USA - German dubstep artist Virtual Riot brought his Simulation Album Tour to the Hollywood Palladium 22 April and electrified the sold-out crowd with his edgy brand of EDM supported by lighting effects from Elation Professional. Dallas Gasper from Paradox Productions and Design designed the rig with lighting director Lorcan Clarke on hand to run the show. Lighting gear was supplied by 4Wall with SFX/lasers provided by Owl Vision.
Clarke created laser show designs for trance, house and techno events in Ireland before moving to the San Francisco Bay area in 2020. Since, he has designed, programmed and directed lighting for Blu De Tiger’s How Did We Get Here 2021 US tour, Sidepiece’s Kiss & Tell 2022 US tour, and Deorro's 2022 Lollapalooza shows in South America. Clarke

Australia - Lightware Visual Engineering has opened new offices in central Sydney. Located in the Newington Technology Park and surrounded by the Sydney Olympic Park and Sydney harbour, the new APAC HQ features a dedicated training centre, a showroom, a tech lab, a warehouse, and office and meeting spaces. All Sydney-based Lightware staff will be working from these new headquarters.
The opening of the new office is the next strategic step in expanding the company’s global footprint. It will be a central hub for customers and partners across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, providing sales support, after-sale technical support, on the ground customer support and product demonstrations for all of Lightware’s products. Newington Technology Park is a hub for major technology brands in the region, including Viewsonic, Bose, Sony, Ainsworth, Pelican, CAE and

UK - St. Paul’s Cathedral is a venue that is steeped in tradition, even when it comes to lighting, the traditional PAR 64 has always been the fixture of choice for lighting designers. However, for the Queen’s Jubilee Thanksgiving Service, lighting director and BAFTA Award winner David Bishop stepped away from tradition, opting for an all-new LED lighting rig, with the new Martin Mac Aura PXL taking the leading role as the main lighting fixture.
Bishop explains: “For the Queen’s Jubilee, it was important to maintain the traditional feel and the natural look, yet I wanted to increase the flexibility and efficiency of the lighting rig.
“The new Martin MAC Aura PXL was ideal. The high lumen output, colour rendering, and zoom range is exceptional for such a compact fixture and perfect for this application. It allowed me to have much greater control of the colour
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

Europe - Yamaha’s new VXH series is designed for use in a wide range of commercial spaces where pendant speakers are the preferred solution.
Delivering quality sound in many larger retail, hospitality, entertainment and corporate premises can be a challenge with conventional surface mount or in-ceiling speakers. Pendant speakers are often a better solution, delivering more localised sound to reduce the issues of reverberation, unwanted reflections and the resulting lower-quality audio, which speakers located further away from the listener can cause.
Suitable for high, open structure and sloped ceilings, the VXH series comprises two models, the VXH6 and VXH8, engineered for optimum background music and voice reproduction.
Featuring a 120º dispersion pattern, the 6.5-inch VXH6 has a peak power handling of 300W and is designed for use where the speakers are to b

Italy - Following on from its range of LED bars introduced last year, Claypaky has now expanded the Tambora family further and introduces Tambora Linear, a line of static LED Pixel mapping bars designed for versatile lighting effects and artistic set decoration.
These are hybrid bars, which incorporate two complementary effects into one fixture. The first is driven by a system of 400 RGB pixel LEDs, which offer a background light very similar to that of a high-definition LED wall in appearance. This LED array can be controlled as 16 LEDs in 25 groups to provide high quality motion graphics.
The second effect is created by a central line of 200 powerful white LEDs for an overwhelming strobe effect, capable of reproducing the behaviour of the most celebrated strobe fixtures on the market. This effect can also be controlled through 25 different areas, offering unparallele

France - Technical service provider Dushow is expanding its Meyer Sound loudspeaker range with the acquisition of the new Panther line-array speakers. This new product will be added to Dushow's audio inventory from July.
Panther has been designed as a sustainable and more environmentally friendly product. On top of its design, its compact size and light weight significantly reduce the carbon footprint on a transport and operational level. It also uses less energy thanks to the high-efficiency amplifier package, which reduces power consumption by 20%.

USA - At this year’s Experiential Marketing Summit (EMS) at the MGM Grand Las Vegas, The Verge Aero drone team flew a drone show high above the ballroom next to Harry Reid International Airport.
Taking off from the MGM Grand parking garage – situated just 100 yards from the airport tarmac - presented the Verge Aero team with a challenge. While a focus on safety and precision execution are always part of standard operating procedures, the tight confines of the flight envelope in an urban environment required extreme precision and attention to detail.
“The Experiential Marketing Summit team commissioned us to deliver an on-brand drone show to wow conference delegates, to be flown over the MGM Ballroom roof,” says Verge Aero’s Chris Lutts, who oversaw the project. “We had a tight timeline to design, program and create the show, and some interesting challenges.

UK - The Falklands Hall primary presentation auditorium at the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines (CTCRM) required an urgent replacement for their original tungsten lights, and ETC ArcSystem was chosen to upgrade the space.
The tungsten lights had come to the end of production and spare parts and bulbs were unavailable which led to a health and safety issue as they fell below the legal level required. ETC dealer, Stage Electrics, selected ArcSystem fixtures and drivers to transform the space with LED.
CTCRM, is based in Lympstone, Devon, and is the official training base for the Royal Marines. The auditorium space previously had 66 150-watt tungsten lamps which repeatedly failed and caused issues with maintenance as they were mounted over the seating rake. These luminaires were all replaced with ETC’s ArcSystem Pro One-Cell fixtures and ArcSystem Pro D4 CC Drive

Australia - Hennessy and the NBA unveiled Australia’s first floating basketball court on Sydney Harbour recently, with live music performances from ASAP Ferg and B Wise. This was part of the latest version of Courts Beyond Limits, a programme from Hennessy, the official spirit of the NBA, in celebration of the league’s 75th season.
Guests were transported out for a courtside view of the event on the Hennessy Superyatch. In addition to the celebrity hoops exhibition, they got to enjoy performances by FERG, along with AIR Award-winning hip-hop artist B Wise and other stars.
Setting the scene for the event was a courtside lighting display by Jay Productions that featured 24 Chauvet Professional Well STX 180 fixtures that the production company purchased from Showtools International, which imports Chauvet products.
Showtools International notes that it added the

Australia - After a three-year hiatus, Vivid Sydney 2022 is now underway. Millions of expected visitors will descend on the 8km Vivid Sydney Light Walk that’s packed full of large-scale projection mapping, LED screens, wayfinding and high-powered media server technology linking the Festival’s 50 installations and projection artworks from Sydney Opera House to Central Station.
Festival director Gill Minervini, who directs her first Vivid Sydney in 2022, explains: “For 12 years we’ve relied on TDC working behind-the-scenes to deploy the brightest, most powerful technology on a grand scale helping to reinvent Sydney’s urban landscape and using it as a unique and colourful canvas capturing the essence of Sydney’s soul.”
Michael Hassett, founder and managing director at TDC - Technical Direction Company - adds: “Each year, Vivid Sydney gets bigger, brighter

Europe - UK-based manufacturer Optimal Audio has appointed the Septon Group as its exclusive distributor in Sweden and Denmark.
Optimal Audio, part of the Focusrite Group, manufactures control, amplification and loudspeaker systems for small to medium-sized commercial installations, with a focus on supporting multi-zoned venues.
Septon Group is one of Scandinavia’s leading distributors of professional audio and video equipment. The company handles all verticals in the market, including hospitality and commercial audio solutions and has a team that comprises experts in every area of AV and regularly conducts training for all of its brands.
Christer Lidberg, chief sales officer at Septon Group, comments: “Optimal Audio’s refreshing approach to product design, with its focus on ease-of-use, makes for a great addition to our portfolio. We are confident that thi

Rural Theatre - Theatre companies working in rural Northern Ireland will benefit from the creation of a £1.5m fund set up to cater for local communities that might not otherwise have access to the arts.
The Rural Engagement Arts Programme, announced by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, is designed to tackle isolation and loneliness, and promote social inclusion among rural communities as the country emerges from the pandemic. It has been given National Lottery funding over three years and will provide grants of up to £10,000 each to community groups, arts organisations and rural local authorities delivering arts projects.
Roisin McDonough, chief executive of the Arts Council, said the "vital" new funding programme would help realise "meaningful arts activities" that could enrich the lives of the people that engaged with them. "We know that taking part in arts ac

UAE - Adam Bassett, lighting designer and founding partner of Woodroffe Bassett Designs, specified a wealth of IP65-rated Ayrton fixtures for the entertainment lighting rig for Expo 2020 Dubai’s central venue, the Al Wasl dome. The rig included 182 Ayrton Perseo S profiles, 116 Ayrton Domino S profiles and 16 Ayrton Huracán LT long-throw profiles.
Postponed for over a year due to COVID, Expo 2020 Dubai finally ran for six months between 1 October 2021 and 31 March this year, and was the largest event ever to be held in the Arab world. The indisputable centrepiece was the Al Wasl dome, a 130m-diameter by 67m-tall arching steel trellis that also became the world’s largest 360° projection surface.
Its translucent dome crowned the central Al Wasl Plaza which, as the ‘beating heart’ of Expo 2020 Dubai, encompassed gardens and restaurants during the day and transfo

USA - Xytech has appointed Keith Buckley as the company’s president and CEO, succeeding Richard Gallagher, the company’s founder. Gallagher will now advise the company’s board as envisioned when Xytech was acquired by Banneker Partners in December 2021.
Most recently, Buckley served as the CEO of Federos, an AI-optimised analytics and automation software solutions provider for complex networks that was recently sold to Oracle. He previously served as president and CEO of The Switch Enterprises.
“I’m joining Xytech as the company is poised for significant growth, and look forward to leveraging Xytech’s highly skilled team, strong base of product offerings, long history of core successes and its world-class customer base,” Buckley says. “The investments we’re planning and will execute upon in the immediate future will substantially increase Xytech’s

Denmark - DPA Microphones has welcomed an array of new team members. The additions are company-wide, with new hires in product management, research and development, sales, marketing, and production.
Among the recent hires is Helga Somava, who recently joined DPA as one of the brand’s directors of product management. A graduate of Copenhagen Engineering College with a focus on export engineering, Somava brings leadership experience from past directorial and managerial roles at Bang & Olufsen, GN Netcom and most recently at NUORI ApS, where she served as COO. In her new position, Somava will oversee the development of new products as they align with DPA’s goals in the industry.
Another recent addition to the team is Torben Ekenberg, the company’s new head of research and development. In this role, Ekenberg, who holds a variety of degrees in electro-mechanical

Spain - National state-owned public-service television broadcaster RTVE recently teamed up with Antonio Banderas’ television production company, Teatro Soho Televisión (TST), to produce the 10-episode series of Las Tres Puertas, a new arts and culture show for its flagship TVE La 1 channel.
Presented by María Casado, a distinguished journalist and news presenter, and a key member of Banderas’ production team, the show featured guest interviews with luminaries from the worlds of culture, science, politics, business and sport, together with live performances by artists from Spain and around the world.
The weekly programme was produced live in RTVE’s Studio 6 in Sant Cugat, just north of Barcelona. A striking feature of the production was the stark visually arresting set, the appearance of which changed every week. In keeping with the set design, the sound

UK - Graduate engineers from Siemens have developed a geo-locating lighting system, which is being used as part of the Green Space Dark Skies project to create artworks in National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Geolights has been designed to allow thousands of people to create artistic displays in landscapes, led by Walk the Plank and commissioned as part of Unboxed: Creativity in the UK. More than 20,000 volunteers will create lighting patterns using the system that will be captured on film and broadcast as short films online.
The devices developed include GPS-enabled technology alongside innovations including Internet of Things (IoT), realtime location tracking, energy storage, and wireless connectivity. By remotely changing the colour of the lights, each participant will effectively become a ‘pixel’ within a coordinated image of live artworks wi

USA - After two years of waiting, fans of the Hangout Festival returned to the Gulf Shores beachfront for a weekend of live music. Headliners included Post Malone, Fallout Boy, Halsey, Tame Impala and Megan Thee Stallion. More than 40,000 fans turned out for the sold-out, three-day event, and Bandit Lites provided the festival lighting system for the main Hangout Stage and the Surf Stage.
Bandit’s vice president of production, Dizzy Gosnell, has designed the festival lighting rig for many seasons, and he meticulously works to ensure the headliners on each stage have a plethora of lighting to work with from washes, spots, beams, strips/strobes and blinders/safety lights spanning across both rigs.
“The first thing I try to get is to layer the lamps on each truss,” explains Gosnell. “For example, having lamps perched from the top chord, outrigged down from the t

UK - Located in the heart of Newcastle’s vibrant city centre, The Lofts, which opened in August last year, has already earned a reputation for being a new ‘super club’, welcoming high-profile artists and delivering some of the liveliest nights out in the city.
The 1,500-capacity venue was co-founded by directors Rob Seaman, John Dance, and Marty Smith, whose extensive nightlife experiences in the Balearics and beyond drive the ethic at The Lofts. And that ethic extends to the L-Acoustics K3, which is a key part of the overall experience, designed and installed by Adlib to deliver excellent coverage and crystal-clear audio throughout the venue.
“The club’s owners approached Adlib after we’d been recommended to them by a mutual acquaintance,” recalls Nick Whitehead, Adlib’s project manager and project lead on The Lofts. “They came to us with an ambitio

Norway - Det Norske Teatret (the Norwegian Theatre) in Oslo houses three stages in its main building in downtown Oslo, plus one more in another venue in the city run by the same team, all of which work on a busy repertory schedule. Together at least 25 original productions are created annually, in the Norwegian language of Nynorsk, and some guest works are hosted.
Also known for high production values, the theatre has recently invested in 15 Robe Esprite moving lights for its 250-capacity Scene 2.
The theatre’s resident lighting designer Torkel Skjærven, explained that they previously had Robe ColorWash 750AT Tungsten moving lights in the black box Scene 2 space, and these have worked hard and reliably for over 10 years. However, the time arrived to replace them with a more modern LED light source.
The drive to convert the theatre’s lighting to LED has bee

Europe - Gary Numan took to the road in April with a moody and ethereal lighting design created by award winning LA-based designer Dustin Snyder.
An essential objective of the design was to ensure that the fans could see Numan and his band’s expressive faces from all parts of the room and also on camera. For that reason, Snyder sought out the precise framing capability and familiar CMY colour palette of the VL2600 Wash from Vari-Lite.
Atmospheric and moody, the design is inspired by Numan’s three red stripes of facial war paint, from his portrait on the cover of the Intruder album, and centres around a heavily backlit, multi-layered, video and lighting design.
The main scenic element on stage is a huge video wall that oozes ominous, cinematic insights into a broken planet, destroyed by humanity, as Numan manifests as the planet’s own lamenting voice.

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