Belgium - International creative design practice Painting with Light was commissioned to design lighting and a video system, plus produce video content for the recent staging of Disney’s Beauty & the Beast musical by Marmalade in Hall 8 at Ghent Expo in Belgium.
The Belgium based company’s Luc Peumans also seized the opportunity to use their new BlackTrax real-time motion tracking system for the first time on a major production . . . to ensure that all the principal cast members were perfectly illuminated as they moved around the performance space.
When Luc came on-board, the set designed by Stefaan Haudenhuyse - under licence to Disney with the producers having to meet certain criteria – was already initiated. Spectacular and dynamic, it was based around a 50m long performance area in the shape of a rose in the centre of the hall with audience seated

UK - Claypaky Spheriscans were selected to deliver a display of spectacular lighting effects that merged architectural and entertainment lighting during Edinburgh's famous Hogmanay torchlight procession. The award-winning fixtures were supplied and installed on The National Monument of Scotland at Calton Hill by Edinburgh-based production and rental outfit Black Light.
Project manager James Gow from Black Light worked alongside lighting designer Grant Anderson and production manager of the torchlight procession John Robb, to create a lighting plan that offered maximum impact and versatility for the event.
Gow explains: "We chose to use the Claypaky Spheriscan thanks to its 360-degree pan with an IP54 rating, which makes it a unique fixture on the market. With no need to add extra weather proofing, the unit has a sleek and discreet design."
One Spheriscan was plac

UK - For a band named after Bastille Day (so named because lead vocalist Dan Smith’s birthday falls on 14 July), it seems somewhat appropriate that their Front of House engineer, Paul ‘Coop’ Cooper, has chosen to use a French loudspeaker brand for their Wild World tour. But his choice of L-Acoustics has nothing to do with a nod to any Gallic connection. It is simply because whenever he encounters L-Acoustics, he knows exactly what to expect and he knows it will be good.
The K1 and K2 system Coop is currently using is supplied by SSE Audio, who have been working with Bastille since 2013. “As Coop is a local lad to SSE one of the guys that works in our fabrications department knew him from the club scene in Birmingham. They said he was working with a band that just might have something about them,” explains SSE’s Dan Bennett. “At SSE we have a policy of supportin

USA - NBC’s World of Dance is currently in production for a 10-episode rollout this spring. Tasked with painting the stage for The Biggest Dance Competition in the World, lighting designer Oscar Dominguez of Darkfire Lighting Design brought his signature kinetic energy and a palette that included 24 Solaris Flare Q+ LR linear fixtures.
“I’m in love with these new Flare LRs,” says Oscar, “they’re a versatile, violent, shootable weapon! Brighter than the original Flare (which says a lot!), we put a few fixtures in the aisles and the rest in the air. They’re the ultimate in accent lighting, as a wash, strobe, or blinder, and pixel-mapped for special effects.
“The technology of these Solaris fixtures never ceases to amaze me: they keep outdoing themselves, improving on perfection. They’re very nicely designed and of the highest quality. The

Germany - Since the introduction of Allen & Heath’s dLive mixing systems, many of Germany’s top artists, including Nena, Xavier Naidoo, Joris, Brings and Van Canto have taken S Class systems on national and international tours.
"The launch of dLive S Class has been a complete success and we are supporting a lot of satisfied customers and users,” comments Markus Sinsel, Allen & Heath’s German brand manager. “The unique design of the user interface, the FX processing, and the easy integration with Waves and Dante are especially appealing to users.”
Singer songwriter, Joris, has toured with a dLive S5000 Surface and DM48 MixRack with Waves V2, and plans to use dLive on his 2017 tour. FOH engineer, Daniel Lauer, says, "I use the integrated audio matrix switcher. This feature, and the possibility to integrate Dante, Waves and MADI, is perfect for Joris

UK - Each year, the very best in television is recognised at the National Television Awards. Taking place in late January, the awards, which are voted for by the British public, honour television shows, actors and presenters in a range of categories. Producers Indigo TV bring together a variety of technical suppliers to support both the glamorous red carpet arrival space and the awards at The O2 in London, which are broadcast live on ITV.
Continuing a long-running relationship, PRG XL Video supplied both video and lighting technology for this year’s event. Video account manager Paul Wood has worked with Indigo TV’s Andy Bates for a number of years, and this year supplied the production team with the main LED backdrop made up of ROE Visual 7mm LED. The screen is used for all the main title logos, category information and video clips in the hall.
Playback footage was

UK - Britannia Row Productions Training is running its core 12-week Live Sound Technology Course (LSTC) from early April. The 2017 course will be primarily delivered from South Thames College in Wandsworth, with some sessions being held at Britannia Row’s main headquarters in Twickenham and others on-site at Britannia Row shows. The tutors delivering the course will, as usual, be Britannia Row staff and freelance engineers and technicians.
Britannia Row Productions Training’s managing director Mike Lowe said: ‘We have missed running the popular LSTC. Last year we ran six 16-week part-time courses, held on Saturdays and Sundays at Twickenham, as well as bespoke courses tailored to the specific needs of companies in the industry who send their employees to us for training but just did not have the physical space to run the LSTC. Unfortunately, we were unable to run the

USA - If the impact of a man is measured by those who love him, Randy Travis is larger than life. Bandit Lites donated a lighting package for 1 Night. 1 Place. 1 Time: A Heroes & Friends Tribute to Randy Travis where Garth Brooks, Kenny Rogers, Alison Krauss, Kane Brown, Chris Young, Travis Tritt, Wynonna, Alabama and others honoured the man Garth Brooks said, “totally saved this music and this format.”
Part of the proceeds from the marathon tribute went to the Randy Travis Foundation which supports stroke research and rehabilitation. Three years ago, Randy Travis was gearing up for a two-week run when lighting designer Thom Roberts got the call that Randy had been hospitalized.
“Two days later he had the stroke, and that was that,” said Roberts. “Due to some experiences earlier in my career, I hate to use the word "family" when describing a road crew and

USA - Magical is a word that is often ascribed to Louis The Child’s spacey, ethereal sound. It also accurately describes this EDM duo’s phenomenal career path.
Their focus instead is on creating music that captures real moments, or as they once put it in an interview, “songs that are going to become the soundtrack to your life”. This spirit is very evident on the duo’s current tour, not only in its music but also in its immersive and highly original lightshow designed by Kendall Clark and programmed by Andrew Roman, using all Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Creative Production & Design (CPD) of Austin, Texas.
Like the music of Louis The Child, the lightshow on the group’s sold-out 21-city tour, is powerful, evocative and very approachable. “The lighting really reflects the music and what these artists are all about,” said Justin Jenkins of

Denmark - In late 2015 Theatreplan was invited to undertake a wide-ranging 10-year review of the “Operaen”, Copenhagen’s magnificent opera house and home to the Royal Danish Theatre.
In response to the Theatreplan report, the A.P. Møller and Chastine McKinney Møller Foundation (who funded the entire 41,000sq.m building as a gift to the Danish people) announced a substantial grant to maintain the Operaen’s sizeable technical infrastructure and ensure that the Operaen remains a world-class opera house.
Theatreplan enjoyed a successful collaboration with architects Henning Larsens Tegnestue on the original build and is delighted to have been re-engaged by the Royal Danish Theatre to design, specify and monitor the installation of: stage machinery control upgrades; enhanced orchestra elevators; upgraded sound, video and communications infrastructure; upgraded pro

UK - Bristol’s Colston Hall, which celebrates its 150th anniversary in September, has unveiled plans for a £48m refurbishment to make it a world-class music hub for the South West, February 8th, 2017.
The latest artist’s impressions of the ambitious project, which will involve remodelling and upgrading the Main Hall, Lantern cellars and historic foyer spaces to improve facilities for audiences and performers, have been revealed.
A public consultation exhibiting the new plans opened 8 February, 2017, and people are being invited to comment on the proposals before a formal planning application is submitted later this year.
The charitable trust which runs the city centre venue says the improvements will benefit artists and producers as well as audiences, improving the acoustics of the performance areas and opening up new venues in parts of the Colston Hall whic

Russia - An exclusive Claypaky rig of almost 300 moving-head fixtures delivered the high-impact lighting for international game developer and publisher Wargaming Group's highly anticipated debut video game event Wargaming Fest in Moscow's Expocentre.
Production and lighting designers Maxim Martynov and Jevgenij Juhnevich of Moscow-based production company MAX MAX Productions specified 81 x Claypaky Sharpy, 56 x Claypaky Stormy CC, 46 x Claypaky Mythos, 22 x Claypaky Alpha Profile 1500 and 76 x Claypaky A.leda B-EYE K20 supplied by Russian rental and production outfits Arlecchino Techno and MF Group.
"The work during the preparation period of the show was extremely detailed," says Max Martynov. "We discussed every second, every costume and every colour with the Wargaming team. This design tenacity followed through into our desire to achieve the 'perfect lighting quali

Russia - Opened in September 2016, Vegas City Hall is a multi-level, multi-function concert hall in the North West of the Russian capital of Moscow. Owned by the Crocus Group, the venue has been designed to be highly flexible, with different configurations accommodating a variety of events.
This flexibility needed to be reflected in the design of the audio system, with L-Acoustics loudspeakers providing a solution that delivers high quality sound system that can be reconfigured in under a half hour.
The audio system was designed and installed by Theatre Techniques and Technologies (TTT Group, Moscow), together with Sonoruss, certified provider of L-Acoustics products in Russia.
Vegas City Hall’s auditorium spans three levels in the form of an amphitheatre. In its standard configuration, used mainly for rock, pop and jazz concerts and children’s events, the ha

Nepal - When Lucy Peckham, co-partner of Anchorage-based Both Ears Live Sound, was contacted by Greg Mitchell, a design professor at UC Santa Barbara, she knew she would be a part of something special. Mitchell was looking for a sound engineer to go to Nepal to work on the first opera ever performed in that country. Peckham recognized early that she would also need equipment capable of performing under Kathmandu’s less than forgiving environment. Peckham found the solution she needed in DPA Microphones’ d:screet 4061 Necklace Microphone.
Peckham first heard of DPA after attending a Live Design conference in Las Vegas. “I started receiving Live Design’s online newsletter and DPA kept popping up in the articles I found most interesting,” she says. “One article in particular caught my attention: DPA microphones were used to mic the entire cast and orchestra of a San

China - PR Lighting has launched upgraded versions of two of its products, and has now released the XR 330 Beam II and XR 250 Beam II.
While the XR 330 Beam II is equipped with the Osram Sirius HRI 330W lamp the XR 250 Beam II houses a Philips MSD Platinum 11R 250W lamp to produce a laser-like parallel beam.
These products are designed to meet the requirements of small and medium installation applications. Rich in features, they are compact and easy to maintain and install.
Features include: colour wheel with 13 colours; fixed gobo wheel with 16 gobos and rotating gobo wheel with 12 gobos (three prisms and frost wheel. The fixture also contains: electronic strobe (0.3-20 fps); Dimmer (0-100%, linearly adjustable); Motorized linear Focus and Zoom.
The Head movement offers 540° (pan) and 270° (tilt), with auto position correction, and light angle of 3°.

Italy - Staged since 2006, Nextech is one of Italy’s longest lasting electronic and visual arts festivals, drawing top international EDM artists to Florence and enabling fans to discover suggestive locations in the Tuscan ‘capital’, creating a sprcial atmosphere with its mainstream and trendsetting sounds.
For the last four years, Nextech has been held in the Cavaniglia hall, in the conference hub hosted by Florence’s spectacular Renaissance Fortezza da Basso, and headliner at the December 2016 edition, Nextech Legend, was Germany’s Chris Liebing.
Liebing has dedicated the past 25 years of his life to the performance, production, distribution and broadcasting of Techno at global level. He has run a club and held residencies in many of the most prestigious venues worldwide, playing for established nights like Cocoon, Carl Cox and Music On in Ibiza, he now has

USA - History runs deep throughout the Lone Star State. Perhaps nowhere in Texas is this more evident than in the little town of Granbury. A look at the well preserved 19th century homes and original frontier storefronts that line the downtown district make it easy to see why Granbury bills itself as “The Place Where Texas History Lives.”
Although the people of Granbury celebrate their rich history, they also have their eyes firmly fixed on the future.This balance between the time-honoured and contemporary was evident recently when the local Acton United Methodist Church installed a massive new LED video wall in its traditional sanctuary.
Made with Chauvet Professional C6 Panels, the 26’ wide by 10’ high wall engages worshippers with crisp and colouful contemporary images, as well as text and IMAG video. Yet, when it’s not in use, this high-tech wall “virtu

UK - A substantial EM Acoustics HALO-C system has recently been supplied and commissioned into the main performance space at Dorking Halls in Surrey by Autograph Sales & Installations. Opened in 1931, the handsome inter-war facade of the Halls conceals a vibrant, contemporary entertainment and conference complex in which three separate spaces variously host live music, cinema, corporate events, comedy and theatrical productions throughout the year.
The new system resides in the main hall which has a capacity of 791 seated, rising to over 1000 when part-standing. Comprising 22 HALO-C compact line-array elements plus a single MSE-218 subwoofer per side and four EMS-61 modules, the entire system is powered and processed by just two EM Acoustics DQ20s and one DQ6 advanced system amplifiers.
According to Autograph’s sales engineer, Peppe Mallozzi, one of the first con

UK - Donny Osmond’s recent Soundtrack of My Life arena tour has given the entertainment icon not only a chance to promote the album of the same name (his 60th), but also take a trip down memory lane to cover five decades of material.
The fact that Donny-mania is still alive and well can be measured by the constant screaming of fans, drowning out the mainly arena auditoria, which in normal circumstances would threaten to envelop the sound from the stage.
In the case of Martin Audio’s award-winning MLA, Osmond’s tour manager (and FOH engineer) Chris Acton found so much headroom under the bonnet that this never became an issue.
Capital Sound, who supplied the rig, first worked with Acton on Donny & Marie’s tour of the United Kingdom two years ago. Introduced by UK event production company, LarMac LIVE, the relationship has blossomed - and Acton was highl

Europe - The Holiday on Ice Time show is back on the road with a new creative team and a new look, with lighting and visuals designed by Jeffrey Goes from Amsterdam based creative design practice Live Legends - and a lighting rig featuring over 170 Robe moving lights.
Holiday on Ice producer Kiki Venhuizen and new executive producer Jay Smith contacted Live Legends when looking for a new integrated design that would encompass lighting and video visuals for the re-launch of Time (the original show name was Speed), which has been a big hit with audiences throughout Europe.
Live Legends’ work embraces all sectors and genres – concerts and live music events, TV and theatre productions, corporate and industrials, but this was their first ice show.
“Holiday on Ice was looking for a fresh approach,” said Jeffrey who has been using Robe prod

USA - ImageCue has made available a new suite of free content preparation utilities for its users. The utilities are now available for downloading from the ImageCue website.
One of the new utilities is designed specifically for users new to the content preparation process. “We’ve encountered many potential customers that want to integrate projection and digital content into their productions but feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the process,” says Bill Hewlett, ImageCue CEO. “This new utility allows the user to plug a USB flash drive into their PC and the utility steps them through the process.”
The new utility prepares the USB drive for use with ImageCue and analyzes the user’s content, determining how best to convert or modify it for best performance with the ImageCue compact server. The tedious task of adding numeric prefixes to file names is handled

USA - Purpose Church, located in Pomona, California, 30 miles east of Los Angeles, recently installed a new Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW) Adaptive sound reinforcement system to provide their church community with a more complete worship experience.
After the church decided to upgrade the 25-year-old system, Peter Wilson, audio tech director for Purpose Church, and Jeremy Rynders, audio/acoustic system designer, began to research their options.
The fan-shaped church sanctuary, with seating for 1,800-2,000, features a wrap-around balcony that necessitates 180-degree coverage. And, because the space is made up primarily of hard, flat surfaces – with little or no acoustic treatment – the room would benefit from sound reinforcement with custom-tailored coverage, easily defined by the user. Lastly, the church was interested in a system with the ability to vary the cover

USA - Located right outside Fort Hood, Texas - the largest military installation in the free world - the Christian House of Prayer was founded in 1980, and from its main location in Killeen and a satellite location in Copperas Cove serves a ministry that reaches across the country and into Europe.
As the need to improve the sound at the main sanctuary increased, Chris McKinney, the church’s head audio engineer and production manager, began researching the best way to go about modernizing the system there. His inquiries led him to the Focusrite RedNet suite of Dante-networked audio converters and interfaces, which he recognized as the perfect bridge from the church’s existing analogue sound system to the Danley PA system they intend to install later in 2017.
Supplied by Sound Productions of Irving, TX, a system comprising the following RedNet components provided the

USA - Located in Minneapolis, MN, Substance Church is a dynamic multi-site church that believes in doing things a bit differently by pushing the limits of the congregation’s expectations to build a stronger community.
In holding true to their foundation, they recently underwent a LED video installation at their Northtown Campus with one of the largest LED video walls in any house of worship known today. Led by Adam Frey, technical director for Substance, the church wanted to complete their full production design with a high-resolution and virtually flicker-free LED video solution, so they chose FLEXTour LED video from PixelFLEX, installed by REACH Communications, Inc. of Champlin, MN.
“The project on a whole was a new lighting, projection and LED video installation for our auditorium that was built about a year ago, and this was the final piece of the design for th

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