The Staatstheater Nürnberg is one of the largest multi-discipline theatres in Germany. Under the auspices of General Music Director Jens-Daniel Herzog, 600 employees in the opera, drama, ballet and concert divisions currently facilitate more than 750 performances per season for almost 300,000 visitors.
For the ballet Sacre directed by ballet director, Goyo Montero, the Staatstheater Nürnberg used Robert Juliat SpotMe for the first time, in conjunction with a Robert Juliat Victor followspot and Robert Juliat Maestro server.

Robert Juliat SpotMe is a 3D tracking tool for followspots and the only tracking device for performers on the market that puts the followspot operator in control by enabling ‘slave’ lighting fixtures to follow the movements of a followspot. Because movement is based on the position determined by the followspot, no cameras or sensors are necessary in the stage area, or on performers or objects.

Karl Wiedemann, Team Leader Lighting Opera, explains: “The requirement for this special production was to be able to control a ring of 40 moving lights hanging above the stage via a transmitter-receiver solution.
We wanted to be able to track a dancer automatically with the moving lights, so that he could be seen to ‘play’ with the light. The truss ring containing the spotlights was suspended from eight point hoists and could therefore tilt in all axes.

“In order to use tracking at different positions of the traverse circle, we divided the 40 moving lights into four groups and assigned them several 3D positions,” Wiedemann continues.
“We were able to control these groups via Robert Juliat’s SpotMe device. As an interface to our lighting console, we used the Robert Juliat Maestro Server, which translates the PosiStageNet (PSN) signals”.

Robert Juliat SpotMe consists of a server and special sensors for turning and tilting movements, which are mounted on the followspot or on the tripod.
Setting up SpotMe is quick and easy thanks to the sensors on the followspot and the server, which generates and transmits the high-quality position data via PosiStageNet (PSN) to suitable receivers.

PSN is an open positioning data output format used for capturing, tracking and relaying position data of moving objects on stages. It was developed in cooperation between the companies VYV and MA Lighting, which means that grandMA2 consoles can also process this PSN data directly.

The Robert Juliat Maestro server played a key role at the Staatstheater Nürnberg, as the lighting console was not PSN compatible. Maestro extends the capabilities of SpotMe by enabling it to operate with any DMX lighting control console, so the complementary dedicated server allowed real-time calculation of the movements of all the moving heads which were tracking the movements of the followspot.

SpotMe is suitable for all Robert Juliat Compact, Grand and Touring ranges of followspots, and can be easily delivered and retrofitted to all existing followspots.

Robert Juliat SpotMe was supplied to the Staatstheater Nürnberg by Lightpower, Robert Juliat’s exclusive distributor for Germany and Austria.

For full details visit Robert Juliat website

Designing lighting for the tour, which started early in 2019 and wrapped in October, was Sooner Routhier, her first lighting design for the band and her first experience using Proteus fixtures.
She commented, “We needed a strong IP65 rated fixture for the rainy, European, outdoor stadiums. They had to be a punchy hybrid beam to reach the high levels in the stadiums. We also needed a fixture that could handle all the intricacies of Muse’s music. This was my first experience with Proteus and they were the perfect fixture for our needs.”

Photo by Louise Stickland

Because you never know what Mother Nature has in store, playing outdoor stadium dates, no matter what time of year, is always a bit nerve-racking for concert touring technical and design personnel. On English rock band Muse’s acclaimed 2019 “Simulation Theory” world tour however some of that angst was eased by Elation Proteus Hybrid™ IP65 moving heads that were impervious to the wet European summer.

Muse travelled the world throughout 2019 in support of their late 2018 “Simulation Theory” release. Sci-fi thematic with 1980’s and video game inspiration, the tour’s artistic direction was by Jesse Lee Stout with lighting playing a major role in the show.
Routhier’s stimulating design carried out into the audience via a runway that connected to a B stage that allowed the band to engage with their audience. For the outdoor stadium shows, as well as a pair of London O2 arena video shoots, the immersive visual look was amplified with lines of Proteus Hybrid on both sides of the runway and encircling the B stage.

Photo by Louise Stickland

“Sure, we used them because of their badass IP rating but they were also good at accenting the intricacies of Muse’s music. I think my favorite moment was during the song Thought Contagion, where they were focused on the runway and the B stage to light the zombie dancers in eerie green light.
They were also used to create webs of laser-like light above the audience for Act IV – Ultraviolet. Another favorite look is when they formed a pyramid of beams above the B stage,” Routhier said. Worldwide lighting supply for the tour was by US rental company Upstaging.

Routhier and Aaron Luke programmed the show with Luke out on the road handling lighting direction and operation. “The Proteus Hybrids held up outstandingly well,” Luke added.
“We had a very wet summer in open stadiums all around Europe, and it was nice not having to worry about those fixtures.” With a reputation for energetic live performances and known as one of the world’s major stadium acts, “Simulation Theory” did not disappoint.

For more information check Elation website

In early March some of the world’s greatest artists came together to put on a benefit concert at London’s The O2 Arena to raise vital funds for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.
Sir Tom Jones, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Tyler and Van Morrison were amongst a formidable line up that took to the stage performing their greatest hits, raising close to one million pounds for The Royal Marsden’s brand new treatment and research facility; the Oak Cancer Centre in Sutton, Surrey.

To complement the star-studded benefit, state-of-the-art video rental company Universal Pixels (UP) deployed Brompton Technology’s LED processing power to provide a visually stunning show. Tasked with realising the project, UP chose Brompton’s Tessera SX40 processor together with Tessera XD data distribution units to achieve the ambitious concept. UP provided 152.5m2 of INFiLED ER5 LED tiles, which comprised five upstage totem LED screens, the largest being 2.5m wide by 8m high, and two IMAG LED screens, each measuring 7.5m wide by 4.5m high.

photo by Richard Turner

Three Brompton 4K Tessera SX40 LED processors and three Tessera XD units were used to run all the panels, with two disguise gx 2c servers providing 4K video playback and seamless content delivery to all the screens. “We used one SX40 and one XD unit for the central upstage totems, as we needed the 4K canvas size,” explains UP’s Project Manager, Mark Strange.
“This came directly from the disguise servers.” “The Brompton interface is so intuitive,” he continues. “When sending the SX40s out with our crew I have the confidence that everything is going to work, and within the tight timelines that we have to meet when installing a show.”

The two other Tessera SX40s and XD units were used for the two IMAG screens, with camera director Dick Carruthers utilising Grass Valley camera control system so the two screens could show different content. The team also fed the disguise server into the PPU, so they could have playback onto the IMAG screens as well.
“We wanted to use the SX40s and XD units for the IMAGs to allow a direct SDI input from the PPU,” explains Strange. “By minimising the delay time and not going through any other processing, we were able to deliver the cleanest signal flow to get signal from the cameras to screen.”

With The O2 being one of the world’s busiest and largest music venues, some of the distances to the screens required UP to use the fibre links and have the processor at the FOH position, and the XD units local to the screen which helped to reduce the volume of the data cable runs.

Strange was full of praise for the UP team and Brompton’s processing technology: “It looked stunning, with Richard Turner’s visuals and Dick Carruthers’s sharp, yet seamless camera direction, plus reliable video processing from Brompton, we were always going to be in good hands. There was an amazing line up of legendary artists on stage – it really was a once in a lifetime show.”

The concert not only received awe-inspiring reviews, but also raised a significant amount of money for The Royal Marsden.
“Your team did a great job,” comments one of the evening’s organisers, Andrew Zweck, about UP’s commitment to delivering a first-class visual performance. “Big success. A really significant first-class event. Everyone involved is over the moon. Marsden will make close to £1m. Your input is sincerely appreciated.”

The Chauvet booth at ISE 2020.

At ISE, the stand Chauvet Professional was adorned with its new F6 Strip IP LED video module, rather designed for exterior use, thanks to its IP67 rating, and usable as live scenography element as well, and in combination with video screens.

The F6 Strip IP, LED video strip with a 6.9 mm pitch.

These 1 m long LED bars can be arranged end to end, side by side or at a certain angle and covered with a white or black filter, even when they are angled.

The male/female end-to-end assembly of two F6 Strip IP.

The assembly system of two angled F6 Strips.

A single cable provides simultaneously data and power supply.

They comprise 720 RGB LEDs arranged in 5 lines with a 6.9 mm pitch inserted in an aluminum profile.
The quite high contrast ratio of 5000:1 delivered by the 144 x 5 LED pixels ensures a nice video performance.
To achieve this, this model is fitted with a Novastar video card and 2-in-1 cable with both data and power supply.

Ben Virgo, Chauvet Professional EU Senior Pro Product Specialist, introduces this brand new F6 Strip IP LED video strip in video.

More information on the Chauvet website

During the last ISE 2020 held in Amsterdam, we’ve discovered Odin, a zoom LED PAR with RGB+Lime, the very first lighting fixture developed by CLF lighting.

Odin, the first lighting fixture developed by CLF Lighting.

Marketing manager Remco Pouwels and export Manager Martijn Gerards gaved us a presentation of this small IP 65 certified lighting fixture, offering 12 RGB LEDs + Lime. This last feature turns out to be very interesting.

Les prises protégées par capuchons pour les besoins du classement IP65.

As a reminder, where the RGB trio had difficulty reaching some colors of the spectrum located between red, green and blue, the lime succeeds in filling this void and perfecting the pastel shades and the stretching range of whites from 2500K to 10000K with an IRC greater than 90.

Picture of the different colors offered by the lighting fixture

Additionally, this LED PAR offers a zoom range from 11° to 50°. As the unit is IP 65 certified, it can be used for outdoor and indoor applications. The unit enables 4 different cooling modes, including two silent modes, which offer great versatility. The lighting fixture can be remotely controlled through DMX/RDM, W-DMX as an option, and offers 5 control modes, from 4 to 13 channels.

The 12 RGD+Lime LED and their optics.

CLF do not communicate the power of their LED chip, but announce a nominal consumption of 262W.
The manufacturer announces a 7525 Lux output at 5m with the tightest zoom angle.

The main menu and the navigation keys.

Odin offers 4 dimmer curves for a better dimming experience. Some of the parameters can be “parked” or “locked” from the device’s menu. This can come in handy for production companies who wish to avoid unsolicited changes.

Odin has been officially launched at ISE 2020, and is available for rental from Dutch rental company Rent ALL. The lighting fixture will be available for shipment starting April this year.

More information on CLF Lighting’s website

Gothenburg-based LumenRadio AB announces today the acquisition of Wireless Solution Sweden AB, together the two companies will become a market leader in wireless lighting controls for the Professional Lighting industry. Through the merger of the two Swedish tech companies, a player is formed with the strength to drive the wireless DMX market.

Both LumenRadio and Wireless Solution (previous a business area within Interlite AB) have contributed in transforming the lighting industry with their development of reliable wireless lighting control, which today is well known within the Film & Broadcast Lighting, Stage Lighting and Architectural Lighting industries. Both companies have long experience and expertise within wireless communication and engineering, and together they will be better equipped to meet with the future requirements from their customers.

Alexander Hellström, the CEO of LumenRadio is impressed by the technology and knowledge within Wireless Solution and says: “We are really excited about this! Together we will define the wireless standard for the future and with all the great technology and knowhow Wireless Solution has built up over the last two decades, we strongly believe that our existing and future customers will benefit from the combined offer.”
Alexander continues: “Professional Lighting is a high-stakes, no-nonsense business putting high pressure on suppliers to always deliver, something that Wireless Solution, under the dedicated leadership from Niclas Arvidsson, successfully has done over the last two decades.”

The combined business will have a yearly turnover of more than 10 Million euros and more than 50 employees with complementary products and solutions, addressing a bigger, more geographically diverse and non-overlapping customer base. The two brands will be run separately, maintaining their own market identity creating a firm belief that both customers and suppliers will benefit from the increased strength of this new entity.

“I am happy and positive that the Wireless Solution brand will continue to thrive within the new LumenRadio context.” says Interlite’s owner and CEO, Niclas Arvidsson and continues: “I think this merger is very good for our customers and the industry in general. The conditions for a truly global standard for wireless DMX are now in place.”

Southampton, UK-based lighting rental Liteup supplied lighting, video server and control plus rigging – 136 points including Kinesys automation – equipment for all technical departments for the recent UK and European leg of Björk’s ongoing Cornucopia tour, for which the dramatic lighting was a co-design by Bruno Poet and Richard White.

Bruno is well known as a theatre and opera LD and for his creative lighting for bands like avant-rockers Sigur Ros, also from Iceland. Richard White has worked for Björk as a programmer and lighting director on the road for the last six years, and together the two enjoyed a fantastic synergy that has produced some stunning lighting.

Photos by Santiago Felipe @santiagraphy

Björk is renowned for her beautiful, esoteric and uncompromising live productions built on visual and sonic experimentalism and taking performance into new and sometimes unnerving contexts. The focus of the Cornucopia show – initially produced as a series of one-off shows at new arts venue The Shed in New York, mid-2019 – was nature and the environment, touching on some of its frontline issues.

The visual starting point for Bruno and Richard’s lighting design was the breath-taking video content created by artist and designer Tobias Gremmler – with whom Björk has worked previously – together with Chiara Stephenson’s striking and intricate set designs.
Bruno and Richard both also really enjoyed working with show director, award-winning Argentinian filmmaker Lucretia Martel whose influence brought a cinematic perspective and its own distinctive spirit and rhythm to the show.

Liteup’s Account manager was Marc Callaghan, supported by project manager Dan Bunn. Marc stated, “We were extremely proud to be part of a ground-breaking production like this. The show looked fantastic and absolutely blew me away when I saw it. The production was very detailed and precise with all the elements both physically and artistically linked.”

Photos by Santiago Felipe @santiagraphy

Björk is heavily involved in all aspects of her live show productions and she wanted all the show’s visual elements to look and feel organic and to have a fluid synergy. The stage floor was modelled on mushroom heads complete with their complex gill structures on the underside, and opening / closing string curtains stage left, right and upstage centre together with a LED screen at the back all added perspective and texturing.

The lighting design brought a theatrical flourish to a concert stage and was also arranged in layers, offering the ability to change and shift the environment and to highlight and emphasise different areas separately or combined. At some points, the visuals took centre stage, and other times the video faded into the background while lighting and scenics took up the narrative, with the two medias working closely and complimentarily throughout.

Liteup provided 16 x Martin MAC Viper Performance and 37 x MAC Viper profiles for the main hard-edged moving lights, which were arranged on six over-stage and two FOH trusses, joined by 29 x GLP X4s as the primary wash lights.
Two Robe BMFL WashBeams running on a RoboSpot remote follow spotting system were positioned at FOH off to the sides which was to increase the subtlety of their impact on stage – the goal being that the artist should not even feel their presence.

The RoboSpots were a key element. “We always try and spot Björk from a very side-on angle which isn’t always possible when touring multiple venues,” stated Richard. Using this system allowed him to keep control of all the colour and intensity parameters from FOH making the artist’s key light much more ‘live’ and controllable, particularly for this show with layered projection surfaces and automated drapes.

Photos by Santiago Felipe @santiagraphy

Thirty-two GLP X4 Bar 10s and 20 x X4 Bar 20 LED battens were positioned on the over stage trusses in upstage and downstage rows. The staging concept is based around a ‘utopian planet’ and Bruno and Richard wanted to be able to create multiple sunrise and sunsets with stage-wide shifts of colour.
Both GLP JDC1 and SGM Q2 strobes had been used throughout all the shows, offering a wealth of different effects from the same unit. On this leg, Richard spec’d Q2s for the floor strobes and JDC1s for the overheads as they had swapped to a festival-style rolling stage with the floor units completely visible. The requirement was therefore for a small footprint strobed that absolutely kicked!

Twenty Astera AX3 ‘LightDrop’ battery powered LED ‘pucks’ were dotted around the stage providing a neat wireless up-lighting solution to highlight the mushroom gills and other set elements. “These were our footlights and sat on the stage set itself,” explained Richard. They wanted to achieve close angles and bring another dimension to the lighting but without cabling and fixing points.

Richard had used them before and knew they’d be “perfect for this job”. They could be charged during the load-in and simply positioned and focused before doors each day.
Two grandMA3 light consoles were supplied by Liteup for control with a disguise 4×4 pro media server for the playback video which was operated by Daniel Bond.
One of the biggest challenges for lighting was during the more ‘video-driven’ songs, where people and set had to be lit in complementary and subtle ways, and serious detail went into finding angles “to create our effect but avoid any of the projection surfaces”.

Photos by Santiago Felipe @santiagraphy

This was the primary reason they needed so many fixtures with framing shutters and at one point, lights had to be rigged on the curtain trusses themselves in order to light performers whilst sandwiched between multiple curtains.
The rigging detail comprised 136 motors from Liteup – a mix of quarter ton, half ton, 1-ton and 2-ton and including the five Kinesys vari-speed hoists – which were shared between lighting, audio and video departments, together with 143 metres of Litec PR60 pre-rigged truss. Head rigger Steve Belfield worked alongside Toby Lee.

Dan Bunn worked closely with Steve to work out multiple rigging solutions for a show that had to be millimetre accurate when it came to the positioning of all the elements each day. This included getting one of the truss structures re-engineered to achieve a result not possible with any off-the shelf-product.

The lighting crew chief was Aiden McCabe, Ryan Harrington oversaw dimmers and the lighting crew was completed by techs Simon Carus Wilson and Mick Stowe, all working directly for the production. All were chosen by Richard for the tour and most had worked with him and Bruno previously. They were picked for their experience with highly theatrical shows as well as music concerts … where attention to detail is crucial.
Overseeing everything on the road was production manager Peter van der Velde.

More info on Liteup website

SixEye is pleased to announce that ETC, one of the world’s leading events lighting technology manufacturers, has become a SixEye Connected manufacturer, with its Mosaic range of architectural lighting controllers the first in the company’s product portfolio to benefit from SixEye’s unified remote management platform.

SixEye provides a cloud-based SaaS (Software as a Service) solution, enabling best-in-class remote management of professional control devices. SixEye combines the management and control of products from multiple manufacturers into one portal, easily accessible in a web browser on desktop and mobile.

Systems integrators can have their own SixEye portal at their own domain. The portal carries the integrator’s own branding, allows them to invite end users into any project site in the portal, and grant them bespoke access with SixEye’s granular permissions.

Device management includes firmware and file upload, triggering, real time status, logs and more with encrypted network security maintained for peace of mind without any additional hardware or IT expertise. End users can use SixEye’s control panel, designed for mobile browsers, to perform actions across multiple devices in a project site at the touch of a button.
“We’re happy to offer SixEye functionality in our Unison Mosaic controllers, the premier system for transforming large scale buildings, attractions, or LED walls into eye-popping displays,” says Shawn Fernandez, product manager for Mosaic at ETC. “We have Mosaic controllers for every project, so it makes sense to let users access them from everywhere with SixEye.”

ETC joins Pathway Connectivity and Pharos Architectural Controls which are currently live on the platform and will benefit from SixEye’s latest features, including the ability to schedule tasks to run automatically.
“We are delighted that ETC has seen the value of the SixEye platform and is joining us as a Connected manufacturer,” says SixEye’s CEO, Simon Hicks. “For SixEye, having one of the world’s most respected lighting manufacturers on our platform is a leap towards becoming a standard for the remote management of professional control devices.”

ETC customers who want to take advantage of this feature should contact SixEye ([email protected]) for a demonstration of the available features and how to obtain a SixEye portal.

CLF Lighting Europe announced that TMB has been appointed CLF lighting fixtures’ exclusive distributor for the UK and Ireland.
Following a good reception of the brand “Nuri*Lites” in the US, now a broader range of CLF products LED Fixtures, Moving Heads, and Spectrum Series will be by offered by TMB UK under the banner “Nuri*Lites by CLF”. Customers will enjoy all the service and support they expect from TMB, as well as benefit from TMB’s wide range of related products.

CLF: Bram Adams, Martijn Gerards. TMB: Lauren Drinkwater, Tim Obermann, Nuri Waheishi, Anton Sanders, Adam Burton.

“We are extremely happy to offer CLF’s wide product range to our customers in the UK and Ireland,” says TMB’s EU Sales Manager, Tim Obermann. “Nuri*Lites by CLF represents a new range of LED Pars, bars, wall-washers, special effects lights, and moving heads, all of which complement our current product line-up. Customers will certainly benefit from this expanded product selection for many applications and every budget.”

TMB’s Lauren Drinkwater and Nuri Waheishi agree, “We can’t wait to show the products to all our friends and customers, who we are sure will immediately see all the benefits Nuri*Lites offer.”

Both CLF and TMB have a strong focus on the rental company market. CLF’s Export Manager, Martijn Gerards explains, “Rental is in our DNA and our product development and design will always have rental companies in mind. Our philosophy is to create products with consistent colours, fast return on investment, all with a ‘Never a Version 2’ approach.”

Find out more on CLF website and on TMB website

AO Drones, a provider of drone light shows, recently delivered an airborne show for a video campaign promoting Motorola’s reimagination of its iconic Razr flip phone in Middle East, and more precisely in Dubai, and Africa. The resulting video quickly attracted over 200,000 views through Motorola’s social media channels.

Crédit photos : ©AO Technology

The teams from AO Drones and AO Creative, part of entertainment lighting visionary AO Technology, worked in collaboration with Motorola and netizency, the digital marketing agency, to design the visual content, including animated logos and brand names. AO Drones’ design team even created an animation of the Razr flip phone opening, closing and rotating in the sky.

Vinayak Shenoy, Head of Marketing, Middle East and Africa for Motorola’s parent company Lenovo, said of the Razr launch event, “We felt that this drone show symbolises what this product is all about – a great blend of technology and art . . . The beauty of 120 drones rising in the air all together, the whirring of the drones and the beautiful formations is something I’m going to remember for a very long time.”

AO’s founder and executive producer, Marco Niedermeier says: “From the beginning we asked, what was the intention? It was to create great content for social media and get maximum shares and engagement. So we looked after the whole production – the drone show, the film – but without an invited audience on-site.”

Specially developed for entertainment productions, the AO Drones fleet uses an advanced control platform to deliver flexible, efficient and safe shows. What’s more, the drones’ speed – up to 10 metres per second – and accuracy mean that their ‘visible’ time in the air is optimised, making these shows a viable option for event productions everywhere.

Adding a further dimension to the video, camera drones provided striking ‘fly-through’ footage, taking the viewer up and into the drone formation, even passing directly through the Motorola logo. “It’s not just filming a flat logo in the sky,” says Niedermeier. “This really is three-dimensional, dynamic show content.”

Motorola Razr Drone Launch in Dubai from GulfNewsTV on Vimeo.

He concludes, “We are very happy that Motorola chose to use a drone show for their product launch. Working with Motorola and netizency has been such a positive experience, and the result speaks for itself.”

For the launch of the new Motorola Razr, the AO Drones team worked with representatives from Motorola and the digital agency Netizency. Crédit photos : ©AO Technology

More info on AO Technology website

CenterStaging, Southern California’s leading rehearsal facility, has raised the bar by offering Meyer Sound loudspeakers in all of the facility’s 12 rooms including 24 LEOPARD systems each configured for optimum performance given the specific room volume and dimensions.

CenterStaging is a preferred rehearsal site for many of the entertainment industry’s elite programs and events, including the GRAMMY Awards, Academy Awards, American Music Awards, The Voice, American Idol and Dancing with the Stars, among many others. With such high-profile and demanding clientele, many of them working under extreme deadline pressure, CenterStaging could not afford to skimp on quality or reliability.

“We already had a good inventory of Meyer Sound wedges, but we decided to go ahead and standardize the side fill systems for all the same size rooms,” says CenterStaging General Manager James “Jimbo” Neal. “And now everybody is in love with the new systems. Having Meyer Sound exclusively makes it easy to move from one room to another, because you know it will sound the same and you can get comfortable right away. And, of course, all of the Meyer gear sounds great.”

A couple of Leopard lying on two 900 LFCs, the calm before the storm !

For Mitch Clark, co-owner of CenterStaging, making the move to an all-Meyer Sound facility was a common-sense business decision. “Maintaining good, strong relationships is vital to the success of any company in the entertainment business.
Meyer Sound has been a great company partner since my days as owner of [staging systems maker] TOMCAT Global. Meyer continues to produce the highest quality products backed by the best service in the industry. We expect nothing less because our clients expect nothing less.”

Meyer’s MJ-210 wedges…Let the fun begin !

Flexibility is another key element in tailoring audio needs to clients, as often systems need to be adapted or augmented with either different loudspeakers or additional loudspeakers.
In such scenarios, according to Neal, the Meyer Sound solution shines in comparison to its high-end direct competitors.

“Other companies have come in and tried to pitch us,” he says, “but the minute they roll in the amplifier racks I’d say, ‘Stop right now! We don’t buy power amps.’ Meyer’s self-powered systems make it easier when, for example, in the middle of the night somebody says they need another wedge. It’s easy. Grab the Meyer box, an XLR cable and a power cable, and you’re ready.”

In the audio configurations, the 12 studios at CenterStaging are equipped with a grand total of 200 Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers. For side fill tops, six of the larger studios deploy LEOPARD line array loudspeakers in short stacks of two per side.
Five other large to mid-size studios rely on UPQ-1P, UPQ-2P or JM-1P point source loudspeakers as the side fill tops. Deep bass power is supplied by appropriately matched 900-LFC and 750-LFC low-frequency control elements along with 600-HP and 700-HP subwoofers. Each studio is also provided with between six and twelve stage monitor wedges, either MJF-212A or MJF-210, or a mixture of the two.

Meyer’s Leopard 900-LFC magic combo. Remember to lock the weels.

For side fill tops in the intimate Studio 3, CenterStaging now offers a pair of Meyer Sound’s new ULTRA-X40 loudspeakers.

“The new ULTRA-X40 with the 750 subs is an amazing combination,” remarks Neal. “It’s just tearing that room up. For its size and weight, the ULTRA-X40 is an amazing box. I can see where it will be a game-changer for Meyer in small session rooms and the corporate world.”

Reliability and durability are two more critical qualities in this application, emphasizes Neal. “These systems take a lot of abuse, particularly the side fills with dance acts using heavy electronic music. They will push the subs really hard, but the Meyer Sound boxes just keep working. We’ve never had any complaints.”

As a veteran in the entertainment support industry, co-owner Clark understands what’s at stake. “There are no do-overs in live performance,” he says. “You have to get it right the first time because that’s the only shot you’ll get. Our clients know that we only partner with companies of like mind, and Meyer Sound has consistently proven when it’s ‘go’ time, they get it right every time.”

Each studio is equipped with an Avid SC48 desk and up to 200 Meyer speakers, let say, a choice among them !

CenterStaging’s California operation also provides standardized Avid SC48 digital mixing consoles, Shure wired microphones and Radial direct input boxes in every studio. CenterStaging LLC was established in 2009 by Mitch Clark and Scott Scovill. In addition to the Southern California rehearsal studios, CenterStaging Los Angeles and New York City also offer an extensive range of musical instruments for backline rental along with veteran technicians to support any event.

More on Center Staging website and on Meyer Sound website

Solotech, a world leader in audiovisual and entertainment technology with 13 locations across Canada, the US and Europe, expanded its lighting inventory last summer with the purchase of 150 Ayrton Khamsin-S LED profile luminaires and 108 Ayrton MagicBlade-FX fixtures from ACT Lighting, Inc., Ayrton’s exclusive distributor in North America.

The Khamsin-S units selected by Solotech are designed for scenic applications. The fixture is equipped with a new LED module delivering powerful metallic white light with a record-breaking output of 40,000 lumens and a colour temperature of 6500 K.
The MagicBlade-FX is the latest iteration of the popular MagicBlade-R. It features seven next-generation RGBW high-output LEDs than can be individually controlled to create airborne virtual scenery or to illuminate sets and performers.

“Ayrton is a well-known quality brand with impressive fixtures that are industry accepted and requested,” says Lee Moro, Vice President of Live Productions at Solotech. “Designers are asking for these fixtures more and more every day.”

Solotech already put the fixtures to work on the Jonas Brothers’ Happiness Begins world tour, which kicked off last summer in Miami and is due to wrap in Paris at the end of February. They also used the Khamsin units on Guy Laliberté’s PY1 Pyramid project through the new “Lune Rouge” production house.
“Their design team is very happy with the fixtures,” Moro reports. “The support we have received from ACT Lighting has been fantastic, as we have experienced throughout our long relationship,” he concludes.

– To read Lighting and Sound America’s full report on the Jonas Brothers tour visit the Lighting and Sound America

– More information on Ayrton Khamsin and MagicBlade-FX and the extensive portfolio of innovative Ayrton LED fixtures can be found on Ayrton website

– Ayrton is distributed exclusively in North America by ACT Lighting, Inc

L-Acoustics is closely following the developments of the COVID-19 pandemic relayed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Center for Disease Control (CDC). As our industry faces an unprecedented challenge, we understand that preventing the spread of COVID-19 to populations at risk must be a global priority.

In response, we have implemented the action plan below in accordance with local health and safety recommendations with the following goals:
– Keeping all employees safe and informed
– Supporting our clients, engineers, and end-users
– Keeping our operations and supply chain running in a safe environment

Our Workforce and Operations

L-Acoustics has taken measures to ensure all our employees are safe and able to care for themselves and their families. We have implemented a work-from-home policy for all employees able to do so. In an abundance of caution, and in order to limit the spread of the virus in keeping with CDC’s level 3 guidelines, we have decided to suspend on-site operations at the following facilities until further notice:

– Marcoussis, France
– Keskastel, France
– Amboise, France
– Wenden, Germany
– London, United Kingdom
– Singapore, Singapore

L-Acoustics is in a solid financial position and, for the foreseeable future, will maintain our entire workforce’s full employment and salaries.

Shipping and Delivery

Following the suspension of our on-site activities, we are rescheduling all deliveries from Marcoussis to a later date. We will also reschedule all shipments from suppliers.
Our North American offices in California will remain open this week and will continue to deliver finished goods and service orders while respecting local public health and safety guidelines.

Trainings and Visits

We regret to have to cancel all on-site trainings and visits to our L-Acoustics facilities of Marcoussis, Westlake, New York, London, and Singapore until further notice.
However, in order to further support the live sound community through education, we are preparing a series of free online webinars which will cover multiple topics, including L-ISA, line source optimization, AVB, and P1/M1. We will share a separate announcement and schedule in the coming days.

Sales and Application Support

We are ceasing travel for our global Sales and Application team unless it is absolutely necessary and complies with local regulations.
Our team remains available globally, through phone and email to support your projects, discuss contingency, or simply if you want to talk to a friend.

Outlook

We believe the fastest way to get back to normalcy is to strictly observe local health recommendations. We all have a role in protecting populations at risk. We will continue to implement our action plan to ensure the safety of our employees, mitigate disruption to our supply chain, and support our clients.

We wish everyone health and resilience through these challenging times, and encourage you to stay connected virtually with us. We look forward to getting back to making your live events around the world sound spectacular.

With warm regards,

Laurent Vaissié – CEO L-Acoustics

Hervé Guillaume – CEO L-Acoustics Group

More information on the L-Acoustics website

North American touring version of the Broadway Tony Award-winning musical Wicked relies on a DiGiCo Quantum 7T console and its theatre-specific software to assure great performances night after night on the road.

Wicked, winner of multiple Tony, Drama Desk and Grammy Awards, has become a Broadway staple, poised to celebrate its 17th year on the Great White Way in October at its home at the Gershwin Theatre. The show’s nearly half-dozen licensed touring versions have drawn almost as many award accolades, including Best Musical, Score and Production Design trophies from the Touring Broadway Awards.

Allison Bailey on the left and Talia Suskauer in the North American touring production of Wicked (photo Joan Marcus).

The latest touring edition of the show is scheduled to hit 15 cities, from Baltimore to Vancouver. These shows put the musical’s canonical songs—hits like “Defying Gravity,” “Popular” and “For Good”—through a new DiGiCo Quantum 7T console.
Purchased through Milwaukee-based Clearwing Productions, the compact yet powerful audio desk features DiGiCo’s sophisticated theatre software, a package designed specifically to meet the demands of theatrical workflows, with features such as an Auto Update System, Aliases, the Players tool and a VCA programming map.
“We spent the better part of two years planning the upgrade for the touring show, and the DiGiCo was the obvious winner,” says Zach Williamson, current Associate Sound Designer for the Broadway and touring productions of Wicked. “We were looking for the console that will take us for the next 10 to 15 years on the road, and the Quantum 7T is it.”

On the road

The Broadway show continues to use the same analog console it has since day one, nearly 7,000 performances ago, but the touring version needed the kind of power and small footprint that the DiGiCo desk affords users. “The Quantum 7T is light to travel with and load in, and its reliability is exceptional, which is critical for a touring console,” says Williamson. Both he and Wicked Sound Designer Tony Meola have been impressed with the console’s performance for tours that have taken it from Seoul to Sao Paulo, as well as for extended “sit-down” runs in Mexico City and Tokyo.

“We like the sound of the console, and the Quantum engine gives us a lot of security, allowing us to actually eliminate the monitor console we had been using and take our monitoring feeds directly off of the front-of-house console for the Aviom monitors,” Williamson explains. “The Quantum processor can support that for our fairly high channel count, while the console’s theatre software gives us features such as aliases and profiles that track individual performers. And the 7T’s flexibility of layout means we can condense the entire production to layers on two fader banks and the master section.”

Drop the analog

FOH Engineer David Romich had been a fan of DiGiCo’s SD-Range for over a decade on various shows, but until recently, the Wicked tour was mixed on the same analog system used on Broadway. “It wasn’t an easy decision for our team to replace that,” he says. “It’s a reliable console with a trusted, musical quality.”
This production known colloquially as “Munchkinland,” it’s the second national touring company in the show’s long history was built in 2008 with emphasis on streamlining the original travel footprint. “The SD7T was always an option, but the dual-Quantum engine configuration gave us the power and redundancy we needed to make the move.”

On the left Wicked FOH Engineer David Romich and Assistant Sound Engineer James Wilcox at the tour’s new DiGiCo Quantum 7T console (photo Megan Loomis).

“We eliminated at least 1,500 pounds of console and outboard gear, with the 7T also taking on the load of onstage and orchestra monitor mixes,” Romich explains. “That alone was a huge savings.” But the console’s workflow improvements for the production were just as dramatic.

T for Theatre

Romich notes that the “T” theatre software made it possible to transpose and edit the show’s 300-plus cues from their original analog system, including MIDI commands, fader positions, plus dynamic channel and routing settings. “The theatre software allows us to operate the show with the same fluidity of analog, but allows every parameter to be recalled if we choose. ‘Channel Cues’ is an incredible powerful view that reveals every channel parameter for programming and troubleshooting.”
Wicked’s changeover from analog to Quantum 7T was ambitious. “Once programmed offline, the physical swap, rehearsals and debut happened within 48 hours; we never missed a show,” Romich says, adding that he and Assistant Sound Engineer James Wilcox operated shows and navigated the new 7T with ease. “The Quantum is a huge step forward and has all the features we need for a production like this.”

The digital sounds

But perhaps the single biggest shift of the move to the Quantum 7T is the enhancement of the show’s overall tonality, he feels. “With our 140-channel count, the Quantum engine handles grouping and summing transparently,” Romich explains. “Switching from analog, we revealed so much high frequency information, which really sparkles. We have so much more detail, and need less processing. There’s still so much to the 7T that we’re still discovering.”

For more info on the tour, visit the Wicked the musical website and more info on Quantum 7T

At the age of 16, Elliott Mountford launched Ti22 lighting design company with a view to providing lighting and video integration on live shows. Little more than a few months later he was handling his first arena show at Wembley.

@Luke Dyson

Nearly 100 JDC1 hybrid strobes zap Brixton Academy audience.

Now still only 19, and from a background in programming, Elliott has work fully as a lighting designer. Most recently he has been creating a lighting show with Charli XCX—with an armoury of GLP fixtures for company, supplied by Liteup.

“We had 34 X4 Bars and 34 JDC1 [hybrid strobes] on the European and USA tour, and then the show at Brixton Academy was a total upscale, with a total of 96 JDC1s and 36 X4 Bars,” he reveals. The rig comprised both the touring and Brixton package. “It needed to be bright, and be able to create a thousand different looks out of a single unit …and the JDC1 always smashes that.”

Elliott Mountford Goes Crazy with Charli XCX and GLP. @Luke Dyson

Elliott already has some experience in the field, having worked as an LD with Skepta, Ghetts, Chipmunk and a number of EDM acts (Including Ultra Music Festival, Lost Fre-quencies, Carl Cox and Solomun).
Earlier this year he programmed and tour LD’d rapper Santan Dave for LD Tim Routledge, an award-winning lighting show that helped him gain further recognition.

When Charli XCX was searching for a new LD she realised that Elliott, after operating several of her shows, would be a great match. He stepped up to take the lead role, and proposed a completely different conceptual approach, working alongside creative director, Jed Skrzypczak.

“Charli and Jed loved my work, and kept me on board for the festivals, and the US and European tour,” he continued. The lighting design came together organically, without a brief. “I’ve worked with Jed a few times now, and totally get his vibe. Charli’s future pop music needed to stand out. It was apparent that the Cubes, designed by Jed, were our central focus and so I needed a fixture that could produce a flat soft field of light, but was also easy to complement the rest of the rig.”

@Luke Dyson

The GLP fixtures were the key to ensure all objectives fulfilled. “I’ve used X4 Bars for a while, but JDC1 was a new strobe to me at the start of the year. After using a bunch with [San-tan] Dave, I knew it was a fixture for the future and I was interested to see how far we could push it this time.”

Utilising two JDC1’s per cube, and six X4 Bar 20s on the back (with all other JDC1s audi-ence facing), he quickly got his answer. Elliott ran all fixtures in full mode in order to have as much control as possible. “Every pixel is mapped, and I spent a lot of time putting them into layouts and grouping them in a cor-rect way to allow me to separate the backgrounds, pixels and strobe channels.

@Luke Dyson

“The channel modes are super helpful when cloning from JDC1’s to other in-house fixtures. The strobe plate easily clones to an in-house xenon strobe, and the background module clones perfectly to any LED strobe or fixture, with the correct strobe duration/rate etc.

“I also love the way the JDC allows me to separate the plate priority with the pixels, al-lowing effects to be overlaid on top of each other. There’s a really cool part of the show where we go from every strobe at full, to a very very low UV flicker. We strobed the plate module at a low intensity but fast rate, and kept the pixels on high intensity to give it the push.

“It really messes with your eyes because of the refresh rate effect that was applied. The previous song was very very bright and harsh LED xenon white, and this song was a very dark low light UV. Because of the way a human retina deals with light exposure you could still see the previous ‘white’ song while now witnessing a UV look onstage … super weird. It totally matched the song intro and was the perfect look myself, Jed and Charli were af-ter.”

As for Liteup, this is Elliott Mountford’s regular vendor. “I have always worked with Gordon [Torrington] and their techs are amazing. We had Cy Doitmant as the crew chief and Ben Beverley as system tech. Everyone worked super hard and I will keep using Liteup in the future.”
In summary, the LD says there are many elements that make the GLP fixtures so special. “Wherever I go I see the Bars—everyone has them even in the weirdest part of the world, and they always match. Their dimmer curve and colours are unmatched, and I feel like it’s a fixture I can use on every design.

@Luke Dyson

“The JDC1 is simply by far my favourite fixture of the last two years. I can make so many different looks out of one unit, and you really don’t need many to create something spe-cial. The tilt also makes it a genuinely hybrid strobe; I use it for back light a lot and then back into the audience. I also love the thin strobe look, where the source is just a thin line.

“In fact I don’t think there is another strobe on the market that does LED colour and strob-ing all in one, and that is so widely stocked around the world.”

Both Gordon Torrington and tour manager Wilkie Wilkinson had initially thought it was cra-zy having nearly 100 strobes facing straight towards the audience. “But once Wilkie saw it in rehearsals he realised it was not just a strobe, as we were using it as a pixel device, for a bunch of wipes and hits. And he was super impressed,” Elliott concludes.