Business

Details
Belgium - The Belgian organisation CAP48 aims to change society's view about the question of handicap (be it physical, mental or social) with enhanced integration. It strives to raise funds for the disabled in Belgium via activities such as an annual TV show, produced in cooperation with Belgian TV channel RTBF.

The charity appeal - in the shape of a special show featuring top national and international artists - is broadcast live, and as such the TV set calls for an exceptional stage design.

Belgian lighting designer, Jean-Jacques Marotte, was tasked with delivering this, and his vision for achieving it hinged around the SGM LT-200 LED tubes.

"We wanted the audience to be very close to the stage, with an illuminated centrepiece creating an intimate effect during the dialogue, but also deliver a bright set, as you would expect on prime time TV," explains Marotte. &

Details
France - A pyrotechnic blast during a rehearsal for French Revolution musical 1789, the Lovers of the Bastille at the Palais des Sports auditorium in southwest Paris has killed one and left around 15 people injured - five of them seriously.

According to reports, the accidental blast occurred on Friday 8 November shortly after 6pm when pyrotechnics under the musical's stage exploded, possibly due to a faulty power tool.

"An initial investigation determined that the explosion had been caused by the disc of a circular saw breaking away and igniting fireworks to be used in the show," reports the BBC.

A second explosion then caused a wall of the Palais des Sports arena to collapse. Technical director Marcus Toledano, one of many who rushed to the scene of the incident, is believed to have suffered a heart attack as a result of the explosions. When rescue workers

Details
Italy - Luciano Ligabue held six concerts in the evocative setting of the Verona Arena in the second half of September. They were a great audience success. Fans rushed from all over Italy in order not to miss the chance to attend the only live events planned by the Correggio-born singer in 2013. The six evenings sold out in advance in one morning, during which all 72,000 tickets were bought. Besides the usual band, a real seventy-piece classical orchestra enhanced the concerts. Its contribution made the type of music the singer-songwriter performed highly unusual.

The show was split into three distinct parts. During the first part, Ligabue was accompanied by the orchestra. He performed some of his most famous pieces rearranged for the occasion by Maestro Marco Sabiu. Next came a part extended to electric musical instruments, followed by a section with a decidedly more rock feel,

Details
Ireland - Chroma-Q Color Force 72™ LED battens have delivered premium lighting performance for productions during this year's renowned Wexford Festival Opera in South-Eastern Ireland.

The event is one of the most innovative and fastest growing of the world's major arts festivals. A diverse line-up includes full-scale opera productions plus daytime performances of shorter works of music theatre, concerts, recitals, talks and stand-up comedy from new creative talent.

The Festival's chief electrician, Didier Barreau and lighting designer, Paul Keogan specified the Color Force fixtures for use in the Festival's main stage operas.

"I'd used the Chroma-Q Color Force 48 fixtures at another opera festival earlier this year and was really impressed by the quality of their output and colour mixing," says Keogan.

"The Color Force units are the only sources we use

Details
South Africa - The Artscape Theatre Centre in Cape Town's foreshore area is in the process of upgrading the lighting facilities of its three theatre spaces. The centre was originally established in 1971 as the Nico Malan and was renamed Artscape in 2001 under the aegis of the provincial administration.

With its close proximity to Cape Town's central business district, the new International Convention Centre and the V & A Waterfront, Artscape is ideally situated to serve the Cape's performing arts, film, tourism, entertainment, conference and exhibition industries.

Covering an area of some 14,000 square meters, the Artscape complex consists of a fully equipped Opera House seating 1,487, a theatre auditorium seating 540, the smaller Arena theatre seating 140, a piazza, gardens, rehearsal rooms and ample parking.

It is a prominent feature of the Cape Town cultural scene with th

Details
UK - Creative projection guru Ross Ashton from The Projection Studio in London and Sound Artist Karen Monid produced their third son et lumière Triquetra in the historical city of York, UK, for the 2013 Illuminating York Festival of Art.

The acclaimed work - which received massive coverage in the local and national press and an incredible public response - was beamed onto Clifford's Tower. Once the keep at York's famous Castle, the imposing Clifford's Tower sits on top of a tall mound and is one of York's signature pieces of architecture as well as among the most popular attractions in Yorkshire. English Heritage owns the tower, and Ashton was delighted to have the opportunity to apply his spectacular and unique visual magic.

The giant images stretched 75m wide across the base of the mound and were 25m tall, filling the whole space, lifting the landmark out of its surr

Details
South Africa - Robe moving lights are in action on the 2013 series of Idols South Africa, with lighting again designed by Joshua Cutts from Visual Frontier and supplied by technical production specialists Dream Sets for series producers Sic Entertainment.

The 10 week series, directed by Gavin Wratten and broadcast on MNET and Mzanzi Magic, is being recorded in the 6500 capacity auditorium at Moreleta Church in Pretoria to packed houses each week. The competition is extremely close as South Africa is replete with rich multi-cultural singing talent and heritage.

It's the fourth idols series that Cutts - one of SA's leading LDs, known for his imagination, flair and style - has lit. Dream Sets' project manager for the series is Eben Peltz.

Set designer Dewet Meyer took a brief from Wratten and created a 'forest' of vertical trussing towers which sets the scene as a pseudo

Details
UK - When Bliss Events was asked to manage a much bigger than previous Switch-On of the Regent Street Christmas lights, they turned to Star Events Group for a special set of equipment.

The brief called for a substantial stage with full PA & lighting rigging facilities, a fully roofed and raised grandstand for 220 VIPs and a screen support. All easy enough except for the need to close Regent Street on a busy Saturday in November. The road closure order gave just six hours to set up and 4.5 hours to remove everything. Star Events Group squeezed in the same mobile stage used for The Olympic Torch Relay, with just inches to spare between blocking the access to French Connection on stage right and the fire lane on stage left.

With Westminster City Council insisting that only mobile structures could be used (due to the need to re-open the road on time) and no mobile grandstand being

Details
Australia - The recent International Fleet Review, which took place on Sydney Harbour, commemorated the centenary of the first Royal Australian Navy fleet entry into Sydney Harbour. Events culminated with a spectacular pyrotechnics and lightshow consisting of 30 minutes of complex, highly choreographed fireworks, projection, lighting and live action centred around Sydney's Harbour and Opera House.

Fat Sound was contracted to light structures for the event and after scoping the market for suitable outdoor lighting, director Ray Eberle came across the Chauvet Professional COLORado 4 IP. Believing that it ticked all the boxes in terms of suitable colour saturation, build quality, IP rating and most of all output (not to mention pricing), Ray claimed it was no brainer and that the COLORado 4 IP worked perfect on lighting the job at hand, lighting the exterior of the Royal Australian

Details
UK - If you're building a bespoke sound system from the ground up specifically for the thundering needs of modern electronic music, then you want the very best components in order to make sure you're doing things the right way. That's exactly what Flipside Sound did when they chose Lab.gruppen and Lake for their fierce looking, state of the art sound systems, the first of which has recently been installed in London club, EGG.

The brainchild of lifelong friends and audio veterans James Cooper and Michael Layton, the Flipside story began around two years ago, when James and Mikey combined their expertise - one in pro audio, the other in underground warehouse parties - and decided that the current leaders and pretenders in the field simply weren't giving both the impression and the sound quality that they required. In short, they felt they could do better.

"I remember going

Details
China - An Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system and Xone:92 DJ mixer were used at the recent INTRO Electronic Music Festival 2013 held at Shougang in Beijing.

Supplied by Sanecore Group, an iLive-144 Control Surface and iDR10 MixRack were installed to manage FOH, along with an EAW KF740 linear array system and Powersoft K series amplifier. Allen & Heath's industry standard Xone:92 DJ mixer was supplied on stage for the performers.

From its debut in 2009, INTRO has become one of the biggest annual music events in China. With an incredible number of electronic participants and artists, INTRO has established itself as one of the most pioneering culture events. INTRO's main organiser is renowned Chinese DJ, Weng Weng, whose mixer of choice is the Xone:92.

"Xone:92 was the obvious choice to spec for the event. It has outstanding sound quality and all the knobs and butto

Details
UK - After four years of being away doing other things, Paul O'Grady is about to turn your teatimes on their head as he is back with a new series of The Paul O'Grady Show. Starting this week, the new show will be aired on ITV Monday - Friday at 5pm.

The chat show will include celebrity interviews, music, stunts and previously loved games including the Organ Game where a member of the audience has to chance to win £5,000 cash.

This series guests will include JLS, Jackie Collins, Dynamo, Dido, Cliff Richards and various actors from Coronation Street.

LD Dave Davey returns to the light the show and Richard Martin Lighting (RML) have been appointed as the lighting supplier again. The simple yet effective lighting right rig includes VL1000TS, MAC 700s and MAC Auras.

The MAC Aura has fast become a favourite with our LD's and an Industry standard, so much so that RML

Details
UK - Samba Swirl has opened a new flagship frozen yogurt store in Camden Town, London using InStyle LED's new programmable DMX LED Tape.

Samba Swirl has opened its fourth frozen yogurt store located on Jamestown road in Camden. The new store has undergone a complete rebrand and has been fully fitted with InStyle LED programmable LED Tape through the floor, ceiling, signage and around the yogurt machines to create amazing chasing, pulsing and colour changing patterns.

The LED lights flow from outside the store to the yogurt machines inside and then on to the counter.

The store was designed by architect, Jonathan Mizzi from Mizzi Studios who contacted InStyle LED Ltd to create and program the lighting effect for the store. The InStyle lighting programmer worked with the Architect to create powerful combinations of colours and patterns to highlight the theme of the store. With

Details
UK - The power and potential of global exposure in the star-making process was one of the many highlights at a recent You Tube Brandcast special event for 900 invited guests, staged in a large tensile structure at Syon Park, west London, with XL Video supplying LED screens, cameras / PPU and media server control to producers, Flourish Creative.

An exciting line up of musicians, performers and brands - in whose success the You Tube platform has been instrumental - celebrated the worldwide reach of the medium and its promotional possibilities.

XL's Project Managers Guy Vellacott and Andy Mayneord oversaw the event's video aspects, and original playback content was designed and supplied by US based companies, Obscura and M-Ocean.

Vellacott and Mayneord worked alongside Flourish Creative Director Guy Tremlett who conceived the event's overall production design. The space was div

Details
Australia - The recent International Fleet Review, which took place on Sydney Harbour, commemorated the centenary of the first Royal Australian Navy fleet entry into Sydney Harbour. Events culminated with a spectacular pyrotechnics and lightshow consisting of 30 minutes of complex, highly choreographed fireworks, projection, lighting and live action centred around Sydney's Harbour and Opera House.

Fat Sound was contracted to light structures for the event and after scoping the market for suitable outdoor lighting, director Ray Eberle came across the Chauvet Professional COLORado 4 IP. Believing that it ticked all the boxes in terms of suitable colour saturation, build quality, IP rating and most of all output (not to mention pricing), Ray claimed it was no brainer and that the COLORado 4 IP worked perfect on lighting the job at hand, lighting the exterior of the Royal Australian

Details
USA - Two customised Avolites Media Ai Infinity servers with 6 HDSDI inputs and 4 DVI outputs have handled extensive HD camera feeds and LED screen visuals for Maroon 5's US tour.

The American pop/rock band were headlining the 12th annual Honda Civic Tour, alongside support from numerous big name acts including Kelly Clarkson. The 34-date tour visited venues across the US and Canada.

US-based lighting design and media innovators DMD S7UDIOS (DMD) were asked by

Production Designer Demfis Fyssicopulos to provide a solution to feed an ambitious and dynamic show. The event featured LED screens, real-time content, and media files designed and directed by DFDesigns - and the unrivalled power of Avolites Media's Ai servers was the only choice.

"Ai was chosen for its ability to handle the automated and constantly changing set pieces, changing sizes and ability to have multipl

Details
Italy - A new international supergroup has been launched by Italian amplification specialists Powersoft. With all the swagger of Damon Albarn's cartoon group Gorilliaz, The Mosfets have invented their own universe, and will be central to a new marketing campaign being mounted by the electronics manufacturers.

Follow the activities of these allegorical amplification figures, with soubriquets like Roger Woofer, Jeff Porchetta, Lane RA and 'The Wedge' (each a nod to a famous musician or system) as this mythical rock band hits the media, says Powersoft.

"The idea of The Mosfets is to illustrate just how 'active' powered loudspeakers have become," says Powersoft marketing and communications manager Francesco Fanicchi, who is also the creative mind behind the campaign.

So just how did the band derive its name? A phenomenon of the late 1970s, the MOSFET (which stands for

Details
UK - Chart topping drum 'n' bass band Rudimental completed their first major UK production tour with a lighting design created by Jonny Gaskell, well known for his vibrant and lively work, who was head-hunted for the job by the band's production manager, Glen Pearson.

When it came to choosing a lighting supplier for the tour, Gaskell recommended west London based Colour Sound Experiment, with whom he has worked on many previous projects.

"I wanted a selection of good kit and great crew to fit the budget" says Gaskell, "H (Colour Sound's Haydn Cruickshank) has invested a serious amount of money in buying new kit this year and I have always liked the way the company does business."

The rig for most of the tour was a flexible floor based package which could be augmented with whatever house rigs they happened to find. For the sold-our Brixton Academy show, Co

Details
UAE - Creative Communication Group's (CCG) Abu Dhabi Office has just received its impressive purchase from Clay Paky the newest Clay Paky Arc-Lamp Moving Lights. CCG purchased their first order 36 units of Clay Paky Sharpy Wash 330.

"The Clay Paky Sharpy Wash 330 is one of the most important lights in the market now, where eventers are keen to have it in their technical riders, the colour temperature of this fixture is amazing not to mention the light weight and the speed", says Jalal Dudin, CEO Creative Communication Group.

Along with the Sharpy, CCG added 24 units of the Igloo (EASY version with no W-DMX), "Igloo Weather proof units are something that the market needs in this region due to weather conditions, we have decided to invest on these units to make sure that nothing will stop us from delivering to our client, in the past we

faced many obstacles beca

Details
UK - Providing production services on a greenfield site can be tricky at the best of times. The annual 'British Birdwatching Fair' takes this to another level!

Never a company to shy away from such a challenge, the power, lighting and audio delivery for the Birdfair is something that Pearce Hire has been engaged in since well before 1995, demonstrating yet another longstanding customer-client relationship which has evolved over the years as the event has gone from strength to strength.

2013 saw the event celebrate its silver jubilee of offering a wide variety of activities for birders and naturalists. Known by some as the 'Birdwatcher's Glastonbury' the event continues to grow, providing greater challenges for the production team year-on-year.

The Birdfair is run by Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust in partnership with the RSPB and takes place at Rutland Water Nature

Details
Australia - Scene Change in Tasmania has taken delivery of Philips Vari*Lite VL880 Spot luminaires primarily to service their busy corporate market. Compact and economical yet still loaded with powerful and useful features, the VL880 comes complete with all of the optical quality and functionality designers have come to expect from Philips Vari*Lite.

"We were most impressed by their whisper-quiet operation which is very important in the world of corporate events," remarked Steve Fraser, technical director of Scene Change Tasmania. "Plus they are compact and lightweight which is great for corporate set ups. However, despite their small size they really deliver a lot of punch with their intense and powerful beam."

The VL880's 800-watt MSR Platinum 35 lamp allows for a very impressive lumen output and there is a zoom range from 15º to 36º, plus a mechanical

Details
Italy - The inauguration of the new Science Museum in Trento was a great success: almost 30,000 visitors, 250 events including thematic meetings, talk shows, other shows, concerts and art installations, more than 450 people involved in the organization, 150 accredited journalists, 25,000 visitors to the new website in the first two days, and 40,000 views of the video Push to add Science. These are the extraordinary figures that document the success of the grand opening of Muse, an event "that projects the Museum and the city of Trento into the future," as manager Michele Lanzinger pointed out during the 24 hour non-stop inauguration.

The lighting and show designer Mariano De Tassis (who also produced the show together with Alessio Kogoy and Samuela Caliari) designed the lighting. "The customer's idea," Mariano explained, "was to put on a 24 hour non-stop

Details
USA - Having topped Pollstar's first quarter ticket sales charts for the past three years, the Winter Jam Tour Spectacular is playing 58 shows across the US through March 2014. Blackhawk Audio of White House, Tenn. is providing a Meyer Sound Leo linear large-scale sound reinforcement system for the contemporary Christian music concert tour.

"Winter Jam's music goes from hip-hop to hard rock, and from pure pop to spoken word," says Jerry Holcomb, production manager and FOH engineer for Winter Jam. "The clarity and performance of the Meyer Sound products, especially the LEO line arrays, allow for exceptional audio every night."

Winter Jam presents a demanding production challenge as most shows take place on consecutive nights, and tickets are only available at the door for $10. Ticket sales typically begin at 4:00 PM on the show day to accommodate the large c

Details
UK - A new theatre for The Arts Educational Schools, London (ArtsEd), designed by RHWL Arts Team, has been completed and opened last night in the presence of president and benefactor Lord Lloyd-Webber and with a performance of one of his most celebrated musicals Evita.

The 200-seat horseshoe theatre was created as part of a major programme of refurbishment made possible by a donation of £3.5 million from The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation. The theatre's design was conceived by RHWL Arts Team who was appointed as architect to deliver a contemporary performance space enabling students of the school to more closely experience West End conditions. The interior design aims to reflect the vibrancy of the School and the energy and enthusiasm of the students.

The new theatre has been completely remodelled within the old space and is now fully accessible at both stalls and

  1. PLASA Focus returns to Nashville this February
  2. Huisgenoot Skouspel at Sun City Superbowl
  3. Clay Paky scores at Music Moscow
  4. Out Board reports record growth
  5. Cadac licenses Audinate Dante
  6. Robe for Idols in Finland
Page 1550 of 1813

Latest Issue. . .