production news

Element Labs Stealth Screen for Britney Spears World Tour

Element Labs' Stealth LED technology has stood centre-stage with many of the world's leading performers, including Led Zeppelin, Kylie, Muse, Madonna and now also Britney Spears. Stealth, which set the industry standard for light, transparent video screens, is the ideal robust, reliable LED display solution for a demanding life on the road.

The Stealth displays, supplied by Solotech, are used in two separate circular screens: one screen above center stage and a smaller circular screen around the elevator. The main circular Stealth screen totals 1,300 panels with a height of 4 metres and a circumference of 58 metres. The rigging for the impressive screens was custom-made by Tait. The Stealth screen is used to show custom-made content developed by Franco Dragone's team under the guidance of Dirk Decloedt. The screen shows unique animated and stylized images created specifically for each song, which add brightly colorful content enhancing the Circus experience that themes the tour.

Barbara Nelson of Element Labs says: "Stealth has proven itself to be an absolutely fantastic LED product for the concert touring industry. It offers the visual performance expected of a high-quality LED product, yet also delivers the limited weight and size as well as ease-of-use that is so critical in this industry."

Latin America Rocks: Festival de Verão Celebrated with grandMA

More than 40.000 visitors every day attended the 11th Festival de Verao in Salvador, Bahia, North-East Brazil. The four day spectacle featured scores of Latin American bands like Jota Quest, Ivete Sangalo, Chiclete com Banana, Olodum, Asa de Aguia, Jota Quest, Capital Inicial and Daniela Mercury, plus special guest, American singer Alanis Morissette.

Lighting designer Marcelo "Mazao" Marino used a grandMA system consisting of one grandMA full-size, one grandMA light, one grandMA ultra-light, four ediaPCs running grandMA video software and three MA NSPs.

Marino explained his choice of the grandMA: "Due to the complexity of the system and the need to control video , there were no other control platforms available that are so flexible, reliable and easy to use as the grandMA. Every day we discover that the grandMA system is better than the rest. We were proud and happy to upgrade the Festival de Verão with this state-of-the-art technology."

Cesio Lima worked as director of photography. LSD Led Solution Design provided the media PC´s and Luzbel the lighting rig in the realisation of the festival.

www.malighting.com

Martin Gear for Elton John / Billy Joel Face 2 Face Tour

Two of the entertainment industry's top piano men - Sir Elton John and Billy Joel - have reunited for an extensive ‘Face 2 Face' tour, continuing what is being described as the most successful and longest-running concert pairing in pop history.

John and Joel are touring the US together in an extraordinary show that sees the musicians play a series of duets on twin pianos, perform separately for an hour each, and then conclude the performance together on stage. The show includes some of their greatest hits along with a selection of rock ‘n' roll classics.

Steven Cohen Productions, in conjunction with Epic Production Technologies and Syncrolite supplied a large lighting package that includes Martin MAC III Profiles, MAC 700 Profiles and MAC 2000 Washes with lighting control from a Martin Maxxyz and Maxxyz Modules. Video control for low resolution LED screens is from a Martin Maxedia Broadcast.

Production Designer for the show is Steve Cohen. Lighting design is by Cohen and Mark Foffano. Foffano programmed for both artists and served as the overall system designer. Kevin ‘Stick' Bye serves as Elton John's lighting director.

The lighting rig includes 32 Martin Professional 1500 watt MAC III Profiles located upstage on three separate hinged trusses that conform to the angle of the upstage.

"The MAC IIIs are extremely bright, and their optics are amazing," states Foffano, who has worked with Joel since 1998. "They're brute lights that push themselves through anything, the video screen, the background..." For both John and Joel the powerful MAC III beams are used to shine through the low res LED screen / scenery in what Foffano describes as an awe-inspiring look.

The MAC III Profile features a unique fat beam and houses an enhanced CMY color mixing system for a wider range of vibrant colors - true reds for example. A fixed color wheel houses interchangeable slots for an even broader color range.

"The colors are outstanding and color changes are incredibly fast," Foffano continues. "The color mechanism is crisp and the color saturations are excellent - the cyan and magenta are really clean and pure." When asked about reliability, Foffano reported no issues.

The MAC 700 Profiles sit atop LED built into a Tait Towers lifting system that allows the look of a skyline. The MAC 2000s are located in trusses both upstage and downstage.

Two Martin Maxedia Broadcasts - Martin's user-friendly media server for media composing and playback - feed graphical content to low resolution LED screens over the stage. One Maxedia Broadcast is used for pixelmapping and the other for video content purposes. Maxedia programming was executed by Curtis Cox.

The entire show and Maxedia servers are controlled by just one Martin Maxxyz console using more than 26 universes of DMX. The DMX is transmitted from the Maxxyz console backstage over ArtNet. Maxxyz Modules provide easy direct playback access.

"Maxxyz is a platform we are comfortable with," says Foffano. "We've been using it for about five years now. Its ease of programming is a great time saver - you can get to where you're going without having to push a thousand buttons. The support is great too. It doesn't matter where we are in the world, we can always call someone."

The Elton John / Billy Joel Face 2 Face tour is expected to run periodically over the next two years with a stadium tour this summer and more dates set for November.

PRG's Bad Boy Goes Country

When viewers tuned into this year's CMT Music Awards, televised live on June 16 from the Sommet Center in Nashville, they were treated to more than thank you speeches and some of the hottest acts in country music. Production designer Anne Brahic and lighting designer Allen Branton, whose team also handled the video content, provided a video and lighting driven alternative to traditional scenery while embracing the idea of negative space. Branton turned to the PRG Bad Boy luminaire for strong beam effects and to delineate the performers in this unique visual environment.

Branton had previously used the Bad Boys in his design for the MTV Movie Awards. There they played the role of Hollywood searchlights on the glamorous film-inspired set. "The Bad Boys worked really nicely on the MTV awards because of their smaller size but great intensity," said Branton. "We used five of them on the floor to emulate movie premiere searchlights. They needed to be in scale with the set and there aren't many smaller lights that have enough intensity to do that job."

For the CMT Music Awards, Branton worked closely with Brahic on the ‘no set' design consisting of video tile ribbons and a visual forest of VersaTubes floating in dark space. "We really tried to place the lights in a very surgical, restrained manner so as not to have the lighting and the video elements in competition with each other," noted Branton. "The Bad Boys were a great tool because they had enough brightness to compete with the video even in vivid colors. We only needed three fixtures as backlight to define the performers against the video background."

Felix Peralta, lighting director/programmer for the CMT awards, agreed, saying: "They provided a big, hard-edge light that could cut through the video. Allen and I really like the 8" aperture of the Bad Boy, it is a nice fat beam that comes out of the light; the output is tremendous. It really provides what Allen likes to call the ‘shock and awe'."

PRG also provided the large quantity of VersaTubes, a primary feature of the design, along with five Mbox Extreme media servers, which were programmed by Jason Rudolph. Rudolph used two servers for the VersaTubes and three for the XL Video F-LED video tiles. "I have used the Mbox many times in the past and there are a lot of things I like about it," said Rudolph. "The new version 3 hardware is a vast improvement. It is a good server with a lot of nice functions and it is pretty damn reliable."

Branton, who worked closely with PRG well in advance of the event commented: "Everything came in and was ready to go, which was great because our time was limited. Everything was handled beautifully. It is really one of the most important things to me, getting people in the boat with you that you can trust and I trust PRG."

First grandMA2 in Latin America goes to the Dominican Republic

The first grandMA2 full-size to be sold into Latin America was recently delivered to the Dominican Republic. Edwin Belliard Madera and Alberto Belliard Madera, owners of the rental company BM Eventos in Santiago, bought the console. They had already decided to take the MA Lighting route, and the company also owns a grandMA ultra-light, grandMA video and a MA 2Port Node onPC PRO.

Michael Adenau, managing director and founder of MA Lighting Technology, Ralph-Jörg Wezorke, chairman of MA Lighting International, and Daniel Ridano, manager of MA Lighting Latin America, were happy to welcome Edwin and Alberto to enjoy the MA team during Prolight & Sound. They were also pleased to see them get up to date with new MA products.

www.malighting.com

The Dead Come Alive with Meyer Sound

More than 45 years after their first concert, The Dead (previously the Grateful Dead) continued to set the highest sonic standards on their 22-show, 17-city tour, the band's first tour in more than five years. Known for their unyielding requirement for low-distortion sound, The Dead's new tour was again supported by a Meyer Sound MILO line array loudspeaker system supplied by Bay Area associates Pro Media/UltraSound.

The system, designed to provide up to 360-degree coverage for the tour's multiple arena dates, included main left and right arrays of 16 MILO and two MILO 120 line array loudspeakers each. Left and right side arrays of ten MILO and two MILO 120 loudspeakers each were augmented by identical arrays covering far left and far right areas, for a total of 72 MILO and 12 MILO 120 loudspeakers in all.

The rear areas were served by left and right arrays of 12 MICA line array loudspeakers each. Low frequencies were ably handled by 16 700-HP subwoofers, with eight each flown below the main MILO arrays. An additional nine M3D-Sub directional subwoofers were groundstacked at the stage. Left and right frontfills of three CQ-1 loudspeakers each and a pair of UPJ-1P VariO loudspeakers for centerfill completed the setup.

"The Meyer Sound system provided us with a consistent, clean, and powerful image across a wide range of venues," remarked FOH Engineer Derek Featherstone, who used a pair of HD-1 audio monitors at the mix position. "Even with more than 90 open microphones on the stage, we had very little leakage back onto the PA system."

Few bands have played a larger role in the evolution of today's concert sound than The Dead. The band was among the first users of Meyer Sound systems, and Meyer Sound founder John Meyer credits the group's high standards with inspiring his ongoing quest for audio excellence.

Britney Spears Soars with PRG's Scenic Technologies

PRG's Scenic Technologies group has had many opportunities over the years to engineer new and innovative automation solutions but they were particularly excited to have the chance to join The Circus Starring Britney Spears. The European leg of the world tour, which began at the O2 Arena in London, was the debut of the overhead automation system and two flying scenic elements. PRG received the request to engineer and build the system approximately four weeks prior to installation. The design concept presented a challenge that the PRG engineers found impossible to resist.

Tour producer/director Steve Dixon, production designers Nick Whitehouse and Bryan Leitch, and costume designer William Baker have created a spectacular set with a large circular mainstage and two smaller stages, evoking a three-ring circus. Above the mainstage is a large circular truss system, containing a massive 360° video screen and a red drape, which raises and lowers during the show. However, that is far from the only aerial work of the night; there is a complex automated flying system for scenic elements as well as performers, including Ms. Spears herself.

"PRG was able to deliver the show that we conceived," explained Dixon. "It is unique automation for a concert environment, more like a Broadway show, but with the ability to handle a touring schedule of back-to-backs with eight hours to load in and four hours to load out. With PRG, I now have a slick, smooth automated flying system that is precise, repeatable and most importantly, tourable. PRG is a company that has an absolutely positive attitude. It was never ‘no, we can't do it'. If there was an issue, they came to us with solutions. Their focus was on the timely delivery of the system and the costs. They understood the importance of balancing both things."

PRG engineered the overhead automated flying system on the show including all 15 winches. There is a centre lift winch that rotates 720° and works as both a scenery winch and a performer winch. Though this winch is used throughout the production it is particularly effective during two major moments in the show, both of which also include new scenic elements supplied by PRG. The first is when Britney sits onstage on a large umbrella that opens and flies up while slowly rotating as she sings a soft ballad. Later in the show she steps into a basket-style element that lifts her above a ring of actual fire.

Another key automation sequence in the show involves three large picture frame assemblies that each contain one performer. All three frames revolve in a circle as well as lift and lower. Previously, they only tracked 70° but PRG engineered a solution that allows the units to rotate 340° around the stage. Three lift winches were installed which are connected via an aircraft cable so that they lock into one another and become a single cable-loop. One revolve winch moves all three frames around the circle and the distance between the frames remains constant.

An essential part of the assignment given PRG was to provide four performer fly winches that the aerialists use with both ring choreography and fabric routines. Here safety, precision and consistent cue accuracy were absolutely imperative. PRG Scenic Technologies built permissive switches for each performer winch, which were used by the performer's individual spotters. The spotter presses a button in order to allow the winch to move up and down. If the button is released the winch is disabled and will not move until re-enabled (the permissive button engaged). This provided another layer of individual safety for each winch. The actual control of the winches is handled by a single operator on PRG's Commander console, the newest version of the PRG Stage Command system for automation control.

The Commander console utilizes new software and it shares many hardware components with the new PRG V676 lighting console. All of the effects go back to submasters on the control console where the operator can manipulate the time signatures via faders. There is a grandmaster that can operate all of the effects, as well as individual submasters that control individual winches. Once programmed, the Commander console ensures the speed is going to be the same every night at the touch of the go button. All of the drive racks and control intelligence for the system were moved to ground level where they could be more easily serviced. This also reduced the weight on the grid and allowed for faster load in and out.

The new control system and permissive button arrangement is particularly appreciated by the lead aerialist, Shannon Beach. She praised Scenic Technologies saying: "The new automated flying system had a big impact on the production and the feeling of security for the performers who work with it every night. It's so tight and so specific; we now feel that we can sharpen and expand our performances. Our confidence in the system allows us to focus on our performances."

PRG Scenic Technologies has over 20 years experience engineering automation for the theatrical market, corporate events and themed environments. It was the expertise and confidence of the well-respected Scenic Technologies team, led by Orestes Mihaly, general manager, that convinced the tour they had found the right shop. "I have worked for years with PRG; they are always excellent and reliable as a company," explains Mo Morrison, production executive for the tour. "Yet going with PRG Scenic Technologies to handle concert touring automation work was still a gamble; but they very quickly adapted to the concert touring concerns of back to backs, fast in and out; the truck space considerations; and the gear reliability required for work on the road. They were very open to what we required and always had a positive, confident attitude. What is not to love about the new automated flying system? It does everything that we wanted; it's sexy; and it's always on the mark. It's predictable and with automation, predictability is your friend. When you have people and scenic elements in the air, you want it to be spot on. I can truly say this has been another great PRG experience."

Prior to this tour, Whitehouse and Leitch partnered with Steve Dixon, William Baker and touring veteran Mo Morrison to form the production company Road Rage, which is producing The Circus Starring Britney Spears tour as well as handling the production design for the current Il Divo world tour.

PixelRange Lights the Waves

Kentucky-based Goodwin Lighting Services recently supplied a number of PixelLine 110s to light an unusual bespoke wave set design. The concept was realised by event designer Joe Rigotti and consisted of white stretched fabric over a custom made frame. Both modular and flexible - the individual curves hook together to make the desired height.

Lighting designer Glen Goodwin explains: "Each piece of the stage backdrop is 4' wide and 30' tall. I lit each row top and bottom with a PixelLine 110 - set up so I had control of each strip. The challenge was make each function hosted in the ballroom look different. I needed to be able to transform the look of the stage and be able to create kinetic color changes to make the set come alive."

The event was over three days - each day the ballroom had three room transformations - breakfast, lunch and a party at night. The lighting rig played an important part during the changes, the automated fixtures including MACs, ShowGuns and VLs - allowed maximum effect and efficient transitions between functions.

Goodwin continues: "I chose PixelRange fixtures because of their brightness, compactness, internal effects and ease of use. I particularly like that you can go from manual to DMX very easily and when you return to manual - it remembers what setting was last used."

A Hog IPC with five universes was used for control and an ESP vision for pre-programming.

The event was an annual sales meeting and party for a major insurance company - organised by Accent On Cincinnati.

photo: Goodwin Lighting Services

iLive Family at Vienna Festival

A combined Allen & Heath iLive and iLive-T system was used at the recent opening ceremony for the prestigious Vienna Festival, held in the city's Rathausplatz.

The inaugural event saw the debut of a specially-commissioned composition exploring the emotions and depicting scenes that characterise Vienna and the kindred cities of Paris, Lisbon and New York, traversing musical styles including blues, classical, Portuguese fado, French accordion, and jazz and soul from the USA.

Having used an iLive-144 system to manage the FOH orchestra mix at last year's opening ceremony, festival sound designer, Adolf "Tucherl" Toegel, decided to use two iLives at FOH for the 2009 event.

A revolving stage was constructed to accommodate set changeovers for the many and diverse artists involved in the production, which included manoeuvring a grand piano on and off both sides of the stage. The blues band was permanently installed on one side and all the other bands were loaded on and off the other side.

"As there were two stages, I decided to design two separate FOH and monitor set ups for each side. Although there are digital mixers available that can manage the high channel count, there were quick band changeovers with announcements in between and also different sound engineers working for their artists, so two mixers was preferred," explains Tucherl.

FOH position was limited to 3.5m of space to house all mixers and FOH equipment, so Tucherl selected an iDR10 MixRack with iLive-144 Control Surface to manage the first stage, and the new compact iLive-T80 Control Surface with iDR-48 MixRack was employed for the second stage. To enable the stage to turn, all the microphone multicore cables ran through a hole in the middle and fed to the rear where the microphone splitters for the FOH, monitor and OB van feeds were located, as well as the wireless microphone receivers, IEM transmitters, and the two iLive racks.

"As well as the compact size, another major factor in the decision to use iLive was that the mix processing is separate to the mix surface, so we only needed to run CAT5 cable between the mixer and the stage," said Tucherl.

Last year, the EtherSound B output from the iLive MixRack was used to record the rehearsals, which together with a PC and a Digigram PCI EtherSound card using Nuendo, enabled Tucherl to record 64 channels of audio.

"The extraordinary feature on iLive is that you can switch all the inputs to the EtherSound B inputs and get exactly the same signals from the recording that you got from the microphones during the rehearsal. Since we did not have many rehearsals, we used this feature to create an accurate mix for the orchestra. Nuendo allowed us to loop complicated musical parts and optimize the balance of the microphones without the need to have musicians on stage," said Tucherl.

"I've been sound designer for the Vienna Festival opening ceremony for over 15 years, and I have used all brands of mixer. Both iLive systems have everything that I needed to produce a good show, the handling is excellent and the sound first class. In my opinion, a mixer should not have a "sound" but should be neutral and not colour the sound, so that only a small amount of EQ need be applied where necessary. iLive performs exactly this way, and it is able to manage classical as well as popular music. The surface is very intuitive, and you can configure the layout to access all inputs, outputs, groups, and DCAs with complete freedom to decide where you position the faders. On top of that, the colour coding on the LCD display helps to define the channel identity," Tucherl concludes.

In picture: Vienna Festival sound designer, Adolf "Tucherl" Toegel, at FOH with the iLive-144 control surface.

Seal's "Soul" Tour Goes Global with Sennheiser

Three-time Grammy Award-winner Seal is currently on a world tour to promote his sixth album "Soul," which features such soul classics as "A Change is Gonna Come," "It's a Man's Man's Man's World," "Stand by Me" and "People Get Ready" and is, for many, the high point of an already exceptional career. Having recently wrapped up the U.S. leg of his worldwide "Soul" Tour, Seal next heads to Australia for some promotional events before a busy summer of European dates and a return to Australia with his three-piece band and a stage full of Sennheiser and Neumann mics, a NET 1 system and Sennheiser personal monitor systems.

"Every mic on the stage is a Sennheiser," confirms monitor engineer Chris Lantz, who has been working with the London-born singer and his band for the past eighteen months. The production maintains a complete mic and personal monitor system in the U.S. and an identical set-up in Europe, plus a basic rig in a flypack for promotional events.

Taking pride of place is Seal's vocal mic, a Sennheiser SKM 5200 wireless handheld with a Neumann KK 105-S capsule. "It works great for him," reports Lantz. "He likes that high-end, whispery sound, so we take a lot of the mids out. He doesn't like to get right on the mic, either, and it works well for his dynamics. He's happy as can be. He loves it."

The vocal mic is paired with an EM 3732 receiver. "I love the way you can find all the frequencies and how easy the scanning is. It's so simple," says Lantz. There are also four hardwire e 935 mics for background vocal contributions from the band, one pair positioned upstage and another pair downstage.

The drum kit is covered with Sennheiser evolution series microphones, according to Lantz. "We have an e 602 on the kick drum." Previously there was a mic from another manufacturer on the kick drum until, he says, "I went to another show and heard someone using an e 602. It's probably one of the nicest sounding kick drum mics I've used." Sennheiser e 905s mic the top and bottom snare drum, a pair of e 614s are positioned for overhead and ride cymbal and e 914s on the hi-hat.

The clean and quiet stage layout features three of the four musicians on Sennheiser G2 wireless personal monitors. "The drummer is on a hardwire," he notes. "In addition to Seal, there's a bass player/keyboard player and a guitar player, who are on ears. One of the backline techs also has his own unit." The only two monitor speakers are a sub for the drummer and another for the bass/keyboard player, which helps front-of-house engineer John Robbins perfect his mix, says Lantz. Additional e 914 condenser mics are positioned to introduce audience and ambience into the personal monitor systems for the musicians.

He adds, "I run both a 500 MHz and a 600 MHz frequency personal monitor unit simultaneously for Seal, in case I have problems. Depending on the local RF environment, some days the 500 works better, some days the 600." Lantz remotely controls and monitors the wireless systems using a Sennheiser NET 1 system.

Although Lantz has been working in the industry for many years and was one of the first to adopt wireless personal monitors, it's a constant learning process," he says. "I just think that the support that Sennheiser has given us is incredible." He noted that he has received training on the road, has visited the office in Connecticut, and completed a Sound Academy class. "You learn the right ways to do it. When you learn the tricks from the people that work with the equipment every day, it makes your job a breeze."

In picture: With Seal using a Sennheiser SKM 5200 wireless microphone with the stellar Neumann KK 105-S capsule and a stage full of Sennheiser gear, Seal's global "Soul" tour is a classic in both performance and sound. Photo: Getty Images.

Johnny Hallyday Rocks Tour 66 with a Bespoke Stageco Stage

France's leading rock and roll star Johnny Hallyday used a bespoke stage built by Stageco when he embarked on his tribute to American rock culture, Tour 66. Hallyday, who took the inspiration for this tour from symbols such as the Harley Davison, the American eagle or the iconic Route 66 "shield" emblem, needed a stage which would look impressive on an international scale.

The tour is scheduled to play stadia of all sizes in France, Belgium and Switzerland, so it required a flexible touring set that would create a dramatic visual impact in different capacity venues, from the 60,000 seat Stade de France in Paris to smaller venues like the Stade Jules Deschaseaux in Le Havre.

Renowned stage designer Mark Fisher of Stufish designed a stage dominated by an enormous mythic bird, wings outstretched and spanning the entire width of the performance area. Beneath it were two pairs of giant caryatids, half human, half avian, which were moved into position by robots on tracks built into the stage design. In transit, these figures were protected by a structure which doubled as a video wall support during the show, demonstrating the ingenuity and economy of Stageco's engineering.

All the elements required close liaison between Stufish, the production company Camus Productions and the Belgian-based staging specialists.

Stageco used its renowned in-house design, engineering and fabrication expertise to create a made-to-measure stage which could easily be installed, demounted and transported, in spite of its technical complexity.

According to production director Roger Abriol of Camus Productions: "Johnny Hallyday required an ambitious design with an international impact. The bird - either an eagle or a phoenix - is a powerful symbol in an uncertain world. In the initial phases, Stageco helped us to establish the access facilities and dimensions of the different stadia, ensuring the logistics of the stage build were practical.

"Their tower-based system gave us the flexibility to create different and adventurous designs, offering a huge advantage in economy and strength. Johnny Hallyday's Tour 66 was an opportunity to create something totally different and that's why we chose to work with Stageco."

Stageco's project manager Dirk de Decker was instrumental in the development and fabrication of the stage, while Technical Supervisors Antonio Duarte da Cruz and Patrick Vonckx were responsible for the logistics and stage installation on tour.

"Johnny Hallyday always likes to stretch the creative boundaries," says Dirk de Decker. "There were many challenging elements in this stage, including the use of robots and the logistics of the different stages. It was a delight to be able to help him and Camus Productions create a world-class show."

grandMA goes Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

When NBC's ‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon' debuted in the changing landscape of late night television grandMA was close at hand. Lighting designer Christopher Landy, who heads Brooklyn's Vibrant Design LLC, specified the console to control an large complement of moving and conventional lights which give the show a hip vibe while paying homage to talk show legends Johnny Carson and Jack Parr who worked in the same iconic Studio 6B at Rockefeller Center.

"The grandMA is my board of choice for any show," says Landy. "A nightly show like Fallon is very demanding. The schedule is extremely tight and every night is a different musical performance and a different comedic bit. That doesn't leave a lot of cuing time. We need a console that can handle a large library of effects and is programmer friendly. Versatility is key."

Landy has extensive TV credits and a strong background in music and live events. He has designed many series for MTV, including "Total Request Live," ‘Unplugged 2.0' and ‘MTV's New Year's Eve'; the ‘Custom Concert' series for Oxygen Network; Comedy Central's acclaimed ‘Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn'; and received an Emmy Award nomination for MSNBC's 2004 Election coverage.

For Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Landy opted for a large complement of LEDs. "Those LEDs treat the set, providing unlimited spectrum of colour and effects to the background," reports Landy. The grandMA console has a unique set of tools created specifically for intuitive control of LED fixtures. The grandMA also controls a host of moving lights.

As the show moves forward the lighting designer says: "I was adamant about getting a console that was going to be able to expand with the show over the next decade. Conan ran for 16 years in the same studio. As the show grows we'll have the ability to add more moving lights, LEDs and perhaps a media server. The grandMA is certainly ready to handle that, it's a fantastic console."

Chris Komishock and Steve Garner served as grandMA programmers for ‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'. Scharff Weisberg provided the grandMA.

photo NBC Dana Edelson

www.malighting.com

Chester French on tour with Electro-Voice Microphones

With an original sound that is equal parts indie rock and hip-hop, duo Chester French has been on the fast track to fame ever since their first hit single ‘She Loves Everybody' debuted on Nov. 18, 2008.

After months of shows and TV appearances, the release of their first album, ‘Love the Future', and a US tour with Lady Sovereign, the pair of Harvard alumni will embark for Europe, returning home in July to begin opening for punk rockers Blink-182 on their North American summer tour. For every performance Chester French will perform through Electro-Voice microphones, enthusiastically mixed by Tour Manager/FOH Engineer Sean Peel.

Peel, a longtime Electro-Voice user, is a busy freelance tour manager and FOH engineer who trusts his EV mics to stand up to the rigors of touring. For years, EV's first generation PL80 mics set the world standard for live performance microphones. The new PL80's sound, along with its rugged, natural-feeling design, has made it Peel's go-to vocal mic.

"I love the PL80," says Peel. "It's awesome - I'm glad it's back with a vengeance! The PL80c (with classic finish) is just like it was back in the day, but with all the advantages of state-of-the-art materials. And not only is it a great live microphone, it even works great when we're recording TV and doing in-studio stuff like that. But it still makes its real mark in live sound because it does what other mics can't. To me, a lot of vocal mics start to have problems when they get to high-frequencies and the sound gets really weak and brittle, but the PL80 has a very warm-sounding high end - you get all the top end you want without any shrillness. It's especially good in louder live rooms. For these reasons it's just a cut above the other standard-issue vocal mics out there. Plus it looks really cool!"

And not only does the PL80's sound impress, its design is also encourages users to hold the mic correctly for optimal effect. Peel explains: "Singers tend to cup the mic with their hands around the element with other mics; with the PL80 they grab the handle of the microphone, and hold it right. When you hold it better you're going to sound better, too."

In addition to PL80 vocal mics, Peel uses EV N/D468s mics on drums, RE200 condensers on cymbals, and the N/D868 on kick drum.

"The N/D 468 is basically the best standard drum mic there is," says Peel. "You can't get any more standard than the 468. It's been on drum kits forever. Because of its design, it can stick in really tight places - you can't get any better than that. And on top of everything it's got that incredible sound that EV mics have always had - a great combination of warmth and definition. I put 468s everywhere on drums and RE200s on cymbals. I think The RE200 is the best cymbal mic out there. It really captures that swishy sound that I always want out of a cymbal. And of course the 868 on the kick is another industry standard mic from EV. I like the 868 because a lot of times it's not about the click, it's about what the drum sounds like, and the 868 delivers that."

Chester French were recently featured as musical guests on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on April 21, 2009, the same day as the release of "Love the Future." Peel brought his PL80 vocal mics to the Late Night studio at 30 Rockefeller Plaza for the performance:

"Of course I wanted to use these PL80s on the show because I knew they would sound better. But, understandably, the NBC engineers were used to their own mics and were hesitant. When I took one of the PL80s out, one of the older engineers said, ‘Hey I remember those mics from when I was a kid!' Long story short: I convinced them to use my mics, we did the show, and they said, ‘Wow! This is a great microphone! It sounds great, has great rejection around it, and it sounds awesome on television.' Everyone was very impressed."

Peel also reports that even before their appearance on Late Night, the band was sold on performing with EV microphones.

"The band loves the mics, too," says Peel. "They're holding up on the road, they sound great, and our lead singer can hear his in-ears really well - that's another thing about the PL80 - people can actually hear their vocal mic and it doesn't sound distorted in your ear. And the mics are holding up really well, night after night; they're solid, they're metal, they're tough - you can't bust them. Even when your singer decides to drop the microphone.

"Electro-Voice rocks my world," adds Peel. "These are my tools of the trade. EV puts out a great microphone - when it comes to mics, EV has more that are warmer sounding than any other mic manufacturer out there. And that's what counts when you're doing a live show and you're trying to capture a recording sound at a live performance. It's all about warmth at EV, and that's what it's all about for me."

Sennheiser Supports Bowling Green State University's Vocal Jazz Camp

The 2009 Bowling Green State University's (BGSU) Vocal Jazz Camp features instruction from members of the premier vocal jazz quartet of our time, New York Voices. In recognition of what a significant and unique opportunity the camp is for serious students of vocal jazz, Sennheiser and Neumann will support the camp by providing a scholarship and live microphones both for use during the camp, as well as for prizes. Applications for the scholarship can be found at www.BGSUjazz.com and awards will be determined based on need and talent. The deadline is June 15th.

New York Voices have been at the forefront of vocal jazz for over 20 years. Their performances and recordings have earned them numerous Grammys, in addition to a raft of other awards and accolades. This year marks the first time that all four members will be at the BGSU Vocal Jazz Camp to provide instruction and inspiration to attendees. "In addition to their tremendous work with New York Voices, each member has a vibrant solo career," remarked camp manager Theo Stiegler. "It's the best of both worlds, for learning about vocal jazz as a soloist, as well as an ensemble singer. And it's a remarkable opportunity for one-on-one interaction with some of

the best jazz vocalists of our time."

BGSU Vocal Jazz Camp will run from August 4-9 and welcomes singers and ensembles at any level - from high school and college students to university faculty and professionals. Intense instruction in clinics, ensemble sessions, coaching, and special interest will convey the insights, nuance, and techniques that New York Voices have gained over their long careers. During ensemble and solo singing sessions, participants will use 16 e 935 live vocal microphones that Sennheiser has provided to the camp. One lucky (and talented!) soloist will win a Neumann KMS 104/105 live vocal mic so that he or she can get the "Neumann sound" at every one of their performances.

"We are grateful to have professional-grade Sennheiser vocal mics for the camp," said Stiegler. "You really want the mic to be an extension of the voice, a natural catalyst. With inexpensive mics, you sometimes create a hindrance. In a challenging environment, the performer is then thinking about the mic, and that steals his or her attention from the music itself. So I am thankful the campers will be singing through professional-grade microphones at all times."

The Sennheiser/Neumann scholarship will pay one full tuition to the winner. Winning ensembles can either admit one free participant or split the deduction of one tuition among their members. Note that ensembles are also eligible for the camp's ensemble discount, and camp participants that are already registered may also apply.

In picture: New York Voices is the Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble renowned for their excellence in jazz and the art of group singing

photo: Chris Carroll

Barco Debuts New Wash Light On Tour

Barco has announced that three premiere band tours - No Doubt, The Crystal Method and the upcoming Aerosmith tour -- are all debuting the new High End Systems' Showbeam 2.5 in their shows.

The Showbeam 2.5 is a new 2500-watt automated wash luminaire that features the revolutionary Twin Beam technology, allowing two hard-edge beams to exit the fixture on command. Features include variable control over the Twin Beam's deviation and rotation speed, all with little brightness degradation, the ability to add incremental colour to the Twin Beam using the CMY colour mixing system, and a unique LED tracking system encircling the lens. Showbeam 2.5 also features a user-changeable fixed colour wheel, a variable CTO and the ability to produce an 11-degree fixed hard-edge profile with fast colour change and Electronic Strobe. The profile can be rapidly zoomed from 11 to 33 degrees.

Butch Allen, No Doubt's lighting designer, said, "These lights are amazing. Well done!" Tour lighting contractor Epic Production Technologies is supplying six Showbeam 2.5 fixtures, along with six HES DL.3 Digital Lights. No Doubt's North American tour started on May 2.

"I love the colours," said Lawrence "Loz" Upton, The Crystal Method's lighting designer. "First of all, you can use Showbeam 2.5 as a very powerful wash light, and I especially love the colours with the ring of LEDs. It works really well in the show with our circular trussing. The next thing is, at a moment's notice, you can turn on the Twin Beam effect, and it's pretty hallucinogenic," continued Upton. "You go from a beam focus, and then all of a sudden, you've got this crazy two-beam focus that comes in, which is just awesome, and it also has a cool oscillation effect. Ours is an effects-driven show, and Showbeam 2.5 adds to the layers of looks to match our layers of sound. Barco's High End lighting products are very innovative, and personally, they work well for me."

Delicate Productions is the lighting contractor for The Crystal Method's tour. In addition to Showbeam 2.5, the tour includes Showgun, StudioPix and Axon Media servers, plus CLM projectors - and all controlled from a Wholehog 3 console and DMX Processor 8000. The Crystal Method's North American tour began on May 5.

Aerosmith's North American tour starts on June 10. "Showbeam 2.5 will work out great in my design," said Bryan Hartley, Aerosmith's lighting designer. "I needed a strong wash light and the Twin Beam is really cool. Plus, it has the LED ring, which gives it a Showgun look. I'll have ten Showbeams in my rig for the tour, and I'm psyched."

Hartley will control the lighting with a Wholehog 3 console and a DMX Processor 8000. Creative Stage Lighting (CSL) is supplying the Showbeam 2.5s to Epic Production Technologies, the lighting contractor.

"Barco's High End Systems knows what designers want," noted CSL's George Studnicky IV. "Another year goes by and they bring another innovation and benchmark to the table. It's a very exciting time to be in our industry. With the further development of LEDs and the automated lighting market, there's a custom design to every show you see. The Showbeam 2.5 with the Twin Beam and the internal wash lens truly add to this ability."

"We are very pleased that our new wash light is being specified, and adding excitement to the stages of these top tours," said Chris Colpaert, VP Creative Lighting for Barco North America. "As the touring season hits the heights this summer, look for Showbeam 2.5 and other Barco lighting and control products to make more headlines."

Meyer Sound Constellation Makes Dallas Symphony Feel at Home

In March, guest conductor and violinist Pinchas Zukerman led the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in an acclaimed concert at Northland, a Church Distributed in Longwood, Fl. Meyer Sound Constellation electroacoustic architecture provided an optimal acoustical environment in Northland's 3,000-seat sanctuary as the symphony touched the audience performing the musical masterpieces of Stravinsky and Schumann.

Constellation enables multipurpose venues such as Northland to enhance their room acoustics at the press of a button, allowing them to host a wide range of events and provide the acoustics most appropriate for the audience and performers, while remaining invisible to the eye. With the physical characteristics of Northland's room optimized for amplified music, the success of the Dallas Symphony concert is notable, and made an impression on Mark Melson, the symphony's vice president of artistic operations. "I was worried when I first walked into the building," confesses Melson, after seeing the vast, wide room, "but my worries ended when the musicians started playing. The orchestra retained its natural warmth and presence at seats well out into the hall."

Constellation incorporates the physical acoustics of a space with powerful technology and expert services to create flexible acoustical environments. The Constellation system at Northland includes presets that provide a range of reverberation times and level settings, supporting not only symphonic events but also reinforced sound and congregational singing. The Constellation system has helped the sanctuary accommodate the diverse acoustic needs of the Florida Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Kiev Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, country star Wynonna, gospel music singer Kirk Franklin, and contemporary Christian artist Michael W. Smith.

In order to emulate the reverberation characteristics of the Morton H. Meyerson Center, the Dallas Symphony's acoustically impeccable home, Steve Ellison, director of applications, LCS Series, created a customized setting of early decay time (EDT) and reverberation time (RT). The resulting system had an RT of 2.4 seconds and an EDT of 1.9 seconds, very close to the Meyerson measurements of 2.6 seconds RT and 1.9 seconds EDT.

The sound quality during the event was certainly appreciated by the audience-including Dallas Symphony President Douglas Adams. "I was frankly amazed at how well the [Constellation] system worked," says Adams. "What I found particularly impressive is how I could maintain a clear sense of the origination of different instruments at various places around the stage. Each was perceived in its proper place, as it would be with natural acoustics."

The concert is a revelation to Marc McMurrin, Northland's executive director of operations, who reports that Constellation is a valuable asset as he offers Northland as a viable alternative performance space to organizations such as the Festival of Orchestras, a group dedicated to bringing symphonies to Central Florida. Already scheduled are Florida's Naples Philharmonic in October and the Detroit Symphony with conductor Leonard Slatkin in early 2010.

"Our senior pastor, Joel Hunter, refers to our new building as ‘a communication device with a sanctuary attached,'" says McMurrin. "Having the technology to present symphonic music gives us a great tool for communication, one that helps us in our mission to serve the whole community."

Completed in late 2007, the Longwood sanctuary of Northland, a Church Distributed was the world's first house of worship to incorporate Meyer Sound's Constellation electroacoustic architecture. The system encompasses MS-Constellation processors, MS-VRAS processors, Mic-Omni Constellation microphones, as well as the company's most compact and versatile loudspeaker models including UPJ-1P compact VariO loudspeakers, UPM-1P loudspeakers, and MM-4 miniature loudspeakers. Independent of the Constellation system, the sound reinforcement setup utilizes MILO line array loudspeakers, CQ-1, CQ-2, UPJ-1P, and UPM-1P loudspeakers, in addition to M3D-Sub directional subwoofer, with system processing and drive supplied by a Galileo loudspeaker management system.

The building was designed by DCA Architects and Building God's Way, with Daniel Cook as principal architect. The Northland Constellation system was designed by Sierra Madre, Calif.-based Platt Design Group and installed by the Burbank office of Electrosonic Systems, Inc., with final system tuning handled by Bob McCarthy, senior design consultant of Meyer Sound.

Britney Spears Tours US, Canada and Europe with Solotech and Meyer Sound

Britney Spears's ‘Circus' tour finds the pop diva in top form, bringing an in-the-round extravaganza to arenas across the US, Canada, and Europe. Montreal-based Solotech is masterminding the tour's sophisticated multimedia, lighting, and sound, including a highly integrated Meyer Sound system, which provides consistent coverage across the arenas.

"Today's audiences are quite sophisticated, and expect album-quality sound at every show, regardless of the venue's acoustics or other variables," observes FOH engineer Blake Suib, whose previous tour credits include Madonna, Prince, Guns and Roses, and Annie Lennox. "Meyer Sound has really been instrumental in providing the tools to achieve a seamless and cohesive sound to every seat of even the largest arenas."

The 360-degree system begins with 64 MILO line array loudspeakers in four hangs of 16 cabinets each, along with two arrays of 16 MICA line array loudspeakers each. Four more hangs of 12 M'elodie line array loudspeakers, along with four MSL-4 loudspeakers, complete the flown system. A total of 32 700-HP subwoofers provide massive low-frequency power, with eight boxes under each end of the stage and a block of four at each of the arena's four corners.

In addition to the loudspeaker complement, Meyer Sound's system design, control and monitoring tools ensure system reliability for Suib. "One of the challenges of mixing in the round is that there's a large part of the audience hearing a part of the system I'm not," Suib says. "If something doesn't sound right on the other side of the stage, I'm not going to hear it at FOH. But using Meyer Sound's RMS remote monitoring system we can keep an eye on the performance of each component, so if something's not right we can see it immediately."

With a different venue nearly every night, Suib also relies on the MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction program to configure the system. "MAPP enables us to come up with an accurate representation of how the system will perform in that space. We use the Galileo loudspeaker management system to configure the system into different zones, each with its own equalization, time alignment, and performance characteristics. The SIM 3 (audio analyzer) allows us to measure and tune the entire system. Tuning a system of this size would normally take hours, but with this system, and the help from the Solotech crew, we're usually up in less than an hour."

Suib uses multitrack recordings of each night's show to fine-tune the system. "I've never been a big fan of sound checks," he says. "It's rare that the band plays with the same intensity as they do in a real show. I run the multitrack of the last show and use the Digidesign console's Virtual Sound Check to do my final tweaks. I trust the performance of the Meyer Sound system, and the PA sounds great every night."

Hippotizer Brands Vanity Fair Party at Tribeca Film Festival

Spring in New York and Tribeca Film celebrates emerging and returning filmmakers. The Vanity Fair party was held on April 21 at the historic State Supreme Court building in downtown Manhattan. At the top of the portico steps, guests were treated to a 4 x 41 ft. Barco LED wall programmed to resemble a marquee. The LED wall was divided into two sections, forming a portico into the building's rotunda.

Media content for the LED wall utilized a combination of graphics promoting Tribeca Film, Deluxe, and Panavision. Logos for the three brands were animated into a sequence that played all evening. "The Hippotizer allowed us to sequence and dissolve the graphics using a number of layers," explains lighting designer Adam Bassett. "We also utilized the Hippotizer's animation and effect features to create interesting and dynamic transitions between the various base content."

Controlling the giant LED marquee was a Hippotizer Stage V3 media server. Lead programmer for the Vanity Fair party was Michael Lee. "The Hippotizer is brilliant," says Michael. "Simple, elegant, and interfacing was never easier. We used a grandMA console and it was like programming a moving light, but for a media server!" New York's Bestek Lighting and Staging provided equipment for the entire festival with installation by Main Light Industries of Delaware.

The Hippotizer media server is recognized as the leading solution for realtime video effects, manipulation and playback. Pominent productions worldwide, in a wide array of disciplines - Concerts, Theatre, Opera, Television, Worship, Corporate and more - are now specifying the Hippotizer, making it "the industry's favorite media server."

Hippotizer is manufactured by Green Hippo and distributed by TMB. For more information about Hippotizer, visit the TMB Hippotizer web page at www.tmb.com/products/hippotizer.

grandMA is a Killer

Lighting designer Steven Douglas is using grandMA lighting control for the first time on the current Killers ‘Day & Age' world tour, which has just completed it's first US, UK and European legs. He had two grandMA full-size consoles - one in tracking backup - and four MA NSPs running over Ethernet, controlling nine real DMX universes and 111 virtual universes for all the video content, stored on three Vixen media servers run via Arkaos, also triggered from the grandMA.

Design wise, Douglas went for a complete departure from the last Killers tour, which had been classically theatrical in style. This time the stage and lighting have a contemporary look, a juxtaposition of circles and rectangular shapes and a massive 268 panel ColorWeb screen which spectacularly defines the space.

It's the first full tour on which he's specified a grandMA, although he's used it on numerous festivals, which gave him a good idea of the power and flexibility. "I was always impressed by its customisability, and for this, I needed a dynamic, reliable desk and it seemed absolutely the right time to start using the grandma."

He had a single day's training on the console in New York before going straight into production rehearsals, where he "picked it up really quickly".

The console is controlling 57 moving lights - a mix of Vari*Lites and Martins, 18 Atomic Colours, 11 8-lite Moles, 27 i-Pix BB4s and BB7s and 63 Jarags. There's a selection of set practicals including coloured neon tubing fronting the risers and festoon draped across the backline, that are also run through the desk, plus other ‘miscellaneous' items of hardware like 11 bubble machines.

In the UK and Europe, all lighting equipment was supplied by Siyan, with Toronto-based Christie Lites doing the same for the North American leg.

photo: Louise Stickland

www.malighting.com

Robert Juliat Lancelot Shows Up the Best

When Capron Lighting & Sound Company's David Gruber was looking for a powerful light with which to project the Jake Burton logo at the 27th annual US Open Snowboarding Championships, he decided that Robert Juliat's 4000W HTI Lancelot was the right light for the job.

The championships, which took place in March this year at Stratton Mountain, Virginia, were to be televised, so a bright, sharp image was called for to ensure the logo of the world's leading snowboard manufacturer, and founder of the championship, was presented to best advantage, for both broadcasting purposes and to the surrounding audience.

"I needed a fixture that would project a sharp image at a distance of 500ft," explains Gruber, who was project lighting manager for the event. "My research indicated that a Robert Juliat Lancelot 4,000 watt HTI followspot would be the best choice, and that proved to be the right choice.

"For the TV shoot, the logo was projected onto the Quarter Pipe landing zone, but during setup the night before the event I was able to project a clear bright gobo onto the lodge 1,200 feet away. On the day of the event I was able to read the gobo starting at 6:00pm, despite the sun being directly behind the spot position."

The Lancelot certainly caused quite a stir and successfully brought the logo to onlookers' attention: "Everyone on the mountain was talking about the Lancelot, or, as the snow cat driver called it, the B.F.L.," continues Gruber. "I knew it was a success when Jake Burton went out after the event to have his picture taken in the projected gobo."

Robert Juliat's Lancelot once again proved it can be used for much more than followspot purposes, its power and light quality making it the ideal long-throw gobo projector.

"If you have a stadium show, or other long throw application, this is the light you want," concludes Gruber. "It has a regular framed colour boomerang, a full colour mixing option which uses gel colours, can handle up to 10 gobos with its two drop-in gobo rotators, and is just as smooth as butter to run."

www.robertjuliat.com

and

www.robertjuliatamerica.com

PRG's Bad Boy Winning Performance for American Idol

When American Idol crowned singer Kris Allen the season eight winner in a star-studded two night finale on May 19 and 20t Production Resource Group (PRG) was once again in support of lighting designer Kieran Healy. For the FOX television event Healy created a stunning design to showcase the two finalists and musical superstars including Cyndi Lauper, Santana, Black Eyed Peas, Jason Mraz, Queen Latifah, Rod Stewart, Keith Urban, Kiss and Queen. The 17-camera show required a look that balanced both live and television audiences, and the time from load-in to air was extremely limited.

The two-night finale was shot at the 7,100 seat Nokia Theatre, a part of the L.A. Live complex in downtown Los Angeles. Healy knew that moving the finale from a soundstage to the Nokia would be a challenge due to time constraints and equipment availability, so he turned to PRG. "One of the beauties of working with PRG on this project was that they were able to duplicate the equipment that I had at the soundstage, plus augment it for the finale design," said Healy. The show loaded in for three days before Healy arrived on-site as he was at the soundstage finishing the last two regular season shows. The production had only five days between the last shows at the soundstage and the first show at the Nokia-not a lot of time to move the lighting and sets and set-up at the new venue. Healy commented: "Having PRG get the rig in and ready for programming, without having to move gear from the soundstage, was fantastic."

Healy-who likes to keep his keylight at a fairly low level, using mostly followspots-creates most of his big looks from his backlights, which this year included PRG Bad Boy luminaires. "I am a great fan of heavy backlight," said Healy. "We used nine Bad Boys. They are a different kind of light than the Syncrolite's soft-edge wash unit, which had previously been the brightest light in the air. I wanted a hard-edge unit that would stand up to those and the Bad Boys were a perfect choice. The optics on the Bad Boys are absolutely incredible; you can go from a very, very thin shaft of light to an enormous beam. One light can wash the entire stage. So with their superior optics, the idea was to use the Bad Boys to stand out against the Syncrolite washes and then to use all their horsepower with gobos. It was pretty amazing to be able to take a gobo like "Night Sky", which is just sort of pin pricks of light, and cover the entire stage and still have it read on camera."

Besides the optics, the field and color system of the Bad Boy got high marks from Healy as well. "The field is absolutely smooth throughout the entire lensing, from a tiny shaft to a huge, zoomed-out beam; which is incredible for television," he said. "Most other lights will produce a hotspot, which can be difficult to deal with, especially if it hits someone's face or body. So the Bad Boy's even field is magnificent. Plus I was able to get some very rich colors from them. It is just an outstanding unit."

Healy, who has had a long relationship with PRG, said, "They give me fantastic service and at the end of the day, while the equipment has to work well, it is also a people business. PRG, as always, was superb. And I couldn't have done it without my Lighting Directors-George Harvey and Joshua Hutchings (who also programmed the show), Matt McAdam who controlled the media servers, and Lynn Costa was our Board Operator. PRG's crack crew was led by Steve Olenicjak and our Local 33 crew was headed by Darran Webb."

The Emmy Award-winning American Idol is created and executive-produced by Simon Fuller, founder of 19 Entertainment. The series is executive-produced by Cecile Frot-Coutaz, CEO, FremantleMedia North America, Inc.; and Ken Warwick, Executive Producer, FremantleMedia North America, Inc.

DiGiCo Goes Lenny's Way with Sound Image

Touring Europe in support of the 20th anniversary deluxe reissue of his debut album Let Love Rule, guitarist and vocalist Lenny Kravitz demands nothing but the best audio quality for his fans, his fellow musicians and himself. Having already used DiGiCo consoles for several years, the current tour sees rental company Sound Image invest in a pair of DiGiCo's flagship SD7s, which are now established at the monitor and front of house positions.

Monitor engineer Kevin Glendinning has worked with Kravitz since the beginning of 2008, inheriting the job from previous incumbent Brian Henry.

"Brian was nice enough to loan me his DiGiCo D5," says Kevin. "It was my first time on the desk, I adapted to it very well and I enjoyed it. The feel of it is analogue and you can drive the console without really worrying about any limitations of digital audio.

"We did an entire year on the D5 and, while Lenny was off the road, FOH engineer Laurie Quigley and I discussed going with the SD7. We'd both heard great things about it and I was completely sold on the DiGiCo sound. "Once I saw the SD7 I thought they had really nailed it and made a board - an entire system actually - that was a lot more conducive to monitor mixing."

Kravitz is touring with a seven-piece band and has a large monitor rig, so the SD7's high channel count on both in and outputs has proved very important.

"We have pretty much everything - lots of side fills, lots of wedges, lots of in-ears - so it's nice to have a large amount of inputs and outputs. I'm constantly making up new channels that are pertinent to just ears, just side fills or just wedges," says Kevin, who is also making good use of the SD7's Alt Input, a function common on broadcast consoles, but not often seen in the live market.

"I have four channels set aside just for Lenny's vocal: one has extreme compression measures that he insists on hearing in his ears; another very flat and unaltered that feeds effects; one that is sent to band's and tech's ears; and another for all wedges and fills.

"Instead of making eight out of that, I use the Alt Input function so I can keep his effects and vocal channels within one bank. If we need to go to a spare microphone, or we lose a line, instead of burning out more channels, we use Alt Input and the spare channel will instantly do everything that original channel was doing before I lost it - all the EQ and the compression that's sent to everyone's ears, wedges and sidefills is the same. I'm just effectively picking a new line. That's been a tremendous benefit."

Another advantage for Kevin is the way the output equalisation is formatted, allowing him to spend as much time watching the artist as possible, without having to be looking at the control surface.

"They've even put the ability to ‘feel' where zero is without looking in the graphic EQs," he says. "It's really nice because I can keep my eyes on Lenny but still have my hands at the desk and know exactly what I'm moving. That is a huge benefit.

"The dynamic EQs are also really happening. If I ever go back to analogue I'm going to have a lot more racks, now that I know how great the DiGiCo dynamic EQs sound on pretty much everything!"

FOH engineer Laurie Quigley has worked with Kravitz for around six years.

"We started using D5s on the 2005 tour," he says. "I'd used them for years with Aerosmith, Kiss and other bands I'd worked for. I brought them over to Lenny Kravitz because of the simplicity, the sound of the board and the amount of channels we use. We're running up to 112 channels now."

Indeed, Laurie felt that the SD7's advances over a console he was already more than happy with made it more than worthwhile to make the switch.

"I see the SD7 as basically an upgrade of the D5, which was an incredible sounding board with a good stable format," he says. "But for me the SD7's banks of 12 are better, the screens are obviously bigger and better, the speed of the board is better, the dynamic EQ is really good.

"I find the frequency dependent limiters are incredibly useful for certain things like vocals and acoustic guitars for getting rid of stuff you really don't want.

"On top of everything else, I'm very impressed with the audio quality of the SD7. I've tried all the other digital boards on the market and, as far as I'm concerned this one is leaps and bounds ahead. If it doesn't sound good then Lenny wouldn't have it on his tour and I wouldn't have it out here either!"

"I would recommend this board to just about everybody," adds Kevin. "It's produced some of the best sounding work I've done. I have a lot of engineering friends and colleagues who are bored or disappointed with the shortcomings of some of the other desks out there. I've really put my name on the line with this one and have got some very stubborn people to have a look, listen and are now really getting into the SD7."

"I get pretty upset that sometimes monitors is regarded as an afterthought, but DiGiCo have really thought about the monitor engineer with the SD7 and I think that's been long overdue. I can't say enough great things about both the board and the support we get from the guys at DiGiCo. Webby [David Webster, marketing director], Taidus [Vallandi from DiGiCo's US distributor, Group One], Tony [Crockett, technical support manager] and Pete [Johnston, technical support] have been great; it's a real anytime anywhere sort of outfit!

"DiGiCo really has something here. I'm really enjoying using the SD7 and I look forward to continuing to use it!"

www.digico.org

DiGiCo D5 Revs Up LSO Celebration of Speed Pops Concert

For over 40 years, the Daytona Beach International Festival (DBIF) has served as the official U.S. home to the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). This year's LSO Pops Concert, ‘A Celebration of Speed', featured a fast-paced multimedia musical program set to a 90-minute high-def film, and paid tribute to Daytona as the ‘Birthplace of Speed' and to Bill France, Jr., NASCAR's late visionary.
Syntonic Design Group, contracted for the audio production portion of the concert, provided a DiGiCo D5 for FOH. Syntonic's staff engineer, Donnie Smith, chose the D5 based on his previous experience-and success-using it on other symphonic events, and the console's ability to handle the large input requirements and dynamic musical range. "The features of the D5, including compression, EQ, effects, made the workload really easy to manage," he said. "Everything is right there should you need it, and I took full advantage of that."
One of the biggest challenges for Smith and system tech Jim Hutchinson was managing the multitude of inputs-72 from the stage including strings, woodwinds, brass, bass, piano, harp, various percussion, emcee mics, and video tape playback and announcements. "Getting that amount of microphone inputs into a manageable situation easily and quietly was the major task," he recalled. "Having the ability to put multiple stage racks on and around the stage and then have on a fiber loop helps made that task easy. Not having to worry about running copper away from power/lights gave us the flexibility to locate items where needed easily and directly."
The D5 also drove a stereo PA and all output processing (comprised of L-Acoustics dV-DOSC, JBL VerTech 4889, Meyer Sound 700-HP, and Mackie SRM-150 components). Not surprisingly, the revved-up sonics did not go unnoticed. "The concert management applauded the audio as being the best they have ever had," said Smith. "The LSO management commented on how the orchestra sounded like an orchestra and not an orchestra in an arena. The sonic quality was consistent through the dynamics of the music. Generally, classical music is meant to be listened to. So, when things are quiet you want things to be as transparent as they are when things are louder. The D5 platform delivered that quality effortlessly."

www.digico.org

PixelRange Lights The Dead

The surviving members of The Grateful Dead have just completed their first tour in almost five years. The stunning space-themed lighting design - featured 108 rectangular PixelArc compact wash luminaires and 21 PixelLine 110 wash battens. The six-piece, which now calls itself simply The Dead - hit the road in April, playing 19 shows in 16 cities across the USA.

Lighting designer Dan English has worked with the band on and off since 1982. Over the decades, English has experienced the evolution of rock and roll lighting and toured with many pioneering fixtures. The Dead are famous for their psychedelic shows and their lighting rigs have continuously boasted the latest technology.

English explains: "The band wanted a space theme. This tour was scheduled for arenas selling 360° - so the entire scenic concept was limited to the overhead lighting rig. The design had to offer lots of flexibility, as the music of The Dead is diverse as well as prolific. There are about 150 songs that you may hear over the course of the tour and the lyrics are full of symbolism and imagery. It's not the type of show where you go cue to cue - it's constantly evolving and full of musical surprises! Fortunately, I have worked with them long enough to anticipate most of what might be coming next."

The final design featured lots of circle shapes and curving trusses with mesh scrims - all mesmerizingly lit reflecting the desired space theme beautifully. The rig hosted a diverse array of moving lights and showcased the latest in LED lighting technology.

English continues: "I chose PixelArcs as I wanted a small and compact LED luminaire that would fit and stay inside the trusses. It also needed to be a bright fixture with amber. One key element in the design is a 25' long lightning bolt. It is an exact reproduction of The Dead's 13 point lightning bolt seen in the skull design known as ‘steal your face'. It is made entirely of LED PixelLine 110s and PixelArcs. The bolt is hidden behind the center mesh scrim for use in highlighted moments during the show."

The lighting was supplied by LD Alliance San Francisco and BML/Blackbird New Jersey. Lighting credits include: Sholight for their renders and pre-programming with ESP Vision; LD Alliance's Mark Melhmam; BML/Blackbird's Shelly Diamond; crew chief Russ Felton; head electrician Dan McDonugh; lighting crew Patrick ‘Groove' Pirrone and Jim Delayo. The lighting was controlled by an AVO Diamond Elite 4.

photo: Todd Kaplan

grandMA for return of ‘Hair' to Broadway

There were grandMAs in the house when ‘Hair' reappeared on Broadway. Actually, there were probably more than a few grandmothers in the audience when the iconic love-rock musical, which debuted in 1967, returned to Broadway, but lighting designer Kevin Adams put MA Lighting's grandMA consoles to extensive use at the Al Hirschfeld Theater.

The production, which the New York Times called "an emotionally rich revival", is innovative from a lighting perspective because the team chose to program the conventional lights, automated lights and LEDs from a single platform, the grandMA console. This enabled the production team to have fewer consoles on site during set-up and rehearsals and allowed the programmers to work on any console at any time while always having specific access to their part of the rig.

"We decided to run the whole show off the grandMA for two reasons," says Aaron Sporer, Hair's associate lighting designer. "It was more cost effective than renting two moving light consoles and a conventional light console. And by running the show on only one console platform we've eliminated the difficulty we've had in the past converting two-console shows to one-console shows for tours."

The grandMA provided superior control of the automated lights for the numerous musical numbers, enhanced colour control and scrolling for the conventional lights and furnished bitmap programming of the massive LED wall that spans the back of the stage.

"By putting everything on the grandMAs it was easy for conventional light programmer) Jeff Dodson and I to work separately in rehearsals and previews with Lighting Designer Kevin Adams then go ‘full world' and have full control of everything," says automated lighting programmer Paul Sonnleitner. "All the data is in all the consoles which operate like a mainframe." Show electrician Brian Dawson runs the grandMAs on a day-to-day basis.

According to Sonnleitner, Hair has "more automated lighting effects than most Broadway shows since it's a rock musical. There are 28 musical numbers in and not a lot of book scenes so there's a great deal of cueing. The grandMA allows us to use different ColorBlast 72 fixtures for each six-inch piece of the back LED wall which spans stage left to stage right. We employ the bitmap engine to do amazing rainbow effects quickly."

"We chose the grandMA for its ability to speedily handle a lot of moving lights and a lot of LED fixtures and their colour effects," Aaron Sporer points out. "The speed at which Paul gave us a huge variety of LED effects and gradient looks was really helpful in shaping the back wall of the set. Because so much of the system lighting work of the rig was done with moving lights, it was great to have a console where Paul could manipulate and mark them really efficiently."

Sonnleitner adds: "We really enjoy the dependability of the grandMA network and the ease of which any of us can walk up to a console and suddenly control the correct part of the rig."

PRG delivered the lighting equipment.

photo Joan Marcus

www.malighting.com

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