Martin Professional collaborated with Verity Studios for a dynamic three-day customer showcase at the HARMAN Experience Centre in Northridge, California. Held in April, the event revealed how autonomous drones and advanced lighting can operate as a single, unified show experience. The centrepiece was a choreographed performance of Verity’s Lucie micro drones, equipped with powerful LEDs, flying in sync with Martin’s newest lighting fixture releases, including the MAC Aura Raven XIP. With its high-resolution aura effects and bold beam presence, the MAC Aura Raven XIP provided a rich visual counterpart to the drones’ motion and light patterns. “We built the show…
Author: James Robertson
For country star Russell Dickerson’s 2025 tour, the production and lighting design came from Scott Cunningham, Production/Lighting Designer at Cut2Black Designs, with support from IPS (Integrated Production Solutions). Cunningham reflected on the collaboration behind the Russell Mania tour: “The teamwork behind the entire tour has been an inspiring collective, with many thanks to LD Nate Augustyn; tour PM Chris Lee; Associate Programmer, Luke Elrod; Video Programmer, Alex Talbot; and especially Nick Brown and his team at IPS. They made sure we had a rig that could travel well, handle all the different demands placed on it, and deliver powerful looks.”…
For the third successive year, Martin Audio and Generation AV entertained all their APAC distributors at their Singapore Experience Centre to celebrate growth and discuss future opportunities. Attending the recent event, Dom Harter, Martin Audio Managing Director, shared updates from across the Audio Reproduction division of the Focusrite group, which also includes Linea Research, Optimal Audio and TiMax. Harter confirmed: “More partners are representing multiple brands, and while we want to ensure that each brand continues to flourish in its own right, there are increasing opportunities for convergence and valued-added solutions to customers.” Addressing the notable interest in spatial audio…
Music Matters Productions (MMP) has expanded its Atlanta headquarters, increasing the total warehouse footprint from 40,000 to 60,000 square feet. In addition, MMP has opened a second 10,000-square-foot building directly across the street to house its growing corporate production division. The expansion comes in response to increased demand across touring, festival, and corporate markets, as well as the continued growth of MMP’s high-end gear inventory. With a fully dedicated shop for each department, including audio, lighting, video, rigging, and staging, the new layout provides more space for show prep, pre-rigging, and crew coordination, allowing for even more efficient load-ins and…
The Academy of Country Music Awards (ACM) celebrated its 60th anniversary with a star-studded event at the Ford Center, showcasing the industry’s top talents who chose Shure equipment for their performances and presentations. The event featured an array of Shure gear provided by ATK/Clair Global with 28 channels of Axient Digital Receivers and 32 channels of PSM1000 and 120 beltpacks. Stuart Delk, Monitor Engineer for Rascal Flatts commented on the Shure SM39 headsets: “We’ve had great success with the SM39 headsets on the road. They sound like an SM58, and it’s the first headset I’ve been able to dial up…
Elation has introduced the first in the REBEL series, the REBEL PROFILE, a powerful, compact LED profile fixture with IP65 rating engineered for attention-grabbing visuals in both indoor and outdoor applications. “REBEL is all about breaking free from traditional norms and embracing bold innovation,” said Matthias Hinrichs, Product Manager at Elation. “The REBEL PROFILE was created to answer the demand for a versatile, rugged fixture that offers both high intensity and adaptability. Built for rental houses and designers who need fixtures that can do it all in indoor or outdoor settings, REBEL brings top-tier results and long-lasting value without the…
TAFtool 5.0 is TAF’s latest version of its advanced software that allows you to build 3D structures in a virtual environment with TAF products and with real-world dimensions. Try out your new ideas. Create bespoke or custom projects. Enjoy standard/profile/top views of your structure, rotate the camera angle, zoom in, zoom out. Save your progress for later. When done, export to PDF with a list of all products and dimensions for requesting an accurate price quote from TAF. TAFtool 5.0 comes with many improvements that includes a more polished interface, refined icons, a larger library of TAF products and support…
Absen has launched 20 showrooms across key locations worldwide, available for scheduled visits by appointment. The state-of-the-art showrooms are strategically situated in; China (Shenzhen, Huizhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Hong Kong), the United States (New York, Orlando, and Los Angeles), the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. This global expansion underscores Absen’s ongoing commitment to offering cutting-edge solutions and exceptional localised services. Now with a grand total of 78 showrooms(incl. channel partners’ showrooms) across five continents, Absen continues to strengthen its global footprint, ensuring customers receive top-tier products and localise…
Smode Tech has partnered with Cercle Odyssey, the world’s first large-scale 360° immersive concert. As an official partner, Smode Tech is providing its real-time media server technology, SMODE, for Cercle Odyssey’s global tour, which is pioneering an ambitious new form of entertainment fusing spatialised sound, video, olfactory experiences and classically influenced storytelling on a monumental scale. The Cercle Odyssey tour began in Mexico City before heading to Los Angeles, and will be culminating in Paris for a spectacular finale from 28 May to 1 June. Highlights from the Paris leg of the tour include Max Richter, ARTBAT and WhoMadeWho, NTO…
Brompton Technology has announced the appointment of Steve Leyland as its new Chairman of the Board. Leyland’s appointment follows the resignation of Brompton’s previous Chairman, Neil Gaydon, for health reasons. Gaydon joined at the time of Brompton receiving investment from specialist private equity provider Connection Capital in 2022 and has played a central role in developing Brompton’s growth strategy. “We are very grateful to Neil for all his support and wish him the very best,” said Richard Mead, Brompton’s CEO. A seasoned executive and respected voice in the AV industry, Leyland brings with him decades of international leadership experience, including…
In support of their ninth album AfterLife, Five Finger Death Punch toured across Europe and North America to bring their signature metal sound to packed arenas. Debuting in August 2022 and concluding in September 2024, the tour featured hits from the album that rose to number-one on Billboard’s Top Hard Rock Album chart. At all 100+ intercontinental stops the crew deployed a Cohesion PA. Five Finger Death Punch and their team prioritised connecting with the audience during their high-energy shows, so vocal intelligibility and musicality from the PA were as important as seamless coverage and output. “It had to be…
The Human League’s Generations Arena tour kicked off its UK leg in December 2024. By the band’s third show they’d already elicited a five-star review from the Guardian, who described the show as: “An evening of immaculate electro pop, delivered with grace, precision, and elation.” Behind the scenes was no exception, with seasoned Production Manager Sarah Hollis of Hollistic Productions at the helm. Hollis has been Production Managing tours since the late 90s and has worked with The Human League since their 2008, Steel City Tour. “I was also the stage manager on that tour,” she explained, “which was a…
During the 30th edition Prolight + Sound at Messe Frankfurt, Highlite International presented a wide range of new and updated products across its renowned brands: Showtec, Infinity, DAP, DMT, Showgear, and Wentex. Visitors were treated to product premieres, hands-on demos, and an immersive showcase powered by the latest in lighting, audio, and rigging solutions. Highlite expresses its gratitude for the overwhelming response and enthusiasm of the visitors. The vibe felt invigorating and attendees were inspired by the presentation of the stand as a whole, with the many new products available for hands-on experience. From Showtec there were many exciting new…
In February 2025, DC Zon Entertainment developed a remarkable stage display solution for the Welcome Back Tour of the K-pop girl group 2NE1 at the Malaysia National Hockey Stadium in Kuala Lumpur. The event showcased the quartet delivering an outstanding selection of over 20 songs, highlighting their musical diversity and captivating stage presence. The performance was further enhanced by a meticulously crafted stage design, which incorporated INFiLED AP series LED screens. In line with the organiser’s needs and the features of the concert venue, DC Zon Entertainment engaged in clarifying a series of essential setup points specifically designed for this…
While rehearsing for Michael Kiwanuka’s recently completed Small Changes tour Lighting Designer, Ed Warren noticed the way light hit a mirror ball over his video wall and drape backdrop leading to a creative opportunity. “It was a happy accident,” said Warren “When we ran through things in rehearsals, I decided to hit the mirror ball with a single spot from below, wash out some blue light, add a bit of haze, and it worked perfectly — of course with the help of incredible visuals from my video designer Ed Hoare. We came up with a look that made it seem…
R90 Lighting recently received a delivery of PARAGON LED profile fixtures just in time to deploy them on a private event with Gwen Stefani—one of the first major U.S. shows to utilise Elation’s new flagship lighting fixture. “We didn’t have a single hiccup involving these lovely new lights,” said Joe Cole, owner of R90 Lighting, after the event. “Everything was great right out of the box, and the spares stayed in their cases. New products usually have some wrinkles to iron out, but these fixtures were dialed in from the start. We look forward to seeing these in action over…
Cyndi Lauper took a final lap of the UK and Europe with her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour with PRG entrusted to supply a full 360 package, including lighting, video, rigging and audio, for the arena run. The show is an eclectic mix of bright colours bringing Lauper’s iconic image into 2025, designed by Tom Sutherland and the team at DX7 Design; along with Brian Burke of Brian Burke Creative. The main event is a unique ‘accordian-style’ video screen lined with LED lighting fixtures, made up of 234 ROE Active CB5 video panels and surrounded by Pixel Line…
Gonher Group has become the exclusive distributor for HK Audio products in Mexico with immediate effect. The new distributor has experienced sales professionals for pro audio applications along with extensive sales networks and an outstanding understanding of service within its Audyson and Gonher Pro divisions. This will help Gonher to fully represent HK Audio’s wide ranging portfolio of professional loudspeaker systems in Mexico. “We are delighted to add HK Audio’s impressive product range to our extensive portfolio,” said Jorge Gonzalez, Director General of Gonher. “HK Audio already has a good presence in Mexico and we plan to take the brand…
