USA - The owner of Live Wire Productions, Mike Cristella was at Harrah’s Resort, Atlantic City, this October to light Matchroom’s US Open 9-Ball Pool Championship, the world’s most prestigious pool tournament, which was televised on the Sky Sport, DAZN and A&E networks.
Cristella and his team (Andy DiAngelis, Jeff Gallagher, Dan Ryan, Andrew Driscoll, Rob Zauck, and Janice Brittin) made a demanding situation look easy, not only creating a supportive environment for players, but also evoking classic poolhall images for TV viewers.
Helping them accomplish this feat was a 4Wall Entertainment supplied rig that featured Chauvet Professional COLORado 2 Solo and STRIKE Array 2 fixtures.
“When lighting a pool tournament, we’re always looking to land a certain shadow in the right place or get pleasing fill light values on a face,” said Cristella. “This can be a real challenge when the playability of the match is so important since you have to be very careful not to distract the players.
“Intensity is also part of this dance,” he continued. “We have to give the broadcast engineers the foot-candles that they need for TV, but at the same time, it’s absolutely essential that we keep the players comfortable under large broadcast fixtures. Then, of course, we also want to have interesting visuals in the perimeter of the room so we can set an evocative tone when the camera pans out.”
To meet these challenges, the Live Wire Productions team relied on ultra-diffused sources of light directly above the broadcast site to illumin

USA - Lighting designer Tom Kenny recently used Elation Professional’s KL Fresnel 8 LED wash light to support the retro set of a special CMT Crossroads performance by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss. Kenny had seen the warm-white LED Fresnel luminaire on the duo’s summer tour and realised it would fit in ideally with the show’s vintage look.
CMT Crossroads is a television programme broadcast on CMT that pairs country music artists with musicians from other music genres. The programme, which debuted in 2002 and is celebrating its 20th Anniversary, has helped spawn many successful collaborations including that of Plant and Krauss.
The British singer-songwriter and American bluegrass-country singer have enjoyed success as a duo since collaborating on 2007’s Grammy-award-winning Raising Sand album followed by their first CMT Crossroads special in 2008. The pair toured together this past summer in support of their second album Raise the Roof and returned to Nashville for their second CMT Crossroads show, which aired on 29 November.
When full-service event production company DCR Nashville was looking for retro-looking lighting for Plant and Krauss’s summer tour, they chose Elation’s KL Fresnel 8 as part of the visual package. “When putting the tour together they were looking at a theatre-like setup but then you have to deal with dimmer racks,” stated DCR president Paul Owen, who says they went to Elation and looked at the KL Fresnel line of LED fixtures.
“That made things a lot easier and they

USA - Jamestown New York’s Riverwalk Illumination Project officially opened in November as part of a $10m city rejuvenation programme. The system highlights city landmarks including the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities coal silo, the Washington Street Bridge piers and abutments, and the Main Street Bridge arches over the Chadakoin River.
All these structures are now alive with a range of colourful lighting scenes, with the entire system driven by a Neo Playback Controller paired with a Vision.Net system from Vari-Lite.
The coal silo is illuminated by a top and bottom ring of lighting fixtures and the bridges have custom-designed poles supporting more than 50 flood lights. To achieve the looks, the Vari-Lite-designed control rack communicates intensity and colour information to custom designed remote DMX distribution hardware using a fibre network, with the Neo and Vision.Net controls located in the Jamestown BPU IT room. Remote cabinets are also positioned at each of the three highlighted landmarks.
Bobby Harrell, Vari-Lite sales and applications specialist at Signify, supported the project from the outset, working with Michael J. Piraino Jr., control division manager, Lightspec, to specify a lighting control solution for the ambitious initiative.
“Any time a project like this in design development phase comes to me, my first questions are: does it need an astronomical time clock? Do you need remote access to it? Do you need dynamic control? Do you need to be able to do colour effects and intensity effects? And once those boxes get che

USA - Slipknot are known for some of the most intense live shows on some of the biggest stages on the planet. The Grammy Award-winning, and multi-platinum-selling group has spent much of the past two years on their ongoing Knotfest Roadshow, which recently wrapped up its third post-pandemic tour sweep of North America.
Sound reinforcement provider Eighth Day Sound, a Clair Global company, has been supplying the tour legs with a robust K Series loudspeaker package from L-Acoustics.
Wrangling the PA for the group are FOH engineer Bob Strakele and system engineer Brian Sankus, who have been deploying ever-evolving loudspeaker setups as the band has moved from sheds to arenas and then back to sheds. “At the beginning of 2022, we were going from amphitheatres into arenas, so on each side, we flew 14 K1 over four K2 for mains, 12 K1-SB subs, and 12 K2 for out-fills,” Sankus describes.
“In order to adapt and be quick for the rolling stage, we did six carts of three KS28 subs, in cardioid, with an A10 Focus on the top of each for front-fill. This was able to stay strapped together, use the least amount of cable, and be struck at ease. We also had six A15 Wide for auxiliary-fills.”
For the most recent leg, which returned to the sheds, Strakele and Sankus opted to rely solely on K2 for mains instead of the more traditional K1. “On this latest run, we carried a total of 56 K2 and 20 K1-SB, plus our normal 18 KS28, six A10 Focus, and four A15 Wide,” he continues. “To save truck space, we circuited out hangs as three and stuck to 18 LA12X amp

USA - OSA International, which delivers entertainment technology, event production and systems integration from its base in Las Vegas, has added large complements of Ayrton Eurus and Diablo lighting fixtures to its rental inventory servicing its Las Vegas and Nashville offices. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton lighting in North America.
The purchase is the one of the first Eurus buys in the US. Mark Fetto has a long history as an early Ayrton proponent including the purchase of a compliment of Diablo units for OSA International in February of 2020. Fetto, who is OSA International’s VP lighting and general manager of the Las Vegas office, was brought on board about three years ago to build the company’s new lighting division.
“We’ve steadily been growing our inventory of fixtures and, as part of that, ACT demo’d the new Eurus for us,” says Fetto. “I liked how durable the fixture looked and felt, and its output was outstanding for a 650W fixture. We were looking for new robust fixtures for our touring clients, and Eurus supported our existing inventory very well.”
Eurus S is a multi-function profile luminaire especially designed for stage applications. It is equipped with a new 650W ultra-compact monochromatic LED emitter calibrated at 8200K and can deliver metallic white light with an output of 36,000 lumens at a colour temperature of 6700K. Eurus includes a subtractive CMY colour mixing system combined with a variable CTO and seven-position complementary colour wheel for displaying an infinite palette of vivid

USA - Robe lighting embraced the 2022 LDI expo in Las Vegas with a new booth design, invigorating live show, and a line up of new and innovative products.
“It was wonderful to be back together with everyone and catch up face-to-face with so many colleagues and friends to celebrate the entertainment technology and design community we all love so much,” stated Lorienn Cochenour, CEO of Robe Lighting Inc.
Robe’s six-minute timecoded All Environments live show extravaganza captured the spirit of the moment with strong multi-layered messaging as well as illustrating the robust weatherization and creative effects of Robe’s new iSeries luminaires, including the iForte, iSpiider, and iBeam250 highlighted in the show.
The live show attracted excited crowds to the stand, and people rammed the aisles each hour to catch the performance.
In a booth which was busy all three days of the expo, the dedicated demo area allowed visitors to experience more in-depth and one-to-one product presentations.
The all-new iForte and TX1 PosiProfileTM products generated a buzz.
The IP65 rated iForte is Robe’s most powerful iSeries product to date combining a massive output and multiple effects in a package ready for all outdoor challenges including wet, windy, dusty, and generally inclement and unpredictable weather.
The TX1 PosiProfile combines the worlds of manual and fully automated lighting fixtures in a new and revolutionary luminaire designed to operate as a moving head or as a static but repositionable profile. It can be rigge

UK - Version 2 has announced a new sports partnership with Team GB’s Elise Glynn. Elise, a young amateur boxer boasts an illustrious junior and amateur career securing a multitude of European and National Championships. Her impressive rise through the 57kg weight division has recently been recognised by GB Boxing, awarding her a place on their podium squad.
To help fund her passion Glynn holds down multiple jobs whilst training full-time and studying for a degree with the Open University in Business Management and Marketing. Fresh funding from Version 2 provides a much-welcomed addition to her training camp.
The Partnership with Elise represents Version 2’s third format partnership in sport after becoming the official partner of BOXXER, Savannah Marshall and Sky Sports Boxing in October 2021 and most recently Saracens Rugby Club in January 2022.
Version 2, a lighting rental specialist for the television, broadcast and event industries have supplied lighting to the likes of Strictly Come Dancing, The Jonathan Ross Show and is also active in the sports broadcast market supplying lighting to both the BBC and ITV for their studios at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Olympic-hopeful Elise comments, “A massive thank you to Nick Edwards and Version 2 for their support going forward as my main sponsor. I’m immensely grateful to have Version 2 on board to take the financial pressure off myself, with the aim to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”
Nick Edwards, managing director at Version 2 adds, “We’re immensely

Australia - TDC (Technical Direction Company) took home the Best Technical Achievement Award for their work on Vivid Sydney 2022 at the Australian Event Awards 2022 held in-person aboard The Jackson luxury superyacht in Darling Harbour, Sydney on 23 November 2022.
The Australian Event Awards recognise the entire events industry, fostering continued excellence and innovation. Not only did TDC take home Best Technical Achievement, but the company was a National Nominee for Best Achievement in Marketing or Communication and TDC LiveView real-time out-of-home city-wide digital signage and monitoring system was a National Nominee for Best Innovation, New Product or New Service. This is the second year TDC has been shortlisted a National Nominee at the Australian Event Awards and this year was their first win.
Judges of the Australian Event Awards said: “The innovation and delivery by TDC to enhance this event was first class. The new laser technologies really lifted the colour and resolution of the displays this year and it’s fabulous to hear that this has been achieved with a reduction in energy consumption. The technical achievements were multiple and excellent. Congratulations on a fabulous event.”
For Vivid Sydney 2022, TDC delivered the largest ever quantity of technology. This included large-scale laser projection mapping, LED screens, wayfinding and super-powered custom-built media server technology for over 27 visual installations and projection artworks across Sydney.
“For 11 years, TDC has worked with Destination NSW to bring Vivi

UK - Leeds Conservatoire is a leading specialist higher education institution which delivers expert music and performing arts education to a community of more than 1200 students. The Conservatoire, which offers a broad range of undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses, is situated at the heart of Leeds’ cultural quarter, and places a strong emphasis on developing career-ready musicians, performers, producers and entrepreneurs.
In addition to its role as an educator, it also hosts an eclectic year-round programme of gigs, recitals, workshops, film showcases, masterclasses and conferences in its purpose-built performance spaces. The Conservatoire’s main 350-seat auditorium, The Venue, is a flexible and inviting space designed to stage the widest possible variety of events. In keeping with the Conservatoire’s desire to maintain the very highest technical standards, its team recently chose to upgrade The Venue’s audio system, and engaged Bradford-based specialists Pro Audio Systems (PAS) to supply and install a new Meyer Sound system.
Dave Simpson, head of live event production at Leeds Conservatoire comments, “We had an ageing system at The Venue which was very much in need of replacement. Although it hadn’t necessarily been driven very hard, it had many miles on the clock and was no longer up to meeting the requirements of our diverse and ambitious programme of events. We wanted a high quality, future-proof system, and had listened to a number of systems from a variety of manufacturers in situ.
“PAS suggested we listen to some Meye

USA - To provide visitors to UNITE San Antonio with immersive live music experiences and clear communication, event production company Internally Sound recently deployed a complete JBL Professional VTX line array concert sound solution powered by Crown.
UNITE San Antonio is a two-day community worship and live music event that took place on 29-30 July at the Alamodome. Produced by the Scott Dawson Evangelistic Association, the two evenings featured influencers, speakers, live music from Chris Tomlin, King & Country, David Crowder and more, in addition to presentations from Dawson himself.
To ensure balanced sound quality and a dynamic live concert experience, the show’s producers turned to Internally Sound to provide a capable sound system. To accomplish this task, Internally Sound partnered with Harman Professional Solutions and First Born Productions to design and deploy a JBL VTX line array system for its versatility, intelligibility and impactful sound quality.
“UNITE San Antonio - like many of the events we do - featured a combination of live music and speech segments,” said Mark Jenkins, co-owner/operator, Internally Sound. “The JBL VTX system gave us the articulation and detail we needed for the speech parts, but it also delivered the power and impact needed for the concert artists. It sounded fantastic. The bands were very happy with it - one of the bands’ engineers said it was his all-time favourite concert PA. So it was smiles all around with the VTX system.”
Co-owners Phil Jenkins and Mark Jenkins of Internally Sou

Italy - Follow-Me has announced the start of a new partnership with Italian distribution company Molpass for stocking, sales, marketing, training and support of the Follow-Me remote follow-spot and performer tracking system, across the Italian market.
Paolo Albani, commercial director of Molpass comments, "We have already been collaborating with great quality brands for some time and, adding Follow-Me among these, is a big step and a great opportunity to offer to our customers a single solution to their projects.”
The wide array of applications that Follow-Me is currently used on range from international tours with artists such as Genesis, Ed Sheeran & Rolling Stones to TV shows like The Masked Singer, Dancing with the Stars, theatrical productions, Expo 2020 Dubai, theme parks, cruise ships and many other applications.
General manager for Follow-Me, Marc van der Wel, states, “We are happy to entrust our distribution to a serious and growing company like Molpass, we expect great steps in the Italian market and I am sure that this team is able to fully satisfy our needs”.
Paolo and his technical team at Molpass have already installed a Follow-Me 3D system in the Molpass Showroom and invite customers to contact them directly for a demonstration.

USA - The Killers’ FOH engineer Kenny Kaiser and monitor engineer Marty Beath were immediately intrigued by DPA’s new 4055 Kick Drum Mic. Among the first to get their hands on the mic, the duo put it to the test at production rehearsals before heading out on the band’s The Killing the Mirage tour.
After receiving universally positive feedback, the decision was made: DPA’s 4055 Kick Drum Mic was joining The Killers’ touring gear line-up alongside the group’s existing DPA solutions, such as the 4099 Core Instrument Mics, 4011 Cardioid Condenser Mics and d:facto 4018 Vocal Microphone.
Before solidifying their kick drum mic of choice, Kaiser and Beath tested out three variations of a mic setup. “We had a plate mic, a ribbon mic and then the new DPA,” explains Beath, “and we were swapping between them, listening to what we could get out of each combination. Because the DPA is linear, you have to shape it, but that’s great because that’s what you want—to have control and not be dictated by the voicing of the mic. So, I think it’s fantastic for this drum, but it will also translate across multiple drum kits.”
Beath continues, “It can handle the SPL, no problem whatsoever, and we’ve pretty much maintained our normal placement. We’ll probably experiment as we go along and get more comfortable with it, but so far, it’s mind-blowing.” Kaiser also notes that the mic’s voicing is one of the key standouts for the pair. “The overall design of this [mic] answers that famous line of optimise or compromise,” Kaiser explain

USA - Artists and technologists at Phoenix-based creative agency 3500 Kelvin help elevate film production and live and virtual event experiences with compelling, immersive content for LED display. The company operates Arizona’s largest virtual production LED volume, with more than 15,000sq.ft of capture space. Its talents have been tapped by diverse industries including film, music, corporate, concert touring, and experiential marketing. Behind the scenes, Brompton’s LED processor technology enables the team to showcase the highest quality visuals possible.
“Companies are realising that stage presentation backgrounds can be so much more than a simple logo. Instead, they can offer an immersive experience, and when it comes to LED panel processing, Brompton is the litmus test. Everyone tries to achieve what Brompton can do. It’s a rock-solid product that never crashes or has problems, and provides supreme quality,” noted Walter Schulz, partner and VFX supervisor / virtual stage supervisor at 3500 Kelvin.
Founded in early 2020 in partnership with live event company Murray Scott Production Services (MSPS), 3500 Kelvin began as a creative outlet to explore virtual production with LED panels and work in the emerging space. The companies remain linked and share equipment, with MSPS focused on live event touring, such as concerts and corporate events, and 3500 Kelvin on virtual production and content development.
“Because we’re heavily involved in live events, we often have to supplement our own tiles and equipment to accommodate events at s

USA - Salem Baptist Church in McDonough, GA, sits on a beautiful 104-acre wooded campus with winding paths and gently rolling bluffs that provide an idyllic setting for worship services and bible studies, as well as a variety of recreational activities by its community of worshippers. Completed in 1979, the church building itself is also warm and welcoming, and features a modern video-ready lighting system.
Salem recently opened the first satellite campus in its 152-year history. Located 12 miles from the main campus, the new Salem at Keys Ferry building, which was acquired from another church, seats approximately 300. Like the main campus, the new building was designed to support a welcoming worship environment. However, it did not have comparably modern lighting. To address this issue the church contracted StageCulture to design and install a new lighting system for the Keys Ferry.
“The church’s vision was to create a space in this building that would be more contemporary,” said Andrew Ayers, owner of StageCulture. “We welcomed the opportunity to upgrade the lighting system since this space offered excellent possibilities to create a modern lighting rig.”
Among the features creating exciting possibilities at the new building is its 50ft wide stage. With an eye toward this stage being used for future livestreams and video projects, Ayers ensured that it would have a smooth, even, and consistent field of light across its entire width.
“We were able to achieve 50ft candles across the front of the stage, to dial it in for future vid

USA - Point Source Audio’s on-ear Embrace microphones provided the solution for production sound engineer Thomas Zaccheo to capture every detail for a documentary about the American Ballet Theatre’s (ABT) artistic director Kevin McKenzie who will retire from the role at the end of 2022 following three decades of leadership.
The mics came into their own during the rehearsals for the summer season at The Metropolitan Museum where their mounting capabilities ensured the artistic director could instruct dancers in his normal style without needing to worry about micing.
Zaccheo chose Embrace microphones for this project based on McKenzie’s style during rehearsals. “Mr. McKenzie is a hands-on choreographer who will dance with the performers as a way of expressing his thoughts and ideas, as I was advised before the shoot,” explains Zaccheo. “There were discussions about what we could do to prevent any booming, given that three cameras would be present and, of course, clothing noise would be unavoidable.” Equally important as the sonic quality, the mic needed to complement the user: “When I was packing up, Mr. McKenzie commented on how comfortable and inconspicuous the mount was, which he enjoyed because he didn’t want to be distracted from his directing.”
Zaccheo is well known for mixing across a variety of film genres, podcasts and post-production - delivering broadcast-ready sound with an emphasis on creating the director and writer’s vision, sonically. The Embrace mics are a recent addition to Zaccheo’s sound kit and proved to be

China - The 13th edition of the popular West Lake Music Festival which has been held in the picturesque Prince Bay Park in Hangzhou every year since its inaugural event in 2008, was finally able to take place from 11-13 November. Having been postponed from its traditional dates in April due to pandemic concerns, music fans were more than ready to make the most of three days of China’s highest profile rock and pop acts.
With over 10,000 festival-goers every day, West Lake remains one of the most important music festivals in China, and the 2022 edition was no exception. Full-service production technology specialists D&S Stage Technology – the largest rental company in Zhejiang Province – was responsible for supplying all of the FOH equipment for the festival. Having road-tested KV2’s flagship VHD5 high-definition Constant Power point source system for the first time on last year’s event with great success, the company had no hesitation in specifying it for 2022.
D&S owner, Mr Wang, made a special trip down to KV2’s Chinese distributor, AVMedia’s headquarters in Guangzhou last year to experience the VHD5 system for himself in an outdoor setting and understand more about setup procedures. “They’d already attended a number of demonstrations and been impressed by what they heard, but they really wanted to see how it performed on a large event,” explains Jason Shi from AVMedia. “West Lake music festival provided the perfect opportunity. It was a resounding success – the comments from all the engineers who used the system were unan

The Netherlands - The new Amare building is an arts, culture, and educational hub on the Spui in Den Haag, which opened last year at the heart of this lively capital city, after six years of construction. Built on the footprint of the old Lucent Danstheater, Amare is a centre for excellence and houses the Dance and Music Centre, The Hague Foundation, the Residentie Orkest, the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) and the Royal Conservatoire.
Offering a 1500-capacity concert hall (2500 standing) and a 1300-seater theatre plus two other performance halls and extensive rehearsal facilities, it was a big deal to get over 100 Robe moving lights specified for the project.
These are a mix of 86 x T1 Profiles and 30 x T2 Profiles plus 60 x ParFects all supplied by Robe’s Benelux distributor Controllux and installed in the two primary venues and their main black box space.
Arjen Bijtelaar is the venue’s stage manager specialising in lighting. He has worked for the venue since 2006 – including at the Lucent Danstheater before its demolition – and explained that the original tender was for profile LED luminaires offering full white and multicoloured colour control.
The venue already had a good experience with Robe as one of the first in the country to invest in the DL7 series in 2016. This was for their temporary residence at the Zuiderstrand Theater in Scheveningen Harbour, Den Haag, which operated during the lengthy construction period.
Here the company notched up another landmark as the first cultural institution in Benelux to have Robe’s T

UK – EnterTec, a Buckinghamshire-based provider of audio and visual rental and turnkey production services, has made a major investment in lighting equipment from the Prolights brand, via UK distributor, A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET).
The range of new equipment EnterTec has added to its stock includes a range of Prolights’ moving heads such as Astra Wash 19Pix washlights, Jet Spot4z spots and Jet Beam2 beam fixtures. Static luminaires from the brand include Eclipse FS RGBLs (with a choice of lenses), plus a number of Eclipse Junior profiles and Fresnels. The investment also sees EnterTec add 24 of Prolights’ Lumipix 15IP, the tour-ready LED pixel batten, to its stock.
Through clients including production management agencies and high-end event producers in the UK and Europe, EnterTec supports events for global brands including several international airlines, vehicle manufacturers, pharmaceutical operations and global financial institutions. On top of this, and specially for many conventionally ‘corporate’ production outfits, it also keeps busy with festival work throughout the spring and summer season.
At the time the pandemic took hold in 2020, EnterTec was looking towards its next lighting investment. “Like all others, we chose to wait until we’d seen a marked return to regular in-person events,” says EnterTec director, James Tossell. “Top of our list was the need to work with a reliable, robust brand which could offer longevity and resilience to being used in both corporate and live environments.”
EnterTec first

Germany - This past summer, Waldstadion in Frankfurt was the scene of two sold-out shows by one of Germany’s favourite rock bands over the years, Böhse Onkelz. Renowned lighting designer and long-time lighting collaborator with the band, Jerry Appelt, created a spectacular stage and lighting design for the stadium shows and ensured that the visual impact would be memorable using Elation Professional’s Proteus Excalibur beam moving head.
Formed in Frankfurt in 1980, the band’s stadium shows were meant to be 40th anniversary events in 2020 but were postponed until this year. Appelt, who worked with the band earlier in its career and lit the band’s ‘farewell’ concert in 2005 before 120,000 fans, has continued to light shows for them after the band reunited in 2014.
The two Waldstadion shows featured distinctive stage and lighting designs by Appelt who says he wanted to forego placing a standard open-air stage inside Waldstadion, something he has done in previous years at this venue. A beautiful stadium with a retractable roof, the designer sought a design solution that integrated the stadium aesthetic as part of the scenery and set. He explains, “The band comes from Frankfurt originally and are big supporters of the football club Eintracht Frankfurt, who play in the stadium. I had the idea to integrate the curve of the grandstand behind the stage, where the hardcore fans usually sit, into the stage design.”
The designer created a coverless mothergrid with accompanying triangle-shaped LED screens instead of the typical 16:9 configurat

USA - The combined forces of two of hard rock’s most totemic bands, Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe, turned this year’s The Stadium Tour into the biggest outing of either band's career and the biggest rock tour of the year thus far. With special guests Poison and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts along for the journey, the trek sold 1.3m tickets, according to Billboard.
It's also significant to point out that the North American tour marked the first time that Def Leppard enjoyed the benefits of KLANG’s immersive in-ear monitor mixing solution, provided via a DMI-KLANG card-equipped DiGiCo Quantum5 monitor console supplied by touring sound company Clair Global. The use of the KLANG system created a more manageable SPL environment onstage that reportedly made the group’s performances more enjoyable than ever while simultaneously helping to protect their hearing.
How Def Leppard and KLANG got together is an interesting story. The KLANG platform first came to the attention of Ted Bible, longtime monitor mixer for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame members and two-time American Music Awards winners, when one of the band members downloaded the KLANG:app and wanted to try it out. This was just before the pandemic closed down touring for over two years, which gave Bible more time to become familiar with it, including taking an online class on the product and technology with KLANG:technologies’ Phil Kamp.
Its first deployment for Def Leppard would be on the 36-date The Stadium Tour, which kicked off on 16 June at Atlanta’s Truist Park. The band,

UK - A deployment of Hive Player_3 4K and 8K media players have been selected for London’s Frameless permanent digital immersive arts experience.
Situated in the new Marble Arch Place Complex venue, Frameless blends digitalised art, creative vision and entertainment technology to present a cultural attraction.
The project has been brought to fruition by figureheads from the worlds of tech, art, architecture and experiential events to showcase works of art via immersive video projection.
Creative Technology (CT) delivered the video solution sitewide including projection, digital signage, LED and media servers. Hive media players use less power consumption than many market equivalents. This sustainable product choice powers the artistic displays that not only cover the walls, but the ceilings and the floors across a 30,000 sq. ft space.
Digital interpretations of 40 masterpieces from 28 artists including Klimt, Monet, Rembrandt and van Gogh lead visitors through the carefully curated spaces; Beyond Reality, Colour in Motion, The World Around Us and the Art of Abstraction.
Working closely alongside CT UK’s systems integration department, Dave Green, Mark Calvert and the team at Hive Media Players advised on technical solutions, and as video playback vendor, helped to steer the design of the video system for the audiences’ bright and colourful journey.
Deploying a total of 19 Player_3 systems, the right result hinged on highly accurate synchronisation. Hive technical director, Dave Green, elaborates: “Synchronisation is the k

UK - The Jools Holland’s Rhythm and Blues Orchestra embarked on their Autumn 2022 UK tour in October, backed by a ‘big band’ lighting design by Paul Fairfield. His vision for the show swings from upbeat rock ‘n’ roll large looks to smooth solo instrument key lighting using VL2600 Profile luminaires from Vari-Lite.
The VL2600 Profile fixtures were supplied by Peterborough-based Pearce Hire, which was the first company in the world to invest in them back in 2018. Pearce Hire has supplied the lighting rig to Jools Holland’s Rhythm and Blues Orchestra tours for more than a decade and worked with Fairfield to specify the VL2600s. “We knew the VL2600s were just perfect for the needs of the Jools Holland tour,” says Fairfield. “The consistency of the smooth light output from the LED engine across the rig versus a discharge fixture was a game changer.”
For the tour, Fairfield has rigged 20 VL2600 Profiles in the standard rig, with a further six going out for the flagship show at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Eight are being used as key light on the front truss, which Fairfield says is “working great as I use iris, framing shutters and the brilliant zoom range to achieve great key light without spilling out to monitors and mic stands and so on.” A further six VL2600 Profiles are hung on the mid truss and another six are on the back truss.
“There are around 27 numbers during the show and by end of it I’ve pretty much used every trick the VL2600s have to offer,” Fairfield continues. “The gobo range is really good, especially whe

USA - Speaking Spirit Ministries of Richmond, VA is a non-denominational Christian ministry, which in the space of nine years has expanded to three campuses, offering over 100,000 sq. ft of worship space.
Known as Glen Allen Campus, the Ministry’s latest facility opened recently, and again RTW Media were brought in by pastors, Fred and Inger Wyatt to provide a complete AVL technology infrastructure. Incorporating projection and control, the PA this time was based around a central hang of Martin Audio’s Wavefront Precision line array.
“We were fortunate to be able to start with a clean slate,” stated RTW operations manager, Zack Guida. “We knew what they had in their other facilities, so we wanted to match that end user experience, but with a little latitude to design the speaker we wanted. Our engineering team had the flexibility to design the ideal integrated system for the room.”
And he knew instinctively what that speaker would be, having previously experienced a WPS demo, courtesy of Martin Audio’s Northeast regional sales manager, Martha Callaghan. “The demo consisted of a nine box hang with cardioid subs and it just sounded great. I was so impressed with how warm the boxes sounded. Everyone can produce a loud line array, but it was the warmth of the vocals here that really impressed.
“The requirement here was to handle everything from the midweek bible studies and vocal presentation to high impact worship, with church bands.”
The client went with the recommendation of RTW who designed the system as a single mono