Maranatha Community Church Johannesburg, South Africa, has invested in two sets of Astera Titan Tubes for its busy 3000-seater auditorium in Kempton Park. They were purchased as part of an ongoing commitment to delivering excellent technical production for their services and events.

Nereen Bradshaw is head of media at Maranatha, and is responsible for creating content and overseeing lighting, media and video weekly at the Kempton Park campus, with which she has been involved for 10 years. The auditorium is used for three Sunday services each week (reaching approximately 5,000 – 6,000 people across all 3 services), and a live event is staged every Friday for around 400 young people.

Four times per year there is a large mid-week family praise & worship service to coincide with the end of the school terms. Services include a set of 4-5 praise & worship songs, followed by a motivating message. All these presentations and services include live musical performances.

Nereen and the team at Maranatha – headed by Senior Pastor Leonard Stone – are always looking out for new technology and elements to enhance their productions, but it was an album launch by resident church band, Direction, which prompted the Titan Tube purchase. “We wanted something really extra special for this event,” explained Nereen.

The Church had bought other kit including Robe moving lights from Astera’s South African distributor DWR Distribution in recent years, so when DWR’s Robert Izzett came onsite and demonstrated the Titan Tubes, both Nereen and Leonard were suitably impressed and went on to order two sets, 16 Tubes in total.
The battery powered operation and ability to regulate and optimise consumption and run time was a big selling point for them, explained Nereen, adding that they also still have the option of running them wired if required.

The Titans are hung above the stage area attached via carabiners to different length catenary wires and add real depth and dimension to the performance area.
This setup means the Tubes can be easily moved around if needed. Currently they are programmed to run in pairs in a 4-pixel configuration, from the house lighting console.

Nereen is impressed with the brightness of the Titans and most of the time they are run at only around 40% intensity! They provide complimentary kinetic effects above the vocals, which look great on camera.
In the future, Maranatha intend to use the Tubes in other creative ways, including as hand-held illuminated props for dance items at special services such as Easter and Christmas celebrations.
Within the next month they have in mind to use the Tubes in a hall with a wet concrete floor, for light effects while recording another music video for the band.

In addition to the brightness, Nereen appreciates the fabulous Astera colour mixing – thanks to the award winning Titan LED engine – the fact that any shade or hue can be selected and instantly replicated – plus the possibilities of creative programming with pixel / zone, intensities, or colour sequences.

“They bring a completely new dimension to the stage and give it a real modern edge which is great for engaging younger members of the congregation and for presenting more energised and invigorated musical segments!
Conversely using very slow colour or intensity effects has brought a gentle ‘raining’ kinetic experience – so they can be used for upbeat praise as well as quieter worship,” elucidated Nereen.
She also mentions the importance of the relationship with the distributor when investing in a brand, describing DWR as “brilliant – very friendly, helpful and super-knowledgeable.”

Nereen works with one other full-time staff member, Kaylin Dickson, plus a large crew of regular volunteers covering all the different technical departments. Nereen & Kaylin run regular training sessions to ensure that ‘The Crew’ stay informed, sharp and updated with the kit.

For more info about Astera, you can visit the Astera website

Tears for Fears has wrapped the North American leg of their Tipping Point World Tour 2022 in support of the duo’s comeback album of the same name. Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal treated fans to favourites from their new album as well as classics from throughout the years in an amphitheatre tour with lighting design by Joe Cabrera II who chose 48 Ayrton MagicBlade R fixtures for effects lighting.

Lighting designer Joe Cabrera II features Ayrton MagicBlade R on Tears for Fears’ Tipping Point World Tour 2022.

This leg of the Tipping Point World Tour 2022 kicked off at the end of May in Cincinnati and concluded a month later in New York’s Jones Beach. The duo’s eponymous album, their first since 2004’s Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, was released earlier this year.

Cabrera, of Los Angeles-based Flash and Trash Works, served as lighting programmer on Tears for Fears’ previous two tours. He stepped up to fill lighting designer and programmer roles on the new tour whose production design was by Butch Allen of Blame Funnel Creative.
Picking up on the circular motifs from Tears for Fears album artwork, the show design featured a 30-foot circle of truss upstage of the band and tipping down slightly over them. Echoes of that circle appeared in pairs of concentric circle truss at stage left and right. A projection surface behind the drummer occupied a large portion of the stage.

Ayrton MagicBlade R

To provide effects lighting for the show Cabrera mounted 24 MagicBlade Rs on the outside of the main circle, seven on each of the larger echoes and five on each of the smaller echoes. PRG Nashville, the tour’s lighting vendor, furnished the fixtures.

Like many Ayrton fixtures, the MagicBlade R offers infinite pan and tilt rotation. Its unique feature is a linear array of RGBW LED sources in-line, with an extremely narrow 4.5 degree beam which allows for the creation of consistent, structural light curtains. The MagicBlade’s narrow beam and intensity gives designers the ability to create all kinds of virtual decor.

“I had worked with MagicBlades before as a programmer, including on Jennifer Lopez’s 2019 It’s My Party tour,” says Cabrera. “For this tour I was looking for a fixture that was small but fast and had the ability to do infinite pan and tilt – I knew certain songs were going to take advantage of that. The overall look of the show has quite a bit of kinetic movement, and the MagicBlades helped capture that.

They also had enough power so you could see the beams and individual pixels in each Blade against the haze. I could get a lot of shapes and effects out of them, almost like using multiple fixtures.”
He explains that in the song My Demons from the new album “there were a lot of staccato movements which drove the energy, and the Blades’ infinite pan for the chorus caused a whole lot of chaos and fun and got a big crowd reaction.”

Cabrera even got a linear feel from the MagicBlades in Break the Man whose video content featured a lot of angular, Escher-like staircase elements. “I tried to elicit parallel beams and angles off the circular trusses,” he says, “then the song resolved into a very circular feel at the end.”
Cabrera used two grandMA2 full-size consoles and three NPUs for lighting control. ACT Entertainment is also the exclusive distributor of MA Lighting products in North America.

“I was very happy with the MagicBlades’ performance on the tour,” he reports. “They did exactly what I knew they could do, and I’m looking to maintain them in the rig when the Tears for Fears tour heads to Europe.”
Caleb Eckerman was the lighting director for the tour.

More information on Ayrton MagicBlade R fixtures and the full portfolio of innovative Ayrton LED products can be found at www.ayrton.eu

When Austrian hip-hop artist and producer RAF Camora released his album Zenith in 2019, he announced it would be his last. But then the album Zukunft was released two years later, just a few months before the artist went one better with Zukunft II. This was more than reason enough to follow up with a tour through Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Lighting designer Felix Seidel accompanied the artist for the first time and created the concept for his Gotham City tour. His ideas were clear: that specific objects from a music video should be used, which at the same time would dictate the style.

“The idea was to bring the look from the ‘Guapa’ music video to the stage using the set, video content and lighting to create the ‘Batcave’ atmosphere,” explains Seidel. “But since this wasn’t to be the only mood, a lighting design was needed that would not only work in this context, but also had different facets.”

For this, the young designer, who also works with Asaf Avidan and Fil Bo Riva, used 32 impression FR10 Bars and 20 GLP JDC1.

During the show, the journey continued from the Batcave through the gloomy Gotham City and into a dark night sky, where blimps circled bearing the neon signage “Future”.
“A revolving stage gave us the opportunity to alter the stage design quickly. There were some modifications made as well as a B-stage – as a result of which there was always something new to see and it was possible to create a good arc of suspense,” says Seidel.

Instead of a classic spot/wash design, Siedel pursued the idea of “expanding the look more and pulling it forward”. He was able to do this with the help of four truss fingers that reached into the audience area.
All FR10 Bars were housed in these truss fingers, framed by two JDC1 hybrid strobes at the beginning and end of the truss. While Seidel used the JDC1 placed at the back as a rear light, the front ones were used as blinders. The designer had intended to use the impression FR10 Bars more as a stylistic device than as an effect light. “First and foremost, I wanted to use them to create spaces on stage, and they were perfect for that,” he says.

“Great effects can be created with the Bars when I only use individual pixels – from fast movements to slowly changing colours and dimming effects,” the designer continues. “If I align them upwards, I can stretch a sky of light over the stage in no time at all.”

“With the FR10 Bars, the looks I had in mind could be implemented very quickly and effectively. I wanted something hybrid that could carry the dynamics of a live show well. Basically everything from beam to flood is possible in this fixture. It was also interesting to play with the individually zoomable pixels; this resulted in some extremely impressive effects.”

The GLP JDC1 hybrid strobe has long been one of Seidel’s utility fixtures, he adds: “The JDC1 is of course very versatile with its multitude of different possibilities. There is so much you can do with it, which is why I always like to specify the devices I use. With RAF Camora I used them as movable floodlights.
Their output suited the show very well, since we also played larger venues such as the Lanxess Arena in Cologne and the Hallenstadion in Zurich. Of course, lighting with a high output and great, strong colours are particularly good.”

GLP products have regularly featured in Felix’s designs. “Overall, I’ve had very good experiences with GLP fixtures; impression X4 Bar and JDC1 are essential design tools for me,” he concludes. “With all the products that I have been able to use so far, the colours and light output have struck me as being most positive.
The uncomplicated handling, the clean dimming behaviour and of course the speed of the motors are all outstanding. Also, with GLP’s Andreas Brandt I’m able to maintain a regular flow of information with any general product questions.”

The technical service provider for the tour was Feedback Show Systems & Service, IBB organised the tour and Michael Jahns was production manager. The merging of lighting and video content would have been difficult without the creative input of Tiziano Mirabella, who designed the video effects in a live context.
“It was a great collaboration that allowed us to complement the video content in the lighting and thus create a large-looking and harmonious overall canvas,” adds Seidel.

For more information about German Light Products, you can visit the GLP Website

Guitar legend, enigmatic master of imagination and indie impresario Jack White – who shot to international prominence as one half of The White Stripes – is back on the road with the topically named “Supply Chain Issues” world tour, currently playing its first US leg.
The artist is presenting not one but two critically acclaimed new albums Fear of the Dawn and Entering Heaven Alive.

Photo LUZ Studio

Matching this creative excellence on the visual design side is Matthieu Larivee from Montreal-based LUZ Studio, whose original and cerebral approach to lighting, video and stage environments are a great compliment with his third collaboration with the artist.
Matthieu specified over 100 Robe moving lights to help him achieve numerous aesthetic goals, with 63 x BMFL WashBeams, 18 x Spiiders, 36 x MegaPointes and three BMFL Follow Spots running on one RoboSpot system, all supplied by Solotech.

Photo LUZ Studio

Challenges have included creating a workable and scalable design to deal with both arenas and the smaller more intimate theatre spaces that Jack White loves to play. Also, there is a different setlist each night drawn from a vast catalogue of songs … so Matthieu and his FOH team had to programme for every possibility and to spontaneously recall and run song cues at a moment’s notice.

The essence of the design concept was to present an all-encompassing show look that works in conjunction with several different aesthetic ‘blocks’ of lighting and video, so the order of the set fits whichever numbers are played in whatever order.

Photo LUZ Studio

This set design is a ‘stage-on-a-stage’ with double level risers that move downstage during the second number so Jack White and the band are both close together and nearer the audience. This also enabled the full stage setup to be installed upstage of theatre fire irons.

The three overhead trusses and three elegant 28ft high vertical side trusses – Jack likes the number 3 so it is often a factor in stage designs – can be quickly and practically expanded / contracted to suit the venue size. The side ladders enabled width and depth to be added quickly and easily for the arena shows.

The MegaPointes are rigged on these side booms and are used for ‘hybrid’ beam work, stage washing and for producing the more ‘graphical’ looks. “They are equally good for either intense narrow space defining beams or opened up wide for wash-like applications,” commented Matthieu, who needed a compact moving light.
“MegaPointe is perfect in terms of technology and creativity! They are packed with features and functionality, and I would absolutely not consider any substitutions for the MegaPointes,” he stated.

Photo LUZ Studio

The Spiiders are rigged on the overhead trusses with some positioned on the deck. The floor-based fixtures are used for side lighting the band and to highlight a spectacular blue Austrian curtain on a curved truss which rolls up to form a neat border. The whole curved truss is automated and flies in and out strategically during the set.

The upstage LED screen is prominent, but the content is carefully crafted to suit the music and the moments, often more abstract, and sometimes featuring virtual lighting and effects baked into the video that is often near impossible to distinguish from the real thing! “I didn’t want to draw too much attention to the screen, I wanted it to enhance the ambience and take on a supporting role while the focus remains firmly on Jack,” he explained.

There are BMFL WashBeams on the floor with a row of 16 along the back, used, among other things, for creating silhouettes, shadows and blending Jack and the band into the screen, so the two areas – screen and stage – become almost imperceptible. This simple lighting trickery is actually very complex to achieve!

Three flown over-stage pods fit ‘inside’ the arc of the curved truss, each pod populated with 9 x BMFL WashBeams which are focussed on Jack and the band. They move in by stealth as a curtain also drops in for either the quieter or the punkier songs, working equally well for the two opposing moods.

Photo LUZ Studio

“BMFLs are still one of my go-to fixtures,” noted Matthieu, “because of their reliability and in this instance, because they are ideal for those graphical looks as well as being source-able everywhere.”
The three BMFL FollowSpots on the RoboSpot system are all on the downstage most truss. The first block of visuals is very graphical, with lots of tight, razor sharp beams of light and linearity punching in from all angles. They currently have seven active blocks and another five that can be called up according to what is played next, all of which took detailed and meticulous programming.

The essence of the stage design was developed in 2021 after Jack opened the UK office for his label, Third Man Records, and played a gig on a small balcony on the roof. He enjoyed the close proximity to the band and the feeling of being in a special space together, so wanted to follow through with this on the tour.
Being physically close is especially handy for improvising and jamming.
So once the risers, general architecture, set-up, and scenic elements defining the stage were established, the trusses, lighting and video, curtains, and borders all quickly followed.

The tour started in Detroit with no full rehearsals as the band always plays properly live, however all the kit was set up in Solotech Nashville, and a jam session was scheduled enabling Matthieu and his team to rehearse the silhouette / shadow play plus other specific visual effects.

Photo LUZ Studio

Touring lighting director Michelle Sarrat runs the show in an organic and musical fashion, going with the flow, and MO is “essential for the mood of this show” says Matthieu, elucidating that Michelle works with several EDM and electronic artists and brings a “very savvy programming style” based on capturing rhythm and energy live to the table.
Matthieu and Michelle programmed the show on a grandMA2 console, making a great combination.

The UK and Europe follow the US leg of the tour, with Japan and Latin America scheduled for the fall.

For more info, you can visit www.robe.cz

After hanging up his bass guitar from his time in bands like Kix and Wrathchild America, Brad Divens has been the Front of House engineer for a range of major artists, including Linkin Park, Cyndi Lauper, Garbage, Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band and Mötley Crüe.
This summer he mixed major European shows for Enrique Iglesias where, since switching to a Yamaha RIVAGE PM digital mixing system, he was able to bid a final farewell to years of touring with outboard racks.

Brad Divens and the Rivage PM.

Like all experienced engineers, Brad cut his teeth on analogue mixers. Since then he has used various digital systems, but it was when friend and fellow engineer Frank Scamalone recommended the Yamaha RIVAGE PM series that Brad properly took the plunge.

“I knew that I wanted to do something different and Frank kept telling me ‘Look Brad, just plug an SM58 into it and listen to your voice, that’s all you need to do and you will want to check it out.’ We had a long conversation about it because he’s one of my peers and I trust his opinion when it comes to mixing,” says Brad.

Brad hands on the desk.

He contacted Yamaha in Nashville for a system demo and immediately appreciated what Frank was saying. A key benefit of his switch to RIVAGE PM has been the ability to reduce, and then eliminate, the outboard rack he was carrying with his previous digital system.

“When using other digital desks, I immediately felt that I needed to add something because they are a little on the sterile side.
For example, with the previous system, I had all my group and mix buss processing on outboard. But when I tried the RIVAGE PM system I found there was nothing digital-sounding about it,” he says.

The RPio622 hosting the SILK preamps.

“There wasn’t much rehearsal time before the first tour I wanted to use it started. My intention was to start with the rack in place, because I was happy with the group processing, and concentrate on the inputs.
But by the end of the tour I wanted to have eliminated the rack, mixing only on the system and not having to worry about carrying anything else.”

As the tour progressed, Brad gradually replaced the rack processing with the RIVAGE PM system’s processing. By the time it was halfway through, the lead vocal channel was the only thing he was using the rack for.
“Once I was only using the RIVAGE PM system, I was like ‘This is it. This is beautiful. It’s exactly what I knew I could do with it,” he says. “I just feel less is more. All I need is the RIVAGE PM, a USB stick with my show file and everything is ready. It justified the decision and I knew I’d made the right choice.”

When it comes to his favourite features, Brad starts at the beginning. “The first and foremost feature I really love is the hybrid mic preamps, because to me the front end of a console is everything. It’s from there, at the beginning, which determines how the mix comes together.
I never need to saturate the signal or warm it up in some way. It starts with the transformer emulation, and you get the analogue characteristics right off the bat. You can never have too much of the transformer emulation. It’s all about warm and fuzzy for me!”

He continues, “From there it’s the onboard Rupert Neve Designs processing, like the Portico II Master Buss Processor, the Portico EQ and compressor, the 754 and 1073, the SILK and plug-ins like the Eventide H3000 and the Bricasti reverb. It’s things that you know and love from the studio. How many records in the 1970s, 80s and 90s were made on a Neve console? It’s that familiar sound.

The Portico II Master Buss …

… and the Neve compressor 754.

The Y7, Y standing for Yamaha …

… and the H3000 emulations.

“It took me a little bit to wrap my head around the workflow, but the more you get used to something the easier it becomes,” he adds. “I found that it’s a very comfortable system to mix on and get the show to where things just sound good. I never need to look outside of that.”

More information on Facebook Yamaha Commercial Audio Official and on the Yamaha website

Fujian Province’s new Pingtan International Performing Arts Center recently invested in a series of Green-GO digital intercom products to provide a much-needed scalable, high-quality sound and simple-to-use solution.

The Center, which serves as a cultural hub in the Pingtan Comprehensive Experimental Area in northeast Jinjing Bay, is a vast building. It includes a 1,500-seat theatre, a 400-seat multi-function hall and a public centre for performance and art, covering almost 40,000 sq.m. Now open for business, it will be the home of a stage play directed by Chinese famous dancer YANG Liping called ‘Pingtan Impression’.

Chinese AV solution provider EZPro was responsible for the audio system design and installation at the Center. “The project needed an intercom system with a good quality of sound, which is easy to use and would be scalable.

One of the five Green-GO MCXD multi-channel desk stations.

Therefore, we chose the innovative Green-GO digital intercom solution,” says EZPro technical engineer, FAN Gaoqing.
“Green-GO IP technology allows the implementation of a full intercoms system without expensive central matrixes and complex, time-consuming programming.
The system meets all the client’s current needs and, importantly, offers easy and affordable upscaling in the future.”

At the core of the Center’s system is a Green-GO MCX multi-channel rack station, which is designed to allow direct access for up to 32 separate intercom groups or partylines. The team has installed this in the mobile stage monitoring cabinet, enabling them to clearly see the status of each channel in use across all of the venue’s three performance spaces.

An other key location for the MCXD.

This is matched with five Green-GO MCXD multi-channel desk stations, located in key locations across the venues for directors and production managers to use.

The Ethernet-connected MCXD unit is awash with easy-to-assign multicolour push-buttons, allowing the operators to speak to individuals or groups as desired.

The production team is also now kitted out with six Green-GO WBPX multi-channel wireless beltpacks, which are configured in the system for communication mainly among the Center’s sound and lighting engineers. These connect with Green-GO’s Ethernet-based system via a series of WAA wireless active antenna.

The Center has also invested in wired BPX multi-channel wired beltpacks, which connect to intercom network outlets in spaces such as dressing rooms, resting rooms, corridors, and machine rooms.

The WBPX multi-channel wireless beltpack.

EZPro also responded to the Center’s need to integrate analogue intercom systems into the new Green-GO digital Ethernet network, and to connect radio devices that are often used by the Center’s security guards and background staff who use walkie-talkies.

To achieve this, they specified the Green-GO InterfaceX, to facilitate connection between the intercom system and the PA system. The director of ‘Pingtan Impression’ can also use this interface to transmit instructions through the PA system.

“We’re thrilled that EZPro and the Pingtan International Performing Arts Center have chosen to use the Green-GO communications system,” says Silvio Cibien, CEO at Green-GO. “We’re very proud of our Ethernet network-based digital intercom system and the accessories now on offer, which the Center has taken full advantage of.
One of the most wonderful aspects of the Green-GO system is that it has no single point of failure, because there is no central unit that carries the entire system. We wish the team at the Center success for the future, and thank EZPro for their professionalism in realising this project.”

In addition to the Pingtan Impression show, the Center offers a host of attractions for the public throughout its multi-purpose spaces, including a reading area with more than 10,000 books, an audio-visual room, and an electronic chess board. It is now fully open for use.

More information on the Green Go website

Total Sound Solutions is one of the UK’s leading production services companies. Founded in 2003, the Swansea-based outfit covers a busy calendar of events with a comprehensive inventory of NEXO sound systems, in which GEO M6, M10 and M12 line arrays are available alongside P+, PS and ID Series point source speakers, equipping the company to handle jobs of any scale from community fairs through to multi-stage festivals.

The team behind this story including Chris Hooke.

In the quieter months, the team at Total Sound turns its expertise to designing and installing fixed sound systems including, most recently, at the 1000-seat Swansea Grand Theatre. Total Sound Director Chris Hooke takes up the story.

“We’ve been working with the theatre as a client for many years, providing rental systems for one off events. We know the venue well, so when the subject arose of a new permanent system, we were happy to contribute our ideas for a generic configuration which became the basis of the tender document.
Even though the system was ‘unbranded’ at that point, we already had NEXO P12s, L15 subs and ID24 under-balconies very much in mind from the outset.”

Following a rigorous tender process in which submissions from several installation companies proposed systems from competing brands, it was Total Sound Solutions’ design for a NEXO system that won out, delivering what Chris believes to be the perfect combination of performance and value for money.

One of the P12.

“We demoed the P12s with 90° x 40° horns alongside L15 subs and invited the theatre’s technical team to move around the auditorium and tell us where one speaker took over from another. Everyone agreed that coverage was totally even, meaning everyone gets the best seat in the house.”

The full system comprises of 2 pairs of P12s mounted vertically either side of the stage at the height of the Stalls and Grand Circle, with an additional pair mounted high up on the front truss addressing the more open Upper Circle.

One of the many ID24s filling good vibes under each balcony.

Additional horizontally mounted P12s are deployed as delays some 5 meters in front of the stage at Stalls and Grand Circle height, with a pair of ID24s fulfilling a similar role at the top.

Two pairs of L15 subs are located on the floor, while 4 x ID24s are used as stage front fills, and 3 x ID24s as fills under each balcony.
“When we came to tune the system, everyone was amazed at the power, coverage, and clarity of such a compact and visually unobtrusive system.”

Some of the four NXAMP4X2MK2.

Amplification and processing come from a Dante network of 4 x NEXO NXAMP4X2MK2 powered controllers which integrates seamlessly with the theatre’s existing Yamaha console and stage boxes.
Every speaker and pair of subs has its own channel, allowing for individual processing and time alignment.

“Another big benefit of specifying NEXO products is that all the mounting hardware is independently TÜV certified, so we can be absolutely sure of our calculations and the venue can comply fully with health and safety requirements” says Chris.

“We also get great support from NEXO, and we’re able to extend these benefits to our customers. With NEXO, it’s like being part of a family.”

And For further information on the Swansea Grand Theatre
And on Total Sound Solutions

Xtylos Claypaky fixtures earn a place on Coldplay’s world tour after shining at Coldplay’s Seattle concert where lighting designer Sooner Routhier used them to surround a huge circular structure mounted above the stage.
The stand-alone concert, presented by Amazon Music and live streamed worldwide on Amazon, was part of a global promotional tour of the band’s last studio album, “Music of the Spheres.”

Photo Ralph Larmann

For the ambitious Seattle show Routhier and her team “essentially created a full-size arena production for a 20-plus-camera, global live broadcast”! she points out. “We were able to do previs in a ballroom at the hotel to minimize our travel (and carbon footprint) while Claypaky and Upstaging collaborated on logistics to get us Xtylos units in previs to play with. That was a total game changer for us.”

The Seattle show’s Lighting Programmer/Lighting Operator Shaheem Litchmore recalls that, “The physical style and design of the fixture fit the aesthetic of our show flawlessly, while the impressive laser source output allowed us to keep our power consumption low. I was very impressed with the Xtylos’s versatility. It can go from a clean beam to a nice room-filling gobo projection. Simply perfect.”

A prime example of its performances at the Seattle show was its use on the song “People of the Pride,” which progressed from a color to a black-and-white look.
“The band wanted to feel the energy of this song on stage: The beat of ‘People of the Pride’ is very heavy and quite uniform in the hooks. It has a different feel from the rest of the more melodic setlist,” explains Routhier.

Photo Ralph Larmann

“We needed this song to stand out and were happy that director Paul Dugdale wanted to shoot it in a unique way. The idea to go from color to black and white on camera was all him. We just made sure he had the proper light to keep his vision alive!”

With such a positive experience it’s no wonder that Routhier and her team wanted to use Xtylos again when Coldplay commenced their “Music of the Spheres World Tour” in April. “They were the perfect fixtures for our current creative on the tour,” Litchmore, who serves as the tour’s Lighting Operator, points out.

Routhier explains how Misty Buckley and Phil Harvey, the Co-creative Directors of the tour, developed a production design and creative direction inspired by Pythagoras’s Music of the Spheres theory. “There’s a specific diagram that displays the arcs and movement of the solar system and its celestial bodies that we leaned on for inspiration,” says Routhier. “Thus, the architecture for the lighting design and the cuing of the system is heavily based on spheres, circles and arcs.”

Claypaky Xtylos

Seventy-four Xtylos are deployed on the tour with the majority placed on a large upstage arch directly behind and above the upstage videowall, she points out. Some also are suspended from delay towers and onstage audio towers.

“We love color! And this fixture provides such a beautiful beam in stunning, vibrant color,” says Routhier. “They also provide a nice, solid beam of light over extreme distances – perfect for a large stadium show.”

Routhier and Joe Lott particularly like the rainbow color effect for the song, “Adventure of a Lifetime” while Litchmore cites “Something Just Like This”. “During the chorus, the Xtylos in the arch position perform a grand circle effect that illuminates the entire venue and loses no impact to the arrangement of lasers going at the same moment,” he says.

Lott, who serves as the tour’s Lighting Programmer with Matthew Kemp, notes that, “With the show having such a wide and often saturated color palette they always stand out with their ability to mix deep saturated reds and blues without dropping any noticeable output.
It’s very impressive and allows us to create really strong looks like in the song ‘The Scientist,’ where we use the luminaire in a deep saturated blue combined with the prism while still creating a very bright aerial effect – a look which would be difficult to achieve with any other fixture, especially one this small.”

Routhier also cites the laser source Beam interaction with a stunning mirrorball with laser units inside created by Misty Buckley and David Kennedy, SFX Designer with Strictly FX. “They hitting the mirrorball is an effect I’ve never seen before,” she says. “Sure, we’ve all seen fixtures hitting a mirrorball. But there’s just something really incredible about the light that is emitted when a mirrorball is hit with a bunch of Xtylos.”

Photo Ralph Larmann

“Despite difficult weather conditions, including extreme heat, rain and more, it never fails. With our outdoor show the fixtures [are subject to] the usual wear and tear one would expect, but I’m never worried. Come showtime, they are always ready to go and continue to be one of the essential pieces of our show.”
The support that Routhier and her team have received from Claypaky for the tour is nothing short of “amazing,” according to Routhier. “We’re always so well taken care of when George Masek is our representative. Claypaky does an incredible job of following up with us throughout the tour. And they were extremely helpful with FAA and FDA regulations giving us assistance to make sure we were all squared away with permits.”

More on the claypaky website

©Errick-Easterday

Deftones, the American alternative metal band, has wrapped the North American leg of their OHMS tour, delivering a fantastic show. Lighting, Production and Set Designer Jon Eddy used Claypaky RGB laser source Xtylos tight beam and ReflectXion next-generation compact moving mirror to give a unseen look to the show.

The six-week leg of the tour included a setlist that spanned Deftones’ nine studio albums and three live debuts. Deftones released their album “Ohms” in 2020 along with a 20th-anniversary edition of “White Pony” and earned Grammy nominations for the songs “Ohms” and “Genesis.” The band is currently touring Europe playing a roster of festival dates.

Eddy designed the band’s 2020 tour, which was canceled due to the Covid pandemic. He completely redesigned the new tour, putting the lockdown to good use, experimenting at home with the Xtylos and ReflectXion units provided by Claypaky.
“I got to spend a few months with each,” he says. “Then, when the Psycho Las Vegas festival, that I’ve designed for the last five years, came back in 2021, I used Xtylos and ReflectXion there. They looked amazing in the MGM Arena.”

Eddy thought of Xtylos and ReflectXion again when it came time to create Deftones’ 2022 tour. “I was going with a less is more look, sleek and sexy” he explains. “I like using a lot of negative space, and beam fixtures are good for that since I didn’t want to wash out the whole stage.”

He designed an aerial rig composed of concentric diamond trusses filled with nothing but beams and Sceptrons. “We used 48 Xtylos. They were our only moving light with eight, sixteen, and twenty-four fixtures on the small, medium, and large diamonds,” notes Eddy. “We also had a couple of follow spots and a washbeams downstage.” Laser projectors mapping rollers upstage added the video element.

“With Xtylos, I’m able to use blue and red, and they’re as solid as anything I’ve ever had with white or no color,” he reports. “That’s extremely pleasing for a lighting designer. I love how the light cuts through breakup prisms and gobos and is so saturated – there’s no other light like it!”

Eddy wanted to use a mirror as a god light low on the floor behind singer Chino Moreno and felt this would be “the perfect opportunity to do something different.” ReflectXion bends and shapes light without losing it; the highly reflective unit features up to 99% reflectance without chromatic aberrations.

“ReflectXion was a cool progression from what I’d tried in the past, and it worked great. For some songs, I had all 48 Xtylos hitting a solo ReflectXion, creating one massive prism look, with beams going from the mirror to every corner of the venue.” The effect highlighted songs on which Moreno played guitar, including “Sextape, Change” and “Digital Bath.”
“Everyone asked what that light was, especially when ReflectXion started moving,” Eddy notes. “I had to tell them it’s not a light; it’s a moving mirror – not very many shows have used it yet.”

Eddy also reports that his Avolites console and media server’s Synergy feature allowed him to “program and activate parts of the rig to play along with the video at certain times. I could activate all the Xtylos to play along with full color and intensity off the mirror.”
“Xtylos will definitely be a good part of my lighting selection now,” Eddy says. “I’ve always been big on Sharpys, but now that I’ve had my hands on Xtylos, it will be hard to do a show without them.”

More on the Claypaky Website

Ayrton is delighted to welcome VGD Project SIA of Riga, Latvia as its newest distributor. With immediate effect, VGD Project will exclusively represent Ayrton in Latvia and Estonia.

VDG Project was founded in 2013 as the Certified Provider Distributor and training centre for L-Acoustics in Baltic States where it is responsible for the territories of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, as well as Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Uzbekistan.

Igor Verkholat VGD Project CEO

The company, project specialists with a reputation for investing only in the top technologies, then looked to extend its offering to include professional lighting and turned to Ayrton’s comprehensive product line to fulfil this promise:

“Our goal is to represent only one manufacturer in each market segment,” explains VGD Project’s CEO, Igor Verkholat. “Only one brand and preferably the best! In this way we can be sure to supply a complete service for both the pro-audio and pro-lighting markets, and Ayrton fits into our philosophy very well.”
VGD Project will be distributing the entire Ayrton range of products and will concentrate its efforts on all sectors of the arts and performance, sporting, entertainment and rental markets.

Natalia Petrukhina, VGD Project Marketing, PR and Communications Manager.

“We formed VGD’s brand portfolio to cover all the needs of our customers and better develop our company,” confirms Natalia Petrukhina, VGD Project’s marketing manager. “This collaboration with Ayrton will allow us to promote our professional and business competences more effectively in the area of the Baltic States.”

“We are very much looking forward to this new working arrangement with VGD, and are excited at the prospect of developing a new market with the energy and expertise of this well-established and respected company,” says Ayrton’s Kseniia Igoshkina.

More on the Ayrton website

This past April, on the Empire Polo Club grounds in Indio, California, artist Cristopher Cichocki devised a remarkable installation: the five-story-tall Circular Dimensions x Microscape, constructed with more than 25,000 feet of PVC tubes, portraying a visual spectacle that examines the artist’s ongoing exploration of water and the history of the desert.

The bandshell-shaped pavilion contained a living laboratory where scientists and artists generated experimental “video paintings” by manipulating water, salt, barnacles, and algae from the Salton Sea under microscopes and projecting that activity in real-time inside the pavilion’s “nucleus.”
The stunning visuals had an equally amazing aural component as well, provided by L-ISA immersive audio technology. A total of 60 speakers were deployed in the tunnel environment by sound designers Jonathan Snipes, who teaches sound design in the theater department at UCLA, and Bobby McElver, a professor of wavefield synthesis at UC San Diego.

Jonathan Snipes, professeur de sound design à UCLA.

Bobby McElver, professeur de WFS à UC San Diego.

The 57.1 system featured a combination of L-Acoustics X8 and 5XT coaxial loudspeakers supported by four SB18 subwoofers, while several Kiva II mini line arrays additionally delivered a mono version of the multichannel experience around the exterior of the tunnel.

Notably, the entire system was powered by the manufacturer’s highly-efficient new LA7.16i amplified controller, which was officially introduced at this year’s ISE and InfoComm. Offering an unprecedented 16×16 architecture in a 2U chassis with seamless Milan-AVB redundancy, each of the unit’s 16 output channels delivers up to 1300 watts at 8 ohms or 1100 watts at 4 ohms.

Le nouveau LA7.16 aussi flexible, performant, puissant que possible et capable d’animer 16 canaux d’amplification.

“With the new sustainability-focused LA7.16i, we were able to deploy only four amplified controllers occupying eight total rack spaces for this exhibit, which was a huge saving in terms of physical space versus using LA4X or LA12X,” shares L-Acoustics Application Project Engineer Carlos Mosquera.
“The LA7.16i also requires significantly less power to operate and generates less than half the heat of our other models, helping the tech room under the stage where the video gear was also housed feel less like an oven out in the California desert.

Carlos Mosquera, Ingé Application L-Acoustics.

Plus, the new amplified controller’s Milan-AVB solution is extremely fast and efficient to configure. Even though we had so many channels, the whole setup and calibration took less than half an hour. Thanks to the RAT Sound team, this was an ideal pilot deployment for the LA7.16i.”

“The audio I typically perform has a very three-dimensional spatialization aspect to it,” explains the artist, Cichocki, whose last name is pronounced “cha-ha-skee” and translates as “silence” in Polish.

“Bobby and Jonathan are sound-design professionals whom I’ve often worked with, and they suggested that L-ISA technology had the potential to take three-dimensional spatialization to the next level for Circular Dimensions. As it turned out, the bandshell type of environment I had designed for the installation was perfect for that.”

Cichocki, who performed live DJ sets for several hours each evening, developed hours’ worth of audio content for the installation and performance comprised of tracks of natural sounds and other elements as disparate as Gregorian chants and recordings of speeches by environmentalist Greta Thunberg. These experimental sets evolved from ambient in the daytime, switching gears to a high-energy dancefloor at night, all configured in eight channels and played through Ableton Live.

The ever-evolving library of Circular Dimensions audio content wasn’t officially finalized until opening day, and it was only available in stereo format, raising the question: how does one create an engaging, immersive experience on the fly from only two channels?
To prepare for the event, Snipes and McElver spent a couple of days with Mosquera to create the system design for this project at the L-ISA Studio in Westlake Village, California, which also uses a large number of X8 and 5XT enclosures.

“Not knowing what tracks Cristopher would ultimately be using for his sets, Bobby and Jonathan took a variety of tracks some percussive, some ambient, some melodic and came up with numerous ways for the artist to control the movement of sound throughout the space with L-ISA,” Mosquera recalls.

Le système 57.1 comprend une combinaison d’enceintes coaxiales X8 et 5XT soutenues par quatre subs SB18.

“First, they created a selection of snapshot presets that Cristopher could intentionally trigger from his iPad, which would cause the audio to move in specific ways around the loudspeakers inside the PVC tunnel.
The intensity of these effects could also be controlled with a slider bar on his iPad, much like a wet/dry mix. Second, Bobby and Jonathan created multiple ‘reactive’ effects, which would also prompt audio trajectories like sending everything to the center or panning audio in a wave from one side to the other.

These would be automatically actuated when certain frequencies or other thresholds were crossed in the playback material. This second approach created some really interesting, creative movements without the artist having to initiate them personally. The two approaches combined allowed Cristopher to take any material he wanted to play and decorrelate just two channels into dozens of outputs in L-ISA, creating a pretty incredible aural experience.”

Through the larger final system onsite, as Cichocki was mixing on the fly, the audio content passed through processing engineered by Snipes and McElver. “Cristopher is a visual artist who provided the audio content, but wasn’t rearranging it. He’d be pulling from that content live in the moment, like a DJ, so we weren’t able to pre-author any trajectory information,” confirms McElver.
“Instead, Jonathan and I built tools Cristopher could use to pull specific types of sounds and rhythms as he needed them. Some of those were reactive, and everything went through a real-time spectral and timbral analysis, so that it could be connected to other sounds and rhythms that way.”

McElver used Cycling 74’s Max 8 for that analysis, then set up macros using the snapshot feature in the L-ISA Controller, which allowed Cichocki to instantly call up specific bits of audio content, even as the rest of the content continued to play in automated mode through the L-ISA Processor II.
“Cristopher could see where the various audio objects were in the L-ISA Controller on the iPad, and he could change the speed and intensity of the other audio sources using an intensity slider we provided,” says McElver. “He could send sounds flying across the space ‘trajectory gestures’ but then the system would revert back to automated mode, so there was never any interruption to the sound.”

Snipes describes himself as the “middleware man” on the project, creating the means for Cichocki to keep adding and changing the audio yet never letting it stop playing. “I was looking for the sweet spot where he could have control over the performance and its intensity and other parameters, but also making sure there was sound activity going on at every moment, some of which was random and some reactive,” he says.
“What L-ISA brought to this project was a way to put all of those discrete sound sources in one place and then let them move and keep moving, either intentionally or automatically. L-ISA has the tools for that, and it’s robust enough to do it in a desert environment.”

The crowds who came to experience Circular Dimensions x Microscape weren’t the only ones that were impressed; Cichocki was equally wowed with the results. “What we accomplished with L-ISA was nothing short of spectacular,” he adds.
“It was thrilling watching as people moved through the tunnel and wondered how the sound could move around the way it did. It put the sound on the same level as the visuals. That’s pretty remarkable in the art-installation world.”

A video on Circular Dimensions x Microscape

More information on the L-Acoustics website

An extensive public address system from Electro-Voice and Dynacord has been installed at Cavatina Hall. Located in the vibrant, historic city of Bielsko-Biała, amongst the Beskidy mountains in southern Poland, the six-story building counts over 9,000 square meters of top-tier office space, a cutting-edge recording studio, a chamber music room and a majestic 1,000 capacity concert hall.

The 1,000 capacity concert hall.

The venue itself is owned by leading Polish development company Cavatina and is the first privately owned and funded concert hall in Poland. As a large, multi-use facility Cavatina Hall required an extensive solution to cover public address across its various areas. This needed to be flexible enough to meet the differing needs of office workers and theatregoers and led to Audio Plus, the company responsible for the coordination and co-designers of the solution, turning to the extensive Electro-Voice and Dynacord portfolio.

The heart of this solution is electronics from Dynacord, with an MXE5 Matrix Mix Engine alongside an IPX10:8 power amplifier. IPX multi-channel amplifiers are dedicated for fixed installations and offer sophisticated speaker processing. IPX also features Dynacord’s unique variable load drive (VLD) technology.

The MXE5 Matrix Mix Engine.

For each channel, the user can determine whether Low-Z or High-Z 70V/100V loudspeakers are driven without the need for an output transformer via direct drive technology. The IPX10:8 was the perfect choice for this project due to its ability to harness this technology across eight channels.

The IPX10:8 multi-channel power amplifier.

Stanisław Mielczarek, Tech Support Engineer, Audio Plus.

“The IPX 10:8 is at the core of the sound system. We wanted something that was technically optimal in terms of control and this amp allows each channel to be individually operated, along with analog inputs from Dante and OCA via OMNEO network inputs, it’s a highly flexible solution for us,” explains Stanisław Mielczarek, Tech Support Engineer, Audio Plus.

“MXE5 was chosen as it’s a universal processor that complements other systems in Cavatina Hall through SONICUE Sound System Software.

Tomasz Ibrom, Project and Installation Engineer, Audio Plus.

It integrates perfectly for this kind of project allowing us to have full control of the entire system of signal routing and signal processing for public address speakers.” adds Tomasz Ibrom, Project and Installation Engineer, Audio Plus, who was responsible for the system integration at Cavatina Hall.

The Dynacord electronics are driving a large 100V Electro-Voice loudspeaker solution combining the strengths of the EVID ceiling and surface mount ranges.
“EVID speakers offer a big spectrum of models in the series and were the ideal choice because of their mounting capabilities,” Ibrom explains. “Each piece is exactly fitted for its location.”

Some of the Electro-Voice EVID speakers.

The Electro_Voice FM6.2, 6”, 2-way and flush mount.

In the main auditorium, a pair of Electro-Voice FM6.2 speakers have been hidden behind the wooden sound panels either side of the stage. These are linked to the RTS intercom system and used for addressing the performers onstage.

One of the true legends of sound miking, the RE20.

The stage manager or event director can use the system via an Electro-Voice wireless mic to communicate with the musicians during rehearsals.
“This additional system works perfectly because the speech is super-intelligible and the speakers are completely invisible,” says Ibrom. “The team at Cavatina Hall are really happy with it.”

Staying on stage, Electro-Voice microphones have also been selected to cover a wide range of vocal and instrumental needs.
This includes everything from the RE97Tx micro-headworn condensers, to ND44, ND46 and ND66 instrument mics, as well as the iconic RE20 and RE320 Variable-D models.

The Hall now boasts superior efficiency in terms of connectivity, which fits in well to the innovative aesthetic of the multi-functional building.

Marcin Smolik, Producer and Managing Director at Cavatina Hall concludes: “We are at the forefront of Europe among the few venues that have such a system. Our technology is a treat for artists and for the viewer, it means quality.”

More information on:

– The Electro Voice website
– The Dynacord website
– The Audio Plus website
– The Cavatina Hall website

Multiplatinum selling pop group New Kids On The Block (NKOTB) continues to wow fans with their MixTape Tour 2022 featuring friends Salt-N-Pepa, Rick Astley and En Vogue as special guests. Lighting Designer Cat West of Flash and Trash Works, Inc. selected 108 Ayrton Intellipix R Creative Solutions as a central part of the high-energy, party look of the show.

Photo ParisVisone

Boston natives, the quintet NKOTB has sold more than 80 million albums worldwide. Their 2019 tour by the same name – their biggest since reuniting in 2008 – was a huge success and pioneered the concept of a super-sized show with multiple guest acts. The new arena-based MixTape Tour is scheduled to play more than 50 dates across the US from its kick off in Cincinnati in May to its finale in Hawaii in August.

It promises to keep the party going with a night full of chart-topping hits and legendary catalogues that span the generations. Cat West programmed the band’s MixTape Tour 2019 and their Fenway Park and Merriweather Post Pavillion events in 2021. This year, she was promoted to Lighting Designer building all the lighting looks for NKOTB and the guest acts.

Intellipix-R

“The general show look is a great big party!” West declares. Production Designer Butch Allen of Blame Funnel Creative designed a set with six giant monoliths that run upstage forming a dynamic, ever-changing backdrop for all of the artists.

“The Intellipix fixtures are built into the monoliths, which are on rotators, so they spin to allow for entrances and to give us some different looks throughout the night,” she explains.
“They fit perfectly and gave me a lot of pixels to play with so I can change the look of the stage behind the guys throughout the night.”

Intellipix R is a semi-transparent modular beam projection panel with 25 independently controllable 4.5º LED emitters in a 5 x 5 array that projects volumetric color graphics and media far into the air. Multiple panels can be connected together to form a giant screen; they assemble quickly and securely allowing large numbers of luminaires to be connected in series. Solotech, the lighting vendor for the gear and crew, provided the Intellipix Rs for the tour.

The monoliths feature in almost every song making an especially strong impression in “Block Party,” which marks the first time in the show that NKOTB appears to the audience. “We had a creative request to make a bright, strobey look that would accent the artists’ entrance,” says West. “The Intellipix fixtures made that super easy, and I didn’t even need to run them above 80% to make it happen. They’re nice and aggressive, just the way I like a light to be. And they are consistent and reliable every night.”

More information on Ayrton IntelliPix R fixtures and the full portfolio of innovative Ayrton LED products can be found at www.ayrton.eu