Italy - Grammy-nominated and Eurovision-winning Italian rock band Måneskin continues its ascent with a world tour and dozens of festivals in every corner of the globe.
Måneskin puts its trust in sound engineer Enrico La Falce, whose experience spans the panorama of Italian pop and rock music. Building off his first role as a studio assistant in London and his career as a mixing engineer and producer in Italy, La Falce knew he wanted a natural and uncoloured microphone to support the band’s glam-rock sound on tour. For this, he selected DPA Microphones’ d:facto 4018V Vocal Microphone.
“When we were planning the rehearsals with Måneskin for their first ‘big’ concerts, I met with the band’s monitor engineer, Remo Scafati, to exchange ideas regarding gear,”

UK – London welcomed 2023 with its largest ever New Year’s Eve celebration, and its first after two years of Covid cancellations. To source the wireless DMX control system which would be essential for the event, lighting supplier Neg Earth Lights turned to A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET), the UK & Ireland distributor for Swedish innovator LumenRadio.
Produced by Identity, with creative direction from Dan Colbourne and David Zolkwer, the celebrations included an enormous fireworks display, along with a drone light show and a large-scale lighting spectacle created by lighting designer Tim Routledge. With the television cameras in mind, Routledge knew he needed powerful lighting fixtures inside each of the London Eye’s 32 pods to provide the visual ‘punch’ required, and chose Elation’s new Proteus Excalibur beam moving heads for the job. He also knew tha

Eurovision Funding - The Eurovision Song Contest, being held in Liverpool in May, will get £10m from the UK government, it has been announced. It will be spent on operational costs like security and visas, as well as making sure the event "showcases Ukrainian culture". Local authorities in Liverpool have already pledged £4m in funding. About 3,000 tickets to the song contest will also be made available for Ukrainians living in the UK.
Liverpool is staging the event at its M&S Bank Arena on behalf of Ukraine. It will be the first Eurovision Song Contest to be held in the UK for 25 years. The government funding is intended to "support security, visa arrangements and other operational aspects of the contest", the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said.
The money will also support Liverpool City Council as well as host broadcaster the BBC's partnerships

Cambodia - Kampong Speu Provincial Stadium is located in Chbar Mon, central Cambodia. Completed last year at a cost of $4m, the facility aims to raise the profile of Kampong Speu Province and contribute to the government’s development of the Kingdom’s sporting culture as it prepares to host the 32nd Southeast Asian Games.
Constructed in a little over six months, the Stadium covers 40,000 sqm, can host up to 3000 spectators and features a football pitch and public gymnasium. At the stadium’s inauguration, Minister of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, Chea Sophara, urged the provincial administration to use the venue for the widest possible range of events for the benefit of the local economy. Cambodian Premier League football club NagaWorld FC will play at the stadium.
Essential for any modern multi-purpose stadium is provision for a high-quality a

UK - For Bespoke Events London, the decision to invest in a QC-Check workstation from Data Strategy was a simple one that would quickly make warehouse processes more effective.
Integrated into the company’s warehouse management system, QC-Check tests and inspects the integrity of every electronic device, distribution unit and cable before its next use to ensure the highest standards of safety are maintained.
The company, which creates high-end luxury, and high-profile productions, is reliant on the highest calibre of well-maintained event technology to ensure every event is executed without a hitch.
Bespoke’s production director, Peter Hope, confirms, “QC-Check gives us great peace of mind when working with our accredited venues.” His assurance is founded upon the “…tenfold increase in testing and inspection in the warehouse,” since the integration

USA – Yale’s David Geffen School of Drama staged a performance of the American rock musical Next to Normal recently, with a lighting design by David DeCarolis using VL2600 Spot luminaires as part of the Vari-Lite University Outreach Programme from Signify.
DeCarolis employs a musical approach to his lighting designs, having studied music in the past. He structures his looks based on form, harmony and dynamics, even seeing a lighting console as something of an electronic drum kit. He collaborated with the team at David Geffen School of Drama and Vari-Lite to deliver the right luminaires for the production of Next to Normal, choosing the VL2600 Spots as he required a high-output fixture offering a broad range of rich colours and effects.
The Vari-Lite University Outreach Programme initiative is an ongoing project allowing talented students to use Vari-L

UK - Following the successful formula first introduced at the recent ISE 2023 show in Barcelona - whereby non-attendees could share, remotely, the same product launch experience as those who made the trip to Barcelona, Martin Audio has laid out its stall for a similar online experience in advance of its biannual open days. These will take place at their High Wycombe HQ, the difference this time being that the visitor experience will take place within the company’s newly refurbished facility.
“The international launch of our new Torus 8 in Barcelona was very much an experiment in the way we presented new products to both the market and the media,” said director of marketing, James King. “Fortunately both the real-world attendance at our booth and our demo room, alongside the number of logins and catch-up replays to the two streamed events fully vindicated our decision

UK - Born from the creators of Boomtown Fair Festival, Wake The Tiger Amazement Park is an immersive art experience in Bristol consisting of 27 different creative environments including artwork, installations, narrative, soundscape, secret passageways and more.
Once through the portal you’re transported to the world of Meridia, a world not too dissimilar to our own, where you’ll discover an abandoned factory, a time capsule of messages, theories and wild experiments.
AF Live, an award-winning technical production company, took on the project and designed a bespoke sound system suited to their specific requirements.
Paul Rose, founder and director of AF Live comments: “AF Live has managed Boomtown Fair’s technical production for over a decade. So, when we were approached by Wake The Tiger in Spring 2022, we were already onboard to help create a sound syste
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Mexico - Bad Bunny’s two-hour show on the recent World’s Hottest Tour delivered all of the power-packed passion that fans have come to expect from this Puerto Rico-born superstar. The Latin American leg of his sold-out tour included stops in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and the Dominican Republic.
In each of his shows, Bad Bunny was supported by a fast-moving lightshow that featured 96 Color STRIKE M and 40 STRIKE Array 2 fixtures from Chauvet Professional, supplied by different vendors in various countries.
The lighting designer for the tour, Travis Shirley reflected the transformative mood created by the beaches of Puerto Rico. Tour director, Roly Garbalosa, and the LD/programmer Krizia Velez helped bring this imaginative panorama to life at every venue.
“The looks were inspired

USA - Working with Solotech US, UK-based production and lighting designer Will Smith designed the lighting, video and set for the North American, Australia and Asia legs of American singer-songwriter Conan Gray’s Superache Tour.
Smith chose Claypaky Scenius Spots and Mythos 2 fixtures for the sold-out North American leg of the tour, which is in support of Gray’s second studio album of the same name. Superache was released in June 2022, debuted at number nine on the US Billboard 200 and spent 12 weeks on the chart.
Smith, who also worked with Gray on his previous tour, designed Superache “to befit the new album with its very romantic and rose-based aesthetic”, which includes “a big entrance and incorporating a heart in the video design,” he explains.
“I was inspired by the great romantic music videos of the ’80s and early ’90s that Conan i

USA - The 65th Grammy Awards, which took place Sunday, 5 February at the Crypto.com Centre in downtown Los Angeles, was an even busier affair than in the past. While it may not have had as many individual song performances as past Grammy Awards events, it more than made up for it with more complex productions, most notably the 35 rappers and four DJs who turned the stage into a 15-minute-long history of rap.
Getting and keeping all the audio together fell to a cohort of veteran mixers of the show and an all-star cast of DiGiCo mix consoles, provided through ATK Audiotek/Clair Global, the event’s sound-reinforcement vendor.
Two Quantum7 consoles were located at front of house, manned by Ron Reaves and Michael Parker, who alternated mixing live performances by the evening’s artists, including Harry Styles, Bonnie Raitt, Lizzo, and Adele, all of whom were also categor

USA - Super Bowl LVII provided an opportunity for Green-GO’s LTE Private Wireless product to show off its capabilities. First introduced for use by the NFL for coach-to-coach wireless communications, the big game provided an opportunity to deploy the system on an even larger scale.
“Wireless communications are always a vital part of any large broadcast event,” said Jim Casey, president at JAC Specialty Distribution, the US distributor for Green-GO Digital Communications, “and it’s even more difficult when there are multiple broadcasters coordinating frequencies and technologies over a large area.”
The NFL has already benefited from using the Green-GO LTE products. CP Communications, a Green-GO Dealer, was in search of a wireless intercom solution that did not depend on the already-crowded 2.4 GHz and DECT spectrum.
“We needed a secure, reliable wire

USA - On Sunday, 12 February, nine-time Grammy Award-winner Rihanna took centre-stage during halftime at Super Bowl LVII, which pitted the Kansas City Chiefs against the Philadelphia Eagles. Or, more precisely, she took off, riding a gravity-defying platform flown from the rigging of Glendale, Arizona’s State Farm Stadium, in a production that was as stunning as her eye-popping red outfit.
It was a performance that rivalled the game itself: 13 minutes featuring the best of her big hits, including Umbrella, Work, Diamonds and Run This Town, and a cast of an estimated 100 dancers, many of whom were also suspended in the air. Sound reinforcement was provided by an L-Acoustics K2 system deployed by ATK Audiotek, a Clair Global brand.
The deployment of the halftime sound system was very different this year. In the past, the temporary music syst

Europe - Prolights has released the Astra Profile600IP, a bright, IP65-rated LED moving profile. The unit is designed for large-scale touring and exterior installations.
The Astra Profile600IP offers’ an outstanding performance’ that utilises a 600W white LED engine, reaching 21,000 lumens whilst achieving a flat field beam projection. Its optical system moves linearly from 7° to 62°.
This fixture has a CMY colour mixing system that delivers saturated colours, linear CTO correction from 2,700K to 5,600K and a colour wheel with six colour filters plus a 5,600K high CRI filter.
The Astra Profile600IP includes four-layer motorised framing shutters, an animation wheel, a rotating gobo wheel, one frost filter, a four-facet prism and an iris.

UK - Midwich and its specialist LED division, PSCo, have announced they have been appointed as LG’s authorised service and repair centre for LED products, delivered through its service department, MiSupport.
The enhanced partnership will see Midwich become the official service partner for in- and out-of-warranty repairs in the UK and Ireland, acting on behalf of LG Business Solutions.
PSCo, part of the Midwich Group, is already the official distributor and accredited technical and service delivery partner for LG LED across the UK & Ireland.
Michael Mclewee, UK & Ireland LED Sales Manager at LG, said, “We partnered with Midwich’s MiSupport because it has enabled us to widen our support coverage and will provide resellers with a clear process for LED product repairs.
“As our authorised service centre, channel partners will receive the best pos

Europe - Ayrton has announced the appointment of BT.innotec as its new, exclusive distributor for Germany with effect from 1 March 2023.
A new company, yet with 44 years of professional industry experience, BT.innotec was established in 2021 by Michael Timmer and Raphael Berndzen to focus on the distribution of carefully selected professional lighting, trussing and control technology for the entertainment lighting market.
The company will be responsible for the distribution and support of the entire range of Ayrton products.
“Ayrton is a well-recognised A-brand in our industry and we are honoured to be chosen as a partner in the worldwide Ayrton sales network,” says BT.innotec managing director, Michael Timmer. “It is a great opportunity and challenge at the same time, and we are convinced that, due to Ayrton’s technological leadership and stable product

USA - Some venues just lend themselves to creating evocative looks on stage, believes Glenn Ottenbachker. That’s one reason why the lighting designer from A.G. Entertainment USA was only too happy to take on the project of lighting a shared headline show at The Pabst Theatre recently.
Opened in 1895, the Renaissance Revival style theatre on the Milwaukee River exudes history. (It is the fourth oldest continuously operating theatre in the United States.) The 1,300-capacity venue also provides a supportive backdrop for a variety of looks with its drum-shaped interior complementing its proscenium stage and Austrian crystal chandelier hanging over its seating area.
Ottenbacher played on these aesthetics when lighting shows by tribute bands Barracuda and 52nd Street, using Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by AG Entertainment to create a series of different looks tha

Curaçao – Singer Raynor ‘Raey’ Laufer recently performed a song entitled Kaminda tin Huma, Tin Kandela which translated from Papiamentu, the language of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao means Where There is Smoke There is Fire.
Many were warmed by the glow of the Curaçan artist’s own fire when he performed this number at the 51st annual Tumba Festival, a four-day event that drew over 40,000 fans from around the world and was broadcast on TV throughout the Caribbean and in Holland.
Even more people will be watching (and hearing) Raey song very soon. As the winner of the Tumba Festival’s competition, Kaminda tin Huma, Tin Kandela was named the official anthem of Curaçao’s internationally famous pre-Lent carnival.
Like all the other artists who entered songs in the Tumba Festival, Raey not only sounded great, he looked impressive too,

UK - TSL Lighting in has expanded their product offerings by adding Elation Professional’s KL Fresnel 6 FC to inventory.
According to TSL managing director Sam Tamplin, the company had been searching for an LED Fresnel light to add to their inventory for several years but they had not found one that met their high standards until now. “They were either too bulky, or the output wasn’t bright enough,” he said. “The KL Fresnel 6 FC gives us a unit which is compact, punchy and with a high-quality full colour engine, bright enough to satisfy even the most demanding lighting designers.”
Designed for any application requiring high output soft light with precise color reproduction and adjustable color temperature, the KL Fresnel 6 FC excels at projecting a uniform wash of soft field light while matching the white balance for camera. It houses a 220W RGBMA LED engin

South Korea - To provide the Go Out Camping Music Festival with immersive and impactful sound tailored for the outdoors, TechData PS Co collaborated with rental company Raffoler and Harman Professional Solutions to implement a range of JBL Professional audio solutions.
With an attendance of 10,000 people over three days, the first post-pandemic edition of the Go Out Camping Music Festival took place at the Seokgangi Auto Camping Site located in South Chungcheong Province’s Taean County. Featuring a2n eclectic roster of artists from genres as diverse as R&B and indie - including Car, the Garden, Daybreak and more - the festival also hosted a wide range of outdoor activities including yoga, rock climbing and campfires.
Given the stage’s limited truss height and seaside location, the festival required a live setup that was lightweight and easily transportable acr

Denmark - The lighting department of Danish rental and technical production specialist, European Touring Productions (ETP), based just outside Copenhagen, has started investing in Astera wireless LED lighting products.
The first purchase of 32 x Titan Tubes – four sets of eight – was recommend by project manager John Askwith, who came on board last summer and swiftly made a list of ‘must have’ products to service ETP clients, shows and events, especially in the corporate and television sectors. Titans were part of this list.
Previously, ETP had rented assorted Astera fixtures as and when needed. However, the increasingly frequent requests together with John joining the company energised the decision to start amassing their own stock of Astera fixtures.
“It was the way to go,” commented Emil Finsen who runs the lighting department with Sune Verdier. Ge

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