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Belgium - The largest summer beach festival in Belgium and one of the most popular in Northern Europe, 2 Meisjes op het Strand, is known for more than just music.
Also drawing thousands of fans and attracting a large national TV audience on Flemish network VTM are the breathtaking harbour vistas at the festival site. At this year’s event, Michiel Milbou and his team at Never Fear Shadows did justice to the festival’s music and its surroundings with a stunning stage and lighting design that featured 410 Chauvet Professional ÉPIX Strip IP fixtures, supplied by Phlippo Productions.
Never Fear Shadows’ design concept for the festival was built around a 60m x 20m translucent stage structure built exclusively from the ÉPIX Strip IP fixtures. The structure provided sizzling visual support for the music of K3, Niels Destadsbader, Gers Pardoel and other stars. At

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UK - When Bat Out of Hell-The Musical co-producer Michael Cohl stood on a make-shift stage outside the London Coliseum at the press launch in November, he declared his latest project, along with fellow producers David Sonenberg, Randy Lennox and Tony Smith, and production manager, Simon Marlow, to be the biggest rock musical to premiere in London since We Will Rock You.
Peter Marshall, director of theatre for PRG XL, oversaw the provision of kit to the musical: “The show initially opened for a 12-week run in Manchester at the start of the year, before transferring to the Coliseum for the summer season from June to August. It was brilliant to continue our relationship with producer Michael Cohl and general manager Julian Stoneman again - after supporting them on Rock of Ages, and very exciting to work with Patrick and Finn, providing some of the latest

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Australia - IKONIX, the Australian audio-visual production expert, has supplied an Avolites Ai RX8 media server and two Avolites Miami Dongles, to run 960 gigabytes of content for Queensland's largest youth performing arts event, Creative Generation (CGEN) - State Schools on Stage 2017.
The event, now in its 13th year, was held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre in Queensland. GCEN aims to mentor the next generation of performers, providing opportunities for them to work with professional artists. More than 1800 students aged between four and seventeen took part in this year's event.
Zachary Burton, co-founder of IKONIX alongside business partner Richard Saunders, worked with the CGEN team to manage and coordinate the production's entire lighting and video aspect.
"IKONIX has been working with CGEN since 2014," says Burton. "This year we decided

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Spain - Multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy Award winning Spanish singer / songwriter and musician Alejandro Sanz performed a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ show at the Vicente Calderón Stadium in Madrid to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his best-selling and landmark fifth studio album, Más, released in 1997.
The production team wanted some spectacular visual moments to make what was already going to be an outstanding show even more memorable, so the show’s production manager Borja Gonzales contacted stage automation and engineering specialists WIcreations.
WI’s Geert Stockmans headed their team after the introduction, which initially came six months ahead of the gig via Frank Janssens, a Belgian lighting specialist living and working in Spain. Geert and Frank have worked together many times, including on Malu’s 2016 tour.
Containing a diverse collectio

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UK - Dr. Marten’s Boot Room is the aptly named live venue at the rear of the legendary industrial boot manufacturer’s prominent new store in London’s Camden Market.
Promoting a regular programme of gigs since its Easter opening, the DM Boot Room has enabled emerging talent, bands and DJs to perform through a Martin Audio CDD PA, installed by Leicestershire-based NoiseBoys Technologies Ltd.
NoiseBoys director, Phill Beynon, knew that the store’s aim was to become a cultural hub, upholding the musical heritage of Camden Town by providing a complete experience. As a freelance engineer, he had been familiar with Martin Audio’s high premium technology and was happy to extend the relationship after NoiseBoys was set up nine years ago.
Therefore, when his company was approached by the store’s shopfitters, the retail design company Closed Sundays, to equip t

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UK - Retford-based Rope Assemblies has been bought by the Unusual group of companies following the decision by its owners to take early retirement. Rope Assemblies has been supplying bespoke wire and fibre rope assemblies, plus a wide range of lifting equipment, to its customer base worldwide since 1986 and this will continue to be the case.
Alan Jacobi, managing director at Unusual, explained: "We recognise Rope Assemblies as a good fit to our business, it is managed well and served by an experienced and long standing workforce. Our intention is to allow Rope Assemblies to continue doing what it has been doing extremely well for the last 30 years. We will bring the brand under the Unusual umbrella but everything else will remain the same. We intend using the acquisition as a way of improving our market offer to existing clients and to cultivate the wider industrial sector.

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Pop-Up Shakespeare - City of York Council has given its approval to plans for a pop-up Shakespearean theatre in the city centre. The council’s executive gave its backing to the plans put forward by Lunchbox Theatrical Productions. The plans are for a 12-sided pop-up theatre, which will be Europe’s first full-scale, pop-up replica of a traditional Shakespearean theatre.
If the plans go ahead, the pop-up, which will be modelled on the 16th-century Rose Theatre, will run between May and September next year. The council has negotiated a package with Lunchbox Theatrical Productions that will include educational opportunities, an area to showcase local food and drink, and tickets from £12.50. Under the educational offer, schools in York will be offered material for lessons, discounted tickets and pre-show talks with cast and crew.
No Hope - The company beh

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Argentina - Since its debut in Saint Petersburg in 1892, The Nutcracker has warmed hearts on cold winter nights, even when that “winter” is in the Southern Hemisphere and comes between June and August.
Such was the case recently in San Juan, a cosmopolitan provincial capital in western Argentina, where a lavish rendition of Tchaikovsky’s fanciful ballet was performed at the new Teatro del Bicentenario. Supporting the performance was an appropriately dazzling Ruben Conde lighting design that featured a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures.
Installed by NASH Ingeniería, the, Maverick MK2 Washes, Maverick MK1 Hybrids, Ovation C-640FC cycloramas, STRIKE 4 multi formatted fixtures and COLORdash Par-Quad 18s are key components in a permanent lighting upgrade at the cubic and ultra-modern 195,903 square foot theatre and entertainment centre.
“Ther

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UK - tube uk was involved in supplying audio for Manchester Street Poem, an innovative installation piece created by Karl Hyde and Rick Smith from well-known electronic duo Underworld, as part of the 2017 Manchester International Festival (MIF17).
Staged in a disused shop in the Northern Quarter, the artwork shone a spotlight on the stories of individuals who have found themselves homeless in the city. It was an intricate visual and sonic medley involving live performance art as Karl Hyde painted narrative excerpts from around 35 interviews he conducted with people from the homeless community - telling their stories – on the card-boarded walls of the shop.
All the cardboard utilized for this installation was recycled from other shows in the Festival.
The dynamic work-in-progress was supported by a soundtrack combining the spoken word interviews that Karl

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The Netherlands - Twenty-four of the latest Robe VIVA CMY moving lights – launched at Prolight+Sound in April – were delivered to Dutch rental company Hoevenaars based in Nuenen, together with 24 x Spiider LED wash beams.
Owner Patrick Hoevenaars explained that they have a long association with Robe which started when they were installing lighting rigs in clubs and discos back in the days of the XT series and in fact even before then, when Robe was still an OEM manufacturer. So they have always been aware that the kit is robust, reliable and well-built.
After this, the company worked with a competitor brand for a while, before investing in some LEDWash 300s in 2014. Around this time there was a noticeable rise in Robe being requested as the moving light of choice by the lighting designers and directors with whom they were working.
This latest purchase puts th

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South Africa - An extraordinary Sci-Fi Portal on the DWR Distribution stand caused more than a stir at the 2017 Mediatech Africa expo held at the Ticket Pro Dome in Johannesburg, where DWR also received a platinum award for its stand. The project was a giant leap and learning curve for DWR’s Dylan Jones who mapped content, supplied by Provisual Media, onto the portal using Hippotizer Media Servers. Hippotizer was also used in DWR’s newly renovated spaceship themed demo room, which formed part of the Mediatech attraction.
DWR’s initial concept was to create a small bus station at the expo where show goers could hop on board a bus and be transported to the DWR offices some six minutes away. As ideas darted back and forth around the boardroom table, it was DWR’s Gareth Chamber who announced, “Let’s have a Stargate portal,” the articulated words turning all former

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France - Located in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, the Hasard Ludique was born from crowdfunding and is the new hottest cultural and musical spot in the French capital. The venue benefits from APG’s new Uniline Compact loudspeakers, and professionals and music lovers alike couldn’t agree more on the excellent acoustic quality.
During the renovation of this old Parisian train station, French integrator and service provider D6 Bell Light used its know-how to overcome the many challenges presented by the venue and its unusual infrastructure. In order to stand out and provide acoustic performance levels similar to the very best venues in the capital, the owners needed the highest quality and acoustic performance, a challenge that APG was more than able to take on.
D6 Bell Light has completed several projects in construction and renovation in the past, and with its o

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Russia - Tanz der Vampire (Dance of the Vampires), the musical remake of Roman Polanski’s 1967 film of the same name, has an impressive 16-year track record, reaching over one million viewers in 12 countries. Currently enjoying renewed international success with an intricate sound design by the award-winning Thomas Strebel and his team from audiopool, the production sound features a staple tool in Strebel’s armoury, the TiMax2 SoundHub spatial reinforcement processor.
Playing in Moscow from December 2016 to July 2017, fresh from its other high-profile European stagings, Strebel says of the show, “Dance of the Vampires is very cleverly written with great songs and orchestrations, and very dense arrangements that nevertheless allow enough room to put in the vocals. Clarity was a priority, and a lot of work was done by the creative team on diction.”

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UK - GLP’s award-winning X4 Bar 20s were out in force at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, led by Andi Watson, who had already been lighting Radiohead on tour using 14 of the large X4 L as well as quantities of Bar 20s and Bar 10s. The inventory was supplied by Neg Earth.
Speaking of the Bars, he noted, “I love how you can make light move within these fixtures. I am looking for texture, beams and movement and the X4 Bars do that really well.” All are pixel controlled through the grandMA desk.
Of the large X4 L he added, “While I’ve always been a big fan of the X4, when we came to do the tour, knowing we would be headlining Coachella and Glastonbury, I knew I wouldn't be able to light the crowd adequately with these. So, on those two front trusses, the lights are mainly X4 L.”
Elsewhere, award-winning Tobias Rylander of Seven Design Works used 36 GLP

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Australia - South Perth’s Wesley College has been shaping young minds since 1923. Its Goatcher Auditorium, seating more than 300, has been serving the College’s needs since opening in 2008, and after nine years of constant use, it was time to refresh the lighting system and upgrade to LED. Alex Spartalis, head of lighting for the college, helped the school to install four High End Systems SolaSpot Pro 1000s and four Elation Platinum Sevens, giving them their first moving lights and first LED sources.
“I’ve used the SolaSpot Pro 1500s and was really happy with them,” said Alex. “They were too big for this use case, as the school needs fixtures that are a one-person lift. I was just as happy with the smaller SolaSpot Pro 1000s – they have good colour mixing, a good zoom, and they run extremely quietly, if not silently. They’ve got the output and colour the Coll

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The Netherlands - While large multiplex cinema chains compete on quantity, smaller independent venues are finding a new market by specialising in quality. An example is RSB Cinemas, a Dutch company that has recently opened its second venue where cinemagoers can enjoy a new level of quality and personal service. An Alcons audio system and laser projection in each room mean they enjoy a uniformly excellent movie experience.
Located in Veldhoven, just a few kilometres from the centre of Eindhoven, each of the new-build Cinema Gold’s four rooms features large, comfortable chairs with tables, at seat luxury snacks and drinks - ordered via each seat’s service button at any time - and spectacular quality movies, thanks to Alcons pro-ribbon 7.1 channel surround sound systems and Barco flagship laser cinema projectors.
"We are all about giving our guests a quality experienc

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Germany - Beer, food, folk music and a wide variety of other forms of entertainment are a perfect recipe for a good time. The Licher Wiesnfest Beer Festival has been following this formula successfully since 2009. While Munich’s Oktoberfest is Germany’s most internationally famous beer festival export, this summer event, which takes place near Frankfurt am Main, has been gaining traction since its inception, thanks to its beer and varied entertainment programme.
Wanting to give Licher Wiesnfest’s main stage a visual look worthy of a much larger festival main stage, local production specialists Flashlight Veranstaltungstechnik supplied light operator Björn Göbel and lighting technician and LD Benjamin Graff with 14 Chauvet DJ Intimidator Hybrid 140SR fixtures, which they skilfully deployed to create some impressive looks.
By positioning eight Intimidator units

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The Netherlands - The Analogues is an extraordinary band with an ambitious mission. The aim is to recreate, live, the last six studio albums of The Beatles using the same instruments, amplifiers, and arrangements, complete with live strings and horns.
The band has tracked down and restored period instruments from all over the world, such as a rare Lowrey Heritage Deluxe Organ, as used on the introduction to Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. To date, the band has conquered Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour, and will start touring The White Album from January 2018.
Remko Luijten, Front of House Engineer for The Analogues, has been working with the band for two years already, and Ger Arts, monitor engineer, has recently joined the tour. Because of the extreme demands of this project, both engineers have selected SSL Live L500

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Brazil - One of Brazil’s most renowned country folk bands, Guilherme and Santiago, has begun a new tour of South America travelling with a dLive S Class system at FOH with a GLD mixer on monitors from Allen & Heath.
Formed 20 years ago, the band has released 17 albums, five DVDs, and has sold over a million records. The latest tour commenced in São Paulo, at the Villa Country venue.
Provided by PA company, Torau Som e Luz, the FOH dLive system comprises a S7000 Surface with DM64 MixRack, whilst the monitor mixer is a GLD-80.
“We chose dLive for FOH due to its precise dynamics,” explains FOH engineer Valmar Fernandes. “The audio quality of dLive is second to none.”
“GLD is the perfect choice for monitors,” continues monitor engineer, Claudinei Monteiro. “The compact size of the mixer make it very practical for touring. GLD manages a tota

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Hungary - The Volt and Balaton Sound Festivals are part of a series of major festivals in Hungary, held over the summer.
Both have been serviced for a number of years by Capital Sound, and all continue to feature Martin Audio’s premium loudspeaker systems on main stages.
Volt Festival is a massive multi-genre event set in Sopron over five days, with over 100,000 music-lovers attending the celebrations year on year. Known for attracting diverse and talented headliners over 25 years, its huge popularity has resulted in a massive European following.
This year saw Linkin Park, Martin Garrix, Imagine Dragons, Ellie Goulding, Jesse Glynne, The Cult, Years and Years, Pendulum and Paramore appearing over the five days.
As for Balaton Sound, this takes place on the shores of Lake Balaton, the largest in Central Europe, creating a beach party vibe 200 miles from t

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USA - Determined to remain true to their musical roots, the organisers of the ARISE Music Festival have steadfastly avoided lengthening its name to include the word “art”. Yet even though there was no shortage of great music at the 2017 version of this event, including national acts like Ani DiFranco, Tipper and Lettuce, ARISE was almost as much about seeing as listening. From a flaming owl that warmed people at night, to a gigantic willow sculpture, to painters off stage doing live art interpretations of the music, this early August festival served up a variety of surreal and beguiling looks.
Over at the festival’s popular Green Stage, Bryce Cherpelis contributed to the cornucopia of visual delights with a richly textured and vividly coloured lightshow anchored by a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures and video panels. Uplighting his stage with fixtures positi

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Germany - German band Adulescens recently performed a stunning silent concert at Marienplatzfest in Stuttgart, with over 1000 headphones and a binaural 3D mix powered by KLANG:fabrik.
Many small festivals in residential areas have a common problem, particularly during the open-air season in summer. After 10 PM, they have to turn down the PA, just when vibe gets going. Silent concerts offer an interesting alternative, allowing bands and DJs to play throughout the night without any loud, intrusive PA.
To go one step further, Adulescens’ tour manager and FOH engineer, Tobias Raunigk, teamed up with KLANG:technologies to deliver a binaural 3D listening experience that would not be possible with conventional headphone or PA sound.
“We wanted to deliver something special as the next step up from silent discos in stereo,” says Raunigk. “With KLANG:fabrik you can

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France - Robe moving lights were top of the spec list compiled by Frederic ‘Aldo, Fayard from Paris based visual design practice Concept K, who produced an elaborate lighting design for the 2017 Summer Stadium Festival staged at the Orange Velodrome in Marseille.
The Velodrome is France’s largest football ground with a capacity of over 67,000 and the country’s second largest stadium after the Stade de France. This was the second edition of the one day Summer Stadium dance spectacular – following the first in 2015 – featuring an impressive line-up of electronic and EDM stars. It is organised by the venue itself.
After the success of the inaugural event, Concept K was asked back to create the set, lighting and video design for this one, working to a brief of presenting something, fresh and different that would mark this apart from the myriad of high prof

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USA - Industrial rock pioneers Nine Inch Nails (NIN), led by the charismatic Trent Reznor, are back on the touring circuit, with a series of summer and fall Festival dates.
Their long serving lighting designer, Paul ‘Arlo’ Guthrie, has extended his association with German LED moving head pioneers GLP, and their solutions - in particular the new JDC1 LED hybrid strobe - dominate a full production inventory. This has been supplied by Curry Grant at PRG.
In total, the LD has included 24 of these fixtures, which contain 216 white LEDs and 1320 RGB LEDs. These are supported by 15 of the versatile X4 Bar 20 battens and four X4 S compact moving heads used as a dynamic floor package.
Guthrie has been associated with the band since 2013, joining them for their 2014 European dates, which was based on an original design concept by LeRoy Bennett.
Today it is Reznor
  1. DiGiCo provides flexibility for Rag’N’Bone Man
  2. Philips Lighting on National’s River Stage
  3. Claypaky hits the road with OneRepublic
  4. Sydney Opera House installs SolaSpots
  5. Robert Juliat on tour with Paul McCartney
  6. PLASA Show extends seminar programme
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