Scott Holthaus has created some shows with large centre-stage video screens. But sooner or later, most things in life run their course, and at this point, the designer was ready for a change. “I have said it a hundred times… I’m bored with the big TV in the back,” remarked Holthaus, when discussing his design for Disturbed’s just concluded 36-date Take Back Your Life Tour. On this tour, Holthaus achieved his vision, going outside the box to create a design that flowed with the musical narrative on stage without the use of a central video wall. In place of the…
Author: Alicia Pollitt
From the smallest comedy tent to the main stage, NEXO sound systems featured exclusively at this year’s Lakefest. In a feat of collaboration, the festival organisers and Bluestone Audio brought together no fewer than 13 UK NEXO rental partners to provide sound systems on the various stages. “Lakefest this year was a great festival for showcasing our NEXO GEO M12 line array with flown MSUB18ssupplemented by cardioid pairs of RS18 subs across the front of the stage,” reported Bluestone owner Sam Brook. “We used NEXO GEO M10s for delays and NEXO P+ point source boxes as front and side fills,…
The NETRON EN6 IP, one of three devices in Obsidian’s new IP65 range of signal distribution, won a PLASA Award for Innovation September 4 at the 2023 exhibition. The PLASA Award judges recognised the EN6 IP as a “device that brings lighting control distribution and format conversion to the outdoors at an accessible price point.” The 6-port EN6 IP EtherDMX node, along with a 6-port RDM Splitter (RDM6 IP) and an 8-port managed POE switch (NS8 IP). The NETRON IP65 range blends the proven chassis and connector technology of Elation Professional’s market-leading IP65 Proteus range of lighting fixtures with the…
Performers at this year’s Festival International de Dougga included Dhafer Youseef, and Algerian Berber singer, songwriter and guitarist Souad Massi. Also appearing were Assyrian-Syrian singer Faia Younan, Mauritanian singer, songwriter and instrumentalist Noura Mint Seymali and Tunisian musician, composer and singer Zied Gharsa. Sound for the festival was provided by local event technology specialists and NEXO distributors SYBEL EVENT COMPANY, deploying a NEXO STM M28 system comprising eight M28 main cabinets, six B112 bass extension cabinets and four S118 subs for the main FOH system, supplemented by four M28 and four S118 front fills, and two NEXO PS15s with LS18 subs…
DSL and Stairway Productions collectively provided several hundred enclosures, plus amplifiers and accessories, site-wide at Liquicity Festival. This included the deployment of WPL Wavefront Precision line arrays by DSL for the premier two performance stages — and seven separate zones in all. The main Galaxy stage saw 20 WPL left and right (in two box resolution), with 12x WPC for delays (also in two box resolution) and 21 SXH218 subs in cardioid (14 front-facing and seven back), with a further four W8VDQ for front fill and six Blackline X12 for outfill. These were powered by 17 IK42 multi-channel amps. On stage,…
ChamSys stand at PLASA 2023 engaged crowds of attendees with products and ideas designed to help them take their creative visions to new heights. Visitors got a look at products like the MagicQ MQ500M Stadium, is currently touring with the likes of Ed Warren for Mumford & Sons, and Will Thomas on Bonobo’s Fragments Tour. Also the ChamSys MagicQ Compact series, including the new MagicQ Compact Connect, a USB control surface that connects to a PC or Mac to deliver control of lighting, media, and LEDs. It can send up to 64 universes of ArtNet and sACN directly from its…
Janet Jackson has just completed her latest North American tour, Together Again, with tour direction, production design and technical direction by Eric Wade from Dallas, Texas-based Crossfade Design. Eric has worked with the artist for two years, and he developed this show in collaboration with Jackson herself plus her long-term creative director, Gil Duldulao. Wade decided, together with his son Brandon who was on the road as lighting programmer & director, to implement a zactrack SMART real-time tracking system. “We needed anything between 10 and 14 follow spots depending on the venue to ensure that Janet and her four primary…
Handling mixing duties for the tour are Daniel Good and Nahuel Gutierrez, who started working with Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O following her Danger Mouse collaboration Lux Prima in 2019. “We did two shows at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles and the band performed one more show in New York,” explained Good. “At that point we weren’t sure if Yeah Yeah Yeahs would ever be performing again, so it was cool to get contacted again after their album came out.” Good and Gutierrez are each mixing on Allen & Heath dLive S5000 surfaces, along with DM0 MixRacks handling 128…
DirectOut has introduced multiformat audio matrix, the PRODIGY.MX. PRODIGY.MX offers a capacity of 1,664 by 1,668 audio channels. Its hardware accommodates multiple audio formats, selectable between Dante, RAVENNA/AES67, SoundGrid, AVB/MILAN, and MADI. The modules feature bidirectional sample rate conversion (HD SRC), operational control is facilitated through globcon control software, compatible with both Mac and PC, an intuitive touch display, providing essential monitoring and control capabilities. Third-party control protocols, like Ember+, are available as options. In its first release PRODIGY.MX will incorporate processing features, such as gain control for all inputs and outputs, and channel grouping. Additional DSP functions are planned…
Clear-Com has revealed new features for Arcadia Central Station with the addition of I.V. Direct, an IP interfacing feature that connects Arcadia and the LQ Series of IP Interfaces, Eclipse HX Digital Matrix System (via E-IPA card), and other Arcadia systems over LAN, WAN, or Internet. The update will also provide an increase in capacity for FreeSpeak beltpacks, transceivers, and HelixNet endpoints, making Arcadia the most powerful 1RU intercom device on the market with support for 285 input/output connections on a single system. The I.V. Direct connections will allow intercom audio, logic controls, and call signals to be passed between…
Creative Technology supports the technical delivery of the projection which is displayed across Edinburgh Castle throughout each of the shows that take place for The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Utilising 23 Panasonic RQ35K laser projectors the Creative Technology team can display a 6K canvas over Edinburgh Castle – projecting content created by Kate Dawkins across the structure. “To project onto such an iconic building is the stuff of dreams and I feel honoured to be a part of this prestigious show. One of the most exciting things about this project is having the opportunity to do it more than once;…
Cody James created the lighting and production design for Yellowcard’s current Ocean Avenue 20th Anniversary Tour with the help from CHAUVET Professional. “This design was built on two main ideas,” explained James. “I wanted to have no blank space, but at the same time I didn’t want the stage to feel cluttered. Also, I wanted the whole thing to have an almost organic feel, something that felt natural and didn’t take away from the band playing their first shows in seven years.” His design fills the stage with looks from three large video walls and a collection of intensely bright…
The winners of this year’s PLASA Awards for Innovation were announced at PLASA Show at Olympia London in association with LSi Magazine. 40 products were entered this year, with the judges ultimately awarding eight products. This year’s judging team comprised 12 independent technical specialists from a wide array of backgrounds, chaired by chartered engineer and LSi columnist, James Eade. The winning products include: Astera PlutoFresnel,Coda Audio SPACE, Elation Netron EN6 IP, Funktion-One, VX M-BEAM, Martin MAC Aura XiP, Robe Lighting iForte LTX and Robe Lighting Footsie. This year, the Gold Award went to Brompton Technology, Tessera G1. In addition to…
Unlimited Vision & Sound has invested in Robe T1s and LEDBeam 350s. The business is servicing B2B events and corporate activations. The business was started by Pascal van Engelen in the 1990s, he’s currently joined by 13 full-time employees plus a raft of regular freelancers. Engelen explained that his very first ‘Robe’ purchases actually date to the 1990’s when he was still DJ’ing and Robe was still an OEM manufacturer, making hardware for brands like Movitec and Futurelight. “We all saw then that there was a great company in the background producing this stuff. It was extremely well engineered,” he…
Gondek Stage & Events provided the audio infrastructures and other facilities for some of the festivals staged in Eastern Europe through the spring and summer of 2023. An Outline client, Bydgoszcz-based Gondek have recently added a stock of Superfly to their existing inventory. Starting in May they delivered a package for the Sunrise Festival at the Ergo Arena Upperground in Gdańsk, which was followed in June and early July by supplying two stages at the Open’er Festival at the Gdynia-Kosakowo airport in Gdynia. Right after that they delivered not only the sound but also the main stage and entire…
For this year’s Smukfest, the ROXX CLUSTER B2 FC was used on the festival’s main stage. Around 40,000 guests flooded the festival grounds every day to experience five days of performances by international artists across five stages. Nordic Rentals, who supplied lighting for the festival’s main stage, Bøgescenen, chose to use 72 ROXX CLUSTER B2 Full Colour blinders. The ROXX CLUSTER Blinder made its debut last year at Glastonbury Festival, Rock am Ring and Rock im Park and has since found its way to many stages in the world. The LED blinder from ROXX imitates the DWE source of a…
At their third year at the South Facing Festival, Solotech UK found themselves working with a new production team. Method Events were the new incumbents this year, and for the production company’s award-winning co-founder Will Holdoway it was a welcome reunion with Solotech Account Manager, David Preston. “It was a pleasure to be working again with David and the Solotech team for the first time since operating shows together at Drumsheds, North London until February 2022,” he reported. The programme included Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds providing the highlight. Also featured were Primal Scream and Jesus & Mary Chain, Rudimental…
Electronic dance music pioneers Odesza launched their The Last Goodbye Tour. The lighting design is by Kyle Kegan and uses a rig that includes 78 Smarty Hybrid and 26 Artiste Monet moving heads from Elation Professional. Kegan, who has been lighting the duo since 2017, works on the design process with creative directors Luke Tanaka and Sean Kusanagi, as well as artists Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight themselves. Programming started early last year and after months in pre-vis and two weeks of tech rehearsals. Kegan says that lighting plays a very big role in the highly dynamic show. “Lighting becomes…
