USA - The Shawnee Cave Amphitheatre, 100 miles southeast of St. Louis, bills itself as “a venue like no other.” Tucked into the base of a massive 100ft high sandstone rock formation sits in the middle of 60 rugged acres of craggy paths, creeks and waterfalls.
Kyle Curtis had a hand in creating just such memories Memorial Day weekend when he lit the site for an event featuring a line-up of jam bands that included The Infamous Stringdusters, Sam Bush, Leftover Salmon, Keller Williams, Kyle Tuttle Banjo, and Chicken Wire Empire. Enlivening the surroundings with vivid colours and making the cave wall come alive with gobo patterns, he enhanced the evocative effect of the setting without distracting from the artists on stage.
Helping him accomplish this feat was a collection of 54 Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Chris Parton and his team at Midwest Music Supply

Australia - Mackay Entertainment and Conference Centre (MECC) is a busy and diverse complex of nine different venue and event spaces in Mackay, central Queensland, hosting a lively mix of corporate launches and conferences to opera, music, dance, and performance shows.
Head of lighting Dan Grace and his team are amongst the first in Australia to have Robe’s new high power Forte LED luminaires in the house, with a purchase of 12 of the fixtures plus 12 new Robe Spiider LED wash beams, with more of both types of moving light to follow once the season ramps up again.
The decision to buy Fortes was underlined by MECC’s previous experiences with Robe – with nearly 100 fixtures already, including 30 x DL7s, a mix of profiles and fresnels, which directly replaced 36 hot and power-hungry 2K fresnels in the main theatre in 2019.
The last batch of these DL7s arrive

USA - Xite Labs utilised the disguise Extended Reality (xR) workflow, powered by a gx 2c media server and rx real-time rendering platform, to bring to life a myriad of virtual worlds in Unreal Engine for rapper Bryson Tiller’s Trapsoul World Series live streamed concert.
Shot at Xite Labs’ xR stage in LA, the concert accentuated the artist’s musical vibe for fans around the world watching at home. The immersive livestream presented Tiller in a series of six different worlds linked by a narrative flowing through the songs. Xite Labs was responsible for the stunning xR content for 14 different songs performed in four virtual ‘worlds’ with distinct appearances and themes.
For this immersive experience, Xite turned to its in-house workflow, featuring a disguise gx 2c media server as the primary controller of the xR environment, while a dedicated disguise

Japan - NBC Olympics, a division of the NBC Sports Group, has selected Xytech’s ScheduALL to provide its enterprise resource and transmission optimisation solution for its production of the Games of the XXXII Olympiad, which take place in Tokyo, Japan, from 23 July. The announcement was made by Dan Robertson, VP NBC Olympics IT, and Greg Dolan, Xytech CCO.
NBC Olympics has turned to Xytech’s ScheduALL for a ninth consecutive Olympic Games to deliver advanced enterprise resource and transmission optimisation solutions in order to coordinate the highly dynamic environment of the Games. NBC Olympics will be able to leverage the expertise of Xytech’s software and services to orchestrate the logistics of people, equipment, locations and transmission feeds.
“For the ninth consecutive Olympic Games, Xytech has the privilege of contributing to the success of NBC Olympi

Russia - Aistenok Irkutsk Regional Puppet Theatre occupies a prominent place among Russian puppet theatres. The marionette masters in the Siberian city of Irkutsk recently worked with Light Power Design (LPD) to upgrade its stage lighting and chose low noise, low heat Elation Professional LED luminaires along with Magmatic atmospheric effects.
Despite its relative solitude, Irkutsk is a thriving seat of culture that embodies all the best of Russia’s storied theatre tradition. Puppetry applies the same lighting techniques as a regular stage. Despite the compact space, all types of lighting instruments are used and just like a regular theatre show, fixture choice depends on the effects desired and mood required.
Founded in 1935 as the first professional puppet theatre in Eastern Siberia, the Aistenok Puppet Theatre has operated from an elegant building in the heart o

Poland - Harman Professional Solutions recently collaborated with Stage Source and ATM System to deliver a dynamic lighting design for Polish reality television series The Voice of Poland with new Martin MAC Aura PXL fixtures.
Part of the internationally syndicated television franchise The Voice, The Voice of Poland is a televised reality competition that gives singers the opportunity to showcase their vocal talents in front of celebrity judges and coaches on live television. First aired in 2011, the series recently filmed its eleventh season, which was hosted by actor Maciej Musiał and filmed in Warsaw.
In order to ensure premium production quality for the nationally televised series, the show’s producers hired ATM System to supply a lighting design that would deliver dynamic lighting both on stage and on camera. ATM System collaborated with d

Argentina - Producer, musician, recording and mixing engineer Fede Soto Roland has recently taken delivery of an Audient ASP8024-HE console for his Negril Music Studio. Based in Buenos Aires yet inspired by the music styles of Jamaica - everything from reggae to ska and dancehall - the studio’s latest addition is the culmination of a four-year shift towards analogue and represents the beginning of a new era for Fede and his clients.
He opened the studio back in 2017. At the time his set-up was almost entirely digital. Over the years he has released over 110 songs including three well-received Spanish Tributes to Gregory Isaacs. “As I got more and more involved in the production of albums and singles however, I became more aware of the difference of having a hybrid setup. So after a few years I decided to add more hardware.”
It was whilst the world was in the grip

USA - Keith Hoagland is not normally given to public displays of emotion. But at the start of his spotlight meeting prior to Jason Aldean’s Friday 14 May show at The Bonnaroo Farm, he admits it was difficult to avoid.
“Things got real at that meeting prior to the show,” said Hoagland, owner of CKP Lighting. “That’s when it hit me. My voice cracked and I just stopped to let it all sink in. I apologised to my crew, but they all felt the same way. It was all very emotional. We were all so happy and grateful to be back.”
It had been 14 months since Aldean and his crew had done a full production show. Now, with COVID restrictions starting to be eased, he was lighting Friday and Saturday shows at this open-air concert venue 63 miles south of Nashville.
The two shows (the second of which was also livestreamed), more than lived up to expectations, not just fo

USA - Almost every touring band in the last 50 years has passed through the heartland university town of Champaign, Illinois, situated midway between Indianapolis and Peoria. Many of them have performed at the Virginia Theatre, the town’s vintage venue that turns 100 years old this year.
The Virginia recently got an appropriate birthday gift in the form of an L-Acoustics Kara II sound system, designed by Threshold Acoustics, purchased through L-Acoustics certified provider distributor Mid-America Sound, and installed by Knox-Array Event Production.
Steadily renovated over the past 20 years by nearly $10m in state grants, private contributions, commercial sponsorships, and large donations, the venue now sports completely updated power, infrastructure, and trim that extends to its ornate plaster and the classic 700-pipe Wurlitzer organ originally installed in 1921 to l

UK - Having developed and introduced LED solutions for over 15 years, Chroma-Q has built a steady following within the production industry, that continues to see the creative application of their low energy technology by a growing number of crews.
A selection of products from the company’s range of low energy solutions were put to good use recently, with experienced gaffer, Wayne Shields (Brave New World, The Witcher season 2).
Wayne says, “I’ve worked with Chroma-Q products for a few years now. As an LED source, they deliver some great results, powerful output with plenty of flexibility when you need it.”
Wayne and his crew recently made use of the company’s Color Force IITM LED battens, with an installation designed to deliver a range of creative, in-camera effects.
He explains’ “We used the Color Force II to illuminate a large

Sweden - Situated in Stockholm’s Royal Djurgården district, the Cirkus theatre complex recently opened a new restaurant, where an Alcons system has been installed.
Cirkus first opened in 1892 to house many of Sweden’s prominent circus companies. It has evolved and expanded over the decades to host many different forms of entertainment, including theatre, musicals, dance, concerts, corporate events and television productions. Today it is owned by Pop House Sweden - a company whose principal owners are Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus and investment banker Conni Jonsson.
The new Restaurant Djurgården offers classic dishes with a modern touch, ‘inspired by the odd and unexpected’. Brollan Söderström of systems integrator Electrosound AB was asked to supply and install an audio system for the restaurant, its performance stage, bar and the Ernst Rolfe VIP lounge. An Alco

Australia - A large, illuminated Ox artwork created by Paul Wells from Sydney Props Specialists to celebrate the Chinese Year of the Ox was illuminated with Astera Titan Tubes and NYX Bulbs and realised in collaboration with Sydney Event Services. This stood on display in Darling Harbour, Sydney, for three weeks during the 2021 Chinese New Year celebrations.
The work was commissioned by Sydney’s Harbour and Foreshore Authority. They approached Paul just four weeks ahead of this year’s Chinese New Year and asked if the piece could be delivered as an internally lit steel-framed structure with stretched fabric skins.
Paul in turn asked Mitch Hancock from Sydney Events Services to assist with the project’s lighting and delivery.
Once work started on the Ox which is 1.16m wide and 2.4m long, Paul and Mitch soon realised time was simply too tight to complete th

Greece - Lighting designer Christina Thanasoula brought her visual style to a recent Greek National Opera production of Juditha Triumphans with the help of some Robe LEDBeam 150s.
The performance was directed by Thanos Papakonstantinou with music delivered by the Armonia Atenea Orchestra, musical ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro, the GNO Chorus and members of the GNO Children's Choir and conducted by Markellos Chryssicos and recorded for broadcast on the Mezzo TV channel.
The Vivaldi oratorio - the only surviving one of four he is known to have composed – was staged at the Greek National Opera’s Stavros Niarchos Hall in Athens to mark the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution.
Christina is co-founder of Athens-based lighting design company Creative Lighting, and her inspiration for lighting this production was the early Baroque painting Juditha slaying

UK - A small group of patrons of London’s Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts have been able to enjoy a live performance of the romantic comedy, Shakespeare In Love.
Performed in front of a small and socially distanced audience of industry professionals, the production immersed them in the fictional tale of Shakespeare’s unrequited love for his ideal women. Contributing to this experience was an evocative Adam King lighting design, which, despite the well-advised safety protocols at the theatre, was able to convey a richly textured sense of time and place.
“We had lots of different locations to depict in the play, but due to Covid we could not have massive scene changes,” said King. “It therefore became very crucial that our lighting really help drive the scenes taking place on stage, whether they be dingy taverns or grand ballrooms.”
Helping Kin

UK - AV integrator AT&C has installed K-array loudspeakers and Innosonix amplifiers at Browns newly launched Mayfair shopping experience; the client brief was for high quality audio – and they didn’t want to see it.
Browns Fashion offers an unrivalled, tactile in-person experience that flies in the face of the currently obsessive trend for instant online click-and-ship gratification. Blending exceptional service with creativity and technology, the Browns ethos is personified in the recently opened Dimorestudio-designed flagship boutique at 39 Brook Street in the heart of London’s Mayfair.
Following extensive construction work which saw the Grade II listed building gutted and completely renovated, a contract was awarded to South Hampstead-based AT&C Professional System to design and install a fully networked, high specification audio system throughout eve

<b<Denmark - In the weeks leading up to the lockdown, Volbeat was tearing up Europe on a 32-city tour of the continent. The Danish metal band included a date at the 15,000-seat Stuttgart Hanns Martin Schleyer Halle.
Building on the energy of the band’s performance and driving the intensity level ever higher was a 40-universe Niller Bjerregaard light and video show powered by the designer’s two ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium consoles. Part programmed and part busked, the show served up a torrent of searing images for the 22-song set.
Although fans haven’t been able to see a live Volbeat show since the lockdown, they had the chance to immerse themselves in the magic of that special evening when the band’s Stuttgart performance was streamed on a pay per view platform.
“The broadcast was as original as it gets,” said Bjerregaard. “All elements and feature

UK - In February 1840, a group of local citizens, including a future prime minister, welcomed 10 students to what was Britain’s first purpose built teacher’s college. Over the ensuing 180-plus years, both the size of the institution and the scope of its mission have changed dramatically.
Known today as the University of Chester, the university welcomes some 15,000 students from every continent, save Antarctica and, as its guide notes, offers courses ranging from Animation to Zoo Management.
The energy and broad educational mission of the university is reflected in the busy main performance space in its School of Arts and Media. One of four such spaces at the university, this facility hosts myriad productions that can include a traditional theatrical performance, a live music concert and a lecture or conference covering endless topics, sometimes all in the same day

Poland - Polski Teatr Tańca, or Polish Dance Theatre, is an interdisciplinary dance company formed in 1973. While the company owns a rehearsal studio in Poznań in western Poland, it has never had its own performance space - until now. The curtain is about to go up on a new theatre in the historic centre of Poznań, complete with a carefully designed KV2 Audio sound system.
From the outside, the building looks like any one of the imposing 19th century edifices in the old town centre. Now fully renovated, whilst the exterior blends perfectly with the rest of the city’s architecture, inside the venue has been transformed into a modern performance space with distinctly industrial feel. Concrete, glass and metal structures prevail in the new space which has been designed as a place of interaction between performers and spectators; here, the set is the whole theatre and audien

UK - Scottish events company 21CC Group has recently unveiled the output of months of planning, with a new project delivered in partnership with The City of Edinburgh Council and Edinburgh College.
The creative lighting design company was appointed to transform the iconic gasholder tower into one of Scotland's biggest works of art, while providing opportunities for students at Edinburgh College - a major academic institution in Scotland - to work on a live creative project.
Commenting on the success and long-term objectives of the installation, Geoff Crow, director of 21CC Group states: “We are immensely proud to have been appointed for this project, and of the results achieved by our technical production company, 21CC Productions. For us, it’s about giving Edinburgh a new landmark and students hands-on experience with cutting edge equipment, that will enable them

USA - The San Francisco Opera utilised a complement of Ayrton Perseo-S fixtures when it brought opera back to town in a COVID-safe outdoor production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. Ayrton Perseo is the first compact, multi-function luminaire with an IP65 enclosure rating developed for intensive outdoor use.
The Barber of Seville, directed by Matthew Ozawa, ran from 23 April - 15 May at Marin Centre, 15 minutes from San Francisco, where the audience pulled up their cars alongside the lagoon with the beautiful hills of Marin in the background. They watched the production, on a custom-built stage with soaring LED videowalls, from their vehicles.
“We have staged concerts before in Golden Gate Park, but nothing to this extent has been produced outside in the three years I have been with the company,” notes Justin Partier, lighting director for the

UK - Based in Glasgow, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is a world-leading conservatoire of music, drama, dance, production and film. Founded in 1847, it now has more than 1,300 students studying undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and, pre-COVID, staged over 600 live performances across its professional venues throughout the year. It recently opened a new rehearsal and performance space for its students and approached White Light (WL) to provide the lighting equipment.
As part of its COVID-19 response plan, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland realised that building occupancy numbers and social distancing were going to play a key part in ensuring it could continue to deliver technical training and support to all its students. The decision was made to transfer a rehearsal studio into a new, fully-equipped performance space that would allow both performance and productio

The Netherlands - Lighting, audio and rigging for the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) was delivered and co-ordinated by leading Netherlands rental specialist Ampco Flashlight, and for lighting control, this included 14 grandMA3 light consoles and 32 active grandMA3 processing units (PUs) used by production lighting designer Henk-Jan van Beek of visual design practice Light-H-Art and his team.
Henk-Jan created a spectacular design that enabled each of the 39 entries participating in the 2021 contest - which also included two televised semi-finals - to have a distinct and dynamic look utilising over 1,800 (main show floor and key) moving lights and LED luminaires from multiple brands, plus over 500 universes of LED tape running via two Green Hippo media servers.
In addition to the real lights in the space, some augmented reality elements featured in the broadcast invo

UK - Philip French and his team from Peachy Productions lit Guildford Cathedral resplendent green - using Robe Pointes and LEDBeam 150 moving lights - to mark Surrey Day 2021, one of several celebratory events happening around the county led by Visit Surrey and their media partners BBC Radio Surrey and Surrey Life magazine.
It was the second Surrey Day in which Peachy Productions has been involved. The company has many strong ties to the city and the area, and was keen to participate in promoting Surrey, which is known for its natural beauty, woodlands, and wildlife habitats among many other attributes.
Having lit the Cathedral on several occasions last year, including in support of the National Health Service and other frontline workers battling the pandemic and also to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day, the Peachy crew were delighted to be back on top of St

Poland - The debut of the new Mercedes-Benz EQA vehicle in Poland took place in April, with Kukoni and Robimy Live supplying sound and lighting equipment, cameras and streaming systems.
Kukoni supplied a range of Prolights equipment, including 16 Air5Fan, 12 Stark 1000, eight Ruby, 20 Lumipix 12QTour, six Sunblast 3000FC, one Mosaico, 18 SmartBat Plus, 18 TrussPod3 Bat and 18 Solar 27Q, with design by Kuba Czarnik.
“Our main goal was to create a spatial effect to win the emotions of our viewers watching the event online,” says Miłosz Łapiński, manager at Kukoni. “We placed the Air5Fan on all sides of the stage area, where the car would drive in. We then placed the Sunblast 3000FC fixtures behind the car, proving a powerful colour punch as it would come in through a mist of smoke.”
The Stark 1000 washes provided front white-light to the presenters and

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