06/01/2025
Summer 2024 News
MX Sound and Lighting has been working with a couple of dance and drama schools recently. We have been providing PA and lighting for the Eastbourne branch of the Stagecoach music and drama franchise. For these shows, we provided some of our generic lighting including Fresnel’s and profiles with some LED lighting for added colour controlled by our Jester48 lighting console. For the PA, we provided our RCF Evox system controlled by our Mackie DL mixing system. We also placed several shotgun microphones across the stage to pick up the children’s vocal performances. We have recently been commissioned for two more branches at Redhill and Reigate from December.
We have also been involved with another dance school LCAS School of Dance based in Peacehaven where we have provided PA and lighting for their summer show. For this, we provided our W Audio system, Mackie DL mixing desk with shotgun microphones similar to the stagecoach set up. For lighting, we used our Jester48 to run the venue’s lighting system and provided LED par cans to add colour.
We have still been working with other shows and events outside of schools. In May, we provided sound and lighting for another community festival at Newhaven Bandstand. The Seahaven Music Festival was a three-day free event where DJs, bands and solo musicians performed sets on stage in a marquee erected on the main field. We provided the event with LED par cans for the main stage and festoon, plus other outdoor lighting for the surrounding areas to add atmosphere and to make unlit areas safe for the public to walk around in the dark. Sound wise, we used our Allen and Heath QU24 mixing desk to mix the bands and DJs. The PA was provided by the DJ this time, but we did need to provide some of our W Audio monitors for the musicians. The event has proven very popular with the public and the organisers are looking to run further events in the future.
In June, the Bandstand was the venue for another Newhaven mainstay, the council run Newhaven Sussex Day. As last year, it was a free community event and featured several music acts including a Choir, bands, solo musicians and storytelling. It also had the usual food and craft stalls. We supplied our W Audio 2.1k PA rig with six monitors, plus all mics, DI boxes. Despite torrential rain in the morning almost cancelling the show, the weather cleared an hour before it was due to open and the sun came out for the duration of the event. It was hailed a great success and was enjoyed by all who attended.
Another of our regulars, the Piltdown Golf Club, held their annual live music social evening. This year, they decided to host Rock covers band Jamie and the Falcons. These musicians have outstanding reputation and have played with many big named artists like Queen, Gary Barlow, Chaka khan and many more. The band played a varied selection of Blues, Soul and Rock classics. Once again, the stage was the golf drive range. For this event, we used our Allen and Heath QU24 digital mixing console 4x W Audio speaker tops and 4x W Audio subs plus 5x monitor speakers. For lighting, we used our LED par cans for the main band coverage, As usual, most of the show was held in the daylight, so much of the lighting was not seen to its full potential, to combat this, we supplied our LED bars and LED wash moving heads to provide some movement. This was controlled by our Jester ML48 lighting desk. Once again, we did receive a lot of positive feedback for the lighting and for the sound
We supplied PA for a much more serious event. It was held in Brighton's Jubilee Square for Zero HIV Stigma Day to help eradicate the stigma surrounding people living with HIV. The event was opened with a choir, then there were talks from people telling their stories of what it is like living with the condition as well as talks from support group representatives. For this, we provided our Yamaha Stagepas system with some SM58 microphones.
Our new friends, the Ledward Centre asked us to provide PA and lighting for their events celebrating Brighton Pride weekend. The celebrations began with a ‘Divas’ night featuring music and comedy. We provided extra microphones for the choir and technical assistance. There were six acts in total, featuring singers, a choir and ending with comedian Zoe Lyons. The show was well attended and received a lot of positive audience feedback.
On the day itself, the Ledward Centre opened its doors for its annual Family fun day. They also took over nearby Jubilee Square with a funfair, a Photo Booth and Tombola. We provided a Mackie PA and desk for sound and a pair of smoke machines to add to the atmosphere in the square. Inside the centre itself, the cafe area was used as the disco, so we provided our Yamaha PA and 2 T-Bars of lighting including LED disco lighting and some moving heads. Downstairs was used for arts and crafts and face painting, so we provided uplighters for the arts and crafts room and varying atmospheric gobo lights for the corridors leading to other rooms. Many of the patterns had a lot of the children enchanted. Over 300 children attended throughout the day, which was hailed as a great success.
