Italy - Each summer since 2013, Milan’s Teatro alla Scala has transformed Piazza Duomo, the Italian city’s central square, into an open-air concert hall where the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala give a free classical performance for residents and tourists.
An L-Acoustics K Series system was supplied by Italy’s premier rental company, Agorà, which has provided audio and lighting to this event since it first started.
Under the baton of maestro Riccardo Chailly, this year’s set list included Dvořák’s Symphony from the New World No. 9 in E minor and works from Italian composer, pianist and conductor Nino Rota, best known for his Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti film scores. With 25,000 concert goers packing the 17,000m2 piazza and the evening broadcast live on RAI 5 in HD, Front of House engineer Fabio Venturi was tasked with designing a system that would deliver even coverage across the entire space and provide an audio experience on par with the beauty of the music and the setting.
“I am generally aware of the plan for the concert around a year in advance, as the orchestra has a very long-term planned schedule,” says Venturi. “I work together with Agorà’s system engineer, Daniele Tramontani, who is an authority in Italy in this field and has a huge amount of experience with orchestras projects. We usually start planning the system in March and the Filarmonica gives me full discretionary power on the audio setup.”
While the Filhamonica grants Venturi full freedom, it was vital that the maestro’s vision for the

Bahrain - Event design, technical and scenic production specialist Maestra Group has opened a base in Bahrain and announced a new partnership with the Ritz-Carlton resort and its 43,000sq.ft conference and exhibition facility.
As the resort’s exclusive event partner, Maestra will oversee all technical aspects of the new Arena facility, which offers a full set-up and capacity for large banquet receptions and global conferences.
Maestra’s Tom Clements comments: “We are extremely excited about this new venture and to be involved in such a high profile and incredibly well-designed event space. For Maestra Group, this is a logical expansion of our work in Dubai, and it will also be the first step in some strategic expansion plans for Maestra Group in the Middle East.”
“As Bahrain becomes a global destination for premiere conferences and events in the region, it’s our pleasure to partner with Maestra and unveil a new conference facility complemented with our signature Ritz-Carlton brand service we’re known for globally,” says Bernard de Villèle, general manager of The Ritz-Carlton, Bahrain. “With modern interiors and high-tech capabilities, The Arena stands to be one of the sought-after venues in the region and a perfect addition to the resorts already existing portfolio.”
The new venue is designed to host all types and styles of gatherings and events, including conferences, trade shows, car launches, seminars, music concerts, exhibitions and more.
Maestra Bahrain will include a core project management and technical team

Europe - eLumen8 has released a new fixture - the the MP180 LED Fresnel RGBALC, part of the company’s MP series.
With 180W LED source and smooth colour mixing, this luminaire is designed for short to medium throw applications, including use in theatres and studios. It can produce an even field of light thanks to an adjustable 13°- 46° beam angle, while the addition of amber, lime and cyan within the COB LED source makes for “perfect colour on any scene or subject, giving this fixture the edge over Fresnels with only quad-colour LEDs” according to eLumen8.
Andrew Jeffrey, Prolight Concepts Group MD, comments: "Since the inception of this series, the units have proved to be amazingly popular for many applications and this new addition with higher power and six colours will further expand the market for this series."
As with most others in the series, the MP180 Fresnel style fixture benefits from RDM, temperature-controlled fan cooling for quiet operation, and a four-push button display allowing users to select DMX and manual dimming modes along with dimming curves. A filter frame and barn door are included as standard and the fixture comes backed up with the eLumen8 two-year warranty.
(Jim Evans)

Germany - A large PA system comprising elements of four different Nexo line arrays has entertained audiences of 60-75,000 per night at the Klassik Open-Air Music Festival in Nuremberg. In Phase Event, one of the primary rental suppliers of Nexo systems in Germany, designed and supplied the system for the event, which is Europe’s biggest classical music open air event.
This success story started in 2000, on the occasion of the City of Nuremberg’s 950th anniversary. Three free open air concerts performed by the city’s two major orchestras were intended to be a great party in the Luitpoldhain park. The event was modelled on similar concerts in New York’s Central Park and particularly on the Proms in the Park in London’s Hyde Park. The idea was that even people who normally do not listen to classical music could get together in a relaxed atmosphere, free of charge, to get to know “their” orchestras.
Due to the musical quality of the Nuremberg State Philharmonic Orchestra and the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the ambience of Luitpoldhain and the relaxed atmosphere, these concerts have evolved a culture of an evening picnic culture by candlelight, culminating in a firework display.
Now in its third consecutive year with Nexo systems, the 2019 Klassik Open-Air programme also included the Big Band Jazz concerts, which take place every other season in the Luitpoldhain park. This open-air auditorium, often called Europe’s greenest concert hall, is 400m wide, asking the main PA to throw 300m to the back of the audience area.
In Phase Even

UK - Kent-based stage engineering company Triple E has named Lucy Edelstein as deputy director and appointed Tokyo Velludo Co as its distributor for Japan.
This expansion of Triple E’s international distributor network ties in with the longer term aim to increase worldwide representation across key territories, as well as expanding the company’s sub-contract precision engineering services, an aspect of the business which has been reinforced with the acquisition of Thorley Engineering.
“Lucy has been brought in to carry Triple E forward as myself and Brenda begin to step back from the business,” explains Tripple E’s David Edelstein. “After spending three years working in many different parts of the company Lucy has taken on the role of director, deputising for Brenda and myself when we are not in the office. We are delighted as Lucy has already made significant changes and improvements to our overall infrastructure. Together, we have taken steps to future-proof the business and develop some big ideas for Triple E’s future.”
“A major part of my new role as deputy director is to address business development and the organic growth of our current business whilst also exploring new avenues and potential distributors in new markets, as well as streamlining the business and the way we do things,” says Lucy.
Lucy has also been instrumental in the recent appointment of Tokyo Velludo Co. as Japanese distributor for Triple E. Established over 70 years ago, this Japanese theatre and performing arts supplier has been an end user of Tri

UK - Singer-songwriter and musician Howard Jones is back on the road celebrating 35 years since his Human Lib hit album, complete with a striking lighting design by Yenz Nyholm from New Illumination Lighting Design.
The moving lights include 12 x Robe MegaPointes, and 26 x LEDBeam 150s which were supplied in the UK and Europe by rental company Siyan.
Jones is considered one of the defining figures of the mid-1980s UK synth-pop genre and he has generations of loyal and new fans who enjoy seeing him live.
Yenz collaborated with Howard and his producer Stephen Tayler on the production design and look of the show, and the brief was to create something off-beat and interesting. The artist also wanted it to look and feel contemporary in an electronic / robotic way. He wanted an aspect of video in the production but stipulated that this should be part of the band rather than overpowering or a distraction to the music.
Yenz and Stephen created a stage set with an 8 x 3m transparent screen, which shows a variety of content throughout the performance.
One rear truss has the screen hung below it, and there is a black silk backdrop upstage of this.
Eight of the MegaPointes are rigged on this back truss, with the other four hidden behind the screen on the floor just in front of the backdrop.
The top ones are used for back lighting, gobo looks and animations onto the back as well as for some aerial interaction into the crowd. The deck-based fixtures behind the screen create powerful moody beams and silhouettes throughout the show.

UK - MDG has partnered with Arcadia Spectacular for this year’s Glastonbury Festival by supplying two of its Me8 fog machines for Arcadia’s new creation, Pangea.
Named after the Paleozoic-era supercontinent that broke apart to form the seven continents we know today, the Pangea installation replaces Arcadia’s Spider, a prominent fixture at Glastonbury for the past decade. The installation also marks one of the first major installations for MDG’s Me8 fog generator.
“As the first year of a five-year permanent installation, we were able to 'go to town’'with Pangea on a totally different scale from a touring show,” says Arcadia’s head of communications, Cyrus Bozorgmehr. “We wanted to explore possibilities with more scope for upward expansion into three-dimensional space, and investigate how to take over the area above people’s heads to make a fully immersible experience across the whole arena.”
To achieve this, a multi-level central structure was designed and sourced from repurposed scrap material gleaned from a worldwide search. The centrepiece is a giant 50m dock crane from nearby Avonmouth Docks, rigged with lighting and pyrotechnics, the machine house of which serves as an operational space for control equipment. The crane is set upon a spherical ex-military ‘radome’ which is used as a projection surface and sited above a mesh-floored DJ booth on a 360° rotating table above the audience that gives fully immersive directionality across the whole site.
“We have different visuals on each level with an int

Germany - The new Sprung.Raum trampoline and amusement park in the German city of Kiel features Martin Audio’s CDD speaker series as its featured sound system.
The 4,000 sq.m park is the largest trampoline venue in Northern Germany - but in addition to its primary function as a sports venue, it also hosts kids and youth discos and other events. It was therefore essential that the sound system could create a homogeneous background ambience while at the same time having the characteristics of a club PA for special events.
The lighting and sound system was designed and equipped by Hamburg-based PM White, who met this challenge with the installation of 21 CDD10W white loudspeakers and two CSX118 subwoofers. The trampoline area is equipped with 19 of the CCD10W, run in pairs off a single amplifier channel, while the remaining two CDD10W were installed in the instruction area.
"We already had a positive experience of Martin Audio's CDD speakers installed in the foyer of the Equila Showpalace in Munich," explains Ingo Jakobs, PM White’s project manager. "Thanks to the coaxial differential dispersion technology of the speakers, we can create a very round, unobtrusive and homogeneous sound in large rooms. With the two subwoofers added, we also have sufficient energy in the low frequency range to provide a potent disco sound."
(Jim Evans)

Mexico - Adamson Systems Engineering has appointed Pro Audio Comercializadora, a division of Hermes Music, as its exclusive distributor for the Mexican market.
“Pro Audio Comercializadora has been in the professional market for several decades, and in that time, we’ve watched Adamson become a market leader in terms of innovation, product performance, and brand profile,” comments Raul Carlos Uriegas, director of Pro Audio Comercializadora. “The development of their various patented and proprietary technologies over the years makes it clear Adamson is proud and passionate about the audio industry, and that’s exactly the kind of company we want to partner with.”
Based in Mexico City, Pro Audio Comercializadora will work in close collaboration with Adamson’s Canadian headquarters to develop educational programming, provide client support, and propel further growth in the national market. Uriegas states that customer and user support will be at the core of their efforts from the outset, with plans already in place to deliver Adamson’s globally-standardized Applied Certification training in the near future.
“A very important part for us is to assist those who have trusted Adamson over the years, regardless of the origin of the sale,” he asserts. “Pro Audio and Adamson share a common bond in the way we care for our customers, and we plan to live up to both companies’ reputations with education opportunities and second-to-none service and support as part of the Adamson Network.”
Uriegas says in closing that his team is looki

USA - When the Events United team first saw the venue for the Warrior Conference in Waterville Valley, NH, they knew they had to push their design to the next level. The low, sloping ceiling of the Waterville Valley Ice Arena, where the event took place this May, is anything but conducive to creating the kind of dynamic lighting displays that were needed to reflect the spirit of this popular men’s conference. Compounding the task was the arena’s strict prohibition on rigging from the roof, which made the task of getting the adequate trim height for potential lighting even more daunting.
The team met this challenge by building their lighting rig from the ground up. Helping them was a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures and LED video panels.
“Supporting all the lighting from the floor limited how much gear we could send up and how high we could go,” says Tim Messina, owner of Events United. “We needed to choose fixtures that were lightweight, yet powerful for our ground-up rig. We also wanted ones with a low profile, combined with beam angles that could give us the coverage we needed.
“Ryan Lane, our lead lighting designer, and I chose Chauvet lights to give us the look we were striving for while being very bright. Working them in concert with our PVP X6IP video tiles allowed us to create something eye-catching and exciting, despite the obstacles we faced.”
Anchoring the lighting rig were eight Maverick MK2 Wash fixtures. The team hung the RGBW LED movers on the downstage truss across the width of the stage
While

Europe - Area Four Industries has announced availability for James Thomas Engineering’s latest aluminium truss, the JTE Quatro (4CF30).
Made from EN-AW-6082 T6 aluminium alloy and designed for medium-duty structural requirements, the truss achieves extended free-spans of up to 20m (65ft) and provides heavy-duty loading characteristics. Compatibility with JTCELL 200/400/600 series cell clamps and Xtruss accessories extend its wide range of applications. The 4CF30 also offers 50mm (2’’) aluminium tubes and anti-twist end brace, whilst powder coat colour finish is available on request.
Area Four Industries’ David Gore comments: “Quick, simple and secure assembly is ensured by its popular conical connection system, and comes with the well-known durability and reliability you’ve come to rely on from James Thomas Engineering.”
(Jim Evans)

Europe - Radio Active Designs UV-1G wireless analogue intercom system has passed the EU’s Low Voltage, RoHS, Radio Equipment and EMC directives, the company has announced.
The six-channel intercom system that operates primarily in VHF is now available across Europe.
“We are extremely pleased to have crossed this hurdle,” explains James Stoffo, CTO, Radio Active Designs. “We have been actively working with European distributors who are excited to bring our product to their countries. We think the European production community will embrace the UV-1G as the true problem solver it is for a crowded RF market.”
The RAD UV-1G base station utilises Enhanced Narrow Band technology, which enables the unit to occupy a mere 25kHz of bandwidth in the UHF range, thus minimizing its UHF footprint. The body packs operate in VHF, which has more open bandwidth in Europe. In addition, because the UV-1G is analogue, it can be coordinated and licensed, making it suitable for events with multiple independent users. Fortunately, one set of antennas provides support to an unlimited number of belt packs.
“The RAD beltpacks are also vital for life safety,” adds Stoffo. “The beltpacks use a rebroadcast side tone to ensure that everyone on the system hears your voice - an important feature that most other systems do not offer.”
The UV-1G has been field proven regularly on such projects such as rocket launches and maintenance operations, NBC Studio NY, and Disney World, Orlando, as well as many sports and entertainment venues. It is also the wi

USA - Delicate Productions of Camarillo, California has taken delivery of a large stock of Ayrton Khamsin LED profile luminaires.
“The Khamsins are our first Ayrton fixtures,” says Joe DiCarlo, director of operations at Delicate Productions. The investment came after an enquiry by the lighting director of rock band, Tool. “Lighting director, Mark ‘Junior’ Jacobson, a long-time client of ours for concert tours, was looking for an LED source profile fixture for the anticipated Tool tour. That started us on the path of exploring these types of fixtures.
“Multiple manufacturers sent us demo units and we staged a shoot-out, with Brad Nelms at ACT Lighting supplying the Khamsin fixtures.”
Khamsin stood out from the other fixtures for a number of reasons according to DiCarlo and Angelo Viacava, lighting operations at Delicate Productions. “Khamsin promised the most lumens on paper and didn’t disappoint, as it was the brightest of all of the fixtures we had for the shootout,” says Viacava. “It was able to cut through the brightness of a video wall with ease. A Tool show is normally very video heavy, and the Khamsins’ output was sure to rival the video wall’s intensity.”
He also liked Khamsin’s zoom range. “It goes from a very large wide beam to a narrow beam very rapidly,” he reports, “and its speed really got my attention. Khamsin is good for quick snaps amongst the colour wheels and gobo wheels. The gobo morphing in this fixture is exceptional.”
DiCarlo views Khamsin as a ‘very versatile fixture’ th

Costa Rica - Obsidian Control Systems has appointed Luces y Sistemas as its exclusive distributor in Costa Rica. Under the terms of the agreement, Luces y Sistemas will provide full support for the entire Obsidian line of hardware and software lighting control solutions.
To introduce the brand to its customers, the San Jose-based company is holding a two-day Onyx training event on 20-21 August at its facility in Tibas, providing a basic and advanced look at hardware and software. Those interested in attending should contact info@lucesysistemas.com for more information.
“Our goal is to provide our regional market with a diverse range of popular control and programming products under the DMX protocol, a project that we have been working on for years,” comments Luis Ricardo Sanchéz, president of Luces y Sistemas. “The decision to support our clients by distributing Obsidian Control Systems allows us to fulfil that goal.”
“The opportunities that we provide to our clients are a reflection and consequence of the win-win relationship between supplier, local distributor and end user,” Sanchéz says. “Not only do we provide knowledge and training, adequate technical support and availability of parts, we provide facilities so that our users can ascend to better, newer and more sophisticated controllers.”
“Obsidian controllers are already recognised by lighting system programmers as an extremely friendly and easy-to-use tool with a very high level of reliability,” says Luces y Sistemas general manager Carlos Vargas, who work

USA - In the two short years since he released his debut album, This One’s for You, Luke Combs has soared in popularity. Recently honoured as the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry, the North Carolina native is now taking a breather between the first and second North American legs of his Beer Never Broke My Heart Tour, which is being reinforced via Special Event Services’ (SES) L-Acoustics K1/K2 loudspeaker rig.
The first stretch of Combs’ arena headlining trek initially ran from March through July and quickly sold out every venue, prompting the musician to add a 29-date fall leg running from late September through early December.
“When putting together my production budgets for the 2019 tour, Michael Brammer from SES and I discussed the PA options in their inventory,” notes production manager Jerry Slone. “When I found out that K1/K2 would fit within our budget, it was a no-brainer. Although I’m currently serving as the production manager on this tour, I’ve also spent many years working with other artists as a front-of-house engineer, so I’m very familiar with L-Acoustics, which made it easy to choose K1/K2 as the rig we'd both need and want to have out with us.”
The loudspeaker complement for the tour is comprised of a dozen K1 flown over as many as six K2 down-fills per side, with 12 additional K2 per side serving as out-fill arrays, plus four ARCS II for side-fill as needed. Robust low-end reinforcement is delivered via a dozen KS28, deployed in a variety of configurations depending on each venue’s geometry. Three

USA - Debuting on the Acoustic Sage at Glastonbury, the Maverick MK3 Spot from Chauvet Professional created such an impression on at least one visiting LD that he thought it was a 1700W arc lamp fixture when he first saw it. Such is the brightness of this 820W moving LED fixture with a 51,000-lumen source.
However, the new spot fixture is more than just a potent light cannon. Aside from packing enough punch to rock even the largest arena, the Maverick MK3 Spot is also loaded with features that make it right at home in a variety of applications, from major events to broadcast projects, says the company.
“We designed this tool to be as versatile as it is powerful,” says Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet. “Our goal in developing this product was to create an extremely bright and intense fixture that was also flexible enough to meet multiple needs for designers and rental houses.”
In keeping with this design philosophy, the Maverick MK3 Spot puts a wide palette of colours at designers’ fingertips thanks to it s CMY + CTO colour mixing and colour wheel.
The precision designed fixtures also features a fast 9:1 zoom ratio that maintains a flat field of focus even when fully wide.
The versatile Maverick MK3 Spot offers a variety of control options including flexible DMX, sACN, Art-Net or W-DMX.
(Jim Evans)

USA - Matthieu Larivée with Lüz Studio in Montréal serves as production and lighting designer on the current tour of American rock band The Raconteurs and uses Upstaging-supplied Elation DARTZ 360 LED moving heads to complement the group’s guitar-driven sound. Formed in 2006 by Jack White of The White Stripes and Brendan Benson, The Raconteurs recently emerged from a 10-year hiatus with launch of a new album Help Us Stranger.
White, known as a dedicated yet somewhat unconventional artist, is widely credited as one of the key players in the garage rock revival of the 2000s. “He is completely focused on the music and performance and wants to keep the audience very focused as well,” explains Larivée, who also worked on Jack White’s most recent solo tour. “He wants to make sure the audience is getting a good experience so there are no cell phones allowed during the show (phones are collected at the door by a company called Yondr). There is also no set list. It’s really driven by Jack. If he feels the crowd is not reacting well he will switch songs or even switch instruments mid song if it suits him.”
Larivée says the danger in not knowing what the band is going to play could have a lighting op punting every song. That would make for a random look that the designer says he wanted to avoid. Working with lighting director Michelle Sarrat (2019 Parnelli lighting director of the Year), who was also with Larivée on Jack White’s solo tour, about 30 songs from their catalogue were programmed with the flexibility to make changes and additi

USA - Passaic County Technical Institute is a large vocational, public high school that serves over 3,300 students in northern New Jersey. Its sizable campus is well-appointed, and its programmes are well-supported. Two full-time professional sound technicians number among its staff and oversee operations in its performing arts department and at its sporting events. Until recently however, the PCTI Bulldogs football team played for 1,500-plus crowds using only a portable sound reinforcement system that was underpowered and frequently unintelligible.
JD Sound and Video of Voorhees, New Jersey, remedied that for the Bulldogs’ most recent season with the installation of Danley OS80 loudspeakers and OS115 subwoofers. Because they’re designed and built to be fully weatherised, the Danley OS-Series boxes will serve PCTI for a long time.
“The Passaic football stadium had the best of everything for a school its size: new lighting, new turf, a new climate-controlled press box, nice seating, and full concessions,” says Joe DiSabatino, president and lead design engineer at JD Sound and Video. “Everything except a great sound reinforcement system. They were limping along with an underpowered portable system for every game. But they had high expectations. Given everything else audio-related at the school and the two full-time, A1 sound techs on staff, Passaic was a critical audience. This was more than the usual ‘make the athletic director and the students happy’ situation.”
The final design uses three Danley OS80 Synergy Horn loudspeakers to cov

Europe - Belgian audio manufacturer Audac has introduced MK2 versions of the popular ATEO4 and ATEO6 wall mount installation loudspeakers. Externally the product retains the same design that has made it so popular with designers, architects and installers including the CleverMount bracket system, however a number of internal improvements have been made. The most significant upgrade is a new crossover which delivers an ultra-flat frequency response for exceptional audio fidelity.
The ATEO range has also been expanded with the addition of 16 Ohm versions of the ATEO4 and ATEO6 without the integral 100V transformer found on the standard 8 Ohm model. These “D” versions of the ATEO loudspeakers offer an even more cost-effective solution for integrators working on small installations where a 100V system is undesirable or not required, allowing up to four speakers to be connected in parallel to a single amplifier channel.
The ultra-compact ATEO2 completes the range with a loudspeaker that is small enough to be unobtrusively hidden in almost any environment. The ATEO2 is available in both standard 8 Ohm version and 16 Ohm “D” versions.
A number of new mounting accessories are also now available for the ATEO range. Audac is exclusively distributed in the UK by CUK Audio.
(Jim Evans)

USA - Summer may be winding down but Bandit Lites production schedule is still packed with tours, festivals and events. Due to the immense demand, the global lighting company has made another sizeable investment in Claypaky gear including the new Scenius Unico and Mythos 2 from ACT.
The Claypaky Scenius Unico can be utilised as both a spotlight for projecting effects and a wash light and features six rotating gobos, a rotating prism and an animation wheel. It also shoots a powerful narrow beam of hyper concentrated light. Bandit Lites supplied Scenius Unico fixtures for Nick Whitehouse’s design for Carrie Underwood’s Cry Pretty Tour 360.
“The Claypaky Unico offers designers a complete array of parameters from a high output spot fixture,” says Jake Tickle, Bandit Lites director of technology and service department. “It is truly a workhorse.”
Bandit Lites also made a sizable purchase of Claypaky Mythos 2 fixtures. Whitehouse made use of them in both Carrie Underwood’s production and Jason Aldean’s Ride All Night Tour and they could also be seen at the Hangout Music Festival, Bonnaroo, Firefly Music and Arts Festival, and Chris Lisle’s design for Peter Frampton’s final tour.
“The Mythos continues to impress and has become a staple part of many designs that we are presented with,” concludes Tickle.
(Jim Evans)