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Patrick Dierson sets stage for Ultra Music Festival guest LDs with over 300 Chauvet fixtures
18/06/2025
Crt Birsa gets geometric with ChamSys
27/05/2025
Astera for Porsche Macan Electric reveal
21/05/2025
Nüssli gibt Startschuss zum Aufbau des Eidgenössischen Schwing- und Älplerfests 2025
Vom 29. bis 31. August 2025 findet auf dem Flugplatz Mollis im Glarnerland (Schweiz) das Eidgenössische Schwing- und Älplerfest (ESAF) statt. Nüssli verantwortet bereits zum 23. Mal den Bau und die Planung der Arena des größten wiederkehrenden Sportanlasses mit Volksfestcharakter der Schweiz. Die Aufbauarbeiten des Temporärbaus begannen am gestrigen Montag.
Nüssli und das Eidgenössische Schwing- und Älplerfest sind seit 64 Jahren eine erfolgreiche Kombination. Seit dem ESAF 1961 in Zug ist der Event- und Baudienstleister für die Planung und den Bau der Festarena zuständig. Zur kommenden „Eidgenössischen“ im Glarnerland werden rund 350.000 Besucherinnen und Besucher erwartet.
Das diesjährige Festgelände ist auf dem Flugplatz Mollis angesiedelt, der parallel zu den Aufbauarbeiten bis Ende Juli noch in Betrieb sein wird. Entsprechend hoch sind die sicherheitstechnischen Anforderungen. „Das Festgelände liegt auf rund 55 Hektar Land“, sagt der Projektverantwortliche, Danilo Della Ca. „Die darin befindliche Glarnerland-Arena umfasst 850 m, hat einen Durchmesser von 250 m und ist 17,5 m hoch. Sie bietet 56.500 Zuschauerinnen und Zuschauern mit gedeckten Sitz- und Stehplätzen beste Sicht auf das Geschehen im Sägemehl.“
„Für den Bau der sechs Tribünen sind insgesamt circa 3.000 t Tribünenmaterial nötig, bestehend aus Unterkonstruktion, Dachelementen und Sitzen“, so Della Ca weiter. „Aufgrund der temporären Bauweise können alle Elemente wiederverwendet werden; einige davon waren vor drei Jahren bereits am ESAF in Pratteln im Baselland im Einsatz.“
Gestern fiel nun der Startschuss mit der Anlieferung sowie dem Beginn des Aufbaus der Unterkonstruktion der ersten Tribüne. Insgesamt wird ein zehnköpfiges Kernteam von Nüssli die Arena baulich umsetzen und dabei von 90 bis 100 Personen unterstützt, in Spitzenzeiten von bis zu 130 Personen. „Insgesamt 300.000 Einzelteile werden in den kommenden neun Wochen auf die Baustelle gelangen. Der Aufbau gleicht einem Puzzle“, sagt Della Ca.
Ab dem 30. Juni soll der Aufbau der Tribünenstruktur in Hexagon-Form folgen. Ab 7. Juli stehen die ersten Krantage an, wenn die ersten Dachelemente montiert werden. Ab 8. August startet die Feinarbeit in Form der Sitzplatzinstallation. Ab Mitte August soll dann die Fertigstellung und feierliche Übergabe eingeläutet werden. Rund zwei Wochen vor dem Start soll die Arena für das ESAF bereit sein.
(Fotos: David Feldmann/Maya Rhyner/Daniel Sproll)
Juanjo Llorens illuminates “Circlassica” Madrid with Robe
The “Circlassica” show returned to Madrid for the 2024-2025 season staged in the IFEMA big white tent, with a new edition - “Circlassica, la historia mundial continúa” - produced by Productores de Sonrisas and lit by Juanjo Llorens.
Llorens has a penchant for lighting circus-style performance shows. He reached into the toolbox for Robe moving lights, using forty LEDBeam 150s, twenty-two Spiiders, twenty MegaPointes, sixteen LEDBeam 350 and fourteen Esprites. “I took advantage of numerous features on all these fixture types - power, different types of looks and lenses, varying LED sources from RGBW multichip to a single high-power white chip, and also discharge lamps”, says Llorens, who has lit “Circlassica” many times.
He works with a team of “highly skilled and creative imagineers” - a set designer, screens director, artists, artistic director, sound designer, choreographer and overall technical director, and at the top of the pyramid, creative director Manuel González, who is one third of Productores de Sonrisas. A common starting point for the evolution of a lighting design for this type of project is manipulating the psychology of light. “The presentation and the lighting must appeal to children and help ensure they don’t get bored, so keeping everyone enthralled and engaged is the goal”, states Llorens.
The core lighting was rigged on a box truss hanging between the tent’s two rear poles and the front arch, a space offering up around 12 metres of headroom above the 12-metre diameter circular stage floor. The rigging infrastructure around five prominent LED screens was also used to facilitate some lighting elements, and the LED surfaces were positioned to give clear sightlines around the whole marquee.
A rear bridge truss was flown upstage of the box truss at 10 metres but in front of the set to provide positions for backlight and effects fixtures, as well as some dynamic movement without distracting or obstructing the performers. Three trusses each side of the marquee - left, centre and right - were used for front light positions and to generally open up the space.
Two central circular trusses were flown directly above the stage/ring, one with a 12-diameter flown at 14 metres high, and inside of that a 3-metre diameter truss trimmed at 18 metres. For more side positions, there were four drop-down booms at 4 metres high each - two on the legs in front of the set, and two coming down from the front of the box truss. Additionally, floor lighting upstage and in front of the set enhanced entrances and exits through the stage doors.
The Esprites were distributed between the box truss, the circular truss and the top truss. LEDBeam 150s were dotted all over all the trusses and used to light the audience in both spot and wash modes. The ones on the box and side trusses were used for lighting faces and for side lighting singing acts, presenters and juggling routines, allowing the latter to keep a clear view of their diabolos, clubs or whatever implements they were juggling with. “Sometimes the props are thrown very high, so it’s vital to avoid shining light directly in their faces”, notes Llorens.
LEDBeam 350s were placed on the ground and around the scaffolding surrounding the band at various heights, so the musicians could be seen, and used for producing broader beams than the LEDBeam 150s. Spiiders on the box truss were used for ambient light. For Llorens, the MegaPointes added plenty of magic and were the “secret creative weapons” in the show. MegaPointes were located around the box truss and on the drop-down booms, on the front and rear legs of the ground support and on the front truss.
The overall lighting was designed with dynamics and versatility at the fore to cover the wide array of different artists and acts appearing onstage - from circus to dance, including musical performances and magicians. Although Llorens is a specialist in lighting circus-style performance and acrobatics, his challenge is always maintaining the integrity of his design while accommodating the special needs of the act. Some routines are highly dangerous and need lighting very specifically, not just for drama and impact, but also for safety.
Llorens worked closely with programmer Pau Farreny on this show, plus crew chief Iván González who was also the lighting operator, plus two lighting technicians, Guillermo Cello and Gonzalo Gerbolés, both from “Circlassica”, who oversaw the everyday tasks including equipment maintenance. Cori Bustamante, Juan Elvira and Rafa XVII were Llorens’ lighting assistants, and Gerbolés and Cello were also the follow spot operators.
The planning by the show’s technical manager Flavio Bañuelos and infrastructure manager Marco Monteiro was also integral to making the project flow. The show’s technical director was Productores de Sonrisas’ Rafa González, who together with press and media director María González and aforementioned artistic director Manuel González make up Productores de Sonrisas. Some of the lighting kit is owned by Productores de Sonrisas, and the rest of it was supplied by rental company Smart Fussion.
(Photos: Pepe Castro)
Britannia Row supplies Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory tour
Tour and production manager Stewart Chown, who works alongside remote production manager Gareth Russell, has trusted Britannia Row’s services with many of their touring acts over the course of their careers. So, when American singer, songwriter and musician Sharon Van Etten announced she’d be touring a new record with her band The Attachment Theory, Britannia Row’s expertise was required once again.
“The band aspect is quite a new thing for Sharon, and our brief was to bring everything up to a certain production level”, says Chown. “It’s not a huge tour - our audio package is economical - but we wanted to make it as efficient as possible to give Sharon and the band the best production for their touring budget. We’re good friends with our Account Executive Jonathan Dunlop, so he was our first point of call for audio. We’ve hand-picked our crew; we’ve got a mix of people from the UK and the States who as well as having the technical ability and professionalism required, we knew would click with the artists.”
Creating a flexible solution to varying venue sizes has been a fundamental element for this new musical set-up. “The Royal Albert Hall in London is one of the biggest headline shows Sharon’s ever done, so finding the right audio solution that would fit our needs both there and for the entire tour was very important”, explains Chown. “Sharon was very emotional about that show; after playing in London for fifteen years, she was so excited to be there, and it was also a big moment for the band.”
The new songs have been inspired by the darker, gothy synth sounds of the 1980s. “Artists like The Cure were a big inspiration with this new-found direction”, confirms Chown. “Fitting multiple inspirations from the band together and putting them into a record that would also work for their live shows, was crucial. Our FOH Engineer, Mike Reina, has done an incredible job translating this. It’s closer to a rock and roll show than Sharon’s ever done before, and with such a great band, they’re making some very interesting live music.” Monitor Engineer on this tour was Rafi Lazzaro.
The full band comprises Sharon Van Etten (lead vocals and guitar), Devra Hoff (bass and vocals), Teeny Lieberson (synth, guitar, piano and vocals) and Jorge Balbi (drums and machines), plus Shanna Polley as an additional guitarist and keyboardist for the live shows. “I want to convey the impact and the power of this new iteration of what Sharon’s doing”, says Reina. “I’ve been a fan of hers for a long time, but this is my first tour working for her. She sent me the record, and I was blown away, so I wanted to create as much impact for the stage as I’d heard on the record. She’d never written with a band before, but it just goes to show her versatility, because to be able to get into a room with people and create is such a challenge. Yet when it works, it’s a magical thing.”
Both Reina and Lazzaro use an Allen & Heath dLive system. “Rafi really liked the fact that they have the input boxes on stage, essentially pre-amps, meaning we could minimize not having a line system, which cleans up the signal path. It’s a lot easier on two people without a tech on tour to distribute signal that way”, notes Reina, adding: “I wanted a Waves Server because I like to have a lot of control with the plug-ins. I like a studio sound on stage, clean isolation of each signal.”
In monitor world, Lazzaro employs a Shure Axient AD600 Digital Spectrum Analyzer for wide band spectrum scanning and monitoring. Shure PSM1000s in-ear personal monitoring systems are used with customised Ultimate Ears for himself and the band, while Sharon Van Etten chooses 64 Audio. “I’m mixing five band members including Sharon, plus two techs who receive their own mix”, states Lazzaro. “I build every mix from scratch and it’s a very musical mix for everyone. Sharon also uses wedges; she likes to have both wedges and ears. It makes her feel comfortable to have the wedges there if she pops one ear out.” For Van Etten, there’s also a particular kind of reverb involved in her live delivery: “I’ve been using the new reverbs on the Allen & Heath, the RackUltra FX card and the Spaces Reverb Designer are really great”, furthers Lazzaro.
The band wrapped a North America tour in Spring before they return to the UK, Ireland, and Europe for festival shows and more headline dates later this summer.
Group shot (left to right): Rafi Lazzaro, Mike Reina, Stewart Chown. (Photos: Britannia Row Productions)
Metallica satteln während „M72“-Tour auf Pixera-Media-Server-System um
Auf der bereits 2023 gestarteten „M72“-Welttour von Metallica, bekannt für ihre 360°-Bühne und das „No Repeat Weekend“-Konzept, kommt ab sofort das Pixera-Media-Server-System von AV Stumpfl zum Einsatz. Mit diesem Wechsel soll das Videosetup der Tour - acht Türme mit einer Höhe von über 30 Metern, ausgestattet mit je drei LED-Screens à 15 x 9 Meter, insgesamt 24 einzelne Bildflächen, konzipiert von Creative Director und Produktionsdesigner Dan Braun - weiter optimiert werden.
Laut Tom Denney, Media-Server-Engineer der Tour, habe sich der Umstieg auf Pixera - erstmals beim „SoundStorm“-Festival 2023 getestet - als Gamechanger erwiesen: „Die Server können zwei Notch-Effekte gleichzeitig abspielen - ohne Frame-Drops. Bei unserem Setup mit 38 Kameras und dynamischen Visuals ist das entscheidend“, sagt er.
David Leonard, Media-Server-Programmierer und Operator, ergänzt: „Die Pixera-Version 25 ist großartig. Die Layer-basierte Oberfläche und Funktionen wie das Layer-Referencing helfen dabei, bis zu füfnzig unterschiedliche Screen-Mappings pro Show effizient zu verwalten - das sorgt für visuelle Abwechslung und Immersion.“ Leonard programmiert eine Timeline pro Song und erstellt daraus eine Cue-Liste, abgestimmt auf das tagesaktuelle Set - die finale Setlist entscheidet sich bei Metallica oft erst kurz vor Showbeginn.
Das Pixera-System besteht aus acht Servern (vier aktiv, vier redundant) und ermöglicht ein echtes 1:1-Redundanz-Setup. „Zuverlässigkeit steht bei der Band und dem Kreativteam ganz oben“, so Denney. „Jeder Turm bekommt ein 4K-Signal, zusätzlich übernimmt ein Utility-Server Ausspielungen für Festival- oder Broadcast-Szenarien, wie zum Beispiel das Streaming in über 3.000 Kinos weltweit.“ Die Server verfügen über 16-Terabyte-Laufwerke (erweiterbar auf 60 TB) und sind in der Lage, die 3,5 TB großen Content-Folder pro Show zu verarbeiten. Auf diese Weise gelingt der Wechsel zwischen Hauptshow und Festival-Setup ohne Datenübertragungen.
Die acht Pixera-Server sind Teil eines von sechs maßgeschneiderten „Barges“, die das Video-Backbone der Tour bilden. Glasfaserleitungen verbinden das Videodorf mit den Rack-Systemen in den bis zu mehrere hundert Meter entfernten Türmen. „Dank der Barges schaffen wir den Aufbau von Servern und Kameras in unter einer Stunde - trotz hunderter Kabel“, sagt Denney. „Das Pixera Hub-Tool erleichtert die Verwaltung aller acht Server - vom Netzwerk bis zur Lüftersteuerung - und macht unseren Workflow effizient.“
„Wir können mit Perspektiven spielen, Inhalte über mehrere Türme hinweg inszenieren oder gezielt einzelne Flächen betonen - je nachdem, was visuell den größten Effekt bringt“, fügt Leonard hinzu. Video Director Gene McAuliffe hatte die Umstellung auf Pixera maßgeblich vorangetrieben.
Aktuell befindet sich die „M72“-Tour mitsamt dem Pixera-System inmitten einer zehntägigen US-Etappe. „Pixera fühlt sich zukunftssicher an“, sagt Leonard abschließend. „Wir planen bereits, die Shows auch in anderen Setups weiterzuverwenden.“
(Fotos: AV Stumpfl)
Obsidian consoles control 600 lighting fixtures at IIFA Awards in Jaipur
Obsidian Control Systems recently played an important control role at the 2025 International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards at the JECC Grounds in Jaipur, India, where Bollywood’s brightest stars took center stage. Supported by VMT, Obsidian’s official Indian distribution partner, Wizcraft International Entertainment produced the live event, with Obsidian’s NX4, NX2, NXP and Netron EN12 handling 600 lighting fixtures across 24 universes.
The NXP expansion wing provided scalable control for the large setup, while the Netron EN12 ensured data transmission across the rig. Pre-programming was done by Associate Lighting Designer Klinton Mascarenhas.
Hosted by Karan Johar and Kartik Aaryan, the gala featured performances by Sachin-Jigar, Mika Singh, Shreya Ghoshal, Nora Fatehi, and icons like Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, and Madhuri Dixit. The 2025 IIFA Awards ceremony marked the 25th anniversary of the event.
Pictured: Becket Tundatil (Lighting Designer at Fireflies) and Klinton Mascarenhas. (Photo: Obsidian Control Systems/Elation)
The Brothers return to Madison Square Garden with DiGiCo’s Quantum siblings
To honor the legacy of the Allman Brothers Band, godfathers of Southern Rock, the musical supergroup known as The Brothers recently returned to New York City’s storied Madison Square Garden for a pair of shows in April.
Led by former ABB guitarist and Gov’t Mule founder Warren Haynes and featuring drummer Jaimoe, the last surviving original member of the Allman Brothers Band, the ensemble also included former ABB guitarist Derek Trucks (nephew of ABB drummer, the late Butch Trucks), bassist Oteil Burbridge, and percussionist Marc Quiñones, plus Joe Russo, Reese Wynans, and Isaac Eady, as well as special guest Chuck Leavell on piano.
Three DiGiCo Quantum consoles, as well as a DiGiCo SD12-96 desk were on hand for the two shows, all provided by Southold, New York-based SK Systems, with an L-Acoustics sound system supplied by PRG. At front-of-house were both a Quantum338 and a Quantum225; the broadcast mix had another Quantum338; and monitors used an SD12-96. The DiGiCo Quantums were connected on an Optocore network along with an SD-Rack and SD-Nano Rack.
The workflow began with front-of-house. Engineer Brian Speiser, who also regularly mixes FOH and acts as PM for Tedeschi Trucks Band, was at the Quantum338 for the main house mix. In addition, systems engineer Chris Bedry, who also performs that role for TTB, manned a Quantum225 next to Speiser, taking stems from Speiser’s house mix and putting them together, over headphones, for a backup broadcast mix. The primary broadcast mix was being handled by Bobby Tis - usually TTB’s monitor and studio engineer - on another Quantum338, with Chris Bailey mixing monitors on a DiGiCo SD12-96.
“Chris Bedry was multi-tracking the whole show, but also sending a backup stems mix from me to the broadcast people so that they had an emergency backup that was coming directly from us if something went wrong in the broadcast room”, explains Speiser, who started laying out this workflow months ahead of time, adding, “the Quantum225 was also submixing all of Marc Quiñones’ percussion channels and sending them back to me on the 338.”
This was only the second performance for The Brothers, the first being 2020’s ABB 50th Anniversary show. “I didn’t mix their 2020 show, so going into what’s essentially a throw-and-go at Madison Square Garden, I felt like it would be best if I had Chris specifically zero in focus on what Marc, the percussionist, was doing so that I can mostly focus on everything else that was happening on stage with two drummers, an organ player, a piano player, two guitar players, bass, and vocals. Marc had a lot of mics that sometimes needed to be live, but sometimes didn’t, and two different vocal mics for his two positions.”
A new Fourier Audio Transform.Engine that Tis used with his console at Madison Square Garden also helped make the broadcast mix a better experience. “I had messed around with other scenarios of running plugins with the DiGiCo, but not with the actual Fourier Audio Transform.Engine before”, he says. “There’s always a bit of nerves when you’re using something new like that on a show, but I put it through its paces and found it to be a really solid device and I had a lot of fun playing with it.”
One application was applying the Oeksound Soothe2 dynamic resonance suppressor to the three pairs of stereo microphones in the arena, used as ambience mics. “I was mixing those into a group on the DiGiCo, and then across that group I was using the Soothe2 plugin aimed at the high midrange to look for resonance and take it out of the room ambience. And then I also am sending one of those pairs of audience mics out to a Bricasti M7 reverb. I’ve come to learn that putting the audience into a great space of its own and extending the room a bit helps the whole thing smear together. I also brought a lot of what I generally use in my studio right to the stage. That combination of the DiGiCo console and the Transform.Engine had me in my own sweet spot those nights.”
(Photos: DiGiCo)
Patrick Dierson sets stage for Ultra Music Festival guest LDs with over 300 Chauvet fixtures
Long before the first Ultra Music fans began filing into Miami’s Bayfront Park this March, the festival had already begun playing itself out in the mind of Patrick Dierson. “We started working on the pre-production process, several months out in advance and went over things again and again to get this right”, says the designer and head of The Activity, who handles technical management for the event’s main stage.
Working with Technical Producer Ray Steinman, Creative Director Richard Milstein, and the various vendors, Dierson dove deep into the artist advances to start laying out plans for the technical infrastructure that would ultimately be needed to support all the festival’s guest LDs and their clients. “The focus of our work is always on the guest technical teams and getting them everything they need to deliver their best shows”, says Dierson. “Given the uneven weight loads and tightly packed rigging needs, there are always challenges, but in the end, we wanted to give the guests what they needed.”
Among the things selected to ensure that stellar shows be delivered for main stage artists like John Summit, Skrillex, Armin van Buuren, and Deadmau5 at this year’s festival was a collection of over 300 Chauvet Professional fixtures, which, like the rest of the rig was supplied by TAG. Among these fixtures were 120 Color Strike M motorized strobe-washes, which were used often during the three-day festival by guest LDs to connect the crowd to the artists on the main stage. “They were our main strobing fixture”, says Dierson. “Their intense output, coupled with their ability to have separate color control on their plate, opened the way to some unique and flexible programming.”
While the Color Strike M units amped up crowd connections, a group of 184 Colorado PXL 16 motorized battens were opening up a range of creative options for visiting lighting crews. “The PXL Bar 16s played a very unique role in that they were embedded into the center portion of the stage structure to create a sort of capsule of light that worked its way across the stage deck, up the side walls, and across the roof”, says Dierson.
He credits the entire production crew, beginning with the TAG team including lead Kevin Mignone and crew chief Russ Felton, for contributing to the festival’s success. Also coming in for praise were Grant Davis (VJ/technical liaison), John Flanagan (FOH lighting tech lead), John Volpe (FOH video technical lead), Neil Rosenstock (audio lead), Luis Torez (SFX lead), and Ash Ali (stage manager).
“The collaboration was even more special this year”, says Dierson. “It was Ultra Music Festival’s 25th anniversary, and the sheer positivity that our crew and every guest team brought in was amazing. The guest teams are usually very good to work with but there was just something a little different about this year in that everyone simply had an overwhelmingly positive attitude toward whatever challenges arose. It was really great - and just made the entire process that much more enjoyable.”
(Photos: Adam Chandler)
Richard Meredith selects DPA and Wisycom for “The Piano”
“The Piano”, which just wrapped its third season, is a UK reality competition that invites undiscovered, amateur pianists to perform emotionally charged music amid the bustling sounds of some of the country’s busiest train stations. The concept of the show was born from the practice of commuters sitting down to play the upright pianos commonly found in England’s train depots.
To capture those heartfelt moments, Richard Meredith, Sound Supervisor and Founder of Audio Dept UK, turned to his trusted toolkit, led by DPA Microphones, for the recordings, as well as Wisycom wireless RF solutions. “The show’s premise is so pure - it’s just people sitting down at a public piano and expressing themselves”, explains Meredith. “It’s a very soft competition format. They play a piece of their choice in the middle of a busy station, right on the concourse, with people coming and going. The commuters become the audience, whether they intend to or not. The technical brief from the production team was to keep things low-key and let the realness shine through.”
With an upright Steinway piano arguably serving as the “star” of the show, Meredith knew it was critical to capture its sound most naturally. He mounted two DPA 4099 Instrument Microphones directly inside the pianos for a low noise floor, high dynamic range and practical versatility. “Unusually, we kept the lid of the piano closed to reduce station noise, even though it made the sound a little constrained”, he says. “This allowed the pianists to play within that noisy concourse. The 4099 was perfect for isolating the piano’s tone from the outside space. It gave us a beautiful, focused sound separated from the high ambience of the station. It let the music breathe without losing detail.”
One of the biggest audio challenges the production team faced was subtle amplification to the live audiences. “We realized the piano wasn’t loud enough in some stations, so I designed a battery-powered PA system hidden under the stage and fed it with a Wisycom wireless system”, explains Meredith. To ensure robust transmission in the congested RF environments, Meredith deployed Wisycom MTK980 Wireless Rack Transmitters and Portable Receivers.
In addition to the passersby in the stations, the performers’ family and friends attend the performances alongside host Claudia Winkleman. Behind the scenes, professional mentors Mika and Jon Batiste judge the musicians to determine who is best suited to moving along to the finale. When it came to miking this selection of participants, Meredith used DPA’s new 2061 Lavalier Microphones. “The 2061s, coupled with Wisycom MTP61 Wireless Transmitters, were able to capture even the quietest moments - nervous whispers, emotional reactions - without any noise issues”, he says. “Boom mics are a no-go in stations. Long metal poles and electric cables near platforms don’t mix, so the entire show is wireless, which is very much in my wheelhouse.”
Following the judging round of each episode, the show culminated in a public concert at The Glasshouse in Gateshead. Here, Meredith moved from capturing performances in public to producing a refined live recording with a full audience. For a more open, cinematic sound, he rigged two Steinway grands with a pair of DPA 4099s, along with a pair of 4011s. “We benefitted greatly from the four mics per piano, which gave us a full range of sound”, he notes, adding: “I wanted something discreet as the cameras constantly feature close-ups and utilizing the extension cables helped keep everything virtually unnoticeable on camera.”
The string accompaniment for the finale performances were also miked using 4099s, while the host, mentors and other speakers were outfitted with the 2061. Again, Wisycom wireless was utilized for the production with Wisycom MTP61 transmitters feeding MCR54 receivers in an MRK16 rack.
(Photos: DPA Microphones)
Plus Audio sound system chosen for Red Bull Symphonic in Johannesburg
Across one weekend in June, Red Bull Symphonic took over The Montecasino Teatro in Johannesburg, South Africa, with a blend of orchestral compositions and contemporary Amapiano energy. Powering this performance was a sound system from Plus Audio, a Stage Audio Works (SAW) house brand. Plus Audio provided audio across three consecutive nights.
The main PA consisted of FS212 loudspeakers, flown twelve per side, providing coverage across The Teatro auditorium. A flown horizontal sub array of seven FS219B units took care of low-end frequencies. ET110L loudspeakers, used as front fills, rounded out the system, providing clear response for those sitting close to the stage. Amplification was handled by a combination of AC8 and AC12 amplifiers, also from Plus Audio. Eighteen MMS1 microphones picked up the melodies of the orchestra.
Bad Weather led as the production company on Red Bull Symphonic, with Blue Array Productions providing the audio control and microphone package and along with logistics support, Music Junkies supplying backline and Stage Effects supplying rigging, lighting and video.
Bringing together talent from across the regional events industry, Jonathan Bandli led the team as Creative Director & Production Manager, working in collaboration with Garrick Van der Tuin (SAW Systems Engineer), Marinus Visser (Monitor Engineer), Joshua Deetleefs (Monitor and Recording Tech), Titus Augustinus (FOH assist) and Nathan Thiart (Audio Crew Chief).
(Photos: Stage Audio Works)
EM Acoustics Reference Series installed at new Western University venue
Western University - founded in 1878 in London, Ontario, Canada - recently crafted a special events space in the new Ronald D. Schmeichel Entrepreneurship and Innovation Centre (SEI). The multipurpose room was designed to host a wide variety of functions, ranging from keynote speeches to musical performances.
However, the room’s architecture, which features extensive concrete, glass and high ceilings, presented significant acoustic challenges. Western University’s Classroom Technology Group partnered with several experts in audio integration, ultimately selecting EM Acoustics’ Reference Series as its core solution. The choice of the Reference Series loudspeakers was made following an extensive evaluation that included Ease modelling of various systems from multiple manufacturers.
The system design centred on EM Acoustics’ Reference Series loudspeakers, including one R12 large-format 3-way precision passive loudspeaker at the centre of the cluster, flanked by two R10s. A compact S-18 reflex subwoofer was positioned behind the cluster for additional low-frequency support.
Two DQ10D 4-channel advanced system amplifiers power the setup, with one amplifier dedicated to the primary operation and the second serving as a backup, crucial for hosting live events. The system also employed EM Acoustics’ variable angle mounts and a custom rigging solution by DKE designed to attach securely to a heavily reinforced concrete beam above the event space.
The SEI building’s architectural features posed various challenges for the project. The space includes reflective surfaces such as glass and concrete, a high ceiling, and asymmetrical seating arrangements, all of which complicate audio design. Additionally, the placement of large LED displays and a central podium required the loudspeakers to be mounted above the displays due to limited placement options.
“Ease modelling helped calculate coverage requirements and addressed how to minimise excess energy on the nearby second-floor glass surface whilst still providing adequate coverage to seats on the floor below”, says Dieter Kunz, Design and Engineering Consultant at DKE. “The rigging solution was also critical, as the installation required custom mounting hardware to attach to the concrete structural beam containing embedded rebar.” A structural engineering firm reviewed and approved the designs to ensure safety and compliance.
“The engineering of the Reference Series waveguide options made it possible to create a compact cluster that met both the acoustic and aesthetic requirements”, adds Kunz. “The flexibility offered by providing two different interchangeable HF horns with two different coverage patterns was great to work with in conjunction with the Ease modelling.”
Chris Jordan, Manager and AV Systems Architect for the Classroom Technology Group at Western University, oversaw the project. He expressed his thanks to Dieter Kunz of DKE Engineering, Bill Coons of Contact Distribution, “the good folks” at One Diversified, Joel Theatrical, King Components, Malcom O’Brien of Arcon Electric, Cody Ruthman of University Machine Services, Hayman Construction, Dan Heald, Matt Vantfoort, Tyler Vollett, and the rest of his team in the Classroom Technology Group for their support.
(Photos: EM Acoustics/Western University)
Jazz & Blues Open Wendelstein mit Lichtsystemen von ETC
Anfang Mai traten bei den diesjährigen Jazz & Blues Open im mittelfränkischen Markt Wendelstein unter anderem Nico Santos, Tony Ann, die Dirty Loops, Torsten Goods und die SWR Big Band feat. Götz Alsmann auf. Generaldienstleister Rider Sound Service beauftragte Kwick Lights mit dem Lichtdesign.
Das Nürnberger Unternehmen um Geschäftsführer Alexander Kwick nutzte je zwölf TurboRay- und Lonestar-Scheinwerfer von ETC als Haupttools für die Produktion. Gefordert war ein Lichtkonzept, das „sowohl die Energie eines Popkonzerts als auch die Eleganz und musikalische Präzision einer Big-Band unterstützt“, so Alexander Kwick. Um diese Balance herzustellen, seien nicht nur technisches Know-how und Kreativität gefragt gewesen, sondern auch ein „umfassendes Verständnis für die Bedürfnisse der Künstler und für die Dynamik der einzelnen Shows“.
Da es sich bei der Eventlocation um eine eher nüchterne Tennishalle mit Oberlichtern handelt und dazu manche Konzerte bereits nachmittags stattfanden, kam den Beleuchtungssystemen eine Schlüsselrolle zu. Kwick setzte das TurboRay-Dutzend sowohl als Eye-Candy-Scheinwerfer als auch für sanfte Washes und dynamische Effekte und Beams ein. Die zwölf Lonestars übernahmen im Lichtkonzept eine andere Aufgabe, sie dienten als Spot/Beam-Hybridlampen.
Fotos: Nico Santos, Dirty Loops. (Fotocredits: Luis Mannhardt)
Stage Precision’s SP software helps level-up game day entertainment for Anaheim Ducks
Immersive technology specialists Quince Imaging recently partnered with the Anaheim Ducks hockey team to install a permanent, projection-mapping solution at their Honda Center home arena in Anaheim, California. The installation aimed to enhance the Ducks’ fan experience through interactive visuals, especially during half-time breaks.
At the centre of this project is Stage Precision’s SP software, which plays an integral part in Quince’s production workflow, allowing for precise tracking, calibration and real-time data integration. Coinciding with major infrastructure upgrades at the Honda Center in anticipation of the 2028 Olympic Games, the Ducks aimed to elevate the matchday experience through a combination of projection, lighting design and data-driven visuals. The arena was outfitted with a laser projection mapping system, comprising twelve Christie Griffyn 4k50-RGB projectors, Mystique Pro Venue Edition software and an automated rigging system.
Quince introduced a custom-built interactive game called “Frog Dash”, intended to run during intermission breaks. It relies on player motion capture and ID tag tracking to create a real-time gaming experience. With the Ducks looking to integrate more sponsorship-driven content and immersive digital storytelling throughout the season, a scalable and responsive technology platform was essential.
The SP software facilitates communication between multiple hardware and software platforms, including an array of OptiTrack motion capture cameras, Pixera media servers for content playback and the game engine that powered “Frog Dash”. “Stage Precision is our Swiss Army knife”, says Eric Gazzillo, Vice President of Innovation at Quince Imaging. “It sits at the centre of the operation, managing data flow between the tracking system, game engine and media servers. We use active ID tags on players, and SP handles the entire data communication network, from camera calibration through to real-time adjustments.”
The calibration process itself was notably efficient, utilising wand-based techniques that allowed the team to fine-tune alignment across the entire arena. SP enabled real-time control over tracking and frame synchronisation, eliminating the need for separate systems to handle different elements of the process. With latency and responsiveness playing a critical role in gameplay, this unified approach ensured flawless operation throughout the activation.
“Being able to adjust tracking and processing frame-wide in SP was a major step forward. It meant we could streamline post-processing and reduce any lags. Everything was smoother, quicker and more precise”, says Gazzillo, adding: “With SP, we can swap players and tags mid-game, run events back-to-back, and rely on SP to keep everything aligned without missing a beat.”
The SP team also provided dedicated support throughout the project, offering a direct Slack channel where Quince could troubleshoot in real time and receive guidance as required. The installation at the Honda Center was completed in four weeks. The Ducks’ production department, led by Peter Uvalle, played a key role in rolling out the permanent solution, working alongside other technology partners such as Related Grey and Sexy Lites to deliver the desired matchday atmosphere.
The Anaheim Ducks have already requested new interactive concepts for future matches, with plans to expand the system’s capabilities.
(Photos: Stage Precision)
Coldplay choose Clair Global for comms and data services
Coldplay’s “Music of the Spheres” world tour, which is led by Production Manager Chris Kansy, has called upon Clair Global for comms solutions and IT deployments. When the large-scale tour visited India, the band performed for almost 223,000 fans over two nights at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, the world’s largest cricket ground.
Clair Global designed a comms system comprising two Riedel Communications Artist64 digital intercom network frames, fifty Bolero wireless beltpacks and six panels. The band’s Showcaller, Julia Whittle, communicates via Clair’s main show channel, which has a one-way transmit to Motorola radios, while multiple radio interfaces are deployed to offer seamless coverage for distant positions, such as pyrotechnic gags, which on a production of this size can be fired from up to 400 m away from the stage.
Clair Global also provided 200 Motorola XPR 3500e radios that can be reprogrammed over Wi-Fi utilizing the IT network installed. “Each of the Motorola base stations offer two-way communication from our Artist system, Bolero and radios”, explains Clair Global RF Technician Turner Pollari. “With simple fiber runs it offers us the ability to easily change how we deploy the system. For the show in India, production kept the cricket pitch uncovered for as long as possible and the cable runs to our two FOH positions were adjusted. Additionally, with the support of Luminex switches, we can be flexible and quick with changes. We take an uplink from the IT printer rack at the stage that provides internet to each Luminex in the comms system, making it easier in a crowded stadium to access apps and other means of communication.”
At every show, a third Riedel Artist64 system lives in “video world”, managed by the band’s Video Systems Engineer Chris Farrants. “This enables an easy solution to integrate the engineering, camera and LED teams, which all live on a Bolero system”, says Pollari. “A further 8 x 4 wire lines are shared with Audio/RF Tech James Smallwood, who runs yet another Artist system that provides panels for the audio and backline departments. The AES67 trunkline also ensures the crew can use the Bolero antennas.”
A key requirement for the huge shows in India was to accommodate a 100-person livestream crew; the Disney+ Hotstar’s team, which livestreamed from Ahmedabad for a 3-hour broadcast. Clair Global interfaced 8 x 4 wire lines to keep this team in the loop on how the live concert production was unfolding, ensuring every department could work seamlessly. The Disney+ team had thirty Boleros on their own network, bringing the total to eighty Boleros in 1.9 for the Indian shows alone.
“Having so many people with so many communication options mean Coldplay’s shows run in a very polished manner”, continues Pollari. “Everything in this huge production is quickly conveyed, from tech to medical emergencies, every step allows for real time updates.” The back-of-house IT infrastructure is heavily advanced, and is overseen by Clair’s Data Services Specialist Dalton Tyler, who deploys each IT rack strategically as well as the access points (APs) and SSIDs curated to each crewmembers’ workflow. Clair Global also creates encrypted networks for each tour department and production office, critically protecting both staff and artist data.
“In Ahmedabad, we had two Gbps data lines coming into the stadium from the local Internet service providers”, details Tyler. “Due to the amount of people relying on us for data, we used two separate providers for each line, ensuring there was a back-up plan. We have several different networks for various departments; management and dressing rooms are set-up in advance, and I install up to 24 Cisco Meraki APs to provide Wi-Fi to all other areas of the venue once on site. Other key networks are for the production office compounds - often servicing up to twenty offices backstage - the stage, where we run APs throughout the underworld, and through our comms system to both FOH locations, providing consistent and reliable data to all crewmembers.”
“Music of the Spheres”, which has been crowned the highest-attended music tour of all time by the Guinness World Records, continues for much of 2025, travelling across Asia, North America and the UK, culminating at London’s Wembley Stadium on September 8.
(Photo: Anna Lee Media)
CTC Events inszeniert Markenauftritt für „Creed Aventus“
Die Nobilis Group hat in Zusammenarbeit mit CTC Events, Agentur für Markenkommunikation mit Sitz in Wiesbaden, einen exklusiven und personalisierten Influencer-Event für die Parfümmarke Creed organisiert. Die Veranstaltung fand in Wien statt und bot 24 Influencern ein Erlebnis, das die Ästhetik des Reitsports mit der der Kunstwelt vereinte und zelebrierte - eine Verbindung, die zu den Markenmerkmalen von Creed zählt.
Der Event wurde in Kooperation zwischen Nobilis und CTC konzipiert, geplant und umgesetzt. „Wir agierten nicht nur als Dienstleister, sondern als echter Kooperationspartner“, sagt Conny Lobert, Geschäftsführerin von CTC Events. „Durch die enge Abstimmung der Teams von CTC und der Nobilis Group konnten wir ein Konzept entwickeln, das die persönliche Betreuung der Teilnehmer und die optimale Präsentation der Marke und des Produkts ‘Creed Aventus’ in den Mittelpunkt stellte.“
Die Wahl der Location fiel auf das „SO/Vienna“, ein Hotel, das mit seiner künstlerischen Gestaltung einen direkten Bezug zur Kunstwelt herstellt - die Decke der Panoramalounge beispielsweise wurde von der Schweizer Videokünstlerin Pipilotti Rist gestaltet. Der zweitägige Event begann in der Location Z13, wo die Teilnehmer in Workshops eintauchten, die durch eine LED-Wand und ein audiovisuelles Intro die Markenwelt von Creed thematisierten.
Für den Fragrance Workshop mit zwei Markenexperten war die Location mit brennendem Kamin, Sofa und Sitz-Möglichkeiten auf den Fensterbänken der alten gusseisernen Fenster wie ein Wohnzimmer gestaltet. Der Duft auf einem großen Tisch und die dekorativ in Szene gesetzten Ingredienzien erfüllten den gesamten Raum. So entstand für die Gruppe ein immersives Erlebnis in dem privaten Ambiente, bei dem die Anwesenden die Hintergründe über den Duft und seine Entstehung erfuhren. Die Ingredienzien des Duftes wurden außerdem im Rahmen einer modern interpretierten Teatime mit Signature Cocktails erlebbar gemacht.
Der Lederworkshop, bei dem die Teilnehmer personalisierte Armbänder selbst herstellten, und die ebenfalls persönlich bestickten Dustbags sowie ein Willkommenspaket mit weiteren personalisierten Goodies unterstrichen die Wertschätzung für ihre Anwesenheit. Kulinarisch wurden die Teilnehmer mit einem 6-Gänge-Menü im Restaurant „Aend“ bedacht.
Am zweiten Tag erlebten die Influencer live das „Morgentraining“ der Spanischen Hofreitschule und erhielten eine Führung durch die Stallungen. Später, beim „Scent Profiling“ in der Creed Boutique, erhielt jeder Teilnehmer seinen ganz persönlichen Duft - gemäß Hobby, Lieblingsfarbe, Vorlieben etc.
Die Dekoration des Events, die mit den Ingredienzien des Parfüms gestaltet war, machte die SoMe-Kampagne von „Creed Aventus“ erlebbar. „Wir wollten ein Erlebnis schaffen, das nicht nur visuell beeindruckt, sondern auch die Sinne anspricht“, so Christine Tschauder von CTC Events.
(Foto: Adrian Ahmeti/Nobilis Group)
Polar supplies Lake, Radial and Beyerdynamic for Production & Touring Ltd
Somerset-based Production & Touring Ltd (P&T) is a one-stop shop for all aspects of live event production and management, with a client list of artists including Snow Patrol, Calvin Harris, Sasha, David Gray, Declan McKenna, and many more. When P&T Director and FOH engineer Graham Pattison was recently looking to source a Radial JDX 48 guitar amp direct box, he was directed by Radial to its UK distributor Polar, who met his requirement.
The JDX 48 is a direct box designed to capture the sound of an electric guitar amplifier by connecting between the amp head and speaker cabinet, providing a balanced feed for the PA system emulating the sound of a well-placed microphone. During the course of his Radial purchase, Pattison discovered that Polar’s portfolio was able to tick another box on his urgent wish-list in the shape of Lake’s LMX48 processor.
“What I needed to achieve was a very good quality front end for my FOH console for matrix distribution when I’m not travelling with a PA system and/or a technician”, he explains. “Some days it’s L/R, mono sub, and mono fills, others it’s L/R with stereo subs, stereo fills with under balcony units etc., so I needed the necessary functionality. The eight Mesa modules on the Lake LMX48 processor allow me to do this.”
Sales Manager for Polar Professional Audio Solutions, Andy Plunkett, liaised with Pattison over the sale: “It’s always great to deal with tour professionals of Graham’s calibre, and invariably a pleasure to chat through and provide detailed insights into the technical aspects of the products we distribute. In this case, Graham was up against some pretty tight deadlines, so we quickly provided a quotation and expedited delivery to ensure that the processor arrived in time for his next gig which happened to be at the Royal Albert Hall. We also supplied a Beyerdynamic MM1 measurement microphone which Graham had had his eye on for a while.”
“The Albert Hall was a bit full on”, adds Pattison. “However, it went very well and the LMX48 was in the front line of it all. The Lake processor has since become a major part of my audio arsenal, and I can’t imagine doing shows without one now.”
(Photos: Polar/Production & Touring Ltd)
Marc Carolan lightens his load with Fourier Audio’s Transform.Engine on Snow Patrol tour
Although Marc Carolan has become well known for carrying several racks of analog outboard gear when touring as the front-of-house mixer for Snow Patrol and Muse, he is just as likely to apply some of his favorite plugins hosted on Fourier Audio’s Transform.Engine.
Carolan, who has been working in live and studio sound for over 25 years, also including with The Cure, Italian superstar Cremonini, and many others, follows a simple principle when selecting what signal processing to apply to a sound source. “It has always been about the tool that fits, the tool that works. I’m quite agnostic about it”, he says.
On Snow Patrol’s current tour, which heads to Europe in June and July following a string of North American dates in March and April, his processing agnosticism allowed him to lean more heavily on his Fourier Transform.Engine and plugins from the likes of Oeksound, Plugin Alliance, Softube and Solid State Logic. “I was able to leave two racks behind without having a panic attack, because there’s a lot of great plugins that can fill in those analog outboard gaps”, he comments.
Ordinarily, Skan PA Hire, a Clair Global company, would have sent Carolan to the States with four racks stacked with analog gear for this Snow Patrol tour. “For the first time in a long time we were doing theaters in the US, and my arena footprint was not welcome”, he laughs. But, having toured for so long with the Transform.Engine and having explored its performance as applied to his clients’ typical input sources, he says, he was completely familiar with what his options were to the analog outboard equipment that stayed in Skan’s warehouse this time around.
“This summer, I’ve got three tours out - Snow Patrol, Muse, and Cesare Cremonini - and Transform is a big part of that picture”, he adds. For those summer tours, Carolan intends to take the Broadway and West End theater model, where a sound designer sets up and programs a show but isn’t necessarily the operator behind the mixing console every night, and apply it to touring rock band shows. “All three tours are happening at the same time. I finally convinced everyone that, if you program it correctly and pay due attention, you could put an operator on sound”, he says, which is also a similar model to lighting design, both on the road and in the theater. “The Transform platform has helped me with that plan.”
Carolan will work on some of the shows, he says, but logistics make it impossible for some dates: “For instance, I’m headlining at San Siro Stadium in Italy with Cremonini, Muse are headlining a big festival in France, and Snow Patrol are headlining a stadium in Ireland, all on the same night. But they will all use my show files.” The introduction of a Cuelist function in Transform.Engine’s software update has opened additional possibilities for Carolan on the platform, he shares. “What I’ve now been able to do is build a show on my Transform.Engine that’s got different levels for how much outboard I have. I can program the show as if I have no outboard, and I can zoom in or out according to what the tour budget is.”
Carolan’s confidence in the Fourier Audio platform stems in no small part from the fact that he began using it while it was still in the alpha stage of development. When first supplied with the package, Carolan, whose main clients typically play some of the world’s largest arenas and stadiums, immediately incorporated it into his workflow. “It’s not really what they intended. I said: ‘But it works, so let’s do it.’ What was amazing in those days was that Henry, Pete, and the Fourier guys would literally sit behind me and code - and then I’d use it in the show.”
His long experience with Transform means that he hardly thinks about the difference between analog and digital. “I’m quite comfortable about allowing it to just be an extension of my hardware”, Carolan explains. “You tweak this, you tweak that, as if it were outboard. I’ll focus on, say, a reverb or a delay or an EQ, and everything that’s out of that focus is just dumb outboard. That’s wonderfully freeing. One of the great joys is having things like Fab Filter Q3 right there and knowing that if I want to, I can automate twenty bands of that. But do I want to? With all of these tools, it’s wonderful to just find out what’s the best application, musically.”
(Photos: Fourier Audio/Skan PA Hire)
Coda Audio AiRay and ViRay supplied for outdoor city centre stage in Chiang Mai
Held in April 2025 in Chiang Mai, Thailand, “Songkran” is a festival which celebrates the traditional Thai New Year. The three-day public holiday is marked by the widespread throwing of water, which takes place on a grand scale amidst joyous celebrations. Numerous other events take place alongside the annual water festival, helping to create an atmosphere of community togetherness and fun.
In the city of Chiang Mai, as well as a host of street shows, the focus of Songkran was the large gathering outside the Mays shopping centre, where a large stage hosted a wide range of performances including DJ sets, live artists, dance, and more. Handling the audio for the 10,000-strong audience in this open air setting was Bangkok-based Coconut Sound, who supplied a Coda Audio system. A customer of Coda’s Thailand distributor Modern Solutions Plus, Coconut has been a Coda Audio user since 2018, and its ViRay and AiRay systems are in constant demand across the country.
For the Chiang Mai event, which featured Thai artists J.Jetrin, Retrospect, and The Toys, Coconut Sound deployed a system comprising a main PA of 8 x AiRay and 4 x ViRay per side, with side hangs of 6 x AiRay with 4 x ViRay per side. The low end reinforcement consisted of 16 x SCP sensor controlled subwoofers with a number of Hops8 (8’’ high output point source) units used as front fills. The system was designed by Coconut’s Wichak Chanmuang.
(Photos: Coda Audio)
Mr. Light Solutions pushes Netron gear in harsh Canadian winter
Mr. Light Solutions, a production company based in Toronto, Canada, and led by founder Matthew Reicker, recently deployed a lighting data distribution system built around Obsidian Control Systems’ Netron product line for season one of a yet-to-be-announced streaming series.
Filmed in both studio and outdoor locations around Toronto, the winter-themed series faced some of the harshest weather conditions in recent memory, including temperatures dipping below -20°C, heavy snowfall, and freezing rain.
Reicker has worked on many different types of productions in his nearly fifteen years in the entertainment lighting industry - theatre, corporate events, concerts, and film - and in many capacities from lighting designer and programmer to crew chief and production manager. A member of IATSE Local 873, he launched Mr. Light Solutions in 2011 and since the pandemic has helped to update networked data distribution in film lighting.
“When I transitioned into film during the pandemic, I saw a lot of antiquated data setups - running multiple DMX lines and opto-splitters without taking advantage of Ethernet and nodes”, says Reicker. “Working with the Netron nodes, I feel like I’ve helped bring the industry into the 21st century.”
When the show’s rigging gaffer Chris Tackas initially requested Netron EN12s and EN4s, and wanted to protect them with waterproof cases, Reicker suggested the EN6IP, a 6-port EtherDMX node with IP66 protection, as a better fit for outdoor use. After testing a unit from Mr. Light’s rental stock, Tackas agreed - and purchased a full complement of EN12s, EN4s and EN6IPs for studio and exterior locations.
The EN6IPs, along with NS8IP switches (supplied by Reicker), were deployed outdoors, exposed to extreme winter weather for ten straight weeks without additional protection. “We kicked the crap out of them all winter long and we had a very hard winter”, Reicker adds. “The Netron nodes got buried in snow, caked in mud, soaked with freezing rain - and the entire system remained flawless. We had lights fail, but not the network.”
A total of six EN6IP nodes and six NS8IP switches were used outdoors, while EN12s and EN4s powered the indoor studio, running 24/7 for up to sixteen weeks. The Netron nodes were set up with redundant power, using both Power over Ethernet (PoE) and True1 connectors tied to separate breakers. This dual-source approach provided both a main and a redundant power supply for uninterrupted operation.
(Photos: Mr. Light Solutions/Obsidian Control Systems)
Crt Birsa gets geometric with ChamSys
Making a “simple wall of light”, uncluttered by any scenic pieces or barriers, and not disrupted by any restrictions, has been a long-held dream of Crt Birsa. “It was on my wish list”, says the cofounder of Blackout Lighting Design. “I’ve always wanted to create a simple wall of light, very populated, mathematical, and clean.”
Birsa got the opportunity to create such a wall when he lit EMA 2025, the Slovenian national Eurovision pre-selection event, which is held at Studio 1 of Slovenian National Television in Ljubljana. Working with his fellow Blackout designer Anze Trstenjak and frequent collaborator, set designer Greta Godnic, he created a 3D light wall to support the performances of the Eurovision contestants.
Controlling the “simple wall” was a complex task, one Birsa handled with help from his ChamSys MagicQ MQ250M Stadium Console, MagicQ Stadium Connect PC based programming interface, and a backup MQ70 console. Also helping him were multicamera director Tina Novak of RTV (Slovenia’s national TV network) and LED content creator VJ Andrej Intihar (“VJ Rasta”).
“When you have so many fixtures in play, you and your team have to be very careful in terms of geometry”, explains Birsa. “The key in making this kind of clean look is to take bigger groups of lighting fixtures and run them as if they were a single fixture. Of course, then you can make individual effects within these groups.”
The 32-universe show involved 358 lighting fixtures, many of them on studio hoists, in a relatively small space. Birsa notes that one of the universes contained key lights and show lights, so they had to share it, using the ChamSys console’s network session. “Also, updating the patch offset was very important for this show, since it had so many moving fixtures, and the ChamSys helped there as well”, he adds.
“The majority of the looks did not need a lot of position correcting after the patch offset was updated”, he continues. “The whole show was made in group-based programming. This made it clean, straightforward. Then, when it came to updating the show and replacing fixtures, we could do that very easily. The console made all the programming simpler, faster and more fun. This is very important, especially at high profile TV shows where you are usually time limited and changes have to be applied very quickly.”
Birsa notes that EMA 2025 was probably the biggest set ever run at TV Slovenia 1 Studio. His “wall of light”, which was made up of 200 fixtures, was at the back of the studio. There was also a matrix of spots and washes mounted on ladders lined on the side with LED strips, and a line of strobes at the bottom.
“All the other fixtures, which were on the studio hoist, just followed this architecture”, says Birsa. “So, when a certain pattern was in play, we could add a lot of fixtures without making it look crowded. But the biggest challenge in this was not to look too bright with such big amount of lights in such a small space. So, I had to be very careful in programming.”
(Photos: Blackout Lighting Design)
Leyard LED technology brings Hans Memling exhibition to life in Bruges
The historic Sint-Janshospitaal Museum in Bruges has unveiled an innovative digital experience that transforms how visitors engage with the life and works of Early Netherlandish painter Hans Memling. The “Closer to Memling” exhibition is an interactive audiovisual journey that features Leyard LED display technology, creating an immersive environment in the museum’s medieval attic space.
Installation work began in February 2024 and was completed in December, opening to the public on December 10. The project represents a collaboration between Musea Brugge and digital experience specialists Ocular, who worked alongside creative partners Studio Louter, Shosho, Wondering, Atento and Chris Pype to develop the concept and implementation.
Following previous digital installations at the museum, Ocular was entrusted with the task of transforming the historic attic into an engaging, accessible space that could appeal to visitors of all ages. “Through brainstorming sessions with the client, we determined the layout, content, and interactive elements”, explains Nicolas Vanden Avenne, Ocular Founder and CEO. “We built a full-scale trial installation where both adults and children could test the applications, ensuring a smooth implementation.”
The centrepiece of the exhibition is a 4.5 metre by 4.5 metre Leyard NEV1.9 LED video wall, which enables visitors to explore Memling’s masterpieces in detail while preserving the historic integrity of the 800-year-old building. “The biggest challenge was to integrate the hardware as subtly as possible in the monumental attic”, says Vanden Avenne. “Leyard’s LED wall obviously catches the eye immediately, but it does not compromise the authentic elements.”
Robin van der Heiden, BNL Field Sales Manager at Leyard Europe, adds: “We used our 1.9 mm pixel pitch so that visitors can stand very close in front of the screen. The NEV series also comes with 800 nits of brightness, meaning you can show a very clear, powerful image on the screen. Working closely with Ocular from the early planning stages allowed us to tailor our NEV1.9 LED solution specifically for this unique historic space.” Projection solutions were not viable in the space.
“The combination of music, interaction, relaxation zones, and the LED display creates a truly engaging learning environment that’s particularly appealing to younger audiences - a key demographic we aim to attract”, says Katrien Steelandt, Coordinator of e-culture at Musea Brugge. “As a tech partner, Ocular was with us from the very beginning of the project until the end, and beyond.”
(Photos: Leyard)
Robe Esprites for Singapore Ballet production
Singapore-based lighting designer Adrian Tan of The Light Project recently utilised 32 Robe Esprite moving lights - sixteen Profiles and sixteen Fresnels - to light a production of “Swan Lake” staged by the Singapore Ballet at Esplanade Theatres by the Bay in Singapore.
Twenty-eight of these fixtures were part of a new lighting package which has been added to the theatre’s house rig, and, as Tan needed a couple more of each type to complete the detail of his design, more were sourced through Robe’s Asia Pacific office, also in Singapore. This was the third re-light of this “Swan Lake” production at the venue, the second time that the Singapore Ballet has been accompanied by the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra, and the first time that Esprites were used as the main workhorse lighting fixture. All the Esprites were positioned above the stage, and the trim height of the fly bars was around ten metres.
This staging of “Swan Lake” was very classical, so the lighting needed to emulate this tungsten aesthetic using the latest technologies. As a designer, Tan appreciates the subtlety and texture of the pastel colours, and until this experience with Esprites, he says, the warm tones of any LED fixtures were “never warm enough”. So, he was pleasantly surprised to find that the warm sunlight glow - at around 3000 K - that he desired for this show looked “really nice”, and that generally he didn’t have to do so much colour mixing. Primarily the colour temperature whites covered the very specific tones that he wanted. For the lake scenes, he arrived at a 5600 K tone with all the right nuance and texturing, again without having to spend too much time producing the hue with the Esprites.
By his own admission, Tan is “a stickler” for hyper-sensitive linear dimming and elegant refined pastels, cool steels and decent warm whites. “Most manufacturers can do a saturated blue or a red, but when it comes to pastels, colour mixing, especially using an LED source, it is a whole new art form.” He notes that creating the gobo scenes required for this production was “substantially faster” using Esprites and moving lights than it had been previously, and that he had the additional benefit of being able to repurpose those same fixtures that were instrumental in building the gobo scenes, for something completely different just moments later as the story unfolded.
Tan has also recently used more of the new Robe fixtures at Esplanade Theatres by the Bay including Paintes in the Black Box space, and Footsie2s and T32 Cycs when lighting a hybrid/contemporary dance piece. These were all part of the same lighting upgrade featuring a total of 170 Robe products among other lights.
(Photos: Bernie Ng)
Astera for Porsche Macan Electric reveal
Sean Shay, creative director at Sound Image, a Clair Global brand, reached for Astera Hyperion and Titan Tubes to help imagine a piece of light art highlighting a “hero car” for the launch of the Porsche Macan Electric car presented by Porsche San Francisco at their showroom in the city’s downtown Design District.
Shay used twenty Astera Hyperion tubes rigged at different heights and angles in a fan shape behind the car coupled with Titan Tubes underneath the vehicle to enhance the depth and dimension of the space. As the car was revealed, a series of “sparkling” kinetic pixel-chases created by video content running through the Hyperions and bouncing off the polished bodywork gave the impression of rapid speed and movement.
Shay and his production team were asked to light the project by Riley Sims, the West Coast marketing lead for Porsche, for whom they had worked on previous projects, some also involving Astera products. “For the aesthetics to work as I envisioned, I needed a fully wireless solution”, says Shay, explaining that his starting point was taking a deep dive into the Porsche style guide and an extensive recce at the dealership.
He was struck by a large curved window, architecture which inspired this look fusing a runway fashion show with a futuristic journey. “I immediately thought of straight neon lines as a basic structural framework but obviously wanted a light source that could also be hugely flexible and dynamic”, he explains. Effectively, he wanted straight lines that could also shift, re-shape and appear to make the car move.
The Hyperions were positioned behind the car, rigged using a combination of monofilament and magnetic hooks secured and tensioned via a steel beam in the roof just in front of the window, and two vertical beams on either side of where the car was parked. A couple of additional tubes were clamped magnetically to the vertical steels.
When dark and with the Tubes illuminated, the monofilament was nearly invisible, so they appeared to be floating in thin air upstage of the car. The flickering effects - created running video content through the Hyperions - were also reflected in the glass window, which, combined with the luminescent glow coming from the Titans underneath, further ramped up the impact. As the presenter built up to the reveal, Shay ran the movement chases, and, once revealed, this slid into a more subtle “standby” effect.
Shay aims to blend beauty with purpose, and as Sound Image’s Event Productions division expands, he uses Astera extensively on his creative projects. “Astera has become a ‘no-brainer’ for me on so many occasions, especially when lighting site-specific special events like this”, he notes. Before Astera’s Tubes were popular, he worked using fluorescents and gel sleeves, but that world now seems a long time ago, as Astera has become his go-to over the last five years.
The Porsche Macan Electric event also featured music by a violinist, live painting, and an on-site gallery of Porsche related works by artist Beau Robinson, all complemented with Shay’s lighting scheme.
(Photos: Sound Image)
Chauvet helps Jack Cannon set mood for Muni Long at Coachella
Draped in sheer gold cloth with matching laurels on her head, and flanked by dancers in gladiator sandals, Muni Long evoked images of an ancient goddess for her Coachella debut. Long began her show on the Mojave stage at 4 pm, a little over three hours before the sun set, which essentially nixed the idea of using blackouts to add a dramatic effect to her stage presence.
Long’s designer, Jack Cannon (of Juliet Blue Creative), came up with a way to use gradients of bright light instead of darkness to accentuate powerful moments on stage. “This design leaned heavily on high-intensity saturation and visual texture fixtures that could still register powerfully in ambient light”, says Cannon. “When we used strobing, it was always intentional and timed to moments that could carry the energy forward without feeling forced or lost. With such a luminous environment, the goal was to use rhythm and repetition over light and dark contrast. The show played with a limited palette - only about three to four color themes - but we manipulated depth and contrast. Background versus foreground, intensity versus desaturation.”
“Muni Long has a natural elegance as a performer, and I wanted to mirror that with an understated but rich visual language - something cinematic, controlled, and cohesive”, he continues. “Our curtained backdrop allowed us to frame her with softness and scale, while the monochromatic color palette reinforced the emotional atmosphere without distraction.”
Helping Cannon tie the backdrop into his overall design were eight Chauvet Professional Colorado Solo Bar 6 battens, which like the rest of the lighting rig were supplied by Kinetic Lighting. “They were key to achieving a sense of verticality and drama”, says Cannon of the fixtures, which were positioned along the upstage edge, and focused on uplighting the drapery.
Also critical to creating a unified look on stage were the rig’s four Maverick Storm 1 Hybrid fixtures. “Each of the hybrids had a distinct purpose”, says Cannon. “We had two of them positioned mid-stage left and right to provide side light for choreography and angled backlight for downstage action. The other two were upstage, flanking the scenic ‘Hand’ - a major visual feature. The show opens with Muni seated on the Hand as it rotates toward the audience. The Storms, paired with low fog and thick atmosphere, gave us a layered gobo and prism look that framed her in a dreamlike slow-motion reveal.”
Cannon, who was initially brought into this project as the lighting designer, eventually became responsible for video design and made contributions to scenography as well. He worked closely with Ry Christiaansen, Production Manager from 1826; Creative Directors Simon Hammerstein and Jerry Reeve; and Scenic Designer Ruby Law. “This was a true team effort”, he says. “Everyone made important contributions, including on the lighting side, Kinetic Lighting, represented by James Schipper and Rachel Barth; Allan Nathan, the House LD from Felix Lighting; master electrician Rhys Morris; and his assistant Michael Spross.”
As Cannon had no overnight programming window, most looks with the house lighting rig the audience and he saw together for the first time. Given that this was a camera-heavy show, there was added pressure to get every look right on the first go. He describes the show this way: “It was all about depth and emotional punctuation. Using sidelight through atmospheric haze let us create visual breath - moments that felt suspended or sculpted in air. The strobing wasn’t about chaos; it was about rhythm and body language, always connected to the choreography or the music’s movement. It allowed for bursts of intensity that still felt intentional and elegant.”
(Photos: Chauvet Professional)
KV2 Audio supports Bright Festival 2025 with sound and immersive coverage
An immersive display of art, innovation and technology, this year’s Bright Festival received over 7,200 visitors of all ages across the three-day event. Taking place from April 11-13 in Florence, Italy, the festival was made up of 120+ hours of conferences, studio sessions, art exhibitions and shows, featuring 48 speakers, artists and international guests, as well as 22 digital artworks, interactive experiences and live performances.
Bringing the experience to life was a KV2 Audio system. “I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the opportunity to install and present KV2’s sound system on our main stage”, says Bright Festival’s technical director, Samuele Barretta. For a large-capacity venue with powerful visual displays, it was essential that the audio system maintained the artistic atmosphere and elevated the experience for guests.
“Upon receiving the final plan, I must admit I had some initial concerns regarding the number of loudspeakers”, continues Barretta. “Coming from a background where achieving high sound pressure and consistent coverage often involves deploying nearly twice the amount of equipment, the proposed setup appeared, at first glance, rather minimal. However, once the system was powered on, I was immediately impressed by the sound pressure - an essential feature for electronic music.”
For the main PA, Bright opted for a VHD system comprising two VHD2.0, two VHD1.0 and ten subwoofers (eight VHD2.16, one VHD4.21 Active, and one VHD4.21 Passive) with power and control delivered by two VHD2000 and two VHD3200, creating a uniform listening experience across the dancefloor. An EX system featuring a pair of EX12s and a pair of EX1.8 active subwoofers was supplied for the DJ booth.
Bright Festival provided a shared, safe space for digital art language to celebrate unity and diversity, attracting visitors from 28 Italian cities and 35 countries around the world. Bright Festival returns October 9-12, 2025, in Leipzig, Germany.
(Photos: KV2 Audio)
The Activity, TAG and Elation light up Ultra Miami’s 25th anniversary
In March 2025, the world’s biggest names in electronic music came together in Miami to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Ultra Music Festival. The three-day event was held at Bayfront Park and included Main Stage performances by Dom Dolla and John Summit, Alesso, Afrojack, Tiesto, Hardwell, Skrillex, Armin van Buuren, Zedd, Martin Garrix, and others.
Tasked with managing the technical design of Ultra’s Main Stage were Patrick Dierson and the team at The Activity, who worked alongside lighting partner TAG. “We knew going into it that this show had to be special”, says Dierson. “Given that it was Ultra’s 25th anniversary, the pressure to deliver a great show was definitely looming.” Anchored by 120 Pulse Bar L, 40 Pulse Bar S, and 132 Proteus Hybrid from Elation, the stage design - led by Ultra’s Creative Director Richard Milstein - emphasized clean lines and layered depth.
“The overall look was arguably a cleaner and sleeker design than ever before”, says Dierson. “It was very well dispersed both left to right as well as back to front, which gave a significant amount of visual depth; more so than we have been able to attain in years past.” Another feature he says that was welcomed by all involved was in limiting the number of fixture types down to a total of five. “This just makes everything easier, specifically cloning on the console; a feature that our guest LDs live and die by in the festival world.”
The Pulse Bar and Proteus Hybrid did the heavy lifting and were dispersed across the stage. “The Pulse Bars in particular were utilized as our main point source fixture, outwardly facing the audience and, in a rather prestigious spot for every Ultra design, they helped to form Ultra’s iconic ‘U’ mounted at the top center of the stage structure”, explains Dierson, adding that they also defined the set’s geometric octagon backdrop throughout the weekend. The Proteus Hybrids, meanwhile, cast “monumental” beams that reached skyward and dazzled across crowd and stage alike.
Throughout the three-day festival, with so many guest artist teams getting a chance to operate the rig, it was inevitable to see some spectacular cueing. For one memorable moment during Everything Always’ set, Creative Director Ben Dalgleish and LD Kasper Iseger of Human Person crafted a striking visual by slowly peeling the Proteus Hybrids from their audience focus toward the stage. The beams ultimately landed in a focus that staggered them horizontally across the stage upwards toward the “U” at the top center of the structure. The result was akin to a massive pyramid of light beams that highlighted the iconic symbol and stretched straight up into the night sky.
“It was one of those brief moments of time that was seemingly innocuous when focusing but ultimately created such a beautiful image”, says Dierson. “You tend to get a lot of those throughout the weekend and they’re usually in those moments of musical calmness when everything stops frantically blinking and flashing.” Then there was Skrillex where LD Jaycob Luque twisted the same rig into something more sinister and playful, transforming the “U” into a devilish smiley made entirely of Pulse Bars with Hybrid support. As EDM shows of this size require a massive amount of data to be delivered, Netron nodes from Obsidian Control Systems were used.
The Activity’s role, now firmly embedded in the DNA of Ultra Miami after over a decade of involvement, has evolved into the ultimate backstage conductor - coordinating technical teams, guest artist requirements, scheduling, pre-vis sessions, syncing artist logistics, and making sure everything (and everyone) hits their mark. “It gets quite complex very quickly and the entire process remains kinetic up until the last day of the festival”, shares Dierson. “It’s a sort of controlled chaos, which is where I like to think The Activity team thrives.” He adds that “praise goes to the TAG team who really went out of their way to make the rig as programming-friendly as possible. This marked their third year handling the Main Stage and the experience of having undergone the two prior really showed.”
Crew included: Grant Davis (VJ Technical Liaison), Kevin Mignone (TAG Lead), Russ Felton (TAG Crew Chief), John Flanagan (FOH Lighting Technical Lead), John Volpe (FOH Video Technical Lead), Neil Rosenstock (Audio Lead), Luis Torez (SFX Lead), Ash Ali (Stage Manager), and Ray Steinman (Technical Producer).
(Photos: Ultra Music Festival)
