Projects

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USA - Christmas is a time for homecomings, and so it was this year for singer Billy Gilman. Back in 2000, Gilman made history when, at age 11, he became the youngest person ever to have a Billboard Top 40 Country hit with his Grammy-nominated double platinum single One Voice, which reached No. 2 on the charts. His life and music have gone through their share of twists and turns since then, but the Westerly, RI-born singer has always returned to his native state to connect to his original friends and fans.
Gilman’s most recent homecoming took place on 14 December, when he performed a sentimental holiday show at Providence’s 14,000-seat Dunkin’ Donuts Centre. A Cody James-designed lightshow transformed the stage into a winter wonderland with a combination of big gobo looks and richly saturated colours created with Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by JDI Pro

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Europe - From mid-October to early December, Finnish rock band Sunrise Avenue toured across Europe on their Heartbreak Century tour, a run of smaller venues before the five-member band hit the road on a bigger arena tour this year.
Light, set and video were supplied by Ambion GmbH. Lighting designer Stephan Aue, who supported the band for the first time in 2015 on their arena tour, was once again responsible for the lighting design, relying on products from Elation Professional, among others.
A total of 10 compact Elation ACL 360i beam effect lights were used, as well as five of Elation’s new Dartz 360 LED beam/spot fixtures. The fall Sunrise Avenue tour marked the touring debut of the compact narrow-beam Dartz luminaire.
The smaller venues presented a special challenge for Ambion and Aue, who explained that the entire production had to fit in a single

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USA - Texan evangelist Joel Osteen recently brought his Christian preaching to LA with a capacity crowd at the newly-refurbished LA Forum.
With a weekly TV audience topping seven million and an international monthly audience of more than 20m in over 100 countries, Osteen has been voted the most influential Christian in America. His Night Of Hope gatherings combine contemporary worship with live music, prayer time and inspirational messages.
A very different sonic challenge from most other live events, the principal technical requirement when presenting evangelism is vocal intelligibility - seamless full-frequency audio coverage, without ‘hot’ or ‘cold’ spots, delivered to every single person in the room at conversational levels. At the LA Forum that meant catering for a congregation of 18,000 and Special Event Services of Winston-Salem, North Carolina,

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Sweden - Alcons provided a new audio system for a 19th century theatre in Stockholm.
Vasateatern, which closed in 2010 during the transformation of the surrounding buildings into the new Scandic Grand Central, had poor sound-proofing and remained closed even after the hotel’s opening. To overcome the acoustic issues, the interior had to be rebuild on a smaller scale, making space for a sound-insulating air gap around the auditorium.
The new ‘floating box’ Vasateatern features most of the original fittings, but with modern acoustic materials, flexible seating and a brand new Alcons LR7 audio system.
Swedish systems integrator Electrosound has done the sound design and installation at a number of Scandic hotels, including the Scandic Grand Central complex. When it came to equipping the theatre, an Alcons LR7 system was chosen. This includes a main PA of 20 f

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The Netherlands - Dutch astronaut André Kuipers presented his SpaceXperience Live show as the central element of an immersive intergalactic journey in-the-round at Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome, with Kuipers relating his many stories and real-life experiences working in space on various ESA programmes.
Lighting designer Henk-Jan van Beek from Dutch creative visual practice Light-H-Art was asked to light the show by production company LiveLane. He’s worked on many shows in the Ziggo Dome throughout his career, but this was the first time a concept like this was central to the 90-minute presentation.
Audiences were also treated to a simulated rocket blast off right in the middle of the venue, a jaw dropping piece of theatre for which Henk-Jan specified 40 x Robe BMFL WashBeam moving lights and 16 x Robe Cyclones to assist in creating all the drama and excitement of

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Brazil - Developed and published by Riot Games, League of Legends has become one of the world’s most popular third-person multiplayer online battle arena games, attracting more than 100m active players each month.
This year the Brazilian finals took place on 2 September at the Mineirinho Arena to a live audience of approximately 8,000 and was also broadcast live on ESPN in Brazil. Audio supplier Gabisom were there to ensure the gamers aural experience would match the intensity of the final battles taking place, trusting DiGiCo as their weapon of choice.
Gaining popularity since 2010, multiplayer online battle arena or ‘MOBA’ is currently one of the most widespread forms of game play and League of Legends is at the forefront of this, attracting thousands of eager gamers to the championships.
For this large-scale, multi-facted production, Gabisom was

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UK - Cardiff-based events specialist 11th Hour will bring its 11th year in business to a close by supplying a huge New Year’s Eve fireworks spectacular to its home city.
Sayers Amusements, with whom 11th Hour work to deliver Cardiff’s Winter Wonderland, commissioned the public display which will be fired from Cooper’s Field in Bute Park on the stroke of midnight.
The six minute aerial show will comprise professional Category 1.3 explosives with calibres ranging from 75 - 200mm, culminating with a loud, rapid-fire finale. Fireworks are a growing area of 11th Hour’s portfolio, the company having already delivered a number of high profile displays, not least of which was at this year’s Pride Cymru Big Weekend in Cardiff.
The New Year’s Eve show will be its biggest to date but as 11th Hour Director and British Pyrotechnists Association qualified and regis

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South Africa - For two days in November, Sandringham Farm was transformed into a village of worshippers as Christian bands from the UK, US, South Africa and elsewhere performed gospel.
Providing an uplifting visual backdrop to this celebration was a dynamic and ebullient lightshow of vivid colour washes and powerful aerial effects created by JP Willson of Unfazed Productions. Key to Willson’s transformative design was his collection of Chauvet Professional Rogue R2 Wash fixtures.
Willson hung 11 of the RGBW LED washes on a mid and rear stage truss, using them to reflect the mood of the music. The Rogue fixtures were used to sweep the stage with colors as well as for backwashing performers and aerial washing. The fixtures’ wide 12° to 49° zoom range allowed Willson to change his coverage area; while the output from their 19 15-watt LEDs provided him with enough

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China - TrueColor in Guangzhou City is the flagship venue of a chain of clubs created in 1995, currently owned and managed by Alliance Art Group.
TrueColor Guangzhou City recently sought upgrades to its audio system. After consultation with Mr. Tan who represents dealer Guangzhou EGG Technologies Company, Alliance Art Group called on DMT – Clair Brothers Chinese distributor – to help make the necessary improvements on behalf of TrueColor customers. Right on the heels of a complete upgrade and redesign of the layout and style of the club in June of 2017, the decision to call on Clair Brothers made sense.
TrueColor is a nightclub where music plays constantly, seven days a week with a full house, and permeates the entire establishment, so it has to sound awesome and perform reliably. After the redesign of the interior, the old system just didn’t fit the bill.

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UK - Just like the fairy-tale glass slipper that glided effortlessly onto Cinderella’s foot uniting her and Prince Charming, lighting designer Andy Webb has designed a colourful and fitting lighting scheme for Cinderella, this season’s pantomime at Blackpool UK’s Grand Theatre, utilising entirely Robe LED products.
It’s the third year that Andy has been asked to light this popular panto for UK Productions. Returning to the same venue has some definite advantages he explains, both in terms of knowing the space and what you can and can’t achieve in it, and also having an ongoing relationship with the local crew and technicians.
As always, the challenge with pantos is having to do a massive amount of programming in a very short time to produce the intense, magical, high-impact visuals characteristic of the genre.
For the last three years, Andy had i

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Serbia - Philips Lighting reports that its newest stage lighting fixtures have helped to deliver a magical environment for the recent concert at Belgrade's Sava Center by leading Bosnian folk music artist, Bozo Vrećo.
To create this enchanted environment in the 4,000-seat Sava Center, Serbia's largest concert venue, lighting designer Nebojsa Milojevic required powerful lighting fixtures. They needed to be capable of delivering bright, crisp projections and striking beams and effects, and with enough presence to register even against the background LED screen. He settled on 60 lighting fixtures from the Philips Entertainment Lighting range, including VL6000 Beams, VLZ Spots and SL Hydrus 350 luminaires.
In bringing his critically-acclaimed show to Belgrade, the artist asked Milojevic to "paint with the lights and connect the eyes of the audience with the songs.". With

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UK - The Royal Albert Hall rolled out the red carpet for the European premiere of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Green Hippo technology was there in force. UK creative Digital Insanity provided content creation and playback solutions for the premiere of the latest in the Star Wars franchise, and the team again relied on Green Hippo to help it create a spectacular.
Having successfully used Hippotizer Media Servers on the European movie premieres of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Digital Insanity immediately allocated control duties to its Hippotizer Karst Media Server. In an environment, which was at times harsh – outdoors on the steps of the Royal Albert Hall and with temperatures registering barely above zero – the robust Karst performed its duties to the max.
Digital Insanity used Hippotizer Karst in con

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UK - When Craig David brought his TS5 gig to Brixton O2 Academy in November, he called once again on long-standing collaborator Stephen Abbiss to add his own creative touch to the accompanying lighting and set design.
Favouring live lighting control over playback, Abbiss selected Avolites and its Arena console, running the latest Titan V10.1 software, for the TS5 show. Abbiss used the Arena to control his geometric lighting design.
The TS5 show originated as a Sunday afternoon DJ party at the artist's Miami home, and now sees him DJ and MC and sing on stage. Abbiss says: "I based my design for this show on the cover artwork on Craig's new album, The Time is Now. The picture is of him and a large clock face, so I decided to reflect that circular image with my lights and truss."
Abbiss produced a series of three concentric circles of tru

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USA - Lighting consultant Howard M. Brandston and artist Dan George created a light installation in the City of Syracuse featuring SGM’s i-2 White IP66-rated POI lights.
The permanent installation, part of the larger Connective Corridor project, was initiated to illuminate iconic buildings and public spaces between Columbus Circle and Armory Square.
Brandston explains: “The Jefferson Street project is really an investment in turning a typical motor-oriented roadway into a pedestrian-oriented city street. The installation reflects off people, making the installation essentially invisible until occupied; it takes people to show the light because the people become the light.”
The installation on Jefferson Street is the signature illumination under the larger Connective Corridor project, connecting Syracuse University to Downtown Syracuse.

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Latvia - The first Eurovision Choir of the Year contest took place in Riga, Latvia. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Interkultur Foundation, the inaugural event hosted nine professional choirs, each representing a different European country.
The venue was the Arena Riga, a 14,500-capacity stadium, and Green Hippo technology was on hand to help deliver a live spectacular, in keeping of the EBU’s best known production, the Eurovision Song Contest.
Company NA and Latvian Green Hippo distributor, PRO 1 Stage, worked with Kristaps Skulte (stage design) and Maris Kalve (video content) to deliver the visuals. With two Hippotizer Boreals, and a trio of Hippotizer Karsts, the team had an impressive array of technology to work with. Andrejs Mefodovskis headed the Hippotizer set-up and configuration, with Ivars Vacers handling programming and control

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Germany - They were the rock idols of the Munich ‘Schickeria’, and in the 80s and 90s were Bavaria’s hottest rock exports throughout the whole of Europe - step forward, Barny Murphy, Günther Sigl and the Spider Murphy Gang. Their recent 40th anniversary concert showed they had lost none of their fire, and Marc Lorenz from CUE Design provided an appropriate lightshow at the Olympiahalle.
The band and lighting designer are long-time companions. "In the mid-'90s, when I was still at the beginning of my career, I worked in Munich for the first time,” Marc recalls. "Later, at the band's 20th anniversary, I had my second engagement as moving light operator, and at the planning stage for the 40th Anniversary came the request for me to take over the lighting design for the Olympiahalle.
“The band is rock 'n' roll - and should always remain so. But of course, there m

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Belgium - De Bijloke in Ghent is home to a number of local cultural institutions including the Ghent City Museum, De Bijloke Ghent Music Centre, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and the Ghent Conservatory College.
The Music Centre is housed in the building of a medieval hospital, carefully restored to include modern galleries, rehearsal rooms, offices and a lobby. The main concert hall lies within the original 700-year-old construction and seats 960 audience members, primarily but not exclusively, for classical concerts and recitals.
The management at De Bijloke wished to significantly improve upon the lighting provision in the Music Centre. In the past, the stage for classical concerts had been lit by way of 1kW and 2kW spotlights to meet the demand for the musicians to be able to clearly see their scores. Every concert was very labour-intensive and consumed large amou

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USA - The Bryant Park Winter Village, a five-month winter wonderland located at a 9.6- acre park in Midtown Manhattan, has a lighting display created by Diana Kesselschmidt and featuring a collection of over 130 Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by PRG.
Kesselschmidt, who is lighting the Bryant Park Winter Village for the first time, used 116 COLORado 2-Quad Zoom IP fixtures and 18 Ovation E-260WW IP ellipsoidals to bring an added level of warmth to the popular attraction. “Coming here is a tradition for many New Yorkers,” she said. “We wanted to use lighting to create an immersive atmosphere that reflected this connection between the people of the city and this spot.”
COLORado 2-Quad Zoom IP fixtures units in Kesselschmidt’s rig wash the 17,000sq.ft ice skating rink, as well as the interiors of its first and second floor pavilions, which house a skate

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Italy - Italian rental company Agorà supplied an L-Acoustics audio system for Ennio Morricone’s 60 Years of Music world tour.
One of the world’s most celebrated composers and conductors, Morricone has written over 500 film and television scores and is the only film composer to have received the honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement.
Early in the tour, Morricone’s long time recording and FOH engineer Fabio Venturi and Agora project manager Giulio Rovelli heard about the new L-ISA immersive sound system and visited the L-ISA headquarters in London for a presentation and to test the mixing platform with Fabio’s own recorded material.
“Our normal L‑Acoustics configuration works extremely well. But in places such as arenas, it’s difficult to achieve exactly what we want, and since the very first concert, we’ve been looking at ways to

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USA - Bandit Lites teamed up with the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree programme and Knoxville’s Angel Tree to provide some holiday cheer to the local community.
Bandit has provided the local communities with Angel Tree assistance for many years. Knoxville’s Angel Tree programme has been working to make sure Santa visits every local child, no matter their circumstances since 1975, and the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree Programme delivers gifts to over one million children each year.
In a combined effort by HR coordinator Cori Link, director of philanthropy Allison Burchett and controller Shay Simpson, each Bandit team member across multiple Bandit locations had the opportunity to shop for an underprivileged child. Individual paper angels held children’s wishes, ranging from toys and games to practical needs that so many can take for granted, such as toothbrushes and

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UK - Adlib supplied full production, including sound, lighting, rigging and large format video projection, for a special one-off event at the SSE Wembley Arena in London, DreamWorks Animation in Concert which was presented by DreamWorks Animation, CineConcerts, and The MJR Group. It featured music and many memorable moments from DreamWorks Animation’s numerous hit films like Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon and more with music performed live by The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.
Adlib project managers Dave Eldridge and Richard Nicholson co-ordinated all the technical elements working closely with tour manager Barry Jepson, MJR’s production manager Leanne Powell, technical manager Curtis King and creative director Nathan Stone.
It completes a hattrick of recent noteworthy orchestral works serviced by Adlib including

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UK - The Hazlitt Theatre’s recent investment in ProLights LED fixtures for their studio space has exceeded expectations so much that they have been promoted to the main stage.
Parkwood Theatres, which owns and manages the Hazlitt Theatre, purchased ProLights StudioCOB LED PARs, ProLights Jetspot3 LED spots, and ProLights Diamond19 LED wash luminaires.
The team at the venue in Maidstone, Kent were so impressed with the performance of their new fixtures that they moved many of them into the main house to light their bigger productions – starting with this year's ‘all-star’ Christmas Pantomime, Cinderella.
Sam Ray, the theatre's technical manager and LD forCinderella, commented: "The ProLights fixtures have really exceeded our expectations since arriving in our studio, so I wanted the benefit of using them on our main stage productions too - s

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South Africa - Technical services and equipment supplier MGG expanded its inventory with the investment of a Hippotizer V4 Boreal. The media server made its first appearance at the EOH Annual Year End celebration hosted at three locations.
At the Johannesburg leg, Gallagher Estate in Midrand ran two shows with 4000 guests attending per night, while 2 000 guests attended the performance hosted at the Cape Town International Convention Centre and a further 700 people attended the wonderful festivities at the Durban ICC.
Johan Botha from MGG has been in the industry for many years, and has experience with media servers, though it was his first time on the Hippotizer V4 Boreal. “An MA command wing controlled the Hippotizer V4. We ran main and back-up which went into a matrix switcher in the unlikely case that anything should go wrong. Honestly though, the Hippo is a reli

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USA - Fort Scott High School is home to the Tigers volleyball and basketball teams, both of which figure large in the school's identity and after-school social life. In fact, the school recently completed construction on a second gymnasium so that multiple games and/or practices can happen simultaneously.
The new gym obviously needed a new sound reinforcement system, but the existing gym and a second-floor weight room did as well. Audio/video integration firm Total Electronics Contracting (TEC) designed and installed a combined system that handles all three spaces. Because TEC's Joplin, Missouri headquarters is two-and-a-half hours round trip from Fort Scott, TEC AV project manager Nate Pugh called on the 24/7 reliability of Ashly Audio nX-Series multi-mode amplifiers to minimize the need for service calls.
"The existing gym had four ancient-looking loudspeakers in me
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