Projects

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10 June 2024

UK - The final show on the UK-EU leg of the Classic Tales of Yes tour at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall on 20 May featured an intricately textured Martin Dudley/Chris Davey light show that included 12 Chauvet Professional Rogue R2X Wash units from Martin’s Lights Ltd.

Early on in the 24-city tour, which began in April at Lisbon’s historic Sagres Campo Pequero concert hall, the design moved into a new more intense realm.

“At the start of the project, we were told that it would be a ‘no haze’ tour,” said Dudley. “Therefore, we knew that the lighting had to be about colour, pattern and texture, rather than beams of light and movement in the air. Many of our lighting designs are quite understated, and after the first couple of shows, the feedback from the band was that they wanted “more” of everything, so we went for it.”

The

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10 June 2024

Venezuela - The chapel of Divina Misericordia is a new catholic house of worship located in the recreational area of the giant Arroz Mary food processing plant in Acarigua.

Architects were determined that the requirement for a high-quality sound system with impeccable speech intelligibility should make the lowest possible visual impact, so Nexo distributor Sun Music Pro proposed a Nexo system using ultra-compact ID and ePS Series speakers.

“In the first phase carried out in October 2023, a temporary black system was installed to allow the inauguration of the chapel and the celebration of masses while a custom-finished system was being prepared,” reports  Sun Music Pro commercial manager Valeska Grüber.

The finished installation includes a pair of Nexo ID84 column speakers with a central ePS10 at the front, all finished in a custom RAL c

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07 June 2024

UK - Singer/songwriter James Blunt’s production team relies on Skan PA Hire for additional sound reinforcement due to audience demand on James Blunt’s Who We Used To Be tour.

Tour and production manager Robert Hayden has worked with James Blunt since the singer first ventured into full time musicianship. He begins: “James and I started off doing little club shows around England before we went to mainland Europe where we played to even less people! When we returned, everything just took off for him, first with the single, and then the album.”

Following 2005’s You’re Beautiful from debut full length record Back To Bedlam there’s only ever been one audio supplier to help James’s sound reach audiences on tour. Robert continues: “I’ve used Skan since the beginning of needing production,” he explains. “The

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07 June 2024

Portugal - Choreographer and contemporary dance innovator Andrew McNicol presented the world premiere of Upstream, his first collaboration with the Companhia Nacional de Bailado (CNB) – the National Ballet of Portugal – for which he asked lighting designer Yaron Abulafia to create scenography and lighting for the performance which was staged at the São Carlos Opera House, Lisbon.

Upstream was presented as part of a trilogy of works, together with Baracco Concerto by the late George Balanchine and Workwithinwork (which originally premiered in 1998) by William Forsythe – three distinctive works from very different eras and generations of choreographers based on classical dance.

Yaron was excited to use the CNB’s 20 x Robe T1 Profile moving lights – the only moving lights on the rig – as the backbone of h

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07 June 2024

The Netherlands - The Pop on Top festival returned to the scenic hills of Valkenburg aan de Geul last month, captivating thousands of visitors with a blend of music and light. Central to the festival’s success was Sonic Support VOF, whose lighting and LED screen solutions from Showtec, Infinity, and DMT transformed the event into an unforgettable visual spectacle.

The family-friendly event attracted thousands of visitors who defied the rain to enjoy performances from national and international artists including Lucas & Steve, Rowwen Hèze, Clouseau, Krezip and many more across four stages.

Sonic Support VOF used 60 DMT Premiere Series PS3.9 Blue Line LED panels to create two large LED screens on either side of the main stage, ensuring that every audience member had a good view. These panels were complemented by an additional 30 DMT Premiere Ser

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06 June 2024

UK - At Hamilton the Stereofunk Festival, staged in the Chatelherault Country Park, Hamilton, Steve McCracken of Mac-Events, used the ChamSys Stadium MagicQ MQ250M to busk lightshows for Wanda Dee, hip-hop artists from The Bronx, Vengoboys, a Top-10 Dutch Euro-dance group, and Urban Cookie Collective, a UK electronic duo, along with a wide range of other global acts.

“None of the artists brought their own LDs, so we busked the entire festival,” said McCracken, whose boldly coloured looks flowed as freely and joyfully as the do-it-yourself artwork that seemed to be everywhere at the festival site, which was set against the background of a hunting lodge from the 1700s.

The flexibility of his MQ250M was invaluable for McCracken, who designed his show in Capture and programmed it onsite, then added to it throughout the festival. “There was a bit of

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06 June 2024

Germany - Vortex, the new electronic music festival, made its debut at Göppingen’s EWS Arena, offering techno, trance and hardcore continuously over 12 hours, through Martin Audio’s flagship Wavefront Precision line array series.

It was a far cry from EWS Arena’s normal sphere of activity, which is hosting the Bundesliga handball club Frisch Auf! But since the venue is located in the centre of the town, surrounded by shops and flats, the requirements with regard to noise escape were predictably stringent.

As a debut event, it was particularly important for the organisers not to provoke complaints from local residents in order to preserve the future of the event. The Martin Audio Wavefront Precision systems deployed met these high requirements.

Jürgen Schuster, from event technology specialist Skyeline Live, who provided the technical

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06 June 2024

Columbia - Grammy winner Eladio Carrión’s performance on stage features a mix of trap, reggaeton and other sounds and also draws on his background as a comedian. The stage on his The Sauce Tour features a fast-moving and majestic lightshow by lighting designer, Andrés Campos.

Campos’ touring rig varies by locations on the multinational tour. For the Latin American leg, it featured 68 Color STRIKE M motorised wash-strobes and 54 COLORado PXL Bar 16 motorised battens from Chauvet Professional. In the United States, the tour excitement is driven by 30 Color STRIKE M units, 32 COLORado PXL Bar 16 battens, 32 Rogue R2X Beams, and 12 Maverick MK3 Washes.

The lighting design has been created to be carried out in three scales: one large, one medium and one small for the United States, according to Campos. “The main objective was to be able to generat

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05 June 2024

Columbia - Mega star Karol G said goodbye to 2023 with two spectacular home-coming nights at the Atanasio Giradot Stadium. Part of her epic Mañana Será Bonito (Tomorrow will be Beautiful) tour, which continues until July 2024, the sell-out shows marked the end of the first phase of the tour.

Prodigy.MP was at the centre of the audio infrastructure with its flexible, fully modular hardware fulfilling a number of roles across the whole system.

The multi-format, hybrid audio signal flow was handled by Prodigy, thanks to the analogue, MADI, AES and Dante audio modules integrated into the main chassis. The flexibility and modularity of the DirectOut solution was essential in providing the production with all the interoperability options required.

Multiple mixing consoles were connected via Prodigy.MP and the Sample Rate Conversion technology mad

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05 June 2024

USA - Rock band Breaking Benjamin recently wrapped their Spring tour with a lighting system from Bandit Lites. With six studio albums, two compilation albums and over 19m units sold in the US alone, Breaking Benjamin fans have come to expect consistent, powerful performances.

Bandit Lites project manager and lighting designer Craig Richter took a simple yet effective approach to the design in choosing versatile fixtures that could be deployed in multiple ways. Bandit Lites supplied Claypaky Mythos 2, Claypaky B-EYE K20, Martin VDO Sceptrons, Martin MAC Viper Profiles as well as 9 Lite Maxi Brutes.

Richter balanced the functional need of front light so the audience could see the band members once they step away from their mic stands. Additionally, when a video wall was added later into the design process, he pivoted to make sure the right fixtures wou

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05 June 2024

France - The renowned Lido on the Champs-Élysées, a Parisian nightlife staple since the Roaring Twenties and once famous for its exotic cabaret and burlesque shows, has been completely renovated and reopened as Lido 2, a premier musical theatre.

Now presenting major works of theatre in an immersive cabaret setting, Lido 2 attracts both French and international audiences with a lighting kit almost exclusively from Elation.

Global Technique Concept, led by project manager Eddy Couloigner, oversaw the renovation and was enlisted as the lighting management service provider for the venue. In February 2023, the historic cabaret shows ended, and renovation work commenced shortly thereafter. Over seven months, the new lighting kit was meticulously installed to meet the venue's unique requirements, including a relatively low proscenium ceiling height of 5.5

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05 June 2024

UK - Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), the first institution in the world dedicated to research and teaching in tropical medicine, recently undertook a significant project to extend its teaching and event capabilities. Pembroke House, a mixed-use facility was constructed with three main teaching spaces alongside small huddle areas and group collaboration zones.

Initially engaged as consultants, leading Higher Education integrator GVAV subsequently secured the integrator scope for the Pembroke House project. Collaborating closely with Audiologic, a comprehensive spread of equipment from Q-SYS and Sennheiser was specified for deployment across the different spaces.

The Audiologic team was engaged to assist with confirming the final designs for the audio solution plus programming and commissioning of this aspect of the project. Due to the co

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04 June 2024

Europe - Metallica’s ongoing M72 World Tour has begun playing its 2024 dates with the lighting design that Rob Koenig introduced last year featuring 48 Claypaky Sharpy Plus Aqua IP66-rated beam/spot fixtures.

The tour is in support of the band's eleventh studio album, 72 Seasons, which was released in April 2023. The tour commenced that month in Amsterdam and is set to conclude in September 2024 in Mexico City. The 2024 dates kick off at the end of May with nine cities scheduled in Europe through July then resumes in August and September with six-cities in the US, Canada and Mexico. 

The tour maintains an upgraded in-the-round stage design by creative director/production designer Dan Braun, which relocates the coveted  audience ‘snake pit’ to the centre of a ring-shaped stage surrounded by eight towers, each  topped by LED video cyl

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04 June 2024

USA - Hosted by Reba McEntire, the 59th Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards featured a series of performances, including duets between country artists and some of today’s most influential pop stars, as well as celebrated artists like Lainey Wilson, who was named Entertainer of the Year.

With the support of Shure’s Axient Digital Wireless Microphone System and PSM 1000 In-Ear Personal Monitoring System, the ACM Awards’ expert audio team ensured that every note was heard by the audience and those watching the live broadcast on Amazon. The quality audio performance was made possible thanks to the group of industry professionals running the show, the audio equipment supplied by ATK, and the antenna infrastructure and coordination managed by Soundtronics. The Radio Frequency (RF) coordinator for the event, Steve Vaughn, weighed in on the impact Shure gear

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04 June 2024

USA - The success of Luke Combs continues as he follows his late-2023 European dates with a string of shows across the USA, scheduled to run through to October 2024.

The loudspeaker technology supporting the tour also continues unchanged, with SES of Mocksville NC providing a stadium-filling Outline system, combining the flagship GTO enclosures with GTO-LOW, Mantas 28, GTO C-12, LAB21-HS subs and LIPF-082s.

As last year, the venues require 220-degree coverage due to the size of the crowds and so the sound system is deployed as a main left / right with LL/RR arrays and then out-fill LLL / RRR arrays beyond them to deliver the required horizontal and vertical dispersion. FOH system control is again via two Outline Newton FPGA processors.

One of the few changes to the current part of the tour is the Saturday support acts and that has provided th

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04 June 2024

UK - The Grade II-listed Winter Gardens Blackpool has a proud heritage dating back to 1878. As a driving force in the regional economy of the North West of England, the venue hosts a diverse range of events in its various spaces. These include concerts, theatre productions, conferences, exhibitions, weddings, dance competitions, and international matchplay darts.

This varied programme necessitates versatile and flexible technical provisions. Recently, the Winter Gardens Blackpool team, in consultation with supplier ArranPaul, reviewed its audio systems to enhance and future-proof its inventory. As a result, they chose two HK Audio systems.

Venue Technician Allen Hendley explains: “We needed replacements for systems that were no longer meeting our needs. The new systems had to deliver high-quality audio and be powerful and portable enough to suit va

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04 June 2024

South Africa - Afrikaans is Groot (AIG) continues to celebrate Afrikaans music. The production, held at Time Square in Pretoria at the close of 2023 pulled out all the stops incorporating two DiGiCo Quantum 338, a Quantum 225 and an SD10 into the audio set up.

Ian Vos, technical director of Africaans is Groot, serves as the technical director at Coleske Group, a subsidiary of Warner Music Africa, ultimately owned by Warner Music Group in the United States. He oversees all technical aspects of the show, from design to execution, including budgeting.

“The technical team are amazing,” says Vos. “Coming to the Sun Arena improved the show as we had hit a bit of a ceiling, literally! In our previous church auditorium the ceiling couldn’t handle any more rigging, we never expected it to get this big. If you look at Afrikaans as a language and the de

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04 June 2024

New Zealand - Cincinnati rock band The National’s touring lighting crew appreciated using a mix of Robe BMFL Blade and Spiider wash beam moving lights for their show at Auckland, New Zealand’s Spark Arena venue, for which equipment was supplied by rental company NW Group / Oceania and used to great effect to realise a touring version of Michael Brown’s production lighting design.

The National played the Australia and New Zealand leg of their ongoing world tour in February and March in a show that embraces new material from two albums including the latest Laugh Track and continues through 2024.

The production is being co-ordinated on the road by production manager Stuart Trenold and includes lighting and video crew chief Emil Hojmark from Denmark and lighting director Matt Greer from Virginia, USA who is operating lighting on the road.<

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03 June 2024

UK - Brand experience technologists, Audience & Brands, and drone display company, AeroAVA, announced an innovation in live event technology at The Media Production & Technology Show in London.

The two UK-based companies unveiled Augmented Drone Shows, a concept that ‘elevates drone performances into a captivating mixed reality experience for live event broadcast audiences’.

Audience & Brands has worked with AeroAVA to introduce the ability to live track, generate and overlay digital content accurately, in real-time.

Tom Rees, AeroAVA managing director, said, “This innovation offers a never-seen-before enhancement to existing drone shows, specifically for broadcast viewers.” Rees continues, “Taking multiple live camera feeds, our system combines drone telemetry data, high performance media servers and very accurate align

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03 June 2024

The Netherlands - Lighting and sound solutions provider DPL Licht en Geluid brought the '90s back to life in a spectacle at the recent Pump Up the '90s event. Held on 20 April, the Dutch event welcomed a line-up of artists including Charly Lownoise, T-Spoon, Flamman & Abraxas, Critical Mass, DJ Potato, DJ Zany and Don Cartel, all of whom delivered under the glow of equipment from Showtec, Infinity and DMT.

The Pump Up the '90s event at Evenementenhal Hardenberg witnessed an explosion of nostalgia as attendees were transported back to the golden era of dance music, with the expertise of DPL Licht en Geluid taking the experience to soaring heights. The event was supported by a range of Showtec, Infinity and DMT products, carefully selected to create an immersive atmosphere that captivated the audience from start to finish.

For the Duikboot Area (Su

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03 June 2024

USA - Morgan Wallen's touring production for the One Night At A Time World 2024 Tour uses advanced lighting fixtures, coupled with a strategic layout, creating a captivating experience for audiences across the venue.

The substage measures an impressive 152ft in width and 72ft in depth, housing four key performance areas. Two of these areas, each approximately 48 by 48ft and elevated 12ft off the ground, allow for intimate moments that bring Morgan Wallen closer to the audience, including those seated to the sides.

Additionally, a 108ft-long thrust stage extends into the pit, ensuring Morgan’s presence is felt up close and personal by those in the front rows. Completing the setup is a ‘C’ stage, designed for acoustic sessions and positioned at the far opposite end of the audience, giving those fans the opportunity to get close as well. A dedicat

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03 June 2024

USA - Cinematic rock band Starset blended ‘celestial visuals with cosmic sounds’ on their Immersion Tour. Bandit Lites supplied a lighting system for the band who are known for their ‘expansive storytelling, immersive live shows and exploration of futuristic narratives and existential questions’. They released their latest single and music video Brave New World on 3 May.

Lighting programmer/operator Jamie Masché created a design that would complement the new production elements of the live show, including holograms and massive video walls. With the aim of not blowing out the video content, Masché utilised an array of side wash, Tyler Ladder Towers as well as floor wash to illuminate the seven-member band.

“Tyler Veneziano, client rep at Bandit, reached out to us and helped our vision become reality,” said Masché.

“Ja

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31 May 2024

USA – The powerful trio of Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin and Pitbull went out on the road this spring for The Trilogy Tour – a series of concerts with two large diamond IMAG screens and a LED wall dominating the stage, which for Igelsias was driven by tvONE's Green Hippo brand of Hippotizer Media Servers.

The shows proved so successful in the last quarter of 2023 that 18 more shows were played around the US in 2024, with each artist performing with a striking identity conveyed through visuals and light. JMT Concepts has been working for Iglesias’s Ei Productions for more than a decade and was brought in by Iglesias as video director. JMT Concepts supplied two Hippotizer Boreal+ MK2 Media Servers to the tour, with one as main and one backup. The design and creative was realised by Travis Shirley, who also created the content for the show.

“Al

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31 May 2024

Sweden - Under the experienced hand of veteran Eurovision technical show director, Ola Melzig, the production designer, Florian Wieder, and lighting and screen content designer Fredrik Stormby of Green Wall Designs, worked closely with associate lighting designers Mike Smith and Michael Straun to ensure the 68th Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in the Malmö Arena was an impressive event.

“As this was the third time Sweden had hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 10 years, we set ourselves the challenge of doing something new and brave that would respectfully challenge the traditional Eurovision concept a little and introduce a more large-scale concert tour feel to the familiar ‘studio show’ concept,” explains Stormby.

Taking inspiration from Swedish music, songwriting and local architecture, and a tricky request from the producers to put the au