For LAPP, the jazzopen is a good platform for increasing company awareness and helping to attract specialist and managerial staff. LAPP has been a reliable partner in the events industry for many years now however. This is because many cables, conduit glands and connectors that are traditionally used in mechanical and plant engineering are also ideal for the lighting & audiovisual industry.
Around 13 kilometres of cable by LAPP will be used for the eight stages at the jazzopen. “Without our connection solutions, without cables that bring music and light to life, there would be no jazzopen. Just like LAPP, the festival is synonymous with high standards, quality and internationality in the heart of Stuttgart,” Matthias Lapp, Chairman of the Board of Lapp Holding SE, enthuses.
One year of planning
The heart of the festival is the giant stage at Schlossplatz. It is 28 metres wide, 17 metres high and 18 metres deep – making it one of the largest open-air stages in the world. Until, on July 18, cult band Deep Purple will be rocking the stage there under the spotlights at Schlossplatz, there is still plenty of work to be done. “The end is always the start of the next year. We started planning for jazzopen 2023 as early as last autumn,” explains Matthias Kreiner, Production Manager at jazzopen. He is not only responsible for construction of the entire stage and the festival infrastructure, but also has to adapt artist special requests to conditions on site. This is no problem for Matthias Kreiner however. He is an old hand in the events business. For example, he was a technical conductor for the hospitality sector at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, stage manager at the spectacular Wacken Open Air and has been very successful in managing set-up and the technology at the jazzopen since 2008. Coordination with the individual bands is therefore one of his tasks. “I received a 26-page brochure of specifications from Deep Purple.” It’s all about how large the stage needs to be, where the spotlights are, how large the cloakroom needs to be and also what catering is required backstage,” he grins. Should the requirements be impossible to accommodate, he has to renegotiate. “Sometimes up to 50 e-mails will ping back and forth until everything is in order,” explains Kreiner.
Light & sound professionals from around the region
The spectators are entirely unaware of all this. They expect to experience a perfect stage show during the jazzopen, with perfect sound and breathtaking visuals and lighting technology. For the stage technology, Matthias Kreiner brought in service providers from the Stuttgart region. This year, the company d&b audiotechnik GmbH & Co. KG in Backnang will be using a new sound system, called Soundscape, for the first time. Usually the speakers are located to the right and left of the stage, this time they are hung in a row above the stage. This improves the listening experience. With Soundscape, spectators can listen virtually in 3D, as the music comes from where the really instrument is and not from the speakers.
The technology partner for jazzopen is Sound &Light Veranstaltungstechnik GmbH. It controls lighting and video technology. For example, there are 12 x 8-metre screens to the right and left of the stage, as well as several small screens at the side. The positioning of the approximately 250 spotlights also needs to be precisely configured. For this, there is an exact lighting plan for each event. The H07RN F connecting cables from LAPP are used to safely connect all devices to the power grid. They are perfect for open-air events. They are particularly flexible in dry, wet and especially in harsh and oily environments. They can also be installed outdoors and can withstand even some heavy mechanical loads. One example is that yellow cable bridges are usually laid between the director and the stage to protect the cables. But if a forklift truck passes over them during stage construction, the cables underneath must be able to withstand this and still function reliably. ÖLFLEX® 159 power and control cables are used to wire the control circuits across the plant.
Electricity from the Neues Schloss palace
The organiser commissioned the power supply from MEEVI-rent GmbH from Stuttgart. It also uses H07RN F connecting cables and the flame-retardant H07RN VK single core. The electricity for the huge platform comes from the Neues Schloss. There is a large transformer with 800 kW power. And for an emergency, which has to date never happened, power units are to hand.
Matthias Kreiner: “We have been using cables from LAPP virtually everywhere for years now. “Our experiences with them have been very good. We have never had an outage. And if we were to, we’re never far away from the source, up in Stuttgart Vaihingen. With LAPP as a reliable connectivity partner, we have no doubts about the success of our events.“
