Germany - Under the catch-line All you need to be, Nature One called its dance-loving audience to the Pydna former rocket base in Hunsrück between 3-5 August. As in previous years, over 50,000 people joined the pilgrimage, engaging in four days and three nights of pure EDM fever, with 350 acts participating on a total of 23 floors.
For the largest floor - the Open Air Floor - lighting designer Thomas Gerdon of Gerdon design produced the entire visual concept. Gerdon, who has been working on various floors of Nature One since 2003, faced a fundamental change this year: for the first time, a conventional stage was used on the Open Air Floor, and for this the designer immediately had the idea of GLP’s new modular KNV LED system of GLP in his mind.
However, since

USA - As part of the LA-based Legends Football League, the Nashville Knights are a 7-on-7, tackle football team that incorporated into the league in 2018. Playing their inaugural season in the Nashville Municipal Auditorium, the Knights wanted to offer an in-game experience that would create a lasting connection with their fans.
Needing to supplement the production gear inside the multi-purpose event venue, the Knights worked with Elite Multimedia Productions who oversaw a complete game-day audio, video and lighting design.
“We try to design our in-game experience to be similar to what they do in the NFL to heighten the experience for our fans and provide a deeper connection to the action on the field,” says Candice Leisengang, operations manager. “When we started looking for production companies, we really needed someone who had the ability to do live audio, ca

UK - Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall recently saw an Allen & Heath SQ-6 digital mixer installed to deliver the audio content of a significant work by Cuban artist and activist Tania Bruguera.
The piece (the title of which is an ever-increasing figure reflecting the number of people who migrated from one country to another last year, added to by the number of migrant deaths recorded so far this year) involves both a large heat-sensitive floor and sound design by electronic artist Steve Goodman (Kode9).
By using body heat and working with other visitors, a hidden portrait of Yousef - a young Syrian who left his home country to travel to London - is revealed beneath the floor while low-frequency sounds fill the space with an unsettling energy. In a small room nearby an organic compound in the air induces tears and provokes what Bruguera describes as “forced empathy”

UK - Following a collaboration at the recently completed White Rose leisure extension in Leeds, Studiotech was approached by tensile fabric specialists, Base Structures, to assist with the multi-million pound transformation of the NEC in Birmingham.
Included in this transformation was the facelift of the façade. The new design included patterned coloured panels and 37 tensile fabric pyramids, designed by Base Structures. Each translucent pyramid was to be backlit to create a more attractive and engaging environment for all stakeholders.
Studiotech assisted Base Structures by providing the detailed design, supply, installation and programming of the feature lighting. They chose to use Traxon Washer Allegro RGB LED luminaires to wash gracefully behind the pyramids.
The complex façade design meant that a number of trades were involved in completing this facelif

Poland - Design and installation company ARAM has outfitted a new e-sports studio in Poland with a flexible Elation lighting system. The studio, at Polsat television in Warsaw, is equipped with the latest in studio-optimised LED luminaires designed to provide players and viewers with the best e-sports experience, whether watching the event on TV, online or in person.
The custom Elation lighting solution includes everything from dynamic white-light LED array panels and high-quality white light ellipsoidal spots to full-colour batten, par and LED moving head luminaires that deliver a wider spectrum of chromatic and effect options. Incorporated in the rig are some of Elation's newest luminaires, including Artiste series LED moving heads.
As one of the few technical production companies specialised in e-sports, ARAM has stood behind the design and technical production of

UK - Lighting designer Derek Jones utilised Chroma-Q’s Vista 3 lighting and media control system to deliver his lighting design for Sir Cliff Richard's recent tour celebrating 60 years in music.
With a career spanning 103 album releases, 123 single hits and the equivalent of 20 years spent in the UK charts, the 58-18=60th The Tour saw Sir Cliff play his greatest hits across six decades in some of the UK and Ireland's leading concert halls, including two nights at the Royal Albert Hall.
As a Vista user for nearly a decade, Jones was keen to utilise the next generation capabilities of the Vista 3 software for his show design.
He comments: "I've been using Vista for nearly a decade now and have seen its evolution. As an LD I've always found it very intuitive and simple to use, so I was really excited to switch to Vista 3 and, after trying it out with succe

South Africa - Johannesburg’s Joburg Theatre has taken delivery of 10 Robe Robin 800 LEDWash units, supplied through DWR. The new lighting fixtures will complement vibrant productions being staged over the festive season including Snow White the fairest Panto in All the Land!, Helen O’Grady, Sati - Shivas Beloved and Mukokoli Live DVD recording.
“There has been no looking back since the theatre first started investing in Robin 800 LEDWash a few years ago," says Enos Ramoroko, technical manager at the theatre. "They have really worked well for us and we are pleased to now have 34 units in total." 
"The Robins really are the work horses of the industry and for the theatre to have added more 800s to their stock is a game changer," says Kevin Stannett from DWR. "I would like to thank Enos and the Joburg Theatre for your valued support, and to all South African

UK - Film and TV crewing specialist Studioforce was appointed by Shiver, an arm of ITV Studios, to support the delivery of this year’s Pride of Britain Awards.
The event was held at the Grosvenor House Hotel on 29 October and Studioforce provided stage hands, lighting technicians, carpenters, scenic supervisors, scenic artists and followspot operators.
The company worked closely with Shiver’s freelance production designer Paul Houston, supplying a team of experienced freelancers to work alongside the lighting and set design teams to create the Pride of Britain Awards’ set and backdrop.
The tight timeframe presented the Studioforce crew with its largest challenge. With just 48 hours to complete the entire project, from unloading the first piece of equipment from the truck and building the set, to running the show, completing the de-rig and the last truck le
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USA - Honouring the intentions of composer Leonard Bernstein, the artistic director of the Brevard Music Centre Summer Music Festival, Keith Lockhart, set himself a task: to capture the pioneering spirit of a classic performance in a contemporary environment. Composed for the 1971 inauguration of the Kennedy Centre, Bernstein’s Mass created an entirely new kind of liturgy in both its content and technology - using quadraphonic sound.
“Keith is a renowned conductor, not least as principal conductor of the Boston Pops. He had performed the Bernstein Mass once before and wanted the audience to have that quad sound experience as Bernstein had originally intended,” explains sound engineer Brady Hislop of Iris Design.
“That’s all very well but the Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium is a semi-outdoor space not designed for amplified music. Roofed to provide

USA - The Franklin Theatre first opened as a cinema in the summer of 1937, when moviegoers could see a double feature and cap the evening with an ice cream sundae on a Norman Rockwell-esque Main Street. 70 years later, the theatre underwent an $8m renovation and reopened in 2011 as the premier music and event venue in Franklin, a suburb of Nashville that is home to nearly as many musicians as Music City itself is.
Seven years later, the venue has installed a DiGiCo SD12 digital console at front of house. Paired with a D2-Rack, the desk was supplied and installed in mid-August by Dan Heins of Clair Solutions, completing the Franklin Theatre’s renaissance as the entertainment centre of the city, drawing headline artists from Nashville, nationally and globally.
“Although our previous digital console has served us well since the theatre reopened, it had definitely reac

Belgium - Once every two years, Brussels’ Grand Place becomes even more breath-taking as its cobblestone surface is transformed into a magnificent carpet of colour by over a half million flowers. Artfully arranged in an intricate design, the floral panorama flows gracefully, softening the gilded baroque buildings that surround it to create a vista of almost mythical beauty.
Like most enchanting creations that seem to spring forth naturally, the Biannual Flower Carpet at the Grand Place is in reality the result of intensive planning and hard work. In 2018, a team of 200 volunteers laboured for six hours to install the carpet the day of the event. Illuminating their efforts and tying the floral display into the square’s historic buildings was a carefully developed lighting design by Geoffrey Oelbrandt of Studio Artfex that included Chauvet Professional Rogue R3 Wash fixtu

UK - Star Events has released a video highlighting the company’s work for British Summer Time Hyde Park (BST) as the festival stretched to accommodate Roger Waters’ Us+Them performance (read the production report in LSi September 2018), the first of its six sell-out shows this summer.
With Waters’ production requiring more than 1,000m of LED screen, 110 tons of production and no performance box, Star redesigned the entire Great Oak sub-structure and super-structure, increasing the width of the stage by 20m.
Shot by video production and promotion company In The Bag, this look behind the scenes focuses on the Star team building the Great Oak, panning across the Vista hospitality structure, the Barclaycard St

USA - “Versatile, sexy, bold, and effective” is how BML-Blackbird’s lighting designer and director Chris Ragan describes his work at Lockn’ Festival, for which he used a combination of cyan, purple and amber lighting.
Ragan spec’d 34 Robe BMLF Spots, 38 Robe Spiiders, 24 Robe Mega Pointes, 14 Robe Color Strobes, 10 Mac Vipers, 26 Chauvet Rogue FxB, and 36 LED par - all provided by BML-Blackbird.
“I thought the Robe ColorStrobes were a powerful fixture. It was my first time using them and I was pretty impressed. And, of course the Mega Pointes are great for the amazing prism features,” says Ragan. “The BMFLS are great for powerful audience sweeps as they have the ability to cover a large concert field. I rely on the Mega Pointes to frame the stage along with their prisms while the Spiiders and colour strobes are used for wash and pixel tricks.”

USA - When planning for their current tour in support of their sixth studio album, Attention Attention, hard rock band Shinedown asked their lighting designer Carter Fulghum for more saturated colours and darker looks.
Fulghum created a deeply evocative lightshow with low backlight and sidelight. To balance the penetrating mood created by these fixtures, he added intensity with the help of 38 Chauvet Professional Rogue RH1 Hybrid fixtures supplied by Bandit Lites.
Flying the 330W moving beam/spot fixtures on four 8ft x 9ft diamond-shaped pods, Fulghum is using them for downlighting, specials and powerful colour accents that dramatize key moments in the concert. “We have eight Rogues arranged in two rows of four in the centre of each pod,” he says. “Using them to cover the stage, we create a powerful impression. Their gobos and prisms are adding an extra s

Europe - Astera’s Titan Tube was awarded a PLSN’s Gold StarProduct Award.
Titan Tube, which also won the PLASA Gold Award for Innovation, is a battery powered linear light tube that can be pixel mapped and controlled via its backside display, wired and wireless DMX or via and an app. It’s a high-end version of the original Astera PixelTube that has been specially re-engineered for the film industry.
With 72W of total power that can be used for up to 20 hours, TitanTube offers a combination of Red-Green-Blue-Mint and Amber LED chips that produce a CRI/TLCI between 96 and 98. It also has a boost mode which allows it to almost triple its output for just under two hours.
Titan Tube comes with a large range of mounting accessories as well as a new charging and transporting case featuring the PowerBox: a removable power supply that also transfers data for DMX co

USA - The recent AES New York 2018 Convention saw over 300 brands of audio equipment manufacturers and service providers showcased alongside a wealth of free events.
Held on 17-20 October at the Javits Centre in New York City, the education and peer networking event once again proved an invaluable resource for audio engineers, producers, students and other audio professionals. Meyer Sound co-founder John Meyer was the Richard C. Heyser distinguished lecturer.
John Monitto, Meyer Sound's director of business development and sales manager, Northeast, says: “This past AES convention drew some of the top audio professionals who we value as a manufacturer. The convention was well attended by those professionals who visited the exhibit booths, demo rooms and the workshop sessions. Meyer Sound featured a two-channel and 5.1 listening room with our newly patented Bluehorn S

Spain - Nexo’s STM Series made a special kind of debut in Spain as audio production company BTM Sound in Girona completed its first events with PA systems featuring its newly-purchased STM M46 main cabinets.
An early adopter of Nexo’s modular line array concept and design, BTM Sound initially set up its STM Series in 2014 using the smaller STM M28 double-8” cabinet as the main module, pairing them with the STM B112 bass and S118 subs. Last year, the company increased its cabinet count by adding M28 cabinets in both 90° and 120° versions.
After four successful years serving the Costa Brava’s most high-profile events, such as Festival de Portoferrada and Festival Castell de Peralada, BTM has expanded its STM inventory with a number of new STM M46 cabinets, purchased specifically for Girona’s big annual music event, the Fires de Girona.
Headlined

UK - Hawthorn has invested in Eaton’ Zero 88 FLX and FLX S series consoles.
The decision partly customer led, as Adrian Searle, Hawthorn’s asset operations director, explains: “[It was] partly due to the fact that we can all clearly see the benefits of the FLX feature set and appreciate the fact that Zero 88 hardware and software has a history of making complex programming tasks exceptionally straightforward.”
The new batch of FLXs is replacing some of those older consoles which have served well for many years but are now not ideal for controlling the proliferation of LED based fixtures on the market. Searle adds that FLX is great for its corporate events work which involves a lot of LED light sources where the operator/designer needs to be creative, often with precious little time to programme and integrate them into a show. He says: “FLX is perfect for thi

USA - Mountain Productions has acquired full-service event production company ROC-OFF Productions.
As part of the transition, ROC-OFF has relocated from its Davie office to Mountain Productions’ facility in Palm Beach, Florida. Core staff, including founder Jose Roche, will remain at the company.
Ricky Rose, CEO Mountain Productions, comments: “Over the past two years, Mountain Productions has been expanding our network both domestically and internationally through the addition of three new offices in Los Angeles, Dublin, Ireland and Palm Beach. With our combined expertise and industry knowledge, ROC-OFF is a natural addition to the Mountain Productions’ suite of brands and a key component to our expansion into Latin America, while enhancing our service base across Florida and the South.”
Roche adds: “Since 1998, ROC-OFF has been an industry leader and

Europe - There are three days left for the entertainment lighting industry to respond to the EU Commission’s revised version of the Ecodesign regulation.
The consultation period ends on 9 November (Friday) and the draft is open for one last review before the final parliamentary vote. Those who wish to respond should follow this link or visit plasa.org for instructions.
Whilst the outcome overall has been positive, European entertainment industry bodies have proposed four ‘small but essential’ amendments ahead of key talks in December.
The European Entertainment Ecodesign Coalition (EEEC) -

Record Breakers - Harry Styles, Ed Sheeran and Dua Lipa, are among the artists who helped propel British music to a record year in 2017, according to a new report. Export revenues grew by 7% to a new high of £2.6bn, UK Music's Measuring Music report said.
For the second year running the number of successful records by British artists bucked the trend for annually declining music sales - which had slumped to £610m in 2015.
Festivals and live events, including world tours by Coldplay, The Rolling Stones and Sir Paul McCartney, also accounted for £1bn of revenue - with the report confirming the O2 in London was the world's most popular arena.
Overall, the UK music industry contributed a record £4.5bn to the UK economy last year - up £100m on 2016. The report said more people were employed in the music industry than ever before, with almost 146,000 jobs.

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