Over the summer, 30 Seconds to Mars headed out on an ambitious festival run across Europe, covering 16 countries with audiences of over 40,000 people as well as 2 shows on a private Croatian Island for a “Mars Island” experience. Ensuring the band’s vision became a reality was experienced production designer Tom Campbell of MIRRAD with his Avolites Sapphire Touch and Q3 Media Server. The design theme took inspiration from the artist James Turrell (both Campbell and Jared Leto are fans of his work). Campbell went for a ‘digital’ aesthetic and used strong linear designs to surround the band to…
Author: James Robertson
New Year’s Eve presents a broadcaster battleground in China as the main networks compete for the most-viewers crown. Satellite channel Hunan TV rose to the challenge, commissioning a countdown-to-2020 live show featuring big-name artists backed by party-enhancing lasers, lighting effects and video content. Shanghai-based Honest AV was brought in to deliver a video solution for the ambitious programme, specifying ten Hippotizer Media Servers to drive visuals for more than 50 acts and events during the evening. The content was a mixture of live feed to IMAG screens and pre-made content by NDIMENSIONS. “Two Boreal+ and four Boreal DVDL Media Servers…
Adam Hall Group’s Cameo made its debut in NicLen huge rental park at the end of 2018 with the ZENIT series. The German dry hire service has stocked up several times since then, and includes ZENIT W600 and W300 outdoor wash lights, the battery-powered ZENIT B200, OPUS series’ moving heads, and F series’ Fresnel spotlights. NicLen is making its mark with its investment and fitting out its Cameo portfolio with the current lighting technology flagships of the Adam Hall brand. This includes OPUS X P profile moving heads, OPUS H5 beam spot wash hybrid moving heads, EVOS W7 wash-beam moving…
The life of Swedish DJ, songwriter and producer, Tim Bergling (better known as Avicii) who died so tragically back in April 2018, was honoured recently with a tribute concert in Stockholm. Nearly 60,000 fans turned up at the Friends Arena to pay their respects—an all-time Stockholm record for a single show. The show was the result of a request by Bergling’s family following his passing. He wanted a celebration of the artist’s music presented as the fulfilment of an idea Tim had to have his music performed by a live band and orchestra. Among the all-star line up of guest…
Anyone enjoying Maroon 5’s New Year’s Eve special shows at Mandalay Bay Arena in Las Vegas this year will have witnessed the cool and elegant geometric lines of Brian Jenkins’ production and lighting design … for which he also utilized over 200 Robe moving lights. The band have frequently played this slot – December 30-31 – at this venue in recent years, and the objective is to present a completely new and fresh visuality for the occasion which is different from any of their touring shows. This year the New Year shows were ahead of an upcoming album release and…
Leading global LED display manufacturer, Absen, will return to the RAI in Amsterdam this February (11-14) to present its latest range of MiniLED products for the fixed installation and rental markets, as well as introduce a large range of new and enhanced products. Absen will occupy an impressive 324 sqm of floor space, representing the company’s largest ever presence at the show. Spread across two neighbouring stands, these will respectively be dedicated to fixed installation (12-C50) and rental solutions (12-E80), though the theme of ‘Evolution. On Display’ and focus on MiniLED will remain consistent across both sections. Absen’s MiniLED are…
Bristol punk band IDLES have enjoyed a heavy 2019 global touring schedule, and this continued into the UK right up to the end of the year. It was the band’s first full production tour in support of the A Beautiful Thing: IDLES Live at Le Bataclan CD recorded a year ago. And so their long-serving FOH sound engineer Chris Fullard requested Martin Audio’s award-winning MLA loudspeaker array as his PA of choice, supplied by Capital Sound. This was rigged at the 1,900-capacity Barrowlands in Glasgow, but more notably at Alexandra Palace’s Great Hall (capacity 10,250) — which has been the…
Xstage S10 stage decks add up to a great choice with its newly designed, lightweight extruded aluminium profile that helps reduce the overall weight of the deck to only 33kg, while maintaining a high loading capacity of 750kg/m2.0In fact, the S10 has become a favourite of live production professionals around the world and is the perfect stage deck choice for your small to large events. The S10 offers you two choices for surface finish – a new indoor/outdoor hexagrip anti-slip surface on a heavy-duty 12mm birch plywood top or black painted finish on a 12mm poplar plywood top. The S10…
Fusion Entertainment provided the technical production for the gala unveiling of the Ferrari F8 Tributo in Sydney, Australia using a complement of Claypaky fixtures to illuminate the car’s debut at the black-tie event. The glittering evening marked the first Australian appearance for the new, half-million dollar mid-engined supercar. It has been called the pinnacle of Italian excellence, and its V8 engine seen as the epitome of sportiness and driving pleasure. More than 300 guests gathered at Sydney’s White Bay passenger terminal for an immersive Ferrari experience. The 2,000-square meter space was filled with classic cars in Ferrari’s iconic shade of…
Upgrading arrayable loudspeaker concept to a brand-new level, Italian manufacturer dBTechnologies launched VIO C, a complete series of 2-way active line-source speakers for the widest range of venues and applications, from installed PA systems to sound reinforcement for touring. Designed to create horizontal or vertical line-source arrays and featuring a simple yet rapid rigging system, VIO C offers the most flexible coverage options as well as the powerful and pure acoustic performance that distinguishes all VIO cabinets. The whole series is equipped with latest generation 1600 W RMS Class D Amp module Digipro G4 driving a powerful DSP and allowing…
Professional power amplifier manufacturer Powersoft Booth #17701 has announced the latest update to their best-in-class audio system management software ArmoníaPlus. HealthPlus, which replaces the software’s previous ‘Events’ tab, gives sound engineers a streamlined monitoring environment of all elements in a given sound system with improved communication, control and reporting to ensure even better performance than ever before. HealthPlus is available now for all ArmoníaPlus users. HealthPlus’s updated display gives engineers a complete suite of system diagnostic controls to monitor the health and effectiveness of any sound system in real-time, so can be used with a touring PA or in fixed…
DiGiCo has announced the new DMI-KLANG at NAMM 2020, an immersive in-ear mixing expansion that can be mounted directly into DiGiCo consoles, equipped with DMI slots. KLANG’s acclaimed immersive in-ear mixing systems make spatial and transparent in-ear monitoring possible. With lower listening levels – on average up to 6dB less – it eliminates the feeling of isolation associated with a normal in-ear stereo mix and offers less fatigue. Its applications range from personal mixing for touring monitor engineers to spatial mixing for recording studio sessions. The DMI-KLANG follows in the footsteps of the KLANG:fabrik. “This is the first hardware product…
UK production company, SFL, employed the ground-breaking immersive 3D mixing technology from German in-ear monitor specialists, KLANG, on the main stage at the last ever Soul Survivor festival, which took place last summer at the East of England showground. SFL has been the event’s technical partner for the last 16 years and wanted to provide the best and most innovative equipment for the finale of this incredibly popular festival. Part of the package was a KLANG:fabrik system, a rack-mount monitoring mix engine, which connected to the DiGiCo SD12 monitor console via Dante. The system sends binaural 3D monitoring mixes to…
NAMM 2020 sees DiGiCo reveal the latest in its new generation of Quantum consoles, the all-new Quantum338. Like Quantum7 and Quantum5, Quantum338 represents a dramatic leap forward in power and connectivity. It includes impressive new design features and enhancements that offer ultimate flexibility, all with the same speed of operation that Quantum users have come to rely on, in a smaller format console. “With Quantum338, we have ensured that we are providing a next-generation console that works in synergy with our Quantum Engine,” says Michael Aitchison, DiGiCo’s Senior Electronics Engineer. “We focused our R&D team on user experience, learning from…
Waves Audio, the world’s leading developer of professional audio signal processing technologies and leading maker of audio plugins for mixing, music production, mastering, sound design, broadcast, post-production and live sound, announces the Waves FIT Controller for the eMotion LV1 Live Mixer. FIT is an intuitive control surface that delivers quick and efficient operation of the eMotion LV1 mixer to live sound engineers who prefer tactile response of faders, knobs and buttons for console operations. Carefully engineered by Waves and expert MIDI controller manufacturers MIDIPLUS, FIT is the ultimate hands-on control unit for the eMotion LV1 Live Mixer. Waves FIT is…
Far from being an ‘uncool relic from the 1970s’, nowadays progressive rock has a sizeable following and is becoming more popular. There are a number of artists following the likes of Muse and Dream Theater into the mainstream, none more so than Haken – a multinational six-piece recently returned from a European tour mixed on a Yamaha RIVAGE PM7 digital mixing system. Haken’s most recent album, Vector, took the band into harder-edged ‘progressive metal’ territory. Getting the heaviness of the music across, while ensuring audiences also hear the intricate musical phrasing, needs an audio system that puts equal emphasis on…
German audio technology and solution company d&b audiotechnik has announced the opening of a new office and training centre in Signal Hill, California. The facility is the second in the country joining the company’s U.S. headquarters in Asheville, North Carolina. For the leading pro-audio technology and solution provider, the new facility underscores a commitment to comprehensively and strategically address both coasts with dedicated teams and resources. “Accessibility to our growing base of customers and partners in the U.S. is critical,” said Amnon Harman, CEO, d&b audiotechnik. “In the audio business relationships are paramount and this new facility demonstrates our desire…
NAMM, product lounge 17208 / demo room 203A – Renowned in the live sound industry for developing market-leading audio solutions that outperform in quality, as well as in practicality, L-Acoustics is deployed on 10 orf the world’s top 20 festivals. In a constant search to make its products easier to use, faster to rig and economical to transport, L-Acoustics today announces the new LA-RAK II AVB flyable touring rack, offering twelve channels of amplification in a 9 U frame. Contained within are three Milan-certified LA12X amplified controllers, two LS10 AVB switches and power and signal distribution panels that are internally…
