International News

MACAU — A 45-meter-high, circular-shaped Element Labs Cobra 16 LED display turned heads during the opening event for the City of Dreams resort. It was used to display the opening show and activities, which were simulcast onto the 250-square-meter LED display. 

BARCELONA, Spain — The visual experience that U2 designers Mark Fisher and Willie Williams have come up with for the band’s 360º tour this summer includes a 50-meter-high claw-shaped set, a funnel-shaped transformable video screen, a motion control system designed and supplied by Kinesys, 196 PRG Bad Boys and wireless DMX to the far corners of the stadium achieved with City Theatrical’s SHoW DMX.

DUBAI, UAE — Oasis Enterprises LLC, a UAE distributor for lighting, video and audio products, has announced that David Gray, formerly associate regional manager for ETC, has joined the company as division manager.

DERBY, U.K. — XL Video project manager Chris Saunders was working on his sixth Download Festival, an annual event staged at Donnington Park, and every year, it seems, the festival's video requirements expand. This year’s brief called for 72 hours of live Internet streaming, pushing the video crew head count to 34.

AARHUS, Denmark — Martin Professional A/S announced that Torben Kaae Poulsen has been appointed regional service manager for the company’s European, Middle East and Africa region (EMEA).

GUANGZHOU, China — A video posted on the Web site, ChinaMusicRadar.com, showed Taiwanese singer Pan Yuwen performing onstage, adjacent to a multi-tiered scaffolding structure supporting lighting and audio gear. The video captures the sudden loss of power to the I-Mag and other stage elements, followed by chaos as the scaffolding adjacent to the stage falls over the crowd.

LONDON — XL Video director Des Fallon worked with Take That back in the 1990s as video crew chief, and he continues to support the band, with XL Video investing in new technology and ideas.

TORONTO — LD Paul Normandale specified i-Pix LED fixtures, including BB4 LED wash lights and the original i-Pix Satellite “brick” LED light-sources, for the Depeche Mode tour promoting their latest album, Sounds of the Universe.

VILAMOURA, Portugal — The refurbished Casino de Vilamoura has a new projection feature for the domed ceiling in its entranceway, created with eight Robe DigitalSpot 7000 DTs, the first use of those fixtures in Portugal.

JOHANNESBURG — Gearhouse South Africa supplied lighting and video production plus crew for R Kelly’s first visit to South Africa. After five days of production rehearsals at Sun City Superbowl, there was one show there and another at Cape Town’s Grand West Casino.

RIMINI, Italy — Tiziano Ferro has scored a series of hits in recent years with songs in both Italian and Spanish. For a tour that began earlier this year, Agora supplied SGM lighting equipment. LD Nicola-Manuel Tallino is using the SGM gear in conjunction with the set’s three large video screens.

BARCELONA, Spain — The unprecedented scale of U2’s 360° tour rig required a power and data network that would handle long distances; be quick and efficient to install; provide high network speed; and be reliable.  Systems crew chief Craig Hancock worked with show director/designer Willie Williams from the early design phase of the production to engineer a network that would satisfy all of these requirements.