Canada - Event technical specialist Spotlight Audio Visual Industries (SAVI) supplied full event production for the Toronto premiere of The Matrix Resurrections, staged at the Scotiabank Theatre Cineplex in Toronto, and including over 300 Astera wireless LED lighting fixtures. The visual design for this fourth Matrix sci-fi action movie launch was created by SAVI’s Avi Yurman and involved projection mapping onto the front of the building with lighting to support this and illuminate the whole cineplex environment, inside and out. The venue was transformed into a vibrant and distinctive Matrix green colour. Every lighting fixture, apart from some moving lights assisting the façade lighting, was Astera explained Avi, who utilised Astera AX1 PixelTubes, AX3 LightDrops, AX5 TriplePARs, the new AX9 SuperPARs, AX10 SpotMax’s, both versions of the new AX2 pixel b
USA - America’s love of Scorpions was on full display last month in Las Vegas where the German rock band played a string of shows at Zappos Theatre in Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. Dubbed Sin City Nights with special guests Skid Row, the three-week residency was lit by Austrian designer Manfred Nikitser, who turned to Elation Professional’s Artiste Monet LED moving head as a workhorse fixture on the show. America’s affection for Scorpions, one of the best-selling hard rock and heavy metal bands of all time, has endured since the 1970s. Nikitser has worked with the band since their 50th Anniversary tour in 2016, starting as a media programmer before eventually taking over the lighting role. For the Vegas residency, he handled production and lighting design, and also programmed and operated the show. The headlining residency on the Las Vegas Strip w
Belgium - De Vooruit in Ghent is an award-winning and historically significant festival and arts centre - originally built for the Flemish labour movement between 1911 and 1914 - as well as an interesting and eye-catching building containing multiple halls now mainly used for concerts, club nights, live performances and assorted cultural events. The 1100-capacity Concert Hall venue has recently received a complete lighting upgrade, with Robe chosen as the moving light brand with a mixture of 31 x T1 Profiles, 12 x Spiider wash beams and 22 x LEDBeam 350s. These were specified after discussions between De Vooruit’s technical crew co-ordinator Karel Clemminck and lighting expert Jarne Pollet, together with Peter Vanhove from locally based rental company, Euro PA. Peter has been involved with De Vooruit in different technical capacities since the 1980s. The Conc
USA - The Florida Panthers are best known for their exploits on the ice, but when the hockey team wanted to celebrate with some of their best fans recently, they shed their skates and headed over to the soft pine wood lanes of Strike 10 Bowling in Boca Raton. Since opening in March, Strike 10 has established itself as a hip go-to-spot for local celebrities and ordinary folk alike in South Florida, thanks to its abundance of amenities, including a 50ft bar that would be right at home in Tribeca, 30 large HD TVs, live entertainment, a sushi bar, and 11 professional bowling lanes, as well as special kids’ lanes. Tying it all together, while adding an extra dash of panache and colour to the venue is a lighting design by Jay Krause and the team at Sound and Lighting Solutions of Pompano Beach that features some 200 Chauvet Professional and Iluminarc fixtures, all of which
Europe - Music is the Weapon selected DPA Microphones to capture the sounds necessary to bring its new multimedia installation to life. Described as a live, innovative art concept, the project, known as Set Sound to… is a comprehensive recording of large- and small-scale public performances with interactive installations, music and live singing. The artistic vision of Danish sound artist, singer, composer and performer Gudrun Holck and visual and performance artist Eva Vēvere from Latvia, these events are said to “create a platform for deeper experience and reflection about connection and continuity in the contemporary world”. As the duo incorporates visual storytelling, site exploration, sound, vocalization and performance for the format, the equipment they use is critical. The first of the pair’s creative residencies in 2020, Set Sound to Can Lis<
Romania - During the pandemic, like others in their business, the Marbo Trade team shifted their focus to create a digital production facility for supporting livestream and broadcast productions. However, they didn’t stop there. Rather than restrict themselves, they expanded their horizons to create a bona fide virtual production studio in Bucharest, complete with extensive Unreal Engine 3D creation capabilities. Many believe that VPX Studios Romania is the first facility of its kind in Eastern Europe. It is certainly one of the most well equipped. Drawing on the capacity of its Unreal Engine, it allows the design team to render real time 3D images on the wall from the tracked camera perspective and updates it as camera moves across studio. The team can also feed the LED volume with high-quality photorealistic images in a 10 bits HDR colour space for a real-life camera exp
Australia - The University of Western Australia (UWA) recently partnered with 3D Audio Visual and Harman Professional Solutions to outfit its new Ezone UWA Student Hub facility with a full array of networked audio solutions. Located on University of Western Australia’s Perth campus, Ezone is a new learning space dedicated to the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). To transform the way these fields are taught, UWA developed the space to be a world-class education hub that allows students, alumni, and industry experts to participate in a variety of conferences, panels, seminars, lectures and question-answer sessions. UWA required AV systems to support a wide range of activities and events and hired 3D Audio Visual to design and install complete Harman networked AV systems using solutions by JBL, AMX, BSS and more. “We wanted a hi
USA - In the heart of a thriving section of Birmingham, Alabama, stands the Birmingham/Jefferson Convention Complex (BJCC) located in the Uptown Entertainment District. The multi-use complex boasts 220,000sq.ft of flexible space which serves as a conference and entertainment destination for the city. The complex includes a 3,000-seat concert hall, two theatres: one 1,000-seat, and one 274-seat. The largest venue, Legacy Arena with 19,000 seats, has recently undergone a complete audio system overhaul. Originally build back in 1976, Legacy Arena may be the most impressive renovation of the $300m expansion of the Birmingham/Jefferson Convention Complex, which began in 2018. Some of music’s biggest names performed at the arena - from Bob Dylan to Garth Brooks, Luciano Pavarotti to Prince, Led Zeppelin to Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Grateful Dead to Taylor Swift, Jay-Z to ZZ Top
USA - For the Gobi Stage at this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, sound equipment provider Rat Sound Systems relied on Harman Professional audio solutions to deliver the sound. This year, the festival occurred over two weekends and brought approximately 250,000 people to the Empire Polo Club in the Coachella Valley. This year also marked the festival’s return after a two-year hiatus, with a line-up including Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and Swedish House Mafia with The Weeknd as headliners. The mid-size Gobi stage hosted a diverse bill of artists including electro-pop singer Rina Sawayama, alt-jazz combo BADBADNOTGOOD and masked country star Orville Peck among many others. To best accommodate a variety of genres and give the audience an immersive experience uninhibited by noise from the other festival stages, the Rat Sound team implemented a rig fea
South Korea - In a city filled with thousands of houses of worship, Somang Presbyterian Church still stands above the rest as one of the most respected churches in Seoul. Located in the heart of the fashionable Gangnam district, the church has been made famous by its long history, stretching back over more than 40 years, as well as its progressive use of technology in worship services. The most recent example - a top to bottom reinvention of its second sanctuary - has proven no less influential, drawing the attention of congregants and sound engineers alike. Used primarily for wedding services and by the church’s youth group, Somang’s second sanctuary would feel like a main auditorium elsewhere. Yet for Jung Hak Kim and Seokwoo Choi of Star Networks, the space presented a number of challenges, including high reverberation that had made the previous audio system sou
Albania - A combination of a Martin Audio CDD system and a BlacklineX has been designated for sound reinforcement in the multi-purpose auditorium at the new Embassy of Peace for the Balkans in the Albanian capital of Tirana. Located near the Tirana National Park, the building serves as the new headquarters for the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification and the Women Federation for World Peace in Albania. The location was designated after Tirana hosted the Southeast European Peace Summit in November 2019, organised under the patronage of the Prime Minister of Albania, in conjunction with Family Federation and Universal Peace Federation, where over 400 VIPs from 55 countries participated. Conceived as a ‘House of Peace’, designed to serve the Balkans, this new building has undergone a sculptural process of cuts and clefts to give it a contemporary and d
USA - For more than two decades, huge crowds have gathered at Bayfront Park in downtown Miami at the tail end of March for Ultra Music Festival, a massive three-day party with EDM artists providing the live playlist. As the culmination of the annual Winter Music Conference and Miami Music Week, the festival has long flown L-Acoustics loudspeakers on a number of its stages. But this year marked the first time Unreal-Systems/AgorÀ USA was tasked with providing audio for the Main Stage, and the company deployed an appropriate K1-based rig to keep the nightly crowd of 55,000 dancing. “This is my 20th year of doing this festival as its audio provider, so that's kind of a milestone,” opens Unreal-Systems/AgorÀ USA ‘captain’ Andre Serafini, nodding to his history as the former owner and president of Beachsound. “We've always had L-Acoustics on several of the stage
USA - Broadway’s bold and original new musical, Flying Over Sunset at the Broadway Theatre, has been ground-breaking not only for its left-field storyline of a fictional meeting between Aldous Huxley, Clare Boothe Luce and Cary Grant all dropping LSD. Written and directed by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner James Lapine, with a score written by Tom Kitt - Pulitzer Prize, Emmy and Tony Award winner - and Tony nominee Michael Korie, the scenic visualisations in this unusual staging are supported by TiMax TrackerD4 to track the performers not with audio as is often the case, but with video projection, and for the first time on Broadway. The consistency and versatility of award-winning TiMax TrackerD4 precision stage tracking is well acknowledged, and its status as de facto tracking system for other spatial audio engines beyond TiMax SoundHub is well earned. Packing
USA - Basesix Systems outfitted the recently opened Bellyard Hotel with JBL Professional loudspeakers and AMX networked AV systems to deliver quality sound and video content via an easy-to-use system. Located in Atlanta’s historic West Midtown stockyards, the Bellyard Hotel by Marriott is the cornerstone of The Interlock, the city’s newest destination for high-end shopping and culture. During construction, the hotel’s leadership required guidance regarding the most suitable AV systems in the lobby, bar, conference rooms and outdoor section. To meet the hotel’s modern design and commitment to quality, Basesix Systems installed solutions by JBL Professional and AMX. “The design was probably 80% complete, but there were several question marks,” said Dan Ford, systems director of AV, Basesix Systems. “The consultants looked for our guidance to fill in the bl
USA - Understanding that sound is the main motivator of any club, Photo City Music Hall looked to local power amp specialist Ashly Audio to provide a powerful, flexible solution to the venue’s needs. After ‘an overwhelmingly positive response’ to the recent installation of Ashly Audio’s amplifiers, Photo City Music Hall is ready to host larger, and louder, shows. What began as a small venue has grown to be a Rochester staple. Photo City Music Hall originally opened in 2016 with owner Daniel Nielsen living in the green room for the first year and a half while growing the space. In the beginning most of the shows were punk or metal bands as well as comedy and burlesque shows. However, during COVID, the venue rebranded and increased capacity to 500. This allowed them to focus more on music with 95% of shows being music related and EDM being a more popular genre.
Poland - A multi-functional building combining office and cultural spaces, Poland’s newly-constructed Cavatina Hall opened its doors at the start of this year. It is the only privately owned and funded concert hall in the country and its owners’ uncompromising approach to design demonstrates their ambition for the venue to become a landmark on Europe’s cultural map. The six-storey multifunctional building counts over 9,000sq.m of A-class office space, a chamber music hall, and a recording studio. But the crown jewel of the building is the 1,000-capacity concert hall which boasts a stage with AV technology integrated into an extensive digital and analogue network, and L-Acoustics’ progressive L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal sound technology, delivered by Warsaw-based L-Acoustics certified provider distributor, Audio Plus. The venue was created by Cavatina Holding, of
The Netherlands - Just prior to lockdown, lighting designer Erwin Van Lokeren was beginning work on an upcoming tour by his long-time client, Dutch rock stars Racoon. With the world of touring turned away from him, Van Lokeren had time to think about design and what he sees as one of its core meanings, how to reflect his clients’ music. It was, he now says, a time to allow “creativity to run free and build up”. This April, the result of this creative incubation was revealed during Racoon’s arena show at Rotterdam Ahoy, as Van Lokeren and his co-designer/systems tech Bert Ploegh transformed the stage with an evocative, mesmerising lightshow created with the help of Chauvet Professional Maverick, STRIKE and Epix fixtures supplied by Splendit. “For this show because of the Covid, we had a lot of time to create and try new things,” says Van Lokeren. “There
Europe - Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer returns to the concert stage with an innovative and dynamic production design created by Derek McLane, Peter Nigrini, and Lightswitch. Produced and promoted by RCI Global and Semmel Concerts, Hans Zimmer Live is a major arena entertainment spectacular. More than just a concert, the show features Zimmer, a band, an orchestra made of acclaimed musicians from around the world, and a troupe of dancers and singers - all performing works from Zimmer’s multi-award winning catalogue. The performance features arrangements from many major motion pictures, including the Academy Award winning films Dune, No Time to Die, and The Lion King, as well as fan favourites The Last Samurai and Interstellar. With 10 musicians from the Odessa National Opera Orchestra, the show is also a poignant an
Austria - Vienna’s Theater im Park, a new open-air stage nestled in the gardens of the Palais Schwarzenberg in the heart of the city, is an idyllic setting to take in a summer show. The new stage, which debuted in 2020, has been outfitted with Elation Professional Proteus Lucius IP65-rated LED moving heads specified and installed by event services company six by nine of Linz. The opulent palace and magnificent gardens attracts a steady stream of visitors in its own right, but now a summer series of shows from theatre, cabaret and comedy, to classic and pop music events, has made the area even more popular. Six by nine was called on to light the new stage, a role that included the entire technical installation including engineering and other technical elements, as well as show execution and maintenance. A flexible lighting system was required that could cover a varie
Indonesia - Since opening in late-February, luxury supper club Black Owl has taken PIK Golf Island in Northern Jakarta by storm with its high-end dining and entertainment experience. At the heart of its music-focused offering is an impressive Funktion-One sound system from PT. Electro Audio Engineering. Owned and operated by Murino Berjaya Indonesia, the 1,000sq.m space has been designed to give guests uninterrupted views of the stage from anywhere in the venue. The performance area and its captivating LED backdrop are the focal point of the main room, where the entertainment programme combines a mix of live music and DJ performances. PT. Electro Audio Engineering's Linson Sugianto explains: “We had installed a different brand system for the group around four or five years ago, when they were still at a smaller venue in Jakarta. When they grew, they wanted something
Germany - Atrax, a mixing and mastering studio specialising in hip-hop and urban pop music, has been rebuilt using Van Damme Blue Series 8 core cables. Based in Germany, Atrax now offers a modern workflow for customers all over the world. For over 10 years, the studio has been helping artists to take their music to a new level. Whether it's mixing, mastering, recording or the entire production, it works with both newcomers and established artists, helping them get the perfect sound. Thomas Merth, owner and CEO, Atrax Studios, comments: “We specialise in hip hop and urban pop and our customers expect quality at the highest level. I came to know and love Van Damme cables on many of the studio installations I have managed in the past. So it was easy to decide which cables to use for this rebuild. They’re absolutely reliable, the highest quality and have great ha
USA - When he set about designing a light show, for regional Mexican trio Marca MP’s recent California tour, SoCal-based LD Gus Martinez began envisioning how his favourite colour combinations would play off against the band’s blend of banda, mariachi, and ranchera music. He also pictured in his mind, a scene for the artists’ entrance on the stage. The way Martinez envisioned it, the band would emerge from an elevator, flanked by runaway lights, while a variety of spots and washes illuminated the crowd, creating instant contact with their famously loyal fans. Happily, that’s precisely as it played out at large venues like Ontario’s Toyota Arena, filling Martinez with an indescribable feeling. “One of my favourite looks was the entrance,” said Martinez. “I imagined this moment throughout the entire time I was designing the show. Seeing it come to l
UK - Treehouse London occupies the site of the former Saint Georges hotel on Langham Place, boasting some of the best views of any London hotel. Combined with a playful aesthetic, a determinedly sustainable ethic and some excellent food and drink options, Treehouse London offers one of the capital’s most surprising and joyful hospitality experiences. Inaugurated on 31 October 2019, the hotel was rapidly forced to close its doors again in the face of the pandemic; 18 months later as the world makes a cautious return to normality, Treehouse London is welcoming guests once more to experience its hospitality. Specialist AV integrators Promotiontime NE were called in to design and specify the AV systems across the bar and restaurant areas that occupy the entirety of the 15th and 16th floors. KV2 was deemed the ideal choice. Brian Graham, owner and MD of Promotiontime NE,
USA - Country star Jimmie Allen kicked off his Down Home Tour 2022, his first headlining tour, with a lighting system provided by Bandit Lites. “I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the entire Jimmie Allen team,” said Bandit Lites vice president Mike Golden. “Tour manager David Schultz and I began working together when he first graduated from Belmont. As time moved forward, he involved production manager Parker Anderson who David met while attending school. They in turn hired Lane Hymel who had also worked with Bandit in the past. This group is a highly motivated team that has taken Jimmie’s production to a new level, and we are very proud to be working this team.” “We wanted a rig that could give us the biggest impact and fit into our budget,” explained lighting designer Lane Hymel. “Choosing fixtures like Chauvet’s EPIX Bar Tour allow us to offer
