Portugal - Europalco, one of the largest providers of solutions for events and shows in Southern Europe, was the global provider of the United Nations World Ocean Conference held at the emblematic Altice Arena stadium in Lisbon.
The five-day event, organised by the governments of Kenya and Portugal, was attended by more than 7,000 participants and brought together 25 heads of state and government and a hundred ministers.
Europalco dedicated a team of 141 people (120 technicians, five project managers, eight purchasing managers, and eight logistics operators) to the event, providing a comprehensive solution. The Portuguese company was in charge of setting up the stages, providing all the furniture and all the technology necessary for the event. It also oversaw sound and lighting, screens, video, and live transmissions, as well as teleprompter tools, simultaneous translation, and real-time subtitling.
In addition, it assembled the truss structures, provided the motors, and created quiet rooms with soundproof curtains.
Europalco used technological solutions from Ross Video, such as Ultrix FR5 routing and signal processing platform; Ultrix Carbonite production platform; and Carbonite Ultra production switcher. Also, Ross Robotics Furio Heads cameras captured the event, delivering super dynamic moving shots.
The challenge Europalco faced was to ensure that microphones, simultaneous translation receivers, and all connections worked perfectly in the 198 delegations located in three different rooms, considering the high movement of people within

Thailand - Powersoft’s crossover X Series amplifier platform is powering a 40-box speaker system providing sound at the newly refurbished Chonburi Stadium in eastern Thailand.
Chonburi Stadium was built in 2009 to host the 39th Thailand National Games, held in Chonburi in December 2010. The stadium is now home to Thai League 1 football team Chonburi FC, nicknamed the Sharks, who play both domestic and international home fixtures in the ground, located around 50 miles east of Thai capital Bangkok.
The replacement of the original audio system (the choice of equipment having been driven by budget considerations) was part of an ongoing upgrade of the 13-year-old stadium’s facilities that also included improved lighting, new seats and a re-turfed grass pitch.
Tasked with improving intelligibility for both speech and music, system integrator Asavasopon used Modeler and Auditioner software by Bose Professional (of which Asavasopon is the Thai distributor) to design a new sound system that would deliver clarity and volume across all Chonburi Stadium’s 8,600 seats.
“To the stadium owners, the sound quality in the stadium is crucial, both in terms of loudness and clarity,” says Phaisal Asavasopon, president of the Asavasopon Co, explaining the brief given to the SI. “The quality of the communications providing information to spectators was considered particularly important.”
The chosen set-up pairs 40 units of Bose’s ArenaMatch loudspeakers with six high-performance Powersoft X4 DSP + Dante amplifiers. The SI also made use of Power

USA - Austrian Audio mics were on tour with another major act earlier this year when Jon Bon Jovi kicked off their 2022 spring North American tour in Omaha, Nebraska.
Travelling throughout the Midwest and South, stopping in 15 cities along the way, the New Jersey rockers performed music off their latest album, Bon Jovi 2020. The playlist included classic hits like You Give Love a Bad Name and Wanted Dead or Alive plus one ot two surprise tracks.
FOH engineer Bill Sheppell and Bon Jovi’s longtime friend and recording engineer Obie O'Brien were responsible for the tour's sound and recording. The pair made extensive use of Austrian Audio microphones with OD505 active dynamic vocal mics. Austrian Audio OC18 condenser microphones were used on the drums while a CC8 small-diaphragm condenser was used on the hi-hat and percussion.
O’Brien and Sheppell agreed on the performance of the made-in-Austria mics: “We got impressive results with the spill over rejection of the 505 vocal mics. Even when they cover the mic with both hands, the sound remains unchanged, and feedback rejection is still great. Fantastic new vocal mics from Austrian Audio.”
The tour was a big success and fans across the US were more than excited to see their favourite rockers back on stage after a two year break. The band not only played crowd favourites, but also paid tribute to Ukraine, performing “It’s My Life,” a song that has been adopted as an anthem for Ukrainians, and “We Don’t Run,” which was being filmed as part of a Global Citizen s

Italy - One hundred Claypaky Sharpy Plus Aqua fixtures were deployed at the Venetian Arsenal from 31 August to 10 September 2022 for the Campari Boat-In Cinema event at the time-honoured Venice International Film Festival.
Campari has been the main sponsor of the festival for the past five years, during which it has organised a whole series of events to promote dialogue between established filmmakers and emerging talent. Among the best-known initiatives is the screening of some of the films in competition with the audience watching from the water on small boats or platforms in the scenic Arsenal basin. A spectacular live performance opens the evening after an apéritif and welcome dinner for a select audience of about 180 people. This is followed by a film screening on the big screen. After the film, the evening firework party begins for a larger audience of about 1,500 people, with live performances and DJ mixes featuring scenic settings and striking light shows.
Event lighting designer Giovanni Pinna comments, “The client asked for some very 'graphic' lighting to bring out the four islands, which were built especially for the occasion and connected to each other with red carpet-like walkways. The stars and guests arrived and were guided along the pier and walkways by a highly dynamic light path, drawn out using about eighty Sharpy Plus Aqua units, forty on each side.”
Claypaky's Sharpy Plus Aqua is an IP66-rated hybrid moving head fixture, ideal for both indoor and outdoor events. It comes complete with all the latest effects and performance f

Finland – The annual Miss Finland pageant was broadcast live on TV from Helsinki’s Valkoinen Sali hall in September, with contestants ‘strutting their stuff’ backed by LED screens driven by Hippotizer Karst+ Media Servers.
The event, which crowns a winner who will go on to represent Finland in the Miss Universe competition, draws healthy viewing figures and sparks conversation on social media. It claims to promote not only outer beauty, but mental strength and charity work showcasing the women of today.
Helsinki-based Capital AV was commissioned by Miss Finland organiser, Finnartist Ltd, to create and operate the visuals for the event and design the staging inside the Valkoinen Sali venue, which was built in the 1920s. Capital AV’s Capital Creative arm designed and constructed a triangular catwalk from the hall’s existing stage, allowing the contestants to walk out into the audience and use the space effectively. Upstate and in shot for the TV cameras were two Absen T5 LED screens in a left-right formation with a central entry point space for the participants.
“We knew that the contest was going to be shown on live TV, so it was important to have the LED screens form a camera-ready, beautiful and soft backdrop for the contestants,” explains Visual Designer Max Lapinsuo-Sylwén from Capital AV. “The screens had to work both in wide shots and close-ups and we mostly ran pre-made, branded graphics but the pre-shot inserts were displayed on the screens simultaneously for the live audience.
“To achieve this in the most powerful

Singapore - Showtec, one of the largest rental companies in South East Asia, has purchased 40 Ayrton Domino LT luminaires from Total Solution Marketing Pte Ltd, Ayrton's exclusive distributor for Singapore. The fixtures were subsequently used for the prestigious Singapore National Day Parade on 9 August 2022.
Showtec is one of the top professional entertainment technology companies in South East Asia and carries a very extensive range of equipment for every kind of event. Its inventory is backed by a team of highly proficient technicians who achieve fantastic results for everything from intimate concerts to large scale outdoor events.
Henry Ang, founder of Showtec, chose Ayrton Domino LT both to boost his rental stock and, specifically, for the National Day Parade. “We chose Ayrton Domino LT after a lot of research comparing it against other major moving light brands at the Prolight + Sound Frankfurt exhibition,” he says. “We found Domino LT to have the best combination of being IP65 rated, with an extremely bright LED engine, flat optics, great colour and good quality graphics.
“It was also very important for us to have good local support from the Ayrton distributor, Total Solution Marketing.”
Domino LT is the first all-terrain LED luminaire in Ayrton's ‘Long Throw’ range designed for intensive outdoor use in long-distance applications requiring extremely high precision.
“The Domino LT fixtures were immediately put to use for the National Day Parade 2022, which had two months of weekly rehearsals before the actual show o

Korea - Officially opened in March this year, Seongnam-si Atrium was built on the site of the old Civic Centre next to the Seongnam Medical Centre building in Taepyeong-dong, Sujeong-gu, Seongnam-si. The building’s 4943sq.m spans six floors, four of them below ground, it features a 645-seat grand theatre and a smaller 200-seat theatre, both with access to a DiGiCo Quantum 338 and Quantum 225 mixing console, as well as offices for local art groups.
Following a ground breaking ceremony in March 2019, the name Seongnam Atrium was confirmed in November 2019 through a contest to name the venue and a preference survey of Seongnam-si’s citizens. The name means the central garden of an ancient Roman house and denotes a creative culture and arts space that connects with the citizens.
DiGiCo’s Korean distributor, Soundus, became involved with the project in June 2021. “Originally a different console was specified,” says Soundus sales director, Mr Park. “But we and our partner continually reached out to the client so we could provide them with a demo and technical training on DiGICo consoles. As a result of that, DiGiCo was confirmed as the right solution for the venue.”
Soundus recommended a Quantum 338 because it was the latest console in the range, with the Quantum engine able to process data much faster than competitive products. They also knew the Quantum 338’s specification, price point and striking design would attract the interest of the team at Seongnam Atrium.
The Quantum 338 is deployed at front of house in the grand theatre,

Belgium - This past summer, community centre and local theatre GC De Kroon in Bocholt invested in a new Elation LED lighting package just in time for the new theatre season. The new energy-efficient lighting upgrade includes both stage and house lighting fixtures, a dynamic system that will serve the local performance community well into the future.
The transition from conventional lighting to LED lighting was high on the city council’s agenda and Jasper Hendriks, technician at the theatre, was tasked with looking into the newest available technology. According to Jasper, the 400-capacity theatre had several good reasons for wanting to upgrade their lighting system. “One issue was with the conventional 1 kw and 2 kw lighting we had – there was simply no more spare parts for them,” he explains.
“Another reason is the local dance schools and associations that use the venue for performances. They were asking for lighting that is more dynamic - a greater variety of colours, cold and warm white light, better side lighting - and we just had no flexibility with the conventional fixtures. They were also concerned with inefficiency of the old system and wanted a cleaner more green-friendly solution.”
In September 2021, Elation key account manager for Benelux, Bert Schmeits, received a call from Jasper who had heard about the quality of the Elation Fuze Profile from another theatre in the area and wanted more information about it and other products. “The starting point was to save energy without compromising on light quality with focus on multi

France - DJ, music producer and creative live experience imitator Michael Canitrot presented another innovative Monumental show, this time in front of the Cathedral Notre-Dame of Laon in the city of Aisne in the Hauts-de-France region of France.
A special musical performance was created for this event which was presented in collaboration with design collective AV-Extended led by Jérémie Bellot, featuring a giant video mapped projection show onto the front of the Cathedral’s imposing 56m-high façade, supported by a light show designed by Mikael “Mika” Trochu utilising 56 x Robe moving lights.
This followed Michael Canitrot’s 2021 Monumental Tour, a series of site-specific performances staged at some of the most spectacular heritage landmarks and monuments around France.
Robe Fortes and MegaPointes were chosen for their power, brightness, and impact as well as their dynamic feature sets, and were located all around the front of building on the ground and on a balcony at approximately 50m up the front of the building.
They were used highly effectively to create multi-layered effects on the cathedral, including the two main façade towers that overlooking Laon old town, and also to shoot striking and potent beams into the skies.
At the front of the building, either side of the stage, seven MegaPointes were deployed on the garden side with more on the courtyard side. Lined up adjacent to one other on special platforms, they highlight and texture the cathedral walls including the arch ceilings of the two large, recessed side door

Czech Republic - Australian electronic dance music combo Rüfüs Du Sol is currently in the midst of a world tour that has taken them throughout Europe before heading over to the US and terminating in Australia (via New Zealand) at the end of the year.
The group has enjoyed huge success in their native Australia and has since relocated to Los Angeles to further their international reputation - clearly now well established as the band has just received a 2022 Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording for Alive, the lead single from their fourth studio album, Surrender.
As part of their European tour, the trio recently played a sold-out gig in Prague at the 3,000-capacity Forum Karlin using KV2’s flagship VHD5 system.
Rüfüs Du Sol’s relationship with KV2 began in earnest in early 2021 when KV2’s technical support director for the APAC region, Angus Davidson met Cam Trewin, a Melbourne-based studio and live sound engineer. “Cam had recorded a live set with Rüfüs Du Sol at The Joshua Tree in the Mojave Desert which had been mixed in Dolby Atmos for the video in Los Angeles,” explains Davidson. “I told him about Red Road Immersive, the Dolby Atmos studio I had built during lockdown. He then talked to the band and they decided to remix the live set at Red Road for release on Apple Music.”
The studio is based around 14 x KV2 EX Series speakers and is one of the first studios in APAC to be certified by Dolby. Trewin was impressed with the sound of the KV2 9.1.4 Dolby Atmos system, as was Dale Becker from Becker Mastering in

UK - Creamfields North celebrated its 25th anniversary in style in the village of Daresbury - its home since 2006. The site in Cheshire again played host to the dance event, and with it a selection of global DJ superstars over August Bank Holiday weekend.
The biggest EDM event in the UK, hosting 250 artists over the four days, it comprised up to 12 stages, two of which were serviced by Capital Sound (a Solotech company) who have a long history of supporting the event, both in the north and south.
Headliners this year included Calvin Harris, David Guetta and Hardwell amongst others, all performing alongside the likes of Becky Hill, Bicep Live, Eric Prydz, Patrick Topping, Pete Tong, Martin Garrix, Jax Jones, Scooter and Armin van Buuren.
All the performances were DJ playback, and as is customary, each of the stages changed name on a daily basis. Working alongside production director Ian Greenway of LarMac Live, Solotech were responsible for Stage 3 - a large TFS structure - and the outdoor Runway Stage, which saw the introduction of a new ‘concept stage’.
Stage 3 began as a silent disco as did all opening stages on the Thursday, changing to Catch And Release, Stmpd Records and MK Presents on the successive days. The key nights were Saturday when Martin Garrix headlined and on Sunday where MK revved up the audience hosting his own Arena line up.
Solotech fielded 11 MLA elements with an MLD Downfill at the base on both sides of the stage; further front-fills were provided by four Martin Audio DD12, while an array of 13 MLX subwoofers in

USA - Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun, better known as Twenty One Pilots, have released six studio albums, including last year’s Scaled and Icy, which nabbed the Top Rock Album prize at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards. After an extensive European festival run earlier this year and the duo’s international Takeover Tour in late 2021, Twenty One Pilots is now out on The Icy Tour, its second North American trek supporting the album.
Clair Global has been serving as the artists’ touring sound reinforcement provider since January and is carrying an L-Acoustics K2 system for the current arena run.
“I’ve worked on a number of K2 systems in the past and have really enjoyed their tonality,” says Kenny Sellars, who has been with the band since 2016, first as a systems engineer, then taking over FOH duties in January of 2019. “Twenty One Pilots’ show is significantly more dynamic than a typical pop-arena act. The band uses a plethora of instruments, and the show varies from moments of EDM-like bass and heavy rock to quieter ukulele and piano-led pieces. We needed a system that offered us high fidelity from the quietest to the loudest moments night after night. The sound of K2 combined with KS28 works really well for this show.”
Clair Global systems engineer Christian Peterson agrees with K Series being the right choice. “I joined the tour just as they started the European festival dates in May,” he says. “During that time, I got to hear the show on a wide variety of systems and really enjoyed working on the K1 and K2 rigs we encountered

China - Spanning more than 100 acres and welcoming almost 10 thousand visitors each day (with nearly 20,000 visitors on holidays), Unique Henan: Land of Drama is recognised as ‘the world's largest fantasy city’. This self-guided, multi-media and immersive live performance experience tells the 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization around the Henan region.
A range of dramatic, full-immersion, panoramic storytelling encompasses 21 theatres and dozens of outdoor spaces, including 56 maze-like courtyards, multiple themed restaurants and food and beverage areas, and employs more than 800 performers. The attraction’s construction took four years to complete and cost nearly $930m.
The facility’s many lighting, video, and sound systems are controlled by a mix of pre-programmed, synchronised, time-code-based presentations, audio-triggered routines, as well as live production and mixing. At Unique Henan: Land of Drama, many elements of the global sound system and the many stand-alone systems are all built upon Dante audio networks managed and monitored with Dante Domain Manager.
“This is an amazing attraction. It's like a theme park, but it's all theatre and AV experience-based. There are expansive indoor and outdoor spaces, restaurants, panoramic vistas, and more," said Steven Cai, marketing manager, APAC, Audinate. “For sound design, each theatre has very different venue characteristics, different performance forms, and different construction conditions. Each theatre is different. The only way to manage such a set of venues and bring consist

USA - The Congressional Medal of Honour Society returned to Knoxville to celebrate and pay tribute to the sacrifices made by Americans around the world. Bandit Lites was honoured to donate a lighting system for the gala, where more than 30 recipients of the Medal of Honor gathered to “reconnect with each other, solemnly commemorate those recipients who have passed, conduct Society business, and engage the local community”.
“When asked, ‘what is the greatest event you have ever been involved in,’ my answer is simple: The Medal of Honor Celebration,” said Bandit chair Michael T. Strickland. “Other than the birth of my sons, this is hands down the event that is the most important moment in my life. We are honoured that this is our second time illuminating this amazing event, and these fine men are the true American Heroes. No other star shines as bright. To be in the same room with these humble, brave and unbelievable people will take your breath away. You have no idea the emotion until you stand amongst these giants. We can never thank them enough for all they have given.”
Bandit Lites donated more than 375 fixtures including Vari-Lite 2500 Spots, GLP Impression X4S, Martin MAC Aura, Elation Sixpar 100, Chauvet ColorDash Batten Quad 12 and Freedom Pars as well as over 500 linear feet of trussing and 26 chain hoists.
The upstage truss ran the length of the ballroom while two 75ft house trusses ran perpendicular to an 85-foot downstage truss. These were loaded with an array of VL 2500 Spots and GLP X4S to wash the ceiling as well as pro

Czech Republic - Located on the outskirts of Karlín near Florenc in Prague, the Musical Theatre Karlín (Czech: Hudební divadlo Karlín) is one of the oldest and theatres in the Czech Republic. With its lively entertainment programme predominantly consisting of operettas and musical productions, the 141-year theatre was built by the city and is its largest theatre after the Prague State Opera.
As part of a major update to the technical infrastructure of its main stage, the Musical Theatre Karlín has recently invested in DiGiCo’s Quantum 7T with EX-007 fader expansion surface, supplied and installed by DiGiCo’s Czech distributor, Pro Music.
The theatre’s main auditorium previously featured a large format analogue desk. It had served the venue well for many years, but the theatre’s team knew it was time for an update. As the venue also has a smaller stage which is already equipped with a DiGiCo SD9 system, this prompted the theatre to contact Pro Music, the leading supplier of innovative technologies in the fields of professional sound and lighting in Czech Republic and Slovakia, who were also suppliers of the original SD9.
“The analogue console sounded great, so the bar for its replacement was already set quite high,” says Pro Music’s Petr Šťásek. “We recommended the Quantum 7T because of the audio quality of its 32-bit mic preamp, transparent Quantum processing, theatre workflow, huge number of physical faders and large I/O capacity, all of which meant it would be able to deliver sound quality superior to the previous solution.

Italy - The concert area of Parma’s Parco Ducale hosted a number of prestigious concerts this summer, including performances from Andrea Bocelli, Zucchero and Sting. A K-array Firenze-KH7 system with Firenze-KS8 subs was used for sound reinforcement within the performance space, chosen for its sonic qualities and for the precision available when controlling the sound.
The sound engineers accompanying the artists were impressed by the definition and linearity of the system; a characteristic that allows for focussing and refining individual sounds with even greater precision that works perfectly for venues where complete control is required.
The Parco Ducale is a historical park in Parma, covering over 200,000 m2, located in the Oltretorrente district near the Parma river. For the past three years, a concert area with a stage has been set up next to the palace and has already hosted performances by important artists in past editions.
The entire system was set up by Riccardo Garbuglio's Arcadia Rent, with the support of Klaus Hausherr, product specialist from K-array. In overseeing the project, Klaus assisted all the sound engineers during the festival, stating: "We opted for a relatively standard configuration, with an L+R made up of eight Firenze-KH7 units, ten Firenze-KS8 subs (double 21''), with additional KH7s in a horizontal position with the diffusion pattern rotated as reinforcement for the first rows" said Klaus
“Firenze-KH7 is a system that is as simple as it is effective, allowing for precise control over the polar pattern in situ

USA - “We are deeply grateful and savouring every nano-second of this,” Flea proclaimed to fans at the start of one Friday night show on the Red Hot Chili Peppers Global Stadium Tour. It’s a safe bet that everyone in the sold-out arena knew exactly how the bass guitarist felt. None of them would have traded that moment either, as they joined the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band on a two-hour musical odyssey that wove its way through classic hits and new material, with plenty of spontaneous jams thrown in.
Reflecting the open exhilarating spirit of the music every step of the way has been a sweeping, panoramic light and video show by Scott Holthaus and Leif Dixon that includes over 250 Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Premier Global Productions.
Like the music of the clients it supports, the production design seamlessly blends various parts into a magnificent, multi-faceted, and always captivating whole. Just as the four rockers from LA fuse their performances into a single harmonious sound, the design team often blurs the lines between lighting and video to create a unified compelling visual.
“The most important thing in this show has been to have the generative video spill off the screen and into the surrounding lights to let them work together as opposed to programming lighting that would be similar in colour tempo,” said Holthaus, who began working for Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1999. “Geddy (Anthony Kordyjaka) from Premier Global Production was instrumental in putting together a rig that would allow us to achieve this balance

UK - Having routinely specified Martin Audio’s MLA Compact PA for festival shows where sensitive offsite noise has been an issue -along with the smaller MLA Mini on corporate events - Bristol based SWG Events has continued its long tradition.
Best known for servicing a number of stages at Glastonbury with Martin Audio solutions the production company recently provided sound reinforcement for the second year to the Hampton Court Palace Festival, having worked for the production company that runs HCPF on other shows.
In addition to the single large stage, which featured two main hangs of eight MLA Compact and six MLX, they also provided BlacklineX on a small bandstand in the East Front public picnic area prior to the show.
This year’s line-up included UB40, Elbow, George Benson, Jack Savoretti, McFly, Kacey Musgraves, The Human League, Michael Ball & Alfie Boe and Crowded House.
To provide even coverage for audiences up to 3,200-capacity SWG Events supplemented the two main MLA Compact hangs with DD12s for centre and left/right outfills, with eight WPM for front-fills and six Blackline X8 for balcony-fills. A monitor package in the shape of 16 of their new XE500 was powered by Martin Audio’s iKON iK42 amplifiers.
Aside from the quality of the music, the orientation of the stage - enabling the Palace to provide a spectacular backdrop - was the icing on the cake, as SWG event technology specialist Ian Williams explained. “The idea is to create the illusion that the audience felt they were inside the palace rather than just in fro

UK - The summer of 2022 was a huge moment for the city of Birmingham, as it played host to the 2022 Commonwealth Games, as well as the competing athletes from 72 nations. Taking place in the newly updated Alexander Stadium, the opening and closing ceremonies colourfully book-ended the largest multi-sport event held in the UK since London 2012, and was broadcast live to billions around the world, in addition to a 30,000 strong live audience.
Both productions delivered a high-octane, multi-genre and multi-cultural tribute to the history, culture, and pride within the region, featuring a now infamous 10m-tall mechanical bull, and musical performances from West Midlands artists like Duran Duran, Dexy’s, Apache Indian, Beverly Knight, Goldie, Jorja Smith, Laura Mvula, Panjabi MC, UB40 and Black Sabbath.
Positioned to light the festivities was Al Gurdon of Incandescent Design, who called upon the PRG team once again to help deliver the technology and crew to achieve his vision. On assembling his team to deliver the lighting design, Gurdon selected Richard Gorrod at PRG for his “design associate in the planning stages…who put together and led a great team, as always, in the stadium.”
Director of events and special projects Richard Gorrod worked closely with the Incandescent team to create a rig able to reliably withstand exposure to the elements for several weeks at the open-air stadium, all while delivering the power, reach and flexibility to deliver the spectacle the occasion needed.
To fit these criteria, PRG supplied a large number of fix

Italy - Disc To Disc Productions recently unveiled the first Dolby Atmos mixing suite in Milan, and the first in Italy to feature JBL Professional 7 Series master reference monitors.
Based in the city of Milan, Disc To Disc is an audio post-production company that offers recording, editing and mixing services for original television series, cinema, commercials and cartoons. In addition to its audio post-production for the screen, Disc To Disc also converts top music producers’ stereo mixes to Dolby Atmos surround mixes for hit-making artists in the Italian music industry.
While there are many media production companies and professionals living and working in Milan, the vast majority of Italy’s audio post-production facilities are located in Rome. Studio owner and audio engineer Antonio D'Ambrosio's vision for Disc To Disc was to open the first Dolby Atmos-equipped audio post-production mixing studio in Milan and bring the rich professional tradition of Rome’s cinema audio industry to the bustling Milan market.
In order to ensure a top-notch listening and mixing experience in the first Milanese Dolby Atmos-certified studio, D’Ambrosio outfitted Disc To Disc’s main cinema mixing room with a complete 7.4.1 surround sound solution centered around JBL 7 Series master reference monitors.
“There are many broadcast and streaming companies with headquarters in Milan, but until now they’ve had to work with studios in Rome to mix their production audio,” said D’Ambrosio. “It was a dream for us to create the first Dolby Atmos mixing r

USA - Cinematographer and DoP James Kniest’s international career has included lighting several high-profile horror genre movies including the recently released The Free Fall directed by Adam Stilwell, on which he enjoyed using Astera Titan and Helios Tubes to provide multiple lighting solutions.
The entire movie was shot on location in a heritage-listed house in the Adams area of Los Angeles, so when James needed to get light sources into assorted – often awkward or hard to access – spaces, corners, nooks, and crannies, he found the battery powered Astera LED tubes an invaluable asset.
The production’s lighting department carried two sets of Titan Tubes and two sets of the smaller Helios Tubes, all powered by Astera’s award-winning Titan LED engine.
Shooting in a protected building meant that nothing could be rigged or attached to the walls or ceilings, so Astera’s practical design, multiple mounting options and great versatility was suitable for numerous scenarios.
For convenience, the Tubes were often mounted in Kino housings for easy rigging and control via louvres. James sometimes added Opal 250 diffusion gel to the egg-crate for subtle softening, and other times would position the bare Titan and Helios Tubes on the floor or even have them hand-held for some shots.
On several occasions, he taped them into corners or in between wall and doorframe casings, generally capitalising on their great adaptability.
As well as creative rigging, he used the fixtures to produce a diversity of effects. “I love how

Egypt - Holoplot has announced the successful installation of its flagship technology inside Misr Masjid, a newly-built mosque, central to the development of the country’s new administrative capital outside of Cairo.
As one of the largest mosques in the world, the Misr Masjid project presented the challenge of delivering clear, intelligible speech to a congregation of thousands in a space of over 10.000sqm - without compromising the architectural integrity of the building’s mainly marble interior.
A conventional sound system may require upwards of 30 positions to achieve sufficient coverage and intelligibility within such a space. Holoplot provided audio coverage throughout the mosque, requiring only nine loudspeaker array positions. Each array is mounted as high as 23m above the floor, concealed at a significant distance from the listener behind painted cloth or metal. The entire audio system rendered ultimately invisible to worshipers.
Central to Holoplot's approach is the ability to control and shape sound in both classic and more complex environments, manoeuvring highly reflective spaces with unprecedented accuracy. In this instance, X1 handled an existing reverberation time of 6s, caused by both the marble interior and 60m high dome, managing not to excite the reverberant field - directing energy away from reflective surfaces and preventing the need for large amounts of acoustic treatment.
Emad El-Saghir at Holoplot said: "This grand mosque is an exemplar of X1's technological capability. We introduced several new system concepts that

Switzerland - Electric Claudio Merlo Lighting Equipment S.A. (ECM), a stage lighting equipment supplier and Claypaky distributor in Taverne, Switzerland, has been working non-stop to fill the needs of professional theatres across Switzerland.
For the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Geneva’s opera house, which boasts the largest stage in Switzerland, ECM installed Claypaky Tambora Batten Round fixtures to illuminate operas, ballets, recitals and concerts.
The addition of Tambora, with round lens configurations, met the theatre’s need for high-power, dynamic batten fixtures that offered an excellent cost-to-performance ratio.
Also in Geneva, ECM provided Claypaky HY B-EYE K25/Teatro fixtures to the Comédie de Genève, a new showplace not only featuring two halls for theatrical performances but also large construction workshops and spaces that bring all theater disciplines under one roof.
The B-EYE K25 fixtures, which serve as high-performance LED wash lights, beam lights and VFX projector, were installed in the main hall. The Teatro version, which guarantees silent operation without sacrificing bright colours, was specifically requested.
The same model B-EYE K25/Teatro was also in demand at LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura, a cultural center dedicated to music, visual and performing arts in Lugano. ECM added HY B-EYE K25/ Teatros and Claypaky Axcor Profile 600 HC/Teatro fixtures to LAC’s multi-use theatre.
The B-EYE K25 fixtures were integrated into the theatre’s appliance raider. The Axcor Profiles were chosen for their combination o

USA - Coheed and Cambria weave an imaginative tale across multiple albums through storytelling and hard driving music. The latest chapter in the Amory Wars storyline, which plays out on their new album Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind was presented live to fans across the country on a summer tour with Elation Artiste Picasso luminaires helping to sculpt the mythical universe.
New Jersey-based rental company Squeek Lights started working with the progressive rock band earlier this year on a club tour and served as lighting and video vendor on the A Window of the Waking Mind summer outing. Squeek Lights owner Victor Zeiser designed the touring rig, developing the show’s overall look and feel together with programmer and touring lighting director Ben Jarrett, also of Squeek Lights.
Jarrett explains that all of Coheed and Cambria’s songs take place inside of an epic sci-fi world, each album another chapter in an ever-evolving story. When playing live, that story is echoed on stage with atmospheric lighting, LED graphics and full-size set pieces that help build a universe around the music.
“We kept the overall colour palette ‘space themed’ with lots of lavenders and deep purples punctuated with oranges and CTO to create a sense of galaxies and stars,” Jarrett explained. “The set included a custom-made, inflatable set piece called ‘The Quintilian Speaker,’ a 28’ tall alien monster with long tentacles that stretched out towards the audience. I programmed movements in a way that gave the lighting rig tentacles of its own to