Absen Outfits Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
Having already won the tender to become official LED screen supplier to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Absen’s Spanish distributor Crambo, has recently supplied and installed a staggering 700 sq metres of Absen X5 LED panels, ahead of the MotoGP and Formula 1 Grand Prix seasons.
Absen X5 panels, the outdoor and all-weather-proof HD LED display with a pixel pitch of 5.2mm, are deployed as 10m x 5.62m displays around the racing circuit area and at the winners’ podiums.
Crambo, an Absen Value Added Partner and provider of pro-AV solutions, was responsible for the smooth integration of the new LED infrastructure into Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Juan Carlos Acerete, project manager at Crambo, explains the choice of product: “The Circuit was looking for the highest quality, at a truly contained price. Absen leads the pack in terms of innovation and quality and offers great and affordable pricing as standard.
He added: “With the sun shining directly on the screens during the races, LED is the only suitable option to display images and videos. At 5.2mm, the Absen X5 offers the perfect pixel pitch for most events and allows us to play with resolutions that are close to Full HD, as most displays in the Circuit measure 10m x 5.62m.”
Outside the racetrack, the Circuit’s conference and indoor spaces feature a combination of Absen A3 and M2.9 LED panels to provide image and video relay. Acerete describes the Absen A3 panels as ‘all-terrain’ and they feature heavily across the complex. He says: “They are ideal for most of the indoor events where high quality and high-resolution display is required.”
The Absen M2.9 LED displays are situated in areas where the public is in close proximity to the display. Juan explained: “The resolution of the Absen M2.9 is perfect for close viewing. The result is absolutely amazing with crystal clear images.”
Prior to the installation, a system of fibre optic cables was installed into the surface of the circuit. This readied the arena to transmit video at the highest possible quality – to over 20 television displays as well as screens of different formats, spread around the circuit and indoor areas.
Carried out by Crambo, the screen installation took only three days to complete, which is a tight timeframe to install over 700 sq metres of Absen X5, plus indoor screens. Absen’s screen cabinets are designed for easy install: quick to assemble and equally fast to dissemble. The M2.9 is a perfect example of this ease of construction and can save rental stagers up to 50 per cent of time compared to a traditional LED panel.
Joan Thomas, Crambo’s Catalunya and international director said: “We have found in Absen a flexible and reactive partner when facing challenges. In the world of rental, each event is different. With Absen, if we ever have any doubts about anything product- or installation related, we can always count on the support of an Absen engineer when we need it.”
He concluded: “The customer is very satisfied. The combination of Crambo’s expertise alongside Absen displays has resulted in a huge qualitative leap, not only in terms of resolution but also angles of vision, brightness and colour quality. For prestigious events such as the Formula One Grand Prix, and with such a large amount of screens required, it is critical to use the best technical equipment, and Absen X5 is instrumental to a perfect result.”
EAW Enhances Steinbrenner Field
George W. Steinbrenner Field, the spring home of the New York Yankees, has undergone a $40 million dollar renovation that includes a new Eastern Acoustic Work’s (EAW) distributed loudspeaker system designed by Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon & Williams (WJHW) and installed by AVI-SPL.
“EAW MK Series loudspeakers were a terrific solution for this project,” explained Jeremy Thomas, CTS, account manager AVI-SPL. “Our primary concern was vocal intelligibility and the MK Series offers not only the clarity we required, but also a variety of horn patterns that allowed us to provide clean, even coverage throughout the stadium.”
The renovation included expanded stadium seating as well as a wrap-around concourse with plenty of social areas, outdoor bars and clean views of the field. The new distributed system was made up of 54 outdoor- rated MK loudspeakers – an assortment of MK2391, MK2391i and MK5399 – painted white and bracket-mounted under balcony areas, on walls and on poles throughout the concourse with particular attention paid to the new outdoor bar areas. The new loudspeakers work in conjunction with the existing system that covers the main stands that run from 1st to third base.
“The point source coverage is excellent, allowing us to cover exactly what we needed to cover,” added Jeremy. “It works seamlessly with the existing system to provide Yankee fans with a far superior game-day experience than they had before.“
GL Events Supplies Asian Games
The 2018 Asian Games is a pan-Asian multi-sport event held from the 18th of August to the 2nd of September 2018 in Indonesia. Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium in Jakarta will host the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games. The Games will feature 463 events in 44 sports with 45 countries participating at 65 competition venues, supported by more than 13,000 volunteers on site.
On behalf of the Indonesia Asian Games Organizing Committee (INASGOC), GL events Middle East was selected as the General Contractor for the 18th Asian Games, including the overlay delivery: tents, grandstands, barriers, containers, power, ventilation and air conditioning, scaffolding, media desks, broadcast compounds, interior fit-outs, and branding.
The Project Management team will involve between 120 and 150 people from the GL events Group, from 20 different countries, as well as more than 1,000 local workers involved in the preparation and execution of the different phases. GL events Middle East has extensive experience in delivering sports events in the region, but the 2018 Asian Games are definitely one of the largest projects in its history, with multi-sport activities in more than 50 venues around the country.
“GL events Middle East started the project by clearly defining the team’s overall mission, i.e. the successful delivery of the second largest multi-sport event in the world, the 2018 Asian Games. The principle of working closely with GL events’ headquarters underpins how we operate: GL events Middle East is responsible for the overall project management and GL events head office teams - supported by other business units providing key resources for the project and extensive experience in jumbo events. Great teamwork is our main strength,” said Benoit Beylier, Managing Director of GL events Middle East.
GVPmedia & Elation Lights ROH
Event production house GVPmedia of Houston is responsible for lighting Ring of Honor events, a popular pro wrestling touring circuit that incorporates high-flying wrestling with mixed martial arts.
Ring of Honor (ROH) puts on a high-energy, electric live show and GVP uses the power and dynamism of an all-Elation Professional automated rig to help build excitement and support the drama.
ROH matches are intense affairs that are also filmed for TV, Internet Pay-Per-View or DVD release. An important step in building up the exciting atmosphere is the energy created from pre-match introductions as loyal fans anticipate seeing their favourite wrestler enter the arena.
GVPmedia has been working with ROH for the past 3 ½ years, providing lighting, LED video displays, and rigging for a growing list of Ring of Honor events across the U.S. For an ROH event in February at Center Stage theater in Atlanta, GVP turned to its inventory of Elation hybrid moving heads (Platinum HFX™ and Platinum FLX) to add adrenalin-inducing beams to the entrance stage where wrestlers make their electrifying appearance. The rig also included two luminaires that GVP added to their inventory after last year's LDI show, the ZCL 360i single beam moving effect and one of Elation Professional's newest colour-changing batten fixtures, the Chorus Line 16™.
"The role of the Chorus Lines in the ROH design was to apply a punch of colour as the wrestlers entered the arena," said Gabby Schmees, Director of Business Operations at GVP. "We really liked the fact that you can tilt the Chorus Line fixtures and they can give off a nice linear beam of light. The fact that they zoomed was just another great feature." Lighting design for the Atlanta ROH event was by GVP's James Poole and Master Electrician was Kristen Conroy.
Useful as a stage wash or foot light solution, the Chorus Line 16 has full pixel control and enough power to compete with high-lumen lighting and bright LED video screens. It also includes motorized zoom optics and a 220° tilt motor function so designers can position the unit during a show. GVP has used their Chorus Line 16s on several projects across multiple markets the last six months such as corporate events, awards shows, concerts and television broadcast.
Chris Krumins, Senior Production Manager at GVP, has been impressed with both ROH and the value they are getting from their Elation lighting. He comments: "Ring of Honor has been a great company to work with. Mark Davis, the Director of Production for ROH, is always coming to us with new ideas and allowing us to choose the right fixture for the job. I would say that Elation has helped to improve the production value that GVP is providing for ROH and our other clients."
GVP has stocked Elation lighting for years now and Krumins has seen a development in the company along the way. He adds, "Elation has come a long way and continues to impress us every day by providing great instruments that assist in making our shows look amazing. It is evident that every product continues to evolve. We are very happy to tell people that the majority of our lighting instruments are Elation."
d&b Treats Green Day at Estadio Velez
When the American punk rockers of Green Day arrived at the Velez Stadium in Buenos Aires after their yearlong world tour, audience, crew and band were in for a real treat and an audio first. There, the PA was the d&b SL-Series, GSL System, the brand new member of the d&b large format PA family making its South American debut. BALS Buenos Aires Live Shows, one of Argentina’s largest rental firms, was the local provider for sound and lighting.
The Estadio Velez is a forty five thousand capacity Sports stadium, now firmly established as a leading venue for global events and tours. The d&b GSL sits as the defining apex of the d&b line array family delivering power and performance innovations that position it well above the iconic d&b J Series.
When the audio crew for Green Day arrived at the stadium, led by Kevin Lemoine, the band's long standing FOH Engineer, and Clark Thomas, System Tech, they were full of anticipation. As long term users of the J-Series and declared d&b fans, the crew were very much looking forward to using GSL. The team were not disappointed.
"This is the best expression of live mixing I have ever encountered,” Kevin commented. “Now I want to try different microphones on sources because I can actually hear the nuances of them: different compressors, different pre-amps, and different EQs. This is a thrilling idea really, and the thought of using the GSL on a daily basis cannot happen fast enough. From someone that is familiar with every major PA system, it’s nice to know what is really the best, and I can’t wait to hear it again.”
The main system for the Estadio Velez show featured the latest addition to the d&b line array family, the GSL System - a new big brother for the iconic J-Series. The GSL8 and GSL12 line array modules are unique in their directivity control, which is seamlessly maintained over the full bandwidth, from 45 Hz to above 18 kHz. This is coupled with unprecedented low frequency headroom and exceptional resolution in the mid and high frequencies. Complimented by the SL-SUB and SL-GSUB cardioid subwoofers, the GSL System is a complete package designed to make full use of the tools in the established d&b Workflow.
For the 49,540 people capacity Estadio Velez, the system used fourteen GSL8s and two GSL12s per side as the main arrays, with sixteen J8s as out fills, this was supported by eighteen GSL-SUBs and eight V7P front fills - all powered by D80 amplifiers using Array Processing.
After hearing the PA installed at the Estadio Velez, pre-gig the reaction from the BALS audio engineers was a mix of astonishment and disbelief, noting the evenness of coverage on the pitch, the lower tiers, and the tiers at the opposite end, as well as the absence of the low-end rumble behind the PA. And that was without subs. Macaio, the d&b distribution partner in Argentina, mentioned that it was the clearest sound they had ever heard in the stadium.
By today’s standards, Green Day is a straightforward line-up consisting of three front liners with a couple of guest musicians, amounting to only 22 channels at the FOH desk. What the band “lacks” in channel count, Kevin makes up in toys, because he works almost exclusively analogue and uses a choice collection of boutique outboard gear.
Outline Ready For World Cup Kick-Off
As the eyes of the soccer world turn towards Russia for the 2018 World Cup, those fans lucky enough to watch games at one stadium in particular will enjoy state of the art audio reinforcement for such a venue.
The 64 matches that comprise the 2018 World Cup are to be hosted across a dozen stadia up to 1,800 miles apart in this vast country, from the Baltic Coast all the way to the Ural mountains in the east.
One of these is the Ekaterinburg Stadium, originally opened in 1957 then subject to a major redevelopment completed in 2011. To meet FIFA’s specifications it will feature some innovative temporary space for fans, with extra covered seating on the outside of the stadium perimeter behind both goals, taking its capacity up to just over 35,000.
In preparation for the four World Cup matches scheduled to be played there and also for the use of Russian Premier League side Ural Ekaterinburg, whose home ground it is, a huge Outline sound system has been installed based around their new ‘Stadia’ series of products designed specifically for this application.
A total of 223 Outline loudspeaker enclosures have been deployed throughout the stadium to provide seamless coverage and superlative intelligibility to every seat in the house. The Stadia series includes three different models (the 100-10, 100-20 and 100-30, offering a choice of vertical dispersion characteristics) and all three models feature in a design that uses a total of 121 Stadia modules throughout the stadium.
They are joined by 48 Outline ST SUB low-frequency modules, the dedicated LF companion in the Stadia range, while a further 54 Vegas 24 ultra-compact enclosures are used to cover the VIP and guest zones. More than 300 individual channels of Outline amplification power the huge system with a combined total power of over one million watts.
CROC were appointed as the general contractor for the development of the stadium infrastructure, subsequently creating and implementing a complete suite of facilities including low-current designs, ticket entry and physical security systems, telecommunications, broadcast, multimedia, sound reinforcement and engineering systems monitoring.
At the invitation of Andrey Korogodin, Director Of Corporate Customers Department of CROC, the specialists of the Sofit Light Company (Outline’s distributor in the Russian Federation) worked closely with the lead contractor in the design of the sound reinforcement system.
Alexander Klinushkin, Sofit Light’s Senior Engineer, comments: “We received a very positive feedback on the job done. When the system was turned on for the first time, using only the factory presets, the result was already intelligible and musical. We made some fine tuning (that was in any case foreseen during the system design), the system works with a lot of headroom and it is necessary to keep it in mind when working with the audience.”
Also a key venue in the tournament, the Kazan Arena will be using their Outline system, which was installed in 2013. A combination of Outline Spectra II and Tripla II (using 24 and 48 units respectively) are powered by 31 Outline T Nine amplifiers, all connected to five Outline Genius M412 matrices.
Joseph Electronics Appoints Christopher Ahern
Joseph Electronics (JE), the premier one-stop shop for the broadcast industry and provider of fibre termination and custom fibre solutions, has hired Christopher Ahern as director of business development, sports and Northeast. In that newly created position, Ahern is responsible for strengthening existing relationships, expanding the reach of JE into the broadcast market, and securing project and integration specifications for the breadth of JE’s offerings.
“In his 24 years in the broadcast industry, Chris has demonstrated success in developing strong customer relationships by focusing on the clients’ specific needs and guaranteeing that their needs are met throughout the entire process,” said JE President John Cleary. “His vast knowledge of our customer base and his experience as a solution provider make him the perfect choice to provide instant success as we move to expand our reach in this strategic area of our business.”
Ahern brings significant broadcast-equipment sales experience to his new role, especially as it relates to broadcast and production for sports. Immediately before joining JE, Ahern was the vice president of business development for Anthony James Partners (AJP), an AV and design consultancy for professional sports franchises, college campuses, architectural firms, commercial development companies, and public agencies. He also served as vice president of sales, sports and entertainment, for Wave Central, where he carved out a niche for the wireless-camera transmission-equipment provider in the rapidly growing professional and college sports markets.
Chelsea Ceases Stadium Plans
Chelsea Football Club has announced the decision to put its stadium development plans on hold.
A statement on the club's website reads: "Chelsea Football Club announces today that it has put its new stadium project on hold. No further pre-construction design and planning work will occur.
The club does not have a time frame set for reconsideration of its decision.
The decision was made due to the current unfavourable investment climate."
The estimated cost for a new 60,000 seat Stamford Bridge has increased to £1bn following delays.
Memphis Grizzlies Upgrades with Riedel
Riedel Communications has announced that the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies have joined several other U.S. professional sports teams in adopting Bolero, Riedel's widely acclaimed wireless intercom system.
Working in concert with Riedel's Artist digital matrix intercom solution and SmartPanel multifunctional user interfaces, Bolero is now enabling bulletproof AES67-based communications for the Grizzlies' broadcast operations and in-venue productions at the FedExForum.
Comprehensive Technical Group (CTG), an Atlanta-based systems integrator for media, entertainment, and audio/visual installations, sourced and integrated the Riedel products as part of a large-scale upgrade and modernisation of the FedExForum video control room.
"During the initial planning stages, it was decided that a standards-based AES67 IP network would be the best solution for distributing antennas throughout the facility," said Josh Shibler, Vice President, CTG. "The result is an elegant and scalable IP infrastructure that allows Bolero to deliver outstanding sound quality from almost any location in the FedExForum."
The Riedel solutions form the communications hub for a new converged platform in the FedExForum that drives live video and audio for broadcast, LED presentations, and AV-based marketing programs. Three decentralised Bolero antennas located at strategic points in the building connect to AES67-compliant IP switches and then to an Artist matrix intercom frame equipped with AES67 client cards. This enables wireless roaming across the entire arena and the control room for six Bolero beltpacks. With this antenna configuration, up to 24 additional beltpacks can be supported without further investments in antennas. Also benefitting from AES67 connectivity, 13 wired rack-mount SmartPanels and five desktop Smartpanels are used as intercom keypanels.
"Bolero and Artist have proved once again that they're an unbeatable combination for large and complex intercom installations like that at the FedExForum," said Rhett Frazier, Business Development Manager, Southern U.S., Riedel Communications. "With Bolero's proprietary Advanced DECT Receiver, communications for the entire arena are easily handled from only three antenna locations — a feat that's simply not possible with any other wireless intercom system on the market."
ULA Illuminates Commonwealth Games Village
The 2018 Commonwealth Games Village – the latest urban renewal project of the Gold Coast - became a temporary home for over 6,600 athletes and team officials who came to Australia from all over the globe.
The ULA Group partnered with Elite Event Technology to illuminate the main common outdoor areas of the Village to help create a vibrant, dynamic and festive atmosphere within this unique site during the Games.
The brand-new complex of the Commonwealth Games Village - developed on the 29-hectare site – provided residential, retail, recreation, dining and medical facilities for the athletes and officials during the 11 days of this high profile international sporting event.
The Village is very patriotic and the attention to Aussie detail is so impressive. The overall design is all about the colour and represents Queensland in the very nicest way, with the residential villages called Rainforest, Reef, Outback, Beach, Surf and Sunset.
The whole idea of incorporating temporary mood lighting to the complex was to highlight the colours and playfulness of the Village and the Games even during the dark and provide a perfect place for the athletes to celebrate the wins and success of their national teams.
For Elite Event Technology, with the recent Investment to the new Acme Lighting outdoor fixtures, this was a great opportunity to test these IP65 rated fixtures in Queensland’s unpredictable weather conditions. The team used 56 Acme Outdoor Tour Pixel 1010 Bars to illuminate facades of various buildings within the complex, running different colour patterns and colour themes each night between dusk and dawn.
One of the nicest features of the 2018 Commonwealth Games Village is the Village Heart, a white sculpture with vertical fountain. This original sculpture was modelled on the Natural Arch in the nearby Numinbah Valley behind the Gold Coast, where water cascades down the limestone and glow worms appear at night.
Twelve Acme Stage PAR 400 Zoom IP fixtures were strategically positioned around the sculpture to bring it to life with beautiful saturated colours and purposely programmed lighting schemes, with the green and gold theme being one of the most popular.
The whole Commonwealth Games Village project was guided by environmentally sustainable design principles, encompassing environmental, social and economic initiatives and received a full 6 Leaf Enviro Development Mixed Use accreditation form the Urban Development Institute of Australia for its ecosystems, waste, energy, water, materials and community. The Parklands project has also achieved a 6 Green Star Communities pilot rating from the Green Building Council Australia, the equivalent to “World Leadership” in sustainability.
The 2018 Commonwealth Games were a great success, with Australia topping the medal table for the fourth time in the past five Commonwealth Games, winning 80 gold medals and 189 medals in total.
Huge congratulations to all the athletes representing Australia! Both teams at ULA Group and Elite Event Technology are very proud that we could have been a part of this amazing event!