USA - One thing that pretty much any experienced touring mix engineer can agree on is that you always pad your input/output number request to a certain degree because rare is the tour where those needs will not increase as the tour progresses. So it might seem odd that when the current Post Traumaticsolo tour by Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda got started, mix engineers Mike Fanuele and Kevin ‘Tater’ McCarthy were sharing a single DiGiCo SD12 mix surface.
After that first show, the SD12 was shipped off for the tour’s Asian and European legs, and McCarthy, who has been associated with Shinoda for more than a decade, spec’d a pair of DiGiCo's ultra-portable SD11i desks for the promo tour that preceded the Asian dates. He says he’s fielded more than one question about why he made that choice.
“A lot of people have asked me why I choose the SD11i,” he reports.

USA - New Albany High School in New Albany, Indiana, recently completed seven sold out performances of the timeless classic The Wizard of Oz and used their new rig of Elation Professional lighting fixtures to help bring the musical to life.
With three top-tier theatre programmes only miles from each other, Southern Indiana is a proven mecca for high school theatre. After sister school Floyd Central High School received a lighting upgrade of Elation fixtures a couple of years ago, New Albany High School was ecstatic when their opportunity came.
“When funds came around, we were next,” said New Albany High School’s resident lighting and sound designer Crit Fisher, who was employed by the school five years ago to help resurrect what he says was an increasingly neglected programme. “Although New Albany High School has roots in theatre the program was in dir

World - Keith Urban’s 2018 world tour in support of his tenth studio album, Grafitti U, kicked off in North America in June 2018. Since then the talented country/rock singer, musician, songwriter and record producer from New Zealand has covered 59 venues in six months.
The tour’s production design firm, FragmentNine, chose 68 Ayrton MagicPanel-R fixtures, supplied by Upstaging, to add depth, dynamism and texture throughout this creative and dynamic show.
Video designer, Jackson Gallagher and lighting designer, Jeremy Lechterman of FragmentNine explained that part of the reasoning behind their choice of MagicPanel-R was largely due to its square face and special abilities, which fit into a mostly geometric and ‘square’ design. Forty-eight panels were rigged to four custom-built pods which automated as the most upstage visual element on stage, with two mor

Europe - Swedish artist Kristian Matsson is better known under his stage name, The Tallest Man On Earth.
His recent European tour, in support of his album When The Bird Sees The Solid Ground, has seen LD Anders Heberling using GLP’s impression X4 Bar 20 in his stage design. He deployed 13 fixtures as a floor package with the remaining batten in the roof, directly above the head of an artist who is known for his dynamic stage performances.
The fixtures were mounted in almost completely sealed custom made boxes, allowing just small cracks for the light to shine through. According to Heberling, the inspiration for this was old barns where the sun shines through the walls.
Of his choice of lighting the LD said: “I needed a pixel batten that could move but most importantly be rigged vertically to fit inside the boxes. The wide zoom was very helpful in term

UK - Signify reports that its Philips Vari-Lite VLZ Profile LED luminaires were chosen to meet some specific stage lighting demands on the recent Savage tour by British electronic music pioneer Gary Numan.
For special tour dates, including a showcase performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall, Numan and his band were joined on stage by an orchestra and choir. In response to this, the visual design, by Luke Edwards of Cue Design, successfully referenced the post-apocalyptic theme of the Savage album, while combining softer theatrical touches to complement the orchestra’s presence, both on the stage and in the music.
“To light the orchestra, we needed fixtures with a really nice light quality,” said Edwards, “but with so many tuneable instruments on the stage we also needed lights that wouldn’t throw out lots of heat. The VLZ Profile was a great option: the op

UK - The Human League’s 2018 Red tour saw the band use projection mapping for the first time, with creative content and equipment supplied by Really Creative Media.
The 27-date Red tour began in Brussels on 31 October, landing on UK shores at the Brighton Centre on 23 November, playing various size venues, from theatres and arenas, wrapping up at London’s Eventim Apollo on 8 December.
Really Creative Media (RCM) has worked with The Human League on previous tours, supplying projection equipment and creative content and the band returned to their trusted supplier to push their visual creative offering for the Red tour.
RCM supplied an MA Lighting grandMA3 Light console and OnPC Command Wing as a backup console, along with two Catalyst V6 Media Servers, six Panasonic RZ21K 20,000L laser projectors and two Panasonic RZ31K 30,000L laser projectors. These Panasoni

USA - With its intersecting patterns of light wrapping around a diamond-shaped configuration of risers, and cool colour schemes, the stage on Jacob Sartorius’ current tour evokes images of cyberspace. It is a fitting impression, since this Top 40 teenage artist found fame on the internet in 2016, when he was the ninth most frequently searched musical artist.
Lenny Sasso, who lit Sartorius’ first headlining shows two years ago, came up with the futuristic concept for the singer’s 2018 tour. Helping him in this endeavour was a collection of Chauvet Professional Épix Strip Tour and Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures, supplied by Squeek Lights.
Sasso arranged the linear fixtures in a matrix-like formation, filling the upstage area with light while creating a high-tech look. “I knew that I wanted to wrap the band in Épix Strips,” says Sasso. “It was just something that

Denmark - Eleven trucks of production equipment is a lot for one stand-up comedian, but delivering the nuances of live comedy in an arena format is a fine art which needs a delicate balance of style and production values and for Denmark’s leading comedian, Anders ‘Anden’ (the Duck) Matthesen, this happened to be a 25th anniversary tour, so he wanted to make a big impact.
Peter Fisker has been Matthesen’s lighting designer since 2006 and in that time, the funny-man known for his multiple crazy, off-beat and appealing characters - has toured regularly as well as producing movies, DVDs and books. This particular tour was shorter than usual - the seven shows were played in Denmark’s two largest arenas - five at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen and two in the Jyske Bank Boxen Arena in Herning - reaching around 86,000 fans.
Peter took up some of that truck-space with

USA - The historic Rialto Theatre in Loveland, Colorado recently received an Alcons LR7 micro line array system as part of an upgrade.
The Rialto opened in the 1920s to screen silent films and vaudeville but shut in 1976, briefly reopening as a retail complex before closing again. The venue was restored in the mid-90s as a multi-purpose arts facility combining cinema, live arts venue and a community centre.
The Rialto’s sound reinforcement system needed updating and technical coordinator Dave Brull was tasked with matching a small grant with sound that would match 21st century audience expectations.
“Rialto’s design was fairly standard for the era, with many hard and reflective surfaces like plaster and maple,” he says. “The building is protected so there were a number of constraints to deal with, like preserving original features, and we had to try an

USA - Continuing their 30th anniversary tour with a summer run of shows across the USA, The Australian Pink Floyd (with Trevor Gilligan at FOH) took Outline’s new Superfly system with them when they crossed the pond.
Paul Timmins, head of operations & sales at their long-standing audio supplier Capital Sound Hire, comments: "Outline’s Superfly cabinet is the gem of the family - it’s so compact and light (just 38kg per cabinet) that it’s a system you can offer to those tours that really do mix it up from clubs to arenas.
"The Australian Pink Floyd are a regular client of ours who do exactly that and when we needed to look at new system options for their European spring tour, knowing what was coming from Outline, we talked with Trevor who had previously used the Butterfly system some 10 years earlier and he was happy to go for it. It wasn’t long before the

UK - HSL has added 100 units of Chauvet Professional’s Maverick MK3 Wash RGBW LED lights to its inventory at the LDI Show in October. By the start of the holiday season, the UK company already had the fixture out on three of its 2018-19 pantomimes, at the 2018 Liverpool Horse Show, and on the Arena Cross Tour.
“The immediate response has been very positive,” says Simon Stuart, managing director of HSL. “We’ve even had a certain renowned theatre LD comment that he didn’t want any other fixture except this in the future.”
He adds: “We spent a great deal of time chatting with some of our strategic partners in the USA, and with various LDs. Everyone was extremely positive about Chauvet and this fixture. We needed more large LED washes, and it became clear that the MK3 has all the bells and whistles. It’s extremely bright, is pixel mappable, has a great z

Portugal - A traditional Portuguese Fado concert held in the cloisters of 17th Century São Bento da Vitoria Monastery provided Francisco Leal, head of sound at Oporto’s Teatro Nacional São Joao, the opportunity to get up close with Out Board’s TiMax SoundHub immersive dynamic delay-matrix – and further cemented his intent to incorporate TiMax immersive spatialisation into the Teatro Nacional’s in-house productions.
Leal explains: “Having followed the developments of the TiMax system for some time and wishing for the system when I met some challenging shows requiring different sound perspectives simultaneously, I finally found the opportunity this year to apply the system in a real context, in a Fado concert where movement throughout the performance is tradition.”
The concert played in the covered, wooden-floored courtyard of the Monastery to a three secti

Germany - Prior to 1944, Frankfurt had one of the most beautiful and largest medieval half-timbered old towns in Germany. Recently restored, the architectural treasure was opened in September with a cultural programme that included a unique night drone show supported by lighting effects from Elation Proteus Hybrid moving head fixtures.
The highlight of the three-day celebration was a spectacular production in which drones drew constellations of light in the Frankfurt sky accompanied by a visually stunning light show over the river Main.
bright! GmbH was responsible for the concept and technical implementation of the production, as well as the programming of the drone show. Michael Giegerich, one of the managing directors of bright! GmbH and project manager for the constellations, developed the show concept along with lighting director Daniel Gündner. Both worked unde

The Netherlands - One of the bonuses of working with innovative and influential artists like dance music producer DJ Hardwell is that you get to work on some interesting shows.
Symphony: The Global Revolution of Dance was one of those moments for lighting and visuals designer Andre Beekmans of The Art of Light and operator Jaap Kamps.
The event was a live performance and collaboration between the globally popular and world leading electro DJ and multiple Grammy winning Metropole Orkest at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, celebrating 30 years of dance music. It was staged to coincide with the renowned Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) conference.
Andre and his Eindhoven based creative visual practice The Art of Light - who have designed and co-ordinated Hardwell’s lighting for some years - were approached by organisers Fourmation Events and MOJO and asked to create

Mexico - October saw Papa Roach and Good Charlotte making a triumphant return to Mexico as headliners of a rock spectacular, powered by Loto Audio and Funktion-One, in the nation’s capital.
Promoted by Zepeda Bros, the team responsible for a string of successful rock events, including Knot Fest Mexico - the show delivered over four hours of live rock music at the open-air gardens of the Arena Ciudad de Mexico.
To ensure the audience received the full power and impact of the performances, Loto Audo supplied a complete Funktion-One Vero sound system.
The system garnered praise from all the acts’ FOH engineers - providing proof positive of Vero’s abilities across all genres of music. For the opening act, Lack of Remorse, FOH duties fell to Hugo Garzon - one of the most sought-after sound engineers for metal rock bands in Mexico.
Garzon comments: “I

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) has supplied a new stage lighting rig for the indigo at The O2, a live entertainment sister-venue to The O2 Arena which regularly hosts exclusive after-show performances by superstar artists, including Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and Prince.
The 2,800 capacity venue has established itself as one of the Capital's most popular settings for big events on a smaller scale, hosting live music gigs; after-show parties; sports and club nights; stand-up shows including Jimmy Carr; and TV events such as the British Comedy Awards and the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards.
With such an impressive roster of artists using its production facilities, when the stage lighting rig was in need of an upgrade after 12 years of service, indigo at The O2's technical manager, Rob Burrows needed a system which was nothing less than cutting-edge to satisfy cli

USA - With two hospital locations, 12 primary care clinics, six rehabilitation centres and nine specialty care sites, Children's Minnesota is one of the largest paediatric health systems in the United States. Star Studio is the hospital's in-house television studio with production spaces located on both the Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses. Star Studio programming is shown on Children’s own 24-hour television channel. In addition to pre-recorded programmes, Star Studio also produces 12 live and interactive shows a week.
To increase production efficiencies and to provide better audio quality for the studio's interactive game show programmes and recorded content, Ben Diger, Star Studio broadcast engineer at Children’s Minnesota, began using Dante-enabled equipment and the Dante Via software for the multi-channel routing of computer-based audio.
"With live and pre-re

Sweden - The country’s most northerly professional ice hockey team, Luleå HF, is enjoying new excitement at its home games, following the implementation of an impressive €4m audio-visual experience at the Coop Norrbotten Arena. A key part of this state-of-the-art package, installed by the Bright Group Sweden AB, is a high SPL Nexo Geo line array system.
The 6,300-capacity sports and event arena is home to the Luleå Hockey Association, which was keen to improve the live experience for its supporters and visitors, especially in the light of a new TV deal to broadcast all the games in Sweden’s premier ice hockey league.
Following its recent success at the Hartwall Arena in Finland, the Bright Group was ideally placed to design a dramatic new AV installation, including a powerful Nexo line array sound system, new arena lighting, projectors for ice projection, Black

Australia - Completed in 1862, Queensland’s stately Old Government House provided a dramatic backdrop for Mercedes Benz Fashion Week.
Tying the stunning 19th and 21st century visuals together into a balanced panorama was a colourful lighting design by Tim Allder of Chameleon Systems that featured 110 Chauvet Professional COLORdash Par H12IP fixtures, supplied by Showtools International.
To light the runways that ran on three sides of the iconic building, Allder had his COLORdash fixtures positioned on top of ground support vertical towers. Each tower had a 4-meter pipe on top that held five of the RGBAW+UV LED wash lights.
“We relied on the COLORdash fixtures to set the mood on the walk-in, as well as to light the building’s columns,” said Allder. “The building provided an excellent backdrop for the catwalk with lots of depth for us to play with, and

UK - Sheaf St is the public area of Duke Studios, a hub of creative work spaces in Leeds and comprises a cafe, bar, event space and outdoor terrace. These spaces create a 400-capacity warehouse venue that can accommodate everything from live music and comedy to conferencing and dance music events.
When the Leeds Tech Hub Fund awarded Duke Studios a grant, it’s director James Abbott-Donnelly, took the decision to allocate significant funds toward dramatically upgrading the sound, light and projection facilities in Sheaf St to support a truly flexible and adaptable approach to staging every kind of event possible. Having done his research and spoken to a number of market leading brands, he concluded that Pioneer Pro Audio best understood the needs of the project and also that its range of speakers perfectly fitted the brief.
The Audio Group was engaged to install syst

Australia - This November, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, in partnership with CineConcerts and Warner Bros. Consumer Products, performed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in Concert at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, South Australia. It was the first ever use of L-Acoustics L-ISA Hyperreal Sound in the southern hemisphere and took audiences even deeper into the magical world while the symphony orchestra performed the entire score live to picture.
L-ISA was deployed by leading Australian technical production company Novatech, which has been using L-Acoustic systems for events of all sizes and scope around Australia, from music festivals to live concerts and corporate events, for over a decade. A keen innovator and early adopter of creative event technology, the company has always endeavoured to improve the experience for guests and artists alike and has inv

UK - With Oscar-winning film credits such as Gravity and Slumdog Millionaire in its portfolio, Pinewood-based Sound 24 is one of the leading post production sound facilities specialising in film and TV.
While Glenn Freemantle picked up a 2014 Oscar for best sound editing on Gravity, his Sound 24 partner Niv Adiri shared the award for best achievement in sound mixing on the same movie, while both have many BAFTA award credits to their name.
Both are discerning when it comes to sound production, and in upgrading their studio at Pinewood to an immersive Dolby Atmos mix room they have chosen Harman’s JBL 7 Series reference monitors for all monitoring; front, surround and overhead. The system incorporates JBL’s new Intonato 24 monitor controller for Atmos. All were supplied by reseller Jigsaw 24.
As Adiri explained, “We have used the room fo

USA - The Classical Academy (TCA) in Colorado Springs recently debuted its new performing arts auditorium with a production of The Little Mermaid enhanced by an all LED Elation Professional lighting system designed and installed by Second Opinion Audio.
Second Opinion Audio designed all of the audio, lighting, video and motor control systems for the new performing arts space. “This is a total state-of-the-art system and we needed to have the lighting system reflect that,” said Second Opinion Audio founder Bob Langlois. “LED was the direction we wanted to go for maximum flexibility for the client. There is no other auditorium of this size that can claim this technology.”
The Elation lighting rig is made up of both dedicated white light luminaires (24 WW Profile warm-white ellipsoidal spots, 12 DTW Par 300 variable white LED Par lights) and full colour LE

Germany - Dynacord’s award-winning IPX amplifiers for fixed installations have made their world debut in one of Europe’s most significant stadium projects – the rejuvenation of the historic Berlin Olympiastadion.
Long known as one of the best-sounding stadiums in Germany, the historic location was outfitted in 2004 with an Electro-Voice system in time for the 2006 World Cup final. After 12 years of faithful service, that system has been upgraded to benefit from the power, energy-saving and networking flexibility of the Dynacord IPX range of amplifiers.
In addition, the stadium’s existing 171 Electro-Voice XLC loudspeakers have been upgraded to the DVX version for more powerful sound and increased intelligibility.
With an overall ambition of reducing the total cost of system ownership, the new solution had to feature IP connectivity, Dante audio and green

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