production news

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.

www.whitelight.ltd.uk

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.

The Perfect Menu: grandMA2 Dines with Mubadala

The Mubadala Development Company, sponsor of Etihad Airways' Scuderia Ferrari Formula One in Abu Dhabi, recently held its signature dinner at the Emirates Palace. The dinner was arranged inside the world's largest freestanding Dome Truss, built from Eurotruss elements. For control, lghting designer Paul Smith chose a grandMA2 system consisting of a grandMA2 full-size console and a grandMA2 light console, two MA NPUs (Network Processing Unit) and grandMA2 onPC software.

Mayar Abbas, managing director of Dubai Artistic Innovation, who delivered the lighting equipment together with InHouse Productions reported: "The grandMA2 was chosen as the lighting designer felt it was the best console for the job. The advanced programming functions were extremely useful, as well as the networking, allowing the grandMA2 light and grandMA onPC to become full tracking backup consoles."

Said Abbas: "The design itself grew from the shape of the custom domed structure built specially for the event. Three circle trusses and a large number of side-arms were used to create positions for the lighting fixtures. Due to the height, the access to fixtures during the run-up to the show and the high likelihood of a large number of table and seating reconfigurations, the entire rig had to be intelligent to give the flexibility of being able to change things quickly."

Richard Lambert. was lighting programmer.

photo: Dubai Artistic Innovation

www.malighting.com

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

www.xlvideo.tv

Outline at the Global Competitiveness Forum

Among many corporate events of international importance, Outline loudspeaker systems were used to amplify the 2010 edition of the Global Competitiveness Forum, held at the Four Seasons Hotel in the Kingdom Centre in Riyadh (winner of an award as the best skyscraper of the world for design).

Founded by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) in 2006, the Global Competitiveness Forum, a meeting held annually, is regularly transmitted by TV broadcasters Al Jazeera, NBC and Bloomberg, as well as the world's best-known news media.

Through the years, the GCF has attracted thousands of eminent political leaders, multinational company CEOs, ministers, government officials, intellectuals and academicians from every corner of the globe, with the sole aim of meeting and exchanging ideas.

The event's mission is to increase awareness and enthusiasm on the challenges of competitiveness, critically assessing its aspects in relation to international trade, innovation, the environment (new forms of energy), development of human resources and sustainability; in short, at GCF 2010, talk focused on the consequences that determine the fact of "becoming competitive" on a global scale. Among the leading speakers was Tony Blair (UK prime minister from 1997 to 2007).

Due to the event's importance at international level, Events AVP, whose chairman is Mr. Sharif Tabbara - exclusive Outline distributor for Jordan - was selected, as it is a company with the necessary experience for supplying the sound reinforcement system and audio equipment necessary for the multiple applications required in situations of this type.

As far as the audio at GFC 2010 was concerned, sound reinforcement in the conference hall (50 x 40 x 9 metres), involved the use of just 6+6 Butterfly Hi-Packs and 2+2 Subtech 218 SP. Control and power were courtesy of a Yamaha M7CL console, XTA processor and Outline T series amplifiers.

As monitors, the speakers alternating on stage had at their disposal two compact Outline Micra II SP enclosures, whereas six units were used on front-fill duty to cover the first rows of seats.

The rooms allocated to interviews by Al Jazeera, NBC and Bloomberg were equipped with six more Micra II SP, whereas four Outline DVS 12 enclosures (in pairs) were used to reinforce the sound in other two halls (each seating sixty people), hosting the academicians and university professors.

Audio chief and FOH engineer, Carlo Gennaro, commented: "In this case, there was no need to work at 135 dB, but to cover the audience perfectly with a very ‘well-mannered' SPL. There again, we had no alternative, considering the position of the microphones compared to the PA. But, as I've repeated for years, with a minimum of energy, the Butterfly gives a wonderful intelligibility - it almost seems to ‘breathe', and it doesn't matter at what distance. It goes exactly where I point it and you can feel the sound ‘in your face'. I give the merit for this to its waveguide, one of the few that works superbly...in fact, I'll go as far as to put in writing a thought I have in common with several of my colleagues: on the world market, there are numerous line arrays, but on the ‘mid-high' frequencies there are only two items able to give the same performance are this device ..."

Clay Paky Lights Formula 1 Grand Prix Concerts in Abu Dhabi

"Yasalam", the Arabic word for "fantastic, amazing and astonishing" was a befitting name for the recent Formula 1 Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi, which included a heart-pounding race schedule followed by four nights of post-race concerts featuring Beyoncé, Aerosmith, Jamiroquai, and Kings of Leon. "Fantastic, amazing and astonishing" also describes the enormous lighting rig supporting these shows, filled with over 100 Clay Paky fixtures.

The concerts, produced by Flash Entertainment, were held at Ferrari World on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi and were open only to ticket holders for the race weekend, with all four shows packing a huge audience.

The stage was tremendous - sustaining a design flexible enough for the exciting line up of artists and at the same time big enough to accommodate the massive crowd. The design was wide and open, ensuring a great view for everyone in the audience. With no roof and no front truss, the back wall carried the bulk of the lighting along with a giant high-resolution screen, then flanked on both sides with 45-metre-wide LED "wings" with additional effect lighting. Towers placed at the front corners of the stage contained front and side lights.

Forty-four Clay Paky Alpha Spot 1200s and 42 Clay Paky Alpha Wash 1200s were the mainstay of the back wall, with 20 Alpha Beam 300 fixtures placed on the wings for additional effect. Control came from three grandMA full size consoles and two grandMA media servers. Production Technology LLC delivered the lighting, rigging and staging. TechnoPro supplied the LED wings.

Luke Bonner of Production Technology LLC explains: "As I could observe working with Steve Shipman (Festival LD) on this event, the Clay Paky fixtures we used seemed to work without hesitation or trouble. In events such as this, the last thing you need are lights that do not work properly or keep constantly breaking down, thus requiring replacement. Of all Steve's concerns, the Clay Paky fixtures did not seem to be one of them."

"Apart from the evolution of technological and aesthetic advancements - and of course the quality of light output - to get to the latest Alpha Series, Clay Paky have maintained a very important feature critical especially to situations such as this: reliability."

Festival Lighting Designer Steve Shipman added: "I've done a lot of work with Alpha 1200 Spots and Washes over the last few years, they're great workhorse fixtures. They were the main fixtures on the back wall for the F1 show. It was big! The top truss trimmed at just under 17 metres, the width was 37 metres. I needed lights with good output and good zoom range. The Alphas were perfect. They were also very reliable, we had 86 fixtures working for 8 days, about 8 hours a day. Total number of swap out's: One! That's a good average in my book!"

"I was also very impressed with the Alpha Beam 300s. My draft one design had truss-mounted searchlights on the wing trusses and I needed lights with a very bright and narrow beam to line the top of the wings. I was asked to make some compromises for budget reasons and the searchlights were replaced with Alpha Beam 300s. I wasn't sure at first if a 300-watt fixture would cut it. The total width of the stage and wings was 93 metres, I thought a 300-watt light might get lost. My concerns were unfounded. They looked great. The Alpha Beam 300 is the punchiest 300-watt moving light I've ever seen. It's a moving ACL on steroids!"

Paul Dexter was very happy with the Clay Paky fixtures used for the Aerosmith show. "The Alphas add a layer and dimension unlike other profile and wash luminaires that reminds me more of an air graphic ACL beam through the haze, except with more punch and ability to add saturated colour and movement. I was very impressed with the intensity of the Alpha Beam 300s that lit the two long thrusts into the audience because it appeared as though, even with a long throw distance that the beam stayed intense from the source to the stage. They definitely held up to the size of the stage."

The results were fabulous and the fixtures performed night after night with no problem. Everyone involved from show management to visiting LDs were extremely pleased with the results, including the thousands of fans fortunate enough to be there. Bonner summarized, "At Protec, nearly all of our fixtures are Clay Paky - the Alpha Spot HPE and Wash including 300, 575 and 1200 through to the older Stage Series including Scans, Zooms and Colours. We also own Alpha Beam 300 and 1500 and Clay Paky 400s. This shows our faith in the brand."

photos: Paul Dexter

www.claypaky.it

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.

www.lscclarity.com

Clay Paky Illuminates R&B Superstar Akon

Billed with the tagline, ‘Party Like Never Before', famed R&B singer-songwriter Akon performed live in concert at Amman Exhibitions Park in Amman, Jordan, luring thousands of fans for a night of high-energy music and a stunning light display, courtesy of TriTec AV and Clay Paky. The show was hosted by The Arabian Journal, organised by Young Modes and powered by Creative Plus. Honorary guest Melissa opened the concert.

Akon (full name Aliaune Badara Akon Thiam) is known as one of the most successful and versatile R&B singers of the 21st century, grossing over 30 million dollars a year according to Forbes magazine. He is well known for the smash hit single "Smack That" and has earned six Grammy Award nominations. He is also the first solo artist to hold both the number one and two spots simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 charts twice.

TriTec AV of Amman catered the lighting and sound setup for the event. After a long anticipated wait by a very patient crowd, DJ Sotusura handed the live performance to Melissa who delivered a steamy performance, raising the crowd's pulse and increasing the vibe. Akon then took over and gave a spectacular interactive show for the fanatic crowd.

Among the arsenal of gear used for the pulsating show were 34 Clay Paky Alpha Wash 575, 24 Clay Paky Alpha Spot 1200 HPE, and 16 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 1500 fixtures, all controlled with a grandMA full size console.

TriTec senior production manager Rajai Khalil explained: "For the Akon show we used almost the same amount of Clay Paky fixtures as in Distant Heat (the summer dance party held in the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan). We didn't have many technical details or even a lighting plot from Akon's lighting designer. We just used our creativity, knowing that the Clay Paky fixtures would deliver the expected results."

Khalil described the difficult venue - a marquee with the high side being only 10 metres, and the low side at 3.8 metres. The team decided to use a six-legged square truss with two centre crossbeams and two PA wings. Four equally distributed crossbeams on top of the stage would deliver uniform lighting coverage for any situation that the lighting designer needed. The front truss held mainly conventionals for face lighting plus Clay Paky Alpha Wash for colour changing. The centre trusses were fit with Clay Paky Alpha Wash & Spot 1200 HPE fixtures for effects and colour changing, and the back truss was rigged with Alpha Wash, Spot & Alpha Beam 1500s. The remaining Alpha Beams were ground stacked on both sides of the stage for a wider continuation of the beam effect. A number of Clay Paky Washes were put on a separate truss on top of the FOH control area for further wash distribution for the long marquee, which measured 40 metres by 110 metres.

Khalil added, "In this show, the LD for Akon was expecting Showguns, as he thought they would deliver the effect he needed. He was quite amazed with the Clay Paky fixtures' equal, if not better punch and the overall setup." Referring to the Alpha Beam 1500, he was happy to have an "extra toy". "It is very strong," he said. "The power is incredible, to consider them better than Showguns, which use more watts!"

The exiting crowd was covered in sweat and smiles, with one guest commenting, "The pulse, the lights, the music....that's what we came for and we were not disappointed!"

photos: TriTec AV

www.claypaky.it

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."

grandMA at Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Weekend

The Abu Dhabi Formula 1 (F1) weekend saw a plethora of related events and entertainment taking place around the city. This program was known as ‘Yasalam', the final element of which culminated in four nights of after-race concerts on Yas Island over the race weekend. Held at Ferrari World, Abu Dhabi, the headliners were Beyoncé, Jamiroquai, Kings of Leon and Aerosmith.

Concert and festival lighting designer Steve Shipman used two grandMA full-size consoles, five MA NSPs (Network Signal Processors) and three MA video stations with the MA VPU (Video Processing Unit) software. Shipman stated: "We chose the MA system primarily because of the networking capabilities - we had a large system. Having two operators running two consoles networked in Multi-User-Mode was a convenient way of controlling everything including the LEDs of which we had plenty! We ran the video sections via the MA VPU software. For Beyoncé's show, we added four grandMA2 full-size, two for lighting - one active, one backup and two for video - again one active, one backup."

"My brief was to move away from the ‘traditional festival' look of a square box at the end of a field," Shipman continued. "The design had no roof and no front truss. There was a lot of back light and side light. The look was very open and very wide. There were three main elements: first the back wall, which carried most of the stage back lighting and a high resolution screen; second, 45 metre wide wings either side of the stage with low resolution LED and effects lighting plus the PA towers. The third element was 15 metre towers flanking either side of the stage, rigged with lighting fixtures to front and side light the stage. This replaced the missing front truss."

Luke Bonner programmed and operated the grandMAs and the MA video stations with the MA VPU software. Paul Dexter was the lighting designer for Aerosmith (grandMA series 1), Pat Brannon for Beyoncé (grandMA2), Patrick Murray for Jamiroquai (grandMA series 1). Lee Charteris was the event director. Production Technology LLC delivered most of the lighting, rigging and staging. TechnoPro supplied the - wing LED panels and LED battens as well as 48 additional moving lights. Flash Entertainment produced the show.

photos: Luke Bonner

www.malighting.com

Delta Fulfils Tall Order at Opening of Dubai's Burj Khalifa

Dominating the skyline like nothing the world has seen before, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai holds numerous world records, not least for being the tallest man-made structure ever built. But, as the sumptuous opening celebrations were gazed at in awe by thousands looking on from the city and millions via television, little did people know that the precision sound, lighting and dazzling fireworks were all tightly synchronised by Delta Sound.

Costing over $1.5 billion dollars and measuring an awe-inspiring 828 metres - over half a mile - from tip to toe, the eyes of the world were on the official opening ceremony for the world's tallest building which took place on January 4. Delta Sound Dubai was tasked with the supply of the sound and communications for the event, with Andy Jackson designing the entire system. The company also claimed an unofficial record into the bargain.

Delta had been approached by Prisme International, a French-based event management company, which Delta has worked with on previous events. "This was the first time that Prisme had specifically requested that we do the sound for an event like this, so it was a definite feather in our cap," says Andy.

Working closely with Prisme's creative director Pierre Marcout, Delta was immediately set a tall order in more ways than one, being given just 10 days from being approached to the event itself.

"The lack of notice was not down to Prisme, we were all in the same situation," Andy stresses. "There couldn't be any commitment to the creatives until the right person had the right piece of paper to say ‘Yes, definitely go ahead.'"

The system had to incorporate sound for a 100m-wide projection screen, sound reinforcement for the spectacular, Bellagio-style fountains - constructed between Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall as part of the project - and also a reveal system for the tower itself.

"We had to trigger the fountains for a specially commissioned version of the Dubai national anthem and another commissioned piece of music for the reveal," Andy continues. "This meant we had to provide timecode to interface with the fountain control room, which was about a kilometre away. We achieved that by using eight BSS Soundweb blu 160s and a Soundweb blu 800.

"Because of this, and the fact that we needed to get system comms up to around the 157th floor of the tower, we used around four kilometres of fibre optic."

This was just the start, however, as Delta's timecode was also used to synchronise the firing of all the lighting and awe-inspiring fireworks which were set off up the entire height of the building.

"We used an IZ Technology RADAR multitrack to trigger everything, as we have done on other shows," says Andy. "Mixing the show was done on a Digidesign Profile, interfaced with a ProTools HD system. The composer of the music worked with us, taking the original ProTools sessions he had recorded and remixing it to get the very best out of the system."

Also in use was a 360 Systems Instant Replay server and a Yamaha LS9-16 console. The main PA system comprised 28 L-Acoustics V-DOSC, 24 dV-DOSC, 18 SB218 Subs and MTD 112 loudspeakers, all powered by LA48 amplifiers, with XTA processors.

"With everything being pre-recorded, the operation of the show was fairly straightforward," says Andy. "The challenge was with the synchronisation and getting comms so far up the world's tallest building."

Utilising 32 Clear-Com 501 beltpacks, four EF701 interfaces, four MS232 and one MS704 main stations, plus eight HME wireless kits, the communications system worked very well. And, given that the previous world record for the greatest number of floors in a building was 108, by default Delta must lay claim to the record for the highest number of floors a fibre optic communications system has ever reached, having gone 49 better.

"It was certainly a challenge, but everything went extremely smoothly and it was very gratifying to be part of such a unique occasion," says Andy.

Martin Audio W8LM on the Beach

Martin Audio took part in the recent FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Dubai 2009, with local service providers Almoe featuring a full line array sound rig.

This was the 15th edition of the Cup since its establishment in 1995, and the event in the United Arab Emirates was the second tournament to take place outside Brazil.

System designer was Almoe's Head of Audio, Bruno Vitanza, who relied heavily on Martin Audio's DISPLAYTM software to make all the acoustical predictions for the purpose-built beach soccer stadium, which was designed to accommodate nearly 6,000 spectators. "DISPLAYT was a great help," he confirmed. "I just had to ‘virtually rig' the system on my PC and then when I did it for real I knew the line array would perfectly cover the areas I wanted ... in just one take!"

For the main pitch Almoe fielded 16 x W8LM Mini Line Array enclosures and eight WLXGS subwoofers, divided in two towers with two rigs on each. "Each tower had six W8LM to cover the central and side grandstand and two W8LM's to cover the top seats for the side stands," said Vitanza. "One of the client's requirements was to leave unaffected the playing field as far as possible, and this we did."

Further coverage was provided for the VVIP area, where the Crown Prince and members of the royal family sat - each speaker individually powered and digitally controlled to add time delay and filters in order to complement the Martin Audio line array.

Martin Audio's DX1.5 dedicated loudspeaker management system provided control, along with a pair of Lab Gruppen FP10000Q amplifiers in each tower, so that just one signal line was required to each tower.

The programme feeds consisted of live DJ, video, animations and commentator announcements.

Almoe's senior audio engineer used Smaart to calibrate the system - achieving great results. "During rehearsals I was asked to increase the volume to a maximum level without distortion and it was incredibly loud for the size of those boxes, and sounded so good," reports Bruno Vitanza. "The FIFA FBC director stated that he seriously doubted that they would run the system at this level, so we had some headroom to play with during the event."

The second pitch was a simpler task, and required eight W8LM and four WLXGS subs for coverage. Thus in total Almoe used 24 x W8LM and 12 x WLXGS subs.

The Martin Audio PA underwent an arduous duty cycle, functioning outside on the beach for nearly a month - and the speakers survived the harsh treatment admirably. "No speaker failed and none of them needed anything other than a good cleaning when we de-rigged and loaded back into the warehouse."

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.

Sennheiser's New 2000 Series at The FIFA World Club Championship

FIFA's World Club Championship sees the cream of the world's football clubs battle it out for the crown of the best club team in the world. The 2009 championship took place in Abu Dhabi and utilised two of the city's stadia, Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium and the flagship Zayed Sports City Stadium, the latter hosting the final. To accommodate the vast media contingent that follows such a huge event the Zayed Sports City Stadium decided to upgrade some of the facilities and equipment within the media suites, this included the installation of six channels of Sennheiser's new 2000 Series.

Installation and commissioning was taken care of by live sound specialist Trevor Cronin. "From previous experience," he explains, "the transmission range and reliability of Sennheiser's wireless products made this manufacturer my obvious first choice for such a large venue, as I need to get reliable coverage from every corner of the 45,000 seat capacity stadium."

In order to help with the coverage requirement, Mr. Cronin also included two AD-3700 directional antennas in the system.

"The AD-3700s have built-in boosters and can be daisy-chained straight through all the receivers without the need for additional antenna distribution, which is very handy," he continues. "On checking the signal with the WSM software running, we found we had superb reception all over the stadium, even with the antennas located behind the control room glass window!

"I set up a 30-minute test using the sound-check mode; this allowed me to run to all the extremes of stadium with a live microphone transmitter and when I returned to the control room I had a read out of the RF strength throughout the test. This feature means that what is normally a two person job can now be done by one.

"I'm yet to do a firmware upgrade on the transmitters and that will see their output power increase from 50mW to 100mW, but so far I have not needed it."

"The RF spectrum recording tool is also a fantastic utility for use in this stadium environment, with its multitude of broadcast operators using many of the available frequencies. You can quickly see where there is some space for your system and reprogram very simply using the infra-red sync facility."

The supply of the system was undertaken by Sennheiser's UAE distributor Venuetech and included six EM-2050 receivers with two AD-3700 antennas, six SKM-2000 handheld transmitters with 835 capsules and six EK-2000 beltpack transmitters with MKE-1 lapel mics.

"The 2000 Series is ideal for this type of application," says Venuetech's Technical Director, Elie Khairallah. "Not only does the feature set and 90mHz bandwidth ensure that the sound engineer's pre-event checks are easy, but the integrated dataports mean that realtime monitoring and manipulation can be achieved through Sennheiser's ‘Wireless Systems Manager' software from any location within the network."

Litec in Qatar for National Day

TechnoPro supplied Litec equipment to the committee who organised Qatar's National Day. TechnoPro, LITEC distributor for the Middle East, is a based in Dubai, and well known in event production, equipment rentals and sales.

National Day or Founder's day celebrates the rise to power of Sheikh Jassem bin Mohamed bin Thani. Jassem is usually regarded as the father of the Qatar state. It was actually his victory over the Turks that made him into a national hero, and is considered by some as the foundation of the modern Qatar state.
National Day or Founder's day is a relatively new holiday in Qatar, first celebrated in 2007. The third edition took place recently, and included events such as fireworks, cultural programmes such as camel dressage, poetry sessions and plays, and re-enactments of historical events. One of the most important shows was the horse race in Shahaniya. The was held on the most important day, Friday 18 December, on the ancient Qatari desert routes whereby pairs of riders challenged each other in a test of courage, with the winning rider moving to the next round. This proved the qualities of Arabian horses and the talent of Qatari riders.
For the six-day show, TechnoPro installed four structures in RL76A and Maxitower MT52 to support LD screens used for the live broadcast in several locations. RL76A is a high load aluminium truss with 76x52cm sides, connected with forks. The symmetrical design of the diagonals makes it twist resistant and suitable for large spans.

MT 52 is ideal for lifting where high performance is needed. This system uses twist-resistant vertical 52cm components, and comes complete with stabilisation, motor coupling, hanging and safety accessories.

For the main event, the horse race, TechnoPro also set up no.26 towers - X30 and D30 Flyintowers - to rig audio systems used for the parade. X30/D30 Flyintowers are support towers for audio systems consisting of a QX30S or QD30S structure, suitable for lifting loads of up to 600kg to a height of 9.5 metres. To lift the loads, anchoring is provided for an electric chain hoist. Alternatively they may be lifted manually by adding a cable winch device.

www.litectruss.com

Unusual at Dubai Airshow

One of the first major contracts for Unusual Rigging and Engineering LLC was the Dubai Airshow, which took place at Airport Expo, Dubai, adjacent to Dubai International Airport. Between 15 and 19 November 2009, some 890 exhibitors from 47 countries displayed their wares at the fastest growing airshow in the world.

As the official rigging contractor to organiser F&E, Unusual Rigging and Engineering not only provided all rigging and associated services, but was also responsible for auditing the safety of all suspended items in the event's four main halls and all exhibitions booths. From the smallest shell schemes to the international pavilion areas to the 800 sq m stand of Abu Dhabi based Mubadala and 775 sq m stand of EADS (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company), the requirements of the exhibitors were many and varied. Ensuring these met the event's rigorous health and safety regulations, Unusual Rigging and Engineering employed both their local team and a group of specialists from Unusual Rigging in the UK, including licensed cherry picker drivers, under the watchful eye of project leader Leon Ingram.

Caryn McConnachie, operations director, F&E, said: "The team did an excellent job for us and they delivered everything as promised. I've worked with Unusual Rigging in the UK for many years and was delighted to find that the Dubai staff have the same professional culture."

Alan Thomson, managing partner of Unusual Rigging and Engineering, said: "Although Unusual Rigging is a long established company in the UK, it was extremely gratifying to be awarded this prestigious contract, especially as we are relatively new in the region. With so many different nationalities, not just the exhibitors but also the various crews, the language skills of our staff were really put to the test. This was a substantial project for any company to take on, working for a host of major international clients, and I'm delighted that everything went very smoothly."

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.

Stage One Provide Super-Sized Christmas Cheer in Qatar

Stage One were recently involved in creating a little Christmas spirit in the state of Qatar, when they were asked by marketing and events agency WRG to provide some super-sized Christmas decorations. Destined for the newly developed area of Porto Arabia, the first phase of a dynamic upmarket shopping, dining and residential district of Doha, the developers of the area were aiming to provide some festive cheer for Porto Arabia's international clientele.

Stage One were asked to construct: a giant 16m-diameter wreath, which weighed in at 2 tonnes and was attached to one of Porto Arabia's entrances: 30 scenically wrapped gift boxes, which were placed in various locations around the development and varied in size up to the largest at 4m x 4m; and two enormous scenic Christmas trees, one at 6m high, the other at 12m high.

"Sourcing then constructing the amount of items required in a relatively short timescale was a key challenge and we really needed to push our extensive in-house resources to the maximum to ensure that we were able to meet the dates for shipping," said Steve Dolan, account director, Stage One. "All of the hard work was worth it though, as the completed decorations looked absolutely superb."

The giant wreath was constructed from interconnecting steel frame pieces, decorated with 29 individual 60-inch wreaths and a steel framed ribbon, and at its highest was positioned 25 metres above the ground. The gift boxes were made from over 400 individual sections that were assembled on site and finished with applied digitally reproduced Christmas paper and fabric ribbons. And finally, the company erected a12m high Christmas tree on the sea front and built, assembled and decorated a steel-framed 6m tree, which was positioned in a shopping centre.

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

WYSIWYG on the Formula 1 Grand Prix Concerts in Abu Dhabi

The 2009 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend saw an abundance of events and entertainment taking place around the city to complement the excitement of the races. The programme, produced by Flash Entertainment, was known as ‘Yasalam', which is Arabic for "fantastic, amazing and astonishing". Yasalam concluded with four nights of after-race concerts on Yas Island over the race weekend, October 29 through November 1. Held at Ferrari World, Abu Dhabi, the headliners were Beyoncé, Jamiroquai, Kings of Leon and Aerosmith.

The high-profile concerts were only open to those lucky enough to hold tickets for the race weekend. They were not available to the general public, and only attendees to the race on the day of the concert could attend that day's concert. Still, all four shows packed a huge audience.

The stage design not only had to be exciting enough to keep pace with the prestigious artists scheduled to perform, but it also needed to be highly visible -- enough to accommodate the massive crowd and yet flexible enough to meet the unique demands for a different show each night. The final design was very open and wide, ensuring a great view for everyone in the audience. There was no roof and no front truss, which meant the back wall carried the bulk of the stage back lighting plus a giant high-resolution screen. The stage was flanked on either side with 150-foot-wide LED "wings" with additional effect lighting. Towers placed at the front corners of the stage contained front and side lights.

Luke Bonner of Production Technology LLC used wysiwyg to model the 750+ fixtures including moving lights, Space Cannons, strobes, 8-lights, PixelLines and Par 64s, in addition to the enormous LED wings. Control came from two grandMA full size consoles at FOH, 1 grandMA full size behind stage with wysiwyg, and two grandMA media servers. Bonner also programmed and operated the grandMAs and the MA video stations. Production Technology LLC delivered most of the lighting, rigging and staging. TechnoPro supplied the LED wings.

Bonner explains: "I had spoken to Rick Wade (Production Technology LLC, project mnager) and Steve Shipman (Festival LD) about the possibility of using wysiwyg on a production of this magnitude. We all agreed so I began building the 3D model in wysiwyg based on the design from Steve Shipman - which went through few changes during the design evolution and so the wysiwyg model allowed us to get a good feel of how the event would look prior to physical build. The primary use of wysiwyg would be to allow Steve and visiting lighting designers a facility to use any time, day or night, to pre-program for their particular show and not be required to compete for physical rig time. We set up a wysiwyg room backstage in a portable cabin at the event site with a large plasma screen.

"In my opinion, wysiwyg complemented the event by adding an invaluable facility. Using wysiwyg onsite during a festival in the UAE is virtually unheard of. Due to the success of wysiwyg, I believe that its use will become more obvious on future events as a cost and time saving tool that LDs could use as and when required. To add additional confidence for the region, the drawings of the show could then be emailed to visiting LDs prior to them landing in Dubai, therefore allowing them to pre-program in their native country."

Steve Shipman agreed, adding: "Having the wysiwyg system on site helped out big time. The lighting rig was big; I knew that it would take a lot of time just to set up a basic busking page. I spent a day in the wysiwyg room onsite while the real system was being built. When I transferred to the real rig a few days later it was just a matter of tidying up the show. The wysiwyg model had been very accurate.

"When Beyoncé's LD Pat Brannon arrived he started programming around midnight and when the sun came up at 6:00am he moved into the wysiwyg room and did a few more hours. Paul Dexter, lighting designer for Aerosmith, arrived in the afternoon the day before his show. He was able to go straight into programming in wysiwyg while the real system was doing another show."
Paul Dexter was very happy with the results for the Aerosmith show, and especially for the efficiency that wysiwyg provided. "The wysiwyg Visualizer enabled Luke, Steve and me to program on a grandMA console long before the show started. It is a relief to know that in a one-off festival situation that, with advance programming time, a show can look like it's already been on tour for months. Steve Shipman designed a gloriously ambitious system and thankfully I was able to explore all that it was capable of - accurately. Once we downloaded the advance work from the wysiwyg visualizer system into the concert console at front of house, the scenes needed some touch up focus and lighting additions but the foundation was way ahead of where we would have been without it!"

Pat Brannon, lighting designer for Beyoncé was equally impressed. "The system that I used at F1 was an irreplaceable tool. The logistics of the show was a textbook example of how important this concept is regarding touring productions. Beyoncé was the first act opening the event and with the growing pains of the new facility and load-in, and setbacks that come with such an elite venue, the wysiwyg application made my show. My hat is off with the fantastic design that Steve Shipmen put together and with all the right people in place made the Beyoncé event seamless. The wysiwyg system was a professional set up and the focuses were spot on."

He continues: "I elected to give Luke Bonner full reign controlling the LED low res wings and with just a heads up on my song by song color pallets and music tempo, he did an amazing job. I was very happy as was my artist management of the show reproduced for this event. I hope to see more of the wysiwyg systems on future festival show calendars."

The shows were flawless and everyone involved was extremely pleased with the results, including the thousands of fans fortunate enough to be there. Project manager Rick Wade said: "For a show of this size, it's critical to have the right people and tools to not only deliver great results, but to make it look easy and be efficient. I'm really happy that Luke brought wysiwyg into this project."

photo: Luke Bonner

CT Award-Winning Performance at Dubai World Championship

The PGA European Golf tour's season-ending Dubai World Championship, previously known as The Race to Dubai, took place at Jumeirah Golf Estates' newly opened Earth course from 19 to 22 November. The event saw 60 players tee off for the finale which had a prize of US 7.5 million to be divided among the 15 winners, and had an exciting finish with Lee Westwood winning the championship.

European Tour Productions employed CT Dubai to provide and install a number of LED screens located around the course, as well as to include the Tour Television package that has accompanied the tournament throughout the world. For the 17th and 18th Greens CT installed a screen in each of 62sqm (10x8 panel) Lighthouse R7 LED whilst for the 1st Tee a 23sqm (6x5 panel) Lighthouse R7 LED screen was used. In addition to these a trailer-mounted 18sqm Barco Olite 612 LED Screen was positioned in the Championship Village where the main tent area was located. The trailer is one of two that CT had commissioned and built especially for this event and which was shipped out for this purpose.

A further 23sqm (6x5 panel) Lighthouse R7 LED screen was set up on the grass next to the Clubhouse Tennis Courts which were temporarily furnished and decked out as a hospitality area for private guests.

Each of the screens provided had a combination of sources from TTV, Leader-board Graphics and Flight Scope graphics as well as player profile information from a separate Laptop. All screens and TVs were fed by CT's IPTV distribution system via a sophisticated network of fibre and CAT5 throughout the Golf Course.

This Tournament Television System and its operation of the PGA European Tour has in fact earned CT the Gold Award for Event Technology at the Sports Business Awards dinner held recently in London. "Working under the Dubai heat and on a golf course where surfaces are not level is always a challenge," said Mark Woodhouse, project manager at Creative Technology Dubai: "Last minute changes also meant we had to lay down extra fibre cable around the course. But the entire show was a great success and the visitors enjoyed watching the golfing on the screens around the course and in the comfort of the hospitality lounges while enjoying a cool drink. We look forward to doing this again next year."

As part of the Tour package 56 Plasmas of various sizes where installed in the Hospitality Tent and the Media Centre and were fed with the IPTV signal. A feed was also sent to the temporary Club House and distributed to all the TVs and monitors within, to allow staff and members to watch. Prior to Sky and CTV going live at midday on each day, CT provided a 3 Camera Grass Valley PPU system for the 1st Tee to show live coverage of all the Players Teeing off, that was then mixed in with adverts and other media for the IPTV distribution system. The main TTV feed consisted of bespoke HTML pages commissioned by CT for ETP which interfaced with the scoring data provider. The live coverage was then combined and overlaid to show the live action and scoring information.

Built for Speed by Litestructures

Arising from an initial contact made at the recent PLASA show in London, leading Middle East's stage and set rental company, IBS Decor, commissioned Litestructures to design a hospitality unit for Mubadala, Ferrari's official race sponsor at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The IBS design concept called for a structure shaped to read as 'F1' when viewed from one side. This required a complex design as it necessitated the use of reverse angles of up to 70 degrees to achieve the desired profile. Measuring 14m long x 7.5m wide, and with a height of 6m, this was a substantial project, for which we chose LitePro390-4 truss elements, which were then clad to give the best cosmetic appearance.

Taking just three weeks from concept to completion, Litestructures, no strangers to the world of Formula 1, showed a winning turn of speed. Interestingly, the same structure has since been used for an exhibition in Dubai with IBS's Alan Scoley commenting that "it was a pleasure to work alongside Litestructures. A lot of hard work and effort was put into the project to meet the tight deadline. It all went together like a glove sliding on to your hand."

www.litestructures.co.uk

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

www.brilliantstages.com

Clay Paky Dazzles at the Okaz Creative Advertising Awards

An arsenal of Clay Paky fixtures kept pace with lasers and LED screens at the first Okaz Creative Advertising Awards (OCAA) last month. The ceremony and following celebration took place on October 20th at the Jeddah Helton to a packed house of Saudi dignitaries, celebrities and other VIPs.

The OCAA acknowledges and rewards outstanding creative work in all facets of advertising designed for the Saudi Arabian market. The awards are broken down into ten categories, which include all areas from print, TV, and radio to internet and even freelance talent. A jury of seven judges recognised as experts in their respective fields decide on the winners.

3rd Dimension Eventech of Jeddah/Saudi Arabia supplied all lighting, sound, filming, pyrotechnics, special effects and panorama screen video projections for this prestigious event. The lighting rig carried an impressive eyeful of Clay Paky gear, including 16 Alpha Spot Easy 1200, eight Alpha Spot 575, 12 Alpha Spot HPE 700, two Alpha Profile 1200, and six Alpha Beam 300 fixtures. A 14 x 4.5-metre panorama screen was placed centre stage, flanked by two 3x4m LED screens for video and laser effects, provided by two green 8W DPSS lasers, one 6W DPSS colour laser for graphics, and one 14W colour DPSS for centre beam effects, all using Pangolin software.

The Clay Paky fixtures were positioned both above the presentation area and at stage level behind the screens to enhance the laser show and video displays. The Alpha Beam 300 fixtures on the stage were actually bright enough to compete with the lasers when pointing out to the audience. 3rd Dimension Eventech employed a creative mix of colour, movement and even bouncing beams to augment the other exciting effects.

Abdulwahab Baghdadi, managing director of 3rd Dimension Eventech explained: "It was a big challenge for us to build up all of the necessary equipment and program it in less than 30 hours. The Jeddah Helton hall is one of biggest ballrooms in Saudi - approximately 60 x 60 metres in size and a ten metre high ceiling. We used 24 rigging points to have all equipment flying to the ceiling!"

He adds, "The Alpha series from Clay Paky is outstanding. They're bright, lightweight and extremely reliable. They made this show both easy and quite stunning."

Alberico D'Amato, Clay Paky area sales manager for the UAE and Middle East says: "3rd Dimension Eventech is a very inventive company, doing some incredibly creative shows. We're proud to be present in their shows and look forward to many more exciting things in the future."

Photos: 3rd Dimension Eventech

www.claypaky.it.

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