Sweden - Stockholm International Fairs and Congress Centre (Stockholmsmässan) is a expo and conference facility in Älvsjö comprising four halls, the longest of which stretches 365m, and a busy schedule of events.
The venue owns a substantial amount of rigging and production technology and has a full-time staff of 25 riggers, overseen - together with crew from all the other technical departments - by head of production Fredrik Zetterberg.
Over the last two years Stockholmsmässan has invested in 48 Robe moving lights - 36 x VIVAs and 12 x DL4S profiles, specified by Fredr

Belgium - Kozzmozz, on of Belgium’s leading EDM festivals, continues to grow after 23 years on the international calendar. Providing visual support for this year’s event was an intense and hard-edged lightshow by Vince de Schinckel that was power-driven by Chauvet Professional Maverick and STRIKE fixtures, supplied by Euro PA.
De Schinckel deployed eight Maverick MK2 Washes and eight STRIKE 1 multi formatted fixtures to create a hard-hitting industrial look that reflected the festival’s music. While the term “industrial” is often used to describe the atmosphere evoked b

UK - India artist Diljit Dosanjh paid a visit to the UK earlier this year, playing sell-out arena shows in Birmingham, London and Leeds. His FOH engineer, Fali Damania, chose a DiGiCo SD5 to mix the shows, provided by audio rental company, Delta,a choice that was duplicated at the monitor position.
“We specify either an SD10 or SD5 for Diljit’s shows,” he says. “I find the layout of both to be extremely functional and the workflow of all DiGiCo consoles makes any show, large or small, a breeze to set up and execute. In this instance, the show isn’t so big; we’re runnin

Namibia - The 2018 Namibia Annual Music Awards (NAMAs), an annual awards ceremony set up to recognise accomplishment in the Namibian recording industry, was broadcast live on Namibian national TV and saw the work and creativity of some of the best and most talented artists, performers and music producers rewarded in 24 different awards categories interspersed with 12 live performance showcases.
Production designer and technical director Micky Lehr and his team from Eventplus have been involved with the NAMAs since 2015 and were involved once again. South African LD Kurt

USA - When Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush, the duo that is Sugarland, got together to record their new Still The Same album, they pulled out all the stops, even having Taylor Swift do some song-writing and appear in one of their music videos.
Sugarland carried this enthusiasm over to planning the 2018 summer tour in support of their new album. Nettles, who had worked with lighting designer Chris Lisle on her solo tours during the duo’s time apart, called on the Nashville designer to come up with some out-of-the-ordinary festive looks for the 48-city tour.
Lisle

UK - With an unclear future for tungsten lighting, the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough has taken no chances in investing in a new range of LED fixtures. The theatre’s existing lighting fixtures were in need of an upgrade, with their pre-existing tungsten dimmers on their last legs; the timing was perfect to make the transition to LED.
The theatre turned to Stage Electrics, who were able to offer advice, guidance and demonstrations of the latest equipment available. “The Stephen Joseph Theatre approached us with a clear inclination that now was the right time for them to

UK - On 6 July, Roger Waters performed at Barclaycard BST in Hyde Park London. Water’s show is like BST itself, centred upon a huge widescreen presentation, but there the similarities end.
“BST sees the entire stage enclosure, backwall, sides and wings totally covered with LED video; right up to roof height 94 linear metres of it,” explains Alex Leinster of Video Design who provide all the video hardware and infrastructure. “But Waters’ show needs a much flatter screen, so we were asked to move the entire backwall section downstage as a far as possible.”
No simpl

USA - DCR Nashville is providing Claypaky Mythos 2 and Scenius spots for American singer-songwriter Halsey’s 2018 touring schedule, including festivals and her continuing Hopeless Fountain Kingdom World Tour.
The tour, in support of her second studio album of the same name, began last fall and will conclude this September. It is her second headlining concert tour.
Production designers Sooner Routhier and Robert Long of S Rae Productions designed the show, which makes extensive use of LED video. Large stairs have LED video on the risers, and a large LED wall upstage

UK - The National Theatre's River Stage Festival is in full swing, bringing a dazzling array of acts to London’s Southbank with on-the-fly lighting by chief LD Huw Llewellyn on an Avolites Arena.
Now in its fourth year, the festival runs on weekends during July and August, bringing free performances of classical music, cabaret, dance and much more, to a temporary stage in front of the National Theatre building.
Avolites supplied the National Theatre with a full lighting control solution, which in addition to the Arena consists of a Tiger Touch II (TTII) and Fader Wi

UK - Established in 2000 and having had a five-year hiatus, the Classic BRIT Awards was held at London’s Royal Albert Hall at the end of June. Featuring both British and international classical talent, it was hosted by Myleene Klass and Alexander Armstrong, with a Lifetime Achievement Award bestowed upon Dame Vera Lynn. Other Awards included Best Male Artist and Critics’ Choice Award for 19 year-old Sheku Kanneh-Mason, two Awards two Michael Ball and Alfie Boe and Soundtrack of the Year to The Greatest Showman.
DiGiCo’s native L‑ISA source control was deployed for t

Belgium - The Belgian city of Genk in Limburg recently switched on a new civic lighting installation, Genker Ster (Genk Star). The piece of light art was designed by creative lighting and visual design practice Painting with Light and enables the community to enjoy the fun and excitement of this ‘architainment’ concept all year round.
The permanent lighting installation was the brainchild of Genk Mayor, Wim Dries. Ambient lighting has been part of the vibrant and forward-thinking city’s festive experience for the last decade, however the new stars can now make

USA - The Minnesota Vikings have opened a new studio at their Twin Cities Optical (TCO) Performance Centre headquarters and practice facility. Featuring four distinct video-shooting areas, the studio, designed by Peter Provost of Provost Studio, is illuminated by a colourful lighting system created by Mike Grabowski of the Lighting Design Group that features close to 100 Chauvet Professional Ovation and COLORdash fixtures.
The studio offers maximum flexibility for broadcasting during the football season and throughout the year. An example of this can be seen its main section, whi

USA - Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi holds a theatre summer camp each year and this year Elation Professional was a sponsor, making available both LED and discharge-based moving heads that allowed students the hands-on opportunity to work with state-of-the-art lighting gear.
Camp on the Coast: Creating Leaders in Life and on the Stage is a theatre camp that teaches more than acting, lighting, props and costume design, according to Phil Johnson, lighting and technical director at the Department of Theatre and Dance at Texas A&M. “It’s an immersive experienc

Portugal - Rock in Rio is still one of the biggest music festivals in the world, and its latest edition, held in Lisbon in early July, relied on DiGiCo consoles supplied by Brazilian rental company Gabisom.
Gabisom has been sound provider for the festival since 2001 and has worked with the organisers in Rio, Lisbon, Madrid and Vegas, specifying and designing the audio system for 17 of its editions. DiGiCo consoles were chosen as house desks across the site, along with a Martin Audio MLA PA. FOH ‘baby-sitting’ duties fell to Gabisom’s Peter Racy and Eder Moura, with Thiago B

UK - Liverpool’s famous Cavern Club has moved into the digital age by retiring its long-serving Soundcraft analogue desks on its two main stages in favour of a Vi3000 and Si Performer 2.
Director Paul Jones expressed the desire to remain with the familiar Soundcraft topography and emphasised that the iconic Cavern Club (including the organisation’s third venue, the Cavern Pub) will remain exclusively a Soundcraft house.
“We have replaced both our MH3 and GB4 [analogue desks], which have been here since well before I arrived six years ago,” he confirmed. “The MH3 st

Spain/UK - Television lighting specialists Aurora Lighting is supporting LD James Tinsley and the crew on the latest season of Love Island for ITV2.
Following the success of the previous series, the team has returned to the villa to build the setting for the latest batch of Islanders. Colourful and intense, the look created for the show provides the perfect backdrop to the on-screen twists and turns of the relationships evolving between the singles seeking love and a possible share of the £50K prize.
Working closely with lighting director James Tinsley and his team,

UK - Harman Professional Solutions has been selected as the official audio supplier for Tottenham Hotspur FC at its new stadium.
The Premier League football club will soon be moving to its new 62,000-capacity home, which features a retractable pitch, cutting-edge video screens, a museum and club shop. To deliver an enhanced audio experience, Tottenham Hotspur has selected an integrated Harman Professional audio solution made up of JBL Professional loudspeakers, Crown amplification, and a Soundcraft digital mixing console.
The installation includes 156 JBL VLA-C2100 loudspea

Having already completed his own European headline tour this year, Jamie Lawson has recently headed back out on the road supporting Ed Sheeran on stadium shows across the UK and Europe. This year’s gigs see him showcasing songs from his latest album, Happy Accidents, released on Sheeran’s Gingerbread Man Records label.
For both the headline and support tours Lawson’s front of house engineer Rob Simpson (NUB Sound) has opted for Allen & Heath dLive digital mixing systems, which he describes as having “unique clarity and headroom - and the best ergonomics in the busines

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies, a Patron of the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC), supplied the event lighting for the club's annual British Grand Prix party at Silverstone Circuit.
Staged within the grounds of the BRDC Farm as part of the Formula 1 Rolex British Grand Prix weekend, the occasion attracts high-profile members and motorsport personalities. AC-ET has been a patron of the BRDC’s Young Driver Programme for over a decade, and supplied the lighting design for the Party ever since.
AC-ET worked closely again with the BRDC to create the lighting theme for t

Belgium - Named to celebrate the region’s rich industrial heritage, De Factorij is a bustling new cultural centre and performing arts facility in the historic district of Zaventem, near Brussels. The centre, which opened in 2017, hosts a diverse programme of performances, exhibitions and events. Its main performance space is the 680-seat Ivo Maupertuis Theatre, a shell-shaped auditorium designed as an acoustically isolated box-in-box construction.
With quality, diversity and inclusivity at the heart of the venue’s vision for the local community, the management required “fas

Europe - Italian composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi has been filling the world's biggest halls for years with his mixture of minimalist neo-classicism and pop adaptations. This spring, the musician also visited arenas throughout Germany as part of his current world tour before journeying to Asia and North America.
In order to transport Einaudi's sparkling, dynamic piano works to the furthest corners of every location in the highest degree of transparency, the German service provider satis&fy relied on an L-Acoustics configuration including K1 and K2 system along with Kara

USA - Queens of the Stone Age are on an epic international tour and FOH engineer Jay Rigby (The War on Drugs, The 1975, Cage The Elephant) has specified a Solid State Logic L500 console supplied by Eighth Day Sound.
The most recent QOTSA tour started last June with an SSL L500 console already specified. Rigby and the monitor engineer Francois Pare joined the tour in April this year, and Rigby decided to stick with the SSL console. "I haven't looked back," he says. "I absolutely love it."
Choosing to start from scratch rather than try to adapt himself t

UK - The Piccadilly Theatre in London’s West End opened in 1928 as one of the largest theatres in London. In 2017, it underwent a major refurbishment, aimed at enhancing many of its original features using modern technology, as well as meeting modern sustainability targets.
Theatre owners Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) wanted to completely replace the Piccadilly Theatre’s existing house light system with low-energy LED lighting, without detracting in any way from the theatre’s Art Deco heritage. This was to include emergency lighting throughout as well as provision for the r

USA - The stately building at 1615 Vine - one of the first legitimate Broadway-style theatres in Hollywood - was purchased in 1999 by the Ricardo Montalbán Foundation as part of its mission to promote theatre education and the work of Latino artists.
In 2005, it was renamed The Montalbán and has served as an incubator of budding theatrical talent by hosting the Chauvet Professional Student Lighting Showcase.
Now in its fifth year, the annual interactive educational event, which was sponsored by 4Wall Entertainment, provides lighting students from Los Angeles-area college t

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