The Netherlands - Music, art and culture came together, once again, at ParkCity Live 2023 in Heerlen. This year, the event took place on the first weekend of July. SLF Group Rental + Sales BV provided lighting equipment by Showtec and Infinity for both the main stage and the dance area.
ParkCity Live is a family-friendly festival that regularly sells out and this year was no exception with the maximum capacity of 17,500 visitors reached on both days. The festival attracts both national and international acts and covers various music genres as well as comedy and theatre. The main stage and dance area both featured lighting by Showtec and Infinity supplied SLF Group Rental + Sales BV.
The light design for the main stage was created by Wesley Houben of The Nota Experience. Twelve top-of-the-range Infinity S601 Profile moving heads, chosen for their powerful output, wide

UK - Rycote Windshields reports the resounding success of its recent ‘Meet the Team Event Day’. The event, held at Rycote’s new manufacturing facility in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, offered a hands-on experience that showcased the company’s commitment to excellence, innovation, and its close-knit partnership with its global network of dealers and on-location sound engineers.
The event, which took place on 5 September 2023, brought together valued partners, dealers, and sound engineers, for a day filled with engaging activities and insights. The highlight of the event was a comprehensive factory tour that allowed attendees to witness first-hand the meticulous craftsmanship and technology that goes into every Rycote product. They in fact, got to experience production for themselves as they were invited to get hands on, on the production line and create their very own Softie.

USA - M&T Bank Exchange in Baltimore has opened as the city’s newest live event venue with an Elation Professional lighting package that can cater to any occasion from concert to reception and everything in between. The new 14,193 sq.ft performance space has been created within the shell of an historic 19th century bank building and represents the long-awaited final phase of the France-Merrick Performing Arts Centre.
When the refurbished Hippodrome Theatre opened in 2004 as the centrepiece of the France-Merrick Performing Arts Centre, original plans called for a smaller performance space to open next to it. The Hippodrome Foundation had preserved the historic Eutaw Savings Bank as part of the larger arts complex, with the thought that it could become a flexible venue for shows and events that didn’t need the Hippodrome’s 2,300-person seating capacity. Now, nearly t

Singapore - As the largest content creator and national media network in Singapore, Mediacorp operates a suite of TV channels, radio stations, and multiple digital platforms.
Year after year, Mediacorp assumes the role of the central hub for the country's biggest celebration of content and talent in the local entertainment industry. This year's event, the 28th edition of Star Awards, was themed Beyond | Celebrations, and was reimagined as a star-studded concert. It featured a line-up of Singapore's finest talents and regional superstars, joining forces for a night of glamour, excitement, and celebrations.
Oceanus Media Global (OMG) worked with Mediacorp to create the opening segment and after credit scene for the award ceremony using their Futurealistic Studio, with a high-tech LED volume powered by Brompton Technology LED processing.
Founded in 2020, OMG is a cr

Czech Republic - Colours of Ostrava is the Czech Republic’s largest music festival, currently staged against the imposing backdrop of old blast furnaces, cooling towers, ore cauldrons, casting shops and other industrial relics from the Dolní Oblast Vitkovice (DOV) steelworks in Ostrava, the country’s third biggest city.
The 2023 edition was another success, with over 250 artists appearing across 20 stages over four days. Robe moving lights had a big presence, including on the two largest performance areas - the Ceska Sporitelna / Main Stage, and the adjacent Liberty Stage.
Colours’ technical director Josef ‘Pepa’ Ženíšek led a core production team of 35 from his Prague based company, SMART Production, who co-ordinated all aspects of the technical production - staging, rigging, lighting, sound, video, audio, stage management and all associated infrastruct

UK - Depeche Mode’s sound has been a huge part of the electronic rock landscape since it hit the airwaves in the 1980s, and today, fans continue to amass in their hundreds of thousands to hear them perform.
Led by production manager Tony Gittins and touring in support of their 15th studio album of the same name, band members Dave Gahan and Martin Gore bring Memento Mori to the live stage for another world-class feat.
With help from Britannia Row productions account executive, Dave Compton, the touring audio team has specified a plethora of high-end tools including an L-Acoustics K Series PA system, and SSL and Avid control surfaces.
Systems engineer Terence Hulkes comments: “Depeche Mode are a long-standing client of Brit Row’s, and as their crew, we aim to continue delivering (and improving upon) the standard of equipment and packaging that they hav

USA - Reflecting the fiercely independent personalities of Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard in light on a co-headline tour requires a deftly balanced show, one that celebrates each legend’s journey.
A towering, power-projecting, cathedral-like design by Mike Cooper that featured Chauvet Professional Strike Array 4 blinders and Color Strike M motorised strobes did that in style, supporting the individual personality of each of the two bands on their recently concluded co-headline USA tour.
Matt Mills ensured that Mötley Crüe was supported by dynamic looks, that reflected the multi-platinum band’s identity, while LD Kenji worked on Def Leppard. “I was one of the programmers when we did preproduction for this show last year at Lititz,” said Mills. “On this run of six shows, I filled in for lighting director, Michael Willingham running the Mötley Crüe segment.

UK - Cornflake recently undertook an installation project for Maddux Creative X Fromental at the WOW!house design centre located in Chelsea Harbour, a collaboration of designers, craftspeople and specialist suppliers including Altfield, Charles Burnand, ecoScent, George Smith, Illuminationworks, K-array, Lutron, Optelma, Pierre Frey, Tom Faulkner, The Royal School of Needlework, and 2B Heard, who between them have created the 3am Room.
The sonic focus of this project was the integration of K-array's miniature Lyzard loudspeakers, which ‘brought a new dimension of audio excellence and a relaxing sonic backdrop to the outstanding exhibit’.
“We had been speaking with Maddux for some time and had been looking for a project to work together on for a while,” commented Cornflake design director Ben Rodrick. “This was a really good opportunity to showcase the benefit

USA - An eagerly-awaited return in the world of heavy rock finally happened in December 1922 as Pantera played their first show in over two decades at Mexico's Hell & Heaven Metal Fest, with the band's new line-up featuring original members Philip Anselmo and Rex Brown plus Charlie Benante and Zakk Wylde.
Since, the band has continued to tour across North America in addition to a number of spring dates and festivals in Europe plus a number of shows opening for Metallica, to acclaim from their very loyal and international fanbase.
System engineer Alex Hollinger has been using an Outline Newton FPGA processor at the heart of his control setup - he talks about how it is configured and also how its combination with the latest digital mixing console from Midas, the HD-96, offers a technical advantage that is presently unique in the world of live sound:
“We are

Denmark - Bellevue Teatret (Bellevue Theatre) is located in Klampenborg, a suburb north of Copenhagen, Denmark. Its scenic location is about 100m back from the beach, and views from the front of the building overlook the Øresund strait.
Founded in 1936 and designed by architect Arne Jacobsen, the building is one of his seminal works - and one of several in the area - as well as an important example of Danish functionalism.
In the last year, the theatre has invested in more Robe moving lights, with the purchase of 12 x TX1 PosiProfiles - the first to be installed in Denmark - joining their 24 x LEDBeam 350s acquired in 2021.
The fixtures were chosen by production manager Bjarne Olsen and technical manager Martin Vive Rasmussen for their 746-capacity main house.
The theatre - popular with both the local community and a wider audience of theatre fans - stage

Europe - Shure has announced that an agreement has been reached for it to acquire Ab Wavemark Oy, Finnish producer of software products for theatre, film, TV, broadcast, and content streaming applications. The acquisition will add Wavemark’s products to Shure’s professional audio portfolio.
“The acquisition of Ab Wavemark Oy will further underscore Shure’s commitment to providing our professional audio customers with innovative solutions that enhance workflow,” says Nick Wood, senior director, wireless category, at Shure. “We are excited to expand our portfolio with cutting-edge and customer-centric solutions that enable creative productions across theatre, broadcast, and content creation.”
The forthcoming acquisition further strengthens Shure’s strategic investment in software by providing audio technicians with the tools needed to inspire confidence

USA - Dallas-based production company Pittman Media Group is committed to going above and beyond to provide its clients with quality, reliable AV production solutions. The team at Pittman Media Group has come to rely on a selection of products from Eastern Acoustic Works.
For Pittman Media Group President and Owner Zack Pittman, the decision to use EAW was an easy one. “We first began looking to invest in EAW back in 2018 and were immediately impressed,” he says. “EAW has always been focused on making really good sound. The ease of use of EAW’s gear is second to none, and we were excited to add them to our inventory.”
Pittman Media Group currently has 24 NTX Series dual 10-inch powered line array loudspeakers, 12 SBX dual 18-inch high-output subwoofers and multiple RSX Series self-powered point source speakers in stock for its clients’ projects.
“I

Australia - The sparkle and ambiance that characterised the 63rd annual TV Week Logie Awards was enhanced by the innovative lighting solutions offered by Prolights. This event, held at Sydney's The Star and broadcast by the Seven Network, is regarded as one of the highlights of the Australian television industry, attracting celebrities and industry professionals from all corners of the country each year.
The lighting setup that wowed the attendees was supplied and installed by Chameleon Touring Systems, in collaboration with Show Technology, the official Prolights distributor in Australia. The selection of luminaires was key, and the result was a lighting rig comprising approximately 150 Prolights solutions, including EclPanel TWC, VersaPar, Smart BatWash and EclPanel TWCJr.
The TWC EclPanels played a fundamental role in all the installations, illuminating not only the

Belgium - The Antwerpen Sportpaleis played host to a cornucopia of projected lasers and lighting earlier this summer when promoters, Zillion presented their new immersive Iluminati dance concept.
This new design, conceived by Frank Verstraeten, who co-promoted the event with Yves Smolders, ran over two days - each with nine hours duration. A capacity 14,500 crowd immersed themselves in this purpose-built 3D ‘black box’ environment on each night.
Helping to create the magic were an abundance were GLP JDC1 and JDC Lines -some 85 x JDC Line 500 and 40 x JDC 1 hybrid strobes were deployed. “We used all of these fixtures, not only as a conventional strobe but also to create an atmospheric glow, enabling us to punch through with the other moving heads,” said lighting and set designer, Thomas Boets (from LDP). They placed 45 of the JDC Line 500 on two large trusses ab

The Netherlands - This year’s Kingdance Festival and Dance4Liberation had a much in common. Both celebrated important national holidays, the King’s birthday, and the liberation of the Netherlands from Nazi occupation in the closing days of World War II. Both featured an electrifying line-up of EDM stars and other performers. And both took place on the same stage with the same lighting rig at the Wijthmenerplas lakeside park.
There was, however, one critical element that separated the two festivals: time! Kingdance ended exactly one week before Dance4Liberation began. A lot can happen outdoors in the 168 hours (or 604,800 seconds) that make up a seven-day week, especially when you’re dealing with a climate as capricious as that of the Netherlands.
But the rig shared by these two festivals performed smoothy, even though it remained in place for the entire week, th

Gregg Maltby, a Las Vegas-based independent lighting designer, chose an array of Ayrton fixtures for Peter Frampton’s Never Say Never tour. Versatile Ayrton LED fixtures such as the Diablo and Eurus profiles and the Zonda 9 FX washes comprise about half the rig. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton lighting in North America.
Frampton’s North American tour kicked off in June in Huber Heights, Ohio and wrapped in Sandy, Utah in August. The artist recently extended the tour with a series of November dates starting in Louisville and finishing before Thanksgiving in Nashville. OSA International, Inc. in Nashville, the lighting vendor for the tour, provided the Ayrton fixtures to long-time customer Maltby.
“I’ve used Ayrton lights for a long time, including for Huey Lewis, Boston, and the Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly hologram tour,” says Maltby.

USA - It can take a while to get a group of people to embrace a new way of doing things, and it certainly doesn’t help when a two-year-plus-long pandemic complicates the process. However, it is easier when the new way is so undeniably amazing that everyone really does embrace it. That was definitely the case when Lorin White, brought on as the monitor engineer for the precursor set of shows for Lionel Richie’s current Sing A Song All Night Long tour, was ready to take off in 2020.
The multiple Grammy Award winner and his band only managed to get one show in before the world shut down. Fortunately, White recorded that show, which became the basis for his initial experimentation with KLANG’s immersive IEM mixing system.
“During the lockdown, Group One sent me a KLANG-equipped DiGiCo SD12 so I could do some test some mixes from that recording while at home

France - Digigram has acquired Grenoble-based audio networking solutions specialist AuviTran. This acquisition strengthens Digigram’s position on the audio pro market and marks the beginning of a development phase towards the market of critical communications. With the completion of this operation, Digigram aims to increase its sales and double its revenues within three years.
Effective immediately, the acquisition reinforces the total headcount stretching from HQ offices in Montbonnot and Singapore. Operational changes include the appointment of Yves Ansade, founder of AuviTran, to the position of global R&D director, where he will oversee the technical strategy for the new entity.
“Digigram and AuviTran’s combined R&D departments reach 40% of the global staff. Both companies will continue to operate their respective brands and clients, however the acqu

UK - University of the Arts London (UAL) has signed the first deal to install Sony’s new Crystal LED, Verona displays, to create a state-of-the-art, research-grade virtual production stage.
In June 2023, University of the Arts London (UAL) announced the development of a specialist Virtual Production (VP) research volume - via its Fashion Textiles and Technology Institute (FTTI) - to create capacity for innovative, trans-disciplinary practice-led research in VP/XR textiles and dress.
To support this new facility, UAL went looking to outfit a space with a robust yet cutting-edge, future proof display solution. Research and university requirements pointed them towards display solutions that would provide value over an extended lifespan while delivering the highest possible colour accuracy and detail.
UAL worked with Lux Machina, specialists in display technology,

USA - English rock band Asking Alexandria is out on tour promoting their latest album with a lighting system provided by Bandit Lites. Comprised of guitarists Ben Bruce and Cameron Liddell, drummer James Cassells, lead vocalist Danny Worsnop, and bassist Sam Bettley, the band released their eighth studio album Where Do We Go From Here? on 25 August.
Following the band’s European tour, lighting designer Corbin Alvae sought to utilise fixtures that would offer a host of functions to supply the band big, stadium style lighting that would translate to clubs and theatres.
“The band has such a groovy and heavy rock ‘n roll style that I needed to provide a design that really highlighted that and bring those moments to life on the stage even more,” explained Alvae.
“When Corbin reached out to me about his design for Asking Alexandria, I was beyond exc

USA - Breakwater Hospitality Group - the Miami based team behind hotspots like The Wharf, Carousel Club, and John Martin’s - unveiled their latest concept, Regatta Grove, in Coconut Grove’s Regatta Harbour, this summer.
The gathering spot offers four culinary outposts by Michelin-starred and James Beard Award-nominated chefs, live entertainment, and impressive waterfront views. Regatta Grove is situated on an approximately one-acre waterfront property. The venue features multiple decks, a walkway to the waterfront, direct access to the marina, and even dockage for guests who would like to arrive by boat. Green lawn areas for entertainment and wellness programming surround the space.
“What sets Regatta Grove apart from any other venue in Miami is its location,” said Alex Mantecon, co-founder of Breakwater Hospitality Group. “The venue is inspired by the essen

Australia - Audinate Group Limited (ASX:AD8) has announced that during the company’s 2023 fiscal year (FY23), which ended in June, it had shipped more than one million hardware and software units of its AV-over-IP solution, Dante. The one million units is the greatest number of Dante units ever shipped in a 12-month period. The list of Dante products includes software, chips and modules that original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) integrate in their products to create Dante audio and video hardware solutions for end users, as well as the Dante AVIO accessories built by Audinate.
Currently, more than 550 OEMs license Dante technology, delivering over 3,800 networked and video devices, including video cameras, microphones, loudspeakers, and amplifiers.
Semiconductor analyst reports in 2022 showed the supply chain challenge was more of a demand than a supply issue, and

USA - Showing there is plenty of gas left in the tank, rockers Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard had one of the biggest grossing tours of 2022. The momentum carried into 2023 with the summer culminating in a string of U.S. stadium shows lit using Brutus and Rayzor 1960 fixtures from Elation’s IP-rated Proteus series. The bands were supported by shock rocker Alice Cooper.
Mötley Crüe lighting designer Michael Cooper has been working with the band for 10+ years and collaborated with Def Leppard LD Kenji Ohashi on the world tour design. Originally started back in 2019, the design was put on the back burner when Covid hit but eventually saw the light of day on the successful 2022 tour.
“It was the longest design process we ever had,” Cooper noted before delving into the requirements for the co-headline outing. “We wanted something that would work for both bands but

UK - J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings has been reinterpreted numerous times over the years, from cartoons to films to even a West End musical. First performed at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 2007, the musical was recently revived and reimagined at The Watermill Theatre in Berkshire. The lighting designer for this new production is Rory Beaton who approached White Light (WL) to supply his lighting equipment.
“We were very conscious that, as the first ever non-replica production of the original musical, we wanted to bring something new to the table,” says Rory. “As such, we have created a brand new production that takes place both inside the actual theatre itself as well as outside in the beautiful grounds. Our version is about celebrating ‘The Shire’, the story, the phenomenal music and, of course, the beautiful Watermill Theatre. Our aim was to pro

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