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USA - John Featherstone of lighting and visual design practice Lightswitch worked as part of the XD Agency team to help create a high-impact environmental design for Cisco Live! 2019. Featuring a series of light-based artworks, this project was conceived to catch the eye and quicken the pulse of delegates entering the main presentation space at San Diego Convention Centre.
To do this, Lightswitch used over 400 Robe moving lights - 200 Pointes, 180 MegaPointes and 24 Spiiders.
The massive four-day event welcomed more than 25,000 Cisco ‘power users’ from around the world who came to learn about the latest products, services and ideas, to network and be entertained.
The central ‘general session’ space was located across two halls of the Convention Center’s

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Romania - Staged in the city of Cluj, which is in the heart of Transylvania, the Untold festival is a mixture of sights, sounds, smells and adventures. It’s a music festival created to amaze the hundreds of thousands of visitors that descend upon the city each year for four days of music and fun.
This year’s festival was held from 1-4 August and attended by more than 400,000 music lovers. The line-up of included Robbie Williams, Afrojack, Armin Van Buuren, Steve Aoki, Nicky Romero, Bastille and Fedde Le Grand.
The centrepiece of this year’s Untold stage featured a giant Wizard’s head that weighed in at 13.2t. To support this massive weight, Untold needed a strong truss span that could not only handle this 13.2t point load, but also be stable enough to withstand wind loads generated on the large surface area of the head. The new Steel Truss line from Milos was

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UK - Filmed at Maidstone Studios and hosted by Rylan Clark-Neal, the ITV2 reboot of the daytime TV cult classic Supermarket Sweep retains a stack of elements from the original. Inflatables, loud jumpers and the legendary trolley dash are mixed with a collection of new games and challenges, all taking place among the brightly coloured aisles.
Created by scenic designer Josh Grace, the gloriously bright faux supermarket set is awash with pastel shades, another subtle homage to its predecessor, mixed with an array of contemporary upgrades. Together with lighting designer Gurdip Mahal and operator Ross Williams, the team have constructed an environment which offers a fresh, modern twist on the original styling.
Helping build the look, the LED Creative team supplied their Alpha Neon and Sigma LED controlled via the company’s Megabyte Pixel Drivers.
LED Creati
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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

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UK - Unusual Rigging has been brought on board to ensure that, while the course of true love definitely doesn't run smooth, the rigging on new West End musical & Juliet certainly does.
The show, which will open at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London's West End next month is currently enjoying a successful run at Opera House Manchester, asks - what if Juliet's famous ending was really just her beginning? What if she decided to choose her own fate? And what if she got over Romeo by running off to Paris with Nurse and her best friends on a whirlwind trip of romance, self-discovery and gate-crashing the castle party?
The musical features pop anthems of the last 30 years from songwriter Max Martin, all arranged by the Tony and Grammy Award-winning orchestrator Bill Sherman.
Production manager Simon Marlow explains: "My first port of call was to get in touch w

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USA - After a nearly 10-year hiatus, the reunited Jonas Brothers have embarked on a new world tour, which will play 74 dates in North America and 16 in Europe, in support of their fifth studio album. Accompanying the Happiness Begins tour are some 200 Ayrton Khamsin LED profile fixtures.
Burbank’s silentHOUSE is providing the lighting design and tour production for the show, which features a curved LED videowall at the back of the stage, an LED floor and a talent walkway to VIP seating. The Jonas Brothers kicked off Happiness Begins in Miami in August and will wrap the tour in Paris next February. The artists have sold more than 17m albums worldwide.
“The show’s lighting design works in tandem with the video production,” says silentHOUSE CEO and producer, Baz Halpin. “The truss configurations frame the main statement of the LED screens, and there are no trus

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UK - Celebrating its 16th year at its familiar Clapham Common site, South West Four is a familiar August Bank Holiday destination for London’s clubbers. This year it again welcomed the House of Commons Festival, curated by Madness, onto two of its stages for Bank Holiday Monday itself. Returning after two years, the giants of ska were accompanied by artists including Ziggy Marley and Jimmy Cliff.
The event’s long-serving sound production company, Capital Sound, were again brought in by promoters Lock ‘N’ Load Events, with whom they have a long relationship, and of the five stages they equipped, Martin Audio PA systems dominated the first four.
The event again drew some of the world’s leading exponents of electronic dance music, including Martin Garrix, Tinie Tempah, Plan B, Pendulum Trinity and Chase & Status, while under canvas Sigma and Craig David were

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Finland - Green Hippo has announced that the Finnish National Opera & Ballet (FNOB) has upgraded its stock of Green Hippo media servers with the company’s latest Hippotizer V4 systems.
The new equipment, supplied by Green Hippo’s exclusive Finnish distributor Msonic Oy, comprises seven Hippotizer Karst+ DVI, two Hippotizer Boreal+ DP and six Hippotizer Montane+ RTX servers - all with dual SDI input cards.
The new servers were specified by Johan West, video product manager at Msonic. A long-standing Hippotizer user, West has enjoyed a close relationship with the FNOB since specifying their very first Green Hippo systems back in 2008. Since then, he has been responsible for training the opera house crew, as well as advising on the use of Hippotizer on many productions. He also provides all Green Hippo training and support for the FNOB team.
“A series of n

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USA - ESTA has launched the nomination process for its Members Choice Awards to all member exhibitors at the 2020 NAMM Show.
The awards, voted on by all ESTA members attending the NAMM Show, recognise outstanding new entertainment technology products. Awards are bestowed in three categories:
• Expendable: product which is designed to be consumed or replaced frequently
• Gadget: product that is physically small enough to fit in a pocket or small backpack, or software with a file size no larger than 100 megabytes
• Equipment: product that is physically too large to fit in a pocket or small backpack, or software with a file size larger than 100 megabytes
Only ESTA member exhibitors at The 2020 NAMM Show may nominate a product(s); they must be either the manufacturer or exclusive distributor and can submit one nomination in each category. Only produ

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Europe - Sixty82 is pleased has announced the recent appointment Cast as its exclusive distributor for Switzerland. With immediate effect, Cast will distribute and provide technical support for the full product range of Sixty82 trussing and staging solutions.
“As we learned about the birth of Sixty82in 2018, it was obvious that one day we would join this marvellous team, led by people we have trusted for more than 25 year! It is wonderful that today is that day!” says Silvio Cibien, CEO of Cast Switzerland.
Fokko Smeding, CEO of Sixty82, comments: “We are delighted to be working with Cast. This partnership will help meet the industry’s requirements for fast delivery times and technical know-how from experienced people.”
Date Jonkman, Sixty82 executive account manager, adds: “We believe that Cast is uniquely positioned to further develop our existing

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UK - KV2 Audio has announced a partnership with RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) to support the training of young students in theatre sound production. KV2 has provided a range of EX Series loudspeakers to equip RADA’s Jerwood Vanbrugh and Gielgud theatres, and will also offer masterclasses on sound design and the use of point source technology in a theatre environment.
Steve Mayo, RADA’s head of sound, comments: “These partnerships are the life-blood of hands-on training for our students. I am very eager for our sound students to have the opportunity, not only to work with high quality, modern equipment, but also to meet the people behind it. The support we’ve had from KV2 has been invaluable in paving the way for this partnership, from our initial conversations at ABTT in June through to them organising for all our students to have a proper demo of the full KV

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UK - PLASA has launched the National Lifting Event Training (NELT), a training programme for production technicians who use lifting equipment during event production.
Designed in conjunction with the Live Event Production Group with the aim of improving safe working practices of lifting operations, NELT is currently available at UK Rigging in Bolton and Production Services (PSI) in Northern Ireland, with more approved centres expected to offer the programme in 2020.
Nicky Greet, PLASA’s director of membership, skills & technical, comments: “PLASA is pleased to offer this national training for production technicians that has been developed in collaboration with industry professionals on PLASA’s Live Event Production group. The aim of NELT is to standardise good practice and knowledge, making work environments safer and more efficient for all those involved.

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USA - Elation Professional is offering three new luminaires in its Paladin series of versatile wash/blinder/strobe lights. The Paladin Cube, Paladin Brick and Paladin Panel - all with IP65 protection - are compact and powerful outdoor flood lights useful for a wide variety of applications from stage/set washes to dynamic uplighting and eye candy effects.
Using 15W RGBW cells - 9, 24, and 50 respectively - they add vibrant colour to outdoor events while individual cell control and strobe make them flexible effect lights or audience blinders. RGBW colour mixing gives a full spectrum of colour options, including high-impact white light, for beautiful floods or accents. For added dynamism, multiple pixel zone control can be incorporated for spectacular pixel mapped and eye candy looks.
The Paladin Cube houses nine 15W RGBW cells with 3 x 1 cell control. Output for such a

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USA - Sound and lighting specialist, Infinity Sound, has completed the design and installation of live and background music sound systems for FireHouse Gastro Park (FHGP) in Grand Prairie, Texas.
Within the original buildings of a 20th century fire station, FHGP is now a diverse hang-out-and-eat location. The venue has been created by owners Jason and Carlee Smith, in collaboration with Rouch Architecture. The FireHouse aesthetic and philosophy was inspired by the Smith’s roots in southern California, their passion for the historic building rehab revolution, and Grand Prairie’s commitment to preservation and economic development. The original fire station remains at the heart of the FHGP and the sprawling and evolving space now features indoor and outdoor dining, a secret garden bar, a family-friendly green-space, coffee shop and a smoke house.
Music is a key eleme

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UK - Adlib supplied full technical production to the 2019 Vitality Netball World Cup staged at the 11,000 capacity M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool.
Adlib’s rental departments implemented a fully integrated video, lighting and audio package linking in with broadcast elements for BBC and Sky. The spectacle took place over 10 glorious days of top sporting action which delivered world class netball to an international TV audience and many thousands packing into the court-side seats which were sold out for the duration.
This quadrennial event featured two distinctive criteria. First, a spectacular opening ceremony which wowed the crowds and got everyone in the mood for the sports to follow.
Adlib’s technical team worked closely with curators of the ceremony Culture Liverpool and Iluminos. Adlib provided six Panasonic RZ21K 20,000 lumen laser projectors mounted v

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USA - Chris Young kicked off the North American leg of his Raised on Country world tour 2019 in May, playing to over 300,000 fans through the summer. The fall leg of the tour has just started and runs until 23 November at Lexington, Kentucky’s Rupp Arena.
Integral to the stage design - created by production designer Chris Lisle - is a 30-axis Kinesys automation system being used to move six lighting pods and four video screens which are essential visual elements of the show, together with the general lighting and video. Production manager (and lighting director on the road) is Michael Stanley.
Chris Lisle explains that from the initial meetings with Young and his management, they knew that they wanted some motion in the show to offer a variety of looks. He then started drawing and experimenting with exactly which production elements would move, and how, when a

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Spain - Florida Retiro is a popular downtown Madrid club. Adding to the vivid images that make this venue memorable are the swirling, colourful lightshows that accompany the dinner and post meal entertainment. House designer Fernando Rodriguez-Berzosa creates the stunning spectacles, and powers them with his ChamSys MagicQ MQ80 console.
Having been responsible for programming visuals at Florida Retiro since 2016, Rodriguez-Berzosa works with director Juan Ramos to create shows that reflect the passion and style of the popular venue. "The biggest challenge of designing for the dinner show here is to ensure that the light always matches the audience's experience," he says. "In addition to supporting the entertainment, we must create the right atmosphere to accompany different dishes.”
Inspired by the likes of Wassily Kandinsky, one of the first artists to outline the

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USA - High End Systems’ TurboRay made its TV debut on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The entertainment talk show is using eight of the new fixtures onstage for its musical guest performance segments.
TurboRay’s deep saturated colours along with aerial beams - with twinkling rays of light, digital breakups and dynamic effects from the animation and gobo wheels - enhanced the Zac Brown Band, Mark Ronson (featuring Yebba), Bastille, and more to come in its Studio 6B location in Manhattan’s Rockefeller Centre.
WorldStage provides all the gear - including the TurboRay - for The Tonight Show. HES East Coast regional sales manager Bobby Hale says, “We are happy to work with Fred Bock and the Tonight Show team to showcase the new TurboRay. It is a fantastic scenic LED effects wash. The combination of four RGBW LED engines and the r

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UK - The team behind the immersive installation Blackout are calling for more participants to join its industry research into mental health.
The research, which was initiated during the PLASA Show, is seeking to provide the first evaluation on mental health awareness within the UK technical backstage entertainment industry.
To collect the required research data, Dr Paul Hanna, research director in clinical psychology at the University of Surrey, has devised a short (5-10 minutes) questionnaire. The results of the study will then be used in panel discussions, conferences and health and safety reviews with industry organisations to promote a discussion on industry issues such as working hours, overnight shift work and touring shift patterns.
Mig Burgess, Guildford School of Acting tutor and creator of the Blackout immersive event, says: “This is an extremely impo

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Poland - Warsaw-based AVI Media has been appointed to distribute DAS Audio’s professional audio products in Poland.
AVI Media’s Michal Zelman comments: “During my time working in the PA/AV market I was involved in projects and events with DAS Audio products and I always had a very good impression of their performance and reliability. My goal now is to expand this brand’s excellent reputation throughout Poland and participate in larger projects with AV integrators, designers and sound engineers, providing the best customer service.”
Ignacio Chuliá, executive sales representative for DAS Audio in Europe, adds: “AVI Media is the perfect partner for the Polish market. DAS Audio has been working with Michal for quite some time and we look forward to sharing this new project with him.
“We are positive that our cooperation with Michal will consolidate our

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Germany - Over 250 guests were in attendance throughout the nine-day Ambion Digital Jungle open-house event. Attendees enjoyed an hour-long sensory journey of innovative installations focused on tracking, immersive interactivity, sensor technology, realtime control and reactive, generative content using BlackTrax, disguise and Notch.
Ambion is a full-service provider that plans and produces technology for concerts, sports events, trade shows and congresses around the globe.
The company recently held open house days where they invited selected clients, partners, innovation agencies and event planners to attend. The Digital Jungle demonstrations focused on technology and its application in a live event scenario.
OBJ.Studio the Ambion design department has been trying some interesting light and media tech projects in Berlin. The last one was a smart

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USA - CP Communications has announced that it will add MultiDyne’s 22ft mobile van to its growing fleet of production vehicles.
MultiDyne introduced the van in 2018 as a ‘mobile marketing van’ that doubled as an exhibition showcase for MultiDyne products at North American tradeshows, and as a mobile showroom for MultiDyne road shows and training initiatives. CP Communications, a long-time MultiDyne customer, recognised an opportunity for both companies to collaborate on smaller live productions, including high school and college sports projects.
“Many high school and college sports venues have live production needs, but lack the workspace to accommodate a flypack or a large truck,” said Kurt Heitmann, CEO, CP Communications. “The MultiDyne van offers the perfect footprint for a four-to-six camera shoot, and solves our problem of carving out a workspace for
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