USA - Every year, KultureCity, a leading nonprofit for sensory accessibility, hosts KultureBall, a black-tie evening where celebrities and philanthropy walk hand-in-hand to promote acceptance, inclusion, and raise funds for individuals with invisible disabilities.

Recently, the organisation marked its 10th anniversary with an evening filled with inspiration, surprise performances, and sensory-inclusive design, powered by a JBL Professional audio system provided by longtime partner Epic.

The gala featured a mix of content, including a full orchestra, multiple presenters, ASL interpreters, a centre-stage extension, and live performances from Arnel Pineda of Journey, Orianthi, and American Idol winner Taylor Hicks.

The event called for a sound system with the power and clarity of a touring rig, but with the elegance and intelli

USA - For years, Church Unlimited has sought to create powerful worship experiences that resonate with every person in the room. But as its Corpus Christi, TX campus grew, the church found itself working around the limits of a 20-year-old PA system that could no longer deliver the clarity, consistency or impact needed for modern worship.

Determined to overcome those challenges and elevate the experience for its congregation, Church Unlimited turned to its long-time integration partner, Messenger AVL, and ultimately found the solution with an Eastern Acoustic Works’ (EAW) ADAPTive sound system.

Messenger AVL, a Georgia-based design-build integrator specialising in worship spaces, knew that traditional systems would struggle to meet the church’s goals without compromising aesthetics, budget or coverage. EAW’s ADAPTive technology offered a uniquel

Mexico - The new Lavo restaurant in Mexico City marks another collaboration between 1 Sound and Tao Group, with this project and the recent Lavo Las Vegas coming to life around the same time. As the group expands globally, that audio has become a brand standard - one that prioritises clarity, design, and the guest experience. 1 Sound systems help bring this to life.

For this space, integrator NTX turned to the Cannon Series for distributed coverage. A total of 30 Cannon C5i loudspeakers were installed throughout the venue, chosen for their high output in a compact form and their ability to deliver clean, intelligible sound even at low levels. Cannon C4s were also added to smaller areas that required a little less throw.

Thanks to their sonic clarity and lack of distortion, the music at LAVO doesn’t fight the conversation - it fills the room in a wa

Europe/Saudi Arabia - Zeynep Kepekli’s desert experience inspired her when creating an enchanting lighting design for Thikra: Night of Remembering. Kepekli spent time in the Saudi Arabian desert when preparing her design for this compelling production created by multi-award-winning choreographer Akram Khan and Wadi AlFann, in collaboration with artist Manal AlDowayan, and featuring an original score by Aditya Prakash.

“This piece was originally made in the desert,” said Kepekli, noting that the premiere took place outdoors on a starry night at Wadi AlFann in Saudi Arabia against the dramatic cliffs of a desert canyon.

“On our first research trip to AlUla, we all met in the desert at 4am, and stayed there for a few hours until the sun came up,” she recalled. “We wanted to see the darkness and the changing light as sunrise approach

UK - An energetic, capacity crowd rocked out in front of the Serious Stellar stage for the Deftones Crystal Palace Park concert at the end of June.

Festival Republic’s production team, led by production manager Alice James, delivered the sound and visually strong show, for the 15,000 fans on the venue's Italian Terrace, where the undercard featured Qendresa, Health, Hi Viz and Weezer.

The 20m Stellar concert stage, flanked by video-screen goalposts, created a 35m frontage. Serious also installed four speaker towers relaying sound to the whole crowd on the long, narrow site, along with two x three storey front-of-house towers for lighting and audio engineers and a raised assisted viewing platform.

The stage was designed and manufactured by Serious Stages in the UK, by project manager Andrew Ridler, who was on site to supervise the build.

Europe - Clear-Com recently celebrated the successful implementation of its Equip intercom system at Merlin Theme Parks, enhancing ride operations, safety, and guest satisfaction through improved team communication. As a long-standing trusted technology partner, Tyrell introduced Merlin to Clear-Com’s Equip system, a hands-free, full-duplex intercom solution designed to streamline real-time conversations between ride operators, loaders, and platform staff.

From the outset, Tyrell worked closely with both Merlin and Clear-Com to scope the technical requirements, facilitate product demonstrations, and ensure each deployment was tailored to the unique footprint of individual attractions.

Kiran O’Connor, continuous improvement lead at Merlin Theme Park, highlights the communication challenges the park faced: “People would stand at a phone or a poin

Italy - Event technology specialists, Agorà, won the European tender for the construction of an audio and video distribution system, intended for the 2025 Jubilee celebrations in St. Peter's Square, Rome.

Following the death of His Holiness Pope Francis, the system was also used for the solemn funeral, the proclamation of Habemus Papam and the subsequent inauguration events of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, with an estimated participation of between 60,000 and 150,000 people.

In the tender notice, the customer expressly requested visually discreet solutions for both the support structures and the audio system, indicating the K-array Firenze KH7 loudspeaker as a specific reference. The installation, which remained operational for almost two months, served two main areas.

Zone 1 included Via della Conciliazione, Piazza Pia, Piazza Pio XII

Germany - Perched dramatically 454m high in Germany's Harz Mountains, the historic Harzer Bergtheater is an open-air cultural landmark facing extraordinary operational challenges due to its exposed mountain environment. Following a comprehensive five-year renovation, the venue's new management aimed to attract high-calibre performers and expand their summer programming, requiring a professional sound solution to replace previous rental systems.

The venue presented two formidable obstacles: extraordinarily steep audience seating demanding precise coverage, and strict safety regulations requiring complete removal of the main sound system nightly due to unpredictable mountain weather conditions.

"The venue presents a truly unique situation," explains Alexander Schad, CEO of session-pro, an L-Acoustics certified partner who collaborated with consultant M

France - The Rockstore has been the beating heart of the live music scene in the French city of Montpellier ever since 1986 when Level 42 played to a sold-out crowd at this club on its opening night.

More than 4,500 concerts later and Rockstore now takes the music outside into the Occitanie summer sunshine with Club Peyrou at Le Peyrou, usually a peaceful location for picnickers and promenaders but, on June 28th, the site of an electro and funk festival for 3,500 people.

The local branch of production technology specialists Texen rigged the stage with Nexo Geo M12 for a diverse lineup including DJ sets from French music duo Polo & Pan and Dabeull.

“We flew main left and right line arrays of 11 x Geo M12 with adjacent hangs of six MSUB18, plus six Nexo STM S118 subs on the ground for additional LF impact,” reports Texen’s Nicolas Bel

USA - The near-20,000-capacity Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio features the world’s first installation of GLP’s Mad Maxx CW LED fat-beam searchlights. This will give the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team and Cleveland Monsters ice hockey team, who share the facility, a dynamic rock’n’roll-style environment to enhance the matchday experience.

The Mad Maxx units were specified by production designer Eric Wade, creative director and vice-president of Dallas, Texas-based Crossfade Design.

Billed as the first true fat-beam LED fixture, with a massive 750mm beam diameter, Mad Maxx’s wide light output matches the beam’s diameter, which is adjustable by a virtual iris, while the colour wheel provides an extra layer of animation. This gives the fixture an imposing presence.

Crossfade had serviced the Rocket Arena for around a decade, and

Vietnam - Harman Professional Solutions, in collaboration with AV integration partner Ba Sao Audio, recently deployed – in Ho Chi Minh City – one of the region’s first large-scale spatial audio deployments for live theatre.

The production CHÀO celebrates Vietnamese heritage through traditional music, narrative design and immersive technologies, all powered by a fully integrated Harman Professional Solutions system across the brand portfolio, including JBL Professional, FLUX::, BSS, and others.

Conceived by Nguyễn Khắc Anh, CEO of Ba Sao Investment, with technical direction by Vũ Hữu Thắng, CHÀO reimagines Vietnamese heritage through a compelling fusion of traditional music, dynamic visuals, and immersive sound design. The performance features an original orchestral suite with 30 traditional Vietnamese instruments, s

Finland - A destination for beer aficionados, the OLVI Foundation Brewery Museum offers an opportunity to delve into the history and traditions of Finnish beer brewing. Located in Iisalmi – which also happens to be the home of loudspeaker manufacturer Genelec – this is Finland’s only brewery museum open to the public.

At its heart is a new immersive installation titled The Spirit of OLVI. Built into a custom-designed five-sided space, it invites visitors into a multi-sensory experience that uses light, image, vibration, and spatial sound to explore the 145-year history of Finland’s last major independent brewery. The system behind it is entirely bespoke – and is powered by a sophisticated Genelec loudspeaker setup.

Janne Lankinen, COO of Finnish integrator 4business, led the technical design of the museum alongside creative partner

Canada - Kramer has ‘revolutionised’ teaching and learning at John Abbott College in Quebec, bringing all-new connected capabilities and possibilities to classrooms using a range of advanced AV over IP solutions.

In response to a rapidly growing student population and limited campus space, the new dynamic classroom complex, led by Canadian integration partner AVI-SPL in collaboration with Kramer, delivers scalable, flexible and user-friendly learning environments.

With a campus area of 1,600 acres, John Abbott College is an English-language public college located in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, near the western tip of the Island of Montreal. Faced with the daunting challenge of creating additional teaching space without undertaking a major construction project, the college took a modular approach to increase classroom capacity.

Completed in j

France - changeNOW, the European sustainability summit, presents an audio engineer's ultimate challenge: 20 simultaneous performance zones operating across Paris's reverberant Grand Palais. The three-day event hosts 40,000 attendees from 140 countries in a format that combines international conferences with live artistic performances.

Six main stages plus 14 additional performance areas must function simultaneously throughout the event, creating massive sound spill challenges in the glass-domed venue. Previous editions relied on headphone systems to solve the interference problem, but this isolated audience members in individual audio bubbles.

This year, changeNOW and events agency Moma Event - led by production director Catherine Durand and technical director Olivier Duraton - challenged Fleik, their audio partner to eliminate those headphones entir

Italy - Cesare Cremonini, one of Italy’s most prominent artists, with a solo career spanning more than 20 years, is currently on tour with a lighting design featuring Ayrton Mamba and Cobra laser-sourced lighting fixtures.

The Cremonini LIVE25 tour comprises 13 sold-out shows in some of Italy’s largest stadiums, with multiple dates across cities including Rome, Milan, Bologna and Bari.

Mamo Pozzoli, the tour’s lighting designer and a long-time Cesare collaborator, created a powerful and innovative lighting plot characterised by multiple moving circular structures and a strong focus on graphic fixtures.

Set within this vast design, dominated by a massive ultra-wide LED wall, Mamo carefully selected and positioned a number of high-performance beam units, namely 16 Ayrton Mamba and 48 Ayrton Cobra fixtures, all of which are situat

Singapore - Martin Professional’s MAC Viper XIP lighting fixtures made their debut theatrical performance at this year’s Shakespeare in the Park Singapore, bringing a bold and atmospheric visual dimension to the critically acclaimed production of Macbeth. Held under the stars at Fort Canning Green, the event marked a milestone in outdoor theatrical lighting with the debut of Martin’s weatherproof moving head fixtures in a major Southeast Asian theatrical production.

Presented by Singapore Repertory Theatre, Macbeth ran more than 20 performances between 7 May and 1 June, 2025. The production drew thousands of attendees over its run, reaffirming Shakespeare in the Park’s status as a cultural highlight in Singapore’s arts calendar.

This isn’t Martin’s first foray into Shakespeare in the Park. In

UK - Venue Cymru, North Wales’ largest and most versatile performance venue, has completed a transformative upgrade to its lighting infrastructure, partnering with White Light, a d&b solutions company, to deliver a future-ready, energy-efficient solution that meets the demands of modern touring productions, local performances, and broadcast events alike.

The project, part one funded by Arts Council Wales, and part two funded by the Welsh Government’s Transforming Towns initiative, marks a significant step forward for the council-run venue, which hosts everything from West End touring shows and opera to conferences and TV recordings.

With original fixtures dating back to the venue’s opening in 1994, the need for a modern, flexible lighting system was clear. “We’re a multi-purpose venue with a very busy programme,” comments Steve Cridge

Norway - Perched atop the historic Folketeater Building in Oslo, Byens Tak is an event space that offers stunning panoramic views of the cityscape, fjords, and surrounding forests. Once known as Stratos, this 12th-floor venue has long been a hub for cultural and social gatherings.

When Rodeo Architects took over the space, they envisioned a venue that blended modern functionality with its rich historical character. To achieve this, they needed a dynamic audio solution that could deliver quality sound while preserving the venue’s aesthetic integrity. That’s where Renkus-Heinz came in.

Byens Tak is a versatile space, hosting everything from corporate events and conferences to concerts, club nights, and private celebrations. The venue’s architectural heritage presented a set of challenges for audio installation. With its long, narrow layout and in

UK - As the first higher education facility in the UK to bring an esports broadcast course to market, the University of Staffordshire offers students professional-level training in state-of-the-art facilities.

The spaces provided to students at the University’s Stoke-on-Trent campus include a 60-seater esports arena, two broadcast galleries and well-equipped studio. Created as part of a recent multi-million pound expansion project, the facility can be run in parallel (with one gallery linked to the arena and the other to the studio), or as one large production suite.

Digital Garage (UK integrator and supplier) partnered with Audio-Technica on the audio components of the esports broadcast facilities. This was delivered via network solutions, including eight channels of Audio-Technica 3000 Series Digital wireless and two Allen & Heath Avantis dig

USA - Professional Wireless Systems (PWS) played a critical behind-the-scenes role in the grand opening of Universal Orlando Resort’s Epic Universe. The massive, multi-day media event included coverage from NBC’s The Today Show, Access Hollywood, Telemundo’s Hoy Día, livestreams, influencer content and an array of international news outlets, which all relied on PWS’ expertise to stay connected and interference-free.

The newly opened Universal Epic Universe is the most ambitious theme park project in Universal’s history. Spanning over 750 acres, the park introduces entirely new lands, attractions and immersive experiences based on franchises such as The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic, Super Nintendo World, How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk, Dark Universe and Celestial Park. Universal’s Epic Universe, which

Belgium - 24 of ADJ’s high-output Vizi Beam CMY moving head fixtures took centre stage at the Stamp Outdoor Festival in Hoogstraten in early May, bringing sharp beams, saturated colour, and mind-blowing movement to the open-air dance event.

Rental and production company EQS Pro-Rent supplied and installed the lighting setup, specifically investing in the Vizi Beam CMY units to ensure the festival's lighting design would stand out.

Stamp Outdoor took place back in May and is known for its vibrant atmosphere and strong lineup of electronic music artists. For its 2025 edition, the festival welcomed a crowd of thousands for a high-energy weekend celebration of music and culture. To match the intensity and scale of the event, EQS Pro-Rent selected the Vizi Beam CMY for its immense output, lightning-fast pan/tilt movement, and the creat

USA - For the recent US leg of Coheed and Cambria's 2025 tour, lighting designer Ben Jarrett of Squeek Lights crafted a visual feast using Elation’s award-winning Paragon moving head as his primary spot fixture.

The Paragon M played a central role in shaping the visuals while supporting the band’s Amory Wars narrative, including the dramatic lighting of a full-sized inflatable character on stage. New Jersey-based Squeek Lights, a one-stop shop for stage lighting in the area, provided all lighting, video, and rigging for the tour.

The co-headlining tour with Mastodon, which ran from early May to 8 June, showcased 34 Paragon M fixtures – 24 mounted in two striking three-stick chevron truss arrays over the stage, and 10 on the downstage truss for frontlight.

“They’ve been amazing,” said LD Jarrett, who fulfilled a number of

UK - Just For One Day – The Live Aid Musical opened in May at London’s Shaftesbury Theatre, and Unusual Rigging played a key role in preparing the venue for a high-impact production that celebrates the event that marks its 40th anniversary this weekend.

With just 10 days between the final performance of Mrs. Doubtfire and the load-in for Just For One Day, Unusual was brought in to deliver a complete rigging transformation - supporting a technically ambitious and visually bold show.

Written by John O’Farrell and directed by Luke Sheppard, Just For One Day tells the behind-the-scenes story of the 1985 Live Aid concert and how music united a global audience for one extraordinary day. Featuring songs from Queen, U2, David Bowie, Elton John, The Who, Madonna and more, the production pays tribute to the power of co

USA/Europe - To provide Janet Jackson’s Together Again tour with immersive and impactful visuals, lighting designer Eric Wade implemented a versatile and adaptable rig featuring the Martin MAC One fixture, produced by PRG and Crossfade.

As one of the most successful artists of all time, Janet Jackson has sold over 100m records in her multi-decade career and defined the MTV era with her impactful choreography and multifaceted sound. Beginning in April 2023 through October 2024, the Together Again tour marked Jackson’s first return to the road in four years and promised audiences across the world a prolific set featuring both decade-defining hits and fan favourites.

With a discography that pulls from a wide array of genres and influences, from new jack swing to hip-hop to pop, Jackson required a lighting rig that could adapt to an

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