UK - Located in the heart of London’s West End, the Donmar Warehouse is a key player in the capital’s theatre scene. A 251-seat venue, the Donmar opened in 1977 and has since garnered a reputation for its diverse mix of productions, from musicals and plays to new works by leading writers. This not-for-profit theatre recently underwent a full refurbishment of its audio system. Leading the project were sound designers, Sound Quiet Time, and systems integrators, Stage Sound Services.
The project was initiated with a clear brief in mind: to enhance and unify the sound system at the theatre whilst preserving the venue's character and intimacy. Working closely with the team at Sound Quiet Time, who have been responsible for audio management at the Donmar Warehouse for several years, Stage Sound Services collaborated to deliver a seamless integration of EM Acoustics loudspeaker

USA - Large indoor facilities can create a challenge for audio engineers, integrators and installers. These facilities typically have high ceilings, concrete, glass and ceramic tiles, high levels of noise, frequent echoes, low speech intelligibility and issues with moisture and humidity. With such poor acoustics and environmental issues, choosing and installing an audio system that can overcome these challenges can be very difficult. University of Tennessee – Chattanooga found this out first hand.
“The Aquatics and Recreation Centre Pool utilised a portable PA system that the department used when needed,” said Ray Soldano, space design technician at University of Tennessee – Chattanooga. “When the Centre’s prior PA was first installed, the pool area was not included. So, when the system began to fail, this space was added so the PA could be heard throughout the e

Greece - Prolights illuminated the captivating cultural event Sky Above Elefsina held at the ship cemetery of the port of Fixia in Eleusis. This event marked the culmination of a series of events organised to celebrate Eleusis as the European Capital of Culture 2023.
Eleusis, a significant industrial centre in the mid-20th century, focused its entire programming on the city's cultural revival, envisioning 130 projects and 436 events spread across more than 30 locations, incorporating the remnants of ancient industrialization.
Sky Above Elefsina is an ambitious project that aimed to shed light on one of Eleusis' most debated sites from a social and environmental standpoint: the ship cemetery, known for the multitude of wrecks abandoned by shipowners over the years. The organisers requested a lighting installation capable of rejuvenating and transforming the naval cemete

France - Saïd M'Roumbaba, known by his stage name Soprano, emerged as a prominent rapper and musician in 1999 when he joined the rap group Psy 4 de la Rime. Their collective efforts yielded three albums between 2000 and 2009 before disbanding in 2010. Having become a successful solo artist in 2011, he has released seven full-length albums.
In June last year, Soprano began the Chasseur d’Étoiles Tour for the promotion of his latest album Chasseurs d'étoiles. Live sound engineer Pascal Rossi, started working with Soprano in 2003, initially introduced the KLANG system during show rehearsals. Since then, the singer and his musicians have been fully utilising the German in-ear monitor specialist’s immersive in-ear mixing technology, using it throughout the tour and beyond.
"I first started working with Soprano over two decades ago and began mixing monitors fo

USA - Ayrton Domino fixtures have hit the road with country music royalty accompanying Shania Twain on her Queen of Me global tour. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton lighting in North America.
“The show is themed around Shania’s new album, which also features a handful of her classic hits. Waking Up Dreaming is the opening song and best describes the theme of the show,” says Nashville-based André Petrus, the tour’s lighting director and console programmer. “It’s a journey through space on a rocket ship which crashes into Twain Town. The show is packed with 3D animations, including an LED floor that really gives every seat a good perspective.”
The Queen of Me Tour will play some 80 dates throughout North America, the UK and Ireland this year. The best-selling female artist in country music history kicked off the tour in Spoka

Italy - The Marchionneschi Theatre in Pisa recently announced the installation of a new K-array sound system, part of a creative initiative to define a benchmark for audio quality in live performances. In an effort led by Antonio Aiazzi, a well-known Italian musician, the system upgrade is part of a wider project, aimed at transforming the space into a hub for musicians and reclaiming the Marchionneschi’s position as a cultural centre following the challenges posed by the pandemic.
The Arte Residente project began at the end of 2021. Its aim was to revive the local theatre and encourage audiences back for live performances. Recognising the potential of this project, numerous companies, including K-array, decided to support the venue as it worked to set the standard for professional live audio.
“When I leave a concert where I have heard good music and experienced it

UK - SLX has announced its partnership with Wilderkind, an organisation that is dedicated to accelerating nature recovery in Great Britain through rewilding. The collaboration aligns with SLX’s commitment to sustainability and to having a positive impact on the environment and local community.
Founded in April 2023 Wilderkind collaborates with businesses in South West England to combat biodiversity loss, prevent ecosystem collapse, and foster climate resilience.
SLX has been on a journey to evolve its business to become more sustainable and reduce its carbon footprint. Following the release of its Impact Report earlier this year, and the announcement of attaining a B-Corporation status, this new partnership exemplifies SLX's commitment to making a visible environmental impact and aligning with the core values of its B-Corp certification.
Under the leadership of

Lithuania - After an eight-year hiatus, the Dinamitas hip-hop culture festival made a triumphant return to the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. Thousands of delighted fans enjoyed performances of their favourite artists and bands on five stages at the Loft Art Factory, the former electromagnetic device factory Elfa, located in the capital’s new town district.
DiGiCo consoles were supplied for the event by Sonus Exsertus, DiGiCo's distributor for the Baltics and Georgia and local rental partner NGR Service, with an SD12 and S21 providing clear sound and workflow flexibility.
Tomas Ždanovičius, sound system designer/engineer at Sonus Exsertus, who also worked as a system designer and sound engineer at the Outdoor stage during the festival, explains that DiGiCo was chosen for its renowned sound quality and workflow flexibility. “It meets every sound engineer's demands

Israel - Elad Cohen is a lighting designer based in Tel Aviv who has a zest for music, lights, and creative activities. Since the early days of his career as a club lighting operator, he has always been a big user and fan of Robe moving lights, and when one of his regular clients – renowned DJ Offer Nissim – recently headlined the Tel Aviv Pride Festival, he specified a large Robe rig including MegaPointes, Spiiders and Esprites.
The festival, which celebrated all aspects of LGBTQ culture and life, was staged in Ganei Yehoshua Park in north Tel Aviv, and was the culmination of two days of one of the biggest events of the year in Israel.
“We wanted to make a massive impact with the show and the whole performance,” explained Elad.
The 72m-wide stage and set which featured substantial LED surfaces was designed by a creative team comprising the Rubi & Gal

Spain - Contrasting with the postmodernity of its theme, the recent stage interpretation of Nixon in China for the Teatro Real in Madrid presented a wonderfully traditional production. Adhering to the operatic principle of ‘clarification not amplification’, sound designer Cameron Crosby specified the ultimate pairing for high resolution object-based immersive audio, matching a TiMax SoundHub spatial audio engine with award-winning vocal tracking from TiMax TrackerD4, which delivered the locational coordinates of the principal performers in real-time.
Teatro Real’s head of audio visual, Fernando Valiente Uceda, discussed the project and the specification in detail with Out Board’s Robin Whittaker at the ISE exhibition in Barcelona. With a full appreciation of the capabilities and benefits of using the end-to-end TiMax system, the allure was made real with a pos

Puerto Rico – Two Green Hippo Hippotizer Boreal+ MK2 Media Servers powered the visuals for multiple wraparound LED screens which formed the backdrop for this year’s televised Premios Tu Música Urbano. The Awards, which celebrate Latin Urban music, were broadcast live from Puerto Rico capital San Juan’s 18,000-capacity Choliseo and streamed live to fans worldwide on YouTube.
Florida-based production house JMT Show Concepts was commissioned by Sora & Company, producer Soraya Sanchez, and the Telemundo TV network to create and provide all of the content visuals for the event.
“Awards shows are very intense because you have to do content, show looks and programming in such a short time – for this project, it was just six days,” says Jorge Toro from JMT. “The magic of the new Boreal+ MK2 model is how fast that it is, with the 10G network connection to upl

UK - Latitude Festival offered a wide range of entertainment and interactive activities to its 45,000 audience, July 2023, with Serious Stages supporting the promoters, Festival Republic, with bespoke stages and site structures.
The main stage Obelisk Arena, a Serious 22m, six-bay Supanova, adorned with Latitude branding and giant screens, hosted a varied line-up for the Common People with their New Shoes On, on the Green Green Grass of Latitude. There was more live music on a range of Serious staging platforms across the three-day festival, including the BBC Sounds Stage, The Alcove, The Sunrise Arena, the Lavish Lounge (BBC Introducing), The Faraway Forest and the Trailer Park Stage. With plenty of laughs to be had on the 26.5m x 6m Comedy tent stage.
Operations manager Abbey Thomas reports, “The décor across the Latitude site creates an aesthetically beautiful fe

Singapore - A modern worship location which demands intelligibility throughout a large and unusually-shaped space to deliver the word, music and all elements of praise - the results of a blind listening test lead to the installation of an Outline system at Wesley Methodist Church.
Wesley Methodist Church is the oldest Methodist church in Singapore, with its roots going back to 1885. To provide increased capacity for its ever-expanding ministry, the church has undertaken regular development programmes over many years, which have included improving the sanctuary, adding a four-storey educational block with a concert hall and basement car park, a new baptismal hall with basement rooms and Wesley Plaza.
Completed in 2012, another project created a further 36,000sq.ft of usable space, including a new plaza hall on top of the sanctuary extension, additional seating and the c

UK - Henley Festival, known for its refinement and elegance, made a triumphant return this year, commemorating a significant milestone. RG Jones, the provider of sound systems, celebrated four decades of collaboration with the festival. The riverside location presented audio challenges, particularly with the Floating Stage.
Overcoming the technical feat of achieving consistent audio coverage for both the audience inside and outside the auditorium, given the relatively short front-to-back distance and expansive space, RG Jones, under the guidance of designer Simon Honywill, tackled the challenge with the acclaimed MLA Compact system from Martin Audio. The advanced control technology of MLA enabled precise adjustments to meet licence conditions, ensuring optimal sound levels and minimising offsite noise.
The festival showcased an extraordinary line-up featuring Rag'n'Bon

USA - Country music artist Kelsea Ballerini’s popular Heartfirst tour moved outside in June and July with a lighting design by Nick Chang that featured Elation Professional’s versatile Artiste Monet LED profile moving head, along with Smarty MAX luminaires. The tour, extended to a third leg due to overwhelming demand, travelled all over the country. Lighting and video vendor for the tour was 4Wall Nashville.
Nick initially served as lighting director for the tour’s first leg last fall and continued in the same role for the second leg in February/March, when Ballerini served as direct support on Kenny Chesney’s tour. Nick moved into the role of creative designer and programmer for the tour’s third leg this summer and took the opportunity to redesign the visual aesthetic.
After a short two-week turnaround to get the new rig together, reprogramme, etc., they se

New Zealand - Basement Theatre in Auckland is living proof of how the ‘small is beautiful’ concept can become a hub of creative endeavour, a hot bed of ideas, experimental art, and the instigator of lively political and social discourse as well as an inclusive place for talented live performance imagineers to hone their craft.
In 2022, Basement Theatre purchased its first Robe LED fixtures – two CycBar15s – a sale in proportion to its production needs that has made a big difference to how shows can be lit.
Squeezed into an old industrial building, once part of a large grain silo development, the charismatic theatre has been on the site for 15 years, making the most out of a challenging layout with some out-of-the-box reimagining that has ensured it has everything needed for a busy and thriving venue.
A busy and diverse programme of shows run Tuesday to S

UK - The Royal Shakespeare Company with its permanent home in Stratford-upon-Avon needs little introduction. Its main house, the 1018-seat Royal Shakespeare Theatre underwent a major rebuild and refurbishment between 2007-2010, and its smaller Swan Theatre (469 capacity) has recently reopened in April 2023 after a year-long post-pandemic refurbishment.
Both houses have had Ayrton fixtures installed for the first time, replacing failing lighting stock with Ayrton Diablo and Eurus fixtures specified by the RSC head of lighting, Kevin Sleep.
“Those most urgently in need of replacement were some of the moving heads in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) which we replaced with Ayrton Eurus S in May 2022,” explains Sleep. “We needed a bright LED replacement so chose 9 Eurus S for their extra punch. The S models have slightly paler shades but we wanted their extra power

India - Mumbai-based Light Craft & Sound Pvt provided a large complement of Claypaky fixtures to light three music videos showcasing songs from the hit Bollywood film, Satyaprem Ki Katha (Tale of True Love).
Released in June 2023, the film is a Hindi language romantic drama about a troubled marriage. It has already become the sixth highest-grossing Hindi film of the year.
Claypaky Sharpy X Frames, Tambora Batten Squares, HY B-EYE K25s and Mythos 2 fixtures were selected by lighting designers Imran Shaikh and Rohan Tambe to light the production of the three videos. Light Craft undertook the responsibility of creating lighting designs for the three songs working closely with the director of photography and choreographer to achieve specific atmospheres and moods.
“These four fixtures were the perfect choice for the camera applications and the the

UK - Lancashire-based event management specialist Glasgows has been a leading UK supplier for more than 35 years, working with a wide range of organisations. In 2021, Glasgows provided production for Green Zone at the UN’s Climate Change Conference, COP26, a measure of the esteem in which the company is held.
Until recently, the company had hired in audio systems to cover the needs of specific events, but a change in the circumstance of a regular supplier prompted Glasgows to explore the possibility of investing in own equipment. As champions of sustainability the company seeks, wherever possible, to reduce its impact on the environment, so as well as addressing an immediate logistical challenge, the company saw an opportunity to invest in a long-term, future-proof solution. Having decided that an outright purchase was the way forward, they consulted with Bradford-based su

Australia - Tucked within the laneways of Sydney's Angel Place, the City Recital Hall is a purpose-built live performance venue with world-class acoustics located in the heart of Sydney's CBD.
After 22 years and as part of a major revamp, the venue has upgraded its lighting and audio systems, transitioning from old conventional lighting fixtures to a modern, LED-based rig supply. To make this choice, the restaurant contacted Show Technology, the official distributor of Prolights in Australia.
The new lighting setup includes the following Prolights fixtures: 22 LED Cyc EclCyclorama 50, eight LED Fresnel EclFresnel 2KVW and 20 LED Profile EclProfile CT+.
This choice has impressed the technical production manager of the City Hall, Richard Fenton. In particular, the 14 EclCyclorama 50 projectors were used to illuminate the structure of the sound-reflecting panels po

Czech Republic - The presidency of the European Union rotates amongst member states every six months. In the second half of 2022, the Czech government took on this responsibility and relied on Bosch conferencing and interpretation equipment due to its reliability and functionality to ensure that all 212 events that took place across the country during its presidency went on smoothly.
The Czech Government selected AV Media Events, a member of the Congress Rental Network (CRN) to support the presidency events. The rental company was chosen considering its experience with modern Bosch conferencing equipment as well as its extensive stock of Dicentis and Integrus technology.
The EU issues strict guidelines for the equipment used at every meeting it hosts to ensure the same experience is delivered every time, no matter whether the meetings take place in historic venues such

USA - An estimated 250,000 people turned up for Nashville’s Let Freedom Sing! 4th of July celebration. Bandit Lites worked with Chris Lisle of Chris Lisle Lighting Design to provide the lighting for both The Jack Daniel’s Broadway Stage as well as the Ascend Amphitheatre.
This year’s featured headliner was country music superstar Brad Paisley with additional live performances from The War And Treaty, singer-songwriter Langhorne Slim, rising country artist, Tiera Kennedy, Nashville pop singer-songwriter Ben Recto and more.
“More than ever, we want to deliver a world-class concert and fireworks show to commemorate July 4th and give back to our community,” said Butch Spyridon, president and CEO, Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. “As well, our visitors have always supported us through challenges, and this is the perfect way to welcome them back and we

Sweden - A little over 15 years ago, The Royal College of Music (Kungl. Musikhögskolan or KMH) in Stockholm launched a project to build a new campus to support the school’s performance, composition, conducting and music and media production programs. In addition to new concert halls, practice rooms and teaching facilities, KMH’s campus includes a suite of three recording and production spaces, one of which houses a Solid State Logic Origin 32-channel analogue mixing console.
The SSL Origin room is the only control room of the three music production environments to feature a mixing console, with the other two featuring DAW and outboard hardware setups. The control room featuring the Origin is used exclusively by students pursuing three-year bachelor's and two-year master's degrees in music production for their personal projects. The studio also offers a live tracking spa

USA - Charlotte’s downtown is, like many modern cities, undergoing something of a renaissance, with urban renewal bringing in a new and younger demographic eager to live and socialize in the vibe of city life. None of this was lost on entrepreneur and club owner Eric Gussin, a world traveller whose Trio nightclub in Charleston, South Carolina was enjoying a reputation among locals and visitors as one of that city’s hot spots.
“Charlotte is a great city with a thriving nightlife and dance music community, but they’ve really not had a place to dance until now,” says Gussin, who is bringing Trio Charleston’s vibe to the much larger Charlotte venue. Including lighting from Michael Meacham of idesign Productions and powerful sound courtesy of E11EVEN Sound by DAS Audio.
Designed by DAS Audio hospitality and nightclub national sales manager John Fiorito with equi

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