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Whitney Hoversten dials up dynamism of Bruno Mars tour with Ayrton Rivale and Veloce Profiles
03/09/2026
Nüssli baut Tribünen, Hospitality-Bereiche und Brücken für neue Formel-1-Rennstrecke in Madrid
01/09/2026
GF Eventtechnik nutzt dBTechnologies Vio für Jubiläums-Open-Air des Congress Centers Ramstein
25/08/2026
Port Lighting Systems helps bring The Brook’s new Secret Garden outdoor stage to life with Elation
24/08/2026
Ayrton supports Fuerza Regida stadium tour
21/08/2026
Over 100 Chauvet Color Strike M fixtures help create immersive world for Gims
Words like “atmosphere” and “ambience” come up often when fans recount their experience at one of Gims’ June performances at Decathlon Arena Stade Pierre-Mauroy, a multi-use retractable roof stadium in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, Metropolis of Lille, Northern France. That’s because the Congolese-French rapper flourished in an immersive 3D environment marked by light, movement, energy, and emotion that embraced the entire arena.
Maxime Tisseuil of Scenync would not have had it any other way. From the moment he began thinking about this production, the designer focused his attention beyond traditional concert lighting. “When I started designing the show for the Lille stadium, my main goal was to create a visual experience that matched Gims’ energy and stage presence”, he says. “I didn’t want the lighting simply to illuminate the artist - I wanted it to become an integral part of the performance.”
“I envisioned a huge pixel-mapped luminous ceiling that could become a scenic element, constantly transforming throughout the show”, he continues. “Around this structure, I focused on creating depth, volume, and immersion, turning the stadium into a living environment. My vision was to have the lighting feel musical and follow the emotions of the performance. I spent a lot of time programming around melodic phrases, rhythms, and vocals so that the lighting naturally enhanced the music.”
The fruits of Tisseuil’s vision were evident right from the start of the show with the opening song “Sapé comme jamais”. That’s when everything came to life, as lighting, video content and special effects joined to turn the stage and the entire arena into a 3D entity focused on Gims and his music. Throughout the show, this environment evolved - light angles changed, altering the apparent shape and size of the stage, which itself adopted different color personalities as bold monochromatic washes and intense whites came and went. At other times, darkness dominated, combined on occasion with small dots of white light, to turn the arena into a tiny piece of the cosmos.
Helping Tisseuil create this panorama were 122 Chauvet Professional Color Strike M motorized strobe-washes, arranged across the stage deck. “Their RGB technology combined with pixel strobe effects allowed us to build a highly dynamic visual environment, capable of producing both large washes of color and intricate graphic effects”, explains Tisseuil. “The Color Strike M is one of my favorite fixtures because it can contribute in many different ways. It offers pixel-by-pixel control of both the RGB face and the strike beam, which allowed us to create highly graphic effects across the lighting ceiling in this show, while also maintaining creative flexibility.”
The Color Strike M, along with the rest of Tisseuil’s rig, worked seamlessly with the video wall that ran across the entire width of the stage. Images on the screen changed throughout the performance, showing Gims sometimes, and mood compositions at others, lighting always flowing in sync with the displays.
“I placed great importance on the consistency between lighting, video, special effects, and scenic design”, notes Tisseuil. “On this production, video content also played major role, and the challenge was to support it without ever overpowering it. The idea was to let the media breathe while reinforcing it whenever necessary. I created powerful looks for the most energetic songs, while simplifying the visual language during quieter moments to give more space to both the artist and the video content.”
(Photos: Codepuk Studio)
Martin Audio WPM system chosen for Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival
Set against the scenic backdrop of the Berkshire Hills in Becket, Massachusetts, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival is America’s longest-running international dance festival. To support its lineup of international choreographers and artists, the Festival’s Ted Shawn Theatre has been equipped with a Martin Audio sound system.
Designed around Martin’s Wavefront Precision WPM Series line arrays, the system was specified and supplied by New Jersey-based Audio Inc. “This is the first year we’ve taken on full production in the venue”, says Stephan Wojtecki, Head of Audio at Audio Inc., who, together with Operations Manager Edward Tolve, decided to choose WPM.
For the Ted Shawn Theatre deployment, the team performed a complete system redesign, modelling the space top-to-bottom using Martin Audio’s Display software. The ultimately specified system comprises six WPM cabinets per side, supplemented with a flown SXC115 cardioid subwoofer in each array.
To address a challenging rear mezzanine - where the front-of-house audio mix position is also located - Audio Inc. deployed a pair of Martin Audio Torus T820 constant curvature arrays as delay positions, while compact FlexPoint FP6 cabinets serve as front infills. The entire system is powered by six Martin Audio iKon multi-channel amplifiers running over a Dante network.
With their system design, Audio Inc. has been able to solve long-standing coverage issues. “The top of the steeply-raked rear mezzanine is where they had the biggest coverage problems”, explains Wojtecki. “The Torus T820s filled in very nicely in the software. When we did our final tuning, we watched the Smaart traces as we blended in the delays and they filled in the gaps perfectly. Overall we have it down to a 3dB variation from front to back.”
The stage monitoring package is designed to fulfil the high-energy demands of the performers. Audio Inc. specified four Martin Audio CDD-Live 8 coaxial differential dispersion speakers per side, paired with compact SX212 subwoofers, alongside Martin Audio XE500 floor wedges when “throw-and-go” capabilities are required.
“The rear-rejection of the WPM array is helpful for a proper dance monitor setup”, notes Wojtecki. “Because of that rejection, it feels like you have two separate systems: one for the stage and one for the audience, working together to create a linear field. That was one of the biggest appeals to them - having proper coverage on stage that sounds voiced identically to what the audience hears out front.”
As for the tuning process, he adds: “All I had to do was time-align everything and apply a tiny bit of corrective EQ on the delays and front fills. If you measure the room correctly and input the exact data into the Display software, the results just work, especially in single-box resolution.”
While the system design setup primarily stays consistent throughout the Festival, WPM allows the team to adapt to specific rider demands. “The Akram Khan Company have a specific ‘mountain’ scenic element on stage from which the sound needs to be localised”, says Wojtecki. “We added an additional centre WPM array and delayed the entire PA back to that spot. We also supplemented the low-end with two additional SX118 subwoofers on each side for the immense soundtrack of the production.”
Christopher Marc, Jacob’s Pillow Audio Supervisor, adds: “As Jacob’s Pillow grows as an organisation to facilitate and support all kinds of dance, this investment signifies a huge lift in support for that mission, and the idea that live sound and design is a significant part of dance.” And engineer Mads Hamilton states: “I could not be happier with the system and the team that has worked alongside us to install it.”
Wojtecki concludes: “We’ve built our Martin Audio inventory to the point where we have almost the full line now: CDD, FlexPoint, Torus, and Wavefront Precision. The business just keeps growing, and Jacob’s Pillow is a demonstration of this. It has been a rewarding experience to see the system and our team deliver so successfully for this event.”
(Photo: Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Inc./Hannah Murphy Photography)
Whitney Hoversten dials up dynamism of Bruno Mars tour with Ayrton Rivale and Veloce Profiles
Bruno Mars’ first full global tour since 2018, “The Romantic Tour”, is about to leave British shores, having kicked off in April 2026 from Las Vegas on its first North American leg, before transferring to Europe throughout June and July. After a short break it returns to North America from August to December, clocking up 71 dates in all, with the prospect of extending far into 2027 and beyond.
It has become one of the biggest stadium tours of 2026, setting Live Nation’s record for the largest single-day ticket sale with 2.1 million tickets. Adding to the dynamism of Mars’ 30-song show are 212 Ayrton Rivale Profiles and forty Ayrton Veloce Profile fixtures, chosen by lighting designer Whitney Hoversten, who has worked with Mars for over ten years.
“We had the tricky task of devising a completely new rig that would be ready for anything, capable of expanding on old looks for the back catalogue and creating fresh new ones for the new numbers, many of which were created during rehearsals”, says Hoversten. Working closely with production manager Joel Forman and the lighting team, Hoversten developed and streamlined the lighting elements, integrating them into the set design.
The “Romantic” set is a highly mobile configuration comprising ten rotating truss pillars each rigged with fourteen Rivale Profiles, six of which track on and off stage behind Mars, and four non-tracking rotators that flank him either side of the stage. Two mini ladders - half size copies of the rotators - are located in downstage positions and rigged with seven Rivale Profiles. The set is constantly on the move, reshaping the performance space and following Mars’ movements like another performer in the troop.
Overhead, a circular video screen - named the Puck - is outlined with ten Rivale Profiles and four circular dynamic pods carry twelve Rivale Profiles on each. These change the shape of the performance space, provide dramatic surround lighting for drum solos, a multiplicity of aerial beam looks and an additional layer of texture and depth.
Upstage of the video wall are forty Veloce Profiles on ladders, spaced to mimic the rotators in front of them. These do everything the Rivales do, but with the added punch to get through the screen and augment the video content without revealing the lights behind or washing out the content.
The result completely surrounds and backs Mars within the proscenium area with active Ayrton fixtures integrated into the moving set. Hoversten’s lighting determines the shifting ambience, keeping pace with Mars as his music transitions from ballads and soulful grooves to retro-funk and rock.
“The Ayrton fixtures are a very dynamic part of our design”, states Hoversten. “We are using the majority of the feature sets: a lot of songs use gobos and animation wheels. You need big bold looks for stadiums, so we often use them open with narrow or wide beams, plus there’s a lot of dimmer effects and strobing. We even introduce the prisms at times - I doubt there is a feature in them that we are not using.”
Expanding on his criteria for choosing Rivale and Veloce Profiles, Hoversten says: “I’ve used Ayrton many time before but this is the first time I’ve used Rivale and Veloce. All our lighting choices were grounded in what was the best for the show, and gave us the most options. Weight and size were a huge consideration because of the size of the set, wind rating at the outdoor venues, and the dynamic load from the number of moving elements.”
“One of the most difficult engineering projects was the Puck that tracks up and down stage, and lowers to a vertical position with the weight hanging on just a couple of points”, he adds. “Rivale’s weight and compact size fitted the bill as well as the set, and were a major factor in our decision.”
“The reason we have the forty Veloces behind the video wall is they have the exact same features as Rivale”, Hoversten continues. “It was a great opportunity to combine the extra foot candles of Veloce with the exact same feature set as Rivale, giving us more punch to get through the video wall when needed.”
“We’ve ended up with a show that looks and feels massive and I’m super-happy”, he furthers. “Bruno was intensely involved in the whole creative process, sitting for fourteen hours a day for two and a half weeks with the programmers, articulating just how things look like in his mind as he wrote the music, what he wants it to feel like when he is performing on stage and translate across to the audience. He was so thrilled with the tools we had in the tool box and what they could do. It was such a fun process to help him put this show together and he is very happy with how things turned out.”
The Ayrton fixtures were supplied by the tour’s lighting vendor and long-time collaborator with the Bruno Mars camp, Fuse Technical Group. “The team at Fuse has supplied Bruno’s lighting for as long as they have existed as a company”, says Hoversten. “The support we receive from them is so important. We’ve had virtually the same lighting crew for ten years who are so committed to delivering a perfect show every night. We’ve all been working together for a long time now and it’s a well-oiled machine.”
Alongside Hoversten, the “The Romantic Tour” crew also includes lighting programmers Brian Jenkins and Eric Marchwinski, lighting crew chief Jorge “Soline” Velazquez, FOH tech Dominic “Dom” Hickman, network/spot tech Thomas “Poje” Poje, SR dimmer Tech Ryan Lecomte, and SL dimmer Tech Andrew Romoff, as well as LX stage techs Bryson Williams, Paul Mundrick, Juan “Tony” Velasquez, Michael “Mikey” Kitts and Jeremy Dehn, and LX delay techs Christopher Lanning, Christopher “Feo” Oliva, Timothy Moore and Jose Martinez.
The crew also comprises Brian Bassham (Stage Manager), James Harrelson (Head Rigger), Steve Fatone (Video Director), Gabrielle Martineau (Media Server Programmer), Xavier Bégin-Leblanc (Media Server Operator), Eric Taylor (Laser Programmer/Operator), Gregg Pearson (Pyro Shooter) and Joel Grover (Automation Operator).
Companies involved in this tour include Clair Global (sound) Pyrotek (pyro/SFX), Tait (staging and automation), Nighthawk (video), Vyv (media servers), Five Points Productions (rigging), Upstaging (trucking) and Early Bird Visual (design support and previz).
(Photos: Jean Nguyen & Ly Nguyen/Daniel Ramos)
Anolis illuminates Santa Clarita’s “River of Lights”
“River of Lights” is a public light art installation created by Los Angeles-based lighting design firm Visual Terrain, Inc. in the City of Santa Clarita’s Central Park, featuring eighty Anolis ArcDot pixel luminaires.
The installation was designed to engage the public, energize ideas, and encourage reflection and environmental awareness through the concept of ephemeral, flowing light, by telling the story of water flowing like a river, evaporating into the clouds, and storming down once more.
Visual Terrain’s team was led by principal designer Steven Young, who explains that the studio - which specializes in lighting design for architecture, attractions, and the arts - enjoys an excellent relationship with the City of Santa Clarita and has been involved in several other lighting projects there.
The ArcDot pixel luminaires trace the pathway of the 172-step exercise stairs and lead to a plaza with additional lighting that connects the stairs to a new art piece between the park’s soccer fields and parking lots.
The project is a collaboration between Visual Terrain and the City of Santa Clarita, the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency and New York-based artist Sujin Lim. Lim created the “When Cloud Met a Cloud” art piece that anchors the River of Lights at one end of the plaza, while a set of exercise stairs anchor it at the other end.
The lighting installation is also a tribute to the Los Angeles Aqueduct Cascades, a local water feature and landmark located in the nearby Newhall Pass, which connects the Santa Clarita Valley with the San Fernando Valley to the south. The Visual Terrain team took this inspiration as a starting point and produced a narrative-based lighting installation inspired by natural water cycles and the transformations involved.
The lighting hardware specification required IP-rated, pixel-mappable, and highly dynamic luminaires, and after some mock-ups and demonstrations, the Visual Terrain team chose ArcDots. “We based the final choice of ArcDots on brightness, durability, size and the physical aesthetics of the fixtures”, says Young, adding that when illuminated, they are visible “for miles”.
Each ArcDot is mounted on a special three-foot high stanchion designed by Visual Terrain and the City, staggered in positioning and flanking the steps on the hill, with a 39/41 split of fixtures on each side. The entire installation is powered from electrical points concealed in the bushes around the hill.
Anchoring the lighting project into the overarching story and design concept was essential, so when it came to programming a signature look, they created a 30-minute show comprising five different movements, all representing segments of the water cycle.
The cycle naturally starts with rain. The pitter-patter of the droplets gives way to the rapid flow of rivulets down the hill. The third movement is a storm with thunder and lightning, which morphs into shimmering raindrops, then fuses into a calm and chilly mist across the plaza. This is followed by evaporation, leaving only small puddles and pools of water, which constrict and then finally disappear.
The standard show is controlled via an ETC Mosaic controller. It fires up at dusk and runs until 10 p.m. each night, when the park closes and the programming concludes with a specially programmed “goodnight” look.
Visual Terrain took full advantage of the ArcDot’s pixel-mapping capabilities, sourcing local artwork to be showcased through the system, and to add special occasions and holiday celebrations such as the July 4th, Halloween, Christmas, etc. as bespoke “feature shows” as required.
The ArcDot installation was completed by electrical contractor Corey Hatch and his team with H&S Electric, who received support from both Lester Gomez at Linx Lighting & Energy Controls (the local representative for Anolis) and Anolis, dealing directly with the factory in the Czech Republic, coordinated by Tal Janowitz at the Anolis North America office. The project was integrated by Digital Dots.
The ArcDot show was programmed by Visual Terrain’s Steeve Vajk, with Visual Terrain’s founder, Lisa Passamonte Green, as the principal in charge of the project, with Steven Young as the principal lighting designer.
The City of Santa Clarita’s project lead was architect Alan Stump, with a team including Cassidy Skelton, Carrie Lujan, and David Knutson, who, as the City’s events administrator, coordinates events in the parks and creation of all the special shows with Visual Terrain. The “River of Lights” installation has been running for over a year now.
(Photos: Robe Lighting Inc)
Martin Müller chooses Elation Paragon M for Helloween’s North American tour
German power metal band Helloween brought their 40th anniversary tour to North America this year, performing a month-long theater run from April 7 in Dallas through May 2 in Las Vegas. Supporting the band’s visually driven production, lighting designer Martin Müller turned to Elation’s Paragon M to deliver the punch and looks needed to complement the show’s extensive video content while keeping the musicians firmly in the spotlight.
Supplied by production company Toucan Productions, the Paragon M fixtures played a key role in adapting Helloween’s European arena production to a scaled-down North American theater tour. “Since the entire show is built around the video content, the lighting design was created to support the visuals as much as possible while still being able to generate big looks with enough punch for their style of music”, Müller explains. “The musicians need to be seen. People are coming to see legends of metal perform, so it’s a more traditional approach when it comes to lighting.”
The Paragon M was added to the production after Toucan Productions suggested the fixture as an alternative during the planning stage. Although the team initially proposed the smaller Paragon S, Müller determined it wasn’t the right fit. When the Paragon M was added to the list, he found it offered everything he was looking for.
Positioned atop the stage set, the fixtures created visual focus points at mid-stage, adding another layer of depth and movement while ensuring performers remained distinct against the large LED wall. “The Paragons created dynamics through movement, intensity bumps, gobo rotation and other effects”, says Müller, adding that “it was fun to work with” the fixtures.
Helloween’s longtime North American Tour and Production Manager Frank Trzaskowski adds: “The Elation fixtures added massive punch to the elaborate stage and lighting setup. In fact, they impressed me so much that I’ve added them to Extreme’s summer tour floor package. Kudos to our friends at Toucan Productions for providing gear and service.”
(Photos: Elation)
“The Phil Collins Story” on tour with DiGiCo and Klang
“The Phil Collins Story”, a docu-concert celebrating the life, career, and music of performer and songwriter Phil Collins, debuted February 3, 2026, at the Landmark Theatre in Syracuse, New York, and then embarked on a 50-city North American tour.
Chronicling Collins’ time from Genesis to his solo career, “The Phil Collins Story” brings the artist’s music to life with audio, dynamic projections and lighting. Audio for the show is delivered through a DiGiCo Quantum225 console, provided by Clair Global, managing both front-of-house and monitor duties, with the latter critically utilizing a DiGiCo DMI-Klang card for signal distribution and control, paired with iPads running Klang:App for the musicians on stage.
“It’s not really a film or just a concert, it’s a multimedia experience with live music”, explains Theodore “Ted” Woolsey, who did the sound design and mixes the live sound for the project, working with A2 Ethan Ginsburg-Margo. “It’s the story of Phil’s life and it goes through a lot of the stories and all the hits, including with Genesis, with live musicians onstage. It’s pretty spectacular.”
The show is true to Collins’ sonic signatures, including the Sennheiser 421 microphones that captured his heavily-gated tom-tom fills on songs like “In the Air Tonight”. Woolsey also points out that the show is live in more ways than one: while a click track is used for the musicians, the entire production is very analog: sound, lighting, and video all operate independently of each other, relying on their respective managing engineers to keep the show together.
“The show starts with the music director running a Logic session with a click track off of his laptop next to his keyboard”, Woolsey explains. “That goes to the six musicians in the band through the Klang:App on their iPads, and it also cues the lighting and video operators, who have their own Klang mix as well as the click. When they hear the click, they start the show manually.”
The DiGiCo Quantum225 console is the hub for all of this, paired with some choice, authentically-vintage Phil Collins outboard gear like Bricasti reverbs and the Yamaha SPX2000 multi-effects processor, as well as some more modern Waves plugins.
“The Q225 lets me manage everything from a single surface”, says Woolsey. “And I designed the setup so that there’s no need for a monitor engineer - I’m using Klang so that the musicians can mix themselves. It’s really cool how I can split up audio in so many different places through so many different ‘languages’, like through MADI, Cat5, and over fiber. In this case, the whole system is one Cat5 line with the DMI-Klang card out of the console into an access point that drives all the iPads.”
“Typically, if you were going to split up monitors, you’d have to have a split snake where you would drive all the inputs in a secondary way into another rack that goes and distributes into the in-ears”, he continues. “But with the DMI-Klang, it’s all shared off a single SD-Rack, so there’s no split. It’s all digital through the one Cat5 line. That’s it, that’s the whole system - there’s no split snake rack, no networking rack. It’s just shared off the same I/O and it’s all going through this access point into the Klang.”
In addition, the entire show is programmed with snapshots so that during the initial rehearsals each of the musicians dialed in all of their individual mix levels per song. “Then I saved that data with the snapshots, so when I hit the next song, it changes their mix automatically to the mix that they dialed in for each song”, says Woolsey.
“The combination of the Quantum and the Klang is like having a monitor engineer that knows the whole show, but each musician is handling it themselves”, he concludes. “I like giving control to the musicians - they can make their own monitor tweaks through Klang:App, focus on their playing, and be fully immersed in the show. And that also lets me focus on the live show and my front-of-house mix.”
Pictured (left to right): Ethan Ginsburg-Margo, Ted Woolsey. (Photos: DiGiCo)
Nüssli baut Tribünen, Hospitality-Bereiche und Brücken für neue Formel-1-Rennstrecke in Madrid
Nüssli liefert zentrale temporäre Bauten für die Premiere des Großen Preises von Spanien der Formel 1 auf der neuen Madring-Rennstrecke rund um das Messezentrum Ifema Madrid. Der Große Preis von Spanien kehrt zum ersten Mal seit 1981 in die Hauptstadt zurück und findet vom 11. bis 13. September 2026 statt.
Für die Veranstaltung realisiert Nüssli Zuschauertribünen, Hospitality-Gebäude und Fussgängerbrücken. Für das gesamte Rennwochenende wird Nüssli entlang der Strecke Zuschauertribünen in den Kategorien Gold, Silber, Silber Plus und Bronze aufstellen - überdacht oder offen, mit Standard- und Premium-Sitzen. Zusammen bieten die Tribünen über 92.000 Sitzplätze, einschließlich barrierefreier Plattformen für Zuschauer mit eingeschränkter Mobilität und deren Begleitpersonen.
Hinter den Tribünen an den Kurven 2 und 3 entsteht der Hospitality-Bereich: zwei modulare Gebäude mit einer Höhe von zwölf Metern, jeweils mit zehn Skyboxen und zwei Catering-Modulen. Jede der 25 Quadratmeter großen Skyboxen öffnet sich zu einer eigenen Terrasse mit Sitzgelegenheiten, sodass die Gäste das Rennen unter freiem Himmel verfolgen können. Zwei Treppen und zwei Aufzüge - einer für das Publikum und einer für das Personal - verbinden die Ebenen miteinander. Auf Straßenebene befinden sich ein Empfang und eine modulare Küche für das Catering.
Wenn die Autos auf der Strecke sind, wird das Gelände durch die Rennstrecke getrennt. Dreizehn Fußgängerbrücken ermöglichen es den Zuschauern, die Rennstrecke am Rennwochenende zu überqueren. Mit Spannweiten von bis zu dreißig Metern überspannen sie die breitesten Abschnitte der Strecke. Nüssli übernimmt Planung, Transport, Montage, Demontage und Vermietung und stattet die Brücken mit Verkleidung, Beleuchtung, Sicherheitsnetzen und Aufzügen aus. Sie sind zudem für LED-Bildschirme ausgelegt.
(Foto: Nüssli)
ChamSys pioneers Sig-Net with live test at Womad Festival
At the Big Top Tent at Womad Festival in Neston, UK, a ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M+ was used to control a ChamSys GeNetix GN8 running Sig-Net protocol controlling 100 fixtures on six universes of lighting.
According to lighting designers Will Thomas and Chris Kennedy, Sig-Net ran flawlessly both during the build and over the four show days, controlling the lighting for over twenty artists from all over the world including KOG, Kofi Stone, Emma-Jean Thackray, Barrut, José González and Mádé Kuti.
Thomas and Kennedy put the lighting through its paces, with moments of transcendent calm and furious flashing. Sig-Net performed without any latency, flickering or routing issues, the LDs, who swapped between the main and backup consoles, note. The stage team also included Nikki Dickinson and Katy Jane Lord.
Sig-Net is a free-to-use protocol designed by Singularity (UK) Ltd and created by Art-Net inventor Wayne Howell. All new lighting equipment must support secure lighting protocols by the end of 2027 to be compliant with the incoming European Cyber Resilience Act. Sig-Net enables a full secure remote management and diagnostic interface to ease network configuration issues and uses Multicast Folding to overcome the scaling and routing issues of sACN. In addition, RDM, Timecode, MIDI and OSC can all be sent over Sig-Net securely.
Lighting for all stages at Womad was provided by TSL Lighting based in Basingstoke with the support of Account Director Ian Turner. ChamSys consoles were used throughout the site on five stages.
(Photos: ChamSys)
Follow-Me Delta takes centre stage for Lulu’s Royal Albert Hall spectacular
Follow-Me’s Delta performer tracking system lit up a career-spanning celebration of Lulu this summer, culminating in a headline show at London’s Royal Albert Hall on June 1. Luke Edwards took on the role of Lighting Designer for the run, which comprised three warm-up shows at various venues the week before the Royal Albert Hall date.
Josh Gallagher operated the lighting rig, with Ben Hunt as Lighting Tech, Kieran Claye as Production and Video Designer, and equipment supplied by Newcastle-based lighting supplier Axiom. Edwards sees real value in warm-up shows in front of a live crowd rather than in an empty room, which he feels gives the team a much truer read on how a show is landing.
The Royal Albert Hall date also doubled as a chance to demo Delta to the venue itself, with Edwards bringing in his own demo system for the occasion. The brief was simple: make the show look as big as possible. The production design centred around a large video screen tracing Lulu’s life and career, with performances alongside archive footage of her ex-husband Maurice Gibb and of David Bowie, making the screen a central part of the design the lighting had to work around.
Approximately 200 fixtures were used across the show. The Royal Albert Hall’s own house follow spots, Martin Mac Ultras, were brought under Follow-Me control, alongside a back wall of Martin Mac Aura XIPs used for a number of creative effects. Edwards singles out Delta’s ability to import an MVR (My Virtual Rig) file as one of the system’s standout improvements, patching and positioning the entire rig automatically rather than requiring every fixture to be entered by hand.
Each follow spot operator worked from their own operator box, with a dedicated view of the performance area and the ability to zoom in on the action. An NDI camera feed into the MA lighting desk gave Edwards visibility of where every operator was pointing, so he could correct their aim in real time.
The back wall of Aura XIPs on Follow-Me opened up effects beyond conventional follow spotting. During “Relight My Fire”, groups of Auras snapped onto Lulu’s position in time with every beat of the song’s signature hits. “It’s more than just follow spotting”, Edwards notes. It also suited his own aesthetic preferences as a designer: “For me personally, I don’t like the chunky beam of light through the entire venue, so it was really nice to have follow spots on a front-of-house truss without having to see that. And with back spots it’s key; it’s like it doesn’t matter that they’re above the stage or above performers anymore now, because you don’t need someone up there.”
The show was star-studded, with Boy George, Gary Barlow, Robbie Williams and Delta Goodrem all joining Lulu on stage as guest performers. Follow-Me’s flexibility proved essential to accommodating them, says Edwards, letting the team bring extra fixtures into play for each guest, without any rewiring or re-cabling. For him, that ability to adapt on the fly made it possible to do things that hadn’t been planned for.
Automated zoning also played a key role in keeping Lulu evenly lit throughout the show, activating only the fixtures relevant to her position on stage rather than crossing light in from the far side; if she moved to stage right, only the stage-right fixtures would come up, rather than pulling light all the way across from the opposite wing. The result, Edwards notes, was a consistently even level of light on her regardless of where she was on stage.
“This was a brilliant showcase for Delta, and there’s no better stage to prove yourself on than the Royal Albert Hall”, he concludes. “Working with Axiom, Josh and Ben made the whole run feel effortless, even with guests being added right up to the wire.”
(Photos: Follow-Me/Payne Design)
Robe supports Scripps National Spelling Bee week
The 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee final week whittled nearly 250 spellers from across the USA and around the world down to ten super-spellers who spelled off a live televised finale to the famous contest. The event was staged for the first time in a new venue, the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.
Lighting “Bee Week” - also for the first time - was John Viesta, invited by executive producer Michael Davies, who wanted to ramp up the intellectualism and intensity of the event, transforming it from a spelling competition to prime time TV edutainment, complete with more tension, suspense, and theatrical drama.
Viesta says he has recently become a fan of Robe products, especially iFortes for key lighting. Having used them on last year’s “BravoCon Live with Andy Cohen” show in Las Vegas, he again specified iFortes, adding ninety to the lighting plot for this show, together with seventy-five Robe iSpiiders, plus some other fixtures, all delivered by rental vendor Main Light.
This more gameshow style of “Bee Week” presentation was directed by Michael Dempsey and inspired by bringing a “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” vibe to the grand finale. The event and production have been getting increasingly sophisticated and refined in recent years, and in 2025, it celebrated its centenary.
Viesta worked closely with the creative team, including set designer Bruce Ryan, and the scenic fabrication crew from Legacy Scenic, as the production staging was installed in the venue’s presentation hall space. Viesta’s two favorite key phrases for this project were “prime time vibe” and “specificity” and all his lighting concepts were based around these.
The iFortes and iSpiiders were used to light the contestants, set and audience, with the iFortes delivering all the key lighting and specials. The lights were rigged on overhead trusses in the large room. Viesta had not used iSpiiders before, but for this show, he needed quantities of wash lights, and Main Light had these available. Their primary job was to light the audience, which contained lots of parents, relatives and friends of the contestants, all of whom were very invested in the action unfolding onstage as the young spellers demonstrated their brainpower.
A key to finding the right aesthetic for “Bee Week” was unleashing that bit of prime-time razzamatazz, but without making it distracting. The constant interaction between the spellers and the judges also needed to be captured for TV, and here Viesta explains that the shutters of the iForte were ideal for repeatability, enabling the framing of people with soft pools of controlled light.
Viesta hugely enjoyed being part of the process of transforming the Spelling Bee final into this more dynamic and invigorating environment, commenting that he, Michael Davies and Michael Dempsey were all very much aligned in the vision and storytelling of the project. “I absolutely loved the experience”, Viesta declares. “In fact it’s become my favorite show of the year to light so far.”
Viesta worked alongside lighting director Tyler M. Perry, lighting programmer Bob Going, supervising gaffer John Salzmann, gaffers Tom Thayer, Eric Kasprisin and Nkosi Mason, head production rigger Shawn Robinson and production rigger Nick Fedeli.
(Photos: Edward M. Pio Roda/Scripps National Spelling Bee)
Brent Clark creates special space on stage for Sarah McLachlan with Chauvet
The 22-date USA leg of Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan’s “Better Broken” tour began July 1, 2026, at the First Bank Amphitheatre outside Nashville and ran through mid-August. The tour’s lighting designer was Brent Clark who comments: “Sarah is a great artist and collaborator. I love lighting her shows - it allows me to paint and get into the mood of the songs.”
“For this show, I had this video of curves in mind”, he continues. “It had everything being round and kinda soft but extremely tough. So, the idea started with how do I create an environment where things can be soft, but also have a toughness to them?”
Ultimately, this vision led to an immersive design that was sweeping and elegant on one hand, but also clearly defined and assertive on the other. A cardinal element of the design was an arch that ran across mid-stage, framing the video wall, which was sometimes partially obscured, adding an element of mystery to the scene.
Lighting fixtures lined the stage and its neighboring flown truss structures, which appeared, in Clark’s words “to reach out and kind of hug the stage”. This effect was enhanced by Clark’s use of fog around the arch. “I was just trying to frame Sarah in a different way”, he says of this design element. “I wanted to create a sense of depth, and the arch helped me achieve it.”
Displaying content from the Ultimate Dream Machine, the video wall framed by the arch added an ethereal element to the show, while contributing to the visual identity of each tune in the 20-song set. Also playing a key role in Clark’s design were fourteen Chauvet Professional Strike Array 1 fixtures, which like the rest of the rig were supplied by Christie Lites. The fixtures were positioned along inner truss circles and downstage.
The effect of the Strike Array 1 and every other fixture in the rig was enhanced by the way Clark set up his risers, angling them downward. “I wanted the band to see everyone in the audience”, he explains. “The risers were off set for camera purposes. Given where the piano sat it got hard to get a good clean shot of Sarah, so we played with the riser placement to give us the cleanest shots possible.”
Clark adds another reason for the riser configuration: “I wanted this design to draw everything back to the center of the video wall. The idea was to create the feeling that you are falling into space.”
(Photos: Chauvet Professional/Ben Neely Photography)
Klang powers Grafa’s first fully immersive 360-degree concert in Bulgaria
Bulgarian artist Grafa achieved a national first in Arena 8888 Sofia with a fully immersive concert in the round. Monitor engineer Boris Yanakiev used DMI-Klang with his DiGiCo Quantum 338 to deliver spatialised immersive monitor mixes for the entire band, with each musician utilising a Klang:Kontroller on stage. The concert at the 15,000-capacity arena was preceded by two weeks of rehearsals.
“Using Klang was a new experience for many of the musicians involved”, says Yanakiev. “Having the Klang:Kontrollers really helped the performers to connect with the technology, the interface felt familiar to them and the physical touch was reassuring.” The 40-metre stage with a 360° audience created major audio challenges, including imaging issues and latency, which can make the mixes muddy and confusing. Avoiding these detrimental effects was essential to ensure the best possible experience for the artists.
“The band were used to both wedges and in-ears, so wedges could have been an option”, explains Yanakiev. “But in a large arena many monitors on stage can start messing with the whole sound as they need to be quite loud. This starts to interfere with the PA which, when it is 360 degrees, with a lot more speakers and in a boomy arena, is going to be a big problem.”
“Klang made everything much smoother”, he continues. “It’s easy to work with because the interface is very simple. I can just explain which fader is for their voice, which is for the guitar etc, so everyone has the opportunity to control their mix, or if they are happy for me to control it, then I can mix it for them.” With Klang:Kontrollers, Yanakiev had the option to control the mixes on his DiGiCo Quantum 338 or give the artists the freedom to experiment. Due to the rehearsal period, there was plenty of time for them to explore the new possibilities.
Grafa’s band included nine additional musicians: drums, bass, guitar, two keyboards, a wind player, and three backing singers. “The show ran exactly as it did in the rehearsals”, says Yanakiev. “Being part of a groundbreaking production is a great experience. We all felt this way, and Grafa was very pleased to have achieved his goal. Everything was as he hoped it would be.”
“I had time to prepare before rehearsals, and I could do much of my work in the offline editor”, he adds. “I named all my channels and patches, so it was plug-and-play in the venue. I’m very happy with how everything turned out.”
(Photo: Klang:Technologies)
“Zimmer vs Williams” goes spatial with TiMax at the Royal Albert Hall
“The Music of Zimmer vs Williams” at London’s Royal Albert Hall is the flagship date in the show’s annual programme of events. Mixed by front-of-house engineer Phil Wright from its inception, this year he added a spatial twist with the help of a 64-channel TiMax SoundHub, bringing the “beyond stereo” thinking he’d seen succeed on festival sites and other events.
Used solely for this concert, TiMax SoundHub segued into the audio set-up, driving each component of the Hall’s PA individually. With object based mixing it was then possible to expand the score into the available space whilst also building a spatialisation tuned for every seat in the house.
The show itself is a cinematic battle of epic proportions, pitting the biggest Hans Zimmer and John Williams scores from five decades of cinema history against one another on the concert stage. Zimmer’s bold, immersive soundscapes are set against Williams’ timeless melodies. The Royal Albert Hall gives the music the space to be truly cinematic, with an augmented London Concert Orchestra of seven French horns, six trumpets, five trombones, two tubas and a five-man percussion section filling the room.
Led by project manager Laurence Jarrett, with Wright at the console, the in-house team has delivered large-scale orchestral shows in the venue since the department was established in 2015. To let TiMax segue into the house system, speaker positions and angles were imported into SoundHub ahead of the event and level and delay times were calculated from each of the Hall’s loudspeakers to each source on stage.
On the day, the matrix dropped into the sound system in place of the existing delay times, with a brief soundcheck refining the last few percent before the orchestra began at 11 a.m. The inputs were grouped to mirror the orchestra’s layout, with the string and woodwind families split into objects matching their positions on stage and everything else running one-for-one, for a system of sixty-four inputs and forty outputs.
The Hall’s staging climbs 2.4 metres from the front of the stage to the back, rising forty centimetres per riser, so instruments on the risers sit further from the PA than those on the flat - a noticeable height difference that is traditionally not accounted for in the sound system. But because SoundHub works with height as well as level and delay, that extra dimension was carried into the spatialisation, holding the imaging together as the staging rose.
“I can honestly say that was the best sounding show I’ve ever mixed in that room”, states Wright. “The level of clarity and detail in every orchestral instrument, coupled with the accurate localisation of sources, made for an absolutely magical experience out front.” He draws a direct line to studio practice: “It works exactly the same way as object-based mixing in the studio. I find myself needing less EQ, much less dynamics processing, and I have much higher headroom and gain before feedback than traditional bus-based mixing.”
The venue’s in-the-round layout made the point sharper still. “In a proscenium-arch situation you could delay groups or input channels on the console to be correct for an audience in one dimension”, continues Wright. “But the unique 360-degree configuration of the Royal Albert Hall, coupled with TiMax’s ability to combine height into its spatialisation, meant that every tier of that stage was in time with the PA for everyone in the auditorium.”
(Photos: TiMax)
Groupe Novelty delivers technical production for PSG’s Champions League celebration at Parc des Princes
Paris Saint-Germain claimed its second UEFA Champions League title in May 2026 with a victory over Arsenal in Budapest. The evening after, Paris’ Parc des Princes hosted the celebration. This live event was designed and produced by LPF World-Class Shows in partnership with PSG, bringing together more than twenty artists and a crowd of 48,000 supporters for a trophy presentation and live entertainment programme. Groupe Novelty was trusted with the full technical production of the evening.
The group deployed five specialist companies across the production. On Stage provided and installed four mega towers at the centre of the pitch, supporting the primary structural beams from which the video and lighting equipment was suspended. Alabama Média supplied four semi-transparent LED walls suspended from those primary beams, giving supporters across all areas of the stadium clear sight lines to match content, the trophy ceremony, and artist performances.
Novelty managed the full audio reinforcement and electrical distribution, and they led on-site project coordination across all technical disciplines. Lighting design was provided by Jérôme Deschamps, commissioned by LPF. Teamagine contributed the engineering and design office function, carrying out the structural and technical design work in the weeks prior to the event. And finally, BBS Backline managed the technical backline requirements for the evening’s roster of more than twenty performing artists.
Working at Parc des Princes placed significant logistical demands on the production from the outset. Primarily used as a sporting venue, the stadium required a full floor protection system to be in place throughout. Additionally, its single access point meant every phase of the installation had to be precisely sequenced to allow parallel working across the different teams without disruption. The coordination of crane and ground-handling equipment alongside the production teams demanded rigorous safety planning at every stage, with the safety of personnel and machinery a non-negotiable priority throughout the build and de-rig.
The deployment of five specialist companies within a single coordinated operational structure reflects the Groupe Novelty model on major event productions, with Teamagine and Novelty taking charge of overall organisation and serving as the group’s central point of contact for LPF and PSG throughout. A general on-site coordinator linked the site managers of each entity.
(Photos: Trapfocus/Nicolas Donarier)
Goodlife Festival scales up to Martin Audio WPL system with dBS Solutions
Goodlife Festival at Harewood House in Leeds, UK, built on the sell-out success of its inaugural event last year, returning in June with an increased capacity to welcome up to 10,000 festival-goers. With a main stage line-up including Armand Van Helden, Groove Armada, Alison Limerick, Roger Sanchez, and Inner City, event production specialist dBS Solutions deployed a Martin Audio WPL line array system.
Initially slated for a WPC system, the rapid growth in ticket sales prompted dBS to upgrade the system design. “When the capacity increased, we re-examined the site”, says Chris Bogg, Director, dBS Solutions. “Martin Audio’s Display software allowed me to show the client, ‘Look, you’ve opened up this audience area. If you want it to sound consistent, we’re going to need a delay tower, and we might need to look at making the main hang WPL instead of WPC’.”
With an audience area approaching 100 metres, the final system comprised front hangs of ten Martin Audio WPL array elements per side, paired with a castle-wall cardioid sub-array of fourteen SXH218 subs. To ensure seamless coverage to the back of the site, a single delay tower of six Martin Audio WPC array elements was deployed, including a cardioid-configured stack of three SXH subs.
Ground-stacked Martin Audio Torus T1230 outfills covered the sides, while Martin Audio FP12s sat on top of the castle-wall sub-array as front-fills. On stage, the monitoring package featured Martin Audio XE300 wedges, with DJ-fills consisting of two SXC subs with an FP15 FlexPoint Series cabinet on each side of the performer.
Managing noise limits across the site required close cooperation, with Bogg describing a highly collaborative approach between artists, engineers, and the on-site noise management team throughout the event. “The noise management team would come back and forth to check on other tents, and if we were approaching the limit, we’d back it down a decibel or two”, he says. “We would check in before the headliners went on to see what headroom we had left before hitting any off-site noise.”
This year dBS is celebrating its twentieth anniversary in business. The company also has established a long-standing partnership with Martin Audio. “Our journey with Martin Audio has progressed from smaller boxes like WPM and WPS to WPC and WPL, allowing us to scale up to these large-scale festivals”, reports Bogg. “What really sealed it for us when we bought our first optimisable array was the scalable resolution.”
“As a rental company, that means I can own a pool of amplifiers and deploy them at one-box resolution on a high-stakes gig where we need absolute off-site noise control, or run them at two-box resolution for a standard gig and use the remaining amplifier channels to run a second system on another site”, he adds.
(Photos: Martin Audio/NckPix)
DPA microphones amplify acoustic feel at MerleFest
DPA Microphones supported this year’s MerleFest, a bluegrass and Americana music festival held in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. DPA Application Specialist Gabriel Antonini and Mid-Atlantic Sales Manager Chris Kontopanos comment: “Our microphones were used on multiple stages. Whether it’s banjo, mandolin, fiddle, any instrument, it was acoustic. Our job was to get out of the way to make it sound like there was no microphone at all.”
That philosophy resonated with engineers throughout the festival. At the B-Towns Americana Stage, Cameron Grogan of SE Systems relied on a full complement of DPA microphones, including the company’s DDK4000 Drum Microphone Kit and 2028 Vocal Microphone. “We had a full kit of DPAs on stage, including the drum miking kit”, he says. “We used the 2028s on vocals.”
While vocals play a critical role in bluegrass and Americana music, the genre’s intricate acoustic instrumentation presents its own set of challenges. DPA’s 4099 Core+ Instrument Microphones captured those details while maintaining separation on a busy stage. “I’m a big fan of the 4099”, says Front of House Engineer Joel Rose, who has worked with bands such as Railroad Earth and Green Sky Bluegrass, as well as the Bay Area touring audio company Ultrasound.
The 4099 could be found across the stages. “We used it on mandolin and fiddle, and we made a special solution for the banjo”, says Antonini. “We also put it on its own stand, so musicians could work the microphone.” Monitor Engineer Haley Coots of SE Systems adds: “World-class musicians come across these stages, who are focused so much on their tone, and you have to present that honestly.
“I use the 4099s because there is isolation within the capsule, and I’m able to accurately represent what they’re giving me because of the rejection”, she adds. Microphones from Austrian Audio, a DPA brand, were also used across the festival’s stages.
(Photo: DPA Microphones)
Kesch realisiert Danone-Messekonzept für Consumer Goods Forum in Wien
Zwei Marken, zwei Zielgruppen, eine gemeinsame Fläche: Kesch entwickelte und realisierte für Danone den Auftritt von Alpro und YoPro beim Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit 2026 in Wien. Die Aufgabe: unterschiedliche Markenwelten so zu verbinden, dass beide Profile innerhalb eines gemeinsamen Messekonzepts sichtbar bleiben.
Der Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit zählt zu den zentralen Branchentreffen der internationalen Konsumgüter- und Handelsindustrie. In Wien trafen sich Führungskräfte aus Handel, Markenindustrie und Dienstleistungsunternehmen, um aktuelle Entwicklungen rund um Digitalisierung, künstliche Intelligenz und Nachhaltigkeit zu diskutieren.
Für Danone, weltweit tätiges französisches Unternehmen mit Schwerpunkt auf Lebensmitteln und Getränken, übersetzte Kesch die unterschiedlichen Markenansätze von Alpro und YoPro in zwei eigenständige Erlebnisbereiche. Alpro rückte pflanzliche Ernährung in den Mittelpunkt und lud Besucher zu Kaffeespezialitäten auf Basis von Alpro-Produkten ein. Ein Kaffeedrucker ermöglichte individuelle Motive auf dem Milchschaum. Ergänzend konnten Kaffeebecher direkt vor Ort graviert und personalisiert werden.
YoPro setzte auf Bewegung und Interaktion. Im Fokus stand die Promotion der Partnerschaft mit Tennisprofi Carlos Alcaraz. Bei einer Griffkraft-Challenge konnten Besucher ihre Kraft messen und sich über ein digitales Leaderboard mit anderen Teilnehmern vergleichen. Ergänzend wurden verschiedene YoPro-Produkte sowie personalisierbare Fitnessflaschen ausgegeben.
Die Verbindung aus Produktkontakt, digitalen Elementen und individuellen Personalisierungen bildete die Grundlage des Messekonzepts. Kesch verantwortete dabei die Entwicklung des Auftritts sowie die Umsetzung vor Ort - von der Übertragung der Markenstrategien auf die Fläche bis zur Realisierung der einzelnen Aktivierungselemente.
(Fotos: Danone)
ADJ helps create dynamic looks for Coyote Fest at Cal State San Bernardino
A selection of ADJ lighting and LED video products helped transform the stage at Coyote Fest 2026, the annual end-of-year student festival at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB).
The production combined ADJ Focus Profile automated luminaires, VS3IP LED video panels, and Entour Venue atmospheric generators to create different looks for performances by Korean-American hip hop and alternative pop artist Bachyard Ghost, singer and rapper Rico Nasty, and singer-songwriter Danny Lux.
Organized by Associated Students Inc. CSUSB, the university’s student government, the event’s audio, video, and lighting production was entrusted to Beaumont, California-based Props AV. Having previously delivered production for Coyote Fest as well as the university’s Peak 2026 event earlier in the year, the Props AV team once again relied on a selection of ADJ equipment to create a production capable of adapting to the contrasting styles of the evening’s performers.
Production Manager Tommy Frisch led the project once again, building on the successful relationship established with Associated Students Inc. CSUSB. “Because the organizers were so happy with what we did for Peak 2026, we didn’t really have much of a brief for this one - they just told us to do our thing, have fun and make it look good”, states Frisch.
“But the three artists played very different genres, so we needed a very versatile setup”, he adds. “Video was a key part of that, allowing us to set different scenes, but we also needed a lighting rig that could be used to generate very different looks for the full-on hip hop of Rico Nasty and the far more laidback vibe of Danny Lux.”
The visual centerpiece of the stage was a large LED video backdrop constructed from ADJ’s VS3IP LED panels. “I wanted to do a full back wall of video, but the weight restriction on the SL 260 trailer stage meant that we needed to cut off a couple of columns of panels”, explains Frisch. “So, instead of just making the screen narrower, I figured it would look cool to still fill the rear of the stage, but with small gaps.”
“We did a 9 wide by 5 tall central screen (which is 16 x 9 aspect ratio) and then put up 2 wide by 5 tall wings on each side, with a little gap from the main screen”, he continues. “The VS3IP is a real workhorse for us, and it’s IP-rated for outdoor events like this.” Complementing the video display was a versatile lighting rig built around twelve ADJ Focus Profile automated luminaires, with four fixtures mounted on each of the three overhead trusses.
“My LD, Richard Nelson, used the Focus Profiles zoomed in all the way for most of the show, shooting tight beams out over the crowd with fast movements”, furthers Frisch. “But then for Danny Lux’s set at the end he opened them up for gobo projections on the stage to create some nice atmospheric texture with richer colors and slower movements.”
The production also incorporated two ADJ Entour Venue atmospheric generators positioned at either side of the stage. Combining the output of a traditional fog machine with the fine dispersion of a hazer, the compact 1,500 W units generated consistent atmospheric haze that enhanced the visibility of the lighting effects across both the stage and audience area.
“I usually default to four hazers when I’m outside, just so I can have a little more even spread, but we only had two available for this show”, says Frisch. “However, the Entour Venues actually performed better than I expected outdoors and kept up even with the wind. We had a nice haze not only filling the stage but out over the crowd.”
The ADJ fixtures were complemented by twenty Proteus Rayzor 760 wash-zoom luminaires from sister company Elation, giving the Props AV team a capable lighting system that could seamlessly transition between the aggressive energy of Rico Nasty’s performance, the alternative style of Bachyard Ghost, and the more intimate atmosphere of Danny Lux’s closing set.
Wesley Houben steuert ParkCity Live mit Infinity Chimp G3
Die neuen Infinity-Chimp-G3-Lichtkonsolen spielten eine zentrale Rolle beim ParkCity-Live-Festival 2026 in Heerlen, Niederlande. Lichtdesigner und -techniker Wesley Houben nutzte die Konsolen, um zwei unterschiedliche Bühnenumgebungen für mehr als 35.000 Festivalbesucher zu programmieren und zu steuern.
ParkCity Live fand am 4. und 5. Juli im Park Bekkerveld in Heerlen statt und feierte seine zehnte ausverkaufte Ausgabe in Folge. Houben nutzte die Chimp G3, um ein von der SLF Group geliefertes Lichtpaket zu steuern, das sowohl die Dance Area als auch die Main Stage des Festivals umfasste.
Während der Tanzbereich schnelle, pixelreiche Effekte und großflächige Beam-Effekte erforderte, musste die Hauptbühne flexibel genug sein, um im Laufe des Wochenendes verschiedene Künstler, Gasttechniker und sich ändernde Produktionsanforderungen unter einen Hut zu bringen.
In der Dance Area steuerte die Chimp G3 ein Rig, das auf Dynamik und Pixeleffekte ausgelegt war. Furion-FX402-Bars, Furion-W602-WashBeams und Furion-H402-Hybrids von Infinity wurden zusammen mit Spectra-Strobes, Phantom-1220-Zoombars und Xpression-2000B-Beams von Showtec eingesetzt.
Die Hauptbühne wurde mit Infinitys Furion-P402-Profiles, Furion-S602-Spots, Furion-P602-Profiles, iW-1941-RDM-Wash-Scheinwerfern, Raccoon-S250/4-Junior-Strobe/Wash-Scheinwerfern und Raccoon-W40/4-Einheiten ausgestattet, ergänzt durch Showtecs Stage-Blinder-Flex-Blaze-Pods.
Für Paul Elstaks Headliner-Auftritt am Sonntagabend erweiterte Houben das bestehende Bühnenbild um zusätzliche Furion-P402-Profiles, um einen Look zu kreieren, der die Show vom Rest des Wochenendes abhob.
(Fotos: Highlite)
GF Eventtechnik nutzt dBTechnologies Vio für Jubiläums-Open-Air des Congress Centers Ramstein
Das vierzigjährige Bestehen des Congress Centers Ramstein (CCR) wurde mit einem dreitägigen Open-Air-Programm gefeiert. Nach einem Familientag und einem Konzert von Heavy Saurus bildete der Auftritt von The BossHoss vor rund 5.000 Besuchern den Abschluss der Jubiläumsfeierlichkeiten.
Die Beschallung aller drei Veranstaltungstage realisierte GF Eventtechnik aus Edenkoben mit einem PA-System auf Basis von dBTechnologies’ Vio-Systemen. Federführend vor Ort war Peter Fischer, Inhaber von Sound & Light Eventtechnik (Hinterweidenthal), der im Auftrag von GF Eventtechnik sowohl den FOH als auch die Systemplanung verantwortete.
Für die drei Veranstaltungstage kam ein dBTechnologies-Vio-Setup zum Einsatz, das von Beginn an auf die Anforderungen von The BossHoss dimensioniert war: sechs Vio L1610 als Main Hang rechts und links der Bühne; vier Vio L208, ebenfalls als Main Hang; vier Vio L208 als Sidefill rechts und links der Bühne; acht Vio L208 als Frontfill; und sechzehn Vio-S218-Subwoofer in Cardioid-Anordnung.
Im Vorfeld hatte Fischer eine Simulation des Systems erstellt, die von der Tourleitung von The BossHoss freigegeben wurde. Vor Ort erfolgte das Einmessen mit Smaart. Für die Steuerung und das Monitoring des Systems kam Aurora Net zum Einsatz.
(Fotos: dBTechnologies/Sascha Gansen)
Chauvet Colorado PXL Curve 12 illuminates Derek Hough’s “Symphony of Dance: Encore” tour
Designer Peter Morse and his colleagues Benny Kirkham (programming-PreVis), Felix Peralta (programming), and Brandon Wade (LD) created the lighting for Derek Hough’s recent 40-city “Symphony of Dance: Encore” tour.
Hough’s 110-minute show featured a wide range of dances from fast-paced rock-soul numbers, to traditional ballroom, to classic rock dances like “Twist and Shout”, to sentimental moments, such as when the multiple Emmy winner payed tribute to his idol Gene Kelly by dancing to “Singing In The Rain”.
Wherever the choreography went in this show, the lighting followed with chase sequences and strobing that matched highest energy peaks and subtle washes for the more sentimental and emotional moments.
“The major difference in lighting a dance show, such as this one, compared to a concert is that the talent and choreography speak for themselves”, says Morse. “All that really needs to be done by the lighting is to properly illuminate and support the dancers and their performance. On the other hand, in a concert much of the lighting - while hoping to support the music - is intended to reflect the actual musicality of what’s being played and whoever is featured during specific moments.”
Helping Morse flow with the show’s choreography was a collection of twelve Colorado PXL Curve 12 motorized battens, which, like the rest of the rig, were supplied by Christie Lites. Arranged at the edge of upstage risers, the pixel mappable RGBW fixtures were filling a variety of roles in the lighting design.
“Primarily they created ‘walls’ of light, either overhead or pointed down to the floor”, Morse explains. “Additionally, their articulation came in handy for accenting more frenetic moments in the music and dance.” Projecting light in multiple directions, the PXL units added depth to the stage and helped define its geometry.
(Photos: Tanner Jackson)
Steve McCracken and Mac-Events power rainbow for “K-Pop Forever!” tour with ChamSys
The recent “K-Pop Forever!” tour featured a variety of artists celebrating this rapidly-growing musical genre. Lighting designer Steve McCracken, owner of Mac-Events, used the Colour Picker feature of his ChamSys MagicQ MQ250M console to conjure up a vast rainbow for the two-part, 90-minute show.
Turquoise, violet, tangerine, lemon yellow - McCracken and his team blended these and all sorts of other hues into a balanced mix that reflected the upbeat vibe of K-Pop. “Being that this is a high energy show, I needed to recreate that energy visually”, says McCracken. “The songs in this show demanded that you do something to make them stand out from the ordinary. Coming up with bold color mixes was the best way to do that.”
“The ChamSys MQ250M’s Colour Picker was very handy”, he continues. “This feature made it quick to produce some of the distinctive colours we needed. This was much more efficient than having to wind color flags in and out. It was also very quick to tweak when morphing into different rigs and fixtures.”
In addition to its free-flowing colors, McCracken’s show, which was produced by Taylor Entertainment, relied on high energy motions and sheer speed to convey the essence of K-Pop on stage. The lighting never seemed to idle for long - there were always fast-moving patterns of aerial effects, chase sequences along the upstage panel fixtures and an array of images flashing across the vertically oriented video panels that formed the backdrop.
“This show had a slight element of busking”, notes McCracken. “I have on cue stacks - then within that, we have macros triggering FX on separate playbacks. Again, this makes it easier when we have to change anything on the fly. So, for example, I have bump buttons on my ChamSys for strobes, blinders, then key lights on additional faders to pull in and out when required.”
(Photos: ChamSys)
Port Lighting Systems helps bring The Brook’s new Secret Garden outdoor stage to life with Elation
When The Brook Casino in Seabrook, New Hampshire, set out to expand its live entertainment offerings with a new outdoor venue, it turned to a familiar partner. Port Lighting Systems, which previously designed the lighting for The Brook’s Seasons Showroom indoor venue, led the lighting design and integration for the casino’s new Secret Garden, a seasonal outdoor performance space that opened this spring.
The Secret Garden hosts concerts, comedy and a wide range of special events from spring through early fall. The location’s adaptable Elation lighting system comprises Rebel Series profile and wash units, Proteus Radius beam fixtures, SOL Series strobe/blinders, and Six+ PARs. Led by Ron Kuszmar, VP of Architectural & Theatrical Lighting at Port Lighting, the design team developed a flexible house rig capable of supporting everything from touring music acts to community events.
“The Brook just keeps expanding and growing”, says Kuszmar, who notes that Port Lighting has done a lot of work with them in the past. “When they first came to us for this project, the vision called for a permanent structure, and together we landed on a seasonal venue as the smarter fit for the site and the opening timeline. We worked with them to rethink the approach, connected them with the right partners, and helped turn the concept into a venue that could be built in time for the season.”
Port Lighting’s role became much more than providing lighting - they partnered with the venue to help guide the entire project forward. They helped coordinate key project partners, including staging specialist United Staging, which supplied the tent and truss structure that supports the lighting system. The result is a seasonal venue that can be dismantled after the fall season and reinstalled the following year.
Port Lighting had roughly four weeks to design, source, install, program, and commission the entire lighting system. Kuszmar worked closely with Jon Schwille at Elation rep Peter E. Schmitt Co. and Ross Blitz at Elation to identify the best fixtures for the design based on what was available within the project’s timeline. “With such a short schedule, availability was key”, says Kuszmar. “Elation had the right fixtures ready to go, which let us keep the design ambitious without compromising the opening date.”
The installation includes twenty Rebel Wash 12 and eighteen Rebel Profile LED moving heads, providing the foundation for the stage lighting system. Twenty Proteus Radius beam fixtures add dramatic aerial effects and visual impact. Four SOL IV Blinders serve double duty as audience color-changing blinders during performances and as crowd lighting after events to help the audience out of the venue.
Twenty-four Six+ PAR L fixtures line the stage perimeter, providing side light and illumination for smaller productions that require simpler stage looks. They also double as work lights at the end of the night when the stage needs to be cleared. “It’s a multifunctional rig, and we wanted every fixture to serve multiple purposes”, says Kuszmar. “The goal was to create a rig that could support concerts one night, comedy the next, and other events after that without needing to reinvent the system each time.”
In addition to designing and installing the lighting system, Port Lighting developed a console layout for venue staff and continues to provide a master electrician and lighting designer/operator for most performances. “There were a lot of people internally in our team who had a hand in making this project happen”, Kuszmar concludes. “This project came out great thanks to the collaboration between our team, The Brook, United Staging, and Elation.”
Pictured: Drew Baldrige performing at Secret Garden. (Photos: Elation)
Meyer Sound seit 40 Jahren Global Official Sound Partner des Montreux Jazz Festival
Vom 3. bis 18. Juli 2026 feierte das Montreux Jazz Festival seine sechzigste Ausgabe mit mehr als 250.000 Besuchern bei über 700 Konzerten und Veranstaltungen am Ufer des Genfersees. Gleichzeitig blickte Meyer Sound auf vierzig Jahre als Global Official Sound Partner des Festivals zurück.
Das Jubiläumsjahr brachte einen der umfangreichsten Einsätze von Meyer-Sound-Technologie in der Geschichte der Partnerschaft mit sich. Mehr als 700 Lautsprecher kamen auf den zwölf offiziellen Festivalbühnen sowie in Bars, Hospitality-Bereichen und Sponsorenzonen zum Einsatz. Tigra, das neueste Line-Array-System von Meyer Sound, das zuvor bereits beim Roskilde Festival seine internationale Festivalpremiere gefeiert hatte, debütierte in Montreux. Sämtliche Audiosysteme wurden wie in den Jahren zuvor vom Schweizer Veranstaltungstechnik-Unternehmen Skynight geliefert und integriert.
Im Auditorium Stravinski sorgte ein System aus Panther-Line-Arrays und 2100-Low-Frequency-Control-Elementen für den Sound. Zur Eröffnung kam zudem eine besondere Produktion zum Einsatz: Die britische Sängerin Raye präsentierte ein zweistündiges Konzert auf einer speziell angefertigten, rotierenden Rundbühne in der Mitte des Saals. Begleitet wurde sie von einem 22-köpfigen Ensemble, mit dem Front-of-House-Engineer Matthias Garrick am Pult. Für diese Produktion wurde ein eigenes Systemdesign entwickelt, bestehend aus Panther-M-Lautsprechern, Tigra-Fill-Systemen sowie Leopard-, Lina- und Ultra-X80-Lautsprechern. Hinzu kamen 2100-LFC und 900-LFC.
Gastauftritte von Mark Ronson und Alicia Keys erforderten 36-stündige Aufbau-Arbeiten mit mehreren Teams im Schichtbetrieb; am nächsten Morgen war der Saal wieder vollständig für den regulären Festivalbetrieb umgerüstet. „Das war ein echter Montreux-Moment“, sagt Andy Davies, Senior Director of Product Management bei Meyer Sound, der während des gesamten Festivals vor Ort war. „Das Festival schafft immer wieder besondere Erlebnisse und Momente.“
Im Montreux Jazz Lab bildete Tigra gemeinsam mit 2100-LFC das Herz des Beschallungssystems. „Tigra bewegt sich bei Größe und Gewicht im mittleren Bereich und liefert gleichzeitig klanglich die Leistung eines großformatigen Systems“, sagt Martin Reich, Sound Coordinator und Resident Engineer des Festivals. „Dadurch haben wir jetzt auch im Jazz Lab den Klangcharakter eines Großformatsystems. Bisher mussten wir dort aufgrund von Gewichtsbeschränkungen kleinere Systeme einsetzen.“
Standortübergreifend sorgte die Nebra-Software für eine zentrale Steuerung und Überwachung verschiedener Meyer-Sound-Plattformen und -Prozessorgenerationen. Dazu gehörten RMServer, Galileo Galaxy Network Platforms sowie das integrierte Gen-1-Processing von Tigra. Über das gesamte Festival hinweg war ein technisches Team von Meyer Sound vor Ort. Der Austausch zwischen erfahrenen Fachleuten und jungen Ingenieuren zählt zu den wertvollsten Aspekten der langjährigen Zusammenarbeit. „Hier gibt es die Möglichkeit, enorm viel Wissen weiterzugeben“, sagt Davies. „Für junge Audiotechniker ist das ein großartiger Ort zum Lernen.“
Während das Montreux Jazz Festival seine internationale Präsenz weiter ausbaut, etwa in China, Südafrika und Miami, entwickelt sich auch die Zusammenarbeit mit Meyer Sound kontinuierlich weiter. „Das Organisationsteam in Miami hat uns gesagt, dass Meyer Sound den Klang von Montreux auf ihre Bühne gebracht hat“, berichtet Davies. „Das war ein willkommenes Kompliment. Genau darum geht es uns: nicht nur die Marke zu bewahren, sondern das besondere Montreux-Erlebnis auch in neue Märkte zu übertragen.“
„Vor vierzig Jahren bat uns Claude Nobs, gemeinsam etwas zu schaffen, das es so noch nicht gab: ein Festival, bei dem die Klangqualität denselben Stellenwert hat wie die Musik selbst“, sagt Meyer-Sound-Mitgründerin Helen Meyer. „Was mich heute am meisten bewegt, ist, wie sich diese Idee über die Jahre weiterentwickelt hat. In Montreux entdecken wir jedes Jahr etwas Neues. Das ist kein Zufall. Es ist das Ergebnis einer Partnerschaft, die über viele Jahre hinweg auf denselben Werten basiert.“
Foto (v.l.): Helen Meyer (Executive Vice President, Meyer Sound), Mathieu Jaton (CEO, Montreux Jazz Festival) und John Meyer (President & CEO, Meyer Sound). (Fotocredit: Ralph Larmann)
Ayrton supports Fuerza Regida stadium tour
Lighting designer Alain Corthout of Showplus selected over 285 Ayrton fixtures as part of his lighting rig for música mexicana band Fuerza Regida’s current “This Is Our Dream” North American stadium tour 2026. Corthout brings more than thirty years of experience to the team: from starting his career in his native Belgium, he is also a veteran of working with Italian and Latin based artists such as Alejandro Fernandez and Miguel Bosé in both the USA and across South America.
“An all-stadium tour gives the designer a very broad canvas to work with”, he says. “The inspiration was to create a very dynamic visual show, with seven moving lighting pods and to play with the transparency of the screen, which is why we rigged a lot of fixtures behind the screens.” Corthout is very familiar with Ayrton lighting fixtures as he makes clear: “Since we were working with Rent All Pro USA, which is the USA division of Procolor Mexico, they have a lot of Ayrton fixtures, and I was very happy to implement as many as they had available.”
“To realise Fuerza Regida’s ‘Dream’ stadium tour concept, we selected 44 Domino LT fixtures to use as fillers and key lights; 63 Rivale Profiles rigged in the moving pods; 112 Veloce Profiles behind the screens and 66 Zonda 9 Wash fixtures above the screens”, he explains. “The fixtures provided strong, sculpted beams for architectural and aerial moments, rich, consistent colour for intimate storytelling, and versatile effects for dynamic song-driven moments - all of which supported the band’s cinematic, high-energy style while maintaining detail at distance.”
“Since Rent All Pro USA also had a few other tours out when we sent in our requests, I ended up with a mixture of different fixture types”, adds Corthout. “I usually tend to use the same types, but I was pleasantly surprised how well they performed together. These fixtures were perfect to create the bold looks we were looking for.”
The stadium tour’s Production Director is Fabian Herrera, the Lighting Programmer is Menga Cruz. Production Design is by Eleven Live and Showplus.
(Photos: Immanent Studio)
