Since 1959, the Swedish Eurovision entry has been decided by an annual televised talent competition, known since 1967 as the Melodifestivalen – organised by public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). Swedish Lighting Designer, Fredrik Jonsson of Eyebrow Designs, has lit Melodifestivalen since 2002 – capturing the glamour, glitz and unashamed kitsch drama, courtesy of Robe moving lights. This year, he enlisted the help of 168 Robe moving lights, which were subsequently upped to over 300 for the final show, including Robe MegaPointes, Spiiders, LEDBeam 150s and six BMFL WashBeam follow spots running on four RoboSpot remote BaseStations. This…
Author: Jacob Waite
Trade fairs, congresses and conventions with over 100 people can once again take place in Frankfurt, Germany with strict safety precautions in place. As Hesse’s Minister President Volker Bouffier put it: “Trade fairs are marketing and communication platforms for industry and trade. New contracts worth many billions of euros are concluded here, knowledge is shared here, and economic activity in our state is stimulated here. This is exactly what we need in the corona crisis.” Peter Feldmann, Mayor of Frankfurt am Main, commented: “Our exhibition grounds are our city’s calling card in every respect, and when events – such as…
Powersoft has released new plugins supporting Mezzo Series and its non-DSP install dedicated amplifier platforms ranges for the Q-SYS and Crestron control ecosystems. These free-to-download plugins allow for user friendly network-based control of amplifier functionality via third-party systems. They feature a refined, modern-looking interface, extended functionality, and a high level of user customisability, compared to legacy plugins for the format. In addition, a new Q-SYS plug-in supporting DSP+D versions of Duecanali, Quattrocanali, Ottocanali, X and T series is slated for release this summer with brand new functionality. “Powersoft enables wide-ranging control and configuration of our amplifiers through our own ArmoníaPlus…
Nalini Tebbey owns and runs Floating Lotus, a thriving yoga studio based in Helensvale, Gold Coast, Australia, offering a busy weekly schedule of 36 yoga, pilates and meditation classes. Helping capture the harmonious ambience in the studio are six Astera LED Titan Tubes. While perfect for live sessions, the Gold Coast yoga studio space required additional lighting to keep up the quality and style associated with Floating Lotus. Tebbey wanted her broadcasts to look polished and professional and Astera LED Titan Tubes were recommended, and then sourced from the ULA Group, Astera’s Australian distributor. “I needed good skin tones and…
The Wub Step Livestream, which took place 4 May, had all the hallmarks of a traditional EDM gig – sizzling video walls, a thunderous sound system and expansive lighting rig, which included CHAUVET Professional fixtures. Juan Ocampo, the owner of High Frequency Productions, where the EDM stream took place, would have it no other way. Ocampo teamed up with Wub Life Entertainment, a Chicago area company that does dubstep, house and EDM shows, to create what has become weekly livestreams. The idea began in late April. “We’ve been working together for the past four years, so we’re familiar with collaborating,” said…
Waves Audio has released a new, free and dramatically enhanced version of the StudioRack plugin chainer – with added macros, parallel processing racks, multiband racks, and more new features. The new Waves StudioRack is a completely re-imagined version of Waves’ plugin chainer, placing an entirely new level of control in the hands of producers and mixers. As before, you can use StudioRack to create entire plugin chains – up to eight plugins per StudioRack chain, each chain taking up just one DAW insert. Your chains can be saved for instant recall, and loaded up in any DAW, making it super-easy to…
On Friday May 15 2020, Studio D4 launched Autokino Apolda, a pop culture throwback to the 1960s-style American drive-in, but with a decidedly high-tech touch provided by a bright 10m by six metre LED video screen built with CHAUVET Professional F4 IP panels, supplied and installed by Materie Event Production. Mounted on a two metre high platform and supported by a solid rigging grid, the video panels deliver the kind of clear, crisp images that would have been unimaginable back in the glory muscle car days of the early drive-in movies. “The panels give us brilliant colours and sharp definition…
Riedel Communications and Remote Recording Network (RRN) today announced their collaboration on a unique remote mastering service for a live-streamed concert performed by Peter Maffay and local musicians from Steintor-Varietè in Halle, Germany. The special acoustic concert, which took place on 13 April 2020, was mixed on location by Werner Schmidl and, using RRN’s Remote Mixing facility, mastered remotely by Peter Brandt from Studio Boecker in Cologne. Both locations were connected through the Riedel Remote Operations Center (ROC) in Wuppertal, which served as the communications and signal transmission hub of the operation. From there, ROC engineers monitored communications, remotely configured…
As the events and AV industries face increasing uncertainty as to when ‘business as usual’ will resume and live events can take place again, Sterling Event Group has announced the launch of their new state of the art Sterling Studio Space. This comes at an instrumental time for the industry as Sterling works to reassure their clients that there are a multitude of alternatives to the traditional live event. “At this current time whilst live events are on hold, we wanted to offer our clients a solution to continue communicating, engaging, educating and entertaining. The studio allows clients to present…
Backstage Innovation Centre calls for industry collaboration and innovation to ensure the sector’s recovery ahead of lockdown easing. The new initiative, launched in Yorkshire by Backstage Academy, is calling on the live events industry to build a consortium of stakeholders to assist its recovery. Following reports in the press that the live events sector will be one of the last to recover, the Backstage Innovation Centre is creating a think tank to investigate innovative and practical approaches to tackling and mitigating the risk of large group gatherings in venues, ahead of the easing of lockdown restrictions. Although the Centre’s £7m+…
The organisers of the 2020 Knight of Illumination (KOI) Awards in both the UK and the USA have announced the cancellation of both events due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the entertainment industry. The difficult decision has been reached following extensive discussions between the committees of both the UK and US versions of the KOI Awards: The Fifth Estate and KOI co-founders Durham and Jennie Marenghi, along with the ALD and STLD in the UK and Live Design/LDI in the USA. All parties explored various possible options to secure the events, including virtual, live streamed/webcast ceremonies and postponed or…
Lighting Designer, Arkin Atacan from atacan design turned to various lighting solutions from GLP to ensure that the lovingly designed costumes, comprising dragons, sloths, and robots that appeared on the second season of the TV show, The Masked Singer (TMS). The stage concept by Florian Wieder was key to his lighting design. “The set includes many straight lines and polygons,” explained Atacan. “Wherever possible, I try to continue these design lines so that both the set and lighting function as a coherent unit, which in turn makes the overall picture look much more homogeneous and larger.” The set itself consists of…
Mother’s Day in Australia typically requires spending time with Mum and the family, but the strict government restrictions in place as a result of COVID-19 meant the closest families could get this year was a FaceTime call. Despite the restrictions that were in place, the team at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne wanted to make this year’s Mother’s Day special and called on Australia’s premier lighting specialist Resolution X for help. The brief was to illuminate the façade of the iconic hospital with colour and messages of love and support for all mothers. As part of the display, images of…
As part of The Power Of Entertainment campaign, Highlite International BV launches a new addition to the DAP family: the Edge wireless microphones. DAP’s Edge-series wireless microphones contains a handheld system and a beltpack system. The UHF True Diversity receiver is equipped with a clear full colour LCD-screen which makes operating the system very easy. The main feature and the great advantage of the Edge-Series is the Scan-feature. With this attribute the Edge receiver shows exactly which frequencies are not occupied, giving the user the possibility to choose the right frequency without having to worry about any interference. The system…
Berlin-based music label, LUKINS, is breaking through a new and different kind of barrier by organising Save Your Culture, a series of livestream events that highlight Eberswalde artists and venues that have been impacted by the COVID-19 lockdown. On April 21 and 23, these broadcasts, which are livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube, emanated from the city’s popular (and temporarily closed) indoor climbing center Bloc48. Accentuating the distinctive climbing walls and innovative obstacles of the facility, while supporting the online show’s DJ performers, was a collection of CHAUVET Professional STRIKE and COLORado fixtures supplied by KINGSIZE. Events. Christoph Neumann, Event Technology…
The ALD has announced that the ALD Awards for Excellence 2020 are open for submissions. Aimed at all students and recent graduates studying in the UK, the ALD Awards for Excellence offers the perfect opportunity for the ambitious to raise their profile in 2020. The awards are a celebration of imaginative and creative lighting and video production and represent a chance for young designers to showcase their talent, bringing their work to the attention of experienced lighting and video designers, as well to the wider reach of industry professionals. Awards are presented to those who demonstrate strong, imaginative and creative…
Strikken has been doing its bit to support the nation’s fight against COVID-19 by voluntarily assisting the Synlab Eesti OU laboratory in collecting and transporting COVID-19 test samples gathered from all around the country. As well as illuminating Estonian skies with Robe fixtures, as part of its contribution to the #LightTheSky campaign. The delivery of kits is tied into research conducted by the University of Tartu, including a three-month study on the prevalence of COVID-19 among both symptomatic and asymptomatic people. At least 16,000 residents – based on a random statistical sample – will be interviewed and invited to be…
The NX SYNC captures timecode in various SMPTE formats from its 3-pin XLR connection and converts it to a MIDI Timecode (MTC) stream, where it can be read into ONYX or any other MIDI Timecode compatible software. Additionally, it also has the power to take MTC and send it back out as SMPTE. The NX SYNC contains a powerful hardware architecture for instant processing and minimal frame delays. The NX SYNC does not require custom drivers, and in addition to working with ONYX, it can be used as an SMPTE to MTC/ MTC to SMPTE device for both Windows 10…
