Italy - Prolights products illuminated the Innamorato Tour of Blanco, the young artist riding high in the Italian music scene.
Following the success of the Blu Celeste Tour, boasting 35 sold-out dates, Blanco has once again astonished his fans with his inaugural stadium tour, securing his position as the youngest Italian artist to perform on these prestigious stages. The concerts took place at Rome's Olympic Stadium and Milan's San Siro Stadium, where the singer delivered an overwhelming performance, paying attention to every detail and presenting a setlist that encompassed the best of his repertoire, accompanied by a visually stunning scenography.
To ensure a captivating visual experience, the rental company Mister X Service employed 106 Astra Wash19PixIP and 138 Sunblast 3000FC Prolights fixtures to illuminate the stage. These fixtures orchestrated a sy

USA - Things never got “routine” for the Beartooth production crew this summer. The Loudwire and Metal Hammer award winners’ 37-city tour has included a wildly mixed bag of shows, as they’ve moved from headlining their own appearances, to supporting bands like Breaking Benjamin and Disturbed, with a healthy sprinkling of festivals thrown in.
“It was just kind of all over the place on this run,” said the band’s lighting designer Dan Michie. “This made it critical to have a floor package that was not only very versatile, but could also be set up and torn down fast.”
Michie got what he wanted, and more, with a versatile, easy-to-work-with rig from Squeek Lights that featured a collection of compact, but powerful Chauvet Professional fixtures. “The Squeek rig was so great for what we had to do,” he said. “It could be set up and torn down, and offsta

USA - Indie folk rock band Dispatch is back touring with a lighting package from Bandit Lites. Comprised of Chadwick Stokes and Brad Corrigan, the Boston-based band were ready to release an album and tour when the COVID-19 pandemic happened. The band utilised the time to retool and deconstruct songs and released their eighth studio album Break Our Fall in August 2022.
They kicked off their summer tour with performances alongside the National Symphony orchestra, requiring lighting designer David Singleton of Datum Creative to engineer a design that could adapt to the special shows and additional festivals.
“The design came about from various conversations with the band and the band's management,” explained Singleton. “They love the look and feel of tungsten fixtures. I wanted a little more flexibility than just the tungsten look, so I went with fun unique

Germany - Situated between Cologne and Düsseldorf, the Monheim am Rhine community of under 50,000, bills itself as the “town for everyone” and backs up the claim by offering “a combination of natural beauty and urban sophistication, ancient ruins, and a thriving modern art scene”.
For three days this summer, the town’s commitment to diversity was on full display at the Monheim City Festival, a popular event that served up a spread of attractions, from art to interactive activities and, of course, a wide range of music on three stages.
At the open-air stage in the Gartzenweg, fans gathered until late in the evening to enjoy an array of performances representing different musical genres. The Stadtkapelle Monheim played pop, rock, and musical tunes. Air Flik and Micha Deutz rocked the turntables. DJ Fedde Le Grand, known for hits such as Let Me Think About I

Spain - The musical Los Chicos del Coro (The Choir Boys) production is based on the Oscar-winning film The Children of Monsieur Mathieu and premiered at the Teatro La Latina in Madrid in late 2022.
The multi-award-winning production unites renowned musical performers with an 80-member children's choir and celebrates the creative power of music. For the METjor award-winning lighting design, internationally renowned lighting designer Juanjo Llorens used Cameo moving lights from the Opus and Evos series.
The musical production directed by Juan Luis Iborra relates the contrast between the harsh realism of the dreary everyday life at the boarding school and the emotional power that arises from the friendship between the students and their music teacher. For Juanjo Llorens, the first scene of the musical sets the visual direction: "The boarding school

UK - A new family play-world has opened at The Alnwick Garden, with its imaginary inhabitants realised by the spatial sound capabilities of a d&b Soundscape system. Installed by Southby Productions, the system helps to bring the world’s magical inhabitants to life, via the work of award-winning theatre sound designer, Gareth Fry.
Ten years in the making, Lilidorei delivers an enchanted world inhabited by fabulous creatures - dwarves, trolls, fairies, hobgoblins, and more - all of them invisible. With the only clues to their existence provided by special effects and immersive audio, much is owed to the d&b Soundscape.
The behind-the-scenes story of Lilidorei’s creation - the result of the vision of Jane Percy, the Duchess of Northumberland - is revealed by a six-part television documentary. The Duchess And Her Magical Kingdom began on Channel 4 on 2

UK - One of London’s most talked about new openings, Outernet Venues, has put its trust in Clair Global Integration (CGI) for audio and networking solutions throughout three of its spaces.
CGI worked on three state-of-the-art music venues: HERE at Outernet, a 2,000-capacity space frequented by touring artists, The Lower Third, a 250 capacity live music venue for smaller acts and DJs, and Forge, a 50-person capacity cocktail bar that caters for intimate singer-songwriter acoustic performances.
Together, these contrasting spaces form part of an arts and entertainment hub built beneath the streets in the beating heart of Central London. Each venue required its own custom audio, network, and infrastructure for both independent and collaborative use, with all three utilising d&b audiotechnik loudspeakers, and HERE marking one of the UK’s first d&b XSL installat

USA - When pop music siblings Girl Named Tom - Bekah, Josh and Caleb Liechty - first set out in 2019 they would travel from city to city and gig to gig in an old minivan. Then, in 2021, Girl Named Tom made history as the first trio to ever win NBC’s The Voice, placing four songs concurrently on the iTunes Top 10 charts, with two of them reaching #1, during the show’s 21st season.
Now playing to larger audiences in bigger venues across the United States, Girl Named Tom recently wrapped a several-month tour on which they used the new Sennheiser EW-DX digital wireless system for vocals as well as electric and acoustic guitars and the EW G4 wireless in-ear monitoring system for all five musicians in the band.
“We were honoured to be the first American touring act performing with this specific set up, and we are thrilled to report that these microphones are th

USA - The redolent power of the mood ring made an appropriate metaphor for Matchbox Twenty’s Slow Dream Tour, which recently concluded its 54-show run at Chicago’s Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre. The Playground design studio evoked images of the emotive cultural icon with a large inflatable semi-circle that arches over the upstage deck and is backed by a massive video wall.
An array of images from retro clips to abstract patterns displayed on the video screen, is suggestive of the dreamy, translucent look of a mood ring. Accenting the 3D quality of this ‘ring’ is a collection of lighting fixtures, including the Chauvet Professional Maverick Force 2 Profile, arranged along angled stage left and stage right horizontal truss structures.
“Things that felt important to us were that the show feel minimalist and architectural. It had to exist as an environmen

UK - Despite train strikes and inclement weather, Brighton & Hove Pride 2023 enjoyed another successful year, raising money for the Brighton Rainbow Fund supporting LGBTQ+ groups and organisations within the local community, as crowds of around 250,000 people descended on the seaside resort. It is estimated that more than £25m was brought into the city’s economy over the Pride weekend.
With more than 150 LGBTQ+ artists performing across 12 different stages, attention was largely focused on the main Fabuloso stage in the 63-acre Preston Park. Here first night headliners Black Eyed Peas were followed by Steps on the Sunday, with Solotech UK for the second year providing their flagship WPL line-array.
Working once again alongside production manager Dean Parker, at Wilde Ones International Events, their sound design was based around main PA hangs of 18 WPL per side,

France - Lyon, a city famous for its annual Festival of Light, has also successfully reclaimed its two rivers, a project that started in 2002.
A major element of this is the ‘glacier blue’ illumination of a 2.5k stretch of the Rhône riverbanks linking the Parc de la Tête d'Or and the Parc de Gerland in greater Lyon, which is now permanently lit with 244 new Anolis ArcSource 24 LED fixtures.
This Anolis lighting scheme has replaced all the original metal halide lighting fixtures that were installed in 2008 when the riverbank scheme was inaugurated and transformed the area from moody car parking to a bustling urban thoroughfare.
The switch to LED was driven by the city’s Urban Lighting Department (DEU) and the new lighting is 76% more energy efficient.
The banks of the Rhône pass through a succession of natural, mineral, and urban developments and a

Germany - Christie Pandoras Box Software Version 8.8 technology is powering the impressive projection mapping at Schlosslichtspiele Festival at Karlsruhe Palace. Technical team AV Active has deployed two Pandoras Box licences, two Christie Widget Designers and 24 Pandoras Box outputs to power projection mapping onto the 172m x17m (564 feet x 56 feet) façade of Karlsruhe Palace.
Among this year’s flagship events is mapping virtuoso Maxin10sity’s 80’s Flash show to tie in with a 1980s museum exhibit inside the building, while German electronic band Kraftwerk performs in front of the Palace during the festivities. The show runs from until 17 September.
“We’re always happy to use Christie Pandoras Box on events - we know how to use it and prepare the content, and we’ve had no technical issues in the many years we have been working with it,” says Tamá

USA - Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg creates art that explores our relationships with nature and technology. Her latest installation, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg - Machine Auguries: Toledo, explores this relationship by simulating a dawn chorus using generative adversarial networks - two neural networks that work in a ‘call and response’ and are sometimes used to create lifelike but fake images.
“The work is really about making a copy of the natural world,” said Ginsberg in a recent interview. “We focus so much on innovation and the things we can do, but there’s intelligent life outside in our natural world that we depend on to exist.”
The installation at the Toledo Museum of Art represents Ginsberg’s first solo presentation in the United States and her largest indoor installation to date. Taking place over 12 minutes, the experience features the growing

USA - Independent lighting designer Joel Reiff has tapped 28 Ayrton Domino Profiles as his ‘workhorse’ fixture for Counting Crows’ 56-date summer tour across North America, which he programmed on a grandMA3 console. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton fixtures and MA lighting products in North America.
The band, with guests Dashboard Confessional, kicked off their Banshee Season Tour in June in Omaha and will wrap with a show at the famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado on 25 September. Upstaging provided the Dominos and grandMA3 consoles for the tour.
“I like to emphasise the music in my lighting design and not take the audience’s eyes away from what the band is doing on stage and what they’re hearing,” says Aiken, South Carolina-based Reiff. “As my spot fixtures the Dominos get the brunt of the looks and take the majorit

UK - Over two nights in June, Adlib’s sizeable inventory of Martin MAC Ultra fixtures were deployed for Sam Fender’s homecoming gigs at Newcastle’s St. James’ Park.
Specified by lighting designer Sam Tozer, with lighting director Luke Avery, and design associate Harry Williams, a combination of Martin’s MAC Ultra Performance and MAC Ultra Wash fixtures delivered huge impact for the 100,000 strong audience.
Explaining his initial design concept Sam Tozer said: “We wanted to create a show that felt heavy and dynamic. Something visually impactful but with the capability to create unique spaces with visuals and light. It needed to be able to match the energy of the music.”
And in terms of fixtures, the LD already knew the MAC Ultra family would deliver the necessary impact.
“I‘ve been using the MAC Ultra Performance in most of my larger scale

Serbia - The Kulturni Centar Zrenjanina (KCZR), or the Cultural Centre of Zrenjanin, stands as a multifaceted institution dedicated to the promotion of culture and is actively involved in curating concerts, thematic forums, exhibitions, film shows, and professional gatherings in the vibrant city of Zrenjanin.
The centre takes pride in its own artistic endeavours for compelling productions. Such diverse activities demand the integration of top-notch, professional audio-visual equipment for the main stage. Through successful participation in a public procurement process initiated by the City of Zrenjanin, AVL Projekt, DiGiCo products Serbian distributor, was granted the opportunity to deliver, install, and commission a complete AV system, tailored to fulfil KCZR's requirements.
The audio element is centred around a DiGiCo S21 mixing console which offers significant enhan

Korea - High-end fashion brand, Gucci, recently celebrated the launch of its Cruise 2024 collection at Seoul’s Gyeongbokgung Palace with the help of communication experts punQtum. The evening blended the innovative worlds of Italian and South Korean design and showcased the heritage of Gucci, alongside the multicultural style found on the streets of the capital city.
The fashion show was attended by a star-studded line-up of guests, including Dakota Johnson, Liu Wen, Wen Qi, Mark Ronson and Gulf Kanawut. Parisian production company Bureau Betak was called upon to oversee the whole production of the VIP event.
In search of a high-quality communications system, Bureau Betak reached out to Dasan SR, the South Korean distributor for Riedel Communications. The brief from the client was for an easy-to-use, reliable system that would make coordination across the evening as

USA - Morgan Wallen has become a country music superstar in a very short time. Just years from debuting, he dominates the country music charts with a pair of albums that remain in the Billboard Top 10. His 2023 release, One Thing at a Time topped the chart for an impressive 15 weeks. Wallen’s current One Night at a Time stadium tour reflects his meteoric rise with an expanded production design by Zac Coren that includes Elation Proteus luminaires.
Being an outdoor stadium tour, IP-rated lighting fixtures were a must and Zac turned to three fixtures in the proven Proteus series - Proteus Rayzor Blade linear FX bars, Proteus Hybrid moving heads, and Proteus Rayzor 760 LED wash effects.
The tour launched in March in Australia and New Zealand with a North American leg that kicked off in Milwaukee in April and is selling out at virtually every stop. Event product

UK - Video company UP is on the road with Depeche Mode and an Anton Corbijn-designed custom video set piece.
Depeche Mode’s Memento Mori continues its world-spanning tour - it's this summer's longest running European stadium tour - with an LED ‘M’ centrepiece, a 3D scenic element that becomes seamlessly integrated as part of the video wall.
Working alongside TAIT and show designer Jason Baeri, Universal Pixels has helped to create the custom-built set piece for artistic director and long-time Depeche Mode collaborator, Anton Corbjin’s latest vision.
The LED adorned ‘M’ stands at an impressive 8m in height, aiding the tour’s video visuals and doubling an additional dimension for the video content. Universal Pixels has provided 320m2 of INFiLED ER5 LED for the upstage wall, IMAG screens and the ‘M’.
Video director Jon Shrimpton say

UK - House of Oz is a platform to showcase the depth and breadth of Australian talent from the emerging to the veteran, in a venue with a distinctly Australian flavour. Born at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2022 as part of the UK/Australia Season, House of Oz featured a diverse programme spanning genres and generations, and in its inaugural year, won an award for Best Fringe Venue.
More than just four walls, House of Oz provides the production, marketing and PR support for Australians to showcase their work.
For the 2023 event, Skywalker Gibbon, a giant inflatable gibbon designed by Melbourne visual artist Lisa Roet, takes pride of place on the front of King’s Hall, Newington, Edinburgh. The venue, a 19th century church and Grade B listed building, required a sensitive solution to allow for the 20m wide by 6m tall artwork to be displayed safely, with Adrian Bell,

USA - Experimental Icelandic rock band, Sigur Rós recently embarked on a two-and-a-half-week tour of North America, complete with a 41-piece orchestra.
It marks the third phase of support from their audio rental company 22live, who earlier covered their 2022 world shows, followed by European summer dates (where the orchestral idea was first introduced) and now tour dates in the United States and Canada.
Each wave of dates has seen progressive iterations of Martin Audio sound reinforcement, culminating in monitor engineer Throstur Albertsson recently changing his monitor set-up for powerful XE500 wedges (to complement their IEMs) but more significantly 18 of the manufacturer’s new FlexPoint FP4 for local orchestral monitoring.
Explaining the background, 22live hire director, Paul Timmins, who has a long relationship with Sigur Rós, said: “We needed some tiny

Albania - Prolights fixtures played a pivotal role in the concert titled Dekada by Albanian singer Elvana Gjata. This event marked a significant milestone in Elvana's two-decade-long musical journey, captivating thousands of fans at the Air Albania Stadium in Tirana for a memorable four-hour extravaganza.
Contributing to the importance of the event was ASLV Albania working in collaboration with Kuadr Events, they integrated 350 cutting-edge Prolights fixtures, creating a breathtaking stage setup, including: 30 PanoramaIP Spot, 30 PanoramaIP AirBeam, 60 UNICO, 50 Jade, 40 Stark 400, 24 Sunrise 2IP, 40 SunRise 4, 40 Lumipix 15IP, 12 EclFresnel TW, 12 LumiPar 12IP and 16 Razor 440.
"The Prolights fixtures truly exceeded our expectations at Elvana Gjata's Dekada concert. Their cutting-edge technology and versatility allowed us to create a visually stunning productio

Norway - The band, Postgirobygget (named after Norway’s main post office in Oslo), which began life in 1994 under the name The Pissed Off Sons, gained traction with their debut album Melis, which sold nearly 200,000 copies and spent a total of 70 weeks in the VG Chart. Since then, they have embarked on an annual summer tour, performing at festivals and venues in front of audiences ranging from 2000 to 18,000 people.
Postgirobygget’s 28-date summer 2023 tour began in May and will continue through until September, with set and lighting design by Petter Nilssen of LiteNordic, MDG’s distributor for Norway. Nilssen chose a single MDG Me2 fog generator as his source of fog and haze for the duration of the tour, complete with MDG’s digital theFAN, both of which were neatly and conveniently housed with fluid and gas bottles in an MDG Vertical Flight Case as an instan

Turkey - The focus of many legends and sagas, Istanbul’s Maiden’s Tower is the most important building for the city’s inhabitants, with a long history stretching back beyond 1423 when it first received its name.
During its complete renovation, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism commissioned contractors ASTEL to conduct an international competition for a light show that should highlight the Tower, be widely seen around Istanbul and run fully-automated every night.
The contract was won by Martin Kuhn of MKLD Lighting Design & Consulting of Berlin, who conceived the idea of telling the Tower’s story using light to accompany the narrative in the manner of a theatre piece or performance.
Kuhn commissioned a seven-minute script from respected Turkish writer, Ayşe Kulin, had it translated it into English and Arabic, found professional speakers for

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