Universal Pixels provided video packages for Spice Girls in Dublin, Snow Patrol in Bangor, and The Chemical Brothers in London across an action-packed Spring Bank Holiday weekend. The video specialist supplied over 1,450m2 of LED screen, multiple 3G camera packages, disguise gx 2 servers, and a total of 26 crew over the three shows. When it comes to big shows like this, the devil is in the detail, explained Universal Pixel’s Phil Mercer: “We know from many years of experience in delivering large-scale shows and tours that pre-planning and the correct preparation before equipment and crew get onsite is fundamental.…
Author: Jacob Waite
MA Lighting was once again the control solution of choice for the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest staged at the Tel Aviv Expo Centre, Israel, which featured a stunning lighting design created by Ronen Najar and Dakar Azulay. Twenty-six countries battled out the final whittled down from 41 original entries, watched live by a worldwide audience of around 200 million enthusiastic fans plus 7,500 in the arena, Hall 2 at the Expo Centre. No less than 15 grandMA2 consoles graced the FOH technical area, controlling 71,061 parameters and a mix of over 2,500 light sources and LED fixtures. These were lighting…
Andy Knightley from Krecording Audio Solutions is no stranger to recording live performances have been responsible for multiple hit live albums over the last 20 years. The latest addition to this list is Derek Ryan Live, which hit the top of the Irish iTunes country music chart, recorded using a BLACKBOX BBR64-MADI from JoeCo. Since upgrading to the JoeCo unit, it has been the ease of transport and portable nature of the BBR64-MADI that has quickly made it an integral part of Knightly’s rig. “The size of the JoeCo means it’s so easily transportable,” explained Knightley. “When I’m doing fly…
Going Through, a timely play about an asylum seeker fleeing conflict in her native land has finished its run at the Bush Theatre in London where ADB KLEMANTIS asymmetric cyclights and Claypaky Axcor Spot 300splayed key roles in the innovative staging. The play by Estelle Savasta was translated from the French and performed in English as well as British Sign Language. The words of the asylum seeker, Nour, are also expressed in the projected text. “The show was a really intricate combination of moving set panels, projection and lighting,” said Lighting Designer Joshua Pharo. “Both performers used British Sign Language throughout, so the…
DPA’s d:facto 4018V Vocal Microphone plays a starring role in the staging of SIX the Musical- and not just because it conveys the crystal clear audio that sound designer Paul Gatehouse was looking for. Equally important is the look of the microphone and the fact that it is handheld, which truly conveys the concert-like atmosphere that this hugely popular West End theatre show aims to replicate. “The d:facto 4018V is a vital part of SIX’s visual imagery because the Queens (the main characters) convey their message using a handheld device,” Gatehouse explained. “The show’s creators, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, wanted…
Le Moulin Rouge, the famously emblematic cabaret of Parisian nights and entertainment since 1889, recently renewed its followspots and chose Alice, the latest in Robert Juliat’s generation of LED followspots. Three new Robert Juliat Alice 600W LED followspots have recently joined the iconic Moulin Rouge revue, Féerie. This show, which has been on the bill for 19 years, tells the story of the Moulin Rouge over two hours of amazement and spectacle, mixing dance scenes and variety acts. Every evening, a dream world is invented on stage with 60 artists, 1000 feather costumes, crystals and sequins, exceptional performances, sumptuous sets and…
Production Designer, Tom Campbell used multiples of GLP’s award-winning impression X4 Bar 20s, as well as the new FR1 compact automated light and innovative KNV Cubes in a GLP-dominated stage when the guitar-dominated band The Hunna played a small UK tour of mostly O2 Academy theatres recently. After a quiet year, in which they were dealing with management disputes, the Hertfordshire four-piece roared back into action and are again going from strength to strength. The MIRRAD Lighting Designer, who has been working with the band for the past two years, adopted completely different scenography from that used when the band…
Eurovision Song Contest 2019 was an extraordinary showcase thanks to the high-quality performance of the DTS products demanded the lighting plot with over 400 fixtures purposed to light up the main hall and the Greenroom. The 64th edition of Eurovision Song Contest ended among the enthusiastic applause of the public and the whole organization. This year the contest took place in Tel Aviv, Israel, following Israel’s victory at the 2018 contest; it consisted of two semi-finals on 14 May and 16 May, and the final on 18 May 2019. The three live shows were held at Expo Tel Aviv and hosted…
On blues-rock titan’s current world tour, Joe Bonamassa’s System Engineer Michael Grabarczyk is one of many audio professionals who now rely on Outline’s extraordinary new NEWTON FPGA-based processing platform. Bonamassa played a three-night residency at London’s Royal Albert Hall in April as part of his European spring tour, for which Adlib provided a full audio package, including part of their NEWTON stock. Grabarczyk commented: “Newton is an extremely capable device. A single 1RU unit replaces a multitude of current industry standard devices. The clocking flexibility, simplistic routing, and plentiful IO make Newton a dream to use. Each output has gain,…
Allen & Heath has released V1.4 firmware for its award-winning SQ series, delivering a raft of crowd-pleasing features and new dynamic processing options ported from the company’s flagship dLive digital mixing system. First up, and hotly anticipated, V1.4 unveils a dynamic trio of powerful audio tools, comprising Multiband Compressors, Dynamic EQ and De-Esser, all straight from the FX Rack of dLive. These optional add-ons allow SQ users to have up to eight instances that can be inserted on any input channel, group or mix. Giving engineers more preparation time away from the console, V1.4 also introduces the eagerly awaited offline…
Enduringly popular Christian artist TobyMac was back on the road this year for the fourth edition of his HITS DEEP tour, a perennial winter-into-spring music celebration that circulates through arenas across the United States. The seven-time GRAMMY Award winner headlined the shows at A-level venues in major markets, including the Prudential Center (Newark), Sears Centre (metro Chicago), Bridgestone Arena (Nashville) and Infinite Energy Arena (Atlanta), along with mid-size arenas in secondary markets. As has been the case from the outset of the HITS DEEP series, this year’s edition relied on a Meyer Sound LEO® Family system supplied by Blackhawk Audio…
In April 2019, Kraftwerk put on four sold-out shows in Tokyo. d&b audiotechnik Japan provided the system solutions used in Orchard Hall, which belongs to the Bunkamura complex. The sound solutions included KSL loudspeakers with D80 amps and d&b Soundscape to reproduce a sound immersion that totally impressed the audiences. The combined use of KSL and Soundscape was a world premiere and a perfect complement to the visual 3D experience offered by the Kraftwerk performances. The main hang flown at the concerts were five KSL arrays, each consisting of six KSL8 (top) and two KSL12 (bottom). Behind each of the…
Security and enforcement specialist Interforce, formerly TSG, will provide uniformed patrols to ensure public safety and the prevention of crime and disorder at Henley Festival this summer. Production Manager John Harris met Interforce at Event Buyers Live and brought the company into Henley Festival’s restructured security model; designed to maintain its acclaimed customer service provision. John Harris commented: “We hope that Interforce, which is trained to a higher level than SIA, with a police-style approach, will respond to our audience and ensure we continue to meet the high standards Henley Festival is renowned for.” The Interforce rebrand distinguishes the company’s events/venues/public spaces remit…
It did not take long for Clair Brothers newest Argentine distributor, SVC, to make a significant sale of the Manheim, Pennsylvania loudspeaker manufacturer’s C12 line array system. With integral presentation assistance from Fabián Giordano of Sonamos Audio, a key Clair Brothers partner in Argentina, the live demo at Giordano’s location to Argentine production company Merino Producciones Técnicas was a great success. “This was not just a demo,” explained Ricardo Pegnotti, audio division director at SVC, “it was an event attended by several recognized audio professionals from the region.” In fact, one of the attendees at the presentation was Pichón Dal…
Dare to Dream was the slogan of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest, won by the Netherlands’ Duncan Laurence and with lighting design by Ronen Najar and Dakar Azulay. Within the lighting rig were an unmissable 406 Claypaky fixtures, including the brand new Axcor 600 and Sharpy Plus, along with the timeless Sharpy Wash and Scenius Unico. Osram was once again the official lighting partner for the contest, which will next take place in the Netherlands in 2020. The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is considered to be one of the most spectacular and fascinating television events in the world, capable of…
With a spectacular outdoor live production and 6000m2 audience arena, the Mid-Autumn Festival Party of China Media Group is a difficult challenge for any sound reinforcement system. However, thanks to an Alcons Audio pro-ribbon LR28 larger-format line array system, the audience at the latest event in Qufu enjoyed high-quality sound throughout. Qufu is the hometown of Confucius, China’s most famous teacher, philosopher and political theorist. Located in Nishan Holy Land – a 35km2 area around Qufu developed as a Confucius commemoration site and cultural heritage destination – the festival featured a huge, 60m wide stage and large set, with an…
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLSR) is the largest livestock exhibition and rodeo in the world, drawing more than two million people each year. An especially large draw is the 20 consecutive evenings of rodeo and concerts held at Houston’s NRG Stadium. HLSR recently unveiled a new star-shaped concert stage and backdrop truss structure for the shows that support LED video and hundreds of intelligent lights, among them Elation Protron Eclypse, Elation Paladin, and Elation Fuze Wash Z350 fixtures. Production company LD Systems has been working on HLSR since 1985 and for the 2019 version (February 25 to March…
One of the UK’s busiest sound hire companies, Liverpool’s Adlib has added further Outline NEWTON 16+8 units to their hire inventory, following their adoption as the company’s go-to processing hub for festival stages and complex multi-source applications. Senior Engineer Ian Nelson commented: “The new additions are scheduled to head out later this month on Radio 1 Big Weekend and then to all of the Adlib festival bookings for the rest of the season. Following the festival season, they will then be incorporated into the Adlib Control Systems and become the core of the Adlib loudspeaker processing systems.” Adlib also hosted…
