LONDON – For First Aid Kit, a folk rock duo from Sweden, LD Matt Waterfield used lighting supplied by west London based Colour Sound Experiment. The moving lights included 12 Robe MMX Spots, 22 Robe LEDWash 600s and 14 Robe Pointes, with eight Clay Paky A.Leda 20s LED washes on the floor fitted with B-Eye lenses. The set also featured 26 vertical LED battens from Chauvet Professional.
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I recently visited behind the scenes at Cirque du Soleil’s traveling arena show, Varekai. As with all of this company’s performances, safety is the key factor. Performers fly through the air, climb 20 feet up on set pieces and do all kinds of circus style stunts, without a net. Production manager Mike Naumann walked me through the setup and how Varekai rolls.
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Tour: Luke Bryan
Dates: “My Kind of Night Tour” runs Jan. 2014-March 2015. A new production starts May 2015.
Read More »I am often asked, “How many shows do you have going on?” And my default answer is “Always at least four”…I don’t mean four different… Read More »Keeping “Four Shows” In Balance
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GLENDALE, AZ — The viewing audience tuning in for Super Bowl XLIX on Feb. 1, where the Seattle Seahawks faced off against the New England Patriots at University of Phoenix Stadium, averaged 114.4 million, topping the record number of 112.2 million who watched Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014. Along with the closely contested game itself, the event featured an elaborate halftime show production with well-received performances by Katy Perry, Missy Elliott and Lenny Kravitz packed within a 12-minute span. (Katy Perry and Lenny Kravitz are pictured here.)
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I saw two shows last month that had absolutely no video components. It was odd, having to focus on the performers themselves with nothing other than a lovely set to distract you. Okay, one was The Grinch, a play performed quite professionally at the Children’s Theater of Minneapolis. And the other was a punk rock band I saw thrashing in a club. They were good shows… but then I saw Fleetwood Mac last night, and it was a spectacle to behold. It all came back to me — why I love my pixels. I like them small, big, spread out or even on curved surfaces. They just make me happy.
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Edmund “Ted” Sydor is an old-school analog man working in a digital world. Originally a stop-motion animator, he is now the projections supervisor for the Metropolitan Opera, and he is applying his offline, old school know-how to a brave new digital realm for both himself and his employers. “It’s the new fancy tool in the toolbox,” he acknowledges. “Half of our new productions this season have a major video component in them.” Over the years, he has played a major role in shaping the Met’s video imperative, learning and growing on the job.
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For a 15th Anniversary, apparently it’s appropriate to give crystal. We’ll demur, but it’s crystal clear that it has been a grand and successful adventure — one that promises to continue many years to come. Of course, we got here with a lot of help and support from our advertisers, some of whom were with us from the very beginning.
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A dynamic genre-bending artist. Hydraulics, custom trussing, split 7mm video screen, and a whole lot of spankin’ brand new gear. Usher is in the house.
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For her 2014-15 Prismatic world tour, Katy Perry treats her loyal fans to an extravaganza of visual and musical delights. In support of her fourth studio album Prism, the show has it all — a prism LED wall along with a huge pyramid shaped extended B-stage, pyro, lasers, Katy flying through the air, and it wouldn’t be a show without cats, a Perry staple. Along the way, there are some neon scenes, an Egyptian horse and lots more to delight the eyes.
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Nashville and the phrase professional songwriting are practically synonymous. The city’s importance to contemporary and traditional American country music is undeniable and self-evident. But in recent years, Nashville has experienced an influx of recording artists of all stripes, positioning the capital of the Volunteer State as an emerging force in the live-event industry.
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