Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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South Africa - When Menlyn Main Central Square in Pretoria wanted a Christmas tree to coincide with the festive season they had little idea that a seed of imagination would bud into a 1.6 ton steel artistic structure - which would now be permanent feature all year round - and which would bring much delight to visitors at the shopping mall.

In front of the huge tree, created from steel squares with a strong African influence, is a red mailbox for donations. Each time a person approaches the mailbox, the tree comes to life.

The designer of the tree is Marcelle Gunter. "Our client had an idea of what they wanted," said Marcelle. "I showed them a previous tree sculpture I had made and they initially wanted to add solar lights to the branches." As the project went on, and without knowing how he would implement the plan, Marcelle had an idea. 'What if he could create something w

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Russia - Lighting designer Marina Larikova dubbed Claypaky fixtures as "the best creative devices" after using 125 of the leading Italian brand's moving heads and strobes in her lighting design for cutting-edge electronic dance music (EDM) festival Alfa Future People, Russia.

With global audiences of 50,000, the two-day festival celebrates the latest in EDM and consumer technology. Larikova worked with video designer Yury Vorontsov and set designer Shlyamin Pavel to bring alive the festival's nine-storey high main stage. A giant female cyborg set piece complete with heart-shaped DJ booth provided the focal point of the main stage, where world famous DJs Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike played headline sets.

"I needed versatile lighting tools to maintain a diverse range of looks and keep the audience absorbed in the performances," says Larikova. "Alfa Future People celebrates inno

Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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USA - Broadcast live on MSNBC, the fifth annual Global Citizen Festival (GCF) took over New York City's Central Park in late-September for a star-studded concert that featured headliners Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, Ellie Goulding, Metallica, Demi Lovato, Major Lazer and many others sharing their voices and music to help reduce world hunger, poverty and other pandemic social issues.

Firehouse Productions once again served as the concert sound provider for GCF and this year switched over to an L-Acoustics K1/K2 PA system for the stage on the Great Lawn, where the 60,000 concert-goers in attendance also got to see guest appearances by Usher, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, Yandel, Yusuf/Cat Stevens and Coldplay's Chris Martin, creative director and curator of the festival, which is organized by the Global Poverty Project.

According to Firehouse system tech Jamie Pollock, "I had not do

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Mexico - Too Motions is a family run entertainment industry automation and motion control specialist based in Mexico City which has invested heavily in Kinesys products.

Currently they are the only enterprise in the county offering a full rental service in this specialist field to a wide variety of clients in the worlds of corporate activations, music concerts and tours.

The company was founded in 2011 and is headed and owned by Gustavo Jiminez, whose brother Hector works as international business development manager.

The pair originally got into show business - like many in Mexico where music is such a huge part of the culture - through Hector's Junior High School band Steel Hawk.

Gustavo's career as a pyro designer and firer to the stars took off - it was all quite improvised back in the 1990s as it was extremely difficult to import explosives into Mexico - but h

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UK - For nearly 200 years, the site of the Royal Court Theatre has been at the heart of Liverpool culture. Having played host to artists such as Oasis, David Bowie and R.E.M to performers such as Lawrence Olivier, Vivien Leigh and even hosting Dame Judi Dench's acting debut the venue has a prestigious heritage and needed an audio upgrade to match.

Owing much to the growing prominence of KV2 Audio products within the Theatre industry, KV2 can now add the Royal Court to its ever-expanding roster of high quality theatres relying on KV2 products.

Liverpool's awarding of the 2008 Capital of Culture sparked a revival for the Royal Court. Having been used as a comedy club for a period of time the Royal Court Trust wanted to "upgrade, conserve and restore the valuable cultural asset in the heart of the city" and the theatre began producing a unique style of Theatre for Liverpool a

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UK - Industry veterans Kiera Leeming of KLPR and Roland Hemming of RH Consulting have joined forces to create Copper Leaf Media, a new creative content and PR agency specialised in pro audio, AV and entertainment technology.

"We created Copper Leaf for two very simple reasons," explains Hemming. "Firstly, to separate marketing activity away from the pure audio consultancy side which remains with RH Consulting. Secondly because it was an opportunity to provide the industry with something that, to our knowledge, is unique: a full service creative content and PR agency underpinned by the deep technical knowledge and insight of our team."

"We are delighted to have Kiera on board who, in my view, is one of the top PR professionals in the industry," continued Hemming, "and, on our side, we have Tess Weller who is a dedicated digital media specialist, and Ryan Penny who is not on

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USA - Alex Hesse deployed nearly 200 of GLP's compact X4 S LED moving heads at the Hollywood Bowl, when Norwegian house DJ / producer Kygo headlined at the 17,500-capacity venue recently - selling out over two nights.

Kygo garnered international attention with his remix of Ed Sheeran's I See Fire, and subsequent single Firestone, and the appearance follows his memorable performance at the Olympics closing ceremony in Rio earlier this year. For the two Hollywood shows, he brought several guest singers along, such as SEAL, G-Eazy, Parson James, Labrinth, Leona Lewis, James Hersey, Conrad Sewell and Kodaline

Locally-based production company eighteentwentysix provided inventory as Hesse, who has been working with the artist for the past 18 months, renewed his acquaintance with GLP's award-winning platform.

Specifying the tiny X4 S fixtures for the first time,

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Germany - Lighting designer Thomas Gerdon of Gerdon design has again used an Elation Professional lighting package to light the German television programme Verstehen Sie Spass, this time for two fall season shows. Gerdon employed Elation's Platinum FLX and Platinum HFX hybrid moving heads to light artist performances and was also one of the first LDs anywhere to use Elation's new Fuze Wash Z120 LED wash light.

The FLX, HFX and Fuze lights were used on a 26 October show (recorded for a 2 December broadcast), as well as on a live show that took place on 29 October, which had the best viewer ratings of any Verstehen Sie Spass show in five years. Lighting supply for both shows was by TV lighting production company Cape Cross Studio and Film Lighting of Cologne.

Broadcast from Bavaria Studios in Munich, Verstehen Sie Spass airs twice in the spring and twice

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Mexico - Renowned Mexican sound engineer Oscar Tovar has selected Allen & Heath's dLive to complete an extensive tour of Latin America managing monitors for the pop bands, OV7 and KABAH.

With more than 30 years of experience, Tovar has worked with many of top Latin artists, such as Rocio Durcal, Gloria Trevi, Roc

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South Africa - The Atlas Studio in Millpark, Johannesburg formerly an old bakery but now a popular venue for film and television shoots, has upgraded five of its 10 dimmers with Philips Strand Lighting Wallrack 24 Way Digitial Dimming panels. DWR Distribution supplied the new panels and commissioned DimBright Electrical to assist with the install.

Doubling up to provide both television studio space and a venue for corporate events for the past 14 years, time dictated that the dimmers needed replacement.

"The studio had many circuits which were faulty and could no longer be used," explained Keith Pugin from DWR Distribution. "The ten dimmers are mounted on a wall outside the actual studios. We removed five of the existing dimmers which were aging and irreparable and replaced them with Philips Strand. Jacob Mogale and his team from DimBright Electrical were sub-contracted to

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UK - British electronic duo Bondax have recently completed a tour which saw them visit venues around the United States before returning to the UK for shows culminating in a headline performance at London's Oval Space.

To create a tourable design for these shows, Bondax turned to designer Owen Pritchard-Smith of London-based Spirit Design. Owen had created a design for previous Bondax shows using lightboxes with the individual letters spelling out their name.

With this tour taking a step up in size and production values, Owen aimed to create a look for the band which incorporated both lighting and video, and offered flexibility for the range of different venues played. He commented, "With the band growing in popularity, we wanted to take the design up a level for this tour. I wanted to retain the focus on the band's name, but use video screens to add more visual elements an

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Poland - Nexo's contemporary, compact loudspeakers are an aesthetically pleasing fit for one of Poland's most valued heritage sites, in the Church of the Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork, officially recognised as the largest castle in the world.

The Castle itself is a medieval fortress, completed in 1406, and designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO 20 years ago. This year, as part of an extensive reconstruction programme in the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, LAUDA Audio was asked to design and install a sound reinforcement system to support the permanent and temporary exhibitions that are to be hosted by this historic venue.

The church can accommodate around 300 people in its main hall, attending meetings and presentations, as well as concerts. However, with a ceiling height of 14 metres, the acoustics of this medieval building are demanding. Reverb time is a

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UK - Chase & Status treated fans to a fix of their exciting genre of live performance in a short end of year tour which revealed snapshots of material from their forthcoming fourth studio album - due for release in 2017 - as well as belting out some of their classics to the delight of all.

Lighting and set designer Andy Hurst faced the challenge of designing A, B and C variations of a rig that would fit into a selection of Academies plus a sold-out show at London's Ally Pally, where they raised the roof delivering a full-throttle collage of music and visual presentation matching their intense energy and attitude.

HSL supplied all the lighting equipment, associated rigging and crew.

Andy's design retained some threads from previous live campaigns - like the large Scenic C and S letters, which he's had reworked and converted to LED - together with popular elements from t

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UK - Following a successful two-year run in London's West End, The Commitments, directed by Caroline Jay Ranger, has taken to the road for the first time, carrying with it an MDG AtmosphereAPS haze generator. The eight-month tour will take in 26 venues across the UK and, for the first time ever, travel to its 'home' town of Dublin.

Based on the BAFTA award-winning film and featuring 20 soul classics, The Commitments is a feel-good celebration which follows Roddy Doyle's story of a mismatched bunch of young musicians who come together to become 'the finest soul band Dublin has ever produced'.

Helping to conjure up the smoke-laden party atmosphere of 1980's Dublin clubs and pubs in which they play is a single MDG AtmosphereAPS haze generator, specified by lighting designer, Jon Clark, who is a great advocate of MDG. A second AtmosphereAPS is toured as a conting

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UK - Celebrated production designers James Scott and Louis Oliver of design outfit Okulus have selected the new Claypaky Scenius Spot as the versatile workhorse for 2016 Brit award-winner Jack Garratt's UK autumn tour, following the release of the multi-instrumentalist's debut album Phase.

Okulus, which has worked for the likes of Zac Brown Band, Chvrches and Bring Me The Horizon, specified 20 of the moving head fixtures from leading UK rental operation Siyan Ltd.

"We wanted a spot fixture that was not only bright, but one that would also complement the subtler songs in the set," says Oliver. "Thanks to the Scenius Spot's strong output we could use the gobos with dark, moody colours without having to reduce the rest of the rig's intensity to make them prominent. Not only that, the white is leagues ahead of any other fixture on the market."

Okulus' sophisticated

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UK - Electronic and synthpop band Human League completed another much-anticipated and totally sold-out European and UK tour which culminated in a major homecoming at Sheffield Arena, proving that their music and string of foot-tapping hits from the 1980s and 1990s as well as their newer work continues to entertain fans - both original and new.

Colour Sound Experiment was delighted to be back working live with the band as lighting and video supplier for the Very British Synthesizer Group tour, working closely with show designer Rob Sinclair and lighting director on the road, Chris Steel.

Human League tour regularly every two years and each time there is a fresh new look to the stage. The set for the 2016 one was again created and evolved by Rob and band manager Simon Watson, and has been hailed as one of the best looking to date.

Visuality is high on the agenda of all H

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USA - Embarking on her first headlining tour, Grammy, ACM and CMA Award nominee CAM is quickly becoming one of country music's hottest young stars. For her inaugural tour, the artist's management turned to Cour Design who oversaw the complete production design using lighting gear and support from Nashville-based tour provider Elite Multimedia.

"At Cour Design, my partner Erik Anderson and I have previously worked with CAM tour manager Nick Hardy, so when they were getting ready to go out, he gave us a call to help," began Droitcour. "Since this would be their first headlining club run, and since they would be travelling without a dedicated lighting team, they needed something that would look good aesthetically in the various venues, but that would also be possible for the 3-person road crew to load-in and out each night."

Droitcour continued, "To immerse the band and audie

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UK - Built in 1909 and possessed of an impressive Edwardian Baroque facade, Parkside is a Grade 2 listed building in Bromsgrove. It was opened in 1912 as a Secondary school and remained as such until its closure in 2008.

The building has suffered little alteration and English Heritage described its 'overall level of intactness' as 'remarkable', observing that its characteristics were 'unusually lavish for a Secondary school'. This year, work was completed on a multi-million pound project to create a hub at Parkside for public services in the town.

The scheme, run jointly between Bromsgrove District and Worcester County Councils will see the building become home to Bromsgrove Library, register office, Job Centre Plus, Bromsgrove District Council staff, as well as offering a number of rooms available for private functions.

What was formerly the school hall at Parkside no

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USA - Moisés Kaufman's moving drama 33 Variations follows the transformative journey of a musicologist, who, after being diagnosed with ALS, sets out to learn why Beethoven felt compelled to write 33 variations of an otherwise unheralded Anton Diabelli waltz. Taking place in both Beethoven's time and our own, the play raises profound questions about the creative process and the quest to find meaning in life. Lighting such an ethereal production requires a design that's as subtle, varied and delicately balanced as the Kaufman's beautifully crafted play itself.

Peter Lerohl achieved this feat in a recent production of 33 Variations with help from a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures acquired from Monkey Wrench Productions. Lerohl, the technical director of Theatre at Anoka Ramsey Community College, used six Ovation E-910FC colour mixing LED ellipsoidals, position

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Belgium - Thirty-four of Robe's versatile CycFX 8 fixtures provided an elegant and inventive solution for lighting designer Aaron Copp on the new production of Shahrazad, choreographed by Jonah Bokaer for the Royal Ballet of Flanders (whose artistic director is Olivier Award winning Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui).

The production finished its run at the Opera Vlaanderen in Ghent on 30 October, 2016 and subsequently played in Antwerp, Amsterdam and several other European cities.

Aaron, a freelance lighting designer based in New York, was asked to collaborate on Shahrazad by American choreographer Jonah Bokaer, known for his provocative and risk taking work, often utilizing mixed media. The two have worked regularly together, including recently on Rules of the Game at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), a new work with original score by Pharrell Williams for the Dall

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Canada - Wall Sound and Lighting, based in the Canadian national capital of Ottawa, has secured its place as a major player in the region's high-end event rental market by investing in a Meyer Sound Leo Family reinforcement system.

"Here in Ottawa we're sandwiched between Toronto and Montreal, which means we face stiff competition from large regional providers on the major events," notes Neil Collier, senior project manager for the company. "Our recent investment in Meyer Sound's Leo Family not only has helped us maintain our major share of the local market but also has helped us grow our business in new directions by securing larger and more prestigious clients. It has taken us up to the next level."

Wall Sound and Lighting supplies sound, lighting and staging services for a broad range of arts/entertainment, corporate and government events throughout the Ottawa region. A

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Russia - In the 30 years since Russian theatre director designer Oleg Tabakov and set designer David Borovsky established an 'alternative' theatre in a small, damp Moscow basement, the name Tabakerka has become legendary to the city's theatre lovers.

Despite often challenging times under the Soviet regime, the company thrived and Tabakov has just opened a brand new, 400-capacity venue. Located in Moscow's Sukharevskaya Street, The Stage at Sukharevskaya features an L-Acoustics loudspeaker system.

Operating in tandem with the original basement venue (now named The Stage at Chistye Prudy), a key aim of the new venue was to continue the sense of intimacy so familiar in the original venue, yet to allow it the flexibility to stage any kind of performance.

To achieve this, certified provider and distributor of L-Acoustics products, Sonoruss, supplied the L-Acoustics elements

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Germany - For the 20th anniversary of the biggest north German indoor festival of electronic music, Pioneer DJ alpha, over 50 national and international DJs such as Westbam, DJ Quicksilver, Charly Lownoise & Menthal Theo, Pulsedriver and Woody van Eyden and many more took part.

The sound of the Mainfloor including the VIPStage was realised with a VT20 system. Two arrays with two 12 VT20 and a cardioid bass array with 36x VS18 formed the main PA. The whole main PA was powered by only six Delta 20.4-DP system amps effortless hanging on only one 32 A / 400 V three-phase connection.

For the nearfield, eight MT12 were used, which were driven four-ways. The sound engineers at the venue spoke of remarkably detailed and homogenous sound, which impressed very much. Pioneer DJ alpha's André Neuhaus (FOH) comments: "A system in this size had to meet not only the client's expec

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USA - Warren Haynes' Christmas Jam marked another successful evening of legendary musicians coming together for a great cause. The annual Christmas benefit began 28 years ago, as Haynes sought to give back to his hometown's Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity, which has raised more than 2m dollars to date.

Bandit Lites donated lighting for this year's sold out concert which featured an impressive line-up of artists including Haynes and his band, Gov't Mule, Bob Weir, Michael McDonald, Jamey Johnson and Alison Krauss among others. Due to lighting designer Chris Ragan's extensive history working with both Warren Haynes and Dead & Company, he was confident in creating a big rock show that would last from the 6pm doors to the 3am encore.

Bandit provided VL 3000 Spots, Robe Pointes, Robe BMFLs, Clay Paky Sharpys, and Bandit's exclusive GRNLite 8 Lites, GRNLite Par 64s and GRNLi

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  5. Robe on the red carpet at Fashfest Canberra
  6. Showlight 2017: the ideal Christmas present!
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