SE Systems deployed a variety of 17 DiGiCo SD-Range and S-Series consoles across 13 stages and relied on a new 4REA4 to keep the music non-stop on the Watson and Cabin Stages at Merlefest. With most music festivals these days being multi-stage productions, sound reinforcement providers have become remarkably adept in speedily switching over backline setups and minimizing downtime between artists’ sets. But North Carolina’s annual Merlefest was able to take that transition speed to a whole new level this year thanks, in part, to DiGiCo mixing consoles and the manufacturer’s new 4REA4 networked audio solution. Established in 1988 in…
Author: James Robertson
American rockers Alice In Chains crossed the Atlantic in May to begin a six-week tour of the UK and Europe, enlisting Entec’s support as their lighting provider. In the experienced hands of Production Manager, Paul Binder, the six-week itinerary saw the band follow their latest and most successful album to date, the Grammy-nominated Rainier Fog, with an astonishing show that spanned arenas, festivals and theatres. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpijul19_digitallr/22 www.enteclive.com www.aliceinchains.com www.projoe.photography
Britannia Row Productions supplied PA and control to Glastonbury Festival’s legendary Arcadia stage – this year named Pangea – and teamed up with US partner Clair Global to supply bespoke control and monitor packages for a host of major acts, including headliners The Cure. Arcadia, through its Spider and Metamorphosis spectaculars, has earned a reputation for wildly creative, multi-sensory experiences. This year, Pangea – a towering crane structure loaded with dazzling projections, a plethora of pyrotechnics and vivid lighting designs – created a ‘blank canvas in the sky’. The Arcadia team has worked with L-Acoustics for a number of years,…
Each August for the past 73 years, the Romanesque Piazza Grande is transformed into the world’s largest open air movie theatre. Flanked by exquisitely detailed buildings, the piazza provides an enchanting setting for screenings at the Locarno International Film Festival, a prestigious event that draws the likes of Harrison Ford, Ethan Hawke and other Hollywood A-listers to this ancient town on the Italian-Swiss border. Earlier in the summer, this venerable site, which traces its origins back to Roman times, undergoes another transformation, as it’s turned into an urban nightclub for the Connection Festival. For two days in June, the sounds…
It was a record-breaking weekend with more than 343,000 people taking to Music City to revel in America’s independence at the 2019 Let Freedom Sing! Music City July 4th celebration. Bandit Lites provided the lighting system for the event which featured performances from Brett Eldridge, Mac McAnally, Jessy Wilson, Dylan Scott, Creature Comfort, Jackson Bruck & The Dukes of Hume, Joe West Band, DJ set by Dave Audé, the Nashville Symphony and what some call the best fireworks show in the country. Erik Parker of Chris Lisle Lighting Design used more than 120 Bandit supplied lights to create a set…
Samoa is a small island in the middle of the Pacific. This year it plays host to the sixteenth edition of the Pacific Games which sees over 4000 athletes competing in 27 different sports. It is also home to DAWG Professional Audio whose success with their world-class KV2 Audio inventory was sufficient to win the audio tender for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2019 Pacific Games. DAWG is owned by Corey Keil who also owns Samoa’s Radio Polynesia and TV3. Passionate about sound, Keil’s love affair with KV2 began when he heard a pair of KV2 SL412s running…
Theatre lighting specialist Howard Hudson has deployed GLP’s new bespoke RGBY version of its best-selling impression X4 on the West End production of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ -The Musical. The adaptation of Sue Townsend’s best-selling book recently transferred to the Ambassadors Theatre. Hudson had first worked on the production back in 2015 when it was at The Curve in Leicester. He had previously collaborated with the director, Luke Sheppard and designer, Tom Rogers on various projects prior to this and we were all put together for that first production. The show was then produced at…
How did you enter the live events industry? I remember spending summers in a tent at the local hippy festivals helping with site, lights and generators, building a PA for local bands and theatre, running the technical side of the school drama studio when in the 6th form. I spent a week at Roundel Productions, a corporate production company with in-house facilities during my 18th summer demonstrating enthusiasm which resulted in a floor sweeping job a few months later. Almost roadying… What sparked your interest in the world of video? I have always been fascinated by images. I have early…
Fifteen years ago, one of the most successful and biggest grossing artists in the Netherlands, promised to return to one of the nation’s most iconic stadium venues with a series of concerts that audiences would never forget. True to his word, Marco Borsato transformed the home of Feyenoord Rotterdam into his playground for five nights of visual and sonic revelry; opening the doors to 250,000 friendly faces with guest performances from a plethora of Dutch artists including, André Hazes, Lil Kleine and DI-RECT, Maan, Ali B, Davina Michelle and Armin van Buuren. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpijul19_digitallr/10 Photos: Jorrit Lousberg & Faber Audiovisuals www.borsato.nl…
Mumford & Sons burst onto the UK music scene with their fresh take on traditional folk music over a decade ago – ten years since songs such as The Cave and Little Lion Man became certified anthems of our time. Now, four albums deep, it’s clear the quartet won’t be sticking to the same tried and tested formula. Delta, which was released late last year, saw the band expand their musical range and experiment with more electronic elements. While fans eagerly awaited the latest release, Mumford & Sons’ production were busy concocting a new stage show to elevate the band…
When you look back at the career of the former Dire Straits frontman, the word consistency comes to mind, with the musician producing an album every two to three years over the last few decades. This year in the quest to keep improving the live experience for his loyal fans, Knopfler and his wider production team set out on a tour with an innovative sound system in the shape of an L-Acoustics L-ISA system. Before we got down to audio specifics, TPi met up with longtime Production Manager, Kevin Hopgood at Manchester Arena to discuss the inner workings of the…
Rarely has Wembley Stadium witnessed a display of such unbridled joy amongst an audience as it did when the Spice Girls stepped on to the stage to “welcome all ages, all races, all gender identities, all countries of origin, all sexual orientations, all religions and beliefs, all abilities.” Over three sold-out Wembley nights, 221,971 fans worshipped at the altar of Girl Power, dressed to the nines and as much a part of the show as their idols. Performing for the first time as a four-piece without Victoria ‘Posh’ Beckham, the quartet broke Ticketmaster’s UK records when their 13-date Spice World…
Torn straight from the pages of a Philip K. Dick science fiction novel, Muse’s Drones tour showcased the technical innovation of live touring. Four years on, the band has further pushed the boundaries with Simulation Theory World Tour, a production influenced by the dynamic realms of science fiction, simulation hypothesis and the band’s latest VR-themed album. During the height of Mancunian summer, a sodden TPi arrived at Etihad Stadium to lift the lid on the technical cogs and crewmembers behind the feat. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpijul19_digitallr Photos: Andrew Benge & TPi www.airworksinflatables.com www.er-productions.com www.eps.net www.legacypowerservices.com www.phoenix-bussing.co.uk www.prg.com www.rockpooltourcatering.com www.showsmiths.co.uk www.silentpartnersstudio.com www.skanpa.co.uk www.soundmoves.com…
This year’s Sweden Rock Festival in Sölvesborg saw crowds of 35,000 rocking out to huge names including KISS, Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow and Def Leppard. An end to end solution for live production comprising of Blackmagic Ursa cameras, Atem Television Studio Pro 4K and Smart Videohub 40×40 handled video requirements including IMAG production for the festival’s two main stages. Soundforce Scandinavia worked with live specialist Cloud Production to design two identical PPU systems, with Digital Video Tools in Sweden supplying the hardware. “We had discussed a central production hub, however, the scale and distances between stages, combined with the packed lineups…
Grammy-nominated punk rock hip-hop band Fever333 recently took the iconic Electric Ballroom in Camden by storm. The Californian band commissioned Lighting Designer Hayden Borgars to design the atmosphere and electrifying show that they rapidly becoming popular for. Having used Prolights fixtures on numerous occasions before, Borgars was already familiar with the fixtures and explained how he found them “really reliable and innovative” therefore it was no surprise that the package featured a number of the compact-yet-powerful Prolights Diamond7 washes. The band, known for their parkour-like stunts in, on and off the stage required some clever designing. Borgars explained: “The notes sent…
pixl evolution supplied 11-screen solution for A-list Roundhouse Save the Children Centenary charity gala. Renowned charity Save the Children has been transforming the lives of children all over the world since its foundation in 1919. Working in 120 countries, helping the most vulnerable and hard to reach, in 2018 the charity provided assistance to more than 40 million children across the globe. Save the Children recently staged their Centenary fundraising gala at London’s Roundhouse. Hosted by David Walliams and featuring a series of unique theatrical and musical collaborations, the fundraiser showcased the very best of the international entertainment industry. The…
disguise will showcase the latest in its software integrations for the US market at InfoComm 2019. On booth #521 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando between June 8 – 14, disguise will preview the powerful new gx 2c server, and also introduce the award-winning vx 4 server. On show will be the latest in disguise’s gx range of media servers, the gx 2c, which features more GPU processing power than ever before for faster, more powerful performance to render more particles, effects and rich content environments, all at higher resolutions and smoother frame rates. Designed to scale and fit as part of a bigger media server…
NEXO’s new P12 is an ultra-versatile multi-purpose loudspeaker, brings technical innovation to a wide range of sound reinforcement applications. This is the first time the company has designed a 12” enclosure. The P12 promises to establish a new benchmark for the all-purpose point-source cabinet that can deliver at front-of-house, on stage, and as part of a distributed system. Inside the curvilinear enclosure of custom birch and poplar plywood, the P12 employs a purpose-designed 12” LF Neodymium driver and 3” diaphragm HF driver in a coaxial configuration. The cabinet footprint is very compact, measuring 531mm by 432mm by 317mm. Frequency response…
