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Germany - The 10th anniversary edition of the iHeartRadio Music Festival took place recently in Los Angeles. Among the cast was Usher, broadcasting from a red-lit stage. Both his 20-minute set, and the generic lighting rig at the iHeartRadio Theatre LA, were studded with GLP fixtures - supplied by locally based Volt Lites and put to work by LD Matt Ardine and programmer Mark Butts.
While the generic rig itself contained a ceiling of 36 GLP X4 atoms - described by Ardine as “an inexpensive way of making the lighting rig look large” - along with 77 discreet GLP FR1’s, Usher’s set featured GLP FR10 bars, at the request of the artist’s design team, Eric Gorleski and John McGuire from TrasK House creative agency.
“We wanted Usher’s set to feel different than the other performances at the theatre, with a more intimate, but still 6ft socially distanced feel that

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USA - Drone show technology specialist Verge Aero recently provided its expertise in drone swarm technology to a US television show, the History Channel’s Unidentified: Inside America’s UFO Investigations.
The show follows Luis ‘Lue’ Elizondo - former director of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Programme (AATIP), the secretive Pentagon unit that studied UFOs - as he investigates reports of unexplained aerial phenomena.
Last December, sightings of large drone formations flying over Eastern Colorado and Nebraska sparked considerable press attention. However, extensive investigations by state and federal authorities including the FAA, DOD, and FBI failed to find an explanation for the presence of the machines.
Elizondo met Verge Aero’s experts to find out more about its proprietary drone ‘swarm’ technology, and consider whether this

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Poland - Bedoes is one of the most popular rappers in Poland and boasts many collaborations with popular Polish singers.
On 18 September, he held an open-air gig in Warsaw, the last date on the Opowieści z doliny smoków (Tales from the land of dragons) tour.
“The tour started in January 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic we were forced to postpone the last two shows until the end of summer” said Szymon Płotkowski, lighting designer who oversaw the project.
“While designing a lighting plot for this tour, I wanted to reflect the dark atmosphere of the album (medieval, fantasy references), adding some glamour when needed. That's why I used Prolights SunBlasts 3000FC in the basic plot. These fixtures gave me the opportunity to have ‘dirty’ wash sidelight, fancy pixel effects and powerful strobes. A huge range of amazing effects all from one fi

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USA - To bring the energy and excitement of a typical basketball experience to an NBA season that was anything but typical, Firehouse Productions deployed two complete Harman Professional Solutions audio systems featuring JBL Professional loudspeakers and Crown amplifiers.
Due to restrictions on large gatherings related to COVID-19, the NBA decided to proceed with the 2019/20 season without fans present. To safely accommodate players, staff and support crews, the NBA set up a strict isolation ‘bubble’ at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World. Teams began playing 30 July at the 8,000-seat AdventHealth Arena and 5,000-seat HP Field House venues with audiences of just a few hundred essential personnel.
To ensure uncompromised, high-impact sound for the dramatically reduced crowds, NBA officials turned to Firehouse Productions, who have been provi

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UK - Scottish lighting trail Wondrous Woods has secured a corporate sponsor for their relaxed performance evening in October. The lighting trail, being organised by Edinburgh event company 21CC Group opens its gates at Hopetoun House on 21 October promising “2km of beautifully-lit woodland trails and a magical safe night out for families”.
Organiser, Geoff Crow of 21CC Group says: “We understand that the multi-sensory nature of the environment may cause sensory overload in those with Autism or other sensory processing disorders, so on Tuesday 27 October we are reducing capacity, decreasing the sound levels, and increasing the lighting levels to ensure the best possible experience for our guests. All of this is only possible with the support we have secured from Walter Scott; we are delighted that they are on board with us, allowing us to bring this event to those who m

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UK - Having worked on the show’s previous series, White Light recently supplied the technical system to run all the visual content on the latest socially distanced series of The Russell Howard Hour. The company also helped create the technical set-up of the show’s newly built lockdown studio, Your Questions Room.
WL has worked on The Russell Howard Hour for the past two years, having initially being approached by the show’s production company Avalon. The company’s role is to provide a system to run all of the content being sent to the screens throughout the studio. This includes those positioned behind Russell Howard which act as his backdrop and a point of reference for most segments.
WL’s key account manager for broadcast Ian Charlampowicz explains: "The content used is based on a main run of the show but changes every week depending on what

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USA - When they invested in Martin Audio’s large format Wavefront Precision Longbow (WPL) early last year, Virginia-based Southard Audio became the first of two co-operative live event production companies in the US to acquire the line array.
Servicing a wide range of events in the mid-Atlantic region, Southard found much of their workload in the surrounding East Coast states cut off after COVID-19 struck … and even in the academic sector - a market segment in which they are usually particularly active - the normally busy Orientation Events week was virtually wiped out.
One that did go ahead, albeit under heavily moderated conditions, was Bridgewater College. The presence of COVID-19 meant an enlarged role for Southard at this Liberal Arts institution, as the students were divided into pods and the classrooms were moved outside onto two large grassy spaces providin

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UK - As the outbreak of COVID-19 across the globe saw the entire UK go into lockdown late March 2020, the last six months has forced both a sudden hiatus and transformation of the live events industry.
In response, Creative Technology (CT) has moved virtual event technology to the centre of its offering.
CT has expanded its in-house facilities which includes a XR studio powered by the Unreal engine, a fully fitted remote production gallery, two additional remote production suites and two COVID-secure socially distanced performance spaces - all based at its offices in London, Gatwick.
Says the company, “The ability to record, edit, and live stream content all in one location has allowed us to create some extraordinary events, reaching thousands across the globe. From demanding and complex streaming events such as a virtual event for international blue chip compa

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Germany - Decisions often involve a trade-off, as taking steps to address one challenge may complicate another. Philipp Reister, the event technician at the famed Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, understands this issue first hand.
Reister values the flexibility of moving fixtures, especially since changing lights on the Z Bridge at the school’s performance hall is a time-consuming process involving a mobile crane. On the other hand, the moving fixtures that had previously been installed at the school, while providing the desired flexibility, raised the issue of noise.
In the past Reister and the team at Hochschule für Musik Freiburg have worked diligently to balance these issues. This summer they enlisted the help of a new “partner” to their cause: the Chauvet Professional Maverick Silens 2 Profile.
“We needed to improve our flexibility because our hall

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USA - The iHeartRadio Music Festival marked its tenth anniversary virtually this year recording its headline artists live, with no audiences, in Los Angeles and Nashville. Lighting designer Matthew Ardine handled the LA portion of the show, which hosted Miley Cyrus, Migos, Alicia Keys, Swae Lee, Khalid and Usher at the iHeartRadio Theatre. He utilised an array of Claypaky fixtures, which are part of the theatre’s rep plot.
The two-day mega-concert was live streamed on 18-19 September and viewable on The CW app; it was broadcast on The CW and iHeartRadio stations nationwide.
Ardine has been one of the iHeartRadio Theatre’s lighting designers for about six years. He designed the base rig for the 2020 festival then worked with each individual artist’s team to create a look for the performer’s brand.
“For the main iHeartRadio Festival design, two of my goal

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USA - To coincide with major investment in its infrastructure, the vibrant Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas has upgraded its TiMax SoundHub immersive audio processor to include the all-new HARDCore FPGA audio processing platform.
The upgrade provides extended delay-matrix crosspoint memory of up to one second, plus new ultra-smooth holistic delay-panning algorithms across the street’s vast and unusual 52.4 channel audio system. With 26 pairs of loudspeakers distributed down the five-city-block space, the powerful new TiMax platform updates extend the necessary resources needed to deliver fully immersive dynamic effects spatialisation for the huge scale of the street’s stunning show content.
TiMax also handles basic routing and housekeeping for all audio aspects of Fremont Street’s daily activities. The browser-based TiMax Portal bespoke touch-scre

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Canada - North America’s National Hockey League (NHL) returned to play without live audiences but with massive enthusiasm, determination and impressive TV and online followings - for the 2020 Stanley Cup playoff series which had been suspended in April during the coronavirus pandemic.
Lighting equipment was supplied by Solotech and included over 200 Robe moving lights - a mix of Pointes, Spiiders and Tarrantulas used by lighting designer Tom Kenny.
The 24-team playoff format (comprising Eastern and Western Conferences) was staged in two Canadian hub cities - Edmonton and Toronto - over two months, running as two complete Covid-secure ‘bubbles’ for production teams, players, coaches and other associated personnel.
Tom was asked to design lighting for the two arenas - Scotiabank in Toronto and Rogers Place in Edmonton - working closely with production design

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USA - When explaining how he designed Price Tower in Bartlesville, OK, Frank Lloyd Wright described it as a “tree-like mast” supported by a central trunk of four elevators shafts anchored by a deep central foundation. The arrangement made it possible for the building’s 19 concrete floors to extend outward like cantilevered branches of a tree reaching over 220ft to the sky.
Today, 64 years after its completion, the only skyscraper designed by Wright inspires as powerfully as ever, reflecting its creator’s belief that “all fine architectural values are human values”. This spirit was celebrated in September when the noted building glowed in vivid colours in honour of Pride Month with help from a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by GW Illumination.
“This project was initiated by the Bartlesville Chapter of Oklahomans for Equality for Pride

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Poland - Brzeg Cultural Centre is a local institution which offers a number of artistic and interdisciplinary activities, such as dance, theatre, music and sculpture classes, as well as a lot of cultural events. At the end of August 2020, it was fully equipped with a spread of Prolights products.
Kuba Czarnik, production manager for Show Design, Prolights distributor for Poland said: “Brzeg Cultural Centre is, like any other community centre, very important for the district, where it is located. It is here, where social awareness and sensitivity to art and culture are built. We are glad that we were able to help in the development of this institution with Prolights.
“So, we decided to make use of a lot of Prolights solutions to light up the hall. In particular, we installed eight Luma 1500SH with animation module as front lights and above the stage, four Diamond 19

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Greece - Allen & Heath systems mixed at both ends of the digital snake for platinum-selling singer, Eleonora Zouganeli’s summer 2020 Namaste tour of her native Greece. The tour played to appreciative audiences in 1,500 - 2,500 capacity outdoor venues, navigating the challenges of changing government restrictions and local interpretations of the rules.
Zouganeli’s long-standing FOH engineer, Brian Coon specified the mixing system, which was supplied by rental company, Backstage Services, based in Perama-Piraeus.
A dLive DM48 MixRack was the heart and brains of the system, providing a split over A&H’s GigaACE protocol to a dLive S5000 surface on monitors and a compact SQ-7 console at FoH. The SQ-7 had been treated to the full DPack upgrade, allowing Brian to employ many of his favourite dLive processing models.
Having worked with many other industry

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UK - With the demand for virtual events rising during the Coronavirus pandemic, lighting and audio specialists Audio Visual Live (AVL) have created a multi-purpose studio space, with Vista by Chroma-Q handling all of the lighting control requirements.
The new AVL Studio is located in Slough, Berkshire and offers a well thought out studio space, which can be used for a simple rehearsal right up to a full music video or corporate presentation.
Normally used to servicing the corporate events and live performance sector, AVL managing Director Kristian Ardley comments: “With the pandemic in full effect we wanted to put our professional inventory of lighting, video and audio equipment to good use and add another revenue stream to the company. The studio was the obvious choice.”
The 9.5m x 6m black box studio ‘house rig’ features lighting products from well-kn

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USA - Bandit Lites and Moo TV are offering another collaboration at Bandit’s Venue One space, complete with a full lighting and video setup. With 10,000sq.ft of open space, clients will have access to the industry’s best in lighting and video.
The lighting system is comprised of six 20ft curved towers each loaded with Chauvet R2X wash, Chauvet R1 FXB and Chauvet RH1 Hybrid fixtures topped with an Elation Smarty Hybrid. The front 25ft truss has GLP X4 wash units and a BMFL spot controlled by the Robe RoboSpot system, while a rear centre Robe BMFL spot is also on the RoboSpot system. In the centreis a 10ft circle loaded with more Chauvet R2X washes and Ayrton Magic Dots as well as a 36” mirror ball on its own chain hoist.
The entire system is laced with 500ft of TMB LED programmable festoons. Base Hazer Pro units provide the haze, and all of this is controlled with

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Singapore - The Star Performing Arts Centre in Singapore has taken its first-ever stock of Ayrton LED moving heads with the recent addition of Ayrton Khamsin profile fixtures to its lighting inventory. Forty-four Khamsin-S and 6 Khamsin-TC fixtures were supplied to the landmark venue by Ayrton’s exclusive distributor for the region, Total Solution Marketing.
The majority of its new Khamsin profiles have been installed in the 5000-seat Star Theatre, The Star Performing Arts Centre’s key venue, which prides itself on its state-of-the-art stage technology. The Star Theatre hosts a wide range of amplified music and speech events, including large scale, high-profile conferences, pop concerts and dance performances, and recently hosted the Singapore National Day 2020 Concert.
“The Khamsins are mainly rigged on overhead fly bars and FOH trusses from where they facilita

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USA - The organisers of the aptly name Pizza Stock fundraiser, which took place at the Events United Studio Lab in Derry, NH, were given the opportunity to create their own graphics for the 52.5’ wide by 13’ tall video wall that served as the backdrop for their livestreamed fundraiser broadcast.
Inspired, the charity organizers came up with an engaging graffiti-like display that wove myriad images together on the massive 7.2m-pixel curved wall made of Chauvet Professional F2 LED panels.
“The folks from Pizza Stock were impressed by how clean their graphics looked on the wall, both in person and to the livestream audience,” said Tim Messina, owner of Events United. “This annual event raises funds for mental health and suicide prevention. The video wall allowed them to acknowledge all of their sponsors without taking anything away from the crisp appearance of

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India - Sound Frame recently outfitted Lord of the Drinks’ Kolkata location with a complete Harman Professional audio system.
With 12 outlets across India, Lord of the Drinks is one of the most highly rated nightclubs in the country. Located in the South City Mall, Lord of the Drinks Kolkata is a new fine dining lounge and bar that becomes a high-energy nightclub in the evenings. With ceilings stretching over 24ft above its patrons, it’s the tallest bar in Kolkata. Lord of the Drinks hired Sound Frame to install a state-of-the-art sound system that wouldn’t distract from the aesthetics of the elegant design.
It was imperative that Sound Frame worked around the height of the space as well as an elevated DJ booth and bar seating. They also had to ensure that the sound system would not obstruct important decorative elements on the walls, a request from the designer

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Spain - It’s approaching a year since Spanish lighting designer Juanjo Llorens first compiled his design for Circo de Hielo 2, the latest winter show from Madrid-based Productores de Sonrisas (Smile Producers), creators of large scale multidisciplined extravaganzas like Circo de Los Horrores and many others.
The newest arena show, directed by Suso Silva, played in a bespoke 1,800-capacity circular tent that was erected for the run of shows at IFEMA Madrid that combined premium ice skating with acrobatics, breath-taking stunts – including a skater fighting with a violinist playing live - and heaped with theatricality, pumping live music and visuals.
Juanjo chose 40 x Robe LEDBeam 150s, 24 MegaPointe and 24 Spiider moving lights to be central to his lighting rig, and these were purchased for the run of shows by Productores de Sonrisas.
Right now

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USA - “You can tell a successful church just from the vibe,” said Mark Salamone, sales manager at All Pro Integrated Systems. “The first time I visited Wellspring Community Church in Ruskin, Florida, they had a red movie theatre carpet, velvet ropes, popcorn, and Star Wars stuff for the kids. There were a lot of young families, and it felt progressive and brimming with good energy.
“The service was amazing - full hands-in-the-air singing from everyone led by a charismatic pastor and a praise band loaded with talented musicians. The sound system was just ok, but Preston Eaves, technical arts director, was squeezing everything he could out of it. In terms of community service, Wellspring made it clear that they weren’t just talking the talk – they are actively working to improve access to the material and spiritual needs of the community.”
Salamone, who has

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Belgium - During a career that has seen him work on TV specials like European Commission’s Presidential Debate, and popular programmes, including Dancing With The Stars Belgium and Liefde voor Muziek, Michiel Milbou has built a reputation for his key lighting.
However, in his recent project, Belgium’s version of The Masked Singer, Milbou got to depart from his usual concerns about getting the talent’s face lit “just right”.
“There were no faces to light in this show, since everyone was wearing a mask,” said Milbou, the founder and owner of Never Fear Shadows. “That was very different, and in many ways a nice change, since it opened up many creative possibilities. It allowed us to go with colours that matched the masks without worrying about key lighting faces. So, if there was a character with blue mask, we could hit it with various

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UK - The UK’s first dedicated socially-distanced music venue since the COVID-19 pandemic began recently opened its gates in Newcastle, presenting a programme of top line acts, and equipped with a premium festival kit list provided by AV company, Kingdom Services, centred around DiGiCo SD10 mixing consoles managing FOH and monitor sound.
Located in the city’s Gosforth Park racing ground, the Virgin Money Unity Arena consists of a pop-up amphitheatre, with 500 separate elevated viewing platforms spaced two metres apart, and hosting a maximum of 2,500 people. Local hero, Sam Fender, headlined the first two sold-out shows, followed by a diverse line-up of artists including Van Morrison, Maximo Park, Alfie Boe, Ronan Keating, comedians Jimmy Carr and Bill Bailey, as well as the Bongo Bingo dance phenomenon.
“Originally, the series of events was going to be a drive t
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