Details
Serbia - Clay Paky was on stage with the 136 Alpha Sport HPE 1200, with which LD Per Sundin created and achieved pyrotechnic lighting effects for this year's Eurovision Song Contest at the Belgrade Arena.

The Alphas created custom lighting for each artist so that each performance was characterised by a studied play of effects and colours. The light show was made attractive to both the large audience in the Arena and home viewers by the attentive layout of the numerous and different light sources including 120sq.m of Barco OLite 510, 24 sq.m of Barco 10 and about 400 sq.m of M LEDs LC2140. As in 2007 and 2006 the event was again controlled by a grandMA system.

PROCON Event Engineering Germany, was the general technical supplier and provided lighting, sound, video, stage building,

Details
USA - Blue Man Group, whose globally successful show is a performance art spectacle rooted in dynamic percussion, relies upon EV mics. Matt Koenig, audio director/designer for Blue Man Group, is responsible for specifying sound reinforcement equipment for all the Blue Man Group productions around the world. Drums and percussion are the driving force of every show and picking the right drum mics is a top priority to ensure consistently excellent sound quality. Koenig explained how he arrived at the Electro-Voice N/D468 and N/D868.

"We gathered a group of mics from various manufacturers, set them up in our studio rehearsal space in New York, and had a shootout," Koenig says. "We soon found the N/D468 and N/D868 to be the best-sounding mics for our application. They won fair and square, and were judged by people who really know drum sound, as that's such a huge part

Details
RF News - The first ever Sennheiser RFX Series was a training event that gave Sennheiser's service and support engineers from around the globe the opportunity to experience RF issues that can affect live shows at first hand. Only by dealing with problems in real life pressure situations, Sennheiser believes, can engineers pick up the field experience needed to turn RF knowledge into operational RF expertise.

Putting theory into practice, the students ­ Sennheiser employees from the US, the UK, Denmark, India, Russia, China, Singapore and Germany ­ learnt the nuances of RF equipment and potential problems before spending a full day installing and troubleshooting RF mics and IEMs for a nine-piece band under the watchful and demanding eyes of two very experienced live sound engineers. Digico donated their new flagship SD7 console for front of house, and a D5 for monitors, and with Georg

featured content

Indochine X PixMob Fan Immersion

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's - 40 thousand LED pixels on a ceiling!!! Indochine's whirlwind tour transports fans to another level of the live experience - immersing them from floor to ceiling with PixMob's X4 wristbands, and an LED ceiling made entirely of its NOVA Minis! With the vision of Indochine's creative team, PixMob used its LED fan-technology to turn attendees and venues into an ocean of effects, and a starry sky of LED magic. Très très cool!

Read more about the Indochine tour in the latest issue of LSi

Details
UK - This summer has seen the busiest festival season yet for Chris Beale Associates (CBA), whose packages of wireless, site-wide communications have been adopted by many outdoor events including Glastonbury, Download Festival, the V Festivals, Reading and Leeds, Latitude, T in the Park and Radiohead's Glasgow outdoor show, while corporate events have included shows for the Royal Horticultural Society.

The objective of CBA Wireless Events, the networking operations part of CBA, founded by Chris Beale in 2005, is to transform communications between the myriad companies and people scattered across event sites spanning hundreds of acres - Glastonbury's Worthy Farm being a prime example.

Today, Beale says that wireless is in demand across major event sites to an unprecedented extent. "It was our second year at Glastonbury in an independent role, contracted to supply IT, netwo

Details
France - Projection specialists E/T/C Paris supplied Christie video projectors, an Onlyview control system, an extensive video camera package and a digital outside broadcast van for the Unighted event, staged at the Stade de France stadium in Paris.

Hosted by club promoter, Cathy Guetta, the event 'unighted' five of the world's best known DJs - David Guetta, Carl Cox, Tiësto, Martin Solveig and Joachim Garraud - in a swirling, high energy multimedia mix of aesthetics and emotions enjoyed by 45,000 enthusiastic party people.

E/T/C Paris was asked onboard by long-time collaborators Skertzò, who were chosen to create the show's scenic elements and image design.

In addition to the video projection and Onlyview system, E/T/C provided equipment and crew for all the image capturing and relaying elements of the show.

A total of 23 cameras were used - five broadcast, two w

Details
UK - fabric has added the Vestax PMC-580 4-Channel DJ Mixer with on-board digital effects and PDX-3000 turntables to its stock of premium DJ equipment. fabric is one of five clubs in the UK chosen to receive a PMC-580 Mixer sponsored by Vestax, organised by exclusive UK distributors Leisuretec Distribution.

Technical manager of fabric, Sanjeev Bhardwaj commented: "This is fabric, our reputation is everything and we have to have to have the best equipment available for our artists. Having road tested the Vestax PMC-580, this mixer is superb."

He continued: "The 580 is a very powerful, high level mixer, making it not just suitable for a large club like fabric, but smaller clubs too.The features are excellent, it's easy to work with and it's not cramped at the back. The 580 has every feature set you could want on a mixer; analogue and digital mode, MIDI, master out

Details
USA - With sales of over 25 million albums, seven number-one hits, and eleven Grammys in less than a decade in the spotlight, Alicia Keys is at the top of her game. This summer will find her headlining shows and playing festivals throughout the world in support of her third studio album, As I Am.Keys sings into a Sennheiser SKM 5200 wireless mic with a dynamic MD 5235 capsule. Her backing singers use Sennheiser SKM 935 G2 wireless mics, and all of the mobile members of the band, including Keys, rely on evolution wireless ew 300 IEM G2 wireless personal monitor systems.

FOH engineer Larry Mignona comments, "The 5235 has a warm sound without the unnatural high-end boost that's so prevalent in many wireless mics. In my opinion, that high-end boost is there to flatter singers who can't really sing. But Alicia can really sing. In addition, the rejection from a Sennheiser

Details
UK - Avolites consoles were specified extensively for lighting control in the majority of arenas at Global Gathering 2008, one of the UK's leading dance festivals, staged at Long Marston Airfield near Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire.

The visual design that united lighting, digital and video sources into one seamless atmospheric experience for all fivearenas and three terraces, was created by Nick Jevons and Phil Winward of Electric Fly Productions. Site wide lighting equipment was supplied by Blackburn-based HSL, and crew from both companies collaborated closely to ensure that it was one of the most visually memorable Global events to date.

The seven arena/terrace Avolites consoles included two Diamond 4s, two Pearls and three Tigers. Jevons says, "Avolites is the ultimate festival console - nothing else offers the flexibility or ease of use for the hands-on, live operati

Details
France - L-Acoustics has announced the launch of the K1/KUDO Pilot Programme. This announcement follows the recent publication of an interview of Christian HEIL and Stéphane Ecalle at ProLight & Sound 2008 in which L-Acoustics unveiled the V-DOSC sequel and the future creation of a global DOSC Network.

The K1/KUDO Pilot Programme will be proposed primarily to existing members of the DOSC Network - V-DOSC and KUDO owners with an interest in advanced field proofing of the new K1/KUDO/LA8 system architecture for stadium and arena applications.

The K1/KUDO Pilot Programme is expected to last for a period of 24 months, a necessary time prior to the official launch of the future L-Acoustics Stadium line array system. K1/KUDO Pilot rental companies will closely collaborate with L-Acoustics R&D team and technical support. Emphasis will be put on preset validation, stadium syste

Details
UK - Specialist supplier of audio visual, multimedia and videoconferencing technology, Saville Audio Visual has expanded its commitment to KV2 Audio - by adding to its existing inventory of KV2 Audio ES Series - in a number of the company's 14 locations across the UK.

Saville's Hull office has recently added 14 KV2 Audio EX10 two-way, full-range, active enclosures, all of which have joined Hull's existing four stacks of KV2 ES Series in time for the current 15-week, televised, Premier League tour for the Professional Darts Corporation.

The tour attracts live arena audiences of up to 8,000 per night and is transmitted live on Sky Sports channel. The KV2 Audio system provides the main sound requirement for each event, from the warm-ups, player walk-ons, referee decisions and TV announcements.

A double KV2 ES Series stack either side of the stage, each comprising of two flown E

Details
USA - Elation Professional has added the top-of-the-line Antari HZ-500 professional DMX haze machine to its lineup of Antari atmosphere effects. The HZ-500 is designed to provide creative and dramatic atmospheric effects for concert tours, stage productions and large clubs, with a prolific haze output of 3,000 cubic feet/minute. Yet, it is extremely quiet, easy to maintain and consumes relatively little haze liquid, while offering exceptional performance, says the company.

Despite its high output, the HZ-500 runs quietly, with a noise level of under 70dB at a 4-inch distance. The virtual silence of the HZ-500 enables it to be used in situations where low noise is desired, such as a stage production where microphones might otherwise pick up the sound of a motor running backstage.

It uses only one litre of haze liquid over 20 hours, despite its 3,000 cu. ft./minute output, makin

Details
USA - One of America's most iconic monuments, the 60ft high carvings of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt on Mt. Rushmore took the sculptor Gutzon Borglum and 400 workers nearly 14 years to complete in 1941. Since that time, millions of Americans and international visitors have travelled to the Black Hills of South Dakota to view this modern wonder and witness its nightly lighting ceremonies and other special events.

In 1998 a massive redevelopment project added an amphitheatre, museum, visitors' centre, gift shop, restaurant and other tourist facilities to the national park. In the decade since, the harsh Dakota winters have taken their toll on the facility's public address system, and Rapid City-based Haggerty's Audio Video was called in to design the system's upgrade and expansion.

"We actually created two separate systems," explains Haggarty's Mike Moo

Details
Ukraine - D.A.S. Aero 48 units were recently deployed for rock singer and guitarist Vladimir Kuzmin's concert in Ukraine. This was the first of many concerts the singer will be offering as part of his tour which include events in the cities of Odessa, Nikolayev, Kherson, Krivoy, Rog, Poltava, Severo-Donetsk, Donetsk, Lugansk and Dnepropetrovsk.

The Aero equipment was supplied by Ukrainian rental company StormLine, partners of Indigo Music Company, D.A.S. distributor in Ukraine. The Aero 48 provided optimal performance at the concert, of which StormLine owner Yevgeny Shturmin, commented, "The sound was crystal clear and at the same time very powerful. I thought it was a large scale Hi Fi system." Eight Aero 48 units were flown per side and eight ST-32 units were employed as stage monitors. Signal processing was handled by the D.A.S. DSP-26 digital signal processors.

I

Details
USA - Synthe FX has announced the immediate availability of Luminair 1.0 for iPhone and iPod touch. Luminair allows users to control, view and manage intelligent DMX lighting fixtures and consoles, straight from iPhone or iPod touch. Using Artistic License's Art-Net protocol over the device's built-in Wi-Fi connection, Luminair communicates with other compatible hardware and software nodes on the local network.

The touch-board channel layout view provides quick channel setup of the user's fixtures. A multi-track, touch-enabled mixer, controls with accurate precision. As a DMX data analyzer, data is displayed in realtime as a touch-scrollable overview of all channels in the input universe. Selecting a specific channel shows the current value, as well as the past 24 seconds of data in graph form.

Wireless connectivity allows users to be unchained from the mixer desk or patch-bay

Details
Sweden - Adlib Audio, one of the UK's leading audio rental companies with thriving sales and installation departments, has just invested in twenty of Lab.gruppen's flagship PLM 10000Q Powered Loudspeaker Management systems to control, process, monitor and power their stage monitors.

According to Adlib director, Dave Kay, the company had been seeking to upgrade their monitor systems for quite some time. "We were looking for two things in particular," observed Kay. "Firstly, we wanted to upgrade our processing to a feature set capable of handling the ever-increasing demands made on our monitor systems. Major tours and stage shows are becoming more and more complex, and artists are more demanding than ever before, so monitor systems have to keep pace if you want to keep your artists happy on stage. We were reaching the limits of our current processing solution, so it

Details
UK - Event security specialists Showsec played an integral safety role in the series of concerts and festivals staged at Hyde Park, this June and July.

Three high profile events took place on two consecutive weekends, starting with the star-studded 46664 charity concert celebrating Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday on the final Friday of June. Hard Rock Calling took place on the Saturday and Sunday immediately following, with a bill headlined by the Police and Eric Clapton, while, on the second weekend, O2 Wireless hosted Fat Boy Slim, Morrissey, Jay Z and Counting Crows. The same site and infrastructure was also used for an additional mid-week concert by Jack Johnson.

Showsec were at the heart of event planning, with the company's operations director Simon Battersby appointed Head of Security for all three events. The Mandela concert boasted the largest capacity of 46,664, while

Details
Australia - With the current trend of outsourcing product manufacture to Asian countries, Australian Lighting Control System manufacturer, LSC Lighting Systems has bucked the trend and invested heavily in expanding manufacturing within its own home market.

LSC's managing director, Gary Pritchard, explains: "Although the perceived financial benefits of manufacturing in Asia are tempting, the stories of inferior quality products and lost Intellectual property experienced by other companies exploring this option, have convinced us to invest here in Australia. We are very protective of our intellectual property (designs) and we pride ourselves on the high quality and enduring products we build. Both of these qualities, we felt, could be at great risk if outsourced to areas that are hard to directly control from Australia."

To show their customer base that LSC products ar

Details
UK - Entec Lighting helped the Larmer Tree Festival - the UK's original 'boutique' event - celebrate its colourful 18th Birthday at the weekend, supplying lighting to the Main Stage, Garden Stage and several other performance arenas, and also illuminating some of the flora, fauna and foliage around the site.

The Festival, run by J&J Events, is set in the heart of the beautiful Larmer Tree Gardens on the Wiltshire/Dorset borders. The Gardens were created by General Pitt Rivers in 1880 as pleasure grounds for "public enlightenment and entertainment" and are part of the outstanding landscape of Cranbourne Chase.

It's the third year that the west London based rental company has been involved with the event, which is limited to an intimate 5000 capacity and is renowned for it's very chilled vibes, quality international entertainment and amazing surroundings.

Ente

Details
Poland - Home to a classical dance group and offering courses in competitive rumba, tango, and waltz, the local dance hall in the lower Silesian city of Bielawa attracts fans of many different dancing styles.

The venue's owner Waclaw Szwaczka has furnished his 300-capacity hall with lavish appointments. On the audio front, he has opted for two CTA 208 high-/midrange enclosures and two CTA 118 subwoofers from HK Audio. The Polish HK Audio dealer AMTEC installed the units after a live demo.

Waclaw Szwaczka comments: "I had several reasons for choosing the Contour Array. On the one hand, the system's dimensions are compact, yet it provides enough power for this relatively big dance hall. Its sound is articulate and good.

And because it is an active system that does not require a separate rack, amp, or controller, we don't have a mess of cables in the hall. What's more, the

Details
Australia - The new UniMIX from ARX Systems features six balanced XLR Mic / Line input channels with individual level controls, plus a dedicated stereo RCA jack line in channel and switchable phantom power. Multiple outputs are provided for the main sound system as well as transformer isolated recording and remote monitoring.

Developed in conjunction with the Information Services Department at Melbourne University, the UniMix is designed to allow institutions such as colleges, universities and high schools to provide downloadable recordings - podcasts - of lectures and classes for students to access on a local area network. These recordings are typically taken from the classroom / lecture theatre sound system and saved to a computer in real time.

Several problems are normally faced in this application. Getting the correct recording level is difficult, given that the level requ

Details
UK - Editors, the Brit Award-nominated band who will be supporting REM across Europe and the UK later this August, will be taking to stadium stages armed with an array of microphones and monitor systems from Sennheiser.

Lead vocalist Tom Smith will be singing into a Sennheiser e840 for the entire tour. "The range of Tom's vocal is very large and rich throughout," explains FOH engineer Nick Ingram. "I needed a microphone that could capture this whilst at the same time as rejecting as much spill from the noisy stage as possible. The Sennheiser Evolution vocal mics have a fantastically smooth frequency response and the e840 in particular has a roll-off in the high frequencies which suits Tom as it counteracts the highly pronounced sibilance in his voice."

For the band's backline, Ingram has found that Sennheiser mics more than meet his requirements. "I ca

Page 2226 of 3465

Latest Issue. . .