With India’s dramatic increase in music festivals, live acts, private shows, and grand weddings comes an increase in investment in audio technology, and an audio rental industry that has consequently become more dynamic in its equipment choices and its services.

There are a number of the pioneers in the Indian rental market that have played a significant role in this evolution. Ahmedabad-based Mastersound is one of them.
Launched in the 1950s and known as a trendsetter in North India, it has recently purchased a DiGiCo SD10 from the British manufacturer’s authorized India distributor, Hi-Tech Audio Systems.

“Gurnam Singh, founder of Mastersound, had a vision when he started the company in 1956,” says Mastersound’s current director, Tarandeep Singh. “He didn’t want to compromise on its audio system’s quality and always aimed to provide the best solutions to his clients.”
From India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to George Harrison, sitar maestro Ravi Shankar and Lata Mangeshkar, Mastersound has worked with some of the world’s most iconic acts. Being the third-generation torchbearer for the company, Tarandeep Singh has made sure he can carry on Mastersound’s legacy with the same promise of quality as his father and his grandfather. The purchase of the SD10 fits with this ethos.

Tarandeep Singh of Mastersound with DiGiCo SD10.

“DiGiCo’s SD10 is in high-demand among both mixing engineers and artists,” Singh continues. “It was time for us to upgrade our inventory and the first choice was DiGiCo. I was also confident with Hi-Tech Audio Systems’ support. The first show we did with the SD10 was for Bollywood’s popular singer Shaan in Lucknow. Tanay Gajjar, who was the FOH engineer, prefers DiGiCo and we were happy to provide him with the SD10.”

“Mastersound’s SD10 curtain raiser show for Shaan went smoothly,” adds Hi-Tech Audio Systems application engineer for DiGiCo, Vanshaj Sharma. “Tanay Gajjar is India’s top engineer and has been travelling with Shaan for a long time now. He is an keen user of DiGiCo and loves the worksurface.
The fact that DiGiCo worksurfaces are familiar across the range and engineers are comfortable to jump around different DiGiCo consoles is a huge bonus for us and makes the console a popular choice for rental companies who have to provide a user-friendly digital console.”

Akshay Rajput, Sales Manager for Hi-Tech Audio Systems confirms that the legacy of Mastersound is admired across India’s audio rental industry. “We are honoured and privileged to provide them with the SD10,” he says. “DiGiCo is an iconic brand that is admired globally. Our priority is always client after-sales support and we won’t compromise on that.”

“We are always delighted when our clients appreciate our efforts to represent DiGiCo in India,” concludes Rajan Gupta, Hi-Tech Audio Systems Managing Director. “We know that DiGiCo’s popularity is due to its continuous endeavour to innovate and upgrade its technology. We also know that Mastersound and DiGiCo are on a roll to make history in India.”

More on the Hitech Audio Systems website and on the Digico website

Opened in 1869, the 700-seat Koninklijke Stadschouwburg was originally designed as an elite temple of culture. Nowadays, together with the Magdalenazaal, De Biekorf, Daverlo and De Dijk theatres, it welcomes a diverse audience to a variety of modern theatre, live music, dance, seminars, movies, presentations and much more.

The Cultuur Centruum Brugge team, Philip van Loo and Yamaha staff with the Yamaha consoles.

Philip Van Loo of PVL Sound & Light BV is a longtime supplier, consultant and project manager for CC Brugge. He introduced the organisation to Yamaha digital mixers many years ago with two 01V96i consoles.
They was so successful that CC Brugge later invested in three Yamaha M7CL-48 digital mixers, which used the existing analogue infrastructure already installed in the venues. All five of the Yamaha consoles have proved extremely reliable but, after extensive use for many years, CC Brugge wanted to modernise the audio systems and make the venues future-proof.

Philip Van Loo was again asked to advise on the project, recommending the installation of a Dante audio infrastructure in each venue because it was reliable, easy to install / manage and flexible. An important factor was the amount of equipment available that speaks Dante, giving the CC Brugge technical team the confidence that the investment would yield a long-term return. After extensive market research and consultation, the CC Brugge technical team unanimously agreed that Yamaha was again the best mixing solution.

L-R: Takanori Nakamura, Keigo Hatano, Stef de Pooter (all Yamaha), Philip van Loo (PVL Sound & Light), Mariko Yamashita (Yamaha).

“We have never had any issues or downtime with the existing Yamaha consoles,” say CC Brugge’s Patrick Maipauw.
“Because we were looking to install a future-proof system, we wanted to expand our console portfolio with products that natively ‘talked Dante’, had pristine sound quality, were reliable and easy to use.
We did some demonstrations and quickly came to conclusion that the only choice was Yamaha.”

All five CC Brugge venues were given a major upgrade, with Koningklijke Stadschouwburg, Magdalenazaal and Daverlo each receiving CL5 and QL1 digital consoles, Rio3224-D2 and Rio1608-D2 I/O racks and an SWP1-8 L2 network switch. A QL1 console, Rio1608-D2 and SWP1-8 were installed at De Biekorf, with a QL1 console added to De Dijk.

Highlighting the exceptional return on investment provided by Yamaha technology, all of the existing M7CL-48 and 01V96i digital consoles are still working perfectly. They were all retained, with Dante network cards allowing them to work seamlessly with the new systems.

The Yamaha mixing systems for all five Cultuur Centrum Brugge venues at Koningklijke Stadschouwburg.

“This is a great example of how to update the audio infrastructure of live venues,” says Philip. “The QL1s can easily be moved for added flexibility and, now that Dante is installed in all the venues, future expansion will be much more straightforward, with a wide range of equipment and options to chose from.
“CC Brugge also has the reassurance that the mixing systems deliver consistent, high quality sound, with absolute reliability.”

More on the Yamaha Audio website

Mars Music Hall in Huntsville is changing the landscape of the music scene in northern Alabama. The latest success in an ongoing expansion project at the multipurpose Von Braun Center, Mars Music Hall proudly debuted its Elation Professional lighting rig in early January. A welcome occasion that set an upbeat tone for the next eight weeks of shows before the venue went into COVID-19 hibernation.

The inaugural show, a January 3rd sold-out performance featuring Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, highlighted the intimate character of the venue’s broad, not-a-bad-seat-in-the-house design with its wrapping balcony overlooking a 50 ft wide stage. A variety of events ranging from concerts to comedy acts and everything in between play the new venue, all benefiting from state-of-the-art lighting and acoustics.

Justin Young, production supervisor at Von Braun Center (VBC) the past six years, designed the lighting system for the new space and worked with Freed Sales to secure an Elation lighting package. Having developed a relationship with the rep firm that goes back many years, he says he knew Dustin Pesnell and his team would take good care of them.
“At the theatrical lighting shop I was at before I came to VBC, I saw how well Freed took care of us and over time we bought a lot of Elation gear,” he commented. “I know the brand well and knew I wanted to deal with a company that I could trust. I’m perfectly happy with the equipment but that wasn’t my driving factor in choosing Elation. Relationship and experience were key.”

Good fit

First opened in 1975, Von Braun Center, with an indoor arena, concert hall, playhouse, convention spaces, banquet halls, and a full-service restaurant has grown to be one of the busiest event centers in the country. Production in its 34 individual rental spaces, be it a wedding, prom, convention, corporate event or high-profile touring act, can all be handled in house. With a tremendous demand for events in its existing spaces, the additional 1,575 capacity Mars Music Hall has filled the need for increased concert demand.

“It’s the only space at VBC with a fully automated lighting system and I knew from the start that I wanted to go with all LED,” Young says. “Not only did we not want to mess with lamps but we’re trying to get our power draw footprint down as far as we can and this was an obvious area to help with that.”
Because the room is relatively small and with trims of only 22 feet, Young knew that LED would be fine for the room. “You don’t need the biggest and brightest for every application,” he says, noting that he didn’t even entertain going with discharge lamps. “This rig is a good example of what you can do with this level of gear.”

Flexibility

Mars Music Hall is a new build and new construction always poses special challenges with different areas being worked on at the same time and no previous experience in the space to go by. Nevertheless, it can also be an advantage as you work alongside other installers and contractors and have the opportunity to get immediate feedback. One of the main challenges at Mars Music Hall was working amongst and around ducting, HVAC, existing electrical, etc.
“Fitting a system in there that was as flexible as it could be in a space that already has spatial constraints was a challenge,” Young says, adding that he had to make some functional decisions based on immovable objects. “For example, in order to work around existing HVAC pipe in the ceiling, I created two front V-shaped trusses that avoid the pipe. It looks great and adds a nice visual difference to the three overhead horizontal trusses.”

Wanting to create a malleable rig, “something that has a little bit for any type of programmer,” Young started with color wash possibilities. “A big focus of that and something I knew I had to have was a good stage wash and I knew the Fuze Wash with its RGBW COB LED engine would be ideal for that.
It’s also important to me to have a good color wash because we have quite a few acts that come through who are a bit old school and they want a lot of color wash.” Young says that sometimes, too, he finds it necessary to remind some of the younger LDs that come through to remember that the ticket buyer wants to see the act. With Fuze Wash Z350 fixtures populating the downstage truss and both V-shaped trusses, he provides ample opportunity for that.

Solid advice

Big on gear that’s been on the road a while and proven reliable, when looking for a good spot fixture Young sought advice from some of his trusted lighting network colleagues. “I know the operations manager at Elite Multimedia in Nashville who already had Artiste DaVincis in their inventory,” he said.

“He couldn’t keep them in the shop and had just bought some more fixtures. That was enough for me. Once I knew the DaVincis were out on the road and holding up well and were popular, I went with them. The room is not that big so they fit in real well.” He adds that they also met his price point.

Filling out the rig are compact DARTZ 360™ LED beam/spot moving heads used for powerful aerial beam effects from overhead truss and floor positions; SixBar 1000™ LED battens hung across the upstage truss to downlight the curtain or frame out the stage; Cuepix Blinder WW4s™ providing high-impact white light from the midstage truss; and SixPar 100s™ populating every stick of truss as colorful truss warming effects.

On each side of the stage are LED screens running Arkaos media server content. Harkening back to his days as manager of a production house, Young says the rig is all tour grade equipment. “It’s basically a road rig in a permanent application. We could literally take the whole rig down, pack it in a truck and set it up somewhere else.”

As far as the house lighting, early on in the project Young approached VBC management about doing something special. “I said that if they would give me the money that would normally be spent on house lighting then I could do it all with LED and be controllable. It was important to me because even before the project happened I had a dream of mapping the ceiling of a venue and this was a great opportunity.”

Young got his wish in the form of Colour Pendants installed by Axis Productions of Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Colour Pendants provide a dynamic house lighting solution above the audience, allowing for more dynamic house looks and more immersive designs.
“Because we are the Mars Music Hall, in theme the doors and intermission look is house at red. Even if we didn’t do any other effects, being able to do that with the Colour Pendants definitely pulls the whole room together,” he concludes.

More on the Elation website

Last year Astera Titan Tubes were at the heart of a lighting scheme designed by Ben Donoghue, now of Flare Lighting, for Beyond the Road: an immersive exhibition at London’s world-famous Saatchi Gallery.

Photo Julian Abrams

Featuring the music of UNKLE, the experience thoughtfully and cerebrally merged the worlds of visual arts, music and film, offering visitors a chance to lose themselves in a multi-sensory world led by sound. Together with music pioneer James Lavelle (UNKLE), the overall work was curated by creative producer Colin Nightingale, and sound designer/creative director Stephen Dobbie (both of the trailblazing theatre company Punchdrunk).

Lighting designer Ben Donoghue – who has recently joined Ben Cash, David Amos and the team at Flare Lighting from global creative agency Imagination – has worked regularly with Nightingale and Dobbie and was asked to collaborate on the project to create a lighting design for the experience which ran for a highly successful twelve weeks.

Dobbie, along with sound designer Salvador Garza Fishburn, deconstructed the last two UNKLE albums, The Road: Part 1 and The Road: Part II / Lost Highway, re-arranging and re-interpreting the work within a curated environment featuring a range of artistic and filmic works.
Contributions from world-renowned and award-winning artists including Danny Boyle, Jonas Burgert, Alfonso Cuarón, Toby Dye, Doug Foster, Norbert Schoerner, Warren Du Preez & Nick Thornton Jones ranged from painting to film, sculpture to photography, tracing influences in Lavelle’s work.

Photo Julian Abrams

Beyond the Road took over the entire top floor of the Saatchi Gallery. Visitors flowed through a series of interconnected spaces, exploring the constantly evolving soundscape and visual cues. A central hub of smaller rooms and corridors served to break any sense of linearity to the piece, encouraging visitors to choose their own path.
A quantity of Astera Titan Tubes were deployed here, referencing the linear architectural form of a conventional interior fluorescent fitting that one might expect to see in an ordinary gallery setting, such as in the Saatchi Gallery’s other exhibition spaces.

“Pulling fixtures down out of their usual ceiling rigging and into audience eyeline and introducing very carefully crafted colour, pixel and dim effects served to abstract a collection of ostensibly domestic spaces and help visually propel visitors around this transitory space,” says Donoghue. “Just as the music had been deconstructed, so too were the architectural conventions of the gallery and exhibition space; blank walls and ceilings became canvases for bold washes of colour.”

The artwork in this central zone was itself warped and animated by the lit environment; the usual soft white spotlighting making way for trippy, and at times unsettling, saturated lighting treatments, thus uniting the disparate visual elements. The interaction of coloured light and painted finishes created some extraordinarily vivid transformations. Notably, in mirroring rooms painted green-screen green and hot pink respectively, certain moments and colour contrasts achieved real intensity, emphasising movements in the swirling soundtrack.

Donoghue explains: “In part, I wanted the lighting fixtures, including the Titan Tubes, to play an active part in the overall sensory experience. Rather than remaining purely incidental or an element to be ignored by the gallery-goer, as would be the case in one’s usual art gallery visit, here the fixtures were very present, as much so as the artwork itself; at once atmospheric and architectural.”
He continues: “Themes of deconstruction and abstraction were at the heart of the project and Titan Tubes, both because of their physical form factor and their pixel control, were an ideal tool to help tell this story and set the visual language for this key dynamic area of the exhibition.”

Photo Julian Abrams

The Titan Tubes were run in four-pixel mode as Ben especially liked the blocky, almost analogue look that this achieves, which was right for the piece. By employing contrasting half-and-half or quartered split-colour combinations, they created a really bold language and identity for this space that felt engaging and unique to Beyond The Road.

“I think by self-imposing the constraints of a more limited pixel count to work within, we created a much stronger look for the show than might have been afforded by a more flexible approach.” (Titan Tubes offer up to 16-pixel control.)
The full installation – including set build, sound, lighting and video installs – was completed over a one-week period. A further two weeks were scheduled for sound creation and arranging in the near-completed space, along with lighting and video programming and gradual installation of all the individual artworks.

“Developing the show was a truly collaborative process, with each discipline informing the other,” Donoghue remarks. “We put in a toolkit that I knew would achieve certain key looks and then the piece gradually developed in the space through lots of conversation, responding to new stems, new arrangements and new artwork arriving.”

Photo Julian Abrams

Due to the 12-week run of the exhibition and its 8-hour daily operation with limited power-up/power-down time at the top and tail of a show day, it was necessary that the Titan Tubes remained wired in situ. All control was neatly boxed in with all wiring concealed in painted trunking. Donoghue recalls that they needed a reliable wired system and the Astera PowerBox offered just that.

Although he’d used Titan Tubes many times before, always controlling them wirelessly, this was the first time he’d used them ‘plugged’ and networked over sACN. “There were no issues over the run and none of the tubes needed swapping out, which was great.”
All the Astera Titan Tubes were supplied by Flare Lighting, a fast-rising UK creative lighting and visual design and delivery practice.

More information on the Astera website

013 Poppodium.

Located in the city of Tilburg in the southern province of North Brabant, 013 Poppodium is comprised of the 3,000-capacity Main Stage and 700-capacity NEXT Stage. Following a substantial overhaul in 2015, both spaces boasted custom audio reinforcement solutions from Adamson Systems Engineering, sourced via the company’s exclusive Dutch distributor, Audio Acoustics.
More recently, however, 013 augmented its Main Hall system with new components from Adamson’s flagship E-Series and sub-compact S-Series for a more consistent and impactful performance to benefit patrons and visiting productions alike.

The main stage system now sporting E12 underhangs and fous S10 as front fills. Both the E15, E12 and S10 share the same driver.

“We feel Adamson has one of the best-sounding systems, if not the best-sounding system out there right now,” begins Erik-Jan Dodd, Lead Sound Engineer at 013, about the decision to re-invest in Adamson. “A lot of major artists have the E-Series on their riders these days, and for the last three years, every band that has visited 013 has used our system, even if they were carrying their own. Engineers trust Adamson, and if they’ve been here before, they know we’ve got a great-sounding PA system perfectly tuned to our room.”

The left main array. Visible on the stage also two S10 and a Point Series P12.

Prior to the most recent upgrades, the Main Stage system included left-right arrays of nine Adamson E15 three-way, true line source enclosures per side along with a single row of E219 subwoofers lining the front of the stage.

Boxes from Adamson’s SpekTrix series were originally deployed as underhangs for the main arrays as well as frontfills; however, the venue’s technical team felt they needed a more substantial solution for the ever-critical space right in front of the stage.
By that point, the complementary E12 three-way, full-range enclosure was widely available, which would bring more power and a more consistent voicing to the busy venue.

013’s Main Stage system now includes underhangs of two E12s beneath each main array and four sub-compact S10 two-way, full-range enclosures from the tour-proven S-Series as front fills, offering a perfectly-uniform sound image and high-impact coverage throughout the entire space. Rounding out the system are a single P12 from Adamson’s Point Series per side as outfills and four PC8s as lipfills.

As for the existing NEXT Stage system, it features main arrays of eight S10s and a single P12 frontfill per side, along with four E219 subs loaded beneath the stage to anchor the low end. The foyers for both performance spaces are also outfitted with distributed Point Series systems.

The Poppodium packed with a full audience… hopefully soon again !

“Working with the teams at Adamson and Audio Acoustics, we’ve done everything possible to ensure great sound in both of our rooms, and the support throughout the entire process has been amazing,” Dodd acknowledges in closing. “They’ve helped us get the most out of our venue-wide systems every step of the way. Now, nothing is standing in the way of an unparalleled musical experience at 013.”

More information on:

– The Adamson website
– The 013 website
– The Audio Acoustics website

From a base in producing both original music and remixes a decade ago, Canadian electronic music duo Zeds Dead branched out to explore a vast range of genres including UK garage, electro house, hip hop, drum and bass and more.
Now a staple on the international touring circuit, such diversity poses many challenges for the lighting team, led by production designer Erik Mahowald (of Bending Lite Productions).

Recently they have been headlining package tours for their record label Deadbeats… a series of ‘one-off’ formatted shows in a varied combination of festival stage ‘takeovers’ and standard concert venue applications at venues ranging from 5,000-50,000 capacities.
This demand on scalability, and the random nature of the shows, creates further challenges for Mahowald. But fortunately GLP fixtures provided the necessary versatility.

GLP JDC1

“The design was originally debuted at Red Rocks Amphitheater [Denver] which consisted of 50 GLP JDC1 fixtures, while GLP impression FR10 Bars were introduced very recently at our Aragon Ballroom [Chicago] and Masonic Temple [Detroit] shows,” he says. Lighting inventory for both these shows was provided by Chicago-based LEC – LIVE Entertainment Chicago.

Bending Lite have been working with Zeds Dead since 2017, and have created two production designs for Deadbeats shows. “This is our first tour with them, and we also handle all programming.” The latter is in the hands of Davis Alexander. They were first introduced to Zeds Dead by production manager Daniel Ostroff, who asked them to assist on larger production applications such as their major headline shows.

“For the Deadbeats shows, we had one request in that they didn’t want one big upstage wall, but rather four vertical stripes,” the designer continued. “From that we moulded something that would look bold, powerful, and clean, with lots of definitive straight lines that would create architecture. The two DJs stand on an elevated platform upstage of the tiered deck trussing, creating a massive platform.”

Wanting to fabricate a rig that would fit the full width of venues mirrored flown and deck trussing was designed to create a picture frame aesthetic. This versatile set fits the vast library of music … and, of course, the sheer variability of GLP’s hybrid fixtures.

Each of the four identical trusses included six FR10s, and eight JDC1s, with the flown rig mirrored to the deck to create maximum beam power. “The music varies greatly night to night, and having versatile fixtures like this is something we count on,” Erik Mahowald continues. “We used each of these units to their fullest capacity and most extended modes, and we appreciate their ability to create what seems to be an infinite number of looks. The functionality of the JDC1 is unmatched.

GLP FR10

The beauty of GLP fixtures, he says, is that they can be used for so many different applications. “For example, we can use the brilliant colour and optics to create transcendent transitions, while also using the same fixtures to blow the audience away with powerful white strobe hits.

“The FR10s were used as a statement piece in lining the trusses of the rig. We used them in their full capacity mode to create the most specific of looks. With the ability to individually zoom pixels, we were able to programme looks we had not seen before … which was something we lighting designers love.”
Having used GLP fixtures consistently for the past four years, Mahowald has become “a huge advocate” of their products. “They are an essential tool in my toolbox as a designer, since we design a broad range of events from festivals, concerts, and corporate events.

“To put it simply, there are no substitutions for these two fixtures,” he said in conclusion. “With the JDC1, there is no single fixture that can compare to its versatility not without having multiple high-quality fixtures. The FR10 is also going to be a powerful tool.
I think its output and beam properties create stellar aerial effects that are unmatched in comparison to other battens. The colour rendering is incredible and I can’t wait to have it out on more shows in the future.”
Finally, he also had praise for LEC. “They are a fantastic vendor and we very much look forward to doing many more tours and one offs with them.”

More on the GLP website

“Good sound is one of the most essential elements in today’s churches, and achieving consistent, engaging audio throughout an entire worship space is mission-critical so that the congregation has a shared community experience,” says Tim Corder, Strategic Accounts Director House of Worship for Diversified, the technology solutions provider that delivered the project.
“The previous loudspeaker system in Mount Paran’s main auditorium had been in place for many years, and as it aged, it began to have component failures that created erratic coverage sonically ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ spots throughout the room which was hampering the worship experience for many of their congregants.”

Mount Paran Church, during a service, now immersive.

Although Diversified initially considered specifying a left/right array-based design for Mount Paran’s loudspeaker retrofit, the presence of large LED screens on either side of the stage meant that the array lengths necessary for providing optimal coverage would create sightline issues, particularly for those seated in the balcony. Furthermore, the church wanted to minimize the amount of modifications made to the worship space’s striking architecture, both for aesthetic and budgetary reasons.

“With so little space to work with above the screens, we chose to explore an L-ISA design, which offered us the ability to spread the system’s power out horizontally versus vertically,” says Nick Geiger, Account Executive and Audio Lead for Diversified. “This enabled us to achieve the SPL and coverage that we needed while keeping the speaker hangs compact enough to not cause visibility issues with the lighting and video facilities.”

In a case of near-perfect timing, L-Acoustics had recently rolled out its medium-throw, constant curvature A Series, and the new product line was quickly deemed ideal for the project. “The A15, in particular, is really what made L-ISA a viable, practical, and budget-friendly option for Mount Paran,” Corder shares. “We designed a frontal system featuring seven A Series arrays, and the overall price point was very comparable to a traditional left-right PA design while also allowing us to meet our fidelity and sightline goals.”

Impressive technical booth shared by audio with a DiGiCo SD12 and the L-ISA Controller, and on the left the video and lights desks

Installed late last year, Mount Paran’s new loudspeaker complement is now comprised of five arrays of four L-Acoustics A Series enclosures two A15 Focus over two A15 Wide evenly spread out and flown over the front of the stage as the Scene system and flanked by two arrays of one A15 Focus over two A15 Wide as the Extension system.

Dual hangs of two A15 Wide deliver outfill coverage to the far left and right front seating areas, while two rear-firing A15 Wide positioned above the stage provide monitoring for the approximately 150 choir seats. Four KS28 subs, concealed by a scrim and centrally flown behind the Scene system, deliver ample low-end reinforcement throughout the entire auditorium.
Frontfill is achieved by six short-throw X8 enclosures deployed across the stage lip, with four compact 5XT systems located at center stage for sermon monitoring. Farther out in the house, two A15 and eight ARCS Focus systems serve as the delay ring around the catwalk covering the upper reaches of the balcony, while four locations of Kiva II provide underbalcony outfill.
A combination of one LA12X and 13 LA4X amplified controllers power and process the entire loudspeaker system, while an L-ISA Controller and Processor combo facilitate the church’s new panoramic, object-based mixing approach.

The L-ISA system with far left and right the Extension system. The four KS28 are hidden behind the central array.

Diversified also furnished Mount Paran’s FOH mix position with a new DiGiCo SD12 console, which is connected to L-ISA via Desk Link, natively bringing all source controls onto the desk surface and allowing engineers to access L ISA as an integrated element of their existing workflow.
“L-ISA is an incredible tool for Houses of Worship,” enthuses Geiger. “As an audience member, you don’t just want to feel as though you’re sitting in the room spectating something that’s happening onstage. Mount Paran has a large choir, orchestra and praise team, and L-ISA enables you to feel enveloped by their sound like you’re a part of it—in every seat in the house.”

Corder agrees, adding that the audio imaging capabilities of the new system produce a very natural-sounding binaural listening experience. “When the left side of the choir has a solo, you feel it come from the left side,” he says. “I’ve heard them stagger vocal intros between the left, right and center sections, and you really feel that localization and it’s stunning! You totally forget that you’re listening to a PA because it just feels like you’re listening to the choir. I’ve never had that experience before.”

Mount Paran’s system design in Soundvision. A lovely distribution of the SPL thanks to the fills and delays precisely chosen and set.

Mount Paran Church Technical Director David Mendoza says that intelligibility was one of the key points his church was striving to improve with a new system, and L-Acoustics delivered on that, and more.
“We wanted our entire congregation to be able to understand every single lyric being sung by the music team and every single word being spoken by the pastor,” he says.

“When I heard L-ISA, I was blown away; it was a completely euphoric feeling. Not only is the sound pristinely clear everywhere, but the amount of control that it gives our tech team over the placement and presence of each object is amazing.
Being able to creatively control so many parameters like distance, width, and elevation minimizes the distractions within the worship experience here at Mount Paran, helping our congregation feel more connected to what’s happening onstage.”

“We at Diversified pride ourselves on being at the forefront of emerging technologies that are making an impact in our industry,” Corder adds. “You really must experience L-ISA as one of the several thousand people gathered in the room during a service to understand the full impact that this technology and loudspeaker system makes on the engagement of the congregation. Words do not do it justice. It is inspiring on a level that is quite literally paradigm-changing.”

Mount Paran Church’s home on the Mount Paran website

Diversified can likewise be found online at Diversifiedus website

Denmark’s annual music competition to find its Eurovision entry reached its big finale in March at Copenhagen’s 16,000-capacity Royal Arena. Known as the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, hopefuls battled it out against a striking stage design made up of 450sq.m of LED screen, shaped into ever-expanding triangular shapes. These were fed perfectly mapped visuals by a chorus of Green Hippo Hippotizer Karst+ Media Servers.

Hot shot Hippotizer aficionado 4K Projects, which is based in Copenhagen, was commissioned by Danish national broadcaster Danmarks Radio to project manage the video and lighting aspects of the show. The company’s Mikkel Samuelsen and Balder Thorrud have been involved with Dansk Melodi Grand Prix for a decade, and are well-versed in creating memorable visual feasts.
The 2020 heats were held without an audience, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, TV viewers at home were treated to a full production, which went ahead to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix. All performances were backed by The Antonelli Orchestra, heightening the vibe and spectacle.

“We used four Hippotizer Karst+ Media Servers with a wall controller for the show using two as main and two for full backup,” explains Thorrud, who served as Hippotizer operator for the show. “All outputs were connected to DVI matrix for easy switching between main and backup system.

“We love using Hippotizer, especially because the VideoMapper, easy content sync and simple way to connect to a grandMA for control, makes our lives much easier and the visuals more effective.” Visual control was handled by Michael Havdrup in collaboration with Thorrud.

The 4K Projects team worked with Danmarks Radio to source the Hippotizer and screens from Danish stage lighting supplier, Litecom Group. The staging, lighting and video was designed by Kasper Lange, with visual content by Katja Forup.
“There was a lot of LED screen on this production,” Thorrud continues, “and one of our biggest challenges was hanging them as scene pieces, in the right position!”

The Eurovision Song Contest was, of course, cancelled in light of the pandemic. However, Danish Duo Ben & Tan won the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2020 with their song, ‘Yes’, which has now been released as a single in their home country.

More information on the Green Hippo website and on the 4Kprojects website

Mother’s Day in Australia means spending time with Mum, but the strict government restrictions in place as a result of COVID-19 meant the closest families could get this year was a FaceTime call.
The team at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne wanted to make this year’s Mother’s Day special and called on Australia’s rental company Resolution X for help.

The brief was to illuminate the façade of the hospital with colour and messages of love and support for all mothers. As part of the display, images of new and expecting mothers were projected onto the building in a rotating 10-minute light show.

However, projecting the images onto the building turned out to be no small feat. The best vantage point for the setup was on the rooftop of a building diagonally opposite the Royal Women’s façade; a horizontal throw from the projection location approached 90m with an angle of more than 50 degrees. Further challenging the team, wireless DMX was being beamed across the road and seven stories down to control all of the LED wash fixtures that were up-lighting the façade.

With such an extreme throw distance, and with a desired image width of only 10 metres, the Claypaky Scenius Unico was the ideal fixture for the job.
Resolution X’s Senior Manager of Production, Jamie Russell, remarks, “We had to balance the need for reliability, power consumption, significant output and very narrow beam angle. The Claypaky Scenius Unico ticked all the boxes and was the clear choice in the end.”

Resolution X used three Scenius Unicos, each loaded with multiple custom gobos, to project images onto the building. Gobotech, Resolution X’s preferred gobo manufacturer, supplied the glass gobos for the fixtures with full keystone correction to each gobo based on where the image would finally sit on the building.
“When projecting images of people, there really isn’t much room for error with keystoning, especially at the angles we were approaching the building from,” comments Jamie Russell. “Putting the new mums out of proportion would not have been an ideal start to their Mother’s Day, but the gobos were perfect. We couldn’t be happier with the service from our partners at Gobotech.”

The Scenius Unicos continued to out-perform all expectations once the sun went down. Jamie Russell observes, “We were under significant pressure as the local media outlets were to be there to take pictures for the nightly news right at dusk.
Because we didn’t have an opportunity to focus with the sun down before the deadline, we were amazed to see that even at 90 meters the sheer output of the fixtures made the projections still legible on the building in full sunlight. The performance of the Unicos was really remarkable.”

For a Mother’s Day like no other, Resolution X were proud to help make the day something special despite the restrictions in place. “In these times, all businesses need to consider alternative ways to communicate their message, and gobo projection is a cost effective and high-profile way to do just that. Our client was blown away with the result, as well as the subsequent response they got through traditional and social media.”

More on the Claypaky website

The organisers of the 2020 Knight of Illumination (KOI) Awards in both the UK and the USA have announced the cancellation of both events due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the entertainment industry.

The difficult decision has been reached following extensive discussions between the committees of both the UK and US versions of the KOI Awards: The Fifth Estate and KOI co-founders Durham and Jennie Marenghi, along with the ALD and STLD in the UK and Live Design/LDI in the USA. All parties explored various possible options to secure the events, including virtual, live streamed/webcast ceremonies and postponed or scaled-back ceremonies. However, these ideas were ultimately deemed not to be viable for 2020.

KOI-UK and KOI-USA Executive Committee member Sarah Rushton-Read of The Fifth Estate comments: “This has been a challenging decision, given the unpredictable nature of this global crisis, which has hit the KOI community very hard. Many have lost their businesses, their employ-ment, their sources of income. Skilled creatives are taking jobs in other sectors and others are retraining. Many have no idea when, or in what capacity, they might return. While we have every faith that the industry will bounce back, it will be a different landscape for some time to come.”
She adds, “We believe the KOI Awards mission is to bring a meaningful value to the lighting and video design community by providing independent design awards, judged by respected critics and experts. Just as importantly, it provides a valuable opportunity for the whole lighting and video community, across theatre, events, live music and television, to acknowledge and celebrate their creative achievements, and this is something we feel is important to uphold and protect.”

Durham and Jennie Marenghi comment, “Having spoken to many sponsors who struggle to see the benefit of an online Awards, and to many designers who fail to see how they could connect online with hundreds of their peers, the KOI Executive Committee has decided that it would be inappropriate to consider any form of KOI Awards this year. We feel that this is the only sensible decision available to us. KOI is, in essence, a social event and we feel it would be difficult to con-nect our community in any meaningful way until we can all be together again in the same room.”

Marian Sandberg, market leader at Live Design, says, “This was a tough decision for everyone who works on the USA version of KOI through LDI and Live Design. Ultimately, trying to produce an al-ternate version of the KOI Awards ceremony during these difficult times didn’t seem appropriate. We will look for other ways to honour the discipline of design this year directly through LDI and Live Design, and we all look forward to re-joining The Fifth Estate, the KOI committee, our lighting and video designers and our sponsors next year to come back in full force.”

The KOI-UK and KOI-USA committees are promising that this year’s nominations will be amalga-mated into the 2021 Awards. “We would like to thank our judges who had committed to support the KOI Awards in whatever guise we felt appropriate this year,” Durham Marenghi continues. “Stay safe and we will all meet once more on the other side of this pandemic.”

Rushton-Read concludes: “I for one will certainly miss the thrill of seeing many of the top crea-tives in these fields come together in one magnificent room for one fabulously glamorous night to celebrate each other’s work, and always with such generous curiosity.
“We would like to thank all our wonderful suppliers, whose businesses are also entirely focused on the live event industry, for their empathy and support, which has been generous and heart-warming. Thank you to the teams at Hammersmith Apollo, Hawthorn, Party Ingredients, FIX8 and Transition Video, all of whom have lost valuable income not just from our event but from multiple events globally.”

The organising teams had pursued the possibilities of virtual events in partnership with a number of companies, and wish to thank Creative Technology, Hawthorn, SXS and White Light for taking the time to discuss technical solutions. KOI-UK was due to take place in London in September 2020, and KOI-USA in Las Vegas in October. Both events will announce plans for 2021 ceremonies in due course.

More information on Knight of Illumination website

Ayrton is delighted to announce the appointment of LiteNordic as its new exclusive distributor for Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The new arrangement takes place with immediate effect in Sweden and Denmark, and from 1 July in Norway.

Ayrton and LiteNordic teams.

Formed in January 2018, LiteNordic is a ‘young’ lighting distribution company with many years of industry experience due to its team of skilled and knowledgeable individuals. LiteNordic identifies as a proudly Scandinavian operation with offices and sales teams in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and a comprehensive network of partners in all three countries.

“We work closely with influencers such as lighting designers for live and corporate events and installation projects,” says Espen Bechmann, LiteNordic’s sales manager for Norway. “And as Norway, Sweden and Denmark are small countries, we work alongside partners in many fields in each country to ensure the end user gets the right solution for each project.” Two years after its formation, LiteNordic had been looking to expand its product portfolio and found Ayrton matched all its criteria for LED moving lights.

“Ayrton has been on our radar for a while,” says LiteNordic CEO, Magnus Lönden. “They are innovative company with an original and extremely versatile product line, and we like the team – it was a perfect match for us.”

Ayrton’s Jonas Stenvinkel agrees: “A company is made up of the people who work and manage it and, with that in mind, LiteNordic really stands out on the Nordic market with their professional, pure-distribution approach. They have, in a very short time, established themselves as the only true Nordic distribution partner in our industry.”
“We are very excited about this new arrangement and are looking forward to a dynamic partnership with LiteNordic for many years to come,” says Ayrton’s Linnea Ljungmark. “In difficult times like these, it is a source of confidence to have them on board.”

LiteNordic can be contacted at:

For more information on the full range of Ayrton LED lighting fixtures, visit the Ayrton website

Having enjoyed a friendly business relationship for years, Artistic Licence and Controllux are delighted to announce a formal distribution agreement for The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Founded in 1968, Controllux is a leading name in the distribution of professional lighting equipment. With many experienced staff, the company provides comprehensive supply and support for respected brands in the theatrical, broadcast & film, entertainment and architectural markets.

Artistic Licence CEO Wayne Howell comments, “Our broad range of lighting contol and infrastructure products will nicely reinforce the Controllux emphasis on solutions. Both companies have been trading for many decades and bring customers the reassurance of experience, quality and reliability. Artistic Licence designs and manufactures all its own products in the UK – something that we are very proud of – and I think many people will be surprised at just how competitive our pricing is across our latest DMX512/RDM, Art-Net/sACN and DALI ranges.”

Lex Oudshoorn of Controllux adds: “Our broad network encompasses many different fields of specialism, and we are always looking for brands that will add extra value for our customers. We are delighted to be the official distributor of the Artistic Licence range in The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

‘Lux Partum’ – ‘emission of light’ in Latin – was a beautifully sculpted interactive lighting installation and live stream staged at the Motorwerk event space in Berlin, created by lighting and show designer Chris Moylan and his team.
This comprised Lars Murasch, Andreas Schindler, and Matthias Schöffmann together with acclaimed DJ and music producer Paul van Dyk who composed a special soundtrack and played a three-hour live concert during the first weekend.

The work utilised 54 x Robe moving lights including MegaPointes, Pointes plus TETRA2 moving LED battens which were installed in the venue with LED screen elements, and all rigged, programmed and set up to be accessed by the public via the https://lighting.stream website and ‘played’ in real-time.

Photo courtesy lighting.stream

By the end of the 10-day run, over 43,000 visitors from 94 countries had engaged with the work in 6.355 registered sessions utilising lighting.stream’s bespoke user interface technology. They chose over 200.000 different combinations of lighting / video which were viewed over 528,404 minutes of activity. Visitors could select the colour and patterns of the lighting and video effects as they played out to the music track, changing at pre-determined points to keep the groove flowing harmoniously.

Running over two weekends and the intervening week, Paul van Dyk played a 3-hour live set at the Motorwerk on the first Sunday night, enabling his massive fanbase to tune into the stream and be part of making the concert visuals look spectacular – each visitor to the site having a three-minute slot.
Chris – like so many others in the industry – was regularly chatting to friends and colleagues, all of whom were getting itchy feet in lockdown, trying to think of some meaningful way of generating positive energy and doing what they love most – designing shows!

Photo courtesy lighting.stream

He hit on the idea of creating an art piece with light that could be shared and enjoyed remotely and safely by as many people as possible. He gathered his team – who also happen to be great friends – and they started talking. Matthias is based in Austria and works with Chris extensively on programming light shows.
And he developed and energised all the web streaming geekery; Lars helped source the venue via his extensive network of connections and called on rental company TLT Event to provide the kit as well as supplying some himself, including the LED screens and the console. Video expert Andreas Schindler designed and produced all the generative visuals.
The physical starting point was getting the venue. From there, Chris took the Motorwerk’s striking interior and evolved his visual brainchild! The former engineering factory and industrial space built in 1921 is now a heritage-listed building, renovated to retain all the original character and raw elegance to become a charismatic event space.

The main hall stretches over 90 metres long, has a good height and is full of iron columns and RSJ beam-work, so Chris wanted to accentuate the scale and architecture of the space and integrate it into the design.
“It immediately lent itself to a distinctive geometric lighting design,” explained Chris, “and to having beams and LED battens as the lighting instruments”. He adds that it was also relatively easy to rig the lighting in the space utilising the house rigging facilities plus structural elements like the balcony rails and RSJs.

Photo courtesy lighting.stream

He measured out the room meticulously, and lights and LED video panels were positioned precisely. In the case of the lights it was so their beams could create a series of closed hexagons running all the way down the hall, optimising the sense of perspective for the webcam position from which remote viewers would see and experience the work. Using hexagonal geometry as a base also enabled multiple other shapes and patterns in different combinations, all of which looked good together.

Lighting equipment – including some of the 20 x Pointes, 20 x MegaPointes and 14 x Tetra2 bars – were supplied and rigged by TLT Event. Additional Robes were supplied directly from Robe, and the final two MegaPointes needed came from Berlin’s Friedrichstadt Palast Theatre (closed right now but Chris has designed their current show, and the fixtures were from the house rig).
Two rows of MegaPointes deployed on the floor were mirrored by two rows in the ceiling all at exactly the same distance away from each other. Rigged along the middle section – just beneath the balcony that traverses the entire length of the hall – were two rows of Pointes immediately above / below one another … with exactly 4 metres between the top and the bottom MegaPointes and the Pointes.
This set up created the perfect geometric patterns that Chris envisioned. He has used both fixtures extensively in his work, and likes them for their speed, brightness, and versatility. “For a relatively small amount of lights in a large space, we could make a massive impact.”
A series of LED PARs were installed between each of the columns.

Robe Pointe

Robe Mega Pointe

Robe Tetra2

It was his first-time using Robe’s new TETRA2 LED battens, and he was blown away with their brightness and intensity! “They are like monsters!!” he exclaimed, “We could not use them at full intensity as it was too much, so they were tweaked down!”

Seven TETRA2s were positioned vertically each side at the back of the room, with one column of 10mm LED screen in the middle to produce a blisteringly bright and dynamic end feature that helped create an illusion elongating the physical space which was especially effective onscreen.
Chris enjoyed the “impressive” walls of light that could be created with the TETRA2s and he also included its flower effect in the stream’s viewer options. “It’s a very cool innovation to have this sort of feature on a linear bar.” The other LED sections were attached to the pillars all the way down the room.

Lighting was all programmed on a grandMA2 console and the generative visuals were created by Andreas using Notch running via a disguise media server which mapped it to the screens … playing out via Resolume. When prepping, they visualised all the video and lighting effects on the screens in Depence2 so they knew exactly how they would look when combined.
Considerable time was spent on ensuring that the lighting and video elements would look great together in every different possible combination. What might sound like a simple task was in fact very complex, and required a balance of calculation, experience, and the team’s mutual understanding of each other’s specific disciplines.

Robe-Lux-Partum

Those logging on to the website to ‘play’ the visuals were able to change the colour and shape / angle combinations of cues which were executed at the next musical change – which they could also see coming up.
Getting Paul van Dyk involved was the icing on the cake in many ways. Chris has worked as his lighting designer for many years. He suggested the proposal and like all artists unable to perform live right now, van Dyk was super keen to be involved in something imaginative and fun.
“We had some stipulations about the music track,” explained Chris. “The main one was that there needed to be a lot of shifts and multiple lifts and falls to trigger the (visuals) change commands in the software … and he got it immediately.”

For Paul van Dyk’s pumping live set, Chris was himself onsite activating the lighting changes, with guests to the website choosing the colours and positions. He admits to a few sharp intakes of breath when it came to colour combinations … “but that randomness was all part of the fun!”
All the team and the crew from TLT Event loved being on site again and being involved in a show. “You cannot believe how excited we all were to be there and be working together – all socially distanced of course – but there in the venue for real! We are all so passionate about this industry and what we do, so really appreciated the opportunity like never before!”
Apart from Lux Partum being a massive success, the work is most definitely an inspired and brilliant product of the coronavirus pandemic, lighting.stream is a technology with a huge future potential, which Chris and his team fully intend to explore.

Chris concludes, “This has been a great project, however, it’s by no means a replacement for experiencing art and shows in real spaces and in relation to other people. Culture must continue, and people most definitely need haptic experiences in three-dimensional environments.”

For more information check Robe website

The Adam Hall Group is continuing to expand its international sales network. By partnering with the Mumbai-based company StageMix Technologies, the event technology provider based in Neu-Anspach, Hesse, Germany, is gaining an experienced sales team for India.
The exclusive partnership includes the LD Systems, Cameo, Gravity, Palmer, and Adam Hall 19 ’’ Parts brands.

“We’re happy to have found StageMix Technologies as our new sales partner in India,” explains Markus Jahnel, COO of the Adam Hall Group. “The event technology market is growing steadily in India and plays a key role in our international endeavors.
As an experienced distributor, StageMix Technologies has a wide network of regional dealers and will enable us to react swiftly to the many different challenges that come with such a large country. As such we will be able to work together to continue expanding our local presence – both in the event and installation market.”

StageMix’s designated partner Karan Balkishin Nagpal adds: “We’re very pleased to be associated with the Adam Hall Group. It fits perfectly with our company roadmap to enter with a complete solution for all install avenues, as well as middle scale production companies to use LD, Gravity and Cameo products. We see the basket of brands positioned very aggressively against its competition and we’re looking to exciting times ahead.”

More information on:

Adam hall website
LD Sysyems
Cameo
Gravity Stands
Palmer Germany

Join Elation National Sales Manager John Dunn and Global Product Manager Matthias Hinrichs on the May 27th Elation Hour as they discuss trade show, corporate and special event design with John Featherstone, Chris Medvitz and Ignacio Rosenberg of lighting design group LightSwitch.

Lightswitch is a consortium of internationally recognized lighting, media and visual designers that has been creating unforgettable experiences for over 25 years.
They design award-winning environments for a diverse network of clients across concert, event, experiential environment, and architectural, operating from studios across the globe.

Join us live on Wednesday, May 27th at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time in the U.S. for this special Tools & Techniques discussion.

RSVP here

The Elation Hour is a weekly virtual presentation that delves into the more personal side of product development and includes discussions with top industry designers who share their experience across the broad scope of entertainment lighting.
Tune in over the next several weeks as we cover topics such as Festivals/Outdoor Events, Broadway/Theatre, Trade Shows/Corporate/Special Events and Concerts/Live Events. The Elation Hour series will also include virtual product launches.

And more on the Elation website