When the ‘bombastic’ Elrow Town festival landed in East London’s Olympic Park it had one main aim: to take revellers on a psychedelic trip through the Swinging 60s to Latin Samba. Challenged with serving up the eye-curdling visual effects was Philip Mayer of GaiaNova, using Avolites Ai R8 servers.
Main stage photos went viral, as attendees shared photos of its kaleidoscopic, swirling colours and enthusiastic performers kitted out in tie-dye clobber on social media. Headliners included Fatboy Slim and Idris Elba, as the up-for-it crowd danced to some of the best house and leftfield tracks around.

The Ai R8 server pumped out perfectly projection mapped content onto the complex 3D stage structure. The visuals were created by Wayne Ellis at Afterlife, along with some content from the Ai stock library. In addition, a live feed of 16:9 HD content from Fatboy Slim’s regular video playback team was taken and live mapped onto the stage’s panels, combined with some custom-made clips.
“Pre-programming involved building a 3D model of the stage within the R8 and dividing this in to several UV-mapped parts,” says Mayer. “There were a number of clips from Wayne that were encoded in to the Ai Server’s QuickTime AiM codec. I then created some palettes of appropriate clips from the Ai content library.

“Because Ai inherently understands how to display video as UV-mapped content on a 3D model, it was fairly straightforward to build a custom 3D model of the stage, and map this in such a way that regular 16:9 content would be intelligently mapped across it. By dividing the stage model in to several parts, I was able to send different video elements to different areas of the stage, and manipulate these all in real-time, working from the single 16:9 live video feed coming from the stage.”

Given that the festival was an outdoor event, the team only had the hours of darkness on the night before in order to make the complicated set up live show ready. “Using Ai, I was able to create the 3D stage model, projection map it, and have the live feed running across it, all within the first couple of hours of the overnight load-in,” says Mayer.

On the night, the show was performed on the fly, with Mayer at front of house, on comms with Fatboy Slim’s onstage video team, mixing and layering their live feed over the pre-rendered video clips playing from Ai.

“All in all, it went surprisingly smoothly, considering none of us knew quite which track Fatboy Slim was about to play next!” he laughs. “It was a good example of live collaboration, and the complete opposite of the fully timecode-playback ‘live’ shows I’ve previously worked on.”

The Ai R8’s outputs were routed through a Lightware 16×16 DVI matrix switch to four quad-stacked Barco 30k laser projectors, hitting the stage with 120,000 lumens of projected light. “The Ai servers worked flawlessly, as ever,” Mayer concludes.

The creative brief for the show came from the Elrow Town organisers, with the technical aspects being overseen by Mark Neil at Production Hire. Bob Jaroc was the video director and Stephen Abbiss was lighting designer for Fatboy Slim, using an Avolites Sapphire Touch.

More information on Avolites website and on Elrow town website

To set up the installation technical files by participating in the measurements and adjustements, to animate trainings on Nexo solutions, you have to be graduated of a higher education School, with a specialization in Audio, Acoustic, Electroacoustic, you have a minimum of 5 years experience in a similar position.

Clic on the image of the ad below to access:

Vitec enters adjacent audio capture market with the acquisition of Rycote Microphone Holdings Ltd Rycote, the award winning UK manufacturer of advanced microphone windshields and suspension systems, is delighted to announce today that is has been acquired by The Vitec Group plc (“Vitec”).
Based in Stroud, UK, Rycote is a highly respected, market-leading brand, trusted by audio professionals and the leading manufacturer of advanced microphone windshields and suspension systems. Audio capture is an integral element in the creation of high quality videos and Vitec’s existing customers, whether broadcasters, videographers or independent content creators, already buy audio products.

This acquisition will therefore provide Rycote with the platform for continued growth and further advanced product development, as well as providing Vitec with a great opportunity to bring complementary audio products to their customers. Simon Davies, Rycote Managing Director, will remain with the company post acquisition and Rycote will become part of Vitec’s Creative Solutions Division, led by Nicol Verheem.

Simon Davies, Rycote Managing Director commented: “We are thrilled to become part of the Vitec Group and I’m really excited and confident that we can continue to go from strength to strength; designing, manufacturing and selling our fantastic Rycote products.
“We are looking forward to celebrating 50 years of Rycote next year and, as we enter into this new chapter, we remain committed to serving the needs of our professional audio customers and exploring other markets for our existing and new products.
“Vitec has an incredible portfolio of premium brands in the fast-moving and growing ‘image capture and content creation’ market, so this move also brings great opportunities for Rycote.”

Stephen Bird, Group Chief Executive of Vitec, commented: “I am delighted to welcome the Rycote team to the Group. “Vitec operates primarily in the video production market and this acquisition opens up the opportunity for us to enter the growing audio capture market, adding innovative and complementary products for our customers, and creating additional value for our shareholders.
“Rycote has exciting product development plans that will add real value to Vitec and our customers, and we look forward to developing the business.”

More information can be found at Rycote website and at Vitec Group website

Messe Frankfurt and the German Music Therapy Society (DMtG) will hold the ‘New Therapy Instruments’ competition on the occasion of Musikmesse 2019. Instrument makers, artists and music therapists are invited to develop and implement ideas for new instruments and sounds. The awards ceremony will be held during Musikmesse in April 2019.
The award is worth € 2,000. The competition will honour not only hand-crafted therapy instruments but also new digital applications, such as music apps.

The hang drum © Robin Kirchner

The condition for inclusion is that the products are suitable for use and helpful in one or more of the many areas of music therapy. They can be developments that are easy to employ, that have a special simulative nature, trigger impressive experiences or offer easier access to music for people with impairments.

Michael Biwer, Group Show Director of the ‘Entertainment, Media & Creative Industries’ Business Unit of Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH: “Musikmesse is always open to new topics and product groups. In recent years, we have provided a platform for music therapy and its methods, and we want to expand this commitment in the future.
The ‘New Therapy Instrument’ competition is an important step in this direction and we are particularly pleased that the renowned German Music Therapy Society has agreed to partner us in organising it and thus position the subject prominently at the fair.”

Volker Bernius of the DMtG Board of Management: “From inclusion work to neurology: the use of music-therapy instruments is multifarious and new products, from which music therapists can profit, are continuously being developed. Our aim is to draw attention to this broad spectrum at Musikmesse. With the new competition, we also aim to boost innovation in the sector and make a contribution to the promotion of future-oriented projects.”

An expert jury of music therapists, musicians and instrument makers will select the most successful works from the entries. Decisive for the judging are criteria such as originality, design, ease of use and potential for therapeutic use.
The deadline for receipt of prototypes, including product information, is 31 January 2019. Full details about entries can be found at DMtG website

Musikmesse will take place in Frankfurt am Main from 2 to 5 April 2019.

Further information about at the musikmesse website

Ayrton is delighted to announce the appointment of Ampco Flashlight Sales as its latest exclusive distributor in its rapidly expanding international sales network. Based in Utrecht, Ampco Flashlight Sales will be responsible for the distribution of the entire portfolio of Ayrton products across The Netherlands, with immediate effect.

With a history that stretches back 30 years, Ampco Flashlight Sales is a distributor, systems integrator and project house for both professional lighting and audio products. The company was responsible for the supply of all lighting, rigging, motion control and video to the Eurovision Song Contest 2018, including over 700 Ayrton fixtures, while its Rental division has recently invested in Ayrton Ghibli and MagicBlade-FX to add to its hire stock.

“To be a distributor for Ayrton is a gift!” says Ampco Flashlight Sales general manager, Peter de Fouw. “We have been looking at Ayrton with interest for a couple of years. Then came the release of the new progressive fixtures which really spurred us to talk to Ayrton and progress things further. Our communications with the team at Ayrton worked really well and proved that we are on the same level.
“The new Ayrton products like Mistral, Ghibli, Merak and now Bora and Khamsin are truly ‘daily bread’ fixtures and strong workhorses for rental houses and venues. For Ampco Flashlight Sales, this is an opportunity to bring to market the most progressive and state of the art range of products which serve our target market exactly.”

“We are happy to welcome Ampco Flashlight Sales to the Ayrton family,” says international sales manager for Ayrton, Jerad Garza. “Ampco Flashlight as an organization proved to be top-notch, especially from our collaboration on Eurovision this year. The reliability and road-worthiness of Ayrton products were more than evident on the show, which was the spark of interest that led us to this point. We agree that Ayrton’s products are an excellent match for Ampco Flashlight’s sales division as well and are excited by what our further collaboration will bring.”

More information on Ampco Flashlight Sales and on the Ayrton LED fixtures

Architectural LED lighting manufacturer Anolis and real-time visual processing technology provider ArKaos … announce an innovative collaboration which will see the two brands working together on several future product developments. This will result in benefits to lighting and media designers and concept agencies using ArKaos and Anolis.

Anolis’s LED lighting, pixel-based fixtures and other hardware will have ArKaos’s newly launched cloud based communications protocol An-Ki embedded, meaning that the growing trend for video-mapped content being run through LED ‘media’ installations can be maintained remotely from anywhere in the world … thanks to the ArKaos cloud.

“This will add huge value to installation designers working in all fields” commented ArKaos’ MD Agnes Wojewoda, “It offers the possibility of fully flexible and stable control which will be added to future Anolis products, although the protocol will work with any LED fixture”.

“We are hugely excited to be the first brand to team up with ArKaos on this unique project alliance” stated Anolis MD Tim Van den Eede, “As two extremely strong and forward-looking European brands, working together, we can provide cool and comprehensive lighting and media fixture ranges and control solutions at affordable prices”.
Key areas and sectors of interest and activity will include digital billboards, interactive building and facade installations, corporate, industrial and commercial sales and cultural projects.
The move will involve a fluid bi-directional commercial relationship whereby ArKaos products like An-Ki and MediaMaster will be distributed by Anolis; while Anolis fixtures including ArcPix, ArcDots, DVPs and others will be sharing sales resources with ArKaos.
Both brands will be included on potential product specifications for projects.

It will mean that Anolis products can be supplied with a number of ArKaos’ flexible and proven media server control solutions on-board, and there will be huge potential for the existing customers of both companies to discover the flexibility of the other. New contacts can be presented with many creative options for both fixtures and control.

Customers who invest via one brand will get the ingenuity, quality, experience and support of both established partners. “Having media server and remote control technology like this as integral will set Anolis apart” confirms Tim.
Anolis underwent a major re-branding exercise at the start of 2018 when Tim was appointed as MD. He comments, “We and the team at ArKaos all share the same lively and proactive management style and can-do attitude, so we’re anticipating a long and proactive working relationship for the benefit of our respective client bases”.

Agnes concludes, “We are all looking forward to this combination of cutting-edge technologies – we will be able to offer faster, more flexible and even more versatile products and outstanding after-sales and client support”.

More information on the Anolis website and on the ArKaos website

Housing 22,000 plant species within its beautifully maintained 43-hectare complex, the Berlin-Dahlem Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum stands out as a verdant oasis in midst of Germany’s bustling capital, just as it has for over a century.
A highlight of the year at this world-renowned facility is its Summer Festival, which features botanical exhibitions and a specially crafted Botanische Nacht live show.

This year’s show, which featured 160 artists, musicians and other performers, was built around the theme “The Light of Nature.” Lighting Designer Denny Arndt helped to bring their performance to life by using 150 Chauvet Professional Epix Strip IP fixtures, supplied by TLT Event AG, to create a vibrant and flexible lighting panorama at the Botanical Garden’s central greenhouse.

With the performances leading visitors through various botanical themes in the main Viktoriahaus tropical greenhouse, Arndt’s design created the “supernova impression” of light being released into the garden and night sky. Arndt specified the ultra-thin Epixlinear fixtures to provide a discreet linear arrangement upon the building’s structure.

“The Epix had two key functions within the show,” said Arndt. “Firstly, their modular and discreet linear structure served to highlight the contours of the magnificent Viktoriahaus – the Botanical Garden’s most famous building. And secondly, they provided great illumination effects in support of the program, heightening specific moments with bursts of energy and eye candy.”

Thanks to the Epix Strip IP’s linear 1-meter long appearance and 100 pixel mappable leds, Arndt was able to utilize the Epix fixtures to create a number of different looks. “I can’t stress how versatile the Epix fixtures are,” he said. “In addition to pixel mappable effects and strobing to highlight performance numbers, the Epix were singularly responsible for creating the ‘gap’ effect through which the light from the tropical house appears to break out – a moment which led to beautiful ‘Oohs’ in the crowd.”

From the experiences of the last year, Torsten Moraske (Production Manager for the Botanical Night) and Arndt were all too aware of the changeable and unpredictable Berlin weather. As a result, all specified fixtures were required to be reliable in both dry and wet conditions. With their IP65-rated housing, the Epix fixtures could withstand unstable weather conditions.

As a result of Arndt’s strategic deployment of the Epix fixtures, the fusion of light with the natural elements within the Viktoriahaus – such as orchids, carnivorous plants and giant white water lilies – was a success.
“From structural highlighting to independent lighting effects, the Epix succeeded in producing a number of varied looks for a variety of situations,” concluded Arndt. “Creativity has few limits with this fixture!”

Theatre and live event production company, Blue Parrot, of Edinburgh has recently enhanced its rental inventory with the purchase of an MDG ICE FOG™ Compack HP low fog generator and an MDG ATMe™ haze generator. Blue Parrot provides full production services and dry hire of lighting, sound, video, staging, rigging and power distribution, which it has done for more than 18 years.
The Blue Parrot team was actively looking for alternative low fog and haze generators which would give a better output with less noise and the durability to withstand the high demands of life in a rental house. “We made a conscious decision to invest in MDG because the demand for the brand in Scotland is growing fast,” says Blue Parrot MD, Jonnie Clough. “We already have low fog and haze generators from other manufacturers, but were not really satisfied with the effect they produced and found them very noisy.”

MDG UK’s Matt Wiseman took the MDG generators to Edinburgh to show the team and they were instantly convinced. “The ICE FOG Compack gives a much better effect than we have been able to achieve with our existing units,” says Clough. “The low fog is beautiful and just stays on the ground. Any inevitable kick-up caused by performer movement simply raises and disappears quickly without causing any unwanted aerial residue.
“When considering a change, we had some initial doubts about the use of CO2, having heard it could be difficult to source and tour, but we were impressed with how easy it has been. We did some forward planning and simply set up with a supplier who is experienced and knows exactly what is required, and it has been plain sailing ever since.”

Clough’s main area of expertise, aside from running the company, lies in lighting design for a wide range of projects including theatre, musicals, gigs and live events. He says he chose the MDG ATMe and ICE FOG Compack HP because he wanted to use them on his own shows and because they would subsequently be a good choice for their hire department.
“We could see that all the major touring shows use MDG which is a great recommendation of their strength and tourability. And anyone trying them for the first time just falls in love with the effect, not to mention their economy on fluid use. We are finding them extremely popular: the ICE FOG was hired out solidly for the first month, while the ATMe has been used on ten or twelve shows since we bought it.”

Head of Productions, Mike Somerville, who has a wealth of technical expertise and has worked in many venues across Scotland agrees: “It is impossible for anyone to be disappointed with the effect from the ICE FOG Compack HP – it is the best I have ever seen. It does exactly what it says and is much quieter than other generators. For cost effectiveness and tourability, it is the best low fogger on the market.”

Blue Parrot’s new MDG investments are due to perform in the upcoming productions of West Side Story at the Alhambra Theatre, Dunfermline (3-6 October) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at King’s Theatre, Glasgow (9-13 October).

– For more information on all MDG’s fog, haze and atmosphere generators and accessories, visit the MDG Fog website
– For more information on Blue Parrot visit the Blue Parrot website

It is with deep sadness that the ADJ Group of Companies announces the sudden passing of our friend and colleague Jo Mulders on Monday, September 17, 2018. An esteemed and beloved colleague, Mulders, 61, worked as General Manager at the ADJ Group’s European headquarters in Kerkrade, The Netherlands, and had been with the firm for over 15 years.

“On behalf of everyone at the ADJ Group, we are stunned and deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Jo Mulders and send our sincerest condolences to his family,” said Toby Velazquez, President, ADJ Group of Companies. “Those of us that had the privilege and honor to know and work with Jo have lost an inspiring friend.

Jo was a warm, infectiously positive person who really cared for others and his absence will be felt with great sorrow. Jo was always sympathetic and team-oriented, valued for his know-how and drive, and was essential in helping to lift the company over the past 15 years. He will be sorely missed as both a friend and colleague.”

Mulders, who grew up in The Netherlands, called the town of Landgraaf home. He is survived by his wife, two children and grandchildren.

Ampco Flashlight Rentals, a Dutch rental company, has invested in Ayrton Ghibli and Ayrton MagicPanel FX fixtures for its rental stock to meet the demands of its customers.
This is the first time the company has purchased Ayrton fixtures for its inventory and is very excited at the prospect of making these units available to its broad customer base.

“Ampco Flashlight works in the live performance, theatre, broadcast and corporate markets and these Ayrton fixtures fit well into any of these environments,” says Ampco Flashlight CEO & CCO, Dennis van der Haagen. “Their versatile features and adaptability mean they also complement our existing rental portfolio well.”

Ghibli is Ayrton is a factory-equipped fixture with a 100% framing system, and a 23,000 lumen output from a 600W source, with an 80% efficiency that makes it powerful enough for large scale arenas. It has a full feature set and an 8:1 zoom delivering a 7°-56° beam spread, and is one of the smallest, lightest fixture – with the best performance to size ratio of any hard-edge LED or metal halide product – in its class.
MagicPanel-FX is a 5×5 LED matrix fixture with Ayrton’s optical zoom system producing a 3.5°- 53° beam spread, and continuous pan and tilt capability. Its square lenses offer exciting design possibilities from interaction with beam shape and colour blending to create unique 2D graphic and 3D volumetric effects.

Ampco and Flashlight originated as two separate companies in the late 1970s as house suppliers for artists in concert and theatres, both expanding into rental and sales operations before merging in the early 2000s. From there Ampco Flashlight grew into a major supplier for lighting, audio and rigging and developed its Me Trao audio measuring systems and CyberMotion motion control systems.
Ampco Flashlight was most recently responsible for the supply of all lighting, rigging, motion control and video to the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 when it took place in Lisbon in May, with nearly 800 Ayrton fixtures in Jerry Appelt’s incredible lighting design.

“We’ve had many favourable reports about Ayrton from the people we work with over the years and first saw Ghibli presented at a tradeshow,” says van der Haagen, “but Eurovision gave us first hand, in depth experience of what Ayrton fixtures are truly capable of and our experiences so far have been very good.

“Ayrton products are good quality, with great performance and are widely known and accepted in the industry. There continues to be a rising demand for Ayrton from lighting designers which we are eager to meet.”

More information on Ayrton website and on Ampco Flashlight Rentals website

Pukkelpop, held over four days at the end of August, showcases an incredible variety of musical genres, from rock, to pop, to house and metal. It also hosts theatre, street entertainment and food from around the world.
A major part of the audio production for this eclectic mixture of entertainment that has elevated Pukkelpop to being Belgium’s biggest and best alternative festival, is handled by production company PRG.

DiGiCo was its choice of console for three of the festival’s stages including the Main stage, which hosted some of music’s biggest acts, including Dua Lipa, N.E.R.D, Arcade Fire and Kendrick Lamar.
The DiGiCo line up was SD10s on the Main and Marquee stages at both Front of House and monitor positions, and SD7s at both spots in the Dance Hall. Most bands took advantage of the house consoles, but if they did not, it was because they had brought their own DiGiCos with them.

“In the first two days of the festival, we saw eight SD12 brought in as guest consoles,” says DiGiCo’s Jaap Pronk who, along with the company’s Mark Saunders, was on site for the duration of the festival to provide the engineers with support. “One of these was Frank Voet, who came to Pukkelpop straight from the Lowlands festival. He mixed Warhola on the Marquee stage, then moved to Main stage where he mixed Oscar and the Wolf, which sounded fabulous. The following day he also mixed Bazart. All of this was made easy through his pre-programming of the console.”

PRG’s Patrick Demoustier was in charge of the engineers’ prep room, which housed both an SD7 and SD10, where he and Jaap ran PCs with offline software and session converters. “In this way we could easily convert a session from any SD file to an SD10 or SD7 and implement all the festival settings in the consoles,” explains Jaap.

“For those engineers that didn’t have pre-prepared session files, there were standard festival sessions already loaded as templates on the consoles, so the guest engineers only had to implement their track lists.
If needed Patrick, the crew from our Belgium distributor Amptec or I could give them ‘speed training’ on the fly.”
With a session ready, the files were uploaded to a festival Dropbox. All FOH and monitor positions were continuously online, so before the guest engineer reached the stage, the file was loaded and working on the console.

Running in parallel with Pukkelpop was the Lowlands festival in the Netherlands. DiGiCo’s Dutch distributor, Ampco Flashlight Rentals & Sales provided Lowlands with an equivalent DiGiCo prep room, which was in direct contact with the Pukkelpop prep room. With many of the acts playing both festivals, having access to both Dropboxes meant that files were already on site and converted before the acts reached one or other festival.

“Having this facility made life much easier for me,” says Andy Egerton, monitor engineer for The Wombats. “I converted my SD5 session from Lowlands to the SD10 for Pukklepop and having the DiGiCo prep room allowed me to check my file through on the console with the support team whilst applying the festival patch. They even gave me some rack conversion and multichannel preset training whilst I was there. This made the change over a breeze when I loaded my file as the racks and patch were perfectly configured. What a service!”

DiGiCo also used the prep room to demonstrate Quantum 7, which gave engineers a chance to experience the new SD7 engine. “When I’m mixing IEMs, a lot of the time I have to double up on channels, especially on vocals and brass sections,” says Duncan Wild, monitor engineer for Jess Glynne, following his Quantum 7 session.
“This is because you need to give each band member their original dynamics and other band members may want them, too, but a compressed version. With Quantum 7, you don’t have to double up on channels when there are special requests for colour and dynamics in a particular part of the mix.”

“All the guest engineers were happy using the prep room, even if they’d never used a DiGiCo before,” says Jaap. “We were very lucky to have Patrick Demoustier with us.
He has a long-term relationship with DiGiCo, having used the consoles since the very beginnings of the company.”
“Back in 2002, I made the step with EML to choose DiGiCo, I was convinced that one day the brand would become a world standard,” smiles Patrick. “I was right!”

More information on Ampco Flashlight Rentals & Sales, on PRG, and on DiGiCo

In July 2015 a thousand musicians perform Learn to Fly in Cesena Italy and Foo Fighters duly performed in the city four months later. But that was just the start… Now an annual event, this year Yamaha digital mixers were tasked with mixing a band of over 1500 members.
Rockin’1000 That’s Live has already become so successful that, for the past two years, ‘the biggest rock band on earth’ has had to relocate to the bigger Stadio Artemio Franchi in Firenze (Florence), around 2.5 hours from Cesena.

Luca Stefani facing two PM10

Yamaha Commercial Audio Italia is a technical partner of the event and this year staff were faced with the huge task of mixing Front of House and monitors for an 18 song, two-hour performance of rock classics by a band of over 1500 singers, guitarists, bass guitarists, drummers, keyboard and wind players.

With a channel count of over 300, a RIVAGE PM10 digital mixing system was used for the FoH mix, featuring two CSR-10 control surfaces, four RPio622 and one RPio222 I/O racks on a TWINLANe fibre optic ring.
This system worked side-by-side with a Dante network, which included QL5 and QL1 digital mixers, a Rio1608-D2 I/O rack and two RMio64D Dante/MADI conversion I/O racks to manage monitoring for all the musicians, as well as multitrack recording and communication with the main PA amplifiers.
“The 1500 musicians were grouped by instrument and split in two, so there were two ‘drum areas’, two ‘bass areas’, two ‘guitar areas’ and so on,” says Yamaha’s Alessandro Arturi.

“As you can imagine, several hundred drum kits and electric guitar amplifiers make a lot of noise by themselves! We supplemented this for the mixes with microphones – either close miking or one microphone per two or three instruments. “The vocalists had one microphone between two people and we also distributed a number of ‘jecklin disk’ stereo microphones throughout the performance area, suspended about four metres above the musicians.”

The musicians grouped by instrument and split in two.

All microphones were routed to the five RPio units and then to the RIVAGE PM10’s core ‘brain’, the DSP-R10. A pre-mix was done on one of the CSR-10 control surfaces, with the main PA mix done on the other. Monitors were managed by the QL5 console, which received a pre-mix from the RIVAGE PM10 system and then routed different individual mixes to each group of instruments. Within each group, each performer had a wireless headphone to hear the mix.
“With so many microphones and loud instruments, feedback was obviously a potential major problem,” says Alessandro. “So it was important that every musician had an in-ear system for monitoring and that all instruments and microphones were very carefully arranged to avoid spill as much as possible.”

Protected from the sun, Francesco Penolazzi on the left and Luca Stefani on the right.

Sound designer for the event was Francesco Penolazzi, with the FoH mix overseen by Luca Stefani.
The performance was kept in time by conductor Peppe Vessicchio. “Producing a clear, coherent sound from so many musicians is a challenge, but this event is also very enjoyable for both the production teams and all the musicians,” says Alessandro.
“Music should be fun and we are very glad that Yamaha systems were again able to make such a positive contribution. We look forward to next year, when maybe there will be even more musicians to mix?”

And more information on the Yamaha Audio website

© Ralph-Larmann

Justin Timberlake has launched his “Man of the Woods” tour with Claypaky Scenius Unico fixtures supporting the show as it travels the world. “Man of the Woods” is Timberlake’s sixth headlining tour; it follows the release of his fifth studio album of the same name.
The tour kicked off in Toronto and will play dates in North America until the commencement of the European leg in July. Then more North American dates are scheduled from September through the tour’s conclusion in Denver next January.

© Ralph-Larmann

The show presents Timberlake’s music in several “worlds,” which are themed around the origins of the songs.
The massive, in-the-round set is composed of multiple stages spanning the arena space. “It’s a very choreographed show because we didn’t want to block any seats.

A lot of work went into making sure that everything can be seen everywhere,” says Nick Whitehouse, Creative Producer and Lighting Designer for the tour and Creative Director at Fireplay. “Even when the transparent roll-drop screens come down for video projections the audience can see through them for a really cool effect.”

© Ralph-Larmann

Whitehouse chose 70 Claypaky Scenius Unicos for the main rig. “This is my first time using Unico. I was looking for a spot and beam fixture and have had very good experience with Claypaky products before,” he says. “A lot of vendors are buying Unicos and recommending them, so I decided to give them a try.”

Lighting Director Brian Vaughan reports that, “the Unicos have been our workhorses. We use every feature they have. They’re a great wash; a great spot with interesting gobo patterns; they key the band, the dancers and Justin; and they can go down to a Sharpy-type beam. We even use the shutters to shutter off the edges of the stage for a super-clean look.”

© Ralph-Larmann

Sixty-eight of the Unicos are in the air while two are positioned on the floor directly behind the stage for entrances and exits. Thirty-six of the fixtures are dedicated to what Whitehouse describes as “an Instagram moment.” To open the show a 30×30-foot logo panel surrounded by 36 Unicos descends from the ceiling, tilts and assumes a number of different looks.
“It’s like a massive UFO coming down,” Whitehouse says. “I’m really pleased with the Unicos. We get some incredible effects from them.” Montreal-based Solotech provided the Scenius Unicos for the “Man of the Woods” tour.

© Ralph-Larmann

More information on Claypaky’s website

Ayrton is proud to announce the appointment of Bary AS as its new, exclusive distributor for Norway. Bary AS is one of Norway’s largest suppliers of technical solutions and equipment for concerts, festivals, events and other productions with many years of experience and expertise, and a loyal customer base that places trust in the company’s judgement.

“Bary is made up of passionate professionals whose ambition for excellence appear in their every undertaking,” says Ayrton international sales manager, Jerad Garza. “We embrace their values and love their energy, which make Bary and Ayrton a great fit. We’re excited to have Bary AS join the Ayrton family.”
“We are delighted to start our journey as Norwegian distributor of Ayrton,” agrees Morten Bakke, business development manager for Bary AS. “This is the result of three months of intense effort from our development, sales and lighting departments during which time we thoroughly researched the lighting market and the competition within this segment of the business. The list of suppliers got very long, but after our evaluation process there was no doubt – one of the suppliers really stood out and captured our full attention! ”

Morten Bakke of Bary AS and Jerad Garza of Ayrton.

“We didn’t waste any time before settling on Ayrton. From our years of experience in the rental business, we know what to look for in a product and can easily spot the difference in build quality and durability, which our customers have come to rely on. Ayrton has released products that are in direct competition with the best fixtures on the market – at competitive conditions. They are also known for making really cool and creative effect lighting.”

With headquarters and its research & development centre located south of Paris, France, Ayrton has specialized in developing intelligent LED lighting products for entertainment and architectural applications since 2001. The company possesses a reputation for the highest competence in engineering, software, electronics and optics.
Ayrton’s creations include highly innovative products such as the MagicPanel, DreamPanel, NandoBeam and WildSun ranges of fixtures – many of which are award-winning. Ayrton’s recent product releases include LED wash and profile fixtures Ghibli, Merak, Mistral and Bora, with more new releases scheduled to take the market by storm in the very near future.
As a company, one of Bary AS’s ambitions is to be first in line with new products to ensure they can offer their customers the latest and best technology. “There are a countless number of products out there, but we will only stand by those with the highest quality – the ones we like to use ourselves,” says Bakke. “We use our knowledge from thousands of productions to provide our customers with the best solutions and installations. And we are proud of our suppliers and partners and eager to offer the best possible products.”

“Ayrton has introduced a new industry standard for moving fixtures, and the positive changes at Ayrton since 2017 has created enormous excitement around the brand. This has made Ayrton a company with an extremely exciting future that we’re looking forward to being part of!”

More information on the Ayrton website and on the Bary AS website

L’écran de la 5 BE et son code couleur.

HHB Communications Ltd (HHB), a global leader in professional audio technology, announced HARMAN Professional Solutions will showcase the Studer Vista 5 Black Edition on the HHB Communications stand 8.D56 at IBC2018.
The Vista 5 BE supports all of Studer’s range of Infinity Core products, including the Infinity Core 300, 600 and 1000, and the new Compact Infinity Core, 300 and 600 versions. It also supports the Compact CoreLink Card and Studer’s Infinity Core Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) solution.

Le Compact Core 600

The IT-friendly solution allows customers to run Studer’s real-time audio processing on their own server hardware just by adding a standard PCIe Infinity CoreLink card.
With all the capabilities of the Vista series consoles, the Studer Vista 5 BE with its highly flexible feature set will find favour amongst users in broadcast production, live sound, and performance venues.

L’écran de la 5 BE et son code couleur.

The Vista 5 BE is an affordable mixing desk that combines a Studer control surface with support for the industry-leading Infinity Core processing engine and is available in 22, 32 and 42 fader counts.
The console’s features include Studer’s unique and patented Vistonics interface and FaderGlow technology, providing the operator with an instant illuminated overview of the console status, increasing user visibility and dramatically improving reaction time and reducing the stress of mixing in an environment where there is no second chance. Studer Vista 5 BE also supports an optional TFT meter bridge.

La série Glacier

In addition, HARMAN will present Studer’s fully scalable and customisable Studer Glacier solution that provides comprehensive control, flexibility and interoperability for any on-air application. Multiple modules can be added to create custom-tailored consoles that bring new levels of control and versatility to any broadcast.

Also, on the stand is the Studer Micro series, a compact digital audio mixing system that provides the features and functionality of a high-end mixing system, making it ideal for radio, production studios, ENG/DSNG, and more.

La série Micro

Mark Pascoe, Director of Sales and Marketing at HHB Communications, said: “HARMAN Professional Solutions will revolutionise the audio community by introducing the new Vista 5 Black Edition at IBC2018.
We are excited to have them on our stand demonstrating their latest affordable mixing console.”

Visit HHB Communications on stand 8.D56 at IBC2018 between 14–18 September 2018.

And more information on the Studer website