USA - Wanting to get back to a bigger lighting look for country music star Luke Bryan's current Kill the Lights tour, lighting designer Justin Kitchenman of FadeUp Design Group created a spectacular upstage wall of lighting effects using 100 Elation Professional ACL 360i narrow-beam LED fixtures.

"We chose the ACL 360i after a shootout with other similar fixtures," Kitchenman explained. "We felt the beam was a bit more defined, performance was comparable, and the price of the fixture allowed us to get the amount of fixtures we desired without blowing up our lighting budget."

In Kitchenman's design, the ACL 360i fixtures are mounted to the back of a video wall that is comprised of (10) 1m wide by 5m high columns. Each column is on an automated system that tracks side to side with full rotation capabilities and has 10 ACL 360is mounted to the back of it.

Kitchenman, who

UK - Opened in 1997, Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan Playhouse in London where many of Shakespeare's plays were performed.

For the first time, the venue has installed a theatrical lighting rig for the summer season - with GLP's multiple award-winning impression X4 Bars playing a crucial role. Previously, performances have used only natural daylight, similar to the original productions, during daytime shows, and a wash of tungsten floodlighting in the evenings.

Designed by Malcolm Rippeth, who has also masterminded the lighting for two of the shows in the opening season, the new inventory has been supplied by White Light, and installed as part of Emma Rice's first season as artistic director.

"The trickiest part of the rig was finding a good overhead backlight, as these units are most prominently in the audience's sightlines,

UK - The National Theatre's (NT) River Stage Weekends festival has returned to London's Southbank, with chief lighting designer Huw Llewellyn choosing an Avolites Tiger Touch II and Fader Wing running the latest Titan v10 to deliver versatile, power-packed control across the month-long programme of weekend takeovers.

A free festival, River Stage plays host to a diverse range of artists and acts from family friendly workshops to energetic riverside raves. Throughout August, the festival has seen numerous National Theatre partners from across the country tread the boards of the outdoor stage, painted red to mirror the NT's Temporary Theatre (previously affectionately known as the Shed).

"We chose an Avolites console for River Stage because it's what we know and love - it's so versatile whilst being quick and easy to programme," says Llewellyn. "We're operating and programmin

Namibia - The first Robe Spikies to be purchased on the African continent have gone to Windhoek, Namibia based rental company Mikel-Jes which purchased eight units from Robe's distributor DWR in Johannesburg.

The events market in Namibia is currently buoyant, and Robe - thanks to the hard work of DWR and the leading Namibian rental companies' willingness to invest in premium products - is well established as a moving light brand amongst the top production companies in the country which is most definitely 'emerging'.

Michael Vermeulen founder and co-owner of Mikel-Jes already has around 80 Robe fixtures in hire stock and has been a steady investor in the brand - along with other quality names in the entertainment technology world - since founding the company in 2008.

When he saw the Spikie in action at Prolight+Sound in Frankfurt this year ... he knew it was a suitable

Australia - UK-based automation specialist and manufacturer Kinesys has appointed The Rigging Shop (TRS) as the exclusive distributor for its products in Australia and New Zealand.

Based in New South Wales, the sales dedicated TRS operation is part of Pollard Productions, popular and well-respected rigging professionals working in all areas of live shows and events, TV productions and concert touring, which has been established for 35 years. Pollard is also a long term customer of Kinesys.

The announcement follows a recent visit to Australia by KInesys MD Dave Weatherhead, who comments, "TRS share our core values, standards of excellence and attention to detail. They have the right attitude and bring a huge amount of knowledge and enthusiasm to the equation and through the Pollard Productions connection, the TRS team is also really experienced with our product ranges. We a

Called to the Bar - Fans of Motorhead frontman Lemmy raised more than $22,000 (£16,600) for a life-size statue at his favourite bar in Los Angeles. Dozens of fans turned out to see the unveiling of the 6ft bronze sculpture that will immortalise him at the Rainbow Bar and Grill on West Hollywood's Sunset Strip. Cheryl Keuleman and Motorhead's long-time manager Todd Singerman were among those who paid tribute to Stoke-born singer who died in December. Singerman, who managed Motorhead from 1992 until the group disbanded after Lemmy's death, said he thought the Ace of Spades singer would have been "extremely proud" of his statue.

It's for You - A long-lost demo disc recorded by Paul McCartney that was given to Cilla Black has sold for £18,000 at auction, the Beatles expert who found it has said. Black, who died in 2015, had a UK top 10 hit in 1964 with It's f

USA - Focusrite will be hosting a fun and informative event on its RedNet line of products and Audinate's Dante protocol on Thursday, 15 September, 2016, 12:30-6:00 p.m., at Belmont University Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business, Nashville, TN.

RedNet is the premier audio-over-IP solution, based around Audinate's industry standard Dante protocol. It comprises a suite of top-notch, modular network audio interfaces, combining renowned Focusrite audio quality with the internet-age flexibility of audio-over-IP.

Audinate senior technical sales engineer Barnie Farkus will help lead a Dante training session. Following that, Ron Romano, Belmont University technology specialist, will demonstrate how Belmont uses RedNet and Dante for their audio-over-IP networking needs.

Next, RedNet national accounts manager Kurt Howell will hold a presentation on the RedNet p

USA- Since its introduction in 1993, Student Life has been running inter-denominational Christian summer camps and conferences for young people. The camps travel with a production team striving to set the stage which will foster an environment of worship and praise.

To create these worship environments, director of production Jake Brantley understands that the gear chosen must have the ability to adapt to several locations across the country, so he once again turned to Nashville-based tour provider Elite Multimedia to help him create a cohesive and modular lighting, audio and video production design.

"Each Student Life Camp lasts one week with both morning and evening worship services, so at a typical camp our production crew will run eight services," began Brantley. "One of the most challenging aspects about putting the designs together is that we have to be modular becau

USA - With the US elections intensifying, The Democratic National Convention took place in July, while SGM fixtures lit up landmarks and historical monuments in the host city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Lighting Practice of Philadelphia was approached by Amtrak to highlight the 30th Street Station during the DNC 2016 event. The Lighting Practice commissioned Starlite Productions of New Jersey to form a collaboration in order to create a lighting spectacle.

Furthermore, the Centre City District of Philadelphia commissioned the team to light up the iconic clock tower of Philadelphia's City Hall - equally for the duration of the DNC.

The initial brief for the 30th Street Station project entailed lighting up the large windows on the east and west side of the station but the scope elaborated to include the east portico, which is highly visible from the city center. A

China - Foster and Partners have refurbished the business and first class lounges at Chep Lap Kok, Hong Kong International Airport. This is the home of Cathay Pacific and the new upgraded lounges make a clear statement - "this is how we treat travellers in our home port, the best airport in the world".

The new lounges are not opulent. They are smart, elegant spaces devoid of superfluous distractions that are irrelevant to the guests. There is everything you need and nothing you do not.

The signature theme in all of the lounges is the ceiling to floor glass feature wall illuminated by LED lighting found at the reception and within the overall space. The reception walls are neutral white. The inner wall changes colour, subtly.

Hong Kong International Airport is full to capacity. There is not a millimetre to spare in the lounge and any additional elements will compete wit

South Africa - DWR Distribution welcomed the founder of ArKaos, Marco Hinic and colleague Benjamin Bauwens to South Africa for the very first time in August. They visited clients in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town and also presented training at DWR's offices.

"Although we have worked remotely with DWR for a few years now, it was our first physical contact with South Africa," said Marco. "I had a feeling that we were in for a nice surprise and indeed we were overwhelmed by the warm welcome and hand of friendship from everyone. I was thrilled I could take a day at the end of the trip to explore the beauty of Cape Town. All we can think of is now is when can we plan to come back."

A day's training was hosted in Johannesburg and presented by Benjamin Bauwens and Marco and both were encouraged by the good attendance. "I took a group picture of everyone to bring back to our o

USA - Far from being just another event space, Community Courtyard has a history and aesthetic reaching back to 1850. It was then that a carriage works and livery stable laid its foundation in Plattsburg, Missouri. In the century that followed, the lovely brick building became a roller skate factory, a car dealership, and a cabinetry shop, but in the 1980s it fell into disrepair.

Inspired by its beauty and cultural significance, a local non-profit raised the funds necessary to turn it into a community event space. After two years of extensive renovations, Community Courtyard opened in the late 1990s. Until this year however, users had to bring their own sound reinforcement systems to their events. Kansas City A/V integration firm Advanced Sound & Communication changed that with a system centred on an Ashly Audio Pema 4250.70 combo Protea matrix digital processor and four-chann

USA - Barco and High End Systems, a Barco company, are providing their AV solutions to help create a mind-blowing visual spectacular for rap artist and songwriter Drake's current North America concert tour. The company is part of a team led by world-renowned lighting designer Guy Pavelo and tour director Steve Kidd of GP-SK Design & Production.

Now traveling across the United States, the Drake Summer Sixteen tour represents a massive undertaking in audiovisual theatrics, with the design and programming expertly directed by Pavelo and GP-SK. The artist came to the table with some highly imaginative show elements in mind, requiring a mammoth production effort: an expansive stage and set design, an 86' curved video wall, and a Kinetic system comprising hundreds of custom LED spheres.

Pavelo specified a significant amount of Barco and High End Systems gear to augment the exten

USA - The Frendly Gathering in Windham, VT is to music festivals what the nearby Ben & Jerry's company is to ice cream makers: iconoclastic, slightly eccentric, wildly creative and flower child sweet. How else to describe a music festival started by two champion snowboarders to commemorate Frends Crew, a group formed to take the ego out of the sport? (Hence the removal of the "I" from the word friends.)

Along with morning yoga and skateboarding, the festival features nonstop performances from bands covering the gamut of rock, jam, reggae and bluegrass styles. This year a total of 26 acts, including Big Gigantic and Smooth Antics, took to the stage at Timber Ridge, an old ski resort tucked in the Green Mountains. They were backed by a lightshow that featured a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures and an impressive video wall created by Tristan Rudat using the company's P

USA - This year, Adele made a welcome return to the stage with 25, her first arena tour, which received rave reviews during its European leg. Now travelling round the US, the tour's much anticipated nature, and Adele's status as one of the world's favourite artists, prescribed a production with values that aim for nothing less than perfection - right across the board. In audio world, that aim is aided by the use of DiGiCo SD7 mixing consoles, which are situated at both the Front of House and monitor positions.

Front of House engineer Dave Bracey has been using DiGiCo consoles since the company first started manufacturing 14 years ago but is new to the Adele crew. Whilst Joe Campbell at monitors is new to the desks, he has been working with Adele since her 21 tour. Both are happy that they have all the right tools for the job.

"For me, DiGiCos are the only properly engineer

Europe - German rock legends The Scorpions celebrate 50 glorious years of being ultimate heroes of heavy metal. 2015 actually marked the anniversary of their formation and they continue to tour.

Associate LD and lighting operator Manfred Nikitser from MANIK Show Lighting, Vienna, is running the lighting for the current touring schedule together with Rainer Becker. The summer shows are a mix of festival and own-headliners, 90% of the time using local productions matched as closely as possible to their generic spec.

Robe's BMFL Spots are among a number of primary moving light fixtures on the rider that Manfred is happy to accept from local vendors.

The biggest challenge of the current leg of the tour - with all the lighting, rigging and LED provided locally - is the need for good pre-production and advancing to still make a show happen in countries with radically differe

UK - In 2011, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds released their debut album and embarked on an understated tour of theatre sized venues. Since then the band hasn't stopped and 2016 has seen it embark on a world tour, with an L-Acoustics audio system provided by Britannia Row Productions.

Unsurprisingly, the size of the venues has increased, with the latest tour including six UK arena dates, the tour concluding with a final show at the Brixton O2 Academy in September. Front of House engineer, Dan Lewis, has enjoyed a long working relationship with Gallagher, having worked with him since 2002.

"My relationship with Noel started as system tech for Oasis, after which I became their Front of House engineer," says Dan. "Since then I've been FOH engineer for both Noel's High Flying Birds and Beady Eye. I started using L-Acoustics with Beady Eye in 2011 and have used it ever since

Europe - Connectivity specialists DirectOut has announced that they have entered into a SoundGrid licensing partnership with Waves Audio. The collaboration has led to the development of a new device with a SoundGrid and MADI interface that will be unveiled at IBC in Amsterdam this month.

SoundGrid is an audio-over-Ethernet networking and processing technology developed by Waves offering extremely low latency, high channel count audio processing. Running on standard Intel CPUs and 1Gbps Ethernet networks, SoundGrid uses standard computers, switches and servers and integrates easily with analog and digital mixing consoles. Real-time audio processing is performed on standard Intel-based plugin servers running a Waves-customized version of the rock-solid Linux platform, making it an ideal solution for studio facilities, live sound, broadcast, post-production and more.

"SoundGr

Hungary - Renowned Hungarian dance group, Experidance, recently purchased two Allen & Heath dLive digital mixing systems to manage audio requirements for their national touring shows.

Experidance's repertoire includes musicals, live orchestral events and theatre productions, and the team was looking for an ultra-flexible digital mixing system to replace the incumbent FOH and monitor consoles. After evaluation, they selected two dLive systems, comprising S5000 and S7000 Surfaces, with DM32 and DM48 MixRacks. Experidance's touring PA also includes an L-Acoustics Line Array system and a wide selection of premium microphones.

In most scenarios, the company is using the system as a traditional FOH and monitor split via ACE for big orchestra shows, but the system is also versatile, and can be installed in different locations functioning as two separate FOH mixing systems, using

UK - The splendid and ornate surroundings of the Blackpool Tower Ballroom were recently home to the Lancaster University Student's Union 2016 graduation ball, an evening marked by celebration and reflection.

Lighting designer Oliver Wilkinson contributed to the festive mood, creating a memorable and colourful lightshow that was anchored by 10 Rogue R1 Spot and 22 Q-Wash 560Z-LED moving fixtures from Chauvet Professional, as well as six MotionOrbs and 12 PiXPar 24 par fixtures from its sister company Chauvet DJ.

Having designed the LUSU grad ball twice previously, Wilkinson - who is a fulltime designer and chief LX for local production company Arranpaul - understands the expectations of the students all too well. "From previous years, I know that these students want to go out with a bang," commented Wilkinson. "For this reason I needed to create the most impressive lighting

Malta - The walled Cittadella, situated on the Island of Gozo, next to Malta, has recently undergone a major revamp through two restoration and rehabilitation projects co-financed by the European Union.

International creative design and AV installation company, Sarner, has been instrumental in bringing 2000 years of Gozo's history to life with a visually captivating and immersive journey in an all-embracing visitor experience located within the historical walls of the island.

The island of Gozo is rich in history and natural beauty, resources which, woven in with local customs and traditions, were key factors in creating this new tourist attraction. Being greener, less densely populated and urbanised than Malta, Gozo boasts an idyllic lifestyle that draws inspiration from its unique island setting and Sarner's brief was to convert and restore the city's disused reservoirs

USA - Bandit Lites has opened its newest office in Charlotte, North Carolina, with the office focusing primarily on fixed installation projects.

"Because of our proximity to North Carolina, we had already done a number of projects in the area, so the opening of our office simply makes it easier to continue those relationships and support those projects," explained Chris Barbee, Bandit's national director of sales.

Senior system integrator Andrew Fisher, who joined the Bandit Lites sales team in 2013, brings his extensive knowledge of both lighting design and system installations to the growing Charlotte market.

Bandit also recently hired Emily Eudy as the installation project manager. Eudy's background in theatre lighting design and her decade in the industry working at Barbizon and Rosco LA makes her an invaluable addition to the team, where she will be assisting with

UK - Taking place every two years, the Farnborough International Air Show - Europe's largest outdoor exhibition - is the aerospace and defence industries' opportunity to highlight the latest innovations in civilian and military aircraft to international customers, the media and the public.

With this major trade exhibition and public air shows running throughout the week, the Farnborough Airshow hosts over 100,000 people who travel to see everything from the mammoth 440-passenger Airbus to the Red Arrows. The tradeshow element of the Airshow included 1500 exhibitors, 73,000 trade visits and $124 billion worth of orders and commitments.

Two years ago, QSC's Q-Sys audio networking system controlled the PA/VA at the show. For 2016, the Shure Systems Group UK worked with Show Hire to provide a more extensive Q-Sys network with more QSC infrastructure throughout the event, allow

Latest Issue. . .