Europe - Skunk Anansie have recently wrapped up their 25th anniversary tour along with an Allen & Heath dLive mixing system at FOH.
With a string of European festival and headline shows, the milestone tour followed the release of Skunk Anansie’s new live album, 25live@25 and finished with a run of UK performances.
Long-time Allen & Heath user and FOH engineer Ben Hammond comments: “dLive is just the perfect console for me. I’m able to lay out each show file the same way so the shows are always consistent, whether it’s an outdoor amphitheatre or large i

South Africa - The popularity of d&b audiotechnik systems for live events has been highlighted by the number of rental companies that won business supplying a pair of major festivals in South Africa. Rocking the Daisies in Cape Town and In the City in Johannesburg both called on the skills of Bad Weather, which opted for an all d&b solution.
The music festivals saw the likes of The 1975, Russ and Tash Sultana deliver crowd-pleasing performances with the same sonic signature on every stage. This was thanks to the popularity that the German manufacturer’s solutions have f

Romania - Lighting and stage design studio M3 Studio in Bucharest selected a large complement of Claypaky fixtures for the latest tour by Andra, the best-selling Romanian pop and folk artist.
Claypaky SharBars, Alpha Spot 800 QWOs, A.leda Wash K10s and Sharpys helped illuminate Andra’s 10 dates from April to September across Romania.
M3 Studio, known for providing visual creativity for bands, clubs and shows, was charged with designing a compact show that would be easy to rig in the short time intervals available at each stop on the tour. A mobile stage was chosen for fas

USA - Event production company Genetic Productions is out with Morgan Wallen as the rising country music star opens as direct support on Luke Combs’ Beer Never Broke My Heart tour, a North American stretch that wraps in mid-December with shows at the 20,000-capacity Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
Genetic has again supplied an Elation rig for the singer after having supplied Wallen’s inaugural headlining tour, Up Down, last year. Genetic serves as the lighting and video vendor for the outing, working closely with designer Zac Coren.
The lighting rig includes 3° beams f

Switzerland - In the summer of 2019, the Béjart Ballet Lausanne gave new performances of Dixit, the ‘cinema-ballet-theatre’ show written and directed by Marc Hollogne, in tribute to its founder, Maurice Béjart. To embark the audience on the choreographer's story and work, the company relied on Modulo Kinetic and its real-time tracking module, KineMotion.
To pay tribute to its creator, the Béjart Ballet Lausanne worked with Marc Hollogne to write and direct Dixit, a show that combines dance, acting and video projection to tell the story of Maurice Béjart's li

Australia - Two ARX MSX-32 Mic/Line Splitters were specified by Melbourne based audio contractor Intavent to provide reliable and agile broadcast mic splits for the broadcast box at the Flemington Racecourse.
The ARX MSX-32’s were required to be installed in time for the annual Spring Racing Carnival - of which the Melbourne Cup is the jewel in the crown - and where the eyes and ears of the horse racing world would be focussed.
Australians refer to the Melbourne Cup as the race that stops a nation. In fact, its reach extends well beyond Australian shores to Europe, USA, So

Switzerland - For nearly four weeks this past summer, the Swiss town of Vevey on Lake Geneva came alive when one million visitors participated in the 12th Winegrowers’ Festival. The Fête des Vignerons takes place once in a generation and pays homage to century old traditions of wine-growing. Recognised by UNESCO on its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the celebration unites an entire region of winegrowers with the local community.
The highlight of the festival is Le Spectacle, a three-hour show performed in a temporary arena featuring 5,500 amateur acto

Cambodia - ABA Bank head office recently acquired Martin lighting equipment from Harman Professional Solutions, in collaboration with Bright & Eternity Co, to achieve maximum visibility and enhance the architectural features of the building.
Located in the centre of the capital city, Phnom Penh, along one of the busiest roads - Preah Sihanouk Boulevard, ABA Bank’s head office witnesses thousands of people pass through every day. The bank and the head office building has overseen a major phase of growth and development, comprising of several rented buildings, a mix of back an

UK - Success is serving the independently owned, 1,700 cap Electric Brixton well, a two-step refurbishment programme refining the venue’s image and functionality.
LED fixtures light the building’s front wall, which has been resealed and repainted, amplifying the Electric’s standing on Brixton Hill.
Through the doors to the main space the second room wall has gone, improving sightlines and bringing more flexibility in terms of operating the area. It also makes for a much larger bar stage left and quicker service.
An LX console front of house, with additional moto

USA - As one of this year’s most anticipated Broadway musicals, Moulin Rouge! The Musical has captured the hearts of critics and audiences alike. Its performances and production design combine to create an extravagant experience thanks to the talent on and off the stage - and, in part, to the power of Eos.
“ETC’s products are why we can make this show happen,” says lighting designer Justin Townsend. “There is just so much data - nothing else could have driven the show.”
Most people are familiar with the 2001 motion picture, a stylistic spectacle from the m

South Africa - A recent technical upgrade at Joburg Theatre includes four Robert Juliat Cyrano 2500W HMI followspots which have been installed for use in the 1000+ seat Mandela Theatre.
The complex’s largest auditorium, The Nelson Mandela Theatre, regularly sees over 75% of capacity audiences and remains open a minimum of 50 weeks in each year. In the past decade, it has hosted many hit shows, including William Kentridge’s acclaimed interpretation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, the West End and Broadway musicals West Side Story, Chicago, The Color Purpl

Europe - Björk has kicked off the European portion of her critically-acclaimed Cornucopia tour deploying a d&b Soundscape Immersive sound system as the show scales up dramatically from its debut in New York’s new arts centre, The Shed, to a run of largescale arena dates including London’s O2 arena.
Cornucopia is Björk’s most elaborate stage production to date, incorporating stunning visuals, intricate stage movements and a fully integrated immersive sound design. Cornucopia’s sound was designed by Björk and FOH sound engineer John Gale, support

Germany - Thomas Gottschalk once again gathered a who's who of ‘80s cult stars at the TUI Arena in Hannover for Gottschalk's Big 80s Show. Performances by Kim Wilde, Paul Young, Thomas Anders, Marc Almond and many more could be experienced on the set's four show stages, with the concert broadcast by ZDF.
Lighting cameraman / gaffer for the production was Michael Donecker. Frank Hofmann - better known as FH - from Scan Design Berlin was responsible for the show lighting design of a production that lasted for several hours. FH, who developed a penchant for lighting design e

USA - Rhett McLaughlin and Charles Lincoln Neal III (Rhett & Link) have been blazing a trail with their mix of music and comic antics. Their routines include ‘rap battles’ that feature unlikely antagonists, such as the Wright Brothers vs the Mario Brothers and Leonardo Da Vinci against The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Lighting this pair of comedic musicians on tour requires a design that is powerful enough to accent punch lines and ballyhoo moments, while still serving up softer, subtle looks that create theatrical moments for sketches. This is precisely what the design t

Australia - On Sunday 6 October, the Canberra Raiders squared off against the Sydney Roosters at the NRL Grand Final in front of 82,922 spectators at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium, with millions more watching the broadcast. Impressive numbers - as was the 229 radio microphones active at the ground that Peter Twartz, radio frequency manager for the stadium and the NRL, had to coordinate to work flawlessly with one another.
Wayne Mulder, engineering coordinator for production provider JPJ, made Peter’s job that bit easier by using Shure Axient Digital and PSM1000 IEMs across pre-show en

USA - Garth Brooks wrapped up the 2019 leg of his Stadium Tour with a record-breaking, sold-out show of 85,000 people at The University of Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium. Knoxville is the tenth city this year to welcome the tour following sold-out performances in St. Louis, Glendale, Gainesville, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Denver, Eugene, Boise and Regina.
The concert at Neyland is his second show there since 2003 and comes on the heels of Brooks winning County Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year award for the seventh time. Bandit Lites has provided the lighting for Brooks

USA - As Wheel of Fortune begins shooting its 37th season, the popular game show has been replacing its ageing lights with LED fixtures requiring less power, generating less heat and needing little maintenance. Joining the show’s upgraded rig are Ayrton Khamsin compact LED profiles provided by Sony Set Lighting.
“LEDs have finally caught up to where they’re able to replace a 1200W arc source,” says lighting director and programmer, William McLachlan. “I’ve used Ayrton fixtures on other shows; they’re building interesting lights that are becoming mainline workh

USA - A forest of nearly 100 Astera Titan Tubes were used by lighting designer Nook Schoenfeld to create some high impact lighting effects during a sizzle-reel shoot to get player highlights for NHL ice hockey team Minnesota Wild, who are based in the Excel Centre Arena, St Paul, Minneapolis.
These are shown when the players’ names flash up onscreen before and during a game and are also used to highlight players on televised ads, interstitials and other promotions through a season. These clips are shot during a designated ‘media day’ about two weeks ahead of the season openi

Finland - The Rantakylä School Centre in Mikkeli has recently undergone a major audio upgrade with two Allen & Heath SQ digital mixing systems.
With around 700 students, the renovated school centre prides itself on providing the latest cutting-edge technologies. “When our huge renovation project started, it was clear in our minds that our audio system needed to be as accommodating and up-to-date as possible without compromising on an easy and intuitive user interface,” explains Juha Lindbohm, a music teacher at Rantakylä school. “As we have several event locations wit

South Africa - Music lovers gathered for the RMB Starlight Classics at the Country Club Johannesburg in September to experience a harmonious journey that has become a springtime tradition over the past 20 years. The RMB Starlight Classics is hosted twice annually in Johannesburg and at Vergelegen Wine Estate in Somerset West respectively.
Sam McGrath and Joanne Jaques from Jam Events have managed the production since its inception in 1998, which is one of the crown jewels in the South African event calendar. “RMB Starlight Classics is an amazing product and has grown beyond anyt

Poland - Singer-songwriter Dawid Podsiadlo found fame by winning the second series of Poland’s X Factor in 2012, securing himself a recording contract with Sony Music. Following the success of his two Diamond certified albums, Podsiadlo embarked on a stadium tour, where FOH engineer Rafal Smolen relied on SSL L300 consoles, supplied by GMB Pro Sound and Polish distributor Audiotech Commercial.
“The L300 was the best possible choice for this tour,” says Smolen. “I got comfortable working with it, as it quickly became apparent that whatever I did on this console would

USA - The Pink Shell Beach Resort & Marina, located at the northern tip of Estero Island in the Fort Myers area, has won awards for its amenities and striking beauty. The resort is positioned in a prime location along the Florida shore and boasts premiere beach access, restaurants, a spa and incredible pools.
That said, the location also comes with some expected Floridian challenges, such as a recent hurricane that did damage to the resort’s audio system. But, while many would see this as a problem for the destination, Pink Shell saw it as an opportunity to reimagine its en

Germany - Founded in 1952, the Maxim Gorki Theatre is Berlin's smallest with 440 seats, and regards itself as a contemporary city theatre in a historic setting.
In autumn 2019, the Maxim Gorki Theatre (MGT) adopted a new audio infrastructure. Central to this is a Lawo mc²96 production console as FOH console in the main hall, and a Lawo mc²56 console that serves as a backup and a remote console for the preparation of new projects. The mc²56 is also used as a recording console for the venue’s in-house recording studio.
A Nova73 compact serves as the setup’s central rou

South Africa - Robe moving lights were all over the rig designed by Ryan Lombard, H.O.D of show lighting for lighting suppliers Blond Productions, for the latest series of popular Afrikaans language music quiz Noot vir Noot which is broadcast on South Africa’s SABC2 channel.
It’s the longest continually-running TV game show in the country - first broadcast in 1991 and presented for the last 28 years by Johan Stemmet. He finally stepped down in January this year to focus on other projects including producing Noot vir Noot through his company Stemmburg Television.

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