Rob Koenig connects Metallica to the crowd with 144 CHAUVET Professional Color STRIKE Ms. The eight towers came about when Production Designer, Dan Braun, had to find an alternative to his initial vision of creating tensegrity structures for the show. “I have been interested in tensegrity sculpture for a while and was working on this concept for an indoor show,” said Braun, who’s worked closely with Lighting Designer Rob Koenig on the production. “Our world changed, when the tour went to stadiums in the round. My first thought was ‘we can’t do that.’ But after careful consideration, I said ‘why…
Author: Alicia Pollitt
Contributing to the success of Iron Blossom Festival was the sound quality provided across the two stages by Soundworks of Virginia, and featuring Martin Audio’s Wavefront Precision line arrays. Headliners included: Hozier, Noah Kahan, and Lord Huron. The Bon Secours Training Center provided the venue for the Festival, organised in a joint venture by Charlottesville’s Starr Hill Presents, Virginia Beach’s IMGoing and Richmond’s Haymaker Productions. Working in conjunction with Haymaker Productions owner, Tom Beals Soundworks chose Martin Audio’s large-format WPL for the main stage and WPC for the second stage—run in 2-box resolution from Martin Audio’s matched iKON multi-channel amplifiers.…
Sphere, opened to the public on 29 September 2023, ushering in the future of live entertainment. Two of the venue’s signature features, its 160,000 sq. ft. interior LED display plane, and its 580,000 sq. ft. exterior, the Exosphere – are powered by technologies from 7thSense. At 16K by 16K resolution, Sphere’s interior LED display plane is the highest-resolution LED screen in the world. Soaring to a height of 240 feet, and with over 3 acres of display surface, the screen wraps up, over, and around the audience to create a fully immersive visual environment. The Exosphere is the largest LED…
Elation Professional announced an expansion of its presence in Greece through an exclusive distribution partnership with PANOU SA. The partnership took effect on 1 October 2023. The collaboration between PANOU SA and Elation Professional began in 2019 with PANOU’s distribution of Obsidian Control Systems products. Building on this success, the new agreement cements Elation Professional as the lighting brand in PANOU’s portfolio, encompassing a range of products from the Fuze, KL, and Artiste lighting lines to the Proteus IP65 range and more. Vasilis Vlahos, Sales Director at PANOU stated: “The partnership with Elation was a natural progression following our successful…
Festivals have embraced d&b Soundscape as a new tool. Among the artists embracing the technology at the UK’s WOMAD this year was sound artist Jason Singh. For WOMAD, Singh used ‘biofeedback’ recordings from the site’s trees, played through Soundscape. The Houghton Festival in Norfolk, UK, is another event continuing its association with d&b Soundscape. One of the highlights was a new commission from visual artist Weirdcore, featuring themes explored during his work with his most frequent collaborator, Aphex Twin. Using lights, visuals, and the “mind-bending” sound of d&b Soundscape, Weirdcore expanded the boundaries of the site. In Bentonville, Arkansas, USA,…
Show designer Scott Holthaus of Happy Machine Design wanted “a big and bright fixture” for metal band Disturbed’s Take Back Your Life tour, and the Vari-Lite VL6500 Wash “checked all those boxes with flying colours.” The large format wash fixture from Vari-Lite offered “a gigantic source of power” to the Disturbed show according to Holthaus. “Lights have to compete with a thousand pounds of propane a show!” said Holthaus. “If the lights are not killer bright, leave them in the box.” The VL6500 Wash offers over 50,000 lumens of power, a 14-inch aperture and Dichro*fusion blades, allowing it to stand out in…
Princess Gardens Park took on the air of an EDM club as fans piled in to see stars like Kerri Chandler, Shanti Celeste, Mr. G, and DJ Boring, perform at the Fly Open Air Festival. Setting an appropriately intense tone for the proceedings was a moving 14-universe light show run by Steve McCracken on his ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M Stadium that featured a 40m-long EDM-club-worthy wall of light. Working with a lighting design by Nick Jevons of NJ Designs, and fixtures supplied by LITE-UP Productions, McCracken, busked the entire weekend. He relied on the big wall to create chase sequences, colour…
In Concert Productions (ICP) has augmented its portfolio with Riedel Engineering’s Bolero wireless intercom system. ICP also invested in Artist 1024 intercom matrix nodes, 1200 Series SmartPanels, and more than 100 beltpacks to cater to the needs of the TV, film, and corporate markets in Atlanta and the American Southeast. “We needed a system that could keep pace with our rapidly changing industry, and Bolero — standing alone or integrated with Artist — delivers on all fronts,” said Jay Rabbitt, President and CEO of ICP. “Not only does Bolero provide a better user interface and experience overall, it delivers rock-solid…
Yumi Matsutoya, known as Yuming, has embarked on a 54-date in-the-round arena tour that centres around a pirate ship set, with audio powered by Japan’s first major touring deployment of Meyer Sound PANTHER large-format linear line array loudspeakers. Audio systems for the tour are supplied by Arté (Acoustic Reinforcement Technology Co.) rental division of S.C. Alliance in partnership with Artwiz, Meyer Sound’s Dealer for Japan. The Meyer Sound system was designed by Arté audio designer and system engineer Shoji Yuzawa with assistance from Meyer Sound Director of System Optimisation Bob McCarthy. The pirate ship motif pushed the array up high,…
Visitor registration is now open for Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2024. International industry professionals, AV technology users, and innovators can now register for the 20th anniversary edition of the show. Mike Blackman, Managing Director of Integrated Systems Events, commented: “We are excited to open registration for this special anniversary edition. ISE 2024 is your destination for innovation. It is already set to be the biggest yet, with an expanded show floor over 17% larger than in 2023, new halls, over 80 new exhibitors currently confirmed and exciting new additions to the show programme.” Opening Fira Barcelona’s North Access marks a…
LD Ignacio (Iggy) Rosenberg has become another early adopter of GLP’s new impression X5 IP Bars, having commandeered 136 units from PRG for Karol G’s recent 13-date American stadium tour. Part of design collective called Lightswitch, the lighting designer first became involved with Karol G several years ago. “After two tours with her we were invited back to design the lighting on her Mañana Sera Bonitostadium tour,” he added: “It helps I’m originally Argentine, so there is a language and cultural bridge that helps the design process and transfer of ideas.” Working with production designer Travis Shirley, Rosenberg confirmed that…
The Swedish indie folk band delve into pop mixes with a touring audio package from Britannia Row Productions. Production Manager Gareth Russell is marking 10 years of touring campaigns with First Aid Kit, aka Swedish musical duo, sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg. “Everyone’s hard work is appreciated by this artist, which is fantastic,” he began. “The quality of crew that we have on this tour is in demand, so it’s testament to the artist that our people continue to make themselves available. Everybody really wants to be here.” He continued: “The kind of personnel available to us from Brit Row,…
Echelon Festival, Germany techno and house music festival, was illuminated with a display of PROLIGHTS fixtures. This event took place at the historic Ehemalige US Kaserne, a former NSA Satellite Tracking Station. Revolution Rental designed a lighting setup at the festival’s Main Stage,with an array of 130 PROLIGHTS fixtures, including the LumiPar 12IP, LumiPar 7IP, Solar 27Q, and Solar 48Q. “The essence of Echelon Festival has always been pushing boundaries and delivering an unforgettable experience. PROLIGHTS fixtures played a pivotal role in accomplishing this mission. Their exceptional versatility and unwavering reliability enabled us to craft a luminous masterpiece that not…
Robbie Williams returned to the Bel Paese, and performed to an audience of over 20,000 people on the Festival’s final evening, closing a season which again brought to the location major names in contemporary rock and pop, including Blur, The Chemical Brothers, Norah Jones, Placebo, KISS, Simply Red and Sigur Ros. Martin Audio partner, Amandla Productions, has been a reference rental company for the Lucca Summer Festival for many years, and this year again provided technical management, including a full audio and lighting package. System Engineer, Tommaso Bandecchi, and Amandla CEO, David Lapini, recognised the challenges in meeting the ever-changing…
The triumphant return of ’90s Britpop poster boys Blur rocked the music world at the end of 2022, DiGiCo’s Quantum7 was the mixing desk of choice for the band’s biggest-ever headline shows, ensuring that the 180,000 fans that flocked to Wembley felt the full force of Blur’s back catalogue. Monitor engineer Dave Guerin and FOH man Matt Butcher are long-standing Blur crew members and DiGiCo users. Back in 2015 when the band were last on the road, the two engineers were working on a pair of DiGiCo SD10 consoles: this time round, two DiGiCo Quantum7 desks. “The Quantum7 is a…
Main Light Tri-State announced the appointment of Jerry Trotta as its Operations Manager. Trotta brings with him a wealth of industry experience having worked as a logistics manager at 4Wall Entertainment for the past 10 years. Michael Cannon, CEO of Main Light, expressed: “Having Jerry on board is a significant asset for Main Light. His deep-rooted industry experience, combined with his unique ability to connect with clients, aligns perfectly with our vision. We’re confident that Jerry’s transition from production to our dry hire model will further enhance our commitment to providing personalized and top-notch service to our clients.” Also announced…
Astera has created a new Group CEO position with the appointment of Carl-Johan Sköld. Sköld will be based in Hong Kong and collaborating closely with both the German HQ and design center and Astera’s Chinese manufacturing teams to shape the company’s growth strategies. Astera’s sales director Sebastian Buckle commented, “It’s hugely exciting to have someone of Carl-Johan’s caliber onboard as our company moves to the next phase of its development. Carl-Johan brings great expertise, a huge enthusiasm for our industry and a brilliant track record of foresight and success, all of which will have positive impact on Astera going forward…
Novatech is set to unveil its latest turn-key offerings in vision, audio, and lighting for live events at this year’s ENTECH Roadshow from 10 to 24 October. This showcase will feature demonstrations of state-of-the-art LED processing solutions from Brompton Technology. Leko Novakovic, Managing Director at Novatech, stated: “As a full-service production rental company supplying turn-key event technology solutions for three major sectors, concert and touring, corporate, and special events, our high-end vision offerings in particular encompass everything from projection mapping to large-scale LED screen solutions for live events. We have relied on Brompton Technology LED video processing products for many…
