USA - When officials at the La Crosse Centre in Wisconsin were looking to replace the venue’s aging PA system as part of a $42m dollar renovation, the task of finding a sound system capable of handling today’s complex audio demands while delivering unrivalled clarity was given to operations manager Kris Salzwedel and his team. Salzwedel found the solution he was looking for with a custom Radius RSX Series PA from Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW).
Located in the heart of downtown La Crosse’s riverfront district, the La Crosse Centre hosts conventions, meetings, trade shows, concerts, weddings and sporting events that welcome hundreds of thousands of attendees each year. Built in 1980, the centre was recently expanded to include the South Hall.
“We chose to install EAW’s RSX PA system in our 21,000sq.ft arena because the system checked all the boxes,” says Salzw

UK - Adam King captured the powerful, punchy and uplifting spirit of the musical Legally Blonde when lighting a recent Franny Rafferty directed production of the Olivier Award winning musical at Mountview’s The Mack Theatre.
“Given the nature of the story, vibrant pink was the major colour theme for Elle Woods, so it was important that we be able to transition to it when necessary,” he said. “However, we also had to lean away from this palette when the scenes were not so linked to the character in order to make it more effective.”
At its core, Legally Blonde is a story of transitions. In this Mountview production, Elle’s transformative journey is supported by well-timed and placed lighting changes that King executes with a rig anchored by Chauvet Professional Ovation fixtures.
“There were lots of different locations that we needed to

UK – Multi-genre English musician Jacob Collier is back on the road for a grand world tour to celebrate his DJESSE album series. The show features an energetic lighting design harnessing the rich colours of the VL2600 range of luminaires from Vari-Lite.
The design was put together by Luke Edwards, specification sales specialist at Signify. Edwards, who was a full-time lighting designer before joining Signify earlier this year, took the opportunity to push the boundaries of his lighting design dynamism, to match five-time Grammy Award-winning Collier’s enthusiastic performing style.
“Jacob’s concerts are as much about the audience as they are about him and I find working with him hugely inspiring,” says Edwards. “His high-energy approach to every moment is infectious and I wanted to create a design that would reflect that and embrace the natural colou

USA - San Francisco’s Outside Lands Festival, presented by Another Planet Entertainment and co-producer Superfly, returned to Golden Gate Park 5-7 August, with headliners including SZA, Green Day, and Post Malone. This year, a Meyer Sound Panther large-format linear line array loudspeaker system powered the Lands End main stage, provided by Bay Area rental company UltraSound, LLC.
While previous generations of Meyer Sound systems have been in place at the Lands End main stage since the festival’s inception in 2008, this year marks the first edition with the new Panther loudspeaker. Although it was introduced just six months prior to Outside Lands, Panther was welcomed by visiting engineers who were mixing on the new system for the first time.
“Overall feedback was positive, and engineers had a fun time mixing on the system,” says UltraSound senior systems engin

UK - This year marks the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II and in honour of the historical anniversary, the UK is holding several events celebrating her 70-year reign. At The Royal Windsor Horse Show in May, Elation Professional had its own workhorse on display albeit not of the equine variety. PRG provided a full lighting rig for the event that incorporated 171 Elation Proteus Maximus IP65-rated LED moving heads as the key luminaire in the design.
The challenges of creating a dramatic and theatrical lighting rig on an arena scale with a daily horse show running concurrently are vast, but PRG has a long and successful history with the event and has provided lighting rigs for the illustrious equestrian show for over 12 years.
This year, the company made the decision to update to a more sustainable LED option and much needed waterproof protection. Richard Gorrod, v

USA - A local bowling centre in Decorah, Iowa, Skyline Lanes, will be continuing its working relationship with Ventola Projects, provider of LED lighting and experiential technology solutions, whilst it undertakes a complete refit of its facility.
After completing a successful installation of Ventola’s innovative range of VAvR lighting into the facility, the venue is now undertaking a major refit with QubicaAMF, enhancing the customer offering with further immersive and engaging solutions throughout.
With 16 lanes in the facility, Ventola Projects will be delivering immersive lighting solutions, with a specific focus on the lanes and approach area, delivering a fresh, new, and exciting experience that can directly appeal to the modern customer.
Mick Ventola, principle & owner of Ventola Projects, comments, “We always love working on word-of-mouth custo

Germany - Those familiar with Frankfurt’s club scene know immediately where they are when they enter the new Zoom: in the former Cocoon Club, Sven Väth’s techno temple. The membrane walls with the unmistakable honeycomb structure are still there and characterise the visual imagery of the place.
To ensure that Zoom is nevertheless perceived as an independent club with its own recognition value, the operators of Zoom Frankfurt GmbH and client Ardi Goldman called on the expertise of lighting designer JoJo Tillmann, among others. For the individual areas of Zoom, he planned for the project with spotlights from the Cameo portfolio.
Ardi Goldman and JoJo Tillman had already worked together in the past on the club known as Fortuna Somewhere. Tillmann also had plenty of creative leeway with the Zoom project, and was responsible for the complete lighting design in the buil

Europe - Obsidian Control Systems is to host three in-person training sessions on the Ooyx control platform at its European headquarters in Kerkrade, The Netherlands. The training sessions will take place 20, 21 and 22 September and will focus on Obsidian’s Onyx software while covering the DyLOS pixel composer, Netron Ether DMX devices and Capture visualization software.
The training will cover Beginner (20 September), Intermediate (21) and Advanced (22) levels, allowing anyone with or without Onyx experience to get a comprehensive understanding of the powerful software. The goal of the training is for lighting professionals to grow their knowledge base and improve their skills to become more effective and creative lighting programmers.
Each session will dive into the details of the Oonyx platform, using an NX2 console in a hands-on approach to learning. With a var

UK - Showlight will be exhibiting at PLASA Show 2022 on Stand A8 giving visitors the chance to meet some of the committee that organise this quadrennial event and discover more about what the event has to offer.
Showlight chairman, John Allen, and Showlight technical director and past-chairman of the papers committee, Bernie Davis, will also present a seminar Discover Showlight 2023 as part of the PLASA Educational & Seminar programme, on Sunday 4 September at 12.45pm – 13.15pm in Seminar Theatre 1.
John and Bernie will outline what you can expect – in form and content - at Showlight 2023 which takes place in Fontainebleau, near Paris, from 20-23 May 2023. This seminar is your chance to learn more about how Showlight works, and how you can participate as a delegate, sponsor, exhibitor, student, or speaker at Fontainebleau.
You can sign up for the

The Netherlands - Renowned pastry chef and bread specialist, Eric van Otten, recently established a new food concept for his patisserie that creates multiple atmospheric eating zones with the help of Powersoft’s Dynamic Music Distribution (DMD).
Unlike many of the pastry shops that line streets of Amsterdam, van Otten offers its guests a number of places to sit and enjoy its culinary delights: the outdoor patio, ice cream parlour and a plethora of private spaces, each fitted with sounds that enhance the overall dining experience.
Powersoft’s Dynamic Music Distribution can provide corporate, retail or hospitality venues with a high-quality audio backbone that ensures selected speakers receive the perfect amount of power to each ‘zone’.
Dutch professional audio distributor, Mennegat, was approached by Eric van Otten with a brief to create a multifunction

Croatia - Valjak I Prijatelji (Valjak & friends) was a show staged in Pula, Croatia, in the city’s Arena Roman amphitheatre venue and dedicated to Aki Rahimovski, lead singer of Croatian rockers Parni Valjak. The enigmatic frontman died suddenly and unexpectedly in January aged 66, just ahead of a major tour.
Slovenian lighting designer Nikola ‘Niko’ Podlesnik was honoured to be lighting the emotionally charged gig. He chose Robe moving lights as the backbone of his rig to help deliver all the drama and sentiment of the evening, which saw the remaining members of the band perform with a series of famous Croatian singers taking on the vocals, including Rahimovski’s son, Kristijan.
Lighting equipment was supplied, together with the full technical production including audio and video, by Zagreb-based rental specialist Promo Logistika. The compa

UK - Following the success of the inaugural South Facing Festival at the Crystal Palace Bowl last year, festival director Marcus Weedon requested the same formula for this year’s 10-day event. And that included Martin Audio’s MLA loudspeaker array, supplied once again by Capital Sound (part of the Solotech UK group).
This served the requirements of a bill, including London Grammar, Bombay Bicycle Club, Jungle, Becky Hill and Richard Ashcroft.
Two other key developments helped boost the quality of the sound, as Solotech project manager David Preston - who was working alongside production manager, Julia Bruns, and site/production specialists, LS Events - explained. Driven by the positive feedback, and absence of complaints from neighbours last year, he noted that levels within the bowl were raised from an SPL of 96dB(A) to 98dB(A) for this year, while the tech team s

Italy - Twenty years after first opening in Italy, the complete original cast of Notre-Dame de Paris is back on stage to celebrate the anniversary. Following the success of the show in Paris, the musical made its official Italian debut at Gran Teatro of Rome in 2002, featuring the translated lyrics of Pasquale Panella. Produced in collaboration with Enzo Product Ltd, entirely curated and distributed by Vivo Concerti, and under the direction of Gilles Maheu, the 2022 tour will include over 180 shows throughout the Italian peninsula.
For this 20th Anniversary production, experienced sound team members were selected, including FOH engineer Alberto Alicandro, who was part of the original crew, monitor engineer Simone ‘Zeta’ Saccomandi, and microphone technician Andrea “Niski” Stanisci. The microphone equipment is entirely DPA, with 16 headsets, consisting of 4066

UK - Digital Insanity teamed up with house powerhouse Defected and disco-house connoisseurs Glitterbox in August to deliver visuals for London’s We are FSTVL, choosing up a Hippotizer Nevis+ Media Server to pump out extra VJ prowess.
Reading-based video production company Digital Insanity – which has created visuals for dance festivals including Snowbombing, Lovebox and Global Gathering – was at the helm of the Glitterbox/Defected stage over two days of fast-paced performances. Eight huge 512x1280 portrait, 3mm LED screens were rigged in a four stage-left, four stage-right formation, displaying branded punk style disco graphics, slogans, geometric beauty and live feed footage. A further two screens were positioned as a DJ riser and behind the booth, at the upstage position. The full canvas size was 7680 x 1440 pixels, and all of the screens were supplied by UK Events G

USA - The Nature of Light: An Exploration After Dark at The Paine Art Center and Gardens, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin is an immersive night time experience - created by visual design practice Lightswitch in partnership with art sculpture studio HYBYCOZO and the Paine - uses a host of Elation Professional fixtures in a number of evocative and transformative outdoor environments.
For nearly a decade, HYBYCOZO and Lightswitch have partnered on art installations and experiences but The Nature of Light: An Exploration After Dark is their first collaboration on a major large-scale exhibition. The Nature of Light features a collection of carefully curated experiences throughout the estate and grounds, spectacularly lit indoor and outdoor environments that incorporate more than 50 different sculptures.
The project began when Aaron Sherer, executive director at

USA - Frontman Ian Astbury and The Cult have “always been fans of warm blinder light from a low and back position,” says Matt Guminski, the band’s lighting designer, programmer, and operator.
For his part, Guminski is a self-described “fan of contrasting warm tungsten (or a proper tungsten emulating LED), that works harmoniously with the bold & saturated colors of LED or discharge lamp fixtures”.
This alignment of preferences came together this summer for the band’s We Own The Night North American tour.
“Doing bumps between a rich saturated LED look and warm bright blinder hits always provides big dramatic looks, which is what we did on this tour,” said Guminski. “We also went with multiple types of silhouette looks. This harkens back to Ian’s desire for a less traditional rock show, more like Bauhaus/Nine Inch Nails. Chiaroscuro is the na

USA - Bobby Glowacki does a bit of everything on country music artist Brett Eldredge’s current Songs About You U.S. tour and lights the singer/songwriter using a versatile lighting rig from Elation Professional. Production design, lighting design, lighting programming, lighting operation, even lighting tech, he’s a virtual jack-of-all-lighting-trades working behind the scenes to make sure the show runs smoothly and looks its best.
Eldredge has five No.1 singles on the Billboard country charts and multiple accolades to his credit. Glowacki, who shares production designer duties with Bryan Bobbys, has been working with Eldredge for the past few years. He lights the current show using an Elation lighting package of 32 DARTZ 360 narrow beam moving heads, 12 Paladin Panel flood and effect lights, 8 ZW37 beam/wash moving heads, and a pair of SixPar 200 IP. Lighting supply is

South Africa - Maranatha Community Church Johannesburg has invested in two sets of Astera Titan Tubes for its busy 3000-seater auditorium in Kempton Park.
Nereen Bradshaw is head of media at Maranatha, and is responsible for creating content and overseeing lighting, media and video weekly at the Kempton Park campus, with which she has been involved for 10 years. The auditorium is used for three Sunday services each week (reaching approximately 5,000 - 6,000 people across all three services), and a live event is staged every Friday for around 400 young people. Four times per year there is a large mid-week family praise & worship service to coincide with the end of the school terms. Services include a set of praise & worship songs, followed by a motivating message.
All these presentations and services include live musical performances.
Nereen and the tea

Norway - Kunsthøgskolen – Oslo’s National Academy of the Arts is a vibrant and high-profile university college in the Norwegian capital which is dedicated to education in design and fine art (including graphics, furniture, and clothing design) and the visual and performing arts.
The visual and performing arts faculty covers multiple genres – theatre, drama, opera, dance, ballet, jazz, etc., offering undergraduate and master’s degrees, and has nine busy stages that present 50 – 70 productions a year. Head of lighting for this busy and lively environment is Ronnie Tungland, who recently co-ordinated the specification and purchase of 20 x Robe Esprite moving lights to be used across the various stages.
As Kunsthøgskolen’s 1000 plus dimmer channels feeding the various stages were starting to age, explained Ronnie – who has been overseeing lighting at the ac

USA - Will Chandler has created a compelling design for Grammy winners Bob Moses, on the Canadian duo’s current summer tour.
The owner of Envizion Group, Chandler has created a flowing set and lighting design that seems to fit the stage effortlessly as it produces its immersive effect. Engendering this organic mood are his artful use of dark spaces, a blow through video wall, and a rig configuration that allows him to “hide” fixtures when not in use.
“My vision was to maintain a level of transparency in the set,” explained Chandler. “Going into the design process, I wanted to incorporate video into the rig, but more as a scenic element and light source than as a traditional screen. The use of blow through screens, along with the space created by the strips, allows me to hide moving lights and blinders behind the set so that they disappear when not in use. T

USA - Stage Right Lighting in Virginia Beach, Virginia expanded its Ayrton lighting inventory with 38 Perseo IP65-rated compact, multi-function luminaires, which have been flying off the shelves, according to production manager Doug Arble. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton lighting in North America.
“We’re based in the Tidewater area, which consists of seven cities, and from May to October we’re outdoors with concerts and special events,” he reports. “We were looking for a multi-function light with an LED source and an IP rating. We needed something that wasn’t excessively heavy that we could throw into a pre-rigged truss and use as a downstage wash or upstage profile, something that had gobo effects and framing shutters, which are in big demand on riders these days.
ACT brought us some Perseos for a shoot-out with other IP-rated fixt

Australia - In what became a must-see highlight for a record breaking 2.58m visitors attending the 23-night Vivid Sydney 2022 Festival, Progressum at Vivid House in Darling Quarter catered for audiences up to 100 people at any one time.
The collaborative 3D walk-through visual art experience and concept was created by Sydney based producer and sound system designer Des O’Neill, lighting designer Peter Rubie, and sound designer and composer Peret von Sturmer, combining art, light, sound and video to stimulate all senses.
Vivid Sydney is the annual festival of Light, Music and Ideas which transforms Sydney’s CBD into a fusion of creativity, innovation and technology for 23-nights. In 2022, the renowned Light Walk stretched continuously from Sydney Opera House to Central for the first time, passing through new parts of the city including The Goods Line and Cent

World - For Dua Lipa’s current Future Nostalgia world tour, Britannia Row Productions supplied DiGiCo Quantum consoles to deliver on power and functionality.
Future Nostalgia was originally scheduled to start in late 2019 but, like so many others, was repeatedly postponed until finally heading out in February 2022. It will finish in Perth, Australia in November, having visited North America, Europe, Latin America and Oceania.
Both the FOH sound and on-stage mixes are being created on DiGiCo Quantum digital mixing systems, by Will Nicholson and Alex Cerutti respectively. Nicholson is in his seventh year with Dua Lipa and specified a Quantum 7 console for this tour.
“The Q7 offers so much. It’s the only desk currently on the market with a dual brain, which negates the need for us to carry a spare board but gives us redundancy. That is very comforting,” he s

USA - Lightware Visual Engineering is supporting Esports Trade Associations’ (ESTA) inaugural EsportsNext 2022 event, as a gold sponsor. The event takes place in Chicago, USA on 22 – 23 August 2022.
The company’s presence will include demonstrating its AV signal management solutions to the global esports community, and also an opportunity for Lightware to explore and learn more about the ongoing needs of this fast-paced industry.
Lightware joins a list of advocates supporting EsportsNext 2022, including AVI-SPL, Morgan Stanley, Ultimate Gaming Championship (UGC) and more.
Megan Van Petten, ESTA founder and managing director, said: “ESTA is thrilled to have Lightware as part of our community both as a Corporate Member and a Gold sponsor of EsportsNext 2022 as the company’s solutions fulfill a definite need for our esports industry.”
Jason Tira

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