In keeping with their basic sensibilities, the band is traveling in a single trailer while touring in support of their hit record The Underdog. Packed on board are a collection of Rogue R1 Wash and R1 Spot fixtures from Chauvet Professional, supplied by 4Wall Entertainment Lighting. “The Rogues deliver the punch we want,” said Erich Meitzner, Production Designer for Aaron Watson. “Plus they’re easy to transport and very road worthy.” Road worthiness is an extremely important quality for any fixture used in the Aaron Watson band’s rig. Following the success of The Underdog, the group did 148 shows throughout the US…
Author: Stewart Hume
Having completed the Australian leg, Jason Aldean headed to America with his We Were Here tour. Lighting Designer, Mike Swinford, of UpLate Design, was intent on bringing a fresh new look to the country singer’s headline tour, using modern technology and new lighting tools to achieve an inspirational design that would be very different from what Aldean was accustomed to. Included in his design are a plethora of lighting fixtures from Ayrton that include MagicDot-R, MagicRing- R9, IntelliPix-R and the award-winning MagicBlade-R. “We wanted a departure from the very large ‘rock’ lighting look that we had last year,” explained Swinford. “We…
Marking the company’s ongoing growth, Arena Structures have appointed Phillip Bish and Matt Clark to its temporary structures division. Arena Structures welcomes Phillip Bish as a Project Manager, bringing a wealth of over 25 years experience to the team, having worked on prestigious projects such as The Open Golf Championships, Aegon Tennis, Buckingham Palace summer openings, the Houses of Parliament dining structures refurbishment plus the design and install of a ceremonial structure for the QEII aircraft carrier. His career began running his own marquee and event business in 1991, moving onto a Project Manager role at a marquee and lining…
Full-service German event and media production company satis&fy has added to their inventory of Elation Professional lighting gear with a recent purchase of SixBar 1000 and SixBar 500 LED battens. Elation’s SixBar Series of colour-changing battens feature a six-color LED multi-chip and can be used for a variety of purposes such as general purpose wash/strip lighting, uplighting, cyc wash, accent lighting or as a pixel strip. “We were looking for a successor to cover a wide range of services, one of them a versatile and homogeneous illumination of any surface and we found it in the SixBar,” stated Martin Heuser,…
Specialist acoustic and audio consultancy Event Acoustics announces the appointment of Marcel Albers as Head of Global Sales, with a focus on the worldwide distribution of the company’s trailblazing sound management system MeTrao. Renowned in the Dutch music and entertainment industry, Albers has a 20-year track record of success as an international artist manager, theatre and television producer and record company owner. With this extensive experience and a key interest in innovation and breaking into international markets, Albers has proved the ideal fit to push Event Acoustics’ pioneering products into the wider world. “I have been involved in the activities…
Allen & Heath has announced a host of major enhancements to the feature set and ecosystem of its Qu Series of compact digital mixers. Accompanying the release of firmware V1.9 is a number of key updates to the Qu-Pad app, factory mic presets from leading manufacturers Shure and Sennheiser, streamlined DAW Control for Windows, plus the new, customisable Qu-Control app for install applications. Qu-Pad V1.9 is now the most comprehensive iPad app of its type, fully implementing every setting, parameter and control of Qu mixers. Alongside control of live mixing functions, processing, routing and effects, Qu-Pad now offers complete access…
Star Events beat the clock to install a VerTech stage, an array of its new delay towers and other support structures as nearly quarter of million people celebrated Leicester City becoming the most unexpected champions in Premier League history. “It’s unbelievable. All the city is here,” Manager Claudio Ranieri said from the stage in Victoria Park, where he was joined by the full Leicester squad ahead of a surprise set from hometown rockers Kasabian. The spontaneous nature of the event meant Star Events had just five days from order to plan, prep, load, transport and build the stage and the…
HK Audio is set to power a huge month-long extravaganza of events at Frankfurt’s Commerzbank-Arena this summer, culminating in a world record-breaking weekend on 9/10 July. Throughout June and the first week of July, a sizeable HK Audio COHEDRA system will provide the sounds for a series of Euro 2016 public viewing experiences that will be shown on a 550m² screen (the largest in Germany), as well as a number of one-off shows and performances. The final weekend will see a world record attempt by the world’s largest orchestra – potentially up to 10,000 musicians – at the We’re Filling…
What is now known as ‘the old K3’ exited their career as the most successful girl band in the history of Benelux finishing a 122-date sold-out concert tour that finished on 8th May at Antwerp’s Lotto Arena, having sold over 450,000 tickets in 6 months … complete with lighting design and video content delivered by leading Belgian visual design practice, Painting with Light, led by Luc Peumans. Concluding a remarkable 17 year career of music, TV, movies, musicals and numerous other associated projects, Karen Damen, Kristel Verbeke and Josje Huisman double headlined the show with … ‘the new K3’ -…
Allen & Heath’s dLive digital mixing system was recently employed at FOH for a large concert held at Jinhua stadium, Zhejiang Province in China, to promote the cultural relationship between Kyrgyzstan and China. The 30,000 seater venue hosted a line-up, which included several top artists from both countries, including Asian super stars, Jay Chou, Wilber Pan, Xie Tianxiao and Elva Hsiao. Managed by PA company, Shanghai Jiexin Entertainment Equipment, the production was technically complex, featuring state-of-the-art stage, lighting and sound systems. The audio team employed more than 100 line array speakers to create an optimal listening experience. For signal control,…
AV Stumpfl won the highly sought after award for best family business in UpperAustria at a ceremony organised by the financial newspaper, Wirtschaftsblatt at the “Aula der Wissenschaften” in Vienna, Austria on 17 May 2016. Ironically, the ceremony was presented using none other than AV Stumpfl Monoblox screens. Austria’s AV Stumpfl is a wholly owned family business that nurtures vibrancy, creativity innovation and brings stability to the local Austrian economy. It is set to grow and thrive for generations. “The award is recognition of our growth and success and we’re delighted to have won,” said Tobias Stumpfl, CEO. The company…
Production Resource Group LLC (PRG) – leading supplier of entertainment and event technology solutions worked with global entertainment design software developer Vectorworks, to ensure a seamless Rock in Rio festival in Lisbon, Portugal. The Rock in Rio festival collaboration between PRG and Vectorworks demonstrated the realisation of workflows using ESP Vision software to previsualise each lighting designer’s concept. As in previous years, PRG will be supplying lighting technology and all related rigging for the festival. The event technology specialist is now in its 13th year of working with Rock in Rio. “We started working with Rock in Rio back in…
In response to an ever increasing workload Rigging Team have recently taken on two new members of staff; Andy Parish joined the company back in March with Shane Aldred starting mid-May. Parish has many years working within the theatre and events sectors and is using his organisational skills to coordinate the day to day operations of the company. His extensive experience in performer flying is also being put to good use, most recently on a recording of Michael McIntyre’s Big Show broadcast on BBC One. Parish said: “This is a bit of a change of direction for me but I’m…
The Since 2001 Siyan has been servicing the live music industry with quality lighting fixtures. That means a regular reviewing of stock and updating of the rental inventory. MD Nick Valdez was looking to fill a gap in the ‘big spot’ category. “These days there are so many options on the market that we look very carefully at what in on offer before making a final choice. There are many factors to consider but I think that quality of the optics is one of the primary reason we opted to invest in the Clay Paky Scenius. It has a very…
Taking the spotlight at one of the hottest festivals of the year, a JBL Professional by Harman sound system, JBL VTX system, powered by Crown I-Tech HD amplifiers, was selected for the Yuma Tent at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. Southern California’s hot and dusty desert isn’t the average locale for a nightclub, but thanks to the Yuma Tent, that is exactly what concertgoers found when they entered the festival gates. Thumping away from festival open to close with some of the world’s premier DJs, the Yuma Tent’s unique purpose was to recreate the intimate and hi-fidelity experience…
The legendary shock rocker known for his wild on stage antics and heavy metal hits such as Eighteen, Be My Lover and School’s Out is performing around the country with a lighting package provided by long time vendor Bandit Lites for his ‘Spend the Night with Alice Cooper’ Tour. Lighting Designer Joel Reiff built on last year’s design and layout, but replaced pars with Vipers, while adding a few Nitros for ‘bells and whistles.’ “The old adage, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ applies,” said Reiff. “I tried to come in and give it a fresh look, and started…
Designed for use with popular floor-standing truss podiums, the DT-DYNO WHEEL from DuraTruss is an innovative new product that provides lighting users with a more flexible framework on which to mount their fixtures, making it the ideal truss-topper for touring rigs and stage setups. A genuinely unique product that’s ideal for mounting lighting fixtures in the center of the room, the new DT-DYNO WHEEL is a circular truss-topper from DuraTruss, designed for use by lighting designers and production teams who want to get more from their setup and their lighting effects! Adding extra scope to any lightshow, without the need…
The iconic band Pearl Jam hit the road on their 2016 North American tour with a large complement of Clay Paky Scenius moving head spotlights enhancing their sold-out shows. A.C.T Lighting. is the exclusive distributor of Clay Paky fixtures in North America. Pearl Jam, which has sold an estimated 60 million records worldwide, is playing arena, festival and stadium dates across the US and in Canada throughout the spring and summer. Lighting designer Kille J. Knobel, who has worked with the band for 16 years, obtained 36 Scenius fixtures for the rig from Upstaging, in Sycamore, Illinois. “We’ve been providing lighting systems…
