production news

Midas Digital Reaches Iran with first PRO6 Sale

Company co-founder Hasan Ardestani is one of Iran’s top FOH engineers, and the company provides sound systems for a variety of events, including concert tours by the country’s leading singers such as Mohammad Esfahani , Reza Sadeghi and Mohsen Yeganeh.

After receiving their PRO6, Ardestani Brothers deployed it in one of Tehran’s biggest and most challenging venues, Milad Hall, which is used for concerts, conventions and seminars. To date, the PRO6 has been used to enhance performances by the Azerbaijan Symphony Orchestra and traditional Iranian singer Hesmedin Seraj concert in Milad Hall.

"The PRO6 sounds superb and no matter how hard you push the system, there will always be more head room," says Ardestani. "There is no compromise with this system, and you can really notice the superb quality and the difference it makes."

Ardestani Brothers is now planning to add some MIDAS PRO2s to its inventory.

In picture: FOH engineer Hasan Ardestani; Midas distributor Majid Siyapoush and Ardestani Bros’s System engineer Morteza Hadian.

21st May 2012

Clay Paky Sharpys Deliver New Look to Bruce Springsteen

Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures, from Las Vegas-based Morpheus Lights, are giving Bruce Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball World Tour a look that The Boss’s previous concert performances have never had before.

The Wrecking Ball World Tour kicked off in the U.S. this spring in support of The Boss’s 17th studio album, "Wrecking Ball". Springsteen’s lighting designer Jeff Ravitz selected 16 Sharpy fixtures for his inventory after having seen them last fall.

"In putting Bruce’s tour together I thought the Sharpys would be an excellent replacement for the lights we were using inside the set platforms to push through," he explains. "I thought they’d be a nice change with a really defined and distinct look. The Sharpys also allowed us to use some great gobo patterns."

When Ravitz added Sharpys the idea came up of using hazers to paint the air and enhance the lights’ sharply-defined beams. Employing hazers – which are not all as singer-friendly as the MDG Atmospheres Ravitz chose - to help create interesting visual compositions was a first for a Springsteen tour. "Adding the haze really shows off the Sharpys," Ravitz reports.

He positioned the fixtures on stage shooting up through plexiglass windows that replace part of the deck and on two-side trusses shooting left and right on the custom-built Tate Towers stage. The Boss’s shows have typically been designed to be very horizontal to allow for maximum sightlines from every angle. But for Wrecking Ball Ravitz decided to add some Sharpys to a powerful vertical truss for a "very dynamic look".

He says: "We’re having a lot of fun with the Sharpys. Sometimes we use no colour, sometimes deep colour and sometimes ballyhoo. We feel we’ve found the right balance."

The Sharpys are proving to be rugged and reliable on the long tour schedule, Ravitz adds. "The crews tell me the Sharpys are pretty bulletproof and are working great every day."

Francesco Romagnoli, Clay Paky area manager for North and Latin America, adds: "We’re so pleased to see our Sharpys on this high profile and very popular tour. Mr. Ravitz is an excellent designer and it shows in the projects he works on. We’re glad to be able to help with our innovations."

www.claypaky.it

18th May 2012

Kenkaato Makes Big Impact for Katara Hospitality Re-branding Event

Doha based event design and production company Kenkaato produced a spectacular of epic proportions for the formerly named Qatar National Hotels (QNH) Company, now Katara Hospitality, which involved fully co-ordinated large format projections onto four of the group’s stunning buildings in central Doha.

The event ran live for three evenings, celebrating Katara Hospitality’s announcement of a complete rebranding exercise and the official launch of a new corporate identity, together with new acquisitions. It also coincided with the heavyweight three day Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC) being staged in Dubai

The client wanted to make a high impact using a contemporary medium that could engage the general public and be communicated commercially and virally on multiple levels.

Kenkaato - a new company fusing experience with fresh ideas and imagination - took the brief, which already included projections - and presented the client with several options.

From this Katara Hospitality chose direct projections and architectural lighting onto four of their highest profile properties in the City – the Ritz Carlton in West Bay, the Doha Marriot, the Sheraton Hotel with its eye-catching Corniche site and their own headquarters on C-Ring.

The event was delivered with elegance, chic and massive visual effect utilising all the power and drama of monumental projection combined with feature lighting. These giant projections, strategically dotted around the city caught eyes and cameras. Images were immediately randomly buzzed around social network sites creating a real clamour.

Kenkaato’s Sarah Whitmarsh and Darryl Payne brought in Dutch projection specialists Hulskamp Audiovisual, via their Dubai office, to help realise the project and put together the technical spec needed to create the spectacle.

Pani BP6 high power slide projectors were chosen for their brightness and because they were the most versatile machines available for the job. These were fitted with a selection of different lenses to match their positioning and throw distances.

Three of the buildings are glass fronted, so Kenkaato arranged for them to be fully dressed in perforated wrapping, a challenging six day job undertaken by Icon Qatar and involving three teams of six professional abseilsers, who had to work hanging from the tops of the buildings – the tallest being the Ritz Carlton at 115 metres high.

The surface areas covered by the special slide artwork – which included the new Katara Hospitality logo, branding and a selection of narrative slides specific to each building – were all vast.

At the pyramid shaped Sheraton, the images measured 132 metres wide at the base, 32 metres wide at the top with a height of 62 metres. This was achieved using three Pani BP6’s positioned on an architectural walkway across a lagoon, approximately 50 metres away. Another fascia of the Sheraton was architecturally lit to complement the projections.

The Marriot – one of the original western style hotels to open in Doha - was projected onto on two sides, covering areas of 30 x 37 metres and 48 x 27 metres respectively, utilising four BP6 machines positioned in the car park and on the beach.

At the Ritz Carlton, three BP6 projectors stationed in the hotel grounds created an image 70 metres wide by 40 metres high straddling two surfaces.

Back at the QNH HQ, three Pani BP4’s were used to cover a surface area of 50 by 9 metres, all located in the central reservation of the road!

Control for all four projector systems was local to each installation. Artwork was supplied by QNH and especially composited as Pani slides by the Hulskamp team

To further unify all the sites, the crowns and top pieces of each building were illuminated in the same bright Cool Blue using high powered architectural lighting fixtures, supplied by the leading Doha lighting and sound rental company; Creative Communications Group (CCG).

To complete the visual picture, grounds and gardens were feature lit with individual lighting schemes designed by Michel Khairallah from CCG. These all added atmosphere and enhanced the aesthetics to tie in with the content being highlighted on the buildings.

Various lighting fixtures were used including – Griven Kolorado’s, Kaliedo’s and Kolorstream 2500s and Clay Paky Alpha Spot 1200 and 1500 moving lights.

In addition to co-ordinating the projection and lighting, Kenkaato undertook all the logistics involved to stage the event, obtaining the import licences and municipality permissions to site the equipment in public places. To ensure this went a smoothly, they engaged the services of Russell Mason at Impact Events.

All the power needed across the four sites, was supplied by Byrne Power Rental and installed by three teams with special attention paid to location and minimising any disturbance to hotel guests. .

Says Sarah Whitmarsh: "We were thrilled to be invited to be part of Katara Hospitality’s new era. The brief was simple, ‘to raise awareness of the new brand’ and in doing so ‘Create a visual impact never seen before in Doha’. Working with people we trust, we knew we could create something awesome.

"As ever, there are always challenges here, which were magnified by the very short three week lead-time and import delays. Nevertheless, great teamwork and collaborations between some of the best professionals in the industry produced fantastic results."

14th May 2012

Clay Paky shines a light on Bahrain’s Path of Pearls

Festivities are underway as Manama, capital city of Bahrain, celebrates its appointment as Capital of Arab Culture 2012.

As part of the festivities the city produced a spectacular opening ceremony, Path of Pearls, which was packed with magical imagery and effects. Responsible for the stage and lighting concept was Belgian lighting designer from Painting with Light, Luc Peumans, who employed no less than 170 Clay Paky fixtures to light the vast tiered stage, full sized orchestra, aerialists and dancers.

Long-term Clay Paky stockist, Eclipse Staging Services, a trusted supplier of audio-visual services in the UAE and GCC, supplied local Bahrain Company, AVL Concepts, with Clay Paky Alpha HPE 1500, Beam 1500, Wash 1500 and Profile 1500 along with a large number of Sharpy fixtures.

Darren, general manager for Eclipse, discusses: "One of the fields in which Luc Peumans and his company Painting with Light excels is in utilizing the latest technologies in the process of designing, while at the same time increasing efficiency and output. This made the Clay Paky Alpha range ideal for this project as they pack a lot of punch for relatively low power draw. In addition the Clay Paky Sharpy effortlessly cuts into the action to pick out individual performers or to create architectural scenic effects."

Lighting had to be strong and defined to complement the performances and ensure the performers were not lost to the audience on the immense stage. Peumans used the Clay Paky Alpha range to evoke a variety of moods and environments. These varied between underwater worlds to storm sequences and sunny seashores. The show’s performers, which included over 100 dancers and aerialists, plus a full sized orchestra, used all areas of the expansive, three-dimensional multi-level stage, which presented Peumans with quite a challenge.

"Luc used a large number of our Alpha 1500 stock, including the Wash, Profile, Beam and HPE models," explains Darren. "The high build quality and the fact that they’re reliable and robust, even outside in a rainstorm made them a great choice for this project. The range of effect and projection options along with their high luminosity, sharpness of image, richness of colour and graphic effects are all features that ensured Peumans could successfully deliver his creative vision. From the moment we purchased the Clay Paky Alpha range - and more recently the Sharpys - they have become the preferred choice of fixture for many LDs in the region. Today they’re used across every professional lighting sector in the region including theatres, television studios, architectural and entertainment environments, we’re delighted with them."

www.claypaky.it

9th May 2012

Mackie's DL1608 in the Field with Dierks Bentley and Brad

When Mackie launched the DL1608 Digital Live Mixer with iPad Control at NAMM earlier this year it turned more than a few heads in the industry. This full featured, 16-channel mixer introduced an entirely new take on live sound with its ground-breaking new paradigm – complete iPad control. As Mackie gears up for the launch of the DL1608’s Master Fader control app in June and the arrival of the DL1608 in stores worldwide later this summer, they’re field testing the app by putting it in the hands of front of house engineers in a wide range of real world scenarios.

Most recently, the DL1608 got some face-time with FOH engineers for Dierks Bentley and Brad (Stone Gossard, Shawn Smith, Regan Hagar, Jeremy Toback). Both engineers used the DL1608 for the first time on April 21, 2012 at Seattle independent music store, Easy Street Records. The live show was part of national Record Store Day, an annual celebration where 700 independently owned record stores collaborate with musicians to celebrate the art of music. Easy Street Records features a small venue with a maximum capacity of 750 people that commonly hosts afternoon shows with touring artists scheduled for headlining shows at larger Seattle venues later that evening. With an extremely tight front of house space, the venue demands a compact mixer solution that can guarantee premium sound and give the engineer massive control.

Both FOH engineers, Pugs (Dierks Bentley) and Barrett Jones (Brad), had time for only a quick tutorial before their 30-minute sound checks. Normally a FOH engineer wouldn’t touch a digital mixer they’ve never used just minutes before a show (especially since this performance would be streaming live on Sirius Satellite Radio), but in this case both engineers found the user interface intuitive and comprehensive, with all the functionality they expect in a digital mixer. "Although I had never used this mixer before, it was straight forward, easy to use, and well laid out," said Barrett Jones.

Besides having an intuitive interface that was easy to navigate with little instruction, another huge benefit of the DL1608 is the ability to control the mixer from anywhere in the venue. "It was great to be able to tweak the monitors from each monitor position on stage with the iPad controller... the ability to mix the show while walking around the floor was really nice," said Jones.

During the 10-hour day, which featured performances by four bands in total, the DL1608 performed without a hitch and Mackie received tremendous hands-on insight from the engineers. These real world field tests are an essential part of Mackie’s product design process. Stress testing the hardware in a variety of conditions ensures the DL1608 hardware will work reliably for customers. In addition, real world feedback on the Master Fader control application will shape future updates as it continually evolves through simple app store updates, adding value to the DL1608.

The Master Fader app will be available free in the iOS-App Store in June 2012. Mackie will also soon premiere a DL1608 video podcast series offering tons of great information about the DL1608, including all the basics, advanced how-to’s, and tips and tricks. Later episodes will specifically respond to questions that customers pose to Mackie’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. The DL1608 video podcast series will start in May 2012 in iTunes. The DL1608 will begin shipping in Summer 2012.

In picture: FOH engineer Barrett Jones.

4th May 2012

High End Systems Pumps Up the Action at Istanbul Sinan Erdem Arena

Istanbul Sinan Erdem Arena has installed products from High End Systems, a Barco company, to add fanfare to its basketball games. Prior to showtime, four Showgun 2.5s and 4 DL.3 Digital Lights pump up the crowds in the opening ceremonies. A Road Hog Full Boar is in control.

Istanbul’s Ultima Audio Visual Communication Services has a production company, Ultimaturk, which installed the High End Systems package last February. The Ultimaturk lighting department designed the show.

Sebahattin Aydin, general manager for Ultima Audio Visual Communication Services, says they chose High End Systems products for its high-quality features. "The DL.3 is a special product in the entertainment market. If you have a good lighting designer using it, you don't worry about anything."

The DL.3 - a combination digital lighting fixture with a built in media server - projects team logos, players faces and other specialized content to get the crowds cheering.

The Showgun 2.5s do what they do best: add excitement. When they blast their large exiting beams into the performance area and into the crowds, with their ring of LEDs - matching or contrasting around the lens - the crowds go wild. "Showgun is the perfect machine in the market," Aydin says. "It’s an awesome fixture."

The Road Hog Full Boar was selected especially because it is a full featured High End Systems console, adaptable to any size or configuration of show situations. "It is a user friendly console," Aydin says, mentioning that it can control any number of fixtures and accommodate any operator. Noting that High End Systems offers worldwide training and support are more factors for its specification. "The support department works well," he adds.

High End Systems equipment is already specified for the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four matches next May, Aydin notes.

1st May 2012

Florence and the Machine evocatively lit by Chris Bushell using Series 3000 Luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite

LD for Florence and the Machine, Chris Bushell, is using VL3500 Wash and VL3000 Spot luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite to deliver his evocative and atmospheric lighting design for the band's sold-out world tour. Playing venues such as Alexandra Palace, MEN Arena, plus a raft of vast spaces in Europe and the USA, Bushell’s lighting skillfully pulls the audience focus to the centre of the stage without losing the essential theatricality of the early Florence shows.

Lighting is ethereal with Bushell using it more as a statement than for big effects. He explains: "The overall theme is based around 1920s Baroque fashion and architecture. While a great deal of thought and planning went into the set, I also wanted the presence of the lighting to complement and exploit the space around the set piece. The VL3000 Spots were perfect for this. With their wide angles and long throw I was able to use them as top and back/side light. The VL3500 Wash fixtures fanned out from the centre mimicking the set and creating an almost physical beam presence in the air."

Indeed beams of lights hit the stage from a plethora of angles and heights to create an impressively architectural look. Working with the set, and arts and crafts style projections, lighting is angular and sculptural. Bushell uses a rich palette of colour; deep hues of orange, yellow, red and blue wash over the stage while Florence’s famously gothic alabaster white skin still shimmers seductively under clean sharp top and side light. "Another part of the original brief was "to employ an esoteric colour palette," continues Bushell. "In particular we use a certain teal green, which is used on the set along with particular golds and ambers. The Series 3000 luminaires were great for complementing and cutting through these colours, which I didn't necessarily want to appear on Florence's skin tone or costume. I find that getting the more fiddly colours right is much easier and consistent from a Philips Vari-Lite fixture. Things like the CTO's, Straws and Ambers along with subtle pinks and steels. This time round I played with them a lot more."

The show is all about Florence and at no point does Bushell upstage or lose her on what can often seem like a vast playing area for one singer. The lighting is clean, defined and focused. Bushell says he chose to use the Series 3000 luminaires because: "They still pack enough punch at long distances for great airborne effects, yet are also great for sympathetically lighting the subject. Overall this allowed me, along with considered use of DMX controlled followspots, to isolate and control Flo's environment, blending her in or separating her from the stage. Either way I had the control I wanted. So I was able to keep the intimate theatrical feel that Florence loves but in a large arena environment."

David March, director, European Sales for Philips Vari-Lite comments: "The VL3000 Spot and VL3500 Wash fixtures have had an undeniable impact on the concert lighting industry. Their colour and optical systems provide lighting designers with the exact tools needed to capture the essence of their lighting designs, and to have them showcased on a tour such as this is indeed a testament to their worth."

In picture: Florence and the Machine at Alexandra Palace photo: Sarah Rushton-Read

www.vari-lite.com

23rd April 2012

Radiohead Returns to the Road with L-Acoustics

Radiohead recently embarked on its first North American tour in four years and is firing on all cylinders with a full L-Acoustics K1/KARA/KUDO system supplied by Firehouse Productions of Red Hook, NY.

The North American portion of the tour, which kicked off at Miami's American Airlines Arena on February 27th, is divided into three legs, the last of which will wrap up at Toronto's Downsview Park on June 16th before heading overseas to Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan, New Zealand and Australia.

For most of the arena stops on the domestic tour, Firehouse is deploying left and right arrays comprised of 14 K1 line source elements with four KARA hung below for downfill. Coverage for the far left and right audience areas is addressed by outfill arrays featuring 10 K1 with six KARA flown beneath.

Sub arrays of eight K1-SB are flown adjacent to both of the primary K1 hangs, while 24 SB28 groundstacked in cardioid mode bolster the low-end reinforcement. Horizontal arrays of four ARCS on each side of the stage provide nearfill, as do six dV-DOSC spread out across the stage lip.

For larger venues, Firehouse deploys a delay system exclusively comprised of KUDO featuring left, center and right arrays of nine enclosures each flown in back of the FOH mix position. Amplification and processing for all loudspeakers is provided by LA8 amplified controllers housed in LA-RAK touring racks.

At the helm of the system each night is Radiohead's longtime FOH mix engineer Jim Warren, supported by system designer/engineer Sherif El Barbari and Firehouse system tech Jamie Pollock.

Said Warren: "I have yet to find another system which combines the even coverage and the dynamic sensitivity of the L-Acoustics K1/KARA system. With the use of KUDO delays in the larger arenas on this run, we have been able to further improve on the coverage, especially into the rear corners of the room, and have been able to minimize the amount of energy directed at areas where it was not required with very pleasing results."

At Warren's request, the tour's mix position is also equipped with a pair of self-powered L-Acoustics 108P and single 115P low-frequency extension cabinet. This small system acts as a reference when working on the mix from ProTools during the day as well as serves as a monitor during the show. A third 108P at FOH acts as a shout system for communication with the monitor mix area.

According to Rolling Stone magazine's website, Radiohead front man Thom Yorke revealed that the band has worked up more than 75 songs for this tour, including additional new songs and deep-track B-sides.

"Radiohead's list of songs to choose from each night is very diverse," notes El Barbari, who designed the system. "When it comes to styles and facets, their music is extremely dynamic and ranges from very quiet to physically capturing, which requires a PA system that performs evenly throughout various SPL levels. K1 and the rest of the L-Acoustics range of cabinets are well known for performing neutrally at all levels without changing tonality or coloring the sound, which makes this system the perfect match for a band like Radiohead."

On the band's previous North American trek in 2008, Firehouse officially put K1 through the world's first high-profile tour run. According to El Barbari, who was extremely pleased with the results then, this year's outing is even better thanks to the addition of KARA, digital AES cards for the LA8s, and the use of the new LA Network Manager 2.0 software.

Following the North American leg, the tour turns to Liverpool-based Adlib Audio to provide a similar PA for the European and UK portion. Firehouse, however, will continue to supply the control for the full duration of the international tour.

In picture: Radiohead's full touring system, including KUDO delays, at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.

21st March 2012

Norwest Productions Becomes Largest L-Acoustics KUDO Provider

L-Acoustics Rental Network Agent and Certified Provider Norwest Productions has added 74 KUDO cabinets and 16 LA-RAK amplified controllers to its existing inventory, which already includes 118 KUDO boxes. The equipment was delivered directly to Doha for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Pan Arabic Games, whose sound designer, Auditoria’s Scott Willsallen, extensively specifies KUDO for his projects due to its adjustable horizontal cue, which provides even coverage over a large space.

Norwest, which now owns the largest KUDO stock in the world, has vast experience of using KUDO on major sporting events, including the Delhi and Melbourne Commonwealth Games opening and closing ceremonies, Doha Asian Games opening and closing ceremonies, Singapore National Day events, Sydney World Youth Day and Singapore Youth Olympic opening and closing ceremonies.

"Norwest was an early adopter of L-Acoustics KUDO, purchasing the initial order in 2006 for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and many other events since," says Chris Kennedy, Norwest’s group sales director. "Due to the strong demand for this product we have elected to purchase another 74 cabinets with LA-RAKs, taking our total KUDO inventory to 180. Our local demand for KUDO is such that we can no longer afford to send large quantities away for several months for a big event such as Arab Games - so more were needed."

In picture: Norwest Productions’ new L-Acoustics KUDO cabinets arrive in Doha for the Pan Arabic Games.

21st March 2012

MidasPRO2 Defies Storms to Debut at Dubai International Jazz Festival 2012

A MidasPRO2, deployed by leading Dubai AV production company Artes Middle East, delivered a first-class debut performance FOH at this year’s 10th Dubai International Jazz Festival despite the onset of strong winds and sandstorms during the week-long event.

“The console stood its ground through everything,” reports a delighted Karl Da Costa, FOH engineer and technical production manager at Artes, who was using a Midasdigital desk for the first time following a product demo by Chicco Hiranandani of Dubai-based NMK Electronics.

The PRO2 was installed at the festival’s open-air Jazz Garden which saw some 19 acts perform over nine days, including headline bands fronted by Ruby Turner, Deborah Coleman, Shakura S’Aida and Sharrie Williams.

Da Costa, an experienced user of Midas Verona and Heritage 3000 analogue consoles, quickly familiarised himself with the Midas digital desk to take full advantage of its versatility. He set up with 24 inputs, four effects and three main outputs routed to a Klark Teknik DN780 system processor. “After the first day, I built on the existing show files for the new bands, using the automation to recall files and overwrite,” he explains. “The most interesting feature was bringing all channels grouped on a particular VCA onto one module strip on the channel bank, making it easier to manoeuvre the desired channel groups at just the press of a button. Perfect for the fast turnaround you need when you’ve got a number of different acts on one night.”

For Da Costa the experience was altogether positive, despite the unusually challenging weather conditions. “The PRO2 is compact, top quality and it sounded great to artists and audience alike,” he says. “It’s also quite simple to use, and the tech support from Midasand NMK is fantastic.”

The PRO2’s performance was also positive for Hiranandani, who reports: “After seeing it perform at the Dubai International Jazz Festival, several engineers have been in touch requesting more information. Word about the PRO2 is spreading.”

In picture: Karl Da Costa and Chicco Hiranandaniwith the Midas PRO2.

16th March 2012

Culture Capital: grandMA2 Walks the Path of Pearls

With Path of Pearls, a musical production that wove Bahrain’s heritage with its modern underpinnings, Manama, Capital of Arab Culture 2012 was officially launched. The event was held at the sea front of the Bahrain National Museum. Lighting designer Luc Peumans from Painting with Light, Belgium, specified one grandMA2 full-size and one grandMA2 light along with two MA NPUs (Network Processing Unit) for the show.

For the musical a large orchestra, 100 dancers plus nine aerial artists performed on a multilevel stage. The show used the largest low-resolution LED screen (300sqm) that was ever used in the region.

Eclipse Staging Services from Dubai supplied all the lighting and video equipment.

www.malighting.com

14th March 2012

ETC uses Christie to Light the Opening Ceremony of the 12th Pan Arab Games

On 9th December 2011 dancers, musicians, athletes, and falconers both on foot and on horseback paraded through the Khalifa Stadium in Doha (Qatar), which had been transformed into a huge screen for the opening ceremony of the 12th Arab Games.

Conceived by the British event production agency David Atkins Enterprises on a commission for the organising committee of the Pan Arab Games, the opening ceremony entitled Journey to Light relied on the expertise of its French technical services provider ETC and the Christie Roadster series of projectors purpose-designed for event production.

Christie’s partner ETC is an experienced event manager thoroughly familiar with the creative challenges David Atkins Enterprises can pose: its project manager Patrice Bouqueniau describes the opening ceremony of the 12th Pan Arab Games as: “A totally original installation, even more ambitious than the one we did in Vancouver in 2010… This time, too, we chose Christie projectors – partly for their unequalled illuminating power, but also for their outstanding blacks and their unrivalled dependability.”

Two towers were put up on above the stands opposite the display area, to cover the whole of the Khalifa Stadium which at nightfall would be turned into a giant screen. In groups of three, 42 Christie Roadster HD18Ks on one tower and 36 Christie Roadster S+20Ks on the other had the job of lighting the ground and producing the spectacular 3D projections, while another eight Christie Roadster S+20Ks (four in each tower) were aimed at the central stage constructed beside the stands.

“The ground was covered in white geotextile, making a giant screen 136m long by 72m wide,” said Patrice Bouqueniau. It was a real 5280 x 3264 pixel challenge to cope with the constraints imposed by the grandiose set design; but that wasn’t all. The configuration of Christie projectors deployed by the ETC technicians needed as many as 12 matrix overlays in some parts of the image, all modulated using Christie’s Twist technology.

ETC for its part relied on its media diffusion system Onlyview to map video according to the 3D projection surfaces. “Onlyview made it possible to use the same Christie projectors to project the images onto the flat surfaces as well as onto the 3D ones,” said Patrice Bouqueniau.

For the matrices, ETC chose to use 4:3 and 16:9 projectors using Christie Roadster S+20Ks for the one and HD18Ks for the other. “Set design constraints are absolute: we chose to use these two types of matrix because we couldn’t get the same pitch angle from both towers to cover the whole of the projection surface,” he said.

To ensure a faultless spectacle when it came to the ceremony, ETC went for media diffusion using what is known as a 'redundant distributed' installation in which a master player broadcasts its control signals by optic fibre to the individual slave players associated with each projector. In this way each slave player stores the entire media and selects that part of the image addressed to its projector, forwarding the data stream to the projector by DVI. A parallel back-up network is updated live: if needed, each back-up player transmits the data stream via the second DVI input on each Christie Roadster. “A system like that is just so capable, you can think up any back-up configuration you want,” Patrice Bouqueniau emphasised.

The opening ceremony of the 12th Pan Arab Games, like all spectacular events in the past and no doubt in the future, provided the ideal opportunity for technological innovation and creative digital artistry. This one was projected onto the biggest surface ever, within the circuit of a stadium. Watched by no fewer than 40,000 enthralled spectators, Christie’s projection solutions showed off their power and dependability once again in the very the heart of the action, amply justifying the repeated confidence of its partner providers.

Journey to Light, a magnificent spectacle combining performance of many art forms, was above all a message of peace and freedom conveyed by the values of sport and the celebration of Arab culture. In an allegory of the coming together of peoples from all over the Middle East, the set design celebrated the desert as the land of prophecy, where disparate tribes learned to live together in perfect harmony through the shining light of knowledge.

“In close collaboration with the Arab Games Organising Committee, DAE created a story inspired and informed by the stories and images of pre-Islamic and Islamic history,” said David Atkins, CEO, David Atkins Enterprises. “The Ceremony was created to acknowledge the importance of these times, at a time when the very pages of Arabic history are being re-written.”

8th March 2012

Midas PRO Consoles at Heart of Historic UAE National Day Celebrations

A Midas PRO6 supplied by London’s Britannia Row and a PRO9 from Dubai-based Sound On Stage Events had leading roles in the UAE’s spectacular National Day celebrations to mark the 40th Anniversary of the nation’s founding.

The PRO6 controlled all the audio, both live and broadcast, at the multi-artist arena show in the filled-to-capacity 50,000-seat Sheikh Zayed Stadium, held in the presence of UAE President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Emirates rulers and Crown Prince.

"We had an unlimited budget and we could have taken any console in the world, but the PRO6 was the only choice for the job," says Britannia Row engineer Josh Lloyd. "This show was an incredibly high profile, complex, one-off event, and broadcast live on TV. Equipment failure was not an option."

The PRO6’s digital flexibility and networking capability also proved invaluable on-site assets, enabling I/O to be easily distributed across the stadium’s huge distances and ensuring audio clarity in a hostile RF environment.

The show itself comprised two halves; the first, a military parade with marching band; the second, celebrating the birth and development of the nation, involving hundreds of musicians, singers, dancers and other performers across eight different scenes.

Lloyd set up using one Midas DL351 and two DL451 modular I/O units, while a DL451 in the video control room took the commentary mics and the VT feeds for the show, plus the time codes for lighting, pyro and lasers. The other DL451 interfaced with the playback system and the main system outputs to the PA and monitors. The DL351 took all the mic and radio mic inputs, providing stems and splits for broadcast, as well as additional time codes.

The marching band was fully miked up to allow for a mix in the stadium as well as splits and sub-mixing for broadcast, while during the parade itself, playback from a triple redundant playback rig was connected via AES, again for both stadium and broadcast. The PRO6 also handled all the TV commentary for the event.

Automation and show file features came into their own in the second half, with music and vocals pre-mixed and mastered on the console during the five-week rehearsal period. In rehearsals the automation was for virtual soundchecks, and in the show itself to automate EQ fader and mutes between sections of the show.

Given the challenges of the event, Lloyd particularly appreciated the point-to-point routing between I/Os. "This was used a lot, including distributing the time codes essential for such a complex show" he explains. Other stand out features for Lloyd included using midi within scenes to fire playback cues and the sound of the desk’s compressors, which he describes as "Fantastic, with great shimmer on the busses and it’s very transparent on things like speech getting mixed for TV.

"Overall, the PRO6 performed great, the sound was amazing and the client was happy. What more could you ask?"

Meanwhile, Sound On Stage Events used their newly-upgraded Midas PRO9 for a two night run of concerts at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) in Abu Dhabi, featuring leading musicians Abdulla Al Rowaishid and Murex d'Or award winner Hussein Al Jassmy, part of a series of musical performances staged in celebration of UAE National Day.

Sound On Stage have been committed Midas fans since using the analogue Legend 3000 and Venice 320 consoles back in 2000, and were the first company in the Middle East to own a PRO6.

For Rawad Saad, Sound On Stage’s technical manager, the National Day concerts were the perfect opportunity for a first outing for the PRO9. "We had three different artists each night," he says, "but it was all easily accommodated by the PRO9’s higher channel count and its simple but sophisticated automation system."

DL431 active mic splitters on stage were patched to the desk via the onstage DSP rack, while a Klark Teknik DN9331 Rapide graphic controller allowed quick access to the PR09’s onboard KT DN370 graphic EQs. A Klark Teknik DN9696 high definition audio recorder was hooked up with three CAT5 cables for recording the show. Saad used six scenes for the different artists, with some 50 channels per scene to accommodate an Arabic band with strings, cellos, drums, percussion, guitars and keyboards, as well as the individual artists. "This allowed us to quickly rehearse and save specific settings, and recall settings on the day of the shows, allowing us to focus on mixing the performance," he says. The mix for the live TV broadcast to an audience of one million was also provided by the PRO9, via the DL431 mic splitters.

UAE Midas distributor NMK Electronics – last year’s Midas Distributor Of The Year and supplier to Sound On Stage – was also happy. Many local rental companies have requested a demo, "having seen the PRO6 in action for themselves," reports NMK’s business development manager, Chicco Hiranandani.

In picture: Sound on Stage’s Rawad Saad and the Midas PRO9

www.midasconsoles.com

1st March 2012

Kenkaato Produces Several Event Firsts in Doha

Dubai based event production company Kenkaato has produced the first ever live public music event to be staged in the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) Park in Doha, Qatar.

The initial concert in a series of music shows planned over the coming months was headlined by Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens – also on his first ever live appearance in the Middle East – and was completely sold out, attracting a capacity audience of 2,800 including 221 VIPs and senior members of the Qatari Royal Family.

Kenkaato is a fresh new company established by Sarah Whitmarsh and Daryl Payne to provide imaginative, turnkey, full production solutions for all types of live events.

Both Whitmarsh and Payne have extensive experience working on a variety of large scale and high profile productions in the Middle East region.

The company’s brief for the MIA Park show from the Qatar Museums Authority included the provision of complete event production and coordinating all the technical and logistical elements needed to make it happen. The Museums Authority were especially keen to have a single-source production company putting the show together, giving them just one point of contact.

In addition to this, Kenkaato dealt with all the logistics, artist negotiation, artist liaison and travel arrangements both locally and internationally. They also advised on a marketing plan and promotion for the series of concerts, which are intended to become a regular Doha cultural highlight.

Kenkaato’s on-site team in Doha included production manager Chris McDonnell and artist liaison Rebecca Bryant. One of their key beliefs is ensuring that the right people are in the right places on an event, not just to make everything run smoothly and efficiently, but also to create a great atmosphere and working environment.

Whitmarsh and Payne utilised their extensive local and regional contact base to source all aspects needed to stage a successful and ‘first’ ground-breaking show.

Kenkaato themselves designed the site layout, which included a bespoke roof system, with plenty of space and weight loading to be able to accommodate cutting-edge international productions. This was evolved with the help of Ross Cameron and Al Laith Event Services’ Qatar operation, in collaboration with Serious Stages, who engineered the new roof and were onsite for the install.

With the Park and the stage within it, setting the scene for the event, “We wanted to create something unique and completely different, to anything that had been seen here before,” explains Whitmarsh.

Specifically, they wanted a construction that would have the right aesthetic impact for the setting and offer all the necessary production facilities.

The result was a standard Al Laith stage base with an elegant, separate, skyward pointing, cantilevered tensile roof structure, the look of which is based on classic Arabic arch architecture.

At 25 metres wide, it has a decent headroom of 14 metres, and an impressive weight loading of up to 32 tonnes and 2 tonnes on the 7 metre rising cantilever.

The seating – also supplied by Al Laith – was an integral to the overall site design, and has created an intimate ‘enveloping’ space bringing the audience close to the stage, so they can experience a direct communication with the artist and the action.

The roof is finished with white skins on the outside – specifically designed to be illuminated at night – and black on the inside to reduce glare and reflections bouncing around, and ideal for optimising onstage lighting and video effects. The cantilever was also internally lined in white, allowing another element for light play.

A camera system, PPU and left and right IMAG screens – made from Lighthouse R7 LED - were supplied by CT Qatar for the Yusuf Islam show.

Lighting and sound came from Creative Communications Group (CCG), Qatar’s leading professional lighting and sound rental company.

For audio, an L-Acoustics Kudo system provided crystal clear quality sound throughout the venue, together with a really expedient profile, and satisfied all the requirements of the artists’ engineers. The lighting included over 50 Clay Paky Alpha series moving heads, assorted conventionals, and was also to the specification of Yusuf Islam’s touring LD.

Architectural lighting for the stage and roof structure was designed by Michel Khairallah from CCG, who used Griven Kolorado 4K colour changing wash fixtures to highlight its clear lines and distinctive shaping.

A backstage ‘production village’ included green rooms dressing rooms and production offices, all supplied by De Boer, and the stage and site was powered by two 500 KVA auto-synched gennies from Prime Power, overseen by Steve Ford, who also provided a crew of electricians.

The very specific backline requirements were met by Melody House from Dubai.

Kenkaato’s remit included formulating a traffic plan for VIP transport, bus routes from the park-and-ride and general site crowd management.

Being the first public music event on the site, Kenkaato found themselves creating a ‘scope of the works’ in conjunction with the Museums Authority as the site evolved which enabled contracts to be drawn up and signed.

“We really like working in unusual and challenging spaces, so we were very proud to have the chance to be ‘the first’ in a very special environment and to be able to set standards of excellence to be followed,” says Payne.

Yusuf Islam’s manager Majid M Hussain commented after the event, “Yusuf, his band the Roadsters and our crew really enjoyed the experience. Everything was made easy, from the technicals to the hospitality and that's what helped make it such a special first show for Yusuf in the Middle East. The stage was fantastic and it was befitting for Yusuf's repertoire to be out in the open performing his hits”.

The concert was a huge success, and became an instant talking-point in Qatar, and everyone is already eagerly anticipating the next one on March 15th headlined by leading Arabic artist, Hussain Al Jassmi.

Says Whitmarsh, “From the beginning, we had a definite look in mind and when all the elements came together, it was exactly what we wanted – beautiful, elegant and worthy of the huge team effort”.

Director of the Museum of Islamic Art, Aisha Al Khater, comments "The Yusuf Islam concert was talked about all over Qatar as being truly spectacular. As the first major international concert to be held at the Museum of Islamic Art Park, the bar has been set very high, and I very much look forward to collaborating with Kenkaato on making the forthcoming series of concerts a major attraction to Doha’s cultural landscape."

27th February 2012

Television Set for Million’s Poet 5 Highlights Advancements in Stage Fabrics

Innovation in stage fabrics, laser cut finishing, and High Output LEDS for cyclorama diffused lighting effects along with the technique of custom bending steel framing for set decoration is offering major improvements for the industry in build-up time, weight of set pieces, safety, and special effects. Substituting traditional installations with lightweight fabrics and energy efficient LED lighting that only requires a small distance between the light source and diffusion cloth for cyclorama lighting effects on stage opens up a new world of possibilities for event and stage design.

ShowTex Middle East's new 3D compound curve bending machine shaped the steel framing for the 36 metre long "wings" covered in seamless StretchTulle for the set design of Million's Poet 5, the fifth edition of the televised competition for the most talented poet in Arabic poetry.

A high precision custom designed fabric layout and ShowLED laser cut patterns resulted in complete fabric and lighting integration. The ShowLED High Output Animation System combined with Frost diffuser foil F-welded with invisible joints created cyclorama light effects.

Onstage, the wings and walls were made out of a steel frame with 3D compound curves. Lighting for Million’s Poet 5 was provided by a video controlled ShowLED high output system driven by a grandMA media server. The ShowLED V-Box creates an interface for any media server. ShowTex’s Frost foil with invisible HF-welded joints served as a flexible diffuser cloth. The top wing was covered with Stretch Tulle, an elastic stage gauze, constructed by sewing specialists to produce no visible seams in the fabric, so any light and projection effects are pure and uninterrupted visually. Width of the wings was approximately 5 metres with a total length of 36 metres. Walls of the set started at a height of 3.5 metres running down to 60 cm. in compound curves. The ShowLED High Output LED patterns were laser cut with high precision and custom designed layout. The fabric panels themselves were laser cut to ensure the smooth flow of the fabrics.

www.showtexcom

23rd February 2012

TechnoPro Take Wise Decision

The 2011 WISE Summit with the theme of ‘Changing Societies, Changing Education’ was held recently in Qatar National Convention Center in Doha. 

Throughout the three-day Summit, 1,200 decision makers, practitioners and thought leaders from different sectors shared and debated ideas, discussing new ways to address major challenges and to promote purposeful action.

The event was designed by Auditoire, one of the leading event companies in the region, and TechnoPro provided the lighting equipment for the summit, calling on their inventory of PR Lighting fixtures. TechnoPro rigged the stage with a combination of 14 PR XL1200 Spot, 20 XL1200 Wash and four PR XL700 Wash fixtures.

The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) is dedicated to building the future of education through innovation. This global collaborative initiative was inaugurated in 2009 by Qatar Foundation, under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser. Its mission is to address the challenges facing 21st century education, to expand dialogue around the world and to implement practical and sustainable solutions.

22nd February 2012

VWV Invests in Robe MMXs - and Helps Save the Rhinos

Johannesburg-based VWV, One of South Africa’s leading production companies - responsible for the spectacular closing ceremony of the 2010 Soccer World Cup amongst many other events - has invested in Robe’s new ROBIN MMX Spot moving light fixtures.

"They are currently building up a carefully selected stock of their own lighting technology, which is starting to expand," explains VWV technical director Jonathan "Jonno" Royston, who co-ordinates all the company’s technical requirements.

The purchase of the eight MMXs is the start of an expansion in the kit they own. The units were supplied by Robe’s South African distributor, DWR, also based in Johannesburg.

Royston first saw the MMXs in action on the Robe stand at the PLASA 2011 lighting and sound exhibition in Earls Court, London. He was "Highly impressed" with the gobos, the animation wheel functionality and the high light output, and recommended that they make the investment. "I believe that you don’t need so many of them to produce a really great lighting show, either using them as front projected gobo effects or punchy back lighting – or a combination of both!" he comments.

This is VWV’s first Robe purchase, but Royston has been familiar with the brand for some time and also seen various Robe products in action on their diverse rosta of shows and events.

DWR and the Robe lighting factory in the Czech Republic turned the delivery around in lightening quick time, so the eight new units could immediately be used on a ‘Save The Rhinos’ event for the Wildlands Conservation Trust’s Rhino Conservation Project staged in Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton, Johannesburg.

Here, they were mounted on vertical trussing ‘totem’ towers concealed behind a wooden hide – where interested parties walked-in and talked to Rhino experts about the animals’ plight, and discovered how they can be proactive in contributing to the campaign to save them.

Six of the MMXs were used to project a selection of fabulous patterns and ‘liquid’ animations on the front face of the Sandton Library building at the end of the Square, with two units swirling around a couple of striking Rhino logos. The nightly show was programmed by lighting designer Sean Rosig, and it ran for three weeks to raise awareness of the need to save these wonderful animals from extinction.

It was Rosig’s first chance to use the MMX Spots – although he has used Robe products on many of his designs in recent years. He also really liked the units, saying: "They are great for dazzling aerial effects as well as more moody things like fire, water and snow effects."

He adds that features like the DMX controllable hot spot are extremely useful, which means you can get a nice even light field, even when the beam is irised right down. Although he didn’t really use this for the Save The Rhino’s show he says it will be amazing for rock and music gigs.

VWV’s MMXs were the second batch to be delivered in South Africa. Pretoria based retail company Blond Productions took delivery of the first to add to their growing rental stock.

www.robe.cz

22nd February 2012

W-DMX at Natal Luz Gramado

W-DMX by Wireless Solution Sweden AB recently helped bring a holiday shower of lights to the Natal Luz Gramado Festival in Brazil. Billed as the biggest Christmas party in the country, Natal Luz saw an audience of approximately 1.4 million people. The season lasted 74 days and the result exceeded the perspective of the organisation.

Four W-DMX transmitters and 12 W-DMX receivers handled a flawless signal to 48 Moving Spot IM700s, six Clay Paky Alpha Beam 1500s,12 Atomic 3000s, 36 Moving Wash IM575s, eight Laser System DMXs, 60 Fire Machine DMXs, 36 Par LED 3W AQUALEDs, and eight fog machines. 120 Canais dimmers plus control was from a grandMA Ultra Light console and a grandMA NPU.

Daniel Ridano, owner of Lighting Bits based in Sao Paulo, Brazil was both the technical consultant and distributor for W-DMX for the show. Ridano has a background in lighting consoles and DMX control and has been a W-DMX consultant since 2010, with some of Brazil's biggest shows to credit, including the 100-year anniversary of the discovery of Machu Picchu in Peru and the Bradesco Seguros Christmas Tree in Brazil, recorded as the worldâs largest Christmas tree.

Natal Luz was commissioned by the Do Natal Luz organisation and the technical production was handled by Veritas, with head technician Carlos Alberto Fumanchu and Carlos Fabio da Silva. Ridano commented:"They needed a DMX signal distribution system that could withstand long distances and a varied climate in a central area of town for a long period of time. After consultation, it was decided that W-DMX by Wireless Solution was the best way to solve this problem. It didnât let anyone down â the system worked perfectly throughout the entire season."

"We're very happy with Daniel's successes with W-DMX in South America," said Niclas Arvidsson, CEO of Wireless Solution. "He knows DMX technology extremely well and has made many big event possible."

22nd February 2012

wysiwyg Tours with Roxette

wysiwyg, the award-winning previsualisation suite from CAST Software of Toronto, Canada is on the current world tour of the superstar band Roxette. The Swedish band, headed by Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle, was formed in the late '80s and are known for their international hits, including "The Look", "Listen To Your Heart", "Joyride" and the classic love ballad "It Must Have Been Love", which was featured on the soundtrack "Pretty Woman" and sold 9 million copies. The group has had 33 chart-busting singles and total record sales exceeding 75 million.

Roxette began their current world tour in Feb 2011, their first world tour since 1995, and have so far visited Europe, Russia, South America, and South Africa, with the 2012 leg covering Asia, Australia and Scandinavia, for a total of over 120 performances.

Calle Brattberg is the lighting designer, set designer, programmer, and operator for the tour, as well as creator of the wysiwyg design used for lighting the show.

The main lighting for the Fall leg of the Tour was supplied by Starlight in Sweden, consisting of 40 Martin MAC 2000 Wash, 39 Vari*Lite VL3000 Spots, 11 Vari*Lite VL2500 Spots, 10 SGM Ribaltas, 11 Cromlech JARAGs, 14 Martin MAC 301 LED washes and 18 2-lites by James Thomas Engineering. Brattberg's own company, LXworks, is the supplier of the MA2 lighting desks and signal racks and Hippo Critter media servers by Green Hippo. The 2012 part of the tour will pick up different kits from different vendors at almost every show, although using the same design.

Pre-programming for all lighting and video was all done by Brattberg using wysiwyg Perform, beginning in September 2011 in his previsualisation studio in Stockholm. Video content was created by Brattberg, alongside Peppe Tannemyr of Digigobos.

Brattberg explains: "The benefit of working with wysiwyg is enormous. All preprogramming including video content was made and adjusted in wysiwyg before we went to production rehearsals and it saved me a lot of time since the rehearsal time was only three days with the band." (The band has been together for over 20 years so long so rehearsals are not necessary for the music.) As well, and just as important for the tour, all communications with vendors and venues were enhanced and simplified by reference to the plots done in wysiwyg.

Brattberg continues: "I was using R27 for all the pre-programming, however, the 2012 segment will be done in R28. I will also be using R28 in 2012 for many other projects such as the popular Peace & Love festival plus the Swedish Melodifestival 2012."

Brattberg happened to be one of the lucky winners of the daily prize drawing at the CAST booth during PLASA 2011, winning a one-year wysiwyg Perform Membership. "This was just icing on the cake," explains Brattberg, "I was already using wysiwyg - in fact it's such a standard in Sweden that it's actually difficult to work efficiently with others if you don't have it. So winning a year Perform membership was the perfect prize. Thanks CAST!"

Brattberg adds: "I'd also like to thank Starlight for their great support of gear and great engagement in the project, and One Two sales in Sweden, the retailer for wysiwyg and all of the LXworks lighting gear. Finally, the whole Roxette band, management and crew for just being fantastic professionals for being so great to work with."

22nd February 2012

Indian Megastar Performs In Dubai with Outline Butterfly

Whilst not perhaps immediately familiar to Western audiences, the name AR Rahman could hardly be better known in his native India. In fact, with total sales in excess of 300 million units, the Indian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, multi-instrumentalist and philanthropist is one of the world's best-selling artists. A prolific writer of film scores (including 'Slumdog Millionaire' and '127 Hours'), he is noted for his integration of eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and traditional orchestral arrangements. The two-time Academy Award winner is also a member of Mick Jagger's new band Superheavy.

In early December 2011 the great man and his troupe performed at the Dubai Cricket Stadium for a capacity crowd. Production was provided by the Muscat-based Talentz Centre LLC, the largest production operation in Oman and whose expertise in large-scale events takes them all over the region, including the UAE. The company has invested significantly in Outline Butterfly systems with the MD, Baltazar Fernandez, quoting the productsâ consistency, quality and flexibility as key factors in his company's ability to handle visiting international acts.

The company deployed their compact Outline Butterfly system comprising a 16 per-side flown main L&R system with eight further enclosures per side as âwrapsâ. Twenty Outline Subtech 218 subwoofers provided low frequency reinforcement, and the whole system was powered by Outline T-Series amplifiers. Despite the size of the venue and crowd, only one mono delay tower comprising eight Butterfly high packs and four Subtech subwoofers was required.

The Dubai Cricket Ground poses particular challenges for visiting production companies, being well known for its âslapbackâ echo generated by a combination of the roof covering the seated area, the huge video screens and the plastic material used to protect the playing surface during events. Outline's senior technician Francesco Ferretti was on hand to assist with tuning the system using the company's own 'Open Array' 3D prediction software. The accuracy of this system plus the extremely tight dispersion characteristics of Butterfly meant that the unwanted reflections were kept to a minimum resulting in exemplary coverage and intelligibility throughout the audience area.

FOH engineer KJ Singh said: "Despite its small footprint, I was very impressed by the clarity and power handling of the Outline Butterfly system we used for the AR Rahman concert in Dubai. Mr. Francesco from Outline did a fantastic job of tuning and aligning the system very quickly and it was amazing to hear its wide, even dispersion, especially considering the difficult acoustic environment that we were in. I am a convert!"

21st February 2012

Digitalism Connects with iLive

Popular German electro house duo, Digitalism, has been touring the globe this year carrying an Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system to manage FOH and monitors.

"Early on in the tour, the band only carried one iLive system, to keep monitors consistent," explains FOH engineer, Daniel MacBean. "However, we were so impressed with how easy the system is to tour with and set up that we decided to get a second system in for FOH. It literally takes 30 seconds to set up at FOH: plug in Cat5, turn on power, and I'm good to go!"

The band has performed in America, Europe, Asia and the international festival circuit this year using two iDR-48 MixRacks and iLive-T80 Control Surfaces connected using Dante, which provides a digital split between the FOH and monitor systems and provides additional recording facilities.

"After ease of use, the most striking feature about iLive is the sound quality. It really is the most analogue-sounding digi board I've ever used. If you shut your eyes it genuinely sounds analogue, it has warmth that you canât find in any other digital desk. Plus, the effects, reverbs especially, sound amazing with very little fiddling, and the EQ's, dynamics in particular, are a definite cut above the competition," explains MacBean.

In picture: the iLive-T80 surface during a recent performance by Digitalism in New York.

16th February 2012

Optocore Helps Vangelis Inaugurate Doha Amphitheatre

An Optocore system has been used by leading French rental company De Préférence for a one-off show by Vangelis, to inaugurate the new Katara Amphitheatre in Doha.

The Greek composer had written a celebratory opus for the grand opening and the Paris-based production company, which specialises in large-scale spectacular events such as this, was tasked with constructing an optical fibre ring using seven of their Optocore and SANE converters to deliver the sound to an audience of 3,000 people.

The concert also brought together the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra (a multinational ensemble) and Moscow's Yurlov State Academic Choir, boosted by superstar soprano Angela Gheorghiu and tenorissimo, Roberto Alagna. 

This required De Préférence, and their 14-strong crew, to construct an elaborate network loop via Optocore fibre and SANE Cat5 Ethernet platforms, using X6R-TP / X6R-FX converters, capable of handling the main and pre-mixes, including the orchestra and chorus premixes from the Yamaha DM2000 desk; at the same time Optocore DD4ME’s were deployed to connect via a MADI bridge to the DiGiCo SD7 FOH desk for recording purposes.

Placed on the network were Yamaha DM2000 digital consoles, one handling the stage recording premix and one sending a chorus premix to the DiGiCo SD7 FOH and monitor consoles (for recording). From the DiGiCo environment the digital signal passed through an Optocore DD4ME Dual MADI network device to the Yamaha DME64 PA processor.

The DD4MEs interfaced between the DiGiCo SD7 and the Optocore loop (the MADI 1 OUT assigned to the chorus premix between the DM2000 and SD7 consoles, while Madi1 IN was a copy of the DiGiCo stage rack).

An Optocore DD2FR-FX was used as the MADI interface for recording, with two multitrack recorders — one for playback connected directly to the FOH DiGiCo SD7 and one to the Yamaha desk.

Thus, confronted with the challenge of trying to tame reverberant surfaces, De Préférence were able to send pristine, low-latency Left/Right signals to the clusters of L’Acoustics Kara loudspeaker enclosures, positioned around the amphitheatre, via the 8-In/8-Out Optocore X6R converters; these were also assigned to the intercom, while a 64-input Optocore stagerack serviced the chorus.

Summarised De Préférence’s Dominique Guerder, who handled the project, “The show was a big success. Thanks to our large inventory of Optocore devices we have the capability to construct advanced networks for events of this scale.”

In picture: Vangelis inaugurates Katara Amphitheatre.

15th February 2012

Barzan Stone Laying Ceremony Brought to Life with PR Spots

Fixtures from across the PR Lighting discharge and LED range of moving heads were deployed by TechnoPro, their distributors in the Gulf regions, for the recent Barzan Gas Project Stone Laying Ceremony at the Doha Sheraton Hotel.

The Barzan Gas Project’s goal is to provide sufficient gas to the State of Qatar’s domestic market to meet the country’s growing need for cleaner natural gas well into the future, and the event was attended by His Highness the Heir Apparent Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

TechnoPro, a Dubai based technical production company with a branch in Qatar, provided the PR Lighting equipment — along with a Meyer Sound PA system.

Suspended from the truss were six each of the Chinese manufacturer’s XL1200 Spot and Wash lights and 12 each of the XL700 spot and wash. These were complemented by 12 of the powerful Beam 300, offering three beam angle options and 24 XLED590s, with each head containing 90 powerful LED lights.

This ensured that the set was lit dynamically throughout for the assembled guests.

15th February 2012

Audinate's Dante Provides Networking Backbone For UAE's 40th National Day

The Official Ceremony for the UAE 40th National Day saw Zayed Sports Stadium full to capacity as thousands turned out to celebrate the achievements of the nation, and Audinate's Dante was there to make sure all the networked audio delivery functioned without a hitch.

The 360 degree stadium production placed complex demands upon Audio contractors Britannia Row Productions. The stadium was covered by eight hangs containing L-Acoustics Kudo, SB218, VDOSC, D-VDosc, 108XTs, Kiva, Kilo and other various distributed speakers, all controlled by 17 Lake LM26 Processors, three Yamaha DME Processors, six XTA Breakout Boxes and connected by a Dual Redundant Fibre-optic IP network.

The Lake LM26 processors, which were distributed throughout the system, provided crossovers, EQ and time alignment were all connected by Audinate's patented Dante networking technology. This proved essential as very high levels of RF interference were being audibly induced on all the analogue copper connections. The use of fibre optics eliminated the analogue electrical connections between amp racks. One of the Yamaha DME 64ns was equipped with a Dante-MY16-AUD card and acted as the main system matrix providing feeds to all Lake LM26s as well doing EQ and dynamics processing for press feeds, monitoring and audio distribution throughout the venue including backstage and outside the stadium.

Joshua Lloyd who oversaw the set-up and design of the PA system at the Stadium remarked: "Once again Dante has allowed us to deliver a reliable, high quality, fully redundant signal distribution system at a high profile international event. Without the use of Dante (audio over IP) the unusual amount of RF interference we experienced, where even short analogue cable runs suffered from induction of local radio, would have made this job next to impossible". Lloyd adds, "Without the extreme flexibility that we get with Dante we would have struggled to achieve the fantastic results we did."

The system was a natural for Audinate's Dante Virtual Soundcard. DVS was used on a pair of Apple MacBook Pro computers running Qlab to form a dual redundant playback system via another Yamaha DME64 processor equipped with Dante-MY16-AUD card.

The media playback system was supervised by Gavin Tempany who commented: “Dante provides large channel counts, directly from my workstations. This also allows me to take up less space in often cramped control areas, and still deliver critical content with confidence."

The dual network system performed reliably for the show and the preceding lengthy rehearsal period leading up to the event. Tempany points out: "Dante is completely scalable. The system used nodes for processing, input and output. Ease of configuration and the confidence that Dante will just work, allows for greater concentration on the important aspects of delivering an imaginatively designed, first class audio experience to the audience."

15th February 2012

A Walk in the Park for PR Lighting

Over 100 fixtures from PR Lighting were deployed recently at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) Park Inauguration in Doha. Situated alongside one of the most iconic buildings in the Qatari capital, the park offers panoramic views of the city.

The official opening was marked with a ceremony and concert in the presence of HH the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and included the launch of the world-class sculpture ‘7’, by international artist Richard Serra. This 24 metre-high creation is the first work of art produced by Serra to be displayed in the Arab region.

The ceremony was also attended by a number of Their Excellencies sheikhs, ministers and Heads of Diplomatic Missions accredited to Qatar.

A temporary concert shell housed musicians from the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra who performed Hughes de Courson’s The Magic Lutes and prior to that a dramatic light show heralded the presentation, with guests seated facing Doha Bay and scenic views of the city’s skyline.

Dubai based technical production company TechnoPro, with a branch in Qatar, provided the Litec Alusfera Dome Structure, PR Lighting equipment and Meyer Sound sound reinforcement for the event.

The event itself was organised by Auditoire, a well known French event management company in the region. The lighting, which was designed and directed by Alexandre Lebrun, incorporated 32 x PR XL1200 Wash, 24 x PR XL1200 Spot, 32 x PR XLED 590, along with two PR Mega Color 4000 architectural features and 24 x PR Pro Par 600w stage luminaires.

The opening of the park was timed to precede Qatar’s National Day, with the purpose of attracting the attention of the local audience and visitors through a variety of cultural activities and exhibitions, as well as to keep pace with the urban development witnessed by the state. 

In picture: the concert itself, and a detail of the dome structure.

8th February 2012

HEADLINES

news archive

search stories