USA - This autumn, Holoplot partner, Creative Technology US, used the attributes of the X1 Matrix Array for orchestral performances of musical scores of The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario at this year’s Nintendo Live experience at PAX West, the destination event celebrating gaming and gaming culture, in Seattle.
Nintendo Live is billed as ‘an all-ages celebration of Nintendo fun’. An in-person event, it debuted in Kyoto, Japan in 2018, with the 2023 edition being the first Nintendo Live event in North America. Across a large-scale themed area, guests were invited to play Nintendo Switch games together at the Variety Stage and Experience Zones, watch NintendoVS championship tournaments, and enjoy live entertainment on the Live Performance Stage, equipped with a Holoplot X1 sound system operated by Creative Technology US.
The challenge was to provide

USA - Grammy winning American rapper LL Cool J has been rocking cities across the US over the summer with a star-studded celebration of hip-hop formed as The F.O.R.C.E Tour - with pre-made and live visuals fired by a team of tvONE's Green Hippo Hippotizers.
With a line-up of special guests including DJ Jazzy Jeff, The Roots, and Ice-T, the tour was LL Cool J’s first headliner live shows in three decades and, in the run up said he wanted to ensure “everything is done right”. VUE Show Design Group was brought into the LL Cool J Camp through production designer Gary Westcott, with a brief of programming visuals “from top to bottom”.
“We were tasked with re-creating the show visuals to elevate what existed before,” says VUE Show Design Group’s design associate/screens producer, Bransen Black. “This show wasn’t like your typical concert tour - it

USA - Rock band Paramore are engaged in a world tour supporting their sixth studio album, This is Why, which was released in February. The live show features an eye-catching and interesting stage and lighting production design crafted by Sooner Routhier of Sooner Rae Creative and Trevor Ahlstrand of Ahlstrand Productions.
The lighting rig includes 67 Robe Esprite moving lights, three Robe BMFL FollowSpots and six BMFL FollowSpot LTs working on a three-way RoboSpot system, plus six iFortes.
Approached in the fall of 2022 by tour manager Andrew Weiss, it is Sooner’s first work with the band. Trevor and Sooner were keen to collaborate on a project for some time, and for this one, all the stars aligned for it to happen. They also worked closely with creative director and video content designer Mike Kluge of Cour Content.
Mike’s history with Paramore dates

UK - A spectacular eco and pet-friendly alternative to fireworks will set the skies ablaze above London’s Hammersmith and Fulham with a new show marking this Guy Fawkes season.
The 12 innovative Lights and Laser Spectacular shows at Ravenscourt and Bishops Parks are being staged over two nights during the Fawkes Festival, run in partnership with the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham.
Designed and produced by the team at GC Live and delivered by technical partners, 21CC Group, the festival promises an action-packed, environmentally, and animal-friendly evening.
Themed around A Night at the Movies, the shows feature an immersive light and laser display with sky trackers, flames and special effects all choreographed to a soundtrack of light and laser-themed film scores and classic movie music.
The displays have been created by award-winning light

Singapore - Thousands of children of all ages are visiting Universal Studios’ Pantages Theatre in Singapore to see Trolls: Hug Time Jubilee which debuted on 15 September.
Inspired by the Trolls film series, the new live theatrical productions features Queen Poppy, Branch, Guy Diamond, Cloud Guy and all the other refreshingly original characters that have made Trolls movies a favourite of parents and children across the world.
Helping the Trolls cast of characters come to life at Pantages is a dynamic and richly texture colourful lighting design by Nick Ho that features 44 Chauvet Professional fixtures, including 32 Rogue R3X Washes.
Working with programmer Justin Poh, Ho deftly uses intense, focused light to enhance the vivid quality of the cast members (all of whom are dressed in character costumes), as well as the inflatable timecode-triggered flowers

Spain - Created back in 2011, the Coca-Cola Music Experience (CCME) set out to become the first Gen-Z focused music festival, creating a strong link between the brand and teens through their passion for music.
Twelve years later, it has fulfilled that aim, as the recent two-day festival, which was held at the Caja Mágica (Magic Box) in Madrid, proved. Taking place in front of 23,000 people, it was accompanied by a simultaneous live stream.
Situated in the Manzanares Linear Park, the multi-functional space was designed to embrace all the scenic, technical and artistic elements expected of a TV gala and a music festival. Entrusted with the lighting design was the in-demand, locally based LD and programmer, CaCo García, who has wide experience in lighting large-format one-off events such as this.
He selected a vast armoury of more than 300 GLP fixtures, which were

Belgium - Popular trance festival Sunrise celebrated its 10th anniversary in style with more stages, artists, and production values at its waterside site of De Lilse Bergen near Lille. Upping the ante on lighting was a brief that lighting designers Kristof Blancquaert and Mattijs van Looy Kristof of design studio KB Lighting were happy to deliver - lighting all six stages with the help of some Robe moving lights.
As a freelance LD, Kristof has been involved with lighting Sunrise for some time. He designed a high impact rig for this year’s Main stage which included 14 x Robe MegaPointes, 18 x Spiider LED wash beams, six T1 Profiles, 20 x T2 Profiles, 10 x Tetra2 moving LED battens together with blinders, strobes, and deco lights.
Eye-catching décor was designed by Roxxi, and the main stage video elements were also integrated with the scenography.
Kristof’s o

UK - Following a successful stint in North America, the Australian Pink Floyd Show (TAPFS) tribute band has returned to the UK for its #DarkSide50 Tour 2023. This celebrates 50 years since Pink Floyd’s original Dark Side Of The Moon tour.
Significantly, the tour will also marry Martin Audio’s latest Wavefront Precision line array technology, as fielded by 22live - who handle all audio production for TAPFS -and the original rig conceived by Martin Audio founder, Dave Martin and Bill Kelsey for that 1973 tour.
The idea of recreating this for the cover band came from Chris Hewitt (of CH Vintage) who floated the idea back in April.
Hewitt is known for having salvaged and curated much of the equipment that toured concert halls and festivals in the 1960s and 70s, and selected items from his emporium can frequently be seen on show, lovingly restored, a

Japan - Nikon Creates Studio, a new subsidiary of Nikon Corporation, has recently unveiled its new Heiwajima Stage, a multifunctional shooting facility created with the support of Global Vision Multimedia (GVM). Located at Nikon Creates’ imaging complex in Tokyo, Japan, the stage features the latest technology, including volumetric video recording systems and a large LED volume for virtual production (VP) setups, driven by Brompton Technology LED processing.
The studio's close proximity to Haneda Airport makes it easily accessible for domestic and international clients. It also allows for easy transportation of equipment, such as lighting and special machinery, enabling efficient shooting for productions of various sizes, including music videos, commercial films, movies, TV dramas, corporate video packages, and video distribution services.
Its impressive LED setup co

USA - The Treetop Trail is reimagining what it means to visit the Minnesota Zoo. As the longest elevated pedestrian loop in the world, the 1.25-mile Treetop Trail brings guests up to 32ft into the canopy, offering a breathtaking birds-eye view of the zoo and animals below. In addition to creating a sense of awe and wonder, it connects guests with nature and inspires action to save wildlife in Minnesota and around the world. The zoo has already named the new ambassador to the trail's habitat: a North American porcupine named Quillber.
There are several ‘lookouts’ along the trail, which serve as areas of interest in which zoo docents inform visitors about the area they're in or animals they can see. These lookouts will also be used for small-scale musical performances through the zoo’s planned Music in the Trees program. Featuring a rotation of different musicians and st

Indonesia - Suara’s independent art, music, culture and educational festival is set on the pristine Tabanan coast on the Indonesian island of Bali. Founded for the good of its community, the unique two-day event has a clear mission to bring together locals and visitors to connect and celebrate the beauty of Balinese heritage and nature.
Now in its second year, the location for Suara is Nuanu City, ‘a home for visionaries and creators’. The festival itself welcomed around 4,000 visitors daily who could enjoy a packed schedule of workshops, cultural activities and performances across nine unique stages.
An outdoor festival requires high-performance, flexible and discreet loudspeakers and when it came to choosing the supplier for Suara, K-array was the ‘first choice’ for general producer Vladimir Belyakov and sound engineer Semen Chumanikhin: “Having experienc

Germany - Electro-Voice has received a glowing endorsement from Steve Harris, the bassist, founder and band leader of Iron Maiden - one of the most influential and enduringly popular bands in heavy metal, with sales over 70 million albums worldwide. Renowned for their stunning live shows, the band’s The Future Past Tour 2023 recently wrapped on 6th October, and saw stadiums packed with a new generation of fans alongside seasoned metalheads.
Harris’s signature sound and fast-fingerstyle technique have made him one of the most instantly recognisable bassist in heavy metal - as noted by Loudwire magazine, which named him the best hard rock and metal bassist of all time.
The relationship with Electro-Voice cements the long-standing trust that Harris has placed in his EV-equipped rig, solidifying a shared commitment to uncompromising audio quality that st

Korea - Neumann’s Miniature Clip Microphone System (MCM) has been making waves since its release. In Korea, with artists like Jang Ha-eun (classical guitarist), Mellow Kitchen (saxophonist), and KoN (violinist) joining the ranks of MCM users, it is evident that Neumann's MCM is making waves.
Jang Ha-eun is a popular South Korean singer and classical guitarist who has made a name for herself on the international stage. Most notably, she was one of the finalists at the popular South Korean talent show Superband 2 and performed at Carnegie Hall in New York with the Union City Orchestra. Her collaboration with prestigious orchestras such as the Seoul Grand Philharmonic Orchestra and the Bolshoi Theatre National Opera Orchestra have further showcased her exceptional guitar skills and musical talent.
“I always aim to achieve the best sound quality for all my perfo

USA - Tony Caporale uses the word ‘array’ quite often when talking about his 61-universe lighting design for Grammy-winners, Tedeschi Trucks Band on their recently completed North American tour. That’s not just because he used 53 Chauvet Professional Strike Array fixtures to convey the 12-member band’s outsized energy level; in actuality it has to do with his approach to creating the dynamic production that supported their music.
“I’ve been saying ‘array’ a lot when I talk about this show,” said the designer and programmer. “The word really just sums up the vision we had for this show. We’ve grouped all of the fixtures in this rig in clusters, to create what I call an ‘array-style look’. Brian Pirrone, who has a great knowledge of this band, helped great deal in connecting me to their spirit.”
The array configuration that Caporale arrived at

Australia - Anyone looking out from the banks of the Brisbane River this year might see a new feature on the water: Oasis Cruising’s new entertainment riverboat. With a permanent residency on the Brisbane River, the three-level events boat offers voyages with sweeping views of the city skyline, while talented international and local DJs ignite each custom-designed space with high quality audio. Integral to this experience is an onboard PA system enabling extensive control, coverage and fidelity, courtesy of French loudspeaker manufacturer Nexo.
Nexo’s flagship point source system, the P+ Series, in combination with the compact full-range ID24 Series, were selected to supply audio to the dancefloors and all covered areas aboard Oasis. Nexo’s optional contemporary white colour schemes were chosen for each system, allowing the modules to blend seamlessly into the boat’

USA - Light artist Eloi Maduell from Playmodes Studio used 288 Astera Titan Tubes to realise his immersive lighting installation Beyond at the 2023 LUMA Projection Arts Festival staged in Binghamton, New York.
The lighting fixtures were supplied by Wireless Film Lights from Hannover, Massachusetts, a sponsor of the 2023 LUMA event, which was curated and organised by co-founders, Joshua Bernard and Tice Lerner.
Since 2015, LUMA has been an intersection between art and technology, presenting inspiring and fun large-scale lighting and projection art in a pop-up urban environment for what has become a popular annual event in the town, attracting tens of thousands of visitors.
Beyond was one of seven works presented this year. It was the only one that didn’t involve a pre-existing building and projection mapping, instead the “travel without moving

Mexico - Few people other than dedicate cinema buffs, remember the 1935 James Cagney movie G Men, but the classic gangster film has lived on for the past four decades thanks to the global success of the Spanish quartet Hombres G. Ever since they made their debut at Madrid’s Rock-Ola in 1983, the band has been wooing fans with their irrepressible pop sound.
Today, countless live shows and some 15 albums later, the Latin Grammy nominated band is going as strong as ever. Their effusive energy and spot-on musicality are there for all to see and enjoy on their Seguimos Empezando tour.
Celebrating 40 years of Hombres G the tour is running throughout Spain and Latin America, playing two-hour sets in which the band never takes their foot off the gas pedal.
Reflecting this energy at Hombres G’s sold-out performances at Arena Monterrey and Arena Ciudad de Méxic

USA - Free Chapel is a growing multicampus church, operating out of Gainesville, Georgia, that combines a local approach with a global vision. The church’s successful and technically advanced Forward Conference has been constantly evolving over nearly two decades.
Snapback Productions from Atlanta was enlisted to support the technical realisation of the 19th year of the student conference earlier this summer. The annual event hosts more than 10,000 students from dozens of states at the Gas South Arena in Duluth, Georgia.
This year’s Forward Conference featured five artists and seven main stage speakers over a period of three days. Each of the artists performed sets ranging between 30–45 minutes, with some of the artists performing more than one set in total.
Snapback’s Bryce Kongvold and Michael Ferris were tasked with supporting creative director, Austin

Sweden - Prolights Astra Family lluminated the A Show Larger than Life performance at the Hamburger Börs in Stockholm, delivering a visual experience that left the audience utterly captivated.
This event celebrated the era of boy bands and music legends, both Swedish and international, and was elevated to even greater heights with the inclusion of Prolights projectors, generously provided by Gobo AB, the primary Prolights distributor in the region.
Lighting designer Jimmy Thorén harnessed the full potential of Prolights devices to transport the audience back to the turn of the millennium, evoking nostalgic sentiments from the '90s.
The Prolights lighting setup featured a total of 36 moving heads, including the Astra Wash19Pix, Astra Hybrid330, and Astra Profile400, transforming the Hamburger Börs into a genuine visual spectacle, immersing both the artis

South Africa - Technical supply company, MGG, has invested in 24 ROXX Cluster B4 FC LED blinders from DWR Distribution which were set to work at the 2023 SPAR Convention held at Sun City.
MGG’s initial introduction to the brand came about when Thorsten Sattler, one of the founding members of ROXX, visited rental companies within South Africa to support local distributor DWR Distribution. Mark Gaylard, director of MGG, needed a crowd blinder that would be suitable for outdoor events and it was apparent that the robust ROXX Cluster B4 FC LED Blinder ticked that box and many others.
Günther Müller, project manager at MGG, comments, "We received the ROXX fixtures just in time for the Krone 7 music show, and since then, we've used them at various events including a festival in Nelspruit and most notably at the 2023 SPAR Convention.” The SPAR convention, attended by 1

USA - After unveiling a significant upgrade featuring over 4,800sq.ft of top-tier LED displays from digiLED, Tropicana Field, a multi-purpose domed stadium situated in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the long-standing home of the American professional baseball team, the Tampa Bay Rays, has surged ahead in technological advancement across its entire facility.
This stride in innovation is prominently showcased in its Rays control room, where 1.3mm digiTHIN HD LED screens have been installed.
“When we began deliberating the choice of a screen manufacturer for our control room, we sought input from a diverse group of stakeholders, including members of the Rays family and professionals associated with other stadiums,” says Michael Weinman, director, Tampa Bay Rays. “A pivotal factor that influenced our decision was the exceptional support we received from digiLED.

Poland - The musical We Will Rock You had its Polish premiere this spring, powered by a Meyer Sound system headlined by Lina compact linear line array loudspeakers at the Roma Musical Theatre in Warsaw.
Directed by Wojciech Kępczyński, the production features the music of Queen neatly translated into Polish, crossing the boundaries of a theatrical performance and transforming into a rock concert.
Along with the LINA loudspeakers, the full system included 1100‑LFC low-frequency control elements, VLFC very low-frequency control elements, UPA-2P, UPM‑1P, and UP-4XP loudspeakers, ULTRA‑X42 compact loudspeakers, and MM‑4XP miniature self-powered loudspeakers, along with the Galileo GALAXY Network Platform and D‑Mitri Digital Audio Platform.

Italy - Marrageddon, the successful first hip hop festival from King of Rap, Marracash, involved two massive concerts in the two cities that are symbolic of the rapper: Milan and Naples.
Marrageddon gathered no less than 84,000 people at the Hippodrome La Maura in Milan on 23 September and more than 55,000 at the Hippodrome di Agnano in Naples on 30 September.
The festival hosted not only the big names of Italian rap - Fabri Fibra, Paky, Shiva, Salmo, Guè Pequeno, Lazza, Madame - but also dozens of emerging artists, integrating fireworks, lasers and 1,000sq.m of LED wall, as well as suspension cables to fly Marracash above the dance troupe.
Lighting designer Giorgio De Cassan of Ombra Design, who was entrusted by the rapper with the entire creative direction of his Italian tour, lit this event. The LD opted for 40 Ayrton Cobra laser-sourced fixtures, supplied

Germany - Since 1994, the rather tranquil Baden-Württemberg state capital of Stuttgart has been transformed into a quivering music metropolis for a few days every year (notwithstanding the city’s never-ending railway station construction drama).
The Jazzopen music festival – which, contrary to what the name suggests, has been open to artists of all musical genres since the beginning – has developed into a world-class concert event. This year, around 50,000 visitors experienced performances by Melody Gardot, Deep Purple, Grace Jones, Die Fantastischen Vier, Joss Stone, Simply Red and many others over the festival’s 11 days.
Event technology specialist, Sound & Light Veranstaltungstechnik from Leonberg, has consistently supported Jazzopen as a technology partner in recent years and has been a permanent service provider for sound, light and video technology o

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