USA - Shure supported the 74th Annual Tony Awards, welcoming the theatre community home after a year without Broadway. Broadcast on CBS and streamed on Paramount+, this year’s Tony Awards, hosted by Audra McDonald and Leslie Odom Jr., achieved cutting-edge audio for the entire ceremony and subsequent Broadway’s Back! event.
The night included performances from the cast of Jagged Little Pill, American Utopia, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, John Legend and the cast of Ain’t Too Proud, and Lin-Manuel Miranda and the cast of Freestyle Love Supreme. Each act relied on the digital radio offered by Shure’s Axient Digital Wireless System.
“I wouldn't want to do the Tony Awards with any other

Italy - Founded in 2013, Battiti Live features a selection of leading Italian and international music artists. The annual event consists of a series of concerts held in various locations throughout the region of Puglia.
Since 2017, lighting designer Massimo Pascucci, accompanied by programmer Davide Fusco, has created engaging and high impact shows, using the Hog family of lighting desks. Hog 4-18 was the primary console of choice for the 2021 edition, together with a Road Hog console for additional special effects.
From a technical point of view, there has always been a desire for Battiti Live to maintain a strong live impact. This remained the case even after leading Italian television channel Italia 1 first started transmitting the event in 2017, and broadcast needs became an important consideration.
Since he began working on Battiti Live in 2017, Davide Fus

UAE - Expo 2020 Dubai, the first World Expo to take place in the Middle East region, officially opened its doors to visitors on 1 October showcasing architectural wonders and technology innovations from more than 192 countries.
The UK’s contribution to Expo 2020 Dubai is the cone-shaped UK Pavilion with a circular façade which was created by designer Es Devlin. The 25m-high LED façade which is integrated into the wooden sculpture is designed to celebrate global cultural diversity and collaboration.
The UK Pavilion uses an advanced AI learning algorithm developed in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture which allows visitors to add their word to a continuously changing ‘collective message from humanity to the universe’ displayed on the LED modules.
PRG was appointed by Pico to deliver the engineering of the 2,000 customised LED tiles through the PRG

UK - Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is the UK’s only Conservatoire of music and contemporary dance. With two separate faculties for dance and music in southeast London, the establishment today is the result of a 2005 merger between Trinity College of Music and Laban. When the decision was made to upgrade the sound system at the Conservatoire’s Faculty of Dance in London SE8, Trinity Laban turned to Autograph Sound who designed, implemented and commissioned an innovative multi-role sound system from EM Acoustics.
Autograph’s Business Development Lead Euan Mackenzie handled all the project specification and system design for this very focused application with some unusual requirements: “Performers in contemporary dance need to feel that they are part of their audience and experiencing the same auditory stimulus, so the system had to be completely immer

USA - ESTA’s Technical Standards Programme currently has five draft standards in active public review. The reviews are open to anyone having a material interest in the subject matter. The review opportunities are as follows.
The Event Safety Working Group has one draft standard in public review.
BSR ES1.18 - 202x, Event Safety – Rigging provides minimum requirements and general guidelines for the suspension of equipment and materials that are utilized in the technical production of organised special events. It addresses the general requirements for design, planning, installation, set-up, removal and operation of rigging activities. These activities may be conducted using permanent or temporary structures, either in or out of doors. It does not cover permanently installed rigging systems, and it is not a tutorial or a list of specifications. Submit comments b

UAE - Genelec is joining forces with Business Finland to showcase its Smart IP networked loudspeaker technology at Expo 2020 Dubai, running now until 31 March 2022. A total of eighty-four 4430 Smart IP installation loudspeakers are incorporated into Finland’s Snow Cape Pavilion, including a 10-channel immersive loudspeaker array that will reproduce specially commissioned sound art by Finnish composer Emilia Takayama, entitled The Land of Snow.
With the theme of Connecting Minds and Creating the Future, Expo 2020 Dubai is the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region, and creates an opportunity for attendees from all over the world to come together and connect with each other, share ideas, learn and innovate. Postponed to 2021 due to the global pandemic, the Expo features participants from 192 countries.
Within

UK - Calendars lost much of their meaning over the past year, as the pandemic erased so many long-anticipated occasions from their pages. For a group of students at the University of Nottingham, one such date was Monday 12 July, when their already-delayed graduation ceremony was cancelled again due to lingering safety concerns.
However, these students made up for lost time when the university held a glittering black-tie ceremony with dinner, dancing and entertainment at Newark Show Ground. Setting an appropriately festive tone for the affair was its technical producer OneBigStar, which oversaw and managed the production of the event.
OneBigStar retained the services of lighting designer David Howard and supplied him with a versatile kit that featured over 80 Chauvet Professional fixtures.
“We wanted this evening to feel almost like a festival, to erase the disa

USA - Nashville’s new Brooklyn Bowl venue hosted a late night ‘Phish after-party’ following their concert at the Ascend Amphitheatre. Kicking off at 10:30 pm right around the time Phish was finishing their encore with a cover of the Rolling Stones Loving Cup, the after-party featured improvised jam and funk sounds by six-piece band Big Something.
Adding to the festive atmosphere was an electrifying Daniel Thibault lightshow that reverberated visually throughout the intimate, 1,200-person venue, filling it with an whirlwind of movement and colours. “I wanted to make this room look its biggest,” said Thibault. “Everything about this band’s sound and stage presence is big.”
Thibault, a partner in Life Is Art Studios, added 20 Chauvet Professional Rogue fixtures from his company’s own inventory to the house rig, to create the desired immersive atmo
featured content

The Many Looks of Zeo

Delivering ultimate brightness and unique looks, Zeo’s distinct face design is defined by a central LED monolith and four reflectors, backed by four RGBW engines. As a blinder or strobe, Zeo promises powerful impact with 30,000+ lumens. With its sheer brilliance and playful effects, Zeo is ready to amplify the energy on any stage.

UK - The Showman’s Show returns to Newbury Showground on Wednesday 20 and Thursday 21 October this week.
Event director, Jeremy Lance comments: “The Showman’s Show has always been an excellent opportunity to catch up with industry colleagues and share ideas and information as one season draws to a close and attention turns to the following year. Let’s be honest, there has never been a more important time for us to get together.
“Challenges around securing toilets, temporary structures and other event essentials have been well reported this summer. The show is renowned for being the best place to source industry staples, and 2021 definitely won’t disappoint. Whatever you need for your events next year, then a visit to Newbury Showground this week should take a lot of the headache away from the planning process.”
Fellow event director Johnny Lance add

UK - Blackmagic Design reports that Creamfields, the UK's biggest dance music festival, was delivered using a live production workflow built around ATEM production switchers and HyperDeck recorders.
The four-day festival held over the August bank holiday weekend welcomed around 80,000 people to Daresbury, Cheshire to see some of the biggest names in dance music, including Tiesto, David Guetta, Carl Cox and Chase and Status perform across multiple stages.
Handed the brief to be the sole provider of AV with three weeks' notice, UK based CSD Productions deployed an OB truck and three flyaway kits for organiser Live Nation. “We had several weeks to pull together what would normally take six months of planning,” reveals Andrew McQuillan of CSD Productions.
“We’ve supplied our OB trucks to Creamfields for the fourth and fifth stages previously, and we’ve hand

Europe - Visitor registration for ISE 2022 at the Fira de Barcelona Gran Vía.is now open.
A new development for 2022 is a paperless approach to visitor registration in the form of digital badges issued via the new ISE app.
Mike Blackman, Integrated Systems Events managing director, stated: “As an in-person event, we are uniquely placed to bring all elements of the industry together under one roof. In the build-up to our return to Barcelona, along with our co-owners AVIXA and CEDIA, we have worked hard to ensure that ISE 2022 offers the industry a truly worthwhile experience – showcasing innovation, becoming inspired by some of the brightest in the business, and most importantly, meeting up after so many difficult months apart.”
Spread across five halls at the Fira Gran Vía, the show floor has been organised into five technology zones to provide a much-im

UK - You Me at Six (YMAS) have recently returned to the road with a live show two years in the making and a streamlined audio package courtesy of Britannia Row Productions.
Although FOH engineer Phil Jones had already managed to escape his temporary, Covid-19 enforced position as a delivery driver for a handful of shows with another artist, his return to life with YMAS gave him the chance to overhaul his audio setup and help sculpt the band’s sound as they reach new heights in both creativity and popularity.
“The You Me At Six sound has changed a lot since the release of their latest album, Suckapunch,” says Jones. “It went to No. 1 – which is great – but the sound is richer than ever too, with a lot more track and electronic elements. Of course, there’s still ripping guitars, but the overall sound has more depth to it now, and more dynamic range

China - Malo Ma, a young gaffer in Hong Kong, has selected ETC’s fos/4 fixtures to light several new video productions. With over a decade of research realized in these studio fixtures, the fos/4 series of luminaires are specifically dedicated to the studio and broadcast market.
The fos/4 Panel was used in a recent music video production by the rising female Hong Kong singer Cheronna Ng. Malo leads the lighting of this video production.
The music video portrays how the girl pulls herself together from failures and challenges. A fos/4 Panel Daylight HDR (8” x 24”) is used in a few shots in this music video. “The colour is very natural. I like how the colour-mixing with deep red LEDs makes the skin colour tone and other scenes look real and delicate,” commented Malo Ma.
“The lightning strikes effect is surprisingly real. It flashes naturally and makes t

UK - September saw 80six host the first series of Virtual Production Discovery Days at its new VP studio in Slough, Berkshire. As Brompton Technology’s processors are an integral part of so many virtual production infrastructures, it was an important partner, along with ROE Visual, Mo-sys, Cooke Optics and 3LR Lighting. This impressive line-up enabled one of the UK’s leading creative technical production specialists to provide attendees with insight into the workflows and the real-time technologies required to power both live and on-set productions.
The interactive and informal programme attracted directors of photography, film and TV producers as well as a variety of 80six’s event partners, with live demos allowing them to experience the creative possibilities of virtual production and how this technology is shaping the future of storytelling and content creation.

USA - Martin Castañon and Victor Ortiz of Darvik Productions provided lighting at the recent Tequila & Taco Festival. Before Vanilla Ice appeared at the popular event, the two met with the multi-platinum rapper’s team to discuss his show. As the conversation progressed, one thing became clear, the star’s team wanted flash, “the flashier the better” specifically strobing.
Not having any dedicated strobes on hand, Castañon and Ortiz turned to their rig’s Chauvet Professional Rogue R3X Washes, using the high output (up to 18,260 lux at 5-meters) RGBW fixtures to cover the stage and audience at the Ventura County Fairgrounds with a flurry on intense flashes.
“You have to be flexible when working a festival,” said Castañon. “The R3X Washes were great for strobing. We had seven of then flying on upstage truss and seven on midstage. They were stagger

UK - In June, Shure launched the ADX5D – Axient Digital Dual-Channel Portable Wireless Receiver. Now, users can enhance their workflow experience with ADX5D’s latest firmware update (1.3.26), including third-party integration and control with select portable mixers and recorders from Sound Devices and Aaton Digital.
The new third-party integration and feature set lets sound mixers control and monitor the ADX5D from their mix position for functions like scanning and deploying frequencies to receiver channels, adjusting receiver output gain, monitoring transmitter battery life, and more.
Shure will be joined by Sound Devices and Aaton Digital for two individual webinars demonstrating third-party integration and the additional features included in Axient Digital ADX5D’s latest firmware update at these dates/times: Shure/Sound Devices – Monday, Oct. 18, 11:00 A.M.

UK - Event and show technical specialist CPL created an all-encompassing production design and supplied set, rigging, lighting, audio, video – cameras, screens and PPU / control – plus SFX for a high profile three-hour live broadcast for cosmetics brand Tropic Skincare, which combined product launches, awards presentations and recognition for top distributors and advocates plus reports and updates on the organisation’s charitable work.
Staged at Kinetic Studios in Corby, UK, the design was turned around and approved in a short timeframe for the biannual event, known for its razzamatazz and high production values, which has been delivered online since the start of the pandemic.
All production elements were sourced by the CPL including the location and a crew of 30 headed by Lee Gruszeckyj.
The client was keen that absolutely no compromises were made in pre

Germany - Bold, bright, vivid with the assistance of Robe moving lights was the look central to Lucas Conradi’s lighting design for the Volkswagen booth at the IAA Mobility 2021 expo in Munich.
This was the first international automotive expo open to the public to be staged since the pandemic triggered global lockdowns in March 2020. The client and booth designer was Mutabor Brand Experience, and the lighting equipment was supplied by Cologne Hunters.
Lucas, from creative and technical event planners IXPI, was both project and technical manager as well as LD for this booth, and he picked the 15 x Robe Fortes and 36 x Esprites to be a major part of the stand’s lighting art.
Four Robe RoboSpot remote follow spotting systems, controlling four of the Fortes, were specified for the flurry of events and presentations during the expo’s press day, and there were a

UK - Boxxer has announced a new partnership with Version 2, which will become an official partner of Boxxer and Sky Sports Boxing. Headquartered in Reading, Version 2 is a lighting rental specialist for the television, broadcast and event industries.
The partnership kicks off with this Saturday’s stacked Fight Night at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle, headlined by world middleweight champion Savannah Marshall and supported by superstars Chris Eubank Jr., Lewis Ritson and Hughie Fury.
Version 2 sponsors Marshall, who will be defending her WBO crown on Saturday, along with new Boxxer signings April Hunter, an undefeated local prospect, and Georgia O’Connor, a former elite amateur making her much-anticipated pro debut.
As part of the partnership, Version 2 branding will feature across all pre-event promotional activity during fight week, including at Thursday

UK - Audiotonix, the group which comprises the Allen & Heath, Calrec, DiGiCo, DiGiGrid, Group One Limited, KLANG:technologies, and Solid State Logic entertainment technology brands, has announced the acquisition of US-based Sound Devices LLC as part of its expanding group. The transaction, which was concluded yesterday, further extends the Audiotonix professional solutions for audio production environments.
James Gordon CEO of Audiotonix comments, “The addition of Sound Devices and their fantastic team to our portfolio of premium audio brands is a proud moment for all involved. Their expertise and technical pedigree in film production, broadcasting and professional recording is a great fit. As with previous acquisitions we always look to increase the knowledge share group-wide and, with FPGA-based solutions and RF wireless technology at their core, we have an enviable

UK - Event and brand logistics specialist Global Infusion Group has announced a change in its leadership. Bonnie May, previously GIG’s global operations director, takes on the role of CEO and Richard Duff joins the company as managing director as the business emerges from the pandemic.
Whilst continuing to lead the day-to-day operations of GIG and maintaining her hands on approach with clients, in her new role as CEO, Bonnie will shape the group’s strategy and vision. Rich, as managing director will be responsible for its implementation and lead all business functions including sales, finance and human resources.
Richard’s career spans sales, marketing and operational leadership roles within the FMCG, consumer electronics and homeware sectors. Over the last few years his focus has turned to the hospitality sector, and in his most recent role he was CEO of hotel

Latest Issue. . .