The Art-Deco Grade II listed Queens Hotel has been an impressive presence on Leeds’ City Square since its construction in 1937. Designed by W.H. Hamlyn and faced with white Portland Stone, it is a striking landmark which over the years has hosted many notable guests. At the end of last year, The Queens was the focus of a spectacular art installation which saw LeedsBID (Leeds Business Improvement District) collaborate with Barcelona-based creative studio Onionlab on ‘To Leeds With Love’, a visual spectacular which used the elegant architecture of the Hotel as a canvas for multiple projections themed around The Twelve…
Author: Alicia Pollitt
Pro Audio Systems supplies and installs audio systems for Bradford City of Culture Loading Bay pop-up. As UK City of Culture 2025, Bradford is playing host to an extensive programme of events in the arts and entertainment field. With a rich and diverse cultural heritage as the backdrop to a year of celebration, Bradford 2025 has invested in a number of existing and new creative spaces to further opportunities for people to engage in cultural events. One such significant venue is the appropriately-named Loading Bay, a multi-use arts centre located in a disused warehouse. Music, comedy, talks, exhibitions, immersive theatre,…
Wisycom SRL has announced a transition in corporate management, appointing Davide Morsiani as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Gerrit Buhe as Chief Technology Officer (CTO), while Andrea Bulfon will continue as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Marika Stangherlin has been promoted to Chief Sales Officer (CSO). These changes mark a natural step in a business development plan that began in 2022 to streamline operations and prepare Wisycom for future growth in an evolving global market. As part of the transition, Wisycom founders Massimo Polo and Enzo Frigo have stepped down from their roles as CEO and CTO, respectively. Their visionary…
Just over four years ago, CHAUVET Professional’s product developers set out to reimagine their moving head lineup by creating a fixture that didn’t sacrifice output for compact size. The result was the widely celebrated Maverick Force S series, a collection of profiles and spots that combine intense output along with a host of impressive performance features, in a surprisingly trim package. Offering the best of both worlds, in terms of output and size, this series opened new creative possibilities for lighting professionals. CHAUVET Professional has taken its reimagination of moving fixtures a step further with the introduction of the Maverick…
The National Bowl, Milton Keynes, hosted a double festival weekender for BludFest 2025 on Saturday 20 June and the debut of Forever Now which ran on Sunday 21 June. BludFest 2025 returned for its second year to The National Bowl, rapidly growing into one of the UK’s most beloved midsize festivals. With a mission to elevate fresh boundary-crossing talent alongside established stars, all while fostering an inclusive, sustainable environment for music lovers, it didn’t fail to disappoint. Curated by global phenomenon Yungblud, the band headlined the main stage Saturday night, alongside an epic heavyweight lineup to include Chase Atlantic,…
Formed in Paris during 1981, Indochine have combined single and album sales of 10 million. Their latest tour sold out in hours, with 105 dates across France, Belgium and Switzerland. Over one million people will experience these shows and, in a first for France, powering every performance will be a pair of DiGiCo Quantum 852s, supplied by MPM Audiolight. Axel Albert is the band’s front of house engineer and Lionel Pelatan is on monitors, the pair are long-term users of DiGiCo consoles, with Pelatan starting with the DiGiCo D5. Albert upgraded from the Quantum 7 he used on their last…
Solotech returned to Brockwell Park in South London recently—for three successive weekends of festival activity—fielding their flagship WPL on main stage for the first time. After populating the event in previous years with MLA, it was time for an upgrade to their recently expanded WPL inventory. This provided site coverage for a variety of events that included Wide Awake, Field Day, Cross The Tracks, City Splash, Mighty Hoopla and Lambeth Country Show over the long duty cycle. The Festival site attracted an aggregate of more than 300,000 people in all, and Solotech—working alongside production manager Frankie Tee of EnTEEtainment and…
James Butera has chosen Clair Global and multiple Clair brands for audio rental and support many times during his career as both a FOH Engineer and Production Manager, and in his most recent outing with pop star Halsey, he’s working with the group once again. With the never-ending demand for great touring crews in this industry, James shares his own route to the top; he grew up in Dallas, Texas, and attended what he calls a ‘non-traditional’ chapel service every Friday at his school. Little did he know, a chance to carry some microphones one lunch time would set him…
HARMAN Professional Solutions has announced an expansion of its partnership with Live Technology, a Midwich Company. In addition to their current distribution responsibilities for HARMAN Professional’s industry-leading audio brands – JBL Professional, BSS,Crown, Soundcraft, Lexicon, and dbx – Live Technology will now also oversee sales and support for the AMX video and control brand in the United Kingdom, effective 1 August 2025. “I am thrilled to announce the expansion of our partnership with Live Technology,” said Scott Aslett, Senior Commercial Director, EMEA, HARMAN Professional Solutions. “Live Technology has consistently demonstrated deep market expertise and a strong commitment to our customers…
The 32nd edition of Jazzellerault Festival has taken an innovative approach to immersive audio technology, combining L-ISA deployment with comprehensive education for visiting engineers. As celebrated acts like Imagination featuring Leee John, Avishaï Cohen Trio, and Richard Galliano performed at the L’Angelarde venue, their FOH engineers were learning the nuances of spatial sound mixing with L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound technology. Jazzellerault chooses L-Acoustics L-ISA immersive audio technology for their 32nd edition festival The thoughtful collaboration between Scène de Nuit – NT Event, L-Acoustics Certified Provider, and the festival’s diverse roster of international sound engineers transformed the technical implementation into a…
In the early 1970s, the Grateful Dead’s legendary sound engineer Owsley “Bear” Stanley tapped John Meyer to help realise a radical vision: the Wall of Sound. What began as an experimental dream would evolve into a decades-long collaboration rooted in shared obsession, innovation, and respect for the audience experience. That collaboration deepened in 1979 when John and Helen Meyer founded Meyer Sound. Since then, the Berkeley, California-based company has remained an integral partner to the Grateful Dead’s extended family, supporting legendary side projects and solo tours with custom solutions and breakthrough technologies. From the early UM-1 UltraMonitors that helped shape…
Sensaphonics continues to raise the bar for hearing health education and awareness in 2025. Now in its fourth decade as the only custom in-ear monitor manufacturer founded and operated by a practicing audiologist, the company continues to promote safe listening through a combination of the right equipment paired with proper education on implementation and best practices for maintaining maximum hearing health with maximum performance safety and enjoyment. Sensaphonics kicked off its 40th anniversary year with an expanded presence at the 2025 NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA, hosting a crew of certified Sensaphonics Gold Circle Audiologists at their booth who provided…
For their first major arena tour as headliners, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats hit the road this past spring on their South of Here Tour with a soulful, vintage-inspired production design that reflected their signature blend of folk, Americana, and rhythm & blues. At the heart of the lighting design was the Elation SŌL I Blinder—a key fixture chosen by production and lighting designer Jeremy Roth, who specified 106 units as the core element of the visual aesthetic. Brown Note Productions delivered the full lighting, audio, and rigging systems for the tour. Roth turned to the SŌL Blinders…
Rob Lister and his team at IYA created a production design for the recently completed KORN world tour. With its towering trim and floating automated light pods, the tour’s production immersed and captivated fans on a multitude of levels, the underlying lighting element behind it was straightforward. Thomas “Church” Christmann of CycoVision was in a great position to know– he was the programmer and LD for the tour, powering his show with a ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M+ Stadium console. “Rob and the IYA team did an incredible job,” he said. “They gave me all the freedom to program the show throughout,…
Jon Chadwick, front of house engineer for the acclaimed band Papadosio, recently put the compact and powerful Allen & Heath Avantis Solo digital mixing console to the test on the group’s latest tour. Chadwick had extensive prior experience with Allen & Heath’s dLive and SQ series, making the transition to Avantis intuitive. Chadwick strategically opted for a digital split over Dante with the monitor console, leveraging three DX168 expanders positioned throughout the stage. This choice offered significant flexibility for I/O placement and simplified cabling, replacing bulkier analog snakes with more convenient ethercon runs. “The Avantis’ flexible I/O routing made setting…
This year’s Glastonbury festival witnessed the return of performance art collective Arcadia Spectacular and their iconic Dragonfly Stage, an extraordinary 13-metre-long installation crafted from a transformed Sea King military helicopter. Founded by creative engineers Bertie Cole and Pip Rush, Arcadia debuted at Glastonbury in 2007 and has held a permanent area since 2014. This year marked a significant wireless evolution for Arcadia, with Sennheiser’s Spectera wireless system delivering pristine audio performance in one of the most demanding RF environments in the world. Kevin Gwyther-Brown, Business Development Manager – Professional Audio at Sennheiser, has worked closely with Arcadia for the past…
Visual solutions company Observatory created ambitious new content for this year’s multi-genre Electric Forest festival in Michigan, using two Hippotizer Boreal+ MK2 Media Servers driving two 4k outputs each to deliver the spectacle. Simon Harris and his team at Observatory were commissioned by Leisure Expert Group – the Creative Directors of Insomniac who part own the festival – to create two new pieces of scenic content for the famous Sherwood Stage, which was hugely successful and the most popular choice by incoming artists. Deploying the Boreal+ MK2 Media Servers, which were supplied by Screenworks, the Observatory team delivered control equipment, programming, operation…
Sterling Event Group has announced the appointment of two experienced industry professionals to spearhead its expansion into the South of England alongside its broader national growth strategy. James Hunter joins as Director, bringing more than two decades of experience in delivering world-class event projects across the UK and internationally. A proven leader with a strong track record in developing high-performing teams, Hunter will play a key role in expanding Sterling’s high-quality event delivery for clients across the South, as well as further strengthening national operations at board level. Known for his client-focused approach, technical expertise, and commitment to developing the…
