Europe - Lighting designer, director and programmer Marc Lorenz has joined Ayrton’s international team as designer relationship manager with a focus on Europe.
Lorenz brings to his new role over 30 years of experience as a freelance operator, programmer, lighting director and designer on many well-known festivals, arena shows, tours, television and corporate events, as well as being a respected trainer for lighting consoles and media servers.
His past festival credits include Paleo Festival Nyon, Out in the green Frauenfeld and the Open Air St. Gallen while his touring career has encompassed groundbreaking tours for artists - many with leading lighting designer Gunther Hecker - like Die Fantastischen Vier, David Garrett and Herbert Grönemeyer, amongst many others. Lo

UK - Ross Robertson has joined Arena UK MEA as managing director of the structures division, based in Arena’s St Ives headquarters.
Arena chief operating officer EMEA Tom Evans comments: “Arena Group is taking on a new look as we bounce back from the pandemic, and I am sure that Ross is the right person to steer the structures division, bringing great experience to achieve ambitious expansion beyond our core events sector.
“Arena’s structures division is gearing up for an incredibly busy 2022 across a wide range of events, and we are investing in our team to support our project directors, managers and site crews’ delivery of amazing events on behalf of clients.”
Arena’s structures team is already well underway with the build for Europe’s largest temporary triple-decker hospitality structure for the 2022 Cheltenham Festival and next year will also

New Zealand - Dream Solutions has announced that its flagship product, LightFactory can now be purchased as a yearly subscription. The new pricing model greatly reduces the investment needed to use this control software. The new subscription system starts at $99 for the full one universes product, $149 for four universes and $199 per year for a 10 universe system. The scription includes all future software upgrades, free fixture library requests and monthly fixture library updates.
The existing one-time purchase model is still available for those who prefer to purchase the software outright.
The latest version of LightFactory is free to download from: http://www.lightfactory.net
LightFactory has seen considerable success in a variety of applications over the past 18 years of development, from running major stadium spectaculars with up to 150 DMX universes to loc
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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.
www.cameolight.com

France - Robe France enjoyed the buzz and excitement generated by the 2021 JTSE (Journées Techniques du Spectacle et de l'Evénement) expo staged over two days at Les Docks de Paris.
It was a welcome return to face to face - or mask to mask - meeting opportunities after the 2020 online event, and Robe’s French team also celebrated this landmark putting a special focus on the launch of the new T11 range of theatrical luminaires, a three-in-one LED lighting solution.
The eye-catching Robe booth in the main Pullman Dock building was designed as a stylish, contemporary ‘lounge’ meet and greet area, and became a social hub for those wanting to say hello and stop for meetings and discussions. It was constantly busy with a stream of customers, contacts and industry friends, and Robe France co-CEO Bruno Garros comments: “It was impressive - many came to us with a spe

UAE - Stage One Creative Services delivered stage engineering for the hero centrepiece at UAE’s 50th National Day celebrations. The show, which took place on 2 December, marked the country’s Golden Jubilee as the largest celebration to date.
The floating theatrical experience, designed by award winning artist, Es Devlin, is situated on Hatta Dam in the Hajar Mountains. Stage One engineered, fabricated, installed and operated the hero rotating stage which hosted the cast. The floating disc-shaped sculpture, which is 19m tall at its highest point, doubled up as a performance area and projection surface.
The key challenge was engineering a heavy steel structure that will remain balanced in a cantilevered state on a floating pontoon. This was achieved through judicious structural and marine engineering and a hefty serving of ballast. To allow the disc to revolve, it wa

UK - With his repertoire of music blended with comedy, Tim Minchin’s UK tour, which began back in 2019, resumed after lockdown with a further eight-week stint. Titled Back . . . Encore, this took him through a number of sold-out UK theatre shows, interspersed with a handful of arena dates.
The Australian was supported onstage by a seven-piece band - three brass players, bass, guitar, drums and percussion. Masterminding the sound production was Martin Audio’s rental partner, Capital Sound, with Dave Roden mixing once again to his favoured Wavefront Precision WPS.
Capital drew on their inventory of 32 WPS line array enclosures, but purchased six additional multi-channel, Dante-supporting iKON amplifiers for the tour, enabling the system to be driven in the optimum one-box resolution.
Explaining the need for the expanded WPS inventory this time around,

USA - To bring the Tony Award-winning musical Hadestown to life on stages across the US for its national tour, lighting designer Bradley King implemented a versatile lighting rig featuring Martin Professional LED fixtures, provided by Christie Lites.
Written by singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and directed by Rachel Chavkin, Hadestown is an American blues and folk-infused version of the Ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Mitchell first premiered Hadestown in 2006 with a DIY theatre group in Vermont and recorded a concept album based on the show in 2010 before the final version debuted on Broadway in 2019 at the Walter Kerr Theatre.
This year, Hadestown embarks on a national theatre tour that debuted at the Kennedy Centre in Washington, D.C. Lighting designer Bradley King, who won a Tony for his work on the Broadway production of Hade
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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.

USA - Lighting designer Tim Deiling used 35 Ayrton MagicDot SX fixtures to help construct the visual narrative for the Broadway production of Six The Musical when it transferred from London’s West End in October (see LSi December, out now, for detailed production report on the musical).
Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s multi award-winning musical follows the story of Henry VIII’s six wives, expanding on each of their stories and translating their historic power struggles into a modern day pop contest which breathes dynamic new life into the story. Tim Deiling’s associate lighting designer, Tim Reed, reports:
“The show takes place on a standing set with no set moves throughout. Instead, we chose to use a rock concert style of lighting with lots of beam looks at all times

UK - Overcoming the somewhat inauspicious climate created by the global pandemic, Legoland Windsor Resort has continued to invest in its infrastructure. Part of that investment has included the upgrade of their 4D cinema as well as the implementation of a new ride, the UK’s first Flying Theatre attraction, Ride of the Sky Lion.
The new attraction forms part of Legoland’s most recent development, Mythica, an area that was inaugurated for the park’s reopening in early 2021. The Legoland production team overseeing the design and installation of the new ride called on their long-term audio supplier and consultant, Dave Shepherd of D.S. Audio to ensure the audio experience was the best possible. Shepherd specified a system based on EM Acoustics’ new flagship Reference Series R10 system.
Shepherd’s brief was straightforward enough – to design a world class

UK - A daredevil walk the plank challenge which kicked off this year’s I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here on ITV, was designed and rigged by Unusual Rigging.
ITV bosses are no strangers to the feats that Unusual is able to pull off, having contracted director Robin Elias as crew chief on several stunts for various different shows. Robin said: “Pre-pandemic, ITV had brought me on board to work with them on the show in Australia. Then when Covid hit in 2020 and the show hurriedly relocated from Oz to Wales, none of the trials involved any rigging - there simply wasn’t the time to devise them. We fully expected to be back in the jungle in 2021, but because of the continuing pandemic, it was once again re-routed to Wales, and I was retained as a consultant.”
This year’s opening trial – the one which sees the celebrities first enter the camp was called

UK - Like many public events, the outlook for the Edinburgh International Festival in 2021 was a little different. With restrictions limiting the use of indoor venues, the festival looked to d&b Soundscape - and its acoustic shell - to unite the disparate worlds of classical music and sound reinforcement; to recreate the comfort and quality of the concert hall in a temporary open-air environment.
On the grounds of Edinburgh’s Junior Academy and the city’s Old College Quad, two custom built pavilions, a hundred metres long, were installed like giant bubbles, roofed, but open sided for free-flowing fresh air. Striking in scale and appearance and, as it turns out, entirely capable of the intimacy and focus essential to the arts.
Knowing they had a long-standing reputation for delivering exceptional classical performances, Edinburgh International Festival initiate

Turkey - Prolights has named Modern Elektronik as its distributor in Turkey. Modern has over 36 years of experience in the audio solutions market and is now expanding its portfolio to include professional lighting.
“We decided to approach Prolights as they too are rapidly expanding and offering high-quality products with features that align with our customer's requests”, comments Erkan Işıksel, Modern Elektronik's managing director. “We were very impressed with their fixtures like the popular EclPanel TWC, the EclProfile CT+ and many other products they have recently released. We can't wait to start showing them to our customers.”
Paolo Albani, international sales manager at Prolights, adds: “Turkey is an important market for our brand, and we are sure that we have a huge growth potential there. That's why we are thrilled to work with a distributor like Mod

South Africa - Idols South Africa 2021 underwent its most substantial visual transformation for a few years with a shift of venue, from the State Theatre in Pretoria to Studio 10 at the Urban Brew complex in Johannesburg. This moment was seized by the show’s long term lighting designer Joshua Cutts of Visual Frontier, for a radical re-think, and for the first time in 17 Idols seasons, he presented a lighting co-design created collaboratively with Andre Siebrits, also from Visual Frontier.
The pair relied heavily on Robe moving lights – over 200 were specified on the rig, plus two RoboSpot remote follow spotting systems – to assist with a fresh new aesthetic that takes the SA edition of the show production to “next level” status.
Owing to Covid regulations, a large live audience was still not possible this year, so Josh and Andre embraced this effecti

Denmark - Vejle Musikteater, one of the busiest and liveliest multi-purpose live performance venues in Jutland, has reopened fully after the pandemic period, complete with a new Robe Esprite house lighting package comprising 32 x Esprites in total.
Sixteen of these have been added as front lighting to the existing over-stage rig of 16 in the Main Hall. Head of lighting Rasmus Wiberg explained that during the Covid closure they used the time constructively to activate various renovations and changes needed in the venue, including the complete removal of the ‘advanced’ lighting bridge – the one nearest the stage – above the auditorium to fit in a new PA system.
This also seemed an ideal opportunity to replace the old discharge profiles with new LED moving lights for greater versatility. Having had a great experience with the first batch of 16 x Esprites and the

UK - The full scope of the Faridabad, India-born Sonu Nigam’s talent was on full display this November at his UK shows at SSE Arena Wembley in London and Resorts World Arena in Manchester. On stage for over three hours at each venue, Sonu Nigam performed 37 songs and medleys that included his own compositions as well as songs from legendary singers Mohammad Rafi and Kishore Kumar.
Reflecting the vibrancy and versatility of the multi-faceted performance was a Roosevelt Dsouza-designed lightshow that featured Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by DMX Productions.
The lighting followed the singer through every twist and turn of his performance, peaking at intense moments, then becoming gentle for softer songs, all while never repeating a look. This was no small accomplishment, given the all-encompassing nature of the multi-award winnings star’s work.
Helping

Indonesia - A major new development at Universitas Katolik Parahyangan (Parahyangan Catholic University) in Bandung, West Java, has seen the inclusion of a high specification, multipurpose auditorium for choir performances, presentations and lectures. An Alcons Audio system has been chosen for sound reinforcement.
The university tasked design and build contractor PT Esa Sinergi Selaras Indonesia (PT ESSI) with delivering the audio in the new auditorium.
PT ESSI also chose Alcons knowing that the company’s pro-ribbon technology would ensure minimal ear fatigue for audiences. Jakarta-based KC Sound - Alcons Indonesian representative - would also be on hand to offer full support, including tuning the system to deliver its full potential.
The chosen system for the 1000-seat auditorium comprises compact hangs of two single 12” VR12/90 mid-size versatile monitors

Canada - Before any entertainer ever sets foot on its stage, Club Regent Event Centre is already equipped to put on a show with its computer-automated flexible seating system, which can adapt in minutes into over a dozen seating configurations for any kind of show: theatrical, concert, meetings, and more.
This 1,400-seat venue in Winnipeg, Manitoba, which is part of the larger Club Regent Casino features a new L-Acoustics K3-based sound system.
“This is a fairly complex sound system for a very flexible environment,” explains Martin Van Djik, senior consultant and partner at Toronto-based Engineering Harmonics, which designed the Solotech-integrated system.
The system comprises L/R hangs of eight K3 loudspeaker enclosures each, with six 12 KS21 subs per side, eight arrays of three Kiva II as delays, eight coaxial X8 frontfills, two larger X12 out-fills, four A

Europe - Exhibitors are signing up in significant numbers to take part in ISE 2022 in Barcelona in February. Over 700 exhibitors have already committed, including Barco, Crestron, KNX, Kramer, LG, Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony. The show floor has been redesigned and will also feature new Discovery Zone, highlighting 40 new companies exhibiting for the first time.
Taking place at the Fira de Barcelona Gran Via, the large, modern facility features wide aisles, an easy-to-navigate layout and industry-leading brands showcasing technology innovations and more.
Mike Blackman, managing director, Integrated Systems Events comments: “It is very heartening to see that globally, events and exhibitions are returning to strength. We are delighted that we already have 700+ exhibitors confirming their presence at ISE 2022 and we expect more to confirm in the coming days. With a vibr

Australia - ARX Systems has recently supplied a large quantity of their USB Ultra I/O audio interfaces to multiple campuses of the Australian Catholic University (ACU). The USB Ultra I/O was chosen by the ACU as part of a series of campus wide AV upgrades designed to facilitate remote and blended learning from each lecture room.
David Prentice, audio visual systems administrator for ACU, along with colleague Douglas Simpson, headed up the project. “What we wanted to achieve at ACU, which most other unis are also doing, is being able to use Teams/Zoom in our existing lecture rooms, to facilitate remote/mixed teaching. We are using the ARX DI Boxes to take microphone audio out of the Crestron DMPS (Digital Media Presentation System) and feed it to the PC, so that Teams/Zoom and other software can utilise the microphones in the space.’
The ARX USB I/O range has been a

Germany - DirectOut has named Australian company tm stagetec systems its distributor of the year for 2020, while SeeSound (Spain) and ITR Engineering (Russia) receive the outstanding sales performance and Prodigy of the year awards.
Jan Ehrlich, CEO of DirectOut, states, “tm stagetec has demonstrated a very deep knowledge of our entire portfolio during the recent years. At the same time they used this to consult the clients at best and reached out to every single opportunity the market presented. Even though our relationship is still quite young, we are a well-coordinated team with the same customer-oriented understanding.”
SeeSound has been the distributor of DirectOut products for the Iberian peninsula for a few years and the relationship between the two companies has been very positive since day one. After a kick-off year in 2018 and a constant growth in 2019, 2

USA - Latin music star Marc Anthony has returned to the stage with his Pa’lla Voy tour, taking in 26-dates across North America with an arsenal of VL10 Beamwash luminaires from Vari-Lite. The VL10 delivers speed, versatility and an impressive 28,000 lumens to lighting designer Travis Shirley’s bold stage design.
Shirley developed his concept around six vertical lighting arrays that provide the tools necessary to create effective and functional stage focuses. “When the drawings of the show were completed, it was time to start discussing fixture choices. Good friend and production guru Roly Garbalosa mentioned to me that our preferred vendor ProColor was looking at purchasing the new VL10s and asked me to take a look at them. How does the saying go? It was love at first sight,” said Travis Shirley.
The tour, which kicked off at San Antonio’s 18,500-capacity AT&

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