USA/Europe - Singer-songwriter Alicia Keys has completed her sixth concert tour playing 31 dates in North America and 21 in Europe on the Alicia + Keys World Tour. The show, which celebrates the 15-time Grammy winner’s career from her early R&B music to her seventh and eighth studio albums, finds Keys singing, playing piano and DJ-ing to the delight of fans.
Lighting designer, Bryan Barancik, principal of Luxious Creative in Boston, selected 142 Ayrton Perseo Profiles as the workhorse fixtures on the rig in the European leg. He also chose two grandMA3 full-size consoles with five NPUs to control the lighting plus a grandMA2 onPC command wing for use by the touring techs. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive North American distributor of the Ayrton and MA Lighting br

Europe - Metallica has completed its European summer festival run with The Return Of The European Summer Vacation tour, which saw the band playing at some of Europe’s most anticipated music festivals including Copenhell 2022 (Denmark), Download Germany, Hellfest Summer Open Air (France), Rock Werchter (Belgium) and NOS Alive (Portugal).
With a total of 11 shows held between June and August, Metallica’s long-term production partner PRG turned each event into an epic visual experience both for the in-person and streaming audiences by providing a custom LED set-up of ROE Visual panels and Brompton Technology LED video processing.
PRG has worked with Metallica for over a decade, supporting them on tour and providing custom design work to deliver the fascinating LED configurations the band’s fans have experienced throughout the years.
For Metallica

USA/Europe - Elation’s Proteus Excalibur includes the innovative Sky Motion system that enables operation of the fixture as an impactful searchlight effect without the need for a dedicated lighting controller.
“During development of the Proteus Excalibur, we made comparisons with legacy Xenon fixtures in order to get a sense of how the aerial beams compare to each other,” explains Elation product manager Matthias Hinrichs. “We quickly realised that in many respects, the Excalibur outperforms these fixtures. It became clear that there was a unique opportunity for the fixture to replaces expensive and power-hungry Xenon searchlights for special events, theme parks and other applications.”
Built into the latest firmware of the Proteus Excalibur and accessible via a simple menu display, Sky Motion searchlight mode allows an Excalibur unit or group of Excaliburs
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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

Spain - El Madrileño is one of the most successful Spanish album premiers, generating more than 5m downloads on Spotify in a single day. It is the third studio album from Spanish rapper and singer-songwriter Antón Álvarez Alfaro, better known as C. Tangana, and was co-produced with fellow recording artist, Alizzz.
With the album peaking atop the Spanish music charts and bringing C. Tangana his first Latin Grammy nomination as a performer, a concert tour in support of El Madrileño, Sin Cantar ni Afinar Tour, was announced. The first date in Málaga earlier this year sold-out almost instantly, with over 30 shows taking place around Europe since. Providing powerful processing and stability are DiGiCo Quantum 7 and SD7 consoles, supplied by audiovisual equipment rental company Fluge Audiovisuales.
FOH engineer Felipe Lara has been mixing for C. Tangana f

UK - It’s been a busy summer for Blackbeam, the popup cinema and event projection specialists based in Barnstaple on the north coast of Devon. The company provides popup cinema hire services to a range of customers including Exeter Phoenix, Seaton Outdoor Cinema and the National Trust, in addition to organising its own Blackbeam Cinematic events.
A graduate of the Royal College of Art with a history of working in the events services industry, Blackbeam owner Alastair Leslie knows that powerful, full range cinematic sound is every bit as important as a great picture in creating a thrilling and truly immersive outdoor movie experience. So Blackbeam audiences are wowed by the punch and clarity of a compact Nexo line array system comprising two hangs of six Geo M6 boxes with a pair of LS18 subs on the floor, with amplification and processing from a pair of NXAMP4X2MK2 powered

UK - As a contribution to Global Lifting Awareness Day, the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA) put lifting-related topics for end users in the Entertainment sector under the spotlight.
Without lifting the entertainment industry will grind to a halt: theatre, television and film sets would not be moved, lighting rigs for live concerts will remain on the stage instead of above it. However, in the spring of 2020, the sector really did come to a sudden stop. Entertainment was hugely impacted by Covid, being one of the first sectors to be put into lockdown and often one of the last to be freed from restrictions, as Paul Fulcher, founder and managing director of Rigging Services, explained in his presentation on Post Covid rigging training requirements for new recruits working in the Entertainments Sector. Many freelance contractors found themselves out

USA - Goodspeed Musicals, a professional musical theatre located in an historic Opera House on the banks of the Connecticut River in East Haddam, Connecticut, is using 15 Ayrton Diablo S fixtures from PRG for its new production of 42nd Street. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton lighting in North America.
Goodspeed is the first regional theatre in America to earn two special Tony Awards, one for outstanding contributions to the American musical and a second for distinguished achievement. Goodspeed mounts both new and newly revived musicals each year on its main stage at the Opera House and its second stage in Chester – a total of more than 400 performances during the April to December season attracting 130,000 patrons to the Connecticut River Valley.
The revival of 42nd Street is the first theatrical production for which PRG has sup

The Netherlands - Having worked with singer/songwriter Eefje de Visser since 2019, lighting designer Randall Diagre understands and appreciates Eefje de Visser’s emotive approach to her art. It is a quality that inspires and invites collaboration, leading to creations that support her songs with evocative visual displays.
The fruits of this creative process were one full display at Pinkpop, where Eefje de Visser was named the festival’s Number 1 act by the Dutch media. Wrapping itself seamlessly around the singer’s captivating performance was an evocative lightshow designed and operated by Diagre, with help from light artist Nick Verstand, who created a remarkable mirror scenic piece that helped define the show’s transcendent quality.
As Diagre recalls, the distinctive design grew of a project organised by Motel Mozaik Rotterdam during the pandemic lockdown. He

Germany - Bayreuth hosted its third Baroque Opera Festival (BBOF) this year with a lively programme of works including Allesandro Nell’Indie, which was lit by French LD David Debrinay using over 50 Robe moving lights including T1 and T2 Profiles and LEDBeam 350s.
Three memorable performances directed by Max Emmanuel Cencic, also artistic director of the festival and one of the principals, were staged at the Margravial Opera House (Markgräfliches Opernhaus). Opened in 1748 and declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2012, the venue reopened in 2018 after extensive renovations. It is also a museum and is licensed for just 30 live performances per year.
David, from the Lyon-based design practice LJOMA Studio, and Max have worked on several previous projects including the two other Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festivals in 2020 and 2021.
Multiple creative star

USA - The streets of Cincinnati were awash with colour in October as an estimated 1.5m people enjoyed the BLINK light and art festival, which featured four large-scale projection mappings powered by Hippotizer Media Servers.
During the four-day event, video installations turned the city’s landmark buildings into ‘a techno cityscape of the future’, bringing existing artworks and architecture to life and creating eye-popping 3D projections.
Some of the most spectacular video mapping installations were Hippotizer driven, including at Memorial Hall on Elm Street where the building’s four striking pillars and grand architectural shapes were perfectly video mapped and projected upon with sweeping, kaleidoscopic artworks by Italian multimedia studio, Antalless Visual Design. Titled In The Middle, the installation harnessed the power of a Hippotizer Boreal V4+

UK - Funktion-One has introduced what many will view as its most versatile loudspeaker to date. Evo X is a significant development of the full range, completely horn-loaded loudspeaker. Utilising the latest Funktion-One waveguide technology, it provides 90° horizontal dispersion and high SPL.
Evo X's advanced driver technology delivers outstanding clarity, resolution and detail across 90° horizontal dispersion, making it an excellent choice for live venues, small clubs and theatres. It is capable of high SPL from a relatively compact speaker and can be deployed as a one per side or four-point system. While Evo X’s horizontal dispersion delivers even coverage across a wide area, its focused 15° vertical dispersion ensures the sound is concentrated on the audience, minimising reflections and room excitement. The result is clear and involving sound.
Funktion

UK -The new Studiomaster Core is offered as ‘a highly versatile, self-powered hi-mid top and sub stack, suitable for high efficiency portable sound reinforcement applications, including in larger ‘medium size’ size venues where wider constant frequency coverage is required’. To achieve this wider coverage Core employs a constant curve array hi-mid cabinet, together with a powerful self-powered, active sub.
Core is especially purposed for full-scale musical performance, with two variants – Core 121 and Core 151 – respectively having 5” and 8” MF drivers, rather than the 2” or smaller drivers more usually deployed in this product class. In the Core 121 these are matched with 9x 1” dome HF drivers, and 12x 1” dome tweeters in the CORE 151. This gives the two Core curvature arrays a highly accurate response across the full mid and high frequency spectrum (f

UK - Offering authentic Turkish food within a colourful upbeat space, the dining and drinking experience at Lokma restaurant in Stratford is billed as ‘both exotic and succulent.’
Combining traditional cuisine into a contemporary setting has been flooding the London restaurant scene in the last few years and thanks to technical assistance from Flipside AV, Lokma guests will enjoy musical entertainment alongside a menu deeply infused with culture and tradition.
Having already designed a successful system at the Lokma restaurant in Bermondsey, Flipside were called upon once again to make the Stratford location work just as well. James Cooper, managing director at Flipside recalls: “It took a bit of planning to work out the space as a whole – being split across multiple levels, while still being quite open, it’s a slightly unusual space to work with, but I’m r

USA - Old time country is in good hands with ACM and CMA award-winning singer/songwriter Jon Pardi whose classic country sounds on his Ain’t Always the Cowboy Tour are being complemented by lighting from Elation Artiste Mondrian and Artiste Monet luminaires.
Described as ‘the kind of honkytonk that gets people drinking, dancing and drowning their heartaches,’ Pardi combines an old-fashioned country vibe with youthful energy. He hit the road July 14 in support of his new album Mr. Saturday Night with stops all over the US.
Chris Reade and Jay Ballinger of KYVA Design have been designing and conceptualizing with Jon Pardi for the last eight years. For the Ain’t Always the Cowboy Tour this past summer, Reade says that Ballinger proposed the idea of projecting strength with steel beams and rugged structure elements that resonated within that co

UK - Abbey Road’s Studio Three, which has been home to artists such as Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Lady Gaga, Frank Ocean, Florence + The Machine, Brockhampton and Amy Winehouse, has installed 21 Van Damme Purple Patches as part of an extensive revamp.
Purple Parch is a PPE56 2x48 bantam patchbay, created as part of a two-year research and development programme to ensure that recording studios, theatres with recording facilities and broadcasting houses get the best in terms of performance, functionality and capability.
Simon Campbell, head of technical services at Abbey Road Studios said: “You can tell that the team at VDC have done their research and worked very hard on creating a great product. We received 21 units straight off the production line, configured them and really put Purple Patch through its paces before we signed them off. We identified a few things tha

USA - Patrick Dierson oversaw the production design at the Jay-Z curated Made in America festival in Philadelphia. “I love this event, because it never fails to surprise with unexpected challenges,” he said, looking back on the 2022 edition of the festival.
Made In America more than lived up to Dierson’s expectations this year, as just a few days before load-in he got a message that one of the headliners at the urban and Latin music festival, Lil Uzi Vert, wanted two Lamborghinis on the stage for his performance.
“This required a little more than your average production coordination,” said Dierson. “Let’s face it - this is Philly. The concept of handing two Lambos to a teamster in a forklift is enough to make an eyebrow raise. We didn’t want these things going back to the King of Prussia, PA exotic car dealership with two holes in the wing doors and co

Philippines – October 2022 – Located 30 kilometres from the Philippine capital of Manila, Dasmariñas City has seen explosive growth in recent decades. Founded in 1990 in the Salitran neighbourhood, the Dasmariñas Church of God (COG) serves as a beacon of hope and light for both the local population and the wider Manila metropolis.
Originally housed in a small rural complex, COG has seen impressive growth, which led the worship team to build a dedicated five-storey Generation Blessing Building in the heart of Dasmariñas to serve their current 15,000-plus congregation better.
Church of God reaches out to parishioners and locals with an open-all-week plethora of offerings like a fitness centre and sauna, a café, a dance studio, a photography studio, music classes, and more. But the heart of COG’s ministry are the eight worship services offered every Sunday in th

UK - Heavily supported by the local City Council, Brighton & Hove Pride - a celebration of Brighton’s LGBTQ+ community, annually attracts crowds of around 250,000 people to the seaside resort.
While the origins of the event date back to 1973, Capital Sound (part of the Solotech UK Group) has provided main stage sound reinforcement for the last three events. Having supplied PA and control for headliners Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue, following a break for COVID-19 they were back in the 63-acre Preston Park site for the 2022 edition which featured Christina Aguilera and Paloma Faith as headliners on the Saturday and Sunday respectively.
After deploying Martin Audio’s MLA loudspeaker array for Britney Spears back in 2018, the enforced break caused by the pandemic had enabled the British manufacturer to move the ground-breaking control technology further still,

USA - Harman Professional Solutions recently partnered with the American Cancer Society to provide a powerful and dynamic JBL Professional SRX900 Series sound reinforcement system at the annual American Cancer Society Relay For Life of Santa Clarita Valley.
Founded in Tacoma, Washington in 1985 by Dr. Gordon Klatt, Relay For Life is an ongoing community-based global fundraising movement in support of the American Cancer Society. With local fundraising events in thousands of communities and around the world, Relay For Life has raised approximately seven billion dollars globally since 1985 to fund cancer treatment research and provide patients with essential services. Located in Los Angeles County, the Santa Clarita Valley community has hosted a Relay For Life annually since 1999.
“I’ve been involved with various Relay For Life events for ten years, first as a volun

UK - The live production industry faces mounting pressure to operate more sustainably, despite a multitude of persistent challenges. A newly published whitepaper by Sony aims to present the key opportunities for businesses within the industry to implement change.
The report underlines that sustainable practices are not one-size-fits-all, as each production has unique requirements. By analysing the key areas of challenge for the industry, Sony has been able to look for spaces where creating change that benefits business and the environment is possible.
The report suggests that the key challenges at hand are:
Quantifying environmental footprint: Without clear knowledge of current emissions, it is difficult for companies to accurately perceive their carbon impact and justify the disruption and cost of moving to new systems and processes.
Considering indivi

Europe - Neumann&Müller has developed an IoT-based system for checking and monitoring safety-related suspension points used to bear loads in the event sector.
Loadwatch has been designed to monitor many such suspension points in parallel. This new product underwent its first major acid test at Fira de Barcelona. It provides trade fair companies and venue operators with greater safety in load distribution to load-bearing structures.
Loadwatch can be seamlessly integrated into trade fair and event processes, says N&M. The information needed for assigning parameters to the individual load cells is transmitted digitally and wirelessly. Feedback on the approved load case is given visually by LEDs on the device itself – whereby a traffic light system signals the degree of utilisation. Further information is transferred via an ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) interf

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