Mainstage artists at the 2019 Ghent Jazz Festival were illuminated by 86 Robe moving lights – including 35 brand-new T1s – in a slick production lighting design created by Bart Weyts of L&L Stage Services, the company providing technical production – lightning, audio and video – for that stage. The event was located in the surroundings of De Bijloke, a historic site formally a hospital that now houses the Ghent Music Centre in the beautiful Belgian city. L&L has been involved in the Main Stage technical production for the last few years, working directly for the organisers. This year, L&L…
Author: James Robertson
Green Hippo welcomed 18 of its most advanced Hippotizer practitioners to its latest UK ‘Super User’ event in July 2019. A regular fixture in the Green Hippo diary, the event was hosted at the Leeds office of exclusive Hippotizer dealer A.C. Entertainment Technologies, giving the product team an opportunity to bring these leading Hippotizer experts up to date with the latest features, developments and initiatives. What’s more, it provides a forum for the exchange of highly-informed feedback and ideas from those working most closely with Green Hippo’s technology in a broad array of show environments. “We run these events every…
The Television judging panel for The Knight of Illumination (KOI) Awards, the celebration of video and lighting design, has revealed the 2019 shortlist for the Television category. KOI’s Television judging panel is made up of television critics and designers. The judges for the 2019 Awards were television editor for The Times James Jackson, critic for FT Weekend Susie Feay, Art Director and Production Designer Fleur Whitlock, Lighting Director John O’Brien, Lighting Designer and Programmer Ross Williams, and television critic for The Guardian, Lucy Mangan. The meeting was led by lighting designer and longstanding KOI chair, Stuart Gain of the Society…
The Sunrise Reggae & Ska Festival 2019 took place in Burtenbach and attracted more than 5,000 visitors. With a star-peppered programme coming from all over the world, Sunrise is one of the biggest reggae events in Germany. Since 2018 event service provider Horst Enderer and his company Miet-PA have been in charge of the festival’s sound equipment. For this year’s edition, he extended the PA even more and used the VIO L212 system from dBTechnologies to deliver relaxed sounds at the main stage. In retrospect Horst Enderer was very satisfied with the use of the VIO system: “Because of the…
Having recently purchased their own Allen & Heath SQ-5 digital mixer, British Rockers Don Broco chose to pair it up with a full dLive system this summer for a short festival run across the UK & Europe, including appearances at Mad Cool, Meo Mares Festival and Truck Festival. Supplied by SSE Audio, a DM64 MixRack fitted with gigaACE and fibreACE cards formed the core of the system; paired with a dLive S3000 surface at FOH (fitted with a Dante card), while a digital split from the gigaACE card allowed the band to use their own SQ-5 for monitor duties. Adam…
For the second year running, Robe’s NRG (Next Robe Generation) teamed up with Arcadia, this time offering two NRG crew members the opportunity to work on Pangea – Arcadia’s brand new Glastonbury installation. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpiaug19_digitallr/98 Photos: Robe and Lukonic Photography www.robe.cz www.arcadiaspectacular.com
The Spin Off Festival rocked 20,000 attendees at the Adelaide Showgrounds on Friday July 19. Novatech Creative Event Technology partnered with promoters Five Four Entertainment and Secret Sounds to supply the massive tech requirements. The entire single-stage gig was housed in a gigantic modular tent, 60 metres wide and 100 meters long. Its supporting king poles could hold a massive six tonnes each, which was a good thing, because Spin Off had a huge requirement for LED screens, lighting, and PA, all supplied by Novatech. The main PA consisted of 16 elements of L-Acoustics K2 line array per side, supported…
The Concert Touring & Events judging panel for The Knight of Illumination (KOI) Awards, the ultimate celebration of video and lighting design has revealed the 2019 shortlist for the Concert Touring & Events category. Having received a record number of submissions, up 25 per cent from the 2017 Awards, the judging panel had the difficult task of choosing just a fraction of the entries to put forward for the shortlist. This year’s judging panel comprised LSi editor Claire Beeson, music business and events consultant Ronnie Gurr, director of architectural lighting firm 18 Degrees Christopher Knowlton, Head of Lighting Design at…
For those on-site, or at home viewing the BBC coverage, this year’s Glastonbury was indeed a scorcher in many ways, with endless highlights and standout performances that are still being talked about months after the event. As is the annual tradition, the UK’s biggest festival saw some of the industry’s best-known suppliers, manufacturers and crew members come together for one almighty gathering. With water bottle in hand, we ventured out to visit the various stages, tents and cranes – yes you read that correctly – to meet some of the teams that collectively create one of the most talked-about cultural…
Put together by a formidable crew of creatives, the Texas-born and Los Angeles-based multiplatinum artist’s live shows are renowned for their bold looks and brash vocal delivery. Immersed in bright lights, plumes of CO2 and carnival iconography, for one night only, London’s O2 Arena was transformed into a carnival-inspired fairground, based on the rapper’s beloved Six Flags AstroWorld – a Houston theme park that inspired the Travis Scott’s latest number-one album and formidable North American tour, ASTROWORLD. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpiaug19_digitallr/22 Photos: @felix.aaa www.travisscott.com www.prg.uk www.ct-group.com www.bpm-sfx.com
Embarking on his first ever UK tour, David Blaine’s Real or Magic arrived in Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Bournemouth and London in June 2019. Renowned for his close-up street magic and elaborate, often dangerous stunts, the American is one of the most recognisable and pioneering magicians on the touring circuit. At the O2 Apollo Manchester, TPi caught up with the double act tasked with handling the audio for the one-man show. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpiaug19_digitallr/16 Photos: TPi www.davidblaine.com www.audio-technica.com www.rock-tech.events www.stageaudioservices.com
EPIC 6.0 Holosphere was the latest in Prydz’s EPIC (Eric Prydz In Concert) series of jaw-dropping visual spectaculars, realised by dream team, longterm collaborators Liam Tomaszewski (Punkette), Ross Chapple (RCLD), Mark Calvert and Dave Green (RES) and Bryn Williams (Light Initiative) with the 8m-high Holosphere forming the centrepiece of the new design. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpiaug19_digitallr/10 Photos: Antonio Pagano and RES www.resgb.com www.lightinitiative.co.uk www.ericprydz.com
I can honestly say that I didn’t realise quite how many Backstreet Boys tracks had made a home in the back of my mind. That was until last month when I got to witness the five-piece powerhouse at London’s O2 Arena, and to meet the men and women behind the DNA World Tour. Despite it being some 23 years since the band’s self-titled debut album was released, the group has maintained much of the energy that brought it success in its formative years. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpiaug19_digitallr/32 Photos: Jess Gilbert & TPi www.backstreetboys.com www.prg.com www.sound-image.co.uk www.er-productions.com www.taittowers.com www.flybynite.co.uk www.coachservice.com
Audiologic has announced the recruitment of Iain Cameron to the role of Business Manager with specific responsibility for Scotland and the island of Ireland. Based in Glasgow, Cameron will work to expand the company’s reach in what is a fertile and rapidly growing marketplace for the Essex-based distributor. A background in studio and live engineering led Cameron into AV installation in the corporate, house of worship and entertainment sectors. After gaining valuable experience as an application engineer, he moved into the world of manufacturer representation and has spent the last eight years managing distribution channels on behalf of major AV…
Westlife’s lighting designer Tom Sutherland specified one hundred and forty-eight Robe MegaPointes for the boy band’s 20 Tour. The first leg of the tour culminated in two sold out nights at Dublin’s Croke Park stadium playing to an incredible 170,000 adoring fans. Sutherland of DX7 Design is part of a new and exciting creative team. He was asked onboard by show producer / director Brian Burke, and the two combined imaginative forces to create the stunning production design that is supporting Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily and Shane Filan on the 20 Tour. The performance space is defined by a…
Adlib supplied full production – sound, lighting, video and rigging – plus crew for the recent UK tour by maverick US duo Daryl Hall and John Oates. It’s the first time that Adlib has supplied all technical disciplines for a Daryl Hall & John Oates tour. After the UK tour, an Adlib control package and video servers went on to the Latin American leg of the tour, and then returned to Europe with the addition of a full audio package for the third segment and euro festival run. Adlib’s Craig Hamilton – based in the Glasgow office – project managed…
As well as keeping more than 78,000 hardstyle fans entertained over three days at Q Dance’s Defqon.1, a dedicated live production team from NEP was also working to deliver UltraHD content from the festival’s main stages for the first time, through its UHD2 OB truck, a mobile control room and a newly built mobile UHD PPU for content production. With stages up to 1.5km away from each other, NEP designed a live video solution around a central production hub, which received all camera signals, tally and intercom from the ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ stages via optical fibre, allowing for reliable signal…
English rapper Dave’s Psychodrama World tour in support of his eponymous debut album features a disguise solo media server driving dynamic video content by TAWBOX on the stage. London-based creative studio TAWBOX and its founders Bronski (Chris Jablonski) and Amber Rimell worked with the artist to design the show concept, which has a giant skull as its centerpiece. “Dave is an incredible talent, a mastermind of his generation,” said Bronski. “The idea of a massive skull replicating what was left from the burning head pictured on the album cover felt great to Dave, who loves a set piece.” “We wanted…
