S+H Technical supplied around 350 square metres of its LED Animation cloth and 450 square metres of standard RGB starcloth drape for the BBC’s 2018 Children in Need telethon, broadcast live on BBC One and BBC Two from Elstree’s Studio D. The star-studded line-up included a diversity of artists, some exciting special performances and cool collaborations. The whole event raised over £50 million pounds for the 2018 Appeal in what was the crescendo of this year’s fundraising activities for disadvantaged children and young people in communities across the UK. The telethon production design was created by Alex Craig – working…
Author: James Robertson
Lighting designer Pablo Gutierrez utilized 52 of Robe’s Pointe multi-functional moving lights at the core of his lighting design for the launch of Mexican singer Fey’s new Desnuda (Nude) tour. As well as being spectacular, the design had to be scalable for an arena tour which follows in 2019 and for potential festival appearances. Gutierrez was recommended independently by three different people for the job of designing Desnuda. He is known for his fresh approach to lighting design and his imagination and flair in harmonizing the disciplines of lighting, video and set. For the Arena Ciudad de México gig, audio, lighting, staging…
Meyer Sound has announced significant upgrades of its MAPP XT system design tool and Compass control software, including greater integration between the two platforms along with new, streamlined workflows and inclusion of data sets for new products. The new release of MAPP XT (1.2.2) now offers users the ability to perform copy and paste operations within the sound field, a feature that speeds up the design process. Other important additions include design data sets for the new USW-210P subwoofer and Acheron loudspeakers with woven screens. Predictive capability is now available for ground-stacked configurations for LEOPARD line array loudspeakers with companion…
Front of House engineer Jon Schumann used DPA microphones for MØ’s latest tour because the transient response and character of DPA’s products helps him blend the live sources into a heavily processed electronic soundscape with ease and confidence. “DPA mics have always been a benchmark for a lot of my studio work and when I had the opportunity to take a larger pack out on the road, I was amazed at just how well the DPA sound also translated to live duties,” he explained. “Doing FOH is a different beast to capturing a performance in a great sounding studio where you…
As a leading lighting supplier to West End and UK touring theatre, White Light once again supplied to a range of pantomimes this Christmas. Pantomimes are many venue’s biggest production of the year, with these classic childhood stories often starring household names. An all-time favourite is Aladdin and, this year, White Light is supplying several versions of the show, including one at Hackney Empire which is lit by David Howe. Howe commented: “Hackney Empire’s Aladdin evolved a lot in the rehearsal process, with a lot new music being written specifically for this production. My brief, as ever, was to enhance…
The high point of Pope Francis’ three-day, early autumn visit to Lithuania was an open-air Holy Mass celebrated for more than 100,000 of the faithful at Sàntakos Park in the city of Kaunas. For flawless audio reinforcement of the momentous event, Lithuanian rental company NGR Service deployed a massive 228-loudspeaker Meyer Sound system anchored by LEO Family line arrays. “The biggest challenges we faced were the overall size and irregular contours of the audience area,” said Valdemaras Karpuška, a partner in NGR Service who also served as location manager and live broadcast sound engineer. “The area we had to cover was around…
Adlib was back on the road with pop rockers 5 Seconds of Summer supplying a CODA sound system, monitors and a top Adlib crew to work alongside the band’s engineers Phil Gornell (FOH) and Pavan Grewall (monitors). Richy Nicholson project managed for Adlib, Sam Proctor was the systems engineer on the road and he worked alongside Marc Peers – another talented Adlib engineer – who co-ordinated all things in monitor world. Gornell and Adlib have worked together before on several previous tours including All Time Low and Bring Me The Horizon; the Liverpool based company has been his preferred equipment…
The President and CEO of Groupe Solotech, Martin Tremblay has announced the appointment of Mr. Daniel Méjean as Vice-President, Strategic Sourcing. In this new position under the direction of Nicolas Lavoie, Chief Financial Officer, Méjean will actively contribute to the performance of the rapidly growing Sourcing Department as a key player in strategic planning, as well as long & short-term alliance building with our suppliers and partner. Méjean holds an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) conjoint degree from the Université Paris-Dauphine and the Université du Québec à Montréal. He has over twenty years of experience in strategic sourcing management…
Pearce Hire recently collaborated with corporate production specialists Hawk Audio Visual providing a circus-themed entertainment and dining space for over 1,000 company staff and stakeholders at the BGL Awards Ball held at Manchester Central. BGL Group is a financial services company based in Peterborough and the biennial event which celebrates and rewards staff achievements, was also part of the company’s 25th-anniversary celebrations. Pearce Hire’s project manager John Huson provided some insight into the support and co-operation between Hawk and Pearce Hire: “Hawk Audio Visual has been a client of Pearce Hire for over 20 years and during that time we’ve…
Niclen a German dry hire provider, invests in lights and lighting technology from Cameo Light. In doing so, the Dortmund-based company is expanding its extensive rental park to include the innovative lighting solutions of the Adam Hall Group brand for the first time. Spotlights from the Zenit series will soon provide NicLen’s international customers with compact, robust and powerful products for indoor and outdoor events. NicLen’s investment in Cameo Light includes over 1,000 Zenit W600 outdoor wash lights, Zenit P130 PAR spotlights, Zenit B60 battery-powered spotlights with W-DMX, and chrome Zenit B60 Cs with a redesigned bracket and iDMX CORE…
Former Marillion singer and front man Fish chose Allen & Heath’s SQ-6 on his current solo tour for FOH and monitor duties. Despite leaving Marillion in 1988 to pursue his solo career, the Scottish singer and actor is widely known for his charismatic stage presence and his latest, extensive tour across Europe and the UK debuts his new solo album “Weltschmerz”. Sound engineer for Fish, Steven Kent, uses the SQ-6 at FOH and an AR2412 and AR84 AudioRack on stage. The SQ-6 also houses a Waves Card for low latency external processing using Waves SoundGrid. “The main challenge of the…
Following the success of OCUBO’s Lisbon Under Stars immersive spectacle, the creative studio has returned to produce another ambitious project – the LUMINA Light Festival. Held annually in the Portuguese coastal town of Cascais, the LUMINA Light Festival is an international event, showcasing light art, video-mapping, multimedia and interactive projects, in both urban and natural environments. CEO, artistic director & co-founder of OCUBO, Nuno Maya, explained: “Targeting the general public, LUMINA is a free, open and plural event, created for a wide audience and to be enjoyed by every member of the family, taking them on a sensory journey full of…
Working with Production Company Attention Seekers, LED Creative provided a selection of products from their exclusive Sigma LED range to help build the clean, modern look created for the semi-final of the McLaren Shadow Project. Staged at the prestigious McLaren Technology Centre and streamed live via the project’s YouTube Channel, the event is a highly contested battle for a place on the McLaren E-Sports Team. Having been whittled down from over half a million applicants, the final eight ‘virtual drivers’ were tested over a series of racing challenges, competing at legendary tracks in iconic McLaren machinery. The custom built McLaren…
Diwali is the Hindu, Sikh, and Jain festival of lights, which symbolizes victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. The 2018 Diwali was celebrated with a huge event in the heart of London with music, dance, workshops, foods, crafts, and, of course, plenty of lights from SGM Light. “The brief was to create something that was both visual and memorable. We mainly chose SGM fixtures because of outdoor usage, and Ethix has a very long relationship with SGM and their products, and an excellent record of support. The high IP classification in SGM’s products is…
Phoenix is an indie pop band from France that has enjoyed a long period of success and a string of popular albums since the first one came out in 2000. The band’s latest Album, Ti Amo, was released last year and has been the focus of their most recent world tour. Experienced Front of House Engineer Matt West (Motorhead, Snoop Dogg, The Cure, Eminem) specified a Solid State Logic L500 live digital console. While West has extensive experience on digital consoles, he said he has mostly used them for ergonomic reasons, rather than sound: “I’m an analogue engineer and I…
Ales Pirman who runs lighting rental company – Intralite – in Slovenia, recently put on the Castle – Kolpa Music Festival, with over 100 Robe moving lights gracing the main stage. This included Intralite’s newest Robe purchase, 20 MegaPointes, which joined the inventory earlier this year. Naturally Intralite supplied the full technical production package, and being a leading rental company, it was an ideal opportunity to show off their creative and technical capabilities. LD Klemen Krajnc was asked to create a production lighting design that would work for all artists. The performance action took place over two stages – the…
This year’s MTV EMA Awards was held at Bilbao’s Bizkaia Arena and hosted by American actress and singer Hailee Steinfeld. For the past two decades, Sennheiser has provided unwavering support to its audio supplier Britannia Row Productions and their partnership delivered perfect results. “The show included 11 acts, including three bands and three multi artist collaborations,” said Colin Pink who lead the audio team. “The presenters and winners all used Sennheiser Digital 9000 Series handhelds, chosen for their great clarity and extraordinary lack of handling noise. As for the music, the line-up this year was very radio heavy and Sennheiser’s…
High End Systems has announced the latest upgrade to their popular HOG 4 lighting console range, OS v3.10. The new release offers several new features and enhancements, including Virtual Wings, Playback Bar docking, Compound Fixture Explode, Inhibitive Masters in the background and new Pixel Map stock content. With Virtual Wings, multiple virtual wings can be opened on a single system, providing additional playback controls when needed. Playback Bar Docking allows users to swap playback bars easily on the console front panel and wings, providing quick access to more playbacks on a single surface. With Inhibitive Masters in the background –…
