Australia - Lighting designer Brenton Slattery from Scene Change Brisbane chose Astera AX1 and Titan Tube wireless battery-powered LED fixtures to create a memorable light sculpture and high-impact messaging for the 2020 Anzac Day commemorations.
The sign spelt out ‘LEST WE FORGET’ in bold, bright, positive letters and was highly visible on the waterside lawn at Howard Smith Wharfs in the Queensland state capital.
Brenton is based at the Howard Smith Wharfs multi-venue site comprising a series of regenerated – and now heritage-listed – riverfront buildings on the Brisbane River, overlooked by Story Bridge which was constructed around the same time, between 1934 and 1940.
He took up his post in February after three years of freelancing, and now he and his team coordinate technical requirements for Scene Change Brisbane’s diverse events schedule that include conferences, presentations, awards shows, weddings, and private parties.
Scene Change has an in-house inventory of sound, lighting and audio kit including the 48 x Astera AX1s which were used for this installation.
The additional seven Astera LED fixtures needed to make up the lettering were Titan Tubes supplied by Astera’s Australian distributor, the ULA Group.
Astera sales have accelerated since the ULA Group was appointed the distributor at the start of 2019, and Brenton observes that they are specified on a lot of shows, which is why Scene Change made the AX1 investment.
“I love working with Astera, the lights are super versatile and come with such a rang

Israel - A star-studded line of music stars and artists performed during a protest concert in Charles Clore Park, Tel Aviv, titled Behind The Scenes: An Assembly of Solidarity to draw attention to the plight of freelancers, backstage technicians and all the zero-hours contract workers in the Israeli event industry whose livelihoods have been decimated as the music and live event industry has been paused in the fight to control COVID-19.
This solidarity rally was initiated and produced by Tali Yaacobi Events Production and backed by Inbar and Marius Nacht – an Israeli entrepreneur, social activist, and philanthropist – who made a generous donation to all the crew working on the show.
The lighting and audio were supplied by Argaman Systems – including a large Robe moving light rig which was designed by Cochavi & Klein and operated by two of Israel’s best-known lighting professional, Eran Klein (of Cochavi & Klein) and Ronen Najar.
When Eli Cochavi (CEO of Cochavi & Klein) was asked by Tali Yacobi to join the production, he assembled the design team, with Eran Klein as head of design and Omer Israeli as lighting designer. They instantly started sparking ideas and enjoying a great synergy as if a single day had not passed since they were separated by the COVID-19 lockdown!
Stated Eran, “Our industry was the first to shut down in late February and will be the last to come back, and that includes anything related to ‘culture’. With complete silence from the government department of sport and culture, we feel strongl

USA - Roger Sharp is proud of his region’s music tradition. His upstate New York stomping grounds have nurtured a wealth of talent in virtually every genre, from Lana Del Ray, the Goo Goo Dolls, and Ani Di Franco to Moe, Rick James, Lou Gramm, 10,000 Maniacs and Chuck Mangione.
The owner of High Peaks Event Production, Sharp has always entertained the idea of putting on a summer festival honouring this local tradition, even starting a Facebook page dedicated to this mission. But keeping up with the demands of his growing business prevented him from getting around to realizing this dream. He finally found the time though after the COVID-19 lockdown put all events on hold.
With his event business halted, Sharp built a lockdown-safe recording studio and stage in his warehouse, and launched a weekly Sunday night livestream, NY Rock N Roots Festival to highlight local talent.
“Since we can no longer do mass gatherings, we’re focusing on another way of reaching people,” says Sharp. “This isn’t a money-making deal, it’s a way to keep ourselves and bands busy, while providing our community with an entertainment option, all while following strict safety standards.”
Looking to give viewers something as close as possible to an engaging festival experience, Sharp and his wife LD Christine Sharp along with their associates Bryan Madarasz and Corey Hayward decided to support each musical act with a full production light show that reflected the music. “Our goal is to create excitement around the bands without distracting from them,

USA - Stephen F. Austin State University, located on a forested campus in Nacogdoches, Texas, is home to more than more than 13,000 students enrolled in approximately 80 undergraduate majors. In total, the university offers 120 areas of study across its six academic colleges: business, education, fine arts, forestry and agriculture, sciences and mathematics, and liberal and applied arts.
Among the many points of pride within Stephen F. Austin are its music and sound recording technology programme and its school of music’s jazz bands - a pair that has found a harmonious relationship with one another thanks to a powerful Dante network.
“The sound recording programme was started in 2010 with the idea of focusing heavily on the technology that was transforming that space,” says James F. Adams, assistant professor of music and director of sound recording technology at the university. “I was recruited out of Los Angeles in 2016 with the goal of bringing that programme to greater heights. For the past four years I have been lucky to do that, and a big part of it has been thanks to Audinate’s Dante.”
Dante allows audio, control, and all other data to coexist effectively on the same network. Adams said he introduced Dante in 2018 after reconnecting with studios he knew back in Los Angeles.
“Everyone I spoke to was recommending it,” Adams continues. “And when we did the conversion, I saw why it had become a de facto technology in the studio world. I loved it immediately.”
Over the past two years, Adams has integrated Dante acr

France - Over the course of a three-year hiatus, the newly-renamed La Halle ô Grains theatre in Bayeux, Normandy, reopened to the public at the end of 2019 after a thorough redesign to address the latest expectations in terms of reception, accessibility, aesthetics, visibility, and comfort.
This update was undertaken in order to offer the best possible experience to spectators, and a more versatile technical palette for incoming artists and crews. The new hall now boasts a complete APG loudspeaker system installed by the ISA Group, an integrating partner of the APG network, enabling the theatre’s management to count on high-precision, high-quality acoustics.
“The specifications were drawn up around the programming and shows, 80% of which are theatrical,” comments Romain Motte, general manager of La Halle ô Grains for the past five years. “We were looking for precise audio quality, particularly at the high frequencies for a totally faithful reproduction of the voices. We also wanted to differentiate La Halle ô Grains from other theatres in the region and opted for a sound system that we felt was superior.”
The theatre's tender was won by the ISA Group, which was able to put forward a bid with a high-performance, technologically innovative and financially competitive sound system. The theatre was no stranger to the APG brand, thanks to local event provider Music Light, a member of the APG network of service provider partners in France and a regular user of APG for several years. Motte and the theatre's management were able to testify to t

Germany - DRIVE.IN Concerts of Monheim has come up with a solution that allows music fans of the area to attend a live concert again.
DRIVE.IN Concerts Monheim is a series of events in which the crowd park their cars in front of the stage just like at a drive-in movie. Running through June, with a variety of live acts and DJs performing, the concert series features an impressive stage set-up that relies on Elation Professional and ADJ lighting fixtures.
The series kicked off in early May with a live performance by Cologne-based rock band Kasalla as part of their Et Jitt Car-Salla tour of drive-in concerts. Since then, most weekends have seen two or three concerts taking place at the outdoor site, featuring artists such as DJ Quicksilver, Da Hool, Moguai, TOPIC and The Disco Boys. Future performers are set to include electronic acts Fiasko and YouNotUs, as well as local folk band Klüngelköpp.
The festival-style lightshow, supplied by local AV production company LaserFrame, consists of Elation fixtures, alongside others from sister-brand ADJ. The on-stage wash moving head chosen for the rig is Elation’s compact Rayzor 360Z LED beam/wash moving effect with three 60W RGBW LEDs, 8 to 77-degree zoom and continuous pan and tilt rotation.
The front of the stage is lined with a combination of Elation Chorus Line 16 motorized pixel bars and Proteus Rayzor 760 IP65-rated wash fixtures that feature Elation’s proprietary SparkLED background sparkle illumination system. Finally, blinder duties are taken care of by Elation Cuepix Blinder WW2s. <

USA - The Ahava Festival held its inaugural event at the Woldenberg Riverfront Park in New Orleans, Louisiana in early March. With no admission fee, attendees were encouraged to take in the sounds, sights, and tastes and, if possible, to donate to 110 hard-working local charities.
The weather was beautiful, and the event raised over $100,000. Danley Sound Labs supported the Ahava Festival with loudspeakers, subwoofers, and multi-channel amplifiers for all of its three stages.
“The whole concept behind the Ahava Festival is based on sharing love and giving to the people in New Orleans who are in need,” explained Matt Dupuy, Ahava Festival technical director. Dupuy is a system designer and installation technician at local AV integration firm Assurance AV Solutions of Mandeville, Louisiana, as well as the FOH engineer for New Orleans’ party band favourite, Groovy 7 (who also played the main stage at Ahava). He coordinated with all of the different production companies and suppliers, including Danley, who came together to make the Ahava Festival a success.
Dupuy continued, “As an integrator, Danley is always our first suggestion to clients whenever possible. Groovy 7’s main system is two SM80s and two TH118s. Danley has a level of clarity and a consistency in coverage that no one else can touch.”
Ivan Beaver, chief engineer at Danley Sound Labs drove down from Georgia to assist with the event and, more importantly, to chat with the many local live sound engineers who used the system. “Here’s the deal,” Beaver said. “What Danle

Spain - Occupying a downtown location just a stone’s throw from the famous Passeig de Gracia, the Khalijia Lounge & Restaurant is Barcelona’s newest nightspot with an oriental twist.
Offering everything from Lebanese and Moroccan-inspired food to exotic cocktails coupled with live music, Khalijia aims to cater for a discerning clientele that appreciates quality at every level. Barcelona-based AV systems integration specialists, Silence Electroacústica S.L., were commissioned to design and install the audio, lighting and DMX control systems throughout the new venue. Silence opted for a KV2 Audio system based on the EX Series of active loudspeakers.
From an audio perspective, the system needed to handle a wide spectrum of requirements, from extremely high quality, low level music reproduction for the lunchtime and early evening crowds going right through to high-energy live performances.
Silence’s owner and CEO, Jose Luis Rosales comments: “Our passion for quality and the extraordinary pleasure that comes from listening to KV2 Audio systems made it a very easy choice,” declares Rosales. “As a company, our watchwords are quality, durability and performance – we would never recommend any product or any brand that does not fulfil these three criteria. Fortunately, KV2 meets them all.
“We went for EX Series components firstly because of their extremely high-quality live music reproduction capacity and secondly their extraordinary sensitivity when it comes to low volume music reproduction - this is really important for creating t

USA - New York City may be over a thousand miles away, but local company, JEM Productions, created the look and feel of Manhattan jazz club at its warehouse- turned-studio in Wausau, WI, as it hosted a livestream fundraising show by the Sara Rifleman Trio.
The performance by the Wisconsin-based musicians was the latest in a series of livestreamed shows emanating from the lighting and audio company’s makeshift studio. It was the smoothest production to date, according to Joe Ellis, president of JEM Productions.
“We’ve been doing these for weeks now, ever since the Covid-19 shutdown started,” said Ellis. “I think we’re getting familiar with this process! Our lighting and production crew did a really great job creating the look of a classic New York jazz club on the set. Sometimes, the simpler the look, the harder you have to dig into the art of design. This was a great exercise for us. With jazz, the musicians really carry the dynamic and we fill a supportive role.”
Helping Ellis and his team fill that role was a collection of Chauvet Professional Rogue R2X Spot, Rogue R2 Wash, STRIKE 4 and COLORado 1 Solo fixtures. Washing the livestream set in deep purples and cool blues, which played off well against brick wall images on video panels, the JEM team created the smoky vibe of underground jazz haunt.
Shadows of the musicians and their instruments created by low angled side lighting added to the depth of the scene, while columns of warm white light from the STRIKE 4 fixtures endowed it with a sense of urban excitement. “Our goal h

USA - Chicago-based Charles Ford and his business partner Brandon Clark from Creative Live Control have developed a professional streaming production service - lighting, audio, cameras and broadcast - that meets all the social distancing requirements, can be installed and run by the two of them.
While the challenges of producing special high impact lighting for community lighting projects like Chicago Unite at Night have been stimulating and fun, Charles and Brandon also need to generate some business as all their touring work has currently been cancelled, so they hit on the idea of the professional live streaming service.
The living room of Charles’ condo has been transformed into a pop-up studio space and after a couple of test runs, there is a queue of local artists lined up to visit and use the facilities.
Brandon completed all the networking, internet and broadcast elements and lighting - using six Robe Pointe multipurpose moving lights from locally-based rental company JRLX, while Charles programmed and created visual content.
“Basically, it was as much kit as we knew we could safely run in a set up like this with limited power. Pointes offer a massive amount of options and in a small space we only use a fraction of their intensity, but their presence makes a huge difference in the quality and look of the stream.”
During the broadcasts, Brandon runs the streaming and lighting from one laptop and a grandMA2 light and Charles takes care of audio on another laptop, cutting the cameras via an M-BOX media server and a gran

USA - Bending Lite Productions’ Erik Mahowald has enjoyed a long tour of duty with American electronic musician and DJ Dillon Francis, noted for popularising the ‘Moombahton’ genre - a fusion of house music combined with reggaeton.
Last summer, Erik conceived a lighting design for Coachella 2019 based around 60 GLP JDC1 hybrid strobes, but with the intention of bringing it to major headline events following the reveal.
Working alongside creative content director and VJ, Mario Adato; production manager, Nathan Rebolledo and tour manager, Mike Finn, Mahowald programmed the lighting to animate a set that combined complementary surround elements with creating big moments of drama to produce a high-octane party vibe for audiences to become immersed in.
In the centre of this was Dillon Francis himself, performing from an elevated booth, housing his CDJ setup. The production team also implemented several other automated performing platforms for his trademark piñata to rise from behind him during his song Candy.
Using heavy back lighting to create powerful looks Erik Mahowald projected a combination of low light and full blast looks depending on genre. “Dillon plays a large library of genres in 90 minutes and it is important that we take each one of those and curate a mood for each,” he says. “We break this up into around 15-minute sections, and within each we come up with a world for the content to live in.
“The lighting is important because it brings a huge amount of visual energy to the room. We used the JDC1 in abundance sole

Albania - Headquartered in Tirana, ASLV (Albanian Sound, Lighting and Video) has operated nationwide since 2013 and, with its team provides sound, lighting, video, staging and structures, as well as creative technical solutions for concerts, festivals, theatre and opera productions, key corporate events, expos and more throughout the country. Specialist services also include consultation and design.
Recently appointed as exclusive Outline distributor for Albania, following its corporate policy of ensuring its clients equipment that is technically the best for perfectly meeting their requirements, ASLV has also taken delivery of an Outline Superfly Silver audio package, one of the three turnkey set-ups conceived in recent months by the Italian audio manufacturer.
Superfly loudspeaker systems have a true three-way (HF-MF-LF) design, but the dual high-efficiency 10” transducers in the LF section are powered individually, significantly enhancing low-frequency performance. The midrange and HF components (dual 8” drivers and a single 3” compression driver) are the same as Outline’s GTO series.
Outline’s product manager and business developer Fernando Rey Méndez explains, “The three configurations ensure the best ratio between loudspeaker and amplifier quantity, thus becoming excellent investments with a fast economic return. They also guarantee an optimal combination between different kits of other Outline product families, such as GTO kits and Mantas 28 kits.”
ASLV’s Superfly Silver configuration is suitable for sound reinforcement

UK - Seventy-five years after the end of the Second World War in Europe, London’s Royal Albert Hall (RAH) hosted We’ll Meet Again for VE Day 75 with Katherine Jenkins to honour those who gave their lives so that subsequent generations could come to know peace and freedom. Event production supplier, SFL provided the audio and video production for the live performance. The event was organised by TBI Media and Snappin’ Turtle Productions, both long-standing clients of SFL.
With the world overcast by the threat of the Covid-19 pandemic, the SSAFA armed forces charity and The Mayor of London joined together with the noted London venue, brought the nation together by offering an authentic musical experience.
For the first time since The Blitz, the RAH stood empty for an event, but its true life force - the audience - were able to enjoy the performance of Welsh mezzo soprano artist Katherine Jenkins and other musicians in the comfort of their own homes. Another ‘first’ was the way the stage was presented, with the empty auditorium as its backdrop.
“Showing the completely empty auditorium, void of its 5,000-plus audience, sent a really powerful and emotive message to the online audience,” says Craig Lawrence, video & projects director at SFL. “Safety and social distancing were our utmost priority in the planning process.”
SFL deployed a complete video and audio solution, which included a full camera solution for a superb six-camera shoot, using a camera jib and multiple Osprey peds to capture smooth, constant movement. One

UK - GoboPlus.com continues to operate in these difficult times with reduced staff numbers, but remains determined to support to its customers with a continued service of both custom and stock gobos. In recent weeks the company has seen a huge increase in gobos celebrating the NHS. Goboplus.com responded by designing a range of NHS gobos for its website and has seen this move mushroom into an online campaign which is steadily growing week by week.
“We have received orders from across the UK from many customers who have been expressing their support on Thursday nights as they #clapforcarers in celebration of the commitment and strength being made by all front-line staff,” says GoboPlus.com’s Paul de Ville. “We have been sharing these pictures on social media in the hope that the message will spread far and wide to show how proud we are of all the hard-work going on across the UK, and the incredible risk that all front-line staff are taking at these times. We are overwhelmed by the number of photos and comments we have received and would like to thank all our customers for sharing these images with us, and for their ongoing support in these hard times.”
The NHS gobos have been spotted in a wide variety of locations across the country from churches and leisure centres to hotels and private houses. PA Entertainments lit up no less than five football clubs in South Yorkshire, including that of premiere league Sheffield United, while Maestra Group illuminated The Dorchester hotel in London where they also congratulated Captain Tom on his 10

USA - Just as it does at outdoor festivals, nature can work with or against the LD who lights a drive-in concert. Matt Collier got a taste of both on Saturday, 23 May when he lit a two-hour show by jam band Spafford at the Digital Drive-In outside Phoenix.
The brilliant orange sunset that filtered through the feathered clouds at the start of the show served up one of those breath-taking spectacles that happen on special evenings this time of year in the dessert. Along with this gentle touch, however, nature also showed its harsher side with some strong southwest winds.
Drawing on his extensive experience touring the festival circuit with Spafford and other bands, Collier adroitly handled whatever Mother Nature dished out, incorporating the colourful sky into his design for the drive-in show, while also coming up with a substitute for the fog he planned to use before the wind rendered that impossible.
Helping him accomplish this feat was a collection of Chauvet Professional Maverick MK2 Spot and Rogue R2 Wash fixtures supplied by Hardwired Productions. “Just doing a show outside in Arizona in the early summer is a beautiful experience,” says Collier. “The sunset was stunning that night, so I tried to integrate some more unique colours to match the vibe of the natural setting with some cool tones from the MK2s and R2 Washes.”
As for not being able to use the fog as planned, Collier relied on the performance features of the Maverick fixtures to texturize the 40’ by 10’ stage. “Unexpected things always pop up outdoors,” he said.

USA - XR Studios leveraged the latest technology from disguise to bring the future of broadcast to primetime American television when Katy Perry performed her new single Daisies on the season finale of American Idol. The project relied on the collaboration between the creative and technical teams led by XR Studios, with content by Silent Partners Studio using Notch VFX, direction by Silent House Productions and PRG North America as the production vendor.
“Started on the #AmericalIdol stage, ended up in a whole new world,” as Katy Perry wrote on her Instagram, the performance has since been watched by over 9m viewers around the globe with over 2m Youtube hits on top of the 7.3m strong viewers on the night.
“Having disguise for delivery of this content was crucial. There's simply no other solution out there that I would trust with this,” says JT Rooney of Silent Partner Studios, who was the screens producer and led all the creative content creation.
“At disguise, we are building the technology platform to enable creative and technical professionals to tell stories in new and innovative ways for the world’s leading brands and artists. This show was just the beginning of disguise and xR - we can’t wait to show you what’s next.” says Ed Plowman, chief technology officer at disguise.
Beginning in an American Idol-branded studio, the physical walls around Katy Perry suddenly dissolve away, bringing viewers with the Daisies singer into a fantastical world where she interacts with virtual elements such as

USA - The 62nd Grammy Awards became the first major broadcast event to utilise a large complement of Claypaky Xtylos fixtures when lighting designers Bob Dickinson and Noah Mitz of Full Flood Inc. deployed 60 Xtylos for Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani’s duet, Nobody But You.
In addition, 118 Claypaky Mythos 2 fixtures were part of the main set rig and the dish stage at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. PRG was the lighting vendor.
The show’s creative producer Raj Kapoor asked the lighting designers for a lighting installation that would separate Shelton and Stefani from the band and enfold them as they performed the romantic ballad.
“Raj was looking for lighting as architecture to surround the duo,” says Mitz. “We first thought of Mythos 2, but when we realised Xtylos would be available we made the switch.”
He notes that Xtylos had been on the LDs’ radar since last summer. “We were impressed by their colour rendering, colour intensity and the tightness of the beams. We were looking for an opportunity to use them.”
Lighting director Madigan Stehly designed a series of custom carts for the Xtylos, the first moving head light with a laser light source. The Xtylos formed a pencil-beam cage of architectural positions between the duet’s verse and choruses starting with a lacy lattice look and transitioning to a straight aligned grid.
“The carts aligned the fixtures in a perfect grid, covered the joins and made everything accurate and repeatable. Xtylos was a perfect match for that performance; they delivered

USA - The new Cross Church DFW satellite campus that sits on 27 acres on the busy Blue Mound Road is reflective of the dramatic expansion that has taken place in North Fort Worth recently. Parent church, North Richland Hills Baptist, opened the spacious satellite in September 2019, after two years of planning, to reach the increasing number of worshippers settling in the area.
Reflecting the forward-looking orientation of the new campus is an AVL system designed and installed by Paragon 360. Outfitted with the latest audio and video equipment, the new system is used to broadcast services and events to lobbies and classrooms throughout the expansive Cross Church facility, as well as to the North Richland Hills Baptist home base, strengthening the connection between the two campuses.
Helping to ensure the quality of those videos is a stage lighting rig that features Chauvet Professional Ovation and COLORdash fixtures.
Paragon 360 installed 19 Ovation E-910FC RGBA-Lime colour mixing ellipsoidals, all with 36ﹾ lenses, in front of the stage, relying on their flat, even field of light and 2800 to 6500 K color temperature to provide supportive lighting for broadcasts as well as for worshippers who experience services live at Cross Church.
“Ovation ellipsoidal have been our go to fixture for front light for several years now,” said Matt Dean, lighting lead at Paragon 360. “We use them on almost all of our installs, whether there is going to be video or not.”
The Paragon 360 team positioned the Ovation E-910FC units 40ft from the stage

South Africa - On the evening of 19 May, Mark Gaylard of technical production company MGG and his crew of 20 replicated a version of the South African flag using 214 lighting fixtures, predominantly Robe, at the company’s premises in Johannesburg.
During the Covid-19 lockdown, MGG has thought on its feet and adapted to the new environment, becoming an ‘essential service’ provider by offering a virtual studio for broadcasting and streaming. Other activities have included assembling information noticeboards, developing a hands-free door opener, and producing essential PPE kit like masks.
“I wanted to shine our lights in solidarity for South Africa, and I wanted to reach out to Robe and the other various #TogetherWeAreStronger and #LightTheSky projects,” Mark explained. “Also, I wanted to highlight the plight of the thousands of freelancers in our industry, many of whom are reliant on food vouchers provided by the #FeedOurCrew initiative.”
Kevin Rieck, head of drafting at MGG was asked to draw the South African flag which would be outlined in the extensive car park area. “We had previously split our staff into teams to minimise risk and properly social distance, and so had to rely on all departments this time to do the setup.”
General manager Denzil Smith and operations manager Rianda Van Burick measured out the flag shape using tape, and the lighting fixtures were then deployed within the design.
The Robe elements included 24 x LEDWash 1200s, 32 x LEDWash 600s, 16 x Spiiders, 22 x Tetra2s, 14 x BMFL Blades, 10 x Pointes

Belgium - The 150-year-old Koningklijke Stadschouwburg (Royal City Theatre) is the largest and most prestigious of five venues managed by Cultuur Centrum Brugge (CC Brugge) in the historic Belgian city.
In late 2019 the organisation invested heavily in new Yamaha digital mixing systems for all venues, with eight CL and QL series digital mixing consoles, associated I/O racks and Ethernet switches installed on new Dante networks.
Opened in 1869, the 700-seat Koninklijke Stadschouwburg was originally designed as an elite temple of culture. Nowadays, together with the Magdalenazaal, De Biekorf, Daverlo and De Dijk theatres, it welcomes a diverse audience to a variety of modern theatre, live music, dance, seminars, movies, presentations and much more.
Philip Van Loo of PVL Sound & Light BV is a long-time supplier, consultant and project manager for CC Brugge. He introduced the organisation to Yamaha digital mixers many years ago with two 01V96i consoles. They was so successful that CC Brugge later invested in three Yamaha M7CL-48 digital mixers, which used the existing analogue infrastructure already installed in the venues.
All five of the Yamaha consoles have proved reliable but, after extensive use for many years, CC Brugge wanted to modernise the audio systems and make the venues future-proof.
Philip Van Loo was again asked to advise on the project, recommending the installation of a Dante audio inftrastructure in each venue because it was reliable, easy to install / manage and flexible. An important factor was the amount of equipment

USA - Funk/rock fusion quartet Katastro played to a near-empty LIT Lighting warehouse, as part of the COVID-19 driven LIT Live livestream shows. Much of lead singer Andy Chaves’ on-stage fluency is due to his natural talent and experience, but some of the credit must also go to the warm, welcoming vibe that Chris Broadman and his team have created at their warehouse turned livestreaming studio in Tempe, AZ.
This is the second incarnation of LIT Live for Brodman, Cody Lisle (also of LIT), and Rodger Pugh of Devus Designs. They began collaborating on the livestreaming programme early in the pandemic, but closed up shop after the governor of Arizona declared a general lockdown.
In May, with the crisis easing and restrictions lifted, they restarted LIT Live – and as they’ve moved forward, they’ve picked up new bits of knowledge with every step along the way.
“We are viewing this as a learning experience,” said Brodman. “We are developing new skills regarding livestreaming. We did this the first time around, as well as during the time we were locked down - and we’re doing it today. All of us are learning to think outside the box and communicate with each other on a more human, empathetic level. I feel like LIT and our partners in the community have strengthened immensely -- and that makes us happy!”
Playing a role in creating the inviting looks of the LIT Live shows, which generally run between 60 and 90 minutes, are Chauvet Professional STRIKE fixtures, which, like the rig’s collection of Maverick and Rogue units, were drawn fr

Sweden - Since 1959, the Swedish Eurovision entry each year has been chosen via an annual televised talent competition, known since 1967 as the Melodifestivalen, organised by public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR).
In 2002, the Melodifestivalen upped the ante further in terms of a selection event and started touring to six key cities around Sweden with a final in Stockholm, this year at the 65,000-capacity Friends Arena. The finale broadcast is among the most popular programmes on Swedish television.
Top Swedish LD Fredrik Jonsson of Eyebrow Designs has lit Melodifestivalen since 2002, capturing all the glamour, glitz and drama.
This year, he enlisted the help of 168 x Robe moving lights (upped to over 300 for the final show) including MegaPointes, Spiiders, LEDBeam 150s and six BMFL WashBeam follow spots running on four RoboSpot remote BaseStations.
Each year he imagines a new and original lighting design. Keeping the show looking fresh and relevant is one of the main challenges and a task he enjoys.
This year, the producers wanted a large open stage look to set the scene, so they could use more and bigger props for the songs to give each an individual look.
Set designer Viktor Brattström opted for a huge projection surface as the backdrop, which was divided into three sections – in a geometric horseshoe shape, with content fed by eight laser projectors.
So, the first starting point for lighting was to take this into consideration as the main visual element onstage in ad

UK - Thousands of people in Chorley and Bolton witnessed Rivington Pike turn blue last on Thursday 21 May in tribute to the NHS and other key workers.
The Pike Tower, one the area’s most prominent landmarks, was bathed in a brilliant blue glow from a number of LEDJ Spectra Par 15Q8 Exterior Fixtures as part of the weekly ‘clap for carers’ initiative.
The event was the brainchild of Chris Beesley and his company CDS Events UK with support from another local firm Paul K Sound, as well as United Utilities, Rivington Heritage Trust and Chorley Council, which owns the Pike structure itself.
CDS’ Chris Beesley said, with so many public events cancelled because of lockdown, the firm’s traditional workload had tumbled so they had hit on the idea of lighting up buildings for free to raise a smile. One recent cancelled event was the Rivington Terraced Gardens’ Festival of Light, which couldn’t take place because of social distancing restrictions.
“That’s where I got the idea. I love the terraced gardens. I grew up playing there as a kid. We’ve lit up quite a few buildings in blue across Chorley during the lockdown. It’s all for free. I just like to see people’s reactions. There’s not much good news at the moment so if we can make people smile, that’s it, job done as far as I am concerned.”
The two-hour light show saw all four sides of the Grade II listed structure adorned with messages of support for carers from the people of Chorley, United Utilities, Rivington Terraced Gardens and Chorley Council.
At almost 1,

Ghana - Accra recently staged its own ‘behind closed doors’ Ghana Covid-19 Heroes Concert in order to raise funds for both UNHCR, to help protect refugees from the pandemic, and the National COVID-19 Trust Fund. It was also a way to thank all frontline workers who have risked their lives in saving others.
Charterhouse Ghana, a one-stop production house, staged the event, in partnership with Ghana Music Awards Foundation, at The Grand Arena, located on the premises of the Accra International Conference Centre. It was transmitted to audiences through television (TV3) and through social media streaming.
WABlighting, run by Ernest Awuah, was brought in to handle the production design and drew heavily on fixtures from PR Lighting. “PR is rated number one brand in Ghana over all others due to its explicit features,” he explains. Both Wablighting and Charterhouse Ghana hold inventory, giving the possibility of a considerable resource of moving lights from the Chinese company.
For this production, the XR 350 BWS (combining Beam, Wash, Spot in a single unit), XR 330 Beam, equipped with a Sirius HRI 330W lamp and three prisms, and XLED 1037 (containing 37 x 4-in-1 10W RGBW LEDs) were used in the production. These were suspended on a single goal post truss, placed both on overhead and upstage.
The challenge facing Awuah was lighting an empty auditorium but capturing the same dynamic as if the arena were filled with people. “The most paramount requirement was to obtain excellent visibility,” he said. “This meant working with design ideas thr