Pharos - Leaderboard - May 2024

Projects

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USA - Four hours and twenty-two minutes is a long time; about an hour longer than it takes to fly from New York to Miami, almost twice as long as the average NBA game, and even longer than Bruce Springsteen’s longest show, a four-hour-and-six-minute performance that took place in Helsinki in 2012.
Yet this year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony ran that long without a dull moment. There was plenty to captivate the live audience at Barclays Centre, as well as those who watched the livestream on Disney+, from the touching (Adam Levine singing Faith to honour the late inductee George Michael), to the electrifying, when no one remained seated as Missy Elliot, decked out in a glittering gold suit and backed up by an abundance of dancers, rattled the arena with a fiery medley of her hits.
Supporting the diverse marathon (there were 14 inductees, p

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Slovenia - Joker Out have enjoyed a busy year with touring shows, representing Slovenia at the Eurovision Song Contest in the UK, and recently playing a sold-out performance at Ljubljana’s biggest arena venue, Stožice - which was lit by Klemen Krajnc, part of the Blackout design studio.
This was an all-Robe moving light rig – with 100 Robe luminaires breaking down as 32 x MegaPointes, 64 x Spiiders, 19 x LEDBeam 150s and 13 x Fortes plus a quantity of strobes and LED floods.
Klemen has worked with the band since 2021 when he was asked to light the launch of their first album, Umazane misli.
Robe is his go-to moving light brand, and it’s a popular choice for his Blackout LD colleagues including Crt Birsa. Robe’s success in this region is also in part due to the proactive approach by Slovenian distributor, MK Light Sound in getting Robe out there in so ma

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Saudi Arabia - ETC dealer, Oasis Enterprises has supplied ETC control, networking and fixtures for Al Hadath’s new broadcast studios in Riyadh.
The Al Hadath news channel – which specialises in both regional and global current affairs – has launched its new studio as part of an ongoing expansion of the channel’s operations in the region.
Oasis Enterprises worked with Al Hadath to achieve its requirements of a creating a modern, dynamic space that is equipped with the latest advancements in LED technology. Their fixtures of choice were ETC’s versatile ColorSource Spot jr’s – these were controlled by Eos Apex; selected for its powerful colour tools and award-winning software. They also chose Response Mk2 DMX Gateways for networking and powerful data distribution in the studios. These were installed following a year of planning for the modern space.

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South Korea - At the end of October, US shoe manufacturer VANS went underground in the South Korean capital of Seoul. The skate brand organised a two-day pop-up event with a shopping market, skate shows and DJ concerts in an unused underground station.
The Korean audio specialists from Sonic Value relied on an extensive LD Systems setup consisting of MAILA, CURV 500, MAUI P900 and more to provide optimum sound reinforcement for all programme items in the challenging acoustic environment.
"The location was a real challenge," confirms Ethan Yoon, head of the technical team at Sonic Value. "Stone surfaces almost everywhere, lots of pillars, a tubular shape and low ceilings. Due to the almost unhindered reflections from the hard surfaces, it was clear from the start that we couldn't play the room at high levels, but had to rely on a clever multi-zone system to avoid blind

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Australia - Earlier this year, Melbourne welcomed the inaugural Now or Never festival – a 16-day celebration of digital art and future thinking. The festival used the Australian city as its stage to host a busy programme spanning art, film, music, panel discussions and food.
Brompton Technology’s Tessera LED processors powered customised video content at the Royal Exhibition Building, where performances explored the adventurous and diverse nature of digital creativity.
The historic 19th century Royal Exhibition Building is a World Heritage listed venue and was built as part of the international exhibition movement of the late 1800s. It was the stage for several events as part of Now or Never 2023, with Gig Control, a technical management company with expertise across Australia’s live events, responsible for the entire design of the lighting, audio and visual ele

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Europe - Peter Gabriel recently completed his first live tour in six years, covering Europe and North America. This tour supported his latest album, i/o, which is his first release of original studio material since 2002. Both legs of i/o – The Tour carried three Solid State Logic Live mixing consoles, including an L550 Plus at front-of-house, another L550 Plus for band monitors and an L650 for Gabriel’s monitors, plus a compact SSL SiX to mix Gabriel’s keyboards.
Peter Gabriel, an artist and studio owner, has a longstanding association with SSL. Within his personal production spaces, and at Real World Studios in Bath, he has installed several of the company's large-format studio consoles. Since their introduction, Gabriel has exclusively relied on SSL Live consoles throughout his tours.
“Interestingly, I was the first person to use the SSL Live desk on h

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UK - The Norfolk village of Thursford, known for its steam engines, musical organs and fairground rides, as well as its spectacular theatrical shows, will be delivering a new, immersive sound experience with its Thursford Christmas Spectacular this year, thanks to a d&b Soundscape from audio technology and solutions company, d&b audiotechnik.
Designed and installed by Southby Productions, the system features 143 loudspeakers covering the 40m wide performance stage and is – to date – the highest-resolution d&b Soundscape system installed anywhere in the world.
Having been impressing audiences with its shows for 45 years, Thursford takes great pride in its high production standards – and for 2023, it was time for a sound system upgrade. Sound designer Mark Rogers explains, “Because our room is very wide and not very high, we’ve never been able to us

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USA - The ability to think outside the box is often the lifeblood of a successful production design, even when that “box” is the actual stage itself. Such was the case recently for the team at Events United when they had to come up with a way to light the artists performing at the Hope Fellowship Church’s Hillfest in News Ipswich, NH.
Organisers of this Christian music festival added a thrust to their main stage. This configuration brought their star-studded lineup of artists closer to the audience, but it also necessitated some modifications in front lighting.
“With the stage having a thrust, we needed to position fixtures to light performers farther out, away from the stage than our downstage truss would allow,” explained project manager, Martin Lyons. “We used the Maverick Storm 1 Washes placed up on the hill by FOH to wash the thrust. Their zoom range a

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France - Each July, the southern town of Aix-les-Bains opens its arms to throngs of rock music fans as it hosts the storied pop-rock festival Musilac between the shores of Lac du Bourget and the Alps. This year for its 21st edition, Musilac broke its own attendance record, welcoming a crowd of 110,000 people over the four-day event, which saw internationally recognised acts like Arctic Monkeys, Gojira, Indochine, Phoenix and Franz Ferdinand take to its stages.
The layout of the open air Musilac Festival is designed to take full advantage of its lakeside location, with two main stages situated side by side - one near the water’s edge and the other abutting the mountain. While perfect for the stunning backdrop, this setup requires a sound system that can cover a wide audience with impeccable concert-grade sound for all.
L-Acoustics-certified provider Dushow has provid

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UK - Two of the theatre world’s leading creative lighting designers, Paule Constable and Tim Lutkin, have both become early adopters of GLP’s new impression X5 platform.
Both have been supplied by Sparks Theatrical Hire, while a third designer, Paul Pyant, has also requisitioned the X5 for Noises Off at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, which is currently in production.
Paule Constable had been keen to work with the impression X5 again after debuting it on The Devil Wears Prada and Guys and Dolls at The Bridge Theatre gave her the perfect opportunity. “I first looked to the impression X4 and then the X5 to replace the big soft keylight that I’ve always used 5kW units to give me. I think it’s amazing that an LED unit can provide that same diffuse, soft directional push - but I also love the beam control and quality when it is spotted down.

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UK - Hayden Borgars says that he’s always tended to view the lighting fixtures in his rig as musical instruments, not merely illuminating with them, but also “playing” them in ways that flow with the sound of his clients.
On the just-completed Sacred Blasphemy UK tour by Creeper, Borgars demonstrated his virtuosity on the Chauvet Professional Color Strike M by using the motorised fixture to follow the hauntingly evocative notes played by the band’s keyboardist Hannah Greenwood, and powerful beats by drummer Jack Fogarty.
“Aside from the silhouette looks I got from the Color Strikes, I also used a lot of the fixture’s pixel effects to go along with the key notes from Hannah,” he said. “I also used the clap out effect on both the beam and plate pixels to accent some of the drum hits and whip effects. It’s part of how I treat light as an instrumen

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USA - Pittsburgh Penguins fans are enjoying an even more dynamic game experience this season with the installation of Ayrton Zonda 9 FX LED moving head washes beneath the new scoreboard at the PPG Paints Arena. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton lighting in North America.
Kevin Hogan, the lighting designer and programmer for the NHL team since 2005 and the owner of Pittsburgh-based Process of Illumination LLC, chose eight Zonda 9 FX fixtures for the new scoreboard, which is part of an arena upgrade by the Fenway Sports Group (owners of the team since late 2021). Designed and built by Mitsubishi Electric, the much larger, four-sided scoreboard features 50ft LED panels around a hollow central core with two Zonda 9 FX positioned on the lower mounting rail of each panel.
It was Ayrton’s promotional video for the fixtures that sparked Hogan’s inter

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UK - Every year in the latter part of July, York Racecourse stages the Live After Racing concert series. This event results from a collaborative effort between EnTEEtainment and Music Plus Sport, offering attendees a blend of daytime horse racing and evening live music. Since 2021, Adlib has orchestrated the audio environment for this event.
Adlib's account manager, Richy Nicholson, notes that this is the third year that Adlib has supported York Racecourse and Music Plus Sport: “Dick Tee from EnTEEtainment brought us onboard, and I think York Racecourse may have been one of the first shows we looked after in 2021 post-COVID," he says.
“The primary objective for York Racecourse in hosting these gigs was to provide a concert-grade experience to audience members across the 300 metres, and the lawn within the track, as well as to additional VIP areas,” Billy Bryson,

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UK - The Christmas season traditionally brings with it magical and immersive eco-trails, with lighting and imaginative soundtracks replacing the more natural effects. Among these is Eden Project’s Music & Lights after dark experience, which runs during the month of December.
Based nearby in Cornwall, technology specialists (and Martin Audio partners) TruCru were brought in to provide a seamless audio experience. According to project manager, Toby Bodman, after much deliberation this was achieved by deploying Martin Audio’s weatherised CDD6-WR in a flown configuration to create seamless transitions and ensure maximum intelligibility of both the narrative and a soundtrack that varied from orchestral to ambient music.
This year, the sales and rental company turned its attention to the Rainforest Biome after having also helped stage events previously in different a

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USA - Drawing on a deep repertoire of chart-topping songs, John Mayer is one of the rare artists able to fill ‘A level’ arenas as a true solo act. The success of his recently concluded Solo Acoustic Tour relied on an intimate connection with his audience, accomplished aurally via a reinforcement system of Meyer Sound Panther large-format linear line array loudspeakers provided by UltraSound.
The spring leg of the tour kicked off on March 11 at New Jersey’s Prudential Centre and wrapped at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum before Mayer embarked on a summer tour with Dead & Company - also supported by a Panther-based system from UltraSound.
The fall leg was another east-to-west marathon, launching at Madison Square Garden with the November finale again at the Kia Forum. The FOH engineer for both the solo legs and the triumphant final tour by Dead & Company was Dere

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USA - Blowing away crowds with his blasts of dubstep beats and trashing techno shreds at one turn, then picking up a guitar the next to venture forth into dreamy dance tunes, Gryffin is a one-person ensemble of diverse sounds.
This was evident during the artist’s recent performance at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. Taking the stage in his trademark baseball jersey, Gryffin treated fans to a dynamic, EDM-infused set, as he performed on the stage and an exposed-scaffold riser.
Keeping pace with him and reflecting his energy with colours and motion was a compelling stage production by lighting designer Julie Reux, content creator/VJ Eddie Perez, and TM Jonny Stiegler. Like the artist’s performance on stage, the looks supporting him were multi-faceted, while still being perfectly harmonious.
“Everything about any show I do begins with balanc

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South Africa - Atlantic Studios, Cape Town is a multi-stage film and television production facility and hub of creative activity serving the Western Cape and far beyond.
One of its current productions (produced by HBC Broadcasting Solutions) is the South African edition of Deal or No Deal (DoND), the popular risk-taking gameshow where contestants make seat-edge decisions on whether to accept a cash offer from 'the banker' in exchange for what might - or might not - be contained in a series of unassuming boxes.
Lighting designer Daniel Louw is using some new Robe Esprites which were purchased by HBC for this show and delivered by Robe’s South African distributor, DWR at the start of the recording period in February.
Dan is a freelance lighting designer / director and has worked on several projects at the studios which also has other Robe moving li

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Germany - Wacken fans don't let the weather stop them. It's not for nothing that ‘rain or shine’ is the rallying cry of party-loving metal fans who travel to northern Germany from all corners of the world for Wacken Open Air (WOA).
This year, metalheads had to be particularly strong. Days of constant rain had so softened the ‘Holy Ground’ of the festival site that a travel stop had to be imposed for the first time in the festival’s history. Anyone who made it onto the grounds though still got the full Wacken experience, including knee-deep mud.
Lighting designer Jerry Appelt, who has been associated with the massive metal festival for 20 years, has also experienced a lot in Wacken. “I am emotionally attached to the festival,” he said. “It was remarkable how the organisers dealt with the very difficult situation this year.”
More than ever, Elati

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USA - At times it seemed that everything that could go wrong would go wrong at the one-day Desert Sky Music Festival in Chandler, AZ. Not only did rain delay the 2pm start of the first act by over 30 minutes, but once the music started playing, bumps in the road kept threatening to derail the best-laid plans.
“The event gods were not smiling on us,” said John Garberson of Creative BackStage, who set up production for Desert Sky. “It rained off and on for eight hours, creating a lot of mud. There was a power outage, a medical emergency, though fortunately that turned out ok, and networking issues that disrupted the sound and lighting.”
Still, no one in the sold-out crowd of 15,000 was thinking about any of these snafus when the curtain went down on the festival late that night. They were too busy savouring the good times, and the rollicking music they just enjoy

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USA - We Came As Romans recently wrapped the fall leg of their Darkbloom II headlining tour, a 30-date run with a lighting system from Bandit Lites. The metalcore band kicked off on 10 October in Indianapolis and made its way throughout the country, culminating in Nashville, Tennessee on 19 November.
Lighting designer Corbin Alvae worked with guitarist Lou Cotton and bassist Andy Glass who sought to recreate a ‘black hole’ style stage design and update it with a space feel. A 10ft diameter circle truss was outlined with Elation ACL 360i fixtures as well as Elation DTW Blinder IP 65 fixtures.
“The band played around with different ideas and concepts, but the final look that was seen on this tour was absolutely solid looking and how everything panned out at the end looked wild,” said Alvae.
The large circle truss required them to adjust depending on

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UK - Burna Boy took to the stage at London Stadium in June as part of his Love, Damini tour. The production team trusted professional audio and video partner Solotech, which relied on Shure’s Axient Digital Wireless System and software solutions to deliver audio and a spectacular show.
The production team aimed for a robust and reliable sound system that could handle 40 channels accommodating Burna Boy, his core band, an 11-piece marching band, and a 10-piece choir. A sophisticated range of the Shure Axient Digital Wireless System equipment was selected and deployed by Jamie Skey, hire project manager - live productions at Solotech, and Valentin James, RF technician at Solotech.
Jamie Skey said: “Having extensive experience with Shure wireless products in the field, I was confident we could achieve exceptional performance, even in the congested RF environme

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UK - Singer, songwriter and keyboardist Howard Jones this year celebrated 40 years in the music business.
Having toured extensively in Europe, Asia, and North America during 2023, Jones returned in October to conclude his live schedule with a UK theatre tour. The 10-night tour, which included nights at the London Palladium and Birmingham Symphony Hall, demonstrated the star’s versatility. A full-on synth-driven electronic attack was complemented by acoustic trio and solo sections which showed off Jones’ talents as a pianist.
Liverpool-based production specialists Adlib took care of the audio, with the tour opting for a Coda Audio system based around the company’s ViRAY compact line array. Coda has been FOH engineer Chicky Reeves’ choice for Howard Jones since he began working with the artist in 2016, having first encountered the brand some years earlier while

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UK - Manchester-based sound design specialists and audiologists tube uk are supplying audio systems to eight popular Christmas trails throughout the UK and one in Germany this season - totalling an impressive 168 individual sound systems, consuming 1,681 loudspeakers.
Working closely with the production team from Culture Creative, a specialist in creating trail experiences and numerous other live events, Melvyn Coote and the tube uk crew have developed a fully weatherised distributed sound system hardware concept for trail experiences. They have also optimised techniques for delivering the very best aural experiences for these creative and entertaining festive events.
UK sites this year include Leeds Castle in Kent, Dunham Massey in Cheshire, Stourhead in Wiltshire, Bedgebury in Surrey, Wimpole Estate in Cambridgeshire, Chester Zoo and Heaton Park in Manchester, and K

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UAE - Sennheiser was the official audio sponsor of the United States reception during World Radio Conference 2023. Organised in the opening week of the conference, the event was a resounding success, welcoming more than 1,200 delegates who enjoyed a captivating gig by the Sonic Crusaders.
The band used Digital 9000 wireless microphones, with a hand-built WMAS development prototype ensuring crystal-clear digital in-ear audio for the band members. Dubai-based event service provider 3DB, with project manager Stuart Andrews, supplied all audio, video, lighting and stage production requirements for the event.
“We are honoured that the U.S. ITU Association (USITUA) selected Sennheiser as the audio partner for its prestigious reception,” says Dr. Andreas Wilzeck, head of spectrum policy and standards at Sennheiser. “For the show part, we operated a hand-built broadban
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Robe - Large MPU
GLP - MPU - May-June 2024

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