Pharos - Leaderboard - May 2024

Projects

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USA - Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, is a theme park success story for several reasons. Besides having one of country music’s leading personalities as co-owner, the park is a mix of traditional thrill rides spiced with crafts and culture, a successful recipe of entertainment that attracts nearly 3m guests a year.
Each fall, Dollywood holds a popular Harvest Festival and this year sought a family friendly, fall-centric addition to the autumn event. Park leadership decided on a pumpkin-themed evening concept to support the park’s Year of the Family theme. The new experience, Great Pumpkin LumiNights, is an outdoor installation of thousands of illuminated jack-o-lanterns, artistic sculptures, playful scenes, pumpkin-themed food and entertainment.
Since lighting would play a vital role in the evening event, Elation Professional dealer Stud

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South Africa - Lighting designer Joshua Cutts and the SOS Charity Fund raised money to help a student from the Tshwane University of Technology to complete his tuition.
“Daniel Meledimo, a young gentleman from TUT, arrived on our first day of Idols South Africa set-up and to see if he could assist and gain valuable knowledge,” says Joshua, who has worked on Idols for the past eight years. “Daniel remained with us for the full duration; every day we were there he was there. He never asked for any payment. He was very grateful for the knowledge and experience.”
It was evident that he was an extremely hardworking and dedicated student with the right temperate and someone who would clearly do well in the industry.
“After chatting to Daniel I realised that he may have to drop out university as he could not afford to pay his outstanding account

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South Africa - Production company Rapid Blue produced the eighth season of SA’s Got Talent, with event technical specialists Blond Productions teaming up with production design company Visual Frontier for the first time.
“We decided to join together to do this, using the strength of Blond Productions’ technical delivery and the strength of my design capability for television,” explained Joshua Cutts, lighting designer from Visual Frontier. “We thought if we joined forces it would be a good exercise and in the end, it turned out to be very successful.”
There were two portions to SA’s Got Talent namely the auditions hosted at the UJ Theatre in Johannesburg and at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town, and then the main televised competition held at The Soweto Theatre in Johannesburg.
Mauritz Neethling, general manager from Blond Productions,

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UK - Northampton-based full-service production company Stage Right Productions has recently extended their already considerable dBTechnologies inventory with the addition of the VIO 2-way line array system from dBTech’s UK distributor CUK Audio.
Part of the system is already deployed in the Deco theatre in Northampton for the annual star-studded pantomime. This year’s production of Peter Pan features Coronation Street’s Nick Cochrane as Smee, The Voice finalist Lydia Lucy as Wendy, Grange Hill’s Colin Ridgewell as Captain Hook, West End actor Chris Wills as Peter Pan, and Northampton’s own Naomi Wilkins as Tiger Lily.
Stage Right operates in a wide range of sectors in the event industry, from outdoor concerts, to corporate events to theatre shows. The company has been investing in dBTechnologies products for over 10 years and held

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New Zealand - Lighting rental company Oceania invested in 24 x X4 L LED heads from GLP that were used to support the British & Irish Lions’ rugby tour. Over six weeks the fixtures were ever present on all regional games and the three All Blacks tests.
At Auckland’s Eden Park, the company supplied all technical rigging, lighting, vision and sound equipment, technical management and crew, both in the venue spaces and the large fine dining 1,200 and 2,000-capacity party marquees on the practice ground, measured a colossal 400 sq.m. and 350 sq.m. respectively, requiring a lot of truss and expertise.
“The GLP X4 L and X4 Bars really impressed us both,” confirmed Oceania general manager, Simon Garrett. “The X4 L offers both workhorse and bling modes. A fast, very compact wash light with a source range from low to very high 10,000K colour temperature, giving so

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South Africa - Audio engineer Emily Adams, was working on Pieter Toerien’s previous production, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, when asked to do Evita, the original West End and Broadway production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical which premiered at Montecasino Teatro in Johannesburg and recently moved to the Cape Town’s Artscape Theatre. It is to be followed by an Asia tour in 2018. Emily is operating the show on a DiGiCo SD7T.
It has been an considerable experience for Emily. “It’s my first production as head of department on a show of this scale. I started as a RF technician and I have done many shows at the Teatro Theatre, but I’ve always been the deputy head of sound and only mixed the occasional show, not actually running the show. This has been really challenging and I’ve loved every second of it so far.”

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Thailand - Fuzion Far East (FFE) has installed Nexo’s new Geo M10 mid-size line array at the Brighton College Bangkok.

A subsidiary of Brighton College UK, the newly-opened Bangkok college is the result of a collaborative partnership with the Ocean Group, a Thai company, led by the Assakul family. The school is housed on a 20-acre campus, and includes a purpose-built auditorium with facilities for music, art, dance and drama.

High ceilings and glass walkways characterise the Performance Arts Centre, a key part of the campus which houses a 620-seat theatre, dance studios, rooms for musical instruction and practice, art and design rooms, Mac suites and a traditional photography darkroom.

FFE recommended the newly-released Geo M10 line array for the PAC auditorium, designing a low-profile flown system which uses L/R arrays each with three Geo

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China - Taiwanese artist Huang Guolun recently brought his No Impossible show to China’s Beijing National Stadium.
Also known as the Bird’s Nest, it was fitted with an expansive system comprised of Adamson’s E-Series and S-Series loudspeakers that ensured sound coverage for every seat.
Yongjun ‘Park’ Li of Le’er Culture & Art Studio was the system designer and FOH engineer for the performance and explains that his choice to deploy Adamson for both the main house system and the delays covering the upper bowl was based on a few key factors.
“Adamson’s E-Series is very widely applicable, from studios and theatres to major indoor and outdoor stadiums, and I’ve found it excels in any application,” shares Li. “The E-Series has an incredible throw, with smooth highs, powerful mids, and low end that seemingly has infinite power. The syst

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UAE - Event technical production specialist Maestra’s UEA based operation, delivered rigging, staging, sound, lighting and video / AV for Blend Abu Dhabi, a special event to relaunch the YAS Marina Formula One circuit meeting space.
Attended by event organisers, production companies, suppliers, social influencers, media and other organizations and individuals from across the event spectrum, all with different interests in the world of live events, the pressure was on for Maestra’s team on site, led by project manager Aaron Merchant, to deliver something unique.
They co-ordinated technical production for four different areas, the main conference space, the pit garages, the reception area and entrance and the afterparty staged in the chic, rooftop Luna Lounge.
A stunning sculptural set design for the conference session’s stage was conceived by the YAS

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USA - On 4 April, 1966 a local bluegrass band stepped up to the makeshift stage at a small suburban Washington DC restaurant/bar called The Birchmere. Few took notice of it at the time, but their performance on that cold April evening marked the start of an American music hall legend, giving rise to a venue that would count Bob Dylan and Bill Clinton as audience members and play a pivotal role in the careers of stars like The Indigo Girls, Alison Krauss, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Lyle Lovett, Jerry Jeff Walker, Dave Matthews, Vince Gill, and k.d. lang.
Gary Oelze, the Kentucky native who booked the original bluegrass band because he wanted to boost traffic at his restaurant, still owns The Birchmere. He still comes to work every night too – and he’s still open to new ideas for enhancing his business. This openness was very evident recently when he okayed a lighting system

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Germany - German rock/indie band Kraftklub recently undertook their third major tour with Martin Audio’s flagship MLA PA, provided by Complete Audio.
The five-piece outfit is a long-term client of the Berlin-based service provider, having embarked on their first tour of duty with MLA back in 2012.
This time around, the band played mostly arena-sized venues ranging between 8,000-14,000 capacity, with a few club gigs (through house systems) thrown in “for fun”.
The standard PA set-up comprised 13 MLA and a single MLD Downfill per side, with either three and four MLX subs flown next to the main hang to add further sub bass to the bleachers and to support the flown out-hangs comprising 12 MLA Compact. A further 12 MLX along the stage apron, stacked in pairs, were designed as a broadside array.
Joint system techs were Benny Franke and Thomas Birnbaum. And

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USA - With perseverance, a vision and a good message, a congregation can grow beyond expectation. Such is the case with Life Centre Ministries in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a church that has continued to expand since its formation in 1978 as Word Fellowship. In 1994, it adopted the name Life Centre, attracting exponentially more attendees that, in turn, required a larger location. So, in 1999, the congregation moved into a spacious industrial building, a former AMP Corporation showroom.
Enter Clair Brothers in 2015, whose role in helping to fullfil the Life Centre ‘AMPlification’ can’t be overlooked. At first performing minor upgrades to amplifiers and mixing consoles, Clair Brothers has witnessed the church’s continuous growth and has been there every step of the way, right up to today, where we find Life Centre constructing a new balcony within its AMP space to acc

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South Africa - A grandMA2 full size, operated by Glenn Duncan, runs the musical Evita which kicked off at Johannesburg’s Montecasino Teatro, moved to Cape Town’s Artscape Theatre and will complete an Asian tour by mid-2018.
“This production of Evita has been publicised as the original production,” said Glenn. “We had a few of the original creatives out for the set-up, some wonderful people. It was interesting to see them interact with each other, people who have known each other for over 20 years and who are not scared of speaking their minds.” These included lighting designer Richard Winkler from New York, along with his associate Gary Echelmeyer and programmer Joe Allegro.
The current lighting show was originally built on MA in a visualisation studio and arrived in Johannesburg complete, based on the 1998 production. While untested on a full

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India - Initiated in 2014 by Yamaha Music India, Teens Rock: The Battle of the Bands is a bold initiative for promoting music playing and performance amongst teenagers. The idea is to provide a platform to teenagers to showcase their talent and interest in music which often goes unnoticed. The fourth edition saw the participation of schools from Delhi, Gurugram, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Indore, Kochi, Bengaluru and Kolkata.
The Grand Finale of the 2017 event took place at DLF Place Saket in New Delhi, with 11 school bands. In front of an audience of 2000+, the MD of Yamaha Music India Hitoshi Mochizuki hosted some accomplished professional musicians as judges – well-known drummer Gino Banks, Subir Malik from Parikarma, and Rahul Ram from Indian Ocean.
Sound systems for the event were provided by Yamaha Music India, with support from the Daedal Prodigy rent

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UK - Capital Sound recently extended its digital audio offering for Emeli Sandé’s Long Live The Angels UK arena tour, deploying Sennheiser’s new Digital 6000 Series microphones, along with a DiGiCo SD5 digital mixing console at the monitor position.
Having made the investment in the latest Sennheiser Digital 6000 series, Capital Sound supplied an eight-channel package for Emeli’s vocal microphones on the main and B stage, plus her three backing vocalists.
“The vocal clarity and range throughout the spectrum was incredible,” says Paul Timmins, Capital’s operations and development director. “The vocal was pure and natural, contributing to the overall high-quality audio experience, which was enhanced for her monitor mix by using the SD5.”
Capital chose the DiGiCo SD5 because of its high I/O and buss count, with Emeli’s setup including aroun

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The Netherlands - drs. Down! is part musical, part drama, part medical case study and the brainchild of Dutch TV presenter and chat show host Ivo Niehe, making his debut as a playwright.
He boldly tackles some of the delicate issues associated with Downs Syndrome: judgements, prejudices and how it can shape and define lives, told through the true story of Pablo Pineda-Ferrer, who overcame the odds to gain a university degree in psychology.
Luc Peumans of visual design practice Painting with Light was asked to join the creative team and produce scenography plus lighting and video designs that captured the spirit of the performance and were also practical and tourable for the production, which launched at the DeLaMar Theatre in Amsterdam and is now touring through the Netherlands until January 2018.
A minimalist set was proposed, as key chunks of the narrati

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UK - On 24 November club and house music brand Miss Moneypenny’s, finally got their Night at the Proms with a celebration marking 25 years since the internationally recognized club brand began in Birmingham.
Held at Symphony Hall in Birmingham, full service production company Stage Production produced all the technical elements of the show and used an Elation Professional lighting system as an important element of the lavish visuals. Known for its flamboyance and glamour, Miss Moneypenny’s Night at the Proms was no different than a night at the historic club as house and dance classics were fused with music by the Birmingham Gay Symphony Orchestra in a sensational show.
“We needed to create a combination of big stage looks, nightclub vibes and a festival feeling and once again Elation were our go-to products for the show,” said Stage Production

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Australia - Mojo Barriers Australia recently undertook one of Australia’s largest stadium field cover installations, with over 15,000 sq.m. being installed for Sensation at Spotless Stadium, Sydney Showground, in November.
Sensation, the biggest open-air festival in Australia this year, was a great success, and protecting the valuable sports surface was of critical importance as Spotless Stadium is the home of Sydney’s professional cricket team Sydney Thunder and the Greater Western Sydney (GWS) Giants, part of the Australian Football League.
Mojo installed a complete Supatrac system to ensure the best possible pitch protection. It took 34 truck movements to freight the equipment in and out of the stadium and over 850 man-hours to install and remove.
The Mojo team installed over 15,000 sq.m. of 100% white Supatrac, along with over 500m of alum

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Europe - Status Quo have hit the road for their latest tour Plugged In - Live and Rockin’, with full technical service provider Hawthorn supplying the lighting equipment for the performances.
Following the death of Rick Parfitt in December last year, the band kicked off this year’s tour with Aquostic performances in Europe before returning to the UK for the electric shows.
Now the band have headed back overseas for the next leg of the tour. Having never taken the Aquostic show to Europe, the decision was made to keep these performances in the original format. The tour will close in Nürnberg, Germany on 21 December 2017.
Working closely with Ewan Cameron, Status Quo’s long-standing lighting designer, the Concert Touring division at Hawthorn drew upon its vast range of hire stock to supply lighting to specification. This includes Martin

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USA - The charity tour of Texas country singer-songwriter Cody Johnson in aid of those affected by Hurricane Harvey is utilising a number of Chauvet Professional fixtures.
On 17 November, the tour rolled into Beaumont featuring music by Johnson and multi-platinum artist Mark Chestnut as well as rising stars like Parker McCollum. Providing powerful visuals for the evening was a colourful lightshow anchored by Chauvet Professional Rogue, STRIKE and COLORdash fixtures supplied by Texas Stage.
“We wanted a look that was big, bold and colourful to reflect the spirit of the people of this area,” said Jimmy Davidson, Johnson’s regular lighting designer, who created the lightshow. “The Rogues helped us do this with their vivid colours and fast pan and tilt movements, while the STRIKE fixtures added a lot of punch. The lights fed off the music to create an uplifting at

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USA - Two-time Grammy Award-winning singer LeAnn Rimes is taking her Today is Christmas tour across the United States, with Bandit Lites lighting the acclaimed vocalist.
Lighting designer and LD Steve Hoover utilises Bandit Lites supplied Chauvet Freedom Pars in addition to the house systems, building each production to showcase and up light the stunning birch tree backdrop he’s accented with actual fresh cut birch tree branches, giving the stage a familiar but unique setting that evokes the holidays beyond just red and green.
“It’s kind of Christmassy- but more of a wintery scene, than strictly Christmas,” noted Hoover, “And then we do use red and green- yes.” And while touring means trekking the country and being away from home, Hoover says that being a part of such a creative production and surrounded by the industry’s best, including tour manag

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Germany - Digital Projection recently wowed stakeholders and audiences alike at the 13th edition of the Berlin Festival of Lights, where a number of its laser projectors were installed to enable video-mapping displays at key sites in the city.
With a renewed focus on digital at this year’s event, it was the biggest and most successful edition to date with in excess of two million visitors. Spread throughout one of Europe’s most popular cities bringing its sites of major interest to life in spectacular style, the festival is a leading light in the video-mapping world, raising the bar with its impressive showcase.
Every October, the festival transforms Berlin into a city full of light art with displays by national and international artists turning famous landmarks, monuments, buildings and places into a huge stage.
Working alongside Dutch integrator Pron

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UK - VER joined Steps, treading the boards at venues throughout the UK, mixing tracks from recent album Tears on the Dancefloor with their string of crowd pleasing chart-conquering hits.
Working closely with production manager, Steve Reeve and Pull the Pin Out Productions, VER London provided the multi-layered, custom-built LED video walls used to deliver the show’s suitably vibrant backdrop.
Featuring stunning content by Jack Jones and Nic Drew at Really Creative Media, the video imagery was splashed across the layered screen installation, which has been designed to incorporate a 18m x 10m upstage back wall built behind a three tier, on-stage riser, complete with bespoke sliding doors on two levels to allow the performers direct access to and from the stage area.
To help heighten the audience experience, VER also provided video director Phil Jennings wi

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USA/Europe - Korn lighting designer Thomas ‘Church’ Christmann is no stranger to the world of Ayrton. “On my first outing with Ayrton fixtures I was really impressed with the style, the output, the versatility and the beam options they offered me. I was very happy with what I could achieve with my last design so when the next generation of Ayrton fixtures were launched I jumped at the chance to make my new tour design even bigger, even more flexible and even more exciting.”
Two-time Grammy award-winning alt-metal band Korn was busy crossing and re-crossing the Atlantic this summer, firstly headlining the 17-date Serenity of Summer tour in North America, before crossing over to Europe for a festival run and then back to the US for further leg on home territory.
Church elaborates on the details: “There were a huge number of Ayrton DreamPanel-Twin fixture
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