Coined the ‘Entertainment Capital of the World’, Las Vegas has a long and storied history of providing unique experiences for live entertainment fans. Take Illuminarium Experiences, for example. Founded in 2019, the US-based creative outfit helps create large-scale experiential entertainment in reprogrammable immersive theatres, dubbed ‘Illuminariums’ by its creators. Amid the revelry of InfoComm 2022, TPi made the Uber ride to Las Vegas’ AREA15 to experience SPACE: A Journey To The Moon & Beyond. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpi271_digitallr/12 This article originally appeared in issue #271 of TPi, which you can read here. www.illuminarium.com www.holoplot.com www.lightware.com www.powersoft.com
Author: Jacob Waite
When Las Vegas’ non-essential businesses closed their doors to the public in March 2020 to prevent the transmission of COVID-19, it was the first time that the city’s iconic neon Strip had dimmed since President John F. Kennedy’s funeral in 1963. As the sleeping giant of live entertainment strives to recapture its former glory days, supply chain and workforce challenges continue to plague its progress. However, amid the drudgery of a citywide rebuild, there are pockets of positivity in the bustling warehouses and offices of Las Vegas’ PRG, 4Wall Entertainment, and Main Light West. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpi271_digitallr/78 This article originally appeared in…
American Express presents BST Hyde Park returned to crowds with a new headline sponsor and revamped staging infrastructure. Taking place across three weekends from 24 June to 10 July 2022, this year’s line-up boasted headline sets from the likes of Elton John, The Rolling Stones, Eagles, Adele, Pearl Jam and Duran Duran, as well as support from rising stars in the shape of Phoebe Bridgers, Sam Fender and Tiana Major9, among many others. Describing the festival as a “touring stadium show with a corporate finish”, Technical Production Director, Mark Ward of Proper Productions, oversaw all technical aspects of three stages…
Among the myriad images from productions around the world this summer, the enormous water tower-esque, video-clad structure that popped up in the centre of some of France’s most famed stadiums – including Stade de France – for Indochine’s Central Tour 2022 certainly garnered its fair share of attention. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpi271_digitallr/52 This article originally appeared in issue #271 of TPi, which you can read here. www.indo.fr www.prg.com www.mpmgroup.fr www.stageco.com www.high-scream.com
With 200,000-plus ticket holders waiting patiently for three years since the last time Worthy Farm hosted its legendary festival, it’s fair to say that Glastonbury 2022 was the most hotly anticipated event of the year. Although we’ve seen several large events return since the easing of regulations globally, a mass gathering of this scale was a sight to behold, and something that was commented on by almost every artist who took to the stages on each of the 31 performance areas. As with every festival in Glastonbury’s 50-year history, in the months leading up to the famed event, there was…
Despite the mounting challenges to the global supply chain and workforce shortages in the wake of the pandemic, there’s a mantra within the Red Hot Chili Peppers (RHCP) touring camp of ‘patience, tolerance, understanding and a teacher’s heart’, which TPi is informed of by Production Manager, Narciso ‘Narci’ Martinez six dates into the band’s latest world tour at Emirates Old Trafford. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpi271_digitallr/23 This article originally appeared in issue #271 of TPi, which you can read here. www.redhotchilipeppers.com www.xpeditiousunlimited.com www.beatthestreet.net www.pietersmit.com www.clairglobal.com www.premierglobalproduction.com www.coloneltomtouring.com www.setup.design www.thepowershop.eu www.guardianbarrierservices.com www.esglobalsolutions.com
Vectorworks 2023 will bring significant updates to architects’ BIM workflows. Core architectural objects have been re-engineered and modernized to be more intuitive through all phases of a project reducing the amount of manual work needed to create and edit day-to-day documentation. Historically, creating object type and drawing key legends has been a labor-intensive process, prone to errors and taking up a significant amount of designers’ time. The new Graphic Legends tool will help to alleviate both these challenges for Vectorworks users. The smart tool completely removes the manual process of creating graphic legends, automatically coordinating resources used and providing an…
Steve Badham will be returning to Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW) covering Technical Sales throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Badham has a long history in the professional audio industry and in particular with EAW. “We are excited to welcome Steve back to the EAW family,” said TJ Smith, president, Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW). “Steve’s experience, product knowledge and technical savvy make him a great addition back to our team. With Steve’s contributions and hard work, we look forward to continuing to grow the EAW brand in the EMEA territories.” Badham’s association with EAW began about two decades ago where…
Nelson Street venue SWX Bristol is primed to host its first events since an arson attack stopped the calendar in its tracks 13 months ago; fire, smoke and water damage requiring owner/operator Electric Group to undertake a complete refit. Power metal band Gloryhammer play on Friday 9 September followed by club night Far Fetched, highlighting the breadth of purpose SWX provides for. The technology has been upgraded. There’s an L-Acoustics Kara II PA, all new lighting, motors, and a Fiend Productions’ LED wall. Swish dressing room suites backstage wait for the weight of performers set to play SWX: Banks, Rema,…
Every two years, American rock band 311 celebrates 11 March 2022 with a party-style celebration concert for fans over the course of two nights at the Park Theater, Las Vegas (Park MGM). Lighting Designer, Bobby Grey of Notan Creative and the production team were tasked with exceeding the excitement of prior incarnations of the biennial event. “We went into this wondering how we could top what we did last time… but ended up taking the whole production to a new level,” recalled Grey. Helping him along the way once again were a slew of GLP impression X4 Bar 20 and…
Backstage Academy students and graduates showcased their skills on the international stage in July, providing hands-on support for Danish music festival, Grøn Koncert. A team of 18 played a central role in the festival’s operations, helping set up and take down two huge stages during the eight one-day events held across different cities in Denmark. After a COVID-19 induced hiatus, this year’s Grøn Koncert proved popular, with eager festival goers buying advance tickets in record numbers and with up to 30,000 people attending each event. Featuring mainly homegrown bands and artists, and this year headlined by Danish hip-hop act, Suspekt,…
Sound Designer and TPi Award-winning FOH Engineer, Phil Wright recently relied on SFL-supplied DPA Microphones to mic a 48-piece orchestra for Senbla’s stage rendition of Joker Live in Concert. The live performance was one of many productions put on by Senbla for the company’s ongoing “film in concert” series. Joker Live in Concert is a two-hour long show featuring the orchestra playing alongside the full Joker film. Accompanying the orchestra is a series of sound effects, dialogue and unconventional instruments that cannot be brought on tour to play live and are instead electronically stemmed in. Like the Joker film, Joker…
Milan is experiencing a renaissance of music and entertainment with the return of open-air concerts without COVID-19 restrictions, particularly when it comes to Carroponte – an industrial space which doubles as a sprawling, open-air venue hosting touring musical acts, festivals and Milanese events. The lighting plot, designed by Brian Anfossi, is characterised by its versatility. “The stage consists of a ring with three three trusses (front, middle and rear), a minimal structure designed with the aim of guaranteeing ease of use for the lighting designers who will light up the artists,” Bonaccorsi explained. “Therefore, the lighting setup is also optimised…
Throughout the 2000s, I was working as a sound engineer, mixing bands in small to medium size venues and I often felt pressure to play at uncomfortably loud sound levels. Especially working festivals, these levels were hazardous due to the long hours of exposure. I turned to wearing earplugs, in particular after soundcheck and the first song tuned in. The irony of me as the sound engineer wearing earplugs, while most others in the venue were not, was not lost on me. However, I chose to prioritise my hearing, feeling a bit guilty. I felt that I was not sacrificing…
Singing in the Rain and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat are well established and much-loved staples on the international musical circuit. Running simultaneously in the UK, both shows boast sound design by Olivier Award winning sound designer, Gareth Owen who specified d&b audiotechnik Y-Series. Singing in the Rain, directed by Jonathan Church CBE is a homage to 1920s Hollywood, featuring dazzling dance moves and delightful orchestral music, while Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, directed by Laurence Connor, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber is a fun and energetic adventure boasting earworm-worthy pop tunes and colourful costumes. Despite completely…
Now in its 28th year, South Korea’s Dream Concert is the country’s longest established and largest K-POP festival. Featuring performances from more than 20 K-POP idols, 60,000 tickets were sold in just 20 minutes for this year’s event which took place on 18 to 19 June 2022 at the Jamsil Olympic Main Stadium in Seoul, with a NEXO STM sound system supplied by local rental partner, Way Audio. Originally built for the Summer Olympics in 1988, the stadium has a field size of 110m by 75m with a seating capacity of almost 70,000 in two tiers and has previously been…
Veteran audio engineers Ross Landis and Andrew Crow had the opportunity to demo an Allen & Heath dLive system earlier this year, and they both fell in love with the open format. “You can do basically anything, and set it up how you want,” recalled Landis. When it came time to tour with GRAMMY-nominated Nothing More, the pair opted to each bring along a dLive S5000 surface – one at front of house, and another in monitor world. Both Landis and Crow appreciated how many user-defined SoftKeys were available to them on the large format 28-fader dLive surface. “I was…
When Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts decided to bring a bold new actor-musician interpretation to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s musical adaption of the Stephen King’s Carrie, it was Mountview’s former head of lighting training, Louisa Smurthwaite, who worked with the students to create the visceral, yet retro lighting design. Keen to introduce fixtures that bought an era-reflecting feel to the classic story, yet still introduce the students to the latest lighting technology, Smurthwaite specified the VL5LED WASH luminaires by Vari-Lite, the originator of the modern moving head and a Signify (Euronext: LIGHT) entertainment lighting brand. With a lighting design brief…
