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MX Événement and Chauvet DJ help Design Aglaé create a luminescent floral display for Euro Disney
24/07/2019
Fedez on tour with Claypaky fixtures
17/07/2019
Emily’s List gala illuminated by Chauvet
15/07/2019
ETC setzt India Fashion Week in Szene
13/07/2019
EDC’s NeonGarden illuminated by Chauvet
11/07/2019
PCIM Europe vermeldet erneut Rekordergebnis
11/07/2019
Project Mayhem lit by Chauvet
04/07/2019
Martijn Steman and Chauvet create looks for Jan Smit tour
For Dutch singer and TV presenter Jan Smit’s current theatre tour of the Benelux, which is set to run until the end of the year, Smit’s long-term creative collaborator Martijn Steman was once again tasked with providing the tour visuals. Triple Showtechniek supplied Steman and his team with 30 Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures.
Positioned in three horizontal rows running the width of the entire stage, the R1 FX-Bs play a pivotal role in creating color and energy in between the video content played from large LED screens. “The R1 FX-B allows me to punctuate the video wall with some effects, which has the effect of making the back wall look larger while making full use of the space on stage,” comments Steman.
One of the key effects in Steman’s arsenal of looks is a so-called curtain of light, which is achieved by lining up the beams of the R1 FX-B to create a luminous barrier at the back of the stage. “I’m also able to create a light curtain effect through the band by playing with the individual beams,” he says.
MX Événement and Chauvet DJ help Design Aglaé create a luminescent floral display for Euro Disney
Sophie Hombert and her company Design Aglaé S.A. beguiled visitors to Disneyland Paris this spring with luminescent flowers, adorning the Ticket to America Startup Competition with a floral display.
The lighting system by MX Événement drew on the illuminating power of the Chauvet DJ Eve P-150 UV. The company deployed 16 of the 150 W UV LED fixtures throughout the display, relying on their ultraviolet light to make rows of specially treated flowers glow in the dark.
The Design Aglaé creative process began with a new (and entirely natural) nutritive serum that causes the flowers glow under ultraviolet light. Then MX Événement was asked to provide lighting that could project a smooth, evenly focused field of UV illumination on the flowers, while not distracting from the floral display itself. After evaluating fifteen different UV fixture options, the MX Événement team selected the Eve P-150 UV for the project.
MX Événement positioned the Eve fixtures discreetly within and around the floral display so they weren’t very visible. The quiet operation of the fixtures meant that they also could not be heard.
Keith Shanks completes “Game of Thrones” run with ChamSys
A visit to the Harland and Wolf Shipyard on Queen’s Island, Belfast, a shipyard-turned-studio, with a gaffer friend in early 2011 plunged Keith “Shanksy” Shanks into the fantastical world of Westeros and Essos as the lighting programmer for “Game of Thrones” throughout its entire eight-season run. With him all the way, on every one of the 73 episodes (plus the pilot), has been a series of ChamSys consoles.
Shanks selected a MagicQ MQ200 with a Playback Wing for the pilot show. He soon added a second MQ200 to his setup, followed by an MQ500 Stadium. By the time “Game of Thrones” reached its eighth season, he had four MagicQ MQ500 Stadiums and two MQ200s with Playback Wings at his disposal.
The increasing number of consoles reflected the growing complexity of the “Game of Thrones” set lighting, which went from 14 universes to 19, as it moved from extremely high levels of illumination to more subtle and natural ones. More consoles were also needed to accommodate the variety of different sets used in the series.
During the last season, Shanks positioned the consoles at different locations throughout the Harland and Wolf facility (now the largest film studio in Europe). “We had six consoles here, one of which was in a van for when we shot at remote locations,” he says.
“Our production schedule was so sharp that we had to have everything ready to go at every set, as well as the van, at a moment’s notice. Every console has a full system built into it, so we could move from one to the other with no hiccups. We also did a lot of pre viz using WYSIWYG, especially the 3D version.”
(Photos: Helen Sloan/Getty Images)
„Jazz in Duketown“ mit dBTechnologies Vio L212
Das Jazz-Festival „Jazz in Duketown“ im niederländischen ’s-Hertogenbosch ist mit neun Bühnen und mehr als 175.000 Besuchern das größte Event seiner Art in den Niederlanden.
Wie schon im vergangenen Jahr, nutzte das Festival auch 2019 wieder Systeme von dBTechnologies. So wurde das Full-Size-Line-Array Vio L212 auf der Main-Stage, die auf dem Markt in ’s-Hertogenbosch platziert war, eingesetzt.
Insgesamt kamen als Haupt-Array rechts und links der Bühne je 10x L212-Module plus 2x L210 als Downfill zum Einsatz. Als Front- und Outfills dienten 8x L208-Module, ebenfalls aus der Vio-Familie.
Als Subwoofer verwendete der verantwortliche Eventdienstleister RPSoundtechniek 6x S218 und 12x S118R Subs. Als Sidefills standen 2x Vio X15 und 2x Vio s118R zur Verfügung.
„Ich konnte den FOH-Mix sehr schnell abstimmen“, sagt Daniele Di Giovanni, FOH-Mischer für Marcus Miller während des Konzerts bei „Jazz in Duketown“. Für den Bühnensound der Band um Marcus Miller sorgten 8x TT+25-CXA von RCF als Front-Wedges. Schlagzeuger Alex Bailey nutzte 1x Vio S118R und 1x Vio X 12-Modul als Drum-Monitoring.
(Fotos: Marcus Scheuermann)
Kuchem stattet Motorworld mit Medientechnik aus
Die historischen Räumlichkeiten der Motorworld bieten sowohl einen Rahmen für große Showveranstaltungen und Galas als auch für kleinere Firmenevents und Tagungen. Hinter der Bugatti Lounge, der Pit Lane, der Michael Schumacher Lounge oder dem 4 Takt Hangar Loft stecken Präsentations- und Besprechungsräume für 10 bis 90 Personen.
Kuchem Konferenz Technik stattet als Technik-Partner alle Räume mit professioneller Medientechnik aus. So stehen den Kunden unter anderem mehrere Full-HD-Laser-Phosphor-Projektoren von ViewSonic und Samsung-Smart-Signage-4K-Displays in Größen von 55‘‘ bis 85‘‘ zur Verfügung. Die Displays kommen als Wandmontage oder auf rollbaren Trägersystemen für ein flexibles Raum-Set-Up zum Einsatz.
John Berret chooses Chauvet for Aiken Bluegrass Festival
Lighting designer for this year’s Aiken Bluegrass Festival was John Berret, who chose to use a collection of Chauvet Professional Rogue fixtures, supplied by Quest Sound Productions. With limited height and room for his design, Berret hung six Rogue R2 Spots and two Rogue R1 Beams on upstage truss, as well as ground stacking four Rogue R1 Beams on totems below the truss and four Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures about 3’ in front of the R1 Beams.
Adding the four Rogue R1 FX-B units gave Berret the impact of twenty moving lights, since each fixture has five independently controlled LED heads. Berret had these heads going in different directions at some points, then had them act in unison at others, to reflect the music being performed. Berret used the Rogue Spot and Beam fixtures for color, backlighting and aerial effects. “The goal was to create the feeling of the stage being bigger than it actually was,” he says.
(Photos: Eric Rayburn)
Production AV delivers audio and visuals to Cheltenham Science Festival
For this year’s edition of Cheltenham’s annual Science Festival, Production AV was commissioned to design, supply and operate the screen, projection and sound solutions that formed the foundation of the multiple zones that were created in the specially built Festival Village.
Festival organisers asked Production AV to deliver all aspects of audio/visual for the six-day event. The team oversaw set up and technical checks for all of the zones, including the flagship Cheltenham Town Hall space and adjoining Pillar Room, the Helix, the Crucible and the Cinema zone.
As for the Town Hall, “we opted for a PA system based around D&B Audiotechnik Y-Series speakers, Yamaha QL desks and Sennheiser radio mics,” explains Production AV MD, Pete McCrea. Production AV’s Project Manager Olie Goulding oversaw the event load-in and operated the Town Hall audio.
Production AV also supplied the Town Hall’s main room with a 16’ x 9’ screen with a 10k Barco projector, a Barco switching solution and a camera package based around Agile ARC 360 Lite PTZ cameras and Sony Camcorders.
In the Pillar Room, the team installed a simple control package to interface with the in-house projection system, along with D&B Y-Series and E-Series speakers and a Yamaha TF series mixing desk. Production AV’s crew oversaw all audio aspects for the duration of the festival in the Pillar room, with the festival’s volunteer staff operating the majority of the video systems.
“For the outdoor Cinema zone we specified a Desay M6 6 mm pitch LED screen,” McCrea continues. “This displayed thirteen hours of continuous footage from the moon landings over the festival, as well as lots of other content.” The team also installed multiple flat screens across the site, ranging from 42” to 65”.
Robe moving lights illuminate Vasco Rossi’s stadium shows
For Italian rock singer Vasco Rossi’s latest tour, including six sold out nights at Milan’s San Siro stadium, lighting designer Giovanni Pinna used over 340 Robe moving lights - 152 x MegaPointes, 122 x Spiiders and 72 x LEDBeam 150s.
Video screens/content director and Disguise server operator Marco Piva and Disguise tech Nicolas Di Fonzo worked directly for Giovanni Pinna who also collaborated closely with live camera director Peppe Romano from Except. The initial visual inspiration for this years’ tour design was the 2018 tour - as the artist wanted some continuity in that industrial look with towers and large video surfaces.
To some extent, the design was tailored to the San Siro venue as it hosted the most multiple shows. The central LED screen was flanked by four surfaces, two a side, creating a 97-metre-wide stage - effectively 40 metres wider than the 2018 tour. With the increase in dimensions and the additional video surfaces more lights were needed to keep the balance.
Above the central section of stage was a video ‘header’ which split into four sections that tracked up/down and left/right into different configurations. The riser layout, central runway and walkways below were part of a new stage design by Gioforma.
The roof lighting was completely new, with an 18 x 8 metre grid providing the main over-stage lighting positions - upstage of the 4 x moving LED header pieces - with a 24 metre front truss, plus lighting ‘top pods’ stage left and right tucked in between the side screens.
The LEDBeam 150s were deployed across the riser positions on the decks and along the front lip of the stage in the footlights position. The MegaPointes and Spiiders were scattered all over the rig - on the main grid, in the side pods and along the back wall, which featured scenic mesh banners and had the whole surface area outlined in square and rectangular shapes utilising LED strips. Twenty-four of the MegaPointes and twelve of the Spiiders were working in conjunction with a BlackTrax remote follow system, highlighting the guitarists and bass player.
In addition to the Robe fixtures on the rig, Pinna had around 350 other lights, all supplied by rental company BOTW. Lighting crew chief was Fabrizio Moggio, with whom Pinna’s worked on previous Vasco shows and a diversity of other projects.
ER Productions supplied lasers to Pinna’s spec, including LazerBlades and BB3s, all controlled by Pinna’s GrandMA2 full size console, plus five 15 W units run separately by Harry Boyde using one of ER’s Pangolin Beyond systems.
This year they canned the confetti, CO2 blasts and flame jets and instead opted for two pyro moments. The first was at the end of ‘Rewind’ when a 125 metre wide gerb fountain ignited along the back wall of the stadium - and then a firework finale during the last number ‘Albachiara’ brought the show to a close.
Vasco Rossi’s core creative team also included FOH sound engineer Andrea Coresellini, who together with Giovanni Pinna and Marco Piva has worked with the artist for over ten years.
(Photos: Louise Stickland)
Fedez on tour with Claypaky fixtures
Lighting Designer Jacopo Ricci made his contribution to staging Fedez's show by selecting a lighting system consisting of 52 Mythos 2 units and twenty Claypaky B-Eye K20s, all supplied by Mister X service based in Grumello Cremonese.
“With the Mythos 2 units, I could go from beam light to spotlight depending on the needs during the individual parts of the show, and I could program the fixtures differently during the show while exploiting the same installation points,” Ricci explains. “I don't normally use beam lights very much, but in this case, the ability to switch to beam mode was really important.”
The three front and two side trusses were all fitted with Mythos units, which Ricci says he “used 90% as pure effects”, including to drill through the semi-transparent cube of LED walls which opened up for the purpose. “I normally use a lot of gobo and animation wheel effects. I also used CMY variations and colour changes a lot. There are quick changes during each song, which I used as true effects.
“The Mythos units, however, also performed as spotlights during the more theatrical and less complex moments of the show.” The Claypaky B-Eye K20s were mainly used for visual effects on the front truss.
Rock musical “Murder Ballad” features Chauvet Professional Rogue fixtures
In a recent production of the Julia Jordan and Juliana Nash rock musical “Murder Ballad” at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, lighting designer Clifford Michael Spulock captured the apprehension of characters caught in a world turned upside down. Helping him evoke this feeling were Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 Spot fixtures.
“The show is really charged with emotion as it moves through the breaking and splintering of relationships,” says Spulock. “I wanted to portray this feeling as literally as I could, not just with color, but also by breaking up the light with gobos, which I felt would really convey a sense of the characters’ fragmented world.”
During the play, which took place at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts’ cabaret style Abdo New River Room, the actors sometimes moved through the audience. “Since this show was actually done cabaret style, the audience sat at small tables instead of normal theatre seating, and the actors often interacted with them,” says Spulock.
“I positioned four of the Rogue Spots on FOH truss, two house left and two house right. An additional two Rogues were on the apron truss, and the final two were on the upstage truss, along with four Colorado 1-Quad Zoom Tours.”
Emily’s List gala illuminated by Chauvet
Designer Elizabeth Coco lit the “We Are Emily Conference and Gala” for Emily’s List on April 4, 2019. Held at the Marriott Marquis, just blocks from the White House, the event reaffirmed the accomplishment of women in politics and focused on important issues of the day. Coco used a collection of 72 Chauvet DJ Freedom Par Quad-4 fixtures.
“We set them up all around the room,” says Coco. “Being able to get this level of coverage without having to cable all those fixtures was critical to us getting the job done on time.” The RGBA fixtures were controlled remotely.
Accounting for almost half the fixtures in Coco’s rig, the Freedom Par fixtures were positioned across the venue, uplighting the area behind the stage as well as the side walls. During speeches when most of the overhead lights were dimmed, the Freedom Pars helped make the area behind the stage and around the large IMAG video walls stand out.
Jason Bullock runs Wiz Khalifa’s Coachella show with ChamSys
Wiz Khalifa’s performance at this year’s Coachella festival was lit by the rapper’s longtime lighting designer Jason Bullock, using a ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 desk, supplied by Upstaging, to run the 90-universe show.
“The Sahara Tent at Coachella was primarily EDM acts,” Bullock explains. “Since Wiz brought the entire band with him, I decided to make the show completely different than the other acts by going in the direction of a more classical rock show. Our set, which was designed by the team from Nimblist, made it easier to create this kind of look with its band risers and large center gate. We also had a powerful video display from Screenworks NEP that covered the front of the set.”
Bullock controlled a universe of Catalyst to send multiple outputs to the video surfaces on the set. “My whole show was punted,” says Bullock, who ran all the FX, video and lighting. “Even right up until showtime at Coachella there were still alterations to the set list.
Robe fixtures used for Dzem’s anniversary show in Katowice
Polish blues rock band Dzem celebrated their 40th anniversary with a special show at the Spodek Arena in Katowice. The lighting was designed by Michal Parzych from design collective Green Beam Design (GBD) who has been involved in all Dzem’s special events for around the last ten years, and on this one he again worked in collaboration with the band’s regular LD, Marek Gubala.
Together, they specified 131 x Robe fixtures - 30 x MegaPointes, 56 x Spikies and 45 x LEDBeam 800s, all of which were delivered by Polish rental company Transcolor. Green Beam Design’s founder Jacek Chojczak explains that the starting point for the lighting was a request from Dzem’s management to have a large upstage LED screen, and apart from that, they left Michal Parzych and the GBD team to produce a solution for presenting the band and their special guests for this event. GBD also created the show’s video design and co-ordinated the visuals.
Parzych designed the staging and set, with lighting rigged on a series of overhead and side trusses with some on the floor. Ten MegaPointes were distributed on each of the three main LX trusses 1, 2 and 3. The Spikies were on four upstage side towers and the LEDWash 800s were rigged on the large ‘crown’ circular house trusses in the roof of the Spodek Arena and used primarily for audience illumination. The show was also recorded for DVD/future streaming.
In addition to the Robe products, they utilised approximately 100 other lights of various types, all of which were controlled by a GrandMA2 console, with another one running content from the Disguise media server handling all the video playback. The rear video wall was 15 metres wide by 6 metres high, 3.9 mm HD pitch.
The 40th anniversary playback video content was created by Piotr Maruszak from Red Square, and the Disguise was operated by Karol Nowakowski. There were two IMAG screens showing camera feeds directed by Jerzy Charuzawas and vision mixed by GBD’s Tomasz Szwelicki. Transcolors’s crew chief for the event was Jarek Wasasnik and sound was supplied by Target Sound.
(Photos: Oskar Kutryb CutRB/GDB)
ETC setzt India Fashion Week in Szene
ColorSource Spot Pearls von ETC beleuchteten die diesjährige Lotus Make-Up India Fashion Week in Indiens Hauptstadt Delhi. Die ortsansässige Rental-Company Modern Stage Services Pvt. Ltd. war mit der Audio-, Video- und Lichtproduktion der viertägigen Veranstaltung betraut.
„In diesem Jahr haben wir erstmals zwölf ETC-ColorSource-Spot-Pearl-Scheinwerfer verwendet“, so Geschäftsführer Davinder Wadhwa. „Mit dem variablen Weißlicht-LED-Array konnten wir die Farbtemperatur zwischen 2.700 K und 6.500 K einstellen.“ Als Lichtdesigner fungierte Viraf Pocha.
Hoodie Allen auf Tour mit Impression X4 Bar 20 und JDC1 von GLP
Lichtdesigner Hayden Borgars hat sich mit dem amerikanischen Rapper Hoodie Allen (aka Steven Markowitz) für eine UK/Europa-Tournee zusammengetan, die von der 700 Leute fassenden Garage Glasgow bis hin zum Shepherds Bush Empire mit 2.000 Plätzen reichte. Mit auf Tour waren GLP Impression X4 Bar 20 und JDC1-Hybrid-Strobes, die von der Rental-Firma Siyan geliefert wurden.
Angesichts der verschiedenen Spielstättten stellte Borgars ein skalierbares Scheinwerfer-Paket für den Einsatz auf dem Bühnenboden zusammen. Der LD programmierte die Geräte in Mode 3 (68 DMX-Kanäle) mit Pixel-Chasern, Blindern und Beam-Effekten. Daneben nutzte er die JDC1 auch als Washlights. Er platzierte sie links und rechts am Bühnenrand, auf beiden Seiten des Drumkits und auf Risern. Die Impression X4 Bar 20 fanden ihren Platz ebenfalls auf dem Boden im hinteren Teil der Bühne.
(Fotos: Jordan Knight)
EDC’s NeonGarden illuminated by Chauvet
For the NeonGarden stage at the 2019 Electric Daisy Carnival festival in Las Vegas, lighting designer Steve Lieberman and assistant lighting designer Max Robin included 48 Chauvet Professional Strike Saber fixtures in their rig.
Supplied by Aspect Lighting, the batten-style fixtures were positioned around a “window” created in the middle of a 125’ wide by 30’ tall 25 mm mesh video screen that covered the entire front of the NeonGarden stage.
“The video screen was the big feature of our design this year,” says Lieberman. “Because of the style of music and the community that enjoys NeonGarden, there was a VIP section right at the stage. We relied on the video screen to create a setting where the crowd wouldn’t have to see the people around the DJ, and at the same time, the crowd by the stage could see through the mesh and the large horizontal window that we cut through the screen.”
Bordering the top and bottom of the video screen’s window, the Strike Sabers served as blinders, adding an extra visual dimension to the wall for the NeonGarden crowd. “Our LD Alex Ares used the individual pixel control of these fixtures to create a lot of looks,” Lieberman explains. “He ran the Sabers warm white and amber, and basically used every feature they offered to change things up throughout the three days of the festival.”
(Photos: Tyler Hill for Insomniac)
PCIM Europe vermeldet erneut Rekordergebnis
Mit 12.182 Besuchern und 515 Ausstellern verzeichnete die PCIM Europe, die vom 7. bis 9. Mai 2019 in Nürnberg stattfand, erneut ein Rekordergebnis. Im Konferenzbereich bewegten sich die Zahlen mit 804 internationalen Teilnehmern auf dem Vorjahresniveau bei einer leichten Aufwärtstendenz.
Mehr als die Hälfte (54 %) der ausstellenden Unternehmen kamen in diesem Jahr aus dem Ausland. Der Anteil der US-amerikanischen Firmen lag bei 14 %, des Weiteren waren China, Italien, Großbritannien, Frankreich und Japan stark vertreten.
Die internationalen Fachbesucher (insgesamt 46 %) kamen vorrangig aus dem deutschsprachigen Ausland sowie aus Italien, Großbritannien, Frankreich und den USA, wobei der Anteil der Entscheidungsträger bei 79 % lag.
Im Rahmen der anwendungsorientierten Konferenz wurden 2019 in insgesamt 333 Vorträgen und Posterpräsentationen neue Themen aus Forschung und Industrie erstmals der Öffentlichkeit vorgestellt. 56 % der Teilnehmer kamen hierbei aus dem Ausland, wobei Japan mit 15 % das am stärksten vertretene Herkunftsland war. Mit 13 % bzw. 10 % rangierten Frankreich und die USA auf den nächsten Plätzen. Mit Abstand am meisten Zuspruch erfuhr der Themenkomplex Leistungshalbleiter, Komponenten und Module.
Die nächste PCIM Europe findet vom 5. bis 7. Mai 2020 in Nürnberg statt.
Robe moving light rig for Carnival Queen gala event
This year’s Carnaval de Santa Cruz de Tenerife featured an all Robe moving light rig of around 170 fixtures for the gala event to choose 2019’s Carnival Queen. The Queen contest is one of the carnival’s biggest events, staged in the Recinto Ferial de Santa Cruz de Tenerife in front of a 12,000 audience the day before the street celebrations commence. It’s also broadcast live on regional and national television. This year it was lit by Juanjo Beloqui.
The Queen’s Gala stage was 80 metres wide by 28 metres deep. Juanjo Beloqui worked with set designer Javier Caraballero for the third year, and one of the starting points for lighting was the width of the stage. Other technical challenges included the venue’s flying capacities which were restricted, so Beloqui created a big back wall to support both the set and to provide rear lighting positions.
This meant he only had two trusses in the roof - a 60-metre-wide front truss and a 40-metre-wide mid truss which was split into three sections, with the centre run on vari-speed motors so it moved in and out. Due to the weight loadings, each rigging point needed a 4-way bridle to spread the load.
The lighting equipment was supplied by rental company Sonopluss Canarias which has a large stock of Robe, supplied via Spanish distributor EES, and has made steady investments in the brand over recent years. The total Robe count amounted to 54 x Pointes, 33 x LEDBeam 150s, 32 x MegaPointes, 32 x LEDWash 300s, 26 x BMFL Spots, 24 x BMFL WashBeams and 24 x LEDWash 1200s.
On the front truss, BMFL Spots were used for key lighting and also for lighting and texturing the set with gobos, while the LED Wash 1200s covered the stage and large areas of set with solid colours. The mid truss was loaded with Pointes, MegaPointes BMFL Spots and LEDWash 300s which were used for assorted beamwork and supporting the washes on the front truss.
The top layer of lighting along the back wall comprised BMFL WashBeams, MegaPointes, Tarrantulas and LEDWash 300s, together with more Pointes and MegaPointes that were embedded in the set.
LEDBeam 150s provided side and cross lighting and were also ensconced in parts of the set, and at floor level were more Pointes and LEDWash 300s. The main ambient lighting instruments were the Tarrantulas which created effects on the stage, augmented with the BMFL WashBeams.
During the Queen’s Parade section of the show, two of the top-of-the-set BMFL WashBeams were used as rear follow spots, operated manually to back light the contestants, and all the critical upstage lighting positions were also covered with Pointes and MegaPointes. Juanjo Beloqui used the LEDBeam 150s as side lights. For the Carnival Queen Gala, the set included seven different LED screens with a mix of 4-mm and 8-mm resolution surfaces.
The lighting design assistant and second operator for all the Queen contests was Juanjo Bleoqui Lopez (Juanjo’s son). The video operator was Antonio Diaz from MiMart Studio. The lighting and video crew chiefs were Fabio Higuera and Hugo Casola respectively.
(Photos: Sonopluss Canariases)
Adlib supplies technical production to “Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Musical!”
Adlib is supplying full technical production - sound, lighting, video and rigging with over 100 points - to the ongoing 2019 arena tour by Brendan O’Carroll and his “Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Musical!” show.
Hassane es Siahi is the FOH engineer, the Adlib systems engineer is Alan Harrison, Steph Fleming is the monitor engineer and Shona Steadman is looking after mics and RF. Lighting has been designed by Mike Summerfield. Fiona Gibney and Gareth Woods are the producers.
A Coda system was chosen to deliver sound for the tour. The cast members all use a variety of DPA headset mics. The stage design includes a thrust, so a key for this system design was to have multiple smaller speaker arrays around the rooms, including left-centre-right delays halfway down.
The two main PA hangs were smaller than normal - with (max) 12 x Coda AiRay a side, flown slightly further downstage than the standard positioning. The subs were 12 x Coda SCPs, positioned six a side on the floor.
The side hangs were kept as discreet as possible - both for acoustics and sightlines - these comprised of up to 8 x AiRays, with four ViRay downs depending on the venue. A flown centre cluster of six ViRay covered the first rows of audience.
Coda APS (array point source) speakers were attached - via special brackets - to the lighting trusses just above the corners of the thrust. These, coupled with more HOPS on brackets on the stage, allowed the focus of the audience in the first rows to be drawn directly towards the actors.
The delays comprised 8 x ViRays each on the left and right, with eight of the 5-inch TiRays in the centre. All of the flown speakers and those attached to the trusses were powered by 18 amplifiers - 9 a side - and with TiRays, APS’ and HOPS’ being run passive/1 amp channel each and the AiRay and ViRay bi-amped, so 2 channels.
Onstage the cast use side-fills for monitoring rather than IEMs. These were an array of 3 flown HOPS each side working in conjunction with two more HOPS on the upstage rail of the front lighting truss, pointing down. The front monitors were also HOPS attached to the front of the thrust via more custom brackets, and slightly angled up.
The consoles were both DiGiCo’s - an SD10 for Hassane es Siahi at FOH, Steph Fleming used an SD12 for monitors, and Shona Steadman utilised a DiGiCo S21 to monitor the RF channels. The cast sing live to playback with the tracks stored on a fully redundant 16-channel QLab system. A DiGiCo Optocore network was used to connect and deal with all the track signal routing from the QLab, the FOH and monitor consoles and racks.
The QLab rack was built by Adlib and sat at FOH, with lighting for the musical numbers (not the spoken word parts of the set) timecoded. The tracks were triggered by Mike Summerfield at FOH, upon which the QLab sent timecode into his consoles.
Lighting and video were project managed from base by Jordan Willis who already worked as a lighting tech on the last tour in 2017. Adlib’s lighting technicians for the tour were Charlie Rushton, Andy Rowe, Stuart Wood, Ben Caunt James Bailie and Matt Brown. Mark Taylor, Matt Hopwood and Darragh Smith were the LED technicians/camera operators with Iain Christie as racks engineer.
Adlib supplied two large IMAG screens each 7.5 metres wide by 4 metres high made up from their Unilumin UPADIIIH5 5.9 mm product, together with a 5-metre-wide by 3-metre-high delay screen of the same surface plus and a four-way camera/PPU package.
The cameras, all Sony HXC-100s, were deployed two at FOH (with the new Canon UJ90 broadcast lenses) and two on stands in the stage wings in line with the edge of the set which were fitted with HD40 lenses. Cameras were directed by Eric O’Carroll (Brendan’s son) who cut the mix using a Panasonic HS410 switcher.
Adlib also supplied some 55-inch monitors for the show relay, placed in various backstage areas. Mike Summerfield sent in his lighting plot to Jordan Willis and the team at Adlib’s new HQ in Knowsley, Merseyside, built the rig to his spec.
The lighting design was a re-work of the 2017 tour with lots of extras. The fixture count jumped up from 32 x Martin MAC Viper Washes and 10 Viper Profiles to 38 x Viper Washes and 24 x Profiles. For the extra effects lighting Mike Summerfield added 14 x Claypaky Stormy LED strobes and 10 Chauvet Strike 4 LED blinders, plus two 32” mirror-balls on rotators and 19 large white lampshades.
Over stage were three LX trusses - the front at 20 metres, the mid and back at 15 metres and two 10-metre-long side (wing) trusses - with a 15-metre advanced truss slightly out into the audience, all made up from Prolyte sections. The moving lights were divided between all the trusses.
The Claypaky Stormies were dotted around the advance, front and side trusses, together with the Strike 4s which were on the advanced truss. They also utilised a 3-way Robe RoboSpot system, with three BMFL WashBeams on the front truss picking up the principals, which were remotely operated via three separate BaseStations located in dimmer world.
Two 32-inch mirror balls - each flown on its own small truss - were positioned stage left and right. Far upstage was a 15-metre-wide LED starcloth, and immediately in front of this Adlib provided the motors, trussing and rigging for four custom neon-style LED scenic signs which were commissioned and sourced by production.
Adlib created a rigging solution for the special pendant lights which were fitted with domestic bulbs and scenic lamp shades and suspended on variable length mini-steels - 5 from each of the two side trusses, and 15 - all at the same length - off the advance truss.
LED tape around the lamps was controlled via the lighting console. Mike Summerfield operated the show via his Road Hog Full Boar and, as mentioned above, also triggered the QLab machine running the music tracks with an Akai MPD218 which sent timecode to his console.
(Photos: Steve Sroka)
Chauvet fixtures chosen for Antonello Venditti’s Zurich concerts
For two sold-out shows by Antonello Venditti at the Volkshaus in Zurich, Switzerland, lighting designer Massimo Tomasino selected Chauvet Professional Maverick fixtures, supplied by Fumasoli Audio & Lights Rental.
Tomasino used fourteen Maverick MK2 Spots and twelve MK2 Wash units in his floor package. He arranged six of the spot fixtures across the downstage deck and positioned the remaining units on midstage and upstage risers.
Supported by the Fumasoli crew, which included technical leader Federico Seguri, as well as electricians Diego Gasbarre and Patrick Ivarone, Tomasino relied on the rig’s fixtures to perform a variety of functions.
Throughout the concert, he used them to create aerial and crossing patterns of light over the stage. At other times, colored light from the Maverick MK2 Spot was shot straight in the air, creating a wall of light.
The spot fixtures were used for audience light. The spot units also worked in tandem with the Maverick MK2 Wash fixtures, which were hung on downstage and midstage truss. “We made a show with only lights,” states Tomasino. “No video, lasers or other special effects were used.
Robe supports lighting schemes during elections in Israel
Robe moving lights were present during this year’s Israeli general elections and specifically during broadcasts from the country’s main news station, Channel 12, which built a special pop-up studio in front of Israel’s Parliament building, the Knesset, which was live for a week.
Lighting designer Ofer Jacobi was asked by Channel 12 to design a lighting scheme for the studio and Danor Theatre & Studio Systems was appointed as the rental supplier. Jacobi works regularly for Danor and is involved in many Channel 12 productions and Danor’s Erez Hadar is a lighting consultant for the Channel 12 news unit and owners Keshet Media, who turned to the company to deliver the lighting solution for this application.
The show’s creative team sent Jacobi 3D plans of the studio together with a list of lighting requirements, and he came back with a kit list that included 24 x Robe MegaPointes, 18 x LEDWash 1200s, 12 x Spiider LED wash beams, eight LEDBeam 150s and six Pointes.
The MegaPointes were used at the rear of the studios to create beam effects along the front drive of the Knesset. The LEDWash 1200s bathed the Knesset building’s monolithic fascia in light, illuminating it in what became the signature back-of-shot look for all of Channel 12’s reporting throughout the 2019 election.
The Spiiders were used to wash the outdoor area in front of the building, and the expanse of ground in between it and the pop-up studio, while the LEDBeam 150s were used to create colourful backgrounds for the numerous interviews taking place in the studio. The Pointes were located on the roof of the Knesset, scanning and beaming around all over the area.
Other lighting in the studio included some PARs, profiles and other generics together with LED panels. Lighting control was via a CompuLite Ultra Violet console operated by Ronen Ben-Harosh and the lighting crew chief on site was Shalom Efraim. The studio was designed by Avi Fahima and Maia Hanoch from Studio Forma and constructed by Irgunit.
(Photos: Yochai Tamir/Channel 12)
Hong Kong Science Museum verwendet AV Stumpfl Pixera
Eine Ausstellung des Hong-Kong-Science-Museums verwendete bei der Darstellung einer historisch relevanten Karte der Seidenstraße in Form einer überlappenden Projektion AV-Stumpfl-Pixera-Two-Medienserver. Die vom 7. Dezember 2018 bis 20. Februar 2019 präsentierte Installation wurde von Cosmo Pro AV konzipiert und zudem technisch ausgestattet und integriert.
Im Rahmen der Ausstellung ließ das Museum eine 32 m x 3 m große Edgeblending-Projektion umsetzen, die es Besuchern erlaubte, die Übersichtskarte der Seidenstraße als digitales und animiertes Exponat zu erleben.
Cosmo Pro AV spezifizierte zwei der neuen AV-Stumpfl-Pixera-Two-Medienserver mit jeweils vier Outputs und der entsprechenden Software für das Edgeblending und die Showcontrol-Aspekte des Projektes. Das Gesamtsystem wurde so aufgesetzt, dass acht Vivitek-DU7090Z-Laserprojektoren ferngesteuert werden konnten.
“AV-Stumpfl-Medienserversoftware wurde für dieses Projekt gewählt, da sie auch flexibel Touch und Avio integrieren konnte, welche die Audiolevelanpassungen sowie das vorher terminierte An- und Ausschalten der Installation, der Projektoren und auch den Statusreport steuerte”, so Cosmo Pro AVs Jason Yeung.
Die acht Laserprojektoren wurden gegenüber der 32 m langen Projektionsfläche eingesetzt, wobei das Cosmo-Pro-AV-Team nach der einmal erfolgten Installation nur noch bedingt Zugriff auf die Projektoren hatte. Aus diesem Grund mussten die Projektoren zu 100 % über Netzwerk und Avio ferngesteuert und getriggert werden, da kein externes IR-Signal die Installationsumgebung erreichen konnte.
Da es sich bei dem Projekt um keine permanente Festinstallation handelte, musste das Team einige Male das sich mit der Zeit leicht verschiebende Projektionsbild anpassen. “Indem wir ein drahtloses Netzwerk zwischen den Pixera-Servern errichteten, konnten unsere Programmierer auf das Edgeblending zugreifen und Anpassungen vornehmen”, erklärt Yeung.
ChamSys console used for Woman’s Hour’s farewell show
Woman’s Hour performed a farewell concert at London’s The Dome in Tufnell Park on Friday March 22, 2019. Creating an ethereal vibe for the concert was a production concept that drew on simple, but impactful imagery, while it played with negative space. Created by David Howard, and based entirely on lighting, this design was controlled by a ChamSys MagicQ MQ80 console.
Forming the foundation of the band’s entire stage aesthetic was an illuminated structure of a house which provided the band and dancers on stage with a performance environment and also served as a symbol of Woman’s Hour “coming home” for one final show.
The aim of the illuminated house was to provide a softly-lit space that the dancers and band could interact with, perform inside and use to show contrast and progression over the course of the show. Utilizing The Dome’s in-house Chauvet Professional Strike 1, as well as Rogue R2 Wash fixtures, Howard juxtaposed diffused white illumination from the structure against color through heavy doses of haze.
“The space inside the house appeared to glow,” says Howard. “It had to contrast starkly with the void of negative space outside, making it impactful when the dancers entered and exited for select songs. This evoked a variety of emotional states, especially when we complemented it with balanced sidelighting from the R2s.”
Having performed at the venue on a previous tour, Howard was able to take a show file containing the in-house venue rig as a starting point for the foundation of his design. Using his ChamSys MagicQ MQ80 console, he adapted his design to the existing in-house lighting rig within the venue.
Howard used the ChamSys PreVis software to program and design his rig in the days before entering the venue. “The show was designed and pitched in Wysiwyg and pre-programmed using ChamSys MagicVis,” he says.
Project Mayhem lit by Chauvet
For the latest edition of New England’s Project Mayhem - a one-day (and night) long celebration of EDM music and culture - a lighting and visual display was created with Chauvet Professional fixtures, supplied by JDI Productions.
Lighting designer Freddy Thompson added to the Strand Ballroom & Theatre’s house rig for the event by bringing in a floor package that included six Maverick MK1 Spot and eight Maverick MK Pyxis fixtures.
Thompson positioned his Maverick MK1 Spot fixtures on 5’ towers located on either side of the stage. The Maverick MK Pyxis units were hung from a 7’ pipe that spanned the distance between the two towers. When they weren’t crisscrossing the stage with patterns of colors, the 350 W LED Spot units were used as audience lights. Thompson also placed two Vesuvio II units downstage to create a curtain of haze to highlight the gobo and prism effects of the Maverick Spots.
Working hand in hand with Thompson’s lightshow was video content created by Mark Keupker of JDI Productions. Flying 77 Chauvet Professional PVP S7 LED panels behind the DJs, with 11 other panels mounted on uprights in front of the DJ booth, Keupker created a panorama that complemented the pixel-mapped lighting fixtures.
‘Djembe! The Show’ makes U.S. debut beneath all Elation lighting rig
‘Djembe! The Show’ is a theatrical concert experience that mixes traditional West African beats with modern takes on contemporary music. It has toured Europe and made its limited U.S. debut at the Apollo Theater in Chicago with lighting design by Zach Blane, who used an all Elation LED lighting rig. Support was provided by Elation dealer ILC.
The Apollo Theater features a three-quarter thrust stage with the audience on three sides. The lighting rig included ellipsoidals, moving heads, Pars and battens with the mid-air projection canopy coming from Antari F-4 Fazers. Blane says that haze, and the “air lighting” it makes possible, played a very important role in the piece. “Because the audience wraps the stage, everyone had a different experience of the show depending on where they were sitting,” the designer explains.
“There were many hanging fixtures, encased in hemp baskets, like ones you would find in a small village in West Africa, throughout the space, that hung over the audience, with full LED/pixel map control that aided in the ‘air visual’ to keep it all one cohesive image.”
Placed strategically throughout the space were 15 Artiste DaVinci LED moving heads, which operated as concert lights as well as face light for the three sections of audience. Over the stage were 6 Fuze Wash Z350 single source Par moving heads outfitted with snoot attachments. “These gave bright color punching backlight for the band and performers,” Blane says.
Providing a full-color gobo option from all four corners of the space were 20 Colour 5 Profile LED ellipsoidal spots, which the designer says he used for filling in shadows and giving a soft texture throughout the stage and the air. Used to light a backdrop from above were 6 SixPar 300 Par lights while 6 Seven Batten 72 battens lit the backdrop from below.
The designer used Platinum Spot III moving heads, vertically, at the proscenium line to create what he calls a “false proscenium of lighting” to help focus the viewer and keep eyes on what is to be revealed. “These also functioned as ‘hype lights’ as they did effects onto the audience to make them feel a part of the show and pumped up,” he says. Finally, 6 ACL 360i single beam moving heads on the bandstands operated as uplights from the back, shooting past the performers.
Zach Blane thanks John Dunn and Jean Lariviere (Elation), Grant Simmon (ILC), Nykol Dedreu, Lane Marsh, Margaret Hartmann, and Daniel Friedman (Djembe) “for their help in making this rig a reality.”
(Photos: Liz Lauren)
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