USA - The annual Billboard Latin Music Awards is the biggest night of the year for Latin American music and this year lighting designer John Daniels employed a selection of Elation lights to create captivating effects and aesthetic looks on the show.
Aired live on 5 October from the Watsco Centre in Coral Gables, Florida, Daniels creatively incorporated Elation Proteus Rayzor Blade, Proteus Excalibur and Smarty MAX luminaires as some of the most impactful lights on the event.
Daniels, in his fifth year working the show, designed lighting looks for 16 performances from top t

USA - Ed Sheeran’s record-breaking international Mathematics Tour is as much a display of artistic and technological prowess as a testament to the impact a single performer can have - when supported by the right technology. Which, here, includes an expansive Clear-Com system supplied by Major Tom.
Typically, artists of Sheeran’s status tend to add more players, more instruments, and a fair bit of backing tracks to satiate their audiences' demands. As ever, Sheeran takes a different approach, creating a grand spectacle utilising innovative and unique staging and producti

USA - Front-of-house and monitor engineer Cooper Davis (The Regrettes, No Vacation, The Happy Fits) has chosen the Waves eMotion LV1 Live Mixer and Waves plugins for American singer songwriter Gus Dapperton’s 2023 world tour.
Cooper explains why he chose the Waves eMotion LV1 for this tour: “Superb sound! This is a club tour carrying audio and lights in a single trailer, so the audio package had to be compact, yet powerful. And this LV1 is definitely powerful.”
He continues: “Another advantage of using the LV1 mixer is the ease of use and its advanced engine. Operati

Croatia - A feature of this year’s Špancirfest, a Croatian street festival held every August since 1999 in Varaždin, was the appearance of the tribute band, The Croatian Pink Floyd Show. An array of Claypaky Sharpy X Frame/FD and Midi-B fixtures illuminated the dynamic live show.
Špancirfest took place throughout Varaždin’s city centre and featured various street performers, theatre shows, stand-up comedy, concerts and more.
The Croatian Pink Floyd Show is a project led by producer and sound engineer Johnny Grudić who founded the band in 2016 and launched performan

Czechia - Christie RGB pure laser and 1DLP laser projectors lit up a host of spectacular projection mapping exhibits at Signal Festival in Prague. Christie technology - including Griffyn 4K50-RGB, M 4K25 RGB, and 4K10-HS projectors - featured in four exhibits at the festival of digital and creative culture, where international artists created a unique collection of rich and colourful experiences for attendees to enjoy.
“We were thrilled to collaborate with Christie, a brand synonymous with high-end projectors and visual innovation,” says Martin Posta, founder and CEO of Signal

UK - CJP Broadcast Service Solutions, systems integration, production and content digitisation specialist, has handed over a new virtual production environment at Solent University Southampton. The project involved creating an existing studio space into a very large, high performance, flexible environment which will serve students across a range of disciplines.
To provide the sort of facilities students will see in their working lives after graduation, the studio is equipped with the most widely used professional tools. The virtual volume is formed by a 10m x 3m LED wall, with a

Finland - Singer Kaija Koo celebrates an impressive 40-year career as one of the country’s most popular artists, and anniversary activities have included staging a massive show at Helsinki’s Olympic Stadium.
The high-profile one-off event featured an elegant and eye-catching production design evolved by the combined talents of Ari Levelä (set & video) and Pekka Martti (lighting), who chose to use a full grandMA3 system for lighting and video control.
The two have worked together as a visual team since 2016 and enjoy the creative benefits of pooling ideas and experie

USA - The ascent of bluegrass guitarist Billy Strings from van-and-trailer gigs to A-level arena touring is a testament to his mastery of traditional styles as well as his expansion of the genre into new realms of rock-influenced extended improvisations.
On the current leg of his 2023 amphitheatre and arena tour, Strings is enveloping his growing legions of jam-band fans through a robust system based on Meyer Sound Panther large-format linear line array loudspeakers. As with all recent tours, the system supplier on this outing is Nashville, Tennessee-based Major Tom US.
The

Italy - It may not have rivalled the 200,000 or so spectators who used to watch chariot races there in ancient times, but the 70,000 fans who turned out at Rome’s Circus Maximus for Imagine Dragons’ show recently constituted a pretty good-sized crowd.
Making the only Italian stop on their Mercury World Tour, the Grammy- winning band from Las Vegas, didn’t disappoint.
Reflecting the mood of music and the stage ebullient persona of the band was a lively and upbeat light and video show by the Milan design studio Blearred that featured 100 Chauvet Professional Color Strik

USA - Floridian rockers Tedeschi Trucks’ summer 2023 tour staging was dominated by soaring horizontal LED battens which displayed pixels of video content, driven by Hippotizer Karst+ MK2 media servers. The battens were interspersed with LED fixtures to create a dazzling series of audience blinders, colour and sweeping effects to set the scene for the band’s brand of American blues rock.
The lighting design and programming was delivered to the tour by Infinitus Vox, headed by Tony Caporale, who used a Hippotizer Karst+ MK2’s NDI feed to his Depence R3 pre-viz software. This

The Netherlands - The Essential Festival in Oost-Maarland became a centre of music and light on 16 September, thanks to Matrix Event Support. The festival, which featured a line-up of renowned dance DJs, regional artists and singers, was set against the picturesque backdrop of the river Meuse.
Using Showtec and Infinity fixtures, Matrix Event Support brought the magic to life with their spectacular lighting designs that illuminated both the Main Stage and the Hard Dance Stage.
Commissioned by Heijnens Audio - Light - Vision, Matrix Event Support left festival-goers in awe w

Europe/USA - Hailed as an ‘atypical pop star’ for her genre-bending musical styles, Rosalia Vila Tobella, known as Rosalía, is a Spanish artist who wears multiple creative hats, including as a singer/songwriter, producer, actress and musician.
With an impressive tally of 11 number-one singles in her home country, 12 Latin Grammy Awards, plus a host of other prestigious accolades throughout her music career, Rosalía is widely considered one of the most successful and influential Spanish vocalists of all time.
FOH engineer Ricky Ashford, who has been working with the s

India - The Prolights EclPanel TWC series shone in a recent television commercial featuring the Indian cricket player, M S Dhoni, thanks to the lighting services provided by Light Craft & Sound Pvt.
The lighting setup included over 150 projectors, including the EclPanel TWC and EclPanel TWCXL by Prolights. This dynamic configuration provided a vivid and dominant light source, transforming the television set into a truly enchanting environment.
In the context of this installation, 50 EclPanel TWC fixtures were mounted on a truss and covered with snapbags to ensure even li

Australia - Now or Never is the name of a new festival created by the city of Melbourne. This inaugural event - recently held across the city, including several events at the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne - saw Gig Control Australia transform the heritage-listed building, designing a spectacular sound, lighting and video infrastructure.
The creative company once again partnered with Novatech Creative Event Technology, which was contracted to take care of technical supply for the five separate events held over four days. This was to ensure continuity and close integration,

USA - The Kalahari Resort in the Pocono mountains bills itself as “220,000sq.ft filled with wet, wild, fun”. The massive complex does indeed offer some distinctive amenities, such as the world’s first virtual reality water slide. On the weekend of 23-24 September, it was also the site of The Way, a Salvation Army young adult retreat.
In addition to enjoying the usual attractions at the resort during their recreation periods, the retreat attendees, who hailed from every East Coast state, as well as Puerto Rico, enjoyed high-energy performances by Unbound, a contemporary worsh

USA - Over the summer, YouTube personality and professional boxer Jake Paul defeated mixed martial artist Nate Diaz in a fiercely contested cruiserweight professional crossover boxing match billed as Ready 4 War. Fought in front of a sell-out crowd at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, TX, the match went a full 10 rounds before Paul was announced the victor based on a unanimous judge’s decision.
To build tension and excitement within the arena, more than 50 ADJ beam moving head fixtures were deployed across multiple trusses, while the intense aerial effects they crea

Denmark - Motor Stage Automation (MSA) is a company that loves challenges. So Christian Vigsø and his team were delighted to be asked to design a bespoke flying runway solution for a recent massive show by popular Danish hip hop phenom Suspekt, for their only live appearance this year - at Parken stadium in Copenhagen.
In the process, MSA devised a new modular quick assembly touring product - M:CAT - which is now available exclusively from MSA, a fresh and innovative Danish enterprise working internationally and specialising in the art of designing and delivering stage and show

China - Rock legend Xu Wei restarted his pandemic-interrupted Endless Light Tour with a large-scale Adamson PA design consisting of 172 speaker cabinets at Chongqing Huaxi Culture and Sports Centre. Supporting his latest album, the final leg of the tour required a flexible system design to match various-sized venues across eight Chinese cities.
Real Music Acoustics & Lighting Technology chose Adamson for all loudspeakers including stage monitors, main arrays, side-fills and front-fills.
The main left and right line arrays each consisted of eighteen E15 and three

Spain - Quevedo's DQE Donde quiero estar tour has transformed into a visually stunning spectacle, thanks to the inclusion of 30 Ayrton Cobra. Designed by Oscar Marchena, the tour encompasses two formats: a traditional setup and a 360º experience, allowing the lighting fixtures to shine at their fullest potential on stage.
The internationally renowned Spanish artist has already left his mark on significant venues in Spain such as the Wizink Center and the Gran Canaria Arena and is ready to continue dazzling audiences at prominent locations across the country. Oscar Marchena

Colombia - DiGiCo Quantum338 consoles are an integral part of Maluma’s ongoing Don Juan world tour, the North American leg of which runs from 31 August in Sacramento to 4 November in Miami.
The tour relies heavily on top technology, including Clair Global’s Cohesion series PA system, as well as other DiGiCo products, including SD-Racks, an Orange Box, DMI-Waves cards, and a complete Optocore network loop. The Quantum338 consoles, used at both front of house and monitors, are the central hubs for a complex but reliable audio infrastructure that performs at every show as flawles

UK - Martin Audio rental partner VME has announced a major commitment to the company. In making a heavy investment in the company’s MLA platform, they have at a stroke become the manufacturer’s largest global rental partner of the award-winning systems.
Based in the north of England VME, run by brothers Dion and Andre Davie, recognised that after lockdown, the live events industry rebounded at such pace and velocity that inventories were quickly running dry. As a vital part of the MLA network, and sensing the heavy demand on stock, especially in peak season, they took a dynami

The Netherlands - In the picturesque town of Venlo, on the banks of the Meuse River, the annual free Zomerparkfeest is more than just a festival; it's an immersive experience where music, art, and culture come together.
This year, the Zomerparkfeest unveiled its various stages, brought to life by an impressive array of lighting products from Infinity, Showtec, DMT, and Showgear, courtesy of Demo Productions from Ulestraten, the Netherlands.
As the festival’s main stage blasted off, Demo Productions bathed it in a mesmerizing glow, thanks to a dazzling array of lighting pr

Japan - Since its world premiere in 2016, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has been a worldwide hit in London’s West End, on Broadway, in Hamburg, Melbourne, San Francisco and Toronto.
For the latest production at Tokyo’s TBS Akasaka ACT theatre, the show’s Olivier and Tony award-winning sound designer Gareth Fry has trusted a Yamaha Rivage PM5 digital mixing system to handle a show which previously needed two mixing surfaces.
The Tokyo production features more than 150 inputs, approximately 50 microphone inputs and 80 channels of playback, with around 500 cues

UK - Chatham’s Central Theatre recently benefited from a sound system upgrade to improve the audience experience at its 1000-capacity venue. The Central Theatre, which hosts a variety of performances, from tribute acts and musicals to stand-up comedy and dance, required a sound system that would deliver clear and even audio coverage no matter the performance.
Bose Professional collaborated with London-based integrator Tateside to bring this transformation to fruition.
“Bose’s UK offices are a stone’s throw away from the theatre, so when we needed a new sound system

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