USA - When lighting designer Scott Cunningham first saw SGM's XC-5 LED RGB strobes, designed into Taylor Swift's touring set by Baz Halpin, he knew he had to have them for fast emerging country duo Florida Georgia Line (FGL).

The duo, who broke through late last year with their single Cruise, had been doing some support dates on Swift's Red tour. Recalls Cunningham, "Steve Richards, who is out as LD on the Taylor tour, introduced me to the fixtures, and gave me the inside scoop." Having also watched the Beyoncé videos, showing heavy use of the X-5 (white strobe) he immediately became convinced by the technology.

But it was the colour function that he could envisage working on the FGL tour, and he wasted no time requisitioning six from Theatrical Media Ser

Poland - Tommex Zebrowscy Sp. J. has recently completed the design and installation of a Community loudspeaker-based audio system for the Ztotnicza Sports Park.

Ztotnicza Sports Park is the most modern stadium in the city of Jelenia Góra in Lower Silesia, southwestern Poland. In addition to the floodlit football pitch, the stadium has an athletics track and is Class 4A PZLA certified for European championships. The stadium has a total seating capacity of over 3,600, with a main grandstand accommodating 1,558 people.

Jaros?aw Kraszewski of Tommex, the designer and project manager for the system, explained, "The sound system was required to cover the grandstand, ground seating and competition zones and for such large areas we naturally choose Community R-Series. Their all-weather durability, outstanding intelligibility and high efficiency combined with the wide range of co

Germany - Twenty thousand excited FC Union Berlin fans packed into their An der Alten Fösterei Stadium to watch a specially commissioned show to officially inaugurate their new grandstand.

The 20 minute spectacle was creatively directed by Gerald Ponesky and Uwe 'Leo' Auerswald for producers the Compact Team, a Berlin based event agency and followed a friendly match with Scottish giants, Glasgow Celtic. It featured a jaw-dropping visual / set design and lightshow concept created by Gerd Helinski from Berlin based HELICON-Media - featuring 60 Robe MMX WashBeams - together with a special soundtrack compiled by Mathias 'Matze' Mantzke.

It was a landmark moment for the legendary FC Union Berlin, popularly known as the Eisern Union (Iron Union). The club has a colourful and interesting history, an international cult following and a hugely devout and somewhat unconventional fanbase

featured content

OPUS X4 PROFILE – the most powerful LED moving head from Cameo to date

The OPUS® X4 PROFILE is the new flagship model from Cameo and is among the most powerful LED moving heads on the market. Equipped with a 1,400-watt LED white light engine, this spot profile moving head produces an enormous light output of 50,000 lm, providing powerful spot and gobo projections on even the largest stages and much more.
www.cameolight.com

UK - Miltec will be showing the production versions of their Mini-Map miniature LED screen. The Mini-Map is a miniature LED screen measuring 155mm x 155mm with 36 pixels and is controlled via DMX512. Two versions are available, one for touring and one for installation.

The touring version has a steel case, PowerCon in and out, 5-pin XLR in and out and an M10 mounting point. Optional extras include a hinged mounting bracket and a flush mounting adaptor for building into flat sets. The idea behind the product is to allow small and medium sized companies to produce effective pixel effects on a budget and using standard cabling.

Other pixelmap products on display (Stand F10) will include the 3D-Tube, the successful Batten2 LED batten and the EPW2 and EPW 3 moving heads, recently seen at Glastonbury.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Pearce Hire was involved in the recent launch of Princess Cruises' latest addition to their fleet - the Royal Princess.

The cruise ship's naming ceremony and christening took place in June in Southampton, and was the Duchess of Cambridge's last solo official engagement before the birth of Prince George in July.

Pearce Hire was contracted to provide all the production and show power for the event, including a pair of synchronised 300kVA sets for the audio, screen, lighting and requirements for outside broadcast from a significant press contingent.

Pearce Hire also supplied a 40kVA generator for the outside production offices and temporary workshops which were set up on site specifically for the ship's naming ceremony.

Security was of paramount importance given the VIP guest list, and security and late night working were all managed under tower-lights provided by Pearce

UK - Black Light now has one of the largest hire stocks of ETC LED lighting in the country. The company has recently invested in over 100 pieces of ETC's technically-sophisticated range which offers incredible performance, exceptional flexibility and low energy consumption.

"LED is the way forward," says Calder Sibbald, Black Light's head of hires. "We are committed to providing our customers with the best possible choice and the latest technology and we think that ETC's range offers an unbeatable combination of features."

The new additions to Black Light's stock include Source Four LED Lustr+ and Studio HD Profiles, Desire D60 Vivid, Desire D60 Lustr+ and Desire D40 Vivid luminaries.

"We bought some Lustr+ Profiles last year and they have been out on hire almost constantly ever since," says Sibbald. "We know that this range is perfect for

Sony Withdraws - Sony has dropped its sponsorship of the annual Radio Academy awards after 32 years. The ceremony, seen as the radio equivalent of the Baftas, has presented awards to the likes of Chris Evans, Sir Terry Wogan and Christian O'Connell. This year John Humphrys took home the journalism award for his grilling of former BBC boss George Entwistle over the Jimmy Savile scandal. Sony said it was time to "move on" but gave no other reason for its decision.

The organisers of the event said it would be renamed The Radio Academy Awards and that a new sponsor will be announced soon. Ben Cooper, chairman of the academy, said the ceremony would "continue to celebrate the very best of the UK radio industry". "It is now time for Sony to move on and focus on other areas of the business," said Chris Bowen, from Sony United Kingdom and Ireland. We wish T

featured content

Case Study: Hans Zimmer Live

When award winning film composer Hans Zimmer brought his smash-hit tour Hans Zimmer Live to North America fall 2024, the show's audio team sought out to bring infrafrequency bass to the show to add new depth to the show's audio experience. The team chose Danley Sound Labs.

USA - Twenty shows, 20 acts, 20 days! Hippotizer saddled up at Houston's Reliant Stadium and went the distance at this year's Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. The annual Texas extravaganza featured nightly concerts by some of the biggest names in music, enhanced by video content wrangled and programmed by John Dickson of LD Systems, Houston.

Six outputs from three Hippotizer HDs delivered synchronized video playback to a variety of video displays supplied by LD Systems and Screenworks. Eight 8'x 16' "filler screens", with a total of256 WinVision 9mm tiles were rigged above center-stage between eight 29' x 16' HD Toshiba IMAG screens showing live content. Expanding and enhancing the filler displays were stage footer and header rings, and stage backdrop, all comprised of 3868 Barco MiTRIX 24mm LED panels. Seamless video content displaying across every one of these dispa

UK - Always a consummate showman, Robbie Williams' 2013 UK and European Take The Crown stadium tour was sure to wow. Featuring a spectacular stage set and energetic performance, and with Sennheiser microphones and in ear monitors providing crystal clear audio for both performers and audience alike, it certainly doesn't disappoint.

The compliment of Sennheiser equipment includes 2000 series IEMs, supplied by Mission Control Ltd, for both Robbie and support act Olly Murs' bands, with SKM 5200 wireless microphones supplied by Britannia Row Productions, which handled all vocals for the headline act.

"The bulk of the stage radio systems for the tour are Sennheiser products," says Ali Viles, the tour's RF tech. "The core of this is 22 channels of Sennheiser 2000 series IEM transmitters performing monitoring duties for both the main and support bands. The show u

Denmark - Martin's MAC Viper Quadray has been officially launched, adding to Martin's award-winning MAC Viper Family of moving heads. This, multi-beam luminaire has been deployed on international tours, including the Sarah Brightman tour with lighting design by Andi Watson, and Pitbull with lighting design by Justin Geiger.

The MAC Viper Quadray allows for the projection of four individually controllable rays of light - a new effect providing a unique aspect to any show.

An efficient effects engine provides designers and programmers the ability to create a whole new variety of looks that would otherwise be difficult or even impossible to program via a lighting console.

The MAC Viper Quadray houses a narrow-range zoom and includes the same high-quality feature set as the MAC Viper AirFX, including a vibrant colour mixing system and stunning aerial designs. Additionally, it fe

UK - Wireless DMX experts LumenRadio visited the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year to provide wireless assistance to a number of venues as part of the historic month-long festival. This year's fringe includes 2,871 different shows performed by 24,107 performers in 273 venues across the city - a record breaking year once again and LumenRadio played a pivotal role in a number of those venues.

At the Pleasance courtyard, head of lighting Dom Knight selected LumenRadio's CRMX technology for the largest space on-site - the 750 seat Pleasance Grand. Hosting some of the most popular acts on the fringe, the Grand is converted from a sports hall into a full scale performance space, with the help of technical suppliers Black Light, Orbital Sound, XL Video and Arena Seating to name just a few.

This year's rig, supplied by Black Light, was completed with a large Robe Lighting rig, inclu

Australia - As the dust settles on ENTECH 2013, the show has proven to have exceeded expectations and delivered the largest attendance in ENTECH's history.

Figures show that there was a total of unique 4,705 visitors to ENTECH 2013 and an all over attendance of 5,469 including revisits.

ENTECH has delivered a 17% increase on interstate visitors, an overall 5% increase on the previous show with 7% increase of visitors coming back for second look during the three days.

ENTECH event manager Stephen Dallimore said, "We are delighted to see the industry turn out in its thousands over the three days and not only see all the new technology on display, attend seminars and networking functions but really embrace the ENTECH/SMPTE collocation, which has been a huge success with exhibitors of both shows seeing the positive impact on visitor numbers again."

Almost 1,000 visit

UK - The 2014 e-Luminate Festival - the UK's first event designed to showcase the imaginative and inspirational potential of new art created using low carbon/energy efficient technology - is looking for more technical sponsors for its 2104 event.

This will be staged between 12 and 23 February 2014 in Cambridge, UK. In its second year, e-Luminate is now under the artistic direction of projection specialist Ross Ashton, known for his work worldwide and his expertise in producing spectacular public art works.

It has also just been confirmed that leading entertainment technology brands Panasonic and Pulsar have come on-board.

Says Ashton, "e-Luminate provides a completely unique opportunity for brands, manufacturers and distributors to highlight all sorts of sound, lighting and video hardware and software products and enables artists to use these in new, exciting and invent

USA - Chauvet Professionaland USITT Presents will host the seminar How to Blend LED with Traditional Fixtures from 9am. to 5pm 29 and 30 August at Walt Disney World.

Senior product manager for Chauvet Professional Ford Sellers will conduct the session, which includes topics such as transitioning and replacing existing lighting with energy saving LED fixtures, discussions on color-narrow band vs. broad emitting, concepts in design -using the right tool for the right job, and more.

USITT executive director David Grindle said that offering professionals this type of hands-on training, which has direct impact on their careers is a great step in fulfilling USITT's mission. The first time Sellers led a USITT Presents workshop on 3 June in Miami, "the attendees were impressed with the amount of information they learned."

"It's great to be back presenting in th

UK - All eyes were on Murray at this year's Wimbledon Championship men's final and, with peak viewing figures at 17.3m, the televised coverage drew the biggest audience since 1990. The feast was not only visual, but aural as well, with Sennheiser's flagship 9000 series digital microphones used on Centre Court by Sue Barker for presentations heard by those lucky enough to be at Club and across the globe via the BBC broadcast.

RG Jones is the Club's sole provider of audio equipment and services. As well as providing equipment on hire to the Club, it also manages the Club's ever increasing inventory of audio equipment.

"We deploy services on to all of Championship Courts, the hospitality marquees, the famous Queue Lane and for the Aorangi Terrace Large Screen system," explains RG Jones project manager Tim Speight Tim. "We are also responsible for a large comms inst

USA - Located in the heart of West Hollywood, the Whisky A Go-Go has served as the launching pad for literally dozens of high profile acts over the years, gaining a well-deserved reputation as "the place to play" in Los Angeles. Recently, this iconic nightclub added its first digital mixing consoles, placing the Behringer X32 into both the front of house and monitor positions.

"Our last console was purchased about 30 years ago, and obviously it was analogue. So it was time," notes Leonard Contreras, production manager and front of house engineer for the club. "The X32 is a great-sounding console. I love the Midas-designed preamps, and the FX algorithms are awesome - clean quiet, just amazing. I love it, and everyone else who works at the Whisky is pretty stoked about it, too."

Contreras, who has been mixing at the Whisky for about 17 years between

USA - Justin Timberlake's 20/20 Experience World Tour is the live iteration of the artist's The 20/20 Experience LP, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 earlier this year.

To assure that every bit of that experience translates to the sold-out stadiums and arenas the tour is passing through, front-of-house mixer Andy Meyer chose the Artist Elite 5000 Series Frequency-agile True Diversity UHF Wireless System paired with an AEW-T6100 transmitter (wireless iteration of the AE6100 Hypercardioid Dynamic Handheld Microphone) and AEW-R5200 Receiver from Audio-Technica. On tour, these system components are delivering Timberlake's vocals to hundreds of thousands of fans each night in stadiums across the US

"The AE6100, as well as its wireless counterpart, is an amazing-sounding microphone, and it really works for Justin's vocals," says Meyer. "T

UK - Miltec will be showing the production versions of their British made Blakite speaker range (Stand number F10).

The new range was designed by Miltec and is manufactured in the UK using custom drivers supplied by Fane. All seven models are made from birch ply and finished in high quality black or white paint.

The range consists of three full range speakers and four subs. The three tops have 8", 10" and 12" drivers with 1.7" compression drivers. The sound is very clean and detailed, making them suitable for conference and theatre as well as schools, live music and clubs. Features include a 35 degree wedge angle, optional rubber feet, flying points, PowerDrive bracket mounting points and a pole socket.

The subs are all front loaded and available in 12",15", 2x 15" and 2x 18" formats. The sound is warm and deep but very controlled. The

UK - One of Europe's leading provider of ladders and low level access equipment is launching a new Training Centre at its UK head office in Milton Keynes.

Since the Work at Height Regulations came into being in 2005, anyone involved in working at height is required to demonstrate a competence to do so. This is most easily shown by passing a training course with a recognised body such as PASMA (for tower scaffolds) or The Ladder Association.

The lead trainer at the new centre will be Zarges (UK) Ltd's product manager Alistair Twigg who comments, "This is an exciting opportunity for us, we are often asked by members of the public, as well as other stakeholders in the industry, for advice on all aspects of ladders and working at height. Now we can offer this advice through a variety of specific training courses."

Twigg, who has been a member of the PASMA Technical Com

Switzerland - On Saturday 10 August a giant movement of people cascaded through downtown Zurich with almost 1m fans joining the 22nd Street Parade celebrating from 1pm to midnight right next to Lake Zurich.

Top acts like Bob Sinclar, Fedde Le Grand, Nicky Romero, Westbam and NERVO entertained and excited the crowds on eight large stages and 30 music trucks with further performances provided next to the festival site.

Nicky Romero and NERVO performed their acts on the main stage next to the Mythenquai (the former site was blocked by construction works), which were supported by a large light spectacle and a big live laser show. Acts on two further stages the Bürkliplatz and at the concert hall were also supported with many laser light systems from Laserworld.

Altogether Laserworld used laser light systems with a total output power of up to 200W, which were controlled by profe

UK - Jennifer Lopez headed to London this summer to perform headline shows at two of the capital's landmark events.

Her shows at Chime for Change's Sound Of Change concert at Twickenham Stadium in June and Barclaycard's British Summer Time in Hyde Park in July were both performed from a stage set designed and delivered by LS-Live.

Chime for Change's global concert brought women's and girls' issues into the spotlight through a star-studded charity concert that invited each of the 50,000 guests to donate their ticket money to a project of their choice, which all promoted education, health and justice for females.

J-Lo performed alongside the likes of Beyoncé Ellie Goulding, Florence + The Machine, Haim, Jessie J and Rita Ora to a packed out stadium on 1 June.

The star returned to the capital on 14 July to perform at one of two weekend events in Hyde Park for Barclayca

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