UK - Latitude Festival offered a wide range of entertainment and interactive activities to its 45,000 audience, July 2023, with Serious Stages supporting the promoters, Festival Republic, with bespoke stages and site structures.
The main stage Obelisk Arena, a Serious 22m, six-bay Supanova, adorned with Latitude branding and giant screens, hosted a varied line-up for the Common People with their New Shoes On, on the Green Green Grass of Latitude. There was more live music on a range of Serious staging platforms across the three-day festival, including the BBC Sounds Stage, The Alcove, The Sunrise Arena, the Lavish Lounge (BBC Introducing), The Faraway Forest and the Trailer Park Stage. With plenty of laughs to be had on the 26.5m x 6m Comedy tent stage.
Operations manager Abbey Thomas reports, “The décor across the Latitude site creates an aesthetically beautiful fe

Singapore - A modern worship location which demands intelligibility throughout a large and unusually-shaped space to deliver the word, music and all elements of praise - the results of a blind listening test lead to the installation of an Outline system at Wesley Methodist Church.
Wesley Methodist Church is the oldest Methodist church in Singapore, with its roots going back to 1885. To provide increased capacity for its ever-expanding ministry, the church has undertaken regular development programmes over many years, which have included improving the sanctuary, adding a four-storey educational block with a concert hall and basement car park, a new baptismal hall with basement rooms and Wesley Plaza.
Completed in 2012, another project created a further 36,000sq.ft of usable space, including a new plaza hall on top of the sanctuary extension, additional seating and the c

UK - Henley Festival, known for its refinement and elegance, made a triumphant return this year, commemorating a significant milestone. RG Jones, the provider of sound systems, celebrated four decades of collaboration with the festival. The riverside location presented audio challenges, particularly with the Floating Stage.
Overcoming the technical feat of achieving consistent audio coverage for both the audience inside and outside the auditorium, given the relatively short front-to-back distance and expansive space, RG Jones, under the guidance of designer Simon Honywill, tackled the challenge with the acclaimed MLA Compact system from Martin Audio. The advanced control technology of MLA enabled precise adjustments to meet licence conditions, ensuring optimal sound levels and minimising offsite noise.
The festival showcased an extraordinary line-up featuring Rag'n'Bon

USA - Country music artist Kelsea Ballerini’s popular Heartfirst tour moved outside in June and July with a lighting design by Nick Chang that featured Elation Professional’s versatile Artiste Monet LED profile moving head, along with Smarty MAX luminaires. The tour, extended to a third leg due to overwhelming demand, travelled all over the country. Lighting and video vendor for the tour was 4Wall Nashville.
Nick initially served as lighting director for the tour’s first leg last fall and continued in the same role for the second leg in February/March, when Ballerini served as direct support on Kenny Chesney’s tour. Nick moved into the role of creative designer and programmer for the tour’s third leg this summer and took the opportunity to redesign the visual aesthetic.
After a short two-week turnaround to get the new rig together, reprogramme, etc., they se

New Zealand - Basement Theatre in Auckland is living proof of how the ‘small is beautiful’ concept can become a hub of creative endeavour, a hot bed of ideas, experimental art, and the instigator of lively political and social discourse as well as an inclusive place for talented live performance imagineers to hone their craft.
In 2022, Basement Theatre purchased its first Robe LED fixtures – two CycBar15s – a sale in proportion to its production needs that has made a big difference to how shows can be lit.
Squeezed into an old industrial building, once part of a large grain silo development, the charismatic theatre has been on the site for 15 years, making the most out of a challenging layout with some out-of-the-box reimagining that has ensured it has everything needed for a busy and thriving venue.
A busy and diverse programme of shows run Tuesday to S

UK - The Royal Shakespeare Company with its permanent home in Stratford-upon-Avon needs little introduction. Its main house, the 1018-seat Royal Shakespeare Theatre underwent a major rebuild and refurbishment between 2007-2010, and its smaller Swan Theatre (469 capacity) has recently reopened in April 2023 after a year-long post-pandemic refurbishment.
Both houses have had Ayrton fixtures installed for the first time, replacing failing lighting stock with Ayrton Diablo and Eurus fixtures specified by the RSC head of lighting, Kevin Sleep.
“Those most urgently in need of replacement were some of the moving heads in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) which we replaced with Ayrton Eurus S in May 2022,” explains Sleep. “We needed a bright LED replacement so chose 9 Eurus S for their extra punch. The S models have slightly paler shades but we wanted their extra power

India - Mumbai-based Light Craft & Sound Pvt provided a large complement of Claypaky fixtures to light three music videos showcasing songs from the hit Bollywood film, Satyaprem Ki Katha (Tale of True Love).
Released in June 2023, the film is a Hindi language romantic drama about a troubled marriage. It has already become the sixth highest-grossing Hindi film of the year.
Claypaky Sharpy X Frames, Tambora Batten Squares, HY B-EYE K25s and Mythos 2 fixtures were selected by lighting designers Imran Shaikh and Rohan Tambe to light the production of the three videos. Light Craft undertook the responsibility of creating lighting designs for the three songs working closely with the director of photography and choreographer to achieve specific atmospheres and moods.
“These four fixtures were the perfect choice for the camera applications and the the

UK - Lancashire-based event management specialist Glasgows has been a leading UK supplier for more than 35 years, working with a wide range of organisations. In 2021, Glasgows provided production for Green Zone at the UN’s Climate Change Conference, COP26, a measure of the esteem in which the company is held.
Until recently, the company had hired in audio systems to cover the needs of specific events, but a change in the circumstance of a regular supplier prompted Glasgows to explore the possibility of investing in own equipment. As champions of sustainability the company seeks, wherever possible, to reduce its impact on the environment, so as well as addressing an immediate logistical challenge, the company saw an opportunity to invest in a long-term, future-proof solution. Having decided that an outright purchase was the way forward, they consulted with Bradford-based su

Australia - Tucked within the laneways of Sydney's Angel Place, the City Recital Hall is a purpose-built live performance venue with world-class acoustics located in the heart of Sydney's CBD.
After 22 years and as part of a major revamp, the venue has upgraded its lighting and audio systems, transitioning from old conventional lighting fixtures to a modern, LED-based rig supply. To make this choice, the restaurant contacted Show Technology, the official distributor of Prolights in Australia.
The new lighting setup includes the following Prolights fixtures: 22 LED Cyc EclCyclorama 50, eight LED Fresnel EclFresnel 2KVW and 20 LED Profile EclProfile CT+.
This choice has impressed the technical production manager of the City Hall, Richard Fenton. In particular, the 14 EclCyclorama 50 projectors were used to illuminate the structure of the sound-reflecting panels po

Czech Republic - The presidency of the European Union rotates amongst member states every six months. In the second half of 2022, the Czech government took on this responsibility and relied on Bosch conferencing and interpretation equipment due to its reliability and functionality to ensure that all 212 events that took place across the country during its presidency went on smoothly.
The Czech Government selected AV Media Events, a member of the Congress Rental Network (CRN) to support the presidency events. The rental company was chosen considering its experience with modern Bosch conferencing equipment as well as its extensive stock of Dicentis and Integrus technology.
The EU issues strict guidelines for the equipment used at every meeting it hosts to ensure the same experience is delivered every time, no matter whether the meetings take place in historic venues such

USA - An estimated 250,000 people turned up for Nashville’s Let Freedom Sing! 4th of July celebration. Bandit Lites worked with Chris Lisle of Chris Lisle Lighting Design to provide the lighting for both The Jack Daniel’s Broadway Stage as well as the Ascend Amphitheatre.
This year’s featured headliner was country music superstar Brad Paisley with additional live performances from The War And Treaty, singer-songwriter Langhorne Slim, rising country artist, Tiera Kennedy, Nashville pop singer-songwriter Ben Recto and more.
“More than ever, we want to deliver a world-class concert and fireworks show to commemorate July 4th and give back to our community,” said Butch Spyridon, president and CEO, Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. “As well, our visitors have always supported us through challenges, and this is the perfect way to welcome them back and we

Sweden - A little over 15 years ago, The Royal College of Music (Kungl. Musikhögskolan or KMH) in Stockholm launched a project to build a new campus to support the school’s performance, composition, conducting and music and media production programs. In addition to new concert halls, practice rooms and teaching facilities, KMH’s campus includes a suite of three recording and production spaces, one of which houses a Solid State Logic Origin 32-channel analogue mixing console.
The SSL Origin room is the only control room of the three music production environments to feature a mixing console, with the other two featuring DAW and outboard hardware setups. The control room featuring the Origin is used exclusively by students pursuing three-year bachelor's and two-year master's degrees in music production for their personal projects. The studio also offers a live tracking spa

USA - Charlotte’s downtown is, like many modern cities, undergoing something of a renaissance, with urban renewal bringing in a new and younger demographic eager to live and socialize in the vibe of city life. None of this was lost on entrepreneur and club owner Eric Gussin, a world traveller whose Trio nightclub in Charleston, South Carolina was enjoying a reputation among locals and visitors as one of that city’s hot spots.
“Charlotte is a great city with a thriving nightlife and dance music community, but they’ve really not had a place to dance until now,” says Gussin, who is bringing Trio Charleston’s vibe to the much larger Charlotte venue. Including lighting from Michael Meacham of idesign Productions and powerful sound courtesy of E11EVEN Sound by DAS Audio.
Designed by DAS Audio hospitality and nightclub national sales manager John Fiorito with equi

Canada - A new production of Richard II adapted by Canadian playwright and provocateur Brad Fraser is playing in the Tom Patterson Theatre as part of the 2023 Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario.
Conceived and directed by Jillian Keiley, the work is choreographed by Cameron Carver and lit by Leigh Ann Vardy who is utilising 12 x Astera Titan Tubes and four Helios Tubes as inventive lighting and visual props to assist the ambience and narrative flow.
Jillian Keiley wanted a minimalist stage setup, and as the creative team started to evolve the aesthetic – with the action set in a Studio 54-inspired disco steeped in the glamour, grit, and glitz of 1970s / 80s New York – it became essential to involve lighting elements that could take on the roles of both physical props … and metaphysical suggestion.
Leigh Ann, Jillian, and Stratford Festival’

UK - The UK premier of the much-publicised movie, Barbie, took place 12 July at Cineworld Leicester Square. Limited Edition Event Design with support from IPS (Impact Production Services) produced the event.
Helping to create the colourful scene was a collection of 272 IP65 rated Chauvet Professional video tiles and lighting fixtures from IPS’ own extensive inventory.
“As most of the action at a premiere event takes place outside, IP rated equipment is the most suitable, since it allows everything to keep operating whatever happens with the weather,” Tom Warden of IPS said of the event’s kit. “There is only one chance to get things right on these shows and Limited Edition Event Design does an excellent job as the technical production designer.
Film premieres are a tough gig in the best of times, especially when they take place in very busy centra

UK - Void Acoustics is proud to be associated with Art Designers This is Loop whose large-scale audio-visual sculpture Emergence has recently been shortlisted for a CODAaward.
Emergence is an immersive audio-visual installation which features Void Acoustics’ sculpted Cyclone 55 fixture. This weather-protected IP-55 rated speaker was ideal for the artwork, which is predominantly displayed in outside environments.
Artist Alan Hayes is one of the partners of This is Loop - a collaborative artistic partnership which tours large-scale experiential architectural installations and sculptures to city centres and events across the UK and the world.
As the creator and architect of Emergence, Alan was adamant about his decision to work with Void Acoustics on this particular sculpture. The brief was to provide the audio aspect of the installation whi

UK - Following on from a Spring visit to Australia and New Zealand, Kurt Vile and The Violators hit the road in the UK and Europe touring in support of the 2022 studio album, Watch My Moves. The Philadelphia psych rock star’s audio crew continues to choose Britannia Row Productions for equipment rental and international tour support.
FOH engineer Aaron Brody began working with Vile six years ago, and as of last year, has been pulling double duty as Tour Manager. “We’ve been with Brit Row since I started working with Kurt, when I was originally mixing monitors. He’s actually the first artist I've toured with overseas, and this has given me the ability to rent a production package,” he says.
“I love working with Brit Row; the prep days in their shop are the best! It’s important to know, when you’re mixing and tour managing, that your gear is going to be

UAE - As house riggers at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, Unusual Rigging & Engineering is used to handling the requirements of the array of different events that are hosted there. However, The International Indian Film Academy Awards 2023 presented URE with its biggest project at the venue to date.
URE’s Richard Hoare explained: “IIFA is a massive event - the Bollywood equivalent to the Oscars - held annually, it celebrates the best talent the Indian film industry has to offer. This year we were asked to supply our venue rigging services for the event. This involved more than 316 points to suspend more than 105 tonnes of production equipment. This was 100+ more points than we rigged for the 2022 event and three times the amount we’d expect to put in for a normal show.”
One of the big challenges this year was time. The venue was booked back-to-back with ev

France - The commemoration of the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, which marked the beginning of the French Revolution, is the occasion for numerous events throughout the country.
For this 11th edition of the giant classical music concert at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, Lawo once again met the live sound and live broadcast requirements of the French public broadcasters and Eurovision network. Under the expert hands of Radio France and France Televisions' sound engineers, Lawo consoles delivered quality audio to the huge crowd on the Champ de Mars, as well as to millions of listeners and viewers.
Two mc²56 desks sharing a pair of redundant A__UHD Core units were used at front of house by Nadège Antonini for the orchestra and the overall PA mix, and by Stéphane Thouvenin for the soloist premix. A third mc²56 and an A__UHD Core audio engine took care of th

Switzerland - From 30 June through 15 July, the limelight of contemporary music performance again focused on the shores of Switzerland’s Lake Geneva, where legends and emerging luminaries assembled for the 57th edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival. Meyer Sound was on hand for its 37th year as strategic partner and official sound provider, ensuring that the latest in audio technology was ready to connect artists to audiences at the two paid-ticket venues and 11 free music stages.
Again this year, the Auditorium Stravinski hosted world-renowned artists spanning generations and genres, including Bob Dylan, Lil Nas X, Iggy Pop, Gilberto Gil & Family, Buddy Guy, and Nile Rodgers & Chic. And, for the second year, the system at the 4,000-capacity venue was built around a complement of 24 Meyer Sound Panther large-format linear line array loudspeakers.
“The reacti

The Netherlands - Salesforce’s World Tour Amsterdam business event took place at the Taets Art & Event Park in Zaandamon 23 May. Smile Licht en Geluid Utrecht, Showtec and Infinity illuminated the event.
Salesforce is a company that creates cloud-based software to help companies connect with their customers in an innovative way. Their World Tour Amsterdam event included more than 40 sessions from industry leaders designed to improve business practices.
Several areas in the Taets Art & Event Park were created to host different topics and the setup was ideal for information sharing and networking. In addition to customised decor, this included a large number of lights by Showtec and Infinity.
The lights were provided by Smile Licht en Geluid Utrecht, a company that specialises in light, video and sound technology as well as rigging and power distributio

South Africa - Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria came to life with three performances over a four-day period with the Bethel Music SA Tour, Theuns Jordaan Tribute concert and the Boots and All Country Festival featuring Kip Moore, with all shows produced by The Hit Factory.
MGG was appointed full technical supplier for the shows, incorporating one of its two new DiGiCo Quantum 338 along with a Quantum 225 digital mixing console.
The three shows at Loftus catered for an audience of over 30,000 per performance. “It's such a privilege to do large format concerts like this again and to see a massive crowd of people just enjoying themselves gave us goosebumps,” Günther Müller, project manager at MGG enthuses. “This, paired with the fantastic artists and supported by the A++ technical team in South Africa, was an experience like no other. It’s such a privilege to

USA - PRG (Production Resource Group) has been named one of two pilot phase partners for L-Acoustics’ L Series Speakers in the Americas, before the technology becomes fully available to the public this October. This year, PRG has made a significant eight-figure investment with long term partner L-Acoustics. PRG is an L-Acoustics Certified Provider Rental (CPr) and the equipment is now available across PRG’s global locations on a rental basis.
PRG’s expanded partnership with L-Acoustics makes the brand’s tech available to customers and markets around the world. Metal band, Dream Theater, is the first production where the L Series is being utilised by PRG on tour.
“Our substantial investment in L-Acoustics products reinforces our commitment to creating outstanding experiences for audiences at live events around the world,” says Doug McKinley, VP, asset serv

USA - With stars like Zeds Dead, STS9, Louis The Child, Subronics, Liquid Stranger, Walker & Royce, and Alesso, The Other Stage at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival served up plenty of EDM firepower. A high-intensity lighting rig was the order of the day and that’s precisely what Chris Lisle provided with help from 325 Chauvet Professional fixtures, which like the rest of the rig were supplied by 4Wall Entertainment.
Lisle, the owner of Nashville-based CLLD, LLC gave the visiting LDs for these artists all the punchy output they could ever ask for, but he didn’t stop there. The fixtures in his rig on The Other Stage were also very versatile, supporting a variety of looks, while also possessing the strength to stand up to large, multi-surface video walls and a video ribbon that ran across the roof of the stage.
Much of the lighting excitement was generated b

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