Japan - Nikon Creates Studio, a new subsidiary of Nikon Corporation, has recently unveiled its new Heiwajima Stage, a multifunctional shooting facility created with the support of Global Vision Multimedia (GVM). Located at Nikon Creates’ imaging complex in Tokyo, Japan, the stage features the latest technology, including volumetric video recording systems and a large LED volume for virtual production (VP) setups, driven by Brompton Technology LED processing.
The studio's close proximity to Haneda Airport makes it easily accessible for domestic and international clients. It also allows for easy transportation of equipment, such as lighting and special machinery, enabling efficient shooting for productions of various sizes, including music videos, commercial films, movies, TV dramas, corporate video packages, and video distribution services.
Its impressive LED setup co

USA - The Treetop Trail is reimagining what it means to visit the Minnesota Zoo. As the longest elevated pedestrian loop in the world, the 1.25-mile Treetop Trail brings guests up to 32ft into the canopy, offering a breathtaking birds-eye view of the zoo and animals below. In addition to creating a sense of awe and wonder, it connects guests with nature and inspires action to save wildlife in Minnesota and around the world. The zoo has already named the new ambassador to the trail's habitat: a North American porcupine named Quillber.
There are several ‘lookouts’ along the trail, which serve as areas of interest in which zoo docents inform visitors about the area they're in or animals they can see. These lookouts will also be used for small-scale musical performances through the zoo’s planned Music in the Trees program. Featuring a rotation of different musicians and st

Indonesia - Suara’s independent art, music, culture and educational festival is set on the pristine Tabanan coast on the Indonesian island of Bali. Founded for the good of its community, the unique two-day event has a clear mission to bring together locals and visitors to connect and celebrate the beauty of Balinese heritage and nature.
Now in its second year, the location for Suara is Nuanu City, ‘a home for visionaries and creators’. The festival itself welcomed around 4,000 visitors daily who could enjoy a packed schedule of workshops, cultural activities and performances across nine unique stages.
An outdoor festival requires high-performance, flexible and discreet loudspeakers and when it came to choosing the supplier for Suara, K-array was the ‘first choice’ for general producer Vladimir Belyakov and sound engineer Semen Chumanikhin: “Having experienc

Germany - Electro-Voice has received a glowing endorsement from Steve Harris, the bassist, founder and band leader of Iron Maiden - one of the most influential and enduringly popular bands in heavy metal, with sales over 70 million albums worldwide. Renowned for their stunning live shows, the band’s The Future Past Tour 2023 recently wrapped on 6th October, and saw stadiums packed with a new generation of fans alongside seasoned metalheads.
Harris’s signature sound and fast-fingerstyle technique have made him one of the most instantly recognisable bassist in heavy metal - as noted by Loudwire magazine, which named him the best hard rock and metal bassist of all time.
The relationship with Electro-Voice cements the long-standing trust that Harris has placed in his EV-equipped rig, solidifying a shared commitment to uncompromising audio quality that st

Korea - Neumann’s Miniature Clip Microphone System (MCM) has been making waves since its release. In Korea, with artists like Jang Ha-eun (classical guitarist), Mellow Kitchen (saxophonist), and KoN (violinist) joining the ranks of MCM users, it is evident that Neumann's MCM is making waves.
Jang Ha-eun is a popular South Korean singer and classical guitarist who has made a name for herself on the international stage. Most notably, she was one of the finalists at the popular South Korean talent show Superband 2 and performed at Carnegie Hall in New York with the Union City Orchestra. Her collaboration with prestigious orchestras such as the Seoul Grand Philharmonic Orchestra and the Bolshoi Theatre National Opera Orchestra have further showcased her exceptional guitar skills and musical talent.
“I always aim to achieve the best sound quality for all my perfo

USA - Tony Caporale uses the word ‘array’ quite often when talking about his 61-universe lighting design for Grammy-winners, Tedeschi Trucks Band on their recently completed North American tour. That’s not just because he used 53 Chauvet Professional Strike Array fixtures to convey the 12-member band’s outsized energy level; in actuality it has to do with his approach to creating the dynamic production that supported their music.
“I’ve been saying ‘array’ a lot when I talk about this show,” said the designer and programmer. “The word really just sums up the vision we had for this show. We’ve grouped all of the fixtures in this rig in clusters, to create what I call an ‘array-style look’. Brian Pirrone, who has a great knowledge of this band, helped great deal in connecting me to their spirit.”
The array configuration that Caporale arrived at

Australia - Anyone looking out from the banks of the Brisbane River this year might see a new feature on the water: Oasis Cruising’s new entertainment riverboat. With a permanent residency on the Brisbane River, the three-level events boat offers voyages with sweeping views of the city skyline, while talented international and local DJs ignite each custom-designed space with high quality audio. Integral to this experience is an onboard PA system enabling extensive control, coverage and fidelity, courtesy of French loudspeaker manufacturer Nexo.
Nexo’s flagship point source system, the P+ Series, in combination with the compact full-range ID24 Series, were selected to supply audio to the dancefloors and all covered areas aboard Oasis. Nexo’s optional contemporary white colour schemes were chosen for each system, allowing the modules to blend seamlessly into the boat’

USA - Light artist Eloi Maduell from Playmodes Studio used 288 Astera Titan Tubes to realise his immersive lighting installation Beyond at the 2023 LUMA Projection Arts Festival staged in Binghamton, New York.
The lighting fixtures were supplied by Wireless Film Lights from Hannover, Massachusetts, a sponsor of the 2023 LUMA event, which was curated and organised by co-founders, Joshua Bernard and Tice Lerner.
Since 2015, LUMA has been an intersection between art and technology, presenting inspiring and fun large-scale lighting and projection art in a pop-up urban environment for what has become a popular annual event in the town, attracting tens of thousands of visitors.
Beyond was one of seven works presented this year. It was the only one that didn’t involve a pre-existing building and projection mapping, instead the “travel without moving

Mexico - Few people other than dedicate cinema buffs, remember the 1935 James Cagney movie G Men, but the classic gangster film has lived on for the past four decades thanks to the global success of the Spanish quartet Hombres G. Ever since they made their debut at Madrid’s Rock-Ola in 1983, the band has been wooing fans with their irrepressible pop sound.
Today, countless live shows and some 15 albums later, the Latin Grammy nominated band is going as strong as ever. Their effusive energy and spot-on musicality are there for all to see and enjoy on their Seguimos Empezando tour.
Celebrating 40 years of Hombres G the tour is running throughout Spain and Latin America, playing two-hour sets in which the band never takes their foot off the gas pedal.
Reflecting this energy at Hombres G’s sold-out performances at Arena Monterrey and Arena Ciudad de Méxic

USA - Free Chapel is a growing multicampus church, operating out of Gainesville, Georgia, that combines a local approach with a global vision. The church’s successful and technically advanced Forward Conference has been constantly evolving over nearly two decades.
Snapback Productions from Atlanta was enlisted to support the technical realisation of the 19th year of the student conference earlier this summer. The annual event hosts more than 10,000 students from dozens of states at the Gas South Arena in Duluth, Georgia.
This year’s Forward Conference featured five artists and seven main stage speakers over a period of three days. Each of the artists performed sets ranging between 30–45 minutes, with some of the artists performing more than one set in total.
Snapback’s Bryce Kongvold and Michael Ferris were tasked with supporting creative director, Austin

Sweden - Prolights Astra Family lluminated the A Show Larger than Life performance at the Hamburger Börs in Stockholm, delivering a visual experience that left the audience utterly captivated.
This event celebrated the era of boy bands and music legends, both Swedish and international, and was elevated to even greater heights with the inclusion of Prolights projectors, generously provided by Gobo AB, the primary Prolights distributor in the region.
Lighting designer Jimmy Thorén harnessed the full potential of Prolights devices to transport the audience back to the turn of the millennium, evoking nostalgic sentiments from the '90s.
The Prolights lighting setup featured a total of 36 moving heads, including the Astra Wash19Pix, Astra Hybrid330, and Astra Profile400, transforming the Hamburger Börs into a genuine visual spectacle, immersing both the artis

South Africa - Technical supply company, MGG, has invested in 24 ROXX Cluster B4 FC LED blinders from DWR Distribution which were set to work at the 2023 SPAR Convention held at Sun City.
MGG’s initial introduction to the brand came about when Thorsten Sattler, one of the founding members of ROXX, visited rental companies within South Africa to support local distributor DWR Distribution. Mark Gaylard, director of MGG, needed a crowd blinder that would be suitable for outdoor events and it was apparent that the robust ROXX Cluster B4 FC LED Blinder ticked that box and many others.
Günther Müller, project manager at MGG, comments, "We received the ROXX fixtures just in time for the Krone 7 music show, and since then, we've used them at various events including a festival in Nelspruit and most notably at the 2023 SPAR Convention.” The SPAR convention, attended by 1

USA - After unveiling a significant upgrade featuring over 4,800sq.ft of top-tier LED displays from digiLED, Tropicana Field, a multi-purpose domed stadium situated in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the long-standing home of the American professional baseball team, the Tampa Bay Rays, has surged ahead in technological advancement across its entire facility.
This stride in innovation is prominently showcased in its Rays control room, where 1.3mm digiTHIN HD LED screens have been installed.
“When we began deliberating the choice of a screen manufacturer for our control room, we sought input from a diverse group of stakeholders, including members of the Rays family and professionals associated with other stadiums,” says Michael Weinman, director, Tampa Bay Rays. “A pivotal factor that influenced our decision was the exceptional support we received from digiLED.

Poland - The musical We Will Rock You had its Polish premiere this spring, powered by a Meyer Sound system headlined by Lina compact linear line array loudspeakers at the Roma Musical Theatre in Warsaw.
Directed by Wojciech Kępczyński, the production features the music of Queen neatly translated into Polish, crossing the boundaries of a theatrical performance and transforming into a rock concert.
Along with the LINA loudspeakers, the full system included 1100‑LFC low-frequency control elements, VLFC very low-frequency control elements, UPA-2P, UPM‑1P, and UP-4XP loudspeakers, ULTRA‑X42 compact loudspeakers, and MM‑4XP miniature self-powered loudspeakers, along with the Galileo GALAXY Network Platform and D‑Mitri Digital Audio Platform.

Italy - Marrageddon, the successful first hip hop festival from King of Rap, Marracash, involved two massive concerts in the two cities that are symbolic of the rapper: Milan and Naples.
Marrageddon gathered no less than 84,000 people at the Hippodrome La Maura in Milan on 23 September and more than 55,000 at the Hippodrome di Agnano in Naples on 30 September.
The festival hosted not only the big names of Italian rap - Fabri Fibra, Paky, Shiva, Salmo, Guè Pequeno, Lazza, Madame - but also dozens of emerging artists, integrating fireworks, lasers and 1,000sq.m of LED wall, as well as suspension cables to fly Marracash above the dance troupe.
Lighting designer Giorgio De Cassan of Ombra Design, who was entrusted by the rapper with the entire creative direction of his Italian tour, lit this event. The LD opted for 40 Ayrton Cobra laser-sourced fixtures, supplied

Germany - Since 1994, the rather tranquil Baden-Württemberg state capital of Stuttgart has been transformed into a quivering music metropolis for a few days every year (notwithstanding the city’s never-ending railway station construction drama).
The Jazzopen music festival – which, contrary to what the name suggests, has been open to artists of all musical genres since the beginning – has developed into a world-class concert event. This year, around 50,000 visitors experienced performances by Melody Gardot, Deep Purple, Grace Jones, Die Fantastischen Vier, Joss Stone, Simply Red and many others over the festival’s 11 days.
Event technology specialist, Sound & Light Veranstaltungstechnik from Leonberg, has consistently supported Jazzopen as a technology partner in recent years and has been a permanent service provider for sound, light and video technology o

USA - El Carlos Elegante is a Mexican and South American inspired restaurant in the Design District of Dallas, Texas. A creation of the successful Dallas-based Duro Hospitality Group, the eclectic venue consists of multiple dining areas and building materials. The front and back courtyards include retractable roofs creating indoor/outdoor seating. The restaurant required a sound system that would work within the architecture and style of the space and also withstand the extreme Texas weather in the outdoor dining areas.
Integrator NX A/V chose Fulcrum Acoustic speakers because of their form factor, sound quality and reliability. The small-footprint of the coaxial CX loudspeakers created a space-efficient design. Since all Fulcrum Acoustic speakers are-built-to-order, the customer was able to order unfinished boxes and custom stain them to match the space. They also appreciat

USA - Clear-Com intercom solutions have long been a go-to for NYC’s Public Theater, a means to ensure the behind-the-scenes technology for the stories they tell on stage is up to the task, now and for the future. In doing so, The Public Theater has recently implemented a new Clear-Com system to serve the multiple performance spaces in their Lower Manhattan headquarters on Lafayette Street at Astor Place in Manhattan.
One of the nation’s first non-profit theatres, The Public Theater has supported emerging playwrights and performers for over 60 years, including the premier of Hamilton in 2015, and has won numerous awards, including six Pulitzer Prizes.
The project they’re currently working on is a system designed to provide reliable comms throughout their headquarters’ five theatres and their cabaret venue, Joe’s Pub. “The building wasn't meant to be

Europe - LED product designer and manufacturer, Forge is partnering with Lumileds to provide outdoor lighting solutions dedicated to preserving dark skies.
The partnership combines decades of experience and expertise with LED innovation, creating considerate product designs that help to combat the impact of light pollution on the planet.
The partnership sees the creation of turnkey solutions for professional lighting products, combining Lumileds’ Luxeon NightScape technology with Forge’s rapid product realisation capabilities.
The disruptive effects of blue light from LEDs on human melatonin levels and sleep regulation are well documented, but as the world comes to a greater understanding of the devastating effects of this blue component on nocturnal wildlife, legislation has been implemented to seed real change.
In the UK the ILP’s GN08/23 gives

China - Established just under two years ago by Tencent Interactive Entertainment Group's Content Development Department (CDD), the Shenzhen-based CDD Virtual Studio has been pioneering new content production methods for China's largest online gaming platform, Tencent Games.
It currently stands as the only virtual studio in the country equipped with CDD's self-developed VP and XR dual-system automatic switching capability, which allows for rapid system switching within one minute, enabling the facility to meet the high-end VP and XR system shooting requirements for large-scale productions in film and television. The studio utilises Brompton Technology LED video processing and AOTO LED screen as part of its technical setup.
CDD virtual production technical manager Nornor Chen notes that since the studio’s foundation, the team has been very open to exploring new appli

USA - Country music singer Hardy is out on his debut arena tour with a lighting package from Bandit Lites. The Mockingbird & The Crow Tour, named for his highest charting album to date, merges his country roots and rock sound, to deliver music that rings true for his millions of listeners. The second leg of his tour kicked off in the fall and features Lainey Wilson and Dylan Marlowe.
Bandit Lites is providing more than 200 fixtures for the tour including Chauvet Maverick Storm 1 Hybrids, Chauvet Rogue R2X Washes, Chauvet Strike 4 Arrays, Chauvet Strike M, Chauvet COLORado PXL Bar 16 and VL 3600. Two grandMA3 Full consoles provide control for LD Trevor Drawdy, who expertly layered in the lighting visuals to work with the tour’s other visual elements, such as pyro, video and IMAG effects.
“The workhorse fixture in the rig is the VL3600, a very dynamic fixture w

The Netherlands - When it opened in June 1972 it was called Paard van Troje (Dutch for Trojan Horse), perhaps a reference to its underground vibe, its tendency to host counterculture bands that weren’t always welcomed in mainstream circles, and its previous life as a squat. By 2016, however, this live music venue in the Prinsegracht had long since become so established that the clandestine label no longer seemed to fit, so its name was changed simply to Paard.
The new moniker did nothing to diminish the edgy, intense vibe inside the venue, which can accommodate 1,100 fans in the largest of its three halls. It remains as strong as ever, made even more potent today by the recent installation of Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Air Light Holland.
Daan Stakenburg, the lead lighting technician at Paard, notes that the Chauvet Professional fixtures were selected

USA - The non-profit AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas will observe its 15th anniversary next year and the five performance venues on its campus - the 2,200-seat Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, the 547-capacity Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, the outdoor performance space, Annette Strauss Square, whose lawn can hold up to 2,200, and two highly-utilized black box theatre spaces -have geared up to celebrate with a new sound system and an array of DiGiCo products that will enhance the sonic capabilities in the $360m facility.
The new systems, including a new d&b audiotechnik PA, were designed mainly for use in the Margaret McDermott Hall, located within the Winspear Opera House, and home to The Dallas Opera and Texas Ballet Theater; however, all of the DiGiCo systems will be available for use in any of the venues as needed.
Those systems include two Quant

UK - Christie reports its continuing partnership with the BFI for the 67th BFI London Film Festival (LFF) in partnership with American Express. The BFI LFF returned to the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank of the Thames, where the concert hall served as the main red carpet gala venue from 4-15 October.
Dominic Simmons, head of technical services at the BFI, says, "Christie RGB pure laser projectors show extremely vivid colours and contrast on the screen. Last year, directors and film representatives witnessed their work on the Christie Real|Laser illuminated projector and loved what they saw. I'm pleased that we're able to again screen films in high quality using Christie for the Royal Festival Hall."
Christie cinema sales manager, Phil Lord, comments: “It’s a pleasure to continue our longstanding partnership with the BFI and the BFI London

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