Major Lazer unleashed their new live show playing two sets, one on each weekend of the 125,000 capacity festival. The show featured a complete new set, lighting and visuals design by Kyle Kegan of Voyage Productions and utilised Robe BMFL Spots, BMFL WashBeams and ColorStrobes – amongst other lights. All the Robes were newly purchased by Rainbow Production Services (RPS). “Those strobes are simply mind-blowing,” declared Kegan, using them for the first time after receiving a demo and swapping the originally specified product for the new ColorStrobes. Kegan wend on to explain that he loves the colours, mapping capabilities and…
Author: Stewart Hume
For the past ten years the New Jersey-based firm, Audio Incorporated, has provided the sound for the annual Freifhofers Saratoga Jazz Festival, with its Vice President Mike Sinclair mixing FOH for many of the acts. “Jazz audiences are totally unforgiving,” notes Sinclair. “With jazz, it’s especially important that the PA sound transparent, as if you were listening to the band without a PA. Renkus-Heinz VL3 self-powered line arrays deliver that clear, transparent sound, which is one reason we chose them.” The Saratoga Performing Arts Centre is an indoor-outdoor amphitheater which Sinclair described as: “a concert hall without walls.” The home of…
Singer songwriter Hozier has taken his self-titled debut album on tour with a carefully crafted lighting design by Matthew Kilmurry who specified Clay Paky Mythos to play, “one of the most versatile roles in the show.” Kilmurry specified the award-winning Clay Paky fixtures from Adlib Audio, employing them for fast-paced punchy beam looks, spot work, atmospheric washes and seamless colour changing. “The Mythos are incredibly versatile,” continued Kilmurry. “They have a huge zoom range meaning they can perform as a spot or wash, which is pretty incredible for one moving light. And on top of all that they are extremely bright.” The Mythos units were…
Beach Park in Florida’s famous spring break city is 893 miles from Ryman Auditorium, birthplace of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. But for three days this April, the eyes of the country music world were on Fort Lauderdale, as the Tortuga Music Festival welcomed stars like Blake Shelton, Tim McGraw, Sam Hunt, Thomas Rhett, Kip Moore and others to its three stages. Of course, being on the ocean, Tortuga treated 90,000 fans (from 47 states and 16 countries, according to organisers) to a tropical escape as well as music. Contributing to the mood was a collection of Caribbean-inspired lounges…
The Splashy Fen Festival is aptly named. Starting on a trout farm in the spring of 1990, South Africa’s longest running music festival serves up giant helpings of outdoor fun in and out of the water for thousands of visitors every year. There are also arts, crafts, games and, of course, plenty of music, from folk, rock, and techno, to mbaqanga (the up-tempo jive music of the townships), and the wonderfully distinctive Zulu style of isicanthamiya. Over 1,500 different groups have performed on the Splashy stage over the past quarter century. This year, the venerable festival got a bold new…
An integrated asset management system with electrical safety testing at its core is helping a leading supplier of technical services to outdoor events and festivals meet its quality control and safety compliance obligations. The team behind Figure of Eight Events has had roles in many major music events such as Glastonbury and iTunes Festival with involvements in a wide range of similar high profile public events such as the Olympic Games and Formula 1, both at home and abroad. The company provides technical services and support for events, including the supply of power, sound and lighting systems, in…
Following six years of development, British loudspeaker manufacturer Funktion-One has launched Vero – the new, large format touring sound system that promises to re-define audio and operational performance expectations and deliver the next level of tour sound. Vero began life when Tony Andrews considered the possibility of designing a sound system that configures in a linear array. Having spoken of his concerns about the intrinsic sound issues of line-array systems for many years, this may have appeared to some as an unusual step. While Andrews recognised the time and manpower benefits of rigging a vertical array, he definitely wasn’t prepared…
Area Four Industries and its four brands (MILOS, TOMCAT, LITEC and James Thomas Engineering) extend a very special invitation to visit them at this year’s Prolight & Sound Exhibition from 5 to the 8 April 2016 in Frankfurt, Germany (Hall 3, Level 0, Booth D71). All brands will be hosted at the booth managed by Area Four Industries, which serves as the technical and sales interface between all four of its brands and their customers. EVO by TOMCAT TOMCAT invites attendees to discover the new frontier in innovative truss technology, TOMCAT’s EVO truss which will be displayed at the Area…
Today, Vevo announced that Head of Events for Vevo UK, Ed Walker, has been promoted to a newly created global position which will be based out of the music company’s New York office. Walker’s new title is Head of Live Production. In the new role Walker will be responsible for all aspects of live production covering the UK and USA. He will be looking after and producing all of Vevo’s live events, as well as working with the global content teams to deliver world class events for Vevo. Walker will continue to manage UK events such as the Vevo stage at the…
Solid Rock Event Technical working with Blue Platinum Events to provid the full technical production for a massive son et lumière at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg. The event was part of a special invitation event for the key sales teams, dealers and clients of Daimler Truck & Buses, a division of Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA). Twenty-four Robe BMFL Spot moving lights were on the lighting spec for filling the voluminous environs of the 95,000 capacity venue. The performance was a complete immersive audio visual experience with high-powered projections mapped to the large pitch area supported by lights shooting around the…
Manchester UK based dbn Lighting was commissioned by People, to provide lighting design and on-site lighting direction service. The festival narrates the ongoing conservation of Abu Dhabi’s most historic Fort, and through a series of highly interactive elements, hosted a celebratory programme to reinstate the Qasr Al Hosn site as the cultural heart of Abu Dhabi. Qasr Al Hosn, which has stood as the symbolic birthplace of the Emirate and home to Abu Dhabi’s ruling Al Nahyan family, is undergoing a comprehensive process of preservation, restoration and rehabilitation. Based around the historic Qasr Al Hosn Fort, the Qasr Al Hosn…
Terry Miranda and Dubai based Lighthouse Productions designed and supplied another elegant set and lighting design for the 2016 Al Burda Islamic Art Awards staged at the Abu Dhabi National Theatre in the UAE. Nearly 100 Robe fixtures graced the rig, including 16 Robin 300 Beams, 12 ColorWash 575 ATs, 12 MMX Spots, 24 PARFect 100’s, 12 Pointes and 16 CycFX 8’s. Lighthouse, known throughout the region for its fresh and inventive designs, has invested in Robe since 2004 and currently owns a large inventory of products. The annual Al Burda Awards is open to artists of calligraphy, poetry and…
Lighting Designer Jason Liggett turned to the ease of Elation Professional’s new Emotion moving head digital light to project organic looks for a 2016 New Year’s Eve performance by American rock band Joe Russo’s Almost Dead at the Fillmore in Philadelphia. “It occurred to me that I needed to have more options to create unique textured looks,” Jason explained his decision to use the new generation digital light. “I needed a video element that was not too literal and could be hidden within our stage and set design. I needed a digital moving light projector that I could control from…
Pyrotecnico, the special effects company headquartered in New Castle, Pennsylvania, has invested in two dot2 core consoles from MA Lighting. A.C.T Lighting is the exclusive distributor of MA Lighting products in North America. “They just arrived, and it’s Christmas all over again for our staff,” laughed Rocco Vitale, Creative Director at Pyrotecnico. The company has been delivering “wow” experiences to customers since 1889 and today offers fireworks, indoor and outdoor pyro, lasers, flames, cryogenics and fog, snow, and confetti and streamer effects. Pyrotecnico took delivery of two dot2 core consoles with four dot2 F-wings. Part of MA Lighting’s new range…
Mojo Barriers supplied a variety of barrier products for the front of stage and front of house production areas, for the European leg and two Asian tour dates of Madonna’s Rebel Heart World Tour. Rebel Heart Tour is the tenth worldwide tour from Madonna and supports the release of her 13th studio album of the same name. The tour kicked off in September in Montreal, Canada and ran for six months, visiting 22 countries worldwide. Mojo Barriers was contracted to ensure audience and artist safety for all of Madonna’s 25 European tour dates, as well as at her shows in…
Procom Middle East was presented with the Best Dealer Award 2015 from Eurotruss on 9 February 2016 at the annual distributors meeting in the manufacturer’s headquarters in the Netherlands. Martin Kuyper, the CEO of Eurotruss, presented the award to Procom, represented by its CEO Raja Harfouche. The award rewards an outstanding sales performance but also the high level client support presented by Procom, namely support in design. At the meeting, over 50 partners and distributing companies came to get an exclusive insight into the developments of the current market and the growing leading position of Eurotruss globally. This followed several…
Lightship Productions, owned and run by Ni-Lou Breytenbach, is the latest South African lighting production, design and delivery specialist to invest in MA Lighting control with the purchase of an MA onPC command wing, delivered by SA distributors, DWR Distribution CC. Lightship Productions works across all industry sectors including corporate and live events, TV productions and theatre shows, the latter hailing back to Breytenbach’s industry roots. His varied workload includes designing and programming his own shows, providing operating and FOH co-ordination, support services for others and working as a lighting systems engineer. “With business expanding, the time was right to…
