The 2016 Bhangra Showdown (TBS) event produced by Kudos AV and the Imperial College Punjabi Society is the world’s biggest Bhangra dance competition and this year moved to Birmingham’s Barclaycard Arena. Once again, the bar on production values was spectacularly upped. The event featured a stunning lighting design created by Tom Grant and Nathan Wan, which used 80 Robe moving lights at its core – 16 BMFL Wash XFs, 18 MMX Spots, 24 LEDWash 600’s and 12 Pointes. Kudos AV’s Hardeep Kataria was the production director and Tom, who also served as production designer commented: “The organisers wanted a wide…
Author: Stewart Hume
French rental company RégieTeK recently took delivery of 24 boxes of CODA Audio’s AiRAY system, marking a significant moment in the establishment of new distributor CODA Audio France. Since its launch in 2015 AiRAY has performed very strongly in the global market, offering as it does an extremely compact and lightweight, yet phenomenally powerful output. RégieTeK now possesses a full complement of CODA’s line-array products and its purchase of AiRAY underlines the esteem in which this fast-growing German brand is held. It was in fact, RégieTeK who had distributed CODA products in France until it was agreed that the brand…
165,000 filled Houston’s Discovery Green Park for the three-night March Madness Music Festival, which was also live streamed to millions more at home. Produced by Turner Live Events, the festival featured Maroon 5, Kendrick Lamar, Pitbull, and others. Adding to the excitement level on the stage and in the audience on a warm Houston evening was a dynamic lightshow. John Dickson of LD Systems in Houston worked with Turner Live Events to create the rig with programming done by individual band LDs. Throughout the festival, the high-impact show gained energy from the rapid movements of the rig’s 32 Next…
Fleurette Vincent has joined d3 Technologies as Sales and Training Administrator based in New York City where d3’s first US office was opened in May 2016. Vincent will support the wider US team as d3 expands its profile in North America. d3 also opened a new office in Hong Kong in early May to meet the growing demand for d3 products in the APAC region and to better serve its customers there. d3 has already made headway into the APAC region with credits including Infiniti Press Conference and Audi Press Conference in China, Millenia Tower Singapore, Vivid and White Night light festivals in Australia.…
London (May 5, 2016) – d3 Technologies is pleased to announce a number of global new hires and two new office locations as the company rapidly expands worldwide. d3 has experienced rapid growth in the US where d3 is becoming the media server of choice for many productions. High-profile credits include the GRAMMYs, Seattle Opera, Madison Square Gardens, Detroit Auto Show, United Nations, and most recently Beyonce’s Formation World Tour. Fleurette Vincent joins d3 as Sales & Training Administrator based in New York City where d3’s first US office is set to open at the end of…
When the PR and communications team needed to promote the importance of voting in the 2016 London Mayoral Elections they came to SXS for an exciting solution. “It was vital that the message of the 5 May vote for Mayor was communicated through social media, mainstream media and by passers-by seeing the message,” said Project Director Tim Curwen. “Working with the client we decided that a projection and lighting installation onto the iconic London city hall would be ideal. This constituted a powerful colour wash and HD projection of the key message. The response on the night was fantastic with many…
Lighting Designer Steven Douglas is no stranger to the delights of Ayrton fixtures. When he was looking for a new way to showcase The Killers’ logo of a ‘K’, his previous experience of Ayrton MagicDot-R proved a fertile ground for firing his imagination. “We’ve had various incarnations of the logo over the years; I’d always thought it would be cool to build a giant ‘K’ out of moving lights but I was always put off by the size and weight it would inevitably end up being as well as the space needed between fixtures to allow to the head to…
Philadelphia-based lighting designer Michael Korsch selected Clay Paky Alpha Spot QWO 800 and Alpha Profile 800 ST moving lights as part of the rig for the world premiere of Don Quixote at the Pennsylvania Ballet. A lighting and scenic designer who frequently works in dance, Korsch has many years experience using Clay Paky products. A big fan of the Alpha Spot HPE 1500, he incorporated three of them into his lighting design for Alchemia, a MOMIX production that premiered in 2013 and has been touring internationally ever since. Don Quixote was created by Angel Corella, Artistic Director of the Pennsylvania…
On 23 April 2016 the world celebrated the life and work of William Shakespeare, on the 400th anniversary of his death. The commemorative events included Shakespeare Live! From the RSC – a live production including music, drama and comedy, which took place at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. Hosted by David Tennant and Catherine Tate who, as well as appearing together in Doctor Who, shared the lead roles in a West End production of Much Ado About Nothing. Shakespeare Live! was also broadcast live on BBC2 in the UK, and was recorded for later screenings on TV and in cinemas…
The current tour by Jeff Lynne’s ELO has been eagerly awaited; reviews of the new album Alone in the Universe have only raised that expectation. For Show Designer Tim Routledge, this was a solid foundation to build upon. He said: “To create a beautiful show you have to have balance and a big part of that, in technology terms, is the critical relationship between all the visual elements of the show and the music.” The video system for the tour is supplied by Video Design. “Unusually for an arena tour, all the video is LED; not just the twelve-metre…
Avolites has appointed Group One as the sole US distributor for its Ai range of media servers. As of 1 May, Group One is now promoting, selling and supporting Avolites’ new Ai R Series media servers, which boast a long list of powerful features and hardware, alongside the manufacturer’s existing lighting control products, all designed and manufactured in the UK. “We have had great success with the Avolites brand over the past three years and are greatly looking forward to building the Ai brand in the US,” said Group One President Jack Kelly. “The integration of lighting and video control is…
Serious Stages kicked off the festival season with the Big Weekend and supplied stages, decking and event structures to house production equipment and artists including Coldplay, Mumford & Sons, Bastille, Biffy Clyro and Jess Glynne. The main stage was a Serious Stages 25 metre Space Roof, with a 15 metre trim height, flanked by two 12 metre goalposts, from which video screens and PA speakers were hung. Serious Stages also supplied and installed a clear-span structure for the main stage front-of-house, along with delay towers, follow spot pods and the assisted viewing platform with accessibility ramps. In other areas, Serious also…
Automation control systems manufacturer Kinesys is opening its doors and welcoming guests to its dedicated training facility in Atlanta, Georgia, for an event that will run from 22nd to the 23rd June. The events will offer a chance to test and trial some of the Kinesys product line for those who want to know more about automated rigging for the entertainment industry. This event has been designed to cover the basic operation and implementation of Kinesys equipment and will showcase a broad range of products that will appeal to individuals and companies involved in the increasingly popular discipline of automation…
Looking as though it’s been ripped straight out of the pages of a science fiction novel, Muse’s Drones world tour is showing the upper limits of what a rock show can be. TPi’s Stew Hume headed to the O2 Arena in London to talk tracking systems, 360° sound and flying machines with the crew behind the record-breaking show that has the whole industry talking… It is comforting to know that, despite a continuing rhetoric of doom and gloom about the future of how we consume music in 2016, some bands still have the confidence to produce concept albums. For their…
How did you first get your start in the industry? I was always involved with amateur production from an early age as my mother used to make costumes at my school. I then got a chance to do a work experience with Vari-Lite on Stars In Their Eyes at Granada studios. It was only meant to be two weeks but it ended up being two months. I then really got the bug and started working with Andre and Dion Davie at VME when I was 17 – getting into lighting by accident. I met Nick Jevons and Philip Winward from…
Nearly 70 multi-featured TourPro LightSky AquaBeam fixtures filled Stockholm’s Globe Arena with light at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 grand final. Fredrik Jönsson, Lighting Designer for the 61st edition of Europe’s biggest musical event, worked with Eurovision 2016 official technical supplier [LITE]COM to choose the AquaBeam after seeing it in action at the LDI Las Vegas show 2015. “When I walked into the huge exhibition space the first thing I saw was a very defined red light beam shooting straight through the hall and up into the roof,” said Jönsson. “It’s rare to see a coloured beam with that level…
Production company Showlab has worked with rap duo Madcon for a number of years, supplying both crew and kit. For their recent European tour, the group took advantage of a new console set-up for both Front of House and monitors, with DiGiCo S21’s now residing at both positions. “I was interested in trying something new for the 2016 Madcon tour,” said FOH engineer Borre Leinebo. “I first saw the DiGiCo S21 at ProLight+Sound in 2015, and I thought that it would be a great console for Madcon. Touring everything from smaller venues to larger festivals, a console with a small…
Special Event Services (SES) of Winston-Salem, NC specified to a system combining L-Acoustics’ K1 and K2 systems for an extensive North American outing with The Avett Brothers. The Avett Brothers combine bluegrass, country, punk, pop, folk, rock, indie, honkytonk and ragtime to produce a unique sound that can be a challenge to reinforce in a concert setting. “There are a lot of acoustic instruments, and that is probably what most people think of when they hear The Avett Brothers’ name,” said SES Director of Touring, Michael Brammer. “But they can really go from a whisper to a scream. One song might…
