Italy - An immense Phoenix spread its wings on the beach of the Red Rocks of Arbatax, in Sardinia. It is here that mythology has merged with the lighting technology in the heart of one of the most charming landscapes of Italy. The Red Rocks have a close relationship with the great music, having already hosted the likes of Patti Smith, Lou Reed and Eric Clapton.

In Arbatax, the Phoenix does not rise from its ashes, but expresses its special relationship with the sun, which enhances this wonderful place, giving beautiful reflections to the red of its rocks and the emerald sea.

At Red Rocks, the majestic Phoenix is the extraordinary setting for the Red Valley Festival - a giant DJ set which took place over two nights, on 5 and 6 August, with the participation of Italian and interna

USA - The Summerland Tour, previously hailed by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the "10 Hottest Summer Package Tours", returned this year with Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing systems managing FOH and monitor positions.

Now in its fourth year, the annual Summerland tour is devised by Art Alexakis, front man of popular 90s alternative rock band, Everclear. This year's tour comprises Everclear, Toadies, Fuel, and American Hi-Fi, travelling across North America to over 30 different venues.

Alexakis gives credit to the iLive systems - comprising iLive-T112 Control Surfaces and iDR-32 MixRacks - for playing a key role in the success.

"We have used Allen & Heath for the last couple of years and the sound has just been phenomenal. I am so glad to be able to use them on every tour," says Alexakis.

"We carry two Allen & Heath iLive T-112 surfaces

Money, Money, Money - The piano that featured in nearly all ABBA's recording between 1973 and 1977 is going to auction. Sotheby's expert Philip Errington said, "The opening piano glissando from Dancing Queen is one of the most distinctive sounds of the 1970s and we are delighted to offer the actual instrument used by the legendary ABBA in their major recordings. The piano itself is an instrument of real importance and with the added ABBA provenance we expect it will have worldwide appeal."

The piano was made by Swedish musical instrument designer Georg Bolin for the US jazz pianist Bill Evans. It was bought by Stockholm's Metronome Studios in 1967 and appeared on nearly all of ABBA's recordings between 1973 and 1977.The group's pianist Benny Andersson said, "The Bolin Grand is one of a kind and was a great source of inspiration while working in the recordin

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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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UK - What colour is the voice of a deity? This was the synesthetic question faced by the design team at London's National Theatre in their production of Everyman, a new adaptation of the classic 15th Century morality play.

This isn't your medieval ancestors' staging of Everyman. Carol Ann Duffy's adaptation recasts the play as a critique of the prodigal present, as a modern Everyman (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is forced to confront his solipsism, materialism and wasteful ways in the face of imminent death. The National's production, directed by Rufus Norris with lighting design by Paul Anderson, set design by Ian MacNeil, video design by Tal Rosner and sound design by Paul Arditti, uses a synthesis of up to the moment technology to present its new interpretation.

At the beginning of the play, God - who takes the form of a cleaning woman - becomes fed up with the self cent

South Africa - A truly spectacular 'rose window' made up of 89 x Robe LED moving lights - was revealed during the new South African production of Sister Act at the Joburg Theatre, downtown Johannesburg

Production designer Declan Randall united all visual elements - lighting, video and set - in a colourful collage of finesse and visual imagineering to match the pace and vibrancy of the show. With a cast featuring some of the best South African musical theatre talent, directed by award winning Janice Honeyman and produced by Bernard Jay, it received rave reviews and sold-out audiences.

Declan - a South African now living in the UK - lit Starlight Express a couple of years ago at the same venue for the same production team, who loved his work and asked him back to add his magic to Sister Act.

He began working on ideas seven months before the show opened, ba

Italy - Giovanni Pinna has worked with Vasco since 1991. What is the secret of this alliance? "Vasco believes in people's ideas. Moreover, all the technical and creative workers who have been around him for years, from the stage design team (Gio Forma Studio Associato since 1998) to the stage director Diego Spagnoli, play an active role in the whole show preparation process.

"First of all we begin by working around various set design ideas. Then everyone says which one they prefer. This year, the choice was unanimous: a large covered stage, modelled on the keel of a ship. This is when you start processing the ideas yourself, while the activity of discussing and sharing the project goes on as it develops over six months. It takes a long time, but that is what it needs for a set of this size.

"You have to realize you are in a stadium, with an audience of 60 or 70,

USA - Rock and roll never dies; neither do rock and roll dreams, although sometimes they may take an extended hiatus while "adult responsibilities" are looked after. Such was the case for New York attorney Charles Bonfante. In the '80s and early '90s, the Long Island native was the drummer for a number of touring rock bands. Then adulthood happened; so did law school, followed by a successful career as an attorney. Now Bonfante has travelled full circle, forming a band and reliving his rock road warrior experience with help from something that wasn't available back in the day: a collection of high-output lighting fixtures (primarily LEDs) from Chauvet Professional.

Bonfante's group, Reservoir Dogs, is a Pink tribute band that has been wowing audiences with a dynamic lighting rig consisting of 32 Rogues and a variety of other Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Th

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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.

Canada - CAST Software has announced wysiwyg Student Edition lighting design and previsualization software for students and educational & training institutions. The new edition will "better prepare students for their future careers in live lighting, laser and video event design".

All the student's investment on the student edition licence, goes towards a wysiwyg six or 12-month lease or full professional version.

A newly added Perform Lease Student Edition enables students to programme lighting using up to 1,000 DMX channels including connection with media server or compatible offline editor, via protocols such as DMX, EDMX, Art-net, sACN, CITP, Motion Control Universes, Pangolin Laser System, Sollinger Laser Animation, Strand ShowNet or SandNet.

wysiwyg version R35 was recently upgraded to include unrivalled performance and functionality. Constantly evolving, wysi

Denmark - The RUSH MH 6 Wash, the newest moving head in the RUSH by Martin series, is available for pre-order and expected to ship late September.

The RUSH MH 6 Wash is adapted from the popular RUSH PAR 2 RGBW Zoom and utilizes the same LED engine and zoom system, while also featuring moving head capability. The RUSH MH 6 Wash offers a fully pre-mixed color system from 12 10 W RGBW LEDs with a spectacular 10°-60° zoom. It also features full electronic dimming, strobe effects and temperature-controlled fan cooling for quiet operation.

"After hosting a private preview event at this year's Prolight&Sound in Frankfurt I am confident in saying that the RUSH MH 6 Wash will be the ideal workhorse for night venues and small to medium events," said Mark Buss, product manager, RUSH by Martin. "With proven LED technology used within the RUSH Par 2 Zoom RGBW and the

Germany - The demands for a high performance point source have always been the same: reliable, lightweight and compact, and with a wide range of rigging options for maximum flexibility. The V7P and V10P from d&b audiotechnik are billed as a new breed of loudspeaker offering all this and more, including the d&b hallmark constant directivity control down to low frequencies.

Building on the three-way passive design of the well-known d&b V-Series line array modules, the V7P and V10P point sources house two 10" drivers in a dipolar arrangement with a rear mounted 8" MF driver attached to a dual chamber horn. The exits from this horn design create another dipole around the centrally mounted single 1.4" exit compression driver with a constant directivity horn. This maximises the performance to size ratio, by making almost the entire baffle board radiate.

The V7P and V1

The Netherlands - Globally the popularity of outdoor music is great as ever and, while the higher profile festivals like Glastonbury, Roskilde, SXSW and Coachella inevitably receive much of the coverage, for every big event there are hundreds more smaller ones which cater for every possible age, interest and musical taste. In Amsterdam, the Brave festival champions new bands, with Yamaha and Nexo systems ensuring that they enjoy a thoroughly professional production.

Now in its second year, the Brave festival is held in Amsterdam's Tuinen van West, a managed 'green space' that provides a range of recreational facilities away from the city's built-up area.

Held on 15 August and headlined by US indie rockers Augustines, this year's festival featured three stages of live music and a 'food village' featuring cuisine from many different cultures. The festival's production company, K

UK - HHB Communications has supplied numerous Mogami 'Cable for Life' cables for the popular Reload Sessions YouTube channel.

With over 11m YouTube views, Reload Sessions is the premiere channel for unsigned musicians. Priding themselves on creating high-quality content, the videos are recorded in HD and only the best audio equipment used. As such, Owner Peppe Fazzolari has added numerous Mogami 'Cable for Life' cables to his arsenal of equipment.

Peppe comments, "The Reload Sessions have travelled to many sites to record, but we are now mainly based in a studio in Central London. We have found that Mogami cables are the best sounding and most durable cables available for any application. We have used numerous other cables over the years, but Mogami is the only one durable enough to withstand the heavy use we require."

Mogami 'Cable for Life' p

USA - When lighting designer Steve Comer began working with Jackson Browne in 2008, the goal was to create a 100 percent LED system, and with the help of Bandit Lites, that goal is coming closer and closer to fruition.

Comer tackled the project with production designer Dennis Scrimo and chose a design that would be flexible enough for a 2000 seat theatre and a 10000 seat amphitheatre in addition to being cost effective, efficient on space, and load in and out times.

"I have smaller profile fixtures so they can mostly fit inside Bandit's Go-Go Truss, which has cut down time considerably in hanging fixtures or needed to have cases of fixtures in a truck or on a stage," explained Comer. "Once we decided on an idea we liked, I got with Dizzy Gosnell and we talked about how to streamline some things to make it work. The design has gone through a couple of modificatio

UK - South London-based technical production and design specialist Presentation Rentals has re-branded as 'PR Live' to reflect the dynamic nature of its business and the current scope of the company's activities.

The company was launched in 1997 by MD Ian Coull as an AV equipment rental company - initially supplying small projectors, screens and PowerPoint presentation kits.

It's now grown into a highly successful full high-end technical production supplier offering the latest audio, lighting and video hardware and technology, plus a comprehensive range of associated services including complete show and event design, video content creation, graphics, artwork and set design / building. In short, everything to cover all aspects of any types of live event or brand activation, together with a full logistics department and transport fleet.

"Live - and larger scale - producti

USA - Since 1996, LA's Skirball Cultural Centre has gained a reputation as one of the world's foremost Jewish cultural institutions, a leading cultural venue and a truly elegant event space designed by renowned architect Moshe Safdie. With the latest addition to their campus, the 44,000sq.ft Herscher Hall/Guerin Pavilion, Skirball has dramatically enhanced its ability to serve the 600,000 patrons who visit annually.

Lauded by the New York Times as a lesson on how to connect the eye to heart and mind, the Guerin Pavilion combines exceptional versatility and high aesthetics and features a state-of-the art AV system in which Tannoy's Dual Concentric loudspeakers are integral components.

"The Dual Concentric design originally comes from our studio monitors from back in the day," says Dudley McLaughlin, consultant manager, install and tour, North America, for TC Gr

Austria - When experiential event production agency, Media Apparat took on the technical aspects of Pioneers Festival in June 2015, the unique multimedia control and display capabilities of AV Stumpfl Wings Engine Stage and Fullwhite screens were used to their full capability.

"The prestigious annual festival at Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna, Austria brought together the smartest start-ups, corporate, media and investors in one place, eager to support the next big thing," says Andreas Göltl, managing director at Media Apparat. "The event happens every year and our task was to make Pioneers Festival a stunning event experience to remember. It's the type of event that gets a lot of business interest and press internationally and is broadcast live to an international audience of 100,000."

At Pioneers Festival, video content covered the entire main stage a

UK - David Cameron has announced the government approval of 59 group standards for 'Trailblazer' apprenticeships, as part of its commitment to supporting three million new apprentices in the UK by 2020.

Supported by key industry experts, this new initiative launches the first apprenticeship as a Live Events Rigger, the development of which has been facilitated by NRAG (National Rigging Advisory Group).

Representatives from leading industry employers formed the NRAG working group. In April 2015 the standard was agreed by the Government Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) to be put forward to lead the rigging apprenticeship initiative, assisting other companies to do the same through the provision of structured opportunities to young individuals interested in a career in rigging.

Key rigging industry leaders already committed to supporting the Trailblazer initia

Czech Republic - The Vivaldianno Project - a sumptuous and ambitious combination of popular classics played in a classical rock style - is a successful crossover musical concept evolved by Italian violin virtuoso Jaroslav Sveceny and Czech rock keyboardist Michal Dvorak.

The latest touring version of the show played five large arenas in the Czech and Slovak Republics with a full Robe moving light rig supplied by rental company Q-99 from Slovakia.

The largest venue was Prague's 17,000 capacity O2. The concerts were so popular that extra shows were added in both Ostrava and Brno which immediately sold out. Lighting was designed by Martin Hruska.

The Robe fixture count included BMFL Spots and BMFL Blades, LEDBeam 1000s, CycFX 8s and 4s, Pointes and LEDWash 1200s - a combination that gave Martin the chance to create all the drama and intensity expected from the genres of rock an

UK - Long days in the sun and surf, long nights lost in music. That's the promise of Boardmaster, Europe's leading celebration of all that is surfing. Grown from small beginnings in 1981, Boardmasters has become the epitome of boutique festival going, an event packed day and night with a feast for all the senses; not least visuals. "We're doing something quite different at the Unleashed stage in the Big Top this year", said Rhodri Shaw of Video Design. "That's as well as provide the big IMAG screens for the main stage."

Shaw, as project manager for Video Design, has been instrumental in driving the development of LED at Boardmasters and it's not as straight forward as it sounds. "The Unleashed stage is a saturation situation with pumping music from the likes of Groove Armada and Roni Size. The designers asked that we provide great arches skinned with LED

Germany - After a turbulent renovation phase, the renowned Stuttgarter Schauspielhaus opened again after several phases of rebuilding. Also on board: A new sound system by Alcons Audio. After the last renovation phase, the main room of the Theatre of the Year award-winning Stuttgarter theatre, now has a maximum of 670 seats, which all offer a very good listening experience thanks to the new sound system.

Frank Bürger, head of the audio and video department of the Schauspielhaus, explains the decision for an Alcons system: "From a natural, balanced sound for unobtrusive theater reinforcement to a powerful sound for modern productions and concerts a versatile system was required. In comparison tests, the Alcons components excelled by far."

Thomann Audio Professional, as technical service provider involved in the project, installed the system during the first restructu

Denmark - Recently, hearing health experts from around the world converged on Aalborg University in Denmark for the International Conference on Music-Induced Hearing Disorders, organized by the Audio Engineering Society (AES). The three-day conference featured 21 technical papers presented by participants from across the globe, plus a series of panel discussions on the link between music and hearing.

The conference organizing committee was chaired by AES member Professor Dorte Hammersh°i of the host university. "The exchange of views across four continents was a highlight of this conference, with the inherent variety of traditions for culture, legislation, and behaviour," she notes. "I was very happy with the atmosphere that was created by the diverse participants, which is something one can only hope as conference organizer."

This was the second AES in

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