In recent months, Ayrton has shown its commitment to pushing for greater diversity within the field of lighting by becoming an active supporter of Women In Lighting (WIL). As a demonstration of this commitment, the lighting manufacturer hosted the first WIL Entertainment Lighting Session at its Paris HQ in late October 2022. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpi272_digitallr/32 www.womeninlighting.com www.ayrton.eu
Author: Jacob Waite
ROE Visual has inaugurated its UK-based showroom and demo space located at Production Park. During the opening event, a broad range of ROE Visual LED products, including an XR stage, were on display. Being in the direct vicinity of the live production hub, Production Park marks ROE Visual’s leading position in the live event industry and its existing relationship with both industry-integrated higher education institution Backstage Academy and the XPLOR centre – the world’s first research and innovation centre for entertainment technology and production – as well as other prominent Production Park tenants, such as 4Wall and TAIT. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpi272_digitallr/30 www.roevisual.com
Marking WWE’s first major stadium event in the United Kingdom since 1992’s SummerSlam and the company’s first UK PPV since Insurrextion in 2003, Clash at the Castle took place on 3 September 2022 at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium with an impressive roster of WWE Superstars and an audience of over 62,000 sports entertainment fans from 42 countries in attendance. Star Live, which holds a service level agreement to provide technical and rigging services at Principality Stadium, was part of the team that delivered the long-awaited return of WWE to the UK. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpi272_digitallr/16 www.wwe.com www.stargrouplive.com www.principalitystadium.wales
Following the success of Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever, The World Tour, Vis-A-Vis Video joined forces with Moment Factory’s design team of Tarik Mikou and James Richardson, to produce the live video for Billie Eilish’s headline Coachella performance. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpi272_digitallr/26 www.visavis.video www.blackmagicdesign.com www.notch.one
Hot on the heels of their headline Coachella set with The Weeknd and the trio’s first US tour in close to a decade, Swedish House Mafia and their new-look production team descended on UK and European venues, presenting a ‘rave inside an arena’-inspired live experience with all the bells and whistles that audiences have come to expect from Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso’s live shows. This time around, that included a giant, automated concrete circle sandwiched between two circular lighting rigs, 550 hits of pyrotechnics, lasers, low fog and special effects aplenty, in addition to the thumping, bass-driven sound…
It’s worth noting that when TPi first sat down with Jon Collins, Chief Executive of LIVE, to talk about the state of the UK’s live events industry, there was another person residing in Number 10. That being said, the fast-moving nature of UK politics is a perfect example of one of Collins’ points during our conversation that “it’s a challenge to even know when the next opportunity to lobby for any issues within government would be”. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpi272_digitallr/98 www.livemusic.biz
There have been a slew of anniversary shows hitting the road over the past year in tandem with the return of live events. However, those that standout are when the artist and crew not only take the opportunity to pay tribute to their back catalogues, but seek to make use of the most modern technology and push production values. Roxy Music and their hardworking touring family certainly achieved this on their latest UK tour, which concluded in October 2022. No stranger to the road, front man, Bryan Ferry has entertained theatre-sized venues to great success over the years. Having linked…
Following the release of his two most recent albums – Persona and Noi, loro, gli altri – in 2019 and 2021 respectively, Marracash set out on what would be a recording-setting run of shows, with the Persone Tour marking the first time an Italian hip-hop artist completely sold out a tour that passed through most of the country’s major cities. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpi272_digitallr/22 www.marracash.it www.ombra.world www.tekset.it www.artechfx.com
Navigator, TAIT’s platform for machinery automation and show-control, passed its 20th birthday milestone this year. At PLASA Show 2022, Jim Love, VP at TAIT, presented a seminar entitled: A collage of case-studies from two decades of spectaculars’ show-control and automation, delving into some of the shows and live experiences made possible by the platform. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpi272_digitallr/96 www.taittowers.com
RTL 102.5 Power Hits Estate returned for its sixth and perhaps most technologically advanced edition to date on 31 August 2022 at the Roman amphitheatre of Arena di Verona. The spectacle, which saw some of the nation’s biggest names on the touring circuit join forces, was broadcast on RTL 102.5, RTL 102.5’s Play service, as well as unified networks Radio Zeta, Sky Uno, TV8 and NOW. Having provided a space for the region’s acclaimed and emerging artists to perform live, connect with their fanbase and work for technical production crew amid the COVID-19 pandemic [see TPi #259], Power Hits Estate 2022…
Although perhaps not yet a household name within the wider events industry, Twenty Three in a very short space of time has made serious inroads into the entertainment sector. Proof of this success can be seen by looking at the past two front covers of TPi, as the company created the custom LED structure for both the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ed Sheeran’s latest stadium tours. From the giant curved screen for the Californian rockers to the custom plectrum structures for the UK’s most successful singer-songwriter of modern times, it’s clear that Twenty Three has carved a niche within…
Although every company working in the events sector has its own unique story when it comes to the early days of COVID-19, there are few that played out quite as dramatically as EFM’s. As representatives from across the globe gathered around a meeting table for the company’s annual board meeting in February 2020, champagne bottles were being popped in celebration of EFM’s best ever financial year. “2019 was a record-breaking year for us exceeding all budgets, so there was certainly a lot of elation,” reflected CEO, Mike Llewellyn. “During the meeting, I raised the point that we should perhaps consider…
Look under the hood of Thomas Rhett’s just-concluded Bring the Bar to You Tour, a 30-date US trek that kept him and his band busy from June to mid-October 2022, and you’d have seen a complex technical signal path and workflow worthy of any arena-level pop performance. In preparation for the trek, whose name came from a track on Rhett’s Where We Started album released earlier this year, FOH Engineer, Trey Smith and Monitor Engineer, Jimmy Nicholson had plotted out much of the tour’s sonic complexity during a series of extensive rehearsals leading up to it. During these, while the…
PK Sound has entered into an expansive new partnership with Dallas, TX-based show services provider Onstage Systems. In addition to joining the PK Alliance with an investment in a T10 robotic line source system, Onstage will warehouse large-format Trinity Black robotic systems for dry-hire rentals to other Alliance Members. “PK Sound is a very forward-thinking company, both in terms of their technology but also with the PK Alliance concept and the way they’re collaborating with their partners,” shared Hyacinth Belcher, Owner and President of Onstage Systems. “This is a model I wholeheartedly believe in and feel is the right move…
Design firm Darkroom Creative is handling lighting design, set design and video content for Walker Hayes’ Glad You’re Here Tour and has employed Elation Professional’s compact Smarty Hybrid moving head in a multifunctional role. The 15-city run kicked off on 29 September in Johnstown, PA with lighting supplied by Bandit Lites. Early this past summer, Darkroom Creative received a call from Walker Hayes manager Robert Carlton, who was forming plans for the emerging country star’s first headlining arena tour. Thanks to a successful album release earlier in the year, along with the breakout viral sensation Fancy Like which was nominated…
As SIX the Musical began to gain momentum from a small UK tour to an award winning Broadway production, it was important that as the stages continued to change, the sound system also adapted. Born from the SL Series, a renowned market innovation for its full broadband directivity control, extended low frequency response and power efficiency, a d&b audiotechnik XSL System became the perfect fit to deliver this high energy pop based musical as it toured the US. Originally debuting in 2017 at the Edinburgh Fringe festival, SIX, a British pop musical written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss has…
Staged over three weekend nights in late September, the ninth edition of Life is Beautiful Festival occupied no less than 18 blocks of downtown Sin City to accommodate non-stop revelry by crowds estimated at up to 150,000. The main musical attractions were at the Downtown and Bacardí stages, both equipped with Meyer Sound systems provided by Solotech. At the Downtown Stage, where headliners like Calvin Harris, Gorillaz, Jack Harlow, and Arctic Monkeys pumped up the night, the party-level sound was powered by a PANTHER large-format linear line array loudspeaker system. “We all recognised that the close ties between Meyer Sound…
Shure has unveiled the successor to its highly respected AXT600 Axient Spectrum Manager, the new AD600 Axient Digital Spectrum Manager. The AD600 Axient Digital Spectrum Manager is a powerful, next-generation tool for planning and managing frequency coordination in the most demanding professional audio applications, including touring, broadcast, location sound, theatre, and houses of worship. Keeping the future of wireless in mind, Shure designed the AD600’s tuning range to support frequency bands from 174 MHz to 2 GHz, which includes and expands on the frequencies where AXT600 is operable. Compared to AXT600, AD600 boasts faster scanning that finds available frequencies and…
