Projects

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Australia - When popular Australian Hotel and Resort, The Beachcomber, decided to completely gut and upgrade their entire audio system ahead of their busy season, local supplier Pro Sound and Lighting called on LEA Professional to amplify and transform the space.
The Beachcomber Hotel & Resort, or as the locals call it 'The Beachie' is a waterfront destination located in the heart of the Central Coast, Toukley. The resort sits between two Great Lakes and the Pacific Ocean with nearly 100m of lake frontage and its own private pier. The sprawling complex was recently relaunched as a 4-star, 80-room resort offering multiple indoor and outdoor facilities.
To carry out the extensive renovation work, the resort relied on local production company Pro Sound and Lighting to provide a new audio system for the resort's gaming and sports bar, DJ area, outdoor area and hotel lo

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Poland - Michal Hyra could have been forgiven if he wondered what else could go wrong. Chosen to light the grand finale of the two-month long celebration of Tryptyk powstańczy - pamięć ziemi, which marked 100th anniversary of the Third Silesian Uprising, he found his rehearsal time for the on 25 June event severely curtailed by unrelenting rain.
Despite this issue, Hyra was able to create a captivating lighting design that engrossed the large crowd gathered in Byton’s historic Market Square as well as those watching the livestream of one of the most important events in Poland.
His smooth colour changes and seamless transitions flowed naturally with the traditional Polish folk dancers on stage. Later in the evening, when the initial performers were replaced by a rock band, he created a tour-like show.
Helping Hyra accomplish this feat was the ChamSys Magic M

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France - Paris La Défense Arena is a 40,000 capacity, multi-purpose indoor arena located just west of the Paris city centre. Opened in December 2017, the venue takes advantage of the “multiuse” component of its design. It has played host to The Rolling Stones, Kendrick Lamar, and Paul McCartney. It hosts rugby union fixtures for France’s national team, and is the home stadium of Racing 92, a rugby union team competing in the Top 14.
The commitment to a multiuse venue requires a unified audio system that sounds great for live performance, offers intelligibility in the spoken word, and can be relied upon in the event of an emergency. The system needs to adhere, without compromise, to EN54 - a set of stringent European life safety product standards required by law, that dictate the performance criteria for a life safety audio system, which is to be used in the event of a

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El Salvador - San Miguel-based Electronica 2001, with seven branches across the country, has been at the forefront of El Salvador’s entertainment technology industry for the past 35 years. Most recently, it has invested in Central America’s first DiGiCo Quantum 7.
“For many years, DiGiCo has been the benchmark in professional audio consoles,” says the company’s sales manager, Eduardo Gomez. “As a service company, we need to be at the cutting edge to address the demands of both producers and engineers who specify the best consoles for their shows.
“DiGiCo’s range of products is the first choice on most technical riders. Our philosophy has always been to work with the best in the industry and owning DiGiCo consoles has allowed us to provide the equipment necessary to do any world-class show here in El Salvador.”
“We are very proud to be part of

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South Africa - The Foschini Group (TFG) is a South African JSE-listed retail clothing group headquartered in Cape Town. Recently, TFG announced that they were opening a new store in Canal Walk shopping centre, Cape Town, which required a visual overhaul. Stage Audio Works provided two large Pixel Plus LED digital signage screens outside each entrance of the store, supplied and installed by digital communications specialists, AVT.
Working with the integrator, SAW specified two Pixel Plus Xcell-I Lite screens, each measuring 3.2m wide and 1.95m high, to match the location, visibility and the budget of the client. The purpose of these screens is to clearly communicate the brand’s clothing line and image, consequently driving traffic into the store. SAW also designed and manufactured custom wall-mount brackets brackets.
The screens were specified with a pixel pitch of P4

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USA - Lighting and video designer Tony Caporale was at the visual helm for the new Triller boxing and music event in Atlanta, harnessing the punch and power of Hippotizer Boreal+ Media Servers to drive a host of LED screens at the city’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Music heavyweights including Snoop Dogg, Justin Bieber and Diplo joined boxing big-timers Jake Paul and Ben Askren for the event, which took the US by storm.
A pay-per-view audience of more than 1.5m watched as the fights were interjected by pop performances, with each requiring a feast of visual delights to match the action. The boxing ring area had two portrait LED video screens for fighter entrances, a single LED video wall above the announcer booth, with another LED screen used as a fascia for Diplo’s DJ booth. The performance stage had five screens.
“This was a lot of video, right?” says Capora

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France - Playmodes is utilising 15 Claypaky Sharpys to illuminate its immersive installation Exo, part of the Constellations 2021 international digital art festival in Metz, France, running from 1 July 1 to 4 September.
The Barcelona-based Playmodes collective works with tailor-made technologies mixing creativity, software and hardware to create immersive installations, projection mapping, architectural lighting, digital scenography, audiovisual instruments and sound design.
Exo is presented with the support of Vinci Construction France and staged inside the Temple Neuf, a Protestant church in Metz. It explores the structures of language and communication by using light and sound as an audiovisual language.
“With Exo we’ve tried to experiment with how a new form of life, which is audiovisual, might communicate: Basically we’re talking

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USA - The Scottish Rite Theatre (‘The Scotty’) in Peoria, Illinois, was built in 1925 as a Masonic cathedral. Recently, the Gothic-styled building underwent a $5m-plus renovation and now offers downtown Peoria a modern performance and event venue. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Scotty encompasses an 800-seat theatre, luminous stained-glass windows, a lower-level ballroom with capacity for 300 people, and more than 10,000ft of usable space, as well as a full basement kitchen and banquet facility. And it now boasts an L-Acoustics Syva sound system installed there earlier this year by the Chicago office of integrator Creative Technology.
“Syva was the perfect solution for audio reinforcement at the Scotty,” says Greg Moore, installations project manager for creative technology. “It had to sound great, which it does, but it also had to disappe

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USA - Illuminarium Experiences, an experiential entertainment company creating immersive venues, has opened its first Illuminarium in Atlanta. The venue takes visitors on African Safari via a multi-sensory journey brought to life with the help of modern technology.
llluminarium has entered a long-term strategic partnership with Holoplot which will equip the Illuminarium venue in Atlanta as well as future venues with their sound systems.
Holoplot is a Berlin-based hardware and software manufacturer of professional 3D audio technology. The company’s technology ‘allows to control sound similar to light, meaning to steer audio with highest precision to the desired target area only, all while creating a homogeneous soundfield with consistent level and quality over distance’.
The company recently launched its X1 product line, including the X1 Modul 96, a full-r

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USA - With live music now returning after a lengthy absence, country music star Justin Moore is touring again, and recently brought his show to The Ford Centre in Evansville, IN. Moore first hit the Billboard charts back in 2008; now with eight #1 country hits under his belt, he released Straight Outta the Country in April.
Lighting designer Aaron D. Luke handled the production and lighting design for this tour, which is ramping up to play more dates throughout 2021. For the Evansville concert, Cincy Entertainment Services supplied High End Systems SolaFrame 1000, SolaHyBeam 1000, SolaPix 7 fixtures and Hog 4 control to augment the production.
Company president Braden Hasselbeck says The Ford Centrechose their company “for our gear and our team”. “I think Justin Moore’s team was relieved to see we had nicer gear. The only complaint we got from Aaron was

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UK - Launched in 2017, the Music Venue Trust (MVT)’s Sound + Vision initiative aims to deliver a 21st century live music experience to artists and audiences in every part of the UK. White Light (WL) has been a collaborative partner of MVT on this journey and to date, has supported over 40 Grassroots venues.
Despite some projects being delayed to the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing funding restrictions, MVT and WL have worked tirelessly to deliver as many system upgrades as possible within Government safety parameters. The latest of these were at Stoke-on-Trent's The Sugarmill, a live music venue and night club, which benefited from a new d&b audiotechnik xS-Series system.
Jason Larcombe, WL’s project manager, comments: “Thanks to MVT’s ongoing work and previously ringfenced funds from Arts Council England, we are delighted to have been able to continue provid

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Australia - Opera Australia (OA) presents more than 600 performances around the country every year, with more than half a million people seeing their work on stage and even more tuning into OA’s radio broadcasts and cinema releases. OA’s integrated digital technologies were used to transport Davide Livermore’s interpretation of Verdi’s Aida to a whole new level thanks to giant LED screens driven by Brompton processing and deployed by Big Picture at the State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne.
A ‘feast for the senses’, 175sq.m of UniView Tekken LED screens were arranged in 10 towering LED columns seven metres tall, creating an immersive theatrical experience, with video designs ranging from symbolic pictures to picturesque landscapes of Verdi’s world of Egypt brought to life by 4K Tessera SX40 LED processors that conveyed the scale, depth and grandeur of thi

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UK - Hairspray the Musical officially opened its doors last week. The show had been delayed by more than a year following the COVID outbreak. Unusual Rigging was part of the team that helped bring the all-singing all-dancing production to the stage.
Production manager Rich Blacksell reports: “I cannot begin to explain how delighted we are to finally be raising the curtain on Hairspray. We were just four days into week one of rehearsals and about to start fitting up when COVID-19 shut down all live events. We’d brought Unusual on board to handle a rather complex job because we’d planned to rehearse and tech at the English National Ballet’s new home on City Island. We intended to replicate the Coliseum at ENB, install some Kinesys systems and then move at the speed of light into the theatre for the show’s opening.”
As is the case for almost all

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Japan - Japan Jam 2021 took place at Soga Sports Park in Chiba over the country’s big May public holiday weekend. The annual event, which has already taken place three times at this venue, had to be cancelled last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic - therefore, this was the first event in two years, and it was held under strict infection control conditions.
Last time around, more than 30,000 people participated daily in the festival; however, this year the number was limited to 10,000 per day, and the event was devoid of alcohol. The audience needed to obey the rules such as wearing masks and were able to enjoy the live performance in 1m square frames arranged in front of the stage.
As in previous years, Martin Audio MLA was adopted as the main speaker, with 10 MLA elements (including an MLD Downfill) and three stacks of subwoofers, nine per side in total, on main sta

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USA - Goth metalcore band Motionless in White performed last month against the backdrop of the abandoned Pennhurst Asylum in southeast Pennsylvania for Deadstream #2, an atmosphere-filled livestream show lit by Mike Null using Elation Artiste Picasso, Dartz 360 and SixBar 1000 luminaires supplied by Squeek Lights.
Motionless in White are one of the leading acts in the genre with an explosive sound and captivatingly macabre stage presence. A troubled and abandoned state-run school and hospital, Pennhurst Asylum, a frightening place with a sordid history of suffering and paranormal presences, provided the backdrop for a heavy hitting dose of horror-themed metal.
“I feel that if Alice Cooper or Rob Zombie or Marilyn Manson were to know where we shot this they would be very jealous of where we were and what we got to experience,” stated lighting designer Mike N

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Canada - The Montreal Canadiens wanted to give fans an experience they would never forget, as they returned to the Bell Centre for the first time in over a year. And not just by reaching their first finals since 1993.
Montreal-based PixMob reached out to the team to design a shared experience for the 3,500 fans in attendance and the millions cheering on from home - making a limited capacity arena feel full and helping unite a fanbase that had been starved of live hockey since March 2020.
"We’ve illuminated the world’s biggest sporting events and some of the highest-grossing musical tours of all time, but working with our hometown Canadiens at the Stanley Cup Finals is extremely special to us,” said Jean-Olivier Dalphond, president, PixMob.
Given that this is the Canadiens’ first trip to the Stanley Cup Finals in nearly 30 years, there was no better time t

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Italy - This complex spirit lives on in the Italian rock band, as they rip comfortable, preconceived notions to shreds and challenging fans with their impassioned, unsettling brand of music. The Criminal Chaos, led by founder and singer Nik Bergogni, from Parma brought the full force of their sound to Fumasoli Audio & Lights Rental’s studio in northern Italy’s Aosta Valley to record their latest music video.
Like the furtive, menacing music of The Criminal Chaos, the lightshow that Patick Iavarone designed for this production conveyed an air of simmering suspense and lurking unknown danger, along with the possibility of discovering something new and redeeming in the end.
Making ample use of shadows to add a sense of mystery to the recordings, Iavarone pierced these dark spaces with bright, boldly coloured light, often in monochromatic hues. Providing these inte

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Australia - Multi ARIA award-winning singer-songwriter Amy Shark’s Cry Forever national tour kicked off in Newcastle this month and is one of the first arena tours nationally since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The tour is the Gold Coast local’s most ambitious live undertaking yet in some of the largest venues Australia has to offer and it was down to the lighting designer Tim Beeston to create a show that looked big on a budget.
“All of the design tricks had to be deployed and our suppliers delivered a high amount of value for a carefully balanced expenditure,” he says. “What we did use, I feel we used pretty well. The show had no content-driven video element which always makes an arena-size show more demanding to design.”
Chameleon Touring Systems supplied the eclectic rig of Robe, Martin, GLP, Chauvet and Portman fixtures with Tim commenting that

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UK - Broadcast on 26 April as part of BBC4’s Lights Up season, J’Ouvert is the second in Sonia Friedman Productions’ Re:Emerge season. Set amid the colourful backdrop of London’s Notting Hill carnival, it is the story of two best friends battling to preserve tradition in a society where women’s bodies are frequently under threat.
J’Ouvert was first produced at Theatre503, before transferring to the Harold Pinter Theatre, where it was filmed for the BBC prior to its West End run. Lighting designer, Simisola Majekodunmi, chose two Ayrton Karif-LT fixtures as major workhorses in her design. “The play takes place from dawn until dusk and has moments of realism and surrealism throughout, so I needed a fixture that could deliver a representation of the colour and vibe of Carnival as well as the sombreness and isolation of the spiritual moments,” she s

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USA - Victor Zeiser has developed a natural feel for David Summers’ lighting style. For years, Summers has toured with rigs designed by Zeiser’s Squeek Lights.
When Zeiser and his partner Steve Kosiba created a rig for Summers to use on a recent pay-for-view livestream by metal giants August Burns Red, they knew exactly what to do to bring out the best in his work.
“Victor and Steve deserve a lot of credit,” said Summers. “The rigs they put together elevate your lighting. In my case, they know I love symmetry, so it’s there in the rig. Everything is done to facilitate the creation of big patterns, which is something I love to do.”
Bigness and boldness were everywhere to be seen in the Saturday night livestream, which was done to mark the 10th anniversary of the band’s seminal album “Leveler.” Shot at Aurora Film's studio in Rock Lititz, the li

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USA - The entertainment technical and production industry has risen to the pandemic challenge with so many prescient and imaginative responses of how to present art, entertainment and stimulate emotional engagement during a time of separation and isolation. None was more innovative than DesignSpace, the brainchild of John Featherstone of US-based design collective Lightswitch.
DesignSpace was an immersive drive-through visual extravaganza of light and video art, presented and curated in close collaboration with John’s contacts at Arizona State University (ASU), and utilising over 160 Robe lighting fixtures, among others.
Working in conjunction with Jake Pinholster, associate dean of ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design & The Arts, plus several student artists, designers, and technicians plus his own team at Lightswitch, John’s concept transformed four levels

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UK - This year’s BRIT Awards was a landmark event for live music. As part of a government-led research programme to assess how mass-participation events can safely resume, a socially distanced audience of 4,000, consisting mainly of NHS key workers, took their seats at London’s O2 Arena for the first indoor live music event in the UK since the beginning of the pandemic.
DiGiCo consoles were once again deployed at both front of house and monitor positions by the show’s long-time audio supplier, Britannia Row Productions.
Britannia Row’s Josh Lloyd took on the audio design and FOH artist mixes, with Chris Coxhead in charge of presenter audio and Colin Pink assuming his recurring role as Live Sound Supervisor.
“After 15 months of very few live events, The BRIT Awards returned to the 02 Arena as one of the governments COVID Test Events,” says Pink. “It

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UK - A Cornish event production company has completed its busiest ever period, working simultaneously on seven separate events over the G7 Summit week.
Liskeard-based JHAV was appointed to help deliver multiple events associated with the G7 Summit for clients including Spaceport Cornwall, Virgin Orbit, the University of Exeter, and surfing brand Finisterre.
The team also created a press conference suite to be used by US president Joe Biden in the Spaceport Cornwall hangar at Cornwall Airport Newquay.
JHAV managing director Jamie Hedges explains: “We’ve been involved in all kinds of events since starting JHAV, but working on all of these projects revolving around something as high profile as the G7 Summit has to be one of our biggest accomplishments to date.
“The top-secret nature has meant we have been under embargo since the event, and I am so proud

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Switzerland - Tempest enclosures have enabled an eye-catching lighting display for the public to enjoy in Zurich. In Tactile Lights (Tastende Lichter), designed by artist Pipilotti Rist, slow moving lights ‘float’ atop the picturesque city streets and buildings, drawing attention to the striking architecture and surroundings at Heimplatz square, ahead of the opening of the recent extension to the Kunsthaus museum.
The lighting equipment - Martin Allure fixtures protected by five Tempest Tornado 1925 lighting enclosures - is housed within a vibrant, custom built 17m high mast structure, forming its own artistic focal point at the centre of the square. The project was funded by the City of Zurich and the Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft art association.
“One of the biggest challenges for us was where and how to place the moving light devices,” says Kaori Kuwabara, inde
  1. disguise powers Illuminarium Experiences
  2. Showtime At The Drive In continues with Chauvet
  3. SmartStage makes the cut for Lions tour squad
  4. Elation over New York’s Little Island oasis
  5. Fulcrum Acoustic reinforces Polar Park
  6. L-Acoustics L-ISA brings sound and stage together
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