It was the gig of show designer / director Romain Pissenem’s dreams! Global music superstar David Guetta, France’s most iconic DJ and music producer playing a unique set live at one of the world’s most visually, architecturally, and historically impressive site-specific locations, Musee du Louvre in central Paris …
Celebrating the monumentally symbolic roll-over from 2020 to 2021 in this breath-taking environment with style, cool, poise and some superlative dance beats, 116 x Robe iPointe moving lights on the rig helped make it THE New Year’s Eve livestream to remember from the year THAT WAS. It was also the third in David Guetta’s “United at Home” concert series to raise money for those in need in what’s been a universally tough year for everyone.
Romain and his UK and France based creative production company High Scream were also the stream’s executive producers, working directly for the artist and collaborating closely with staff from The Louvre. The 15-camera stream was directed by Job Robbers. Romain’s team included lighting designer Ian Tomlinson and lighting programmer and operator James Betts-Gray.
His starting point for the production design was the beautiful 21.6-metre-high glass and metal pyramid structure designed by architect I M Pei with its 603 rhombus shapes and 70 regular glass triangle segments, a timeless contemporary masterpiece that defines the Louvre’s main courtyard. While Romain and High Scream have been producing David Guetta’s live shows for the last couple of years, working on a show of this stature and significance took everyone to new levels of show production.
For Romain, a truly international citizen, this show was also an emotional snapshot for an incredibly proud Frenchman. “The biggest challenge was to respect the wonderful aesthetics and integrity of this very special space and add in a complex, high-impact, show-stopping electronic music show capturing the sheer magic of this incredible moment,” commented Romain. The pressure was on for everyone involved to impress an audience of approximately 16 million who joined the stream from literally every corner of the globe!
Throughout 2020, High Scream has designed and produced a steady trickle of broadcast and streaming projects, all of which have enabled Romain to get savvy about how to bring the visual atmospherics and excitement that are a given with live audiences to screens large and small anything from a smartphone to a massive LED wall providing a cascade of goosebump moments for viewers.
After much consideration, Romain decided they would hit the right vibe with lighting and lasers as the media to create layers of optical excitement, however they also supplied camera director Job with a collection of custom playback video content to pepper his mix as needed! With Guetta’s DJ decks positioned centrally at the base of the main pyramid – a 34-metre-wide expanse – it was clear from the outset that the aesthetics precluded having any trussing or metal structures in view, so all lighting was positioned in a matrix arrangement on the floor radiating outwards from the decks.
The 116 x iPointes were the primary lights of the show
They looked stunning as their intense beams sliced dramatically through the rain and night sky radiating the incredible energy and sounds being created by the artist. iPointes were chosen for their brightness, features and durability. For the geometry and style of the production design to work, protective domes were out, so they needed to be robust water-resistant fixtures as no one had any illusions about the Parisian weather in December!
Sure enough … apart from a brief pause for around 10 minutes at the start of Guetta’s set, it rained persistently all evening, turning to sleet and ice-rain towards the end of his incendiary hour-long performance … which was brutally cold but ensured the light beams looked even more awesome!
The iPointes were arranged in a series of carefully crafted linear lines creating a triangle shape mirroring the elevation and angles of the main pyramid. Effectively an ocean of lights in front of the DJ booth, which evoked the dynamic look that was fundamental to the design working from all the camera angles and was especially cool on the drone shots!
The courtyard also has two smaller glass pyramids and seven triangular-shaped water features flanking the main pyramid … all providing additional surfaces to reflect and refract light, together with the rain that further amped up the overall moodiness with additional atmospheric twists. Four hundred and thirty-two lights were utilised in total. To these Romain added some subtle lasering on the pyramid itself, with 20 x 30-Watt lasers shooting up and across the structure producing subtle highlights, disturbance and glitch effects which looked great on camera.
Lighting and audio equipment were supplied by S Group, a regular High Scream show and event technical partner, with the lasers from Laser Fabrik. The stream was broadcast live on various platforms including Facebook, Instagram TV, Twitch, YouTube, and numerous TV channels. Romain, who has worked on many incredible shows worldwide, commented, “This was just REALLY special, particularly after a year like 2020 … it was something else. We were all very honoured to be involved and for David (Guetta) to entrust his production to us. The show brought an important message of hope during this very challenging time, and we were all grateful and immensely proud to be part of it.”
Having already raised over $1.5 million for charities with the United At Home events from Miami and New York, United At Home Paris was dedicated to UNICEF and Les Restos du Coeur. Donations could also be made to the Louvre, which has been closed for many months due to the pandemic.
When times get tough, artists adapt, relentlessly leveraging leading-edge production technology to explore ever more innovative ways of making an impact with remote live performances. And that’s exactly what drove the deployment of an Adamson Systems Engineering CS-Series loudspeaker rig for Tate McRae’s performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Adamson CS10 and CS119 power the Tate McRae performance for The Tonight Show.
Directed by Jonah Haber and filmed in Brampton, Ontario, the Alberta-based, global pop sensation’s performance of her massive international hit, ‘You Broke Me First’ featured all the trappings of a high-end video shoot courtesy of Vancouver-based production house, Boldy, and set design, video and staging by Toronto’s Congo Blue Productions.
Jeremie Ngandu
Typically on video shoots, audio is an afterthought. Not in this case, explains Jeremie Ngandu, who designed the system for the production and credits the Adamson loudspeakers as integral to the live energy and immediacy of McRae’s performance.
“We converted a 28,000-square-foot warehouse into a performance space,” Ngandu says, adding that the set included four separate performance areas or ‘rooms’ that McRae moved between during the song each kitted out with lighting and video screens to create a variety of effects.
Having worked with McRae on similar virtual live performances for The Jimmy Kimmel Show and The European Music Awards, Ngandu knows exactly what McRae and her dancers need to hear to pull off the high-energy performances McRae’s become known for.
The Adamson CS-Series system was a big part of that, he notes; in terms of ease of setup, the power and SPL necessary to set the tone and enhance the performance in what was, acoustically, a difficult environment, and, most importantly, in allowing Ngandu to provide great sound for both McRae and her dancers.
Behind the scenes at the Tate McRae video shoot, with each zone featuring stacks of good vibes.
Soundbox Productions supplied Ngandu with eighteen Adamson CS10 line array cabinets and six CS119 subs, which he deployed in six ground-stacked positions each consisting of three CS10 on top and one CS119 on the bottom. These were spread across the set to provide even coverage as McRae and two dancers moved through the space.
“I had the different zones on matrixes, so I could ride the levels as they moved throughout the set and could really feel the music everywhere. Using the Adamson stacks provided a live feel for the dancers and Tate,” he says, adding: “It’s important to keep in mind this was very much a live performance – one shot, no edits – so I think the ability to feel the track, with impact, enhanced the performance.”
A well known 19” Kevlar driver, a new power and DSP module developing 3000 W, 138 dB SPL Max, meet CS119.
The degree of control CS-Series provided was also helpful: “This wasn’t an ideal environment. It’s a concrete space with a metal roof, exposed brick, and no sound absorption. That’s where the zones came in.
Tate and her dancers felt every note and every beat of the drums because, as they moved, I’d bring up the level up in each area, but only to where I could still control the dynamics in the room. I really like the dispersion pattern of the CS10. It’s very focused, but it’s also wide and powerful so you don’t have to blast them to have that impact.”
That level of control benefitted everyone on the shoot, not least of all McRae herself. “Tate was on in-ears and that can be kind of isolating. So being able to have that live feel with the sub hitting her as she was singing and dancing, that helped a lot.”
Easy and handy to use, two channel Class-D amp & DSP with a total output of 2400 W, everything is controlled and monitored through a CS soft.
Although this was his first use of the CS-Series loudspeakers, for Ngandu, Adamson is a known and trusted quantity. “I’ve used Adamson S-Series loudspeakers before, and I’ve done my Adamson Certification Training. I know how their loudspeakers sound and the power they pack.”
Beyond that, he continues: “With everything being spread out the way it had to be, having powered speakers connected via one cable was a game-changer. I didn’t have to run a whole bunch of amps and infrastructure.” As far as tuning, he adds: “It was pretty quick that way, too. I basically left them flat and had everything set up and patched in half an hour – I just plugged the speakers in, powered them up, and we were good to go.”
Tate McRae and her dancers pulling off the high-energy performances McRae’s is known for, getting plenty of energy behind them…
The final piece of the puzzle was a pair of Adamson CS7p two-way full-range loudspeakers that Ngandu used as reference monitors, “The CS7p were recommended by Soundbox and they really came in handy. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but when I played my own multi-track recordings through them before we started, the clarity, depth, punch; everything was there and the mid-range was so clear.”
“Tate was very pleased. She loved the sound overall, and I enjoyed having the CS7p as reference monitors. Tate wants her in-ear mix to sound like the studio record. That’s one of her biggest requests. I’ve listened to the record a million times. I know what it’s supposed to sound like and I know what Tate wants it to sound like. So, flipping between in-ears and the CS7p, you hear a true representation of the mix, which helped a lot. The CS7p allowed for a clean, tight, and punchy mix that translated one-for-one, exactly the way she wanted it to.”
Adamson CS7p deployed as reference monitors.
The clean look of the Adamson CS10 and CS119 also lent itself perfectly to the final result, he adds. Although he’d watched the performance already, seeing it in context during The Tonight Show brought that home. “It was great to see all the hard work pay off and the system looked so good. The way the lights were hitting it. It was so clean.”
Most importantly, the performance was phenomenal. Not surprising given the accolades the 17-year-old pop singer/songwriter has racked up since her first release, ‘One Day’, went viral in 2017. Nailing it so perfectly, particularly without an actual crowd in front of you, isn’t easy, but McRae certainly made it look that way.
“I think the systems we had in place helped her lock into the music and feel like she was in a live space. A lot of the time, on studio sets, you have one or two speakers and you just have to pretend you’re performing as if you’re in a larger-than-life space. Having the Adamson system helped emulate being on a real stage with all the PA, subs, and power. I feel like that allowed Tate to lock in and deliver the performance that we all saw.”
Over 500 CLF fixtures were part of the very first Electric Fireworks NYE show in the Amsterdam ArenA. Selected because of their power and punch, Poseidon and Aorun beams took care of the aerial effects. LEDbar PRO and Ares fixtures were added to create blinding firework effects. 4Light Showprojects and Dutch7 were in charge of the technical production. Lighting was designed and programmed by LD Company.
During load-in, the roof of the ArenA had to be open all the time. Therefore, fixtures with an IP65 rating were preferred. Ronnie Santegoeds (4Light Showprojects) explains: “Initially we planned an outdoor event. That’s why we started the preparation process with a big fixture shoot-out, based on projection at 50 meters and beam intensity. The CLF Poseidon Beam was chosen to feature the circle shaped structures which resemble fireworks.”
The iconic firework structures also included LEDbar PRO and Ares fixtures. “We used these fixtures for the most powerful part of fireworks; launching and exploding. Due to their output, the ledbar PRO and Ares were ideal to emphasize these accents”, comments Santegoeds. 180 linearly lined up Aorun Beam fixtures completed the scene.
ISE MD Mike Blackman responds to the announcement by AVIXA that the InfoComm 2021 show is set to take place in Orlando in October 2021.
Dear ISE community,
Following today’s announcement that the InfoComm 2021 show will now take place in Orlando in October 2021, we want to confirm that Integrated Systems Europe, remains scheduled to open live and online on 1-4 June 2021 in its new home at the Fira, Barcelona.
Whilst we recognise there continue to be challenges ahead, we are in touch with government and the relevant health authorities to constantly monitor the situation. None of us can predict how the situation will look in June, but we are hopeful that by the second quarter of 2021 we will see the world return to a new ‘normal’ with vaccines being rapidly delivered in many countries around the world.
We understand our exhibitors and partners need to make commitments that will incur cost and we do not wish to burden them unnecessarily. For this reason, if circumstances impact our ability to host an in-person event and we are forced to cancel this element of ISE, we will make this decision by 1 March. With the backdrop of the global pandemic, our priority in recent months has been devising the means to deliver a safe and secure event for all exhibitors and visitors and we have been working closely with the City of Barcelona, the venue and relevant authorities.
In early January, Fira de Barcelona received the ‘Safe Travels’ stamp, an internationally recognised endorsement from the World Travel Tourism Council (WTTC), developed in collaboration with the specialist risk management consultancy Aon and the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona. ISE has also published A Guide to Safe Visiting, outlining the safe practice protocols that have been put in place with the Fira Gran Vía to ensure that the visitor experience is safe and secure. The guide can be located on the ISE website here. Looking ahead to June, we can confirm that today, over 37,000 sqm of space is signed up with just under 700 exhibitors confirmed and new companies continuing to book their place on the floorplan.
Online visitors registration are now open, as we realise the industry is keen to ‘get back to work’ in the second half of the year. Feedback from our recent customer research shows that the industry is looking forward to meeting as soon as the situation allows and we are currently updating the research to measure current sentiment amongst both our exhibitors and visitors.
In a time where many of our industry colleagues are suffering financially or have lost their jobs or businesses, we at ISE are striving to do everything we can to contribute to the industry getting back on its feet. I would personally like to thank all our customers, partners and colleagues within the industry which we serve and look forward to seeing you again soon.
Thank you,
Mike Blackman Managing Director Integrated Systems Europe
For further updates and information on ISE 2021 please visit the ISE website
For information on InfoComm 2021 please visit the Infocom website and check out the FAQs page.
Meyer Sound has announced immediate availability of LEOPARD®-M80 narrow coverage linear line array, a new variant of the LEOPARD® loudspeaker designed for focused coverage and long-throw applications. LEOPARD-M80 is identical to the existing LEOPARD design except that it provides a precisely controlled 80° horizontal pattern instead of the 110° coverage of the original model.
The two models, on top the new M80, on the bottom, the 110° « regular » LEOPARD.
Meyer Sound Vice President and Chief Loudspeaker Designer Pablo Espinosa.
“LEOPARD has been one of the most successful loudspeakers in our company history and is by far the best selling member of our line arrays,” notes Meyer Sound Vice President and Chief Loudspeaker Designer Pablo Espinosa. “With the introduction of LEOPARD-M80, we will extend this remarkable success by offering system designers more options for tailoring coverages to the exact requirements of the venue.”
Because the vertical coverage and rigging hardware are identical to the original LEOPARD, the new LEOPARD-M80 may be configured in mixed arrays of both loudspeaker variants.
A mixed array with 7 LEOPARD-M80 in the upper section for long-throw coverage and 5 LEOPARD in the bottom for closer sections.
LEOPARD-M80 loudspeakers in the upper array section provide focused long-throw coverage while LEOPARD loudspeakers below spread horizontal coverage for closer seating sections. Arrays configured with only LEOPARD-M80 loudspeakers can offer a long throw with reduced spill to the sides of the array. This can be advantageous in narrow venues with reflective side walls as well as in outdoor applications where side spill into adjacent areas must be minimized to conform to noise regulations.
LEOPARD-M80 also affords additional system configuration options. LEOPARD enables tighter horizontal control across a broad spectrum of outfill, center fill and delay applications when used in large-scale systems with LEO® and LYON® main line array systems. All current Meyer Sound line array loudspeakers share a common acoustical signature, affording seamless transitions among main and auxiliary arrays.
Two 9” long excursion cone drivers, one 3” diaphragm compression driver, 3-channel Class D 3900 W peak amp, 34 kg and 132 db SPL Max (Pink noise) for the M80.
In both variants, LEOPARD’s innovative amplifier, driver and horn designs ensure linear response over a wide dynamic range. LEOPARD also offers exceptional phase coherence, consistent coverage patterns, extremely low distortion and high power-to-size and weight ratios. Basic LEOPARD arrays can be quickly configured in Native Mode for optimum performance with minimal external processing.
With the pullback frame any shape is possible.
The narrow profile and limited weight make LEOPARD arrays an ideal choice for mid-sized touring acts and fixed installations where portability, scalability, and ease of rigging are essential.
“With LEOPARD-M80 we are offering system designers and rental companies yet another option to create high-performance, cost-effective systems for any application,” says Espinosa, “from a small club with LINA® arrays up to massive stadium and festival systems with LEO main arrays scaling down through LYON and LEOPARD fill and delay systems. LEOPARD-M80 is an important new addition to the industry’s largest and most widely adopted family of self-powered line arrays.”
Since its launch in 2015, LEOPARD has been specified for installations worldwide, including the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theatre, National Theatre in London, and the Jakarta International Expo (JIExpo) Theatre, and is frequently chosen by sound designers on Broadway and touring audio engineers.
Elation is proposing this big Profile with nearly 1,000 watts of white LEDs.
This complete and powerful fixture brings some significant benefits to the entertainment sector, including a framing module with unlimited rotation, and a dual 3-color mixing system. It is complementary to its cousin, the “Monet”, which also boasts 950 W of white LEDs in a slightly less punchy system, but with a very wide beam. Let’s dissect this beast…
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Vue interne.
Mondrian is massive, weighing in at 47 kg. We are dealing here with a large and powerful, well-equipped fixture. It has what it takes… slender and streamlined, it is mounted on a relatively small base. Considering its weight, it would have been sensible to provide two additional handles, because those on the base make the handling unbalanced and difficult.
A careful dissection
We can’t resist disassembling the unit any longer. The two plastic cowls that make up the housing are secured with two captive quarter-turn Phillips screws and held in place by a small safety cable. Examination of the head reveals a large LED engine at the rear, the heat from which is dissipated by means of a heat-pipe radiator cooled by four fans (two intake and two exhaust fans).
La boîte à lumière avec son système de refroidissement.
So, starting from the back, after the source module and its collimating lens, we proceed to the “colors/effects” module. This module can be extracted for maintenance. It can be easily disassembled by removing a D-sub connector and loosening four screws that release the two sliding tabs that secure it in its operating axis. The module is compact and tightly packed. Maintenance on its components would seem to require a lot of precision. Fortunately, in today’s LED fixtures, the compartment located in front of the source is subject to so little outside air and, consequently, to so little dust that it has become increasingly less necessary to carry out frequent and thorough cleaning.
The color system (CMY + CTO + RGB) takes up lots of space, with its 14 sliding dichroic filters. The borders of these glass strips have been designed for smooth and progressive color insertion.
La boîte à lumière, côté sortie vers les effets.
Le module couleurs / effets côté couleurs.
Gros plan sur les drapeaux de couleurs
Le module couleur / effets, côté gobos.
This same module contains the gobo wheels, as well as the animation wheel. The two gobo wheels are placed one on top of the other, while the animation wheel is positioned behind them, with its articulated arm that allows it to be positioned in or removed from the optical path.
A tiny impeller with a duct blows air just between the two wheels to prevent the gobos from overheating, which could be fatal to the glass gobos during prolonged overlapping.
Le module de couteaux.
The subsequent module, which cannot be removed, is the framing system. It features a very useful innovation: the unlimited rotation of the shutter mount assembly, based on a very interesting technology. The stepper motors that drive the shutters, along with their control electronics, are not connected by any wiring harness.
The principle employed by Elation on the Mondrian (as well as on the Monet) uses inductive coupling technologies to transmit electrical power to the control electronics of the shutter blade motors, and a proximity radio system to transmit control data.
La partie focus / zoom avec les prismes et les frosts.
Technically, these systems are quite similar to those found in inductive telephone chargers, for the power supply element, here with a circular system that allows for continuous coupling between the fixed and rotating parts and thus maintains an uninterrupted flow of current (a bit like a rotary transformer). The rotating part has a very conventional system of four framing shutters, each capable of complete closure.
Just downstream of the framing module are the focus and zoom carriages. On the focus carriage, the two frost filters and the two prisms are mounted on motorized arms. Mechanically, it is very well designed and very few compromises will be necessary in terms of zoom setting in order to be able to work with the prisms or the frosts. The rotation of the prisms is carried out by a remote drive unit that operates via cogs and a pulley. A large output lens completes the optical path.
Faisceau : du plus serré au plus large, avec l’iris sur la première vue.
The underside of the Mondrian
Each yoke arm can be disassembled by means of two Phillips-head screws. The interior of these reveals a classic design with, on one side, the belt that provides the tilt rotation and the integrated motor, and, on the other side, the wiring conduit and the pan motor, which also transmits the motion by means of a belt connected to the central shaft of the base. The base is compact and very densely packed. Any electronic maintenance will have to be carried out by expert hands in the shop.
The bottom of the fixture allows the attachment of a safety cable and the installation of the two camlock omega brackets, which can be positioned on two perpendicular axes. Once again, we are disappointed by the use of these simple omegas, which do not offer the possibility to offset them in order to avoid truss struts or junctions.
L’afficheur.
The connection panel has a powerCON True1 socket for mains power, DMX input and output on XLR5 connectors, and two RJ45 sockets for networking. A USB2 port is also available for software updates and maintenance.
On the opposite side of the base, a non-touch color screen (which, for me, is a positive thing…) and its five associated keys allow you to configure the fixture. The menu is very comprehensive but may seem a bit confusing to those who are not familiar with Elation lights. It took me a few minutes to find where to configure the DMX mode of the unit…
Video presentation
Photometric measurements
Derating
With the Mondrian turned on at full power, we measure the attenuation of the illuminance at the center of the target over time. The curve shows a derating of less than 6% after five minutes of heating, and then stabilizes. This is a very good result, attesting to the quality of the thermal management of the LED engine. Once the output has stabilized, we move on to illuminance measurements for the three zoom angles, from which we can calculate flux values and intensity curves.
Tightest sharp-focus beam
At the minimum zoom setting that allows for sharp focus, we measure a beam angle of 3.7°. The illuminance in the center at a distance of 5 meters achieves the nominal value: 162,000 lux after derating and 172,000 lux when cold. The flux is 22,470 lumens (23,870 lm cold). The intensity curve is characterized by a central hot spot.
20° Beam
At a 20° beam angle, we measure 25,360 lux in the center (26,940 lx cold) and a flux of 39,840 lumens (42,330 lm cold).
Widest sharp-focus beam
At the widest sharp zoom setting, 44.7°, the center illuminance at 5 meters reaches 5,450 lux after derating and 5,790 lux when cold. The flux is 39,200 lumens (41,650 lm cold).
Dimming curves
La courbe de dimmer de 0 à 100 %.
Courbe de dimmer de 0 à 10 %.
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The beam of the Mondrian: the power to go the distance
The Mondrian rivals most of its smaller counterparts on the market that are equipped with this sort of firepower. While its cousin of the same class, the Monet, offers an extremely uniform beam capable of very precise and detailed projections, the Mondrian is presented as a “sledgehammer” version with a cannon of beam at the cost of a somewhat less homogeneous field. During our tests, though we indeed found a rather pronounced hot spot, the beam remains clean and provides beautiful effects, both in projection and in mid-air. In terms of luminous flux, it is in the upper middle range, with about 40,000 lumens in a wide beam and at 20°. Its CRI, which is basic at 70, rises to 83 at the expense of a little flux (about 25%) by inserting a filter located on the color wheel.
The use of colors is an important aspect of the Mondrian. Its color mixing system (christened “Spectracolor”) offers a set of seven progressive color filters on sliding flags, supplemented by a color wheel. First of all, there is a conventional 3-color Cyan+Magenta+Yellow system, followed by a progressive CTO and, finally, just like the CMY system and on sliding flags, there is a Red+Green+Blue system. The latter is proposed as bringing new mixing possibilities, which leaves us perplexed. It does indeed make it possible to gradually (and separately) employ red, green, and blue, but it doesn’t really contribute much if you mix these RGB hues together or even subtly dose them together with the CMY… it can slightly modify certain colors, but nothing that isn’t possible to obtain with the CMY system alone.
Couleurs de base linéaires.
Roue de couleurs
The arrangement is as follows in the fixture (in order from the source to the light output): C, M, Y, CTO, R, G, B; we don’t see how it could be any other way. We shall therefore conclude that the RGB provides these three “pure” hues and some others in transition, with a higher density, without passing through a color wheel which would not allow for fades. In this respect, it is effective and really useful.
The CMY is generally satisfactory, if maybe a little lacking on the blues. The Cyan hue is extremely faint, so it isn’t possible to obtain striking blues. You can either produce splendid pastels, or a rather dense deep blue by working with magenta. The color wheel offers a fairly dark blue and the use of the RGB supplements, starting with the blue alone, does not provide a solution to this lack of “brilliance”, whether added to the Cyan or even used alone. The color wheel, meanwhile, is equipped with a few other very saturated hues such as a green, a red, an orange, and the CRI filter.
On the other hand, this fixture certainly can do red! The one mixed from the CMY system is luminous and very red (sure, it’s a little bit orange, but much more red than most). You can also get an ultra-dense and pure red from the color wheel and – a rare thing – it has a true dense red on the “R” filter of the RGB, which makes it possible to go progressively to a fearsome full red. The CTO is a particularly effective hue. It appears to me to be slightly more “pinkish” than others, which is a real advantage. CTO filters often have a slightly jaundiced appearance that needs to be corrected with a little magenta… the CTO filter of the Mondrian has a nice tone, which will be appreciated for key lighting or very soft downlights.
The effects
The two prisms – one 4-faceted radial and the other linear – are really effective. They operate independently and are located on the zoom carriage, in a position that allows them to work at all zoom settings. Only a tiny part of the focus range is mechanically restricted to them. It isn’t possible to combine them, but this doesn’t seem to me to be a handicap at all, considering the results that you can obtain. The multiple projections are clear and wide, with almost no parasitic iridescence.
Les prismes 4. Multidirectionnel et linéaire.
The zoom of the Mondrian can close very tightly (less than 4°), to the point that it even allows you to obtain a converging beam, if you add the iris (which allows you to obtain a “negative” angle visually, since the beam comes out of an optic that measures almost 30 cm in diameter). The full aperture is also spectacular, since it allows you to get a sharp beam out to about 45° – and even a little more, without absolute sharpness. The iris is quick and precise, which increases the flexibility of the beam.
Zoom, de serré à large.
Two frosts are available, a “light” progressive one, and a “wash” frost. The light one allows you to slightly blur a gobo or the edges of a beam sculpted by the shutters, while the second one creates a large halo to obtain a monumental and global blur. They are independent and are inserted into the beam in the same way as the prisms. The light frost has a progressive implementation range, whereas the movement of the heavier one just allows it to be applied smoothly. Halfway through it, you get a half-blurred image. The introduction is therefore not really progressive and linear.
Les frosts : 1°) sans frost, 2°) frost1, 3°) introduction du frost2 ; 4°) frost2
The framing module is very effective in use. It is all classic including, as with most fixtures on the market, a certain difficulty in getting a sharp edge on more than two shutter blades at the same time. On the other hand, its unlimited rotation opens up some very interesting possibilities.
Even when indexing, it offers total freedom to position the entire frame without having to ask the endless questions about the choice of orientation in order to come and go at the desired angle. As for the rotation, it provides real effect capabilities, and its speed is sufficient to consider using it to create spinning bars or various geometrical shapes.
Effets de couteaux.
A macro channel also makes it possible to consider a purely “effect” usage of the shutters, with various pre-programmed configurations that are particularly interesting when they are rotated (such as bars, segments, quarter-discs etc).
Les deux roues de gobos tournants indexables.
Mixage de gobos, morphing et effet zoom.
The gobos of the Mondrian are distributed on three levels. The two wheels support six indexable, rotating gobos each. So you don’t have to make choices between “static” and “rotating” gobos, they all rotate… that makes it easy! Their designs are nice, both for aerials and projection. They are quite original, and some of them are even really cool, combining light passage capacities with a detailed and original graphic design. The third layer is an animation wheel that turns out to be one more gobo, with infinite scrolling. It is a rather classic “colander”, and is always magical in a beam. Its entrance is done at more or less 40° across the beam, which is very interesting.
La roue d’animation.
Most current fixtures are equipped with a wheel that scrolls up and down. This may be of some interest in projection (maybe… you have to see…) but in mid-air, the horizontal scrolling makes it really interesting to see the beam splitting! On the Mondrian, this compromise makes it possible to have an animation wheel that is not completely horizontal, but angled enough so that the animation of the beams is impressive when viewed from the front. This is an excellent feature!
En conclusion
The Mondrian is a particularly attractive fixture in Elation’s Artiste range. Its power and its ability to generate effects should seduce many lighting designers. It is well designed, its beam is punchy and it is equipped with some original features – such as its continuously rotating framing module – that score many points. A very nice unit.
For the last 20 years, the Cincinnati Bengals have been taking on NFL rivals at Paul Brown Stadium. This 65,515-seat gridiron arena that has always placed a premium on the strength and quality of its audio systems. Equally known as the site of performances by artists ranging from Kenny Chesney to Guns N’ Roses, PBS, as locals call it, subscribe to the notion that sound traveling throughout its concourses and seating areas should live up to concert-level expectations at all levels, whether it be on game day or for special events.
From left to right Durrell Sports’ John Horrell, Matt Pogorelc of Quest Marketing (RCF rep), and Tarik Solangi of RCF USA.
To that end, a three-phase project to re-energize the stadium’s original, 20 year-old audio blueprint was just completed this fall, debuting on October 4th before a reduced crowd that watched as the Bengals beat the visiting Jacksonville Jaguars.
Designed and implemented by Nashville, Tennessee-based Durrell Sports Audio Management, the new system is an amalgam of workhorse legacy components, upgraded audio processing, and custom loudspeakers built in Italy expressly to meet the needs of this unique application by RCF.
One of the eight 9007-AS encased in a specific plate and strapped as it should, clearly visible at the top left of this image. It is with the 7 other subs, the only active model among the 583 deployed at PBS.
“Paul Brown Stadium is unlike any other around the country when it comes to audio,” Durrell’s John Horrell explains. “Every aspect of its game-day production from simple announcements to music is as live as you can get. There is nothing here that even vaguely resembles a pre recorded TV show. That’s why when we were chosen to upgrade the audio we felt it was essential to create a system that was capable of true, concert-level high performance.”
The upgrade project was implemented in three phases, with the first kicking-off in 2018 and bringing, among other things, new delay loudspeakers from RCF to the upper deck and canopy level. Phase two added approximately 120 new RCF loudspeakers to the lower level and 70 more to the canopy level in 2019, along with four dual 21-inch RCF subwoofers on each side of the canopy level.
A modern stadium means Wi-Fi and great sound for everyone wherever they are.
Phase three of the project was approved in January 2020, so by February the job was underway, with Durrell working hand-in-hand with Louisville, Kentucky’s United Electric to turn the new vision into reality. As the pandemic tightened its grip globally on labor and material beginning in March, the design and install team steadfastly kept to construction deadlines with help from suppliers and manufacturers including RCF.
Critical to the audio heard within this space as well as sound traveling throughout the entire bowl, custom-built, hand-assembled loudspeakers from RCF figured prominently within the phase three additions.
Wide horizontal coverage cabinets designated as model HVL 15-L1 and narrow coverage speakers bearing the model number HVL 15-P1 were provided by the Italian manufacturer as one-off custom units built to Durrell’s specs just for PBS. In between these custom long-throw boxes, standard offerings from the RCF catalog including model P 4228, P 3115T, and P 6215 cabinets were interspersed as downfill in large number.
An HVL 15L without its front grille. We can see the waveguide in the center, on both sides the 10” horns and at the ends, the 15” placed perpendicularly.
Based around a horn-loaded symmetric design, the custom HVL 15-L1 cabinets from RCF are outfitted with a pair of 15-inch drivers at the low-end, a pair of 10-inch midrange drivers, and two titanium dome compression drivers with four-inch voice coils at the top. All of the transducers feature neodymium magnets.
The more than exemplary frequency response of the HLV 15-P1 model designed to reach far and gaining 1 dB of SPL Max on the L1 thanks to a tighter coverage.
With a frequency response of 43 Hz – 18,000 Hz (-10 dB), these three-way, long-throw boxes are driven in bi-amped mode and are capable of producing a maximum SPL of 133 dB (LF) and 145 dB (MHF). Horizontal coverage is 90°, while vertical coverage spans 30°.
The eight HVL 15-P1 loudspeakers built by RCF for the PBS installation share many of the same design characteristics as their 15-L1 brethren, once again operating in the same frequency range and employing a bi-amped, horn-loaded symmetric design, passive filtering between the mid and high-frequency sections, and the same external construction. Equipped with the same latest generation transducers as the 15-L1 across the board, the 15-P1s differ in that they offer 60° x 30° coverage.
A nice view of one of the two 15” of the HVLs, with neodymium magnet and 3.5” coil.
Widely recognized for their ability to put serious sonic horsepower within the confines of a stadium while maintaining intelligibility and even coverage at every seat, Durrell spent a lot of time analyzing the Q values required of the system and had the custom RCF long-throw enclosures built accordingly. Q is the directivity factor of the speaker.
The directivity factor or Q of the P1. With a value of 2 to 100 Hz, that is to say offering a higher level of 3 dB towards the front, it reaches very high values and beyond 10 once the 4Path waveguide is in action.
“Understanding the Q speaker values in a stadium environment is imperative to managing reflections,” Horrell says. “Q, of course, in its simplest terms, is the speaker ‘throw’ value how far the audio carries away from the speaker.
Designing the correct Q speaker values in PBS was our biggest challenge, and with proper processing plus the custom RCF boxes built right to our own precise specs, we created a distributed system that no matter where you’re sitting you won’t be annoyed by a loudspeaker intended to bring coverage to somewhere else.”
A view of HVL couples, completed by an infinite number of P-series boxes, with its polyetilene cabinet and 15” or 10” coaxial transducers.
Out in the bowl and throughout the concourse levels, Scott Simpson, executive producer of JungleVision Productions, relates that the renewed audio system’s RCF loudspeakers differ from their predecessors in terms of balance and overall coverage. “The expanded coverage in the facility is outstanding, it’s a whole new experience for our fans.
Live stadium sound is a unique animal in that hard, reflective surfaces and wide-open spaces abound. The thought that went into this design combined with the presence of the fans in the stands to help absorb unwanted reflections brings the whole system to life. Paul Brown Stadium can now continue to classify itself as one of the truly great sounding venues on the planet.”
: One of the twentyfour P 6215 coaxial speakers installed in the stadium, 134 dB SPL Max and a 60 ° x 60 ° opening.
As for how the stadium sounds now from John Horrell’s perspective, he has this to say: “When we debuted the system the crowd may have been small, but it was very enthusiastic. We were all tickled to death with how it sounded. It had punch, and nothing was compressed to death.
The linearity was great and evoked emotion a pure presence that moved and excited everyone. OK, I’m an analog guy, but that’s hard to get out of a digital product. It additionally has dynamics that make it one of the better systems in the NFL. We could never have done this with line arrays, and given the history, this all should last another 20 years or more.”
RCF CEO Arturo Vicari.
Led by CEO Arturo Vicari, the RCF team working in Italy was dedicated to getting the enclosures designed, built, and delivered to Paul Brown Stadium on time. “All of us here and in Italy felt this project was vital as a boost to everyone’s morale,” says RCF USA National Sales Manager Tarik Solangi. “With added precautions made to keep everyone safe on the job, the factory churned out the work and kept our delivery promises. Beyond the virus, our biggest challenge was fitting our products into the exacting requirements dictated by the stadium.”
For CEO Vicari the project represents a milestone in that it brings RCF’s signature sound to one of the most prominent sporting facilities in the US. “All things considered,” he confides, “it was a considerable challenge for us given the complications created by the pandemic. Credit really is due to all the teams on both sides of the Atlantic that nonetheless executed the task with flawless organization and coordination.
The HVLs, the Italian stars of a truly American stadium!
The project was an ambitious one even when viewed through the lens of a pre-COVID-19 world. Accomplishing it decisively and on schedule within the context of today’s difficulties is testament to the efforts of everyone involved.”
Installed Products:
HVL 15-P : 24x HVL 15-L : 24x HVL 15-P1 : 12x HVL 15-L1 : 8x HVL 15-S : 8x P 4228 : 99x P 3115 : 76x P 6215 : 24x P 1108 : 294x HL2240 : 6x SUB 9007-AS : 8x
Arthur, Robert Juliat’s new 800W LED followspot, made its global debut at Big Eoul Madang (Yongin Cultural Foundation) in Seoul, South Korea, which was proud to be the world’s first venue to receive the new followspot. Arthur is an 800W LED followspot with a 5.5° – 15° zoom that has been designed for long throw applications in larger venues. Complete with all the ergonomic, optical and maintenance benefits expected from Robert Juliat products, Arthur is already becoming a firm favourite with opera houses and theatres around the world.
The first two Arthur followspots were shipped to Big Eoul Madang in late summer 2020, having been supplied by Robert Juliat’s exclusive Korean distributor, C&C Lightway. The pair were specified by the venue’s lighting designer, Mrs So-Jin Kang, who chose them as the perfect match for Big Eoul Madang after seeing them at LDI 2019 in Las Vegas.
“We were already familiar with the quality of Robert Juliat products having 36 RJ 700 Series zoom profiles (18 each of RJ 710SX2 and RJ 713SX2 models) in our generic rig,” says Mrs Kang. “However, Robert Juliat’s reputation for excellent followspots is well-known and the new Arthur did not disappoint. It delivers a bright, uniform beam, is easy to control for both dimming and irising and, having an LED source, gives out less heat and saves on power. It ticked all our boxes!”
Yongin Cultural Foundation is a multipurpose cultural hub that hosts a wide variety of performances for the city, which has over one million inhabitants. ‘Eoul Madang’ translates as ‘an event or place in which many people gather to play games and enjoy festivities.’ The complex has a total of six performing arts spaces which provide a meeting point for Yongin citizens to gather together to enjoy classical music concerts, and children- and family-orientated shows.
Big Eoul Madang, which opened in September 2004 at Yongin Women’s Hall, is a proscenium theatre with a total capacity of 599 seats over two levels, and is equipped with moving stages, an orchestra pit, and an acoustic shell. The Arthur followspots are sited in the purpose-built followspot booth above the second level with a 25m throw-distance to the stage. The new followspots were immediately put to work on a Gukck show, a concert of traditional Korean music, which gave the lighting team – comprising head of lighting, Duhee Lee, and lighting technicians and followspot operators, Muhyuck Chung, Gyungho Park, Hwa Lee – a chance to put them through their paces. Since then, the followspots have been in continual use.
“After using the new Arthurs, we were convinced the choice was a good one,” confirms Mrs Kang. “We are very happy with their performance and with the service we received from C&C Lightway. We will be happy to specify Robert Juliat again in future.”
More information about the new Arthur LED followspot and Robert Juliat luminaires can be found on the Robert Juliat website
Palmer presents the Grand Audition MKII, a modern 19″ loudspeaker switching system on two rack units for convenient loudspeaker routing in showrooms, sales floors, multi-room applications, and many other scenarios.
Thanks to 16 mono or eight stereo outputs and eight parallel subwoofer outputs, the Grand Audition MKII facilitates high-quality, noiseless switching of top parts and subwoofers, including individual level controls for precise comparisons.
Channel selection and volume control can be controlled individually or as a stereo pair – either directly from the front panel or via a browser-based web interface, which provides additional control options. The latter option allows additional control of the Grand Audition MKII using a tablet or laptop.
Multiple mode selection enables several connected loudspeakers to be simultaneously selected, and loudspeaker channels can be defined and individually named for fixed or recurring setups. The Grand Audition MKII’s output combinations can be freely configured, meaning it is also suitable as a control center for measurement and laboratory use. At conferences, a signal source can be supplied to up to 24 headphone amps by the Grand Audition, if required.
The two balanced XLR inputs and the built-in USB media player let users utilize the playback paths to always have the perfect source material ready for comparisons and presentations.
The choice varies from mixers, CD players, or a digital audio workstation (DAW) via a USB storage device on which reference titles can be accessed in WAV, AIF, FLAC, MP3, and OGG data formats.
If the control is digital, the signal path and its processing are entirely analog and several Grand Audition MKII can be bridged to have more channels, all being controlled by the same computer or tablet.
The Palmer Grand Audition MKII is now available for purchase.
4 minutes with Robin Enlish Senior Product Manager Pro Audio at Adam Hall to discover more in detail this device.
The least we can say is that there’s a huge gap in our lives. Claude Ducros has departed on January 27th, due to a fight between a Cancer and a bacteria taking advantage of his extreme health weakness, wiping out 65 years of life and genius. We’re losing a friend and a rare workmate.
Claude was curious about everything, and we mean really everything, and blessed with an outstanding memory. It was difficult to test the limits of his scholarship as he simply shared with those around him as needed, much like Siri does nowadays. One might ask a question, then Claude provided a precise answer, indeed. A kind of Encyclopedia Universalis with a mustache and a slang accent from Saint-Maur, a Paris suburb town. His passion was electronic audio development which he brought to such a level of excellence that even his Audio Precision station struggled to respond at best because, he asserted, “what gives good measurements sounds good”.
After a Diploma of Higher Education in electrical engineering, he graduated for his engineering diploma at “Arts et Métiers” prestigious university while working as a journalist for the magazine “le Haut-Parleur” (“the Loudspeaker”) published by the Georges Ventillard group. In the same scientific press group, he then took part in the development of Radio Plans, a specialized electronic magazine.
When the general public’s craze for leisure electronics vanished in the 90s and the publisher decided to terminate this edition, Claude was invited to save “Le Haut-Parleur”, which had existed since 1925, and then to create “Génération Multimédia”, one of the first interactive magazines whose success did not have enough time to be bloom correctly.
Claude had a precise writer’s skill and provided very high quality content with impeccable spelling. “Here, my good president (Ludo), will you correct me? “. Like the Audio Precision bench analyzer, we had a hard time finding the mistakes. After other contributions to magazines and professional letters, and an experience as a development engineer in the HiFi industry, he returned to Ventillard Editions as editor-in-chief of “Sono Magazine”. He then brought along his audio electronic and computer expertise on innovative topics with always a step ahead.
When this magazine was sold in 2011, and the editor-in-chief and some journalists were invited by the new publisher to resign, we developed SoundLightUp, along with Claude, Monique Cussigh and the journalists who were dismissed like Ludovic Monchat and Jean-Pierre Landragin. We partnered in this adventure with confidence, joined (for a too short time) by Patrick Marguerie and Alain Pouillon Guibert. We were incorrigibly passionate about technique, good sound, beautiful lights and the desire to share. And we made it!.
How many hours spent discussing the smoothness of a moving coil crew, digital converters and their clocks, class D power supply, PFCs? 10 marvelous years spent writing, doing reports, attending shows and all in a blind confidence for each other sealed by memorable dinners that we will miss, except for the green garbage can that will finally be able to rest its wheels.
Claude was a Jedi Knight of great intellectual honesty, incapable of the slightest compromise. “My little Kitten (Ludo) you should rephrase this passage ” ” Little Mô (Monique Cussigh), and if we did it more like that? “. These few memorabilia will only very partially restore his modesty and gentleness, with sensitivity and a high touch of class. We are losing a mentor, in the true sense of the word, a tutor and a friend, to whom we owe much of what we know about audio and journalistic rigor.
Claude had health problems for more than two years, difficult to solve, which diminished him physically until the presence of a dreaded cancer was discovered at the end of 2020. Claude was too much in love with cigarettes… He was swept away in 3 days, collateral damage of a severe medical treatment that weakened him to the extreme: it was double or nothing. Yet we were confident, we had even scheduled a fishing trip after his treatment because he was a passionate fisherman.
For some of us at SoundLightUp we shared more than 30 years typing pages and pages without ever getting into a tiff with each other, first at University Institute of Technology and/or the Ventillard Group and finally at SoundLightUp. To say that we are sad is only to sketch the ugly feeling, the ball that grows in our stomach when we lose a friend and a colleague of this value; we are even closer to his wife Béatrice, his daughters Audrey and Sandrine and his brother Gérard whose immense pain we can measure. As we very sadly do in such cases, these few lines can be supplemented below, if you wish, by writing to us at [email protected].
An Optocore/BroaMan fiber network is at the heart of the new MEETT Toulouse Exhibition & Conference Centre. The third largest facility in France (outside Paris) it boasts a 40,000m² modular Exhibition hall, a 15,000m² Conference center, a main street that opens into an outdoor area of 25,000m², capable of hosting a wide variety of events, and has been constructed on a 155,000m² site, close to Toulouse Blagnac airport and the Airbus training centre and workshops.
The Conference Centre .
The installation of the network was carried out by Optocore’s long-term partner, Gilles Bouvard’s company GB4D, in close collaboration with the scenography company Ducks Scèno, headquartered in Villeurbanne-Lyon, under the direction of Aldo De Souza. This scenographer also has an agency in Paris and Shanghai. The Bouvard team worked alongside Grégory Aldéa, head of audiovisual projects at Ducks Scéno, on behalf of the MEETT consortium, Toulouse Métropole and GL Events.
Gilles Bouvard
GB4D were able to meet the Consortium’s specification for a complex network that required the capacity to transmit sound, video, lighting and even IT.
Gilles Bouvard set out the engineering challenges faced, and how BroaMan components provided the solution. “We conducted an in-depth study of possible future equipment, both upstream and downstream of our network. During the development phase, neither the scenographer nor I were aware of the audio-visual equipment that would be installed in the complex, so we made a possible hypothesis based purely on the plans.”
To simplify, in yellow it is the Convention Center on 2 floors, in blue the huge parking lot, in green, the Outdoor Exhibition Area and in red, the Exhibition Center.
MEETT itself is divided in three parallel bands, based around a row of modular exhibition halls to the north of the complex. In its complete form the space is massive 500m long and 80 to 100m wide. The separate convention centre and multi-function event hall are at the south wing with a reception area to the centre of the concourse, and multi-storey car park for 3,000 cars. With such distances and wide-spread area the choice of a fiber network to transport all video, audio and data signals was obvious.
The Convention Centre’s 12 Seminar rooms are all equipped with fiber optics, along with a large Hall, in which another convention room can accommodate around 3,500 people (seated), while a second Hall can host exhibitions or other needs. At its maximum, the Convention Hall can hold around 7,000-8,000 people showing the advantage of modularity.
The 12 Seminar rooms above the two Halls.
Fiber optic points are stationed throughout the Convention Centre, and each modular modular room is equipped with three quad fiber connection points. For the management of these 12 rooms, a Seminar Rooms node has been equipped with a BroaMan Route66 Video Router (40 in / 40 out), where 26/26 connect via CWDM multiplexer to fiber stageboxes in specific rooms, while 14 /14 allow fiber video connections between routers in Seminar Rooms Node and Convention Halls node.
The Route66.
Gilles Bouvard explains the rationale. “The CWDM video makes it possible to have two Videos In and two Video Out per modular room (the 26in and 26out video config corresponds to the 13 rooms in the original plan). The 14 optical strand-to-strand video streams allows full duplex in / out with the Convention room node.” The fiber points are cabled on single-mode quad fibers, dispatched to the router by a WDM frame. The latter is supplied from a manual fiber patch which allows connection of 13 COM ports (combined main connections which carry all signals on a duplex fiber) to the router on the 39 available connection points (three per room).
In the Convention Halls node, network distribution is via 24 quad fiber connection points. In the Seminar rooms node a BroaMan Route66 Video Router (38 in / 38 out) provides 24in / 24out CWDM video for fiber stageboxes and the 14 full duplex in / out SDI fiber video share streams, with a WDM frame facilitating various connection points.
The Seminar Rooms Node.
The rear is almost more inspiring !
“Each node is additionally equipped with a Optocore AutoRouter15 for the Seminar rooms and an Optocore AutoRouter10 for the Convention Hall to complete the Optocore loop,” confirms Bouvard. In order to function in all the different spaces, 10 Mobile racks have each been plugged with a BroaMan Mux22-IVT/MADI 4 SDI in / 4 SDI out, with 4 MADI fiber ports for audio; an Optocore X6R-TP-8MI/8LO (two ports of 16AES, four DMX RS422 port, LAN Base 10/100). Each rack can be connected by a Quad fiber to any connection point in the building, both for seminar rooms and the Convention Center.
Two Mobile racks.
It had been necessary to have a full Optocore backbone for audio and BroaMan for video and fiber routing to avoid latency issues, according to Bouvard.
In YGDAI format, the Y3R-TP allows Yamaha mixing desks to interact with Optocore’s SANE protocol.
« This fantastic system allows you to have any audio control surface in the network. In addition, given the complexity of the place, I challenge anyone to set up an Ethernet-based or IP network, and have it be as easy and fast as ours to operate, without having to be a computer scientist!”
The sound reinforcement is an L-Acoustics KARA system with the new P1 processor, while the installed mixing consoles are Soundcraft Vi1000s with MADI cards. The choice relates to the fact that they can have 96 inputs in the network with a remote gain. There are 80 Optocore preamps on site. “All sound consoles can be connected to the network without any problem, most of them, including Soundcraft, could control Optocore preamps directly from the desk.”
The L-Acoustics system, per side 8 Kara and 3 SB18 and to fill the center, a litte hang comprising of 6 Kiva.
In conclusion, Gilles Bouvard says, “The challenge today is to provide solutions to satisfy all user demands, and the transport of different IP and Ethernet-based protocols. “Five years ago it was complicated, but thanks to BroaMan today we have the tools. Together we develop devices to transport and route data streams carrying different protocols such as AVB, Dante, AES67 or video NDI, IP very simply and with no bandwidth limit.”
Upon completion, the GB4D team, Gilles Bouvard and François Lund, undertook a thorough installation check, and set up user training, with installation monitoring, including technicians from the SNEF audiovisual company, Ludovic Miama and Maxime Hiez, operations technicians of MEETT / GL Events in Toulouse; and Josselin Mansuy and Christophe Temoin, sound and video managers of GL Events Audiovisuel, who provided third-party equipment.
François Lund providing training.
With sound and lighting already in place, due to COVID 19 the video equipment phase will now form part of a second capital budget in early 2021.
Yamaha has announced a new addition to its professional loudspeaker range, the MSP3A powered monitor, building on the faithful sound reproduction and convenience of the much-loved MSP3.
Yamaha’s MSP3 has long been a fixture of many different applications, thanks to its great audio quality, compact size and convenient, front-mounted controls.
The MSP3A builds on this legacy by adding key new features, including Yamaha’s Twisted Flare Port™ technology, which delivers an even clearer and tighter low-end, with faithful reproduction across the entire audio spectrum.
Une excellente performance compte tenu de la taille du MSP3A.
The built-in 22W power amplifier is optimized for the speaker unit, which comprises a 4” woofer and a 0.8” dome tweeter, for a clear and natural reference sound. The compact 23.6 x 16.7 x 14.4 cm (9.3 x 6.6 x 5.7”) cabinet weighs a mere 3.6kg (7.9lb), making it easy to reposition and move to different locations.
Les entrées en RCA, XLR et Jack 6.3mm et en haut à gauche, l’évent de type Twisted Flare Port.
Like its predecessor, the MSP3A has multiple (RCA, XLR and 6.3mm) input connectors, level and low/high tone controls. It is compatible with a variety of optional brackets, making it suitable for a wide range of uses.
These include audio monitoring in settings from studios, broadcast, post-production suites and other commercial applications, to monitoring audio from digital musical instruments and computers. A reinforced metal grille ensures that the woofer enjoys maximum protection, which is especially useful for mobile and touring applications.
Included in the MSP3A for the first time in this loudspeaker series, Twisted Flare Port technology is a form of aerodynamic sound control, borne of Yamaha’s extensive subwoofer development experience.
L’évent Twisted Flare Port.
Applying aerodynamic sound analysis and flow visualization measurement technologies to pinpoint and control noise generation mechanisms, noise-generating turbulence at both ends of the port is suppressed by changing how the port widens from input to output and twisting the airflow.
Suppressing turbulence reduces muddiness in the sound and lowers the amount of noise generated at the port ends. This strengthens the connection between the sound and main speaker, delivering clear, tight low frequencies along with improved pitch and rhythm.
Un port conventionnel avec de l’air
L’évent Twisted Flare Port. La turbulence est très réduite, comme le sont aussi les bruits aux deux extrémités de l’évent.
General specifications
Speaker type: 2-way powered speaker, Bass-reflex type Frequency response (-10dB): 67Hz – 22kHz LF: 4″ (10 cm) Cone HF: 0.8″ (2.2 cm) Dome Crossover: 4 kHz Output power: 22W Peak Output Level (IEC @1m): 99 dB SPL Input sensitivity: LINE 1 : -10 dBu, 10kΩ, LINE 2 : +4.0 dBu, 10kΩ I/O connectors: LINE 1 : RCA, LINE 2 : Combo (XLR/TRS phone)
His majesty Huracan-X, the strength of the gobos, the impact of the photons!
We were eager to test Huracan-X, the top of the Ayrton Profile range in terms of luminosity, with its 1000 W of white LEDs and its tremendous graphic features, thanks to new onboard technologies for managing colors and effects. Since its beginnings, Ayrton has taken risks, continues to take risks and will keep doing so for many years to come. We wouldn’t have expected anything less.
Here I am rock you like a Huracán
[private]
It is always important to lay the groundwork for what we are going to be talking about. Let’s start with two important points: the 1000 W power of its LEDs, and its size. Together with an excellent zoom range, these make for a complete fixture. The functions can be layered to create original and complex effects, while maintaining a high luminous flux. On the other side of the coin, its size and weight are definitely optimized. With a maximum power draw of 1,400 watts, a height of 86 cm and a weight of 44 kg, Huracan-X is clearly not an all-purpose fixture and is therefore pretty much destined for use in large venues.
Even if this is usually the case with Ayrton, this unit really demonstrates the capacity of the brand to innovate. In many respects, Huracan-X complements the Ayrton portfolio with unparalleled elegance. The quality and workmanship for which the brand is known are also evident, as is the ingenuity that unites design and practicality.
A 178 mm lens. At Ayrton, they know that you don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression.
Even though the volume is different, the base remains the same as that of the Ghibli model. On the front panel we find the screen and the jog wheel for configuring the numerous options of the intuitive and practical menus. From one model to another, one can find his bearings in terms of control as well as in the menu structure and content.
The screen and the jog wheel for navigating the menu maintain the same functions as in other fixtures.
The connection and control side is also the same. On most fixtures, there are two 5-pin XLR connectors for the DMX signal, two etherCON RJ45 connectors for the ArtNet and the sACN, as well as one or two powerCON True1 connectors for the power supply. On this fixture, there is only one of the latter, which is probably due to the maximum power consumption of the projector: 1,400 watts. It’s kind of a pity, as it would always be useful to power a smaller source.
DMX, mains supply, wired or wireless networking – no compromises!
There is also a CRMX TiMo wireless receiver from Lumen Radio. Of course RDM is available with all compatible protocols.
A ventilation grill is located behind each handle.
Two ventilation grills allow air to circulate through the entire base. Cleverly positioned behind the handles, they will never get blocked. Two foam filters prevent dust from entering. The fans are positioned so that one side draws fresh air into the compartment while the other expels hot air.
Under the two covers that enclose the base, there is a power supply board on each side of the pan shaft. On one side there is the DC-DC section which does not exceed 48 V, while the PFC section is located on the other side. These two boards are very similar to those of the Bora model.
Both power boards are contained in the base!
But each one is on its own side, one shouldn’t risk crossing the different currents.
One of the two yoke arms houses the tilt actuator. It is easy to recognize: it’s the one with the blocking lever. On the other side is the control board for the pan and tilt drive systems. Old habits don’t bog down the R&D department, which is always trying to improve every element, even the tried and tested traditional methods. In this fixture, it is the belt tensioning system that has been modified. On previous models, the motor shaft component was used as a tensioner. On the Huracan-X, the shaft is now fixed, while a pivoting piece equipped with two rollers tensions the belt.
It would be difficult to optimize the space more than this!
At the center of one of the yoke arms, the pivoting piece equipped with two rollers provides tension for the drive belt.
In terms of reliability and maintenance, I can only see advantages to this, and the movements on both axes are perfectly controlled. The pan and tilt movements in combination are perfect, as are the wave movements. In a straight line with a fade time of 0 seconds, fast movement is not a problem and it stops very cleanly at the end of the course. (See the video)
Video presentation
Measurements
Tight zoom, narrowest sharp beam 1
The zoom is, in my opinion, one of the features with characteristics that are the most elusive to define. Everybody wants to have a broad beam spread but also a pencil of light! We know how to do one or the other, but to have both we must necessarily accept mechanical and optical compromises. With the Huracan-X, there are two possible zoom settings that provide the narrowest sharp beam, depending on the order of movements and/or the starting position of the lenses. There is one at 5.9° for which we measured a flux of 16,800 lumens after derating, and another at 6.9° which delivers 27,570 lumens. So we can see a difference of more than 10,000 lm for a difference in beam divergence of 1 degree. The 6.9° zoom, even if it is a little less sharp over short distances, is therefore the most efficient, but the smaller sharp beam is still useful, especially over a long distance where 1° becomes significant, or for a sharp iris. In the latter case, if the transition is fast, you may have to anticipate to avoid seeing the lens movement, which may not be very aesthetically pleasing.
Tight zoom, narrowest sharp beam 2
20° beam
At 20°, our reference beam angle, we measure 38,100 lumens after derating. The plot of the luminous intensity produces a perfect curve.
Wide zoom, widest sharp beam
It is a little less regular on the wide sharp beam, but is still attractive. It really opens up: we measured a wide sharp field at a divergence of 61.9°! And with a flux of 40,440 lumens. I don’t think I would be wrong to say that the Huracan-X has one of the widest ranges of in-focus zoom angles among profile fixtures.
Derating and dimming curves
With only 9% derating in auto mode, there is nothing to worry about with Huracan-X.
Of course, the drivers of the source module act as the dimmer. Whether in Square Law or Linear mode, the gradient curves are perfect.
We also obtain a very gradual rise from 0% to 10%, which allows for very soft fades, even when the intensity is low and the fade times are long.
Ayrton is fond of smooth dimming curves:
Colors
Ayrton’s idea of hexachromy.
With a double three-color mixing system and a 6-color wheel, Ayrton offers lighting designers an almost infinite range of chromatic possibilities. In addition to the classic CMY system, there are three correction filters: CTO, CTB and CTP (minus green), and this solution is very effective. The insertion of the flags into the beam is very smooth and uniform. The system is very fast but it is just as effective when long transitions are required. The choice of this combination of hues is interesting because, depending on the final color you wish to obtain, you can either correct a more or less saturated color or employ a corrector and make it denser. The colors are beautiful and homogenous. And even if perfection is not of this world, I think that each lighting designer will find his own palette of colors.
Huracan-X really delivers effects! Here is one of the two rotating gobo wheels and, below it, the multi-position animation wheel for water, fire and radiant solar effects.
One of the points that really struck and intrigued me was the number and originality of the effects offered by this projector. It has two wheels with seven rotating and indexable gobos each, two effect wheels, and two prisms.
But, as with the tilt drive tensioning system, Ayrton is constantly seeking to innovate and/or improve existing design parameters. In the Huracan-X we find, on the first gobo wheel, two cartridges in which two gobos of the same design are superimposed.
One of the double gobo cartridges: front…
…and back. Even if they look alike, one is the inverse of the other.
Since they are practically on the same focal plane, and their direction of rotation is inverted, a new kind of dynamic effect can be created, either aerially in a nice haze, or projected onto a surface. The latter case also gives a 3D appearance to the image (see video).
The first wheel of rotating gobos.
The second rotating gobo wheel integrates two cartridges of superimposed gobos.
Since the two gobo wheels are very close to one another, we can add a third gobo and either find an intermediate focal length to create a combined effect or morph between the two wheels (see the video). It is, of course, also possible to play with the two patented effect wheels. The first one, with multiple positioning, allows you to obtain horizontal, vertical or axial scrolling (see video). The second wheel is a mosaic of cyan, magenta and yellow spots used to vary the colors of the beam (see video). You can also use the radial or linear prism to increase the 3D effect.
The color animation wheel filled with CMY textures, and its effect on a few gobos.
The multi-position animation wheel for projecting water, fire or radiant effects.
Several layered effects: gobos, prisms, CMY animation wheel…
The last parameter, a mechanical one, is the framing module. Here, just the current standard four metal blades, each of which is able to completely shutter the beam. The eight motors allow precise adjustment and dynamic effects. The module can, of course, be rotated through 90° (see video).
The framing module.
I previously mentioned the compromise regarding the zoom: you can see it on this parameter. In my opinion, for the result to be good, the fixture needs to be at least 10 m away from the element you want to profile, otherwise the blades lack definition. Apart from this point, even if it is quite simple to find a focal length appropriate to the four framing shutters, the first frost is perfect to slightly blur and homogenize the lines.
The Huracan-X has been designed around a 1,000 watt white LED engine. Depending on the corrective filters used, we measured a CRI ranging from 72, for neutral white, to 87 with 100% CTP. The temperature without any correction filter is 7200 K. This very luminous source is perfectly suited to the requirements of this type of fixture. Its LED engine and its optics allow it to exploit the full potential offered by its multitude of features. As you can see in the video, even if you overlay gobos, prism and effects wheel with a wide aperture, there is still a lot of light.
Behind the collimator, 1,000 watts of LEDs.
The cooling system.
The phrase that best sums up this fixture comes from Yvan Péard: “We’ve never done anything so bold!”. In fact, Huracan-X is seriously beefed up. It is a high-end fixture, both powerful and complete. Its very homogeneous light is enhanced by a beautiful color palette using a C, M, Y, CTO, CTB, CTP system that allows you to combine finesse, power and subtlety. I particularly liked the effects section which, in addition to offering a multitude of possibilities, allows us to add an extra touch of magic to the light. Life is slowly getting back on track and, since you have to let time run its course, what better opportunity to make up your own mind?
LeRoy Bennett and Jason Baeri mastermind MTV platform design, 387m over Manhattan. Canadian singer producer, The Weeknd, was one of a number of artists performing at unusual outdoor settings in Manhattan to mark the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards.
His designated location was the rooftop of the new Edge observation deck at Hudsons Yard, 387 metres high, and consequently the highest in the Western Hemisphere. This presented challenges for lighting designer LeRoy Bennett and his long-serving collaborator, Jason Baeri; but with the help of GLP’s X4 Bar 20s, The Weeknd gave a dynamic rendering of Blinding Lights, the song which earned him gongs for Best R&B Video & Video of the Year.
Bennett worked closely with La Mar Taylor, The Weeknd’s creative director, to come up with the concept. GLP’s award-winning battens not only lit the stage platform but also lined the perimeter of the building’s triangular balcony architecturally. Wearing his signature red suit, black gloves and the bloodied face featured on the After Hours cover, the staging was in stark contrast to other artist sets featured on the show. “Where most relied on XR technology, [our concept] used no special effects; there was nothing virtual, it was all real.” But it had been an intense shoot.
As for the deployment of the X4 Bars, he said, “I liked the idea of a linear light and the X4 Bars were used to outline and define the space itself, to accommodate the helicopter shots from above. They also worked really well as keylights.” Everything was run in white, with extreme brightness due to the nature of the event. “We created a sheet of white light, which did accents and beams, to enable [the effect] to read to camera through the smoke. We didn’t go crazy with the functions.”
But being virtual guinea pigs for this new location threw up issues of power requirements, and the weather variables. As the man on site, it was left to Jason Baeri to deal with the logistics, knowing that the licence to shoot the fireworks had only been granted for the second of the two designated nights, which is when the storms hit.”
One of the most perilous projects LeRoy Bennett has taken on in his long career perhaps? “Well I have done enough crazy things in my life,” he laughed. “Having Jason there gave me complete confidence … he’s worked with me a lot over the years and I have total faith. The difficult part was dealing with the restrictions of the environment and politics of the building with the Covid side.” There was an area on the platform for audio, lighting and cameras. And in addition to the helicopter overheads there was a camera jib mounted on a platform, and additional handhelds.
Baeri, who directed the show from a rover on the deck itself, took it all in his stride. “No one had worked on the Edge platform before as it was only opened for the first time a week or so after our shoot. Like most architectural non-performance spaces, you have specific considerations to not damage the space, but they were extremely accommodating.”
He agreed that the most challenging element had been facilitating the helicopter shots. Despite a day of previs he admits, “you could only guess what the shot would look like from a helicopter… it can be anywhere at any time! So things like fans or geometric dimmer chases would work from one angle but not another; therefore, we had to be crafty with how we approached the looks.”
In this respect he also paid credit to Lauren Quinn in the process. “She is a brilliant director so there was never a shot that we had to adjust from a lighting perspective because of camera placement.”
As for the X4 Bars, they were run in 88ch mode from a grandMA2. “We had them in pixel mode and they had sweeps/wipes going on, but their strength in this particular performance was really as an architectural element.” He agreed that with regard to the helicopter shots, “the fact that we were in the air wouldn’t have been as striking if [the Bars] hadn’t been there.”
Describing the weather on the second day, he notes, “We got shut down a few times for wind and lightning. But our brilliant gaffer Ronnie Skopac, had all the lights bagged and was basically on the balls of his feet all day waiting for the wind to die down. And of course right when the wind alleviated the rains came.” Only around 11pm, an hour before the shooting cut-off, did the clouds part “and like a team of angry worker bees the team went out, unwrapped and powered up the lights, the choppers took off and we got the shot with the fireworks in one take, dead on and just perfect!”
Summarising the huge impact the X4 Bars gave to this unique show, he concluded, “I’ve said before that the X4 Bars are such a wonderful fixture because of just how dynamic they are; it’s this beautiful combination of architectural [usage], because of the way the sources look on camera, and this brilliant beam of light that can either cut through the space like a razor blade or wash the room in brilliant swathes of light. We’ve been speccing them for years because we know every time we do, they will perform just like that. It’s one of the most valuable and consistent tools in the arsenal.”
Robe sponsored the ‘Best Designer’ category of this year’s The Stage Debut Awards which was won by set and costume designer Rose Revitt for the raw, edgy, visceral visual environment she created for “Dr Korczak’s Example” at Leeds Playhouse which was staged in January / February.
Set and costume designer Rose Revitt for “Dr Korczak’s Example” who won the ‘Best Designer’ category of this year’s The Stage Debut Awards.
The Stage Awards celebrate the very best breakthrough talent in theatre, including actors, directors, designers, writers, composers and lyricists making their professional debuts in the past year, so works made after August 1st 2019 were eligible and the competition was extremely stiff!
For Rose, this particular journey started with another prize-winning opportunity. Last year, she won the biennial Linbury Prize for Stage Design which offers 12 emerging designers the chance to work with some of the UK’s leading theatre, opera, and dance companies.
Newly graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff with an MA in Design For Performance (set & costume specialty), Rose applied for the Linbury Prize with her portfolio and as one of the 12 finalists, was linked up with Leeds Playhouse who gave her and two other designers a brief for “Dr Korczak’s Example”.
The Leeds Playhouse team chose Rose’s dramatic bombed-out, rubble-strewn set concept from the three options, and with a short lead-time, this challenging heart-warming yet bitterly realistic work in the time of the holocaust was realised and staged in February 2020.
This turned out to be a fortunate timing, just before the pandemic hit and shut down theatres nationwide and the actual turnaround time from drawings, photos and model box visualisation to full stage realisation was only a few weeks, galvanising all involved in the production. Set in 1942 during the final days of an orphanage in the Warsaw ghetto, the emotive and enduring true story reveals the stark choices of Polish educator and children’s author Dr Janusz Korczak, who champions the rights of young people already leading tough lives in a time of war, intolerance, hate and totalitarian rule. The work addresses numerous moral dilemmas about the values that Dr Korczak is teaching the young people around him, all trying to survive a world with odds stacked against them.
The design was for the Bramall Rock Void, an exciting, completely new, contemporary and fully flexible space at Leeds Playhouse with exposed brick and rock walls that Rose found a huge inspiration for her fragmented rubble and debris strewn world which set the scene for the action to unfold. This symbolic architecture helped tackle conundrums like how to represent hundreds of children and the larger world in a design and introduce motifs, dolls and other objects, props and treatments to assist the narrative and humanise the characters and their situation. “It needed a dignified response and there were many joyful aspects of the show, but I also didn’t want to shy away from the underlining destruction and seriousness of the piece,” and doing this with elegance made it all the more difficult to replicate the true horror of the outcome.
Rose found it hugely challenging and simultaneously invigorating to design, and enjoyed working with director James Brining, who is also artistic director of Leeds Playhouse. She fully appreciates how lighting “can make or break both the illusion and the reality of a story and the way your set and costume designs look and work,” so collaborating closely with the LD is something she thinks is “essential” and always strives for.
In this case, the lighting designer was Jane Lalljee, and the experience was “fantastic”. Rose and Jane spent time meticulously crafting sinister moody looks and rearranging shards of wood and furniture to create dramatic spikey shadows and texturing on the brick walls. The start of Rose’s design process will always involve lots of sketching, drawings, and model box work in which she always includes colouring and light, “lighting definitely adds another layer of magic,” she confirms.
Apart from working on this stimulating production, Rose, who comes from Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire, was also delighted to be working for a local company. Before Rose studied in Cardiff, she was based at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester and trained as a technician and producer for their Young Company which fuelled her interest in stage architecture, set design and visuals.
She had the chance to work on many experimental productions in numerous different formats like in the round, traverse, etc and also worked on some exciting and ground-breaking site-specific projects including as assistant producer on “Mixtape” a gig style presentation designed by Khadija Raza which fused multiple performance styles and narratives. Winning The Stage Debut Award for “Dr Korczak’s Example” means a massive amount to Rose in terms of “recognition for the design and all the work that went into it. “ Having that affirmation from industry experts “is amazing, especially at a time when everything effectively vanished,” she stated. Other nominees for the ‘Best Designer’ category were Liam Bunster for set and costume design on “The Taming of the Shrew” at Shakespeare’s Globe in London and Andrew Exeter for lighting design on “High Fidelity” staged at the Turbine Theatre, also in London.
Theresa Gibson, head of marketing at Robe UK commented, “We were delighted to sponsor The Stage Debut Awards for the third consecutive year. Our involvement was more important than ever this year due to the challenges our industry is experiencing, especially the theatre sector and how it has suffered due to the pandemic! It was wonderful to have three strong nominations for ‘Best Designer’ under such circumstances.
Theresa observed that The Stage did an “excellent” job of holding the Awards event online and producing a “fabulous virtual ceremony” from The Theatre Royal Haymarket hosted by Miriam Teak-Lee. Theresa and the Robe UK team were among thousands of viewers who tuned in that evening to see Rose collect “this special accolade for her amazing work on Dr Korczak’s Example”. “Robe UK are hugely proud to support some of the very best in up-and-coming designers trying to gain a foothold into the industry. Being an award sponsor gave all involved a great reason to celebrate and recognise the talented individuals this industry has to offer and realise just how much we appreciate and are missing live theatre.”
In a strange year where everything halted in March, Rose has new work on the horizon and is designing costumes and associate set designer for “A Christmas Carol” at the Bridge Theatre in London, which opens at the end of November. Simon Russell Beale, Patsy Ferran and Eben Figueiredo will play all the parts and share the storytelling in a vibrant new Nicholas Hytner devised version of the timeless classic. It will also mark a fabulous return to (Covid-compliant) live performance for this cutting-edge venue.
For more info on Robe lighting range of products, please check www.robe.cz
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