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23 September 2024

USA - On 30 December 1959, travellers heading up Las Vegas Boulevard to visit one of the burgeoning city’s new resorts like The Stardust, The Dunes, or The Sands were greeted by a towering 25ft pole sign that read ‘Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas’.

Although those once glitzy establishments are long gone, replaced by new generations of resort casinos on The Strip, the sign – with its distinctive stretched horizontal shape and cross piece at the top – is still standing.

The scenic designers at StationSix thought it would make an ideal backdrop for another ‘Las Vegas institution’, The Killers, when the multi-platinum band did their three-week residency at The Colosseum At Caesars Palace, which ended on 1 September.

Steven Douglas, the band’s long-time lighting designer, saw things the same way. He collaborated with the scenic desig

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23 September 2024

The Netherlands - After successfully transitioning from conventional static lighting to dynamically versatile LED fixtures at Rijswijkse Schouwburg Theatre in Rijswijk, Ronald de Blecourt, head of stage technique, reflected on the satisfactory outcome.

“When you know what you’re looking for and you are lucky enough to have a great team, the full trust of your management board, and of course the means, all you have to do is find the right fixtures,” he reflected. “The new LED lighting from Elation has allowed us to create more visually attractive productions and has enhanced the entire theatrical experience.”

The path to finding those ‘right fixtures’ had its own story. Following several not-entirely satisfactory fixture demos, de Blecourt was contacted by Bert Schmeits, key account manager Benelux for Elation Europe, who believed that E

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23 September 2024

USA - The stars gathered onstage, backstage and at the stage right artists bar in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena packed with music fans and anticipation for a special concert – Toby Keith: American Icon, a tribute to the late singer-songwriter, who in addition to being a successful musician and performer, was a philanthropist and supporter of those who served their countries in the military.

Tom Kenny was asked by producers Adam Freed and Alex Colletti to light this show, which was filmed for broadcast on the NBC network, and Kenny’s lighting rig included three different types of Robe moving lights – eight BMFL Follow Spots on RoboSpot systems, 12 iForte LTX WashBeams and 61 MegaPointes. The lighting vendor was 4Wall, who supplied from its Nashville shop.

Kenny’s task was to ensure the broadcast had a sumptuous ‘big rock show’ a

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23 September 2024

USA - Reggae band Stick Figure recently wrapped their Sacred Sands Summer Tour with a lighting system provided by Bandit Lites. Led by Scott Woodruff, Stick Figure is known for their blend of reggae and dub, weaving together infectious rhythms and melodic hooks with mellow vibes and positivity.

Lighting designer Nesta Garrick chose fixtures that would provide a range of effects, utilising Chauvet Color Strike M, Elation Proteus Maximus IP 65, Elation Smarty Hybrids, GLP X5, ACME Gemini and Robe MegaPointes.

“Everything served its purpose,” said Garrick. “We have a long set with a bunch of different songs, and these fixtures were selected to give us multiple choices and looks without being repetitive throughout the show.

“The MegaPointes were able to give good effects coming off with their beams, but at the same time they’re

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23 September 2024

Portugal - Europalco, in partnership with Knower Impact Meetings, reports the success of AIVØLUT1ØN, the first conference in Lisbon entirely dedicated to Artificial Intelligence (AI). Held in the Sala Tejo of the MEO Arena, this event brought together business leaders, innovators and AI enthusiasts to explore the power of AI in business management and beyond.

The AIVØLUT1ØN event marked an important milestone in the AI landscape, attracting many attendees. Europalco played a big part in this success by providing full AV and staging services. Europalco's team of approximately 28 members worked on-site and after two months of extensive preparation, they flawlessly executed all technical details.

An impressive 25m curved main screen and a 4m raised circular screen in the middle served as the event's centrepiece. This configuration was reinforced by

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23 September 2024

USA - Mega-Lite has introduced the ZIP Strip C40 which features 40 pixels of red, green, and blue narrow 5º beam LEDs, while the ZIP Strip WW40 comes in a warm white look.

These fixtures allow for the creation of multicolour light curtain effects by chasing the pixel in various groups and speeds. With four control profiles available, you can use a basic DMX or an advanced pixel matrix system to manage your pixels effectively.

Both fixtures stand out for their lightweight and compact design. Their compact three-hole yoke makes them easy to mount, ensuring they can be mounted in tight spaces or on various surfaces easily.

The ZIP Strip provides additional choices for lighting effects by pixel-mapping your stage venue to “create any look you want”.

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23 September 2024

UK - Following the appointment of Tom Anstey and Aurora Harrington in June this year, Spotlight Sound is expanding once again with a new hire. It means the team has increased by 50% this year as demand for their services grows.

The event production and AV installation company has welcomed Chloe Richardson as marketing executive this month. Chloe has considerable experience in marketing, having joined from Acclaim Handling after three years.

Director of Spotlight Sound, Sam Dimond, says: “Chloe has joined us after a thorough search for a top marketing executive. It was Chloe’s experience and skills that really stood out as she has worked in all areas of digital marketing and across many sectors. Chloe will work on steering our marketing strategy to reach our target audience and has already settled into the team really well.

“2025 is look

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20 September 2024

Spain - Colombian music sensation Karol G recently concluded her historic Mañana Será Bonito world tour with four stadium shows in Madrid, Spain.  

The year-long run, the first stadium tour headlined by a Latin female artist and reportedly the most extensive European tour by a Latin artist in history, featured an ambitious production with lighting design by Lightswitch senior director Ignacio Rosenberg, working with lighting vendor PRG. At the heart of the design were Elation Proteus luminaires, which played a vital role in both the stadium and arena shows.

The tour began in August 2023 and spanned the US, Mexico, and Latin America, with the European leg launching on 8 June 2024, in Zurich. Rosenberg used the Proteus Maximus and Proteus Hybrid Max across Latin America and Europe for their IP-rated durability, which was essential for the c

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20 September 2024

UK - The Schools Engagement Programme, launched in January 2024 in the East of England region by The Power of Events with grant support from the EIF, has announced that Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) has been confirmed as exclusive sponsor of the Edinburgh region. This now takes the UK roll-out to five regions alongside recently confirmed new regions Birmingham, Hertfordshire and the South Coast of England.

EICC’s support will enable The Power of Events, in partnership with local event professionals volunteering as schools ambassadors, to deliver an event industry showcase and overview of career opportunities to secondary schools & colleges across the Edinburgh region, starting in Spring 2025.

The Schools Programme has already attracted 200+ school ambassador industry volunteers across the four Nations willing to support the p

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20 September 2024

Spain - Currently touring to promote their second album Fuego, Spanish band Xeria has also mastered LightShark so that they can easily adapt their own show to suit different sized venues.

Lighting designer Alex Conde, founder of Aconde Design, was commissioned to design the lighting for the band Xeria, who are currently touring Spain to promote their new album Fuego.

"My main responsibility was designing the layout of the lighting equipment, programming the lighting for each song, and automating MIDI commands with Xeria’s Cymatic Audio LP-16 MIDI audio system and an IRing MIDI 2 adapter,” he explains.

“For this tour Xeria is using four Equipson Mark Beam 201 moving heads, eight Equipson Mark Mbar RGB 4 lighting bars, and four Equipson Mark MF 1500 VT fog machines. To ensure that the lighting setup matched their music,

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20 September 2024

USA - Stanford, Kentucky, is a small yet charming city in the southernmost part of the Bluegrass region. Founded in 1775, Stanford is one of the oldest settlements in the state and boasts a rich history with landmarks like the William Whitley House, the first brick house west of the Allegheny Mountains, and a key site in the early days of horse racing in Kentucky.

Just off Main Street lies Stanford Baptist, a quiet and unassuming church with seating for more than 300 people. Although open and airy, the vaulted ceilings in the sanctuary compromised the speech intelligibility of liturgical services. Amplifiers from LEA Professional were the chosen solution to help solve the church’s audio challenges.

Church staff contacted Alex Peake, an integration specialist at JCA Media, to design a new audio system for the sanctuary. Peake recommended LEA’s Con

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20 September 2024

USA The popular WOW - Women Of Wrestling TV series’ acronym is also represented by those three simple letters: W O W. This branding theme is spelled out in light by 64 Chauvet Professional COLORado PXL Curve 12 motorised battens supplied by Felix Lighting.

The impressive flourish is part of a dynamic lighting design by five-time Emmy Award winner Darren Langer, working with LD Felix Peralta and drafter Chris Fernandez.

“This was our first season with the series,” said Langer of LA-based DC Lighting. “Our client, co-founder and co-owner David McLane, was an inspiration for us in this project. David and his business partner, WOW co-owner and co-founder, Jeanie Buss, wanted their new season of WOW to have a more theatrical WOW factor.” 

“Our design team collaborating with the production designer James Connelly, embraced the

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20 September 2024

Norway - Casa Mia is a popular Italian restaurant located in the town of Lillestrom. Run by Antonio Lepore, who hails from southern Italy and has enjoyed more than 40 years in the hospitality business.

As an experienced restaurateur, Antonino is aware of the importance of high-quality audio in creating exactly the right ambience for his customers, and earlier this year took the decision to install a new sound system at Casa Mia.

He engaged local technology specialists Norsk Tele og Data to install a solution, and they in turn consulted with AV specialist distributor CBK about the best way forward. Following a site visit and meeting with the owner, Per-Øystein Berglund of CBK recommended HH Audio loudspeakers and subsequently designed a system for the venue.

He explains: “Casa Mia wanted a system that could reproduce audio as a ‘carpet’

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20 September 2024

Belgium - EventCom is a specialist in the provision and rental of AV equipment based in Gembloux, in French-speaking Belgium, managed by director Thomas Richard.

The company has invested in a number of Robe mobile lighting products, including the newest iFORTES and Esprites.

EventCom has also just completed a new extension to their warehouse and offices, which will triple their operational space to 2,600sq.m of storage and 600sq.m of office space. This will allow EventCom to operate more efficiently and grow as planned over the coming years.

“Robe is the top brand right with an excellent range of fixtures and a great reputation for reliability and value,” stated Thomas, whose first purchase was 24 x MegaPointes in 2021 which have worked constantly ever since.

“Getting MegaPointes really did have that much impact, they were that

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20 September 2024

Australia - The North Wollongong Hotel is a large multi-faceted hospitality venue in the centre of Wollongong, New South Wales. Popularly known as the North Gong Hotel, it features a bar, bistro, beer garden and an upstairs function area which caters for private events. Live music, DJ sets, televised sport and pool tables all feature in this vibrant and very busy setting, for which high quality audio is essential.

North Gong’s management team recently took the decision to replace the venue’s ageing audio system, recognising that it was no longer fit for purpose, and engaged Dan Chapman of Data Dan to install an upgrade. With support from Scott Angove of Audio Brands Australia, Dan designed and installed a future-proof, quality system which featured loudspeakers from Optimal Audio.

Josh Hill, the venue’s manager comments: “Having good audio is

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20 September 2024

UK - Astera’s new LunaBulb product – launched in May – won a coveted PLASA Award for Innovation earlier this month during the PLASA at Olympia in London.

This adds to the product’s growing collection of accolades which has also recently included a Best of Show award conferred by film-tv-video at the EuroCine expo in Munich in July.

PLASA’s Awards for Innovation judging panel commented that LunaBulb “combines a broad feature-set in a much-loved conventional aesthetic”, which clearly impressed them as much as it has many Astera customers and users.

LunaBulb weighs in at just 81 grams (0.179 lbs) and is designed for indoor and outdoor use. Key features are DMX control, full-colour RGBMA and a CCT range from 1,750K to 20,000K and five inbuilt wireless technologies (CRMX, RDM, Bluetooth, WiFi, IR, and UHF), and naturally it is compat

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20 September 2024

Europe - DAP has announced the release of the DAP Frigga, a new single-column plug-and-play PA system designed to meet the growing demand for sophisticated, high-performance audio solutions in the modern event industry.

Designed to support singer/songwriters, corporate presenters, DJs, and event venues, the DAP Frigga delivers sound quality and versatility. It features a robust amplifier with three dedicated channels for subwoofer and mid/high frequencies, delivering up to 1000 W RMS and 2000 W peak.

The system includes a powerful subwoofer with two 12-inch woofers to deliver the deep bass that is the foundation of a rich audio experience. The top speaker is meticulously designed with six 4-inch neodymium midrange drivers arranged in a line-array configuration for optimum sound dispersion and minimal distortion. Centred within this array is a 1.5-inc

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19 September 2024

UK - Serious Stages wrapped up a successful summer, providing stages and site structures for BBC Radio 2’s Party in the Park concert in Moor Park, Preston, 6-8 September.

More than 60,000 fans enjoyed artists featured on the Serious TZ 25m roof main stage for two days, included Sting, The Pet Shop Boys, The Manic Street Preachers, The Sugarbabes, Sister Sledge, Travis, Paul Heaton and Snow Patrol. The stage was designed in collaboration with clients Festival Republic and the BBC, creating a striking performance area. It was flanked by goalposts carrying PA speakers and giant LED screens, with extensions for a DJ platform, stage right, for Radio 2 DJ sets between bands, with a total frontage of 55m.

Serious also installed the stage platform in the tented Radio 2 stage, which featured DJ sets on Friday night and throughout Saturday and Sunday, along

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19 September 2024

Europe - Icon of the Seas, Royal Caribbean International’s new ship, built at the Meyer Turku shipyard in Turku, Finland, features more than 40 different entertainment, leisure, and retail spaces, including three primary entertainment venues. The Royal Theatre presents full-scale productions, including the first rendition of The Wizard of Oz at sea; Absolute Zero is a premium ice-skating arena; and the Aqua Theatre features aqua shows put on by a cast of aerialists, high divers, robots and synchronised swimmers.

Two of Icon’s main entertainment venues – Royal Theatre and Absolute Zero – have Robe moving lights at the heart of their installed lighting rigs, while approximately 250 other Robe and Anolis LED fixtures are being used throughout the ship in 10 separate areas.

The various Robe fixtures include iForte, Forte FS and iForte FS

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19 September 2024

Germany - This year’s Wohlsein Open Air festival took place in the castle and meadow park in the city of Paderborn on 18-21 July.

An audience of 6,000 enjoyed headline performances from top German rock band the H-Blockx, Hanover indie-funk band Jeremias and rapper and singer Jan Delay.

Paderborn-based event production specialists Sound Linear rigged an all-Nexo main stage that drew on both line array and point-source speaker ranges from the French manufacturer’s catalogue, including left and right hangs of 15 compact STM M28 omni modules with bass extension from separate hangs of eight STM B112. A total of 32 x STM S118 subs were stacked across the front of the stage.

Left and right arrays of six Nexo Geo M10 performed out-fill duties, while five P12s from Nexo’s P+ Series were deployed as front-fills. The highly versatile P12s were als