Europe - It’s been a busy year so far for lighting designer Tim Routledge, including crafting the production lighting design for Helene Fischer’s new LIVE 2023 arena tour collaboration with Cirque du Soleil, which is playing to sold out audiences across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland until the autumn, presenting an energetic collage of a 360° production, seat-edge acrobatics, and musical performance.
Cirque’s creative team led by Marie-Helen Delage approached Tim to work alongside show director Genevieve Dorion-Coupal and set designer Bruce Rodgers on this ambitious production.
The lighting rig utilises 56 x Robe iFortes, nine running on RoboSpot systems plus 116 x Robe Spiider LED wash beam moving lights, together with many other luminaires, all suppli

France - The Festival d'Avignon, an established international event for contemporary performing arts, has chosen Holophonix and Amadeus to re-equip the main presentation area at the festival, the Courtyard of Honour at the Palace of the Popes.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site and a venue for the Festival d'Avignon since 1947, the Courtyard of Honour had a major stage upgrade including technical infrastructure, a new 2000-seat bleacher area, a new stage, and new audio, video, and lighting equipment installed in 2021 - only the sixth renovation project since the Festival was founded decades ago.
“Under the growing influence of cinema, the work of actors on theatre stages has evolved considerably over the past 50 or 60 years. But if the actors are now almost always equipped with microphones, are we - as spectators - obliged to suffer the sound of voices whose depth, and sp

South Africa - Sennheiser South Africa recently concluded a series of successful technology workshops across South Africa and Namibia. The workshops took place in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Windhoek and aimed to educate customers and end-users about the transition from analogue to digital systems whilst highlighting the latest product developments from Sennheiser's digital wireless range.
The workshops catered to a broad audience, including rental and staging companies, sound engineers, theatre designers, production companies and AV professionals from the house of worship, higher education, corporate and hospitality sectors.
The events, led by industry expert and Sennheiser GmbH technical application engineer, Jonas Næsby, provided hands-on experience with Sennheiser products and a chance to connect with other industry professionals from across the region. Further, a
featured content

ETC Halcyon Silent

High End Systems Halcyon Silent builds on ETC’s legacy of fanless automated fixtures by incorporating features from the highly sought-after Halcyon family. Halcyon Silent perfectly balances silent operation with brilliant output of 18,400 lumens and high-impact features. 

For more information visit us at www.etcconnect.com

UK - Midwich has published its pre-close trading statement for the six months ended 30 June 2023, which includes the announcement of the acquisition of HHB Communications Holdings (HHB), a long-established supplier of specialist professional audio equipment, content creation products, and music technology.
Representing manufacturers such as RØDE, Genelec, and AVID from its three London locations, HHB joining the Group further develops Midwich’s offering in the strategically important broadcast, media, and entertainment markets.
Founded in 1976 and with 55 employees, HHB has built a name for itself in the broadcasting, media and entertainment market and has supported many notable postproduction facilities, film, gaming, recording studios, and broadcasters with its products used by the likes of Warner Brothers, BBC, Sky and Pinewood Studios.
Mark Lowe, managing
featured content

New Touring Series by Gravity – Every Scratch Has A Story

When the stage heats up, you need equipment that can keep up without compromise. The Gravity Touring Series has been specifically designed to meet the highest demands – for rental companies, professional musicians, concert organizers, and large event venues. Premium materials, exceptional durability, and impressive longevity make these products stand out. Whether on tour, in constant use, or under the toughest conditions: the Touring Series delivers maximum reliability and performance – every day, on every stage.
FIND OUT MORE >>>

Turkey - Prolights Air 5Fans impressed the audience of the Hep Yeni Kal music festival with the performance of Mabel Matiz, a songwriter and pop musician who has quickly established herself as a major player in the Turkish and international music scene.
The festival took place at of Küçükçiftlik Park in Istanbul where Imagine Dragons, Elton John, Iron Maiden, Deep Purple and Lana Del Rey have played.
Prolights Turkish distributor, Modern Elektronik, supplied Prolights devices to rental company SOLID Technical, the system integrator at Küçükçiftlik Park. In collaboration with the event planning agency Epifoni Events and the lighting designer Sinan Akbaş, a customised lighting system was designed and installed for the event.
For the stage lighting during the Mabel Matiz concert, a total of 48 Prolights Air 5Fan were used: half of the projectors were positi

USA - Chart-topping country singer Morgan Wallen has set off on a tour of arenas, stadiums, and amphitheatres across North America. At the heart of the design for the shows are an army of VL3600 Profile IP fixtures from Vari-Lite, which are rigged centre stage and creating an array of high intensity effects and rich colours.
Raw Cereal served as the Creative Production House for the tour, with founders Anders Rahm and Cort Lawrence as creative director and show director respectively. Keen to find a feature-laden fixture that would be “capable of transforming the stage into a canvas of endless possibilities”, they sourced 130 VL3600 fixtures from PGP to play a crucial role in the look and feel of the show.
“The VL3600 emerged as our literal beacon of light, surpassing our expectations with its remarkable versatility,” says Lawrence. “As we curated a production
featured content

AZOR® SP2 IP - Compact IP65 Spot Profile Moving Head

Compact design and IP65 protection for indoor and outdoor applications: the new AZOR® SP2 IP is the ideal solution for open-air events and outdoor theatres that require a powerful, weatherproof lighting system. An optimal partner for lighting designers and event service providers looking for a versatile LED show light in a compact housing.

AZOR® SP2 IP – the next generation of robust, weatherproof, and compact lighting for maximum creative freedom, both indoors and outdoors.

READ MORE >>>

USA - A Green Hippo Hippotizer Tierra+ MK2 media server drove centre stage visuals at the VEX Robotics World Championship 2023, which brought young innovators from around the world to compete using their school-engineered robots.
Held at the 10,000-capacity Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Centre in downtown Dallas, the championships took place over 10 days and featured an opening and closing ceremony, competition battles, and an awards presentation. This year’s visual setup was made up of a 3:1 aspect ratio (63’ wide x 20’ high) main stage wall, which included a 12’ x 9’ guillotine door in the centre for presenters to enter and exit throughout the show.
To accommodate all audience members in the in-the-round arena, a huge LED screen ‘chandelier’ was hung in the centre of the venue above the stage, creating a viewing opportunity to any seat in the house. T

South Africa - Murangi Productions started as a family-based technical production and rental company way back in the year 2000. The company is now based in Edenvale, Johannesburg, South Africa and run by Hendrick Nemalili and his wife Rose.
Murangi Productions supplies full-production and crew to corporates, awards ceremonies, live shows, music festivals and a lot of church-based events including gospel shows and has recently expanded its inventory of Robe moving lights, with the purchase of 12 x LEDBeam 150s and 12 x 350s with 12 x Paintes on order.
Like many businesses in South Africa, Murangi Productions scaled back during the pandemic but was robust enough to survive, and they are now steadily gaining momentum again, with the assistance of their 12 full-time staff.
At the end of 2022 Hendrick and Rose were confident enough about the industry bounce back to

China - Wuxi Studios, nicknamed Chinawood Studios, is owned and operated by the China Research Institute of Film Science & Technology (CRIFST). Established in 2013, the place holds a distinguished position as a nationally acclaimed digital film industrial park, seamlessly integrating commercial film technology with a vibrant leisure destination that brings the enchantment of a ‘movie city’ to the fore.
A recent milestone for Wuxi Studios is the grand launch of a virtual production lab studio, heralding a new virtual production facility in China. This addition showcases China's largest LED volume, powered by Brompton Technology LED processing.
Zhang Wei, director of CRIFST, explains that this integrated high-tech project combines LED virtual filming technology, 5G network transmission systems, and artificial intelligence. "The establishment of this volume outli

India - The first Lollapalooza edition in Asia was staged at Mahalaxmi Racecourse, Mumbai.
With over 60,000 people in attendance, the festival witnessed both local and international headliners with state-of-the-art stage designs and experience zones across the festival. Imagine Dragons, Great Van Fleet, The Strokes, Cigarettes After Sex, AP Dhillon, Diplo, Jackson Wang, and Prateek Kuhad among many other famed artists were among the performers.
grandMA3 consoles were the preferred choice to design and control the on-stage lighting. Four grandMA3 full-size were used in total with four more grandMA3 full-size held in backup during the two-day festival.
Award-winning lighting designer Naveen Deshpande (founder) and Satvinder Singh - senior designer of ground control were the lighting consultants for Lollapalooza India. Naveen Deshpande comments: “We wanted to st

USA - German lighting manufacturer ROXX has announced its exclusive partnership with Inner Circle Distribution (ICD).
As the exclusive distributor for ROXX for the USA, ICD assumes the responsibility of sales, distribution, and support of the complete range of lighting products across its extensive network of dealers.
Thorsten Sattler, partner and director of sales at ROXX, remarks: "With their extensive knowledge and experience in the lighting industry, ICD has consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to providing its customers with top-of-the-line lighting solutions. We are thrilled to appoint Inner Circle Distribution as our exclusive distributor.”
Ole Kaack, Inner Circle Distribution CEO adds: "By joining forces with ROXX, ICD fortifies its position as a premier distributor, offering an even wider selection of high-quality products to its esteemed cli

UK - Clear-Com has announced the appointment of Anthony Wilkins as business development manager for industrial and critical communications in the EMEA region. Anthony will work with Clear-Com’s current partners and develop new channels for the company to expand in sectors where communication is critical to success and safety, such as marine/offshore, medical, public safety, transportation, and more.
Anthony brings over 40 years of experience in professional audio systems. He has expertise in distribution and partner management for companies including Sony, DTS, Linear Acoustic and Junger Audio, and directly prior to joining Clear-Com, he was responsible for managing EMEA distribution for Focusrite.
“Anthony’s wealth of experience in both the technical engineering and the sales and business development areas of the communications industry made him the perfect can

Europe - TT+ Audio’s new GTX Line Array System begins with a forward-thinking external amplifier concept and adds innovations in electronics, transducer design, cabling and rigging hardware. The result is a line array system that addresses the full range of challenges faced by touring sound professionals and large-venue system installers while offering ground-breaking performance and sound quality, says the company.
Unlike other TT+ Audio products, the new GTX system separates the power amplification from the loudspeaker enclosure, moving it to newly designed touring racks, each with up to three XPS 16K 4-channel DSP amplifiers and including AC power, signal routing and network connections. One rugged, waterproof power connector provides streamlined cabling from the rack to system modules. This augmented philosophy in power management seamlessly integrates self- and extern

Denmark - Entertainment automation specialist, Motor Stage Automation (MSA), has made a substantial investment in Kinesys, comprising 30 x Kinesys Apex 500 Kg hoists and 30 x Kinesys Apex V2 drives plus three Mentor 401 safety controllers - offering SIL3 safety over Ethernet and safety control of up to 60 devices simultaneously.
This follows up a second-batch purchase of 21 x Kinesys Apex 500 Kg hoists and 26 x Kinesys V1 Drives, a Mentor 401 and Vector control delivered last year, bringing MSA’s current total of Apex hosts to 72, including Apex 1250Kg motors that arrived when the company launched in 2021.
MSA is a brand-new company, and before launching in 2021, Christian Vigso and his team scoped out the market to find brands that were reliable, respected, flexible, and good value, and assessed the advantages of each. They also wanted brands that were omnipresent w

UK - 50 Cent, Lil Yatchty, Travis Scott and D_Block Europe were among the urban music line-up appearing on the Serious 25m TZ Roof at Wireless Festival last week.
Serious Stages is supplying stages and site structures for Festival Republic across a range of UK festivals throughout the summer and has recently returned to Wireless Festival.
Serious operations manager Abbey Thomas says: “We work closely with Festival Republic’s creative and production teams to design and install stages that meet the needs of the headliners, while also creating a unique aesthetic for their events.
“Our TZ Roof was installed as the main stage at Wireless and incorporates bespoke curved screens on the goalposts to create a seamless, immersive visual experience for the audience. With the use of recently designed HD bowstrings, we were able to increase the capacity of the roof loa

Spain - The Bilbao Exhibition Centre (BEC) was dressed for a special occasion recently for the farewell concert party for Hertzainak, spread over two nights.
Hertzainak was a leading light in the movement known as ‘Basque radical rock’. Their first records combined the provocation of punk with the dance rhythms of reggae and ska, maintaining the political situation in the Basque Country as the context of their songs.
Lighting designer Carlos Cirre was commissioned to design a show that would transport the audience back to the style of the 80s and 90s and evoke a retro spirit recreated by 100 fixtures from the catalogue of GLP. This included 35 of the new impression X5.
According to Cirre, “The entire stage ceiling was covered with X5 luminaires. Although it was a completely new experience for me, I think this was one of the great discoveries of the event, a

China - Part of the Park Sports Complex in the Chengyang district of the Chinese city of Qingdao, the Qingchun Football Stadium was designed by the China Southwest Architecture Design and Research Institute and built by China Construction Eighth Engineering Bureau. With seating for 55,000 spectators, the stadium constitutes a major development for international football in China.
With ambitions to stage the Asian Cup and World Cup tournaments in the future, the Stadium needed to conform to the stringent standards of the game’s worldwide governing body, FIFA, as set out in its Stadium Technical Recommendations and Requirements.
The fully-roofed, two-tier construction ‘provides for every requirement of players, officials, media representatives, VIPs and fans to international standards’, while a multifunctional training hall, swimming pool, two further grass pitches

UK - After 14m albums sold, including two No. 1 hits, and a fistful of awards from Grammys to Brits, Mumford & Sons continue to surprise fans by pulling out widely varied musical influences, from ancient folk to highly polished modern rock.
On the band’s current global festival tour, designer Ed Warren reflects this expansive sense of discovery with a background that uses a combination of video tiles and lighting, along with fireworks from Strictly FX, to convey dramatically different impressions throughout the band’s 90-minute-plus shows.
At times, Warren creates a bright, seemingly solid wall of light behind the group, using the majority of the 108 Chauvet Professional Strike 1 fixtures in his kit, which is being supplied by Neg Earth in the UK and Europe, and Upstaging in the USA/Canada. During other segments of the show, the designer will have video images

The Netherlands - Successful singer-songwriter duo Nick & Simon (Nick Schilder & Simon Keizer) played six sold-out nights at Rotterdam’s Ahoy Arena, the culmination of their Nu of Ooit (Now or Someday) tour which also was the last time they will appear in this format, as after 17 years of performing together, both artists now intend to pursue solo careers.
Lighting was designed by Martijn Steman of Triple Showtechniek working closely with artistic / show director Ad de Haan from Live Legends with the help of approximately 220 x Robe moving lights on the live show rig, plus another 60 x Robe Spiiders appearing as virtual light sources within the digital scenery that defined the stage design and show aesthetic.
Jim de Brouwer from Live Legends created the set design in conjunction with Sander van der Ham of Bluepaper and creative Desiree van Giezen, wh

China - Christie has announced that its Inspire Series 1DLP laser projectors have been selected by visitor attractions in China’s southern Guangdong province as their preferred projection system.
Over 80 projectors, including the Christie DWU760-iS, DWU860-iS, and DWU960-iS models have been fitted in the China Qiaodu Museum of Overseas Chinese and Jiangmen Local Chronicles Hall in Jiangmen City, as well as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Talent Hub in Guangzhou.s
These projectors, supplied and installed by Christie’s partner Jianye Display, are equipped with a fixed motorised zoom lens and an IP5X dust-resistant optical engine.
“AV technologies, including projections, have been increasingly embraced by visitor attractions in China to bring exhibits to life with dynamic visuals,” said Zhongliang Li, technical director at Jianye Display. “

UK - Could advances in Bluetooth technology have benefits for the live music industry? Jonny McClintock, commercial director at Antennaware, CEO of Audio Codecs and advisor to Virscient, Segotia and Sonical, explores the issue . . .
McClintock: “Almost to the day, it’s been 12 months since I resigned my role in Qualcomm having looked after aptX for almost 30 years. In that time, I’d been on a journey that took aptX into over 12billion devices in the professional and consumer electronic audio sectors. The resignation was in part down to post-COVID, in part approaching 57 years old and an interest to see if I could ‘go again’, but mostly just a sense of frustration about wireless audio. This frustration was almost wholly around Bluetooth and how it really wasn’t delivering on its potential.
“When APT Licensing Limited was acquired by CSR in 2010, Bluetooth

Latest Issue. . .

Save
Cookies user preferences
We use cookies to ensure you to get the best experience on our website. If you decline the use of cookies, this website may not function as expected.
Accept all
Decline all
Analytics
Tools used to analyze the data to measure the effectiveness of a website and to understand how it works.
Google Analytics
Accept
Decline
Advertisement
If you accept, the ads on the page will be adapted to your preferences.
Google Ad
Accept
Decline