UK The Natural History Museum celebrated its first private corporate event since its’ Hintze Hall relaunch with a ‘Night at the Museum’ 60th birthday celebration, July 2017.
The museum’s main event space welcomed computer consultant Bill Bottriell to celebrate his 60th birthday on 22nd July with 300 guests. Adopting an immersive ‘Night at the Museum’ theme, the dress code was black tie glamour to mark the special occasion.
Moving Venue project managed the celebration, which included flying Europe’s 17-piece Dov Amiel Band from the South of France to entertain guests, while the National Theatre Company also performed throughout the evening.
Hawthorn supplied full technical production for the evening including lighting, sound, staging and power distribution.
They installed a large moving light rig which brought the blue whale skeleton– the roo

USA - Wild Florida offers two big attractions: guided airboat rides into Florida’s famed Everglades and an exotic animal park that houses lemurs, tropical birds, giant snakes, over fifty alligators, and much more.
Local A/V integration firm Xtreme Installations, of Sanford, Florida, recently improved Wild Florida’s operations with the installation of an Ashly Audio DSP, user-control, and amplification system that gives animal show presenters sound reinforcement, allows the gift shop to page visitors when their boat ride is ready, and fills the park with pleasant background music.
“The entire park-wide system is integrated so that pages can be heard anywhere,” explained Travis Bilskie, president of Xtreme Installations. “However, we had to build in a pretty sophisticated hierarchy of priority to get the ducking right in different zones in different circumstanc

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) has showcased a wide range of the innovative lighting, control and networking products they supply by producing the entire lighting design for the British Racing Drivers’ Club's (BRDC) glamorous annual British Grand Prix Party at Silverstone Circuit, on Saturday 15 July.
Staged every year within the grounds of the BRDC Farm as part of the Formula 1 Rolex British Grand Prix weekend, the legendary occasion attracts high-profile members and personalities from the world of motorsport.
This year's event marked a decade for AC-ET's patronage of the British Racing Drivers’ Club’s exclusive ‘Rising Stars’ programme, and as supplier of the creative lighting design for the British Grand Prix Party.
Working closely again with the BRDC to create the lighting theme for this year's event, AC-ET supplied the complete indoo

Belgium - Creative visual design practice Painting with Light was commissioned to design and install lighting and video at the new 6000sq.m Comics Station Antwerp indoor theme park, located in the city’s famous central station complex.
The Painting with Light team collaborated closely with Panasonic Belgium on the AV elements and fully specified the lighting elements of the project, which involved nearly 1300 fixtures being used to illuminate over 60 attractions. These are spread across four stories and six zoned entertainment areas.
Painting with Light also took on the role of projection consultants, following Panasonic’s initial study of the building and specification of the hardware, which included 22 projectors and 86 LCD screens. This entailed fine-tuning the final positions, choosing the lenses and calculating alignment, beam angles, focuses, throw distances,

Germany - In his locker, Udo Lindenberg has everything that makes a show the absolute highlight: artists, UFOs, sensations and, as always, his own secrets, which create a light and video show with extra class and quality sound.
This was certainly the case with the recently completed tour of the new album Stronger than Time (Stärker als die Zeit). The 71-year-old does not think he will ever stop, and promises his fans another 30 years of well-refined panic with orchestra.
And Günter Jäckle, his lighting designer and operator for many years, is likely to be at his side for many years to come. For this tour, the design was created in the show lab of Michael Schenk's company, epicto in Edingen-Neckarhausen. As with the previous tours of the panic-rockers, Jäckle is again using a lot of fixtures from Karlsbad-based GLP. On board are 28 brand new JDC1 strob

South Africa - The Theatre of Marcellus at Emperors Palace, Johannesburg recently acquired a DiGiCo SD9 with a D2-Rack on stage, a D-Rack at FOH and a Waves SoundGrid Server ONE, all supplied by Kyle Robson from DWR Distribution.
In 13BC, Julius Caesar Augustus built the original Theatre of Marcellus as an open-air theatre where locals and visitors alike were able to watch breath-taking performances of drama and song. The theatre was the largest and most important theatre in Ancient Rome and was an impressive example of what was to become one of the most pervasive urban architectural forms of the Roman world.
Johannesburg’s modern-day version is no less impressive, with a thousand theatregoers enjoying show-stopping entertainment in the 17-tiered auditorium, which boasts lavish seating and exceptional site lines. The theatre recently underwent a R6 million transfor

USA - For the first time in 20 years an NHL hockey team has won all their consecutive NHL home games during the playoffs. That team – the Nashville Predators. The venue – Bridgestone Arena. The excitement is building for the team, and much of it is being related to the fan experience at the facility.
“AV is an integral part of that experience,” notes the arena’s senior director of technical operations Ben Bosse. “More than integral, it is an essential item,” attributing the music and video as a big part of the “total game experience” relating both pre-game and post-game productions and inciting the crowd during in-game breaks in the action.
According to an ESPN Ultimate Standings fan survey from this past fall, “The Bridgestone Arena topped the charts in stadium experience, and it seems like it will only continue to improve” as management had alre

USA - Arka Lounge operated for 16 years as one of the more successful nightspots in the Washington Heights area of upper Manhattan. Rebranded last December as Arka Room, owners of this sophisticated, intimate place to party are hoping for the same run of success they enjoyed for nearly two decades.
As the area has changed, the venue has changed with it. Now Arka owners seek to engage old and new patrons alike with an updated design that features a dynamic Elation Professional lighting system. “We wanted to create an atmosphere that is unique to this space,” stated Tirso Pelaez, owner of Tirso Lighting, the design and integration company responsible for the design makeover.
Pelaez served as lighting designer on the project and says his responsibility was to create the best lighting solution that he could for the space. “Though it was somewhat confined, we felt tha

Israel - When Light Architects Cochavi & Klein were engaged by The Tripping production group to create spectacularly different lighting for a special sunset party in the Gan Haslaim (Rock Garden) of Tel Aviv’s famous Yarkon Park, they came up with the concept of a giant ‘electronic sun’ positioned 20m high in the air behind the elevated DJ and VIP areas.
Based around a three-ring circular truss, this huge 8m diamater backlight structure carried 48 of Robe’s 19-segment Spiider LED fixtures together with 24 of Robe’s fast, ultra-narrow Pointe fixtures, and two dozen 4-light mole-fays. The entire structure was suspended at a pre-tilted angle from a 66m mobile crane.
The party started at noon, taking thousands party lovers on a journey through the sunset and into the night. The DJ booth was located in front of the rocky hill, with a beautiful back scenery ful

UK - Event sound monitoring and health and safety expert, Symphotech, was brought in to help Scarborough Borough Council expand their successful Open Air Theatre summer concerts.
Working with promoter Cuffe & Taylor, the council wanted to more than double the number of shows held in the town centre venue and turned to Symphotech to help them meet new licensing conditions relating to noise levels.
Previously, the Open Air Theatre had only held 12 shows a year and Scarborough Borough Council, which owns the site, wanted to expand that to 30 shows a year as part of a long-term plan to raise the town’s profile as a premiere UK resort.
One of the conditions set by the licensing authority was the requirement to carry out more noise monitoring to help minimise disruption to local residents. Symphotech worked closely with the council’s licensing team, particular

Germany - Silent concerts are an interesting alternative at open air concerts in residential areas, allowing bands and DJs to play throughout the night without a loud, intrusive PA.
One of the biggest silent concerts ever staged in Germany took place at Marienplatzfest in Stuttgart recently, where an enthusiastic crowd donned more than 1000 headphones to listen and dance to the sound of German band Adulescens.
Responsible for the 3D listening experience is tour manager and FOH engineer Tobias Raunigk, who adapted the concept of silent concerts for the band.
“With the 3D listening experience we want to deliver something special for the audience and the organiser alike,” explains Raunigk. “Sometimes the audience is a bit hesitant at first but when they put on the headphones you can see them dive into the ocean of sound.
“I’ve been using the GLD-80 f

Europe - When Berlin-based Tim Bendzko was gearing up for his latest tour, the singer-songwriter’s FOH engineer Stefan Lohr wanted to be sure that Martin Audio’s MLA PA would be on the truck as his primary PA system.
Lohr is a long-time user of the award-winning system, and production company Complete Audio, who were the first global adopters of MLA when it was launched seven years ago, were delighted to respond to the specification.
The full-size MLA system was preferred over the MLA Compact as Complete Audio proprietor, André Rauhut explained. “Although we sometimes use MLA Compact as the main PA in smaller venues, Stefan Lohr likes the tonal balance and the character of the full-size MLA - and won´t alter his mix to squeeze it in a smaller box.”
Complete Audio has supported all Bendzko’s tours dating back to 2011, mostly with MLA as first choice, a

Europe - With fewer artists taking to the road for long multinational tours, the 1997/8 Comeback Tour by Belgian tenor Helmut Lotti stands out on the continental live music scene. Revolution Event Support has invested in Nexo’s Geo S12 and Geo M6 line arrays, as preferred by Lotti’s FOH engineer Bart Faut, who is on the Revolution team.
Singer-songwriter Helmut Lotti has sold over 13m albums, going platinum 90 times and gold 70 times. Now primarily a classical music performer in several styles and languages, his Comeback Tour will visit Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Finland, Sweden and Norway by the end of February 2018.
Rental company Revolution Event Support has been working for Helmut Lotti for more than 20 years. Bart Faut has moved through many roles with the performer, starting as head of stage, then becoming tour manager, production manager, lighti

USA - Located in the geographical heart of Minnesota, Central Lakes College embodies the state’s long-standing tradition of supporting community involvement in the arts. This spirit is very evident in the college’s two theatres, which not only showcase the work of its own drama department, but also host community theatrical productions, as well as recitals, rock concerts and a wide range of other performances.
To support this diversified schedule, the theatre’s lighting designer Ben Kent recently upgraded its rig by adding flexible Chauvet Professional LED fixtures, supplied by Monkey Wrench Productions.
“Our theatre production programme began 48 years ago, and it’s always embraced a variety of shows,” said theatre director Patrick Spradlin. “The college produces five or six theatrical productions a year, which are performed in either our proscenium space

USA - The mandate for a clean design drives all production decisions of the OneRepublic 2017 Honda Civic 2017 tour. VER is providing a turnkey solution by providing audio, video, lighting, and tying it together with automated rigging on OneRepublic’s North American run with Fitz & The Tantrums and acoustic artist James Arthur this summer.
Deploying VER’s automated rigging “came out of sheer necessity,” says production manager Zito.
Show designer Raj Kapoor and co-production designer/lighting designer Mark Butts of Preset Productions discussed their design dilemma with VER’s rigging project managers David Martin and Richard Cano. The solution: an automated rigging system of eight Kinesys Elevation +1 systems to safely and precisely move trusses with 70,000 pounds of lighting, audio and LED video panels.
“Safety is paramount, and this system gives

USA - Multi-platinum, Grammy-Award winning artists Zac Brown Band (ZBB) is on the road again with a new album Welcome Home and a brand-new production lighting and visuals design created by James Scott and Louis Oliver from UK-based creative design practice, Okulus.
James and Louis have included 32 x Robe Spiiders on the lighting rig, which are integral to creating the look, feel and lighting ambience of the show.
James has been working with Zac Brown Band since 2014 and since 2015 this has been in conjunction with Louis and Okulus - adding the dynamic and strategic advantage of now being able to offer two design ‘heads’ for each project.
While the previous two tours featured prominent structures and multi-layered set pieces, the aesthetic brief for Welcome Home was to strip things back, bring the band physically closer together and make the whol

USA - Founded in 1885, Second Baptist Church in Springfield, Missouri has moved, built, and rebuilt numerous sanctuaries in the 130-plus years of service to the Springfield community. It completed its current 1,000-seat sanctuary in the mid-1990s.
When recent failures further exposed the shortcomings of what had been an unsatisfying sound reinforcement system from the start, Second Baptist turned to A/V integration firm Sandor Sound Services (Reeds Spring, Missouri). Sandor designed and installed a new complement of Danley Sound Labs SH-96 and SH-95 loudspeakers, whose precision pattern control and high fidelity (even at high SPLs) give the church everything it had been hoping for. Moreover, the Danley boxes’ small footprint and optional white finish effectively let them disappear visually.
“Second Baptist Church’s existing system was underpowered and left a lot

The Netherlands - An Avolites Arena console was recently used as part of an extensive Avolites lighting control network for Dutch rock giants Kensington, at Pinkpop, the world's longest-running pop festival, in Landgraaf, Netherlands.
The Arena console was supplied by Belgium-based rental company, Phlippo, to the band's lighting designer Jop Kuipers. Fairlight supplied two Titan Network Processors (TNP) and an Optical Titan Network Switch (TNS), whilst Kuipers brought in his personal Titan Mobile console as backup.
"I have been using Avolites for over a decade," says Kuipers. "The Arena desk is great for large set-ups like Pinkpop, because it has a lot of on-board connection options such as fibre and SMPTE Timecode."
Kensington's Pinkpop set came in the middle of the band's 2017 summer festival tour. For the show, Kuipers designed a high-impact floor package co

UK - In keeping with Galileo’s lifetime preoccupation with circles, ellipses and their spatial movement, the Young Vic’s recent interpretation of Bertolt Brecht’s Life of Galileo was also staged in-the-round.
Central to the sound design by Tom Gibbons and associate sound designer Dan Balfour was a TiMax SoundHub processor, which provided a powerful platform for rendering immersive three-dimensional spatialisation of multi-layered sound effects and high-energy music beds, the latter specially-commissioned from one half of The Chemical Brothers, Tom Rowlands.
Balfour states, “TiMax is easy to get to grips with.” To illustrate the simplicity, he continues, “In tech we were able to add movement complementary to the action, responding to the important theme of circular movement. It liberated the sound design from simply playback and speakers.”
The

The Netherlands - Superstar DJ Armin van Buuren played two solo shows at the Amsterdam ArenA and Dutch lighting creative Art of Light relied on a Hippotizer Karst Media Server to control a series of LED setups during the show.
Closing his latest Armin Only performance concept at the Amsterdam ArenA, with the biggest show that he has ever done, Armin van Buuren became the first DJ to stage a solo show at the famous venue – also home to AFC Ajax. The Armin Only show debuted in 2005 and the latest edition is bigger than ever, letting the Dutch DJ play longer sets while also exploring his artistic side.
So, while Armin Only enables the DJ to deliver a mammoth set, fans get more than just the Dutchman standing behind his decks. Armin was joined by an arsenal of musicians and singers that helped him bring his music to the ‘next level’, creating an

Hungary - A spectacular opening ceremony in downtown Budapest marked the start of the 17th FINA World Aquatic Championships, with 14 days of world class aquatic sports following the elegant, eye-catching event directed by Olivier Feracci from French event production specialist ECA2 and Hungarian film director Csaba Kael, CEO of cultural hub Mupa Budapest.
WIcreations was contacted by Guillaume Duflot from EC2A, responsible for delivering full technical production for the event, and asked to provide rigging and structures involving a number of bespoke black-steel elements, together with their extensive expertise and knowledge of working in large scale outdoor environments. The WI project was led by Koen Peeters, and on-site crew chiefed by Stano Kusik.
The stunning panoramic setting for the FINA OC show included a massive custom-built floating stage, moored on the Danu

USA - At iWeiss, ProPower means continuity in more ways than one. Their oldest ProPower Rack Power Distribution (RPD) rack has been in continuous service for 17 years, in the most challenging and hostile theatrical conditions. With over 1,500 ProPower racks in service across North America, the story of this reliable workhorse product is worth telling.
“After 17 years of continuous use in the construction and renovation of venues, amidst all the associated debris, dust and dirt, our oldest ProPower rack still functions flawlessly,” says Richard Parks, VP of rigging and installation at iWeiss. “I can’t praise this product enough. It always saves us time and money with a single tie that the crew can work without an electrician, and it always passes the OSHA and AHJ inspections.”
Parks adds, “This rack has supported dozens of crews, rigging, welding and hoisti

USA - Following last fall’s sold-out headline tour, Sabrina Carpenter’s ongoing The De-Tour is taking the American singer, songwriter, and actress to over 30 venues across the USA and Canada this summer. The tour utilizes venue-provided “racks and stacks” but carries a 32ft video wall and an audio package that includes an Allen & Heath dLive S5000 Surface and DM64 MixRack for FOH.
FOH engineer Jason Brandt created his dLive show file prior to rehearsals and made use of dLive’s Virtual Sound Check (VSC) feature and a recording made with Waves Tracks Live. Brandt says, “I continue to track every show because the tour has taken us to a variety of venues which are all very different sounding environments, and the VSC really helps with setups.”
He notes that The De-Tour includes two opening acts who use the dLive for both FOH and monitors. Brandt se

Europe - Danish musician and producer Anders Trentemøller will be taking a selection of DPA microphones on tour this summer when he delivers a live set at 20 European festivals.
Based in Copenhagen, Trentemøller is internationally acclaimed for his heart-wrenching melodies, exceptional production and a trademark sound somewhere between indie and electronic. His recent work is driven by a passion for experimentation and succeeds in transcending influences and genres to deliver a much more organic version of his signature sound.
To help translate this sound to the live stage, Trentemøller’s sound engineer and FOH mixer Sune Snellman Jakobsen has specified a wide range of DPA microphones for this summer’s festival tour. These include 10 d:dicate 2011C Twin Diaphragm Cardioid Compact Microphones, four d:vote 4099D Instrument Microphones, one d:vote 4099CM Instrument

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