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Lucie celebrates 40 with Robe
07/08/2026
„Light of Creation“-Show in Wiener Votivkirche mit MA Lighting, Martin und Prolights inszeniert
06/08/2026
Lalo Sandoval chooses Klang immersive monitor mixes for Alejandro Fernández
Starting out with an audio rental company at the age of seventeen, Lalo Sandoval quickly advanced to become a monitor engineer for Mexican band Maná, where he stayed for fourteen years. His current artist, Alejandro Fernández, he has worked with for over twenty-five years.
Always eager to explore new technology, Sandoval first discovered Klang:Technologies while researching loudspeakers in Los Angeles. A colleague introduced him to a new tool for monitoring, so he contacted his local distributor in Mexico. Since then, has never looked back.
“As soon as I heard about Klang, I got in contact with my distributor and learned everything I needed to get started”, he recalls. “From there, it was easy to dive in and keep improving. With my current artist, our approach is completely transparent. We discuss how Klang works and the benefits it brings. He is always interested in exploring new technology.”
Fernández fills stadiums worldwide with a genre-defying mixture of ranchera and pop music. He has sold over twenty million records to date and reached almost eight billion streams on Spotify alone. According to Sandoval, working at this scale becomes “significantly more efficient with Klang’s immersive in-ear mixing technology”.
“Klang:Vokal is a great tool for an artist with an input list of around eighty channels”, he continues. “The performances are often staged in the round, creating a full 360-degree experience. We are using a range of instruments including guitars, trumpets, tuba, accordion, keyboards, drums, and percussion, along with a choir. Klang helps me reduce the stereophonic load, giving me more space to distribute the instruments while also lowering IEM levels.”
Another complexity of Alejandro Fernández shows is the high number of wireless, close-mic’d instruments using radio transmitters and DPA 4099 capsules. Close mics can make IEM mixes sound unnatural, says Sandoval, but being able to spread the signals around the listener reintroduces perspective and makes everything sound more natural.
“We are using twenty channels of wireless microphones, but this doesn’t affect my work at all”, he explains. “Wireless guitars, keyboards and instrument mics are all easily accommodated. For the 2026 tour, we integrate even more musicians into the Klang system.”
Sandoval begins to build his mix with the most dynamic instruments first, focusing on those that have the most movement, or effects added. Beginning with the guitars, trumpets or accordion, he ensures they are placed with intention before moving onto percussion such as toms, bongos and toys. Each cue is saved as a Snapshot for recall throughout the show.
“Having a specific location for each instrument is another useful resource, as it provides ample space in your mix”, notes Sandoval. “Alongside the Snapshots, my Klang mixes are stored according to each song, so I can move instruments in real time, fine-tuning the trumpet or guitar solos during the ballads, for example.”
In 2025, Sandoval enjoyed working with Klang:Vokal, but in 2026 he switched to DMI-Klang integrated into his own DiGiCo Quantum 326. “I really enjoy using Klang”, he states. “My stereo mix has now become an immersive mix. Klang allows me to take steps forward, improving my mixes.”
"The world of audio is wonderful, especially if you are continually updating and experimenting with new technology”, he concludes. “One thing I would tell future sound engineers and musicians is to always take care of their ears, protect yourselves from high auditory levels. Klang’s immersive monitoring helps make that possible.”
(Photos: Klang:Technologies)
Lucie celebrates 40 with Robe
Czech rock band Lucie celebrated their 40th anniversary with sold out concerts in four major cities around the Czech Republic - one in Brno, one in Ostrava, two in Prague, finishing up at the Logspeed CZ Arena in Plzen. Technical production was coordinated and managed by Smart Production, headed by Josef “Pepa” Zenisek.
The band’s lighting designer is Lukas Patzenhauer, and on his rig were twenty-four iBolts, forty-eight WTF strobe/wash lights and five BMFL WashBeams running on a 5-way RoboSpot system. Patzenhauer has been lighting the band for twelve years, and for this tour design, he worked closely with stage designer Michal Dvorak to create a big, bold and spectacular lighting aesthetic whilst also focusing on the dynamics of the music. Lighting equipment was supplied by Ostrava-based High Lite Touring, and it was the first time that Patzenhauer had the chance to use either iBolts or WTFs.
Some iBolts were positioned on the floor - four below the stage revealed by moving grills above, and five a side along the upstage/downstage edges at deck level for side lighting. The remaining eight were rigged on a circular truss above the revolving B stage - also circular - in the centre of the arena. The fixtures were used extensively throughout the show for a variety of scenes and effects, including big rock looks to highlight dramatic moments and punctuations in the set.
The WTFs were positioned on three automated upstage lighting pods, arranged in a 3x3 matrix pattern, so nine per pod, with the remaining fifteen along the front edge of the most downstage of the mid trusses, pointing out into the arena for max impact. Patzenhauer used the WTF for strobing, blinding, pixel mapping and washing.
The stage design featured five separate slabs of LED screen. Four stage lift platforms - custom-built by Gradior - at the front elevated four of the band up and outwards towards the audience. On the B stage, connected to the main stage via a runway, were five industrial robot arms of two different sizes - normally found in the automotive industry.
The smaller robots were on the downstage edge of the B stage, with the larger ones on the upstage edge. They held two different types of objects - either circular mirrors or “diamond” deco pieces comprising a half sphere covered with cut mirrors. These were placed to create show-stopping effects in conjunction with being zapped by the iBolts on the truss above. The robot arms were used during six songs in the set.
The five BMFL WashBeams were on the front truss, where they could hit the band at acute angles without any unsightly light spillage on the stage. From both a creative and production perspective, this saves on having spot chairs and people on the truss, which is much safer and a more comfortable working environment for the operators.
Patzenhauer programmed the show himself using an Avolites D7 console. He had started his programming/operating/designing career using Avolites twenty-five years ago, and says he was very pleased to be reunited with the brand on this tour. He also purchased his own T3 Wing recently. According to Patzenhauer, Lucie’s 40th anniversary gigs were preceded by approximately one year of preparation.
(Photos: Marko Polasek)
„Light of Creation“-Show in Wiener Votivkirche mit MA Lighting, Martin und Prolights inszeniert
„Light of Creation“ - eine etwa 30-minütige Show, die in sechs Akten die Schöpfungsgeschichte erzählt - verwandelt derzeit die Wiener Votivkirche in eine immersive Licht- und Klangwelt. Produzent und Opernsänger Max Emanuel Cencic hat dafür ein internationales Kreativteam um sich versammelt.
Der Emmy-prämierte Komponist Adam Lukas zeichnet für die Musik verantwortlich, MP-Studio unter der Leitung von Marin Petkov für den Videopart, das Lichtdesign stammt von Georg Fuchs. Gemeinsam schufen sie ein Erlebnis, dass sakrale Architektur und moderne Showtechnik zu einer Erzählung verbindet.
Die neugotische Votivkirche ist dabei weit mehr als bloße Kulisse. Architektur, Proportionen und Material bestimmen maßgeblich, wie Licht, Projektion und Technik eingesetzt werden können. Den Machern sei schnell klar geworden, dass sich die Show respektvoll in die vorhandene Substanz einfügen müsse, berichten sie.
Sichtbare technische Elemente wurden deshalb gezielt zurückgenommen: Scheinwerfer im Publikumsbereich erhielten maßgefertigte Verkleidungen, Traversenkonstruktionen wurden als Sonderanfertigungen gestaltet und formal an die Linien und Ornamente des Kirchenraums angelehnt.
Der Großteil des Lichtdesigns in der Kirche basiert auf statischen Scheinwerfern. Im Zentrum der Gestaltung steht der Altarraum, der dramaturgisch den Kern der Schöpfungserzählung bildet. Hier ergänzte Georg Fuchs das Setup um sechs Martin Mac Aura XIP sowie sechs Prolights Astra Hybrid330 für zusätzliche Flexibilität. Diese Geräte übernehmen sowohl die Ausleuchtung des Altars als auch die Anbindung an die großformatigen Projektionen, die sich über den gesamten Kirchenraum erstrecken.
Die Martin-Mac-Aura-XIP-Washlights sind in erster Linie für die atmosphärische Modellierung des Altars verantwortlich. „Mit den Mac Aura XIP variiere ich die Wahrnehmung des Altars über Winkel, Intensitäten und Farbstimmungen“, sagt Fuchs. „Licht und Videocontent verschmelzen vollkommen - die Looks wirken wie aus einem Guss.“
Für markante Akzente, vertikale Raumzeichnung und die Betonung architektonischer Details nutzt der Lichtdesigner Prolights’ Astra-Hybrid330-Moving-Lights. „Im Spot-Modus hebe ich damit Fresken an der Kirchendecke hervor oder erzeuge während des Einlasses subtile Texturen im Raum“, erläutert Fuchs. „Die Geräte schaffen damit bereits vor Beginn der eigentlichen Show eine stimmige Atmosphäre.“ Ein ausschlaggebender Grund für die Wahl des Astra Hybrid330 sei die Performance der Geräte auch ohne Haze gewesen - ein wichtiger Faktor in einem sakralen Umfeld, in dem Nebel nicht immer gewünscht oder möglich sei.
Gesteuert wird das gesamte Lichtsystem über ein GrandMA3-System. Programmiert wurde die Show auf einer GrandMA3 Light, das Playback läuft auf einer GrandMA3 Compact. Das Videosystem basiert auf mehreren Medienservern, die alle Video- und Audiosignale ausgeben und zugleich den Timecode liefern, der die GrandMA3-Steuerung synchronisiert. Ein Stream Deck ermöglicht es, die Show mit einem Tastendruck zu starten und zu stoppen, ohne sich in der Tiefe mit der Komplexität der Steuerung auseinandersetzen zu müssen.
Die Entscheidung für Martin Mac Aura XIP und Prolights Astra Hybrid330 sei gefallen, nachdem Fuchs gemeinsam mit Max Emanuel Cencic mehrere Shootouts durchgeführt hatte, bei denen verschiedene Geräte hinsichtlich Lichtqualität, Flexibilität, Baugröße und Wirkung im Raum gegeneinander abgewogen wurden. Das Lightpower-Austria-Team in Ansfelden betreute das Projekt von Beginn an.
(Foto: Light of Creation/Fabian Skala)
Thomas Edwards chooses Robert Juliat Dalis footlights for Raye arena tour
British singer-songwriter Raye embarked on her first ever headline arena tour with “This Tour May Contain New Music”, a 40+ date tour across Europe and North America lasting from January to May 2026. Production and lighting designer Thomas Edwards, of Panglowin, created a lighting design befitting Raye’s vocal splendour, which blends elements of jazz, pop, dance, R&B, and soul, whilst highlighting the singer’s glamorous on-stage presence.
To ensure Raye, her backing vocalists and their rich costumes were highlighted to best effect, Edwards specified nine Robert Juliat Dalis 864 footlights, evenly arrayed along the downstage edge in a continuous arrangement. “This positioning was very intentional, it allowed me to introduce a consistent and controlled uplight across the width of the performance space”, he explains. “The main objective behind this was to enhance the visual impact of Raye and the backing vocalists’ dresses while they were performing.”
“The costumes featured a high level of intricate detailing, textures, embellishments, and layered fabrics that would often become flattened or lost entirely under conventional front lighting”, he continues. “By bringing light in from a low, frontal angle using a linear fixture like Dalis, I was able to reintroduce depth and definition into those details, ensuring they translated clearly to both the live audience and camera.”
“Specifying these fixtures wasn’t just about adding another lighting position; it was about solving a visual problem in a deliberate and elegant way”, Edwards furthers. “Traditional front light tends to prioritise visibility of faces, which is obviously essential, but it can compromise the dimensionality of costumes. The downstage linear uplight acted as a complementary system; subtle enough not to overpower the key light, but strong enough to lift texture and create a more sculpted, dynamic look overall. It became a crucial layer within the broader lighting design.”
Edwards opted for the four-colour Dalis 864 to retain maximum flexibility throughout the show: “With multiple costume changes for Raye and the backing vocalists across different songs, it was important that the lighting could adapt seamlessly to each new look”, he says. “Having precise colour control meant we could fine-tune hues to either match or contrast with the wardrobe, depending on the mood we wanted to create. In softer moments, this allowed for delicate, sympathetic tones that enhanced the garments naturally, while in more energetic or stylised sections, we could push into deeper, more saturated colours to heighten the visual intensity.”
As the tour’s lighting, audio, video and rigging vendor, Solotech supplied and toured the Dalis 864 fixtures on a dedicated dolly system which meant they could be pre-rigged and quickly deployed onto the rolling stage each day with minimal setup time. The tour also featured a substantial camera package, capturing the performance from multiple angles, which introduced an additional layer of consideration in the lighting design.
Strong footlight from the downstage fixtures played an important role here, adding dimensionality to the performers on camera. “Without it, faces and costumes can appear flat when primarily lit from above or the front”, notes Edwards. “The uplight helped separate the performers from the background and gave a more sculpted, three-dimensional quality on screen.”
“The colour temperature of our key lighting for the performers varied depending on the look and feel of each section, typically ranging between 4300 K, 4800 K, 5600 K, and 6000 K”, he concludes. “Having fixtures like the Dalis allowed us to closely match or complement these temperatures. This was particularly important for maintaining consistency within the camera workflow, especially when working with log profiles and LUT-based colour grading. By ensuring that the uplight integrated seamlessly with the key light, we were able to preserve accurate skin tones and costume colours on camera, while still achieving the desired artistic effect.”
(Photos: KG Shoots/Aliyah Otchere)
Colorado Symphony performs DiGiCo reprise with Quantum852 console
Colorado Symphony has been an early adopter of DiGiCo’s SD7, upgraded the console with one of the first Quantum engines to ship to the US in 2019, integrated DiGiCo’s 4REA4 processing system more than one and a half years ago, and now has installed DiGiCo’s new flagship Quantum852 at front-of-house, alongside a Fourier Audio Transform.Engine setup, both supplied by Thornton, Colorado-based Brown Note Productions.
“Purchasing the Q852 was a natural progression for me, trying to stay up with where the technology is going”, says Aric Christensen, Colorado Symphony’s longtime head of audio. “Whenever I see a new product being released by DiGiCo, I want to get in on it.” For Christensen, the most significant feature to stand out when he first laid eyes on the Quantum852 was the surface’s new, larger display screens. “They are more than twice the size of the SD7 screens, and you can have all these different functions represented”, he notes.
“I installed the new Quantum852 in the middle of the busiest part of our season, and people were like, ‘You’re crazy!’”, Christensen laughs. “But I know the software; I know what to expect from all of this.” The SD7 Quantum, previously at FOH in the hall, has been repurposed as a monitor, broadcast, or backup console according to the needs of the production, he reports.
Having said that, he continues, “You start digging into it and, while everything’s familiar, there are a lot of new features here. This thing has more power than I’ve ever had before, to the point where I’m still trying to figure out when and how to utilize some of it.” For example, “I can have individual macros on individual channels”, he says. “I’ve got to figure out how I’m going to introduce that into my workflow.”
As an early adopter of technology under the Audiotonix brands umbrella, Christensen also purchased a pair of Fourier Audio Transform.Engine plug-in servers, which integrate directly with DiGiCo Quantum consoles, some time ago. “I bought two of them so I could do redundancy, but I’m currently only using one through an Orange Box”, he explains. “After I’d had it set up at front-of-house for a while I moved it to a remote location, where it’s tied in over fiberoptics. I’m trying to make my front-of-house position area less crowded and as streamlined as possible, with everything integrated with one unified network system.”
Audiotonix’s support also inspired him to integrate DiGiCo’s 4REA4 processing system in place of the previous backstage 70 V distributed system while also performing an AoIP networking infrastructure upgrade to support Dante and AVB. “I thought, how can I get the level of service that I’m used to with DiGiCo and (US distributor) Group One over all the pieces of equipment that I have in my system, except for maybe the speakers and amplifiers?”, he shares. “I started looking at the 4REA4 and was able to get that done during the network installation. Having all these different audio system components under one umbrella is the smart way to go, I think, and gives me peace of mind.”
While Colorado Symphony mostly performs in the 2,700-seat Boettcher Concert Hall at the Denver Performing Arts Complex in Denver, Colorado, the 80-piece orchestra of full-time musicians also plays outdoor shows regionally and around the country. For those events, Christensen uses DiGiCo’s Convert software to adapt his console’s layout to the console model he rents for the show.
The software also enables Christensen to accommodate the needs of visiting engineers who also work on DiGiCo consoles when their artists collaborate with the orchestra. “I can tell the engineer, I’ve got all these templates that will work for your pop show, and I can just lay you on top of that”, he explains. “Or, if you already have a DiGiCo file, send it to me. Before you show up, I can have that reorganized so it’ll work for both of us. The fact that DiGiCo has a free, offline editor really helps.”
Colorado Symphony has collaborated with Beck, the Beach Boys, and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, amongst others.
Pictured (left to right): Aric Christensen with Media Recording Engineer/A2 Joe Garcia Miranda. (Photos: Amanda Tipton)
Wharfedale Pro XLA makes European debut at Swiss arena event
Wharfedale Pro’s flagship XLA Series line array system has made its first European appearance at a large-scale arena event in Switzerland, delivering audio for a private production in a 5,200-capacity venue.
Coordinated by Swiss distributor Sacher Music, the system design and technical delivery were carried out by Stagepro Technical Solutions S.R.L., in close collaboration with the Wharfedale Pro Applications and Solutions team, who also flew in to provide on-site technical support and training during the preparation and setup days.
The main system featured four hangs of six XLA-308 line array elements, supported by a substantial low-frequency system combining XLA-118Sub (three per hang) in an end-fire arrangement to reduce the bass propagation in the behind empty tribune. Fourteen XLA-221Subs covering 23 meters as a broadside array were also deployed on the floor. Front fill coverage was provided by WLA-112 loudspeakers, with multiple WDG-12 floor monitors for foldback.
In total, the system included twenty-four XLA-308 powered by eight DP-4100N amplifiers, alongside twelve XLA-118Sub and fourteen XLA-221Sub subwoofers, all driven by eighteen DP-2200N amplifiers. Dedicated XLA-Common Fly Frames ensured safe and efficient deployment, while dolly boards supported transport and handling. Additional DP-N Series amplifiers were engaged for system redundancy.
(Photos: Wharfedale Pro)
ChamSys helps Gregory Dutein keep pace with Ultra Vomit
Designer and programmer Gregory “Gru” Dutein from Chirac Design has been reflecting the French parodic metal band Ultra Vomit’s multi-faceted music and stage persona in light since 2017. He describes the essence of their performances this way: “An Ultra Vomit show should be seen as a true burlesque performance. Each song is essentially a tribute to a specific style or artist from the metal, hardcore, punk, or even mainstream scene.”
“Visually, every track has a very distinct identity, reflecting the codes of the style being parodied”, he continues. “At the same time, the show remains very ‘alive’, with constant improvisation and audience interaction. That’s why I always keep live faders ready.”
Although the band plays to a click with some pre-programmed sequences, Dutein runs the lighting manually without timecode to preserve an organic feel, which requires that he maintains tight synchronization between lighting, video, and music. He uses a ChamSys MagicQ MQ70 Compact Console. “We actually started with a ChamSys MQ80, but we were immediately drawn to the MQ70’s compactness and efficiency”, he notes.
Dutein organizes his show files carefully to account for his client’s fast-paced shows. In his first layer, all groups and patterns are, organized vertically with a clear hierarchy (for example: Spots, Spot Back, Spot Front), using color tags in the patch for clarity. Layer two is the programming layer, with extended group views ad color/beam patters.
The third layer is divided into four sections: the top left is devoted to song pages for instant access; the bottom left covers the main cues stack; the top right is the Execute Page; and the bottom right is the Full Group Master access. Dutein also maintains a dedicated programming page to test rigs and rebuild presets quickly, using Playback.
(Photos: Nicolas Leboeuf/Zénith Nantes Métropole)
ESP chooses Coda Audio ViRay for Libera Awards at Gotham Hall
Produced by the Foundation for Independent Music, with support from the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), the annual Libera Awards honor independent musicians as well as the teams that support them. The Awards have now been in existence for fifteen years.
The 2026 edition took place at Gotham Hall in New York City and featured performances from Mdou Moctar, Valerie June, Dawn Richard, and Aaron Maine of Porches. With a combination of live performances, screened contributions, speeches and presentations, the audio system had to provide consistent sound across different media.
New York-based production specialist Eastern Stage Productions (ESP), the exclusive audio provider for Gotham Hall, chose a Coda Audio system for the event based around the German manufacturer’s ViRay line array.
ESP provided a ground-stacked system comprising five ViRay units per side with four Coda Audio SCV-F 18’’ sensor-controlled subwoofers in cardioid per side. Two Coda Audio CoRay column line source units were added as side-fills, with four Coda Audio Hops8 8’’ point source units as front-fills. The system was powered by two Coda Audio Linus14 and one Linus12C DSP amplifiers with loudspeaker management.
“Gotham Hall is an extremely reverberant space”, says ESP owner Bill Danilczyk. “The Coda Audio system’s accuracy in frequency response on and off-axis allowed us to focus the audio on the audience and keep it away from reflective services. It’s better than any other system we’ve tried in the room over the last twenty-five years.”
(Photos: Coda Audio)
TiMax powers real-time spatial audio for Mercedes-AMG premiere on LA’s Sixth Street Bridge
When Mercedes-AMG transformed Los Angeles’ Sixth Street Bridge into a mock Autobahn for the global premiere of its new all-electric AMG GT model this spring, the audio brief was to track the car in real time as it raced across more than 300 metres of bridge, with spatial precision.
Delivering on that brief was a collaborative effort built around TiMax SoundHub, supplied by PRG. “We were tasked with providing a large Main PA system for the audience with the inclusion of an A-list musical act, but to also include multiple smaller flown systems that would make the audience feel like they were in the middle of it all”, explains Douglas Plander, PRG’s Technical Product Manager - Audio. “Building on our success with TED and ‘Buena Vista Social Club’ (on Broadway), we felt that the TiMax system best incorporated the artist vision and demanding needs of the show.”
Sound designer Anthony Narciso was introduced to deploy the spatial rendering required to realise the creative vision of event sound designer Peter Phillips. For Phillips, TiMax was “the only system that allowed for a completely bespoke approach to spatialising live audio”, which was essential on this project. The AMG GT remained under wraps until a single rehearsal before showtime, meaning the entire spatial design had to be built, and refined without it. Narciso’s pre-production tests proved so convincing that, as he puts it, “several people who heard them actually thought the car was physically present during playback.”
Without access to the car, Narciso mapped over 300 metres of bridge within TiMax Panspace. During pre-programming, he generated around 26 test cues referencing a variety of Image Definitions, fade automations, and movement speeds, ready to evaluate as soon as the bridge system became functional. With the AMG GT off-site, the TiMax built-in playback engine became central to the workflow. Every test cue was run using samples loaded directly into TiMax and refined long before the car arrived on the bridge.
With pre-programming complete, the next step was synchronising cues to the car’s movement on the bridge. As the stunt drivers used a test vehicle to map their speed runs, the team stopwatched when the car would pass specific markers, allowing Narciso to fine-tune timing within TiMax. When the live audio feed from the AMG GT itself came online on event night, the team swapped the source inputs and the programming tracked through perfectly with no further adjustment required.
TiMax also proved decisive when last-minute changes were needed. Speakers were repositioned and the ground plan was expanded to cover additional distance, both handled in minutes with TiMax SoundHub recalculation. After speaker movements were dropped into a scaled ground plan, the Image Definitions were instantly updated without affecting existing work. The team also added localised DJ playback to a dedicated section of the system speakers and used the built-in OSC library to create a custom Stream Deck control panel tailored to the show’s operational needs.
(Photos: Larry Chen/TiMax)
“Pretty Woman: The Musical” debuts d&b CCL system in South Africa
The South African premiere of “Pretty Woman: The Musical”, produced by Showtime Entertainment, has marked the regional debut of d&b Audiotechnik’s CL-Series, deploying the new CCL compact cardioid line array system. The system was supplied by Cape Town-based rental company Eastern Acoustics, supported by local distributor Stage Audio Works (SAW).
The high-energy musical production features a rock-infused score by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance. South African Sound Designer David Classen chose the d&b CCL system as the centerpiece of his audio design. Single-channel broadband directivity control is the standout technical achievement of the CL-Series, bringing advanced low-frequency cardioid behavior into a compact form factor.
“The CCL system completely transformed how we approached the sound design for Pretty Woman”, says Classen. “In musical theater, stage spill is always the enemy. The passive cardioid behavior of both the CCL tops and the flying CCL subwoofers kept the stage quiet. This clean stage environment gave us significantly more usable gain before feedback than we’ve ever had with a compact rig, allowing the vocals to sit on top of the mix. Combined with d&b’s ArrayProcessing, we achieved even coverage and a consistent tonal balance throughout the entire auditorium.”
To accommodate the venue dynamics, Eastern Acoustics specified: fourteen d&b CCL tops per side for main left/right hangs; six d&b CCL-Subs per side for low-frequency extension; a mix of d&b V-Series and E-Series loudspeakers for fills and center cluster; as well as d&b D25 and D80 digital amplifiers, integrated into a redundant Milan-AVB network infrastructure for digital signal transport.
After its opening season at the Artscape Opera House in Cape Town, “Pretty Woman: The Musical” continued its South African run by moving to the Teatro at Montecasino in Johannesburg.
(Photo: Showtime Management)
Deutscher Musikautor*innenpreis 2026 mit Audiotechnik von Shure realisiert
Der von der GEMA ausgerichtete Deutsche Musikautor*innenpreis 2026 würdigte erneut herausragende Kompositionen und Texte der deutschen Musikszene. Für die Verleihung des Preises nutzten die mit der Durchführung der Veranstaltung betrauten Firmen One Event Germany GmbH und A2B2C AV Live Communication GmbH ein modular skalierbares Audiotechnik-Setup von Shure.
Als technischer Partner verantwortete Shure die Soundqualität in sämtlichen Kategorien und bei allen Laudationen und musikalischen Performances der Preisverleihung. Das Unternehmen setzte dafür auf und hinter der Bühne ein breit aufgestelltes Set aus Funkstrecken, Mikrofonen, Kapseln und In-Ear Monitoring-Lösungen ein.
Für das Monitoring wurde das WMAS-fähige In-Ear-System Axient Digital PSM verwendet, welches im digitalen Übertragungsmodus für eine vollständig digitale Signalübertragung über den gesamten Signalweg sorgte. Ein weiterer zentraler Bestandteil des Setups waren Axient-Digital-Funkstrecken mit KSM11-Kapseln für die Sprach- und Gesangsübertragung.
Auch bei der Instrumentenabnahme kam ein breites Spektrum an Shure-Mikrofonen zum Einsatz. Für das Schlagzeug-Setup nutzte das Audioteam unter anderem Beta 91A, Nexadyne 2, mehrere Nexadyne 6 sowie SM57 und KSM137.
„Gerade bei Veranstaltungen mit wechselnden Acts und unterschiedlichen Anforderungen ist ein stabiles Monitoring entscheidend“, sagt Toni Kern, FOH Engineer. „Mit Axient Digital PSM hatten wir ein präzises Stereobild und konnten die Systeme während der Show jederzeit zuverlässig überwachen. Das hat uns im Produktionsalltag deutlich mehr Sicherheit gegeben.“
(Fotos: GEMA/Offenblende/Shure/Michael Wendt)
Turnstile’s live sound engineers choose DiGiCo Quantum
This year, Baltimore-based hardcore punk band Turnstile is once again out on the festival circuit, which kicked off with back-to-back weekends at Coachella in April and also includes performances at Osheaga, Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, Bumbershoot, Shaky Knees, and other North American gigs, plus a heavy roster of international fests.
Jake Lang has been with the band for five years as front-of-house engineer, production manager, and tour manager and now solely focuses on FOH as the group has scaled up. For his choice of instrument, Nashville-based Worley Sound supplied him with a new DiGiCo Quantum326 mixing console.
“I love the Q326 for its transparency”, he says. “I dig being able to mix a variety of bands” - including Alkaline Trio, Movements, and others - “and get consistent results but with vastly different tones and vibes. I’ve previously carried a Q338, but with Turnstile, that’s a lot of console for a five-piece band that has a fairly low channel count, so the Q326 has been exactly what I’ve needed.”
“I appreciate being able to tip the board with just one other person, and I can run the whole show off of a single layer”, he continues. “We really keep it simple: no playback, no click. We occasionally have someone pop in with a guest vocal or instrument, but we’re pretty straightforward. I mostly mix into groups, and between that and using control groups, I don’t really have to bounce around between layers.”
At the other end of the Optocore loop is monitor engineer Chris “Chop” Mateer, who moved into his current position with the band in December 2025. His console of choice is the DiGiCo Quantum338, also provided by Worley Sound. “I’m running five IEM mixes for the band, plus seven that cover our crew and guests, for a total of twelve mixes of Shure Axient Digital PSM”, says Mateer.
“We have live cabs onstage, but the band is all on ears, plus there’s a thumper for our drummer”, he adds. “We’re also doing a fair bit of con sends and receives with the DiGiCos for things like IEM mixes for our lighting and video crew at FOH, talkbacks from FOH to me, and for Jake sending his mix back to the stage so I can share it to friends-and-family fills onstage. Our stage gets pretty crowded with guests and we want them to have the same experience as the crowd.”
“Between the Mustard, Spice Rack, and Nodal Processing I’ve been able to stay entirely in the desk and haven’t had to reach for any outside solutions yet”, Mateer furthers. “It makes it really simple for whenever we might need to source consoles locally for a one-off or something. I just need to get a Quantum in front of me and I’m all good.”
Lang adds that he uses Fourier Audio’s Transform.Engine to deploy plugins live. “I started using Fourier when we began working with Worley Sound last year. I initially started with Oeksound’s Soothe Live and Valhalla’s reverbs and very quickly knew that I’d never go back”, he laughs. “I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface with Fourier’s options.”
Pictured (left to right): Jake Lang, Chris “Chop” Mateer. (Photos: DiGiCo)
ADJ 40 Hex Panel IP fixtures illuminate Revolve Festival
The ADJ 40 Hex Panel IP played a central role in the lighting design for this year’s Revolve Festival. Integrated throughout the carnival-inspired stage design, the IP65-rated fixtures were used to generate bold visual accents, dramatic mood shifts and eye-catching effects for performances by Don Toliver and other artists.
Held during the first weekend of Coachella in Thermal, California, the ninth annual Revolve Festival once again delivered an exclusive blend of live music, fashion, celebrity culture and immersive production design. Hosted by fashion retailer Revolve, this year’s invite-only event adopted “The Grand Revivre” as its creative theme, transporting guests into a stylized carnival-inspired environment filled with performances, games and experiential brand activations.
Returning for the third consecutive year as Production and Lighting Designer, Jeff Behm created a visual environment centered around a circular stage design and large curved video wall backdrop. Production for the event was handled by Production Arm, while lighting equipment was supplied by Volt Lites. To deliver visuals capable of cutting through the bright California desert daylight, Behm selected ADJ’s new 40 Hex Panel IP fixtures as a key component of the lighting system.
“This year’s festival had a carnival theme, so we pushed into that with a circular stage element and large circular truss above”, explains Behm. “We filled both the truss and stage floor with lots of whimsical elements and used plenty of eye candy fixtures to give punches of color and visual effects that looked good during the daylight. Since this is a daytime event, with the headliner performing at dusk, I had to be mindful of what would look good even in full daylight.”
A total of 56 of the 40 Hex Panel IP fixtures were deployed throughout the stage design. Twenty-four units were positioned along the upstage truss supporting the large curved LED wall that formed the backdrop of the stage, while a further 32 fixtures were mounted along the inside of the circular overhead truss positioned above the performance area. Used for bold color washes, dynamic pixel effects and high-impact visual accents, the fixtures helped reinforce the carnival-inspired aesthetic while maintaining visibility throughout the daytime event.
The Revolve Festival lineup featured a headline performance from Don Toliver alongside appearances from Mustard, Chase B, Baby J, Kitty Ca$h, Kehlani and surprise guest Mario. The event transitioned from bright afternoon sunshine into dusk.
“It was my first time using the 40 Hex Panel IPs”, says Behm. “I made use of the full pixel zone control, using the ten separate segments to create different patterns and looks. I was able to create that brightness and real punch during the times it was needed as well as more subtle moments when they were called for. I also used them to create big mood changes when we switched between screen content and different artists.”
(Photos: ADJ)
Chauvet helps Lightswitch reflect essence of Mt. Joy on tour
Lightswitch’s John Featherstone and his colleagues Ignacio Rosenberg and Haley Featherstone created the production and lighting design for American rock band Mt. Joy’s current “Hope We Have Fun” tour. “Mt. Joy live somewhere between intimacy and lift-off”, says Featherstone. “They’re not a ‘look at me’ band, they’re a ‘come with us’ band. The lighting has to honor that, and Cory Sperry, the band’s longtime Lighting Director, makes sure everyone is along for the ride.”
The design team created an asymmetrical rig. “We leaned into asymmetry because Mt. Joy aren’t a symmetrical band”, explains Featherstone. “Their music has a looseness to it - beautifully imperfect, slightly off-center, human. A perfectly balanced rig would feel too polite, too predictable. By breaking the grid, the rig breathes more like the music. It creates tension and release, pockets of focus, and a sense that the show is evolving rather than repeating. It also gives us more compositional flexibility - every song can feel like it’s found its own shape rather than being forced into one.”
Playing a role in this diverse rig were 31 Chauvet Professional Color Strike M motorized strobe-blinders. The majority of these fixtures are integrated into the overhead system, while the remainder are strategically placed on the trusses behind the vanish screen to provide added texture. “What they give us is punch without harshness”, says Featherstone. “We used them as emotional punctuation. When the band hits a chorus or a musical peak, they don’t just light it - they announce it. But because we can color them, they still feel part of the palette rather than a bolt-on effect.”
Like the Color Strike M, most of the tour’s rig is in an overhead system. There is a limited floor package. This is because the designers wanted to keep the band clearly visible and connected to the audience, not “boxed in by a forest of fixtures”, according to Featherstone. “Also, we felt that having a limited floor package gave us the desired tone for this band”, he continues. “Floor packages can very quickly tip into something that feels more ‘showbiz’ than ‘band’. There was also a pragmatic element - fewer fixtures on the deck means faster changeovers, cleaner touring, and less visual clutter. Every unit that is there has a job to do.”
The designers also went with soft gradients and hue choices for this show, often conveying the sense of nature that runs through Mt. Joy’s music. “We deliberately avoided hard color cuts most of the time”, says Featherstone. “The music feels more like a slow blend rather than a sharp turn, so the palette leans into gradients - colors that drift into each other rather than snap. Austin Schneider, our amazing programmer, is a master of this.”
Flexibility was also an essential element of the lighting design, allowing it to follow what Featherstone calls “the emotional arc” of the band’s music. “There is a warmth and vulnerability in the verses”, he says, “then these expansive almost euphoric moments when everything opens up.”
(Photos: Ignacio Rosenberg)
ESP deploys Coda Audio system for New York Knicks homecoming celebration
When the New York Knicks basketball team ended a fifty-three year wait for an NBA championship by winning game five of the 2026 Finals against San Antonio Spurs, a spectacular and triumphant return to the team’s home city was mandatory. An estimated two million people took to the streets to welcome their team along the Canyon of Heroes parade route, which saw scenes of celebration culminate in a symbolic presentation of the keys to New York at City Hall.
Eastern Stage Productions of New York (ESP) was entrusted with the task of delivering audio production for this occasion - which featured a live performance from Alicia Keys - and supplied a Coda Audio system to meet the requirements. For the wide stage and audience area in front of City Hall, ESP deployed a Coda Audio system comprising ground-stacked and flown elements.
The system was based around Coda’s flagship compact AiRay line array. The two main hangs combined four AiRay and six CiRay units each, with two SCP-F sensor-controlled 2 x 18’’ subwoofers per side. These were complemented by further seven ground stacks of three AiRay with a single SC2-F sensor-controlled 2 x 15’’ bass extension each.
Completing the system were four Hops8T (high-output point source) as fills for the dais, two Hops8 as backstage fills, two Hops12 as center fills, eight ultra-compact Coda N-Ray line array units to cover the side seating area, with a further ten SCP-F deployed for low end coverage. Onstage monitoring was catered for with six Cue Four 3-way stage monitors, and the whole system was powered by twelve Coda Audio Linus14D 4-channel DSP amplifiers.
(Photos: Coda Audio)
Monitor engineer Cory Benson picks DiGiCo Quantum338 for Tyler Childers
On his current “Snipe Hunt” tour, which kicked off in Dallas on April 23, 2026, American singer-songwriter Tyler Childers is backed up by his seven-piece band, The Food Stamps. To keep all of the singers and musicians in sync with their own performances as well as each other, Sound Image, a Clair Global brand, is carrying a DiGiCo Quantum338 as the tour’s monitor console.
Cory Benson has been the artist’s monitor engineer for three and a half years now, first hitting the road with Childers on 2023’s “Send in the Hounds” tour. “As that tour wound down, I was taking inventory of the gear and reviewing what worked and what could be improved upon based on Tyler and the band’s needs”, he shares, adding that he requested a DiGiCo Quantum338 to work with before the next tour prep began.
“The Nodal Processing was a game-changer”, he continues. “As a monitor engineer, you can find yourself cluttering up your fader banks with duplicated channels for specific sends. Being able to handle the individual sends from one channel allows me to keep my layouts simple and clean. Besides the fader bank cleanliness that Nodal Processing provides me, the safety net of my show lives in the macros.”
Benson describes his “Snipe Hunt” tour monitoring setup as “pretty simple”, with the DiGiCo desk controlling two SD-Racks loaded with 32-bit mic pres and analog output cards. He’s also utilizing two DiGiGrid MGBs to pull MADI into his recording computer.
From his typical position at stage left, Benson is supplying eight stereo IEM mixes for the band, along with five stereo IEM mixes for the backline techs, one stereo IEM VIP mix, and up to three stereo IEM mixes for guest sit-ins, potentially bringing the total to seventeen on a busy day. “I also send a backup stereo mix to a hardwired pack for our drummer, and a feedback wedge for our guitarist, which is only used for a few of his solos since all our amps are upstage of the risers.”
Largely eschewing audio plugins and external processing, Benson prefers to keep everything onboard as much as possible. “I utilize the Naga 6 on Tyler’s vocal channel to reign in the wild dynamics of his performance before sending it through the DYN Blue Classic compressor, which is filtered to catch any aggressive peaks in his upper-mids”, he says. “I’m also running DYN Blue Classics on my band buses with a higher threshold to just glue everything together and catch any runaway transients. I use the Mustard gates for my toms because they feel a little more musical and organic than the SD’s. And with DiGiCo’s latest V22 software update, I’m now utilizing the new Mustard Levelling Amp, The Silver One, on upright bass.”
“In my opinion, this desk works so well for this band because of its sonic transparency”, he concludes. “These artists work so hard to craft the tones and sounds they want, so the last thing I want to do is affect it. I want the artists to be confident that what they’re hearing in their IEMs is an accurate representation of what their instruments are doing on stage.”
The “Snipe Hunt” tour stops at a variety of iconic venues - including Chicago’s historic Wrigley Field and Pennsylvania’s Hersheypark Stadium - before wrapping up on October 3 at Portland’s Moda Center.
(Photos: Trevor Jansen/@outoftime.wrld/Emma Delevante/@emmadelevante)
Eurovision 2026 powered by 11 GrandMA3 consoles and over 3,000 fixtures
Lighting designer Tim Routledge and a team including moving and effects light programmers Alex Mildenhall and Martin Higgins, as well as key light programmer Marc Nicholson, chose a GrandMA3 system to deliver a production lighting design for the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), staged at Wiener Stadthalle, Vienna, Austria, and broadcast/streamed live to millions around the globe.
The spectacular multi-camera environment show was produced by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), and it was the third time that Routledge and his team have created the event’s lighting. They utilised eight GrandMA3 Full-Size consoles between them.
Each of these three programmers worked on a main and backup console, and the other two GrandMA3 Full-Sizes were utilised by the “late programming” team of Olly Martin and Manfred Nikitser, who started their shifts around 3 p.m. working into the night updating the showfile with the copious notes from that day’s rehearsals.
Another three GrandMA3 Light consoles were used as roaming focus/tech desks, making a total of eleven GrandMA3 consoles. These were controlling over 3,000 physical fixtures running on 450 universes, constituting 181,181 parameters of control. Completing the network were 28 GrandMA3 processing unit Ls and nine GrandMA3 processing unit Ms.
Routledge’s associate lighting designers were Morgan Evans and James Scott. Louisa Smurthwaite called follow spots and playback video producer Sam Lisher was also integral to the team, together with Routledge’s gaffer and crew chief Keith Duncan. The lead network architect was Richard Shout. Lighting equipment was supplied by rental company Neg Earth Lights from the UK, with whom Routledge also worked on the ESC 2025 event in Basel, Switzerland, and on his first ESC as lighting designer, in Liverpool, UK, in 2023.
For the most flexible workflow, Mildenhall and Higgins worked in one GrandMA3 session dealing with all the effects lighting, while Nicholson worked in a separate session. Mildenhall and Higgins divided their fixtures into A and B rigs, broadly split according to fixture types and how they were being used for each of the 35 competing delegations’ performances.
This strategy enhanced the overall dynamics of the programming, allowing Higgins and Mildenhall to swap roles between songs. They split the delegations - each with their own creative team - between them to streamline the logistics of working simultaneously on the same sets of fixtures.
The A parts of the rig were more broadly involved in creating beam, spot, wash and general automation looks and effects onstage, while the B parts included more pixel fixtures, vast lengths of pixel tape delineating various set pieces, and lights that tended to be more related to building reverse looks and audience illumination. This workflow suited both Mildenhall and Higgins, who have a similar programming and operating style.
“The rig split and the swapping between songs really assisted the creative process this year”, comments Mildenhall, explaining that it allowed either to take the lead on generating the look and effects for a song, “however, within that structure, we worked very closely, each checking the other’s work and critiquing it, etc., so it was properly collaborative”.
A grid of eighty Kinetic Lights winches, each with a moving light on the end of it, was also controlled via DMX from the GrandMA3s, so they could regulate the height and speed of the different winch formations and apply Phasers across these, unlocking some fluid movement effects.
As key lighting programmer, Nicholson concentrated on lighting the performers on stage and in the Green Room, together with set elements and the show presenter links. He also co-ordinated everything follow-spot related and anything to do with light panels and persons on stage. This involved numerous performers, eliminating Steadicam “shadows” lighting around the kinetic elements above the stage.
The key lighting was critical to generally building the mood and style of each performance as the delegation teams wanted. Nicholson primarily utilised 62 Robe iForte fixtures for this and could also take control of any other fixture and program it himself or assign it to one of the two Follow-Me systems on site, so any light could become a follow spot if needed.
He found that he mostly took control of the Ayrton Rivales on the winches and the Ayrton EagleStrikes dotted around the mid arena overhead curved trusses. The Green Room area was lit with Martin Mac Encore Twos, with Ayrton Khamsins for backlighting.
In addition to his main and backup GrandMA3 Full-Sizes for all the key lighting, Nicholson used a GrandMA3 Light as a focusing console around the room, plus the MA webremote system for initially focusing the green room lighting, as he could walk around with an iPad, choosing the best fixtures for each position without being tied to the console.
The choice to use GrandMA3 was a “no-brainer”, states Higgins. It is the platform in which the whole programming team specialise, and what the team had used for the previous two ESCs, for which Routledge has been the lighting designer (Higgins was the late-night programmer in 2025 and Mildenhall was again a main programmer).
Approximately five weeks of pre-vizing in Depence4 took place, where Higgins, Mildenhall and Nicholson spent around three hours building shows for each delegation from their initial brief and notes. As the plan started to develop for lighting each song, Nicholson would determine which follow spots would work best, if there were any set pieces to light and whether any Steadicams would be onstage.
For the first time this year, the pre-viz renders, complete with video content and some basic camera cutting, were sent to each country for their feedback before the team arrived in Vienna. Once onstage there, the lighting team had a further forty minutes with each artist to go through their number and deal with all the real-time updates and inevitable “translation” elements. They also had to add in any special cues for camera.
Of all the various MA software features used in ESC 2026, Recipes was right at the heart of the operation for Mildenhall and Higgins, with a total of 37,614 in the final showfile. “Alex and I programmed purely in Recipes, so there were no hard values in the cues, and we could see exactly where data was coming from”, notes Higgins. This enabled, with the application of Phasers, the ability to swap fixture purposes, colours, effects, etc., swiftly.
Most fixtures on the rig were XYZ calibrated, which took time and effort in setting up for Higgins and Mildenhall, but once completed, it enhanced the creative programming process with each light calibrated to four separate points. This approach worked particularly well, given that the lighting design was based on a series of semicircular and spherical trusses for all the main fixture positions.
This complemented Florian Wieder’s dramatically flourishing set design, defined by a large, sweeping “signature” passerelle feature starting on stage left at ground level, circling around the middle of the room in front of the stage, curving upwards at stage right in a loop that completed its trajectory high up in the roof once again on stage left.
Using the GrandMA3 system was also highly effective for programming the Kinetic Lights winches themselves as well as the moving lights attached to them. PSN data from the winches was fed directly into the GrandMA3 consoles, so as the height of the winch was known, the fixture’s pan and tilt were automatically updated - via the XYZ programming - so everything worked in unison for all camera angles.
Selection Grids were another GrandMA3 feature used extensively to program this show and the Multi-user feature allowed Mildenhall and Higgins to work as they did, but alternate the A and B rigs between songs so they could be more adaptable and imaginative, and very importantly, take the time to ease the pressure slightly - if one built an effect, the other could share it, so they could multiplex simultaneously.
They used MATools plugins to optimise the workflow for syncing beat-perfect cues with the MA system. Specifically during pre-viz MArkers were implemented to manage and convert Reaper DAWs into timecoded sequences, maintaining identical cue lists and data across the separate sessions that were rapidly and seamlessly synched in the master showfile.
Mildenhall stresses the importance of the “late night” programmers Nikitser and Martin, who worked in their own GrandMA3 session with a copy of Mildenhall and Higgins’s showfile in Depence, addressing some of the notes from that morning or previous day. Once the current evening rehearsal was finished, they utilised MATools Trader this time to import all these notes into the main showfile, and the two would remain in the arena into the early hours, either updating more notes or tidying up focuses.
The biggest programming challenges on a show like ESC are always keeping up with the epic number of notes and endless feedback in the given timeframe, states Higgins, whilst also keeping abreast of focusing the 3,000+ lights and making sure everything is as neat as possible.
Nicholson mentions that with over forty different performances to manage - including interval, opening acts, etc. - finding time to make changes to already timecoded elements is a major undertaking, requiring time and concentration. “But this is all to make each performance the very best it can possibly be and look exactly as the artists want - so is it also very rewarding”, he concludes.
(Photos: ORF/Klaus Titzer/Roman Zach-Kiesling)
Shepherd Lowrey and Cour Design bring Foster the People’s Coachella show to life with Elation Rayzor Blade
Over both weekends of this year’s Coachella festival, audiences were treated to a visually captivating journey as indie pop band Foster the People took the stage at the Outdoor Theatre. Creative director, production designer, and lighting designer Shepherd Lowrey crafted a unique experience featuring Elation’s Proteus Rayzor Blade L.
Lowrey used the fixture to deliver both expansive washes and dynamic visual effects that reinforced the show’s evolving narrative. Working in partnership with Nashville-based creative production company Cour Design, which produced the show, Lowrey helped create a concept-driven performance that blended the band’s classic indie-pop catalog with the psychedelic influences of their album “Paradise State of Mind”.
Lowrey, who has previously worked with Foster the People, was approached by Cour Design to lead the creative direction for the Coachella production. “I love Coachella and I’m always eager to do something there every year”, says Lowrey, who lives just down the road from the festival grounds. “It’s the biggest event of the year for me. It means a lot because it’s in my territory and it’s such an impactful showcase for agencies, creative houses, and production teams.”
The production centered on a narrative concept developed with Foster the People frontman Mark Foster. “Mark came in with this idea of surveillance as a daunting, overarching theme”, explains Lowrey. “We wanted to present it in a way that wasn’t simply dark and depressing, so we explored the juxtaposition between an idealized, picture-perfect 1950s world and the realities of where we are today. We married those ideas as a journey from 1950 to 2026, starting bright and cheery before gradually becoming stranger and eventually over-the-top scary.”
To support that story, the team constructed a stage environment centered around a 36-foot-wide by 12-foot-deep LED house inspired by the architecture of Palm Springs in the 1950s and 1960s. Throughout the performance, a fictional family inhabiting the house appeared in video content that evolved alongside the show’s narrative, while Coachella’s massive upstage video wall and large side video screens expanded the visual canvas. “We really wanted to bring that, albeit false, 1950s idealism to life and then slowly degrade it over the course of the set”, says Lowrey. “It was definitely one of the most fun concepts I’ve ever been associated with.”
With video serving as the primary storytelling medium, lighting was tasked with reinforcing the narrative while maintaining visibility and impact against the extensive LED content. “The show was very video-heavy, with lighting in support”, notes Lowrey, adding that the challenge was finding fixtures that could complement all of the video while still making a statement when needed. For that role, Lowrey turned to Proteus Rayzor Blade L fixtures supplied by Christie Lites. The one-meter-long IP65-rated linear tilt FX bars, driven by twelve independently controlled 60 W RGBW LEDs, became a central element of the lighting design.
Mounted horizontally on rolling truss sections along both sides of the stage, six Rayzor Blade L fixtures per side delivered sidelight and fill illumination across the band. An additional row of ten fixtures positioned upstage completed a near-continuous perimeter around the performance space. “We used them constantly as fill light on the band because we wanted it to feel like they were being blasted from the sides. Then, when it was time for impact moments, we had all the strobe power we needed”, says Lowrey.
The dual-purpose nature of the Rayzor Blade L proved particularly valuable in the festival environment: “If we were building this for a tour, we’d unpack the show in stages and save some of those effects for later”, Lowrey explains. “But because it was a festival show, we wanted to come out of the gate hard and just hit them with everything we had, at least in the first few songs. The Rayzors were instrumental because we could use them as a wash one moment and then shift gears with the strobe effects.”
According to Lowrey, the fixtures quickly became the backbone of the rig. “They were the workhorses of the show”, he states. “We leaned into them throughout pretty much the entire set.” Beyond wash and strobe duties, the designer also incorporated the fixture’s automatic tilt functionality to reinforce the show’s architectural themes. “We spent a lot of time trying to keep the visuals feeling very architectural”, he reports. “Sometimes the fixtures would point straight up, other times directly into the stage. The tilt function gave us a lot of flexibility while supporting the overall design language.”
The Rayzor Blade L’s SparkLED background twinkle effect played a memorable role during the show’s finale, the band’s signature hit “Pumped Up Kicks”. SparkLED uses dedicated white LEDs positioned within the fixture’s lens to create an additional layer of visual texture. “For that song we wanted a very classic, elevated CTO look”, says Lowrey. “The SparkLED effect was perfect for that moment. We actually shaped the rest of the look around it because it delivered exactly the feeling we were after.”
The rig also included moving head profile and beam/wash fixtures, along with other linear wash lights. Lowrey credits a collaborative team effort for helping to bring the production to life, including lighting director, programmer, and operator Scott Schirmer, account rep Sean Ray at Christie Lites, and Ariel Afar from production company SLX, who provided consultation during rehearsals.
Lowrey hopes to continue evolving the concept for Foster the People’s upcoming “Good Mourning Sunshine” tour, scheduled to launch in September. However, plans for carrying the full Coachella production package forward remain undetermined.
(Photos: Miranda McDonald)
Javid Ali show at Sydney Opera House lit with Chauvet
A dynamic and deeply nuanced lighting design by Roosevelt D’Souza - featuring a collection of Chauvet Professional Strike, Maverick and Rogue fixtures - accompanied Indian playback singer Javid Ali’s “Rafi Aur Main” show at the Sydney Opera House.
“We changed looks throughout the concert to keep pace with the versatility of Javid Ali’s music while also reflecting its very moving soulful quality”, says D’Souza. “So, we might have a song start off very low keyed, and then, all of a sudden there are beats of suspense music. At that point, we have lights blinking throughout the entire concert hall. The Chauvet Professional fixtures gave me this kind of flexibility.”
The movement that D’Souza created was not always of the pan and tilt variety. He often evoked a sense of motion on stage through his color changes, moving fluidly from deep blues to whites. “Congo is my favorite color”, he says. “I use this in my intros to the audience/stage for the show. It creates a space effect kind of an effect that can go with the song to give us a nice vibe. Then we add other colors for the variety and movement.”
Also helping D’Souza create a variety during the three-hour show was the staggered trim which reached 60-feet at its highest points, while some of the truss structures with lighting fixtures 16-feet above the stage and spread out with different intervals of space between them. “Having different spacing made it easier to create new looks”, he says. “The set was long, so we created 65 different looks in order to have the variety we were after.”
Anchoring this wide array of looks were the rig’s twelve Color Strike M motorized strobes. “It was important for me to cover the entire stage, so we had a broad canvas to work with”, says D’Souza. “In my view, there was no better way to do this than with the Color Strike M. We used it to light the roof to expand our design, to create strobing action, and to set different tones with color effects.”
A variety or richly textured video content, many dreamy images of the artist himself, also enhanced the mood on stage. There was also a flowing tapestry of Indian-inspired imagery. D’Souza accentuated it all with color washes from his Maverick and Rogue fixtures. “The music of my client and the aura of the venue itself called for powerful imagery on stage”, D’Souza concludes.
(Photos: Chauvet Professional)
Austin Zangi runs individual looks for Bleed From Within and Sylosis with ChamSys
During Scottish metalcore band Bleed From Within’s 27-date North American “Zenith” tour, Seattle-based lighting designer Austin Zangi not only ran their show, but also that of their main support act Sylosis. For added good measure, he served as the tour manager, too.
“The biggest thing for me was making sure each band had its own visual identity even though they were sharing the same rig and production environment”, says Zangi, who ran the tour’s show on a ChamSys MagicQ MQ250M alongside his GeNetix GN10 nodes and GeNetix GS8 switch. “I wanted anyone to be able to walk into the room and instantly feel which band was on stage purely from the lighting.”
For Bleed From Within, Zangi’s design leaned toward the atmospheric with wider looks, impactful silhouettes, and dynamic movements that supported the “emotional rise and fall of the set”. The looks he created for Sylosis tended to be darker and more aggression, with faster cueing transitions and sharper movement.
Zangi credits the Timecode feature in his ChamSys console with helping him maintain consistency as he moved from one band’s show to the other’s. “One of the biggest advantages was being able to build and organize cue stacks quickly while still keeping everything easy to edit and adjust during rehearsals and show days”, he adds.
“Also, the Timeline workflow let me program very precisely to musical moments, but still make fast edits on the fly. Another thins I relied heavily on was Group Cues, which helped speed up programming and patching house rigs. Whether we were in smaller clubs or larger venues, the Group Cues feature made it easy to adapt positions, timing, and fixture layouts without rebuilding entire sequences. That flexibility was a huge part of keeping both shows consistent.”
Maintaining consistency was made more challenging by the wide variety of venues on the tour, which kicked off April 2, 2026, at the Palladium in Wooster, Massachusetts, and concluded May 7 at New York’s Gramercy Theater, with stops at LA’s The Regent Theatre and Chicago’s House of Blues along the way.
“I worked with Squeek Lights to create a compact rig that would work most places, but we still had to make adjustments along the way”, says Zangi. “The ChamSys console’s Workflow feature played a huge role in allowing me to balance multiple responsibilities throughout the tour. This software meant I could spend less time tied to the desk and more time focusing on the tour management side of things.”
Although each of the two shows Zangi ran with this ChamSys console had distinct personalities they did share a common under-riding quality. “My goal for both was to create something that felt heavy and immersive without just blasting away”, he explains. “I had the band members stand out while still maintaining a dark and aggressive aesthetic that suited both bands in ways that were individual and unique.”
(Photos: ChamSys)
Flexibility for James’s “Love Is The Answer” tour supplied by DiGiCo Quantum 338
As English rock band James usually performs with spontaneity and without set lists, front-of-house engineer Chris Lynch and his DiGiCo Quantum 338 console had to be ready for anything during James’s “Love Is The Answer” UK tour this spring. Aled Irfan, at the monitor position, is also using a DiGiCo console - an SD10 - and has also invested in Klang and a Fourier Transform.Engine.
Irfan’s company, AL Touring, supplied the control package for the tour including microphones, in-ear monitoring, and stage-wedges, with the PA provided by Solotech. Lynch says he’s been touring the Quantum 338 for more than one and a half years now. “I pride myself on being able to use any console comfortably, but this job required a lot of channels”, he adds. “We had nine performers on stage, two drum kits, keyboards, trumpet, violin, cello, there’s been loads going on. I needed access to a lot of faders and the Quantum 338 was the console I thought best suited the band.”
With a back catalogue of over 300 songs, James has plenty of choice when it comes to material. A smaller console could house all the inputs and outputs but, as Lynch continues, three screens and 38 faders on the surface makes the Quantum 338 the ideal console to help him keep up with the band.
“The Quantum Spice Rack and Mustard Processing is really good,” he notes. “You have to be flexible for a show like this. James did songs on the tour they hadn’t even played in rehearsals, and hadn’t played for months. They just said, ‘Oh, we’re going to do this one’, and they did it, and it sounded amazing. It’s incredible, really. I honestly don’t know how they do it, how they just pick a song and go, ‘Okay, we’re going to do this one today’. That’s the genius of James. I could do it on a Q112, probably with an iPad, but it’s much more efficient on the Quantum 338.”
During rehearsals, Lynch got to test the new Fourier Transform.Engine, purchased by AL Touring from Solotech for the tour. Trying out a new piece of equipment can be hit and miss, but for Lynch, the process has been smooth. “We had a week’s worth of production rehearsals where we trialled the Fourier”, he recalls. “Suddenly I had hundreds of plugins to have a play with.”
“I wanted the mix to breathe and the band to be dynamic, with a more rock mix. But that’s different every time because of how the band play, so I’ve used the plugins selectively”, he concludes. “I probably only used three or four, and they’re all in the mix. I’m not using anything for the sake of using it, and it’s all been good so far. I think I’ve still got lots to discover.”
(Photos: DiGiCo)
Mercury Sound & Lighting chooses EAW’s Adaptive technology for DroneArt tour
Mercury Sound & Lighting is the audio production partner for the traveling DroneArt show, produced by Fever - a choreographed performance that combines live music, synchronized drones and immersive sound design at venues around the United States. The show moves from open fields to baseball stadiums and cricket arenas, each with different acoustics, reflective surfaces and audience configurations.
To meet the show’s challenges, Mercury turned to Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW), a brand that founder Dave Johnson has trusted for years. The company is now touring with a full EAW rig, including sixteen Anna Adaptive arrays, four Otto subs and 28 NT206L loudspeakers, 24 of which are active at any given show.
According to Drew Hornback, Project Manager at Mercury Sound & Lighting, the decision to bring EAW’s Adaptive technology on the road was both practical and transformative. “We’ve always had the product. Dave’s always been a big fan”, he explains. “But it hasn’t been until this year that we’re really implementing it to its full extent.” The result has been a level of control Mercury’s clients have never experienced before, including the ability to suppress slap-back off outfield walls one night and manage reflections in a covered cricket ground the next.
Jonathan Ball, the A1 who oversees system deployment and tuning on the tour, sees Adaptive as a gamechanger. The team typically flies eight Anna modules per side, deploying NT206Ls as out-fills or front-fills depending on the venue width. “The more we tweak, the more we build out the file within Resolution, the better results we’re seeing”, says Ball.
While the Anna arrays handle the primary coverage, the NT206Ls play a crucial role in shaping the show’s impact. “The NT206s have a bite to them”, Ball explains. “When you add them in, it gives the system that definition that just drives and hits you in the gut.” Mercury travels with 28 NT206Ls, using 24 at each show and keeping four as spares, giving the team the flexibility to adapt to each venue’s geometry and audience layout.
Four Otto subs, deployed two per side, extend the system’s reach during the show’s most visceral moments. “We have a four-string quartet, so we have a cello player and a viola player that are really hitting down there”, says Ball.
With additional DroneArt shows in development and Mercury pursuing more long-term touring partnerships, the company expects its EAW inventory to continue playing a central role.
(Photos: EAW)
Prismic setzt über 100 GLP JDC1 auf Russell-Dickerson-Tour ein
Russell Dickersons „RussellMania“-Tour, auf der der Sänger und Gitarrist Arenen, Outdoor-Amphitheater und Festivals in ganz Nordamerika bespielt, zählt zu den ambitioniertesten Country-Produktionen des Jahres. Für Dickerson bedeutet die Tour einen deutlichen Schritt nach vorn, sowohl in der Größe der Produktion als auch im visuellen Anspruch. Eine zentrale Rolle im Lichtdesign spielen JDC1-Hybrid-LED-Strobes von GLP.
Das Design, die Programmierung und die kreative Gesamtverantwortung liegen bei Nick Chang, Inhaber sowie Lighting und Production Designer von Prismic Productions. Unterstützt wird er von Chris Diener, der als Projektmanager und kreativer Partner in die Produktion eingebunden ist. Production Manager Zander Scott hatte Chang sechs Wochen vor Beginn der Produktionsproben in das Projekt geholt; in dieser Zeit mussten das komplette Lichtdesign entstehen, zwanzig Songs programmiert und die visuelle Ausrichtung der Tour finalisiert werden.
Das GrandMA3-Showfile wurde von Anfang an so aufgebaut, dass es sich schnell auf große Festival-Setups übertragen ließ. Das Materialpaket stellte das Team gemeinsam mit Christie Lites zusammen. Der visuelle Content entstand in enger Abstimmung mit Tour-Content-Creator Andy Reuter, um zu gewährleisten, dass Licht, Video und SFX über die gesamte Show hinweg geschlossen wirken.
Die 108 JDC1 verteilen sich über das gesamte Rig. Sechs gefächerte, angewinkelte Finger-Traversen tragen jeweils auf der Downstage-Seite einen vertikalen Truss-Stick, der mit elf JDC1 sowie weiteren Scheinwerfern bestückt ist. Zwei seitlich der Videowand platzierte Truss-Tower sind mit jeweils acht JDC1 bestückt. Im Upstage-Floor-Package kommen acht weitere JDC1 zusammen mit zusätzlichen Fixtures zum Einsatz. Weitere achtzehn JDC1 sind direkt in die Riser und Set-Elemente integriert.
Chang nutzt die Pixel-Mapping-Funktionen des JDC1 während der gesamten Show. Über die 12-Segment-Ansteuerung aller 108 Geräte kann er von Song zu Song zwischen subtilen Sparkle-Effekten und aggressiven Chases über das gesamte Rig wechseln. Besonders wertvoll sei diese Flexibilität, weil die Produktion stark vom Schlagzeug geprägt sei: „Die JDCs erlauben mir, unterschiedliche musikalische Elemente innerhalb eines einzigen Fixtures getrennt voneinander abzubilden“, so Chang. „Ich setze den Strobe für Snare-Hits ein, die Color-Plate für Kick-Akzente und die Pixel-Effekte, um Übergänge und Entwicklungen innerhalb der Songs zu unterstützen. Dadurch kann das Lichtsystem gleichzeitig groß und detailreich wirken - genau das, was diese Show braucht.“
Das Design bildet die ganze Bandbreite von Dickersons Repertoire ab: von energiegeladenen Hymnen bis zu persönlicheren Songs im Midtempo. Laut Chang soll das Licht diese Dynamik mitgehen können, ohne beliebig oder überladen zu wirken. „Wir wollen nicht, dass sich die Show wie permanentes Blitzen um des Effekts willen anfühlt“, sagt er. „Jeder Lichtcue, jeder Video-Moment und jeder visuelle Akzent wurde so gesetzt, dass er Emotion und Energie der Musik sinnvoll unterstützt.“
Die „RussellMania“-Tour 2026 läuft noch bis Oktober durch die USA und Kanada.
(Fotos: Thomas Heney)
Otterbach Audio wählt Coda-Audio-System für Green Hell Festival
Beim Green Hell Festival in Lindenberg (Siegerland) nutzte das für die Beschallung verantwortliche Team von Otterbach Audio ein System von Coda Audio. Gemeinsam mit NPB Veranstaltungstechnik realisierte das Unternehmen um Dirk Otterbach eine Lösung, in deren Mittelpunkt das kompakte Doppel-10-Zoll-3-Wege-Line-Array-System CiRay und SCP-Subwoofer standen.
Otterbach Audio trägt bereits seit der ersten Ausgabe des Festivals die technische Gesamtverantwortung. Mit dem steten Wachstum des Events seien auch die Anforderungen an Planung und Umsetzung kontinuierlich gestiegen. Neben der eigentlichen Beschallung gehören unter anderem Signalverteilung, Dante-Infrastruktur, Systemdesign, Einmessung sowie die technische Betreuung der Produktionen zum Aufgabenbereich des Otterbach-Teams.
„Für uns geht es nicht nur darum, eine PA aufzustellen, sondern ein belastbares Gesamtsystem zu entwickeln, das über mehrere Festivaltage zuverlässig funktioniert und unterschiedliche Produktionen optimal unterstützt“, erklärt Dirk Otterbach. In diesem Jahr kamen zweimal acht CiRay-Module (Main PA), sechzehn SCP-Subwoofer (in einem Cardioid-Bass-Array) und sechs G712-Pro (Nearfill) zum Einsatz. Angetrieben wurde das System von sieben Linus14D-Verstärkern.
„Die Tieftonverteilung war die größte Herausforderung“, sagt Otterbach. „Mit dem Cardioid-Bass-Array aus sechzehn SCP konnten wir aber genügend Druck vor der Bühne erzeugen und gleichzeitig die rückwärtige Abstrahlung wirkungsvoll reduzieren. Coverage und Impulsantwort entsprachen dabei genau unseren Vorstellungen.“ Erwartungen, die auf den Ergebnissen des Coda System Optimisers basierten: „Ein sehr wichtiges Tool. Simulation und Ergebnis vor Ort lagen sehr nah beieinander“, so Otterbach.
(Fotos: Sebastian Bähr/Coda Audio Deutschland GmbH)
Robert Rogojinschi lights up Concert-R birthday show with Chauvet’s Color Strike M
Stefan Relu Mihalache, better known throughout Romania and much of Europe as Concert-R, turned 44 on June 9, 2026. The former Eurovision contestant and chart topping singer-rapper celebrated by performing a sold-out concert for fans, just as he’s done for the past seven years.
Held at Bucharest’s Palace Hall, “Ziua lui Stefan” (The birthday of Stefan), the two-and-a-half-hour-plus show was an energetic and emotional production celebrating what Concert-R calls “Urban Lautaresc, a beautiful fusion of urban and fiddle music”.
Setting a lively and engaging atmosphere for the show, while reflecting the range of music performed on stage was a lighting design by Robert Rogojinschi that featured twenty Chauvet Professional Color Strike M motorized strobe-washes supplied by Set-Up. Matching his lighting with video content from his collaborator Claudiu Stan, Rogojinschi created looks that were not only festive, but also reflective of the music being performed on stage.
“Half of the show was timecoded, and half was live busked”, says Rogojinschi. “I work well with Claudiu, who not only created the video content, but also operated the show. We really wanted to have live cameras transmit feeds on certain sides of risers to provide the best possible dynamics to the show.” Rogojinschi also wanted to accent the traditional Balkan brass music element of the show. In addition to providing dynamic eye candy for the birthday concert, the Color Strike M fixtures also did justice to the show’s more classical elements, he says.
Positioning eight units on the front truss and the remainder on four risers, Rogojinschi used the motorized fixture to create everything from dynamic strobing effects to bold monochromatic washes. “The Color Strike M played many roles”, he notes. “I set them up the way I did because I wanted each instrumentalist to have his or her ‘own stage’. We had these artists in a position that was at a good height, so they would not be hidden or masked in the background of dancers or choir. We wanted them to be seen in their true consistency and performance throughout the show.”
“Naturally, we also wanted to highlight Concert-R, who is beloved in Romania”, he adds. “This was a national celebration, and I was very honored that our lighting was part of everything.”
(Photos: Chauvet Professional/Petru Ivu)
