Spain - Lighting designer Joan ‘Teixi’ Teixidó used 30 x Astera AX3s ‘Lite Drops’ on the most recent tour for singer Alfred García, who played over 50 dates around Spain.
Emerging from popular TV talent show Operación Triunfo, this was Alfred Garcia’s first full production tour to date and the first time that Teixi had worked with the artist, who headhunted him to be part of his creative team after the series’ 2017 season. Alfred Garcia’s first studio album 1016 was released at the end of 2018 and shot straight to number 2 in the Spanish album charts, and t

USA - With World Theatre Day 2020 fast approaching on 27 March, Point Source Audio is marking the occasion by offering one non-profit youth arts organisation the chance to win $5,000 worth of microphones from the Embrace series. Featuring ‘a concealable design that stays firmly in place even during the most energetic of productions’, the Embrace microphones are suited to young performers.
Having previously donated Point Source Audio products as part of its Decade of Innovation competition back in 2018, the manufacturer is once again championing arts education by asking its soc

UK – The Prolights LED lighting range is helping Huddersfield Town Hall to meet its improved energy efficiency and production value goals for events.
The multi-purpose venue’s concert hall is at the heart of the Huddersfield community’s cultural activities, hosting concerts, comedy shows, awards ceremonies, conferences and other events.
Andrew Wrixon, technical manager for Huddersfield Town Hall and other venues managed by the Kirklees Council, chose Prolights fixtures when the concert hall’s traditional rig was due to be upgraded to an energy-efficient LED system.

USA - Paul Siebert makes no bones about it: every night, as soon as punk rockers Menzingers strike the first snarling note in one of their Hello Exile tour sets, he kicks his lightshow into fourth gear. “I really try to introduce a lot of energy into the room as early as possible,” he explained. “This is a punk show at heart, so all the transitions between songs are really fast, and most of the band’s songs come out of the gate swinging. The earlier I can get the crowd moving, the better the show will be for everyone.”
Helping Siebert launch his show with supercharged f

Australia - The new Sydney Coliseum Theatre is the first of its kind in the rapidly developing region of Greater Western Sydney and features L-ISA Hyperreal Sound technology.
“Rooty Hill draws on a very large catchment area that stretches from the Blue Mountains to Canberra, Hornsby and the city. Visitors are coming to a world class theatre without having to pay toll fees or parking charges. With a new international airport being planned close by, the road and rail infrastructure are excellent,” says The Coliseum technical operations manager Bicci Henderson.
Henderson h

UK - The 40th edition of the Brit Awards, held on 18 February at London’s O2 Arena, featured the event’s most challenging audio production to date; designed and executed by long-term audio partner, Britannia Row Productions.
Brit Row delivered a multi-stage sound system with a secondary PA in tow, utilising Out Board TiMax 3D spatial audio control. This enabled performances - which included a highly anticipated appearance from Stormzy - to take place under - not in front of - the PA and allowed host Jack Whitehall’s vocal to be localised into the nearest audio system as

USA - For the 5th Avenue Theatre, a venue that seats almost 2,200 patrons, having a fully stocked arsenal of microphones to rely on for its theatrical productions is of utmost importance. The Seattle-based theatre has found that dependability with DPA Microphones, which were recently deployed for the venue’s production of Marie, Dancing Still.
The 5th Avenue Theatre’s stock of DPA microphones includes 4061 Omnidirectional Miniature Mics, 4011 Cardioid Microphones, 4099 Instrument Microphones, and the newest addition, the brand’s 6061 Omnidirectional Subminiature Micr

USA - Claypaky Xtylos laser source moving lights made their Pepsi Halftime Show debut at Super Bowl LIV where they added even more impact to the dynamic performances of Shakira and Jennifer Lopez in Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium. Xtylos created a network of intense beams in varied colours as well as wave effects that served as a background for the stage.
Lighting designer Bob Barnhart of 22 Degrees, who has 21 Super Bowl halftime shows to his credit, selected 50 Xtylos for the event after seeing the fixtures at LDI 2019. “I was impressed with the beam quality, which was so

The Netherlands - A prominent player in the world of LED displays and audio-visual productions as well as part of the NEP Worldwide Network, Faber Audiovisuals, hosted a virtual production demo at Amsterdam Studios at the end of February.
As part of the event, Brompton Technology was invited to present its HDR (High Dynamic Range) solution on LED screens set up as greenscreen replacements for film and TV. Enabled by Brompton’s Dynamic Calibration technology, HDR delivers images that appear ‘perceptibly sharper, more vivid, detailed and lifelike’.
Though the use of LED

Singapore - Ctrl Fre@k’s Jeffrey Yue has drawn upon his extensive know-how plus creative AV technology including TiMax SoundHub spatial audio servers - to realise a five-act multimedia extravaganza within century-old Fort Canning, to commemorate Singapore’s 200-year milestone.
From Singapore to Singaporean: The bicentennial Experience is a one-hour immersive, multi-sensory journey that charts Singapore’s 500-year history prior to the British arrival in 1819 and onwards to the present day. As technical consultant and systems designer for audio, video, lighting and mult

Germany - The Kulturzelt is an annual music festival in Kassel that has run since 1987. It began life in a former circus tent, before progressing to its current location in a temporary, self-supporting concert hall constructed in 2010.
The specially designed, circular plexiglass structure covers an area of 860sqm and accommodates 900 visitors. Kulturzelt is now a strongly established event in the German festival calendar.
Events production specialist Ambion of Kaufungen has supported Kulturzelt with a full production since 2004 and was once again asked to supply the audio fo

Germany - When Circus Flic Flac rolled into town at Westfalenhalle, Dortmund for its ninth annual Christmas show, it brought with it a 1,200-capacity circus tent, an array of human-only artistes and an Ayrton lighting arrangement by lighting designer, Christopher Rostalski, from CR-Lichtdesign in Soest.
Rostalski chose to work with the latest Ayrton products to create his design in this setting, employing 20 Khamsin-S profile spots, 20 Bora-S washlights and 10 MiniBurst graphic strobe fixtures, all of which were supplied by Stefan Kniess at B + B Veranstaltungstechnik in Dortmund

Japan - Barbee Boys are a five-piece Japanese rock band who were particularly popular in 1980’s. The first Japanese group to perform at the Nippon Budokan, they disbanded in 1992, much to the disappointment of their young generation of fans.
This turned to excitement when they suddenly announced a ‘comeback’ concert at the Yoyogi National Stadium 1st Gymnasium on 13 January - exactly a decade after that Budokan show - sending these same fans into raptures.
MSI Japan was asked to provide the sound production and Bun Hote, who has been supporting artistes from the Offic

UK - Bristol-based production technology house Enlightened has made a significant investment in its audio rental inventory, adding Nexo’s P+ Series compact point source loudspeakers, together with L15 sub bass cabinets, and new NXAMP4x2Mk2 amplifiers.
Enlightened is a one-stop shop for lighting, audio, video and staging solutions, for hire, sale, production, repair or permanent installation. Audio specialist Matt Shelbourn explains: “Enlightened has had Nexo’s popular PS series in rental stock for over 10 years. Over that time, they have proven to be reliable boxes that are

UK - Over the last 25 years The Brook in Southampton has established itself as one of the favourite independent music venues in the south of England. The venue has developed this reputation by putting audience and artist experience as its top priorities, and this has been seen again with a completely new sound system from TW AUDiO.
Opened by founder Bryn Lewis in 1994 as a 300-capacity music venue, The Brook has a long history of supporting original music and has welcomed many artists at every stage of their career to its intimate stage. The venue had sported the same second-hand

USA - To update his original 2008 lighting design for a modern touring production of Dreamgirls, lighting designer Ken Billington chose the LED-based VLZ fixtures from Vari-Lite. After seeing a demo of the VLZ fixtures, he was satisfied with them as the luminaire that would reproduce the look and feel of his original Vari-Lite rig.
Billington specified 32 VLZ Wash, 22 VLZ Spot and 12 VLZ Profile fixtures to form the show’s entire overhead lighting rig. “The fixtures are bright,” he says, “in fact a bit too bright! We run them at 50-70% most of the time. When you fad

UK - White Light has provided the lighting equipment for the UK tour of Ghost Stories, having also supplied its recent West End run at the Ambassadors Theatre (see LSi March).
Written by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, Ghost Stories has been terrifying theatregoers for over a decade. The show invites audience members to enter a nightmarish world, full of thrilling twis

USA - Lighting designer David Grill has returned to GLP’s lighting portfolio to stage a new production of Michael Pink’s 1996 ballet Dracula, a reimagining of Bram Stoker’s horror classic story, at the Civic Centre Music Hall in Oklahoma City. This was presented by the Oklahoma City Ballet.
“The production is rented to ballet companies throughout the world, and at each venue I lay out the line sets and adapt the show to whatever I find there,” says the LD, explaining the background. “[GLP impression X4s] are among fixtures that remain constant and the rest chang

USA - Alcons Audio gave the LR24 mid-size line array system its official introduction to the US touring market at Post 43, the Hollywood base of the American Legion. Inviting an array of top mixing talent to ‘test-drive’ the LR24 system and experience WYMIWYG - What You Mix Is What You Get - the system drew widespread praise.
Described by its veterans as “that much more showbiz” than any other American Legion post, Post 43 was an appropriate location for the LR24 event. Two years ago, the completion of a comprehensive restoration transformed it into a 500-seat movie theatr

South Africa - Lighting designer Marius Coetzee was asked by Johannesburg -based technical production company AV and Beyond to create a vibrant visual ambience for the 2019 FNB (First National Bank) Innovators Awards, staged in Hall 5 of the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, Johannesburg.
Over 100 Robe moving lights helped him produce spectacular lighting including AV and Beyond’s new Esprite LED Profiles, the first in South Africa, which arrived on site just in time to be added to the rig.
The event recognises and celebrates the efforts, contributions and ideas of t

Belgium - After decades of civic campaigning, the residents of Deinze near Ghent recently achieved a long- awaited dream when the €10m Leietheater opened. Located in the town centre, the theatre creates an immediate impression from the outside with its minimalist architecture. Inside, its multifaceted, modern productions are supported by a collection of Chauvet Professional Ovation fixtures specified by the theatre itself, and supplied by Sotesa.
The task of fitting a modern lighting rig for the 500-capacity theatre fell to the theatre's head of technology, Jef Donné. Having p

Switzerland - An Allen & Heath dLive mixing system set the rink alight for ice-skating gala, Art on Ice, which celebrated its 25th anniversary this month with a series of shows taking place across Zurich, Lausanne, Basel and Davos.
Combining live performances from internationally acclaimed artists, world-class dancers and figure-skaters, including the 2018 Gold Olympic medallist Alina Zagitova, Art on Ice offers “a unique and immersive storytelling experience”.
Produced by Swiss AV production company, Habegger AG (and with Session Pro helping to supply

UK - Wicked, winner of multiple Tony, Drama Desk and Grammy awards, has become a Broadway staple, poised to celebrate its 17th year on the Great White Way in October at its home at the Gershwin Theatre. The show’s nearly half-dozen licensed touring versions have drawn almost as many award accolades.
The latest touring edition of the show is scheduled to hit 15 cities, from Baltimore to Vancouver. These shows put the musical’s songs through a new DiGiCo Quantum 7T console. Purchased through Milwaukee-based Clearwing Productions, the compact audio desk features DiGiCo’s

Slovakia - The Slovak Volleyball Federation recently contracted laser specialists, Kvant, to provide a spectacular multimedia show for the Superfinals of the Slovak Cup, at the Eurovia Arena in Bratislava.
The clients were looking for a high-quality ‘curtain raiser’ for the opening of the men’s and women’s finals, and to entertain the audience between the breaks. Following the finals, there was a live performance as the winners were announced. Helping to boost the extravaganza were 24 Aqua 580 Beam from PR Lighting.
The spectacular itself was designed by Martin Gabc

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