PLASA London - Leaderboard - June 2024
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New Zealand - The first live arena concert in the world since coronavirus silently spread global mayhem, was headlined by rising-stars L.A.B. at Auckland’s Spark Arena.
Robe moving lights were on the rig in a production design created by lighting designer Jack Hooper - his first gig for the band - together with the artists, their management team Loop, visual director Olivier Jean and live video specialist Big Picture.
This event was enabled by New Zealand’s effective coronavirus response which saw a nationwide end to lockdown in early June and social distancing relaxed, with a return to the prospect of live shows and events.
All that changed on 11 August when new cases were recorded for the first time in 102 days, a sign of just how volatile the situation is. Auckland was immediately returned to lockdown.
In the intervening period however, this concer

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USA - As a light-hearted escape from the tribulations that mark everyday life at present, online comedy shows are experiencing a resurgence of popularity. Comedian Pat McGann’s recently released special, Sebastian Maniscalco Presents Pat McGann: When’s Mom Gonna Be Home? is testament to that upsurge with large viewer numbers since premiering on streaming services at the end of July.
Pat McGann is a fast rising stand-up comedian from Chicago whose sarcastic charm and wit have endeared him to fans across North America. In his first Comedy Dynamics original special, McGann offers his take on family life and marriage. Shot last September at the 1000-seat Vic Theatre in Chicago, Andris Kasparovics lit two sold-out evenings using a combination of Elation Artiste Van Gogh and Elation Dartz 360 LED luminaires.
Head of creative and principal designer for Sigh
Nexo - Main Banner - June 2024

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USA - Familiar, comforting sights have often been obscured in the haze of the pandemic, a time of broken plans and lost connections. But like every crisis, the current one is also a great revealer. Forcing people into unfamiliar paths, it can lead to new, unexpected discoveries, which, even when seemingly insignificant, can lift the spirits.
Christopher Robin, the production/lighting designer for the country rockers The Andy Davis Band, had such an experience on Saturday 15 August when he lit his first concert at the Evergreen Drive-In in Mt Pleasant, PA. A highlight of the evening for him came at the end of the show, when fans (some of whom were fire fighters, given free tickets by the band), called for an encore by sounding their car alarms.
“It was something I never thought I’d see at the end of a concert,” said Robin. “All of a sudden all these alarms went

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Australia - Designed as a state-of-the art learning space for the performing arts in Hobart, the new AU$110m Hedberg Building at the University of Tasmania (UTas) has chosen a 48-channel API Legacy AXS analogue recording and mixing console for the heart of its recording hub.
The 57sq.m control room - large enough to accommodate student groups - is linked to several recording spaces including dedicated drum and vocal booths, as well as the Salon performance venue and Ian Potter Recital Hall. Deciding on the best console for this studio saw the university's technical staff engage in extensive research before deciding on API.
“What I was looking for in terms of the best console to learn on was something that sounds great and is easy to use; reliable with great technical support from a reputable manufacturer,” explains Rob Long, associate lecturer in music and music te

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Germany - The coronavirus pandemic has affected many areas of private and public life, forcing people to rethink established organisational structures and to adopt new working methods. This naturally also includes politicians at all levels.
An example is the district council of the Bad Kissingen region in Germany which was unable to meet as usual in the conference rooms of its town hall. In order to comply with social distancing regulations, the officials had to find an alternative for the council’s 60 members. The AV specialist der Kohl UG ensured seamless communication between council members, as well as clear intelligibility in the press and public visitor areas, in the converted gymnasium with the Shure Microflex Complete Wireless conferencing system.
Due to coronavirus safety regulations, each council member had to sit at their own table. These were placed in th

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Slovakia - From 23-27 July 2020, the Zemplínska Šírava resort hosted the 13th edition of the Sundance Festival, one of the largest festivals of electronic dance music in the country.
Despite the limitations of COVID-19, which reduced its form and the participation of foreign stars, the event was a success.
This year, 40 DJs performed for three days. The entire Line-up was built just on local DJs and the main star was DJ Borra, all of them lit up by Prolights Stark1000.
Topevent was the rental company who worked on the lighting installation for the festival. Jaro Varga, lighting designer for Topevent, said: “This year, due to a reduced budget, it was necessary to build a simple stage, but so that it was vigorous and effective. That's why we chose Prolights Stark1000. The fixtures were installed on the console to emphasise the DJ's performances and on the fron

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Canada - Upgrading its PA system to provide a refreshed and memorable experience for its fans and spectators, the Centre Bell, which is home to the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens and hosts a range of live events, turned to EAW for the project.
The Centre Bell is reconfigured, frequently, into one of six different seating formats - ranging from a 2,000-seat amphitheatre to a 21,000-seat full-capacity NHL arena. EAW was chosen by way of a competitive bidding process commissioned by Jesse Leveillé, A1 tech at the Centre Bell.
The EAW system was able to meet the wide range of applications and audio challenges at the venue and includes Anna loudspeakers and Otto subwoofers from the ADAPTive line, along with MKD1096 Loudspeakers and UXA4410 amplifiers. The EAW system, now fully implemented, provides the essential power and flexibility the venue needs as it is traditionally one

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Greece - German DJ Boris Brejcha appeared at the reopened.Cavo Paradiso club on the island of Mykonos earlier this month, with a dynamic lightshow provided by Kiriakos Dimitriadis.
Because of the pandemic, the club had to follow strict social distancing protocols. Temperatures were taken before anyone could enter, the number of visitors was limited, and patrons could not mingle between tables, at the DJ booth, or on the outdoor dancefloor.
Without the crowds, and with no one dancing, the vibe at this normally jubilant club could have seemed flat. Dimitriadis did his part to prevent this from happening. With human movement absent from the dance floor, he made sure to provide a “dance of light” with his full-throttle four-universe, 75-fixture show that he ran on his ChamSys MagicQ PC Wing with an Extra Wing.
Dimitriadis arranged some of the fixtures in his rig

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UK - Described as an immersive, socially-distanced sound installation, Blindness is a new adaptation of Jose Saramago’s novel which recently re-opened London’s Donmar Warehouse. The production is one of the first to be staged post lockdown and White Light was called upon to supply the lighting equipment.
Adapted by Olivier Award-winning Simon Stephens, Blindness tells the story of when a contagious disease spreads through a city and renders its victims instantly blind. The production has no performers onstage. Instead, audience members are seated 2m apart across the Donmar stage and wear headphones through which they hear the story’s narration, provided by Juliette Stevenson.
The lighting designer is Jessica Hung Han Yun, who comments: “This project is, unsurprisingly, unlike anything I’ve ever worked on before. My role was to help create an en

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New Zealand - To enhance its new facility with improved sound for worship services and other events, Tauranga Elim Church selected a Harman Professional audio solution that includes JBL Professional loudspeakers and Crown amplification.
Among Elim Church’s several locations throughout New Zealand and other countries, Tauranga Elim recently moved to a new facility. A move that was nearly two years in the making, the new location is much larger than the previous building and includes an auditorium that is able to accommodate 550 people.
Wanting to offer guests and attendees an engaging experience with great acoustics to support the live modern contemporary music, along with crystal-clear speech intelligibility, Tauranga Elim required a premium sound system that delivers consistent tones at all volume levels with smooth, even coverage across the entire facility.

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USA - iHeartMedia, the USA’s largest radio station owner, called on Verge Aero’s drone show technology to add some high-flying, high-impact visuals to local station Q102’s broadcast announcement of its 102 Grand in the Sand competition in Philadelphia.
Amid 2020’s pandemic restrictions, 102 Grand in the Sand switched from a physical treasure hunt to a virtual one, with lucky listeners winning prizes worth $102,000 dollars. To ensure maximum engagement for Q102’s announcement of the competition, local drone show innovator Verge Aero delivered the attention-grabbing aerial imagery. Although the show was flown in central Philadelphia, it was not pre-announced to limit social gathering.
Flying high above the Philadelphia Museum of Art – the steps of which are known to movie lovers everywhere from Sylvester Stallone’s 1976 film Rocky – t

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USA - “The client had a secondary guest-house on his property, and he wanted to turn the single room into a miniature bar/nightclub so he reached out to us at Blue Haze Entertainment with this idea, and we immediately got started on putting together a design concept,” explained Nikolai Beyla, designer and manager of the installation for Blue Haze Entertainment.
The club has a video wall 8m wide covering two of the walls, composed of Chauvet Video F3 panels, as well as mirrors everywhere and large glass patio doors that open to a view of the mountains. The video wall and the various lighting fixtures reflect off all the mirrored and glass surfaces, giving the feeling of being in a much larger space with even more lighting.
Fifteen wood panels are attached to the ceiling, each containing a section of Firefly FloppyFlex LED Neon. These panels create a massive, 91m lon

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UK - The Royal Society, Carlton House in London is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence and home to over 1,600 of the world’s most revered scientists. Its aim is to recognise, promote and support excellence in the field of science.
With regular meetings held between Council members, important committee discussions and the hiring of space within the building for external clients, audio quality is paramount across the Society. So, when the need came to upgrade the existing system, The Royal Society selected a company that reflected its own reputation and global recognition for excellence, choosing Shure Microflex Advance MXA910 (MXA) and Microflex Complete Wireless (MXCW).
Three rooms were chosen for the upgrade, with the MXCW system installed in the Council room and the MXA910 system within the conference/boardroom and the main 300-seat lecture theatr

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UK - Originally dating back to 1623, the present First Bangor Presbyterian Church in Northern Ireland is an example of a traditional, early-Victorian Presbyterian meeting house.
When Rea Sound, who are based nearby, were first contacted by church manager George Monaghan, they were surprised both by the high level of organisation, how specific the church was with its requirement, and how realistic it was with the large budget that would be needed to achieve this.
“In addition to a new sound system they wanted full AV and lighting as well,” stated Rea Sound project manager, Roger McMullan.
In view of the dimensions of the 700-seat facility - with a balcony, and pulpit set in a semi-circle - a Martin Audio CDD system was specified using their unique Coaxial Differential Dispersion design. This met the requirement for a distributed sound system.
“The clie

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Canada - The tastes and inviting aromas of panzerotti, scaccia, farinata di ceci (and of course, pizza), have been a favourite part of Italian Week for Québécois for over a quarter of a century. This year, COVID-19 restrictions prevented festival-goers from shouldering their way through the bustling streets of Montreal’s Little Italy section and savouring this epicurean experience. But they were able to enjoy the music, art, fashion and culture of the city’s large (over 250,000) Italian-Canadian community anyway, thanks to the popular festival’s decision to move to a livestream format.
Taking place in the ornate Leonardo da Vinci Theatre, the week-long series of 60-minute programmes featured Moda Sotteo Le Stelle (fashion under the stars) as well as a variety of performances, including music from genres ranging from pop and folk, to jazz and opera. Adding eleg

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Ukraine - There is no lack of creativity or ideas when it comes to artists performing in the world of Covid-19 lockdowns and other restrictions.
In Kyiv, Ukraine, ‘Vertical Concerts’ were initiated by rock band Green Grey who performed on the rooftop of a building opposite the city’s Bratislava Hotel where fans occupied nine stories of rooms with separate balconies, each with a socially distanced view of the gig.
Ukraine rental and technical production company Alight was asked to provide lighting for the rooftop stage – actually atop the Hotel Bratislava’s separate restaurant building – with a production lighting design created by Eugene Kostyra which included 10 x Robe MegaPointes. All the equipment was craned up to the rooftop, rock ‘n’ roll style.
Green Grey played the first Vertical gig, followed a couple of weeks later by hip hop act TNMK (Ta

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UK - Lighting control manufacturer Zero 88 presented Live from the Congress a dynamic live stream highlighting the latest technologies in its control, data and power product ranges and announced that key products like the ZerOS Server, Splitter 8, Gateway 4 & Gateway 8, Betapack4 and RigSwitch are all shipping now.
The 30-minute broadcast was hosted at the Congress Theatre in Cwmbran, the nearest theatre to Zero 88’s manufacturing facility, and was presented by general manager David Catterall, supported by Jon Hole, Tyler Holpin (who also works as a technician at the venue) and Edward Smith.
Local singer / songwriter Tobias Robertson appeared as a special guest, treating everyone to his captivating vocals and some proper live entertainment as the stream was broadcast live on Zero 88’s YouTube and Facebook channels. It can subsequently be watched on-deman

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UK - Creative Technology (CT), in a year where a magnitude of events across the globe have been postponed or cancelled, found themselves with just over a month to pull together a large-scale, stadium-size event that would normally take months of preparation.
The BBC decided to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VJ Day with an audio-visual spectacular located at the famous Horse Guards Parade in London, aired on 15 August on BBC One. It was an unprecedented opportunity to use this iconic venue, available only because of the unforeseen social distancing restrictions put in place which had halted the usual timetable of parades and public viewing access. CT were thrilled to be able to be a part of creating something both beautiful and monumental for people across the country to witness.
The decision was made by the BBC to cover almost the entirety of the Horse Guards Par

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USA - Caylee Hammack is used to making the most of a hard situation, so she wasn’t about to let a pandemic stand in the way of her first album’s debut. After experiencing heartbreak, losing a college scholarship and later her belongings to house fire, she poured her hurt and heart into If It Wasn’t for You which launched 14 August.
To celebrate the release, Hammack recorded performances for future, virtual television appearances. The rising singer-songwriter utilised the full production studio at the Steel Mill in Nashville with its 60’ x 40’ stage area and an impressive Bandit Lites-supplied lighting rig comprised of over 100 moving fixtures, including the new Chauvet R2X LED washes and a grandMA2 Full console.
“Caylee was scheduled to support both Reba McEntire and Rascal Flatts this past summer and we were looking extremely forward to working with

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USA - Since arriving on the scene in the late 1980s Carl Filipiak, the award-winning jazz fusion guitarist from Baltimore has moved audiences around the world, not through sheer force, but through the intricate, subtle and often delicately balanced power of his music.
The design team at Harford Sound in Joppa, MD, followed a similar approach when lighting a livestream by the Top 10 recording artist and his Jimi Jazz Band that was videoed in the production area the company set up in its warehouse in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown.
Harford went all out when building its improvised studio, outfitting the space with 75 Chauvet Professional fixtures and an 18’ x 10’ video wall made up of F4IP panels. This beefy rig is often put to good use during the company’s thrice-weekly livestreams, especially when they feature metal and rock bands. But for the sophisticated s

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USA - On 19 September 1999, International House of Prayer of Kansas City (IHOPKC) founder Mike Bickle and 20 full-time 'intercessory missionaries' began a prayer meeting that has continued around the clock to this day. To help meet the challenges of delivering non-stop music and prayer to worshippers and streaming to the internet, the evangelical Christian church has installed two Solid State Logic Live series digital mixing consoles in its Global Prayer Room.
A few miles away, in Grandview, Missouri, another pair of SSL Live desks handle house and stage sound, as well as webstreaming, at IHOPKC’s Forerunner Church.
A pair of SSL Live L200 consoles - one at front-of-house and another at the monitor position - were installed at the Forerunner Church first, says Nicholas Kramer, IHOPKC director of sound. “We were definitely due for an audio upgrade, so we did a big

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Australia - Recognised as one of the world’s most flexible and technologically advanced meeting facilities, the Adelaide Convention Centre (ACC) in South Australia recently completed an AU$397m redevelopment which included a major overhaul of the venue’s audio systems.
The loudspeakers and associated processing were augmented or completely replaced with new Meyer Sound systems in seven halls, including the addition of Lyon line arrays for the ACC’s largest configurable space. When combined with existing inventories, this latest round of investments brings the total Meyer Sound loudspeaker count up to 270, making ACC the largest single-site user of Meyer Sound systems in Australia.
In addition to the 20 Lyon line array loudspeakers and accompanying eight 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements, the latest additions also include 65 Ultra-X40 compact loudspeakers an

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Tahiti - At the end of November last year, thousands of people from across the Polynesian island of Tahiti gathered for the first annual Tiki Fest. Featuring an extensive line-up of performers, the event was headlined by international DJ and producer Diplo. He delivered an epic performance on an impressive stage that featured over 2m pixels of ADJ video wall and 24 of ADJ’s powerful Hydro Beam X2 IP65-rated moving heads.
Tiki Fest 2019 was hosted right by the Pacific ocean at Bel Air in Punaauia. It was organised by Studio 87 Event and Production, a well-established Tahitian company with a reputation for bringing high-profile performers to the island. As one of the biggest events to take place in Tahiti last year, the production for the festival had to be world class and to achieve that Studio 87 brought in regular collaborators Visual Events. Also based on the island, Vis

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USA - With the implementation of high-resolution LED video environments that have become the backbone of such award-winning production designs as Star Wars: The Mandalorian, production houses across the nation have begun to look at applying this type of technology for the benefit of their clients.
Such is the case with PixelFLEX rental network partners Mountain View Staging and Elite Multimedia Productions, who have taken their live and virtual event capabilities into a new realm of possibilities using production designs with LED video.
“We saw how they were using the camera-tracking technology in conjunction with LED video and an Unreal Effects Engine to film the Mandalorian series and we thought this was something we could offer to our corporate clients to make their live events even more exciting,” began Robert Johnson, vice president of operation
  1. My Light Shines On in Edinburgh with Robe
  2. Rafael Mendoza and Artiste Picasso in ballet gala
  3. Chauvet lights Creative BackStage livestream
  4. ROE Visual Diamond LED in virtual showcase
  5. Ed Sheeran’s crew joins Sennheiser round table
  6. Croatian venue chooses Pioneer Pro Audio
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GLP - MPU - May-June 2024
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Astera - MPU - June 2024

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