Fall Out Boy released their first new album in five years in March, So Much (for) Stardust, and then kicked off their So Much For (Tour) Dust tour in style on 21 June 2023, playing a 27-song set at a packed Wrigley Field. Lighting design is by Connor Sullivan of So Midwest, Inc., who is using Elation Professional’s new Fuze Wash 500 on his tour design, along with Prisma Wash 100 lights from Magmatic Effects, supplied by Upstaging. The new album has been described as ‘cinematic’ and indeed the tour’s creative directors Amber Rimell and Bronski of TAWBOX, along with…
Author: Jacob Waite
In pursuit of the ideal solution to meet their on-stage requirements and enable audiences to fully appreciate their music, Serbia’s Lexington Band decided to invest in a Waves-enabled DiGiCo SD11 mixing console. AVL Projekt, DiGiCo’s Serbian distributor, was engaged to offer support and invited the band to visit their demo space in Novi Sad, where audio engineer Dragoslav Beljin – who has been working with AVL Projekt since 2016, showcased the various functionalities and capabilities of the SD11. “I’ve been using DiGiCo since 2014, with my initial exposure to the brand being through my work with an SD8 console at…
This year’s Kart-Fest, The Village Fete saw Backup launch Are You OK? – a campaign aimed at raising further awareness of mental health throughout the technical entertainment industry. Founded in the early 2000s to provide financial support to technical professionals across sectors such as concert, live events, theatre, TV and film, Backup expanded its remit during the pandemic and has adapted its services to support colleagues not just potentially facing financial hardship from physical illness, but their mental health and wellbeing. The annual Kart-Fest has been the most prominent and successful of Backup’s fund raising activities, bringing together karting fans…
HIVE has forged a strategic partnership with Production Park. This partnership is based on the shared future visions of innovative technology with a reduced carbon footprint that is disruptive to the marketplace. Furthermore, through this partnership, HIVE now has access to capital to support its growth and product roadmap. HIVE and Production Park’s partnership will continue to strengthen through the sponsorship of HIVE products within Production Park Studios & Classrooms, while Kane Sargent, an ex-student of Backstage Academy at Production Park, has joined the HIVE team as a Full Time Support Engineer. “Production Park is where the industry comes together,…
An omnipresent creative force amid the ever-changing electronic music and art pop scene, iconic Los Angeles duo – comprising brothers Ron and Russell Mael – hit the road in May in support of their 26th studio album, The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte. Quantum Creative, led by Matthew Kemp, designed the lighting and staging elements of the touring production. Embarking on his maiden project with Sparks, Kemp reflected on the success of the UK and European shows with TSL Lighting providing a lighting rental and rigging solution featuring some 200 Astera Titan Tubes, Ayrton Perseo heads, and MA Lighting…
Providence Equity, a private equity firm specialising in growth-oriented investments in media, communications, education and technology, has acquired d&b Group. As part of the transaction, the d&b management team will also acquire a stake in the company, ensuring long-term leadership and strategic continuity. The parties have agreed not to reveal details of the transaction, and the conclusion of the transaction is subject to approval by the relevant antitrust authorities. Founded in 1981 and based in Backnang, Germany, d&b is one of the world’s leading providers of professional premium audio technology (“d&b audiotechnik”) and, in recent years, has extended the business…
Where does EW-DX sit among Sennheiser’s wireless offerings? “The goal for Evolution Wireless Digital is to cover all application scenarios and use cases that our analogue evolution wireless G3 and G4 series caters to, being our most successful wireless series to date. Looking at the systems from a user perspective, EW-D has been designed for musicians and performers who need to be their own sound engineers, EW-DP for filmmakers and videographers, and EW-DX is targeted at pro users, no matter whether they are working in the music and event industry or in education and corporate settings. From a portfolio perspective,…
What does your new role at Elation Professional entail? “I will be looking after new business development and assisting the team to continue the expansion of our distribution network around the world. We want the strongest partners around the world selling, supporting, and training our products, and I hope to play an integral role.” What attracted you to Elation Professional? “The people first, as they have been so friendly and transparent about their vision and roadmap. We know that the people you work with make the biggest difference to your output and progress, and I am glad I am working…
Already recognised for its involvement in Brazil’s Rock in Rio festival, Martin Audio’s multicellular loudspeaker array, MLA, recently provided main stage artists at the annual Festival Coolritiba in Curitiba, nearly 500 miles further south, with exemplary sound. Headliners included Marisa Monte, Sandy, Mano Brown, and the legendary Gilberto Gil. However, it was the influence of Marisa Monte’s sound engineer, Daniel Carvalho, which brought about the change from the originally specified festival system. He had been piloting the mix on the famous singer’s Portas tour through an MLA, provided by predominant rental company Gabisom (who also service Rock in Rio). Coolritiba…
Although they are still a relatively new phenomenon in the lineage of live events, drone shows have appeared on their fair share of live productions over the years, including a few that have featured in our pages. In fact, way back in 2016, my first ever TPi cover story was Muse’s Drones tour, which saw giant spheres flown around an arena by micro drones flying over the crowd. In the years since, companies such as Verity made a major impact on the market, collaborating with bands including Metallica, where a swarm of drones flew around the band. As impressive as…
On the eve of the release of her third studio album, Familia, Camila Cabello announced the launch of an online event, Familia: Welcome to The Family. The singer-songwriter collaborated with TikTok and Epic Records to produce the concert with creative direction by Charlotte Rutherford and XR Studios. XR Studios used a suite of immersive technology tools, created in collaboration with Megapixel VR, which enabled the choreography of animated backgrounds captured in real-time in XR Studios’ LED environment. The wider creative team included Creative Director, Paul Caslin; Camera Director, Sam Wrench, and Silent Partners Studio. “We found a way to explore…
Borne out of a collective passion for music and technology, EM Acoustics was founded by high school friends, Ed Kinsella, and Mike Wheeler in April 2002. Now famed for creating solutions which move air particles for multiple markets, the Cranleigh-based company began life as a fledgling rental, recording and manufacturing outfit. “After 18 months, we realised we didn’t have enough kit to be a rental company and not enough demand for recording work, so we decided to focus entirely on the loudspeaker design,” Wheeler recalled. It would go on to be a wise decision some 21 years later with the…
Call it a lack of preparation; but personally, when I go and cover a show, I don’t like to read too much about the production before speaking to the crew. My justification for this is that I like to give those who have toiled away for weeks, months or years the chance to highlight the most interesting elements of the show from their perspective and not influence their interview with my own views. I bring this up because there was no way of avoiding reading about the Music Of The Spheres World Tour when it first hit the road in…
Having first studied to be an architect, a chance encounter with a friend saw Raquel Rosildete drawn into the world of theatre lighting in 2011. Since then, she has walked the line between architectural lighting and theatre design. Based in Berlin, she enjoys the ability to flit between these two worlds, but like many lighting specialists, the COVID-19 pandemic saw all her shows come to an abrupt halt. During the lockdown, the German government launched a grant research programme to support the arts. Rosildete saw this as her opportunity to explore a subject that had been on her mind for…
On 7 May 2023, a concert was held at Windsor Castle to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III. The event was produced, staged, and broadcast by the BBC to over 100 countries around the world. Liteup worked alongside Lighting Designer, Nigel Catmur and Broadcast Production Director, Steve Nolan to ensure that the evening was enjoyed by the 20,000 live audience on site and millions watching at home. “This project required collaboration and choosing people with the right skill sets and personalities for the job, and while there were many challenges, dealing with these and taking them in our stride…
To the delight of audiences following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, live events are back in full swing in the UK. Given the international crew composition for these events, those responsible for production roles who are non-UK residents will typically enter the country via either the Visitor Visa route or the Temporary Creative Worker (“TCW”) route. VISITOR VISA Visitors are permitted to stay in the UK for up to six months but cannot undertake any paid or unpaid work for a UK company unless a specific work permit exemption applies. If you organise a festival or cultural event, and your…
As an extraordinarily busy summer of live events, arena and stadium touring gets underway, the time-critical world of touring logistics has never been under more pressure, yet two decades on from its formation, Global Motion is celebrating a feat of independence, as TPi discovers. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpi276_digitallr/92 This article originally appeared in issue #276 of TPi, which you can read here. Words: Stew Hume Photos: Belinda Enthoven www.globalmotion.com
Although German superstar Helene Fischer may not yet be an international household name, it is likely that if you work within the live events sector, you’ll be familiar with her work due to the incredibly ambitious production levels on her live shows. The singer has featured in TPi Magazine several times – most recently during her 2018 tour with a focus on the production’s dynamic staging automation and set build. So, when we discovered that her upcoming tour would see Cirque du Soleil taking the creative lead on a 270° production, we couldn’t book our tickets quickly enough. Suffice to…
