BRITANNIA ROW PRODUCTIONS NEWS

SEPTEMBER NEWS

This month Britannia Row Productions & Training were proud to launch their new Live Sound Advanced sessions.

These LSA sessions are being held on the second Wednesday evening of every month with a talk from 6.30pm – 8.00pm with an hour of chat and networking from 8.00pm to 9.00pm. They are being hosted by Britannia Row Productions in conjunction with Britannia Row Productions Training and will be held at Britannia Row in Twickenham

All audio professionals are welcome subject to available places.

At the first ever LSA session Britannia Row Productions General Manager,  Nicola Amoruso made an introduction to LSA followed by a mixing master class by Marcel Van Limbeek.

Sherif El Barbari and Tony Szabo of L-Acoustics will be giving us an overview on L-ISA and Immersive Audio in October.

In November, Digico will be discussing the possibilities of their new Area 4 matrix for use with multi- band and artist bills and multi room locations while in December Universal Audio and Yamaha will be telling us about the new UA plug-ins for Yamaha consoles. The new year program kicks off with a session from Q-Lab in January.

The full list of sessions can be viewed at https://www.britanniarow.com/LSAsessions/

Britannia Row presented at this years PLASA, which commenced with a talk from Britannia Row Director/ Britannia Row Training Managing Director Mike Lowe who spoke abut why Britannia Row got in to training and the need for training in this industry.

This was followed by a session on System Design, Prediction, Analysis & Optimisation presented by Luca Stefani - Course Director, Britannia Row Productions Training & Josh Lloyd - Technical Projects Manager, Britannia Row Productions.

Following on from this was a panel discussion on the System Design & the future with Immersive Audio which was moderated by Marcel Van Limbeek -  Warehouse & Training Manager at Britannia Row Productions with panellists: Dave Bigg- Product Specialist, Digico, Shaun Clair – V.P. of Sales, Clair Global Corporation, Bryan Grant – M.D. Britannia Row Productions, Dave Hayden - Outboard Timax, Josh Lloyd – Technical Project Manager, Britannia Row Productions, Tony Szabo – Head of Application, Touring, L-Acoustics & Scott Willsallen – Auditoria / Sound Designer

AUGUST NEWS

In August we were touring the UK and Europe with Mumford & Sons, Ben Harper, Bryan Ferry & Simple Minds.

Comedian, television presenter and actor Kevin Hart is also currently selling out Arenas across Europe and Britain with his hugely popular comedy 'Irresponsible tour'.

Being a big festival month we had festival packages and technicians out with The Pretenders, Nick Murphy, Dua Lipa, Kasabian and Amy Macdonald. 

Celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year, the original dance music festival Creamfields took place during the August bank holiday from Thursday 23rd to Sunday 26th August with  headliners The Chainsmokers, duo Axwell & Ingrosso and dance legend Eric Prydz. 

While the festivals were rocking this side of the Atlantic, Britannia Row tours in August in America included The Foo Fighters, Childish Gambino, Jamiroquai and Pink who ended her US tour at the beginning of the month before the tour relocated to Australia and New Zealand. We are touring with Pink down under until 8th September. 

Earlier in the year Matt Goss had announced details of a one-off UK show for this summer to celebrate 30 years in the music industry. The Bros star played a headline show at the London Palladium on August 26 An Evening with Matt Goss and Friends, a classic Vegas lounge show with a dynamic, modern twist

Sporting events in the month included the FA Comunity Shield Final.  The game is played between the winners of the Premier League and The Emirates FA Cup from the previous season. Manchester City faced Chelsea and won the game. Then there was the Challenge Cup Final Rugby League Cup competition, where this year Warrington Wolves went head to head with Catalans Dragons to lift the Challenge Cup trophy. Both of these events took place at Wembley Stadium.

And on to September with some exciting tours and shows around the globe...  

JULY NEWS

Summer is now in full swing and so too is the Britannia Row warehouse. Out the door this month went equipment and crew for more Foo Fighter shows, Amy Macdonald in Europe & the UK. Kasabian in Spain, Italy & Lollapalooza. Pearl Jam in the UK and Depeche Mode in Europe.

Festivals and multi bill shows in the summer sunshine included the regular Somerset House Series in London and the welcome return of the Cornbury Festival in the beautiful cotswolds. Nile Rogers, Rita Ora and The Manic Street Preachers and more brought music to the beautiful English Heritige grounds of Kenwood House in London for the House Festival. Later this month world music festival WOMAD will return for another year.

We continued our regular support at London's Roundhouse which included shows from Angie Stone, Years & Years and Jimmy Cliff.

A global summer of music and for here in the UK, football sadly didn't come home but amazing music in the summer sunshine did!

JUNE NEWS

Angus and Julia Stone and The Classic Brit Awards, both at the Royal Albert Hall, were brave enough to allow us to do the first L-Acoustics L-ISA immersive audio shows ever in the UK. They were not disappointed with their decisions. The audiences, the engineers and all concerned were blown away with the results. We look forward to pursuing this very different and exciting audio development which makes a quantum leap in audio quality as well as providing engineers with an extremely flexible creative tool with infinite possibilities. The Britannia Row crews were supported hugely by some of the L-ISA R&D team and L-Acoustics folk.

We provided a different kind of immersive sound for Roger Waters, with surround sound for his European shows in June running through July. The main system is supplied worldwide by Clair Global.

Tours and shows in UK & Europe for the month included, The Offspring, Pearl Jam, Robbie Williams, Jamiroquai, Kasabian,  Little Steven, Duran Duran, Two Door Cinema Club, Depeche Mode., Marilyn Manson, Bryan Ferry, Foo Fighters, Limp Bizkit.   Alanis Morrissette started out on the 25^th of the month for her predominately July tour.  

Britannia Row tours in the USA in June included Depeche Mode, Dua Lipa, Harry Styles.

Pink’s world tour moved from the U.S, to Australia with Britannia Row equipment and crew where we are being supported by JPJ Audio.

The Britannia Row Roundhouse house system and Britannia Row crew continued throughout the month in London’s Roundhouse with shows most days.

There were twelve corporate shows in the month in London (6)  Cannes (5) Austria, (1)

The UK football season ended with us supplying audio services for two internationals at Wembley  ahead of the World Cup – England v Costa Rica and England V Nigeria.

…..and onto July and hopefully a continuation of the great weather because a whole bunch of outdoor shows are coming up……

MAY NEWS

Def Leppard & Journey started their massive co headline US Tour this month with the first show on 21st May in Hartford, Connecticut. Both bands brought the house down with performances only legends could have delivered.

Britannia Row are supplying crew & the speaker system - L Acoustic K1, K1SB, KS28, K2, KARA, ARCsII & LA12X, and custom amp dollies.

The tour visits 50 Arenas & 10 Stadiums across North America from May 21^st through October 7^th.

This large scale 58 city tour will also include stops at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Wrigley Field in Chicago and Fenway Park in Boston. The last time these two acts shared a bill was in 2006. 12 years later the collaboration promises to be even more spectacular!

APRIL NEWS

Britannia Row crew and equipment are on the road this month with singer/songwriter Bryan Ferry, who has just commenced on his first UK tour since 2015. Bryan Ferry's career has spanned over forty years and has produced an extensive catalogue of songs from his time as front man of Roxy Musc and his solo career. 

We headed out on Dua Lipa's self titled arena tour which travels through Europe this month. The singer/songwriter is touring for a year, her biggest tour to date. Dua Lipa was named the most streamed woman of 2017 in the UK by Spotify. In February 2018, she won two Brit Awards for British Female Solo Artist and British Breakthrough Act. 

Investing in the training and development of our staff has long been a high priority for the company.  Britannia Row apprentices and freelancers were given the opportunity this month to develop their skills as they attended an in-house training session to undertake L-Acoustics level 1 training.

The Level 1 training provides fundamental knowledge and practical methods for the configuration and operation of L-Acoustics systems. Participants learn to identify the elements of a K system, and understand how they complement one another as well as prepare and install a K system so that it is ready for operation.

Attending Level 1 training modules is indispensable for any technician or engineer wanting to work with L-Acoustics Systems.

Freelance Sound Engineer Ben Philips ran the session at Britannia Row's premises in Twickenham. The post training reviews said it all - the training was effective and increased confidence for all the attendees.

Luca Consonni - It was a real pleasure being part of this training. From my perspective it was spot on as offered both an insightful overview of L’Acoustics workflow and practical experience under the supervision of a well experienced engineer, eager to give you tips you only get to learn from on-site work.

Tomas Nunes  - I found it very explanatory and accessible to people with distinct differences in knowledge. Ben Philips experience with the equipment really makes the difference, I felt much more confident to fly any box after this training while gaining interest in the system design and prediction using Laccoustics free platform SoundVision.

Miguel Mota - I went to the L'acoustics training at Brit Row more for a recap, as I was already familiar with the equipment we went over. Am glad to say it was more than just a recap, as I learned more efficient ways to fly the K-series and useful combinations of cabinets for different purposes. What really made the training for me though, was the Soundvision basics, learning from an engineer who has used the software so often. I feel like I can walk into a venue now and, after measuring it, build my PA and do the acoustic prediction and system optimization. 
Am definitely looking forward for the next one!

Mario Bianchi - Level 1 training with Ben was excellent. It really gave me a better understanding of L’Acoustics products, both on a theoretical and practical level.
I can now say that I understand L’Acoustics speakers more and ultimately this training has allowed me to deploy their products more effectively.

Tobias Dracup - I enjoyed the lectures. I learnt a lot and the hands on demonstrations definitely helped me grasp a better understanding on designing an effective system

Jonatan Santonja -  It was an exciting experience to get hands on time actually rigging speakers with different cabinet arrangements, after spending a couple of years in the warehouse maintaining the equipment. 
Ben showed us how it gets done when you are on a tight schedule and have to get the speakers up safely and quickly. Hopefully we will have the training for the next level soon. 

Harry Garcia - “L’Acoustics Level 1 delivered by Ben Phillips is some of the best system tech training I’ve received, and has given me a practical understanding of system design, rigging, amplification and control, not to mention the confidence to go out and work with L’Acoustics in the professional arena.”