UK - Elliot Griggs chose Robe’s T1 Profiles to provide key lighting for Amélie the Musical, a new production first staged at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury, which then undertook a nationwide UK and Irish tour and then played at The Other Palace in London.
Griggs was asked to light the show, directed by Michael Fentiman and based on the five-times Oscar-nominated 2001 French art-house romantic comedy film, Amélie. The lead character has an eccentric upbringing and a vivid imagination which she uses to explores the complexities of love, loneliness, existence and survival in the big city.
The T1 Profiles - used in addition to the touring lighting rigs at each venue on the tour - are being supplied by leading theatrical rental company White Light, investi

UK - Fineline Lighting, based near Bristol, hosted over 20 lighting designers across two days on 17-18 February for basic and advanced MagicQ training, in partnership with ChamSys.
The ChamSys team were joined for the training by Chauvet ChamSys product specialist Rebbecca Cadd.
The basic course covered the use of all MagicQ products including the range of PC Wings and MagicQ consoles. It taught attendees about starting new shows from scratch, layouts, patching, recording and editing cues, cue lists and chases, FX programming and pixelmapping.
The advanced course covered advanced MagicQ features including advanced patching, media server control, timecode, scheduled events, execute window and group FX.
Aziz Adilkhodjaev, international business development manager at ChamSys, comments: “Massive thanks to Rob and Sevim [Sangwell, Fineline directors] for or

Europe - Ed Sheeran wrapped his 260-show Divide Tour last year, which featured a large complement of Claypaky Mythos 2 and Scenius Unico lighting fixtures. Mark Cunniffe was the lighting designer for Divide.
Cunniffe created a set piece for the tour comprised of LED tiles and lighting with a massive curved crown above the stage and tall columnar centre piece. The elements at times resembled a goblet and a tree. Four automated triangular pods resided in the underside of the LED structure; each pod was on three variable speed motors controlled by Kinesys.
Cunniffe used 118 Mythos 2 spot and beam fixtures in the crown, base and across the front of Sheeran’s riser; 10 Mythos 2 were mounted inside each triangular pod.
“One of the driving factors behind choosing Mythos 2 was the size,” says Cunniffe. “I knew I could hang it on its side, it’s relatively light
featured content

Indochine X PixMob Fan Immersion

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's - 40 thousand LED pixels on a ceiling!!! Indochine's whirlwind tour transports fans to another level of the live experience - immersing them from floor to ceiling with PixMob's X4 wristbands, and an LED ceiling made entirely of its NOVA Minis! With the vision of Indochine's creative team, PixMob used its LED fan-technology to turn attendees and venues into an ocean of effects, and a starry sky of LED magic. Très très cool!

Read more about the Indochine tour in the latest issue of LSi

UK - There are few cities blessed with a more spectacular landscape than Edinburgh, over which Edinburgh Castle presides and forms a natural centre piece for events and celebrations in the city throughout the year.
Through November and December 2019, the city was treated to the inaugural Castle of Light, a celebratory visualisation of Edinburgh’s history portrayed by a combination of mapping, projection, lighting and audio, which treated visitors to a journey through thousands of years of the city’s back story of which its citizens are so rightly proud.
As part of the lighting design, nine of Ayrton’s Perseo-S fixtures made an impressive impact on the show, in particular during the finale of this promenade performance. At the top of the Perseo-S tick list is an IP65 rating making it a suitable choice for intensive outdoor use.
NL Productions (NLP) w

Australia - Artists including Queen + Adam Lambert, Olivia Newton-John, John Farnham, Alice Cooper, Delta Goodrem, 5 Seconds of Summer, Tina Arena, Ronan Keating, Hill Top Hoods, Amy Shark, k. d. lang and many more entertained 75,000 music fans – and a worldwide TV audience – all helping Fire Fight Australia raise over A$10m for bushfire relief during a high energy day of performance at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium.
Throughout the day, the heroic efforts of people uniting and the dedicated commitment of the firefighting community were highlighted in the context of the massive fight to save lives, homes and land.
Dave Jackson, Jeff Pavey and a crew from Queensland and New South Wales-based rental specialists Creative Productions provided the lighting which included nearly 130 Robe moving lights including BMFL Spots, Blades and WashBeams and Spiider LED wash beams.
T

The Netherlands - punQtum B.V. has announced a cooperation with Cymatic Audio in the fields of logistics, service and procurement.
Arie van den Broek, founder of both companies, comments: “When it comes to back-office operations, it made sense to join forces to avoid unnecessary costs. However, this arrangement will not affect the distribution channels of either company. punQtum remains a strictly business-to-business direct sales operation, whereas Cymatic Audio products will remain available through our valued dealers and distribution partners in the market.”
punQtum was established in 2019 to focus on professional tools for the live event and professional audio industry. With a firm commitment to the pro audio community, punQtum has set out to develop tools that are based on open technology standards and designed to make a difference. “We listened carefully t

Europe - Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) has engaged support from its global community in a charitable project for the Emma Children’s Hospital in collaboration with the Amsterdam University Medical Centre. Multiple AV brands and a CEDIA Award-winning installer, Woelf, are working together to create an entertainment room at Het Jeroen Pit Huis, a new transitional care unit for chronically ill children and their families in the grounds of Amsterdam University Medical Centre.
“We are pleased that we can use our industry connections, and those of our co-owners, CEDIA and AVIXA, to bring together the very best products, design and installation expertise to support this project and build something wonderful for a very worthy cause,” comments Mike Blackman, MD of Integrated Systems Events. “This space will be a source of enjoyment, excitement and escape for all those stay

UK - The Knight of Illumination (KOI) Awards has announced the appointment of five new judges across its three categories for the 2020 Awards.
The KOI Awards invites critics, journalists and industry professionals to form its three independent judging panels for the categories of Concert & Event, Television and Theatre.
Critic, broadcaster, and chair of the Theatre judging panel David Benedict is joined by three new judges: Mark Pullinger, an experienced opera critic and editor of classical music magazine Bachtrack; Sarah Crompton, dance critic for The Observer and theatre reviewer for Whatsonstage; and Susannah Clapp, theatre critic for The Observer. Each will serve a two-year term on the Theatre panel, where they join existing judges Louise Levene of the Financial Times, deputy arts editor and music critic of The Times Ne

Europe - Audio-Technica has announced a partnership with Audio Pro Business which will see the Swedish speaker manufacturer join Audio-Technica’s portfolio of distributed brands in the UK, Ireland, France and Spain with effect from 1 March.
Audio Pro Business commercial installation speaker solutions will join brands such as Audio-Technica, Allen & Heath, Genelec, Audient and Artnovion in Audio-Technica’s offering.
With a 40-year history in speaker design and manufacture, pioneering technologies such as wireless audio and lighting rail quick connections, Audio Pro Business wireless speakers allow easy installation, flexibility and audio quality while allowing customers to connect to modern streaming media services.
Gary Maguire, commercial director Audio-Technica EMEA, says: “We are delighted to be representing Audio Pro Business in our UK and Ireland

UK - PLASA has announced a series of professional development training events for this spring and summer.
The first event will focus on changes to employment law and take place at ETC’s premises in west London on 25 March. During the session, HR professional Nicky Gleadow will ensure delegates are aware of their obligations and that their businesses are compliant with the legislation changes that will be enforced from April.
On 16 April, Gleadow will also present a workshop on mental health and diversity for employers at Shure’s Rose Shure Experience Centre in London. The session will help employers understand how to promote good mental health in the workplace and ensure employees are not subject to discrimination.
On 2 July, James Eade will present the IET code of practice on in-service inspection and testing of electrical equipment. The event will take p

USA - Obsidian Control Systems has released v4.4 of its Onyx lighting control software, now with integrated DyLOS pixel composer.
Based on a full 3D environment and DirectX graphics processing, the DyLOS engine has been designed to manage tens of thousands of fixtures and parameters with ease.
As part of this launch, Obsidian Control Systems is offering all DyLOS users a package with over 1,100 media files in many categories. Optimised for the Dylos engine, it allows users to immerse themselves in the system for immediate results. In addition to this media collection, any custom user content can be imported at any time in almost any codec and size.
An unrestricted trial version of two DyLOS Zones and up to four DMX universes is enabled automatically for any Onyx PC installation.
Onyx 4.4 is compatible with all Onyx NX4 and NX2 consoles, Onyx PC systems, a

Indonesia - FOH audio engineer Sony Soebowo chooses tools from Waves Audio, including the eMotion LV1 Live Mixer and Waves plugins, mixing for two of Indonesia’s most popular performers: the band Naif, known for their retro sound and style, and Raisa, Indonesia’s popular pop/R&B star and winner of numerous awards.
Soebowo’s setup includes a Waves eMotion LV1 live mixer running on a Waves Axis One computer with a SoundGrid Extreme Server-C, a SoundStudio STG-1608 for FOH I/O and a SoundStudio STG-2412 for stage box I/O. He usually makes do with a single screen, as he uses DCAs (Digitally Controlled Amplifier) as his groups function since the mix is already set - resulting in little need for major tweaking during the show.
For recording and playback/virtual sound check, he uses Waves Tracks Live. The bands use IEMs, and as backup, or if there are wireless frequ

UK - Last month, JL Lighting was the technical supplier for a large-scale event at Magazine London on behalf of Volkswagen and The Fresh Group.
The event, which welcomed both Volkswagen employees and pre-bookers to the venue and The Intercontinental O2 at different stages over two days, celebrated the Volkswagen brand and showcased a new generation of electric vehicles in the form of the ID.3.
Volkswagen commented: “The event went really well and the feedback so far has been very positive. With JL Lighting’s tireless efforts and commitment the end result worked as we envisioned.”
Jack Linaker, MD of JL Lighting, adds: “We were thrilled to be working alongside Volkswagen and The Fresh Group to bring this event to life. The JL Lighting team were hard at work as the technical supplier, providing lighting, sound, power, rigging and video across five venue

USA - Full-service event production companies Frost Chicago and Frost Florida have added Ayrton Diablo and Ghibli fixtures to their lighting inventories. This is the companies’ first purchase of Ayrton products, distributed exclusively in North America by ACT Lighting, Inc.
Frost Florida took delivery of Ghibli LED spot luminaires last year. “We were looking for an LED framing fixture with a high lumen output and CMY and CTO variable,” says Matthew MacPherson, general manager and head sales executive at Frost Florida. “Ghibli checked all the boxes; it was everything we needed at a reasonable price point. We couldn’t be happier with them and our clients are happy as well. They’ve proved to be an amazing workhorse for us.”
Daniel Cortes, Frost Florida’s lighting director/designer, agrees. “Our Ghibli units have been in non-stop use; they’re great work

USA - When Jason Martin, coms A1, and Dave Cheramie, coms A2, were tasked with integrating a new, modern intercom system for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo at NRG Stadium, the duo found a solution to meet all of their production needs with Pliant Technologies’ CrewCom wireless intercom system.
For the 125,000sq.ft stadium, it was crucial for Martin and Cheramie to deploy a coms system that could provide dependable wireless communication and extensive range throughout the three-week long event, which is streamed live to FOX.
“When searching for a coms system for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, no other solution compared to CrewCom,” adds Martin. “It was a no-brainer to deploy the Pliant system as other systems we tested failed to perform in the large stadium with its high, domed ceiling. The competing systems also presented multipath interference is

USA - Kool & The Gang’s production manager and FOH engineer Ed Irons uses DPA’s 4099 Instrument, 2011 Twin Diaphragm Cardioid, 4011 Cardioid and d:facto 4018 Vocal Mic to deliver Kool & The Gang’s signature sound to live audiences around the world.
“Once we heard the DPA mics, we were hooked,” he says. “The horn section for Kool & The Gang is a franchise sound. With the 4099s, it is so easy to dial in on the fullness of the group. Most notable is the ease with which I capture the true character of each instrument; whether it’s a sax, trumpet or trombone - they all sound awesome with DPA.”
Kool & The Gang utilises three 4099 Loud Instrument Mics and one 4099 Extreme on their horns section, along with two 4011s for mic’ing the percussion rig. Most recently, they began using the 4099 Instrument mic on bass. “Although the 4099s sound gr

USA - The Greater Cleveland Sports Awards in late January honoured local athletes of every level, from the pros to high-school.
Reflecting the connection between local athletes and their community, the event featured a runway-like path that extended down the middle of the Cleveland Renaissance Hotel’s elegant ballroom, giving the sports honourees and performing talent who walked down it a chance to be closer to crowd.
Lining both sides of the runway and endowing it with a colourfully attractive touch was a collection of pixel-mapped Chauvet Professional COLORado Solo Batten fixtures supplied by NPi Audio Visuals Solutions.
“The runway path ran from the built-in stage at the venue to the centre stage since the program was done in the round,” explains NPi’s Alex Kay, who was one of the project managers for the event. “We lined up 18 of the COLORado Batte

Australia - NanoLumens has announced the completion of a new LED installation in the heart of Karrinyup Shopping Centre, an upscale retail venue located just outside of Perth. The installation, known as The Timepiece is suspended from a two-story ceiling above a central vertex within the shopping centre and consists of a four-sided clock sphere and a rotating double-sided pendant.
The shopping centre is managed on behalf of UniSuper by AMP Capital
“The Timepiece concept came into being during a pivotal moment for Karrinyup Shopping Centre,” said Courtney Ross, general manager - commercial for AMP, Retail. “The design intent is inspired by the transitional time of the $800m retail development of Karrinyup and aims to draw inspiration from both the classic heritage of the Centre’s core, as well as the modern retail transformation taking place around it.”

South Africa - Ultra Events Technical Solutions has recently taken delivery of a DiGiCo SD12 digital mixing console.
According to Costa Champianis, director at Ultra Events, there were limited number of large-format DiGiCo consoles available for dry hire in the region, which was having a negative impact on technical services provider’s ability to meet the demands of international riders.
“Over the past few years, there has been a shift in rider requirements, showing a definite preference for DiGiCo’s larger consoles by the majority of touring artists,” explains Champianis. “In October last year, we were contracted to provide technical services for the Norwegian pop band a-ha, who had booked touring dates in both Cape Town and Johannesburg through Breakout Events and Rogue Entertainment in mid-February. We were able to meet the requirements of about 70% of th

Croatia - The Vridilo Je show was a high-profile tribute concert in Spaladium Arena in Split, starring the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra (ZPO) and dedicated to the late singer, entertainer, and Croatian superstar Oliver Dragojević, who passed in 2018 following a career spanning over 50 years.
The event was organised by his family, management and record label, and was an emotional occasion for his many fans.
Lighting designer Sven Kučinić used the opportunity to specify Robe’s new Esprite LED spot moving lights - with the transferrable light engine - for the first time, 24 of which were delivered the day before to Croatian rental company ELDRA which supplied lighting and video equipment for the concert.
Kučinić was asked to design lighting and set by the record company, having worked with Dragojević on numerous occasions both live and on television and in

The Netherlands - AV technology tradeshow Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2020 completed a 15-year residency at the Amsterdam RAI expo centre with a special event held on the show’s last day, 14 February (Friday).
Politicians and executives saluted the venue and the city of Amsterdam while looking ahead to the future, with the tradeshow set to move to the Fira de Barcelona for its 2021 edition.
Despite health concerns brought about by the coronavirus outbreak and major travel disruption caused by Storm Ciara, ISE 2020 took place as planned, but with markedly lower attendance of 52,128 unique visitors compared to 81,268 in 2019.
Mike Blackman, MD of Integrated Systems Events, comments: “This year’s show demonstrated to us just how determined our attendees were to come to ISE. Many of our exhibitors exceeded their targets for customer engagement and lead gen

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