Pharos - Leaderboard - May 2024

Projects

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USA - The 59th Annual Grammy Awards last month was a confluence of stunning performances, controversies, and surprises. In collaboration with production designer Brian Stonestreet, lighting designers Bob Dickinson and Noah Mitz created a visual delight, capturing the mood of a wide range of musical genres including the stunning tribute to Prince.
Every year since its introduction in 2013, the super-bright Solaris Flare has played a key role on the Grammys. With an average of 20 acts per show, that’s 100 performances, each with its own distinct look, proving that the Flare’s versatility is second to none.
Says lighting designer Noah Mitz, “The Flare has become the de facto standard for LED strobes on all of our shows. They are our go-to option for their intensity, reliability, and excellent color rendition on camera.”
“We use the Flares to add specific

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UK - Let’s Sing and Dance for Comic Relief came to a barnstorming end this weekend with The Chasers dancing and singing their way to victory with a Wizard of Oz inspired routine. Aired live from BBC Elstree, the show was lit by Roger Williams with support from Richard Martin Lighting.
The run-up to Red Nose Day officially started a few weeks ago with Let’s Sing and Dance for Comic Relief kicking off proceedings. The show, presented by Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, saw various celebrities going all out with both singing and dancing to cover iconic music performances.
Over three weeks of heats, acts were whittled down to the six final performances aired this weekend. Throughout the run there have been many memorable performances including Rickie Haywood Williams & Melvin Odoom who took on pop royalty with a medley featuring some of the best from th

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Romania - The German State Theater in the Romanian city of Timișoara has a long history, nowadays staging a wide range of German-language productions - from traditional plays through to the most modern productions, festivals and cultural exchanges. The recent completion of a fully-digital audio system features a pair of Yamaha QL series mixing consoles.
German language theatre in Timișoara goes back as far as the mid-1700s. German State Theater Timișoara was founded as a separate theatre company in 1956 and today is based on the German Theater Hall of the city’s Palace of Culture - alongside the city’s Opera House, Romanian National Theater and Hungarian State Theater.
In 2014, Brașov-based dB Technolight was contracted to install a Dante network throughout the German Theater Hall, with a view to progressively replacing the existing analogue audio system with

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Germany - Microphone manufacturer Shure has teamed up with German record producer Marten Berger, whose next project is to tour the countries of Europe in a mobile recording studio, capturing performances by street musicians “from every corner of the continent” for release on CD and as a double vinyl album. Shure has provided microphones and headphones for use in Marten's studio, a converted Volkswagen ice-cream van, when the grand year-long project begins in May 2017.
Marten, who has been studying music recording and composition in the Dutch/German border town of Enschede for the past few years, dates the genesis of his project to an experience he had two years ago, when he encountered a gifted street musician, Christiaan Mauer, in the Dutch city of Groningen, and was inspired to record him. He began thinking about all the musicians living on the streets throughout Europ

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UK - Last year, sound, lighting, AV and stage technology services company Northern Light was asked to install a new, more energy efficient, house and work light system for the Genting Arena. The primary goal was to enhance the overall customer experience and to have something very different to the other arenas in the UK. The solution was an innovative combination of ETC and GDS lighting fixtures.
In 2015, Genting UK, part of leading global leisure and entertainment company, the Genting Group, took over the former LG Arena at Birmingham’s NEC. Now known as Genting Arena, the 15,700-capacity venue is the Midlands’ premier entertainment destination, hosting events from world-class comedians, sportspeople, singers, songwriters, dancers and daredevils.
“Northern Light has enjoyed a good relationship with the NEC group for several years, having completed successful ins

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USA - Music and romance have always made for an irresistible combination so whether it’s love for another or love of the music, or both, Insomniac’s annual Crush concerts are the happening EDM events around Valentine’s Day. In mid-February, EDM enthusiasts gathered for Crush San Fran, Crush SoCal and Crush Arizona for a celebration of heavy beats and beating hearts with a lineup that featured top names like Afrojack and other hot DJs.
This year’s Crush concerts proved to be another spectacular EDM triumph from promoter Insomniac Events, headed by CEO Pasquale Rotella, who again called on Steve Lieberman and his team at SJ Lighting to create the stimulating atmosphere. SJ Lighting worked with lighting vendors Felix Lighting (Crush San Fran, Crush SoCal) and Hardwired Production (Crush Arizona) on the events.
Lieberman is known for his lighting and production de

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USA - Holo-Gauze, 3D display solution for large hologram effects, and Christie’s digital projectors were instrumental in realising Beyoncé's holographically enhanced performance during this year’s Grammy Awards. Delivered by leading live events production specialists PRG, the near-15-minute extravaganza included content created by Beyoncé's own Parkwood Entertainment management company.
A huge, highly transparent and reflective 40ft x 22ft Holo-Gauze screen from Holotronica and three 30K Christie Boxer 4K30 projectors produced the holographic magic, delivering incredible 3D visual special effects from Parkwood Entertainment. A second 40ft x 22ft Holo-Gauze and multi- projection/media playback system was utilised for Beyoncé’s rehearsal stage. PRG and Holotronica had previously worked with Beyoncé and Parkwood Entertainment on the singer’s Tidal X: 1015 performanc

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USA - Located about 90 miles outside Chicago, the Once Upon A Dream performance group doesn’t merely entertain children with richly imaginative tales, it actually makes them part of the show, inviting them on stage with storybook characters. The magic of Once Upon A Dream was on full display recently at the theatre’s recent Royal Winter Ball, where kids danced with a cast of legendary fairy-tale characters, gliding across the stage under the transformative light of Chauvet Professional Rogue fixtures.
Jordan Chance, owner of Luxe Productions, made four Rogue R2 Wash fixtures the centrepiece of his design for the event. Positioning the fixtures above the stage across its width, he relied on them to provide dramatic downlight that accented key moments in the production, as well as for spot cues and general stage washing.
“The Rogues worked extremely well to set moo

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UK - CPL (Central Presentations Limited), working for producers Eclipse Communications, provided a full technical production package – video, lighting and sound - to the 2017 SEMTA Awards event staged in the ballroom of the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane, London.
The Senior Skills Council for Science, Engineering & Manufacturing Technologies (SEMTA) is a not-for-profit organisation specialising in engineering training in the UK. Its high profile annual Awards event recognises excellence within their various nationwide apprenticeship schemes.
The CPL team was led by Lee Gruszeckyj. It was the fourth consecutive year for CPL in this role, and as the success and visibility of the event has advanced each year, so has the commitment to increasing the production values. It was the second time the Awards has been staged at this venue where awards in nine categories were pres

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China - Allen & Heath dLive S Class mixing systems were used at the recent LeXiang Music Festival and Shijiazhuang Music Festival, which were recently held simultaneously in China’s Shijiazhuang City.
A flagship S7000 Surface and DM64 MixRack was employed at FOH at LeXiang Festival, managing performances from several of China's top artists, including rock star Zheng Jun, folk band HangGai, and pop star Tanya Chua.
“The sound quality is excellent. With separate MixRack and Surface design, audio distribution is more reliable and low latency becomes possible. dLive has a latency of less than 0.7ms, which I think is an extraordinary breakthrough,” comments Wu Tianjun, FOH engineer.
Meanwhile, a second S7000/DM64 system was provided by production company, S.A.G, to manage monitors at the Shijiazhuang Festival. Three DX32 Expander Racks were also employed to

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UK - RG Jones’ long relationship with Martin Audio was extended in fine style again this month at the Raymond Gubbay-promoted Classical Spectacular at the Royal Albert Hall. RG Jones supplied not only a full-size Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array (MLA) for the main PA but also an MLA Compact rig for the side-fills.
MLA had first replaced the Martin Audio W8 Longbow when Simon Honywill, long time FOH engineer for the event (and Martin Audio ambassador), first specified it back in November 2011.
“Simon evangelised about MLA and I am happy to build on the foundation laid down by him and the RG Jones team,” says Phil Wright, who took over sound mixing duties from Honywill two years ago (working on a DiGiCo SD7). Alongside him was system tech Luke Murphy, implementing a sound profile set up by RG Jones project manager, Matt Sussex.
Wright believes that the sound

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USA - Country music’s newest rising star Aaron Watson isn’t one to give up when things get tough, so when he was told he wasn’t commercial enough to make it as a singer, the Texas native returned to his home state and proved all the doubters wrong.
Now, with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites, Aaron Watson is performing to sold-out crowds and promoting his album, Vaquero, the follow-up to his historical and aptly named album, The Underdog, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, the first-ever independent solo male country artist to do so.
Utilising four different types of fixtures on tower and riser faces, lighting designer Anthony McCoy mindfully chose each one, giving special consideration to truck pack, load in time and versatility of looks, especially given the divergent sounds of Watson’s music which ranges

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Singapore - Illuminate Productions provided creative and technical production once again for Kingdom Invasion 2017. Almost 10,000 people from 37 nations converged upon Singapore’s Changi Expo from 14-17 March for the popular Christian conference now into its 5th year, with over 10,000 more tuning into the live stream on the final night of open meetings.
Lights for the show were newly purchased and supplied by Glorious AV. The total fixture count amounted to 24 Claypaky Scenius Spots, 48 Claypaky Sharpys, 24 Claypaky A.Leda B-Eye K20, and over 100 channels of generic fixtures.
Claypaky once again proved their worth, with a low failure rate and a solid performance. Mr. Huang Muen, creative and technical director of Illuminate, loved the Sharpys. “I’ve used imitations on shows in China,” he recalled, “and working with the originals shows just how much of a diff

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Spain - The School of Modern Music (TAF) has installed an Allen & Heath dLive S Class digital mixing system, comprising a S5000 Surface with DM64 MixRack, in its concert hall.
Located in Madrid, the centre offers a wide educational programme, focusing on practical experience and a detailed curriculum and requiring professional world-class facilities, staff and equipment.
Alex Blanco, chief technical officer at TAF, comments, "Students should feel that what they are learning is useful, so we endorse practical assignments from the outset. dLive was chosen because of its expansion possibilities and exceptional configuration flexibility, which allows us to manage any type of event, from concerts or theatre productions to broadcasting.”
The dLive system is employed to manage the school’s concert and theatre productions as well as for touring duties and TV show

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UK - Bat out of Hell the Musical opened at the Manchester Opera House in February where it is currently enjoying a 12-week run. The show is the brainchild of Jim Steinman and rock superstar Meat Loaf - a romantic adventure about rebellious youths. Steinman composed Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell albums and always dreamed of lifting the tracks from record to stage. Forty years later the dream has become a reality.
Production manager Simon Marlow, who will also take the production to the London Coliseum in June for another 12-week run before transferring the show to Toronto, knew that for this technically complex large scale production he would require the help of Unusual Rigging. He said, "As production manager here in the UK and technical supervisor in Canada, I am in charge of everything, from the set, engineering, automation and rigging etc, to costumes, wigs an

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Canada - Lighting designer Al Paquette was looking for some new and exciting fixtures to incorporate into his design for the current 1000 Arms tour by Canadian country rockers Blue Rodeo - and chose Robe Spiiders and PATT 2013s which were newly purchased by lighting vendor Apex Sound & Light from Ontario, Canada.
Al has worked with the popular band for the last six years, and this is the fourth full production tour he's done with them for which he created a totally original look and design. He knows what they are comfortable with onstage, "it's about setting the right mood and environment for the music," he explained.
Limited truck space was another consideration for this one, so getting maximum impact from a minimum number of fixtures was essential. Keeping this in mind he chose the 20 x Spiiders and five PATT 2013s.
The Spiiders were evenly positioned along

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USA - Like a warm summer breeze, the music of pop punk pioneers We The Kings has always been reassuring, pleasing and tinged with a sense of expectation. Beginning with their platinum breakthrough single Check Yes Juliet, on through We’ll Be A Dream (with Demi Lovato), the band has served up some of the most memorable let’s journey forth together love songs for the generation that came of age with the internet.
True to this breakaway spirit, We The Kings has set out on the road to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its debut album with an ambitious 37-city tour that began in Nashville on 17 February and will wrap up at the Slam Dunk festival in the UK. Travelling with the band on the US leg of this journey is a versatile road-friendly rig from New York-based Squeek Lights that is made up almost entirely of Chauvet Professional fixtures.
“We designed

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UK - The British TV show Strictly Come Dancing approaches its 15th season this year. Renowned for its visual razzmatazz, the show’s lighting depends on a vast network of data control, an essential component of which is the powerful ProPlex IQ Two 1616.
“We purchased an IQ 1616 Ethernet-DMX node last autumn for Season 14,” says Mark Newell, lighting gaffer and chief systems tech for the show. “It’s an integral part of a system incorporating two consoles and a media server, all outputting on the same network. We’ve been using the ProPlex node to output DMX for a grid of LED battens, pixel-mapped within the media server, and used to light any band extras or special props that the couples use during their dances.
“Because the consoles we use for Strictly have a limited number of outputs, we have to swap routing during the show. The ProPlex IQ 1616 is

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UK - Rental company Adlib continues its work with top comedians, having just supplied full production – sound, lighting and video – for Jack Whitehall’s sold out, three week At Large UK arena tour. The Liverpool based company previously supplied production for his ground-breaking 2014 arena tour, which was staged in the round.
Having appropriate production in the right proportions and places is a key to delivering comedy on a large scale. It is about presenting this very intimate and personal style of entertainment and communication in a way that ensures audiences in larger venues enjoy all the same essential experiences as a one-to-one scenario.
Steve ‘Patto’ Pattison mixed front-of-house, working with a strong team from Adlib including monitor engineer / sound crew chief Marc Peers and systems tech Tony Szabo, who was responsible for the precision and detai

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Australia - Philips Lighting reports that its LED stage lighting added to the drama and detail of an award-winning production of the hit Broadway musical Wicked at the historic Theatre Royal in Hobart, Tasmania.
In the role of both lighting designer and technical supplier was Gareth Kays of GK Productions, Tasmania's leading performance technology consultancy. His brief was to create an impressive, Broadway-style production on a comparatively small stage.
"One of my main challenges was disguising the ground support system which allowed lead character Elphaba to take flight during the number Defying Gravity," Kays explained. "I used Philips Showline SL BEAM 300fx moving head luminaires at full zoom for back lighting Elphaba as she rose into the air. Light radiated out from her, masking the mechanics and giving the impression she truly was flying. I used Philips S

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USA - Quickly becoming on the of the hottest stars in country music today, Cole Swindell has recently set out on the What the Hell World Tour with fellow country music superstar Dierks Bentley. Fresh off his very successful Down Home Tour, Swindell and his production team were looking for a fresh tour design to take on the road in 2017.
Once again working with tour provider Elite Multimedia, production manager James “Mo” Butts began the process of finding the ideal tour design and in the end, it was the creativity of Sooner Routhier at SRae Productions that was chosen to highlight the Academy of Country Music award winner.
“When we started outlining the new tour design we chose four designers that we really felt were doing great work and asked them to submit design proposals for a completely new production design,” began Butts. “As an artist, Cole loves video

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USA - Versatility is a key ingredient in any lighting rig that Creative Production & Design builds for a multi-artist show. This was especially evident recently when the Austin, Texas-based company created a lighting and video show for CRUSH Dallas 2017, part of a four-city Insomniac production. Their immersive, high octane rig engaged the packed house at the South Side Ballroom, while also supporting the diverse musical styles of artists on stage, thanks in part to a massive collection of PVP X6IP LED video panels from Chauvet Professional.
“My business partner Justin Jenkins and I always try to make our show designs flexible and well rounded,” said Dan Wyatt of Creative Production & Design (CPD), who served as the production manager and designer on the project. “This event was no different. Not only did we have DJs like Yellow Claw that just need a table full

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Sweden - Located on a tree-lined avenue, restaurant Usine adds a touch of French industrial flair to the heart of Stockholm’s business district. Featuring a bistro, tapas bar, café/takeaway and conference facilities, a zoned Yamaha audio system blends seamlessly with the venue’s aesthetics.
Usine’s name comes from the French word for ‘factory’, which is reflected in its girders, overhead air ducts and other services being left exposed and made a feature of. AV specialist Watt & Volt was contracted to design and specify a zoned audio system, choosing Yamaha CIS products to deliver high quality audio in a challenging environment of hard, flat reflective surfaces.
Controlled by an MTX5-D matrix processor, the system is divided into nine zones and features 32 VXS8 full-range, surface mounted loudspeakers, plus two IS1112 subs in the main bar/dining area, two

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USA - Country music star Brantley Gilbert has launched The Devil Don’t Sleep tour playing arenas in North America through early spring in the first leg. Nathan Alves and Howard Jones co-designed the show, which features Claypaky Scenius, Mythos 2, Sharpy and Stormy Strobe fixtures.
The tour supports Gilbert’s new album of the same name. Jones’ company, Nashville-based DCR, is supplying all of the show’s equipment; it has provided gear for Gilbert since before his first record deal. The tour marks Alves/Jones second collaboration for the artist.
The Devil Don’t Sleep is a departure in design from Gilbert’s recent tours. “In the past tours used truss structure to define a shape, like the motorcycle motif for last year’s tour,” Alves explains. “Now we’re using digital scenery with videowalls front and center. That gives us more flexibility to take hi
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  2. Blackout provides rigging services to Microgaming
  3. Bandit lights Youth Evangelism Conference
  4. SSL L500 delivers the music and the message
  5. W-DMX extravaganza on Melbourne’s White Night
  6. Sustainable lighting solution for university centre
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