When I started at TPi, I remember one of the first questions I would ask a monitor engineer was: ‘What are you using for the artist’s onstage sound?’ Back then, many productions opted for one of three options – wedges and side fills; in-ear monitors (IEMs); or, what was often the most popular option, a hybrid of the two. With the ever-growing sophistication of IEMs, not to mention a lot of guitarists and bassists opting for digital amp options, completely quiet stages – bar the drummer – have become the norm, with all on-stage sound being delivered through IEMs. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpi278_digitallr/82…
Author: James Robertson
The 2023 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) returned to New Jersey’s Prudential Center in September for its biggest and most striking show yet. The event celebrated acts from across the globe including Beyoncé, BLACKPINK, and Taylor Swift – including a tribute to 50 years of hip hop featuring Run-D.M.C., Slick Rick, and Grandmaster Flash, among others. EMMY Award-winning Production Designer, Matt Steinbrenner and Lighting Designer, Tom Sutherland were among the key personnel responsible for creating and designing this year’s production, which saw 16 captivating performances across two identical stages. Speaking to TPi, the two acclaimed designers share their insight into…
Paramore has been on a world tour supporting their sixth studio album, This is Why, which dropped in February 2023. The live show features an eye-catching and interesting stage and lighting production design crafted by Sooner Routhier of Sooner Rae Creative and Trevor Ahlstrand of Ahlstrand Productions. The lighting rig includes 67 Robe ESPRITE moving lights, three Robe BMFL FollowSpots and six BMFL FollowSpot LTs working on a three-way RoboSpot system, plus six iFORTES. Approached in the fall of 2022 by Tour Manager, Andrew Weiss, it is Routhier’s first work with the band. Ahlstrand and Routhier were keen to collaborate…
Elation Professional has launched Proteus Hybrid MAX. CreatING wide ranges of powerful effects from a 1.8° shaft of light to a 45° wide beam, and everything in between. In fact, the zoom offers a range of all hybrids available in the market. An added frost softens light allowing the unit to be used as a wash unit at any angle from the extra-large 170mm front aperture lens. Powered by the Philips MSD Platinum FLEX 500 lamp with lamp life of up to 4,000 hours, and boasting a 22,000 lumens the Proteus Hybrid MAX produces potent beams, gobos, and washes. The…
Celebrating 40 years of Spanish quartet, Hombres G, the Seguimos Empezando tour is running throughout Spain and Latin America, treating fans to hits like En la Playa and La Esquina De Rowland during a two-hour set in which the band never takes their foot off the gas pedal. Reflecting this energy at Hombres G’s sold-out performances at Arena Monterrey and Arena Ciudad de México was a CaCo García light show anchored by 30 CHAUVET Professional Color STRIKE M motorised strobes supplied by Serpro Producciones. The band’s lighting designer for the past 11 years, CaCo García, brilliantly created a variety of looks that…
Multi Academy Award-Winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy has been revealed as the Opening Keynote for ISE 2024. Most widely known for her Academy Award-winning documentary shorts: Saving Face and A Girl In The River: The Price Of Forgiveness, Obaid-Chinoy is the first filmmaker from Pakistan to win an Oscar and the first female film director to have won two Oscars by the age of 37. She is also the recipient of four Emmy Awards, a Knight International Journalism Award, the Hilal-e-Imtiaz, the second highest civilian award of Pakistan, and was named one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.…
The Jazzopen music festival in Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart has developed into an extremely high-calibre, world-class concert event. In 2023, around 50,000 visitors experienced performances by Melody Gardot, Deep Purple, Grace Jones, Die Fantastischen Vier, Joss Stone, Simply Red and many others over the festival’s 11 days. Event technology specialist, Sound & Light from Leonberg, has consistently supported Jazzopen as a technology partner in recent years and has been a permanent service provider for sound, light and video technology on the main stage since 2022. None other than Jerry Appelt is responsible for the lighting design on the main stage, which is…
Event Safety Specialist Edward ‘Eddy’ Grant – CMIOSH FHEA has been appointed to the role of Director of Safety at LFX Events. Eddy will head up the growing Event Safety division within LFX Events taking on responsibility for developing the Company’s event safety division and steering its progress as the business expands with significant new contract wins and growth internationally. Eddy is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Safety and Health, Professor of Professional Practice in Events Management, at the Institute of Business, Industry and Leadership. University of Cumbria, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Eddy is…
Panasonic Connect Europe has revealed a new camera control unit (CCU) to support a wide range of IP migration paths for the company’s existing 4K studio camera systems. As the live-production industry migrates to IP-based systems, this new AK-UCU700 series offers 4K and HDR operation, flexible IP migration of existing operation systems, seamless migration from conventional CCU-based baseband systems, and a 3.5” LCD touch panel for easy operation. The AK-UCU700 supports the new SMPTE ST 2110 IP-transmission standard as well as JPEG-XS to compress 4K video by a factor of 10 without degrading quality. It’s also the industry’s first studio…
Riedel Communications has appointed Lucy O’Brien to the role of Customer Success Director to accommodate the company’s continued growth in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. O’Brien is a seasoned broadcast engineer with more than 20 years of industry experience. She will report to Riedel Communications Executive Director, Customer Success, Craig Thompson. “Lucy joins Riedel at a pivotal time in our journey to provide our clients with a customer-centric approach under the newly created customer success team,” said Thompson. “She has an impressive history working with major broadcasters and operators over the past two decades and is a natural fit…
On September 23, 2023, the opening ceremony of the 19th Asian Games was held in Hangzhou, China, attracting more than 600 million people around the world. For the opening ceremony of the Asian Games, ENJOYTECH is honored to provide 30,000 auditorium wireless lights, 4,000 bracelets and 660 wireless pixel tubes The lights are bright, and the entire stadium turns into a wireless super giant screen, displaying words, images and videos. The actors held pixel wristbands and tubes, showing the beauty of combining art, power and technology, and received warm applause from the audience. This is the second time ENJOYTECH has…
With the end of festival season and a slew of autumn arena tours around the corner, it can only mean one thing for us at TPi HQ – we’re firing up the engine for the TPi Awards machine. This year we have made some considerable changes to the TPi Awards categories and voting process. Firstly, the TPi Awards has made the difficult decision to retire the named dedicated awards – The Des Fallon Video Visionary Award, The Mark Fisher Set Designer of the Year, and The Dennis Sheehan Tour Manager of the Year. This was not a decision we took…
TLC & Shaggy: Hot Summer Nights Tour 2023 blazed through 26 cities throughout the US and Canada in June and July 2023, served up a feast of hits spanning three decades and showcased performances by special guests En Vogue and Sean Kingston. Tour sound, provided by Major Tom, centered around a Meyer Sound PANTHER large-format linear line array loudspeaker system spec’d by Parker Vandenberg and the Major Tom team. Vandenberg, TLC’s production manager, took on an expanded role of production manager for the entire Hot Summer Nights tour, while also mixing monitors for TLC. The PANTHER PA proved to be…
Avid has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an affiliate of STG in an all-cash transaction valuing Avid at approximately $1.4 billion, inclusive of Avid’s net debt. Under the terms of the agreement, Avid stockholders will receive $27.05 in cash for each share of Avid common stock. The cash purchase price represents a premium of 32.1% over the Company’s unaffected closing share price on May 23, 2023, the last full trading day prior to media speculation regarding a potential sale of the Company. “Since our founding over 30 years ago, Avid has delivered…
In May 2023, INFiLED screens were used for a display solution at The World Climate Industry EXPO (WCE 2023) in Busan, South Korea. The solution included building GXII series screens for the event’s forum A New Climate and setting up another set of screens with the same series for the WCE Business Summit Session. WCE 2023 is an international conference advocating the reduction of carbon emissions and the promotion of new energy. It is committed to bringing environmental organizations around the world to work together to make a common commitment to improving the climate. Based on this background, INFiLED was…
Flashlight has promoted Ged Murphy to the board of directors as Operations Director. Murphy joined the company 17 years ago as a technical sales advisor and the company has watched him continue to flourish and evolve to the current day. “I am privileged and proud to have been appointed to the Board of Directors as Director of Operations at Flashlight. I will continue to serve the company, streamlining procedures and continuing to refine processes in order to maximise our impact within the industry”, commented Murphy. “We are excited to welcome Ged to the board at Flashlight. His commitment to the…
Following significant upgrades to the Great Oak Stage in 2022, American Express presents BST Hyde Park was back with much acclaim with the iconic stage dominating the Royal Park. The iconic stage dominates the Royal Park— The festival now firmly established, was once considered ‘unworkable’ as a concert site, surrounded as it is by the well-heeled residents of Mayfair and Knightsbridge. Much of this is because Martin Audio’s tightly controllable MLA PA array—the result of its advanced DISPLAY optimisation software—has been ever-present since AEG Presents took over the Park lease in 2013, making offsite noise pollution largely a thing of…
DiGiCo SD12 and S21 consoles were supplied by SONUS Exsertus, DiGiCo’s distributor for the Baltics and Georgia and local rental partner NGR Service, for the return of the Dinamitas hip-hop culture festival at the Loft Art Factory in Vilnius. Tomas Ždanovičius, Sound System Designer/Engineer at SONUS Exsertus, who also worked as a system designer and sound engineer at the Outdoor stage during the festival, explained that DiGiCo was chosen for its renowned sound quality and workflow flexibility. “It meets every sound engineer’s demands and working habits,” he said. “DiGiCo consoles can be found on almost every technical rider in the…
