UK - Sound production company 22live returned to the Creamfields North site on Daresbury Estate, in the Cheshire countryside, where they made their debut last year on one of the stages.

With 10 high-profile stages set for the huge, four-day dance music festival, the Martin Audio rental partner this year doubled its account. This year they were entrusted with delivering optimum sound for a second stage in a large-scale Big Top. This was in addition to the 14,000-capacity Steel Yard stage which they also equipped last year. This industrial super structure was described as the largest in Europe when originally designed by Acorn Events.

Boasting a huge overhead video screen, Steel Yard really comes into its own after 1am on the Saturday night, when it runs through to 4am, and this year saw electronic music icon, Eric Prydz, headlining.

22live dir

UK - Doughty Engineering was the supplier of choice for BH Sound & Lighting hire when they were contracted to provide lighting for An Evening with Chris Packham and Martin Simpson this summer. Having used Doughty products since the company’s formation in 2011, sound and lighting engineer Finlay Ryan-Smith knew that they’d be well-designed, engineered and built-to-last products.

Ryan-Smith commented: “We were initially asked to provide lighting for a small series of concerts at the Church of Lady St Mary’s for the Purbeck Guitar Festival this June. We spec’d this job in line with the requests of most of the artists, which were passed onto us by the client – it was key we were able to find a middle ground between being able to fill these criteria, whilst also keeping costs low for the client, as they were on a limited budget.

USA - Creed are back on tour for the first time since 2012. The multi-platinum, Grammy- and American Music Award-winning rock band embarked on a 40-show tour that boasted sold-out performance after sold-out performance while their Greatest Hits returned to four Billboard charts. Lighting designer Mathias Kuhn worked with Bandit Lites to supply a lighting system worthy of the sound that has elevated fans for decades.

Having previously worked with members of the band and management on Alter Bridge, Kuhn was trusted to deliver a design that centred around the direction: a big circle with lights. And while the truss appears to hover over the band, two dozen Bandit Lites-supplied Tyler Ladder Towers act like a drapery of lights between video screens.

“Mathias and I began working on this tour in October of 2023,” said Bandit

South Korea - Multimedia integrators SoundKoreaENG and Metaspace relied on Screenberry to power a 3D mapping show for the Seoul Light DDP 2024 Autumn Festival. The festival took place in downtown Seoul for 11 days from 29 August to 8 September.

The highlight of the event was a spectacular projection mapping show on the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP), renowned as the world's largest three-dimensional amorphous structure. Designed by British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, the DDP's futuristic exterior, with its fluid, curved forms, resembles a colossal mushroom hovering above the ground. This architecture offers an exceptional but challenging canvas for 3D mapping.

To illuminate the expansive 222m facade of the DDP, the production team employed 26 projectors (14 x Barco UDX-4K40 and 12 x Barco UDX-W32) placed in seven containers that were positioned at var

Sri Lanka - A new, 16-station audio lab, Audient Creative Hub 2, has been unveiled at Sri Lanka’s Pearlbay Institute, equipped with iD4 audio interfaces. The compact audio interfaces add to the Audient inventory alongside the flagship ASP8024-HE mixing console, further strengthening the bond between the facility and the British manufacturer.

General manager of academics at Pearlbay Music, Maheshwara Medawatte says: “Audient Creative Hub 2 is designed with a unique classroom concept where the lecturer is able to walk around and monitor classroom activities, whilst the students work on high-spec computers purpose-built for music production.

“Each station is equipped with an Intel i5 computer with 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSDs loaded with four different DAWs as well as the latest plugins and VST. Students work with Nektar Impact LX49+ MIDI keyboards whils

Germany - Every July, Weeze Airport is transformed into the City of Dreams for Parookaville, one of the world’s best-known EDM festivals. This year’s event, held 19-21 July, welcomed 225,000 fans for performances by 300 DJs on 13 stages, led by marquee acts including Hardwell, Steve Aoki, Armin van Buuren, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, and KSHMR.

For the third year, Germany-based event production company POOLgroup delivered premium sound for Parookaville’s Mainstage, in collaboration with Meyer Sound, debuting the pairing of Panther large-format linear line array loudspeakers and 2100‑LFC low-frequency control elements at the 2024 festival.

POOLgroup has been supplying Meyer Sound systems for Parookaville’s Mainstage since 2022, with technical directors Simon Jermer and Jan Flerlage providing system design, planning, and implement

USA - Ayrton Rivale and Domino lighting fixtures and grandMA3 full-size consoles played a key role in DJ John Summit’s sold-out, five-and-a-half hour show at New York City’s Madison Square Garden (MSG). Chicago-based LEC was the lighting vendor for the performance, the kick-off of Summit’s Comfort in Chaos tour.

The show, which also was broadcast on YouTube, follows the release of Summit’s debut album, also called Comfort in Chaos. Over the last few years Summit has been headlining some of the biggest markets in the EDM World. He is known for original releases, several of which have hit #1 on the US Dance charts, along with remixes and marathon DJ sets. 

Jason Baeri, who served as the show’s lighting and co-production designer with creative director James Klein of Aeon Point, has an almost 10-year history of using Ayrton

USA - The Rolling Stones took to the road in April for their Hackney Diamonds Tour, a North American run of both classics and original material that featured an energetic, modern production utilising Elation Proteus Maximus luminaires.

Creative director Patrick Woodroffe worked alongside lighting designer Terry Cook of WBD and associate lighting designer and programmer Ethan Weber, all long-time associates of the band, with lighting supply by Upstaging.

The band released Hackney Diamonds last October, their first studio album of original material in 18 years, and followed up with a much-anticipated tour announcement.

“We knew from the start that video would be a major part of the tour, so choosing the right light would be important,” Cook commented, adding that they met several times with Upstaging to discuss options.

USA - The Hans Zimmer Live tour is currently touring in North America before heading to Europe later this year. In this “groundbreaking audio and visual show”, the multiple Academy Award and Grammy winning Zimmer, his band and an ensemble orchestra perform a selection of the composer’s scores from some of cinema’s biggest films.

The newly arranged concert suites include music from Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Dark Knight, Interstellar, The Lion King, The Last Samurai and Dune, for which Zimmer received his second Academy Award.

“The width of Hans’ music is so broad, it’s amazing to mix,” said Colin Pink, front of house engineer for Hans Zimmer Live and the World of Hans Zimmer. “As an engineer, it comes with a lot of challenges in t

Germany - Adele’s 10-show residency at the purpose-built outdoor arena at Messe München in August earned a Guinness World Record title for the Largest Continuous Outdoor LED Screen (temporary). This record-breaking feat was made possible by Solotech, the official video supplier, who harnessed Brompton Technology LED processing to deliver the visual experience to nearly 750,000 Adele fans.

Brompton Technology’s Adam Callaway notes that the team collaborated closely with Solotech for over a year on the project, which included rigorous testing and validating workflows based on Adele’s Las Vegas residency and additional testing in the UK. “Brompton joined Solotech on site for three days to ensure smooth deployment of the workflows needed from our 4K Tessera SX40 LED processors,” he says.

Featuring 6,200 tiles of ROE CB5 MKII, all calibrated us

Malta - Two of the country's most distinctive dining establishments have elevated their culinary experiences with the installation of L-Acoustics professional sound systems. LOA, a South American-inspired seaside venue in St. Paul's Bay, and Aki, an Asian fusion restaurant in Valletta, now boast audio environments that complement their atmospheres and cuisine.

LOA, nestled near the historic Wignacourt Tower, draws inspiration from the ancient Río Loa River and Loa goddesses. This bright seaside venue offers a culinary journey through Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Mexico, blending exquisite flavours with Mediterranean charm. Aki, situated in Malta's capital city, presents a modern twist on Asian cuisine in a sleek, stylish setting.

Both venues required audio solutions to enhance their distinct characteristics and accommodate their transition from backg

Italy - Founded in 1902, Milan’s Bocconi University is a leading European teaching and research institution with a strong international orientation. A recent expansion of the university's facilities encompasses the Bocconi Sport Centre, including an Olympic-sized swimming pool, fitness area and the multifunctional Bocconi Sports Arena.

Studio Sound Service led the integration of a suitably innovative AV system at the new facilities, in collaboration with Laser Entertainment and VideoGecom. Audio solutions from the Italian brand, K-array, were key to providing a high-quality PA system that would withstand the challenges of a multi-sports facility.  

“The goal of the project was to establish uniform, high-quality sound diffusion without using loudspeakers that were excessively large or visually impactful,” explains Donato Masci, CEO and technic

Switzerland - In a collaborative effort, WSDG worked alongside Wibrandis Stiftung and a team of architects at Vécsey*Schmidt Architekt*innen as well as other partners to implement acoustic treatments throughout the Oekolampad Gemeindehaus in Basel, a 1930s building purchased and repurposed for the community by the Wibrandis Foundation.

Every one of the 50 rooms in the building has benefitted from carefully engineered acoustic treatments, from the electro-acoustic solutions in the brand-new Theatre Box to the acoustic curtains in the children’s play area. This partnership ensured that every part of the project has been thoughtfully designed to ensure acoustic independence for the community groups that use it, with the highest possible standards of design and implementation across the whole venue.

The Gemeindehaus Oekolampad is the first initiative

Germany - Following the successful Las Vegas production Weekends with Adele, the British singer took on the challenge of a month-long residency in a Live Nation-backed, purpose-built, 80,000 capacity open-air arena in Munich.

The singer, who has sold over 100m albums to date, told fans via her Instagram: "A one-off, bespoke pop-up stadium designed around whatever show I want to put on? I couldn't think of a more wonderful way to spend my summer."

The ambitious concert series was led by production manager Paul English and sought technical expertise from a variety of disciplines within the Clair Global organisation, overseen by account executive Andy Walker.

"A great thing that Andy did was get the IT team on board, supplying fantastic internet across the site. It made our lives easy throughout the entire backstage area, which is an im

Europe - The Disney in Concert series has been bringing Disney magic onto the large concert stage for many years. The production has been on tour once again in 2024, visiting arenas in Germany and Austria with the Hollywood Sound Orchestra.

To keep the numerous soloists under the spotlight in front of the large LED wall at all times, gruppe20, the lighting technology service provider in charge, decided to rely on a zactrack SMART system.

“Stage production has continually developed in terms of technology over the years,” explains Klaus Mayer, managing director of gruppe20, which has overseen lighting and rigging for Disney in Concert since 2016. “The number of performers appearing on stage at the same time in musicals has grown as well. When eight or more artists are on stage, using followspots is no longer feasible. Also, with

USA - Martin Castañon’s design for the lighting rig at the 27th annual Santa Barbara Mariachi Festival called for 12 Chauvet Professional Color Strike M motorised strobe-washes and 12 blinders. But instead, he got zero blinders and 18 Color Strike M fixtures.

“The rig was originally supposed to have the Color Strike Ms on the up and mid truss for a total of 12 – blinders were specced out for the downstage,” recalled Castañon. “Somehow when the rig was built, we accidentally got the extra six Strikes instead of the blinders. In the end it worked out beautifully as it tied the whole rig together. It was great having the horsepower to punch things up for the crowd, especially in colour, not to mention when riding the beams on them. It looked like the night turned to day. I didn’t miss the blinders at all.

“I used the Strikes mos

USA - Independent live sound engineer Jade Payne’s career began over 15 years ago in New York’s vibrant music scene, where she got her start in some of the city’s most famous venues. Today, Payne can be found touring with musical trio Khruangbin, for which DPA Microphones play a pivotal role in her meticulous audio setup.

“We use a lot of DPA mics for Khruangbin,” says Payne. “We have the 4055 [kick drum mic] on kick, 4099 [instrument mics] on snare bottom and floor tom, 2012 [compact cardioid] on snare top, 2011 [twin diaphragm cardioid mic] on hi-hat and 4007 [omnidirectional mic] for rim/sidestick. These mics work coherently together, even when in close proximity.” As one of the pioneering users of DPA’s Kick Drum Mic, she adds: “The 4055, especially, has been a revelation. Its natural sound capture means I barely have to EQ the drum.”

USA - Songwriter and publisher Chas Sandford is the recipient of 12 ASCAP Most Performed Song awards, including John Waite's Missing You, Chicago's What Kind of Man Would I Be and Stevie Nicks' Talk To Me. His songs have also been recorded by Tina Turner, Rod Stewart, Brooks & Dunn, Alison Krauss, Rick Springfield, Sammy Hagar, and many others. His base is the Secret Studio, located on 50 acres of farmland outside Nashville.

When Sandford wanted to expand his studio’s capabilities to include Dolby Atmos, he turned to amplifiers from LEA Professional.

“In reviewing the specific requirements for our installation, LEA Professional amps checked all of the boxes perfectly,” said Sandford. “It was a breeze setting them up, we basically set them up once and forgot it. Once the system was tuned, I was floored by how gre

USA - Three Powersoft Quattrocanali 8808 DSP+D and one Quattrocanali 2404 DSP+D amplifiers are at the heart of a new audio system delivering maximum power, efficiency and connectivity to worshippers at Upstate Church Haywood in Greenville, South Carolina.

Elevate AVL, founded by Jordan Tripp, is a specialist AVL design and integration firm based in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Focusing primarily on houses of worship, the audio, video and lighting upgrade for Upstate Church Haywood is its latest project with Upstate Church, a Baptist church with locations across upstate South Carolina – many of which are equipped with Powersoft amplifiers, Elevate’s ‘go-to’ amplifier platform for HOW installations, explains Tripp.

“When it comes to reliability and performance at an affordable price point, Powersoft amplifiers are hard to beat,” says Tripp,

Europe - Monitor engineer Jeffrey Löwe has an impressive list of clients, including Álvaro Soler, who he has been touring with extensively throughout the summer. He relies on his DMI-KLANG and DiGiCo Quantum 338 to let his artists perform at their best. With KLANG, Löwe can count on ease of workflow and powerful processing, providing each artist with a recognisable, clear, fatigue-free experience for their in-ear mixes.

Álvaro Soler rose to fame in 2015, achieving massive success across Europe and receiving many nominations and awards for his music. His latest tour of Germany is booking into November, with shows and festival appearances across the country.

Whether the venue is a giant, outdoor festival with crowds of over 100,000 people or a more intimate gig in a cosy club, DMI-KLANG offers a consistency in the in-ear mix that is impossible to f

France - Marseillais comedian Redouane Bougheraba’s On m'appelle Bercy tour, produced by Gilbert Coullier Productions, included sold-out performances at the Accor Hotel Arena in Paris, the Velodrome Marseille, and other large venues.

Supporting Bougheraba’s performance on his tour is an Andreas Monschauer lighting design that, like the popular comedian himself, is versatile, free-flowing and always engaging.

Monschauer is powering his shows with ChamSys consoles: a MagicQ MQ500M Stadium Console with a wing at Marseille, and a MagicQ MQ250M at the Accor Hotel Arena. Working with a scenic design by Vincent Rautureau (G the Imagineers), Bougheraba uses lighting and video to set a tone that is “at once dramatic and inviting”. He uses up to 80 universes of lighting. Supplied by MPM (which also furnished the sound), the lighting is run thr

Spain - The initial phase of Gran Canaria Studios, one of Europe’s largest virtual production stages to date, has been completed, offering an environment for international content producers looking to “leverage Gran Canaria’s film location incentives”.

Located on the 1,200sq.m stage 1 of the Gran Canaria Platos studio lot, the virtual production infrastructure has been designed and delivered by ARRI Solutions, integrator Video Cine Import (VCI), and ROE Visual. The Economic Promotion Agency of Gran Canaria (SPEGC) commissioned the studio to accommodate both independent and high-end national and international productions.

“The film industry is one of the region’s economic pillars; we are very committed to the development of this industry on the island and Gran Canaria is spearheading efforts to become a leading hub for TV and film,” stat

France - The Hippodrome de Longchamp pulsed with energy this summer as Solidays Music Festival marked its 25th year, drawing a record-breaking 260,000 attendees. L-Acoustics professional sound systems ensured every beat and every message rang out with crystal clarity.

Solidays isn't just about the music – it's a movement. For a quarter-century, this festival has fused chart-topping performances with raising funds and awareness for AIDS prevention and support. "L-Acoustics has been our go-to choice for Solidays for over 15 years," said Samuel Birais, site manager for B Live, the L-Acoustics certified provider supplying audio for the event. "Their professional sound systems consistently deliver the punch and precision required for such a diverse lineup of artists."

To create powerful, consistent sound over multiple stages spanning from intimate 1,000

UK - Assembly is right at the heart of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and an integral part of this celebration of arts and culture.

The 2024 event saw Assembly – one of the largest venue operators at the Fringe – operating 26 venues featuring over 240 diverse shows embracing multiple entertainment genres, with lighting managed by Martin McLachlan, Assembly’s Festival Fringe head of lighting since 2018.

This year, McLachlan specified an abundance of Robe moving lights for several of Assembly’s key venues.

The Assembly Festival Fringe operation involves over 90 technical staff (covering sound and stage management in addition to lighting) over a six-week period, which includes two weeks of build and rehearsal before the three-and-a-half-week festival. McLachlan, together with a small team of four, oversees the house stage lighting and cre

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