Columbia - When Pope Francis visited South America in September, full service Colombian rental company, Línea Estrategica, provided the audio system for his visit to Colombia, where over a million faithful braved rain and fog for the pontiff’s outdoor mass, held on the Olaya Herrera Airport in the city of Medellin, the third stop on his five-day visit to the country.
Ensuring even coverage across the site, which stretched to one kilometre in length and 200m in width, required meticulous planning and a vast L-Acoustics system that totalled over 300 cabinets.
Linea Estrategica used L-Acoustics proprietary 3D sound system design programme, Soundvision, to devise a system of 24 distributed arrays along the runway, each comprising 12 K2 topped with a K1-SB sub, plus five arrays of 10 Kara.
This relatively simple set-up required throws of no more than 80-90m which,

Australia - As part of Hobart’s annual Dark Mofo festival, the Red Bull Music Academy returned to present an industrial-scale, transcendental warehouse rave titled Transliminal.
Held in Hobart City Hall, the event showcased the dark, electronic underbelly of the subterranean club scene, and featured a stunning light show by audio-visual artist Robin Fox. Known for his mesmeric, future-forward, laser-driven light installations, Robin collaborated with Melbourne’s Additive Lighting who designed, pre-visualised and operated a disorientating and atmospheric light installation for the late-night music venue.
“Robin had been approached by Dark Mofo to create a very streamlined, dark and moody nightclub,” commented Tom Wright of Additive. “Robin is a laser artist, but he soon realized the project was more suited to a lighting installation.
“He

South Africa - In mid-October 2017, South African audiences enjoyed the return of the celebrated musical production of Evita – seen for the first time on South African stages since the 1980’s. After its premiere at the Montecasino Teatro in Johannesburg the production will be at Cape Town’s Artscape Theatre, before embarking on an Asian tour.
The creative team has striven to create a faithful recreation of the original West End production in all aspects – from the direction, choreography and musical direction to the building and creation of set, wardrobe and props. But while remaining true to the original, there is a great deal that has been updated technically, to make the current production a spectacular theatrical experience.
An extensive lighting rig, and state-of-the-art PA system recreate the imagery and feel of the original, coupled with projectio

USA - How many gigs can a 19-piece rockabilly band do in 48 days? The Brian Setzer Orchestra’s 14th Annual Christmas Rocks Tour is on a 35-date tour from 10 November to 28 December, which will be followed by concerts in Japan early next year. Highlighting the set is a 12-foot high marquee featuring 172 IMS Mk2 RGBW lamps.
“The IMS LED lamps are very easy to address,” says Joe Golden of Gallagher Staging. “They are extremely bright, with rich, warm colours and are extremely durable – a must for a rapid-moving tour such as this one. Driven by two IMS Universe Drive DIN Rail units, conveniently mounted in the set, the IMS lamps work seamlessly with incandescent lamps on a 3-channel chase. With so many load-ins and strikes in a short time, the reliability of IMS was as much a consideration as its versatility. The clients are extremely happy with the results. We

UK - Lighting rental production company Lite Alternative has added the multi award-winning Chroma-Q Color Force II LED batten to its stockholding - using the fixture on a number of high-profile European concert tours and events to date.
The Color Force II was central to lighting designer, Steve Baird's scheme for the 16-date European leg of the Day Breaks tour for nine-time Grammy-winning American singer-songwriter, Norah Jones . Playing to various sized venues and outdoor festivals, Color Force II 48 units were placed on the floor to uplight a huge white voile cyclorama in subtle pastel colours - providing the perfect visual backdrop in texture and mood for each song.
In addition, during an 18-date European tour by American alternative rock band, Interpol to celebrate the 15th anniversary of their acclaimed debut album,Turn on the Bright Lights Color Fo

USA - Media serving and display technology company 7thSense Design delivered updated video technology for the 2017 production of the Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes, presented by Chase.
The full system technology upgrade has transformed the world’s largest proscenium theatre and has enabled video content to be displayed on all eight of the venue’s proscenium arches. 7thSense has provided video systems for Radio City since 2011.
A total of 34 7thSense Infinity Media Servers output two channels each of single mode fibre 12G-SDI at 4096 x 2160 60fps 10-bit 4:2:2 resolution, into an Evertz EQX 12G fibre router and EMX multi-viewer system, offering A-B source redundancy with clean switching and monitoring before heading out to facility fibre distribution.
For the first time ever, digital projections extend from the stage to all eight

Finland - Kenneth Greve’s ballet production Land of Kalevala is currently being staged at the Finnish National Opera, with set, projection and lighting designed by Mikki Kunttu (profiled in LSi November).
The performance focuses on milestones in Finland’s history and incorporates a combination of diverse art forms.
For lighting control, Kunttu used the opera’s grandMA2 system and an MA 3D system for previsualisation.
“I always work with grandMA2 because the console plays a very central role in the process of transforming the production from design to reality,” said Kunttu. “grandMA2 helps me to concentrate on the creative elements of the show, right through from the stage rehearsals to opening ni

Dominican Republic - Luxury resort Luxury Bahía Príncipe Fantasia needed excellent design skills along with reliable luminaires for a permanent light installation.
Located at the heart of the Caribbean and focused on providing entertainment experiences, the resort turned to Javier Álvarez’ Madrid-based installation company Capicúa to create ‘magical’ lightshows.
“With the Dominican Republic’s challenging weather conditions of constant humidity and severe rain, we had to use SGM luminaires,” said Álvarez.
Faced with a job to transform this luxury resort into a hub for shows and international artists, lighting designer Manuel Vicente chose a mix between architectural fantasy spaces, show lighting, and video mapping. Especially thrilled about the versatile P-5 POI, Vicente and Álvarez were able to mount a magical fairytale light installation for th

UK - Engage Works, the full service creative technology agency, reports that it worked behind the scenes with Landsec, the UK’s largest listed commercial property company and owner of London’s Piccadilly Lights, to create an innovative charitable campaign, #PiccadillyOn, to mark the build up to the switching on of the famous Light’s on 26 October, following nine months of renovation work.
The #PiccadillyOn campaign was devised by Engage Works for Landsec, with the intention of creating a community spirit ahead of the launch, whilst raising money and ‘bringing colour to life’ in aid of Barnardo’s – the UK’s largest children’s charity and Landsec’s national charity partner for 2017.
Launched on 15 September, #PiccadillyOn invited people from around the world to sponsor a unique colour ‘chip’ for a minimum donation of £2. Th

Europe - Lighting designer James O'Neill and video designer Mark Cunniffe combined their extensive skills with the latest technology from Avolites to provide the production design for the current tour by Irish pop-rock band, Picture This.
With O'Neill controlling his lighting rig with his tried-and-trusted Avolites Arena console, and the video content run through Avolites Ai media server operated by Tim Hornung, the band's European tour is showcasing the cutting edge of light and video control.
O'Neill, who was responsible for both set and lighting design, created a raised performance area backed, flanked and fronted in LED screen. The production's wraparound surfaces featured a mixture of rich video content developed through a close collaboration between the band, Cunniffe and Tom Readdy of Yes Please Productions.
"Looking at the stage head-on or from an angle

UK - For the second year in succession, AvensysLive provided a Martin Audio MLA Compact PA for the Lingfield Park Resort Fireworks Display in Surrey, marking the beginning of a new three-year contract with the site.
The company’s operations manager, Angus Galloway, confirmed that they had specified MLA Compact as best fit for purpose for the event, and will continue to deploy it at the site in future. Stating his reasons, he said, “It meant we could use the Display software to ensure audio levels outside the audience area were kept to a minimum. We also love the power, sound and clarity that MLA Compact provides.”
The service company fielded 16 x MLA Compact elements and eight WS218X subwoofers, rigged in four stacks, each comprising four MLA Compact and a pair of WS218X. The stacks were placed on LiteDeck decking system at 1.2m in height, evenly spread along th

UK - Stage Electrics has supplied a custom-built Stage Management desk to The Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton. Located in the heart of the midlands, Wolverhampton’s oldest running theatre, The Grand presents a wide range of major touring productions every year. After their stage management desk of 20 years was no longer suitable for their needs, Ray Tizzard of The Grand, turned to industry experts Stage Electrics for a custom designed replacement.
Stage Electrics’ Paul Lucas, liaised with The Grand to establish the requirements of their new Stage Management desk. Once specifications and drawings were signed off and an inspection of the existing infrastructure was undertaken, the Stage Electrics in-house team then went into production of the desk.
The facilities of the desk are a Theatre Cue 16 channel cue light master station, 12 individually addressable cue light ou

Austria - In late September, 145 audio professionals from throughout Europe headed for the Austrian Alps, as Yamaha hosted its sixth annual System Designers Conference in the stunning location of the Scalaria Conference Centre, St Wolfgang.
Featuring workshops and lectures on a wide variety of topics, it was a truly international gathering, attracting audio professionals from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UAE and the UK.
Participants could have been forgiven for being distracted by the stunning views from the conference centre, located on the shores of the picturesque Wolfgangsee. However all of the seminars hosted in the eight conference rooms were delivered to fully attentive

USA - Criss Angel’s Mindfreak Live! at the Luxor Resort & Casino in Las Vegas upends people’s views of magic and awes spectators with a goth-horror vibe mixed with rock ‘n’ roll spectacle.
The production has the largest number of moving lights on the Strip, and combines movers, lasers, video and more into one over-the-top vision. The large number of fixtures and media demands would tax the average console – but not ETC’s Eos Ti. ETC’s latest video follows lighting programmer Josh Selander and gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at how he pulled together one of the flashiest, most technically demanding shows on the Strip and demonstrates why the Eos Ti, in the hands of a master programmer, delivers the magic.
Some of the features of Ti that Selander calls out in the video include syncing the console

UK - Written by Jack Thorne, the Old Vic’s A Christmas Carol is a brand-new adaptation of Charles Dickens’ timeless classic. It tells the story of miserly Ebenezer Scrooge who is visited by four ghosts on Christmas Eve. Over the night, Scrooge is forced to confront his past and is given a final chance to see the error of his ways. The show opened this week to positive reviews and White Light provided the lighting equipment.
A Christmas Carol stars Rhys Ifans and features a lighting design by Hugh Vanstone. Hugh comments: “This is a thoughtful and innovative take on the Dickens classic rather than an expensive, flashy stage production. This is reflected in the staging, which places the action in a specially installed-environment rather than a conventional proscenium production. A giant planked walkway stretches from the back of the stalls all the way into

Chile - Funktion-One co-founder John Newsham’s week-long visit to Chile proved an opportunity to inspire fresh minds and fine-tune old favourites
When co-founder John Newsham received an invitation to speak at the Congreso Internacional de Sonido in Santiago, Chile, he naturally grabbed the opportunity.
The conference - organised by INACAP, a non-profit educational institution comprising the Chilean University of Technology, the Centre for Technical Training, and the Professional Institute for technology - ran from 4-5 October. Newsham joined a programme of speakers from Mexico, Argentina and Brazil to deliver a two-hour presentation on the history of audio as it relates to the work of Funktion-One.
According to Cristián Jiménez Rosas, course coordinator at INACAP, talks like these are essential in forging a link between theoretical studies and real-world a

USA - Prompted by the welcome problem of a growing congregation, where it could build a 1,500-seat sanctuary. It is an older industrial park building, with characteristically low ceilings punctuated by numerous support columns. When its Winners Chapel in Lanham, Maryland recently moved to a new location initial DIY sound reinforcement system failed to deliver the kind of spirited, impactful audio that the church had hoped for, it called on Virginia-based A/V integration firm RTW Media.
Playing to the challenges of the unique space, RTW Media engineered a solution based on Danley Sound Labs SBH-20 column form-factor loudspeakers, which deliver point-source fidelity, excellent pattern control, and a clean aesthetic. Danley TH-118 subwoofers contribute low-end.
“They had big-name line array components in there, but they were misconfigured and not really in a line array,

Europe - Panasonic’s AV training academy has been accredited by AVIXA, allowing professional AV dealers and rental companies to gain renewal units inside the Certified Technology Specialist (CTS) programme.
AVIXA, formerly known as InfoComm International, has administered the CTS programme for more than 30 years, with more than 11,000 CTS holders – 500 of which are in the UK.
CTS holders are recognised as technology specialists within the industry, with part of the programme being a requirement for continuous learning.
As a result, CTS holders must regularly attend training courses to maintain their accreditation. From November 2017, attending Panasonic visual training courses will allow them to gain credits inside the programme.
“It’s a pleasure to welcome Panasonic as an RU Provider in Europe,” says Pamela Taggart, senior director of development

Europe - To celebrate Aarhus as European Capital of Culture 2017, Danish artist and lighting designer Tine Bech from Tine Bech Studio in London developed We Believe, an interactive lighting project taking place in Denmark and the UK simultaneously over a period of 10 days. Using SGM wash and flood lights, participants in Aarhus controlled the facade lights at both Aarhus City Hall Tower and The Royal Danish Embassy in London.
“We have been very pleased with the corporation with Tine Bech, who, from the beginning, set extremely high demands to both colour mix and colour calibration. In Aarhus, we mixed P-5s with P-2s, and we could not see any difference in neither colourmix nor dimming,” said Christian Vigsø, CEO of VIGSØ, who supplied and installed the lights.
As part of the larger “playable cities” initiative, We Believe was chosen in relation

USA - Halsey has embarked on the North American leg of her Hopeless Fountain Kingdom World Tour and Claypaky Scenius Profile lighting fixtures, provided by 4WallPA, are lighting her way.
The electro pop/synth pop singer-songwriter launched her arena tour at the end of September in Connecticut and will wrap up this leg in November in Cleveland. The biggest tour Halsey has ever done supports her eponymous second album and includes special guests Party Next Door and Charli XCX.
Production designers Sooner Routhier and Robert Long of S Rae Productions collaborated with the artist, who conceptualized and sketched out the original idea, to design the show, which incorporates lots of LED video. Craig Rutherford is the lighting director. “There are very large stairs with LED video on the risers, and there’s a large LED wall upstage comprised of two screens split at

Finland - Scandinavian lighting creative MOBB Helsinki counted on a legion of Notch-loaded Hippotizer Media Servers to help deliver Finland’s biggest domestic arena production.
Profeetat is the project of Cheek and Elastinen, Finland’s two biggest hip-hop artists. Formed in 2016, this year the duo marked their rapid rise by selling out three arena shows in their homeland.
First filling the Turku’s Gatorade Centre and then maxing out two nights at Helsinki’s Hartwall Arena, Profeetat’s shows stacked up to be Finland’s biggest domestic indoor arena production, one to be designed by creative outfit Mobb Helsinki, headed-up by the Finish firm’s Ari Levelä.
The gear and personnel required to run the nights mounted up, and the lighting tech armoury included two Hippotizer Boreal Media Servers and one Hippotizer Karst Media Server to run the main show, pl

Morocco - Lighting designer Chris Binks selected an Avolites Tiger Touch II and Tiger Touch Fader Wing to facilitate his authentic live control and design approach for the third edition of Oasis Festival, an electronic dance festival held at The Source Marrakech Private Resort Music & Spa in Morocco.
Chris, whose design method relies on live, intuitive control, selected the Tiger Touch II and Fader Wing to ensure easy access to all his programmable elements throughout the festival.
"When I was specifying a desk for Oasis one of the main things for me was ease of access," says Chris. "Avolites consoles are the only consoles that tick all the boxes for me, especially when busking a show. The line-up at Oasis is mainly DJs and they can change their set at any time. The Tiger Touch II has a clear layout and intuitive software features that make it perfect for m

USA - Australian electronic band Rüfüs Du Sol recently began their 2017 North America autumn tour playing two sell-out shows at Oakland’s Fox Theatre, along with headlining slots at CRSSD Fest in San Diego, CA and Austin City Limits in Austin, TX. LD Matthew Smith, of Australian lighting design team, Colourblind, provided the visuals to match Rüfüs’ style.
Helping to create these effects were the well-established impression X4 Bar 20 and impression X4 S from GLP - supplied by VER, along with all other lighting and audio requirements.
Smith was excited by the prospect of using the X4 Bars for the 2017 USA touring cycle; having used them for a previous tour in Australia, he was eager to push them to their full potential.
“I’ve been a big fan of the GLP X4 range since I took a number of X4 Wash lights on another Australian tour in 2014. They’re an incr

USA - Philips Lighting reports that the David A. Straz Centre in Tampa is enjoying significant savings in labour and power costs after upgrading its TECO Theater lighting rig with LED products from Philips Entertainment Lighting's Showline range.
The second largest performing arts complex in the south-eastern United States, the Straz Centre is home to the Patel Conservatory, one of the country's leading education facilities for theatre, music and dance. Because the 250-seat theatre is used exclusively by the Patel Conservatory's education programmes, it is important for its technical equipment to be as up to date as possible. In addition, the technical team was looking for the benefits of flexibility, ease of setup, low energy use and low maintenance offered by high-quality LED fixtures.
Joshua Young, technical manager for the theatre, says, "Previously, we used large,

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