DAS Audio’s brand-new LARA line array system powered Cologne’s Lanxess Arena in Cologne, the Forum Barcelona and the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, Spain. The European debut took place on 30 April in front of more than 17,000 people at the Brings concert in the Lanxess Arena, a complex venue due to reflections and SPL limitation. TSL Production and FLUGE were in charge of installing the DAS Audio sound systems at the venue, with the support of Michael Häck, Technical Director of the Lanxess Arena. For this show, held in a 84,000m2 venue with capacity for up to…
Author: Jacob Waite
Dead & Company is back on the road for their 2022 Summer Tour which kicked off in mid-June at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. As they carry on the Grateful Dead tradition of using the latest innovations in sound reinforcement, the tour is powered by a system featuring Meyer Sound’s new PANTHER large-format linear line array loudspeaker. The band further augmented its seemingly limitless repertoire of tunes while UltraSound — decades-long audio provider for the Grateful Dead and successor ensembles — assembled the largest system of PANTHER loudspeakers in North America, and the first to roll out on a USA…
Jack White’s aptly-titled The Supply Chain Issues Tour has 82 Ayrton Magic Blade FX fixtures delivering ‘dynamic lighting effects’ on stage. Matthieu Larivee, who serves as the tour’s Creative Director and Lighting and Production Designer, obtained the Magic Blade FXs from Solotech Nashville. The North American leg kicked off in Detroit in April and will wrap at the end of August in Kansas City. It then heads to South America with much of the same lighting rig, including the Magic Blade FXs. Each Magic Blade FX features seven RGBW high-output LEDs that can be individually controlled to create airborne virtual…
Following recent contract wins at three UK event venues, Anna Valley has promoted Dan Orchard to the role of venue director. The newly created position sees Orchard assuming responsibility for both commercial and operational aspects at all the venues where Anna Valley is the preferred audio-visual partner, reporting directly to the board. Over the past 18 months, Anna Valley has established itself as a significant service provider to the UK’s venue sector. The company signed a preferred partnership agreement with ExCel London in December 2020, was appointed by Tobacco Dock as their new AV service partner in June 2021 and…
Lighting Designer and Director, Ethan Weber chose a large complement of versatile Ayrton Domino luminaires for Grammy Award-winner John Mayer’s Sob Rock Tour 2022 in support of his eighth studio album of the same name. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton lighting fixtures in North America. The 23-stop arena tour kicked off in March in Las Vegas and wrapped in Boston in May. The North American schedule featured multi-day concerts in six cities. Weber, perhaps best known for his work with The Rolling Stones, obtained the Ayrton Domino fixtures from Upstaging in Sycamore, Illinois, the lighting vendor for…
Britannia Row Productions has provided audio support for singer, songwriter, and producer, Chelsea Cutler, whose When I Close My Eyes Tour kicked off in Austin, Texas in March. The tour – which marks the start of the exciting young artist’s relationship with Brit Row – was followed by her Coachella debut in April and saw her play The Governors Ball stage in June. The tour is running under the care of New York based Mutual Friends, an Artist Management company. “I’d never worked with Brit Row until now,” said Production Manager, Alex Slohm. “The overall service has been excellent, and…
St Paul’s Cathedral is a venue that is steeped in tradition, even when it comes to lighting, the traditional Par 64 has always been the fixture of choice for lighting designers. However, for the Queen’s Jubilee Thanksgiving Service, Lighting Director and BAFTA Award winner, David Bishop stepped away from tradition, opting for an all-new LED lighting rig, with the new Martin MAC Aura PXL taking the leading role as the main lighting fixture. “For the Queen’s Jubilee, it was important to maintain the traditional feel and the natural look, yet I wanted to increase the flexibility and efficiency of the…
HOLOPLOT’s X1 Matrix Array loudspeaker has taken home the ‘best in show’ awards from both ISE 2022 and InfoComm 2022. These events marked the first public unveiling of the X1 Matrix Array following two years of delays and cancellations of industry trade shows due to the COVID-19 pandemic. HOLOPLOT also picked up the 2022 Stand Design Award, organised by EXHIBITOR magazine, with Illuminarium winning Best Multipurpose Venue at the MONDO-DR Awards for its Atlanta location, where X1 is an integral part of delivering next level immersive experiences. Thomas Barker-Harrold, Head of Marketing at HOLOPLOT said: “We couldn’t be happier with…
After a two-year hiatus, the 28th edition of the renowned annual Massy International Circus Festival returned in 2022, featuring circus artists, performing in the company’s impressive 50m diameter, 3,000-capacity big top erected in the town of Massy on the outskirts of Paris. To mark the return, the technical design team employed a new, innovative AV system, revolutionised by the introduction of immersive mixing technology from German in-ear monitor specialist, KLANG. Established in 1993 to honour the 75th birthday of celebrated clown Achille Zavatta, the International Circus Festival of Massy has since been staged annually in the town, receiving international recognition…
Avante Audio provided the complete audio system for the outdoor Arena Plaza Stage at the recent NAMM Show in Anaheim, California. The company’s active speaker cabinets were utilised for every part of the stage’s sound setup, including foldback wedges and delay towers as well as the main FOH PA system. However, it was the latter that consistently caught the attention of NAMM attendees who were astonished by the powerful and rich output of Avante Audio’s extremely compact Imperio series mini array system. Located in a large open space on the Anaheim Convention Center campus, between the Arena and North Hall,…
Like so many events around the world, Java Jazz Festival experienced a COVID-19 enforced hiatus over the past couple of years but returned in celebratory style to the Jakarta International Expo Kemayoran over the weekend on 27 to 29 May, with bands and musicians performing on a total of nine stages. One of the more challenging acoustic environments at the festival was the GRAB Hall, a former aircraft hangar in which local rental company DSS Sound Systems deployed a NEXO GEO M12 line array, with support from the technical team at local distributor Yamaha Music Indonesia Distributor (YMID). “With no…
Creative Technology (CT) provided technical delivery of Buckingham Palace projection and main stage LED screens for the BBC’s Platinum Party at the Palace celebration. 2022 marked the third Jubilee celebration the company has been involved in with previous experience in delivering various other high-profile BBC events of this calibre including Election Night Results at BBC Broadcasting House, The 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele, and more recently the 75th anniversary of VJ Day. To seamlessly deliver such a large-scale and high-profile event, Creative Technology assembled some of the industry’s most skilled engineers to display the stunning content which was…
disguise has launched its new vx 4+ media server. Purpose-built for the world’s largest and most technically demanding productions, installations and shows, the vx 4+ is designed to ensure maximum content quality and playback performance, enabling productions to push boundaries and captivate audiences like never before. Live events including music concerts, esports events and theatre productions are requiring high-quality video playback and are even pioneering the use of real-time content within their productions. All these high-stakes production environments have one thing in common: they need a rock-solid solution supporting high-performance video processing at scale with minimal latency. With the capability…
White Light founder and former chairman John Simpson sadly passed away on 11 June 2022 after a short battle with cancer. White Light have released the following statement [sic]: “Those of you who were lucky enough to know John, or work with him, will know what a brilliant person he was and how this is not only a huge loss to White Light but also the wider industry. John had a lifelong passion for theatre lighting and his co-founding of WL was both a pioneering and revolutionary move; forever changing the way the industry would operate. Not only did he…
In a more than 50-year career, German rock icon Udo Lindenberg has created a wealth of songs that remain relevant nowadays thanks to their authentic messages. With his current album, Udopium, the so-called ‘panic rocker’ has created a retrospective that includes the most successful songs from all five decades of his musical work, as well as four new tracks. The associated Udopium Live tour is remarkable for another reason: it is a new production, rather than a resumption of a tour that has been postponed many times. Lindenberg’s long-time lighting designer, Günter Jäckle, explained: “In 2020, Udo was the only…
German dubstep artist, Virtual Riot brought his Simulation Album Tour to the Hollywood Palladium 22 April 2022 and electrified a sold-out crowd with his edgy brand of EDM supported by lighting effects from Elation Professional. Dallas Gasper from Paradox Productions and Design designed the rig with lighting director Lorcan Clarke on hand to run the show. Lighting gear was supplied by 4Wall with SFX/lasers provided by Owl Vision. Clarke created laser show designs for trance, house and techno events in Ireland before moving to the San Francisco Bay area in 2020. Since then, he has designed, programmed and directed lighting…
Lightware Visual Engineering has opened the doors to its new offices in central Sydney, Australia. Located in the Newington Technology Park, in Newington near Parramatta, and surrounded by the Sydney Olympic Park and the Sydney harbour, the new APAC HQ features a dedicated training centre, a showroom, a tech lab, a warehouse, and office and meeting spaces. The opening of the new office is the next strategic step in expanding the company’s global footprint, fostering growth in APAC, and will be a central hub for customers and partners across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, providing sales support, after-sale…
DPA Microphones has welcomed an array of new team members to the firm. The additions are company-wide, with new hires in product management, research and development, sales, marketing, and production. Among the recent hires is Helga Somava, who recently joined DPA as one of the brand’s directors of product management. A graduate of Copenhagen Engineering College with a focus on export engineering, Somava brings leadership experience from past directorial and managerial roles at Bang & Olufsen, GN Netcom and most recently at NUORI ApS, where she served as COO. In her new position, Somava will oversee the development of new…
