UK - The Claypaky Mythos2 luminaire was selected for its advanced optical features and superior colour mixing by lighting designer Steven Bewley to support his high-impact lighting design for record-breaking British grime artist Stormzy in his recent UK tour.
Bewley, who has worked with rap artists such as Dizzee Rascal and Tinie Tempah, was head-hunted by Stormzy after the rapper saw the designer's work for fellow artist Wretch 32.
"I worked closely with Stormzy's production managers Bronski and Trevor Williams to design two sets of shows for the debut album tour Gang Signs & Prayer,” says Bewley. "One design was larger and for a series of three 'one-off' performances at the Brixton O2 Academy. The other design was what we used for the main bulk of the tour in smaller venues."
The larger show design saw an expanded visual package of 14 independentl

Scandinavia - Owned by AS Tallink Grupp, the Baltic Princess cruise ferry sails between the Finnish city of Turku and the Swedish capital of Stockholm. Built at a cost of €165m in 2005, it can accommodate 2,800 passengers and was designed with luxury in mind.
Audico, Finland’s largest AV company, undertook the task of supplying and installing an L-Acoustics PA for the refit of the ship’s audio system, a project that spanned two years and took in all four of the ships entertainment areas: a nightclub, pub, live entertainment venue and disco.
“The first phase of the project was the ship’s main venue – The nightclub. The ship’s owners wanted to have the best possible audio system for its new, high-profile live music repertoire,” says Audico’s Pauli Molnár, who was working on the project in conjunction with consultant Tuomas Karppinen. “L-Acoustics was

UK - Lighting and video rental specialist Colour Sound Experiment is enjoying another majorly busy festival season, supplying over 50 events up and down the country over the course of the summer.
One of the early highlights was Wildlife staged at Shoreham Airport (AKA Brighton City Airport) on the south coast, a musical adventure organised by SJM and curated by popular dance artists Rudimental and Disclosure, now in its third year. Colour Sound has also been involved from the start.
This year west London based Colour Sound supplied lighting for four stages and LED screens for one.
Wildlife 2017 radiated friendly vibes as everyone felt the love and enjoyed some fabulous weather, together with a dynamic and diverse musical line-up with outstanding performances by the likes of Fatboy Slim, Jess Glynn, Eric Prydz, Dizzee Rascal and many, many more.
James Hind,

Belgium - LD Ruben de Snoo chose the new wash fixture with independent LED battens to enlighten all musicians in order to create more depth on stage.
Additionally, de Snoo was also very pleased with the 30° and 50° lens system of each fixture. “Because of the two different lenses I was able to create an even wash throughout the whole band, where other fixtures provide a hotspot below the hips of band members. Also the fixture is able to deliver smooth & saturated pastel colours, ”added de Snoo.
“The LEDwash XL is a compact, light weighted fixture which is very easy to apply on our shows, so it will definitely part of our club tour the second part of 2017.”
The LEDwash XL wash fixture has two LED segments. The two horizontal LED battens can be manually tilted and controlled separately. Because of the 30° and 50° lens it is possible to use the fixtu

Europe - Grammy winners Clean Bandit are an EDM tour de force. Following their critically acclaimed appearance at the Isle of Wight Festival earlier this month, they played Glastonbury and have other summer festivals around Europe through August. The American leg of their tour is scheduled for October. In large venues and small, 18 Solaris Flare Q+ fixtures are integral to the band’s show.
“We’re using two sets of six for side-washes, and seven units upstage, all with Kasmer diffusers for a really clean look,” says tour lighting designer and programmer, Liam Griffiths. “I wanted the diffusers to hide the LED sources, which can be harsh on camera. I use the fixtures in two-pixel mode and as strobes. I've used Flares on almost every tour I've done and the new Flare Q+ is far brighter. Most of the time I actually find myself restricting them to 75%!”
Show des

Denmark - Lighting designer Martin Holst wanted to make impact with a floor-based and cost-effective lighting / set package that was fully tour-able for Danish singer songwriter Rasmus Walter’s 2017 tour - and chose 24 x Robe picklePATTs and six BMFL Blades to be at the heart of the design.
The floor package also included LED strips which outlined an upstage scaffolding structure on which the picklePATTs were rigged together with some side lights. It was augmented at each venue by a specified ‘top’ rig.
The equipment was a new investment for rental company Vigsø Dry Hire via Robe’s Danish distributor, Light Partner, and these were the first picklePATTs in Denmark!
Robe’s reporting team caught up with Martin and Rasmus during a gig at Vejle Musikteater which also happens to have a Robe house lighting rig, so Martin was able to integrate 12 x MMX Spots

UK - The new UK production of the classic musical 42nd Street, playing since April this year at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London's West End, has been an unmitigated success since its press night produced a swathe of five-star reviews from all the critics.
Behind the scenes, the musical is also breaking new ground, with over 80 channels of Shure UHF-R wireless microphones (UR1M transmitters and UR4D receivers) in use at any one time - if not a West End record, then certainly one of the shows with the highest wireless channel counts in London theatre history.
Award-winning sound designer Gareth Owen is responsible for all of the audio infrastructure on the 42nd Street revival, and has been a long-time user of Shure wireless systems. “Ever since they released the UHF-R system, we've had good results - and when I find a system that gives me good resul

UK - Okulus, the production design company working alongside creative director Paul Caslin, and 24/7 Productions, were behind the Canadian singer-songwriter’s recent Illuminate World Tour, creating attention-grabbing looks, with Hippotizer Boreals and Taigas.
The Hippotizer Taigas (one active, one backup) fed a 1920 x 640 curved, 9mm LED wall, which served as the performance area’s main backdrop to display the visuals, triggered via timecode. The team also integrated the video director’s live camera feeds into the content.
A key technical aspect for the Okulus team was Hippotizer’s ability to beautifully integrate with Notch, the ‘real-time graphics workhorse’. Effects here included a 3D model of Shawn Mendes – using an Xbox camera focused on Shawn DSC – which Okulus placed into pre-programmed environments. The team also used the set-up to manipulate IM

Azerbaijan - Entertainment engineering specialist WIcreations specified and fabricated two large and spectacular set pieces – a water fountain and a Tree of Life - for the opening and closing ceremonies of the fourth Islamic Solidarity Games, a multi-national, multi-sport event staged in Baku, Azerbaijan from 12 to 22 May 2017.
WI’s team, project managed by Yves Vervloet, was working for Betty Productions Ltd. who co-ordinated all the creative and technical production elements for the ceremonies on behalf of the Islamic Games Operations Committee.
The ceremonies both took place in the 70,000 seater Baku National Stadium, a venue already familiar to the WI team after their work there for the 2015 European Games.
The water vessel and the tree – integral parts of production designer Thanassis Demiris’s visual treatment for the two ceremonies - were realised

Malaysia - Allen & Heath’s dLive S Class and ME personal monitoring systems were selected for the live broadcast of an annual national music competition in Malaysia.
Established in 1986, the event is organised and broadcast by Malaysia’s TV3 channel. held at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Anugerah Juara Lagu, meaning ‘Champion of Songs’ comprises performances of the most popular songs released over the year from a variety of artists from different music genres.
MJ Events was the PA company appointed for the show, and selected the flagship dLive S7000 Surface with DM64 MixRack together with three S5000 and DM48 systems to manage the FOH and monitoring mix. A Waves 3 network card was used for multi-track recording of the 128 channels at 96 khz. Four GigaAce cards were used to split the 128 channels for easy manipulation, and the split enabled t

Bulgaria - Opened in October 1961, Varna Medical University was the response to the growing public need for highly qualified medical staff and specialised medical assistance in the country. It led to the setting up of a new facility for training, research and development purposes and its expansion urged the building of new hospitals with different specialisations.
The growing importance of Varna MU as an institution in the field of education and science, duly brought the need for modernisation of the training and lecture halls, with the idea of integrating videoconference study and audio-visual distance learning, enabling lectures to be webcast via an IP network to remote locations.
The final stage of the development involved the opening of the renovated Auditorium 1 in the Rectorate building, where equipment includes a video wall, displays and interactive boards, Te

Estonia - Robe LEDForce 18 PARs and Anolis ArcSource Outdoor 4MCs were specified – together with other lights – to illuminate the Pesapuu (Nest Tree) Watchtower in Rõuge, Estonia.
The new 30m high Watchtower is located near to Rõuge Suurjärv, Estonia’s deepest lake in the Rõuge parish of Vöru Country, a conservation area recognised for its outstanding natural beauty. The structure − which replaces an original wooden watchtower built in 2006 - was designed by Tallinn based architect Karmo Tõra.
The industrial looking steel tower juxtaposes yet blends with the landscape, it looks attractive and interesting in winter and summer and resembles a tree with two bird’s nests. It’s also a symbol of great pride for the picturesque town and residents of Rõuge explained Mayor Tiit Toots, who fully endorsed the project and its proposed lighting scheme.
Road

USA - It was a happy union for metal fans when Killswitch Engage and Anthrax, two of the genre’s most influential bands, announced earlier this year that they would be joining forces on the Killthrax Tour. The 34-city tour, which concluded in May, more than lived up to its advance billing, serving up heaping helpings of KSE’s signature metalcore sound with its heavy guitar riffs and Anthrax’s compatible, but distinctly different, thrash brand of metal music.
Helping to set off the KSE section of the dual concert was a fast-paced multi-dimensional and richly coloured lightshow anchored by Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 FX-B and Rogue RH1 Hybrid moving lights supplied by JDI Productions. Josh Mihlek, KSE’s production manager, designed the rig with the JDI Productions team.
“The idea behind our show was to use a lot of colour and big looks but at the same time p

Belgium - The Belgium-based percussive entertainment group Drumspirit has consistently pushed the boundaries of performance for 35 years with its unique blend of dance, theatre, comedy and music.
Continuing with this tradition, the group has added a new more theatrical feeling to its current series of Hexahedron shows featuring Milk Inc. drummer Michael Schack and Netsky. Key to creating this new mood is an evocative Bart Rogge lightshow that features 12 Maverick MK2 Spot and 48 Rogue R2 Wash moving lights from Chauvet Professional.
“Given the genre-defying performances of Drumspirit, to bring a theatrical feeling to the Hexahedron shows was no easy feat,” commented Rogge. “The versatile Maverick and Rogue fixtures, however, proved to be essential elements in the implementation of my theatrical lighting concept.”
Both the Maverick and Rogue fixtures were

UK - Chroma-Q's award-winning Color Force II and Space Force luminaires have been selected to help a roster of international artists deliver star performances on the iconic, premier Pyramid Stage at this year's Glastonbury Festival.
The Festival's Pyramid Stage provides a global showcase for some of today's biggest artists - including this year's headliners, Radiohead, Foo Fighters and Ed Sheeran.
Andy Porter, head of lighting for the Pyramid Stage and rental company, Neg Earth Lights, felt that the Chroma-Q fixtures would be suitable for the high-profile slot, so specified nearly 50 Color Force II 48, 1.2m LED battens and six Space Force LED soft sources.
The Color Force II fixtures are being used to provide coloured illumination of the stage from the distinctive Pyramid-shaped enclosure, with the Space Force units providing soft, white side lighting.
Des

USA - The USS Constitution was the third frigate of six built in 1794 to help fight Barbary pirates and saw its most famous actions during the War of 1812, where it heroically defeated five British battleships. Indeed, President George Washington named and commissioned the Constitution, and – despite the centuries between then and now – the Constitution is still an active-duty ship in the US Navy.
Although it is usually berthed in the Boston Navy Yard and used for special events, free tours, and ceremonies, the ship went into dry dock in the summer of 2015 for three years of restoration activities.
During that time, Audio Associates (Orleans, Massachusetts) took the opportunity to replace the Constitution’s aging loudspeakers (new versions of which are no longer manufactured in the United States) with nine new Danley Sound Labs GO-2-8CX loudspeakers, three to a m

UK - Star Events helped carry the Stone Roses’ perfect 90 minutes across Wembley Stadium as the band performed for a capacity crowd on Saturday.
Following the tantalising trail of their era defining debut album, opening with I Wanna Be Adored and closing with I Am The Resurrection, this was a first London show for the Stone Roses since Finsbury Park 2013.
Getting the sound right was crucial and production manager Michael O’Connor liaised with Star Events and SSE to ensure Stone Roses’ FoH engineer’s requirements were fully met.
Star Events’ design team customised the VerTech stage wings to accommodate Wembley’s steep rake, elevating four twin hangs of sub bass and main audio boxes some 19m above the stadium bowl.
Upfield, the company’s 20m high Z Towers pointed the delays to the gods, their narrow gauge design leaving sightlin

South Korea - In South Korea, one of the first big events of the music season is the Green Plugged festival, attended by 45,000 people. Now in its eighth year, Green Plugged features more than 60 Korean bands and singers, including headliners Gukkasten, Dean, Junggigo and Romantic Punch.
Staged in Han River Nanji Park in Seoul, the two-day festival is also a two-stage festival. In fact, the wide double main stage has become something of a trademark for Green Plugged, and a familiar challenge to regular PA provider Way Audio.
One of the early adopters of Nexo’s flagship modular line array, Way Audio debuted the STM Series on the Green Plugged festival five years ago and has been using it ever since as the primary PA for the main stages, named Moon and Sky.
Way Audio’s audio chief and system engineer Jordan Lee exploited the modular design of the STM Series, us

World - The Claypaky Scenius Unico and Claypaky Mythos2 have been selected by award-winning lighting and production designer Mark Cunniffe and lighting director Matt Jones as the workhorse fixtures for Ed Sheeran in his current record-breaking worldwide tour.
Cunniffe has been working with Ed since the artist began touring in 2011, developing a close creative partnership that has evolved over time as the star's music has spread to reach international acclaim.
"The first thing that we created for Ed was so small it fitted into the back of a truck," says Cunniffe. "Since then the shows have grown to reflect Ed's natural career progression. For this tour, we wanted a show that could go from arena to stadium. We wanted it to play as wide as it possibly could."
To achieve this, Cunniffe designed a goblet-shaped set, fondly named 'the chalice' by the designer who worke

Belgium - Tegen de Sterren Op (TDSO) is a highly popular, TV series on Flemish commercial channel VTM that uncompromisingly satirises and sends up politicians, celebrities and anyone else on the ‘fair game’ radar - all in the name of incisive entertainment by a very talented cast.
There is also an equally talented production team behind this success, including creative practice Painting with Light, who were tasked with designing a completely new set together with lighting and video.
They worked on the set elements with scenic specialist Deusjevoo, their near neighbours at Genk’s C-MINE complex. It was a visual concept that brought an urban chic feel to the seventh TDSO series, also delivering dynamic lighting and video.
The show was recorded in the NEP Studios in Londerzeel with a live audience and was produced by Dedsit.
Two interconnected stages we

UK - Open Technology will secure energy savings of up to 40 per cent for Cardiff University after installing its intelligent lighting system to an additional four lecture theatres across the campus.
Last year the company was commissioned to install its LiGO intelligent lighting system in seven of the University’s lecture theatres. The installation, done by consultants Houghton Greenlees and installers Evans Electrical, brought the total of LiGO controllers across the university campus to more than 30.
Cardiff University explained that Open Technology and LiGO were chosen due to the lighting system’s features, which include: presence detection to reduce energy use when rooms are unoccupied; time control settings to match occupancy times for lecture theatres; and, daylight balancing to complement available daylight.
These features will deliver up to 40 per cent

Singapore - The National Museum of Singapore is the nation’s oldest museum, and its exhibits are among the most progressive. Its galleries adopt cutting-edge and multi-perspective ways of representing history and culture, to redefine the conventional museum experience.
The museum’s Glass Rotunda currently hosts an immersive digital art installation, titled Story of the Forest. It is inspired by the National Museum of Singapore’s prized collection, the William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings. This prized collection is brought to life through a spectacular interactive digital presentation in which visitors are transported to the natural ecology of 19th century Malaya, viewed through the eyes of artists of that time and re-imagined today through digital art and technology.
In 2014, the museum closed off the Glass Rotunda, to explore new and i

USA - The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival returned to the 700 acre field known affectionately as The Farm with more than 65,000 in attendance in search of good vibes and great music.
Bandit Lites was proud to be asked by Lambda Productions to provide a lighting package for multiple stages, the iconic Tower at Bonnaroo, along with several floor packages for artists in attendance.
This year’s line-up of more than 100 acts included U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Weeknd, Chance the Rapper, Major Lazer, Flume, Lorde, The XX, Travis Scott, Cage the Elephant, Marshmello and The Head and the Heart.
U2’s show designer, Willie Williams, designed the mainstage festival system for U2’s immense show on Friday night. It was then dropped, re-hung and re-configured for the acts to use on Saturday and Sunday.
“Willie’s design had a similar flavour to their curren

UK - Anna Valley helped LAMDA (London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art) celebrate their new £28.2m training centre by providing AV for their official opening event on Wednesday 14 June. Attended by Royal Patron HRH Princess Alexandra and alumni including Brian Cox CBE, David Suchet CBE, Ruth Wilson and Jemma Redgrave, the event showcased the new theatres and training spaces that are transforming LAMDA’s west London home.
Anna Valley provided a turnkey AV solution for the event’s gala performance. Guests in the 200-seat Sainsbury Theatre watched students perform against the backdrop of a developing photographic timeline which was projected using two 21k projectors onto a 14.4m x 7m cyclorama fed by a Macbook Pro running Qlab.
Because space in The Sainsbury Theatre was limited, Anna Valley also filmed the event using two Panasonic AW-UE70 4K remote-head cameras a

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