France - DesignScene, a UK and US based creative design and production specialist in live events, was recently commissioned by Lighthouse Creative Works, NYC, to design, realise and deliver an innovative and technical production for an exclusive party for Live Nation at the 2016 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

The Lions event is an all-action global event renowned as the largest gathering of worldwide advertising professionals, designers, digital innovators and marketers.

The DesignScene team of 21, led by Attila Keskin delivered an environment for key influencers and movers-and-shakers who were in town for the Lions.

The party event culminated in a special acoustic performance by Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl in a truly magical setting.

DesignScene also created two different innovative and highly visual 'cabana' meeting environments for Live Nation (

Japan - One of the biggest music festivals in Japan, Rock In Japan Festival 2016, took place recently at the Hitachi Seaside Park, in Hitachinaka, Ibaraki Japan. Organized by Rockin'On magazine, over two weekends in August, it featured seven stages. Martin Audio's premium MLA Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array was installed on its main Grass Stage, as well as other featured stages, such as Park Stage, and Sound of Forest, courtesy of MSI Japan.

More than 200 leading artists took part in an event in which each of the four days was sold out well in advance.

Grass Stage included three types of audience area. The Standing Zone was for watching the bands from closer to the stage, a 'Sheet Zone", where those watching can spread the sheet and at the furthest point a Tent Zone where crowds can sit directly on the grass and pitch parasols.

Thanks to the MLA's high degree o

USA - Nashville once again held one of the largest Independence Day events in the country, as even with a dismal forecast, event organizers for Let Freedom Sing July 4 in Music City estimated than somewhere between 125,000 to 150,000 turned out to honour the nation's birthday along the river front.

Bandit Lites once again worked with Chris Lisle Lighting Designs to provide lighting for the celebration. In the eight years he has been involved with the event, production manager Chris Lisle has seen the event grow to three active stages across six city blocks.

"This event has become a destination event for tourism, so we are excited for that growth," said Lisle. "Nashville is the "it" city right now and with that comes an increase in residents and tourist. It is our objective each year to out-do the last - whether that be size of shells used in the firework show to the

UK - MDG's theONE, the award-winning, touring dual haze and fog generator, has been bought by Liverpool-based Adlib to strengthen its 'complete package' offering to production managers and lighting designers.

No sooner had theONE atmospheric generator arrived, it immediately joined American blues rocker, Joe Bonamassa, as he toured the UK and Europe this summer paying tribute to three of the legends of the British Blues, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. Post tour, theONE will feature at various prestigious events Adlib is involved in after the summer festival season.

For Adlib's lighting & video general manager, Mike Docksey, theONE was the only choice. He explains, "We felt it was the most suitable product on the market with a good reputation to add to our armoury for large scale live events. As we constantly grow our inventory and the scale of events which we unde

Ecuador - An Allen & Heath dLive digital mixing system was employed for monitor and live recording duties at the recent anniversary concert of Ecuador's renowned singing star, Paulina Tamayo. Hosted at Quito's Ruminahui Colluseum, the concert marked the singer's 45-year career, and was attended by 14,000 people. Ronny Lopez from rental company, Maxi Audio, selected the dLive system to manage monitors and the multitrack recording feed for a live DVD production. The technical specifications were 52 input channels, 26 outputs for wedges and in-ears and the possibility to record everything on multitrack. "I started looking at the options and dLive won hands down," explains Lopez. An S7000 Surface with a DM64 MixRack were selected, fitted with a Dante network card. "This was the first time Ihad used dLive and I was very impressed. For me, the stand out features are the 96 kHz pro

UK - End-of-term arts, culture and entertainment events represent good repeat business for regional sound rental companies. For Swansea-based rental house Total Sound Solutions, repeat business does not mean repeat service, as it seized the opportunity to debut its new Nexo STM Series modular array on one such high-profile event.

TSS was once again the official event production company for the Swansea University Summer Ball 2016 as it reached its eleventh anniversary, providing staging, sound, lights and power across the three-arena event, and looking after a 5000-capacity crowd in the university grounds.

This summer, TSS was eager to put out its new Nexo STM inventory for the main Enchanted Forest stage, deploying a flown system comprising left/right hangs of STM modules, two B112 bass cabinets above four M28 main modules in each array. In front of the stage on the ground

Germany - Philips Lighting reports that the Braunschweig Symphony Orchestra has celebrated the 10th edition of its Pop Meets Classic concert with Philips Showline SL BEAM 300fx LED luminaires playing a crucial role in the dazzling spectacle.

Taking place at the Volkswagen Halle, the sell-out concert showcased the orchestra's re-worked versions of well-known pop songs featuring local musicians and singers, conducted by Helmut Imig.

Renowned lighting designer Stephan Aue, who has been involved in Pop Meets Classic since the first edition of the concert, led the creative team of lighting operator Rico Muenzer and media technician Tim Hornung. Aue was introduced to the Philips Showline luminaire at Frankfurt's ProLight + Sound 2016.

"My first impression of the Philips SL BEAM 300fx was that it was a compact yet powerful tool," states Aue. "On Pop Meets Classic I have full

UK - Henley Festival is an annual, five-day boutique experience, celebrating the best of international and UK music, art, food and comedy in a quintessentially British location.

The Festival began as an idea, in 1983, to bring music and culture to the town of Henley-on-Thames - and sound production company RG Jones Audio Engineering has been involved in the five-day, black tie affair almost since the beginning - for much of that time fielding Martin Audio PA systems on the various stages.

In 2016, the Festival again brought high-calibre artists from all over the world, attracting crowds of more than 30,000 people to this unique riverside setting.

The formula has evolved along the way, as has the loudspeaker technology, and for the past few years RG Jones has been able to field Martin Audio's flagship and award-winning MLA Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array technology.

UK - The spectacular large format projections that have graced Edinburgh Castle for the last 11 years creating a dramatic and dynamic backdrop for the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo season have just become brighter and even more visible with a new video projection system specified by digital artist Ross Ashton from The Projection Studio.

The 12 x Panasonic PT-DW17K2 projectors have been purchased by the Tattoo and are running for the first time during the 2016 programme which launched last week showcasing another exciting and eclectic mix of military pageantry, music, dance, technical wizardry and special effects which will enthral audiences from all over the globe.

The increase in brightness and clarity compared to the PIGI film projectors which had served the event for the last 11 years is substantial.

As Ross explains, "When the Tattoo first explored the medium of

Denmark - Customer service is a core value for any lighting designer visiting the 17,000 capacity Arena Stage at Roskilde Festival, one of Europe's leading music events, and this year which he co-ordinated for the fifth year.

These were supplied - together with other lighting including 24 x Robe Pointes - by leading Danish rental company, Comtech, based in Copenhagen which has invested heavily in Robe over the last year.

The Arena accommodated a wide variety of bands over the four-day festival - from breaking talent to established headliners likproduction lighting designer Sune Verdier used 40 x Robe BMFL Spots at the heart of the rige Slayer, PJ Harvey, New Order and James Blake, with a total of 21 acts, many bringing their own floor packages.

Sune and his team have put a serious effort into refining the rig and the options over the last four years, each year asking g

Rich Tapestry - West End show Beautiful - The Carole King Musical has extended its run at the Aldwych Theatre until July 2017. The show, based on the life of singer-songwriter King, was previously booking until November this year. The musical opened in the West End in February 2015, winning two Olivier awards for performers Katie Brayben and Lorna Want.

Going Underground - London's 24-hour Tube service could see some West End shows abandon their traditional 7.30pm start times, the Society of London Theatre has claimed. SOLT chief executive Julian Bird said the introduction of a 24-hour Tube service in London, which begins this weekend, would present "significant opportunities" for the theatre sector. He hinted that the 24-hour service, operating on Fridays and Saturdays, could see shows abandoning the traditional 7.30pm start time in favour of a later curtain-up.

USA - Dierks Bentley is hot. Not only has the country artist's latest album Black debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard and Top Album Sales charts this summer, he's been selling out his Somewhere on a Beach tour at nearly every stop and has recently added a second leg that will have him out on the road through October.

Lighting designer Chris Reade is in his 10th year with Dierks Bentley and for this year's summer tour has a large automated lighting rig at his disposal, a setup that includes Elation Professional's industry-standard beam light, the Platinum Beam 5R, along with the increasingly popular SixPar 200 colour-changing LED Par light. The Somewhere on a Beach tour is the largest touring production to date for the multi-Platinum singer and features a unique spearhead set design and large diamond-shaped drum riser. The large rig used to support the lighting includes a

USA - Auburn University's Jordan-Hare Stadium - the tenth largest on-campus football stadium in the NCAA - is now home to the largest HD video board in college sports. Designed, built and installed by Daktronics, in Brookings, S.D., this massive 197x57sq.ft LED video display is accompanied by equally impactful high-quality sound, delivered over IP by a Dante audio network from Audinate.

Daktronics worked on the project for Auburn University - a prominent public research university with over 27,000 students. With this $14m infrastructure upgrade, this Auburn, Alabama venue - known officially as Pat Dye Field at Jordan-Hare Stadium - was rated as the number one game day experience in a recent independent survey of Southeastern Conference (SEC) college fans.

"Dante is next-generation digital audio networking technology," said David Sturzenbecher (CTS-I), audio project enginee

UK - As part of the recent update to the Premier League television studio, lighting specialists LED Creative partnered with JHD Designs to add decorative highlights and bespoke illuminated sculptures to the set.

Designed by US based JHD Designs, overseen by UK Set Designer John Hemsley and constructed by Scenex, the Premier League installation at IMG's state of the art studio has been created with an industrial, modern feel featuring plenty of clean lines with intense colour used to edge the set pieces.

To create the colour blasts added to the background structures and main presentation area, LED Creative supplied their Alpha 60 RGB system, coupled with silent running BIT1200 controllers, which has been integrated throughout the design to allow complete control and instant switching across almost infinite combinations of colour and intensity.

A key design element withi

USA - For the first 122 years of its existence, the distinct looking building on 11th and Spring Garden Streets in Philadelphia was never an entertainment venue. Its new owners were quick to make up for lost time up for lost time, however, when they converted the former farmers' market turned Reading Railroad luggage handling station into Union Transfer, a red-hot music hall devoted primarily to emerging and cult-hero indie rock acts.

Less than two years after opening in 2011, the site was featured in Rolling Stone's Top 20 Venues in America and hailed by the BBC as "one of the hottest venues on the US East Coast".

A key part of Union Transfer's appeal (aside from its knack for booking passionately followed artists like Purity Ring, Beach House, and St. Vincent.) is an evocative décor that features sky-high ceilings, stunning chandeliers, stained glass throughout th

Bahamas - The 4th Annual All That Jazz Festival on Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas, is an annual fund-raiser for the local Haynes Library. Supporting creative thinking and problem solving through its many programmes, the Haynes Library values its responsibility to the wider community and holds a special place in the life of the island.

Just as the library works to continually raise the bar of education and technology access, after three years of simple lighting, this year's festival looked to increase the lighting production values for its Saturday night jazz sessions at the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve, which is located in the settlement of Governor's Harbour.

Ferri Lighting Design and Associates (FLDA) brought in lighting equipment from off-island to realize LD Bruce Ferri's design in the Preserve's outdoor pavilion. "We had a blast doing this show," said Ferri. "You

Brazil - Community loudspeakers have been installed in the three adjoining Carioca Arenas, newly built for the international events in Rio de Janeiro, and located in the heart of the Barra Olympic Park.

The main contractor, Honeywell do Brasil, appointed Soundvision Engenharia de Audio e Video to provide the AV for all three Carioca Arenas. Community's R Series loudspeakers were chosen on their track record of proven reliability, high output, high intelligibility and accurate coverage. A combination of R.5MAX models were used to provide the dispersion patterns required for even coverage of the 360-degree seating areas. In each of the arenas the loudspeakers are driven by Crown DCi amplifiers with BSS BLU-800 processors providing system DSP.

Carioca Arena 1 has a seating capacity of 16,000 and spans more than 38,000 square meters, while Carioca Arena 2 and Arena 3 have a ca

Australia - Yet again, SGM fixtures have participated in Splendour in the Grass. The sold-out festival operated for four days and nights with over 30,000 festival goers each day. Besides having a star-studded music programme, the festival also places a lot of emphasis on the artistic experience of the festival.

Following his 2015 work titled Programme One, Melbourne visual artist Sam Songailo was a major part of the festival with an installation suitably titled Programme Two. Evolving from the 2015 design, Programme Two involved an intricately painted structure covering approx 400sq.m, with 50 individual pillars placed in a Colosseum-like configuration.

Taylor Chadwick from ETA was again recruited as lighting designer and based on last year's success, he did not hesitate to use SGM fixtures. For this year's installation, he deployed eight P-5 wash ligh

UK / USA - Since its inception 40 years ago, ETC has come a long way. Now a global leader in the manufacturing of lighting and rigging technology, ETC employs over 1000 people, across 10 countries, in facilities totalling more than 10 football pitches in size. In recent years, the company's growth has been particularly remarkable; to keep pace and to allow for future developments, a global office expansion programme is underway.

ETC Ltd's London base is the latest of the company's premises to undergo a significant revamp. The recent construction work at the two-storey facility involved a complete overhaul of the upper level of the building, including the installation of a mezzanine housing multiple open-plan work areas, several individual offices and a meeting room. The lower floor has also been reconfigured to incorporate a dedicated R&D lab and new open-plan pods for the tec

USA - The Raleigh-Cary Jewish Community Centre in Raleigh, North Carolina is set in a beautiful, 30-acre campus that features the Steven N. Guld Family Center, an outdoor pool, and an outdoor area with walking trails, a stocked lake, an amphitheatre, a basketball court, and a playground. The centre is in the midst of a sizeable expansion, which started with a renovation of the family centre and an update of the pool facilities.

Among the many improvements are new sound reinforcement systems both for the centre's 100-seat multipurpose room and for the pool. Local A/V integration firm Avant Systems Integration designed and installed the new sound systems, relying on Ashly Audio DSP, amplification, and user control to power a 5.1 Danley surround system for the multipurpose room and a Danley OS-80 fully-weatherized loudspeaker for the pool.

"Designing the system for the multip

Tibet - Lawo has reported its first project for the Tibet People's Radio Station in Lhasa. With Chinese system integrator Infomedia Digital Technology serving as the project's main contractor, the project was begun in January 2016 with an extensive order for Lawo mixing and routing technology placed in May, and the aim of networking all of the broadcaster's on-air studios and dubbing studio using a single, central router.

Tibet's People's Radio operates in support of the China Central Government, aiming to support cultural and arts activities in Tibet, and to ensure its social and economic stability.

With a Nova 73 HD router core providing 8192 x 8192 crosspoints and providing the hub of the installation, Infomedia is to equip eight of People's Radio's on-air studios with a 12-fader Lawo sapphire mixing desk each, and of its 12 dubbing studios with eight-fader Lawo crystal

Australia - Founded in 1997 by school leavers Brendan Sadgrove and Jeremy Koch, Sydney's Innovative Production Services has developed into one of the leading technical production companies in New South Wales and the eastern seaboard of Australia. This year the company moved into the top tier of audio rental companies when it invested in an L-Acoustics Kara system and X-Series speakers, a move which has paid immediate dividends.

Originally a part-time enterprise for the pair, in 1999 they devoted themselves to the business full-time and it has never looked back. Nowadays, Innovative Production services events for an ever-growing roster of corporate clients.

Brendan and Jeremy take pride in building bonds of loyalty and trust and their clients know that they are getting the best possible production values. With this in mind, they felt it was time to retire the loudspeaker sy

USA - The 20,000-plus fans who turn out for the weekend Summer Camp Music Festival like it so much that every year about half of them turn up a day early for a giant 'Pre Party'. The assembled partiers almost double the population of the central Illinois hamlet of Chillicothe, but no one - neither townsfolk or visitors -- seems to mind; such is the laid back nature of this event.

In keeping with that spirit, the festival welcomes a variety of artists, as evidenced by the 2016 line-up that included Umphrey's McGee, Jason Isbell, Ani DiFranco and an array of EDM stars.

Each of these artists appeared on stages that supported their particular musical genre. For the EDM acts, this meant performing in front of an expansive, custom pixel mapped video wall on the Vibe Tent Stage that was created by Ryan Warffuel and Max Koehler of Antic Studios, using Chauvet Professional PVP S5 p

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