Projects

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19 July 2024

Europe - AC/DC kicked off their Power Up tour on 17 May in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Patrick Woodroffe and Terry Cook of Woodroffe Bassett Design worked on the production design for this widely anticipated tour.

“We wanted the stage lighting and video to work together and feel as one,” said Cook, who is the lighting designer for the tour, whilst Woodroffe serves as its creative director. “We knew from the start that we would have screens that opened to allow the look of the show to grow. The show concept was to start with a video intro, something the AC/DC fans love and want. We want to make it feel personal to them, so we localize the video at each venue.

“When the show starts, our first camera shots are of the fans, as this tour is all about the music and the fans. As the show continues, we want the stage to grow, which why the video

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19 July 2024

USA - AJR - Adam, Jack & Ryan Met’s current Maybe Man campaign which started at the end of 2023 and continues throughout this year. For the tour, Ezra Donellan of Moon Bolt Designs specified over 200 Robe moving lights, including 83 x Fortes, 88 x Tetra2s, 44 x Tetra1s and 32 x Spiiders, all delivered by Gateway Studios & Production Services (GSPS).

AJR comes with a fully realised visual concept and production design created by Mitchell Schellinger of Station Six, which is a combination of his and the band’s ideas. “It’s a very invigorating way to work,” comments Ezra on the collaborative nature of the design process. “There are challenges, and we all enjoy dealing with these and finding the best solutions.”

On tour, there’s a prominent curved video screen upstage, and a downstage ‘vanish’ screen divided into six sections,

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19 July 2024

UK - Part of the Insignis Academy Trust, Princes Risborough School in Buckinghamshire is a mixed-gender secondary school catering for children from the age of 11 to 18. The performing arts play an important role in the school’s curriculum, offering a route to qualifications, as well as the opportunity to participate in, and gain confidence from, being part of many productions run by the Performing Arts Department.

To support its dance, drama and music programmes, the school recently looked to enhance its audio provision by investing in a portable solution which could be easily operated in different areas of the school. The aim was to provide high quality background music reinforcement for dance classes, as well as a medium for small-scale spoken-word/music presentations and rehearsals. Flexibility was key, as was the need to stay within budget constraints.

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18 July 2024

South Africa - 2024 was the second year that South African lighting designer Renaldo van den Berg has lit the prestigious Metro FM Awards, which is a leading celebration of African musical talent and creativity.

Renaldo specified over 200 Robe moving lights to ensure that the high-energy-high-profile live broadcast on SABC was enjoyed by a massive TV audience as well as several thousand excited music fans catching the action in Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.

This year, 19 awards were presented, with the lifetime achievement award going to Oskido, and multiple live performances followed the awards, with a full-on festival-style concert offering another glittering line up of Africa’s finest.

Johannesburg-based MGG Productions supplied a full technical, structural and set solution and Renaldo collaborated closely with MGG’s technical stylist

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18 July 2024

Spain - The open-air festival series I Love Reggaeton was held in Valencia and Madrid from the end of May to the beginning of June. Acts including Maldy, Nacho, and many more played in front of nearly 30,000 spectators on the impressive main stage, which provided the platform for an equally spectacular lighting design thanks to its sharp, pyramid-shaped truss structures. The star of the lighting rig was the Cameo PIXBAR 400 IP G2 LED bar.

Two hundred and thirty-six PIXBAR 400 IP G2s were required to trace the contours of the stage measuring approximately 50m in width and up to 20m in height.

“The purpose of the festival is to offer a comprehensive audiovisual experience,” explains Efrain Andrade from Spanish rental service provider Fluge Audiovisuales. “This meant the lighting design had to be an absolute eye-catcher. With the PIXBAR 4

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18 July 2024

USA - Hanover’s Live! Casino and Hotel Maryland’s Sports & Social sportsbook and sports bar, the centrepiece of the casino floor The R Bar, and the hotel’s entrance have been equipped with tvONE’s powerful CORIOmaster & CORIOmaster2 video processors, outputting multiple 4K feeds of live sports and graphics 24 hours a day.

The casino’s The R Bar, Sports & Social, and the hotel entrance are each outfitted with screens driven by CORIOmaster and CORIOmaster2 – tvONE’s most powerful video processor, which can display up to 40 4K video windows with no visible latency and up to 56 outputs.

The tvONE team worked closely with Live! Casino and Hotel’s director of AV, Ryan Dewey, to realise a video processing solution that would be robust and reliable to run consistently, processing large amounts of video data 365 days a year. A larg

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18 July 2024

USA - The unveiling of the new Mercedes G-Class all electric wagon – produced by Team X - at Franklin Canyon Park in Beverly Hills featured a performance by Travis Scott. The Grammy-winning, platinum artist was driven out in the new Mercedes on a platform that appeared to be floating in the lake.

Seth Bernstein, who led the lighting team, used 68 Chauvet Professional Color STRIKE M motorized strobe-washes supplied by Volt Lites. He described what went into making this memorable experience a reality: “This was an impressive accomplishment. Scuba divers built an elevated stage in the park’s decommissioned reservoir. This presented immense challenges, as we didn’t want to distract from the beauty of the environment with excessively visible fixtures or positions. 

“Also, the audience walked in during the last hour of daylight, so we wanted to

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18 July 2024

Spain - One of Spain’s most prominent lighting designers, Xavier Costas, a member of the Asociación de Autores de Iluminación (AAI), has been a cornerstone in the AV industry for many years. With a career spanning television, corporate events, architectural, theatre, and musical events, Xavier has made a significant mark both in Spain and internationally and turns to Obsidian’s Onyx lighting control platform to bring his visionary designs to life.

Xavier’s journey with Onyx began over two decades ago and over the years, he has witnessed its evolution. “Onyx has changed over time and has adapted to new technologies and the demands of programmers,” he reflects. “Right now, I really like the intuitive aspect of the desk, how easily you can patch the products or fixtures you use in your designs.

“I also like the labelling and symbols, whi

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18 July 2024

Ireland - The Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) based in Dublin, is a state agency which provides a range of professional services to the local government sector across Ireland. Working collaboratively with all of Ireland’s 31 local authorities, the LGMA supports the co-ordinated and cost-effective delivery of local government services and policy.

In a bid to improve the quality of communications in its boardroom, a multi-function space, LGMA recently set out to improve the audio element of its existing system with a new delegate wireless microphone solution, as well as adding further sound reinforcement to enhance the auditory experience of Teams meeting/conference participants.

An open government tender resulted in IT support and solutions specialists Bytek Office Solutions securing the contract for the work. With more than 35 years' expe

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17 July 2024

UK - The Arcadia stage at Glastonbury Festival, presented annually by a collective of creatives, engineers, programmers and technicians, is one of the most recognised festival stages in the world.

This year, in place of its celebrated flame-throwing, laser-packed Spider, engineered from recycled heavy machinery, Arcadia unveiled The Dragonfly. The sculpture, which was built from a retired military helicopter and scrapped excavators, saw artists including Fat Boy Slim and Eric Prydz perform from its dazzling head. This, in turn, featured a pair of glittering compound eyes moulded from a tangram of video screens.

Video Illusions, as one of the Arcadia team’s long-term collaborators, was invited to design and manufacture a bespoke LED panel featuring a near-invisible structural framework and control. The brief further demanded that the screens be low-

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17 July 2024

Japan - Celebrating 187 years of craft, creativity and the company’s unparalleled diamond legacy, Tiffany Wonder, the latest brand exhibition by Tiffany & Co., takes visitors on a visual journey through hundreds of the House’s creations. Complementing diamond creations, the immersive show is brought to life through LED installations powered by Brompton Technology LED processing.

Held at the Tokyo Node gallery within Toranomon Hills Station Tower, one of Tokyo’s tallest buildings, AV+ICT specialist Takenaka Co. and system integration expert Ark Ventures, both part of the Symunity Group, worked with Tiffany & Co. to create high-end LED walls for three rooms in the ten-room exhibition.

The Breakfast at Tiffany’s Room, Wonder of Celebration room, and Diamond Kings room all feature LED walls composed of ROE Visual LED panels driven by Brom

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17 July 2024

UK - Located in the Cotswolds, Daylesford Organic Farm, founded by Carole Bamford, is home to the flagship Daylesford Organic Farm Shop, Bamford Wellness Spa, The Club by Bamford, Bamford Barn and Daylesford Stays.

Tateside, a London-based AV systems integrator, collaborated on the project through the integration of AV solutions throughout the estate. "We started working with Daylesford Organic around eight years ago, with our initial involvement in supplying and installing background audio in the brand’s London farm shops,” reflects Ben Landi, project manager at Tateside. “Over the years, we’ve gradually expanded our role to cover the technology integration across the entire collection, including the pubs, the Club by Bamford and Heritage House, their new event space."  

The project encompassed the integration of AV solutions into various

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17 July 2024

UK - System integrator Marquee AV took advantage of the discreetness and flexibility of Powersoft’s compact Mezzo amplifier platform for a new AV installation at Kings Place, a multifunctional conference and events venue in King’s Cross, London.

Located in the vibrant King’s Cross area, close to landmarks such as the British Library, Bloomsbury Theatre and St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, Kings Place is a mixed-use development that includes an arts and creative hub, office space, events and conference rooms, and bars and dining areas, including a waterfront restaurant. The recently renovated Battlebridge Room is at the heart at the Kings Cross complex, its modularity, natural light and scenic views (overlooking Regent’s Canal) helping to make it one of the venue’s most popular spaces.

Kings Place is an existing client of Marquee AV, and when i

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16 July 2024

China - Located in the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China, Guangzhou Hertz Audio Co is a large-scale professional audio systems integrator and installer covering theatres, concert halls, TV studios, stadiums and convention centres, and with a particular focus on nightclubs and music venues.

By adhering to a business philosophy of ‘honesty, cooperation and win-win for customers, partners and employees’, the company has built a solid reputation for designing and installing sound systems that deliver an excellent return on investment for their clients. And central to that success is the consistent specifying of Nexo loudspeaker solutions.

“Nexo products deliver unrivalled power and coverage at a price point that really makes sense and we have made many successful Nexo installations in nightclubs in China,” reports H

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16 July 2024

Germany - Cologne-based motion design and show development studio, visualprime, is used to doing things on a large scale, and Hannover’s Fairground Festival of electronic music is no exception. The second iteration of this relatively new festival – already classed as Germany’s third-largest indoor festival - took place in the cavernous spaces of the Hannover exhibition halls hosting 40,000 party-goers over two remarkable days.

A line up of top international EDM acts included headliners Paul Kalkbrenner, Ben Böhmer, Jan Blomqvist, Stephan Bodzin, ArtBat, Camelphat and Charlotte de Witt.

visualprime lighting designer, Tobias Reinartz, employed over 100 Ayrton fixtures to inject dynamism, colour and striking linear arrays across the stage and dance floor, choosing 84 laser-sourced Cobra fixtures rigged overhead throughout the hall for dramatic be

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16 July 2024

UK - Although only a small, 220-cap venue, the Half Moon in Putney has hosted some of the biggest names in show business over the last 60-plus years. It was the venue for U2's first ever sell-out show, the place where Kate Bush first performed publicly, hosted KD Lang's debut, and has had the likes of Bo Diddley, The Who, and The Rolling Stones gracing its stage.

But its sound system had been installed almost a decade previously and was nearing end of life.

The venue’s head engineer James Beck has been working at the venue all of that time and more. It was when Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason came through back in 2018 carrying Martin Audio’s MLA Mini loudspeaker array that the vast improvement in sound quality arrested his attention.

“I was well aware of the Martin Audio brand, and when I heard this I was super-impressed. It had already b

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15 July 2024

USA - Blink-182 are treating fans to LED-focused, in-the-round arena shows on their current One More Time Tour. Each show is packed with lights, pyrotechnics, and fireworks as well as LED screens and staging powered by tvONE's Green Hippo brand of Hippotizer Media Servers.  

Two flagship Tierra+ MK2 Media Servers from Green Hippo, which are now distributed by ACT Entertainment in North America, took centre stage to drive four large LED screens rigged in a square formation above the performance area. Made up of ROE CB8 LED panels, these enabled optimal viewing from all sides, no matter where each audience member was positioned.  

The content displayed was a mix of rendered content, IMAG, Notch Effects, and on-board Hippotizer effects with all content created by LA-based production design company TrasK House. TrasK House also desi

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15 July 2024

UK - Serious Stages unveiled its new Stellar concert and festival stage at a series of concerts presented by Festival Republic, at Crystal Palace Park, 5-7 July.

The new Stellar stage was designed and manufactured by the experienced team at Serious Stages Wells headquarters,

Serious Stages operations manager Abbey Thomas states: “The concept for the Stellar stage was born out of clients' feedback, who identified their requirements for a medium-range flat-roof version of the Company's larger TZ Tower stages. From initial designs created by our in-house CAD/technical team, components were manufactured in our Wells workshop, before Stellar made its first appearance in London.

“Our investment in this new system, along with the new video towers we produced for Download Festival, underpins our ongoing commitment to help our clients deliver outd

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15 July 2024

Saudi Arabia - When facilitating a massive broadcast and live sporting event like the Next Gen ATP tennis finals, play cannot be interrupted for any reason. DirectOut’s PRODIGY.MP ensured that the event stayed on air, without the possibility of failure due to lost signal.

Marco Galizia, technical director for Next Gen ATP Finals, insists that DirectOut hardware and audio solutions are the only way to secure total peace of mind, as he discovered when utilising two PRODIGY.MP at the final of the tennis tournament for the superstars of tomorrow, held in Jeddah at the end of last year.

DirectOut’s PRODIGY.MP is designed to provide flexible I/O, dual network audio and sample rate conversions. The FPGA-based, low-latency processing provides Matrix Mixers, summing busses and channel processing. With its seamless I/O structure including network convergen

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15 July 2024

Albania - On 27 June, production house Kuadr Events hosted the highly anticipated Alpha Show III, the largest hip-hop event ever staged in Albania, at the newly upgraded Air Albania Stadium in Tirana.

The production featured a 360-degree stage design, offering an immersive experience with impressive audio and lighting that captivated the audience and set a new standard for live performances in the region.

Rental provider, ASLV [Albanian Sound, Lighting & Video], was behind the audio setup, deploying a comprehensive 360-degree stadium-filling system with 90 Outline GTO C-12, 16 Superfly, 28 Mantas 28, 12 GTO-SUBs, and 80 DBS 18-2 sub-bass enclosures.

The entire system was powered by Outline GTA-Series amplifiers, with part of the GTO-series loudspeakers supplied by Gigant Sound Letus through a collaboration within Outline’s rental networ

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12 July 2024

UK - Girls Aloud are back on the road for the first time in 11 years, with their Girls Aloud Show tour, creatively directed by Beth Honan and lit by Peter Barnes.

Lighting, video, automation and rigging equipment – including some new innovations – and crew are all supplied by PRG UK to Production North, whose Iain Whitehead is overseeing all related technical production elements for the first leg of the tour that plays UK and Irish arenas including five sold out nights at London’s O2.

PRG UK’s account manager Yvonne Donnelly is co-ordinating everything. Yvonne stated, “It’s been an absolute pleasure collaborating with Iain and the creative team again on this groundbreaking tour for PRG, showcasing our newly developed RollCat tracking system alongside some of our tried and tested proprietary Icon range and with Ground Control running our n

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12 July 2024

France - Those who walked down the Place de la Cathédrale during a recent three-day festival, were reminded of this each night when they passed the six-century-old  Strasbourg Cathedral. The towering (32.6m high) church enchanted all with its intimate flow of colours and movement that played out on its surface.

The emotions aroused by the building’s visual dance was done without music, as the city elected not to map the cathedral’s lighting. For Daniel Knipper, the designer who created this powerful panorama, working without music, was, in many respects, a liberating thing. “It enabled me to find a freedom of rhythm, and therefore to propose pauses that really allow the facade to be seen in way that is impossible in a 12-minute mapped show.

“Interestingly, my first years on the Cathedral were without music!” continued Knipper.

“

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12 July 2024

UK - XTA and MC² amplification, enjoyed a strong presence at Glastonbury 2024, with a number of audio suppliers choosing the brands’ robust and ultra-dependable units for what can be a challenging environment.

At the Glade Stage, which featured a lineup of high-profile artists, Stefan Imhof of Audio Plus deployed XTA’s DPA100 to power a Funktion One front of house system and monitors. A total of 17 DPA100 powered the Funktion One Vero, Vero VX, F124 subs, front-fills and side-fills, with a further 12 units powering the monitors, all controlled via Globcon XTA MC² Edition control software.

The West Holt Stage was a magnet for festival-goers seeking an eclectic array of sets from artists from around the globe. RG Jones in collaboration with 22live delivered all the audio for the stage, with Paul Hatt of CS audio providing 48 channels of splits vi

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12 July 2024

UAE - The multi award winning Matilda The Musical paid a flying visit to Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Arena in June. This was the first time that the production, which has won over 101 international awards had ever been staged in an arena venue, so production manager Matt Towell was pleased to have Unusual Rigging & Engineering (URE) on board to ensure everything went according to plan.

“The show is pretty much a carbon copy of the West End production,” explained Matt. “However, due to the difficulties of some of the venues, we chose to put all the scenery on a ground support truss. Emily Egleton, design engineer at Unusual in the UK drew all the ground support plans for us and we also carried out a test build at Unusual’s HQ in Bugbrooke, Northampton. We then liaised with the team in the UAE, and once stage size and location were established