UK - Seen from a distance, the Steam Illumination Christmas Train appears like a rolling band of moving light cutting through the dark night as it rolls past the farms and fields of the Hampshire countryside. To those inside, the experience is even more magical, as they find themselves immersed in a rotating tunnel of brilliant colours and patterns.
Covered entirely by LED lights, this special 120m-long train seems like something out of a fantastical Hollywood Christmas movie suddenly come to life in South East England. In reality, however, it was the result of extensive of plann

USA - Founded in 1980, The House in Modesto hosts dynamic services that bring the community together with live music acts, special events and a diverse pastoral team. The church's recent PA upgrade to an Adamson system is changing the way that congregants in the 1,800-capacity auditorium can experience worship. And while the pandemic limited live services temporarily, The House has kept the community close with online worship and outreach.
Jason Rightnour, audio director at The House, chose to install Adamson speakers in the auditorium after auditioning speakers from several other

Australia - Hollywood heartthrob Channing Tatum’s popular dance show Magic Mike Live opened in Sydney on 17 December, with a dynamic all-new lighting design created by Philip Gladwell, using a rig supplied by TSL Lighting.
In contrast to its runs in London, Las Vegas and Berlin, the Australian production takes place in a specially-designed Spiegeltent named The Arcadia. For the Sydney dates, The Arcadia has been constructed in the city’s entertainment quarter in Moore Park. Within this ‘circus-like’ venue, the production team has created an immersive lighting experi

USA - The 2020 E! People’s Choice Awards (PCAs) was again staged at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California, and lit for the third consecutive year by Tom Sutherland of DX7 Design, working for production company Den of Thieves.
Tom utilised 154 x Robe MegaPointe moving lights - all supplied by Felix Lighting - as part of the lighting package which helped create a stylish super-clean architectural aesthetic for this year’s live broadcast.
The popular online-voted awards show that recognises achievements across multiple fields of entertainment took on a different fo

USA - Greater Atlanta Christian School (GACS) is a PK-12 Christian school in Norcross, Georgia serving over 1,600 students. Since it was first established over 50 years ago, GACS has earned itself a reputation for utilizing advanced technologies in its quest to further the learning needs of its students. This dedication to providing high quality creative and technical facilities to support its arts and media curriculum, has led the school to invest in three Alcons Audio pro-ribbon sound reinforcement systems for its venues.
The first of the three spaces to be installed with an Alc

USA - Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas has utilized Audinate’s Dante in its music and sound recording technology programmes since 2018. In that time, Dante has not only become part of the curriculum, but has also enabled many of the university’s major live productions – including its impressive jazz performances.
But in 2020, Dante took on an additional role for the music department: an enabler of safe social distancing.
“When we looked at returning to classes in the Fall of 2020, we had to figure out how to hold music practice with safety con

South Africa - The University of Johannesburg has recently upgraded its track lighting system used in its SARChI Art Gallery, as a direct replacement to the old system that had no mode of controlling, dimming, or shaping the light, all essential aspects to lighting their art as more demanding exhibitions required.
South African lighting specialist Movievision was contracted to upgrade the system to Prolight. “Our suggestion was to get a lighting solution that would not only light the gallery in a more professional manner but also to give them the option to be able to upgrade, re

USA - Colorado production house Brown Note Productions was hired by long-time client Danny Wimmer Presents to provide audio, lighting and video production for a special online performance by alt-rock band Puscifer from experimental town Arcosanti in the high desert of Arizona.
Called on to create evocative visual atmospheres for the shoot was lighting designer Sarah Landau (A Perfect Circle, Childish Gambino, M83), who turned to an IP-rated rig of Elation lighting to brave the desert elements.
Landau has designed for Puscifer since 2016 and handled production design for the

UK - The exterior of the Southampton Mayflower Theatre brings an extra dazzle of warmth and vitality to a usually busy city centre, illuminated with an Anolis lighting scheme which was installed by Lighting Technology Projects (LTP).
Built in 1928, the venue is a Grade II listed building with a prominent central location and seating capacity of 2300, making it the largest theatre in the South of England.
Anolis products were recommended for the architectural installation to the theatre’s Chief LX Neil Kingston and their head of technical operations, Rachel Fox, by several

USA - Kalahari Resorts & Conventions is known for its waterparks, family-friendly vacations, and comprehensive meeting and events facilities. Kalahari is also known for effectively tying all these uses together through a unified experience. This is done with curation of custom artwork from African artisans, music sourced from across Africa, and top-of-the-line technology and entertainment.
“Every Kalahari location is different,” says Rebecca Fuchs, senior design consultant with Conference Technologies Inc. “Kalahari has made it a point to create an authentic and impressi

USA - Zach Williams was out on a solo, headlining tour when the COVID pandemic began to peak. Though the remaining shows for the year were cancelled, Williams still yearned for the live stage and delivering his gift of song to fans. The Christian country/rock star, together with Big Daddy Weave, organised the Drive-In Theater Tour.
Though social distancing protocols required smaller crews, which also meant less gear on stage, Williams’ FOH and monitor engineers were in agreement that the DPA d:facto and 2028 Vocal Microphones were key to the performances.
“We had one 20

France - Nestled 50km southeast of Paris in Maincy, the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is famous for its beautiful gardens dating back to the 17th century and its place as the largest private estate listed as a historical monument. For the last 15 years, the estate has hosted a Christmas show, named Vaux-le-Vicomte’s illuminations, which sends guests on a festive exploration around the 100-acre grounds. In the previous two years, the estate has featured video mapping in its celebrations, and ends the event with a projection on the front of the Château.
This year, the team b

UK - Scientists at the University of Bath have developed a quick and easy approach for capturing 360° VR photography without using expensive specialist cameras. The system uses a commercially available 360° camera on a rotating selfie stick to capture video footage and create an immersive VR experience.
Virtual reality headsets are becoming increasingly popular for gaming, and with the global pandemic restricting our ability to travel, this system could also be a cheap and easy way to create virtual tours for tourist destinations.
Conventional 360° photography stitches to

UK - SLX Hire and Events, a Bristol-based technical event supplier, has designed and installed over a dozen festive events across the UK already this winter from Swanage to Scotland.
Says Alastair Currie, CEO of SLX, “This year has been beyond challenging for the event industry, but we were lucky enough to have maintained, or in some cases procured, winter project contracts. These are mainly outdoor events, where a wonderful immersive light trail is installed to bring a bit of magic to those who visit – and importantly revenue to historic buildings and estates who have had a

USA - When Arizona Sound Productions was hired to provide video and sound production for a string of boxing matches across the US, they found themselves with new protocols, different challenges, and time to kill.
“Working this year has been interesting to say the least,” said Jared Jasinski, owner and lead engineer for Arizona Sound Productions [AZSP] based in Phoenix. “With COVID restrictions we’ve been forced to be more creative and think outside the box. We’ve had opportunities to create something different for viewers at home, without an audience we can put a boxing

Australia - The National Rugby League Dally M Awards gives kudos to the top players from the premiership season in an annual awards ceremony. Whilst there was no red carpet and certainly no shimmering frocks in sight this year, the awards show amazed its viewers by transforming into a live to air broadcast xR production, brought to life by Big Picture and held at the Fox Sports studios in Sydney.
Brompton Technology’s 4K Tessera SX40 LED processor was a crucial element in the multi camera xR workflow, offering reliable timing and consistency of image at this high-profile event.<

UK - For Adam King, Shakespeare’s Macbeth was a welcome opportunity to jump back into lighting design after seven months of being idled by the pandemic. “My work calendar for the entire year was wiped out because of the lockdown,” said King. “I missed doing the thing I love.”
Eager to get involved in theatre, King approached Mountview Drama School and asked if he could be of any use lighting shows for livestreams, pointing out that he had experience in lighting for theatre and as well as the camera. Much to his delight, Mountview responded by offering him the oppo


Italy - Luxury car manufacturer Maserati launched the MC20, the first super sports car of its Trident brand, in an event format powered by disguise xR.
Milan-based Feelrouge Worldwide Shows staged a two-day hybrid event held at the Autodromo di Modena race-track, and broadcast live around the world. The setting included a huge open-air, installation stage with 630 square meters of LED video screens on three different axes, which hosted a series of anamorphic visual effects and augmented and mixed reality content, powered by three disguise gx 2c media servers.
The vi

UK - When event management, lighting and creative design company, Absolute Events was asked by Global Street Art to light up a series of advertisements painted on walls around London, Doughty Engineering was brought on board to help secure the lighting firmly and safely in place.
Global Street Art is known for its hand-painted advertising campaigns with well-known consumer brands. Jonathan explained: "We've been working with Global Street Art to light up their amazing advertising artwork for a number of years now and we rely on Doughty to help us secure the lighting effectively.

South Korea - Elevating the ambiance in its main theatre, the Daejeon Arts Centre hired Hansam System to install a Harman Professional lighting solution that features Martin Professional fixtures.
Opened in October of 2003, the Daejeon Arts Centre has brought a new horizon of culture and arts to the city of Daejeon. Housed in a five-story building across a property size of 100,000sq.m, the centre features four premier event and meeting spaces, including the large-scale Art Hall, Ensemble Hall, Conventional Hall as well as outdoor amphitheatre.
Beyond hosting a wide range of

Spain - The 2020 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid (MBFWM)’s SS21 season show went ahead in its regular venue – Hall 14.1 at the Feria de Madrid – to a 30% capacity socially distanced live audience together with thousands more joining a livestream.
Lighting designer Juanjo Saunier chose 38 Robe MegaPointes, 20 LEDWash 800s, 12 Spiider LED wash beams and three BMFL Follow Spots running on three separate remote control BaseStations to assist him with creating the show.
Juanjo has worked on Spain’s premier biannual fashion show for around 10 years, both lighting the mai

USA - The View at Fountains is a 400-capacity conference and event space in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. It occupies the top floor of Fountains at Gateway, a multi-purpose building occupied by office space, restaurants, retail shops, and, in the future, apartment units.
Aptly named, The View at Fountains features floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking greenspace. All of that glass makes the space acoustically challenging, and that challenge is compounded by tile flooring, an exposed concrete ceiling, and dry wall.
Hesitant to upset the visual aesthetic, regional AV integration fir

Australia - More than 75,000 tickets were sold as part of the NSW Government’s recent Great Southern Nights performance series held throughout November which is Australian Music Month.
Great Southern Nights delivered 1,100 COVID-safe performances to live music venues in over 140 towns and suburbs throughout the state. The aim was to reinvigorate NSW’s live music scene, which took a significant hit at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
Presented in partnership with ARIA, Great Southern Nights saw more than 2,500 artists perform at over 300 venues, with many high-profi

France - The annual ARTE Concert Festival went virtual this year with three days of music live streamed to audiences worldwide. Lighting designer Pierre Claude deployed seven Claypaky A.leda B-EYE K10 fixtures, two dozen Claypaky HY B-EYE K25 LED washes and 16 ADB SVOBODA classic batten fixtures for the live musical performances shot at La Gaite Lyrique in Paris in November.
Artists participating in the festival, which was prohibited from staging in-person concerts due to the coronavirus pandemic, included singer/songwriter Sebastien Tellier, hip-hop sensation Lous and the Yakuza

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