The Netherlands - Salesforce’s World Tour Amsterdam business event took place at the Taets Art & Event Park in Zaandamon 23 May. Smile Licht en Geluid Utrecht, Showtec and Infinity illuminated the event. Salesforce is a company that creates cloud-based software to help companies connect with their customers in an innovative way. Their World Tour Amsterdam event included more than 40 sessions from industry leaders designed to improve business practices. Several areas in the Taets Art & Event Park were created to host different topics and the setup was ideal for information sharing and networking. In addition to customised decor, this included a large number of lights by Showtec and Infinity. The lights were provided by Smile Licht en Geluid Utrecht, a company that specialises in light, video and sound technology as well as rigging and power distributio
South Africa - Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria came to life with three performances over a four-day period with the Bethel Music SA Tour, Theuns Jordaan Tribute concert and the Boots and All Country Festival featuring Kip Moore, with all shows produced by The Hit Factory. MGG was appointed full technical supplier for the shows, incorporating one of its two new DiGiCo Quantum 338 along with a Quantum 225 digital mixing console. The three shows at Loftus catered for an audience of over 30,000 per performance. “It's such a privilege to do large format concerts like this again and to see a massive crowd of people just enjoying themselves gave us goosebumps,” Günther Müller, project manager at MGG enthuses. “This, paired with the fantastic artists and supported by the A++ technical team in South Africa, was an experience like no other. It’s such a privilege to
USA - PRG (Production Resource Group) has been named one of two pilot phase partners for L-Acoustics’ L Series Speakers in the Americas, before the technology becomes fully available to the public this October. This year, PRG has made a significant eight-figure investment with long term partner L-Acoustics. PRG is an L-Acoustics Certified Provider Rental (CPr) and the equipment is now available across PRG’s global locations on a rental basis. PRG’s expanded partnership with L-Acoustics makes the brand’s tech available to customers and markets around the world. Metal band, Dream Theater, is the first production where the L Series is being utilised by PRG on tour. “Our substantial investment in L-Acoustics products reinforces our commitment to creating outstanding experiences for audiences at live events around the world,” says Doug McKinley, VP, asset serv
USA - With stars like Zeds Dead, STS9, Louis The Child, Subronics, Liquid Stranger, Walker & Royce, and Alesso, The Other Stage at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival served up plenty of EDM firepower. A high-intensity lighting rig was the order of the day and that’s precisely what Chris Lisle provided with help from 325 Chauvet Professional fixtures, which like the rest of the rig were supplied by 4Wall Entertainment. Lisle, the owner of Nashville-based CLLD, LLC gave the visiting LDs for these artists all the punchy output they could ever ask for, but he didn’t stop there. The fixtures in his rig on The Other Stage were also very versatile, supporting a variety of looks, while also possessing the strength to stand up to large, multi-surface video walls and a video ribbon that ran across the roof of the stage. Much of the lighting excitement was generated b
USA - Lighting designer Mike Swinford of UpLate Design loves new tech as much as he loves the chance to be the first to use it, so he was delighted when everything aligned for rental company Fuse to invest in the first Robe Footsie luminaires to arrive in the USA - which he utilised as a key lighting element for the 2023 CMA Fest. The four-day festival is hosted by the Country Music Association (CMA) and recorded at the Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, in front of live audiences and broadcast on ABC a couple of months later, but this year the popular airing date was brought forward from its traditional August slot to 19 July. Mike has lit the star-studded multi-camera event for the last 21 years. Being a massive televisual event as well as four days of live music for fans there in the venue, key lighting is critical to everything. Thirty Footsie luminai
Lithuania - This year was The Voice Lithuania 10th anniversary season, which is celebrated in style with a spectacular grand finale. The event was held at Lithuania's largest arena, Žalgirio Arena, located in Kaunas, the country's second-largest city. The live show featured 10 talented participants vying for the coveted title, who were subsequently narrowed down to the top four contestants for the super finale. As The Voice Lithuania is one of the most significant and demanding projects on the country's events calendar, with an audience exceeding one million viewers, it was crucial to utilise top-notch equipment to ensure the seamless execution of the event. Jurgis Stasikėlis, an independent sound engineer from Garsisc Sound Team, took charge of the audio and opted for a DiGiCo Quantum 338 console, provided by Sonus Exsertus, DiGiCo’s distributor fo
Italy - First Festival returned to the Fiera Del Mare, the spacious summer stage [70 x 120m] at one of Italy's most prestigious techno events, ranking among the top six in national importance. Following previous sold-out events featuring artists like Nina Kraviz, Charlotte de Witte, and Richie Hawtin, the festival presented by RST Events treated the audience to a seamless 10-hour musical experience. The line-up included top international DJs such as Ben Klock and Marcel Dettmann, CamelPhat (Dave Whelan and Mike Di Scala), Mathame (Matteo and Amedeo Giovanelli), and Fel (Giovanni Galvani and Alessio Lerma). An essential element of the First Festival since 2013 has been the Outline sound system, installed by Show Technologies from Recco - Genoa Alessandro Orlando, representing RST Events and a prominent figure in organising major events in Genoa over the past decad
The Netherlands - For Live is a production design and rental company covering technical and scenic aspects for a diversity of live events - sound, lighting, video, rigging, décor and scenic - based in Amersfoort in the province of Utrecht, with over 200 Robe moving lights in rental stock. The company was founded in 2014 by Ruud Van Den Berg, who has been passionate about the industry since he started DJ’ing seriously aged 12. For Live has become renowned for delivering dynamic multi-site sporting events and broadcasts and servicing a range of corporate and B2B clients and brand activations plus live televised and streamed events. Starting with building up a ‘dream team’, For Live first invested in the human capital needed to work creatively and constantly, then started purchasing specialist technical equipment, a process that accompanied quick and steady growth
UK - Following significant upgrades to the Great Oak Stage in 2022, American Express presents BST Hyde Park relaxed comfortably into its new setting this year. The stage dominates the Royal Park - now firmly established, after once being considered ‘unworkable’ as a concert site, surrounded as it is by the well-heeled residents of Mayfair and Knightsbridge. Much of this is because Martin Audio’s tightly controllable MLA PA array - the result of its advanced DISPLAY optimisation software - has been ever-present since AEG Presents took over the Park lease in 2013, making offsite noise pollution largely a thing of the past. With system engineering back in the capable hands of Toby Donovan, who aside from last year has worked every BST, the site sound provided its usual exemplary experience for au
USA/Europe - Three-time Grammy Award winners Maroon 5 took off on a concise but intense tour this year. UK + Europe 2023 was the 15th concert tour by the band, who have also won eight Billboard Music Awards and all 27 of their BMI Pop Awards nominations, in support of their seventh studio album, 2021’s Jordi. The tour began on 13 June in Lisbon, Portugal and travelled through Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, and France before concluding on 4 July in Birmingham. But Maroon 5 also have a completely different live identity: their ongoing residency at the Dolby Live venue at Park MGM in Las Vegas, which they settle back into from 28 July through 12 August. On the road, they’re a stereo band; in Las Vegas, they arrive as an immersive experience through Dolby’s Atmos format. What stays consistent throughout is DiGiCo, the suite of audio cons
Mexico - Prolific Norteño-Banda singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Edén Muñoz, who has had seven No. 1 albums on Billboard’s Regional Mexican chart, recently purchased a pair of Solid State Logic Live L550 Plus mixing consoles to handle front-of-house and monitor duties on his live shows. Muñoz, currently touring the United States with Banda MS, embarks on his first solo US tour beginning in August. “The main idea behind purchasing these consoles came from Edén Muñoz,” reports the artist’s monitor engineer, Sergio Ramos. “He uses SSL in his recording studio and really likes the sound of the brand, which was the main reason for the purchase. We decided to go with the L550 Plus because of its large DSP power, ensuring we wouldn't encounter any processing issues when using the necessary plug-ins and stems.” “We always knew the console's sound
Denmark - The 51st edition of the Roskilde Festival, Northern Europe’s largest and longest-running celebration of music and the arts, wrapped in early July following seven days of the annual event’s distinctive blend of entertainment, artistic expression, and global citizenship. This first year of the festival’s second half-century also marked the sixth year of partnership with Meyer Sound, and in 2023 four of the festival’s stages were powered by systems based around the new Panther large-format linear line array loudspeakers. “Roskilde is always aiming to improve the audience experience,” says Lars Liliengren, the festival’s head of production. “After day one of working with Panther, we have realised better coverage of the site, with more clarity, and a system that’s easier to work with.” A complement of 141 Panther loudspeakers were deploy
USA - Snoop Dogg’s current High School Reunion tour with Wiz Khalifa takes its name from the duo’s 2012 film Mac & Devlin Go To High School. The 33-city North American tour began 7 July at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena and features plenty of classic hits, including a duet of We Dem Boys plus newer material. The stage production supporting the tour also celebrates the past, present and future, combining some retro video looks with sleek contemporary geometric patterns and blazingly bright, colourful effects from 48 Chauvet Professional Color Strike M fixtures. Production designer Justin Casey of HELM Projects, which supplied all the gear for the tour, approached this project with a narrative perspective that could reflect different phases of the two artists’ careers. “I designed the rig around the concept of having a story board scree
Germany - In the early summer of 2023 Herbert Grönemeyer was persuaded to return to Germany’s arenas, having released his latest (and 17th) album Das ist los back in March. At 67 years old, Herbert Grönemeyer hops and prances about the stage and gives tens of thousands of fans two hours of entertainment, night after night. For his latest tour, creatives Gunther Hecker and Rob Sinclair (Peter Gabriel, Madonna, etc.) designed an impressive stage, including a footbridge and B stage. Hecker, who has been part of Grönemeyer’s design team for years, staged this with a lighting rig that included over 220 fixtures from GLP, including impression X5 and X5 IP Bars. The general technical service provider for the tour was satis&fy AG, while airformance design created the decorative elements that characterised the stage design in lightweight construction. T
Portugal - Europalco delivered a memorable event using Kuka robots for the truck and bus manufacturer Fuso to unveil the new eCanter, a light truck 100% electric. Prime Minister António Costa, Secretary of State for the Economy Pedro Cilínio, and company representatives were among the 150 guests. Team4 relied on Europalco to organise the one-day event at Fuso's manufacturing plant in Tramagal, Portugal. It took two days and 20 dedicated audiovisual and structural technicians to assemble and programme an event that marked the commencement of the manufacturing of the new Fuso truck. The Lisbon-based provider was responsible for the scenery, stage, audiovisual, automatic controls, and furniture. Europalco built an 8x4m LED wall that displayed the opening reel of the event. For the unveiling of Fuso's new truck, Europalco designed a show to reflect modernity, nove
USA - Everything looks better in colourful light, even something as remarkably beautiful as a world-famous tourist attraction that draws some 34m visitors a year. LD Systems demonstrated that recently when it transformed the city of San Antonio into a glittering field of brightness and colour for the US Travel Association’s IPW 23 Visit San Antonio event. Using large format video and lighting systems, the company worked its magic at 12 different locations throughout San Antonio from the Alamo Plaza to the city’s famed River Walk, which was recently named one of the five most beautiful sites in the USA. From the diverse array of imaginative gobos that brought depth and life to familiar sites and walkways, to bold aerials that animated the sky overhead, to uplighting that colorised the sides of tall buildings, the LD Systems design added extra sparkle to the city fo
Serbia - Founded in Belgrade in 2004, Lexington Band has played hundreds of concerts across the country throughout their nearly two-decade-long career, cultivating a large community of passionate fans. The group reached the height of their success with a massive concert at Stark Arena in March 2020, captivating an audience of 20,000 people. As their popularity and concert attendance grew, the band’s members became increasingly interested in advanced audio equipment and its impact on sound quality. In pursuit of the ideal solution to meet their on-stage requirements and enable audiences to fully appreciate their music, they decided to invest in a Waves-enabled DiGiCo SD11 mixing console. AVL Projekt, the DiGiCo’s Serbian distributor, was engaged to offer support and invited the band to visit their demo space in Novi Sad, where audio engineer Dragoslav Beljin, who ha
Japan - After cancellations had been imposed on Japanese outdoor festivals with the outbreak of COVID-19 - followed by restrictions (including masks to be worn) - finally this year all regulations were lifted, and large-scale rock festivals returned to the annual calendar. Japan Jam 2023 was no exception. The event is held over Japan’s Golden Week holidays and sets out to honour the best rock music performed by domestic musicians. Artists are drawn from alternative, indie, metal and other rock music genres, and this year the festival saw a record number of participants. But Chiba City Soga Sports Park, where Japan Jam takes place, is surrounded by heavily populated residential and commercial areas. And so with the lifting of restrictions, and requirement for a higher SPL to be reinstated, emphasis needed to be placed on tight noise control, to prevent sound from esca
Czech Republic - Sound Kitchen, now in its 15th year, recently took place as part of the Prague Quadrennial 2023. Held every four years - as its name suggests -the Prague Quadrennial is an international festival of theatre and stage design that celebrates the diversity of all theatre arts in a holistic and interactive way. Sound Kitchen, as part of PQ2023, provides an opportunity for the audio-curious to perform their work and exchange ideas in an experimental and experiential, multichannel and immersive environment. The collaborative exploration project is organised and co-curated by sound designer, Peter Rice, and Out Board’s Robin Whitaker, with support from a selected team of international sound designers, engineers and artists, as well as manufacturers, committed to the highest quality audio reproduction. Invited to join the fold for this year’s Sound Ki
Japan - Inspired by Shogakukan’s NEO series of picture books, the Zukan Museum Ginza in Tokyo is described as an ‘experience-based facility’ that fuses the digital and the real. Zukan Museum offers an immersive and interactive journey to discover the natural world beyond time and space. Over 100 Genelec loudspeakers combined with cutting edge video technology help drive the experience where natural environments of forests and water are seamlessly connected for a magical journey through the world of living things. "The museum faithfully recreates the ecosystem of the natural world, with different creatures appearing in each area, such as the forest, savanna, underwater, etc., where the act of observing and recording the creatures is interactive. For example, if you get too close to a creature, it will be startled and run away," explains Mr. Jun Fujiwara of invisi Ltd, w
Albania - Prolights fixtures created an enchanting atmosphere during the grand finale of Muza competition 2023. The project, conceived by the Union of Albanian Municipalities, aims to inspire young enthusiasts and professionals to ‘revive ethnographic elements in the world of fashion design’. The grand finale, held in Tirana, brought together the different Albanian-speaking sectors, who showcased their extraordinary collections in a show that mesmerised the attendees. The event not only celebrated Albania's rich cultural heritage but also recognised the exceptional talent of its up-and-coming fashion designers. ASLV Albania designed and created the lighting for this event and relied on ASLV, Prolights distributor in the area in an event organized by Kuadr Events. The lighting system used for the grand finale featured the following range of Prolights fixtures
USA - American rockers Fall Out Boy released their first new album in five years in March, So Much (For) Stardust, and then kicked off their So Much For (Tour) Dust tour in style on 21 June, playing a 27-song set at a packed Wrigley Field. Lighting design is by Connor Sullivan of So Midwest, who is using Elation’s new Fuze Wash 500 on his tour design, along with Prisma Wash 100 lights from Magmatic effects. Lighting supply is by Upstaging. The new album has been described as 'cinematic' and the tour’s creative directors Amber Rimell & Bronski of Tawbox, along with Connor, talked about doing something for the tour that was more storytelling and theatrical. The entire point, says Connor, just like the new album, “was to show separation and difference while also showing balance. We have our outward sides that we show the world and our inside that we keep
Italy - Meet Music Festival is an annual musical artists competition created by DJ producer, Luca Guerrieri who is also founder of Claps Records and DVS Records. Luca created Meet Music Festival with the goal of giving the opportunity for young talents, DJs, and some not yet established artists to perform in a real professional experience. This year’s two-day event was held in Follonica at Casello Hydraulico and had six sponsors including Red Bull, Sounder, and premium loudspeaker brand, 1 Sound. At this year’s Meet Music Festival, there were four contests in collaboration with Red Bull, Grey Cat Jazz Festival, Claps Records & Tartara and Higher Sound & Follsonica that highlighted four different genres of music, from deep house to Hip Hop and Trap. The jury was made up of professionals such as Renato Tanchis (A&R Sony Music) and Pierangelo Mauri (histor
Europe - It’s been a busy year so far for lighting designer Tim Routledge, including crafting the production lighting design for Helene Fischer’s new LIVE 2023 arena tour collaboration with Cirque du Soleil, which is playing to sold out audiences across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland until the autumn, presenting an energetic collage of a 360° production, seat-edge acrobatics, and musical performance. Cirque’s creative team led by Marie-Helen Delage approached Tim to work alongside show director Genevieve Dorion-Coupal and set designer Bruce Rodgers on this ambitious production. The lighting rig utilises 56 x Robe iFortes, nine running on RoboSpot systems plus 116 x Robe Spiider LED wash beam moving lights, together with many other luminaires, all supplied by Solotech out of the UK. Lighting director on the road for this fusion of circus, theatre
