Mumford & Sons Front of House Engineer, Chris Pollard, has chosen the Solid State Logic L500 console for the band’s An Arrow Through The Heartland tour, which comes to an end in October 2016. Having used an analogue console on previous tours, the SSL Live digital console had to deliver. “First and foremost,” Pollard said, “The sound quality is amazing.” The FOH path count for Mumford & Sons is large with around 76 inputs so Pollard added the robust L500’s Stem bus type. This grouping bus is equipped with discrete send levels that can be picked from any one of…
Author: TPi
The standard-setting, boundary-pushing entertainment behemoth that is the Eurovision Song Contest returned once again to its spiritual home in Sweden. TPi’s Ste Durham was in the eye of the storm for what was possibly the biggest production of the year so far. Whether you are talking about viewing figures, the number of performers or the staggering amount of pre-production, it really is hard to put into words the scale of the Eurovision Song Contest… but I’ll try. The entire time I was in Stockholm, travelling to and from the imposing Ericsson Globe arena, I couldn’t escape the Eurovision juggernaut. I…
Garth Brooks’ Man Against Machine tour has seen LD Dave Butzler introduce Robe BMFL Spots to his lighting rig. A total of 44 BMFL Spots replaced the previous hard-edged spot moving fixture of choice, and these are being supplied by Garth Brooks’ regular lighting vendor, Bandit Lites. The BMFL Spots were chosen after the show changed mid-way through 2015 to include a much larger LED video screen – a cube measuring 40ft wide by 20ft deep. The Robe fixtures are located on the upstage and downstage trusses along the cross-pieces of 10 chevron-shaped triangular truss pods that move into different…
Belgian engineering specialist WIcreations has designed and supplied motion control, customised staging and hardware/infrastructure for Russian singer and superstar Philipp Kirkorov’s current tour, which features show design by renowned Creative Director Franco Dragone. The first task for Project Manager Koen Peeters and his team was to create 14 aluminium flying wings and a kinetic system to make them move. All of these flying elements have an integrated LED lighting system that allows for a variety of lighting effects. All 14 wings were used for five shows at The Kremlin in Moscow that launched the tour, after which 10 wings continued…
Cape Town-based rental and technical production company, Ampere, has now added Robe Pointe to its collection, integrating eight new fixtures into its already impressive hire stock. Founded in 2009 by University of Cape Town student (now graduate), Justin Fish, Ampere quickly developed and now supplies full technical production: sound, lighting, video, staging and rigging and even has its own show design division. In the past couple of years Robe products have regularly featured in Ampere’s projects and from this experience Fish knew Pointes would meet its creative and quality requirements. “We think Robe is making the best multi-purpose beam fixture…
Ayrton has introduced the MagicDot-XT, an amplified version of its hugely successful younger brother, the MagicDot-R. Operating on a similar circular footprint while maintaining the same cylindrical design, Ayrton has made the MagicDot-XT much more powerful than the MagicDot-R, optimised for use in larger venues. The MagicDot-XT is equipped with Ayrton’s new proprietary 126mm diameter collimator that distinguishes the ‘XT’ product line. Weighing in at 550g, this new high-efficiency lens is the world’s largest collimator which, when coupled with an ultra-powerful RGBW emitter, enables MagicDot-XT to project a 2° beam with centre beam efficiency of 580 candelas per lumen, making…
The problem of converting unbalanced signals into a balanced output has now been solved with the new 4-channel Di4 from dbx by Harman. The Di4 is suitable for mixers, PAs and recording consoles while also functioning as a multi channel stereo line mixer. This feature permits full connectivity of keyboards, samplers and modules into one unit on stage. Independent XLR balance outputs are supplied to the stage box for a FOH engineer allowing independent mixing for stage monitoring. To use the dbx Di4 as a DI Box Connect the unbalanced signal to the Di4 via a 1/4-inch unbalanced jack to…
Robe BMFLs entered unchartered territory when Fredrik Jönsson, Lighting Director responsible for creating the visual production design for Eurovision 2016, selected 88 BMFL Blades and 6 BMFL Spots to light up his show, which was to be televised to a 180 million audience worldwide. Eurovision 2016 was to be staged in the Globe Arena, Stockholm and Jönsson identified the BMFLs as an essential tool for lighting in the show. “The BFML Blade fitted my specification to the mark, hence their presence on the rig,” explained Jönsson. As the Globe Arena is the largest spherical venue in the world, Jönsson needed…
German rapper, singer, producer and DJ, Alligatoah has commended the versatility and clarity of Martin Audio’s award-winning Multicellular Loudspeaker Array (MLA) following the success of his recent European arena tour. Alligatoah’s sound company, Complete Audio, had selected MLA to ensure that Alligatoah’s unconventional five-piece backing band, who constantly switch instruments, could deliver the perfect show whatever the venue size. Typically, the configuration was 11 MLA and an MLD Downfill per side for the main PA while the side-hangs ranged from eight to 12 MLA Compact on each flank. Production also carried 16 MLX subwoofers that were set up as a…
American singer and songwriter, Halsey, commenced the European section of her world tour earlier this year with the aid of Ayrton who created an adaptable lighting design for her headline Brixton show. Halsey’s production company, Okulus, chose the flexible yet angular appearance of the Ayrton MagicBlade-R and MagicPanel-R fixtures because it could meet the artists demand of a set based on ‘V’ shapes and be adapted to accommodate the varying size of venues on tour. Okulus produced a V-shaped stage, three V-shaped upstage ramps, a V-shaped video screen backdrop, all topped off by an inverted V-shaped lighting truss arrangement which…
Johannesburg rental company, LaserX, has acquired four new ProLyft 250kg motors in an effort to incorporate a WaterGraphic water curtain into its spectacular laser shows. For almost two decades, owner of LaserX Troy Bentley has sought to evolve the laser show industry. “We have tried to keep up with the changing needs or our clients”, Bentley explained. To meet the changing trend of water curtain laser shows, LaserX had to establish how to power the WaterGraphic. After careful planning it was decided that the WaterGraphic would be best powered using ProLyft 250kg motors, which were recently used at the Miss…
Dutch barrier manufacturer, Mojo Barriers, had its busiest period in May 2016 with three huge events all taking place in The Netherlands. “This was a logistically challenging run of projects,” stated Alex Borger, Mojo Barriers’ Director, as the busy period commenced with King’s Day. King’s Day played host to 16 events across seven cities with the most popular destination being the capital, Amsterdam, where nearly 1.5 million created the world’s largest street party. Mojo deployed 1.8 metre barriers, along with 91 Line Up Gates, 780 Bar Barriers and eight Gatekeeper turnstiles. A weekend later brought Liberation Day, commemorating the liberation…
Over 120 Robe light fixtures were recently used to illuminate the London Roundhouse for YesLive 2016. The awards show played host to a number of artists in an effort to inspire kids aged 15 – 17 in coalition with the National Citizen Service (NCS) initiative. Creative visual design specialists, MIRRAD, were issued with the task of producing a high-energy show through visual production as the likes of Craig David, Jess Glynne and Tinie Tempah performed onstage. Show Designer, Bryan Leitch, and Lighting Director, Jamie Thompson, were given responsibility to organise the production and started with a series of three by…
A meeting 10 years ago saw FOH Engineer Jon Sword and five-piece British rock act The Feeling join forces to forge a successful career as a credible live act. Together, the pro sound buffs have played the world in various sized venues and 2016 marks the year that Cadac consoles became part of the story. TPi’s Kelly Murray speaks to the man behind the live mix of this popular band. The story of how British pop rock act The Feeling came to notoriety is quite the (eventual) fairy tale, as their FOH Engineer, Jon Sword, explained: “They learnt to cut…
US hip-hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis bowled into London’s O2 Arena with a stage show honed during a relentless European tour and crew morale sky high. TPi’s Ste Durham was on site to meet the team. Even the most experienced of touring crews could be forgiven for feeling the strain after a long stint on the road, particularly when the majority of that crew is thousands of miles from home. In the case of the group behind Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ latest production, a strong ethos centred around one hand washing the other has done the power of good…
With a habit of selling out gigs in their native Britain, former The Beautiful South stars Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott embarked on a UK tour in support of the 2015 album, Wisdom, Laughter and Lines. TPi speaks to Lighting Designer Patrick Sollitt and Production Manager / Tour Manager Tom Sheals-Barrett about utilising a Robe-heavy rig, and the technical success behind the tour. British artist Paul Heaton has been penning catchy songs for his entire career, earning himself a reputation as a hit maker and a humble frontman. Alongside former The Beautiful South vocalist, Jacqui Abbott, the pair have once…
When Cream announced a night of dance music classics as you’d never heard them before, performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in one of Liverpool’s most iconic and breathtaking buildings, Liverpool Cathedral, needless to say the city was brimming with excitement. TPi spoke to the suppliers who brought the event together. Uniting three of Liverpool’s cultural institutions for a unique event saw global dance brand Cream collaborate with musicians from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and transform some of the greatest dance classics from the electronic music genre in the majestic surroundings of Liverpool Cathedral. The unique concert featured…
At this year’s festival, neo-soul star Izzy Bizzu and Stockport indie pioneers Blossoms (coincidentally named after the Blossoms public house near TPi HQ), both showcased the new Shure KSM8, the world’s first dual-diaphragm dynamic handheld microphone. TPi’s Stew Hume asked the artists and crew their opinion on the product… Live at Leeds has become something of a warm-up for many bands before the onslaught of summer festival shows. During the metropolitan festival, 22 venues within the West Yorkshire city open their doors to the 192 artists that play throughout the day. Two of the highlights of the festival were indie-quintet…
