This year, NEXO is marking its 40th anniversary. Over the last 3 decades, the company has become synonymous with high-output point-source loudspeaker design, in particular the PS Series which has become an industry standard. Surprisingly, given NEXO’s long-standing global reputation for point-source loudspeakers, this is the first time Nexo has designed a 12” enclosure. The much-anticipated P12 promises to establish a new benchmark for the all-purpose point-source cabinet that can deliver at front-of-house, on stage, and as part of a distributed system.
Nexo P12 and L15. Versatile, indeed.
With its curvy modern aesthetic and best-in-class performance specifications, this new P12 is an ultra-versatile multi-purpose loudspeaker, bringing ingenious technical innovation to a wide range of sound reinforcement applications. To retain some of the characteristics of the PS Series, inside the curvilinear enclosure of custom birch and poplar plywood, the P12 employs a purpose-designed 12” LF Neodymium driver and 3” diaphragm HF driver in a coaxial configuration. The cabinet footprint is very compact, measuring 531mm x 432mm x 317mm. Frequency response is 60Hz-20kHz, and the SPL is an impressive 138dB Peak (passive)/140dB Peak (active mode), making it the most powerful point-source design in its class in today’s market.
In an innovative design twist which allows the user to customise his or her P12 cabinet, the horn flanges can be interchanged to deliver a variety of directivities – from the 60°x 60° that is provided as standard, to a 90°x 40° or an asymmetrical 50°- 100°x 40°. The interchangeable flanges are marketed as accessories. Switching between different directivities can be accomplished in just 15 seconds, easily removing the steel grille and replacing the flare, which uses a magnetic fixing.
Record to beat: 15 seconds to change directivity of P12, thanks to its magnetic flange clever design.
Less than 20 kg in weight, the ergonomic design of the P12 includes carry handles on each side, pole-mount fitting with an ingeniously-positioned Speakon connector behind it to allow tidy cable management, and threaded inserts for connection of mounting accessories. P12 can be used on a pole-mount with the L15 subbass cabinet, wall-mounted or flown in landscape mode beneath a L15 enclosure, using a specially-designed yoke bracket.
Denis Baudier, Commercial Director, Nexo.
NEXO expects that one of the principal applications of the new P12 enclosure will be on stage as the most versatile wedge monitor speaker on the market. The variable directivity feature will effectively treble the deployment of any inventory of P12 floor monitors, and the cabinet is designed for the rigours of touring use, with an extra-robust grille and scratch-resistant paint finish. Denis Baudier, Sales Director of NEXO, describes the P12 monitor as “lower profile and definitively sexier than any competitive product.
P12 as wedge monitor.
For a vocalist, there is better dispersion because of the angle of the cabinet, and variable dispersion means each box can be precisely tailored to its user, from lead guitarist to horn section to backing singer.”
With a switch on the back of the cabinet, the P12 is easy to reconfigure from Passive to Active mode, thus achieving 140dB Peak SPL. This is the first NEXO speaker to be purpose-designed to use the processing capacity of the new NXAMP4x2mk2 amplifier, although it is fully compatible with the larger NXAMP4x4. The processing in the NXAMP4x2mk2 is very precise, with separate set-ups for each directivity providing perfect coverage.
L15, ideal partner of the P12.
To partner the P12, NEXO is launching the L15 subbass cabinet, specially designed in a matching footprint which makes it ideal for flown applications, and for use as a drumfill. With a new acoustic loading technique using a 15” bass horn, the L15 operates with maximum efficiency: nearly all the front face of the cabinet is used as a radiating surface to provide really impressive output. With a frequency range of 40Hz-120Hz, and 139dB Peak SPL, this sub measures up as the most powerful in its category in the market.
Touring and installation versions of the P12 and its partner L15 sub will be produced in black and white scratch-resistant paint finishes, the first use of a new paint process which is stated by Joseph Carcopino, NEXO’s head of R&D, as “100 times better than before”. Applied using a special process, the paint finish prepares the P12 for use in all climate conditions, and enables it to deal robustly with the demands of stage monitoring use. TUV and IP54 certification is provided for the installation version of the P12.
Joseph Carcopino
Joseph Carcopino adds about the new techniques in cabinet construction, and available componentry: “Starting with the cabinet itself, we used a light poplar veneer inside which is 30% lighter than the standard wood we use at NEXO. We installed a new machine to handle the veneer, effectively producing the equivalent of a moulded cabinet in wood.
This gives us a better quality, super-tough enclosure, with a rounded shape that was inspired by the first PS design, launched back in 1992. Constructing it in bent wood minimises the number of parts we have to glue together, which in turn reduces vibration and makes it sound better. With the curved shape, it is easier to handle the box, particularly in a wedge monitor application.”
Rounded shape for cabinet in light poplar veneer.
“P12 is the first point-source cabinet that we have developed with a coaxial design, and so users will conclude that there are no longer Left cabinet and Right cabinet, as they are fully symmetric, so they work the same way even upside down. Using the same neodymium magnets for LF and HF frequencies saves weight, so in terms of the all-important power:size ratio, this is a high-performing compact cabinet.
Externally, with its scratch-resistant paint finish, the enclosure will be more resilient on the road. It has a super-strong grille, and even our Sales Director Denis Baudier can stand on it without bending it out of shape!”
This word game was too tempting, as The Kooks chose their name from the David Bowie song with the same title, so we figured out Bowie’s lyrics were worth shining a light on this 15-year old and successful band. They’ve just completed the latest UK and European leg of an ongoing world tour in support of their fifth studio album, Lets Go Sunshine, which dropped late last summer and hit a Top 10 in the UK.
Jordon Cooper of Moth Lights is their lighting designer and lighting equipment for this latest tour was supplied by award winning LCR – fresh from picking up the recent TPI Award for ‘Favourite Lighting Company’ – including 69 x Robe LEDBeam 150s and 32 x Spiider LED wash beam as the moving lights, plus a pair of BMFL WashBeams being controlled by a RoboSpot remote follow spotting system.
Jordon has worked with the band since the album launch last year. He was recommended by their stage manager Will Matthews with whom he’d previously worked on Band of Skulls, and when he and The Kooks production manager Dave Skelton saw Jordon’s design for Skindred at Brixton Academy, it confirmed his credentials as well as his talents as a designer and he was offered The Kooks. He met the band and their initial ideas were generated – some of which they thought about for some time – and collectively arrived on the same page for the overall look and feel of the show … which had elements of a classic music TV production with some modern elements.
Riser layout
Lead singer Luke Pritchard wanted a riser layout that allowed him to move around and explore the stage, and once they had agreed on its basic architecture, the other segments of the design evolved quickly.
The riser layouts also needed to be adaptable for production elements that might potentially be added at later stages – like video – as the tour scales up, and for this leg just played, it had to fit into multiple sized and shaped venues and maintain the integrity of the design. A static upright piano had to be reasonably accommodated onstage.
They made use of a pink satin drape that had originated as part of a festival scenic design by Cassius Creative utilised earlier in 2018 before Jordon was onboard. Over the stage there were three straight 15 metre trusses, with another in the advanced position. Trusses two and four were each loaded with 24 x LEDBeam 150s and on truss three there were 21 of the same fixtures. Also on the front truss were five profile moving lights for keys and eight LED strobe / floods used as for crowd effects, and sixteen more profiles spread between trusses two, three and four.
Punch and versatility in a tiny fixture
Jordon made the most of both beam and wash features of the LEDBeam 150s together with their punchy versatility in a tiny fixture indeed. In specific songs he capitalised on their speed – quick due to the small size and light weight – one of the reasons for his choice. Positioned as they were, spread over all three trusses, they added more depth to the picture.
A cluster of three LEDBeam 150s on truss three were used to highlight Luke and other clusters on trusses two and four were used to cover other band members. The Spiiders were all on the floor. Eight along the downstage edge were used at times for front lighting the band, and eight on the upstage edge created excellent fat beam effects at the back, with the other eight deployed four-a-side for cross lighting the band.
Spiiders from Mars? No, from Robe
The Spiiders doing the side and cross lighting gave a nice contrast to the top beams. “The colours are great” stated Jordon, and the beam angles allowed him to focus in on certain areas of the stage as well as opening out for full coverage. The upstage row of Spiiders were used as back-light in a wide zoom as well as for narrower beams slicing through the air for the rockier numbers.
The downstage Spiiders joined the upstage ones in beam mode and also enabled Jordon to enhance the crowd with a subtle glow during more intimate songs. He switched them into flower mode at strategic moments which meant he could mimic other fixtures in the air with a gobo-style effect, which boosted the impression of how many fixtures were on the rig, and there were times when he used the centre beam of the Spiiders to mimic the LEDBeam 150s up above.
RoboSpots shine on
He appreciates the multiple modes in which the Spiiders can be run and the sheer range of options they offer. The BMFL WashBeams were both on the front truss and controlled by the LCR crew operating the BaseStation positioned in dimmer world. They were used to follow Luke around the stage, with Jordon maintaining control of all the attributes through his grandMA2 console apart from the pan and tilt.
He loves the responsiveness and accuracy of the RoboSpot system. Jordon has been using Robe fixtures in his work since his first tour design for We Are In The crowd in 2013. The Kooks tour was project managed for LCR by Steve Bliss, whom Jordon met a while back. “I liked what I had already heard and seen of LCR and was keen to get them involved on this” he explained. His crew from LCR were Harrison Cooke (chief) who was joined by Aiden Cartmell and Ben Hodgkins, and the tour rigger was Rik Foreman. “They were all fantastic. Nice guys and great fun to be on the road with! Nothing was too much to ask and everything ran like clockwork!”
Adamson is set to expand its install-focused IS-Series with the launch of the IS219 subwoofer at InfoComm 2019. Despite its relative small height, conceived to facilitate its integration, it comprises two 19″ transducers in a Bass Reflex load.
Installation-tailored new subwoofer
“The response from architects and AV systems designers and integrators regarding our IS-Series has been incredibly encouraging,” commented Brian Fraser, Product Manager with Adamson. “There’s obviously a demand for premium, tour-proven sound quality in unobtrusive, architecturally-friendly enclosures, and there’s no better event to expand the series and enhance its versatility for various applications than InfoComm 2019.”
Brian Fraser.
The IS219 subwoofer is the latest addition to Adamson’s installation-tailored IS-Series, which packs the company’s sophisticated, tour-proven technology into sleek, architecturally-friendly cabinets with rugged and unobtrusive rigging solutions. The product was developed with input from several prominent integrators.
The enclosure is loaded with two lightweight, long-excursion 19” SD19 Kevlar Neodymium drivers utilizing Adamson’s Advanced Cone Architecture and a dual 5” voice coil for exceptional power handling. It is mounted in an ultra-efficient, front-loaded enclosure, designed to reproduce clean, musical low-frequency information.
19″ transducers ARE big, it would have been very difficult to reduce the enclosure even more..
The two transducers are cabled in parallel and have a global impedance of 4 ohms, with AES power handling of 3,200 W. With a 12 dB peak factor, the Maximum SPL reaches 143 dB. The frequency response is extended from 29 to 100 Hz at ± 3dB.
The cabinet construction uses marine-grade birch plywood as well as aircraft-grade steel and aluminum and is equipped with two front and back Speakon NL4 connectors, or barrier strips available upon request.
One IS219 déployed at Seacoast Church, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. When size does matter…
The IS219 ships with removable handles for easy transport while allowing it to fit into tight spaces when the handles are removed, and its 20-in. height ensure it can easily fit under a standard 24-in. stage.
As well as unveiling this new model of subwoofer, Adamson hosted at Infocomm a Milan Momentum Update, presenting technical updates for the protocol from the past year in a collaborative format. Milan combines the technical benefits of the AVB standard with pro AV market-defined device requirements to enhance ease-of-use and interoperability in network deployments for a myriad of applications. “We’ve been working with other industry leaders as part of the Avnu Alliance on the development of the Milan protocol as we believe it will be of significant benefit to our partners, end users, and the international pro audio community as a whole,” shared Adamson CEO Marc Bertrand.
The event also featured Adamson Network Engineer Morten Lave on a panel alongside Henning Kaltheuner (d&b audiotechnik), Genio Kronauer (L-Acoustics), and Tim Boot (Meyer Sound).
Countless single light sources on the wall of Martin’s booth at latest Proligt+Sound exhibition are constantly drawing our eye with punchy effects, powerful flashes and colors. These effects come from the new VDO Atomic Dot, a tiny projector of tremendous efficiency, resulting from a combination of strobe, blinder and video pixel.
Alone or in numbers, here comes the VDO Atomic Dot, new non-moving intelligent lighting source signed by Martin and shining by its versatility.
This small octagon shaped PAR30 box integrates in the first place a powerful central COB LED with optic lens, available in two versions, warm white or cold white. Around this middle lighting point, a circle of 16 small RGB LEDs takes place and shines around the central LED which is sent towards the reflector.
We thus obtain a colorful “matrix” Aura effect, visually very convincing. The beam created by the central LED has an angle of 11°, but it can open up to 22° when the sources are combined, raising the luminous flux up to 3,600 lumens at full power.
Close-up view of the small “Dot” with several accessories such as a frost filter or a quick coupling module.
As we discover this device, its name rigns to our ears as obvious. VDO for its use as a pixel via the P3 protocol or ArtNet, Atomic for its power that is really meeting all expectations, and Dot for its “mono compact source” feature. But there are more innovations to come. Mind you, this small concentration of lumens will be just as comfortable in a dry environment as in wet conditions with its IP65 certification.
It includes a new connector developed by Martin, where datas and power supply transit in the same cable. No external power supply, each unit is supplied with mains power and regulates easily its mains power supply.
The VDO Atomic Dot rear side view, with details of its hybrid connector.
This point seems important to us, and the boxes needed for the connection between this wiring and the more conventional only have this function and don’t include any electronics.
This small Dot can – piece of cake – address almost all the imaginative requests of the lighting designers in terms of hanging and integration by its wide potential of fittings and hanging props. Other accessories are available such as diffuser filters to widen the beam up to 60°, or adjustable barndoors.
A small promising fixture, clearly versatile, configurable in mono DMX channel as a simple blinder, 3 or 4 DMX channels in “Atomic” (strobe) mode, but, in extended mode it will require 64 channels, showing the richness of its parameters. Finally, our Martin guide on the booth, Wouter, announces a public price around 500 € HT per unit.
Freeing up valuable floor space downstage is absolutely required sometimes. RCF has bolstered its HDL subwoofer line up with two new models, the HDL 38-AS (18”) and the HDL 36-AS (15”). These HDL subs are “designed to fly”, ideal for theatrical and indoor system installations.
RCF HDL 38-AS and HDL 36-AS new active subwoofers.
Both subs contain a built-in 3.200 W class-D amplifier that delivers excellent playback clarity up to 136 (135) decibels SPL max. RDNet remote monitoring and real-time control, complete the professional HDL System. The HDL 38-AS is the ideal flown bass complement to the HDL 30-A array system, while the HDL 36-AS is compatible with the HDL 28-A rigging system.
Interesting key points, common to the two newbies:
Precision transducers RCF’s time-honored legacy in speaker design and manufacturing offers state-of-the-art neodymium magnetic circuits, radically new voice coil ventilation systems and ground-breaking direct drive voice coil assemblies.
“Al dente” Woofers Professional sound engineers Worldwide have come to rely on RCF active subwoofers, thanks to very high SPL levels at very low frequencies, highly compact dimensions, and impressive size/weight to SPL output ratio.
Designed to fly The external hardware is designed for fast and easy deployment, completely compatible with RCF HDL line array modules, but equally suitable in a ground-stacked sound system.
RCF HDL 38-AS and HDL 36-AS electronics.
Advanced electronics Onboard DSP provides system equalization, polarity control, fast limiter, RMS limiter, and configuration control – cardioid, end-fire and more – all features are accessible on the cabinet’s rear panel or remotely via RDNet networked management.
Networked control and more RDNet is a robust management network and control platform for small, medium and large arena-sized sound systems, as well as complex and extended installations. A network user can change level, delay, EQ and other settings, including advanced subwoofer configurations.
Tech specs of each model:
RCF HDL 38-AS.
The HDL 38-AS is the ideal flyable bass complement for the HDL 30-A array system. It features one 4.0” voice coil, 18” Neodymium woofer to handle 136 dB SPL Max from 30 Hz to 140 Hz with the maximum linearity and low distortion.
The HDL 38-AS is perfect to create flown systems for theatrical and indoor requirements. The built-in 3200W class-D amplifier delivers high level playback clarity and up to 136 decibels SPL max, with RDNet compatibility for remote monitoring and control.
RCF HDL 36-AS.
The HDL 36-AS is the ideal flyable bass complement for the HDL 28-A array system. It features one 4.0” voice coil, 15” neodymium woofer to handle 135 dB SPL Max from 40 Hz to 140 Hz with the maximum linearity and low distortion.
The built-in 3200 watts class-D amplifier delivers excellent playback clarity and up to 135 decibels SPL max. Due to its compatibility with RDNet – remote monitoring and control, the HDL 36-AS is part of the professional HDL System, as well as the HDL 38-AS.
Brompton Technologies are on the fast track indeed. This buoyant UK maker of video LED screens electronics, utilized by many top notch Pros, tours and TV shows (from Roger Waters and U2 to National Television Awards), has been ranked in the fifth annual Sunday Times WorldFirst SME Export Track 100 league table. Not only that, Brompton is also looking to teach the Tessera ins and outs to more and more skilled users with new forthcoming training sessions.
Brompton’s Managing Director Richard Mead. with some Tessera racks.
Fast-growing Export sales
The SME Export Track 100 ranks Britain’s 100 small and medium-sized (SME) companies that have achieved the fastest-growing international sales over the last two years. Compiled by Fast Track it was published in The Sunday Times on 26 May and will be celebrated at an awards dinner in September. Brompton has achieved phenomenal growth over the past two years, with sales of its Tessera SX40 4K LED processor and XD Data Distribution units playing a significant part in its international success, with both products seeing impressive uptake from production companies in the US, Australia and across Europe.
“From the outset Brompton has worked with partners all round the world and it is particularly pleasing to receive recognition for our success in international sales,” says Brompton’s Managing Director Richard Mead. “Last September we also appeared in the Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 league table, which recognises Britain’s private technology companies with the fastest sales growth over the past three years, and these are both achievements of which everyone in the company should be incredibly proud.”
New training sessions
Here are the Tessera training dates arranged until the end of the year:
The AccorHotels Arena during the afternoon. Notice the 16-meter stage thrust that incorporates a conveyor belt down its center. The Karas and KS28s around the central scoreboard, as you can guess, are not part of the production.
Christine and The Queens, or Chris played a great show last winter at the AccorHotels Arena, supported by a large L-ISA configuration designed by Vladimir Coulibre and mixed by Julien Decarne for Melpomen.
This report is dedicated to the memory of Pedro.
Sleek staging, music and lyrics assume fundamental importance, so the sound has to be the perfect vector for two hours of a show that is also being broadcast live on television. SLU is present for this last and immersive Parisian date before the production takes a pause, to resume with a classic left/right during the summer festivals in 2019. [private]
We are welcomed by Vladimir Coulibre, L-ISA consultant, Julien Decarne at FoH, Christophe Rousseau on the monitors, and Melpomen’s teams for the B Live group, including Adrien Maupeu and Samuel Birais – a serene welcome despite the importance of a Parisian date with a live broadcast. Vlad gets the first questions, including on camera for SoundLightUp YouTube channel.
The genesis
SLU : Who had the idea and the desire to amplify the show with L-ISA?
Vlad (left) and Julien, a formidable team behind the creation of the technical infrastructure for Chris’ immersive tour.
Vladimir Coulibre : The idea to go beyond the left/right and localize the sound sources was already in our heads along with Julien (Decarne, FoH engineer for Chris) and when we started talking about Chris’ tour, we decided to present the L-ISA concept to everyone involved, the production, other technicians and, of course, Héloïse. The immersive concept has to be integrated into all of the departments and has to be integrated financially as well. This is why I went to see them in Saint-Omer and explained the technical and artistic aspects. SLU : But they didn’t get to hear it?
Vladimir Coulibre : No… first of all, we had to explain the artistic advantages but also the constraints. Once we had received a preliminary approval, we worked with Julien to determine the configuration, we budgeted it with Melpomen, proposed it to the production and got the okay.
Some details close to the floor, the mega system hung at Bercy. By Vlad’s own admission, very cozy.
SLU : What were the goals of the coverage and immersion for this show?
Vladimir Coulibre : Effectiveness and correlation to the live performance. This project is very similar to theater but with instruments and should sound like live.
SLU : What about alternating between dates with L-ISA and dates with a left/right system?
Vladimir Coulibre : We worked on the issue with Julien and decided to create the mix in the console in L/R and then recover the signals and recreate a L-ISA mix in the matrix. This ensured compatibility with the different rooms.
Here’s Vlad Coulibre in text and on camera. Watch him tell us about his work with Julien, along with some other very juicy technical details that won’t hurt. Click on the link below.
Let’s take a walk through the woods, while the decibels are there.
Let’s leave the office and head for the venue in Bercy, where both the tour teams and the teams involved in the live broadcast – the same evening – are busy.
A complete view of the Focus deployment, with seven arrays for the L-ISA front and two more arrays of K2 for the sides.
SLU : So there’s a lot of wood hanging up there…
Vladimir Coulibre : We have three arrays of 16 K2s for the Focus section and two arrays of 22 Karas each to complete the basic deployment of L-ISA, then we have two arrays of 14 K2s for the sides and, finally, two arrays of 18 Karas each for the Extended section. In the center, behind the center array of K2s, we have two clusters of 10 KS28s in a cardioid configuration. Since we lose energy in the bass near the stage due to the length of the cables and the cardioid configuration, we added a little bass on the floor with six KS28s, four of which are central and the other two at the two extremities of the stage. There is a smooth transition between the two levels of bass.
The mapping of the central K2s from 1 kHz to 10 kHz. A major advantage of a non-interfering configuration is that the treble can be easily thrown long.
SLU : Are you driving the subs on the floor less?
Vladimir Coulibre : No, they are at the same level as the flown set. As there are fewer elements and they are not close to each other, this bass reinforcement is surprisingly gentle.
SLU : How did you filter the system?
Vladimir Coulibre : All the heads are working in full range, which provides a lot of bass energy in Focus mode with the three arrays of K2, where everything that requires SPL is concentrated at the bottom. Even the Karas provide a foundation that allows them to transition well with the K2 outfills.The proximity between the center K2 array and the KS28s provides excellent coupling in the 30/60 Hz octave, since the KS28s are cut off beyond this. To complete the near-field deployment, there are four double sets of Kiva mono lip-fills and two sets of four Kara out-fills at the left and right of the stage.
The two-part thrust is actually more convenient to deploy in smaller rooms, by leaving one of the two halves on the truck.
SLU : Why are you using Karas for these reinforcements?
Vladimir Coulibre : We have a 16-meter thrust stage – two 8-meter elements – which incorporates a conveyer belt. We have a 16-meter thrust stage, two 8-meter elements, which includes a treadmill. In preparation for the Parisian dates and the broadcast, I tried to limit as much as possible the influence of the K2 on this thrust by making them come into play a little further out into the audience and compensating for this with a few Karas, to avoid harming the people at the front.
SLU : Why did you offset the catwalk, to lower the voice a little?
Vladimir Coulibre : No, this is a purely artistic choice and regardless of where it is placed, it doesn’t bother me. The bottom box strikes at ten meters out, so we just have to be careful after that. We worked with some shelving FIR filters and it works very well. Chris uses a Shure AD2 with a DPA d:facto capsule.
A graph explains everything much better than a long explanation. Here’s the attenuation at 30 meters and 8 kHz maximum. There is still another octave and a bunch of meters left, both being even more sensitive to dry air…. At 16 kHz and 95 metres away, still for 20% humidity, we reach in theory – 48 dB
SLU : In a large venue like the AHA (Paris AccorHotels Arena in three characters!) can you work without delays?
Vladimir Coulibre : It was out of the question to use any; with three 16-element arrays we have plenty of what we need, including for the most distant point which is 95 meters away. At the Tony Garnier Hall in Lyon with 3 x 12 K2 we were fine, we only suffered a little bit in Toulouse, where the heating system dries out the air too much and, at 20% humidity, the sound is not pleasant at all. The treble from 4 kHz upwards drops off rapidly. Fortunately, the arrival of the audience raised the humidity!
We take a walk around the room and get close to the stage. The absence of any scenery makes the small stacks of two Kivas, which are slightly higher than the surface of the stage front, very visible.
SLU : Given the number of lip-fills, I assume you are running those in mono. They are high…
Vladimir Coulibre : Yes. We could have done them in stereo but it’s not very interesting, so we take the mono downmix from the matrix. The height of the Kivas is necessary to fill the 10 meters in front of the stage, up to where the main system comes into play, with the lowest box peaking at 9.5 m.
The small stacks of two Kiva II elements each.
SLU : With 16 K2s, do you have sufficient energy to bring out the kick drum and bass, or do you take advantage of the other 32 boxes and send part of the signal to them?
Vladimir Coulibre : The three central arrays of the Focus deployment are 3.5 m apart, which means they are far enough apart to start giving an opening to the sound, but close enough to maintain coherence at the bottom of the spectrum. If you position your kick drum on the most central array and the subs, you get a certain pressure; if you need more, you open your kick onto two arrays and gain 6 dB. We do this on a few songs and there are no negative side effects.
A Soundvision mapping that simulates the performance between 40 Hz and 125 Hz of the central array of K2s, which shows that this box provides bass and that a line of 16 already generates a natural forward concentration of frequencies that are almost omnidirectional.
SLU : Are you still maintaining coherence as your kick comes from two arrays plus the subs? Is it as coherent as if you were working with a line+sub?
Vladimir Coulibre : No, but you still maintain coherence. What matters is knowing in advance how much contour you want to obtain. If you can confine bass-rich sources to only one of the three central arrays and achieve this contour, that’s ideal, but if you need a little more headroom, you can slide between two arrays and obtain a perfectly acceptable coherence. In tonight’s show the drums move so we follow them.
Another very interesting mapping that shows the effect of the forward cluster of ten KS28s, half of the 2 x 10 flown configuration. The distribution is remarkable and shows that the energy remains very significant even at nearly 100 meters. When the second column is added, the stage becomes very quiet. Finally, the placement of the subs very close to the central arrays of K2 eliminates almost all interference.
SLU : Have you chosen to place trackers on the artists so that they can be followed?
Vladimir Coulibre : No, that wasn’t asked of us, but it’s quite possible and provided for in the matrix. When you approach a project of this nature and of this scale, it is good to proceed gradually and to respect a very precise methodology. We started with Julien from a left/right and gradually we moved forward in baby steps day by day into L-ISA, to make sure we didn’t make mistakes, while keeping the full compatibility of the left/right for the dates that didn’t allow for the immersive deployment.
The positioning of source objects in relation to the audio diffusion. Not much depth and many of the sources that require SPL and contour are located right in the center.
SLU : Have you noticed any kind of enthusiasm for the immersive sound?
Vladimir Coulibre : Yes, but I decided not to rely on social networks, but rather on people who have experienced the show without specifically working in sound. For example, the ushers/stewards in the Geneva venue came to us to tell us how surprised they were by the sound, which they had never heard before. What usually comes out are two comments: that the voice is more intelligible and that people notice a different type of listening experience.
Julien in front of his S6L a few minutes before the start of the show.
Very good results despite an average LEQ15 level of 95 dBA and 106 dBC, which may seem very prudent but is sufficient. L-ISA is going to change the way we mix because, for example, we no longer have to push things through by force. The slightest deviation is audible, so we will have to learn to control and even listen to this different sound, for which we lack points of reference. We have talked a lot with Julien about these differences in perception.
At stage left there is always something going on!
We let Vlad get back to his 198 speakers including 76 K2s, 88 Karas, 26 KS28s and 8 Kiva IIs – child’s play, really – and we go in search of the power behind all this wood. A perfectly groomed cable drop reveals the presence of amps at stage-right, but especially at stage-left. Although we can now drive three K2s with each LA12X with serenity, we are still impressed by their number of LA-Rak IIs and SSE racks, as the entire system uses them. There are 63 amplified controllers in total, or 0.75 megawatts.
Sam Birais and, on the right, Adrien Maupeu in front of the SSE racks on the floor and the LA-Rak IIs on top of them, corresponding to the additional L-ISA arrays compared with the dates using only L/R.
This tour behind the stage allows us to chat with Adrien Maupeu, the chargé d’affaires, and Samuel Birais, the technical supervisor on this tour, both on behalf of Melpomen.
SLU : How are the two L-ISA matrices interfaced?
Samuel Birais : We have two MADI cards in Julien’s S6L for redundancy. All the Direct Outs of the console are duplicated and are transported on fibre to the two L-ISA matrices, which can receive this directly.
The rigorously redundant matrix configuration with, on top, the management of the streams and remote control from the console and, below these, the two L-ISA matrices and their MADI to AES converters.
Once the immersive signals are generated, they are fed into the RME 6432s that convert the MADI back to AES to drive the LA12Xs that have two separate A and B inputs. We could have used AVB but, for security, we opted for a more tried and tested solution.
SLU: Switching between the two configurations is done at the amplifiers….
Samuel Birais : Yes, you just have to choose between AB input or CD input. We take advantage of the four inputs of this controller. If we had had to use LA8, we would have been beaten.
Being at stage-left also gives us the opportunity to meet the monitor team, namely Amandine Charré, who is responsible for running the large Ableton setup, ProTools, as well as the stage, and Christophe Rousseau, who is mixing the monitors
Christophe and Amandine next to the S6L monitor console.
Amandine Charré : I am in charge of the Ableton system, which is remotely controlled by Chris’ music director, Bastien Doremus. I set up and monitor this workstation. We also record each concert every night in ProTools, using the AVB stream from the monitor console. SLU : Do you have the split at the stagebox?
Amandine Charré : Yes, we have 128 inputs, even if we don’t use them all and, in our case, a lot of outputs – 24 in all.
Christophe Rousseau : I’m doing 12 different mixes.
The Ableton system, on the left, is redundant thanks to a pair of Radial SW8s. The ProTools recording station is on the right, with its Mac Pro in a Sonnet rack.
SLU : Does having so many speakers above the stage make a difference?
Christophe Rousseau : Yes, it’s more enjoyable! We don’t have any back-wave, it’s super-clean. Compared to a left/right it’s less cluttered. More sources and less power, it is very good for us I even had to add bass to the drummer’s ears because it was lacking a little bit.
All the radio systems of the tour, with lots of Americans and one German. ;0) From top to bottom, you can see the Shure chargers, the dual AD4D receiver for Chris and its backup, a Sennheiser 3732 for talkbacks, the Shure combiner and 12 PSM1000 in-ear transmitters for the artists, technicians and production.
SLU : In this regard, what in-ears are you using with your PSM1000?
Christophe Rousseau : Variphone ES50. When I came onto this tour, everyone was already equipped, so I got a pair for myself to be able to listen in the same way.
SLU : How does the redundancy of the Ableton system work?
Amandine Charré : Using Radial SW8s. They have A and B inputs with a reference signal and a pre-set threshold. If our reference goes below the threshold, it switches automatically from one to the other. This is also the case now when there is no signal. SLU : And this relative abundance of cables…
Christophe Rousseau : … is due to tonight’s television feed (laughs).
The stage-right speaker cable drop. 20 KS28s, 46 K2s and 40 Karas. As Sam jokingly told us: “Next time we’re going to ask for a distro tech!”
Conclusion teasers
After spending a long day in the Arena, we got to listen to, and thoroughly appreciate, this unprecedented deployment of nearly 200 boxes. As the plots provided by Vlad show, the bass is extremely uniform, whether it comes from the cardioid arrangement of KS28s or from the three central arrays of K2s, and all of this works very well together, too.
Soundvision is growing year by year. The Target SPL, for example, is the chosen SPL coverage and is achieved, for example, by the splay angles between the enclosures, all of which is then refined using tools such as the FIR filters.
The transition between the immersive system and the K2 side hangs is really seamless. It flows very well smoothly without any change in color or density, even better than with the L-ISA Extended, where the transition of K2 into Kara makes for a very pleasant experience. The sonic image opens well with, inevitably, less width for the audience on the sides but nothing comparable to what a lowly L/R provides anywhere except at the console…. A stroll at the back of the room confirms the validity of Vlad’s choices, the treble still arrives, even if a little harsher. When the room is full we find, as it should be, even more coherence and precision. This is a very fine job of system design and implementation, which could be even more effectively exploited artistically in the future.
One of the highlights of the show: the raining down, in absolute silence, of a phenomenal quantity of white confetti that, nearly five months later, continues to fall out of our camera bags – and we don’t even want to think about the consoles…
Above and beyond L-ISA, we are on the verge of a profound transformation in amplified sound reproduction, which will force us to change our habits, encrusted as we are in the left/right and its soothing familiarity. Today, when we bring the faders up, we actually initiate the sound battle where the SPL is self-immolating, fueled by the quantities of wood on the ground and in the air. With immersive technology and L-ISA, we get caught plagiarizing the wonderful scene from Un idiot à Paris with Bernard Blier: “no more stereo, no more vacation for your fingers, no more interference…” The sound comes out with a new ease and coherence, but it doesn’t forgive very much. Without the mask of the interference of the dual mono, one finds colors, impact and a certain edge, undoubtedly related to the regained coherence.
Vlad and Julien fully concentrated. You could hear a grain of sand drop… well, almost.
The impression of “acoustic fullness” comes at least 3 dB lower and all sources gain a lot of detail, including the lead vocal, which is being rediscovered without the need to corset it in the dynamic chains of the past. From now on, we only hear the vocals. The dynamics can be more finely honed thanks to a much more smooth and analytical result. Mixing for immersive sound and mixing for left/right are two different acoustic and artistic approaches, and thinking that you can spread out the latter by substituting the matrix for the pan pot is not a viable way of going about it. You have to work with your sources and your dynamics differently.
So, what is true in classical music, where L-ISA has proved its worth and has finally brought air to that musical genre, the analysis and orchestral structure in 3D that the left/right is only clumsily sketching is still in its early days in pop. The 3-day L-ISA training courses, about which we have heard very positive comments, will also talk about mix, but it would be good if the audio academies were to take an interest in them very soon.
In the land of tomorrow’s sound, some goodies that remind us that good sound is made with what sounds good… even if it’s old or analog. “Especially”, some will say!
Now, all that remains is to find a satisfactory balance between the cost of a L-ISA system and the tangible contribution for the audience, whose difficulty in perceiving what seems so obvious to us must be highlighted. It will probably take more time to build the shows by designing more spatially defined sound, accompanying the singer and putting a touch of craziness into the performance, without losing the “centerpiece”, the distinctive characteristic of any concert.
This is probably the cost at which the audience will recognize and support the immersive sound they have come to appreciate and hear in the cinema for a long time. L-ISA, or any object-based system, will have to bring as much liberty and spontaneity to a show as the wireless systems have, even if it means adding a little bit more wood on the sides or at the back to never lose the sound/artist relationship in case the latter goes for a walk around the room. We would also like to have a K3 – “3” as in three drivers, which would allow it to exceed 110° without losing SPL at a distance and a Kara 2 with L-Fins and two drivers, for the same reasons. For immersive applications, 110° really is too narrow.
Anyway, while we are waiting for Santa Claus to pass through Marcoussis on his way to spoil us with a sleigh full of new enclosures, it is time for artists and their talented and well-trained technicians to make better use of today’s resources. One thing is certain: we’ve never found anything better than air to mix sound in.
Pedro Peixoto, who worked on this tour, passed away on May 30th. This report is dedicated to him. Some lasts words from the people who worked with him.
Pedro was a top guy ! Always positive, always calm, always Pro! The only fact to see him enter the room and say hello was already generating smiles on our faces! What a pleasure to work it was with him!!! He was also brilliant, rigorous and generous, humble, funny… All the Melpomen teams join his friends, family members and relatives to honour him. Let him rest in peace…
Ayrton presents Perseo-S, its first multi-function, compact and powerful, IP65-rated fixture developed for intensive outdoor use. The video presentation of Perseo-S has been released and can be watched below.
Perseo-S is the latest in Ayrton’s new range of profile, spot and wash fixtures and claimed as the ultimate in versatility. Designed for the broadest range of applications, Perseo-S is the a moving light conceived for both indoor and outdoor use, due to its compact size, impressive output, light weight, ease of service and carefully designed lines. It can be controlled by DMX-RDM, ArtNet™ or a wireless link using CRMX TiMo RDM from LumenRadio™.
A bunch of Ayrton Perseo-S LED Profiles in full “washing” routine, splash ’em up!
Perseo-S made its debut appearance at Prolight + Sound 2019 in Frankfurt and is shipping with immediate effect, ready to play its part on all those summer festivals, whatever the weather!
Optical efficiency Perseo-S produces a 27,000 lumen output from its 500W LED source which is calibrated at 8000K. Perseo-S has been designed to achieve an optimal resolution-to-performance-to-efficiency ratio with perfect image reproduction, a zoom range of 7° to 56°, no noticeable hotspot and significant improvement from distortion at wide angles.
Submersible fans Perseo-S features a new minimalist design in die-cast aluminium so it weighs in at under 40kg. It incorporates full weather-proofing features that ensure easy accessibility, including a highly effective phase-change liquid cooling system fitted with four submersible fans located outside the watertight enclosure and a new water-resistant menu navigation system.
Fully-fledged and feature rich Feature rich as standard, with a wealth of effects and gobo options, and of course, 100% framing shutters, Perseo-S also boasts a subtractive CMY colour mixing system for ultimate colour mixing, a variable CTO and a wheel with six complementary colours supposed to produce an infinite palette of vivid pastels and saturated colours.
Feature rich indeed.
The framing section allows accurate positioning of four shutter blades on a 100% surface area in all positions, so that the user can frame any object regardless of the luminaire’s position.
The image section includes 18 interchangeable HD glass gobos on two wheels: one rotating wheel with seven positions and one fixed wheel with eleven positions.
The effects section includes a continuous dynamic effects wheel; a 15-blade iris diaphragm; two frost filters, one soft edge, one hard edge; and two rotating prisms, one circular with 5 facets and one linear with 4 facets.
Almost sneak preview of the Powersoft X4L, although it’s a real Formula 1 monster. We met its creator Claudio Lastrucci at Prolight & Sound, to learn more about this new model in the X Series and discover what’s under the hood.
In a few words, the X4L includes 4 amplification channels, 4 analog inputs, optional AES and Dante (with redundancy), and very complete processing and routing integrated into ArmoníaPlus. It can also be powered in single phase, dual phase of tri phase mains, from 85 V to 460 V in auto selection, while boarding a PFC to clean up and stabilize perfectly the available incoming mains. Able to deliver an average of 200 V per channel and peaks up to 300 V, it is the ideal companion of all modern and very capacitive speakers, bringing them a useful energy it knows how to recycle and re-inject, meaning less consumption in the end. Quite a Beast indeed!
SLU : You claim peaks of 300 V and 140 A, meaning between 50 and 100% more than what’s on the market. Why?
A nice italian 21“ baby, the 21SW152 from B&C
Claudio Lastrucci : The existing transducers, and moreover the up and coming ones, all have a high BL, and it keeps raising. très élevé et qui ne cesse d’augmenter. To maximize their potential, you have to deliver a much higher voltage (under constant resistance of the coil). Additionally, you have to recycle the energy that the transducer sends back to the output of the amplifier.
To make an analogy with the electric vehicles, instead of heating the brakes when you drive down a slope, you use the engine brake by sending a significant percentage of the energy used to drive up the hill, into the batteries. In the case of a low frequency speaker, while generating audio you stretch a spring, actually its suspension. The kinetic energy coming back can then be collected.
The D class can be more or less optimized to do this job, and if in parallel the transducer has a high BL, the efficiency of this collecting becomes important. That has a valuable effect on the collected energy collected from mains, compared to a non optimized amplifier.
The rear plate of the X4L with the single 5th NL8 socket delivering the 4 outputs.
SLU : Do you inject it into the condensers?
Claudio Lastrucci : Exactly. Instead of requesting it from the PSU, I use this energy directed to our big stocking area, and the more the transducer is reactive with a large diameter, the more we collect back.
SLU : So, the X4L is an amplifier completing the X Series, but not replacing any model?
Claudio Lastrucci : Absolutely. The X4 is less powerful and is 1U high, the X8 offers eight channels and is 2U high. The X4l is part of this family while standing slightly apart, including in the switching strategy of the stages. Its capacity in recycling energy and its power, the double of the other models, had us going for the 2U housing.
The little X family, complete with, from top to bottom, the X4, the X4L and the X8.
SLU : Everything is different?
Claudio Lastrucci : No, the logic board, the DSP, the presets and the switching 3 phase mode are the same, and the chassis too.
SLU : What about the PSU?
Claudio Lastrucci : The PSU is different, it’s the case in all three models (laughs). The X4L is a « bestione » (let’s translate this by Big Beast, Monster, Colossus, etc…) as it delivers 200 V RMS.
SLU : You do insist on this very value, it sounds like the end of the Watt?
Claudio Lastrucci : There would be some much to say about the powers manufacturers claim, the ones they really can hold, what a transducer really accepts, so the Watt doesn’t mean much nowadays, neither for the amps, nor for the speakers; for transducers, the efficiency can also vary depending on temperature, load… The modern speakers need to be shaken, and they are more and more capacitive. Ideally, we should go for kVA on both sides, but whatever happens, the future is leading us towards modern amplifiers designed for their load. Even our good ol’ K20, long time most powerful unit in our brand, is now beaten (almost) hands down!
With the arrival of the very first Maverick MK3, just in time for Prolight + Sound 2019, Chauvet is still gaining notoriety.
Like the Elation brand, to which it is sometimes in terms of strategy and expansion compared, Chauvet is slowly but surely a major player in the scramble. Evidence of this consistency, the Maverick range is becoming more and more recognized reference.
With the switch to MK3 for the Spot and the Profile, Chauvet introduces two quality moving heads, full of features, ready to shake the world rankings.
MK3 Spot and Profile
Chauvet’s flagship stage and touring series hosts a Spot and a Profile with almost similar functions. The most important development is the transition to a white LED source of 820 W, whose 51,000 native lumens can expect more than 30,000 lumens output. Coupled with a 7500K very cold white, it has sufficient power to integrate well with the big concert stages.
The Maverick MK3 Spot and Profile, which no one can ignore the filiation.
As in all the Maverick range, the control protocols include DMX, RDM, Art-Net, sACN and swedish wireless DMX, standard from Wireless Solution W-DMX®.
Another peculiarity, rather unusual, is the presence of a progressive gradient filter, which improves the CRI from 73 to 93 for a flux loss of less than 15%. Depending on the circumstances, priority may therefore be given to the respect of the colors or the luminous intensity. The other features show a fairly exhaustive list of possibilities, especially for the Profile. These two moving heads have in common a CMY color mixing with the additional help of a progressive CTO and a wheel of 6 saturated colors.
A 9: 1 zoom from 6 ° to 54 °, an iris and two different variable Frosts filters (superlight and medium) are also comprised. Two 5-facet prisms, one linear and one circular, are close to the animation wheel and the gobo wheels. The difference between Spot and Profile is made at this level, with two wheels of 7 rotating gobos and one of 8 fixed for the Spot and a wheel of rotating gobos and one of fixed for the Profile, which hosts in addition a module of 4 motorized blades at 120 ° angle plus complete insertion. It is necessary to note surprising geometrical forms and very graphic patterns on the gobos, rather pleasant.
The Maverick Mk3 Spot and Profile MK3 prices are targeted for Europe at 10,699 € HT and 11,899 € HT (list price), and these machines will be available end of June. Future evolutions with Wash-Beam and IP65 seem to be already in mind, to meet the requests for these particular models.
Well Pad Full Color
The Well Pad is a fixed decorative projector, a rectangular LED wall washer designed for local architectural lighting punctual. Its 96 LEDs are arranged on an tiltable panel, fixed at its base to a manually orientated axis from 0 to 90 °. This base contains the power supply, a battery and two receivers: infrared and wireless DMX.
While the prototype of the Well Pad Full Color remained hidden from the visitors of the Prolight, some images of its beam circulated confidentially.
This standalone projector is announced for 9 hours of minimum operation, local controls or by infrared remote control or wireless DMX. The Well Pad Full Color is certified with IP65 protection to work in the rain or snow without problems. If the simple model released last year was composed of low-power red, green, blue and amber monochromatic LEDs, a full color version of 96 multichip RGBW 3W LEDs will arrive in September. Its 350 W of power is converted in a powerful beam with an angle of 22 ° as standard, and 38 ° with the filter diffuser on. A flight-case charger for five units is also available.
Épix Flex 20, drive and boost
The range of Epix video led bars and tubes is gaining flexibility with Epix Flex 20 strips. With an initial length of 5 meters, Flex 20 tapes can be lengthened or cut without compromising their IP67 sealing.
With 14 mm wide and 5 thick, the Flex LedStrip can be used at will in all installations.
With a pitch of 20mm, each element includes 240 RGB pixel LEDs specially designed for dynamic graphics or decorations. Several modes are provided to control them, from 17 channels to 720, in DMX, Art-Net, sACN via their control box.
The Epix Flex Drive, here in a 2U flight case, can be set up from its menu on the front panel or by WebServer. An Epix Flex Boost is placed on the top.
The PSU, named Epix Flex Drive, is sufficient to drive 2 outputs of 10 meters of tape, and 1920 LEDs maximum. With such a large number of pixels, the new management designed in Kling-Net protocol is almost essential to work directly with video streams. For even more “power greedy” montages, an Epix Flex Boost module allows you to extend already wired tapes by doubling their length. Thus, with an Epix Flex Drive power supply, 2 Epix Flex Boost and 8 Epix Flex 20, it becomes possible to use 2 times 20 meters of total led strips. IP Flex specific cables are available in different lengths to install the led strips far from the drivers.
Avnu announces in a row Infocomm events, two new board of director members from the Pro AV – Milan working group, and RCF new membership.
Henning Kaltheuner of d&b audiotechnik and Genio Kronauer of L-Acoustics, both of whom have been instrumental in the release of Milan protocol and continue to work hard on the ongoing certification and ecosystem development efforts. This is newsworthy as both members are Pro AV focused specifically and will continue to drive forward the Milan initiative with the board’s support.
Infocomm events
Avnu is looking forward to heading to InfoComm this week and they are hosting a series of events that the show to provide news and updates about the Milan protocol to the community. Avnu invite all SoundLightUp readers and Infocomm visitors to attend one of the Milan networking news update events. There are two to choose from:
Wednesday from 5-5:30 in the Adamson demo room (#W230C) followed by networking and happy hour
Thursday from 5-5:30 in the Meyer Sound demo room (#W240) followed by networking and happy hour
Milan workgroup founding members Henning Kaltheuner of Germany-based d&b audiotechnik and Genio Kronauer of France-based L-Acoustics have been elected to the Avnu Alliance board of directors.
Henning Kaltheuner.
Kaltheuner and Kronauer, together with their colleagues, have both been major contributors to Avnu Alliance in the ProAV segment, both in marketing and technical capacities. Results from their leadership include the recent introduction of Milan interoperability protocol, which under their direction is continuing to help shape the future of the industry.
“The support from the Avnu Alliance for the Milan initiative has been remarkable and very constructive,” said Henning Kaltheuner, Head of Strategic Business Development and Market Intelligence, d&b audiotechnik. “It is a logical step for pro AV companies to continue to take responsibility and leadership within the Avnu Alliance. This is the right forum where leading pro AV, IT, automotive and industrial companies can come together to create converged network standards for the future.”
Genio Kronauer.
“Avnu has provided a strong platform for the audio industry to work together to develop AVB networked products with plug and play ease that allow our clients to focus on creating unforgettable live shows,” said Genio Kronauer, Director of Electronics at L-Acoustics. “It has been a pleasure to work with my peers on the Milan initiative and now it is an honor for me to represent the pro AV industry on the Alliance board of directors.”
“Henning and Genio are well-respected leaders in the Alliance and the pro AV industry,” said Greg Schlechter, President, Avnu Alliance.
Greg Schlechter.
“Their leadership over the past several years and the experience and work that they have contributed to Avnu and the ProAV workgroup has been invaluable. I look forward to working with them on the board of directors to lead the Alliance in enabling the transformation required by these ecosystems onto standard, converged networks.”
New officer nominations were also made, including Greg Schlechter of Intel as President. Greg has been involved with Avnu for nearly a decade, previously serving as a board member and Avnu Marketing Workgroup Chair, working across market segments to develop strong positioning, communications and strategy for the Alliance.
The board also created a position of Avnu Alliance CTO, with Kevin Stanton of Intel stepping in to help facilitate additional common architecture leadership across segments and with the increasing number of organizations that Avnu cooperates and liaises with.
Other officer nominations include Gary Stuebing, Cisco, as Vice President and Chairman; Dave Olsen, Harman, as Treasurer; Matt Mora, Apple, as Secretary; and Amanda Cruz, VTM Group, as Executive Director.
RCF joins Avnu Alliance
RCF joins other leading pro audio manufacturers that make up the core of the Milan workgroup in continuing to drive forward Milan’s market growth and momentum and deliver truly interoperable pro audio networked devices.
RCF CEO Arturo Vicari (left) with Umberto Zanghieri (right).
Founded in 1949, RCF is a long-time audio industry manufacturer, with a modern manufacturing facility based in Italy, developing speakers, digital mixing consoles, microphones, technology, and accessories for live sound, professional and installed sound, and commercial audio needs.
“We have been following the Milan work that has been ongoing within Avnu Alliance from a close distance for the past year and we are thrilled to announce that we’re joining the group and our intention to add Milan connectivity to our product line,” said Umberto Zanghieri, R&D Manager, RCF. “With our philosophy of utilizing the latest technologies as required by our customer base, and to expand our professional audio products offering, we decided to join the Milan initiative within Avnu.” RCF will exhibit at InfoComm 2019 in Booth #6551.
John MacMahon.
“We’re excited to welcome RCF as the newest pro AV segment and Milan workgroup member,” said John McMahon, Pro AV Segment Chair, Avnu Alliance. “RCF is renowned in the industry for being a long-time innovator in professional audio products and technology, a perfect fit for contributing to the goals and plans of the Milan workgroup and Avnu Alliance as a whole. We look forward to their valuable industry insight and contribution in helping us continue to make Milan together.”
Steeped in musical history and arguably Brussels’ most important live music venue, Ancienne Belgique is a multi-application space spanning several floors and incorporating two live rooms and a recording studio. It is often the first stop on the touring calendar for most international acts, as well as a hotspot for up and coming local bands. Over the last 18 months, the venue has invested in two DiGiCo consoles in a bid to stay as flexible as possible: first, an SD5, which sits at monitor position and most recently, an SD12 which is now the venue’s go-to FOH board.
SD12 at FOH position, 192 kHz preamps and all bells & whistles.
Ancienne Belgique first opened its doors in 1994 and underwent a massive two-year renovation to create a multi-purpose musical hub. Today, it boasts a superbly kitted out 2,000-capacity main hall; the club, which is a great sounding 280-capacity room dedicated to bands on the circuit as well as the Brussels local scene; and a state-of-the-art recording studio.
“All of our crew are capable of doing everything, and what’s nice is that we are also interchangeable between the main hall and the club,” opens Ancienne Belgique’s technical manager Mark Vrebos. “For example, a rock and roll show might be all-standing and full to the brim,but if we have jazz music we might choose to make it all seated, or half and half. We can also bring the capacity of the main hall down from 2,000 to 800 if needed. It’s basically a very versatile space. Then we have the club, which is a fantastic place for local acts to showcase their talents.”
SD5 at monitor position stageright. Notice the paper strips “archives” on the left.
“We knew we wouldn’t be able to use our good old analogue boards forever; we keep them alive, and we still use them because it’s good to have both options. But it was getting more and more difficult, and we didn’t want to wait until it was too late to make a digital investment” Vrebos explains.
“Today, we absolutely need digital. Sometimes we’re doing festivals with five bands on stage, all of them doing a soundcheck, so that is not going to work if we’re analogue! And the age of engineers is changing too, so we have found the demand for digital is way higher than it used to be at festivals and shows.”
SD5 at monitor position stageright. Detail of stagebox rack.
In addition to the sonic quality that comes with a DiGiCo, it was the familiarity of the brand with travelling engineers that drew Ancienne Belgique to opt for them. “In my experience everyone knows a DiGiCo, so when they see one they’re happy and everyone knows at least the basics of how a DiGiCo works,” reveals Vrebos.
“I also really love the analogue channel strip feel – the whole ‘top down’ thing. It stays with analogue logic, top to bottom, and that is extremely important to me. And then there’s the flexibility of the consoles – the fact you can do anything on them, and that they’re so fast to navigate.”
The SD12 was chosen for its high power, functionality, and small footprint. “All DiGiCo desks have that reliability, but the fact that the SD12 is more recent, with newer technology, was very appealing. That was the idea behind investing in it” Vrebos continues.
“Also, the new 32-bit preamps are built into the SD12, which are incredible sounding; the noise floor is now so low, and you get a cleaner, better overall sonic, and a way cleaner signal to noise ratio, which is very important. And, of course, the small footprint makes them ideal.”
Ancient Belgique is very important in the Belgian scene, and across Europe: think Paradiso in Amsterdam, or London’s Aventim Apollo. But what is particularly impressive about the place as an organisation is its unparalleled commitment to Brussels’s grassroots artists.
Very neat cabling indeed…
“Every year, we try to raise money from the local government to help some of our young bands make an inroad into the music business. That could be putting on a gig, providing a space to rehearse, or offering the use of our recording studio. We also have a full camera system, so we have helped bands with promo videos, too. Basically, we try to adapt to whatever they need” Vrebos concludes.
“Artists and engineers really enjoy playing here due to our setup and production managers also love coming here. They know that we have everything they could possibly need and that they’re going to get a great sound thanks to our great PA systems and fantastic sounding consoles. It’s quite rare that a venue like this can guarantee that.”
Real cooool news here! Elation’s IP65 moving heads, used by Chris Moylan in impressive beam show, remain reliable in ice and snow. Year after year, in winter, a Festival of Light at Swarovski Crystal Worlds in the Austrian town of Wattens attracts thousands of visitors. The entire park shines and sparkles in a magical interplay of light, music, and crystal and as a recurring highlight guests are treated to a special 15-minute light show.
Swarovski Crystal Worlds allows visitors to experience the wonder of crystal in all its facets. The annual Festival of Light is a breathtakingly spectacular show in which the seven-hectare garden is transformed into a magical luminous atmosphere.
This year’s event took place from January 18th to February 17th with technology having to endure four weeks of frosty, snowy conditions.
With Elation’s IP65 Proteus Hybrid made for environments of this type and a record of reliable performance behind it, the all-weather moving head, with a 23,000 lumens bright beam seen from far away, was chosen as the main beam effect in the light show for the second year in a row.
Berlin creative agency StudioNOW was responsible for conception and creative implementation of this year’s Festival of Light in cooperation with lighting designer Chris Moylan from Optikalusion and the Spanish artist collective Playmodes. PRG handled the demanding technical implementation. Elation’s distribution partner in Germany is LMP.
Area made out of 800 000 hand-mounted Swarovski crystals, the attraction’s Crystal Cloud was the main arena for the light show. Eight light towers were placed around the Crystal Cloud to which 56 Proteus Hybrids were distributed, seven fixtures per tower. From these positions, the powerful IP65 arc source fixtures provided impressive beam work during the light show. In addition, another six Proteus Hybrid units were used on the Giant, the thematic centerpiece of Swarovski Crystal Worlds.
“The Proteus Hybrid not only provides fantastic beams with sensational long-range effect, it has finally freed us from plastic domes,” stated lighting designer Chris Moylan. “Nobody wants to see domes! With the Proteus Hybrid Elation has finally given us a reliable tool to implement fat beam shows outside. Not only did we use the beams, but we also used gobos and prisms to integrate a variety of details into the show.”
Lighting Designer Chris Moylan.
Indeed, as the Proteus Hybrid features include an advanced optical system with motorized zoom from 2° in beam mode to 38° in spot mode or 40° in wash mode, full CMY and linear CTO color mixing, and 14 dichroic colors including CTB, CTO, and UV, plus versatile 8 rotating glass interchangeable and 14 static-stamped metal gobos, full 360° bi-directional animation wheel, 8-facet and linear rotating prisms, Chris knew he could use a variety of effects. Funny enough, he forgot to quote on this occasion the advanced internal thermal cooling system, and “Frost” filter. (chuckle, chuckle, chuckle, Ed.)
Outdoors in the bitter cold for four weeks, and at times in massive snowfall, can be a challenge for a weatherproof light yet Moylan was impressed. “The week I was there, we only had one single outage,” he says, “and we were struggling with the worst weather conditions ever. The Proteus Hybrid are extremely reliable, they tolerated very well the extreme conditions and are also very bright. I can only recommend them.”
Now underway for its 2019 season, Indian Premier League (IPL) is the star in cricket’s commercial crown, putting the sport’s best players in front of the largest audiences and paying the highest fees. The IPL broadcast rights for the season are currently held by Star TV as part of a five-year contract, and marks a significant change in the operation but sees a continuation of the longstanding and pioneering use of equipment from German broadcast innovator, Lawo.
The IPL was founded in 2008 of eight teams representing cities in India – with players drawn from the world’s best. Live, it is the most-attended cricket league in the world and, in 2010, became the first sporting event in the world to be broadcast live on YouTube. It has an estimated brand value of US$6.3 billion in 2018.
Described by Star CEO Uday Shankar as “very powerful property”, Star broadcasts IPL matches live online in India via its over-the-top video streaming platform, Hotstar (which also holds the worldwide internet rights) – Star India saw 700 million viewers tune in across its platforms to watch the 2018 tournament, with 200 million of those streaming the action via Hotstar. The tournament final drew a peak of 10.3 million viewers – a record for live streaming of any event worldwide.
With the most expensive broadcast rights deal in the history of cricket, the contract with Star TV signifies a change in the IPL OB arrangements. In a move to make operation more efficient, Star TV has now built its own OB kits, enabling it to be less dependent on kits from third-party suppliers and to use the same setup for events other than the IPL.
Lawo’s earlier IPL involvement includes the first broadcast of the IPL in 5.1 surround in 2015, using Lawo mc²56 digital broadcast consoles with HD Cores. This involvement was expanded to include 11 more mc²56 console and a number of Lawo V__pro8 video processors to provide an 8×8 video matrix, and 384×384 audio matrix, Dolby E encode/decoding, and cost-effective SDI embedding/de-embedding.
Star TV’s provision for broadcasting the IPL includes a new studio. The studio’s audio is centered on a 48-fader Lawo mc²56 audio console ordered towards end 2018 and installed in January 2019. The initial installation for Star TV included a Lawo Compact Core routing populated with three DSP cards, a RAVENNA card for IP link to remote Lawo DALLIS interfacing, a Dante card for interfacing with external Dante devices, and a MADI card with AES In/Out for internal and external interconnects such as MADI to V__pro 8. The studio’s DALLIS I/O frame supports 48 mic/line inputs, 48 line outputs, and 16 AES in/outputs. The setup also uses Lawo’s V__pro 8 video processing toolkit for audio de-embedding/embedding, and also a Dolby-E option for surround production work.
Figures for the 2018 IPL season indicate that total viewership grew by 40% from about 500 million in 2017, with online viewing more than doubled. Having shared honors with the Chennai Super Kings as 2018 title-holders, Lawo is anticipating another winning season with the IPL.
The brand CLF Lighting is emblematic of an evolution of the very notion of brand, since it does not result here from a need to assert a creation of new concepts in the field of one (or more) of our industries’ technologies. This Dutch brand looks rather like a solid collection of products sourced at best, for regular and repetitive quality, to meet the needs of a particular hirer/service provider, and then cover these sourcing and testing costs by selling them to a larger number of customers and users.
A clever light-show, musically EDM flavoured, dominated by matrix effects and LED screens, a few meters away from the Rent-All booth (on the right).
In the same way that another rental company had taken over a few years ago a brand which was in decline, and totally refurbished its ranges to keep only the most useful models in its strategy and for its own rental stock, this time it’s again a Dutch big player, Rent-All, who goes for it since a few years now. This one has moreover recently been in our news columns by absorbing Phlippo, Belgian historical actor of the sector, here’s a reminder here.
In both cases, one realizes that the power of such a huge company, which can be translated prosaically by quantities of purchase and carefully adjusted ranges when they are too extensive or difficult to understand if boarding too many products, is reflected in prices tight enough, and a deep interest in rigging accessories, witty hanging tricks, possibly mechanical reinforcement or flight-case design, all more advanced than usual with “standard” brands. The practical and ergonomic aspect is thus put forward a lot, which seems logical given the pedigree of internal techies and designers from a mother-house necessarily “field-orientated”.
Remco Pouwels, CLF Lighting Marketing Manager.
So there we go, meeting at Prolight + Sound in Frankfurt with Remco Pouwels, from CLF Lighting, on a fairly large stand, but above all just opposite Rent-All’s. Consequently, CLF Lighting stands (put an “s” here because the light-show rectangular area stands just across the alley) are not to be found in one of the halls dedicated this year to the presentation of light equipment, but in a hall slightly mixed up with stands of (big) rental companies, and many LED screens manufacturers.
The practical side (mounting several stands at once from one big lorry and one team only) seems to have won over this aspect too… Especially since, icing on the Batavian cake, their light-show takes place at regular intervals throughout the day on a stand located just across the aisle, good idea for the necessary stand-back distance!
SoundLightUp: Hi Remco, how does it feel to have your booth in this hall?
Remco Pouwels, CLF Lighting: Sure, the set-up routine was very efficient and practical, it’s so convenient to be just aside the Rent-All stand (laughs). Regarding the visitors’ reaction, we’ll have a post-exhibition debriefing to think about next year, and we’ll decide to then move the position or not…
SLU: Lotsa new stuff this year, it seems, it this CLF’s second time in Frankfurt?
Remco Pouwels: Yes, and we’re holding this right after ISE Amsterdam, too. But this year we have a complete sync’ed lightshow, designed by a partner LD who knows how range inside out, Ronnie Santegoeds from 4 Light Showprojects.
In the foreground, the growing Apollo family of three, now complete. In the background, the bigger Apollo 7 array (NOT the name of a Moonlanding expedition…)
SLU: Let’s begin with a decorative projector we discovered last year at JTSE exhibition in Paris on the Eclalux booth, the Apollo.
Remco Pouwels: Yes, but here its two smaller brothers are here, too! And the smaller one is assembled in an array of seven « heads » in an “old-school” frame. This is already popular on TV sets, conventions, or as a decorative backlight on stage. The three models in this range all have the « 3 in 1 » features, i.e. central tungsten-like « bulb, « Aura » effect…
SLU: Can we say « RGB color mixing indirect reflection on the internal housing » if we cannot quote a famous Danish manufacturer? (smiles)
Remco Pouwels: … yeah, sure ! And the third nice looking feature is the edge of the « bowl » equipped with a total and circular RGB Ledstrip, controllable as a whole or in segments. On these three models, only the powers are different, and, of course, depending on the DMX mode the user can choose, the number of DMX512 channels. And as always with CLF, there’s a number of hanging accessories, Omegas, etc.
The CLF Lighting LED Par range, already well expanded…
… and the new kid on the block, the Conan 2, not a Barbarian, rather a sophisticated gentleman!
SLU: CLF Lighting has begun its career, not that old though, by offering a large choice of LED Pars, including a best-seller called the Yara. Will you beef up this range in 2019?
Remco Pouwels: Absolutely, we launch the Conan 2, with a very strong point which is the quality of the light beam. It comprises 12 Osram RGBW 10 W LEDs with a linear zoom from 11° to 58°. The rear housing shape is bevelled, so the connection panel is angled, allowing a total hide of the connectors and cables when this unit is used pointing up for Wall Wash purpose. This is done easily thanks to its double bracket, too.
SLU: Can you list some other clever strong points making the Conan 2 stand out from the Par Led crowd?
Remco Pouwels: Apart from optional detachable snoot, barndoor and a Wireless Solution W DMX™ receiver, the Conan 2 is compatible, like all the other CLF products as at today, with the unique CLF “Quicklock” system, in addition to standard clamps. The wireless DMX is more and more in demand, cause it’s so reliable and easy to set-up, we even have this feature included in the standard version of the Ares bigger color Washlight.
An Ares just out of its foursome flight-case, they do like the accessories neatly stored at CLF Lighting.
SLU: Good enough, let’s talk about the Ares, it seems this family is expanding as well?
Remco Pouwels: Yes, we already offered the original Ares with its 36 big calibrated LEDs, controllable in 4 different sectors, or as a whole. Now comes the smaller brother Ares XS, same kind of unit with 18 LEDs and 3 independent sectors if needed.
In both cases, the offer of accessories with barndoors supplied as standard and optional Smart Filter System quick-release filters was well developed.
SLU: Is this a magnetic filter system, like some competitors?
Remco Pouwels: No, we went for a side sliding system with a lateral folding lock, it’s better and more reliable over time! We start from the basic 21°, then we can insert 36.6°, 54.2°, 82,7° filters, and even an oval 63.6° x 21° for high walls. And of course, CLF tradition, we cared a lot for the storage slots of these filters inside the flight-case…
A dual LED batten, with different optics, clever dual design indeed.
SLU: Talking about lighting up high walls or cycloramas, didn’t CLF have already a more compact, “Dual” solution? And rather original, as long as I can remember…
Remco Pouwels: Yes, good point, you’re referring to the LedWash XL. It’s still a good seller, and the innovative point is the dual range of 9 LEDs each, one comes in 50° for the low part of the wall, the other one has tighter optics in 30° for the upper part. Both can be tilted manually on 60°. You can use Quicklocks to hang them anyway you want, even for “articulated vertical dual blinders”. But the real innovative batten this year is the IP65 LedBar Pro, with individual control of each of the RGBW LEDs. As soon as it was available, it was specified on major tours, let’s quote the Benelux André Rieu tour, they have 68 of these battens, plus 232 Ares and 56 Yara!
Fun with Mister Beam.
SLU: Let’s conclude with moving heads, two interesting newbies here too?
Remco Pouwels: I wouldn’t call them new kids on the block this time, they rather grown-ups considering their size! (laughs). First, let’s remind that our previous beam model, the Aorun had become a standard for EDM, Techno, and other festivals, so we pushed the concept much higher with this new Poseidon Beam, with beam projection of 1.8°. To get a powerful light output, we equipped it with the same 330 W HRI discharge lamp, we added color mixing, kept the double prism to multiply the effects, and as more and more of these huge festivals are open air, it had to be IP66.
SLU: During your nearby light-show we’ve noticed some nice and efficient matrix effects, did these come from the other motorized newbie?
Remco Pouwels: Yes, it comes from a 6 x 6 LEDs matrix inserted in a infinite rotation yoke, this product is called the Stinger. Of course the usual temptation is to use it mainly for matrix effects, but when you fire up all the 36 LED sources at the same time with their 6° angle, it does make a nice global powerful beam! Tight beam, of course, but still it makes some lightning impression…
The Stinger, ¾ front view…
… and rear view with the reflecting sectored detachable plate.
And the original idea is on the back of the moving head, there’s a back plate with 36 mirroring sectors. I let you imagine what kind of wild combinations you can get when firing one Stinger towards the back of another one! Of course, if you want surprise “blind” effects, this plate is detachable to cook up sudden “moving flash” cues.
SLU: To be as complete as possible with the « 3 in 1 all bells and whistles » of this Stinger model, if I may say so, what extra components do we notice on the front plate?
Remco Pouwels: As we were going for a real original fixture, with multi-functional features, we added small cold white LEDs in between each of the 36 big RGB optics, and some more around, so we can trigger at will 49 little sparkles, you may call it twinkling effects if you like. Of course, this unit’s software boards macros, for these smaller white LEDs as well as for the bigger RGB dots. If you have a lighting controller with enough channels or universes, and with integrated matrix functions, you can also address all these points separately, in Art-Net, pixel by pixel, on two different layers, and more…
SLU: Indeed, when you end up designing an effect moving projector like this, it doesn’t look or feel like anything yet known!
Remco Pouwels: That’s good, ‘cause we like it that way! (laughs)
CLF Lighting equipment used during the show:
12x CLF Orion
20x CLF Aorun
16x CLF Beam 6
16x CLF Stinger
48x CLF LEDbar PRO
15x CLF Yara
12x CLF Ares
4x CLF Apollo
3x CLF EF Smoke
2x CLF Haze I
2x CLF Turbine
A last glimpse at an everlasting gizmo, always back in the rental stocks with up-to-date control functions: the good ol’ Big Stage Fan, proposed here under the name of Turbine, in « reinforced Touring vers ion », with 3-pin and 5-pin DMX sockets, as always this show the sense of detail among the CLF Lighting offering.
