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Chirac Design tours France with ChamSys
28/11/2019
Robe illuminates Ubud Jazz Festival
20/11/2019
LD Rob Ross diverts festivalgoers with light art installation featuring Elation Proteus fixtures
18/11/2019
Nesi Alfasi equips Hanan Ben-Ari with Robe
15/11/2019
Martin Audio’s WPL debuts at ‘Rock In Japan’
13/11/2019
Chauvet beleuchtet Preisverleihung für Otto Waalkes
Bei der diesjährigen Gala des Vereins Kinderlachen Ende November in der Dortmunder Westfalenhalle unterstützte die Deutschland-Niederlassung des amerikanischen Schweinwerfer-Spezialisten Chauvet Professional die hochwertige Veranstaltung mit unterschiedlichen Licht-Installationen. Insgesamt kamen 120 Lampen von Chauvet Professional zum Einsatz: Damit ist das Unternehmen in diesem Jahr einer der größten Unterstützer.
Seit 2002 unterstützt der Kinderlachen e.V. schwer kranke Kinder in den unterschiedlichsten Einrichtungen. Dazu zählen neben Kindergärten, -kliniken, -hospizen, und -tagesstätten auch Einrichtungen, die von der öffentlichen Sparwelle betroffen sind. Krönender Abschluss der im deutschsprachigen Raum unternommenen Aktivitäten ist die jährlich stattfindende Kinderlachen Gala in der Dortmunder Westfalenhalle, die am 30. November bereits zum 15. Mal stattfand.
So feierte man nicht nur die stolze Summe von weit mehr als 700.000 Euro an Spendengeldern, sondern zeichnete auch das Engagement prominenter Unterstützer des Vereins aus. Den Ehrenpreis erhielt in diesem Jahr der Komiker Otto Walkes, der seit vielen Jahren neben verschiedenen Hilfsorganisationen für bedürftige Kinder auch den Verein Kinderlachen unterstützt. Im vergangenen Jahr stellte Otto drei handgemalte und -signierte Bilder für die Gala-Auktion zur Verfügung.
Chauvet Professional unterstützt mit 120 Scheinwerfern
Die technische Realisierung der Veranstaltung übernahm auch in diesem Jahr Malkus Veranstaltungstechnik aus Iserlohn. Trust Event aus Frechen unter Leitung von Sebastian Huwig sorgte für das Lichtdesign. Beide Firmen waren bei der Umsetzung auf die Unterstützung verschiedenster technischer Dienstleister angewiesen. Das vermutlich größte Engagement mit 120 eingesetzten Leuchten kam dabei in diesem Jahr vom amerikanischen Scheinwerferhersteller Chauvet Professional.
P2 Veranstaltungstechnik aus Greven stellte 50 Maverick MK3 Wash, Eventtechnik Südwestfalen aus Meschede 70 Epix Strip IP zur Verfügung. Das hiermit umgesetzte Lichtdesign verlieh der Bühne einen dynamischen und visuell eindrucksvollen Charakter. Im Decken-Truss befanden sich die MK3 Wash mit jeweils 27 40W Osram RGBW LEDs ausgestatteten MK3 Wash sorgten vor allem durch ihre durchgängige Farbkonstanz für eine ausgeglichene farbliche Ausleuchtung der insgesamt in drei Segmente unterteilten Podiumsfläche. Links und rechts von der Bühne wurde das flexible Epix Strip-System von Chauvet Professional platziert. Diese boten mit unterstützem Pixelmapping vielfältige Möglichkeiten der Effektgestaltung.
"Ohne die großzügige Unterstützung unserer beiden Partner P2 Veranstaltungstechnik und Eventtechnik Südwestfalen wäre eine derart gelungene und eindrucksvolle Umsetzung der Gala kaum möglich. Die von ihnen zur Verfügung gestellten Fixtures von Chauvet Professional waren ein wichtiger Bestandteil des diesjährigen Lichtdesigns", resümiert Sebastian Huwig. "Wir alle sind jedes Jahr wieder stolz darauf, einen Beitrag zur wichtigen Arbeit des Vereins Kinderlachen auf diesem Weg leisten zu dürfen!"
Fotos: Oliver Pohl
www.chauvetprofessional.eu
Martin MLA takes top four stages at South West Four
Celebrating its 16th year at the Clapham Common site, South West Four is a familiar August Bank Holiday destination for London’s clubbers. This year it again welcomed the House of Commons Festival, curated by Madness, onto two of its stages for Bank Holiday Monday itself.
The event’s long-serving sound production company Capital Sound were again brought in by promoters Lock ‘N’ Load Events, and of the five stages they equipped, Martin Audio PA systems dominated the first four.
Capital upgraded Stage 3 from MLA Compact last year to the full MLA, flying eight elements (plus an MLD Downfill box) on either side of the stage. “Although the speaker complement was roughly the same as before we needed more horse power to deal with reflections at the back of the tent,” says Capital account manager Martin Connolly.
The Capital FM main stage saw 13 MLA and a single MLD Downfill flown on each wing with a single mast of symmetrical outfills (comprising eight MLA Compact elements) on the downstage edge. Providing the low frequencies were 20 MLX subwoofers, designed in a broadside cardioid array while those near the front had the sound enhanced by 12 Martin Audio W8LM near-field speakers.
Stages 2 and the smaller Stage 3 comprised an identical MLA/MLD formula with 12 MLX subwoofers in a spaced cardioid array, and four Martin Audio XD12 for front fills. The 40 m x 45 m Stage 4 tent saw the PA ground-stacked, with six MLA Compact on each side, atop four SX218 subs; these were in 2 x 2 end fire configuration, due to space constraints.
Martin Connolly was supported by a team of Capital technicians, headed by crew chief Tim Patterson. System tech was Joseph Pearce and monitor engineer was Marty Beath, while Richard Wonnacott was head stage patch. Overall production manager was Alex Anderson.
Smoke and Mirrors picks VUE AL-12 for Chella latin music festival
Full production services for this year’s Chella Music Festival - held at the Riverside County Fairgrounds of Indio, California, and produced by Goldenvoice - were provided by long-standing Goldenvoice collaborator Smoke and Mirrors SVL, Inc., who deployed a VUE AL-12 Acoustic Linearity line array system for the event.
“I’ve been involved with the Coachella festival for nearly twenty years, but this was our first year handling everything at Chella, including lighting, video and audio,” explains Sean Lyons, CEO of Smoke and Mirrors.
For the 5000-capacity venue, Lyons’ design incorporated left and right VUE AL-12 arrays of eight elements on each. Low frequency was delivered by 12 VUE HS-221 dual 21-inch ACM subwoofers positioned at ground level across the front of the stage. Four AL-8 acoustic elements were placed across the top of the subs for front fill.
VUEDrive V Series System Engines provided all power and processing for the AL-12 and AL-8 elements, while onboard VUEDrive electronics powered the subs. Allen & Heath dLive consoles handled both front of house and monitor mixes. Several visiting engineers piloted the VUE array throughout the day, and Lyons reports that the VUE AL-12 will soon be a permanent member of his rental inventory.
(Photos: Smoke and Mirrors SVL, Inc.)
The Design Oasis and Helm Projects use Chauvet fixtures at Suwannee Huluween
This October, the Suwanee Huluween Festival, a three day event located in Florida’s Suwannee Music Park, featured over 200 Chauvet Professional fixtures throughout the grounds as well as at two of the stages. The fixtures were supplied and installed by The Design Oasis.
Abbas Ritscher and his team at The Design Oasis, which included John Hollignshead and Joe Donnelly, positioned 150 Colorado 1-Tri IP fixtures around the lake that served as the “festival centerpiece.”
They used the RGB fixture to wash monsters, goblins, mad beasts and other freakish figures in a range of scary colors. Drawing on the Rogue fixture’s 16-bit master dimmer, they also relied on the interplay of moving light and shadows to endow the ghoulish scenery with menacing sense of animation.
In addition to illuminating scenic elements, the Colorado units were used to direct light on the lake itself as well as the surrounding trees to impart a haunting sense to the festival grounds. Ritscher also installed the fixtures on the festival’s Lake Stage, which was designed by Andy Caroll.
At Suwanee Huluween’s big Amphitheatre Stage, Justin Casey of Helm Projects and his programmer Alex ‘Herm’ Schneider called on a collection of 30 Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures, also supplied by The Design Oasis.
Casey’s design called for twenty of the 5-headed Rogue R1 FX-B units to be positioned (five apiece) on each of the four PA scaffold towers that flanked the stage, two on each side, with the remaining ten being arranged vertically and horizontally on upstage truss. With the five moving heads on each Rogue R1 FX-B being aimed in various directions.
Elite Event Technology selects Robe for Naidoc Awards
Elite Event Technology from Canberra, Australia, supplied lighting equipment and crew for the 2019 Naidoc Awards which celebrated the history, culture and outstanding achievements of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The event featured a mix of live performance and awards presentations and was hosted by media personalities Sean Choolburra and Elaine Crombie at the National Convention Centre Canberra in front of a live audience of 1,200 and broadcast live on SBS’s NITV channel.
The lighting design by Tom Wright featured an all-Robe moving light rig with 12 x BMFL Spots, 12 x BMFL WashBeams, 26 x LEDWash 300+’s, 12 x LED Wash600s and 14 x MMX Spots. It was the first time that Elite had been a technical supplier, working for main event producers 33Creative and 38Ten who coordinated all the technical direction.
Elite’s managing director Darren Russell and his team took a detailed brief from lighting designer Tom Wright and technical director Peter Quinlan of 38Ten and constructed the lighting rig to their specifications.
Stage depth was limited as video was squeezed into the space. The curved front stage had a small thrust emanating from the middle, and above this were two semi-circular rings of trussing created with straight pieces rigged in a curved shape, with another gentler V-shaped truss further upstage.
Most of the BMFL Spots, BMFL WashBeams supported by the MMX Spots were positioned on these for good coverage of the stage. The ones on the outer ring could also swing around and highlight the audience.
BMFL Wash Beams were also chosen to balance the lighting levels for camera against the five columns of LED screen which were prominent onstage. Tom Wright operated lighting for the show using a GrandMA2.
(Photos: Elite Event Technology)
Arenal Sound celebrates 10th anniversary with DAS Audio systems
Since its inception in 2010, DAS Audio has been delivering sound in all the editions of the Arenal Sound festival in Spain. In 2019, more than 300,000 people attended the event, and the venue was enlarged 10,000 square meters.
In this last edition, DAS Audio has been on all the stages deploying the necessary equipment to cover the acoustic needs. Audioprobe, the company responsible for the sound system and its installation at the festival, deployed on the Desperados main stage thirty-two Aero-40A, eighteen flown UX-218A sub-woofers and six stacked UX-221A as the main system.
Twelve Aero-40A were used as outfill and sixteen Aero-40A as frontfill, as well as eighteen Aero-40A for the first delay and fourteen Aero-40A for the second. The main stage required a projection of 150 meters, so the system was optimized with DASaim to provide even coverage in all the listening areas.
On the Negrita stage, twenty-four Aero-50 and eighteen UX-221 as the main system, plus twelve Aero-50 as delay, eight Aero-40A as frontfill and twelve Aero-20A as outfill were deployed. The Beach Club stage, devoted to electronic music, used as the main system twenty-four Aero-50, twelve UX-221A and ten Aero-40A as frontfill.
Chirac Design tours France with ChamSys
Parodic metal band Ultra Vomit and EDM solo act Sebastian are supported by light and video shows created by Chirac Design and run with ChamSys consoles. “We tend to have intense clients,” says Chirac co-founder and Marilyn Manson LD Nico Riot.
Chirac co-founder Romain Dronne is using a ChamSys MagicQ MQ60 to run shows for Sebastian, while Gregory Dutein is powering Ultra Vomit shows with a MagicQ MQ80 plus an extra wing.
“Sebastian is an EDM light show,” says Dronne. “Our show has to be tight on the rhythm, but with flood lights - and not an army of tight narrow beams. We are doing RGB fast color chasers. Ultra Vomit is more like a theatre comedy rock show that includes standup comedy and light, as well as sound effects, managed via ChamSys Magic HD.”
For Ultra Vomit’s tour, the Chirac team began the design process on a ChamSys MagicQ MQ500, then once the show was programmed switched to a MQ80 plus an extra wing. “Each song Ultra Vomit does is a parody of a musical genre inside the metal sphere,” says Dutein. “On black metal songs we use cold colors, strobes, smoke, and visual elements with black metal fonts.”
Given that Ultra Vomit’s show is very theatrical in nature, it is modified every week. Dutein uses his MQ80 to update his show throughout the tour, while riding on the tour bus.
Adlib supplies sound and lighting for Creamfields
Adlib supplied lighting for two arenas at Creamfields 2019 and audio to four arenas, plus lighting and sound for the hospitality zone. The Merseyside-based company worked directly for creative production specialist LarMac Live and their team led by Ian Greenway.
The audio team proposed a creative ‘end-fire’ sub-bass system design as a solution to keep the extensive low-end content well-contained and to within the boundaries of each respective stage.
Lighting
The logistics and planning of the lighting side of this project were coordinated and project managed by Adlib’s Jordan Willis. The designs for arenas CF07 and CF09, for which Adlib supplied the full lighting packages, were created by Ian Tomlinson from High Scream.
A curved layered structure clad with LED video panels set the aesthetic tone at CF05, making a complete curve but with some strategic gaps left in between the LED where lighting could be secured to the scaffolding superstructure. Adlib added 20 x Martin MAC Aura XB LED wash moving lights, 20 x Claypaky Axcor Beam 300s, 60 x Chauvet Colordash PARs and 12 x CP Stormy LED strobes for blasts and accents.
All of these were attached to the structure to keep the stage completely clean and clear. Control was a GrandMA light and Adlib’s techs were Dave Smith and Ash Dawson, also both operating, supported by technician Peter Lea.
At CF07, the lighting design was based around a combination of flown elements and a substantial ground support over the stage, installed by Prism. Four raked finger trusses provided ‘roof cover’ for lighting above the stage and DJ booth, lower at the back and higher at the front. These were rigged with 24 x Claypaky Mythos moving lights, 20 x Ayrton MagicBlades and four Martin MAC Viper profiles for key lighting.
The rest of the main stage/audience lighting positions were created with eight angled tower trusses - four on each of the stage wings - each loaded with 10 x MAC Aura XBs and 5 x JDC1 LED strobes - totalling 80 and 40 each of these fixtures respectively.
On the stage five MAC Quantum Wash moving lights dramatically back lit the DJs. Control was a GrandMA3 full size running with a GrandMA light for backup, and this area was operated and coordinated on the ground for Adlib by Tom Webber and Paul Abdullah.
For lighting, the hospitality area was a bit of a brain-teaser. The tented architecture was created using three conjoined saddlespan stages, from which the Adlib team flew an 8-metre diameter circular truss to provide all the key lighting positions. On this were 12 x Chauvet NXT-1 LED matrix moving lights, combined with twelve frosted colour-changing Showtec LED cubes hung on catenaries mimicking the room’s décor and furniture design.
These were joined onstage by 16 x CP Axcor Spot 300s and 20 x Chauvet Colordash PARs deployed on four vertical trussing towers on the stage deck. Twenty-four Core ColourPoint CP20s battery-powered wireless LEDS uplighters were dotted around the saddlespan ceilings and ensconced in the trees for ambient lighting.
The exterior buffet/eating area was lit with a collection of different coloured 400 W HQI floods scattered around. All the hospitality lighting was controlled via an Avolites Tiger Touch II console operated by Oli Gorman and Harry Holme.
Audio
Adlib’s audio project manager was Jay Petch, and their crew chief was Billy Bryson who was also responsible for the system designs and implementation of the end-fire setup. For audio, the arenas serviced were CF05 (Pepsi Max), CF06 (Sexy by Nature), CF07 (Axtone), CF09 (The Silo) plus hospitality.
CF05, a large tent, featured a Coda sound system, comprising six AiRay boxes per side, each of these stacked on top of four SC2 subs. On the ground along the front of the stage were another 12 x SCP subs arrayed in six stacks of two in the end-fire configuration to help keep as much bottom end on the site and minimise spillage. FOH & monitor control for CF05 was a DiGiCo SD11, and Adlib’s crew were James Claridge and Matt Gadsby.
At CF06, Hassane Es Siahi was at FOH and Steven Selby on monitors. The large tented space offered flying facilities and the chosen PA was an L-Acoustics K2, with 12 x K2 elements for the main left-and-right hangs working in conjunction with two flown delay arrays further down the tent with four K2s in each.
On the ground, 20 x L-Acoustics KS28 subs were rigged in 10 stacks of two in an end-fire array. A selection of fills ensured the front edges of the barrier were covered with four Arcs per side, and four Karas did the front fill, plus six Kara each side as ground-stacked outfills. The desk was a DiGiCo S21 running with a DiGiCo D2 stage rack.
CF07, a 4-king-pole tent, was ideal for a flown audio rig, which comprised 12 x Coda AiRay a side each with two ViRay down at the bottom of each hang. In this rig, Billy Bryson was able to fly two sub arrays each consisting of 8 x SC2s directly behind the main two PA hangs for greater low-end steering.
On the floor were 20 x SCP subs set up in 10 stacks of two, again in the specified end-fire configuration. Coda APS & ViRay were deployed as infill and outfill. The FOH console was a DiGiCo S21 fed by a D2 rack, and for monitors there was an A&H SQ-6 running via an A&H dLive DX32 Expander stage rack.
Several of Adlib’s own MP5 wedges were available for guest vocalists, powered by Linea Research 44M20 amps. Sennheiser 5000 series radio microphones were also available for vocalists appearing throughout the event. The audio team in here were Billy Bryson who looked after FOH (as well as his overall Adlib audio crew chief role) and Stu Watson doing monitors assisted by Aaron Rutherford.
CF09 Silo, which made its Creamfields debut in 2018, is a coliseum-style cylindrical chamber, complete with a 360 degree ‘wall’ of sound, a 30-metre dancefloor in the middle and towering viewing platforms on a second raised level. The DJ booth was also positioned on the first floor along with the audio and lighting control positions and four main speaker locations.
Four stacks of Coda ViRay each with an SC2 sub at the bottom were chosen as the main arrays, all ‘ground stacked’ on the upper level. Four stacks of three SCP subs were carefully positioned on the lower level in pre-planned clearings in the scaffold structure. To cover the gallery areas open to the public, Coda Hops speakers were rigged on vertical mounting brackets.
This system was run via a Midas Pro2 console with a Midas DL251 stage box. A pair of Adlib MP5 wedges and a selection of Shure UR2 hand-held mics were on hand for guest vocalists. James Brennan and Joe Meekums ensured everything ran smoothly each day.
The key design for the CF10 (Hospitality) venue was to provide a sound system appropriate for the chilled vibes. This included two ground stacks of four Coda AiRays left and right of the stage, stacked on top of three SC2 subs per side, with Adlib MP5 wedges for monitors with an A&H SQ-5 for control, all overseen on site by Leon Worthington.
In a breakout area, two stacks of K-Array KR202 were stacked on Kobra 18’ subs, creating a very effective and discrete delay system to relay the DJ sounds from the main room to the catering areas of the tent.
(Photos: Mike Davies/Geoffrey Hubble/Jack Kimber/Ryan Worthington)
XCPH Company calls on Chauvet for Tour Vibration
This September, Maxime Perrey and the team at XCPH Company lit the Tour Vibration in France’s Central Region. For the past five years, XCPH has been responsible for designing the lighting rig for this five-city back-to-school tour sponsored by Radio Vibration.
This year, in a departure from precedent, Perrey scaled back the role of LED video walls that had dominated his previous designs in favor of a more lighting-oriented rig that featured Chauvet Professional fixtures.
Instead of having large columns of screens, Perrey and his staff arranged the screens in horizontal lines, creating a smaller video impression. “In reality, we have the same number of video panels, but to the eye it looks smaller,” he says. “Our lighting projectors are better distributed in space, and they play a much more prominent role in the design. So, this year, when encoding, I first established light tables and then added video dressing.”
The pan and tilt movements, colors and bright backlighting from the rig’s Maverick and Rogue fixtures accented the performance of stars like Mika, Yannick Noah, Black M, The Avener and more.
“On the five dates, a little more than forty artists paraded on the Vibration stage in a showcase format, 15 to 20 minutes each,” says Perrey. “The musical styles are very varied to satisfy a wide audience. So, the flexibility this rig gave us to create versatile looks was very important.”
“Our stage is 13 m wide and has a clearance of 8 m,” he adds. “In this kind of format artists most often come alone without their musicians, so light is counted on to dress the stage, create different paintings, and immerse the audience in different atmospheres. Light is also essential for the video recording since this event is broadcast live on giant screens on both sides of the stage.”
A collection of ten Maverick Storm 1 Wash and eight MK3 Wash fixtures, along with eight Rogue RH1 Hybrids and a Node Net-X anchored the tour rig. Four of the Maverick Storm 1 Wash fixtures were positioned downstage and were used for audience lighting and aerial effects.
Perrey also positioned four Maverick MK3 Wash and six Maverick Storm 1 Wash fixtures on three counter-stair decks that uniformly covered the entire height of the stage. “We also had eight Rogues RH1 hybrids on the deck, which allowed me to complete the beam aspect of mode B, or make softer pictures with the gobos in spot mode,” he says.
“My lighting assistant Matthieu Christinel, who is also the video director of the tour, solicited the entire Arkaos programming team in Belgium to help us make it possible,” Perrey concludes. “In two days, they released a Beta version, and five days later they released MediaMaster version 5.6 following our request. All of our team, including Matthieu and Lucas Beguel, our light technician, deserve credit for making our new plan work.”
Ayrton Mistral and Diablo-S for ‘Beetlejuice’ and ‘Long Lost’
Lighting designer Ken Posner selected Ayrton Mistral and Diablo-S fixtures for the Broadway musical ‘Beetlejuice’ and the Off-Broadway one-act play ‘Long Lost’. ‘Beetlejuice’ opened at the Winter Garden Theatre earlier this year; ‘Long Lost’ made its New York premiere at The Manhattan Theatre Club’s Stage I with a six-week run.
Posner’s use of Ayrton’s Mistral on ‘Beetlejuice’ marked his first deployment of Ayrton fixtures. His associate lighting designer Anthony Pearson and moving light programmer David Arch collaborated in the decision to use the 300 W spot luminaires after ACT Lighting, Ayrton’s exclusive North American distributor, demo’d the fixtures for them.
Eight to ten Mistral fixtures light the entire large scenic unit while additional Mistrals fill in FOH in the light plot. The Mistrals were supplied for the musical by PRG.
For the Manhattan Theatre Club’s production of ‘Long Lost’, Posner chose a pair of Ayrton Diablo-S 300 W profile luminaires. The scenic design by John Lee Beatty comprised of three turn tables which transformed the space into five different realistic interiors.
(Photos: Matthew Murphy)
Martin Audio’s MLA Compact deployed at Foynhagen Festival
For the summer-long Foynhagen Festival in Norway the event’s PA supplier Spekter A/S had invested in a Martin Audio MLA Compact in 2018. At this year’s edition of the festival - which is located in downtown Tønsberg, 90 minutes outside Oslo - the rig again comprised eight MLA Compact per side with four MLX subs across the front in a broadside array. Spekter also supplied 12 x Martin Audio LE100 wedge monitors, all powered by Martin Audio’s MA3.0 amplifiers.
Robe illuminates Ubud Jazz Festival
The seventh Ubud Village Jazz Festival (UVJF) was staged at the Arma Art Museum in the Bali Uplands, Indonesia, welcoming a host of local and international artists. Event curator Yuri Mahatma gave a brief about the ambience he wanted to see and achieve on all of the stages, which was interpreted by set designer and artistic director Klick Swantara who also co-ordinated the production lighting design for the main ‘Giri’ Stage.
This involved several Robe lighting fixtures - with 24 x LEDWash 300+s, six Pointes and six PicklePatts - supplied as part of an equipment package from two local companies, ETCetera Lighting and Lemmon.ID. The lights were positioned all over the stage roof rigged on a series of trusses.
The six Pointes were used to highlight and accent specific moments during some of the performances. The PicklePatts boosted the general visual ambience, their large dish like reflectors contrasted with the baskets that had been sculpted into the set.
This dynamic backdrop also became a 3D effect after dark with the addition of projections which were mapped to fit the curved and shaped surface. Lighting was run from an Avolites Quartz console run by a team of operators from ETCetera Lighting.
(Photos: Jens Poehlker)
LD Rob Ross diverts festivalgoers with light art installation featuring Elation Proteus fixtures
Life is Beautiful Festival organizers posed a challenge to lighting designer Rob Ross in the run up to the 2019 event in Las Vegas - get more attendees to use an alleyway corridor to travel between stages instead of the over-packed main street thoroughfare. Ross succeeded with a 450-ft long, immersive environment that featured lighting effects from Elation Professional Proteus series luminaires.
Getting festivalgoers to use an alternate path however was no small task as the main street between the festival’s main stage and ancillary stages was lined with vendors and art installations, which naturally attracts people, and besides, the alleyway was a longer route, uninteresting and somewhat dimly lit.
“The festival came to us and asked us to make the alleyway feel cool and more exciting so people would want to walk that way instead of along the overcrowded street,” says Ross, head of Rob Ross Design, a national full service lighting design and production company that handled site and VIP lighting for the 3-day festival as well as the art install project.
Ross worked with New York composer Elisheba Ittoop to create a 10-minute soundscape, which was programmed to work with 66 Proteus Beam and 34 Proteus Hybrid luminaires. All lighting design and programming cameo was through Rob Ross Design. The Design Oasis of Davie, FL, provided the lighting equipment for the project.
The installation consisted of ten arch trusses approximately 45 feet apart from each other along the alley’s 450-ft length. Each truss housed nine Proteus lights - Beams in the middle and Hybrids on the edges for gobo projection - along with a pair of haze machines. The 10-minute show looped continuously so the effect was of one never-ending light show with each truss having its own 1-minute theme for a 10-minute walk through the alley.
With rain seldom falling in Las Vegas one might wonder about the need for an IP65 weatherproof light but for Ross there was no question. “The IP65 rating was actually the leading factor in choosing the Proteus fixtures,” he says. “Even though it rarely rains in Vegas I wasn’t going to put 100 moving lights exposed on truss without some type of protection. You just never know.
(Photos: Jorg Photo)
VUE provides high-definition audio system for Oppo product launch
Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Oppo recently released the latest Reno series at the Shanghai Mercedes Benz Arena. In addition to a new range of features, the phone also supports high-resolution audio and Dolby Atmos audio.
Oppo required the live sound reinforcement at the conference be of the highest definition to allow the audience to experience the sound of the new mobile phone. The A/V provider of this event, Lavtech AV Technology, selected VUE AL-12 Acoustic Linear line arrays to meet the demands.
The system Wu Jiacheng, technical director of VUE China, specified made use of both AL-12 and AL-8 line arrays along with HS-221s for the sub frequencies. The audience area of the conference included in-field seating facing the stage and a two-story auditorium that was fanned out. The sound system could not impair the audience’s line-of-sight, so the arrays were flown 22 meters above the stage.
The main array consisted of 8 x AL-12s suspended at the left and right side respectively. In addition, 4 x AL-8s were hung on each side as front fills, covering the 4-meter area in the front. An array of 4 x AL-8s on each side were suspended to function as monitors. A total of twelve HS-221 subwoofers were deployed with two AL-12s stacked on-top for front fill at the sides of the stage. The system was driven by twelve VUE V3 amps and managed by SystemVUE management software.
The Mercedes Benz Center does not allow equipment to be stacked on the catwalk and the cables on the floor must be hidden. The technical team decided to use Dante as both VUE’s amplifiers and speakers “speak” Dante.
This allowed for the use of networking cables to reduce bulky cable runs making it easier to tuck them out of site. The installation was completed in a day by four technicians of VUE China, and system tuning was completed in half a day with SysTune and Smaart acoustic field analysis software.
Pictured: Lavtech’s Guo Ruijian with VUE China’s Jaden Wu.
CPL delivers ‘Carnival of Colour’ event for Tropic Skincare
CPL supplied full technical design and production for show producers Pandora Events who delivered Tropic Skincare’s 2019 “Glambassador” motivational event, a day packed with new product launches, presentations, awards and live entertainment, complete with a gala dinner. The event for 2500 people - themed ‘Carnival of Colour’ - was staged in Hall 4 at the NEC, Birmingham, UK.
CPL’s production and project manager Lee Gruszeckyj worked closely with Pandora’s Vanessa Carter and a crew of 27 technicians who started with the installation of a 20-metre diameter circular stage in the centre of the room. The inner 10-meter diameter section was a revolve. Above this, four large screens were installed, which were fed by Barco UDX high-powered projectors, giving 360-degree viewing angles.
The stage was a full custom design and build for the event, with a Steeldeck base covered in bespoke ply pieces to make up the spherical shape and the revolve machinery installed in the middle, completely flush with the outer section, so not immediately evident to the eye. The whole surface area was finished in white gloss vinyl.
An 8-metre runway protruded from each of two sides of the stage with 7-metre ramps at each end extending out into the audience. “One parameter was that the stage area had to potentially accommodate several hundred people for some of the Awards categories,” Lee Gruszeckyj explains, “so we had to ensure there was enough space for them to stand on it and enjoy their moments of adulation, as well as to facilitate that many people actually getting safely up onto the stage.”
The four screens flown above the central stage each measured 16 metres wide by 4.5 high, and each was fed by a pair of doubled-up Barco UDXW32 32K lumen projectors which were positioned on the largest of three concentric circular trusses flown - chandelier style at slightly staggered heights in the roof - with diameters of 15, 8 and 5 metres respectively. They produced some 4K resolution images.
On the two lower trussing circles, 70 x 1.2 metre by 100 mm wide Roe pixel strips were rigged running via Brompton T1 processors and fed with video content which produced colour and movement effects above the stage, and also eye-catching kinetics during the production numbers.
Four Sony HXC-100 HD cameras were utilised for the IMAG mix of the band/speakers/presenters/award winners, etc., mixed via a GV Kayak PPU, and ISO and TX records of the evening were also produced. CPL supplied an on-site mobile edit suite and a person dedicated just to ‘live’ editing.
CPL also created custom media content for the three major live performance segments which were stored on a fully redundant networked QLab system and synched to the accompanying music tracks over which they played and sang live.
Around 200 lighting fixtures - a mix of generics, LEDs and moving lights - populated the three circular trusses. The 150 x moving lights were made up from a mix of Robe Pointes, Spikies and LEDBeam 150s and the generics were a combination of profiles, fresnels and spots, all operated by Ian Wood and Peter Thompson using a GrandMA console.
An L-Acoustics sound system comprised Kara, HiQ and Arcs Wide speakers. Each of the ten Kara arrays contained between 6 and 9 speakers per drop. For stage lip fills L-Acoustics X8 speakers were chosen, while six HiQs were there for nearfields and the Arcs Wides covered the further away areas. The HiQs and Arcs Wides were also all flown, as were the 16 x SB18s - in three stacks - above the stage. The subs were augmented with four KS28s on the floor in front of the stage.
The system was powered by L-Acoustics LA8 and LA12 amps, and all the amp racks were flown for neatness. Dante was distributed via a fibre network. The band had both FOH and monitors mixed via two Yamaha CL5 consoles. Thirty-six channels of Shure Axient Digital wireless mics ensured that the band were fully wireless, which was the only option due to the revolve and their central room positioning, and a Sennheiser G3 IEM system completed the monitor package.
DPA 4099 mics were deployed for the drum kit with an array of mics including DPA 2011s for the rest of the band’s instruments. A full Riedel Bolero comms system was installed throughout the show-space connecting all involved in the event.
Also integral to the staging of the entertainment sections were 8 x lasers, strategically positioned heavy foggers and a massive multi-coloured confetti drop fired on the last chords of the end of the opening sequence.
(Photos: Lukonic)
Qube Event chooses Chauvet DJ for Kanjers in Concert
Kanjers in Concert, an event that recently took place at the Theater aan de Parade in ’s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, offered a platform for mentally disabled artists to perform with established orchestral musicians. Tasked with providing visual support for the event, Qube Event Supplies chose 24 Chauvet DJ Vivid 4 panels that served to replay live video content while serving as a light source in themselves.
Divided into four separate sections to create four individual video walls each measuring 100 cm by 300 cm, the Vivid 4 panels were hung above the orchestra at 150 cm intervals. Each element within the arrangement was hung at a different stage depth to create the overall impression of perspective.
“We included the video screens within our visual concept for two reasons,” explains Joep van’t Hoff, video and light engineer at Qube Event Supplies. “Firstly, the panels served as luminous decor elements within the orchestral set up; and secondly, they provided a platform for video content to be displayed, such as playing introductions of each orchestra member before the performance.”
Nesi Alfasi equips Hanan Ben-Ari with Robe
For Israeli singer-songwriter Hanan Ben-Ari’s current tour Nesi Alfasi created a visual design that includes 12 x Robe MegaPointes at the core of the lighting rig. These are being supplied to the tour by rental company Mega Kol based in Rosh Hayain and headed by Zvika Refaelovich.
Hanan Ben-Ari’s tour features a 3-metre diameter circular LED surface upstage made up of over 3000 smart pixels in strips which are mapped into a series of different shapes and graphic effects throughout the set, providing a digital element that is different from a standard video playback screen. Eight of the MegaPointes are rigged on the back truss, with four positioned on the floor upstage of the band.
Hanan Ben-Ari’s tour celebrates his third studio album and will run for at least two years. The first gig was at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium (Heichal HaTarbut) in Tel Aviv for which Nesi Alfasi added another 12 MegaPointes to the rig as well as Mega Kol’s 12 x Pointes.
(Photos: Louise Stickland)
SGM unterstützt Marketingaktion auf Hohenzollernbrücke
In einer Nacht im Oktober 2019 erstrahlte die Kölner Hohenzollernbrücke im Zuge einer Marketingaktion ab Mitternacht in unterschiedlichen Farben, zudem wurden die Logos zweier fusionierender Telekommunikations-Unternehmen auf die Brücke projiziert.
Erschwert wurde die Aktion durch heftigen Wind und starken, lang anhaltenden Regen, der die IP-Klassifizierung für alle eingesetzten Geräte erforderte. Der Aufbau erfolgte links- und rechtsrheinisch.
Für das Gesamt-Lichtbild auf der Hohenzollernbrücke wählte der ausführende Event-Dienstleister sowohl 60 x P-6 als auch 12 x P-10 von SGM. Darüber hinaus kamen vier SGM G-7 für die Projektion der Firmen-Logos zum Einsatz; dazu wurden sie mit je zwei Kundengobos ausgestattet.
Auf jedem Flussufer sorgte ein mobiler Stromerzeuger für die nötige Stromversorgung. Was die Steuerung betrifft, musste ein DMX-Signal von der zentralen Lichtsteuerung auf die andere Rhein-Seite gelangen, ohne dass dafür Leitungen verlegt werden konnten. Gelöst wurde dies über WDMX-Module von Lumenradio, die bei einer Entfernung von mehr als 400 m für eine zuverlässige Übertragung sorgten.
Allein für die Ausleuchtung des Brücken-Mittelteils mussten rund 220 m Distanz von jeder Seite überwunden werden. Hier kamen die SGM P-6 und P-10 mit 10°-Abstrahlwinkeln zum Einsatz.
Zero 88 in action at Fringe Festival in Edinburgh
At the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival the Zero 88 team was - again - on the ground with training and technical support for a range of their lighting consoles and control solutions.
They also embraced the sociosphere with the creation of #behindthefringe - a forum for anyone into fringe performance and involved with a show using Zero 88 products (#behindthefringe will be launched as a website later in the year as a hub and platform for comments, experiences and opinions, sharing information and connecting people through various Fringe projects linked via Zero 88).
Over 100 different Zero 88 consoles were in action site-wide at this year’s Edinburgh event, which is the largest arts festival in the world, producing nearly 60,000 new performances in over 300 venues across 25 days. These included an ever-growing number of latest generation Zero 88 FLX lighting desks, and generally around the Fringe, Zero 88 is one of the most popular control solutions for a diversity of productions.
This year 89 new Zero 88 lighting desk operators were trained. Most of the training sessions were for between two and six people, conducted in numerous different locations around the city.
Zero 88 consoles were being used in many key areas of the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe including The Space UK, which was using FLX for the first time; the assorted Underbelly venues and for Assembly and Summerhall productions all of which featured FLX across multiple sites and venues.
Mark Knopfler mit Hog-4-Konsole von High End Systems auf Tournee
Zum Tour-Tross der aktuellen „Down The Road Wherever Tour“ von Mark Knopfler gehört eine Hog-4-Lichtkonsole von High End Systems. Lichtdirektor Tellson James ist bereits zum zweiten Mal mit Knopfler auf Konzertreise; für die Tourneen 2015 und die US-Tour 2019 entwarf Mark Henderson das Lichtkonzept, James war jeweils für die Programmierung zuständig.
Neben der Hog 4 ist noch weiteres High-End-Systems- und Hog-Equipment mit auf Tour, darunter ein Full Boar 4 (als Backup) sowie vier externe DMX-8000-Prozessoren (drei im Einsatz, einer als Backup). Jeder der Prozessoren verwaltet unter HogNet acht DMX-Universen.
„Wir könnten Art-Net oder sACN fahren, was die Fähigkeiten des Prozessors auf sechzehn Universen pro DP erhöhen würde“, sagt Tellson James. „Wir betreiben 22 Universen. Die interne DP des Pults lasse ich dabei frei, um die ‘House’- und ‘Festival’-Schweinwerfer zu patchen.“
Circo de los Horrores on tour with more than 120 Robe moving lights
Spanish performance phenomenon Circo de los Horrores (Circus of Horrors) is currently on tour with ‘Apocalipsis - A Day After’, their fourth circus rock opera production.
Lighting designer Juanjo Llorens’ lighting rig includes 126 Robe moving lights, with 24 x MegaPointes, 24 x Pointes, 24 x Spiiders, 24 x LEDBeam 150s, 24 x ParFect 100s and six BMFL WashBeams, which together with other lights are being supplied and co-ordinated by technical production specialist Smart Fussion.
It’s the largest Circo de los Horrores show to date and the third that Llorens has lit. Central to this production is a 28-metre-wide 8-metre-high LED screen acting as a cyc and providing digital scenery and a variety of ambient backgrounds.
Juanjo Llorens worked closely with show director Suso Silva to establish the style and aesthetic of the piece which blends ideas and visual moments from theatre, rock, dance and acrobatic performance.
A square rigging grid was designed to facilitate all the circus acts and a separate mother grid was installed below this to create the overhead lighting positions, trimmed at 14 metres. Pointes, MegaPointes and Spiiders were rigged on this.
Llorens wanted additional room for essential side lighting positions, so after a bit of consideration, the rigging structure built for the video screen was utilized. This effectively meant the lights surrounded the stage in a U-shape above. Using under-hang brackets and drop bars, lights are fitted all the way down these side positions.
This is particularly effective for lighting the choral and dance numbers and is where the remaining LEDBeam 150s and ParFects came to be positioned. Llorens also positioned Pointes and MegaPointes on the floor which are used for movement and aerial effects.
The six BMFLs are used for front light, while the Spiiders are primality used as wash lights. The MegaPointes create the overall environmental ambience for each section of the performance.
Llorens programmed the show with his colleague Pablo Zamora, and the technical team comprised head of lighting Raúl Sáez, lighting assistants Víctor Navarro and Jasón Rossi plus technical co-ordinator and head of sound for the tour Pablo Alcázar and audio assistant Ricardo Máquez. Rafael González takes care of all the tent and structures technical direction.
(Photos: Pepe Castro)
Martin Audio’s WPL debuts at ‘Rock In Japan’
Celebrating its 20th anniversary year, and extended to five days for the 2019 edition, the ‘Rock In Japan’ festival also marked the Japanese debut of Martin Audio’s Wavefront Precision Longbow (WPL). ‘Rock In Japan’ was running on seven stages over two weekends at Hitachi Seaside Park.
Martin Audio systems are now regular fixtures at this event, with the MLA adopted for the largest, 70,000 capacity Grass Stage. “It was back in 2011 when we first introduced MLA on the Lake Stage,” reports Shuzo Fujii, president of MSI Japan. “This is now the ninth year that the system has been adopted.”
On the Grass Stage, twenty elements each side formed the main arrays supported by a further sixteen cabinets per side as outfills. In addition, 48 MLX subwoofers provided low frequency extension.
MLA was also adopted for other stages such as the Park Stage (10,000 cap), Lake Stage (10,000 cap) and Sound of Forest (8,000 cap) with the control offered by MLA also helping to prevent unnecessary sound bleed between stages.
At the new Buzz Stage (4,500 cap) WPL was making its debut. Six WPL elements had been flown per side, driven by three iK42 in 1-box resolution. In addition, two WPC enclosures were stacked as outfills, along with WPM as lipfill - all driven by iK42 amplifiers. The four iK42s were set up at the side of the stage, connected via a Dante audio network.
Due to the Luminex Gigacore switch which has V-LAN settings, Dante primary and secondary as well as the control signals of VU-Net and Apex Intelli-X3 processor were combined into a single optical cable. Meanwhile, ten MLX subwoofers were set under the stage.
GLP fixtures dominate main rig at Manchester’s Mayfield Depot
For the 14th year in succession, DBN Audile have installed the technical infrastructure for the Sacha Lord/Sam Kandel promoted Warehouse Project pop-up, through its various venues in Manchester.
Originally working under separate guises, before DBN Lighting merged with Audile, the technology specialists recently put in infrastructure at the Project’s latest home, the 10,000 capacity Mayfield Depot, which sits adjacent to Manchester’s Piccadilly Station; this includes large quantities of GLP X4 Bar 20 battens and JDC1 hybrid strobes in the main room for the four-month season which runs until January 2020.
Starting life at the old Boddington’s Brewery, the event now sees dance acts performing under a lighting rig designed by DBN Audile director Pete Robinson. “When I asked what the load limit was, since we had designed 2-tonne rigging brackets, I was told not to worry as directly overhead there were two platforms which would take 100-tonne trains each, as the building had originally been a freight depot for Mayfield Station,” he says.
“We did a one-off event in this space last year as part of the Manchester International Festival and lighting designer Stuart Bailes suggested we use X4 Bars. When we came back here we decided to use them again, and this time have upped the quantity to 52 X4 Bar 20s.” At the same time they acquired 32 JDC1s, which have also been pressed into service.
For the Warehouse Project, all the X4 Bar 20s are mounted on vertical trusses. “The main space has pillars throughout the venue and each supports a pair of Bars, hung one above the other. The remaining eight are positioned at the same height at the back of the stage behind the semi-transparent LED screen,” says Robinson.
“The Bars are run in 89-channel single pixel high resolution mode and so frequently get mapped. Most weekends we have visiting LDs coming with the artists and finding different creative ways of using them,” he adds. As each of the trusses occupies half a DMX universe (or two pillars to a single universe) the JDC1s are run in the normal 23-channel mode.
In addition to designing the rig Pete Robinson also project managed, supported by production technician Dale Wilson and house LX operator Colm Whaley.
Chauvet Rogue R2 Wash fixtures used at Gurdas Maan concert
Punjabi musician Gurdas Maan’s recent live show at The Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton, Canada, included an immersive Roosevelt Dsouza lightshow that featured 40 Rogue R2 Wash fixtures from Chauvet Professional.
Arranged on six overhead electrics, the Rogue R2 Wash fixtures provided a broad color palette that Dsouza used to convey different moods on stage. “I have a few color palettes that I use for all my shows, with Congo blue being my favorite,” he says.
Adding depth to the color washing were the streaks and specs of white light that Dsouza often mixed in with his rainbow of hues. “Mixing in some white with colors expands your range of looks,” he remarks. Dsouza, who has been touring internationally with Maan for three years, also used the Rogue R2 Wash fixtures for audience washing.
Robe equips summer opera festivals in Estonia
A Robe moving light rig supplied by Tallinn-based rental company E&T was used for Estonia’s two highest-profile annual summer opera festivals, the Birgitta Festival organized by the Tallinn Philharmonic Society and Saaremaa Opera Days organized by Eesti Kontsert.
Saaremaa took place on a 60 x 30 metre stage built beside Kuressaare Castle on Saaremaa Island in the Baltic Sea. For the Birgitta festival, the same staging company constructed a temporary roofing/staging structure adjacent to the ruins of the Pirita Convent in Tallinn.
In both cases, the lighting rig comprised around 120 Robe fixtures - a mix of Spiiders, MMX WashBeams, MMX Spots, LEDWash 800s, Cyc FX 8s, DL4S profiles, Spikies and ParFect smart whites - which were used in conjunction with several conventional theatrical fixtures.
The lighting designer for the 2019 Saaremaa Opera Days was Denis Enyukov, who is the permanent LD at the Moscow Helicon Opera, which also staged all this year’s shows, and he sent a complete lighting plot to Olev Luhaäär from E&T who co-ordinated the kit list. Five major opera works were on the bill this year, plus two gala shows, one for children.
At Birgitta, promoted as an ‘international musical theatre’ festival, the shows encompassed a diverse mix of opera, ballet and musical galas. There was a ‘house’ lighting rig, but a different LD for each of this year’s six performances, so Luhaäär received all the different LD requirements and from these compiled a kit list and proposed a ‘production’ design.
The overhead lights were installed on LX trusses and that is where the majority of the Robe LED washes and hard-edged MMX luminaires were positioned. At Saaremaa they were supported by extensive side booms on the floor and Robe CycFX 8s were brought in to up-light the back cloths and other scenic elements.
At Birgitta, some of the over-stage bars were used for scenery, so the LEDWash 800s, Spiiders and MMXs were distributed on two advanced trusses and the two most downstage overhead LX trusses, with some on the far upstage truss, leaving the rest of the overhead space free for set.
On the floor in between side booms rigged with conventional profiles were eight additional MMX Blades, four a side along the downstage edges for cross lighting. Eight Spikies along the front of the stage provided effects that filled the whole stage.
(Photos: Gunnar Laak/Kalev Lillorg)
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