically created to coincide with celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of Oman’s renaissance under His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said.

For the opening, lighting designer Ali Saab chose an MA control system consisting of two grandMA full-size consoles, three MA video stations, three MA NSP (Network Signal Processors) and MA digital dimmer touring 12 x 2.3kVA modules (Socapex EF 419). The lighting rig featured 56 Clay Paky Alpha Wash 575s, 40 Alpha Spot HPE 1200s, 20 Alpha Beam 1500s and 20 Alpha Beam 300s as well as SC15 (15 mm) and SC20 (20 mm) LED-screens, totalling 150 square metres of surface.

For the concerts in Al-Muroje Theater, Ali Saab chose an MA control system consisting of a grandMA full-size console, an MA video station, two MA NSPs (Network Signal Processors) and five MA digital dimmer touring 12 x 2.3kVA modules (Socapex EF 419). The lighting rig consisted of 30 Clay Paky Alpha Washes, 24 Alpha Spot HPE 1200s and 20 Alpha Beam 300s, plus SC15 (15 mm) and SC20 (20 mm) LED-screens, totalling 60 square metres.

"The grandMA is my favourite tool as it offers me exactly what I need," said Saab. "A completely scalable system with a powerful back-up solution, feedback from all areas of the network as well as comfortable and flexible programming – that’s MA."

Mohamed Tarakomyi worked as programmer, and Taha Al Halak and Mohamed Haroun as operators. The Al Raisi Group delivered the lighting equipment, and Al Watan TV produced the show.

www.malighting.com

Chroma-Q Color Block 2 is Centre Stage in Cologne

Lighting designer Marcus Krömer specified 330 Chroma-Q Color Block 2 LED fixtures to provide stage scenic elements backlighting for a large corporate event featuring some of Germany’s most popular bands.

The event was held at Cologne’s state of the art LANXESS arena, one of Europe’s largest all-purpose venues and host to concerts by an impressive range of international music stars.

Production management for the event was by Placet Die Veranstaltungsgesellschaft mbH. Stage lighting, audio and video supply was by PRG Cologne, with set design by John Stillwell. For the third year running, Marcus Krömer and Marcus Bossdorf provided the lighting and video content design for the all-day event, which featured a conference in the morning, an awards show in the afternoon, and a concert in the evening. Splitting into two teams, programming was 24/7 for a whole week in the arena.

Marcus needed a fixture that was bright enough to uplight a curved wall onstage reaching up to 5m high at its centre, whilst being compact enough to fit inside and follow the curvature of the 32m span. It also needed to feature built-in dimming, provide smooth colour changing effects and look good on camera as the whole event was being filmed in high definition.

He had no hesitation in suggesting the Chroma-Q Color Block 2 LED fixture to the set designer, commenting: "The Color Block 2 was the only solution to meet our many requirements. We tested it whilst building the set offsite and it proved a great success, so we were both very happy to use it."

Marcus used 330 Color Block 2 units mounted at the top and bottom inside the wall to light a bounce at the back of it. In addition to providing ample light output for the 5m height and smooth dimming, the fixture’s soft, asymmetrical beam optics produced an immediate perfect colour blend for uplighting the surface. Also, the unit’s RGBA single colour diffused optics provided camera-friendly output and a wider colour palette for achieving the set lighting’s broad range of bold and subtle colour changes.

The wall was used in two different configurations – with an entrance opening for the daytime conference and awards, then fully closed off for the evening concert. Marcus used soft colour static looks for the daytime events and then bold colour looks synchronised with the surrounding video panels and other effects lighting for the concert, which featured well known German bands Die Höhner, Drum Café and Pur.

Summarising his experience with the Color Block 2 fixture, Marcus commented: "The Color Block 2 looked great in the show and was still bright enough to compete with all the movers on stage. The range of colours suited the conference part as well as for the awards and the concert. I also really liked its flexibility of configuration and ease of installation, so will definitely be using it again."

Other production credits include video content creation by Bernhard Settele, LX programming by Michael Baganz, Sascha Matthes, Dirk Kornberger, Peter Tacke and video programming by Markus Kalwinsky and Christine Bernhard.

In picture: band performances are by Die Hohner (top & bottom left), Drumcafe (top right) and PUR (bottom right)

www.chroma-q.com

LC Series and MAC Luminaires for Slovakia’s ‘Let’s Dance’

Slovakia’s popular television dance show competition, "Let‘s Dance", is again the best dance show on television thanks in part to a Martin visual solutions package that includes LC Series LED panels and MAC luminaires.

Broadcast on Slovakia’s most popular channel, TV Markiza, a partner of the CMI Group, Let’s Dance, in its fourth season, stays fresh with visuals from some of the latest dynamic lighting gear on the market.

A Martin Maxedia Broadcast media server, complete with video clips, still images and integrated animations and optimized for High Definition playback, supplies graphics to horizontal rows of backdrop LC video panels.

Media content onto the LED panels is driven through Martin’s P3-100 System Controller, an advanced video signal processor that allows LED screens to be treated like lighting instruments through direct DMX control of brightness, color, pixelmapping and more. The LC Series panels used on "Let’s Dance" were upgraded with LC Plus Series electronics, which adds many of the LC Plus features, including P3-100 compatibility.

Projected across the dance floor are powerful beam looks generated from Martin MAC 250 Beams, an extremely punchy and compact fixture created via easy installation of an upgrade kit onto any MAC 250 Wash. Other lighting effects come from MAC 700 Profiles, MAC 600s and MAC 250 Kryptons.

Outside, in a unique, eye-catching advertisement for the "Let’s Dance" program, videomapped visuals from a Maxedia Broadcast played across the building. Also, live video output from the dance competition was projected onto the old Market Hall facade in the center of Bratislava.

The majority of the lighting package was supplied by Martin’s representative in Slovakia, company Adam a Syn. Lighting Designer is Marian Velikanic of Amex Audio

Black Light Brings German Quality to its Audio Range

Black Light is has announced that it now offers the d&b audiotechnik E-series loudspeakers as part of its range of high-performance audio products. This loudspeaker range, which comes from one of Germany’s most respected pro audio companies, is

recognised as being amongst the best in the industry and offers remarkable sound quality and exceptional flexibility.

Among the d&b products that Black Light now stocks are the E3 and E 12D speakers and the E15X subwoofer. "These products represents a significant investment for Black Light," says Stephen Reid, head of Black Light’s events team. "They offer a really top-end system that can provide fantastic performance for small bands, live events and

conferences." Stephen explains that the equipment has already been specified by the leading performance company Dance Base for all their Edinburgh Festival performances. "It really delivers when it comes to performance quality and Dance Base recognises this," he says.

The E3 is an ultra compact loudspeaker that is particularly suited to environments where space is at a premium. The E12D is a high performance two-way multipurpose loudspeaker that uses an integrated coaxial driver. The horn in the loudspeaker is rotatable through 90° providing a 50° x 110° dispersion patterns. When used with an E15X subwoofer it can easily reproduce high-level music program. To drive the loudspeakers Black Light offers a range of amplifiers including the D6 dual channel power amplifiers from d&b.

Overall, the E series loudspeakers are notable for their design and choice of formats, together with high output and performance levels; they offer elegant solutions for speech reinforcement, fill or delay, production studios, presentations and music reinforcement with or without subwoofers. They also offer simple, effortless setups – vital in distributed applications, and in ever changing, fast and flexible production environments. An extensive range of accessories and fittings provide the E-Series with a wide range of practical deployment solutions.

Stage Audio Services Scores with First UK IC Live Rental System

Midlands based Stage Audio Services, suppliers of live audio production for events ranging from TV shows and sports events to touring, has become the UK's first rental purchaser of the Renkus-Heinz IC Live digitally steerable array system. The company describes its first four clients' reactions to the diminutive system, which was rated an "impressive performer" in a recent loudspeaker shoot-out, as "bowled over by its sound and looks".

Polar Audio, UK distributor for Renkus-Heinz, signed the deal after a week of trial runs by Stage Audio Services that included the Courtney Pine-headlined Mostly Jazz Festival in Birmingham and four large corporate events. Its first commercial outing was the quarter final of the Twenty20 cricket tournament at Edgbaston on July 16.

Since then the system has, company founder Kevin Mobberley says, been in virtually continuous use, including HMV's stand at the Global Gathering electronic music festival. "It's the ideal system for a lot of the corporate, comedy and outdoor work that we do; it ticks all the boxes. We are amazed by what it can do, and long may it continue to make us money."

Stage Audio Services, formed by Mobberley in 1982, provides audio production for a broad mix of touring, live TV and corporate events. Clients include the BBC's Top Gear Live shows and the Gadget Show Live. Live music work includes smaller stages at the Download, Global Gathering and V festivals and regional and national rock, pop, comedy and theatre tours. Birmingham radio station BRMB, the NEC and Birmingham Council are among its regional clients.

"We do a lot of festival and other varied work," says Mobberley, "but it's predominantly touring, and work for promoters who come to us for a complete package. We ship gear and crew all over the world." The 'corporate rock & roll' side of the business, he says, is what attracted his attention to the IC Live system.

"We've bought a lot of equipment in the last four or five years, and this is the first piece of equipment we've bought for a very long time that I felt very excited about. I just fell in love with it after first seeing it. Normally we buy equipment out of need; with this, it's not a replacement for anything, it's a totally new tool for us. It will do these corporate events and smaller venues in a much nicer way, with a better presentation, a better sound and in a much more cost effective way."

The deployment at Edgbaston, home of Warwickshire County Cricket Club, was designed to meet a singular challenge - providing sound to spectators seated around three quarters of the 21,000-capacity cricket ground. In keeping with the carnival atmosphere of Twenty20 the content comprised musical stings and a live compère, provided by a BRMB production office.

The spectators were covered by four IC Live stacks spaced around the ground, with the upper and lower seating tiers covered by separate beams from the mid/high units, each locked onto the matching subwoofer using the integrated hardware. Mobberley commented: "We brought in the IC Live to do quite a challenging job and it did it fantastically."

He adds: "When we first heard it demonstrated, I knew we were onto something special. Over the next week we put it through its paces in our typical show environments - Forces Day for Wolverhampton City Council, a festival in central Birmingham for 5,000 people, a similar event in the grounds of a stately home, and the two-day Mostly Jazz Festival in Birmingham. The latter site was surrounded by houses, so containing the sound was vital, which the beam steering did fantastically.

"The last trial was at Wolverhampton Civic Hall, a venue every rock & roll sound engineer knows. An amazing result came from flying a single sub and two of the mid/high units upside down, which covered the whole of the 3,100 capacity room at around 101dB in every seat including the balcony; it was phenomenal.

"The main benefits to us compared to conventional systems are the small size compared to the coverage, the ease of rigging, and the sound quality. It's very expensive to transport systems around, so small is good, and the ease with which you can physically set it up means that once the engineers know how to use it, you can be set up and line checking in minutes. It's also the only system I can remember where I've had the clients commenting on how good it sounds and how good it looks, and I had that from our first four clients; it's got a lot of people talking about our company in a very positive way."

In picture: Kevin Mobberley with IC Live at Edgbaston.

White Light Supplies Lighting to The Mill Project in Ipswich

White Light teamed up once again with lighting designer Phil Supple and with Midas Productions for The Mill Project, which used lighting to bring life to the landmark Tower at Cranfield’s Mill in Ipswich, Suffolk.

The Mill Project was part of the Ip-Art 2010 arts festival organised by Ipswich Borough Council and as part of the festival, Midas Productions asked Phil Supple to develop a centrepiece lighting project, building on the collaboration the two have enjoyed over three years of the Northumberland Lights project as well as the Iconic Burns project in Scotland, both of which were also supplied by White Light.

Phil Supple explains: "The only parameters offered were a desire by the Council to create a focus of interest on the town and the festival, and on the waterfront in particular."

Supple’s proposed scheme involved using lighting to animate and draw attention to The Tower at Cranfield’s Mill, an award-winning building designed by John Lyall Architects which is at the heart of Ipswich’s waterfront re-development. The lighting designer’s intention was to light the building from within, providing dynamic shifts and waves of colour and light up its entire height, while also using some external lighting to highlight the architecture and draw attention to the show. The light show would run from 10pm to 2am each night, designed to accompany a soundtrack composed by Toby Park replayed through local radio or available as a download to enable visitors to listen to it on their own MP3 players while watching the show – this including a countdown sequence to allow visitors to synchronise their player to the start of the lighting.

To realise his plan, Phil Supple worked with Dave Isherwood and his team at White Light to find the most suitable lighting fixtures, settling on the Vari*Lite VLX LED washlight to light the interior of the building. Sixteen of the fixtures installed on floors throughout the building light out through the Tower’s feature windows both directly and in dramatic sweeping movement patterns.

"The VLXs really made the show," Supple notes, "being fast, reliable, lightweight and extremely bright. Their low power consumption was also key, as the entire event was supplied from within the building itself. The richness of colour they give, their speed of strobing, their cool running and their brightness make them an all-round winner as far as I’m concerned."

To light the outside of the building, Supple used ten Vari*Lite VL3000 Spots to light its facades, and three Clay Paky Alpha Beam 1500s on the roof to provide searchlight effects in the air to draw attention to the show. The show was controlled using a grandMA Light console, with data distributed using MANet on cat-5 cable before being converted back to DMX using MA’s NSP network nodes. The show was programmed by Jim Beagley.

"Jim and I worked off-line with the MA visualiser and Toby Park’s fantastic soundtrack for three days at White Light, which let us program the majority of the show’s content," Phil Supple explains, noting that "White Light were the perfect partners for this event, providing the whole pre-production and technical package with their customary efficiency, reliability and no-fuss approach."

The fit-up then took four days from load-in to opening night, this overseen by the team from Midas Productions including producer and production manager David Noble, lighting crew chief Chris Vickers and site electrician Andy Dann. "We then had two nights of lighting to create a timed sequence that ran to clock each night, with the piece itself repeating six times each hour."

The result was a well received centrepiece to the Ip-Art festival. "The reaction has been very positive from all quarters," Phil Supple notes. "Nobody had seen anything like this before. It has certainly renewed interest in the building, has clearly raised awareness of and interest in site-specific digital artwork, and has served as a great event to launch the festival."

www.whitelight.ltd.uk

It’s PAL Labels again for ELP

Once again, it's Le Mark's heavy duty PAL Road Case Labels for Cambridgeshire based lighting and support service, Elstree Light & Power.

"We've been using Le Mark's labels on all our kit for more years than I can remember. They stick to almost anything and they stay there too," says ELP’s Jon Smith. "Our flight and road cases are transported throughout the world and as with most things in this industry, the labels need to be incredibly heavy duty otherwise they just don't last. In fact Le Mark's PAL Labels are so strong and long lasting we hardly ever need to re-order them, usually just when we get in new kit that needs labeling up.

"Being able to re-use them is essential. We just write on the contents of the case and the production they heading for, and when we're done Le Mark's Label cleaner wipes away the ink and they're ready to go again."

In picture: Adam Mortaro, lighting technician, Elstree Light & Power.

www.lemark.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

A Plethora of Stars: grandMA2 Joined iTunes Festival

Visuals designer Neil Trenell was using his grandMA2 full-size console and a grandMA2 light for backup to control video at London's legendary Roundhouse venue for the month long iTunes Festival, which ran for all of July.

The Roundhouse shows were produced by W1 Productions. Over 60 artists were performing on 31 consecutive nights, all being recorded and made available on iTunes, offering up a dynamic high profile mix of international artists from a plethora of musical genres.

The line-up included pop, metal, dance, jazz and opera stars including the Scissor Sisters, Faithless, Ozzy Osbourne, Biffy Clyro, Paloma Faith and Rolando Villazon and many more, all of whom required a distinct look and identity for their shows. The imaginative and intelligent use of video was a large part of creating a unique presentation for each night.

It is the second year that Trenell has been video designer for the event, for which he also supplies the video front end control. He chose grandMA2 as the ideal control platform for busking video live - a modus operandi required for the vast majority of the shows. The console was triggering video content stored on two media servers. Trenell had a relatively open brief, but in keeping with the iTunes image, wanted to make it funky, contemporary and fun.

He was using a mix of library footage, bespoke created material and also individual band orientated video supplied by some of the artists, which he integrated into their show.

The screen surfaces were two 2.7m x 3.6m side stage Barco I Lite 6mm IMAG screens, and onstage were five 5 metre high by 2.5 metre wide columns of the new Flyer 18mm pitch semi transparent screen - all supplied by CT London.

The grandMA2 consoles are both owned by Trenell's company M Squared Designs. "I really like the fact that you can access everything very quickly, and as an interface to work the servers, they are really excellent," he states. Trenell invested in his grandMA2 consoles last year and has used them constantly for all his video and lighting shows ever since.

All the live content manipulations were done via the grandMA2, and he had all the video clips - running on 16 layers - right there to hand on the desk's touch screens, palletised and fully accessible in a split second.

The system is ran via a combination of network protocols – Art-Net, HippoNet and MA-Net2. Trenell also made his grandMA2 light available to visiting LDs who wanted to programme and run their shows on it. Several LDs took this opportunity and grandMA2 continues to prove a popular choice for live shows of all types. The festival lighting rig was supplied by White Light and designed by Brian Cook.

www.malighting.com

Prolite Event GmbH Deploy Lab.gruppen FP+ Series at Bang Your Head Festival

The "Bang Your Head" Festival, one of Germany’s most prominent Heavy Metal festivals, celebrated its 15th anniversary recently. Around 15,000 metal fans from all over Europe travelled to Swabian Balingen in the south west of Germany to party for three days and nights and take in performances of over 30 metal bands, amongst them were Queensryche, Twisted Sister, Hammerfall to name but a few.

The full-service rental company Prolite Event GmbH, based locally in Balingen, have been an integral part of the festival crew for many years – for the most part, running the indoor stage in the 2,500 capacity Volksbank Messehalle on the festival ground. This year, Saxon, Demon, Dark Tranquility and Destruction headlined the indoor stage.

The company’s HK Audio-based FOH and monitoring systems were completely powered with Lab.gruppen FP+ Series amplifiers, with some new FP 14000 amplifiers making their debut powering the subwoofers and sub-lows.

Frank Pfister, managing director of Prolite Event GmbH commented: "We are very convinced of the quality and performance of our Lab.gruppen power amplifiers and these days, almost exclusively, use FP 10000Q and FP 6000Q amplifiers. However, we recently tested FP 14000 models for our subwoofers and the result was clearly audible: more power, more low-end punch and headroom for the subs! We then equipped all our main PA amp racks with FP 14000s for the subs, with mid/high units and monitors still being powered by FP 6000Q and FP 10000Q. The FP 14000 amps now power up to four HK Audio CT 118 subwoofers (1000W RMS / 8 ohms) per channel and despite the fact that they run at 2 ohms they deliver an outstanding performance. It is clearly noticeable that this amp has been designed especially for subs."

As a Main PA, Prolite employed an HK Audio ConTour Array with a total of 12 CTA 208 2×8"/4×1" Mid/High units, 16 CT 118 1×18" Subwoofers plus four additional 2×18" sub-lows. Front fills and stage monitoring consisted of HK Audio ConTour Series CT 112 12"/1.4" bi-functional cabinets and SM 212 2×12"/2" wedges.

As a Main PA, Prolite employed an HK Audio ConTour Array with a total of 12 CTA 208 2x8"/4x1" Mid/High units, 16 CT 118 1x18" Subwoofers plus four additional 2x18" sublows. Front fills and stage monitoring consisted of HK Audio ConTour Series CT 112 12"/1.4" bi-functional cabinets and SM 212 2x12"/2" wedges.

AP Security’s Summer Of (Jack the Lad) Swing

Four-piece JLS are currently the boy band of the moment, their every move being avidly followed by legions of female fans, with concerts rapidly selling out wherever they perform. This summer the 2008 X Factor runners up played four UK open air shows, with AP Security ensuring that the excitable fans kept cool heads.

A hectic schedule for AP saw the four shows took place at Westonbirt Arboretum, Gloucestershire; Exeter’s Escot Park; Peterborough Embankment and Quex Park, Kent in July.

The first show was part of the Forestry Commission’s annual series of live concerts, for which AP’s contract for safety and stewarding was recently renewed for a further three years, with the option to extend for a further two years,

while the latter three shows were promoted by Beat-up-music, with whom AP also has a long working relationship.

With such an enthusiastic audience, the shows all sold out quickly, the Westonbirt show being the fastest ever sell-out the Forestry Commission has enjoyed.

"JLS are the current number one boy band and we’re aware that there can be some hysteria from the audience," says AP national sales manager John Phillips. "But we always do extensive planning for any event, we had numerous advisory group meetings with all interested parties and we were 100% confident that we could deliver a safe and enjoyable event for everyone concerned."

Most important in the relationship-building process was meeting with the band’s security team, which AP initiated during JLS’s UK arena shows earlier in the year. This made life a lot easier for all parties come July, as the two safety providers by then knew each other well and had established a good rapport. One direct result was that the band’s arrival and departure - always a potential area of problems with teen heartthrobs - was made a lot easier at each of the July shows.

Deploying 150-strong teams at each show, one of the areas where AP had to plan a little differently from the norm was having bigger teams in place for the ‘night shift’ before the shows.

"That type of audience always brings early arrivals," says John. "The welfare of the youngsters was of course our top priority, so we had extra checks in place in case they were cold."

Ironically, two of the biggest factors during the days of the shows were that the weather was so hot and that many people actually turned up later than anticipated.

"We opened the car parks early for each show, but people were arriving en-masse between 2pm and 5pm each day," John continues. "Because the shows were sell-outs, it helped that there was no box office and minimal ticket collection on the day. So our main concerns were keeping people from becoming impatient as they queued to get in and giving out hundreds of bottles of water to keep people from getting dehydrated.

"Even though the age of the audience ranged from very young children to adults in their 30s, when they’re hyped up people don’t tend to think too much about the risk of becoming dehydrated, so we pre-empted that by having lots of water on hand all the time."

The other main area of concern was at the pit barrier, where there were a lot of youngsters wanting to get the best possible view of their heroes. "We had a very good rapport with the medical manager at all the shows," says John. "We put a very strong pit team in at each one and ensured that anyone who came over the barrier was fully checked over by the medical team, just in case, before being returned to the arena."

The shows attracted the biggest crowds for concerts so far at Quex Park and Peterborough Embankment and it was the first time any major concert had taken place at Escot Park, apart from the Beautiful Days festival, which is a much more low-key, family orientated affair.

"Traffic and car parking plans had to be completely re-written for Escot Park, but the shows at all four venues went extremely well," says John. "We had 3,200 cars cleared from Quex Park in under two-and-a-half hours, which I think is very good. Considering all the negative headlines from Birmingham last year, these shows were a real success."

He continues: "I can’t emphasise enough how much benefit it was working with people we had established relationships with. Knowing DB Event Services, who run the Forestry Commission shows, Beat-up-music and taking the time to ensure we were on familiar terms with JLS’s security team paid huge dividends. Everyone knew what to expect from each other, at each venue we were discussing the next show and that made each one run as smoothly as possible."

"All three concerts went very well and we were pleased with everything," concludes Dave Suter from Beat-up-music. "Working with a company like AP, who understand what we need and how we work, makes life a lot easier."

 

 

The Cranberries Tour with DiGiCo’s SD8

After re-forming in 2009, Irish rock band The Cranberries has embarked on a 2010 European Summer Tour. Their audio arsenal centres round a DiGiCo SD8 digital mixing console, manned by Oliver Waring at the crucially important monitor position.

"I’ve been using DiGiCo consoles for a number of years," says Waring. "I started out teching with a D5 when I was looking after Dave Guerin, monitor engineer for Morrissey. Then I inherited the monitor position and looked after Morrissey for a couple of years on the D5, later upgrading to an SD7.

"I’ve been working with The Cranberries for a couple of months now and I’d inherited a console from another manufacturer that wasn’t my first choice. I changed to the SD8 and at its first soundcheck, after just one song, the band commented how different it sounded: that it was a lot crisper, a lot clearer and they knew straight away that something had changed."

Waring’s like of DiGiCo products in general is due to the amount of flexibility they afford him."There are features they have that, from a monitor engineer’s point of view, I haven’t seen on any other desk," he smiles. "It’s great to have the ability to move the faders to any bank on the desk. I can have outputs next to inputs and control groups completely customised, all of which means complete flexibility."Waring had found the move from a D5 to an SD7 was a big jump in quality and he was interested to know that both sonically and in terms of software, the SD8 was the same as the SD7.

"The transition down a level was very simple, no effort at all!" he recalls. "It’s just like the SD7, but with less horse power.

"I also love the fact that I’ve got auxiliary rotaries on each bank, so regardless of which channel I have selected, I can be dialling in to one mix, whilst dealing with something else. I like to be able to twiddle the knobs and do things like you would on an analogue console, and be able to do more than one thing at once with more than one channel. I was blessed with two hands, so I may as well use them!"The band is mainly on in ears, with side fills as back up, although drummer Fergal Lawler is not a fan of in ears, so Waring gives him wedges instead.

"This set up means that the SD8’s graphic EQs are ideal," he says. "I have two graphic EQs on my sidefills and I’ve set up a macro to punch the second one in. Delores [O’Riordan], our singer, has a habit of running right into the sidefill when she’s dancing, so I’ve got a button on the macro section straight to the second sidefill GEQ for whenever she’s there. I just tap it in and it takes all of those nasty features right out. Perfect!"

In picture: Oliver Waring at the crucially important monitor position. 

www.digico.org

 

 

 

Robert Juliat at the Marina Bay Sands Resort in Singapore

The Sands Expo and Convention Center within Singapore’s stunning Marina Bay Sands integrated resort is the latest venue to adopt Robert Juliat lighting fixtures.

In April, Robert Juliat’s Singapore distributor, Total Solution Marketing Pte Ltd, delivered a total of four Victor 1800W MSR followspots, four Super Korrigan 1200W HMI followspots and 16 RJ 600SX 1K profile spotlights to the complex, which first opened in April 2010.The Robert Juliat Victors, Super Korrigans and profile spots will be employed mainly on the high profile Meetings, Incentives, Conventions & Exhibitions (MICE) events when keynote speakers address the floor.

Glenn Wong, managing director of Total Solution, commented: "Robert Juliat is renowned for its fantastic equipment with superb R&D. Their followspots are extremely user-friendly with the placements of their controls. They have superb optics, impeccable quality and reliability. We are glad that the Sands Expo and Convention Center has identified with these benefits and selected our Robert Juliat products".

The Sands Expo and Convention Center offers facilities guaranteed to make it Asia's premiere exhibition and meeting venue. Boasting state-of-the-art technology the halls cover 120,000 square meters and provide a highly flexible exhibition space that can be configured to accommodate up to 2,000 exhibition booths and 250 meeting rooms. Every requirement from the smallest conference to the largest event, hosting over 45,000 delegates, can be catered for.Robert Juliat followspots and profiles are perfectly adapted to such a flexible, multi-purpose venue as each unit offers a zoom capability which means they can operate in any size venue, large or small. The light output is bright and flat with no hotspot so perfect results can be obtained every time, regardless of what purpose they are called upon to perform."It was the power and quality of the output from such a compact, light weight followspot that impressed the technical team at Marina Bay Sands and caused them to choose Super Korrigan and Victor above any other," says Robert Juliat Asia’s Jamie Boey. "With the complexity of the venue requirements, which needed the followspot to be versatile, reliable and compact for the ease of transportation, the technical department had high expectations and there are not many products which can easily comply to this specification. We are proud to be chosen and we are happy that MBS has became another of our many satisfied customers."

www.robertjuliat.com

Eclipse Records at the Royal Opera House

The Paul Hamlyn Hall in London's iconic Royal Opera House is just the latest in a line of prestigious venues to be graced by an Innovason Eclipse digital mixing console with onboard multitrack recording. The occasion was a special one-off concert by Hungarian folk legend, Marta Sebestyen. Best known for her Oscar-winning soundtrack for the multi-award-winning film, The English Patient, Sebestyen's latest album, "I can see the Gates of Heaven" is a collaboration with a couple of young Hungarian folk artists, Balázs Szokolay Dongó and Mátyás Bolya, who joined her on stage for this unique and intimate event. Paul Nicholson of Red Square Audio was called upon to specify all the PA and FoH equipment for the event, which included an Innovason Eclipse.

The Paul Hamlyn Hall is a notoriously difficult venue from an acoustic point of view. Still commonly known as the "floral hall", the Hamlyn Hall is a large iron and glass structure that essentially looks and feels like a huge conservatory. As Nicholson puts it, "Beautiful, but every sound engineer's nightmare! However, the crucial thing about Eclipse, in addition to all of the fabulous features, of course, is how good the console sounds. For my money, there is simply nothing better on the market today. Marta and her band really appreciated how good the show sounded, despite the challenging acoustics."

Nicholson engineered the whole show from the Eclipse console, including monitors, and he also recorded it using the onboard M.A,R.S. system. "With the Eclipse I feel really comfortable having simultaneous control of FoH, monitors and multitrack recording as all the functions are at your fingertips and displayed on the surface and the screen," he noted. "I also like the fact that as the surface is fully user configurable and very analogue to the touch with no layers to get caught up in, I can watch the stage rather than menus and multiple screens which is the norm with other digital consoles. I have even been known to fold the Eclipse screen down while mixing!"

"With Marta's band it was really easy to ride some of their on-stage mixes with the usual nod and a wink," continued Nicholson. "Being able to select a channel or an aux and see at a glance what is routed to either is a really neat way of managing the stage mixes."

Concerning the use of the M.A.R.S. onboard multitrack recording, Nicholson had this to say: "The beauty of M.A.R.S. is that you can record anything at the touch of a button and the VSC (Virtual Sound Check) mode really does give the engineer the ability to check out a room or the monitor system without having the musicians get in the way! Broadway mode is another great addition allowing individual musicians to rehearse with their virtual band mates. I remember Liza Minnelli rehearsing acapella at the Royal Albert Hall many years ago and I always think how handy the Eclipse would have been back then. She arrived before any of the band and the only choice was a solo rehearsal. How technology has changed! Speaking of which, I'm really looking forward to the imminent release of NOVA 2 and all the new functionality that this will bring to Eclipse."

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