Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

Business

Details
Czech Republic - Ivo Dankovi?, chief electrician of Narodni Divadlo, the Czech National Theatre, has specified ADB WARP Zoom Profile spotlights to help accommodate a large production that extended over the orchestra pit at Prague's Estates Theatre.

A different solution was required because this production of Mozart's opera La Finta Giardiniera, by director Karl-Ernst Hermann, was originally designed for the larger Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels.

There, the opera was performed on a raked stage. To make this design work in the Estates Theatre, the 'downhill' portion of the stage was extended to the orchestra pit, itself surrounded by a narrow footbridge.

This move, however, created problems, as the central front of house lighting position in the Estates, Prague's oldest theatre, is limited to just a few lights. Ivo Dankovi? explained: "The central lighting posit

Details
UK - i-Pix LED fixtures continue their run on the high profile tours of 2009, with lighting designer Paul Normandale specifying both BB4 LED wash lights and the original i-Pix Satellite 'brick' LED light-sources as part of his Depeche Mode Sounds of the Universe design.

Normandale worked closely with the band's long time creative director Anton Corbijn on developing appropriate lighting and a clean look and feel for the show to compliment Corbijn's set and stage concept.

In keeping with the desire to keep the stage space looking sparse and uncluttered, a substantial part of the lighting rig is concealed behind a MiTrix video wall at the back - including the 24 BB4s. These, together with 24 MAC 2K Wash moving lights are mounted on custom built frames, presenting a powerful barrage of lights that can blast through the semi-transparent MiTrix screens at appropriate moments

Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

Details
Norway - Kristiansand based Stage Concept supplied Robe DigitalSpots and moving lights for the Club Salamander stage at the town's 2009 Quart Festival. The venue was a temporary structure built partially over water in the middle of a forested area within the leading Norwegian festival's island site.

With a capacity of 3000 and packed every night for the five-day event, Club Salamander's line-up featured international DJs including Guru Josh, Bob Sinclar featuring Big Ali, DJ K-Mixx, Inkfish and many more.

The design was a collaboration between Spantax from Robe's Norwegian distributors Live Technic, Rudi Andreas Åvitsland from Stage Concept and Kristoffer Engen from Bærum Lyd, who also supplied LED lighting and the Jands Vista T4 lighting console plus all the audio and DJ kit.

As the exclusive distributor for both Robe and Jands Vista in Norway, Live Technic was ask

Details
UK - MTFX recently opened their new office, based at The Television Centre at Culverhouse Cross in Cardiff, in order to be in a better position to look after their Welsh clients.

With an increasing customer base in Wales, managing director Mark Turner realised that this was a great opportunity to ensure that these customers had easier access to the MTFX group, with its wide range of equipment and services.

The contact details for the office are: MTFX Ltd (Cardiff), The Television centre, Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff, CF5 6XJ

Or you can still reach MTFX through their head office in Gloucester.

(Claire Beeson)

Details
Italy - Tracy Chapman's performance at Piazza della Loggia was reinforced via an Outline Butterfly system comprising just 14+14 Hi-Pack units per side, each equipped with four 8" woofers and a 3" compression driver.

The bottom end was reproduced by 7+7 Outline Victor Live subs and LAB 21 infra-subs (just two units positioned in the centre). All the cabinets were laid out in a cardioid configuration, to keep the stage clear of excessive low frequencies. Four Outline Micra II enclosures, installed on the edge of the stage, were used as front-fill systems, for the benefit of the front rows of the audience.

The amplification of the signals - fed from a Digidesign console - was entrusted to Outline T7 units.

Cipiesse Produzioni per lo Spettacolo, the owner of the Outline array system, was the Brescia rental firm handling the entire operation. Marco Riva, head of Cipiess

Details
Stage Tragedy - Prosecutors have apparently opened a manslaughter investigation after a stage being built for a Madonna concert collapsed killing two people, a French official has said. Eight other people were seriously injured in last Thursday's accident at the Velodrome stadium in Marseille. Assistant prosecutor Marc Cimamonti said an investigation for manslaughter and involuntary injuries in a work-related accident has been opened. Madonna has said she is "devastated" by the news of the deaths.

Charles Criscenzo, a 53-year-old French worker, was killed outright in the accident and Charles Prow, a 23-year-old from Headingley in Leeds, died in hospital. Technicians had been setting up the stage at the city's Velodrome stadium when the partially-built roof fell in on Thursday, bringing down a crane.

Madonna paid tribute to the technicians at her concert in Italy on T

Details
France - The French racecourse group, France Galop, has selected an Allen & Heath iLive digital system to manage audio distribution in its Deauville Touques venue in Normandy. The company owns several famous racecourses across the country, including Longchamp, Auteuil, Chantilly, Deauville, Maisons-Laffitte and Saint-Cloud.

Installed by EV Corporate, the iLive system comprises an iDR10 MixRack and iLive-112 Control Surface, and manages the live PA during races, VIP events, broadcast feeds, and horse auctions. France Galop also needed a system that can provide high quality sound to the OB van, as sometimes the broadcast feeds last for more than nine hours for live TV shows.

"The racecourse team, managed by Thierry Migeon, chose iLive because of its rapid, easy and flexible design, which enable the system to adapt to the venue's many different activities," says Yann Ma

Details
UK - ETC's high intensity discharge Source Four PARs are among the lighting rig being used by Firefly Solar, the company behind the UK's first fully mobile solar power solution for the events industry. The luminaires are being used by Firefly at festivals across Britain throughout the summer, with their first outing at the Glastonbury Festival at the end of June, where they were used to power the Sensation Seekers and Snakepit areas. The solar power system was also used for a backstage area operated by Greenpeace located behind the pyramid stage.

Andy Mead, Firefly's managing director reports: "This year, we've already done the UK's first ever solar powered film premiere, when we lit the green carpet for the Age of Stupid in London's Leicester Square. But we realised that in order to get the quality of light we needed, we were going to have to get some non-LED fixtur

Details
USA - The Saturdays turned to lighting designer Vince Foster for their The Work Tour. He delivered a very high tech, up-beat look with a maze of Versa Tubes at odd angles and height as a background. MAC 2000 spots and washes, Atomic strobes, F 100's, DF 50's and piles of truss are the brief for the tour. Everything is controlled by a Hog IPC and Catalyst System.

The Bandit board operator is Matthew Jensen and he is assisted on tour by crew chief Nigel Julian and lighting technician Dan Oswald. The tour manager is John Pryer, while the production manager is Andrew Thornton.

Bandit's CE Lester Cobrin has been handling the office side of things and said, "Vince is a true magician and we are grateful for the opportunity to work with him and the girls. It is a stunning show and Bandit is proud to be a part of such a spectacular."

(Jim Evans)

Details
Iran/UK - It's been nine years in the making but now construction is finished, the Milad Tower complex in Tehran is fast becoming a source of immense Iranian national pride and Oldham-based British firm, Delta Obstruction Lighting (DOL) is playing a key role in making that possible.

When DOL finishes supervising installation of the tower's aircraft warning lighting system, it will be the final piece in the jigsaw for the awe-inspiring structure, which at 435m is the fourth largest tower in the world behind the CN Tower in Toronto, the Ostankino Tower in Moscow, and the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai.

As with any large structure it is a major obstruction to aircraft and with Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport located in close vicinity it was imperative that the tower be fitted with an aircraft warning system that not only met International Civil Aviation Regulations

Details
UK - Academy Music Group (AMG), whose shareholders include Live Nation, SJM Concerts and Metropolis Music has completed the acquisition of the Opera House in Bournemouth , following the successful grant of a new lease with Arnewood Estates Limited.

A Grade II listed building, the Opera House has been an entertainment venue for over 100 years, has a capacity of 1,925 and will host in the region of 150 events per annum.

"The venue is beautiful," says AMG's chief executive officer John Northcote. "It fits perfectly within our estate in both look and feel and capacity. It's in great condition and we're looking forward to making some minor operational improvements, but primarily bringing the same vibrant diary of live acts and club events that people expect from AMG venues, filling a significant gap in the market."

The venue will be renamed O2 Academy Bournemo

Details
UK - In West London, a pioneering project is reaching completion as system integrator Sysco puts the finishing touches to a substantial AV/IT installation in the new Darwin Centre at London's Natural History Museum, which opens to the public on 15 September 2009.

The Darwin Centre, a giant eight-storey-high concrete Cocoon suspended within a glass outer box, will allow museum visitors and scientists to share the excitement of exploring, studying and preserving the natural world.

A pioneering research and collections facility, it will be used by the world's leading scientists to examine the Darwin Centre's collection of 20m plant and insect specimens. Visitors will be able to look in on the scientists at work in their modern laboratories and witness the latest research.

Sysco is lead AV contractor on the project, which will feature an array of exhibits that make full use of s

Details
Belgium - At the heart of U2's current show, first viewed by 90,000 fans at Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium on 30 June 30, is the giant in-the-round stage, built by Belgian staging specialists Stageco, supporting 170 tons of giant screens, audio and lighting.

The stage's four legs arch out to embrace the audience, giving fans unprecedented and extensive access to the superstars on the pitch, while its gargantuan proportions carry the band's performance to every seat in the house.

This is one of the largest stages ever toured in any field of entertainment. The structure's central grid is raised 28m high, with legs traversing the width of the famous soccer pitch and a central antenna reaching as high as 5m.

The Stageco steel structure weighs 220 tons, excluding both the 90 tons of steel ballast that travels with each system and the rigging loads. Stageco has produced three identi

Details
Taiwan - When Kaohsiung, the second largest town in Taiwan, won the hosting of the World Games 2009, work started immediately and two years later, in January 2009, the first tests were conducted to open the new Kaohsiung Stadium.

Once testing was completed, planning for the stadium's opening ceremony started, and in May everything was ready. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera Chorus together with four top soloists were among the performers for this event.

Two grandMA full-size consoles were used by Henry Wu, Rom Zhau and MG Kao who completed the lighting design for the show and operated the consoles.

Rom Zhau comments: "The grandMA is fast, stable and intuitive - that's exactly what I needed. Running two desks gave us the comfort of splitting the programming work and having a reliable backup. Nothing could go wrong on a show that was this high-

Details
USA - Shure Incorporated has announced that Audio Biz Michigan is the company's Representative of the Year for fiscal year 2008/2009. President Randy Stenson, vice-president Rick Brown, and Steve Meyers, sales representative, received the award at the recent InfoComm Show in Orlando, Florida.

"We are very excited to present Audio Biz Michigan with our 2009 Rep of the Year award," said Jim Schanz, Shure's director of US and Canada field sales. "One cannot talk about the state of Michigan without acknowledging the tough economy the state has faced for years. The fact that Audio Biz Michigan has been able to grow our business in this region and continue to offer great support to our customers during these challenging economic times, is a testament to the tenacity of this organisation."

Representing Shure throughout the state of Michigan, Audio Biz Michi

Details
UK - XL Video's history with Take That dates right back to their first touring days in the 1990's, when Des Fallon (now a director of XL Video) worked as the video crew chief. Since then, XL has enthusiastically supported Take That and Chris Vaughan at The Production Office, and has invested substantially in new video technology each time they have hit the road, and in particular since their comeback in 2006.

Fallon says: "Take That and their production team have always been prepared to push technical and imaginative boundaries to help deliver the very best in live performance. It's refreshing and inspiring working with those embracing the spirit of creative audacity and adventure."

For the Circus stadium tour, XL Video sourced and purchased 140sq.m of 15mm pitch high resolution PIX LED F - 15 LED screen - a new lightweight bright 6000 NITS product. This was f

Details
UK - An interactive music experience has opened in London featuring instruments and professional video and audio technology from across the group of Roland companies, the first time that Roland's consumer and professional subsidiaries have collaborated on a single project in the UK.

Research commissioned by the charity Youth Music found that up to 2.5m young people in the UK - or 1m aged between 12 and 18 - have been inspired to progress into 'real' music-making because they have played music-based console games. In response to these findings, the Youth Music charity, which celebrates its 10th birthday this year, has launched Youth Music Box at London's Southbank Centre.

A free interactive music experience, the Youth Music Box is a cubed structure that visitors can enter, providing an easily accessible musical experience through a mix of real instruments and a 'w

Details
UK - Capital Sound Hire, Take That's long-serving audio production company, had some unlikely obstacles to contend with when designing their set for the recent Circus stadium tour. The band bounced onto stage like circus clowns and brought the whole circus to town including the Big Top.

An estimated £10m had been lavished on this tour, again production managed by Chris Vaughan, but for Capital's technical director Ian Colville and system technician, Al Woods, the presence of trapeze artists, contortionists, high-wire walkers and clowns streaming on to the main stage (with the B stage festooned in balloons and mammoth-sized human 'elephants') was not about to compromise their carefully-worked Martin Audio sound reinforcement system.

In collaboration with the band's long-time FOH engineer Gary Bradshaw, they knew that given the configuration of the stage structure (

Details
UK - Building on the success of last year's presence at the festival, Stage Electrics' dedicated 'Edinburgh Support Team' will be based in Edinburgh from 28 July until 4 September, on hand to provide a rapid response to all technical needs.

There will be a dedicated 24-hour helpline available seven days a week on 0131 522 2251, where Stage Electrics technicians will be available to assist with equipment requests. A dedicated support vehicle will also be available to ensure any spare equipment needed reaches the customer immediately. Stage Electrics will be taking a host of consumables as part of their Edinburgh involvement, including gaffer tape, lamps, colour filters, paint and plugs, available for immediate dispatch.

Stage Electrics is one of the biggest suppliers of technical equipment to the Edinburgh Festival, and for over 20 years has had a strong presence at both the Ed

Details
USA - In March 2009, Cirque du Soleil officially opened the doors of its new training centre based at the company's Resident Show Division (RSD) in Las Vegas where technical staff can advance their skills in the use of the high-end lighting, audio, rigging, and automation equipment behind Cirque's extravagant, multisensory theatrical spectacles.

Meyer Sound, whose audio technology supports all of Cirque's resident productions, has expanded the company's worldwide education programme to include regular Matrix3 audio show control and CueConsole training sessions at RSD.

The RSD facility is the brainchild of Kim Scott, technical show support training manager, with Sylvain Brisebois, head of audio of Cirque du Soleil's Zumanity, coordinating the programme logistics with Jerry Placken of Meyer Sound. Other Cirque audio department leads are also in

Details
UK - It was 1978 when Jeff Wayne released the epic Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, and the Martians caught a cold on Primrose Hill and had their eyes pecked out by hungry crows. This year they decided to have another go at our fragile planet - in arenas around the UK and Europe in The War of The Worlds - Alive on Stage.

With RG Jones supplying a complex Synco by Martin Audio based sound system, the touring production was as grand a concept as the original record. Creating the spectacle were a 10-piece band, 36-piece string orchestra, five singers, a flying bridge, an 80' wide video screen, a 3D holographic projection of narrator Richard Burton and a 10m high Martian fighting machine with pneumatic legs, all supported by nine trucks and 44 crew.

Mixing front of house was RG Jones engineer Simon Honywill, who comments: "I've been attempting to convey

Details
USA - Technomad LLC, reports that Chattanooga Sound, a sound contractor based in Chattanooga, Tenn., has installed two Berlin weatherproof loudspeakers on a new soccer field for the Tennessee State Soccer Association in the nearby town of Cleveland.

The Berlin is the most powerful loudspeaker Technomad offers. According to Charlie Rhodes, president of Chattanooga Sound, the soccer association approached him to procure and design the end-to-end system after discovering Technomad online. The Berlins are mounted on opposite sideline poles, one pointing in each direction toward the field to cover the entire venue.

"The Berlins offer a very high SPL and a two-inch driver that makes a world of difference when projecting spoken word over long distances," said Rhodes. "These are full-range loudspeakers that reproduce lows, mids and highs very well, and the two-inch driv

Details
Belgium - Rental company Photonics took delivery of the first trailer built by Element Labs. The award winning Cobra 16 display of 17sq.m is Europe's largest display on a trailer.

Bart Van der Beken of Element Labs says, "Thanks to the features of the Cobra platform, we were able to build such a large LED surface in 16:9 layout on such a small trailer. Cobra is ultra thin - ultra light - and has extreme low power consumption, which are all helping in designing our Cobra trailer. In addition, we offer a four LED pixel product (RGBC) to improve the picture quality which delivers a true virtual 8 mm resolution in combination with our Vizomo processor."

Pieter Lambert of Photonics says: "We are very proud to be Element Labs' first mobile trailer customer. The Cobra 16 display looks stunning and we bring a new quality standard and display size to the market of LED tr

Details
USA - Rat Sound recently installed a new sound system at West Hollywood's Whisky a Go Go, which comprises Xi loudspeakers, TG amplifiers and an N8000 controller from Electro-Voice. At one time or another over the last 45 years, virtually every major rock act has appeared there, including The Who, The Byrds, The Police, as well as Frank Zappa, who recorded a live album at the club.

The centrepiece of the installation are the four Xi-1153s and Xi1122MHA loudspeakers from Electro-Voice, driven by two TG7 and 10 TG5 power amplifiers with integrated RCM-26 DSP modules. System control is via a NetMax N8000 matrix controller running under IRIS-Net.

Whisky a Go Go's Leonard Contreras and Jason Hines originally favoured a line-array solution, but after numerous test runs, none of the solutions demonstrated convinced the duo. It was David Brown of Electro-Voice who then suggested removi

  1. Youngman Group launches events division
  2. WSCTC requires rigging certification
  3. The Gottelier Award 2009
  4. Maltbury stages on Icelandic Idol
  5. Arpege deploys K1 for Jean-Michel Jarre
  6. Kave supply technical extravaganza
Page 1071 of 1804
Astera - Large MPU - June 2025
Sennheiser - MPU - June 2025

Latest Issue. . .