UK - Solotech has announced its partnership with Outernet, the immersive experience in the heart of London. This strategic collaboration solidifies Solotech's position as Outernet’s global 360 AV partner as it now looks to expand to future sites internationally.
"Our partnership with Outernet epitomises the standards by which we measure ourselves," says Bryce Jewell, managing director of Solotech UK. "The audio solution that we provided in London was a massive success, one that was ultimately recognised by many industry bodies. However, as Outernet looks to realise their ambitions in other markets, Solotech’s global reach and track record of delivering full 360 solutions will unquestionably add even greater value to our partnership. Together, I know that our combined strengths and expertise will continue to provide consumers with the most advanced immersive audiovisual e

USA - PRG (Production Resource Group) has appointed Ariane Coldiron as senior vice president, corporate events. Coldiron will head the corporate events division, reporting directly to PRG CEO Stephan Paridaen.
Coldiron was most recently SVP, brand experience at Freeman where she worked for nearly a decade. As SVP, she drove the company’s highly successful agency business, developing and implementing go-to-market and long-term strategies while managing a large and complex portfolio of accounts including industry giants like Google, SalesForce, Sage, and HP. She also held tenures at experiential agencies Jack Morton, InVision Communications, and TBA Global Events.
“Ariane’s extensive industry experience has uniquely equipped her for success in this key role,” said Paridaen. “She is a well-known and much-respected figure in the corporate events space, with lon

France - Pélerinage Militaire International was born of peace and hope. In 1945, with the horrors of the just-ended Second World War still scarring the landscape, Mgr Jules Saliège, the Archbishop of Toulouse, created the idea of having a gathering of wounded military personnel in Lourdes, one of the most sacred pilgrimage sites in the Roman Catholic faith. The concept quickly blossomed and within three years, soldiers from many nations, often former enemies, were coming together at the annual event to worship and heal wounds.
Today PMI, as it is called in France, attracts some 14,000 military pilgrims from 40 different nations. This year, their services at the Basilica of St. Pius X were enriched by a new lighting system that features 79 Chauvet Professional projectors supplied by Videlio.
Working with Vincent Fernandez, audiovisual department manager at the Sanctu

Australia - Canberra’s Belconnen Art Centre has chosen Prolights' EclDisplay range as the main lighting system for its innovative Window Gallery, an exhibition gallery overlooking the street. The space operates in 24-hour mode and is visible from the outside, attracting the attention of passers-by at all times of the day, meaning a suitable lighting system was required.
For this, Linda Buck - technical manager at Belconnen Art Centre - relied on Show Technology, Prolights' distributor in Australia, to select the new system. She explains: “The Window Gallery is a tricky space to deal with as you have light in the day coming through and then night time too. I decided to look at different options for profile-type lights in the gallery space that also had Casambi control.”
Prolights’ EclDisplay range was ultimately selected, with the installation of spotlights in

Norway - When dining at a Michelin Guide restaurant, the focus isn’t usually on the audio - more often everyone’s eyes are focused on the plates of well-crafted food. However, Villa Heftye - a laid-back bistro in the heart of Oslo - recently took the focus away from revamping its ever-changing seasonal menu to renovate its listed restaurant with a custom Genelec sound system.
Villa Heftye began life as a bank back in 1864. Commissioned by Jorgen Haslev Heftye and designed by Norwegian architect Georg Andreas Bull, it was bought in 2018 by local investor Runar Vatne for NOK 80 million. In 2021 the villa became restaurant Villa Heftye, an elegant yet casual bistro with an emphasis on French-inspired cuisine that uses seasonal Nordic ingredients.
"The brief was to build an audio system with the best possible sound," begins Henning Dyngvold, founder of Appletify who in

Germany - German Light Products (GLP), a leading German manufacturer of professional lighting technology, has appointed Dubai-based Provision AVL as its distributor for the entire Middle East region.
As a leading provider of pro audio, lighting, video, rigging and staging solutions in the Middle East, Provision AVL is now able to offer customers in the region access to GLP’s entire portfolio of innovative solutions, coupled with “outstanding local service and support”.
Kevin Boujikian, general manager of Provision AVL, comments: “We are pleased to add GLP’s world-class product range to our portfolio and offer it to our customers. As one of the leading brands in the industry, GLP’s products are recognised by professionals for their technology and quality. We are confident that this partnership will be a great success. Our customers look forward to having ac

Mexico - The Moon Palace is the biggest and busiest hotel and conference centre complex on Mexico’s sought-after eastern coast Riviera Maya region, just south of Cancun.
Owned by Palace Resorts, the property offers three large indoor conference and event centres plus three substantial outdoor terraces and a beach venue, the latter of which can accommodate up to 10,000 people for concerts. All these spaces are operated via umbrella company Palace Productions which is also responsible for production and delivery of the constant and diverse stream of business and private events.
Armando Manjarrez is the technical director of Quantum, Palace Productions’ technical services enterprise that supplies and co-ordinates all technical requirements - lighting, audio, and video - across the Moon Palace complex. Quantum owns substantial amounts of lighting, audio and video kit,

USA - Tony Caporale uses the word ‘array’ quite often when talking about his 61-universe lighting design for Grammy-winners, Tedeschi Trucks Band on their recently completed North American tour. That’s not just because he used 53 Chauvet Professional Strike Array fixtures to convey the 12-member band’s outsized energy level; in actuality it has to do with his approach to creating the dynamic production that supported their music.
“I’ve been saying ‘array’ a lot when I talk about this show,” said the designer and programmer. “The word really just sums up the vision we had for this show. We’ve grouped all of the fixtures in this rig in clusters, to create what I call an ‘array-style look’. Brian Pirrone, who has a great knowledge of this band, helped great deal in connecting me to their spirit.”
The array configuration that Caporale arrived at

France - Chaillot - Théâtre national de la Danse, one of France's six national theatres, is currently renovating its Salle Jean Vilar. The work is part of a dual drive to improve energy consumption and modernise stage design tools, including the replacement of existing lighting fixtures to ensure an early and carefully considered transition to LED technologies.
Built in 1937, the TNC is an exceptional venue in Paris because of the place it occupies in the history of live performance in France with the creation of the Théâtre national populaire founded by Firmin Gémier, and subsequently supported and developed by Jean Vilar. It is also part of world history since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed here in 1948.
Today, a cultural institution 100% dedicated to dance, in a location facing the Trocadéro fountains and the Eiffel Tower, the theatre com

The Netherlands - Elation Professional recently held a successful event for its European distributor network. rELATIONship 2023 was a special gathering that the lighting manufacturer says was more akin to a family get-together than a business meeting. The event was held 16-18 October in the beautiful surroundings of the historic Abbey Hotel Rolduc on the outskirts of Kerkrade, hometown of Elation's European headquarters.
Over 60 representatives from Elation’s European partner network took part, looking to "strengthen personal bonds and celebrate the ties that make the family-owned company special".
“rELATIONship was a blast and a huge success,” says Marc Librecht, sales & marketing director at Elation Europe. “For us, the most important part of doing business is the relationships we have the opportunity to build and the memories we create with some wonderfu

South Africa - Robe’s LEDBeam 350 moving light continues to be in demand worldwide, including in South Africa, where distributor DWR reports constant demand for the fixtures.
A recent LEDBeam 350 investor in Cape Town is Audio Engineering, a full production specialist founded in 1998 by Marcel Bezuidenhout initially as an audio supplier. The enterprise soon expanded in the early noughties with the addition of lighting and then video departments as Audio Engineering’s clients demanded full technical packages.
Audio Engineering has always had Robe moving lights, starting with ColorSpot 700E ATs, followed by LEDWash 300s, 300E Spots and Washes and then LEDBeam100s.
Since ramping back up post-pandemic, lighting investments have re-started to keep pace with the demand for LED screens which took off during Covid due to streaming events plus hybrid business meeting

USA - Light artist Eloi Maduell from Playmodes Studio used 288 Astera Titan Tubes to realise his immersive lighting installation Beyond at the 2023 LUMA Projection Arts Festival staged in Binghamton, New York.
The lighting fixtures were supplied by Wireless Film Lights from Hannover, Massachusetts, a sponsor of the 2023 LUMA event, which was curated and organised by co-founders, Joshua Bernard and Tice Lerner.
Since 2015, LUMA has been an intersection between art and technology, presenting inspiring and fun large-scale lighting and projection art in a pop-up urban environment for what has become a popular annual event in the town, attracting tens of thousands of visitors.
Beyond was one of seven works presented this year. It was the only one that didn’t involve a pre-existing building and projection mapping, instead the “travel without moving

Mexico - Few people other than dedicate cinema buffs, remember the 1935 James Cagney movie G Men, but the classic gangster film has lived on for the past four decades thanks to the global success of the Spanish quartet Hombres G. Ever since they made their debut at Madrid’s Rock-Ola in 1983, the band has been wooing fans with their irrepressible pop sound.
Today, countless live shows and some 15 albums later, the Latin Grammy nominated band is going as strong as ever. Their effusive energy and spot-on musicality are there for all to see and enjoy on their Seguimos Empezando tour.
Celebrating 40 years of Hombres G the tour is running throughout Spain and Latin America, playing two-hour sets in which the band never takes their foot off the gas pedal.
Reflecting this energy at Hombres G’s sold-out performances at Arena Monterrey and Arena Ciudad de Méxic

USA - Free Chapel is a growing multicampus church, operating out of Gainesville, Georgia, that combines a local approach with a global vision. The church’s successful and technically advanced Forward Conference has been constantly evolving over nearly two decades.
Snapback Productions from Atlanta was enlisted to support the technical realisation of the 19th year of the student conference earlier this summer. The annual event hosts more than 10,000 students from dozens of states at the Gas South Arena in Duluth, Georgia.
This year’s Forward Conference featured five artists and seven main stage speakers over a period of three days. Each of the artists performed sets ranging between 30–45 minutes, with some of the artists performing more than one set in total.
Snapback’s Bryce Kongvold and Michael Ferris were tasked with supporting creative director, Austin

Sweden - Prolights Astra Family lluminated the A Show Larger than Life performance at the Hamburger Börs in Stockholm, delivering a visual experience that left the audience utterly captivated.
This event celebrated the era of boy bands and music legends, both Swedish and international, and was elevated to even greater heights with the inclusion of Prolights projectors, generously provided by Gobo AB, the primary Prolights distributor in the region.
Lighting designer Jimmy Thorén harnessed the full potential of Prolights devices to transport the audience back to the turn of the millennium, evoking nostalgic sentiments from the '90s.
The Prolights lighting setup featured a total of 36 moving heads, including the Astra Wash19Pix, Astra Hybrid330, and Astra Profile400, transforming the Hamburger Börs into a genuine visual spectacle, immersing both the artis

South Africa - Technical supply company, MGG, has invested in 24 ROXX Cluster B4 FC LED blinders from DWR Distribution which were set to work at the 2023 SPAR Convention held at Sun City.
MGG’s initial introduction to the brand came about when Thorsten Sattler, one of the founding members of ROXX, visited rental companies within South Africa to support local distributor DWR Distribution. Mark Gaylard, director of MGG, needed a crowd blinder that would be suitable for outdoor events and it was apparent that the robust ROXX Cluster B4 FC LED Blinder ticked that box and many others.
Günther Müller, project manager at MGG, comments, "We received the ROXX fixtures just in time for the Krone 7 music show, and since then, we've used them at various events including a festival in Nelspruit and most notably at the 2023 SPAR Convention.” The SPAR convention, attended by 1

Italy - Marrageddon, the successful first hip hop festival from King of Rap, Marracash, involved two massive concerts in the two cities that are symbolic of the rapper: Milan and Naples.
Marrageddon gathered no less than 84,000 people at the Hippodrome La Maura in Milan on 23 September and more than 55,000 at the Hippodrome di Agnano in Naples on 30 September.
The festival hosted not only the big names of Italian rap - Fabri Fibra, Paky, Shiva, Salmo, Guè Pequeno, Lazza, Madame - but also dozens of emerging artists, integrating fireworks, lasers and 1,000sq.m of LED wall, as well as suspension cables to fly Marracash above the dance troupe.
Lighting designer Giorgio De Cassan of Ombra Design, who was entrusted by the rapper with the entire creative direction of his Italian tour, lit this event. The LD opted for 40 Ayrton Cobra laser-sourced fixtures, supplied

Germany - Since 1994, the rather tranquil Baden-Württemberg state capital of Stuttgart has been transformed into a quivering music metropolis for a few days every year (notwithstanding the city’s never-ending railway station construction drama).
The Jazzopen music festival – which, contrary to what the name suggests, has been open to artists of all musical genres since the beginning – has developed into a world-class concert event. This year, around 50,000 visitors experienced performances by Melody Gardot, Deep Purple, Grace Jones, Die Fantastischen Vier, Joss Stone, Simply Red and many others over the festival’s 11 days.
Event technology specialist, Sound & Light Veranstaltungstechnik from Leonberg, has consistently supported Jazzopen as a technology partner in recent years and has been a permanent service provider for sound, light and video technology o

Europe - LED product designer and manufacturer, Forge is partnering with Lumileds to provide outdoor lighting solutions dedicated to preserving dark skies.
The partnership combines decades of experience and expertise with LED innovation, creating considerate product designs that help to combat the impact of light pollution on the planet.
The partnership sees the creation of turnkey solutions for professional lighting products, combining Lumileds’ Luxeon NightScape technology with Forge’s rapid product realisation capabilities.
The disruptive effects of blue light from LEDs on human melatonin levels and sleep regulation are well documented, but as the world comes to a greater understanding of the devastating effects of this blue component on nocturnal wildlife, legislation has been implemented to seed real change.
In the UK the ILP’s GN08/23 gives

USA - Country music singer Hardy is out on his debut arena tour with a lighting package from Bandit Lites. The Mockingbird & The Crow Tour, named for his highest charting album to date, merges his country roots and rock sound, to deliver music that rings true for his millions of listeners. The second leg of his tour kicked off in the fall and features Lainey Wilson and Dylan Marlowe.
Bandit Lites is providing more than 200 fixtures for the tour including Chauvet Maverick Storm 1 Hybrids, Chauvet Rogue R2X Washes, Chauvet Strike 4 Arrays, Chauvet Strike M, Chauvet COLORado PXL Bar 16 and VL 3600. Two grandMA3 Full consoles provide control for LD Trevor Drawdy, who expertly layered in the lighting visuals to work with the tour’s other visual elements, such as pyro, video and IMAG effects.
“The workhorse fixture in the rig is the VL3600, a very dynamic fixture w

The Netherlands - When it opened in June 1972 it was called Paard van Troje (Dutch for Trojan Horse), perhaps a reference to its underground vibe, its tendency to host counterculture bands that weren’t always welcomed in mainstream circles, and its previous life as a squat. By 2016, however, this live music venue in the Prinsegracht had long since become so established that the clandestine label no longer seemed to fit, so its name was changed simply to Paard.
The new moniker did nothing to diminish the edgy, intense vibe inside the venue, which can accommodate 1,100 fans in the largest of its three halls. It remains as strong as ever, made even more potent today by the recent installation of Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Air Light Holland.
Daan Stakenburg, the lead lighting technician at Paard, notes that the Chauvet Professional fixtures were selected

India - The synergy between two leading lighting brands took centre stage when Claypaky and ARRI teamed to light music videos from the Bollywood film, Dream Girl 2.
Dream Girl 2 is a new Hindi-language comedy-drama about a man who creates chaos and confusion when he disguises himself as a woman. Director of photography C.K Muraleedharan was challenged to create music videos for two item songs, upbeat dance numbers featuring the hero in his female disguise; one song with a club dance vibe; and a festival celebration song with the lead actors – all shot at different locations.
Equipment rental company Light Craft & Sound provided Claypaky Tambora Batten Square, Sharpy X Frame, HY B-Eye K25, and Mythos2 fixtures as well as ARRI SkyPanel S60-C lights for the shoots.
The lighting equipment was chosen for “the amount of trust we have in the brands

USA - Throughout the summer, a lighting rig comprised almost exclusively of ADJ IP65-rated fixtures was used to illuminate the Grand Performances series of free concerts in Downtown LA.
California Plaza was illuminated for the weekly Saturday evening concerts by ADJ’s lime-infused Encore series of static LED wash fixtures, complemented by Hydro Wash X19 moving heads. In addition, key lighting and Gobo projections were handled by ADJ’s flagship Hydro Profile IP65-rated automated profile luminaires, which sat at the heart of lighting designer Edgar Gonzalez’s extensive rig.
Grand Performances is a non-profit organisation that provides free access to global performing arts, made possible thanks to generous support from the LA City Department of Cultural Affairs and LA County’s Department of Arts and Culture. Its mission is to inspire community, celebrate diversit

USA - Popular rapper and producer ИF just finished a massive US leg of his Hope world tour which featured lighting and production design created by Chris Denholm (also production manager & musical director) and Clay Joiner (also lighting designer & programmer, as well as operator on the European leg).
The pair have worked together for some time, and extol the advantages of having two brains, imaginations and sets of experience - both contrasting and converging - to boost the creative dynamic they bring to the table.
Prominent on the lighting rig was a selection of Robe products including 160 Robe Spikies, 26 BMFL WashBeams and two BMFL FollowSpots running on two RoboSpot systems, together with other luminaires.
Chris and Clay had also successfully collaborated on the previous ИF tour in 2021. This one played bigger venues reflecting the artists

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