Newsletter from 30/12/2015
The Summer Festival Special
Featured Stars: Armin van Buuren - Fido & Fitipaldis - Foo Fighters - Grönemeyer - Kid Rock - Rolling Stones - Take That - Tood Rundgren - Vasco Rossi - Years and Years - Zac Brown Band
Featured Events: EDC - Glastonbury - Parklife - Rock am Ring - Rock in Rio - Thurn & Taxis Festival
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STARS
Elation Lights DJ Armin van Buuren’s ‘A State of Trance 700’ in Mumbai, India
Dutch trance music DJ and producer Armin van Buuren’s radio show A State of Trance (ASOT) has been going strong since 2001 and its 700th episode on June 6th was celebrated in style with a huge live show in Mumbai, India, lit by Elation Professional’s new Platinum SBX™ moving head along with the popular Platinum Beam 5R™ and ELAR 180 PAR™ fixtures. Propelling him to superstardom with trance fans around the world, ASOT attracts 33 million listeners weekly through 100 FM radio-stations in more than 80 countries. A State of Trance milestone is always an occasion to party and ASOT 700, held in association with SUNBURN, saw The Dome in Mumbai decked out in a large intelligent lighting package for performances by Armin van Buuren, Cosmic Gate, Orjan Nilsen, Super8 & Tab and Ruben De Ronde.
Todd Rundgren Goes Global with Robe
Prolific multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer Todd Rundgren has just released his hot new “Global” album, and is one of the highly innovative artists in the current portfolio of Lighting and Visuals Designer and touring Lighting Director Martin Thomas. Martin has been touring regularly with Rundgren for around six years and is now out with a tower and floor specials lighting package comprising just 18 moving lights - twelve Robe Pointes and six Robe MMX Spots - plus LED video panels.
L-Acoustics Helps Foo Fighters Keep North American Tour Leg Unbroken
The crowd gasped when Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl toppled offstage during a show on June 12 in Gothenburg, Sweden. Grohl, however, quickly showed the single-minded perseverance that has led him to success in music and documentary filmmaking. Shortly after being helped off stage for medical attention, he was back in front of the crowd—seated this time—singing and playing guitar while a doctor held his leg in place. A dedicated performer who literally lives the phrase “the show must go on,” Grohl and his bandmates are now on the 43-date North American leg of their Sonic Highways tour, which “kicked off”—with the singer/guitarist seated on a massive motorized throne—July 4 at Washington, D.C.’s RFK Stadium. Accompanying the band on this latest stretch running through November is an L-Acoustics K1/K2 PA system fielded by Delicate Productions, which has been Foo Fighters’ SR vendor for the past five years.
Robe BMFLs for Vasco Rossi Stadium Tour
Italian superstar Vasco Rossi is currently engaged in his summer Live Kom 15 stadium tour which is completely sold out, and will see the legendary singer play to nearly 1 million fans, with another stunning lighting and show design by his long term LD, Giovanni Pinna. This year Giovanni has incorporated 34 Robe BMFL Blades and 16 BMFL Spots into the design, which are the work-horse spot fixtures of the tour. He has also deployed 100 of Robe’s LEDBeam 100s which are dotted around the back wall of the main set. One of Italy’s leading designers, he has been using Robe products in his work for some years, but this is the first full-on project for which he has specified BMFL Spots.
Brilliant Stages Take That Live Tour 2015
As usual, Take That are delivering a full-on production, this time with a high degree of theatricality and a large number of performers in support of the main artists. The consequence is a set which demands as much activity below stage as on-stage - a major feature which Brilliant Stages needed to factor into production designer Misty Buckley’s multi-level set to provide maximum space below deck in which to house equipment, props, speakers and stage lifts, and to facilitate the access and activities of crew and performers. The main elements of Brilliant Stages’ construction comprise a main stage with apron and artistic performer staircases, a multi-level band stage backed by a series of nine box lifts, an upper stage with an integral service lift, and a forestage with piano lift, all of which connect perfectly to a runway which loops out into the arena to a B-stage.
Okulus Again Backs GLP X4 for New Zac Brown Band Tour
British creative lighting company, Okulus, have been appointed show and production designers for Zac Brown Band’s JEKYLL + HYDE 2015 North American Stadium tour. They were offered the role after James Scott had worked with Jim Brammer’s US production company Special Event Services on the 2012 USA tour for Ed Sheeran, and formed a close relationship. This resulted in Scott being put forward for the 2014 Production Design role for Zac Brown Band (under his former company, Times Design Ltd), and subsequently for this year’s tour, which coincided with the formation of the Okulus brand.
Avolites Ai Infinity EX8 server maps complex LED backdrop for Years and Years
British electronica trio Years and Years are touring summer festivals and venues with an ingenious bespoke LED strip screen mapped by an Avolites Ai Infinity EX8 server. The concept for the LED screen was the idea of Years and Years lighting designer Chris 'Squib' Swain. It reflects the cover artwork for the band's debut album 'Communion', with coloured branches of LED strips intersecting at different angles from a central 'Y' shape. Years and Years have played some of the summer's biggest festivals, including Glastonbury, BST in Hyde Park, and T in the Park.
Herbert Grönemeyer Gets Some WIgenuis
Engineering and automation specialist WIcreations designed and built the six moving video pods which are the major structural element of the current Herbert Grönemeyer tour, which features another innovative and interesting stage design by Gunther Hecker of Cue Design. Grönemeyer’s music and message for this tour is straightforward and uncomplicated, so Gunther’s design was based on the Bauhausian principals of simplicity with clean lines and clear definition, all the time keeping the understated - and sometimes reluctant superstar - as the focus onstage. The six pods (in the full rig format) are initially in their ‘home position’ in the roof and move to various different looks throughout the show – completely changing the dynamics of the stage space and also creating an impressive high-impact wow factor.
Elation Cuepix Panels “X”ceptional on Fito & Fitipaldis
Over a 25-year musical career, Fito Cabrales has played to fans across the Spanish-speaking world and now his popular rock band Fito & Fitipaldis is out on the road again in support of their latest album “Huyendo conmigo de mi.” Lighting design is by well-known LD Luis Pastor, who has integrated into the set three eye-catching crosses of light made up of Elation Cuepix Panel RGB matrix luminaires. Following an initial winter leg in arenas and theaters, the band’s current summer tour is playing outdoor venues across Spain. Lighting, sound and visual equipment for the tour, including the Cuepix Panels, is being supplied by PRG of Spain.
Elation Professional Rayzor and Sniper Effects Light Kid Rock Summer Tour
Kid Rock knows how to keep his audiences happy. Besides proving he can perform a bit of everything musically – rap/rock/hip hop/ blues/country – his shows have been known to offer concert-goers free sandwiches and coffee, not to mention cheap beer and a reasonable ticket price. Out on the road on his “First Kiss: Cheap Date” Tour in support of the acclaimed new album “First Kiss,” Kid Rock is thrilling audiences beneath a rig that includes Elation Rayzor Q7 LED wash/beam and Sniper 2R multi-effect lights. Lighting supply is by Upstaging with lighting design by long-time Kid Rock LD Nook Schoenfeld, who has been lighting the multi-talented singer since 2000.
Clay Paky Hits the Road with The Rolling Stones’ Zip Code Tour
The Rolling Stones embarked on their Zip Code Tour visiting 15 cities in North America from the kick off in San Diego in May to the wrap in Quebec City in July. The band’s lighting rig featured Clay Paky Mythos and Sharpy Washes. “The band is playing as well as I’ve ever seen them,” says Ethan Weber, who was crew chief for the Stones in 1994-95 and became their lighting director in 1998, a post he still holds today. The majority of shows on the tour were in stadiums, though they mixed in a couple of festivals and a theater show in Los Angeles, where the band played the entire “Sticky Fingers” album.
PURE LIVE 2015 will be ready for IBC
On 200 pages we will show new HD/UHD OBVans (including a technical synopsis of each truck) and Studios. Supported by latest developments in live production and comprehensive case studies as well as portraits of international system integrators, rental facilities and production houses worldwide. We’ll present how to distribute and display entertainment, sports and event productions on any platform around the world. Aerial filming, slow/ultra motion production, technical management and engineering support, set design and construction – in short: all you need for a perfect live production you will find in PURE LIVE 2015. All this will be topped off with reports on exceptional live-productions in sports and entertainment highlighting our areas of focus: video, audio and lighting.
FESTIVALS
RG Jones and MLA Delight FOH Engineering at Glastonbury
RG Jones Sound Engineering deployed for the second year running Martin Audio’s Multi-Cellular Loudspeaker Array (MLA) system on Glastonbury Festival Pyramid Stage, proving a palpable hit with FOH engineers. MLA’s unique ability to control noise escape beyond the site perimeter while maintaining pristine fidelity and high sound pressure levels for the audience meant that FOH engineers could simply focus and enjoy mixing their artists to entertain crowds of up to 120,000 people. System tech, Andy Davies, explains, “We drove each acoustic cell in each MLA to direct sound at the audience, and then cut it off sharply just beyond the perimeter of the field to dramatically reduce noise pollution. As a result, acts including The Who, Florence and the Machine, Kanye West, Paul Weller and Motorhead could comfortably play at 104-105dBA.
dbn Lights Parklife 2015
dbn Lighting returned to Heaton Park in Manchester to supply lighting to five out of the eight stages and video to two of those - for the popular Parklife Weekender music festival with which they have been involved since its inception in 2010. The crew - which peaked at 24 technicians, programmers and operators - was led by dbn’s Pete Robinson, and they started their various get-ins across the site on the Wednesday. There were a few logistical curved balls thrown into the mix for good measure, including a Friday night concert by the Courteeners which was slotted in by promoters SJM on Stage 4. While dbn were not lighting this ... the licensing restricted access to other areas which therefore had to be ready ahead of time.
It’s festival season for DirectOut with Rock am Ring and Southside!
Some 90,000 people descended on Rock am Ring in Mendig in western Germany last month for the festival’s 30th anniversary in a brand new location. Attendances hit record levels to see headline acts Slipknot, Foo Fighters, Motorhead and In Flames amongst others. With over 150 bands playing over three days, festival-goers were spoilt for choice. Southside, which took place in Tuttlingen in southern Germany, featured over 100 bands but with a distinctly more “alternative pop/rock” flavor. This time, around 60,000 fans turned out over three days to enjoy the music and a mix of sunshine and rain. DirectOut was on hand for the duration of both festivals to ensure seamless audio transmission from the stage to OB van for regional public broadcaster SWR. DirectOut product manager Christian Müller was on site to assist SWR engineer Björn Lautenschlager throughout the two festivals to ensure that everything ran smoothly.
Ayrton MagicDot™-R makes its US debut at Rock in Rio
Ayrton MagicDot™-R, one of the latest products from innovative French LED lighting manufacturer, Ayrton, made its US debut with Bruno Mars at Rock In Rio Las Vegas in May. Lighting designer Cory FitzGerald of Seven Design Works used a huge configuration of 184 of the new fixtures on the singer’s closing performance at this year’s festival which was hosted for the first time in the US. FitzGerald’s design also featured an array of 128 Ayrton IntelliPix™-R panels deployed as fascias fronting the stage-wide risers that backed Mars and his band. MagicDot™-R is Ayrton’s unique new professional moving head LED luminaire which features a single optical collimator in combination with Osram’s new 60W Ostar RGBW multichip LED. MagicDot™-R delivers an intense uniform 4.5° beam with a high CRI and a palette of rich saturated and pastel colours.
Elation Again Used to Decorate Multiple Stages at Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas
Hundreds of Elation lighting fixtures were used again this year on Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas, North America’s largest dance music festival, with the latest incarnation of the electronic rave taking place June 19-21 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Lighting supply companies Visions Lighting, AG Production Services, Felix Lighting and Pro Systems all supplied Elation gear to the Vegas version of EDC with many of this year’s awe-inspiring lighting and stage looks again by SJ Lighting. With over 400,000 attendees for the 3-day event, producers Insomniac brought in some of the world's biggest EDM artists and production talent to supply the heart-thumping atmosphere. Elation products wowed massive crowds on Stage 7 (Pro Systems), Bass Pod (Visions Lighting), Circuit Grounds (AG Lighting) and Cosmic Meadow (Felix Lighting) stages with several of Elation’s newest luminaires getting in on the act.
Puccini’s ‘La Boheme’ at the 2015 Thurn & Taxis Festival mixed on an mc²56
The courtyard of the castle St. Emmeran in Regensburg, Germany, has provided the location for the Thurn-and-Taxis festival (“Schlossfestspiele”) since 2002. The highlights on stage are mirrored by the FoH audio mix: Tonmeister Carsten Kümmel created a concert hall ambience for the performance of Giacomo Puccini’s “La Bohème”, even though it took place in the open air. Key to achieving this was the use of a Lawo mc²56 mixing console. The natural listening experience of a concert hall was created by using monitor speakers situated below the venue’s tribune. These were used to direct effects channels with a high amount of early reflections towards the castle walls, which diffusely reflected them towards the audience. The orchestra itself was not on, or even close to, the stage, but in a ballroom in the castle, where regular microphone techniques were used to pick up the instruments. The audio was transmitted between the ballroom and stage, and up to the conductor along with video feeds used for communication.