American funk/blues collective Here Come the Mummies have once again looked to Elation Professional for their 2016 LoveFest tour which plays throughout the US until the end of October. Venues have included large clubs, theatres, festivals and casinos, where an Elation Professional lighting floor package of Rayzor Q7 LED moving heads, Sniper 2R multi-effect lights, Cuepix Blinder WW2 white light LED blinders and Proton 3K strobe lights have been used to augment house and local lighting systems. “The role of the Elation gear is to bring the ‘wow factor’,” said Lighting Designer and Programmer Thom Roberts. “But there are specific features…
Author: TPi
Management of the prestigious Blackpool Illumination Switch-On Festival will be overseen by Richmond Event Management (REM) this year, after a competitive selection process culminated in VisitBlackpool appointing the company, which has worked on other North West projects in the past such as Liverpool International Music Festival and Liverpool Capital of Culture in 2008. The three-day festival, beginning on Friday 2 September, will take place on The Blackpool Tower Festival Headland and will follow last year’s immensely popular switch-on, when around 30,000 people gathered to see music, comedy and the turning on of the famous illuminations by Hollywood director Tim Burton.…
This year’s Anugerah Juara Lagu 30 event, an annual awards ceremony for Malaysian pop music, was held on Sunday 24 January 2016 at Stadium Malawati, Shah Alam. Clay Paky fixtures were used extensively to light up the night. Distributor Acoustic & Lighting supplied 70 Clay Paky Sharpys, alongside 20 A.leda B-EYE K20’s, 22 Alpha Wash 1500’s and 10 Alpha Spot HPE 1500’s. MJ Event Management was chosen as one of the sound and lighting equipment supplier for the event. www.claypaky.it
The UK’s premier rock and metal event, Download Festival, got underway at Donington Park for the 14th consecutive year under its latest moniker. TPi’s Ste Durham and Stew Hume broke out the waterproofs to talk festival production with some of the industry’s best. Production Manager Neil McDonald has been involved with all but one Download, having jumped on board in 2004. Since then the arena has moved twice within Donington Park, from the old Monsters of Rock location, to the Sunday Market area, before settling in its current resting place. Despite this occasional flux, the planning process has begun to…
This year marks the diamond anniversary of The Duke of Edinburgh Award, the charity that challenges young people through volunteering, physical tasks and expeditions, and is being celebrated with a variety of special fundraising events and initiatives. Produced by Jeremy Hartley of Entertainment Industries, a Diamonds are Forever gala was held in early June at the Stoke Park venue in Buckinghamshire, and featured a dinner, entertainment and a performance from Sir Tom Jones. Acclaimed creative Nicoline Refsing of Rockart Design provided production design, having previously worked on several major events including The BRIT Awards and Eurovision, while Steve Greetham, PRG XL…
Allen & Heath Qu and ME systems were chosen to manage sound reinforcement for the recent National Mountain Bike Championships in Australia. Held in the southeastern state of Victoria, the event was run by Australian event and PA company DURT, with DURT MD Russell Baker describing its scale: “The location for a major mountain bike event can be the size of 10 football fields, there will be several concurrent events, each with their own audio requirements, plus briefing, meeting and conference areas which require audio but also minimal background noise. The trails can be upwards of eight square kilometres, and the…
Allen & Heath’s dLive digital mixing system has been out on tour with German band Brings, culminating in a concert at the 50,000-capacity Cologne football stadium. Celebrated as a homecoming gig for the Cologne-based group, with support from three local bands, the setup for the concert included two dLive systems, several expanders, and digital splits for the monitor console and an OB van for live streaming and recording. The dLive system comprised S7000 Control Surfaces with DM64 MixRacks and DX32 expander racks. A MADI network card was fitted in the MixRack, as well as a Dante card provided for the…
Last year saw Belgian girl band K3 search for three new members via a TV talent show, with Videohouse supplying broadcast facilities and live sound reinforcement. K3 zoekt K3, ‘K3 searching for K3’, was transmitted from the largest TV studio in Belgium, with the hopeful contestants being judged by both the audience and the group’s existing members. Videohouse’s Head of PA Ad van Beek explained: “K3 is a massively popular group here – you could compare this event with searching for a replacement One Direction in the UK – so the size of the TV venue reflected that. “The AED…
PRG XL Video continues close relationship with the Golden Gods – a festival style rock ‘n’ roll awards show, as Kelly Murray reports. I always say there’s two ways you can deal with jet lag; either surrender to sleep and by day become a barley functioning, bloodshot-eyed creature of the night or (the preferable choice) stay awake by wearing copious amounts of eye make up and enjoy some rib rattlingly loud music. If you know me at all, you’ll know I’m firmly in camp B. Just three hours after landing from a US trip, I found myself London-bound and en…
TPi’s Ste Durham was at O2 Academy Brixton to see a versatile touring rig put through its paces, courtesy of DJ, songwriter, producer and musician, Kygo. Kygo, otherwise known as 24-year-old Norwegian Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll, has enjoyed a rapid ascent in recent years as one of the leading proponents of ‘tropical house’. The artist’s Cloud Nine tour kicked off with a handful North American shows in January of 2016, before continuing through mainland Europe and the UK in March and April. The tour has taken the artist and his crew into venues of all shapes and sizes, ranging from large arena…
Il Divo have commenced on their ‘Amor & Pasión’ tour and wanted an extravagant lighting design to match their unique Latin-influenced performances. Lighting and visuals rental specialist, HSL, was assigned the task of coordinating fittings and opted for Martin by Harman MAC Viper Wash DXs and MAC Aura XB moving lights on top of MA Lighting grandMA2 consoles. The design was based on using pre-rigged trussing which kept the load-ins and outs to a sensible time frame. There are six diagonally hung side trusses, three per side beneath one another, and three overheads (front, middle and back). “The design concept…
An array of Clay Paky fixtures were used to light up Die MEGA 90er Live, a host of events in Germany dedicated to pay homage to some of the best music of the ‘90s. Atlantis Audio was responsible when selecting the technical lighting equipment and adopted 16 Clay Paky Sharpys and 15 Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20’s. Two MA Lighting grandMA2 consoles, two MA Lighting 4Port Nodes and two MA Lighting Plus MK2 Video Processing Units were also present. Volkmar Kusch, owner of Atlantis Audio, was pleased with the Clay Paky fixtures: “The MA system is simply extraordinary. We built…
Wales’ largest music festival, X Festival, has received a number of noise complaints from local residents since is inception in 2015. So this year Symphotech was assigned to oversee noise monitoring at the event. 11th Hour Events, the festival’s organisers and production company, created a noise plan for the event to ensure that noise levels didn’t affect residents. Symphotech then monitored the sound levels across the three stages and festival perimeter. Sites around the festival were checked every 15 minutes and the team fed certain frequencies that were causing problems back to the sound desks when noise levels became too…
American four piece, Nada Surf, have selected a variety of Rogue and Nexus fixtures from Chauvet Professional in preparation of their upcoming US and European tour. The Chauvet rig includes four Rogue R1 Spots moving fixtures and six Nexus four by one RGB linear LED washes, all operated by the tour’s Lighting Designer, Dinah Miller. “Versatility was extremely important to me,” said Miller. “I selected these fixtures because I wanted a lot of different looks from a rig that was compact and easy to transport.” Miller borders the drum riser with two Rogue R1 Spots and two Nexus four by…
Barco has added two additional models, the E2 Jr and S3-4K Jr, to its Event Master portfolio of screen management systems boasting 4K image processing on both models. Both the E2 Jr and S3-4K Jr flaunt future proof design and are perfect for small to medium sized applications in the events market. Offering 16 inputs, eight outputs, and eight mixers, the E2 Jr features the same four RU form factor as the bigger E2. The S3-4K Jr comes with eight inputs, four outputs, and two mixers in the same three RU form factor as the bigger S3-4K. Just like the…
PR Lighting has expanded its Xpar collection with the addition of the new Arc LED unit, the Xpar 1012. Adopting patented PR Lighting technology, the fixture combines 12 high powered 10W (RGBW 4-in-1) LEDs in a compact form factor. The Xpar 1012 is also extremely versatile, weighing just 10kg and silent in operation, it can even be used outdoors, since it has an IP67 protection rating. Available with or without doors, features include RGBW colour mixing (with macro), colour temperature of 2700K-10000K (linear correction), beam angle of 14° (with 10°, 20° and 40° options), dimmer 0 – 100% (linearly adjustable),…
Elation Professional has announced the launch of a new collection of high-definition LED panels designed for professional, yet artistic video layouts. Elation prioritisied creativity and practicality when designing the EVHD series, equipping the panels with a lightweight, durable aluminum frame ensuring utmost reliability. There are three different pixel pitches available: 2.8mm, 3.9mm and 5.9mm all of which can be mounted in tight spaces, accessible both from the front and back for easy installation. Designers can create seamless curved video displays (convex or concave) and the EVHD displays can even permit full circle designs while maintaining pixel pitch without any visible…
Germany’s largest cruise ship company, AIDA Cruises, has launched their new luxury flagship, AIDAprima, and installed a variety of Clay Paky fixtures to organise and operate the spectacular light show, which celebrated the ships unveiling. The show was fashioned by lighting designer, Björn Hermann, who specified 100 Mythos and eight new super powerful Scenius from Ambion. “This was my first encounter with the Scenius and I must say it is a wonderful projector,” said Hermann. “I will undoubtedly use it again in my future projects.” The Clay Paky Scenius’ advanced optical unit and new 1.4kW OSRAM discharge lamp provides a…
