project news

Metropolitan Opera Takes Delivery of Robert Juliat Victor Followspots

The Metropolitan Opera at New York City’s Lincoln Center has expanded its lighting inventory with the acquisition of four Robert Juliat Victor 1800W followspots as specified by Patrick Eagleton of Contemporary Lights & Staging, Stamford, Connecticut.

“The Met is all about quality and very particular about the products they buy, and the Robert Juliat name speaks for itself in that regard,” says Fred Lindauer, of Robert Juliat.  “The Met already has a number of RJ 2.5W Profiles in their inventory so they were very willing to consider Robert Juliat followspots for this new application.”

The followspots had to be portable, easy to set up, and fit in the space reserved for them.  In addition, they had to be very quiet since they would be located in the audience seating area. “After on-site tests the team at the Met loved the fact that the Victors operated silently and could be moved in and out of the theatre with ease,” Lindauer says. “The changeovers have been perfect. The Victors are durable fixtures so they can withstand being moved in and out on a regular basis without any problems.

 “The Robert Juliat name may have gotten us in the door at The Met, but it was the unique properties and craftsmanship of the Victors that sealed the deal,” says Lindauer.

Robert Juliat’s Victor followspot features a high-performance double condenser optical system, flicker-free electronic ballast, 100 percent closing iris in a removable cassette, 100 percent closing mechanical dimmer and ‘A’ size gobo holder. Victor boasts a six-way color changer system with removable filter frames as standard. The Met elected the optional Push Pull color changer since it is silent operating. Victor also comes standard with frost and IR filter frames.

www.robertjuliat.com

3rd February 2012

“Modernes" Modernises with Trackspot Bolt

High End Systems has announced a recent upgrade to "Modernes" in Bremen, Germany. The popular live club for electronic and independent music is built in an old cinema with a huge dome, which can be opened to reveal the night air. The club has used six original trackspot fixtures from High End Systems for nearly 20 years. Recently however, they upgraded their system to the newly released trackspot Bolt LED luminaires.

Trackspot Bolt is a full-featured, 3000 lumen moving-mirror fixture powered by a state-of-the-art LED lighting engine. With no loss of output over years of use, reduced power consumption and less heat dissipation, trackspot Bolt is a perfect choice for long lasting efficiency.

Arcus Lighting, exclusive German distributor for High End Systems, delivered six trackspot Bolt luminaires to the company Active Blue. Active Blue is a long time partner of the "Modernes" club. They installed the new fixtures into the club.

Sascha Lembke of the "Modernes" and Jochen Rüttinger of Active Blue were excited to use the trackspot Bolt fixtures. Lembke commented: " The old trackspots from 1993 were still functional; a true testament to their quality. But when I saw the new trackspot Bolt, I was really excited. The new trackspot Bolt has many more features. The output of 3000 lumen is amazing and the LED Engine reduces the service time so much. This is an investment into the future."

Rüttinger agreed with Lembke completely. He also used the original trackspot for a long time with Active Blue and sees the advantages of upgrading to the new version. Arcus' Tobias Bewermeyer oversaw the installation of the trackspot Bolts and explained all features and options.

3rd February 2012

Digital Mapping with Ordnance Survey

When Ordnance Survey, Great Britain’s national mapping agency, purchased the 16 acres of land at Adanac Park for its new state-of-the-art Southampton Head Office, the organisation was determined that the £42m project would be environmentally sympathetic.

Known as ‘Explorer House’, the three-storey building benefits from a number of natural resources and renewable energy sources at the heart of a sustainable development; this provides a modern and efficient workspace suited to an information business for a workforce of 1100 staff, including surveyors and cartographers. The audio visual infrastructure needed to emulate that concept.

The giant atrium at the centre of the building forms the social hub of the Head Office, employing both customer and staff facing technologies, and linking the offices with the business centre.

Today’s Ordnance Survey is a far cry from the origins of the 220 year old business, originally set up to map the south-coast of England for fear of invasion by Napoleon. Today it is a £130 million-a-year public sector organisation collecting, maintaining and distributing geographic data that helps underpin everything from rubbish collection to planning flood defences.

Central in planning the phased relocation from the nearby premises they had occupied for 40 years, and contracting for the specialist services was Ordnance Survey’s Building & Property Services Manager, Greg Tumilty.

Reviewing the requirement, Greg Tumilty says: “As a leading mapping organisation, with a role to play across the world, we wanted to make sure budgets were spent carefully and that the facilities would meet our requirements in the long term.”

Over 100 companies responded to the OJEU tender for the building’s audio visual systems from which RaceTech — who themselves have a history dating back 65 years, with a background in broadcast, satellite and racing technology — were successful. A wide range of Christie projectors were chosen exclusively to meet the requirements laid down in the original core specification document, but the requirement developed organically once the staff moved in and the organisation understood how the building could be used most effectively.

Mark Jennings, Head of RaceTech Audio Visual Commercial & Strategic Partners, based the decision to select Christie on the company’s broad product portfolio, performance and proximity to site, which he knew would guarantee any necessary support.

“We wanted a strong brand, a single vendor with an end-to-end range of high-end business and high definition projectors, and the benefit of local support.

“We also recognised the low total cost of ownership of the Christie projectors and the fact that they generated low noise. There are many options in that class of projector but the Christie products seem slightly brighter than most and run slightly quieter — plus they provide an appropriate lens option.”

With the business move scheduled for October 2010, as a precursor to being fully operational by February 2011, the developing relationship between Tumilty and Jennings was vital, as the concept evolved considerably during the second phase fit-out.

“One of the key reasons RaceTech won the tender was because we were confident of forming a long-term, sustainable relationship, and the fact they had a real feel for the dynamic of the building,” says Tumilty. “We had a fairly basic boardroom and lecture theatre in our old building, but this new building had to represent a 21st century business and with that was a greater need for cutting-edge technology. What we were looking for was ease of use, no visible wires and quality of experience, with detail of projected mapping one of the key criteria.”

This co-operation was no more evident than in the 180-seat Solent Lecture Theatre, where the original Christie HD10K-M, designated as the mapping projector in 1920 x 1080 high definition, was later complemented by a second 1-chip HD projector (Christie DHD800), mounted on a scissor lift and facing in the opposite direction. This now projects onto an electric drop-down Da-Lite screen over a removable stage as required, complete with double drapes and LED colour-changers; this enables a wide range of different events (with breathtaking reveals) to be staged.

Events range from major international conferences to hosting visits from Utilities companies and other government organizations as well as staging staff briefing events and leadership seminars.

Since the theatre is also regularly booked out for business group meetings — while doubling as the home for the Ordnance Survey Film Club! — it was vital that that the Solent Theatre’s HD10K-M and Da-Lite widescreen were working in perfect harmony over a long duty cycle.

The Lecture Theatre takes line feeds from CD, Blu-ray and PC, using HDMI and VGA analogue; there are four control patch points on the floor and an acrylic lectern, while Extron devices are used for scaling and source switching.

Elsewhere, of the available rooms around the building, ten are Christie-equipped. Selected were seven LW555 3LCD 5500 lumen WXGA projectors for widescreen resolution in the various training, meeting rooms and boardroom and an LX1000 3LCD XGA projector, using all of its 10,000 ANSI lumens output to throw branding and core messages through the natural brightness generated at the atrium’s heavily-glazed front of house.

At the same time the displays around the café and mezzanine areas can also receive signage streams for both visitors and staff.

The AV environment operates under Crestron touch screen control and with the many differently-configured meeting spaces in high demand, their Room View booking solution is integrated on the Ordnance Survey centralised Exchange Server and Calendaring system; this allows for easy booking of rooms via touch screen panels or across the HQ’s IT infrastructure — and as with the localised LED and fluorescent lighting the content source selection is controllable via touch panel controllers.

The fact that Greg Tumilty’s front-of-house team has already quadrupled the number of people visiting the site speaks for itself. “Internally everyone loves the new media systems; the Christie/Crestron solution meets the expectations and in many cases exceeds it. We haven’t explored all the possibilities yet — who knows what we can achieve over the next few years.”

Summing up, Mark Jennings says, “With Christie we have ended up with a great brand, which is right on the doorstep, and we know we have made the right business choice. I’m looking forward to the next five years of partnership with the Ordnance Survey and however clever they need to get, I know we can get there with a Christie projector, and it won’t run out of capacity.”

His company has met the challenge of producing a fast-fit, turnkey contract, integrating projection and RGB colour changing LED with control, broadcast, sound mixing and signal routing, and even undertaking the main electrical and wiring works within the key audio visual systems.

Of the other principle contractors involved, Kier Group were the developers, Broadway Malyan the architects and Hilson Moran the design engineering specialists.

2nd February 2012

World's Largest Dynacord P64 Installation in the Autostadt Wolfsburg

In the Autostadt Wolfsburg, the communication platform of the Volkswagen concern, everything revolves around mobility. Over 23 million people have visited the theme park and out-of-school learning centre since its opening in the year 2000, making it one of the most popular tourist destinations in Germany. The Autostadt is the world's largest automobile distribution centre and its automobile museum – the ZeitHaus – is the world's largest. With a multitude of cultural events staged there each year, the Autostadt is also an attractive venue for cultural pursuits, offering an ambience in which art, architecture and design combine to superlative effect in a 25-hectare landscaped park.

Work began on a technical upgrade to the Autostadt's sound reinforcement system around a year ago. The planning, project management and supervision were undertaken by the bureau of engineers Taube+Goerz GmbH under the direction of Dirk Narten, whilst the implementation was entrusted to Profi Musik. On-site responsibility was in the hands of Matthias Heinz and Jörg Lüdermann, project managers of the Autostadt; Jan Ohlhagen, project manager of Profi Musik; and Stefan Waltermathe, project manager of M-Akustik, the Dynacord distribution partner and system specialist from Oldendorf in Hesse. The result is the world's largest installation combining the Dynacord P64 with Dynacord Promatrix DPM-4000 digital audio matrices.

In the course of the installation, the team was able to build on an already existing Dynacord system: the Autostadt already possessed 20 Dynacord ELA control centres plying the various brand pavilions and catering areas with background music and announcements. The objective, then, was to unite the individual amplifier banks in a redundant network conforming to the safety standards applicable to centralised and decentralised alarm and evacuation systems.

The central concern, therefore, was to create a combination of ELA system and audio matrix combining very high quality audio performance and a large number of channels with several centralised and decentralised priorities. The ideal system was soon identified: a Dynacord P64 combined with a Promatrix DPM-4000 controller. "At the moment there is no other combination of ELA and matrix systems on the market that allows you to program individual functions over such a broad spectrum and combine them with one another," explains Mathias Vette, whose company M-Akustik was responsible as the system supplier of Profi Musik for the programming and system integration. "No other system permits control from within an ELA structure with such high audio quality."

For the implementation, the team relied on the Dynacord Promatrix-4000 systems that were for the most part already installed. These were upgraded and each networked with Dynacord P64 matrices driven by 116 Dynacord DPA 4411 power amplifiers and 13 Dynacord TPI eight touch panels. The installed system now combines in its entirety 13 different buildings in a redundant configuration with four local priority, three superordinate priority, and 12 network-wide background programmes. From the master control centre, announcements can be assigned to the individual buildings with different priority levels. An identical system is installed in a second building to serve as a backup in case of system failure. Another unusual feature of the installation is the Autostadt's integrated studio, which plies visitors daily with 12 different music programmes simultaneously – with the highest audio quality.

The need for maximum quality as well as the giant size of the installation posed a number of challenges for the team. The existing system had to be partly replaced in order to bring the system structure into conformity with the standards. This had to be done, however, without interrupting daily operation. To ensure that each day the system distributing announcements and programme music remained operational, the installation team led by Nico Eishold and Jörg Olms had to work a large number of night shifts laying down the cable network. To proceed in the most economical manner possible, the planners therefore opted for a step-by-step implementation. The equipment in each building in turn was modified or else upgraded before being thoroughly tested. "Despite the size and complexity of the overall system, we were at no stage subject to constraints imposed by the programming environment," reports Mathias Vette: "We were able to implement the system throughout exactly the way we had planned it – and without constantly having to consult the manufacturer."

1st February 2012

Aris Gives Voice to Russia

Contrary to much popular belief in the West, when Russian officialdom decides something needs to be done it can and will, pull it off with alacrity and precision. "The important factor is to analyse exactly what is required, identify the correct tools to achieve this then implement it." This was Alexander Fetisov talking about a complete refit of RIA Novosty, Russia's largest and most significant news agency.

A comparison to the BBC World Service might give a fair insight. RIA Novosty broadcasts in Russian and five European languages, producing programmes focused upon political, social, economic, scientific and financial information - a significant presence in communications media. The fact that the first enquiry came across Fetisov's desk in July 2010 and handover to the Government committee responsible followed in June 2011, just eleven months later, indicates the speed with which this project was assessed, contracts awarded, and then completed.

"The tasks of the agency also include distribution of official messages of the Russian government, ministries, agencies and social organisations," continued Fetisov. "The offices of RIA Novosty are a complex of multi-storied buildings including a large multipurpose hall the Big Universal (BUH), several conference halls, apparatus rooms, operational halls, all located in the centre of Moscow."

Fetisov, an electroacoustic expert, was engaged to produce a sound reinforcement solution for the BUH. "As is the nature of these large Government projects, the layers of administration were deep; the system integrator was Atlantis Communications; AVI Lab held the subcontract for sound, video and conference equipment, handing the 'sound' brief to audio specialists Aris."

Fetisov is head of Aris's installation department. "The BUH seats four hundred people and had always been used for live presentations, mainly discussion, meetings and conferencing, with the occasional concert. At Government level the brief was to provide 'nothing but the best'. I selected d&b audiotechnik equipment because their loudspeaker systems adhere precisely to what the technical specifications outline; the accuracy of the propagation patterns never ceases to amaze me, and of course they sound fantastic. The crucial factor for me was their ability to produce two things equally well: truly concert specification musical reproduction and superb speech intelligibility. The BUH isn’t a difficult room acoustically, and as such the d&b T-Series solution we have implemented really shines."

Fetisov is rightfully proud of his work at RIA Novosty. Since June the plaudits from presenters, users and the

occasional musical performer, have been steady and all in the positive. "In many ways RIA Novosty is the voice of Russia so I am extremely pleased with the result," he said.

ARIS recently received the Prointegration Award for the RIA Novosty project at the Integrated Systems Russia Exhibition.

31st January 2012

Imerge Sails on the Super Yacht Aiyana

Holiday makers chartering the luxury super yacht Aiyana can tap into a store of over 250 movies and more than 1700 music CDs thanks to the installation of a state of the art entertainment system that has an Imerge media server at its core.

The Imerge media server has 3TB of storage and five Imerge Media Players, all linked to an AMX control system. As well as storing movies it also stores all of the music, which is accessed by a Sonos 5 Zone Audio system and played through Dolby Pro Logic surround sound and Bose 5.1 outdoor surround Sound for the deck areas.

“With this system we can basically do everything, all at once,” says Aiyana’s Captain Ross ‘Rosco’ Monson. “Our guests can play the same or different movies or music in a variety of different locations. This means that we can cater for everyone’s entertainment needs at all times, which is important when you are aiming to keep people happy and give them a great holiday experience.”

Built without compromise and launched in June 2010, the 81ft/24.7m Aiyana was custom designed by Warwick Yacht Design in Auckland, New Zealand, and turned into reality in Alia Yachts in Antalya, Turkey. The yacht has a lifting keel that allows her to cruise in the shallowest of waters and get close in to the best anchorages. With the keel down she has power to race in the most competitive regattas and deliver great performance offshore in all weather conditions.

Inside, the yacht can accommodate up to six guests in its three cabins, along with cabins for the three full time crew members. Each guest cabin has its own 32” LCD TV which is linked to the Imerge onboard entertainment system. There are also a 32” LDC TVs in the main and lower salons.

“The Aiyana is available to charter in the Mediterranean (Italy and France) in the summer and Caribbean in the winter,” Captain Rosco says. “We usually have families or groups of friends onboard who charter the boat for one or two weeks at a time.”

The Imerge media server was chosen for Aiyana by the boat’s owner who wanted an entertainment system with no compromises.

“Installing this type of equipment on a yacht is not like tackling a home installation as there are many potential problems that have to be addressed and overcome,” Captain Rosco explains. “Power, cabling and cooling are all issues. The cables must be securely fixed otherwise the connection between the units can be lost when sailing. Universal Power supplies have been installed throughout the system to keep constant power when changing from Generator to Shorepower and batteries. Each unit is fan cooled and the server has its own air conditioning system to keep it cool in the Caribbean and summer temperatures.”

With a year of service under its belt, the Aiyana’s Imerge media server and entertainment system is more than living up to its reputation for consistency, performance and ease of use.

“It is an incredibly reliable system, which is an important factor when you are on a commercial yacht that is travelling the world,” Captain Rosco adds. “Since her launch in 2010, the Aiyana has sailed regularly and has competed successfully in a number of sailing regattas. Not many other Imerge units will have that claim to fame. We are really delighted with our choice of media server - the Imerge system has been impeccable, as has the service we have received from the company. It provides seamless functionality to allow access to stored media, it is also robust enough to be used in the marine environment and we look forward to watching many more movies in the future.”

30th January 2012

Chroma-Q Provides Flexible Eco Lighting for Lincoln University HD TV Studios

Lincoln University has invested in 30 Chroma-Q Color Force RGBA LED fixtures for its two television studios at the campus’s Media Broadcast Production Centre, which has recently been upgraded to full multi-camera and HD specification facilities.

The University runs a variety of the UK's leading media orientated courses and the TV studios are used for full programme productions and an assortment of other associated functions.

The Chroma-Q Color Force 12”/300mm multi-purpose fixtures and Color Force 72”/1.8m battens have replaced all the studio’s old soft lights and cyc lights, substituting approximately 43,000 Watts of power consumption with an expedient 3,700 Watts with the new LED lighting.

Chroma-Q Color Force was chosen after extensive research by studio engineer and technical specialist Steve Judge, who also teaches the practical and technical elements of courses to any students using the facilities.

Steve comments: “The quality of the light output from the Color Force fixtures has already made a massive difference to programme making and the depth of the colours looks superb in HD.” The fact that they can also produce a variety of ‘proper’ whites at different colour temperatures is also a great advantage to studio work.

The decision to go with Chroma-Q was enthusiastically endorsed by media and broadcast manager Geoff Thompson, who comments: “The LED lighting has transformed workflow and had a huge beneficial impact on our TV studios, with students experiencing ‘state of the art’ technology first hand.”

The University’s pursuit for LED lighting originally started about two years ago, when Dean, Professor David Sleight, visited the BVE North show in Leeds and learnt the many advantages of switching to an LED-based lighting system.

Steve then started comparing brands methodically, noting features such as CRI, which is an excellent 92 in the Color Force thanks to the range’s wider RGB plus Amber colour mixing palette, and the fixture’s smooth homogenised light engine, which creates a “beautiful” uniform spread of light. Completing the impressive specification were the range’s massive light output and theatrical-grade dimming. With all the essential features on-board, he adds that they are also very well priced.

During their research into LED replacement, Steve and Geoff learned from their carbon footprint officer, Cara Tabaku that the faculty would be eligible for a carbon reduction interest-free loan. The conditions stipulate that the equipment has to pay for itself within five years and has to be capable of saving 90% of the energy of the sources being replaced.

One Color Force 72 at 720 Watts can now be used in place of four cyc lights at 6kW, representing a significant long term saving in electricity as well as air conditioning, with so much less needed to keep the studios at comfortable working temperatures. There is also less ladder climbing to do, while changing gels and lamps is becoming a thing of the past.

The Color Force fixtures were supplied to the university by exclusive Chroma-Q UK dealer, A.C Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd.

www.ac-et.com

25th January 2012

Antique Flying Systems are No Longer a Laughing Matter for London’s Comedy Theatre

Recently renamed the Harold Pinter Theatre, London’s Comedy Theatre had retained its original wooden grid and manual hemp flying system for over a century. The intervening years had taken their toll on the grid, with heavy steel-framed sets and moving lights causing major operational challenges for the theatre staff.

In 2009, the theatre’s owners, Ambassador Theatre Group, commissioned Theatreplan consultants to prepare a detailed report on the existing flying system, and to suggest a new support arrangement to accommodate modern scenery loads. The task was complicated because of the presence of six large early wooden drum and shaft mechanisms, which had been listed; English Heritage and Westminster City Council wanted them to be retained.

Theatreplan produced a comprehensive ‘heritage’ report, a service in which Theatreplan’s partner Roger Fox specialises. He said: “We studied and recorded the history of the theatre and its installations in great detail, referring to contemporary accounts where needed. Our survey of the grid involved reviewing architectural drawings, correcting measurement inaccuracies and preparing 3-D CAD drawings.” This exercise resulted in Listed Building Consent to move four sets of drums and shafts to an off-stage location and to dispose of the remaining two sets.

The grid was not only restricted by its design and loading limitations. A cross-over bridge positioned between the fly floors downstage prevented any flying within this important section of the grid immediately upstage of the proscenium. Consent was given to remove the bridge and replace it with a new bridge at the rear of the stage. A new main steel joist was installed to alleviate the grid load on the proscenium wall, which had suffered some damage over the years. During the same six-week window in late 2011 that Theatreplan was working on the grid and flying system replacement, the owners took the opportunity to commission Foster Wilson Architects to renovate the auditorium with new lighting positions and restoration of damaged plasterwork.

The old Comedy Theatre was memorable for its off-centre stage area, with its characteristic shallow wing space stage left, and wide stage right area. As the fly floor was located stage right, the added depth made it difficult for flymen to see the stage floor during scene changes. Working in conjunction with the theatre’s structural engineers, Theatreplan specified an unusual back-loaded counterweight system, which is mounted on the onstage edge of the original fly gallery. Accessible from both sides – off-stage to load and on-stage to operate – the new position also takes full advantage of the height of the stage right mansard roof.

Twenty double purchase counterweight sets have been installed in the Harold Pinter Theatre, each with a payload of 350kg, plus two 350kg capacity fixed-speed electric hoists. Provision was made to install chain hoists from new grid steel beams. The grid was also re-slatted with new timber and remains in use for light loads suspended on hemp sets.

During the closure period, the auditorium was refurbished to designs by Foster Wilson Architects.

24th January 2012

TM Audio upgrades Arnhem GelreDome with Powersoft and NION

TM Audio has completed a major audio upgrade at the icon GelreDome arena in Arnhem, the Netherlands, replacing the original amplification and control network. Nearly 70 Powersoft 3904 two-channel 1U amplifiers now drive the GelreDome’s main audio system, with a new MediaMatrix NION system in control.

In the 13 years since it opened as one of the Netherlands’ premiere multipurpose venues, GelreDome has hosted events from the Euro 2000 tournament to the annual Symphonica in Rosso. Seating up to 35,000 for concerts, this versatile arena’s dual design as a football arena also makes it the 26,000-capacity home of Dutch premier league football club Vitesse. Event specialists The Production Factory act as technical consultants for shows playing in the GelreDome, as they did during its original design phase.

Those 13 years had taken their toll on the original PA system, installed by TM Audio for the opening – in particular the amplifiers, long discontinued and for which spare parts were now unavailable.

TM Audio was called back to recommend both new amplifiers and a major upgrade to the audio network. As in 1998, the requirement was for a multipurpose system to deliver VA/PA, a flexible concert system for both end-on and in-the-round events and a plug’n’play delay system for visiting shows.

Mark van Acker, head of the GelreDome technical division, comments: “We were looking for a good partner to provide a very large number of amplifiers and the control system. TM Audio was a good partner originally and their technical proposal was good this time too; the whole package and price were right. It included upgrading the network from analogue and copper to a fibre optic based system, allowing any diagnostics to be done by them remotely in real time over a VPN.”

The original loudspeaker system of 36 Renkus-Heinz CE-3 MH cabinets and 36 CE-3 Low cabinets is flown in a ring of 18 clusters from the roof, while 14 more CE-3 MH cabinets can be deployed for speech and paging at pitch level.

TM Audio project manager Olaf Landzaat comments: “We decided to use a NION MediaMatrix system for the control, matrix and DSP power for routing. We were also looking for a reliable amplifier to deliver a lot of power in a small space, with integral DSP and networking, so that it could handle any future loudspeaker system.

“The end of that thought process was to use the special abilities of the Powersoft Class D Duecanali amplifier – it can deliver two times 1950W at 4 ohms, so you can basically connect any speaker you want to it, in just 1U of rack space, and with their switch mode power supply and Powersoft’s other technologies it sounds superb. It’s also very ‘green’: its design makes it highly efficient and consumes much less power per watt of output – which is increasingly important to end users these days, especially when they’re running a system on an almost daily basis.”

The Italian manufacturer also provided a custom solution to allow its network-ready amplifiers to interface with the Nion system. “We talked to Powersoft,” says Landzaat, “and they were very happy to help by creating a dedicated software plug-in for the MediaMatrix system so that we can control and monitor the amplifiers. That was important because it also meant the system met the regulations for a voice evacuation system, which is one of its key roles.”

68 Powersoft Duecanali 3904 2x1950W two-channel amplifiers with integral loudspeaker DSP and AES I/O now drive the system from one large double rack in a back of house space, and two single racks mounted on a narrow catwalk that spans the width of the stadium’s roof. Here, the Powersoft package of high power in a small and lightweight unit was a big asset, according to Landzaat: “We wanted the racks close to the loudspeakers to minimise cable runs. With so much power and so many channels from just two racks, they could be fitted on the catwalk without extensive building works.”

In the control room, TM Audio added the Peavey MediaMatrix Nion control system along with a 15.6" touchscreen in the NION rack which provides comprehensive I/O selection, routing / zoning and overall EQ, as well as monitoring.

Landzaat concludes: “The solution really works because we have a great amplifier that doesn’t have colouration – it is an honest amplifier, and the high damping factor has made a big difference to the bass end of the speaker system – it sounds tighter in the low to mid frequencies despite the reverberation in a stadium and more open and clear in the high frequencies. And speech intelligence is better – all good things for the client.”

24th January 2012

Royal Opera House Upgrades to ETC Unison Paradigm

When the Royal Opera House installed Unison architectural lighting control for the stage and side stage areas as part of the original 1999 refurbishment, it was recognised that lighting control systems will be eventually replaced as new and better products are developed. When senior lighting manager Nick Ware and his team members decided it was due for replacement, they understandably looked first at the updated version of the product: Unison Paradigm.

Lighting systems manager Paul Hornsby explains: “The system has remained on 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the last 11 years, and has served us well. But it was time to consider replacing it.

“We talked to colleagues at other venues across the country, doing extensive research into the systems they were using and discussing whether a different system might serve our needs better, but always came back to ETC’s updated architectural product, Unison Paradigm – one which uses the same wiring and with a similar style of programming.

“We knew the replacement had to be in 2011, as with the Olympics this year, we may not get another opportunity for at least two years. The system controls all of the venue’s houselights, as well as backstage lighting for the main house, yet we only had a two week break where the house was dark; there was no option for any part of it to not be in operation when people came back from their summer break. Steve Chappell from Stage Electrics was really helpful in getting everything fitted and working in the two week dark period.

“Overall, we were thrilled with the way everything was installed in such a short space of time. We ended up with four ETC Unison Paradigm architectural control processors and 51 outstation panels (consisting of between 1 and 15 button panels) throughout the building, along with an LCD control panel in the lighting control room, which does everything we need. It provides us with forward flexibility, and we’ve been able to make use of some of the added functionality which Paradigm has given us, such as softkeys to get instant lighting looks.”

Stage Electrics’ business development manager Mark Burnett adds: “Because there was only a two week dark period, we were given just seven days to install and commission the new system before the stage was to be put back in use, ready for the new season.

“The new system was commissioned and live on Thursday 25th August; we did some further testing, programming and tweaks on Friday 26th. Our in-house manufacturing team custom-built a stage manager’s panel – complete with LCD touch screen surrounded by 44 push buttons for direct control of a wide range of lighting states.

“Freelance lighting systems engineer Michael Scott was drafted in by the Opera House to work alongside us and internally project manage the upgrade. He was the House lighting systems manager when the original Unison system was installed, so his knowledge of the existing system was of great assistance to Stage Electrics’ technical project manager Martin Woodage and his team, including programming and commissioning Engineer Steve Chappell.”

As part of the extensive refurbishment of the Grade 1 listed Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in the late 1990s, much of the complex was demolished, including several adjacent buildings, in order to make room for a major increase in size – well over 50% of the complex is new. The stage house itself was enlarged to make the triple-height fly tower some 37m above the stage.

In addition to well known productions including Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni and Romeo and Juliet, the Opera House also hosts a range of other performances, including the London International Mime Festival and educational insight evenings.

In picture: The Royal Opera House's stage manager’s desk provides direct control of a wide range of lighting states via the ETC Unison Paradigm system; Controlling the Royal Opera House's stage lighting.

Photos: Digital Deluxe.

www.etcconnect.com

24th January 2012

A Century Later, The Vortvots Vorodman Church is Renewed

Vortvots Vorodman (Children of Thunder) Church, located in Istanbul, which had been opened for worship on October 14, 1828, has not been used since World War I. Now, unused for about 100 years the church is restored and reopened. Preserving the place of worship property this church will also be used as cultural centre as well.

Within the complex of "Church of the Virgin Mary" the Vortvots Vorodman church has been restored under the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture project.

During this restoration project, all the sound and lighting systems has been designed by Dinakord Electronics. “All the audio equipment used within the Church is from one of the world wide high-level and high-quality German brand Kling & Freitag,“ said Annie Çavusyan, general manager of Dinakord Electronics. In this museum church, which has a capacity of about 500 people, all kinds of religious, cultural and artistic activity will be performed. “In this perspective, we designed a concept consists of a variety of CA 106, SONA 5 and E 90 MK II speakers of Kling & Freitag. All speakers are white for a more neat integration.”

On the 28th December the Vortvots Vorodman Church was inaugurated by the Turkish minister Hayati Yazici to honour the Armenian people and build up the friendship between Armenian and Turkey again. “Armenians were defined as 'loyal people' during Ottoman Empire period, and said that there had been no problem between Turks and Armenians until the 20th century.“ noted Yazici in his speech.

24th January 2012

Colour Sound Makes it Brighter in Brighton

London based lighting rental company Colour Sound Experiment (CSE) has designed and is supplying contract rental lighting systems to four popular clubs in popular seaside destination Brighton for Inn Brighton Ltd.

The operations are all being project managed by Colour Sound's Fletch, who ensures that each venue receives the quick, efficient, fuss-free service for which Colour Sound is renowned.

He comments: "The key is to assess each space and design and deliver something appropriate and specific for the size and the entertainment being staged, and also offer a cost-effective solution to the client." All the systems have been programmed and set up for straightforward operation by the venue's lighting crew or DJs.

Life is a 700 capacity nightclub right on the seafront with three arched spaces towards the back forming the main dance floor, which are lit dynamically with a rig including Robe Scan 575 XTs as the central moving light system.

These are joined by 48 LEDJ Spectra LED battens controlled via a Hippo Critter media server: a flexible, low cost, good quality option to product some jazzy and eye-catching effects.

There are also a quantity of Pulsar ChromaScapes (an LED pin spot) and a gloriously disco 48 inch mirror ball over the bar at the front, which when lit, shoots shafts of light out onto the seafront.

An Avolites Pearl, a favourite for installations of this type and size, is used for control.

Coalition is a 500 capacity nightclub and live music venue, into which CSE has installed eight Robe Scan 575s, a reliable, versatile product for club environments, plus six Atomic strobes, 24 PARs and three 600 milliwatt green lasers, all run by another Avolites Pearl.

It was important to ensure that the lighting elements could double up to be used over the dance floor for club nights as well providing good stage coverage for live performers. They are rigged onto a series of scaffolding bars in the ceiling.

The Tube is a cozy disco space in a prime seafront location.

Lighting needed to be flexible and tough enough to deal with being in constant use. Fletch decided on six Robe Scanners, three 16 inch mirror balls for a bit of dancehall retro, complete with six pinspots, all controlled via a Pulsar Masterpiece.

The control system also includes a Pulsar Outstation for the DJ to operate manually if desired, otherwise the lighting is designed to run without an operator using a set of pre-programmed sequences.

The final club in the current Brighton project is Sticky Mike's Frog Bar which is in the South Lanes, a winding network of small, interesting streets leading down to the seafront.

The venue has about 200 capacity, so again, lighting needed to be just right for a relatively intimate space which hosts bands and comedians as well as having a dance floor.

Currently there are 10 LED Zoom PARs and six classic disco effects run from a Pulsar Masterpiece. Small is beautiful!

The lighting for all these venues has been installed by Colour Sound over the last 18 months. "We make a considerable effort to ensure that each club has a totally different lighting ambiance and a proper design. We are also constantly reviewing the situation, seeing how the operation is running and ensuring that the kit stays relevant," says Fletch.

He adds that one of the most important elements of long term installations is the build quality and reliability of the equipment, and this was an important factor in their choice of brands.

23rd January 2012

Yamaha Provides Flexible Sound at Ashton Central Mosque

When the construction of a northern bypass for Ashton-under-Lyne, Manchester, meant the compulsory purchase and demolition of the town’s longest-established mosque, a brand new facility was constructed in its place. Built in less than a year, Yamaha amplifiers and digital networking are a central feature of its audio specification.

Ashton Central Mosque (formerly the Markazi Jamia Mosque), was located in a converted school building and, with the site required for the new bypass, a site for a replacement was identified a few hundred metres away. The foundation stone was laid in October 2010 and, less than a year later, a brand new mosque and community centre stood on the site, carefully designed to complement the surrounding buildings while incorporating all the essential elements of Islamic architecture.

Divided in two by a large glass atrium, the two-level mosque, large prayer hall, two ancillary prayer halls, a ladies prayer hall and several other rooms occupy one half of the building. The other half comprises a large community hall for cross-community events and a lower ground level with seven classrooms.

Designing and installing the mosque’s audio system was carried out by Blackburn-based Romers Electronics.

“The requirement was for live sound speech reinforcement in the mosque and music and speech in the community centre,” says Romers’ Sid Makinson. “The main challenge was budgetary but, more importantly, the routing had to be spot on. Under no circumstances could music from the community centre be sent to the mosque. In addition, the input routing for the mics had to be flexible and assigned quickly and easily.”

Providing the necessary standards of audio quality within the available budget made Yamaha XP2500 and XP3500 amplifiers the ideal choice, while the all-important audio routing is managed by a Yamaha DME24N digital mixing engine with two CP4SF and one ICP1 control panels.

“Using the DME24N allows the routing to be comprehensively achieved and locally controlled,” says Sid. “The programmed presets mean that music cannot accidentally be routed to the mosque, while a wide range of complex routing can be achieved and instantly changed by the mosque’s staff, thanks to the intuitive control panels.

“The DME’s range of powerful DSP functions also mean that all delays and processing are carried out within the system, with no need for extra equipment.”

With the new mosque now welcoming worshippers from across a wide area of the north west, the audio system is doing exactly what such a system should do – reinforcing sound so transparently that there isn’t any distraction from the building’s purpose.

“The client is very happy with the system and the support from Yamaha was very good, as always,” Sid concludes.

23rd January 2012

Generation Change: ORF Switches to grandMA2

In a major technical upgrade, the ORF centre in Vienna has changed all its grandMA series 1 consoles to grandMA2 consoles. The MA NSPs (Network Signal Processors) were also replaced by MA NPUs (Network Processing Units), and furthermore, the ORF has invested in new grandMA2 fader wings.

Altogether the Austrian national public service broadcaster now owns four grandMA2 full-size consoles, 17 grandMA2 light consoles, 15 MA NPU, nine grandMA2 fader wings as well as six versions of the grandMA onPC software solution.

Engineer and project manager for the upgrade Manfred Wagner explains why the grandMA2 was chosen: “We had plenty of good experiences with the grandMA series 1, so for this reason the grandMA2 was a pretty logical choice. The grandMA2 is not only extremely reliable but also offers powerful backup solutions and is a perfect option for TV projects, because we can’t afford failures! Additionally, the consoles and MA NPU give the performance we need for the sophisticated studio lighting set up as well as the flexibility to control a variety of light sources: conventionals, moving lights, LEDs and video.

Switching to the grandMA2 lights means we have the same type of consoles in the studios as well as at the director’s stand,” continues Wagner. “Until the upgrade, we had a grandMA light for the studios and a grandMA full-size at the director’s stand. The generation change was completely smooth and enhanced by the fact, that we had already been working with the grandMA2 in our OB vans, so our lighting team was trained on the new consoles.”

Engineer Karl Nöbauer is the studio’s chief operating officer for productions and Engineer Reinhard Traxler is head of lighting production. The MA equipment was delivered by Lightpower GmbH and the installation undertaken by Gelantec, Gesellschaft für Elektronik und Anlagentechnik mbH.

www.malighting.com

 

23rd January 2012

Bristol’s Finest, the Colston Hall, Installs Nexo GEO S12 Line Array

Evans Audio of Bristol has joined the UK Nexo rental network with its purchase of a GEO S12 line array system. This follows hard on the heels of a prestigious installation project for the company, equipping the well-known Colston Hall venue with a Nexo S12 system in its main auditorium and Nexo PS Series for its secondary performance areas.

The people of Bristol have been enjoying music at Colston Hall for almost 140 years. One of the largest performance venues in south west England, this concert hall venue caters for a variety of different concerts and entertainment by major names in pop and rock music, classical music, stand-up comedy and light entertainment, as well as local choirs, orchestras and schools. The venue has spent over 20 million pounds on improvements, most recently installing a new Nexo PA system in its main auditorium where audiences of just over 2000 will be able to hear the improvements.

Investment from new operators Bristol Music Trust has allowed the historic venue to buy a Nexo S12 line array system for Hall 1, which will vastly improve the sound quality of many shows. Specified and installed by Evans Audio, the project includes Nexo PS10 and PS8 full-range compact cabinets in the main hall, as well as PS10s and PS15s for the foyer and Hall 2.

The main system features discreetly positioned left/right arrays, each comprising four GEO S1210 plus two GEO S1230 cabinets, trimmed high out of sight. PS10-R2s and four PS8 high-output compact speakers handle fill at the front of the stage. The system is run off Nexo NXAMPs, using a KT DN9848E system controller with five system presets, so it can be used for different applications.

For the Christmas production of ‘Coram Boy’ by the Bristol Old Vic company, the Colston Hall team brought in additional Nexo S8 and S12 line-array cabinets, flying additional arrays above the stage, as well as supplementary subbass in the shape of Nexo RS15 cabinets.

Andy Collins, technical manager at Colston Hall said: “The new Nexo system is up-to-date and will improve sound quality and coverage to all areas of the main auditorium. Whilst the touring shows may bring in their own equipment, the new PA will be perfect for bands, comedy acts and conferences.”

Nexo UK sales manager Gareth Collyer welcomed the addition of Evans Audio to the Nexo community. “Paul Goold and his team specialise in high-quality sound reinforcement solutions and technical support for large-scale projects in theatre, corporate, broadcast and live music. Their skilled designers and engineers will greatly add to the Nexo resource in the UK.”

20th January 2012

K-Array Provides Invisible Sound for Bow Tie Television

Broadcasting services provider Bow Tie Television recently needed to upgrade the audio monitoring system in one of its outside broadcast vans to deliver the high quality of sound that the company’s clients expected. A K-Array system was the answer.

Because of the limited space available, it had proved impossible to position all the speakers of the OB truck’s original production monitoring system in exactly the right places. The only way to achieve the correct placement was to block the view of some of the monitors, which clearly wasn’t an option.

K-Array is distributed in the UK by Sennheiser UK and when Bow Tie TV’s head of outside broadcast sound Ross Banks attended the latter’s roadshow on 9th June at Knebworth House, he was very impressed with Dave Wooster’s demonstration of the tiny K-Array KZ10 full-range loudspeaker and KU36 sub.

“Because the KZ10 is so small, we thought that it was the ideal product to use. It allowed us to do something we’d never been able to do before,” says Ross. “We could place them between two video monitors and they would be virtually invisible. It was the only thing we could find that allowed us to do that.”

Working with Dave Wooster and Sennheiser UK’s Lee Shuttlewood, Ross and his colleagues installed five KZ10 and five KU36 in the truck as a 5.1 surround system. “We’ve already used the truck on a number of jobs,” says Ross. “We used it at a major festival during the summer and they didn’t even notice that you couldn’t see the speakers.

“Another of the main clients that uses the truck for HD 5.1 sports coverage has been very happy with it. In fact, everyone who sees it comments on how good it is. When you see how small the speakers are, the excellent quality of the audio doesn’t make sense!”

“No one has put this sort of system in an OB truck before and it has proved an outstanding success.”

18th January 2012

Charcoalblue Transforms the Cinematic Experience for ICA Visitors

2012 has bought a fresh new look and feel to the cinemas at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), the home of the British avant-garde. Between Christmas and New Year, multi award-winning theatre consultancy Charcoalblue ensured that the cinemas were completely transformed and ready to host the 9th London Short Film Festival.

The project brief for Charcoalblue was to design, schedule and manage a comprehensive refurbishment of the main ICA cinemas. The challenge was to ensure it could happen in the short break between Christmas and New Year.

Following the design and specification by Charcoalblue of all of the necessary elements, 285 seats were stripped out of the cinemas and removed from site on the 26th December; step-lights, carpets and wall coverings were removed on the 27th; on the 28th and 29th the floor structure was modified to increase the provision of fully accessible audience spaces; the 30th December, 2nd and 3rd January saw the addition of induction loop facilities to both spaces and the walls and floors carpeted; and the 4th and 5th January saw the new seats installed together with an sound system specifically designed to support presentations given in Screen 1.

Charcoalblue project-managed the entire refurbishment, making sure that deadlines were met and quality maintained throughout the very short installation period. “Over the years, the ICA Cinema has gained a reputation as a cinematic gem hidden in the heart of London,” says Paul Crosbie, senior project manager for Charcoalblue. “The ICA has continued to offer film-lovers an eclectic mix of works from around the world and as a result the core audience has grown and become increasing fond of the cinema. The brief was somewhat unusual in that accessibility, comfort and appearance were to be addressed but the mood and feel of the spaces was to remain unchanged. The programme was more challenging than is usual for this type of work, but thanks to the efforts of a wonderful team of suppliers and subcontractors, who were willing to put in the hours over the holiday period, we were able to turn this one around to the Client’s satisfaction.”

The cinemas reopened to the public on 6th January with a showcase of the best in new UK cinematic talent, combining new short films, retrospective screenings, and industry events. Karen Turner, managing director of the ICA, is delighted: “Hurrah! What a start to the New Year!”

The ICA works are the latest in a string of high-profile projects for Charcoalblue. In 2011, the company completed the brand new Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury and the restoration of the Newcastle Theatre Royal, as well as overseeing the replacement of much of the flying system at the National Theatre’s Olivier Theatre without ever closing the venue.

2012 looks set to be an equally exciting year of benchmark projects for the company: designs for the refurbishments of the National’s Cottesloe Theatre and the Chichester Festival Theatre are nearing completion; construction work is well under way on Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre and a new Performance Venue in Doncaster; and the reopening of both the London Hippodrome and Bristol Old Vic theatre are due later in the year.

18th January 2012

Vortex Lights Britain’s Favourite Building – Durham Cathedral

Vortex Lighting Ltd was recently commissioned to provide the lighting for a Carols of Light concert in Britain’s favourite building, Durham Cathedral. The aim of the concert was to raise funds for both the Durham Cathedral Music Endowment Fund and The Sunderland AFC Foundation. Lessons were read by HRH The Countess of Wessex GCVO, Sir Tim Rice, The Rt Hon David Miliband MP, Kate Adie OBE, Steve Cram MBE and Channel 4’s George Clarke while the concert included performances by Joe McElderry, Rick Wakeman, Alan Price, Barbara Dickson OBE, Sir Thomas Allen, Clare Teal and Kathryn Tickell.

Durham Cathedral is a very busy building, so the time available to rig and programme the equipment was somewhat limited, but Vortex’s crew of just four installed all of the equipment, including the stage, in just over three hours and removed in less than two hours!

All of the stage and lighting equipment installed by Vortex Lighting Ltd was from their own hire stock.

The power supply is limited to just 24 Amps (via 13A outlets) on both sides of the Nave, but the use of Vortex’s high powered LED products allowed them to work within these limitations, obviating the need for external generating equipment.

Photos: Reed Ingram Weir photography.

18th January 2012

J&C Joel's Stage Dressings Help to Bring Singapore's History Alive

Formerly Singapore’s largest cinema, the Kallang Theatre is now one of the country’s premier performance venues. After closing in 2007 the theatre re-opened in August 2011 by staging Singapura: Lion City, a music and acrobatic extravaganza chronicling the history of Singapore.

The show saw more than 60 professional acrobats and artistes portray Singapore’s rise from a small island country to one of Asia’s cultural and economic powerhouses, all on a stage dressed in black stage masking from J&C Joel.

The stage masking curtains manufactured and supplied by J&C Joel were made from versatile black 300cm wide Molton (MOL002), a non-durably flame retardant brushed cotton fabric that is ideal for stage masking.

The stage blacks provided to the Kallang Theatre included five stage borders, eight legs, two wings, ten dress legs and a stage backdrop measuring ten metre wide with a drop of 13 metres. All were made flat without any fullness and headed with either webbing and ties or snap hooks.

www.jcjoel.com

18th January 2012

CORE Goes Rococo

The Rococo Gardens in the heart of the glorious English Cotswolds are a significant tourist attraction for visitors across the globe, with stunning Rococo architectural features and large scale avenues of trees all crying out to be lit during the dark winter months. Due to planning regulations and preservation of the original theme, installed electrical power is barred, thus preventing any night illumination and meaning early closure especially during winter months.

CORE Lighting Ltd, with its headquarters nearby in the Cotswolds, was contracted to supply their battery-powered and Wireless-DMX (WDMX) controlled architectural lighting systems. For an evening CORE added a splash of colour into the canopies of the trees and the uniquely architectural houses. The avenues of trees and Exedra with its water feature were brought alive. The whole scheme was lifted through the mist and drizzle of the evening; also thanks to the waterproof capabilities of the products. This added a certain magical feeling, creating a completely new appearance to these exquisite architectural delights beyond the darkness.

Blueprint Events, local stockists of CORE POINT20 and 30 series products for rentals, conducted the whole affair laying out the lightweight and portable lighting units and organising the colour schemes to bring the gardens alive. With the on-board wireless system they were able to control the whole scheme across the gardens from a couple of CORE POINT30 Master units. This enabled a scheme to be very rapidly set up from the Exedra on one side of the valley to the Eagle House across the other side, all controlled in perfect synchronisation.

It was the self-power, set up speed and level of control that attracted the Rococo Gardens to CORE POINT products in the first place. Garden Director Paul Moir commented: “What impressed us most was the portability and flexibility of the lighting system. It was possible to change the mood of a building or tree from the bright and playful to the dark and sinister at the press of a centralised button. Our problem is that with no power in the Garden, we literally can do nothing after dusk as we cannot get people out of the grounds. The logistics of long wires are out of the question and any generators would destroy the ambience particularly for music and plays. For us it will extend the use of the Gardens into the evening as we will be able to create these atmospheric moods and light paths to show visitors around."

Blueprint Events have been a customer and user of CORE Wireless Battery units for over two years, with Chris Morgan explaining: “The perception of wireless lights has been established as a bit of a novelty however the CORE POINT20 and 30 have been a surprise to all the technicians that have used them, as they out-perform many traditional mains powered fixtures. This is further enhanced with CORE’s use of White LEDs in addition to their powerful RGB array.”

Chris goes on to say that: “All CORE units are very easy to set up and use with easy deployment around site, however that doesn’t detract from the advanced capability of the units; many end clients may not appreciate the high wireless performance and master/slave operation possible from within the unit making life for crew much easier.” Lastly, he enthused: “The absence of an external antenna may be perceived as a limiting factor but the wireless integration maintains excellent performance and also ensures the unit is durable and water resistant.”

“We were delighted to be asked to work with the Rococo Gardens”, explains Phil Ion, director at CORE Lighting Ltd. “It really showed the products off to their best ability, with their portability, fast deployment, strong wireless performance, waterproof casing and sheer brightness.” “Some of those tree canopies were extremely tall so being able to light a whole avenue of them all changing colour in perfect harmony made us realise why we had designed these products in the first place.”

CORE Lighting and White Light wish Rococo Gardens every success in these extended night-time ventures and we look forward to helping create many more of these events.

CORE products are available exclusively in the UK through White Light. www.whitelight.ltd.uk.

Photos by Ann-Marie Randall.

18th January 2012

Perfect Fit for Digital Trinity

Located in the heart of one of south east England’s most elegant towns – and one that remains synonymous for the British with a colourful combination of crotchety colonels and an expensive daily commute to London – is a venue whose long history is matched by the enthusiasm of its management for contemporary technology.

Built in the mid-19th century as the railway revolution brought prosperity, a burgeoning population and a building boom across the Home Counties, the Holy Trinity was Tunbridge Wells’ first parish church. After its final religious service in 1972 its Grade 1 listed status ensured safety from demolition, and by 1975 a public petition had secured permission from the Church Commissioners to produce a plan for community or public use. An appeal committee raised £50,000 and five years later it reopened as The Trinity Theatre arts centre complete with a raked-seating auditorium: growing popularity soon saw an art gallery, licensed bar and computerised box office added.

Its latest upgrade sees the venerable space take on the very modern mantle of digital cinema, although a cursory gaze at the vaulted balconies, plush stage tabs and comfy seats reveals little. Only on closer inspection does it turn out to be the UK’s first digital cinema to employ the unique K-Array system, its mid/high hangs barely visible against the tabs, complemented by minuscule surround sound satellite loudspeakers discretely located around the auditorium. Supplied and installed by Stage Electrics, the system, powered by bespoke K-Array Class D high power density amplifiers with integral DSP, is controlled direct from a DiGiCo SD9 console.

“This was my first project after I joined Stage Electrics,” observes business development manager for audio James Gosney. “Stage Electrics is doing bigger and bigger sound installations including the installation and supply of equipment to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre last year. As a consequence of being asked to design and supply high end audio systems, they have been expanding their audio team with people experienced in sound system design and installation, which is precisely my background.” Coming from a family also deeply immersed in theatre, he says: “I immediately fell in love with the building. For the last 20 years I’ve been mostly involved in designing systems for big churches, so for me it was a perfect combination of the two: a theatre in a church … with a bar; it doesn’t get much better.”

K-Array’s inclusion, as Gosney tells it, was pure serendipity. “The brief was for a multi-purpose theatre system, one that would work for all the types of the events that go on here. Like jazz evenings, musical theatre, straight plays, opera, local amateur dramatic groups, pretty much everything – and on top of that, 7.1 digital cinema, with its specific Dolby processing requirements.”

He adds: “I’d started with a conventional theatre system design using 12-inch-and-horn type boxes with subs, and smaller surround boxes. A few days before this was due to be signed off I heard K-Array for the first time and was utterly blown away by their sound and by how compact and discreet they were, and fascinated by the technology itself – and it struck me how good a fit they would be for the Trinity. The original system design still involved black boxes in a beautiful building and I’d been trying to think whether we could do this with much smaller loudspeakers – and I’d just heard the answer. Sennheiser agreed to demo a system at the theatre immediately and it performed beautifully. Dave Wooster, who has been FOH operator for such names as Gary Moore and Leona Lewis, but who now works for Sennheiser, and I then re-designed the Trinity system around K-Array.”

The system comprises KK200 main arrays coupled with single 18” subwoofer either side, along with four KT20 ‘Tornadoes’ – small 2” single drivers in little bullet shaped loudspeakers – along each side wall coupled with KU36 compact surround sub bass speakers. A pair of KK100 metre-long line source arrays provides the rear surround component. The final touch is a separate, portable K-Array system, half of which can be configured in a two-metre high column plus subwoofer as the centre speech speaker for digital cinema. It can also be used as a portable system for comedy evenings or jazz events in the foyer. The main system’s K-Array Class D amp modules are located in the control room drive rack, the networkable units incorporating full DSP for remote monitoring.

The Stage Electrics commissioning team set up the DiGiCo’s system alignment and output processing with presets for cinema, musical theatre, straight plays, jazz and other types of events. Gosney: “We had shown our demo SD9 to [Trinity Theatre head technician] Simon Diaper who loved it, partly because it’s so easy to use and so logically set out, but particularly because of the sound quality, which is noiseless really, it’s beautiful. And that’s the system: a DiGiCo going into the K-Array amps into the K-Array speakers, and it’s that simple. I’m all for keeping sound systems as simple as possible. Keep the signal path as clean as you can and don’t complicate it with too much nonsense in between.”

www.stage-electrics.co.uk

17th January 2012

GDS Specials Provide Retro-Fit Solution for Royal Festival Hall Southbank Centre

As part of the Festival of Britain anniversary celebrations, GDS was approached by Roger Hennigan, technical manager at The Southbank Centre, to assist with the redevelopment of disused outside area of the Queen Elizabeth Hall Roof. The space was to be part of the centres redevelopment project, with plans to build a garden and green event space for the festival celebrations.

The Royal Festival Hall opened in 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain and is at the heart of the Southbank Centre. The RFH welcomes orchestras, operas and contemporary music from around the world. The building is home to the Clore Ballroom, Saison Poetry Library, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and the Hayward Gallery. From April - September 2011, the Southbank Centre site was transformed for the Festival of Britain 60th Anniversary celebrations, celebrating British talent and creativity with the biggest cross-arts festival South Bank had seen since the original festival in 1951.

After completing a site survey and taking into consideration the long and difficult cable routes on site, coupled with the incredibly solid 1960’s concrete, The GDS specials team, in consultation with Roger Hennigan, developed a solution utilising the existing original infrastructure. The decision was made to remove the compact fluorescent light fittings from the existing fixtures, refurbish the fittings where necessary and install an LED based solution. The GDS specials team was able to design a bespoke solution that utilised the existing 1950’s fittings and cables causing minimal impact to the fabric of the building, whilst implementing a 21st century wireless remote control RGB Lighting solution.

The GDS specials team developed a lighting module that could be used in various formats to fit both of the two types of bulkhead fitting already installed at the centre. The decision was taken to make the LED lighting modules RGB and give them individual addresses to ensure the fitting were truly flexible. The fittings are controlled via W-DMX, giving Roger and his team control of the entire area and allowing him to program colour fades, sweeps and complete lighting states from the building control system.

Roger Hennigan, technical manager of the Southbank Centre commented: “It was great to work with the GDS team, they immediately understood the brief and quickly developed a practical and flexible solution that now looks great and is very versatile, this was achieved with minimal impact to the fabric of the building and has made long term energy and maintenance savings.”

GDS specials team designed, delivered and installed a modular LED panel, which allowed it to retro-fit the existing and original light fittings at the Southbank Centre. The installation included 24 large rectangular units, each with five LED panels, 18 smaller rectangular units, each with two LED panels and 18 circular units, each with two LED panels. Each individual unit incorporated a W-DMX wireless DMX receiver and a custom build LED driver/controller. The panels were designed to retro fit into the building's existing and original light fixtures.

16th January 2012

LOBO Installation Set to Break All Records

Shortly before the turn of the year, a huge laser projection appeared on the monumental facade of the 175 metre high Anayasa tower in Ashgabat. Slowly the figure "2011" faded away and the laser counted down the last seconds of the year. The gathered crowd cheered as the year "2012" appeared and the entire city shined brightly under magnificent fireworks.

At the same time, a giant permanent laser installation was launched. It is scheduled for continuous operation in January 2012 and will set new standards worldwide. The installation connects the highest towers of the Turkmenistan capital city Ashgabat with dazzling-bright laser beams in the national colour of green. Also display lasers are part of the project, used for brilliant building projections, which were seen for the first time at New Year’s Eve.

The rumor goes that the president of Turkmenistan himself had the idea for this project. On his behalf, the largest Turkish construction corporation Polimeks searched for the ideal partner for implementing this demanding project. Numerous companies in the display laser industry brought in ideas, concepts and offers. But in the end, internationally renowned laser specialist LOBO won the competition.

Under one roof LOBO bundled the experience of a leading full-range-manufacturer for display laser systems with the ingenuity of the industry’s internationally most-awarded show design team. LOBO has proven its competence all around the globe with innumerable outstanding large-scale projects, both as permanent installations and on a temporary basis.

But even for LOBO’s experienced engineers, this project was a real challenge. A total distance of almost 30 km had to be spanned between all the towers in an extremely bright environment. Within LOBO’s 30-year history, temporary projects of similar scale have been implemented on a rental basis. But the fully automated and daily operation of such a complex system demanded entirely different approaches.

To provide optimal visibility, all beams were designed bi-directionally. Only lasers of the highest brightness class have been used. The ultra-bright lasers of LOBO’s Sparks series served as the primary technical basis for the project, but Coherent Verdi lasers were also used. The automation of the installation is handled by LOBO’s proprietary LACON-5 platform. Thanks to integrated GPS-modules, it also takes care of absolutely exact synchronization of all laser systems.

LOBO’s creative director Alexander Hennig said: "Thanks to our own 10-km-long laser test track, we could show our clients that it is not enough just to install any kind of high-powered laser. We had to achieve an especially high effective brightness. This depends mostly on the interaction of several factors beyond laser power. Superlative beam quality was a key criterion at this project. In the LOBO laboratories, especially designed optics were developed for this installation, guaranteeing optimal light density even over extreme distances.

Considering the enormous extension of the installation, officials of the International Laser Display Association (ILDA) believe that it is the largest permanent display laser installation in the world. Turkemistan’s president personally inspected the installation himself from a helicopter. It is said that he was very satisfied with the result.

16th January 2012

A.C. Special Projects Flies with Nike

A.C. Special Projects (ACSP) Ltd. has supplied a bespoke truss grid and flying system for Nike’s new concept store in Westfield Stratford City, London’s latest flagship retail destination and one of the largest shopping centres in the UK. The 17,000 square metre Nike store showcases the latest innovations in professional sports and casual footwear from the brand and is situated in an impressive double-storey glass fronted outlet.

Nike Europe’s retail design dDirector Greg Stobbs, who created the look and feel of the interior, wanted to maximise the space as a versatile display area. Due to its layout, a substantial and unique atrium space was available reaching three metres back from the front façade, with eight metres of headroom. Greg envisaged a truss grid that could be moved up and down for easy and safe accessibility and quick changeovers, that would look contemporary, attractive and quirky as well as being a practical support system for various displays to be hung below.

Prior to this project, ACSP installed three truss grids above the escalators at the flagship Niketown store in London’s Oxford Circus during its refurbishment in 2010. When the new concept store received the green light ACSP were approached again to provide a solution by Nike Europe’s Neil van den Dungen, who oversees all Nike’s in-house store development projects.

ACSP technical manager, Dave Cowan, liaised with Neil van den Dungen - who is based overseas in Nike Europe’s HQ in The Netherlands - and local architects Child Graddon Lewis (CGL) in Spitalfields. The equipment was installed by Independent Studio Services on behalf of ACSP.

The technical brief stated that the truss grid must be flexible and have a substantial weight loading capacity. ACSP specified six Columbus McKinnon (CM) ProStar half-tonne motors with double brakes to lift the 24ft section of Prolyte 30HD truss, which is the standard 48mm size of trussing. A motor controller was supplied as part of the package, which was set up to be easily and safely operated by store managers as required. ACSP added four cable de-reelers to the specification for dispensing cable in the event of lights etc. being rigged to the truss grid. They also had 35 custom black wire mesh panels manufactured which cover the underside of the truss and can also be used to aid the flying of objects beneath it.

The end results were fantastic with Nike being "very happy" with the system. ACSP’s Dave Cowan comments: "It has been a pleasure working with Nike to create this magnificent retail display system. ACSP continue to work with various industry sectors including education, theatre, performance and retail, helping to bring bespoke concepts from design to life."

Currently hung from the truss grid is a spectacular ‘shoebox chandelier’ artwork created with multiple, differently configured strings of bright orange shoeboxes.

www.acspecialprojects.com

13th January 2012

Bolshoi’s Sumptuous Set Design Includes the Dance Floor

After a six year restoration project, reported to have cost a massive £1/2 billion, Moscow’s iconic Bolshoi Theatre re-opened last autumn with a glittering gala performance attended by president Dmitry Medveded and the Russian elite. Unusually, instead of unobtrusively providing a world-class floor for the dancers, the Harlequin dance floor was itself an integral part of the set design for the Bolshoi Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty.

Thanks to innovative techniques developed by Harlequin’s development engineering team, the usually plain vinyl dance surface echoed the sumptuous set design with an intricate pattern designed by the Italian designer Ezio Frigerio.

Using advanced wide format computer controlled printing techniques, the Bolshoi’s design was digitised for printing on rolls of specially formatted white Harlequin Cascade vinyl.

Extensive testing and experimentation during the development of the technique ensured the surface characteristics – so important to professional dancers – were maintained while ensuring adequate adhesion of the inks to withstand scuffing from ballet shoes. Harlequin is pleased to announce that this capability is now offered as a custom option for purchasers of their floors.

Harlequin Cascade is a reinforced vinyl dance surface manufactured to high standards. It is popular with stage managers as a heavy-duty stage floor withstanding general stage use and tolerant of heavy props and also ideal for dance. A silky smooth emboss gives deceptively good grip conveying a soft feel, giving dancers an unmatched confidence for demanding choreography. The underlying Harlequin Liberty sprung floor comprises a series of inter-linked panels designed to provide consistent shock absorption that independent research shows minimise stress injuries for dancers.

13th January 2012

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