USA - ZZ Top recently wrapped up a tour celebrating their 50th year as a band with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites. Comprised of Billy Gibbons, Frank Beard and Dusty Hill, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band formed in 1969 and have sold more than 50m albums worldwide
Lighting designer John Lucksinger conceived a classic par can rig made up of moving lights to give the band the authentic rock look of yester-years.
“It’s been a fun time,” says Lucksinger. “Three guys on stage. No real frills. Just guys playing great music. It has been different in that the last few tours I was behind the console for where we had a lot of trucks, huge video walls, and lots of lights. This is just a plain and simple rock show. The band doesn’t like movement in the lighting, so the show is mostly big rock looks with hits of lights and colour chases. I’m just trying

Italy - At the Vittoriale degli Italiani (The Shrine of Italian Victories) it is possible to discover the bow of the Puglia cruise ship immersed in the promontory in the middle of the trees. There is also a MAS 96 anti-submarine motorboat used for the Beffa di Buccari (a military raid led by D'Annunzio in the Croatian bay of Bakar), as well as the poet's cars and the SVA biplane used in 1918 for his propaganda flight to Vienna.
Overlooking the Garda Lake is the spectacular amphitheatre with about 1500 seats, designed to replicate the ancient structure of a Greek amphitheatre in a seductive setting, surrounded by the Alps. Architect Gian Carlo Maroni was sent to Pompeii to study the Greek theatre and began work in 1934, completing the building after the poet's death in 1952.
In the summer months, the theatre manages a prestigious season of shows, including Tener-a-Men

USA - Building on the momentum of last year’s inaugural event, the West Coast Music Festival treated fans to a star-studded line up of hip-hop, DJ and rap artists this fall. Headlining the festival at Tucson’s Mercado district was Ice Cube. Supporting the festival, was a punchy and flexible light show created by John Garberson and his team at Creative BackStage that featured Chauvet Professional fixtures.
“We built our design around a large video wall,” says Garberson. “Inter Technologies, supplied the screen and hired us to do the lighting. The wall displayed some iconic images for Ice Cube. We needed lights that would stand up to the bright wall and provide colour and movement to energize the looks for Ice Cube’s show. We also needed the fixtures to be flexible enough to create distinctive looks that reflected the music of the other artists.”
Garberson

South Africa - The Joburg Zoo Festival of Lights, held in partnership with the Joburg Theatre and the City of Johannesburg, has transformed the city’s zoological gardens into a night-time wonderland for both young and old this festive season.
Many of the trees at Joburg Zoo are more than a hundred years old and contribute to the city’s magnificent forest canopy. The Festival of Lights pays homage to these majestic forest giants by bathing them in light over the festive season for all to enjoy.
Johnny Scholtz, architectural lighting specialist at DWR Distribution, worked with Joburg Zoo management and the City of Johannesburg to come up with a design for the temporary installation of lighting fixtures and audio equipment for this year’s festival. “There were a number of factors that we needed to take into consideration, such as the sheer size of th

UK - Hawkwind celebrate their 50th anniversary this year, releasing their 32nd album and embarking on a tour that culminated in a sold-out show at London’s Royal Albert Hall in November, supported by an Allen & Heath dLive mixing system.
With special guests including Eric Clapton and Motörhead’s Phil Campbell joining the band on stage along the way, the tour saw long-time Hawkwind FOH engineer Rik Elliss behind the dLive surface. “I’ve been an Allen & Heath fan for many years and the dLive is my go-to system these days, both for my own engineering duties and for my rental company Audioworx,” explains Elliss. “For this tour I’ve been using the S5000 surface with a DM64 MixRack at FOH. The MixRack is also fitted with a Dante card, which is used for recording several of the shows.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Hawkwind’s dense, layered sound provides

Columbia - Juan Luis Guerra recently kicked off his 2019 Literal Juan Luis Guerra 4.40 Tour Grandes Éxitos with a complete Robe specification for the lighting rig, which has been designed by Daniel Charif and is being operated and directed on the road by Emmanuel Ferry, who also programmed.
The three-time Grammy and 21-time Latin Grammy award-winning artist, musician, singer, composer and record producer has sold over 70m records worldwide and is one of the most internationally recognised Dominican artists. His signature merengue / Afro-Latin fusion style has been distinctive, popular and successful, and for this tour he is playing alongside his band, 440, creating a diverse mix of sounds in an entertaining live show.
Bogota’s new Movistar Arena provided the second stop on the tour, The show was completely sold-out with the majority of the Robe moving lights supplie

UK - A large pyramid-shaped scenic element defined the stage in the British Theatre Academy’s recent production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at London’s Compass Theatre.
The pyramid succeeded in conveying a sense of time and place, but thanks to a collaboration between the BTA’s artistic director Dean Johnson and lighting designer Andrew Exeter, it also did much more.
Constructed with six Chauvet Professional COLORdash Batten-Quad-12 fixtures, supplied by T&B Events, the distinctive triangular structure was used to create a flowing wave of colour changes that accentuated the powerful current of emotions running through this story of hope, betrayal, courage, and redemption.
“Dean and I have worked together on many projects,” says Exeter. “His concept for the set in this production called for having this giant pyramid act

UK - White Light has supplied the lighting equipment for [BLANK] which recently ran at the Donmar Warehouse.
[BLANK] is a theatrical provocation, which marks 40 years of Clean Break, a theatre company that works with women affected by the criminal justice system. Featuring over 100 unnamed scenes, [BLANK] sees the director Maria Aberg choose 30 of these in order to create the production.
Featuring an all-female cast and creative team, the show has a lighting design by Jess Bernberg, who comments: “After attending meetings with Maria and Rosie Elnile (set designer), we came to the decision to keep the aesthetic quite open. Whilst part of Rosie’s inspiration for the set was mother and baby units in women’s prison, we didn’t want to create any literal space, instead choosing practical lights to break up the space and adding a sense of uniform

Denmark - Dynaudio recently constructed two fully equipped recording studios within shipping containers (one in Europe and one in the USA), installed professional producers in each and took them on the road.
Unheard is Dynaudio’s mission to give something back. The company believes that not enough artists are getting a fair chance, so they created the pop-up studios to help redress the balance. The Unheard studios have been travelling the world, visiting shows and festivals and allowing unknowns the chance to record and take away their tracks. The glass-fronted containers allow the process to be shared with an audience, entertaining them as well as providing an insight into professional music-Dynaudio’s Unheard studios have been travelling the world, visiting shows and festivals making. Midem and NAMM are two of the high-profile events that Unheard has recently visited.

USA - Premier Productions recently wrapped a special 2019 USA arena tour featuring multi-platinum-selling artists Casting Crowns, Hillsong Worship and Elevation Worship. Bandit Lites provided the lighting for the concert series as each evening showcased the three acts as they gathered their fan bases for a night of worship and praise.
“It takes teamwork to pull off a show of this nature and I must say each individual involved worked together in tandem to make this show look easy and beautiful,” said Bandit Lites vice president Mike Golden. “I had the pleasure of working with production manager Cory Edwards for the first time and I was extremely impressed with his professional, confident demeanour. Putting a show of this magnitude together with three very high-profile acts requires attention to detail as well as being able to adjust on the fly. Cory guided the ship on

Europe - Lithuania system integrator TVC has completed construction of an OB Trailer for Norwegian public broadcaster NRK around a Lawo IP audio infrastructure, including mc²56 mixing console, A__UHD Processing Engine and VSM control.
The new vehicle with advanced equipment is an investment for NRK’s ambitious future productions and is part of a technological standardisation within the broadcast production facilities and mobile studios as NRK already uses mc² consoles in their concert hall and for news program productions.
The 13.6m-long single-side expansion (4.15m expanded), 26-tonne NRK OB24 features a large interior space with 24 dedicated workplaces, high levels of both sound and heat insulation, automatic preparation for operation and transportation, and easy maintenance and reliability. It features two production rooms, slow-motion operator’s row, camera c

USA - Sandwiched between Silver Lake and Angelino Heights, Echo Park has emerged as one of the most happening neighbourhoods in LA. Home to prospering and aspiring artists, writers, and musicians, it celebrates its community culture each year with Echo Park Rising, a sprawling festival which was recently named ‘Best Music Festival' by LA Weekly.
This year the event’s main Liberty Stage relied upon control provided by Allen & Heath dLive S5000 and C1500 control surfaces supported respectively by the processing and networking power of DM48 and CDM32 MixRack systems.
Standing at the confluence of Liberty and Reservoir Streets, the Liberty Stage featured a plethora of bands including many of the festival’s must-see acts. “The level of activity at Liberty Stage can best be described as that which you’d expect from what just may be the ultimate block party,”

USA - Red Rocks Amphitheatre has attracted the attention of some of the greatest musical acts in the world since 1941. Everyone from The Beatles and the Rolling Stones to U2, James Taylor, and the Eagles has played Red Rocks.
Nestled just outside of Denver, Colorado in the tiny town of Morrison, where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains, two giant rocks jut out from the earth creating an open-air performance venue that is nearly acoustically perfect. These monoliths not only create the perfect natural sound stage, but also provide a mesmerizing background for some impressive lighting effects.
In the spring of 2019, Barbizon Light of the Rockies completed the installation and programming of an upgraded lighting package at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Until 2019, large 400 W mercury-vapor lights lit the historic rocks and eight outdoor PAR 64s lit the audience.

France - The eyes of the global gaming community were focused on the spectacular final of Riot Games’ League of Legends World Championship in November as teams battled to be crowned the 2019 winners.
An estimated 100m people live streamed the tournament, with a capacity 20,000 in attendance at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris. With due modesty, Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent described the final as “the biggest event in the history of esports”.
A grand opening ceremony kickstarted proceedings, with new projection technology simulating immersive holographs interacting with real-life singers and dancers.
TSL Lighting worked with production company Concom and lighting designers Arnold Serame of Serame Design and LeRoy Bennett of Seven Design Works to supply, deliver and man a full lighting and control system comprising more than 1,000 fixtures.
Eight trucks

Germany - From 4-10 November, Berlin was transformed into an open-air exhibition and event venue as part of a large-scale festival. Used to illuminate a 150m long artistic Skynet along Straße des 17. Juni, as well as a large festival-ending stage show at Brandenburg Gate, were Elation weatherproof Proteus and Paladin series luminaires. celebrating the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall
The city honoured the peaceful revolution of the autumn of 1989 with numerous exhibitions, events and art projects. One of the most interesting was a Skynet of approximately 120,000 ultra-light, partially reflective flags onto which 30,000 people from all over the world had inscribed with handwritten messages and memories of the events of 30 years ago. Installed on behalf of the Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH, the Skynet was the creation of Patrick Shearn and his team at the American

Robe equipment was chosen to be part of a new permanent multimedia spectacular, From Dusk to Dawn, which is projected onto the western slope of Masada Mountain near the Dead Sea in Israel.
The area is operated by Israel Nature and Parks, a government organisation that manages nature reserves and national parks across the country. This environment is also a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site.
Robe BMFL Blades and IP rated Robe ColorStrobes are now a main part of the light show designed by Eran Klein & Ben Alon from Cochavi & Klein light architects which supports the new large format (approx. 120m wide and 60m high) video images which are mapped onto the mountain’s rugged terrain.
The lighting supports the moving images and the narrative as it covers this vast canvass with a series of special lighting and effects, complete with a dramatic soundtrack

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) has supplied Dynamic Audio Device (D.A.D.) loudspeakers to The Point venue in Eastleigh, to deliver high-fidelity performance for its annual programme of outdoor events and other offsite activities.
The Point attracts British & international artists in contemporary dance, theatre, comedy & film. In 2015 it became one of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisations - recognising its cultural importance to the creative community.
Each year The Point’s outdoor pop-up live music, festival, cinema & family events are held in the venue’s grounds and nearby public spaces, bringing together the local and creative communities.
When the venue’s technical manager, Tim Slater was looking to invest in new PA loudspeakers for future outdoor events, he contacted Steve Eaton, sales executive in AC-ET’s

India - Although holding a degree in medicine, Dr. Rajesh Khade is the son of a professional musician and his passion for music and audio and desire to connect artists with their audiences eventually led to him becoming a sound engineer or, to be more precise, a system engineer and official Smaart Trainer in his home country of India.
In recent years, Khade’s work in the audio field has enabled him to build up considerable experience with major PA brands, worked as a system engineer for numerous events with major acts across India, as well as holding his own system engineering courses.
He became a Smaart Instructor in 2019 and hosts training sessions throughout India in English, Hindi and Marathi. This work brought him into contact with German system technician and Smaart Instructor Michael Häck, who introduced him to Outline’s new Newton processor, which he use

Germany - WHU - Otto Bensheim School of Management is a business school with campuses in Vallendar/Koblenz and Düsseldorf serving over 1,500 students.
In recent years, this privately-funded university began investing in networked learning with a goal to record lectures using the latest AV and remote camera technology for the benefit of all its students.
A comprehensive Panopto system plus a Creston signal management and media control system were installed in the university’s lecture halls to provide quality video.
Having planned and installed the video recording systems for the lecture halls, the AV integrator specialists at SIGMA realised that voice transmission confronted them with a very challenging scenario.
“The client required a microphone solution across several lecture halls and seminar rooms. Students should be able to participate without nee

USA - Famed for his struggles with stage props, attempts to smuggle vegetables through airport security and a Big Bottom, former Spinal Tap bass guitarist Derek Smalls recently delighted fans by inviting them to ‘rock til you sit’ at Lukewarm Water Live, a one date tour of the US West Coast. Increasing age may have brought Derek a subtle change of hair colour but, with a Yamaha PM7 digital mixing system on monitors, he delivered the full majesty of rock.
Playing songs from his 2018 solo album Smalls Change (Meditations Upon Ageing) alongside classics by his former band (formerly known as Spinal Tap), Smalls - known to some as comedian Harry Shearer - invited a star-studded line-up to perform alongside him and a full symphony orchestra.
“This was the first time I mixed a show on Rivage PM7,” says monitor engineer Gabriele Nicotra, who has also work

China - Hangzhou, the capital of the Zhejiang province, is home to a new One Third club destination located in a former locomotive depot, another of the NOA’s Arc Group’s entertainment ventures.
The third in the chain (including one in Beijing), the 2,500-capacity dance venue, specialising in Hard style, has been equipped with Martin Audio’s MLA Multicellular Loudspeaker Array.
This was supplied to the Dutch creative team, Live Legends, and their creative director Daan Oomen by Martin Audio’s Chinese distributor, Sino Hui Feng, who worked hard to win the project with the Martin Audio bid to ensure One Third Hangzhou stands out in a competitive marketplace.
The One Third vibe is all about the story of an old locomotive factory that comes to life. Live Legends delivered all creative elements from concept to execution, including show production, interior and

South Africa - Richard Smith of DWR Distribution, an L-Acoustics authorised training centre, recently headed up L-Acoustics certified training for a group of technicians at the company’s offices in Johannesburg.
The two-day training course provides technicians with both the technical and practical skills and certification needed to operate a range of L-Acoustics professional sound systems.
Under the guidance of Richard Smith, who has served as a brand ambassador for L-Acoustics in Africa for over a decade, attendees are taught all that they need to know to operate L-Acoustics’ Kara, Kiva II and K2 professional audio system. Smith is a passionate and committed teacher and trainer and takes enormous pleasure in passing on his years of knowledge and experience to a new generation of L-Acoustics Certified Technicians.
“I have always loved teaching and try to t

UK - This year’s Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo undertook one of its biggest technological transformations to date (read more about this in the December issue of LSi, coming soon). For the first time in its history, the vast and complex event trusted its audio control to an audio tracking system, implementing the largest TiMax TrackerD4 precision stagetracking system yet, controlling a pair of Out Board’s TiMax SoundHub-S64 spatial audio processors featuring new HARDCore FPGA processing - all supplied by Wigwam Acoustics.
Since 2014, sound designer, Seb Frost, has overseen the execution of audio reinforcement for the event, in which a continuously moving cast of over 1000 military musicians march through Edinburgh Castle’s parade ground in increasingly complex configurations.
Frost claims, “TiMax TrackerD4 dramatically improved the accuracy and resolution of t

UK - Television lighting director Bernie Davis successfully trialled the new VL2600 Profile LED luminaire from Vari-Lite on the BBC Proms classical music festival this summer.
Staged through August and September at London’s Royal Albert Hall, the BBC Proms has an intense schedule, with concerts broadcast daily on BBC Radio and many performances recorded or broadcast live on BBC Television. With such time pressures, it’s essential for lighting fixtures to be reliable and versatile, but also quiet in operation and great-looking on camera.
“I was looking for a good, programmable profile spot that would be quiet enough for use on the Proms yet flexible enough to provide a high-quality light source with good zoom range, good shuttering on a flat field, and colour suitable for camera,” says Davis.
Having seen a demo of VL2600 Profile, Davis decided to trial the

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