Dainty Consolidated Entertainment brought Miley Cyrus to Australia in June. The Gypsy Heart tour commenced in Brisbane on June 21 and travelled to Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth.

This tour marked Cyrus’ first visit to Australia since being introduced to local audiences as Hannah Montana in 2006. Miley Cyrus has released ten albums and sold in excess of 500,000 singles in Australia.

Massive Attack - Sydney Opera House forecourt

Massive Attack toured Australia in March 2010 off the back of their album `Heligoland`. JPS provided a L-Acoustics K1 system for the tour.

Tour Dates

March 12, Perth, Kings Park
March 15, Sydney, Opera House Forecourt
March 19, Canberra, Royal Theatre
March 20, Melbourne, Myer Music Bowl
March 21, Adelaide, Entertainment Centre
March 23, Brisbane, Riverstage

Fanfest Darling Harbour

While 32 nations played in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Sydney was one of only six cities around the world to host an International FIFA Fan Fest. More than 500,000 people visited the Cockle Bay and Tumbalong Park sites, at Darling Harbour, where all 64 matches were broadcast live on four large screens.

JPS provided sound reinforcement and crew for the 31 day event.

One of the most celebrated and influential rock groups of all time, Fleetwood Mac, brought their ‘Unleashed’ tour to Australia in late 2009.

Fleetwood Mac played December 1 and 2 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne December 5 at Hope Estate Winery, NSW, December 7 and 8 at Acer Arena in Sydney, December 11 and 12 at Members Equity Stadium, Perth and December 15 at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.

Excessive temperatures and strict noise pollution controls faced Pearl Jam and their crew at their massive outdoor gig at Sydney’s Football Stadium in support of their latest release, Backspacer. This was also the tour that Australian rental-company and long-standing L-Acoustics Rental Network Agent, Jands Production Services (JPS) was using to debut its new K1/Kudo line array system.

JPS – along with several of the world’s leading rental companies – are collaborating with the L- Acoustics R&D team in advanced field proofing of the new system that is specifically designed for stadiums. As a result the company has taken delivery of one of the limited number of K1 systems in the pilot programme. “The new K1 isn’t intended as a replacement for V-Dosc,” explains Jim Straw, JPS general manager. “The combination of K1 and Kudo is aimed at providing a scaled solution for large venues with Kudo providing a flexible horizontal and greater vertical dispersion, while the K1 offers fixed horizontal dispersion with a maximum of 5° inter-element angles for larger venues.”

Pearl Jam’s FOH engineer, Greg Nelson, first heard the K1 system at Coachella, admitting that he was ‘blown away’ with how much sub bass could be achieved out of the main flown system. “Ratsound, our sound provider in the US, had purchased the system and I got to preview it at last year”s Coachella festival. I was wildly impressed with the performance,” he says. “The box just sounded better than anything else I had ever heard – straight out flat, just turn it on and go.”
(Read more… )

Jands Production Services has joined the new K1 / KUDO pilot program and early next month will take delivery of one of the few systems, produced so far, by French manufacturer L-ACOUSTICS.

K1 / KUDO is the new L-ACOUSTICS line array system for stadiums and JPS along with several of the world’s leading rental companies are collaborating with the L-ACOUSTICS R&D team in advanced field proofing of the new system.

The JPS K1 system will consist of 48 of the new K1 line source cabinets along with K1 SB and SB28 subwoofers, KUDO line source boxes and LA-RAK touring racks fitted with LA8-amplified controllers.

The new K1 isn’t intended as a replacement for V-DOSC, instead the combination of K1 and KUDO is aimed at providing a scaled solution for large venues with KUDO providing a flexible horizontal and greater vertical dispersion, while the K1 offers fixed horizontal dispersion with a maximum of 5-degree inter-element angles for larger venues.

The K1 enclosure includes dual 15-inch woofers, a re-engineered mid/high section that includes a third compression driver, and comes with internal captive rigging.

The K1 is designed to hang 24 enclosures deep, creating much longer arrays than is possible with V-DOSC. The new dual 15 K1-SB subwoofer is also fly-able providing system designers with longer LF throw and cardioid pattern physical arrangements and presets to suit the SB28 subwoofers.

The K1/KUDO system is powered by the new LA-RAK, a 9U touring rack, incorporating three LA8 amplified controllers, and space for dual Ethernet switches for control and monitoring (L-NET) and digital audio (L-DGA). The LA Network Manager software, running on a PC, offers a graphic interface for control and monitoring of up to 253 units.The software also includes EQ balance tools to adjust for array height, listening distance and line source type.

For more information the K1 / KUDO system visit : www.l-acoustics.com

Continuing its tradition of investing in large-format digital consoles JPS recently acquired a Soundcraft Vi6 desk.

The new console from Soundcraft is the result of a joint development with sister console company Studer and uses touch-screen colour TFT monitors with integral rotary controls and switches mounted directly on the glass to provide a ‘where you look is where you control’ user interface.

The VI6 is currently on the road with Delta Goodrem who is touring again for the first time in three years.

Slade

Writing in Audio Technology magazine Mark Davie interviews the team responsible for Steely Dan’s audio on their Australian tour.

Tour Dates: September 8 – 24, 2008
Excerpt:
“Steely Dan has probably played through more PAs than any other band. Well, maybe that should read been played. Walter Becker and Donald Fagens back catalogue can be heard echoing in empty concert halls and arenas across the globe Steely Dan has for some time been the discerning engineer’s recording artists of choice for tuning PAs. Given a Steely Dan gig is a rare occasion, even rarer in Australia it’s sometimes difficult to imagine Steely Dan the band coming out of the PA, and not just Steely Dan the CD. Sure enough, Walter and Donald have entrusted their live sound to one man and he’s known simply as JR.”

Download / read the complete article. [PDF - 564KB]

Bob Dylan continued his Never Ending Tour which began in the late 1980s with dates in Australia and New Zealand in August 2007.

The tour, his first trip down under in more than four years, included five Australian and three New Zealand shows and followed the release of Dylan’s 32nd album, Modern Times.

The Australian run of dates included the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on August 13, Sydney Entertainment Centre on August 15, Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on August 17, Adelaide Entertainment Centre on August 21 and the Burswood Dome in Perth on August 23.

Dylan’s tour follows a string of North American dates in June and July and performances earlier this year in Europe, where the legendary folk and rock songwriter has drawn on his rich back catalogue and new material.

Audio production for Kylies’ triumphant Showgirl Homecoming tour, which kicked off on November 11 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre was supplied by Jands Production Services. Front of house engineer Chris Pyne specified an L-ACOUSTICS system consisting of 48 V-DOSC elements, 32 SB 218 subs, 16 Arcs and 18 dV-DOSC cabinets. The system is powered by 66 Crown MA5002 amplifiers.

JPS used the Kylie tour to debut one of its new Dolby Lake Processor (DLP) drive racks made up of 4 x LP4D12 units and a Motion 1200 wireless tablet.

“They sound very, very nice,” said Pat Richardson, JPS’s crew chief. “I believe that they are quite a marked development audio wise and you can definitely hear the difference.” Other JPS crew on the tour includes Cameron Elias, Dave Richardson and Simon Farrell.

Chris Pyne is also trialing an experimental convolution reverb that Dolby/Lake has produced

“As far as I know it’s the only one that exists,” Chris revealed. “It can alter parameters by computer, convolution reverbs are usually just a sampled space such as a room and that’s all you get. This model has sampled spaces that you can adjust the parameters on and that’s very interesting. Bruce Jackson, who works for Dolby, spoke about this prototype when I visited him in the US recently where he is doing front of house for Barbra Streisand.”

Dolby Live Sound