production news
Production News Headlines
23/02/2010
Another Massive Tour for XL Video
19/02/2010
Robe for Parklife
16/02/2010
Clarity on Carols
09/02/2010
LSCs Clarity Goes Worldwide for Wolfmother
27/01/2010
Lighting Industry Moves Fast to Help Haiti
15/01/2010
Robe Scores at AFL Grand Final Breakfast
30/11/2009
Muse Resistance Tour with Brilliant Stages
11/11/2009
ADLIB Lighting Supplies Bat For Lashes Tour
White Light In The West End - And Around The World
White Light has enjoyed a busy start to 2010 in the world of theatre, the market in which the company first established itself.
Joining the company's West End roster of shows in January were productions including Jerusalem, transferring from the Royal Court Theatre to the Apollo and lit by Mimi Jordan Sherin, The Little Dog Laughed at the Garrick, lit by Jon Clark, and Six Degrees of Separation at the Old Vic, lit by Jason Taylor. The long-awaited sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies, is also currently previewing at the Adelphi with White Light supplying Paule Constable's complex design; the show is due to open on March 9th. December was also a busy period for new shows, with the openings of The Misanthrope at the Comedy, lit by Peter Mumford, and the RSC's Twelfth Night at the Duke of York's, lit by Tim Mitchell.
These new shows join the many others that have chosen White Light as their lighting supplier, these include the plays An Inspector Calls, lit by Rick Fisher, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, lit by Mark Henderson, The 39 Steps, lit by Ian Scott, War Horse, lit by Paule Constable, and The Woman in Black, lit by Kevin Sleep, and the musicals Billy Elliot, lit by Rick Fisher, Chicago (Ken Billington), Dirty Dancing (Tim Mitchell), Grease (Mark Henderson), Les Misérables (David Hersey), Peter Pan at the o2 (Mark Henderson) and Sister Act (Natasha Katz).
White Light's equipment can also be found on tours around the UK and, indeed, around the world, the company having continued its association with the current Eddie Izzard tour by supplying a large rig of EvenLED LED cyc lighting panels to the US leg of the show, supplying the lighting to a touring production of Grease in South Africa, and supplying the new touring production of Les Misérables, which opened in Cardiff before Christmas and which is now in Norwich .
White Light offers a full spectrum of lighting services - including lighting hire, sales, installation, service, training and more - not just to theatre, but to every area of the performing arts and entertainment industries, recent projects including everything from the European tour of Australian rock band Wolfmother to the new external lighting scheme at London's Natural History Museum.
Community Loudspeakers Announce the Olympics Loud and Clear
As all eyes have been focused on this year's Winter Olympics in Vancouver, many visitors to the Games were listening to the announcements, commentaries and entertainment through Community loudspeakers.
"As a premium provider of large scale, all-weather, voice communication and entertainment systems, we have had a long association with the Winter Olympics", commented John Wiggins, Community's Vice President of Business Development. "In Turin 2006, Community loudspeakers were installed in three of the major venues and this year Canadian contractors have installed many more with a longer term community benefit view being taken by venues; not just those hosting events but also by the numerous practice venues".
The Speed Skating Oval in Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver, is the first Olympic venue to use Community's compact ENTASYS three-way, full-range, weather-resistant column line-array loudspeaker system. The ENTASYS is used in various areas to support the Olympic portable system, in areas where wide coverage and tight vertical dispersion are needed for spectator coverage in difficult acoustic environments.
The Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports facility includes a hockey arena and various practice facilities. Here the installations include the Community R.5 full-range, all-weather systems for high intelligibility and well-controlled audience coverage.
One of the superb new venues of the 2010 Winter Games is The Trout Lake Ice Rink. Trout Lake is home of figure skating training sessions and after the Winter Games the rink will be used for Community recreation. This venue uses powerful Community iBOX iHP1596 two-way loudspeakers for full-range entertainment and high intelligibility speech, providing the rink with a true multi-purpose system.
The Vancouver Olympic Centre/Vancouver Paralympic Centre at Hillcrest Park is one of the signature venues of the 2010 Winter Games and the home of competition curling events. After 2010, the venue will be converted to a legacy community facility for the residents of Vancouver, boasting a new community centre, ice rink, curling club, library, preschool, field house and offices with a permanent system incorporating Community R1, Cloud6 and Cloud12 loudspeakers.
Another training rink is the Killarney Community Centre. Currently used for short track speed skating it will be converted after the Olympics for community recreation use. The installation at Killarny again uses powerful Community iBOX IHP1596 loudspeakers for multi-purpose use.
Other official Olympic sites to use Community loudspeakers are the Richmond O Zone and the West Vancouver Spirit Square Community Centre. For 17 days, the Richmond O Zone becomes an official celebration site of the 2010 Winter Games and a key destination for an authentic Olympic Games experience. Covering over 60 acres in the heart of Richmond City Centre the site will feature mammoth ice art, massive high-definition screens, outdoor ice skating, entertainment from the region and around the world, art, athletes, exhibits, food and fireworks. The Richmond O Zone sound systems were designed with Community R1, R.5 and R2 loudspeakers to provide the coverage, sound levels and excitement expected of an Olympic site of this stature. The West Vancouver Spirit Square also provides visitors a facility to watch the Games with a CTV Broadcast on big screens in a heated and covered Atrium, and an Olympic experience of events and entertainment. A combination of Community iBOX iHP1200 Series and Cloud12 loudspeakers provide the quality and level of audio for the enthusiastic Olympic fans.
Another Massive Tour for XL Video
XL Video continues its long term touring relationship with UK experimental music production phenomenon and trip hop collective Massive Attack, supplying customised Barco O-Lite screen modules and a d3 visual control system for the current tour.
The band kicked off 2010 with the release of their much anticipated fifth studio album, Heligoland and continued with their amazing and constantly evolving live show designed by United Visual Artists (UVA).
For many years, video - both text and image - content has played a major role in Massive Attack's shows, and in reinforcing the power, politics and emotion of their music and messages. They have always used the medium in off-beat and inventive ways that unapologetically engage their fans in cerebral and imaginative challenges.
XL Video's Des Fallon is the account handler, and also has a long history with the band and production manager Dave Lawrence. He says: "Massive Attack shows are always a real pleasure to work on - never predictable, always interesting, and forever pushing the psychological boundaries of what can be achieved with video in a highly focussed and intelligent fashion."
Massive Attack were one of the prime movers behind the development of UVA's highly versatile d3 PC-based media server and control system - of which XL was the first UK company to invest. It was 2003 when Massive Attack first went out with a show devised by UVA, and d3's first precursor, Mosquito, was developed to run the visuals. It used a pixel mapping system which was unique at the time.
The d3 on the current tour is programmed and operated by Icarus Wilson-Wright, who has worked with Massive Attack for several years, and is also a musician.
The d3 is far more than just a media server. It offers a complete 3D Visualising environment and runs on a timeline, stacking layers of looks and events vertically, making it very similar to video editing software in operation, therefore perfect for running timed events. It has many unique features, some of which have been modified to allow the Massive Attack show to run as needed. It's a "complex system that is capable of producing great simplicity," explains Wilson Wright, in particular referring to its ability to incorporate last minute changes to the show content.
This happens on a daily basis. Central to the show and to specific songs are updates to reflect location, language, international and local news headlines, etc.
There are three different modes of change regularly required to organically adapt the Massive show's video content.
The first is tweaking of the visuals for a new or different arrangement of a song. When this happens, Wilson-Wright will receive an MP3 file from FOH sound engineer Dave Bracey, drop it into the d3 library, associate it with the track and then "quantise" it - which effectively places the bars in order. From there, it can be edited to suit the new format.
The second is the updating of text to make it relevant to the location. Text continues to play a powerful and meaningful role in the structure of Massive Attack's live performance. The songs ‘Inertia Creeps' and ‘Safe from Harm' both involve up-to-the-minute text information related to the news and opinions of the day, which is also translated into different languages and alphabets. Once the text file is imported to the d3, the words can then be manipulated and arranged so the scrolling suits the rhythm and mood of the song.
This has potential for enormous reaction, especially when travelling in non-English speaking countries, where the news headlines and local stories appear onscreen in the local language. It allows the core elements of the show to have a full impact anywhere, and the flexibility of d3 also allows them to completed bi-lingual translations for regions where more than one language is spoken!
The third circumstance for which the new show needs to be integrated - often at the last moment - is when guest artists are invited to contribute - the band are very keen on this type of dynamic collaboration. Recently at a show in Paris, French guerrilla photographer/activist JR was invited to participate, and turned up in the late afternoon with RAW files of his most recent portraits. Wilson-Wright took them into the d3, converted to bitmapped files, animated them and then inserted them into the timeline for ‘Teardrop' - all in a seamless and straightforward exercise.
"Editing on the fly in this way is incredibly easy with the d3," he confirms.
d3 is also used to take control of some of the lights - designed and operated by Robin Haddow - for certain songs, merging both lighting and video cues. The d3 is timecode operated, using a programme change MIDI note to select the track and the BPM info to start and run it - received from an Akai MPC machine onstage.
Massive Attack's screen consists of 15 customised frames, specially engineered for touring by XL Video, all containing Barco O-Lite 510 LED blocks making a 15 metre wide by 3 metre high back wall. These bolt together very quickly to form the upstage surface. Lighting is also positioned behind this, to take advantage of the screen's transparency and to blast through it for additional high-power effects, either when it's on or off.
The O-Lite is controlled by 23 Barco controllers run in "custom" mode - for a very bright and highly flexible system which is processed by a D320 Lite DVI input card.
The Massive Attack tour has just finished in Mexico, then goes to Australia and New Zealand.
photos: Louise Stickland
Robe for Parklife
Robe moving lights once again took centre stage at one of Australia's biggest annual music events, when Parklife 09 officially signalled the start of the summer dance festival season.
Tens of thousands of revellers gave it large in five cities, with a massive line up featuring more music than ever before - including main acts like Empire of the Sun, Tiga, MSTRKRAFT, La Roux and Autokratz, along with local supporting DJs such as Art vs. Science.
Clifton Productions supplied moving lights for the Melbourne event with stage designs by Fuzzy Events and Parklife's national lighting designer, Davyd Williams. This massive production was managed by local production manager Adam Gibson in conjunction with national producer, Josh Chapman. Over 90 Robe fixtures were utilised across four stages, with Parklife featuring its trademark Earth, Wind, Fire & Water themed arenas and stages.
The Water Stage hosted big names like Empire of the Sun, La Roux, Kaskade and Chardy. Twelve Robe ColorWash 700E ATs, 20 Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs and two Robe Fog 1500 FT smoke machines were rigged on truss verticals, front and mid stage trusses.
All fixtures were driven by a grandMA console. Lighting designs for Empire of the Sun were created by LD Hugh Toranto, and for the rest of the festival the rig was operated by Matt Hansen from MPH.
The Air Stage was the second largest stage where the line-up included MSTRKRFT, Crystal Castles, Tiga and Autokratz. Lighting was operated by LD Justin Ogge (aka 'netball skirt') for the whole of the festival and LD Jack Davies for "Crystal Castles" designed the stage layout. The Robe rig was hung on wave shaped trusses with verticals, consisting of a total of 14 Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs, four Robe ColorWash 2500E ATs and Robe Fog 1500 FT smoke machines, along with a selection of LED fixtures and panels. All lightsources were controlled with another grandMA.
System technician Matt Downs from Clifton Productions, says: "Parklife Melbourne was again sold out as we knew it would be. The Robe's performance throughout the event was ‘faultless' and everyone was happy with how reliable the fixtures are, even when used relentlessly for hours on end in an extremely tough operating environment!".
Clarity on Carols
Australian lighting director/operator Sam Walters selected LSC Clarity as his main lighting controller for the IGA Lord Mayors Christmas Carols held at the Brisbane Riverstage in December.
Walters commented: "I chose the new LSC Clarity system due to the efficiency in the way it handles moving lights and LED programming. This was my first real outing with Clarity and although the software is extremely powerful, I didn't find it complicated at all. Actually I would have only looked at the manual three to four times during the whole programming session."
Christmas Carols events, held each year in Australia's major cities during the summer month of December, are generally performed on outdoor stages. The events are televised nationally and attract large audiences, both at the venue and at home. Brisbane's event attracted some of the cream of Australia's talent including Guy Sebastian, Marina Prior, James Morrison, Troy Cassar-Daley and Paulini.
Brisbane Concert Lighting was again the main equipment provider, supplying all control from LSC Lighting Systems, including Clarity (using 6 DMX universes) with two VX20 wings, five e24 Dimming Systems, five Delta Power Distros and three Delta DMX splitters. The LSC control equipment looked after 44 Martin moving lights, 32 LED Par 64s, 32 LED strips and over 72 Fresnels, Pars and profiles.
Walters continued: "Clarity's effects engine is extremely powerful and doesn't leave you wanting anything. The LED pixel mapping is a massive time saver and allowed us to achieve really complicated looks. The 32 LED strips were mounted behind perspex panels in the stairs. Being able to run video and JPEG images through the stairs was such a big hit and gave the cameras some really interesting backdrops. ‘Freesets' has changed the way I do palettes for moving lights. Being able to work with just one fixture creating all the colours you want and then being able to apply that colour to the entire rig of movers and LEDs was extremely impressive. Using scaled ‘Freesets' (eg; A rainbow from Red to Blue) through the LEDs down the stairs was a really fun way to get interesting colour textures in the set with minimal effort."
LSC Clarity was launched late last year to industry acclaim and has found enthusiast operators from the television, touring, events, education and worship market segments. The Clarity lighting range of products include the VX Series Programming and Playback wings, the QX range of USB-DMX convertors and of course the powerful Clarity Lighting and Media control software range. Its intuitive programming plus its phenomenal function list make it one of the most powerful, feature-rich PC based lighting control systems on the market today.
Walters said: "I have always been hesitant when it came to computer based lighting software but the VX20 wings do a great job of bridging the gap; you feel like you're driving a real console. Having the wings is a must when operating ‘on the fly' and is great for getting all the cues on faders and under your finger tips. LSC gave me great support in getting up and running and removed any fear I had about placing the software on such a high profile event. The software is extremely impressive and I look forward to seeing where it ends up in the future as development continues."
Point Source Productions Helps Celebrate Australia Day
Point Source Productions' technical productions department was commissioned by Eclipse Presentations to provide a lighting system for the Australia Day celebrations at the Australian High Commission in London on 23 January this year.
The event involved a Thai-themed gala dinner created by the famed Australian Michelin star chef, David Thompson, of Nahm in Belgravia, and a cabaret of Australian artists including Philip Quast, Kirby Hughes and Sam Harrison to entertain the diners. The evening culminated in the presentation of the much-coveted Australia Day UK awards for Australian of the Year, Honorary Australian of the Year and Young Australian Achiever of the Year.
Point Source Productions provided lighting for the exterior and reception areas for the evening, in addition to lighting the Gala Dinner and cabaret.
Lighting designer, David Miller, working on behalf of Point Source Productions, used a simple uplighting effect to colour-wash the front of Australia House, picking out its architectural features, whilst employing a series of Chroma-Q Color-Punches to colour wash the ceilings in the reception areas and highlight the further points of architectural beauty inside.
Within the Gala Dining Room, Martin MAC 300s were used to colour-wash the room and an array of Martin MAC700s and MAC 550s used to create animated gobo washes across the ceiling. These Martin fixtures also provided a variety of lighting states to complement the cabaret acts and augment the conventional fixtures lighting the performance and presentation stages.
Finally, low voltage fixtures at floor level were used to highlight the spectacular flower arrangements and other set dressing throughout the venue.
Bradley Hill, project manager for Eclipse Presentations, was very happy with the finished result: "It was amazing to see the different effects that were created across the dining room to complement each song during the cabaret acts," he said.
Photos: Courtesy of Australian High Commission
Robe Gives Great Performance for 2009 Brownlow Medal
The Brownlow Medal Count is the most prestigious annual award on the Australia sporting calendar. Staged at the Palladium Ballroom in Melbourne's Crown Casino complex, the 2009 Brownlow dinner was attended by over 1000 sporting celebrities and VIPs and broadcast live on Australia's Channel 7 TV.
Clifton Productions supplied a large array of equipment to this year's event including Robe moving lights and Anolis LED fixtures which were used on stage and throughout the venue.
The event's art director was by designer Mal Nichols of Mal Nichols and Associates. "The design elements had to be three dimensional to allow lighting and texturing to be a back drop to the talent," says Nichols. "So the lighting was required to be flexible and allow for subtle changes within the presentation incorporating the background."
In the Atrium of the Crown Casino 10 Robe REDWash 3?192s, eight Robe ColorWash 1200 ATs and four Robe ColorSpot 1200 ATs were used to highlight the general area and the guests as they strolled up the red carpet.
Lighting designer Rob Coia says: "This year's telecast was a great success for Channel 7 at the end of a huge year in AFL Broadcast. It was the first time that I had used the new Robe REDWash LED fixtures that Clifton Productions now have as part of their inventory. I was very impressed with the performance, I used the REDWashes to dress the walls and columns in the Atrium for the red carpet arrivals, to provide colour and shape for the background surfaces which appeared in most of the camera shots."
He continues saying that they worked "especially well" in the Atrium, adding that while they usually experienced difficulties getting the dark walls in this area to read on camera, this year it was the "best look so far", replete with rich and bright colours!
Richard Grenfell, who knows the Red Carpet space very well, programmed the lighting and created a great balance between people's faces and the walls. "The REDWashes have an incredible light output, as well as a vast array of colours, from full chroma saturation through to more subtle pastels," says Coia, concluding, "I found it a great tool for the task, particularly when available power is limited."
In the main Palladium room used for the dinner, Robe moving lights were used to create the ambient room looks, and for set and stage dressing. Forty-eight Robe ColorWash 700E ATs, 44 Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs, four Robe ColorSpot 1200 ATs along with another 18 REDWash 3?192 fixtures in total were utilised.
"We are really happy that the REDWashes have been added to our stock and the feedback we are getting from clients is amazing!" comments Clifton's system tech Aaron Humber. It was vital that the Robes provided an even coverage across the large area as there were a plenty of wide camera shots during the broadcast.
The ‘RED' in the REDWash is short for Red Emitted Diodes, a unique LED lighting concept developed by Robe.
The Brownlow lighting was controlled by two grandMA full size consoles, operated by Alex Saad and Andy Edis. A third "house" grandMA was run by Andrew Killengray, hooked in to the 140 scanners used as table pin spots and all the house 'architectural' LED fixtures. It was a substantial system that proved to be extremely reliable.
As early as Round 20 in the vote count, Geelong's Gary Ablett Jnr had an unassailable lead and finally won the 2009 Brownlow Medal polling a total of 30 votes.
LSCs Clarity Goes Worldwide for Wolfmother
LSC's Clarity is the console of choice for lighting designer Dave Haus for the current Wolfmother "New Moon Rising" world tour.
Haus and his company Prodigy Lighting Design are based in Maryland USA. He is a lighting designer and programmer and owns a number of his own consoles. He came across Clarity last year whilst programming a live TV broadcast in Colorado, USA where Clarity was part of the house rig.
"I found it to be very intuitive and easy to program," comments Haus. "So much so that after the gig I immediately contacted the USA distributor Applied Electronics and purchased my very own VX20 Wing and software."
On arriving in Europe with the Wolfmother Tour, Clarity continued to be a real time saver for Haus when he was faced with combining their touring fixtures with the local house rigs. He went on to say: "Clarity's easy patching and powerful cloning functionality really works well - turning up at a different venue each night we'd have the rig patched and ready to go in no time at all. It is an extremely versatile and powerful console."
Wolfmother, now on the final leg of their world tour, are in Australia where they will be opening for the phenomenal AC/DC Black Ice World Tour.
LSC Clarity is feature-packed, and offers seamless integrated control of any type of light on a stage be they PAR cans, LEDs, moving fixtures, scrollers, LED matrix walls and even media servers.
The John Butler Trio Get Energy Efficient with Martin MAC 301 Wash
The John Butler Trio "One Way Road" tour, which has just finished touring Australia, was carbon neutral.
Emissions associated with the tour (such as electricity generated from the shows, air and road transportation, including touring party and freight) was calculated and a reinvestment made into renewable energy projects. This effectively balanced out the impact the "One Way Road" tour had on the climate and is a positive investment to assist the current situation of global warming.
People traveling to the concert by carbon transport even had the opportunity to purchase a Green ticket which incurred an extra cost of 50 cents - this money was also donated to renewable energy projects to help make this a truly carbon neutral tour.
The obvious path for lighting designer Dave Jackson was to use LED fixtures in the show and he opted for the new Martin MAC 301 LED moving head washlight. A total of sixteen MAC 301 Wash fixtures were in the rig: eight on the front truss and eight on the back truss.
"I was a little bit hesitant to use them but they proved to be quite good," remarked Jackson. "They have nice color saturation and are great as front truss profiles. I needed to design a rig that ran off one 32 amp and we did."
Twelve Martin MAC 250 Beams were also in the rig: six on the back truss and six on the floor. Added to that were eight Martin StageBar 54 LED fixtures to light the cyc and four Kupo 8 Liters.
"It was a fairly standard set up as John doesn't like a lot of movement or flashy stuff," added Jackson. "It's all about setting scenes and the MAC 301 fixtures were perfect for that as you get a really nice beam out of them that contrasts well with the narrow beams out of the MAC 250s."
In picture: the photos for this story were taken at Sydney's Enmore Theatre where the production was supplied by Entertainment Installations who acquire their Martin gear from Martin's Australian distributor Show Technology.
Lighting Industry Moves Fast to Help Haiti
Following the destruction of Haiti by a powerful earthquake and the desperate need for help in the region by survivors of the tragedy, Hollywood actor George Clooney speedily created the "Hope for Haiti Now" telethon, featuring the worlds biggest stars to be shown on every major TV Network in the U.S. without adverts for two hours on Friday night.
In order to have the show obtain the best acts possible it was necessary to host the show in New York, L.A. and London. With four days notice the show in London was conceived, designed and realised with the generous help of the production industries.
Tim Routledge, lighting and set designer for the event, was contacted by Dionne Orrom of Serpent Productions who was co-producing the event with Ned O'Hanlon on behalf of MTV. The show held at the Hospital Studios in Central London featured Coldplay, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Rhianna, Bono and the Edge from U2. "We had a design brief from the States so that the three shows tied together with some cohesion but apart from that we took the show and ran with it at full pace for four days to make it happen," said Routledge.
Tim approached four companies to assist with the show and all those contacted responded quickly and provided their total support. Panalux and Stage Electrics provided the lighting equipment required including a large number of oversized lightbulb pendants and Stagebars from Panalux amongst other equipment and Alpha Beam 700's and a large number of low voltage fittings from Stage Electrics.
John Wallace, live events operations manager at Stage Electrics commented: "We were only too pleased to be able to do our bit to help out on this event. Stage Electrics was able to respond at short notice along with other industry players to provide equipment and support to this important cause, we were glad to be part of the fundraising effort."
The set also featured five columns of high-res LED screen supplied and installed by Chris Ferranteat XL Video. The video content for the show was created in L.A. and sent over on the day of the show and was played back on MA Lighting's new VPU media server supplied and looked after by the company's own Philip Norfolk and Callum Howie who also kindly supplied other control ancillary equipment. The consoles for the show were donated by grandPA. "MA are always keen to help out clients with show support and we were eager to do everything we could to support the efforts of those in the Hope For Haiti Now campaign."
In order to get everything in to the studio in time and ready for the first band a number of crew were required and Tim approached PRG to assist with approaching crew as volunteers. PRG's Gordon Torrington rose to the challenge as Chief LX and rallied a large number of crew together for the mammoth day on site.
Routledge comments: "I can't thank everyone involved, everybody was extremely positive in wanting to help and with too many individuals to mention, they all know who they are and what a difference they have helped to make. The show looked amazing and really captured the spirit of the cause. All of the music on the night has been mixed live for download on itunes and to help raise the total please go online and buy some of these unique tracks."
Robe Scores at AFL Grand Final Breakfast
The North Melbourne Grand Final Breakfast is a function organised by the North Melbourne Football Club on the morning of the AFL (Australian Football League) Grand Final - marking the traditional start of Australia's landmark sporting day.
In addition to being a major social highlight and an annual must-watch ritual for thousands of footy fans, it plays a huge role in the pre-match build up. The breakfast includes a Grand Auction, with all proceeds donated to the Starlight Children's Foundation.
Clifton Productions were employed to provide lighting and visuals for the 1500 guests, including a veritable who's who of Australian sport, politics and culture plus performances from some of the biggest acts in town.
Robe moving lights were employed to creatively light the event, with 28 Robe ColorSpot 1200 ATs and 24 Robe ColorWash 1200 ATs rigged above the triangular stage and utilised for room washing.
Hanging from a series of 'fingers' above the stage were six Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs, and together along with LED fixtures, these produced multi colour stage washes.
At the back of the stage, LED drapes and panels were installed, all driven by a Catalyst media server to produce funky graphics for each of the artist performances.
The lighting techs were Aaron Humber and Justin Ogge and the lighting designs were by Alex Saad and Don Collins.
Production manager Brad King from Cliftons says: "Everyone was extremely happy with the room visuals and overall effects for the AFL Breakfast. The event was a great success, and we were happy to be a part of it again."
LightFactory PC-based Control Creates Stunning Christmas Tree Features
The team at ArchiLX Cyprus completed a major Christmas installation for the brand new shopping centre MY MALL in Limassol Cyprus. They designed an extensive package of exterior and interior festive lighting effects including a unique tree of light using nearly 400 LED festoon fixtures from Glasson Electronics controlled exclusively by a 64 Universe LightFactory system and Ethernet to DMX boxes from Cooper Controls.
The LED tree was conceived and programmed by ArchiLX design director Ben M Rogers and comprises 19 strands of festoon harness each with 20 LED globes. Each LED globe offers full RGB mixing and is individually addressed using the Glasson handheld programmer. The Glasson DFS 3000 LED system transmits power and control over just 2 wires allowing the use of standard festoon harness. As Rogers remarks:"Te Glasson system is effortlessly simple in its installation and offers a dynamic and unique effect with minimal power requirements, in fact the complete LED tree installation consumes just over 800w of power making it a very energy efficient system." In addition to the low power usage the fact that the system runs at a low voltage with minimal heat and robust plastic casings also meant that the safety and practical needs of the installation where met.
The tree which runs for 12 hours a day whenever the mall is open was programmed with a fast moving range of colours and animations. This was achieved using LightFactory's matrix control system. Rogers continues: "I created a simple pixel matrix definition in LightFactory and then built a looping video of the colours and effects I wanted." Using the built in scheduler in LightFactory Rogers was also able to set times for the system to start and finish it's playback each day. "What we ended up with was a virtually zero maintenance system which fulfilled both the creative and technical needs of the install and received acclaim from shoppers and management alike."
Meanwhile, in New Zealand, LightFactory was utilized in the unique, interactive Telecom Tree. The Telecom Tree is a seven-storey high interactive light sculpture that transports children's wishes to the Santa Claus at the North Pole. The lighting system designed by David Eversfield and implemented by the team at opticshock uses LightFactory 1 Universe Ethernet boxes and Enntec Datagates to achieve the interactivity.
People who visit the tree at an inner city park in Auckland or on the waterfront in Wellington can use one of the phone booths around the base to ring Santa. The caller's voice modulates the brightness of lights, carrying the message out of the phone booth and up the tree. David uses a Datagate with a cascading Artnet merge to link several different interactive features into one DMX in for the GrandMA console and Hippotizer controlling the tree.
Good boys and girls keen to decorate their own tree for Santa can visit the Telecom Tree website www.telecomtree.co.nz to create their design.
The key interaction between the website and the grandMA/Hippotizer control software was made possible by LightFactory. The flexible scripting engine allowed David to send the designs directly from the website to the tree control software. Martin Searancke from LightFactory implemented a number of bespoke variable commands to help smooth the process.
ArKaos Brings a Kaleidoscope of Colour to Tiësto Tour
The world's No 1 DJ, Tiësto, kicked off his new Kaleidoscope World Tour on September 24th 2009 with three sold-out nights at New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom, before continuing on a 18-month journey across five continents to deliver a total of over 200 shows.
The Kaleidoscope World Tour is produced by Unlimited Productions BV, a young company based in Tiësto's native Netherlands, with the visual content designed by Moment Factory, Montreal.
Unlimited Productions chose ArKaos MediaMaster as the show's media server because, as a DJ, Tiësto has no set list: every show is therefore different and may contain a number of new songs which he has never played before. MediaMaster proved to be the perfect solution as it can run pre-programmed content while still allowing live interaction with the music and the songs when needed.
Koen De Puysseleir, light and set designer for Unlimited Productions explains: "We had several challenges for this Kaleidoscope Tour; of course we needed a media server system that is 100% reliable and really interactive, but it also had to be compact enough in order for us to bring it with us on any commercial flight as the distances between most of the shows are too big for shipping equipment with trucks.
"The entire video control setup for the tour fits in my hand luggage in the plane. Not bad for two professional and reliable media servers plus controlling!"
Unlimited Productions installed ArKaos MediaMaster on two MacBook Pro laptops running Snow Leopard, then programmed the entire video show on a ChamSys MQ100 Pro and played it back at the venues through a ChamSys MagicQ PC system with an extra wing.
"Moment Factory requested that we use a system that could handle Alpha Channels, audio-generated content and support custom effects - which was another challenge fulfilled by MediaMaster!" Koen adds.
Most of the shows have a central 6x6m screen and four 2x6m side screens, filling the back of the stage, plus an additional 7x1m screen on the DJ booth. All cuts and mapping of the visuals were done within the content itself. One MacBook Pro, running MediaMaster, plays the content in its native resolution as one single image which is sized to the 6m-high screens through a Folsom ImagePRO scan converter.
The second MacBook Pro triggers visuals on the DJ booth, making extensive use of MediaMaster's built-in ability to scale and rotate visual layers, to add even more interactivity to the show.
"We've been pushing MediaMaster almost to its boundaries by running HD content on different layers while using ActionScript3 audio-generated content through a plug-in we wrote and some custom effects for use with the software's live camera input," continues Koen.
"Working with Alpha Channels and the impressive audio-generated content that reacts exactly with the music is a real improvement to our show. The real-time effects give some very dynamic and exciting new ways to play back live cameras on the screens."
"But most important, MediaMaster is rock stable; at this point we have done about 50 shows and it has never failed on us."
photo: Unlimited Productions BV
Green Day Put Martin MAC III Profile to the Test
Green Day is currently on their mammoth "21st Century Breakdown" world tour which started earlier this year and is scheduled to continue towards the end of 2010.
The band has just finished the Australian leg of the tour where they received amazing reviews for their professional, endurance-testing shows where anything goes. Never missing a beat and behaving in an expert manner are 37 Martin MAC III Profiles featured in the lighting rig.
"The MAC III's do a really good job for the throw distances that we have as some of them are very long," commented Kevin Cauley, lighting director for the tour. "Our upstage truss is trimmed at 42ft off the ground so there are some very long throws required.
"This is the first show that I've used the MAC III's on and I think they're great. The effects wheel is awesome. It's just a really good, heavy-duty light and the crew has had no real problems with them. We've found that the lamps in the MAC III's are lasting a good five-hundred hours longer than Martin suggested. We were quite impressed by that.
"The colours are great and I even like the stock gobos! How often do you like the stock gobo set? The lamp strobe function is very neat and a new tool to play with."
The rig has five fingers of truss as well as wing trusses to increase the breadth performance area and all contain MAC III Profiles.
The lighting designer for the show is Justin Collie of Artfag. The lighting intent was to try to retain the old-school punk feel but to bring it into the current times with ideas such as LED elements. In true Artfag manner, fixtures are joined together to create a whole new lighting fixture within themselves - in fact the most dominant fixture in the show is called the LED Fag Pod; two LED fixtures that sandwich a Martin Atomic 3000 strobe with Atomic Colors scroller. A total of thirty-nine of these gems are distributed throughout the rig.
"They're more of a visual element than casting actual illumination on the artists," said Kevin.
Bright Green Expo Features Element Labs Products at COP15 Summit
Element Labs products were chosen for the stunning centerpiece at the Bright Green Expo, the largest parallel event during the COP15 summit, last weekend. 170 companies from 19 countries came together in Copenhagen to show the world their cutting edge climate solutions. By exclusively using LEDs in their products for the sources of light, Element Labs offers the benefits of a green solution compared to other lighting options.
Kasper Lange was the genius behind the bold design which featured a cylindrical screen made with 310 panels of Element Labs Stealth, 4 meters high and 4 meters in diameter. This LED monument was surrounded by 90 rays, each 4 meters of aluminum pipe rigged and equipped with 4 HD Versa Tubes. [LITE]COM A/S, one of Denmark's leading TV rental companies, developed the content, which mixed Bright Green logos and company sponsorships with ambient video patterns, all on top of an interactive video globe. An additional 16 square meter Stealth screen continuously scrolled exhibitors' promotions. Content ran from a High End Systems Catalyst video server. Kristian Dreier, from [LITE]COM A/S, led project management, while Christian Olsson and Simon Pugsley, also from [LITE]COM A/S, were video technicians.
Claas Ernst, MD of EMEA for Element Labs, said: "It is perfect that for an event like Bright Green, which is completely focused on environmental excellence, Element Labs products were chosen. An extra bonus was the privilege to work with one of our long standing partners, [LITE]COM A/S, to make this happen."
"We are extremely happy with the reliability and quality of Element Labs products which is another critical factor that must be considered when doing high profile events such as these", said Kristian Dreier, project manager from [LITE]COM A/S. "Element Labs is our exclusive LED equipment supplier - their reliability and support is that good."
Providing green, Clean-tech solutions is a strategic imperative of Element Labs. Their new Cobra platform, launched earlier this year, is designed to offer customers a substantially lower power footprint. Expansion Capital Partners LLC, who led the recent round of financing for Element Labs, is also exclusively focused on investments in the Clean Technology segment.
Iconyx Steerable Arrays for Obama's Nobel Peace Message
US President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace prize acceptance speech marked a glittering début for Oslo City Council Hall's new but low-profile Renkus-Heinz Iconyx IC32 Digitally Steerable Array system. Although scarcely visible, the IC32s and matching subwoofers handled both the Nobel laureate's speech and world-class musical performances equally effortlessly.
Benum, Renkus-Heinz's Norwegian distributor, had been contracted by Oslo City Council to design a permanently installed system capable of delivering high intelligibility throughout the spacious marble-floored hall.
The main audio system comprises a pair of Renkus-Heinz IC32 digitally steerable arrays, supplemented by CF121M active monitors and PN212 active subwoofers. The Iconyx cabinets are custom colored to blend in with the surrounding architecture, mounted flush to the walls.
The IC32s had been installed this summer with fine tuning performed using Renkus-Heinz BeamWare and SDA's EASERA (Electronic & Acoustic System Evaluation and Response Analysis) software.
In charge of sound for the Nobel Peace Prize presentation was Benum's senior audio team, headed by sound engineers Morten Jorseth and Erik Bergersen, with project design technician Sverre Jøssund, Ronald Hernes and Peder Krohn from Benum.
Mixing was handled on an Allen & Heath iLive 112 with an iDR-32 I/O, feeding the internally powered Renkus-Heinz IC32s.
President Obama's acceptance speech, through a pair of AKG C747s, and the musical performances from soprano Solveig Kringlebotn, bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding, and world renowned Chinese pianist Lang Lang. were all delivered through the Renkus-Heinz Iconyx system.
Benum's Sverre Jøssund commented: "It was a very exciting day, with an incredible atmosphere. As a company we are very experienced with large events but the expectation on this occasion was exceptional. Several billion people around the world tuned in to the speech, and of course the live audience in the City Hall was full of famous politicians and dignitaries.
"The hall itself has very hard acoustics with highly reflective surfaces, which is why we specified Iconyx for it in the first place. It was the perfect sound system for such an occasion."
In picture: alongside an Iconyx IC32 loudspeaker (seen at the right hand side of the photo), Nobel Peace Prize laureate US President Barack Obama poses with committee member Kaci Kullmann Five (second from left) during the Nobel Peace prize award ceremony at the City Hall in Oslo on December 10 photo Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images
LSC Clarity Delivers for Oktoberfest Marathon
Oktoberfest 2009 saw the premiere of LSC's new Clarity lighting control software and VX20 wing for the central attraction, The Musik Haus, being the main stage of five indoor and outdoor stages that ran into the night.
ARC, who presents Oktoberfest, is the organisation responsible for Uni of NSW Student Life with the brief to actively encourage students to take part in a life changing university experience. It would appear ARC takes their brief very seriously. So seriously that this Oktoberfest, held in and around the Roundhouse at the University of NSW, entertained and refreshed 8,000 students and staff and prepared them for the oncoming exam season.
Driving Oktoberfest's Main Stage in the Musik Haus, LSC Clarity received a serious live outing and came through with flying colours. The music programme was a combination of live music, DJs, as well as some DJs with live enhancements like trumpets or drums. The Rig in the Musik Haus was eight MAC 600s, four MAC 500s, eight Technobeams, eight MAC250 Entours and eight HoneyComb LED 72s.
As always in such large and diverse events programming time gets squeezed, but Zac Shenker, the lighting programmer and operator for the Musik Haus reports that Clarity performed extremely well and with the VX20 wing provided a platform to quickly develop and easily manage the recording of Cues and effects. Zac commented that the Freesets function in Clarity is the answer to a dream saving hours or programming time.
For an operator busking a marathon six hours of live shows, maintaining different and interesting looks is a challenge and Clarity achieved it with elegance and distinction. Clarity was installed on a laptop, without special configuration, and was supported by an external monitor to display the dockable video windows. Zac
Zac, a full time Computer Science and Digital Media student, has been working in lighting from his early teens in School. As one of the two regular lighting technicians for ARC, Zac and a crew of 8 lit, rigged and programmed the lighting and audio systems for the five stages for Oktoberfest. Additional equipment for the temporary stages was supplied by Chameleon.
www.lsclighting.com.au
Birds of Tokyo uses DPA 4099 Microphones on Acoustic Broken Strings Tour
One of Australia's leading live acts, Birds Of Tokyo, have been using DPA 4099 clip instrument mics on their recent Broken Strings tour, for violins, viola and a cello. The mics were supplied by DPA's local distributor Amber Technology.
The tour provided a unique opportunity to see Birds Of Tokyo in full acoustic mode, accompanied by a grand pianist and a string quartet. For two years, the band delicately and painstakingly reinterpreted their own music, arranging it for the Broken Strings tour with producer, composer and long-time collaborator, Anthony Cormican, who scored the entire concert specifically for an orchestral arrangement. Drawing on the 'unplugged' concept, they enlarged on the experience, performing with a host of instruments - from ukuleles to 12-string guitars - which were incorporated into the ensemble of string quartet and grand pianist.
The band's monitoring and recording engineer James Newhouse heard about the 4099 series from Amber Technology's product manager Filip Saelen, and lost no time in trying them out for the tour. Their transparent, natural sound and excellent off-axis rejection, were just what was required for this project.
The band were using in-ear monitoring on stage to minimise loudspeaker spillage and feedback issues, because the concerts were also to be recorded for DVD release. However during rehearsals, the DPA 4099 mics were put through their paces using the monitor wedges and could be heard loud and clear, without causing any problems.
"I was absolutely blown away by the performance of those mics," says Newhouse. "Great tone and good gain when we were using wedges. They required very little EQ to sound natural, which is rare for string mics at close distance."
In picture: Birds of Tokyo on stage with their DPA 4099 instrument mics.
Muse Resistance Tour with Brilliant Stages
Multi award-winning British alternative rock band, Muse, known for their energetic and extravagant live performances, are currently engaged in a world tour of their fifth album, Resistance.
Bringing together the combined talents that produced Take That's Circus Live tour in 2009 and Mika's one-off concert at Paris' Parc des Princes in 2008, the Muse set has been constructed by Brilliant Stages from Es Devlin's design, under the auspices of Production Manager, Chris Vaughan.
The set consists of an 18m wide circular stage, flanked by 3m high tech bunkers complete with access stairs and topped by three ‘stair towers', each weighing 4 tons, which carry video screens on all four surfaces.
Brilliant Stages built the stage to conceal three hydraulic performer scissor lifts, a piano lift to the rear, a set of access steps embedded in the stage behind the central drum riser and three star traps from which appear props and performers throughout the show. The central performer lift also supports a riser into which is set a revolve which carries the drum kit.
Brilliant Stages also made a series of additional props including a pyramid stand for the guitarist's boutique aluminium-cased amp, and matching-styled fascias for the keyboard stand and infill cabinets.
Each performer lift elevates to a height of 3m above stage and is located beneath a 6.8m ‘stair tower' suspended above. Initially designed for performer use and to carry lighting, the three stair towers each contain three flights of stairs, crossing internally to form an Escher-like pattern.
They are suspended beneath 1.5m deep balconies, linked by catwalks designed to enabled performers to move between towers, and form an integral part of the visual design.
Once built, Brilliant Stages shipped the towers and performer lifts to XL Video where the sides were clad in lightweight F-LED 30mm screens. These are used to stream video content throughout the show but become transparent when internally lit to reveal the interior structure of the stair towers.
Brilliant Stages also incorporated a hanging facility on the top of each tower from which painted drapes of Trevira cloth are suspended, concealing the F-LED screens and staircases from audience view at the top of the show until the Kabuki drop reveal.
"We have worked with Es's designs a number of times now and have devised a system which makes deployment of such large constructions easy and fast for touring," explains Brilliant Stages' John Gittins. "We designed each of the stair towers in four sections of four panels, with a final 1m section at the bottom for lighting fixtures, and incorporated fixings for the F-LED screens throughout. The upper balcony is constructed first and raised so the first section of stair tower can be attached beneath it. The structure is then lifted to a height where the next section can be attached beneath it, and the process repeated until the whole tower is complete."
Set into the circumference of the stage are 16 recessed stage-level lighting positions, each containing a High End Showgun moving light, for which Brilliant Stages cut 600mm diameter wells and supplied the mounting frameworks, as well as devising the logistics for fitting 16 pyrotechnic CO2 Jets and 64 laser mirrors, angled on brackets, around the edge of the stage. The finishing touch was added by Brilliant Stages applying a black Harlequin Hi-Shine floor across the whole stage which reflected every nuance of the lighting, video and laser work above. A curved camera track was also constructed to run between the two tech bunkers along which the XL Video live cameras can travel. Remote from the stage but running in front of it, the track clips together quickly for rapid assembly.
"We designed the main stage and bunkers to be built on castors so they can be constructed remotely from the stair towers before being wheeled into place," continues Gittins. "The performer lifts are then lined up with the stair towers before the whole construction is anchored into position. This speeds up the process of construction at each venue as both parts of the set can be worked on simultaneously."
Finally, the entire set, including the sensitive video equipment which remains attached to the towers and performer lifts during transit, packs down into set carts designed to fit, two-across, into standard road trucks.
The Brilliant Stages constructed set will travel with Muse through Europe, the States, Japan, New Zealand and Australia before returning to the UK in September 2010.
photos: Bronia Housman
ADLIB Lighting Supplies Bat For Lashes Tour
ADLIB has supplied lighting equipment and crew for lighting designer Ali Pike on the latest UK leg of the Bat For Lashes ‘Two Suns' 2009 world tour, which has been ongoing most of the year following the release of Natasha Khan's acclaimed second album.
Pike has been working with the highly talented and dynamic alternative rock musician and singer/songwriter all year. ADLIB lighting has also been supplying various 'specials' packages for other sections of the tour, but for this one, it all stepped up a level on the production front, with a complete redesign of the show including a new set, look and feel.
This permutation of the design started with meetings between Pike and Natasha Khan who also has a visual arts background and strong ideas of her own. Also, after playing a couple of shows - in Chicago and London - that were memorable for extreme meteorology - they came up with the concept of creating an intensely atmospheric stage ambience based around different weather conditions.
The conventional way to do this would have been using video projection, but this time around, the budget didn't quite stretch, so Pike decided to create the desired result using some inventive, theatrical, old-skool lighting and effects - a challenge that she relished and approached with much enthusiasm.
The project was managed for ADLIB by John Hughes. "ADLIB were great in helping customise certain fixtures like the animation wheels and special gobos, which were put into in the MAC 700s," says Pike. These helped produce elements like sunsets, stormy skies, etc.
The backdrop was a printed photo montage of a tornado against a big, angry, grey stormy sky, merged with a separate image of a car on the road - emphasising the power and strength of the weather and natural elements. With the application of some clever lighting and a bit of imagination, its visual appearance could be transformed into many different locations and weathers.
They toured a front and back truss - using Martin Professional MAC 700 moving lights as the main fixtures. On the back truss were six MAC 700 Profiles and four Washes, with six Source Four Zooms to provide individual white light 'practicals' for the band positions so they weren't left in the dark. Two MAC 700 Washes were rigged on the front truss along with four Source Four profiles.
On the floor were six MAC 700 Profiles including two positioned on the side fills - always handy for mid level side stage beams, with another four Washes upstage of the backline to up-light the band or the backdrop.
Four PixelLine LED battens were put behind each band member, pointing forward and providing bold bands of colour coming up from the floor, with two Atomic strobes and colour changers sitting at the upstage corners.
Six bespoke Perspex topped light boxes printed with desert and Joshua tree images sourced by Khan were adapted by ADLIB so they could be internally lit with JTE Micro-E LED fixtures.
Pike integrated eight Beadlight Super Tubes into the design to add some classy shimmer and glitter into the visual picture. Intended as an architectural fixture, these were customised, cabled, clamped and made tourable by the ADLIB team in their Liverpool workshop. These are video activated and were fed by one of Beadlight's proprietary media servers, for which Pike chose content based on cloud formations, skies and other natural and elemental forces.
The media server was triggered from the Avolites Pearl Expert console that she used to run all the show lighting.
Other spangly bits included festoons draped along the back truss and fairy lights, which were randomly slung around the keyboards, drums and centre vocal mic.
ADLIB's technician Neil Holloway worked alongside Pike on the tour, and she comments that he was "Amazing!" adding. "As always the standard and level of service from ADLIB has been excellent - nothing is ever too much trouble - and it's been great working with them again."
Yamaha Mixing Consoles Come Out of the Shadows
Late 2009 and early 2010 are giving many thousands of fans of Cliff Richard and The Shadows the very last chance to see both acts performing together, as their last joint tour swings through Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. While Cliff will continue to tour as a solo artist, two Yamaha PM5D mixing consoles are helping the (not-so) Young Ones to Move It on the same stage together for the very last time.
John ‘JJ' James and Mike ‘Bunny' Warren are long-term members of the touring crews for both Cliff and The Shadows, so it's natural that they, together with their favoured PM5Ds, should be in place on this final joint outing.
The tour started in the UK and Ireland, taking in 22 arena dates, most of which were sold out including three at London's O2 and two more at Wembley Arena. Whether you like the music or not, the remarkable pulling-power of this tour can't be denied!
Unlike Cliff's solo ‘Time Machine' tour last year, this one with The Shadows goes deliberately back-to-basics. The spinning ‘wheel of fortune' backdrop is gone, replaced by a firm emphasis on stripped-down rock'n'roll.
"This year's tour is simplified in terms of the production, although we're using more-or-less the same front of house rig as last year - a PM5D, L-Acoustics PA and an Avalon compressor on Cliff's vocal." says Bunny.
"I'm using a dbx162 compressor/limiter on Hank (Marvin)' s and Bruce (Welch)'s vocal, but apart from that all the processing is onboard the PM5D. I don't see any reason to use anything else because it's great. All the reverbs, gates, compressors, expanders are fine and it does everything I want it to do. As far as I'm concerned if it ain't broke, don't fix it!"
JJ agrees, doing all the necessary processing for monitor world on the console.
"The PM5D's processing is way more than adequate for monitors," he says. "I know some people say there are differences, but I think there's a lot of 'emperor's new clothes' when it comes to equipment. The onboard processing is absolutely fine for my purposes."
He continues: "Normally with a Cliff tour we have hardly any wedges and the stage is really quiet because everyone's on in-ears or cans."
"On this tour Hank, Bruce and bass player Mark Griffiths are using wedges, with everyone else on in-ears. I do five main monitor mixes - for them and stereo IEM for Cliff, plus another for drummer Brian Bennett, while the rest of the band are using Aviom personal mixers. We also have a pair of in-fills which give Hank and Bruce a lead vocal reference."
Out front, the challenge is to satisfy two very different sets of audience expectations - to hear the old songs as they know them, but to also provide the audio quality expected at a modern live show.
"Live audiences have very different expectations now, compared to what live sound was like back then, so we're trying to provide a 1960s-style sound, but with modern quality," says Bunny.
"Ironically, the liveness of the stage from using wedges brings back some of that bygone age and the band seem to really vibe off it. The guitar amps are accurate handmade copies of the original Vox AC30s. They sound stunning and provide a really original feature. And, although it's a modern drum kit, I only use a gate on the kick to stop it going off into unknown territory."
With five vocal mics, two guitars, two keyboards, bass, drums and percussion, Bunny has 46 inputs, plus the effects returns.
"I separate the snare and hats, kicks, bass, keys, guitars, Cliff's vocals, backing vocals and have them all on a DCA that goes across everything except the vocals," he says. "Then, if I think the vocals seem a bit quiet, I can pull the whole band down and leave the vocals at the same level."
At the monitor position, JJ is also making extensive use of the PM5D's DCAs, while both he and Bunny use scenes throughout the show.
"Pretty much everything at front of house is on a scene," says Bunny. "Primarily it's to remind me to turn things off - for example there are lots of guitar changes, so I know if I do each one on a scene that the acoustic guitar will be off if it was on for the song before.
"It means I haven't got to worry about pops and bangs, plus I know the effects are going to come on for a certain song if they're programmed in."
"I have a different scene for every song and there are a lot of safe parameters implemented ," adds JJ. "Some are totally safe, some are just fader and mute safe. You know if Brian wants something changed, it has to change for the whole show, but if Cliff wants something changed it's probably just for that song. The safe screens are very good for all that.
"I call the cues for the entire show to Cliff and Brian's IEMs. The Shadows take their lead from Cliff and from Brian on the few songs they play on their own during the show."
The UK and Irish dates ended in London on 23rd October. The tour then heads off to mainland Europe and on to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in early 2010.
"One great thing about the PM5D is that it is so widely used," says Bunny. "You can get them virtually anywhere in the world. I can take my card, put it in and I know that, wherever I am, I'll have exactly what I have here. So using the onboard processing makes life really easy."
And making life easy seems to be the watchword for this most professional of camps, both those on the stage and off it - with the Yamaha PM5Ds, of course, an integral part of it all.
"Cliff and The Shadows have seen it all and had it all, they know how bad it can be and hopefully it's not quite as bad when I'm doing it," smiles JJ. "They're all lovely people and very easy to work with. There are no temperaments to deal with at all.
"On a Cliff solo show, I worry about him and everyone else is happy to sort themselves out, whereas here there are four stars, so they all need to be looked after. It made the first few gigs a bit fraught, but now it's all automated on the PM5D scenes, I can concentrate on Cliff again now. It's turning out to be simpler than I thought and the show has settled down nicely. It all works really well."
"They band are specific about what they want, but also more accepting of any comments you give them," adds Bunny. "And I'm very happy with the PM5D. Every night I turn it off and I don't want anything else."
photo: Diana Johnson
Meyer Sound Constellation Paves Path to Mythical World in Cirque du Soleil's ZED
Cirque du Soleil's ZED thrills Tokyo audiences with a soaring, acrobatics-filled musical fantasy about a mythological-comical character who reconciles earth and sky. At Tokyo Disney Resort's purpose-built 2,150-seat theatre, the dynamic soundscape created by sound designers François Bergeron and Vikram Kirby helps entice the guests into a world of imagination, giving the show a heightened emotional texture using Meyer Sound's Constellation electroacoustic architecture.
Part of Meyer Sound's LCS Series, Constellation incorporates the physical acoustics of a space with powerful technology and expert services to create flexible acoustical environments. As applied in ZED, Constellation utilizes 97 compact loudspeakers, 32 microphones, and five dedicated VRAS processors to afford the liberty of creating fully adaptable acoustics.
"Constellation can sound absolutely natural, if that's what you want," says principal sound designer François Bergeron, who is also CFO of Burbank, Calif.-based Thinkwell Design and Production and designer for six prior Cirque du Soleil shows, "but in pure sound design it also lets you play with the laws of physics. You can create acoustic spaces that cannot exist in the physical world. For example, at one point, the director wanted to create the sounds of a bizarre world using only ambient sounds in the room. With Constellation, we met his request, creating room acoustics impossible to achieve with physical architecture."
Constellation in the ZED theatre is designed to work hand-in-glove with the Meyer Sound self-powered primary and surround audio systems. Everything is linked and controlled by what, surmises Bergeron, may be one of the largest CueConsole modular control surface ever assembled: 14 Matrix3 processors, six fader modules, 11 meter bridges, plus transporter and editor, together giving discrete access to 192 inputs and 168 outputs. Throughout the show, Constellation presets are recalled from a cue list and controlled using the CueConsole.
"The Meyer Sound system affords a whole different level of capabilities," adds Kirby, "including tailoring inputs and outputs to suit the show, specifying exactly what each cue does, and configuring the control surface to the size of the booth. ZED was in rehearsals for five months and, by the end of that time, the LCS system felt like a musical instrument that played the spectral and spatial composition of the mix."
The ZED theatre is designed to be an acoustically dry room, which tends to keep the audience from perceiving themselves to be part of a crowd. According to Tim Younghans, head of audio for ZED, Constellation's early reverberation provides an effective solution to this problem. "Dynamic mixing with Constellation enables me to evoke a greater response from the audience, allowing a burst of applause, or of ‘oohs' and ‘aaahs', to spread across the theater," says Younghans. "You could say Constellation is the bridge between the show and the audience."
The main audio system comprises main left and right hangs of five M'elodie line array loudspeakers each, in addition to an unusual arrangement of a center array of five matrixed and cross-firing SB-2 sound beams. Arranged in an upstage arc, they anchor the sound to the stage while maintaining a uniform L-C-R image at all seats. Thundering bass descends from ten flown 700-HP subwoofers, while intimacy is maintained at more distant seats by delay systems of 12 CQ-1, 11 UPJ-1P VariO, and 16 MM-4 loudspeakers. Surround effects envelop the audience with 81 additional UPM-1P, UPJ-1P, CQ-1, and Stella-8C loudspeakers, the latter models recessed into pony walls behind the audience.
For Bergeron, the main system provides the primary instrument for carrying the performance, but it's Constellation that allows him to play the room acoustics for emotional effect. "Constellation allows us to transport the audience from one specific room to multiple environments," he relates. "It's like an audio zoom-in and zoom-out. When you zoom in, the theater sounds dry and closed in, but when you zoom out it feels spacious and lush. It becomes part of the emotional roller-coaster for the audience."
The Meyer Sound audio systems were provided by SC Alliance, with support from ATL, Inc., Meyer Sound's Japanese distributor; installation was by Yamaha YST. The theatre's striking, circus-tent-inspired design is the work of Canadian architects Saucier + Perrotte. The hosting company for the production is Oriental Land Company, Ltd., with planning cooperation from Disney.
ZED is directed by François Girard, also well known as a film director, with several of his works centered on musical themes. Composer and arranger of the music for ZED is René Dupéré.
ArKaos MediaMaster Chosen for Australian Idol
Australian Idol is Australia's version of the world famous talent show American Idol / Pop Idol. Now in its eighth year, the television show is broadcast nationally and has enjoyed great success over the years. However, with such a well-publicised and popular format there is always pressure to improve on the previous year's production.
Lighting designer for Australian Idol, Francesco Calvi of Calvi Lighting Designs, explains: "What started out as a light show with a central screen on the first series of Australian Idol has now evolved into a ‘big' light show involving several video screens accessed by media servers all of which are linked to the lighting console.
"When ArKaos released its new version of MediaMaster this year I decided it had everything I needed to take this show through the 2009 season. I am using two Power Macs to give me three video feeds. The first Power Mac is feeding the 6-mm main screen and the 28-mm video floor. I decided to run these two feeds off one machine as they work very closely together: the content at times needs to flow from screen to floor as one image and, as they are different format screens, I needed to be able to control each screen separately.
The second Power Mac is feeding the side screens - 16 columns of 28-mm screens - which is treated for the most part as one screen. Both Power Macs are controlled via a grandMA."
Calvi's initial impressions have been confirmed by the Media Master's performance throughout the show's run.
He continued: "We are now in our 6th week of the current season and MediaMaster has been a great choice. It has worked beautifully - with some surprising features that I hadn't expected!
"One of the great things for me has been its ability to slow playback speeds right down, without the content becoming unusable. To be able to slow media down this much gives me the choice of a greater range of media, rather than having to rely on media which is the right speed for the song.
"There are plenty of effects in MediaMaster that are all very usable. I have found these to be a great way of breathing new life into old content. Getting new content is both expensive and time consuming so it's nice to modify old content with these effects to create new looks.
ArKaos has also added a contrast and brightness master to its latest software.
"This feature is essential for anyone working with LED screens. Contrast is also available as an effect, but the ability to use it as an attribute frees up the effects and it is particularly useful with the low res screens where the image is not as detailed.
"Having frame blending as a feature that can be turned off/on depending on the requirement is also a welcome addition. It works extremely well and has helped to smooth out some less than perfect media!
"During the series I also got to play with the sound generator for one song, with surprising results. I ran the sound feed via a small DJ mixer so that I could control level and EQ. It was one of those ‘I wonder how this would look' moments and received a great response. It is always good to have something different to throw at a show particularly when it goes for several weeks.
"ArKaos has obviously spent a lot of time on this version of its MediaMaster but, as good as any product is, it is only as good as the support it has from the company. The people at ArKaos have been very responsive to all my queries (even the stupid ones!) and special mention must also go to my local distributor, Show Technology. I am looking forward to working with MediaMaster for many more shows to come."
Lighting designer Francesco Calvi started as a touring roadie 25 years ago, working for several lighting companies in Australia. He started his own LD company, Calvi Lighting Designs, in 1997 and is now mainly working for television shows and major events such as Australian Idol, So you Think You can Dance, Big Brother, Live Earth Australia and Sound Relief.
photo: Stuart Bryce
Jonas Brothers on World Tour with MAC III Profile
Arguably one of the hottest bands of the last few years has been the Jonas Brothers who are out on a world tour in support of their latest album ‘Lines, Vines and Trying Times', which debuted at number one on the Billboard charts and in several countries around the world.
John LaBriola, production and lighting designer for the pop-rock band since January of 2008, his 3rd tour with the trio, turned to Martin's 1500 watt MAC III Profile to light the multiple stage set.
"I had heard great things about the MAC III Profile's brightness and optics prior to designing the show," he stated. "With this show requiring a trim of 55', it seemed like the perfect opportunity and the perfect light for the job."
The 144 foot long, in-the-round set was created by Tait Towers and features three stages filled with band elevators, lifts, a 360° rotating arm and more. Some 56 MAC III Profiles serve as the main spot fixture in the show and LaBriola has them placed "everywhere" in the rig and on the set.
"The brightness is fantastic and goes without saying, and the gobo selection is phenomenal. The zoom is also truly amazing. I have cues that incorporate a full zoom on a gobo in a color that doesn't lose any brightness spanning the entire length of the arena," he says.
"The MAC IIIs have been amazing. This is quite a large show with a pretty brutal schedule. They've taken several beatings and have been sprayed/drenched by several fluids. They continue to perform as well as the first day of production rehearsals."
Martin Atomic 3000s with Atomic Colors scrollers are also everywhere they could fit in LaBriola's design. "Their brightness and parameter control is second to none," he says. "They enable the ability to use a strobe light for everything for accents to dramatic fade/timed cues."
LaBriola appreciated the support he received from Martin US on this summer's kick off North American leg. "Brad Haynes provided extensive insight and support for the fixture as well as allowing input for future firmware changes. I can't thank him enough," he says. Lighting supply for the US leg was by BML-Blackbird. Tour Director is Rob Brenner. The tour resumes in November with a string of European dates.
Glam Light: ETC Eos on Broadway's Rock of Ages
Time will tell if people will be listening to the rock anthems of the 1980s hundreds of years from now as people today still listen to classical music. But 20-plus years after the 80s blew our hair back - long after perms proved not to be permanent - the music still rocks.
Broadway's new Tony Award-nominated hit musical Rock of Ages (RoA) makes the case for the lasting power of the power ballads and for the performance aesthetic of the era. The 80s brought us not just glam rock but glam light - the first moving lights and a not so quiet riot of special effects on concerts. At the Brook Atkinson Theatre in New York, Rock of Ages spares no rock lighting look while employing technology that is decidedly 2009 in its innovative functionality - from LEDs, to advanced moving light and video projection, to the ETC Eos lighting control system interfacing with all of the systems and running the rig.
Homage to 80s hits, with a set list of over 20 big numbers like Bon Jovi's Wanted Dead or Alive, Foreigner's I Want to Know What Love Is and Journey's Don't Stop Believing, Rock of Ages is one of the largest shows done on an Eos desk. "We created new effects specific to the music, tempos, and moods of each number," says RoA lighting designer Jason Lyons. "The flexibility of the Eos effects engine and the ability to create an effect in different ways added to our ability to give each moment its own flavour. Also the ability to query and select by specific parameters made building cues across our conventionals, moving lights and large contingent of LED fixtures, very comprehensive."
Eos was especially helpful in transitioning Rock of Ages successfully from the smaller stage to Broadway. Lyons explains: "When we were first putting together the off-Broadway production, we were trying to do a full-scale 80s rock spectacle on an off-Broadway budget. We had to make certain concessions on the number of units, unit types, and particularly putting both conventional and moving lights on a single control system, with a single programmer. But the Eos allowed us to put the entire show together, in a way that made sense theatrically and also gave us the functionality to create a rock show.
"I had also been hesitant in the past to combine conventionals and moving lights onto a single control desk, due to both functionality and the sometimes overwhelming organisation required to deal with both. But the Eos handled the entire light plot with ease and allowed us to tie all of our equipment together in cues in a simple way, rather than having to try to sync up multiple systems."
Playing now to sold-out shows and critical acclaim, this Broadway production - as well as its touring and movie version - is set to rock for ages.
In picture: Rock of Ages photo Joan Marcus
