Technotrix has announced the passing of its founder and long-time owner, Kevin Kiefer, and affirms the company’s continued strength under its established leadership team. Kevin Kiefer founded Technotrix in the early 1990s, building the company from a small, garage-based operation into a respected production partner serving concerts, festivals, and touring clients throughout the Midwest and across the United States. His vision, work ethic, and commitment to delivering reliable production solutions laid the foundation for the company’s long-term success. In the early years, Kevin played a hands-on role in developing the Technotrix brand, investing in equipment, building client relationships, and establishing…
Author: Jacob Waite
It was a monumental start to the calendar year for Montreal-based wireless lighting specialist, PixMob, delivering audience immersion at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina before turning around just 48 hours later for Bad Bunny’s record-breaking Super Bowl LX Halftime Show. “It’s incredible to see our products on the biggest live shows in the world,” reflected CCO and Partner Jean-Olivier ‘J-O’ Dalphond, speaking to TPi following what he described as the most successful month in the company’s 20-year history. Staged at Milan’s San Siro Stadium, the Winter Games marked PixMob’s third Olympic collaboration, following the success of Paris 2024 and…
Tomorrowland Winter is like very few festivals on the events calendar. Staged 2,000m above sea level at the picturesque Alpe d’Huez ski resort in the French Alps, the festival combines skiing, snowboarding, and electronic music, attracting 22,000 revellers to the slopes for a week of sun, snow, and immersive beats. This year saw the introduction of several new stage concepts, including ORBYZ and a brand-new MainStage. The Cage stage also received a technological overhaul, featuring a reimagined Floating Sky and an enhanced sound design courtesy of Areal. Throughout the week, over 150 artists, including the likes of Time, Axwell, Charlotte…
Matthias ‘Matze’ Christner, Head of R&D Systems & Technologies at d&b audiotechnik, plays a pivotal role in shaping the company’s long-term technology strategy and advancing next-generation professional audio solutions. With a background spanning physical acoustics, system engineering and networked audio architectures, he combines scientific rigour with practical product innovation. Over the course of his career, Matze has contributed to some of d&b audiotechnik’s most significant technological developments. He has been instrumental in advancing broadband directivity control and cardioid system design, innovations that have redefined clarity, control and consistency for touring applications worldwide. Speaking to TPi, the Stuttgart native reflects on…
Bewitching. Ethereal. Enchanting. Few tours in recent memory have embodied these qualities quite like Florence + The Machine’s Everybody Scream Tour. Each night, the artist leaves it all out there – emotionally, through a deeply introspective record, and physically, as she paces the stage barefoot, charging up and down the thrust before casting herself among the crowd. Surrounding her, a dance troupe known as the Witch Choir twist and contort, shaping their bodies and expressions into arresting, otherworldly forms. For the production team, the brief is anything but straightforward: to create a performance environment that underpins and amplifies this narrative,…
With her aptly titled THIS TOUR MAY CONTAIN NEW MUSIC, the genre-spanning RAYE showcases the freedoms and possibilities that come with being a proudly independent artist – chief among them, creative control. With her sisters, Amma and Absolutely, warming the crowds before she hits the stage, nowhere is this more apparent than on her first-ever headline arena tour – a theatrical spectacle unfolding in four distinct acts. Pull The Pin Out was tasked with assembling the creative and technical teams around RAYE’s vision. “It has all come out of RAYE’s head,” said Stephen ‘Stevie’ Reeve, Production Manager and Director of…
Exhibiting at ISE for the fourth consecutive year and sharing its stand with Groupe Novelty for the second time in Barcelona, Naostage is once again redefining how entertainment experiences are delivered with its latest innovations and technologies, on show on stand 6R100. Across a space of more than 150m², visitors will be able to discover YouTrack, a manual tracking system offering the best price-to-performance ratio on the market and unlimited scalability; the brand new Kore S server; and a preview of Multiview technology, which extends tracking capabilities to and opens up new opportunities in the broadcast, VR/XR, architectural and sports…
When pioneering electronic artist Four Tet returned to Alexandra Palace’s Great Hall, the brief was as deceptively simple as it was ambitious: create a vast, communal dancefloor experience anchored not by a performer, but by light, geometry and feeling. For award-winning Production and Lighting Designer Ed Warren, the challenge was irresistible, as TPi discovers. A long-time collaborator, Warren has worked with Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden for 17 years, and that history shapes every iteration of the project. He designed the entire room concept and layout, programmed the artist’s latest show’s, and operated the lighting live, busking. “The core principle has…
With a growing track record across some of the UK’s largest and most demanding live events, Spartan Crew has carved out a reputation as a staffing and multi-discipline agency capable of supplying everything from highly skilled technical personnel to the extra pairs of hands needed to keep a site moving, swiftly and safely. Established with the intention of offering a professional, personal crewing service underpinned by rigorous training, the company now services the full breadth of the live entertainment landscape – from live entertainment and corporate events to major sporting occasions. At the helm is Managing Director, Paz Brennan, whose…
Funktion-One recently invited the professional audio community to Millennium Studios, Bedfordshire, for Funktion-One Live, a two-day showcase of the company’s latest live sound technology and design philosophy. The event brought together press, distributors, promoters, production managers, engineers, and other industry decision-makers for an immersive experience of the company’s latest live sound solutions. Founder and industry legend, Tony Andrews, who has been pioneering live audio for half a century, reflected on the journey that has defined Funktion-One. “I’ve been in this business for around 50 years now. I was there at the beginning of so many things, including Glastonbury, and we’ve…
Sabaton and their 200-strong touring crew have announced themselves on the European arena circuit with a production that matches the Swedish power metal band’s reputation for theatrical, history-infused live performances. Their latest touring design features a towering castle, a support orchestra, an automated drawbridge with integrated lighting and smoke, a rising and descending drum riser encased by inflatable hands, and fire-breathing dragons – an ambitious brief which required equally ambitious engineering. MOTOR Stage Automation, based in Denmark, began its relationship with Sabaton a year ago, flying a tank set piece during the band’s set at Sweden Rock Festival in front…
After seven years away, Radiohead returned to the stage with one of their most technically ambitious productions to date – the band’s first ever ‘in-the-round’ concert experience, featuring an automated video ‘halo’ with 100% real-time driven visual content, a Metallica-inspired TM Array, and the largest ever touring use of kinetic lighting winches among the production highlights. Having wrapped up eight months on the road with Robbie Williams’ BRITPOP Tour [see TPi #289], Production Manager, John Lafferty – who has orchestrated the logistics of the band’s touring exploits since 2017 – flew from Istanbul to London to assemble the campaign. “It’s…
Little Simz has cemented her place as one of the UK’s most compelling and visionary performers on the touring circuit. Her latest live offering is a bold celebration of everything that has defined her career so far – a high-energy journey through her back catalogue and latest album, Lotus. On stage, she’s joined by a stellar band of musicians, backed by a crew of backstage masterminds, and, naturally, a towering, automated set piece that makes a statement as unforgettable as the music. Tour Director, Tom Bielby of Hit Different, oversaw the entire touring operation – from financial planning and logistical…
TAIT has acquired Airworks. This strategic acquisition strengthens TAIT’s commitment to delivering fan experiences by expanding its creative range and production offerings for renowned global performers and live events with Airworks. Since starting in rock ’n’ roll in 1978, TAIT has pushed the boundaries of concert and live event production for the world’s biggest artists. Today, the company has expanded its services and evolved beyond concert touring, bringing creative expertise and engineering innovation to theme parks, world expos, global theatres, festivals, and fan experiences worldwide. Founded in 2002, Airworks has earned a reputation for producing visually stunning, large-scale inflatable works…
What was the idea and inspiration behind the creation of the three-way active line array? MC: “The VIO L1610 now stands as the brand leader of our core business – small to mid-sized line array systems. Historically, the brand began developing powered line arrays two decades ago, and we’ve carried on that legacy with the launch of VIO over 10 years ago. This model targets the dual 10” format – a compact, powerful system designed with ease of use in mind. It’s flyable by a single person. Our early prototype was the two-way VIO L210, followed by the improved version–…
What challenges did you face bringing GX 3+ to the market? “A challenge faced during development was working to ensure that we can guarantee the increase in power requirements for the NVIDIA Blackwell GPU architecture, which has a maximum power consumption of 600W. This has meant that we have had to validate a new power supply unit (PSU), as well as managing the increased cooling requirements. Beyond that, development has been smooth, incorporating extensive validation across GPU, CPU and motherboard types, together with rigorous environmental testing for heat, shock and drops. This level of testing goes beyond standard server requirements…
As flightcases wheel back to warehouses following another whirlwind summer season, Concert Stuff Group (CSG) cemented its reputation as one of the ‘go-to’ names in full-service event solutions. With its headquarters based in North Carolina, CSG capped off the summer in style, delivering five back-to-back concerts at Chicago’s Soldier Field during the final week of August, featuring Oasis, My Chemical Romance, The Lumineers, and a double-bill of System of a Down. Just over eight miles away, CSG’s sister companies – G2 Structures and Guardian Barrier Services – were simultaneously working their magic at Wrigley Field, constructing the live infrastructure for…
It’s been some time since Mumford & Sons hit the road with an arena production, with their last, the Delta Tour, wrapping up in early 2019. Covering the show at Manchester’s AO Arena back then, one element all the crew mentioned at the time was the flexibility the band brought to their live offering – with changing setlists and instruments, as well as one or two trips out into the crowd, being common occurrences. Suffice to say, despite the break and the release of a new album, these hallmarks remain. The difference this time around is several new faces joining…
