With more than 16,000 small to large street parties, the people of Great Britain celebrated the 70th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s throne during the first weekend of June. But by far the biggest show took place on this day in front of Buckingham Palace in London.

22,000 spectators gathered in front of the three stages, where Queen & Adam Lambert, Rod Stewart, Alicia Keys and Ed Sheeran played, among many others, and another 13.4 million watched the BBC’s mega-event live on TV.

OTOS H5

For the lighting of the main stages, Buckingham Palace and the Tree of Trees sculpture designed by Heatherwick Studio, Version 2 Lights supplied more than 600 cameo spotlights, including over 60 of the new hybrid outdoor all-rounder Otos H5.
In total, the forecourt of the world-famous Buckingham Palace as well as the palace itself was staged by 62 Otos H5, 156 Zenit W600, 392 Flat Pro 7 G2 and 72 Flat Pro 12 G2.

The lighting design was done by Nigel Catmur. Nigel used the Cameo spotlights for the numerous live performances of the biggest British pop stars as well as for the moving speeches of heir to the throne Prince Charles and his son Prince William.

In particular, the new superstars in the Cameo portfolio – the Otos H5 Beam-Spot-Wash Hybrid Moving Heads – played a central role in the visual staging of the globally broadcast anniversary party.

Prominently placed on high truss platforms, the Otos H5 framed the action wonderfully and sent impressive beams into the royal evening sky. The Zenit W600 Led Outdoor Wash Lights also played an important role in the lighting design of the platinum party. With their massive luminous flux of 21,000 lm, the wash lights ensured a strong and uniform illumination of the stage in daylight and in the evening.

In addition, the Cameo Flat Pro 12 G2 RGBWA Led outdoor spotlights have been integrated into the set base via circular cut-outs. The even more compact Flat Pro 7 G2 also set coloured highlights at various positions in the set.

For more information:

v2lights.co.uk
ncld.net
cameolight.com
adamhall.com
blog.adamhall.com

Bristol-based, Enlightened, one of the largest event suppliers in the south west of the UK, has recently invested in a stock of Ayrton Perseo Profile IP65-rated fixtures to service its busy events schedule.

Enlightened specialises in full production services, supported dry hire, design, and delivery of permanent installations, as well as sales, skilled repairs and maintenance to a diverse range of clients and venues.

“Corporate and private parties and events, large outdoor events in winter, festivals in the summer, installation, sales – basically, we do everything for everyone!” says Head of Hire and Production, Dave Thorpe. “Bristol is a good hub for small to medium companies to which, along with many small companies and theatres all over the country, we cross hire equipment. We therefore make a point of only investing in the very latest in top quality entertainment technology.”

photo Steve Tanner

Enlightened’s diverse fields of operation demanded a fixture that could also do ‘everything for everyone’. “When we make new investments we look for a product that will fit into at least two markets,” explains Thorpe, “and that is exactly what happened with Perseo.

On the one hand, it is a waterproof fixture but equally capable of working in a theatre environment; I also know that it will fit into any rock and roll or festival stage that we will do in the summer, and will happily sit outside at one of the large scale events we supply for the winter. We have a regular client in Scotland who will have a consignment of Perseo in operation from mid-October to January and I know the fixture will be fine. The lights are brilliant!”

Photo Steve Tanner

Thorpe was not an immediate convert to Perseo when it first arrived on the market in 2019. “We had a gap in our stock for a decent size workhorse profile, especially since we had a lot of outdoor work, so it was on our radar, but at first we weren’t confident they would also be suitable for indoor work.

“However, as we saw them specified more and more on events, and saw other companies buying them in serious quantities – including those to whom we cross hire – we decided to reconsider. On closer inspection we discovered just how good a fixture Perseo Profile is: the optics are great, the effects all work properly, it does everything, and it does it really well. A final winter of waterproofing our existing non-waterproof stock finally swung the decision for us. We invested in Perseo this March to get ourselves prepped and ready for the mass onslaught of outdoor work we have lined up for this summer.”

Photo Steve Tanner

On receiving the new Perseo Profiles, Enlightened immediately sent eight units to Bristol Old Vic for a 5-week stint on Wonderboy, lit by lighting designer Aideen Malone who was the first to use the new units. “Wonderboy needed both subtle and supersaturated colours which the Perseo units did brilliantly,” says Malone. “And rather than having to specify a choice of light or heavy frost, the Perseos have the flexibility of both. The Ayrton optics helped us achieve many precise awkward framing angles easily.”

Photo Steve Tanner

“They did a storming job,” says Thorpe. “Despite Aideen’s initial request for Ghibli, the specs matched the Perseo Profile in almost all but IP-rating, so they were totally interchangeable, which was perfect from both our perspective as a rental company and the lighting designer’s as an artist.”

photo Steve Tanner

Enlightened purchased the Perseo Profiles from Ayrton’s exclusive UK distributor, Ambersphere Solutions. “We have had a great relationship with Ambersphere for years and they always provide an excellent, reliable and honest service,” says Thorpe.
“Perseo may be slightly more expensive, but for a little bit extra you get a whole lot more. The pricing of them is sensible across the country and that, combined with their popularity, means we will have a swift return on our investment.

“We kept coming back to the fact that all the alternative options had their failings and were not suitable for that cross over into indoor applications, but Perseo ticked all the boxes. That’s what pushed us. It really is that light that works in all situations.”

More information on Ayrton Perseo and Ayrton’s full range of LED lighting can be found at www.ayrton.eu

More information on Enlightened can be found at www.enlx.co.uk

Twenty of Robe’s new Forte moving lights are a key feature of a new lighting design by Maxime Chotard for “Mousquetaire de Richelieu” (Richelieu’s Musketeer), one of the flagship shows at Puy du Fou, a historical theme park in Les Epesses in the Pays de la Loire region of Western France. These have now been joined by 22 x Robe Esprites which were chosen as a perfect complement to Robe’s highest-powered LED moving light.

The show, staged in “Le Grand Carrousel” Hall, a 6000 square metre equestrian theatre with seating for 3000, combines sword fights, poetic tirades, equestrian prowess, costumes, moving sets and spectacular special effects that immerse visitors in a crazy swashbuckling mid-17th century tale that unfolds on a massive purpose-built stage.
The 74-metre wide by 45 metres deep performance space is equipped with – among other things – the world’s largest stage curtain!

Maxime, who is site-wide head of lighting responsible for the whole park, recently oversaw a substantial lighting upgrade designed to bring a new “visual coherence” to the performance and to enable transition to more energy efficient light sources over the next three years, simultaneously reducing the show’s long-term operating costs and maintenance.

On the creative side, two major issues had become apparent since the last show season ran from June to November 2021 (delayed from the usual April to November season due to Covid) and these needed fixing. The first was that some of the lighting cues lacked impact, and secondly, the huge black stage floor sometimes became an over-dominant big black mass that swallowed up the cast and sets without helping to define the different stage areas and assist in the narrative.

Maxime’s first criteria for adding any new lighting fixtures was that they must be high powered as well as an LED luminaire. Robe’s Forte was launched in 2021 and came onstream at just the right time to become a major part of the new lighting scheme, together with the Esprites which had been launched in 2019.

Since the first performance of “Mousquetaire de Richelieu ” in 2006, the show has undergone numerous technical changes and lighting alterations, without ever being completely redesigned. “With this in mind, and with much more versatile and efficient LED luminaires coming to market, the task of updating the rig became all the more urgent,” explains Maxime. He and his team looked at several options, before choosing Forte and Esprite which were demonstrated on site by Vincent Bouquet from Robe France.

Robe Forte

Le Robe Esprite.

The Forte was chosen for its brightness and intensity, and for its excellent and refined colour mixing system which offers a fantastic full spectrum of hues from the richest saturates to the most finessed pastels plus an authentic range of CT whites, ideal for accentuating natural flesh tones.
The zoom and the accurate shuttering were other factors making the fixture ideal to illuminate the expansive stage. The fully sealed dust-proof optical chamber and effects modules also impressed everyone as this significantly reduces the general maintenance needed on the lights, a fact very much appreciated by Puy du Fou where the daily show schedule is relentless!

Products like Forte and Esprite also utilise Robe’s unique and patented Tansferable Engine (TE) LED technology, a hugely flexible concept offering the option of different and interchangeable LED engines – high powered, high CRI, ‘tungsten’, etc., – in the same fixture hardware, which can be quickly changed / ‘transferred’ in 5 to 7 minutes.

All the new fixtures are deployed high up in the sides of the set and along the back to allow the floor to be textured and fully covered with “checkerboard” effects and other impressive gobo treatments. As well as the new Fortes and Esprites, some Robe BMFL Blades installed in a lighting refit in 2017 are still working hard on the show – which continues to be one of the most popular in the park.

Once the 2022 season starts in April, “Mousquetaire de Richelieu” will play five times a day, seven days a week.

For more info about Robe Lighting, you can visit www.robe.cz

Photo Matt Bishop

British indie rockers alt-J recently unveiled their new tour in support of their latest studio album, The Dream. Creative collective FragmentNine, which has been designing their shows since 2014, was again tasked with the show’s scenography abandoning the ‘volumetric video’ ingenuity of 2017’s Relaxer, which won them a Knight of Illumination award.

Photos : Matt Bishop

This time they adopted a completely different direction, in cooperation with the band’s long-time manager Stephen Taverner, according to FragmentNine (F9) co-founder Jackson Gallagher. What both tours have in common is heavy use of GLP’s own award-winning X4 Bar 20s – this time accompanied by quantities of JDC1 hybrid strobes – but this time in an entirely different application. “X4 Bars are real workhorses these and the JDCs are regular gotos for us,” confirms Gallagher.

Photos : Matt Bishop

However, Taverner had imagined a more delicate and airy performance than the 2017 confection.
And so wrapped in over 1,500 square feet of holographic projection fabric, the band performs inside a box that transports them through many different worlds throughout the evening.

This has been implemented by F9’s Gallagher and co-founder Jeremy Lechterman, along with F9 vice-principal Michael Hankowsky, in response to Stephen Taverner’s brief. From a video perspective, once they had sourced the most suitable fabric – Hologauze-50 – they opted for front and rear projection in preference to LED to create the holograms proposed by Taverner.

Photo Matt Bishop

Instead, the role of LED was relegated to a conventional videowall behind the cube, following projection tests at Upstaging, the lighting and video vendors for the tour.

Gallagher notes that since the band is fairly static on stage, containing them within a box creates a slightly edgy sensation. “We endeavoured to create little vignettes through light and video to support the subject matter without being too ‘on the nose’.”

Although there are little over 100 GLP X4 Bar 20 and JDC1 taking on most of the workload, their importance cannot be overstated. Other than a few effects contained within the box, the GLP pieces are entrusted with holding their own to complement the main holographic box. “Although there is a lot less lighting than on the previous tour, the show still has a sizable package capable of high impact,” says Gallagher.

Photo Matt Bishop

In terms of structures, there are two horseshoe-shaped goalposts – one upstage, one downstage – all lined with X4 Bar 20s, run in single-pixel (88-channel) mode – with JDCs on the sides of both goalposts. There is a further grid of JDC1 situated behind the LED wall. “And these really punch through,” comments Jackson Gallagher.

Michael Hankowsky adds that everything is run in single-pixel mode and notes the versatility and additional functionality offered by activating the different plate sections of the JDC1. These are also used as eye candy and as a twinkly effect from the LED wall at the rear.
As for the X4 battens, in addition to simply edging the cube, they are being put to more creative use. “In a couple of songs, we take a section and put them into diagonals and use them as FX, whereas for the song ‘Matilda’, we use the Bars for backlight instead of eye candy,” he explains.

Photo Matt Bishop

The core of the control package is again provided by regular collaborators Liteup Events, with co-founder Mark Callaghan repeating his duties as crew chief. The touring lighting operator is Dave Singleton.

And more information on the GLP website

Cameo is expanding its product portfolio of IP65-certified LED outdoor wash lights with the release of the new Zenit W600 SMD in RGBW and Daylight versions. Lighting designers, event technicians and rental companies will benefit from their suitability for outdoor applications, as well as their particularly high light output and maximum flexibility.

These new additions to the Zenit Series are designed for use at medium-sized to large indoor and outdoor events, as well as for lighting TV shows. The new outdoor SMD LED wash lights are available in two versions: the Zenit W600 D SMD Daylight, and the Zenit W600 SMD RGBW.

The Zenit W600 SMD RGBW delivers a rich luminous flux of up to 41,000 lm. A total of 504 SMD 4-in-1 LEDs deliver precise, high-resolution colours and colour blends across the entire RGBW spectrum. With its CRI index of 85, the Zenit W600 SMD also ensures natural colour reproduction. When it comes to colour temperature, lighting technicians have an adjustable bandwidth of between 2,700 and 6,500 K at their fingertips.
The 12 independently controllable LED segments facilitate the creation of colourful effect images and running lights.

The Daylight model is equipped with 576 SMD white light LEDs, which provide an enormous output of up to 90,000 lm. For this purpose, the boost mode increases light output significantly for short periods. A total of 48 segments can be controlled separately via Pixel Control, which provides lighting designers with enormous potential for creative effects. Based on high-resolution 16-bit technology, four dimmer curves are also available, which allow the dimming characteristics of classic halogen lamps to be simulated if required.

With its robust and design-optimised cast aluminium housing, the Zenit W600 SMD is also recommended for use in fixed installations. The carefully designed cooling concept is based on three temperature-controlled fans.
Light operators can use three preset modes dictated by the noise sensitivity of the event, including automated fan control and noiseless convection cooling. The integrated OLED display, which features touch-sensitive control buttons, enables intuitive configuration directly on the device. In addition to wired DMX and RDM control, the ZENIT W600 SMD can also be controlled wirelessly via the integrated 2.4 GHz W-DMX transceiver.

Further information:

cameolight.com
adamhall.com
blog.adamhall.com

Chilean production services company Real Audio Sistemas combines an experienced team with state-of-the-art equipment and personalised service and support to provide organisers with a highly capable and trusted partner for a wide range of events.

16 « systèmes » composés de la tête principale M46 et du module d’extension des basses B112 complétés par 3 modules M28 comme downfills. Du SPL, et pas qu’un peu.

Central to the Santiago-based company’s mission to provide comprehensive, innovative, and professional solutions to enhance its clients’ projects is an investment in NEXO STM, a modular sound system which has equipped Real Audio Sistemas to cover events of all sizes, up to and including large festivals like La Cumbre Del Rock and Lollapalooza.

Most recently, the STM system was deployed at Festival Maleza which took place on April 22nd at The Hippodrome in Santiago, where Spanish ska-punk legends Ska-P headlined in front of a 37,000-strong crowd.

12 subs S118, disons, un tiers de ce qui a été déployé au pied de la scène principale. On aperçoit aussi des stacks de trois M28, la version musclée du front fill chez Nexo.

Drawing on a single inventory of just four compact, powerful and proportionately-sized STM modules, the team at Real Audio designed a system for the main festival stage comprising left and right FOH hangs of 16 each STM M46 main and B112 Bass Extension Modules deployed side by side, and further supplemented by 3 STM M28 Omni Modules as downfills.

A total of 36 STM S118 Subs were used in a 12-each LCR format in front of the stage, and additional arrays of M28 and B112 cabinets were used for delays, supplemented by further S118 subs. Amplification and processing came from NEXO NXAMP powered controllers, fitted with AES network cards.

Meanwhile it was all NEXO on stage also, with the company’s revolutionary 45N12 arrayable monitors delivering precision directivity and consistency of coverage, along with high SPL before feedback.

“STM gives us the power and flexibility to deliver world class sound at many different events, including large festivals” reports Real Audio Director Claudio Valencia.

“We work in partnership with the sound engineering community here in Chile, providing NEXO-approved training on the system along with high levels of technical and operational support.
We always get great feedback on STM from FOH engineers, and artists love the 45N12 monitors.”

More information on the Real Audio Sistemas website and on the Nexo website

Celebrated monitor engineer Pasi Hara came from Helsinki’s uniquely Finnish metal community of the 1990s and 2000s, one he embraced enthusiastically as a guitarist himself. However, he soon discovered that his most salient talents lay in putting the technical pieces of a show together.

He debuted those with Helsinki goth-rockers H.I.M., starting as their FOH and “everything” engineer, later becoming the band’s monitor mixer. And that’s the role he’s settled into since, for numerous artists like Slash/Guns N’ Roses, The Cult, Tower of Power, Beck, Fergie, Fall Out Boy, and Tool, although he’s likely best known for manning System of a Down’s monitors over the past decade.

What being around the serious sonic horsepower that heavy-metal music engenders has taught Hara is that anything he can do to make the monitoring environment for his musicians safer, more comfortable, and more accurate but without sacrificing impact he’ll gladly do. And the KLANG immersive in-ear monitor mixing system has become his primary tool of choice to accomplish just that.

Pasi Hara

“I first heard about the KLANG platform when it popped up on my Facebook feed,” he recalls, speaking from his home in the Los Angeles area, where he moved his family about seven years ago.
“I thought, ‘I need to take a look at this.’ So I went to their website, watched the videos, then emailed them, saying, ‘You have my full attention!’”

That immediate and keen interest came about because of how the KLANG:fabrik system could allow Hara to create a virtual and precise replica of any musician’s immediate stage environment in their in-ear monitors, with the KLANG:fabrik’s three-dimensional capability letting him put every instrument on stage in exactly the same place in their IEM mix.

What he could accomplish using KLANG:fabrik was made clear the first time he tried it out in 2014 with Guns ‘N’ Roses guitarist Slash on one of his solo shows in Germany. The band was loud and there was a lot of bleed into lead singer Miles Kennedy’s microphone, and thus into his IEMs.

“By just applying the KLANG to that situation, moving the guitar to the side in Miles’ ears and keeping the vocal in front, the overall volume had gone down 9 to 10 dB and all the bleed was gone,” Hara recalls. “He wasn’t fighting the guitar in his monitor anymore—in the 3D mix, it was behind him and to the side, just like it was on stage—and I didn’t have to do the usual carving out of frequencies for them to coexist. It was amazing and I was sold on KLANG.”

Fabrik recto et verso.

KLANG:fabrik worked just as well for System of a Down, particularly for drummer John Dolmayan. Hara brought the KLANG system into a rehearsal and set up the drum kit virtually to reflect how Dolmayan perceives it from the drum throne: an array of five toms, plus a pair of kicks.
“I remember that John sat down behind the kit, went around the toms once, then looked at me and said, ‘What did you do?’ And before I could answer, he said, ‘Don’t touch anything. It’s perfect.’ John’s a very precise drummer and tends to look straight ahead when he plays, so everything in his in-ears is exactly as it is right in front of him.”

System of a Down’s members were all very effusive about the benefits they’ve derived from using the KLANG:fabrik IEM mixing system. “Before KLANG, I had to guess what my band members where playing. Now, I hear every note and it’s life-changing,” Dolmayan personally shares.
Shavo Odadjian, the band’s bassist, who directly transitioned to the KLANG platform from using monitor wedges, says, “My stage experience went from 0 to 60 real fast after I started using the KLANG. I can now be anywhere on our stage and hear everything clearly, which is truly a game-changer!”
And for vocalist Serj Tankian, it’s all about the third dimension: “The 3D mix creates way more space for isolation of specific instruments delivering more clarity during our performance.” Since then, Hara has used his KLANG:fabrik pair on virtually all of his clients, including Ebi, The Cult, KISS, Slipknot, and Stone Temple Pilots.

La carte DMI-Klang.

More recently, Hara has also expanded his KLANG universe with a new DMI-KLANG card, which he uses with a DiGiCo SD5 console via an Orange Box, or by plugging it directly into one of the DMI slots found on the back of a new Quantum225 or Quantum338 desks.

“During the pandemic, I had a loaner SD12 with a DMI-KLANG card and I tried it out, transferring my files from the KLANG:fabrik. That made an even greater difference, because the latency, which was already very low, was now only a quarter of a millisecond with the DMI-KLANG integrated into the console. Latency is mission-critical, and I always measure it from the microphone to the earpiece, because everything digital that you add in line can cause more delay. But with the DMI-KLANG card, that’s no longer adding much to that equation.”

Une capture écran du soft KLANG:app.

Hara says that the KLANG system’s ability to create fully immersive soundscapes for stage monitoring has been transformative. “Not everyone gets the idea of 3D right away for monitors, because the term gets used so often for so many things,” he says.

“But when I bring out the iPad with the KLANG:app software running on it and show someone what can be done with 3D monitoring, they immediately get it. And it has let me change how I get the sound to the musicians. I don’t have to try to carve out a space for the drummer to hear the click, for instance. And that’s also saving everyone’s hearing. KLANG has literally changed everything in my world for the better.”

More information on the Klang website

Lighting and visual designer Rob Ross of New York and LA based technical production company Rob Ross Design used over 500 Astera Titan Tubes to highlight impressive architectural and industrial areas at Tesla’s new Gigafactory in Austin, Texas … for the automotive giant’s recent facilities launch party, ‘Cyber Rodeo’.

Covering 2,500 acres along the Colorado River and offering over 10 million square feet of factory floor, Gigafactory Texas is a U.S. manufacturing hub for Tesla Model Y and the future home of Cybertruck.
Rob and his team were asked onboard by the ‘Cyber Rodeo’ event’s creative director Stefan Beckman and producer Mark Seed and tasked with designing a creative illumination scheme for the vast environmental spaces involved in the event, including interiors and the building exterior.
This epic mission saw close collaboration with LD Tom Sutherland and his team from DX7 Design who created lighting for Cyber Rodeo’s three stage and entertainment areas. The enormous main space utilised for the event measured 3800 ft x 1200 ft and stretches the equivalent of seven city blocks!

Looking at photos, videos, walk-throughs, plans, and renders were useful for getting an impression explained Rob, but it wasn’t until he finally stood in the space for real during the first reccie … that he truly felt and understood its scale and enormity!

This was the first trigger for creating an atmosphere for guests to be engaged, impressed, and put in the mood to party by proactive lighting. “We had a free rein to suggest ideas which was great fun!” stated Rob, who immediately thought of utilising the building’s impressive structural metalwork as part of the installation, highlighting its form and impressive architecture as well as utilising it practically to provide lighting positions.
Titan Tubes also sprang to mind straight away! This was for the quality and power of the output and – obviously in a space this size – the wireless control and operation.

Rob frequently uses Astera products in designs and projects and loves the versatility of all the Astera products. Get in and set up time for Cyber Rodeo was tight given its size and ambition, also partly due to the factory continuing to be functional throughout the build.

The Titan Tube installation was approximately 1,900 ft long with 568 fixtures deployed across the building, the vast majority magnetically attached to the top parts of the columns which were each 40 ft apart. This ‘perspective design’ illustrated the spectacular size and presence of the building, emphasising its character and potency as a workplace, and additionally gave it a real sense of depth as guests moved around to the various areas.

These included the main stages and assorted ‘exhibition’ areas that were highlighting various Tesla vehicles, old, new, prototype, etc., as well as cutting-edge manufacturing plant like aluminium casting machines – which form part of a vehicle frame from molten aluminium, a technology designed to reduce the amount of welding needed – plus new painting facilities and an array of other amazing industrial robots.

The Titan Tube design allowed the whole area to be beautifully and tastefully lit and enabled some mind-bending effects with chases whizzing manically up and down the building, all helping ramp up the energy, excitement, and hi-tech party atmosphere!

Over 400 of the Titan Tubes were ingeniously rigged to the steel pillars using Androokie magnet kits, with some other fixtures dotted around on the floor and other vantage points, all controlled through Astera ART7 boxes via a grandMA2 lighting console. “This all worked fantastically,” commented Rob.

It would have been near impossible to cable that many fixtures neatly within the timeframe, an exercise that would have been costly and inefficient in person-power, but the Astera units were loosely power cabled for the programming sessions with the cabling running along the floor that was removed on the morning of the show, leaving them completely wireless.

Rob was delighted with the results as were his clients. He admits that he’s been wanting to do something of this scale and profile with Titan Tubes ever since he first used Astera products around 5 years ago.
“The light quality is soft and nicely textures spaces, people, and objects. They are small and handleable – extremely mobile, the colour mixing is excellent, and they can be fitted absolutely anywhere,” he concluded.

Rob Ross Designs owns a quantity of Titan Tubes as well as the smaller Helios Tubes and the larger Hyperion, all of which use the same Titan LED engine … however even using all of these they didn’t have anywhere near enough for Cyber Rodeo, so most units were supplied by Wireless Film Lights, with entertainment stage lighting contractor 4Wall pitching in to make up the remaining count.

Rob and his team also supplied around 100 of their own Astera AX5 TriplePARs and 24 x AX3 LightDrop on the truck for last minute deployment. Sure enough, the day before, all of these were utilised to light signage, bars, walkways, toilets, etc., as this part of the factory was transformed from an imposing cyber manufacturing facility into a cool event space for the evening.
The Titan Tubes were also programmed into the DX7 Design team’s lighting control consoles allowing them to be incorporated with their stage lighting at specific moments as a series of live acts and guest speakers took to the stage, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Rob’s associate for the project was Aiden Marshall and their assistants were Jai Jing Qi and Dan Schreckengost.

Rob concludes, “We all had a really amazing experience on this project. It was a lot of fun to be challenged to work on such a large space and get to know such amazing new Tesla technology! I particularly enjoyed the teamwork and synergies existing between the different departments, disciplines and everyone involved who worked tirelessly to make it happen, as well as having the opportunity to create these incredible visual elements using such innovative products. A huge thanks to all of the teams and vendors that helped make it happen!”

For more info about Astera, you can visit astera-led.com

What better place to meet together again and learn more about new audio technologies than at InfoComm 2022! Visit us in Las Vegas and join captivating product previews in the RCF demo room.

The focus on the show floor (W 3223) will be a new section dedicated to revolutionary RCF power amplifiers loaded with proprietary DSP, new passive speakers (most notably the Compact A and Compact C series) and new additions to the installed speaker catalog, featuring high-power density for intensive audio applications. Many other new products will be showcased for the first time at Infocomm 2022.

Sharing the same cabinet of the groundbreaking ART 9 Series, the COMPACT A Series is a lightweight and high-performance multi-purpose two-way full-range professional speaker for fixed installation projects. Their sound quality and compactness, combined with an elegant design and accurate finishing, makes it the perfect choice for any environment, from night clubs to corporate spaces.

Compact C Series is composed of two-way point source speakers for near and mid-distance applications, combining a compact wood cabinet with high output for accurate speech and music reproduction. Combining solid birch plywood cabinets with neodymium transducers and a 100° x 50° rotatable constant directivity horn, the speaker can be installed either horizontally or vertically, with optional mounting accessories for wall or ceiling.

Our RCF Team is excited to show you the latest and greatest audio innovations, all lined up across our booth and demo rooms. We look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas!

Booth W 3223
Demo Room W 213
Infocomm, June 4-10, 2022
Las Vegas Convention Center

Register for free with RCF personalized VIP Code RCF147

For the current Genesis tour, The Last Domino?, Roland Greil, co-lighting designer with show designer Patrick Woodroffe of Woodroffe Bassett Designs, chose 5 MDG theONE dual haze and fog generators, citing the need for an excellent canvas of haze on which to paint their lighting design for this iconic band’s potentially last tour.

Throughout its history, Genesis has built a reputation for pushing boundaries with its show designs. The visual impact is a crucial, signature part of the band’s shows and a feature that Greil and Woodroffe were keen to maintain. Their show and lighting design incorporated homages to the band’s history, reflecting looks from past tours, whilst simultaneously bringing the visuals into the 21st century to create an unforgettable experience for the audiences.

“It’s very important to have even haze for a show because we rely on it so much to show the beams and the lighting,” says Greil. “theONE has been one of my favourite haze/fog products for years. We’ve used it for Adele, Phil Collins, Rammstein, etc. It is especially good for its haze. There is not really a comparable product out there at all that can create an even haze – or even a real haze – that’s not just a version of smoke or fog.

“theONE is also good from a touring perspective because the combination of having both a fog machine and a haze machine in one means you can basically leave one product at home as you can get two effects from one unit.”

“For example, with Phil Collins, we toured 3 MDG theONEs for our haze set up. We went to all the normal arenas and with those three machines running at a low level, we were able to create a good and even haze in every arena worldwide.

Another very interesting fact post-COVID: “The treatment of atmospherics is especially interesting in our day and age since the arrival of COVID-19 because arenas worldwide have changed their protocols in relation to air extraction and circulation in the buildings, which brings with it its own extra challenges,” explains Greil.

“Now on the Genesis tour, we have 5 theONEs – 2 upstage, 2 downstage each side and 1 front-of-house – to create an even haze around the venue, and we have to drive them hard, running five machines nearly at full for the whole show just to maintain that even haze.

This is because venues now switch the air extraction to double the normal rate to get rid of the potential virus and germs. It’s healthier of course, but it also sucks out everything you pump into those arenas. With any smaller, lesser machines it would be hard to maintain a decent level of haze.”

Genesis The Last Domino? tour resumed in September 2021 in the UK before travelling to the US mid-West and East Coast. The four-times rescheduled London dates finally took place on 24-26 March at The O2.

For more information on MDG’s theONE dual haze and fog generator and all MDG fog, low fog and haze products, visit www.mdgfog.com

Drawn to Life, the first collaboration between Cirque du Soleil, Walt Disney Animation Studios and Walt Disney Imagineering, has opened in Disney Springs, Florida where Robert Juliat Dalis 860s take centre stage with an impressive 80 x 45-foot cyclorama.

In Drawn to Life the stage is transformed into a giant animation table where drawings come to life. The art of classic Disney animation is reinterpreted through Cirque du Soleil’s innovative design and costuming, mesmerizing acrobatic performances and dazzling choreography and combined with all-new Disney animation and an original score. Drawn to Life is the new permanent show at Disney Springs, where the previous production from Cirque du Soleil ran for 18 years.

Montreal-based lighting designer Martin Labrecque is using 58 Dalis 860 300W LED asymmetric cyc/wall wash luminaires for the show. The fixtures deliver powerful, smooth coverage and a huge variety of pastel and saturated colours.

“I had used Robert Juliat Dalis LED footlights on an opera, but this was my first time using the Dalis cyclights,” says Labrecque.
“I’m quite a fan of Robert Juliat equipment in general and was impressed by the footlights.

But for ‘Drawn to Life’ I had a giant cyc with two or more scenic layers in front of it to light and I had to get all the colours I wanted to use.
The Dalis 860s are powerful and bright and the optics so good that I went all in with them. The cyc was the centrepiece of my design, and we built a top-notch rig around it.”

The Dalis 860 units are mounted on top and at the bottom of the cyc illuminating the massive backdrop like a soft box to backlight scenes.
Labrecque explains that classic multiplane animation, in which multiple layers of elements were shot on glass to give a three-dimensional look to animated scenes, inspired the lighting techniques.

“There are four or five tracks in front of the cyc so we can layer scenic paintings just like shooting multiplane animation. We can light the paintings from the front so they are opaque or light them via the cyc so they are translucent. And we can change their colour. The Dalis 860s give us the power we need to do all this: Even when we’re using saturated colours on multiple layers in front of the cyc we still have light left.”

An additional Dalis 860 fixture is mounted on a moving truss so it can be positioned wherever needed. “We can do interesting gradients of colour with this light,” Labrecque notes. “In the ‘Dreams of Color’ sequence about the artists who painted the animation cells, we create a gradient of eight or nine colours on the giant cyc.”
Drawn to Life opened last November, and Labrecque reports that the Dalis 860s “have been performing perfectly with no issues at all for ten shows a week.”

Robert Juliat is distributed exclusively in North America by ACT Entertainment.

For more details on Robert Juliat’s Dalis 860 cyclorama light and others in the Dalis family, and Robert Juliat’s full portfolio of LED, tungsten and discharge lighting fixtures, visit www.robertjuliat.com

Over the last 5 years, the IS-Series has given integrators the ability to deliver industry-leading audio performance to their clients in a form factor that is simple to use and visually appealing. We’ve introduced two new product additions to the IS-Series which officially launched on May 10th, 2022.

The IS213 is an ultra-compact, high-powered subwoofer intended to be used in ground stack configurations and to fit in compact spaces. The enclosure is loaded with two lightweight, 13” ND13-S Kevlar Neodymium drivers utilizing Adamson’s Advanced Cone Architecture.
It is mounted in an ultra-efficient front-loaded enclosure, designed to reproduce clean, musical low frequency information ranging at +/-3 dB from 33 Hz to 100 Hz with a maximum peak SPL of 137 dB (12 dB crest factor pink noise at 1 m, free field).

The IS213

The cabinet construction for the IS213 uses marine grade birch plywood as well as aircraft grade steel and aluminum and is equipped with two front and two back Speakon™ NL4 connectors, or barrier strip connections.
The IS213 ships with removable handles for easy handling, while allowing it to fit in tight spaces when the handles are removed, as well as rubber scuff guards on top and bottom that mate with additional IS213s for vertical stacking.

The IS5c is an ultra-compact, lightweight, passive 2-way coaxial loudspeaker, with a 100° conical dispersion pattern. The enclosure contains a 1.4” dome compression driver coaxially combined with a 5” low frequency transducer. The Frequency range at +/-3 dB is 95 Hz to 20 kHz and the maximum peak SPL reaches 123 dB.

The IS5c

The cabinet construction of the IS5c uses marine grade birch plywood as well as aircraft grade aluminum and steel, and is equipped with two Speakon™ NL4 connectors, as well as a 2-point barrier strip.
A plate and screw rigging system is placed on top and bottom of the enclosure, with available accessories allowing the enclosure to be deployed seamlessly in a variety of applications.

The IS5c is best suited to supplement larger systems as a fill cabinet, or to handle smaller applications on their own. Target applications include performing arts centers, conference rooms, night clubs, restaurants, and houses of worship.

The level of added flexibility these products offer, bolster the already varied IS-Series product line, giving integrators even more tools to design industry-leading audio solutions. Just as with the rest of the IS-Series product line, both new products can be ordered fully weatherized.

Learn more about how these products at our website Adamson Systems website

photo Jordan Anderson

ETC has worked with BAFTA and the redevelopment of its home and headquarters in London. The revamped BAFTA 195 Piccadilly is now officially reopen and will be the central hub for BAFTA’s UK-wide, and global, learning and talent development programme.

photo Rory Mulvey

State of the art facilities and technologically advanced equipment has been used in the redevelopment including ETC products which have been installed in the new theatres within the space.

This includes several lighting fixtures – fos/4 Fresnels, Source Four LED Series 2 profiles and Irideon wash lights. Eos family consoles with network infrastructure including Response Mk2 DMX Gateways are also used to control the lighting, with a stage engineering package involving ETC’s Prodigy P2 hoists and QuickTouch Preset controls.

By improving facilities and doubling the building’s capacity, the redevelopment has enabled BAFTA to dramatically increase its charitable programme. 195 Piccadilly will be a creative centre for film, games and television.
A world-leading independent arts charity, BAFTA works throughout the year to find and promote the next generation of talent and to break down the barriers that can make it hard to build careers in the creative industries.

BAFTA’s revamp of its headquarters also brings an expansion of its talent support programme. ETC fully supports BAFTA’s initiatives for encouraging new talent and is equally committed to building up the next generation of lighting professionals with programs that are specifically aimed at students such as the Fred Foster Student Mentorship Program.

ETC Regional Sales Manager for the UK, Jeremy Roberts comments: “BAFTA is such an important organisation for our industry, it was with real pleasure that we were able to support the changes and upgrades to the building. There is a great synergy between the education initiatives of the BAFTA team and the work ETC does in its North Acton training space for aspiring broadcast and film lighting professionals.”

Pauline Campbell, Head of Property at BAFTA added: “We were pleased to work with ETC. In addition to providing cutting-edge technology, their support allowed us to fulfil our charitable remit and provide creatives, new talent, and practitioners with a dedicated global hub for the arts, as well as a lasting legacy in the heart of central London.”

More information on the ETC website