US sound reinforcement company Rat Sound used the Gobi tent at the 2013 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival to put EAW’s new Anya loudspeaker system through its paces – the first use of the system for a public event.
‘Dave and Jon worked with the final prototypes and asked if they could use the first 16-module at Coachella,’ says EAW President, Jeff Rocha. ‘We were thrilled to showcase our new product at one of our industry’s most demanding events.’
To support his latest album, Burning Lights, Chris Tomlin and his band set out on a two-month, 36-date US arena tour. At the heart of the visual show is Renewed Vision’s ProPresenter 5 lyric and media presentation software.
‘For video playback on past tours, we’ve used SMPTE time code and locked everything to a click track with no getting off the map,’ says Matt Gilder. ‘Now we set up video cues in advance that I can trigger during performances.
Killing 185 people and costing NZ$15bn, the 2011 Christchurch earthquake was one of New Zealand’s most severe peacetime disasters. Among the damaged and collapsed buildings, the Music and Audio Institute of New Zealand found itself temporarily off limits.
‘Most of the buildings around our campus had been, or were being demolished. Obviously the big question was: what happened to the gear?’
From an opening performance given by the Berlin Philharmonic in 1998, the Switzerland’s KKL Luzern Concert Hall was destined to become one of the world’s great performance centres.
Designed by architect Jean Nouvel, its formal opening took place in 2000. Today, it attracts music fans from around the world with a diverse programme of events – and an ambitious new sound installation..
While Madonna has come to enjoy the title Queen of Reinvention, it is David Bowie who is reinvention’s true hero.
From 1967 album debut through a succession of radical musical style changes, periodic forays into acting and painting, a pioneering US$55m ‘David Bowie bond’ issue, and now the David Bowie is exhibition, Bowie has pushed boundaries beyond the efforts of all peers.
‘I was fascinated by the idea that breath freezes at very low temperatures and makes a unique sound as the ice crystals form. It’s a very romantic concept and I simply couldn’t get it out of my head.
‘No-one had previously succeeded in recording this phenomenon and even during my stay in Siberia, I sometimes started to think that the whole thing was, perhaps, just a myth…’
The evening’s telecast was one of the year’s largest, drawing 28.1m viewers worldwide – its second-largest audience since 1993. In the US it was broadcast live in HDTV and 5.1 surround on the CBS Television Network, and showcased more than 25 performances from some of the hottest international recording artists.
The occasion was the 55th annual Grammy Awards, held at the Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles.
Having made their debut on the Las Vegas Strip in 2000, the Blue Man Group recently opened an all-new production at the Monte Carlo Resort & Casino – dropping in by parachute to set a lively agenda.
‘Our creative team has been working for two years to propel Blue Man Group’s indescribable celebration of art, technology and music to a whole new level for the Monte Carlo production,’ says Blue Man Group co-founder Chris Wink.
A growing congregation, an ageing sound system and changing worship services left the James River Assembly in Springfield, Missouri, with a problem. It sought a solution with Special Event Services.
The answer to its needs made it one of the first US venues to install DiGiCo’s SD5 console, as well as an Outline GTO loudspeaker system, and have given its sound and its services a new lease of life.
A series of screenings of famous movies accompanied by a live soundtrack is earning London’s Royal Albert Hall praise on many fronts – the choice of films, the musical performance and the sound system among them.
Performed to 10,000 paying guests, the production also provided the commercial premiere of EM Acoustics’ Halo Compact speaker system with sound mixed by renowned classical sound engineer Phil Wright on a DiGiCo SD5 console.
Recorded for release on the EMI Classics label, Bruckner’s 9th Symphony and Quattro Pezzi Sacri by Verdi made an exciting live programme. The recording saw Sir Antonio Pappano conducting the Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia at Rome’s spectacular Parco della Musica.
Alongside commercial recording and broadcast ambitions, the session represented a test of some new technology for the recording team.