Hungary - For Event is based in Budapest and is among Hungary’s leading technical production and equipment rental specialists, working across multiple entertainment and event sectors including music festivals and concert touring, live events, exhibitions and corporates.
The company was the first in Hungary to invest in Robe MegaPointes in early 2018. Before then, they were also the first rental operation with BMFLs in Hungary - of which they have purchased more in the last year together with 24 x Spiiders and 26 x ParFects.
The For Event brand was founded in 2011 by Gábor Glatz, a well-known Hungarian rock musician and celebrity who also runs another successful company, GDP, dedicated to providing full creative scenic and décor services.
For Event’s focus has always been on providing additional technical value - both in design and equipment - lighting, sou

UK - Stage Electrics has installed and commissioned the power distribution and data systems, including 40 Socapex and data connection facility panels, in the Hippodrome Casino London, ahead of the Casino’s critically acclaimed production of Magic Mike Live, a spin-off live-version of the major motion picture.
“We went from concept to installation in less than two weeks, we were called in to provide the Casino with the necessary infrastructure to meet the technical requirements for the show,” commented Stage Electrics’ project manager Tim Sachno. “The whole installation was delivered on a very tight time scale, including the design and manufacture of over 40 bespoke facility panels.”
Stage Electrics has a long-standing relationship with the client, V&A Productions. “We’ve worked with V&A Productions in the past, mainly on equipment sales

Denmark - The clarity, detail and natural sound delivered by DPA’s d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphone has enabled producer and engineer Chan Pui Ching to record 30 singing bowls being played by Chinese artist and wellness guru Tsang Man Tung.
Singing bowls are ancient instruments that have long been used in Buddhist religious ceremonies to accompany periods of meditation and chanting. They have become popular with music therapists, sound healers and yoga practitioners who use their steady and harmonious sound to create a sense of calm and relaxation.
“To capture the sound and full frequency range of the bowls, it was crucial to choose the right microphone early on in the process, at concept stage,” Chan says. “We decided to go with d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones because they could deliver the results we wanted. We mounted them in the correct location and th

UK - White Light has supplied the lighting equipment for Night of the Living Dead LIVE! which is currently spooking audiences at The Pleasance Theatre, London.
Based on the George A. Romero film, Night of the Living Dead LIVE! tells the story of a group of strangers holed up in a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania. With hoards of the undead approaching, will any of them make it out alive? The show is lit by Nic Farman, who comments: “I hadn’t actually seen the film version prior to working on the show but I allowed myself to watch the first 20 minutes. This was so I could get a feel for the style of the cinematography, but also not become fixated on recreating the film on stage from a lighting point of view.”
Despite not wanting to be an imitation of the film, the production did remain true to the Romero classic. Nic explains: “The interesting thing

USA - In order to deliver studio-quality live mixes for some of music’s biggest stars, renowned front-of-house mixer Kyle Hamilton uses JBL 708P monitors in rehearsal to craft a solid foundation that translates to any venue.
Kyle Hamilton founded his company NeverSleep Productions in 2004, after working in live sound since 1993. In that time, he has become a go-to touring FOH engineer for artists including Janet Jackson, Prince, Usher, Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell Williams and more.
Hamilton is known throughout the music industry for his ability to recreate the sound and energy of chart-topping hits in large-venue settings. The pop, hip hop, and R&B acts he specializes in demand a tight, polished sound, and Hamilton has developed a system for delivering high-quality results with maximum consistency. It all starts in the rehearsal studio, where Hamilton works

Columbia - El Lugar de Su Presencia (The Place of His Presence) is a neo-charismatic Christian denominational church in Bogota, currently headquartered on two sites in the Castellana district of the capital city.
These two venues are on opposite sides of the same road. The first arena was built in 2005 with a capacity of 3,000, and in 2017 the new building was constructed to contain an overflow congregation of up to 1,500 people.
They have Robe Spikies, LEDBeam 150s and ParFect 150s installed in these two main venues, where all-things technical are looked after by technical manager David Zamora, who is also a lighting designer.
David has worked there for six years and manages a full-time technical team of around 50 - covering all aspects of these two auditoriums - from staging to IT - plus five other sites around Bogota. They have around 400 volunteers regularl

Europe - Will Chandler side-hung 10 Chauvet Professional Next NXT-1 panels on poles behind diamond-shaped band risers for Hayley Kiyoko’s European tour, which concluded on 3 March in Madrid. The symmetrical diamond-on-diamond design created an engaging, balanced look on stage and served as a supportive backdrop for the 2018 MTV Push Artist of the Year’s famed dance moves.
“This show is a mixture of very powerful, beat heavy songs and some slower, more subtle moments,” says Chandler. “Especially with having dancers on this tour, I wanted to be able to create some really bold hip-hop moments with blocks of light, and also to be able to have a lot of the rig disappear into the background during slower dance solos. We toured last year with various designs incorporating LED strips, but with this version of the show I wanted to break up those lines into bolder blocks of

Vietnam - Situated at the Starcity Halong Bay Hotel, H Club has installed a Martin Audio THV three-way biamp loudspeaker system as the centrepiece of a high-specification package provided by the manufacturer’s Vietnamese distributor, Duc Proaudio.
Ha Long Bay is widely considered to be one of the seven wonders of the world. Located in the middle of the Bai Chay tourist centre, H Club was been built on an area of 4000sq.m and has a capacity of 1,200.
Over 10 years, investor Bui Minh Hong has made a major contribution to the nightlife tapestry with venues such as Ha Long Club, New Ha Long Club, Ha Long View KTV, Phantom Karaoke. In putting together his operational team for this latest venture, Hong comments: “If you come to Ha Long and don’t visit H Club, we would consider it as not coming to Ha Long Bay at all.”
The investor selected Duc Proaudio, as the

Poland - Fans from across the globe turned the Polish city of Katowice into the epicentre of esports in late February for the Intel Extreme Masters tournament. Included in the large lighting and video package used by Warsaw-based technical event production company ARAM were full colour SixBar 1000 and white light DTW Bar 1000 battens along with Fuze Par Z60 luminaires, all from Elation Professional.
Intel Extreme Masters is one of the biggest esports events in the world with a modern multimedia Champions Stage designed especially for the tournament. Held 28 February - 3 March at Spodek Arena in Katowice, players and teams from around the world competed in a variety of games for a prize pool of $2.5m.
The Electronic Sports League (ESL) sanctioned event, sponsored by Intel, is not only a hot ticket to come by, it attracts a huge online audience as well. “Every year w

South Africa - With the new production of Phantom of the Opera, which started a world tour in January this year in Manila, Philippines, Gearhouse Splitbeam have added the Eilon Ron StageMaster 6000 G4 Wireless System to their rigging rental stock for the first time.
“The 10-load cell system, that we purchased from DWR Distribution, can be remotely monitored in conjunction with the wireless receiver and Apple compatible software via blue tooth technology,” comments Alistair Kilbee, managing director at Splitbeam. “The Eilon load cells are easy to install due to the perpendicular design and wireless capabilities.”
The Eilon Ron StageMaster 6000 System, that allows for “always on” wireless continuous monitoring, was the main reason Splitbeam selected the 6000 series. “This means that the load on the motors can be monitored as the motors are moving sc

USA - Astro Spatial Audio is at the centre of a new flagship e-sports studio in Los Angeles, bringing object-based 3D sound to one of the world’s fastest growing areas of sports entertainment.
For millions of fans worldwide, the future of sports can be found not on a pitch or a field, but on a screen, with e-sports such as League of Legends and Player Unknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) having now entered the mainstream.
For leading South Korean e-sports promoter and broadcaster OGN, the popularity of PUBG has prompted the opening of its first dedicated North American e-sports arena, located in Manhattan Beach, Los Angeles, California. Equipped with 80 PCs on stage with a backdrop of giant three-sided immersive LED screen, the 35,000sq.ft arena delivers entertainment not only for those watching at home but also the in-house audience. A key part of the experience is true

USA - Robe MegaPointes were used to dramatic effect on the most recent US tour by multi-instrumentalist French Kiwi Juice (FKJ).
Lighting and production designer Stu Dingley was delighted when approached by FKJ’s management and asked if he would create a design for the artist known for his elegant loungy music and funky visuals.
He chatted to FKJ at the start of the design process. The artist was open to ideas, however as a keen videographer with terabytes of content available, he really wanted to get selected elements of this right at the essence of the live show… to tie everything together visually.
With that in mind, Stu immediately thought of MegaPointes which he wanted to use for some very specific effects - shadows and silhouettes - to balance artfully in juxtaposition with the video images. He needed brightness, accurate shuttering and a beautiful qual

The Netherlands - Poppodium Nieuwe Nor, a 400-capacity venue in the city of Heerlen not only hosts a diverse programme of music from pop and hip-hop to metal, blues and everything in between, it also holds regular club nights with DJs and serves as a location for corporate presentations and other events.
As Nieuwe Nor was getting in bigger acts with greater lighting needs, the venue’s existing discharge-based lighting rig was proving outdated with limited features and colour choice, as well as restricted output. “It just couldn’t deliver some of the things guest LD’s were looking for,” says Youri Gidding, head technician at the venue. Having to replace lamps every year was also taking a bite out of the tech budget, he says, and as the contract with their previous supplier was ending, the time was right to upgrade.
“Since we get a lot of different kinds of

South Africa - First Love Generation, a church based in Ruimsig Roodepoort, has invested in an L-Acoustics ARCS WiFo system knowing that their ministry will, in the future, include international speakers, worship bands and become a home to equip Christians on their daily walk.
Ordained Pastors Pieter and Tilla van Tonder initially left a mainstream church in 2006, planted a church on their property with another pastoral couple in 2007, and served together for nine years. During this time, the couple obtained permission to build a church, auditorium and lecture rooms on what used to be their tennis court. In January 2016, First Love Generation was officially born. Since the new church was formally launched, the numbers continue to grow year-on-year from the original handful of people.
DWR Distribution’s Victor Vermaak has been a friend to Pastor Pieter for many yea

UK - McQueen in Shoreditch has been a feature of London’s club landscape for 10 years. Themed after the late American star Steve McQueen, the multiple award-winning venue has an overall capacity of 650, divided between two principal spaces and a 55-cover restaurant. Its strong reputation has been built on its ability to stage and attract high profile events, feature top DJs and deliver excellent hospitality.
Shoreditch continues to grow as one of the capital’s leisure industry hubs and entrepreneur Dezzi McCausland, head of design and concepts at McQueen, is aware of the need to take a progressive view in an evolving and highly competitive market. Recognising a trend towards increasingly multi-functional venues, McCausland took the decision to use the occasion of the club’s 10th anniversary to re-launch McQueen - updated, upgraded and able to deliver a wider spectrum o

UK - When Elliot Patterson from Evolve Install embarked on his third fit-out for the Kricket restaurant chain at the BBC Television Centre in White City, he worked in a new building with an industrial theme. This gave him the opportunity to suspend a series of down facing JBL pendant loudspeakers in the three open-plan zones and direct the sound away from the offices upstairs.
Owned by Will Bowlby and Rik Campbell, Kricket Television Centre is also the group’s largest restaurant to date, offering 100 covers inside and 40 outside. It features an open kitchen, booth and banquet seating, and a garden terrace with views of the studios.
Like the other two venues (in Soho and Brixton), Patterson turned to the Harman Pro audio catalogue for his solutions, sourcing the materials from their UK and Ireland distributors Sound Technology.
“It’s always nice to be invol

USA - It was still 32 days before the Cubbies kicked off the 2019 baseball season, but as one of the coldest winters in memory drew to a close, a group of 400 Windy City rock fans jump-started summer on the 20th annual Chicago Music Cruise, a weeklong Caribbean excursion on Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of The Seas.
Organised by local rock icons 7th Heaven, the cruise featured a group of leading Chicagoland bands and radio personalities. When cruise-goers weren’t walking the ship’s promenade or dining at its restaurants, they were packing its theatre to dance to a relentless procession of rock and country tunes. Keeping pace with the hard-driving music notes was a dynamic and colourful Zach Scott-designed lightshow, run with a ChamSys Maxi Wing and ChamSys Extra Wing Compact.
“Given that space is always an issue in a cruise ship environment, I wanted something wit

UK - Creative vision can often be frustrated by the limitations of technology, yet ever so quietly, UB40, with some help from Grant Hickey, Oli Metcalfe, Video Design, and the latest Notch effects software are revealing to their UK audiences that at least one technological barrier has been crossed. “Astro and Ali said to Grant, their production designer, that they wanted to ‘step it up a bit’ as far as this year’s tour was concerned; they wanted something that set it apart from other recent outings.”
As Metcalfe comments: “This was a case of right place, right time. It was an opportunity to try out some ideas I’ve been having about generative video and being creative in real-time.”
Metcalfe is video director for the tour, called in by Hickey on that ‘step-up’ initiative from Ali and Astro. “Grant and I have worked together many times before; he h

Bulgaria - On 12 January, the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv began its year as one of the two European Capitals of Culture for 2019. The opening ceremony was again under the artistic direction of Sven Sören Beyer of phase7 performing arts. For the third time, the Berlin artist collective took over the artistic design of the opening ceremony of a European Capital of Culture, and the opening show titled We Are All Colors attracted over 50,000 viewers.
The central element of the show was a 30m-high media tower in the form of a regular octagon, which had been designed and built specifically for the event. Running in a north-south direction, a 100m catwalk linked to the tower. The 360-degree light show spanned across all five levels of the entire tower, 1,500 show participants performed on five levels. The spectacular performance combined traditional Bulgarian show acts with f

USA - Tour provider Clair Global, has invested in two of SSL's newly-launched Live L550 consoles.
“We are thrilled to offer the new L550 to our clients, who are putting out some of the most demanding tours on the road today,” says Clair's account executive, Justin Weaver. “As we continue to invest in our global inventory to keep it fresh and up-to-date, adding the latest SSL consoles to our arsenal was a positive step in that direction.”
The L550s are already out with two major international acts - Childish Gambino's This Is America tour and Nick Mason of Pink Floyd's North American Saucerful of Secrets leg.
The L550 enhances SSL's previous L500 console, and boasts increased system power delivering accelerated screen responsiveness, a total of 288 processing paths, 36 Matrix outputs, and 48 VCAs. To ensure current L500 customers continue t

UK - A Martin Audio WPM loudspeaker system has taken pride of place in the local community-owned and operated Festival Drayton Centre in Market Drayton. The installation was carried out by long-standing specialists, B.S.B. (Sound) Ltd - set up 50 years ago by Elwyn Bickley and two partners. Today one of the largest outdoor PA contractors of its type in the UK, the company also undertakes pro audio installations.
“We had been looking forward to getting involved with Martin Audio for a long time and when this project arose, we knew the brand would be a strong contender,” stated director Martin Bickley. And with the assistance of Martin Audio product support engineer, Robin Dibble, with whom they had already developed a close relationship, the new design was brought to fruition.
B.S.B. (Sound) Ltd has been involved with the venue for many years, engineering their liv

Australia - AGB Events reports the successful conclusion of its involvement in Parrtjima: A Festival in Light which the company curates and produces on behalf of the Northern Territory Major Events Company - playing a key role in bringing the indigenous art festival to life.
The United Nations declared 2019 to be the International Year of Indigenous Languages and AGB Events highlighted an element of this theme in each of the installations they brought to life.
Parrtjima is set against the backdrop of the 300 million year old MacDonnell Ranges in Australia’s Northern Territory. AGB Events engaged the regular First Nations consultant, Rhoda Roberts AO to curate the festival for a third year. Parrtjima celebrates new ways artists can push the boundaries of how indigenous art is presented, while staying true to the ancient philosophy of connection and country. T

USA - Displaying more than 6,800 instruments from around the world, the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) in Phoenix, Arizona, allows their guests to not only see and hear the instruments, but also allows them to observe the music being played in its original context. Hosting a number of historic and educational performances inside the intimate MIM Theatre, the technical production behind each event must be able to accentuate the experience of the sound.
With a state-of-the-art audio and projection system already in place, the theatre worked with theatre consultants and lighting designers Schuler Shook and Clearwing Systems who installed a silent yet powerful LED lighting design using PHX 150W profile luminaires from Altman Lighting.
“We have had the opportunity to work with the MIM on a few previous projects and this time we were brought on board to complete an LED li

USA - Drawing more than 2.5m visitors to Houston’s NRG Stadium over its three-week run, this year’s RodeoHouston was a record-breaking success on multiple counts.
Featuring daily double-bills of spirited rodeo action and major concert events hosted by the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLSR), attendance records for the event were topped no less than three times in 2019: when Cardi B performed for an audience of 75,580 fans; when Los Tigres del Norte slightly overtook the lead with a crowd of 75,586; and finally on March 17, when George Strait packed in an all-time NRG Stadium record attendance of 80,108 for his 30th Rodeo performance.
Keeping this many music lovers happily singing along with their favourite artists required a massive concert sound system, and Houston-based LD Systems once again took the bull by the horns and deployed 360 L-Acoustics loudspeaker

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