South Africa - Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria came to life with three performances over a four-day period with the Bethel Music SA Tour, Theuns Jordaan Tribute concert and the Boots and All Country Festival featuring Kip Moore, with all shows produced by The Hit Factory.
MGG was appointed full technical supplier for the shows, incorporating one of its two new DiGiCo Quantum 338 along with a Quantum 225 digital mixing console.
The three shows at Loftus catered for an audience of over 30,000 per performance. “It's such a privilege to do large format concerts like this again and to see a massive crowd of people just enjoying themselves gave us goosebumps,” Günther Müller, project manager at MGG enthuses. “This, paired with the fantastic artists and supported by the A++ technical team in South Africa, was an experience like no other. It’s such a privilege to

USA - PRG (Production Resource Group) has been named one of two pilot phase partners for L-Acoustics’ L Series Speakers in the Americas, before the technology becomes fully available to the public this October. This year, PRG has made a significant eight-figure investment with long term partner L-Acoustics. PRG is an L-Acoustics Certified Provider Rental (CPr) and the equipment is now available across PRG’s global locations on a rental basis.
PRG’s expanded partnership with L-Acoustics makes the brand’s tech available to customers and markets around the world. Metal band, Dream Theater, is the first production where the L Series is being utilised by PRG on tour.
“Our substantial investment in L-Acoustics products reinforces our commitment to creating outstanding experiences for audiences at live events around the world,” says Doug McKinley, VP, asset serv

Spain - HOF has confirmed that it has appointed Acson as a distribution partner in Spain. The cooperation will start with immediate effect.
Acson is a professional lighting and sound system distribution company that has been in the industry for more than 30 years.
Alex Costa, managing director at Acson, says: “Many of our customers are production companies that need brands and products that help them reduce set-up and dismantling times for their shows across Spain. We found HOF to be the perfect match to what we were looking for to be able to meet our customers’ requirements.“
Edwin Duivelaar, export & sales manager at HOF, adds: "Acson is a very respected company in Spain. They can push the HOF products in their wide range network in Spain. We are sure that the HOF products will give Acson a complement to their already wide product portfolio."
Ac

France - Prolights illuminated the Gouffre de Poudrey, a site in the Franche-Comté region of eastern France. It is a well-known underground cave system which attracts a considerable number of visitors every year.
The cave formation is a result of water erosion from the River Loue, which over millions of years cut through the karstic limestone rock layers, creating stunning underground formations.
The design and installation of the new luminous scenography were entrusted to the company TSE; a project full of technical challenges: the main underground chamber of the Poudrey abyss measures 130m in width, 100m in length and 40m in height, moreover it is accessed through a 27m long channel and its walls are adorned of stalactites and stalagmites that reach 7m in height.
Joannès Poète, development manager of the integration, museography and architectural lighting de

USA - With stars like Zeds Dead, STS9, Louis The Child, Subronics, Liquid Stranger, Walker & Royce, and Alesso, The Other Stage at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival served up plenty of EDM firepower. A high-intensity lighting rig was the order of the day and that’s precisely what Chris Lisle provided with help from 325 Chauvet Professional fixtures, which like the rest of the rig were supplied by 4Wall Entertainment.
Lisle, the owner of Nashville-based CLLD, LLC gave the visiting LDs for these artists all the punchy output they could ever ask for, but he didn’t stop there. The fixtures in his rig on The Other Stage were also very versatile, supporting a variety of looks, while also possessing the strength to stand up to large, multi-surface video walls and a video ribbon that ran across the roof of the stage.
Much of the lighting excitement was generated b

USA - VIP Production Northwest of Spokane, Washington, recently added Elation Professional’s Smarty MAX hybrid moving head to inventory and see the multifunctional light as an essential tool in what is shaping up to be a busy summer rental season.
The Smarty MAX is an extreme-output version of Elation’s 3-in-1 Smarty Hybrid with the same ‘smart’ lamp technology but nearly twice as bright and with more design features.
Triston Ward, live production department manager at VIP, expresses their rationale for selecting the Smarty MAX: “We chose the Smarty MAX because of its broad feature set and wide range of applications. When we saw them last year at LDI we were impressed with the brightness and what they had to offer. We do all types of events from large concert stages to smaller venues so fixture flexibility is very important to us.”
VIP Production Nor

USA - Lighting designer Mike Swinford of UpLate Design loves new tech as much as he loves the chance to be the first to use it, so he was delighted when everything aligned for rental company Fuse to invest in the first Robe Footsie luminaires to arrive in the USA - which he utilised as a key lighting element for the 2023 CMA Fest.
The four-day festival is hosted by the Country Music Association (CMA) and recorded at the Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, in front of live audiences and broadcast on ABC a couple of months later, but this year the popular airing date was brought forward from its traditional August slot to 19 July.
Mike has lit the star-studded multi-camera event for the last 21 years. Being a massive televisual event as well as four days of live music for fans there in the venue, key lighting is critical to everything.
Thirty Footsie luminai

UK - Unusual Rigging will commence building works on a ‘ground-breaking’ new headquarters today, 26 July as part of its commitment to respond to the climate emergency.
The innovative project is set to see the company pave the way as pioneers - showing what can be done towards regenerative design within the built environment whilst also sharing the obstacles they face with the wider industry.
The organisation, known for its work on events like the Olympics, the World Cup and West End and touring theatre hit shows, says it is taking ‘a huge leap forward’ in their commitment to the circular economy.
The design for the new HQ and research building, on the company’s current site in Bugbrooke, Northamptonshire, takes all the economic principles of the circular economy and applies them to the new building.
Tom Harper, managing director at Unusual Rigging

The Netherlands/Switzerland - ELC Lighting has announced the appointment of a new exclusive distributor for its award-winning ELC brand of DMX control and networking tools in Switzerland - Electric Claudio Merlo Lighting Equipment S.A. (ECM S.A.).
Founded in 1971 by Claudio Merlo, and based in the southern Canton of Ticino, ECM S.A. found success as a supplier of popular lighting brands, such as Coemar and Optikinetics, to the booming discotheque market. At the end of the 1970s, the business base expanded to include Swiss theatres. From its beginnings in rented garage spaces, the company has grown to employ 14 people and now serves the whole country from a modern headquarters and centralised warehouse, with branches in German and French-speaking Switzerland.
Welcoming the ELC brand to the ECM S.A. portfolio, managing director Lorenzo Merlo comments: “As a pioneer

UK - Trade-only display and video specialist PSCo (part of the Midwich Group) is excited to announce the introduction of Barco projection. This expansion further increases its professional projector portfolio for live events and large venue use for rental and sales.
Whilst PSCo already offers a selection of impressive LCD laser projectors, the addition of Barco products represents a step into DLP projection technology, expanding the array of technologies available to rental partners. The enhanced offering gives partners more versatility and choice, as well as greater lens coverage and brightness output to meet the demand from trade partners.
PSCo are introducing the UDM-4K30 3-chip DLP, the lightest laser projector in the 30K lumen category, boasting a 27,000 lumens output and best-in-class 4K UHD processing as well as a wide colour spectrum and a robust tour-ready c

Theatre in Education - Supporting theatre in education and recognising the importance of the art form in education are among a set of Europe-wide recommendations for policymakers to support the sector. The recommendations resulted from the European Theatre Forum 2023, which saw 200 representatives from the European theatre sector gather at JK Opole Theatre in Poland.
The event was organised by the European Commission with the aim of looking at how the sector can address key issues including mental health, the climate crisis and the potential impact of artificial intelligence. While they are primarily addressed to the European Commission, the guidelines are also aimed at national funders and policymakers. The European Theatre Forum included representatives from UK-based theatres in receipt of government funding, including the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh and the Young Vic in Lo

Lithuania - This year was The Voice Lithuania 10th anniversary season, which is celebrated in style with a spectacular grand finale. The event was held at Lithuania's largest arena, Žalgirio Arena, located in Kaunas, the country's second-largest city.
The live show featured 10 talented participants vying for the coveted title, who were subsequently narrowed down to the top four contestants for the super finale. As The Voice Lithuania is one of the most significant and demanding projects on the country's events calendar, with an audience exceeding one million viewers, it was crucial to utilise top-notch equipment to ensure the seamless execution of the event.
Jurgis Stasikėlis, an independent sound engineer from Garsisc Sound Team, took charge of the audio and opted for a DiGiCo Quantum 338 console, provided by Sonus Exsertus, DiGiCo’s distributor fo

Germany - Digital Signage Summit Europe (DSS Europe) celebrated its 50th edition at Hilton Munich Airport in Germany, earlier this month. A joint venture between Integrated Systems Events and invidis consulting, the summit attracted digital signage specialists from across Europe to explore this year’s theme: Engaging Experiences - Concepts, Creation & Content.
This year’s line-up of speakers, including experts from First Impression, Futuresource, Google, M-Cube, Trison, Visual Art and ZetaDisplay and spanning a wide range of sectors such as media, retail, and corporate, addressed the current market outlook and the impact of major trends.
Highlights included Dave Haynes, editor of Sixteen:Nine, and Mark McDermott, CEO at ScreenCloud, discussing How to get the message across to your employees and why agnostic software solutions that integrate with other s

Italy - First Festival returned to the Fiera Del Mare, the spacious summer stage [70 x 120m] at one of Italy's most prestigious techno events, ranking among the top six in national importance.
Following previous sold-out events featuring artists like Nina Kraviz, Charlotte de Witte, and Richie Hawtin, the festival presented by RST Events treated the audience to a seamless 10-hour musical experience. The line-up included top international DJs such as Ben Klock and Marcel Dettmann, CamelPhat (Dave Whelan and Mike Di Scala), Mathame (Matteo and Amedeo Giovanelli), and Fel (Giovanni Galvani and Alessio Lerma).
An essential element of the First Festival since 2013 has been the Outline sound system, installed by Show Technologies from Recco - Genoa
Alessandro Orlando, representing RST Events and a prominent figure in organising major events in Genoa over the past decad

The Netherlands - For Live is a production design and rental company covering technical and scenic aspects for a diversity of live events - sound, lighting, video, rigging, décor and scenic - based in Amersfoort in the province of Utrecht, with over 200 Robe moving lights in rental stock.
The company was founded in 2014 by Ruud Van Den Berg, who has been passionate about the industry since he started DJ’ing seriously aged 12. For Live has become renowned for delivering dynamic multi-site sporting events and broadcasts and servicing a range of corporate and B2B clients and brand activations plus live televised and streamed events.
Starting with building up a ‘dream team’, For Live first invested in the human capital needed to work creatively and constantly, then started purchasing specialist technical equipment, a process that accompanied quick and steady growth

USA - Sphere Entertainment Co has unveiled Sphere Immersive Sound, powered by Holoplot, an advanced audio system, which provides clear, individualised sound to every seat in Sphere, an entertainment medium opening in Las Vegas later this year.
Sphere Studios, which develops technologies and content, partnered with Holoplot to create Sphere Immersive Sound, a fully integrated concert-grade audio system that revolutionises immersive audio experiences.
U2’s The Edge said: “The beauty of Sphere is not only the ground-breaking technology that will make it so unique, with the world’s most advanced audio system integrated into a structure which is designed with sound quality as a priority; it’s also the possibilities around immersive experiences in real and imaginary landscapes. In short, it’s a canvas of an unparalleled scale and image resolution, and a once-in-a-

UK - Following significant upgrades to the Great Oak Stage in 2022, American Express presents BST Hyde Park relaxed comfortably into its new setting this year. The stage dominates the Royal Park - now firmly established, after once being considered ‘unworkable’ as a concert site, surrounded as it is by the well-heeled residents of Mayfair and Knightsbridge.
Much of this is because Martin Audio’s tightly controllable MLA PA array - the result of its advanced DISPLAY optimisation software - has been ever-present since AEG Presents took over the Park lease in 2013, making offsite noise pollution largely a thing of the past.
With system engineering back in the capable hands of Toby Donovan, who aside from last year has worked every BST, the site sound provided its usual exemplary experience for au

India - Bhopal-based event equipment rental services provider, Phoenix Networks has recently expanded their existing inventory of with the acquisition of India's first Allen & Heath dLive Modular I/O Expander System.
As the first phase of investment, Phoenix Networks has acquired a single unit of the DX32 I/O with 32 input expander along with another unit of the DX32 I/O with 32 aux expander.
This purchase comes in tow with Phoenix Network’s investment into Allen & Heath’s flagship dLive S7000 digital mixing console and the DM64 Mix Rack; with the company’s successful acquisition of the entire system in total being facilitated efficiently and expertly by Sun Infonet - the official distribution representatives for Allen & Heath in India.
Animesh Mishra, director of Phoenix Networks, comments: “With the acquisition of the dLive S7000 digital m

USA/Europe - Three-time Grammy Award winners Maroon 5 took off on a concise but intense tour this year. UK + Europe 2023 was the 15th concert tour by the band, who have also won eight Billboard Music Awards and all 27 of their BMI Pop Awards nominations, in support of their seventh studio album, 2021’s Jordi.
The tour began on 13 June in Lisbon, Portugal and travelled through Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, and France before concluding on 4 July in Birmingham.
But Maroon 5 also have a completely different live identity: their ongoing residency at the Dolby Live venue at Park MGM in Las Vegas, which they settle back into from 28 July through 12 August. On the road, they’re a stereo band; in Las Vegas, they arrive as an immersive experience through Dolby’s Atmos format. What stays consistent throughout is DiGiCo, the suite of audio cons

Germany - Founded in 1982, schoko pro GmbH has developed into one of the largest event technology service providers in Germany in more than 40 years.
With its three units (Original Stars: event and media technology incl. streaming & conferencing, Mechanical Artists: stage technology, kinetics and special constructions, Digital Performers: software, media & digital networking), the owner-managed company covers all areas of expertise and proves that technology can be creative, and creative ideas work perfectly in technical terms.
In search of spotlights that can be used for the most diverse requirements due to their versatility, schoko pro recently opted for products from the Cameo portfolio.
The investment included Opus SP5 Profile Moving Heads, Zenit B200 Battery LED Outdoor Wash Lights and Zenit B60 B Battery IP65 LED PAR Fixtures.
"We had already

Mexico - Prolific Norteño-Banda singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Edén Muñoz, who has had seven No. 1 albums on Billboard’s Regional Mexican chart, recently purchased a pair of Solid State Logic Live L550 Plus mixing consoles to handle front-of-house and monitor duties on his live shows. Muñoz, currently touring the United States with Banda MS, embarks on his first solo US tour beginning in August.
“The main idea behind purchasing these consoles came from Edén Muñoz,” reports the artist’s monitor engineer, Sergio Ramos. “He uses SSL in his recording studio and really likes the sound of the brand, which was the main reason for the purchase. We decided to go with the L550 Plus because of its large DSP power, ensuring we wouldn't encounter any processing issues when using the necessary plug-ins and stems.”
“We always knew the console's sound

Denmark - The 51st edition of the Roskilde Festival, Northern Europe’s largest and longest-running celebration of music and the arts, wrapped in early July following seven days of the annual event’s distinctive blend of entertainment, artistic expression, and global citizenship.
This first year of the festival’s second half-century also marked the sixth year of partnership with Meyer Sound, and in 2023 four of the festival’s stages were powered by systems based around the new Panther large-format linear line array loudspeakers.
“Roskilde is always aiming to improve the audience experience,” says Lars Liliengren, the festival’s head of production. “After day one of working with Panther, we have realised better coverage of the site, with more clarity, and a system that’s easier to work with.”
A complement of 141 Panther loudspeakers were deploy

USA - Snoop Dogg’s current High School Reunion tour with Wiz Khalifa takes its name from the duo’s 2012 film Mac & Devlin Go To High School. The 33-city North American tour began 7 July at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena and features plenty of classic hits, including a duet of We Dem Boys plus newer material.
The stage production supporting the tour also celebrates the past, present and future, combining some retro video looks with sleek contemporary geometric patterns and blazingly bright, colourful effects from 48 Chauvet Professional Color Strike M fixtures.
Production designer Justin Casey of HELM Projects, which supplied all the gear for the tour, approached this project with a narrative perspective that could reflect different phases of the two artists’ careers.
“I designed the rig around the concept of having a story board scree

South Africa - DWR Distribution has announced that Neutrik and Rean stock is now available in its stores.
“Kyle Robson has been appointed the Neutrik product manager at DWR and it will be his mission to get the brand to as many users in the country as possible,” comments Robert Izzett, sales director at DWR. “In addition, DWR will appoint Neutrik distributors throughout South Africa to make accessibility that much easier for musicians and professionals alike. Our goal is to make Neutrik the connector of choice and we will strive to be as competitive as possible.
“When investing in expensive gear, a reliable connector and the right infrastructure should be a priority,” adds Robert. “One bad connector can bring your gig down. With well over 40 years of experience, Neutrik offers a wide range of connectors that are easy to assemble, simple to use, reliable a

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