USA - When designers are faced with the biggest lighting challenges they turn to the industry's brightest lights. This is just what Dall Brown Lighting, with the support of Chroma Designs, did when given the task to light the exterior of the University of Phoenix Stadium for this year's Super Bowl. Dall Brown and Troy Eckerman teamed up to tackle the job of bathing the aluminium skin of the stadium in colour for the NFL's annual week-long celebration and season finale.

As has often been the case Syncrolite LLC was the company relied upon to meet the huge task at hand. This year, for Super Bowl XLIX, Syncrolite supplied 19 XL 8K xenon moving lights with their patented OmnicolorTM system that allows for true additive or subtractive colour mixing and incorporates VFL lightshaping dif

USA - Katy Perry's glittering halftime show at Super Bowl XLIX in the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona was an eye catcher. Lighting designer Bob Barnhart of LA-based Full Flood chose a large array of amongst others Clay Paky Sharpy, Mythos and A.leda B-EYE K20 fixtures for the 12-minute show. Jason Rudolph, the lighting director in charge of the video system, used a grandMA2 light console to control the projection and inflatable, illuminated orbs.

Super Bowl XLIX marked Barnhart's seventeenth big game and his fifth as the primary or sole lighting designer. He served as lighting designer on last year's Bruno Mars halftime show at Met Life Stadium in Rutherford, New Jersey.

Even before the halftime talent is selected, the venue sets the scene for the production and lighting design. "It all depends on what creative options the stadium offers," says Bar

The Netherlands - After proving the OCA control architecture in the field on global tours and major music festivals, the OCA Alliance is promoting the OCA message to the wider market.

At and around ISE 2015, several of the large number of OCA member companies exhibiting at the show participated in various activities to promote OCA. These included a presentation to members of the press, to carry the OCA vision of a common remote control standard to the AV industry, as well as presentations to AV consultants and system integrators. Meetings with numerous manufacturers also helped move forward the process of making the OCA vision reality.

OCA Alliance member companies Yamaha Commercal Audio, TC Group and Salzbrenner Stagetec, joined d&b audiotechnik in presenting the current status and future vision of Open Control Architecture, as these relate to the AV Installation and Systems

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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.

UK - Manchester's Royal Exchange theatre has reinvested in TiMax technology via its recent purchase of a TiMax 2 SoundHub via Autograph Sales. TiMax will provide the audio system management and spatialisation resource for the theatre and the many varied productions which grace its boards each year.

The natural endpoint of the original TiMax Classic Rack system, after 16 years in constant use, coincided with a time of flux in the theatre's sound department. Within a year, the department had turned around so as to be entirely new and justifiably an immediate decision to replace was put on hold.

Head of sound, Sorcha Williams, explains, "We viewed the situation as an opportunity to really explore our options. As sound designers came in with their productions we invited them to choose what they wanted to use, so we had a Galileo and a Yamaha DME, and then a sound designer cam

UK - PRS for Music, the organisation that represents over 100,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers, has chosen PMC loudspeakers for the listening room in its new offices in Kings Cross, London.

PRS for Music relocated to Two Pancras Square at the end of 2014. Moving to this prestigious new building gave the organisation the opportunity to create a working environment that was ideally suited to its needs. Part of that process involved installing a dedicated listening room that could be used for any critical listening tasks, including judging entries for the annual Ivor Novello Awards, which celebrate the best British music writing.

PRS for Music director and Music Producers Guild Chairman Steve Levine was responsible for the listening room project and for the choice of PMC monitors. As a multi-platinum music producer, Levine has crafted hits for artists such as The B

UK - The award-winning staging, structures and seating specialist will unveil a new name, simplified to Star Events Ltd, a new logo and a new website at the Event Production Show, as it takes formal responsibility for parent company Altrad Beaver 84's events division.

The amalgamation adds crowd control barriers, fencing, mobile grandstand seating and ground protection to Star Events' product range. Existing Beaver 84 contracts, with the BBC, Festival Republic and V Festivals among them, transfer too, along with Beaver's events team.

Steve Tysoe, managing director at Beaver 84 and Star Events, comments: "It makes perfect sense to put the portfolio together. It's a more focused approach for the client, with Star capable of providing the core equipment for any type of outdoor event."

(Jim Evans)

UK - To mark the end of 2014's F1 season Sky Sports created a film called The Ballad of the Duelling Drivers that told the story of the intense battle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. To enhance this special project, lighting director Richard Bowles chose Clay Paky Mythos and Alpha Beam 700 fixtures to deliver stunning effects and sharp beams of light throughout.

Bowles specified three Mythos and eight Alpha Beam 700 fixtures from Richard Martin Lighting for the film, which was created and directed by Sky Sports F1's Alex Rodger, performed by talented composer and pianist Tokio Myers and narrated by actor Peter Guinness.

"My original brief was to recreate the look I'd previously come up with for a live music show earlier in the year, with a mixture of strong beams of light and large format tungsten lights against a strong black background" explains Bow

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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.
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France - The World Heritage Centre, UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, was bathed in light from SGM for the two nights of the opening ceremony of the International Year of Light.

Finnish lighting artist and designer Kari Kola prepared a full concept design including light, video and music for a spectacular display at the iconic Fontenoy building during the ceremony. This launched an initiative intended to raise global awareness about the importance of light for the future and for the development of society. 1500 people attended this ceremony including leading diplomats, scientific societies and technology platforms from around the world for a number of lectures.

For Kola's installation, titled Light Is Here, no fewer than 130 SGM P-5 wash lights and 14 G-Spot moving heads were deployed together with another 70 LED based fixtures and 12 video projectors. "I wanted to r

Finland - For this year's three-day Finnish Cross-Country Ski Championship in Jämi, the organisers were looking for a special starting gate for the sprint day, to provide a rivetting visual appearance for the TV transmission.

Opo's Sound delivered a truss gate and used SGM LED luminaires for perfect winter illumination during the dark hours. Thus, four SP-6 SixPack blinders and two P-5 wash lights were placed at the starting gate, while additional P-5s were used to illuminate Audi's Promotion Arc.

Selected for their powerful output, the SixPack contains six 40W RGBA LEDs while the P-5 boasts 44 high power 10W RGBW LEDs; the SGM luminaires also provided that one special feature required for this outdoor winter event - an IP rating of 65.

More than 3,000 daily visitors could enjoy the excitement of the ski race in the beautiful cold Finnish winter further brightened in the ea

UAE - Martin Audio reports that a further production company has this month signed up to its growing worldwide network of MLA users.

Helping to expand the profile of the Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array platform across the Middle East is Access All Areas; the company confirms that it has added a 24-enclosure MLA Compact rig to its inventory, purchased from Martin Audio's Dubai-based distributor, VTi.

Set up by British ex-pat Martin Gravestock and Grant Collins in 2003, Access All Areas specialises in providing turnkey production solutions for the conference and concert sectors. This is the company's first Martin Audio acquisition.

"With the market changes post 2008, we adapted our plan, and sold off a lot of older outdated equipment," Gravestock explains. "For a while it was better to sub-contract the equipment we needed, but with a longer term view to re-inve

China - PR Lighting's new XR 1000 Framing, which begins shipping next month, promises a brighter output than a conventional 1200W discharge lamp from a 1000W metal halide lamp source - thanks to its superior optics.

The fixture has been built with an advanced feature-set that includes a wide beam angle of 11°-51°, which is linearly adjustable in 16 bit, an excellent framing system (with four framing blades offering 0°-90° rotation, with different size and shape graphics to produce a curtain effect.

Other features of the XR 1000 Framing include smooth CYM colour mixing, with CTO and macro; colour wheel with seven colour filters; linear colour temperature correction; seven rotating high speed gobos and seven fixed gobos (all replaceable); DMX control; linearly adjustable focus; DMX linear zooming; linearly adjustable dimmer from 0%-100% and linearly adjustable ir

Japan - The Nippon Budokan arena in central Tokyo played host to the Fumiya Fujii 30th Best Special Countdown Live on New Year's Eve 2014. The show was the spectacular culmination of a two-year tour by popular Japanese music artist Fumiya Fujii, in celebration of his 'double anniversary' which marked 30 years since the recording of his debut album and his 20th year as a solo artist.

Pivotal to Keisuke Nishi's design for the evening was a bank of 90 Ayrton IntelliPix-R LED panels supplied by Ayrton's Japanese distributor, First Engineering Japan.

IntelliPix-R is a modular beam projection panel of 25 independently controllable 4.5° LED emitters arranged in a 5 x 5 array which project graphics and media far into the air. Panels can be connected together to form a semi-transparent wall, screen or ceiling or be placed under specially designed glass using its dedicated floor ins

France - Sono 64 Événements, the NEXT-proaudio's distributor in France, recently designed the sound system for Discotheque Les Vôutes, located in Paris.

The sound system was needed to achieve high sound pressure levels, high quality sound to join the concept of Les Vôutes, an intimate club inspired on the ancestral and historical cellars with exposed stone walls.

The club has a long dancefloor atmosphere, several rooms under the arches welcoming conformable booths and tables. The Sono 64 Événements team designed the system using the X-Line, MA series, LMS Series and DP Series from NEXT-proaudio, comprising four X15, 10 X10, four X8, six XH18, and two Xs15. The whole system is powered by MA3200 and MA3800. The whole system is controlled by four NEXT DP240 and fourLMS-242.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Electrosonic provided video, audio and control equipment and integration for the new Carol J. and Barney Barnett Learning Centre at The Florida Aquarium in Tampa. The new facility builds on Electrosonic's strong relationship with the aquarium, which includes earlier extensive refurbishing of a portion of the aquarium.

The Learning Centre features a circular main hub area with the lab room, toddlers' room, ocean room, coastal room and green room, branching off of it. The Hub Scenic, part of an introductory experience and presentation for visiting students, is at the core of the hub area. This scenic element, along with architectural detailing, special lighting and other embellishments, create the immersive experience of an ocean laboratory.

"A narrative about finding a missing turtle sets the stage for the story of the ocean lab," says Electrosonic project manag

UK - School Stage, the performing arts installation company offering exclusive provision to schools, colleges and universities, recently completed a project using Chauvet Professional fixtures to add colour and 'wow' factor to a multi-functional assembly hall in the newly built Lees Brook Community School in Derby.

The new school building was commissioned by the Education Funding Agency (EFA) because the school buildings were in poor shape, but no provision had been included for sound and lighting systems. Sensing this was a real opportunity to create the hall as a spectacular performance space, the school's former head teacher came out of retirement to project-manage the rebuild for the school.

Having sourced quotations and designs from other companies, the school governors awarded the contract to School Stage, who scrutinised the proposals and made sweeping changes to the bu

The Netherlands - Identifying the right sound reinforcement system to permanently install in a club, church or multipurpose space, requires a solution that will produce the highest quality audio reproduction today, tomorrow and for the years to come. A loudspeaker system from d&b audiotechnik will do just that and more, as ISE visitors discovered at the d&b stand and demo room.

"d&b is continuously expanding its portfolio for the installation markets. To support the requirements of our global installation customers we have put significant effort into product development, to provide pro audio solutions for opera houses, theatres or large music venues; wherever the highest quality of sound is required. Throughout this year we will introduce a number of new, high performance installation products to the market, to underline d&b's focus on these applications," says d&b CEO

UK - Leading Bristol-based rental company Enlightened Lighting has boosted its offering with an investment in the latest addition to the Showline eSeries family, the SL eSTRIP 10 luminaire.

Established in 2000, Enlightened is one of the principle lighting supply companies in the South West of England, stocking some of the latest and best technology and most recently bringing 24 of the powerful Showline units on board. Since the investment, they have been flying off the shelves, with Enlightened supplying them to various award shows, theatre productions, dry hires and other corporate rental companies.

"Many of our customers are looking for an LED luminaire with the features that the SL eSTRIP 10 offers, both for purchase and rent," says Enlightened's general manager Andrew Bartlett. "All the feedback has been fantastic so far, with our customers commenting on how

USA - The 57th GRAMMY Awards, broadcast on CBS the evening of 8 February from the Staples Centre in downtown Los Angeles, featured an unprecedented 23 live musical performances. With so many artists performing in an RF-intensive urban location, the production team was faced with the daunting task of ensuring flawless audio from everyone's wireless microphones and in-ear monitors.

From the hard-rocking opener by AC/DC to the poignant closing performance of Glory by John Legend and Common, Shure wireless microphone systems, wired mics, and in-ear monitoring systems were a near-constant presence. As always, musicians were permitted to use their preferred microphones for their performances.

Although artists brought their own custom earphones, all but one of the in-ear monitoring systems used were Shure PSM1000, with 24 channels split between two stages.

Both Shure Axient

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) will be featuring new lighting solutions from Chroma-Q, Mole-Richardson and Fiilex, grip equipment from Manfrotto, and video innovations from Green Hippo and Prolights - at the Broadcast Video Expo (BVE) 2015 show, held at Excel, London on 24-26 February (stand E20).

The company offers a comprehensive one-stop inventory of equipment solutions for film, television, and studio or location broadcast applications. This service covers products through to complete lighting and video systems, from supply through to installation.

The award-winning Chroma-Q Studio Force premium performance soft light range provides a soft, even light source in a choice of daylight, tungsten and variable white LED models which are comparable to traditional lighting technologies - and produce a massive output for their size.

The Mole-Richardson lighting rang

WhatsOn Winners - Miss Saigon has dominated this year's WhatsOnStage awards, winning nine trophies including best West End show. The record haul follows the musical's return to the West End last year, 25 years after it premiered in London. Former Doctor Who co-stars David Tennant and Billie Piper won best actor and best actress in a play. Tennant for Richard II and Piper for Great Britain. The awards, focusing predominantly on London theatre, are voted for entirely by members of the public.

The new production of Miss Saigon won nine of its 12 nominations, including best actor and actress in a musical, best direction, best choreography and best musical revival. The musical, set during the Vietnam War and based on the opera Madame Butterfly, opened in London at the Prince Edward Theatre last May.

Lee Hall's adaptation of the 1998 film

UK - It is with great sadness that the family of Muriel 'Mu' Wiltshire has announced the news of her passing on 5 February. Mu was the mother of HHB Communications MD Ian Jones and a founding member of the successful professional audio technology supplier. A shareholder since the company was started in 1976, Mu served numerous roles at HHB and was a company director for many years. She was also HHB's first accountant/bookkeeper and retained this role until her retirement from day-to-day activities in 1989.

During her years with HHB, Mu was very active in attending shows and other industry events. She will be remembered as a gracious woman who welcomed friends and customers with a cup of tea and was known for making late-night meals for crew members after a gig. It is her kindness and friendly demeanour that will be remembered most by the many people in the industry who made her

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