Philippines - Located in the central business district of Makati, Philippines, HIT Productions is a 31-year-old post-production studio known for creating award-winning work serving the advertising, music, film, and streaming localisation markets. With recent changes in how content is created, distributed, and consumed, HIT realized that its old facility no longer met the needs of its production teams and clients. Studios in the old facility were based on analogue point-to-point connections built back in the era of specialised rooms with limited signal routing options, resulting in inefficient use of space and resources. When a new building became available in 2021, HIT jumped at the opportunity to build a new facility that would allow them to meet the challenges of a constantly changing technology ecosystem. Dennis Cham, founding partner and chief technology officer
Qatar - Creative Technology Middle East supported broadcaster Fox to deliver the largest temporary studio in Qatar on the Doha Corniche waterfront promenade, for the live broadcast of the FIFA World Cup 2022. Fox sports broadcast all 64 World Cup games live across the United States from their set featuring four different stages, each having a backdrop of the West Bay illuminated skyline of Qatar's capital. CTME delivered the studio’s AV requirements across the impressive space which span across 148ft x 33ft within two stories. The onsite build started on 22 October and ran 24/7 until FIFA went live on 20 November. The AV solutions consisted of 500sqm of LED controlled by multiple Novastar H9 splicers and Barco E2 screen management system to manage over 22m pixels. A bespoke lighting package consisted over 700 lighting fixtures. CT also managed all of t
UK - Ollie Titterington of O T Events Technicians knows every inch of the path that winds through Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens for Illuminate. That’s not surprising; after three years of working on this winter light celebration at the historic Dorset garden (it dates back to 1756), he’s traversed the event’s well-planned route time and time again, visiting the site months in advance to look for optimal lighting positions. Titterington couldn’t help but feel a delightful sense of newness and discovery every time he walked down this year’s Illuminate path. Seeing the brilliant bursts of reds, blues, purples and other colours playing against shadows of forested paths never gets old. Neither does gazing at a fallen pine tree laying near scenic objects in a peaceful pond, all embraced by dreamy gobos. Nor does coming upon a classic statue that beckons at the end of a
The Netherlands - The first season of the 1% Quiz TV show in the Netherlands was recorded at EMG's Mediahaven Studio in Amsterdam with a stylish lighting design by Henk-Jan van Beek of design studio Light-H-Art. This featured 110 x Robe Esprites, 98 x LEDBeam 350s, 46 x LEDBeam 150s and 20 x T1 Profile moving lights, all delivered by Eventec. Dutch producers Blue Circle Productions added a few of their own exclusively Dutch elements as this was the first time the show concept has been produced outside the UK where it originated on ITV. One hundred contestants – who are also the audience – try to answer a question that only 1% of the country can get right. The show is styled as an IQ test with questions based on logic and common sense rather than general knowledge. Henk-Jan worked closely with Dutch set designer Harald Kassies who took the original 1% Cl
Italy -Two events - Legend 375 and Christmas Night - staged at the Coccia Theatre in Novara marked the Italian debut of the Adamson Fletcher Machine the immersive audio processor designed and created by Adamson. On stage was the musical project written by Claudio Mazzucchelli - co-founder of the orchestra and director of the two shows - and interpreted by the 50-piece CM Orchestra Rhythms & Drums directed by Maestro Andrea Pollione. A story in music, through which the director wanted to relive the soundtrack of his life, together with the audience, where everyone can recognize passages of their own. An exciting choral play of sound, light, and color designed to immerse and excite. Claudio Mazzucchelli, artistic director and concert technician said, “With the CM Orchestra we looked for an audio system that was capable of interpreting the skill
USA - Nick Chang has been overseeing lighting for services and other events at Church of the City in Nashville since 2020 and again handled lighting programming and direction for five Christmas services this past December. Employing Elation’s Artiste Mondrian LED profile FX luminaire on the worship services, Nick hid the multi-functional moving heads behind a blow-through LED wall to create a variety of impactful and unexpectedly striking lighting scenes. Production and lighting design was by Jori Johnson. Held in a 3,000-seat auditorium at Church of the City’s main campus in Franklin, Tennessee, this year’s services featured an increased production value, including a dedicated producer (Tommee Profitt) and expanded lighting design. At Nick’s disposal were 32 Artiste Mondrian luminaires rented through 4Wall Nashville. “Previous years were more traditional s
Iceland - Known for their ethereal sound, frontman Jónsi's falsetto vocals sung in Icelandic and non-linguistic vocalisations, as well as their use of bowed guitar, Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós have recently completed their first world tour in nearly five years, delivering 70 shows across 28 countries. The band’s monitor engineer, Throstur Albertsson, deployed KLANG’s immersive in-ear monitor mixing solution, using a DMI-KLANG card-equipped DiGiCo SD12 96 digital mixing console, supplied by new UK pro-audio equipment rental and support provider, 22live. Albertsson was recommended to Sigur Rós in mid-2021, as they were starting to plan their 2022 tour. “As the tour was going out for many months, I had a few meetings with the band to make sure the fit would be a good one, both for them and me,” recalls Albertsson. “At the time, my mixing abilities wer
UK - Multi-award winning Bellowhead reformed for a one-off tour in November 2022 to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of their Broadside album. Providing lighting for the 18-night UK tour - which included London’s Royal Albert Hall - was Martin Dudley’s Martin’s Lights Ltd, using an inventory of Martin ERA 300 fixtures in a lightweight, bright, easily deployable stage package. The ERA 300 is part of the Martin ERA Performance & Profile LED family consisting of the ERA 300, 400, 600 and 800. “Six ERAs were used in a floor package designed to be versatile enough to light the wide variety of songs and moods in the show.” describes Martin Dudley. “They were placed as part of the band’s stage set at various heights on risers and boxes. A further six ERAs were hung on an upstage truss or bar when needed to bolster venue lighting rigs.
USA - Nestled in a wooded setting just north of Chicago, Philharmonic Studios is a new, full-service recording studio that offers five-star, private experiences. This upscale, multi-room facility was built from the ground up, intending to meet the highest technical standards and set new benchmarks in design and performance. The facility has hosted many diverse clients and provides a unique, concierge-level experience to projects, such as solo piano, brass, strings and choral ensembles. To complement the facility’s esteemed recording spaces, Philharmonic Studios relies on multiple vocal and instrument mics from DPA Microphones for ‘pristine audio and excellent transient response’. “I am relatively new to DPA,” says Philharmonic Studios owner and recording engineer Greg Miner, “but I immediately recognised that the company has elegant and practical solutions
Serbia - As the frontman and founder of the band Balkanopolis, Slobodan Trkulja has collaborated and performed with renowned jazz and symphonic orchestras including the Grammy Award winning Metropole Orchestra from Holland, Belgrade Philharmonic, Jazz Orchestra of Concertgebouw, and Eddy Martinez Latin Big Band, as well as artists like Mariza (Portugal), Oleta Adams (USA), and Babba Maal (Senegal), to name just a few. DiGiCo’s authorised distributor in Serbia, AVL Projekt, created the sound system comprising of DiGiCo SD11 and SD12 consoles and a KLANG:fabrik immersive in-ear monitor system, empowering Slobodan Trkulja & Balkanopolis to deliver the sound for the band’s sonorous and emotional performances. Trkulja can play up to 20 instruments including clarinet, bagpipes, kaval, acoustic guitar, flute, Cretan lyre and Cretan lute, various types of tambourines,
UK - STS Touring Productions has chosen Van Damme as a key partner to help deliver the many live music and sporting events it has become known for. Founded 25 years ago, STS Touring has long provided complete technical and logistical solutions to large-scale live and entertainment events. Its bread and butter is backline – essentially all the necessary gear, including guitars bass and keyboard amplifiers, drums, microphone stands and cables. Portfolio clients include Midge Ure, Mott The Hoople, Frankie Vallie, plus many world class sporting events and major music festivals. With a constantly full diary of challenging and high-profile projects, STS Touring needs to ensure that every element of its kit will stand up to rigorous use. Will Hurn, senior audio systems engineer at STS Touring, commented: “Van Damme is a key part of our offering because its cables
USA - Based in Los Angeles, Impossible Objects is a creative studio and lab combining artists and engineers, specialising in virtual production for both commercial projects and original IP. Founded by Joe Sill and Jerad Anderson, Impossible Objects has established key relationships and partnerships across film, gaming, and technology, and has built innovative projects and workflows with a growing list of clients including Blizzard, Google Play, Western Digital, Honda, and Toyota. Having worked with numerous clients in a variety of different settings, Impossible Objects’ preferred LED stage partner is NantStudios – a service provider of Virtual Production and Visual Effects stages. NantStudios’ 24,000sq.ft LED stage, powered by Unreal Engine, in El Segundo, California houses some of the most advanced and established technology in the industry, including Brompton’s Tes
UAE - The UAE’s National Day celebrations are always delivered on an impressively large scale and 2022 did not disappoint. The high-profile event staged in a purpose-built 100m long enclosed arena with seating along both sides, took the audience on a generational journey of the UAE’s inspiring pioneers. Viewers were transported from sea to space through the media of stunning projection-mapped visuals, supported by transformational spatial audio effects delivered by TiMax SoundHub, the trusted spatial audio engine for precision-positioning of complex and dynamic audioscapes. TiMax SoundHub spatial processing was specified by event sound designer Scott Willsallen for its ability to control and place the show’s many diverse audio sources, which included live orchestra, music playback as well as spatialised soundfield effect elements, to support the action provided by proje
Finland – The Cultural House Martinus in the Finnish city of Vantaa hosted a concert to raise money for sick children in December 2022. Some of Finland’s biggest stars performed in front of eight LED screens, displaying graphics driven by two Hippotizer Montane+ Media Servers. The event, known in Finnish as Kummit JouluMielelle, was broadcast live on MTV3 and recorded for streaming on-demand. It was organised by The Association of Friends of the University Children’s hospitals charitable organisation, founded in 1993, which is a longstanding client of the event projection, graphics and immersive media experts at Visual45. “Christmas was a key theme that guided our design work, so that’s what we aimed for,” says Varpu Sipilä, operations manager at Visual45’s parent company, Creative Technology. “We worked with the setlist and curated the visuals accordi
USA - The 23rd The Latin Grammy Awards, which took place at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Resort’s Michelob Ultra Arena, defied easy categorisation, being big, bold, and sensuously stunning one moment, then delivering soft, intimate moments the next. This was evident right from the start of the three-hour show, as it began with a brief, but intense display of light and background music, before segueing into a tribute to Person of the Year winner, Antonio Solís, by three of the event’s co-hosts: Thalía, Luis Fonsi and Laura Pausini. Regardless of the image it projected, each element of the diverse programme flourished for the live audience, as well as the millions watching on television, thanks to the collaborative efforts of Univision set designer Jorge Domingues, and lighting designer Tom Kenny. “Jorge and I worked very closely together,” said Kenny. “On a sho
USA - The St. Louis-based Pink Floyd tribute group El Monstero played seven sold-out nights at the city’s The Pageant Theatre in December, backed by a fittingly psychedelic lighting design by Chip Self using Vari-Lite VL1600 Profile luminaires from Signify. Self, who is the founder of Midwest lighting production specialist Logic Systems, has been working with El Monstero for more than eight years, and has seen the band rise to Christmas period stardom in St. Louis. “The December 2022 shows were very production intensive, incorporating audio, video, lighting, lasers and pyrotechnics,” says Self. “Logic Systems invested in the VL1600 Profile last year, and I wanted to use them on this show because I needed a high CRI key light fixture that could keep up with the overall intensity of the show and maintain a stable look in a very wide variety of colors and light levels.
Poland - Creative visual director, lighting and multimedia designer, Paweł ‘Spider’ Pajak, of Percepto incorporated a wealth of Ayrton’s latest lighting products into Dawid Podsiadło’s three sold-out stadium shows in Poland, which included a record-breaking attendance at the Silesian Stadium in Chorzow. Singer-songwriter Podsiadło is one of Poland’s biggest touring artists with whom Spider has worked for the past ten years. Pajak chose the latest Ayrton IP65 rated fixtures including 68 Perseo Profile, 21 Domino Profile and 46 of the new Cobra laser-sourced fixtures. The remainder of his rig consisted of 24 Ayrton Huracan Profile fixtures which were sited under the protection of the stage roof. “IP rated fixtures are essential for the type of outdoor work I do,” Spider explains. “Recent years have seen a massive change in the development of IP rated
UK - George Ezra completed his third album Gold Rush Kid in July last year, swiftly followed by a UK arena tour from September to November. DiGiCo Quantum 338 consoles took up both the front of house and monitor positions, offering monitor engineer Oliver Weeks and FOH Mike Timm a user-friendly interface, complete channel freedom and faster processing speeds. Both Weeks and Timm have worked with the singer for a number of years, with Timm joining in 2015, halfway through Ezra’s first album campaign, and Weeks mixing monitors since early 2018, around the start of Staying at Tamara’s, Ezra’s second studio album. Previously using an SD10 on monitors and SD12-96 at FOH, the setup worked well until Timm started running short of channels. Both he and Weeks knew they would need to up the ante for the new album campaign. “This new album cycle was t
UK - Based in West Yorkshire, Universal AV has been designing and supplying innovative audio-visual solutions for more than 30 years, winning an AV Award for Reseller/Integrator of the Year along the way. A recent move to new company offices presented an opportunity to design the ideal meeting room space, for both face-to-face and hybrid meetings with staff working from home. Once the integrated screen and camera technology was installed in the room, it became apparent that there was a need to address the effects of an acoustically challenging space, as marketing manager Shelley Townend explains. “The first Teams meeting took place in the office with employees also working from home,” she says, “and those at home complained that they just could not hear us clearly, and that every time somebody moved the noise was unbearable. It was so bad that we ended up avoidin
UK - Bellowhead’s UK tour was an 18-city voyage that celebrated the tenth anniversary of the band’s Broadside album. Reflecting the nautical theme of that seminal recording, the stage and backdrop on this tour were adorned with evocative seafaring scenery, like barrels, decanters, and wooden decking platforms, which, combined with multi-coloured stage blocks, created what one critic called “a visual delight”. Contributing to this engaging panorama was a very flexible and dynamic Martin Dudley design that featured Chauvet Professional Rogue R2X Wash fixtures that were recently added to the inventory of Martin’s Lights Ltd. Flown over mid-stage, the RGBW moving fixtures were used to enliven the stage’s 12m wide by 6m high backdrop with a variety of rich colours, a task they had no trouble accomplishing thanks to their high output. ”I had a spe
Italy - Located in the heart of ancient Rome, within the historic Palazzo Roccagiovine, FOROF is an exhibition space which combines the archaeology of the ancient city with contemporary art. The venue is right in front of Trajan’s Column and is a two-level space which features subterranean rooms that allow visual access to coloured marbles and the flooring of the Basilica Ulpia, in addition to the remains of the eastern apse. It was created by, and is managed by, Giovanna Caruso Fendi and its inaugural exhibition (Lovotic) took place in the first half of 2022. Lovotic illustrates the blending of human and machine, with narrative voices intersecting and being reprocessed by an algorithm, resulting in a composite and unprecedented language somewhere between human and robotic. The event relied on an immersive sound installation created by New York based Soundwalk Collective
Europe -Hip-hop artist and producer Kid Cudi recently wrapped the European leg of his To the Moon 2022 World Tour with dates in Berlin, Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Paris and Milan that featured an extensive Ayrton lighting rig. ACT Entertainment, Inc. is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton products in North America. Lighting director and programmer, Austin Schneider, who does lighting design and programming for US-based full-service production company, Raw Cereal, chose Ayrton Khamsin LED profiles and MagicBlade R LED moving lights for the European shows. The dates followed the North American leg of the tour and a stop in Japan. During the same period, Kid Cudi released his eighth studio album, Entergalactic, the companion to an animated special of the same name. For the European tour, Schneider handled lighting only, modifying the design of the just-con
Slovenia - For the second year running, a lighting rig comprised exclusively of ADJ fixtures was used to illuminate the 2022 Miss Earth Slovenia pageant. Following an online only event the previous year, due to the global pandemic, the 2022 contest took place in front of a live audience of over 500 people. Seventy-two ADJ lighting fixtures – including the new Focus Profile and Focus Flex moving head luminaires – created a dazzling lightshow while also lighting the contestants for the judges. The event’s production also incorporated an ADJ LED video wall, ADJ haze machines and the lighting was all controlled using ADJ’s myDMX 3.0 software. Founded in 2001, the Miss Earth Pageant is an international contest with the purpose of ‘utilizing the beauty pageant entertainment industry as an effective tool for the promotion of environmental awareness’. Culmin
Spain - The 17th edition of the Los 40 network’s Los 40 Awards Show showcased a wide range of talent representing a broad mix of musical styles and personalities. Taking place at the 17,00-capacity WiZink Centre in Madrid, the show celebrated the achievements of artists, ranging from Rosalia and Adele to Yungblud and Bad Gyal, to The Black Eyed Peas and Dani Martin. The eclectic mix of artists appearing during the ceremonies satisfied fans’ taste for a variety, but the breadth and sheer number of performances on stage presented a challenge for lighting designer Alain Corthout and his team. “This was a big production,” said Corthout. “We had over nine different types of spots and six types of washes, so we had to keep things simple to avoid becoming messy. We also had to be fast, due to the number of acts and the volume of last-minute changes.” Helping
