Follow-Me has announced the appointment of Thijs Bruins as Global Sales Manager. Thijs will oversee the Follow-Me global sales network, aligning existing partners, expanding the network to improve customer experience and providing a base for the company’s future growth. “We are really happy Thijs is joining Follow-Me,” Marc van der Wel, Managing Director said. “He brings lots of technical and commercial knowledge, industry experience and enthusiasm to our growing company.” Thijs has a wealth of technical expertise. Starting out at a young age as a lighting technician and continuing to juggle this freelance work and training, his early experience underpins…
Author: Alicia Pollitt
Martin Audio and Solotech UK (formerly as Capital Sound) have been permanent incumbents since AEG Presents took over the Hyde Park lease in 2013, and Martin Audio PAs feature site-wide. Solotech were represented by a different system engineer in Rayne Ramsden in 2024, While he was working to the same offsite sound level thresholds (75dBA) as set out by acoustic consultants Vanguardia, he was able to squeeze out a couple of extra dB at FOH, giving them a potential of 101dB(A) without breaching offsite limits. “Rather than simply cut and paste from last year I suggested tilting the delay PAs…
The Chauvet family of brands: Kino Flo, ChamSys and CHAUVET Professional will be embracing the ‘delivering innovation and connecting communities’ concept at IBC on booth 12.F31. The booth features a demo area created to showcase the Kino Flo MIMIK image based video lighting tile. Using patented technology to connect “worlds,” MIMIK projects light that mirrors video content while applying a higher tonal and colour rendering range. Controlled by the Megapixel VR HELIOS LED processor, MIMIK expands real-time and post-production options, delivering 10,000 NITS, along with the ability to shoot as high as 900 frames per second and offer as many…
LD Systems has invested in 32 new Robe iFORTE LTX moving lights, purchased to pair with its existing 14 RoboSpot remote follow spotting control systems. “The iFORTE LTX is a proper ‘Swiss Army knife of fixtures’ – highly versatile and very robust,” commented LD Systems’ Lighting Operations Manager, Nathan Brittain. The company already has substantial quantities of other Robe products in its rental inventory which are in constant use on touring, concert, and festival systems as well as special events, spectaculars and one-offs, plus the RoboSpot Systems which up to this point had been working with BMFL LT fixtures. Brittain…
Production company TMS chose to go with Elation’s PROTEUS line of luminaires for the Shoreline Stage at this year’s Hangout Fest held on Alabama’s southern Gulf Coast. TMS has handled lighting production for the festival for many years and this year chose a nearly all Elation PROTEUS rig for the Shoreline Stage. TMS’s Ben LoPreto collaborated with festival techs on the design, utilising feedback from some of the festival’s past lighting designers to refine the setup, while staying within scope and budget. “There is no way we were going to send non-IP rated fixtures to a stage that’s quite literally…
Festival de Confolens saw event service provider Blackline Event deploy line arrays of six NEXO GEO S12 per side for the main stage, supplemented by two NEXO PS15 outfills, two PS15 in the centre, six PS10 near fills and three PS15 delay lines. Six NEXO RS18 subs were stacked left and right in cardioid mode to limit bass dispersion on the stage. “Acoustics in the large 2,500-seat tent were quite tricky with a significant TR” reported Jean-Claude Marsaud, General Manager of Blackline Event. “A lot of system design work was done by Carole at NEXO Engineering Support, and the long…
BOW has today a new partnership to integrate robotics into film, television, and live events. The partnership between XPLOR and BOW aims to advance robotics research and development in the creative sectors to address new robotics use-cases, enhance efficiency, and reduce the cost of robotics on production sets. BOW’s robot-agnostic software development kit (SDK) bridges the gap between diverse robotic systems, enabling integration and operation across multiple platforms. Initial research projects will include programming robotic arms in XPLOR’s virtual production studio, using BOW to deploy robotic arms for inhospitable live-action shooting environments, fully automated tracking solutions and live performance integration…
RENGANEK Live 2024 offered audiences a musical experience grounded in a shared rock matrix. The tour utilised a semi-production setup that integrated essential aspects of full-scale production. At the heart of the tour’s lighting setup is a control system managed by lighting designer Pietro Bardelli. Bardelli has employed two Full Boar 4 consoles from ETC’s Hog 4 family – one primary and one backup. This decision was driven by the need to adapt quickly to varying materials and conditions at each venue while maintaining high standards of visual consistency. “This is a rock and roll tour, and with the semi-production…
Canadian FOH Engineer Matt Blakely is the owner of PRODIGY.MP for his personal live audio processing. “It all started when my preferred interface became unsupported,” Blakely recalled. “I can’t remember who suggested I tried the PRODIGY.MP, but I gave it a go for driving the PA. It is a great, simple solution for festivals, but even more useful when we’re touring our own PA as we can have full control of our mix with the 16 by 16 matrix.” The PRODIGY.MP proved to be a solution that would serve all the band’s interfacing needs. One of the features that he…
Rock band Third Eye Blind has completed the fourth edition of their Summer Gods Tour, covering much of North America. Clay Joiner, Associate Lighting Designer at New York City-based Live ReDesigned served as the tour’s Lighting Programmer, utilising grandMA3 in an unconventional live mode. “My friend Chris Denholm designed the show and asked me if I’d program it,” said Joiner. “We were looking for a joyous, summer, seductive feeling and the ability for the band to move around on stage and interact with the audience. We wanted them to feel the energy of the band and to make sure the…
A duo of 32-foot projection screens, created to order by AV Stumpfl, provided the backdrop to the set design for The 1975’s recently concluded At Their Very Best and Still… At Their Very Best world tours. The indie-popsters paired the custom projection surfaces with 180,000 lumens of ultra-bright IMAG projection for the back-to-back tours. “The design concept on a 1975 tour is never the ‘same old’ – they always like to do something different,” commented the tours’ Head of Video, Ed Lawlor of Visual Certainty, who has been working with the band since 2014. Alongside Production Manager Josh Barnes, Tour…
Vari-Lite has announced that the VL2600 SE Series has received the Plasa Award for Innovation in Sustainability at the recent Plasa Show London 2024. Product entries were judged by a team comprising 13 independent technical specialists from an array of backgrounds. The Sustainability Award is only awarded at the judges’ discretion, and it has only been awarded three times in the last ten years. “This award from Plasa is a great honour, and it exemplifies why the VL2600 SE Series is the smart choice product with a sustainable future,” said Martin Palmer, Vari-Lite Marketing and Product Management Leader at Signify.…
DirectOut, creator of multi-function audio processor PRODIGY.MX, is currently in use across a range of Gareth Owen Sound (GOS) Productions. These include the recently opened production of Starlight Express at London’s Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre, and The Devil Wears Prada, which is currently showing at the Theatre Royal Plymouth, and due to open at the Dominion Theatre in October 2024. Owen was co-founder of Fourier Audio and still holds the title of CCO, after the sale to DiGiCo in 2023. He is also CEO of software house Show Control, creators of EnSnap and other software/hardware tools for use exclusively on…
Grass Valley has announced the appointment of Alex Keighley as the new Senior Vice President of Sales for North America. With a wealth of experience spanning both the media and technology sectors, Keighley brings a blend of industry knowledge and sales leadership to Grass Valley. Commenting on his appointment, Keighley shared his vision: “While media companies are navigating a challenging period with rapidly evolving technology and business models, it’s also a time of tremendous opportunity. They need trusted partners who can guide them through these transitions while ensuring they continue to deliver outstanding content. My mission is clear: to demonstrate…
Liquicity Festival, whose roots date back to 2013, attracts daily attendances of up to 20,000. Returning for their second year, Martin Audio rental partner DSL equipped no fewer than seven stages with premium systems over the four days. DSL Director, Gert-Jan Gomes stated, “At Liquicity 2023, where we supplied all feature areas with Martin Audio PA, we were able to keep the audience immersed in high quality sound, while at the same time restrict off-site noise to a level within the permit. As a result of this achievement, we were asked to return for the 2024 edition.” In descending order,…
Britannia Row Productions continues to provide audio rental services for The Offspring. The band’s stage energy was captured at the 30th anniversary show in Anaheim, CA, where an L-Acoustics K1/K2 system was deployed at the Honda Center. The concert was mixed by FOH Engineer Greg Bess utilising a CADAC J-Type analogue console and a CADAC CDC Four compact digital mixer, while Monitor Engineer Jesse Cantrell chose an SSL 550 Plus to handle the band’s ever-growing monitoring needs. “Anaheim was very special,” began Cantrell. “I’ve listened to this band since I was a kid, and probably played some of these songs…
Poland’s largest festival, Pol‘and’Rock, draws aggregate crowds of between 500,000-750,000 to the Czaplinek-Broczyno airfield, making it one of the largest in the world. A veteran of the event’s successful sound since the beginning of the millennium, both as main Sound Engineer and Crew Chief, is Przemek Naguszewski of Fotis Sound. This year he deployed an Optocore XR6 system for fiber transmission between FOH and monitors, as well as a Festival Box. “I was responsible for providing all [systems] between the sound engineer and system input,” he said. “All needed consoles, outboard, connectivity and multicores. Naguszewski is a familiar user of…
Outside Lands showcased the pairing of Meyer Sound’s PANTHER large-format linear line array loudspeaker and 2100-LFC low-frequency control element at the Lands End main stage. “PANTHER and 2100-LFC are an unparalleled pair, and we are so excited that they are making their debut together at the Lands End stage here at Outside Lands this year,” said Katharine “Katie” Murphy Khulusi, Meyer Sound’s Director of Loudspeaker Development. “They are made to pair well together, but they also play well with our existing ecosystem. We think that because of the linearity and the high fidelity of the pair, they can be used…
