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

Review

Alex Lalak From: The Daily Telegraph February 22, 2011

DR ZHIVAGO is a show for theatregoers looking for something to chew on. It is a slow-burn musical, with polished performances, gritty plot, a fighting spirit and, most importantly, an excellent score.

Written by US composer Lucy Simon and directed by Des McAnuff (of Jersey Boys fame), Dr Zhivago is based on the lengthy novel by Boris Pasternak. It follows part of the life of Yuri Zhivago (Anthony Warlow), a doctor and poet raised in a wealthy family after the collapse of his own and married to the daughter of the house, Tonia (Taneel Van Zyl).

After a couple of chance meetings, the feisty Lara (Lucy Maunder) captures Yuri’s poetic heart and their troubled love story plays out against the bloodstained backdrops of World War I and the Russian Revolution.

There are some shaky elements, including pacing in the first act, simplification of politics and the rapid-fire ending. However, considering it has been in previews for a mere week, it shows serious promise on all the points that matter. It looks fantastic, with early scenes of aristocratic splendour contrasted with later visions of war-time griminess, set off by black and white images digitally projected on to the backdrop to assist scene changes.

Simon’s score is a delight, with powerful ballads rubbing shoulders with jaunty chorus numbers and a stirring quartet. The cast does an excellent job delivering Simon’s music, with sharp performances from the soloists. Trisha Noble, Peter Carroll, Martin Crewes and Van Zyl hold their own, but it is the balance of Maunder and Warlow that holds the show.

Despite her youth and occasional lack of depth in her voice, Maunder has a good crack at Lara’s complexity and brings her to life, particularly in the duets with Warlow. Warlow might seem too old for the role but the heart and experience he brings to the stage is invaluable and there is never a doubt he is in total control.

Dates

Sydney, Lyric Theatre, February and March 2011
Melbourne, Her Majesty’s Theatre, April to July 2011
Brisbane, Lyric Theatre, QPAC, July to August 2011

    Photos courtesy of Stephen Booth Photography

The Pixies returned to Australia for a sell out national tour. JAS provided a D&B J series system along with a M4 monitor system.

In a sign of things to come the shows were recorded live and CDs were available at the end of the show.

DATES

March 14 – 27

SYSTEM

32 x D&B J8/12 line array boxes
12 x D&B J-sub
6 x Q7
2 x Yamaha PM5DRH
3 x DV-Dosc sidefill systems
12 x D&B M4 wedges

JAS Crew

FOH system tech: Craig Gordon
Monitor system Tech: Mathew “Boz” Boaro
Audio system tech: Nathan McGuinness

    Photos courtesy of Stephen Booth Photography Click to enlarge

2010’s Future Music Festival featured The Prodigy, Empire Of The Sun, Franz Ferdinand, David Guetta and co along with new musical acts including: Spank Rock, Way Out West, Operator Please, Bag Raiders, Space Invadas and Jump Jump Dance Dance!

Dates

Feb 27-28, March 6-8

Melbourne Festival

Main stage

24 x L-Acoustics V-Dosc
24 x L-Acoustics SB218

Stage 2

24 x D&B J
18 x D&B B2 sub
1 x Digidesign Profile FOH console
1 x Yamaha PM5D
12 x D&B M4 wedge
2 x Nexo Alpha E side-fill systems

Stage 3

16 x D&B J
12 x D&B J- sub
1 x Digidesign Profile FOH console
1 x Yamaha PM5D
12 x Wayloud wedge
2 x Nexo Alpha E side-fill systems

Sydney festival

Main stage

24 x L-Acoustics V-Dosc
24 x L-Acoustics SB218

Adelaide festival

Main stage

24 x L-Acoustics V-Dosc
24 x L-Acoustics SB218

Prodigy package

Consoles

2 x Midas XL3
3 x quad D&B C4 side-fill systems Loud!!!
16 x D&B M2 wedges

Franz Ferdinand package

1 x Digidesign Profile FOH console
1 x Yamaha PM5D monitor console
2 x D&B M2 wedges

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.”

Mr Nelson was anxious to use the K1 system as soon as possible so when Pearl Jam hit the road in the US a couple of months ago, he did just that. “I had a great time with it and it is instantly noticeable that we were using a better sounding PA system,” he says. “From management to the band, to people who know nothing about sound – it was obviously a much better system. It throws better, it covers better… in fact, the coverage on it is a lot wider so It’s been possible to spread the sound system around a bit. I was actually able to lose one of my rear hangs all together; the K1 enabled us to use less PA in a room which is great for truck space and means less time to hang the system.”

In conversations with JPS prior to the tour, Mr Nelson mentioned how fabulous he thought the K1 system was and how much he’d love to use it in Australia. “JPS made it happen,” he says. “

The K1 enclosure includes dual 15-inch woofers, a re-engineered mid/high section that includes a third compression driver, and uses 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 flyable providing system designers with longer LF throw and cardioid pattern physical arrangements and presets to suit the SB28 subwoofers. “Using the K1 system in Australia has been a great experience,” Mr Nelson reports. “It requires almost no EQ, there’s nothing that needs to be done with the system – we literally turn it on and go and it performs wonderfully.”

He describes the sound of the K1 as “very hi-fi with an incredibly smooth high-end and mid-range” – basically a big improvement over the V-Dosc: “As I said, It’s a wider box especially in the high frequencies, where you’re covering a lot more area with it. The low end is also fantastic. The main PA, without turning the subs on, goes down to 45Hz and so I’ve been able to stop flying the subs because the main PA is putting out so much energy. I can just stack some subs on the ground and you can feel that kick drum throughout the whole venue. It’s great for Pearl Jam, as having subs on-stage really annoyed them; the feel of them can be disorientating. With the ability to place the SB28 subs in front of the band, I can get a lot more sub and the band don’t feel a thing. It makes for a better show all round and the band have a better time on stage as there are no low frequency distractions.

“The cardioid sub pattern I am using with the SB28 means I am able to get away with way more sub bass than I have in the past and even now have complaints from my monitor engineer that the PA is too quiet,” he continues. “The clarity of the system is great. A lot of times during the show I have three guitars just hammering away and it is very easy to make them all individually heard with this new system.”

For the Australian tour, the PA system is made up of 48 K1, 24 K1 Subs, 24 SB28 subs, 16 Arcs, 24 V-Dosc and 18 dV-Dosc elements. The main hang consists of eight K1 subs and 14 K1 boxes, with three dV-Dosc boxes at the bottom. Side hangs are four K1 subs with 10 K1 boxes, and six dV-Dosc on the bottom. The SB28 subs are spread out in blocks all over the floor in front of the stage with L-Acoustic Arcs on top on them, the amount changing every day depending on what each venue requires. “Some days I only use eight of them and on others I use all 16,” explains Mr Nelson. “The K1 sub is basically an extension of the low-end in the main hang so it is flown on top – it just gives you a little extra punch.”

The K1 system is powered by the LA-Rak, a 9U-high touring rack, incorporating three LA8 amplifier-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 the past three years Mr Nelson has been using the Digidesign D-Show Venue console, which he describes as fantastic. “I wouldn’t change a thing about it,” he claims. “I’m really comfortable on it – it sounds good and, at this point, It’s kind of like an old friend.”

The Sydney Football Stadium has very severe noise restrictions taking into account C-weighting which most venues do not. In fact, not only do they take C-weighting into account but it wasn’t an average rather a peak. At no time could the show exceed 100dB C-weighted.

“The metering point was only about 70m away from the stage,” says Mr Nelson. “It was also right where the subs kind of lobed, so if you walked to the left or right it was quieter than where they had the meter. That made it even more difficult and meant I had to play with turning the low end up in the main hang and down in the subs, and vice versa just to try negate that lobing where the actual level meter was positioned. I think it made for a less impact in the show and it was actually noticed by the crew and management as quite a different show. If the city council doesn’t want a rock band to play there then don’t book one.”

“Other than that it was fine and everyone had a great time. It’s only people like us who know what it could have been. Not that it needed to be exceedingly loud. The average A-weighted at FOH is 101dB or 102dB and the average C-weighting is 115dB. It’s not like I’m killing people out there, I just like a bit more impact. You can use low end to make a show seem louder than it actually is and unfortunately I couldn’t.”

During soundcheck and the support acts of Liam Finn followed by Ben Harper, Mr Nelson tried to gauge how loud he could go at front of house to determine what it would be at the meter. “I didn’t want the guy on at me all night telling me to turn it down, I really didn’t want to have to deal with that,” he adds. “With Eddie Vedder having the flu his voice was incredibly raspy and there were times when he wasn’t really hitting the high notes but it was still strong. You could still understand everything he was saying and he was still in key. Eddie has such an amazing voice even when he is sick with the flu. He still went for it and threw everything he could into his performance in fact I really didn”t have to do much that was different. Maybe my fader was 3dB higher than normal but that was all.”

Long-time monitor engineer Karrie Keyes was having a difficult day sweating it out at the helm of a Midas Heritage console. Earlier in the day the Midas got heatstroke and went into shut down with the thermal and so a bunch of fans were set up to keep it going. Fortunately everything ended up being fine and the Sydney show was a good – if somewhat stressful – test run for the gear, and the K1 system in particular. According to Mr Nelson, everyone on stage was miserable but the gear held up well and it all performed well: “The heat never makes for a fun day or fun show,” comments Ms Keyes. “The sound suffers considerably, so it was pretty brutal.”

She has been mixing the monitors for Pearl Jam for 18 years, and knows the band’s needs well. Among the challenges this tour she faces is the sheer volume on the stage, small stage space and each member of the band wanting to hear different things – except when they want a ‘crossfire’ sound. The goal is to have no pockets on stage without sound, with Eddie Vedder being the loudest and the clearest as he thrives on the volume. For this reason, she chose to tour with the new EAW MicroWedge 12s. Plus, with limited stage space the small footprint of the MicroWedge is a definite bonus. “I am using the Microwedge 12 for Ed’s guitar mix”, she says. “I can get them very close to his guitar rig’s sound without much EQ or trouble. We’re also using MicroWedge 12s for Matt [Cameron]‘s drum fill, with a left and right mix plus a sub.”

Previously large drum fills and in-ears systems had resulted in the drummer feeling fatigued and with ears ringing. Currently she is running the MicroWedge 12 at full volume with him wearing fully sealed ear-plugs and that seems to be the perfect balance. “Again, they need very little EQ and I can over power them if needed and the smooth high end does not add to ear fatigue.”

Despite a valiant effort the show was cut short due to Eddie Vedder losing his voice but no one seemed to mind. They had still been on stage for a mammoth couple of hours and besides, he promised $20 off tickets next time Pearl Jam return to Sydney… And the guys at JPS also went home happy, if tired and a little sweaty. “JPS, after investing in the latest L-Acoustics K1 system, was excited to debut the K1 on the recent Australian Pearl Jam tour,” concludes Jim Straw. “We have received a great response from the act and client alike, the great comments about the system from across the country has confirmed our decision about the purchase of this system.”

Dates

October 5, 7, 10, 14, 17 2009

Marilyn Manson rocked through Australia for another full-on tour. The system was made up of a 32 box V-Dosc system along with 24 x SB218 subs and a Digidesign D-show out front.

The monitor system included D&B M2 wedges, L-Acoustics ARC side-fills and a PM5DRH console.

JAS crew

FOH system tech: Craig Gordon
Monitor system Tech: Mathew “Boz” Boaro
Audio system tech: Shaun Ayles

Liza Minnelli Tour Sept 2009

Dates

October 16-17, 21, 23, 25, 30 2009
November 2 2009

Liza Minnelli returned to Australia after a 20 year hiatuses. A nice quiet affair for all to be had! A pleasant change from Slayer and Manson that week!!
The system supplied was a V-Dosc system with a Digidesign Profile out front.
The monitor system comprised of a PM5D console and the Wayloud wedges for Liza.
We supplied 16 x Nexo PS8 wedges for the orchestra as personnel monitors

JAS Crew

FOH system tech: Josh DeJong
Monitor Operator: Alan Mourant

David Gray Tour Sept 2009

Dates

13 & 15 Oct 2009

David Gray flew through Australia for a quick promo tour.
D&B J line was requested and supplied for the Hammer Hall show.
We supplied a console and monitor package for the other shows.
Analogue was recalled for FOH with a Midas H3000 and lots of that stuff we love. The monitors ran from the PM5D with the M2 wedges everywhere else.

JAS Crew

FOH system tech: Tristan Johnson
Monitor system Tech: Conor Dunne

Date

March 29

JAS Crew

Craig Gordon
Connor Dune
Paul Kennedy

Main system

54 x D & B J line array boxes
16 x D & B J subs
12 x D & B B2 subs

Delay system

16 x L-Acoustics VDosc

GP Side Track

JAS also supplied a Nexo Alpha system with Digidesign consoles for The Future Music Side Track event. With various acts including Sneaky Sound system the tent went off.

The idea of Sound Relief was brought to life with the running of two simultaneous concerts at the Sydney Cricket Ground and the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Johnston Audio was asked to supply the audio system for the MCG event. What followed was an amazing four week period to produce the event. The story of the event’s development and artist involvement has been well documented elsewhere. We went to work on designing and installing a system for Midnight Oil, Split Enz, Hunters and Collectors, Wolfmother, Jack Johnson, Gabriella Cilmi, Jet, Paul Kelly, Bliss n Eso and Liam Finn to perform in front of the largest ever paying audience for a music concert in Australia.

So with a sold out 82,000 strong crowd at the MCG to cover and a special set of conditions we set about designing a system for the job.

Bruce Johnston and Jock Bain have been doing big shows in big stadiums for a long time, and designed a system that has worked well over the years. This included outer hangs of 15 V-Dosc cabinets and due to the low stage roof height we were only able to fly 12 cabinets per side for the main hangs. The roof also presented an issue with the point positions and we had to fly the main hangs further upstage than we would have liked.
Each outer hang was accompanied by a “tower of power” of 12 flown Wayloud dual 18” subs. A further 36 Wayloud subs – in 6 x pods of 6 – were positioned across the front of the stage.

The delay systems brought their own set of issues to the job. The MCG would not allow a crane on the arena to position large towers, so we were left with no option but to use 8 metre towers for the main delay arrays. Two delay towers were utilised, each with 15 Nexo Geo T cabinets. As the MCG is a 3 level stadium we all knew that the towers would not cover the job properly.
Tim Millikan became involved with the project to design the delay system required and to plot the overall system. Tim was a key part of the audio team at the Days in the Diocese Mass at Telstra Dome in 2008 and his understanding of the requirements of a large stadium system design was of great assistance.

Because of the restrictions with delay towers, Tim suggested that we bring in a delay ring positioned on the outside of the playing surface to throw to the upper levels of grandstands. Norwest Productions came to the party with 42 Kudo cabinets distributed over 14 wheeled carts.

The end result was great coverage everywhere and a great result. We went to the fifth level of the grandstand and were amazed how good it sounded at the very back row!

In the FOH tower, there were 4 DigiDesign Profile consoles – A & B boards, a set up / back up console for engineers to prepare their show, and Midnight Oil were carrying their own console package. Stage left saw 4 x Yamaha PM5-D RH consoles running monitors in the same configuration as out front. The monitor system was Nexo PS 15 wedges with Nexo LS1200 drum subs and Nexo S12 flown side fill.

The system patch was set up under the stage with Matt “Boz” Boaro in charge, with two fully independent stage patch systems to facilitate full line check for FOH, Monitors and Broadcast/Record before each act was rolled on stage into position. The result– not one miss-patch and Broadcast/Record crews saying that it was the best feed and communications design that they had ever encountered.

Sound Relief was an amazing event to be involved in – the spirit of camaraderie and cooperation was outstanding, and the production values achieved were extraordinary. We would like to thank Norwest for supplying their services to help make such a large event happen. Chris Kennedy and Richard Bilinski did not hesitate in offering their equipment and staff for such a great cause.

The Sound Relief Production Team included Nick Pitts as Event Manager with Stig Moor as Production Manger. Assisting Nick and Stig were Larry Ponting , Dugald McAndrew, Howard Freeman, Scrooge Madigan and Geoff Maher.

A huge vote of thanks and acknowledgement of a great job must also go to the Johnston Audio team who were outstanding throughout the event’s build, operation and pull down.

And finally, in a delicious dose of irony, the heavens opened throughout the day – it rained and rained, breaking Melbourne ‘s drought and bringing much needed relief to the final fires still blazing.

Date

March 14, 2009

Audio Crew

System Design

Tim Millikan
Chief System Engineer Robert “Jock” Bain

FOH

Doug Pringle
Josh de Jong

Monitors

Paul Kennedy
Richie Robinson

Stage

Simon Keet
Matthew “Boz” Boaro
Nicholas Brunney
Shaun Ayles
Otavio “Guto” Santos

Main system

54 x Vdosc
60 x Wayloud 218 subs
12 x Arc
6 x Dvdosc front fill

First delay

24 x Nexo GEO T 4805 Array cabinets
6 x Nexo GEO T 2815 Array cabinets

Second Delay

42 x Kudo split down to 3 boxes per cart.

FOH Control

3 x Digidesign Profile consoles.

Monitor Control

3 x Yamaha PM5DRH consoles

Monitor system

16 x Nexo PS15 Wedges
2 x Nexo LS1200 subs
8 x Nexo S12 line array sidefills

The system design, handled by Tony Smith who has been with the band for many years, was in a 270 ° 6 hang setup with 2 delays down the room.

The system was made up of of 4 x 16 deep hangs of J8 & J12 with 12 x flown J-Subs. The outer 270 ° hangs were 2 x dVDosc subs and 8 x dVDosc boxes each. The 2 x delays up the room consisted of 4 x J8 boxes per hang. The delays had a 40m trussing system running down the room to supply the power and signal.

Coldplay brought their own Digidesign Venue D-Show console packages which were supplied by Wigam UK.

The band used a full in-ear monitoring system so no monitors were needed other than for the opening acts which used a JAS “Wayloud” monitor system with Yamaha M7CL consoles.

Dates

February 27 – March 12

System

72 x d&b J speakers
12 x d&b J-Sub
8 x d&b B2 Sub
4 x L=Acoustics dV-sub
16 x dVDosc

JAS Crew

Paul Gould – JAS audio chief / rigger
Eric Sanderson-Evans – d&b J system tech
Craig Gordon – system rigger
Connor Dune – monitor rigger