USA - The redolent power of the mood ring made an appropriate metaphor for Matchbox Twenty’s Slow Dream Tour, which recently concluded its 54-show run at Chicago’s Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre. The Playground design studio evoked images of the emotive cultural icon with a large inflatable semi-circle that arches over the upstage deck and is backed by a massive video wall.
An array of images from retro clips to abstract patterns displayed on the video screen, is suggestive of the dreamy, translucent look of a mood ring. Accenting the 3D quality of this ‘ring’ is a collection of lighting fixtures, including the Chauvet Professional Maverick Force 2 Profile, arranged along angled stage left and stage right horizontal truss structures.
“Things that felt important to us were that the show feel minimalist and architectural. It had to exist as an environmen

Australia - Live entertainment supplier Chameleon Touring Systems has upgraded its communications solution from an old analogue party line system to a Green-GO digital package, to aid reliable communications between lighting teams on tour.
Green-GO dealer Event Communications Australia masterminded Chameleon Touring’s investment, drawing on extensive experience of digital communications solutions for the live music touring market.
“Chameleon’s previous comms systems were based around a basic single channel, analogue party line system which were starting to be less reliable, so it was time to update to current technology,” says Event Communications Australia’s Rod McKinnon. “We worked closely with Graham Walker at Chameleon Touring to curate a kit list of Green-GO products that we knew would offer clear, easy-to-use communications for the lighting crew worki

France - Lyon, a city famous for its annual Festival of Light, has also successfully reclaimed its two rivers, a project that started in 2002.
A major element of this is the ‘glacier blue’ illumination of a 2.5k stretch of the Rhône riverbanks linking the Parc de la Tête d'Or and the Parc de Gerland in greater Lyon, which is now permanently lit with 244 new Anolis ArcSource 24 LED fixtures.
This Anolis lighting scheme has replaced all the original metal halide lighting fixtures that were installed in 2008 when the riverbank scheme was inaugurated and transformed the area from moody car parking to a bustling urban thoroughfare.
The switch to LED was driven by the city’s Urban Lighting Department (DEU) and the new lighting is 76% more energy efficient.
The banks of the Rhône pass through a succession of natural, mineral, and urban developments and a

Canada - CAST Group has announced the immediate availability of their latest hardware solution. BT-1 is a compact tracking solution that delivers impressive effects, tracking and automation capabilities, similar to large-scale productions, but tailored to fit smaller intimate spaces.
Unveiled at this year’s Prolight & Sound trade show, BT-1 opens a number of possibilities for small-scale productions to experience the same precision and control capabilities as the original BlackTrax system, but in a more compact, cost effective and portable solution.
Specifically designed for small to medium-sized projects in theatre, studios, corporate events, and houses of worship. BlackTrax’s impressive feature set, including easy setup and calibration, high accuracy, low latency, prediction algorithms, integrates with any application through a single integration output. Whet

USA - Independent lighting designer Joel Reiff has tapped 28 Ayrton Domino Profiles as his ‘workhorse’ fixture for Counting Crows’ 56-date summer tour across North America, which he programmed on a grandMA3 console. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton fixtures and MA lighting products in North America.
The band, with guests Dashboard Confessional, kicked off their Banshee Season Tour in June in Omaha and will wrap with a show at the famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado on 25 September. Upstaging provided the Dominos and grandMA3 consoles for the tour.
“I like to emphasise the music in my lighting design and not take the audience’s eyes away from what the band is doing on stage and what they’re hearing,” says Aiken, South Carolina-based Reiff. “As my spot fixtures the Dominos get the brunt of the looks and take the majorit

UK - Over two nights in June, Adlib’s sizeable inventory of Martin MAC Ultra fixtures were deployed for Sam Fender’s homecoming gigs at Newcastle’s St. James’ Park.
Specified by lighting designer Sam Tozer, with lighting director Luke Avery, and design associate Harry Williams, a combination of Martin’s MAC Ultra Performance and MAC Ultra Wash fixtures delivered huge impact for the 100,000 strong audience.
Explaining his initial design concept Sam Tozer said: “We wanted to create a show that felt heavy and dynamic. Something visually impactful but with the capability to create unique spaces with visuals and light. It needed to be able to match the energy of the music.”
And in terms of fixtures, the LD already knew the MAC Ultra family would deliver the necessary impact.
“I‘ve been using the MAC Ultra Performance in most of my larger scale

USA - Morgan Wallen has become a country music superstar in a very short time. Just years from debuting, he dominates the country music charts with a pair of albums that remain in the Billboard Top 10. His 2023 release, One Thing at a Time topped the chart for an impressive 15 weeks. Wallen’s current One Night at a Time stadium tour reflects his meteoric rise with an expanded production design by Zac Coren that includes Elation Proteus luminaires.
Being an outdoor stadium tour, IP-rated lighting fixtures were a must and Zac turned to three fixtures in the proven Proteus series - Proteus Rayzor Blade linear FX bars, Proteus Hybrid moving heads, and Proteus Rayzor 760 LED wash effects.
The tour launched in March in Australia and New Zealand with a North American leg that kicked off in Milwaukee in April and is selling out at virtually every stop. Event product

Vietnam - The Adam Hall Group continues to expand its international sales network. With Acoustic & Lighting System, the event technology provider headquartered in Neu-Anspach, Germany, has gained an experienced distribution partner in Vietnam. Acoustic & Lighting System is one of the leading event and AV technology distributors in Southeast Asia and will take over the exclusive distribution for the solutions of the Adam Hall Group brands LD Systems, Cameo, Gravity and Palmer with immediate effect.
In addition to the Vietnam market, Acoustic & Lighting System with its more than 150 employees also covers the sales markets of Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand. The extended range of services offered by the A&L Group includes technical project consulting as well as a comprehensive service and maintenance offer for all sales brands.
"The Vietnamese

UK - From stand D3 with SES, at this year’s PLASA Show, Data Strategy will showcase the extensive benefits of the industry’s first choice electrical and cable safety inspection solution, the QC-Check workstation.
Anticipating an extension to the summer festival season’s conversational theme of cable identification out on site, Data Strategy’s Iain Roche will be on stand ready to discuss the benefits of simple labelling solutions, as well as the latest rental system integrations and QC-Check’s most popular add-on modules, including the PowerCheck distro testing, LOLER inspection and SimplyPATS integration software.
Integration with equipment hire software is central to QC-Check’s role in embedding practical safety inspection solutions into the heart of the warehouse process. Data Strategy is progressing two new and interesting integrations that will allow mo

Albania - Prolights fixtures played a pivotal role in the concert titled Dekada by Albanian singer Elvana Gjata. This event marked a significant milestone in Elvana's two-decade-long musical journey, captivating thousands of fans at the Air Albania Stadium in Tirana for a memorable four-hour extravaganza.
Contributing to the importance of the event was ASLV Albania working in collaboration with Kuadr Events, they integrated 350 cutting-edge Prolights fixtures, creating a breathtaking stage setup, including: 30 PanoramaIP Spot, 30 PanoramaIP AirBeam, 60 UNICO, 50 Jade, 40 Stark 400, 24 Sunrise 2IP, 40 SunRise 4, 40 Lumipix 15IP, 12 EclFresnel TW, 12 LumiPar 12IP and 16 Razor 440.
"The Prolights fixtures truly exceeded our expectations at Elvana Gjata's Dekada concert. Their cutting-edge technology and versatility allowed us to create a visually stunning productio

Norway - The band, Postgirobygget (named after Norway’s main post office in Oslo), which began life in 1994 under the name The Pissed Off Sons, gained traction with their debut album Melis, which sold nearly 200,000 copies and spent a total of 70 weeks in the VG Chart. Since then, they have embarked on an annual summer tour, performing at festivals and venues in front of audiences ranging from 2000 to 18,000 people.
Postgirobygget’s 28-date summer 2023 tour began in May and will continue through until September, with set and lighting design by Petter Nilssen of LiteNordic, MDG’s distributor for Norway. Nilssen chose a single MDG Me2 fog generator as his source of fog and haze for the duration of the tour, complete with MDG’s digital theFAN, both of which were neatly and conveniently housed with fluid and gas bottles in an MDG Vertical Flight Case as an instan

Turkey - The focus of many legends and sagas, Istanbul’s Maiden’s Tower is the most important building for the city’s inhabitants, with a long history stretching back beyond 1423 when it first received its name.
During its complete renovation, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism commissioned contractors ASTEL to conduct an international competition for a light show that should highlight the Tower, be widely seen around Istanbul and run fully-automated every night.
The contract was won by Martin Kuhn of MKLD Lighting Design & Consulting of Berlin, who conceived the idea of telling the Tower’s story using light to accompany the narrative in the manner of a theatre piece or performance.
Kuhn commissioned a seven-minute script from respected Turkish writer, Ayşe Kulin, had it translated it into English and Arabic, found professional speakers for

UK - Artistic Licence, now part of the Robe family, goes back to its rock 'n' roll roots, with a line-up of rack-mount splitters and its gateway range. From the signature 'skinny rack' octoboxes to the channel-dense, feature-rich dataLynx range, a spectrum of budgets and technical needs are catered for.
The Artistic Licence stand would not be complete without some of its popular DIN rail mount products. This year sees the arrival of a new addition to the bestselling railSplit range, in the form of railSplit quad.
This new DMX/RDM opto-splitter features all the functionality of the railSplit RDM, with two key differences: Data connections are all RJ45 plus there are four (not six) outputs.
Also in the news, Artistic Licence has revamped the railFlip, with a new style case and markings. railFlip is a modular A-B switch for DMX512 that supports four universes. Its

UK - Sam Fender played two homecoming shows at St. James’ Park in Newcastle with lighting designed by Sam Tozer - also the show’s creative director - and equipment supplied by event technology specialists, Adlib, including 11 x Robe Fortes running on five RoboSpot systems.
Tozer has been working with the artist since he re-started playing live after the pandemic in 2021. Working alongside him was lighting director Luke Avery, who was heavily involved in the design process, together with set designer Flora Harvey. Video content was created by UDC.
Sam’s overall vision for these shows was to make the lighting look epic, large scale and ‘industrial strength’ to cover the dynamic range of Sam Fender’s music.
The Fortes were all rigged on the front truss and utilised for spot lighting, key lighting and specials. “I needed a very reliable and stable remo

Hungary - In 2023, the city of Veszprém in Western Hungary and the Bakony-Balaton region is holding a year-long programme of events and celebrations as the European Capital of Culture. The Grand Opening of the festivities took place on 21-22 January under the title Come shine with us!, a spectacular event with lighting design by Balázs Varga. The LD illuminated the occasion using 120 IP-rated lighting products from Elation Professional.
January weather in Hungary can be freezing - it is the coldest and snowiest month of the year in the country - with temperatures often between 0° and -10° Celsius. “The rehearsal days and programming days were freezing and there was snow on show day,” stated Balázs, co-founder and managing director of Hybrid Production of Budapest.
“It was extremely hard on the fixtures because the equipment was outside for seven strai

South Africa - Cape Town-based rental and production company Ultra Event Technical Solutions has been extremely busy since the industry re-energised post-covid, a challenging time that nonetheless saw them retain their complete staff through resourcefulness, creative thinking and adapting the facilities and skill base they had to a pandemic economy.
Thankfully as soon as the gathering and meeting up restrictions were lifted, “We’ve been absolutely full-tilt,” explained Ultra’s founder and CEO, Costa Champanis.
With business growing, it wasn’t long before they needed more lights, so Costa made the investment in 24 x Robe LEDBeam 350s.
Ultra is a ‘one-stop solution’ for technical production. Their work encompasses a multiplicity of corporate and industrial events, awards shows, gala evenings, graduation ceremonies, etc, plus in the summer, a round of

USA - World Cup champion Lionel Messi created shock waves when he passed up offers from better-known clubs to sign with the struggling Inter Miami team.
Anticipation was high when the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner suited up for his first game on Friday 21 July, but Messi, still recovering from an exhausting travel schedule, had to sit on the bench for the first 54 minutes. Then, with the sell-out crowd standing and cheering wildly, he entered the game and proceeded to score the winning goal.
A few days before, the player was greeted at the team’s DRV Pink Stadium in Fort Lauderdale with a welcome celebration.
Helping to create the heady atmosphere was a bright, bold, and colourful lighting design from José Laria, lighting designer Andres Albornoz and the entire team at LPS Production that drew on the intense output of over 100 Chauvet Professional IP65 rated

Indonesia - To provide the new Tokyo Riverside Apartment complex with vivid and engaging lighting, architectural firm PT Chayolite deployed a selection of Martin lighting solutions.
Located in the Pantai Indah Kapuk 2 precinct (PIK2) within Jakarta, Tokyo Riverside Apartment is a luxury living complex featuring modern Japanese architecture and smart living tools. Developed by Agung Sedayu Group, the complex is conveniently located near a variety of amenities, including sports and recreational facilities, a 2.5-mile white sand beach and the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.
To accentuate its architecture, PT Chayolite and Harman Professional Solutions were appointed to illuminate its façade in a way that complemented its luxurious details. To meet this requirement, the installation team deployed Martin VC-Dot 1 outdoor LED lights.
Featuring individually co

France - One of the biggest heavy metal music festivals in the world, Hellfest recently wrapped its 16th edition in Clisson, where KISS launched the festival with Claypaky Xtylos and an array of Claypaky fixtures played key roles for other bands.
The four-day festival featured 180 bands performing on six stages in the concert area plus additional outdoor stages. KISS, Iron Maiden, Motley Crue and Slipknot headlined as more than 150,000 extreme music fans attended performances, camped out and explored the full Hellfest 2023 experience.
France-based B Live Group has been Hellfest’s technical partner from the start of the festival providing lighting for both of the main stages and the Warzone. This year, they chose Claypaky Sharpy X Frames to illuminate Main Stage 2, which hosted the biggest international bands, and Arolla Profile MPs and Sharpys for the Warzone, the st

Belgium - There were over 230 Chauvet Professional fixtures at the Happy Belgium concert in the Cinquantenaire Arcade, but it’s doubtful that any of the 60,000 people who were there to celebrate the National Day of Belgium on 21 July noticed many of them. Lighting designer Jordi Vandekerkhof of the More To Show design studio would have it no other way.
For him, the purpose of the majority IP65 lighting fixtures at this exquisitely orchestrated evening event, was to be “seen” (in terms of their effect), without being noticed because of their protective domes. “We wanted to light the stage, audience and surroundings without drawing attention to the fixtures,” he explained.
Jordi credits Splendit, which supplied the fixtures for the event, with helping to put together a rig that was low profile, while still being powerful enough to create a stunning impression.

USA - Lighting designer Eric Price turned to Elation’s Proteus Lucius as the feature light of an all-purpose floor package for rock band Taking Back Sunday as they headlined the travelling Sad Summer Festival in July. Reminiscent of the Warped Tour, the fourth incarnation of Sad Summer Festival ran coast to coast and featured a strong line-up of pop punk’s finest.
Price has been with Taking Back Sunday since 2017 and served as lighting designer, programmer and operator for the band’s Sad Summer set. He says he had used the Proteus Lucius before, on a tour with Mastodon, and knew the all-purpose LED moving head well. “The Proteus Lucius is great technology with a lot of features and you don’t lose anything with it being IP rated,” he said. “It makes no feature compromises and is just what you would expect from a professional moving fixture.”
Proteus Luc

UK - TechLED will showcase its range of UK-manufactured lighting effects on stand G30 at this year’s PLASA Show. Contributing the lowest possible airmiles to low-energy LED effects, the show-stopping range from UK-based Abstract, is a must-see for any UK installer with a green agenda and an eye on sustainability.
Recognised as one of the pioneering market leaders in effects lighting with a manufacturing legacy spanning over 30 years, Abstract’s key lighting effects units will be demonstrated, including the Abstract Candi Blox and Abstract Candi Bar, the Abstract X-Lite Pro freestanding lighting system and the Abstract X-Drive. The popular Abstract-supplied, Pixel Neon lighting system will also be at the forefront of stand G30.
Pixel Neon is a square neon flex lighting effect supplied by Abstract. Flexible, weatherproof, and easy to install, Pixel Neon is perfect fo

Belgium - The Concert Hall venue, which is part of the Music Centre de Bijloke in Ghent, was once a 13th century civic hospital and now offers a vibrant and interesting blend of music often embracing additional performance and visual art forms like theatre and film.
During the pandemic, The Concert Hall which retains its original wooden curved frame roof and exterior walls, was completely renovated. New lighting was installed as part of this upgrade, including 13 x Robe T1 Profiles, which were specified by the Music Centre’s technical manager, Natan Rosseel and his team.
The works included removal of the entire floor which was sunk down by one metre. This was primarily to improve the acoustics; however, it has also resulted in an additional metre gain of headroom very much welcomed by the lighting department.
The 13th century roof spans are still in place, bu

UK - Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London has become the first open air theatre in the UK to install Ayrton Perseo fixtures as part of its plan to update to a more sustainable and environmentally-responsible lighting rig.
20 Perseo Profiles have been supplied to this venue by White Light for the full 20-week summer season. White Light worked in close collaboration with the teams at Regent’s Park and Ambersphere, Ayrton’s exclusive distributor for the UK, to understand the aims, and facilitate the provision of the correct LED fixtures, to meet all the theatre’s requirements.
Joe Kirk, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s head of lighting, was determined to make changes to the lighting inventory when he took on the role last year: “I wanted to replace the old rig of power-intensive tungsten and discharge moving lights with more sustainable LED replacements,

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