Germany - As Ascension Day is a traditional day off for Germans, what better way to spend it then at Tanta Mia tanzt, a one-day electro dance music festival with international and regional DJs.
Held in the town of Vechta in northwest Germany, Tanta Mia tanzt debuted in 2016 and was back in 2017 with a line-up of EDM and house beat artists playing across multiple stages. The all-day EDM party with its unusual name (Aunt Mia is dancing) attracted more than 16,000 visitors this year.
Elation Professional’s new German distribution partner, LMP Lichttechnik Vertriebs GmbH, who began distributing Elation Professional products in Germany in April of this year, worked with production services company Multi Media Marketing & Event GmbH. Dirk Möhlenbrock from Multi Media, responsible for the entire show design, took over the creative and technical project management this

UK - Warpaint is a Los Angeles based “dream pop” band currently on tour in support of their third album, Heads Up. The tour, which has played high-profile venues from Australia’s Sydney Opera House to England’s Glastonbury Festival, carries two Allen & Heath dLive S5000 Surfaces with DM64 MixRacks for FOH and monitors, supplied by Wigwam Acoustics in Europe and Rat Sound in the USA.
FOH engineer Hanford Pittman first encountered the dLive at the Music Tastes Good festival in Long Beach. “Right away, I fell in love with it,” he says. “I set things up with the dLive Director and I was pretty much self-sufficient right away. Then, as soon as I heard that first kick, I knew it sounded amazing.”
Maxine Gilmore, Warpaint’s monitor engineer tried the dLive at the same festival and Pittman says, “Once she realized that she could set it up exactly

UK - Working with creative studio Another Space, VER London helped build the vibrant, large scale artistic installation that shrouded the entrance to the Dazed 100 celebration event.
Titled Shadow Play, the production centred on a 15m wide projection, featuring imagery and beams split into layered colour channels. The presence of visitors passing through the beams refracted the layers resulting in their silhouettes becoming an integral part of the highly immersive experience.
Speaking about the production, VER lighting project manager Mark Rooney said: “The Dazed 100 event was an incredible artistic adventure for us. The equipment we supplied out of VER London helped the production team create and deliver a fantastic audience experience”.
VER provided six Barco HDX 20K projectors to the show, offset from standard blend and operating in conjunction with

Europe - “How do we set up the control system to accommodate everything we need for a huge show including capacity for different festival rigs?” Matt Arthur, lighting director for System of a Down’s current European tour, and festival appearances asked Jack Moorhouse, Jands product manager from A.C. Entertainment Technologies.
Rob Sinclair’s ambitious creative design for the headline European tour by the American alternative, Grammy-winning rock band contained over 800 individually controlled elements, including a touring floor package, festival house rig and a large hybrid video wall.
The wall incorporated embedded RGB pixel “lights” alongside a traditional video screen. The lighting pixels themselves required 2,128 DMX channels. Matt originally planned to run the video and pixels from two separate media servers, with overall control from Jands Vista.

UK - St John's is a Romanesque chapel, located in the heart of the Tower of London. It was built between 1077 and 1097 of French stone imported by William the Conqueror and constitutes not only the best-preserved interior in the White Tower but also one of the finest examples of Anglo-Norman church architecture in England.
Historic Royal Palaces had wished for some time to improve lighting provision in the chapel to achieve an improved experience for visitors and congregational acts of worship. Architects Carden & Godfrey, retained architects for Historic Royal Palaces at the Tower of London, recommended James Morse for the project. Morse specialises in the interior and exterior lighting of historic buildings and had recently worked with Carden and Godfrey at Rochester Cathedral.
There was to be strictly no disturbance of the ancient fabric and with this in mind,

UK - Storyhouse in Chester is a new theatre, cinema and library, housed in a renovated art deco Odeon Cinema building. Located in the city centre, it is the biggest project of its kind outside of London. (A detailed report on the evolution of The Storyhouse features in the latest issue of LSi - plasa.me/lsidigital).
The £37m renovation has seen the building revitalised and it now houses an 800-seat auditorium, a 200-seat studio theatre, a restaurant, two bars and a 100-seat boutique cinema. Leading production solution specialist White Light was contracted to supply all of the loose entertainment equipment, which included lighting, audio and video.
Jonathan Haynes, WL’s business development manager and William Bray, business development support at WL, brought Doughty Engineering on board to supply a range of IWB boxes.
Jonathan commented: "For the Storyh

UK - Now in its third year on the wide-open spaces of Brighton City Airport, the Wild Life Festival, jointly founded by Disclosure and Rudimental, once again brought the best out of Martin Audio’s MLA PA and the Capital Sound crew charged with optimising it.
As with the inaugural event in 2015, gusting 30mph winds on build-up day threatened to play havoc with the sound control but this had largely abated by the time the two-day event got underway (this time moving to a Friday-Saturday slot to avoid interfering with Sunday services at the nearby church).
Said Capital crew chief Robin Conway, “I personally believe the MLA system handles the crosswinds much better than other PA’s.” He also praised the latest DISPLAY software, describing it as “brilliant”. In fact, it has extended the low frequency control beneath the previous 300Hz - and this is essential for

Ukraine - !FEST is a chain of creative restaurants, bars and clubs in the Ukraine. Its latest project is !FESTREPUBLIC.CLUB, a new nightclub in the city of Lviv. The club’s owners and management wanted a system of the same quality and impact as the iconic Bowery Presents’ Terminal 5 and Webster Hall in New York City and looked to L-Acoustics to ensure they could offer such an all-round, world class experience.
Converted from a former glass processing plant, the 1500 capacity nightclub has been designed as a loft-style venue, with an industrial feel and a stage for live acts at one end. The club’s owners want to ensure that the desires of visiting artists are always met, but their main concern is to satisfy their guests.
“I want everyone who has ears not just to hear, but also to feel,” says Andriy Khudo, co-founder of !FEST along with Yurko Nazaruk and Dmytro

Belgium - In his 11 years as Epica’s lighting designer, Erwin Van Lokeren has never repeated a look from song to song. Neither he nor the band would have it any other way. Never afraid to blaze their own musical path, the symphonic metal pioneers have transcended genres by pulling in wildly disparate influences from Vivaldi to Star Wars, and weaving them all into a uniquely transformative sound.
Van Lokeren, who collaborates closely with two of Epica’s members Coen Janssen and Isaac Delahaye, has accentuated the band’s musical message with a ceaseless flow of compelling looks, each more unique than the next.
Helping him accomplish this feat on the group’s current Holographic Principle tour of Europe and North America is his ChamSys MagicQ MQ60 console with a compact wing.
“My constant touring life is really easy with the MQ60,” he said. “Because of

World - Ed Sheeran is currently engaged on an extensive world tour, featuring an eye-catching production design by Mark Cunniffe with a networked grandMA2 system specified to control lighting and playback video.
Cunniffe has worked with Sheeran and his technical team, led by production manager Chris Marsh since 2010. That was right at the start of the artist’s impressive career trajectory which started unobtrusively and steadily grew – keeping all the best cool and slightly underground elements - to the supersonic proportions it is today.
For this tour, Cunniffe’s brief was to make the stage space really dynamic, so he created an elaborate video set and a highly versatile lighting rig which includes 142 moving lights and 17 LED strobes together with two MDG theOne stadium hazers and 10 Kilometres of DMX-controlled RGB LED tape which is lighting the set very effec

Sweden - For a state-owned venue, making a major investment in new equipment can involve a long consultation process. But at a theatre in the southern Swedish city of Borås, this proved well worth the wait, with an Alcons LR7 pro-ribbon system transforming the sound of its productions.
Founded in 1964, Borås Stadsteater is a state-owned production house which moved to its current home in 1975. A typical 1970s-style provincial venue, the 500-capacity main auditorium features raked seating and a balcony. By 2016 the ageing PA system had become too small and outdated to meet the demands of modern audiences, so the management team worked with the local authority to find a solution. They contacted leading systems integrator Electrosound, who visited the venue and suggested the Alcons LR7 system.
"We invited staff from the theatre to listen to the LR7 and then we did a dem

South Africa - The most recent RMB Starlight Classics concert, staged at the Vergelegen Wine Estate in Somerset West, Western Cape, South Africa was lit by Chris Bolton of Keystone Productions with a little help from some Robe moving lights.
It was Chris's second year in the creative hot seat - working directly for organizers Jam Events. Last year he and Joshua Cutts of Visual Frontier produced a lighting co-design – and the two are now partners in their brand new visual design venture, Collective Works – however when Starlight came up this year, Josh had other commitments, so Chris added the lighting magic working with his assistant Jade Manicom.
For the first time, the 2017 event was also recorded by MNET for broadcast a couple of weeks later, bringing a different dimension and set of parameters for lighting.
The talented South African line-up includ

China - The Jiangsu Centre for the Performing Arts, located at the Olympic Sports Centre in Jiangsu Najing, is the largest modern theatre in China, second in size only to the National Grand Theatre located in Beijing. It was designated as a world-class exhibition of works of art, the international exchange of arts activities platform and a public education platform for the promotion of arts.
Its Opera Hall is equipped with two grandMA2 full-size, two grandMA2 light and two grandMA2 fader wing whereas its concert hall relies on two grandMA2 ultra-light and two MA 2Port Node as well as two MA DMX Booster.
Xu Zhi Yong, project manager for ACE – Advanced Communication Equipment Co Ltd., MA Lighting’s exclusive distributor in China, commented: “The choice for MA was an easy one. Not only is it a well-known brand in China, it has a great reputation to be extremely sta

The Netherlands - With over 30 years in the industry, Gijs Schouten is one of the Netherlands most experienced professional sound engineers.
Gijs started in audio at just 14 years old, initially wanting to become a DJ but soon getting involved at his brother-in-law’s home studio. In 1983 he started his career as a professional engineer, initially with Balance, a show orchestra that played many events and parties in and around the Netherlands.
By the end of the 1990s, Gijs was employed full-time at Focus in Amsterdam, one of the Netherlands leading technical production companies, where he is now one of its most experienced sound engineers.
He is currently in the middle of a very busy summer, working on shows ranging from a Christian convention with the band Casting Crowns at Rotterdam’s Ahoy arena to a number of festivals, including Douwpop, Ribs & Blues

UK - With 35 musicians on stage delivering arguably the greatest back catalogue of classic rock anthems in history, Led Zep Masters is a live show that places great demands on a front-of-house audio set-up. To address those demands production company Liz Hobbs Group relied on an Allen & Heath dLive S Class digital mixing system for its recent run of UK theatre shows, which featured Australia’s Zep Boys backed by some of the best orchestral players in the country.
The Zep Boys are well versed in fronting the orchestral extravaganza of Led Zeppelin’s best-loved songs, with a history that reaches back to 1986. And having recently invested heavily in the dLive series, Liz Hobbs Group turned to Allen & Heath’s flagship dLive S7000 control surface and DM64 MixRack to serve up the band’s impressively bombastic performance in venues including the London Pallad

UK - This year’s Glastonbury Festival was “the best yet” according to organiser Emily Eavis. A star-studded procession of artists from Radiohead, Ed Sheeran and the Foo Fighters to The Sleaford Mods, The XX and Katy Perry appeared on its stages. These superstars weren’t the only crowd pleasers at the five-day event, however, also attracting a lot of attention was the 20m high multi-coloured ribbon tower set against the brilliant light produced by 10 Maverick MK1 Hybrids from Chauvet Professional.
Simon Marcus, MD at Enlightened Lighting specified the 10 powerful 440W moving lights to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the tower and the park area that surrounds it. In addition to creating an aerial lightshow, the Maverick fixtures fit harmoniously with the tower uplights, and add drama and presence to the structure.
Installed in weather proof domes, the MK1s were

France - Mkplus, the full-service rental house based near Lyon, is one of the pioneering users of Nexo’s new Geo M10 mid-size line array. Frédéric Guinand’s company has debuted the high-output SR system on the four-day Changez d’air music festival, as well as several indoor events.
A very high-profile test of the new system took place in the elegant grounds of the prestigious Ombrosa Lycée Multilingue de Lyon, in Caluire. Ombrosa is a private international school operating within the French national educational system. To mark its 45th anniversary, the school hosted a large outdoor event in its grounds. For the audience of 2,500 people, the highlight was a performance by 500 young students on stage.
Mkplus presented a large mixed Nexo system for the fête, using ground-stacked Geo M10 as the main PA. Using a 10” LF driver and 1.4” HF driver, these two-way

UK - Theatre lighting designer Andy Webb has specified an Avolites Tiger Touch II as the house-desk at The Griffin Centre, a new £3.3m performance venue at Cotswold educational establishment, Rendcomb College.
Webb has been involved in the build as technical consultant since 2013, having worked alongside the college for over a decade, supporting the theatrical department and teaching A-Level lighting design.
"It was great to be involved in the project from the ground up," says Webb. "I was able to work with the architects to solve any design problems from a technical perspective before they were even engineered into the building."
The Griffin Centre will be utilised as a hybrid professional space for live events and as a training centre for the college's theatre students.
"From the start of the process, Rendcomb College made it clear that the theatre was t

USA - Daryl Hall and John Oates kicked off their 2017 summer tour last month at the BOK Centre in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The whirlwind tour across America’s heartland includes 30 dates through July.
The lighting design team of Matt Geasey and Jesper Luth specified 140 Solaris Mozart fixtures, as well as 600 IMS Mk2 RGBW lamps on 12 110-foot festoon strings, all provided to the tour by Morris of Nashville.
“Daryl and John were looking to add a lighting effect that would bring the audience closer to them, thus creating a more intimate setting,” explains David Haskell, president of Morris. “To achieve this, we deployed strings of IMS colour-changing festoon lamps over the audience from downstage to front of house. With six IMS Mk2 Universe Drive controllers mounted in the downstage truss, the network is simple to operate and keeps our work areas tidy. We are happy to r

USA - Theatre audiences today are accustomed to seeing musicals where songs and dances are woven into a well-crafted dramatic storyline, but that was rarely the case prior to the 1943 Broadway debut of Oklahoma!. The Rogers and Hammerstein classic’s smashing success (it ran for an unprecedented 2,212 performances) marked the beginning of a new era, one that would ultimately see the songs and dances in a musical go from being mere entertainment numbers to vital parts of the unfolding narrative.
Lighting designer Zach Blane did justice to this “Book Musical” tradition in a recently concluded, Igor Goldin directed, revival of Oklahoma! at the John W. Engeman Theatre. Drawing on a collection of Ovation, COLORdash and Rogue fixtures from Chauvet Professional, Blane conveyed key dramatic elements of the play in light, particularly during pivotal scenes, such as

UK - Tony Kushner’s multi-award-winning play, Angels in America has made a triumphant return to the National Theatre, marking 25 years since its UK debut. This technology-laden production of the two-part epic features innovative ways of working with ETC’s Eos family of lighting control desks.
Dubbed "a gay fantasia on national themes" by Kushner, Angels in America concerns a group of interconnected New Yorkers in the mid-1980s, when the world was in the grip of the AIDs crisis and Ronald Reagan was in the White House. This new staging of the play is directed by Marianne Elliott, complemented by lighting design from Paule Constable and a set designed by Ian MacNeil, who takes advantage of the moving parts afforded by the National’s Lyttelton stage to blend reality and fantasy for the multi-faceted story.
To transport the audience from New York, to Sa

UK - Glastonbury Festival’s new look Other Stage was designed and manufactured by Serious Stages’, who also installed the system along with the main stages across the site.
Dedicated to improving the festival experience for artists and fans, the organisers long term relationship with Serious Stages made them the obvious choice of contractor to create a new look Other Stage to accommodate the large scale incoming band productions form the likes of Stormzy, Major Lazer and Boy Better Know.
This four tower 25m TZ roof featured a sloped back, to give extra on-stage storage for artists and production, along with clear-span wings creating a much-improved working area with increased space for the incoming productions. An offset leg design on the rear of the goalpost created the space for the side-shed. The main deck, rear shed, side wings, ramps and underworld also offere

World - Known for their very intricate stadium shows, U2 honours the 30th anniversary of their 1987 album, The Joshua Tree, by taking a robust, cinematic set and the albums legacy hits on the road for a stadium tour across North America and Europe.
After reuniting with their fans at iHeartRadio’s Music Festival and Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce conference, the Irish rockers cemented the idea to celebrate the Joshua Tree album with the Joshua Tree Tour, making it the first time the band has ever taken an entire album from their back catalogue on tour.
In a Rolling Stone interview, Bono speaks about tour, stating, "It's so not like us to throw ourselves a birthday party. We didn't know if we could pull off a tour that honours The Joshua Tree without it being nostalgic. That's an oxymoron."
In order to showcase the album to its fullest

UAE - Dubai Festival City is a 1300 acre, waterfront urban community that has been designed to reflect the 21st century spirit of Dubai. It offers visitors a shopping, dining and entertainment experience but is also home to a residential community, two international schools, hotels and commercial offices.
Deco Emirates LLC was recently brought on board to oversee a complete interior fit out of the Robinsons department store for Al Futtaim Sons. Contracts manager Chris George was responsible for ensuring the works were undertaken according to the design from HMKM London and to successfully hand over within a 10 month period. Chris, in turn, contacted Unusual Rigging and Engineering LLC to help Deco Emirates understand the complexities and challenges of the project.
Chris explained: "We knew from the offset that the installation of an overhead gantry within the escalator

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