Gil Perron lit a special, private show by the award-winning Italian trio Il Volo at Montreal’s Teatro Leonardo DaVinci. Although rigging was a lot easier at this beautiful facility, the design team had to be much more mindful of load capacity. This was “sort of a big deal” for Perron, given his penchant for grouping fixtures in clusters to create unique multi-directional light angles. “It’s kind of my thing; I like clumping fixtures in groups of three and then layering them vertically and horizontally,” he said. “This is tougher on a fly system than on truss, but it’s well worth…
Author: James Robertson
When Canadian creative director Matt Larivée, of Lüz Studio, sat down to design the stage set for Jack White’s Supply Chain Issues tour, GLP’s trusty JDC1 hybrid strobe and X4 Bar 20 batten were prominent in his tool kit. And so were 144 additional ‘virtual’ X4 Bar 20s… more of which later. “The JDC1 is one of my favourite fixtures for washing a band from the floor, so that was a go-to to define the space and light up the band with washes and powerful tube FX,” notes Larivée. “As for the impression X4 20 Bars, they are also a…
On Wednesday 1st June 2022, The Rolling Stones kicked off their SIXTY tour in Wanda Metropolitano Stadium, Madrid. This was the first gig of their whistle stop 60th-anniversary tour, which will see them visit 13 cities in Europe in just 2 months. It follows the band’s critically-acclaimed ‘No Filter’ tour, which began in 2017 but saw the North American leg postponed due to the pandemic. Having worked with the core production team on a number of Rolling Stones tours since 2002, including Bigger Bang (2005) and No Filter (2017-2021), Wonder Works were engaged once again by Production Manager Dale ‘Opie’…
Sennheiser has been an essential part of Ed Sheeran’s touring inventory since the start of his career, with his long-time production company, Major Tom, providing Sennheiser’s flagship Digital 9000 system for him in recent years. Now on a tour that takes in some of the biggest venues in the world, including London’s Wembley Stadium, the Stade De France in Paris, the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, New Zealand’s Eden Park and Sydney’s Accor Stadium, and with a show that has expanded significantly from his one man and a guitar days, a switch has been made to Sennheiser’s Digital 6000. “Digital 6000…
On 28 July 2022, Alexander Stadium was brought to life for the Opening Ceremony of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. A spectacular show of light and colour, marking the start 10 days of world class sport in Birmingham, bringing together people in a region that is celebrated for its cultural diversity. With a long tradition in delivering opening and closing ceremonies for major sporting events, it was a huge honour for Creative Technology (CT) to be working on a major project of this type, once again in the UK. Engaged by Birmingham Ceremonies (a Joint venture between Gary Beestone Associates and…
There are two reasons why Canadian audio rental company, Gearforce Pro Audio chose to invest in a DiGiCo Quantum 225. Rob Nevalainen, founder of the company and engineer in his own right, has always been forward-thinking. Gearforce has always focused on providing high-end technology that enables the company to meet clients’ needs regardless of the demands of the gig. Nevalainen purchased the Q225 to add to Gearforce’s existing DiGiCo inventory in mid-April, ready for the start of a busy season. “After two years away,” he says, “it’s different getting back out. The landscape has changed, for sure.” However, some things…
Boutique microphone manufacturer Mojave Audio have announced the MA-D, the company’s first hand-held dynamic microphone. Designed by Technical Grammy Award Winner David Royer for an optimized full-frequency response and rich musicality the MA-D is the ideal hand-held microphone for vocalists, with a versatile sound profile equally useful for a variety of live and studio miking situations. As with all Mojave Audio microphones, the MA-D is built with the highest-quality components and attention to detail, making it a valuable addition to any microphone cabinet. MA-D is available now for MAP $159.00 The MA-D’s smooth frequency response makes it extremely versatile, able…
Front of House engineer Clint Rowland was looking for a mixer that was both compact and versatile for his tour with Swedish artsist LÉON. “I wanted to streamline our setup, and avoid the complications of an analog split,” recounted Rowland. The final system included a compact Allen & Heath dLive CTi1500 19” rack-mountable control surface, along with a CDM32 MixRack for FOH. Rowland remarked that the smaller footprint of the CTi1500 was not an obstacle in mixing a large-scale tour. “I have all my groups and DCAs on the top layer. If I need to adjust an individual channel, I…
Tears for Fears has wrapped the North American leg of their Tipping Point World Tour 2022 in support of the duo’s comeback album of the same name. Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal treated fans to favourites from their new album as well as classics from throughout the years in an amphitheater tour with lighting design by Joe Cabrera II who chose 48 Ayrton MagicBlade-R fixtures for effects lighting. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton lighting in North America. This leg of The Tipping Point World Tour 2022 kicked off at the end of May in Cincinnati and concluded a…
The Li.LAC Microphone Disinfector was introduced by LAC Labs in early 2021. Li.LAC is enjoying growing popularity worldwide in productions of all sizes, as it allows a simple and fast disinfection of handheld microphones as well as lapel and headset mics. At the beginning of the development of Li.LAC, there was always the question of the effectiveness of microphone disinfection through UV-C light. The departments of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Microbiology & Infection Prevention at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), the Netherlands, have been investigating the disinfection level of Li.LAC in comprehensive scientific studies since the end of 2020.…
Void Acoustics has announced the appointment of Dan Moors as Head of Sales & Marketing. Dan joins the team having previously worked in the construction and PPE sectors, and he is motivated about the challenges of working in a brand-new industry and at a time of record expansion for Void Acoustics. “This is the first time I have worked in the professional audio industry which is clearly both dynamic and fast-paced, and I am embracing it 100%! I have a lot to learn from a product perspective, but there is real synergy with what I have done previously with similar…
British superstar Sting visited Eisenstadt during his My Songs Tour and performed on July 15, 2022 on the beautiful grounds of the Esterházy Palace Park in Vienna, Austria. With him on tour: Austrian Audio mics. Since all Austrian Audio mics are hand-made in Vienna, it’s an actual homecoming for the OD505, CC8 & OC818 mics, used on backing vocals and guitar amps. Sting: My Songs is a special performance featuring the 17-time Grammy Award winner’s best-loved songs, like “Englishman in New York”, “Fields Of Gold”, “Shape Of My Heart”, “‘Every Breath You Take”, “Roxanne”, “Message In A Bottle” and many…
Arguably the most famous music festival in the world, Glastonbury began life in 1970 and has since become the benchmark for music events. As well as featuring established global artists on its main stages, it hosts the widest possible variety of musicians across its eclectic programme. Some revel in the great outdoors, enjoying the packed campsites, the sunshine and the mud in equal measure, but for others the chance of a little luxury at the end of a hard days festivalling, is hard to resist. The Pop-Up Hotel, just ten minutes walk from the site, meets the needs of those…
In 2021 Monitor Engineer, César Benítez Seilhamer became a fan of KLANG’s unique approach to immersive in-ear monitor mixing on a co-headlining tour with Latino superstars Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias, using a DMI-KLANG card mounted into one of the slots on the back panel of his DiGiCo Quantum5 console. And the shows keep getting bigger—Martin is doing a series of one-off orchestral dates this year, including two recent nights at the Hollywood Bowl with the 100-plus-member Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in July—but Benítez has a new way to keep up with that, as well as giving the artists and…
Michigan’s much-anticipated Electric Forest Festival returned for 2022 with an expertly curated line up of EDM stars, jam bands, dubstep heroes and multiple other genres. On the Sherwood Court stage, a massive 7056×2864 canvas of LED screens made up of 180m2 of Roe MC7 and 150m2 of YesTech MG7 featured mind-blowing visuals created by Observatory and powered by Hippotizer Tierra+ MK2 Media Servers. Notable on the Sherwood Court stage were US ‘heaven trap’ DJ duo Slander, bass-heavy Mersiv, and ‘chillwave’ pioneer Toto y Moi. Observatory’s brief was to create the scenic visual content for the Sherwood Court stage’s proscenium arch…
Bob Harmon, CEO and President of Eggshell Light Company of Honolulu, has had success using his stable of Proteus Hybrid luminaires to light shows at the Waikiki Shell ever since he acquired the multi-functional weatherproof lights in 2017. Still going strong after five years, Elation’s market-leading IP65 moving heads are reliably weathering another season at Honolulu’s renowned outdoor venue. “I use a variety of manufacturers’ products but by far the most robust in holding up outdoors and dealing with heat and humidity are the Proteus Hybrids,” commented Harmon, noting that Eggshell has added more Proteus Hybrids to inventory since that…
Christie Lites has opened new locations in Seattle and Nashville, USA. These new shops add valuable local industry expertise, plus a diverse and well serviced inventory, to Christie Lites’ existing network across the USA, Canada, and the UK. Christie Lites CEO, Huntly Christie, says: “No one can deny that it has been a tough couple of years for the entertainment industry. Almost every business in the sector has had to make some very painful tactical decisions to survive, including Christie Lites. However, I am delighted to say that 2022 is seeing a phenomenal upturn in productivity, prompting us to add…
Glensound will take to the floor at the PLASA Show (Olympia, London, 4 – 6 September, stand F4) with the latest networked audio developments in throw-down devices. Glensound distribution and communication systems are extensively used in eSports and live events as well as broadcast. In the demanding world of live events, speed of set-up is critical, so networked audio has huge advantages in simplicity of connection. Glensound has a whole range of case-proven devices which solve every sound challenge from stage boxes to broadcast-quality commentary over a cellular phone. Where appropriate, each device is rugged enough to stand up to…
