ACT Lighting has announced that James Suit has joined the company as Northeast Regional Sales Manager. He will be representing all of the brands distributed by ACT Lighting to clients in the Northeastern US, which comprises Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and the New England states. At the same time, Doug Mekanik, former Eastern Regional Sales Manager for ACT Lighting, has been named Southeast Regional Sales Manager. His territory now extends from Delaware south to Florida. “Doug has been with the company for many years and exemplifies success at ACT Lighting,” said Ben Saltzman, President and CEO of ACT Lighting.…
Author: Jacob Waite
Squeek Lights supplied a new narrow-beam LED beam/spot for 45-date headlining tour. Victor Zeiser of Squeek Lights utilised Elation Professional’s new DARTZ 360 LED moving head along with Elation Protron 3K Color LED strobes to support the diverse sounds of hardcore rock band Beartooth on their current North American tour. The headlining tour, in support of the band’s new studio album Disease, kicked off 14 September in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and plays a packed schedule of dates, concluding 17 November in Columbus, Ohio. Zeiser, who first met the dynamic hardcore rockers when they were an opening act for one of…
Lighting Designer Robert Sondergaard of Electric Aura Projects and Solotech recently deployed Martin by HARMAN VDO Sceptron10 LED lighting fixtures to create a dynamic and innovative stage design for Toronto’s VELD Music Festival. Now in its 7th year, the annual EDM and hip-hop music festival were held in Toronto’s Downsview Park. The eclectic lineup featured some of the biggest names in music, including Marshmello, Martin Garrix, DJ Snake, Benny Benassi, Lil Yachty and more. Each year the festival strives to create an ambitious and eye-catching stage design, and this year they wanted to incorporate the VELD logo as a dynamic…
Voted ‘Best Guitarist’ at the recent European Blues Awards (2017), Finnish guitarist and singer-songwriter, Erja Lyytinen, hits the road this Autumn to begin her exciting Another World tour across Europe, accompanied by an Allen & Heath SQ-5 digital mixing system. Supplied by Allen & Heath’s Finnish distributors, F-Musiikki-Oy, the single SQ-5 handles both FOH and Monitor duties for the tour, with Lyytinen herself commenting favourably on the sound of the SQ: “The new SQ mixer works great with the IEM and the whole band has been very satisfied with the improved sound quality.” The compact set-up comprises an SQ connected…
The annual Gold Rush Music Festival marked off another successful year last weekend with a no-holds-barred hootenanny at the Rawhide Western Town Events Complex in Chandler, Arizona, just a few miles southwest of Phoenix. With the wild-west style vibe of the venue as its backdrop, the weekend-long dance music and hip-hop mash-up was a high energy, and occasionally dusty outdoor dance party featuring more than 50 artists across 4 stages, including headliners Deadmau5 and Steve Aoki. This year, Sound Image Phoenix was tapped to provide PA and full production service at Gold Rush’s main stage. According to Sound Image Production…
In 2009, a friend introduced Jason Bullock to an early model of the ChamSys MQ100. It was pretty close to a case of love at first sight. After playing with the console, Bullock took it out on the Summer ’09 NINJA tour he did for Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction. “After the tour, I was convinced the ChamSys was the console for my style of show,” recalled the New York-based designer. That style, with all of its big looks, bold statements and roaring intensity was on full display this summer in Bullock’s work on the 27-city Wiz Khalifa and…
Lighting Designer Mathieu Poirier created the atmosphere of the grand hotels of the past for Hotel, the latest touring show for Montreal-based company Cirque Eloize. Poirier selected Claypaky’s new Axcor Spot 300 moving LED fixtures to help set the scene for the troupe’s very special 25th-anniversary production. In Hotel acrobatics, theatre, dance and live music guide the audience through an intimate refuge with an avant-garde look inspired by the elegance of the greatest hotels. The lives of transient travellers intersect briefly but long enough for tales and memories to be forged. “Early in the creative process the Belgium-based director, Emmanuel…
TiMax StageSpace spatial rendering at Waldbuehne arena, Berlin. Out Board will present the groundbreaking new TiMax 500S software for TiMax SoundHub, at AES New York 2018 – 145th International Pro Audio Convention ob 17-19 October 2018. TiMax 500S features the already popular StageSpace spatial rendering tools, which instantly auto-calculate multiple adaptive delay-matrix localisation objects using three-dimensional data imported from CAD files or entered directly. TiMax spatial objects can be rendered and adapted for a wide variety of stage, audience and sound system configurations, and fine-tuned in rehearsal by the user, because, as Out Board maintains “experienced sound designers will tell…
Proel has announced the appointment of Access Pro Group to distribute its Axiom brand of professional loudspeaker systems in Serbia. Based in Novi Beograd, which became a new business centre for the largest foreign companies, Access Pro Group has been a major player in professional audio in Serbia since 2000 when political conditions improved enough for the business to flourish. Owner and Director Nenad Stojanovic has pursued his passion for high-end sound equipment coupled with cutting-edge technology and has built a successful rental market around corporate, DJ, fashion show and festival events. “We specialise in professional audio but being a…
Adlib’s Glasgow-based operation enjoyed a busy and proactive summer supplying a full complement of technical services – lighting, sound and video – to a number of high profile events. Including Glasgow and Edinburgh Summer Sessions, Rewind Festival’s Scottish date at Scone Palace plus sound and lighting to the 2018 TRNSMT festival on Glasgow Green. This reflects a healthy schedule of locally based business for the company who opened their Scottish operation in 2016. Adlib has worked carefully and conscientiously to expand this offering technical services and equipment that are new to the region, in the process collaborating with a network…
Stone Sour may be the opening act on the U.S. leg of Ozzy Osbourne’s No More Tours 2 tour but the American hard rock band is making an impression with the help of LD Scott Warner and a dynamic wall of colour. On the road since late August with The Prince of Darkness, Stone Sour has made a unique opening act impact with a “huge wall of overwhelming colour” made up of multifunctional Elation Professional Paladin LED effect lights supplied by Bandit Lites. “I knew coming into this tour that I didn’t have access to LEDs and with Stone Sour,…
Outline has confirmed the appointment of Patrick Wong to the position of Regional Sales Manager, APAC. The post, part of a series of major recruitments within the company over the last few months, is a new position for Outline – and has been created in response to the steadily increasing demand for its products throughout the region. Fluent in both Chinese and English, Wong’s qualifications include a Bachelor in Business Administration from Western Michigan University and he joins the Outline team after a decade at Sennheiser Asia during which he successfully fulfilled roles as both team leader and regional sales manager.…
Rain Age from Landsberg am Lech has held the Eisbrecher Festival reins ever since its inception – and were once more on-hand for the band’s anniversary event. Martin Heining of Rain Age, who is also Lighting esigner for Eisbrecher, built creatively on the band’s existing tour design, which was expanded for the arena. This also serviced the guest bands – and this year besides the headliner it included Oomph !, The Krupps, Stahlmann and Zeromancer – who were also bathed in the additional light equipment. Among other GLP effects, the impression X4 and impression X4 L were also available. “My…
Brothers Osborne ready-imposing presence was accented further on its current tour by a wall of truss and light designed by Chris Reade and Jay Ballinger of KYVA Design. Reade and Ballinger created its image-intensifying wall using 54 high-output Chauvet Professional STRIKE 1 fixtures, supplied by Christie Lites. Arranged in groups of 3 on 18 vertical rows of truss, the single-source 230W LED fixtures create a powerful, industrial looking backdrop for Brothers Osborne, who are opening for superstar Dierks Bentley on the tour. “Our lighting rig not only illuminates, it also serves as a scenic element,” said Reade. “We’ve created a…
Allen & Heath has unveiled a suite of feature enhancements, designed to make its SQ mixers the perfect compact monitor consoles. SQ firmware V1.3 adds a Listen bus, enabling the engineer to patch PAFL to an IEM system, stereo nearfield monitors or a mono listen wedge, with the option to control the Listen level with the master fader. Engineers can enjoy easy communication between FoH and Monitors, thanks to the addition of an External Input to PAFL. V1.3 firmware dovetails with the new SLink card, opening up new possibilities for FoH / Monitor splits and remote I/O, or combinations of…
Shure UK has announced Aztec Event Services as its 2018 UK Rental Partner of the Year. The award was presented to Aztec’s Operations Director, Steve Colesell in recognition of the company’s commitment to embracing new technologies that ensure the best results for their customers. The team at Aztec have gone the extra mile this year in learning about and embracing digital wireless systems for use on complex RF coordination projects. Most recently, Aztec technical staff were quick to realise the potential of Shure’s new Axient Digital wireless system, and their early adoption was crucial in staying ahead of the game.…
In recent years, DPA microphones have a played a key part in delivering great sound for the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo and 2018’s performances were no exception. Sound Designer Sebastian Frost, who has worked on this event for 23 years, specified a vast selection of DPA Microphones d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones, d:screet 4061 Miniature Microphones and d:fine 4066 Headset Microphones incorporating the new CORE by DPA amplifier technology. In total, more than 110 DPA microphones were deployed across a wide range of musicians and performers, including a Malawian choir. “My main task is to amplify lots of different elements and…
WIcreations was asked to work on 2 specialist elements – a moving / tracking video wall and a star lift – for Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s On The Run II (OTR II) stadium tour; part of an epic and spectacular set design concept designed by Stufish. In addition to all the hardware, software and bespoke engineering elements, on the administrative front, WIcreations delivered a full scenic motion risk assessment to the tour’s management, together with machinery technical files and full user manuals covering the entire system. “As automation gets increasingly important in entertainment applications, so safety is the most important aspect…
