mondo*dr Awards EMEA & APAC 2020 Supplement

THANK YOU TO ALL OUR SPONSORS AND SUPPORTERS

WELCOME Much like every other event in the industry, the mondo*dr Awards EMEA & APAC 2020 hasn’t gone as we originally planned. We would’ve loved to have gone ahead with our full event at Prolight + Sound, Frankfurt, but, of course, the health and safety of the industry comes first.

However, we’ve all got to find way to adapt and overcome, which is why we decided to make this year’s awards an online event. Despite everything, we wanted to make sure that your incredible work gets the recognition it deserves. We’ve had some truly special projects submitted this year - it’s certainly been difficult for our judges.

We’d like to extend a huge congratulations to all the shortlisted venues and much-deserved category winners. Thank you to all of our supporters, everyone who submitted a project and our judging panel, too.

The mondo*dr Awards Americas is up next, so make sure you get your entries in by June 1 2020!

We’re planning to celebrate with 2020’s winners, as well as officially launch our 2021 plans at ISE, Barcelona in February - see you there!

Sam Hughes Editor

THE AWARDS IN NUMBERS mondo*dr Awards EMEA & APAC 2020

TOTAL ENGAGEMENT: 70,000+ reached across all platforms

EDITOR: Sam Hughes: s.hughes@mondiale.co.uk EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Emma Davidson: e.davidson@mondiale.co.uk DIGITAL EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: James Robertson: j.robertson@mondiale.co.uk SALES DIRECTOR: Jamie Dixon: j.dixon@mondiale.co.uk SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER: Laura Iles: l.iles@mondiale.co.uk EVENTS MANAGER: Sara Walker PRODUCTION: Mel Capper CEO: Justin Gawne FINANCE DIRECTOR: Amanda Giles CREDIT CONTROL: ar@mondiale.co.uk GROUP CHAIRMAN: Damian Walsh

Mondiale Publishing, Strawberry Studios, Watson Square, Stockport SK1 3AZ, UK Tel: +44 161 476 8340 mondo*dr Awards supplement is published in May by Mondiale Publishing Limited, Strawberry Studios, Watson Square, Stockport, SK1 3AZ, UK | www.mondodrawards.com

THE CATEGORIES For the mondo*dr Awards EMEA & APAC 2020, there are nine categories covering the entertainment installation market.

There are four shortlisted entries, with one winner per category.

ARENA A venue for musical concerts and indoor sports, hosting games such as ice hockey, basketball, tennis and cycling.

BAR & RESTAURANT A drinking or eating establishment, usually with subtle background music in the daytime and evening, getting livelier as the evening progresses.

CONCERT HALL A performance venue for live music performances from philharmonic orchestras to rock bands.

HOUSE OF WORSHIP A place of worship for any religion.

MULTIPURPOSE VENUE A large complex, which might include hotels, conference centres, shopping centres, casinos and cinemas. This category also incorporates cruise ships.

NIGHTCLUB A club is generally open from late evening until the early hours of the morning. It has facilities such as a bar, a dancefloor and often a DJ or live performer.

PARKS & ATTRACTIONS A park with roller coasters or a water themed park, or a museum, midway or tourist site.

STADIUM A sporting venue, most commonly with an open / retractable roof. Home to sports such as football, rugby, cricket and athletics.

THEATRE An auditorium for spoken word plays and musicals.

We want to personally reach out to all in our entertainment technology and production community as we face this unprecedented health challenge.

All of us – manufacturers, rental companies, venues, broadcasters, festival and event organisers, production managers, artists and of course our vast pool of highly talented individuals, designers, engineers and creative freelancers – to everyone working in all disciplines and across every each sector making this incredible industry go round – we offer our solidarity, strength, thoughts and positive energy.

together our strength will shine.

We are all facing an incredibly tough few months ahead. Cooperation, empathy, humanity and mutual respect should be paramount and in the true spirit of this great industry … please be kind and considerate to others.

When we come through, we will be stronger and more united, and our industry will be more dynamic than ever.

Josef Valchar

#togetherwearestronger

Ladislav Petrek

Harry von den Stemmen

at the heart of our community

THE JUDGES For 2020, the judging process has evolved to include previous winners for the first round of reviews, which will create the shortlists. Each ceremony will have a dedicated judging panel from the associated geographical region, flexing their expertise in their given markets. The second round of judging for 2020 will give the panel an opportunity to explore the project entries in more depth that ever before.

ANDY TAYLOR

BEN M ROGERS

SCOTT WILLSALLEN

GASOLINE DESIGN

ARDENT

AUDITORIA

EMMA BIGG

SIMON AUSTIN

KAPIL THIRWANI

OCTAVIUS RE

SCHULER SHOOK

MUNRO ACOUSTICS

GARETH COLLYER

JOHN HUGHES

PHILIP HESELTON

NEXO

ADLIB

SIGNIFY

MOGZI

BAS SCHEIJ

DISGUISE

BASZ DESIGN & LIVE OPERATING

SHORTLISTED - ARENA GUANGZHOU GYMNASIUM TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Guangzhou, China Manufacturers: RGBlink Installer: MR LED Project Submitted By: RGBlink Guangzhou Gymnasium indoor stadium has impressively enhanced its facilities with a newly installed suspended LED display. Comprising a multi-sided arena display, this display, along with additional LED display screens set around the arena, were supplied by Shenzhenbased, MR LED. With the multipurpose venue used extensively for indoor sports, including the very popular basketball league, the displays are a welcome addition.

The central arena display – a series of 5mm pitch displays hanging centrally over the courts – is made up of upper and lower continuous rings, each at 4,352 x 1,280 pixels and 4,032 x 1,280 pixels respectively, forming ticker style messaging displays. Between these two rings are back-to-back displays – two 40 sq metre central displays at 1,888 x 800 pixels capped at either side with a pair of poster/banner displays at 1,024 x 800 pixels each. The complete assembly can be raised and lowered to event requirements, making maintenance a straightforward exercise.

At either end of the stadium, two further 40 sq metre LED display screens have been installed, while perimeter signage, also in LED, has been installed on the mezzanine edge completing the coverage.

To process and deliver video to this wide range of displays just a single RGBlink X7 universal video processor has been installed, allowing multiple displays to be configured and used as a single display system. The video and media sources, including PC based scoring and media display applications, are connected directly to the X7, which converts and scales video to each individual display requirements via presets configured directly on the processor.

The two ring displays and the perimeter displays, all of which are long narrow strips, are nonetheless utilised for a full range of graphical displays. The X7 splices across multiple outputs and maps the video sources across these. With the configurations stored as presets, X7 allows seamlessly pixel-to-pixel spliced video to be delivered to these displays, reducing the complexity and need for specialist input media.

Similarly, camera feeds are connected directly to X7 as needed from the in-house broadcast infrastructure. These camera sources – again via presets – are able to display as windows/PIPs or brought to full screen on individual displays, on demand, in exactly the formats required for the particular resolution needed.

With all sources needing to be connected at a single processor, not only was the installation process simplified, but the system also provides for an optimised user experience for the operators as well as enhancing the overall video performance.

“RGBlink has a strong reputation in the market,” said Mr Wang of MR LED. “We were really pleased to use X7 on this important project.”

The project support from the RGBlink team has been impressive, helping to bring together all the video displays seamlessly, so we have really been able deliver a complete solution for the stadium.”

Configuration and control of the X7 universal video processor is undertaken remotely from the RGBlink XPOSE software platform.

While all processing and settings are maintained on the X7 hardware, XPOSE offers a modern and intuitive drag-and-drop style GUI from which operators have a clear view of both the current live output operations, as well as presets. Sources streamed from the processor to XPOSE allow the operators to have virtual views of each preset on demand directly inside the software. A PC workstation with XPOSE is installed in the control room overlooking the court installation at Guangzhou Gymnasium, along with preview monitoring directly from the X7.

SHORTLISTED - ARENA

ARENA SPONSORED BY

KIVIKYLÄN AREENA Technical Details Location: Rauma, Finland Manufacturers: Aura Audio, Allen & Heath Installer: F-Pro Project Submitted By: Aura Audio Kivikylän Areena, home to local ice-hockey champions, Lukko is a 5,400-capacity venue that has been equipped with a brand-new sound system, installed by Aura Audio.

Aura Audio was brought in to fulfil the clients dreams of a venue that was equivalent to an American NHL stadium, that could be comparable to some of the best in the world. With such a large and competitive brief, it was essential that Mika Isotalo, Managing Director at Aura Audio, visited the arena: “The guys at the Kivikylän Areena working on the brief were willing to spend a little bit more to get bigger bass and muscle to revive the sound system that was already in place. They also had recently installed a brand-new LED screen in the centre of the rink, and they needed a good sound system to compliment that.”

The design process proved to be an extensive process of continuous visitation and implementation, as Aura Audio's mantra is that products can only be considered when they’re shown in action, in a practical environment.

“After the brief, we used EASE simulation which allowed us to simulate the acoustical performance of the complete sound system to find the optimal setup in the arena, which needed to be perfect when combined with multiple audience areas and curved, inclined seating. We provided the team with three different options, based mainly on the SPL that they wanted.

After the demonstrations, they chose the second option, mainly down to the preferred SPL,” explained Mika.

The main audience areas are equipped with Aura Audio’s line arrays and 20 Aura Audio C12 12-inch coaxial point source monitors were supplied for the ice rink and lower ceiling side audience. In the balcony areas, Aura Audio i3 fill loudspeakers create dynamic sound with limitless possibilities. “Aura Audio loudspeakers are highly efficient, and we have that passive approach which makes our loudspeakers a great match for these

type of arenas. Our approach is to concentrate on areas where we can use less quantities, therefore, saving on quality.” The arena is also using Aura Audio’s D80 and D100 OEM amplifiers, some using DSP and some without, that are supplied by UK based company mc2-audio alongside the internal XTA processing at the venue. The subwoofers are the XQ48, giving the biggest punch with the smallest footprint. The arena also bought in a brand-new Allen & Heath Qu-16 mixing desk from Aura Audio’s distributor, “the reason behind the Allen & Heath mixing console was for the amount of control it could give in a space this size,” furthered Mika.

The audio configuration in the arena is centred around the middle where the subwoofers are placed, this placement gave Aura Audio the ability to add delays to more remote locations with ease.

“The loudspeakers that are the furthest away are roughly 20-metres and still, because of the acoustic character of these type of places, it creates a lot of indirect sound as well. The clarity is problematic too because of the reverberation. We overcame this with very careful aiming of the line arrays. Even the subwoofers are arrayed vertically.”

The installed Aura Audio system has proved to be a newly, electrifying element of the Kivikylän Areena.

SHORTLISTED - ARENA

ARENA SPONSORED BY

RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS CENTRE Technical Details Location: Moscow, Russia Manufacturers: Elation, Obsidian Control Systems Distributor: LPD Tech Project Submitted By: Elation Gymnastics holds a special place in the hearts of Russians. As arguably the most successful gymnastics country of all time, the sport is followed closely and is conducted at the highest level with facilities dotting the country at all stages.

Dominated by Russian gymnasts, rhythmic gymnastics has been a particular success for Russia since gaining worldwide recognition as an Olympic sport in 1984. In Moscow, construction of a new, modern gymnastics venue was recently completed, the Irina A. Viner-Usmanova Rhythmic Gymnastics Centre, a world-class facility that houses a flexible Elation Professional lighting system.

Featuring a main performance arena and facade that resembles the wave of a gymnastic ribbon, the Irina A. Viner-Usmanova Rhythmic Gymnastics Centre, named after one of the most successful gymnastics coaches of all time, can host any type of gymnastics event from local competitions to world championships.

As the sports facility was designed to be multifunctional in order to accommodate training and competition across a variety of events, as well as concerts, shows and special events, Elation distributor, LPD Tech, was contracted to provide a versatile lighting system.

With flexibility essential in gymnastics, perhaps it was appropriate that the new venue’s lighting system was expected to possess that same resilient quality.

Faced with the challenge of finding a multi-faceted luminaire that could add flair to opening and closing ceremonies, while doubling

as a multi-purpose concert and show light, after consultations with several lighting designers, LPD chose the Elation Platinum FLX hybrid moving head to fulfill the many roles.

“The Platinum FLX is an award-winning, multifunctional spot, beam and wash fixture that is as bright as a 1,200W fixture so was perfect for this type of application,” commented Executive Director of LPD, Mikhail Morozov. “Together with different gobos, prisms, bi-directional animation effects, CMY colour mixing and highly saturated colours, it can be used to decorate any event and is enough to keep anyone happy and satisfied.”

LPD completed the general design of the venue’s multimedia systems, including supply and installation of the sound and lighting equipment. Located in the venue’s central arena, 26 of the Platinum FLX fixtures fulfill the main lighting role in a design completed by the LPD engineering team. Housing the Philips 470W Platinum 20R lamp and emitting up to 23,000 lumens, the FLX can adjust from a pencil thin beam to a fat tree trunk shaft of light in a snap and can zoom in all modes.

The Elation lighting fixtures are controlled by a brand new Obsidian NX 2 lighting console in combination with Elation eNode4 Ethernet-DMX routers.

“We chose the NX 2 because of its wide-ranging functions and features in a small size, which the venue requested as they require mobility in the control system. Perhaps most importantly though was the included Capture software which helps them to design different types of shows,” added Mikhail.

Running Obsidian Control Systems’ proprietary ONYX software, the Rhythmic Gymnastics Centre is also the first installation in Russia of the compact yet fully integrated NX 2 lighting controller.

Photo by Claire P on Unsplash

A Ghostlight burns in empty theaters as a beacon against the dark and as a promise to soon retake the stage.

More at:

We will all return to the stage. Until then, GLP will keep its own Ghostlight burning for all of you.

ghostlight.glp.de

GLP German Light Products | 1145 Arroyo St., Ste. A, San Fernando, CA  (818) 767-8899  GermanLightProducts.com  usa@glp.de  /GLP.German.Light.Products  /GermanLightProducts

WINNER

ARENA SPONSORED BY

ARENA

COCA-COLA ARENA TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Dubai, UAE Manufacturers: JBL, Crown, BSS, Meyer Sound, Eaton Lighting Systems, Ephesus, Arena Luci, Zero 88, Tripleplay Architect: DAR Installer: DXB Entertainment, AEG Ogden Australia, BMTC Project Submitted By: HARMAN Professional Solutions The Coca-Cola Arena is the first and largest, fully air-conditioned, multipurpose indoor arena in the Middle East. The design is based around the O2 Arena in London, UK, adopting a generic arena bowl layout with the stage at one end, although it is hugely versatile and the set-up of the bowl can be changed depending on the type of event at any given time. Along with touring productions, comedy gigs and exhibitions, the arena is also capable of hosting sporting events such as ice hockey, basketball and tennis, to name just a few.

The seated capacity excluding the 42 hospitality suites, VIP suites and royal suites is 13,000. With standing included, the full arena can accommodate 17,000. Additionally, the arena has a horizontal and a vertical draping system, so more intimate sporting events or live gigs can also feel at home.

Technology within the Coca-Cola Arena, whether it be audio, lighting or visual has been designed and installed with the future in mind, even the roof structure, as the rigging points and the roof weight are rather unique in a venue of this type.

Utilising some of that roof weight is the in-house PA system from JBL Professional. It is a fully functioning system that provides ample audio coverage for sporting events and end-stage concerts.

The Coca-Cola Arena is among the first VTX A12 installations globally, and is the largest install of the new product series in the Middle Eastern region to date.

The JBL PA is driven by Crown IT4x3500HD amplifiers connected via a Dante network and accessed via JBL’s Performance Manager – a software application that reduces design time, simplifies networking and automates control interface configuration. A BSS Soundweb London BLU-806DA processor is also integrated into the system, and is used when the bowl audio needs to be cut off to make an emergency announcement. A Meyer Sound Galaxy 816 processor is also available at FOH for access into the system and for touring EQ. Another element of technology that uses the rigging points is the LED screens. These are not permanently installed, as they can be configured in different ways depending on the application.

Similarly for lighting, clients can make use of it as they wish. This element of the arena was delivered by Eaton Lighting Systems from the UK, through a collaboration with locally based, BMTC, a dealer of Eaton products in the Middle East region, which also took responsibility for the installation of the lighting fixtures and control systems within the venue.

Much of the project needed to be procured from UK companies, because at least some of the investment secured by the venue’s owners, MERAAS, emanated from the UK, so a UK connection was necessary. Although Eaton Lighting Systems doesn’t have an exclusive distributor in the Middle East, it has worked on other

MERAAS projects including Dubai Parks & Resorts, LEGOLAND Dubai, Riverland Dubai and City Walk 2 – a shopping mall in very close proximity to the arena. It was due to the latter that the local Eaton Lighting Systems team was invited to make a presentation to the design team for Coca-Cola Arena working in conjunction with DAR – and its sub-consultant, NSW-based Webb Australia.

Eaton Lighting Systems’ Project Manager, Peter Coles was involved from the design stage to the final delivery. The company was responsible for supplying the sports and events lighting packages and control systems in line with the tender requirements.

The 74 Ephesus Arena Pro Colour Tuneables that make-up the primary sports lighting package needed to be expandable to allow the arena to be used for multiple sports events across large, medium or small sections of the venue. For the small section of the arena, the equipment had to meet the required lighting levels for tennis, basketball, volleyball, table tennis and badminton. This is provided by the Arena Pro Colour Tuneables. For the medium to large area, Eaton simply provided overlay points so that fixtures can be installed later, as and when the requirement arises.

For lighting control, which not only looks after all the Eaton Lighting System fixtures, but also the 104 Arena Luci 160 DMX LED Profile units that are in place for the aisle lighting, a Zero 88 FLX console takes centre stage. There is also an architectural control system that facilitates controlling lights from the building management system, touchscreens located in the security room, the VOC room, or via an app for day-to-day operations.

The main catwalk has an IP based DMX system running on a dedicated IP fibre network that enables control of all the sports and arena lighting either via the architectural control system, or via the in-house FLX lighting console.

Completing the lighting package are six Lycian M2 long-throw 2,500W spots and a movable platform that can be positioned according to the event mode. These, as well as all the other lighting fixtures are now the responsibility of Goran Salkovic, Head of Lighting, and his team at the arena.

Another company with an existing relationship is Tripleplay. For the Coca-Cola Arena, Tripleplay was responsible for providing the software and hardware platform, as well as using its extensive experience to advise on where to install screens, what type of screens to use and general knowledge on how to maximise the user and commercial experience in the stadium.

The Tripleplay products that have been installed at the arena include TripleTV for IPTV, TripleSign for digital signage, TripleCare for management and monitoring and a range of HD and 4k players behind the screens.

With so much technology packed into one space, and with nothing else like it in the region, it won’t come as a surprise to know that the arena is already starting to get booked up. The need for an indoor venue capable of hosting sports, as well as concerts to avoid the hot and humid conditions outside, has existed for a long time, and it has finally been delivered to spectacular effect.

SHORTLISTED - BAR & RESTAURANT

BAR & RESTAURANT SPONSORED BY

GAÏA TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Courchevel, France Manufacturers: Danley Sounds Labs, Lab.gruppen, Artsound, Pioneer, Shure, Yamaha, RVE, Segula, Showtec, Artecta, Starway, Sunlite, Nicolaudie Architect: Alpine Lodge, France Lighting Designer: NG PRO AUDIO, France Installer: NG PRO AUDIO, France Acoustician: NG PRO AUDIO, France Submitted by: NG PRO AUDIO NG Pro Audio purpose designed and provided a Danley Sound Lab audio system to the GAÏA bar and restaurant, located in Manali Lodge, a zen retreat tucked away in the idyllic French Alps.

Surrounded by poster friendly panoramic views, GAÏA has provided the stunning region with another level of unrivalled hospitality with both the sound and lighting systems undergoing a complete makeover.

To supply GAÏA with high fidelity sound in a very compact dining format, with space also for musicians and DJs, NG Pro Audio installed Danley’s 6.5-inch coaxial loudspeaker Cube and three-inch Nano Cube, as well as one Danley Nano subwoofer. This perfectly suited GAÏA with it’s low ceilings and short listener distance. 14 Danley Nano Cube loudspeakers were installed to find each ear in the restaurant and an 18-inch Danley TH118 subwoofer was selected for low frequency details, mainly for clear sounding background music. NG Pro Audio used Danley amplifiers with built in Linear Research for their sound quality, reliability, high power, and highlevel protection. A Pioneer XDJ-RX2 mixing console offers good performance for any DJ that is performing at the club and Shure microphones provide high quality for singers and musicians. A YAMAHA MG124CX mixing console was also selected for simplicity and effect chamber/reverb.

For the system, NG Pro Audio designed and provided a system that allowed for the perfect ambient atmosphere. Nicolaudie’s Stick KE2 was chosen for preset recall for staff, and Sunlite was chosen for

any performing DJ who wanted to do more by creating elaborate settings with the light. NG Pro Audio also used RVE LED dimmers with high reliabilty and smooth dimming to control general light, these were made up of MR16 and AR111 Segula ambient dimmers, allowing amber at low level and 2,700°K at full power. For the dancefloor, Segula’s AR111, MR16 RGB, Starway / Artecta with Artecta 350mA were supplied to colour in dancing mode, with the help of two Showtec Phantom 50 LED spotlights, to give movement on the dancefloor and architectural effect with GAÏA gobos.

With sound insulation and acoustic treatment in mind, NG Pro Audio were aware of the smaller places available in the venue’s recessed ceiling, which could have been problematic when high-level acoustics in the room were reached, as outside and directly above the restaurant are the rooms within the five star hotel. To combat this the team used poured concrete on the wall and ceiling to give the sound insulation, as well as a mineral board on the suspended ceiling, which gives acoustic treatment all over the room.

For NG Pro Audio, the main challenge was providing the full acoustical, lighting, electrical and design package to the client when construction had only just begun, given that GAÏA was only one part of the entire re-fit of Manali Lodge. “We’ve carried out three important installations in Manali Lodge,” explained Gérald Mastromattéo of NG Pro Audio. “The large terrace for restaurant ‘Apres Ski’, inside the restaurant and at the same level ‘Bistrot Manali’, and, of course, restaurant/club ‘GAÏA’. We also provided lighting and sound to the hotel lobby, swimming pool and spa. During construction, we had a very small allotted time, but throughout the project we managed to adapt our solutions to create an installation we are proud of!

“We provided many solutions and ideas to our client, allowing them to have a restaurant with a clear, complete system, where customers eat high level food in an ideally sonic and light atmosphere. We believe that the happiness of the final customer is the most important, we keep this in mind during all of our projects,” concluded Gérald.

SHORTLISTED - BAR & RESTAURANT

BAR & RESTAURANT SPONSORED BY

HALA KOSZYKI TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Warsaw, Poland Manufacturers: Robe, Czech Republic Distributor: Fabryka Imprez Lighting Designer: Dominik Halgas, Fabryka Imprez Installer: Fabryka Imprez Submitted by: Robe Hala Koszyki is a new meeting, greeting, eating and social concept in Warsaw, Poland. Located in a stunning industrial building dating back to 1909, which was once a flourishing food market during the Russian Empire and a military hospital in the second world war, this venue has now been beautifully restored to its original shape and form. It features multiple restaurant and bar concepts, grocery stores and services with a diverse and eclectic offering of international food and cuisine.

This hipster hang-out transformation in Warsaw’s Śródmieście district is a popular destination - from business meetings in a quirky location, to friends looking for a unique place to visit with the welcomed addition of great food and architecture. There is also a small stage for DJs and live entertainment.

To add yet more ambience to the space, a lighting installation was created and installed by Dominik Halgas of design, rental and production company Fabryka Imprez, with Robe Parfect 150s involved in the installation, among other fixtures. Fabryka Imprez was started

by Dominik in 1999 and now has bases in Warsaw and Krakow. The company provides lighting, audio, video and staging equipment as well as design concepts and realisation.

The stage came after Hala Koszyki was built and opened, as the operators decided it was a perfect place for selected music or other events like comedy, and Dominik was asked to add lighting to the picture.

Hala Koszyki was a more unusual project for Fabryka Imprez, who came onboard through Dominik’s connections and enthusiasm for the alternative rave and dance scene.

His brief was to create a budget-conscious lighting installation with mood-changing potential to deal with anything from the intimacy of a solo performance, a stand-up comedian or a pumping DJ set.

Due to the historical fabric and materials of the building, no smoke or fog is possible, so Dominik chose lights that were bright and versatile.

During the daylight hours, the extensive glass ceiling meant there is light flooding into the space, so that was another factor to consider when adding entertainment lighting, especially in the summer months with the long evenings.

For key light sources, Dominik wanted fixtures that could blend well with the natural light as it changed tonality at dusk and before darkness, and Robe’s Parfect 150 was ideal because of the small size and excellent quality of light and zoom. He also wanted to use an LED source for all the obvious reasons, and it was a cost-effective option.

14 Parfect 150s are installed around the stage and central bar area of the ground floor, all attached to the impressive RSJs and structural metalwork by bespoke brackets.

Dominik tested a number of lights before finally deciding on Robe’s Parfects, but he was keen to use a Robe product for, as he put it: “reliability, low maintenance and the great service that we know we will get from their products.” Dominik also has a good relationship with Robe’s distributor, Prolight, which is vital, particularly for an installation project with long-term lighting.

Dominik and his company have been using Robe products for around five years, and they own both Pointes and MegaPointes which are constantly in use on corporate event work that constates the largest portion of their turnover – followed by clubs, dance / DJ events and parties. When the Pointe was launched in 2013 they started looking at Robe as it, “fast became the most popular moving light in Poland!” he recalled, adding: “I would say that it still is, now along with the MegaPointe!”

Dominik is delighted with the results of the first phase of lighting-related atmospheric engineering at Hala Koszyki, and the client is now considering adding some architectural lighting throughout the building.

SHORTLISTED - BAR & RESTAURANT

BAR & RESTAURANT SPONSORED BY

THE LOCK TAVERN AND THE GUN Technical Details Location: London, UK Manufacturers: TW AUDiO Installer: Flipside Submitted by: Flipside Promising a ‘modern day pub experience built on traditional values’, one of the UK’s most innovative venue operators, The East London Pub Co, has brought fresh inspiration to two equally historic but radically different London venues, The Lock Tavern in Camden and The Gun in Spitalfields.

Famous as the home of early gigs by the likes of Adele, Amy Winehouse and Franz Ferdinand, The Lock Tavern is counted among the British capital’s best loved grassroots music venues. Meanwhile, sitting in the heart of the famous East End market district of Spitalfields, The Gun is a beloved local institution that first opened its doors in 1929. Both venues are now enjoying a renaissance courtesy of fastrising London-based sound installation specialist Flipside, and powerful sound reinforcement systems by TW AUDiO. “The Lock Tavern is a great venue – one of my favourites out of the whole group,” enthused East London Pub Co. co-founder, Bradley Lomas. “It’s a venue with such rich heritage and history and, of course, it’s been very big on the music scene. In projects like this the quality of the sound system can often be overlooked but we wanted to create a space that would be great for up and coming artists and bands - for people to be able to use that space better and to enjoy having a really high quality sound system.”

Working closely with TW AUDiO UK, Flipside delivered on all expectations. Formed six years ago by two lifelong friends with a background in dance music, the company prides itself on taking a deeply personal approach to projects. “We dedicate ourselves to working in small to medium sized installations,” explained co-founder James Cooper. “Our focus is on providing an excellent service to a customer base which is not necessarily looked after so well by the more traditional industry.”

All live music at The Lock Tavern takes place upstairs in an intimate

space now served by four compact but powerful M8i enclosures.

“We needed something that would offer great performance, that was essential,” said James. “The M8i is a phenomenal box for what it can do in a pretty small format.” Low-end extension is delivered by a single B14i subwoofer – enough to cope with the most demanding of gigs or dance nights. “The B14i is fantastic,” enthused James. “It’s built in under the stage and it really fills the room.”

The Gun has arguably played an even more pivotal role in its local area.

Named after Henry VIII’s artillery ground, it has long been a gathering place for market traders, as well as a popular haunt of service men and women during the war years. Today it still plays host to a diverse mix of people, from tourists to traders and city professionals to locals enjoying the continuous regeneration of East London. “Music is really important in the venue, with different kinds of music at various different times of day,” said Bradley.

The venue has been entirely transformed as part of a £2.2m refurbishment, including the powerful TW AUDiO system suspended behind the bar. “For The Gun, we upscaled from M8is to two T20is, which are absolutely rocking the venue,” said James. “Plus, we have two B14i subwoofers which fit nicely under a single sofa. One B14i sounds huge, but if you put two together it sounds even bigger. The system is amazing in that space.”

With both projects now completed, both The East London Pub Co and Flipside are delighted with the results, and are looking forward to potential future collaborations. “Working with James and Flipside has been phenomenal,” said Bradley. “I understood what I wanted to deliver but he’s been able to take my brief and really make it happen.

I’ve had people from all over the music scene contacting me to ask how we got the venues to sound so good.”

“I’m really proud of the work we’ve done in both venues,” concluded James. “They are jewels in the crown for Flipside and I’m very proud of the relationship we’ve got with the East London Pub Co. At Flipside, we have a lot of respect for the brands that are out there but we don’t want to just offer the same old names; we prefer to offer what we genuinely believe is the best. So, using TW AUDiO for these projects was a nobrainer.”

WINNER

BAR & RESTAURANT SPONSORED BY

BAR & RESTAURANT IMPERIAL TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Brussels, Belgium Manufacturers: OutBoard Distributor: FACE Projects Installer: FACE Projects Submitted by: OutBoard In the heart of Brussels, private members’ bar Impérial oozes with charm and the underground creativity of a turn of the last century speakeasy. The vintage atmosphere and jazzy vibe that draws guests in, however, integrates a full, leading edge, audiovisual solution with TiMax SoundHub and dcontrol central to the immersive environment, realised from concept by Belgium’s premier design and installation integrator, FACE Projects.

FACE Projects, a full-service provider for the audiovisual industry, is responsible for providing a wide range of solutions throughout Europe and the wider world. As well as distributing for the professional audiovisual markets, FACE Projects also had a dedicated project and integration division, which sees creative teams generate installation ideas, as well as implementing them.

The vision of Carl de Moncharline, owner and manager of several successful Brussels venues was for an ‘immersive environment creating spherical sound experiences’, alongside a stylish lighting system in keeping with the historical façade and vintage ambience of the venue that was versatile enough for live jazz concerts, a DJ clubbing experience, or even as a cocktail bar. The challenge to create this in a low-ceiling and small, 300 sq metre space fell FACE Projects, working in conjunction with refurbishment project manager, Laurent Grietens, of Wisely Ltd. Simplicity was key to the specification for the venue. Dramatically different sound environments would need to be recreated at the flick of a switch which for FACE, made TiMax a necessity. As FACE CEO, Karel De Piere confides: “I do not even want to think how we would set up the sound system without TiMax, no other product could provide this level of precise control.”

The TiMax SoundHub-32S spatial audio matrix controls a total of 38 discrete loudspeakers from Electro-Voice. Effective sound control without spillage is a deliberate consequence of the many distributed loudspeaker sources, which help avoid noise pollution for the neighbouring buildings. Having said that, the loudspeakers integrated into the walls and ceilings of the venue are powered by three eight-channel Powersoft Ottocanali amplifiers and a Duecanali for the sub-bass units, which ensure a solid club vibe in the space.

Dave Haydon, director of TiMax developers OutBoard, visited to assist with immersive rendering of the space and programming object-based spatial effects. Zone overlays were created within TiMax to segment the venue space, which can also be aligned across the full venue area. From a static image for live music sets to dynamic movement for evenings of clubbing with a DJ, presets and different spatial effects are defined to suit the requirements of each of the club’s audio configurations and performance formats.

One of the most exciting soundscapes that activates the clubbing experience is described as a sound shower which as the name suggests, submerges guests in sound, with TiMax spatially blending loudspeakers spread along the low-arched ceiling of the venue with others in the walls. Stijn Vermeiren, FACE Project Engineer, added: “One of the set-ups makes soundscapes very simply travel into 180° on two axes, which even at quite low levels gives a very clear spatial feeling.”

Controlling TiMax, as well as all the other elements of the venue’s audiovisual system, is the control solution, dcontrol, developed independently by FACE’s Stijn. Driving integration to the next level, dcontrol is a software-based solution that interconnects unrelated audiovisual equipment, fixing the highly complex problem of connecting devices that do not natively speak to each other. dcontrol links the venue’s devices, synchronising the settings and controls across an open management system not limited by a few brand protocols or closed systems.

The club’s haute technological backbone interfaces, but does not disrupt the magical veneer of its ambience: the authenticity of its visage is paramount. Impérial glows in the warm white rows of Lucenti Pearls, controlled and powered via DMX. Configured as a pixel LED ceiling matrix, 230 individually controlled Pearls are daisy-chained on wired festoon cable. The lighting integration appears historically authentic whilst also serving as versatile entertainment lighting, which has the full-colour spectrum at its disposal for video-mapped lighting displays on club nights. It is also functional within the space as the festoon fitting and discreet DMX powering complement the low ceiling and further house lights are not required.

Club founder, Carl, is delighted with the outcome of the club integration. “The results are just as I planned for. The building is beautifully historic, and we have worked with its style to create an equally beautiful inner space for guests to enjoy, which adapts to the club’s changing needs. I work with FACE because they realise in the space exactly what I ask for and more.”

SHORTLISTED - CONCERT HALL CHINA NATIONAL CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Beijing, China Manufacturers: Ayrton Distributor: ACE Architect: Paul Andrew Installer: ACE Submitted by: Ayrton Ayrton is very proud to announce the installation of its first white Ghibli LED spot fixtures at the China National Center for the Performing Arts, Beijing. 80 of the beautiful white units were recently installed into the elegant interior of the Center’s Concert Hall by ACE, Ayrton’s distributor for China, as part of a major upgrade of its lighting inventory.

The Concert Hall, designed by French architect, Paul Andrew, within a giant oval shell that includes a 2,000-seat Opera House and 900-seat Theatre, is distinctive in its silver-white interior with an acoustic ceiling that resembles undulating white waves. The 1,900seat auditorium is arranged in-the-round to enable the large-scale symphonies and Chinese traditional music that are performed there to be heard and viewed from any angle.

Consequently, its new lighting fixtures had to be capable of handling swift lighting changes and multiple staging configurations.

ACE recommended Ghibli on the basis of it being a truly versatile fixture that can handle a variety of uses and throw distances – and be customised in appearance to blend in with the stylish surroundings.

“Stage lighting for concert halls always requires an elegant appearance, uniform illumination, comfort and quietness,” explained Zhang Wei of ACE. “Classic halogen lights have always been used in the past. However, with the development of LED technology, the luminous efficiency of LED has overtaken most of the halogen lamps and discharge lamps, and Ayrton’s product portfolio is a testament to how good LED lighting fixtures have now become.

“When choosing the lighting for the Concert Hall, our overall indicators were size, weight, noise level, colour rendering index and beam angle. We needed to ensure the optical performance of the replacement fixture was better than the superseded product, but also better in appearance, weight and size.

“We carried out a strict comparison and screening of a wide number of products, and it was the quiet, 600W LED Ghibli profile moving head, that we chose above them all. Ghibli far out shone the former 1,200W discharge fixture we were replacing, and its competition in optical performance, weight, size, noise level…in fact, in every parameter, was difficult to rival.

“In long-term use, Ghibli’s innovative light source significantly reduces the costs on lamp replacement and power consumption, it enables both the artists and audiences to enjoy the performance in a more comfortable and quieter environment. In addition, the new white cover design merges perfectly with the surroundings of the Concert Hall, ensuring the appearance of the fixture within its surroundings is homogenous and aesthetically pleasing,” Zhang concluded.

Pieces of Heaven

At IAA 2019 in Frankfurt, thousands of LED-Tiles D50 illuminated the ceiling elements for Volkswagen.

#LEDmadeinGermany #LEDplayedinFrankfurt stay connected schnick.schnack.systems /SchnickSchnackSystems @schnick.schnack.systems Photo by Saskia Gaulke

SHORTLISTED - CONCERT HALL ROYAL OPERA HOUSE Technical Details Location: London, UK Manufacturers: Elation Distributor: Entedi Installer: Entedi Submitted by: Entedi Situated in London’s Covent Garden, the Grade 1 listed Royal Opera House (ROH) is one of London’s largest theatres. Housing both The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet, both world-leading companies whose productions feature the very finest national and international talent, the site’s rich history dates back to 1732 when the then Theatre Royal was opened.

The ROH is home to an outstanding technical team, who work with cutting edge technologies to enhance every aspect of its world-class programme of events.

Earlier this year, prior to staging The Munich Opera’s production of Handel’s opera Agrippina, directed by Barrie Kosky, the ROH received a specific request from lighting designer Benedikt Zhem for the placement of moving head LED units at FOH. Historically, similar requests for moving heads have created issues in terms of a lack of space, sound control and certain restrictions placed on the auditorium by English Heritage. In an effort to meet the designer’s wish, the team at the ROH carried out some research into a possible solution and concluded that Elation’s Artiste Picasso product met all the criteria they required. Elation’s exclusive UK and ROI distributor, Entedi, arranged an on-site demonstration, which confirmed that

Artiste Picasso met the requirements for power, beam size, beam image and shuttering. Pivotally, the units produce minimal ambient noise, which ultimately enabled them to be hung successfully at Grand Tier level in the auditorium.

The Elation Artiste Picasso units were used to great effect in the production, both near the proscenium on each side, as well as working back into the auditorium. Simon Bennison, Lighting Manager at the ROH commented: “Being near silent, having consistent beam quality, great output and crisp shuttering, the Artiste Picasso units were impressive. Benedikt Zehm, the Lighting Desinger from the Munich Opera was extremely happy and was able to recreate his opera with great results. The ROH team was also very happy, as the units performed throughout the technical and performance periods with no maintenance issues, no detriment to sight-lines and no increased sound levels. The Elation units couldn’t have performed better and represent an encouraging addition to the new generation of moving heads in the current market. We’re excited to see how Elation’s portfolio develops and to experience further use of different products.”

Cally Bacchus, Managing Director at Entedi added: “The team at the ROH is an elite group with exceptional technical knowledge, who maintain incredibly high standards at what is one of the most prestigious theatres in the UK. When they contacted us regarding the Elation units, we were very happy to arrange a demonstration, believing as we do that the Artiste Picasso product is fast becoming an industry standard LED moving light profile fixture. It is exciting to receive such an overwhelmingly positive response from this highly respected establishment.”

SHORTLISTED - CONCERT HALL PHILHARMONIE BERLIN TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Berlin, Germany Manufacturers: GDS, UK / ETC, US Distributor: VisionTwo GmbH, Germany Lighting Designer: GDS, IBM Installer: Amptown System Company GmbH Submitted by: VisionTwo GmbH Ever since 1963, the Philharmonie Berlin has been the capital’s musical heart – at the opening when it was still located at the periphery of West Berlin, and even more so when it became part of the new urban centre after the reunification of Germany. Today the Philharmonie, designed by Hans Scharoun, belongs to the Kulturforum Berlin. Its exceptional design reminiscent of the shape of a tent and the conspicuous yellow colour visible from afar have made it one of the city’s landmarks.

The chamber music hall, completed in 1987 seating an audience of 1,180, is the little brother of the Berliner Philharmonie - in terms of both the architecture and the range of musical events. As is frequent practice in cultural buildings, conventional 120V / 250W light bulbs with E27 thread were used in the chamber music hall as well. However, due to new EU energy directives this type of bulb is no longer produced, and as the Philharmonie’s supplies were becoming scarce, an alternative had to be found. Upon winning the contract, ASC involved Anke Schierenbeck from VisionTwo, the Berlin planning office IBM and the manufacturer GDS in the job of developing various light simulations for the 50 lights which were awaiting replacement.

After sampling had been successfully completed, the ArcSystem ‘Pro One-Cell High Output’ type with 108W, 8,000lm, a constant colour temperature of 3,000K and D1HO DMX RDM driver was identified as the equipment of choice. The particular challenge consisted of mechanically fitting the LED heat sink to the existing cylindrical housing and in providing a secure structural connection of steel ropes and existing cables to ensure mechanically reliable

pendant mounting above the orchestra. “These problems could be solved in the ASC workshop where we had the chance of availing ourselves of Christian Schroeder’s long-standing construction and development experience,” Anke pointed out. Thus, structural details were generated in the 3D printer, lasered metal parts ordered, powder-coated at ASC’s and assembled as small-batch series during the summer break in a very short time.

Kai Mielisch, Technical Director of the Berliner Philharmonie, is happy that the house now benefits from a first-rate solution.

“Considering the narrow time frame, I’m especially glad that despite this constraint VisionTwo was able to provide an adequate light equipment solution which even resulted in a major enhancement of the lighting situation in our house. The sampling procedures and the light simulations helped us to make the right decision.”

With the DMX network being extended, additional cables and their support systems had to be installed, as well along with the switch boxes for the electronic control equipment. The ArcSystem Pro One-Cell High Output LEDs are operated with one D1HO DMX RDM driver each which means that the LEDs can be dimmed down to 0% in an absolutely smooth process and that it was not necessary to replace the winches used in the hall for pendant mounting and control of the lights. ArcSystem has long been established as the industry standard auditorium lighting system for theatre and opera houses having initially been designed by UK company GDS and becoming an ETC product range in August 2019.

“To find LED lights able to accentuate the uniqueness of our house – in this case of the chamber music hall – was not easy in itself”, said Robert Eberle, Lighting Director. “From a technical point of view, it took top priority however that the new solution would allow for perfect dimming and come up to the technical standard I and the orchestra expected the lighting to meet. As a matter of fact, the brightness of the orchestra lighting has been multiplied, and I hear no complaints any longer that someone is unable to read their sheet of notes. Indeed with the lights from the ArcSystem series VisionTwo and ASC have done an excellent job!”

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WINNER CONCERT HALL G LIVELAB

TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Tampere, Finland Manufacturers: Genelec Distributor: Genelec Architect: Akukon Lighting Designer: Akukon Installer: Bright Acoustician: Akukon Submitted by: Genelec In the wake of the unmitigated success that is G Livelab Helsinki, the Finnish Musicians’ Union has opened a brand new - and bigger - venue in the vibrant city of Tampere, some 200km north of the Finnish capital. The same team was deployed to realise the Tampere project, which is built according to the same ‘music first’ philosophy as Helsinki. The result is an extraordinary live music experience based on quality programming, modern design, and state-of-the-art Genelec audio systems, including the ground-breaking 4430 Smart IP loudspeaker.

Housed in a striking red brick building which was formerly the boiler house of the Frenckell paper mill in the heart of the city, the venue hosts up to 250 people and offers a hugely varied programme including jazz, folk, world music, pop/rock, chamber music, electronic music and more. Akukon Oy designed the acoustics, electroacoustics, lighting, sound, video, communication systems and basic IT structure as well as the rigging systems, as they did for

Helsinki, and leading Nordic audiovisual integrator, Bright - another key member of the Helsinki team - brought Akukon’s vision to life.

With the ability to completely configure the system at any time, the fully networked system can reconfigure loudspeakers to act as delays, surround sound, background music or to become part of the virtual acoustics system. The sound and the acoustic environment can be tailored for every performance. The system is a completely no compromise approach to offer the highest quality audio reproduction.

It is simply the highest quality live performance audio system in the world. Deploying a level of audio quality normally reserved for recording studios. Never has such high-quality live audio been delivered to an audience. Furthermore, the system is fully networked taking advantage of the quality and flexibility and audio over IP solutions offered. You get completely faithful reproduction of the audio and the system is designed to work across all genres of music. The care in the design and commissioning of the system to achieve this, demonstrates a level of detail that is rarely seen in installations. This is coupled with the use of extremely high-quality loudspeakers.

The versatility of systems and spaces was a key element of the design. The venue needs to be multi-purpose and the system enables the engineers to facilitate changes quickly and easily, for optimum utilisation, functionality and quick return on investment, G Livelab, Tampere is one of the highest quality and most flexible concert audio system anywhere.

SHORTLISTED - HOUSE OF WORSHIP

HOUSE OF WORSHIP SPONSORED BY

EGLISE SAINT-DENIS-SAINTE-FOY Technical Details Location: Paris, France Manufacturers: Yamaha Installer: MDS Audio Submitted by: Yamaha Despite the challenges of sound reinforcement in large, ambient spaces, advances in audio technology are making it possible to radically improve the sound in houses of worship. Yamaha’s VXL series of slim line array loudspeakers deliver audio and aesthetics without compromise, as demonstrated in a historic French church.

Standing on the eastern side of Coulommiers, 65km east of central Paris, Eglise Saint-Denis-Sainte-Foy is the town’s main Catholic place of worship and an important community asset. The church needed to improve its sound for worshippers, while not compromising the appearance of its brick and stone interior. Local systems integrator MDS Audio was asked to find a solution.

“I initially looked at an inferior solution by another manufacturer, but then I became aware of the Yamaha VXL series,” said MDS Audio Technical Director, Pierre Vandekerckhove. “I realised that the 170º horizontal coverage would make high quality sound in the side aisles

possible, helping to deliver an economical solution that would perform very well.”

In common with the wide horizontal coverage, the VXL series is vertically very directional, meaning that no unnecessary sound would be reflected from the walls and vaulted ceiling.

Pierre installed two VXL1W-24 and four VXL1W-16s, installed as three rows of pairs along the nave, plus a pair of VXL1W-8s covering the altar. The system is powered by XMV4280 and P3500S power amplifiers, managed by an MTX3 matrix processor and controlled from a DCP1V4S surface-mount unit.

“With the MTX3’s VXL EQ bank, Dan Dugan automixing, and the ease of programming delays for each row, we have a well-tuned system that has produced much better overall coverage of the church. The directivity of the VXL1-8s at the altar has also proved very impressive at preventing annoying feedback,” said Pierre. “The DCP1V4S makes the system incredibly easy for church staff, but the slim size of the VXL1s make them blend beautifully into the decor.”

He continued: “The church is very happy with the Yamaha system. The intelligibility for parishioners is so much better, it’s incomparable to the previous system. They will definitely recommend the system and installation to their peers.”

SHORTLISTED - HOUSE OF WORSHIP

HOUSE OF WORSHIP SPONSORED BY

ST. JOSEPH’S COLLEGE CHAPEL TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Ipswich, UK Manufacturers: Martin Audio Installer: Old Barn Audio Submitted by: Martin Audio Old Barn Audio (OBA) recently turned to Martin Audio’s CDD series to overcome a challenging situation at the refurbished St. Joseph’s College Chapel, Ipswich. The majestic Ipswich chapel, forced to close for three years when it fell into disrepair, has finally been brought back to life after a major revamp costing £750,000. Written into the upgrade programme was the provision for a new sound system.

The chapel itself belongs to the independent school, St. Joseph’s College, who approached OBA as the result of a recommendation.

OBA project manager Phil Clark’s first site visit revealed a pyramid shaped building, with no internal walls, thus no fixing points, and a 60-metre high pitch. His solution was to install three clusters of three CDD8, pointing in each direction and carefully angled to suit the dispersion requirement. Two further CDD8 are positioned either side of the nave, while a slimline SX210 was of perfect dimension to be recessed under the stage, which bears the marble altar.

“The space is 50-metres across and 50-metres deep, with arches separating three sides of the pyramid,” explained Phil. “A standard wall or column mounting scenario was not available, so the only option was to mount the clusters on the underside of the arches to

serve the venue.”

The OBA director first used EASE to model the room. “We designed the space into eight zones in order to time align the loudspeakers with SMAART and to ensure each zone had linearity of sound. We could then control them individually and run these clusters at a lower level to avoid as little echo as possible in the venue.”

The CDD solution serves a number of purposes. As St. Joseph’s is a musical college, a variety of musical ensembles will play through it - from string quartets to full classical set-ups. And as OBA has found with all its CDD installations, it has once again delivered a transparent sound.

“As we all know, CDD is a beautiful, smooth box, with a nice analogue feel to it all wrapped up with a twist of modern technology and crispness! We specify it all the time because it just works.”

To complete the installation, OBA programmed 12-inch tablets to control the system via an internal network with access points, while ensuring all cabling was carefully concealed.

The client was equally thrilled with the Martin Audio solution. Keiron Orris, IT Network Manager at St Joseph’s College concluded: “Old Barn Audio have designed and supplied a fantastic system for us.

They listened to our needs and, even though it is a challenging building, they were able to deliver exactly the end result we desired. Their advice to use the Martin Audio CDD range was perfect; it supplies a warm and professional sound throughout the whole chapel. We will definitely be working with Old Barn on future projects as they arise.”

SHORTLISTED - HOUSE OF WORSHIP

HOUSE OF WORSHIP SPONSORED BY

YORK MINSTER

TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: York, UK Manufacturers: d&b audiotechnik Distributor: d&b audiotechnik GB Installer: Wigwam Acoustics, part of SSE Audio Group (now Solotech) Submitted by: d&b audiotechnik The York Minster, a space designed for reverberant excitation by the choral songs of old, now plays host to a range of services and events. The goal of the project was to provide a solution capable of delivering the spoken word without distraction and reinforcing live music for a variety of events within the Cathedral.

The system specified features d&b 24C cardioid column loudspeakers along with its 24C-E extension companions on each column, with the 24C-Es providing an additional octave of vertical pattern control down to 190Hz and alleviating the nuisance of commonly problematic low-mid frequencies. Additional d&b 16C loudspeakers were added around the altar and in the quire. All 108 loudspeakers are powered and individually processed by 10D amplifiers, with complete control via R1 and Q-SYS integration to ensure the system is harmoniously flexible for every possible outcome.

The 24C features mechanically steerable high frequency drivers, which can be adjusted to direct the audio to where it’s needed. This allows for mounting the units completely vertically, tight up against the pillar and quite high up, yet still able to achieve an even audio coverage to the congregation below.

The units are narrow enough to fit within the grooves of the masonry

- helping to reduce the visual impact of the installation, which is vital in a building of this type.

The challenge of the project was to design and install a sound system that would provide transparency, engagement and spiritual intimacy no matter the expression of worship. The solution ultimately needed to provide proper coverage while also complementing ornate architecture and a challenging acoustical environment.

All d&b xC-Series products deliver high intelligibility, remarkable directivity control, even off-axis frequency response and full bandwidth cardioid dispersion pattern. The incorporated four-inch drivers radiate through waveguide elements at the front and via perforated metal, through damped ports at the rear of the cabinet.

The resulting cardioid dispersion pattern minimises interference caused by wall reflections in the low and mid frequency bands by 18dB - also minimising the energy dispersed on to surfaces to the rear of the loudspeaker.

Alexander McCallion FRICS is Director of Works and Precinct at York Minster commented: “When we went out for tender we were inviting people to put forward solutions which included premium loudspeaker systems. We shortlisted, interviewed and selected the d&b solution. Before we signed any contracts, we listened to this product and the clarity just from one loudspeaker, this meant that we were positive that we wanted to appoint and proceed with d&b.

We’re very happy with how the system looks and, of course, how it sounds. York Minster, I believe, has the best sound system on the market.”

Wigwam Sales Manager, Phil Goldsworthy noted: “The sound quality is second to none in a building of this type and the installation is incredibly sympathetic to the Minster.”

WINNER

HOUSE OF WORSHIP SPONSORED BY

HOUSE OF WORSHIP ADIYOGI DIVYA DARSHANAM, ISHA YOGA CENTRE TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Velliangiri, Coimbatore, India Manufacturers: Dataton, Epson, Pulz Lighting Designer: Axis Three Dee Studios Installer: Axis Three Dee Studios Submitted by: Axis Three Dee Studios & Dataton Adiyogi Divya Darshanam, roughly translated ‘Adiyogi’s Divine Appearance’, is a 14-minute, 24-projector show that is mapped on the world’s largest bust sculpture, the 112ft tall Adiyogi. The sculpture, inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2017, has been attracting visitors from all over the world to its site at the foothills of the Velliangiri Mountains in India. It symbolises spirituality and well-being, as well as the roots of yoga, reciting the story of Adigogi Shiva, the originator of yoga who first conveyed it to the human mind. The statue aims to inspire visitors to become more at one with the healing practice and liberate people from disease, discomfort and poverty, as well as challenge the concepts of life and death.

The projector show in this consecrated space was the highlight of the 2019, Mahashivratri event at the Isha Yoga Center, southern India and debuted for an audience of 350,000, including the Honorable President of India. The Adiyogi’s Divine Appearance is shown every weekend and also on special occasions.

The interpretation was commissioned by the Isha Yoga Center to reach out to visitors and devotees in a visually immersive manner. The team at Axis Three Dee Studios was tasked to create a spellbinding projection mapping on the 112ft massive statue to narrate the timeless tale of Adiyogi.

As there is an immense sanctity to Adiyogi, the content had to be carefully crafted. There was 8,000 sq ft of uneven topography to map and a challenging black steel surface. What’s more, the projection towers were not allowed to impede movement or obstruct the view of tens of thousands of devotees who visit the Adiyogi every day.

To achieve the set goals of this challenging and sacred project, Axis Three Dee Studios used 24 Epson EB-L1755UNL WUXGA (360,000 lumens) laser projectors in two projection towers, arranged in four stacked sets. Dataton WATCHOUT mapping software running on Dataton WATCHMAX media servers were also supplied, along with Pulz Electronics Ltd IAM12X4 loudspeakers, SIC 218 subwoofers and DPT Series amplifiers. A steel surface painted black is not ideal

for projection as black absorbs light, reflecting no colour for the human eye. Moreover, the surface had a sheen which affected the appearance of the colours. To overcome this, the team devised a unique colour palette and chose the 15,000-lumen Epson projectors. The ‘real-time colour cancellation’ method was devised by creating a primary, secondary and tertiary colour palette used as first, second and third layers. This meant colours stood out vivid and bright. All interfering colours of light reflected off the surface of Adiyogi get cancelled out in real time by the different layers.

The statue is the largest bust in the world, winning a Guiness world record for its size, too. The projection area measured 8,000 sq ft. The team deployed 24 projectors to cover the surface. The Adiyogi is visited by thousands of people in the daytime and during the week.

To ensure that visitors could enjoy their visit without obstruction from projection towers and setup, two limited-height towers were built at 45° angles to the surface during projection, with the left tower covering the left side of the statue and the right tower covering the whole right side. The projection team worked out a unique stacking layout of projectors to achieve optimum angle of incidence of light without interference from shadows. The 24 projectors are stacked in a 4×6 configuration.

Owing to the public nature of the site, all trials and tests took place on a seven-ft replica, with just three nights on site to finish demos, and test alignment/installation of projectors.

The Adiyogi statue is a bust of Lord Shiva in meditating posture, with spiritual significance for many visitors. The background narrative is spoken by Sadhguru, the Founder of the Isha Foundation, and Axis Three Dee Studios worked very closely with the client throughout the development of the content.

Adiyogi Divya Darshanam successfully employs state-of-the-art audiovisual technologies to tell the timeless story of how Adiyogi transmitted the ancient science of Yoga. It reaches out to visitors and devotees in an immersive and original manner. The installation is evocative and visually stunning, serving to heighten the spiritual atmosphere for visitors.

The sheer scale of the endeavour is hard to imagine: 350,000 people took part in the premiere and the backdrop, the Adiyogi sculpture, is a towering 112ft. Despite almost impossible challenges due to the size, location and materials, the completed project was delivered on time with just three nights onsite to fine-tune all aspects.

SHORTLISTED - MULTIPURPOSE VENUE EXPERIMENTA SCIENCE DOME Technical Details Location: Heilbronn, Germany Manufacturers: Meyer Sound, Barco, Epson, Allen & Heath, Chamsys, Lobo, Spitz, Gradior Installer: Kraftwerk Living Technologies, Austria Submitted by: Kraftwerk Living Technologies What started as an idea for a relatively simple 4D theatre, morphed very quickly into a large scale immersive planetarium. In this process of developing an attraction, Kraftwerk Living Technologies (KLT) was confronted with a challenging range of desired outcomes. Consequently, the installation company developed an idea to combine a planetarium / full dome system together with a stage scenario, too, to enhance the multipurpose venue, while still allowing it to be located in one room or one area.

Despite a wealth of experience in delivery of all the elements demanded - from domes in various shapes and sizes, to theatre stages - KLT has never combined them all into one space. Nor has anyone else, as this concept for a hybrid venue is unique – not only in Germany but worldwide.

Next to the requirements of vastly differing applications of the venue itself, the demands on the technology were also incredibly high, with a very strong wish from the client to utilise only the latest and best equipment and solutions to create a high, sustainable attraction.

With the scope of the project and the highly sophisticated technology in use, several challenges were faced and successfully overcome. What was a crucial factor in a smooth implementation, was the involvement in the overall expansion of the project from the very beginning and the close cooperation with all involved parties – from the architect, the building construction crews and of course the end client.

The main supplier used for the state-of-the-art audio system for this dome installation was Meyer Sound. The core of the audio technology is a centralised, network-based audio system in combination with a digital audio mixing console. The audio network is designed redundantly to ensure fail-safe operation. The core unit takes over the complete audio processing, the interfacing with input and output signals is realised via I/O frames. The sound system is designed for use as a cinema or planetarium, as a lecture room, as a concert hall or as an experimental field.

The FOH sound system is designed as a classic L-C-R sound system in order to achieve optimum sound distribution over the entire stage width. In addition to the main loudspeakers, front fill loudspeakers are integrated in the front of the stage to cover the front areas of the audience. The low-end sound is provided by three subwoofers each on the left and right side of the stage. All loudspeakers are self-powered.

The entire projection dome is illuminated by means of RGB LED light bars attached to the lower edge. In order to achieve a uniform illumination, powerful LEDs are used. By means of an Art-NET connection with the light mixer connected can also this lighting can be integrated into the running show.

LED strips are installed on all stairs on the revolving stage, as well as steps behind the fixed seating and both of the loudspeaker towers, which can be fully integrated into the show concepts as they can be controlled via DMX. The installed system, with its six fibre-optic powered laser projectors is a relatively complex planetarium system. The system, which has been specially configured for the requirements of the Science Dome, is also ideally suited in combination with conventional projection systems, for impressive 2D and 3D laser presentations with infotainment character.

The stage spotlights of the Science Dome are positioned to perfectly illuminate the entire stage including the front stage. The profile spotlights on the control room are used to provide sufficient front light for the stage and the front stage. The moving heads on the control room are used for stage effect lighting and dome effect lighting.

The audience is on the turntable, which was manufactured by Gradior.

For this purpose, there are stepped, fixed rows of seats with assembled chairs. In the front area of the turntable, facing the scene area, an orchestra podium with two staircases is integrated. The turntable is rotated by 180º as a major part of the show or also as special events.

The starball, as in itself a visible, unique and exiting mechanical masterpiece, is located in the epicentre of the revolving stage. Invisible in its parking position it rises soundless, by a precise telescopic lift to appear in the centre of the audience. The opening in the floor is automatically opened and closed by means of a horizontally movable cover.

Laser projectors act like a single fulldome 360° dome projector. In concrete terms, this means that laser effects can be placed freely on the dome without the user having to worry about the assignment to different projectors or the size of projection fields. In contrast to the star projector, however, real spatial journeys are also possible, so that you can fly through objects, for example. The laser system thus complements the usual representation of conventional projection techniques with an incredibly spatial, dynamic component. The LACON-5 workstation calculates automatically and in real time the spherical distortion of the projection and provides a hardly visible translation from one projector to the other.

Being involved in the project from the very beginning and having developed the venue concept, selecting everything from carpet to the audiovisual systems, everyone involved could not be prouder of this project and how it turned out. The entire expansion is impressive and a wonderland for young and old alike to explore and venture; the Science Dome has become the very heart of the Science Center, allowing guests to experience science in a unique, highly engaging way – all realised by smart, bold technologies.

SHORTLISTED - MULTIPURPOSE VENUE

MULTIPURPOSE VENUE SPONSORED BY

HRIBAR HALL TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia Manufacturers: Robe, Czech Republic Distributor: MK Light Sound, Slovenia Lighting Designer: Tomaz Novak, Slovenia Installer: MK Light Sound, Slovenia Submitted by: Robe Located in larger venue the ‘Castle’, Hribar Hall is designed to be completely flexible. The capacity ranges from 180 seated to 250 standing depending on the set up and format which can be fully seated for banquets and dinners, to standing with different sized stages, bare floor or catwalks. The schedule includes a lively mix of performances from music, drama, theatre, comedy and spoken word to fashion shows and other presentations including lectures, seminars and news conferences.

With this in mind, when it came to choose the lighting, the Castle’s Technical Manager, Tomaz Novak, specified Robe to offer the best options for all scenarios - with a rig comprising four Spiider LED wash beams and 16 LEDBeam 100s - eight new and eight which were already in-house.

The lights, control and all relevant cabling for Hribar Hall was supplied and installed by a team from MK Light Sound, overseen by Dean Karov. “We have a great working relationship with the Hribar Hall, it is an excellent reference site and a good example of how the

breadth of Robe’s range can benefit their multiple applications,” said Dean.

“The Spiider is a fantastic wash light and a quality beam, plus you have some classy effects possible with the central flower LED effect,” stated Tomaz, also mentioning that both Spiiders and LEDBeams are very light in weight, so great for Hribar Hall, and also extremely easy to move to other venues within the Castle when necessary.

Tomaz also noted that the Spiider’s flexibility is essential in a venue that hosts such a vast array of events. LED was a sensible choice for its long life, low maintenance and value for money.

Hribar Hall is located deep within Ljubljana Castle’s walls, in the attic of Tract K (one of the Castle’s many segments). The initial load in proved to be the biggest challenge with the venue being so far down - luckily the light weight of the fixtures made their transportation a lot easier. Another challenge was in finding fixtures that could easily be transported to the Castle’s other venues – again Robe’s products ticked the boxes.

The Castle is a key landmark of downtown Ljubljana, offering many cultural and historic events throughout the year. Each year it welcomes over 1 million visitors into its dynamic environment, which remains a primary jewel in the crown of one of Europe’s most attractive capital cities.

The installation of these fixtures now offers higher than before production values for the Castle; the installation has enabled Hribar Hall to stand out and be a flexible space for events, all within Ljubljana’s main attraction.

SHORTLISTED - MULTIPURPOSE VENUE

MULTIPURPOSE VENUE SPONSORED BY

INTERACTIVE SOUND LAB Technical Details Location: Leuven, Belgium Manufacturers: Martin Audio, Astro Spatial Audio, OutBoard Distributor: FACE Projects Installer: FACE Projects Submitted by: Martin Audio At the heart of the Alamire Foundation’s Library of Voices in the Belgian city of Leuven is an advanced Interactive Sound Lab driven

by Martin Audio’s Sound Adventures. The projects division of Belgian full-service audiovisual provider, FACE Projects, developed and installed the sophisticated sound system to create this unique musical experience.

The Alamire Foundation was established in 1991 as a partnership between KU Leuven, Musicology Research Unit and Musica Impulse Centre for Music. As an international study centre, the Alamire Foundation has set itself the goal of stimulating, coordinating and conducting scientific and practical research. The foundation focusses specifically on music and musical life in the Netherlands and Belgium from the Middle Ages to the 1800s.

When the Alamire Foundation contacted FACE about their project, “Martin Audio was immediately our first choice of loudspeaker,” stated Steven Kemland from FACE Projects. “As we have been involved with immersive sound for many years, we have engineered several mobile and fixed installations including processing, amplification and loudspeakers. But since using the CDD range last year in another 84-loudspeaker immersive sound system, we also knew that this would become their solution. The controlled dispersion, clarity, definition and power of the CDD range works extremely well in spatial sound multiloudspeaker projects.”

“The fact that we needed to engineer two different rooms at once also gave us the option to combine CDD with both TiMax for the Auralisation Sound Lab on the first floor and Sound Adventures for the Interactive Sound Lab on the second floor of the venue.”

The Interactive Sound Lab is both a live performance and recording

space. By combining the clarity, precision and richness of tone of Martin Audio’s award-winning CDD series of two-way passive loudspeakers with the ground-breaking real-time control delivered by the SARA II Premium Rendering Engine from Astro Spatial Audio, the Interactive Sound Lab enables performers to recreate the specific acoustic conditions of the rooms that a piece of music was created for.

Sound Adventures - a powerful collaboration between Astro Spatial Audio and Martin Audio - allows musicians and researchers to alter the perceived reverberation of the Interactive Sound Lab. Using the system, it is possible to perform and record polyphonic pieces altering the delay and adding reverb to create and experience the exact acoustic conditions of specific venues, giving researchers a better idea of how the music would have sounded.

“As one of the founding companies of the pro audio industry, Martin Audio has always taken great pride in delivering cutting-edge creative solutions and this continues with our collaboration with Astro Spatial Audio,” said Martin Audio Managing Director, Dom Harter.

“The Interactive Sound Lab is a perfect example of this and highlights exactly what is possible with our Sound Adventures solution. The signature warmth and vocal clarity delivered by our CDD series make this new facility an excellent resource to help researchers get a better understanding of how this historic music was meant to be heard.”

“This project is a perfect example of the kind of solution Sound Adventures can offer,” added Bjorn van Munster, Managing Director at Astro Spatial Audio. “The versatility of SARA II means that we are often found on high-end entertainment events, but projects like the Interactive Sound Lab show the benefits that truly immersive audio can also provide to serious research projects.”

With the Library of Voices and its sound labs, the Alamire Foundation both broadens and deepens the operations of the Musicology Research Unit, KU Leuven and its partners ESAT-STADIUS and LIBIS. “Technically this was a very challenging project, but this is what drives us and what we like to do,” smiled Steven Kemland. “We look forward to increasing our experience over the coming years in co-operation with the Alamire Foundation and are grateful for their trust and partnership.”

WINNER

MULTIPURPOSE VENUE SPONSORED BY

MULTIPURPOSE VENUE PARADISE CITY TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Incheon, South Korea Manufacturers: Amadeus, Merging Technologies, Powersoft, d&b audiotechnik, L-Acoustics, Bose, SSL Live, Stage One, Kinetic Lights, Luminex, Panasonic, Novastar, RGBLink Installer: C2 Artechnolozy Submitted by: Amadeus, Merging Technologies & C2 Artechnolozy

Paradise City, located in Incheon, is the largest entertainment complex in South Korea, combining high-end hospitality with entertainment facilities.

C2 Artechnolozy (C2) was at the forefront of the design for the Paradise City phase 1-2 project, which includes Chroma, the largest nightclub in East Asia, encompassing three separate nightclubs, Wonderbox, an indoor amusement park, and boutique hotel, Art Paradiso. As well as these, the vast complex also features an Art Garden and the Paradise Walk areas.

C2 was responsible for designing and supervising the audio, visual and lighting systems, as well as the design, development, and supervision of the EBGM system (Enhanced Background Music) for the entire resort.

The EBGM system is based on eight Ovation servers (one per building plus one for redundancy), Horus, and Hapi interfaces from Swiss manufacturer, Merging Technologies. The system is capable of up to 384KHz or DXD (DXD – Digital eXtreme Definition at 352.8KHz) via the AES67 RAVENNA network.

Utilising Apple’s iPad and Ovation’s Web Server functions, C2 designed the control interface so that each space within Paradise City can be individually controlled for its volume and channel, as well as for selecting sound sources of various genres through channel selection.

In order to reproduce differentiated sound sources with the highest quality, C2 chose Amadeus loudspeakers. The integrator chose Amadeus C Series – initially designed by Amadeus for the Paris-based Théâtre National de Chaillot (Chaillot National Theater) – PMX Series loudspeakers, and ABB 15 and ML12 Slim bespoke subwoofers. Powersoft power amplifiers are applied throughout the boutique hotel, Art Paradiso to power the loudspeaker system.

“As well as the Amadeus loudspeakers, there are d&b audiotechnik and L-Acoustics boxes used in the club. L-Acoustics is also used for the EBMG areas, such as the Plaza and Infinity Bar at the Cimer Spa – there are weatherproof Bose loudspeakers in the spa, too,” said C2’s CEO, Dongyup Kwak. The Art Gallery at Paradise City is equipped with hanging tracks, power, and network terminals, with Amadeus PMX 5 D and ML 12 D active loudspeakers to enable installation flexibility depending on the needs of the art installation. “The system uses the AES67 DXD format for the EBGM system as well as a separate operation using a Dante network,” explained Dongyup.

C2 studied the interior and architectural design of Paradise City with Professor Kim Ji-kyung of Tuneworx, and specified the ideal loudspeaker arrangement for each space.

In the Cimer Spa section of Paradise City, Amadeus PMX 5 and ML 12 Slim subwoofers were installed along with other complementary loudspeakers and audio equipment necessary for the indoor/outdoor environment.

There are two more buildings on either side of a wide square across from the hotel and spa buildings. One of the two buildings is the Wonderbox indoor amusement park. C2’s team managed the Wonderbox project: John Kim was Executive Manager; Suk-Hoon Lee was the Project Manager and designed all the audio, video and lighting systems including integration; and Taechan Moon was in charge of audiovisual construction. Joshua Jeon was in charge of whole 2D-3D design, and designers Eunjung Kim and Yunhee Choi and Jeongeun Choi worked on the 2D-3D simulation and design of the audiovisual system.

C2 collaborated with Canada-based Moment Factory, which is in charge of the content. Dongyup explained further: “For the Wonderbox, Moment Factory’s X-Agora media server plays multi-channel audio at 48KHz sample rate. There are also Ovation servers from Merging Technologies working as a master show controller. They control the X-Agora server with four sets of scheduled scenarios.”

Wonderbox is equipped with over 60 Amadeus loudspeakers with Powersoft amplifiers and six Ovation servers from Merging Technologies for the show control and audio control.

C2 equipped the main club with an SSL Live L500Plus, as well as a full complement of d&b audiotechnik loudspeakers including the new GSL Series. Staging equipment at Chroma was designed and implemented using products from StageOne and Kinetic Lights.

In Chroma, control comes from MA Lighting’s grandMA console, while a grandMA3 Light console is used for the special effects equipment.

The site-wide audio is driven from nine Merging Technology audio and control servers, running a combination of Merging Ovation software and custom control software. The system runs audio to over 25 different areas most with multiple subzones. In order to make the selection of so much music easy, a bespoke remote control was designed, running a customised version of Merging Emotion software.

Audio inputs and outputs were handled using Merging Horus connection interfaces.

To ensure audio was delivered glitch-free. the system used RAVENNA audio networking. RAVENNA is unique in that it can handle extremely high sample rates – up to 384KHz, much higher than other audio networking protocols such as Dante or AES67. RAVENNA also can support different profiles for passing audio across a network. Merging simply created a specific profile for it to run DXD audio.

Unlike conventional mono or stereo music delivery systems, Paradise City has areas where fully immersive sound is delivered, offering an enveloping soundtrack to visitors using multi-channel sound.

In addition to the site wide system, further playback systems are deployed in the Wonderbox indoor theme park. This uses a further seven Merging Technology servers, running Merging Ovation and custom control software. The system delivers audio to an immersive system of 42 surround sound loudspeakers along and an additional high power screen system. Again this system uses highest quality DXD audio and is networked over RAVENNA with offers much higher resolution audio than network technologies.

“In Wonderbox, moving heads, fixed lights, such as spot and ellipsoidal fixtures, are controlled by a grandMA3 console. The grandMA network is configured with grandMA3 CompactXT and MA onPC, so it has complete redundancy.

“We used Luminex GigaCore 26i switching hubs, GrandMA3 2 port nodes, Luminex Ethernet-DMX 2 MKII truss and Luminex Ethernet-DMX 4 MKII truss nodes for network and DMX signal convert.

“The other lighting network controls the festoon lights, which are controlled by ArtNet from Moment Factory’s X-Agora Server. The rest of the area use normal interior lighting.”

“We’ve also used 16 Panasonic PT-RZ31K 31,000 ANSI lumen laser projectors and a disguise 4×4 pro media server for outdoor projection mapping. We’re operating projection mapping on the wall of Chroma – 52.6-metres by 27-metres – at the Chroma Square and Wonderbox – 70-metres by 20-metres – at the Art Garden.

We’re also preparing interactive visual using motion tracking,” explained Dongyup.

“There are 14 Panasonic PT-RZ21K 21,000 ANSI lumen laser projectors and also, two Panasonic PT-RZ970 10,000 ANSI lumen laser projectors used for projection mapping on the Wonderbox logo that people can see when they enter through the entrance door.

“For the main club in the Chroma, we’ve designed and made moving LED panels for the centre and side screens on stage. The main club also features 274 sq metres of LED panels. The second club and water club are equipped with a 6.5-metres by two-metres and 13.5-metres by two-metres each. We applied 5,000-10,000 ANSI lumen Panasonic projectors for the rest of the small areas or for portable use.”

For visual control throughout the complex C2 used a combination of NovaStar MCTRL 660 LED controllers and RGBlink VSP628 PRO video processors. The NovaStar MCTRL 660’s have a built-in HDMI input, as well as a DVI input allowing the content to play easily, which was a huge benefit for this large project. While the RGBlink video processors offer video scaler, scan converter, switcher and transcoder functionalities, which convert any input signal format to any output signal format.

C2 Artechnolozy was involved in many aspects, from design, through supervision, and construction, and also many of its operations. The company manages the day-to-day directing and operating of the club’s systems. Under the direction of Kim Nam-hoon, C2’s staff, and several partner companies run all the technical systems and produce a slightly different show every hour.

Offering music and immersive across audio across a large multipurpose complex, Paradise city broke new ground, delivering the audio at a quality far higher than any other distributed music system, whilst making the system easy to use. Deploying the most advanced audio networking technology they ensured audio performance remains constant for many years to come.

SHORTLISTED - NIGHTCLUB

NIGHTCLUB SPONSORED BY

COMMAS TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Manufacturers: LEDSCONTROL, MADRIX Distributor: LEDSCONTROL Architect: Zoo Studio Lighting Designer: LEDSCONTROL Installer: LEDSCONTROL Submitted by: LEDSCONTROL, MADRIX The original design of Commas nightclub proposed a new way of giving life and movement to light. It provided a vibrant and cuttingedge nightlife experience in the Southeast Asian region.

The trend was set with a 13×17 rectangular grid of three-pixel-deep sticks to create an innovative three-dimensional, low-resolution, ‘analog-digital’ look and feel. This effect is highlighted by the mirrors located at the top of each of them. Lighting designer LEDSCONTROL celebrated that the client was open to its idea of

using an alternative backdrop for the DJ; something that is more oriented to be a light-art piece in order to break the traditional array of LED screens that is commonly used in these kinds of spaces. The kinetic frames located on the sides and the ceiling form a unique array. They provide the space with the perfect dynamism to generate a complete atmosphere that adapts to the music as well as the events that are held in the venue.

The biggest challenge faced with the Commas installation, was the strict working times. The team met their times, but sometimes due to external factors, time schedules were altered and forcing those working to make an extra effort to finish the project within the deadline that the client had assigned.

Commas is one of the first projects in which lighting defines the architecture, supplying something different to the average nightclub. LEDSCONTROL bet on a light-art bespoke piece behind the DJ instead of a simple screen. In all of its context, this project has a special singularity.

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World renowned TAO Chicago Nightclub selected K-array to meet the multitude of aesthetic requirements to integrate with the design layout and to accommodate their performance demands for a reliable, powerful sound system providing a pleasing dining and club experience.

SHORTLISTED - NIGHTCLUB

NIGHTCLUB SPONSORED BY

ONE THIRD – DISGUISE Technical Details Location: Hangzhou, China Manufacturers: disguise, UK Architect: Live Legends, The Netherlands Lighting Designer: Live Legends, The Netherlands Installer: Live Legends, The Netherlands Submitted by: disguise, UK Daan Oomen, Creative Director of Live Legends, live experience designers based out of Amsterdam, was tasked to create a turnkey show experience for a series of clubs named One Third. The latest One Third installation was based in a converted factory in Hangzhou China, reimagined into a club. To power the dynamic and immense scale LED video canvas, Daan chose a 4x4pro disguise pro range media server.

The pixel maps of the club are complicated or as Daan puts it - ‘insane’.

“The only choice was to power them using disguise. disguise media servers are capable of pushing all the pixels, while remaining stable,” Oomen said. “We love the flexibility of the system as we have timecode shows, followed by input from the local VJs (video jockey) mixed with pre-programmed base theme looks.”

Dave van Roon, Video Specialist and disguise Programmer at Live Legends explained: “On our shows everything is connected. With SMPTE and UDP, for instance, the lighting desk follows along with the show, so video, lighting, special effects, motion and lasers are all in sync.”

Live Legends also wanted to utilise a show control solution that the local teams would find easy to use. disguise made it possible to hook all the elements together using one simple touchscreen and since it uses disguise Telnet communication, the interface is fast and always works.

It’s ease of use allows local crews, with no previous knowledge of disguise, to operate it. disguise’s 4x4pro sets the industry benchmark for power, flexibility and convenience, delivering unparalleled quality content to the LED canvas screen at One Third.

Live Legends programmed all the shows in its studio in the Netherlands using disguise Visualiser and the Lightconverse 3D show platform. Live Legends chose this combination so they

could test all triggers and see how the content would work within the space with the lighting, motion and lasers. Then after arriving at the venue in China, they focused on troubleshooting and tweaking the details. With projects of this scale, there is always a chance that the actual LED video screens at the venue are different from the drawings.

Therefore, using the disguise platform was of critical importance during the pre-production stage of One Third. The content mapping is conceptually separated from output mapping, so there is no worry about a difference of LED sizes, one can program the show as designed, and use the output feed to make it look exactly the same.

Although One Third was already recognised as the gold standard of nightclubs in China, Live Legends with the help of disguise, brought extensive skills, knowledge, and vision from the world of live events to bring the reputation and nightclub experience to the next level.

Live Legends delivered all the creative elements from concept to execution, including show production and interior technical design, which required coordinating all the visual disciplines and optimising the guest experience with flair and imagination.

Additionally, disguise’s robust and flexible 4x4pro media server, utilised by Live Legends, pushed every pixel to maximise playback power across the LED canvas with at least two simultaneous layers of content at 10G bit/sec. disguise ensures superior video quality and performance lasts all night long at the One Third club in Hangzhou.

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SHORTLISTED - NIGHTCLUB

NIGHTCLUB SPONSORED BY

THE COURTHOUSE TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Douglas, Isle of Man Manufacturers: GDS Lighting Designer: GDS Installer: ELS Interior Designer: Rehab Squared Submitted by: GDS

The Courthouse, situated in the heart of the financial district in Douglas, is the result of a painstaking project to transform the Grade II Listed former courthouse building into the most prestigious and elegant Nightclub on the Isle of Man. Interior design firm, Rehab Squared, was invited to create a new design concept. Installer, ELS, completed the integration, while GDS took care of the lighting design, project management and commissioning of the lighting fixtures and drivers.

“This was a special opportunity for me personally,” Interior Designer, Gemma Wasley explained. “My early career was in the nightclub industry when I worked as Operations Manager for the Virgin Group, heading up Pure, a 3000-capacity superclub in Manchester’s Printworks and Heaven in London, as well as assisting with the launch of a new nightclub brand in Ibiza. So, for The Courthouse renovation project, I brought this experience, as well as a genuine love for clubbing, which has resulted in my most authentic interior to date.”

Gemma borrowed aesthetics from classic club culture and combined them with futuristic elements; an explosion of light and a respectful nod to the retro style of the ‘80s results in uncompromising colour popped visual feast.

GDS used continuous recessed LED profiles in the walls and ceiling to achieve a tunnel effect in the entrance lobby. The idea was to create a border that represented crossing into a new and exciting space and the design really delivered a feeling of moving between two distinct areas.

In the main club space, over 100-metres of bespoke RGBW strip and LED fixtures were used for the bar, dancefloor and the new feature of nine distinctive, coloured booths. “I specified the ceiling mounted, oversized triangular LED lights to continue the ‘80s theme; these overhead lights were strategically positioned in front of the DJ booth in order to define the dancefloor area and guide the club-goers towards the appropriate areas and improve the foot-flow around the space,” said Gemma.

All the fittings are controlled over DMX on separate dimming channels, allowing for various colour temperatures, chase and special effects. This helped achieve a key part of the brief, as the lighting colours could be changed to reflect the branding of the corporate clients the venue is hoping to attract.

The control also posed some obstacles though, because the secondary control system didn’t have the required capacity. GDS and ELS had to install additional DMX merge equipment to combine both DMX systems, without passing them through one another.

With the angular lines of the building in mind, GDS’ Lighting Designer, Irena Kovacevic, worked closely with Rehab Squared to achieve a cohesive style throughout the venue. A unique suspended, continuous profile was installed above the bar and to follow its curves and sharp edges, ground recessed continuous profiles were placed in front of it. “This element came out as elegant and effective solution,” said Irena.

Rehab Squared designed a huge, solid monolithic, glacial white bar as the club’s main feature; the entire front façade is a geometrical feast of architectural engineering, which required complex technical drawings by an architect. At over seven-metres long, it is an awesome spectacle that runs down one side of the club space.

The entire wall opposite the bar is lined with 11 semi-private seating pods in a riot of vibrant colours. To enhance the expression of the linear design style, cool white recessed profile LED lights highlight the asymmetric lines of the booth structures along the edge lines of the exterior façades, these glow,

flash and pulsate to the BPM of the music playing. The interior of the booths are lit by hidden LED linear lights that are positioned strategically so that the light bounces off the faux leather upholstery to emit a solid diffused white glow that illuminates the interior seating areas.

The exterior wall of the pods is clad in highly durable PVC black gloss plastic, the ever-changing and rhythmic reflection of the lights bouncing off their surface for sensory and sonic immersion.

The baseline colour palette in the venue is monochrome black and white.

Contemporary black 3D knurled wall tiles are illuminated with cool white neon lights. Black matte steel mesh loudspeaker grills and shelving, reminiscent of roadie flightcases and vintage musical instruments, create a highly visual and tactile solid metal effect.

“I wanted the overall effect to be a fusion of style and visual elements of the 1970s and ‘80s with state-of-the-art technology,” Gemma explained.

“The age demographic of the clubs clientelé means that many of them never experienced those decades so I was keen to give a feel for these eras through the interior. I referenced movies like Tron and Blade Runner, as I was conceptualising the design and feel that the final scheme hit the mark, so I’m very happy with the result.”

Stewart Dillon, General Manager of The Courthouse, was delighted with how the project turned out, especially the booths.He said: “The beauty of the booths is that they tie in with the design of the bar and lighting, bringing it all together. Not only were we trying to achieve a good looking club, I wanted to make a real statement and the lighting was one of the main features that did that. We had to have something really special and I think we absolutely nailed that.

“James Hall, Head of Sales at GDS was absolutely fantastic, with great suggestions on what we could achieve. He was totally welcoming and nothing was a problem at all.”

James concluded: “The Courthouse is one of the most interesting projects we have commissioned and is one of my favourite projects we have successfully achieved. The challenges associated with the project were overcome brilliantly, and we are very pleased that The Courthouse is now one of the best entertainment venues on the Isle of Man.”

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WINNER

NIGHTCLUB SPONSORED BY

NIGHTCLUB SKY2.0

TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Dubai, UAE Manufacturers: Bose Professional Distributor: Antaki, Lebanon Architect: Chafic El Khazen and Michelle Sarfati Installer: Antaki, Lebanon Acoustician: Antaki, Lebanon Submitted by: Bose Professional In the heart of Dubai’s ‘Design District’, known for its glitzy, avantgarde global fashion and design, sits SKY2.0, one of the latest luxury superclubs to appear in the Middle East. SKY2.0, the newest addition to Sky Management’s portfolio of premium hospitality venues, has been designed to plunge club goers into a completely immersive experience with a re-vamped audio system courtesy of Bose Professional.

Given the unique architecture of the venue, a spectacular stand-alone structure designed by French architect, Michelle Sarfati, it’s as though SKY2.0 has just landed right in the desert from the realms of outer space. Its warped UFO design is as mind-boggling as the interior production and Saturday’s sell out DJ sets. The semi-open dome reveals several luminous outline spiralling metal volutes, and is punctuated with hundreds of carefully placed projectors attached to the structure, inundating the site with light beams.

The venue was a challenging and interesting project for its installers, Antaki Group, as it was imperative that the audio portion of the experience, like the exterior of the building, would deliver beyond guest expectations. “The site itself is a semi-open dome internal structure, there are no ceilings or walls: everything is articulated in a curve. To ensure the architecture wasn’t negatively disturbed, it was important for the audio solution to be transparent in the aesthetic design of the club,” explained Toufic Malek, Head of Pro Division and Projects at Antaki. The technology used in the installation was an integrated audio solution from Bose Professional, that had to match the visual delights, no matter where guests were inside the space.

Antaki Group worked closely with Bose Professional to design the new system using Bose Modeler Design software. Pascal Vierdeel, Regional Sound Engineer at Bose Professional explained further: “This was certainly a challenge considering the unique design and shape of the venue. For the design of the sound system we divided the venue into two areas using blueprints, the main central area around the bar and the surrounding circular area. For the main central area, we decided to use four ShowMatch DeltaQ arrays. Each array is built with six ShowMatch modules to guarantee good coverage for the high and mid frequencies down to 65Hz. To complement, we added two double 18-inch subwoofers positioned beneath each array to extend the lowfrequency response.”

To provide a chest-pounding club experience, the system used a carefully designed mix of Bose Professional ShowMatch loudspeakers.

In total, the system consisted of 24 ShowMatch array loudspeakers

with DeltaQ technology. Distributed in four main clusters and backed up with eight RoomMatch RMS218 VLF-subwoofers to extend the low frequency response in the club, the venue was also equipped with 12 LT-Series loudspeakers featuring the Bose V2 Midrange Manifold, which sums the output of two 4.5-inch cone drivers to provide a smooth, natural vocal range response.

“I first heard the power from the ShowMatch DeltaQ array loudspeakers in Italy during an arranged demonstration of two different indoor and outdoor systems,” explained Chafic El Khazen, founder of Sky Management. “After hearing the systems capabilities, I knew I wanted it in SKY2.0. These particular Bose loudspeakers deliver consistent SPL from front to back and, also, its DeltaQ capability allows directivity in each array module to be adapted to match the listening area, directing more consistent sound to the audience. They were perfect for the club as we wanted to blow people away with the sound, as well as everything else we have to offer!”

The entire club sound system is powered by six Powersoft X8 amplifiers and managed using Bose Professional’s ControlSpace EX1280C, this meant that the audio system could have separate volume controls. All audio signals also go through a fully redundant Dante network, the result enduring no acoustic dead-spots or reverb issues.

As the club is entirely unique in its architecture, Antaki Group did face some difficulties during the install. “Managing bass was difficult given the circular layout, the open ceilings and the multilevel landscaping throughout, so the locations of bass were not standard locations and needed to be managed carefully to fill out the low frequency requirement. We creatively integrated the bass under the landscaping to manage a complete surround low frequency affect.

“Tonality of the system was also critical, and since the venue utilises two major lines of Bose audio systems – ShowMatch loudspeakers and the LT-Series loudspeakers – it presented a complex opportunity to illustrate how these products could produce the power and experience SKY2.0 was after. This was managed through the development of custom programming on the ControlSpace EX1280C digital signal processors,” furthered Toufic.

The opening of SKY2.0 was hotly anticipated, as the sister of the globally renowned SKY BAR based in Beirut, high expectations were set early on in the anticipation of its grand opening. Every week the club hosts up to 2,500 guests across three different signature parties, each offering huge productions, amazing audiovisuals and magnificent performances from top international DJs. Consistent feedback from regular and guest DJs is that they are very impressed by the sound quality and performance of the system.

“The contribution and dedication of the Antaki team was one to be proud of knowing that the sound quality and performance is nonnegotiable for me, I can vouch that Bose has delivered the best customer experience in our club. We are looking forward for a bright future together in this project and the upcoming ones,” concluded Toufic.

SHORTLISTED - PARKS & ATTRACTIONS

PARKS & ATTRACTIONS SPONSORED BY

DIALOGUE EXPERIENCE DARK Technical Details Location: Hong Kong Manufacturers: Equipson Distributor: Camus Chan Submitted by: Equipson This specially constructed pitch-black exhibition aims to give sighted people the chance to experience life as someone who is visually impaired, thus ‘seeing’ the world in a unique and inspirational way.

In everyday life, vision accounts for over 70% of the information our brain receives. Loss of vision puts sighted people outside their comfort zones and creates an opportunity for reflection. With this experience, visitors take an unforgettable journey that combines fun and excitement with the opportunity to challenge perceptions towards visual impairment.

J-reamy Sound was asked to design an immersive surround sound system that would allow visitors to experience everything going on around them, from a car approaching or a windstorm, to buying fruit from a market stall. The company was chosen for this project because it had the experience and know how to specify the right equipment for the installation and record and mix the sounds for the experience.

Authenticity was key to this project’s success, therefore 80% of the soundtrack was recorded locally in Hong Kong using surround recording techniques. A team of 10 sound designers and engineers, led by J-reamy Sound director Jaycee Kwok, worked hard to ensure that every sound was in the right place and correctly balanced to create a realistic effect.

As the experience covers 5,000 sq ft, a large number of loudspeakers were needed to deliver the sound. Equipson WORKPRO loudspeakers and amplifiers were chosen because they have a strong reputation for stability and reliability. They also offer additional useful features such as Power over Ethernet connectivity. Jaycee Kwok, of J-reamy Sound, ran

extensive tests in the company’s demo room to prove to the customer that These loudspeakers and amplifiers could run non-stop for more than two months without any performance issues.

A total of 200 loudspeakers were installed throughout the experience, including WORKPRO Z15 subwoofers and 160 WORKPRO MINO 6 and Neo 3 loudspeakers, each with an individual processing channel (WPE44) and amplifier. To ensure extremely detailed sound that is as close to a real-world experience as possible, all of the loudspeakers operate at the same time with sounds coming from all directions to create a feeling of full immersion. Some of the loudspeakers are installed in the ceiling, while others are positioned in a ring around each area at a height of approximately two-metres. A number of smaller Neo 3 loudspeakers are placed inside different objects to convey any sounds that are not covered by the main rig.

The main environmental sound, which is delivered in the form of background noise, is not interactive but is highly layered so that the sounds overlap in a very sophisticated way. Each MINO 6 loudspeaker has its own processing, signal feed and audio source to give the impression of sound overlap. The experience is enhanced by the use of specific sounds that are triggered at key moments when the tour guides physically press a button. The final part of the soundscape is created by sounds that are auto triggered as visitors pass various objects or interact with specific props.

The biggest challenge was ensuring that this exhibition has sufficient computer processing power to run such a complex soundscape. The system needed to be very powerful to cope with the large number of sounds being fed to each individual loudspeaker. A separate server room is used to house the computers, the WORKPRO PA 8150 8-channel class D amplifiers and the WORKPRO WPE44 DSP Audio processors that control the entire system.

Another challenge was positioning the loudspeakers so that they delivered the right immersive sound sensation. In Hong Kong space is always at a premium and this attraction is housed in a relatively small space. This resulted in some compromises as there wasn’t always room to create a fully immersive effect. However, the clarity of the WORKPRO loudspeakers helped overcome these shortfalls by giving visitors such a realistic aural experience that it was possible to feel surrounded by sound.

Dialogue Experience Dark is such an unusual concept and such a great experience. Removing sight heightens senses, in particularly one’s hearing, therefore it is imperative that the sound system used for this experience conveyed real audio clarity and reproduces sound as naturally as possible. The ability to create a truly immersive surround sound experience is only possible because of recent advances in recording and playback technology. Equipson’s WORKPRO products are an important part of the equation and have helped make it a very popular attraction in Hong Kong.

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PARKS & ATTRACTIONS SPONSORED BY

OSAKA CASTLE PARK TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Osaka, Japan Manufacturers: Tempest, Panasonic, Moment Factory Submitted by: Tempest

When night falls on The Land of the Rising Sun, Osaka Castle Park comes to life with ‘Sakuya Lumina’, an interactive night walk that blends lighting effects, soundscapes, scenography and audiovisual technology together with beautiful surroundings. Canadian multimedia studio Moment Factory has created an engaging experience inspired by the area’s beauty and local culture. Tempest’s Blizzard and Cyclone enclosures are used to protect projectors powering a series of impressive visuals created to delight guests year-round.

“What’s so impressive about this immersive installation is the way Moment Factory has harnessed a host of complex technical elements to enhance the aesthetic of the park, and guide guests through a fun and engaging narrative for all ages,” said Tim Burnham, Tempest’s president. “It’s clear that visitors young and old are enjoying the experience. Given that it is running every day, it’s vital that the projection equipment remains ultra-reliable. That’s where we come in; ensuring that projectors are well protected from the elements, eliminating the possibility of deadly condensation, and keeping everything running at an optimal temperature.”

A total of 10 Panasonic laser projectors – six PT-RZ12s and four PT-RZ21s – are protected by Tempest enclosures. Of the six PTRZ12 projectors, two were placed inside Tempest Blizzard 52.100.U enclosures, and used with ultra-short-throw lenses. The other four PT-RZ21s using standard lenses were placed inside Tempest Blizzard 52.100.L enclosures. All PT-RZ21 projectors were installed inside standard Cyclone 55.210.L enclosures.

The experience tells the story of Akiyo, a teenager from the future, who falls through a portal and becomes lost in the present-day Osaka Castle Park. Guests are invited to follow her on her quest to get back to the future, meeting a host of colourful characters along the way. Projection elements are used to map a host of animated content, bringing the story to life. Park features – such as the park’s stone walls – are translated into lively animated cartoons which drive the story forward. The use of augmented reality allows revellers to become part of the spectacle, creating their own ‘joylights’ through face recognition, which is then mapped onto an animated display alongside other visitors at the end of the walk.

With six different Lumina installations in Canada, one in Singapore and now two in Japan, Sakuya Lumina is a collaboration between Moment Factory and Yoshimoto Kogyo, one of Japan’s biggest entertainment companies; the Dentsu Group, a worldwide advertising and communication company network headquartered in Tokyo; and Osaka Castle Park.

Sakuya Lumina takes place at Osaka Castle Park in Osaka and will run for three consecutive years.

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PUY DU FOU

TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Toledo, Spain Manufacturers: Robe, Czech Republic Lighting Designer: ACTLD: Koert Vermeulen, Nicolas de Villiers, Belgium Submitted by: Robe ‘El Sueño de Toledo’ takes spectators on a hi-octane condensed one-hour journey through history – from the Reign of Ricaredo in the 6th century to the arrival of the railways – touching on the battle of Navas de Tolosa and the discovery of America along the way. The 1,500 years of history is represented by 185 actors and a plethora of special effects. At the heart of ACTLD’s Koert Vermeulen’s lighting specification were 74 Robe BMFL WashBeam and 20 MegaPointe moving lights.

“The show’s essence was similar to some of those we have created in the French park, so some of the base principles and style needed to reflect a continuity, but it’s a fresh, new and completely unique dramatic tour de force which needed a lot of attention to detail,” explained Koert.

One of the key Puy du Fou requirements was that the show was elegant and refined as well as providing lots of excitement. All of this had to be delivered in a classy collage of lighting, projection-

mapped scenery and SFX. The 75 BMFL WashBeams are undoubtedly the workhorses in the design, together with some LED wash lights. Taking on this role, they needed to stand out from all the action and be a truly multifunctional tool. The big challenge on this project was the time.

Koert and his own programming team of Christopher Bolton and Luc de Climmer had three weeks on site overall to get everything into the grandMA3 console, but out of that there was only one complete week of lighting programming.

Koert auditioned several products in a shootout for the job - initially in 2016 when the project was first confirmed and budgeted - and from this extensive trial, the BMFL WashBeam emerged as “easily the best choice”, especially for the 40 – 100-metre throw distances for which they needed something with serious power.

Koert made a point of mentioning that the MegaPointe is the nicest beam he’s seen for a long time, further cementing these fixtures as essential to the magnificence and grand nature of this show.

Construction was ongoing for the whole period, adding extra pressure on all technical departments. While the basic building blocks can be visualised to some extent, real time in situ is vital to focus on more complicated cues like the proper illumination of Olivier Beriot’s impressive costumes … all resulting in a truly breathtaking show for the public who are flocking to see it.

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WINNER

PARKS & ATTRACTIONS SPONSORED BY

PARKS & ATTRACTIONS STATUE OF UNITY

TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Gujarat, India Manufacturers: HB-Laserkomponenten GmbH Distributor: Pyramid Technologies, India Architect: L&T Constructions, India Lighting Designer: Knownsense, India Installer: HB-Laserkomponenten GmbH Acoustician: Pyramid Technologies, India Submitted by: HB-Laserkomponenten GmbH The Statue of Unity was built in 2018 to commemorate life of the Indian statesman and independence activist, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who was the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of independent India, as well as the Chief Adherent of Mahatma Ghadi during the non-violent Indian Independence movement. It is the world’s tallest statue with a height of 182-metres and took a total of 5 years to complete.

HB-Laser has created, in cooperation with Pyramid Technologies, the largest permanent 3D video and laser mapping on the statue in India. Modern laser and video systems, as well as exact planning, were the starting point for such an amazing permanent installation in India on the statue. It is the world’s largest use of highperformance projectors with a projection onto a gigantic statue.

The special effects used were laser mapping combined with 3D video mapping. By combining and synchronising these various multimedia elements together, the statue is able to tell the inspiring life story of the visionary Indian leader in an engaging manner, whilst delivering a massive multi-sensory impact to spectators.

There were several factors that made this project challenging,

including a long projection distance of over 600-metres and the distinctive bronze metallic projection surface with a very low gain.

The main challenge was the short time span for this project and the limited space for all the technology. The team only had two and a half months for the entire implementation of this project. They designed the whole space for the technical room and the cooling system and also housed the entire cooling system, the entire packaging and the 50 projectors in the same room.

They developed a specialised mirror system to produce the desired projection results, which were only constructed because there was no space. The projection was transformed from horizontal to portrait form by this mirror system.

The enclosure was built at a height of 51-metres from the river bed and the finished floor level for viewing was to be at 58-metres. The projection was to be done from seven-metres below access levels and the team didn’t have direct access to carry the equipment to the projection room enclosure below, since that area was still under construction. Therefore, to move even a single projector or rack, they deployed telescopic cranes which made the transportation of equipment extremely challenging.

The goal was to create something unique and ground-breaking that generates a big impact worldwide. The show has to be realised in a way that supports the Statue of Unity’s massive appearance and includes a balanced mix of audiovisual elements that resonate with audiences to deliver a highly memorable experience. The light and sound show has received enthusiastic resonances since its debut on October 31. Every evening, it attracts thousands of spectators eager to be enthralled by dynamic visuals and colourful lasers.

SHORTLISTED - STADIUM EMIRATES OLD TRAFFORD TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Manchester, UK Manufacturers: Samsung, ChyronHego Installer: Pioneer Group Submitted by: Pioneer Group

As hosts of the ICC Cricket World Cup, Lancashire Cricket needed to maximise the viewing experience for fans, and with information and stats vital to the game, their displays had to be second to none in time for the match. The club’s existing screens and technology were out of date, so new LED infrastructure was the latest stage in the redevelopment.

Justin Hopwood, Sales and Marketing Director at Lancashire Cricket said: “When we looked at the longer term, we knew the giant screen and LED ribbon was going to benefit to a match day experience. The challenge with live sport is to make sure that the experience is matched with what people expect from watching it at home.”

As experts in stadium LED, Pioneer Group were chosen for best understanding the needs of the project and, therefore, developing the most appropriate solution. Software was key to the infrastructure of the mid-tier and two jumbo screens – the system needed to be fully integrated and have the ability to support all assets.

After reviewing options, investment in new jumbo and mid-tier LED was decided as the most effective solution to enhance viewing experience for fans. Justin continued: “When we looked at the longer term, we knew that the giant screens and LED ribbon were going to bring value and benefit to match day experience.”

To increase fan engagement, Pioneer integrated the latest ultrahigh bright LED technology from Samsung for high definition visibility, even in direct sunlight. The latest ultra-high bright LED technology from Samsung was used to build the screens. This

included 16mm pixel pitch LED configured into 10×7 cabinet arrangements, to create two 60 sq metre jumbo displays located in the vicinity of the point and tram areas of the ground. Pioneer’s engineers utilised Samsung LED technology to design and manufacture a bespoke interface frame for the cabinets, working within the stadium’s existing infrastructure. For the mid-tier, Pioneer designed and manufactured custom brackets to interface each of the two Samsung Prysm View 16mm pitch LED screens to stands B and C. A universal rail system was also built, so as to aid speed of install of both 56 x 0.956m screens to the existing stands.

“We installed our Outdoor LED XAF range for the two jumbo screens, offering the ultimate in high definition display even in direct sunlight – which for cricket is highly important. These products were chosen because they were able to seamlessly fit with the existing infrastructure as well as being a huge technology and specification improvement from what Emirates Old Trafford had previously,” explained Damon Crowhurst, Head of Display at Samsung Electronics (UK) Ltd. “For the mid-tier LED, we installed our Prismview range, featuring 16mm pitch LED screens which is a completely bespoke model that is made to measure for the environment.”

However, hardware was not the only instrumental factor contributing to the display, as Justin highlighted: “The other thing that is equally important to the infrastructure of the screens and the ribbon is software.”

ChyronHego’s Click Effects was specified for its ability to quickly and easily display content. Content is generated via a HX Server (Blaze), which runs the underlying graphics to both Jumbos and mid-tier, as well as controlling and creating show content. To safeguard the system, and to avoid the risk of failure on match-day, Pioneer built an exact replica in mirror display for backup. An 8×8 Matrix Switcher is central to the system, transporting all the video images that are to be layered and making them available to view/ preview, which are all routed to outputs independently.

SHORTLISTED - STADIUM MELBOURNE CRICKET GROUND Technical Details Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Manufacturers: d&b, QSC, DiGiCo Distributor: National Audio Systems, Melbourne. Technical Audio Group, Sydney. Group Technologies, Melbourne.

Installer: Rutledge AV - A Diversified Company Acoustician: Auditoria Pty Ltd Interior Designer: Auditoria Pty Ltd

The project was a complete refurbishment of the audio systems throughout the MCG including the bowl, concourses, corporate areas, gates, media areas and the many bars and restaurants in the massive 100,000-seat stadium.

The design used d&b Vi and Yi series loudspeaker arrays with array processing for the bowl. The lower bowl consisted of 15 arrays of 8 Vi8 elements with the upper bowl consisting of 29 arrays of Yi8 in various lengths depending on coverage requirements. Each of the Yi arrays also had a bass array of 3 Vi-Sub elements. The total count was 120 Vi8, 248 Yi8, 30 Yi10P for delays, 84 Vi-Sub and 13 27S-Sub on 100 30Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and 20 D80â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s.

The under-balcony and concourse areas at the MCG are huge and full bandwidth delay systems were provided consisting of 1,299 d&b loudspeakers and 80 subs including E8, E6, E12-D, 24C, 10S-D, 8S, 5S and 27S-Subs on over 120 10D and 30D amplifiers. In addition, we used over 600 QSC AD-series loudspeakers in low-ceiling corridors and other concourse areas.

There are 57 bars and function rooms within the stadium, some small but most area large spaces. The goal was to provide high quality sound in the rooms for the program content but also provide the atmosphere of the seating bowl. We used 20 audience microphones distributed around the stadium and mixed in Q-SYS to provide a crowd feed into each area that is controlled with a local Q-SYS touch panel. Over 600 loudspeakers from d&b and QSC were used throughout the bar and function spaces.

QSC Q-SYS was used for the DSP, signal transport and user interfaces for all bars, restaurants and function areas. DiGiCo 4REA4 engines and an SD9 is used for bowl mixing. The QSC interface allows the system to be configured to suit the capacity for each event including crowd mic presets, loudspeaker mutes, Array Processing presets to suit the weather conditions and switching between SD9 control or basic control from AControl8 fader panels.

The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC), the owners of the MCG, are focused on delivering the best they can to every element of the audience experience. In terms of the sound, they made it clear that providing an excellent quality experience of the game-day was the primary goal of this upgrade project. From entertainment packages, commentary, video packages and on-field interviews, as well as ensuring the fans can remain engaged in the event throughout their entire journey in the stadium, we quickly had a clear understanding of the expectations of the project.

The commitment to quality is evident in the use of ArrayProcessing technology in all loudspeaker arrays and 87 cardioid subwoofers in the seating bowl, to the inclusion of 80 cardioid subwoofers in the under-balcony areas to deliver full bandwidth sound to every corner of the stadium. In our experience we have not encountered a stadium installation worldwide that delivers this level of sound quality and performance.

The commitment to quality is further emphasised in the design approach to the function rooms and bars to keep the audience engaged with the game. Our crowd mic system uses 20 mid-side microphones distributed around the stadium with a user interface that allows the operator to adjust the pattern of each mic from hyper-cardioid (shotgun) to a figure-8 to suit the audience capacity and crowd distribution. This mix is then distributed through the stadium via Q-SYS and can be adjusted in level by the bar staff as needed.

In the end, the large quantities of equipment are necessary for a space of this magnitude but also to achieve the level of quality that is hard to rival.

SHORTLISTED -STADIUM SUZHOU OLYMPIC SPORTS CENTER TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Suzhou, China Manufacturers: Electro-Voice, Dynacord Installer: Bosch Interior Designer: Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) Submitted by: Electro-Voice, Dynacord

Suzhou Olympic Sports Center includes a stadium, training and leisure pool, indoor arena, shopping centre and a wide range of sports facilities for the surrounding residential areas.

Designed by Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp), the project was influenced by the garden city status of Suzhou, which has nine historic gardens that have been awarded UNESCO World Heritage status. The end result has seen an impressive sports and citizens’ park created, with four large buildings among water features and vast green spaces: the 45,000-capacity stadium with a span of 250-metres, a 3,000-seat aquatics centre, an indoor arena with 13,000 seats and a shopping centre.

The audio at Suzhou Olympic Sports Center’s sporting venues was provided by Bosch sub-brands – Electro-Voice and Dynacord.

Due to this unique design, the catwalk is above the membrane and there are no fixed mounting points for loudspeaker installation, therefore making the installation and maintenance very difficult. Furthermore, the swing range of up and

down exceeds 1.5-metres. Those increased the difficulty of whole sound system design.

“After elaborate consideration, Bosch team introduced the installation method of London Bowl. Bosch guys worked with specialised designers to make a mounting point on each tapered end and install a pulley. Then we can use a winding engine to lift the loudspeakers, or take down for inspection and maintenance. By this way, the challenge of installation was finally conquered,” he also added.

“In addition to tackling the hanging technical difficulty, another reason why we choose the single-layer cable membrane structured roof is that we hope to make a breakthrough in the aesthetic appearance of the stadium. EV’s white-coloured EVH weather-resistant loudspeakers perfectly match the cable membrane structure not only on colour but also on overall environment. What’s more, EVH’s audio quality makes sure that every audience at any position can hear clear sound and dynamic performance.”

As a comprehensive venue, this 13,000-seat gymnasium has been designed to serve multiple purposes since very beginning. The central funnel screen is designed according to the standards of large international events, such as NBA. It can offer superb viewing experience for variety shows and exhibitions. In order to provide both visual and audio enjoyment, 70 EV X2 new-generation line array loudspeakers achieve 360º sound coverage for the floor and audience area. This allows the audiences to enjoy clear, real and exciting sound. During daily use, the audiences on site are regularly impressed by the audio quality delivered by X2.

The owner also chose the white EVH loudspeakers below the roof of the natatorium, which blended into the decoration of the venue in terms of appearance and sound clarity.

“Considering the needs of diving, as well as training and performance of synchronised swimming, we have also selected EV’s UW30 underwater loudspeakers in the swimming pools, so that people under the water could hear the music, as well as the messages through microphone sent by people on shore clearly without additional receivers.” said the leader of the Project Design Department.

The ice rink in the commercial centre is installed with Dynacord VL series two-way full range loudspeakers to cover every corner in a balanced manner and add more fun to the skaters with beautiful music.

All audio and control signals within the sports venue including stadium, gymnasium, natatorium and ice rink are transmitted on the basis of OMNEO protocol. The main digital signal and redundancy digital signal can be the backup to each other.

This ensures smooth, stable signal transmission throughout the sports centre.

EV and Dynacord’s total solution on sound reinforcement not only addresses the design and application requirement of the sports centre, but also helps boost the robust development of China’s cultural and sports. The high audio quality at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Center has opened a new chapter of the development of sports venues in China.

Redefining the Stadium Experience

WINNER STADIUM

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STADIUM TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: London, UK Manufacturers: SCX Special Projects, UK / JBL, UK Architect: Populous Acoustician: Vanguardia Structural Engineer: BuroHappold Engineering Submitted by: Populous

Specialist acoustic consultant, Vanguardia, developed the stadium’s state-of-the-art PA system in conjunction with SSE Audio, the integrator, which is central to the stadium’s status as a multi-use venue.

The system, designed and built by loudspeaker specialists JBL, features a staggering 5,500 bespoke loudspeakers with 4,000 inside the stadium bowl and another 1,500 within the concourse and hospitality areas.

The brand-new, cutting-edge system is more powerful and precise than any equivalent set-up you will find anywhere in the world and was developed at JBL’s research and development facility in Los Angeles.

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is the first stadium to install this new system. The principal loudspeakers are fixed in 18 separate curved-line arrays, sometimes referred to as ‘bananas’, to the steel ‘flying columns’ which connect the lower and upper tension rings of the roof. Each array typically contains eight loudspeaker cabinets with the addition of three sub bass units mounted behind the array to provide the low frequency bass associated with generating the sounds of modern-day music. The sub bass loudspeakers are also carefully designed so that sound is focussed down towards the audience with minimal sound escaping to the rear of the cabinets and outside to the local community.

The whole system is controlled through a sophisticated digital network and can be integrated with the stadium lights, giant screens and LED boards to make spectacular sound and visual displays possible.

The PA set-up can also be integrated with touring sound systems brought in for concerts. Very few stadia have this facility. Bands will use their own concert loudspeaker systems by the stage but also plug into the stadium’s system to balance the sound of a rock concert evenly throughout the bowl. This is specifically useful to get sound to the upper tiers.

The PA system is yet another example of an element of the stadium that pushes the technological boundaries to the limit, and it means that spectacular audio-visual shows will be a regular occurrence at N17.

It’s almost impossible to comprehend the sheer scale of the quartet of giant LED displays without stepping foot into the bowl. They make a huge statement in each of the four corners of the ground and, despite their size, provide an astonishingly clear picture.

The two LED displays located either side of the South Stand are each 29.2-metres wide and 10.97-metres in depth, making them both 320 sq metres in total. Their counterparts on either corner of the North Stand are 22.3-metres long and 8.4-metres from top to bottom.

The four displays measure more than 1,000 sq metres combined, which is more than all the other digital displays in stadiums in the rest of London put together. They each weigh more than two London buses, yet with their 13HD pixel layout they are able to produce incredible image clarity.

Around the stadium bowl, there is nearly a kilometre of digital ‘ribbon displays’, LED strips that run between the tiers of the North, East and West Stands. The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is the first stadium in Europe to feature three rows of these striking displays, which are not just used for advertising but play a role in decorating the stadium with Club or event branding as well as displaying exciting in-game effects.

Elsewhere in the ground, there are 1,750 digital displays measuring between 29 and 98-inches, which means that in total the stadium boasts an incredible 3,000 sq metres of digital display. These screens are controlled by an IPTV network, which unlike traditional terrestrial, satellite and cable systems means the Club can broadcast different content to different displays in different parts of the stadium. And, of course, everything is digitally integrated with the stadium PA system to provide a truly unrivalled audiovisual package.

In addition to the bowl’s four internal LED displays, the south-west and south-east facades each have LED displays fitted to greet supporters and convey important

messages as they approach the stadium. Each screen measures 179 sq metres. In order to accommodate the stadium’s retractable pitch beneath the South Stand the architectural and engineering teams collaborated on a two-column trussing system that would support the full weight of the stand. It was also required to provide the necessary support to keep the back rows within the building regulations that govern the degree to which a structure can vibrate. If there’s too much vibration, naturally people begin to feel unsafe in their seats.

To add to the engineering challenge, the goal was for these columns to have an architectural presence in their own right. And to achieve this the team began to play with the idea of planting what looked like two enormous steel trees right in the entrance of the South Stand atrium, with extended branches supporting each of the structural steel rakers underneath the seating tier.

At first the engineers didn’t think it would be possible, that the trees wouldn’t be strong enough to take the immense load required of them, but the teams persevered with the concept and together found a way to make the sums add up and showed it could be done.

Tottenham Hotspur Chairman, Daniel Levy, said: “I think the steel trees in the South Stand were one of the great challenges of this project. We were told it wasn’t going to be possible to effectively hold the whole thing up with two pieces of steel. But we didn’t accept this and it went on for months with the engineers, and finally they cracked it. The results are breathtaking.”

SCX Special Projects takes the architect’s vision and makes it a reality - delivering innovative, reliable and safe mechanical handling solutions, designed with a simplicity that belies the engineering complexity of such ground-breaking installations.

SCX Special Projects has earned its reputation through significant engineering innovation. The most high-profile of those is undoubtedly the system to transform Tottenham Hotspur’s new 62,000-seater stadium from Premier League to NFL mode with the world’s first dividing retractable pitch. The pitch divides into three sections and retracts under the South Stand in less than 25 minutes. In total, over 10,000 tonnes of weight is in motion, more than the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

To split the pitch, firstly the whole touchline opens and drops down 1.6 metres to NFL level. Then hydraulic actuators are called into play to separate the pitch into three parts. Finally, electric motors roll the pitch away. From a technology viewpoint, it is the innovative and intellectual way in which SCX Special Projects combines tried and tested components – such as PLCs, drives, electric motors, HMIs, hydraulics and their associated control systems – that truly takes our solutions to the next level.

Christopher Lee, Managing Director of Populous EMEA, said of the retractable pitch concept, “Ultimately it was a Swiss Army knife idea. You could fold out the different fields that you needed.”

The work on the Spurs retractable pitch has received global media attention, and it received the following important testimonial from Nick Cooper, Head of Moving Structures at Tottenham Hotspur: “It worked first time exactly how we wanted it to work.”

SCX Special Projects was also responsible for the retractable grow light mechanism at the Spurs stadium. Both engineering projects were completed ahead of schedule and on budget. With a portfolio that includes two retractable roofs at Wimbledon, the retractable seating for concerts at Wembley Stadium, the removable racetrack at Royal Ascot, and now the Tottenham Hotspur retractable pitch, SCX Special Projects has an unmatched record of delivering large-scale innovative moving structures at worldrenowned venues.

The construction and installation process posed significant challenges. The club remained playing at White Hart Lane until the end of the 2016/17 season, more than a year after building works on the new stadium had begun – so there was a lot of careful phasing involved. The North, East and West stands went up first, forming a kind of horseshoe around the old ground. The South Stand followed in the 2017 offseason, at which point work on the interiors began in earnest.

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium incorporates many ground-breaking installation projects and features cutting-edge technology throughout the stadium. It stands out as a new global benchmark in stadium design, offering one of the finest spectator experiences in the world with and unrivalled atmosphere on matchdays.

Thanks to the sliding pitch, it becomes the first purpose-built venue for American football outside of the US and will host a minimum of two NFL games per year for the next 10 years as part of a new partnership between the NFL and the Club.

With state-of-the-art audio and visual systems, the stadium creates a new flagship concert destination for London, attracting the world’s best bands and drawing tens of thousands of visitors to Tottenham each year on non-matchdays.

SHORTLISTED - THEATRE

THEATRE SPONSORED BY

NTGENT TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: Ghent, Belgium Manufacturers: CHAUVET Professional, Chamsys, Panasonic, Allen & Heath, L-Acoustics, Shure Distributor: Sotesa Submitted by: CHAUVET Professional Passersby can’t help but notice the exterior of the Royal Dutch Theatre, Ghent, Belgium. Home of the award-winning performance group, Nederlands Toneel Gent (NTGent) and an array of impressive architectural features, the stately 120-year-old building moves visitors with its uplifting mosaic façade depicting Apollo and the Muses.

Recently, NTGent took steps to inspire creativity in the interior of the building, too, all while making the historic theatre more environmentally friendly, by installing a new LED lighting system that features CHAUVET Professional fixtures supplied by Sotesa.

As a founding member of Greentrack and many other environmental initiatives, NTGent is also committed to advancing more sustainability in the performing arts, with the organisation also having its own ECO-team. Given its commitment to promoting versatility and sustainability, the decision to move to a versatile, energy-efficient LED lighting system made eminent sense.

The NTGent technicians and Jan Hooyberghs of Sotesa selected 66 Ovation E-930VW ellipsoidal fixtures and 16 Ovation F-915VW fresnel units for the installation. “Our decision was not based on budget, but quality,” said Jan. “The quality was not just with products, but also with people, with our mutual capacity for listening to customers, and with our shared desire to try to understand the clients’ goals.”

NTGent also includes five ChamSys MQ80 consoles, Jan’s belief was cemented by the consoles ability to double the number of playbacks and house a colourpicker that takes seven colours into account, not just RGB. The MQ80 also has the ability to sync audio and lights better due to the possibility of moving light cues on the timeline.

The Ovation fixtures are hung on fly bars, as well as from the sides and balconies of the theatre. They are used for front light and top light and to support a wide range of stage productions, including theatre, ballet, modern dance, and musical performances.

“We needed fixtures that would be equal to the extremely high-quality productions this theatre makes and receives,” said.

Jan. “We also needed to factor in the proximity of the fixtures to the audience. In some areas, they are so close, the audience can touch them,

they need to be virtually silent as well. The Ovations were an obvious choice.”

For Jan, the Ovation LED theatrical fixtures are a game changer. “In the past, theatrical lights had the same colour because of the gel and dimmed the same because of the dimmer,” he said. “Ovation fixtures don’t just replace incandescent, they outclass them. No more gels, no more bulbs, no more heat/light inefficiency. Instead, there’s higher output, more evenly balanced colours, tunable white and changing colours, uniformly dispersed light, and so much more. This endows our system with the flexibility needed to support the diverse range of performances by NTGent.

“I have worked with NTGent before, and we have complimentary points of view,” continued Jan. “They look at the big picture, view technicians equally as artists, and believe people are the true essence of performing arts. They aren’t looking for new products to produce old results; but rather, want to embrace the new with open arms.

CHAUVET Professional Belgium allowed me to exceed NTGent’s expectations, because CHAUVET Professional also looks to what the client’s goals are and then delivers.”

With the implementation of the new lighting system at The Royal Dutch Theatre, Apollo and the Muses aren’t limited to just the façade.

Now they are also fully embodied by the lighting and performances within the theatre. Jan and the team at NTGent worked in sync throughout this project and that, as Jan concludes, was the driving force that led to this spectacular installation: “What was important to me, was the way the collaboration took form, the human factor.

Things like service are crucial. Because we’re in a very specific sector, it was important to work with people who knew where we wanted to go and helped us get there.”

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PARKTHEATER ISERLOHN Technical Details Location: Iserlohn, NRW, Germany Manufacturers: GDS, UK; ETC, USA/Germany; Coemar Lighting, Italy Distributor: Vision Two GmbH, Germany Architect: Kommunales Immobilien Management Iserlohn, Germany Lighting Designer: multisenses gmbh, Germany Installer: multisenses gmbh, Germany Submitted by: multisenses gmbh The Parktheater Iserlohn was opened in its present form in 1964 after the conversion and extension of the original building from the late 19th century. It is located in a park at the edge of the Iserlohn city centre.

The theatre is very successfully operated as a programme theatre with more than 220 national and international, partly top-class productions of all genres as well as selected own productions every year. With around 57,000 visitors and around 4,500 subscribers each year, it is one of the largest and most important cultural attractions in the region of South Westphalia.

The theatre has two stages, the Main Stage with over 800 seats and a stage size of about 300 sq metres with upper and lower machinery, as well as the Studio Stage with over 100 seats. In addition, a concert and event hall, as well as a theatre gallery and the foyer are used for various exhibitions and events.

The Main Stage is equipped to the highest technical standards and has an auditorium that was modernised in 2001 with special acoustics designed for spoken and musical theatre.

The main challenge in the audience of the Main Stage of the Parktheater Iserlohn in Northrhine-Westphalia, Germany was to fulfil the high demands of the customer on the quality and flexibility of the lighting and in particular on the dimming behaviour taking into account the colour reproduction and the required minimum illuminance in each area. The architectural expression of the room with its light wood seating and floor, its light acoustic ceiling and dark wood wall panels had to be upgraded and supplemented with multi-colour accent lighting. At the same time the acoustic properties of the room had to be kept unaffected by using the existing lighting positions in the acoustic ceiling and strict fire prevention and safety requirements had to be fulfilled.

In addition, the high demands on uniformity and nonglaring as well as

the colour reproduction had to be met in order to provide the artists on stage and in the orchestra pit with ideal conditions and to create a perfectly matching atmosphere for the audience. After extensive testing and comparison of products from different manufacturers, GDS / ETC with FTW and Coemar Lighting with SoftLite Led provided the technologies needed to achieve these goals.

This is the first European project where the ArcSystem products with FTW technology have been implemented, while still in the process of their re-design and transition from GDS to ETC, proving that such a major undertaking in the industry can be finalised effectively leading to successful projects and fully satisfied customers, when there is a strong and confident partnership between all project partners.

Besides, this project especially shows how the high demands of the customer, combined with the strict rules and regulations, can be met completely and without any compromise by the combination of a highquality LED audience light system and high-quality LED ambient lights.

It also shows that questions of energy efficiency, sustainability and the availability of lighting technologies are no longer incompatible with a desired architectural expression, the individual needs of a customer, nor the artistic or safety-related requirements in the lighting of a theatre audience with LED solutions.

By means of multisenses, the entire audience lighting system of the Main Stage of the Parktheater Iserlohn was replaced by LED technology and a new control system.

30 ETC ArcSystem Four-Cell Round in custom colour with a special mounting solution and 11 One-Cell were installed in the acoustic ceiling. These are operated by the GDS ArcSystem Pro D4 CC constant current driver system in a 19 custom housing. In addition, a further 41 ETC One-Cell, mostly in custom colour, and 6 additional GDS One-Cell in standard colour were installed on the GDS driver system as above.

These are supplemented by 4 Coemar Lighting SoftLite Led, also with a special mounting solution, as well as various RGBW LED strips.

The audience lighting system is controlled via the GDS / ETC ArcMesh system and DMX with custom specific control panels by GDS at key positions on the stage and in the auditorium and was fully integrated into the existing stage lighting system by multisenses.

The audience lighting system planned and installed by multisenses reduces over 37kW of former conventional lighting to 4.16kW of LED power consumption under full load with energy savings of about 168,000kWh per year.

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TEATR MUZYCZNY ROMA

Technical Details Location: Warsaw Manufacturers: Meyer Sound, DiGiCo, Allen & Heath, Shure, ETC, Clay Paky, Robe Architect: Stefan Szyller Installer: Airpol Sound & Light Submitted by: Airpol Sound & Light Opened in 1935, Teatr Muzyczny Roma was one of the few buildings in Warsaw that survived the war. Consequently, post war it was the location for the State National Council to hold its meetings. The council was a political body designed by the USSR, which served as a self-appointed Polish Parliament. Three years later in 1948, the Warsaw Philharmonic Opera made Teatr Muzyczny Roma its temporary home – because its original home was destroyed in the war – and it remained there until 1965. The Warsaw Operetta took over residency that same year and stayed right through until 1994, when the name of the building was officially changed to Teatr Muzyczny Roma, and therefore the show programme for the space changed, too.

With the old PA in the theatre, the subwoofers had been flown behind the line arrays, but Krzysztof from Airpol Sound & Light’s design team didn’t match the old system, as he was concerned about interference.

Instead he designed and sourced a specially constructed frame for the four subwoofers to sit within a two-by-two configuration, which was then ceiling mounted in just 22 hours.

Eight Meyer Sound MINA cabinets were purchased for a central cluster.

Shortly after installation, Krzysztof spoke to the mixing engineer. He explained: “He was putting the vocals through the centre channel and the music through the L-R sides, which was a much better solution because it allowed more headroom in the loudspeakers in all three arrays. However, there was a big difference in SPLs due to there being 13 boxes in the L-R hangs and only eight in the centre. I worked with the mixing engineer to tune the system, lower the levels of the side hangs to match the centre hang to create the desired output.

“For FOH we have the SD7T with an EX007 console expander, the latter stems from the previous mixing setup and the mixing engineers being used to having a certain amount of faders, because in order to control 40 wireless mics on one layer, the engineers wanted as much access as possible, for occasions when there is a fast change, for example. I added an expander, on which they have the orchestra in the groups that allows the song list to be on the main console, as well as some effects, surrounds and media servers. We decided on another SD7T for monitors, again so we had more redundancy, if one engine fails, the other can take over.” In addition to the consoles there are two Waves SoundGrid servers per console – two Extreme servers for FOH and two One servers for the monitor console, one on each engine – and there are ProShow plugin bundles, too.

“The console is the heart of everything and controls everything – this was one of my principles. Some productions that come through the theatre bring their own console for monitors, but then when they see the DiGiCo

setup they decide to use the full in-house system. I’d say 60%-70% of the productions use the installed system.”

The theatre is also home to four DiGiCo SD Racks – one for radio microphones, two in the rack room connected directly to the orchestra pit and the final one is a spare, used for external productions. “Because we don’t always use all the rack space, we also have connections for the media server, the light signals, and the Meyer Sound D-Mitri platform.

For this we added some Optocore X6R-FX devices, which gives us more inputs and outputs to and from the system,” Krzysztof furthered. “I also added an Optocore Route66 AutoRoute, which opens the Optocore loop automatically when a device is connected. Likewise when you disconnect, it closes the loop. With the Route66, you can change the topology of a loop installation, to a star topology installation. I am very impressed with this device, all you have to do is turn it on and forget.”

The surrounds are based on Meyer Sound’s D-Mitri platform and comprise three rows of loudspeakers using a combination of UPM1Ps, UPJ1Ps and UPQ1Ps. The 3D audio effect covers the entire main audience, as well as the VIP booths – the additional booths will be added to the system at a later date.

The lowest row of surrounds are hung underneath the balcony to avoid interferences with sightlines and aesthetics, and the cabinets have been colour matched in navy to complement the décor. The middle row are mounted at booth height, but are mounted on the columns in between the booths, again, for aesthetic reasons.

Teatr Muzyczny Roma has been making use of Shure’s ULX-D system since it was first introduced. Polsound’s Pawel picks the story up again: “The ULX-D systems were the first digital systems that had a lot of channels that could go into a very small space in the RF spectrum. The Shure ULX-D systems can have 22 channels going into one 8MHz TV channel, and here we have 60 channels – 40 on the main stage and 20 on the small stage. For control, management and monitoring of the wireless systems, the theatre has a WaveTool Platinum software package. If a microphone has a problem, it can be found quickly using the WaveTool.”

“When we look at the Meyer Sound PA and the DiGiCo consoles, this is a system that can produce a very wide dynamic range, which brings the audio experience closer to reality. In this case the sources also need to offer the same range. The ULX-D systems have over 120dB of dynamic range, which means that these systems have a nearly none existent noise floor. This has created, a sort of paradox problem because all of a sudden the quality of the microphones is immediately visible. In the past, analogue systems have had an inherent hiss sound, and the self noise of the microphone generally got masked by it. But now, the system is so clear, you can hear absolutely everything! The issue of high quality, low noise, wide dynamic range microphones for theatres has emerged and Shure is addressing that”.

The theatre has also been making use of Visual Act Wagon and Spider camera systems, which are essentially moving platforms housing LED screens to provide scenery and scene changes. They are wireless and individually controllable, making for a very flexible visual set-up.

Content for the LED screens is provided by two disguise 4x4pro media servers – one for redundancy – and tracking is carried out through a BlackTrax system that can also be connected to the D-Mitri platform.

Three Christie 4K30 projectors are also at home in the theatre. This setup, along with anything else technology wise is under the leadership of Technical Manager, Anna Was. She said: “I love technology and I want to make big improvements in the theatre all the time. I love similar people who share a love of technology and deliver to the end user.”

Anna has an eye for detail, especially given that she is also a costume designer in her spare time, and she assumes that role for many of the theatre shows, too. In addition to her visual equipment, Lighting Design, Marc Heinz also specified a number of moving heads and theatrical lighting fixtures for Anna’s disposal. The mostly LED line-up includes more than 40 ETC Source Four profiles, almost 100 Clay Paky moving heads, 49 intelligent lights from Robe – Spiiders and T1 Profiles – and four Robert Juliat Victor followspots. Teatr Muzyczny Roma is also the first theatre in Poland to invest in four Robe RoboSpots for remotely controlled follow spots. All of these are controlled via a MA Lighting grandMA2 Light console – and of course there is a second one for redundancy.

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THEATRE SADLER’S WELLS THEATRE

TECHNICAL DETAILS Location: London, UK Manufacturers: Riedel Submitted by: Riedel Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London has adopted Riedel’s Bolero wireless intercom to ensure reliable and flexible communications across the 10,000 sq metre building and the adjacent Lilian Baylis Studio. Located on London’s iconic Rosebery Avenue, the theatre is renowned as one of the world’s leading dance venues, staging contemporary dance and ballet performances in its 1,560-seat main auditorium. The theatre also has a unique link to Riedel’s home city of Wuppertal through an ongoing residency with the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, a partnership that spans more than 35 years.

As well as providing a stage for visiting companies, the Sadler’s Wells Theatre is a producing house with a number of associated artists and companies creating original works for the theatre, and many locally produced shows are also recorded for cinema.

Visiting OB trucks that are also equipped with Riedel Artist systems can easily interface with the theatre’s systems, creating smoothly integrated workflows and tremendous convenience.

Bolero covers the spacious theatre with only four antennas. One is located at the side of the stage, with another in the auditorium and the third on the fly floor, which also covers all the dressing room corridors and backstage studios. The fourth antenna uses the IT department infrastructure and covers the cafeteria and the entire Lilian Baylis Studio. The setup also provides coverage for all basement areas including technical offices, dressing rooms, and

the orchestra pit, and even provides full coverage in the Sadler’s Wells Studios - despite the studios’ separation from the antennas by several concrete walls.

“The Sadler’s Wells team has taken full advantage of Bolero’s customisability and has fully tailored the system to the theatre’s needs,” said Nacho Lee, UK Sales Manager at Riedel Communications. “The team has made extensive use of Bolero’s profile function, giving each full-time member of staff a dedicated Bolero beltpack that has been set to a profile specific to that person’s requirements. In this way, parameters like volume, screen brightness, and quick menus are preset to the user’s liking.”

Mark Noble, Head of Sound at Sadler’s Wells, has designed highly creative workflows for Bolero using the theatre’s NSA-002A interface. In one example, the team has reassigned Bolero’s red reply button on stage managers’ beltpacks to open a channel to the paging system through the 4W-Interface. This enables stage managers to use the paging system to make backstage calls to all the dressing rooms and other backstage areas from wherever they are. With another profile, the reply button switches between brightness modes to allow the user to remain unseen onstage. The theatre’s NSA-002A sits on a comms network switch that is attached to Wi-Fi, making it easy to reconfigure on the go using a tablet.

“People are amazed by Bolero’s battery life, coverage, and overall user friendliness — and the integrated bottle opener has also come in handy. This versatile system really has worked wonders for us,” said Mark. “With the newly released Bolero 2110 (AES67) mode, we will enjoy an even greater degree of flexibility and scalability, so it’s a great thing that the new license is already included in our standalone license. We were looking for truly future-proof equipment and have found it in Bolero.”

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