Projects

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04 June 2025

Switzerland - An array of Claypaky lighting fixtures, including Volero Cubes, Arolla Aqua LT, Arolla Aqua, Sharpy X Frames and HY B-EYE K25s, was chosen by lighting designer Tim Routledge to illuminate the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 (ESC) held at the St. Jakobshalle arena in Basel.

Participants from 37 countries competed with the contest viewed by an estimated 170m people worldwide.

No stranger to ESC, Routledge won a coveted BAFTA Television Craft Award last year for his work on the ESC 2023 telecast from Liverpool. He also won the Royal Television Society Award for Multi-Camera Lighting for that show. 

This year, the theme of ESC was Unity Shapes Love, with variably coloured miniatures of the Eurovision heart symbolising the unity of millions of people celebrating the contest.

Production designer Floria

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04 June 2025

UK - Event production company SEL Live launched the 2025 festival season in style, returning with the 2025 edition of Land Beyond Festival, which descended onto Brighton’s beachfront from 2-4 May.

SEL Live, which rebranded from Sussex Events earlier this year, delivered full technical production, staging and structures for three stages at the popular south coast electronic dance music festival, which was themed around the Vacant Planet.

The team at SEL Live brought their expertise to the fore with show-stopping production design and execution. In a festival known for its immersive experiences and bold aesthetics, SEL Live ensured the 2025 edition set new standards, deploying their full inventory of A4I brands, including Milos, EXE Technology and Xstage, which powered their trusted structure and rigging solutions from Area Four Ind

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04 June 2025

Australia - Production house Dead Puppet Society is known for combining craftsmanship with cutting-edge technologies and collaborating with world-class arts companies and creatives to produce large-scale, design-led theatre works that shake up genres, incorporate contemporary forms of puppetry, and push the boundaries of live performance.

Opening in February at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre, Dead Puppet’s latest production is a new version of the five-time Tony Award-winning Broadway hit Peter and the Starcatcher.

For this musical, Dead Puppet’s creative director David Morton and the team engaged the services of Gold Coast-based sound, light and production technology specialists Captivate AV to design and deploy a sound system that would ensure audiences enjoy the full experience of the show’s ambitious sound design.

“The Capito

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03 June 2025

Switzerland - The Eurovision Song Contest is now one of the biggest, brightest and most colourful live productions in the world, and the 2025 edition boasted the biggest rig in Eurovision history.

Ayrton fixtures played a key role in Tim Routledge’s spectacular and ever-changing, metamorphic design which included the complete range of Ayrton laser-phosphor sourced fixtures Mamba, Kyalami and Cobra, as well as Domino LT, Rivale Profile and Nando 502 Wash, all supplied by London-based Neg Earth Lights. “I had a lot of options to play with in this playground,” says Routledge. Just as well for the number of performances (nearly 50 including half time and opening performances) which happen in such quick succession.

The St. Jakobshalle Arena may have been smaller than traditional Eurovision Song Contest venues, but Routledge’s lig

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03 June 2025

Argentina - A new immersive sound experience has opened recently at Punta Ballena, a leading whale-watching centre in Puerto Pirámides in Patagonia. The setup in the experience room uses Dolby Atmos technology with Audient Oria at its heart, and introduces a new, innovative dimension for tourists visiting the centre.

“It allows visitors to immerse themselves in the ocean’s soundscape and gain a sense of what it feels like to be a whale,” explains marine biologist and diver Gonzalo Bravo, a member of the team. “It offers a sensory journey that helps participants understand how whales communicate and interact. This experience complements the company’s traditional whale-watching tours, providing an even deeper connection to marine life.”

The immersive experience room is a specially designed space located next to the café where visitors eit

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03 June 2025

USA - For one week each year a wing of the large Vancouver Convention Centre event space transforms into the custom-built 1,200-seat TED Theatre - which hosts powerful, high-profile talks aimed at driving meaningful change.

As the non-profit TED Organisation’s relationship with its current PA supplier was nearing an end, their long-serving and highly experienced audio consultant, Michael Nunan was working on a TED Countdown project in Brussels, alongside FOH sound engineer Miles Barton, another veteran of TED event sound mixing. “We were discussing what PA manufacturer would be a good choice going forwards,” Barton recalls. “I’ve used Martin Audio gear since leaving college 24 years ago - and now use it regularly with [Martin Audio rental partner] 22live.”

He believed the two brands - TED and Martin Audio - would make a good alliance, and

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03 June 2025

USA - Lighting designer Nathan Brittain from Houston, Texas-based lighting rental specialist LD Systems oversaw a major lighting upgrade for the live concert element of this year’s Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo – AKA Rodeo Houston – which included adding over 150 Robe moving lights to the rig.

Staged at NRG Stadium, Nathan has also created production lighting for the concerts for several years, with LD Systems as the lighting vendor.

Every five years, a major technical upgrade takes place ensuring all the latest and best technologies are available for the benefit of all artists. Lighting is rigged on a bespoke TAIT-designed and built stage / roof structure, and this year Nathan and LD Systems made a major investment in Robe including the addition of 62 iForte, 70 x TetraXs and 16 x iBolts. It was the first time iBolts had b

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03 June 2025

USA - Immersive technology specialists, Quince Imaging, recently partnered with professional hockey team, the Anaheim Ducks, to install a permanent, projection-mapping solution at their Honda Centre home arena in Anaheim, California.

The installation aimed to enhance the Ducks’ fan experience through engaging, interactive visuals, especially during half-time breaks. At the centre of this project is Stage Precision’s SP software, which plays an integral part in Quince Imaging’s production workflow, allowing for precise tracking, calibration and real-time data integration. 

“We’ve worked on various types of tracking and motion systems over the years,” says Eric Gazzillo, vice-president of innovation at Quince Imaging. “Integrating SP by Stage Precision was a turning point. It’s faster, more intuitive, and allows us to automate complex

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02 June 2025

India - Coldplay's Music of the Spheres world tour, which is led by production manager Chris Kansy, has called upon Clair Global for comms solutions and powerful IT deployments. When the large-scale tour visited India, the band performed for almost 223,000 fans over two nights at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, the world’s largest cricket ground.

Clair Global designed a comms system comprising two Riedel Communications Artist64 digital intercom network frames, 50 x Bolero wireless beltpacks and six panels. The band’s busy showcaller, Julia Whittle, communicates via Clair's main show channel, which has a one-way transmit to Motorola radios, while multiple radio interfaces are deployed to offer seamless coverage for distant positions, such as pyrotechnic gags, which on a production of this size, can be fired from up to 400m away from

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02 June 2025

USA - Coachella has always been about stepping into transformative spaces. And over at the Yuma tent it’s clear what that magical zone is all about – an urban EDM nightclub.

Forget that you’re in the middle of a desert, step inside this tent and it’s easy to feel like you entered a hot club in Brooklyn, LA, or Tokyo’s Shibuya district. This effect isn’t due only to the power of the music either, it also springs forth from the space’s immersive club-like lighting design with its intense plays on darkness, brightness, and geometric patterns.

Designer, Steve Lieberman of SJ Lighting, who has been lighting the Yuma Tent for years, described the setting this way: “Yuma is not a typical festival design. The approach is more immersive and follows the philosophies of nightclub design. The tent is very long; and this year we added more bays to

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02 June 2025

The Netherlands - Muziekgieterij is a lively music hub in the southern Netherlands city of Maastricht with two live performance spaces that showcase a vibrant and varied artist lineup featuring all genres of music. Other music-related facilities at the site include a studio and rehearsal rooms.

The 1,100-capacity large hall and 420-person small hall are both now fully equipped with Robe moving lights, with packages specified by the chief lighting technician Mathieu (Mat) Huveneers and his team to deliver full flexibility and high production values for all performers. During the pandemic, regular livestreams were broadcast from the studio.

Muziekgieterij initially opened in 2007 and has been on its current former ‘Sphinx’ ceramic factory site on the outskirts of the city since 2013, with the large hall built from scratch in 2019. The venue now sta

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02 June 2025

UK - Mumford and Sons withdrew from their self-described “almost nonstop touring schedule” to channel a new more organic and personal wellspring of creative energy. Ultimately, this led the iconic band to record Rushmere, their first album since 2018.

"Because we're no longer as rushed as we used to be, the creativity of Rushmere comes from us carving out more space for our best artistic selves," Marcus Mumford told an interviewer after the album was released in March and instantly reached the top of the charts.

Mumford and Son’s longtime lighting designer, Ed Warren reflected this mood in his work for the band’s Tour Before The Tour, a limited run of shows at mid-sized venues before their 32-city North American arena-amphitheatre tour scheduled for this summer.

Like the band’s new creative outlook, Warren

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02 June 2025

Kenya - When mobile cinematographer and filmmaker Cassius Rayner set out to document the work of UK-based charity Healing Little Hearts, he knew that capturing pristine audio in busy hospital environments - without cluttering the space with gear - would be as crucial as the visual storytelling.

Sennheiser’s compact MKE 400 shotgun microphone proved essential to the success of this award-winning documentary, My Little Heart, which shines a light on NHS medical professionals volunteering their time to provide free heart surgeries for children in Kenya and other regions.

“I’d already shot a documentary about a professor who does these missions overseas, so I was already familiar with that world,” Rayner explains. “But I still felt that the general public weren’t aware that many people in the NHS were volunteering in their holiday ti

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30 May 2025

USA - At this year’s Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards, innovation wasn’t only reserved for the artists onstage. Behind the scenes at the Ford Centre at The Star in Frisco, Sennheiser’s Spectera was undergoing its own critical test.

While Spectera was being put through its paces in RF testing, the Digital 6000 wireless system, paired with both the MD 9235 and MMD 935 capsules, supported the performances of Blake Shelton, Kelsea Ballerini and the Backstreet Boys as millions of viewers tuned in.

Stephen Vaughn, RF coordinator for Soundtronics, was the engineer tasked with giving Spectera its first high-profile trial run in a live award show environment notorious for difficult spectrum and unforgiving conditions. Vaughn admits he was cautious at first. “Honestly, I was a bit hesitant. Given the environment we were in - a live show - I was al

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30 May 2025

Denmark - The We Will Rock You musical is a massive worldwide success and, since opening in London in 2002, numerous versions have been staged in every corner of the globe.

For the most recent version in Denmark, sound designer and head of sound, Magnus Hansen, has made full use of the DiGiCo SD7 T console personalisation. This preparation work ensures the complex requirements of this high-octane show do not overwhelm his team and leaves space for creativity. The extensive console programming allows engineers the freedom and flexibility to get the most out of the show, night after night.

The new Danish translation of We Will Rock You opened in the Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen ahead of a nationwide tour and is produced by Lion Entertainment. The DiGiCo SD7 T at front-of-house is accompanied by a Quantum 338 and KLANG at the moni

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30 May 2025

UK - At midnight on 31 December 1999, Longplayer, a 1000-year-long piece of music composed by Jem Finer, began playing. This year, British manufacturer of professional loudspeakers, EM Acoustics sponsored the project, donating loudspeakers for a sound system upgrade at Longplayer’s Trinity Buoy Wharf Lighthouse listening post, where it has been playing for the last 25 years.

“Many within the music industry remember Longplayer as part of the millennium celebrations back in 2000,” says Greg Clarke, brand manager at EM Acoustics. “Twenty-five years later, we are thrilled at the opportunity to sponsor this project, which is truly an expression of human and artistic legacy across space and time.”

“Working with EM Acoustics on this new spatial listening post for Longplayer at the Lighthouse has been a real pl

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30 May 2025

Iceland - Founded in 1945 and until recently the oldest operating cinema in the country, Bæjarbíó in the port town of Hafnarfjörður is today a thriving concert and event venue hosting singer/songwriters through to rock bands.

Such a varied programme requires an installed sound system that can shift through the gears to handle any scale of show that comes to town. So, venue operators contacted local AV technology and production services specialists Exton to propose a new sound system that would ensure fans of all musical genres enjoy top-quality sound at every Bæjarbíó event.

“The venue had received a proposal for a system from another manufacturer but, after visiting and taking measurements, we were able to propose a Nexo system that would meet the performance criteria at a significantly lower cost,” reports Exton sound consultant/technic

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30 May 2025

USA - GLP fielded its largest ever deployment of fixtures at Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival for the recent 2025 event – including all its latest in-demand touring products.

The massive global event has been staged successfully across two weekends since 1999 at its Empire Polo Club location in the Californian desert, close to Palm Springs.

Various stages – including the main stage and Sahara tent, as well as the Yuma club tent – were awash with GLP fixtures specified by international LDs, adding extra floor package drama to the existing generic house rigs.

The industry was eager for a first look at the might of the super-powerful Mad Maxx – used by Dan Norman with rapper Travis Scott on the main Coachella Stage – while production designer Rob Sinclair gave a sneak preview of the JDC Burst 1 in a taste of what to

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30 May 2025

France - In the northeast corner of Paris, the sprawling 55-hectare Parc de la Villette has evolved into one of Europe's most dynamic cultural districts where science, music, and art converge. This vibrant urban park hosts a concentration of cultural institutions, from the acoustically renowned Philharmonie de Paris to Europe's largest science museum, the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie.

Dominating the landscape is the Grande Halle de la Villette, with its distinctive 19th-century industrial architecture featuring soaring glass and intricate cast iron framework. Originally commissioned by Napoleon III as an abattoir in 1867, this impressive 20,000sq.m structure was reimagined as a versatile cultural venue in 1985, now showcasing everything from international art exhibitions to rock concerts to avant-garde theatrical productions.

Building on a lo

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30 May 2025

USA - Green Hippo’s new Hippotizer MX Series Media Servers were out in force for this year’s WWE WrestleMania spectacular, pumping out 4K live action and pre-made content across a wealth of LED screens and strips.

Eight Hippotizer Kasai MX Media Servers – which are distributed by ACT Entertainment in North America – were at the heart of the video setup, working with 12 Hippotizer Boreal+ MK2 and two Hippotizer Karst+ MK2 Media Servers. The 2U, 10-bit video playback, robust Kasai MX Media Servers empower users to run two 4K outputs and offers Genlock for large surface displays that need more than one output.

The Netflix live-streamed, two-night WrestleMania event took place at the 65,000-capacity Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada, just outside Las Vegas. Upstaging once again took the video helm, supplying all the Hippotiz

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30 May 2025

UK - 12th Knot, the rooftop cocktail bar at the riverside Sea Containers Hotel, is known for its city views and upscale atmosphere in a prime location on London’s South Bank. When the time came to upgrade its audio system, the hotel turned to Tateside, who already provides managed AV services across various areas in the hotel. The client envisaged a new audio solution that would complement, rather than compromise, the carefully curated ambience of its popular rooftop destination.

“We’ve worked on projects throughout the Sea Containers hotel for a long time, including the cinema, background audio systems and the event space,” says Jack Cornish, technical director at Tateside. “When it came time to upgrade the 12th Knot bar, they trusted us to deliver something special.”

The existing audio system at 12th Knot was no longer meeting the evolv

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29 May 2025

UK - Teddy Swims’ record-breaking and sold out I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy tour headed across the UK and Europe with PRG providing video, automation and lighting, including their brand-new GroundControl Multi for the Followspot system.

Having amassed over 8.7bn streams globally, Teddy Swims has captured the hearts of music fans worldwide with his live show and chart-topping hits such Lose Control and The Door. For his 2025 UK and European leg of the I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy tour, the team once again chose PRG to provide lighting, automation and video, but this time upgrading to PRG’s latest followspot innovation – the GroundControl Multi.

The GroundControl Multi is the newest addition to PRG’s GroundControl Followspot family. This system can control up to 16 lights through a single Ground

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29 May 2025

UAE - Situated in the luxury residential area of Dubai Hills, on the Business Park, DUO Gastrobar has joined the growing list of haute cuisine restaurants being sucked into the fast-developing neighbourhood.

Founded by Duoband Restaurant Group from St. Petersburg, headed by Renat Malikov and Dmitry Blinov, it has already earned a Michelin star for their cuisine, while their clientele ‘luxuriates in an interior characterised by light, airy colours and natural materials’. The musical ambience is delivered by Martin Audio’s CDD series.

It wasn’t the aesthetic of the white CDD5s so much as the sound quality that had impressed the owners, according to regional distributors Pro Lab LLC. Already with a presence in the area, the operators were aware that Martin Audio is the brand of choice for many upmarket establishments and also for project designe

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29 May 2025

The Netherlands - The 3,000-capacity Poppodium 013 concert hall was transformed into a nightclub when NachtCollege brought its all-night party to the Dutch city of Tilburg in mid-April. Technical production was led by the venue’s in-house team, headed by senior lighting designer Paul Cox.

To help deliver the immersive experience the event called for, 48 ADJ Vizi Beam CMY fixtures were dry-hired from local rental supplier Spectrum AV to supplement the venue’s house rig. Paul arranged the fixtures across four trusses – two on each side of the dance floor – running the length of the hall. The upper trusses were mounted near the ceiling with fixtures suspended downward, while the lower trusses hung directly below, with fixtures positioned upright. This layered setup allowed Paul to fill the air above the crowd with intricate, overlapping beam patterns th