American country music singer, songwriter and rising star Kane Brown hits the road opening for Chris Young’s Losing Sleep tour, with LD Andrew James turning to Robe moving lights. Specifically, 18 Robe Pointes and 5 Robe Spikies – supplied to the tour as a specials package by 4Wall Nashville. “They’re [Robe Pointes] super versatile with strong beams and also a great wash with the frost incorporated; the colours are bright, the gobos cut through and … they hardly ever break! Perfect to fit my needs!” he declared. James has been working with the artist for just over a year, and…
Author: Jacob Waite
ArKaos launches GrandVJ 2.5 – a brand new version of its hugely popular GrandVJ software designed for fast intuitive control of video sources by VJs, and video operators working in all ‘live’ scenarios – from concerts to festivals to clubs. Good video and media visuals are integral and vital to the visuality of most events and entertainment environments – from corporate presentations and parties to the largest concerts and festival performances. ArKaos’s core philosophy has always been to ensure that users and fans of the platform have the most flexible and powerful tools to create potentially spectacular shows. Right at…
Since its formation in 2017, Lights Control Rigging (LCR) have supplied kit for many high profile tours and artists ranging from Ed Sheeran and Dizzee Rascal to rising stars such as Wolf Alice and Sundara Karma. “At the moment we seem to be sending out equipment for a different tour every week,” said LCR Director, Mike Oates. “The key is being able to work with the artists, their lighting designers and make sure we have the right, high-quality equipment available at the right time. We work closely with A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET), who supply much of the equipment we hold…
Stage engineering specialist WIcreations supplied 4 of its heavy-duty TP06 stage elevators to the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) production which was headed by technical directors Ola Melzig and Tobias Åburg. The 4 WIcreations TP06 lifts were installed under the stage which was part of the elaborate set designed by Florian Wieder, and were used for two of the 43 finalists, Austria’s 3rd placed Cesár Sampson and Belarus contestant Alekseev. The project was designed and co-ordinated for WI by Geert Stockmans and tech’d and looked after on site by Mateo Marastoni working alongside Robert Roos who was the production’s props…
MxU and audio technology solutions company d&b audiotechnik have joined forces for MxU’s 2018 one-day events. Created for engineers, musicians and creatives, the aim of these events is to realize the MxU vision, as the MxU team explained: “Better Leaders. Better Mixers. That’s it. It’s pretty simple. We think it’s a bit unorthodox for FOH engineers to engage in leadership, but to us, the leadership component is the secret sauce. Show us one amazing audio engineer that displays poor leadership — it’s actually quite rare. Unlocking great leadership skills as a FoH engineer is really the key to becoming a…
The 2018 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), hosted at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal, saw the latest range of Claypaky and ADB lighting fixtures dominate the beautifully evocative, multi-dimensional, theatrical and camera pleasing lighting design by award-winning lighting designer and Director of Photography (DOP) Jerry Appelt. A statement against the often flattening overuse of video in entertainment presentations, Appelt’s design is one of the biggest lighting set-ups in Eurovision history. Appelt employed over 2,000 lighting fixtures – 750 of which were Claypaky Arc and LED moving heads and 100 of which were the ADB asymmetric cyc LED fixture, ADB Klemantis.…
Backup’s Kart-Fest 2018 is back on the 5 July 2018 at Daytona Sandown Park in Surrey, with Chauvet Professional helping drive the event forward, with ‘Wimbledon’ named as this year’s theme. “We all know people in it who have suffered or are suffering right now in our crazy industry family,” said Matt Hallard, Chauvet’s UK Sales Manager. “Having an opportunity to support friends and colleagues by sponsoring one of the backup’s amazing events is simply the least we can do. Here’s to many more opportunities to shout loud about the great work the trustees and team are doing at backup and…
As soon as Nashville-based Premier Global Production took delivery of 26 GHIBLI fixtures, Ayrton’s first LED spot luminaire with a factory-equipped framing system, they quickly sent them on tour with country music singer/songwriter Brett Eldredge. ACT Lighting is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton lighting in North America. The Long Way Tour is Eldredge’s first headlining tour. Supporting his latest single of the same name, the first leg of the tour kicked off in April; it resumed in June and will play dates in the US and Canada through October. Premier Global Production provides lighting and staging equipment to some of…
ADJ Products has announced it will now take over the development, support and sales for the Compu Show lighting control software previously offered by Elation Professional for the past 10 years. ADJ USA’s National Sales Manager, Alfred Gonzales, explained: “As ADJ’s fixtures have evolved, we felt it was important to grow our DMX software line as well. Our existing myDMX control software has been a very successful product worldwide for ten years, but we felt we needed to offer something with more power and possibilities. Compu Show is a proven system that offers lighting designers powerful features and flexible control…
LED solutions and bespoke installation provider, Light Initiative (LI) were ‘on board’ at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) to design and manufacture a custom-built LED scenic element for the UK entry, SuRie, with her hit song Storm. LI worked with long-term client creative show director Dan Shipton of Black Skull Creative on a series of eighteen video-mapped LED chevrons that created the perspective guiding ‘corridor’ of light in which the artist performed. The design was created to read as a flat video visual from the front, then stretch out to show depth and distance when viewed from the side. “I…
RapcoHorizon, an RHC Holdings company, has announced the acquisition of all assets of Lava Cable. The Lava Cable brand and its products will be supported by RHC. Mark Stoddard of Lava Cable will be joining the RHC team as the Lava Cable product specialist and will support all sales efforts of the product line. “We are thrilled to bring Lava Cable, an esteemed brand in our industry, under our umbrella of product offerings,” says Darius Seabaugh, vice president of marketing for RHC Audio. “The company’s products complement our existing offerings to the MI market and we are excited for the…
Queen + Adam Lambert will complete their current year-long, 78-show world tour in July 2018, which has seen them play sell-out shows across the globe. The tour provider is Clair Global, and at the heart of all things audio, is a pair of trusted DiGiCo consoles. FOH Engineer, Tom New, moved into live sound when a former bandmate began promoting live shows at a small venue in Brighton asked him to help out with the sound. “With limited knowledge, and a healthy enthusiasm, I threw myself into it, and didn’t look back,” said New. “Nowadays, I try to view things…
PSCo, trade only rental supplier of the latest display technologies, has invested in Absen’s brand-new 3.9mm indoor/outdoor LED product within the Polaris range. The PL3.9 Pro LED is exclusively available in the UK from PSCo. This revolutionary technology means that the PL3.9 Pro with HBB can achieve 5000nits brightness with a 1921 black-face SMD – using less power and without compromising on brightness or black levels. This is delivered in an IP65 rated chassis allowing for excellent visual performance outdoors – with the same high-performance grayscale as previous generation Absen rental technologies. This visual performance can also be delivered at…
The culmination of the academic year at this renowned art institution, its President’s Gala, is a rousing evening of musical diversity that moves seamlessly from West African drumming and dancing to orchestral and choir compositions, to show tunes. Providing a visual backdrop for this far-ranging event, which took place at the school’s Rainey Fine Arts Center on April 21 2018, was a richly textured and flexible lighting/video design by ACS Sound and Lighting that featured a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures and LED video tiles. “Jay Pitts, the new producer of the President’s Gala, brought our company on board to…
After recently expanding its inventory with a large complement of Claypaky Scenius Unico and Mythos2 fixtures and MA Lighting grandMA2 consoles, Elite Multimedia Productions has provided a portion of that equipment to Cole Swindell’s nationwide Reason to Drink Tour. Both brands are exclusively distributed in North America by ACT Lighting. The country singer/songwriter kicked off his headlining tour in Allentown, Pennsylvania in February and wrapped the first leg in Los Angeles in April. He resumed the tour a month later in Austin and will continue to play dates across the country through September. Nashville-based Elite Multimedia is the production provider…
Sterling Event Group has announced a new company leadership structure with the appointment of 3 new directors. Former Senior Project Managers Paul Davies and Richard Nicholson and former Head of Vision Dan Charmer, have been promoted internally to Company Directors. The 3 new directors have worked at the Manchester-based company for a combined 19 years and their promotions are in line with the company’s ongoing growth strategy. Current Director Jessica Baynes and Managing Director Richard Bowden are delighted to welcome the new directors to the board. Bowden commented: “They each possess varied and extensive industry experience and are focused on…
Lift Turn Move based in Wirral, has shown a commitment to training the future generation and can confirm that two of their apprentices Charmaine and Josh have now joined LTM as full-time staff members. Charmaine Pude came to LTM in 2016 to gain office experience and work towards her NVQ Level 3 in Business Administration. She has recently passed her NVQ and subsequently been given a full-time job at LTM as a Sales and Purchasing Assistant. Office Manager Jenny Steenson stated: “Char is an irreplaceable member of the team, quiet, helpful, thorough and she gets stuck into any task given…
CyberHoist by CyberMotion is on tour again, this time with Vegas native band The Killers on their Wonderful, Wonderful tour. The band finished their European leg at the end of 2017 before starting their US leg at the beginning of 2018. The primary driving visual elements on the stage were video-constructed triangles with one anchored on the stage and an inverted triangle hanging above it nicknamed “The Flying V” made up of video tiles that would fly apart, turn, twist and move into different shapes utilising the CyberHoist automated moving system. 12 active CyberHoist 1000kg and 1 MotionCue control system, all…
