The Netherlands - The Theatre of Vista College in Heerlen hosted the eleventh edition of Nieuwe Honden. The student-run production featured a plethora of lighting fixtures, consoles and accessories, and LED Screens from Infinity, Showtec, and DMT.
Nieuwe Honden 2021 was the biggest production of the year for the Arts, Theatre, and Media Department of Vista College. The previous year’s production of Nieuwe Honden was live-streamed as an alternative to hosting a live audience due to coronavirus restrictions. However, this year’s edition, which ran from 9-11 Novembe

USA - Optocore North America has provided an extensive fibre optic audio network for The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, the San Diego Symphony’s new venue. Situated in San Diego Bay, the 10,000-cap outdoor amphitheatre becomes the first permanent year-round waterfront concert and events space in the US to be operated by a symphony orchestra.
As it took up residence in its new space, one of the orchestra’s imperatives for a venue designed to be one of the most acoustically superior outdoor concert venues in the US, was to have an expanded fibre network that would allow for recordi

UK - “For Mischief’s Magic Goes Wrong, it is the show that is comedy chaos on stage,” opens its lighting designer, David Howe. “It must never be the lights that go wrong!”
Co-written by Mischief and international magicians, Penn and Teller, Magic Goes Wrong, first opened at London’s Vaudeville Theatre in 2019 before touring the UK since July ‘21. A West End version returned to London in October with a relaunch at the Apollo Theatre that will run until February. The comedy play is presented as a fundraiser and features a string of inept magicians doing

USA - To provide the Seattle Space Needle with a versatile and modern outdoor lighting system, installation specialists LVH Entertainment Systems and lighting designer Erik Crowell with Niteo deployed Martin Professional Exterior Projection 500 and 1000 fixtures.
Built in 1962 and inspired by the Space Age, the Space Needle is a staple of the Seattle skyline known for its stunning views from the flying saucer-like observation deck. In 2017, the Space Needle announced an ambitious multi-year renovation project that aimed to modernize the visitor experience while also honouring the

France - The Monumental Tour, a visual and musical performance created by French DJ and music producer Michael Canitrot and visual activists AV-Extended - played a spectacular final location at the end of November at the Chateau de Pierrefonds in the picturesque Oise region of France, northeast of Paris.
Delivered in conjunction with French cooperative bank Credit Mutuel and other sponsors, over 100 Robe moving lights supported the mapped projection show specially devised for the set produced by Michael for this closing show.
It took references from the history of the imposi

UK - The London New Year’s Eve fireworks display has attracted millions to the city every 31 December. Although safety protocols restricted crowds in London on the eve of 2022, the celebration was as popular as ever, garnering its customary huge audience of BBC viewers (see LSi January 2022, coming soon, for more on the London's NYE display).
Developed by Jack Morton, the global brand experience agency, working in partnership with the Mayor of London’s office, the celebration features an impressive 13-minute firework display, kicked off by the ringing of Big Ben’s

UK - A spirited drum and bass performance by BRIT Award winners Rudimental marked the official end of this year’s Sundown Festival, but the buzz created by the three-day event at Norfolk Showground lasted far longer with inventive pictures and ebullient comments flooding social media. The euphoria was easy to understand, given that music fans were starved for live festival experience following the 2020 pandemic lockdown.
Sundown Festival 2021 delivered all they were looking for, serving up three days of ‘colourful costumes, raucous fun and performances by more than 65 differe

USA - Orchestra Hall, home to the Minnesota Orchestra, is a landmark both without and within. Its modernist architectural design and expansive glass façade are intended to symbolically present classical music as more widely accessible. Inside, it’s an acoustical dreamworld: 114 large cubes, forming a symmetrical “falling rock” pattern on the auditorium’s ceiling and the stage’s back wall, act, along with the three balconies above and along the sides of the main floor, as a massive diffusion system. The result is an aural experience for the 2,089 patrons seated inside.
T

Greece - A 360° d&b Soundscape system was deployed at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus amphitheatre in Greece for the first-ever, joint live performance of producer and artist, Brian Eno and his brother, pianist and composer Roger Eno.
Brian Eno’s reputation as a musician, and producer for the likes of David Bowie, U2 and Talking Heads, precedes him as well as his long career as a pioneering solo artist, especially in the field of ambient music. He recently collaborated with his brother, Roger Eno, a solo recording artist and film and TV music composer and released their first

USA - When East Carolina University stadium experienced debilitating audio issues right in the middle of football season, they turned to PC Sound and LEA Professional to rescue the season and restore the fan experience.
Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is the on-campus football facility at East Carolina University for the East Carolina Pirates in Greenville, North Carolina. The stadium has a capacity of 50,000, making it the second largest college stadium in North Carolina.
James Braddy, certified technology specialist (CTS) at PC Sound, a local specialist in pro audio, video and light

The Netherlands - Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) is one of the leading technical universities in Europe. The school’s auditorium, the heart of the campus where students attend lectures and presentations of all types, recently received a lighting upgrade of Elation luminaires specified and installed by AV company Houben Souren.
Houben Souren was contacted by TU/e after university personnel had heard about a recent LED lighting installation at the Maastricht Exhibition and Convention Centre (MECC), an auditorium lighting system potentially similar to what they required.

UK - The panto season is back with a bang after waiting in the wings during 2020 as the country squared up to COVID-19, reigniting all things panto like slapstick comedy, toilet-brow innuendo, gawdy sets, psychedelic vibrance and total craziness for which it’s known and appreciated, with lighting designers around the country delighted to be back working on this peculiarly English and highly expressive genre of performance.
None more than Andy Webb, who chose an all-Robe LED moving light rig for UK Productions’ spectacular Cinderella staged at the Waterside Theatre in Ay

USA - Pentatonix, the three-time Grammy Award winning a cappella group, just wrapped their 18-date Evergreen Christmas Tour 2021 where 45 Ayrton Khamsin-S profile luminaires served as the main fixtures for the show. Ayrton is exclusively distributed in North America by ACT Entertainment.
The Evergreen Christmas Tour 2021, in support of the new Pentatonix album called Evergreen, kicked off 27 November in Baltimore and wrapped on 23 December in Grand Prairie, Texas. It was their first Christmas tour since 2019, the coronavirus pandemic having side-lined last year’s event.

UAE - The United Arab Emirates marked 50 years as a nation with 50 days of celebrations, culminating in a spectacular live show from Dubai’s Hatta Water Dam in the Hajar Mountains featuring a floating stage and drone-launched fireworks, produced by live event specialists, LarMac Projects.
The show charted the country’s history in the lead-up to its inception in 1971 and across the subsequent 50 years.
For the country’s Golden Jubilee, the creative team - led by artistic director and designer Es Devlin and LarMac executive creative producer Jo MacKay - knew that the bo

USA - Earlier this year, the filming of Marvel Studios’ newly-released Spider Man: No Way Home found lighting programmer Scott Barnes once again firing up his Hog 4 lighting control setup, as well as bringing some new Hog 4 HPU Hybrid Processor units for the production.
Well-known for his use of Hog 4 control on Marvel’s films and other movies, Barnes said he approached the shoot for No Way Home quite similarly as he has in the past, but with ‘the biggest addition and MVP of the show being the HPU processor’.
Barnes explains, “I was fortunate enough t

USA - The millions of viewers around the world who tuned into ABC’s broadcast of New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest, enjoyed all the familiar sights of this Times Square event. But for the team responsible for lighting the talent on the stand-up platforms during the show, ringing in 2022 represented a big departure from tradition.
“This was the first time in the show’s 50-year history that host positions weren’t lit with HMI fixtures,” said Mike Grabowski, lead designer for The Lighting Design Group, which was responsible for lighting the platforms at Milit

Venezuela - The latest hit single from Justin Quiles La Botella has inspired a challenge among his legion of devoted fans that calls on them to dance to the rhythmic sways of this song with a bottle on their heads without having said bottle fall.
While his fans may accomplish this feat with varying degrees of success, maintaining a sense of equilibrium seems to come quite naturally to this Puerto Rican born star, not only in his smooth moves on stage, but also in the way he balances different musical influences in his reggaeton sound.
Both were on full display this D

USA - Dancesport is a growing discipline at all levels. From local dance competitions to a myriad of popular dance shows on television to its inclusion in the 2024 Summer Olympics, the world has embraced dance as sport.
Dance America Productions, an independent production company based in Tampa, FL, specialises in dance events of all types and has worked many of the genre’s competitions for years. Owned by Nina Kimbrough, a dancer herself, the company carries lighting, sound, pipe and drape, and LED video wall, plus the all-important portable dance floors that range from 2,400-

USA - Busking your way through an Atreyu tour requires many skills and attributes. High on that list is flexibility as the band weaves a mix of different musical influences into their metal-driven sound.
Cody James has demonstrated such nimbleness in his time running lightshows for the quintet, supporting them note for note as they rip their way through their multifarious musical blend. His adaptiveness was on full display in Atreyu’s 29-city Fall Baptize tour, which ended on 16 December.
Not only did James keep pace with his client’s music, he also adapted his show to a

Spain - The second edition of the Umbra Light Festival in Victoria-Gasteiz took place between 12-14 November. The festival was born with the intention of introducing both visitors and citizens to the world of urban lighting art, in such a way that the public could experience and interact with the latest artistic and technological expressions of this field. The festival encompassed artistic expressions of digital visual art, interventions in urban space and new technologies.
The festival took place in the historic centre of the city (La Almendra), where a total of 19 artists were a

Austria - The Vienna State Opera House in Austria - also home to the Vienna State Ballet - has invested in new Robe Forte HCF LED moving lights and Forte HCF FollowSpots.
Vienna State Opera purchased 10 Forte HCF luminaires and four Forte HCF FollowSpots which work in conjunction with a customised RoboSpot control system, explained deputy head of lighting Robert Eisenstein.
The Opera House has a busy repertory schedule, and these Robe luminaires - delivered via Robe’s Austrian distributor Signal - replace the old manual-focus generic FOH tungsten fixtures with brighter, m

UK - London welcomed in 2022 with a spectacular city-wide display, sending a message of thanks and hope to the nation and the world. Jack Morton, the global brand experience agency, helped to develop the original concept and worked in partnership with the Mayor of London’s office and a dedicated team of experts to create an extraordinary experience for the second year running.
The 13-minute show designed for home-viewing was broadcast live on BBC One and watched by a global viewing audience of millions.
Jack Morton’s creative show team worked in collaboration with On t

USA - When it comes to the lights in his rig, Dominic Lopenzo doesn’t hesitate to say that he is completely partial to beam fixtures, or more specifically the beam function in Chauvet Professional’s Rogue RH1 Hybrid.
“Beams have become my favourite, because they add so much energy to a room,” he said. “I find myself going to them often.”
Partiality to beams might not be unusual in a concert/touring designer, but Lopenzo is speaking as technical director of Grace City Church, a 750-seat house of worship with a distinctly modern touch located in Lakeland, Florida.

Ukraine - For Olya Polyakova’s The Queen of the Night show, staged at Kiev’s Palace of Sports in October 2021, a large array of Claypaky lighting fixtures gave a high-energy look to the concert and accented the royal design motif employed by the popular performer.
Yuriy Andrushchenko, drector of Feyeria, supplied lighting designer Vlad Cherepin with 62 Claypaky Sharpys, 54 Sharpy Plus, 32 Mini-B LED moving lights, 32 Tambora Battens and eight Scenius Unico spots for the concert.
“The central element of the set was a star-shaped crown suspended from trusses on m

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