Almost 400 L-Acoustics cabinets were deployed as part of a mammoth PA system for Jacky Cheung’s 2017 A Classic Tour, which took in 21 venues, both indoor and outdoor, across mainland China at the beginning of the year, and continues through Hong Kong, Sinapore and Taiwan.
The show is performed in the round, with both complex stage machinery and the task of ensuring complete coverage of the audience offering a challenge for rental companies Haona, who supplied the system for the China dates, Unusual in Singapore and Taiwan’s Winly, who worked alongside L-Acoustics Chinese distributor, Rightway Audio Consultants to realise a complex design.

A Hong Kong-born singer, songwriter and actor, Jacky Cheung is one of the city’s ‘Four Heavenly Kings’ – a term created by Oriental Daily News in 1992 to describe the four biggest male entertainment artists in Hong Kong. Over his 30-year career, his popularity has known no bounds – he even set a Guinness World record in 2011 for the largest combined audience for a live act in 12 months, with a total audience figure of over two million, for his Jacky Cheung ½ Century World Tour. For A Classic Tour, Cheung’s live performances were an electrifying three hours that combined his vocal talents, which have earned him the moniker ‘God of Songs’, with elements of both the theatre and circus.

Une image du show montrant bien la complexité de la structure, les 6 lignes panachées K1 et K2 et l’emplacement de l’orchestre cassé en 4 sections aux quatre coins du plateau.

Everything about the show’s production values were in keeping with his celestial reputation, from the four-sided stage – containing a central, sectional decagon which transformed with every song to resemble a three-tiered cake, a circular staircase, a rotating compass or a walled fortress – to the audio, video and lighting systems, which were suspended above the stage.
For the outdoor venues and select indoor venues where weight loadings were an issue, the system was flown on a complex truss system, ground supported by four towers, one at each corner of the stage. “We based the audio design on the predictions we had made using L-Acoustics’ Soundvision 3D acoustic simulation programme,” explains Daniel Kwan, audio designer and Front of House engineer for the tour.

Chant, comédie et beaucoup de machinerie, d’écrans et aussi de figurants.

“Soundvision is an incredibly useful tool, as it meant we could easily predict how the system would react when we moved from venue to venue. This was particularly useful when selecting the position and model of the speakers and meant that we could always ensure the entire audience area was fully covered.”
The show design included a considerable number of moving elements for both lighting and staging, which had an influence on the number of cabinets used, and their position. “Due to the complex stage design, we decided to use six arrays of K2,” Daniel adds.

In the case of the ‘ground up’ production, the weight of the speakers is a huge consideration. K2, being powerful and lightweight and with its stable horizontal polar response of 110 degrees, is the perfect choice to deliver great impact and coverage to every single member of the audience.” The overall system comprised 48 K1, 120 K2, eight Kara, 24 KS28 and 24 SB28 subs, with 24 X15 HiQ and 24 115XT HiQ providing stage monitoring, all driven by a combination of 96 LA8 and 12 LA12X amplifiers.

Une des 6 lignes prévues pour les très grands lieux avec 4 K2 pour le lointain et 10 K2 pour le champ proche.

“Our standard system for the Chinese leg of the tour comprised six hangs of 14 K2 suspended from the main truss, again with 110° horizontal dispersion to cover the venue. However, the tour went to some vast indoor venues and outdoor stadiums where we added four K1 cabinets on the top of the K2 hangs to reach the far rear area. For outdoor stadiums, we again used K1 to cover the upper area auditorium, with K2 covering the bottom level.

Un tableau mélangeant chant et cirque.

Using Soundvision makes it much easier to work out an accurate quantity of speakers for each location we visited and the angles we needed to set.”
Working with monitor engineer Mike Huang, Daniel ensured that any feedback issues were reduced to a minimum and that the system was properly balanced.
“By using this system, as well as ensuring great audio quality, both load in and out were very fast and convenient,” adds Daniel.
The tour received rave reviews from both audiences and the media, with comments that it was the best sounding system they had heard.

Un savant mélange d’accroche et de pieds pour un show grandiose et manifestement très lourd

“We are proud to have been involved in such a successful tour,” Daniel concludes. “This is in no small part due to our L-Acoustics system. I am impressed with its sonic quality and predictability. It gives me full confidence that it will provide the best solution, as always.”

More informations on the L-Acoustics website

A very nice and exposed left/right made of Leopard. The center array is hiddend behind the silver perforated screen.

The Tachikawa Cinema Two is known throughout the Tokyo metro area for supporting its first-run feature showings with superior audio quality. In fact, patrons entering the largest screening room in the multi-theatre complex know immediately that an extraordinary sonic experience awaits them as new twin arrays of Meyer Sound Leopards™ line array loudspeakers for the left and right channels are in full view beside the screen.

The HMS-12 created to litteraly melt with the walls yet delivering an utterly convincing audio.

The improvement has been noted by audiences, and in the box office receipts. “We have gained a reputation for sonic realism beyond that which can be heard in other theatres,” states Takeshi Toyama, head of the planning office at Tachikawa Cinema City.
“Our audience numbers were up 30% in 2015 over the previous year, and in 2016 the numbers extended even further. Of course, this is not due only to improving sound quality, but we have no doubt that the Meyer Sound system has proven its ability to add depth and subtlety to the cinema experience.”

Little speaker, huge smile on the far, not so well placed audience.

The screen channels comprise left and right arrays of six LEOPARD line array loudspeakers flown under a 900-LFC low-frequency control element, with a hidden center array of eight LEOPARD loudspeakers also suspended under a single 900-LFC element. Additional LFE power comes from two 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements, and 12 HMS-12 surround loudspeakers are deployed around the room perimeter. Four discreet MM-4XP loudspeakers enhance sonic detail for the rearmost seats. The system was supplied by ARTWIZ (formerly ATL) of Tokyo, the Meyer Sound dealer for Japan.

“Our goal in choosing a LEOPARD system was to exceed the ordinary level of cinema sound,” emphasizes Mr. Toyama. “We designed our sound system to precisely and faithfully reproduce the sound as recorded on the mixing stage.” The visibly dominating LEOPARD arrays were a particular sensation during a recent re-screening of Mad Max: Fury Road, which features a scene with the heavily speaker-laden “Doof Wagon” roaring across the desert to the accompaniment of aggressive rock music. “It was a huge success,” recalls Mr. Toyama. “Fans were taking pictures of LEOPARD and 1100-LFC and uploading them to Twitter and Instagram.”

Leopard, little box, big SPL, light as a feather thanks to the onboard full digital amplification & processing

The new system was a staged installation, with the 1100-LFC elements arriving in 2015, the LEOPARD arrays installed in 2016, and the new HMS-12 surrounds completing the project. Theater 1, the largest auditorium in the Cinema Two complex, seats 382 and also features a Sony SRX-R320 digital cinema projector and a 4.45 m x 10.5 m silver screen.
Prior to the renovation, the audio system was anchored by Meyer Sound MTS-4A main loudspeakers supported by 650-P subwoofers and UPJ-1P VariO™ loudspeakers as surrounds. The original Cinema City complex was opened in Tachikawa in 1994, with Cinema Two opening nearby the following decade. Cinema Two houses five theatres with a total seating capacity of 1,245.

More information on the Meyer Sound website

Claypaky’s SharBar, the LED-based multi-beam effects light fixture, has been used to great effect on a live concert by popular Russian band, My Michelle, at the Volta Club, Moscow with lighting design by Russian designers David Misakyan and Dmitry Buryak.

Photo ©David Mysakyan

Led by singer-songwriter Tanya Tkachuk, the band has enjoyed great success across Russia with its modern, soulful pop sound. For the Volta Club concert, My Michelle’s producer, Pavlo Shevchuk, worked with Misakyan and Buryak to create a ‘cool, club show’ feel for audiences. The design played to the venue’s compact 8m x 6m stage area, with a height of just 4.85m overhead to the stationary truss structures.

Photo ©David Mysakyan

Photo ©David Mysakyan

Misakyan explains, “When we thought about the production design we wanted something more than just truss warmers and colour washes . . . we needed a fixture suitable for dance pop-music, which would look good in a small club setting. Coincidentally, at that time I was contacted by Aleksey Zhuravlev from Russian rental outfit Global Show Trade (GST) who provided the fixtures for the My Michelle show. Aleksey asked if I was interested in using any new Claypaky SharBars on any projects. This was some luck . . . of course I was interested!

Photo ©David Mysakyan

“Thanks to Aleksey, we were able to borrow a SharBar for use during programming, so that we could check the virtual attributes with the real ones. Having the real device was very useful, we knew exactly how fast the pan, tilt and zoom worked. It really helped.” Consisting of a moving bar of six 30W Osram Ostar RGBW LED luminaires, the SharBar has a 240-degree tilt range. Each of the six luminaires features an individually controllable motorised zoom which can narrow the beam angle to a minimum of 2 degrees, while an internal double mirror system allows each of the six beams to be directed separately.

Photo ©David Mysakyan

Photo ©David Mysakyan

Misakyan says, “Without its motorised functionality, SharBar is already a quality LED batten. However, being able to set the zoom and have the option of spreading the rays with a fan means you can use the fixture in more creative ways. Using the beams as symmetrical rays creates the effect of a light curtain, and by spreading the rays evenly out to the sides we were able to give the impression that each batten was six individual fixtures.” The SharBars were complemented by six Claypaky Mythos projectors, positioned on the floor upstage, providing powerful backlighting effects. Misakyan admits to having doubts about the SharBar’s ability to hold its own in such surroundings, but his fears were unfounded.

Photo ©David Mysakyan

“We were skeptical about the brightness of the devices,” says Misakyan, “However, in reality, the SharBars were not lost against the background intensity of the standing Mythos fixtures and the production’s LED screen. The SharBars surprised us – the result was stronger than our expectations!”
He adds: “Now, battens with the tilting movement are more common. But no one has such unique options as the SharBar – being able to control the pan and zoom of each beam. With the SharBar, Claypaky has created a new, universal tool with a lot of opportunities for creative ideas.”

Photo ©David Mysakyan

David Misakyan is a touring LD for a top Russian rock band Bi-2. He shares his thoughts about lighting design in personal blog misakyan.com. Dmitry Buryak is a LD for TV and live concerts. He is long-term console operator for The Voice Russia.

Read more on the Claypaky website

British pop-rock outfit The 1975 have been touring virtually non-stop since 2015, having just wrapped up the seventh – yes, seventh – leg of their ongoing run with shows across North America. The band’s longtime audio production provider, Eighth Day Sound, recommended a switch to a substantial Adamson Systems Engineering E-Series and S-Series FOH loudspeaker system.
As their audiences continue to grow, so does the importance of pristine, powerful sound to support their upbeat and energetic brand of pop rock, and so for their latest dates, the band’s longtime audio production provider, Eighth Day Sound, recommended a switch to a substantial Adamson Systems Engineering E-Series and S-Series FOH loudspeaker system.

The 1975 tour inside New York Madison Square Garden. The size of the venue called for 15 E15 with three more E12s underneath each to cover the nearfield.. Photo by Arnold Brower Photography

“Eighth Day had invested in Adamson and we’d had some fantastic festival gigs using their systems,” begins Jay Rigby, FOH engineer for The 1975, “so we thought we might as well take the system out and put it through its paces, and we’ve had really great results.” Admittedly, they haven’t looked back since.

The E119, a sub made quite on request for Eighth Day Sound to be used…like that !

The typical configuration featured main hangs of a dozen or more E15 three-way, true line source enclosures per side, with three more compact E12s underneath each to cover the nearfield. “We loved the low-mid presence of the E15s at festivals we did last year,” Rigby shares, “and were also really impressed with how far the system threw.”
The main hangs were flanked by arrays of Adamson E119 subwoofers and side fill arrays of up to 12 compact S10 two-way, full range cabinets. An additional 24 E119s were set up in 12 stacks of two and evenly spaced across the lip of the stage in a slight arc, along with eight S10 cabinets as front fills.

Rigby notes that the North American tour was unique in that the shows ranged from A-market arenas to larger soft-seat theatres to some basic rock sheds, so scalability and sonic consistency between the two loudspeaker series was critical. That’s where Adamson’s Blueprint AV simulation software was a significant help. “The versatility and precision that Blueprint AV offers when predicting the system’s coverage within the various spaces was excellent,” comments FOH system tech Dan Bluhm of Eighth Day Sound. “We had a great workflow that allowed for quick and accurate predictions from day to day.”

Adamson S10

Backed by an Adamson loudspeaker system and support from one of the world’s top audio production providers, The 1975 conquered several major markets across North America, and if the past couple of years are any indication, it likely won’t be long before they’re back

More information on the Adamson website

Big changes at the Couleur Café, Belgium’s largest urban contemporary music festival – after more than 20 years in its Tour & Taxis location, the super-multicultural event has moved to a new venue in the beautiful park below the iconic Atomium in Brussels.
On the audio front, it’s business as usual, with regular sound provider Arto delivering NEXO concert PA systems for three stages, covering a huge variety of musical genres – reggae, hip hop, world, soul, funk, Latin, dub, club and electronic music.

La Red Stage désormais nichée en pleine verdure

Amongst the many different entertainments in the Couleur Café environment, there were three main stages. On the largest RED stage, artists such as soul-funk-reggae star Patrice, Serbia’s Emir Kusturica, legendary Jamaican band Toots and the Maytals and one of Africa’s biggest reggae artists, Alpha Blondy performed with NEXO’s STM modular line arrays in front of a 25,000-capacity crowd. This year’s edition of the festival was slightly downscaled, a consequence partly of the relocation but also because attendance at large events has been affected by fear of terrorism.
NEXO’s STM Series demonstrated its exceptional versatility in complying with the new parameters, scaling down to match the smaller stages without forcing Arto engineers to compromise on the format of the PA. 15 sets of STM M46+B112 per side were flown with 4x S118 subs per side, above a further 20x STM S118s on the ground (per side) in cardioid mode. The smaller STM main cabinets (M28) were used for downfill and frontfill. Arrays of 9x GEO S12 per side were used for outfills.

Backing up the Arto team was Val Gilbert, NEXO Engineering Support manager for Touring and Rental. Commenting on the mix of flown and groundstacked S118 subs, he explained, “the S118’s high-output performance means that 4x flown cabinets per side is enough just to complement the LF response in the far field. Ground S118 ratio remains close to the 1:1 ratio with the main and bass arrays, and the 20x subs each side on the floor are perfect for the more bass-heavy acts.”

La Red Stage et son système Nexo. Bien visibles au sol, 20 subs S118 en montage cardioïde. Si on ajoute les 8 en accroche, on arrive à un ratio important et nécessaire pour la variété de styles musicaux brassés par ce festival

Appearing on the second GREEN stage, located in a leafy amphitheatre, were diverse performers such as world-champion DJs Birdy Nam Nam,a new hip hop concept Niveau4 and the acclaimed UK singer-songwriter Lianne La Havas. Here the main PA comprised NEXO’s smaller STM Main module, the M28., in left and right arrays of 12x cabinets, paired with 6x B112 bass elements per side, and 8x S18 subs per side. As with the main RED stage, NEXO’s classic Alpha boxes were stacked as stage fills.
Describing the ratio of STM cabinets in the GREEN stage design, Gilbert explained that,” we don’t have a set ratio for the M28:B112, because the M28 is more than capable on its own. However for more bass-heavy acts like Birdy Nam Nam, the extra LF headroom offered by the B112 is much appreciated, without having to fly substantial subbass boxes.” The third small BLUE stage was also equipped with NEXO, using 9-module GEO D arrays per side, with CD18s for subbass.
FOH systems engineer for Arto is Christophe Loncour, now one of the most experienced STM Series users in Europe. “With the festival being at a new location, with logistics up in the air, it was essential that we could get the system up as quickly as possible. STM allows us to fly the PA very fast, plug in and switch on. We spent very little time tuning. More important, the system performed precisely as the original NS-1 prediction software told us it would, both in terms of coverage and tonal response.”

More information on the Arto TV website and on the Nexo website

Photo ©Ralph Larmann

The Claypaky Scenius Unico and Claypaky Mythos2 have been selected by award-winning lighting and production designer Mark Cunniffe and lighting director Matt Jones as the workhorse fixtures for multi-award-winning artist Ed Sheeran in his current record-breaking worldwide new album tour. Cunniffe has been working with Ed since the artist began touring in 2011, developing a close creative partnership that has evolved over time as the star’s music has spread to reach international acclaim.

Photo ©Ralph Larmann

“The first thing that we created for Ed was so small it fitted into the back of a truck,” says Cunniffe. “Since then the shows have grown to reflect Ed’s natural career progression. For this tour, we wanted a show that could go from arena to stadium. We wanted it to play as wide as it possibly could.”
To achieve this, Cunniffe designed a goblet-shaped set, fondly named ‘the chalice’ by the designer who worked closely with Production Manager Chris Marsh and Jeremy Lloyd from international technical production practice, Wonder Works, in blue-printing the construction of the concept. The chalice comprises five curved video screens that begin at stage level and run up a central stem to flare out to create a live stage ‘ceiling’ of video and light before curving upward again to form a top rim. The structure was engineered by Tait Industries.

Photo ©Ralph Larmann

Between each of the video screens forming the chalice’s ceiling is a triangular pod – there are four in total – containing 10 Mythos2. Each pod moves in and out of the set via a Kinesys system recommended by UK rental experts Light Control Rigging (LCR). LCR, operated and owned by Mike Oates and Ryan Hopkins, worked in collaboration with US outfit SES to supply all the lighting fixtures, control, cable and crew for the duration of the World Tour.
“The new Clay Paky fixtures are brilliant,” says Oates. “They are very reliable. We needed fixtures that were tough and durable and able to withstand getting shipped all over the world. The Claypaky range have a wonderful colour mixing system and consistent bright output across all fixtures which helps give the show the impact it needs.”

Cunniffe also cites the size of Claypaky fixtures in being instrumental in his decision to select them, “With the Mythos2 I knew I could hang the fixture on its side,” says Cunniffe. “It is relatively light and it can fit through an aperture. I can hide 30% to 40% of the unit behind the structure and you just see the aperture and the lens. It looks as though it’s built into the production, as opposed to being hung on it.”

Photo ©Ralph Larmann

Photo ©Ralph Larmann

Photo ©Ralph Larmann

Photo ©Ralph Larmann

Photo ©Ralph Larmann

On working with Cunniffe, Oates remarks: “Working with Mark has been an absolute pleasure. He is a true professional at the top of his game. His vision and ideas are incredible and he gets across what he wants so well that it takes away some of the stress of bringing his design to life. With LCR being such a young company, it’s a fabulous opportunity for us to show what we can do. We love a challenge and this certainly has been one! Working with Mark and Claypaky has been a wonderful start for us as a young, fresh, ambitious company.”

Photo ©Ralph Larmann

As well as supplying the 128 Mythos2, LCR supplied the 32 Scenius Unico, 16 of which are hidden in the mother gird in four trusses of four, with a further four fixtures positioned on either side of the stage.
“When the lighting pods come in, upstage of that are four linear trusses with 24 of the Scenius Unicos that shine through the holes,” says Cunniffe. “However, you can’t see source, as the source is 56ft high. What you can see are the beams of light. It’s a secondary level of lighting that’s not visible.”

Photo ©Ralph Larmann

Discussing why he chose Claypaky’s multi-functional Spot and Wash light, Cunniffe says, “The Scenius Unico is the midpoint between theatre and rock and roll, so it has a bright beam, it’s at least twice the size of the Mythos and it has full shuttering. I think the Scenius Unico is a fantastic stadium profile, because it’s so bright and has such an advanced shuttering system. It just has a bigger presence.”

Adding to Cunniffe’s reasoning behind the selection of the Scenius Unico is Jones who, as the tour’s lighting director, is in direct contact with the units nearly every day. “What is useful about the Scenius Unicos is that they offer us a dynamic output; they can go from a wide flood to a narrow spot,” says Jones. “The fixture’s shaping system also allows us to go wide with the fixture and still trim down the horizontal plane of the beam.” Lastly, in order not to undermine the production’s attention-grabbing video content created by Montreal-based Moment Factory and Bristol, UK-based Shop, Jones and Cunniffe were keen to access fixtures able to provide a smooth and reliable dimming curve, devoid of any flickering.

Photo ©Ralph Larmann

“Ed is just one man on stage with a guitar, so what happens on stage in terms of light and video is extremely important,” adds Jones. “The audience would notice an imperfect dimmer curve. The Mythos2 dimmer curve is doing a great job of being uniform. It does well down at the low end, and it does well quite high too. Overall, equipment-wise it’s been a pleasure to work with the Claypaky fixtures – they just have great dynamics.”

Cunniffe agrees, “They’re a great bunch of people at Claypaky, and they’ve designed some really good products. They asked me for my input when designing both the Mythos and the Scenius Unico. I worked closely with Francesco Romagnoli, Paolo Dozzo and Marco Zucchinali at Claypaky who listened and incorporated my resulting opinions into their final product design, for which I will be forever grateful.”
The Ed Sheeran world tour is currently in South America. Following his headline slot at Glastonbury 2017, the US leg of the tour will commence in Kansas City on 29 June. The artist’s third studio album, Divide, has reached number one in 14 countries.

More information on le site Claypaky

AudioRent Clair AG has expanded its hire offering by adding two DiGiCo SD5s and an SD12, along with four SD-Racks which include 224 channels of DiGiCo’s brand new 32-bit Mic Pre-Amp.

Jürg Hügin, founder and president of AudioRent Clair (left) with Toni Scherrer, AudioRent Clair’s CEO.

AudioRent Clair is one of the Swiss market leaders. As the European base of the Clair Global network, it is also part of the world’s largest concert touring operation and has an impressive roster of clients, including the Rolling Stones and U2, who all place their trust in the services of AudioRent Clair.

Benoît Saillet, Montreux Jazz Lab FOH Engineer

Renown industrial companies including pharmaceutical corporation Novartis and financial services provider Baloise also count on the Basel-based company. To meet the high expectations of its client base, AudioRent Clair continually tests and evaluates the latest technologies and devices.
“We are very happy and proud to see so many DiGiCo products, including the SD7, SD10, SD9 and SD8 in AudioRent’s rental inventory,” says Hansjürg Meier from DiGiCo’s Swiss distributor, Tonspur AG. “We are even happier that they have now added the SD5 and SD12 to their rental stock.”

AudioRent Clair’s SD5 was deployed throughout Europe on tours with Queen & Adam Lambert, Katy Perry, Kiss and Shinedown, and made an appearance with Katy Perry at the recent Glastonbury Festival. For 2017 and 2018, the new consoles are also going to be used at the iconic Montreux Jazz Festival, which this year takes place from June 30th to July 15th.

AudioRent Clair’s 32-it Mic Pre-Amp

“Our new DiGiCo consoles mean we are going to reach the highest of expectations of live audio for both technological and qualitative aspects,” says Toni Scherrer, AudioRent Clair AG CEO. “And I’m exceptionally happy to be able to offer the DiGiCo 32-it Mic Pre-Amp, which is the newest generation of preamp available on the market.”

More information on the Digico website and on the Audio Rent Clair website

Robert Juliat’s award-winning Dalis 860 LED cyclorama lighting fixtures are currently playing a key role in Snégourotchka (The Snow Maiden) by Rimski-Korsakov at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. The opera premiered on 15 June on the 1740-seat Heritage Stage on a set designed by Vladimir Arefiev, with lighting by Damir Ismagilov.
In the largest installation of Dalis to date, Ismagilov chose to use 92 Dalis 860 asymmetrical LED units to illuminate three enormous lightboxes – the largest features of the set in this spectacular production – which form the backdrop to the Russian folk tale that tells of the Snow Maiden’s ill-fated love for the human, Mizgir.

Crédit Photo : Maria Lopashova

The lightboxes, each of which measure 22m wide x 15m high, are suspended 3m above the stage, and positioned upstage and on each side to form a box, covering the whole stage in width and depth to create an ‘endless sky‘ surrounding the acting area. They are used to provide an even sky-glow, coloured with different shades of cold white and light blue.
In the finalé, a strong tungsten light spreads on stage to symbolize the end of endless winter when the dead-cold sky turns to golden-amber as the brightest point of the show. To create this signature feature and maintain the ambience throughout the performance, Ismagilov required a very even, very strong wash for the lightboxes, and was tasked with finding a fixture that could handle the scale of the production and the challenges of the hanging positions and set design.
The lightboxes were constructed using screens and blackout banners to bounce light from the back drop onto the rear of the front screen, for a softer and diffused effect. They were built with just one lighting truss at the top and one at bottom – and no opportunity for hanging positions at half-height within the lightboxes to make the wash more even. The fixtures would not only need to be capable of providing strong and even cyc-light, but also be cool enough to operate close to the lightbox screens without melting them.

Crédit Photo : Maria Lopashova

The Bolshoi team found the ideal solution in the Robert Juliat Dalis units, 46 of which were rigged evenly on trussing at the top of the light boxes, with another 46 rigged at the bottom, standing on platforms suspended on flybars and motor hoists. “We decided to use Robert Juliat Dalis 860 for several reasons,” explains the Bolshoi Theatre’s head of lighting, Ayvar Salikhov.
“First and foremost, the beam spread and angle is perfect for our needs: the output is strong enough to throw the light up to the full height at the top of the 15m lightbox and give an even wash using just the top and bottom rows, without a dark gap at half-height.

Robert Juliat Dalis 860

“Secondly, the Dalis has a wide colour range that can produce a tungsten-like spectrum, and its cold LED light source makes possible to set up many fixtures within the closed space of the lightbox with no fear of heat damage.
“Lastly, the dimensions and simplicity of the Dalis are exactly what we need. They are lightweight with perfectly simple cabling and a flexible rigging system – this is essential as Bolshoi is repertory theatre and we must be able to set up the lights really quickly. Similarly, Dalis‘s compact size, robust body and specially engineered flightcases are all equally important as the fixtures are stored in stock and are transported on stage for every show.”

Damir Ismagilov was equally happy with the choice of Dalis, both for its performance and for the aesthetic possibilities it gave to his design: “Due to Dalis’ ability to create a perfectly even wash of light across large surfaces in a wide range of intensity levels and colours, we were able to obtain the effect of huge isotropic, sky-like, light source that set the character of the lighting for the scenes and helped determine the special atmosphere as the action changed.
For example, a wide spectrum of cold shades of white and exceptionally smooth, seamless light transitions allowed us to portray a very precise feeling of a leaden sky that could imperceptibly fade into a dense twilight shade. In the finale we could mix a bright, saturated sunburst tone which harmoniously complemented the tungsten tones of multiple stadium-lamp clusters as they projected from the stage into the audience.”

Crédit Photo : Maria Lopashova

The team at the Bolshoi Theatre is already familiar with Robert Juliat as they have Robert Juliat Lucy, Flo, Victor and Aramis followspots in their inventory, alongside D’Artagnan profile fixtures and Jalousie automated shutters for HMI Fresnels: “We have used Robert Juliat for a number of years and are very happy with their great lighting quality and durability,” continues Salikhov.
“We find them the best on market in terms of light quality, size and ergonomics, and are very pleased with the high level of techical support we receive from Robert Juliat. “We are pleased to see that Dalis has the same reliability as we haven’t experienced any technical issues with them during the whole production. This has been a great advantage because it would be a very hard task to reach the fixtures inside the lightbox after everything is set.”
For more information on the whole Dalis family of fixtures, visit the Robert Juliat website

Legendary disco act, Chic featuring Nile Rodgers, performed an acclaimed set on Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage using Allen & Heath dLive S Class mixing systems. Supported by F1 Sound, John Ryan, Tech Production Manager and FOH engineer, used a S7000 linked by FibreACE to an onstage DM48 MixRack, whilst monitor engineer, Marco Della Torre, used a S7000 and DM48 with MADI for recording.

John Ryan, FOH of mister Hit Maker Nile Rodgers proudly showing the S7000 surface.

John Ryan, who has been mixing for Nile Rodgers and CHIC for the past 13 years, says: “From the first moment I turned it on, I immediately became friends with dLive. The system proves to be fast and easy to set up and have you ready to go on the fly, something that is quite frequent during festival shows where you are almost never allowed a sound check.
The basic features, right out of the box, are easy to spot on the dLive surface; quick assignable function buttons and pots where you would expect them to be, 36 totally assignable faders divided into 3 banks on 5 layers, amazingly great-sounding plugin emulations, a user-friendly menu and everything you need to know for any selected channel is clearly displayed on the two touch screens.

The Pyramid stage as seen from the FOH during Chic’s performance.

A handy “HELP” button is available for first time users. Dragging and dropping channel strip assignments to your surface is quick, reliable and definitely one of the most useful features when organizing your layers, especially when you want to keep specific channels right on top, stored in each song of your set list, without the need for hunting down a channel that is originally assigned to a lower layer.
The superb sound quality, processing and nearly non-existent latency almost makes you think you’re working on an analogue desk. The dLive is now on our production rider as my preferred FOH mixer.”

Marco Della Torre, an Italian smile to add even more fun to Nile’s stage left

Monitor engineer, Marco Della Torre, adds: “I have been using digital desks for many years, and I think I can summarize my experience with dLive in 3 words: easy, compact, connections! You only need two minutes to scan and remember all the buttons/knobs on the surface, and then you can mix – it’s easy and quick.
Everything you need is there in a small frame, and believe me, this is very important for monitor engineers! We’re always on the run looking after the musicians, and it’s very helpful to have, and be able to reach, all of the features. Also, dLive is so light! I really love the fact that you can switch network protocols just like a matrix dot-to-dot, and this is without using surface processing! You simply plug in the cards you need, cross patch and it’s done. I not think there’s any other brand on the market that allows you to do this. Finally, oh yes, the sound in amazing!”

More information on the Allen & Heath website