China - Lightware Visual Engineering has announced that it has entered into a partnership with Tico ZhiSheng Information Technology Co to further accelerate the company’s expanding business operations in China. Tico ZhiSheng was established in 1994 and has grown impressively since, cementing a reputation across China as a product supplier and service provider of audio and video product system solutions, with a proven track record in integrating design consulting, equipment supply, after-sales debugging, and after-sales service. It has developed five national sales and service centres, with headquarters in Beijing and Foshan, branches in Shanghai and Guangzhou, and a joint branch and technology exchange centre in Chengdu. "We are pleased to become a partner of Lightware in the Chinese market, responsible for the sales and promotion of Lightware's complete solutions,
USA/Italy - Strong Global Entertainment has announced that its subsidiaries Strong Technical Services (STS) and Strong/MDI Screen Systems have entered into a partnership with Powersoft. The partnership includes the resale, integration, and installation of Powersoft products, supported by STS, as well as the enhancement of Strong/MDI’s Seismos immersive product line with the implementation of Powersoft’s Mover Direct Drive. The product at the heart of the partnership is Powersoft's Mover Direct Drive. The Mover Direct Drive is a patented low-frequency transducer that has been designed to reproduce sound through haptic perception, which is the human body’s capability to feel low-end frequencies through bone conduction. This technology brings a different and immersive dimension to the audio experience, making it more tangible and participatory. “Complete immersio
UK - A new family play-world has opened at The Alnwick Garden, with its imaginary inhabitants realised by the spatial sound capabilities of a d&b Soundscape system. Installed by Southby Productions, the system helps to bring the world’s magical inhabitants to life, via the work of award-winning theatre sound designer, Gareth Fry. Ten years in the making, Lilidorei delivers an enchanted world inhabited by fabulous creatures - dwarves, trolls, fairies, hobgoblins, and more - all of them invisible. With the only clues to their existence provided by special effects and immersive audio, much is owed to the d&b Soundscape. The behind-the-scenes story of Lilidorei’s creation - the result of the vision of Jane Percy, the Duchess of Northumberland - is revealed by a six-part television documentary. The Duchess And Her Magical Kingdom began on Channel 4 on 2
UK - One of London’s most talked about new openings, Outernet Venues, has put its trust in Clair Global Integration (CGI) for audio and networking solutions throughout three of its spaces. CGI worked on three state-of-the-art music venues: HERE at Outernet, a 2,000-capacity space frequented by touring artists, The Lower Third, a 250 capacity live music venue for smaller acts and DJs, and Forge, a 50-person capacity cocktail bar that caters for intimate singer-songwriter acoustic performances. Together, these contrasting spaces form part of an arts and entertainment hub built beneath the streets in the beating heart of Central London. Each venue required its own custom audio, network, and infrastructure for both independent and collaborative use, with all three utilising d&b audiotechnik loudspeakers, and HERE marking one of the UK’s first d&b XSL installat
USA - When pop music siblings Girl Named Tom - Bekah, Josh and Caleb Liechty - first set out in 2019 they would travel from city to city and gig to gig in an old minivan. Then, in 2021, Girl Named Tom made history as the first trio to ever win NBC’s The Voice, placing four songs concurrently on the iTunes Top 10 charts, with two of them reaching #1, during the show’s 21st season. Now playing to larger audiences in bigger venues across the United States, Girl Named Tom recently wrapped a several-month tour on which they used the new Sennheiser EW-DX digital wireless system for vocals as well as electric and acoustic guitars and the EW G4 wireless in-ear monitoring system for all five musicians in the band. “We were honoured to be the first American touring act performing with this specific set up, and we are thrilled to report that these microphones are th
Switzerland - Located in the heart of Rapperswil, Switzerland’s picturesque City of Roses on the banks of Lake Zurich, the ENTRA residential and commercial complex has rapidly established itself as a centre of bustling social and commercial activity. One of the chief features of the complex is its state-of-the-art events venue. The foundation of the complex’s design encompasses a modular space that can be configured to serve a versatile array of community programming needs including live music performances, corporate events, and cultural events. To ensure that the space would excel in all of these applications with high quality acoustics and sound reinforcement, the ENTRA leadership turned to global acoustic architectural consulting and A/V systems design firm WSDG (Walters-Storyk Design Group). The 1050-capacity events space was designed by architecture offi
USA - Earlier this year, LD Systems in Houston, Texas added a Solid State Logic Live L550 Plus mixing console to its sound equipment rental inventory to service the needs of the company’s diverse clients. The new L550 Plus was initially put to work at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the largest livestock exhibition and rodeo in the world, which runs for three weeks during February and March every year. “We decided to make the purchase of an additional SSL Live console so that we could have redundant L550 Plus systems managing the live announcers and program content mix for one of our largest annual events, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo,” says Thomas Ruffner, audio dept. operations manager for LD Systems. “The engineer at this position manages roughly 50 sources, including announcers’ mics, all video rolls, and a multitude of FX mics placed throughout t
USA - The redolent power of the mood ring made an appropriate metaphor for Matchbox Twenty’s Slow Dream Tour, which recently concluded its 54-show run at Chicago’s Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre. The Playground design studio evoked images of the emotive cultural icon with a large inflatable semi-circle that arches over the upstage deck and is backed by a massive video wall. An array of images from retro clips to abstract patterns displayed on the video screen, is suggestive of the dreamy, translucent look of a mood ring. Accenting the 3D quality of this ‘ring’ is a collection of lighting fixtures, including the Chauvet Professional Maverick Force 2 Profile, arranged along angled stage left and stage right horizontal truss structures. “Things that felt important to us were that the show feel minimalist and architectural. It had to exist as an environmen
Australia - Live entertainment supplier Chameleon Touring Systems has upgraded its communications solution from an old analogue party line system to a Green-GO digital package, to aid reliable communications between lighting teams on tour. Green-GO dealer Event Communications Australia masterminded Chameleon Touring’s investment, drawing on extensive experience of digital communications solutions for the live music touring market. “Chameleon’s previous comms systems were based around a basic single channel, analogue party line system which were starting to be less reliable, so it was time to update to current technology,” says Event Communications Australia’s Rod McKinnon. “We worked closely with Graham Walker at Chameleon Touring to curate a kit list of Green-GO products that we knew would offer clear, easy-to-use communications for the lighting crew worki
UK - Despite train strikes and inclement weather, Brighton & Hove Pride 2023 enjoyed another successful year, raising money for the Brighton Rainbow Fund supporting LGBTQ+ groups and organisations within the local community, as crowds of around 250,000 people descended on the seaside resort. It is estimated that more than £25m was brought into the city’s economy over the Pride weekend. With more than 150 LGBTQ+ artists performing across 12 different stages, attention was largely focused on the main Fabuloso stage in the 63-acre Preston Park. Here first night headliners Black Eyed Peas were followed by Steps on the Sunday, with Solotech UK for the second year providing their flagship WPL line-array. Working once again alongside production manager Dean Parker, at Wilde Ones International Events, their sound design was based around main PA hangs of 18 WPL per side,
France - Lyon, a city famous for its annual Festival of Light, has also successfully reclaimed its two rivers, a project that started in 2002. A major element of this is the ‘glacier blue’ illumination of a 2.5k stretch of the Rhône riverbanks linking the Parc de la Tête d'Or and the Parc de Gerland in greater Lyon, which is now permanently lit with 244 new Anolis ArcSource 24 LED fixtures. This Anolis lighting scheme has replaced all the original metal halide lighting fixtures that were installed in 2008 when the riverbank scheme was inaugurated and transformed the area from moody car parking to a bustling urban thoroughfare. The switch to LED was driven by the city’s Urban Lighting Department (DEU) and the new lighting is 76% more energy efficient. The banks of the Rhône pass through a succession of natural, mineral, and urban developments and a
Germany - Christie Pandoras Box Software Version 8.8 technology is powering the impressive projection mapping at Schlosslichtspiele Festival at Karlsruhe Palace. Technical team AV Active has deployed two Pandoras Box licences, two Christie Widget Designers and 24 Pandoras Box outputs to power projection mapping onto the 172m x17m (564 feet x 56 feet) façade of Karlsruhe Palace. Among this year’s flagship events is mapping virtuoso Maxin10sity’s 80’s Flash show to tie in with a 1980s museum exhibit inside the building, while German electronic band Kraftwerk performs in front of the Palace during the festivities. The show runs from until 17 September. “We’re always happy to use Christie Pandoras Box on events - we know how to use it and prepare the content, and we’ve had no technical issues in the many years we have been working with it,” says Tamá
Lithuania - HOF has announced that it has appointed Baltic Production Service BPS as a distribution partner for Lithuania. BPS is a leading stage & light company in Lithuania, offering a variety of services to its clients including light design, stage design solutions, rigging, event services and equipment rental. Povilas Leckas, CEO at Baltic Production Service BPS says: “Our credo is efficiency, experience and passion for what we do. We like HOF because we see it as a creative company that cares about the market and its needs. As a production company, we are keen to bring new ideas that could help us do our job faster and more efficiently and help our partners succeed.” Edwin Duivelaar, export & sales manager at HOF, adds: "With Baltic Production Service BPS we share the same philosophy. Baltic Production Service BPS joining the HOF family is another imp
USA - Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg creates art that explores our relationships with nature and technology. Her latest installation, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg - Machine Auguries: Toledo, explores this relationship by simulating a dawn chorus using generative adversarial networks - two neural networks that work in a ‘call and response’ and are sometimes used to create lifelike but fake images. “The work is really about making a copy of the natural world,” said Ginsberg in a recent interview. “We focus so much on innovation and the things we can do, but there’s intelligent life outside in our natural world that we depend on to exist.” The installation at the Toledo Museum of Art represents Ginsberg’s first solo presentation in the United States and her largest indoor installation to date. Taking place over 12 minutes, the experience features the growing
USA - Independent lighting designer Joel Reiff has tapped 28 Ayrton Domino Profiles as his ‘workhorse’ fixture for Counting Crows’ 56-date summer tour across North America, which he programmed on a grandMA3 console. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton fixtures and MA lighting products in North America. The band, with guests Dashboard Confessional, kicked off their Banshee Season Tour in June in Omaha and will wrap with a show at the famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado on 25 September. Upstaging provided the Dominos and grandMA3 consoles for the tour. “I like to emphasise the music in my lighting design and not take the audience’s eyes away from what the band is doing on stage and what they’re hearing,” says Aiken, South Carolina-based Reiff. “As my spot fixtures the Dominos get the brunt of the looks and take the majorit
UK - Over two nights in June, Adlib’s sizeable inventory of Martin MAC Ultra fixtures were deployed for Sam Fender’s homecoming gigs at Newcastle’s St. James’ Park. Specified by lighting designer Sam Tozer, with lighting director Luke Avery, and design associate Harry Williams, a combination of Martin’s MAC Ultra Performance and MAC Ultra Wash fixtures delivered huge impact for the 100,000 strong audience. Explaining his initial design concept Sam Tozer said: “We wanted to create a show that felt heavy and dynamic. Something visually impactful but with the capability to create unique spaces with visuals and light. It needed to be able to match the energy of the music.” And in terms of fixtures, the LD already knew the MAC Ultra family would deliver the necessary impact. “I‘ve been using the MAC Ultra Performance in most of my larger scale
Serbia - The Kulturni Centar Zrenjanina (KCZR), or the Cultural Centre of Zrenjanin, stands as a multifaceted institution dedicated to the promotion of culture and is actively involved in curating concerts, thematic forums, exhibitions, film shows, and professional gatherings in the vibrant city of Zrenjanin. The centre takes pride in its own artistic endeavours for compelling productions. Such diverse activities demand the integration of top-notch, professional audio-visual equipment for the main stage. Through successful participation in a public procurement process initiated by the City of Zrenjanin, AVL Projekt, DiGiCo products Serbian distributor, was granted the opportunity to deliver, install, and commission a complete AV system, tailored to fulfil KCZR's requirements. The audio element is centred around a DiGiCo S21 mixing console which offers significant enhan
China - Votion Studios, a technology-driven creative agency in Hong Kong, incubated by Vobile Group in 2021, has launched a new virtual production studio that centres around an AOTO LED display powered by LED video processing from Brompton Technology. The studio’s expertise extends beyond production, and also encompasses the pivotal pre-production stage. Through its dedicated in-house VFX team, the facility offers comprehensive support to its clients, functioning as a creative hub for the development of XR and VP productions, underlining its commitment to go be more than a service provider by cultivating partnerships that drive inventive storytelling. In 2022, Votion reinvested in its LED volume, replacing the original LED configuration with advanced AOTO LED panels and Brompton’s Tessera LED processors. At the heart of the studio's capabilities are three AOT
Korea - High-end fashion brand, Gucci, recently celebrated the launch of its Cruise 2024 collection at Seoul’s Gyeongbokgung Palace with the help of communication experts punQtum. The evening blended the innovative worlds of Italian and South Korean design and showcased the heritage of Gucci, alongside the multicultural style found on the streets of the capital city. The fashion show was attended by a star-studded line-up of guests, including Dakota Johnson, Liu Wen, Wen Qi, Mark Ronson and Gulf Kanawut. Parisian production company Bureau Betak was called upon to oversee the whole production of the VIP event. In search of a high-quality communications system, Bureau Betak reached out to Dasan SR, the South Korean distributor for Riedel Communications. The brief from the client was for an easy-to-use, reliable system that would make coordination across the evening as
USA - Morgan Wallen has become a country music superstar in a very short time. Just years from debuting, he dominates the country music charts with a pair of albums that remain in the Billboard Top 10. His 2023 release, One Thing at a Time topped the chart for an impressive 15 weeks. Wallen’s current One Night at a Time stadium tour reflects his meteoric rise with an expanded production design by Zac Coren that includes Elation Proteus luminaires. Being an outdoor stadium tour, IP-rated lighting fixtures were a must and Zac turned to three fixtures in the proven Proteus series - Proteus Rayzor Blade linear FX bars, Proteus Hybrid moving heads, and Proteus Rayzor 760 LED wash effects. The tour launched in March in Australia and New Zealand with a North American leg that kicked off in Milwaukee in April and is selling out at virtually every stop. Event product
India - Jiten Jariwala and Rajiv Jariwala co-founders and partners of Pro Sound, Bengaluru, founded in 2006, have expanded their audio inventory offering with L-Acoustics. Before investing in the L-Acoustics K2 and Kara II inventory, Jiten contacted Hi-Tech Audio & Image, who are Indian distributors for L-Acoustics. Both Jiten and Rajiv were familiar with L-Acoustics signature sound. “Over the years we have listened to all the major manufacturers of sound in various events and concerts across the world, but L-Acoustics has been always a class apart in sound quality and frequency response,” shares Jiten. “Be it the power-to-weight ratio, the design, the finish, and most importantly the technology we thought L-Acoustics aces in all. Whenever we listened to L-Acoustics, we were amazed by its clarity & depth of sound. Right from rigging the line array to tun
UK - Video company UP is on the road with Depeche Mode and an Anton Corbijn-designed custom video set piece. Depeche Mode’s Memento Mori continues its world-spanning tour - it's this summer's longest running European stadium tour - with an LED ‘M’ centrepiece, a 3D scenic element that becomes seamlessly integrated as part of the video wall. Working alongside TAIT and show designer Jason Baeri, Universal Pixels has helped to create the custom-built set piece for artistic director and long-time Depeche Mode collaborator, Anton Corbjin’s latest vision. The LED adorned ‘M’ stands at an impressive 8m in height, aiding the tour’s video visuals and doubling an additional dimension for the video content. Universal Pixels has provided 320m2 of INFiLED ER5 LED for the upstage wall, IMAG screens and the ‘M’. Video director Jon Shrimpton say
UK - House of Oz is a platform to showcase the depth and breadth of Australian talent from the emerging to the veteran, in a venue with a distinctly Australian flavour. Born at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2022 as part of the UK/Australia Season, House of Oz featured a diverse programme spanning genres and generations, and in its inaugural year, won an award for Best Fringe Venue. More than just four walls, House of Oz provides the production, marketing and PR support for Australians to showcase their work. For the 2023 event, Skywalker Gibbon, a giant inflatable gibbon designed by Melbourne visual artist Lisa Roet, takes pride of place on the front of King’s Hall, Newington, Edinburgh. The venue, a 19th century church and Grade B listed building, required a sensitive solution to allow for the 20m wide by 6m tall artwork to be displayed safely, with Adrian Bell,
UK - Global Motion, specialists in logistics solutions for live touring and entertainment, has furthered its commitment to educational practices by partnering with Music Managers Forum (MMF) to support existing and next generation music managers. Founded in May 2003, Global Motion has supplied air, sea and road freight services, freight charters, hand carry, storage and ATA carnets to some of music’s biggest names - and up-and-coming talent - through the world’s most challenging territories. Current and future music managers can now benefit from this experience through Global Motion’s newly announced partnership with the Music Managers Forum (MMF). Founded in 1992, MMF works to educate, inform and represent UK managers, by supporting professional development, creating and highlighting opportunities to develop and grow business and advocating for a fairer mu
