TPi May 2017 - #213

TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL LIVE EVENT DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY • MAY 2017 • ISSUE 213

SNOWBOMBING CRAIG DAVID ALL OVER YOUR…

MAYRHOFEN’S MOUNTAIN MUSIC

BRUNO MARS LIVE • BURY TOMORROW TALK AUDIO-TECHNICA • CRAIG DAVID TOURS D&B PROLIGHT+SOUND REPORT • ULTRA MUSIC FESTIVAL • DIVERSITY K-ARRAY EXCLUSIVE

MAY 2017 #213

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EDITOR’S LETTER

VARIO-LIFT

Changes are afoot…

Fresh from the heated halls of Frankfurt’s Prolight+Sound (full 2017 report on Pg.58), I took the short flight to Innsbruck in Austria to visit the Beat The Street HQ. Despite the terrifying turbulence from the seemingly temperamental Alps air, the trip was well worth it. Founder Joerg Philipp gave a brilliant interview about the company’s 25 years in rock ’n’ roll touring. Stayed tuned for the reveal in our August issue.

Also while in Austria, I caught up with TPi Awards Production Manager, Ryan Esson during his time at Snowbombing festival. The event certainly made for interesting subject matter; from the logistical challenges to the mixture of experience working behind the scenes, the snow-capped event is well worth the trip.

Part of the team included our pals at dbn and Audile who recently joined forces to become northern UK powerhouse, dbnAudile. The crew were out in force at Snowbombing, supplying both lighting and sound expertise to the festival’s many stages. They even managed time to squeeze in some mountainside activities after the de-rig; big thanks to audio whizz and Director Rob Ashworth for giving me a much-needed snowboarding lesson (you’ll have to ask for Rob of dbnSnowdile if you want to hire that service!)

Also in this issue, Ste tells you about the technology that turned a hardened metal-head into a Bruno Mars concert aficionado, and we look at several audio manufacturers in all manner of live environments: Diversity tours with K-array, Craig David makes a comeback worthy of an R&B superstar thanks to Capital Sound, Bury Tomorrow show Stew their Audio-Technica set-up, and Funktion One’s Tony Andrews talks us through the velocity of Vero at Miami’s Ultra Music Festival.

Plus much more…

Kel Murray Editor

EDITOR Kel Murray Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8360 Mobile: +44 (0)7738 154689 e-mail: k.murray@mondiale.co.uk

CHIEF EXECUTIVE Justin Gawne Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8360 Mobile: +44 (0)7768 850767 e-mail: j.gawne@mondiale.co.uk

ASSISTANT EDITOR Ste Durham Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8385 Mobile: +44 (0)7891 679742 e-mail: s.durham@mondiale.co.uk

GRAPHIC DESIGN & PRODUCTION Dan Seaton: d.seaton@mondiale.co.uk Zoe Willcox: z.willcox@mondiale.co.uk

STAFF WRITER Stewart Hume Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8385 Mobile: +44 (0)7702 054344 e-mail: s.hume@mondiale.co.uk ADVERTISING SALES Georgia Guthrie Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8399 Mobile: +44 (0)7501 597837 e-mail: g.guthrie@mondiale.co.uk ADVERTISING SALES Lauren Dyson Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8360 Mobile: +44 (0)7415 773639 e-mail: l.dyson@mondiale.co.uk EVENT MANAGER - TPi AWARDS Mo Naeem Tel: +44 (0)161 476 8358 Mobile: +44 (0)775 9272 313 e-mail: m.naeem@mondiale.co.uk GENERAL MANAGER - TPi MAGAZINE & AWARDS Hannah Eakins (on materninty leave until July 2017)

ACCOUNTS Lynette Levi / Sarah Miller: ar@mondiale.co.uk MONDIALE GROUP CHAIRMAN Damian Walsh

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COVER PHOTOGRAPHY Snowbombing by Richard Johnson EDITORIAL INTERN Luke Wainhouse PRINTED BY Buxton Press • www.buxpress.co.uk Annual subscriptions (including P&P): £42 (UK), £60 (Europe), £78/$125 (RoW).

Subscription enquiries to: Subscriptions, Mondiale Publishing Limited, Strawberry Studios, Watson Square, Stockport, SK1 3AZ, UK. Tel: +44 (0)161 476 5580 Fax: +44 (0)161 476 0456 e-mail: subscriptions@mondiale.co.uk www.tpimagazine.com www.tpiawards.com www.tpmeamagazine.com Issue 213 - May 2017

TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL is a controlled circulation magazine, published 12 times a year by Mondiale Publishing Limited under licence.

ISSN 1461-3786 Copyright © 2017 Mondiale Publishing Limited. All contents of this publication are subject to worldwide copyright protection and reproduction in whole or part, in any form whatsoever, is expressly forbidden without the prior written consent of the Publishers. Every effort is taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this publication but neither Mondiale Publishing Ltd, nor the Editor, can be held responsible for its contents or any consequential loss or damage resulting from information published. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the Publishers or Editor. The Publishers accept no responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, illustrations, advertising materials or artwork. Total Production International USPS: (ISSN 1461 3786) is published 12 times a year by Mondiale Publishing Limited United Kingdom. The 2017 US annual subscription price is 117USD. Airfreight and mailing in the USA by Agent named Air Business, C/O WorldNet Shipping USA Inc., 155-11 146th Avenue, Jamaica, New York, NY11434. Periodicals postage paid at Jamaica NY 11431. US Postmaster: Send address changes to Total Production International, Air Business Ltd, C/O WorldNet Shipping USA Inc., 155-11 146th Avenue, Jamaica, New York, NY11434.

Subscription records are maintained at Mondiale Publishing Ltd. Waterloo Place, Watson Square, Stockport, SK1 3AZ, UK.

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CHAINMASTER BÜHNENTECHNIK GMBH

Uferstrasse 23, 04838 Eilenburg, Germany Tel.: +49 (0) 3423 - 69 22 0 Fax: +49 (0) 3423 - 69 22 21 E-Mail: info@chainmaster.de www.chainmaster.de

ITINERARY

EVENT FOCUS 08 Diversity

British dance troupe pop ‘n lock with

K-array’s Firenze KH8.

10 Ane Brun

Allen & Heath’s dLive performs for the

elcectic singer’s symphonic production.

12

32

12

Craig David Capital Sound provides the R&B vocalist with a d&b audiotechnik J-Series.

20

22

All Time Low Zig Zag joins forces once again with the American punk rock four-piece.

26

Die Fledermaus LD Charlie Lapage-Norris teams up with Next Robe Generation.

30

Ed Sheeran The chart-dominating one man band hits the road with Meyer Sound.

Bury Tomorrow FOH Engineer David Billings discusses the band’s Audio-Technica setup.

PRODUCTION PROFILE 32 Snowbombing

Kel Murray reports from 8,497ft above

sea level in the Austrian Alps for a

festival like no other.

46

Bruno Mars Ste Durham meets the crew behind this generation’s funk sensation.

TRADESHOW

46

58

TPi heads to Prolight+Sound 2017 to check out the latest innovations in the entertainment technology.

PRODUCT LAUNCH 74

Barco unveils its new range of large venue projectors, the UDX.

GEAR HEADS 76

TPi speaks to SSL’s Product Manager Richard Ferriday about the L200.

BACKSTAGE

74

78

Ultra Music Festival Highlights from the the world-famous EDM spectacular in Miami.

CLOCKING OFF 90

Cancer survivor James Mack from Wigwam skydives for The Christie.

PSA: THE BIGGER PICTURE 92

Andy Lenthall introduces the 14 members of the PSA Council.

INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS 95

78

The latest movers and shakers.

BACK CHAT 102 Sam O’Riordan, LD for Royal Blood and

London Grammar, talks about his career.

EVENT FOCUS

DIVERSITY DOES THE O2 WITH K-ARRAY K-array’s mould-breaking Firenze touring system arrived at one of the world’s most iconic venues, the O2, over Easter, impressing crew and crowds alike, as part of a 10-date tour with the nation’s favourite dance troupe, Diversity. TPi was on hand to hear exclamations of disbelief from the crew…

For anyone working outside of touring sound, getting up early on Good Friday to watch a PA be hauled into the air might seem like odd behaviour. Yet on 14 April, it was for precisely this reason that TPi made an early hours pilgrimage to one of the world’s most recognised venues, London’s O2 Arena.

Within the famous building, a sound system unlike any other was being rigged for its O2 debut as part of a 10-date tour. It was the group’s seventh nationwide outing, staged by Production North with Barnsley’s Audiotech Services handling the audio and video supply. But, hours before the stars of the show arrived, local and national crew alike were watching as nine per side, flat hangs of Firenze KH8, manufactured by Italian innovator K-array, rapidly ascended into position.

“The local crew always ask where the PA is,” grinned FOH Engineer Christian Lewis, while surprised reactions rang out around the arena. “It’s a lot quicker to rig than we’re used to,” declared John Cuckston, local crew with Stage Miracles. “Normally we hang four or five rows of heavy speakers but these went up immediately.” His colleague, Joe Hales, agreed: “It took maybe 10 minutes to get out of the truck and then 10 minutes to fly. It’s brilliant.”

Witnessing all of this were Sam Nankivell and Dave Wooster of 2B Heard,

the UK distributor of K-array. For them, the O2 show marked the culmination of 18 months of gradually introducing the Firenze concept to the UK market.

“We’re very excited that Firenze is on this tour, it’s a great achievement,” said Nankivell, “but it’s not just the tour, it’s this day at the O2. Perhaps barring Madison Square Garden, this venue is now the most iconic live music venue in the world. There is no better place to prove that a unique system like Firenze is tried, tested and ready to deliver. That’s why we’re here.”

Firenze is certainly unique. Rather than traditional boxes hung in a J-shape, each hang comprises flat panels, pre-cabled in anchored groups of three and flown in a straight line, with the option to tilt panels as required. Each individual panel - virtually invisible from side of stage - is a self-powered IP45-rated enclosure housing a total of 16 neodymium transducers (8, 8-inch for LF, 8, 4-inch for MF and 4, 1.4-inch high frequency compression drivers). Meanwhile, the IP65-rated on-board electronics module offers eight channels of DSP and amplification from Powersoft, utilising the Armonia platform for system equalisation and control, and providing 2,000W of power on each output. The overall system is run by AFMG’s FIRmaker software, which was developed in collaboration with K-array. The result is called Slim Array Technology (SAT), and it has the potential to surprise even the most seasoned of touring engineers.

08

DIVERSITY

For Diversity’s latest UK tour, the production team opted to utilise K-Array’s Firenze KH8 system to run alongside the dance troupe’s action packed show.

“You get a lot of power for the size, and the footprint is minimal, as is the truck space it needs,” explained System Tech Sergey Becker. “Today we have nine boxes per-side, all progressively tilting downwards. The top box is firing straight then each consecutive panel has a 2 degree down-tilt. But the angling only provides minimal adjustment - regardless of how the system is deployed, the software will sort out the coverage. It’s impressive, the size of the system versus the power you get out of it.”

With a focus on dance entertainment, the Diversity show was playback heavy, delivered via QLab, with basic instrumentation including drums, guitar and four vocalists. Alongside the KH8, virtually invisible side-hangs of two per-side KH7 were flown at the stage’s extreme left and right, plus onstage side-fills based on KR802 portable systems. Eight hard-to-spot KH2 panels lined the lip of the stage for front fills, while low frequency support was delivered via 12 ground-stacked KS8 subs, all of which are also IP65 rated and fully integrated into Armonia for set up and control.

On the day of the show, the O2’s upper balcony was closed off. “If we were covering the upper galleries as well then we’d probably have another three KH8 per side, to give more SPL and more coverage,” said Nankivell.

A DiGiCo SD9 was used for both FOH and monitors, with eight Sennheiser EW 300 IEMS for on-stage sound and G3 wireless handhelds for the vocalists. Overseeing both audio and video was Audiotech’s Max Ramsden, who again praised the K-array system’s ease of use. “The entire PA for this show is just three dollies and we’ve got audio and video on one truck,” he declared. “You also eliminate any sightline issues because the

INGENIOUS SOLUTION

No.

736

system is so narrow.”

Nankivell continued: “The next challenge for us is to persuade people to listen to the system for its own merit. You have to help people overcome a mental hurdle and accept that a box that looks like the KH8 is able to achieve the kind of performance that can cover the O2. Today, we’re proving it can.”

Indeed, standing at the SD9, Christian Lewis was quick to agree. “It sounds as good as any other system I’ve used,” he asserted. “It’s different, but that’s fine. Back when everyone moved from clusters to line arrays, that was a big difference. It’ll take time for people to get used to the idea but it does sound as good as any other system that I’ve used.”

No stranger to mixing at the O2 with more conventional line arrays, Lewis added that he was used to deploying much bigger solutions for the space. “The last time I was here it was 18 boxes per side! This arena-sized system is taking up less than half of an artic, and in terms of sound it’s not lacking in any areas. In fact, because of the shallow box design, the response is instant and there’s plenty of top end. It’s all there. This feels like the next step in the evolution of speaker systems.”

TPi Photos: Colin Hart www.diversityofficial.com www.k-array.com www.2b-heard.com www.productionnorth.co.uk

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EVENT FOCUS

ANE BRUN With the Allen & Heath dLive already proving its pedigree on countless tours the world over, FOH Engineer for Ane Brun, Oscar Söderlund, was keen to push the envelope further still. Enter illustrious conductor Hans Ek and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, who created a tantalising collaboration for a triad of sold out shows at Stockholm’s Berwaldhallen.

The story began when FOH Engineer Oscar Söderlund attended the Berliner Triologi, where friend and fellow audio console wizard Hans ‘Sutre’ Norin was mixing FOH. Norin asked Söderlund if he would be interested in splitting FOH duties for a collaboration between eclectic songstress Ane Brun and the Swedish Radio Orchestra, conducted by Hans Ek. Söderlund has been a crucial part of Brun’s performance since his addition to the crew in 2007, when he stepped in to oversee audio on the songwriter’s Changing of the Seasons tour. The goal was to mix Brun similarly to her previous performances. He said: “I wanted to mix Ane and her three musicians in the same way that I do on our tours, on a dLive surface, mix-rack and expander box. This would then allow Surte to be in full control of his orchestra channels on his own dLive surface, MixRack and expanders.”

One of the requirements was to record each performer individually.

“We wanted to record all channels separately for a live album,” Söderlund explained.

“As well as accommodating channels and feeding MADI through to the Swedish National Radio’s StageTec Crescendo console for a radio broadcast.”

The solution to the sheer scale of the requirements for the orchestra concerts was to deploy three dLive systems, comprising 2 S5000’s, an S3000, 3 DM64 MixRacks and 3 DX32 Expander Racks, equipped with a range of audio networking cards. These included MADI for broadcast feeds, gigaACE and fibreACE for simple, high-channel digital splits, and two Waves cards for redundant recording of up to 128 tracks at 96kHz. A ME personal monitoring system was also used by key band and orchestra members, with an ME-1 dedicated to the conductor, and an IP8

used as part of the orchestra mixing system as a fader extension.

Monitors were mixed by Peter Fredriksson on one of the dLive S5000’s, creating and distributing separate mixes for Brun, the band, Hans Ek and the orchestra into the monitors wedges and IEMs. “The dLive system is, thanks to its great preamps and low latency, the obvious choice for all three of us engineers. We all own several dLive systems, and I even convinced Surte before the dLive was released that this a system he would like. He is mixing a lot of symphony orchestras - jazz and folk music with large counts of condenser microphones - and can really hear the astonishing audio quality of the dLive.” Söderlund continued.

Söderlund is a veteran when using dLive, having done over 200 shows using the console, and was keen to praise their performance and stability: “They’ve earned a well-deserved spot as a competitive system on large format and complex shows, events and installs.”

The crew made use of the in-house L-Acoustics PA system at Berwaldhallen, while Söderlund’s company, Parashoot, supplied the audio equipment for Brun and Granström provided gear for Norin and the orchestra.

Söderlund concluded: “The ease of patching and routing ins and outs is also a key feature in this production as we are sending a lot of channels back and forth. Not needing to use extra conversion boxes, and just patch everything in the surfaces is unbeatable. Last but not least, the stability of the dLive system was excellent as always.”

TPi www.anebrun.com www.allen-heath.com www.parashoot.se www.granstrom.biz 10

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EVENT FOCUS

CRAIG DAVID

CRAIG DAVID GETS FULL COVERAGE WITH CAPITAL When British R&B star Craig David’s most recent album, Following My Intuition, went straight to the UK’s No.1 slot, it prompted his biggest arena tour in 15 years. His trademark soulful vocals and bass-heavy sound was brought to the nation via audio rental house Capital Sound, which supplied a d&b audiotechnik J-Series PA rig and DiGiCo control package. The results left the star and his crew suitably impressed, as Kel Murray reports…

Following a summer of high profile festival appearances with his DJ act TS5, Craig David’s return to the limelight was undeniable. Garnering crowds of die-hard fans and converting passers-by at the same time - if you saw his Glastonbury 2016 appearance, you’ll know exactly how the performance went, both in and out of the tent - curiosity from the public was rife. But it’s his sell-out arena tour that really got the public’s attention.

Split between his own anthems and a DJ set in which he live mixes and continues to sing along to - a selection of hip hop, dance and garage classics, fans were in for a dynamic show. His core audio crew of FOH Engineer Pete Whitelaw and Monitor Engineer Jon Lewis were supported

by Capital Sound touring crew, Systems Engineer Liam Halpin, System Tech Lee Furnell and Monitor Tech Antony Best. The tour was project-managed for Capital by Senior Project Manager, Martin Connolly.

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02/05/2017 17:19

CRAIG DAVID

Whitelaw took up the story: “Both Jon and I have worked with Craig over the last eight years. The scope and location of his shows has always been interesting - and often challenging - so it keeps us on our toes trying out different set-ups. At the start of last year we started doing acoustic shows and more band-driven performances as promo for his new album took off, and in the summer, his TS5 events meant the live elements started to evolve again. Craig’s always keen to try different gear out, as he’s very exact about what he wants. We’ve finally nailed a setup that everyone is happy with.”

That sound design comprises a d&b audiotechnik J-Series PA system with DiGiCo desks at both FOH and monitors, and a Shure microphone package. Whitelaw continued: “Audio equipment has become very homogenised, so it’s really down to the details that sets rental companies apart. With Capital Sound, those details are that they provide a great crew and project management team who deliver stellar support to us.”

SYSTEM SUCCESS “The brief for my mix is to keep it sounding as album-like as possible, however a lot of the new album is programmed and electronic, so whilst we do have some stuff on track, the majority of sounds come from the band,” continued Whitelaw. “There’s lots of dynamic throughout the show, from very heavy club sections, to just Craig’s vocal and an acoustic guitar… then there’s plenty of classic Craig David acapella

endings, which the crowds love, so we’re certainly using everything the d&b system has to offer.”

Whitelaw drew the conclusion that d&b was the right brand for the arena tour following the summer run with TS5. “We did those shows on pretty much every PA out there, configured in varying sizes, and it became apparent that d&b was going to be the one for us. I’m after crisp, clean vocals and a stonking trouser-flapping bottom end - it delivers on both. The power and control of this system is phenomenal.”

Capital Sound’s System Engineer for this tour was Liam Halpin, a self-confessed “audio geek” who admitted that, although he appreciated being able to work with various systems thanks to Capital’s 4-way PA inventory - which includes Martin Audio, Outline and Meyer Sound - he’s loved working with the d&b system.

The J-Series main hang comprised 18 cabinets in total for the larger arena shows in London and Manchester, with 3 J12’s on the bottom of each hang for wider dispersion in the nearfield, and d&b’s J8’s provided an 80 degree angle box. Halpin joined in the conversation: “We “The intelligence of the d&b use the V-Series box for the side hangs, which are small, mid-format cabinets used for a smaller system is driving more accurate throw, and d&b V7P & Y10P point source cabinets room modelling - it’s a fantastic are utilised for outfill and centrefill. They’re so efficient. In the pro market, the V7P’s make a very piece of kit.” powerful front fill.”

Liam Halpin, Capital Sound The system design was completed by 15 B22 subs. “Initially there were concerns about the System Tech 14

FOLLOWING HIS INTUITION

Craig David on tour with from Capital Sound

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26/04/2017 13:10

CRAIG DAVID

Capital Sound Monitor Tech, Antony Best; Capital Sound System Techs Lee Furnell and Liam Halpin; FOH Engineer, Pete Whitelaw.

number we were using,” stated Halpin. “As in would 15 boxes be enough? network cable for example, then the amp reacts to that loss of connection But I’ve been rather impressed with how much noise they actually make!” and fixes it without any interaction from me.”

During set up, Halpin used d&b’s ArrayProcessing, a function within Capital’s Monitor Tech, Antony Best, gave his thoughts: “The d&b system the ArrayCalc simulation software V8 that enables algorithms to calculate which I used for the on-stage sidefills fitted the bill perfectly. Our job is to the sonic performance of a d&b system. Halpin cover the stage for Craig, and with d&b’s wide described the tool as “the next step up in line angle of coverage and powerful range, it became array technology.” a lot easier. Craig likes a loud stage, and the d&b Whitelaw added: “Liam and Lee have made system allowes us to meet all of his needs.” my life immeasurably easier. Liam’s predications and designs are usually bang on, only needing FOH SOUND tiny tweaking during soundcheck. When he The desk of choice for Whitelaw’s mix is a hands the PA over it’s pretty much show-ready.”

DiGiCo SD10. He commented: “DiGiCo desks Halpin added: “The intelligence of the d&b are great, and so programmable. Other desks system is driving more accurate room modelling might be simpler in terms of ‘walk up and go’ - it’s a fantastic piece of kit.” set ups, but for touring flexibility DiGiCo offers The system is Dante-based, using Lake what you want, where you want it, in numerous LM44 processors as standard for the input configurations. That’s imperative for me. There’s side of the Dante network and d&b D10 Audio a reason they’re pretty much the standard Network Bridge is used as the unit for the manufacturer for high-end touring; you can’t “For touring flexibility, DiGiCo output device. Halpin furthered: “The DS10’s beat their clean sound, definable options and are a fairly new discovery for me. I didn’t realise control.” Whitelaw is also utilising Waves via offers what you want, where you quite how clever they are until this tour; the SoundGrid and multi-track recording via a MADI want it - in numerous way that they integrate with the amplifiers is interface. impressive, so we’re using 2 per side on the main For vocal duties, it’s a Shure thing. He configurations. system. It essentially passes information from continued: “We’ve been through every possible That’s imperative for me” the Dante network down to the amplifiers and microphone at some point, but we settled on I’ve configured the system so that if we lose a a Shure KSM9 about a year ago. It’s very much Pete Whitelaw, FOH Engineer 16

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CRAIG DAVID

defined by what Craig likes to hear in his ears, as well as his mic technique.

For me at FOH, it works really well; even at the high levels of TS5, I have to use very little EQ. It lets Craig sing naturally and comfortably which in turns makes my job even easier,” he concluded.

tool, almost giving you an RF tech who’s constantly watching the airwaves!

We also use the talk switch function which allows Craig and I to have a discrete talkback system during the show.”

CAPITAL SERVICE Echoing Whitelaw, Lewis also stated that quality service from a rental company is as important as the quality of the kit it has provided. “Be that at the office level, through initial set-up and continued tour support or, perhaps more importantly, the crew they send out to join you on the project. As always, Capital have been first class; their crew have highly technical abilities as well as a ‘team player’ attitudes.”

Capital Sound was brought on board by Production Manager Sam Kruger and Wob Roberts of Live // Management who worked closely with Capital’s Project Manager, Martin Connolly. After attending the Brighton and London shows, he concluded that the d&b system sounded “faultless”.

“Between that and having DiGiCo consoles at either end, we never had a single phone call - it all worked seamlessly,” stated Connolly. “I personally thought the d&b B22’s performed remarkably. This was one of the biggest d&b jobs we’ve ever done. It was a high profile, sold out arena tour and it’s brilliant to have been involved. As a consequence of our arena success, we’re working with Craig’s audio team throughout the summer providing control packages.”

Wellies at the ready folks…

TPi Photos: Andrew Benge www.craigdavid.com www.capital-sound.co.uk

MONITOR WORLD Monitor Engineer Jon Lewis explained that David’s show has been a stripped-down affair over the last few years, with just a few musicians present or an acoustic style set-up, relishing the challenge of the growing touring party. “This is the first project for a while with a full band so it was important to move things forward but to keep the open style of mix that he requires in his in-ear monitors. I think it’s important to allow a singer’s mix to be as natural and live sounding as possible, with good reverb and ambient mics…”

Lewis chose to mix on a DiGiCo SD7. “It’s my go-to desk,” he commented. “It has so many features and a very versatile layout - it seems to fit all manner of situations. For reverb I’m using the TC Electronic’s Reverb 6000 - used for vocals and high quality reverbs which feel natural and have great high end tails.

“Craig’s mix is an interesting one… It’s not a traditional style as he has a huge amount of himself and an almost distant band mix, so keeping on top of this is imperative; I keep all the singers’ pitch and timing references audible but not too forward in the mix.”

The band use Shure SM58 microphones and David uses a Shure Axient system. Lewis continued: “I personally love this as it has some great features that are at the forefront of RF microphone design. Its ‘bad frequency avoidance’ option in the wireless software is such an amazing 18

D I G I C O

A U D I O

A R T I S T

Fela Davis

“DiGiCo has been my first choice console for a couple years!

The diversity of their consoles and rich sound makes them second to none. ” Fela Davis FOH Engineer - Christian McBride

Exceelxlpeonsecde

Fela Davis

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EVENT FOCUS

ALL TIME LOW With a fearsome lighting rig full of both Robe and Elation Professional fixtures - supplied by Leeds’ Zig Zag Lighting - the US rockers headed out on their Last Young Renegade European tour to promote their upcoming record and uphold a stellar live reputation.

Prior to the summer release of their seventh studio album, Last Young Renegade, the American four-piece set out on a European tour, to hype up excitement for the impending record. To ensure that the production lived up to the band’s previous outing, All Time Low renewed the services of long-time Lighting Designer Jeff Maker.

Maker again joined forces with Leeds-based Zig Zag Lighting, which supplied a selection of Elation Professional and Robe fixtures for the band’s latest run. “I was going for a versatile design that would be able to convey both bright, fast-paced, vibrant visuals, as well as a darker, colour saturated, visceral mood for the new songs,” commented Maker, who has worked with the band for the past eight years. “The goal with this design was to still create big arena looks but in a tasteful way for these smaller rooms. I also wanted to make sure the rig was scalable in case we had to shrink it to fit it onto some of the stages.”

One inspiration for developing the stage environment and look was the band’s latest album. Maker’s experience in knowing what the band appreciates aesthetically helped inform the initial ideas that were presented to frontman Alex Gaskarth, who enjoys being involved in the stage design process. Gaskarth studied videos and other materials and was particularly impressed with Robe’s Spiider, which sold him on Maker’s idea that these should form a central feature upstage.

Elation’s ACL 360 Bar, a full-colour LED batten with 360-degree continuous rotation, was one of the many fixtures Maker used for multiple

looks and special effects on the show. “It also helped create a balance throughout the whole design,” Maker commented. “It was a pretty dominant fixture - literally front and centre - and was definitely the main feature LED strip.”

The 360 Bars were used to create separation between other fixtures in the pentagon-shaped truss, rigged upstage centre, which measured at 3.5m high and 3.5m wide. A total of 32 ACL 360’s were used in the design.

Other ACL 360’s were rigged vertically on each side of the drum riser at varying heights, as well as on two finger trusses, with more on the floor.

Maker pointed to the fixture’s pan and tilt speed, smooth fading capabilities, individual LED cell control and beautiful colour mixing as outstanding features. “The ACL 360 Bar’s ability to help create unique looks, as well being able to standout on its own amongst other fixtures, was outstanding,” he said.

New to band’s rig this year were Elation’s Protron 3K Color strobes, a high-powered LED strobe with 240 3W RGBW LEDs and 40,000 lumens of power. “We used them for both strobing effect as well as a colour wash to help engulf the stage in bright, beautiful colours,” Maker stated, adding that he has spaced the Protron Color strobe for All Time Low’s next tour in the US. “The Protron was the heartbeat of the design. Truth be told, I’m in love with its colour mixing, punching power, and the fact that they never flicker out like old-school strobes did. LED strobes have come a long way and the Protron is a testament to the awesome evolution of the strobe fixture.”

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ALL TIME LOW

Protron Colour LED strobes were placed each side of the drum riser with others located on finger trusses and on the downstage edge.

Either side of the pentagon-shaped truss, above and below, were four 4.5 metre truss sections arranged in an X shape - two flown and two partially flown/ground supported. All of these and the pentagon were suspended from black painted truss, which made it look as if they were floating in mid-air. The structural elements were completed with a triangular truss piece flown mid-stage with a slight rake that provided further lighting positions.

Maker had already heard through the LD grapevine that the Spiider was an outstanding light, and was enthusiastic to use them on the tour. On the pentagon rig were 15 Spiider WashBeams, along with Robe BMFL Spots, Pointes and CycFX 8’s.

A total of 10 Spiiders were arranged around the pentagon with the other five in the centre, positioning them right at the core of the show. They produced high-impact beams and Maker also made expressive use of the pixel mapping capabilities, which allow ring and pattern effects, all of them used for pulling the audience into the action plus comprehensively washing the stage.

Now that Maker has used the Spiider and realised their full live show potential, he’s eager to use them on future projects. “I really liked the fact that a Spiider’s appearance can be made to look like five different fixtures,” he commented.

18 BMFLs were deployed in sets of 3 for the 4 X trusses, with the another 6 on the floor downstage left and right. “They were the workhorses of the show because they are so blisteringly bright!” enthused Maker. A total of 16 Pointes were all rigged on the trussing triangle and used for additional beams as well as to augment and support the BMFLs. Maker specified 6 Robe CycFX 8’s to highlight the two vertical drops that framed the stage, printed with the instantly recognisable ‘eye’ of the Al Time Low logo. As the main back line across the stage was open, the CycFX 8’s were also able to blast through the gap, creating more depth and highlighting the trussing art.

Maker programmed and ran the lighting fixtures using an Avolites Sapphire Touch console with Titan v10.0 software. The main design challenge was creating something that was scalable and versatile enough to be optimised in a number of different configurations to suit the varying size of rooms and ensure that he could deliver the right show every night.

TPi Photos: Louise Stickland www.alltimelow.com www.zigzaglighting.co.uk www.robe.cz www.elationlighting.com www.avolites.org.uk

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EVENT FOCUS

BURY TOMORROW Backed by a full Audio-Technica microphone and wireless package, Southampton’s metalcore die hards, Bury Tomorrow, came screaming back onto the live circuit for their Earthbound European Tour. TPi’s Stew Hume travelled to Leeds to witness the action first hand…

Most modern metalcore fans will have come across Bury Tomorrow.

Following several major support slots throughout 2016 - including stints with Parkway Drive and Architects - the Bury Tomorrow guys finally struck out on their own in support of their latest album, Earthbound.

For this headline endeavour, the band put its faith in Audio-Technica, which has endorsed Bury Tomorrow since last year. To discuss the fivepiece’s audio set up, TPi met up with FOH Engineer, David Billings.

“Even before the endorsement began with Audio-Technica, I had been using a lot of their gear for the last few years,” began Billings. “I’ve always really liked what they offer. As well as sounding great, they produce gear that is incredibly robust - perfect for a touring metal band!”

Billings explained how the current set up helped streamline the band’s load-in procedure, most notably, doing away with the majority of the stage wedges. “Other than our clean singer, Jason Cameron, we have the whole

band on Audio-Technica M3’s with ATH-E70 headphones,” Billings stated.

“We also have the MCB4 combiner, allowing us to combine the four stereo signals onto a single transmitting antenna, which saves a lot of space on our racks. For this run we have also used the Behringer X32 with the handy application of allowing each band member to adjust each of their mixes via a smartphone or tablet app. For this level of touring it is perfect, as at the moment we could not justify having a touring monitor engineer.”

Bury Tomorrow’s diverse vocal range - encompassing the polarities of clean singing and gritty screaming - makes for challenging microphone demands. Audio-Technica supplied the band with and ATW-3141B for lead singer Daniel Winter-Bates’ heavy vocals, with clean backing vocals coming courtesy of the AE61000. There was also a spare wired AE4100 incased in a wireless drop out. “They both sound brilliant,” confirmed Billings. “I have 22

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BURY TOMORROW

First page: Lead singer of Bury Tomorrow, Daniel Winter-Bates making use of the Audio-Technica ATW-3141B. Below: Complete rack for the band’s wireless Audio-Technica system including the Behringer X32; The band’s FOH Engineer, David Billings.

been using them for some time now and, after comparing them against some of the other competitors on the market, I still always come back to Audio-Technica. With such a heavy instrumental section, I need both mics to be able to cut through the mix - which they both do perfectly.”

Audio-Technica vocal microphones weren’t the only product on the rider. For the snare bottom and toms, Billings used an ATM230 with an ATM 250 for kick and an AE3000 was used for overheads. For the top snare, the FOH engineer used an AE2300, which he hailed as an example of AudioTechnica’s attention to detail with their products. Billings said: “Not only does the AE2300 sound great, but it has been designed to survive a tour with a metal drummer with its robust casing. So many other snare mics have pieces of plastic that never survive a tour.” Finally, for the audience mics, Billings used the AT2031 which hung on the side of the PA. As well as showcasing many of the products from Audio-Technica’s range, Billings also utilised another of the company’s ties, by bringing out an Allen & Heath GLD console. Billing explained why, saying: “I’ve used this desk a number of times now and it works incredibly well. As well as having the multi band compressor that I want and all the necessary effects, it has

the added advantage of taking up a small amount of real estate at FOH an advantage when touring through some of the more cramped venues in mainland Europe. I also really like the desk’s soft patch function. When you’re travelling through Europe you don’t often speak the same language as the local crew. If, by chance, a local crew hand plugs an input to the wrong place I can simply press two buttons and flip the inputs over.”

Simple solutions for complex audio was key at FOH during the Earthbound tour, allowing Audio-Technica to leave the theatrics to the band. From first track to final breakdown, the Leeds Bury Tomorrow fans were treated to a stellar show from the metallers as they played through their back catalogue of tracks from the past decade. For those who missed the show, Bury Tomorrow are due to headline Slam Dunk festival on 27-29 May, once again with the support of Audio-Technica.

TPi Photos: TPi www.burytomorrow.co www.audio-technica.com www.allen-heath.com 24

EVENT FOCUS

DIE FLEDERMAUS GETS A 2017 MAKEOVER Despite a tight budget, an ambitious premise and an unconventional venue, student Lighting Designer Charlie Lapage-Norris and his crew succeeded in reimagining the classic operetta for a 21st Century audience. TPi’s Ste Durham spoke with promising young LD to discover how he secured the high-profile support necessary to achieve the seemingly impossible.

It’s safe to say that immersive opera is not exactly the entertainment du jour for the twentysomethings of south Wales, but that didn’t stop an intrepid group of talented (and mostly student) crewmembers from staging a successful warehouse interpretation of Strauss’ Die Fledermaus in March this year. Despite his tender years, LD and Production Manager, Charlie Lapage-Norris, had already racked up an enviable CV through work with rental house Hawthorn and an array of freelance gigs. This experience led Director Hannah Noone of Opera’r Ddraig to contact him about taking on the dual role.

Lapage-Norris explained: “I returned to Cardiff after my placement with Hawthorn to complete my final year at the University of South Wales (USW).

Hannah was looking to do an immersive opera in a warehouse and asked me if I’d help make it happen.

“We had a few meetings and I researched the piece to see how we could do it. I knew it would be to a budget but it sounded fun and challenging to manage and light. I spoke to the Uni for their backing and they agreed to supply technical staff and support where needed, which was a great help straight away.”

To bolster the support from USW, Lapage-Norris went to former freelance employer, Enlightened. He said: “I worked with them for several years and they’re my go to supplier whenever I’m doing shows in the in the south west with everything from full production to a few fixtures. I contacted Dave Johnson, who agreed that this would be a good addition to the Cardiff arts scene and was happy to lend a hand. They supplied all of the

power and rigging infrastructure, which really simplified that side of things.”

Lapage-Norris also managed to recruit Magnum PA to provide staging to supplement the set pieces already endemic to Cardiff’s Depot venue.

Support was also provided to the production by none other than the Welsh National Opera and the Arts Council Wales, without whom the production would have been impossible.

Still keen to get the word out to the wider industry, Lapage-Norris got in contact with industry powerhouse Robe - in particular its Next Robe Generation (NRG) initiative. “I spoke with Nicky Rowland from NRG in November last year, not necessarily to ask for help, but to see what they thought about it. Robe really liked the idea and already knew me, eventually deciding to come on board as lighting sponsor. At that point we had no set designer or cast, so it was just a question of nailing down what fixtures were available. It was great to work with Nicky, Amy Kerr and Mick Hannaford at Robe UK to shape the production into exactly what the director and I envisioned it as.”

Traditionally, Die Fledermaus is an aristocratic operetta based in Vienna that is focussed on the incredibly rich, their vacuous, party atmosphere and their tenuous personal relationships. Director Noone decided the story was very similar to television’s Made In Chelsea and an idea was born.

Lapage-Norris picked up the story: “Given the similarities, we decided to transport the story from Vienna to an upmarket private club in London. The audience are seated but the actors move in and out of the tables and even encourage people to become a part of the club scene in the second act by 26

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DIE FLEDERMAUS

getting up and dancing - a gag that worked surprisingly well on both nights!

The warehouse-style aesthetic of the venue added another dynamic that seemed to elevate the look further still.”

Lapage-Norris decided on a lot of individual, tight, shuttered spots to highlight cast members that meandered through the crowd and stood on tables during the second act. Eight of Robe’s DL7S Profiles fit the bill perfectly for this job: “The shutter control is really precise,” said LapageNorris. “I had four trusses that spanned out on a rake from the scenic tree in the centre of the room, with 7.3m in between points. I needed the fixtures to be light, all on hot power and the rig needed to be fully moving to make the most of the different spaces in the venue.

“The DL7S are incredibly high intensity and so punchy whether being used for pastel or highly saturated colours. I’ve been blown away by the colour mixing that I managed to get on this gig.”

Robe also supplied 4 Pointes for the show: “Robe were so shocked that I wanted Pointes for an opera!” Lapage-Norris laughed. “I needed punchy, white, high intensity spots for some comical effects in act two and I certainly didn’t have room for a followspot position!

“As well as this, the audience were all over the place so I needed to cover wide area and the Pointes held their own over the entire space when the DL7Ss were needed elsewhere. There were several times when the Pointes were the only lighting in the room and it still looked fantastic.”

The final performance was interpreted by British Sign Language Interpreter Julie Doyle, which required the addition of 2 Robe ParFect 100’s.

Lighting control came from an ETC Ion. Lapage-Norris explained his choice: “I’ve used ETC EOS consoles for five or six years and I get on very well with their syntax. I had to programme over 290 cues for this show so it’s been useful to syntax the entire lot and spend a couple of hours doing colour palettes and so on.”

The crew only had one day to get in, which included Lapage-Norris driving to pick up the gear. He explained: “I got the sponsors on board so I felt that it was only right for me to personally pick up and drop off the equipment. This was also the first time I’ve been both PM and LD so trying to

do that, as well as all my final-year uni projects, was very tough. They’re very different roles but I was able to swap quite easily most of the time - apart from when I was programming and somebody wanted something!”

In addition to Lapage-Norris and Noone, the production and creative team was completed by Assistant LD Alex Merrett, Producer Jana Holesworth, Musical Conductor Jack Lovell, Set and Costume Designer Izzy Nicolson, Assistant Director Rebecca Marine and Stage Manager Emmy Seal.

The technical team consisted of Charlie, Sam Hatzigeorgiou, Edward Smith, Jonny Mould, Josh Bell, Matthew Sochor, Liam Luckhurst, Sam Tabb, and Dewi Jones.

With the dust settled and the compliments still surging in, Lapage-Norris had enough time to catch his breath and reflect back on the project as a whole. He concluded: “Looking back it was a really great production to be a part of and I’m so grateful to all our supporters and the crew that helped make it happen.

It would be an amazing thing to tour if we could get financial backing there’s certainly no shortage of weird warehouse spaces in the UK! It feels like the time could be right to bring opera to an audience that doesn’t usually have that kind of thing on its radar. Judging from everyone we spoke to after, it went down a treat – and these are people who’d have never dreamt of going to the opera before that.

Lapage-Norris concluded: “There are always things you’d change, particularly if we had more time, but creatively I was really happy with the end result. Technically the fact we managed to get the entire thing in and rehearse in the same day with a crew of mostly students is a great achievement. I was incredibly impressed with them over the course of the day and can’t wait to work with them again.”

TPi www.wno.org.uk www.arts.wales www.robe.cz www.magnumpa.com www.enlightenedlighting.co.uk 28

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EVENT FOCUS

MEYER SOUND’S LEO FAMILY BOOSTS ED SHEERAN’S SOLO GLOBAL CONQUEST

With his effervescent hit Shape of You topping the charts across dozens of countries, Ed Sheeran continues to single-handedly conquer the world of pop music. Now in the midst of a three-continent, 108-show ÷ (Divide) Tour, Sheeran takes to a stage unaccompanied by musicians, backing singers, or dancers. Supported only by his acoustic guitar and a custom loop pedal, Sheeran relies solely on his infectious music and unassuming persona to sell out multiple nights, in prestigious arenas, months in advance.

Though working solo onstage, Ed Sheeran is ably supported by an offstage crew headed by Production Manager and FOH Engineer Chris Marsh, who has held both posts since the earliest arena-touring days.

Also on board, at Marsh’s behest and for the fifth consecutive year, is a Meyer Sound LEO Family linear reinforcement system supplied by UKbased Major Tom. “Ed pretty much entrusted production to me since the beginning of our relationship,” said Marsh, “One thing that we’ve proven over the past four years is that the Meyer Sound LEO Family is the way forward.”

As FOH Engineer, Marsh depends on the system’s long throw and uniform response. “Consistency is absolutely key with Ed, and with the Meyer system I am entirely confident it will sound the same everywhere.

For example, in Barcelona, where it was a 105m throw to the back seats, it sounded the same there as at FOH.”

Wearing his production manager hat, Marsh also appreciates how LEO Family’s rigging accommodates the tour’s up-tempo schedule: “My guys load in the PA and it’s up and out of the way inside an hour, and it’s loaded and on its way in 40 minutes.”

In most respects the main Meyer Sound system is similar to past tours, with a couple exceptions to deal with managing bass frequencies.

“As production manager, I was able to specify a stage only 40ft wide,” he said. “That’s plenty of room for Ed, but it gave us space to place end fire arrays with three by three stacks of 1100-LFC [low-frequency control elements] at either end. With Ed, I need frequencies around 50 Hz to be really punchy and uniform everywhere, and this design works extremely well with the 1100’s. They are fast and responsive where some other subs can get slow and ‘phasey’ in that region.”

Another departure for this tour is running the main arrays full range, 30

ED SHEERAN

Opposite: Following the success of his latest album, ÷ (Divide), Ed Sheeran struck out on a headline tour with a complete Meyer Sound LEO system supplied by Major Tom. Below: Production Manager/FOH Engineer Chris Marsh at the DiGiCo SD7; Crew call: Jack Paxman, Charlie Albin, Chris Marsh, David White, Richard Wannacott.

rather than splitting bass off into a separate aux send. “I’ve discovered that letting the LEO boxes go all the way down really assists in delivering a tighter low end consistently around the auditorium.”

The tour’s typical configuration comprises twin front line arrays of 14 LEO loudspeakers flown over four LYON loudspeakers, with extended wideangle coverage provided by - per side - 16 MILO line array loudspeakers and eight LEOPARD compact linear line array loudspeakers. Twelve flown 1100LFC low-frequency control elements supplement the 18 in the end-fire floor arrays, and eight UPA-1P loudspeakers supply front fill. The rig is optimised before each show by Major Tom System Engineer Charlie Albin, another veteran of multiple Sheeran tours.

Foldback on stage is via MJF-212A stage monitors augmented by two 900-LFC low-frequency control units, while at FOH Marsh listens in the nearfield with a pair of Amie monitors.

Although the relatively new LEOPARD arrays play a secondary role in the current arena tour, Marsh has found them a welcome addition. “I’ve been blown away by what comes out of such a little box,” he remarked. “Last year we did private charity shows with Ed in smaller, conference hall venues using LEOPARD as the mains in ground-stack. They were phenomenal, and perfectly matched to the 900-LFCs.”

At FOH, Marsh mixes behind a DiGiCo SD7 console supplemented by an Avalon VT-737 input channel for vocal plus a pair of Bricasti M7 reverb units, one each for vocal and guitar. Sheeran’s primary vocal mic is a Sennheiser 9000 Series with a 9235 condenser capsule, while a secondary 9000 mic expressly for vocal loop-building - is equipped with a 945 dynamic capsule.

Working with Sheeran has been a dizzying ascent for Marsh, a situation he finds gratifying if somewhat perplexing. “I’m still impressed everyday that we’re selling out these huge venues,” he said, “but we don’t take it for granted. We are trying our best to give audiences the same exciting and intimate-feeling experience as when Ed was still out trying to prove himself.

We have that same energy, though now it’s not trying to impress people but rather demonstrate that they were right to be impressed in the first place.”

The ÷ Tour launched in Turin, Italy on 16 March and, after winding across Europe (34 shows), Latin America (14) and North America (60), finally wraps up - barring extensions - in Nashville on 7 October.

TPi Photos: Ralph Larmann www.edsheeran.com www.meyersound.com www.majortom.cc

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CLFLIGHTING

SNOWBOMBING 2017 For one week of the year, in the glorious backdrop of the Austrian Alps, lies a British-run festival in a snow sport haven. Broadwick Live’s Snowbombing is one of a kind; from logistical challenges to unexpected gig requests, this ski resort hosts it all. TPi’s Kel Murray visits the technical crew and production suppliers who pulled the 2017 mountain music mecca together.

Photos by Fanatic Live http://www.fanaticcreative.com Photographer credits: Danny North, Giles Smith and Richard Johnson Crew photos by TPi

THE PRODUCTION MANAGER & HIS VERSATILE TEAM...

Production Manager Ryan Esson has led the technical production and infrastructure on behalf of Ground Control for Snowbombing over the last four years, during which his time in Austria has been about progression, on various levels, to both help the show remain fresh and build a solid foundation for the longevity of the festival’s future. “The main thing about working on an event for this many years is that it’s important to move forward with the look and feel of our key venues.

Equally important for me personally is that I’ve made a big effort to become very friendly with the locals. At the end of the day, this is their home. We’re just here for a few weeks every year, but making a conscious effort to work with them has been vital. Shoehorning an English way of working into a very traditional Austrian town, and making that relationship what it is today, is something that I’m very proud of,” he smiled.

Esson’s work in the UK festival market is known throughout the industry, but putting on an event in a different country remains one of his toughest challenges. “Obviously bringing your whole team abroad has budget restraints, so this show is harder - budget wise - than any other I work on. It’s been hard to find the balance of utilisng less experienced crew who are still able to deliver a quality end product. Chris Hill, my Technical Assistant, is a great example of that; he’s come a long way in the last few years and has got a great future in production ahead of him. Because of budgeting, Snowbombing has actually become a breeding ground for the next generation in our industry. I’ve got Ria Sioux Byers who won a TPi Breakthrough Talent Award at the first Production Futures event out here

with me. I’ve also got various students involved with Backstage Academy and Lipa, mixed in with some really experienced people. You can only get so much experience in the classroom, or in a generic field, but the great thing about this as a festival venue is the challenges and education the site brings to them,” added Esson.

On the other side of the spectrum, Esson has employed the likes of dbnAudile to supply sound and lighting to the entire festival. “Rob Leach has come up with the design of The Racket Club once again, and I think it’s his best yet. What makes him an incredible designer is the fact that he works across lighting, video and special effects, so he’s amazing at visualising all of those different elements. This year the audience got to be more involved with what was going on onstage, and it feels more integrated. Rob really gets the multi-dimensional aspect of designing with technology and has brought it all to life. For someone who runs a rental company and specialises in lighting, his eye for the finer details of visual design as a whole is unparalleled – he’s not recognised enough for his design abilities, but for me, they’re second to none,” he noted of the festival’s biggest indoor space.

“I’m so pleased with how positive the response has been to all of our stages throughout the festival; the team have done a fantastic job. Working in such close proximity with people, doing long hours and living together for two weeks makes this feel more like a tour than a regular festival but it’s that close-knit group of people and suppliers working together that make this all happen.” www.ground-control.co.uk 32

PRODUCTION PROFILE

Birgit Fischer , Mayrhofen Tourist Board with Production Manager Ryan Esson and Didi Wechselberger, Local Authority Liaison; Some of the fine folks from Ground Control and Broadwick Live.

THE TECHNICAL KNOW-HOW AND IMPROMPTU GIG OFFERINGS...

Chris Hill is returning to Snowbombing for the third year, this time as Technical Production Assistant following his stint in the same role at Festival N°6, again for Esson. He told TPi: “I work really closely with Ryan, and I‘m learning a lot from him, such as how he deals with certain situations and improvises when it’s called for. We have very different styles but I really enjoy working with him, plus he believes in giving people a chance, especially the younger crewmembers, and you can really seem him encouraging the people on his team.”

Hill’s duties include looking after the tech riders for the majority of artists, while Esson deals with the headliners. He continued: “I have to compare what the artists have requested with what we’ve booked in from our vendors. I locate any discrepancies to ensure we have all the necessary equipment at each venue throughout the week.”

One venue in particular required some last minute improvisation when Honky Tonk’s Truck Party came into fruition. Never heard of it? Well, it’d never been done before, as Hill explained: “Ryan and I were called to a meeting at 1pm with the promoters and asked what was possible for an almost ‘secret’ show. Two of our acts, Artwork and Eats Everything, wanted to DJ together, somewhere quirky. It was very last minute as the gig had to start at 6pm! Ryan came up the idea of doing a DJ set on our driver, Alex ‘Honky Tonk’ Webster’s truck. He’s our logistics manager but he was really up for it. It was on the first day of the Forest Stage opening, so our production resources were already stretched. However, we made it all work - utilising our venue managers who also had lighting and audio skills. We put a very small sound system and smoke machine in the back of his truck, and the artists loved it! That’s the thing about Snowbombing, it lets you bring all kinds of parties to life.”

- via Germany & Holland before landing in Hull via ferry – his truck played host to the Honky Tonk Truck Party... the success of which has led to all kinds of ideas. “That was a lot of fun,” he concluded. “I think I want to take it on tour!” www.event-trucking.com

Honky Tonk’s Truck Party in full swing; Logistics Coordinator, Alex ‘Honky Tonk’ Webster’ Technical Assistant Chris Hill

Alex ‘Honky Tonk’ Webster is Esson’s choice when it comes to event trucking. Coordinating the production transport between stages in Mayrhofen takes a well-versed driver, but Honky Tonk has become a staple for the festival. He commented: “I’ve done a lot of work with Ground Control and dbnAudile in the past, which is where I got to know Ryan, as they’ve worked on so many festivals together. This is a really cool one to be a part of because of the variation in each venue.

“My trickiest stage is in the forest - it can be a bit difficult because it’s so dense with trees and narrow pathways. And The Racket Club required a new road for access this year. I have to reverse down a hill to the load in dock, because for most of the year it’s a tennis club, hence the name. It’s not built for an arena size show to come in and out!”

Before Honky Tonk got to drive his truck for 2.5 days back to England 33

SNOWBOMBING

THE RACKET CLUB: A NEW VISUAL DESIGN, LED & LASER EXPERTISE… PLUS THE PEOPLE’S SOUND SYSTEM. d&b VSUBs, 12 Turbosound TFM-450 Monitors and an Audile CS-215 Drum Sub. Additionally, 4 Sennheiser EW-935 G3 handheld radio mics and 4 Sennheiser EW-300 G3 IEM systems were on hand.

Speaking about the recent merger, Leach noted: “Our lighting and rigging offering has been greatly strengthened. We’ve worked so closely with dbn throughout our careers in Audile, that it all just made sense. It seemed like a very logical step going forward in this industry. We were already so collaborative that together we can become something extra special.”

Ashworth agreed: “Audile has enjoyed a strong presence in the UK festival market for years, and dbn’s been particularly strong in their corporate and arts work. As a result we’ve now got a lot of very experienced Directors and Project Managers under one roof, and can have more people dedicated to individual gigs than ever before.” www.dbnaudile.co.uk

dbnAudile’s Rob Leach and Rob Ashworth.

Much more than just a vendor, Snowbombing veteran - and sound and lighting supplier, dbnAudile (newly named, after the two Manchesterbased companies merged) - once more provided expert technical designs, equipment and 24-hour tech cover for its role at the festival.

Director Rob Leach explained: “It’s all about coming up with something fresh and exciting. We’re lucky here because we’ve got a couple of days for the build to take place with a good-sized team on site, yet at the same time we’ve got to get everything sorted out for every venue around the entire festival and resort.

“A big feature in The Racket Club this year is the emphasis we’ve placed on the lighting and video design, letting the LED take centre stage.

It’s always very challenging to do what we need to in there because the EDM market has become so big everywhere that simply to come up with something that’s brand new every year is a big task.”

Is there is pressure on this design to stand out in particular? “In a way, yes because the other venues are quite idiosyncratic - in an igloo or in a forest where the natural beauty of the scenery and landscapes add something to the production value. Whereas The Racket Club is a very purpose-designed space, with the festival goers in mind.

“Personally, I love designing shows that can be broken up, moved around and ultimately able to change the perspective of the stage for the audience. We’ve tried to make the video elements as 3D as possible and become more immersive for the crowds. I love designing shape-based gigs!” exclaimed Leach.

For fixtures, Leach specified 18 Claypaky Mythos, 36 Robe Robin 100 LEDBeams, 12 Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 FX-B LED Blades, 24 Showtech Active DMX Sunstrip LED Battens, 12 Martin by Harman MAC700 Profiles, 18 Martin by Harman Atomic-3000 Strobes, 2 bars-of-6 JTE PAR-64 1kWs, 18 JTE 2-lite Molefay blinders and 8 ETC Source Four Junior Profiles.

The fixtures were controlled via a Chamsys Magic Q Pro 100. Effects included 2 JEM ZR-12 smoke machines, 2 Look Solutions Unique 2 hazer and 2 JEM AF-1 fans.

In the sound dept, The Racket Club system remains the same, partly because dbnAudile’s Rob Ashworth - aka Snowbombing’s sound guru - is a fan of Funktion One, and partly because “Big stacks of Funktion One speakers really make a statement in the club... It’s an iconic brand in dance music and that’s what the punters want to see.” A total of 12 Funktion One Resolution-5 mid/hi speakers, 8 Funktion One F-221P powered subs, and 2 Funktion One Resolution-2SH infill speakers made up the PA. Additionally, 3 MC2 amp racks and an XTA Drive Rack were utilised, alongside a Midas PRO2 mixing desk. Monitor speakers were 4 d&b V8’s, 2

Transition Video was tasked with The Racket Club’s mighty LED screen build. The team of five - each working in an LED Tech capacity - rigged every individual drop panel to create a bespoke video wall. “Once we’ve secured the screens, we then hand everything over to Digital Insanity to produce the content,” stated Transition’s Rhodri Shaw. “In various companies, I’ve been working with Snowbombing for the last eight years and this one was quite a challenging rig but I’ve really enjoyed doing this design - it looks brilliant.”

Transition utilised 230 WinVision9 9mm LED panels, each panel measuring in at 600mm x 600mm, most of which were an individual drop.

“We also supplied the Winvision 2012 processors along with Barco Image Pro II for stage feeds. We had 3 DVI fibre links between stage and FOH to send video from stage to FOH and from FOH to stage as well as a spare.

The Arena had a split 4.2m x 2.4m Winvision 9 9mm screen and the DJ played off the top of the front screen with a rear slab behind the DJ,” stated Shaw. “Looking back at the designs throughout the years, this is definitely the best one we’ve done. There was a lot of flexibility with it because of the depth of the circle trusses in the middle of the venue, and having curvatures at the back really added to the complexity of the show.

“It is very much a three-dimensional rig, but making something 3D look flat, and then back to 3D again, so that the crowd felt as though something immersive was coming out at them from the video is quite a tricky thing to do, but it worked. The DJ Yoda show was a bit different because he’s got a very cinematic feel to his set, whereas the rest of the content throughout most nights is more abstract content. We had to map Yoda’s 16x9 cinematic visuals to certain areas of the screens to make it all flow the way he wanted to be represented.” www.transitionvideo.com

The Transition Video crew.

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08/03/17 15:18

SNOWBOMBING

The Racket Club’s tech team; AC Lasers provided the venue’s laser technology.

“This was our first time supplying Snowbombing… and it’s been great.

Ryan is easy to deal with as always - we’ve worked with him and the Ground Control team on projects such as Parklife and The Warehouse Project - and he ensured all of our requirements were met,” explained AC Lasers’ Daniel Briggs, the festival’s newest tech vendor. The company sent Laser Technician Rob Stanley and SFX Technician Mark Kelly to sitemanage the AC rig.

“After initial discussions with Rob Leach, we specified kit that was appropriate for his new lighting design. Adding the RTI NEO Six MKII lasers was really key to the looks we wanted to achieve. It’s still a very new laser fixture, and is proving very popular with the lighting designers we work with.”

AC Lasers provided The Racket Club with 2 RTI Piko14 RGB lasers, 6 RTI NEO Six lasers and 4 CO2 jets for special effects. The control system was Pangolin’s FB4’s running Pangolin Beyond software and the NEO Sixes were run over DMX from dbnAudile’s lighting console.

In addition to this, Racket Club performer El Row also benefitted from the company’s special effects, providing the DJ with 2 XL confetti blowers and 1 stadium MkII. Briggs concluded: “Maintaining best practices for laser safety, as well as having our experienced technicians there helped the whole event run smoothly.” http://aclasers.co.uk

specialise in. Every year we try and do something a bit different from what has been seen here before. With pixelmapping and playback technologies constantly improving, we have been able to use very high resolution LED screens in order to create a pixel perfect high resolution display system.

This year’s virtual screen size was over 4k.

“As soon as the design gets signed off by production, we create all the pixelmaps and processing maps for the artists’ advance production needs. Once we are onsite and we have our maps finalised we start creating custom content for the rig, re-purposing content provided by the acts and offering onsite support for incoming acts whether we are helping them map the rig out themselves or going via our servers and we map their show to the rig.

“The custom content we create is important; there is no point in having a beautiful screen array and just stretching old clips over it! We also tend to make new content every day during our downtime, to make sure each night looks different during the five show days - creating customised content is the biggest challenge for us. The final look was great. The video panels were suspended on trusses and the Transition Video crew did an impeccable job on the screen build and placement,” added Bagshaw.

Digital Insanity drove the entire rig from one of its Green Hippo HippoV4 racks. The crew used Green Hippo V4 Karst media servers utilising some of the company’s custom visualisation software and custom control surfaces.

Bagshaw continued: “As always, the V4Hippo didn’t skip a beat all week - it gave us a solid performance in a very demanding setup, even though we pushed them to the limits all week. The Racket Club team delivered a great show that continued to evolve throughout all week, giving the ‘Snowbombers’ another unique experience in the venue.” www.digitalinsanity.co.uk

Having worked with Audile on various projects over the last 10 years, Digital Insanity returned to join forces at the Mayrhofen music event, collaborating the the design of The Racket Club’s visual impact. Digital Insanity’s Richard Bagshaw explained: “This year was an interesting design, Rob Leach designed the rig with us in mind because ‘exploded’ LED arrays are what we 36

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02/05/2017 17:08

SNOWBOMBING

The Forest Stage took places in Austrian woodland; The Courteeners gave the 2017 line up a new dynamic; Joe Sheals, Venue Manager.

FOREST STAGE: WHEN YOU CAN’T SEE THE THE WOOD FOR THE TREES BUT STILL PULL OFF A WEEK OF GIGS! “I originally came to work at Snowbombing festival as a rigger, but over the years and as I’ve gotten to know the town and its various venues, my role has grown,” explained Joe Sheals, Site & Venue Manager for the Street Party and Forest Stage. Having been involved in different capacities and at the town’s various venues, Sheals has seen the event evolve and become a more diverse live offering. “The crowd dynamic has been different this year, I think that came from securing more rock bands as well as a mixture of DJs and dance acts. This year we had The Courteeners and Slaves play on the Forest stage, which I think gave a new insight for the traditional customer.”

Working between venues just a short stroll from one another, Sheals also had to manage transporting heavy tech equipment between the two.

He noted: “We stripped out the Street Party venue after the final gig and set up for 10am at the Forest Stage. It’s a big ask to get everybody to get the two stages loaded out and in as they should be in such a short space of time, but we’ve had more crew from the UK out than ever before, and they all worked together brilliantly.”

For the Forest Stage’s tech rider, dbnAudile supplied a d&b audiotechnik J-Series PA system. Again managed by Rob Ashworth, the audio design included 8 J’s, 4 J12’s, 12 J-SUB bass speakers, 2 V12’s and 3 d&b D12 amp racks. FOH position utilised an Avid Profile control surface. In monitor world, a Yamaha PM-5D was chosen to keep on top of the d&b C7-TOPs, C7-SUB bass speakers, a d&b P1200 amp rack, 12 M4 monitor wedges and a D12 rack (with eight mixes).

Lighting fixtures for the outdoor woodland stage were 18 Claypaky Sharpy moving lights, 8 Stormy CC strobes, 12 AlphaSpot 700 HPEs, 12 Robe Robin 600 LEDWashes, 8 ETC Source-4 Junior Zoom profile and 12 James Thomas engineering 4-lite Molefay blinders. Control was via an Avolites Pearl Expert Titan v8.1 control desk with Touch Wing.

Leach commented: “We’re slightly limited at the Forest Stage by what is essentially a pretty wooden shed! There’s only a 4.5m trim height on it and so we settled on a design that uses fixtures strapped to the structure’s wooden beams. It really works with the aesthetics of the stage itself. In recent years, we’ve developed more lighting on and around the stage; lighting the trees for nice camera shots for example. It’s quite difficult to get the camera angles when you’re surrounded by trees, but it’s getting better year on year.”

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THE CASHLESS PAYMENT SYSTEM Intellitix has returned to Snowbombing for the third year. Festival organiser Broadwick Live introduced the RFID-enabled cashless payments and access control for the first time in 2015 and hasn’t looked back. The technology, which consists of an RFID risk chip on the wristband, logs people’s identity and allows them to walk around the festival locations with a ‘wallet on the wrist’. Account Manager Carl Martin has worked with RFID technology over the last eight years and was on site in Mayrhofen. He told TPi: “What makes this system so much easier for the festival customer is that they can put an automatic top-up onto the system when they’re out.”

Liaising the promoter, Martin explained that although the technology is a brilliant invention, constant improvements are still being made.

Intellitix once again deployed a bespoke system across the entire festival site, which included installing an antenna 1,500ft above the town of Mayrhofen. With a team of 10 on site to deploy and set up the necessary equipment, Martin confirmed that on the last day of the festival, the promoters were happy with how smoothly the cashless system worked. www.intellitix.com Carl Martin once again oversaw the festival’s RFID infastructure.

GETTING THE KIT THERE ON TIME AND KEEPING THE CROWDS SAFE TRUCKINGBY Brian Yeardley supplied five trucks to the Snowbombing production team; four low ride Mega box trucks and a Mega high cube curtain-sided truck for set and staging.

While two drivers stayed at the festival venue for the duration of the week as working drivers, three of its team loaded in and left, returning for the load out a week later. This enabled trucking costs to stay on budget. Managing Director, Kevin Hopper stated: “This is the first year TRUCKINGBY has been involved with this event in Mayrhofen, and we have had a lot of positive feedback already regarding our trained drivers and trucking services.” www.brianyeardley.com

Mojo Barriers’ Kevin Thorborn told TPi how Mojo enbaled the festivalgoers to remain safe while getting up close to the acts, having supplied around 80m of stage barrier and 20m of bar barrier to Snowbombing 2017. “With a mixture of temporary and existing venues, Mojo Barriers’ stage barrier was the ideal product for this event, which required them to be quickly moved and reconfigured for the different events taking place each day, whilst its bar barrier enabled the event organisers to quickly set up temporary bars on site that were installed and taken down while the festival was taking place. Mojo has been working with Snowbombing since 2012 - it’s a great event to be part of.” www.mojobarriers.com 40

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SNOWBOMBING

The Arctic Disco’s Sam Parkin helped keep the 2,000ft venue in check.

THE MOUNTAIN TOP VENUE Sam Parkin, Venue Manager for the Arctic Disco - a 300 capacity igloo at the top of a mountain in the Austrian Alps - hosts some of the biggest acts throughout the week. Once the core gigs are over, the turntable enthusiasts amongst the line up come up the mountain for intimate DJ sets. “It’s a very unique venue I’ve never worked on anything like it before,” said Parkin over a hot chocolate 2,000ft up. “Our biggest challenge here is ensuring customer safety on a mountain in the dark! We have a full security and stewarding team and we brief all customers who buy tickets to these parties about what to expect and what we expect from them.

“Weather conditions are a big thing to consider here too; it gets dark very quickly, and the weather can turn dramatically, so we are vigilant at all times. We receive weather forecast predictions every day and have constant reviews. This year we’ve been lucky and tonight punters can enjoy a clear sunset.”

When TPi visited the igloo - a permanent structure that truly comes to life during Snowbombing - DJ Yoda was playing the last Arctic Disco set of 2017 and spinning on a Pioneer DJM-S9 Battle Mixer and Technic 1210 DJ decks using Serato DJ software. Parkin continued: “The venue contains noise really well, so we only need a small PA system up here. dbnAudile supplied a small, portable Electro Voice system, which has suited the venue. It’s nice because of how isolated the igloo is, we don’t really have to worry about sound restrictions!”

He concluded: “Although the venue is here all year round, we come in and turn it into a live music event. It’s such an interesting role from a logistics point of view and in my entire career freelancing, this is the most out of the ordinary venue I’ve worked at.”

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Fog is our passion!

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Tiny S, Tiny FX, Tiny CX, Power-Tiny Battery-operated fog generators, 30 W/70 W/400 W Unique 2.1 Haze generator DMX, 1500 W Decordia’s Cordi Ashwell and hr team kept the festival site on brand.

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A DECORATIVE AFFAIR Cordi Ashwell of event décor specialist Decordia knew she wanted to create outdoor deisgns “for everyone to interact with and enjoy” since her first festival job in 2009. “The décor world has changed a lot since then, and this year I started my own company, Decordia, to make sure we can offer the whole package - as well as making it events look relevant to the theme, we also ensure it happens within in budget and designed with safety in mind,” stated Ashwell.

Decordia provides all the ‘fun stuff’ you see at festivals, working closely with the brand to bring to life the visual identity of an event. “From bespoke creations and flags to seating, bunting and signage, we do it all! I first worked with Ground Control in 2010 at Kendal Calling and since then we have worked together on over 15 shows. They are a fantastic team to work with and really get that the décor for the event is the finishing touch.

“I also work closely with event promoters, Broadwick Live, which runs festivals in unique settings such as Snowbombing and Portmerion’s Festival No 6. There really isn’t another festival like Snowbombing though; Mayrhofen in April offers a stunning backdrop bathed in sunshine, and dressing the mountain venues are a total treat. We dress the town itself too, as well as the festival’s various venues. Allocating the right décor and branding to the places where people can enjoy it most, but also allowing the unique Austrian architecture of venues like the Bruk’n’stadl and the Forest Stage be the real star of the show can be a challenge.”

Ashwell’s décor team was completed by Declan Sloan and Simon Wall, whom she described as “great ‘boarders… a necessity on this show, as some of the venues are only accessible via the snow!”

Decordia too works closely with dbnAudile. “They help to design and supply us with all of our decorative and creative lighting. Working collaboratively on events like Snowbombing is what makes it such an exciting process. This is the show where the festival family gets to unite after the winter break and prepare for another busy summer together. It’s a great team in a beautiful location - and what better way to start a busy day at work than a quick ride down the mountain?” www.decordiaevents.com 43

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SNOWBOMBING

The artist liasion team allowed the line up to enjoy their time in Mayrhofen comfortably.

THE ARTIST LIASON’S SATISFIED LINE-UP Hugo Kibasi of Eye of the Storm Events and Jessica Webb of GoTo Live worked in unison as part of a collaborative artist liaison effort at the festival. Webb looked after the logistics and coordination of artists to and from the festival, gathered flight information, and passed requirements over to the transport and accommodation departments for advancing, while Kibasi oversaw the whole artist liaison department - focussing specifically on its operational delivery, as well as being the primary contact for artists, agents and their management.

Webb told TPI: “We run Snowbombing as a small team; there’s just eight of us in the resort dealing with the all of the artists throughout the week. It’s very challenging but we all pitch in during the long days. It’s key to have a positive attitude because we work such long days and deal with a lot of difficult situations, but it’s important not to become overwhelmed.” Kibasi agreed: “A strong sense of teamwork is essential for this show, so there is a real team spirit here.”

Artist liaison might sound glamorous, yet essential part of festival production, but doing so in a mountain resort has its testing moments, as Webb explained: “We have to order a lot of things from the UK and have it put on the production trucks to the resort, so we tell artists in advance that last minute requests are not always possible due to the location we’re in, but we always try to fulfil any request we can.”

“A lot of artists do return to Mayrhofen year-on-year,” added Kibasi. “So they understand 44

SNOWBOMBING

that it’s a small resort tucked away in the Austrian Alps and there’s certain limitations. That said, in my four years of running AL I can’t think of any requests we haven’t been able to fulfil with a bit of creative thinking and resourcefulness!

“Over the years we’ve also developed a great relationship with the locals in Mayrhofen and there are always a couple of individuals you can rely on to help get you out of tight spot. Knowing the owners of some of the best hotels and restaurants in the area is a huge advantage.”

Webb added: “Its one of the only events where I take in the scenery whilst walking to work and smile at the fact I get to be in such a beautiful resort. I feel very lucky to call Mayrohofen my ‘office’ during this event.”

“For me,” concluded Kibasi, “there are two elements. Number one is that it’s such a logistically challenging show that once you’ve completed it, there is a real sense of achievement. Number two is that you’re working on the amazing backdrop of the Alps and interacting with the people of Mayrhofen, many of whom I now consider to be my friends.” www.eotsevents.co.uk www.gotolive.co.uk

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BRUNO MARS Silk shirts, gold chains and an all-singing, all-dancing stage show that would put many of the Hawaiian crooner’s R&B forebears to shame - the 24K Magic World Tour was a step back into a bygone era when pinky rings were in and talent was king. TPi’s Ste Durham headed to Liverpool’s Echo Arena to meet the crew.

Hot on the heels of his latest album’s commercial and critical success, multitalented entertainer Bruno Mars has taken the throwback performance style he has honed on previous tours and turned the technical production level up to 11. The resultant show is a testament to what can be achieved when a gifted, motivated artist is supported by the latest technology and a truly world-class crew.

Production Manager Joel Forman has worked closely with Mars for over six years and has been at the epicentre of the 24K Magic World Tour since its inception. He explained: “I start at the conceptual level with Bruno and the show designers, essentially keeping everyone in check when it comes to the financial and physical constraints of a tour.

“Bruno is involved every step of the way, from writing the songs to what appears on the IMAG to what the tour merch looks like. From the offset he wanted big, powerful lighting looks and uniformity throughout the design.

It’s the logical step up from the Moonshine Jungle tour. It’s a sexier, cleaner look and it really defines the period he is going for with the album.”

In order to pull off such an ambitious and high profile spectacle, Forman knew he would have to make supplier and crew selection one of his main priorities. He said: “Most of the vendors carried over from the Moonshine

Jungle tour. TAIT were the only ones for this kind of project and VER did a great job last time - the fact that the crewmembers I wanted were available made that decision easier. Clair Global is another returning company that always delivers and Bruno has been happy with them for over a decade.”

The PM also recalled Pyrotek, this time to supply special effects and lasers, as well as Beat The Street for bussing and EST for trucking.

The only new vendor was Solotech, which provided the substantial video element of the show, albeit with the same core video crewmembers as the previous tour. As Forman so succinctly put it: “At the end of the day, this business is about people, and I couldn’t be happier with the vendors and crew we have for this tour.”

He continued: “Although Bruno is involved with everything, he tends to give me the space to hire crew. He definitely understands the value of people; there’s a reason some of us have been here six plus years and there’s a reason guys have waited around since the last tour to come and do this one. We’ve got a good thing going on here.”

It became evident after even a short time backstage that Mars wasn’t the only one that understood the significance of having the right people by your side on a tour of this magnitude. Forman enthused: “It looked like we 46

PRODUCTION PROFILE

Opposite: Show Designer Cory FitzGerald began work on the 24K Magic tour in July 2016 in collaboration with Production Designer LeRoy Bennett.

Below: Solotech provided the substantial video element of the tour with its brand new 12mm LED technology, manufactured by Saco Technologies in Montreal.

had a mountain to climb when we left Rock Lititz but we’re already hitting three-hour load-outs and making souncheck every day - that’s a testament to the quality of crew.

“They’re all talented individuals but it’s the hard work they put in without complaining that makes the difference. The schedule allows a lot of down time but it also means busting our ass when we need to get something done. Of the 60 or so crew there’s only a small number I haven’t worked with before, on this or other tours. It was a blessing that we started in February and could pretty much get the guys we wanted.”

Show Designer Cory FitzGerald has worked with Mars since 2011, and began work on 24K Magic in July 2016. In between this time and the tour itself, FitzGerald, in collaboration with Production Designer LeRoy Bennett, helped to make the artist’s vision a reality.

FitzGerald commented: “Bruno takes a lot of time to find references and research what inspires him, both musically and visually. A lot of the references we’ve pulled together for this tour were from the late 80s / early 90s R&B scene. These kinds of events came right around the time when a lot of acts were blowing up and jumping straight into arena and stadium tours.

It’s been interesting to research that level of production that long ago.

“He wanted a vintage feel with a modern twist - a more high concept, high fashion version of something that has been done already, but in a new way and with technology that pushes the limits of what can be done today.

I think we’ve done a pretty good job of mirroring what he’s been talking about for the last eight months.”

The ‘big, powerful lighting looks’ that Mars envisioned led the team to use tours from the likes of Michael Jackson and Queen as a touchstone, focussing on the striking effect created by large banks of PARcans. Rather than blow the dust off a battery of power-hungry and expensive relics, the crew decided to create pods comprised entirely of Robe’s new LED

WashBeam, the Spikie. Almost 800 of them, to be precise.

FitzGerald continued: “It’s basically a ceiling of 20 automated pods in four rows of five, and each pod has three rows of seven Spikies. One of the big things we wanted to avoid was multi-cell fixtures. We wanted very homogenised beams so you wouldn’t see the LED’s red / blue split up. The Spikie compact, fast and very bright, particularly when you have as many of them on stage as we do!

“If we’d gone down the road of trying to mimic the banks of PARcans, we’d be stuck with that look the whole time. Having the Spikies in these pods gives us a lot of flexibility and that modern twist that we originally envisioned.”

The Spikie pods could be rearranged via TAIT’s intricate automation system, reshaping the stage throughout the show and allowing the fixtures to create a variety of effects from subtle key light to twinkling, pixelated eye candy looks. Once the design was finalised, the production moved in to Pennsylvania’s Rock Lititz campus for three weeks of rehearsals.

“We spent a lot of time in rehearsals creating different shapes with the ceiling,” FitzGerald said. “For example, the song When I Was Your Man is an intimate moment where the ceiling comes down and wraps around Bruno.

That becomes the whole show and it has a really calming effect. At other moments it is flown as high up as possible in order to reveal the full stage in all its glory.

“We’ve been talking about that kind of thing for several years, and I think we really pulled it off with this latest design.”

VER supplied the no frills lighting package, which consisted of 7 Robe BMFL Spots, an eye-watering 795 Robe Spikies, 44 GLP impression X4 Bars, 142 TMB Solaris Flares, 49 Philips Vari-Lite VL4000 Beam and 48 Philips VariLite VL6000 Beams. The show was controlled via an MA Lighting grandMA2 full size.

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BRUNO MARS

Above: The entire stage, along with the myriad automated elements, were designed as an integrated system.

The VL6000 Beams were rigged on vertical truss facing out to the audience, while the VL4000 BeamWash fixtures provided backlight, sidelight and myriad effects.

“We chose the Philips Vari-Lite VL6000 Beam because there isn’t a light out there like it,” said Bennett. “It’s a very raw Philips Platinum lamp, which delivers this really cool, large column of light. It’s a texture that doesn’t exist anywhere else, which makes the fixture really special. It’s almost like having the old Vari-Lite VL4 on steroids! Not only that, the big, retro-style aperture fits in with the whole 90s feel of the show and keeps everything clean, bold and really strong - the type of look that comes out well on a phone camera.”

FitzGerald also had praise for the GLP fixtures: “The X4 Bars offer us a great amount of flexibility with the tilt and zoom, as well as speed and punch with the brightness and pixelation options. We’ve used them to outline the floor of the stage and give us a lot of punch coming back from the lower floor on the stage deck. We can also create a wall of light above the heads of the band with the atmosphere in the room. The pixelation offers quite versatile options for effects and different intensity chases.”

design and it is a pleasure help make this project happen for such a great group of people.”

The 12mm Saco LED wall was 54ft wide x 20ft high, while the 3 Saco LED lift faces, also 12mm pitch, were each 12ft wide x 6ft high. Solotech also provided a camera package consisting of an HD 2ME Grass Valley Korona Video Switcher, with all monitors and multi viewer built into its custom flip-up design; 2 99x Long Lens Grass Valley LDX86 Cameras; a 22x Hand Held Grass Valley LDX86 Camera; and a wide angle JIB - Grass Valley LDX86 Camera.

For side IMAG, the company supplied 2 Barco HDF-W30 FLEX projectors and 2 AV Stumpfl 24ft wide x 13.5ft high rear projection side screens.

The video crew on site consisted of Video Director Steve Fatone, Video Engineer Kevin Tokunaga, Lead LED Tech/ Crew Chief Krystena Rice, LED Tech/ JIB Operator Lee Shull, Projectionist / Camera Operator Josh Phebus, and LED Tech / Camera Operator Christian Lind.

As well as the video hardware on stage, there were a number of set pieces that flew in and out, courtesy of TAIT Towers.

Prior to the show opener, the main stage was masked by an Austrian curtain adorned with an intricate image of a golden crown. When the show begins, the curtain rises revealing Mars and his band on a bright, neon-lit stage. The stage itself is 59ft wide and built with custom TAIT Mag decks.

Atop the decks sat custom LED light boxes that illuminated the stage floor in sync with the rhythm of the music.

In addition to the lit up stage floor, the stage had eight elevating lifts.

Upstage, four electromechanical chain lifts were used to lift the band throughout the show and downstage there were four hydraulic scissor lifts with LED video panels installed on the front. The lifts raised Mars and the band 5.5ft above stage level, while video content was projected onto the panels.

TAIT manufactured the custom made LED light box ceiling structure that also matched the measurements of the stage. The structure included the surrounds to the ceiling light pods, the 15 light pod columns and a number of Tetris-esque LED arches that rotated on and off stage. TAIT also created the ‘XXIV’ scenic gold letters engraved with LED that flew in to hammer home the title of Mars’ latest album.

Hanging from 72 Nav Hoists, this high-tech ceiling structure is synced to TAIT Navigator, which controls the movement of all scenic elements above

VIDEO / STAGING As well as taking the lighting rig into consideration, Mars wanted the retro 90s aesthetic to inform all aspects of the production. Bennett explained: “A lot of it was because of the costumes he wanted to wear and the patterns and textures he liked. We knew the video could emulate those shapes but we wanted to keep everything clean. He is like a lot of young artists now - it’s about Instagram. Not every person in the audience is going to take a perfect picture, but it’s so popular that you have to take it into consideration when formulating a design. You have to make very bold statements - it’s always background driven with these iconic moments.”

Solotech was able to match Bennett’s design with its brand new 12mm LED technology, manufactured by Saco Technologies in Montreal. The entire package was prepped out of the company’s new facility in Dekalb, Illinois, before being taken straight to rehearsals.

Todd LePere, Account Executive Touring & Special Events at Solotech, explained: “This show is massive, there are so many gags coming from above and below throughout the performance. When the wall of lights turns on behind our new 49% transparent 12mm LED wall, the video in front disappears. LeRoy and everyone involved did great work to achieve this 48

24K MAGIC TOUR EUROPE

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BRUNO MARS

Above: TAIT manufactured the Tetris-esque LED arches that flew in for one song.

the stage, the lights, and the onstage lifts. As the show came to a close, the Austrian curtain reappeared and descended to stage level, closing out the show.

to think that somebody who does what we do for a living has died. It really reinforces the importance of what we do - being safe, double and triple checking everything - because, oftentimes, you don’t get a second chance.

“It’s troubling, but I don’t let it impede what we do - you can’t. Otherwise you just become afraid of it, and you can’t let that happen, because we love this job. This is a big, tight, heavy show, with lots of movement at once, so everybody needs to be on their game, all the time.”

He continued: “On this run the local crews have been awesome. The language difference is never an issue; they’re very knowledgeable and very helpful. To reinforce that, we’re touring with a great crew, a great PM, and our Stage Manager Brian Bassham is as professional as they come. This is my second tour with Bruno and I’m really grateful to be back - it’ll be some ride for the next year and a half!”

In addition to the rigging crew, Forman drafted in six carpenters to build the formidable stage and five automation techs to control the complex moving grid. Head Carpenter Kurt Jenks explained: “We have a very large TAIT set, along with automated lifts in the stage, hydraulic lifts, and chain lifts, as well as several automated elements in the overhead truss, including pyro.

“It takes us between eight and 10 hours to build so we’re quite often finished by 3pm on a good day. The automated pieces takes a bit longer as there is so much computer control and it has to be so precise - you don’t fly gear over people’s heads without having everything right where it needs to be.”

Although the 67ft x 56ft stage is a substantial one, the design also dictated a small 4ft x 10.5ft thrust to allow Mars to get that little bit closer to his adoring fans. Jenks continued: “Each day you have your challenges and you adjust for each venue but the bulk of our job stays the same. Although we leave the running of the automation to the appropriate techs, we have carpenters dotted around to spot for them and flag anything that’s not 100% via intercom. Nothing moves without eyes on it and the ‘clear’ signal given. This group of carpenters – as well as the rest of the crew - work their butt off during the day and like to play hard at night, which is also important!”

Highly respected Stage Manager Brian Bassham initially joined the Bruno Mars crew in 2011 before having to join another tour for a year in 2012. Now, fully reinstated as chief crew wrangler as of 2013, Bassham was

RIGGING Head Rigger Jerry Ritter, ably assisted by James Haraldson and Steve Davidson, was the one in charge of making sure these components were rigged safely day after day. He said: “We’re travelling with around 140 points and just over 71 tonnes of equipment. It’s not the heaviest show in the world but it’s so compact up there that it does create some challenges.

The entire rig is 72ft wide but 90% of that weight is within 55ft. So far a few buildings have needed ground support, at the show Cologne we needed to alleviate the strain from about 15 tonnes of equipment.”

This concentration of weight came primarily from the lighting pods and myriad moving elements, not to mention the light box perimeter. Ritter continued: “It’s just so consistent every few feet in the air. The upstage light torms weigh 5 tonnes, then 3ft downstage there’s 7 tonnes more… Move another 3ft downstage and there’s 7 tonnes of video. It’s a series of very tight layers and the trusses above are really close together.”

The UK’s Load Cell Rental flew over to Rock Lititz and weighed the rig exactly, which meant that the crew didn’t have to rely on generic calculations or manufacturer specifications alone. It also reassured the production that they wouldn’t run into any trouble once they crossed the pond. Ritter commented: “We brought all of the hoists with us from Five Points Production Services, based in Nashville, all of which are Tour Lift double brake motors. In the UK especially they are big on having that additional safety, and those motors make our job a lot easier - they’re very reliable, have direct drive, and are extremely durable. I’ve travelled round the world with them and it’s safe to say that they’re almost indestructible.”

As well as the rig being compact, it also had to be flown at height.

“Some of the truss elements trim at 60ft, which is high these days particularly when it’s above people’s heads,” Ritter said.

With that in mind, it was hard not to drift into a conversation about the tragic events of this year’s Avenged Sevenfold tour that ultimately led to young local crewmember Marvin Puchmeier losing his life.

Ritter took a short pause, and began: ”It’s always in the forefront of your mind that something can happen on any given day. It hurts you personally 50

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Above: Monitor Engineer Ramon Morales; FOH Engineer Chris Rabold; Pyrotek’s John Arrowsmith and Darren D’Amour; Show Designer Cory FitzGerald.

glad to be back in the fold. “The dynamic has changed a little but I’ve been touring with Joel since 2008 with the Jonas Brothers so we know each other well,” he said.

“The concentrated nature of this show in particular means there is a unique set of challenges but we have a really solid, handpicked crew to take care of it. I call cues during the show but I trust the operators and spotters to do their job well enough that I can step back a bit.”

While half of the show runs to timecode, Bassham has to call the remaining half’s worth of cues the old fashioned way. He said: “I’ve listened to the same songs so many times now that I’m pretty well drilled, and I always try and look 10 steps ahead. My role is to support these guys and provide them with the assets they need to do their job. As long as everybody out there is getting what they need, I’m doing it right!”

Bassham explained that, while all of his cues require precision - one in particular has 37 elements moving at the same time - it’s the times a human element is introduced that cause the most anticipation. He commented: “There are two main points when we’re moving people that are the real heart in mouth moments, but this system from TAIT is the finest in the world and I have complete confidence in the guys who are running it.

“I have always said that things are going to go wrong on any tour - it’s how people react that counts, in my book at least. All we can do is make sure everything happens at the right time, in the safest way possible.”

if we have any little tweaks to make, it’s just as easy to take it down, alter it, then fly it again - it’s not even worth the discussion! It’s a little ridiculous.”

He continued: “The system uses a three point suspension system, which is not only easy to rig, but easy to teach stage hands to rig.”

Rabold and Sully had both used a range of systems on recent gigs, but were particularly impressed with the CO-12’s consistency. Rabold said: “Most modern PAs are relatively reliable but the Clair system has been a joy to use every day. Usually you do what you can and the room does its own thing, but we have a great amount of control with a pretty compact system. I’m relieved and thrilled with the way it’s worked, as I wasn’t sure initially. I’ve used it on a handful of one offs for different acts but never really with a mix I was invested in.”

Although the bulk of the system has remained unchanged since that first day in Lititz, the crew did make the decision to completely remove all of the ground stacked subs that originally lined the stage edge.

Sully explained: “Having everything co-located allows us better vertical timing, and removes any worries about timing offsets. The original sub array was fine and was only used for the first 15m-20m of the crowd, but it was causing issue for Bruno. We can control the energy horizontally but not vertically, and we had a lot of energy radiating up underneath Bruno while he performed - which he was not digging. The quick solution was put it in the air and we simply haven’t looked back.”

The system used at Liverpool’s Echo Arena was the smallest of the tour as it had a much narrower field to cover. The main hang consisted of 16 CO-12 per side, while the side hang was made up of 12 CO-8 per side with 6 CP-218 subwoofers per side to reinforce the low end.

Sully gave his opinion on the system’s performance: “It’s been startling for Chris and I from the moment we turned it on. We can’t quite believe how good it sounds, given the size of it! The bass response we have is nice too and just strengthens the tonne of usable, coherent low end we already have from CO-12’s. The CP-218’s are there to help us cover roughly an octave.

It’s not a particularly bassy show, we just have to make sure we have that balance.”

AUDIO FOH Engineer Chris Rabold is on his first tour with Mars having joined the crew in September 2016 for 24K Magic’s promo cycle. Audio supplier Clair Global provided a PA system based around its proprietary Cohesion CO-12 product, an addition that Rabold was more that satisfied with. He said: “It’s unbelievably easy to use. We hardly do anything on EQ once we’ve flown it and - incidentally - flying it is also a piece of cake!”

Systems Engineer Chris ‘Sully’ Sullivan agreed: “Our stage manager Brian says we are the last of his worries - we have least hands, very little kit, and are the quickest to fly - regardless of when we get in. It’s so easy to fly that, 52

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Above: The rigging crew; PM Joel Forman; Stage Manager Brian Bassham; Systems Engineer Chris ‘Sully’ Sullivan; Beat The Street’s band busses braved the winds that whipped across the surface of the Mersey.

As always, the system was powered using Lab.gruppen amplifiers, all of which were custom built to Clair’s specifications, and ran on Lake software, while Rabold and Sully chose SMAART software to help with system timing and general analysis.

When it came to audio control, the ever-familiar form of a DiGiCo SD7 could be found at both the FOH and monitor positions. Rabold laughed: “The SD7 is what I tend to use on these shows where I have like 900 inputs!

I have a Waves server in there and a big outboard rack - half of which isn’t patched. I just tend to travel with it but if I don’t need something, I wont use it. There are delays, pitch shifts and a couple of drum reverbs that I get from Waves, and a few vocal effects from the rack - there’s a fair amount going on.”

As well as the extensive amount of inputs from the Shure, Mojave and Telefunken microphones on the drums, Rabold had to deal with Mars’ vocal, four DPA d:vote 4099’s for horns, four backing vocal mic channels, a Lesley cab and live guitars and bass. He said: “The 4099’s are best out there for what they do - you can use them for anything! All the BVs are on Sennheiser 9000 Series mics, while Bruno has a Sennheiser SKM 5200 with a 5235 capsule.”

Although he had his work cut out when it came to the channel count, Rablod was more than happy to take his place every night at FOH. He enthused: “This is definitely the most fun I’ve had mixing for a while. Bruno couldn’t be any cooler and he is demanding but in a really positive way we’ve gone over the mix every day and he seems to be happy with it. When the pressure is on like that you end up getting an even tighter mix than you thought you could.

“It’s a big band and there’s a lot going on but it’s not cluttered. We made every track independent and nothing that’s being played live is doubled up on ProTools, which is rare for a pop gig. This means that everything has its own space in the mix and you can hear all of the instruments.”

He continued: “There are a lot of really specific tones on the most recent album that would be difficult to mimic live, so we thought it was better to keep them in the box. We have some additional BVs and percussive effects

in there as well – it’s the subtleties that matter on a gig like this.”

Although half of the show does run to timecode, Rablod fires his own snapshots manually “out of habit” – a job for which the SD7 is ideally suited.

He concluded: “There’s nothing faster when you need to do lots of different things at the same time, and the snapshot architecture is really well laid out.

Ramon [Morales, Monitor Engineer] and I have toured together for years and we both trust DiGiCo.” The quite contagiously laid back monitor engineer in question had joined the tour a year and four months before we met at the Echo Arena, and already had a good idea of what Mars, his band and the rest of the crew wanted to hear on a nightly basis: “Everybody gives you a different set of challenges,” he said with a smile. “Bruno’s mix in particular is becoming more and more like an album mix - which is tough with the room and general environment changing day to day. He wants the full picture but everything still needs to be nice and smooth.”

Morales had 18 channels of Shure PSM1000 for performers and crew, all of whom were on Jerry Harvey Audio IEM. He continued: “It’s easier for everyone to have their own mix but it does make things a bit chaotic on my end! Luckily I’m comfortable using DiGiCo and I know them inside out. It makes starting a new gig a little less daunting when you’re using gear you’re familiar with, and speeds everything up straight away. Chris and myself are both close to being tapped out in terms of inputs and outputs but everything is working great and I expect it should be even smoother down the line.”

SPECIAL EFFECTS Canada’s Pyrotek pulled double duty on the 24K Magic tour, providing both special effects and lasers. Pyro Technician Jon Arrowsmith explained: “We have three pyro guys and two laser operators on this run, as well as have about 250 pieces of pyro product. We brought 10 Le Maitre Salamander flame units, some LSG (low smoke generator) machines for a dry ice effect, and concussion mortars for the loud bangs.”

The crew rigged the majority of the pyro gear in the truss to shoot down 54

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and from the stage shooting up. The large laser arsenal was distributed evenly on the rear and side trusses, as well as the top of the light box stage perimeter. If that wasn’t enough, Pyrotek also turned FOH into a 360 degree firing position for the blanket of gold confetti that was triggered during the finale, by situating a blower on each corner of the structure, facing out at the audience.

Arrowsmith continued: “The flames and LSG machines are operated with a basic lighting console and the pyro is fired using a US made Pyrodigital controller. It’s used mostly for fireworks displays but it works well in this setting as well. Everything during the show is fired manually by us - we have to have some fun!”

As always is the case with the more explosive side of touring production, H&S is of paramount importance to the Pyrotek crew. Luckily, they had a helping hand from partner company Le Maitre.

Arrowsmith explained: “We brought all of the hardware from Canada, and Le Maitre supplied us with the product and Tim Haddon to ride with us in the UK. He is hip to all the local H&S staff and regulations so it’s made life very easy. Every now and then we have to shoot off a couple of pieces to make sure everyone is happy but they generally let us do our thing.

“The performers are very aware it’s rigged behind and above them on the night and both myself and Joel have had conversations with them during rehearsals. In the heat of the moment and they could stray into the danger area but in that situation I just wouldn’t shoot.”

He concluded: “We had three weeks in Rock Lititz so everything became very finely tuned. We also did a couple of New Year’s Eve shows and some one-offs in Vegas - plus I spent a lot of time listening to the music itself so I wouldn’t screw it up right from the word go!

“It’s my first tour with Bruno, though Pyrotek was on the last one, but I’ve worked with Joel in the US before with Rihanna, I also have a good relationship with Brian, having worked with him years ago on the Backstreet Boys. They’re all good people out here on this tour so we’re happy to be a part of it.”

Above: Production Designer LeRoy Bennett.

LOGISTICS EST provided a total of 24 tractor / trailers for the 24K Magic tour, each of which covered 14,000 miles, while Beat The Street provided six crew busses and three band busses.

EST’s Del Roll commented: “We already had an excellent working relationship with Joel, dating back to the days when he toured with The Jonas Brothers. Although this is an EST job and we still operate independently, we’ve been owned by TransAm since 2010-2011, so there are a few black trucks on site as well as our purple ones.

“Despite the size of this production, we’ve not had to make any special arrangements - it’s what we have been doing for the last 43 years. Working with Joel and his team is always a pleasure; they are polite, professional and low maintenance.”

Rockpool Tour Catering’s Stuart Jackson had worked with Forman back in the Jonas Brothers days before he became Mars’ PM - a relationship that has stood the test of time since then.

Jackson said: “We started on the tour at the end of March in Antwerp and will continue until the end on 15 June, feeding around 125 people per day for dinner.”

He went on to give an insight into the hard-working band and crew’s dietary needs: “Most of the band are on high protein diets and there are other various allergies that we tend to, mainly gluten free. The tour itself is a great one - certainly one of the best! We are working very hard but it’s always enjoyable and it’s a great bunch of guys to work for.”

The last word on the tour went to PM Forman, who concluded: “Overall I couldn’t be happier. By now we’re going at a good clip with load-ins and outs and they are only going to improve as the tour progresses. This crew has surpassed my expectations of the level we should be at by this point.

No venue is built for 24 trucks, but it’s been done before and my guys are making a great job of it so far.”

TPi Photos: The Fifth Estate Ltd & TPi www.brunomars.com www.ver.com www.clairglobal.com www.solotech.com www.loadcellrental.com www.taittowers.com www.pyrotekfx.com www.yourock-weroll.com www.beatthestreet.net www.rocklititz.com www.rockpooltourcatering.com 56

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PROLIGHT+SOUND 2017 From 4-7 April, tens of thousands made the annual pilgrimage to the Frankfurt Fair and Exhibition Centre to attend Prolight+Sound (PL+S), where 950 companies from all parts of the event-technology industry assembled to display their latest products and innovations. Here are the 2017 launches...

AUDIO The Adam Hall Group unveiled several world premieres, including pro audio brand LD Systems’ near-production concept for a future-oriented sound product, which was developed in collaboration with Porsche Design Studio. The company also displayed the MAUI 5 GO mobile, batterypowered column-PA system and its Gravity stands and accessories brand.

Adamson Systems Engineering added the S10n line array cabinet to its offering and introduced the integration-focussed IS-SERIES family of loudspeakers.

The series made its debut with the IS7 and complementing IS118 subwoofer. The IS-SERIES packs Adamson’s sophisticated tour-level technology into sleek, architecturally-friendly boxes with rugged but unobtrusive rigging solutions. The IS7 and IS118 will begin shipping in late May 2017, while the S10n will begin shipping in the summer of 2017.

Alcons Audio used PL+S to preview two new products: a widedispersion version of the LR28 Larger Format Line Array, which will be of interest to larger productions and festivals, and an extension of the QR24 series, the company’s modular high-output line-source column.

Allen & Heath’s compact dLive C Class digital mixers made their Prolight+Sound debut at this year’s event. Founded on XCVI (the same 96kHz FPGA core which drives Allen & Heath’s flagship dLive S Class mixers) and also sharing the DEEP processing architecture, dLive C Class mixers feature class-leading compressors and processing emulations embedded directly within the inputs and mix channels. The new range includes the first 19” rack mountable dLive surface, the ultra-compact C1500.

There are three new MixRacks in the series - CDM32, CDM48 and CDM64 and three new control Surfaces, the 19-inch rack mountable C1500, C2500

and twin screen C3500.

France’s Amadeus announced the new DIVA M² array speakers at the show. The system has a three-way enclosure, bi-amplified design, and two active drivers. Marketing Manager Gaetan Byk elaborated: “The DIVA M² is not a simple evolution of the DIVA M speaker series created in 2006, it is a revolution, a total and radical reinvention.”

Apart Audio announced its new CM Design Series of speakers; the MA120 and MA240 mixing amplifiers; the MASKC Series loudspeakers; and displayed the REVAMP8250 eight-channel bridgeable Class-D power amplifier.

APG debuted the full range of subwoofers from its SB Series, which consisted of four models - the SB110, SB112, SB115-M2 and SB118. Visitors also had the opportunity to see the successful Uniline Compact range, which was introduced to an international audience at PL+S 2016.

A special collaboration between Astro Spatial Audio (ASA) and Adamson Systems Engineering allowed visitors to experience true objectbased 3D audio for live entertainment, using Adamson Point 8 enclosures driven by ASA’s recently launched SARA II Premium Rendering Engine.

The company also debuted its next-generation performer tracking system, named Astro Spatial Tracking, which is based on the pinpoint accuracy of the newly designed Stagetracker II engine.

Audio-Technica announced a new addition to its flagship 50 Series studio microphone range - the AT5047 cardioid condenser model. Based on the distinctive four rectangular diaphragm design of the AT5040, the AT5047 is a cardioid condenser with a transformer-coupled output that delivers a noticeably smooth sonic character and ensures high SPL handling without the risk of overloading mic preamps or console inputs.

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PROLIGHT+SOUND 2017

Opposite: The Adam Hall team; Allen & Heath team; DTS’s Paolo Albani and Veronica Bernardi; APG’s Gregory Dapsanse; Astro Spatial Audio Director, Bjorn Van Munster; The Audix stand; The Aura Audio crew. Below: Cadac displaying the CDC seven; NEXO’s Florian Eustache; The Clear-Com team.

Audix had a well-curated display of its microphones for stage, studio and installed applications. Products on display included the OM Series vocal microphones, several of their best-selling drum packs, and the new Performance Series Wireless system, which features two groups of single or dual channel receivers, handheld or bodypack transmitters, and over 60 system options available, including vocal, headworn, lavalier and instrument microphones. Additionally, Audix’s tri-element hanging ceiling microphone, the M3, was on display with other ceiling, boundary and podium microphones.

Aura Audio introduced the new A28 subwoofer, featuring two 18-inch drivers, the sub features patented Passive End Fire Technology, which enables cardioid radiation pattern without DSP and driven with only one amplifier channel.

Avid used PL+S to announce that its award-winning VENUE | S6L modular live sound system is due to go out with legendary German hip hop band, Die Fantastischen Vier, also known as Fanta 4, on their European tour.

The company also revealed that the desk has been installed at the National Theatre of Iceland in Reykjavik, with the help of its regional partner, Nyja Umbodid.

Beyma introduced several new products this year, including new high performance subwoofers, woofers and full range drivers as well as new compact compression drivers. The new 18LEX1600Nd took centre stage, which features long excursion capabilities, high output and low distortion.

Cadac debuted the latest addition to its CDC digital console line. The CDC seven builds further on the success of the medium format CDC six, offering all of its power and operational simplicity with the enhanced production capabilities of an expanded dual 23.5-inch, 16:9 hi-definition touch screen, 36-fader control surface.

For its first time at the exhibition, Celestion demonstrated its new line of Impulse Responses (IRs) - the definitive digital representations of their renowned classic guitar speaker tones. The initial list of Celestion IRs available for purchase includes the company’s popular G12M Greenback, G12M-65 Creamback, G12M-75 Creamback, G12H Anniversary, G12-65,

Celestion Blue and Vintage 30 models mounted in 1 x 12 and 2 x 12 open and closed back and 4 x 12 cabinets.

Clair Brothers was in attendance to officially announce the launch of the C12 and C8 line array products, both of which feature the next evolutionary step in new mid/high technology. The C12 and C8 are available with Clair True Fit Technology horizontal waveguides and can be custom tailored for any venue, making it perfect for the install market. The C12 and C8 also feature the new transducer technology, reducing weight and amplifier channel requirements. During the show the company also unveiled its new addition to the One Series line of stage monitors, the 1.5AM+, the active version of the 1.5AM monitor. Finally Clair also used the trade show to introduce its point source package, the S2-System. The system consists of the S2-CX and the S2-Sub, complete with a high power Powersoft amp module.

The new Dante interface card for the Eclipse-HX matrix - E-Dante64-HX from Clear-Com was on display at the show. The new Dante interface card is compatible with the Eclipse HX-Omega, Median, and Delta matrix systems, supports Dante and is AES67 compatible, allowing users to transport up to 64 channels of high quality audio to multiple Dante-enabled devices using standard Ethernet network infrastructure.

CODA Audio launched its brand new 3-way Arrayable Point Source System (APS) that combines the user-friendliness of a point source with the arrayability of a line array. APS addresses the limitations of traditional point source systems by offering flexibility and performance standards for medium sized venues. The 2 x 10-inch threeway arrayable APS loudspeaker, has an exceptional power to size ratio that is destined to have the same impact in the point source field as CODA Audio’s AiRAY has had in the line array market. The system also contains the APS-SUB, an 18-inch high output compact subwoofer. CODA also introduced its new LINUS T-RACK based around its new LINUS14 4-channel DSP Amplifier.

At Crestron’s stand the company showed its new modular utility amplifiers AMP-1200 and AMP-2100. Both amplifiers provide integrators with professional-grade audio performance, Energy Star certified efficiency, and

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Luke Jenks on the Coda stand; d&b audiotechnik’s CEO Amnon Harman and CMO David Claringbold; dBTechnologies presented its control software, Aurora Net; CEO of Audiotonix, James Gordon, on the DiGiCo stand; D.A.S. Audio Marketing Director, Bob Giner, with the company’s Sound Force range; EAW’s TJ Smith and Louie King; Fohhn’s Christophe Moll and colleague.

exceptionally easy installation. d&b audiotechnik used this year’s show as a chance to demonstrate its new ArrayCalc Viewer app. The mobile interface provides all key information for positioning and flying a d&b loudspeaker system in a quick and easy format, including all relevant rigging, setup and system details.

Also new at the show was the new R1 Array verification tool. Available in the latest version of R1, the verification tool works by identifying the position of a loudspeaker in an array, then comparing its order within the array to the one in ArrayCalc. Together the J-Series, Y-Series and V-Series make full use of the new software solutions. Also, ahead of its May release, visitors were able to see the new 6 x D80 Touring rack assembly, created for more efficient cabling, setup and pack down.

The Danley Sound Labs European team was joined by Danley USA’s Jonathan Parker and Jeff Pulliam in Hall 3 and at the outdoor demo area, presenting products from across its range. The newest was the Danley J394 Jericho Horn, making its first European appearance at the show. dBTechnologies presented its control software, Aurora Net, which has been developed for advanced control and monitoring of dBTechnologies professional audio systems. Working via Ethernet cable it allows a detailed DSP control while managing digital audio via Dante protocol. The intuitive layout allows total control of the PA system at a glance as well as details of every single element thanks to a quick zoom-in zoom out feature, all of which can be accessed on portable devices.

As well as showing its entire range of SD and S Series consoles, DiGiCo allowed attendees the opportunity to hear, a newly designed 32-bit John Stadius Mic Pre-Amp for the first time. The specifications of the 32-bit SD Mic Pre-Amp Card include fully differential audio paths from input to converter, twin 32-bit ADC conversion per channel and lightening quick conversion time. During the week the company also showed the new DiGiCo S App providing an alternative way to control DiGiCo’s S21 and S31 consoles remotely via an Apple iPad. DPA Microphones focussed on studio quality sound for the live stage with a selection of its latest products. These included the d:dicate MMP-G Modular Active Cable for MicroDot, a preamp that gives users the ability to create a completely wireless microphone setup offering studio quality audio during live performances. The company also showed its popular d:facto Vocal Microphone range, which includes a linear version for sound

engineers who want to design the complete sound pattern and create their own unique sound. Finally DPA also presented its d:vote instrument microphones and its full range of bodyworn microphones include the DPA d:screet Miniature Microphones and the d:fine 66 and 88 Headset Microphones.

With an impressive booth setup, FBT displayed a wide selection of its proaudio, install, audio contractor products. The highlights of the 2017 show were the VENTIS, SUBLine, X-SERIES, EN-54 solutions.

For this year’s show, Focusrite showed the Rednet AM2, a Stereo Dante headphone amplifier and line output interface solution with PoE. Also making their debut this year were the Rednet A8R and Rednet A16R, 8/16 channels of Dante-networked A-D and D-A conversion, with network and PSU redundancy respectively. The company also showed the Red 8Pre, a 64 In / 64 Out Thunderbolt 2 and Pro Tools | HD compatible audio interface, with Dante network audio connectivity.

Fohhn Audio AG brought its next generation of beam steering systems and Class D amplifiers to the show, along with audio solutions from its upcoming Media-Series. A highlight for the company was the digital updating of its Linea Focus products. This latest generation of Beam Steering systems is now equipped as standard with digital AES/EBU- and Fohhn AIREA inputs.

Funktion-One launched three new loudspeakers this year, growing the Evolution Touring Series with the addition of supplementary mid-high and mid-bass enclosures. The Evolution 7TH is the mid-high section of the Evo 7T featuring 10-inch mid-range and a 1.4-inch compression driver for high frequencies. Second was the Evolution 7TL-215 featuring two Evo 7T hornloaded 15-inch drivers providing mid-bass reinforcement for flown and ground-stacked Evo configurations. The company also added to its bass reflex range of speakers with the BR132, which utilises Powersoft’s M-Force 10kW linear transducer.

For the audio side of the Harman Professional Solutions extended family, the group had several new releases to announce to its visitors.

First off was Soundcraft, which launched its two new Mini Stagebox 32i and 16i’s, giving customers multiple channels of remote controlled I/O for Soundcraft Si series products, including the Si Impact mixing console. The new rack-mount stageboxes are equipped with high-quality components, including Studer-designed preamps, to deliver exceptional sound quality.

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Above: Think! AV’s owner, Remco van der Werffand and Funktion-One’s Tony Andrews; Harman JBL’s David Glaubke; Harmonic Design’s Tim Maier; K-array’s Andrea Torelli and Margaux Asteghene; L-Acoustics’ Mary Beth Henson and Dominic Purvis ; Martin Audio’s Dom Harter and Jason Baird; The NEXT-proaudio stand.

Additionally, Harman is releasing a free firmware update for the Soundcraft Si Impact mixing console in April that enables up to 80 mix tracks when used in conjunction with stageboxes. This year also saw the introduction of the Soundcraft Notepad Mixer, a streamlined surface that offers Lexicon digital signal processing, and USB I/O connectivity for computer-based music recording and playback.

JBL launched its VTX A12 line array loudspeaker. The new system offers a completely redesigned solution for mid- to large-size touring productions and high-end fixed installations. Along with the line array release, JBL showcased its new Array Link app, which enables system techs to quickly and accurately share critical line array information with multiple team members. JBL also used the show to introduce its battery-powered EON ONE PRO, a rechargeable portable personal linear-array PA, ideal for gigging musicians and DJs, educators, fitness studios, corporate environments.

AKG introduced the MDAi CPA connected PA microphone adapter.

Featuring embedded ioSYS technology, this portable accessory makes the Harman Connected PA System compatible with all AKG dynamic vocal microphones, as well as models from other manufacturers. Simply add the AKG MDAi CPA Connected PA microphone adapter to any vocal mic and it automatically configures with the Harman Connected PA app and ecosystem, providing effortless setup and instant recall. Along with the microphone adapter, AKG also launched the K275, K245 and K175 foldable studio headphones.

Harmonic Design launched the hd HLS20 HybridLineSource cabinet and demonstrated it on the outdoor stage.

K-array launched its Mastiff line of monitors, comprised of the KM312, KM312P, KM112 and KM11P, which produce ultra-low distortion, giving vocals and instruments incredible clarity and precise sound. The monitors feature an asymmetrical 100° by 30° horn granting performers the possibility to select a wide or narrow sound emission. With an incredibly strong stainless steel grill and sturdy birch wood chassis, these monitors are built to withstand any onstage abuse that may occur.

KV2 celebrated its 15th anniversary at PL+S. Housed in a 9,000sqm factory in Milevsko, Czech Republic, KV2 now manufactures everything in house except transducers, which are still brought from Italy. George Krampera Snr continues to stick to his principles when questioned about the company’s future: “For KV2 it is only about one thing, the sound.”

The L-Acoustics booth was the location of a series of daily presentations

of its latest technologies, which included details of the P1, a networked digital audio processor, and the new Syva segment source. The modern, sleek design of Syva makes it an attractive option for houses of worship as well as intimate settings such as home cinemas or lounge bars. Syva is expected to ship to first clients in June this year.

LaVoce presented a worldwide premier of its new reference drivers: the SAN214.50LD 21in Neodymium subwoofer with 4.5-inch voice coil; and the DN14.40T 1.4-inch exit Neodymium compression driver with 4-inch voice coil.

At this year’s PL+S, Martin Audio unveiled an ambitious line up of 10 new products across multiple categories including line arrays, stage monitors and amplifiers. First up was the Wavefront Precision Series, a new generation of multipurpose line arrays comprising the WPC and WPM, which was followed by the XE Series of high performance stage monitors. Developed in consultation with leading monitor engineers and combining sleek, low-profile enclosures with unique Coaxial Differential Dispersion technology and a patent pending third static waveguide, the XE300 and XE500 are designed to deliver perfect monitor sound with a defined coverage pattern that allows the artist freedom of movement, while reducing overlap with adjacent monitors.

Finally, the last series to be unveiled was a brand new LE range of stage monitors. Complementing Martin Audio’s high-performance XE Series monitors.

Following the successful launch of the Delta Series at ISE only a matter of weeks before, MC2 was pleased to showcase the range again at PL+S. The Delta Series is a range of six networkable audio processing power amplifiers, and innovative non-DSP derivatives - with a twist! The Delta Series has been designed to combine incredible audio power and performance with ultra-flexible connectivity for both remote control and audio. Exemplary audio processing is assured through the use of XTA’s DSP platform, and power amplifier capabilities are taken care of with high efficiency output stages and a generous power supply.

NEXT-Proaudio showed the new Acoustical Simulation Tool (AST) software for 2D modeling of either single subwoofer sources or subarrays and it was the main focus for the company during the show. With an extremely intuitive and easy to use interface and based on a very fast and accurate algorithm, this tool is capable of predicting the acoustical performance of the subwoofers, helping the user to find the best solution 62

PROLIGHT+SOUND 2017

for a given venue with a multiple sound sources.

Italian loudspeaker manufacturer Outline announced the launch of the next generation in multi-function processing and control - Newton. Newton is a full-featured, FPGA-based ‘Multi Media Nucleus’ that takes technology convergence for audio-visual systems to the next level. In addition to comprehensive loudspeaker system control facilities it additionally offers media conversion, sync and clock management plus audio distribution with networking capability, along with a very high potential i/o count (up to 216 in both directions simultaneously). The company also introduced OpenArray2 prediction and simulation software.

Powersoft provided a first showcase for its new MiniMod 4 and LiteMod 4HC, the latest in its range of power modules, which have become the engines for so many active OEM loudspeaker systems over the years. These new releases attracted interest from both new and existing OEM partners, who expressed a strong desire to adopt the new modules in their upcoming developments.

Proel’s newest Axiom loudspeaker system turned more than a few heads at the Live Sound Arena demo. The AX12C column array, which consists of 12 3.5-inch cone transducers in a slim, structurally rigid extruded aluminum housing, was side by side with some of the industry’s more notable medium and large scale sound systems.

Renkus-Heinz presented its latest ICONYX Gen5 systems, as well as the brand new C-Series and T-Series point source loudspeakers. The team was out in full force with CTO Ralph Heinz, VP International Sales Karl Brunvoll, Director of Marketing Margie Kirby, European Technical Sales Manager Michal Poplawski, and Middle East Sales Manager Norbert Bau all on the stand to greet visitors.

Riedel introduced Bolero, a new wireless intercom solution. Bolero is an expandable, full-roaming, DECT-based intercom system in the license-free 1.9GHz frequency range. Fully integrated into Riedel’s Artist digital matrix intercom platform, Bolero offers a rich set of features and connectivity that can be applied three ways: as an exceptional wireless beltpack, as a wireless keypanel, and as a walkie-talkie radio.

Voice Acoustics introduced the Ikarray-8 plug’n’play line-array with

incredible power density: two 8-inch and four 1in drivers are stacked vertically in a compact housing. The company also launched the Score-5, a compact and powerful multifunctional loudspeaker for mobile applications and installation equipped with two 5-inch / 1-inch drivers.

VUE Audiotechnik displayed the latest h-Class High Definition powered systems and al-Class Acoustic Linearity Line Array systems, as well as representative models from the i-Class Superior Contracting systems and a-Class advanced passive systems. It also had the latest in SystemVUE software including the new iOS / iPad version and updates to its EASE FOCUS files with the ability to model hybrid arrays combining al-12, al-8 and al-4 with flying or ground stacked subwoofers (including beam steering).

XTA demonstrated it had listened to customer feedback on its APA Series with the introduction of the APA-4E6. The company also announced the release of a major upgrade to AudioCore - its famous remote control platform.

This latest release loses Array Control and Global Ganging, replacing them with enhanced grouping architecture, which has been designed to work with the new MC2 Delta Series and also APA. Yamaha introduced a number of updates at the show. Firstly to its MA2030a and PA2030a compact power amplifiers, which now feature an 8Ω option to the existing low-impedance (30W x 2ch, 3Ω/4Ω selectable) output, plus high-pass and low-pass filters, which make it easier to incorporate subwoofers for enhanced audio quality. EQ optimised for Yamaha VXS10S/ ST subwoofers are also included.

The recently-announced Version 3.0 firmware for Yamaha’s MTX3/ MTX5-D matrix processors and MRX7-D open architecture signal processor, which brings multiple channels of Dan Dugan auto microphone mixing to all models was also among the news.

The flagship RIVAGE PM10 digital mixing system attracted a lot of attention as Yamaha launches the CS-R10-S control surface, which offers the same operability and functionality but is approximately two-thirds the size of the existing CS-R10 for use in environments with limited space, such as theatre FoH mix positions or monitoring side stage.

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Outline unveiled Newton at this year’s PL+S.; Marc Kocks and Francesco Fannichi of Powersoft; Proel Demonstrates Axiom Line Array; Margie Kirby and Norbert Bau of Renkus-Heinz ; Riedel’s Johan Wadsten; XTA’s Waring Hayes and Mark Bailey.

Ayrton introduced a new line of products at the show, including the Merak wash light, the ArcaLine 3 static luminaire, and the MagicBlade-FX, which combines the qualities of the award-winning MagicBlade-R and originality of MagicPanel-FX. The new products were presented on the stand as part of a 360-fixture display alongside units first previewed at the 2016 show, such as MagicDot-SX, MagicPanel-FX and MagicBurst.

Chauvet Professional introduced several new fixtures at this year’s show including the Maverick MK3 Wash, the Maverick MK1 Spot, ÉPIX Strip IP and Ovation B1965-FC. The company also celebrated its foray into the German market with established industry specialist Fischer GmbH, which now supplies and services Chauvet Professional fixtures in Germany. “Our new products fill some important niches, and we are eager to work with Fischer GmbH to serve the German market,” commented Chauvet CEO Albert Chauvet.

With the announcement of the acquisition by Chauvet, ChamSys had further reason to celebrate at this year’s PL+S with its Stadium MQ500 console winning best in the Controlling Lights category at the PIPA award at the show.

Chroma-Q invited guests to see its award-winning Color Force II, Inspire and Space Force creative LED lighting solutions, along with new Color One 100X LED PAR. The latest addition to the Chroma-Q line up, the Color One 100X PAR, offers nearly 60% more output than its predecessor and is one of the brightest fixtures in its category. Convection cooled and with an IP65 version available, applications range from indoor lighting to temporary outdoor events.

Claypaky’s Immersive Experience stand hosted a multimedia show that mixed light, sound, video, stage design and atmospheric effects, in order to present its new products. First up was the Axcor Profile 900, Claypaky’s first LED spotlight, which boasts a total power of 900W and a 24,000 lumen output. Next up was the K-EYE HCR, an LED wash light that provides total control over the quality of all forms of white or coloured light. The new HCR technology used in the K-EYE is an exclusive electronic platform developed

by Claypaky in conjunction with Osram to meet the needs of lighting designers.

The Mythos2 was also shown, which has two new features from the previous model, a super-smooth dimming upgrade as well as the reliable Osram SIRIUS HRI 440W lamp technology. The last announcement from

LIGHTING The A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) stand showcased the new Chroma-Q Color Force II batten range; award-winning LED, lighting and media control solutions from Jands; the innovate Quasar Science Q-Line range of linear lamps; and the company’s Tourflex Cabling in-house high quality cable and connector options for bespoke assembly of all popular types of data, mains and multicore.

The Adam Hall Group’s professional lighting equipment brand, Cameo, presented its ZENIT series to the public for the first time. New additions to the series were the ZENIT B 60 battery-operated, IP 65-rated PAR lights (black or chrome housing); the iDMX App-Controller; and the iDMX Core Wi-Fi to W-DMX connector box. For safe transport, Cameo has included a touring case for 6 ZENIT B 60’s in its range.

The ZENIT series was rounded off by the W 600 LED washer, a completely new Cameo development, with flexible control options via iDMX core and W-DMX technology.

ADB exhibited the new KLEMANTIS asymmetric linear cyclight family, which included the AS1000 and AS500, designed for use in a linear array. The company also showcased its IMAGO high-tech USB backlit control surface, which, when connected via USB to a PC running the HATHOR lighting software, becomes a fully-fledged console.

ADJ officially unveiled three new additions to its Entour series of professional atmospheric effect generators: the Entour Haze Pro, a professional oil based haze machine; the Entour Cyclone, a high-power DMX-controlled fan; and the Entour Snow, a powerful synthetic snow machine. The company also used its stand to showcase the full range of production-calibre ADJ moving head fixtures - incorporating spot, wash, beam, and hybrid models - as well as the AV Series of modular LED video panels in a stunning lightshow.

New York’s Altman Lighting used its stand to display the Chalice 150 LED series of pendant house lights, the complete family of Gallery 50W LED architectural luminaires, the convection-cooled PHX 150W LED profile, and the Spectra Cyc 200 LED cyclorama luminaire.

Avolites launched its latest Titan update, V10.1, which boasts a plethora of end user-centric new features. Far more than ‘just a point-release’, Titan V10.1 offers significant new functionality as well as many fixes and improvements.

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Above: The A.C. Entertaiment stand showcasing the Jands range of consoles; The Chauvet Professional stand; The ADJ team with mondo*dr’s Jamie Dixon; The Avolites family; Claypaky’s Immersive Experience stand hosted a multimedia show in order to present its new products; Christopher Aguis Ferrante of Ayrton.

the manufacture was the Scenius Unico, a multi-purpose fixture that offers projecting, wash and beam effects.

CLF Lighting presented three new lighting essentials - the Yara, Ares XS and the LEDwash XL. The CLF Yara fixture has smooth RGBW colour mixing, which is delivered by 14 high power LEDs. It has a punchy 15 degree beam angle with an IP65 rating, making it suitable for both in- and outdoor use. The Ares XS, the smaller brother of the Ares, which has the extreme brightness and even projection to make it a true LED alternative for traditional wash lights.

The LEDwash XL is a wash fixture with two LED segments. The two horizontal LED battens can be manually tilted and controlled separately.

Because of the 30° and 55° lens it is possible to use the fixture as wallwash or horizon wash light with both parts complementing each other.

Ehrgeiz showcased the new Supernova RGBW fixture, which offers homogeneous pixel-less light output and a beam angle of 110°, so it can be utilised as a flood, blinder or strobe.

Elation Professional’s stand was lit by LDs André Beekmans and Marco Driessen from The Art of Light. Visitors to the stand had their chance to see the IP65 Proteus Beam and Proteus Hybrid, both now available to the market. Also on show was the theatrical-grade Artiste DaVinci LED moving head spot and Platinum 1200 Wash, Elation’s brightest LED wash to date.

Spanish based Equipson S.A. launched WORK PRO, a new system that offers a control package via a PC, Mac or smart phone, which communicates to software within the LightShark LS-1 console. The console has playback faders, flash buttons, encoders and a 4.7in screen that interacts with the processor, while simultaneously, via Wifi, showing a graphical interface and the power of a touch monitor to another device. During the show the company also launched the LS-Core, which is the same hardware as LS-1 but without controls.

ETC had an array of products on show including the recently launched Gio @5 console. This lighting desk brings the control of the Eos Ti and Gio consoles within reach of users with tighter spaces - and tighter budgets.

Also on show were a selection of ETC’s Source Four LED Series 2 luminaries, the Lustr array and the Daylight HD and Tungsten HD which can be tweaked to perfectly illuminate individual skin tones. Additionally, visitors were able to see the Irideon FPZ, a fixture that pairs the best of the Source Four Mini LED platform with exceptional output and a sleek industrial design to light

spaces with elegance and subtlety. The ETC team were also on hand to walk through the entire ColorSource family of fixtures along with the QuickTouch and Foundation controls of the latest Prodigy P2 hoist.

GLP used the show as an opportunity to launch the much-anticipated JDC1, a true hybrid LED strobe, as well as the multi-purpose impression S350. The powerful JDC1 has been designed to deliver unprecedented versatility containing a traditional single tube element with a clear, bright white output combined with a surrounding full face of RGB LED power. The GLP impression S350 on the other hand employs a highly efficient optical system. The fixture uses a powerful white LED engine at its core, producing bright clarity in the projected beam. Along with the two new fixtures GLP also showed the new Free Connect unit for the X4 atom, giving users the freedom to use individual Atom heads in any location, free from wires.

Harman Professional Solutions brought professional lighting and atmospheric effects to new audiences with the Martin THRILL Series. The new line for DJs, musicians, and enthusiasts offers plug-and-play ease to enhance live performances and events. All THRILL products work right out of the box with easy-to-use presets for customers who have minimal to no lighting experience.

Prior to this year’s show, High End Systems announced that it had been acquired by ETC. Under the ETC umbrella, High End gains the oversight of an experienced lighting industry team to grow its capabilities in service, support, and product development. ETC will operate High End as a separate company located in its current Austin, Texas, US facility. As well as the recent news, High End Systems once again hosted its HOG Factor Programming Competition. This year Team Reflector from Berlin Beuth Hochschule emerged victorious in the contest, which coincided with a massive after show celebration on the AED stand.

LEDBlade presented its new generation LED strip, visual technology system, which comprises both a straight component, the original LEDBlade Stripe, and the recently launched LEDBlade Curve. LEDBlade creates depth of space or three-dimensionality; it enhances edges, expands the visual area or links together to create any geometric design. LEDBlade, adding extra dynamic to the video design toolkit.

Litecom introduced SPOTDRIVE, a handlebar-based moving head luminaire controller. The creative lighting designer can embrace the fresh technical possibilities that SPOTDRIVE brings to the show industry, including 66

PROLIGHT+SOUND 2017

Above: Chroma-Q booth; Ehrgeiz showcased the new Supernova RGBW fixture; Luminex’s Seppe Oyen and Dimitri Jannis; Elation Professional’s Alan Rayner and David Martin; GLP’s Simon Barrett; The crew from LED Blade; Mikkel Samuelsen demonstrates Litecom’s SpotDrive; The MA Lighting stand.

the benefits of relocating followspot operators from their usual locations high above the stage. It also removes the need of additional rigging weight and construction of safe access ways for all followspot operators to climb to their locations.

MA Lighting’s latest software releases, grandMA2 3.3 and dot2 1.3 both released shortly after the show to the public - received attention and praise at the exhibition. The MA Network Switch was equally well received. dot2 version 1.3. allows users to work even faster and more intuitively than before. Web remote access, more master speed fader, increased effects functionality, high priority playbacks and many more enhancements are now incorporated. New software, version 3.3 for MA Lighting’s renowned grandMA2 lighting control solution, features numerous updates. A major step in keeping the fixture libraries updated is the new online MA Fixture Share, which is unlocked with this latest software version.

Optocore released a total network solution suitable for all manufacturers and professional integration clients. The module, designed to be built into third party product boards, will offer maximum flexibility, interoperability and integration for any product - all on fibre, and fully IPbased.

Philips Lighting introduced new products at the show, as well as incorporating them into the lighting design for the stand, which transformed into a stage for a performance from Dutch rock band TOM. The new products released included: the Philips Vari-Lite VLZ Spot; the larger version of the incredibly popular Philips Showline SL BEAM 300fx; the new Philips Showline SL BEAM 500fx; and the Philips Showline SL BAR 720ZT. PR Lighting enjoyed high visibility at this year’s show - largely due to a product showcase centred around its new AQUA waterproof moving heads.

The AQUA 440 Beam, the waterproof version of the XR440 Beam, takes advantage of the popular new high output Osram 440W discharge lamp to deliver a punchy and parallel 3.1° beam. Lining up alongside was the AQUA LED 600 Spot, which in addition to offering protection against rain and humidity, maintains a perfect working temperature even in hot or cold conditions, making it ideal for permanent installation.

Robe took the opportunity to launch its new German subsidiary, Robe Deutschland GmbH, at the show; and unveiled 10 new products.

This year for the first time, the stand became fully ‘live’ with four dancers who performed hourly in a piece choreographed and directed by Chris

Manoe. The spectacular accompanying lightshow illustrated some of Robe’s most exciting new products first hand, including - over and around the stage - 38 Spikies, 18 LEDBeam 150’s, 39 Spiiders, 4 ColorStrobes, 6 PARFect 150’s, 8 Pointes, 10 VIVAs and a single DL4S for top light. Other new fixtures introduced were the PATT 2017, pixelPATT, BMFL FollowSpot, BMFL LightMaster, RoboSpot, UV Strobe, Strobe IP and the ColorStrobe IP. PRG once again had a significant presence at PL+S. The action started the evening before the show began with the presentation of the PRGsponsored Live Entertainment Awards (LEA), for which the company is overall technical service provider. The creative responsibility, as in previous years, rested with Jerry Appelt and bright! | Creative Event Solutions.

As soon as the main show got underway, visitors were able to examine the stage used, including all the installations and effects, and attend regularly scheduled demo shows. This year, the music for the demo show was composed by the band FOXOS, who performed live in the Festhalle throughout the show.

As well as various VR demonstrations, PRG presented a number of its own products including the updated PRG Mbox Extreme media server, the Icon BEAM moving light and the revolutionary GroundControl Followspot System. One brand-new attraction was the prototype of the GroundControl Longthrow followspot, which, can be controlled from the ground at a distance of over 600m. This year PRG’s partners were also presenting a number of new products. Among them was the BlackTrax live tracking system from Cast, while Stage Kinetik showed its magnificent ‘ballet of balls’ using its Winch One system. GLP also demonstrated the new JDC1 hybrid strobe and the X4 atom Sixbar in live action.

Established Robert Juliat favourites Lancelot, Merlin, Cyrano, Victor and Roxie followspots lined up alongside the Dalis cyclorama fixture, but never a company to rest on its reputation, Robert Juliat has yet more surprises in store. Building upon the success of Roxie, its first LED followspot, Robert Juliat took the next step by previewing two new LED followspot models - Oz and Alice - the newest additions to the RJ followspot family. This dynamic pair feature a powerful 600W cool white LED source and the same highquality functions and characteristics offered by the Robert Juliat classic Compact range.

On the first day at PL+S, SGM unveiled a new all-in-one 1250W LED luminaire fixture: The P-10. It carries the functionalities of a wash light, 68

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Above: Optocore’s Maciek Janiszewski; The Philips team were out in force; PR Lighting Sales Director, Ernie Armas; The full Robe squad; Robert Juliat’s new 600W LED follow spot; The SGM stand; The Absen team; ArKaos’ Julie Monroe, Benjamin Bauwens and Agnes Wojewoda.

a strobe light, a flood light, a pixel light and a blinder with a non-fading continuous output, making it the perfect multi-purpose LED fixture.

News from Spotlight at the show included it being one of the first companies to have a full range of 450W LED luminaires in its catalogue.

It also announced its new website, which features a well organised product catalogue containing plenty of tips and automatically associates accessories.

Highlite’s Infinity Chimp 300 desk was showcased at PL+S - it includes an output capable of transmitting DMX wirelessly with W-DMX. This is the first professional console with built-in wireless transmitter from W-DMX. The desk houses a 22-inch full HD touchscreen, four encoders and 10 faders with multiple pages. It’s capable of outputting up to 4 universes (one of them wirelessly), and includes many user-friendly features to program even the most complex shows.

Zero 88 launched an Apple Watch focus tool, the powerCON TRUE1 Alphapack 3, the Chilli Pro 12 (with dimmer, relay, bypass, RCD & RBCO options) and ZerOS 7.9.3. The new Apple Watch app acts as a quick, easy and safe focus remote, providing access to channels and groups with tools such as Highlight and RemDim. It’s a free update for all Zero 88 customers and users and works with all Zero 88 consoles running ZerOS FLX, ORB XF, Solution and legacy consoles like Leap Frog 48 & 96, ORB and FROG2.

week prior to PL+S at Barco’s Kortrijk HQ, the UDX was then loaded on board the company’s touring truck (delivered by satis&fy) and driven to Frankfurt to allow attendees an up-close look at the product’s 4K laser phosphor capabilities.

Following the launch of Christie Digital Systems’ Pandoras Box and Widget Designer Version 6, a further upgrade, the Pandoras Box Octo Server, was unveiled at this year’s show. The new hardware features increased output capabilities providing up to eight outputs at full-bandwidth without compromising performance. Now, Pandoras Box servers can provide a flexible output configuration with 1-8 independent outputs. Each output can be individually warped and blended, allowing for mixed resolution setups.

Crestron was in attendance showcasing its latest immersive solutions for meeting room applications. Highlights included the DM NVX Series, which makes it possible to transmit the highest resolution video over a standard one Gigabit Ethernet network.

Along with its recent rebrand, d3 Technologies launched its new gx range. Developed as a continuation from the success of the pro range, the gx evolution has been designed to facilitate the coming wave of generative content being used in live show design. There will be two models as part of the new range, the gx 2 and gx 1. The gx 2 features the fastest workstation GPU currently available while gx 1 aims to bring the same power density to smaller shows.

Dataton used the week to give visitors a chance to check out the new WATCHPAX 4, the latest addition to the WATCHPAX range of media players. WATCHPAX 4 is portable and powerful, offering four times UHD (4K) playback. The company also showed some of the new features in Dataton WATCHNET, network-based software for custom control of WATCHOUT systems from panels and computers designed for the live environment.

Digital Projection showed a variety of the latest Solid State Laser Phosphor products. One such product was the new Digital Projection E-Vision Laser 10K. The new E-Vision boasts 10,500 lumens at 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA) resolution. Also sharing Digital Projection’s booth were partners VIOSO, the warp and blend solutions provider, which are now available with all Digital Projection projectors.

Green Hippo showed its Hippotizer Media Server range and third party plug-ins for use with its SHAPE projection mapping toolset. The innovative plug-ins included BlackTrax LiveTrack, a new automatic line up tool that is able to effortlessly line up a projector on a 3D model, and the demonstration of the Notch integration, a generative content and effects plug-in. Hippotizer Product Manager, Ryan Brown, told TPi: “Prolight+Sound 2017 was a very successful show for us; we were able to showcase our new Hippotizer developments to a great audience, on a bigger and better platform.”

This year, Harman Professional Solutions introduced the Martin Exterior Projection 1000 - a powerful permanent exterior image projector.

The versatile outdoor image projector bridges the gap between traditional wash lighting, media facade installations and video projection. The fixture offers a wealth of rich, dynamic and creative control options with a

VIDEO Absen launched its ERA 2 concept and exhibited ultra-high definition (UHD) stage rental products, including M 2.9, X5, HDV 1.2, D2 Plus as well as T5, A272 and several other new products.

Stage rental application solutions were the main focus of the exhibition stage, and applications covered display screen, curtain wall and floor screen. Dominating the stand backdrop, 84 M2.9 LED panels combined to create Absen’s largest curved screen to be showcased at a trade exhibition, standing at 6m x 3.5m.

Analog Way showcased the VIO 4K, a premium multi-format converter, along with its new set of optional interfaces able to support 4K60 4:4:4, and the Ascender 48 - 4K - PL, a powerful multi-screen seamless switcher based on the LiveCore platform.

ArKaos presented a range of video products during PL+S 2017, which included the ArKaos Kling-Force LED, 4 ArKaos Video Servers and all of its software: Media Master PRO, Express and Led Master.

Austria’s AV Stumpfl debuted the fully upgraded Wings Engine Stage media server, the compact new Wings Player digital signage hardware player, and the even more condensed UHD Player. The company also displayed its flagship Wings Engine Raw 8K server.

Avolites demonstrated the full capabilities of its much-anticipated Ai v10 media server software, developed through real-world testing. The update includes the integration of real time effects generator Notch and video sharing feature Spout, both of which were developed alongside Ben Miles and Leo Flint of Coldplay’s A Head Full of Dreams tour.

Barco used the show to kick off the two-month European road show in support of its new family of large venue projectors, UDX. Launched the 70

PROLIGHT+SOUND 2017

Above: AV Stumpfl’s Horst Damoser and Hans Christian Stucken; The Christie stand; Barco’s Stephanie Vlegels and Laurent Theurin; d3 Technologies’ Nikita Bazalo and Katy Huke; Martin Fritzsche of Madrix; Visual Projection’s Maarten Engels and Zoe Castle.

remarkably longer LED lifetime and a significantly lower power consumption and running costs than traditional video projectors, making the External Projection 1000 an extremely cost-efficient alternative to conventional discharge fixtures.

Martin also expanded its VDO Creative LED Video Range with VDO Fatron 20 and VDO Dotron. The new versatile video pixel products add 3D stage design options to extensive range of outdoor-rated Martin P3 System Controlled LED video. Both products are driven by the Martin P3 System Controller for easy video-mapping and creative mixing and matching with other Martin LED video products.

Madrix used the show to present a world exclusive preview of the next generation of Madrix software - Madrix 5. It includes all the features of Madrix 1,2,3 and 4, as well as some additions. The Madrix team have listened to customer feedback and worked hard to implement as many new features as possible.

PL+S was also the launch platform for Visual Productions’ new product, the TimeCore: a timecode toolbox that performs all tasks related to timecode. It even handles a number of non-timecode protocols such as UDP, TCP, OSC, MIDI, Art-Net and sACN.

and are now available in a wider selections of container sizes.

Hazebase celebrated its 10th anniversary at the show by presenting the base*touring PLUS and the base*classic*VERTIKAL fog machines.

The base*prime with 3,000W and whisper nozzle was also reworked and presented as a novelty.

Le Maitre showcased its latest haze machines, the MVS Smart featuring smart technology, and the EcoHazer, the incredibly efficient and environmentally friendly hazer. It also received a lot of interest in its Freezefog Pro and its range of smoke machines and pyrotechnics.

Magic FX was present at the show to premiere a number of new and exciting products including the Sparxtar cold spark fountain, which can be used with no fireworks license. The company’s products were also part of the spectacular production on the PRG stand.

MDG brought new products to PL+S. Fresh off the blocks were a new IP55 haze generator, the ATMe WPE, and new accessories in the form of the Round Floor Pocket, RFP 239, complete with updated controller, RFP-CB, plus MDG’s unique D-Verter 239 - a DMX/RDM pneumatic input/output fog switcher designed mainly for use with ICE FOG Q. Since 1990 the Smoke & Haze Factory has exhibited its self-developed fog machines in Frankfurt. This year pyro technicians and operators were presented with the final version of the SMOKE FACTORY SPOCK, which was shown as a prototype in 2016. Similar to the ground fog machine, the SPOCK is equipped with all current protocols such as ArtNet and aSCN. In addition, noise output has been massively reduced by the use of new nozzles. Also new was the ground fog fluid Crawling Fog, which produces a foggy and thick ground fog, but also dissipates fast, before the fog gets warm and rises.

SPECIAL EFFECTS Taiwanese lighting and effects company, Antari - a long-standing exhibitor at PL+S - displayed its range of products from the Z-II Series, HZ-Series, M-Series, W-Series, F-Series, Snow-Series and Bubble Series.

Harman Professional Solutions introduced the new Rush Fog Fluid and Rush Haze Fluid. Additionally, the popular Rush Club Smoke Dual Fluid, a hybrid Fog and Haze fluid formula, now have visually refreshed packaging

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Look Solutions’ Kirsten Eicher; Chain Master’s Alexander Hartung with its new Stage Operator system; Le Maitre’s Emma Williams and Claire Owens; Andy Porter and Clarke Cable’s David Broadhurst; Area Four Industries’ David Gore; Fenix Staging Export Manager, Alex Bryan; J&C Joel’s Andy Taylor, James Wheelwright, Cassie Irving; Prolyte’s Paul Hadfield and Marina Prak with Willem Loos from Unlimited Productions; ShowTex Marketing Coordinator, Bo Bettens.

RIGGING, AUTOMATION, DRAPING AND CABLING All of the Area Four Industries brands had its own area on the company’s stand, each of which had a selection of new and innovative products on display. MILOS displayed its Steel Truss, Compact PA Fly Tower, Modular Hinge, and Heavy-Duty Multicube, while LITEC showed its MyT Folding Steroid Truss and Roof System, and Truss Clip.

James Thomas Engineering had a selection of products on show, including its new conical truss series, its sleeve block with unique safety system, as well as General Purpose Truss and Super Truss.

TOMCAT’s area of the stand featured its EVO Truss and EDGE Pre-rig Truss, and EXE Technology’s stocked the EXE-Rise 500kg 8:1 electric chain hoist, the EXE-Vario chain hoist (converted for use with the Kinesys Control System), the EXE-Cell NLP Load Cell System and the EXE-Drive 24 channel Direct Control Multilink Motor Controller.

Finally, Mobiltechlifts launched its new compact and lightweight MS4008 lift, which included a fire retardant belt system in accordance with the new German standard.

Wireless load cell monitoring specialist BroadWeigh enjoyed its biggest ever presence at PL+S with five of its product partners promoting the company’s offering through displays and demonstrations. AC-ET, Hof Alutec, Louis Reyners, Scanrig and Sonoss all represented BroadWeigh on their stands.

This year FENIX displayed stage platforms with adjustable folding stairs, which offer the maximum security, resistance and stability. In addition, it showcased the operation of its new FSH System (FENIX Security Hook) in its TRC-700 ground support tower, a structural tower ideal for assembling medium stages with double handle winch to allow easy use and set up by a single person.

Global Truss certainly made an impact with its truss mascot Skully at the centre of its stand at PL+S. This year the company was showcasing its Stage Black truss along with its new truss cases.

J&C Joel’s stand was inspired by the Madagascar themed circus tent the company created at Motiongate Dubai, a theme park within Dubai Parks and Resorts. As visitors rolled up they were transported to a circus complete with a red and blue Deko Molton big top, sand effect digitally printed Joelmat flooring, an eight-metre by four-metre seamless canvas digitally printed with a big top tent and popcorn for everyone to enjoy.

Kinesys launched its brand new Apex chain hoist system. The system is launched with a new hoist controller and two new chain hoists, built to Kinesys’ exact specifications. The range includes both 500kg and 1,250kg hoists with maximum speeds of 30m/min and 12m/min respectively. All the hoists have integral loadcells, silent dual monitored brakes, absolute and incremental encoders and meet the requirements of EN61508-SIL3 and DIN56950.

Klotz introduced a number of new products including the OL22P OmniLIVE - PUR - AES/ EBU Multicore Cable, the VD083LP, a redesigned Premade DMX and AES/EBU series, and a new version of the Hybrid Cable range, which included the H3W33ET Hybrid Cable Drum System Prolyte Group brought new products, prototypes and a test model to the show. Firstly, the BGR70 truss, which is in essence a low volume truss with extreme load bearing capacity. The truss can handle large spans as well as extreme loads. A pre-camber system to guarantee zero deflection is one of the great features this truss offers. The recently introduced Verto truss was also on display, allowing visitors to experience the fast and silent rotating coupling system.

SES’s main aim was to launch its range of TourDim Units for the touring industry - the TourDim60 and the TourDim24. Both models are the first of a new range where each channel can be used as a full spec dimmer, switched power or pure hard power. The two dimmer models have been specially built with the live environment in mind and both were well received by visitors on the stand throughout the show.

SRS introduced its new identity as SRS Group with separate lighting, rigging and power sections now make a base for coherent distribution networks. With the new identity was celebrated together with the 25th anniversary of the company.

ShowTex introduced it brand new PepperScrim. This highly transparent and extra-wide metallic scrim brings large-scale holograms to life and provides lighting designers with unlimited creative possibilities. This highly transparent scrim has an exceptional width of 7m, allowing impressively large and seamless hologram projections. In addition to the extensive collection of flame-retardant fabrics and suspension systems, the stand also displayed acoustic solutions, XL projection screens, a variety of printable materials, stage hardware and unique temporary wall solutions.

TAIT Towers co-presented with Verity Studios and the booth included the integration of TAIT Nano Winches and Verity Drones. Markus Waibel, one of the founders of Verity, said: “It was great to see up to 100 people crowd around our booth to see the Synthetic Swarm, Lucie and technical demos. Over the four days, the Lucie micro drones completed more than 200 autonomous flights.”

The Tourflex Cabling brand showcased its bespoke cable assembly service. Although recently rebranded, the service has over 40 years of experience and has earned an enviable reputation for quality and reliability thanks to its use of high quality branded components like Tourmate, Tourmate Multilock Plus, Tourmate Powersafe, Tourflex Datasafe Ultra, Neutrik and Socapex, together with rigorous testing before dispatch.

TPi Photos: TPi and mondo*dr pls.messefrankfurt.com 72

BEST HOUSE OF WORSHIP The Church of St Bernadette France | Europe

BEST INTEGRATED RESORT Puy du Fou France | Europe

The Winners GLOBAL WINNER 2017 BEST VENUE

BEST PERFORMANCE VENUE Harbin Grand Theatre China | APAC

BEST NIGHTLIFE VENUE Dragonfly Indonesia | APAC

BEST SPORTING VENUE Parc Olympique Lyonnais France | Europe

PRODUCT LAUNCH

BARCO UNVEILS THE UDX Developed with crew and rental companies in mind from the beginning, Barco’s new range of large venue projectors promises high performance in a compact and rugged design. TPi’s Ste Durham was one of the few present at the company’s immaculate new offices in Belgium to witness the launch of a ‘game-changer’.

The sun was shining and the Leffe was lurking seductively in the fridges of Barco’s utopian new home, One Campus. What better day for TPi to hop on a plane and attend the exclusive launch of the company’s exciting new product - the UDX. It was billed as being ‘unbelievable’ by the company, which themed the launch just so - including a performance by famous Belgian street magician Nicholas and speed painting by Montana Engels.

In order to ensure that the new family of 3-chip DLP laser phosphor large venue projectors could cater for a range of prospective end users, Barco have released five variations on the product. The UDX-W22 and UDX-W32 are both WUXGA and pack a 22,000 and 32,000 lumen punch, respectively, while the UDX-U32 is UXGA and boasts 30,000 lumen. The remaining two units are of the 4K UHD variety; the 21,000 lumen UDX-4K22 and the range’s 31,000 lumen flagship model, the UDX-4K32.

While these different models look almost indistinguishable to the untrained eye, the internal components have been designed to serve the needs of different kinds of productions and projects.

“We all want to be wowed by unique experiences. That’s why events and venues require dazzling, high-resolution images,” commented Carl Rijsbrack, VP Events and ProAV at Barco. “We involved our customers closely during the development of our brand-new UDX to focus on their needs and

challenges. The result is a projector platform that allows rental houses and venue owners to deliver exceptional audience experiences while reducing installation time and cost. It’s designed and built with our customers, for our customers.”

As well as maintaining a consistent aesthetic between the different models, the UDX’s chassis has been designed to keep the unit’s footprint down as much as possible. This means more space in the truck on a concert tour, a less cumbersome installation, and less chance of affecting sightlines in a venue.

Product Manager at Barco and ‘virtual father of the UDX’, Alexis Skatchkoff, said: “The trend towards Solid State Illumination has always come with increased volume and weight in the past, but we didn’t want our customers to struggle any more than they are used to with our products.

The UDX isn’t the first, but we wanted to ensure that we could deliver something either as good as or better than competition.”

The beating heart of the UDX projectors is Barco’s Pulse processing - the 4K electronics backbone that’s integrated in all new projection platforms.

It offers an intuitive interface and flexible, user-friendly, embedded control software. Its Single Step Processing (SSP) technology enables the company’s projectors to achieve 4K Ultra High Definition (UHD) resolution 74

BARCO UDX

Opposite: Carl Rijsbrack, VP Events and ProAV at Barco.

in only one step. According to Barco, this results in a sharper image, less latency, and less dark time than comparable solutions on the market Skatchkoff continued: “The most demanding application we have designed the UDX to handle is rental, where the level has to be set higher. They had to be bright, rugged, easy to set up and use, and fit as many units into a truck as possible, thus prioritising the product’s return on investment. We’ve thought of it all. “ Rijsbrack added: “From the beginning we involved customers to help us with feedback as the product developed. Each stage we got closer to what we wanted. The rental and staging market needed us to push projection capability, particularly with spectacles and one-offs.”

He continued: “They have so many different conditions. The UDX is sealed to ensure outside factors don’t affect it. They all have an integrated carry handle inside, and a frame designed so that standard cheeseborough clamps could attach to it with no problems. They also have single-point hanging in portrait, if necessary. Moreover, the UDX and any of its brothers all have the same mechanical layout, which adds to the ease of use in the context of a rental fleet.”

These examples came thick and fast throughout the visit to Barco’s HQ, eventually putting beyond any doubt the extent to which the company has considered its end-users during the UDX’s development. And the concert touring-friendly perks of the company’s new creation did not stop there.

Rijsbrack continued: “You talk to the people that are up there hanging on the truss every day and realise that, when changing lenses on a projector, it would be quite useful to have three arms.

“When you are up there and need to change one you typically have to hold it in one hand - these lenses can weight up to 11kg - so you need to have arms like Schwarzenegger! We redesigned the lens mount so that the lens clicks in and ‘half-locks’ to stay in place so you can free your hand up and then lock it in properly. Lenses are expensive, not to mention dangerous, things to drop from a truss - this isn’t an issue with UDX.”

The team was also proud of the futureproofing that it had undertaken when it came to the lifetime of each particular unit. Skatchkoff explained: “You need power in a projector to combat ambient light at a show or to use on a lower level and prolong lamp lifeline for fixed install. However, after 3,000 hours of use, normal degradation starts.

“The added bonus for a rental company comes from the possibility of running it at full power and then maintaining residual value by selling onto a fixed install because, in terms of output performance, the product is almost the same as it was at the beginning. Data is kept and calculated by our Pulse technology, essentially giving a second life for a single projector.”

WE’LL DO IT LIVE In order to give the UDX a worthy introduction to the industry, and allow potential customers an up-close and personal look at the product, Barco planned a two-month roadshow throughout Europe. Departing from the company’s Kortrijk head office immediately after the official launch, the Barco truck (supplied by satis&fy) first headed to Prolight + Sound in Frankfurt. From there, it was due to crisscross Europe until mid-June, visiting around 45 partner and customer events. The truck is stocked with Barco’s 4K laser projectors and its Event Master family of 4K image management systems. To promote the excursion, Barco designed a series of promotional UDX swag, as if the UDX itself was a touring rock star.

“By involving customers in our plans and collaborating with them, we can develop the solutions they really need, thus delivering upon our promise to ‘enable bright outcomes’,” said Rijsbrack.

“We are delighted with the positive feedback that we’re getting on the UDX and the Barco truck is the best way to spread the word about our newcomer. We’re taking it to the people, instead of waiting for them to come to us.”

TPi www.barco.com

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GEAR HEADS

SOLID STATE LOGIC’S L200 At this year’s Prolight+Sound SSL unveiled the latest addition to its fleet of live consoles with the L200 - a desk that has been designed for mid-scale market - making the outstanding sonic performance, accelerated workflow and advanced feature set of SSL Live available to a much wider audience. TPi spoke to SSL’s Product Manager, Richard Ferriday, to discuss the R&D process behind this new console.

When did work begin on the L200? What were the goals from the outset of the console?

This model, with the new chassis design and specification, was started as a project at the beginning of 2016, but the L200 as a complete product has really been in the works since we started developing the SSL Live platform. It benefits from over six years of development by one the industry’s biggest R&D teams, which in turn has a foundation of nearly 50 years of SSL analogue and digital console design.

This shows SSL’s long-term development commitment; we’ve been very responsive to user feedback throughout the evolution of the Live platform, and will continue to move it forward. That’s one of the big advantages of the Tempest Engine and OCP technology we’re not tied to life-limited FPGA or DSP silicon, so SSL Live can continue to evolve well into the future.

One of the most striking things about the console is its T-shaped chassis. Could you talk through the reason for it?

The chassis was inspired by the way engineers are now working - with more screens, more peripheral hardware and more information to absorb.

The unique shape gives the operator plenty of faders, yet allows external screens and devices to get much closer to the centre of the console.

You can attach articulated arms to the sides of the console with screen mounts or trays for laptops and other gear. You could, for example, have a separate laptop running our SOLSA control application, plus the console overview, automation screen or even monitor speakers.

The shape is unusual, but it makes complete sense when you see it with additional hardware attached.

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SOLID STATE LOGIC L200

Opposite: SSL’s L200 console is aimed at the mid-market pro user; Product Manager, Richard Ferriday.

Below: In addition the the release of the L200, SSL also announced the new high-density Dante Stagebox.

Aside from the ergonomic elements of the console, what are the other standout features of the new desk?

The flexible architecture, with drag and drop configuration and path process ordering; an amazing internal FX Rack with loads of ultra-low latency, high-quality effects, and useful tools; a truly useful and full standard processing path - which includes the incredibly powerful All-pass Filter and Tube comp. emulation; a large array of I/O and connection possibilities with Dante, MADI, Blacklight, AES/EBU, and analogue all included as standard; the Super-Query or ‘Q’ forward and reverse interrogation system... there is so much, it’s difficult to pick highlights.

I think we’re most proud of the fact that even with all that, engineers that specify SSL are normally convinced simply by the sound. We want people who haven’t already, to listen to SSL Live... That’ll show them what they’ve been missing! consoles in the field.

Many of the responses have simply been acknowledgement of that engineers that now have an easier way to do things, rental companies that now have a new opportunity, and so on.

How does the L200 fit into the rest of the SSL family and the tradition of quality audio desks?

The L200 has the same audio mix and processing engine as the L500 and L300 consoles, comes with the same SuperAnalogue inputs and stage boxes, and has the same connectivity. Everything our users say about the sound, ergonomics, reliability, robustness, flexibility, and support remains true of the L200.

The differences are in absolute engine capacity and some surface features. These changes allow us to make this console much more affordable, bringing everything great about SSL Live consoles to the midlevel touring market and more cost-conscious installations.

For example, the L500 has a capacity of 208 fully processed paths plus 48 dry paths, whereas the L200 has a capacity of 144 fully processed paths.

Within that, the limits on the individual path types are up to 96 inputs channels, 48 aux sends, 24 Stem Groups, and six masters. That’s more than enough for most tours!

The console was officially launched at Prolight+Sound in Frankfurt. What was the feedback from those at the show?

The main response from engineers was that they were looking forward to being able to ask for an SSL without worrying about the tour budget!

Possibly most common question was whether it has the same ‘internals’ as the L500 and L300. Most were concerned that the reduction in cost would mean a reduction in quality. That’s absolutely not the case - the L200 is SSL Live all the way through.

We were also pleased that lots of rental companies responded extremely positively. The L200 represents a fantastic investment for them, with a very big potential client list.

And last - but definitely not least - there was a huge amount of interest in our Dante updates and new Dante Stagebox. The kind of network routing control, permissions management, isolated network splits, and so on that both our Live and Broadcast products can do now is causing quite a stir.

TPi Photo courtesy of Solid State Logic www.solidstatelogic.com

During the development of the product did it get a trial run with any engineers? If so what was their response on the desk?

We’ve got a process of constant consultation on the development of the Live platform, so yes, we’ve had a lot of input and testing from engineers.

Much of the detail in the software has been inspired by or suggested by that process - the kinds of features that you only come across by testing

SES

+44 (0)1753 585050

The Power Specialists The official distributors of

In response to the rapid evolution in the audiovisual industry and the demands of our professional customers, Luxibel Lighting has been produced.

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sales@site-electrics.co.uk

BACKSTAGE

ULTRA MUSIC FESTIVAL The 2017 music celebration ran from 24-26 March with over 165,000 revellers making their way to Bayfront Park in Miami to enjoy some of the most sought after acts in the EDM genre. TPi spoke to some of the suppliers and crewmembers who made Ultra 2017 a success…

shows to push the limits of what can be achieved in professional audio and challenge the status quo of the industry. Andrews recalled: “Funktion-One have been involved with Ultra for almost 10 years and for five of those I have been working it personally. It’s the perfect testing ground to trial our latest bass elements as well as our flagship touring Vero system. This year was no different as we brought a whole new bass configuration to the set up.”

Bass is the keystone of Ultra - and is always of the utmost concern for the audio manufacture. Last year, Funktion-One joined forces with Powersoft’s M-Force motors which charged the F132 bass cabinets in combination with the F221’s. “Last year we wanted to move away from the now uniform set up of placing all the subs along the front of the stage,” Andrews explained, adding: “Instead we opted for an asymmetrical set up on one side of the stage in order to create a truer bass presence. The only down side to this set up was that it was a lot of work for the motors. This year we introduced F221s, placing them either side of the stage from one another which gave us the best bass that I’ve ever experienced.”

Funktion-One’s Vero system - consisting of two hangs of 4 V60’s, 4 V90’s

FUNKTION-ONE Funktion-One was once again welcomed onto the Carl Cox & Friends stage at this year’s Ultra Music Festival. Founder Tony Andrews and the rest of the Funktion-One team have developed a strong bond with the festival organisers - and Cox himself through their ongoing working relationship, which spans nearly a decade.

Having built a solid relationship with the world-renowned DJ during his pivotal role at Space Ibiza, Andrews has been given a great deal of freedom during his

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and 4 V315’s – was also out on the rig. “The system has been a labor of love for many years but it’s been working to expectation on the last few shows,” said Andrews. “Our main focus this year with the Vero system has been to improve the settings between the high and mid frequencies - which I think we have done effectively. With Ultra, although most of the music comes directly from the DJs, you still need to be able to fit vocals into the mix.

Thankfully, Vero has so much headroom that you can easily fit in vocals without affecting the rest of the mix. Carl Cox has even expressed how he now doesn’t want to do a show unless its Funktion-One; you can’t ask for a better endorsement!”

The Lab.gruppen PLM 20K44 powered the two hangs, one on either side.

The PLM 20K44 is the successor of the proven PLM 20000Q, now offering an extended four input and output configuration together with twice the processing power via the latest version 6.3 Lake Controller release and Dante networking. Andrews described its effectiveness: “That’s how efficient the Vero system is,” stated Andrews. “It only needs two amps to power each hang.”

This year Funktion-One also rearranged the speaker set up, giving more width to the hangs. Andrews told TPi: “With our Vero System we get such

a strong stereo image that having the hangs too close together doesn’t do the audio experience justice. The power of the system meant there was no need for delays. One of the goals of the Vero was for the focus to be on the audience with the precise natural tailoring of sound densities and coverage patterns. This also means we can reduce off site noise from the system.”

Additional speakers – namely, two Funktion-One Res 4E’s for front fills and two Funktion-One PSM 318’s for stage monitors – were also present.

The “final cherry on the cake,” according to Andrews, was another new addition at FOH with the Cadac CDC six. He elaborated: “Our sound system was ready to be pushed to the next level and I’m pleased to say the CDC six delivered the smoothest and most coherent sound that I’ve heard from a digital desk. I engineered for Carl on the first two nights and the combination of the Cadac consoles and the system sounded great. We really achieved that Holy Grail of audio with 3D Sound enjoyed by thousands over two nights.”

TPi Photo: courtesy of Funktion-One www.funktion-one.com www.cadac-sound.com

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Ai media server. The fully timecoded show was ran utilising the Ai Media Server software which gave Video Illusions the ability to use three full HD outputs from the laptop and pixel map the 5mm pitch video wall Ultra festival had installed on the Live stage.

On top of working on Chase and Status’ show, Video Illusions, for a second year, worked with Pip Rush and Bertie Cole on the Arcadia production. The company helped run a full video production lending its in house Video Tech, Glen Gardiner, to ensure the show was a success.

Video Illusions Director, Dave Whiteoak, gave his thoughts on this year’s event: “Ultra has always been an interesting festival to work. This was our second year providing services for the festival having been involved with Pendulum Returns and Arcadia in 2016. With Chase and Status’ Ultra performance heralded a success we are now really looking forward to a summer of festivals and touring.”

TPi http://videoillusions.net/

VIDEO ILLUSIONS Providing video production and visual playback for UK electro duo Chase and Status on the Live Stage was Video Illusions.

The company worked in collaboration with LD Andy Hursts’ show design, bringing in a full lighting rolling floor package with custom LED booth’s for both artists.

The duo’s custom C and S shaped booths were video mapped with the Avolites

The modern EDM performance just would not feel complete without a healthy dose of lasers. Once again on site this year was ER Productions. Speaking of the company’s involvement was General Manager of ER’s US operation, Lawrence Wright. “We have been involved with Ultra for the last two years supporting acts in their live performances, creating a wow factor for its audience across the globe. Last year we teamed up with Lighting Designer, Andy Hurst, and Pendulum, creating a stunning laser backdrop for the duo’s first live performance since 2012.

This year we worked with Alesso, Chase and Status and on Axwell ^ Ingrosso’s headline closing set.”

The laser specialist set up five new Phaenon Pro 30000 scanning systems on the Main Stage, offering the best in class power and brightness and performed faultlessly for the duration of Ultra. To compliment the Phaenon systems, ER used BB3’s, RGB Beambursts and Laserblades, all of which were designed and manufactured by ER Productions. “Although we used the same kit for both Axwell ^ Ingrosso and Alesso’s performances, the lasers were configured differently, which gave each act a uniquely choreographed and clearly defined look,” commented Wright. “Over on the live Stage, we supplied Chase and Status with a package of Laserblades and BB3 units, which were operated by their Lighting Director, Andy Hurst.

Having developed strong relationships with local suppliers, we were able

ER PRODUCTIONS to integrate and programme additional kit into the shows, making Ultra the largest festival we have done this year!”

Like many of the other suppliers during the weekend, one of the biggest challenges facing ER was the weather. “Tropical storms rolled in throughout the day and night so it was incredibly wet and humid,” commented Wright.

“However, the team rose to the challenge and still managed to provide the clients with mind-blowing laser productions for the duration of the festival. We’re all used to working in difficult conditions at festivals and our kit is so robust it will keep going rain or shine!” As you can imagine safety was of paramount importance for ER Productions who always plan events in minute detail, making the necessary health and safety checks before a show goes live.

Closing, Wright gave his final thoughts on the event: “Ultra is such a prestigious festival and it has been a huge pleasure to be involved for the second year running. It was a tremendous show, the staff were a pleasure to work with and we hope to be back again next year.”

TPi Photo: courtesy of ER productions and http://rukes.com/ www.er-productions.com

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ULTRA MUSIC FESTIVAL

network covering five stages supplied by VER. “We’ve been working with the Blackmagic Design ATEM product line for a few years,” said van Duren. “With the addition of ATEM support on the URSA Mini platform we are now able to fully remote control the camera for our live broadcast productions. When we unplug the camera from our 4K fly-pack production kits, we can immediately use the cameras for ENG shoots in all imaginable resolutions from HD to 4.6K.” NOMOBO invested in the PL mounted 4.6K camera bodies as well as the URSA Mini Pros to be fully flexible in choice of lenses (from PL to B4 and EF) for all the various media productions it delivers. It positioned the URSA Mini 4.6K PL mount bodies in the Ultra Live broadcast studio, equipped with URSA Studio Viewfinders. A pair of roaming crews with URSA Mini Pros captured interviews and backstage reports that were used to spice up the broadcast.

“Connecting the URSA Mini Pro to the ATEM video infrastructure gave us immediate control over the camera, tally and comms and enabled our camera operators to communicate with the live stream director,” explained van Duren. The camera’s built-in ND filters helped cover activity all around the festival in all imaginable lighting circumstance from bright daylight to night time, both front and backstage.

NOMOBO also brought in a selection of HD cameras supplied by VER. Bob Hawkanson from VER discussed the companies involvement with the festival: “On top of the numerous HD Cameras for the four outer stages we also supplied 4k Amira Premium cameras and Cinema lenses for the Main Stage coverage which was new to the event this year.”

Hawkanson went on to explain some of the technical challenges dealing with a show such as Ultra. “Connectivity to each of the stages is always a challenge at any festival. We are able to overcome most of the challenges by building a custom bi-directional fibre network for video and ethernet to bring all of the sources back to the MCR.” TPi Photo: NOMOBO www.nomobo.tv www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk www.ver.com

NOMOBO, VER & BLACKMAGIC DESIGN Along with several thousand electronic music fans descending on the Miami sea front, this year Ultra’s audience expanded into the millions with the festival being live streamed online with the help of Amsterdam-based live event production specialist NOMOBO. The company have provided streaming services for the last six years but this year it updated its procedure, recording and distributing in 4K resolution.

Throughout the weekend NOMOBO reported massive viewing figures with AfoJack’s performance alone garnering and online audience of 2.8 million and garnering over 42 million social media mentions, showing relevance of live event video production.

“This was the fastest turn-around time for electronic music festival’s media production,” claimed Constantijn van Duren, NOMOBO’s COO. “NOMOBO provided full 4K captured and mastered DJ sets to the artists within 24 hours after their performances at the Ultra Main Stage.”

All NOMOBO’s fly-packs for the event were based around the Blackmagic Design core of ATEM 4K Broadcast Studio. This complemented the Blackmagic’s Smart Videohub 4K routers and HyperDeck Studio recorders as well as SmartScope and SmartView monitors. Four flypacks were deployed to capture the four stages with a fifth fly-pack for the custom-built Master Control Room (MCR). The MCR functioned as the hub for switching between stages, interviews, playouts and the Ultra Live studio cameras for video and audio. For audio mixing of the performances, a dedicated audio mixing room was installed along with a Dante audio

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changing the shape and feel of the space. For the show Lieberman used 124 Robe Pointes which were dotted all over the LED pods truss frames.

Lieberman has used Robe products in designs for some time, and particularly in the last three or four years since the Pointe was launched. To highlight the mammoth truss designs of the Mega Structure were 6ft Elation Professional Colour Chorus 72 LED batten wash lights along with compact Opti Tri 30 RGB PAR lights.

Lieberman explained his process for designing this year’s show design: “I wanted to get the shape, geometry, and philosophy of the stage just right. Still, it may all look good on paper but the audience doesn’t experience the design if you don’t tone it.” With 1,000ft of truss to colour, a powerful colour-changing unit was needed to highlight the shape of the design and Lieberman turned to the Colour Chorus battens. “They were 100% successful in producing that effect,” he said. “Both the Colour Chorus and the Opti Tri 30 are staples in our design toolbox. The Opti fits in 12inch truss and makes for a clean detail aesthetically. It’s efficient and easy to rig - just the perfect truss toner.”

Lieberman also designed lighting for the Worldwide Stage, another AG structure, this one measuring 60ft wide x 192ft long and 74ft high, which was operated by Alex ‘Junior’ Cerio. The Stage featured a clean, polished design with beam heavy looks lining big video panels in a checkerboard pattern, a design Lieberman called “simple but appropriate.” Besides the colour from the Colour Chorus and Opti Tri 30 fixtures, the designer needed something with enough power and output to work alongside dedicated beam fixtures. “We used the Elation Platinum Spot 35 and it really held its own,” he said. “It has great gobos and colour rendering and an output that stands up next to beam lights.”

For the festival’s Main Stage, Montréal’s Solotech was drafted in for yet another year working alongside Screenworks who supplied a massive LED screen. Solotech’s Hugo Tardif spoke of the company’s involvement. “With events such as Ultra, the demands and fixture counts are unlike any other show. This means that we work very closely with the designers during the

LIGHTING HIGHLIGHTS Both the popular Carl Cox Megastructure and Worldwide/Midpark Stage featured a production design by SJ Lighting and structure and production by AG Production Services. SJ Lighting owner Steve Lieberman created the awe-inspiring lighting design for the festival, which, now in its 19th year, seemingly ran like a well-oiled machine. “In my 18-year history of working on Ultra and 10+ years as LD for the Carl Cox Megastructure, these were the best stages we’ve ever produced,” stated Lieberman, who said he didn’t lose a single light over the course of the three-day festival. “Together with AG, who performed 110% and were absolutely flawless, we hit the bullseye.” Lieberman himself programmed and operated lighting in the Carl Cox Arena, with Michael Seeverens from Dutch creative design house The Art of Light taking over on the Sunday to look after Armin van Buuren’s A State of Trance (ASOT).

For Carl Cox & Friends, Lieberman worked closely with technical Production Manager Koen De Puysseleir of AG Production Services, the company headed by Andrew Gumper supplied the distinctive 154ft wide by 64ft high arch shaped arena which was 200ft long and tailored to fit that part of the site, plus all the technical production. The design included 19 x LED pods which followed the contours of the roof, rigged on an automation system so they could be moved into various different positions, completely

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early stages of development to ensure we are able to cater for fixtures they require.”

This year the Main Stages rig included 110 Chauvet Professional Legend 230SR’s, 110 Martin by Harman Atomik 3000 Strobes, 110 Krypton KR10, 188 Chromlech Jarag Line, 24 Elation ELAR108 RGBA Led Par, 84 Chroma-Q ColorForce 72 and 40 SGM XC-5.

Production design and artist technical management for the Main Stage was by The Activity: “One of the trickiest parts of the design on any of these events always seems to be the DJ booth itself,” stated The Activity’s Patrick Dierson, the designer of this year’s stage. “When you’ve got such a massive amount of production surrounding it, it’s easy to have the DJ booth get lost visually and thus it requires something special to help it make a visual statement.”

For this year Dierson opted to use the new Elation IP65-rated Proteus Beam and Platinum 1200 Wash. With massive amounts of fog and smoke used on the Main Stage coupled with the natural atmospheric humidity of the host city, the Proteus beams emanating from the DJ booth could be seen for miles around. The beams also cut through the intense amount of light output produced from the Main Stage’s video panels. The Platinum 1200 Wash fixtures - LED colour wash moving heads with (19) 65W RGBW LEDs - were chosen with two specific roles in mind. Dierson explained: “Firstly, we wanted to add some point-source effects to the booth so that it would ultimately have a combination of aerial beam effects, video, and lighting LED. Secondly, we knew that there would be moments when guest artists and DJs would jump out of the booth to work the crowd from the downstage edge. Having some ‘shin kicker’ wash units in that area of

the stage proved to be extremely useful for everyone. The units did not disappoint. Not only did they produce a fantastic amount of wash light output for just that latter task but their built-in effects were extremely well received.”

Over at the Live Stage, built around the permanent Bayfront Amphitheater, the production extended with side PA and video wings that also created additional lighting positions. In total 36 Robe Pointes were on the house rig supplied by locally-based rental company, Paradigm Lighting. Running the FOH here was Mike Smirka and Jim Rood, with Jorge Valdez and Omar Malpica from Paradigm providing technical support ensuring that everything ran smoothly.

Saturday night on the Live Stage was closed by a characteristically energetic set from The Prodigy. UK based LD Andy Hurst added 18 Robe PATT 2013’s to their special package, which were rigged on custom towers upstage which proved ideal for the pumping excitement and anarchy of a prodigy lightshow! Hurst also designed the lighting show for Chase and Status for which his floor package included 16 Robe CycFX 8s, four each on four towers. The LD was also acting as Consultant LD for Axwell ^ Ingrosso, working with their regular LD and programmer Dan Robinson, and specified Robe’s new UV strobes in their worldwide debut.

TPi Photo: Anthony Djuren, ASK Media Productions and Louise Stickland. www.ag.tc www.sjlighting.net www.the-activity.com www.solotech.com http://paradigmlighting.com

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ULTRA MUSIC FESTIVAL

great, facilitating our needs and providing much required local knowledge.”

The video mapping hit vivid new heights and the combination of new architectural lighting that accentuated the organic essence of the Spider and dynamic new moving heads, combined to create a whole new level of immersion. Again part of the massive 2016 investment, were 16 Robe BMFL WashBeams right at the center of the spider’s lighting rig, six used for the three sets of spider eyes, complete with custom Halo rings. Also present were 20 Robe Pointes which were rigged on the three legs and under the spider’s belly with nine LEDWash 600’s which multi-task during the Arcadia show lighting the aerialists and other aspects. Large quantities of Anolis architectural LED fixtures were then used to illuminate different parts of the spider’s body including the crane arms on top and the DJ booth that forms the core of the body. Control for the lighting design came via two Avolites Sapphire Touch Consoles with special effects controlled via an Avolites Quartz console. For media servers the production used Avolites Infinity RX8.

For audio, having worked with Funktion-One on adapting the Vero system for the Spider’s 360 degree soundfield since 2014, Ultra 2017 saw it come into it’s own with the warm, kick drum driven sonics of the deep house / techno musical lineup channeled through the clarity and controlled power of the system.

With Ultra finished for another year, Arcadia’s next stop is its homecoming a Glastonbury before setting off once more for an autumn season in Asia.

TPi Photo: Giles Mayall www.arcadiaspectacular.com

ARCADIA Arcadia returned to Ultra Music Festival for the second time this March after a year of signature shows across the globe. Founded

by Pip Rush and Bert Cole back in 2007 the concept of the Arcadia Spectacular was to create a 360 degree event unlike other, fusing elements of sculpture, engineering, technology, contemporary circus, and music.

Arcadia made a major investment in lighting and visual technology before the recent run, which allowed the crew to focus on creative programming rather than getting rental equipment fully operational before each show. Speaking of the recent investment was Arcadia’s Technical Production Manager, Tim Smith: “All the equipment purchased at the start of the season, and after touring through multiple countries, across road, rail and boat, performed and blew away the previous year’s technical pictures. With a tighter load-in schedule and the obvious constraints of being in a downtown park surrounded by palm trees, the new equipment enabled us to work on the creativity of the show and how it would work in this stunning setting. The local production team were

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WIGWAM’S JAMES MACK SKYDIVES FOR THE CHRISTIE Following a successful fight against cancer, James Mack of Wigwam Hire has raised money for specialist cancer hospital The Christie NHS Foundation Trust by undertaking a tandem skydive.

On 8 April 2017, Wigwam Acoustics’ James Mack completed a tandem development, and home to the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research. parachute jump in aid of The Christie specialist cancer treatment centre Throughout his treatment at The Christie, James would attend the in Withington, Manchester. He has worked in manufacturing at the hospital at 8am to undergo each session of chemotherapy or radiotherapy company since 2009 in a role that includes anything from machining before returning to work in time for the afternoon. “Working allowed me to a complete refit of the warehouse canteen. In July 2015 James was to have a sense of routine and I received lots of encouragement from my diagnosed with bowel cancer; the start of an 18 month battle with the fellow work mates,” he said. disease.

“The treatment I received from the healthcare professionals at The An initial course of radiotherapy and chemotherapy was followed Christie, Oldham Royal Hospital and Manchester Royal Infirmary has been up by an operation in January 2016. This revealed fantastic. Without them I simply wouldn’t be here the cancer had spread to James’s liver, which to tell my story. The continued work of all these would require further surgery. In March 2016 James hospitals and the on-going research into cancer will underwent a successful operation to remove the hopefully enable more people like me get to see their tumours from his liver and within seven weeks was fit grandchildren grow up.” enough to return to work at Wigwam.

TPi After further tests the surgeons recommended a ‘belt and braces’ course of chemotherapy, a total of six sessions, each three weeks apart.

All of James’s radiotherapy and chemotherapy www.justgiving.com/ treatment took place at The Christie, which is one fundraising/James-Mack1 of the largest cancer treatment centres in Europe

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and sees patients from across the UK. The Christie is also an international leader in cancer research and 90

PSA: THE BIGGER PICTURE

Steve Banks, (Chairman) Wigwam Acoustics/SSE Audio Group

Dave Bigg, (Vice Chair) - DiGiCo

Keith Wood, (Treasurer) Production Solutions

GCB, G Force Crew/Rockdrops

Eric Porter, Rigger/Rigging Trainer

Simon James, The Event Safety Shop

Mike Smith, Grown Up Solutions

David Keighley, PM/LD and SGM Lighting

MEET THE COUNCIL Every year, just before the PSA annual general meeting, we invite members to stand for election to the PSA Council, to be part of the group of members who give freely of their time to impart the benefit of their experience, wisdom and insight into the direction of your trade association.

Officially made up of 14 members, the PSA Council can include co-opted members required to help with specific projects as well as substitutes that can be nominated to attend in place of any other member of Council - let’s face it, you’re all busy and not everyone can attend every meeting.

To ensure the squad has a blend of youth and experience, the PSA Articles of association require that the longest serving one third of Council members (not including the Chair and Treasurer, the officers) have to stand down and seek re-election. The officers themselves can serve two years in 92

PSA: THE BIGGER PICTURE

Martin Clowes, Production Manager

Stuart Milne, Showstars

John McEvoy, PRG

Tom Rees, IO Live

Liz Madden, NoNonsense Group

Rob Sangwell, Fineline Lighting

Chris Webster, AML Group

David NG Lawrence, DNG Productions/ DNG Production Crew

office, plus a third at the discretion of the Council before having to seek reelection to Council. We’re not an organisation that likes to stand still; there are no chains of office, no long-term presidents.

We thought it might be a good idea to put some faces and names to the Council, elected at our AGM at the end of February. Council membership is open to all members and we hope, is a representative selection from

various areas of membership, spanning individual, small company and company membership as well as bringing a blend of concert touring, festival and business events experience to the table. These are the people whose efforts should be appreciated by all our members.

TPi www.psa.org.uk

DOWNLOAD THE TPi APP Search “TPi Magazine” on the App Store and Google Play.

WWW.TPiMAGAZINE.COM

94

INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS

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INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS

Above: The newest member of Adam Hall’s marketing team, John Kaukis; Gallowglass Health and Safety Advisor, Ben Harding.

The Adam Hall Group has hired John Kaukis as the newest member of its UK sales team. His responsibilities will include the continuation and development of business activities in the UK and Ireland, executing initiatives to deliver service and value to customers and increase market penetration of the Adam Hall Group brands.

“With the ongoing expansion of the Adam Hall Group, I see huge opportunities to continue growing the Adam Hall Group brands, including LD Systems, Cameo, Gravity, Palmer and Adam Hall Stage Equipment and Adam Hall Hardware,” commented Kaukis. “I know customers will enjoy and benefit from the quality, reliability and profitability of our comprehensive event technology solution portfolio.”

Ben Harding, former Head of Health and Safety at Manchester Central has been retained by Gallowglass Health and Safety as an Advisor, bolstering the consultancy’s MediaCityUK base in Salford.

He joined Manchester Central early in 2014, and was responsible for on-site strategic safety management, crowd management and strategic security arrangements at the venue.

Harding stated: “I’ve obviously known GGH&S for a number of years and watched them take on increasingly high-profile and challenging projects. Because all their advisors have an events industry background, they put 100% into supporting their clients’ events, rather than conducting a box-ticking exercise for legislation compliance. I’m confident that I can bring some further skills to the mix and help expand their client base in the North.”

DiGiCo has announced the appointment of Austin Freshwater as its General Manager. Freshwater joins the DiGiCo team from imaging and information technology solutions provider, Canon, where he spent the

previous 10 years working in sales, latterly becoming Sales Director for UK and Ireland.

“During my time with Canon I developed sales into the professional broadcast sector working with the likes of NEP, the BBC and Sky as well as the AV market via their range of projectors. This gave me a valuable insight into some of DiGiCo’s markets before I joined the company,” said Freshwater. He will be working closely with DiGiCo’s VP Sales, Ian Staddon.

“It’s great to have Austin on-board as he brings different expertise and a new perspective to the team,” said Staddon. “I am sure he will be an asset to the business and provide an additional level of support to both myself and the sales team.”

Salvador Sandoval has joined digiLED with nearly 20 years experience in the broadcast and professional video industry, bringing a deep understanding of video systems and hardware development. Prior to joining digiLED, Sandoval worked as Chief Technology Officer for Samaserve LLC and was a principal product engineer at Sony Electronics’ Broadcast Systems and Solutions Company.

Sandoval said: “North America has been a major market for digiLED for a considerable length of time. Our customers appreciate digiLED’s understanding of the LED manufacturing business in Asia and its passion to construct innovative products designed for ultimate performance, which are delivered on schedule and provide superb value for money.”

Graham Burgess, digiLED CEO, said: “Salvador has the experience and industry knowledge that is crucial for digiLED to continue with the development of our business in North and Central America. His extensive technical expertise sets him apart from other LED techs and gives us much broader knowledge than most of our competitors. His range of contacts

95

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INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS

Below: DiGiCo’s Austin Freshwater; Mojo Barriers’ UK manager, Kevin Thorborn; DPA Microphones’ Evan MacKenzie; Focusrite’s Richard Johnstone; digiLED’s Sal Sandoval.

across all market sectors will enable him to quickly get our technical support services up to the standard to which we aspire.”

Evan MacKenzie has joined DPA Microphones as its new Marketing and Communications Manager for the US. MacKenzie will be strategically planning all aspects of marketing and communications for new and existing product lines. His responsibilities will include branding execution, augmenting marketing collateral for the region, media planning and buying, and event planning and artist relations.

MacKenzie previously held marketing positions with QSC Audio, working closely with the engineering, product development, sales and creative departments to increase corporate revenue and implement branding strategies.

“His knowledge of branding and communications will help us continue to grow our presence in the United States,” said Christopher Spahr, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, DPA Microphones.

Focusrite has appointed Richard Johnstone as its new UK Sales and Marketing Manager. Johnstone joined from Propellerhead where he was Partner Marketing Manager for UK, Benelux and Germany. He formerly played UK management roles at Steinberg, Line 6 and Yamaha.

Damian Hawley, Director of Global Marketing & Sales, Focusrite said: “Richard’s extensive experience in channel marketing and management will further strengthen the partnership with our Authorised Reseller network and help to create additional demand for our brands and products.”

Kevin Thorborn has been promoted to Director of Mojo Barriers UK, following his role as UK Manager. Thorborn has managed the provision of stage and crowd safety barriers to over 1,000 festivals including Glastonbury Festival along with his diverse experience spaning venues from student unions to the O2 Arena.

Mojo Barriers CEO Alex Borger stated: “We are delighted at Kevin’s progression since joining Mojo, particularly over the past two years when he has delivered consistently impressive results and expanded the UK business.”

“We have completed many site visits and system designs together over the years and when they asked me to join them I could see that this could be a great opportunity to strengthen the Old Barn Audio team and match my aspirations,” stated McNally.

Lift Turn Move has appointed Stuart Fraser as Head of Entertainment Products. He took up his new position in March and has made a dramatic

impact on the business.

His focus will be on further growing the entertainment market, as he brings a wealth of technical experience from his previous positions. Fraser will be the face-to-face contact for our key accounts, offering technical advice and helping to create solutions.

John Jones commented: “We are delighted to welcome Stuart as our new Head of Entertainment Products, with the experience and knowledge he brings we hope this will help serve our customers more efficiently and provide the expertise and advise needed to assist in this very complex and high pressure environment.”

Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW) has added Marilyn Fernandes to its engineering project management team. The announcement was made

by Geoff McKinnon, engineering manager for EAW. Fernandes brings more than 15 years of experience in both manufacturing and engineering environments, where she established a strong track record in managing complex projects to success. In her new role, Fernandes will be responsible for the successful execution of products including planning, budgeting, oversight and documentation.

“Marilyn is highly knowledgeable in all aspects of manufacturing engineering,” explained McKinnon. “Our team will benefit from her expertise and analytical skills. We are delighted to have her join EAW.” Prior to joining EAW, Fernandes was Project Manager for Dorel Juvenile where she led full cycle product development by creating and maintaining project schedules, managing internal and external resources, tracking financial performance metrics and ensuring all quality requirements were met for both internal and external standards.

“I look forward to contributing to the excellence EAW is known for,” concluded Fernandes. “We have an incredible team - it should be a fantastic year.”

FBT Audio is deepening its commitment to customer service across the entirety of the UK with the appointment of Robert Griffiths as Northern Business Development Manager. Hailing from Manchester but set to take to the road in support of all customers of both FBT and JTS in the North, Griffiths is a life-long audio enthusiast and a long-term user of FBT products. “We wanted someone who’s new, fresh and hungry, and this is the man,” enthused FBT Audio (UK) Managing Director, Mark Parkhouse.

Griffiths arrives in his new position during a period of sustained growth for FBT Audio (UK), with the company having already established itself as 96

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INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS

EAW’s Marilyn Fernandes; Absen’s Ross Burling.

a leading national supplier of professional audio solutions in markets. His appointment marks the beginning of a new phase for the company, with heightened local representation and a continued emphasis on quality.

Absen Europe has announced the appointment of Ross Burling to the newly created role of business development manager – UK, Ireland and Nordics. Burling will focus on OOH, retail, sports and rental markets, working with Absen’s UK team who provide technical, project management and pre-sales knowledge and support for customers in the UK. Commenting on the new role, Burling stated: “I’m delighted to be a part of the dynamic team at Absen Europe. Compared to ‘traditional’ names in the marketplace, Absen offers a more complete range of products for the markets it addresses.” Absen’s Managing Director – Europe & Oceania, Ruben Rengel, added: “We are very excited to welcome Ross to our team. Not only will he bring a tighter focus on the quality of customer

relationships to our sales team in UK, but he is also a great illustration of our ever-growing commitment in Europe.”

K-array has appointed SOONN as its exclusive distributor for the Czech Republic. Founded in 2011, SOONN’s main focuses are distribution, consulting, project design and installations in the field of professional audio equipment and system integration. The company is also active in the broadcast market, where it cooperates with the important partners in the Czech Republic, and the rental market, where they collaborate with small and medium size rental companies. K-array co-founder and President Alessandro Tatini could not be more satisfied with the partnership: “We are fortunate to have partnered with a company so immersed in the pro audio market in the Czech Republic as SOONN. I am excited to have them as a part of our team of international distributors to help grow the brand.” www.tpimagazine.com/category/industry-jobs/

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TPi PRODUCTION GUIDE

THE PRODUCTION GUIDE The TPi Production Guide is kindly sponsored by PRG XL Video – Tel: + 44 (0)1442 849 400 / +44 (0) 845 470 6400. Web: www.prg.com 2 Eastman Way, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HP2 7DU / The Cofton Centre, Groveley Lane, Longbridge, Birmingham, B31 4PT

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To advertise here enquiries should be made to Lauren Dyson or Georgia Guthrie Lauren Dyson - Tel: +44 (0) 161 476 8360 Email: l.dyson@mondiale.co.uk Georgia Guthrie - Tel: +44 (0) 161 476 8399 Email: g.guthrie@mondiale.co.uk MAY 2017 ADVERTISERS Absen AC Lasers Adam Hall Adamson Systems Engineering ADJ Alcons Audio Allen & Heath Area Four Industries ArKaos Barco Beat The Street Bose Capital Sound ChainMaster Chauvet Professional Claypaky CLF Lighting Coda Audio d&b audiotechnik

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BACK CHAT

SAM O’RIORDAN Lighting Designer Has there been a pivotal moment where you knew you’d made the right career decision?

I think my career has been littered with decisions, equally good and bad. I largely owe my career to a lot of people that have trusted me over the years, invested in me, and given me opportunities. I wasn’t very tactical in the early days, I’m a bit of a space cadet at the best of times, and I certainly wasn’t aware there was a game to be played. I would simply get an opportunity, enjoy it, and do the best I could with it. More recently, I’ve enjoyed making decisions of collaboration. I love working with other creatives and I feel I work better in a team - I’ve never been someone who excels alone, or even cares too much for title. My real passion is being part of a team, to create something new or innovative, that could have never been managed alone - I’m a huge believer in collaboration. So, yes there is a pivotal moment where I knew I had made the right decision, and that was recently, asking Tim Routledge to come on board and help me on the new Royal Blood album campaign. It’s already been a great laugh so far, and I’m looking forward to that developing as we roll out the bigger shows together.

Tell us how your touring career began…

My career began when a good friend of mine started a lighting rental company. It was a very small business back then so he would regularly purchase secondhand kit, clean it all up, make it functional and presentable, and rent it out as part of a larger system. I was working in a very mundane, dead end 9-5 but I had an absolute fascination with both technology and music - rarely having the opportunity to unify them. I would call my friend at weekends (we were both in our late teenage years / early 20s at this time) and he was becoming more and more unavailable to drink beer with! He started to occasionally invite me to join him on weekends to put on small shows and that’s where it all began. I then went on to become his first employee, and I remember it well - being freezing cold, stripping, soldering, and rewiring cables and fixtures in his grandmother’s garage!

You’re currently working with London Grammar as well as Royal Blood, what do you enjoy about these different projects?

Well it’s important to point out that I’m very much a cog in a much larger machine within both of these projects. It’s been an absolute pleasure meeting and working with Tobias G Rylander, who show-designed the upcoming campaign for London Grammar. His attention to detail was eye-opening and hugely refreshing - I haven’t learnt so much from someone in such a short space of time for a long while. With Royal Blood, as I mentioned earlier, I have the absolute privilege of working with Tim Routledge on a co-design for the boys’ new campaign - which has already been a huge amount of fun. I think what I love about working with these two different bands is they’re vastly different in style, yet so similar in intricacy, and the level of detail and passion that goes into each song is moving. Naturally, these are projects you want to be involved in. You’re being given an opportunity to visually develop something that’s already creatively outstanding - it’s been a real privilege.

What did you learn from your first road outing?

I learnt how to drink, and figured out that girls actually don’t mind me talking to them - I was a very shy teenager!

I was 21 and someone I had recently met took a big risk on me, putting me forward (and largely teaching me how to operate in a very short space of time) for a tour he had been offered but couldn’t do. That tour will always stay close to my heart, as the one that opened my eyes to a new passion.

A love for lighting, music, people and the industry as a whole.

Festival season is approaching. Where can we see your lighting designs this summer?

Royal Blood are at most major festivals this year Glastonbury, Governors Ball, Bonnaroo, Ibiza Rocks, Eden Project to mention a few - I’m not sure what else has been announced yet, so I should probably leave it there!

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11th October 2017 For more information contact Justin Gawne – j.gawne@mondiale.co.uk

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