UK - The beginning of March saw spatial audio specialist, Sonosphere, take part in a world-first multi-venue event at the 5G Festival Showcase. Underpinned by 5G technology, it involved over 20 artists playing simultaneously across three UK music venues: Metropolis Studios, the O2 Blueroom at The O2 and Brighton Dome.
Over the last two years, Sonosphere has been working with eight other heavyweight organisations - Audiotonix, Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival, LiveFrom, Mativision, Metropolis Studios, Virgin Media O2, and Warner Music Group - who worked collectively with Digital Catapult, the UK authority on advanced digital technology, to explore the untapped potential of 5G for the live music industry and provide a blueprint for how technology could play a key role in the future of the sector as part of the wider £200m DCMS 5G Testbeds & Trials Programme.
T

USA - Technical Arts Group (TAG) provided SJ Lighting of Westlake Village, California with IP65-rated Ayrton Perseo Beam and Domino fixtures for the New York edition of the Rolling Loud global music festival last autumn. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton lighting in North America.
TAG was formed in 2021 and specialises in lighting, audio, video, staging, special effects and event management. The company has offices in Secaucus, New Jersey and Miami. It furnished lighting, sound and video equipment for Stage 4 of Miami’s Rolling Loud fest last July then was asked to supply lighting for New York’s two main stages and sound and video gear for the third. The three-day event at Citi Field drew more than 80,000 fans to performances from some of hip hop’s biggest emcees.
The IP65-rated Perseo and Domino fixtures proved to be an inspired choice fo

Serbia - Earlier this month, the Novi Sad Fair celebrated the Migration of Souls. Held in conjunction with the city being named a European Capital of Culture for 2022, the 11-day, multimedia event features presentations by writers and thinkers, as well as art exhibits and music/dance acts by an impressive global collection of performers.
Each day’s session concluded with a concert, and as befits the theme of the event, the roster of artist was varied, beginning with Japanese experimental guitarist Miyavi, on to the Barcelona Gipsy Balkan Orchestra and The Chalaban band, which performs Moroccan music with a central European twist, plus Original Enigma voices.
Chameleon Rental delivered the lighting with help from an impressive collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures. The rig featured 28 units of the Maverick MK2 Wash and 16 of the Maverick MK1 Spot, as wel

UK - Specialist audio visual design and installation company, North Star Engineers is behind the ship-wide AV system design and installation of the world’s largest civilian hospital ship, the Global Mercy - the newly built vessel of Mercy Ships. The project has been designed and delivered from the head office of North Star Engineers in the city of York.
Mercy Ships is an international charity providing a team of volunteer nurses, doctors, surgeons and other crew from all over the world.
The Global Mercy was docked and open for physical and virtual tours in the Port of Rotterdam between 26 February-14 March 2022, before setting sail on 15 March for Granadilla Tenerife to continue outfitting in preparation for service within West Africa, the first of many new missions expected over the next 50 years.
The team at North Star Engineers has been responsible for all s

USA - Lighting metal band Killswitch Engage means slamming your foot down on the accelerator and never really letting up, according to lighting designer Cody James.
The longtime designer for KSE, James describes the process this way: “Killswitch on stage has no brake pedal. Even during tuning breaks, it's a full-on experience the entire time. The lights have to reflect that. When the band is coming at you at 100 mph, so should everything around them on stage.”
When lighting the band’s recently concluded 32-city Atonement Tour 2022, James powered his Chauvet Professional anchored rig with a ChamSys MagicQ MQ250M and extra wing.
Innovative strobing played a big part in James’ design vision for this busked show. Reflecting the band’s intense sound, he conjured up a varied mix of bold strobing looks, mixing in different colours and coming at the stage and a

Australia - To gain the necessary power and versatility for their multi-functional event spaces, Rocco’s Bar & Gusto acquired a range of Harman Professional audio-visual solutions.
Rocco’s Bar & Gusto is a restaurant and venue located inside United Cinemas in Warriewood, New South Wales that hosts parties, private business meetings, sporting and dining events in its multipurpose event spaces. Because the venue space can be divided into multiple separate areas to accommodate a variety of events and meetings, the restaurant required an audio-visual solution with the flexibility to route and matrix signals to their respective zones. To meet this request, Rocco’s acquired a fully networked audio-visual system featuring solutions by AMX, BSS, JBL Professional, Crown and AKG.
“We wanted an immersive experience for Rocco’s Bar & Gusto, and the Harman sol

UK - The BandLab NME Awards 2022 returned to the O2 Academy Brixton in London on 2 March 2, with the crew from TSL Lighting responsible for installing the rig and lighting system in place for Renegade’s lighting designer, Nick Gray
“As always, working with TSL was a pleasure,” says Gray. “Their attention to detail, prep and general approach is second to none. For this show, we had an awful lot of lighting, most of which couldn’t be accessed once installed so I needed to work with a team that did their utmost to make sure we didn’t have any equipment issues.
“The team of technicians were very familiar and absolutely amazing. TSL were an ideal partner for Renegade on the show and proved again why we rate them so highly.”
The main lighting rig extended out into the auditorium and was steeply raked to be visually impressive on camera. The show compris

UK - Whitwam AV Integration has solved intelligibility issues and improved audio coverage at St. George's Chapel Windsor with the installation of a new K-array loudspeaker system.
Originally built in the 15th century by King Edward IV, the chapel has been the scene of many royal services and weddings.
Whitwam AV Integration has installed a modern and sympathetically styled audio-visual system that has transformed the way that words and music are experienced throughout the building, blending with the magnificent and historically rich setting.
The loudspeaker system from K-array focuses on providing superior vocal intelligibility in what is a generally challenging acoustic environment with a typical RT60 of three or four seconds, so the audio design emphasised the placement of sources relatively close to the listener to increase direct sound and reduce reflections.

South Africa - Situated in the heart of Cape Town, GrandWest Casino and Entertainment World is the largest venue of its kind in South Africa, featuring a Las Vegas-scale casino, two hotels, conference facilities, dining establishments, an ice rink and the Grand Arena - a 5,000 capacity multi-purpose venue that has played host to acts such as Bryan Adams, Sting, James Blunt, Rammstein and Kylie Minogue.
In 2020, the arena underwent a thorough refit of its audio system, with the replacement designed around DiGiCo’s Quantum 338 digital mixing console, chosen to fulfil the requirements of international touring riders and deliver quality audio, processing and connectivity within a space-saving format.
The Grand Arena first started researching new technology in 2017 when the current infrastructure was approaching the end of its lifespan, and an upgrade needed to be found.<

UAE - Equipson's award winning LightShark range took centre stage at Expo 2020 in Dubai when it was used in both the Spanish and Angolan Pavilions for DMX control of different exhibition and stage spaces.
"The software's FX engine allowed us to integrate the lighting with the rest of the audio-visual systems in an agile and simple way," says Marvin Ryan, a technician from the Philippines and head of lighting at the Angola Pavilion.
His views were reinforced by Juan Gonzalez, technical manager for events at the Spanish Pavilion, who highlighted the simplicity of LightShark's user interface. “With hardly any previous experience in handling the system, it was very easy to start operating it almost from day one,” he says.
Designed to showcase the best of art, architecture, innovation and technology, Expo 2020 Dubai runs until the end of March and features more t

USA - The Slow Burn Theatre Company’s production of Kinky Boots at the Broward Centre for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale featured an engaging Clifford Michael Spulock lighting design that included Chauvet Professional Maverick, Rogue and COLORado fixtures.
Spulock wove his lighting around scenic designer David Rockwell’s set pieces endowing them with an extra degree of realism that made the drama unfolding on stage more engaging. The red brick ‘Price and Son’ shoe factory in Northampton, England takes on a, ethereal, timeless look when bathed in warm light, setting, a suitable tone, given that plans that will make dreams come true are hatched in the factory.
The factory set piece has two levels of translucent windows. Spulock gave them a magical glow by placing COLORado Batten 144 Tour fixtures behind this wall. Drawing on the colour mixing prowe

Poland - Lighting and production rental company Transcolor has invested in new Robe moving lights and remained busy throughout the pandemic with its five full-size studios and rehearsal rooms which have been utilised for television and movie productions, promo and advertising shoots and other assorted events. Two of the studios are among the largest in Warsaw, and these have continued with regular TV productions and clients as well as hosting a range of new clients producing digital and streamed events.
Transcolor’s head of technical Szymon Kosicki explained that, like everyone, they have faced major challenges, but Transcolor has always been un, with a relatively compact administration setup for such a large operation. Simon is responsible for the kit and its prep for the various projects and shows.
The demand for the studios has soared over the last two years as m

USA - The Knoxville Museum of Art held its annual fundraising soiree, L’ Amour du Vin, complete with ‘fine wine, culinary marvels, and both a silent and live auction’. Bandit Lites has been a long-time partner with the museum and donated the lighting system to help set the creative atmosphere for the space.
“No one brings a vision to life better than Bandit Lites,” says Carla May Paré, director of fundraising events. “This year, inspired by a painting by artist Gordon Cheung, the lighting design for L’Amour du Vin created an immersive, magical, and epic visual backdrop highlighting both the contemporary focus of the artist’s work and nods to historical ideologies - old word meets new world. The artist himself was blown away by the design, including a new element - his work projected onto the ceiling of the KMA’s Bailey Hall.”
In addition to light

Slovenia - Broadcast on the RTV network, the 44th annual Popevka song contest featured performances by 11 entrants, each one of them lit in a way that reflected its style and personality. “This is a very big event in Slovenia with deep cultural significance,” said Crt Birsa who used over 100 lighting fixtures in his seven-universe show. “We were dedicated to conveying the full passion of every performance.”
Birsa’s task of reflecting the nuances of Popevka was complicated by scheduling difficulties. With the show’s start delayed because of COVID safety concerns, he came to the studio to complete programming the lighting design late, because of a pervious touring commitment. This experience gave him a new appreciation for the flexibility of his ChamSys MagicQ Software.
“I actually had to start by using my PC Wing at load in before going to th

Spain - The Teatro de la Zarzuela theatre in Madrid has invested in Ayrton moving head LED spots to enhance the lighting of its space. The theatre now has eight Spot Ghibli and six Levante-S wash moving heads supplied by Stonex to improve the creative possibilities of the theatre’s future productions.
Technical director of La Zarzuela Antonio López comments," The Ghibli are silent, their energy consumption is low and their light source is very high, with extremely precise positioning, slow and smooth movement.”
The Ayrton Ghibli premiered in the play The Green Envelope and has been key to bringing the show closer to young audiences. Its illuminator, Juanjo Llorens, says that "the versatility of the Ghibli gives dynamism to the play because the viewer appreciates that something is always happening. Its quality relies on dimmer smoothness and precision. All t

Spain - On 12 February, the Academy of Film Arts and Film Sciences presented the best Spanish films of the year at the 36th Goya Awards. The award ceremony, which is broadcast on television and streamed live from Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, brought together the who’s who of the Spanish film scene and was lit up by over 130 Cameo moving heads.
Adisar Media from the Mediapro Group, in collaboration with lighting designer Iñaki Irastorza, was responsible for the lighting technology implementation. Overall, 24 Cameo Opus X Profile Moving Heads were used as front lights, which, with their light output of 33,000lm and >90 CRI value, were a suitable choice of front light. Irastorza also used a total of 48 Cameo Opus H5 Beam Spot Wash Hybrid Moving Heads, supplemented by 16 Cameo Evos W7 LED Wash Moving Heads, while 24 Cameo Opus X Wash Moving Heads provided th

USA - To transform the pedestrian bridges over the Rock River area of Janesville, Wisconsin into a vibrant and welcoming public space, Bluechip Labs deployed a range of durable Harman Professional audio and lighting solutions.
Centred around Resilience, a sculpture designed by artist Deedee Morrison at the centre of the new Heritage Pedestrian Bridge, the installation consists of dynamic lighting and sound for three bridges and two new parks that give Janesville a recreational area and outdoor city centre.
Private revitalisation group ARISEnow commissioned the installation as part of an urban revitalisation campaign to showcase Janesville’s history and natural beauty, reinvigorate the community and engage with visitors. Due to the Rock River’s fluctuating water levels and Wisconsin’s intense seasons, the city wanted a lighting and audio system for the bri

Finland - Part of the K Group, the second-biggest grocery trade operator in Finland and one of the biggest in Northern Europe, K-Supermarket operates some 250 stores at the top end of the market.
At K-Supermarket Hertta in Herttoniemi, Helsinki, Markus Ranne, the independent merchant who runs the store, decided to elevate the experience still further with the use of sensory marketing - a combination of scent and sound design to attract customers and encourage them to linger. He called on Helsinki-based sensory marketing specialists Sevende Aromas to design the environment - for which they specified Genelec 4000 Series installation loudspeakers.
“Sounds can affect people’s comfort and shopping behaviour in most commercial spaces and environments such as supermarkets, hotels, offices, bars and restaurants. The sense of hearing is our third most dominant sense,” say

UK - Last August, after a two-year hiatus following a £60m refurbishment project, Theatre Royal Drury Lane opened its doors to Frozen the Musical. The story’s plot and scenery are brought to life in full, frosted glory thanks to ultra-realistic visuals displayed on the upstage LED wall.
Using Brompton Tessera processing to help accurately recreate shimmering snow peaks, fjords and mesmerizing auroras in incredibly fine grades of colour, bit depth and brightness, audiences are transported into the magical world of Arendelle.
Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions, the team worked in close collaboration with Finn Ross of FRAY Studio who oversaw video design; Jonathon Lyle of Ammonite, in charge of developing system design; and video equipment rental company, Blue-i Theatre Technology, to bring this show to the heart of London’s West End.
“We had us

Denmark - The largest music venue in the Nordics has refreshed its acoustics with the evoke system from Flex Acoustics to provide optimal conditions for any kind of music, from rock to classic. An event on 9 May will mark the world premiere, with a live presentation for architects, acousticians, and sound engineers taking place in Aarhus, Denmark.
Evoke is a powerful variable acoustics technology that transforms a hall acoustically in five seconds - with barely any visual change to be seen.
Using the evoke technology, multipurpose halls can present a wide variety of styles of music with literally optimal acoustics: from choir, chamber music over brass bands to rock concerts and even cinema. All with ideal reverberation time in every frequency band to ensure an optimal sound experience and performance.
The Evoke system consists of several panels of any

UK - Lighting control manufacturer TheisCraft has announced the launch of its Multiload Spectrum range. This ‘end-to-end solution’ offers ‘an entirely new take on DALI: a flexible range of products that, when used together, create a system that requires no commissioning whilst still providing all the benefits of DALI control’.
Jon Theis, director of ThisCraft, says: “Although DALI is far superior to other lighting control standards, not all loads, light fittings or non-dimmable devices are DALI compatible. DALI installations are also typically more expensive than other light dimming protocols due to commissioning costs, which can account for up to a quarter of an initial project price using a standard DALI solution. Plus, any changes to a fully installed addressable DALI system will incur additional site visits and commissioning costs.”
He continues: “The

USA - More than 50 Powersoft amplifiers are powering a high-impact audio set-up at Q2 Stadium, the new home of the first professional sports team in Austin, Texas, USA.
The $260m venue, completed last year, is the home stadium of Austin FC, an association football team competing in Major League Soccer (MLS)’s Western Conference division. Designed to accommodate 20,500 fans on match day, the sport-first stadium is also suited to other applications, including entertainment, leisure and outdoor activities.
According to Idibri, the local consultancy which designed the audio, acoustics, video and data/IT for the new venue, Q2 is a ‘3.0 stadium’ - that is, a venue packed with technology that enhances the audience experience both in its main role (as a sports ground) and during other, non-sporting events. Special attention was paid to being able to use the stadium as a

France - A full APG audio system is providing the soundtrack for a new hybrid shop and hospitality space by French motorcycling, automotive, surfing and fashion brand Morex Custom.
Located on the outskirts of Rennes, the 450m² Morex Custom House includes a bar/restaurant and concept store designed to showcase the best Morex Custom offerings. Customised motorcycles and cars take pride of place in both the bar area and the boutique shop, where customers can also pick up apparel, accessories, motorbike helmets and custom-made surfboards.
Given the brand’s association with the roar of the road and sea, it was crucial that the new venue had had a powerful yet versatile sound system, according to Kévin Morel, co-founder of Morex Custom. “The sound environment in a venue like ours is very important - our customers need to feel the music and enjoy it,” he explains. “

India - Located in the Mumbai suburb of Bandra the Woodside Inn has received a substantial sound system upgrade, with integrators Zoodio Pro specifying a Martin Audio system.
The newly-installed system comprises Martin Audio Blackline X10 for the main PA, supported by a Blackline X115 subwoofer which Zoodio owner, Dylan Hilton says offers tremendous output from a compact speaker. CDD6s have been added as in-fill for the rest of the dining area and the smoking zone.
Like all the Woodside Inn operations, the Bandra outlet specialises in craft beers and inventive cuisine in the gastropub tradition. And since it is an all-day operation, they wanted ambient music to be broadcast during the day, with a livelier night-time trade - playing retro, old-school rock and pop to crowds of up to 150. Provision has been made with BlacklineX for a small band to perform, and it will als

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